Media and Police Response to Waco Biker 'Brawl' Spurs Critique

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/05/19/media-and-police-response-waco-biker-brawl-spurs-critique

Sunday's biker gang shootout in Waco, Texas—which left 9 dead, 18 injured, and over 190 arrested—and the media storm that followed have highlighted a prevalent bias both in policing and reporting on such incidents.

The incident reportedly involved five rival motorcycle gangs, which began fighting inside local Twin Peaks "breastaurant" before spilling into the parking lot. Afterwards, roughly a hundred weapons were recovered, including guns, chains, knives, bats, and clubs. Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton described the aftermath as "the most violent crime scene I have ever been involved in."

Amid heightened scrutiny over police brutality against people of color and the recent spotlight put on killings of unarmed, Black men, the widely-circulated photographs of Waco police peaceably rounding up the mostly-white perpetrators drew immediate comparisons to images of unarmed protesters facing down police in riot gear in other places.

[AgingAmerican]

1. Its an idiotic comparison

First off 1/3 of the bikers arrested aren't white, they are Hispanic. Second, these are organized crime figures, not 'hockey rioters'.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. "Hispanic" is not a race. nt

[Igel]

9. So that means they don't fall under the heading

"persons of color"?

That'll be news to a lot of Latino groups and advocates/activists I know.

Now they are, now they aren't. Depends what the line is we need to tow, I guess.

I consider them to be the same race, to be sure, but I've said that before. Except those that are mostly indio, but the entire racial designation the US government uses strikes me as a bit eccentric. (Then again, "racial distance" measures that were derived from various kinds of tests for racial groups showed that most whites tend not to consider many Asian and Native American phenotypes as not as distinct from "white" as some other groups, so there's that.)

[BumRushDaShow]

11. The U.S. racial classification is what it is

as bizarre as it is. There were "3" races - "Caucasoid", "Negroid", "Mongoloid". You can thank Europe for creating and enforcing the nonsense in its colonies and former colonies.

"Hispanic" is a language group. "People of Color" is generic. In South Africa, with similar idiocy, you got a group called "Coloured" (which included many from India or admixtures with Indians).

You have "black" Hispanics (Dominicans and some Cubans and Puerto Ricans, etc, who resulted from European and indigenous intermingling with African slave populations), and "white" Hispanics (some from the same regions as noted previously, but who are European Spaniards, or descendents of Spaniards who intermingled with native, non-African-descended populations in Mexico/Central America/South America).

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

2. Where's the military gear on the cops? Why aren't these people characterized as "thugs"?

[billhicks76]

3. White On White Violence

AmeriKKKa

[hack89]

4. "Facing down police" - that's your first clue. Nt

[Android3.14]

6. Now this is an idiotic comparison

Come On, Dreams.

[LanternWaste]

21. Keep telling yourself that if it helps validate your biases...

Keep telling yourself that if it helps validate your biases...

[Android3.14]

22. You'll need to be more specific

While I, like all humans, have many biases, you will have to be more specific in order for me to understand your response.

[mwrguy]

7. "peaceably rounding up" LOL

Cops opened fire with live ammunition, killing four of them right off the bat and wounding more.

Over 170 were arrested and had bail set at one million dollars.







:large



http://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20150518&t=2&i=1049335166&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=644&pl=429&r=LYNXMPEB4H0VO





:large

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Compared to this, where people were peacefully protesting

and not "brawling" -











Why didn't they throw tear gas or flash-bangs into the midst of the "brawlers"? Who cares if "innocent civilians and bystanders" were nearby. That didn't matter in Ferguson and dozens of other urban areas people by large black populations.

It's because "the blacks" are not considered "people".

(and yes I am putting this -> here)

[mwrguy]

14. "Why didn't they throw tear gas"

They skipped the less-lethal stuff and went straight to deadly force.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Use of "deadly force" is par for the course

by police in black communities. Ever heard of a "taser"? One that tends to get deployed on certain communities (while the victim is being beaten and often even shot at simultaneously) until dead? See Walter Scott.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. I noted that CNN had a discussion about this yesterday

The disparate coverage and descriptions involving incidents with whites versus those involving blacks, as well as the police response, is truly breathtaking but has been the norm for decades.

Ironically in the '80s & '90s, blacks could not even get police or medical assistance in many of the big cities when they called 911 to report a legitimate threat or medical emergency, prompting the famous PE song -

[classykaren]

10. What is their curfew?

[Nye Bevan]

13. So four of the Waco guys were killed by cops, yet none of the Ferguson protesters were?

Interesting definition of "peacably rounded up".

[BumRushDaShow]

16. The Ferguson protest was DUE to the killing of an unarmed civilian

The bikers were wielding guns, knives, brass knuckles, clubs, chains and all kinds of other shit.

[bullwinkle428]

17. Were groups of protestors engaged in firefights with each other, before turning

their guns on the cops?

[Nye Bevan]

18. I think the deadly police response in Waco was justified.

And I am also happy that none of the Ferguson protestors were killed.

[mwrguy]

20. I concur

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. When I was twenty years old my friend and I were bouncers at Mac's Bar in Daytona Beach...

When I was twenty years old my friend an I were bouncers at Mac's Bar in Daytona Beach during Bike Week. It helped us have "walking around money" as young community college students. Members of various bike groups including the Outlaws and Warlocks came in but there was never any trouble. I guess we were lucky because despite being pretty big and taking the job I ain't risking my safety for $25.00 in cash an evening.

Some bikers can be pretty intimidating...You can drive and park on many parts of Daytona Beach, especially back in the day. When I was on the beach , a lot of the girls I knew wouldn't walk around in their bathing suits alone during Bike Week because of their heavy presence and the lewd comments they would make.