CNN’s Brian Stelter Gets Backlash After Police Shootings Tweet Is Perceived As Condescending
In the past two days, there have been two separate instances of recorded police shootings of black men. Both the death of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile have captured the public’s attention and inspired fury because many view them as proof that the police are killing people of color who are not holding weapons or posing a threat. Sterling was lying on the ground when he was shot; Castile was sitting in a car and, according to his girlfriend, disclosed that he was licensed to be carrying a weapon and did not reach for it, but was shot.
Obviously, tensions are very high right now.
CNN’s Brian Stelter sought to comment on the ways that access to technology have helped shape the discussion around police brutality. He tweeted this:
When Philandro Castile was shot, his girlfriend’s first instinct was… to start broadcasting. https://t.co/XPtMxRFjy0
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 7, 2016
He was immediately responded to by people who questioned his motives for putting it that way.
@brianstelter it was the best thing she could do at that time. do you think the cop would have let her touch him and administer care?
— (((Scot Pansing))) (@scotpansing) July 7, 2016
@brianstelter Given everything that’s going on, I would say that was good instinct.
— Puneet Sandhu (@puneet86) July 7, 2016
@brianstelter Because people would’ve said “well, she could be lying, it’s a cop’s word against her’s.” Now we know what really happened.
— Lisa Mrock (@I_write_stuff) July 7, 2016
@brianstelter @melindafla @CNNMoney Guns were aimed into the car. If they murdered her and her daughter, she wanted there to be a witness.
— aquart (@aquart) July 7, 2016
To Stelter’s credit, he didn’t delete the tweet. Instead, he stood by it. More to his credit was his response. He didn’t get defensive. Instead, he understood the place of anger many of the comments were coming from and responded, “I agree,” to a number of them.
@DatUppityNegroQ i’m not judging her action, i’m reporting. i’m a media reporter.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 7, 2016
By pointing out to him that the Facebook Live video from Castile’s girlfriend is what enabled national media coverage of an event that may well have been dismissed as her word against the authorities’, they proved Stelter’s article’s point, but by remaining civil and understanding, Stelter kept the conversation going for the better.
There were times before cell phones and streaming video, which is important to remember. There are those who are angry to have lived through those times when they were not believed by the public, let alone the authorities, and when their loved ones didn’t become trending topics or national news if they were killed by police. There is a lot of anger surrounding the fact that we do have the technology to have seen what happened to Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and the kids of color on whom an officer drew his gun last year at a pool party, yet little progress seems to be made in preventing these incidents from continuing to happen and continuing to be documented.
Every aspect of this national conversation is imbued with anger. We can all learn a thing or two about understanding that anger and encouraging discourse.
[image via Twitter]
For more from Lindsey: Twitter. Facebook.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
