In seeing all of these news stories of law enforcement brutality and policy changes
vis-à-vis BLM happening from cities
across the nation up to the White House, it occurs to me that police nationwide are having their "'Me
too' movement" moment: instances of brutality are caught on camera, families and
loved ones speak out about their experiences; arrests, lawsuits, court cases —
different deaths and different families in different cities, televised every day
lately. National news exposure and the combination of BLM and bad actors seems to
have sent this reply: make justice swift and transparent, or your city will burn.
It seems every police department across the country is now under a microscope.
"Me too" was in the news cycle for an extended period, and I suspect this will be too;
both had sensational catalysts — the demises of Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby in
"Me too"; the death of George Floyd and weeks of rioting in BLM.
In both cases, a critical mass was reached before news of action was broadcast. In
recent days, for BLM, news of officer reprimands, firings, and charges seem to be
accelerated, as if extorted under threat of mayhem. Through the media, the whole country
now has an expectation that justice must arrive swiftly and transparently, or police
precincts and local businesses will suffer destruction and communities will be ripped
apart — not necessarily by BLM participants, but by bad actors converting protests
into unrest.
National news exposure and the combination of BLM and bad actors seems to
have sent this reply: make justice swift and transparent, or your city will burn.
It's probably not what BLM wants, but, let's face it — it's the combination of
the two that is actually promoting the change. The cycle: BLM protests peacefully;
police monitor the protest. Bad actors use the protests to damage property; police
engage. Mistakes are made, protesters/opportunists catch it on camera and disseminate
the footage, and the cycle starts anew, with both protesters and police charged by
the events of the previous evening. Rinse, repeat; the whole thing spirals.
Sadly, amicable protests are not change agents. On this side of my television set,
peaceful protests amount to a footnote that beyond inconvenience to traffic, no harm
was done. But protests where shit blows up? Cities start looking at "re-imagining"
their police forces.
Departments are under tremendous scrutiny. The mission of the police department is
to enforce the law. But their officers need to be more than that; they need to be model
citizens, too, with behaviors others should want to emulate. Departments want to be seen
as partners in their communities, staffed with officers from those communities. One guy
with a knee on a neck put a black mark on all uniformed officers. Every time this happens,
all police forces suffer. But when officers respond to calls, they don't ever know what
they're really getting into: they have to be ready for anything. Surely this must affect
them in permanent ways over time. How would I remain a model citizen under conditions
like that over a year? Five years? Twenty? No wonder we're seeing news stories about
police feeling unsupported.
In all of these differences, something is common: media coverage. Media attention is
both enabling the success of BLM and fueling this "'Me too' moment" for police — BLM
has been around for years (think Trayvon Martin in 2013), and the injustices long, long
before that — but today, with the death of George Floyd, the injustices are now
broadcast far and wide.
So, what is the real change agent here?