NBC reporter Pete Williams needs to offer a correction for a story on Thursday’s Nightly News. In a story on how Cobb County, Georgia is moving to fire a policeman for saying on camera – sardonically, it seems – “we only shoot black people.” Williams compared that to the shooting of Philando Castile, who was shot at point blank range by Jeronimo Yanez, a Latino cop. But Williams said he was white:
WILLIAMS: The date stamp on the video, July 10th, 2016. Just four days after cell phone video went viral showing the moments after a white policeman killed a black driver, Philando Castile, in Minnesota.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Cobb County police chief Mike Register said, “I have known Lt. (Greg) Abbott for years and perceived him as honorable, but he’s made a mistake. I don’t know what is in his heart, but I know what came out of his mouth."
NBC skipped the sentence with “honorable” and “mistake.” NBC also skipped any mention of what the stopped driver said.
The woman tells Abbott that she is afraid to reach for her cellphone because “I’ve just seen way too many videos of cops ... ” At that point, Abbott cuts her off.
“But you’re not black,” he says. “Remember, we only shoot black people. Yeah. We only kill black people, right? All the videos you’ve seen, have you seen the black people get killed?”
Abbott resigned at about the same time Chief Register said termination was recommended. Police shootings of whites are not considered newsworthy. A study by The Washington Post of fatal police shootings across the country found 50 percent of the fatalities were white, and 26 percent were black.
PS: Leftists in the Twin Cities insisted that although Yanez was Latino, the county attorney prosecuting him was Asian, and the judge was black, they all "are operating within and are simultaneously harmed by systems of white supremacy."
[Hat tip: Bruce]
