text: As you may know, on late Sunday evening, while riding the train in Oakland, a white man targeted two young Black women on the train, without ever saying a word to them, and killed one – a beautiful young soul named Nia Wilson, an 18 year old high school student, and critically injured her sister – stabbing and slashing them both with a knife – then simply walking away. 
   
   I spent all day yesterday doing everything I could to make this story into national news and was prepared this morning to come on and talk about how we needed to work harder to find Nia’s killer, but I am glad to report that at about 6pm West Coast time, John Lee Cowell, a brutal man with a history of violence across his entire life, was arrested and charged with Nia’s murder. 
   
   I wanna comment on a few things about this case that grieve me. 
   
   Nia Wilson, above all, was a teenage girl. She was a high school senior – the exact same age of my oldest daughter. And yesterday, after just a few hours of sharing her story, I saw something truly sick starting to unfold. First, a local news station in the Bay Area shared an image of Nia holding what looked like a gun. Why did they share that image? What were they trying to convey? And, as it turns out, she wasn’t holding a gun in that image, it was a cell phone case with a gun handle. It was a basically a gag – and the local news showed it like it said something about Nia’s character. She literally posted nearly 1,000 wonderful photos of her life on Instagram and Facebook, and they chose that one. 
   
   Even in death, local news media finds a way to demean us. It’s why I believe so much in having our own outlets, our own platforms, our own morning shows, where we define our own stories and narratives without that type of ugliness. 
   
   Secondly, last night in Oakland thousands of people, including members of Nia’s own family, showed up to her outdoor vigil. Now I don’t need to explain this to our listeners, but this was a moment of pain, and grief, and support. And white supremacists from the group Proud Boys, wearing red Make American Great Again hats, literally showed up to interrupt the vigil. 
   
   Let me pause right here for a moment. 
   
   Never – in the entire history of this country – will you find an example of white people coming together to grieve the brutal murder of their loved one – the day after it happened – only to have their grief physically interrupted by belligerent Black folk telling them that they are worthless. It’s never happened. It never will happen. 
   
   How cruel, how evil, how heartless, how crass, how foul do you have to be, how rotten must you be from the inside out, how dry and dead must your soul be – to have the idea that you want to interrupt grieving people and demean them the day after their loved one was murdered? 
   
   I wanna linger here for a moment because I think it gives us a real glimpse into the sick psychology of exactly who we are dealing with and fighting against. They interrupt our grief because they don’t even really see us as fully human. 
   
   Let me close with this final thought. 
   
   This morning I saw the video of the arrest of John Lee Cowell. Police don’t draw their guns. They don’t slam him to the concrete and put their knees into his back while putting on his handcuffs. They don’t Taser him. They don’t choke him. 
   
   You’d think they were arresting a man for writing a bad check or stealing a shirt from a department store. 
   
   And so often after we see a horrible incident of police brutality against Black folk, we talk about how American police need more training and better training. I’ve said that myself, but police show us over and over and over again – with white men who are considered armed and dangerous – who’ve just brutally murdered people – that they are fully willing and able to remain calm, and cool, and collected, and methodical – whenever they feel like it. 
   
   All these years we thought they needed to be trained on how to make a peaceful arrest – and it turns out they’re great at it – even with the most vicious and violent murderers – if they’re white. 
   
   We’re not saying that the police should’ve beaten or choked or shot or maimed or Tasered this man, we’re saying that we want unarmed, non-violent Black folk to get the same treatment American police are so willing able to give dangerous white murderers. ||||| Viewers of local Oakland news station KTVU are expressing outrage after the station used a photo of slain teen Nia Wilson holding what appears to be a gun during a broadcast about her murder. 
   
   On Sunday night, 18-year-old Wilson died after she and her sister, 26-year-old Lahtifa Wilson, were stabbed in the neck by 27-year-old suspect John Lee Cowell while they were attempting to get onto a BART train. Her sister was hospitalized overnight, and after a day-long manhunt, BART police arrested Cowell on Monday evening, according to SFGate. So far, the stabbings have been characterized as “random,” though police haven’t eliminated the idea that the crime was racially motivated. 
   
   Across social media, critics of the news station have shared snapshots of the broadcast’s use of the photo. It seems the photo is from Wilson’s Facebook page, where she has posted tens of other photos that news outlets could have used for stories regarding her death. 
   
   Fuck you @KTVU this is beyond unethical. A Black woman was brutally murdered by a white terrorist and this is the photo you decide to show? Y’all are disgusting. pic.twitter.com/MyQ7p2GVBw — Brotha B (@BlakeDontCrack) July 23, 2018 
   
   Everyone please call @ktvu and demand that they issue an apology for this shameful coverage, two young black women victims of white terrorism and this is how they choose to depict them? Unacceptable, Call them now! (510) 874-0242 #NiaWilson #JusticeforNia #justiceforniawilson pic.twitter.com/gXUrNc8wXP — Kenny Foster (@KentaviousPrime) July 23, 2018 
   
   https://twitter.com/Whendidiaskyou/status/1021493414221754374 
   
   https://twitter.com/dovielove_/status/1021475047926464512 
   
   So @KTVU decided to put this picture up about Nia Wilson We demand an apology ASAP pic.twitter.com/LpNIRimUh1 — NEW ACCOUNT (@TheLakeSh0wKing) July 23, 2018 
   
   Someone needs to be fired at @KTVU for choosing a picture of Nia with a gun in her hand when dozens of innocent and beautiful pictures available. We have to stop criminalizing black victims in 2018!!! — Nia (@notoriouslynia) July 23, 2018 
   
   Dear @KTVU, What was the reasoning behind showing this photo of murdered #NiaWilson? I'm certain you had plenty to choose from of the slain 18-year old Oakland teen? Why this picture of her holding a (fake) gun? We'd like to know. pic.twitter.com/W4SHhERGOK — Khaled Beydoun (@KhaledBeydoun) July 24, 2018 
   
   Many have bashed the station for depicting Wilson, the victim of a murder, in a way that characterizes her as a troublemaker or a criminal, contributing to the narrative that Black people who are victims of violence are “deserving” of violence, or “contributing” to the violence against themselves. 
   
   “Why did they share that image? What were they trying to convey? And, as it turns out, she wasn’t holding a gun in that image, it was a cell phone case with a gun handle. It was a [sic] basically a gag—and the local news showed it like it said something about Nia’s character. She literally posted nearly 1,000 wonderful photos of her life on Instagram and Facebook, and they chose that one,” writer Shaun King, who has boosted Wilson’s story throughout the search for her murderer, wrote on Facebook. “Even in death, local news media finds a way to demean us. It’s why I believe so much in having our own outlets, our own platforms, our own morning shows, where we define our own stories and narratives without that type of ugliness.” 
   
   In previous high-profile murders of Black teenagers, such as Trayvon Martin and the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, the media used photos that portrayed the teens negatively. Some 2012 stories of Martin showed photos of him wearing a hoodie, smoking, wearing a grill, or raising his middle fingers. In 2014, images of Brown showed him holding a peace sign, which some tried to characterize as a gang sign. After garnering criticism, publications later began showing a high school graduation photo of Brown in his cap, gown, and graduation stole. 
   
   At the time, critics used the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown to ask which photo the media would use if they were to be murdered, providing options such as graduation photos or employment headshots, and party photos. People using the hashtag made the point that regardless of how they seem in a “party photo,” they were still the same accomplished person depicted in the other pictures. 
   
   In response to KTVU’s use of the photo, the hashtag has also been revived. 
   
   This is the literal reason that #IfTheyGunnedMeDown was created… as many pictures as there are of #NiaWilson that @KTVU would choose to use this photo of the VICTIM is not only irresponsible- it’s malicious, it’s cold- it’s what we’ve come to expect with black lives & media. https://t.co/OXGq2lAWM2 — C.J. Lawrence (@CJLawrenceEsq) July 24, 2018 
   
   KTVU anchor Frank Somerville shared an apology to his Facebook page on Monday afternoon, about four hours after the broadcast, stating there was “no excuse” for the station to use that photo of Wilson, and that it was a “huge mistake” that the staff is “mortified by.” Somerville included three other photos of Wilson in his post. 
   
   “We NEVER should have used that picture. It was a huge mistake on our part. We realized it instantly. And that picture will NEVER appear on our air again. We had a lot of pictures to choose from and unfortunately that was one of the ones we used. Again there was no excuse for that. And my belief is that when you make a mistake you own up to it. And that was our mistake. A big mistake,” Somerville wrote. “Nia was a beautiful young girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. From me, and all of us at KTVU, I can’t say enough how sorry we are.” 
   
   (A KTVU newsroom staff member forwarded along the Daily Dot’s request for comment and referenced Somerville’s post for the time being. Somerville also addressed the photo on KTVU’s evening broadcast.) 
   
   I wanted to take a moment and apologize for a picture that KTVU showed on the air for several seconds today about the… Posted by Frank Somerville KTVU on Monday, July 23, 2018 
   
   Somerville’s post has been shared 2,500 times and has received nearly 5,000 reactions. Many readers rejected his apology, writing that the damage had already been done. Some asserted that the use of imagery depicting Black victims and victims of color is used far too often, showing that the use of Wilson’s photo wasn’t a mistake as much as it was a conscious, oft-made decision. 
   
   “This girl senselessly lost her life to a lunatic and you (the media), turned her into a suspect in her own death by using that picture….and took the focus off of the animal that actually did it. That’s what the media ALWAYS does to victims of color,” commenter Patricia Lyn Butler wrote. 
   
   “This happens all too frequently and it’s difficult to believe that no one in the newsroom took notice that this was not an appropriate photo for this story. If an error like this can be made, then there needs to be some significant and swift changes at KTVU,” another commenter, LaTanya McNeil-Jones, wrote. 
   
   KTVU also came under fire in 2013 when they ran fake, offensive names of pilots involved in the crash of Asiana Flight 214 at the San Francisco International Airport. At least three veteran producers were fired after alleging the pilots names were “Capt. Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk, and Bang Ding Ow,” SFGate reported at the time. 
   
   The evening after her murder, Oakland residents hosted a “Say Her Name” vigil and march at the MacArthur BART Station in Wilson’s honor. Wilson’s family has also set up a GoFundMe page, which has received more than $23,000 in donations over the past day. ||||| Tweet with a location 
   
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target: – Sisters Nia and Lahtifa Wilson were headed home from a family gathering Sunday night when the unthinkable happened: Police say 27-year-old paroled felon John Lee Cowell fatally stabbed 18-year-old Nia in a "prison-style attack" on an Oakland train station platform; her 26-year-old sister was injured. Police have framed the attack as random, though many have speculated over whether there was racial motivation involved. And in the aftermath of Nia's death, a national conversation has emerged around race that has reeled in some big-name celebs and brought a thoughtful post from Anne Hathaway that's generating headlines. The timeline: Outrage erupted and F-bombs got lobbed over Oakland news station KTVU's coverage of Wilson's death. Its report featured a photo of Wilson from her Facebook page; in it, she appears to be holding a gun. The Daily Dot notes Wilson's page featured "tens of other photos" that could have been used in place of that image. Many said the choice fueled a larger trend involving the criminalization of black victims. And it wasn't even a gun. As Shaun King explains in a lengthy Facebook post, it was just a cell-phone case with a gun handle, "basically a gag– and the local news showed it like it said something about Nia’s character. ... Even in death, local news media finds a way to demean us."