Of course, people don’t write their own headlines. But when they post their own pieces on Facebook, and don’t disclaim the headlines, they are responsible for the ensuing presentation:

Reading that Facebook entry, one would get the impression that Scott Eric Kaufman was claiming that a police protestor had been “run over” by the cops. No?

There was a video showing the aftermath of the incident, with a guy screaming that THEY RAN A POLICE CRUISER OVER HER!!!!! People were screaming “NO JUSTICE NO PEACE!!!” and shouting that “THIS IS GOING ON NATIONAL NEWS!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!” I took SEK to task pretty quickly, since these declamations seemed to me to utterly lack credibility:

THEY RAN A POLICE CRUISER OVER HER!!!! That report seems quite credible.

After all, the woman seemed pretty much fine after being “run over.” Anyway, shortly after I started hassling SEK over this, this correction appeared at Raw Story:

[CORRECTION: This article originally claimed that police “ran over” a protester. However,video of the incident shows a police SUV slowly backed into the woman and an officer who tried to move her out of the way. Neither the woman nor the officer appeared to be hurt. Raw Story regrets the error.]

And the headline got changed from the cops having “run over” the woman to having “back[ed] into” her.

Want to see the cops RUNNING OVER THIS WOMAN WITH A POLICE CRUISER!!!!!!11!!1!!!? Scroll to about 3:40, to watch the woman walking into a police cruiser idling backwards at about .5 mph. A police officer tries to grab her out of harm’s way as the cruiser barely taps her.

OH MY GOD THE HUMANITY!!!!!1!!!

I have spent the time since then trying to shame SEK into admitting that maybe he screwed up. His position? He sekritly tried to communicate his skepticism, and trusted his readers to pick up on his implicit concerns about the validity of the story. Also, he doesn’t write the headlines, so even if he links the story on his private Facebook feed, and it contains a totally misleading headline, he is not responsible for that because SQUIRREL!!!!!

Briefed on the shooting deaths of two New York cops, Obama went . . . golfing:

President Obama, on his first day of vacation in Hawaii, was out on the golf course Saturday. A White House official said, “The president has been briefed on the Brooklyn police shooting. White House officials continue to monitor the situation.”

He’s nothing if not consistent.

[guest post by Dana]

While President Obama is claiming that the Sony hack is not an act of war, but rather

“an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive,”

John McCain disagrees, believing this new warfare to be something far more serious:

While this cyberattack is notable for how much it took place in public view, the offensive use of cyber-weapons is far from new. Sony is, in fact, just the latest victim in a recent, escalating spate of such attacks aimed at undermining our economic and national security interests.

Examples are numerous, and the damage to our economic and national interests has been severe. Our financial institutions have been repeatedly targeted by criminal enterprises acting with impunity and at the direction of countries like Russia and Iran, according to news reports.

The theft of intellectual property through cyber-espionage has been called “the greatest transfer of wealth in history,” and cyber-crime and espionage reportedly cost the global economy $445 billion annually. Recent reports have, moreover, confirmed that our nation’s energy grid is critically vulnerable.

This morning, Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made the following assertion on Fox News:

“Our intelligence services, the folks who would be responsible for at least the first wave of trying to make sure they don’t have the capability to do this again, were ready, they have the capability, they were ready to go. The problem here was not the fact that we didn’t have the capability to do something nearly in immediate time, we just didn’t get a decision from the president of the United States.”

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

The NY Post is reporting that a third police officer was targeted last night:

A third cop narrowly escaped with his life Saturday night when a suspect pointed a gun directly at the officer’s head and pulled the trigger in The Bronx — not realizing it was empty.

Cops went to East 140th Street in Mott Haven at 9 p.m. on reports of a man shooting out windows with a.357 caliber revolver. They spotted the suspect, identified as Raymond Leonardo, 18, and ordered him to drop the gun. Instead, he took point blank aim at one of the officers, officials said.

When the gun didn’t work, he put it in his pocket and ran. Cops tackled him a few blocks away. “It looks like he used up all of his bullets’’ firing at the windows, a law-enforcement source said.

The officers were able to subdue the suspect without harm. No police officer was injured.

Police, believing they are under seige, showed the following tweet to the NY Post. The tweet was posted 2 hours *after* the police officers were killed:

“Kill em all i’m on the way to NY now #shootthepolice 2 more going down tomorrow.”

From Hawaii, where he is on vacation, the president responded to the killing of the 2 NYC police officers:

‘I unconditionally condemn today’s murder of two police officers in New York City. Two brave men won’t be going home to their loved ones tonight, and for that, there is no justification. The officers who serve and protect our communities risk their own safety for ours every single day – and they deserve our respect and gratitude every single day. Tonight, I ask people to reject violence and words that harm, and turn to words that heal – prayer, patient dialogue, and sympathy for the friends and family of the fallen’

(It’s a dangerous world out there, people, watch out for those harmful words.)

–Dana

Update: The NAACP responds with more gun control and mental health care. Further, do not attempt to connect the current unrest and protests throughout the country with these assassinations:

These two killings and the life-threatening injury, like so many other unfortunate incidences of gun violence, provide a stark example of the need for sensible gun control measures, and the need to thoughtfully address untreated mental illness.

While some may suggest a causal link between these killings and the recent protests and activism focused on the serious issue of police violence against unarmed African Americans, we caution against escalating an already tense national state through rumor and conjecture. Whatever motivation lay in the apparently troubled mind of the now deceased shooter of these officers, there is no connection between the peaceful protests of thousands of people of all races all over the country and, indeed, around the world, and this hideous act of violence.

As stewards of civil and human rights, we continue to seek a productive and open dialogue about ways to improve relations between communities of color and law enforcement and remain unwavering in our demand for accountability when any innocent lives are taken. For now, we pause in respectful sympathy with the families of the two officers who lost their lives today in this senseless act of violence and extend our wishes for the speedy recovery of the surviving victim.

Remember, the NAACP would never rely on rumor and conjecture to decide one’s guilt, and clearly, they would forcefully condemn any and all who would.