13 votes

Daily thread for news/updates/discussion of George Floyd protests - June 13

Automatically posted
Tags: usa, recurring.daily, george floyd, police.brutality

This thread is posted daily - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most should be posted here.

11 comments

  1. [2]
    spit-evil-olive-tips
    Link
    I suppose in the Trump era we've all gotten used to public figures telling outright lies and there being no consequences...but I am still extremely pissed off at the police chief here in Seattle,...

    I suppose in the Trump era we've all gotten used to public figures telling outright lies and there being no consequences...but I am still extremely pissed off at the police chief here in Seattle, Carmen Best, saying this:

    Rapes, robberies and all sorts of violent acts have been occurring in the area and we're not able to get to

    This is easily fact-checkable, because anonymized crime data is publicly available. And it's complete bullshit.

    But meanwhile, the lie propagates throughout right-wing media, including to the National Review.

    She also said response times have more than tripled, from 5 minutes to 18 minutes. Where's the data for that? What's the sample size? Those are averages, what's the standard deviation?

    unrelated: Fox news reads a reddit post about the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that's clearly satire from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

    9 votes
    1. moonbathers
      Link Parent
      God, that's so dumb but hilarious at the same time.

      unrelated: Fox news reads a reddit post about the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that's clearly satire from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

      God, that's so dumb but hilarious at the same time.

      4 votes
  2. viridian
    Link
    My sister painted a beautiful mural downtown and made the local news, I'm heading out later today to go take pictures of it. Our protests are largely burned out though.

    My sister painted a beautiful mural downtown and made the local news, I'm heading out later today to go take pictures of it.

    Our protests are largely burned out though.

    6 votes
  4. [3]
    Kuromantis
    (edited )
    Link
    Media coverage of BLM had fallen during the Trump administration, until now. (All formatting mine)

    Media coverage of BLM had fallen during the Trump administration, until now.

    (All formatting mine)

    Over the past few weeks, the national media’s attention has shifted to the protests against police brutality that have arisen across the country following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. That brutality and those protests, however, are nothing new — on-duty police officers have fatally shot about 1,000 Americans every year between 2015 and 2019, and black people are consistently most at risk of being killed by police. This year has been no different so far.

    According to our analysis of closed captioning data of cable news broadcasts from the TV News Archive1 as well as headlines of online news articles in Media Cloud’s database,2 the phrase “Black Lives Matter” appeared less than half as frequently on both mediums between 2017 and 2019 as it did from 2014 to 2016.

    Danielle Kilgo, a professor of journalism, diversity and equality at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, pointed to two stories involving black men shot and killed by police between 2017 and 2019 that didn’t get nearly as much national press: The protests in St. Louis after a white police officer, Jason Stockley, was acquitted of first-degree murder for a 2011 shooting in which he killed 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith, and the protests in Sacramento, California, after the death of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old killed by police who said they believed he had a gun (the only item later found near Clark was his cellphone).

    The protests in St. Louis, for example, shared many of the same elements as those in the past few weeks: there was a video of the incident, the protests lasted for days and turned violent at times, and dozens of people were arrested, including a journalist. “They were huge protests and they were prolonged protests, but they didn’t receive the coverage they needed to expand beyond that,” Kilgo said.

    She hypothesized that it was in part because the protests came on the heels of the Unite the Right rally that brought white supremacists to Charlottesville, Virginia.

    The rally drew a lot of media attention and may have shifted the conversation about racism away from Black Lives Matter and towards a discussion about white supremacy, she said.

    Kilgo also noted that the story of players kneeling during the national anthem at football games was getting a lot of coverage in the national press around the time of the St. Louis protests, especially after the president weighed in.

    “The whole news broadcast couldn’t be about racism,” she said, pointing to other stories related to racism, like racist rhetoric coming from the president, that could have drawn the media’s attention away from Black Lives Matter. “I think they were just blinded by other things. There’s lots of shiny objects floating around in our political landscape right now.”

    All media outlets are covering "protests", but Fox is covering "riots" and "looting" more.

    4 votes
    1. [2]
      cfabbro
      Link Parent
      If you're going to quote something, can you not underline huge passages like that please? It makes that section much harder to read IMO. You might also want to mention that the emphasis was added...

      If you're going to quote something, can you not underline huge passages like that please? It makes that section much harder to read IMO. You might also want to mention that the emphasis was added by you using [emphasis added/mine], so people don't mistake that as being part of the original article.

      5 votes
      1. Kuromantis
        Link Parent
        Ok, I added it, although I picked formatting instead of emphasis. I also made the underlined passages separate paragraphs and made the most formatted one a separate quoteblock for the readability....

        Ok, I added it, although I picked formatting instead of emphasis. I also made the underlined passages separate paragraphs and made the most formatted one a separate quoteblock for the readability. I usually don't add the emphasis thing because news sites rarely ever use formatting so I thought that all emphasis being mine was already clear.

        1 vote
  5. [2]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    A bunch of policing/protests/racism related stories from Canada: Peace Walks planned across Maritimes in memory of Indigenous woman killed by police in New Brunswick Police watchdog to investigate...

    A bunch of policing/protests/racism related stories from Canada:
    Peace Walks planned across Maritimes in memory of Indigenous woman killed by police in New Brunswick
    Police watchdog to investigate fatal RCMP shooting of Indigenous man in New Brunswick
    Wolastoqey Nation leaders call NB premier's comments 'insensitive' and 'cruel'
    Confederate flags still flying in Ontario, prompting call for change
    Petitioners call on Ontario township to change name over slavery ties
    Calgary, Edmonton police chiefs acknowledge systemic racism but insist they're fighting it
    University of BC student wants apology after he says he was barred from building due to his race

    The difficult history of prosecuting hate in Canada
    CBC suspends remaining episodes of The Weekly after ‘careless’ language 'incident' with host Wendy Mesley

    4 votes
    1. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Yeah, unfortunately we have our fair share of racist shitheads here too, who proudly show the confederate flag to mock/belittle/intimidate others, and show solidarity with their southern brethren....

        Yeah, unfortunately we have our fair share of racist shitheads here too, who proudly show the confederate flag to mock/belittle/intimidate others, and show solidarity with their southern brethren. And some of them are sadly even cops:
        Belleville, Ontario residents call for firing of veteran police officer over Confederate flag controversy

        Edit - Apparently the officer above actually apologized. It seems genuine enough to me, I guess:
        https://www.intelligencer.ca/news/local-news/i-am-deeply-sorry-says-city-officer-for-facebook-flag-posts

        In a letter of apology sent to The Intelligencer Thursday afternoon, Const. Todd Bennett, a 29-year veteran with Belleville Police Service, said the post in 2019 was made in poor judgement and he deeply regrets any offence it caused.

        He also apologized for the comment “The South will rise again! Trump 2020” which accompanied one of the posts.

        “I am deeply sorry that my own poor judgement in this instance has caused any citizen pain or to doubt that they can rely on their police service to serve and protect them,” Bennett said.

        “One year ago while vacationing in New York, I posted a picture on my personal Facebook page in which I was wearing a Dukes of Hazzard shirt that featured a confederate flag on one side. I made a very unfortunate comment that was meant as a joke in reference to my southern friends coming “up” to visit us,” Bennett stated. “It was absolutely not meant to be any kind of political or racist statement. The matter was raised with my employer a year ago and addressed. Now, more than ever, I am aware of why such symbols and comments are hurtful, inappropriate and offensive. I had committed to my force over a year ago to do better and have adhered to that.”

        Bennett said as “for other anonymous, unfounded and derogatory claims made on social media about me and my family, I stand by my record as a member of the Belleville Police Force and the wider community. From raising money for cancer patients, our local homeless shelter and womens’ shelter, to coaching hockey, football, baseball, track and field, to developing a program to help youth manage behavioural issues to cooking Good Friday meals at the Salvation Army, I have always demonstrated a commitment to helping others.”

        “I stand in solidarity with those from all walks of life who are working to drive change and progress. We all have a role to play in eradicating racism and building safe, equitable and healthy communities,” Bennett said.

        8 votes
  6. [2]
    Gaywallet
    Link
    An insider's story of policing This highlights some of the major issues with reporting bad cops, worth a read

    An insider's story of policing

    This highlights some of the major issues with reporting bad cops, worth a read

    4 votes
    1. cfabbro
      Link Parent
      That made me incredibly sad reading it, knowing the story is about an officer from Ontario (my home province). I also didn't know who Paul Manning was before this, so decided to look him up. See:...

      That made me incredibly sad reading it, knowing the story is about an officer from Ontario (my home province). I also didn't know who Paul Manning was before this, so decided to look him up. See:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Manning_(police_officer)

      If all that he alleges is true, that's pretty fucking disgusting and disheartening.

      4 votes