Mitchell Vanoni: Police and Social Media

What is Civic Engagement?

        Online Definitions:

• The focus on work for the common good is central to most of the divisions of APA. (http://www.apa.org/education/undergrad/civic-engagement.aspx)
• Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. (https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ref/college/collegespecial2/coll_aascu_defi.html)

       My Definition: 

• Civic engagement to me means is getting together with a likeminded group of people who all are working to point out problems or actions of a certain topic and figure out what is wrong with it and how can we make it better, overall people trying to make the world a better place.

My Action:

        Social Media is everywhere in today's day and age, everyone has a phone everyone has TVs and everyone has computers. All these things we use are main source of information; we use these things on a daily basis to gather information and also to distribute information to other people. The only problem with this is that not all the information that we get from social media is 100% accurate all the time. I'm sure we've all heard someone say "Oh do you always believe everything you hear on the Internet?!", but it’s true you should not believe everything you hear on social media. The thing with social media is that it likes to grab people’s attention and in order to do that they focus on the worst of the worst stories or things they know will catch people’s attention. For example your scrolling through twitter or Facebook and see a video titled "Horrific Accident at School", now you don't know what school or even if this pertains to you at all but it’s too late your curiosity has been peaked and you’re already reading the article. After reading this you find out that a teacher call a student a little shit and it really wasn't that big of a deal anyway, but that's not the point the point is social media manipulated you in clicking on their news and it ended up not being 100% what you thought you were clicking on. That is just one way on how social media isn't always what it appears or what it is made out to be. 

       The point of this blog is to show you what I feel is how social media paints law enforcement officers in a bad light. Whenever you see anything on social media in regards to law enforcement it’s never good, its either a car chase or it’s a police involved shooting or some good old fashion police misconduct. "These include determining what forms of bias are eligible for special responses; identifying bias motivation; weighing the victim's perception of the event; determining the line between criminal and non-criminal incidents; and adopting consistent standards for verifying ambiguous events" (E.).With all this negative publicity coming in on the police it’s no wonder more and more people now a days are becoming more and more anti law enforcement. More and more people are posting up hashtags like #fuckthepolice or #blueonbluecrime or other hate hashtags like that. What people forget is that there is so much more to law enforcement officers than just the select few that get caught doing something wrong or bad but the social media doesn't get any views or likes for police that are doing their job right by saving someone’s life or by making the community a better place. Now I’m not saying all cops are good and no matter what they do they will always be good in my eyes, no which is not the fact at all. Some law enforcement officers do not follow the vows they took when they got their badge and for those people they deserve to be blasted on social media and reprimanded; but it’s our job as people to remember that just because one law enforcement officer did something wrong doesn't mean every single law enforcement officer is as bad as them. 

       I am a crim major myself and I was attending a seminar for the LAPD once and one of the officers that came up to talk and touched base on this subject and he said that there are more law enforcement officers waking up every day and putting on that uniform and leaving their house and families with the knowledge that they may not come home tonight to their own families, but they still get in that squad car and make sure the world is a little safer for you, their community. Everyday these men and women are putting their lives on the line to help you and what do they have to look forward to when they get on their phones; people screaming fuck the police and saying all cops are pigs who have no love of human life or the own laws they protect every day. That is just wrong these men and women work too hard and put way too much on the line every day to get little to none gratitude or thanks in return. That is why I chose this topic because these men and women deserve a good job or a thank you from people" ("President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing Recommendations: From Print to Action"). It will require moving beyond offices, squad cars, and boundaries to engage in conversations. Leadership must engage in active listening so citizens and officers know there is concern and understanding in order to move forward.". I want to spread this idea to people in my community because hopefully they will agree with me and they'll tell their family and friends and then their family and friends will tell other families and friends. With all this knowledge being passed around before you know it maybe people will see law enforcement officers in a better light and not place all police under one stereotype that all police are bad because they aren't.

Interviews

Kyle Mortensen

- social media is a big deal because it keeps the cops in check because they know they are always going to have a camera on them and that makes for better community policing.

- i feel that people now a days paint police in a bad light for the wrongs of a few but that does not mean that all cops are bad people. 

Cody Eickhoff

- when ever im on Facebook or Instagram i always see a video of a police officer somewhere in the world getting blasted for how he handled a situation usually in a bad way, and when i read the comments all the people are saying bad things about the cop.

- disregard whether the cop was in the right or wrong all this negative feedback spreads and i feel that people start to generalize all police in negative ways. 

Britney Bautista

- it depends its never black and white like the media portrays, the thing is there cant be bad apples in places of power. for example pilots cannot crash a plane and surgeons cant kill people, all life is precious.

- she does believe the police have good intentions they just don't have the best of training. 

Reflection

        Overall while doing this project and going out and meeting new people i had a great time. it took me out of my comfort zone and made me research something that really means a lot to me. social media is everywhere and it is not going anywhere anytime soon so people have to adapt best they can to it, especially law enforcement. the law enforcement community is always growing and always striving to do better and improve old ways of doing things. yes there are officers out there that have done unspeakable things and they have got called out for it and punished but the moral of the story here is that it doesn't mean all police are bad like the one you saw on TV. by me going out and talking to people i feel like i got the word out and hopefully the people i talked to will go talk with their friends and family and tell them the same.  

Sources: 

E., SUSAN. “‘A CROSS‐BURNING IS NOT JUST AN ARSON’: POLICE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF HATE CRIMES IN BALTIMORE COUNTY.” Criminology, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 7 Mar. 2006, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1995.tb01180.x/full.

“President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing Recommendations: From Print to Action.” The United States Department of Justice, COPS Office, 28 July 2015, www.justice.gov/archives/opa/blog/president-s-task-force-21st-century-policing-recommendations-print-action.