Media top headlines June 25
Biden acting bizarre and whispering at a press conference, a Reuters survey showing that the US has the lowest levels of public trust in the media among 46 countries, and The New York Times’ Mara Gay saying rising crime is due to trauma, grief, and upheaval round out today’s top media headlines
NYC Pride co-chair André Thomas said the police uniform was a "symbol of oppression" Friday while responding to criticism over banning gay police officers from participating in NYC Pride events until 2025.
Gay Officers Action League president Brian Downey called out NYC Pride for its "shameful" decision this week.
Appearing on MSNBC, Thomas claimed Downey wasn't acknowledging "the pain, and the hurt, and the trauma" that the former claimed was inflicted by police officers on Black and Brown communities.
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"It’s easy for him to talk about … not having to shed that layer, because as a person of color, I can’t shed my Black skin, but he can’t even wear his uniform on your show yesterday," Thomas said in response to host Stephanie Ruhle, after she played a clip of Downey on MSNBC a day earlier. During the interview, Downey described the uniform as a layer of himself that he was being asked to take off.
"If he wants to identify himself as an LGBT police officer [and] he can’t even do that, it shows that he’s not really acknowledging the pain and the hurt and the trauma that the police have caused to members of the Black community, the Brown community, and the trans community," Thomas added. "It’s easy for them to take their uniforms off, to wear a simple polo … but to take off a uniform that, in many ways, is a symbol of oppression, a symbol of violence, a symbol of fear for many in our community."
New York City, like many other cities throughout the U.S., have seen a dramatic rise in violent crime in the past year following protests and unrest over the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and subsequent movements to defund the police.
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"Crime is on the rise. You need the police to help more than ever, given the heightened tensions. If something bad happens, if you’re in crisis, if you call 911, you want the police to come to you. Do you need them not to be wearing uniforms? I’m just so confused by this," Ruhle said.
Thomas said his organization was focused on police visibility and removing their "militarized" look, but didn't directly address Ruhle's questions on crime.
Downey appeared Friday on "America's Newsroom" and argued the ban created "unnecessary divisions in the community," went against the spirit of inclusion, and caused pain to his organization's members.
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"It causes a great deal of pain to our members who go into a system every day that historically has not been for them, and they put on uniforms or they sit at a desk and they work in an environment where they're kind of forcing the system to deal with them. You know, they choose to go on and put on that in those systems, in those spaces, and put this identity on and make it known," Downey said.
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