CNN: Foregoing the fact checker

Yesterday the fiance was scrolling through the CNN application on his iPhone when he came across an article written about our alma mater, George Mason University.

He started to read it out loud, unknowing that it was quite an in-depth coverage of an event that the writer wasn’t even present for. 

Skim article, or read if you must: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-572274

The article starts out by writer Sarah Evans, a fellow George Mason University student and personal friend of accused Abdirashid Dahir, stating that she believes it’s important to “speak up on his behalf”.  I am not angry with Sarah for writing this article.  As a matter of fact, who could ask for a better friend?  She’s trying to bring some justice to a situation that has been relayed to her.  Unfortunaetly, that’s my issue.  This story was relayed to her by a friend, about an incident that she was not involved in nor present for.  Again…not mad at Sarah.

Pissed at CNN.  This is not a piece of journalism.  This is a story.  A story that quotes specific dialogue from SPECIFIC (Names, Professions, Badge Numbers) people.  Unless Mr. Dahir was taking notes during this incident, or turned on some sort of recording device, how is this information credible and how in the world would CNN claim it to be so? 

How do YOU as a reader choose to believe one side or the other?  And by sides I mean Mr. Dahir’s or the alleged victims.  

Virginia law, Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-47, uses the terms abduction and kidnapping synonymously.  A person commits the crime of abduction if s/he by force, intimidation or deception, and without legal justification or excuse, seizes, takes, transports, detains or secretes another person with the intent to:

• deprive such person of his personal liberty, or
• withhold or conceal him from any person, authority or institution lawfully entitled to his charge, or
• subject him to forced labor or services.

Readers don’t know, cops don’t know, and especially Sarah does not know if Mr. Dahir locked the study room door or not.  It’s why we have the legal system that we do. If we abided by the “he said, she said” mentality we’d all be a lot more screwed than we already are.

I realize that this specific section of CNN (iReports) is almost that of a section where people share Op Eds and random bits of information they have picked up here and there.  But that doesn’t mean that a world wide credible publication should be condoning this sort of slanderous text.  I say “slanderous” because it is just that.  No one knows what happened except for the parties involved, so for Sarah to use these Officers names and badge numbers, no matter if this incident happened the way it was relayed to her, will forever brand them as “ass-hole-cops”.  And isn’t that something we should have all out grown by now?  People always remember the bad, never the good.  How much of an ass hole is he going to be when he responds to a call that’s less about arguing about a study room, and more about an actual attack on someone and saves someone from being robbed, murdered, or raped?

I went to Mason.  I get it.  When you’re in college you don’t want anyone telling you what to do, what not to do.  It’s all peace, booze, and “fuck the police attitude.”  I’ll be the first to admit that George Mason police aren’t the most highly admired around the Fairfax County Courthouse - but that doesn’t mean they need to be grouped together in a giant pig pen and all condoned as “unjust” and “corrupt”. 

Now, I’m no laywer.  However, I’ve seen a fair share of legal proceedings and outcomes through working for a defense attorney for four years.  But really, that has nothing to do with my opinion on this matter.  However, I question a lot of what Sarah says in the way of how the events of the day went down.  In particular:

   “At the station, Abdi spoke with the chief of operations and explained the situation and how he felt the officers had handled the incident very unprofessionally and unfairly – not listening to both sides, forcing him to leave, etc.  The supervisor agreed that the officers should not have acted in this way and were wrong in their decision to force Abdi to leave.”

This just sounds ridiculous.  What Chief of Operations would openly admit to his Officers behaving badly before speaking to the Officers themselves? Before hearing their side of the story?  It’s pure irony.  It’s the Officers only listening to the crying white’s girls story and not to Abdi.  The Chief of Operations only listening to Abdi and not his Officers.  One vicious unreliable story.

So for CNN who opens up its forum and condones this sort of behavior, I am sorely dissapointed.  It’s only feeding the media that is the tabloids.  I’m as easy to convince that Linsday Lohan is really a 6 year old mexican baby than I am that this story happened just as this student and friend conveys.

I am tempted to touch on Sarah’s question of whether or not this was racial profiling.  The fiance questioned me last night as to whether or not this would have happened if Abdi was a white guy instead of a student from Somalia.  I can understand how the question would come about.  But from pure speculation (this is a way of saying you’re not 100% sure) Officer Rapoli is not caucasian.  And had Abdi been a younger white male, maybe the female student wouldn’t have been so allegedly alarmed or allegedly racist and not called the police.  But that issue lies with the alleged victim, not with how the officers conducted the investigation, which is where the finger pointing is aimed. 

For the record, if this incident did happen in the way that Sarah says it did, I am sincerely sorry that this was brought upon Mr. Dahil.   No one deserves to be talked to or treated that way, and I hope the best outcome for his preliminary hearing and forthcoming trial.  And Abdi, in the future, remember these things:

Sticks and stones…

Don’t mouth off to police…

and a study room is just a study room.

1 year ago  /  6 notes