27 July 2013

Fourth estate remains shellshocked, wary...

...as national broadcaster capriciously alters longstanding policy of linking Toronto homicides to Mayor's alleged drug use...
that's not a knifeLeft-o-spheric editorial spin reverts back to pointing fingers at "police death squads."

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UPDATE: Looks like the CBC...

...and their crack reporters may have overlooked a few details...
"The couple told her the man seemed 'quite normal,' until he pulled out a knife and exposed himself."
C'mon, everybody knows you don't escalate the situation until someone starts cutting bits off people and eating them.

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UPDATE2: Dead man on streetcar id'd
Media reports and friends on social media have identified the slain man as Sammy Yatim, 18. Yatim was originally from Syria according to his Facebook page.
The media, as per usual, is doing it's best to vilify the police officers involved.
His uncle told the Toronto Sun that he had no history of mental illness.
Now, according to an eyewitness, Mr Yatim had a knife in one hand and his junk flappin' in the breeze (see update above)... which, call me wacky, suggests something on the darker side of behavioural norms.

The media seems to be all too willing to amp up, a la Trayvon Martin, the "poor, defenseless child" angle here.

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UPDATE3: Over at the "Red" Star...

...the story achieves hyperbolic escape velocity...
“Since when did it become a crime to be a teenager, I ask you?”
Okay, who is saying it's a crime to be a teenager? It's certainly not the police.

It is however, a serious crime to brandish a knife in public.
“And since when does a scrawny 110-pound-something teenager become a threat to a dozen or so brawny policemen.
Well, my friend... that'd be when said teenager pulls out a knife, and additionally, refuses to put it down when confronted by police... which takes a little of the steam outta the second coming of Beaver Cleaver subtext which runs through this piece.

Oh yeah, the Star also shrinks the weapon to half its previously reported size.
Witnesses said Yatim brandished a three-inch knife and ordered everyone off the car.
The Globe & Mail gets in on the "incredible shrinking knife" party by quoting law enforcement expert, er... family friend Joseph Nazar...
“They are bullet-proofed. How a two-inch knife can harm anyone?
I just have to ask the journalists involved in this stuff... you really think the cops involved here went back to station and drank celebratory beers in the parking lot? Why on earth would you default to shitting on the coppers?

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LAST WORD: Suicide by cop?
You’re a fucking pussy.” These are believed to be the final words of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim.
Not so Beaver Cleaver now, huh?