I have got to find something to listen to besides NPR. I was trying to go back to sleep after taking my wife to the ferry this AM and heard the host of Morning Edition say. “We’ve lost so many lives to corona virus and police brutally.” Only one of those things is true.
The host didn’t specify what she meant by “police brutality” but 46 unarmed people were shot and killed by police in 2020. 16 of them were black. That’s out of a nation of 330 million people and millions of police encounters a year. It’s a fraction of a fraction of a fraction.
I don’t say this because I have any love for cops (I don’t) but because the job of the media is to accurately reflect what is happening in the world, and this ain’t it. No wonder people think we have a giant, racist police killing problem! That’s what they are told.
Reporters who don’t contextualize police killings are not doing their job. Luckily, it’s easy to do. Just say this: “46 unarmed people were shot and killed by the police last year. 16 of them were black.”
Anyway, I didn’t go back to sleep and instead lay there thinking about how much money I’ve donated to NPR over the past decade and wondering if I can get it back.
One more thing — there were approx. 19,000 gun deaths (not including suicides) in the US in 2020. If @rachelnpr wants to make a point about what a shitty time it is, she should have gone with that. time.com/5922082/2020-g…
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