Free Excessive Force Essay Sample

Most employees go through performance evaluations, but not many are forced to harass the public in the manner that police officers are. In New York and other select cities across the nation the issue of excessive force is a true and very persistent issue stemming from the need of police to meet quotas, even if said officers do not wish to perform what is known as a 250, or the order that permits police to stop and frisk anyone that looks suspicious or is committing what amounts to suspicious activity. Citizens have the right to expect police to serve their initial function, not stop them for what amounts to nothing more than a need to meet their performance standards.
There have been many accounts of police taking excessive force in the act of performing their duties, from the infamous Rodney King case in Los Angeles, California, to the common and somehow routine stops made on street corners throughout the country. Many would accredit this to police being “bored” and needing something to do, but when a large percentage of those stopped belong to only a select number of races it is not boredom, it is profiling and stereotyping. Adding into this the need to force an unwitting and unresisting individual to the ground or to the top of a police car, it stands to reason why people do not generally respect police.
Sadly enough many police officers have stated that while they do not wish to perform such acts as the stop and frisk, it is expected for them to meet their quota and thus necessary to harass innocent citizens.