Media Reform

On Facebook, there was an article posted approximately two years ago. It was talking about police officers and it used very pointed language. I forgot about it until Facebook informed me about this post I made after reading the article. It is as follows:

I generally try not to speak on topics like this online. But, I read this article and it just irritated me so badly.

In all seriousness, I have many problems with this article. It's not because of Alton Sterling, though he's another addition to a exceedingly large issue. The media spins articles like this so hard. They use specific words to grab you by the stomach: "police killings", "targeting", and others. If you heard police fatalities or any other combination of words meaning the same thing, it doesn't resonate the same. Also, I would love to see a breakdown of police shooting fatalities. Media has listed 500+ so far this year, but does that include people like that Texas mom who murdered her daughters before turning the gun on others as police arrived then shot her once (fatally)? What's the actual break down of this statistic/number? Media spins everything. Also, another issue I have is how they worded how "police officers target black people". I'm not going to completely disregard that because I don't know all officers, but I will say that minorities are the most arrested group. They are often sentenced and represent a disproportionate amount of prisoners in prisons (and jails). Does that mean minorities commit more crimes? Are the crimes of minorities being reported more frequently? Does it stem from income inequality? Are all police officers racists? Do police officers stereotype and sometimes have personal bias? Are police officers only arresting minorities and letting Caucasians get away with everything? Do they sit in their cruisers waiting for a minority to walk by to arrest them? These are questions that stem from articles and word usages like this. So yes, I have a problem with the media. They feed fuel to a fire. A fire that is already burning and growing. Criminal justice reform is needed. Media reform is needed. USA reform is needed. Even though we are known as the United States of America, we are becoming more divided as we go on. We will no longer know equality. We will no longer be United.

I felt like I wanted this post to live on and be cemented on my blog. So, here you go.