Observation Of Police Brutality

Police brutality against people who are peacefully protesting has become almost a staple of our daily media. The reason that I chose this topic was because I saw a video that showed people at the Seattle WTO protests that were peacefully protesting the policies of the WTO and had excessive force used against them to disperse the crowds. The ways that the crowd was dispersed was by the police were tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, horses, Billy clubs, and even kicking and hitting the protestors.

One of the other incidents that made me want to choose this research topic was the protests in the 60’s in Berkley protesting the Vietnam war. The same means of dispersing crowds was used on the people that are used today. The brutalities are very similar when you watch the footage and read the accounts of the protestors. This is very important to me because I want to know that if I feel that I would like to go to a peaceful that I will not get killed or beaten for trying to voice my opinion to the powers that be. Independent media outlets are the main advocates behind finding justice for the people that have been brutalized . Through my extensive research of articles and journals I have come to the realization that this problem is far worse than I had once envisioned. I have come to the realization through articles that I have read that this violation is not a matter of “is this constitutionally sound?”. This is a global issue that is prevalent in almost every country on this earth. That the brutal treatment of peaceful protestors is a universally accepted form of dispersing crowds. The only differences that I could find between the bad countries and really bad countries was how many fatalities and permanent injury’s were left after the beatings.

Most of the cases that I read about seemed to agree on the general principal that these beatings should not be taking place and that there is not enough being done by our governments to stop these abuses. These accounts went from Thailand to Zimbabwe over to Chile and pack to our own front yard the United States. There was account after account of people being shot for trying to voice their opinion. Leopold Hatugari reported for the Internationalist magazine that in Zimbabwe men women and children are shot for participating in peaceful protests against the increase price of food. Then when you look Malaysia you find that protestors are being savagely beaten and either “disappear” or turn up dead. This was especially true in the case of Tak Bai, Malaysia country watch reports in their November 2005 edition that states 87 youth gathered at the embassy to stage a peaceful protest against brutality and racism. During these protests 87 people were killed when police forces opened fire on the demonstrators. I believe that social justice is a main theory behind my research because these brutalities are not just. Another theory is that of civil liberties because the freedom of speech and right to peaceful assembly are being violated. The preliminary findings in my research made me turn my focus from a national view to an international view.

The method that I used for collecting the data was a quantitative analysis of footage of theses incidents happening and articles that were published by the independent news agencies that were at the protests. The way that I will collect the data will be to attend these peaceful assemblies and interview people that have been brutalized by the authorities. On top of this I will need to use more independent media sources to acquire a better understanding of this dynamic. I have not interviewed any of the people from these incidences but I have watched a few news documentaries as well as looking at articles that I have found on the campus library websites.



From all of these readings I have come to the conclusion that it is not money or political power that these groups want, it is a voice. People in the United States and around the world are dieing for the right to voice their opinion. The authors agree that they are being persecuted just for speaking up to the establishment. I could not understand why more people have not stood up to these forces such as political institutions of corporate powers. I did not gain clarity until I read two articles that showed how terrorizing and underhanded the tactics were or these organizations that try and squash the resistance. Chris A. Rootes Explains in his article “A lesson for tomorrow” (Social Alternatives, 1983) that people are even frightened to fill out questionnaires for fear that their involvement in the activity would impact their future social and career opportunities. Internationally civil right movements are facing what they feel to be a silencing of the peoples voice. People are fearful to show up to demonstrations that they feel to be of social importance and are fearful of being beaten or killed. They are fearful to even write on a survey because perceived notion that they will be persecuted for their views.

I feel that this is an underlying concept that is people are being scared into not participating in any sort of social change because causing unrest makes the government look bad and unstable. When I say “perceived notion” I am only telling a half truth as a matter of fact there will not be a consequence for filling out a survey. However if you are seen at a protest by your employer you run the risk of being fired. This is explained in the case of Barbra Hudson (M. Lee publishers, 2005) a tenured community college professor arranged an independent trip to the WTO protests in Seattle Washington. She followed the rules and made it so all of the travel plans were independent of the school to ensure a liability-free trip that was independent of the school. When she returned to campus she found that her teaching contract with the school had been denied renewal and she was asked to leave the school. The punishments and risks for speaking up against the establishment are truly real and have a strong message that is, “if you show up to these protests you will face the consequences”. I would like to stress that this is an issue that crosses continental borders, race, and economic status. This is an issue that prevalent to every person who values being able to speak their opinion. People should not have to be terrorized, beaten, and die for their basic human right to speak their opinion. I urge you to look at these independent media outlets and see the images of brutality that I have discussed and see for yourself these atrocities that are being perpetrated against people who are nonviolently voicing their opinions.