Demonstrators angered by a Cleveland grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officers involved in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice staged a protest and die-in on New Year’s Day in front of the home of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty.
Just half the group @clevelanddotcom #TamirRice pic.twitter.com/XUFNcYsSTB
— Jane Morice (@janemorice) January 1, 2016
Less well publicized are the protests being held for Sandra Bland, who was found dead in her cell in Texas after a simple traffic stop escalated into an angry confrontation with the arresting officer. On Dec. 21, a grand jury decided not to indict any of the officers or jailers who encountered Bland between her arrest and her death three days later.
Investigators say that Bland hanged herself with a plastic bag. While nearly all media reports emphasized that the 28-year-old was enthusiastic about starting a new job, she also told authorities she has previously attempted suicide after a miscarriage.
Breitbart’s John Sexton published a piece on a New Year’s Eye protest in Washington, D.C., at which a protest leader was caught on video demanding “a new world” created by “defunding, disorganizing and dismantling the police.”
We keep hearing that Black Lives Matter is not anti-police. But the protesters keep saying things like this => https://t.co/xMaJ2Snxv1
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
If you could poll protesters to ask if Sandra Bland was murdered by racist cops, many would say yes.
It's a BLM conspiracy theory.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
This is obviously not the first time BLM has been energized by a false narrative about someone's death. #HandsUpDon'tShoot
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
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It took a DOJ report to correct the false stories about Mike Brown's death and even now many progressive writers have never corrected.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
The truth of these cases either matters or it does not. I think it does which means real outrages need to be dealt with severely.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
But that also means the false outrage and conspiracy theories have to be called what they are. And that's not happening much.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
If not for the false narratives spread about Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, there would probably be no Black Lives Matter.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
It's not that there are no real outrages to be found, it's just that so much of the activism is based on things that never happened.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
Conversely, so little activism is directed toward real, criminal outrages. Tamir Rice was only 12? A 16-month-old was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Baltimore. No police were involved in the shooting, so it’s not of concern to #BlackLivesMatter.
A teenage girl manhandled by a white cop at a public pool in Texas? #BlackLivesMatter’s Deray McKesson was there in person to demand reform, as were members of the Nation of Islam, the New Black Panthers, and the Rev. Ronald Wright, who told MSNBC that “we’re setting the stage for a terrorist attack in this country, and the group is not going to be ISIS.”
In the end, the officer involved resigned, and the New York Times published an op-ed on America’s “long history of water as a site of racial anxiety.”
No one used a racial slur about Trayvon Martin in a 911 call. It didn't happen. He was not described as black until the dispatcher asked.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
Isn’t that the 911 call that was altered by NBC before broadcast to portray George Zimmerman as racist?
Martin was on top of Zimmerman, beating his head into the sidewalk. He was not the person yelling for help, he was doing the beating.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
Mike Brown did try to grab Officer Wilson's gun. He did pass of the stolen cigarillos to his friend so he could wrestle a cop.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
Mike Brown was not shot in the back. He did not raise his hands in surrender. He did turn and charge at the officer.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
At least that’s what multiple autopsies showed, despite insistence by Sally Kohn that the “shot in the back while fleeing” narrative was a “sure fact.” Yes, this Sally Kohn:
Sandra Bland was not murdered by police. She had been suicidal and had recent scars consistent with cutting behavior. It was suicide.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
Also, Bland was not dead when her mugshot was taken. That's another conspiracy theory. There is video of her booking showing her alive.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
There is forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts to back up all of these points. None of this is in any real doubt at this point.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
BLM is the flat-earth society of criminal justice reform. There is no excuse for them holding on to some of these beliefs.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
And yet White House Christmas party guest Mckesson is having no problem getting access to shop his “Campaign Zero” agenda around D.C.
Again, there are some real injustices that all Americans want to see end. But if you can't weed out the bullshit narratives…
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 2, 2016
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