Blue Man Bad: Where Is the Demand for Media Accountability?
How the Medias Unchecked War on Law Enforcement Reshapes Our Future
News flash: police kill white citizens all the time.
In fact, police are more likely to kill a white person than anyone else.
For example, in 2021, US police fatally shot 302 white and 177 black people.
And it wasn’t a fluke year:
Yet we rarely see national stories when the police shoot white people.
But if the police kill a black person, it’s an outrage, and the media uses the story to push an anti-police agenda.
Unfortunately, it happened again on June 27th when local police shot and killed 25-year-old Jayland Walker in Akron, Ohio.
“I’m angry, I’m hurt, I’m pissed off, I want a new mayor, I want new leadership,” an Akron protester said to a news reporter in response to Walker’s death.
People do have a right to be concerned when they learn the police shot a fellow citizen.
Still, the media has an obligation to tell the truth, and the police have a job to do.
In the aftermath of high-profile cases like the Walker shooting, people demand police reform, transparency, and better documentation practices.
Most of the time, law enforcement officials comply with these requests, such as introducing body cameras or implementing policies that release information quicker to the public.
But where is the accountability when the media misleads the public?
One might say we shouldn’t compare police shootings to media misinformation, but I disagree.
When the media misleads or lies, they reshape people’s decisions and outlook on life, especially among young and misguided people.
And many of those people take extreme actions based on that information, which can lead to further loss of life and increased crime, as we saw in 2020.
To understand, let’s take a closer look at the Walker case and a few other high-profile situations and see if they align with what the media told you.
What Happened, Anyway?
“Police shoot unarmed black man,” you might have read or heard in the hours and days after June 27th.
While this is true, it’s misleading.
Most people read this and assume a white police officer, or officers, shot and killed an innocent man because he was black.
But the evidence does not suggest racism factored into the shooting.
Based on released information, the events that led up to Walker’s death began about 24 hours before police confronted Walker.
According to the Akron Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #7, Walker or someone else used the same vehicle to evade police the night prior.
See highlighted text:
It’s unclear from the radio traffic if the officer intended to stop Walker to investigate the previous chase, but we’ll find out more in the final investigation.
Akron Police Shoot and Kill Unarmed Black Man
The bodycam footage is available below, but if you’re short on time, let me quickly relay the facts with this press release from the APD.
Overview:
Pursuit route details:
Officers involved:
Now you have all the info available to the public, as far as I can tell, and you can draw your own conclusion.
That’s for journalists to do, but they prefer to use these stories to push their agenda.
So let’s walk through it objectively, without the media’s anti-police rhetoric.
Objective Review
Before we begin, let me say I’m not a police officer, and I’m not going to sit here and act like I know everything.
Even if I was a cop, I’m not those cops.
Still, as citizens, although not Akron citizens, there’s nothing wrong with healthy questioning and respectful speculation.
First, let’s note the incident occurred just after midnight.
While many respectable citizens work third-shift or have other legitimate reasons for being out at that hour, many people aren’t doing the Lord’s work.
The initial officer, Car 24, first noticed Walker driving a vehicle violating one or more traffic and equipment violations in a car involved in a felony evasion the night before.
It’s possible the officer already had reason to believe Walker was up to no good.
But when the suspect punches the gas instead of pulling over, the adrenaline increases as Car 24 relays the initiation of a chase to dispatch and other nearby officers.
About 40 seconds after Car 24 attempted to stop the fleeing suspect, the driver fired a shot out the window, presumably at officers, then continued to flee for about 6 miles.
You can make out a muzzle flash in this photo:
Click on this video below to see the moment where Walker fire’s at police through the highway camera:
Click on this one to hear it.
Before we go further, let’s take an inventory of what we’re dealing with:
Police attempt to stop a vehicle involved in known felony evasion
The suspect fails to pull over
Suspect fires at police
The fleeing car leads officers on approximately a 6-mile chase
Adrenaline must be redlining at this point, but officers sound calm and collected.
Finally, after trying to zig-zag through a residential area, the suspect bails and runs with a ski mask over his head.
Of course, the ski mask doesn’t warrant the shooting, but it adds to the picture that this is a criminal.
After a brief run, officers fired a Taser at the suspect in an attempt to bring him in safely.
But the Taser fails, as it often does.
Then, the suspect stops and faces the officers while reaching in his waist area.
In this image, it appears his right foot pivoted towards officers with his left hand close to his waist area.
That’s when all eight officers fired around 90 rounds at the suspect, with about 60 hitting him.
Walker didn’t have his gun on him, and police couldn’t know that he left it in his car.
Since all officers shot simultaneously without command, it appears they all perceived the same threat.
Walker Wouldn’t Help Himself
In the recipe for getting shot by the police, Walker added all the necessary ingredients:
Get involved in felony evasion
Give the police a reason to stop you
Fail to stop
Shoot at police
Continue running from police for over 5 miles
Bail and run from police on foot
Stop and suddenly face officers while reaching into your waist in the dark
Walker had every chance to save his life at any point during that chase.
But the media ignores all that and posts stuff like this before getting the facts.
Again, the headline is accurate, but it feeds the anti-police narrative that cops are out to kill black people.
Use of Force
There’s no question that Walker made himself a good candidate for police to shoot him, but people want to know why officers fired so many times.
People who don’t know much about firearms or human anatomy struggle to understand escalations of force in general.
We often hear people ask why the police didn’t attempt less than lethal such as tasers or ask, “why didn’t they shoot him in the legs?”
As we saw in both the Walker case and many other cases, Tasers often fail.
The Taser will likely work if an officer shoots a naked person up close.
But when you add aiming at a moving target with clothes on, the chances of the Taser failing increase.
As far as shooting in the legs goes, that’s a terrible idea.
For one, it’s harder to hit legs, especially when moving.
Missing a target means flying bullets go astray, potentially into an innocent bystander.
Even if you hit the legs, many people can continue to run and shoot as adrenaline keeps them moving.
That’s why officers aim at center-mass, to ensure the rounds hit and incapacitate the threat.
Even after severe damage to major organs, suspects have still managed to keep fighting.
Police shoot to stop the threat, not to kill.
In a split second, officers cant decide who will shoot and who won’t.
They all reacted to the same threat and, therefore, all officers fired.
Public Response Post Shooting/BCI Investigation
Immediately after the shooting, people took to the streets for protests and demanded justice for Walker, thanks to the divisive and misleading media.
Some people said, “Jayland could have been anybody. It could have been my son.”
Well, is your son out committing felonies in the middle of the night and firing at police during a high-speed chase?
Since people don’t bother to read the facts and react with emotions, they push the argument that the police murdered Jayland Walker in cold blood.
During the Akron city press conference, the police chief said immediately after the shooting, investigators questioned the officers separately.
All said, Walker stopped, appeared to take a firing stance, and reached into his waist.
Again, all officers fired simultaneously, which supports that claim, but we’ll find out more in the full investigation.
The Akron police department will not investigate themselves to provide complete transparency and remove bias.
Instead, the Ohio Bureau of Investigation will lead the probe into the incident.
But so far, given the circumstances of this situation, it doesn’t appear that police shot an innocent and unarmed black man for a traffic violation, as the media claimed.
But the media gets away with it because it’s technically accurate:
Walker was black
Police initially stopped Walker for a traffic/equipment violation
He was unarmed at the time police shot him
These are factual statements, but the media misleads the public by omitting the details.
Media Ignores Criminal Behavior
The media showed us images of Walker, but they didn’t just use any picture.
They made sure to use one that made Walker look like an everyday kid.
Walker was 25 when he died, but he looks 17 or 18 in the photo above.
Here’s another one where Walker is older.
Why does the media use this photo of Walker as a kid?
It’s because they want to push the story that Walker was just a sweet kid minding his own business when police killed him in cold blood.
I’m sure Walker was a good person at heart, making poor choices for various reasons.
We can’t say for sure because we don’t know what was in Walker’s mind.
But we know he posed a deadly threat to the police and public that night, and the police reacted accordingly.
People close to Walker may be shocked as this behavior may be far from his character.
But is it possible that Walker committed suicide by cop?
People kill themselves all the time, and others around them often say they didn’t see it coming.
Is that why he didn’t give himself a chance to go to jail alive and left his wedding band on the seat?
Look at this 1:30 minute video for reference. It’s nothing graphic, just a quick insight to support my point.
Also, many young people grow up with little attention.
Could it be that young black men commit suicide by cop because they know the media and public will take their side and give them a national goodbye?
There’s no evidence to support Walker’s intentions either way, but the media sure sets the example that young black men will be honored in death should the police kill them.
No questions asked.
Other Misleading Cases
The Walker case is not the first time the media sensationalized a case of police killing a black person.
Here are a few other examples where the media misled the public into thinking the police committed an unjustified shooting.
Leonna Hale
You might recall news headlines from last month that looked something like “Police Shoot Unarmed Black Pregnant Woman.”
That sounds awful, but was it true?
On May 27th, police attempted to stop Hale because her vehicle matched the description of a car involved in an armed carjacking.
Note: A carjacking is when someone takes a car from another by force, this was not a simple stolen vehicle.
According to a witness, police shot Hale as she ran away with another male suspect.
The witness also claimed Hale was pregnant.
“She did not pull out a weapon on them,” the witness said. “She did not even have a stick in her hand.”
As expected, people reacted to the news and took to the streets to protest another racist shooting.
But the officer’s bodycam footage determined that was a lie.
After people in the community learned that Hale had a gun, one concerned citizen said:
“I see. How come the person yesterday said she didn’t have a gun?”
Well, good sir, it’s because the media and others want to make you believe that all white people, especially white police officers, want to kill you because you’re black.
Also, Hale was not pregnant, and she survived the ordeal.
Dreasjon “Sean” Reed
On May 6th, 2020, Indianapolis police shot and killed Dreasjon “Sean” Reed.
Officers attempted to stop Reed on the highway after witnessing him driving recklessly and running a car off the road.
But Reed tried to escape and led officers on a high-speed chase.
Eventually, Reed bailed behind a locksmith’s building, where Reed ran on foot.
What’s interesting about this case is Reed live-streamed the incident on Facebook.
The video is below.
As police chased Reed, they attempted to Tase him, but only one probe connected with Reed.
The Taser knocked him down for a second but didn’t keep him down for long.
That’s when the officers and Reed got into a gun battle, and Reed died at the scene.
Here’s the full live stream, including the shooting. You can’t see anything graphic.
The investigation proved that Reed not only had a gun but fired at police as bullet casings at the scene matched the pistol that Reed had in his possession.
But instead of waiting for this information, the media posted stories about how the police killed an innocent veteran.
Reed served a year in the Air Force but wasn’t serving his country when he led police on a high-speed chase and shot at them.
News outlets also failed to report Reed’s criminal behavior, such as this video of him shooting the same handgun indiscriminately into a residential area.
You’ll notice the similarities with the distinct gold handgun in the drive-by that Reed used to shoot at police:
Still shot of Reed’s live stream that caught the distinct gold slide of that gun in his waistband:
Another photo of Reed with the same gun:
Here’s another one:
Back to not knowing what was going through Reed’s mind, is it possible that he also committed suicide by cop?
Reed stated during the chase:
1:54: “But like, man I can’t, I just can’t go back to jail, ya’ll. Ya’ll know me. Everybody know me. I do not like jail, so you feel me?”
9:15: “Imma start shooting. They ain’t gonna catch me.”
Reed must have known that the police would fire at him if he even pointed a weapon at them, let alone shoot at them.
Either way, after the incident, the media pushed anti-police arguments by focusing on the gallows humor caught on the live stream.
“Looks like it’s going to be a closed casket, homie,” a detective says.
At first glance, maybe it wasn’t the most professional thing to say.
But who am I to judge how first responders should process countless encounters with death?
Or how doctors joke in the operating room?
The police shot Reed because he posed deadly threat to the public and the pursuing officers.
It had nothing to do with race.
Here’s a photo of the officer that shot Reed:
It’s the same officer that sued the NFL for defamation after the NFL ran a campaign to “honor victims of systematic racism, victims of police misconduct, and social justice heroes.”
The suit seeks to prove that the NFL implicated that the officer committed an injustice when a jury found police committed no wrongdoing.
Had Reed killed any actual innocent people in his drive-by shootings or high-speed chase, we wouldn’t hear a word of it.
But Reed gets national attention from the media and NFL.
Unbelievable.
Trayvon Martin
On February 26th, 2012, 28-year-old insurance fraud investigator and neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman witnessed a man looking into people’s houses in a Sanford, Florida neighborhood.
That man would turn out to be Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman had reason to be suspicious of criminal behavior due to a crime spike in the weeks and months leading up to the national debacle.
That’s when Zimmerman called the Sanford Police non-emergency line:
“Hey,” said Zimmerman, “we’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there’s a real suspicious guy, uh, it’s Retreat View Circle, um, the best address I can give you is 111 Retreat View Circle. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.”
Then the dispatcher asked if the suspect was white, black, or Hispanic, to which Zimmerman replied, “He looks black.”
But if you recall the news stories pushed by the media, you heard Zimmerman say:
“This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.”
The media made it sound like Zimmerman described Martin’s race as a justification for concern.
But the 911 dispatcher asked Zimmerman about the suspect’s race.
An engineer edited this audio to make Zimmerman appear racist.
Also, the media pushed an argument that said Zimmerman uttered the racial slur “F—ng c—ns.”
But after experts enhanced the audio, it sounds more like “f—-ng cold” as it was unusually cool and raining that night.
Shortly after, Zimmerman told the dispatcher that Martin approached Zimmerman’s truck and told dispatch to hurry.
Then Zimmerman got out of his car and approached or followed Martin, and dispatch told Zimmerman, “we don’t need you to do that.”
The media would have us believe that this is the point where Zimmerman assaulted Martin and ultimately shot and killed him.
But Zimmerman claimed that Martin confronted him and questioned why he was following him, and Martin punched Zimmerman in the face, causing him to fall back to the ground and hit his head.
Witnesses say this is where they saw Martin jump on top of Zimmerman and beat and pound his head into the ground “MMA style” while Zimmerman screamed for help.
That’s when Zimmerman pulled his handgun and fatally shot Martin.
Physical evidence and witness testimony corroborated Zimmerman’s story, including damage to Martin’s knuckles, indicating he had recently punched something or someone.
Zimmerman had large cuts on his head, two black eyes, and a broken nose.
My guess is the black eyes didn’t set in until later.
The media attempted to convince people Martin was an innocent young man, using an old photo of Martin against Zimmerman’s mug shot.
On top of everything else, Zimmerman isn’t even white, he’s a Hispanic-American, but Wikipedia just calls him an American because noting his ethnicity would take away from the white vs. black agenda.
The truth is, this case had nothing to do with race.
Zimmerman was a concerned citizen tired of local criminals, and, understandably, he wanted to help catch one if the police could not do so.
But in retrospect, it was probably best for Zimmerman to stay in his truck and call the police, regardless if Martin got away.
And we can also assign responsibility to Martin for assaulting Zimmerman and any potential criminal activity he engaged in prior to the confrontation.
Michael Brown
I recall being near Ferguson, MO, in August of 2014.
The police came into our building and told us we should consider removing any expensive equipment and leaving the area, but it was our choice.
He had me at hello, and I hit the interstate as Ferguson burned in my rear-view mirror.
The mobs resulted from a false narrative perpetuated by the media about Michael Brown after police shot and killed him in August 2014.
The officer claimed he acted in self-defense, while witnesses described the incident as unjustified because Brown had his hands up when the officer shot him.
This confrontation sparked the “Hands up, don’t shoot” movement.
While Ferguson burned and looters ransacked the town, the media pushed a false story that turned more people against the police and the country.
But in 2015, the Department of Justice concluded that the officer acted in self-defense because the evidence showed Brown reached into the officer’s vehicle and grabbed the officer by the neck.
Of course, the media didn’t call a meeting to clear the record, and people to this day hold up “Hands up, don’t shoot” signs in protests for an argument based on a lie.
But the damage was already done.
The officer that acted in self-defense had to live with taking another life, even though justified, and the media couldn’t be bothered to clear his name.
Also, local business owners lost untold dollars.
Eric Garner
On July 17th, 2014, New York City police officers approached Garner about selling loose cigarettes on the street, which is illegal in New York City.
It’s common for people in lower-income areas to buy cigarettes and sell the individual cigs to people on the street for profit, called “loosies.”
When police approached, Garner said:
“Every time you see me you want to arrest me, I’m tired of this, this stops today…I didn’t do nothing… I’m minding my business, officer…”
And he was minding his own business, for the most part.
While selling loosies is illegal, it’s not exactly the crime of the century.
However, New York governor Michael Bloomberg deemed the act illegal because it reduced the amount of tax money his city collected.
And the city had recently cracked down on these violations.
Police tried to restrain Garner, but an officer placed Garner in a submission hold.
News outlets called it a “choke hold,” but the autopsy showed no damage to Garner’s windpipe or neck bones.
But the department prohibited the tactic, so the NYPD terminated the officer.
However, a jury refused to indict the officer on criminal charges.
What you might not know is Garner was over 400 pounds and suffered from pre-existing health conditions, and he wheezed when he talked.
I don’t think anyone, including the officers present, would say Garner deserved to die.
But the media painted a picture of systemic racism with headlines that said, “Unarmed black man killed for selling cigarettes.”
He wasn’t killed for selling cigarettes. It was a tragic outcome of a larger story.
The media doesn’t tell you that Bloomberg’s demand to hassle lower-income people about selling loosies created the confrontation with the police.
And the headlines don’t suggest that maybe, just maybe, if Garner were in better health, he wouldn’t have died.
Nothing, in this case, suggests that Garner was a target for police because he was black.
If there were no greedy tax laws for cigs, the cops would have likely walked by Garner without a word.
Not All Police Actions are Justified
None of this is to suggest that the police can do no wrong.
Just because one supports the police as a concept and the officers that serve in general doesn’t mean one backs up every police action and every police officer.
To do so would be no different than the far leftists that claim individual black people can do no wrong.
For the most part, police officers go to work daily, serve with integrity, and pray they don’t have to take their guns out.
But we know some police officers break the law, sometimes systematically, as we’ve historically seen cover-ups and crooked operations that plagued large cities like New York through the years.
In 2020, many police officers quit because they refused to enforce unconstitutional laws, while others were happy to do so.
Law enforcement is made up of individual humans, just like anything, and my support for the police is not a blank check.
So let’s review a few cases where the police were at fault, and the media used the story to paint a larger picture of police misconduct instead of the individual officer.
George Floyd
The Floyd case might be the most famous incident outside of Rodney King.
And I think we have this story fresh enough in our heads that I don’t need to go into great detail.
To sum it up, George Floyd and officer Derrick Chauvin could have avoided the incident altogether.
Most people, including law enforcement, will tell you, officer Derrick Chauvin had no business kneeling on Floyd’s neck for that long, and he deserves to be fired and punished.
But the media doesn’t share Floyd’s contribution to the incident.
To begin with, officers encountered Floyd because the Cup Foods clerk alerted his manager that Floyd had tried to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit bill and that Floyd appeared high.
And maybe Chauvin shouldn’t have been employed by any police department that day as it’s reported the 44-year-old officer had 17 misconduct complaints against him.
This was a perfect storm of events that led to Floyd’s death, which shouldn’t have happened.
But the media is responsible for using the story to push the argument that police are out to get black people, which catalyzed the 2020 riots ending with many dead and untold damages to local communities and businesses.
Daniel Shaver
In 2016 Mesa, Arizona, police received a call from a concerned citizen that said they saw someone pointing a rifle out of a hotel window.
Daniel Shaver, a 26-year-old pest control technician, and several friends were in room 502, looking at Shaver’s pellet rifle he used for work.
Apparently, they pointed it out or got too close to the window, enough for someone to call the police.
Soon after, several officers entered the hallway surrounding 502 and shouted for them to come out.
The video is distressing, so I’ll give you a quick rundown if you prefer not to watch it.
Shaver and another occupant come out of the room, where police demand they get on the floor.
It was later found that Shaver was over three times the legal blood alcohol content and likely struggled to understand the situation.
After getting on the floor, his intoxication becomes apparent when Shaver fails to follow instructions correctly.
Officers order Shaver to crawl towards them and to keep his hands out in front.
At one point, Shaver, while sobbing and likely confused, reaches around, possibly to pull his shorts up.
That’s when officer Phillip Brailsford fires his AR-15 5 times into Shaver, killing him.
Shaver reached behind him, which rightfully concerned the officers.
Still, since Shaver was lying face down, many believe Brailsford fired prematurely since Shaver would have needed more time to brandish a weapon and get into a position where he could fire at officers.
Since no other officers fired, it supported the argument that only Brailsford felt threatened.
With so many officers with rifles at close range, it would have been next to impossible for Shaver to shoot the police before they shot him in such a vulnerable position.
But many people take more issue with the police not restraining Shaver before it got to the point of him reaching behind his back.
Although Brailsford would later be acquitted of any criminal charges, investigators said they didn’t see anything preventing the officers from simply walking over to Shaver and cuffing him after he cleared the doorway.
Similarly, other officers said it was odd that police ordered Shaver to crawl instead of walking backward like a standard felony stop.
We can’t blame the officers for not knowing the rifle reported was only a pellet gun.
However, it’s fair to conclude that other actions could have been taken to secure the scene without killing Shaver, leaving his two daughters and wife behind, who later had to file for bankruptcy.
To our overall point, although Shaver was white, some news outlets used the story to support the narrative that the police can kill people indiscriminately without consequence instead of focusing on Brailsford and his individual actions.
Walter Scott
On April 4th, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina, police officer Michael Slager stopped Walter Scott for a busted brake light.
Scott, a Coast Guard veteran, was driving with another man when Slager initiated the traffic stop.
After Scott gives Slager his driver’s license, Slager walks back to his car.
That’s when Scott opened his door and ran.
As Slager chased after Scott, a nearby citizen recorded the incident with a cell phone.
The recording starts just in time to see Scott break away from Slager and continue to run.
That’s when Slager fired 7-8 rounds into Scott’s back, killing him.
According to Slager, he fired because Scott reached for his Taser.
If Scott did grab the Taser and aim at Slager, that would be a justified shooting, but the cell phone footage proved otherwise.
After the shooting, Slager moved the Taser from where he shot Scott to a location closer to Scott’s body and appears to pick it up again.
Had there not been cell phone footage, Scott might have gotten away with murder.
But again, although Slager unjustly killed Scott, why did he run?
The person riding with Scott said he had no idea why Scott ran, but others speculate that Scott might have been arrested for child support disputes.
Again, nothing Scott did or didn’t do would justify the shooting, and Slager received 20 years in prison.
This case, unlike many other officer-involved shootings, was not justified.
But the media lumps it in with the rest.
Tony Timpa
On August 10th, 2016, 32-year-old Tony Timpa called 911 and asked for help because he was off the medication he took to treat schizophrenia and took cocaine.
Timpa is on the ground and handcuffed when the body cam footage turns on.
Timpa appears to be upset and asking for help.
But when Timpa rolls around as if he was trying to get up, officers held him down and leaned on his back.
We should note that this happened right next to a busy road, so it’s fair that officers would restrain Timpa for his safety.
However, one wonders why they didn’t move Timpa to a police car or ambulance to secure him because after kneeling on Timpa for 14 minutes, the 32-year-old executive died.
After the medical examiner released the details, we found Timpa died of “sudden cardiac death due to the toxic effects of cocaine and physiologic stress associated with physical restraint.”
Also, excited delirium was a factor, according to the report.
EDS or Excited Delirium Syndrome is characterized by agitation, aggression, acute distress, and sudden death typically associated with drug use.
You might recall hearing about it in the George Floyd case.
While Derrick Chauvin, the officer that killed Floyd, got 22.5 years in prison, the officer that kneeled on Timpa was cleared from criminal charges and was even later promoted.
After watching the bodycam footage, it’s clear these officers did not intentionally kill Timpa and didn’t appear to be using excessive force.
Yet again, in hindsight, I’m sure those officers wished they had put him in a squad car, and I’m sure it will bother them for the rest of their lives.
But here’s my point about Timpa: have you heard much of this case?
If so, how much in comparison to Floyd?
Here we have two similar incidents with vastly different social consequences and media coverage based on racial beliefs.
To be fair, the media did cover this, and they continue to do so while Timpa’s mother appeals for a civil suit.
But the story was not plastered all over the news, and social media as Floyd’s case was and still is.
Philando Castile
Whether we’re talking about local, state, or federal police, they all go through the academy and learn of the many ways they can be killed on duty.
With the advent of dash, body, and countless other cameras that record incidents that would otherwise go undocumented, police recruits not only hear about the deadly mistakes that officers might make but can now see the video to go along with it.
Some police are killed in shootouts, while others are doing something as simple as walking up to a car.
That rightfully puts officers on edge.
On July 2nd, 2016, armed suspects robbed a Super USA convenience store in Lauderdale, Minnesota.
Officer Yanez responded to that call, but the offenders escaped.
While on patrol a couple of days later, Yanez saw Castile and radioed to another officer that the occupants just look like the people that were involved in a robbery.”
Castile’s also had a faulty tail light.
But Yanez didn’t tell dispatch about the stop or that the occupant was potentially an armed robbery suspect.
After Yanez asked for Castile’s driver’s license, Castile replied with, “Sir, I have to tell you that I do have a firearm on me,” as required for anyone legally carrying a gun as Castile was, according to a memo from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.
Yanez replied, “OK,” and placed his hand on his weapon while adding, “don’t reach for it then.”
A quick argument followed where Castile said he wasn’t reaching for the gun, and the passenger in the vehicle said the same.
That’s when Yanez fired into the car, killing Castile.
After the criminal investigation, a jury found officer Yanez not guilty, and the media and BLM pushed the rhetoric of white supremacy, even though Yanez is Hispanic.
Police Would Prefer Not to Shoot
Let’s take a moment and set aside all the racial issues and criminal behavior.
Let’s remove the guns, badges, uniforms, and racial labels.
What do we have?
In many officer-involved shootings, we’re left with two human beings who crossed paths under unfavorable conditions.
Other than people with a death wish, most people do not want the police to shoot them, and the police don’t want to shoot citizens either.
As a human, it’s fair to assume most police officers would prefer to leave their weapons in their holsters.
The media and many anti-police people think that police seek out people to shoot and high-five each other afterward.
But they forget that police officers are humans, and most humans don’t want to kill other humans.
Even when police shoot to save their own lives or others, it must be tough to live with.
But news sources don’t want you to see the aftermath of an officer-involved shooting.
Here are a couple of examples of officers breaking down after shooting a suspect.
Here’s another, but you have to go to YT to see it since the shooting is in the video, but I set the video to start with the officer’s reaction after the shooting.
And it’s not just law enforcement.
Over the years, soldiers in wars around the world admit to shooting over the enemy’s heads or refusing to fire.
But it’s not just the human factor.
Officers are also terrified of facing criminal charges for doing their jobs.
Look at this video, where a suspect pulls and points a pistol at an officer and the officer essentially runs away.
I can’t speak for what this officer was or wasn’t doing, but it’s fair to suggest he may have been more fearful of public backlash for shooting a black man than he was of being shot.
How ridiculous is that?
Police vs. Media Accountability
Let’s take note of the many police systems, procedures, and techniques described in this post.
Between how the Akron police investigate the Walker case with a third-party, to police body cameras, new laws, and policies, the police operate in a constant state of evolution to provide transparency and minimize corruption and bias.
Whenever there’s an incident, the public demands new laws or changes.
But when we continue to catch the media misleading the public, they go unchecked.
The media gets away with it because they are careful not to break the law.
What is misleading is sometimes hard to define, and journalists rarely get in legal trouble unless they slander someone.
That’s why Kyle Rittenhouse plans to sue multiple news outlets, celebrities, and possibly even politicians for calling him a white supremacist even after a jury of his peers found him not guilty.
I hope he sues them into oblivion.
But in a country in dire need of media accountability, Rittenhouse isn’t stopping there.
Earlier this year, Rittenhouse announced his decision to launch The Media Accountability Group (TMAP) to hold the media culpable when they mislead the public and ruin people’s lives for a political agenda.
The Answer is Culture
While initiatives such as TMAP will hold the media’s feet to the fire, the root of the problem is culture, as is with many things wrong in the world.
Generation Z kids have been staring at smartphones and social media since they could read.
During this time, they’ve read countless stories and videos about police brutality and “systematic racism.”
It’s no wonder they believe it after years of brainwashing.
And what happens when you teach kids that “blue man bad” and white people rigged the game?
What happens when you push stories like the Jayland Walker and Sean Reed cases to convince people the country and police are systematically racist?
Well, you get this.
Bonus mini story: While writing this, I had the video embedded here as a YouTube video so you could watch it from the post like the others.
But wouldn’t you know it?
When I began editing this morning, I found YouTube removed the video because it “violated YouTube’s terms of service.”
Anyway.
Sadly, these kids punching the police have a slim chance of succeeding in life.
And while they may get themselves killed by a police officer, they have a far greater chance of being killed by a fellow black American.
Until the media starts reporting the truth, we’ll continue to see this divide.
If the media portrays the police as the bad guys, our police forces will erode, and the lower-class communities will get worse.
We’ll have early officer retirements, recruiting problems, and officers that would turn the other cheek rather than risk going to jail for doing their jobs.
The police have guns, training, equipment, and armored personnel carriers.
But do you really think that’s power?
The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. -Malcom X