You think this is a post about that black guy that shot up the Washington Navy yard ...

... but it's not.

Not really.

Instead, it's about that black guy who was injured in a car accident, then sought help from a white woman at her house (she called 9 1 1 on him and said she thought he was breaking in), and then he was shot at 12 times by a police officer and hit 10 times (and killed).

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Here's the story according to NBC News:

The incident began at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, when Ferrell began knocking insistently on a front door in a suburban neighborhood of Charlotte, according to a police account.

The woman who lives there called 911, unaware that Ferrell had wrecked his car in nearby woods and was apparently seeking help. Three police officers arrived, and Ferrell ran toward them as they left their vehicles.

One officer unsuccessfully fired a Taser at Ferrell before Kerrick fired his gun, killing him, police said. Police found Ferrell's wrecked car later in the morning.
________________________________

Let's be clear what happened here.

A black man knocked on the door of a white woman's house in the middle of the night.

She assumed he was a criminal, so she called 9 1 1.

The police came.

They assumed he was a criminal.

So they killed him.

One officer has been charged with a crime, suggesting that, this time, the authorities are taking this seriously. Yes, the victim ran at the officers, but he was unarmed, and even though the Taser did not work, there was no reason to shoot the man (even if he was a criminal). After all, officers are trained in self-defense techniques and learn in the academy that lethal force can only be used under certain circumstances. This was not one of them.

Now, consider what the research shows about the media:

They focus on violent crime.
Especially random violent crime on the street.
Especially when it is committed against young of innocent white victims.
Especially when it is commited by people of color.

When the race of an offender is not known, people assume it is a black person.

Yes, it's that bad.

The image of the criminalblackman, discussed in the book, is well understood. And it is largely because of media coverage of crime.

Now you understand the stakes here: People die because of misconceptions of crime and dangerousness created by the media.

So, clearly, this case won't help (since almost all mass shooters are white):

the spotlight after Monday's shooting at the Navy Yard: the ...

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