zlacker

It's a bit frustrating that a large portion of articles just refer to "police" as a singular group. This article is about the Memphis Police Department.

If a ring of doctors were caught illegally selling organs, we wouldn't title an article "Doctors have been selling organs for years". If bank tellers in a specific city were taking some money off the top of deposits, we wouldn't write "Bank tellers have been stealing money for years".

I'm sure there are some national issues with policing in the United States, but most police organizations are local. It's very unlikely that every local organization is bad, and even if they were, it would be very unlikely that every local organization is bad in quite the same way.

I don't think headlines like this help us balance the discourse. There's no concerted effort by police nationwide to spy on black reporters and activists. This is about a problem in Memphis, Tennessee. The content of the article doesn't imply anything beyond that. The title is extremely sensationalized, and many people will only read that far.

>>rdgthr+(OP)
I searched for “doctors caught selling organs”. Article title: “Do US Hospitals Push Organ Black Market?”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/do-us-hospitals-push-organ-blac...

(Spoiler alert: maybe, some, some of the time)

I don’t see how the current treatment of the police in the press is any different than other life-and-death professions.

>>hedora+Z1
This article is about US hospitals. It is not about one singular US hospital.

> Mark McCarren, a New Jersey federal prosecutor involved in the case, said Rosenbaum indicated that the transplants he brokered took place at more than one U.S. hospital and that the hospitals were duped and were not in on the scheme.

If exclusively New York-Presbyterian were potentially involved in pushing the organ black market (for example), and the title still said "US hospitals", this would be a fair comparison.

>>rdgthr+(OP)
>If a ring of doctors were caught illegally selling organs, we wouldn't title an article "Doctors have been selling organs for years". If bank tellers in a specific city were taking some money off the top of deposits, we wouldn't write "Bank tellers have been stealing money for years".

I see headlines like this daily. They're meant to be eye catching and make it seem like everyone is being hit by it, then a few lines into the article, they rapidly cut back on the scope because they've already got your ad money.

But the FBI and police departments around the country have used intimidation tactics for as long as they've been around. This author is writing about their personal experience in Memphis. It's possible that other people will come forward with similar experiences. We've already seen videos of police arresting/intimidating journalists around the country for no reason these past two weeks, so it's definitely not a problem confined to Memphis.

>>fiblye+V2
> They're meant to be eye catching and make it seem like everyone is being hit by it, then a few lines into the article, they rapidly cut back on the scope because they've already got your ad money.

I'm not certain it's fair to compare standard clickbait to a title on NiemanLab - it seems like you agree with me that it's a not a positive thing. I think we've definitely seen increasing amounts of this behavior from more prominent publications, but I wish we wouldn't.

I'm sure other people will come forward with similar experiences, but they haven't yet. It seems like a dangerous approach to assume the worst until then.

>>rdgthr+(OP)
Abolish doctors. Or, ensure you prosecute bad police and bad doctors. In fact I think you bring a good point about doctors unwillingly. Very high cause of death in the US due to malpractice and they're barely ever on the hook for killing people. Heck, they make police look like angels when you look at the rate.

>>rdgthr+(OP)
Personally, I find it a bit frustrating that a large portion of people refer to the 'Politicians' as a single group. Sure some politicians are corrupt, but you shouldn't simply call all politicians corrupt. I'm sure some, at least, are somewhat good.

The problem I find with arguments such as yours is that you're looking at the few exceptions to the norm and not the trend of policing in America. Yes, there are likely a few good police organizations just like there are likely a few good cops or a few good politicians. But the point is that when the institution as a greater whole is corrupt, then it calls into question even the few good people that remain complicit in its existence. You should be demanding answers from even the good apples and making sure they stay good, not give them a pass because they haven't gone bad yet.

>>fzeror+65
I expected this response, but I'm not defending or attacking police. This article mischaracterizes it's own contents and implies something more sinister and objectively false in the title.

This article is not about the institution as a greater whole. It's not about the bigger picture. It's about the Memphis PD. That's what's on the table here, and that's what the title should make clear.

Sensationalism is the concern, not criticism of police.

>>rdgthr+r6
You're missing the greater picture because you seem to be ignoring the context in which the article itself was published. Which is that we're seeing a large amount of violence being committed by police across the US, including other instances of police tracking down people who record them on social media in cities like Seattle.

The article is about her experience with the local PD, yes. The context of the title relates to the here and now which is a data point in the greater picture of how the police in general behave. It's only sensationalism if you ignore everything else going on around us.

>>fzeror+s7
I don't agree that it's fair to imply that all police have been spying on black reporters and activists for years without providing any evidence for that claim because of the here and now.

I think I understand what you're aiming at. I think I would agree with you if the title wasn't so rigid, but it feels to me like a significant claim that extends beyond the here and now reality.

>>rdgthr+(OP)
> There's no concerted effort by police nationwide to spy on black reporters and activists.

But there was, wasn't there? And one could argue that what Snowden revealed about the NSA hints that there still is.

> In his new book, James Comey describes his deep admiration for Martin Luther King Jr. and decries the FBI’s treatment of him as “a dark chapter in the Bureau’s history.” Shortly after he became FBI director in 2013, Comey instructed the entire workforce of the FBI to read King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” one of Comey’s favorite writings. He created a curriculum for new agents to “remember how well-meaning folks lost their way,” and introduced an exercise for the new recruits to visit the King memorial, pick one of the quotes inscribed on the marble wall, and write an essay “about the intersections of that quotation and the FBI’s values.” On his desk at the bureau, Comey kept a copy of the letter authorizing the wall-to-wall surveillance of King as a reminder of this “shameful” history.[1]

https://theintercept.com/2018/04/24/james-comey-mlk-martin-l...

>>zobzu+s4
Doctors don't randomly perform surgery or prescribe medication to people on the street though (largely based on the colour of their skin), at least not very often.

>>nexuis+gc
Sure, there might be, there might not be, but regardless this article doesn't even suggest at the possibility of something like that going on. If this was a story about Snowden's hinting at it, sure, the title makes sense. If this article discussed the FBI's targeting efforts as being racially motivated, the title makes sense. But this is an article about the Memphis PD.

The title is a dishonest representation of the content of the article. That's what I take issue with. Nothing more, nothing less.

>>rdgthr+(OP)
In your hypotheticals, the doctors lose their licenses and go to jail, the tellers lose whatever certs they have and go to jail. We rarely see police go to jail for their crimes. Not to mention, Blacks have had problems with police since the first slave patrols were formed in 1704 which is the legacy from which modern policing extends.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_patrol

>... There's no concerted effort by police nationwide to spy on black reporters and activists.

Are you serious? There has always been a suspicion of the black community and the people in it from COINTELPRO to the modern day FBI fiction of "Black Identity Extremists"

https://theintercept.com/2019/03/23/black-identity-extremist...

Your whole post is a hamfisted attempt to discount the interactions between race, policing and power as well as the historical context.

>>rdgthr+(OP)
This is the "few bad apples" fallacy. Some failures are of individuals, some failures are SYSTEMIC.