If you have suffered due police brutality, or otherwise had your civil rights violated, you don’t have to suffer alone. Excessive force and police misconduct can take many different forms, and you owe it to yourself to fight for your rights. Police brutality, jail abuse and other abuses of power are especially shocking, because the police are sworn to protect your rights and to uphold the Constitution. An excessive force attorney can help you to identify and protect your rights.

Defending your civil rights
By defending your civil rights, you’re protecting not only your individual rights but the Constitution that defends these rights. You may be able to sue the departments and individual officers who violated your rights and receive compensation. There are many kinds of civil rights violations and an experienced civil rights lawyer will be able to help you understand your rights and how to defend them.

Seeking redress under Section 1983
Under Section 1983 of Title 42 of the U.S. Code, anyone whose civil rights have been violated is able to sue those responsible for the violation, if they were acting while under state authority. It provides that “Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.”

Types of civil rights violations
Civil rights attorneys and excessive force attorneys can advise you if your civil rights have been violated. There are many types of civil rights violations, including the following:

• False Arrest
  To make an arrest, a police officer needs a probable cause or a warrant. An arrest without either a warrant or the belief that the person being arrested has committed a crime is a false arrest.

• False Imprisonment
  Unlawful confinement by police is false imprisonment. False imprisonment happens when an individual isn’t confined by police unlawfully, whether in a car, a jail or even the person’s own home.

• Malicious Prosecution
  Depriving an individual of their liberty, which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, is malicious prosecution. When a police officer has no probable varies but continues criminal proceedings, that is malicious prosecution.

• Excessive Force
  Excessive or unreasonable force is that used beyond a reasonable amount needed in dealing with criminals, or suspected criminals.

• Failure to Intervene
  A police officer who witnesses a civil rights violation but does nothing is liable for failing to intervene and can be sued by the victim.

If you or anyone you know have suffered any of the above forms of abuse or deliberate indifference to the infringement of your civil rights, an excessive force attorney may be able to help you to sue those responsible.