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Seth Welker
E. Caruso
UWRT 1103-017
1 October 2015

What has spurred the recent violence against police officers?

In recent times, it was highly unlikely that the news could be turned on without hearing
something about an officer being ambushed or killed. With that being said, who or what has
spurred the recent violence against police officers? Who or what has been key in helping spread
the violence? Also, the locations in which the violence occurs may have something to do with it;
is there any validity to this statement?
If these areas have a large outbreak in violence, primary from the black communities,
what is the demographic of the places where the violence occurs? The major cities where the
violence occurred were Baltimore and Ferguson. Both cities are predominately black, which
leads to understanding why the violence is predominately committed in the black communities.
In Ferguson, MO, out of 21,203 people, 14,297 of them are black, according to the 2010
governmental census (Census.gov 1). In Baltimore, MD, out of 622,793 people, 392,982 of them
are black, according to the 2014 governmental census (US Census Bureau 1). Therefore, with
approximately 67% in Ferguson and 63% in Baltimore, it would make sense for a majority of the
acts to be committed by blacks.

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The best place to start the research seems to be in the media. How has media influenced
the publics perception of the violence against police officers? One instance that seemed to start
the outbreak in violence is the Michael Brown incident. There are quite a few people, who when
told the name Michael Brown, do not know who he was. Michael Brown is an 18-year-old
black male from Ferguson, MO. On August 9, 2014, Brown was shot and killed by Darren
Wilson (Buchanan 1). However, many people have heard of Ferguson, MO now due to the case.
CNN and Fox News are two well-known news reporters, and they are also known to have
different sides when it comes to the same story. A specific example this is seen is in Ferguson.
Upon further research into Ferguson, MO, CNN posted an article on how protests were violent
and interviewed a few black protestors. One person said that they feel people have the right to
get violent, and many others had similar ideas (Basu 1). However, Fox News posted an article
that discussed the nicer attitudes. The article said that as soon as Highway Patrol stepped in, the
actions of the citizen changed immediately. They reported how people would stop to shake the
officers hands and carry on conversations (Foxnews.com 1).
Comparing the two reports, you can see that the media, depending on which side of the
story they stand, will produce completely different articles. So this leads the questions of how
credible are the media sources, CNN and Fox News? The CNN article was written by Moni Basu
and Faith Kamiri. No information could be found on these two ladies when it came to a
background in education. The only information that can be found is that both reporters are CNN
Digital Reporters in Atlanta, GA. This leads to questioning their credibility. These two writers
may be credible, but since no information can be found on them, it must come in to question.
Likewise, Fox News encounters a similar issue. When looking in to the article on the Highway

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Patrols kind attitudes, there is no author listed to the article. Therefore, a background check
cannot be done on the individual(s). This leads to question the overall credibility of Fox News.
Is Fox News, itself even a credible source for information? The only article found that
had little bias in it is an article post by Jonathan Merritt through The Atlantic. Merritt references
the instances with Todd Starnes, a reporter who has been known and fired for lack of credibility
and falsifications of information, and how Fox News suffers from him. Even though the article
may use irrational phrases questioning their own credibility like Sean Hannitys carefully
powdered forehead and Megyn Kellys impeccably curled hair, the author still brings in key
facts that make the reader question Fox News validity. Merritt points out that Starnes was fired
from a few jobs for his credibility. Merritt also brought in to question Starnes bias towards
topics when mentioning the unwarranted tweets that he post with a seemingly racist nature to
them (Merritt 1). All of this being said, Starnes may not have been the author who wrote the
article on highway patrolmen, but it would be wise to take Fox News articles lightly if they will
continue to employee a writer like Starnes.
If all of these scenarios have involved crimes against blacks, are police officers targeting
blacks or is it just the media portraying it as so? One article by The American Prospect, talks
about Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin and calls them the venerable flash-point in race
relations (The American Prospect 1). The article goes on to talk to Ben Jealous, CEO of the
NAACP, who seemed to think that the blacks were being targeted. This article says that the
blacks have been targeted and if this is the case, it seems as though the author goes about it in a
biased manner. Ben Jealous, along with Jamelle Bouie, a former writer for The American
Prospect, have an invested interest in the side with the blacks. Based off of their comments and

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the way the article was presented, it is a biased article (The American Prospect 1). Therefore, the
credibility of the author and article are brought in to question.
With all of this talk of hatred and violence in the news, it leads the question, is there any
major instances where police officers? One instance found took place in North Carolina. A
Raleigh police officer, Dan Hicks, was finishing his shift for the day when a suicide attempt call
went out. He arrived on scene, the man was on the other side of the rail wanting to jump. After
convincing the man to come back over the rail, he gave him a hug because, he looked like he
needed itand for his safety and mine, I pulled him towards me (McDonald 1). Seeing this
kind act shows the other side of the police that might not be as well-known as the violence in
their line of work.

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Work Cited
"2010 Census Interactive Population Search." 2010 Census Interactive Population Search. Web.
1 Oct. 2015.
"Baltimore City QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau." Baltimore City QuickFacts from the
US Census Bureau. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
Basu, Moni. "Protesters Torch Police Car in Ferguson - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network,
26 Nov. 2014. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
Buchanan, Larry. "What Happened in Ferguson?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 12
Aug. 2014. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
"Ferguson Shooting: Protests Turn Peaceful as Highway Patrol Takes over Security." Fox News.
FOX News Network, 15 Aug. 2014. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
McDonald, Thomasi. "Raleigh Officer: Preventing Possible Suicide Attempt 'part of My Job'"
Newsobserver. 10 Sept. 2015. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
Merritt, Jonathan. "How Todd Starnes Is Compromising Fox News's Credibility." The Atlantic.
Atlantic Media Company, 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
"The Targeting of Young Blacks By Law Enforcement: Ben Jealous in Conversation With
Jamelle Bouie." The American Prospect. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.