POLICE BRUTALITY

Not everyone has what it takes to be a police officer. In fact, some people who wish to join the police force—and many who have already done so—are not the right type of people for the job. Being a cop requires the right temperament and attitude to dole out justice and keep people safe without overstepping boundaries. As is evident from the increasing number of cases of excessive force used by police officers, mostly when dealing with people of color, some cops should not be cops. Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddy Gray, and Sandra Bland are all tragic examples of what happens when someone unfit to serve is given power and the authority to abuse it. Some researchers suggest that police corruption is so prevalent because many police officers have a psychological predisposition toward authoritarianism, and then they enter a “police culture [that] encourages such behavior (DeVega).”

 

Burgess presents an extreme version of our current police state in A Clockwork Orange. Up until Alex’s imprisonment, he and his droogs go around town beating and raping whomever they feel like, with little to no repercussions. Once Alex is done with his conversion therapy and is released back into the world, he finds that one of his old droogs, Dim, and a member of a rival gang, BillyBoy, are now police officers. This is Burgess’ way of highlighting the corrupt and violent nature of the police force by suggesting that they are nothing more than state-sanctioned droogs. The only difference between Alex and Dim is that Alex was caught and punished for his crimes. Dim and Billyboy’s positions as police officers show that, in this society, criminal behavior is intolerable unless it can be exploited by the government to maintain a sort of superficial law and order. So the droogs get to relish in their affinity for violence in a socially-acceptable way, by taking pleasure in beating and raping “criminals” rather than random bystanders.

 

For Burgess, hiring violent, blood-thirsty droogs is the next logical step for present-day police forces around the world. Unless we get serious about police reform, eventually the only thing separating violent criminals from cops will be the badge.