Copaganda: Police Trials as a State and Media Kettling Tool

A Collaborative Toolkit Created by MediaJustice and MPD150

This toolkit was created in collaboration with MediaJustice and their ongoing work to combat disinformation as a resource for people and organizations engaging in work to dismantle, defund, and abolish systems of policing and carceral punishment, while also navigating trials of police officers who murder people in our communities.

Trials are not tools of abolition; rather, they are a (rarely) enforced consequence within the current system under the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) for people who murder while working as police officers. Police are rarely charged when they commit these murders and even less so when the victim is Black. We at MPD150 are committed to the deconstruction of the PIC in its entirety and until this is accomplished, we also honor the need for people who are employed as police officers to be held to the same laws they weaponize against our communities.

You can download a PDF of the toolkit here and use the social media graphics below to share this information with your networks.

Social Media Graphics

All of the follow graphics are included in the ZIP file, which you can download here.

(1) Copaganda Title Graphic

(2 – 6) Key Definitions (cover graphic + separate graphic for each definition)

  • Misinformation
  • Disinformation
  • Malinformation
  • Racialized Disinformation

(7 – 10) Kettling as a State Media Tactic: Crowd-control & Information-control (cover graphic + descriptions)

  • Overview of Kettling
  • Kettling in Protests
  • Kettling as a Media Tactic

(11 – 18) Media Manipulation in Police Trials: Common Patterns (cover graphic + separate graphic for each bullet point + summary)

  • Media will put the dead on trial…
  • The media will most often feature…
  • If community leaders…
  • Media will repeat the police’s…
  • Media will frame protests as “riots”…
  • Right-wing or conservative media…

(19 – 25) Strategies for Responding to Mis/Disinformation & Media Manipulation (cover graphic + separate graphic for each bullet point + summary)

  • Organize with your community…
  • Ground yourself and what you share…
  • Follow and share the work of…
  • Look for on-the-ground coverage…
  • Remember to humanize information…

(26 – 33) Reminders to Support Our Whole Selves (cover graphic + intro + separate graphic for each bullet point + summary)

  • Continually processing…
  • Remember that we all…
  • This can look different for everyone…
  • Take breaks and take turns…
  • Connect with…