Having your civil rights violated due to police brutality or police misconduct can be a traumatic and life-altering experience. Police are entrusted with great responsibility to protect society and uphold law and order and while most act in good faith, the unfortunate reality is that there are some police officers who abuse their authority to violate the rights of the people they’re supposed to protect.
If you’ve been abused by the police, you likely want justice, accountability, and protection from unlawful behavior. One of the ways you may accomplish this is by pursuing a civil rights claim against officers and municipalities for any harms you suffered due to their policies and procedures.
Though financial compensation alone can’t undo the damage you may have suffered, it sends a clear message that civil rights violations by police officers are unacceptable.
What Are Police Brutality and Police Misconduct?
In North and South Carolina, the terms police brutality and police misconduct are often used interchangeably but are not exactly the same:
Police brutality generally refers to physical force used against civilians by police in an unnecessary and excessive manner resulting in injury or death.
Examples can include:
- physical coercion during interrogations
- unlawfully shooting a fleeing suspect
- beating or choking suspects who are not resisting arrest
Police misconduct generally refers to broader abuse of police authority beyond physical force that results in harms and injuries to victims.
Examples can include:
- falsely arresting someone the officer knows isn’t suspected of a crime
- stealing property from a suspect
- planting evidence to get someone convicted of a crime they didn’t commit
5 Steps to Take After Suffering Police Brutality or Misconduct
If you’ve been the victim of police brutality or police misconduct in North or South Carolina, here are the first five things you should do:
- Document everything that happened, including:
- the date of the incident
- the time
- your injuries
- officer names and badge numbers
- names and contact information of witnesses
- circumstances leading up to and following the incident in which your civil rights were violated
- Seek medical attention for any injuries you may have sustained due to police brutality. This is critical for your health and your case.
- Speak to any witnesses and collect their statements about the police brutality incident.
- Gather and preserve evidence if you can such as surveillance videos, police bodycam and cruiser dashcam videos, police reports, and any other information relevant to the incident.
- Get clarity on your case and ask an experienced civil rights attorney how much you may be owed. At my firm, there is no cost and no obligation to get a professional opinion on your case. An attorney is your guide through what can be a very confusing and distressing situation.
What Injuries Can Result from Police Brutality and Police Misconduct?
Some of the ways that police brutality or police misconduct can harm you include:
- Physical injuries from police brutality, such as bruises, lacerations, broken bones, psychological and emotional trauma, and loss of consciousness.
- Pain and suffering from the emotional trauma and disruption you may have experienced in your life as a result of the officer’s actions or inaction. Police officers hold significant authority and power in society and being betrayed by one can cause extreme emotional trauma.
- Expensive bills resulting from missing work, getting fired, or being unable to find work due to being falsely detained, arrested, or charged. You may also face significant legal bills as you fight to clear your name.
- Non-economic damages such as reputational harm, public embarrassment, criminal charges in some cases where a (wrongful) arrest is made, and fear of retaliation or additional abuse.
To eliminate barriers to helping you seek justice and accountability for the wrongs you may have suffered at the hands of the police, we’ve created a You-First Policy. As part of this policy, you don’t have to pay anything upfront, any retainer fee, or any hourly fee to hire us. And if we don’t recover compensation for you, you pay no attorney’s fee at all. Guaranteed.2
How Our Civil Rights Team Can Help You
If you’ve been the victim of police brutality or police misconduct in North or South Carolina, a civil rights lawyer can help you by:
- evaluating your case and providing objective advice
- investigating law enforcement for evidence of policies and practices that may have led to the violation of your civil rights
- filing a petition to review any Body-Worn Cameras (BWC), police vehicle dashcams, or other surveillance
- filing a complaint on your behalf in State or Federal court as needed
- reviewing medical examiner reports for officer-involved injuries and deaths
- negotiating possible settlements on your behalf
- representing you in court if needed
Our civil rights team is passionate about fighting for people who’ve had their rights violated and helping them achieve justice and great results.1 We led one of the largest civil rights cases in U.S. history, resolving in a $1.25 billion settlement on behalf of thousands of Black farmers.1,3
