COMMITTEE TO ELECT ROBERT DOBBS FOR US SENATE issued the following announcement on July 9.
As protests erupted, the company offered kind gestures—and allowed bigotry to stand.
A protester chants directly in front of a police officer during a protest spurred by the death of George Floyd in Sacramento, Calif. on May 29, 2020.Stanton Sharpe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
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The short video shows more than a dozen California Highway Patrol officers surrounding a single protester, who is already on the ground. They are shouting instructions. While it’s hard to make out what they are saying, the person on the ground doesn’t appear to resisting. Then, amidst the throng of cops, at least one officer appears to drop his knees on to the protestor’s body.
On June 7, Khanstoshea Zingapan posted the video, sent to her by someone who witnessed the confrontation, on the Facebook page of her documentary video charity, Black Zebra Productions. “This is Sacramento, CA. This is a CHP officer with a knee on a neck! Why is this still happening?” she wrote. Zingapan released the video at the height of protests over the death of George Floyd after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Over the course of next day, Zingapan says the video continued to garner views and comments. But when she woke up on June 9, Black Zebra Productions’ Facebook page been taken down. An email from the company indicated it had been removed for “posting fraudulent or misleading content.”
“They don’t care.”
Four years ago, Zingapan began releasing documentary footage of her community in Sacramento on Facebook and other social media channels under her artist name, Black Zebra, “showing my world through the eyes of a black woman in America.” In one series last year she documented local police’s evacuation of a long-standing homeless encampment. When Floyd’s killing sparked protests, Black Zebra Productions became a resource for the Sacramento activists and residents, with Facebook serving as the platform and warehouse for its livestreams. Zingapan worked out a freelance arrangement with the Sacramento Bee that she hoped would prevent police harassment as she and a crew of volunteers live-streamed protests, were hit by rubber bullets, and choked on tear gas. Then, in a flash, all their work disappeared.
Original source here.
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