As media consumers in the 21st century, it is important to look at the value of user generated content and the role we have as media makers. In regards to this content, one area in specific that has been captured and distributed nationally were uncivil and unjust violations against African Americans in the United States. Through social media interaction and cellphone video footage we have been able to capture these key moments that will forever shape society. The role of the citizen journalist has increased and proven critical in equipping the world with news in its purest form. The recent killings of African American males such as Michael Brown and Eric Garner have created a worldwide temperament that police officer interaction will unequivocally lead to violence. In order to analyze why theses event are occurring more often than not, we have to examine the synergy between citizens and police officers and what transpires leading up these unfortunate incidents.
According to DailyKos.com author Frank Vyan Walton poses the question, “How often are unarmed black men shot down by police?” Through the FBI Uniform Crime Report (a database of recorded statistical facts of police/citizen interaction whether violent/nonviolent) we are able to analyze if these decade long occurrences are as likely to happen to a white individual as a black individual. The charts break down incidents in two categories: “Justified Homicides” by police and citizens verses “Unjustified”. According to the report, from 2007 to 2012 law enforcement killings are more than double that of any citizen. In 2012 of the combined 739 “Justified killings” from citizen and police 313 were African American. “44% of them or 136, were unarmed. 27% of them (83) were claimed by law enforcement to have a gun at the time of the shooting, but that could not be later confirmed or the "gun" was in fact, a toy or other non-lethal object. 20% of them (62) were confirmed to have been armed with a gun, knife or cutting tool.” (Operation Ghetto Storm)
According to Police Personality: Fact or Fiction written by Professor of Sociology Robert W. Balch, he analyzes police behavior based on their role in keeping social order. According to Colin MacIness a cop’s suspicion is a manifestation of deep-seated political and emotional conservatism. “ A true coppers dominant characteristic if the truth be known, is neither those daring nor vicious qualities that are sometimes attributed to him by friend or enemy, but an ingrained conservatism an almost desperate love of the conventional. It is untidiness, disorder, unusual that a copper disapproves of most of all far more: even than of crime, which is merely a professional matter. Hence his profound dislike of people loitering in the streets, dressing extravagantly, speaking with exotic accents, being strange, weak, eccentric, or simply any rare minority---- of their doing, in fact, anything that cannot be safely predicted.” (MacIness 106) Balch states that police have no faith in their fellow man, and most are firmly convinced that only the police stand between a tenuous social order and utter chaos.
In order to shed light on these political and social disparities against African Americans we as citizens have to understand we are key mediators in the ongoing struggle and it is up to us to define how to solve these issues.The vehicle that media and technology has provided will allow us as media makers to shift our perspective from a neutral standpoint and take social action regarding unjust and unequal treatment by law enforcement. As witnesses it is crucial that we use these mediums to capture and distribute coverage of issues we deemed as a violation of basic human rights.
Evan LeBlanc is a Rutgers-Newark Journalism student and he has taken on the task as an inner city resident to spark interest in the issues regarding treatment of citizens by law enforcement. He argues the issues of police brutality have transcended to the forefront of news coverage, and it is his duty as a potential journalist to inform and share the truth. The goal of his analyzation is to state the facts and not speculate. This is important that project lives on the cloud. His first step to elevate this project is the official Rutgers-Newark blog. Next will be Twitter. The hashtags include #NYPD, #ERICGARNER, AND #MICHAELBROWN. Law Enforcement Personality: Social Order or Prejudice lives here now:
http://nwkjournalism.rutgers.edu/leblanc/files/2014/12/Law-Enforcement-Personality-Social-Order-or-Predjudice.pdf
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