By Adrion Bell
Recently, local and national news reports and social media have shown violent attacks pitting police against alleged violators. Unfortunately, many of these encounters resulted in the violators’ death. Police chiefs and sheriffs have commented on the shootings often to say that it is “under investigation” and therefore they speak with limited information.
Sheriffs are most often elected, and police chiefs are appointed by elected officials so often their comments are tailored so they don’t offend and risk re-elections. Their subordinate officers, unless authorized, dare not speak to media about officer involved shootings at the risk of losing their jobs. The officers that are authorized to speak to the media (usually public information officers) use their journalism savvy to report the story often in the best interest of everyone involved, including even the victim’s family. Then there is social media and citizen journalism that frames police encounters in a variety of ways, drawing usually negative public reactions.
This blog will shine a light on police encounters and the effects of associated traditional and social media reports and maybe even say a few things that will be productive though slightly politically incorrect for a sitting sheriff or chief to say.
Past and Present Look at Police Brutality and Shootings
First, let’s set a foundation. Are there a few bad, incompetent police officers patrolling our streets? Absolutely, without question there are. By percentages, are there any more bad police officers than bad dentist, heart surgeons, electricians, or auto mechanics? I would say there are not. The difference, I would argue is that we don’t have video footage of the heart surgeon whose negligence lost a patient.
So how did police brutality come to its current light? Why are police shootings public scrutiny with audiences asking why?
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| LAPD officers beat Rodney King |
One of the most popular officer/citizen encounters was the March 1991 beating of Rodney King by four L.A. police officers. The ASP baton and taser abuse was caught on video by a resident George Holliday and sent to a Los Angeles television station, KTLA. Notice, I called it abuse because from Holliday’s video and the testimony of the officers, that is what it was – abuse. Yet, officers Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Rolando Solano convinced the L.A. jury who acquitted them that it was justified. The verdict set off a six-day riot that resulted in 63 deaths and 2,373 injuries. The officers were later tried in a federal court and Koon and Powell were found guilty of charges that sent them to prison for 30 months. In 1991, social media wasn't prevalent but this video helped set the foundation for the use of social media during police encounters.
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| Eric Garner is taken down and choked by NYPD |
Similar videos of gross police misconduct have aired thanks to citizen journalists and videographers. In July 2014 a video went viral showing New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo using a chokehold on Eric Garner that, in combination with police piling on his prone body to compress his chest, resulted in his death. Garner can be heard saying 11 times on the video, ‘I can’t breathe.”
A July 2016 Facebook Live video captured the shooting of 32-year-old Philando Castile by Jeronimo Yanez, a Minnesota police officer who thought Castile was reaching for a gun. Yanez was tried but acquitted of charges that included second-degree manslaughter.
Police shootings even hit college campuses. In September 2017, a cellphone video captured Georgia Tech police shooting a 21-year old student, Scott Schultz as he approached officers with a knife that he refused to drop.
Social Media’s Impact
The cases listed here represent a small number of incidents, whether justified or not, that are placed on social media It shows that social media is relevant and as we see, it has the ability to change a nation. Each case has several commonalities, one being that it draws public scrutiny, protest and sometimes violence. Are social media and its citizen journalists the culprits that paint a negative, unfair picture of law enforcement or the redeemers responsible for exposing a problem that is set to plague America?
A review of the numbers shows that unjustified deadly police encounters are in the minority though traditional and social media would have us think the opposite. According to The Washington Post database, there were 990 fatal police encounters in 2015 and 962 fatal police encounters in 2016. Randomly choosing the 2015 Washington Post database, we discover that 732 of that year’s shootings were the result of an attack in progress. Though we don’t have the final investigation to make a definite determination, it appears that a majority of the shootings were justified in spite of social media’s depiction of a nation with a police excessive-force epidemic.
The Washington Post study also revealed something that many could use to diffuse organizations such as Black Lives Matter. The study shows that 258 black people were killed, 497 white and 172 were Hispanic. Men made up more than 90 percent of the shooting victims. Though this appears to dispel the statement that police are killing black people in disproportionate numbers, it does not. I will elaborate more on this figure in my conclusion.
President Barack Obama"Too often law enforcement gets scapegoated for broader failures of our society"
What these figures will show us is the power of citizen journalism and social media which has some thinking that police brutality is rampant. In 2015, President Obama made an interesting statement to this point addressing the International Association of Chiefs of Police. He said, “Too often law enforcement gets scapegoated for broader failures of our society.” The president may be correct yet, even he responded to the concerns of Black Lives Matter and created The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The Task Force addressed several issues such as the need for more research on police shootings, civilians' attitudes toward the police, and a demand for the removal of policies that reward police who produce more arrests and convictions.
Perceptions about police activity remain negative whether fueled by traditional or social media. A recent Arizona State University study revealed the importance of media framing on police brutality news stories. Not surprising, the study found that the way a story is reported has a correlation to the public’s response. The study used the arrest of Ersula Ore, an ASU African American professor, after a violent encounter with Stewart Ferrin, a white campus police officer. Ore was stopped for jaywalking and asked to produce an ID. When she didn’t, the situation escalated and Ferrin ended up slamming her to the ground.
The study, Race and Police Brutality: The Importance of Media Framing, surveyed more than 200 students between ages 18 and 64. The group was divided and given a different version of this news story and the same dash-cam video that showed the encounter. One group was given a Control Frame which was a neutral report of the incident. The remaining frames and descriptions were:
Law and order frame (n = 57)
“Good evening. An arrest of an ASU professor is creating quite a stir. In a dangerous
construction zone near campus, a police officer enforcing a no-jaywalking zone was forced into an altercation with a professor who refused to cooperate. The situation quickly escalated, and the officers worked to create a safe environment for bystanders, while dealing with the professor’s violent outburst. The police officer involved in the incident has been cleared of any wrongdoing while the professor has been sentenced for resisting arrest. Take a look at the video footage.”
Police brutality frame (n = 59)
“Good evening. An arrest of an ASU professor is creating quite a stir. The professor was
crossing the street to avoid construction when a police officer stopped her for jaywalking. When the professor questioned the police officer, the situation quickly escalated with the police officer slamming the professor to the ground in order to handcuff her. In the ensuing struggle, the professor’s skirt was hiked up, leaving her exposed and vulnerable. The professor is pressing charges against the police officer for using excessive force. Take a look at the video footage.”
Race frame (n = 53)
“Good evening. An arrest of an ASU professor is creating quite a stir. After an evening class,
an African American professor, along with several of her Anglo students were walking by a construction zone near campus. The African American professor was the only person who was stopped by an Anglo police officer for jaywalking. The professor was asked to show her identification and when she questioned the police officer, an altercation erupted, leading to her arrest. The FBI is currently investigating the arrest for civil rights violations. Take a look at the video footage.”
As shown in the figure below support for the officer and professor depends on how the story is told. I estimate that the race category would have shown more drastic results had to study included more than its 3.6 percent black student participation.
Conclusion - So What Should We Do?
The first thing we must do is realize the power of social and traditional media and its ability to shape public opinion. Dig a little deeper into the stories you read before reacting. Remember the figure mentioned above that 258 black people were killed versus the 497 white people killed in the same year? On the surface, some might say this kills the race debate; however, when you look at the fact that black people only make up 13 percent of the population and whites comprise 60.4 percent, the impact of the information changes. According to a recent L.A Times report, black men are 2.5 times more likely to die in a police encounter than white men.
Secondly, we must realize that cops are people too and therefore not infallible. They have bad days, family problems, nagging bosses and yes some of them are incompetent. Yet for the five minutes that you encounter them, they have the authority and whether good or bad, right or wrong, you cannot win at that moment. Just as we prepare for encounters with medical professionals who have our lives in their hands, so must we be prepared for police encounters because they temporarily have our lives in their hands. So, obey their lawful orders such as, “let me see your hands” and live to fight them legally and even in the media. If they are wrong, sue the hell out of them.
Next, we must advocate for tougher training regiments, verbal de-escalation training, and non-lethal equipment alternatives. For example, the Georgia Tech police don’t carry TASERS. Why? Yes, TASERS are expensive but so are lives. Currently, police are taught that when their gun is pulled, this means DEADLY FORCE. Most police policies say officers are to shoot to stop the threat. This is political correctness to prevent from saying it is policy to kill; however, their training says shoot to kill as head and center-body shots will do. No, they aren’t trained to shoot you in the leg or shoot the gun out of your hand. That works on television; therefore we must provide alternatives to pulling that gun.
Finally, we must advocate for better wages for our officers so that you attract better candidates and retain good officers.We must thank the good officers that, despite being slammed in social and traditional media, they dawn the uniforms and respond to our needs. I was once one of those officers and I can attest to the feeling that the society is against you because of the negative exposure generated by a few that definitely don't represent the majority.
