Opinions

Broadcasts by mainstream media create war on police

American films have proven throughout history that they influence how society perceives a topic. The same applies for mainstream broadcast news, which sometimes distorts the line between what is a façade and what is reality.

The most recent fabrication from the media-hype mill claims that there is a not-so-silent war against law enforcement across the country by disgruntled perpetrators. The most recent Rasmussen poll taken in September indicates that 58 percent of Americans believe that there is a war with police.

The extensive coverage on shootings committed against and by law enforcement officers has allowed the media to act as a catalyst, promoting the notion that citizens are waging a de facto war, primarily African Americans.

Recent high-profile coverage of murders committed against unarmed African Americans by law enforcement, which have constantly resulted in acquittals of the accused officers, has created a capricious relationship between the police and the public.

Spectators of the media, who have bought in to this hype of conspiracy do not realize that if you do a little google searching, shootings committed against officers of the law have been covered in the media for decades.

The only difference in the coverage is the frequency in which these stories are framed and broadcasted.

Within the past decade, murders committed against police officers have been on a decline, but the increase in broadcasting these murders paints a blurry picture if you do not look at the numbers.

As of 2014, 51 police officers were “feloniously” killed while on duty, according to the 2014 FBI Uniform Crime Report. This number was an 89 percent increase from 2013, when 27 police officers were killed on duty.

The FBI report also states that over the past decade, the number of police officers murdered has risen as high as 72 in 2011 and as low as 27 in 2013. Over the course of 35 years, the average number of police officers murdered a year is 64. These numbers prove that it is not necessary to call these isolated incidents of violence acts of war.

A previous point in time where law enforcement was faced with immense violence was during the creation of the war on drugs in the 1980’s, but the violent altercations police officers faced was not the story of interest.

The crack epidemic that originated in South Central Los Angeles, which led to the creation of the war on drugs, caused a significant amount of crime specifically in areas of poverty and gang activity.

Subsequently, officers were put in harm’s way of combating drug dealers, who were known to be heavily armed. But instead of reporting on the amount of police officers shot, news stories mainly consisted of drug raids and black on black homicide, creating the stigma that communities of African Americans are torn with gang violence and drugs.

Fast forward to the 1990’s, and you have the Rodney King trial, the high-profile case where Los Angeles Police Department officers severely beat and tasered an African American. This was the first time America got a glimpse of the harsh practices of police officers, not only in L.A., but across America since the civil rights movement.

After the King trial, police departments across the country were put under a microscope. Since then, the media has made it almost a priority to make news out of police misconduct. So it is just as easy for an individual to believe there is a war on American citizens by police officers and vice versa, because of the high consistency of coverage.

What media outlets such as Fox News, who stated this past September that there is a war on police, need to do is focus on covering news that mends the relationship between law enforcement and the public, rather than focus on creating a divided society. People watching these broadcast must apply their critical thinking skills to what they see on television. It is because of this lack of thinking that the media is able to put a spin on any story of public interest.

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