Excessive, Yet Inadequate, Coverage

That the incident between Houston Texan running back Ryan Moats and Dallas, Texas patrolman Robert Powell has attracted enormous media attention in the midst of an economic meltdown could have been expected. We have: misbehavior by law enforcement; an NFL player; a fatality; audio and, most importantly, video.

But the coverage does represent the worse in the mainstream media. The insensitive and inappropriate behavior by the police officer is either: a singular event, uncharacteristic of the Dallas Police Department and police departments throughout the 50 states and the District of Columbia; or endemic. If it is the former, coverage has been grossly excessive, leading millions of people to believe unfairly and unjustifiably that police everywhere brutalize innocent citizens. And if it is the latter, it would behoove a media outlet, somewhere, to conduct an investigation to determine how common throughout America this approach to traffic stops is, the impact upon the community, and whether minorities are targeted or whites also routinely fall victim.. There is little reason, at least as of now, to claim racial discrimination or profiling; but given that the election of the first minority President was to have ushered in a period in which race could now be discussed openly in our country, the silence is telling.