Opinions

Counterpoint: What are we really watching it for?

Last Tuesday, a man named Alton Sterling was shot upwards of five times at point blank range after being pinned to the ground by two Baton Rouge officers. The video of the killing was caught by a witness, and was almost immediately circulated around social media platforms and broadcast television.

However, the video being shared on every Facebook wall, Tumblr dash and Twitter feed of Sterling’s brutal treatment and subsequent murder is simply overkill.

Multimedia such as audio recordings, video recordings and photos are an incredibly valuable source of evidence in a world where police officers are not held accountable for their actions. But I have to ask: what do we achieve by watching a video of a black man being shot to death that we couldn’t achieve by reading an article and accessing our basic human empathy?

Now, I’m not here to argue about what took place on Tuesday morning in Baton Rouge, LA. What transpired is another systematic notch on the belt of white supremacy — a black man was slaughtered in a public place by two white officers, and the same thing was happening in 1800s. Except now, instead of lynching — cops have guns.

If you can read the headline: “Black man shot dead at point blank range by police officers” without batting an empathetic lash, then I don’t think the video of the very same man’s death would inspire some sort of remarkable change in your morale.

Alton Sterling did not die to be a martyr.

To say that would not only be romanticizing the fact that his death is not a surprise in a system that does not value black bodies, but it would be heinously disrespectful to Sterling’s son, Cameron, and his son’s mother, Quinyetta McMillon. He did not “die for a cause,” and his video should in no way be ordained as the tool for getting white supremacists to care when black people are murdered.

There is a need for police video surveillance, but we have to understand that this system is no stranger to police officers abusing their power while on video and encountering little to no consequences. This video will not change lives because it’s not the way white supremacists will be swayed — though images are an impactful, profound method of sharing information, it’s important to understand that by further distributing these videos and pushing our peers to watch it, we are desensitizing ourselves in a way that reading an article couldn’t manage.

In the end, what are we really watching it for, anyway?

One Comment

  1. Avatar

    Stop perpetuating an anti police agenda. Opinionated or not, this is such a bogus article.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

Daily 49er newsletter

Instagram