In late December, I posted a video of a Washington, D.C. police officer who unholstered his gun in a confrontation with snowball throwers. See, “Don’t Bring a Gun to a Snowball Fight.
There’s an update to the story, from Reason‘s Radley Balko, entitled, “The D.C. Snow Job.”
Here’s the situation that snowy day, as Balko describes it:
As a blizzard dumped more than a foot of snow on Washington, D.C. last month, a group of youngish, well-wired hipsters gathered in the city’s gentrifying U-Street corridor for a mass snowball fight. The idea originated and gained momentum on the social networking site Twitter. That’s significant, because by the time it was all over, the Snowball Fight Heard ‘Round the World became an apt demonstration of how social networking, easy access to publishing software, and the all-around democratization of technology is blowing open the filtered, narrowly-bored traditional channels of information, helping make both government and traditional media more accountable.
The December 19 snowball fight took an ugly turn when snowballers pelted a red Hummer making its way through the snow-packed intersection of 14th and U Streets in Northwest Washington, a part of the city with some historical turbulence, including the 1968 riots. The driver, D.C. police Detective Mike Baylor, emerged from his vehicle in plain clothes, and without identifying himself as a police officer confronted the snowballers. Baylor unholstered his gun, bringing more derision and insults to an already heated confrontation (including the chant “don’t bring a gun to a snowball fight”).
Snowballers and observers quickly began calling 911 about a man waving a gun at the intersection. That brought uniformed cops to the scene, one of whom had also (understandably, at that point) drawn his weapon. Baylor detained one person, attorney Daniel Schramm, whom the detective falsely accused of hitting him with a snowball.
Within hours, video of the altercation popped up all over the Internet (including from Reason.tv’s Dan Hayes, who was on the scene). By the morning of December 20, anyone with an Internet connection could see from multiple angles shot by multiple video cameras and cell phones that not only did Det. Baylor wave his gun, he also admitted it. Baylor is now under investigation. He’s been stripped of his badge and gun, and may lose his job.
Yet, Balko observes that there’s something even more interesting – how officials in the District of Columbia tried to conceal and deny Baylor’s conduct and how traditional media swallowed a reflexive, ‘we did nothing wrong’ posture.
First, Balko on the official response, one of easily-refuted lies:
Despite the fact that video and photographic evidence of Det. Baylor drawing his gun were already widely available on the web, MPDC Assistant Chief Pete Newsham initially issued a series of what can only be called bold-faced lies. Newsham first told the Washington City Paper, “There was no police pulling guns on snowball people.” In fact, there were two.
The Washington Post then reported:
Assistant Chief Pete Newsham, who leads the department’s investigative services bureau, said it appears the patrol officer acted appropriately, and the worst the detective might have done is use inappropriate language in dealing with the snowball fighters…
At some point, Newsham said, the detective approached the group of snowball fighters and had “some kind of interaction” with them. He said the detective holstered a cellphone, and someone from the crowd called to report a man with a gun.
“He was armed but never pulls his weapon,” Newsham said of the detective. “I think what probably happens is somebody probably saw his gun and called the police.”….
Newsham’s rush to clear Baylor’s name came before the slightest bit of investigation. Newsham also quickly deferred to Baylor’s stellar reputation and years of service, distinguishing the noble public servant from the unruly yahoos making accusations against him. That would be fine if Newsham was Baylor’s attorney. But he isn’t. He’s in charge of the MPDC unit responsible for investigating officer misconduct. And here he was disseminating clear and provable lies.
Forget the gun-waving Baylor. This is the real scandal. You’d be awfully naive to think the only time Newsham has publicly lied to defend a MPDC officer accused of misconduct was coincidentally the one time the officer’s accusers were tech-savvy hipsters armed with cell phones and video cameras. D.C. Police Chief Kathy Lanier’s investigation into the incident ought to go well beyond Baylor. From where did the false information Newsham perpetuated originate? Why was Newsham, whose position is that of a trusted liason between the department and the public, so quick to use bad information to defend a fellow officer? Shouldn’t this incident call his judgment into question in other cases? Is he still fit for the job?
Then, on how newspapers swallowed easily-disproved lies:
Don’t count on the traditional media to look into any of this. As the City Paper’s Erik Wemple reported last month, the excerpted post above, the one where Washington Post reporters Matt Zapotosky and Martin Weil uncritically regurgitate Newsham’s nonsense, came not only in the face of overwhelming video evidence to the contrary, but in spite of the fact that one of the paper’s own staffers was actually at the snowball fight and told the paper that, without question, Baylor had pulled his gun….
You may have seen the original already; if you’ve not, it’s well worth watching.
(Note: Language NSFW.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAgQKJuriIo&feature=player_embedded
The original story is available at