The liberal media's drive to portray criminals into victims and police officers into criminals can sometimes be truly revolting. As the media over the weekend concluded their coverage of former Minnesota cop Kim Potter being prosecuted by her home state for accidentally killing black motorist Daunte Wright earlier this year, journalists continued pushing the narrative that there was little justification for stopping him in the first place, much less try to arrest him.
In spite of the many times ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC covered the story, his life as an allegedly violent gang member and budding career criminal were buried, playing up the illegally hung air fresheners as the main reason for the stop, unless viewers tuned in to Fox News Channel.
After reporting early on that the warrant for his arrest over illegal gun possession was linked to charges that he had tried to rob a woman at gunpoint, Fox has since uncovered even more details, finding that he allegedly had gang involvement and was linked to two shootings, leaving one man with brain damage.
Appearing recently on Fox & Friends, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett complained about the fact that Minnesota law allowed Wright's parents to take the witness stand and deceptively portray him as "angelic" while jurors were kept in the dark about the depth of his criminal history. He recalled: "The jurors don't know, for example, that he has been accused of shooting a teenager in the head, accused of shooting a man in the leg during an attempted carjacking, and robbing a woman in her own home at gunpoint and allegedly sexually assaulting her."
FoxNews.com further found that, after he was charged with armed robbery, Wright had violated the conditions of his bail by brandishing a gun, which led to the warrant for his arrest after he failed to appear in court -- no small matter as liberal media have tried to portray it.
Not only were figures like Wright's mother, Bryant, and liberal activist Ben Crump allowed to appear as guests and understate and downplay his criminal history, but, at its worse, CNN allowed a frequent guest to dishonestly claim that Potter admitted to targeting him because he was black. On CNN Newsroom, former LAPD sergeant Cheryl Dorsey made the incendiary charge:
She, by her own admission, said, "I saw a black man driving a car with an air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror -- something I wouldn't ordinarily do" -- but she wanted to let her probationary officer play with this black man and see what they could come up with, and it ended in his death. I'm offended.
In fact, Potter made no mention of Wright's race, and testified that she was trying to give the officer she was training -- Anthony Luckey, who was the driver -- experience making stops, so she allowed him to pull Wright over after he noticed the vehicle had the wrong turn light on in addition to the expired tags and illegally displayed air freshener. Officer Luckey -- who is himself black -- testified that he grew up in the area and knew that it to be a hotbed of rampant crime, influencing his decision to make the stop.
They also ran the tag number and found the car's owner (Wright's brother) had a warrant out for his arrest on drug charges. After identifying Wright as the driver instead of his brother, they not only found his own arrest warrant, but a restraining order which required them to verify that the woman in the car was not a kidnapping victim.
The former police chief who had presided over Potter even argued in court that she was justified in shooting Wright to protect the other officers from being injured by the car.
As recently as last week, MSNBC was still clinging to the narrative that trying to stop him from driving away was unnecessary because the stop was allegedly just about air fresheners. Last April, it was even incorrectly claimed on MSNBC that the weapons issue was not as bad as armed robbery (before the armed robbery story came out).
According to a Nexis search, the charge of armed robbery was only mentioned once on CNN (on April 14), but has since not mentioned as Wright's criminal record was buried by the same reporter who previously reported it.
And, in contrast with the more liberal networks, Fox expressed more concerns about the effect on the morale of police officers to see Potter sent to prison for making an honest mistake while trying to make a legitimate arrest. Fox legal analyst Jonathan Turley argued that Minnesota's law should be changed.
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Transcripts follow:
MSNBC's Zerlina
December 18, 2021
6:18 a.m. Eastern
ZERLINA MAXWELL: In terms of her use of force and whether it was justified or not, one of the things that I've been thinking a lot about is what she said there -- and it's come up before -- which is we didn't want him to drive away. So what? So he drives away. Don't they have his license plate and address information? Isn't it just an air freshener in the window? I mean, in terms of details like that, how are aspects of this case presented, using that as an example, by the defense and the prosecution?
(...)
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: It was almost as if they were doing an experiment, and Daunte Wright was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he bore the brunt of that experiment also known as racial profiling. Like Officer (Anthony) Luckey said, I pulled him over on a hunch. That hunch ultimately led to the events that caused the death of Daunte Wright.
MAXWELL: I mean, I think if it wasn't racial profiling, you'd probably hear of the police pulling over all types of other people. They would have these kinds of interactions with white drivers. It's not like they're not doing the same activities as black drivers or breaking the same laws or smoking weed or doing all the things that black people do -- the same things, but it just seems to be the cases where black people are killed.
(...)
Fox & Friends Saturday
December 18, 2021
7:28 a.m. Eastern
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWSLEGAL ANALYST: I'll tell you, Rachel, what really concerns me, and troubles me, is this unique Minnesota law called "spark of life." It allowed the parents of Daunte Wright to take the witness stand and talk about the importance of his life. Which is fine. But it also allowed them to portray their son as this angelic person.
The jurors don't know, for example, that he has been accused of shooting a teenager in the head, accused of shooting a man in the leg during an attempted carjacking, and robbing a woman in her own home at gunpoint and allegedly sexually assaulting her. You know, if a trial is the search for the truth, don't the jurors -- aren't they entitled to the full truth? Should the law be exploited to deceive the jurors? That troubles me.
(...)
CNN Newsroom
December 18, 2021
10:11 a.m. Eastern
PAULA REID: Now, I really want to look very closely at this testimony. What's so unusual about what we're seeing here is seeing a police officer who is so emotional. Now, we saw she was very emotional on the stand, and we also saw the bodycam video where she says she was, quote, "distraught." What do you think of this defense strategy?
CHERYL DORSEY, RETIRED LOS ANGELES POLICE SERGEANT: Well, I would imagine they felt she had to take the stand and explain in her own words for the jury why she did something so in conceivable. A 26-year veteran who would touch her gun every day as I did for 20 years, wearing that uniform, before you go out into the field and make sure that it's working.
All of a sudden, you get in the field, and you don't know the difference between a two-pound Glock and a taser? And we know that officers create audio records -- "Taser, taser, taser," -- just before they use force on you like they will say, "Stop fighting me, stop kicking me," when none of that has happened.
And so I find all of what she is saying to be disingenuous and intellectually dishonest. She, by her own admission, said, "I saw a black man driving a car with an air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror -- something I wouldn't ordinarily do" -- but she wanted to let her probationary officer play with this black man and see what they could come up with, and it ended in his death. I'm offended.