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Role of media in social movements
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In 2014, Ferguson, Missouri, a relatively small town, in comparison to Missouri’s much more populated St. Louis and Jefferson City, had undergone an uneasy transformation into a center of chaos. On August 9, 2014, an unarmed 18-year-old black man, Michael Brown, was fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Almost immediately after news of this devastating police shooting had spread, citizens of Ferguson began organizing protests. When the protests began, they quickly became violent and had soon escalated into an unruly situation that required the presence of special police. Media coverage surrounding the protests began depicting varying narratives of the situation. Some publications portrayed Ferguson as an undeniable warzone, …show more content…
The article, headlined Hundreds of Peaceful Protesters March in Ferguson, consists of more fact than opinion as it uses quotes and summary to describe the events. Throughout USA Today’s article, there are quotes from numerous county and federal officials, including Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri, Captain Ron Johnson of the Highway Patrol, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, and President Barack Obama among others. While addressing the riotous behavior of the days prior, Governor Nixon states, "What's gone on here over the last few days is not what Missouri is about. It's not what Ferguson is about. This is a place where people work, go to school, raise their families and go to church. But lately it's looked a little bit more like a war zone and that's unacceptable." A quote by Captain Johnson states, "It means a lot to me personally that we break this cycle of violence, heal tension and build trust." The article’s inclusion of statements made by various officials present readers with a few examples of perspective from those involved; all of which are peace-advocating thus supporting the authors’
On June 21, the city of Detroit exploded as racial tensions finally reached their boiling point. Various news organizations, such as Time and Newsweek, covered the story. At the time of the riots, none of the reported accounts of the uprising matched. The most disputed facts were the discrepancies regarding why the riot started, the number of deaths and injuries, and the exact time the riot began. Yet, most news sources reported that around six hundred people were taken into cu...
The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this particular incident. This type of ethical deviance is something the public has not seen since the civil rights era. Little did Chief Gates, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and the LAPD know what the consequences of their actions would lead to. Moving forward in time to the verdict of those police officers being acquitted of the charges, the public sentiment spiraled into an outrage. The disbelief and shock of the citizens of Los Angeles sparked a mammoth rioting that lasted for six days. The riots led to 53 deaths and the destruction of many building. This is a true but disturbing story uncovering the ethical deviance from the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The two perspectives are from the Rodney King incident are the LAPD and the L.A. riots.
This Ferguson Riot cartoon picture was written by Steve Sack, an American cartoonist who won a 2013 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. He has made many cartoons and the one we will be focusing on today is the one above.This cartoon is based on the Ferguson Riots that took place in 2014. It started on August 9, 2014 when police officer, Darren Wilson, shot teenager, Michael Brown. We are still not 100% sure what really happened but autopsy reports indicated that 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot in the hand at close range during an altercation with Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. It also showed that he was shot six times, with gunshot wounds to his chest and head as a cause of death. It is still not clarified whether Brown tried
Nikole Hannah-Jones, the author of the article “School Segregation, the Continuing Tragedy of Ferguson,” (2014) writes about how the Normandy school district in which Ferguson students attend, ranked at the very bottom of all Missouri schools for performance. As relayed by Hannah-Jones (2014), the Normandy school district is “among the poorest and most segregated in Missouri” (p. 2). The August 2014 shooting death of a young African-American, Michael Brown, by a white police officer, spurred riots not only in St. Louis, but also in other cities nationwide. Black and white children in the St. Louis region remain educationally divided, and the state Board of Education knows what needs to change in order for black children to gain a better
Peaceful resistance to laws positively impact a free society because if there isn't, how will people hear the voices of the oppressed and mistreated? Peaceful resistance comes a long way in trying to advance the rights and customs of the oppressed today. For example, The Salt March of 1930 was based on the Salt Act of 1882, which excluded the people the India from producing or getting salt, only British officials. Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of this protest. According to an article by time.com, it says that "The protest continued until Gandhi was granted bargaining rights at a negotiation in London. India didn’t see freedom until 1947, but the salt satyagraha (his brand of civil disobedience) established Gandhi as a force to be reckoned with and set a powerful precedent for future nonviolent protestors, including Martin Luther King Jr.(Sarah Begley,2015)" This means the salt march was a start for India's independence. Also, Gandhi's brand of civil disobedience set precedents for future nonviolent protests. Another Example of how peaceful protests
The Chicago riot was the most serious of the multiple that happened during the Progressive Era. The riot started on July 27th after a seventeen year old African American, Eugene Williams, did not know what he was doing and obliviously crossed the boundary of a city beach. Consequently, a white man on the beach began stoning him. Williams, exhausted, could not get himself out of the water and eventually drowned. The police officer at the scene refused to listen to eyewitness accounts and restrained from arresting the white man. With this in mind, African Americans attacked the police officer. As word spread of the violence, and the accounts distorted themselves, almost all areas in the city, black and white neighborhoods, became informed. By Monday morning, everyone went to work and went about their business as usual, but on their way home, African Americans were pulled from trolleys and beaten, stabbed, and shot by white “ruffians”. Whites raided the black neighborhoods and shot people from their cars randomly, as well as threw rocks at their windows. In retaliation, African Americans mounted sniper ambushes and physically fought back. Despite the call to the Illinois militia to help the Chicago police on the fourth day, the rioting did not subside until the sixth day. Even then, thirty eight
The family of Michael Brown wanted justice for their son in which they felt was an unjust shooting. His mother was quoted expressing mistrust towards the police, "You 're not God. You don 't decide when you 're going to take somebody from here.” (McLaughlin, E. C. (2014, August 15) The family was obviously hurt by the shooting and wanted justice and support. The community began protesting the shooting and Officer Darren Wilson. Chaos broke out in Ferguson and a State of Emergency was issued. The community felt that the shooting was unjust and did not trust police officers. The community response to the shooting often attracted attention and made many political statements. Darren Wilson’s family were interested in maintaining his innocence. They hoped that the investigation would prove to the world that Wilson acted out of self-defense and did not violate Brown’s rights. The Criminal Justice system’s interests all hoped to create reforms and eliminate racism in police departments. On the local level many had to maintain safety in the community and assure proper police procedures. The state had to step into issue curfews and State of Emergencies to keep the state safe despite protests and riots as well as make sure Darren Wilson did not violate any laws of the state of Missouri. The state also hoped to create reforms to better race relations. On the federal level was the investigation which hoped to find out if the
On August 9th, 2014, 18 year old Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking protests, riots, and widespread debate on police use of force. Numerous questions arose as to whether Michael Brown was armed or unarmed, if he had his hands in the air or was attacking Officer Wilson, and whether Officer Wilson was justified in firing his weapon that resulted in the death of Michael Brown (Itkowitz). Twenty-two years have passed since the riots in Los Angeles after the officers involved in the beating of Rodney King were acquitted on charges of excessive force, and it left many to wonder, including myself, as to why this happened again. Why were there so many questions surrounding the incident and how this could
The night following Brown’s shooting, police dressed in riot gear came to break up an unruly crowd following a prayer vigil held in Brown’s memory. The following day, officers had to resort to using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a massive crowd at a local convenience store that had been burned down and looted earlier. On August 13, the local government instated a mandatory curfew due to the reoccurring violence from the preceding days. I don’t believe the protesters are justified in looting the stores in the area, however I do believe they are justified in protesting the local government on not providing justice for the situation. Whether Michael Brown fought the officer or not, he still had his hands up when Wilson’s gun was drawn. When someone’s hands are up in the air that usually means they are surrendering themselves from the situation. The autopsy shows that with the way the bullets hit his body, he was more than likely in a hands up position. This is the second time fatal violence against and unarmed black teenager has occurred, the first being Trayvon Martin. With the way that case turned out, it’s safe to infer that Wilson will face no justice for shooting Brown. Our government claims to “protect” us under law, however it fails to do its job. We aren’t honoring Michael through the violence and looting, but we are through the peaceful protests in order to gain justice for his
According to Apel (2014), on August 9,2014, Michael Brown,18, an unarmed black man of Ferguson, Missouri was shot and killed by a white police officer named Darren Wilson. Considering the evidence, a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson. This sparked a nationwide protest. People came from near and far to protest the judge’s decision. It was no peaceful protest, it might have appeared to start out as a nonviolent protest, but like many protests, it quickly turned violent. People wanted justice and the people felt as though the system once again had felled them. Barnett (2014), a reporter says that after the shooting groups such as the “New Black Panthers,” demanded a rebellion against the officer who shot Brown. For a while the head of police was not going to reveal the name of the officer who killed the Brown, but after a series of violent protest, the head of police released the officer’s name. If violence was not used during the protest it would not have received worldwide attention. Furthermore, the public would not have known the officer who killed Brown. Due to the amount of attention the Michael Brown’s case received and because of the amount of passion the protestors had and how they were willing to die to get their point across sparked attention. Requiring many people who were in the political spotlight to
Brown, was unarmed, and shot on August 9, 2014 by a white officer. The shooting and result in his death caused a “firestorm of protests and re-animating national conversations on issues of race, policing, and violence in the U.S”, according to Vice News (2014). Brown was shot and his body was left on the ground dead for nearly four hours before he was taken. His funeral was conducted two weeks after, according to USA Today, the Reverend sadly mentioned that Brown was laying on the ground dead for four hours like his “life… didn’t matter” (2015). I do admit the death threats that the Ferguson Police Department received from families, was dangerous. However, one can only put up with so much discrimination and inequality before they snap and say or do terrible
From the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the Civil Rights Movement and the Pro-Life Movement of the 1960s, to the Tea Party Movement and Occupy Wall Street Movement of current times, “those struggling against unjust laws have engaged in acts of deliberate, open disobedience to government power to uphold higher principles regarding human rights and social justice” (DeForrest, 1998, p. 653) through nonviolent protests. Perhaps the most well-known of the non-violent protests are those associated with the Civil Rights movement. The movement was felt across the south, yet Birmingham, Alabama was known for its unequal treatment of blacks and became the focus of the Civil Rights Movement. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, African-Americans in Birmingham, began daily demonstrations and sit-ins to protest discrimination at lunch counters and in public facilities. These demonstrations were organized to draw attention to the injustices in the city. The demonstrations resulted in the arrest of protesters, including Martin Luther King. After King was arrested in Birmingham for taking part in a peaceful march to draw attention to the way that African-Americans were being treated there, their lack of voter rights, and the extreme injustice they faced in Alabama he wrote his now famous “Letter from Birmingham.”
Walkout; what is a Walkout? According to the website Dictionary.com, it defines the term walkout as “the act of leaving or being absent from a meeting, especially as an expression of protest”. Some people may say it is an act of retaliation, and others may say it is standing up for what you believe in. A walkout it is not only an act of leaving, it is a form of expression. People who are involved in a walkout bring attention or raise awareness for a certain issue that is taking place. That’s what happened in 1968. A group of East Los Angeles students walked out, in order to have their goals met by the L.A.U.S.D School District, which was, a better education for the Latino community.
If you were asked to identify an incident that sparked the rioting, what would that incident be? Was there more than one incident? Was there one riot or more than one?
The underwater world is the most peaceful, relaxing and enjoyable places on earth. When you go underwater all the sounds disappear, there is silence and a feel of calmness and relaxation all around, when you enter the deep water world the view is a mesmerizing site. To be able to get to that peaceful place, one must get a scuba diving certification. For many, the busy stressful and noisy routine of the daily activities can quickly be forgotten when engaging in scuba diving activities. It does not matter where in the world you live, there is about 71 percent of the entire earth that is covered by water, so, even if you live in the middle of the United States, hundreds of miles away from the ocean, there are many