The preponderance of racist comments prompted the website TheHill to shut down comments on a story about a police officer who killed two unarmed Black Florida teens who alleged were in a stolen car that was moving toward one of the officers.
Based on the video, two police officers were trailing the reportedly stolen car, which pulled into a driveway only to back out and face the two officers, who had exited their vehicles and unholstered their weapons. The officers shouted commands to the two boys in the car, and one of the officers fired into the car when, he claims, the driver turned the wheels toward him.
The story on the shooting death of Angelo Crooms, 16, and Sincere Pierce, 18, in Cocoa, Florida sparked an outpouring of racism and bigotry in the comments section, a typical reaction from the denizens of TheHill’s disqus boards. TheHill rarely deletes hate speech and threats in their comments section, and posters who complain about the irregular moderation of comments typically get their accounts suspended or banned from TheHill.
“Being black does not make you above the law!” announces one comment. “Hopefully the county will reimburse Santiago-Mirandafor for [sic] bullets rendered,” states another. “2 less hood rat fcks to deal with. The sky is bluer,” says a third. “Two more criminals out of circulation. Little gang bangers” says another.
The sentiment of most of the commenters is summed up by this post: “Didn’t these cops know that blacks are above reproach? They are fragile people who should be indulged as spoiled children and society is never to hold them accountable for their actions regardless of how egregious.”
About 20 of the 279 comments were deleted. There does not seem to be any video comments in the unpopular Yappa video comment section TheHill introduced month ago.