7 ms·
I think the meta-discussion about how accurate or relevant media portrayal of police brutality is, and how it influences peoples' perceptions is an important on
by jberryman 11y ago
I think the meta-discussion about how accurate or relevant media portrayal of police brutality is, and how it influences peoples' perceptions is an important one. However I think your comment betrays a lot of privilege (or I should say: the way in which your comment resonates with white upper-middle class americans here betrays privilege). If you're black, regardless of your background, you've likely been sat down by your parent and "given the talk" about how to behave around police; about how not to get killed. There's a real culture of fear (which is grounded in reality, in real deaths and real experiences, in real numbers) which is I think more significant than whether police brutality is more or less prevalent than stroke or getting struck by lightning. It's not something I've ever had to deal with.
My other concern is that you haven't bothered to research statistics on police brutality and harassment, yet you seem to express doubt that the numbers are significant. In your hypothetical "most people can go through their lives and never experience police behaving badly", yet almost no Black American will tell you this.
- sokoloff 11y agoI'm white upper-middle class, and I got multiple "talks" of how to interact with police, from my family, from cop friends of mine or cop dads of my friends, and from a book I bought on the topic. My kids will get the same from me and my brother (who's LEO). It's not (and shouldn't be) just a black youth thing.
- cryoshon 11y agoI am white and got this talk. It was in the early 2000s, well before the current awareness of widespread police abuse of citizens. The moral of the story: people have known the police are rotten for a very long time, but haven't discussed it until now.