Heigh ho! Heigh ho! Mainstream media mob justice has got to go.

Another excellent example of the 72 hour rule (wait at least 72 hours after a shocking event trumpeted in headlines) before considering making an estimate of what is said to have happened.

A few days ago another African-American was shot by a police officer with an associated video posted online.  It was enough for everyone to leap to conclusions based on stereotypes and ideological compulsion.  

But looking at the video raised a lot of questions about what had just happened and whether the presentation in the mainstream media was even close to being meaningfully aligned with the facts of the case.  

This Is How Biden Loses by George Packer.  

Here is a prediction about the November election: If Donald Trump wins, in a trustworthy vote, what’s happening this week in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will be one reason. Maybe the reason. And yet Joe Biden has it in his power to spare the country a second Trump term.

Events are unfolding with the inevitable logic of a nightmare. A white police officer shoots a Black man as he’s leaning into a car with his three sons inside—shoots him point-blank in the back, seven times, “as if he didn’t matter,” the victim’s father later says. 

Packer continues with the sympathetic characterization of Jacob Blake as the victim through the rest of the article.   He concludes:

Biden, then, should go immediately to Wisconsin, the crucial state that Hillary Clinton infamously ignored. He should meet the Blake family and give them his support and comfort. He should also meet Kenoshans like the small-business owners quoted in the Times piece, who doubt that Democrats care about the wreckage of their dreams. Then, on the burned-out streets, without a script, from the heart, Biden should speak to the city and the country. 

 Sure, that is one recommendation.  A recommendation unbounded by a number of practical realities.  But the crucial, and largely unstated assumption, is that Blake is the victim.  

Is he?  We are still waiting for the investigations to occur and charges to be filed and trials to be held.  So we don't know.  But as in the cases of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, it sure looks like the Attorney Generals, District Attorneys, Mayors and/or Governors have once again leapt far ahead of the facts to fuel the flames of division and discord.  And it seems to be done deliberately.  

Looking at the original Jacob Blake video, only a vignette of the whole scenario, it certainly appeared that there was a lot more going on than a deliberate and unprovoked assassination attempt by the police.  It was not hard to construct a scenario of how this might be cops gone wild.  It was equally plausible to construct a scenario that this might be one more instance of a violent criminal causing the incident despite the efforts of well-trained and restrained police officers.

Which movie did the mainstream media and the politicians go with?  Out of control cops of course.  And all without even a tithe of the evidence even collected.

Meanwhile, internet sleuths were examining Kenosha law, the video, radio traffic, legal records etc.  

Within 24 hours they had introduced a lot of counter-evidence to the imagined mainstream media.  Very little of it got into the mainstream media reporting.  

So far, it seems that the occupant of the home where Blake appeared, and who called the police, was the victim of a sexual assault by Blake some months earlier and had a restraining order against Blake which he was violating.  

I came across this press release from Kenosha Professional Police Association Releases Details on Blake Shooting which was just released yesterday and which I have not seen elsewhere.  However, its findings so far map to the other evidence which has emerged.

• The officers were dispatched to the location due to a complaint that Mr. Blake was attempting to steal the caller’s keys/vehicle.
 
• Officers were aware of Mr. Blake’s open warrant for felony sexual assault (3^rd degree) before they arrived on scene. 
  
 
• Mr. Blake was not breaking up a fight between two females when officers arrived on scene. 
  
 
• The silver SUV seen in the widely circulated video was not Mr. Blake’s vehicle.  
  
 
• Mr. Blake was not unarmed. He was armed with a knife. The officers did not see the knife initially. The officers first saw him holding the knife while they were on the passenger side of the vehicle. The “main” video circulating on the internet shows Mr. Blake with the knife in his left hand when he rounds the front of the car. The officers issued repeated commands for Mr. Blake to drop the knife. He did not comply. 
  
 
• The officers initially tried to speak with Mr. Blake, but he was uncooperative. 
  
 
• The officers then began issuing verbal commands to Mr. Blake, but he was non-compliant. 
  
 
• The officers next went “hands-on” with Mr. Blake, so as to gain compliance and control. 
  
 
• Mr. Blake actively resisted the officers’ attempt to gain compliance. 
  
 
• The officers then disengaged and drew their tasers, issuing commands to Mr. Blake that he would be tased if he did not comply. 
  
 
• Based on his non-compliance, one officer tased Mr. Blake. The taser did not incapacitate Mr. Blake. 
  
 
• The officers once more went “hands-on” with Mr. Blake; again, trying to gain control of the escalating situation. 
  
 
• Mr. Blake forcefully fought with the officers, including putting one of the officers in a headlock. 
  
 
• A second taser (from a different officer than had deployed the initial taser) was then deployed on Mr. Blake. It did not appear to have any impact on him. 
  
 
• Based on the inability to gain compliance and control after using verbal, physical and less-lethal means, the officers drew their firearms. 
  
 
• Mr. Blake continued to ignore the officers’ commands, even with the threat of lethal force now present. 

What appears to be emerging is an entirely different story from that being propagated by the press.  

Mr. Blake had a criminal history which included a sexual assault on the complainant victim.  He had a restraining order against being on her property which he was violating.  Blake was in the process of attempting to take his victims car which had three of her sons in it.  Mr. Blake was armed with a knife when the police arrived.  Blake did not respond to officer requests and did not comply with officer commands.  Officers became aware of the knife he held.

In seeking to bring Blake under control, Blake actively resisted arrest.  He was tased once but failed to cease resisting.  He was tased a second time with no effect on his behavior.  He managed to get one of the three arresting officers in a headlock.  It was only at this point that officers drew their weapons.

Blake broke from the officers, rounded the vehicle whose keys he had taken and attempted to enter the drivers area while there were three children in the rear seat.  He reached for something on the floor of the driver's compartment or under the seat, despite officers trying to pull him back.

It was at this point that he was shot seven times by a single officer.

Blake did not deserve to be wounded.  However, it appears that this is yet another tragic criminal-police officer interaction.  An outcome dictated by the criminal's actions and not by police malfeasance.

But if the above facts turn out to be true, it appears that this shooting is not due to officer recklessness or negligence.  A known rapist returning to his victim's home and then violently resisting arrest by three officers, while armed, is a dangerous and kinetic situation.  Add the close proximity of his victim as well as three small children and the margin for tragedy balloons.

Will more evidence emerge?  Certainly.  Could it be condemning of police actions?  Quite possible.

But everything on the table at this moment seems to indicate that the police actions were appropriate and that the consequences of his injury reside solely with Blake.  That is, unless the mainstream media, Attorney Generals, District Attorneys, Mayors and/or Governors who have prematurely passed judgment on the police long before any facts were available are able to set justice aside and carry through mob revenge without due process or attention to facts.  

Forget the whole manufactured race and police issue.

The mainstream media seem far more interested in stirring up racial strife than in either justice or protecting victims of sexual assault.  They are far more interested in writing the hagiography of Blake than in focusing on the real victim(s).  

UPDATE:  This twitter account makes the same point.  

Imagine being repeatedly sexually assaulted, threatened and abused over the course of 8 years. Somehow you manage to gather strength and courage to report your abuser and get a restraining order, a warrant is issued but he doesn't go to jail. One day you're sitting at home and he

— Jonesy (@JonesyLaird) August 30, 2020

Click for the thread.