In the aftermath of former police officer Kim Potter being sentenced to just two years for accidentally shooting black motorist Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, two MSNBC shows have stretched to claim a racial double standard while one frequent guest also provocatively claimed that America "hates black people."
On her The ReidOut show on Friday evening, host Joy Reid gave a typical account of Wright as she ignored his criminal history that allegedly included attempted murder, and armed robbery that led to his legal problems, and suggested that he was just guilty of minor infractions:
Potter could be back home with her family in just 14 months -- 14 months -- for the shooting death of the 20-year-old Wright, who was pulled over for an expired registration tag and an air freshener hanging in the back windshield, which is all to say he was pulled over for driving while black.
Also not mentioned is that the cops ran his license plate before pulling him over and found that the car's owner had a warrant out for his arrest, so, contrary to liberal media disinformation, it wasn't just about air fresheners and an expired tag.
Reacting to Judge Regina Chu for speaking sympathetically of Officer Potter because she shot Wright by accident, correspondent for The Nation and frequent guest Elie Mystal went apoplectic:
Joy, this country hates us. This country hates black people, and we know it -- we talk about it -- we joke about it. We know what we're up against. But sometimes that hatred that this country has for us really comes out and just takes your breath away. It grabs you by the neck and just takes your breath away.
After Mystal declared that the judge had "spit in our face," Reid reacted by misinforming her viewers in claiming that a black former cop, Mohammed Noor, would suffer through over 12 years of punishment for committing a similar crime against a white woman:
There's a guy named Mohammed Noor -- former police officer I believe in the same state -- got twelve and a half years for accidentally, you know firing his weapon and killing a woman. She was a white woman from Australia. He's doing twelve and a half years for that.
It was not mentioned that, last year, one of Noor's convictions was overturned by a judge, and his sentence reduced to just four years from the original 12.5. So Noor -- a former Minneapolis cop who overreacted to an unarmed white woman, Justine Damond, who was asking for help, by shooting her to death -- will only serve a couple more years than Potter.
On Saturday's The Cross Connection, host Tiffany Cross cited the NAACP's Sherrilyn Ifill in making the same claim of a racial double standard:
The amazing Sherrilyn Ifill tweeted a really good point, and tweeted, as she was watching this sentencing, that she couldn't help but remember the Somali American police officer in Minnesota who also made a mistake, quote, unquote, shooting a white Australian tourist, and he was sentenced to twelve and a half years in prison.
This isn't the first time left-wingers in the media have mis-stated the facts to claim a double standard in this case. Former MSNBC analyst Michael Eric Dyson (appearing on CNN) incorrectly claimed that Officer Noor was arrested immediately when, in fact, he was allowed to keep his job for eight months before being arrested.
These misleading claims that try to stoke racial tension were sponsored in part by Sleep Number. Their contact information is linked.
Transcripts follow:
MSNBC's The ReidOut
February 18, 2022JOY REID: (Kim) Potter could be back home with her family in just 14 months -- 14 months -- for the shooting death of the 20-year-old (Daunte) Wright, who was pulled over for an expired registration tag and an air freshener hanging in the back windshield, which is all to say he was pulled over for driving while black.
(...)
The light sentence comes on the heels of the Derek Chauvin trial -- a conviction and sentence that some interpreted as a new era of accountability for police officers who kill black people, today confirmed what many of us feared and already knew -- Chauvin was a one-off. There was no accountability today, but that isn't where this story ends. We also saw on full display the imbalance of empathy that permeates this country based on the color of one's skin, this time by a judge who shed tears for the white killer, but not for the black victim or his family while also gaslighting the entire country by using the words of Barack Obama -- former President Barack Obama -- to urge everyone to empathize with Potter.
(...)
ELIE MYSTAL, THE NATION MAGAZINE: Joy, this country hates us. This country hates black people, and we know it -- we talk about it -- we joke about it. We know what we're up against. But sometimes that hatred that this country has for us really comes out and just takes your breath away. It grabs you by the neck and just takes your breath away. And today Judge Regina Chu was that hatred -- that icy hatred around our throat. She was the spit in our face. That unmitigated gall, to stand up there -- sit up there in her courtroom and cry out for sympathy for the killer in front of that boy's mother. I don't have words to describe how offensive that is -- how hurtful that is -- how unjust that is almost goes without saying.
People were like, "Oh, she made a mistake -- Potter made a mistake." Yeah, we have a sentencing guideline for that kind of mistake. It's called "six to eight years." Why did she get two years? Somebody needs to answer me why she got two years. And, of course, we all know why she got two years. Because she was a crying white woman. That's why she got two years and not the six to eight years that her crime cried out for. You know, the judge wants to look at things through Potter's eyes. I say, "No! I will look at things through Daunte Wright's eyes." And I can imagine the last thing Daunte Wright saw from my end. I've been in a situation where that might have been the last thing that I saw. So I -- that's the -- those are the eyes that I will remember, and I will encourage others to remember. And I would encourage others to reject Judge Chu and instead think about Daunte Wright.
REID: You know, I mean, there's a guy named Mohammed Noor -- former police officer I believe in the same state -- got twelve and a half years for accidentally, you know firing his weapon and killing a woman. She was a white woman from Australia. He's doing twelve and a half years for that.
(...)
MYSTAL: When do I tell my nine-year-old just how deeply this country hates him? When is it appropriate for me to explain to him that, should he be shot to death for an air freshener, this country will sympathize with his murderer? When do I bring that up to my boy? Because I have to tell him. I've got to protect him. I've got to tell him at some point what this country will do to him.
(...)
MSNBC's The Cross Connection
February 19, 2022
11:06 a.m. EasternTIFFANY CROSS: The amazing Sherrilyn Ifill tweeted a really good point, and tweeted, as she was watching this sentencing, that she couldn't help but remember the Somali American police officer in Minnesota who also made a mistake, quote, unquote, shooting a white Australian tourist, and he was sentenced to twelve and a half years in prison.
So if seeing these two justice systems play out for the rest of America, it is enraging -- enraging, your thoughts on the whole situation?
CHRISTINA GREER, THE GRIO: Yeah, Tiffany, you know, Officer Potter is a human being, and she has family, and I understand. She has emotions and has a right to feel what she feels. I think what was so frustrating and infuriating and so incredibly sad to me is, "This isn't about you, Officer Potter -- this is about, yet again, another family of a black boy who has lost a member of their community."
And so when I'm reminded that you don't need white people to uphold white supremacy, you know, as (MSNMB analyst) Katie (Phang) said, there is a putative aspect of the criminal justice system, but we know -- we've seen time and time again, it's just not allocated equally. If it worked across the board, fine, I would have some investments in faith in it, but we've got black women facing five and six years for trying to register to vote. We're not even talking about drugs -- we're talking about people who are trying to be citizens. And so it really does raise a question of "Can we ever really be equal citizens of this country?" when even after death, we have no justice, and we have no peace.
