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Just a quick note — thanks so much for the thoughts flooding in. Some really incredible stuff.

One kind reader did flag one user who left a series of comments minimizing what had happened, attempting to shift the blame, and made me feel pretty gross.

"Did he deserve to be killed? Probably not (we don't KNOW exactly how he was acting, how threatening he was)"

"Flip the script - a white guy getting killed by a black guy doesn't fit the required framing narrative, so it wouldn't be reported or commented on. You can google information about the recent Alabama sweet sixteen shooting (four dead), but not a single mainstream media article about it other than the bare details (four dead, shooters arrested). No social media or commentator outrage either. Why is that?"

That kind of thing.

I refunded and banned them yesterday.

Sidenote: When a user flagged the comment, it turned up in the backend of Webworm for me to “Approve” or “Remove”.

I agreed wholeheartedly with the suggestion — so clicked “Approve”. Which I realise now approved the offensive comment, not the complaint.

LOL. The joys of moderation.

Please be assured I agreed with whoever flagged the comment, had already banned them, and have now removed the comments. Too gross. Not what Webworm is about.

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May 3, 2023Liked by David Farrier

Thank you for writing this. It always makes me feel better to know other people share my anger. Jordan should still be alive. Someone on that train car could have shared their water, food, or money to help him. Some small kindness could have changed his day. And now he's dead because some specially trained cunt murdered him.

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May 3, 2023Liked by David Farrier

Not long before I left NYC I pinned down a homeless man in the Times Square station who was in a light night fight with a white couple. They had made rude comments towards him when he asked for change and he snapped. The two men were tumbling down the stairs and I managed to grab the guy from behind and hold him down on top of me, quietly telling him I was protecting his body and loudly telling the bro and his asshole girl to fuck off. Once he had calmed, I released him, sat with him, put my arm around him when he cried, gave him food and money, and rode the subway with him for about half an hour. The idea of some big marine jumping a skinny black kid and murdering him in a similar situation makes me fucking sick to my stomach.

It is incredible what a display of respect and compassion will do to someone who is enraged at the injustice and disrespect that fate and the world has shown them.

I’ve seen Kiwis in the States be approached by homeless people and put their heads down and flee in fear. Just DON’T. Say Hi. Say ‘I’m sorry - I’ve got no cash on me - but God bless, my friend’. Or - heaven forgive - reach into your pocket, pull out whatever note you first touch, don’t look at the number on it, and hand it over. You’ll miss it far less than they’ll need it. And it is NOT YOUR PLACE to decide whether they’ll ‘just spend it on drugs’ because you never know - they MAY spend it on insulin. Or the guy that allows them to sleep in a safe place. Or bread. Or that bottle of gin that allows them to survive the day without being crushed by their depression. Don’t. Fucking. Judge.

That headline shows how we refuse to treat those in distress first as human beings worthy of love and respect. We judge. We fear.

But for the grace of God, there goes each and every one of us.

Sorry, David. You got me on this one today. I’m fucking riled up.

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Such a sad story. The one thing I kept thinking reading your “ranting” as you called it, was “So everyone else on the Subway let the “straphanger” kill Jordan Neely?” All of them are accomplices in my book. I would hope I would have stepped up in that instance had I been there. Of course there is such a thing as, “bystander effect” and I understand that happens too. In the past I have made a conscious effort to be the “one” person who steps up and outside their comfort zone which is all it takes to get others to also stand with you.

I wish someone would have done so for Mr. Neely.

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May 3, 2023Liked by David Farrier

It beggars belief that the Marine (aka all-American hero) hasn't been charged with anything. A person died by his hands. He may as well just have shot him - it would've taken less physical effort. The US never fails to disgust...

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Being Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand has meant that I've been acutely aware of this kind of 'reporting' since forever. Police 10-7 was always quite the parade of 'dangerous brown men and women' of whom you should be alert and afraid. Newspaper and television reporting - the suspect is either 'a man' or 'a Māori or Pacific Islander man'. The same goes for 'single mother', 'prostitute' (now the more respectful but not less categorising 'sex worker', where they had likely asked for whatever happened to them (what were they wearing???) - probably due to a sense of despair as a result of their own slutty behaviour. Inversely, 'much loved mother-of-two' is meant to invoke a bigger sense of outrage or sadness from the reader. THEY HAD SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR.

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May 3, 2023Liked by David Farrier

Reminds me of another misleading New York Times headline from last year , when the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered in the West Bank by the IDF. Initial headline was "Shireen Abu Akleh, Trailblazing Palestinian Journalist, Dies at 51". No mention at all that she was killed, just "dies", like it could have been from cancer or something.

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May 3, 2023Liked by David Farrier

Incredibly thought provoking article, I think the NYTimes has become so terribly fearful of being criticized that they now use passive language in almost any situation even when doing so is irresponsible journalism.

I have lived in NYC for almost 10 years and take the subway alone regularly at all times of the day and night. I have witnessed such behaviour from mentally ill and homeless people first hand and although it can often be alarming I have never felt in physical danger. Were I a former Marine, presumably with combat training, I would imagine I would see such a person as even less of a threat.

These people are usually desperate and even those I have seen behave “aggressively” are usually very quick to calm down if they are lucky enough to get a few dollars for food or shelter and I have even had conversations with a few of them. We’re all human beings, and some of us are luckier than others and could do with being reminded of that from time to time.

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May 3, 2023Liked by David Farrier

I am always amazed at newspapers’ habit of framing cyclist deaths, every time a car driver plows into a cyclist and kills them, by stating “a cyclist collided with a car...”. As opposed to “A car driver did not look properly...” or “A driver was texting when they...” or “Poor road layout obscured a driver view of a cyclist and they...”. Framing is everything, yet somehow in my mind I still pretend news is ‘factual news’

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Jane Gilmore runs a project called FixedIt on FB, which addresses the headline issue for male violence towards women and children. Headlines frame violent men as responding to challenging circumstances and their female victims as inhuman or making bad choices.

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Wait - he's not being charged even though he spent FIFTEEN MINUTES murdering someone whose only crime was being inconvenient during their ride home?

If you're wondering what stage of evolution we're in, looks like we are still in the 'chimp kills the weak and ill because it may be contagious' stage.

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So sad. How is our response to desperate people murder? Why is that presented as a sane action?

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"Man dies after another inexcusable use of the passive voice."

This cowardice is something the news media desperately needs to face up to. It lies at the heart of journalism's supposed mission, which is to *tell the truth.* Using the passive voice in this way distorts and destroys truth; it evades both responsibility and reality.

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May 3, 2023Liked by David Farrier

I have so many thoughts and emotions here. Heartbroken for poor Jordan and absolutely enraged over every other detail of this. Most folks I know (myself included) have some kind of mental health issue. The general public fails to realize that could easily be someone they know in that situation that needs assistance and instead turn a blind eye to it and pretend its not even happening. And a poor man was murdered because of it 😥. I hope there is some kind of larger outrage over this and justice will be served for poor Jordan.

What you call "ranting" is what we are all here for, David, and we love you for it. A gentle voice of reason in an otherwise chaotic world ❤️❤️❤️.

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May 3, 2023Liked by David Farrier

So a train load of people watched on as an innocent man was slowly choked to death by some strap-hanging bystander. But the victim is the one who is "unhinged" and "violent". Yeah, fk that

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founding

I remember being in a psych class at Uni 20 years ago and the task we were given was to pull apart a news story - written that year - that was a similar thing. Thankfully the man (brown, homeless, mental health issues) wasn’t killed BUT the tone, the lack of empathy for his humanity was the same. It’s disgusting and infuriating.

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