'White on Pumpkin Crime': Mainstream Riot Coverage from Ferguson, Missouri to Keene, New Hampshire
Twitter users and others compare difference in images, descriptions between white rioters in Keene and black protesters in Ferguson
"These are no angels," Twitter user Isaiah A. Taylor said of the photograph that showed six young white men on top of an overturned car, beer cans aloft, as the crowd on the ground seemed to cheer them on.
Over the weekend, crowds who attended the annual pumpkin festival in Keene, New Hampshire became violent as the event descended into a riot. Police responded to the scene armed with tear gas and pepper spray. Dozens were arrested and at least 26 were taken to the hospital with injuries as the chaotic night unfolded.
However, despite the violent crowds and the riot police, major news outlets referred to the event as "rowdy," and the rioting hordes as "revelers."
But as news of the fray spread on social media, observers took the occasion as an opportunity to highlight the vastly different media responses to those in Keene and Ferguson, Missouri, where black activists have recently organized nonviolent protests against institutionalized racism and police brutality.
Among them was Ebony Magazine's Jamilah Lemieux, who noted that despite the satirical response to media portrayals of white rioters, there is a serious message to be taken from the disparate coverage. "For all the hashtags and the jokes, we won't see a media assault on the youth who ruined the festival for acting in ways that were not merely inappropriate, illegal and potentially deadly, but bizarre and wrought with the stench of unchecked privilege," Lemieux writes. "Unlike the young people who have mobilized in Ferguson for an actual cause, there will likely be few serious ramifications for those who participated in making Keene, New Hampshire the laughingstock of the country, while putting themselves and others at serious risk for injury or death AT A PUMPKIN FESTIVAL."
Following the riots in Keene, college president Anne Huot said in a statement that the Pumpkin Festival had been promoted by others "as a destination for destructive and raucous behavior."
The Associated Press reported:
WMUR-TV in Manchester showed video of a crowd overturning a car, people running from tear gas clouds, street signs being torn down and fires burning in the streets. Police also investigated reports of people throwing glass bottles and fireworks, jumping off a roof and banging on cars.
One group of young people threatened to beat up an elderly man, and another resident heard someone "threatening to kill officers," according to the police log.
The phrase "no angel" has become a familiar one to those activists in the months since Michael Brown's death on August 9. Brown, a black teenager, was unarmed when he was shot to death by Officer Darren Wilson and his body left on the ground for more than four hours. As the protests in Ferguson grew and started to take on the form of an organized movement, the media focused its attention on the small city. Photographs were released that seemed to portray Brown as thuggish and intimidating. In one, he held his hand out in a peace sign; commentators called it a gang symbol. The New York Times published side-by-side retrospectives of Brown and his killer. Wilson was referred to as "low-profile," with "unsettled early days."
Brown, the Times said, was "no angel."
Twitter users also satirized the response of conservative pundits, who painted Ferguson protesters as jobless and the products of fatherless homes and questioned the whereabouts of community leaders.
Keene's recent legacy and the significance of the Pumpkin Festival surpasses the events of the weekend. In 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union noted in its report, War Comes Home (pdf), that the small New Hampshire town was one of many in the U.S. to take advantage of the Pentagon's 1033 program, which allows local police forces to repurpose military equipment.
Keene purchased a mine-resistant tank, known as a Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck, or BearCat, in 2012, citing the Pumpkin Fest as a potential terrorism target.
ACLU reports:
To explain why the police included the word "terrorism" on their application for federal funding for this purchase, a city councilmember said, "Our application talked about the danger of domestic terrorism, but that's just something you put in the grant application to get the money. What red-blooded American cop isn't going to be excited about getting a toy like this? That's what it comes down to."
The police response to white rioters in Keene was yet another difference between that town and Ferguson, particularly in the early days of the protests. Officers in Keene, while dressed in riot gear, never rolled out their armored tanks. Police in Ferguson did.
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just four days to go in our Spring Campaign, we are not even halfway to our goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
"These are no angels," Twitter user Isaiah A. Taylor said of the photograph that showed six young white men on top of an overturned car, beer cans aloft, as the crowd on the ground seemed to cheer them on.
Over the weekend, crowds who attended the annual pumpkin festival in Keene, New Hampshire became violent as the event descended into a riot. Police responded to the scene armed with tear gas and pepper spray. Dozens were arrested and at least 26 were taken to the hospital with injuries as the chaotic night unfolded.
However, despite the violent crowds and the riot police, major news outlets referred to the event as "rowdy," and the rioting hordes as "revelers."
But as news of the fray spread on social media, observers took the occasion as an opportunity to highlight the vastly different media responses to those in Keene and Ferguson, Missouri, where black activists have recently organized nonviolent protests against institutionalized racism and police brutality.
Among them was Ebony Magazine's Jamilah Lemieux, who noted that despite the satirical response to media portrayals of white rioters, there is a serious message to be taken from the disparate coverage. "For all the hashtags and the jokes, we won't see a media assault on the youth who ruined the festival for acting in ways that were not merely inappropriate, illegal and potentially deadly, but bizarre and wrought with the stench of unchecked privilege," Lemieux writes. "Unlike the young people who have mobilized in Ferguson for an actual cause, there will likely be few serious ramifications for those who participated in making Keene, New Hampshire the laughingstock of the country, while putting themselves and others at serious risk for injury or death AT A PUMPKIN FESTIVAL."
Following the riots in Keene, college president Anne Huot said in a statement that the Pumpkin Festival had been promoted by others "as a destination for destructive and raucous behavior."
The Associated Press reported:
WMUR-TV in Manchester showed video of a crowd overturning a car, people running from tear gas clouds, street signs being torn down and fires burning in the streets. Police also investigated reports of people throwing glass bottles and fireworks, jumping off a roof and banging on cars.
One group of young people threatened to beat up an elderly man, and another resident heard someone "threatening to kill officers," according to the police log.
The phrase "no angel" has become a familiar one to those activists in the months since Michael Brown's death on August 9. Brown, a black teenager, was unarmed when he was shot to death by Officer Darren Wilson and his body left on the ground for more than four hours. As the protests in Ferguson grew and started to take on the form of an organized movement, the media focused its attention on the small city. Photographs were released that seemed to portray Brown as thuggish and intimidating. In one, he held his hand out in a peace sign; commentators called it a gang symbol. The New York Times published side-by-side retrospectives of Brown and his killer. Wilson was referred to as "low-profile," with "unsettled early days."
Brown, the Times said, was "no angel."
Twitter users also satirized the response of conservative pundits, who painted Ferguson protesters as jobless and the products of fatherless homes and questioned the whereabouts of community leaders.
Keene's recent legacy and the significance of the Pumpkin Festival surpasses the events of the weekend. In 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union noted in its report, War Comes Home (pdf), that the small New Hampshire town was one of many in the U.S. to take advantage of the Pentagon's 1033 program, which allows local police forces to repurpose military equipment.
Keene purchased a mine-resistant tank, known as a Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck, or BearCat, in 2012, citing the Pumpkin Fest as a potential terrorism target.
ACLU reports:
To explain why the police included the word "terrorism" on their application for federal funding for this purchase, a city councilmember said, "Our application talked about the danger of domestic terrorism, but that's just something you put in the grant application to get the money. What red-blooded American cop isn't going to be excited about getting a toy like this? That's what it comes down to."
The police response to white rioters in Keene was yet another difference between that town and Ferguson, particularly in the early days of the protests. Officers in Keene, while dressed in riot gear, never rolled out their armored tanks. Police in Ferguson did.
"These are no angels," Twitter user Isaiah A. Taylor said of the photograph that showed six young white men on top of an overturned car, beer cans aloft, as the crowd on the ground seemed to cheer them on.
Over the weekend, crowds who attended the annual pumpkin festival in Keene, New Hampshire became violent as the event descended into a riot. Police responded to the scene armed with tear gas and pepper spray. Dozens were arrested and at least 26 were taken to the hospital with injuries as the chaotic night unfolded.
However, despite the violent crowds and the riot police, major news outlets referred to the event as "rowdy," and the rioting hordes as "revelers."
But as news of the fray spread on social media, observers took the occasion as an opportunity to highlight the vastly different media responses to those in Keene and Ferguson, Missouri, where black activists have recently organized nonviolent protests against institutionalized racism and police brutality.
Among them was Ebony Magazine's Jamilah Lemieux, who noted that despite the satirical response to media portrayals of white rioters, there is a serious message to be taken from the disparate coverage. "For all the hashtags and the jokes, we won't see a media assault on the youth who ruined the festival for acting in ways that were not merely inappropriate, illegal and potentially deadly, but bizarre and wrought with the stench of unchecked privilege," Lemieux writes. "Unlike the young people who have mobilized in Ferguson for an actual cause, there will likely be few serious ramifications for those who participated in making Keene, New Hampshire the laughingstock of the country, while putting themselves and others at serious risk for injury or death AT A PUMPKIN FESTIVAL."
Following the riots in Keene, college president Anne Huot said in a statement that the Pumpkin Festival had been promoted by others "as a destination for destructive and raucous behavior."
The Associated Press reported:
WMUR-TV in Manchester showed video of a crowd overturning a car, people running from tear gas clouds, street signs being torn down and fires burning in the streets. Police also investigated reports of people throwing glass bottles and fireworks, jumping off a roof and banging on cars.
One group of young people threatened to beat up an elderly man, and another resident heard someone "threatening to kill officers," according to the police log.
The phrase "no angel" has become a familiar one to those activists in the months since Michael Brown's death on August 9. Brown, a black teenager, was unarmed when he was shot to death by Officer Darren Wilson and his body left on the ground for more than four hours. As the protests in Ferguson grew and started to take on the form of an organized movement, the media focused its attention on the small city. Photographs were released that seemed to portray Brown as thuggish and intimidating. In one, he held his hand out in a peace sign; commentators called it a gang symbol. The New York Times published side-by-side retrospectives of Brown and his killer. Wilson was referred to as "low-profile," with "unsettled early days."
Brown, the Times said, was "no angel."
Twitter users also satirized the response of conservative pundits, who painted Ferguson protesters as jobless and the products of fatherless homes and questioned the whereabouts of community leaders.
Keene's recent legacy and the significance of the Pumpkin Festival surpasses the events of the weekend. In 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union noted in its report, War Comes Home (pdf), that the small New Hampshire town was one of many in the U.S. to take advantage of the Pentagon's 1033 program, which allows local police forces to repurpose military equipment.
Keene purchased a mine-resistant tank, known as a Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck, or BearCat, in 2012, citing the Pumpkin Fest as a potential terrorism target.
ACLU reports:
To explain why the police included the word "terrorism" on their application for federal funding for this purchase, a city councilmember said, "Our application talked about the danger of domestic terrorism, but that's just something you put in the grant application to get the money. What red-blooded American cop isn't going to be excited about getting a toy like this? That's what it comes down to."
The police response to white rioters in Keene was yet another difference between that town and Ferguson, particularly in the early days of the protests. Officers in Keene, while dressed in riot gear, never rolled out their armored tanks. Police in Ferguson did.