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The issue of police misconduct has gained significant importance over the past few years due to the increase in the instances thereof. The effects of the above power abuse are drastic. First and most obvious, police power abuse leads to physical harm. The latter triggers an immediate psychological trauma, making the victim feel insecure once attacked by the people who are supposed to protect them. In other words, the victim of police misconduct will find it hard to accept the fact that they have lost their property (Klahm, Frank, and Liederbach 561).
As a result, PTSD and severe depression may occur (American Psychiatric Association 665). On a social level, the victims may feel marginalized o the sociocultural bias (i.e., being racial and ethnic minorities). Consequently, the rights of the above sociocultural tiers will be systematically abused (Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2). By disregarding the victims’ rights, police tampers with the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees every citizen of the country equal protection from injustice and any form of bias (Legal Information Institute par. 1).
The harm caused by the police brutally which related to the civil rights concerns the physical and emotional scarring of the people that have been apprehended without any legal basis for it. The effects of the police misconduct trigger an immediate psychological and often physiological harm (Klahm et al. 561).
By carrying out the actions that can be interpreted as the violation of people’s civil rights, police officers tamper with the citizens’ image of justice, in general, and the representation of the state legal system, in particular. As a result, the victims of police brutality, as well as the people that have been exposed to violent actions of police officers, may develop a case of PTSD. Moreover, the latter may trigger severe depression (American Psychiatric Association 665). The physical harm may come in the form of bruises.
Moreover, the phenomenon of police violence may affect not only individuals but also a separate group of people. The social tiers that have already been marginalized due to the sociocultural bias (i.e., racial and ethnic minorities) are under an especial threat in the environment that involves police brutality. In addition, the violent treatment reinforces further promotion of stereotypes in the society (Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2).
The abuse of power that can be observed among the American police officers is also likely to suffer a substantial financial harm. For instance, the victim of police violence may be intimidated into giving the corresponding police authority a bribe. Consequently, financial losses ensue.
Last but not least, the constitutional harm needs to be brought up. The violation of civil rights that the subject matter manifests is against the current Constitution of the Untied States, including the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees every citizen of the country equal protection from injustice and any form of bias (Legal Information Institute par. 1).
One significant cause of police misconduct which associates with civil forfeiture is the federal civil forfeiture law which gives the power and right to the government and police officers to take the property and assets from a suspect person or a suspect crime environment. The law, even though it is aimed at positive outcomes, has a number of weaknesses and blind spots, which make the proper conduct less likely (Jaros 1155).
First of all, the law is complicated: there are federal laws (Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act) that are complex on their own, but there also exist 49 state laws, some of which are more convenient for the citizens (Berg 869). Still, the federal law can be regarded as a legal means of avoiding stricter state laws, which makes their attempts at improving the drawbacks of the federal law useless (Berg 869). At the same time, the drawbacks of the law are numerous.
For example, although real estate property can only be seized through a complex of procedures, the personal property can be forfeited in a sinfully easy way (Brooks 328). Also, it has been argued that the law technically promotes corruption and provides the police with unbalanced power that they can use against the less protected and minority groups of the population (Brooks 324, 349). It is noteworthy that forfeited property is not supposed to end up in the hands of particular people; instead, it is expected to be sold, and the money are to be used for beneficial purposes (Baum 66). However, the details of the fate of a forfeiture do not have to be made public; in fact, it is legally possible to choose to keep them secret (Berg 869).
In other words, the law enforcement does not need to break the law to abuse its power due to the federal forfeiture law (Jaros 1149). Also, as pointed out by Jaros, misconduct is not always provoked by the corrupt nature of individual policepersons or the organizational issues. For example, the forfeit of shared property is likely to leave an innocent punished as well (Berg 877). As a result, the law enforcement is not likely to benefit from a complicated but imperfect law either: they need to balance their duties regarding the protection of the society and the personal rights of the people they try to protect while the law makes this goal less attainable (1195). To sum up, it cannot be denied that the law, its weaknesses, and limitations tend to cause misconduct and injustice of different kinds (Berg 868).
Another significant cause of police misconduct is the historical and cultural backgrounds of the civil forfeiture. In fact, some of the roots of the law can be considered ridiculous nowadays: it is based on the cases of legal action against property as a living being (Brooks 331). This idea was widely used in the ancient world and then (in slightly a transformed way) during the middle ages(Berg 873).
The concept of punishing the property together with the culprit does seem hilarious; apart from that, forfeiture could be used instead of punishing or even apprehending the criminal (Berg 875). What is more, even back then the law was used as a source of the revenue for the ruling family (Berg 873). Still, the apparently corruption-friendly law gained some justification throughout the history of the human society; an example is the drug war that resulted in the Comprehensive Drug Control Act in the 1970s and Comprehensive Crime Control Act in the 1980s (Berg 875-876). The latter allowed the use of forfeited goods for the police forces.
To sum up, the study of the history of the law proves its harmful potential, but it also explains the persistence of this kind of legislation. Indeed, the law is based on the fear of crime, and it did prove to be useful for certain cases. In fact, forfeiture law is applicable to the attempts to protect the society and its interests by definition (Brooks 325). The forfeited assets are supposed to be involved in a stage of criminal activity of any kind, and seizing them should improve public safety. As a result, the improper actions become associated with and protected by the positive idea of defending the society, which makes the historical and cultural background of the law a reason for continued misconduct.
Works Cited
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed. New York, NY: American Psychiatric Association.
Klahm, Charles Frank, James Frank, and John Liederbach. “Understanding Police Use of Force: Rethinking the Link Between Conceptualization and Measurement.” Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 37.3 (2014): 558-578.
Legal Information Institute n. d., 14th Amendment. Web.
Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera. “Palestinian Children as Tools for ‘Legalized’ State Violence.” Borderlands 13.1 (2014): 1-24. Print.
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