A Bowman’s BOLO: Two Black African Americans

It’s easy to lose track of an individual thread in the tangled web of online news but sometimes it’s surprising what leaves ripples when the people in glass houses get to casting stones.

Remember that one white man in Salt Lake City, Utah – the one who got his ass whooped for yelling “all lives matter”?

He was brandishing a knife and aiming his bow and arrow at peaceful protesters on May 30, 2020; he then proceeded to do a live interview. Kind of a lot happened since then.

It turned out his name is Brandon McCormick and he has been arrested on multiple felony charges as a result of the aforementioned incidents. It also turned out that he has a criminal past and has previously spent time in prison.

His arrest was all over the news, much like the original incidents, so I thought I’d maybe have a peek into the way all this has been reported. Seems pretty straightforward but maybe I heard the phrase “trust but verify” one too many times growing up, who can say?

We’ll begin with the local news. Here is the report from The Salt Lake Tribune:

In a posted video, McCormick, responded to a stranger who asked him if he calls himself an American with: “Yes, I’m American. All lives matter.”

I’m going to go ahead and assume that if you’re reading this I don’t need to explain to you why that second part blows all the dogwhistles. Unlike some people I could mention I know how to STFU when the truth speaks for itself.

Later, McCormick found himself giving an interview with FOX 13. In it, he said he was there to protect police with the weapons he had and described how he was targeted for saying “all lives matter” and beaten through his open window.

This is what Desert News ran with:

How many people check the Desert News, though?

In an interview with Fox 13 on Monday, McCormick said he’s felt insulted by the people who’ve accused him of being a white supremacist in wake of the incident, and that he’s not one. He told Fox 13 he wasn’t intending to be derogatory when he said all lives matter and that he regrets his action as it “painted a negative picture for what people are trying to do.”

Surely we can count on the mainstream media to report on McCormick’s intent with some attention to context and perhaps a modicum of nuance – considering its broader scope and bigger audience, right?

Let’s check out CBS:

Immediately after the incident, McCormick participated in an interview with Fox affiliate KSTU. He appeared to have a black eye and a cut along his forehead. He told the Fox reporter that “he got beat up” when he yelled ‘all lives matter,’ and then again after he pulled out his weapons. 

“I back up the law enforcement. I know some cops are bad. I know all racists are bad,” he said. “I have been marching with these people all the way down here, and all the way down here trying to convince them all lives matter.”

He said in the interview that he pulled out his bow and arrow after he was beat up through his car window, but various other videos do not appear to show such an incident happening. He does not appear to be visibly injured prior to aiming his bow at protesters. 

CBS even played the video of FOX 13’s reporting that included some of the original interview:

Fair enough. How about NBC affiliate WILX:

In an interview McCormick gave Monday to the Fox 13 TV station, he said his actions were not driven by racism.

“It has nothing to do with racism,” McCormick told Fox 13. “I just feel that all lives matter. That’s why I was chanting that the whole time.”

So based on his interviews, the trajectory of the reporting is basically that McCormick’s intentions were not based in racism – as per his own words in said interviews. Which clearly begs the question of what they are suggesting the intention or motive was behind a non-racist brandishing a knife and aiming his bow and arrow at people while shouting, “all lives matter”?

OF COURSE! He’s just one of those bad apple criminals:

McCormick has been sentenced to prison seven times, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The first was in 1989, when he was convicted of first-degree burglary in San Bernardino County and was sentenced to six years. He was paroled in April 1992 but returned to prison twice later that year for parole violations.

The next 22 years brought a cycle of bouncing in and out of California prisons on parole and parole violations along with a mix of new convictions.

According to the corrections department, McCormick was convicted of attempted burglary in 1993, possession of a controlled substance in 1996 and 2000, burglary again in 2004, and theft in 2008 and 2014. All the convictions were in San Bernardino County.

McCormick was last in a California prison in 2014. In all, he served 18½ years in penitentiaries.

Thursday’s charging documents say McCormick was also convicted in San Bernardino County of a felony count of battery on a police officer or firefighter.

The Salt Lake Tribune

Let the record show and all that but it adds up to a picture that doesn’t seem like a very good person. It almost has me wondering what kind of person would be this way?

Let’s get back to that Desert News article (emphasis mine):

No one was injured by McCormick. But the angry crowd swarmed and attacked McCormick after he pointed the bow and arrow at them.

Funny way of saying, “peaceful protesters who had a fucking bow and arrow aimed at them” if you ask me, but that may be beside the point here:

Prosecutors say this isn’t the first time McCormick’s temperament has gotten him in trouble with the law.

He was charged with assault in Taylorsville Justice Court on May 7 in a suspected road rage incident, according to police. In that case, McCormick was angry that another vehicle pulling a trailer near 6200 South and 4000 West was allegedly driving too slow, said Unified Police Sgt. Melody Gray. He claimed he was then cut off, which somehow resulted in a fistfight between the two drivers, she said. McCormick left the scene before police arrived but was found at his home a short time later and cited.

McCormick was previously convicted of battery on a peace officer/fireman in San Bernardino, California, according to the charges, as well as possessing/manufacturing/selling a dangerous weapon.

I’m really buying the big scary criminal bit. He must really be one bad apple!

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that McCormick has a criminal record, including charges related to a road rage incident in May. The 57-year-old spent nearly two decades in jail in California, and has been convicted of battery against a public safety officer, the Tribune reported. 

CBS piles on the bandwagon

McCormick has a brief criminal history that spans across California and Utah. He was convicted in San Bernardino, California, on felony charges of battery on a peace officer or fireman and the possession, manufacturing or selling of a dangerous weapon.

He was charged with assault in Taylorsville on May 7 in a suspected road rage incident, Unified Police Sgt. Melody Gray said. McCormick was reportedly angry that another car pulling a trailer was driving too slow, resulting in a fistfight.

WILX flying that flag

Ok already! I get it. McCormick is just a violent criminal who is not racist and violent criminals do violent things.

NOTED

Let’s now watch the original interview that for some reason (MENTIONED ABOVE EXACTLY ZERO TIMES) requires two layers of personal verification and warnings just to watch on Youtube:

This, my friends, is specifically the type of shit the peaceful protesters are peacefully protesting. It’s SYSTEMIC.

You can make an argument that in the immediate aftermath of such a thing not furthering a specious narrative might be considered responsible. To continue to provide anything claiming to be coverage of the story whilst choosing to overlook that particular aspect is not in my view remotely covered by that provision let alone anything invoking the term responsible.

Were we to try to find these two black African Americans, and I mean REALLY put forth a concerted effort to find them, they just might point us in the right direction of finding the rest of these “bad apples.”

Or, just hear me out on this – maybe it shouldn’t take quotes from a trial transcript to bring up these little contextual footnotes?

Judge advances murder trial for all three white men charged in death of Ahmaud Arbery

One defendant said the shooter used a racial slur after Arbery was fatally shot, according to an investigator.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/04/fellow-shooter-called-georgia-jogger-f-ing-n-he-lay-dying-road-agent-testified/