Remember when the City Council decided they didn’t want The First 48 filming in Memphis?
Maybe there were on to something.
From the NYTimes’ Tragedy in Detroit, With a Reality TV Crew in Tow, about the killing of a 7-year-old girl during a police raid:
“Even in Detroit, where deadly violence can seem routine, Aiyana’s killing has transfixed the city, leaving many questioning what they see as heavy-handed tactics by the police — particularly the use of the so-called flash-bang grenade on a Sunday night in a residence where children were known to live.
Beyond Detroit, the incident is raising a larger question in this age of reality TV: Does the presence of TV crews affect how well police officers do their jobs?
‘Those cameras can influence the behavior of what’s already a very dangerous and unpredictable job,’ said Brian Willingham, a laid-off Flint, Mich., police officer and author of ‘Soul of a Black Cop.’
