Police Brutality

Purpose Statement: The purpose of this speech is to inform you and my classmates on police brutality.

Introduction

Hi, I'm Carmela, and today I'll be talking about police brutality. I know police brutality is a hard topic to talk about, but some of the most important conversations aren't easy.
I'm not here today to offend anybody and if I do so I'm sorry, That's not the intention.  I want to shed light on police brutality, because there are too many lives lost to it. 
Today I'll be going over what police brutality is, the statistics on police brutality, and the consequences.

Body

I remember, when I first started learning about the justice system I had a lot of questions.
The main one was, “What is police Brutality?”
 By definition it is, “excessive and unjustified use of force by a member of law enforcement.”  Sadly that doesn't explain everything, because there are 5 types of police brutality. 
The first is excessive use of force, The second is wrongful search and seizure, the third is false arrest or wrongful imprisonment, the fourth is racial discrimination, and the fifth is sexual harassment and abuse.
 Some forms of police brutality are more harsh than others, but all forms are horrible and unjust. I'll briefly be going over each form today.
The first is excessive use of force. This is when an officer uses more force than necessary to subdue a suspect. There are many forms of excessive force. The two most common are using firearms and unsanctioned takedowns. Such as punching and strangulation.
The second is wrongful search and seizure. This is when a police officer searchs a suspect's home or personal area without a warrant or probable cause.
 Next, is False arrest and wrongful imprisonment. This is when an officer arrests a suspect without a warrant or probable cause. It's similar to wrongful search and seizure because both rights are protected by the 4th amendment.
The fourth is racial descrimination. This is when an officer has racial biases that affect his or her ability to properly administer the law. 
And lastly, Sexual harasment and abuse. This is when an officer uses there power to get or take sexul pleasure and in the proses abuses and sexual asults a suspect. 
Now that you know what police brutality is it's time to learn about Police Brutality statistics.
 Sometimes it's hard to see the full effect of Police brutality and how deep it is in our justice system, and that's why it's so important to go over and understand the statistics.
 First off, According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 84% of police officers have witnessed a fellow officer use excessive force on a suspect. (Abdul-Jabbar)
 And  61% of them didn’t report what they considered to be serious criminal violations. If you imagine 100 officers and 100 suspects of the 100 suspects 84 had been victims of police brutality. And 61 of the suspects' cases were not reported. (Abdul-Jabbar)
 Sadly, the trend of police brutality in the United States only seems to be increasing. If you look at the board you'll see a chart of police shootings by year and race.
 In 2021 there were 201 caucasion people shot to death by the police. 117 African American people. 65 Hispanic people and 702 other people. (Statista)
In total that's 995 victims of police brutality in one year. We must also keep in mind that those were fatal cases. All of the victims passed away, but there were many other incidences of police brutality that didn't end in a life being lost. (Statista)
 It is estimated that there were 1,150 victims of police brutality in 2021.
Additionally, There were only 15 days in 2021 where no-one was killed by the police. (Mapping Police Violence)
That means that almost everyday somebody lost their life. That is unjust and truly sad. We need to see a change in our police system.

Speaking of change in the system it's time to go over the consequences and how it relates to us. 
Sometimes it's easy to forget about things when we don't think they apply to us.
But if you look up at the board. You'll see a map of which states saw an increase, a decrease or had the same number of police shootings over the last year.
Illios had a rise in police shootings. (Haddad) 24 to be exact. That means while other states made progress in stopping police brutality we did not. 
We live in a relatively safe neighborhood but the closer we get to chicago the more likely one of us could be number 25. 
 It's scary to think about, but what's more scary is how many police officers are charged with murder but not convicted.
On the board you’ll see 3 different colored people. The blue is how many were charged with murder but got no conviction, the yellow is how many were convicted, and the red is how many were actually charged. 
  That's less than 2 percent. (Haddad) 
 It scares me knowing only 2% of victims got justice, and the other 98% didnt because the police officer who murdered there husband, wife, mother, father, son or daugter is still walking free. 
While their loved one is laying 5 feet under. It's easy to forget that anyone can be a victim of police brutality. But in less than five minutes your life could be lost. You could become another name on sign at a protest. 

Conclusion

I said at the start of my speech that the most important conversations aren't easy. I know it's hard to talk about police brutality. I know it's hard to see how many lives are lost to it. 
That's why we need change but, If we don't understand what police brutality is, if we don't understand the statistics, if we don't understand the consequences, then there will never be any change. It takes time and determination to make changes. Not every officer of the law is bad, in fact most are good but it's the ones who abuse their power that cause corruption. It's the ones who take innocent lives. Those police officers are the problem. 
On the board you’ll see the names of the victims who passed away due to police brutality in 2021. They were all innocent. I've read their stories. I've seen the body cam footage. And now I'm asking you to take a moment of silence for every victim of police brutality. _________ Thank you.

Works Cited

Mapping Police Violence, mappingpoliceviolence.org/. Accessed 16 February 2022.

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Police Brutality? Put Women on Patrol.” TIME, 2 December 2015, time.com/4130342/kareem-abdul-jabbar-female-police/. Accessed 16 February 2022.

Haddad, Mohammed. “How many people have been killed by US police since George Floyd?” Al Jazeera, 25 May 2021, aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/25/how-many-people-have-police-killed-since-george-floyd. Accessed 17 February 2022. 

“• People shot to death by US police, by race 2022.” Statista, 1 February 2022, statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/. Accessed 16 February 2022.

Rahman, Khaleda. “Full List of 229 Black People Killed by Police Since George Floyd's Murder.” Newsweek, 25 May 2021, newsweek.com/full-list-229-black-people-killed-police-since-george-floyds-murder-1594477. Accessed 17 February 2022.

“What Is Police Brutality?” Black's Law Dictionary, thelawdictionary.org/article/what-is-police-brutality/. Accessed 17 February 2022.