Abstract
Video evidence of police aggression and assault on civil- ians has previously been considered irrefutable evidence of misconduct; its circulation contributes to the creation of “celebrated cases” of police brutality that draw attention because of their high-profile nature. In June 2015, You- Tube, Facebook and Twitter comments on a citizen- captured video of a police officer attempting to apprehend an African-American girl at a pool party in McKinney, Texas, trended as one incident in the #BlackLivesMatter movement’s canon of police mistreatment of African- American citizens. Through the lens of critical race theory, this qualitative content analysis triangulates data from three social media platforms to explore how users inter- preted the incident. This study develops insights on how a “celebrated case” of police brutality is constructed by social media audiences. It makes a significant contribution to the literature by focusing on the often-overlooked experiences of African-American women and girls as victims of police brutality.