Why isn't Kelly Thomas' death a bigger deal than Trayvon Martin's? (Miami, biased)
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The shock value of a story in which police officers beat someone to death was lost a long time ago. Cops behaving badly happens so often that hardly anyone even notices it now. A lot of people just assume that cops are getting away with using excessive force and murder on a regular basis, so it is really not "news" when it actually occurs.
Bad cops killing or beating someone up has become the ultimate dog bites man story. How often is there a full court press from the media to let everyone know that the sun rises in the east?
The death of Trayvon Martin was essentially a private affair. George Zimmerman was a private citizen, not a law enforcement officer, and neither assailant nor victim were particularly sympathetic. Trayvon died in a small, obscure Florida suburb. Kelly Thomas was killed by law enforcement officers Cicinelli and Wolfe in a town within the second largest US media market with a history of police brutality (and a Klan past). There are policy implications about Thomas' death that are not the case with Trayvon's. Yet it is not the constant subject of national media attention. Why isn't Thomas' death a bigger deal?
Let's see. Trayvon was killed by a private citizen and Kelly was killed by cops. If they had an "anti-cop" agenda they'd focus on violence by predatory, out of line cops who were essentially thugs with badges, rather than a private citizen who merely wanted to be a cop.
Doesn't sound like an "anti-cop agenda" to me.
Does make good argument for anti-gun and policing your own neighborhood people.
The main reason it's not national news is because he is mentally ill, not because he is white. American does NOT care about the mentally ill. There was a mentally ill BLACK man shot & killed in Wilkes-Barre, Pa a couple of years ago, and it barely spent time on local news. He had a pellet gun, that LOOKED like a pellet gun, and the dumba$$ cops killed him! Also, shooting several times, is NOT disabling the suspect! It is intent to kill! If your dumba$$ can't tell the difference between a pellet gun, and a real gun, then your ass does not need to be a cop!!!! Cops HATE the mentally ill, and so does much of America. Our mental health system is a joke! BTW, white people who claim that they have it so bad, and black people should just get over the hundreds of years of oppression, check this out.
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