According to our reading, Managing Criminal Justice Organization, abuse of power is defined as

"the prohibitions against public officials using their offices to place their values, desires, needs,
or preferences above those of the public they serve, and over the rules and law they must uphold,
are sometimes broken, leading to abuse in power." These violations include not only personal
material gain, but also such actives as; authoritarianism, coercion, and harassment; arranging or
condoning unjustified arrest; seeking to deny opportunities for reasonable bail; and denial of
liberty by lengthy detention prior to trail (Kania & Davis, 2012).
Police brutality is a good example of abuse of power. Officers that engage in this type of
behavior use their authority unlawfully by harassing and/or physically assaulting citizens
unnecessarily. Take the 2011 incident where 38 year old schizophrenic Kelly Thomas was beaten
to death by police officers. From the video captured by an onlookers cell phone it appeared that
Thomas posed no apparent threat and the officers involved tased him repeatedly and beat him
with flashlights. When I saw the video then the pictures of Thomass face while in the hospital I
thought it was a clear example of abuse of power, nobody should ever be beaten to that extreme.
I was also disgusted that the officers involved were acquitted in the case against them, a
miscarriage of justice in my opinion.