|
?:reviewBody
|
-
In July 2020, readers asked us to examine the accuracy of news articles that claimed 20-year-old Ohio man Isaiah Jackson had been arrested in connection with a photograph, shared widely online, which showed a Black man kneeling on a white toddler's neck, along with the caption BLM now mf. On July 23, the New York Post published an article with the headline Ohio Man Seen Kneeling on 2-Year-Old Boy's Neck Arrested. The article reported that: An Ohio man seen kneeling on the neck of a 2-year-old boy on social media has been arrested, authorities said Thursday. Isaiah Jackson, 20, was booked into jail on a probation violation after the Clark County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation Tuesday into the photo, which depicts a man with his knee on the back of a white child neck’s along with a caption, 'Blm now mf.' A second person is also seen behind the child holding the youngster’s hands behind his back. Similar articles were published by the Washington Times and local news channels WHIO and WKEF/WRGT. The core claim in those reports -- that Jackson was identified by police as the man in the photograph, and that he had been arrested in connection with it -- was accurate. When this fact check was first published in July 2020, Jackson had not been charged or convicted in relation to the incident shown in the photograph. However, since then, prosecutors in Clark County, Ohio, charged Jackson with third-degree felony abduction, to which he pleaded guilty. In October 2020, a judge sentenced Jackson to three years of community control probation. Technically speaking, police originally arrested Jackson on the basis of an alleged unrelated parole violation, though they sought him out and located him during their investigation into the photograph, and Jackson subsequently pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony abduction charge in relation to the actions shown in the photograph. This fact check's rating was originally Mostly True, but in light of developments that took place after the article was originally published, we are changing the rating to True. Internet users began sharing the photograph on July 21, 2020. It appears to have originally been posted to an unidentified Snapchat account. The image shows a man posing for the camera while kneeling on the back of the neck of a toddler who appears to be crying and is lying face down while a second adult holds the toddler's hands behind his back. At the bottom of the photograph, a banner caption reads Blm now mf (Black Lives Matter now, motherfucker.) The photograph may be disturbing to some readers, but it can be viewed here. On July 23, the Clark County Sheriff's Office announced in a statement that its investigations into the photograph had led them to identify 20-year-old Isaiah Jackson as the man seen kneeling on the toddler, and that he had been arrested on the basis of an outstanding parole detainer, meaning he was alleged to have violated the conditions of his parole in relation to a separate case. The statement read: Clark County Sheriff's Office records showed that Jackson was arrested at 10:50 a.m. on July 21 and booked into the county jail some 15 minutes later. Those records indicated that he was arrested on the basis of a probation violation but it was, in fact, an alleged parole violation, according to the Sheriff's Department's news release. As of July 27, Jackson was still incarcerated in the county jail. It's unclear what the nature of Jackson's alleged parole violation was, or what conviction it related to. However, Clark County Court of Common Pleas records show that in January 2019, Jackson pleaded guilty to charges of third-degree felony burglary and first-degree misdemeanor domestic violence. He was sentenced to six months in prison on the domestic violence charge, to be served concurrently with an 18-month sentence on the burglary charge, with credit for time already served. According to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction records, Jackson was released from the Madison Correctional Institution on May 17, 2020, but placed under Adult Parole Authority supervision for a period of three years. Snopes asked the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction for the details surrounding the alleged parole violation that prompted Jackson's arrest in Clark County, and we will update this fact check if and when we receive a response. Jackson's domestic violence conviction related to an incident in September 2018 in which he was found to have deliberately rammed his truck into a car he knew was being driven by a woman with whom he has a daughter in common. The arresting officer in the case testified that the woman had said Jackson was becoming [increasingly] aggressive and violent with her, threatening her and her family. The photograph and Jackson's arrest quickly became the subject of intensive, racially tinged outrage and discussion because the caption that accompanied the photograph mentioned the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and due to the perceived racial dynamics at play (Jackson's race was listed as Black in Clark County Sheriff's Department records, and the toddler was widely described as being white, although we could not verify that claim). However, it's unknown whether the pose was intended as an earnest gesture of anti-white bias or antipathy on Jackson's part, as opposed to a distasteful attempt at humor. Our examination of a Facebook profile that appears to belong to Jackson did not reveal further evidence of racial antipathy on his part. Despite a rush, from some quarters, to condemn the Black Lives Matter movement by association with Jackson, our research did not uncover evidence of any earnest involvement in, or even commentary on, the broader Black Lives Matter movement, racial injustice or police brutality, on the part of Jackson. After this fact check was published, Snopes obtained a copy of police reports from the Clark County Sheriff's Office investigation into the incident. They showed that a third party, not Jackson himself, had claimed responsibility for posting the photograph online, and adding the Blm now mf caption. In addition, Jackson told investigating officers that his actions were intended only as a joke, but acknowledged that the pose shown in the photograph was an allusion to the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, in May 2020. In that incident, police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on the back of Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes, despite the pleas of Floyd and onlookers. Two autopsies concluded that Chauvin's actions led to Floyd's death, which sparked renewed nationwide and international protests against police brutality and racial injustice led by the Black Lives Matter movement. In April 2021, a jury in Hennepin County, Minnesota found Chauvin guilty of three charges: second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. After the conclusion of the police investigation, Clark County prosecutors charged Jackson with third-degree felony abduction in August 2020, citing an Ohio statute which states that: In Ohio, that offense carries a maximum prison sentence of up to three years. Jackson pleaded guilty, and on Oct. 30, 2020, Judge Douglas Rastatter sentenced him to serve 101 days in prison, as well as three years of community control probation. Since Jackson had already been in prison for 101 days between July and October 2020, he was released on probation on Oct. 30, 2020.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}