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Stop Sharing Viral Photos Of Cops Kneeling With Protesters
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/shannonkeating/cops-kneeling-hugging-protesters-george-floyd-protestsOn Tuesday, in downtown Manhattan, I watched a tense moment unfold between New Yorkers who’d taken to the streets in protest of police brutality and a large group of NYPD officers. Maybe about 20 to 30 protesters, outnumbered, were pushed up against the police line, chanting the names of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. A looser web of onlookers, reporters, and photojournalists pooled around them, ready to bear witness to whatever happened next. “Remember who you are when you take off your uniform!” someone in the crowd yelled at the black officers in the line. The protesters were trying to engage the officers on a more personal level, encouraging them to stand down and and march beside them. When both sides of the line started raising their voices, organizers encouraged white allies to push to the front, and to use their bodies as shields from any potential police violence. In the middle of the fray, one black man who had been pleading with the police to understand his point of view offered a hug.
Seemingly out of nowhere, dozens of cameras started flashing and a large news video camera was hoisted over the heads in the crowd. Members of the media were quick to document what’s become an often-viral hallmark of the past decade of police brutality protests: imagery of white police officers embracing the black people they’ve been deployed to police.
snip
As the protests against police killings of black people continue to unfurl in staggering numbers across the country — and around the world — seemingly well-meaning white allies uncomfortable with the violent imagery of cops clashing with protesters are instead clogging their feeds with counterprogramming: photos of police officers kneeling with protesters or giving them hugs. If only everyone could just stop the “finger pointing,” put aside their differences, and recognize that we are all part of one race — the human race! — then perhaps, the thinking goes, we wouldn’t all be embroiled in yet another national uprising against state-sanctioned violence and bloodshed.
snip
The problem isn’t only one of context. Sharing images of police officers and protesters hugging it out suggests that antiblack racism and police brutality are best addressed with niceness, with one-on-one promises of understanding and care. But protesters aren’t out in the streets because they want individual police officers to be nicer to them. They’re angry that the US spends $100 billion annually on policing, making up anywhere from a third to 60% of entire local budgets — while health, education, housing, and other social services are frequently gutted. They’re angry that in cities like New York, it’s still legal for cops to use chokeholds, which have killed people like Eric Garner in police custody. They’re angry that, for decades, the military and police force have been infiltrated by covert white supremacists. They’re angry about qualified immunity, a legal doctrine which has long shielded officers from liability for using excessive force. They’re angry that police officers across the country are currently suiting up in state-of-the-art body armor and face visors while doctors and nurses on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic have been forced to do life-saving work in trash bags. They’re angry at a society that places more financial and symbolic value in policing than in funding our communities.
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Read the last paragraph.
Seemingly out of nowhere, dozens of cameras started flashing and a large news video camera was hoisted over the heads in the crowd. Members of the media were quick to document what’s become an often-viral hallmark of the past decade of police brutality protests: imagery of white police officers embracing the black people they’ve been deployed to police.
snip
As the protests against police killings of black people continue to unfurl in staggering numbers across the country — and around the world — seemingly well-meaning white allies uncomfortable with the violent imagery of cops clashing with protesters are instead clogging their feeds with counterprogramming: photos of police officers kneeling with protesters or giving them hugs. If only everyone could just stop the “finger pointing,” put aside their differences, and recognize that we are all part of one race — the human race! — then perhaps, the thinking goes, we wouldn’t all be embroiled in yet another national uprising against state-sanctioned violence and bloodshed.
snip
The problem isn’t only one of context. Sharing images of police officers and protesters hugging it out suggests that antiblack racism and police brutality are best addressed with niceness, with one-on-one promises of understanding and care. But protesters aren’t out in the streets because they want individual police officers to be nicer to them. They’re angry that the US spends $100 billion annually on policing, making up anywhere from a third to 60% of entire local budgets — while health, education, housing, and other social services are frequently gutted. They’re angry that in cities like New York, it’s still legal for cops to use chokeholds, which have killed people like Eric Garner in police custody. They’re angry that, for decades, the military and police force have been infiltrated by covert white supremacists. They’re angry about qualified immunity, a legal doctrine which has long shielded officers from liability for using excessive force. They’re angry that police officers across the country are currently suiting up in state-of-the-art body armor and face visors while doctors and nurses on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic have been forced to do life-saving work in trash bags. They’re angry at a society that places more financial and symbolic value in policing than in funding our communities.
Link to tweet
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They are not looking for a hug. They want an end to the systematic racism that is destroying their lives. The systematic racism in the PD, the courts, the police unions, in our government and in their daily lives.
Read the last paragraph. Read it and then read it again.
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