Recently state Senator Darius Brown was arrested on charges of offensive touching and disorderly conduct after police claim he punched a woman with whom he was dining at a North Wilmington restaurant and threw a water glass, breaking it, before leaving the establishment.
Brown turned himself in to the Delaware State Police a few days later. The State Police issued a press release including Brown’s booking mug shot and held a press conference regarding the incident. The local media accordingly ran the police narrative and many outlets included the mug shot. DelawareOnline had to subsequently add this editor’s note exposing the fact that they had simply reported exactly what the police gave them:
This story has been updated to reflect the correct date. Delaware State Police initially gave an incorrect date for the incident in a press release.
The story was picked up by the Philadelphia affiliates of NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX, All duly ran the mug shot as well.
On December 19 of last year, state Representative Andria Bennett was arrested by Delaware State Police after a domestic dispute at a holiday party in her neighborhood. She was charged with third-degree assault. The state police did not issue a press release or booking photograph. No press conference was held. The intrepid reporters at the Delmarva NBC affiliate WRDE reported the story first, catching larger Delaware media on the back foot.
There’s a system at work here. It’s not totally invisible, but it’s not obvious either. The fact that Darius Brown is a Black man from Wilmington and Andria Bennett is a white woman from the Dover area who is the daughter of John Viola, who served in the state House for 21 years, and the spouse of former state representative Brad Bennett, could be entirely coincidental.
Via — The Delaware Call