Police shoot man holding a vaping pipe.
“Fatal shooting of black man by El Cajon police sparks outrage, protests.” That was a Los Angeles Times headline on Sept. 28, 2016. Police were called to a mall in El Cajon, near San Diego. A man was acting erratically. As police approached, Alfred Olango put his hand into his pocket and refused orders to show his hands.
The man pulled his hand from his pocket holding a shiny cylindrical object, and pointed it at one of the officers. The man assumed the Weaver stance. This is a shooting position developed in the 1950s by Jack Weaver, a deputy sheriff and pistol marksman. It proved superior to the one-handed position used earlier. Where Olango learned it and why he used it are matters of speculation. But that police saw it as a mortal threat is beyond argument.
Rather than the actual event shown in the video, newspaper and TV reports featured protestors who claimed that the shooting was unjustified and racist. They opined that police should have talked to the man, or tased him (which they did), or waited for a police dog – or done anything other than react to what clearly appeared to be an imminent threat of death or serious injury.
Was this “suicide by cop”? Was the man on drugs or mentally ill? What is certain is that the police could not know that he was holding a vaping pipe. What is certain is that police, like all people, are not required to stand still and act as shooting targets. What is certain is that by allowing protestors to vent dubious theories on TV, while ignoring the video, the media are fomenting violence.
This is the latest in a long series of biased and arguably malicious “news” reports.
“Eulia Love was shot over a $22.09 gas bill.”
In 1979, Eulia Love, a 39-year-old African American mother, failed to pay her gas bill. The gas man came to shut off the gas. The climate in Los Angeles is hardly such that lack of heat can be dangerous. Nevertheless, Ms. Love hit the gas man with a shovel.
The gas man called police. If I hit a man with a shovel, I would be arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. But the two officers – one of whom was black – took pity on Love, and merely stood by to protect the gas man. At this point Love brandished a carving knife. One of the officers risked his life to approach Love and knock the knife out of her hand with his baton. But Love stooped down, picked up the knife, and lunged at the officers. The officers shot and killed Ms. Love.
But news stories, and eventually history books, recorded that Eulia Love was killed by police in a “dispute over a $22.09 gas bill.” The shovel and the carving knife disappeared.
“Motorist Rodney King was beaten while handcuffed.”
In 1991, the California Highway Patrol gave chase to a car going over 100 miles per hour. Eventually the car stopped and the driver exited. Two passengers, also African American, complied with police orders and were not mistreated. So much for “police racism.”
A female CHP officer exited her patrol car, pointed her pistol at King, and ordered him to lie on the ground. Instead, he wiggled his behind at her, then advanced towards her. If the LAPD had not arrived, the officer would have had to shoot King, and there would have been no video, no riot, no 53 dead, and no billion dollars of damage.
King was on parole for strong-arm robbery and domestic violence. He was driving drunk and did not want to go back to prison. He was six-feet-three-inches tall and “buffed” from his time in the prison exercise yard. The LAPD swarmed him, but he threw them off. They tased him twice, to no effect. Then he rushed at Officer Powell, a smaller man. If Powell had not felled him with a skillful baton blow, Powell would have been flattened. Then King would have had access to Powell’s baton and pistol, and the other officers would have had to shoot King.
At this point, the portion of the tape shown hundreds of times on worldwide TV begins. But the complete tape, showing King rushing at Powell, was shown only once, during live TV coverage of the trial. If I had not happened to be off work that day, I would never have seen the full tape. Even well-informed people were unaware there was more to the tape. They had seen “the King video” with their own eyes, hadn’t they?
The officers were forbidden to use head strikes or choke holds. So they had to use less effective methods, which took longer to work and looked worse on video. This, not “racism,” was the cause of the prolonged beating.
The officers repeatedly struck King on the legs with batons. Each time he did as he was told and placed his hands behind him to be handcuffed, the blows stopped. But each time King moved his hands again, the blows resumed. This was clear when the tape was shown frame-by-frame at the trial.
Finally, King allowed himself to be handcuffed, and the blows stopped. But the Los Angeles Times claimed that King was beaten while handcuffed. This false claim was repeated until it entered history books.
The four officers were tried in state court. Three were acquitted, but the jury “hung” on Powell, who was to be retried. Then the feds intervened. Two of the officers were sentenced to 30 months in prison for violating King’s civil rights. The other two were acquitted – again – but fired from the police department.
The sentence “The four white officers were acquitted by an all-white jury” contains three errors: (1) One of the officers was Latino. (2) The jury “hung” on one officer. (3) The jury contained one Latino and one Asian. Nevertheless, this false claim is in history books.
I believe that the TV personnel who edited out the first part of the tape were responsible for at least some, and perhaps all, of the 53 deaths and billion-dollar damage of the 1992 Los Angeles riot.
“Latasha Harlins was killed over a bottle of juice.”
Shortly after the King videotape was aired, 15-year-old African American Latasha Harlins entered a convenience store run by Soon Ja Du, a diminutive Korean American grandmother. Harlins put a bottle of juice into her backpack and approached the counter, perhaps to pay for it. But Du tried to grab the backpack. Harlins, who weighed 152 pounds, hit Du in the face, knocking her to the floor. The episode was recorded on security video.
Du got up and was knocked down again. This time she got up with a revolver in her hand. Harlins turned to go, and Du shot her in the back of the head, killing her. The revolver had been altered to give it a “hair trigger,” and Du claimed she didn’t mean to shoot.
Du was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. The judge sentenced her to five years’ probation, 400 hours community service, and a $500 fine. The sentence seemed lenient, and it evoked as much anger as did the King beating. During the 1992 riot the store was burned down, though it was now owned by others – Du returned to Korea. Still, one may ask how many times a grandmother must be hit in the face before she reacts. She was a storekeeper, not a punching bag.
The Los Angeles Times claimed that Harlins was shot “over a bottle of juice,” just as Love was said to have been shot “over a gas bill,” and King was a “motorist” who was “beaten while handcuffed.”
If the story doesn’t fit the facts, the media change the facts, not the story. They take facts that undermine the leftist agenda and toss them down the memory hole:
● Alfred Olango’s Weaver stance In El Cajon, California.
● Eulia Love’s carving knife in Los Angeles.
● Rodney King’s charging the officer in Los Angeles.
● Latasha Harlin’s punches to the grandmother’s face in Los Angeles.
● George Zimmerman’s broken nose and lacerated scalp, gifts from Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.
● Michael Brown’s strong-arm robbery of an Arab shopkeeper and his assault on a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
● Keith Scott’s pistol and ankle holster, though he was said to be “unarmed,” in Charlotte, North Carolina.
That memory hole is really deep. You’d be amazed at what the mainstream media can bury there. If they keep at it, they can bury our republic itself.
There are about 324 million people in the United States. They own roughly 200 million smart phones, not to mention security cameras in buildings. Hardly anything can escape being videoed. If the media wished to, they could fill every evening news program with nothing but rough police encounters.
What do you think will happen if a continual media barrage of police “misconduct” results in widespread riots – excuse me, “demonstrations”? Is it possible that President Obama will declare a state of emergency and place all police under federal control, the same way the Department of Homeland Security is seeking to control elections?
Who would stop him? Not the Supreme Court, which believes the Constitution is a “living document” – that is, it means whatever they say it means. Not Congress, which is filled with career politicians, not citizens elected to represent the voters. Not the military, which is commanded (not led) by gelded careerists, not generals and admirals loyal to their personnel. Not the FBI, which loses more credibility each day.
That will leave us with the “bitter clingers” and “deplorables,” holding fast to their guns and religion. Are there enough of them? Do they care enough? I hope we never have to find out. Stay tuned.
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