The video, which has received almost half a million views on YouTube and more than 5500 comments on Reddit, juxtaposes a CNN news broadcast claiming the sister of police shooting victim Sylville K. Smith was “calling for peace”, when in fact she called for rioters to “burn down the suburbs”.
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Smith’s death sparked three nights of chaos as protesters marched near Sherman Park as police faced off with demonstrators amid sporadic gunfire and firefighters a spate of house and vehicle fires. “Ya’ll burning down s*** we need in our community”.
The police shooting of Sylville Smith sparked acts of violence as buildings and cars were burned and businesses were looted, protesters chanting “black lives matter” in the Wisconsin city. We need our sh*t! “I don’t wear it, but we need it”. But we need it. They conveniently left out the rest of her message, calling for protesters to burn down the suburbs.
Without images from the officer’s camera, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett wouldn’t be able to tell his community, as he did Sunday, that “without question” Smith had a gun in his hand.
Cabrera tweeted a correction on Tuesday, acknowledging the quote had been “shorthanded”.
Both on their website and televised on CNN Newsroom Monday, CNN described Sherelle Smith as “calling for peace”.
CNN anchor Carol Costello apologized on Wednesday for allowing a deceptive report about the violence in Milwaukee to air that characterized rioters as peaceful instead of violent. Smith’s grandfather says he had a lengthy criminal past, but was just trying to survive in the inner city. We had a report that inadvertently and wrongly characterized the plea from a Milwaukee woman whose brother was killed by police. On the side, Heaggan-Brown also had a music career performing as “KB Domo”.
“There are so many discussions going on, on social media, especially on Facebook”, Gabler said, adding many of these posts are urging people to stop the threats.
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She said: “If my brother did have his gun in his hand, why he didn’t shoot back?”
