Jon Stewart Will Apologize On Monday For ‘Sloppy Mistake’ On Police Brutality Report
The Daily Show host Jon Stewart will be issuing an apology on Monday night’s episode of the show for a report that inaccurately lumped a California man’s death in with a story of police shootings of unarmed black men, Haaretz is reporting.
On the December 1 edition of The Daily Show, Stewart mentioned several incidents of unarmed black men being killed by police.
“The point is, these shootings are clearly not a manifestation of systemic inequality and mistrust between the African American community and the somehow always justified police American community. But these are merely an unending, bizarrely similar series of isolated incidents.”
One of the names mentioned in the report was that of Dante Parker, who died while in the custody of the San Bernadino County (California) police.
San Bernadino County District Attorney Mike Ramos took exception to Parker’s mention in the story, posting a video on YouTube in which he pointed out how the facts of Parker’s death don’t support Stewart’s suggestion that he was shot by police.
In the video, Ramos points out that Dante Parker was not, in fact, shot by police. Rather, he was Tasered by a female officer who was “losing the struggle” against Parker and was “fighting for her life,” according to KTLA.
“We later learned that he was under the influence of many types of drugs, which was the cause of his death.”
Civil rights attorney Mark Eisenberg, who represents Parker’s family, suggested to CBS Los Angeles that Stewart’s report may not have been entirely inaccurate.
“He was shot with a Taser gun, but I think what we’re getting into is a bit of semantics. What we’re really talking about is instances of excessive use of force by the police.”
An autopsy on Parker would later reveal that he was suffering from PCP intoxication exacerbated by hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
“I really believe that we need to get our facts straight before we start making statements.”
Stewart issued a response to the video — and a promise to air an apology — via Twitter on Friday.
.@sbcountyda: You’re right re Dante Parker. Sloppy to put him in our list of shootings. TV apology coming Monday…Larger point still stands
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) December 5, 2014
Do you believe Jon Stewart should have to issue an apology for his report?
[Image courtesy of: Forward]
