How Politicians and Mainstream Media Spurred Riots in America: On-the-Ground Journalist

Violent riots that have led to looting, arson, and murder in American cities over the past two years have been spurred on by the media and political system, said Julio Rosas, a senior writer at Townhall.

The riot that took place after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is an example of how media coverage and politicians could aggravate the situation.

“Admittedly, when the first video came out showing what happened to Jacob Blake, it did look bad,” Rosas said in a recent interview for EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program. “But also my next reaction was, ‘OK, wait, wait … what happened before that? Because none of this makes sense.”

Rosas then found out that Blake was armed with a knife and was getting ready to kidnap the children in the backseat of the car, so the cops were trying to avoid a police chase with kids in the backseat.

In this video released by lawyer Ben Crump, Jacob Blake delivers a message from a hospital bed in Kenosha, Wis., on Sept. 5, 2020. (@AttorneyCrump Twitter account/AFP via Getty Images)

Blake was shot by a police officer while he was resisting arrest by attempting to enter a vehicle with children in it. Three police officers tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant after receiving a call from a woman who said her boyfriend was at her house but was not supposed to be there.

There were already riots happening in different cities after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis earlier that year.

“In 2020, the automatic reaction to something like that was like, ‘Well, we’re just going to start burning things down, we’re going to start attacking everything in sight.’ And that’s what happened,” Rosas said.

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