Police System in Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (Essay Sample)

In Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, there are a ton of problems but the biggest one is the police system. Throughout the book (the last half especially) we see how the police's actions are way too aggressive and inhumane. We see multiple examples of this when Zeitoun is in prison. One example comes on page 233 “The Man disappeared in a Haze and screamed like a Scalded child” (Eggers 233). This is an example of the guards treating people badly because Zeitoun described this man as not fully understanding and when he was asked to do something he didn't do it the first time. The guards failed to see the mental state he was in and proceeded to drag him out of the cage and pepper spray him. Another example of the broken police system comes in the end of the book on page 306 “ Lima was not sure which goods he had seen the 4 men stealing. And he did not see any goods customarily sold by Walgreens in the house on Claiborne. He did not secure the house on Claiborne as a crime scene. No stolen goods were recovered”(Eggers 306). This example shows the broken police system because it shows they never actually did an investigation. All they did was walk in arrest 4 men and think nothing of it with no evidence at all. Overall these 2 examples help clarify the main problems in the book Zeitoun.

After reading Zeitoun it is clear that the problems addressed in this book are still a major factor in society today and there should be way to fix the problems. That is exactly what will be addressed in this paragraph. First on the table is ways in which some of the things that occurred could be prevented, this includes the lack of follow through in the work that the police did when arresting Zeitouna and the others. In order to prevent this from happening there are standards that need to be put in plance, this would include prosecution of the officers that fail to do there job the way they have been trained. This includes punishment for wrongful convictons with no evidence to back that conviction and also the lack of integrity when arresting someone. Lack of integrity could mean many things but in this case it means the way in which the arrest was carried out. In the final pages of the book we learn that the police were sent to the house with no information other than that they where to arrest the individuals and bring them to the national guard, this shows a lack of integrity because with a little bit more investigation and time spent digging into the case it would have been concluded that is was not a serious matter and then the actions following would have been prevented. The next thing to discuss would be the conditions at the prison and the treatment of prisoners. This was a main point of conflict in the book and is definetly something that needed to be addressed. In order for this to change the state and federal government should be responsible for doing mandatory checks within the prison. These checks should consist of an evaluation of the conditions at the prison along with how recent the officers within the prison have recived training, if any of those requirements are not met it would be necessary to do a further investigation that would in turn help with the conditions fo the prison and the treatment of prisoners. Overall the book makes it clear that there are things that need to be changed and these are just a few of the ways in which a change could happen.