Georgia police officer railroaded by media
Facts first, indeed.
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A Georgia police officer has been replaced as spokesman following false reports he spoke sympathetically of the 21-year-old suspect who allegedly shot and killed eight people in Atlanta-area massage parlors.
But Cherokee County Sheriff's Capt. Jay Baker’s remark last Wednesday that the suspected shooter had a “really bad day” was not the officer’s personal assessment. Rather, he only paraphrased what the shooting suspect had told investigators.
On March 17, Baker, who is also in hot water for having once promoted T-shirts that read, “Covid 19 IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA,” fielded questions from reporters during a press conference on the deadly shootings. As the officer spoke, Vox “journalist” Aaron Rupar tweeted a truncated video of the press briefing with the accompanying commentary, “Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did’ – a law enforcement official explains Robert Aaron Long's decision to kill 8 people in a strange manner.”
Legacy media soon parroted Rupar’s mischaracterization of Baker’s remarks. Newsroom after newsroom likewise suggested the police officer had offered the shooting suspect some amount of empathy.
“Georgia sheriff's department under fire after official says spa shootings suspect had 'really bad day,'" reads a headline published by ABC News.
The Washington Post editorial board said in a headline of its own, "The Atlanta shootings cannot be dismissed as someone having a ‘bad day.'"
“Have we become so nonchalant about gun violence that we rack up the murder of eight people to someone having a ‘bad day?’” the board asks.
"Sheriff’s Captain: Spa Shooting Suspect Was Having ‘Really Bad Day,'" reads HuffPost's headline.
There is more where this comes from, including comments from pundits and activists who claim Baker grieves more for the suspected shooter than the victims.
However, from a review of the police officer’s remarks, it's clear he did not, in fact, sympathize with the alleged shooter, as the news coverage suggests. Rather, Baker merely paraphrased what the suspect told investigators.
Here’s a transcript of the press conference. Judge for yourself [emphasis added]:
Reporter: “Yesterday it was stated that the suspect was perhaps upset at these locations for allowing him to have an outlet for his addiction. Can you elaborate on that?”
Capt. Jay Baker: “Yeah let me go into a little detail. The suspect did take responsibility for the shootings. He said that early on once we began the interviews with him. He claims that these – and as the chief said, this is still early – but he does claim that it was not racially motivated. He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places, and it’s a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate. Like I said, it’s still early on. Those were comments that he made.”
[…]
Reporter: “Sheriff, did you have a sense that he understood the gravity of what he did?”
Baker: “When I spoke with investigators, they interviewed him this morning, and they got that impression that, yes, he understood the gravity of it, and he was pretty much fed up and had been at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did.”
Reporter: “Remorseful?”
Baker: “I’m not going to – I don’t know if he was remorseful or not.”
By March 18, Cherokee County communications director Erika Neldner released a statement announcing Baker had been replaced as spokesman and that she would handle all media inquiries regarding the office's investigation into the Atlanta slayings.
Baker's status within the sheriff’s department is currently unknown. Neldner’s statement didn't go into detail.
Earlier, Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said in a separate statement that, though Baker’s comments were "taken or construed as insensitive or inappropriate," they “were not intended to disrespect any of the victims, the gravity of this tragedy, or express empathy or sympathy for the suspect."
"Captain Baker had a difficult task before him, and this was one of the hardest in his twenty-eight years in law enforcement," Reynolds said.
"I have known and served with Captain Baker for many years. His personal ties to the Asian community and his unwavering support and commitment to the citizens of Cherokee County are well known to many," the statement added. "On behalf of the dedicated women and men of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office we regret any heartache Captain Baker’s words may have caused."
As of this writing, Rupar’s selectively edited video and his accompanying commentary, the things that sparked the firestorm aimed at Baker, have been shared by more than 48,000 social media users.
Rule of thumb: If you ever, ever, see Rupar share a brief snippet of remarks made by a public official, always look for the full context. There’s a 99.9% chance there’s more to the story.