Escalation is Coming from Fox and the NYPD
by lizard
The execution of two NYPD officers—an unjustifiable act that I do not condone—is being obscenely exploited to attack Mayor De Blasio and discredit the millions of people who have (and will continue) peacefully protesting police brutality. Two days ago when this cop slaying was unfolding, I put up this post about the response of Pat Lynch and the police union he heads, declaring the NYPD a ‘wartime’ police department. Wasting no time taking advantage to escalate tensions, Lynch confirmed that cops turned their backs on the Mayor as he approached the press conference.
But will the NYPD take any responsibility for escalating tensions? In pro-cop rallies, supporters AND officers were seen wearing I CAN BREATHE t-shirts. Cops are apparently also peddling other merchandise, mocking the last moments of Eric Garner. Disgusting. I understand why Jayceon Taylor, aka The Game, would tweet what he did. From the link:
When NYPD cops and their supporters are so callous and heartless as to wear shirts with the saying, “I can breathe” emblazoned upon them to a pro-police rally, while other cops go so far as to sell “breathe easy don’t break the law” t-shirts that mock the death of Eric Garner, as we reported on earlier this week, should anyone be surprised that The Game or the public at large are extremely disgusted by these actions and let it be known?
The message cops are sending, by wearing/selling those shirts, is one that they are above the law, and that their lives are in some way more valuable than the lives of the people they kill.
People who blame the protesters and the Mayor of NYC for incitement should also take a look at the disgusting editing trick of a Baltimore Fox affiliate. The trick was to cut away from a chant before it was complete. Go to the link for the video evidence. To see, in words, the change, the edited clip turned this:
We can’t stop!
We won’t stop!
’til killer cops are in cell blocks!
into this:
We can’t stop!
We won’t stop!
So kill a cop!
Tensions are so high right now that another incident on either side of the growing divide could blow the lid off. Too bad the NYPD is escalating those tensions, because they are the ones with the lethal authority to kill with impunity.
Recent Comments
December 22, 2014 at 7:28 pm
Throughout history the role of the agent provocateur has been the most thinly disguised agitation to serve some other purpose. But it works so easily.
December 22, 2014 at 11:09 pm
Back on December 13 there was a march in NYC. The protesters shouted: “What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want it? Now.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj4ARsxrZh8 Then social media lighted up with approval and applause. The escalation, such as it is, occurred before anything the police did in response to the execution slaying of two of their own. If this is your idea of peaceful protest, the gulf is beyond bridging and way beyond your grasp.
December 23, 2014 at 2:35 am
do you think it’s acceptable for cops to wear I CAN BREATHE t-shirts? do you approve of Fox’s editing manipulation?
December 23, 2014 at 11:46 am
Do you think your shallow encapsulation of the issues can seriously be dealt with by posing silly questions? What’s been going on in NYC is far more complicated than you have exhibited real understanding. http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/bill-de-blasio-113755.html
Murdering cops is not a recent phenomena. For example, during 2009 in Seattle officer Timothy Brenton was shot and killed while sitting in his patrol car. That same year 4 officers were murdered in Lakewood, Washington as they sat at a table in a local restaurant. Following those murders law enforcement amped up there response to potential threats. HOWEVER, back in 2001 during Mardi Gras celebrations in Pioneer Square the police took a passive approach while black youths beat a young white man to death who was trying to defend a young woman from a beating. This was all caught on camera. Police officers are often put in a ‘damned if the do, damned if they don’t ‘ position. Demanding that officers take the passive approach as the Seattle police did in 2001 puts not only their lives at risk but very innocent victims who had no part of any preceding criminal activity.
December 23, 2014 at 11:58 am
I’m sure that out there somewhere in the urban jungle printers are boxing up “Give Pigs Wings” t-shirts and hoddies.
December 23, 2014 at 12:22 pm
Gore Vidal observed one time that our police are usually drawn from our criminal classes (certainly true in NYC). We should never presume that there is goodness or good intent behind the shields.
Extrajudicial killings are wrong, whether performed by police of civilians. Period.
December 23, 2014 at 12:58 pm
From the criminal class and bisexual.
Hey Mark who’s following you around with the one stars?
December 23, 2014 at 1:38 pm
What, only law-abiding heteros are worth listening to? Bigoted much?
December 23, 2014 at 1:58 pm
Are we a little quick on the trigger, JC?
Gore believed we were all born bi.
December 23, 2014 at 2:46 pm
Vidal was a little more nuanced than “we are all bonrm bi,”
December 23, 2014 at 2:49 pm
oops, hit return … Vidal likened human sexuality to a circle, half hetero and half gay, and suggested that our sexuality could be all on one side or the other or covers part of both.
I don’t see much wrong with that except that it does not cover that part of the population (??%) that is asexual. Voluntarily so, and not like me in high school, asexual by the general consensus of all the girls there.
December 23, 2014 at 2:45 pm
I assume it’s Kurtz but don’t know. I’ve been giving myself preemptive one-stars.
I don’t believe that police are drawn from criminal classes, but also don’t think they are the cream of society, like soldiers drawn to a nice cushy government job because they don’t have many other prospects. It’s not about civic pride anymore than soldiers are about patriotism.
January 12, 2015 at 2:53 am
Unlike mindless progtard nitwits like you…the irony is delicious.
December 23, 2014 at 7:42 am
I think you’re on the losing end of this one – it was widely promoted on TV the march where marchers were calling for dead cops – and they succeeded in getting two executed. No amount of editing can change that.
December 23, 2014 at 7:53 am
You’re one of hundreds of millions, Eric, who see something on TV and authomatically think it is true without question. That is the power of TV, almost hypnotic in its ability to control your thoughts.
December 24, 2014 at 6:12 pm
Thanks Mark – it’s nice to know that I really didn’t see people walking down the street, chanting that they wanted dead cops, and wanted them now. I’m sure it’s right up there with the moon hoax – ha ha.
December 24, 2014 at 10:49 pm
Thank you, Eric, for the entertainment. I think I said that if you see something on TV and it is called news, you automatically think it is true. I think you said that if you see something on TV and it is called news, you automatically think it is true.
So what’s the problem? Why did you ha ha me?
December 25, 2014 at 12:22 pm
Because it obviously wasn’t done on a studio to fool people, which you seem to think it was. There was a crowd, going down the street in a procession (parade) chanting “What do we want dead cops, when do we want them now” which I saw, and a couple of days a ‘hero’ decided to give them some dead cops, and does. Yes, I truly believe what I saw and heard was real. To think it was fake is truly funny – unless you believe in the moon hoax theory, or that JFK is still alive in Dallas –
December 25, 2014 at 2:16 pm
You think the video justifies gunning them all down? Or do they have first amendment rights like everyone else to say and chant what they want (if in fact this isn’t a doctored video)? Or maybe this is an opportunity for the police and NY admin to sit down with protestors and victims to hammer out some policy changes?
Protest can be ugly. Being a bigoted reactionary is uglier.
December 25, 2014 at 1:45 pm
Eric, it may well be a good representation of reality, or it may be altered in some manner, in place and time or content, to portray what you saw. When we are watching TV, we never know if what we see is real of fake, altered or misinterpreted. I know you got your defenses all going here, that you saw it and dammit it it is real.
But all TV news should be viewed with hgih skepticism, as all kinds of devices are available to give a false record of events.
December 25, 2014 at 6:21 pm
‘watching’ teevee still: really? ‘hgih’ skepticism is how to read anything from you.
December 25, 2014 at 6:40 pm
Why … I oughtta … That does it. One star for you!
December 25, 2014 at 7:54 pm
Sure, conservatives watch TV Get a life!!!!!!!!!!!
Or not
merry Xmas!
December 23, 2014 at 1:36 pm
You are so gullible, watching all your faux news:
http://gawker.com/slimy-baltimore-fox-affiliate-caught-faking-kill-a-cop-1674040381
“Last night, Baltimore’s WBFF aired a video of protesters chanting “kill a cop”– evidence, it claimed, of murderously violent rhetoric on the part of anti-brutality protesters in Washington, D.C. The only problem? The protesters weren’t chanting “kill a cop” at all, and there’s video evidence to prove it.”
Quite being such a dumb f*ck.
December 25, 2014 at 10:59 am
To paraphrase the King of Brobdingnab, Fox viewers are “the most pernicious race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl of the Surface of the Earth.”
December 25, 2014 at 11:00 am
“on the Surface…”
December 25, 2014 at 12:02 pm
Turner, perhaps many of your ilk didn’t get the talking points memo to parrot as you have done. http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits/pj_2014-10-21_media-polarization-14/ Don’t think your excoriating rhetoric is going to do much to render them passive, parroting supplicants of the party line.
Merry Christmas!!!!!!
December 25, 2014 at 12:25 pm
December 23, 2014 at 2:15 pm
Here’s a thought; maybe the NYPD should focus on keeping handguns away from the mentally ill instead of bashing De Blasio.
December 23, 2014 at 2:52 pm
NYC and the state of NY have the strictest gun control laws in the US. In the case of this mentally ill shooter, he came from Baltimore after shooting his GF. As you may know the NYPD dropped its stop-and-frisk policy after many complaints. Pete, just exactly what would you have the police do?
December 23, 2014 at 8:06 pm
Perhaps Maryland, Ohio or wherever he got his piece, should do a little background checking.
December 24, 2014 at 9:08 pm
Did the mentally ill guy know he was going to kill two cops or did he just get lucky with his instagram post?
How come the mentally ill guy got arrested so much but convicted so little? Did someone with juice take care of it? Or was he falsely charged and actually innocent a lot?
Did those poor dumb officers have any enemies in positions of power??
Where did the alleged shooter get his funds from? To buy a gun. To travel. To not be home or in contact with his family for so long?
Did he shoot his girlfriend because she was a cop? If not, then why?
How come mentally ill murder guys are on the cutting edge of tech popularity? Even though he was in the joint he’s on instagram? Hmmm.
December 23, 2014 at 3:06 pm
By the way, the police don’t trust De Blasio. See the Politico link above.
December 24, 2014 at 9:11 pm
Glad to see you pulling for the union Eric. These cop unions are good.
They didn’t waste a second cashing in on the deaths of two rank and file patrol officers.
Bang bang ca ching!
Wait a minute. You didn’t know the union is without a contract and in the thick of it?
December 25, 2014 at 12:42 pm
People still use teevee? Seriously?