Throughout the years American society has witnessed and experienced police brutality, abuse of power and killings of unarmed people, most commonly minorities. We’ve seen this all over the media leading to protests and chaos against police throughout the nation. Victims have been shot and killed by police. These cases can strongly relate to Intersections, a play from students from LaGuardia Community College. In this play, a young lady named Janelle was unfairly shot and killed by a police officer when she had nothing but good intentions. This has made me question, “how does Janelle’s encounter with the police correlate with real life scenarios in our society? How can police training, specifically the use of deadly force improve or stop unjustified killings ?
The play Intersections reveals some real life events regarding police training. In one of the scenes we learn that Alex is being trained at a police academy on becoming an officer and being prepared to serve and protect. Alex practices the following, “Put your arms out like an airplane. With your left hand, lower your body down to the ground”(Intersections 15). “And the amount of force used was reasonable and effective sir”(Intersections 16). We know Alex was trained but was this training effective at the moment right before shooting Janelle? No, so does basic training really determine whether an individual has what it takes to become a police officer like officer Charles stated?(Intersections 15). Was Janelle being shot justified? This is why police training, specifically the use of deadly force should be fixed and improved.
In Intersections Janelle and her family are struggling to help and keep her grandmother alive from her illness. She cares so much about her and is convinced that a street drug would do her better than the medications prescribed by her doctor. Janelle goes out and gets drugs for her grandmother (23-24). Mike who coincidently is on the same street finds himself along Janelle being confronted by the police. The cop specifically dismisses Mike as non-threatening based on only the fact that Mike is white and Janelle is not. The newly officer named Alex approaches her and demands the following, “HANDS UP NOW, HANDS UP” while reaching for his gun (26). He quickly asks for her hands up but then asks for her ID making her confused leading her to get close to the cops and reaching for her ID. She then gets shot and officer Ricky yells that the amount of force was reasonable and effective(27). Was the amount of force really actually reasonable and effective? Janelle was non-threatening, disarmed and confused. This is one of those situations that could of ended in a different way. Events like this can be prevented if police had more patience, less panic, and be able to safely control and take care of the situation in a much more professional way. Alex appeared to have not taken the situation very well. He asked for Janelle’s ID and asked her to put her hands up at the same time. It was not her fault but his. Did Alex really have what it takes to be an officer or did he perhaps needed more training? Many events like this occur all the time and police seem to get away with it and not face the consequences which then create protests and chaos. Maybe police training should be much more extensive to proof whether they are really prepared for such responsibility.
According to the article “Controlling Police Use of Deadly Force”, it states that the use of deadly force can be controlled. One way is disarming the police or disarming off duty officers. Another way is to making a choice whether or not the person being confronted by the cop is extremely threatening(123-124). Police officers shouldn’t be so quick to take action and use deadly force if a person resists arrest or is unarmed. There are more formal ways of coming about to a solution. Therefore, Alex quickly decided to view Janelle as life threatening when she got too close and took action by firing at her. He could of took control of the situation in a slower and safer way instead of contradicting himself when asking for her hands up and asking for her ID. Alex reaching for his gun was not justified since Janelle was non-threatening.
Many people can relate to Janelle’s situation. Whether an individual is unarmed, a minority, or even resisting arrest, many unfairly get killed by police. One man who died at the hands of the police that caused protests and very high media attention is Eric Garner. According to “America in Black and white”, Eric Garner was allegedly approached by police officers for “selling cigarettes”, in which he claimed that he didn’t. The officers then tried to arrest him but he resisted. This led to one of the officers taking action and getting him on a chokehold while a bunch of other officers jumped on top of him. He was killed from not being able to breath. The cops could’ve done a better job and prevented this if they had taken care of the situation in a safer way, instead of choking him the way they did. The system should train and improve the policies when police encounter situations like these. Therefore, police departments should deal with this because if they don’t then officers will continue to act without consequences.
Another situation relatable to Intersections is that of Philando Castile. The following video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hukZZbyfnpY) reveals an African American women named Lavish “Diamond” Reynolds who is panicking and claiming that, “We got pulled over for a busted taillight in the back.” She also said in the video that police asked Castile, the driver, for his license and registration and, as he reached for it, he told officers that he had a firearm and a concealed carry permit. The officer then shot him immediately through the car’s window. Was the officer’s action justified? I believe not because once the cop mentioned that he had a licensed gun, the cop should have stepped back and talked the man to slowly place the gun away from the situation and then proceeded with the pull over and take control of the situation, calm and clear. The officer took about 4-5 shots. One of those could of easily hit the child sitting in the back seat. This shooting was unnecessary and the fact that officers usually take more than one shot is absolutely unjust. The power and damage of a single bullet is impactful as is. Training should definitely improve in the way officers quickly take action. The use of a firearm should not be an officer’s first reaction. How is society supposed to trust in the people whose responsibility is to serve and protect? The tension among relationships between minorities and police officers and the way officers take action in situations needs to change and improve with training. Otherwise officers will continue to act without consequences.
Citations:
GrimReaperNextDoor. (Graphic Footage) Police Kills Man While His Girlfriend and Child Watch (Falcon Heights Minnesota), youtube, July 7, 2016
Miller, L. (2014, Dec 05). America in black and white. Philadelphia Tribune Retrieved from https://rpa.laguardia.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1637636702?accountid=11946
Reiss, Albert J. “Controlling Police Use of Deadly Force.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 452, 1980, pp. 122–134., www.jstor.org/stable/1042766.
I emailed you my rough draft and I worked with Katherine.
Artist Statement
My audience for this paper is can be anybody. But probably people who are heavily concerned about police abuse, police training, police killings specifically minorities, and an unjust system. Before reading my piece, I want my audience to know that many of these events occur in our everyday lives throughout many cities in our country. Even if it’s not shown in the media, events like this most likely occur even if we aren’t aware of them. I want them to know that there are possible solutions to these problems that greatly impact our society and that it can one day change. I want my audience to learn that police killings, police brutality, police training, and an unjust system exists. I want them to learn that there are solutions to problems between people, specifically minorities and police. I do believe that my audience will be able to learn this because these are events that can occur to anyone at any given moment whether we believe it or not. I’m pretty sure that a lot of people have had unjustified encounters with the police or have seen it. One unique perspective that I included in my analysis that someone might have not is when I get into whether a cop truly has what it takes to being a cop or not. The value of this perspective is massive to me because are they actually prepared to have such responsibility? Are they really the right individually to handle such job? Through this paper, I learned a few possible solutions to improvement of police training. I learned that police officers have a decision to make when they have a situation such as the one with Janelle from the play Intersections. Something I did not learn was the specific and in depth information about the rules police officers have to follow when being a cop. I also didn’t get into what happens after a cop kills an innocent person for no reason. I would still like to learn about the specific training process of police officers as well as the aftermath of an innocent person being killed in the hands of a police officer for an unjustified way. I would like to learn more about the laws and information regarding this. It’s something I feel a lot of people included me are not aware of. The class discussions and peers played a role in my project. It helped me gather up my ideas and information and focus on what exactly I wanted to point out and speak about in my paper. My thinking didn’t really change about research even though it was a bit challenging. What really helped was focusing on my topic and trying to find the proper information such as articles to include in my project and how I can compare it with the play Intersections. If I had another week to work on my research paper I would definitely get into more about solutions and improvement on police training as well as the law aspects of whether a certain action made by a police officer was justified. The last thing I want to tell my audience before they dive into my paper is that I hope my message was clear and that perhaps I make you wonder about potential solutions to unjust actions taken by police.