Massachusetts Pastor And Rapper Ice Cube Tweet Photo Misidentifying ‘Cop’ Wearing ‘Make Whites Great Again’ Hat
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.
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.
The tweet reads: “Here is Derek Chauvin, the racist cop who kept his knee on
#GeorgeFloyd’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.”
Here’s the issue – as many have now pointed out on social media, the man in the second photo isn’t Derek Chauvin.
Journalist Andy Ngo
tweeted: “How many people have you wrongly identified to your audience of tens of thousands?
@Twitter needs to fact check verified users who spread disinformation.”
Ngo’s Tweet elicited a response from Swan, who wrote in two tweets:
Pollster and political consultant Frank Luntz also replied to Swan’s tweet,
identifying the man in the other photo as Jonathan Lee Riches: “That’s not the same guy. Don’t complain about Trump spreading lies if you’re going to do the same thing.”
HuffPost’s Luke O’Brien further detailed Riches’ identity and his alleged history of trolling in a
series of tweets:
The misidentification has continued, with rapper and actor Ice Cube also tweeting out the side-by-side image:
Fact-checking website Snopes has even jumped into the fray, labeling the photo as “
miscaptioned.”
Despite the calls to delete the tweets, neither Swan nor Ice Cube have pulled them down as of publication.
