Thread by @bzdug

Here's a thread with highlights from Saturday's protest organized by @pslneohio, followed by some of my thoughts.

Dee McCall with @thefreedomBLOC opening:

"Everything right now that's happening, it seems like we're reading this book in 1965..."

Next was Josiah Quarles with @TamirsCampaign who I've seen give a lot of powerful speeches at protests over the years. He's even more powerful when conversing 1:1 with people on the street.

Be proud of this man, Cleveland.

Samaria Rice spoke about the painful road she's been on with @TamirsCampaign for justice.

Rice emphasized the political pressure points she believes must be focused on, and that more direct actions like boycotts are necessary.

Jacob Blake Sr spoke next and brought some well-earned 🔥, traveling from Kenosha, Wisconsin, where his son was shot in the back seven times by an officer in 2020.

A few nights prior Blake was beaten by APD while participating in a peaceful protest.

https://twitter.com/jollygoodginger/status/1544876230532538373

Jacob Blake Sr. told the crowd gathered for #JaylandWalker that he must return to his hometown soon.

He concluded his speech by imploring everyone listening to him to "Take my power!" and "Get this goddamned mayor out of office!"

The sister of #VincentBelmonte also joined the crowd and talked about the pain and anger she is still experiencing.

She regularly deals with harassment and snide remarks from the cop who killed her brother and remains free.

The final speaker was Jayland's cousin Demetrius Travis Sr.

"Sixty-six times you shot a kid. They don't even do that in firing squads."

Demetrius reminded the crowd of the many other Ohio tragedies, and that #JaylandWalker was the third APD killing since December.

He concluded by excoriating Mayor Horrigan for the violent crackdowns on peaceful protest.

"If he wants peace, he better start showing peace."

Some of my own thoughts & reflections now.

We're on the "BCI is investigating" page of the Ohio police shooting playbook.

We're waiting for what will ultimately be another whitewash similar to the #LukeStewart and #VincentBelmonte stories I've covered.

But let's say that this time BCI *doesn't* follow the same pattern of ignoring problems in officers' backgrounds, and essentially hand-holding them through their defenses for indefensible violence.

Now a prosecutor has to present the report to a grand jury.

There is valuable, often damning information to be found in the BCI reports.

Problem is that the presentation is completely at the discretion of the prosecuting attorney, and the hearing is sealed.

We'll never know what facts that jury did and didn't hear.

We can also expect the majority of commercial press in the area to continue to take public officials at their word, and fuck up telling the stories of victims and their advocates in the community.

From the start of this journey, I knew I wasn't interested in abiding by the same conventions of “objectivity” that most professional journalists treat as a piety.

I operate from the premise that our policing and legal systems are critically defective, if not utterly broken.

I can't force my brain to turn off that "bias" after researching the long and troubling history of policing, observing the gestalt of injustice that occurs daily, and understanding the straight-evil that powerful people are capable of committing in rigid hierarchical structures.

Before I started doing this work, I had more of an academic sense of how broken the justice system is.

Now I’ve now seen up close and personal how the gears of our justice system grind innocent people into dust and gore.

Now I know it in my bones.

I've long known that the media suppressed important stories about powerful people, or outright ignored or misrepresented the plight of the powerless.

Now I've got my own queue of stories that have been looked into by other local and national reporters, but quashed by editors.

The biggest example of this I can point you to is @tonyviola.

One day I'm gonna call out all of the outlets that have dug into his story and remained silent, but not until the reporters being stymied have moved on.

bzdouglas.substack.com/p/unreliable-w…

P.S. If there's any legitimate reason why this story should be ignored, I would really appreciate it if some reporter would expose me for being a colossally bad journalist.

I'll walk away, truly. This shit is taxing and I don't wanna do it if I'm no good at it.

There's a powerful activation that I've witnessed in the wrongfully convicted and the families of victims of police killings.

If my reporting on their stories doesn't bring about any positive impact, I hope that connecting more of them will.

It's hard to be neutral on this train when you deal directly with victims of state crimes.

One of the great joys of this work is connecting victims I work with to each other and to orgs that can help them.

Thank you to everyone out there doing the work.

#JusticeforJayland