Plain View Project
Plain View Project is a partisan activist organization that examined the social media posts of police officers and got national coverage when their "findings" proved that police officers are "racist".
The group was founded by Emily Baker-White and is a project of Injustice Watch.[1]
Background
According to the Plain View Project website:[2]
- "In the summer of 2016, a team of attorneys in Philadelphia learned that numerous local police officers had posted content on Facebook that appeared to endorse violence, racism and bigotry. In some of these posts, officers commented that apprehended suspects—often black men— “should be dead” or “should have more lumps on his head.” In other Facebook conversations, officers advocated shooting looters on sight and using cars to run over protestors. Numerous posts deemed Islam “a cult, not a religion” and referred to Muslims as “savages” and “goat-humpers.” And, in still others, officers appeared to joke about beating and raping women.
- "This discovery inspired the creation of the Plain View Project (PVP), a research project that has identified thousands of Facebook posts and comments by current and former police officers. We believe that these statements could erode civilian trust and confidence in police, and we hope police departments will investigate and address them immediately."
Emily Baker-White on The Plain View Project
Emily Baker-White discussed the Plain View Project on the Michael Smerconish Program. During the program, she mentioned Larry Krasner's interest in the project.[3]
"Federal Response to White Supremacy"
During a congressional hearing held on Jun 04, 2019 to examine the "Federal Response to White Supremacy", Rep. William Lacy Clay mentioned the Plain View Project, implying that the findings proved that white supremacists infiltrated law enforcement agencies.[4]
National Coverage of the Plain View Project
Adam Miller, who describes himself as Emily Baker-White's "partner" on the Plain View Project, claimed that alleged racist Facebook posts expose "a pervasive sub-culture of bigotry" in police departments.[5] The "findings" were "detailed in an investigative feature published jointly by Injustice Watch and BuzzFeed News."[6]
From Kayla Epstein of the Washington Post:
- "After matching published employee rosters with Facebook profiles, and examining the public posts those individuals made, the project found thousands of Facebook posts and comments that ran the gamut from racist memes to conspiracy theories to bombastic expressions of violence. Several expressed the desire to use a taser or deadly force on suspects, actions that have brought law enforcement under scrutiny in recent years and sparked nationwide protests against police brutality.
- “Instead of hands up don’t shoot, how about pull your pants up don’t loot!” read a meme that depicted the late African American singer Sammy Davis Jr. in an apparent dig at the Black Lives Matter movement. The image was shared on Facebook in 2015 by a captain in the Philadelphia Police Department.
- “What a POS, firing squad,” a man PVP identified as a Philadelphia police officer commented beneath a news story about a man who shot an elderly woman.
- “Too bad this MF didn’t resist and meet a very violent and painful demise. Would have saved the taxpayers a LOT of money,” reads a Facebook post by a man identified as a former officer from York, Pa., who was sharing the news of a black man’s arrest in the killing of a police detective.
References
- ↑ Cops Around The Country Are Posting Racist And Violent Comments On Facebook, accessed July 10 2019
- ↑ Plain View Project Website, accessed July 10 2019
- ↑ Emily Baker-White on The Plain View Project, accessed July 10 2019
- ↑ Hearing on Federal Response to White Supremacy, accessed July 10 2019
- ↑ Adam Miller Tweet accessed July 10 2019
- ↑ Racist posts from police officers’ social media accounts trigger a wave of investigations, accessed July 10 2019