Perceptions of Race and the Police in the Eric Garner

Case.

Maria Elisa AyalaTed Gournelos Mass, Media, & Society

BACKGROUND

Reality of the Police and the Juridical System:

Racial Profiling

Enforcement

Conviction & sentencing

Literature Review

Perceptions of Race in the U.S• Class/ Hegemony: (Weitzer 1999)(Omi

2014)• “Color Blind”: (Omi 2014)• Media: (Chaney 2013)

Perceptions of Police• Police Brutality: (Tuch 1997)(Chermak

2006)• Bias: (Weitzer 1999) (Chaney 2013)• Media: ( Chermak 2006) (Brown 2002)

CNN Newsroom

White Hispanic Blacks

Panel 1 Host of the program

Director of the congressional Black Caucus

founder of yourblackworld.co

m Contributor of CNN

Panel 2 Political director of Russell Simmons

Cultural critic President of the Black Conservative

Coalition

Panel 3 Host of the Program

Legal analysts CNN contributor

In depth Interviews:

• Gianna Hernandez - Campus Safety Coodinator

• Stephanie Briganty -Community Standards Coordinator

• Paola Berrocal - International College Student

• Sean Hips - National College Student

MethodsTextual Analysis

Textual Analysis

• The majority of the participants

consider that there was police

brutality involved in the Eric

Garner case, due to this they have

a negative view of law

enforcement.

• The non-White participants agreed

that he was targeted base on his

size, race, and background.

(Negrophobia)

• The White participants questioned

the debate itself, they tried to

excuse the police officer.

In-depth Interviews• Participants consider race a current issue, but

society pretends that people do not have racial prejudices.

• The participants believe this case has affected other security companies as well, and has resulted in a lack of trust overall regarding law enforcement.

• The majority of the participants believe that media exaggerates the story.

Implications Media create such a scandal

because they were trying to

maintain a conversation.

Media portrayed both sides of

the story, without making any

specific points about what was

right and what was wrong.

Eric Garner was a case study to

show the lack of trust from

minority communities and how

non-White citizens consider

police officers are doing a poor

job.

BIBLIOGRAPHYBrown, Ben, and Reed Benedict. 2002. “Perceptions of the police” Policing: An

International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 25, (3): 543-580

Chaney, Cassandra, and Ray V. Robertson. 2013 “Racism and Police Brutality in America.” Journal of African American Studies 17, (4) : 480-505.

Chermak, Steven, Edmund McGarrell, and Jeff Gruenewald. 2006. “Media coverage of police misconduct and attitudes toward police.” Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 29, (2): 261-281

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. “Racial formation in the United States.” Routledge, 2014.

Tuch, Steven A., and Ronald Weitzer. 1997. "Trends: Racial differences in attitudes toward the police." Public Opinion Quarterly 61, (4): 642-663.

Weitzer, Ronald, and Steven A. Tuch. 1999. “Race, class, and perceptions of discrimination by the police.” Crime & Delinquency 45, (4): 494-507

 

Thank You!