Ferguson hype doesn't live up to reality
- By Mitchell Blatt
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 12, 2015
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Demonstrators, most of whom are students who walked out of their classrooms, protest outside of the City Hall building on March 9, 2015 in Madison, Wisconsin. The protestors were angry about the shooting death of 19-year-old Tony Robinson, who was black, by Madison Police Officer Matt Kenny during a confrontation on March 6. [Xinhua photo] |
It would be helpful to all parties involved if the press and activists would keep a more clear-headed, fact-based approach when assessing police shootings. According to police accounts, Madison police were called after reports of assaults. When Officer Matt Kenny chased Tony Robinson into his apartment and got inside, they say he attacked the officer.
The shooting occurred less than a week ago. It took many weeks for the full story of the Brown shooting to start to be told. Many of the witnesses will only talk to the police, not to the press, so the facts might not be known in their entirety until the investigation is completed.
Jumping to conclusions too quickly results in inaccurate reporting, which breeds distrust of the press and shapes public discourse poorly. It's like the proverb that goes, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
A public conditioned not to believe the exaggerated claims of cases like that of Michael Brown will be more likely not to listen when real cases of injustice are raised.
The excessive media coverage given to a few select shootings committed by police also distorts many people's views of risk. While there were about 1,000 people shot by police in 2014 (including both justifiable and unjustifiable shootings), according to the website KilledByPolice.net, a total of 13,716 people were killed by murder or manslaughter in 2013. The issue of ordinary criminal violence has a much bigger impact than that of police violence, but it gets less press coverage.
Just this past week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, there have been reports of a 23-year-old man shot and killed during an argument, a 50-year-old man stabbed to death, and a 19-year-old woman murdered at a house party. A police officer shot an armed suspect while responding to a convenience store robbery.
After expending so much effort into the Ferguson investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice apparently felt it couldn't walk away empty handed. It released a report on the Ferguson Police Department accusing the department of raising revenue through enforcement of violations, denying the accused fair access to the courts, and implementing the law with a racial bias.
The report stated, for example, that black residents of Ferguson are more likely to be stopped by police than white residents. Yet, when compared with other Missouri cities, Ferguson isn't an outlier. The rate of blacks stopped by the police in Missouri is 59 percent higher than the population. In Ferguson, the rate is 37 percent higher.
The average amount of revenue raised by fines for things like speeding and parking violations is US$80 per person in Ferguson, above average for the state, but not one of the most extreme cases. Next door in Edmundson, the city derives US$600 per person per year.
This could point to state-wide or nationwide problems. Governments are always greedy for more money, and there are widespread reports about ticket fixing. To put so much emphasis on a single police department that doesn't appear to be outside of the norm is a poor use of resources by a justice department that should be concerned with the entire country.
The report also mentioned distrust of the police as a problem. If they want to correct that problem, they should get started by toning down the divisive rhetoric. The media can help by doing a better job reporting.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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