Two police shootings, both tragic, are separated by sixteen years and about a thousand miles. The details of the incidents are strikingly similar but the differences in the media and political response are astonishing and disheartening.
The stories are remarkably alike, Andrew Brown, Jr., 42 was shot and killed in North Carolina in October while attempting to back his vehicle down his driveway to flee from eight sheriff’s deputies with weapons drawn who were attempting to serve him with drug-related search and arrest warrants for possession with intent to sell cocaine.
In 2005, 22-year-old Tyler Teasley and 23-year-old Michael Brown were shot and killed by Police in a similar situation. According to court papers Brown and Teasley were having a “rolling party”, drinking and driving and pulled into a subdivision and and “went dark” turning off the vehicle’s lights and coasting into a driveway. The deputy involved claimed that “the car began to roll backwards, he “yelled for it to stop and I shot. And then I yelled stop again and shot.”
How The Reporting and Public Reactions Differ
The shooting of Andrew Brown, Jr. is clearly being swept up in the Black Lives Matter narrative most reporting refers to the man in a personalizing sympathetic manner, such as the Associated Press’ “Man killed by deputy recalled as storyteller, jokester” and the lead of The Atlanta Voice’s article which frames the incident as “A Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina was shot in the back of the head and had his hands on his car steering wheel when they opened fire, attorneys for his family said Monday after relatives viewed body camera footage.”
What The Atlanta Voice describes as “generally peaceful” protests have caused Elizabeth City, NC officials to declare a state of emergency.
Pasquotank Sheriff Tommy Wooten II told the press, “Our deputies attempted to serve the arrest warrants, they fired the shots. They’ve been put on administrative leave until we know all the facts,”
Conversely, nearly a thousand miles west in Missouri, in the killing of Tyler Teasley and Michael Brown stltoday wrote, “Witnesses said Teasley was “freaking out” because he had been drinking, there was alcohol in the car and several passengers were under 21. In his panic, they said, Teasley left the truck in neutral. As the truck rolled backward, Forler fired the fatal shots that struck both victims in the head.” Former Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Forler fired those shots.
Forler testified that he believed Teasley was trying to run him over, and he feared for his life. The jury took only three hours to find Forler not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and according to Deep State Rabbit Hole sources found employment with another police department elsewhere in Missouri, away from the attention of the media.
The case was interesting because the threat to the officer seemed much more plausibly accidental and Teasley was allegedly involved with Deputy Forler’s ex-girlfriend at the time of his death. Family and friends demonstrated regularly outside the sheriff’s office, however, protests never grew past that. Press coverage was neutral and largely regional, limited to the greater St. Louis, MO market.
Two Similar Cases, Two Extremely Different Media and Political Responses
Tyler Teasley and Michael Brown didn’t get justice, not even involuntary manslaughter despite having a much stronger case than say… George Floyd. But Andrew Brown, Jr. has “generally peaceful” demonstrations, a city under a state of emergency, a funeral live streamed with about 42k views which featured Rev. Al Sharpton and a fully sympathetic media.
Tyler Teasley and Michael Brown allegedly went on a drunk joyride and freaked out with their car in neutral and were each one-shot in the back in of the head by a single deputy. Andrew Brown, Jr. was fleeing arrest for dealing drugs by backing his car deliberately down his driveway at 8 deputies with weapons drawn screaming for him to stop until several of them opened fire and one of them struck him in the head and killed him.
Here are the differences: Tyler Teasley and Michael Brown were white, Andrew Brown, Jr. was black. In 2021 Black Lives Matter is a politically manipulated leftist narrative with billions of dollars in play, in 2005 it didn’t exist.
One Deputy with suspect connections to one of his victims in the death of Tyler Teasley & Michael Brown was acquitted of a minimal charge.
The Deputies who killed Andrew Brown, Jr. are assumed guilty by the entire mainstream media at this point. Based on available information they seem to have been truly acting defensively against a criminal wielding a multi-ton weapon. But that won’t matter, the narrative demands it.
The killing of Teasley and Brown in 2005 Missouri shows us that police aren’t perfect and neither is justice, but the Deputies in North Carolina shouldn’t be condemned outright for the killing of Andrew Brown, Jr.
