To state the obvious, police brutality is absolutely horrific. And anyone with any soul ought to be horrified to watch anyone who is subjected to domination by another human being which leads to their death or dismemberment, regardless of what may have led up to that moment. It shocks the conscience that people are accepting anecdotal reasons when videos of violence toward someone appear in instances, when they occur at a ‘peaceful protest.’ People are so quick to assume the person ‘deserved it’ if it happens to be a person who allegedly showed up at a peaceful protest with a camera. Several things can be true at once, but when we see someone attacked by six or seven people, kicked and knocked unconscious then dragged, we ought not rationalize it by assuming he probably deserved it.
A hierarchical abuse seems especially egregious, and so all media is focused on it. There are many others, about 1000 per year, although about 900 do involve someone wielding a weapon.
Now we have access to videos of someone being overpowered and then killed or horribly maimed, without knowledge of what that person was doing previously that led up to that moment. We all rally to demand an explanation. However, Legacy media often has a different goal. I’m starting to see a pattern by mainstream outlets lately, of committing blatant lies of omission when it comes to acts of physical violence committed by non-police entities on residents, store owners, other peaceful protesters, with the intention of immaturely steering a narrative. And for strategic reasons which I could get into deeper if anyone is interested, this line of logic, I believe, could cost us Dems the election.
Lately, I’ve only shared posts that don’t fit the left-leaning narrative because there is plenty of accessible media, for people who vote blue, of which are most of my FaceBook friends here, with shocking stories about violent cops. But unless we hear both sides of any story, we won’t really be able to strategize a solution moving forward. I’m not pretending anything I say will have any effect on any of the violence hiding under the guise of ‘peaceful protest.’ But since our mainstream media has changed, since we can no longer rely on accurate news coverage from our historically ethical journalists, since they are dropping the ball on telling the full truth about the prolific and violent side of the recent protests, I feel ethically committed to dig deeper into local stories and share the missing pieces as best I can.
Tales from the Little Shed 