Human Rights Watch, a Washington-based public interest group, recently published a study that found police brutality to be “nationwide” and “institutionalized.”
The 400-page report, entitled “Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States,” describes how communities reacted to police brutality in 14 US cities using data from the FBI, the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, and anecdotal evidence. Researchers found that police brutality is a widespread phenomenon that is often underreported. It disclosed that “Filing a complaint [against an officer] is unnecessarily difficult and often intimidating.”
The two-year study noted, “Almost four years after Congress called on the Justice Department to produce a nationwide report on the use of excessive force by police officers, that report is still awaited.”
