If
nothing else had already done it, the killing of George Floyd in
Minneapolis gave The Press all the opportunity it needed to fall on its
face, and it did. If not for the video provided by a civilian, there
would be nothing about the reporting of the act that we could trust. And
when it comes to video online, you can't even trust that.
We have heard about police brutality, and Floyd's background, and the result has been "protests" and rioting and looting around the country. But we have heard very little about the destruction of businesses, property, and lives, by the rioters.
That there is a complete disconnection between the death of Floyd and burning buildings around the United States is a fact almost universally absent from broadcast news reports and commentary. In fact, there are frequent attempts to legitimize the violence as an understandable response that is to be expected. But it's not.
Protests are understandable. Riots and vandalism are not.
This isn't the first police-caused death in Minneapolis. It isn't even the second, but you wouldn't know that from most of the reporting. In July of 2017, a white woman, Justine Damond, was killed by a black Minneapolis police officer, Mohammed Noor, after she had called police for help outside her home. The unarmed woman was shot as she approached the driver's side of the police cruiser.
It was nearly two years later that Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison, the exact charges that are being pressed in the current case. Her family also won a $20 million settlement from the city. "The Somali-American Police Association issued a statement after the verdict claiming that racial bias contributed to Noor's conviction."(ABC News)
Very little publicity accompanied the trial, but some facts did come out, including three complaints against Noor, a separate lawsuit against him for assault against a woman while on duty, and according to the Star Tribune, "Two months before the shooting, Noor pointed a gun at the head of a driver he had pulled over for a minor traffic violation."
Here is a description of the aftermath of the shooting, from Wikipedia. There is no mention of rioting or looting. In fact, the only death was Damond's, and the only violation of property was when Minneapolis police obtained a controversial search warrant for Damond's home, in what appears to be an attempt to establish some culpability on her part for her own death:
"The day after the killing, a vigil in Damond's honor was held at the site of her death in the alleyway entrance located on the north side of West 51st Street between Xerxes Avenue South and Washburn Avenue South in Minneapolis. Several days after the killing, hundreds marched to Beard's Plaisance Park in Minneapolis, in honor of Damond. A memorial service for Damond was held on 11 August 2017, on the shore of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. The service was at the bandshell and there was a silent walk around the lake afterwards. It was attended by Damond's family and fiancé, and about 1000 mourners." (various sources)
There were two further consequences of the event. The Chief of Police lost her job within a week, and the Mayor lost her re-election bid the following year. But no looting, and no rioting.
But I said there was another case. One month before the Damond shooting, a trial ended in the acquittal of a St. Anthony, MN, police officer in the death of Philando Castile. That shooting had occurred in July, 2016. Although the officer was acquitted of manslaughter and two other firearms violations, the statement by the prosecutor was damning. The families involved received a $3.8 million settlement for wrongful death.
Instead of providing any of this context, The Press has been giving us pictures of burning buildings and of public officials making pious statements, none of which mentions the lives and livelihoods destroyed by those fires. There is plenty to be angry about today, and the fact that cities across the country are unable to protect the lives and property of their citizens from rioters is a close second to the outrage of deaths of other citizens at the hands of police officers.
Some commentators have asked if Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia would have been killed if they had not been black. No one knows, but the Damond case shows that it can happen to almost anybody, at least in Minnesota. I don't meant to make light of that. Minnesota has a serious problem that they have had ample opportunities to address. Three police officers charged in the shooting deaths of civilians in the span of four years.
The questions now become, Is it peculiar to Minnesota, and why does it seem insoluble?
O'Reilly has a suggestion.
https://www.billoreilly.com/b/Its-…/-675708398980295057.html
Here's another one.
https://www.nytimes.com/…/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd.html
We have heard about police brutality, and Floyd's background, and the result has been "protests" and rioting and looting around the country. But we have heard very little about the destruction of businesses, property, and lives, by the rioters.
That there is a complete disconnection between the death of Floyd and burning buildings around the United States is a fact almost universally absent from broadcast news reports and commentary. In fact, there are frequent attempts to legitimize the violence as an understandable response that is to be expected. But it's not.
Protests are understandable. Riots and vandalism are not.
This isn't the first police-caused death in Minneapolis. It isn't even the second, but you wouldn't know that from most of the reporting. In July of 2017, a white woman, Justine Damond, was killed by a black Minneapolis police officer, Mohammed Noor, after she had called police for help outside her home. The unarmed woman was shot as she approached the driver's side of the police cruiser.
It was nearly two years later that Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison, the exact charges that are being pressed in the current case. Her family also won a $20 million settlement from the city. "The Somali-American Police Association issued a statement after the verdict claiming that racial bias contributed to Noor's conviction."(ABC News)
Very little publicity accompanied the trial, but some facts did come out, including three complaints against Noor, a separate lawsuit against him for assault against a woman while on duty, and according to the Star Tribune, "Two months before the shooting, Noor pointed a gun at the head of a driver he had pulled over for a minor traffic violation."
Here is a description of the aftermath of the shooting, from Wikipedia. There is no mention of rioting or looting. In fact, the only death was Damond's, and the only violation of property was when Minneapolis police obtained a controversial search warrant for Damond's home, in what appears to be an attempt to establish some culpability on her part for her own death:
"The day after the killing, a vigil in Damond's honor was held at the site of her death in the alleyway entrance located on the north side of West 51st Street between Xerxes Avenue South and Washburn Avenue South in Minneapolis. Several days after the killing, hundreds marched to Beard's Plaisance Park in Minneapolis, in honor of Damond. A memorial service for Damond was held on 11 August 2017, on the shore of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. The service was at the bandshell and there was a silent walk around the lake afterwards. It was attended by Damond's family and fiancé, and about 1000 mourners." (various sources)
There were two further consequences of the event. The Chief of Police lost her job within a week, and the Mayor lost her re-election bid the following year. But no looting, and no rioting.
But I said there was another case. One month before the Damond shooting, a trial ended in the acquittal of a St. Anthony, MN, police officer in the death of Philando Castile. That shooting had occurred in July, 2016. Although the officer was acquitted of manslaughter and two other firearms violations, the statement by the prosecutor was damning. The families involved received a $3.8 million settlement for wrongful death.
Instead of providing any of this context, The Press has been giving us pictures of burning buildings and of public officials making pious statements, none of which mentions the lives and livelihoods destroyed by those fires. There is plenty to be angry about today, and the fact that cities across the country are unable to protect the lives and property of their citizens from rioters is a close second to the outrage of deaths of other citizens at the hands of police officers.
Some commentators have asked if Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia would have been killed if they had not been black. No one knows, but the Damond case shows that it can happen to almost anybody, at least in Minnesota. I don't meant to make light of that. Minnesota has a serious problem that they have had ample opportunities to address. Three police officers charged in the shooting deaths of civilians in the span of four years.
The questions now become, Is it peculiar to Minnesota, and why does it seem insoluble?
O'Reilly has a suggestion.
https://www.billoreilly.com/b/Its-…/-675708398980295057.html
Here's another one.
https://www.nytimes.com/…/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd.html
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