I‘ll stipulate that a hammer in the hand of a man intent on doing harm is indeed a deadly weapon. I also contend that members of a sophisticated police force should be able to disarm a man armed with even such a deadly weapon without resorting to deadly force. Police all over the world manage to do just that once every day and twice on Sundays.
If you were to believe the news reports of the killing of 34-year-old Edgar Morfin Mendoza, it would seem that the poor cops had no option but to shoot him. I can hear enablers shouting at their screens, “C’mon, JoanMar! The man had a hammer and he was sprinting at them! What do you expect them to do?”
Chief Balderrama said Mendoza walked out of the building and did not comply with the officers' commands.
The chief said he yelled frantically at both officers, and at one point, an officer tried to use a taser, but he pulled off the electric prongs.
Balderrama said Mendoza grabbed what appeared to be a hammer and started sprinting toward the officers.That's when both officers fired their weapons.
(my bold)
Nick Garcia, the journalist responsible for the words quoted above, seemed only too willing to accept and then pass on to an unsuspecting public the police department’s version of events. Garcia wasn’t present at the killing. Where do you suppose he got his information that the dead man was sprinting at the cops which forced both of them to shoot to kill? It wasn't from the dead man, we all know that. We all do remember that in Derek Chauvin’s report, George Floyd died from “a medical incident.” Darren Wilson’s report was that Michael Brown turned, bulked up like a demon and charged at him forcing him to shoot the teen execution style in the back of his head. But even worse than Garcia acting as the PR agent for the police was his normalizing, enabling language. In this tweet, @NicABC30 abandons all pretense of objectivity and shows that he clearly understands that his assignment is to represent the police. Read his update.
Nick Garcia’s report is why we are having this 7-day Twitter campaign. He — and others like him — is the reason why we continue to have over a thousand people killed by our cops every year.
If you are sickened by the fact that our police continue to choose to kill people “armed” with hammers, knives, shards of glass, and “unknown metal objects,” please do join us in our quest to get members of the fourth estate to re-evaluate their allegiance to police unions and departments across the nation. If you are sick and tired of reading about atrocity after atrocity and need to do something, join us today for day three of our seven-day Twitter campaign.
As Ari Melber puts it,“[T]his recent activism and scrutiny alone are not bending the curve of police shootings in America.” But what if media houses were to begin to cover police violence as the existential crisis that it is? Could that make a difference? Not just reporting on some of the high-profile cases and exploiting the outrage for ratings, but actually viewing police violence as a manifestation of structural racism disproportionately impacting Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. To review police killings and question why police are emptying their weapons at people in the throes of pychotic episodes. Why are they shooting girls with knives? Why are hundreds of Black & Indigenuous folks being killed every year simply because they have guns even while white men proudly parade with them unbothered.
Let’s see if we can nudge some of them in the right direction.
A seven-day campaign to tweet at prominent media personalities from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, and PBS. We’ll use the hashtags:
#StopPoliceViolence (Let’s all use #StopPoliceViolence so that we can find and retweet each other...in addition to any other you wish to use, that is.)
#PoliceThePolice
#PoliceBrutality
#BlackLivesMatter
(Do you have a suggestion?)
* In constructing your tweets, please include facts and numbers that you can get from mappingpoliceviolence.org, policeviolencereport.org, and washingtonpost.com. Note that The Washington Post database is lagging far behind the other two. Earlier this month they had the total killed in 2021 at 864 which led to people reporting that there had been a decrease in the number of people killed by cops. Now that number is up to 904.
* Please use graphics if you can (apparently they improve the chances of attracting attention).
* Please find the names of the on-air presenters and their Twitter handles below.
Example:
Friday (today): ABC
David Muir — @DavidMuir @ABCWorldNews
George Stephanopoulos — @GStephanopoulos @ThisWeekABC @GMA
Robin Roberts — @RobinRoberts @GMA
T.J. Holmes — @tjholmes @ABCGMA3 @GMA
Terry Moran — @TerryMoran @ABCPolitics
Pierre Thomas — @PierreTABC @ABCInvestigates
Linsey Davis — @LinseyDavis @ABCNews
Saturday: CBS
Norah O'Donnell — @NorahODonnell @CBSNews
Jim Axelrod — @JimAxelrod @CBSMornings
Gayle King — @GayleKing @CBSMornings
Errol Barnett — @errolbarnett @CBSNews
Scott Pelley — @ScottPelley @60Minutes
Bill Whittaker — @BillWhittakerCBS @60Minutes
Leslie Stahl — @LesleyRStahl @60Minutes
Sunday (today): CNN
Anderson Cooper — @AC360 @CNNNews @AndersonCooper
Jim Acosta — @acosta
Don Lemon — @donlemoncnn @DonLemonTonight
Wolf Blitzer — @wolfblitzer @CNNSitRoom
Jake Tapper — @jaketapper @TheLeadCNN @CNNSOTU
Jim Sciutto — @jimsciutto @CNN
John King — @JohnKingCNN @CNN
Monday: MSNBC & CNBC
Shepherd Smith — @thenewsoncnbc
Andrew Ross Sorkin — @andrewrsorkin
Rachel Maddow — @maddow @MaddowBlog
Lawrence O’Donnell — @TheLastWord @Lawrence
Joy-Ann Reid — @JoyAnnReid (She also uses the hashtags #TheReidOut & #reiders)
Ari Melber — @AriMelber @TheBeatWithAri
Chris Hayes — @chrislhayes
Stephanie Ruhle — @SRuhle @RuhleOnMSNBC
Nicolle Wallace — @NicolleDWallace @DeadlineWH
Joe Scarborough — @JoeNBC @Morning_Joe
Mika Brzezinski — @morningmika @Morning_Joe
Ali Velshi — @AliVelshi
Joyce Alene — @JoyceWhiteVance
Malcolm Nance — @MalcolmNance
Tuesday: NBC
Lester Holt — @LesterHoltNBC @NBCNightlyNews
Savannah Guthrie — @SavannahGuthrie @TODAYshow
Craig Melvin — @craigmelvin @TODAYshow
Hoda Kotb — @HodaKotb @TODAYshow
Jose Diaz-Balart — @jdbalart @JDBalartMSNBC
Peter Alexander — @PeterAlexander @NBCNews
Chuck Todd — @chucktodd @meetthepress @nbcnews
Wednesday: PBS/NPR
Judy Woodruff — @JudyWoodruff @NewsHour
Amna Nawaz — @IAmAmnaNawaz
Yamiche Alcindor — @Yamiche @WashingtonWeek
Geoff Bennett — @GeoffRBennett @NewsHour
Scott Simon — @nprscottsimon
Steve Inskeep — @NPRinskeep
On Thursday we’ll tweet at whoever we think needs reminding that we do have a crisis on our hands.
Let us know in the comments if you are in. Thanks to members of the Support the Dream Defenders who helped in the preparation of this diary.