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How do courts determine if the force used by police officers is reasonable and not excessive force?

New York police brutality must be proven based on the facts and circumstances of each particular case. In Graham v Connor, 490 US 386, 396 (1989), the United States Supreme Court held that the question of whether an officer has used excessive force “requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.”  Furthermore, “[t]he ‘reasonableness' of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” Ibid. And “[t]he calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments—in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving—about the amount of force that is necessary for a particular situation.” Id., at 396–397.

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