Media Hypocrisy and Double Standards

The father of Sylville Smith, an armed black man who was fatally shot by Milwaukee police, sparking a wave of violent protests over the weekend, says his son was a product of bad parenting.

“What are we gonna do now? Everyone playing their part in this city, blaming the white guy or whatever, and we know what they’re doing,” Patrick Smith told a local Fox News affiliate. “These young kids gotta realize this is all a game with them. Like they’re playing Monopoly. You young kids falling into their world, what they want you to do. Everything you do is programmed.”

Mr. Smith blamed himself for being a bad role model for his 23-year-old son, who was shot by a black police officer after refusing orders to drop a loaded handgun, which turned out to be stolen, during a traffic stop in Milwaukee’s north side.

“I had to blame myself for a lot of things, too, because your hero is your dad and I played a very big part in my family’s role model for them,” Mr. Smith said. “Being on the street, doing things of the street life: Entertaining, drug dealing and pimping, and they’re looking at their dad like, ‘He’s doing all these things.’ I got out of jail two months ago, but I’ve been going back and forth in jail and they see those things. So I’d like to apologize to my kids because this is the role model they look up to. When they see the wrong role model, this is what you get.”