MSNBC analyst Jason Johnson argued that “white nationalists” would be responsible for violence in Louisville after the Breonna Taylor announcement, and that Black Lives Matter would be blamed.
On Wednesday, Johnson said that violent protests in reaction to the grand jury decision about the Taylor case would consist of a “whole bunch of interlopers and white nationalists and three-percenters and terrorists battling it out in the street.”
Yet, Black Lives Matter protesters would take the blame for it, Johnson argued.
In the much-publicized Breonna Taylor case, the grand jury did not charge any officers for killing Taylor, though one officer was charged with “wanton endangerment.”
Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron says that the night #BreonnaTaylor died, police did knock and announce themselves before Breonna’s boyfriend shot at them. This fact was verified by an independent witness to the events who lived nearby. pic.twitter.com/0ipTvVYv7r
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 23, 2020
RELATED: Black Lives Matter Coming After American Families
Johnson: ‘I’m So Disgusted By This’
“I’m so disgusted by this,” Johnson stated, speaking of his frustration with the event itself, and the outcome of the grand jury decision.
“This woman got shot in her house!” Johnson said of Taylor. “When she was asleep!”
Johnson continued, “If cops busting into my house right now and shot me on the air, what Daniel Cameron basically told America is that that would be legal.”
Daniel Cameron, a black man, is Kentucky’s Attorney General.
“If they thought that there was something wrong, I could be shot in broad daylight, on national television, in my house, because the cops can break in and shoot whoever they want if they’re concerned. That is why people are upset.”
Jason Johnson on protests following Breonna Taylor decision: "They are tired of these discussions being teased out in ways that give justifications for nothing other than state sponsored, white supremacy, and killing of Black people" pic.twitter.com/pw9GIti4SH
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 23, 2020
Johnson Points The Finger At White Supremacists
“That is why protesters are mad at the media because they’re tired of these discussions being teased out in ways that give justifications for nothing other than state-sponsored white supremacy and killing of black people,” Johnson said.
“It is so infuriating and so maddening.”
Johnson then said that white nationalists would instigate street violence, and the media would blame BLM.
“I empathize with the people who are there in pain. I empathize with the protesters who are going to be home by 9:00. That’s the thing! The Black Lives Matter protesters, they’re going to take their signs, and they’re going to go home.”
He continued, “You’re going to have a whole bunch of interlopers and white nationalists and 3 Percenters and terrorists battling it out in the street like the ‘No Church in the Wild’ video, and that’s how the Black Lives Matter protesters will get depicted.”
Protests and riots have been common the last few months, in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
Without elaborating further, we can’t be sure if Johnson is implying that white nationalists have been responsible for all the violence we have seen in the streets.
According to PolitiFact in August, “The New York Post reported on June 8, citing the U.S. Justice Department, that more than 700 law enforcement officers were injured on the job during nationwide protests over Floyd’s death.”
Does Johnson believe that these 700 officers were targeted by white supremacists?
Furthermore, the New York Times reported July 3 that four recent polls “suggest that about 15 million to 26 million people in the United States have participated in demonstrations over the death of George Floyd and others in recent weeks.”
No doubt a minority of these millions of people became violent. But among the significant portion of them that have, does Johnson honestly believe they were predominately white nationalists?
This defies common sense and basic logic.
“Can we distinguish between the white nationalists walking around with guns and the people there who are centering Breonna Taylor?” he added.
It is unclear which white nationalists Johnson is referring to, however, Fox News reported that a U-haul truck full of anarchist signs and materials showed up in Louisville:
Protestors have their own riot van in Louisville—
It’s a Uhaul
— Tayler Hansen (@TaylerUSA) September 23, 2020
Fox News host Tucker Carlson took issue with everything that was going on in Louisville, and accused the media of encouraging violence:
After playing clips from CNN's Brianna Keilar and MSNBC's Jason Johnson, Joy Reid, and Nicolle Wallace, #Tucker goes HAM on the liberal media for encouraging violence, purposefully scarring viewers, and showing no regard for the facts of a case pic.twitter.com/Ldljeb6A1j
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 24, 2020