In the context of law, the use of force is the amount or the degree of effort needed by the policemen to force an unwilling person or individual to respond to a given call, instance, situation. It can either be applied by law enforcement police officers or military officers on duty ( Hickman, Piquero & Garner, 2008) . There is a responsibility to balance the issues of security with ethical concerns to guarantee the fundamental rights of the criminals or suspects. The police justify the injury or death of the citizens with the notion of self-defence. The US military receives a briefing on the use of force from the sergeant of the guard before they are given specific duties. However, the use of force can be standardized by the use of a force continuum. It can act as a guideline to the force inflicted on the subjects by the police. There are steps in an inclination of force from the lowest to the highest level. It involves, presence of police, verbalization, empty hand control, intermediate weapons, deadly force. US law clarifies that police use of the law is only justifiable in reasonable cases where an individual can cause danger, death threat, injure a security agent or another person ( MacDonald, Kaminski & Smith, 2009) . According to the US Supreme Court, Force calling for severe consequences requires critical circumscription. ECHR Article 3 guarantees the protection of people from ill-treatments, and Article 8 advocates for people’s integrity. There was a scenario where Graham, a diabetic victim, had an insulin reaction and rushed to store. He then rushed to a friend’s house in the company of his friend. It was due to the overcrowding of the store. Several Police officers arrived and handcuffed Graham. They afterwards realized that nothing had transpired in the store and released him. However, he suffered injuries of the broken foot due to the force inflicted. The court put it that the use of force was not reasonable. There was a case where police stopped Rickard for a broken headlight. He was erratic and declined to step outside and flew away. However, a lot of officers pursued the vehicle. The police officers ended up shooting the driver and passengers. The court ruled the use of force justifiable hence, the police force was reasonable.
References
Graham v. Connor (1989) and Plumhoff v. Rickard (2014) Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_force
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Hickman, M. J., Piquero, A. R., & Garner, J. H. (2008). Toward a national estimate of police use of nonlethal force. Criminology & Public Policy , 7 (4), 563-604.
MacDonald, J. M., Kaminski, R. J., & Smith, M. R. (2009). The effect of less-lethal weapons on injuries in police use-of-force events. American journal of public health , 99 (12), 2268-2274.
