Amsterdam News Staff
With the senseless murders of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu dominating the headlines, many in mainstream media have forgotten about Ismaaiyl Brinsley’s first victim: Shaneka Thompson.
Thompson, a Black woman, was shot in the stomach by Brinsley before he headed to the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and killed the two officers. As of press time, Thompson was still in critical condition at the University of Maryland Medical Center. It has been reported that Thompson pleaded with a neighbor after being shot, saying, “I can’t die like this. Please, please help me.”
While daily papers and cable news channels have referred to her as an “ex-girlfriend” or a “woman” in Baltimore, Thompson is also a person who wears a uniform and serves the people, as a member of the United States Air Force Reserve.
Thompson being erased from the wider story as the media focus on the “revenge against cops” narrative is a perfect demonstration of why protesters have led a “Black Lives Matter” movement in addition to the anti–police brutality and anti-discrimination grievances. The exclusion of Thompson instead of putting her story and that of the two NYPD officers into one narrative lends—in protesters’ eyes—even more credence to their rallying cry.
One of the many issues with mainstream media (and media in general) is the desire for stories to fit neatly into a narrative. A young, Black, male, career criminal, who’s an “offshoot” of the protesters and is hell bent on killing cops as revenge for Michael Brown and Eric Garner seemed too good to pass up for many print, television and online outlets. The two men who were slain in cold blood have been rightfully honored, not only by the police but also by all New Yorkers and Americans in general. Will they do the same for the woman lying in a hospital bed in Maryland recovering from a gunshot wound?