Cops told McAtee to get a gun | Thorn
One comment made about the fatal police shooting of David McAtee adds a layer of tragic irony. His nephew, Marvin McAtee, told The Courier Journal that officers, who often ate at the barbecue shop, came in two days before the shooting to eat and advised David to get a gun because of the destruction associated with protesters. But then law enforcement, not protesters, shot him to death. Also, a New York Times analysis of the shooting found police had violated their own rules for dispersing the crowd (not a surprise).
4 years later, Johnny B Reb Begone | Rose
A court ruling last week may help Mayor Greg Fischer chip away at anger over how he handled the protests. A judge ruled the city could remove the John B. Castleman statue from Cherokee Triangle. So, it did early Monday. Since 2016, LEO has questioned the future of the allegedly reformed Confederates bronze. Said Fischer: The events of the past weeks have shown clearly that its not enough just to face our history weve got to address its impact on our present. Too many people are suffering today because the promises of justice and equality enshrined in our Constitution are unfulfilled by a society that devalues African-American lives and denies African Americans justice, opportunity and equity. Thats got to change. People want and deserve action. We need a transformation.
You must do better, LEO | Thorn
LEO gets a thorn for an insensitive headline on a social media post Friday that unintentionally trivialized the protests. In an online apology, Keith Stone, managing editor, wrote: We ran a headline on a social media post Friday that was insensitive, tone-deaf and insulting to Black people and everyone who has been on the streets risking lives. We are sorry, and we will work to make sure it does not happen again. One of our staff wrote the headline, and I did not look at it before it was posted. That is my mistake. That will not happen again. Here is how the headline was written: The headline was on our weekly list of five things to do on the weekend. First and foremost, we wanted people to know about all of the opportunities to take part in protests, forums and vigils around the city. We also listed things not associated to the protests, things that typically people do on weekends. In the headline, the writer tied the protests to these other events. That made it seem like we were treating the protests as some kind of fun activity. We were not. That was not the intention. We were wrong, and we apologize. We are sorry for any hurt we have caused. We are sorry for causing any more pain at a time when the city has suffered too much pain. We can and will do better. Please let us win back your trust.
This article appears in June 10, 2020.