THE MISREPORTED AND THE DEAD: The unmentioned and the never discussed!

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

Who was Bijan Ghaisar?:
As matters currently stand, this is no country for dispassionate men and women, be they old or young.

This is no country for people who want to avoid leaping to instant tribal conclusions. It's no country for those who believe in the older value of avoiding prejudgment of events and occurrences.

This is no country for any such women and men. It's now a country for thumbs-on-scales all the way down, as in this hysterical post by New York mag's Ed Kilgore.

It's now a country for web sites like Slate, which ran the following Q-and-A under the pair of headlines we include:
SUAREZ (8/31/20): Kenosha Police Already Had a Reputation
This didn’t start with Jacob Blake


[...]

SUAREZ: Kenosha is a city that’s, according to the Census Bureau, about 77 percent white, about 10 percent Black. It’s not one of these places that has a very large minority presence that’s created the kind of tensions that you see in nearby cities in Illinois and in Wisconsin itself.

BARTON: That’s absolutely true. And I think one thing that people need to know about the shooting of Jacob Blake, and people need to know about what’s going on with policing in Kenosha, is that since 2004, the police have not had a great relationship with basically anyone in Kenosha. Michael Bell, who was shot in the head and killed in 2004, was white. And our review of fatal police shootings in Kenosha since then shows that the majority of the people that police have fatally shot are white also. We know of one Black man who’s been fatally shot in Kenosha since 2003. But it seems to me that the police in Kenosha don’t have a great relationship with people of any race.
We're sorry to see Ray Suarez tangled up in a gong-show like that. But consider that statement by Gina Barton, an experienced investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel—a statement which produced that accusatory headline.

In our view, this should be no country for experienced "investigative reporters" who make such inflammatory remarks. According to Barton, the Kenosha police department "hasn't had a great relationship with basically anyone in Kenosha" in at least the past sixteen years.

More specifically, it seems to Barton that the Kenosha police "don’t have a great relationship with people of any race." She based this assessment on the fact that police offers in Kenosha have shot and killed five people in the past seventeen years, dating back to the year 2003.

For an American city of Kenosha's size, is that a lot or a little? We have no idea.

It also may be that Kenosha police have shot and killed five people in the past twenty or twenty-five years. But Barton starts counting in 2003. Here are the five (5) fatal shootings in question:
Fatal police shootings in Kenosha
Aaron Siler, 2015
Bobby Sherrod, 2005
Jonathan Lee Davis, 2004
Michael Bell, 2004
Kelly Combs, 2003
In another way of scoring those data, police officers in Kenosha have shot and killed one (1) person in the past fifteen years. As Barton notes at another point in her interview with Suarez, four of the five decedents have been white.

Kenosha police have shot and killed one (1) person in the past fifteen years. Does this suggest that Kenosha police "don’t have a great relationship with people of any race"—that they "have not had a great relationship with basically anyone in Kenosha" in the past sixteen years?

On so absurdly slender a basis, should a headline say that this police department "already had a reputation?" Those statements strike us as remarkable stretches, though in fairness they typify the work of the age

One fatal shooting in fifteen years; five in the past seventeen years (or more). So you can see what's frequently involved in such tragic events, here is the AP report of one of the fatal shootings from those earlier years:
ASSOCIATED PRESS (4/15/05): A police officer was justified in shooting a man who was walking around naked last month because the man appeared to be trying to hurt the children with him, also unclothed, a prosecutor said Thursday.

The officer believed Bobby Sherrod, 31, had just killed one of the children when he opened fire, Kenosha County District Attorney Robert Jambois said in calling Sherrod's shooting justifiable.

Officers Dave Monson and Luke Hoffman were dispatched to the area about 2:15 a.m. March 29 after police received a report about the man walking naked down the street with three naked children.

Jambois said Sherrod eventually put a scissors to his 14-month-old daughter and made an apparent attempt to break the neck of his 5-year-old son, causing the boy to fall "like a rag doll."

Monson reacted by shooting Sherrod twice and then shot seven more times when Sherrod reportedly tried to reach for the 14-month-old girl, who was clenched between Sherrod's legs.

"This officer's perception of the threat was that Bobby Sherrod had just murdered the child," Jambois said. "In his perception, the officer truly believed the child had been killed right in front of him."

The children were hurt but not seriously injured.

After the shooting, the 5-year-old told investigators that Sherrod drank shampoo, tore a sink from a wall and tried forcing some pills down his 3-year-old son's throat while they were at his home. Later, the boy also told authorities his father said "he was going to kill them."
According to the 5-year-old boy, his father had tried to force some pills down the throat of the 3-year-old boy. He then let the youngsters know that he was going to kill them.

According to the district attorney, the police officer thought the father had killed one child when he opened fire. These events were taking place at 2 o'clock in the morning. A busybody motorist had called police to the scene.

These are the kinds of stories you may encounter if you decide to review this nation's rather numerous instances of fatal police shootings. A certain percentage of other such stories will have a different feel.

We can't vouch for the accuracy of any statements in that AP report—not those of the 5-year-old boy, not those of the older district attorney. But that was the AP's account of one of the five fatal shootings of the past seventeen years, only one of which has taken place since 2005.

Does anyone think this fatal shooting gave Kenosha police a bad reputation? As noted, there has been only one other fatal shooting in the past fifteen years!

In our view, this would ideally be no country for "investigative reporters" who make such unbalanced yet tribally pleasing assessments. Ideally, this would be no country for slipping news orgs like Slate.

("My Wife Says I’m Not A Real Man Because I Won’t Do What She Wants In Bed." For Slate's extremely thoughtful assessment, go to Slate and start scrolling.)

Ideally, this would be no country for horseshit all the way down. That said, you go to tribal war with the flailing country you have.

Regarding the values of that country, here's the start of the Washington Post's most recent editorial, one of many, concerning the shooting death of Bijan Ghaisar, whose name you've never heard:
WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL (8/7/20): Will the stonewalling over the U.S. Park Police killing of Bijan Ghaisar ever end?

It has been nearly three years since a pair of officers shot Ghaisar, a young accountant, after a fender bender and a low-speed pursuit in the Virginia suburbs. He was unarmed and posed no plausible threat; the police opened fire after he had stopped three times, then pulled away, as they ran at him with guns drawn. He died 10 days later.

That was November 2017. Yet there has been no public accounting from any official source to explain why the police carried out what amounted to an execution. This week, Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), who have made repeated inquiries, again demanded answers, this time from David Vela, acting director of the National Park Service, which oversees the Park Police. His agency’s refusal so far to offer an explanation arises from what the senators correctly regard as “tenuous and incoherent legal arguments.”

[...]

The real reason for the Park Police stonewalling is apparent—a code of silence intended to protect its own, even when they gun down a man for no defensible reason.
Bijan Ghaisar was 25 when he was shot and killed. Ten shots were fired, four of which proved fatal.

The Washington Post editorial board has long described this fatal shooting as a virtual "execution," followed by a long-standing police cover-up.

The Washington Post is a widely-known daily newspaper. But despite the Post's endless attempts to call attention to this matter, despite the fact that major politicians have been involved in the case, very few people have ever heard Ghaisar's name.

The national press has never discussed this fatal shooting at all. This points to one of the unattractive, destructive ways the upper-end, "elite" press corps has been reporting such fatal shootings since at least 2012.

At this site, we've been reviewing the performance of the upper-end press corps since 1998. In our view, the handling of this important topic has been one of the most striking examples of upper-end misreporting in those twenty-two years.

Selective coverage of fatal shootings is only one of the major problems here. We'll examine the many aspects of this steady-state journalistic failure over the next few weeks.

Some fatal shootings get massively covered. Most are wholly ignored. Tomorrow, we'll briefly return to the late Bijan Ghasiar.

Also, who was John Geer?

Tomorrow: Standing unarmed, in broad daylight, right on his own front porch

Thursday: Shot dead in Shasta County

89 comments:

  1. "Jambois said Sherrod eventually put a scissors to his 14-month-old daughter and made an apparent attempt to break the neck of his 5-year-old son, causing the boy to fall "like a rag doll.""

    Yeah. You see, Cecelia? What good are written policies in this situation? What could you write in those policies that would help here?

    No. When they shoot it's always a judgement call.

    And they they are investigated. And of course the investigators do have written policies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ma0 ma0 * ,!, ,!,

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    2. No, argument, bro. I would have emptied two guns into him.

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    3. Yes, Cecelia, it is always best to just shoot mentally ill people. There is no discussion in what Somerby posts about what might have been done earlier in the standoff, or what encounters the man had with authorities before it reached that desperate situation. Somerby, of course, only focuses on the shooting, because he is only interested in showing that white folks get shot too, so no need to be concerned about black shootings.

      You have already revealed your character here Cecelia, in previous comments. I hope you are never mentally ill and needing help and no one around you has two guns to respond to your need. Shooting is always the easiest solution for some people, that's why so many are shot in domestic conflict situations.

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    4. Agreed that there should be better "non-lethal" ways to respond. However, tasers often don't work for shit. The gun worked just fine, though, and the kids are still alive.

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    5. Anonymous12:42pm, there absolutely is discussion here. Most of it is pretense and based upon quick and dirty accusations that Anonymices have at the ready against the blogger. The majority of which are not supposed by what has actually been blogged or reported in the links.

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    6. Reducing police brutality to shootings is dumb. Cops put over 50,000 people in the hospital every year, they harass people unnecessarily every day.

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    7. Republicans have no argument here so they are reduced to essentially saying "well they deserved to be shot". Republican just means fascist.

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    8. 2:27 Not arguing your point, but some of the whites the police shoot are legitimate acions. Some of the blacks as well, but for many if not most of the black shootings and harassment, it is motivated by racism, whether individual or institutional.

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    9. Anon 1:47: Cops put over 50,000 people in the hospital every year.

      In 2017, American citizens did bodily harm to 1,247,321 of their fellows while committing violent crimes,including 810,825 aggravated assaults which could be anything from a fist fight to attempted murder. They also put 17,284 of their fellow citizens in the grave. Who gets called to deal with these 1,247,321 violent criminals? Cops do. Having already shown themselves to be violent, many violently resist arrest just like Jacob Blake did when he forcefully fought with officers, including putting one of them in a headlock", while ignoring orders to drop his knife.

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    10. What are you reading? The knife was found on the floor of Blake's car. How could he drop a knife he wasn't even holding?

      As of 2017, homicides and other violent crimes were way down. They have risen in 2020 because of covid-related stress, while all other crimes (including property crimes) have decreased.

      When guys cite crime statistics, why don't they ever mention rapes and domestic violence? Are those not crimes and don't they count?

      More money invested in prevention would benefit both cops and all those people being assaulted (by each other and by cops). People shouldn't have to fear that if they call the police for help, someone will die.

      Delete
    11. "Cops put over 50,000 people in the hospital every year."

      Bullshit, dear dembots.

      Delete
    12. 2:54

      The vast majority of cop interactions are traffic stops. Cops rarely deal with active crimes, and they do not handle it well when they do. Being a cop is not dangerous, it is a public sector job that requires a level of competency and is subject to oversight, we put our trust in them to be competent - just like airplane pilots. If there were a few bad apples of airplane pilots that caused over 1k deaths and over 50k hospitalizations every year, no one would fly.

      The circumstances of Jacob Blake are unclear, the version making the rounds in right wing media is the officer's version. Regardless of the veracity of the "headlock" and "knife" accusations, cops should let tense situations defuse, let their targets walk away. Cop violence mostly happens during pursuits, cops need to stop pursuits unless absolutely necessary. Cops are not preventing crime when they commit their violence, what is happening is they are not in control of their aggression.

      Studies show black people are harassed by cops in daily ways that dwarfs what whites experience. Cops want more compliance from blacks, yet all they do is incite and instigate them, and then overreact with excessive aggression.

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    13. It does sound incredible to even Republicans and Trump supporters (they will exclaim "bullshit"), but it is a fact that cops send over 50k to the hospital every year.

      It is comical and yet poignant that Repubs and Trumpers are incredulous over a sad fact.

      Delete
    14. Fascinating, even a "not a right winger here at all" is incredulous.

      Only thing that comes out of my rear is bodily waste.

      JAMA study

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    15. 4:00

      I hear you, was skeptical too, but googled it and it is true.

      Delete
    16. It's bullshit, a typical liberal-goebbelsian lie.

      An ER visit and "put in the hospital" are two completely different things.

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    17. Framing's a bitch, eh?

      The fact remains cops send over 50k people to the hospital every year. They are sent there because the cops injured them enough to go to the hospital, and urgently so that they needed immediate care, thus the ER. Those aren't check ups for cholesterol. ERs are a part of hospitals - same thing, but if that makes you feel better, more power to you. See, we libs have empathy.

      Repubs and Trumpers are so desperate, they lose their minds defending the indefensible.

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    18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    19. It's not "the fact", dear dembot, it's a quote from some paper, for the years 2006-2012.

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    20. 40 million ER visits per year in the US overall, so this 50k is around .125 percent. Less than 1000 cases per week for a population of 330 million. Wonder how many of those were for drug overdoses?

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    21. Probably all of them are overdose, domestic violence, assaults, and such: "law enforcement–associated".

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    22. Many ER visits in general are for drug overdose, but most of the cases involving cops were injuries, over 1k of those 50k cases ended in death. Not sure why the per capita would matter, other than to minimize the issue, cops should not be sending anybody to the hospital, that is way more important an issue than a kid getting hurt at the soccer game or dad falling off the ladder. Those are random events, the happenstance of life, cop injuries are not, we employ and pay for cops, they should not be sending us to the hospital at any rate, much less the remarkably high rate they do.

      It was a study, not a paper, and it's methodology was legitimate.

      The fact is cops send over 50k people to the hospital every year.

      It is a sad fact; that aside, there is something delicious about how hard Trumpers want to deny the fact, just shows how significant it is. Interesting.

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    23. They were all legal intervention injuries, they were all caused by police.

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    24. Bullshit. Probably there's a checkbox on the ER form "law enforcement–associated", and they counted those.

      That doesn't mean "caused by police", and there is no checkbox "caused by police".

      It's all liberal bullshit.

      Delete
    25. "Reducing police brutality to shootings is dumb. Cops put over 50,000 people in the hospital every year, they harass people unnecessarily every day."
      Yes! This!
      I was about to post the same thing. We get bogged down in discussing the shape and sharpness of the tip of the iceberg, whereas most of it is below the surface.

      Delete
    26. There is a code for injuries caused by the police, and when checked it indicates injuries caused by police, unsurprisingly.

      The study's methodology is legitimate.

      I suppose in some weird way it is touching how desperate Trumpers are to deny the fact that the police send 50k people to the hospital every year. It sounds so bad it can't possibly be true, these foolish people say. As it so happens, it is indeed true.

      Delete
    27. How many of this 50k were just doing stupid, violent shit? Most if not all? Cops are just blue-collar people trying to make a paycheck and go home at the end of the day in one piece.

      Delete
    28. There is no way to know, but likely very few.

      Cops are overly-militarized, overly-aggressive authoritarians living out their cosplay fantasies. It is an ill-fated institution, starting with tracking down escaped slaves, to being hired guns for real estate developers.

      Delete
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  2. So, if white people are shot too, that means that there should be no concern about black shootings and the disproportionate statistics between black and white shootings?

    Somerby pretends he is just urging equal press coverage of these events (which are ALL widely covered at the local level). He actually seems to be complaining about the BLM movement because it doesn't explicitly include whites (although improvement of policing should benefit everyone). He is, by implication, echoing Trump's complaint that the very name BLM is discriminatory because it focuses on black lives.

    It is interesting that Somerby sees that father with the three kids as a perpetrator who justifies his own shooting by attacking his own kids. Somerby doesn't see him as another victim, most likely of depression or schizophrenia, perhaps exacerbated by drugs. Somerby doesn't suggest that there might have been a faster response and a better approach to defusing that man's agony and his kids' peril. For Somerby, it is only about excusing the cops -- you can tell by his language.

    Some of the racist public statements made by Kenosha police have been circulating on the internet. I thought perhaps Somerby was going to quote from them. One has the Kenosha Sheriff in 2018 stating publicly that poor blacks should be warehoused until this generation is gone, then the warehouses can be turned over to Amazon for use as a distribution center.

    https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/kenosha-sheriff-2018-black-shoplifters-should-be-warehoused-kept-having-children/662QXLGNLFBRVGWCOCPWMQHPD4/

    https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/2020/kenosha-police-funding-racism-jacob-blake/

    https://www.badgerinstitute.org/WIInterest/McA16.3.pdf

    Somerby thinks some white guy's killing should have gotten more attention, but he implies that the attention being devoted to real injustices experienced by black people is unmerited because whites get killed by cops too. And this is exactly the argument advanced by conservatives.

    But, but, but Somerby says he is a liberal! A liberal who spews right wing talking points as regularly as anyone at Fox or on right-wing talk radio.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Look at the flies that Somerby attracts with this kind of post.

      Delete
    2. https://nypost.com/2020/08/28/this-is-why-jacob-blake-had-a-warrant-out-for-his-arrest/

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    3. Mr. Blake was shot by the police because he's way better at de-escalating tensions.
      This hit was over professional jealousy.

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    4. Rupert Murdoch owns the New York Post, He's the same guy that owns Fox and other birdcage liners.

      Delete
    5. "Blake is accused in the criminal complaint, which was obtained by The Post, of breaking into the home of a woman he knew and sexually assaulting her.

      The victim, who is only identified by her initials in the paperwork, told police she was asleep in bed with one of her children when Blake came into the room around 6 a.m. and allegedly said, “I want my sh-t,” the record states.

      She told cops Blake then used his finger to sexually assault her, sniffed it and said, “Smells like you’ve been with other men,” the criminal complaint alleges."

      The woman "he knew" is the same woman he had three kids with. Those are the kids in the car when the officers tazed and shot him.

      This seems pretty unnecessary to me. The guy was no doubt angry, but he didn't even have a knife on his person. He perhaps believed that if he left, the cops would be appeased. No one was in any imminent danger except Blake.

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    6. You might want to hang on until the investigation is complete. From what is visible in the video there is a lot more going on. Those cops didn't get up that morning just to shoot somebody.

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    7. "No one was in any imminent danger except Blake."

      They why not prove your not a danger by cooperating
      rather than violently resisting cops pointing guns at you? Would entrust your life to such a person? A cop chose not to. He won't be indicted for refusing to entrust his life to someone who displayed violently insane behavior.

      Delete
    8. Violent resisting only occurs when cops are being violent themselves. The cops' violence may be justified, but usually it is not. It is common and natural to resist cops attacking you, in some cases it is instinctual or involuntary. Some cases involve mental health or drugs. Some cases involve racial bias. This is why cop aggression is so bad for society, and needs to be addressed. Cops need to learn how to deescalate, walk away, not demand submission.

      Cops should not have authority over our lives, yet that is how they singularly behave. Cops should protect and serve us, yet they treat us all like criminals. Cops should not be demanding people's cooperation, that is not their mandate. By not cooperating, cops assume you are a danger, yet that is almost never the case.

      Some personalities desire authority figures and authoritarian rule, those people need help, not the ability to shape our society.

      Delete
    9. Answer the question. Would entrust your life to such a person?

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    10. The evergreen leading question. First let me ask the question "when was the last time you beat your wife?"

      I suppose if my doctor happened to have resisted arrest at some point, yes I would entrust my life to such person. Why would I ever be in a circumstance to entrust my life to such person? It is an odd question, with no apparent ability to clarify anything, other than the motives of the one asking.

      Cops need to stop attacking people when they do not cooperate, stop demanding people cooperate, they need to walk away, need to defuse, deescalate. Cops are ruled by their aggression, yet their job is to serve and protect.

      Delete
    11. Answer the question. Would you entrust your life to Jacob Blake in that situation?

      Delete
    12. Unless he was a medical person and I had a medical condition, how could I? The question remains odd.

      In that situation, the cops should have not attacked, they should have defused the situation, they should not have pursued him. None of their actions were required for anyone's protection, no one was served. As usual they did not save any lives, and they almost ended one.

      Delete
    13. Glaucon X,
      After seeing how police treat the citizenry. I have to say, "Would you entrust the police with your life, if you're a black person?", is a better question.

      Delete
    14. Would a black cop entrust his/her life to Jacob Blake based on what was known of his violent criminal record and his violent behavior that situation? The mother of his own children who filed sexual assault charges against him and who called the cops because he stole her keys feared him and didn't trust him. Why should anybody else trust him?

      Delete
  3. "In our view, the handling of this important topic has been one of the most striking examples of upper-end misreporting in those twenty-two years."

    So, Floyd isn't dead? Blake isn't dead? Black people are not actually say "enough" (Basta! in Hispanic-talk) and taking to the streets? Trump isn't mishandling this whole situation by inciting alt-right violence? Rittenhouse didn't shoot three protesters in cold blood? Trump didn't send federal officers in unmarked cars to take protesters off the streets? The majority of people, white and black, aren't siding with BLM? Cops aren't resisting change? Trump isn't siding with the cops and vigilantes as a campaign tactic?

    Meanwhile, Somerby thinks that not enough press attention is being paid to white people's problems. Spoken just like a white supremacist piece of shit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blake isn't dead, troll. Resisted arrest, threatened officers with a knife, was known for carrying a gun. Rittenhouse shootings were obviously self-defense, too. Watch the videos, he was attacked by rioters, not "peaceful protestors".

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    2. Sorry, you are correct. He is JUST gravely injured, shot in the back in front of his children.

      I have watched the videos and Rittenhouse is a stone cold killer. You don't get to shoot someone for throwing a plastic bag in your direction, or for trying to apprehend you and take away your gun after you have shot someone for no reason.

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    3. One of the people Rittenhouse shot was a volunteer medic, not a looter or rioter. There is no evidence from the videos that Rittenhouse was protecting property or stopping looters. He was charged with intentional homicide by people with more facts than you @11:41.

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    4. Yeah, the "volunteer medic" (also a convicted domestic abuser) was trying to brain him with a skateboard. Such a "peaceful" guy.

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    5. So Blake deserves to be shot by the cops for being known to carry a gun, but Rittenhouse, who is known to carry a gun, is a hero to cops.

      The "economic anxiousness" of the police needs to be addressed..

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    6. Rittenhouse didn't have a sexual abuse warrant out for his arrest. Guess who did?

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    7. Are we shooting sex offenders now? When did that law get passed? Maligning the victim in a wrongful death doesn't excuse the cops involved.

      At the time Rittenhouse was accosted by the guy with the skateboard, who tried to take his gun away from him, Rittenhouse had already shot someone in cold blood. Disarming a shooter is an act of heroism, no matter what else that young man may have done or not done in his life.

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    8. Once again, Rittenhouse initially shot an attacker who was chasing him down. There was also another attacker who fired a weapon at him during the chase. Stop excusing the "peaceful protestors". They weren't trying to put a flower in his gun barrel.

      Delete
    9. This is not what is shown on the video. First he shot a protester for throwing a black plastic bag in his general direction. They he ran away and was chased by the guy with the skateboard and several others (with no one shooting at him). The guy with the skateboard tried to wrestle his gun away and Rittenhouse shot him and another bystander while sitting on the ground. Then he got up and walked toward police cars with his hands up and police ignored him so he fled back to IL. This is plainly visible on the videos.

      The right is now making up lots of stories to try to excuse and cover up his behavior, but that is difficult when anyone can watch those videos and see what happened. Slandering the victims changes nothing about what Rittenhouse did, nor does it excuse the cops for ignoring him and permitting him to go on with his gun to potentially murder others. Coward that he is, he ran back home and was caught there.

      @12:28, you are ignoring that Rittenhouse had already shot someone at the point that they were chasing him down. He is shown on video using his cell phone to tell someone that he just shot a guy. That is before he was chased down the street. They were trying to stop him from shooting any more people, unsuccessfully, since he then shot two more people, killing one. You are defending a cold-blooded murderer.

      Delete
    10. Rosenbaum was in full rage-ape mode when he attacked Rittenhouse. He's the instigator of events here. If he had been "peacefully protesting" instead he'd still be alive.

      Delete
    11. "Under Wisconsin statutes that say anyone under 18 who "goes armed" with any deadly weapon is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was not old enough to legally carry the assault-style rifle he had."

      The gun belonged to a friend who gave it to him for use at the rally.

      There is no such thing as "full rage-ape mode". This is a slander against a person who is dead and thus cannot defend himself (again). Rosenbaum was unarmed when he was shot by Rittenhouse.

      Delete
    12. Great job defending a 35 year old sex offender attacking a teenager. Also, go fuck yourself.

      Delete
    13. Also, go fuck yourself.

      That's the best argument you've got.

      Rittenhouse broke the law when he was in possession of the rifle; he broke the law when he crossed states lines to open carry in Wisconsin; he broke the law again when he pointed the gun at someone else, even a looter, as the law does not permit him to use force to protect other people's property; as the aggressor, he does not get to claim self-defense when he kills someone trying to disarm him.

      Delete
    14. Yep, the law doesn't side with rioters attacking and beating the shit out of people either. Were they only trying to make a citizen's arrest? Rittenhouse will walk from this.

      Delete
    15. Rittenmouse will walk because he has use of his legs, no one shot him, the police just stared off into space as he left the scene. He did not resist because he was allowed to walk away. With a gun in his hand. After shooting at people and killing a couple of them.

      Rittenmouse may walk but he better hold on to that bar of soap as tightly as he held that gun, or he may be walking with a grimace.

      Delete
    16. 3:53,
      Rittenhouse had a gun. That's a good enough reason to attack him. If you have a problem with that, take it up with Anonymous at 11:41. He's the one who thinks that's good enough reason to shoot him (in the back, even).

      Delete
    17. Yep, rioters attacking random people don't have the protection of the law. But Rittenhouse wasn't one of the victims. He killed someone who foolishly tried to disarm him after he unlawfully discharged a firearm. As the aggressor, self-defense isn't a defense available to him.

      Delete
    18. Kyle Rittenhose may be a Right-wing moron, but even he knows if black people get equality under the law, he loses some of his privilege (he calls them 'rights", but that's a whole other story).

      Delete
  4. "Tomorrow, we'll briefly return to the late Bijan Ghasiar.

    Also, who was John Geer?

    Tomorrow: Standing unarmed, in broad daylight, right on his own front porch

    Thursday: Shot dead in Shasta County"

    How many white shootings does Somerby think will excuse the killing of unarmed black people?

    To date, Somerby has refused to address the statistical differences in the killings of white versus black people. Why do I say "refused"? He seemingly refuses to read his comments, where these discrepancies have been pointed out several times, but more than that, he himself has chastised reporters for failing to adjust covid numbers by population size and for failing to show numbers of students by percentage of population when discussing integration of schools. But today, it is enough for Somerby that whites outnumber blacks in a city that is 10% black and 70% white (Kenosha). Somerby clearly knows better and yet he is deliberately confusing this issue by focusing on white people and asking why they don't get enough attention, when they are NOT being shot in disproportionately large numnbers compared to their % of the population. But, to Somerby, their deaths are clearly more important than the black deaths, because he wants them to be reported nationwide, even when there is no underlying disproportion or racial bias involved in their killings.

    Somerby appears to be trying to hoodwink us all into thinking that black people are not receiving more unjust treatment at the hands of police than white people. But that isn't true. And Somerby demonstrates that he may understand statistics but has no moral compunctions about breaking rules in their use when it benefits an argument he himself is trying to foist on unsuspecting readers here.

    And if he really believes his argument, then he is showing how racial bias can and does distort people's thinking, even a supposed liberal such as Somerby. Personally, I believe he is doing this on purpose to advance a conservative talking point. This just seems too hypocritical and obvious to be sincere.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You need to spend some time talking to Black police officers. They might have a different take on this.

      Delete
    2. They call it institutional racism because it doesn't depend only on the bias of individual cops.

      Delete
    3. Hmmm. Was Blake an institution or an individual when he made his decision to violently resist arrest?

      Delete
    4. In what way was he violent?

      Delete
    5. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-jacob-blake-officials-release-new-details-identify-two-more-cops-20200828-dhhvbg5iinb65a2vyk7ior27lu-story.html

      Delete
    6. According to this report, all he did was walk away from officers. Whatever knife he had was inside the car, not on his person. The charges against him all stem from his domestic dispute. Nothing he did justifies shooting him.

      Delete
    7. Yet, he got shot. Somebody must've thought him a threat.

      Delete
    8. @11:43 The point is not to excuse any shootings. The point is to correctly diagnose the problem.

      If the problem is widespread racism, than anti-racism programs might be useful. However, if the problem is poorly trained police, than anti-racism programs are a waste and a distraction.

      There's an unintended cost to anti-racism efforts. Anti-racism efforts lead to weaker policing in the inner city and more black murder victims. That's happening right now. The number of Black murder victims is skyrocketing in various cities throughout the country.

      Delete
    9. David,
      You've convinced me we need to defund the police, not waste our time debating whether Blake deserved to be shot.
      Thanks.

      Delete
    10. I don't normally agree with David, but his call to defund the police is right on.

      Delete
  5. “The national press has never discussed this fatal shooting at all.”

    Apparently, the Washington Post isn’t part of the national press, despite it being one of two newspapers (it and the NYT) that Somerby regularly criticizes.

    So their endless attempts to call attention to this matter are apparently the work of a local paper with no clout.

    And this despite the attention being paid by US Senators and these groups at a vigil on the two-year anniversary of his death:

    “In addition to acquaintances of Ghaisar, the gathering drew local, state, and federal politicians and representatives from civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, Mothers against Police Brutality, and Amnesty International.

    Just your run of the mill “liberal” groups that don’t really care about people like Ghaisar.

    (The NYT also reported on this story as soon as the video became available back in 2018, and is reporting currently on the ongoing efforts to hold the police accountable.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. “this is no country for dispassionate men and women”

    The Post editorial about Ghaisar quoted here certainly doesn’t sound dispassionate. It describes what the Park Police did as an “execution” and accuses the police of engaging in a coverup after gunning down a man “for no defensible reason.”

    That’s a lot of loaded language. Somerby took exception when Nicolle Wallace described Rittenhouse as an “assassin.”

    If one wanted to treat the WaPo editorial in a Somerby-esque fashion, one could note that the cops wanted Gaisar to pull over, he led them on a chase, and after he stopped, and the officer approached his vehicle, Ghaisar started to pull away. The cops said they acted in self-defense. Perhaps they felt he was going to run them down.

    Trump’s DOJ declined to file charges, saying they could not dispute the cops’ claim about self-defense.

    Just as Obama’s DOJ found no wrongdoing by Officer Wilson in the Brown case, perhaps we ought to be content with the decision of Trump’s DOJ in this case.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A post about the rioting and Fox News coverage of it:

    http://yastreblyansky.blogspot.com/2020/09/literary-corner-gothic-american.html

    Basically, the riots in NYC lasted a day, the ones in Minneapolis ended May 29, but Fox was still running images of them months later.

    Also, the monetary amount of damages in Portland seems to have been inflated.

    When I read stuff like this, it’s hard not to feel hoodwinked by Somerby and his demands that liberal media should report on this like Fox does, while he provides no fact checks of their coverage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. perhaps we ought to be content with the decision of Trump’s DOJ in this case.

      Bwahahahahaha!

      Good one.

      Delete
    2. mh,

      If you're "hoodwinked" by TDH, then you have only yourself to blame.

      TDH doesn't demand that liberal media should report like Fox does. He complains that they do report like Fox does -- filtering their reporting unfairly.

      Why would TDH fact-check Fox for their biased reporting? That would be like fact checking gravity to see if things still fall to the ground.

      Delete
    3. Yes both sides do it.

      Surely the degree to which society is crumbling is due to the narratives of media. Nothing to do with destructive capitalism or the greed of corporations or the rampant racism or the second coming of jesus.

      Am I being overblown? So is TDH, so much so, he has lost his utility.

      At least he can have a good laugh at our expense.

      Delete
    4. "Why would TDH fact-check Fox for their biased reporting?"

      Yeah. How would that hamstring "us liberals"? Instead, he'll stick to concern trolling liberals about things he's heard on FOX.

      Delete
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