Will Seeing Both Sides Of The Issue Help End Police Brutality?
For people on either side of it, police brutality is an issue that only has one side. Supporters of law enforcement maintain police have a job to do, and tragedies are sometimes collateral. On the side of the victims, most visible in movements like Black Lives Matter, the actions of police amount to a fundamental disregard of their victims’ humanity.
Plummer says, is that in the years since 2014, when Garner, Ford, and Crawford lost their lives, there’s been very little change in the conversation and very little progress in the realm of police-community interactions. In 2017, 987 people were killed by the police–24 more than the previous year. “We know there are bad cops out there,” Tennon says. “But by showing all perspectives on the issue, we wanted to have a conversation around: What can we do to change these things?” Understanding law enforcement’s processes, the points at which decisions are made and in response to what governmental or intra-agency pressures, will give community members another lens through which to view the reforms they’re pushing for.