Linda Tirado Is Dying

This morning we are reached by the somber news that photojournalist Linda Tirado, who is now 42, is dying of wounds she received while covering the George Floyd riots in Minneapolis in 2020. She took every precaution, obeying police instructions and wearing protective gear including goggles. Police fired a number of "non-lethal" foam plastic bullets at protesters, and several of them struck journalists. One bullet struck Linda Tirado in the eye; she screamed "press, press!" meaning she was a reporter and not a participant. She lost her eye, which was bad enough. But it later evolved that she had also suffered traumatic brain injury that has led to dementia and continuing decline. Emily Wilkins, the 117th President of the National Press Club, said in a statement last Tuesday that "her condition has continued to worsen to the point she is at life's end and receiving palliative care." Despite a long and difficult struggle, she entered hospice in Tennessee last week.

What a waste. And what a painful result of the always brave act of reporting the news in person. (Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal is still being held in Russia for no good reason, and was recently indicted by the Russians for espionage after more than 15 months of captivity.)

Linda Tirado will leave behind her eloquent writings about the causes she thinks are important, including "Police Blinded Me in One Eye. I Can Still See Why My Country’s on Fire" at The New Republic and "This Is Why Poor People's Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense" at Huffpost. She said of herself that she became "the woman who accidentally explained poverty to the nation."

A lawsuit against the Minneapolis Police Department yielded a sizeable settlement, but her medical care soaked it all up and then some. Donations to her husband and two small children can be made via Venmo at Linda-Tirado-3.

Mike

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Featured Comments from:

John Camp: "I always feel bad when a reporter gets injured or killed covering important events, such as the riots in Minneapolis.

"That said, when I was reporting, I covered a number of violent events involving confrontations between protesters and cops. (I was one of The Miami Herald's street reporters at the 1972 Democratic and Republican conventions. I also covered the 1980 Democratic and 2008 Republican conventions for different media outlets. I covered the violent race confrontations Cairo, Illinois, and the college protests after the Kent State shootings.)

"Tirado made a serious and IMHO basic mistake that no reporter should make—she was in front of the cops and looking at them, which is the worst possible place to be. And sometimes, reporters go there for the wrong reasons—I saw a 'progressive' reporter try to push through a police line at the 2008 Republican National Convention and get arrested for it, only to later claim some sort of status as a freedom fighter. No. She was lucky she wasn't whipped with a riot baton.

"If you're covering a riot, you get behind the police, or off to one side, where you can see everything, but not be in the middle of the confrontation where you can't move. You should look like a reporter, not like a protester. You never, ever touch a cop, and you should always keep an eye on them. If it becomes necessary to run away (as it did in Miami) you should be in an early wave of runners, not the last to go. And you have to remember that the protesters often see the press as a capitalist colonizing member of the oppressor class, so you have to be wary about them, too. (I had a Herald reporter friend who covered a race riot, and seeing a black friend of his at the riot, smiled and walked toward him. Somebody else threw a brick or rock at him and cracked his skull.)

"Again, I do feel bad about Tirado, like I do when any reporter gets injured or killed. Sometimes, you have to take serious risks. And sometimes, you get hurt."

John: "Sad to hear. Reacting to John Camp’s comment: I used to be a reporter as well and I have photographed protests and riots. To me the enormous difference between riots in Europe and the US is what struck me. It was much safer to be a journalist in Europe than in the US when riots were concerned, largely because the violence from either side was less and there was no chance of guns being used.

"Nowadays, you can’t win as a journalist. If you stand close to the protesters, some of them will—as John says—harass you as either a member of the bourgeois media or a supposed undercover cop (while the real cops film you as a member of the protesters) and the cops will go after just about everybody in their way if/when they charge. If you stand with the cops, you can be sure the protesters think you’re a cop, plus you can only take photographs of the back of the action."

Comments

[John Krumm]

The cops in Minneapolis were reckless and injured scores of people needlessly. Eye injuries were common, though this particular case is unusual and tragic. I’m in activist circles with a couple former Guard members who were patrolling the riots. They loaded regular bullets in their rifles, not rubber, and were told that anyone violating curfew was an enemy. Now, they regret participating and they hold signs for Palestine.

[John]

Sad to hear.

Reacting to John Camp’s comment: I used to be a reporter as well and I have photographed protests and riots. To me the enormous difference between riots in Europe and the US is what struck me. It was much safer to be a journalist in Europe than in the US when riots were concerned, largely because the violence from either side was less and there was no chance of guns being used.

Nowadays, you can’t win as a journalist. If you stand close to the protesters, some of them will - as John says - harass you as either a member of the bourgeois media or a supposed undercover cop (while the real cops film you as a member of the protesters) and the cops will go after just about everybody in their way if/when they charge. If you stand with the cops, you can be sure the protesters think you’re a cop, plus you can only take photographs of the back of the action.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Tragic, very bad indeed.

Does, however, confirm my decision NOT to go out and try to take pictures on the nights of the actual protest (putting it off is what lead to my Words Over Windows project, shot starting a couple of days after the biggest excitement).

[Paul M]

What you should definitely not do is be a police officer firing a rubber bullet into a woman's eye. Or a man's eye.

My uncle was at a peaceful demonstration in Northern Ireland and was hit in the head with "rubber bullet" #euphamism and was never the same afterwards.

These demonstrations are always made more, not less chaotic, by police brutality. Casting the blame on someone who lost her eye and is losing her life because she got shot in the face would be an advanced case of victim blaming.