After analyzing the content on the web page related to police violence, I realized that there are more murders committed by police than I expected. According to Mapping Police Violence (2021), there were 961 people killed by police workers in 2021, meaning almost a thousand victims, even though the 2021 year has not finished yet. Moreover, it was a surprise that black people get killed by police three times more often than white citizens (Mapping Police Violence, 2021). Finally, I did not know that most of the killings by police begin in cases where no crime was alleged, for instance, during traffic stops or mental health checks.
Despite the fact that violence in society and various crimes are usually considered social issues, police violence is a political problem that needs to be solved from top to bottom. This is true because police officers are a part of a state’s governmental structure and act strictly in the frame of laws. Moreover, there are no private or commercial police, so it is a police unit that is obliged to monitor compliance with laws and punish those who do not succeed with this. Therefore, if police violence and especially killings occur, it is not prohibited to hurt citizens on the structural level, making this issue more political than social.
To reduce police violence in society, emergency calls can be directed to non-police officers but to people who studied crisis management and can help people with mental illnesses. This suggestion might work successfully, as according to Mapping Police Violence (2021), many people get killed by police during mental health checks, meaning that police officers do not know how to behave when dealing with mentally sick citizens.
Reference
Mapping Police Violence. (2021). Police violence map. Web.