History Main / PoliceBrutality

* In ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', Dim and Billy Boy abandon their juvenile acts of mayhem and destruction to beat on criminals for a paycheck.
** The police force displayed in ''Clockwork'' is generally less-than-kind; all of them beat criminals from their first appearance to their very last and do some [[ColdBloodedTorture serious]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy damage]] to Alex in between.

** Interestingly, the book goes into long detail, in an almost lamenting tone, that suspects actually fear the police less and less. In the old days, a suspect thought to have shot a cop was essentially in a race for their life to turn themselves in at a precinct completely across town, where they would ''only'' be beaten. If the guy was caught in the cop's own district, he'd have been shot dead and his death justified as self-defense.
** While acknowledging that genuine brutality does exist, the book also makes the point that in the homicide unit at least, nine out of ten cases that the detectives will encounter will be criminal-on-criminal violence. The author thus argues that in most cases the detective has little personal stake in the case and little reason to want to risk a conviction, their clear-up rate, and their career just to rough up a small-time criminal in order to prove that they murdered another small-time criminal.

** While technically still falling under the trope, Harry was not a civilian at the time, he was an (irregularly) licensed private investigator on contract with the police. He was essentially getting beaten by a fellow cop for breaking procedure and the ethics of the profession.

* Thoroughly deconstructed in ''Literature/McAuslan'': [=MacNeill=] reflects that the British Army's reputation for gunning down rioters for little reason is pretty well-justified, but what do you do when, as a military unit wholly untrained in crowd control, you get put in front of a rioting mob with no non-lethal options, and the situation deteriorates?

* ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'', being written in the wake on the 1960's counterculture, deals at times with police brutality at the time, both by individual officers against members of the counterculture, and collective violence at protests, in scenes set during the Chicago Democratic National Congress riots.

* PoliceBrutality/LiveActionFilms

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

-->There are six men in Birmingham,
-->In Guildford there's four of 'em,
-->Picked up and tortured and [[{{Frameup}} framed]] by the Law
-->While the filth get promotion, they're still doing time,
-->For being Irish in the wrong place and at the wrong time!

* Music/MichaelJackson's "They Don't Care About Us" has the lyric "I'm a victim of police brutality"; of the two videos made for it, one is set in a prison with menacing guards and Michael as one of the prisoners -- plus footage of the Rodney King beating. He also lists police brutality as one of the things people should worry about more than his personal life in his ListSong "Why You Wanna Trip On Me" from ''Music/{{Dangerous}}''

* Officer Roscoe Rules in Joseph Wambaugh's ''TheChoirboys'' is the LAPD version. He has disdain for ethnic minorities and in one scene is seen to ''tear the moustache off a Latino's face''.[[note]]Admittedly, the maimed Angeleno replies by beating the tar out of Rules in the ensuing riot. But a cop who would countenance doing this and leaving a guy's whole top lip a bleeding skinned ruin is brutal.[[/note]]

A quick breakdown of police brutality trends in fiction: the LAPD beats your ass and then decides what crime you committed; the NYPD [[ShootHimHeHasAWallet shoots you a few dozen times then pronounces you innocent]]; 1930s cops are drunk [[OfficerOHara Irishmen]] who beat you up for being [[TheMafia Italian]]; 1960s cops are sober Irishmen who beat you up for [[NewAgeRetroHippie having long hair]], ''or'' are [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant old White evangelicals]] with a [[DeepSouth thick drawl]] who [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement beat you up for being not-White]]; [[TheNewTens 2010s]] cops may [[ButNotTooWhite not themselves be entirely white]], but are so {{trigger happy}} and [[TheParanoiac paranoid]] they will ''shoot'' you if you're black; [[OldFashionedCopper old-fashioned]] [[UsefulNotes/BritishCoppers Bobbies]] beat you up for being a [[AcceptableTargets foreigner or minority]] suspected of [[DisproportionateRetribution loitering]]; big town cops beat you up for being a foreigner or minority [[MistakenForTerrorist suspected of terrorism]]; small town cops pull you over, tell you that [[PreemptiveDeclaration your tail light is busted]], [[FrameUp and then bust your tail light with a nightstick when you ask which one]] ([[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and give you a ticket for it]]). Not to mention cops from developing countries that are often also [[DirtyCop incredibly corrupt]] to boot, and heaven help you if they mistake you for a drug user, or if you're a political activist protesting your country's problems — including ''them''! Of course, [[PoliceBrutalityGambit all might not be as it seems]].

* ''WesternAnimation/OurFriendMartin'': Miles and Randy wind up in Birmingham, 1963 where they witness a legion of police officers attacking Martin's protesters with attack dogs, fire hoses, and unrated violence.

* Tim becomes aware of a pair of crooked cops who occasionally kill perps in ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'' and when they walk away scot-free from the arrest he helped arrange for them there he sets them up to fall hard in ''ComicBook/RedRobin''.

'''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' While sadly [[TruthInTelevision this happens everywhere and with ever increasing prominence]], mentioning any real case in particular would be a sure way to bring on a serious FlameWar, and we're not here for that.

* Music/TomRobinsonBand dealt with the subject in some songs ("Blue Murder" being about the death of Liddle Towers in police custody), and open up their SignatureSong "Glad To be Gay" with:
The British Police are the best in the world
-->I don't believe one of these stories I've heard\\

* ''WebAnimation/GothamGirls'': Caroline Greenway really likes to abuse whatever position of power she's put in. After her little stint as Commisioner after all the men were chucked out of reality she goes back to being a warden, where she eagerly has her underlings beat prisoners to death.

* ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'': Donkey says the trope name out loud when he, Shrek and Puss get arrested by the Far Far Way guards in the ''Series/{{Cops}}'' parody, ''KNIGHTS''

* ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'': Donkey says the trope name out loud when he Shrek and Puss get arrested by the Far Far Way guards in the ''Series/{{Cops}}'' parody, ''KNIGHTS''

** One episode had the titular character get arrested by the police because ''[[DisproportionateRetribution he didn't invite them to a party he was throwing]]''.
** Humorously subverted in another episode, where two cops appear to be beating a suspect when in reality they were fixing a parking meter.

->''"I'm on my feet for about ten minutes before the cops kick them out from under me. They don't ask me any questions. They just keep [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown knocking the crap out of me]] and waving [[FalseConfession a confession]] in my face. And I keep spitting blood all over it and laughing at how many fresh copies they come up with. Then along comes this worm assistant district attorney who turns the recorder off and says if I don't sign their confession, they'll kill my mom. I break his arm in three places and I sign it."''

* Thoroughly deconstructed in ''Literature/McAuslan'': [=MacNeill=] reflects that the British Army's reputation for gunning down rioters for little reason is pretty well-justified, but what do you do when, as a military unit wholly untrained in crowd control, you get put in front of a rioting mob with no non-lethal options, and the situation deteriorates?
** The Royal Military Police are depicted as having a fairly direct approach, often returning drunks and deserters to their regimental cells in a somewhat unconscious and battered state. How much is needless brutality and how much is just the effects of alcohol and necessary subduing methods is never elaborated on. Either way, the Gordon Highlanders' regimental provost -- its internal police force -- is a model of fair-minded "tough love". You still wouldn't want to cross Provost-Sergeant [=McGarry=], though.

* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': In the first book, ''[[Literature/AMagesPower A Mage's Power]]'', there's a complicated case -- the Royal Guard that comes to arrest Eric [[spoiler:on charges of sedition, treason, and brainwashing a princess]]. On one hand, they are brutal in subduing him, but that's because he's a professional mercenary and so is capable of hurting them if they are not quick. One of them spits on and curses him, but she is immediately punished by her immediate superior. He then apologises to Eric and tells him that she is new to the force and doesn't know the code of conduct yet. He also tells Eric that he believes Eric's crime to be worthy of brutality, [[TheFettered but that would not be lawful]] and so he will restrain himself.

* ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'': The Eyes of God simply take people who resist, and nobody can do anything.

[[caption-width-right:332:"Stop resisting!"]]