Introduction
Throughout history, media has affected the public’s understanding of certain events and issues. The media can be used to create a specific frame and can be used to alter people’s opinions and beliefs. One of the recent coverage of mainstream media has been news about police brutality and violence. There have been multiple news of police brutality that have been significantly portrayed by the news media in ways that damage the reputation of the police. The challenge with such reporting is that it heightens the public perception about the topic of police abuse, brutality, violence, and excessive use of force. The media has also been biased against law enforcement, and this raises the question of whether police brutality is as bad as it appears in the media. Police brutality is as bad as it appears in the media as shown in the statistics about police violence, the history of misreporting such incidences, and the media reporting only represents a small coverage.
Findings
Data and statistics on police brutality against minority populations, specifically the African Americans, shows that the incidences of police violence are exactly as it is portrayed in the media. Hoekstra & Sloan (2020) studied the data of officers dispatched in over 2 million 911 calls in two cities. The data showed that white officers used forced 60 percent more compared to black officers and the use of a gun was twice as much among the white officers. The data was also surprising when the law enforcement was dispatched into minority backgrounds. White officers were found to be five times more likely to use gun force in black neighborhoods compared to racially mixed neighborhoods. The data also showed that black civilians were thirty to sixty percent more likely to experience the use of force compared to white civilians. The findings show that the incidences of police brutality, excessive use of force, and discrimination against African Americans are quite high. The media has tried to portray that the incidences of police brutality as quite severe and high. The data on the actions of law enforcement officers shows that the media is actually portraying the situation as it is.
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Figure 1 . Use of Force vs. Percentage of Black Residents in Neighborhood
Police brutality has been in operation for many years, and it is only recently that the media has caught up to pace with the cases of such brutality. Black men suspected of any crime have undergone police brutality throughout history. The cases have gained the attention of the media in the recent past due to the availability of social media and mobile video technology. In the past, such incidences of police brutality could go unreported. Many people also found it difficult to believe that the incidences of violence without having proper evidence. According to Clark et al. (2017), the easy availability video technology has been used to gather video evidence of police aggression and assault on civilians quite easily. The presence of social media has made it possible for people to share videos with a wide audience. Police brutality has been going on for several years, and it is only recently that the media has gathered video evidence of the various incidences of such violence. Police brutality has been quite bad for several years, and it is only now that the media accurately portrays the severity of the situation.
The analysis of police brutality by the media and comparing with other facts and evidence also shows that the media only covers a very small percentage of the incidences of police brutality. The use of media coverage has only served to highlight “celebrity cases” that are easy to gain the sympathy of viewers throughout the country. However, beyond the covering of the celebrity cases, there are many other cases of police brutality that go unreported by the media. According to Vanderford (2019), there are approximately 1,000 people killed by the police every year, with Latino and black men being three times more likely to be killed than white men. Some of the cases that have caught the attention of the media regarding police brutality include the death of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and Freddie Gray. Quite recently, the killings of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor were highly publicized by the media leading to nationwide protests. The portrayal of these cases only represents a small fraction of the total number of cases of police brutality. Therefore, the portrayal of police brutality is more severe than it is actually portrayed by the media.
Opposing arguments are based on the fact that police brutality is not as bad as it really appears in the media. One of the reasons is that there are only a few bad cops that can be referred to as bad apples. However, such a statement is wrong when one considers the statistical data dealing with the treatment of African Americans and White officers. Another objection to the argument is that several news stations have been proved to be wrong when reporting some stories. The media can exaggerate some details or present the details falsely. Johnson (2018) observed that the media sometimes engage in the misrepresentation of facts. The author observes that it is difficult to define excessive force and that the media can exaggerate the use of excessive force even in incidences where the police acted normally. While the observations could be true, most of the evidence regarding the use of force by law enforcement is available as video evidence where it is easy to identify whether law enforcement acted with excessive force or not.
Table 1 . Arguments and Data Regarding Police Brutality
| Argument | Data |
| 1. Data and Statistics | White officers are five times more likely to engage in violence compared to black officers in black neighborhoods. |
| 2. History of Reporting | Historical data shows underreporting of violence due to lack of video evidence. |
| 3. Underreporting by the media | About 1,000 people are killed by the police every year. |
| Opposing Argument | Counter-Counter Argument |
| 1. ‘Bad apples’ argument indicates few officers engage in misconduct | Statistics show that most white officers are still more likely to be violent. |
| 2. Excessive and false media reporting | Video evidence presents true evidence that shows the facts as it is. |
Conclusion
Police brutality is as bad as it appears in the media due to the statistics about violence, the history of misreporting such incidences, and the fact that the media still underreports police violence. The analysis of statistics of police brutality showed that white officers were five times more likely to use excessive force compared to black officers. Police brutality has also been quite bad throughout history, and the availability of video evidence and social media has facilitated the gathering and sharing of video evidence. The media still underreports police brutality as a few incidences of brutality get the public attention. Such a perspective could mean that police brutality could actually be worse than it is portrayed by the media.
Recommendation
The analysis of police brutality by the media shows that there is a need for law enforcement to address the issue. One recommendation is that law enforcement should strive to train its officers to reduce the incidences of violence. Law enforcement officers that have been found to take part in misconduct, violence, or excessive force should be dismissed as they pose a danger to the public. There have been instances where the media has misreported or excessively reported some incidences, and there is a need for the media to strive to present information on police brutality as truthful as possible.
References
Clark, M. D., Bland, D., & Livingston, J. A. (2017). Lessons from# McKinney: Social media and the interactive construction of police brutality. The Journal of Social Media in Society , 6 (1), 284-313.
Hoekstra, M., & Sloan, C. (2020). Does race matter for police use of force? Evidence from 911 calls (No. w26774). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w26774
Johnson, S. A. (2018). Police shootings: a review of the literature and the role of media in current racism & misrepresentation of the facts. Forensic Research & Criminology International Journal , 6 (4), 269-278.
Vanderford, J. T. (2019). Wardlow Revisited: How Media Coverage of Police Brutality Makes Empirical Data More Relevant than Ever. U. Pa. J. Const. L. , 22 , 1523.
