This chapter will examine the biases in the policing and subsequent media coverage in response to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St Louis, in 2014. This shooting has become a landmark case that highlight these biases that can have fatal consequences for young African-Americans. The list of cases of police shootings of African-Americans in controversial circumstances is a long and disturbing one and includes victims such as young Tamir Rice, and 12-year-old child shot by police while playing in the playground by his home, also in 2014. The chapter presents an analysis of issues in criminal justice, policing, the courts, and the media which occurred in this case. The shooting of Michael Brown can also be placed alongside the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 as an example of biases in policing, which can have a fatal outcome for African-Americans in the United States.
TopMethodology
This chapter employs a critical media analysis developed through an evaluation strategy. 'Evaluation strategies' are broad, overarching perspectives on evaluation. The evaluation strategy utilized in this chapter is the qualitative/anthropological model which emphasizes the importance of observation, the need to retain the empirical strengths of the evaluation process, alongside significant aspects of the evaluation process. The chapter also examines the evaluation strategies of both mainstream and alternative media sources in their coverage of the events in Ferguson.
Background
On August 9th, 2014, an unarmed eighteen-year-old youth was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. It is important to note that the youth, Michael Brown, was an African American, while the officer involved in the shooting, was white. In the subsequent days and weeks which followed, crowds of protests would take to the streets of Ferguson to protest about the shooting. The police response to these protests caused further concern for many Americans watching news reports on television and online.
These concerns were heightened by the appearance of militarized armored vehicles and police dressed in military style body armor. For a period of time, the streets of Ferguson began to resemble a besieged city in Iraq or Afghanistan, as the police response took on the appearance of a military occupation. Americans were shocked to see such images in the American heartland. Policing in the United States had seen to reach a disturbing turning point. Another significant aspect of some of the mainstream coverage was the hostile depiction of African Americans in the story, from street protestors to family members and advocates.
We can reflect on the issues that surround the emergence of militarized policing in the United States, in order to explore the issue of race and policing. In addition, the events at Ferguson and other controversial such incidents will be discussed. This methodology will utilize theories of policing, employ a media analysis and develop an issue history to explain the background to problems with policing in African American neighborhoods over many decades, all of which will culminate in the presentation of alternative solutions to problems in community policing nationwide.