Police and community relations are tattered and could get worst if media continues its bias.
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I told a friend recently that I was going to reach out to news directors and editors of publications and get them to sign onto an agreement promising to be fair and accurate in their coverage of the anti-police violence movement.
My reason for doing this lies in the fact that police and community relations nationwide are tattered and could get worst if the media continues to tell the myth of black anti-police protester versus the white pro-police supporters.
The first problem with the way the media has painted recent events is by labeling the anti-police violence movement as “anti-cop.” The majority of activists you see staging die-ins, marches, town halls and signing the #ICantBreathe protest song don’t not hate police, they hate police corruption; the hate police brutality; they hate the police arbitration process; they hate grand juries that refuse to indict officers whose ambiguous activities warrant a trial; they may even hate the insensitive police union bosses and political pundits who spew racist, inaccurate statistics, but they’re certainly not anti-cop.
The second thing: the anti-police violence movement is not a “black thing,” it’s a f*cking human thing, because everyone … EVERYONE is fed up writing and reading headlines about police officers who can’t control themselves. The job of an officer is not about being powerful enough to use force, it’s about being strong and disciplined enough not to. That message, among others, is what Black, White, Asian, Latino and Jewish people are trying to get across when they’re chanting “I can’t breathe.”
When people demand justice for an unarmed citizen who was killed by police, they’re not demonizing and degrading police officers, they’re asking for due process; they’re requesting that police be held to same rule of law as everyone else.
Moving the needle on police and community relations won’t be easy; it won’t be fast; and it won’t be pretty. It’s going to be hard, long and ugly sometimes, especially when the debating starts. With so many moving pieces in this struggle and with so much uncertainty in the future of law enforcement, at the very least, citizens should be have some trust in knowing that their stories and political priorities won’t be manipulated to create the “us versus them” narrative.
This fight is about justice, not hatred for police; it’s about justice for all and if you’re making anything other than that, than you’re part of the problem. Justice is not positive or negative, it is what it is.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™
“The first problem with the way the media has painted recent events is by labeling the anti-police violence movement as “anti-cop.”…….. It’s hard to think differently when “The protesters were part of Al Sharpton’s “Million Marchers” protest against police violence. The protesters chanted “What do we want?… Dead cops!” as they marched in New York City.” Christopher, I understand what you’re saying but there is no getting around it, this police violence thing has gotten out of hand and has taken on legs of it’s own in other directions. Now, we not only have to deal with the reality of… Read more »
And Christopher, if I don’t get the opportunity again, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, it’s been a pleasure reading your articles and definitely great having a conversation with you.