July 31, 2020

Action Alert:
Call out AG Barr for misleading Congress over shootings


One of the hardest things to fight these days is misinformation.  How much harder it becomes when  The US Attorney General William Barr misleads Congress over crucial facts about America’s gun statistics.

In a New York Times article fact checking Barr’s recent testimony to Congress, some glaring pieces of misinformation stand out which need to be countered.

1 “He is correct that about 88.9 percent of Black murder victims were killed by Black perpetrators in 2018.

But left unsaid was the fact that murder victims and their perpetrators are overwhelmingly of the same race or ethnicity: 80.7 percent of white murder victims were killed by white perpetrators”

2. Barr said: “According to statistics compiled by The Washington Post, the number of unarmed Black men killed by police so far this year is eight. The number of unarmed white men killed by police over the same time period is 11.” – Barr used the WaPo database of shootings, Looking at the Database, the NYT wrote: “When factoring in population size, Black Americans are killed by the police at more than twice the rate as white Americans, according to the database. Research has also shown that in the United States, on average, the probability of being shot by a police officer for someone who is Black and unarmed is higher than for someone who is white and armed.”

ACTION:

Please contact the Department of Justice through one of the channels below and give them the following message, personalized to your liking:

 

In a Congressional hearing this Tuesday Attorney General  William Barr made some seriously misleading statements on gun-related facts.  We want the Department of Justice to acknowledge that Congress was mislead, as proven in this New York Times article:  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/us/politics/barr-trump-factcheck-congressional-testimony.html?auth=login-facebook

As a member of One Pulse for America, it is a constant struggle to combat misinformation – it is a scandal that the AG’s testimony should not pass a basic fact check.

To talk about gun death statistics concerning black people without mentioning their percentage of the country’s population is unacceptable.  As one example from the Times piece, Barr quoted from a Washington Post database at one point – but neglected to mention the clear conclusion:  that black unarmed people are more likely to be shot by police than armed white people.

With such statements made to Congress it is little wonder people are being misled – it is unacceptable.   I demand higher standards from those in the office of Attorney General, and I expect to see a clarification made to Congress.

 or this tweet:

I’m absolutely dismayed at Barr’s misleading testimony before the House – his mangling police shooting statistics needs to be addressed. The Department of Justice needs to act https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/us/politics/barr-trump-factcheck-congressional-testimony.html?auth=login-facebook 

Phone:  202-353-1555

Email: (form) https://www.justice.gov/doj/webform/your-message-department-justice 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/DOJ/

Twitter:  (here is the DoJ bragging about Barr’s testimony – good place to comment) https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept/status/1289279682303623175

 

Once you have made contact, fill out the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!

 


This is an action alert, NOT an online petition. Please take the action before filling out the fields below.

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