May 12, 2016

FBI keeps blaming citizen police action for increasing crime

Injustice

The director of the F.B.I. once again referenced the controversial “Ferguson Effect” Wednesday, saying that he believed “less aggressive policing was driving an alarming spike in murders in many cities.”

This claim, which first appeared as a concept under its official moniker last August in response to rising murder rates that started happening well before Darren Wilson shot unarmed Michael Brown, involves the unfounded belief that the usage of viral videos and monitoring the police as a tactic of reducing misconduct and brutality is somehow “spoofing” police into being less competent in their daily tasks of preventing crime.

James Comey, the F.B.I. director since 2013, has repeatedly brought this claim up throughout the past 18 months as viral videos continue to serve as a window into the inherent biases that would seem to run systemically throughout law enforcement, acting in turn as a catalyst for a nationwide discussion on police reform, institutional racism, and the unequal enforcement of criminal law.

Mr. Comey said that while he could “offer no statistical proof,” he believed after speaking with a number of police officials that a “viral video effect” – the concept of officers wary of confronting suspects for fear of ending up on a video highlighting misconduct – “could well be at the heart” of a spike in violent crime in certain cities.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps we should be asking what is the effect of sending police officers to Israel for special training in law enforcement methods. Apparently, thousands of American police officers go to Israel annually for training, where they learn what? How to beat up on minorities, like the Israeli cops and the military do to Palestinians???