Writing papers about police brutality in the US

We all love movies and TV series about police and other law enforcement agencies. The whole system of law and order protection is shown as a single body that operates in accordance with the pure and righteous aspirations. However, we also know perfectly well that there were various cases of brutality and crimes committed by the police. If it’s your turn to make your voice heard concerning this problem, you came to the right place. In this article, we will touch upon a sore topic of police brutality and will share some tips and ideas on writing essays and research papers on police brutality.

College essay topics on police brutality

• Solutions to police brutality essay
• Police use of force essay
• Police brutality and racial violence short essay
• Punishments for police brutality essay
• Combating police brutality essay
• Abuse of power essay
• Police brutality against minorities essay
• Essay on police brutality injustice
• Racism and police brutality essay
• Essays on police officers’ perception of brutality in law enforcement
• Police brutality and racial profiling essay
• African American police brutality essay
• Police brutality and racism in the US essay
• Police brutality in modern society essay
• Police brutality and racial violence essay
• Police misconduct essay
• What is police brutality essay
• How to stop police brutality essay
• Causes of police brutality essay
• I stand against police brutality essay
• Effects of police brutality on ethnic minority victims, family and community essay
• Police brutality or reasonable force essay
• Persuasive essay on police brutality: What can governments do to bring an end to a problem?
• Police brutality against African American citizens essay: Historical analysis

Law enforcement essay topics

If you want to shift the focus away from police brutality and focus on something else, here are some of the law enforcement essay ideas that we recommend taking a look at:

• Role of women in law enforcement
• Law enforcement after 9/11
• Law enforcement corruption in the country of choice
• Law enforcement policies and procedures
• Diversity in law enforcement
• Stress that law enforcement personnel experiences
• Morality and ethics in law enforcement
• Ethnics in law enforcement
• The issues of racism in law enforcement

Ideas for speeches on police brutality

• A day in the life of the police officer
• Police brutality should be stopped immediately
• Police brutality and racism in the USA: is the link obvious?
• Who should be call when the police commit crimes?
• The story of George Floyd
• Systemic police brutality and its costs in the United States
• Black lives matter
• Time to end police brutality

Useful tips for writing a quality police brutality essay

Of course, it’s always easier to buy police brutality essay. But if you decided to write it on your own, our instructions will help you. Here are some tips on writing a perfect essay:

• Research your topic. There are a lot of scholarly articles on police brutality on the Web in which you can find a lot of useful background information. Having read a lot of facts about police brutality, you will be able to pick a few persuasive ones to use in your paper and support your statements.
• Create an outline. Write down the name of each section you are going to include, the points you are going to cover in each, as well as the sources you are planning to support them with. Using your outline as a writing plan, you will be able to create a comprehensive text in the end.
• Work on your thesis statement. This is the central point or argument that you want to make. You will need to stick to it thought the essay and restate it in conclusion.
• Do not be afraid to speak your mind. An essay is a perfect type of paper for those who want to express their ideas. Don’t miss this chance, especially if your professor allows or encourages sharing personal opinions.

What type of essay on police brutality should you choose?

As you definitely know, there a lot of types of essay you can work on. But taking into consideration the topic we are discussing in this article, we recommend you to concentrate on the following kinds:

• Argumentative essay on police brutality.

Argumentative essays require that you choose a stance you want to argue, 2-3 supporting points, and 1 opposing one to discuss.  

• Satire essay on police brutality.

Although this is not a popular choice, if you are confident in your writing skills and know how to properly use satire for such a sensitive topic, you may showcase the absurdity of certain actions made by law enforcement in a very creative manner.

• Informative essay on police brutality.

If you would simply like to explore the issue and share your findings, an informative paper is something to consider.

• Police brutality problem solution essay.

As it might be evident from the name, you will have to discuss the problem in detail and present one or a few viable solutions to it.

• Police brutality persuasive essay.

Such type of paper would require you to present your opinion on the topic and use factual information to persuade the readers that you are right.

Police brutality essay outline

Starting to work on your paper, first of all, you should create a police brutality essay outline. It will allow you to smoothly transition from point to point when writing. The proper essay outline on police brutality will likely include:

• Introduction with the hook for police brutality essay and police brutality thesis.

Starting the paper, provide the reader with the background on the issue and invite them to consider it in more detail.

• Main body with information supporting the points presented in a thesis statement.

The police brutality essay arguments you use should be based on the factual information that you have found when researching the topic.

• Conclusion with a restated thesis and final sentence that calls for further reflection.

In the conclusion to essay on police brutality, summarize the information from the body of the paper and restate the thesis that you have previously indicated in the intro.

Please note that these are only the main sections to include in the outline for a police brutality essay. You will have to add more details to it while doing your research, and it is best if you list the arguments that you have settled on under the body section of your outline. You may also create a list of references beforehand and cite the arguments right away not to forget what piece of literature or article you have taken them from.

What about titles?

In the end, as soon as you finish writing your paper, pay attention to the title of your essay. There are no clear limitations in this case. Just remember that police brutality essay titles should be short, intriguing, and show what exactly your paper is going to be about.

Shocking facts for police brutality essays

We have collected the most violent cases of police brutality, which you can use as arguments in your paper to prove that this issue is real.

• In September 2011, during the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York, assistant inspector Anthony Bologna used pepper spray against a group of unarmed young girls who clearly posed no threat to others. He was deprived of 10 days of vacation and transferred to Staten Island, the most remote area from the center of New York.
• In October 2011, police brutally dispersed hundreds of demonstrators in Oakland, California. The officers used tear gas, non-lethal firearms (bean bag guns), and flash grenades. There were many children, elderly, and disabled people.
• Police in the state of North Dakota has arrested more than 120 people, including filmmakers, journalists, and minors, for participating in protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in October 2016. Law enforcement officials were accused of violating freedom of speech and using excessive force against peaceful demonstrators. According to the latter, the police behaved aggressively, using batons and gas cartridges.
• In October 2012, Chicago police have beaten Angel Perez to get information about crimes in their territory. During the interrogation, Angel’s eyes were squeezed out, and he was raped with a pistol.
• In July 2011, in California, police beat a mentally ill homeless person to death on the street. The investigation revealed that the main accused policeman, officer Manuel Ramos, was familiar with the victim and knew about his illness.
• Police officers in the US state of Michigan shot a homeless man for refusing to hand over a penknife. The US Justice Department refused to bring charges against the guards of the order motivating it by the fact that they performed their duty and acted in the face of threats.
• In July 2014, policemen shot and killed a mentally ill pregnant woman who was suffering from drug addiction. Her husband brought her to the doors of a psychiatric hospital, but she snatched the knife and did not hand it over at the request of the police.
• August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, policeman Darren Wilson shot an unarmed 18-year-old black boy Michael Brown dead. Some witnesses claim that there was a dispute between the officer and the young man as a result of which Wilson started shooting at Brown and did not stop though he raised his hands. The police and other witnesses claim that Brown attacked Wilson.

The murder caused widespread riots in Ferguson, which lasted a long time. On November 25, 2014, a panel of 12 jurors decided not to bring charges against Wilson on this occasion. This decision caused a new powerful wave of unrest during which at least 100 people were detained and at least 12 buildings were burned. Demonstrations were supported in more than 170 American cities.

• In May 2015, in Texas, police got into the house of the 82-year-old veteran, broke his thigh-bone and then, realizing that there was a mistake, disappeared without even taking care about calling the doctors. The next day, a man who laid on the floor was found by his family. He survived but had to be rushed to the hospital to undergo two surgeries.
• November 17, 2015, two law enforcement officers brought down to the ground and were brutally beating a suspect in car theft during more than 13 minutes.

• In December 2015, in Florida, a 57-year-old black woman died after the police threw her out of the hospital. She was discharged by doctors but felt difficulty in breathing and refused to leave the medical facility.

• In January 2013, a policeman in Pennsylvania came to confiscate the property of a defaulter. When the owner of the house targeted an automatic rifle at the policeman, the officer opened fire and accidentally shot the 12-year-old daughter of a defaulter.

• In April 2017, the American public was outraged by the video of the arrest of a 10-year-old boy suffering from autism. Police officers handcuffed him and dragged from the classroom, after which he spent the night in the center for juvenile offenders. The child was accused of kicking a school employee.
• On March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman was shot during a forced police entry in her home at Louisville, Kentucky. While Breonna’s boyfriend tried to protect them using the firearm, thinking that police were actually intruders, the officers have fired more than 30 shots, some of which hit Breonna Taylor. It was later determined that the police was on the scene due to the investigation related to Taylor’s ex-boyfriend suspected of dealing drugs.
• On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. During the arrest, Derek Chauvin, a police officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck for several minutes after he was already handcuffed and lying face down. Two police officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd, while another officer, Tou Thao, prevented bystanders from interfering with the arrest and intervening as events unfolded. Floyd’s death triggered worldwide protests against police brutality.

Research topics on police brutality

Police brutality research paper topics are among the most frequently assigned ones in schools and universities. This is a good topic for research as there is a lot of statistics, which can be provided to prove that police brutality is a real issue that requires taking urgent actions. If you haven’t yet decided what to focus on specifically, here are some police topics for a research paper that you might want to consider:

• Use of force research paper
• Is Stanford prison experiment real?
• Why are there so many cases of police brutality in the US?
• Reasons for police brutality
• Can sexism be seen as one of the main factors of police brutality?
• How has the Black Lives Matter movement brought attention to police brutality?
• Is racism a factor in police brutality?
• Can police self-defense be mistaken for brutality?
• Does job stress contribute to police brutality?

Useful tips for writing a research paper on law enforcement and police brutality

We understand that writing a research paper is quite a challenging task and decided to collect the best writing secrets for you in one place. Follow these tips to create an A+ research paper:

Stick to the outline

Having a well-detailed plan is important as it helps you hit all of the necessary points when writing. Here are the basic sections you need to include:

Introduction

• Introductory phrase
• Statement of hypothesis/thesis

Body sections

• Methodology
• Literature review and background information
• Findings and Discussion

Conclusion

• Restated hypothesis
• Main points of research

Develop a strong thesis statement

Thesis statement is the most important part of the whole paper, as it establishes the purpose of your paper. So you have to make sure that it is concise and coherent. Every paragraph of your paper then should support this main sentence and the points you have made in it.

Avoid plagiarism

Having found interesting ideas in the sources you have used when doing a research, you should always make sure that you have completely rephrased their words and cited all the information according to the rules of the assigned formatting style. Otherwise, your paper will be considered plagiarized, which will certainly harm your academic reputation.

Choose the sources carefully

When it comes to sources, quality will always be more important than quantity. Look for information in reputable websites with domains like org., gov., or edu. If you are mentioning some statistics in your paper, make sure that it is taken from a recent and peer-reviewed article or book.

Research questions on police brutality

Of course, in order to write a good research paper, you will need to formulate questions to know in what direction you should move with your research. We have created some questions which may inspire you to choose a topic and research direction for your paper:

• What are the costs of police brutality for the US government?
• What are the historical reasons for police brutality?
• Who are the main victims of police brutality?
• Were there any cases when police brutality was justified?