George Floyd Wasn't a "Non- Angel".
He Was a Thug Who Robbed a Pregnant Woman at Gunpoint
In the tight race for the award of Most Embarassing Leftist Hack at the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin is in a close race with media columnist Margaret Sullivan, with Greg Sargent hoping to come in from behind. (Jamal Khashoggi doesn't qualify on account of not being a leftist, but an Islamist, and also not being among the living. Though Karren Attiah, his editor, still has a shot at the title.)
What Sullivan lacks in the way of Rubin's patented shotgun hysteria, she makes up for in her bizarre strawmen and counter-narratives.
Take, "How right-wing media keeps smearing George Floyd with the racist ‘no angel’ narrative".
George Floyd wasn't just a non-angel. He was a career criminal who robbed a pregnant woman at gunpoint, who was committing a crime at the time, and was so drugged up that the trial will largely depend on whether he died of being restrained by a police officer while having a fit or of a drug overdose.
Tough call.
Except to Sullivan.
But some in right-wing media keep doing their utmost to make this tragedy about Floyd’s drug use and troubled life, in what seems like an attempt to absolve Chauvin long before the jury reaches a verdict.
Chauvin's defense lawyer is doing that because Floyd's cause of death remains unclear. The medical examiner who performed Floyd's autopsy found that he died of a drug overdose. Remember when the media was still pretending to care about facts?
Anyway, dismissing Floyd's criminal career, which included robbing a pregnant woman at gunpoint, as being "troubled" is a hell of an understatement.
This is the “well, he was no angel” narrative, obliquely blaming the victim for his fate. It’s a narrative all too often applied to Black men who die at the hands of police.
And it's applied because it's both true and relevant.
Career criminals who confront police with knives or guns, or who violently resist arrest, are to blame for their 'fate' because they made certain choices.
It might remind you of the way that women who make accusations about sexual assault are so often portrayed as crazy or promiscuous (and just look at how short her skirt was!).
Except that wearing a short skirt isn't a crime. Committing crimes is a crime.
Sullivan and the Post reducing a thug who robbed a pregnant woman at gunpoint to a raped woman is disgusting and insulting.
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