1.. Should the police officers who shot Amadou Diallo been charged for the misuse of force, even though their perception at the time was that force was necessary to protect lives? Explain your reasoning.

2. Do some research on your own and write a brief summary of what, if any charges, were brought against the four officers involved in the Diallo shooting, along with what you know about the outcome of any legal cases that resulted from that shooting. Don’t forget to cite your source(s) with an in text citation in APA format.

3. According to your textbook, the force continuum is meant to set standards for law enforcement officers so “the level of force that would be considered reasonable in any situation would be based on the severity of the situation itself” (Harmening, 65). After watching the video news clip of George Floyd’s arrest and death, along with any additional research you conduct on your own, summarize the level of force used by the arresting officers based on the information in your textbook on the force continuum (level one to level five). Based on what you saw of Mr. Floyd’s actions while being taken into custody, was “the amount of force” used against him by the arrest officer meet the standard of appropriate use, “based on the situation”? Explain your thinking.

4. The media is quick to show examples of the use of deadly force by officers but rarely reports on incidents where the use of force was justified, based on the circumstances,or even NOT used (despite the situation putting the officer in serious jeopardy). After watching and reading about the Ohio officer who did not use force, what is your reaction to his “restraint”? Had the officer shot the suspect, in your opinion, would it have been a justified use of deadly force? Explain.

5. Write one question related to the information and topics covered in the source material. Feel free to utlize new sources or issues related to this topic. The questions should not be similar to any of the assignment questions. It should be a question that shows you put effort into thinking it through and should require the classmate who is answering it to do some additional research or really think about the issue.

Use of Force

Name of the student

Affiliation

Course

Instructor’s name

Submission date

Use of Force

Crisis intervention in law enforcement involves emergency responses conducted immediately or on short term to restore social order or equilibrium, which includes peaceful or coercive strategies, such as the use of force. The use of force among police officers in the USA is a troubling issue that has instigated heated debates, mainly due to the shooting of unarmed racial minorities such as African-Americans (Rudovsky, 2017). These shootings have been deemed unlawful with recent demonstrations against the illegal killing of George Floyd. This discussion below uses three main instances depicting for and against the use of force among police officers in law enforcement and crisis intervention. In Diallo’s case of 1999 in New York, the four police officers should be arrested for the misuse of force, as Diallo exhibited the first two levels of threat, namely intimidating demeanor and passive resistance (Diller, 2006). This is seen from the police officer’s confessions and sides of the story stating that Diallo acted suspicious, which they should have used correspondence level of force, namely command presence and verbal command.

However, since Diallo, according to the officers, disobeyed the command, they should have used controlling force as he was depicting active resistance instead of deadly force, as he did not depict aggravated assault. The four officers in Diallo’s case were arrested and charged with second-degree murder, which involves killing a person without the full and valid justification of the killing and reckless endangerment, involving committing cries of acts that pose a substantial risk such as physical injury. Despite the presence of unconfirmed killing of Diallo, the four officers were acquainted by the court of all charges, claiming that the victim did not respond to the verbal command given and they thought he had a gun, which instigated the deadly use of force (Starr, 2014).

When assessing the level of force used in arresting George Floyd, we can conclude that level five of force, namely, deadly force was used when the police placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes resulting in suffocation and death. Police officers are allowed to use deadly force, but in Floyd’s case, this force used did not meet the standards of “appropriate use of force based on the situation.” Primarily, deadly force is used when the suspect presents an imminent danger when the lives of the police, their colleagues, and civilians are in danger. These actions necessitate police officers to use deadly force to save lives; however, Floyd did not preset any of these actions (Baldwin, 2020). He accepted the unlawful arrest and did not resist it other than fighting for his life verbally. In this situation, the use of deadly force is not justified, which results in the police officers committing third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Floyd did not inflict any harm on the policy office, making the defense on the officer’s side illegal and unjustified causing reckless endangerment to Floyd.

Ohio’s police officer in the video restrained using deadly force against the suspect, which was a risky action; mainly because the suspect kept running and sprinting towards the officer. This action was impressive and a courageous example that many police officers should emulate. If the police officer had decided to use deadly force, it would have been justified, as the suspect disobeyed the officer’s verbal command and command presence (Chuck, 2015). Moreover, the action of running and sprinting towards the officer can be categorized as an intention to harm the officer, which would necessitate him shooting as legal self-defense.

These three cases of use of force in law enforcement have instigated one primary question. Why is it that the police officers in Diallo and Floyd’s case, did not restrain their use of deadly force longer as in the case with Ohio’s officer, bearing in mind Diallo and Floyd are black men, and their level of threat was not justified yet in Wilcox’s case, a white man, his imminent threat was warranted?

References

Baldwin, L. A. (2020, May 30). Protests erupt nationwide over George Floyd’s death. Retrieved from CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis-2020-05-29/#x

Chuck, E. (2015, April 18). Ohio cop praised for refusing to resort to deadly force against murder suspect. Retrieved from MSCBC: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ohio-cop-praised-refusing-resort-deadly-force-against-murder-suspect

Diller, P. A. (2006, November 27). Reenactment of actual shooting in New York part 1. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLkrlklDXWk

Rudovsky, D. (2017, February 27). The Troubling Issues Regarding Police Use of Force. Retrieved from The Regulatory Review: https://www.theregreview.org/2017/02/27/rudovsky-troubling-issues-police-use-force/

Starr, A. (2014, May 02). How the legacy of Amadou Diallo lives on in New York’s immigrant community. Retrieved from https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-02-05/how-legacy-amadou-diallo-lives-new-yorks-immigrant-community