How the NYPD Union Is Manufacturing Outrage About a 70-Year-Old Black Panther’s Parole

By Natasha Lennard

Judging by tabloid headlines appearing on New York City newsstands, it might appear as though hundreds of thousands of people object to the release of former Black Panther Herman Bell from prison. That’s how many letters, the tabloids proclaim, were written in protest of the New York State Parole Board’s decision last month to release the 70-year-old prisoner, after 45 years behind bars.

“367,000 reasons not to parole cop-killer Herman Bell,” pronounced a New York Post editorial, noting that “more than 367,000 online letters were sent to the state Board of Parole following its recent decision to release cop killer Herman Bell.” The city’s other big tabloid, the New York Daily News, cited the same figure, attributing it to the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.

That sounds like an awful lot of people, but it’s not. Neither tabloid bothers to clarify that this figure in no way represents 367,000 individual people writing in protest of Bell’s release. In fact, the huge number of letters was automatically generated by fewer that 6,000 individual complaints made via the NYC PBA website.

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Source: The Intercept_