Viral videos of police brutality lead to more crime, FBI director claims
The director of the FBI James Comey has said that despite not being able to offer any statistical proof, he believes viral videos of police brutality are causing a spike in felonies across the US.
Comey called it a “viral video effect,” or “Ferguson effect”: the officers tend to be less aggressive towards a suspect, knowing he or she might be filming them. This “could well be at the heart” of a recent increase in violent crimes, the FBI director added.
“There’s a perception that police are less likely to do the marginal additional policing that suppresses crime — the getting out of your car at two in the morning and saying to a group of guys, ‘Hey, what are you doing here?’” he said.
The FBI director’s claim followed a private briefing on crime rates in the US on Wednesday.
The rates turned out to be on the rise in over 40 cities across the country, and the spike was bigger than last year.
In Chicago, already notorious for its crime rates, murders were up 54 percent from last year, and shootings had increased by 70 percent.
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