Police Misconduct

In the last decade, publicized events of police violence have exploded. The force of people that were meant to serve and protect have become one of the most criticized facets of society. With more and more visibility of misconduct on the news, people have taken up ideological arms against these biased actions. After the 2012 murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and acquitment of vigilante George Zimmerman for the crime, #BlackLivesMatter became a call to action to stop the dehumanized violence perpetrated against blacks. In response to this movement, #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter has been cried out. Why is it that different people hold different views and interpretations on police misconduct? This essay will review literature that

This distinction is important because views on each will vary. Misconduct cannot be generalized and each type must be presented separately. In articles that interview people for their views on the police, these categories are used (Chermak, McGarrell, Gruenewald 2006) in order to gain insight on how different forms of misconduct differ. When interviewed, some ways young people have negative views on the police were: a generalized negative view, a negative interaction described, views of police as crooked, view of police as ineffective, police are not for emergency, and police use harassment/excessive force (Carr, Napolitano, Keating 2007). While black and hispanic respondents structured answers in terms of race, whites did not (Carr, Napolitano, Keating 2007). When youths were asked for their solution was to crime, the results were astounding. They answered that the only way was increased law enforcement (although augmented) (Carr, Napolitano, Keating 2007). This finding was consistent across race and gender. In general, youth seemed to agree that enforcement was necessary, but it needed to be fair and

The more a trial is publicized in media, the more likely people are to think that the officer was guilty (Chermak, McGarrell, Gruenewald 2006). According to literature, the factor of race greatly increases when an incident is covered by media (Chermak, McGarrell, Gruenewald 2006), (Weitzer, Tuch 2004). This makes sense because if an incident is not brought to light, no one will know about it. No one will know there is problem unless mass media makes it a problem, and outrage has become a lot easier in the present day with the popularity of social media. Instead of getting filtered news from local and world stations, news is being relayed through everyday people. Therefore, it is easier to see through bias and find people with the same opinions and views as you. Also, social media has allowed for immediate addressing of an issue. Videos go viral easily and events are clearer when they come from a first hand