The situation in Ferguson, Missouri has been getting out of hand. These riots started over the police shooting of Michael Brown. The white police officer shot Michael Brown, a black man, who allegedly had his arms up showing surrender when he was shot. This is being used as an example of perceived police racism towards black people in America. These racial tensions are just further extensions of Treyvon Martin and accusations of other black people being mistreated by police.
While I don't doubt that there are certainly racist cops, I do think that a lot of the perceived systemic racism is perpetrated by the media. The main reason for this blog post was my absolute disgust when watching CNN at the gym and seeing horrible race baiting segments suggesting a race war in America. We don't know much about the Brown shooting, and we should be very skeptical about witness testimony because it is often unreliable. Likewise, we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that Brown is completely innocent. It won't surprise me if the police officer is exonerated. Take Treyvon Martin for example. The media painted him as some sort of innocent child. It turns out that he badly beat up Zimmerman before he shot him, yet the media didn't run stories about that fact for months. I doubt a lot people even know about why the police were so quick to presume that Zimmerman acted in self defense.
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| Disinformation is the worst thing for a democracy |
If it turns out that the police officer acted poorly, then I trust that the system will act accordingly. My problem is when the media like CNN jumps to a conclusion and then propagates a false narrative. I believe that duping the public like this is far more dangerous to our country than terrorism, Ebola, or another economic crash. I'm sure CNN is doing this for ratings, but I know myself and others are beginning to trust the media less and less. It's frankly hard for me to believe anything I see or hear about on television anymore.
