Saturday, February 07, 2015
Errors of omission: The commercial media ignores ongoing police murder of people of color and demonstrations against police brutality
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91% of the people killed by Police in Chicago in 2012 were Black? 87% in New York? 100% in Saginaw and Rockford? I gotta admit even after focusing on this subject for over 30 years, since Ron Settles was killed, I find that kind of shocking. ---DailyKos article by Frank Vyan Walton
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by Larry Geller
Why have there been protests in several cities since August, 2014? The pull-quote above may suggest why. Couple the facts that are known with government and media indifference…
How often do Police shoot and kill unarmed suspects who pose no real threat to them? How often does this happen to Black People? How often does it happen to White People? Or anyone?
The truly frightening thing is that we apparently don't know. We have no idea. Not even a clue. We've been tracking the statistics about Crime for decades at individual police agencies and in the FBI Uniform Crime Report, But those reports don't document exactly when Cops become Murdering Criminals. This fact - which has sparked police riots and racial unrest going all the way back to the 1960's - is still a mystery.
According to Fivethrityeight.com - no one tracks this.
[DailyKos, How Often are Unarmed Black Men Shot Down By Police?, 8/24/2015]
.. and it’s understandable why there is a movement against police brutality.
The commercial media have almost universally chosen to underplay or ignore the movement and its demonstrations.
In order to have an effect on the press and TV, and then on government policy, protest leaders will likely have to evolve. The TV cameras are not showing up any more, the print reporters have moved on. As we saw with the Occupy Wall Street movement and Occupy in Honolulu, there comes a time when physical marches lose their impact and effectiveness.
Which is not to excuse the media in any way. They could be part of the solution, but choose not to do that. And they fail their responsibility by committing errors of omission.
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