Last year, a man in his mid-20s named Dexter Reed was charged with three counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and one count of possession of a firearm with a revoked Firearms Owners Identification Card, which is required in the state of Illinois before you can possess a weapon or ammunition. Because no one really spends time in jail in Illinois anymore, Reed was free on pretrial release for these felony charges as recently as this past March.

It goes without saying that at that point, any functioning member of society who somehow found himself charged with these crimes would try to lay low for a bit. Maybe theyd keep their illegal guns at home, for example. But Dexter Reed did not choose that approach because hes not a functioning member of society. Instead, in March, Reed went for a drive in an SUV wearing a ski mask and carrying a firearm.

Thats when police say they noticed that Reed was breaking yet another law: he wasnt wearing a seatbelt. Instead of cooperating with the traffic stop, this is what happened. Im going to show two angles of this incident from police body cams. The second body cam is from an officer who was shot as this unfolded. Watch:

Its clear from this footage that Dexter Reed is wearing a ski mask and hes not cooperating with the officers. They tell him to unlock the door and stop rolling up the windows, and he refuses for quite some time. Then the officers see something that clearly puts them in fear of their life. They back up, and shots begin ringing out. One officer is hit in the wrist, and he survives.

According to the Chicago Sun Times : Alderman Brian Hopkins, chairman of the City Councils Public Safety Committee, said hes been told 26-year-old Reed fired 11 shots through his car window in what Hopkins called an attempt to kill police officers. An empty gun was recovered at the scene, Hopkins said. He fired 11 rounds at these police officers before he was eventually killed.

As of now, police are still investigating this shooting. But Chicagos Civilian Office of Police Accountability has determined that the evidence appears to confirm that Reed fired the first shot. And the video by itself shows that pretty clearly. WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show

One social media user on Twitter, the account Expose Them, synced up footage from two of the body cams that Chicago police have released. The top bodycam is the one I just showed of the officer who got hit. The other bodycam is from a third officer on the scene. You can see that the first officer gets hit before the other officers fire:

The footage is pretty clear evidence that the officers defended themselves. They should end the discussion entirely. But that hasnt happened, because even before these body cams were released, professional agitators engaged in a concerted effort to turn Dexter Reed into a martyr.

A former Chicago mayoral candidate and BLM activist named JaMal Green began posting on social media this weekend that the footage would show an execution. He also warned about possible riots, which of course is exactly what JaMal Green wants to happen.

And Greens strategy appears to be working, at least so far.

This week crowds turned up outside a police station to heckle officers and make some of the most strained arguments imaginable. Watch:

So theyre saying the cops couldnt possibly have known whether he was breaking the seat belt law, because he was driving with heavily tinted windows, which is also against the law.

Apparently in BLM circles this is seen as a sort of checkmate, even though theyve just provided an additional reason why police would have wanted to pull this guy over.

And then they argue that theres no need for armed officers to enforce seat belt laws. Well, apparently there is, especially in a city like Chicago because you never know when someone whos not wearing a seatbelt might be out of jail on a felony gun charge, still packing heat and wearing a ski mask and ready to shoot at you for no reason.

All of that is irrelevant anyway. Even if they had no reason to pull him over which they did it still obviously doesnt justify him shooting at the cops. You dont get to shoot at the cops if you disagree with their reason for stopping you. Ive been pulled over for seatbelt violations before. I found it annoying. I never considered murder as a response.

But the push to portray Dexter Reed as a victim continues anyway, because none of this is really about the facts. Alleged academics are getting involved, too. An English professor at Amherst named Frank Leon Roberts wrote on social media:

His name was Dexter Reed. Murdered in broad daylight by the Chicago Police Department. 96 shots in 41 seconds. 26 years old. His crime: not having his seatbelt on. This is America. Defund and abolish the police.

A few hours after the professor wrote that tweet, he deleted it and erased his entire Twitter account, maybe because it was a little too ridiculous even by the standards of Amherst. But it wasnt too absurd for the corporate press. Theyve also done everything they can to portray the police as the aggressors here.

Heres how the Washington Post covered Dexter Reeds traffic stop, for example. The headline reads: Police fire 96 shots in 41 seconds, killing Black man during traffic stop.

So theres nothing in there about what Dexter Reed did during the traffic stop. Theres no mention of the fact he opened fire on police officers. In fact, if you read the story, you wont find any mention of Dexter Reed shooting his handgun until the eighth paragraph of the story. Thats not an exaggeration. They just ignore it until eight paragraphs in.

Instead, heres what the Washington Post talks about first. This is from the beginning of their article. Its as emotional and over-the-top as they possibly could have done it:

Dexter Reeds mother remembers the last time she saw her son alive. . He was just riding around in his car, Dexters mother, Nicole Banks, [said] on Tuesday, as she broke down in tears. They killed him.

This is the footage theyre referencing:

So Reeds mother is out at press conferences crying and fainting on camera. Im sure she is legitimately distraught given that her child was killed. But as always, there is no self-analysis, no moment of honest reflection where she wonders how she raised a child who would throw his life away for no reason during a traffic stop. Instead she blames the cops and the lawsuit, Im sure, will be close behind. And the Washington Post decides to lead with this, instead of an accurate description of what happened during the traffic stop.

Its hard to think of a more deliberately dishonest way to frame the actions of an attempted cop-killer. And just for good measure, the Post puts a giant photo of Dexter Reed at some graduation ceremony from 5five years ago at the top of the article. They leave off his mug shot from his felony firearms arrest. This is the way it always goes with BLM martyrs. You never see graduation photos of anyone who makes the news for any reason unless its a black guy killed by the cops.

On Twitter, a writer named Daniel Friedman pointed out the history of this tactic. It began after Michael Brown was shot ten years ago after fighting with a cop and trying to take his gun. Media outlets went on Browns Facebook, and then they used unflattering photos of Brown flashing gang signs in their coverage.

As Friedman writes, Black Twitter reacted angrily. They said that the media was using images of Brown that stereotyped him. There was a trending hashtag #if they gunned me down of college students or professionals posting pictures of themselves looking like thugs in solidarity with Brown.

So the media relented and swapped out the thug photos for graduation photos. And theyve been doing that ever since.

In this case, the Washington Post wasnt alone in whitewashing Reeds actions. CNN ran a similar headline that made no mention of Dexter Reed shooting at officers : 96 shots fired in a fatal traffic stop. Heres what the bodycam footage shows. The AP reprted , Deadly Chicago traffic stop where police fired 96 shots raises serious questions about use of force.

Its almost comical when you picture the editors carefully trying to construct these headlines so that they dont mention the elephant in the room. Its like imagining someone trying to describe the maiden voyage of the Titanic without saying anything about the whole iceberg thing.

But Id be remiss if I mocked the medias ridiculous coverage of this episode without mentioning the Daily Mail . They chose to portray Dexter Reed as an aspiring broadcaster. So hes not an attempted cop killer hes the next Tom Brokaw apparently :

On Tuesday, Chicago Police released footage of the March 21 encounter which showed them firing 96 shots at Reed, even as he lay motionless on the ground outside his vehicle. The aspiring broadcasters death has reignited conversations around excessive police force against black people, though officers maintain Reed opened fire first.

At least they get around to suggesting that the officers were defending themselves. So theres that. Its easy to laugh at how absurd this is, but theres a point to it. BLM and their allies in the media are desperate to find a new George Floyd before the election. They know Democrats stand a very real chance of losing power in November. So theyre using the same tactics they did four years ago.

George Floyd, we were told, wasnt a home invader, thief and drug addict. They told us he was a Gentle giant trying to Get his life back on track. Now were expected to believe that Dexter Reed is also some misunderstood pillar of the local community, instead of the degenerate he is. The plan is to cause riots, terrify everyone into voting the way they want, and force a national reckoning on race to promote more of their mediocre allies into positions of power. And they plan to accomplish all of that by lying about a dead thug.

This is a strategy were seeing more and more often as the election approaches. Last October, for example, the media tried to incite riots over the shooting death of Leonard Cure a man who tried to kill a police officer on camera during a traffic stop. Theres no dispute about this. Its on tape. Watch:

After seeing that footage, here was the Washington Post headline : Deputy fatally shoots man who served 16 years for wrongful conviction. The article begins: Leonard Cure, who was exonerated in 2020, was killed by a Georgia sheriffs deputy during a traffic stop Monday The deputy used a Taser and a baton before shooting Cure.

The Post didnt get around to mentioning that Cure tried to murder the deputy until 14 paragraphs into the story. And even then, they describe it as carefully as they can. They say Cure was forcefully grappling with the deputy and pushing the deputys head back with his hand. Thats the Posts way of saying that he was trying to choke the officer to death. And of course, Ben Crump came out and declared that Cure had been shot simply for being black.

That effort didnt catch on in quite the way the media and BLM activists had hoped. So now theyre trying again. And they will continue to try until one of two things happen. Either they get the riots they want and terrorize millions of people into voting for Democrats out of fear or, for once, normal, sane people stand up and say whats obvious. And thats the fact that Dexter Reed and Leonard Cure and all of these BLM heroes are the dregs of society. They are not role models and they are not victims. They are, in fact, the cause of many serious problems that cities like Chicago are experiencing right now. Thats the only message that can put an end to these riots before they start, and avert a repeat of the pillaging we saw in 2020. It happens to be a message that most Americans believe, even if theyre afraid to say it. But as unpleasant as it may be, its time we started saying it.