DOGMA AND TOWN: He was shot and killed by Seattle police!

TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2021

These claims appeared in the Post: The column appeared last Friday—on Friday, March 5—in print editions of the Washington Post.

The column appeared at the top of page A21, the page which carried the header FRIDAY OPINION. Accompanied by a photograph, it dominated the page.

Despite the bungled journalistic practices it would place on display, the column concerned a very important topic. Hard-copy headline included, this is the way it began:

BRISCOE (3/5/21): When your loved one is killed by the police

I’ve gotten the worst call of a lifetime three times in my life. The first one came in 2001, when I was told that Himey—my best friend and the man I wish I’d married—had been shot and killed. The second came in 2010, when my son Donald—a great student who dreamed of being a film producer—had been fatally shot in the head. The most recent was in 2016, when Che—my big brother and protector—was shot seven times by police, handcuffed, and left to bleed out for six and a half minutes before aid was administered or paramedics arrived. When aid finally came, it was too late. Another person I loved, killed by a gun.

The aftermath of each of those shootings was remarkably similar: the pain, the loss, the stigma. And yet, there was one important difference: how justice was, or was not, done.

The column was written by DeVitta Briscoe, identified as "a member of the Everytown Survivor Network and the acting director of Not This Time!" 

Briscoe's column would focus on the shooting death of her brother, Che Taylor. In February 2016, Taylor was shot and killed by two Seattle police officers.

Stating the obvious, the general topic of police shooting deaths is a very significant topic. Starting in 2015, the Washington Post had performed a major service though the creation of its Fatal Force web site—a site which tracks the number and nature of all such deaths across the United States.

In this instance, Briscoe's column began with a remarkable bit of personal history. Over the course of the past twenty years, she has experienced the shooting deaths of three loved ones—of a son, of a best friend and most recently of a brother.

Her brother, Che Taylor, was shot and killed in 2016 by two police officers. Briscoe's column would focus on that shooting death. The column continued as shown:

BRISCOE (continuing directly):  Himey and Donald’s killers were convicted and are in jail, paying their debt to society. Che’s killers can still be paid to protect and serve us, despite the fact that they shot him within nine seconds of approaching him, while he complied with orders, and then blamed it on him reaching for a gun in his waistband. There was no gun in his waistband.

This is a familiar scenario in police killings...

According to Briscoe's account, the police officers who shot her brother are still on the job. 

They had blamed their actions "on [her brother] reaching for a gun in his waistband." That said, "There was no gun in his waistband," Briscoe now said. Rather plainly, she was implying that the officers;' account had been false.

As she continued, Briscoe said this is "a familiar scenario in police killings." At that point, she cited several well-known shooting death incidents, in all of which the person who died was black.

In print editions, this column was given a prominent platform by the Washington Post. It's abundantly clear what Briscoe was saying about her brother's death—and about such shooting deaths in general.

The police officers had said that her brother went for a gun—but there was no fun in his waistband. In publishing Briscoe's column, the Washington Post was giving high prominence to a very familiar story.

It dealt with a very important topic. If only for that very reason, it's astonishing that the Washington Post would put this column in print.

The Post should be ashamed of itself for putting this column in print. That said:

In doing so—in publishing that account of the facts—the Washington Post helped us see one of the ways "journalism" currently works here in the streets of Our Town.

To what extent is our nation's modern journalism "Storyline all the way down?" To what extent do the major newspapers of Our Own Town traffic in preapproved, novelized tales instead of in actual facts?

We all can see the various ways in which news orgs in The Others' towns traffic in massaged, phony claims. To what extent do we play the same reindeer games Over Here, in the streets of Our Town?

Anthropologists say this is bred in the bone. We'll examine this topic all week.

Tomorrow: Today we have clicking of links


44 comments:

  1. Frpm today's NYT:

    "A major new lawsuit filed Tuesday could force fundamental changes to how New York City’s public school students are admitted into selective schools, and marked the latest front in a growing political, activist and now legal movement to confront inequality in the nation’s largest school system.

    Even if the suit, brought by civil rights attorneys and student plaintiffs in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, does not upend the city’s admissions system, it will likely prompt scrutiny of New York’s school system, considered among the most racially and socioeconomically segregated in the country."

    This may be why Mayor de Blasio was trying to reform admissions for the selective high schools. It seems likely those behind this suit tried to negotiate change before initiating this suit and the mayor was trying to head it off.

    The fact that there are students and parents, as well as activists, behind this suit suggests that the attempted reforms were not just a political stunt on de Blasio's part, as Somerby hinted.

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  2. This is a very odd "report" today. First, it uses the subjunctive tense, which not only sounds awkward, but is something Somerby hardly ever does. It also lacks his usual warm-up ramblings and stays largely focused on this particular news excerpt, again, something Somerby hardly ever does. I am toying with the idea that Somerby didn't write today's essay himself.

    Second, he wishes to imply that DeVitta Briscoe is lying about what happened to her brother. He doesn't come out and say so, but he juxtaposes her account with the police's and then says the Washington Post should be ashamed for printing her piece. Perhaps Somerby is worrying that he might be sued for libel if he calls her a liar, but his opinion is pretty clear.

    There are facts available in this case. Somerby doesn't present any of them, but here is a summary:

    https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/fatal-spd-shooting-of-che-taylor-inquest-jury-expected-to-return-soon_/502530530/

    Another fact is that this woman's relatives and friend are dead due to gun violence. She believes her brother was complying with officer requests and that they did not seek medical attention quickly enough, allowing him to die. She is entitled to her opinion on matters that are not established by evidence, as these two points are not. But when has Somerby every believed a woman in a "he said, she said" situation? But today he thinks she has no right to her say in print, that her side of things is a "novelized version" of storyline.

    Dismissing the views of those affected by police shootings and claiming they should not appear in print strikes me as suppression of dissent and complaint that should not happen in a free society. She is no crackpot. The NAACP supported her position. She deserves a voice. If Somerby doesn't like it, he can continue to place his fingers in his ears and hum "la la la, I can't hear you," as is his wont.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. anon, 9:52, I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if there opinion is that the earth is flat. However, Ms. Briscoe wasn't present at the scene of the incident - so her opinion is of limited value. The evidence seems to be that a gun was located under the victim's car seat; and that he was wearing a holster. There are many types of dishonesty. One type is to present a distorted account by omitting relevant considerations. Here, Ms. Briscoe leave out the part of there being a gun on the floor of the car. She disingenuously asserts there was no gun in his waistband, but leave out the other part. We don't like it when the right twists the facts, but you seem fine when the other side does it. I'd prefer if there would be more objectivity.

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    2. If there was no gun in his holster, the gun had to be somewhere else. Why does it matter where it was?

      Why would someone have a holster if they didn't have a gun? It doesn't seem to me that she left anything out or twisted anything.

      Somerby today leaves out all of the facts of this case, but that doesn't stop him from implying that she is lying and that the Washington Post shouldn't have printed her article, which is about gun deaths. Unless you are arguing that her brother didn't die or wasn't shot by police, I can't see how your quibbles matter one bit.

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    3. anon 9:52 and 6:24 - Briscoe used the term 'waist band' not holster. One cannot reasonably infer from a statement that 'no gun was found in the waist band' that Briscoe was being honest bringing out the fact that there was a gun in the car. You are twisting the facts. You ask why does it matter where the gun was. Not a very intelligent question. The gun was under the seat. That fact might tend to show that Taylor didn't actually try to pull a gun on the cops. The inquest jury answered many questions, and basically exonerated the cops. People like to form strong opinions in cases where facts are conflicting or are not known, and sometimes, like the case with Briscoe, they leave out important elements, or skew the facts. Narratives are formed based on selective or skewed versions of the facts, and so many jump on the bandwagon, and succumb to herd mentality.

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  3. John Oliver devoted a recent episode of his show to the damage being widely done by serving search warrants in drug cases, when police make mistakes and involve innocent people in their activities. He said that it was the use of such warrants that seemed at the heart of the matter and suggested that they not be used in drug cases.

    This episode also concerns drug enforcement and Che Taylor was found with drugs, later at the hospital. However, death should not be the penalty for dealing drugs and police are not judges or juries. If they cannot bring their suspects to justice without killing them in the process, they need to rethink drug enforcement activities. Was this attempted stop really necessary at this time and place? If they cannot apprehend suspects safely, something is wrong. These traffic stops seem as likely to go wrong as the search warrants.

    We cannot be in the position of second-guessing police procedures, but as long as police are permitted to produce fatal outcomes without legal jeopardy, there is little incentive for them to revise their approach to drug enforcement.

    Somerby, however, seems unwilling to entertain even that idea. He just wants the newspapers to stop presenting both sides of such matters. He apparently thinks only the police version deserves to be heard.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "DOGMA AND TOWN: He was shot and killed by Seattle police!"

    Che Taylor (why say "he"?) WAS shot and killed by Seattle police. That is a fact, so why is it linked with the word "Dogma" and why does his sister necessarily represent "Our Town"?

    This is how smears work. It takes a special kind of person to work this hard to smear a black woman for loving her brother (not to mention her son and best friend). Why doesn't Somerby ask how it comes about that one person loses three male figures in her life to gun deaths this way? That might trouble someone with an ounce of empathy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah, dear Bob, you read a whole lot of liberal-goebbelsian drivel. How do you survive it?

    A quick search reveals that:

    "Taylor, who was prohibited from carrying a handgun because he was convicted of rape, assault and robbery, was shot after a suspected drug deal February 21 in the 2000 block of Northeast 85th Street, part of Seattle's Ravenna neighborhood. Drug charges have not been field in the case.

    Officers recognized Taylor – also known as Marvin Hunter – the day of the incident because of “his extensive criminal behavior in the north end of Seattle and the Aurora corridor,” according to a search warrant affidavit.

    Taylor, 47, exited his black Dodge Magnum and officers said they saw a handgun in his waistband. They planned to apprehend Taylor when he returned to his vehicle.

    A white Ford Taurus arrived and Taylor sat in the front passenger seat. Officers said they briefly lost sight of him. He stepped out of the Taurus as officers moved in to make the arrest.

    Video shows Taylor crouching toward the passenger side floorboard and two officers simultaneously shooting. Two others in the Taurus were not injured.

    An occupant from the backseat told investigators that Taylor was observed “with a black 9mm handgun in his waistband and when officers were ordering them to put their hands up, Taylor wasn’t putting his hands up and instead began to pull the gun from his waistband and then the shooting occurred,” according to the affidavit."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Speaking of quick searches:
      Joseph Biden defeated Donald J. Trump by landslide in the general election.
      Witnesses say Trump trying to gaslight a viral pandemic like it was some common NY Times political reporter accepting bigotry as "economic anxiousness" led to the result.

      Delete
    2. Penalty for carrying a handgun after being prohibited is not death.

      Penalty for engaging in a drug deal is not death.

      Penalty for appearing to reach for something is not death.

      Since this guy was well known in the area, if they weren't sure whether he was armed, they could have waited and picked him up another time, instead of killing him.

      There is controversy about whether he reached for anything. There is also controversy about whether he was wearing a weapon or an empty holster, since the gun was not found on him but under the driver's seat of the car.

      No one is arguing that this guy was an angel, but interactions with the police shouldn't be a death sentence, even when criminals are involved. They chose to interact with Taylor after being told he was armed, and there were bystanders, who were not shot but could have been harmed. That all sounds premeditated to me.

      Delete
    3. What's taking this country so long to replace all the Robert E. Lee statues with Micah X. Johnson statues?
      If the people loved the 2nd Amendment and hated sedition as much as they say they do, this would have happened by now.

      Delete
    4. "interactions with the police shouldn't be a death sentence"

      Interactions with other citizens can be a death sentence because we live in a country where the right to self-defense exists. The cop has a right to defend himself and so do you if someone acts in a threating manner. It's the law everywhere on this planet. The benefit of the doubt is usually given to the cop or to the citizen who has responded in self-defense to crazy and/or threatening behavior. There is no right to do crazy and threatening behavior. The penalty usually isn't death, but it could be, so don't do it and don't encourage other people to do it.

      Delete
    5. The vagueness of saying that someone was reaching makes it difficult to tell what kind of situation has occurred. Giving the benefit of the doubt to cops in an unclear situation is the problem at hand. If crazy or threatening behavior had occurred, there wouldn't be controversy, but that isn't what happened. There isn't even agreement on whether this man failed to comply or "reached" for anything.

      Delete
    6. You blindly accept the incomplete version of the interested party But according to others there is more to the story. These are letters to the Washington Post that give more information:

      I just watched the police dash-cam video in the story you linked to. Your brother dove into the front passenger seat of a car while being ordered to freeze by three cops. He was shot. Inside that car on the front passenger seat was found a gun. The cops had probable cause to suspect a weapon because he was wearing an empty holster. As mentioned below, as a convicted felon, he was not permitted to have a gun, so why would he be wearing a holster?

      Your statement of "he had no gun in his waistband" is spurious - he dove toward a gun while cops were telling him to freeze.

      Your telling of the story lacks any credibility, and tying it actual cop tragedies soils them. She also failed to mention that even after her brother was shot, police had the presence of mind to extract two other people from the car without further shooting. Those two people complied with instructions.

      Delete
    7. The gun was under the passenger seat. Witnesses said Taylor complied with police instructions by freezing and raising his hands. I posted the link above:

      https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/fatal-spd-shooting-of-che-taylor-inquest-jury-expected-to-return-soon_/502530530/

      She did mention that the time they spent doing that and not calling for help is why her brother bled out.

      The problem with these situations is that you and Somerby are choosing your favorite versions of these so-called facts and not looking at the entire situation, which was described in the article I linked to.

      Delete
    8. From your post: Question No. 40 of 55 given to the jurors asked if Spaulding thought Taylor posed a threat of death or serious bodily injury when he shot. Seven jurors said yes. One said it was unknown.

      That's the jurors version, not mine.

      Delete
    9. This is utter bullshit from Mao and Gloucon.

      The female witness in the back seat had been involved in a drug deal and then speculated to the police as she was being interrogated that the victim had a gun and had fired at the police, but the victim had not fired at the police and the witness later said she could not see what was happening from her vantage point.

      The gun was found deep underneath the passenger seat, the victim was not reaching for a gun when approached by the police. If you watch the video, it is clear that the victim is trying to comply with the police by lying down (he was simultaneously being told to have his hands up). In all likelihood the victim did have a gun that he threw under the passenger seat when he saw the police car pull up with it's lights flashing.

      The victim was murdered by an out of control police officer. It is ridiculous to think that a person in that situation, surrounded by police with guns pointed at him, inches from his face, is going to grab a gun and engage in a shoot out. This happens in movies, in real life this almost never happens. Police can claim that they feared for their life, but this is almost never the case, and there is no reason to be servile to the police, who are not mandated to protect or serve us (look into what laws govern why and for what purpose the police exist, and their history - it is not for the good of society).

      Most of us have suffered the attempts of being brainwashed at a young age that the police are good and their authority must be bowed down to. This is total nonsense, most police are low iq, overly aggressive people, armed to fight a war that exists only in their fantasies. As adults we need to think for ourselves and not act like police cucks.

      The victim's family wound up receiving a $1.5 million settlement from the city, as police are protected from responsibility, but not the government.

      The victim was apparently a troubled person that led a troubled life, but he was murdered by the police for no good reason, and defending the police in theses kinds of actions not only means you are a fucking moron, but it also means you are a quaking in your boots, servile cuck to a group of fascists.


      Delete
    10. anon 7:12, police aren't a 'race', more like a category - but your statement about police being low iq, etc would amount to virulent racism if applied to blacks, say, possibly on how many more blacks are murdered by other blacks than by police. Neither angle is justified. There is a huge difference in the rate of police killings in the US than in other advanced (economicallyy) countries, so there is some type of problem, one of myriads of problems that exist; there's probably a number of reasons for this. Hopefully the upshot from the current hysteria might lead to less use of force by police, without any other unforeseeable adverse consequences. Another thing - it may be the case that police use of deadly force, may be less than it used to be years ago. An example, isn't it the case that there were multiple times more instances of police in New York City firing their weapons 40 or 50 years ago than is the case now? You claim the police murdered the victim here - yet the inquest jury who heard presumably more evidence than you did, exonerated them.

      Delete
    11. When blacks are an armed gang with largely legal immunity, your analogy will make more sense.

      Delete
    12. 9:43, your racism claim is idiotic, being a police officer is a profession, you don't test out higher iq's in the medical profession, but you do for the police force - if you score above a certain level yet still a relatively low score, their policy is to not hire you.

      btw, police make up only about 2 percent of the population, they kill and harm at much higher rates than even black on black crimes.

      The number of murders by the police has held steady for as long as the data has been collected.

      The inquest did not hear secret testimony and did not fully exonerate the police-it made a narrow decision due to the law being somewhat incoherent to everyday people; more evidence was presented towards a civil trial and as a consequence the city decided to settle, paying the family $1.5 million.

      You don't get your facts right, your arguments are poor, at least we know where you stand - on the wrong side of justice.

      Delete
  6. "The Police are brave first responders."

    Dogma or straight-up filthy lie?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or something in-between?

      Delete
    2. I'm so terribly lonely. I just want a little attention. I feel worthless.

      Delete
  7. I could not follow your reasoning here:
    "It dealt with a very important topic. If only for that very reason, it's astonishing that the Washington Post would put this column in print.

    The Post should be ashamed of itself for putting this column in print."

    Neither of those statements made much sense; you gave no reason or rationale for making them. And they seem to contradict each other. It's astonishing that the Post would print an article about an important subject? They should be ashamed for doing that?

    ReplyDelete
  8. The writer needs to work on changing her culture and to exercise better choices when deciding on a boyfriend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So, it is all her fault, then?

      That Seattle police officer needs to work on changing his police culture and to exercise better choices when deciding on a target.

      Delete
    2. Meh. This particular rapist and Darwin Award Laureate was her brother, not her boyfriend. It sounds like imbecility simply runs in the Briscoe-Taylor family.

      Delete
    3. As a social pariah I feel especially qualified to judge the social interactions of others

      Delete
    4. I get especially giddy whenever sex stuff gets mentionned...

      Delete
    5. Mao gets it.
      Black rapists are shot by the police.
      White rapists are elected President of the United States, or put on the Supreme Court by Republicans.

      Delete
  9. I like the taste of snot.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Being a Trump cult hang-around makes me fell less worthless.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Bob is making one claim explicitly and implying another.

    Claim #1
    This story where the facts are changed to suit a narrative doesn't belong in print.

    Claim #2
    Police testimony is always trustworthy and they are typical public servants like teachers who are misunderstood villains.

    Claim #1 could be right, I'm not an expert on the video so I don't know.

    Claim #2 is a self-serving lie from the cop lobby, who have Bob convinced that racist police don't fall prey to power trips, and might not exist.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Somerby has made this quite explicit:

      “A lot of people get shot and killed by police officers in the U.S. We'll repeat the points we feel we should make every day:

      As far as we know, no police misconduct is involved in the bulk of such cases.”
      http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-disappeared-and-dead-why-was.html

      the (largely imagined) intersections of "race" and crime and punishment.”
      http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2020/09/how-and-why-do-unarmed-women-get-shot.html

      Delete
    2. What Bobby fails to consider is that the ones he calls good cops, the older and better trained ones, ARENT ON THE STREET. They have enough clout to sit out the action. Hence, "jump out boys."

      Delete
    3. It is shocking that the police kill over a thousand people every year, but for Somerby it is ho hum. No doubt he is unmoved by the fact that the police are so violent they send over 50,000 people to the hospital every year. Somerby is just a repulsive person.

      Delete
    4. De-funding the police IS the compromise position.

      Delete
  12. The dash cam video is here:
    https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/jury-seattle-officers-considered-che-taylor-a-threat-before-fatal-shooting/281-406807826

    You really can’t see much clearly.

    A US District Judge had ordered a trial, ruling that there was at least enough of a question about the facts:

    “the only weapon found — a semiautomatic handgun — was under the passenger seat of the car Taylor had left, beneath debris and with the barrel pointing forward, making it difficult to grab, the judge concluded.”

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/spd-settles-che-taylor-wrongful-death-lawsuit-for-1-5-million-new-evidence-questioned-officers-claim-he-was-armed/

    The parties agreed to a settlement via mediation.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Taylor’s “crime”? Being a felon in unlawful possession of a handgun.

    What must the NRA think about losing your 2nd amendment rights simply because you committed a crime at some point in your life?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Who would choose to live in a country where you don't get to have a gun to fight the tyranny of the government (i.e. shoot the police)?

    ReplyDelete
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