The police are one of the most respected forces in many countries globally, where it is expected to ensure people are safe and secure. It is mandated to take care of every member of society despite their social or demographic backgrounds (Worden, 2015). However, it is also named as the most brutal force, especially in the US, where many innocent lives have been lost to police brutality. There is no evidence showing why police use excessive force when making arrests. This kind of behavior can be caused by two ideologies, as discussed in this paper, including deindividuation or contagion. Deindividuation is where individuals engage in deviant, sometimes violent, and impulsive acts where they feel they cannot be identified by a third party (Spears, 2017). Contagion involves the spread of a harmful practice or idea by a senior to subordinates in a force or organization. As seen in King's case, it's hard to know whether it's individual police negligence or whether it's a phenomenon installed into the police force by leaders.
Modern surveillance has seen many cases exposed of police brutality, as the most recent involving an African-American George Floyd. Surveillance in King's case indicates that their seniors protect the police officers as to when a video is presented to them, it's ignored. It indicates that the police force leaders in Los Angeles, California, encourage contagion as the video presented to them was dismissed. The groups that face police brutality most are black Americans and immigrants, as they are perceived to be dangerous and primarily involved with criminal acts (Lacroe, 2018). Through contagion, police are fed with such ideologies; thus, they use more force when arresting the disadvantaged groups in the society (Green, 2017). The disadvantaged groups are the most affected as they are shot even when they are unarmed. When a black individual comes across a police officer, they will most likely be blamed for crimes they did not commit and force used to make an unlawfully arrest as the police know their leaders protect them. To mitigate police brutality, leaders play a vital role as the subordinates look up to them. They should discourage contagion and deindividuation as they encourage police to take part in various illegal acts. Police found guilty of brutality should be charged according to discourage the acts.
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References
Green, B., Horel, T., & Papachristos, A. V. (2017). Modeling contagion through social networks to explain and predict gunshot violence in Chicago, 2006 to 2014. JAMA internal medicine , 177 (3), 326-333.
Lacroe, J., & Stein, J. (2018). Exploring the policy implications of high-profile police violence. Criminology & Pub. Pol'y , 17 , 859.
Spears, R. (2017). Deindividuation.
Worden, R. E. (2015). The causes of police brutality: Theory and evidence on police use of force (Vol. 2, pp. 149-204). Routledge, New York, NY, ed.
