PUBLIC EMBARRASSMENT: We only discuss one species of death!

WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 2021

These are the ways Our Town rolls: We were struck, perhaps even a bit disappointed, by something we saw last night on cable TV's Maddow Show.

Maddow was speaking with Sherilyn Ifill, current head on the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund. 

According to our cynical staffers, Maddow was posing, as always. Whatever the truth of that may be, this exchange occurred:

MADDOW (5/25/21): Today, on the first anniversary of George Floyd's death, Mr. Floyd's family visited the president and vice president at the White House. They met with congressional leaders. They are attempting to use the momentum from this somber anniversary to try to move the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. This is a bill that's passed the House. It is currently stuck in the Senate. Mr. Floyd's family and frankly the Biden White House are trying everything they can to get it unstuck, to get it passed.

Sherrilyn Ifill leads the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The Legal Defense and Educational Fund at the NAACP is also marking this anniversary today by, among other things, reflecting on the progress toward police reform that has happened in the last year. The progress that's been made possible by the outcry and the protests that has happened ever since Floyd was killed.

She said this today online, she said, quote: "Much will be said about where things stand a year after the murder of George Floyd. Did protests make a difference? Has anything changed? The answer is yes. Is there much more to do and are we facing a strong backlash? Yes and yes."

Joining us now is Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Ms. Ifill, it's an honor to have you here tonight on this really big day. Thank you for being with us.

IFILL: Thank you, Rachel.

MADDOW: Tell me about the progress that you—that you see as having been made in the past year and what you think made that progress possible.

IFILL: Yes, it's important to take a moment and to recognize what shifts have happened because, you know, the truth is black people are still being killed by the police. They're being killed by police during the Derek Chauvin murder trial, after the Derek Chauvin murder trial. And so, I don't in any way want to suggest that we're out of the woods, or that the kinds of shifts that need to happen have happened...

The discussion continued from there.

For Maddow, it was an honor that Ifill was there on such a really big day. For ourselves, we were struck by Ifill's highlighted statement, which was of course perfectly accurate.

The statement was perfectly accurate! One year after George Floyd's death, black people are still being killed by police officers. 

Also, black people are still being killed by police officers even after the Chauvin trial. Those are just  statements of fact.

No one could say that those statements are false. Those statements are perfectly accurate.

It's also true that lots of people are still being killed, whether justifiably or not, by police officers. We were struck, and also a bit disappointed, to see Ifill address herself only to such decedents who are understood to be "black."

Let's cite one large subset of such decedents. According to the Washington Post's Fatal Force site, just under three people per day are shot and killed by police officers somewhere in the U.S.

Just under three per day! And yes, this pattern continues even after the Chauvin trial.

According to that site, just over half of those decedents are "white;" roughly one quarter are "black." But in recent years, Our Town has adopted the practice Ifill displayed last night—a practice in which we only discuss such incidents if the decedent is black.

By any traditional norm, that's an astonishing way to do business. It's also very much the way Our Town currently rolls.

It's very much the way Our Town's deeply flawed news orgs roll. Despondent experts routinely say there's no other way our deeply flawed species can hope to do business, given the way our deeply imperfect human brains are wired.

We were a bit disappointed in Ifill's remark because we've actually met her. Long ago and far away, we did radio with Ifill on one or perhaps on several occasions. 

She wasn't a huge public figure back then. What she was was extremely sharp.

(We refer to the now-defunct Marc Steiner Show. In 2013, The Nation selected it as the country's Most Valuable Radio Program.)

You rarely run into people that sharp. It disappoints us to see someone so sharp adopt this new tribal practice. We don't expect better from Maddow, who recently expanded on her account of why she never owned a TV set until she and Susan got blackout drunk and ordered a TV set online while they were in that state.

(The network backed her up on that rather strange claim. This is also the way Our Town rolls!)

One other way in which Our Town rolls involve the essay by Talmon Joseph Smith in last weekend's Sunday Review. While still in high school, Smith was stopped by police while driving his parents' SUV, but the white girls got him off.

(For Smith's text concerning the incident, see yesterday's report. The white girls were well-dressed.)

That traffic stop could have ended as one recently ended for Daunte Wright, Smith wrote in his essay. And yes, that certainly could have happened!

It especially could have ended that way if Smith had outstanding warrants on gun charges, and if Smith had then tried to avoid arrest by driving away. Also, if one of the officers had the misfortune of making a tragic mistake, as seems to have happened in the tragic case of Wright.

Smith's highly selective presentation is one other way Our Town rolls. His essay appeared in the New York Times, a newspaper which isn't inclined to tell you why Wright was being arrested that day. 

That said, the sanitization of these incidents—these incidents which are selected for your attention on the basis of "race"—is a major and remarkable part of the way Our Town currently rolls.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but this is the best Our Town can hope to do, or at least so we've been told.

Our brains aren't wired for post-Enlightenment "rational" conduct, major top experts persistently tell us. This even explains why we can't get straight talk about Godel's incompleteness theorems, or at least so we've come to suspect.

More tomorrow on the sanitization of these extremely high-profile fatal events. It has become a mandated part of the way Our Town currently rolls.

This is all Our Town is capable of. Top major scholars have said that!

Tomorrow: Reverend Barber remembers


53 comments:

  1. "We were struck, and also a bit disappointed, to see Ifill address herself only to such decedents who are understood to be "black."

    Somerby is an idiot. He himself highlighted the part of Ifill's statement where she was introduced as "Sherrilyn Ifill leads the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund." That means that her concern in her job is the wellbeing of black people -- not people of all ethnicities. Of course, she is going to mention that black people are still being killed by police, on this anniversary of Floyd's death. That is her role and her struggle, and her full-time paid job.

    If Somerby wants to bemoan the white people killed by cops, he can call upon the Proud Boys, or the NAAWP (an organization that doesn't exist because apparently no white people care about this abuse of authority against white people).

    Blaming black people for caring about racism against black citizens by saying that they care insufficiently about racism against white people, just makes no sense at all.

    Somerby know he has no leg to stand on if he tries to pretend that these black deaths are not happening, so he instead attacks Ifill and the NAACP for being an organization specific to black problems. That is about as ridiculous as it gets on the right, and Somerby cannot pretend to be anything other than an apologist for right-wing concerns.

    And then he pretends that us liberals don't think too good. What an asshole!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your assumption about NAACP is incorrect, you should always check your premise before building a tower on top of it.

      "The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of minority citizens of the United States".

      Delete
    2. Colored people refers to black people specifically. This is not the National Association for the Advancement of Minorities.

      Delete
    3. The phrase "people of color" is not the same as "colored people" which was a synonym for Negro or black and did not refer to Hispanic or Asian or Indian people, as POC now does. Minorities are not a monolithic group. Women are considered a minority, as are people with disabilities and the elderly.

      Delete
    4. The fact that her organization works for black people is not a license to pander and mislead. Bob is correct.

      Delete
    5. The fact that the GOP works for white people is not a license for Republicans to pander and lie.

      Delete
    6. Isiyku Abdulahi
      My ex-boyfriend dumped me one week ago after I accused him of seeing someone else and insulting him. I want him back in my life but he refuse to have any contact with me. I was so confuse and don’t know what to do, so I reach to the Internet for help and I saw a testimony of how a spell caster help them to get their ex back so I contact the spell caster and explain my problem to him and he cast a spell for me and assure me of 2 days that my ex will return to me and to my greatest surprise the third day my ex came knocking on my door and beg for forgiveness. I am so happy that my love is back again and not only that, we are about to get married. Once again thank you Dr Believe. You are truly talented and gifted.He is the only answer. He can be of great help and I will not stop talking about him because he is a wonderful man. Contact this great love spell caster for your relationship or marriage problem to be solved today via email: believelovespelltemple@gmail.com or WhatsApp: +19713839183














      Isiyku Abdulahi
      My ex-boyfriend dumped me one week ago after I accused him of seeing someone else and insulting him. I want him back in my life but he refuse to have any contact with me. I was so confuse and don’t know what to do, so I reach to the Internet for help and I saw a testimony of how a spell caster help them to get their ex back so I contact the spell caster and explain my problem to him and he cast a spell for me and assure me of 2 days that my ex will return to me and to my greatest surprise the third day my ex came knocking on my door and beg for forgiveness. I am so happy that my love is back again and not only that, we are about to get married. Once again thank you Dr Believe. You are truly talented and gifted.He is the only answer. He can be of great help and I will not stop talking about him because he is a wonderful man. Contact this great love spell caster for your relationship or marriage problem to be solved today via email: believelovespelltemple@gmail.com or WhatsApp: +19713839183


      Delete
    7. LOTTO, lottery,jackpot.
      Hello all my viewers, I am very happy for sharing this great testimonies,The best thing that has ever happened in my life is how I win the lottery euro million mega jackpot. I am a Woman who believe that one day I will win the lottery. finally my dreams came through when I email believelovespelltemple@gmail.com and tell him I need the lottery numbers. I have spend so much money on ticket just to make sure I win. But I never know that winning was so easy until the day I meant the spell caster online which so many people has talked about that he is very great in casting lottery spell, . so I decide to give it a try.I contacted this great Dr Believe and he did a spell and he gave me the winning lottery numbers. But believe me when the draws were out I was among winners. I win 30,000 million Dollar. Dr Believe truly you are the best, all thanks to you forever










      LOTTO, lottery,jackpot.
      Hello all my viewers, I am very happy for sharing this great testimonies,The best thing that has ever happened in my life is how I win the lottery euro million mega jackpot. I am a Woman who believe that one day I will win the lottery. finally my dreams came through when I email believelovespelltemple@gmail.com and tell him I need the lottery numbers. I have spend so much money on ticket just to make sure I win. But I never know that winning was so easy until the day I meant the spell caster online which so many people has talked about that he is very great in casting lottery spell, . so I decide to give it a try.I contacted this great Dr Believe and he did a spell and he gave me the winning lottery numbers. But believe me when the draws were out I was among winners. I win 30,000 million Dollar. Dr Believe truly you are the best, all thanks to you forever

      Delete
  2. Back in the bad old days, Mexican and Mexican-American residents of present-day California were lynched from trees, just like blacks were in the South. So did Asians. Would it be right to try to reduce the significance of lynching as a form of terrorism against Southern blacks by claiming that lots of different people got lynched? If the occasional white cattle rustler was lynched, would that mean that lynching were not a means of social control of black people in the South?

    These are racist arguments that Somerby is raising today. His insistence that Ifill is wrong because she doesn't mention white police shootings is inappropriate given that the focus of her job and her appearance on Maddows show was abuses against black people specifically, because that is what her organization exists to address.

    If there were a guest talking about dental hygiene for children, addressing how parents can best teach their kids good dental habits, should Somerby complain that the pediatric dentist isn't talking enough about adults? In what universe!

    Somerby's goal is to minimize the threat to black people, not to obtain equality for white victims of cop shootings. His is a racist intent, defending the police and the status quo. This isn't about equal time for privileged white people. It is about denying attention to those who are the targets of police abuse of authority. Somerby reveals himself as the racist he is.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mocking your dembot girl Rachel is like shooting fish in a barrel, dear Bob. Leave her be, she needs money.

    Once again: what about the miracles happening at the place where Saint Floyd was martyred?

    And the UFOs, dear Bob, tell us about the UFOs, please.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What does Somerby mean by "one species of death?" If death has different "species," presumably death-by-cop is one of them. Death by covid is another. Death by natural causes, yet another. It would be wrong to refer to white versus black people's deaths as different species, not simply because black and white people are not two distinct species, but also because it is offensive to refer to them as such. But then, Somerby has been offensive a lot lately.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "It especially could have ended that way if Smith had outstanding warrants on gun charges,"

    Daunte Wright did not have outstanding warrants on gun charges. He had a misdemeanor warrant for missing a court date. Wright's public defender has stated that neither he nor Wright was informed of the court date they missed.

    Somerby keeps referring to made-up gun charges because it makes it seem like Wright had a gun on him and may have been menacing the cops with it when he was shot. That is untrue. It also makes it seem like the cops may have been worried about Wright's gun when they stopped him and shot him, but the warrant did not mention gun charges at all. It mentioned a missed court appearance.

    This is how Somerby puts his thumb on the scales.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. anon 11:31 - TDH discussed this previously, There was a Snopes item about Wright's history. This is the incident, as described in Snopes - Wright and another man were at a party. At 2:30 a.m., two women, who were the tenants in the apartment where the party took place, told Wright and his friend they should leave. The men said they had no rife, and the women agreed that they could stay the night. The next morning, one of the women went to the bank to get $820 for rent money. Wright and his friend, at gun point, demanded that the women hand the money over to them, and choked them. Wright was arrested and charged with first degree aggravated robbery, and was released on $100,000 bail. However, bail was revoked on the basis that Wright was alleged to have been in possession of a hand gun, in violation of his release on bail. A court hearing was scheduled, at which Wright didn't show up, and a warrant for his arrest was issued. This the warrant on which the officers attempted to arrest Wright sat the traffic stop. So your version of the facts is quite deficient.

      Delete
    2. But why do these liberal media outlets sanitize these incidents with a focus only on race? Why don't they bring up other races?

      Delete
    3. The woman said she thought Wright was joking. It is true that Wright's public defender said he was not informed of the hearing.

      Delete
    4. That is what he was charged with. Now, there won't ever be a trial. But TDH is right that it's painted so often that he was stopped for a minor traffic violation. If she thought he was joking, if that actually happened, why did she report it to the police?

      Delete
    5. Somerby is not right. He is exaggerating in the opposite direction in order to portray Daunte Wright as worse than he was, because Somerby wants to justify the cops. Wright was originally stopped for a stupid traffic violation and THEN they ran his license and found out about the warrant. The original stop was unjustified.

      As to why the woman at the party reported anything to the police, who knows? I certainly wasn't there. I just believe that Somerby should ALSO report all the facts, not just the ones that paint the picture he wants to portray. He wasn't charge with robbery but with a gun possession charge and his warrant was for missing a zoom hearing that his lawyer says they were never informed of. It is a much muddier picture of drunken stupidity among young men, not the dangerous criminal Somerby wishes to tell us about. Daunte Wright was shot for trying to drive away, not for waving a gun at officers, and he shouldn't have been stopped in the first place, and wouldn't have been, except he was black.

      Delete
  6. Somerby thinks that if he calls Ifill "very sharp" then it is OK to go on and malign her in whatever way he wishes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but this is the best Our Town can hope to do, or at least so we've been told."

    About 10+ years ago, Somerby talked about this poem by Robert Frost, attributing it to him. Today, he doesn't bother giving credit to the author when he lifts phrases from Frost, such as this one: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep..."

    Lifting phrases from other authors and pretending they are your own is called plagiarism. Somerby needs to stop this misuse of other people's work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would be more interesting to address why faux-liberal media sanitizes these incidents which are selected to focus their audience's attention on race. Why don't they bring other races into it? Why is it only blacks?

      Delete
    2. @2:44, you do realize the comment you responded to is about Robert Frost and not race?

      Delete
    3. Yes. That's the point. The comment about Robert Frost is in response to a column about liberal media sanitizing these murders only to focus their audience's attention on race. The Frost comment avoids the issue. It's a strawman. That's my point.

      Disproportionality is *never* mentioned. Bad try. You lose again. You always lose.

      Delete
    4. 5:47,
      Sanitizing the gun owners. You'd think the corporate-owned press would mention the lack of good guys with guns in each and every one of these instances.
      It's not necessary to take a jab at the goofballs who say the 2nd Amendment is to fight the tyranny of the government, but it too would be nice.

      Delete
    5. "Disproportionality is *never* mentioned."

      Right, that is Somerby's fault. He has been avoiding this issue continually but it is what makes his arguments specious and racist.

      Delete
    6. This is the kind of impotent remark a commenter makes when he has no arguments left.

      Delete
    7. True. I have no arguments left for someone who pathetically reasons like an 8 year old. Talk about specious. You're obtuse!!

      Delete
  8. This does raise the question how this bill would somehow keep only Blacks from dying during cop encounters while leaving the other non-Black 75% of incidents unaffected.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That isn’t its purpose. But it contains language to address bias:

      “It [the bill]establishes a framework to prevent and remedy racial profiling by law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels.”

      “...it [the bill] directs DOJ to create uniform accreditation standards for law enforcement agencies and requires law enforcement officers to complete training on racial profiling, implicit bias, and the duty to intervene when another officer uses excessive force.”
      https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7120

      Also: “The bill creates a national registry—the National Police Misconduct Registry—to compile data on complaints and records of police misconduct. It also establishes new reporting requirements, including on the use of force, officer misconduct, and routine policing practices (e.g., stops and searches).”

      A national database mandated by the Feds would allow these incidents (not just ones involving deadly force) to be analyzed for evidence of bias.

      This kind of thing shouldn’t be left to the incomplete, volunteer effort of the Washington Post.

      Of course the bill is also designed to help where the victims are white, because it circumscribes police behavior in general, such as no-knock warrants.

      Delete
    2. A de-funded police rises all boats, as it were.

      Delete
  9. Also, never discussed or even noticed: Black people kill black people on a daily basis, many times more than what the police do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And white people kill white people on a daily basis, many more times than what the police do.

      Also, Al Quaeda is much more honest on a daily basis than a Right-winger is.

      Delete
    2. The commenters here could not give a single shit about black on black murders or black poverty. Those issue don't even exist to them.

      All that is real to them is what they see on TV and read in their balkanized news feeds.

      Delete
    3. "The whole mega-narrative about police racism is based on certain incidents of white cops killing blacks."

      So not about the harassment of blacks by police officers, unaccountable police, the white-washing of police shootings by prosecutors who depend on them, and/ or qualified immunity (which costs the municipalities millions, but doesn't touch police budgets)?
      Thanks, I feel so better informed now. (sarcasm)

      Delete
    4. anon 3:21, do you have any evidence the shortcomings you claim to know so much about don't apply just the same in cops treatment of whites? Do you have actual experience with the system? And your take on the situation isn't what the vast bulk of the narrative has been - its about police homicides overwhelmingly. Back in the 50's and 60's, the situation was stark, and laws were changed. Now, there is an enormous effort to paint the picture like it was back then, objectivity be damned.

      Delete
    5. AC/MA -- you can tell by the statistics

      You can also read some sociology. The black experience with the justice system is very different than the white one and many people have written about it.

      Now, the Washington Post has been keeping statistics on shootings and that provides an objective measure of what is happening NOW.

      Delete
    6. AC/MA

      The issue is that Somerby is a Trumptard, so he has a clear preference for the way things were in the 50s and 60s, and seems to think (using the term losely) that is the way things ought to be.

      Delete
  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ifill and the other NAACP lawyers should come up with a bill that would reduce the super-high rate of violent crimes committed by Blacks so that their victims won't have to call the cops so much. Or as I have proposed, these victims need the option of calling an all-Black force to protect them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How is this relevant to the George Floyd or Daunte Wright incidents?

      Delete
    2. Most of the incidents a have been the result of someone calling the cops (usually a Black victim).

      Delete
    3. Black people have been calling for programs that reduce poverty in black neighborhoods for more than half a century.
      It must be exhausting to not notice.

      Delete
    4. "programs that reduce poverty in black neighborhoods" - something idiot, white BLM faux-liberals could care less about and never bring up.

      Delete
    5. "programs that reduce poverty in black neighborhoods"

      Maddow would eat a car before she ever talked about that on TV. In her world, poverty in black neighborhoods does not exist. Unless it can be trotted out to demonize Republicans.

      Delete
    6. Republicans should be demonized because they are responsible for the persistence of black poverty.

      Delete
    7. Leave the worrying about what Maddow says to the President of the Women Haters Club, who runs this blog.
      The fact is, every "black on black murder" whatabouter also refuses to talk about it. BLM and the black community? They talk about it all the time.
      Now you know.

      Delete
    8. White BLM faux-liberals could care less about and never bring up programs that reduce poverty in black neighborhoods. Their focus on police on black murder is faux.

      Delete
    9. 5:42,
      Take your head out of your ass, it'll be easier to see.

      Delete
    10. BLM calls for defunding the police so that money can be redirected to social services that will address poverty. What did you think "defund the police" meant? Do you think that is a slogan that originated outside of BLM?

      https://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11510274/black-on-black-crime-poverty

      https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2015/12/14/the-other-side-of-black-lives-matter/

      https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/essay/poverty-pandemic-police-violence-in-us

      Delete
  12. 'Our brains aren't wired for post-Enlightenment "rational" conduct, '

    Naturally not. Your brain (using the term loosely) is wired to worship Donald Trump, and defend Roy Moore, Ron Johnson, Matt Gaetz and Devin Nunes. In short, it's the classical Trumptard 'brain'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob does not worship these people. He thinks he is too high above them to critique them in any serious way. Therefore he only looks at half of “our Town”, so what he has to offer is slanted and of limited use.

      Delete
  13. Isiyku Abdulahi
    My ex-boyfriend dumped me one week ago after I accused him of seeing someone else and insulting him. I want him back in my life but he refuse to have any contact with me. I was so confuse and don’t know what to do, so I reach to the Internet for help and I saw a testimony of how a spell caster help them to get their ex back so I contact the spell caster and explain my problem to him and he cast a spell for me and assure me of 2 days that my ex will return to me and to my greatest surprise the third day my ex came knocking on my door and beg for forgiveness. I am so happy that my love is back again and not only that, we are about to get married. Once again thank you Dr Believe. You are truly talented and gifted.He is the only answer. He can be of great help and I will not stop talking about him because he is a wonderful man. Contact this great love spell caster for your relationship or marriage problem to be solved today via email: believelovespelltemple@gmail.com or WhatsApp: +19713839183


    ReplyDelete
  14. LOTTO, lottery,jackpot.
    Hello all my viewers, I am very happy for sharing this great testimonies,The best thing that has ever happened in my life is how I win the lottery euro million mega jackpot. I am a Woman who believe that one day I will win the lottery. finally my dreams came through when I email believelovespelltemple@gmail.com and tell him I need the lottery numbers. I have spend so much money on ticket just to make sure I win. But I never know that winning was so easy until the day I meant the spell caster online which so many people has talked about that he is very great in casting lottery spell, . so I decide to give it a try.I contacted this great Dr Believe and he did a spell and he gave me the winning lottery numbers. But believe me when the draws were out I was among winners. I win 30,000 million Dollar. Dr Believe truly you are the best, all thanks to you forever

    ReplyDelete