Police brutality

Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, asphyxiation, beatings, shootings, improper takedowns, racially-motivated violence and unwarranted use of tasers.

[5] These slave patrols quickly spread across other regions and contributed to the development of the earliest examples of modern police forces.

The term "police brutality" was first used in Britain in the mid-19th century, by The Puppet-Show magazine (a short-lived rival to Punch) in September 1848, when they wrote: Scarcely a week passes without their committing some offence which disgusts everybody but the magistrates.

Boys are bruised by their ferocity, women insulted by their ruffianism; and that which brutality has done, perjury denies, and magisterial stupidity suffers to go unpunished.

"[6]The first use of the term in the American press was in 1872 when the Chicago Tribune[7] reported the beating of a civilian who was under arrest at the Harrison Street Police Station.

In the United States, it is common for marginalized groups to perceive the police as oppressors, rather than protectors or enforcers of the law, due to the statistically disproportionate number of minority incarcerations.

[8] Hubert G. Locke wrote: When used in print or as the battle cry in a black power rally, police brutality can by implication cover several practices, from calling a citizen by his or her first name to death by a policeman's bullet.

What the average citizen thinks of when he hears the term, however, is something midway between these two occurrences, something more akin to what the police profession knows as "alley court"—the wanton vicious beating of a person in custody, usually while handcuffed, and usually taking place somewhere between the scene of the arrest and the station house.

[14] A type of government failure that can result in the normalization of police brutality is a lack of accountability and repercussions for officers mistreating civilians.

[15] However, the effectiveness of body cameras has been called into question due to the lack of transparency shown in police brutality cases where the footage is withheld from the public.

A broad report commissioned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on the causes of misconduct in policing calls it "a simplistic explanation that permits the organization and senior management to blame corruption on individuals and individual faults – behavioural, psychological, background factors, and so on, rather than addressing systemic factors.

However according to Harlan Yu, executive director from Upturn, for this to occur, it needs to be embedded in a broader change in culture and legal framework.

African Americans, women, and younger people are more likely to have negative opinions about the police than Caucasians, men, and middle-aged to elderly individuals.

These groups often stress the need for oversight by independent civilian review boards and other methods of ensuring accountability for police action.