Snopes 'Fact-Checks' That Racist Attack on an LA Sheriff's Deputy

Bonchie reporting for RedState

A few days ago, bodycam footage of a racist attack on an LASD deputy came out. That followed the attempt by the racist attacker, a black woman, to file a false claim of harassment after the incident. Left with no other choice but to clear his name, the deputy, who had purchased his own bodycam, released the video to show what actually happened.

RedState covered the original story when it broke (see A Racist Attack on a Police Officer Lead to a Harassment Claim, Then the Body-Cam Footage Got Released).

While the mainstream media mostly blacked out the story, which would have been top of the news had the roles been reversed, the supposed “fact-checking” site Snopes decided to mention it. They did so by making an absurd claim that the “authenticity of the footage remains under question.”

Yes, they are spinning this as the video possibly being fake.

One of the chief tools in the arsenal of these “fact-checkers” is splitting hairs in a partisan fashion to come to a preferred conclusion. That’s exactly what happens in this Snopes piece.

If you read through it, they admit we know the officer’s name. It’s also admitted that the LASD acknowledges that 1) the encounter happened and 2) that a harassment claim was made. Heck, even the LA County Sheriff, Alex Villaneuva, tweeted about the racist attack, sharing the footage and lauding the deputy. Are we to believe the Sheriff himself is sharing inauthentic footage?

Further, we know the woman in the car is an actual teacher in the area. That has been investigated, including her past employment, though, her name is not being publicly released yet.

Despite that, here’s what Snopes is latching onto to claim the entire video is unproven.

But, most importantly to this report, Schrader told us whether the footage indeed depicted an authentic encounter between a deputy and civilian was also under investigation as of this writing.

What Snopes is doing here is taking a boiler-plate answer to the question about the footage, reading way too much into it, then spinning into a question of the actual authenticity of the video. Of course, the LASD is going to say the encounter is under investigation when asked. They have to say that, and the incident overall is indeed under investigation so as to decide what steps need to be taken next. That doesn’t mean the authenticity of the video itself or the encounter is unproven as Snopes claims.

This is simple. The woman in the car is real, the officer is real, the racist attack was real, and the harassment claim filed was real. To still suggest, after everything we know, that the video is “unproven” is laughable. If a “fact-checking” site can’t come to the conclusion that this video is authentic based on everything that’s already confirmed about it, they are simply choosing not to do so for political reasons.

Imagine if Snopes had come out initially and claimed the George Floyd footage was “unproven.” That’s basically what they are doing here. If they are going to make such an absurd claim, they should explain exactly what the alternative possibility they are leaving open is. Is the video staged? Is it CGI with deep fake voices? We all know it’s not, and to suggest such via an “unproven” rating is lunacy.