IN PUBLIC SERVICE: To End Police Brutality, We Need to Define It
We have now reached the anniversary of George Floyd’s death. My hope is that this tragic event is not another chapter in the long story of police brutality, but the beginning of the end. Yet every time it seems our collective conscience is bending toward justice, the next day law enforcement kills another unarmed black man. Nonetheless, an end to police brutality is very much within reach. And to put an end to it, there is a fundamental first step: defining excessive use of force.
As of now, New York State law only prescribes when an officer can use force, but not when they cannot. Even then, the law is quite fuzzy. It says force is justified if the officer “reasonably believes such to be necessary.”
You might think that, to paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart, we know excessive force when we see it. However, law enforcement and the general public often have very different interpretations of “reasonable” force. And not only does New York have no legal definition of excessive force by police, there is not even a law making it a crime. As of now, prosecutors have to indict an officer under general assault and homicide laws.