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Abstract: Police abuse is the purposeful practice of unwarranted coercion, frequently physical, but potentially in the form of verbal assaults and psychological intimidation, by police which, constitutes abuse and official misconduct. Police brutality is a grievous form of crime done by the police hired to be prevent the crime itself. The use of force may be judged necessary or excessive depending on whether it was determined to be legitimate under the circumstances to fulfill the police duty (Kania & Mackey, 1977). The media has focused like a laser on the racial divides in the U. S. sparked by the deaths of young African Americans (i.e., Michael Brown in Fergusson, Missouri, Eric Garner, NYC, Oscar Grant in California and Sandra Bland in Texas and many others at the hands of cops with dubious use of force. (Edwards, 2016; Khaleeli, 2016). These deaths lead ultimately to an activists group, 'Black Lives Matters'. According to FBI statistics, African-Americans represented 31 percent of all shooting victims by police while representing 13 percent of all U. S, inhabitants according to Grochowski & Gabrielson (2014, October 10). Approximately 50 percent of the 14,800 police agencies do not report police involved homicide statistics to the FBI - UCR. This is quite distributing considering that 175 Black males were shot and killed by police since January, 2015. Black's males represent six percent of the population and 40 percent of victims of police shooting incidents.

Keywords: police abuse; brutality; institutional racism; police use-of-force; racial profiling; police culture

The majority of the Unites States population recognizes that policing is a difficult job at best, requiring officers to confront a variety of people on a daily basis from an elderly senior, lost child or a harden criminal, sociopath, child molester, and the alike. A job that is fraught with seemingly unavoidable stress and risk; but to most law enforcement officers, a rewarding career that most would not trade.

Police officers are legally authorized to use force and the public understands this. In essence, they have been given authority to use non-negotiable force (Bittner, 1970). Communities provide their officers with batons, Tasers, and of course, with lethal weapons to both defend, protect, and when necessary to use in a legal and responsible manner. In recent decades, many...

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