BS BULLETIN:
- Rep. Shontel Brown is facing backlash after warning of an “alarming increase” in Black Americans being found hanging from trees.
- Several prominent cases cited in the broader controversy have been ruled suicides by authorities.
- Brown is among nearly 60 lawmakers backing a request for a federal investigation.
The “modern-day lynchings” controversy isn’t going away.
Now Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, is taking heat after posting a video warning about Black Americans being found hanging from trees and calling for federal investigators to take a closer look.
“In the last year, there’s been an alarming increase in Black Americans found dead hanging from trees,” Brown wrote.
“We know what that has meant throughout our history.”
Brown said she joined Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., in demanding a federal investigation into possible lynchings.
The problem for critics: several of the high-profile deaths fueling the controversy have already been investigated and ruled suicides.
Fox News reviewed a number of the cases after Pressley and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez drew attention to the issue last week. Authorities determined no foul play was suspected in a Georgia case, while deaths in North Carolina and Florida were also ruled suicides.
Another case involving Tasia Fortune is being treated as a homicide, and a suspect has been arrested.
That didn’t stop Brown from invoking America’s horrific history of lynching.
“For generations, trees were used as instruments of terror against Black Americans,” Brown said in her video.
“So, when Black Americans are found hanging from trees today, in unfamiliar places and under circumstances that raise serious questions, we cannot look the other way.”
The response online was brutal.
Actor Dean Cain accused Brown of “inventing racism” and called the post deliberately misleading.
Others compared the growing controversy to the Jussie Smollett hoax and accused politicians of promoting a racial narrative before all the facts supported it.
Brown isn’t alone.
Pressley’s Sept. 10 letter requesting investigations was signed by nearly 60 House members, including Brown, Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, Rashida Tlaib, Maxine Waters and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
The lawmakers are asking the Justice Department and FBI for independent reviews of hanging deaths involving Black Americans, including autopsies, audits of state and local investigations and better federal data collection.
So the argument now has two very different tracks: lawmakers say the history and circumstances warrant federal scrutiny.
Critics say calling the cases “modern-day lynchings” before evidence establishes racial killings is something else entirely.
MY QUICK TAKE:
Apparently the investigation comes after the conclusion now.
That seems backward, but what do I know?
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- Fox News — Shontel Brown ripped online over lynching claims
- Rep. Ayanna Pressley — Nearly 60 lawmakers demand federal investigation
- Fox News — AOC’s “modern-day lynchings” claim draws backlash
- Rep. Jasmine Crockett — Crockett calls for DOJ investigation
