On the morning of April 27, in concert with the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the BATF, the NYPD conducted what authorities described as a “gang raid” on the Eastchester Gardens and Edenwald House housing projects in the Bronx, arresting roughly 100 people on a series of charges. The New York media, apparently tipped off ahead of time and present with cameras ready for the wholly-pointless-except-for-police-PR perp walk, jumped into action—trying and convicting the suspects as gang members solely on the say-so of the NYPD and federal officials.
The Daily News (4/28/16) kicked it off with the most salacious and prejudicial headlines:
“Eighty-seven gang members”—every one of them “responsible” for “murders and drug dealing” — no evidence necessary.
No “allegedly,” no quotes around the claims, no question at all that these people — whose faces are forever plastered online as murderers and drug dealers — could possibly be innocent of the crimes in question. The Daily News, based solely on the word of federal prosecutors, left no doubt in the reader’s mind that these people were guilty.
The piece came with an interactive map of “The Gangs of NYC and How Close You Live to Them,” along with a gallery with more than 60 photos of arrested suspects—described in an introduction as “more than 120 Bronx gang members, responsible for five murders.” Individual pictures were captioned with seemingly random rundowns of the heinous crimes alleged — regardless of whether the particular people pictured were suspected or charged, much less found guilty, of being involved with them. (Do I need to point out that the NYPD has been known to sometimes arrest the wrong people?)
The language used by the Daily News reads like the script for a bad Charles Bronson movie. The accused were described, without qualification, as “120 violent hoodlums” and “unrepentant gangbangers,” although the reporting presented no evidence to this effect.
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, a rich, politically connected white man, was given radically different treatment by the Daily News the very next day. Despite having admitted to a judge that he had molested several children, the Daily News referred to Hastert’s crimes as “alleged”:
Why is the latter case “alleged” and the former not? One could venture a guess based on the class and race status of the accused, but what’s clear is that the putative “gang members” didn’t stand a chance. The media mob’s mind was made up:
As FAIR has noted before, the headline matters just as much, if not more, than the story’s text. Only 40 percent of Americans read past the headlines, meaning some 60 percent of the audience got their news about these raids by skimming these prejudicial thumbnails. And on issues like crime, which are plagued by stereotypes and racial assumptions, the media verdict is leveled against predominantly African-American suspects without question.
The New York Times (4/28/16) went with a more nuanced framing, “Sweep in Bronx Tackles Decade of Gang Chaos,” but its coverage still recounted the narrative of the police, federal officials and the statements of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. The Times does refer to “charges against 120 people accused of being members of two gangs,” but the paper did not interview any of the lawyers, representatives or families of the accused, or any police-accountability activists. That this raid was a uniform victory against crime was taken for granted, the details to be sorted out later.
Yahoo News (4/27/16) republished a Vibe magazine article (which probably explains why it was in their “Music” section) that, like the Daily News, tried and convicted the accused for being in a gang and murdering people without a shred of evidence or an ounce of skepticism.
The media efforts behind the high-profile, multi-agency raids were as coordinated as the raids themselves. Photographers were pre-positioned to take pictures, press releases ready to be disseminated upon request, aerial footage available to upload to YouTube and big scary war maps drawn up for presentation at the corollary press conference.
The “bad guys” get theirs: A gang is “swept up,” like trash, and the authorities — including the increasingly scrutinized Homeland Security Investigations (also known as “Immigration” or ICE) — justify their ever-expanding budgets, all without a hint of uncertainty from the press. Federal authorities and the NYPD already have billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of employees at their disposal; they don’t really need the media as well.
Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamJohnsonNYC.
Miriam Callaghan
They sure look like superpredators to me.
Glad we brought them to heel.
I’m being sarcastic
BruceK
Uh … it’s bad enough that we have bankers and financial corporations
that are too big to jail … now the implication here is because we do not
have the money and court resources to try every one of these thugs that
they should all get off free, or be a huge financial drain on all the people
of the community, state or country?
This is bad logic. There is some validity of course, that is what makes
it easy to argue, to exaggerate in the service of criminals. Our system
has reached its breaking point when people do not even try to work in
it, and instead try to break it by doing all kinds of things that are outside
and need new legal constructs to process efficiently.
the constitution is outdated … the US constitution is the oldest constitution
of any country inthe world now … and our system is hopelessly outddated
and unworkable, and some just love that and even want to turn it backward
because it gives them huge power and ridiculous arguments that gain
respect the founding fathers would never have agreed with.
John Ellis
GUESS WHO IS THE CRIMINAL — YOU
They are impoverished, all 120 being laboring men of the impoverished lower-half of society. The richest Empire the world has ever known, owning over half the wealth on earth since World War Two, yet 150 million, all of our laboring-class, all without a penny in saving nor an acre of land to their name.
All because you people in the upper-half of society have committed the criminal act of hoarding all the land and wealth. All made possible by your legalized killer cops committing the criminal act of protecting your stolen wealth.
eaglesfanintn
How do you know they are ‘thugs’? Because that’s what the NYPD and the Daily News told you? If that’s your answer, you missed the entire point of this article. Read it (again) and let us know what you learn.
Doug Latimer
Judge, jury and exhibitioner
Dave M
I suppose on the basis of “say so”, any one of us could be a “gang member”, a “terrorist”, a “drug dealer”, or someone else who could be publicly described as someone without redeeming social value. The press covered for these people has already made it impossible for any of them to get a fair trial (assuming they are actually charged with something and do not plead out through public defenders–which passes for “proven guilty” if you happen to be poor). Are we likely to see any follow-up stories should any be regarded as innocent by the current justice system. I wouldn’t count on it.
This can happen to anybody. All that is needed is a person to apply a label to (preferably one who lacks the means to hire a competent defense attorney) and an empty cell waiting for a profitable occupant. If you’ve offended someone in power or are disliked by law enforcement–congratulations, your name is probably at the top of the list.
Do not deceive yourself with “I have nothing to worry about–I haven’t done anything wrong”. You do not have to do anything wrong–indeed, anything at all–to become a criminal in the eyes of the judicial system. This is America cannibalizing itself on its way down. More victims will be needed as time passes. And if you stick around long enough….they’ll be coming for you. Do write when your turn comes–you might reach someone who has been there and will understand.
John Ellis
JAIL THE VICTIMS — LET THE CRIMINALS RUN FREE
A fair and just society would not allow the upper-half of society to commit the criminal act of stealing and hoarding all the land and wealth. So, these 120 impoverished laboring men, all of the impoverished lower-half of society, are they not victims of a most criminal Empire that causes the lower-half to be impoverished for the purpose of economical slavery.
Our wars of aggression and invasions for plunder have given us ownership of half the wealth on earth, yet with criminal intent we establish an open air prison and economical slavery for half of our population.
va
the opposite exageration is still lumping everyone/everything together. The day will come when you will also be lumped together etc. etc. Therefore, what are the right questions? F.i.: Who is going to question in depth what FAIR describes as a press crowd-action? Is the FAIR description accurate, or is the press at large FAIR game? Are these journalists usually on the gang beat, or is this a bout of incompetent, misguided reporting, or a remote-controlled psy-op? And otoh what was NYPD after? Specific offenders or offenses, or PR, as FAIR suggests? Who decided it, who are they, what is their CV and agenda? What other such raids went unnoticed and why? What happened with and who are the targeted people and groups? As it is, the whole thing does not make much sense in a democratic society. Btw, seen from Europe, NY has the population of a medium-sized country…
socrates
Another profile in courage for steno-journalism. I guess the alleged reporters were in too much of a hurry to investigate the facts. They had to rush back to their Nancy Grace re-runs…
Be well.
Beria
“Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.”
OH
The US Department of Justice is run by a gang member: Loretta Lynch of the HSBC cartel – and gang member James Comey of the HSBC cartel runs the FBI.