Police brutality and its impact on human rights: a comparative analysis of Nigeria and the United States of America

Human rights are often violated by individuals acting on behalf of the state. Police brutality reflects the struggle within the law enforcement circle to operate within the ambit of the legally allowed threshold needed to diffuse an incidence like civil disturbance or self-preservation by the law enforcement officers. Previous studies have been limited to the causes, consequences, and impact of police brutality and the generational economic effects on the minority groups. But few of these studies have investigated the historical, cultural, and political backgrounds to police brutality in the selected countries. This study, therefore, examined police brutality in Nigeria and the United States of America within these contexts. The paper adopted a phenomenology research design. This enabled the researcher to gain deeper understanding of the study phenomena by exploring the views of those who directly experienced police brutality in the selected countries. The study found that police brutality is deeply rooted in the colonial past of the two countries. The countries were both colonized by the British and they both inherited the Anglo-Saxon common law and their system of social justice. The study found areas of similarities and differences between the Nigerian policing system and the United States of America’s policing culture. The study revealed that the failure of the police force in the two countries to rein in corrupt elements in their rank is one of the factors encouraging police brutality in Nigeria and the United States of America respectively. The study also highlighted the negative effects of corruption in the Nigeria Police and the role it plays in police brutality in Nigeria. The study, therefore, recommended comprehensive reform of the Nigerian police force and that Police officers should be retrained on racial and minority sensitivity in the United States of America to reduce the incidence of police violence against civilians