Johnny Hurley was a Good Samaritan; a cop killed him. Day 7 of 7 #Twitter Campaign

Johnny Hurley’s murder did not make it to the national news. Hurley, dubbed a hero by Denver police officials, was a “good guy with a gun” who witnessed a killing and took action. 

Johnny Hurley was shopping for outdoor gear at the Arvada Army Navy Surplus store when he witnessed a gunman fatally shoot Officer Gordon Beesley the afternoon of June 20. The 59-year-old gunman, identified as Ronald Troyke, then shot out the windows of several cop cars, before returning to his vehicle to grab an AR-15.

Hurley, a concealed-carry permit holder, was quick to take action. He used his own firearm to shoot and kill the suspect and then picked up the long gun with the intent of holding on to it for authorities, according to District Attorney Alexis King.

When officers arrived on the scene, they saw Hurley with a gun standing over a body and assumed he was involved, 9News reported. That’s when an officer, identified as Kraig Brownlow, fired off the shots that killed Hurely thinking he was the attacker.

It came as no surprise that the cop who made the decision to kill Hurley was not fired or even disciplined. The killing has officially been deemed “a mistake.” A mistake? And that’s it? There’s no way that Hurley would have been pointing the gun at the cops when they arrived on the scene. Did they use the bullhorn to instruct him to drop the gun?  Why did they feel compelled to shoot before properly assessing the scene? Even before the decision was made not to hold Kraig Brownlow accountable for the killing of Mr. Hurley, journalists in their news reports were already out front running interference for their partners in crime. They, it was, who told their readers that the cop’s actions should be deemed a mistake. 

Mr. Hurley is only one of the over 10,000 people killed in the last 10 years by American cops. Totally unnecessary killings.

In 2021, the G-7 countries of Canada, Germany, France, Japan, the UK, and Italy with a combined population of approximately 437M people, had a total of 78 police killings between them. The United States of America with some 333M people had somewhere around 1000 people killed by law enforcement officers.

Let’s demand that our cops obey the laws they themselves have sworn to support. Let’s demand better from our reporters.

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: 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

Thursday (today):

Today, please feel free to tweet at any media personality you choose. Some of those we tweeted at earlier in the week may need a reminder.

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.