MTV’s web series Decoded, hosted by Franchesca Ramsey, is back and this season it is going to be discussing police violence in the United States.
#MTVDecoded is BACK on @MTVNews. 👏
This season, @chescaleigh is “decoding the police,” and discussing police violence: pic.twitter.com/Fp3Enzo1GT
— MTV (@MTV) July 21, 2020
Just within this first episode Ramsey tackles the idea of the “mythical good cop” and h0w the images from that help to mask the systematic issues within the police system. Ramsey eloquently explains the problem of these “good cops” trying to correct issues in the police force only to be met with pushback from the system at large.
She gives the example of Cariol Horne, a Buffalo, NY cop of 19 years who intervened when her partner was using a potentially lethal chokehold on someone suspected of a crime. Horne was then accused of putting her fellow officer in danger. Horne was fired and lost her pension. This is the norm for cops who speak up, as Ramsey lists several more examples in the video.
As we talk about policing in this country—what it looks like and what it could be—videoes like these are important because they highlight that these issues are more complicated than just “good cops vs bad cops.” It is the way that this one system is responsible for handling a majority of the population’s ills, regardless of whether they are fit for it or not.
Franchesca Ramsey has spent the better part of the decade of her online career helping to educate people on issues of race in America. In 2012 when her YouTube video “Shit White Girls Say…to Black Girls” went viral, it launched her into becoming a well-known online figure with multiple writing credits under her belt. While her work has made her the target of much harassment over the years, I have always enjoyed how she handles her online presence with intelligence and logic. It’s deeply unfair that the systems on social media have not been able to prevent that harassment, but it has not stopped her from being an advocate.
This video also comes timely because I have been rewatching certain episodes of Law and Order: SVU, and remembering the way that shows in this genre train audiences to see defense attorneys as standing in the way of police, that advocating for your rights makes you a suspect, and that organizations like the IAB (internal affairs bureau) are rats that snitch on cops trying to do their job and keep the streets clean.
There is a lot we need to unlearn about policing in this country, and this video is a good place to begin that conversation if it’s something you want to be better informed about.
(image: screengrab)
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