Often called the fight or flight reflex, stress has been known to save people’s lives, whether it be on a battlefield or some dangerous situation back home. Too much stress ultimately leads to health problems, but too little stress isn’t good for us either. When we go too long without a sharp stimulating response, the body loses its ability to handle stress properly (Tom Scheve, 2009). Somewhere between too much, and too little stress can actually be good for you, helping you perform under pressure. It is when someone cannot turn off that fight or flight feeling that it begins to show its negative effects. Ranging from lack of concentration and sleeplessness to depression, PTSD and suicide, prolonged exposure to stress can be
Most police officers would like to know that they have a warrior mentality about them. This is because “When officers find themselves in a dangerous situation, they must have the mental mettle to never give up, fight on, and prevail against all odds” (Brocklin, 2015). The warrior mentality is what makes sure the police officer ends his or her shift and goes home to their family safely. It is a mentality that every police officer needs to keep them safe, but a mentality that a police officer can’t have with everyone in the public.
This is not a racial issue, this is a social problem. By July of 2015, the number of police- related deaths extended to 664 making the country’s police force one of the deadliest in the USA. Out of the total of 644 deaths, 321 were Caucasian fatalities, 174 were African Americans, and 96 were Hispanics. According to the reports, 578 of these deaths were involved guns, others involved car
Police brutality remains a common yet controversial topic around the world. Police brutality is “the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians” (thelawdictionary.org). It’s a topic that segregates communities and makes each other their enemy. Specifically, a white officer has been the enemy of the black community. Unfortunately, the tension between police and blacks grew over the past few decades. As a result, there is a drastic increase of violent outburst between both sides. For the last years, it was reported that 51.5 percent of black were killed by police officers (ibtimes.com). On the other hand, there have been 51,548 assaults against law enforcement and it resulted in 14,453 injuries in 2015 alone (nleomf.org). In the United States, recently, police brutality has been a popular subject all over the news and social media.
What began as peaceful demonstrations on Sunday night in Ferguson descended into chaos as volleys of gunshots rang out as police in riot gear tried to disperse protesters blocking traffic and smashing storefront windows along a street that was a flashpoint of riots last year after Brown, 18, was shot dead. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon called Sunday 's violence "a sad turn of events" carried out by a criminal element and appealed for peaceful rallies on Monday (Ingwerson 1985). . But Nixon, who had deployed the National Guard to quell violence last year, did not make any mention of additional security for those rallies. The county 's order allows it to distribute money and material for emergency purposes "and to protect the health and safety
Police officers have vowed their life to protect and serve. They risk their lives every day for their communities. As the last few years have sped past us, police officers have been very aggressive with the force they use when arresting a suspect, or even people in general. According to a Texas article on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, “police officers typically use force offensively rather than defensively and do so with at least some degree of premeditation.” (Gross,2013, page 167). Many police officers get off easily because they call it as self-defense, but it’s not. People being brutally beaten or killed, riots breaking out, mourning of neighborhoods, lawsuits against police departments all can be at stake of police officers using excessive force. This is part of the reason our country has been in an uproar. In the last few years’ police brutality has been at an all-time high. Because of it, movements have been started and protests have broken out. As most should know there has been a split in the diversity of the nation because of it.
Minorities in the community have been subjected to violence by law enforcement in the United States for some time. This violence is called police brutality and it is unacceptable. The job of a police officer is to maintain public order, prevent, and detect crime. They are a part of a dangerous and stressful career that can involve risky situations that must be controlled. Sometimes police are put in situations that excessive force is needed. Some officers use these extreme measures in situations when it is not needed, police brutality should be addressed by testing police for for racial bias, require more training, and use body cameras.
Police brutality is a strong and still ongoing activity that occurs till this day. It is a worldwide situation that needs to be confronted and handled immediately. There have been thousands of lives lost from unfair police officers; even little children’s lives have been taken away from them. Police officers are supposed to be our heroes and people that make us feel safe, not the enemy and whom majority of the people fear.
In recent years, there has been racial profiling and police brutality that has become a national conflict between individuals throughout the world. It is no big secret that racism still exists in our world today, but especially in the workforce. When you hold higher power than others, some will abuse their power. I think it is disgraceful that our black community is scared of individuals that are supposed to protect and serve us. But we must ask ourselves, are the white law enforcement officers afraid of us? There have been many events that have occurred with police officers using excessive force on African Americans that have resulted in cruel and senseless deaths. Police need to receive better training to help them deal with situations without
“27 percent of African Americans are killed by the law enforcement” (Cooke 1) most of these are from fatal police shootings. Fatal police shootings have become an epidemic. The majorities of fatal police shootings are justified as homicides or have not been fully investigated. Plenty of cases have been closed due to false accusations. The turning point occurred when Martin Luther King Jr., Rodney King and many more were brutality beaten and or killed by police officers. The government should enforce stricter laws on police officers because these laws will minimize or possibly eliminate senseless killings and police brutality and prevent riots and promote equality.
We all understand that a job of a police officer is very difficult and that they put their lives on the line to keep us safe. But there should be no excuse for them to make
Police departments face increasing criticism from protesters, the media, and the federal government. Many negative personal encounters and officer-involved shootings have stimulated arguments about American law enforcement. These officer involved shootings have caused racial issues across the country. Is reform necessary? With approximately 18,000 police agencies operating in the United States, is reform even possible? I conducted a survey with both black and white respondents. The survey includes demographic information and a few questions that ties together the respondents demographic information and their thoughts of the police. In addition, I will discuss innovative strategies to improve the relationship between police and people
Many can recall videos of policemen repeatedly bludgeoning the skull of a defenseless man or angrily strangling a neighborhood peacemaker gasping for air. Another many, though a lesser one, remember, if the beating was not too severe, the cracks of police batons on their heads and backs. In today’s United States, reports of police brutality flood police departments by the thousands each month. A mistrust so great in officers has never before been recorded, but this phenomenon is no stranger to American citizens. For at least the last forty-five years, reports of wanton police brutality have regularly surfaced. Often times, at least in the most notorious cases, a perceived threat or transgression leads to a definite death or injury. The local
There are good days and bad days and that is just how it is no matter where you work. The fact that some situations officers go into can be very tough not just for the victim or others affected but also for the officer it can be physically and mentally excruciating. Whether it could be a violent crime scene or maybe even a situation where children are involved. Headlee expressed the fact that officers do not get to pick and choose what type of call they respond to. They go through lots of training to have an open mind, be fair to all, not let the sex or race or even the opinions of a person cloud their judgment to treat the situation in a different way that would not help resolve the problem at hand. In a sense there is always a light at the end of the tunnel where you get to do something different every day, work with many great motivated individuals that also help keep you up on your two feet and serving the public to help keep people
Police training starts in the academy. Officer safety is very heavily to the point that it almost becomes a religion for Rookie officers. Rookie officers are usually taught what is known to them as the “first rule of law enforcement”: All officer’s most important goal at the end of every day is to go home at the end of their work shift. The sad fact about this is that cops live in a very hostile world. They are taught early on that every encounter, and every individual is likely to become threat for them. They always have to be very alert while on the job because, as cops are often known to say, “complacency kills.” While in the academy, rookie officers aren’t just told about the risks that they face on a daily basis. They are also shown gut wrenching graphic, sad dash-cam footage of officers being assaulted, their weapons being taken away from them, or worse, them being fatally shot or wounded after lack of attention or complacency, as most law enforcement officers like to put it. These rookie cops are taught that the number one perpetrator isn’t the criminal that can be seen on the video, but that it is the officer’s lack of better judgement. While watching these videos, rookie officers are usually thinking to themselves that they can’t let that happen to them while out on the job. They want to be better than the officers that they see during the videos. That is the point of their training and it is the reason as to why a lot of cops are put in to the situations that they’re put in to now. Police training needs to go beyond highlighting the seriousness of the risks that officers face by taking into account the probability of those risks materializing. Policing has risks—serious ones—that we cannot casually dismiss. But for all of its risks, policing is safer now than it has ever been. Violent attacks on officers, particularly those that involve a serious physical threat, are few and far between when you take into account the fact that police officers interact