The Huffington Post, an anti-death penalty outlet, has a story about the escape from maximum security of two New York killers. It's titled, "Escaped Murderers Left Behind Racist 'Have a Nice Day' Note." The story begins thusly:
Richard Matt and David Sweat, the two men who were discovered this weekend to have escaped a maximum security prison in upstate New York, left a parting message: "Have a nice day!" But they certainly didn't mean it in a nice way.
Matt, 48, and Sweat, 34, reportedly left the taunting note prior to their escape. The two men, both convicted murderers, were discovered missing early Saturday morning from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York...
The note also includes a racist image -- a "yellow square of paper with a smiling, bucktoothed face," as the Associated Press describes it.
The Huffington Post's article contains not a single word about the grisly nature of the killings, nor about the fact that even the tightest security could not keep the public safe from whatever these escapees have planned next. This would not be a source of concern had they been executed.
It's telling, and mind-bending, that from a certain point of view, what is newsworthy about this episode is the racist escape note. It is literally the case that one killer's dismembering one of his victims was not even an afterthought.
Not really a fair criticism. The Huffington Post ran several stories on the escape. This is just one of them. An earlier article (by AP, but still published by The Huffington Post) mentions the killers' crimes in the 4th paragraph, mentions the dismemberment, and includes ample coverage about the many questions surrounding their escape: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/06/murderers-escape-prison_n_7525470.html
At no point did I say or imply that this was the only Huffington Post article on the subject. I don't know how many there were, since I am only an occasional reader, at best, of that blog. It is nonetheless astounding that the "racism" in the escape note got any attention at all.
There are about eight zillion problems this case exposes. We can start with the brutality of the murders, the fact that the state has no functional death penalty, the fact that abolitionists are exposed as lying about the alleged "we'll-be-perfectly-safe-with-prison" story, the phony allegations of inhuman treatment in state supermax, and go on from there.
This is just another form of the obsession with race that we increasingly see in the reporting of crime. It was that obsession, for example, that lay behind the Left's scurrilous fables about "Hands Up, Don't Shoot," and Marilyn Mosby's perverse grandstanding.
The obsession with race is just what abolitionism wants, since it (1) corrodes America's moral confidence, and (2) deflects attention from BEHAVIOR, which is the only thing that should count. When the obsession reaches the point of a separate story about the "racism" of the note left behind, it is reaching unhinged territory.
I would not change a single word in my entry. To the contrary, I will write more entries, as I think appropriate, to expose how race huckstering is infecting both criminal law and journalism.
I'm not I understand why this article, about a small element of a much larger case, has drawn your ire, out of the literally thousands of articles that have been published since the escape. Maybe if this were the only article about it, your criticism would make more sense, but I don't find it "mind-boggling" at all that this article in particular didn't contain all the details about the case.
It seems like you're suggesting that every story about every aspect of this case include the full details of the crimes for which the escapees were convicted. There's not an editor in the country who would OK that, and I'm not sure it would have any impact after the 100th reading.
And to extract from the story that the escapees left a racist note some kind of anti-death penalty motive seems more than farfetched. Since the killers appear to be racist, wouldn't that make them LESS sympathetic, not more?
- Victor
"I'm not [sure] I understand why this article, about a small element of a much larger case, has drawn your ire, out of the literally thousands of articles that have been published since the escape."
More head-shaking than ire, actually, and the head-shaking is about the extent of the Racialization of Everything.
"It seems like you're suggesting that every story about every aspect of this case include the full details of the crimes for which the escapees were convicted."
I just love comments that start, "It seems like you're suggesting..." Tell me, am I known for being shy when I want to make a point? About settling for suggestion when I could go straight at it?
One might be tempted to push the STRAWMAN alert, no?
"Since the killers appear to be racist, wouldn't that make them LESS sympathetic, not more?"
I have very little idea if they're racist. More to the point, it's irrelevant. I don't believe anyone should get the DP (or anything but strong disapproval) for being racist. Mere sentiment is not a crime of any sort.
I believe they should get the DP for grisly, sadistic, premeditated murder. If they don't, then, among other things, there is a non-trivial possibility they'll do something extremely bad again, up to and including murder.
If these guys kill during this escape escapade to avoid capture or silence a potential witness; or if they take and then kill a hostage; or if they kill a cop or two -- will you then concede that failing to execute them has had a fearsome price? Are abolitionists going to bear that price? Will they even care about it (beyond rhetorically)? Will yet another life sentence be just punishment to impose on the guy already serving life? If not, what specific sentence do you suggest that will be (1) consistent with the Eighth Amendment and (2) not a joke?
From your original post:
“It's telling, and mind-bending, that from a certain point of view, what is newsworthy about this episode is the racist escape note.”
My point was that no one considers the racist escape note the only newsworthy thing about this episode. As the first commenter noted, the Huffington Post, and many other media outlets, have run thousands of stories about every aspect of the case, including the facts of the escapees’ crimes. Your post seems to suggest that by running this small article on a very minor part of the story, the Huffington Post is ignoring the rest of the story. That’s obviously not the case.
I also think you’re trying too hard to take an actual fact about this case – the escapees left an unquestionably racist note – and blow it up into the “Racialization of Everything.” The media didn’t create the note; the escapees did. Sure, the media didn’t have to report on the note, but they’re constantly looking for new angles to report, and I’m sure this one got pageviews. I’d be more inclined to believe it’s about the Monetization of Everything.
The bottom line is that you faulted the Huffington Post for not writing “a single word about the grisly nature of the killings, nor about the fact that even the tightest security could not keep the public safe from whatever these escapees have planned next.” If you’re not suggesting that every article about the case include these features, why should this one and not, say, an article about the employee who apparently helped them escape? Or an article about the search for them? Or any other article about this case?
Your final paragraph raises a host of interesting questions far beyond your original post or my response to it. Even prisoners sentenced to death can escape before their execution (and have), but you’re correct, of course, that executing a prisoner will prevent any future crimes if that prisoner escapes. Of course, by that logic, we should execute every prisoner, since any prisoner who escapes might kill someone and we can prevent that by executing them all. If you don’t support the death penalty for burglary, and a burglar escapes and kills someone, do you bear the price for that?
-V