Social problems are undesirable conditions that are intolerable and require group action towards reforms. Examples include police brutality, homelessness, chronic unemployment, and crime. This paper focuses on police brutality as an urban social problem. Police brutality is the illegal and unwarranted use of force by police officers against citizens in various forms, including physical and verbal assault, harassment, and death. The causes of police brutality include prejudices against marginalized groups, protective police union contracts, militarized police forces, police overreaction, and police departments' institutional culture.
The impacts of police brutality on society include insurmountable costs to the victims and victims' families, including emotional distress, loss of a breadwinner, and parental support (Lumsden, 2017). Other effects include costs to the legal system and the government in the form of payouts to tort victims, costs to communities such as economic disruptions due to increased civil unrest and additional costs on police departments during riots and marches, mistrust of law enforcers and in the social compact, and loss of revenue from tourism due to bad reputation. Police brutality mostly affects minority groups, especially Black Americans.
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Police brutality is a revelation of racism in society and the unfairness of capitalism. Police officers, especially whites, use racial stereotypes to justify their brutality against blacks. Moreover, whites seem to be more accepting of the use of force against blacks (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). White officers' social heritage has taught them to defend whites' interests and despise blacks. Besides, capitalism promotes poverty, which influences social dynamics creating opportunities for maladaptive conduct. Capitalism denies certain groups, such as African Americans, economic opportunities making them appear as unfortunate failures. Consequently, these two aspects promote police brutality against these individuals.
Corruption and business influence also play a role in ensuring that the state does not address police brutality. They make the police avoid liability and accountability for misconduct (Malmin, 2015). They also result in the failure of society to acknowledge the contribution of minority groups and ensure that they receive adequate police protection.
References
Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. (2013). Racism and police brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies, 17 (4), 480–505.
Lumsden, E. (2017). How Much is Police Brutality Costing America? Hawaii Law Review, 40 (1), 142-201.
Malmin, M. (2015). Police Misconduct, Racism, and Excessive Use of Force-Failure Analysis, Commentary, and Recommendations. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 3 , 1-19.
