The issue of police brutality is something that has been brought up a lot in the past year. But problems in the way we deal with crime have been going on for longer than that. There is something seriously wrong with our justice system.
There are many things like this this have happened in the past.
For example, a few years ago, a teen boy from Texas named Ethan Couch got drunk and killed four people, but was only sentenced to probation and no prison.
Why? Because he was rich.
The boy's lawyer made up some affliction called "affluenza", which is apparently a disease rich people get when they don't understand the consequences of their actions. In other words, if Ethan were not rich, he would be in jail right now.
That is completely ridiculous.
That's not the end of it, though.
In 2011, Kelly Thomas, a homeless man with schizophrenia, was beaten and killed by three police officers. Why? Oh, no reason, really. Someone called the police department claiming that vandalism was happening, and the officers got there and found Thomas unarmed and sitting there, minding his own business.
The officers tasered him no less than five times and had six people beat him until he required hospitalization. He was begging for his life and screaming for his dad the whole time. One officer was actually telling him to calm down and lie still while he was being tasered.
The officers were not convicted for this murder.
Kelly Thomas was white. And the only reason I bring up race is to point out that anyone can be hurt from violence like this. These police officers had a duty to protect people like Kelly Thomas. Instead, they killed him. No matter what someone's race, gender, or lifestyle is, they should not be subjected to horrific violence like this.
Yet another case involved woman who had learning and hearing disabilities, Megan Graham, who was attacked by police because she didn't hear him tell her to get back in her car. So the cop grabbed her and started to punch her in the face.
There are many more cases like this, and those are just the ones that became major news stories. There are probably many more instances of the justice system or police officers failing people who really needed help.
There is something very wrong when one kid can practically get away with drunk driving murdering four people because he's rich, but a mentally disabled homeless man can get brutally killed by police officers who get away with it.
Now I know what some people are saying. It's not fair to label all cops as bad and corrupt for the actions of a few. It's not fair that people should turn on cops and hurt them because of what happened to the victims of police brutality.
And you know what? That's correct. Many, if not most cops are good, and they have a job to protect and serve the people, which at times may not be easy. It's important not to demonize them or paint them with one broad brush. It's a fight against brutality, not on cops. This war cry of "kill all cops" is just as bad.
The fact that most cops are genuinely good people is why we need to address police brutality. Cops that abuse their power give all cops a bad name, whether good or not. Allowing cops to get away for crimes simply because they are cops is an abuse of the justice system.
The point is that police should be held just as accountable to their actions as anyone else. We shouldn't let people get away with more because they have higher positions of power. Some people, unfortunately, will take the power that they have and abuse it to hurt others, because they know they will get off.
This is a pretty big problem and there doesn't seem to be a perfect solution right now that will solve it, but there are still steps to take so that we can get there. The unfair treatment of people in general needs to stop, and we need to realize that there is something seriously wrong with our justice system.
