Throughout history, efforts to police society have been flawed by brutality in one way or another. Police Brutality exists in many countries and is only one of several forms of police misconduct. Abuse by law enforcement officers in the United States is one of the most serious human rights violations in the country. Police officers have engaged in unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and unnecessarily rough treatment. The history of police brutality is cyclical, going through phases of violence, corruption, and reform. Police brutality is the excessive use of physical force, assault, verbal attacks, and threats by police officers and other law enforcement officers. The targets of the violence are usually the poor, the
Once they arrived at the station, he was strip searched and put into a holding cell. Later, the beating continued. Officer Volpe kicked Louima in the testicles and while his hands were cuffed behind his back, he was sodomized with a toilet plunger. This caused severe internal damage to his colon and bladder that required several operations to repair. Louima’s teeth were badly damaged when the plunger was jammed into his mouth. He was left in this condition all night until being transferred to the emergency room the next day. On December 13, 1999, officer Volpe was sentenced to thirty years in prison without the possibility of parole, a $525.00 fine and restitution in the amount of $277,495.00. The incident provoked outrage in New York City. Louima’s civil suit against the city resulted in a settlement of $8.75 million on July 30, 2001. This was the largest police brutality settlement in the history of New York City. Victims of police brutality feel that there is little they can do about it. They are usually intimidated by the amount of red tape involved in reporting the incident. They are also convinced that they will not be taken seriously or that the courts will look the other way. Although most police departments have strict guidelines regarding the use of deadly force, they are not always adhered to or completely understood. For the most part, disciplinary action in police