It's beginning to look a lot like Floydmas in the national media all over again, and with very little justification. A traffic stop in Chicago involving a seatbelt violation turned into a gunfight with police, but only after suspect Dexter Reed, Jr opened fire rather than comply with police orders to exit the vehicle over a traffic violation.
Reed had been out on pretrial release while being prosecuted for -- wait for it -- three counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and illegal firearm possession. As NBC's Chicago affiliate reported, police ordered Reed to keep his window down, and then to exit the vehicle, several times. Rather than comply, Reed opened fire, as this video shows:
According to Chicago's Civilian Office of Police Accountability, five Chicago officers assigned to an 11th District tactical unit had pulled over Dexter Reed Jr. on March 21 in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand for "purportedly not wearing a seatbelt."
As the group stopped Reed, multiple officers surrounded his vehicle and, according to several bodycam videos, asked him to roll his windows down repeatedly. Officers then shouted at Reed not to roll the windows up and to unlock his doors.
As they shout, Reed can be heard saying "OK, I'm trying to," with officers continuing to pull on the door handle and shouting for him to unlock the doors, some backing away and raising their firearms.
In the videos, gunfire is heard as officers then take cover and several gunshots are fired in a matter of seconds. One officer falls away from the scene, with video showing blood dripping from his arm.
Much of the media attention has focused on how many shots police fired at Reed -- reportedly 96 shots. That, however, is meaningless, and even more so manipulative. This is not an Amadou Diallo situation, in which police fired 41 rounds at a man who not only turned out to be unarmed, but wasn't actually the suspect for which police were looking at the time. One detective started shooting when Diallo reached for his wallet and fell back from the recoil, which other officers mistook for him being hit by return gunfire. That prompted all of the fire from police. (Worth noting: A jury acquitted the officers of all charges in the trial over the shooting.)
In this case, Reed initiated the shooting after failing to comply with a lawful traffic stop. Reed wounded multiple officers while firing off 11 rounds, and police responded with lethal force until the threat was neutralized. One reason for the continued fire was that Reed attempted to drive off at one point in the gunfight, demonstrating that the threat had not been neutralized. At another point, Reed got out of the vehicle without surrendering. Police stopped shooting when Reed finally stopped presenting a lethal threat to themselves and the people in the residential neighborhood.
The number of rounds fired means nothing, unless bystanders were hit by them. Reed made himself a lethal threat by firing at officers, and they have a duty to neutralize the threat with lethal force to protect their community. All Reed had to do was keep his windows rolled down, or failing that, to comply with the order to peacefully exit the vehicle. Reed refused to do either because he was illegally carrying a firearm and knew his bail would get revoked once police found it.
Dexter Reed got Dexter Reed killed. Chicago is fortunate that Dexter Reed didn't kill anyone else in doing so. That's what an honest media outlet would report -- and the NBC affiliate in Chicago at least lays out the details in an honest manner so that its readers can easily reach that conclusion.
But that's not what progressive mainstream-media outlets are doing. Instead, they are leaning into a Diallo-esque narrative that paints Reed as a victim and police as predators, just in time for another election-year spring:
The media is trying to push a new "George Floyd" movement after a police sh00ting in Chicago.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 10, 2024
The reality shows the individual fired nonstop at the police.
Do not fall for their propaganda! pic.twitter.com/QKFeBbfwTo
My friend and one-time colleague Julio Rosas smells an attempt to incite riots over a lie. Julio literally wrote the book on the 2020 riots following the death of George Floyd, Fiery But Mostly Peaceful, and sees national media outlets as "fanning the ... flames" with more irresponsible reporting of the Reed shooting:
This framing from the mainstream media is the exact type of irresponsible reporting I highlighted in my book about the 2020 BLM riots.
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) April 11, 2024
Like the rioters who faced little accountability back then, the media faced zero consequences for their role in fanning the literal flames. pic.twitter.com/vgVIgbDd1n
Julio also wrote about the coverage yesterday in his Substack, and noticed one familiar face from the 2020 cycle helping to fan these flames four years later:
CNN’s Omar Jimenez interviewed Reed’s family members after the body camera footage was released yesterday. Reed’s family says police should not have stopped him in the first place. As has been standard practice for CNN, they took the view of maybe the cops were just wrong, even though they did not shoot until Reed fired first. ...
If the name Omar Jimenez sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve probably seen his face many times in memes related to a little riot that happened in Kenosha, Wisconsin back in 2020.
That’s right, he’s the face of “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful.”
Julio also wonders why the media has seized this particular narrative ... but he doesn't wonder all that much:
My friend on X, EducatëdHillbilly responded to Jimenez, “You are trying so hard to get another summer of riots going.”
If this happened closer to May or June, maybe, but I can say the conditions for such events are simmering below the surface because we are in an election season that features Donald Trump. While it remains to be seen, it certainly is the case the media is trying their best to create the right conditions for it.
Exactly. This is more than just an If it bleeds, it leads issue. The story itself is certainly worthy of national reporting, but not framed as a police overreaction. Reed opened fire first after refusing to comply with a traffic stop. If people want to argue that police shouldn't enforce seatbelt laws, we can have that debate, but the solution to that would be to stop passing laws that require police interventions to enforce.
Instead, the media use high school photos to paint 26-year-old Reed as a youth. Note well that these outlets didn't choose to get his mugshot from his earlier arrest for aggravated unlawful uses of a firearm. They want to paint him as a martyr for supposedly racist police.
Julio's right -- the media want more riots. And they will manipulate public opinion to get them at the expense of law enforcement officers who got targeted by a dangerous criminal.
The mainstream national media wants chaos and destruction. And they don't care who gets hurt because of it.
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