Who knows what led 37-year-old Landon Eastep to the “middle” of 1-65 in Nashville, Tennessee last Thursday, 1/28/2022? What we do know is that in almost no other country on earth would simply being on a highway result in death at the hands of people who are entrusted with the awesome responsibility of protecting and serving. Good heavens! Nine police officers, with cars behind which to hide if necessary, fired at a man holding a boxcutter. Watching the video below hurts my heart.
Almost as egregious as the actions of the cops themselves are the laudatory reports of the incident by the media. Below you’ll find a quote of the type of disgusting and enabling reporting on police violence that we have come to expect. We've had enough of this shit:
Tennessee police officers repeatedly pleaded with a man who stopped traffic along Interstate 65 to drop a box cutter and surrender, saying no one wanted to hurt him.
Instead, he abruptly pulled another shiny object from his pocket and pointed it at police as if ready to shoot, prompting nine of the officers who surrounded him at gunpoint to open fire, killing him on the highway, according to officials and body camera video.
We want reporters to stop normalizing police violence. They have the power to bend the curve toward responsible, sophisticated policing in this country. Let’s see if we can nudge them in the right direction.
From the murdered man’s wife:
His wife, Chelsey Eastep, spoke out for the first time since his death. She acknowledged Landon Eastep suffered from mental health issues but said he was "very loving" and would sometimes go for walks to clear his head as he did on Thursday.
"I want people to remember that Landon didn't deserve this," Chelsey Eastep said. "Landon wasn't a bad guy. He was crying out for help, and his cries went completely unanswered."
If you are sickened by what happened to Landon Eastep as he stood surrounded by nine well-armed law enforcement officers, join us in our fight. If you are sick and tired of reading about atrocity after atrocity and feel the need to do something, join us this evening for day two of our Twitter campaign.
As Ari Melber puts it, “[T]his recent activism and scrutiny alone are not bending the curve of police shootings in America.” But what if media houses were to begin to cover police violence as the existential crisis that it is? Could that make a difference? Not just reporting on some of the high-profile cases and exploiting the outrage for ratings, but actually viewing police violence as a manifestation of structural racism disproportionately impacting Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. To review police killings and question why police are emptying their weapons at people in the throes of pychotic episodes. Why are they shooting girls with knives? Why are hundreds of Black & Indigenuous folks being killed every year simply because they have guns even while white men proudly parade with them unbothered.
A seven-day campaign to tweet at prominent media personalities from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, and PBS. We’ll use the hashtags:
#StopPoliceViolence
#PoliceThePolice
#PoliceBrutality
#BlackLivesMatter
#DueProcess14thA (Thanks, Angela Marx)
(Do you have a suggestion?)
In constructing your tweet, please include facts and numbers (get these from mappingpoliceviolence.org and washingtonpost.com). Please use graphics if you can (apparently they improve the chances of attracting attention).
Please find the names of the on-air presenters and their Twitter handles below.
I suggest that we all use #StopPoliceViolence in all our tweets so that we can find each other to retweet.
Example:
Some tweets from our first day:
Friday done!
Saturday (today): CBS
Norah O'Donnell — @NorahODonnell @CBSNews
Jim Axelrod — @JimAxelrod @CBSMornings
Gayle King — @GayleKing @CBSMornings
Errol Barnett — @errolbarnett @CBSNews
Scott Pelley — @ScottPelley @60Minutes
Bill Whittaker — @BillWhittakerCBS @60Minutes
Leslie Stahl — @LesleyRStahl @60Minutes
Sunday: CNN
Anderson Cooper — @AC360 @CNNNews @AndersonCooper
Jim Acosta — @acosta
Don Lemon — @donlemoncnn @DonLemonTonight
Wolf Blitzer — @wolfblitzer @CNNSitRoom
Jake Tapper — @jaketapper @TheLeadCNN @CNNSOTU
Jim Sciutto — @jimsciutto @CNN
John King — @JohnKingCNN @CNN
Monday: MSNBC & CNBC
Shepherd Smith — @thenewsoncnbc
Andrew Ross Sorkin — @andrewrsorkin
Rachel Maddow — @maddow @MaddowBlog
Lawrence O’Donnell — @TheLastWord @Lawrence
Joy-Ann Reid — @JoyAnnReid (She also uses the hashtags #TheReidOut & #reiders)
Ari Melber — @AriMelber @TheBeatWithAri
Chris Hayes — @chrislhayes
Stephanie Ruhle — @SRuhle @RuhleOnMSNBC
Nicolle Wallace — @NicolleDWallace @DeadlineWH
Joe Scarborough — @JoeNBC @Morning_Joe
Mika Brzezinski — @morningmika @Morning_Joe
Ali Velshi — @AliVelshi
Joyce Alene — @JoyceWhiteVance
Malcolm Nance — @MalcolmNance
Tuesday: NBC
Lester Holt — @LesterHoltNBC @NBCNightlyNews
Savannah Guthrie — @SavannahGuthrie @TODAYshow
Craig Melvin — @craigmelvin @TODAYshow
Hoda Kotb — @HodaKotb @TODAYshow
Jose Diaz-Balart — @jdbalart @JDBalartMSNBC
Peter Alexander — @PeterAlexander @NBCNews
Chuck Todd — @chucktodd @meetthepress @nbcnews
Wednesday: PBS/NPR
Judy Woodruff — @JudyWoodruff @NewsHour
Amna Nawaz — @IAmAmnaNawaz
Yamiche Alcindor — @Yamiche @WashingtonWeek
Geoff Bennett — @GeoffRBennett @NewsHour
Scott Simon — @nprscottsimon
Steve Inskeep — @NPRinskeep
On Thursday we’ll tweet at whoever we think needs reminding that we do have a crisis on our hands.
Thanks to members of the Support the Dream Defenders who helped in the preparation of this diary.