Just Another Case of Police Brutality?
March 5, 2009Over the last couple of days the footage of Malika Calhoun, 15, being beaten by a Seattle Police Officer has been popping up. Malika was being held in a holding cell after her arrest for joy ridding in a friend’s mother’s car. The video speaks for itself.
While the footage is undoubtedly brutal the incident itself leaves a lot of unanswered question. Such as where is all of the conventional reporting on this?
While bloggers across the country have succeeded in their role as watch dog, the mainstream news outlets are rather conspicuous by their absence. Which raises the question do they not know, or do they not care.
Unfortunately, due to the press’s investigative prowess when it comes to politicians, it is doubtful that they don’t know about this incident. Which means that they just don’t care.
But who is really to blame for that? Stories are “News” if they are interesting or shocking to viewers, watchers and readers. So if the News doesn’t cover an event, does that mean that we, as the consumers of news don’t care?
Well the answer seems to be yes, and no.
The Stolen Lives Project, an organization that was created to keep track of all individuals that have been killed by Police Officers, does their best to keep track of the numbers, but a quick flip through their database sheds some light on our question.
It isn’t that people don’t care, but that it is all to common an occurrence for a community to care about police violence unless in occurs in their community.
News cast and Footage + Interview
