The prevalence of social media and the ubiquity of smart
phones with cameras are two emerging trends that are combining to illuminate an
increasingly negative trend: videos of police officers using excessive force on
citizens which, recently, have had fatal consequences. From across the nation, we continue to see
videos of police shooting an unarmed man in the back, asphyxiating a helpless
man on the ground, and knocking a woman out in front of her six-year-old daughter.
So the question must be asked: “Are incidents of police
violence truly on the rise, or are more of these incidents being caught on
video, and then spreading like wild fire on social media platforms?” It has been notoriously difficult to get
reliable figures on incidents of police violence, as police departments are
notoriously loathe to share that information.
So, some interesting new technology is allowing citizens to
create digital maps that show where these violent incidents occur as well as
the prevalence of these incidents by municipality, county, etc. This site: http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2014/10/mapping-police-brutality.html
shows some of the work that is being done.
This site shows the prevalence of botched paramilitary raids
by police who use tanks and heavy weaponry to confront and terrorize unarmed
citizens: http://www.cato.org/raidmap
Organizations such as Hands Up United http://maps.handsupunited.org/ are
trying to raise public awareness about police brutality, and are skilled in
using social media to inform the public and to recruit supporters. Although some of the pictures and videos they
distribute are quite graphic, they do represent the truth: American citizens
are being abused, beaten and slain by police officers who have chosen to
forsake their vows of Protecting and Serving.
Are incidents of police violence truly on the rise, or are more of these incidents being caught on video, dripfollowers
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