YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Police and Policing the Image

Police and Policing the Image — Transcript

by Professor Josh Beck · 4,860 words · 758 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00All
0:01right, folks. This week we're gonna be
0:02talking about police and the police
0:05image in media.
0:08First, we need to talk though about mass
0:10media and fear of crime because this is
0:12often discussed whenever uh we're
0:16talking about any sort of popular
0:17culture
0:19uh or even real world uh media
0:23depictions of police. uh they're always
0:25fighting crime and somebody needs to
0:27protect the innocent billions, right?
0:30Well, [clears throat]
0:32it's important first to consider this
0:34idea of is fear of crime irrational?
0:36Um
0:38when we look at this graph on the left,
0:40we can see that fear of crime in
0:42particular, fear of victimization,
0:45um and violent crime rates in this case
0:49since 1965. Uh we can see them charted.
0:52we see they don't exactly map. Um,
0:58and especially if we look here in the
1:00middle, we can start to see why left
1:02realists such as Jock Young argue that
1:06actually fear of crime is irrational.
1:08Uh, [clears throat and snorts] we can
1:10see that when violent crime was at its
1:12highest, fear of crime was dropping off.
1:14There's a a slight uptick, but certainly
1:18not relative to the violent crime rate.
1:21uh it continues dropping
1:24but [clears throat] it's not at the same
1:26time as crime. Uh so the argument left
1:29realist left realists are going to make
1:33is part of the reason that victimization
1:36fluctuates is because of media coverage
1:38of these crimes. Uh and so as more
1:41crimes happen that then leads to more
1:44media coverage which then has this
1:46knock-on effect once people have
1:48consumed that media. So that that
1:51[clears throat] relationship between the
1:52two is is inherently there's going to be
1:54a time lapse. Uh but it is important to
1:58recognize that fear within reason is a
2:02healthy, natural, and rational response
2:04to the idea of violent crime. Nobody
2:06wants to be victimized.
2:08You shouldn't go out in the world going,
2:10"I'm safe. Nothing will ever happen to
2:12me." But that fear also becomes
2:15problematic if it becomes crippling,
2:18all-consuming.
2:20There's also just troubles with fear.
2:22Um, how do we measure fear?
2:24Traditionally, we're looking at things
2:25like public polling. Gallup uh has asked
2:28the question annually for, you know,
2:30something like 50 years now.
2:34Scholars of late have been questioning,
2:37are we confident that we're actually
2:38measuring fear?
2:40Um there's a lot of similar emotions,
2:44feelings, things like concern, anxiety,
2:47stress. Um I may feel fear,
2:53but fear is informed by culture.
2:57Uh particularly when we talk about like
2:59news values, we look at the western
3:01world's focus on things like risk and
3:03individual responsibility. That frames
3:05how I understand
3:07this reporting on violent crime. that
3:09frames how I understand what my response
3:12should be.
3:15[clears throat]
3:16And what we're also finding is that fear
3:18isn't always linked to crime news and
3:21crime reporting. Oftentimes, it's linked
3:23more closely to personal experiences. If
3:25I get mugged, I'm going to be much more
3:28careful moving forward about not going
3:30down dark alleys. I may actually be
3:33scared of dark alleys because the last
3:35time I was attacked.
3:37That's a totally rational response. And
3:39to sort of handwave that is a handwave
3:42that away as oh well you're overreacting
3:45is
3:47certainly not a popular response.
3:51So let's take a moment and look at the
3:53police image in particular TV and film.
3:56It's going to be mostly TV, but there's
3:58uh one one or two film references in
4:01particular uh that I think are
4:04important.
4:05[clears throat] Obviously, this makes
4:06great TV. Um, any sort of crime
4:09fighting, there's good, there's bad,
4:11there's inherent conflict, risk,
4:13tension, and, you know, it's
4:16just really good, easy storytelling. Uh,
4:19and so what ends up happening is there a
4:21lot of tropes.
4:23But [clears throat] in order for tropes
4:24and these sort of, oh, this is how cop
4:28shows handle this issue and that,
4:30somebody had to do it first.
4:32So, if we look at this sort of brief
4:34history
4:36of the police on TV,
4:39uh you may have heard the phrase
4:40Keystone Cops. Uh this is sort of one of
4:42the first
4:44uh depictions in movies of police being
4:47sort of bumbling idiots. They are the uh
4:50comedic foil. Uh criminals almost always
4:54get away. The the cops trip and fall and
4:58get in one another's way. And it's, you
5:00know, a very sort of Buster Keatney,
5:04Charlie Chaplan, uh, overacted
5:07silent comedy type vibe. Um, then we
5:12have Barney Fight from the Andy Griffith
5:13Show, Sergeant Joe Friday from Dragnat,
5:17uh, broadly the Baltimore Police
5:18Department with The Wire, uh, and then
5:21Dirty Harry Callahan from the Dirty
5:23Harry movies.
5:24And the important thing to think about
5:28whenever we look at media depictions of
5:31police policing, what have you, the
5:34question is, what do these TB cops tell
5:36us about the police? What do they tell
5:39us about society? And what do they tell
5:41us about how we should be viewing
5:43policing?
5:45So, we look at somebody like Barney Fe.
5:47This is uh the comedic sidekick for Andy
5:50Griffith on the Andy Griffith Show. Set
5:53in the fictional town of Mayberry, North
5:55Carolina,
5:57[clears throat] a is takes place in a
5:59very white, very small town. The idea
6:02that we're going for here is this sort
6:04of real America.
6:07Uh Mayberry is full of at worst petty
6:10criminals. Andy Griffith very famously
6:13never carries a gun. Uh, and so we get
6:16to see police sort of being goofy and
6:20funny. Um,
6:24the the show [clears throat] ran for
6:26eight seasons and almost 250 episodes
6:28and sort of all throughout there's this
6:30general call for a return to law and
6:31order. uh sort of this this idea of
6:35framing it as like good old-fashioned
6:38American sensibilities and kind of this
6:40idea of common sense and
6:43almost this idea of why can't we all get
6:45along? If everybody just behaved, then
6:48you know the police wouldn't have to be
6:49bad. They could just sort of keep
6:52everybody in check. [snorts]
6:57Absolutely. Changing gears is Sergeant
6:59Joe Friday from Dragnet. Um, very
7:03famously his [clears throat]
7:05his catchphrase was just the facts.
7:08Whenever he would go be a detective and
7:11would try to figure out the crime and he
7:14would ask [snorts] witnesses, he would
7:16say just the facts.
7:18Um, Joe Friday represents this new
7:22burgeoning tough on crime movement. The
7:24idea is we don't actually care all that
7:27much about why criminals do what they
7:29do. We are just trying to figure out
7:32who did it, how they did it, and how we
7:35capt capture them and bring them to
7:36justice.
7:38Um,
7:41[clears throat] again, we're we're
7:42starting to see this idea of uh the
7:45police is cool, calm, collected. Uh
7:49we [clears throat] start to see, you
7:51know, folks like Sergeant Joe Friday who
7:53are very, very good at their jobs. And
7:56so the police always get their man.
7:59Happening behind the scenes though is
8:03Dragnet [clears throat] existed both in
8:05radio and television as essentially a
8:08public relations tool for the LAPD.
8:11This was not outright propaganda, right?
8:14The LAPD was not bankrolling drag net.
8:20But at the beginning of every episode,
8:22uh narrator pops on and goes, uh the
8:25following events are are real. You know,
8:28they're they're based in in fact. Uh
8:31[snorts] and they [clears throat]
8:34bolster that argument by uh highlighting
8:38the LAPD's stamp of approval. And so
8:41what essentially happened behind the
8:42scenes was somebody with the LAPD
8:45[snorts] would get these scripts would
8:47review them and would either sign off or
8:51um
8:52raise uh raise issue with topics. Uh
8:55almost the way the standards and
8:56practices works with like uh comedy
8:59shows on on big uh corporate networks.
9:03uh script writers will write something
9:04up and they'll send it in and standards
9:06and practices will go, "Oh, we can't
9:08make fun of this brand because they're
9:10an ad partner and we won't want to be
9:13sensitive about seeming like we're
9:15making fun of Xgroup, so we'd rather
9:17this joke not be out there." Oh,
9:20uh you said penis, that's a little too
9:22vulgar. Can we use something like wiener
9:25or you know uh and so LAPD basically did
9:29the same thing. Uh and and while subtle,
9:33if you sort of look at episodes of
9:35Draget, you can very quickly realize
9:37that the framing,
9:41rarely if ever,
9:44you know, you never say never, but
9:46rarely makes the police look bad.
9:52Simultaneously, it almost never makes
9:54the criminals look good. There's never
9:56any question of but why did they do
9:59this? what circumstances might have led
10:01someone to commit this crime. Instead,
10:03it's just the facts. In this case, the
10:06facts of the case, and we're going to
10:08get to the bottom of it, and it's not
10:11that we get some sort of sick pleasure
10:12or enjoyment out of it, but I'm doing my
10:15job. Somebody has to be tough on crime.
10:21the Wire is, you know, aside from being
10:25basically every criminologist's favorite
10:27TV show
10:29is sort of historically seen as as one
10:31of the the better TV shows of all time,
10:33right? This is uh real peak HBO. Uh and
10:37it was written by David Simon, who was a
10:40former crime reporter for the Baltimore
10:41Sun. [snorts]
10:43And this was one of the first major TV
10:45shows to get this this sort of very
10:47popular reception that frames
10:49contemporary policing as is being mixed
10:52and muddled in controversy.
10:54Uh following um in [clears throat]
10:58season one, we see a number of police
11:00officers who are put together on a
11:02special task force to uh try and get
11:05some drug dealers in these particular
11:08lowrises. they very quickly realized
11:10that it was all the way to the top. Um,
11:14and so sub subsequent seasons are sort
11:16of giving us these different pictures of
11:19Baltimore. Um, season two, we see the
11:22dock workers who are helping to bring in
11:25and smuggle and um, cargo ships and and
11:29other various contraband in there. um we
11:32start to see the inner workings of not
11:35just the gang that um
11:39cops are are really digging digging in
11:41after but also other rival gangs. uh
11:44later seasons show us the sort of power
11:46struggle and power vacuum that happens
11:48when when one uh you know gang leader of
11:52of this particular group is taken out
11:55and there's no figurehead there and
11:56somebody else from a a rival gang steps
11:58up and sort of the power struggles and
12:01and sort of throughout
12:03one of the only consistent depictions as
12:06far as the police is is this idea that
12:11there's just this hemorrhaging of
12:13legitimacy
12:15uh very fancy academic term for
12:18basically people aren't trusting the
12:19cops.
12:21Um as high-profile incidents like Rodney
12:24King and other police uh misconduct and
12:28abuse come out,
12:30more and more folks are starting to
12:32question whether the cops are always the
12:33good guys. Uh we see this in and in in
12:36fact one of the clips that uh I have
12:39during our propaganda episode involves u
12:42some of this the the detectives um
12:47using less than ideal interrogation
12:49techniques.
12:51And so there's these storylines, there's
12:53these layers here where we're starting
12:56to see this emphasis on both bad actors,
12:58you know, bad individual people making
13:01evil or or bad choices, but we're also
13:04seeing bad systems.
13:08Um, McNeie tries to get to the bottom of
13:10the case. It's that white police officer
13:12on the right and gets punished for it
13:14because he ruffles too many feathers and
13:16disobys orders. And so, uh, for a season
13:19he is, um, part of the the harbor police
13:22and it's this miserable assignment where
13:24he doesn't get to actually do any crime
13:26fighting. Um, Bunk, the the gentleman in
13:29the middle, um, is is one of the murder
13:33police. And, um, [clears throat] again,
13:36there's this sort of push to we want to
13:39solve these murders. We want these to be
13:42sort of a straightforward uh we don't
13:45want these sort of large gang hit
13:47things. We we want petty disputes that
13:50that got out of hand. Uh and so we can
13:53see
13:55that where previous depictions of police
13:58tended to show these these very black
14:01and white images, we're starting to see
14:03kind of this idea of the anti-hero,
14:05right? The he's not good, he's not bad.
14:08He he sort of bends rules to
14:11to get the results they need.
14:14And perhaps the most famous to do this
14:18is Dirty Harry.
14:20This is portrayed by Clint Eastwood and
14:23in a number of movies, but Dirty Harry
14:25is sort of the perfect movie to
14:28understand a number of theories we have
14:31about policing. Uh first, it Dirty Harry
14:34characterizes the sort of war on crime.
14:36The argument here is that violent or
14:38dirty means are okay if it means we get
14:41bad guys off the streets.
14:44And [clears throat] so this this
14:44highlights two important things with
14:46policing. Number one, this idea of the
14:48guardian and the warrior mindset.
14:51So
14:53the argument here is that policing is
14:56largely one of two things. It's more of
14:58a guardian role where you are protecting
15:01vulnerable people, the citizens, the the
15:03people in and around your beat. And
15:05there's a warrior mindset where you are
15:07a crime fighter and you have to save the
15:09day and it's it's it's
15:12up to you whether you go home alive.
15:15In actuality, we we've recognized a
15:18number of studies have shown that most
15:20of policing is paperwork. It's it's
15:22guardian stuff. It's very boring.
15:25That's some people argue that's why uh
15:28you get police like the Georgia State
15:30Patrol who are so [snorts] excited to go
15:32on high-speed police chases because most
15:33of the time they're just writing
15:35speeding tickets. [snorts]
15:37[clears throat] And so the idea here is
15:39that Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry plays
15:42this very very warrior mindset. Uh he
15:46has this huge oversized gun. Uh he
15:49doesn't mind breaking the rules if it
15:51gets results.
15:53And again, it's just not this picture
15:55perfect cop above reproach.
15:58But you're sort of left going, can we
16:00argue with the results? Which gets us to
16:03this second idea of noble cause
16:05corruption. It is any sort of corruption
16:07that's taken uh in the argument for some
16:10sort of greater good. Uh in this case,
16:13Clint Eastwood uh is willing to break a
16:16few rules,
16:18in many cases, laws, uh because it means
16:21stopping the bad guy.
16:24And
16:25sort of baked into this idea is the
16:29assumption that the police are the good
16:31guys,
16:33right? Uh all we need to do is see
16:35something like training day to realize
16:36that the the police are sometimes just
16:40as well organized as some of the street
16:41gangs. Um, [snorts] but this noble cause
16:45corruption and again this warrior
16:47mindset helps make it okay to do bad
16:50things if there's good results, right?
16:52It's this idea of the ends justify the
16:54means. And while that sounds good on
16:56paper, it's certainly not something we
16:57want to build policy around because it
16:59relies on good individual decisions.
17:06Uh, another important thing is is comps
17:08and reality TV. Um,
17:12big one is cops. Um, I actually picked
17:15this picture in particular because,
17:19uh, it is the 20th anniversary edition.
17:22Uh, cops ruled. Uh, when I was younger,
17:26people enjoyed it. People watched it.
17:28Um,
17:29kind of a a very early meme in my
17:32childhood was uh, playing the theme
17:34song, the bad boys, bad boys, what you
17:37got to do. uh that the show would open
17:40with and it would be that song uh with a
17:44sort of compilation of clips of police
17:46chasing after suspects and uh suspects
17:50usually looking pretty silly. [snorts]
17:52Um there's a ton of issues with cops
17:55though. Um feel free to research some of
17:57these. They're they're pretty wild. Um
18:01there's lots of arguments that uh cops
18:05uh sort of skips the due process piece.
18:07Uh you're tried in the court of public
18:09opinion without any sort of followup. Um
18:12there's tons of um
18:16misconceptions that we'll get to. A lot
18:18of times you'll see them doing um
18:20roadside drug tests uh with little drug
18:23testing kits and they'll go, "Oh, it
18:26popped for whatever." uh without any
18:29acknowledgement or consideration of the
18:31fact that those tests are notoriously
18:33inaccurate.
18:34Uh
18:36they [clears throat]
18:39there's also been allegations that um
18:43the sort of producers behind cops were
18:46calling more shots. Uh
18:51there's plenty out there on that if you
18:53want to listen to the podcast, you want
18:54to watch videos, you want to do
18:55whatever. I personally think the more
18:57interesting sort of example of this the
19:01issue with police's reality TV is in uh
19:04the Esquire article that I linked on the
19:06propaganda page of the module um that
19:10discusses uh a to catch a predator sting
19:14that was very very different than
19:15normal. uh the person did not actually
19:18come to the bait house and so uh the to
19:21catch a predator crew convinced the
19:23police that they should go to uh the
19:26last known location of the uh supposed
19:31offender who actually ended up being a
19:34judge. [snorts] Uh ultimately that judge
19:36ended up killing himself in a standoff.
19:39Um, and so I think the Squire article
19:42does a really really good job of sort of
19:43explaining some of the issues and all
19:45the different ways that this went wrong.
19:47Uh, and ultimately we are transferring
19:51police authority over to television
19:53producers who do not have the same
19:55interest and goals in mind. [snorts]
20:00If I may, I would like to go on a brief
20:02sidebar. Uh I know a number of folks
20:04have indicated that they want to look
20:05into the CSI effect um as their final
20:10topic. So I don't want to go too crazy
20:12here. [snorts]
20:14But [clears throat] there's also this
20:16impact of
20:18seeing, you know, law and order and
20:20crime scene investigation and, you know,
20:22things like Dexter with blood splatter
20:24analysis where people who consume this
20:27media then go serve on juries and they
20:29expect the real world to have similar
20:32levels of evidence. Uh
20:35again that is more to do with how we
20:38understand how the criminal justice
20:40system works and less to do specifically
20:41with policing. But we have a similar
20:43effect here when all we see is good cops
20:46doing their best. It may not always be
20:49perfect but their hearts in the right
20:51place. They're trying. [snorts] There's
20:54individuals who care. There is this
20:57assumption that is being made and this
21:00message being conveyed to viewers that
21:02cops are generally good. They're
21:05generally trying. They're doing their
21:06best. Uh if we look at something like
21:09Dragnet, we see that cops are calm,
21:10cool, and collected all the time, which
21:12we know not to be true in part because,
21:16you know, it simply does not follow
21:18given the high rates of PTSD that police
21:20officers experience. There is absolutely
21:22no argument as to why they would be
21:24better at controlling their emotions
21:26than an average citizen. And it's not
21:28through any fault of their own is a a
21:31rational and expected response to to
21:33trauma. Um we [snorts] also tend to see
21:37police being framed as sort of these
21:39superhero crime fighters and and that
21:41tends to also not be the case. Um
21:44there's [snorts] a a tweet that went
21:47around for a while uh where
21:51the the question was, "Okay, what do you
21:52what do you uh defund the police people
21:54going to do when somebody breaks into
21:57your your apartment?" And somebody
21:59quotes me and say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah,
22:01because I need somebody to come by four
22:02hours later and fill out some paperwork
22:04and say there's nothing we can do."
22:06Um, and so again, we're sort of seeing
22:09this
22:10conflict of how people
22:15consume media that portrays police and
22:18how that compares to their real world
22:21experiences. Uh, and so again, something
22:24to sort of consider. If I have that lack
22:27of real world experience, then whatever
22:30narrative is depicted is is likely to be
22:33my baseline assumption.
22:35I may in my head know that not all cops
22:38are that good, but I'm sure most are
22:43unless I've had numerous incidents with
22:45police and I realize that actually
22:47sometimes cops just like people can also
22:50be bad. Um so again this sort of CSI
22:53effect also has a a similar mechanism
22:56where it influences police uh the our
23:00ideas, conceptions and beliefs around
23:02police as well.
23:06Obviously though, it's, you know, 2026.
23:10Um, television and movies are not quite
23:15as ubiquitous as the way they used to
23:16be. And so, we need to talk a little bit
23:18about policing and social media. So,
23:20there's there's good and bad as with
23:22everything. Uh, good modern
23:25communication.
23:27Uh, it's excellent for public relations
23:28and outreach. I can share information,
23:31give updates. Um things like Amber
23:33alerts can be shared more quickly. Uh I
23:36recently saw uh surrounding FIFA there
23:40maybe Brook Haven or Shambblei some
23:43local police posted that there was going
23:46to be an active shooter drill. And so
23:50the argument was you will see things
23:51that may be alarming but this is a
23:54drill. It is contained to this area. It
23:56will take place at these times. We will
23:58have uniformed officers around the
24:00outskirts to ensure that nobody is
24:02panicking or freaking out. U but
24:07probably a much better chance that
24:08people are going to see that tweet or be
24:10made aware of it or at the very least
24:11can figure out what is going on pretty
24:13quickly should they actually come across
24:15it. And the idea here is they'll be far
24:17less alarmed. [snorts] Um there's also
24:20ways to to warn the public and
24:22investigate while things are actively
24:24happening. Uh we don't need the next
24:26day's news to come out. We don't need
24:28the five o'clock uh news broadcast to
24:30happen in order to get this out. We can
24:32just tweet.
24:34Um although there's lots of bad uh
24:37there's tons of info often from many
24:39sources and who knows what the hell's
24:41going on. Uh we've all seen how videos
24:44can be clipped to show different things
24:45happening. You know, the same incident
24:47can be shown in two different very
24:49different lights. Uh there's also
24:51concerns about the investigative um
24:54avenues opened up to police due to
24:56social media. [snorts] Uh number of
24:58police officers has talked about how uh
25:00especially back when like checking into
25:02locations on Facebook was big. um the
25:06that officers would oftentimes just make
25:09fake profiles,
25:11become friends with these criminals that
25:13were investigating and using this
25:15otherwise publicly available info such
25:17as I checked in here at this gas station
25:19or this concert venue or this bar can
25:22essentially track their whereabouts
25:24without any sort of uh needing to
25:26actually be there and follow them or any
25:28sort of warrant for [snorts] anything.
25:32Uh
25:33again the lesson here may be just be
25:36aware of what your how publicly visible
25:39your social media is. But again this is
25:42sort of further proof that if you give
25:44police an inch they will take a mile and
25:47make the argument that we need to stop
25:48crime.
25:51Perhaps most damning though is the
25:53unmediated communication.
25:55[snorts] And so there's no journalist to
25:57report the press release.
26:00And so
26:02we'll get more to what that means for
26:04image management in a second, but I want
26:08to talk a little bit about u social
26:10media campaign the New York Police
26:12Department did called my NYPD.
26:17[snorts] Uh and so here's a screenshot
26:19of a tweet from April 22nd, 2014
26:23uh from NYPD News. If you have a photo
26:26with a member of NYPD, tweet us and tag
26:29it my NYPD. It may be featured on our
26:32Facebook. This is just a simple, very
26:35easy, sort of crowdsourced
26:38PR campaign, right? We can even see a
26:40picture of some smiling police officers
26:43with what appears to be a member of the
26:46public to show, hey, you know, we're
26:47here to protect and serve you.
26:50What happened was very quickly people
26:53used it to uh share photos that they had
26:56of
26:58police misconduct and abuse. Uh we have
27:02uh defended in the streets in the middle
27:04there saying sure thing
27:07[clears throat]
27:07and um
27:10sharing a picture of what appears to be
27:11them uh being pinned against the trunk
27:15of a car as their face is being pressed
27:17down. Uh we have somebody else. Let's go
27:19ahead and hear the NYPD engages with its
27:21community members changing hearts and
27:22minds one baton at a time. And so again,
27:25this unmediated
27:29access [clears throat] that folks have
27:31to get their their thoughts, their
27:35opinions, their images out works both
27:37ways. Nobody's there to question the
27:40police or ask follow-ups or to push back
27:43against the narrative. But at the same
27:44time, nobody can stop these folks from
27:47hijacking a
27:50NYPD PR hashtag. Uh, in fact, this got
27:54so big
27:56that um
27:59somebody uh somebody included a picture
28:02of Toronto police um cracking some
28:04skulls of some protesters uh saying
28:07Toronto police also deserves some
28:09recognition. Here's a hashtagmy TPS
28:11photo to go with the hashtagmy NYPD
28:14ones. [snorts] So, this clearly
28:16backfired. Um
28:18if it's punches are going both ways uh
28:22where the public can also critique the
28:24police then hey maybe that's just
28:26democracy but ultimately the power
28:29structures in place are just also being
28:31transformed. There's a sense of
28:33authority a sense of certainty this idea
28:36that the police would never lie uh
28:38despite outright
28:40blatantly incorrect press releases that
28:42get reported without any sort of
28:44scrutiny. So, it it's complicated. It's
28:47not perfect, but
28:52I don't know. It's pretty funny. Um,
28:56when we look at this idea of image
28:57management, again, traditionally, police
29:01have been portrayed by someone else.
29:03Whether it's journalists, reporters,
29:05whether it's Hollywood execs, right?
29:07this police thing happens and we either
29:09report we tell you the story or we you
29:13know recreate these events and and
29:15depict them uh without any sort of
29:19mediating factor though if I can just
29:21take a picture and post it on Twitter um
29:24then police can have the opportunity to
29:26craft false images um
29:30in particular this idea of trophy shots
29:32after big drug busts here we can see a
29:34bunch of guns that were taken um
29:38money, pills, illegal cigarettes, all
29:40kinds of stuff. Uh I believe there's
29:42multiple pounds of fentanyl in this drug
29:43bust for whatever that's worth. Um but
29:47you know, this is the sort of trophy
29:48shot we tend to think of. This is the
29:50drugs, the guns, the violence that we
29:52are are taking off the streets. But what
29:55sometimes happens is police are a little
29:58too excited to
30:01uh to do these
30:05[snorts] God, I love this picture to to
30:07do these trophy shots. Uh we have here
30:11uh four police officers who are standing
30:14in front of a trophy shot. Looks like we
30:18have a ton of empty ziplockc bags. We
30:22have two bags of some of the shittiest
30:26wheat I've ever seen. Uh what looks like
30:28a couple of guns and some ammunition.
30:30That all seems to be pretty well spread
30:32out. We have one scale, one very small
30:34baggie of something. We got a bunch of
30:35cash laid out. It's maybe a little
30:38difficult to tell on the picture, but
30:41we see all of these bills and from this
30:44end here all the way down to here is $1
30:48bills.
30:52prompting folks to, you know, take the
30:54picture, the meme of crying Michael
30:56Jordan photoshopping on all their faces
30:59with the comment, "World's smallest weed
31:01bust ever, Lmo. One empty pill bottle,
31:04one bottled water, $80, two high points,
31:08two bargain brand sandwich bags, and two
31:10pounds of rabbit grass."
31:13Other folks got in on the memes and uh
31:16said basically the same thing. um
31:19[snorts]
31:20[clears throat] replacing what was on
31:21the table with a small uh pipe, you
31:25smoke marijuana, saying this is
31:27essentially the same thing y'all got off
31:29the streets. So again, this idea here is
31:33not necessarily that everybody is going
31:36to see cops in media and go, "Aha, that
31:39is how police are." But the idea that we
31:42start to very slowly and subtly base our
31:46understandings of the police, how they
31:48work, society's role in crime, criminal
31:51justice, attitudes towards policing
31:54start to be informed by media if we
31:57don't have any other real world
31:58experiences.
32:00So again, not everybody is going to, you
32:04know, watch a news report about the the
32:07most recent crime and immediately go
32:09into a panic about, oh my god, I'm going
32:11to be next. But
32:13there are these ideas of criminals are
32:16bad, cops are good. Cops are doing their
32:19best in an imperfect world. They're
32:20oftentimes working against the system.
32:22things that we see because they make
32:25really compelling television storylines,
32:29we're just sort of assuming have some
32:31sort of factual basis whether they do or
32:33not.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Police and Policing the Image by Professor Josh Beck, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 4,860 words across 758 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.