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Political correctness obscures the history of a brave black frontiersman

As we were moving from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania to our small farm in the Bluegrass State, our 624 mile trip took us down Interstate 68 in Maryland. Along that most scenic of Interstate highways, the Old Line State maintains a few elevation signs near the tops of mountains, like Keyser’s Ridge at 2,880 feet, and Meadow Mountain, the elevation of which I do not remember. They were interesting, in passing, but not so interesting that I felt the need to research them.

Negro Mountain sign on I-68 in Maryland; the sign has been removed,

But there was one I did research, because of its seemingly unusual name: Negro Mountain. From The Baltimore Sun:

    The great divide: Negro Mountain in Maryland and Pennsylvania retains its name despite controversy

    October 3, 2020 | 3:01 AM EDT

    PITTSBURGH — An Allegheny Mountain ridge stretching some 30 miles from the Casselman River in southern Somerset County to Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland has been the focus of controversy as attempts continue to change a name dating to the French and Indian War.

    The name in question: Negro Mountain.

    The name has been used consistently at least since 1841, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Negro Ridge was cited in the Pennsylvania Senate Journal in 1842.

    “If a name is offensive to people — remove it,” said James Saku, a geography professor and coordinator of African American Studies at Frostburg State University in Maryland, located about 20 miles east of the site.

There’s more at the original, but I have to ask: why is the word that the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, used to refer to his race, offensive?

Why was the mountain so named? The most widely accepted, but still not proven, story is that a free black man believed to have been named Nemesis, or possibly Goliath, the “body servant” of Col. Thomas Cresap, was killed in 1756 in a fierce battle with Indians during the French and Indian War.

    Cresap, an English-born frontiersman and land speculator in Maryland and Pennsylvania, named the mountain in honor of Nemesis’ race, according to an account from the Western Maryland Historic Library, part of the Western Maryland Regional Library in Hagerstown.

    That account also was published in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette on June 17, 1756. Another account offers a different version, saying the man died while fighting with a Capt. Friend.

Lynn Bowman, an adjunct associate professor of English and speech at Allegany College of Maryland, has a darker version. She claimed that the west side of the mountain there was an area called [culturally inappropriate slang term derived from Negro] Hollow where black people were lynched, though that would seem to post-date the name of the mountain.

Well, who can know, but it wouldn’t have made much sense to name the mountain for Nemesis’ race if the second account is the true one.

But one thing is certain: I would never have heard of Nemesis, or Goliath if that was what he was called, had the mountain been named Nemesis Mountain; it would have held no interest to me. I also did not know that there were free black men on the frontier at the time; now, I do.

Alas Political correctness has struck!

    Negro Mountain signs ‘part of history’

    By Teresa McMinn | November 3, 2019

    CUMBERLAND — Kenneth Lloyd wants to buy the Negro Mountain signs, which disappeared from Garrett County roads earlier this year, and install them in his front yard.

    Negro Mountain occupies a 30-mile stretch of the Alleghenies from Deep Creek Lake north to the Casselman River in Pennsylvania.

    The ridge in Garrett County reaches 3,075 feet at its peak, and in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, marks the highest point in the state.

    The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration earlier this year removed four Negro Mountain signs — two from Interstate 68 and two from U.S. Alternate Route 40.

    “I’m highly upset,” Lloyd, a Philadelphia native who now lives in Grantsville, said of the missing signs.

    “That’s a part of the history of this country,” said Lloyd, who served in the U.S. Marines from 1979 to 1986 and now works as a truck driver. “Learn from it.”

    According to Lora Rakowski, acting director of the state highway agency’s office of communications, the removal of the signs cost $212 in staff time.

    “We know this issue involves an important piece of local history,” she said via email. “We also know that some people feel the signage was inappropriate.”

There is some dispute about the man’s name; it was not given in the contemporaneous stories. What is given is that he was a free black man, a frontiersman, who fought and died on that mountain. But his deeds, even if perhaps somewhat legendary, honor him, but, due to the political correctness of the #woke[1]From Wikipedia: Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from … Continue reading, fewer people will know of it.

And so the signs are gone. There will be no future travelers on I-68 in Garrett County, Maryland, who will see the odd sign, and decide to Google search for it, and what little remains of Nemesis’ memory will fade away.

References

References
↑1 From Wikipedia:

    Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from the African-American Vernacular English expression “stay woke“, whose grammatical aspect refers to a continuing awareness of these issues.
    By the late 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang term broadly associated with left-wing politics and cultural issues (with the terms woke culture and woke politics also being used). It has been the subject of memes and ironic usage. Its widespread use since 2014 is a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I shall confess to sometimes “ironic usage” of the term. To put it bluntly, I think that the ‘woke’ are just boneheadedly stupid.
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COVID Today: California’s Mandate, Saying No To Masks, SEIU Protests

California had already mandated that all state workers and those in health care field, even private businesses, either get the vaccine or be subjected to weekly/bi-weekly tests. Now

California first in nation to mandate vaccinations for health care workers

California today issued the first order in the nation that requires COVID-19 vaccinations for health care workers, allowing only for religious or rare medical exemptions.

Employees of hospitals, nursing homes, doctors’ offices, clinics and other medical facilities have until Sept. 30 to get at least one dose of the vaccination, under the new order issued by Dr. Tomás J. Aragón, California’s public health officer. In the meantime, they must either be vaccinated or undergo mandatory weekly testing, under the state’s previous order issued last week.

California also ordered visitors to hospitals, skilled nursing homes and facilities for the developmentally disabled to be fully vaccinated or show a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours. The order applies only to indoor visits and goes into effect on Wednesday.

The new requirement for medical workers tightens Gov. Gavin Newsom’s move last week to require health care workers and state employees to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

State health officials were not immediately available to explain why the requirements for health care workers won’t go into effect until the end of September.

That’s a good question: if this is so important, why the end of September, especially when this is just about one simple dose. How does that help? Unless it is the Johnson and Johnson, you need two doses. One dose of Pfizer or Moderna means nothing. If they get it on Sept 30th, they’ll have to wait weeks to get the 2nd, then 14 days before considered fully vaccinated. The difference here, to be clear, is that all healthcare workers must be vaccinated. No testing. Vaccinated. Reports say around 23% of healthcare employees are refusing to get vaccinated. I wonder why people who understand healthcare are resistant? I wonder what happens when lots of healthcare workers, in a system that is already shortstaffed, leave.

But, hey, SEIU is protesting

(SacBee) SEIU Local 1000 filed an unfair labor practice charge against CalHR this week with the Public Employment Relations Board, alleging that Newsom’s administration failed to meet and confer with the union prior to implementing the new rule.

“We’re still protesting the fact that they’re violating our contract,” said Richard Louis Brown, the president. “That’s what the State of California is doing, and that is what the State of California has done under the leadership of this governor.”

The unfair labor practice charge states that CalHR “dodged its legal obligations by unilaterally imposing a deadline.”

Well, that’s interesting. The State can impose all sorts of mandates on citizens, but, not SEIU members, unless they renegotiate the contract? Piss off. You’re government workers. Most of you voted for this. Suck it up.

Elko County rejects governor’s mask mandate

Elko County Commissioners voted Wednesday against complying with Gov. Steve Sisolak’s latest mask mandate and for blocking door-to-door vaccine solicitations, but their actions don’t cover the incorporated cities of Elko, Carlin, Wells and West Wendover.

On the mask mandate, Commissioner Rex Steninger said that the “county must refuse to comply this time. Our local businesses depend upon us refusing. Our emotional and physical well-being of our residents depends on us refusing.”

His motion directed county offices and agents to refuse to enforce the mandate, but he said that those who want to wear masks should feel comfortable doing so.

Could this be the start of a movement, similar to areas declaring themselves 2nd Amendment sanctuaries? Especially since the vast majority of masks do not work.

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A Doomsday COVID Variant May Be Possibly Coming Or Something

Gotta keep the Fear Porn going, you know. Have to provide reasons to keep the government control high

A Doomsday COVID Variant Worse Than Delta and Lambda May Be Coming, Scientists Say

Scientists keep underestimating the coronavirus. In the beginning of the pandemic, they said mutated versions of the virus wouldn’t be much of a problem—until the more-infectious Alpha caused a spike in cases last fall. Then Beta made young people sicker and Gamma reinfected those who’d already recovered from COVID-19. Still, by March, as the winter surge in the U.S. receded, some epidemiologists were cautiously optimistic that the rapid vaccine rollout would soon tame the variants and cause the pandemic to wind down. (snip)

Delta, like most of the other variants, blindsided us, worsening and extending the pandemic. When the damage from Delta starts to subside, what other variants will be lurking just behind it to pull us back down again? The World Health Organization is already keeping an eye on several: Eta, which is now in several countries; Kappa, which arose in India; Iota, which first popped up in New York City—and especially Lambda, which has torn through Peru and shows signs of having unusual success in infecting fully vaccinated people, according to one early study. It has already spread to Argentina, Chile, Ecuador as well as Texas and South Carolina.

It’s too soon to say whether Lambda will turn out to be the next big, bad thing that COVID-19 unleashes on us. But it’s a good time to wonder: Just how destructive can these variants get? Will future variants expand their attack from the lungs to the brain, the heart and other organs? Will they take a page from HIV and trick people into thinking they’ve recovered, only to make them sick later? Is there a Doomsday variant out there that shrugs off vaccines, spreads like wildfire and leaves more of its victims much sicker than anything we’ve yet seen?

And wondering allows government to implement all sorts of draconian restrictions and controls on citizens. Oh, hey, perhaps we should be looking hard at the work done at the Wuhan institute, which was provided lots of support, and cover, by Fauci. Does a normal virus act like this, creating so many variants so quickly?

If we do not all get vaccinated, the next Covid-19 variant is just around the corner, expert says

Efforts to get more Americans vaccinated against Covid-19 are growing more urgent as an expert warns that if vaccination rates don’t increase, the dangerous Delta variant could continue to evolve.

“The next variant is just around the corner, if we do not all get vaccinated,” Adm. Brett Giroir, the former coronavirus testing czar under Pres. Trump, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

Fear Porn Theater. Speaking of theater

Here in North Carolina

Cooper: NC focused on vaccinations, not new pandemic-related mandates

Gov. Roy Cooper dismissed questions Wednesday about the possibility of a new state mask mandate or business shutdowns amid a surge in coronavirus cases statewide.

Cooper probably realizes that there a lot of people who will no longer abide by restrictions, and, just as important, instituting all sorts of mandates and restrictions will harm the push to get North Carolinians vaccinated.

Meanwhile, 19% of small business say they will require the vaccine. I’d expect that number to grow. The Pentagon is going to mandate that all service personnel be vaccinated. How many will refuse and leave the military? How many will refuse to sign up? Los Angeles is considering a mandate requiring all people to be vaccinated for indoors activity. 19 Democrats are demanding the Capitol physician to mandate vaccination for Congress. And more and more and more.

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Politico: Biden’s Border Plan A Has Gone Bust, What’s Plan B?

So, what was plan A, total anarchy at the border? Mostly refusing to enforce duly passed federal immigration law? Handcuffing Customs and Border Protection, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and all other law enforcement attempting to stop illegals? Allowing illegals/migrants into the U.S. without any sort of medical tests, such as for COVID? And lots of other transmittable diseases? And then demanding that they all be given free citizenship so they become Democratic Party voters?

Biden’s vision for the border has gone bust. But what’s Plan B?

President Joe Biden in March wrote off a spike in the number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as a result, at least in part, of winter months being the safest time to make the trek. “It happens every single, solitary year,” he said.

Six months into his term, Biden and his team are being proved wrong.

The number of migrants apprehended at the border isn’t going down this summer, even as the heat makes the journey to the U.S. more dangerous. Instead, it has reached a 21-year high — and there’s a record number of unaccompanied children arriving, too.

China Joe and his Comrades are enabling parents sending their children on long, dangerous treks through Central America, to be preyed upon by all sorts of bad people.

As the administration, local officials, border agents and nonprofit leaders grapple with the day-to-day logistical challenges of apprehending and processing or expelling thousands of migrants, U.S. officials and immigration experts say they have theories but no concrete explanations for why the increase is happening now. Many see it as a confluence of destabilizing conditions, some new, some long-standing: a still-raging pandemic, worsening economic crisis and devastation from past natural disasters.

It’s very simple: if you refuse to do anything to stop it, it will grow. If your child keeps throwing tomatoes at the neighbors house and you do nothing to stop it, nothing to discourage it, they’re going to continue doing it. If someone is throwing firebombs at federal buildings and you don’t bother keeping them in jail nor prosecuting, they’re going to do it even more. If these “experts” can’t figure out why immigration has spiked, they should be fired. You know what’s going on, no need for me to spend more time writing the words you already know.

But tackling those root causes of migration is a long-term effort that can take years. And in the interim, Biden and his aides have been left with a tricky balancing act: remaining committed to building an immigration system that the president promised to be fair and humane, while also talking tough and looking at stronger enforcement tools to deter migrants.

Again, you know what the root causes are, including Democrats enabling this behavior. Is the immigration system thing supposed to be Plan A?

In recent weeks, Republicans have pointed to those numbers in stepping up their attacks against the president, branding the situation as the “Biden border crisis” in emails, ads and statements. On Wednesday, the Republican National Committee blasted out an email declaring that the latest estimated July apprehension figures “show Biden’s border crisis is raging completely out of control.”

Republicans pounce!

Fifty-two percent of registered voters, including Republicans, independents and even some Democrats, disapproved of the job Biden is doing on immigration, according to a new Morning Consult/POLITICO poll released Wednesday. Only 37 percent approved.

You actually have to attempt to do the job, don’t you, to be rated?

Johnson, like many Republicans, contends that Biden caused the situation at the border because of his rollback of certain Trump-era policies at the start of his presidency. Supporters of the president counter that in recent months, Biden has not made any major substantive policy changes that would explain the new uptick in arrivals. Those same supporters, nevertheless, say they’re frustrated, not necessarily with the administration’s policies but with their messaging.

China Joe doesn’t need to make any changes, all the previous ones have added up. As for messaging, well, what’s he supposed to say? The border is being overrun and he’s just letting them go, not even requiring them to get COVID tests?

The White House declined to provide comment on the increases in migrants or to allow an interview with a policy expert to talk about the border. The Department of Homeland Security pointed to documents from the White House and State Department outlining Biden’s immigration strategy. In March, Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to tackle the root causes of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. She has traveled to Guatemala and Mexico and visited the border town of El Paso, Texas, since then. Her office declined to comment for this story.

She hasn’t done squat, and Dementia Joe is directly responsible as the Chief Executive.

Last week, the Biden administration released a 21-point plan outlining how it will fairly and efficiently consider asylum claims, while ensuring a secure, well-managed border. In the framework, the White House acknowledged that its promised fair and humane immigration system “won’t be achieved overnight, especially after the prior Administration’s irrational and inhumane policies, but this Administration has a blueprint to get there and is making real progress.”

Real progress is stopping all work on a border wall? Real progress is catching the illegals and just letting them go with barely a promise to show up to court? Allowing migrants who show up at the border demanding to be let in to the U.S. in, with barely a promise to show up to court? Basically saying there are no consequences?

Politico thinks this isn’t working. It’s working exactly as Joe and the Dems planned: all an attempt to flood the U.S. with illegals and migrants, all in an attempt to force through an amnesty.

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China Joe’s CDC Announces Renter Eviction Ban Extension

This is a case tailor made for the Supreme Court to pick up quickly. Get the CDC lawyers in front of them within a week to explain their legal and Constitutional rational. Because the CDC, with certain approval from Dementia Joe, wants to do this through October 3rd

Biden administration, CDC announce new, targeted eviction ban for many renters

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a new ban on evictions for many renters just days after the White House allowed a nationwide moratorium to expire on Saturday, infuriating progressive House Democrats who warned that millions of Americans could lose their homes.

As President Biden hinted at during his Tuesday afternoon news conference, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a new eviction moratorium aimed at protecting tenants in counties with “substantial and high levels of community transmission” of COVID-19. Over 90% of the U.S. population lives in the affected areas, sources told The Associated Press.

The two-month moratorium expires Oct. 3.

“The emergence of the delta variant has led to a rapid acceleration of community transmission in the United States, putting more Americans at increased risk, especially if they are unvaccinated,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. “This moratorium is the right thing to do to keep people in their homes and out of congregate settings where COVID-19 spreads. It is imperative that public health authorities act quickly to mitigate such an increase of evictions, which could increase the likelihood of new spikes in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Such mass evictions and the attendant public health consequences would be very difficult to reverse.”

Most people who want to work are back to work. They can pay their rent. Besides, as noted so many times, who pays the “rent” on the buildings? The bank has to be paid. Are the renters paying their cable, water, electricity, and sewer? How about their cell phone? They can find ways to cut that stuff and pay their rent. They’re going to have to pay it at some point in many cases.

Consideration of another pause came after immense pressure from progressive lawmakers for Biden to act quickly and extend the moratorium after the White House punted the issue to Congress last week, arguing their hands were tied by a recent Supreme Court ruling that implied most justices believed the CDC had exceeded its authority with the ban.

On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden had asked the CDC on Sunday to consider extending the moratorium for 30 days, but said the agency had “been unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium. Our team is redoubling efforts to identify all available legal authorities to provide necessary protections.”

So, they said no legal authority, and they went and did it anyhow?

House Democrats and the White House both shifted their attention over the weekend to expediting the distribution of $46 billion in rental assistance that Congress approved in December and March. Treasury data show that just $3 billion, or roughly 6.6% of the money, was doled out during the first half of the year.

If they’re passing out the funds, then it is fine. Why weren’t they?

The CDC can create laws now? Who knew!

And there’s the Progressive position in a nutshell: who the hell is going to do anything about Government drastically exceeding it’s lawful and Constitutional authority.

One surprising thing is that many landlords didn’t simply just not renew leases. That’s not eviction. And you may very see that start happening in the next few months, especially if Dems try and extend the moratorium past October.

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Surprise: US Citizens Are Skeptical Of Government Health Advice

In other words, citizens have had enough of government dictating their lives, and even the NY Times has noticed

Americans Suffer Pandemic Whiplash as Leaders Struggle With Changing Virus

A week of public health reversals from the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has left Americans with pandemic whiplash, sowing confusion about coronavirus vaccines and mask-wearing as the Delta variant upends what people thought they knew about how to stay safe.

Vaccines remain effective and highly protective against hospitalization and death, even among those infected with the extremely contagious Delta variant. Mask-wearing prevents transmission of the virus to those most at risk.

But the crisis President Biden once thought he had under control is changing shape faster than the country can adapt. An evolving virus, new scientific discoveries, deep ideological divides and 18 months of ever-changing pandemic messaging have left Americans skeptical of public health advice. So although the White House had promised a “summer of joy,” the nation is instead caught in a summer of confusion.

“While we desperately want to be done with this pandemic, Covid-19 is clearly not done with us, and so our battle must last a little longer,” Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the C.D.C., told reporters on Monday. “This is hard. This is heavy. But we are in this together.”

We are? If so, why are the big shots so contradictory on their actions? Why do they tell us masks work (the don’t. China Joe’s top COVID advisor said the don’t, Fauci said the don’t, and the numbers say they don’t)

Another administration official said Mr. Biden would address the nation later this week — the second time in less than a week — to reiterate and clarify his main takeaway points: The vaccines are safe and effective. The reason even vaccinated people have to mask up again is that so many people are unvaccinated. So go get your shots and tell your friends and neighbors to do the same.

He should just let people read the message off the teleprompter, because he’ll sound like his typical dementia self.

But Dr. del Rio said the C.D.C. made a misstep in May when it told vaccinated Americans they did not need to wear masks — not because the science behind the recommendation was wrong, but because the move led everyone to doff their masks and prompted states, localities and retail businesses to abandon their mask requirements, which enabled the Delta variant to flourish.

Wait, the science says that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks? This is all Pandemic Theater? You know what would help? Tell people to social distance, wash their hands, don’t touch their face. And distance. And don’t touch each other. Masks make people think they can get close. Thin pieces of cloth that do virtually nothing.

Biden mask flip-flop could flush vaccine progress ‘down the drain,’ officials fear

The Biden administration’s rollout of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control’s latest mask guidance split senior officials into rival camps: those who encourage new action as the situation changes versus those worried about undermining the vaccines.

Multiple Biden administration officials expressed frustration to the Washington Examiner about media coverage the new guidance received, arguing it “exacerbated” the political debate about health policy.

Two officials noted the administration remains concerned about the rise of the delta variant and breakthrough infections but added those same studies prove the “vaccines work.”

It’s a mess. Their messaging is a pure mess. And, in fairness, a lot more people got vaccinated, but, that seems to be a lot of people who are doing it to not lose their jobs.

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Bummer: Woke US Women’s Soccer Protest Team Loses

I really don’t feel bad having rooted against Megan Rapinoe and the rest of her America hating comrades: they don’t like the U.S., so, they don’t deserve support

USWNT’s dreams of Olympic gold dashed in listless 1-0 semifinal loss to Canada

The U.S. women’s national team crashed out of its chase for Olympic gold with a dud of a 1-0 loss to Canada here on Monday, a fitting end to a pursuit in which the most dominant soccer team in the world never hit top gear.

Officially, the Americans will play for bronze on Friday because of a 75th-minute penalty, conceded by Tierna Davidson for a foul on Deanne Rose, awarded after a video review. Canada’s Jessie Fleming converted it. Backup U.S. goalkeeper Adrianna Franch just barely couldn’t save it.

But really, the Americans fell short of the final because they were poor, throughout the Games and here on a sleepy, sticky-hot evening at the Ibaraki Kashima Stadium. They had no rhythm. No composure. No verve.

Instead, there were errant passes. Sloppy touches. Fatigue. Frustration. And a first loss to Canada since 2001.

“Sucks,” Megan Rapinoe said, in response to a question about what was going through her head at final whistle. “Really sh—y.”

Yeah, well, maybe they should have spent more time practicing and getting their heads right rather than worrying about what kinds of things they were going to do show their hatred of the U.S.

Also

Totally looks like a woman, right?

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Libertarian Republican Thomas Massie drives a Tesla!

This tweet caught my eye:

When Representative Massie (R-KY 4th District) was asked about the time it took, he replied:

Mr Massie is, of course, a free citizen, and I absolutely support his right to choose which vehicle he wishes to drive. But that map shows just what it’s like, because once you get away from the northeast corridor, your stops better be well-planned, or you’re going to run out of sparktricity along the way. If I’m reading that map correctly, and Mr Massie is taking Interstate 64, there are charging stations in Charleston, West Virginia, Huntington, WV, and then the next one is in Lexington. May the Lord help the Distinguished Gentleman from Kentucky if one of his well planned stops is at a Tesla TSLA: (%) station that is out-of-service for some reason.

Charleston and Huntington are not that far apart, roughly an hour along I-64. Mr Massie’s home in Lewis County isn’t that far from Huntington.

But what Mr Massie has told us, that so many don’t want to acknowledge, is that to make the roughly 475 mile trip, which would take 7 hours in a gasoline powered car, takes two hours longer in his Tesla due to the length of time it takes to recharge the infernal thing.  He is obviously willing to take that extra time — at least, is willing to avoid the idiotic mask mandate aboard commercial airliners  — but people considering electric vehicles need to be aware of this. And the people pushing these vehicles on other people should not only be aware of this, but willing to tell the truth about it.

The truth is in short supply among the left.

 

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Is the Lexington Herald-Leader guilty of sheltering a criminal suspect?

As we have previously noted, the Lexington Herald-Leader is bound by the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, which states that McClatchy publications will not print photos of criminal suspects, unless certain conditions are met. One of the exceptions editors are supposed to consider — and all exceptions to the policy must be approved by an editor — is “Is there an urgent threat to the community?”

On Wednesday, July 28th, Lexington police officers, working with United States Marshals, attempted to arrest Mr Dockery at a home in the 1600 block of Thirlstane Court. The suspect allegedly shot at police, and at least one officer returned fire and wounded Mr Dockery. The Herald-Leader was all kinds of upset that the LPD would not release the names of either the suspect or the officer who shot him.

    Officials haven’t identified the Lexington police officer who fired his gun, nor have they identified the suspect who was shot. He was served with a murder warrant after being taken to a Lexington hospital, according to Lexington police. Police hadn’t yet confirmed who shot the man. It was unclear if U.S. Marshals also fired at him.

    Kentucky State Police are investigating the shooting and Lexington police told the Herald-Leader the release of any additional information would have to be approved by the state agency. Lexington police declined to answer several questions about the shooting during a press conference Wednesday after providing a news release.

The Kentucky State Police, rather than the Lexington Police Department, investigates all officer involved shootings. It would normally be considered a good thing that an agency not involved in the incident would do the investigations.

Well, for the Herald-Leader, which is reluctant to print the mugshots of even “armed and dangerous” criminals, not knowing which officer shot the suspect was just too, too much, so the newspaper kept investigating. At least so far, the officer has not been publicly identified.

    Documents divulge name of man injured in shooting involving Lexington police officer

    By Karla Ward | July 30, 2021 | 9:45 PM EDT

    Court documents provide a description of what police say led up to a shooting in which law enforcement officers injured a homicide suspect at a Lexington home Wednesday.

    The man who was shot is identified as Brandon Dockery, according to documents filed in Fayette District Court in a related case.

    Police said in the court documents that when they went to a home on the 1600 block of Thirlstane Court and made contact with Dockery at the front door, he kept “his hand in his pocket as if he had a weapon” and “continued to ignore officer’s commands.”

    Dockery can be heard saying “I don’t want to die,” on body camera footage, police said in the documents.

The article continues to note that the police initially used a stun gun to subdue Mr Dockery, and an exchange of gunfire followed when the taser apparently failed to incapacitate the suspect. A jammed handgun was found in Mr Dockery’s possession, which has investigators believing that the suspect shot at the arresting officers until it jammed on him.

While the Herald-Leader does not print mugshots of criminal suspects, The First Street Journal does, if we can obtain them. The mugshot of Mr Dockery is not from any Herald-Leader article, but from the Lexington Police Department’s homicide investigations page. I obtained this photo at the time of June 25th story, when Mr Dockery was still on the loose.

So, how did Karla Ward, the newspaper reporter, find out the name of the suspect shot, a name officials had declined to release prior to the completion of the investigation?

    Courtney Jade Brown. Screen capture from WKYT-TV.

    The information was included in a criminal complaint charging Courtney Jade Brown, 26, with first-degree hindering prosecution/apprehension in connection with Dockery’s apprehension. . . .

    The complaint against Brown states that officers and federal agents were doing surveillance at Brown’s residence on Thirlstane Court after learning that Dockery had been in contact with Brown recently and had been “staying there regularly since June.”

    When they saw Brown leave Wednesday morning, Lexington police immediately stopped her at the Speedway at New Circle and Meadow Lane.

    During an interview with a detective from the U.S. Marshal’s Service at the gas station, Brown said she didn’t know where Dockery was and lied when asked if he was at her home, the complaint states.

After interviewing Miss Brown, the LPD and US Marshalls went straight to her home, where Mr Dockery was found. Miss Brown was arrested, charged and released on Thursday.

Of course, the Herald-Leader did not choose to print Miss Brown’s photo either, even though my source for it, WKYT-TV is the newspaper’s ‘news partner,’ and the WKYT story was published at 4:38 PM EDT, three hours and 7 minutes prior to the Herald-Leader’s story. The Herald-Leader certainly had access to the photo.

Obvious question: if Miss Brown is guilty of sheltering Mr Dockery from the police, is the Herald-Leader guilty of the same thing? The residence in question is on a single family homes street, and if the Herald-Leader had published Mr Dockery’s mugshot, perhaps one of the neighbors might have seen it, recognized him, and reported it to the police. The police clearly suspected that Mr Dockery was at Miss Brown’s residence, as they were keeping the place under surveillance, but must not have had enough evidence he was there to execute a warrant there. Had a neighbor spotted the suspect, and reported it to the police, perhaps the warrant could have been executed weeks earlier.

Yes, I know: that would be a difficult case to make. But the McClatchy Mugshot Policy is clearly not helping law enforcement, or serving what so many media outlets have termed the “public’s right to know.” The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists states:

  • Responsibility: The public’s right to know of events of public importance and interest is the overriding mission of the mass media. The purpose of distributing news and enlightened opinion is to serve the general welfare.
  • Freedom of the Press: Freedom of the press is to be guarded as an inalienable right of people in a free society. It carries with it the freedom and the responsibility to discuss, question, and challenge actions and utterances of our government and of our public and private institutions. Journalists uphold the right to speak unpopular opinions and the privilege to agree with the majority.
  • Ethics: Journalists must be free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know the truth. . . . . Journalists will seek news that serves the public interest, despite the obstacles. They will make constant efforts to assure that the public’s business is conducted in public and that public records are open to public inspection.

Can someone tell me how the McClatchy Mugshot Policy and the Lexington Herald-Leader’s adherence to it, even in the case of armed and dangerous suspects, serves the public’s right to know or the general welfare? How does it serve the public’s interest, despite the obstacles? Mr Dockery has been criminally charged with murder, the most serious crime there is, yet the Herald-Leader chose to withhold from the public information which could have led to his apprehension as much as a month earlier.

Perhaps the McClatchy newspapers have chosen instead to adhere to the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journolists.[1]The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term … Continue reading

It’s simple: in their efforts not to “disproportionately harm people of color,”[2]Quote is actually from the Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, and the first (as far as I know) to implement the no mugshot policy. the Herald-Leader is sacrificing the public’s right to know.

References

References
↑1 The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term ‘journolism’ frequently when writing about media bias.
↑2 Quote is actually from the Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, and the first (as far as I know) to implement the no mugshot policy.