Toxic US politics, a brutal killing and the messengers become the target
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: David Robie also blogs at Cafe Pacific
Three cartoonists had especially poignant takes on the tragic and toxic political aftermath of martyr George Floyd’s brutal killing under the knee of a white American policeman in Minneapolis last week.
The Boston Globe’s Christopher Weyant featured a split frame contrasting a red-capped “Make America Great Again” and a Covid Is A Hoax tee-short dangling his face mask while declaring: “You’re violating my freedom – I can’t breathe”.
On the other side of the frame is the accused policeman with his knee on Floyd’s neck as he gasps: “You’re violating my freedom … I … can’t breathe!”
An unnamed Greek cartoonist shared by Elena Akrita showed the Statue of Liberty bearing the flame of freedom while extinguishing a life with a jackboot.
At the other end of the globe, in the South Pacific, New Zealand Herald’s Rod Emmerson depicted President Trump holding aloft a petrol can in his right hand instead of the Bible. In the background is the legend: In God We Trust: In Trump We Just Shake Our Heads.
His speech bubble says: “I’m completely out of my depth, and I’m not afraid to prove it.”
The disturbing week led the Herald to play on the infamous callousness of Emperor Nero as Rome burned with a digital update in its editorial: “Trump tweets while his country burns.” (The online version of the heading was much milder).
‘Darkest time for America’
“City and police officials are now more diverse than ever, yet America’s racial problems are deep-seated and there is a palpable impatience with incremental change,” lamented the Herald.
“It is probably the darkest time for America since 1968 when, amid the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, riots rocked the country, and Richard Nixon was elected.”
Amid the chaos, the savage treatment being meted out to the messengers was also unprecedented, with many media freedom watchdogs and news organisations condemning the attacks on reporters.
Among the most dramatic incidents was the arrest and handcuffing of a CNN news correspondent and his crew in Minneapolis – captured live on television – with the black reporter pleading what he had done to “deserve” being detained. It was an outrageous violation of human rights and the US First Amendment.
CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his crew were freed an hour later with a police apology but the harm had been done right in front of a global audience.
As he told a journalism colleague, his mother and grandmother were watching as the police manhandled him. And because he hadn’t been charged with anything there was no record of where he had been taken.
Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned this and many other attacks in the strongest possible terms and called for immediate measures to protect journalists.
Trump’s ‘demonisation’ of media
It also blamed President Trump for his “demonisation” of the media for the attacks.
“Protests in at least 30 cities across the US following the police killing of George Floyd have resulted in violent attacks from police and protesters alike against journalists,” RSF stated. “Dozens of incidents have been reported so far, ranging from threats to serious physical assaults.”
At the time of a public statement on June 1, RSF said at least 68 incidents had been documented of attacks by police and protesters on media. Since then the US Press Freedom Tracker has recorded at least 300 incidents against journalists, including 44 attacks, 19 arrests, 17 case of damaged equipment and four examples of searched or seized equipment.
“They have been shot by rubber bullets and pepper balls, exposed to tear gas and pepper spray, beaten, threatened and intimidated and had their news vehicles vandalised, simply for doing their jobs,” said RSF.
“President Trump’s demonisation of the media for years has now come to fruition, with both the police and protesters targeting clearly identified journalists with violence and arrests,” said RSF’s secretary-general Christophe Deloire.
“It has long been obvious that this demonisation would lead to physical violence. RSF has warned about the consequences of this blatant hostility towards the media, and we are now witnessing an unprecedented outbreak of violence against journalists in the US.
“RSF calls on all US authorities to ensure the full protection of journalists and honor the country’s founding principles in respecting press freedom.”
Among serious attacks
Among the most serious attacks cited by RSF and circulated by Pacific Media Watch:
- “In Minneapolis, Linda Tirado, was left permanently blind in one eye after being struck by what she believes was a rubber bullet fired by police officers as she photographed protests.
- “In Pittsburgh, Ian Smith – a photojournalist for KDKA TV – posted to Twitter that he had been “attacked by protestors downtown by the arena. They stomped and kicked me. I’m bruised and bloody but alive. My camera was destroyed. Another group of protesters pulled me out and saved my life.”
- “In Phoenix, CBS reporter Briana Whitney was tackled live on air as a protester made a grab for her microphone.
- “In Washington, D.C., Fox News reporter Leland Vittert and his crew were punched, hit by projectiles, and chased by protesters who had gathered outside the White House.
- “In Minneapolis, Australian 9News US correspondent Tim Arvier was detained by police at gunpoint.”
In some “fresh horrors” reported by the independent Australian media website Crikey:
- “Austin police have shot three protesters with “less lethal” ammunition. These protesters included a pregnant woman, who was shot in the abdomen, and a man currently in critical condition.
- “Seattle police deployed pepper spray and fireworks on a crowd in what ended up looking like a war zone. Arkansas police were filmed doing much to the same to kneeling protesters.
- “Military helicopters were filmed by a New York Times journalist flying low enough around DC to kick up dust and break tree branches.”
Down Under rallies
Crikey also reported that “on the home front”, the ABC had reported that NSW police were investigating an officer after he was filmed “kicking the legs out of an Indigenous teenager”.
“The news comes as Nine reports that over a thousand people marched in Sydney last night ahead of even more protests this weekend, while CNN lists a number of other solidarity protests across countries, including New Zealand, England, Mexico, Syria and more.
“Just remember to wear your covid-19 masks, comrades!”
However, the week has ended with some media good news after the covid-19 shakedown and huge loss of jobs in both Australia and New Zealand – AAP Newswire has been saved at the 11th hour with a promised buy-out by a group of investors and philanthropists headed by former News Corp chief executive Peter Tonagh. Between 75 and 90 jobs may be saved as a result.
As the Australian media union MEAA says, the proposed purchase is a “crucial recognition” of the role AAP plays in the Australian – and Pacific – media ecosystem.
This cartoon of the toxic precursor to the Floyd murder (centuries of socioeconomic oppression), has stuck with me this week:
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/1949860
I’m deadly serious when I say the New Zealand government requires geo political clout as a result of the social unrest. The government requires navy corvettes, fighter jets and soldiers forward deployed in the South Pacific and Australia with in 10 years to secure the South Pacific Trading block. That means construction has to begin has to begin next year.
So we’ve had a black man get publicly lynched by having a cop suffocate George Floyd by placing his knee on his neck for 8 minutes which has set off a chain of events that highlights divisions with in the global community. And I think everyone who saw it should be disgusted, hopefully, because it was nasty. Basically if I had of left my knee on a dog for 8 minutes and the dog would have died then people would have been equally disgusted and everyone around me would have insisted or even forced my off the dog. But sense this was a police officer public ally lynching a black man then we literally treat dogs better than coloured people.
I went in that in detail to show that it is indeed an everyday thing. Even in New Zealand brown people are killed by police at the double the rate of non-brown people.
For me I haven’t been able to do any work for the last 3 weeks because it feels to me at least like Iv just lost my grandmother which is deep mental scaring and that’s all the times I’v been ticketed by cops for nothing. Once every 2 years I have my car searched for no other reason than doing is routine for coloured people.
I’m not rich, all my debts are payed off. My children has a free ride through to university so I ain’t poor either. So in 2006 I try starting a hedge fund so I could get in on the 20x borrowing that these organisations have access to and the guy I spoke to from a top law firm to ask if he could create the documents for me (I’m not going To name them) said to me in a non controversial way that I was the first time that this type of person has ever asked and I knew what he meant, he meant a coloured type. He wasn’t trying to be mean or racist or anything it was literally the first time and that lesson cost me ten thousand dollars. Neither of us were angry or anything and I was going through my own mortgage issues and by that time I was saying well if I equal ~1 and he equals ~2 then how the hell does the property market equate to 198 and by 2007-2008 I was correct and my dude was incorrect so neither of us was offended, but if was off putting despite no doubt that it was the truth.
But this is just anecdotal evidence of what black people have to do through and marginalised people like me have to go through. My feelings are not tied in anyway to the economy so I was and am more the willing to give the state the benefit of the doubt that they can turn it all around.
But I do encourage my children to take public transport and stay local. At a higher up level I can use my political clout, make donations, expand my influence and so on but at the frontline police level I’v got no influence. When I see a police officer I don’t see someone who is there to protect me, I see someone who is envious of what coloured people have and what I’v got and I don’t blame them Yknow if I was up the top of the economic ladder I have to say heart on heart I WOULD be protective of the establishment.
So I called the 2008 meltdown correctly, I got the Trump Election correct, I called Jacinda’s election correct and I’v been saying for the last 2 years that there’s a big big crash that would dwarf all economic crashes before it because the U.S was coming off a 50 year bond market boom, and coming off a Dotcom boom, and coming off a real estate boom. Mix all this together with corona causing a global economic shutdown and you get these conversations of V shaped recoveries which is just absolute nonsense.
I can’t stand Trump. That said I had to laugh at the complaint that Trump demonises the media. Five years of the media demonising him fairly, unfairly, habitually and he’d have to be a Saint not to. Both sides need to take a long hard look at themselves.
Someone in the media can say of one situation that what Trump said or did was dumb, or questionable or wrong, mostly able to be proven, mostly based on information that has come to hand.
Since before he was president Trump used his ‘fakenews’ expression to diminish public trust in and respect for the media. Further than that he clearly mounted a campaign to have people scorn and attack the media.
He’s a big boy he can take a bit of demonising can’t he? Especially since demonising is his modus operandi. Well, no he can’t take a bit of demonising.
No doubt you have seen the pressers where someone has quoted something he has specifically said, quoted him directly and he has attacked them for quoting ‘fakenews.’ Or called it a ‘nasty’ question and rubbished the person and their organisation. He is afraid of the media.
I suppose the best thing would have been if four years ago all the main media organisations decided to ignore him, not say anything about him, not ask him any question and not comment on anything he did or not attend any press conferences.
Things would have been much smoother. Fox naturally would have done the job, a great job, held him account and not demonised him. How would that have gone?
Trump has not been demonised unfairly. He’s been demonised because the threat he poses mean he is a demon. Habitually.
Oh Good. So now every Dictator has an excuse for shooting the messenger. Just claim 5 years of media demonisation and fakenews.
Trump is a super creep who among other things …… Had forced sex with his first wife Ivana, which is of course rape…. He always stiffed contractors and never paid the agreed quoted amount for work ,,,, he also stiffed creditors repeatedly ,,, He mocked his brother for choosing the career of airline pilot, possibly contributing to his brothers alcoholism and early death ,,,, basically he’s a fat headed bullshitter who pulls stunts like using the bible when he would be one of the most sinful people around .
Biden is a private prison filling pro war, pro corporate exceptional arsehole ,,, he’s also a recognized sex offender ,,, due to his current mental condition he probably cant remember why he is groping everything that comes in reach ,,, http://www.cc.com/video-clips/yfmksi/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-the-audacity-of-grope
To be fair Clinton was also a smiling rapist ,,,,, unable to understand that some woman did not want to have sex with him or suck his Presidential dick ,,, Luminol testing would have shown Clinton left his DNA all over the Whitehouse as Interns dresses will only catch and absorb so much.
President Bush before Clinton seemed less of a sex offender ,,, but in fact he raped the middle east in a way that has jack the ripper looking like a school boy ,,,,
Obama was a pack rapist ,,, in that he could rape and butcher a pack of countries at the same time. Its interesting and Ironic,,, that all the usa drones and bombs and missiles and munitions and even their nuclear weapons ,,, are their version of Socialism ,,, USA citizens pay tax, which is redistributed into weapons, private prisons and a racist paranoid surveillance state.
God save everyone from Amerika ,,,, Making Redskins is what they are exceptional at. https://youtu.be/ZW_idgSDz6A ” Thanksgiving to ‘Redskins’ – Dispelling American Myths That Hide Native Genocide “