Police officers have been a mainstay in American media for what seems like years now. News stories have been saturated with tales of police brutality, racism, and a slew of other undesirable occurrences. It should come as no shock to anyone reading this that America desperately needs to take a closer look at and actively talk about the issues with our law enforcement system.

The stories have been shockingly numerous and frequent as of late. It seems that almost every other week a story surfaces of an officer going berserk in any number of ways on a citizen for any number of reasons. The more and more I look into this topic, the more and more I am completely shocked by the lack of public response and debate that should be taking place; something is clearly wrong and yet we fail to talk about how to fix it.

Before I go into details, I must say that this article is not meant as a justification or defense of what those on the receiving end may have done. I merely mean to examine the response of the officers which has been, let's be honest, excessive to the point of extremism.

Over a year ago the nation was treated to a cell phone video of Eric Garner being killed during his arrest by the hands of a New York City police officer. Just last August we as a nation dealt with the shooting death of Michael Brown at the hands of an officer and the resulting riots that followed Brown's death and the officer's acquittal that ravaged the city of Ferguson. Both officers faced grand juries as a result of their actions and both of them walked.

Despite multiple cries that he couldn't breath, Officer Daniel Pantaleo holds Eric Garner in a chokehold moments before his death.

Only a few weeks ago in June an officer in Texas was filmed breaking up a pool party of a few African-American teens and in the process shouting profanity, tackling a young girl, and pulling his gun on the kids (WARNING: strong language in video). And just a few days ago we received a dashcam video of a plainclothes Boston officer pulling a man over and threatening to "blow a hole" in the driver's head (WARNING: strong language in video).

Officer Eric Casebolt pins an unarmed 14-year-old girl to the ground while yelling at the kids videoing him to leave. Casebolt later resigned with full benefits.

Taking a look at all of these few stories from just the past year ought to be causing far more debate than it currently is. The officers in these stories and videos, to me anyway, don't even seem like policemen; officers of the law are meant to be keepers of the peace sworn to protect and serve the public, they should not enforce by fear or act as vigilantes.

Combine these stories with the rising militarization of police forces nationwide and one can clearly see a need for serious reform. Police officers don't need APCs or grenade launchers to do their jobs effectively; officers are meant to enforce the law, not wage a full-scale war on lawbreakers. Last time I checked, writing speeding tickets, resolving domestic disputes and busting drug dealers didn't require a small army.

In Florida, the city of Tampa utilizes a massive armored personnel carrier for their police force.

It is worth noting that I am in no way suggesting that these examples represent the entirety of the police force; I know there are plenty of good cops out there and they don't get the recognition they deserve. The issue here is that when an officer does their job well, it's not news; we only see the bad examples in the media, but the much bigger issue is that there are far too many bad examples. These recent stories of police misbehavior and, dare I say it, abuse of power are testament to the fact that there is certainly a sizable population of the force that does not fall in with the "good guys."

I grew up believing that the police were a benevolent band of selfless public servants who were there to protect people and make sure people were following the rules of society. I now find myself all too often thinking otherwise. There has been far too much controversy and far too little action; we as a country need to take a serious look at what has become of our police force and actively discuss ways to resolve this growing problem. After all, in this nation the law is only as good as those who enforce it.