On Wednesday, Bishop Talbert Swan, senior pastor of the Spring of Hope Church of God in Christ in Springfield, Massachusetts, sent out a tweet about the Minneapolis police officer who is alleged to have choked an unarmed African American man, George Floyd, on Monday after pinning him to the ground with his knee.
Floyd “was <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2020/05/26/us/minneapolis-police-encounter-death-trnd/index.html">declared dead</a> at a nearby hospital shortly afterwards,” according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/27/us/minneapolis-protests-george-floyd/index.html">CNN</a>.
The tweet contained a side-by-side featuring two photos – a still image from the bystander video of the incident in question, and another of a man allegedly wearing a “Make Whites Great Again” hat.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Here is Derek Chauvin, the racist cop who kept his knee on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GeorgeFloyd</a>’s neck, cut off his air passage and murdered him, wearing a “Make Whites Great Again” hat, a clear sign that this piece of excrement should’ve been taken off the streets a long time ago.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JusticeForFloyd?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JusticeForFloyd</a> <a href="https://t.co/KxGxHAIzlH">pic.twitter.com/KxGxHAIzlH</a>
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) <a href="https://twitter.com/TalbertSwan/status/1265497046473158663?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
The tweet reads: “Here is Derek Chauvin, the racist cop who kept his knee on <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hashtag_click">#GeorgeFloyd</a>’s neck, cut off his air passage and murdered him, wearing a ‘Make Whites Great Again’ hat, a clear sign that this piece of excrement should’ve been taken off the streets a long time ago. #JusticeFor Floyd.”
The tweet has approximately 39,400 “likes” and has been retweeted more than 22,400 times as of publication.
Here’s the issue – as many have now pointed out on social media, the man in the second photo isn’t Derek Chauvin.
Ngo’s Tweet elicited a response from Swan, who wrote in two tweets:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Your mango messiah just threatened to withhold monies from Michigan and other states based on a lie.
He lied on the world health organization.
He lied about his response to the pandemic.
He lies on the media, politicians, every day citizens.
He’s a disinformation machine. <a href="https://t.co/jOziftHCvD">https://t.co/jOziftHCvD</a>
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) <a href="https://twitter.com/TalbertSwan/status/1265682298541875203?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>You’re calling on <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/Twitter">@Twitter</a> to fact check verified users who spread disinformation, when you trumptrash bigots eat up all of the lies, innuendo, conspiracy theories, and disinformation that he rage tweets incessantly on a daily basis? You can’t be serious.
Your mango messiah just threatened to withhold monies from Michigan and other states based on a lie. He lied on the world health organization. He lied about his response to the pandemic. He lies on the media, politicians, every day citizens. He’s a disinformation machine.</blockquote>
Pollster and political consultant Frank Luntz also replied to Swan’s tweet, <a href="https://twitter.com/ssgainey/status/1265730435751055360?s=20">identifying</a> the man in the other photo as Jonathan Lee Riches: “That&#8217;s not the same guy. Don&#8217;t complain about Trump spreading lies if you&#8217;re going to do the same thing.”
HuffPost’s Luke O’Brien further detailed Riches’ identity and his alleged history of trolling in a <a href="https://twitter.com/lukeobrien/status/1265671834453901313?s=20">series of tweets</a>:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The man on the right isn’t Derek Chauvin. He isn’t a cop. He is Jonathan Lee Riches, a notorious con man, troll and prankster, not to mention the &#8220;world&#8217;s most litigious man.&#8221; Riches injects himself, indefensibly, into tragic news events, even if it means going to prison. <a href="https://t.co/Y66mXihrYB">https://t.co/Y66mXihrYB</a>
— Luke O&#8217;Brien (@lukeobrien) <a href="https://twitter.com/lukeobrien/status/1265671832788701185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
In a subsequent tweet, O’Brien stated that Riches had <a href="https://twitter.com/lukeobrien/status/1265671835179507713?s=20">reached out</a> to him, and claimed that the writing on his hat had been “photoshopped.” However, O’Brien later tweeted another photo in which Riches is wearing a seemingly <a href="https://twitter.com/lukeobrien/status/1265671835963854849?s=20">identical hat</a>.
The misidentification has continued, with rapper and actor Ice Cube also tweeting out the side-by-side image:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A wolf in wolves clothing. The demons are among us. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Fightthecowards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Fightthecowards</a> <a href="https://t.co/UYw7zXNabQ">pic.twitter.com/UYw7zXNabQ</a>
— Ice Cube (@icecube) <a href="https://twitter.com/icecube/status/1265623592764534784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
The tweet has over 88,000 “likes” and has been retweeted more than 33,900 times. Swan also retweeted Ice Cube’s tweet.
Fact-checking website Snopes has even jumped into the fray, labeling the photo as “<a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/make-whites-great-again-hat/">miscaptioned</a>.”
As for Riches’ claim that the photo was doctored, Snopes writes: “We examined the photograph and see no obvious signs of digital editing. Riches also could not produce the original, undoctored photograph.”
Despite the calls to delete the tweets, neither Swan nor Ice Cube have pulled them down as of publication.
This isn’t Swan’s first rodeo. According to <a href="https://www.masslive.com/news/2018/09/twitter_lifts_permanent_ban_on.html">MassLive</a>, Swan was reportedly banned from Twitter in 2018, but later reinstated.
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Massachusetts Pastor And Rapper Ice Cube Tweet Photo Misidentifying ‘Cop’ Wearing ‘Make Whites Great Again’ Hat