Last week in class we had a discussion about the uproar regarding the trend on Twitter, #myNYPD that was popular 2014. The hashtag was created by the New York Police Department in order to show that police had a kind side to them, and were not just about police brutality:
However, that idea backfired and it led to people using the hashtag to display police brutality. To learn more about the incident, watch these two videos by MSNBC and WSJ.
I collaborated with a few of my peers and we discussed the factors that contributed to their failed collaboration, and this is what we came up with:
"The NYPD was trying to release positive content on their Twitter page with the hashtag "#myNYPD". The purpose of this was to engage with the community and show people their positive side, but the citizens answered with negative photos that displayed police brutality instead. The NYPD did not achieve their goal of uniting the community with the police, which brought new issues to light and actually created a bigger divide between the two groups. According to MSNBC news correspondence, one of the main reasons for this failed collaboration is that the NYPD did not go through the "listening/research stage". The NYPD did not look at the community they were addressing or at the perception of the community toward them. It seems as though the NYPD was naïve about the negative stigma toward them, and they were not realistic about the kinds of responses they would get from this hashtag. The marketing strategist of the NYPD underestimated how powerful people's voices are on social media; they were under the false belief that since they are a government entity, their voices would be louder than the rest. They did not realize that their original intent would be drowned out by everyone else's responses."
Something that we did not touch on is that I believe they tried to do this in a time where there still strife with law-enforcement. It was too close to all the incidents of police brutality, so they quickly tried to recover by doing something they thought would help. I think the idea would have worked better if it were centered around a time when the police really helped people, such as during 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing, rather than as a distraction for the wrong they were doing. It was mostly a matter of bad timing, and what could have been a good idea turn into the backfire of the century.
On that note, I do just want to say that not all police officers are bad people. The ugly acts are always the ones that make it into the news, but the simple acts of kindness rarely do. I have had my share of good experiences with law enforcement, and after watching the recent movie Patriot's Day, I gained a new appreciation for law-enforcement. Try taking the time to thank an officer every once in a while. Some of them really do care for our well-being:
This is a very interesting topic you talked about. It is important and grabbed my attention first when we talked about it in class. It is funny how at first they posted pics of the cops being nice just to show people that cops are kind, but things turned out not like what they expected. people started posting pics of cops being aggressive with people. I really like how people are collaborating on social media and talk about what they see in reality
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