RACE, MEDIA, AND POLICE PRACTICES: HOW THE MEDIA INFLUENCES POLICE INTERACTIONS WITH BLACK AMERICANS

Abstract

The spring of 2020 saw mass protests all across the country against the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. They demanded justice and they demanded change. How can there be positive, permanent change to policing, which, since its implementation, has targeted Black communities? This paper will talk about one of those changes: the abolition of all police forces. First, the paper will discuss the media and how it is used to perpetuate negative stereotypes about Black people. It will go over three prominent Black stereotypes; the Mandingo, the Sapphire, and the Savage. After that, it will discuss how to use popular culture to change how Black people are perceived in society. Next, it will go over news media and how that is an avenue for negative Black stereotypes. Then it will go over how to dispel those stereotypes through different journalistic techniques. Second, the paper will talk about stop and frisk, or Terry stops. It will define what stop and frisks are and when the police are allowed to stop and frisk. It will then talk about the issues involved with the practice and then discuss different reforms, such as elimination, that can alleviate the issues involved with stop and frisk. Next, the paper will explain about what a chokehold is. There are two different types of chokeholds, the carotid restraint and a chokehold. Then the paper will go through a case and discuss the implications of having chokeholds in police practices. Next, it will go through all of the different reforms, such as defunding, training, and abolition, to fix the issues brought on by how chokeholds are being implemented today. Next, the paper will discuss the three automobile exceptions: stop and frisk, search incident to an arrest, and the automobile exception. This section will discuss when the police can order someone out of their car, when they can search the car, and why they can search it. The paper will then discuss the implications of allowing police discretion to choose which cars to search and discuss the racial disparities in the stops and searches. Next, the paper will discuss reforms that can be made to alleviate the issues involved with the automobile exceptions. Lastly, what will happen to society if there is no police? The paper will go over the possibilities of funding and programs that can be implemented in the place of the police. It will discuss the debate over what will be done to combat dangerous crime.