Police violence and the ‘bystander effect’ explained
Since George Floyd died after a police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes on May 25, protesters across the country have gathered in scores and hundreds and thousands to oppose the long history of police brutality toward African Americans. While most of the events have been calm, in several cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and Buffalo, N.Y., some police officers at times have used overwhelming force against unarmed demonstrators and working journalists under the justification of crowd control. The sight of officers in riot gear beating marchers with batons, firing rubber bullets and chemical- or pepper-based irritants directly into the faces of American citizens, and shoving activists to the ground so forcefully they sustained head injuries — during protests about police brutality — has reignited questions about whether the accepted behavioral norms among the nation’s law enforcement community, or “cop culture,” are profoundly...