CNN Lets Daunte Wright's Parents Cry Racism Over Cop Sentencing

bradwilmouth | February 21, 2022
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Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog

Earlier this week, CNN's New Day morning show demonstrated that the liberal news network has learned nothing from the violent crime wave that has been unleashed in part because of the media's obsession with portraying the law enforcement profession as racist and reckless in using force against criminal suspects.

In the aftermath of liberal activists being disappointed when former Minneapolis cop Kim Potter was only sentenced to two years for accidentally shooting to death black motorist Daunte Wright, CNN host Brianna Keilar gave his parents and their liberal attorney an unchallenged forum to claim Wright was a victim of racism and to spread misinformation about a racial double standard.

When asked by Keilar why she thought Potter only got two years in prison, Katie Wright theorized that if her son had had a perfect previous criminal record, he would have been "thrown under the jail" if he had killed someone:

If it was my son -- a black man, 20 years old -- on trial for manslaughter, he would have had an upward departure regardless of what his criminal record was prior. He could have had nothing, not even a speeding ticket on his record, and he would have been thrown under the jail. It's definitely about race. It's been about race since the moment my son was pulled over. He was racially profiled. He was -- it was pulling him over because he was a young black man in a nice car. So it's always been about race, and it's showing all the way up to sentencing.

She soon repeated the tired liberal talking point that her son was targeted for "driving while black."

It was not mentioned that Wright's legal problems had originated with him allegedly attempting to rob a woman of $800 at gunpoint, which had already resulted in his friend being tried and convicted of being his accomplice. Wright had a substantial criminal history that included being accused of shooting a former friend in the head, of shooting another man in the leg, and of trying to burglarize a friend's home.

The Wright family's attorney, Jeff Storms, soon misleadingly and inaccurately claimed that former Minneapolis cop Mohammed Noor -- who is black -- faced a double standard in sentencing after he was convicted in the shooting death of an unarmed white woman, Justine Damond, after she called 911 for assistance.

Storms incorrectly claimed that Noor had received a much longer sentence even though he was only convicted of manslaughter 2 when, in fact, Noor was also convicted of third degree murder.

Also not mentioned was that last year Noor's sentence was reduced after one of the murder conviction was overturned by a judge, which logically might have influenced the Potter case as a precedent.

Noor had also notably been allowed to keep his job for eight months before being arrested while Potter was arrested after just a few days.

CNN's misleading presentation was just the latest in years of deceiving its audience by making it look like nearly all deadly police encounters involved white cops killing black suspects when, in fact, only about 25 percent of shooting victims are black.

According to the Washington Post's online database of deadly police shootings, since January 1, 2018, there have been 85 unarmed whites who have been shot and killed by on-duty police officers. But the weekday edition of CNN's New Day show has not focused on a single current case of an unarmed white suspect being killed. On one occasion, the show did highlight the 15-year-old case of Michael Bell who was killed in 2005, but this was primarily to portray the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police as reckless in the aftermath of the shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, in the summer of 2020.

In the same time period since 2018, the same show has highlighted no less than 30 cases of black suspects being shot or left dead by police actions presented as questionable, even in some cases when suspects were armed.

CNN's appalling anti-police propaganda was sponsored in part by Carvana and Samsung

Their contact information is linked.

Transcript follows:

CNN's New Day

February 21, 2022

8:31 a.m. Eastern

BRIANNA KEILAR: Why do you think she is getting that amount of time instead of a higher sentence?

ARBUEY WRIGHT, FATHER OF DAUNTE WRIGHT: Well, I think, I mean, I think America knows. I mean, a white woman with tears, I mean, I think America knows why she got this sentence.

KEILAR: Katie?

ARBUEY WRIGHT: The world knows.

KEILAR: Katie, why do you think?

KATIE WRIGHT: The same reason. If it was my son -- a black man, 20 years old -- on trial for manslaughter, he would have had an upward departure regardless of what his criminal record was prior. He could have had nothing, not even a speeding ticket on his record, and he would have been thrown under the jail. It's definitely about race. It's been about race since the moment my son was pulled over. He was racially profiled. He was -- it was pulling him over because he was a young black man in a nice car. So it's always been about race, and it's showing all the way up to sentencing.

(...)

KATIE WRIGHT: The fight will continue -- we're going to continue until driving while black is no longer a death sentence.

KEILAR: I think that's a very interesting point that Katie makes about the fact that there have been, you know, I think, Jeff, the norm is that you would see someone just completely get off and that they wouldn't be convicted, right? And they wouldn't be sentenced at all.

JEFF STORMS, ATTORNEY FOR DAUNTE WRIGHT's FAMILY: Well, I mean, historically, we certainly have seen a lack of prosecution of officers, but certainly this family shouldn't accept half justice as a victory, you know, In particular, in the words of the judge asking, you know, effectively, the family to empathize with Kim Potter. You know, we've seen judges come forward and say, "Let's empathize with the fact that, you know, young black Americans have grown up with significant disadvantages statistically or people have come from, you know, we've had immigrants come from war-torn countries where they have been subjected to horrible abuses and PTSD."

You know, we've had judges -- as Katie touched on before -- traditionally in those situations not empathize with the, you know, with the defendants in those situations, and often increase the potential sentence and go above guidelines. We've seen that many times here in Minnesota. So to, you know, to have the court, you know, basically shirk the determination of a jury, right, which found Kim Potter guilty of manslaughter 1 and 2 and then offer a lower sentence.

For example, what Mohammed Noor got -- who was only convicted of manslaughter 2 -- it just shows all of us that, all of a sudden, we engage in things like criminal justice reform, and we show empathy, and when it applies to the white officers or white defendants.

KEILAR: Katie and Arbuey, we are out of time -- we have to say goodbye -- but I do just want to give you a chance to talk about your son, We see the photos. We also see the blurred out face of Daunte Jr. in those photos. You are going without your son -- he is going without his father. What has it been for you to not have him?

KATIE WRIGHT: It's been a nightmare -- every day is a challenge. Daunte was a whole piece of our family that has been stolen from us. And it's hard to just even wake up every day knowing we're not going to see him walk through our door. We're not going to watch him play with his son. We're not going to watch him tell jokes and be just a goofy kid and come in the door smiling and grinning. And it's hard -- it's really hard.

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