The trauma caused by viral videos of police killing Black men
Description
A cell phone video of the killing of West Philadelphia resident Walter Wallace Jr. was viewed more than a 1 million times. Then, on Nov. 4th, the Philadelphia Police Department released the official body camera footage of the shooting, which was undeniably disturbing.
There are two schools of thought about whether videos of police killing Black men should be released. One says they should, because they raise awareness about police brutality and systemic racism, while another says no, because watching them could be traumatic, especially for Black and brown people.
Guest Layla A. Jones of WHYY’s Billy Penn explains about the mental health effects of viral police videos and what people who are traumatized by them can do to help themselves heal.