That small, bare room in one of the police stations in Tarn Taran was dimly lit and was reeking of human excrement, urine and vomit. My first exposure to ‘real’ police torture came as a trainee officer on an attachment with Punjab police during militancy. However, the real face of police brutality often remains an arcane subject, their notions about police torture derived largely from what they have seen in films – only the victims knowing the truth. “When people say there is unfairness and inequity and injustice, we should believe them and take them at their word,” he said.Most Indians are familiar with highhanded behaviour of the police in the form of the cops slapping people or, if they are pretending to manage law and order, beating them mercilessly with their sticks ( lathis). While these recent images can further teach Americans about law enforcement interactions with people of color, Brunson said one major lesson remains the same. “The police are on guard about who and what settings are dangerous, and that increases the scrutiny and surveillance that men of color experience.” “It’s a combination of being seen as menacing and threatening and living in neighborhoods that are also seen as dangerous,” he said. According to Brunson’s extensive conversations with young Black men, the disparity is heightened when dealing with the law. “Black people live in a different world and we have to navigate different social situations that white people do not,” said Brunson. That outreach is vital as Black Americans seek to communicate their experience, said Brunson. “Text is a wonderful medium, but at the end of the day a picture just reaches so many more people,” he said. “With the George Floyd video, it created such a stunning impression that you didn’t have to read a word to see what was happening,” said Matthew Carroll journalism professor and former Boston Globe reporter. How did the Black Lives Matter movement get to where it is today? The videos depicting the death of George Floyd-a Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck-in May of 2020 prompted heightened outrage and protest across the nation. Videos and pictures have played a pivotal role in the Black Lives Matter movement, providing a visceral context to the descriptions of excessive police force and brutality decried by many Black Americans. Still, the images from that day have fueled questions about why there was such a scant law enforcement presence on January 6, even though some Trump supporters had posted violent intentions on social media. More than 30 people have since been arrested on federal charges in connection to the riots. Capitol building without being placed in handcuffs,” he added. “Given the nature and extent of the violence vividly captured by journalists and bystanders, it makes sense that all Americans might question why those involved in these horrendously criminal acts could leave the U.S. “It all goes back to the history of this country and how that shaped the narrative around who to fear,” said Brunson. Images of the angry, violent Trump-backers pouring through Capitol officers’ under-staffed barricades has quickly become another powerful example of disparity for the Black Lives Matter movement, said Brunson, especially when juxtaposed with photos of the police’s heavily-armed show of force during BLM protests last year. Courtesy photo and my Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University Left to right: Rod Brunson, professor of criminology and criminal justice and political science and Matthew Carroll, journalism professor of the practice.
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