The biker gang shootout this weekend in Waco, Texas that left nine people dead, 18 wounded, and 192 facing organized crime charges has sparked a lot of scrutiny over how police and media are treating this incident compared with how they approached the protests in Ferguson and Baltimore.
The relatively relaxed-looking police presence in Waco was a big topic of discussion. Photos taken by news organizations in the aftermath of the incident showed arrested bikers — who were mostly white — sitting without handcuffs and able to use their phones, while law enforcement officers looked casual and minimally attentive to the arrestees.
Some juxtaposed the scene in Waco with images from the recent demonstrations:
Jon Levine at Mic says this points to unfair treatment of minorities by law enforcement:
The blasé treatment of white suspects in Waco contrasts sharply with recent instances of police brutality toward minority suspects around the country, most recently in Baltimore...The photo adds weight to a growing chorus of activists who have charged that Gray was hardly unique and police departments around the country suffer from both institutionalized racism and a double standard when it comes to minority suspects.
Salon's Jenny Kunter points out that while some media outlets and law enforcement described the demonstrations in Baltimore and Ferguson as "riots" and painted the protesters as "thugs," a different vocabulary is being used to describe the Waco incident:
The rival gangs were not engaged in a demonstration or protest and they were predominantly white, which means that — despite the fact that dozens of people engaged in acts of obscene violence — they did not "riot," as far as much of the media is concerned. "Riots" are reserved for communities of color in protest, whether they organize violently or not, and the "thuggishness" of those involved is debatable. That doesn't seem to be the case in Texas.
Deray McKesson, the curator of the "We The Protesters" website directly compared coverage of Waco and the Baltimore protests.
On Twitter, people are using #WacoThugs to discuss what they see as a double standard.
We'll keep an eye out for more discussion along these lines. Drop us a link on Twitter at @NPRCodeSwitch if you come across anything we should check out.
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