CNN’s venomous crusade against police continued Saturday night as rioting broke out in Atlanta after the death of Rayshard Brooks 27-year-old African-American man who was intoxicated behind the wheel in a Wendy’s parking lot, resisted arrest, stole an officers taser, and tried to use it before being shot dead in the back.
Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer led the mob, allowing falsehoods and rampant speculation about the case to go uncorrected, endorsed the family’s account of events, and letting one guest compare police officers to the authoritarian, murderous Kim Jong-un regime in North Korea.
National Urban League president Marc Morial was a guest sharing falsehoods, complaining that Brooks “was shot in the back while fleeing and he was using a taser which is not a deadly weapon.”
Despite the fact that Brooks was intoxicated and failed a field sobriety test, Morial still lied, wondering if officers “act[ed] in a provocative way....that escalated the conversation” and tried “to arrest him without conducting a field sobriety test or calling out for the breathalyzer truck to come out.”
“An unarmed black man is shot by the police either fleeing or not doing anything threatening or provocative,” he added.
Ask families who’ve lost loved ones to drunk driving. It’s doubtful they’d describe what the driver did as not “threatening or provocative.”
Through all of this, Blitzer said nothing.
Former NAACP president Cornell William Brooks lied minutes later, concluding that the Brooks case was akin to the late Walter Scott being killed by a Charleston police officer in 2015.
Like Morial, Brooks excused Brooks’s intoxication and determined that Friday’s scuffle underlined how police officers are collectively “bad apples” (click “expand”):
BROOKS: You know, Wolf, how many of us have been in a drive-thru in a parking lot as a consequence of overwork, sleep deprivation, falling asleep in a — in a parked vehicle? Many of us. How do we go from that to a 27-year old man being shot in the back? This is a metaphor for the state of policing in this country, where you have 1,000 people killed by the police every year in Georgia.
(....)
BLITZER: [W]e've been seeing protests following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. 46-years old and then all of a sudden, we see another incident along these lines....What does it say to you that we see another example along these lines that it's — it’s still happening?
BROOKS: What it says is for every police officer, every police chief, every mayor, every governor, every president who says that police homicide, police brutality, this pandemic of police misconduct is a matter of a few bad apples. It says that they’re tragically, sadly, obviously mistaken. This is a top to bottom problem in policing.
And here again, Blitzer didn’t push back.
CNN legal analyst Areva Martin also characterized Brooks as “an unarmed African-American man,” blaming police for having escalated matters (by trying to arrest someone who was under the influence and behind the wheel).
Opining that there must be a “reimagining” of “public safety,” Martin praised the calls to defund and disband police departments because it’s one of many “big bold ideas....to address the systemic issues that treat police who treat African-Americans as suspects and criminals, rather than as citizens.”
For Blitzer’s part, he joined in the advocacy when, after finishing an interview with Brooke family attorney Chris Stewart, he boasted that CNN won’t “lose faith” and not only will they “demand change,” but “we’re with you.”
Facts be damned, folks!
Brooks wasn’t done. In the 10:00 p.m. Eastern hour, he argued that there hasn’t been a focus on “violence” by police officers and instead a universal focus on the “violence” by looters and rioters. And to top that, he suggested police could be successfully reined in through deescalation like the U.S. has tried to do with North Koreans (click “expand”):
Well, as I look at a restaurant being burned in Atlanta. One of the things that comes to mind is we have a building burning. We also have the patience of the people across the country and around the world also burning and so, in other words, when we're in this moment where we clearly appreciate the danger of violence, but the problem has been here to for, we talk about the violence of the protesters, not the violence of the police and we are at a moment where we need non-violence by those wearing blue uniforms and gold badges. Not merely calling for nonviolence from those who are in protests and demonstrations and as a Christian minister, as a former president of the NAACP, I deeply, deeply believe not only the moral efficacy of non-violence, but the legal and positive efficacy of nonviolence, but let us know this, Wolf. We really have to be clear. If we can use diplomacy and de-escalation with respect to the North Koreans who had nuclear arms, why can't we teach police departments to use de-escalation with respect to unarmed civilians?
We've heard guests talk about this being a local problem. It is a local problem. 18,000 police departments, 19,000 jurisdictions across 50 states, but we cannot wait for this problem to be solved, department by department, hash tag by hash tag, human being by human being. We need a national will. In other words, we need a sense of urgency, think about this. In our streets, we have deadlines on protests we call curfews. When it comes to police brutality, there is no deadline. Where are the goals? Where are the metrics? Where’s the sense of urgency? When do we put this on the calendar? We deployed National Guardsmen because we want police in the streets. We — the President threatens to bring in the U.S. military, because we want peace on the streets and we want it on a timetable. When it comes to police brutality, be clear, time's up. We’ve arrived at the deadline. We need police departments to now establish protocols, objectives, a whole scale transformation and yes, we need to defund what doesn't work and invest and fund those things which do work and this morally anachronistic form of policing that we have today, which results in 1,000 people being killed a year, must change and has to change now. That's what millions of people are saying across the country and around the world.
As he had done throughout the night, Blitzer remained silent, like a liberal potted plant. We might as well have had Jim Acosta anchoring coverage as the result would have been much the same.
To see the relevant CNN transcript from March 13, click “expand.”
CNN’s The Situation Room
June 13, 2020
9:21 p.m. EasternMARC MORIAL: This man was shot in the back while fleeing and he was using a taser which is not a deadly weapon. I think importantly Wolf, that part of this matter, that part of this case and then at the beginning, what in fact caused the tussle between the police officers and the gentleman. What caused that at the beginning of the case? Did the officers act in a provocative way, in a way that escalated the conversation, right? It would be very troubling to me if they sought to arrest him without conducting a field sobriety test or calling out for the breathalyzer truck to come out and — and — and determine whether or not, he in fact broke the law in any material or substantial way, whether he was feeling bad or he was sick so the lawyers, I think laid this matter out and enough is enough, Wolf. See, this is an accumulation of cases which seem to just get a pattern. An unarmed black man is shot by the police either fleeing or not doing anything threatening or provocative.
(....)
9:31 p.m. Eastern
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS: So Rayshard Brooks looks a lot like Walter Scott in Charleston back in 2015. That is to say shot in the back. You know, Wolf, how many of us have been in a drive-thru in a parking lot as a consequence of overwork, sleep deprivation, falling asleep in a — in a parked vehicle? Many of us. How do we go from that to a 27-year old man being shot in the back? This is a metaphor for the state of policing in this country, where you have 1,000 people killed by the police every year in Georgia. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating — has been called to investigate 48 police-involved homicides this year. The point being is we have altogether too much killing, way too much killing of black people but certainly other people so much so that police homicide is the sixth leading cause of death of people Rayshard Brooks’s age. That is to say young black men. This is the tense situation and this is a tense situation not as a consequence of the anger and the reaction of the protesters but the inaction of police departments across this country. That's where we are.
WOLF BLITZER: What does it say to you Cornell, that we've been — what — about almost three weeks, we've been seeing protests following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. 46- years old and then all of a sudden, we see another incident along these lines and we see the video. We're showing our viewers the video that has been obtained by CNN, very disturbing video, I must say indeed. What does it say to you that we see another example along these lines that it's — it’s still happening?
WILLIAMS BROOKS: What it says is for every police officer, every police chief, every mayor, every governor, every president who says that police homicide, police brutality, this pandemic of police misconduct is a matter of a few bad apples. It says that they’re tragically, sadly, obviously mistaken. This is a top to bottom problem in policing. Be clear about this. In 2015 when Walter Scott was killed, that was like the Great Recession of policing in terms of trust. We are now in the Great Depression in terms of distrust of the police. This means we have to call for the whole scale transformation of policing in this country, not just from the bottom up, police department by police department, hash tag by hash tag, human being by human being but from the top down as well, calling the police unions to the table. They have got to take responsibility. Congress is beginning to take action but Wolf, I'll tell you this. One thing I'd like to see is a national summit on police brutality convened by former presidents, have them convene. Clinton, President — former President Bush, or Carter, Obama, calling the nation together, calling activists together, calling police unions, police chiefs, academics, philanthropists, business leaders to the table to talk about transforming policing from the bottom up as well as from the top down. We have not a moment to waste.
(....)
9:53 p.m. Eastern
AREVA MARTIN: This is just such a tragic day in the midst of fighting for police reform and seeing people come together all over the world to demand change, we now have yet another death of an unarmed African-American man at the hands of white police officers. I think what's so tragic about this case, it reminds me of so many cases where we've seen black men running away from the police and clearly, there were things that could have been done from a police standpoint to de-escalate the situation yet a simple interaction with the police turns into a deadly encounter and I know there are lots of experts who say we need to have more meetings, we have to have to bring people to the table but I guess for me at this point, the frustration is so high amongst advocates and protesters and — and people of good conscience and black mothers like myself that for me this is about reimagining public safety in this country. We can't keep doing the same thing, accepting you know - expecting that there's going to be a different result. That's you know the definition of insanity here and that's what this feels like to me as big as this moment is, as much as we hear people say it's big. I mean conversations with the police and with the elected officials in the city of Los Angeles and I don't really sense that at that level, we are really moving towards those kind of systemic changes that's going to ever put an end to the kind of death that we witnessed on the videotape with Mr. Brooks, with Mr. Floyd, and the list is just so long. We — we can't keep asking for incremental change. That's why we're hearing about disbanding and dismantling and although some people get really nervous about that, I think those big bold ideas have to be on the table if we're ever going to address the systemic issues that treat police who treat African-Americans as suspects and criminals, rather than as citizens and that's what I think I saw on this videotape. Two white police officers who were down right angry at this black man who took their taser, who's running to get away, rather than de-escalate, wait for back up, try to box him in, they then shoot him as he's running away. Just absolutely no justification for that but yet until we start thinking about reimagining public safety in this country, we will continue to see that kind of lawlessness by police officers.
(....)
10:27 p.m. Eastern
BLITZER: Chris Stewart, I know you've got a lot going on, it was kind of you to join us, our viewers here in the United States and around the world —
CHRIS STEWART: Yes, just don't lose faith.
BLITZER: — are grateful to you. Thank you so much. You want to make a final point before I let you go?
STEWART: Just don't lose faith, anybody. Just don't lose faith and that answers and change will come, as long as we keep demanding it.
BLITZER: Yep. We're not going to lose faith. We're going to demand change and we're with you.
(....)
10:38 p.m. Eastern
WILLIAM BROOKS: Well, as I look at a restaurant being burned in Atlanta. One of the things that comes to mind is we have a building burning. We also have the patience of the people across the country and around the world also burning and so, in other words, when we're in this moment where we clearly appreciate the danger of violence, but the problem has been here to for, we talk about the violence of the protesters, not the violence of the police and we are at a moment where we need non-violence by those wearing blue uniforms and gold badges. Not merely calling for nonviolence from those who are in protests and demonstrations and as a Christian minister, as a former president of the NAACP, I deeply, deeply believe not only the moral efficacy of non-violence, but the legal and positive efficacy of nonviolence, but let us know this, Wolf. We really have to be clear. If we can use diplomacy and de-escalation with respect to the North Koreans who had nuclear arms, why can't we teach police departments to use de-escalation with respect to unarmed civilians? We've heard guests talk about this being a local problem. It is a local problem. 18,000 police departments, 19,000 jurisdictions across 50 states, but we cannot wait for this problem to be solved, department by department, hash tag by hash tag, human being by human being. We need a national will. In other words, we need a sense of urgency, think about this. In our streets, we have deadlines on protests we call curfews. When it comes to police brutality, there is no deadline. Where are the goals? Where are the metrics? Where’s the sense of urgency? When do we put this on the calendar? We deployed National Guardsmen because we want police in the streets. We — the President threatens to bring in the U.S. military, because we want peace on the streets and we want it on a timetable. When it comes to police brutality, be clear, time's up. We’ve arrived at the deadline. We need police departments to now establish protocols, objectives, a whole scale transformation and yes, we need to defund what doesn't work and invest and fund those things which do work and this morally anachronistic form of policing that we have today, which results in 1,000 people being killed a year, must change and has to change now. That's what millions of people are saying across the country and around the world.
