Controversial Issues in Entertainment Paper
Pamela Nealey
Com/225
The controversial issue I am reporting in the media is the violent behavior of our law enforcement. This is what the media is suggesting but is it violent behavior, protecting themselves , or could it be lack of training? As a Mother of a young black male, I have decided to look into each situation before I turn to fear for my son’s life. In addition, discrimination could also be a factor with this controversial issue but I believe again, each situation is different.
In the past, media shared the news, now they give opinions and tell the public what they think. The nature of this controversy is different media reporters and media outlets with different opinions. Let the facts tell us what is happening. If the media reported the news with facts and not their opinion on issues, their assumptions of the family members' feelings, giving their opinion on who is right or wrong, the issues might be looked at in a different way.
As an example, Ms Desmon-Harris reported in The Root, June 8, “Beyond Trayvon: Black and Unarmed. As the trial unfolds, remember that it's nothing new for a black man without a weapon to be killed.” (p.) The Root reviews incidents in which black men and boys without weapons lost their lives to law enforcement officers or others who decided that they were dangerous enough to die. This leads the public to believe that cases involving the police, officers just decided to kill black men and boys who were not criminals or showing violent behavior. However, if we analyze situations without bias, we find that this is not always the case. Some officers may have feared for their lives and reacted. Does this make it right? Of course not, we need to search the facts of each case before we can past this judgement.
The Root.com also compared two incidents Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond, both men were unarmed and shot by officers. Mr. Diallo had no criminal record. Again, this statement seemed to help the public to pass judgement. “ But the incident made many wonder whether the recent acquittal of the officers in the Amadou Diallo case sent a signal that police had a license to kill without consequence.” (Desmond-Harris, 2013)
The New York Times had a case in New York about the shooting death of Patrick Dorismond, the Mayor asked readers not to pass judgement, but followed up by claiming the dead man was a violent person's woes behavior pattern might have been the cause of his death. The mayor ended by stating “he was less than an altar boy”. The media then quoted the mayor and indicated that this statement degraded Mr. Dorismond (NYTimes, 2000).
Consequently, when the media reported this statement by the mayor and followed by announcing the Mayor had authorized Howard Safir, the police commissioner to release Dorismond’s arrest record. The media indicated that this appeared to be a cover up by the mayor and his officials to justify the shooting. The problem with the media is how they overtly set up the news to gain hype and instigate actions from the public that might not have occurred if only the facts and not their opinion was printed.
No one denies that the police aggression has increased, but instead of the media hyping on the aggression by the police department and inciting public outrage, if opinions are to be made by the media, why not suggest ways that government can find to root out racism, train officers in handling potential aggressive situations by a suspect and shooting to stop rather than to kill. Furthermore, reckless statements by officials should be reported by not hyped so the public becomes enraged because these places more danger when group anger persists (NYTimes, 2000).
The information below is from CNN.com where the press reported a young man killed by law enforcement. I think that we have to see both sides for this type of issue. Law Enforcement Officers are not Supermen with
