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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   32544 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023

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This is slightly off topic but the picture at the top of that article caught my eye. I count 7 people holding signs in two rows. The photo looks like it was taken from a couple of feet in front of the first row, so these 7 people fill pretty much the entire frame. There's one other man in the background but he's some distance away from the protestors and not holding a sign so I assume he's a bystander and not taking part. If you scroll past it quickly it's easy to assume it's of a sizeable protest and not just a handful of people. The author doesn't state a figure for the size of the protest anywhere in the article.

Later, the article says:

That decision has prompted protests at subway stations and on New York City streets against officers, prosecutors and the mayor, Eric Adams, with demonstrators calling Neely’s death vigilantism by a white man against a Black subway passenger and talented dancer who was experiencing homelessness as well as mental health struggles after his mother’s murder when he was a teenager.

Which again, makes it sound like a serious movement. I think if there were actually widespread protests by more than a handful of people then it would have been simple to take a picture of them, from a distance and angle that shows their approximate size.

I think the Guardian is intentionally trying to mislead people into thinking these protests are larger than they are by photographing them in a misleading way.

The local (1010 WINS all-news station) radio news claimed about 15 protestors outside Bragg's office on Thursday. Not only is this not a popular movement (none really are, I suspect), but they can't even get the astroturf to grow. You've heard the one about a conservative being a liberal who has been mugged? In this case, it's "a liberal who rides the subway".

What are the odds of Bragg ignoring the silent yet blatantly obvious majority?

My guess is he takes it to a grand jury so he can avoid responsibility, but whether he pushes for a true bill or angles for a no-bill I don't know.

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