How Twitter created progressive discussions of police brutality.

With the modern age of technology, and smartphones, anyone can use their influence to report news. When it comes to injustice, people easily do what they can to give their digital community a better understanding of the issue at hand.

However, images of police brutality on social media sites (most popularly Twitter) are frequently circulated. Social issues such as racism and mistreatment of minorities are topics discussed by Twitter communities at a daily rate. Social conversations surrounding hundreds of videos of the misuse of power from police officers in different countries, allows people to address deep rooted issues that people often ignore in person. It is important to look at police brutality as a whole, to then discover how Twitter has been able to accelerate those conversations.

Now, the evidence on Twitter is overwhelming with people holding out their cell phones as an abusive officer stands by, or engages in an attack. However, it’s important to remember, that the act of a single officer does not represent every police officer, but it does represent a big issue of ignorance in the systems of power.

I do have to warn you, that the examples I have chosen to show you are graphic. If violent images disturb you, please turn away from the following media.

Footage that people have collected, shows officers getting aggressive with people in the streets. Now, the entire argument surrounds the question: how much power does an officer have? How much power should they have?

The past two examples are from the United States, and if the officers misused their power, I’ll let you decide. But, it is undeniable that a discussion needs to be had after seeing evidence such as this. However, it is important to remember that these issues exist beyond American borders.

Despite the bias terminology and tone in the caption, the visual evidence represented in this tweet is something that I take note. It is hard to devalue visual evidence. People only feel obligated to do actions motivated by things they think they know, and there is a sense of knowledge of seeing things.

Now, full content is hard to come by on social media. Sometimes, only half the story is what people see. Nonetheless, people need awareness to bring change, and sometimes civil conversations sparked by a simple post might be the step in the right direction that people need.

But, police brutality is a systematic issue that triggers a lot people to point fingers in an attempt to place blame. In order for this situation to get better, people have to turn to their communities to see where change needs to be forced. No one should feel afraid to leave their homes, or do their jobs.

Identifying the different areas that specific skills of communication can aid in controlling systematic issues can be as easy as asking your neighbor for their opinion. It can also be as complicated as engaging in a direct address to a local officials or police. But first, being able to assess what needs to be done, and what hasn’t been done, is the initial step.

But, this doesn’t come from people not engaging when they see injustice. The importance of cell phone recordings to report findings in this topic is necessary when gauging how often incidents like this occur. People are afraid, and officers are afraid too. Built tension is not going to relieve any pressure. Therefore, officers enforcing body cam surveillance and people having their cell phones are simple steps to corroborate evidence, and are steps that I believe necessary. People have the right to record events if they feel necessary. Especially in current times, with the people who don’t trust the police to have a position of power that they individually own.

This issue will not be resolved soon, it will take time. A deeper understanding of power and methodology in legal and police encounters must be understood through all parts of the government, as well as the public. The only way that this understanding will be able to be developed, it through exposure, and ultimately awareness.

Related posts:

When the FitBit clip-on watch first entered the market in 2008, people were very pleased. After all, in dealing with something as surprisingly difficult as keeping up-to-date with how your body…

I have found myself using accompanist libraries a lot in my Jetpack Compose projects recently and they are really great. One of such is the accompanist permissions. Let us say we want to build a…

Digital wallets are apps or online services that allow you to make transactions electronically. You may access a digital wallet on your phone, laptop or other compatible electronic devices. Your…