By R.J. CARILLO and ROMAN WHITE
In the 2015, Republican debate, Fox News anchor Megan Kelly squeezed in one last question for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker before the commercial break.
“Many in the black lives matter movement and beyond believe that overly aggressive police officers targeting young African-Americans is the civil rights issue of our time,” said Kelly. “Do you agree? If so, how do you plan to address it? If not, why not?”
Walker did not answer the question and instead spoke about proper training for police officers. There were no rebuttals from other candidates. Black Twitter took to the situation with outrage, tweeting hashtags such as “#WhereWasWalkersAnswer” and “#DoBlackLivesMatter.”
A war has been brewing between the two groups recently. Police have been shooting unarmed black men and, in retaliation, people are killing innocent police officers.
Twitter has become big way for people to respond to civil rights issues with popular hashtags such as #IfTheyGunnedMeDown where Black Twitter did a side by side picture of a well-groomed sharply dressed photo of themselves next to a more casual possibly stereo-typical photo of themselves. The purpose of the hashtag is to express the mainstream media’s poor choice in photos that often portrayed a certain thug image of victims to violence, observers say. Essentially, social media started a war against the mainstream media.
“Every time I look on Facebook or on TV, I see another video dealing with and African American and police brutality,” said Meghan Trewhella, a sophomore at Ramapo College. “It’s really sad to see all these people being singled out by police due to their skin color.”
But Timothy VanDeursen, a junior at Ramapo College and a member of the Whitehouse Rescue Squad in Whitehouse Station, N.J., said that neither sources are helping the issue. “Both forms of media are perpetuating the wrong image of law enforcement,” he said. ‘They only show the negative things they have done and totally disregard all the positive they do. It’s basically putting a target on their back.”
According to FBI Statistics, police officers that have been purposely killed in the line of duty has jumped 90 percent in 2014; 51 deaths from 27 in 2013.
In the same span of time, over 1,083 African American males were shot, according to Vice News.
Since last year, on duty deaths have risen 10 percent from this time last year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Also in 2014, police deaths were the highest since 2010. With all the deaths that have been occurring lately, 2015 could ultimately top last year.
Police officers should not have to worry about whether making the right call will affect their job or even get them killed, some observers African Americans should not have to be on their guard about being hurt by the people that should be protecting them.
Not only is social media affecting the issue of police versus civilians, but mainstream media is fueling the fire as well. Since the beginning of the Ferguson riots, the media portray police officers in a negative light and that they are villains as opposed to protecting and serving the community.
According to an article posted to USNews.com, between the dates of Aug. 22 and Sept. 2, 10 police officers were gunned down in the line of duty. One officer in Houston who was killed in this spree was shot while filling his car with gas. Another in Las Vegas was attacked in an “ambush style” attack while sitting at a traffic light.
The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on Twitter brings users together who have the same beliefs. The user @TrueBlackNews tweeted that “1 in 3 black men go to jail. This is madness. #BlackLivesMatter.” @Lebop tweeted “All lives matter, hence we need to ensure that black [peoples] lives hold as much value of the other races #BlackLivesMatter.”
When Cincinnati resident Samuel Dubose was shot in the head by a police officer during a traffic stop, Dubose was unarmed but the officer claimed Dubose tried to run him down in his vehicle. Social media took to the issue, furious that a police officer had taken the life of another African American Male.
Fox News covered the story briefly before getting to their main story of the dentist, Walter Palmer, who killed Cecil the Lion on a vacation in Africa. In turn, when the two NYPD officers were killed, Fox News covered everything from the funeral to the NYPD response to the Mayor’s comments. “It’s hard to care about cops being killed when they’re killing us everyday,” said Emma Maurice an active social media activist. “We’ve (African-Americans) been bullied by police for years so you can’t expect us to just take it forever,” said Maurice.
Even though this issue has been prevalent for a substantial amount of time, both mainstream media and social media have not helped in the aide of stopping the issue. They only show what people want to see, and that is videos or pictures of each side doing something wrong. The war will never end unless they both start showing the good both sides do.
“Nothing will change unless the media changes their ways. Both sides have their problems, but as a nation, we must stand together to overcome this issue,” VanDeursen said.
Related links:
http://www.nleomf.org/facts/officer-fatalities-data/
http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/09/04/mainstream-media-call-out-conservative-outlets/205380
http://thereelnetwork.net/black-lives-matter-just-a-hate-campaign/
I learned from the story that people used the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown to “express the mainstream media’s poor choice in photos that often portrayed a certain thug image of victims to violence.”
I would of liked to see more information about regarding cops being killed and what they plan to do to prevent it in the future. It seemed like there was more information about people being killed by cops.
Great story, I liked that the story included quotes from both ends of the issue but maybe a quote from an actual police officer.