President Trump spreads false claim that 75-year-old man is “antifa provocateur”

Photo by Bill Jacobsen

Today President Trump floated a rumor on Twitter that Martin Gugino, the man who was pushed by Buffalo police last Thursday during a protest was an antifa provocateur. Yes, that man pictured above who looks like he doesn't have a violent bone in his body except for the fact that he probably makes a mean rib roast and works the hell out of his front lawn.

In a post that immediately drew the ire of media, democrats and people with hearts, President Trump cited far-right cable news network OANN that suggested that the 75-year-old man was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order blackout equipment. He then went on to say that the man, who again is 75 years old, fell harder than he was pushed and it may have been a setup.

Is anyone keeping track of how many rules President Trump has broken on Twitter? I'm pretty sure this tweet counts as targeted harassment and promotes hateful conduct.

How low do you have to sink to essentially say that a 75-year-old man was asking to get pushed and hit his head violently on the ground? By the way, that man is still in critical condition from the head trauma he suffered.

If they can ban his tweets for promoting violence, why couldn't they also punish him for spreading false reports?

Hell, put him in Twitter jail for a day. Or even better, create a special task force dedicated to monitoring everything he says in a day. Pay them twice as much as your regular employees and give them extra vacation time - that would be a fair exchange.

Media platforms like Twitter and Facebook need to understand that their websites are essentially the most powerful mediums out today. A lot of people get their news from their sites and that means theirs a higher risk of getting false information too. While these sites would understandably not be able to block everything false that's being posted, they could at least do a better job with monitoring a president who clearly doesn't care about facts.

At the very least they can continue to fact check his tweets like they've done in the past. However these one time things need to happen more frequently because it works to provide those who aren’t as media savvy a chance to educate themselves and make decisions on their own.

I'm just glad that the officers responsible for this have been charged in the attack.

Anyway, what do you think?

-Alex

Comments

Democrats introduce overhaul of police reform

Today house democrats introduced t he Justice in Policing Act, which would hold police departments across the nation more accountable for their actions by stripping away some of their protections. The legislation would also c reate a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban police chokeholds. The legislation would also revise the federal criminal police misconduct statute to make it easier to prosecute officers who are knowingly involved in reckless misconduct and seek to provide greater transparency on police behavior according to the AP News. To put it bluntly, as much as I want this legislation to get make ground, it is a long shot pipe dream to get put into law. This is because the senate is majority Republican and will more than likely shoot it down or have it stripped or include poison pill amendments to it, despite Senator Lindsey Graham and Majority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell vowing to look at the issues. What do you think? -Alex

Statehood, the coronavirus and how the U.S. sets the standard for policing

With everything going on in the world, it's easy to lose track of the important issues going on in the world. For this edition of Articles that Make You Smarter, I wanted to share three articles that would give some perspective on three major issues in America. I hope you read and enjoy: Why statehood matters: The House of Representatives approved a bill that would recognize Washington D.C. as the 51st state of the country. While the Senate will more than likely shoot the bill down, here's an article by The Gaurdian that explains everything surrounding the bid for statehood: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/25/washington-dc-statehood-bid-house The United States and Policing: What's going on in America with policing doesn't just happen in a bubble. Here's a great article by The New Republic about how our country sets the standard for policing across the world: https://newrepublic.com/article/158297/america-exports-police-violence-around-world A new surge

Is the dismantling of our police force a good idea?

It seemed like an impossible task, like carrying water in your bare hands up a mountain and trying not to spill any. Still, protestors marching in Minneapolis have started to make massive waves in how the justice system works in their city. As reported by The New York Times , nine members of the Minneapolis City Council vowed yesterday to dismantle the city's police force in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of police officer's two weeks ago. Nine members of the council announced during a gathering that the city's policing system was beyond reform and would instead focus on implementing a community-based system of justice. While massive, it is unclear right now what specifically that will look like. What makes this especially interesting is just before this announcement, the city's Mayor Jacob Frey hesitated and then rejected the idea of abolishing the police department when asked at a rally on Saturday. While the council does control

The Statesmen

Search This Blog