Power abuse and police brutality cannot continue – The Cauldron

By Ben Frederick

In July of 2017, a nurse was dragged from her place of work for impeding an investigation by a Utah police officer. Nurse Wubbels refused an order from an officer of the law to take a blood sample from an unconscious patient. The nurse was protected by the law. Unless the patient was under arrest, had a warrant for arrest or gave consent to the withdraw, the officer had no right to the sample of blood. However, the officer took it upon himself to try and force the nurse to give him the sample. When the nurse refused, he went above the law and arrested her on unlawful charges. Hospital employees attempted to step in to aid their coworker but the police officer was adamant in his arrest. He secured the innocent, handcuffed nurse in the back of the cruiser. No officer should have the authority and the motivation to break and abuse the very law they die defending.

This is far from the first incident, and it will not be the last. Incidents like these stretch back to the birth of this country. Cops have been misusing their power to hurt innocent civilians for years. Sometimes it is just being inconsiderate to ruin someone’s day by yelling at them; however, on other occasions, they play judge, jury, and executioner with people’s lives. There are too many incidents where police officers gun down unarmed innocent men and women just because they have the ability to. That is unethical and wrong.

Cops are not above the law. They should be held the most accountable for their actions because they uphold the law and speak for the people. Police officers should be model citizens setting the standard for other citizens. Instead, they are inconsiderate, aggressive and hostile people, and these are people that children are taught to trust and respect. Instead, they dehumanize the general public by beating them and sometimes killing them. Countless arrests end in injury of the subject because the subject was resisting arrest. With modern day cameras and phones, the people now have proof that the plurality of these people do not resist.

Officers just use excessive force to show dominance. This is wrong. This is immoral and many Americans overlook the brutality of police officers because it was the social norm in their time, but America can no longer do that. These officers need to be controlled and shown that the real power lies with the people and not the officers. No one is above the law.