Prosecutor Says She Hopes Coronavirus ‘Spreads in Riots’; Billie Eilish Addresses #BlackLivesMatter; and Journalist Is Blind After Being Shot With Rubber Bullet.
Pamela Hancock, a second-term Mississippi county prosecutor, used Facebook to make her thoughts known about the protests.
A Facebook user asked, “Does Covid spread during massive street riots or just in bars and restaurants?”
Hancock replied, “We can only hope the deadly [coronavirus] strain spreads in riots!” The post has since been deleted.
In a phone interview with Mississippi Today, Hancock defended her comment.
“My job is to prosecute all crimes, including civil disobedience,” Hancock said. “I’m against any breach of peace or criminal activity, and I would prosecute it. I have nothing against people peacefully protesting, but breaking into businesses and stealing things is a crime.”
When asked about her comment suggesting the virus could kill rioters, Hancock rebuffed.
“I was really just making light of it,” she said. “I was not serious about wanting anyone to die. That’s not who I am. The post was kind of a joke, and I was attempting to joke back. Obviously, I did it very poorly. If you ask anybody that knows me, I don’t hold any ill will towards anyone or any group. I only try to be fair.”
However, Brandon Jones, policy director at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Jackson, had a few words on the matter.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult few days. You’d hope in moments like this that people throughout the law enforcement community and certainly prosecutors would be reflective about how we talk about these issues. Because she’s an elected official, it’s an office of public trust. Frankly, (her post) sends all the wrong messages.”
Related: Experts Warn Protests Could Cause Catastrophic COVID-19 Spike
After George Floyd was killed on May 28 in Minneapolis, many celebrities took to social media. They used their massive platforms to spread awareness on issues such as police brutality, racism, and white privilege in America.
Billie Eilish is one of those who shared a powerful message about what she’s witnessing going on in the world. On Instagram, she posted this statement:
“I’ve been trying to take this week to figure out a way to address this delicately. I have an enormous platform and I try really hard to be respectful and take time to think through what I say and how I say it. But holy f-cking sh-t, I’m just gonna start talking.
“If I hear one more white person say “aLL liVeS maTtEr” one more f-cking time, I’m gonna lose my f-cking mind,” she continued. “Will you shut the f-ck up? No one is saying your life is not hard. No one is saying literally anything at all about you. All you mfs do is find a way to make everything about yourself.”
Eilish goes on to address the white privilege that she and millions of other white Americans hold. The George Floyd protests have furthered public furor over the way police and others treat minorities in this country.
“White privilege” is a layered term, but in a post by tolerance.org explaining its definition, its essential meaning is simply, “having greater access to power and resources than people of color [in the same situation] do.”
Some of the tension surrounding the term comes from the misunderstanding that it suggests people who are white don’t suffer. Critics of the term think it essentially says that people of color go through actual struggle, while white people have nothing but trivial problems, like wondering if their ATT wireless coupon is still good.
However, as tolerance.org says, “white privilege is not the assumption that everything a white person has accomplished is unearned…Instead, white privilege should be viewed as a built-in advantage, separate from one’s level of income or effort.”
On that note, Eilish continues in her post,
“Society gives you privilege just for being white. You can be poor, you can be struggling. And still, your skin color is giving you more privilege than you even realize and nobody is saying that makes you better than anyone. It just lets you live your life without having to worry about surviving simply because of your skin color!!! You are privileged!!”
The singer closed her statement by adding, “If all lives matter why are back people killed for just being black?”
Related: Man With 4% Black DNA Wants to Be Officially Recognized
Linda Tirado, a 37-year-old journalist, and mother of two was left blind in one eye after being struck by a rubber bullet during a protest in Minneapolis. She was photographing the protest of the death of George Floyd.
“Protestors said police were tear-gassing. I put on my goggles and respirator,” said Tirado to DailyMail.com. “It was pretty chaotic—people were moving in every direction. Then I kind of felt my face explode.”
Doctors told Tirado that she will be permanently blind in one eye. She hopes in the future that she’ll be able to regain the ability to see light and shadows through her damaged eye.
Related: Man Goes Blind After Wearing Contact Lenses in Shower
