There are various calamities which most of the countries undergo through as far as disaster management is a concern. Some of these calamities include fire, floods, malnutrition, diseases outbreak and accidents. However, in this paper, we will outline how the fire outbreak has dramatically affected the United States society in one way or the other. The police play a critical role in starting what happened during the fire outbreak. The relationship between the police and the fire outbreak will be clearly outlined in this paper. Media is significant sectors which relay information from one department to the other. We will describe how law enforcement has established a useful platform for dealing with the press as far as fire outbreak systems is concerned. The police steps also will be followed about how they control the media in the relation of fire outbreak in the United States.
Fire, Police and Media Relation
a. Past Critical Incidence
Fire, police and Media relations work in hardy in any contemporary society currently. In case of a fire outbreak, the police investigate the matter and present to the media department in regarding what happened in the fire outbreak challenge. The media then broadcast the information to the members of the public about how and when the fire outbreak occurred. The police department then investigates the matter and come out with an outcome about those who are suspected on the fire outbreak. However, there was also a fire outbreak in the Ferguson Uprising, which began after the shooting of Ferguson Missouri. The unrest also results in a massive epidemic among the law enforcers and the Africans Americans who were living in the country. The rebellion led to severe destruction of the properties and fire that later resulted in shootings by police that injured and killed some members of the community (Davis, Alves " Sklansky, 2014).
The Ferguson Uprising happened in the year 2014 August 9th to August 25th the same year, then later proceeded to November and December. The unrest was instigated from the shooting of an 18 years old African-American male, after an encounter with an officer Darren Wilson. The incident happened on a reported robbery that Michael Brown was accused of trying to possess the police weapon. After a massive struggle between the police and the victim he later decided to shoot him the victim to death. The police were then charged for criminal murder; he was subsequently left without any criminal charges (Davis, Alves " Sklansky, 2014). However, this action did not go well with the members of the society who later turned violent by destroying and burning the properties in the town.
Bothe the police and the members of the society triggered the incident that took place at Ferguson Missouri. According to the statement of the members of the community, they stated that the police interfered with the memorial ceremony of Brown. However, this act did not go well with the public, a factor that led to the eruption of unrest and demonstrations. The incident first broke out in the August 9th in the year 2014. There were over 150 police officers who were relocated to the various spots of unrest in the region (Huey " Broll, 2015). Additionally, some robbers took advantage of the situation and began looting and destroying valuable properties in the country. The police, however, heard a difficult task of blocking access for several regions in the city. Approximately over 12 businesses were looted and vandalized, food and gas stores were all set in fire. Most shops were closed, and the government arrested over 30 suspects about the burning and lootings.
In the second event of the Ferguson Uprising unrest that took place on August 11th, the police disperse a massive crowd of people from the store that was set on fire the previous day. There were several gunshots that were shooting by the police, and over five people were arrested over the matter. The police fired tear gas at some protesters who were throwing stones at them as a way of scaring and protecting themselves from the attack. There also government state officials who took part in the demonstration such as Senator Mario Chappelle who joined his people in demonstrating. In the second day, several protesters were seen gathered in Clayton who was seeking the prosecution of the officer. Most of the protesters were carrying placards while singing and shouting “don’t shoot.” The SWAT team arrived at the venue and instructed that everybody vacate the place (Huey " Broll, 2015). The police were later forced to use smoke bombs, flash grenades, tear gas and rubbers bullet in an attempt to disperse the crowd.
The memorial of Michael Brown on Canfield Drive was later burned to the ground by the protester on September 9th the same year. The protesters were claiming that Jackson, the police commander to resign from his position. The following initiative later led to unrest forcing the police officials to arrest over eight protesters. Jackson then banned the demonstration and termed it unlawful. Some protesters were witnessed throwing and abusing the police officers from their new plan set on the unrest. However, there was a continuous battle between the police and the members of the public based on the murder crime. On October 2nd, at St. Louis more protesters were arrested including a CNN reporter and local activist. However, the police fined the protesters with hefty charges. The police officials later experience a decline in the resources to effectively control the high increase of unrest among the protesters in the city (Hughes et al, 2014). Protesters were forced to change from having a violent demonstration and adopt a peaceful system that will help in bringing an agreement between the sectors.
The protest was declared a state of emergency by governor Missouri to reduce the continuous increase of property destruction in the city. Most of the protesters were purchasing illegal weapons that they were applying during the demonstrations. Furthermore, in this scenario, most of the residents of the Ferguson were losing valuable properties due to the continuous events. After the declaration of not indicting Wilson from the shooting incident, there was an outbreak of unrest among the resident of Ferguson. More properties were looted and burned down by the demonstrators who were demanding for justice in the community. Police launched tear gas to the protesters by requesting them to leave the region and stop destroying valuable properties.
b. Media Management
A police officer in Ferguson city was at the forefront in creating various cases to lure the media in believing on their statements. Police stated that the victim who was shooting was a robber and was battling with the police to access his weapon. The police were later forced to kill the victim as a protection mechanism. The cops then convinced the media on believing the statement of the police about the victim who lost his life. However, according to the comments of the police Wilson was not a murderer but he was protecting his life from the robber. Media later broadcasted the issue and termed it as a police defense act but not murder (Huey " Broll, 2015). About the information that was launched by the media, there was an outbreak of the unrest among most of the protesters regarding the matter.
Secondly, the police convinced the media on why they deployed force while dispersing the rioters in the city. The police stated that most of the protesters were throwing bottles and stones to them, so they decided to use tear gas and rubber bullets to scare the demonstrators. According to the police statements to the media, they stated that among the protesters there were also looters and robbers that they were prevented from accessing the city. The following reasons, however, convinced the media of believing on the action of the law enforcers to be more appropriate during the incident (Anderson et al, 2014). The press was later seen blaming the protesters on burning and looting properties with the aim of demonstrating.
c. Steps to be taken
i. Finding the real cause of the unrest
The right measure that could have been made was to investigate the matter and come with an impressive result on who was the actual shooter. The real cause of the unrest will give more light on what action the law enforcement should deploy to control property destruction. However, by having the real cause of the unrest both the police and protesters will be able to have an agreement on an effective way to cooperate in society.
ii. Arresting the law violators
The police should capture all the law violators who destroy and loot other people property. However, the looters are the main contributors to increase protests among the city. Law enforcers should introduce strict penalties to any offender who violates the laws of the country (Davis, Alves " Sklansky, 2014).
iii. Compensation
There should be a compensational plan for the residents who lost valuable properties by the government. Furthermore, the compensation plan will help in drawing both the police and the members of the public to have a mutual correlation in the city. The following step plays a critical role in enhancing peaceful association among the police and the society members at large. However, for the residents who have lost their properties from fire, should be the first to be compensated.
iv. Enactment of strict measures
There should be strict laws that will help in the governing of cases such as fire outbreaks and society unrests from happening again in our society currently. If any person violates the following laws, he or she will be forced to face the full arm of the law. The regulations also will control the arrogance behaviour among the residents on matters concerning properties protection.
The police department plays a significant role in maintaining law and order in the world. However, in most of the cases police department end up to be in the wrong side as far as the rights of the public are a concern, but the police department still plays an active role in enhancing a useful structure in our community. Media is a crucial tool that helps us in relaying information from one place to the other. Most of the media houses currently have faced huge corruption allegations that have to end up destroying its reputation. The police partnership with the Media houses has also created a high awareness of some of the operations the police force is undertaking about the growth of our society. About the United States, most of the members of the public view the police as an enemy, this is because of the brutal attacks they have been experiencing by the police force. Thus, the rebellion factor has dramatically affected the operations of the police in most of the states in America. The adoption of state laws structures have in one way, or the other led to the growth and stabilization of the organizational policy structures.
References
Davis, E. F., Alves, A. A., " Sklansky, D. A. (2014). Social media and police leadership: Lessons from Boston. Australasian Policing, 6(1), 10.
Huey, L., " Broll, R. (2015). I don't find it sexy at all’: criminal investigators' views of media glamorization of police ‘dirty work. Policing and society, 25(2), 236-247.
Hughes, A. L., St Denis, L. A., Palen, L., " Anderson, K. M. (2014, April). Online public communications by police " fire services during the 2012 Hurricane Sandy. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1505-1514). ACM.
