Daily Archives: July 21, 2020

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Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is a broad, community-based movement composed of individuals organizing against racial and economic injustice. Those who identify with the label represent a large spectrum of the political left. The Trump administration frequently uses the term to describe any group or individual that demonstrates in opposition to its policies. Far-right extremists usesimilar tactics.

Since the election of Donald Trump, acts of racist violence have proliferated across the United States. Racists and misogynists feel emboldened to express and act on their views. White nationalist groups and resurgent traditional white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have used Trumps victory to gain new recruits.

All that stands in their way are the groups of anti-fascist and anti-state resistors who have taken it upon themselves to prevent fascism from becoming a powerful political force in the United States. The story of what Antifa is, and why people are joining the movement to confront racism and fascism in the United States today is unprecedented.

Who are the anti-fascists? What motivates them to risk their lives to fight the far right? What is the history of anti-fascism and why is it relevant again today? How is anti-fascism connected to a larger political vision that can stop the rise of fascism and offer you visions of a future worth fighting for? Learn More

You will connect with anti-fascist organizers, historians and political theorists who will provide their expert advice, you will explore the broader meaning of this political moment. You will be able to help others understand the past scenes of street battles from Washington to Berkeley and Charlottesville What caused them? How to prevent them in the future? You will own your piece of the resistance by taking an active consistent role in promoting & growing Antifa.com.

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ANTIFA.COM | Join Us & Take Action Now

This article is republished here with permission from The Conversation. This content is shared here because the topic may interest Snopes readers; it does not, however, represent the work of Snopes fact-checkers or editors.

The movement called antifa gets its name from a short form of anti-fascist, which is about the only thing its members agree on.

President Donald Trump and some far-right activists and militants have claimed antifa is allegedly conspiring to foment violence amid the protests sweeping the U.S. In my forthcoming book, American Antifa: The Tactics, Culture, and Practice of Militant Antifascism, I describe antifa as a decentralized collection of individual activists who mostly use nonviolent methods to achieve their ends.

Their goal is to resist the spread of fascism. That word can be an inexact term, but generally antifa activists see fascism as the violent enactment and enforcement of biological and social inequalities between people.

Fascists go beyond viewing particular categories of people as inferior, based on gender identity, race and ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. They believe it is imperative to use violence to oppress and ultimately eliminate those groups. In addition, they use violence to oppose their ideological enemies, even if they are from groups they believe are not inferior, such as heterosexual white men.

The initial anti-fascist movements were founded in Europe and North America between the world wars, and were primarily organized by anarchists, communists and socialists three groups that were frequently targets of fascist violence.

The modern-day anti-fascist movement in the United States, including antifa, grew out of the Anti-Racist Action Network, a decentralized activist movement resisting racist skinhead subcultures and public demonstrations by neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan organizations in the 1980s and 1990s.

Anti-fascists objections arent simply that they disagree with fascists. Their problems with fascism are much more fundamental.

My own research has found that a significant proportion of anti-fascists are women, people of color, members of LGBTQ communities, or otherwise have some characteristics fascists seek to control or eliminate.

These anti-fascists, therefore, often see fascists as a threat to their personal existence, and their physical and emotional well-being as well as presenting threats of violence or vandalism to their communities and shared gathering spaces. They perceive their opposition as very much in personal and collective self-defense.

Because opposing fascism is a viewpoint rather than a formal organization, peoples actions vary widely. Informal or everyday anti-fascism can include speaking out against bigotry, standing up for victims of fascist harassment or confronting fascists in public places. Generally, these are relatively spontaneous actions that happen when anti-fascists encounter fascism in the normal course of their regular lives.

More formal anti-fascism can include large, well-funded mainstream organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, who monitor fascist activity and provide the public information on its scope.

But the antifa label is most often applied to smaller-scale groups of like-minded people who live in the same community, working to prevent fascists from threatening their targets and from attracting new followers.

These groups are rarely militant or violent. Most of them engage in commonly accepted forms of political activism. For instance, anti-fascists often work to find out where fascist groups and people are active in an area, and then share that information with the wider community, bringing that activity to public attention.

Anti-fascist activists also take advantage of the general social stigma associated with being a fascist, and identify people who participate in fascist events or post fascist messages online.

Culture is another part of anti-fascist work, including art and music. By creating T-shirts and stickers with inclusive messages, and hosting concerts, film screening and art shows, anti-fascists work to create an environment of inclusion and equality that doesnt directly attack fascism but simply exists in opposition to it.

There are more militant anti-fascists, too, who mostly engage in non-militant activism but are willing, at times, to use more confrontational tactics. These people are more open to counterprotesting, sabotage and the use of force, which includes acts of violence.

The varied and decentralized nature of anti-fascist efforts means it includes virtually anyone who opposes violent enforcement of social inequalities to engage in activism. A diverse range of participants and tactics falls under the umbrella of a broad effort to stop fascism.

Stanislav Vysotsky, Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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What or Who is Antifa?

Antifa: Definition and History:

The anti-fascist protest movement known as antifa gainednew prominence in the United States after the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, in August 2017. In Charlottesville and at many subsequent events held by white supremacists or right-wing extremists, antifa activists have aggressively confronted what they believe to be authoritarian movements and groups. While most counter-protestors tend to be peaceful, there have been several instances where encounters between antifa and the far-right have turned violent.

These violent counter-protesters are often part ofantifa (short for antifascist), a loose collection of groups, networks and individuals who believe in active, aggressive opposition to far right-wing movements. Their ideology is rooted in the assumption that the Nazi party would never have been able to come to power in Germany if people had more aggressively fought them in the streets in the 1920s and 30s. Most antifa come from the anarchist movement or from the far left, though since the 2016presidentialelection, some people with more mainstream political backgrounds have also joined their ranks.

These antifa sometimes use a logo with a double flag, usually in black and red. The antifa movement began in the 1960s in Europe, and had reached the US by the end of the 1970s. Most people who show up to counter or oppose white supremacist public events are peaceful demonstrators, but when antifa show up, as they frequently do, they can increase the chances that an event may turn violent.

Today, antifa activists focus on harassing right wing extremists both online and in real life. Antifa is not a unified group; it is loose collection of local/regional groups and individuals. Their presence at a protest is intended to intimidate and dissuade racists, but the use of violent measures by some antifa against their adversaries can create a vicious, self-defeating cycle of attacks, counter-attacks and blame.This is why most established civil rights organizations criticize antifa tactics as dangerous and counterproductive.

The current political climate increases the chances of violent confrontations at protests and rallies. Antifa have expanded their definition of fascist/fascism to include not just white supremacists and other extremists, but also many conservatives and supporters of President Trump. In Berkeley, for example, some antifa were captured on video harassing Trump supporters with no known extremist connections. Antifa have also falsely characterized some recent right wing rallies as Nazi events, even though they were not actually white supremacist in nature.

Another concern is the misapplication of the label antifa to include all counter-protesters, rather than limiting it to those who proactively seek physical confrontations with their perceived fascist adversaries. It is critical to understand how antifa fit within the larger counter-protest efforts. Doing so allows law enforcement to focus their resources on the minority who engage in violence without curtailing the civil rights of the majority of peaceful individuals who just want their voices to be heard.

All forms of antifa violence are problematic. Additionally, violence plays into the victimhood narrative of white supremacists and other right-wing extremists and can even be used for recruiting purposes. Images of these free speech protesters being beaten by black-clad and bandana-masked antifa provide right wing extremists with a powerful propaganda tool.

That said, it is important to reject attempts to claim equivalence between the antifa and the white supremacist groups they oppose. Antifa reject racism but use unacceptable tactics. White supremacists use even more extreme violence to spread their ideologies of hate, to intimidate ethnic minorities, and undermine democratic norms. Right-wing extremists have been one of the largest and most consistent sources of domestic terror incidents in the United States for many years; they have murdered hundreds of people in this country over the last ten years alone. To date, there have not been any known antifa-related murders.

Antifa: Scope and Tactics:

Today's antifa argue they are the on-the-ground defense against individuals they believe are promoting fascism in the United States. However, antifa, who have many anti-police anarchists in their ranks, can also target law enforcement with both verbal and physical assaults because they believe the police are providing cover for white supremacists. They will sometimes chant against fascism and against law enforcement in the same breath.

While some antifa use their fists, other violent tactics include throwing projectiles, including bricks, crowbars, homemade slingshots, metal chains, water bottles, and balloons filled with urine and feces. They have deployed noxious gases, pushed through police barricades, and attempted to exploit any perceived weakness in law enforcement presence.

Away from rallies, they also engage in doxxing, exposing their adversaries identities, addresses, jobs and other private information. This can lead to their opponents being harassed or losing their jobs, among other consequences. Members of the alt right and other right wing extremists have responded with their own doxxing campaigns, and by perpetuating hateful and violent narratives using fake antifa social media accounts.

Because there is no unifying body for antifa, it is impossible to know how many members are currently active. Different localities have antifa populations of different strengths, but antifa are also sometimes willing to travel hundreds of miles to oppose a white supremacist event.

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Who are Antifa? - Anti-Defamation League

Many in the media treat Antifa as a diverse group of warriors against fascism and racism. This is an absolute fabrication.

At Occupy Wall Street, there were two very distinct groups. On one side of the park were the peaceful intellectuals. They ran the library and the general assembly, and organized services in the park. On the other side was the black bloc, a collection of black-clad punks, often with bandanas ready to serve as masks, who mostly engaged in drug use and drum circles. The latter group is directly related to the movement we now know as Antifa.

One thing that both of these groups hadand continue to havein common is that they are mostly young white people. This is not surprising; poll after poll shows us that the vast majority of far-left progressives are white. The intellectuals at Occupy understood and tried to address this, giving special treatment to the speech and ideas of their small cadre of non-white participants. The Black Bloc and Antifa take a different approach; they just cover their faces.

But when members of Antifa are arrested, the masks come off. And, as recent mugshots of Portland Antifa members show, these people are about as diverse as the Washington Generals.

At a time when many on the left are rightfully concerned about far-right white violence, why do so many seemed so nonplussed by far-left white violence, in most cases even refusing to acknowledge that thats exactly what Antifa is?

One sociologist writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz attempts to prove fanciful claims that Antifa is a rainbow coalition of the oppressed desperately fighting in their own immediate self defense. Stanislav Vustotsky writes:

Many militant anti-fascists become involved in this form of activism because aspects of their identity are directly targeted by fascist violence; they are queer, transgender, gender non-conforming, people of color, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and certainly identified in ways that intersected across these categories.

For them, anti-fascism was a means of ensuring their safety from a movement that threatens their very existence and venerates violence as the highest form of action. Even the Antifa activists who identify as cis heterosexual white males are the targets of fascist violence as race and gender traitors.

Vusotsky claims to have formally studied Antifainterviewing them, attending meetings, and engaging in the culture of anti fascism. Needless to say he doesnt exactly come off as a neutral party to all this. But what is stunning is what is not in his piece. He claims to have conducted ethnographic research, on the group. If so, where are the numbers that back up his assertion that Antifa is wildly diverse?

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Antifa has seen videos of their violent antics and can see for himself or herself that almost all of them are white dudes. Anyone who has ever been in their presence knows this too. I would be very interested to see this ethnographic research, and I am curious if Haaretz looked at it before publishing the authors bizarre claim. It strains credulity to believe that if Vusotsky had hard numbers to back up his assertion he would have simply left them out of his article.

The reason this point is so important is that it betrays a double standard that many in our media use regarding violent white activists. On the right, their whiteness is front and center; part of the toxic brew that stews their hate. But this is equally true of Antifa, which has its roots in the far left of the English punk scene in the 1980s.

Antifas goals are not those of most non-white Americans. Most non-white Americans dont want to destroy the systems of government, abolish the police, end capitalism, or cripple corporations. The group is absolutely trying to impose a style of anarchy that is steeped in (and almost unique to) whiteness.

When cowards wear masks to engage in violence, we must remove the masks to see who we are actually dealing withnot the fairy tale of diversity version. When Andy Ngo, a minority gay man, is mercilessly beaten up by white activists, the fact that the activists are white is a big part of the story in todays landscape. Dont believe the progressive narrative: Antifa is mostly a bunch of privileged white dudes.

David Marcus is the Federalist's New York Correspondent. Follow him on Twitter, @BlueBoxDave.

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Antifa Is Mostly Made Up Of Privileged White Dudes

PORTLAND, Ore. Angela Foster started showing up in the early days of the protests in Portland as one of the novice activists standing off to the side with no gear to protect herself.

Roughly 40 demonstrations later, she has moved toward the front, wearing a mask, goggles and a helmet, and bracing for law enforcement officers to charge at her.

Were not leaving, Ms. Foster said in an interview on Sunday.

While President Trump on Sunday described the unrest in Portland as a national threat involving anarchists and agitators, the protests have featured a wide array of demonstrators, many now galvanized by federal officers exemplifying the militarized enforcement that protesters have long denounced. Gatherings over the weekend grew to upward of 1,000 people the largest crowds in weeks.

Some protesters have exhibited the lawless behavior that federal officials have cited to justify their crackdown: Some have thrown cans and bottles, shot fireworks or pointed lasers at officers. One was recently accused of hitting a federal officer with a hammer. On Saturday, protesters set a fire in the police union headquarters.

But many others have demonstrated in the streets through peaceful means, appalled by the aggressive responses by federal officers that have left some protesters injured and the air inflamed with tear gas. They have held signs and marched. At times when people have thrown bottles, other demonstrators have rushed to try to stop them. On Saturday, a group of women locked arms and chanted: Feds stay clear. Moms are here.

Attending the protests for the first time over the weekend was Christopher David, 53, a former Navy civil engineering corps officer and a 1988 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.

I wasnt even paying attention to the protests at all until the feds came in, Mr. David said. When that video came out of those two unmarked guys in camouflage abducting people and putting them in minivans, thats when I became aware.

He had taken a bus to the Portland courthouse and was about to leave around 10:45 p.m. when federal officers emerged and began advancing on the protesters. He said he felt the need to ask the officers, Why were they violating their oath to the Constitution?

Instead of getting an answer on Saturday, Mr. David, a 6-foot-2, 280-pound former Navy varsity wrestler, found himself being beaten with a baton by a federal officer dressed in camouflage fatigues as another doused him with pepper spray, according to video of the encounter.

Mr. David was taken to a nearby hospital, where a specialist said his right hand was broken and would require surgery to install pins, screws and plates.

Im appalled and disappointed at the feds behavior that whoever led them and trained them allowed them to become this way, Mr. David said. This is a failure of leadership more than it is a failure of their own individual behavior towards me.

Luis Enrique Marquez, a self-described anti-fascist who has been a fixture at protests in Portland for years, said the purpose of the federal officers arrival had appeared to be to scare the protesters. But he said the officers had instead galvanized them by displaying the types of actions that have concerned protesters for years.

With every act of violence they commit, our numbers seem to grow, people seem to get more angry, Mr. Marquez said.

Demonstrators in Portland, including some who identify as antifa, the loose coalition of self-described anti-fascist activists, have had years of conflict with law enforcement. But after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis set off a nationwide movement for racial justice and police accountability, the protest in Portland drew thousands to the streets.

That created powerful scenes including images of protesters blanketing the Burnside Bridge, each lying face down on the pavement for eight minutes and 46 seconds in remembrance of Mr. Floyd.

While those initial mass crowds have waned, hundreds of protesters have continued on with near-nightly confrontations with law enforcement.

Unlike demonstrators in Seattle at the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP, in which they established a permanent location that created tensions over how the police should handle unrest inside the area, protesters in Portland have brought the same feel of communal support throughout the downtown area. Volunteers wearing red crosses hand out ear plugs, eye wash and hand sanitizer. A mobile snack van provides Gatorade and food.

Jeremy Vajko, who operates the snack van, said he initially operated in the CHOP zone in Seattle and then came to Portland to support the people on the streets.

I noticed there was problems with nutrition, he said. People are sleep deprived.

During the daytime, the protests can draw families, businesspeople and political leaders such as Jo Ann Hardesty, a city commissioner. At night, the crowd is made up mostly of young people. Dozens of protesters at the front carry homemade shields made out of materials such as 55-gallon drums. Others stand farther back, shining lasers or gathering materials for building barricades.

But protesters tactics have strained the city. Business owners, already struggling because of the coronavirus pandemic, have cited the protests as a reason residents have been staying away from downtown.

Susan Landa, who for almost 31 years has owned a business selling gems and minerals downtown, said she supports peaceful protests and even defunding and shifting funds from the police.

But she said some of the protesters seemed like vandals and restless young people who were taking out rage because of the pandemic.

She added: Most of downtown is boarded up. We dont feel safe enough to open up. Its killing our businesses.

Some leaders in the Black community have also questioned the tactics, suggesting that some demonstrators have seized the moment in the aftermath of Mr. Floyds killing to advance their own causes.

Last month, officers from the Portland Police Bureau repeatedly fired tear gas and made arrests of protesters, who have variously called for the abolishment or defunding of the bureau, and for more accountability for law enforcement officers. The citys officers now operate with new limits on the use of tear gas after a judge ordered it to only be used if its needed to keep people safe.

Protesters have focused much of their attention on Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also serves as police commissioner. Crowds have at times gathered late at night outside Mr. Wheelers condo building, shining lights and chanting about the perceived failures of his administration.

For weeks, Mr. Wheeler has called for an end to destructive demonstrations, saying he is concerned about groups who continue to perpetrate violence and vandalism on our streets. But as federal agencies have moved in to play a role in combating the unrest, Mr. Wheeler has said he told the federal officials to stay away.

City police leaders have said they are not coordinating with federal agencies on the protests. But at one point early Saturday morning, a line of federal officers was moving up one street while a line of local police officers was moving up another, both advancing to keep protesters on the move. It was unclear what level of coordination was involved in that effort.

Mr. Trump said in a Twitter post on Sunday that federal officials were trying to help Portland, not hurt it. Mr. Trump, who has said states need to dominate protesters, said Portland officials had lost control.

They are missing in action, Mr. Trump wrote. We must protect Federal property, AND OUR PEOPLE.

Local leaders have grown increasingly vocal in opposition to the federal presence after one protester appeared to have been shot in the head with what was described as a less-lethal munition, severely injuring him in a bloody scene that was captured on video. Federal officers have operated from unmarked vans, at times seizing protesters and pulling them into the vehicles.

Joel B. Barker, who runs a marketing agency, said that he had frequently participated in protests during the day near the Justice Center, which includes the county jail, and that he usually left before 9 p.m. at the latest. He said that the protests drew a diverse crowd, reflecting a range of racial backgrounds, age and socioeconomic statuses, and that there was a sense of unity.

He lives about a mile away, and the demonstrations have not had any repercussions close to his home. The demonstrators, he said, were largely peaceful and not there to foment disorder.

Mr. Barker said he felt rage that the city was being used for what he believed was a ploy for the president in an election year.

Its really terrible, he added, and I want America to understand how terrible it is to feel like a city you love is being occupied by your own federal government, because thats how it feels.

Oregons attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, has filed a lawsuit seeking to halt some of the detainment tactics used by federal officers. Her office has also opened a criminal investigation into the case of the protester who sustained a head injury.

Lisa Reynolds, a pediatrician who is running as a Democrat for a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives, said she had tried to keep her distance from the protests, largely because of the coronavirus crisis. But on Sunday, she said, she was going to be fitted for a respirator so she would be safer at protests where tear gas is used.

I think my fear kept me away, she said. I think this is a step where I need to put myself out there a little more.

Sergio Olmos reported from Portland, Rick Rojas from Atlanta and Mike Baker from Seattle. John Ismay contributed reporting from Arlington, Va.

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From Antifa to Mothers in Helmets, Diverse Elements Fuel Portland Protests - The New York Times

Does anyone doubt that Portlands leaders have lost control of the riots?

Weeks ago, damage to public and private property totaled in the tens of millions.

Now, who knows?

Over the weekend, rioters set fire to the Portland Police union headquartersa punctuation point on their slogan: all cops are bastards

Rioters tell police they hope officers and their families die.

The most radical member of the Portland city council, Joanne Hardesty, has declared Mayor Wheeler doesnt know what hes doingthat Feckless Ted should hand over control to her. God Forbid.

President Trump warned city officials in Seattle and Portland, regain some semblance of control or I will do it for you.

Seattle managed to clear its Occupied Zone on Capitol Hill.

Now, officials all the way from New York City based Oregon Senator Ron Wyden to members of congress and city leaders have announced they dont want federal law enforcement, telling them to go home.

Last time I checked, Portlandia still sits inside the United States of Americawhich means federal law enforcement has a role in doing the job if Oregon Leaders refuse to.

Mayor Wheeler insists he has the riots under control. Bet the Captain of the Titanic said the same thing.

Wheeler and the rest apparently want the war zone to continue and the downtown community lacks the guts to stand up and demand it stop. Will the last business to leave please turn out the lights?

-Lars

The post Lars Thoughts Who Needs ANTIFA To Destroy Portland? Ted Wheeler Is Doing A Good Job All On His Own appeared first on The Lars Larson Show.

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Lars Thoughts Who Needs ANTIFA To Destroy Portland? Ted Wheeler Is Doing A Good Job All On His Own - 550 KTSA

I cant stop thinking about Manuel Ellis.

I keep wondering if it werent for the global uprising for racial justice in the wake of George Floyds killing by Minneapolis police, whether Ellis killing would have passed by mostly unnoticed as so many have before him with just the word of the police satisfying a not particularly curious public.

Its high time for the public and the media to interrogate police statements more aggressively.

Tacoma police killed Ellis on March 3, but it wasnt until early June that his case started to get attention. Initially, as is all too common, early stories reported just the Police Departments narrative. Police said Ellis harassed a driver, struck their police car and slam dunked an officer to the ground. They attributed his actions to excited delirium, a term used by police to justify deadly force but described as pseudoscience by critics.

It wasnt until mid-June that it was revealed that the Pierce County Sheriffs Office investigating the case supposedly to create investigatory independence was at the scene of the killing as well. Video began to emerge that showed officers pummeling Ellis as he gasped, I cant breathe, words now tragically familiar. The medical examiner ruled Ellis death a homicide from oxygen deprivation due to physical restraint.

Now under scrutiny by activists, the general public and the media, the governor directed the State Patrol to investigate the killing. The state attorney general is reviewing Ellis case, as well as 30 other police deadly force incidents.

If we have learned anything from the protest movement of the past two months, we should have at least learned what people of color and other marginalized people have said forever: You cant uncritically trust official accounts when it comes to policing and protests.

Efforts to contest and control the Seattle protest narrative began in late May. As my colleague Danny Westneat wrote in early June, the Seattle police chief and mayors efforts to paint property destruction from the first days of the protests as the work of mostly white, outside agitators was not supported by facts.

Later, in mid-June, during the height of the media frenzy around the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), an assistant Seattle police chief told the media that protesters were extorting local businesses within the CHOP for money. The claim was repeated by the police chief the next day and then reported by media around the world, including this paper.

The problem was, there turned out to be no police reports alleging extortion.

The source of the claim was a conservative blog citing unnamed police officers. The police walked back the claim, but the damage was done. The extortion claim became a key component in breathless reporting about lawlessness in CHOP by conservative media, resulting in President Trump calling out the governor and the mayor in a tweet to Take back your city NOW. If you dont do it, I will.

The extortion story was one of many police storylines widely reported but unsubstantiated during the weeks of CHOP occupying Capitol Hill. Others included the police chief saying that calls for [police] service have more than tripled, during CHOP, which may have been an accidental misstatement but was nonetheless picked up widely in conservative media. Reporting by The Seattle Times showed that calls near the East Precinct actually dropped 31% in the first two weeks of June.

Seattle police also said in a tweet that improvised explosives were thrown at officers, but their tweeted photo of the device showed a candle.

Misinformation is not new. But the speed, ferocity and impact of misinformation that permeates coverage of the protest movement in Seattle and beyond is remarkable. According to media intelligence firm Zignal Labs, of 873,000 pieces of George Floyd protest-related misinformation tracked, 575,800 were about antifa being responsible for riots and looting. This misinformation led to armed groups descending on cities and towns like Snohomish to protect them from antifa threats that never materialized.

The speed, ferocity and impact of misinformation that permeates coverage of the protest movement is remarkable

Joan Donovan is research director of the Harvard Kennedy Schools Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. She said the media need to do more to broaden their sources to include community members and not just rely on the official narratives.

I think its really important, Donovan said, not just to print the press release, but to try to substantiate any of the claims of politicians and police and police unions in times of high social unrest, because the struggle over the narrative is a proxy war. Its a proxy war between the protesters and the state.

The media have long been complicit in the police said convention in crime reporting, but that practice is getting an overdue revisiting and reckoning, including in this newsroom. Police should not be exempt from the skepticism and rigor we apply to other sources of information.As I remember being taught as a budding journalist long, long ago, If your mother says she loves you, check it out.

The shift cant come soon enough, as families like Manny Ellis have tried to get people to hear their calls for justice for years, and too few people have listened.

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The police have long been a reliable source for some. But its time to reexamine that trust - Seattle Times