Introduction
The media is a factor that has a lot of influence on people. Thus the various types of media, that is the print media which consists of newspapers, magazines, leaflets, posters and books then there is the electronic medial such as the television, radio and internet services. These can have a lot of influence to people of all spheres. Things that the mass media advertises show or insists on can lead to influence of people in a very large way. The media is a great influence that can cause a lot of good to happen or a lot of bad to happen.
The media in most cases is a very strong social influence if not watched out. Example is how the today’s generation gets a lot from the media as compared from what they acquire from the people around them. The media does not just influence the teenagers be also grownups that are also in various professions. The media can build or break ones reputations.
How much of an influence do the media have a paving the path to ethical misconduct by police officers? This is the quote that we will be looking at commenting on and giving examples so that we can be able to see the amount of influence the media has.
The influence that the media has on the ethical misconduct of police officers is big and can be easily seen by their behaviors and also shown in the media itself.
Police officers doing their work.
In most cases, there are usually cases of police officers not doing their work. They are said to be letting crime happen without doing what is necessary to stop it. Police can be reported on television or the radio for not doing their work and letting crime rule a society. When this is heard the police officers retaliate in different manners. They can either decide to start doing their work since they have been brought out as poor workers or they can either decide to retaliate and not do their work completely. Example, of a situation is when a crime happens in someone’s household and they call the police. Sometimes the police do not go to the crime scene to help the callers and also at times they might go later on with claims that may be they did not have a care to transport them or they were low in gas. This brings a lot of criticism form the society in general. The police officers decide to ignore all calls of help so as to show that they did not like being exposed publicly if for all to see their failures.
Police officers acting against a particular race.
This usually happens in most cases in countries that has blacks’ whites Mexicans or Indians all in a society. A point reaches when they are usually conflicts between different races. An example can be a disagreement between the blacks and the whites. This is something that in most cases starts as something small that can be dealt with. Between gets out of hand and causes have throughout the society. Example can be a rivalry between tow people one can e black the other white, things go from bad to worse and one may be kills the other. This becomes into a full blown war between the different races that were at the beginning concerned. This gets to hit the media it is shown as breaking news. How the media puts forth the news, how they portray the issue can cause a negative effect from the police officers who are to go deal with the riot. The media can state that one race is notorious and also bring out issues from the past to back up their claims. This can cause the police officers to choose sides therefore behaving in an ethical manner by acting against one race in favor of another therefore being unfair. The police officers will act against one race letting the right free by in fact even helping them out. In this issue, the media is seen to have had an influence towards the police officers causing them to do something that is unethical in a profession. This usually takes places when some people’s rights are not looked and respected because of their race.
Political issues.
During political issues, the influence of the media towards the police officers can also be seen. The media can be based towards a particular political candidates and therefore campaign fro him/her in an indirect or direct way. The media will try as much as possible to try and portray the political candidate as the best using means that they consider effective. During adverts time they show adverts that support the particular candidates more than those of the other and also bring those that show the other candidates weaknesses be often. Such an example can influence the police officers to take sides when it comes to their assistance being needed. This can be seen for example, when during the campaign time, the supporters of these candidates decide to helve and riot. When the police officers are called for their assistance, they will most likely that the side of the most popular candidates supporters. This is something that happens when the media puts so much emphasis on the candidates of their choice that the police officers freely like that is the one who uses definitely the right one and the other the wrong doer.
Students’ riots.
Most of the times when riots by students go on air, the students are usually portrayed as the ones in the wrong while their teachers who in most cases cause the student riots are portrayed as angles yet they are usually in most cases the a cause of the trouble s that students have in schools. When the students decide to riot due to the injustice that they get in school, the media gets a totally different story from the teachers when the issues is noted. By this they get to give announcements that are wrong in the news. When the police officers are called to take care of the problem, they tend to take the students as the greatest offenders. The students are then bundled up and taken to jail for the riots. At this point the police officers take the students to be great offenders because of what they have heard being announced on the news. They so take the teachers sides in his matter. The media influences the police officers to act against the students without getting the right information first therefore they break some ethical rules of not taking sides but bring neutral at all times.
Church misunderstandings.
Some church members and church leaders have misunderstandings. These misunderstandings at times become very serious to the point of being physical. Hits are when the members fight for what they consider to be their rights. An example can be issues where the church leaders are considered to be stealing the church money that members entrust to them. The leaders are at times suspected of taking the money and sharing them among themselves for their own personal use. This cause a lot of anger from the members who consider their leaders as thieves and taking them for a ride. This causes a lot of misunderstandings between the leaders and members at times going to the extent of being physical. This kind of action is at times usually aired on the media. At times what is aired in the media can be tainted and misunderstood or misinterpreted. When the police officers are asked to take care of the issue, they in most cases end taking one side of the group and dismissing the other therefore, not being fair. They end up breaking a rule that is professional stating that one should at all times be neutral and not take sides when conducting an investigation. This happens in most cases because the police officers have taken what the media states to be the right and wrong and used it.
Family confrontations.
This kind of misunderstandings usually happens a lot in family setups. Where families especially couples have rows after rows in their lives. This kind of misunderstanding happens are usually not very serious. Ones in a whole, there are those quarrels that are bad and times they lead to physical action even at times are bad and at times they lead to physical action eve at times are bad ant times lead to physical action ant at times there being an occurrence of murder. In such cases, there are usually a lot of speculations of what the whole story was about and how it came to be and who was on the wrong. When this kind of issue gets the media what the media gets is what most people tend to believe. This includes the police officers tend to believe what the media has announced before they do their investigations. This causes the suspected wrong doer to get very bad treatment from the police officers. Since they have been made of believe that the person is the suspect and not the victim who get lucky.
An example, if a couple had a misunderstanding and may be the woman kills the man she is taken out by the police as a dangerous person and may be it is the man who was about to harm the woman badly but she acted on one self defense. When the media says that a woman killed her husband during a confrontation without stating that it was as an act of self defense, the woman is then laided as bad and doing dangerous to the eyes of everyone.
Corrupt ways of police officers.
We all know that when police help us we, do not have to pay them for the help since they are in fact doing their work. So when the police officer helps a citizen and asks for some form of payment, we deem this as wrong thing. Some police officers do this kind of things most of the time. This is bribery that is considered wrong and should be done away with. When the media gets wind of such happenings, they air it for all to know and criticize the police officers. When the police officers see that they are being criticized they retaliate by increasing the behavior of bribery as long as they are carful not to be caught red handed. This makes the society to be worse than it was because no one wants to ask for help from the police officers because they know what it will entail. Harming to bribe them which are wrong. By the media putting the police officers on the hot seat, it can bring forth the kind shows that the media can have a negative influence on the ethical behavior of police officers.
Police officers being cruel and murderers.
This has been seen to happen in some countries. Police officers being violated with the people in the society. In most cases, this happens when the media goes on air to say that police officers are not doing their work in protecting eh society. The police therefore retaliate by doing things that are so drastically to show that they are doing their work not as reported that they are not. An example is when a riot occurs and police officers are dispatched to take care of the issue, they tend to be extremely violated with the rioters. Beating those that capture and also going to the extent of useful life bullets instead of something like rubber bullets at does not kill. They also end up killing most a lot of people in other circumstances in the name of them being the most soughted things. Instead of capturing them and taking them to jail, they shoot to kill. This shows the violence that comes with the anger of them being exposed by the media as not doing their job. This is another instance where the media shows its influence when it comes to the ethical misconduct of police officers.
Traffic police officers.
There are times when the traffic police officers don not do their work well. An accident might occur on the road causing a huge traffic jam and there are no police officers any where near to deal with this problem. Or there can drivers who are misbehaving on the roads and no police officers to reprimand them. When this is stated by the media showing how these traffic police officers are not doing their work. They come out with an agency to show what they are capable of to the extent of going a head and doing things that are considered to be ethically wrong. An example is a situation where when the traffic police officers get aired on media as being lazy and not doing their work. They go to the roads and treat the drivers in the most ruthless ways possible. The drivers are stopped and harassed about the condition of their cars, condition of their insurance, their mode of driving and so on. Even if they are innocent. Then they are innocent. Then their car keys are confisticated or they are asked to appear in court at a later date with this charges placed in them. This is a very unethical thing that the traffic police officers do especially when they are angry.
Drug bust
There are times when criminals are couth with large amounts of drugs by the police officers. When they are couth, the drugs are usually confisticated by the police officers. When this happens at times rumors are usually heard being spread stating that the drugs that were initially confiscated are not he ones that had be reported by the police or the amount that the police officers have reported is less that that was found at the beginning. This therefore implicates the police officers as taking a higher quality of drugs fro themselves and substituting with cheaper products in the first case and in the second case that eh police officers have taken some and given less drugs as exhibits. When the police officers hear these kinds of allegations that they are considered to be corrupt and untruthful they tend to retaliate by actually doing the exact thing they have been accused of in a larger scale. So this shows that what the media tends to put forth to the public as the means and ways of the police officers at a times is taken seriously by the police officers and done at a full scale.
Police officers in jails and wardens.
There are usually cases coming up time after time on how the police officers in cell s and wardens in jails mistreat the prisoner. These are usually brought up by the media after they get information form the prisoners themselves or relative’s family and friends of these prisoners. The media depicts the police officers as cruel people who cause a lot of prisoners discomfort and death by conflicting punishment on them. When the police officers and wardens get to hear this they tend to make it worse and in the long run of the prisoners are reported to be punished severely and at times murdered in jails. This happens course the police officers unleash their wrath on the prisoners more out of anger and to show that they are not happy with their affairs being put in the public.
Conclusion
As from the few examples we have discussed what police officers can do when the media tends to expose their misconduct we tend to see that they can be very hard to deal with. When issues that they are doing wrong are brought to light for all to see, they seem to have a negative result as compared to one that was expected when they were being exposed. Due to such example, we are able to see the kind of influence that the media has towards the ethical misconduct viewed in police officers.
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