One of the most controversial topics in the news recently is police brutality. After multiple cases of unwarranted violence from law enforcement officers toward civilians and subsequent large-scale protests regarding accountability, many individuals now have a huge distrust of the legal system and the men and women who represent it. However, demonizing police officers will only serve to exacerbate the situation. There are countless law enforcement individuals who treat civilians with respect and kindness and do their job with the utmost sincerity and efficiency. Diminishing the work of all for the faults of a few is counterproductive and actually leaves the public even more vulnerable than before.
What needs to change is the general climate surrounding the image and status of officers. There is a fine balance between authority and superiority, and the latter has too long been the dominant sentiment when it comes to law enforcement in this country. One of the main aspects that needs to be changed is the regard police officers are given over regular civilians. There should be no distinction/separation between “assault” and “assault against a police officer.” Both are breaking the law and should be seen as equally serious in a courtroom in regards to consequence. Making such a distinction between the two elevates law enforcement individuals to an unnecessary level of superiority over civilians, and this can manifest in abuses of power.
Most, if not all, states carry this distinction and enforce stiffer penalties for assault or battery against a police officer. If a police officer is badly injured, a defendant can spend five to 25 years in prison, Assault, on the other hand, is typically treated as a misdemeanor unless it involves a police officer, in which case it becomes a felony. Additionally, even mere resistance, light touch or self defense is considered assault when it involves law enforcement. This is not to say police officers don’t get assaulted; many do, and there should be grave consequences when it happens. However, creating a division in the judicial system to say assaulting an officer is more serious than assaulting a civilian is heinous and gives officers an inflated capacity to assert more dominance than the law actually gives them.
If nothing is changed about the way we hold officers accountable, our country and its inhabitants will undoubtedly suffer at the hands of corruption in the law enforcement system. Treating officers like their well-being is more important than anyone else’s gives them the power to do what they want, lawful or not. An example of our future if we don’t alter our mindsets is evidenced in the Brazilian legal system, in which police officers are allowed to act above the law and do what they please with little to no consequence. From 2008-2013 Brazilian police forcibly killed 11,000 people, six civilians each day. Sixteen percent of homicides in the past five years were carried out by law enforcement, and punishment is easily and actively avoided by the officer in question citing cases of “resistance followed by the death.” These accounts are atrocious, and many would think statistics like these could never be found in America. The Cop Crisis foundation found that 904 Americans were killed by officers this year alone. In addition, officers are indicted less than once percent of the time, while civilians in the same situation would be indicted 90 percent of the time.
We are quickly approaching a future wherein the enforcement of our laws devolves into a power trip rather than a serious, genuine attempt to protect our communities. Without fixing the superiority complex slowly infecting the police system, our protectors could turn into the people we need protection from the most.