Although government-aligned media outlets generally are faithful stenographers for the coercive caste, the same is not true of social media. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have fatally undermined the official narrative that law enforcement is a noble calling by offering critics the means to document and publicize the criminal violence and pervasive corruption that characterize the profession. Thus it’s not surprising that police are seeking to ban Facebook pages that document police misconduct and demand accountability.
“There are anti-anti-police pages starting whose main purpose isn’t to engage the anti-police pages intellectually, but just to report and get them banned,” warns LRC reader Buddhadev Chakraborty. “Examples of these pages are Stop the Cop Haters, and Night of Blue Lights.”
Not surprisingly, given that this is the age of Homeland Security Theater, cops and their fellow travelers often seek to provoke comments that can be construed as “threats” or “incitement” – and then demand that Facebook shut the supposedly offensive pages.
“FACEBOOK IS ON BOARD WITH US!” exulted a cop in a comment to a page entitled “Evolution of a Police State.” Another cop boasted that he had “trolled” Cop Block’s Facebook page and expressed the hope that “more people report them and they too get the Facebook ban hammer.”
“Let’s not delay,” urged yet another officer, “we need a new page to destroy.”
4:04 pm on June 17, 2014
