Conservative Anger and Police Misconduct: Exploring Conservative Discussion of Police on Social Media

Abstract

ABSTRACT This exploratory study applies thematic analysis to posts made in a popular conservative subreddit on the social media platform Reddit to understand how conservatives discuss police with one another in the context of two ongoing American tragedies—acts of race-based police brutality and mass shootings—in which police seem, at face value, to play very different roles as victimizers and first responders respectively. The study finds that the roles of police are discussed very differently in the online community studied. Within the context of race-based police brutality, popular posts tend to criticize liberals rather than police, and funding police is associated with better crime control. In contrast, posters highlight police inaction during mass shootings—particularly the shooting in Uvalde, Texas—as a form of misconduct and issue calls for accountability. These results suggest that the conservative community studied views defending members of the public as an important obligation of law enforcement, expects that providing the police with resources will enable them to better carry out this obligation, and wants police who fail in doing so held to account.