The original draft of this email was sent to Washington Post reporters Spencer Hsu, Peter Hermann and Tom Jackman, and copied to two dozen of their Post colleagues, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, Metropolitan Police Department acting chief Robert Contee and D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chris Geldart.
Dear Spencer, Peter and Tom,
I’m certainly no supporter of Proud Boys, BLM, antifa or any other group that resorts to political violence, planned or spontaneous [“FBI alleges Proud Boys may have planned Capitol Breach,” B4, Feb. 4]. But I urge you folks in the media to take more responsibility, shoot straight and stop with the subjective narratives. If you don’t, future political violence will become inevitable and make Jan. 6 look like a game of mahjong at the Old Jewish Home.
As I suggested in my Dec. 14 email below, the black leftist “stabber” who the Proud Boys have now focused on should have been charged and firmly prosecuted. That he and thousands of other leftist perpetrators of spring-and-summer-long violence across the country were effectively let off the hook as much of the media tacitly cheered them on has signaled to folks on the right that their government has abandoned them. Surely you and your editors must understand this dynamic.
We can’t have one set of wrist-slapping rules for radical criminals and another set of harsh-to-the-max rules for reactionary criminals. Political violence is political violence, regardless of its motivations. Police, prosecutors, courts and especially our media must be responsible enough — before it’s too late — to start treating all political violence the same while otherwise standing strong in defense of all non-violent political speech.
Otherwise we’re headed toward another Civil War. And the next attack on Capitol Hill or on a statehouse will comprise angry thousands armed with much more than face paint, flags and bear spray. Is this the kind of madness you want to foment, with all those AR-15s that Beto “Hell Yeah, I’m Gonna Take Your Guns” O’Rourke wanted to confiscate still in the hands of millions of once loyal Americans now being called “extremists” and “terrorists” by irresponsible politicians and news outlets? Or will you start to moderate your coverage and start posing tough questions about “equality under the law” to progressive prosecutors and politicians who, for the moment, seem astonishingly content to let a two-tiered system of justice further divide us and stoke real insurrection and bloodshed?
Please take stock of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
Most sincerely,
Darren McKinney, Washington, D.C.
* * *
The original draft of this December 14, 2020 email was sent to more than a dozen Washington Post reporters who contributed to massive Metro section coverage in the wake of a pro-Trump demonstration in the District of Columbia. Predictably, that demonstration was met with plainly coordinated opposition by far-left counter-demonstrators. The email also copied Post senior leadership, publisher Fred Ryan, Mayor Bowser, then MPD Chief Peter Newsham and the D.C. police union leader, Gregg Pemberton.
All,
If alleged stabber Phillip Johnson were white and/or a professed far-right agitator, The Post would have gleefully reported as much in the very first sentence of its B1 coverage this morning under the sub-headline, “33 ARRESTED; 4 PEOPLE STABBED” [“Pro-Trump rally ends in chaos as far-right group roams D.C. seeking conflict,” Dec. 14].
But it didn’t, and it otherwise went on to offer subtle excuses and justifications for the alleged stabber’s conduct. So experienced readers can safely assume that the 29-yo Mr. Johnson is a violent black radical who eagerly and foolishly obliged Trump supporters by providing the “conflict” The Post claims those supporters sought.
Post reporters offered no quotes from Trump supporters expressly articulating such conflict-seeking motives. But readers can surely trust reporters’ unbiased mind-reading skills. While those reporters are at it, they might try in follow-up coverage to read the minds of the parents who let those two 14-yo black girls travel unaccompanied to mass demonstrations with plans to antagonize white demonstrators and police before being arrested.
Oh, and before I forget to ask, just as Post reporters have forgotten to ask: Where was Mayor Bowser’s newly purported concern for the “sanctity of churches” when BLM and antifa rioters torched historic St. John’s church near the White House last June?
Curiously,
Darren McKinney, Washington, D.C