i know your post was directed at roxy, but just to clarify... my rants were aimed at the general media campaign to push the narrative of systemic police brutality and racism towards black people, not saying you shouldn't sympathize with someone if something like this happens, be they black or white. your thread just reminded me of it which is why i posted it here.
basically for me, the question is: do you think there is a deliberate media campaign seeking to amplify every recent incident of police misconduct.. specifically where the alleged victims are black? because with the way the news has been going lately, i don't see how anyone could conclude otherwise, unless it just so happens that police brutality against black people has suddenly spiked out of nowhere. which i very much doubt is the case. i would like to see some statistics regarding that question, either way.
but if it is the case that police brutality hasn't significantly increased.. that instead, the the more and more local incidents are being amplified and sent out to the national stage, then you can only conclude that it's the reporting that has changed, not the police.
and so you might take the stance that before they weren't reporting it enough, and now they're doing the right thing.
or you might think that they are manufacturing a narrative to suit a particular political agenda, that they later intend to use as rhetorical leverage.
but either way let's be honest about what's happening, so we're all on the same page.
and chula you can mock me all you want for "blaming the media" but i'm just pointing out what i think they are doing. i'm not blaming them for this woman's death or saying that the police in question, if they did something wrong, shouldn't be held accountable. what i'm saying is if the media are engaging in a directed campaign to push the narrative of black americans being consistently mistreated by the police... and that narrative is at all exagerrated or out of step with reality... then they are potentially doing more harm than good.
because yea, the media is powerful. what they say matters. it doesn't matter if you are black, white, whatever.. they shape the discourse of the public. when they say obamacare has death panels, it doesn't matter whether it actually does or not.. cause in the minds of millions of americans, for a time at least, obamacare had death panels.
so then if we decide oh cops are out of line we need cameras on cops, lets have a campaign to rally around every possible incident that could lend to this narrative so we can make it happen, you might do some good and get the police depts to put cameras on their cops. in the process of doing so.. you might also convince x amount of susceptible black youth who are watching your campaign that they shouldn't trust the police... which only makes the problem even harder to solve
imo
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