Police Brutality is when police officers abuse the law and use force to apprehend, arrest, or contain people who are doing something that they have the right to do, but don’t really think through.

Some people look at police officers as heroes, people who can save them from anything. Other people have to duck and hide to stay safe from them. The most recent case of excessive police brutality was in Ferguson, IL. A controversy over the killing of an African American man by a white police officer started the whole issue.

The officer claimed that he shot the man in self defense, because the man had a gun, but all evidence points to the idea that the man was unarmed and the officer shot him without any legal cause. It’s not the fact that the officer shot the man, but that he did not get charged for murder or even manslaughter after all the evidence against him.

Maybe the crime is simply being posted up as a hate crime, but the fact that so many more African American people were killed in similar incidents throughout the country cannot possibly be coincidence. It always seems to be the same story: officers pleading, “he had a gun,” or “she was threatening my life,” or “he tried to attack me,”.

No matter the race, police exist to protect and enforce. I realize that the negative actions of some do not apply to all of them, but law enforcers will never go away. Their job is to make us feel safe, and to strike fear into the hearts of people who truly need it. Because of one incident, America has little to less respect for law authority. Until those actions are either justified or recognized, that insubordinate and disrespectful attitude will continue.