1. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/08/28/fac... 2. https://en.as.com/en/2020/08/25/latest_news/1598382234_23093... 3. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2020/08/26/jacob-b...
5th paragraph
>Mr. Blake admitted that he had a knife in his possession.
> The DOJ has not clarified whether the knife was on the floorboard throughout the confrontation, or if Blake may have held it at some point. Spokeswoman Gillian Drummond declined to answer that question when asked by USA TODAY on Aug. 27.
I'm also making it in good faith, because it's entirely possible that all of the bad reporting on it would lead someone to believe that he was unarmed. That's the only reason for any of these replies.
Personally, I wouldn’t consider him to be armed unless he was actively brandishing it. Which the USA Today article says he was not.
Regardless. They shot a man in the back seven times while his children watched. The standard for that kind of force should be much, much higher than “he may or may not have had a knife in his possession”.
The fact that you thought otherwise illustrates the problem precisely. Social and traditional media companies had no issue allowing this misconception to spread unfettered because aligned with their political beliefs.