(links to Ms. Teglo's JES Articles "here" and "here")
MEMO to:
Pat Cuneo, JES Publications Coordinator cuneo@jeserie.org
Ferki Ferati, President ferati@jeserie.org
Ben Speggen, Vice President speggen@jeserie.org
Re: Tanya Teglo’s “King Arrest Thrust Police Brutality into Spotlight”-- Feb. 2022
Tanya Teglo’s “The Story of Amadou Diallo” – February 2022
Date: February 26, 2022
Once again JES is to be congratulated for having as a major focus during Black History Month many excellent articles detailing the vast and significant contributions African-Americans have made to our nation. The role JES plays in educating the Erie Community to not only its past, but also how residents can work together towards ensuring a brighter future with equal opportunity for all is heartily applauded.
Unfortunately, it’s sometimes hard to adequately safeguard readers from possibly biased distortions of the historical record. A case in point is the recent publication of several JES articles authored by African-American Studies expert Tanya Teglo. Today, when many citizens weren’t around during the arrest of Rodney King or the police shooting of Amadou Diallo, most readers are tempted to accept her version of the events. In neither case does she mention even a single mitigating fact that led police officers to be found not guilty in both cases. Sadly, Teglo went on to deliberately distort reality with this false statement:
Some of the most widely known instances of the use of racial profiling that had deadly consequences were the cases involving Eric Garner, Treyvon Martin, Brionna Taylor, George Floyd, and many others.
“Racial profiling” deaths? When Ms. Teglo so distorts reality she not only does a disservice to her readers, she stokes the flames of unjustified racial hatred and the continued racial division in our nation.
It would be a hard sell to demonstrate police racial profiling in any of the individual cases cited by Ms. Teglo. Eric Garner had been arrested more than 30 times for selling black market cigarettes and police were called to the scene after he was observed once again committing an illegal act. Garner resisted arrest which led to his death, the events of which are still surrounded by controversy. Treyvon Martin might have been profiled by a non-police officer, but his own very violent assault upon George Zimmerman was the cause of his justifiable death. Breonna Taylor was under police surveillance for many reasons and therefore wasn’t “profiled” without cause. She had rented a car, which was later involved in a murder, and a former drug-selling boyfriend had both used her address and kept large sums of drug money in her home. While exercising a legal search warrant at her home, Ms. Taylor was unfortunately killed in a police shoot-out with her boyfriend. George Floyd was not racially profiled but died while resisting arrest after officers had been called to the scene for his attempt to pass a counterfeit bill and for his drunken state behind the wheel of a car.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only time Ms. Teglo engaged in distorting past events. In another article related to the arrest of Rodney King, she gave a totally inadequate description of what took place. Like most of the readers of her story, Ms. Teglo herself may be ignorant of the fact two other Black males were in the vehicle driven by Mr. King that fateful night. Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms exited the car, complied with police instructions, and were able to go home afterward. Mentioning to readers the fact that two other Black males who complied with instructions were not “brutalized” by a racist LA police force, of course, would not fit in with her narrative that America still suffers from systematic racism.
It’s fine that Ms. Teglo drew attention to the still existing video of the King beating—something that offended the sensibilities of all Americans. What she ignored in her description of the event, however, was his behavior beforehand that led to that beating. She failed to mention that he endangered innocent lives as he drove intoxicated through residential neighborhoods at speeds up to 80 miles per hour, running at least one red light. She doesn’t inform readers that King refused to leave his vehicle and when he did, he was laughing and pointing to the police helicopter above, making officers afraid that he was high on drugs. Refusing police commands and grabbing for his buttocks, King led officers to draw their guns in the belief he was reaching for a weapon. Fortunately, a police sergeant ordered them to holster their weapons and subdue him by physical force. This possibly saved his life, but resulted in his severe beating. While on the ground, for example, King was tasered but was still able to rise and charge toward one officer, resulting in the heavy use of batons to subdue him. It is at this point that the famous videotape of his beating begins. Observing it out of context as she asks her readers to do, leaves viewers unaware of these events that led to the final use of police batons. One wonders if Ms. Teglo is herself aware of these facts. It may be the case she was but simply chose to ignore informing her readers of them.
In her narrative, Ms. Teglo also appears to leave the reader with the impression the police officers got off scot-free. She took the time to cite the names of all four officers who faced charges in King’s case, even giving their ages, and that they “were acquitted on all charges.” She neglected to mention, however, even one mitigating reason for their acquittal or how their lives were ruined as a result of their role that night. In summary, Ms. Teglo’s narrative does little to explain why both the trial of the officers and the resulting riots—which severely injured and took the lives of many innocent persons who were not speeding drunk through LA nor resisting arrest—was so controversial.
The list of other neglected facts in her narrative is telling. There is no mention of the disparate statistical criminal anomalies that exist between the races. “Blacks between the ages of ten and 43 die of homicide at 13 times the rate of whites, according to the CDC…” (For a more complete analysis of racial crime rates, I’ll refer you to an email I sent to your office last June as a result of another anti-law enforcement narrative. I’ve attached it for your convenience.) No mention that Black males are more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by police.
If Tanya Taylor is interested in pursuing some real profiling that is happening in America today she may want to turn her investigative skills toward finding what group is mostly involved in the current spate of Asian hate crimes that have plagued our nation. She might wish to cover a history of what group was mostly involved in the widespread “Knock-out Game” which saw dozens of citizens seriously injured for the benefit of a nice upload on Twitter. She might want to verify the accuracy of the report the Blacks commit the majority of hate crimes in America. Investigative journalist Daniel Greenfield’s review of FBI records for 2019 revealed, “The FBI statistics point to the reality that black people are committing hate crimes at twice their demographic representation.” He notes the number of whites committing hate crimes was most likely heavily distorted because the FBI counts Latinos who were charged with such a crime as white. Even given the gang-related animosities between Latinos and Blacks, which entered into the total number of whites committing hate crimes, whites committed only 52% of such crimes whereas Blacks committed 24%. Greenfield adds, “It should also be noted that law enforcement is usually more reluctant to address hate crimes against white people, requiring a higher standard of proof, so these numbers are underreported.” In reviewing these crimes over several years, he points out the percentage of overall hate crimes committed by whites declined while the percentage committed by Blacks increased.
So why do I take the time to write you on such a trivial matter about Ms. Teglo’s personal opinion? Why pick on her article, the main points of which were to relate American music to the Civil Rights Movement? I do so because she chose to enter into the current false narrative about police profiling and its deadly consequences for today’s Black men. It’s because her views represent a much larger pattern that seems to now have taken control of America’s newsrooms, educational institutions, the federal government, and corporate boards. Despite evidence that proves such narratives wrong, widespread support for them has resulted in exacerbating racial divisions in our country. For years, false accusations in “historical” movies such as Nate Parker’s Birth of a Nation, incendiary racial statements from noted athletes such as Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James, and an increasing number of hate crime hoaxes against whites by Jessie Smollett-type Black accusers, have all played a major role in creating further racial divisions in our nation. What is needed to restore faith in our institutions is an honest approach to race relations in which such opinions are not censored, but balanced and where news journalists hold those who hold such narratives accountable.
To continue with the current unbalanced and inaccurate portrayal of America as a hopelessly racist nation that oppresses minorities will only lead to more incidents such as Darrell Brooks’ mowing down innocent families because of their race with his vehicle last Christmas. It’s fine for Ms. Teglo to use a racist comment attributed to Bull Connor from 60 years ago while discussing the influence of songwriters to the Civil Rights movement. It’s wrong, however, for her opinion about police profiling leading to the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, or George Floyd to go unchallenged.
It is just as wrong for JES to commit to only one side of the discussion on the national topic of race. For a second time, I urge the Society to enlist a conservative writer to lend balance to your views. Another possibility is to allow a moderated ‘comments section’ for your articles which would permit an open forum for your readers. Former Attorney General Eric Garner once accused us of being ‘cowards’ on the subject of race. I agree. When our national media ignored a racist diatribe against whites with the call for their “extermination” by an African-American professor during a televised C-SPAN debate at Howard University and when it maintains a current silence on the beliefs and motives of Darrell Brooks, we won’t solve the racial problem’s in America until we have the courage to express fairly and openly facts about both past and current events.
ENDNOTES (send to the JES with the original email and coming here soon)
