Police Deployed to Newsrooms in N.Y. and Chicago in Wake of Annapolis Shooting

As news of the shooting at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md., broke, police officers rushed to secure the office of The New York Times in the Big Apple. Five people have died in the shooting so far.

There aren’t usually NYPD officers lined up at the entrance to the NYT building. One of them said it was a “precaution” after the newsroom shooting in Annapolis. pic.twitter.com/Y7cWULCe2i

— Liam Stack (@liamstack) June 28, 2018

The motive of the shooter, whom police have identified as a white male in his 20s, remains unknown. Some have rushed to blame President Donald Trump, who referred to members of the hostile mainstream media as the “enemy of the American people.” The timing on this does not make sense, however.

More ominously, alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos texted this week that he “can’t wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight.”

Perhaps since The New York Times is America’s newspaper of record, it stands to reason that police should defend it amid a shooting targeting another news outlet. While PJ Media has often criticized The New York Times (and I myself have written disparagingly of their slanted reporting many times), we would never call for attacks on their offices or for any harm to be done to them whatsoever. PJ Media stands in solidarity with journalists everywhere in condemning this attack. Je suis Capital Gazette.

Even so, it is wise to refrain from jumping to conclusions until the actual motives of the shooter are known. Americans should pray for the victims and rededicate themselves to civility.

Update:

Police have been deployed to multiple newsrooms in New York City and Chicago, CBS News reported.

"As a precaution, police in New York and Chicago have also been deployed to media organizations while the nature of this attack is being investigated…although there is no specific threat at this time," @adrianasdiaz says. #CapitalGazette https://t.co/eWjaC4dGlq pic.twitter.com/AeAzSrdDvF

— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 28, 2018

Police have been spotted at ABC News, the Boston Globe reported.

#NYPD posted outside @ABC7NY studios and all local media outlets out of an abundance of caution after #annapolisshooting #NYPDProtecting pic.twitter.com/6zlZivdGrn

— CeFaan Kim (@CeFaanKim) June 28, 2018

Many major news organizations, including ABC, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, CBS, CNN, Fox News, NBC, the New York Daily News, The New York Times, Reuters, and Viacom, among others, are based in the Big Apple.