The Washington Post is reporting that cops killed 13 people since the beginning year. As we have said before, TWP database is the most conservative of them all and lags far behind in its reporting. They have not updated the site since 1/13/22. That means that at least 13 people were killed in the first 13 days of this year. The state of Arizona has the dubious honor of being responsible for three of those killed.
This time, 26-year-old Caleb Stanford met his fate at the hands of officers employed by the Mesa Police Department.
When they arrived, Mesa officers encountered a man wielding an 8-inch kitchen knife, Encinas said. Stanford attempted to walk eastbound toward the officers, knife in hand, as they gave commands for him to drop the weapon. Encinas said that "the suspect appeared to respond to commands, but then came at the officers aggressively with the knife." Stanford "began to lie down on his stomach but refused to drop the knife" but then "jumped up and advanced on officers still holding the knife,"so officers shot him.
(my bold)
That “so officers shot him,” is what we mean when we talk about accepting, normalizing, enabling language. The reporting of the story is so awkward that there’s no doubt in my mind that the actual sequence of events must have been at least a bit different from the telling of it. That convoluted story reminds me of the murder of Laquan McDonald where the video showed the troubled youth marching away from the cops and they pumped some 16 shots in his body claiming that he attacked them. In any case, even if it were exactly as reported in the killing of Caleb Stanford, you wanna tell me that they really had to kill that man?
Let’s demand better from our cops.
If you are sickened by the fact that our police officers continue to choose to kill people “armed” with metal frames, hammers, boxcutters, knives, shards of glass, and “unknown metal objects,” please do join us in our quest to get members of the fourth estate to re-examine their allegiance to police unions and police 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 four 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: 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 (today): 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.