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What's really mind-boggling about watching the KTLA video is that Chet Huntley is still alive. |
Posted on 02/07/2006 6:10:26 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
It would have been so perfect. Rodney King redux! Another chance for the MSM to portray law enforcement as a bastion of white racism using potentially lethal force against an innocent member of a racial minority, with a Good Samaritan exposing the wrongdoing via videotape.
But darn it, some of those pesky facts spoiled the script.
We're talking of the shooting in Chino, California of Elio Carrion, a U.S. Air Force security officer who had served in Iraq, by a San Bernardino County deputy sheriff after a car chase. The shooting was captured on amateur videotape, which can be seen here.
This morning's Today show interviewed Carrion's lawyer, and in the course of the segment showed portions of the videotape at least half-a-dozen times. Dramatic, alarming images that might lead one to think that white racism was in play in the shooting of the Mexican-American airman . . .
Except, darn it, it turns out the deputy who did the shooting was . . . African-American; Ivory Webb, Jr., son of the former Compton police chief.
And the person whom the lawyer twice, and Matt Lauer once, described as a "Good Samaritan"? Well, people are innocent until proven guilty, but it did take some of the luster off his halo when it was revealed that he had been on the lam from a felony charge. Though not mentioned by Today, the charge is of aggravated assault with a weapon on an elderly woman.
Carrion's lawyer called the immigration officer who alerted law enforcement to the outstanding warrant "an evil, mean-spirited person." Lawyers are officers of the court, but the one in question here, Luis Carillo, apparently thinks it's evil to see to it that someone who has fled on a felony assault warrant is arrested.
The facts of the shooting appear muddy as well. Carrion was shot as he began to get up off the ground. It does appear that he thought he was complying with the deputy's command to "get up." But there are apparently conflicting reports that the officer had said "shut up," or that it was someone else, not the deputy, who yelled "get up," so that when Carrion began to get up, the deputy might have felt threatened, as he has claimed.
In any case, the shooting of an innocent man by law enforcement is of course deeply regrettable, and the fact that the victim here is a member of the military who served in Iraq makes the situation that much more poignant.
But other than the fact that dramatic videotape is available, what justifies the extensive national media coverage of the shooting? The MSM are going to have to do better than this if they want to hang another racism charge on law enforcement.
Today Show/NewsBusters ping.
So, he's not a racist.
Does that prove he's a good police officer who acted properly?
This article bemoans the lack of a racial angle by accusing the MSM of bemoaning the lack of a racial angle, but provides no backup that anybody but the author is disappointed.
I highly doubt race was a factor here at all, but since when is only white on brown/black considered racism? Well, I know thats what the PC leftists would have you believe, but black on white/brown can certainly be racism as well.
The question remains, other than the availability of the dramatic videotape, what justifies the extensive national media coverage of this story? It suggests to me that there's a certain Rodney King nostalgia at work.
Yea, I found this article to be completely useless.
I have no better idea if the shooting was justified after reading it than before reading it.
All the article seems to do is make weak arguments that the media is trying to portray this as a racist act, which I'm not sure I buy.
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What's really mind-boggling about watching the KTLA video is that Chet Huntley is still alive. |
Absolutely nothing.
The very dramatic video tape is plenty of reason for it to be a major story. Have you noticed that there are probably fifty threads on this story on FR alone? I don't think we're particularly nostalgic for Rodney King.
The guy really does have a parody of a news anchor bass baritone, doesn't he?
In Los Angeles, blacks and latinos hate each other. This guys is saying that because the cop is black he couldn't have been racially motivated.I am not saying he was racially motivated, but to say that he was black so that let's out racism is racist in itself. I guess only white males are racists!
Ummm... This is the first "racist" label I have personally heard regarding this case. Mayhap the crew at "Yesterday" is stirring the pot in order to discredit truly racist incidents (from whichever direction)?
You make an interesting point. If the deputy had been white, the possibility of racism would surely have been raised. Because he was black, was there another form of PC involved in not mentioning the possibility?
Blather away...
In fairness, Today didn't allege racism. My point is essentially to ask why the incident is getting so much national media coverage, if not for a certain kind of Rodney King nostalgia on the media's part.
All the articles posted on FR alleged brutality and incompetence, not racism. They were from the MSM.
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