People are asking whether police brutality is on the rise. I would like to know when it had gone on the decline. For a large majority of blacks and other minorities, that question is ridiculous.

Police brutality has never slowed down since the Civil Rights Movement. There is a lot of footage of police siccing dogs on women and children while they were being sprayed by high-powered water hoses. Those people were peacefully marching, asking this country to give them civil rights and to treat them like humans.

Today, much of these types of actions aren’t just caught on news footage by the media. Now, cell phones have great video cameras on them, and the public has been catching the police in the act of brutality and murder of unarmed men.

What I see on the rise is more proof of their conduct.

The Willie Lynch mentality that has been deeply rooted in the police force has not yet been weeded out. It still continues to be practiced today in the form of racial profiling. On a regular basis, we see on the news somewhere in this country showing the police shooting and killing someone when it is apparent the officer’s life was not being threatened.

That is clearly the case in South Carolina where police officer Michael Slager shot an unarmed black man, Walter Scott, in the back five times, and as he laid there, the officer placed his taser next to the victim as if he had taken the taser from him.

The police report reads that the “suspect took my teaser and I was in fear of my life.” Well, the video tells a totally different story then what the officer told.

Then there is the example in Cleveland, where officer Michael Brelo is on trial for manslaughter in the killing of unarmed black couple Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, whose car was shot over 137 times. Officer Michael Berlo jumped on the hood of the car and shot the last 15 shots into the windshield. Berlo’s footprints were found on the hood of the car. But when asked in court, Berlo said he could not remember doing that.

Another clear case of cold-blooded murder.

This can’t be justified, no way no how. Where was the threat? There was none.

And to try him on manslaughter and not murder is a crime.

The law is very clear on this, it states that deadly force should only be used when the officer’s life is being threatened. That is the only time when deadly force should be used. That is the law.

But when we look on TV, that is not the case. Police are still shooting unarmed men and getting away with it.

In another case in downtown Los Angeles, a homeless man, unarmed and black, had seven officers surround him, and while using tasers, another officer shot the man five times. It is heart wrenching to watch this stuff daily and not one officer has ever admitted to doing anything wrong.

I write these words knowing that there are good officers out there who do a good job. I hope that some of these officers who took their oath seriously take a real stand and start to expose the bad cops and not worry about any backlash if any. If an officer feels he is a good cop but is not exposing the bad officer, then he is a part of the problem, too.

We need real cops who will uphold the law and enforce it no matter who breaks it. That’s what good cops do, so hats off to all the good cops because I can see that being a police is a very hard job.

Police officers are human, and as humans we make mistakes from time to time.

And one thing they can’t teach the officers in the police force is how to deal with fear. Fear is a factor in a lot of these cases and how that officer deals with it will have a direct affect on the outcome of the situation.

I think a lot of people would feel a whole lot better if just one officer said he was scared or nervous and accidently shot someone. That would make more sense then telling those lies as if the public doesn’t know a lie when they hear one.

That’s what causes most of the anger in the community: the lies. The truth would help most of the community deal with the pain of losing a loved one. The truth also will help bring back some trust of the police because all police aren’t bad cops.

And the hiring practice should be adjusted while 67 percent of the residents in Ferguson, Missouri, are black but only three of the 53 officers are black. Not a good representation of the community is there.