The surrender of a man from Cleveland County, North Carolina, to police near the U.S. Capitol on Thursday — following a tense standoff with police after he drove onto the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress and claimed to have a bomb — may have ended the episode, but it illustrates how the media chooses to report such events.
Floyd Ray Roseberry of Grover, North Carolina, drove onto the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress and told students on a class trip from the University of Wisconsin visiting the nation’s capital that he wanted them to tell police to evacuate the street. Kelsey Campbell, one of the students, told the Associated Press that the man had a large sum of dollars in his hands, and told her and another student, “Hey, call the police, tell them to evacuate this street, and I’ll give you all this money.” When they refused, the man threw the money at them, whereupon they ran away and told some officers standing close by what had happened.
This led to Roseberry’s wishes being granted — police evacuated nearby buildings and blockaded streets. Police then began negotiations for Roseberry to evacuate his truck.
But following Roseberry’s arrest about five hours later, officers searched the vehicle and found no explosives.
The AP report of the incident noted that Roseberry expressed hostility toward President Joe Biden, warned of a coming revolution, and criticized U.S. positions on Afghanistan, healthcare, and the military. In their report, they said that the suspect voiced a “litany of anti-government grievances,” and quoted his ex-wife that he was “an avid collector of firearms.”
The report added that Roseberry attended a rally last November to protest what thousands of Trump supporters claim was a stolen election, noting that the hundreds of protesters were carrying American flags and shouting “stop the steal.”
Other media reports make it clear that Roseberry is most likely suffering from mental problems. During the standoff with police, Roseberry was live on Facebook saying that he wanted to “get Joe Biden on the phone.” Roseberry’s pastor of more than 20 years, Bishop Brady Jackson, said he had not ever heard Roseberry express any political beliefs until recently, not even telling people who he would have voted for. “That’s not Ray,” Jackson said. “He’s a good guy. I don’t know what happened to him.”
One might note that when someone expresses opposition to President Donald Trump, the media understandably refers to those individuals as “anti-Trump.” But if someone expresses opposition to a Democratic president such as Biden, the person suddenly is “anti-government.” One would think that the rally in which Roseberry participated last year — the one with American flags — would hardly be accurately described as anti-government. Amazingly, when groups such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter were involved in demonstrations that included looting and arson — even burning down businesses and police stations — the media called them “mostly peaceful protests.” They were not described as “anti-government,” even though participants regularly denounced, in very harsh terms, both local police officers and President Trump. (Trump was, at the time, the chief executive officer of the United States government).
One only needs to compare the coverage of the January 6 incursion into the U.S. Capitol with the attempts to storm the barricades outside of the White House last summer to be struck by the different way the media covers such episodes. One would think that the attempted storming of the White House and the attempted burning down of a nearby church building was at least as serious as what happened in January, yet the media chose to focus their criticisms on Trump for visiting the church the next day, dismissing it as a mere photo-op. When protesters were blocking the president’s path to the church, the media generally condemned government officials for clearing a path.
And it is not just the media. The FBI declared the shooting of U.S. Congressman Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, by a supporter of socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (who caucuses with the Democrats) as “suicide-by-cop,” rather than the act of political violence it clearly was. Considering there were no cops around at the time, this was clearly a politically inspired conclusion by the leadership of the FBI.
Perhaps over time, we will learn more about Roseberry and his motives. Certainly, no one should be threatening to set off explosives, even if he possesses no explosives. But adding in the story that Roseberry has guns is only relevant if one wants to associate the millions of Americans who also own firearms and have never committed any acts of violence, or even threatened such, suggests a political motive.
Marching in a protest, or owning a firearm, is not anti-government. It is simply exercising one’s rights protected under the first two amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
