Police Brutality In The Media Essay

With the introduction of social media, the news is starting to travel faster. Events can start trending within seconds. Through the tag #blacklivesmatter, started raising awareness in social media. The tag went viral after the murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of police officers, thus starting the conversation of police brutality. The police brutality thus far had been without warrant. How does the media’s portrayal of police brutality sway our minds? If we were to look at the way media broadcasts the police brutality, in the newspapers and news programming, they are profiling minorities negatively. Though the news is used to help bring awareness to these situations, they do not always look at the sides of what happened

These officers use brutal force without thinking about those they are hurting and want to put the blame on those victims. They said the victims hurt themselves so the police would not have to take the blame and the criticism. Coates’ view in the beginning of the chapter looks at the fear minorities have when they have been pulled over by police. When he was given back his license the officer never informed him, why he pulled him over. Thus, adding more fear to the situation of being pulled over by the color of their skin and not because they have done something wrong. My belief is that networks and newspapers do sway the public’s opinion of how minorities are represented because of the media using the officer’s story without considering the other party’s side of

The findings also revealed that race and experience within criminal justice system were significant predictors of attitudes toward police misconduct. White respondents were more likely to report that police misconduct was rare, whereas respondents that had been charged or arrested believed that police misconduct was common. In addition, male respondents, higher educated respondents, and respondents concerned about property crime were more likely to perceive lower levels of police misconduct. Conversely, respondents who reported that there were serious crime problems within their neighborhood were more likely to believe that police misconduct was plentiful. (Dowler