LogFAQs > #939949191

legendary_zell posted...

Sure. Since at least the 1920s, there's been a documented pattern of police harassment towards the poor and minorities. This happens in cities all across America and predates the modern media by decades. Before CNN, Buzzfeed, Kotaku, before any of that, MLK specifically listed an end to police brutality and harassment as a requirment for true peace and equality within our society. It was already a well established phenomenon at that time, he'd already marched about it, and police-community relations were already shattered at that point without the influence of the media. There were numerous riots caused by breakdowns of police-community relations before and shortly after MLK's time. The perception that police are agents of oppression has been a fact of life longer than anyone here has been alive and the media has little to do with it.

It stems from the tactics, attitudes, and practices of the police. The ganglike closing of ranks when an officer abuses someone or does something illegal, the mismatch of races between the police and the policed, the fact of police policing neighborhoods they have no stake in, the infiltration of many police forces by white supremacists, apparent imputinity by police even when they do get caught, practices like stop and frisk, daily harassment, militarization of the police over the years, and countless other factors not related to the media all contribute to the fundamental lack of trust in the police as an institution. To say that a phenomenon that's deep and central to the experience of poor and brown people in this country is actually a false perception imposed on them by the media is straight up false. Others are just being exposed to the ideas and realities that black people in this country have always had.

Actually, my question more specifically was who was Emmett Till and why was he important to the conversation, but I'll try to address what you said.

First, yes I am aware that bad shit goes down in police departments everywhere. I'm not oblivious to that. And some cops, but not all cops, get away with far more than they should. The idea is that if we don't give them leeway to take risks in the spur of the moment, they won't take any risks at all. There is also an economic force that puts black people in situations like this because they more often find themselves in situations where police presence is required. Having lived in black neighborhoods myself I've seen some of these situations first hand, thankfully without much incident. But you mention the militarization of the police, which is done in part because of events like this. All those riots like the ones in L.A. and Ferguson have made being a cop that much more hazardous, so that leads to them justifying bigger toys to play with.

As for the media, you have to remember that back in the 60s and 70s, police brutality and harassment was far, far worse than it is now. That's what MLK was trying to address. And even though mass media wasn't a thing in those days, I fully believe that the modern media is consciously trying to invoke memories of those times and make it seem like things are as bad as ever, if not worse. They're not only undermining the progress we have made over many decades, they're trying to reverse it.