Norfolk, VA Race Hate Crime: National Media Ignores Case

[ThinkToday]

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/2012/05/08/national-media-ignoring-norfolk-case

Short version. One of five people (black) hits a vehicle driven by two local reports (white, man and woman). The driver stops and confronts the person. The five proceed to beat the two, while 30 or so other minority types gather around to watch. The police come and investigate (arrest one, I think) and in their report consider it a hate crime. Surprise, surprise, the DA says not, the local and nation media ignore it, including the reporter's own employer.

If this were two black people set upon by five white people with 30 white people gathering around to watch, would this be a hate crime or ignored my local and national media? Would the DA aggressively go after all 5 whites and perhaps anyone around that may have egged it on??

 

[Office_Shredder]

Surprise, surprise, the DA says not, the local and nation media ignore it, including the reporter's own employer.

Let's be fair enough to at least try to find out why their own employer wouldn't run a story on it
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/05/memo-coverage-assault-pilot-reporters

Here is what happened with Dave and Marjon. They were victims of what police described as a simple assault and, initially, they did not want to be named in a story. If these were the circumstances with any other people in the community, we would not have done a story.

 

[mheslep]

A "simple assault"? Please. Then Martin and Zimmerman is a simple homicide.

 

[russ_watters]

Hence my primary objection to the concept of a hate crime.

 

[ThinkToday]

Let's be fair enough to at least try to find out why their own employer wouldn't run a story on it
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/05/memo-coverage-assault-pilot-reporters

"We have done our due diligence with the story. We have checked the police report. I have read it. On its face, it would not merit a story. We have checked that neighborhood to see if there is an inordinate amount of crime there. There is not."

Seriously, is this guy for real? Is the beating for a man and woman by five people with 30 gathered around so normal in Norfolk it's not news? Even setting aside race, anyone really think this is so normal as to not be news? I stand by my earlier post. Had this been racially reversed, this would be a major nationwide story.

"They were victims of what police described as a simple assault and, initially, they did not want to be named in a story."

Since when did the media show compasion for people not wanting their name in the paper? This is the same media that would walk up to a parent or a spouse that just lost a loved one to crime, injury, or illness and stick a camara in their face and ask "How do you feel about this?". Seriously? As for simple assault, if they just beat the male reporter because he stopped to confront them... maybe, but then to pounce on and beat the female too. Remember, these two reporters both needed to take a full week off of work to recover from a simple beating.

 

[ThinkToday]

Hence my primary objection to the concept of a hate crime.

1000% agree

 

[ThomasT]

ThinkToday, I understand your outrage, but I also understand the reluctance to sensationalize this incident. Hopefully, the people (apparently kids from what I've read) who actually did the assault will be appropriately punished and subsequently change for the better, and the onlookers who did nothing will reflect on this, learn something, and use it to improve themselves. Is that likely to happen? I don't know. I suspect that wrt some of those involved ... no. But nothing is gained by promoting or encouraging the racial and ethnic divisiveness that already exists.

How can we best teach young people to want to be good neighbors, to overlook superficial differences and work toward cooperating in ways that benefit everybody. It's difficult when you're dealing with peer pressure, raging hormones, a natural teen tendency to rebel against perceived authority figures, etc., etc., etc.

 

[rootX]

ThinkToday, I understand your outrage, but I also understand the reluctance to sensationalize this incident.

If media is reluctant to sensationalize the incident because "nothing is gained by promoting or encouraging the racial and ethnic devisiveness that already exists" then why at the same time, it sensationalizes the incidents where someone from minorities is targeted? This is exactly what the OP is outraged at.

russ puts it perfectly.

 

[ThomasT]

If media is reluctant to sensationalize the incident because "nothing is gained by promoting or encouraging the racial and ethnic devisiveness that already exists" then why at the same time, it sensationalizes the incidents where someone from minorities is targeted? This is exactly what the OP is outraged at.

Not just minorities, but specifically, black African Americans. Why? I suppose it's because of the few hundred years in relatively recent history that white Europeans spent kidnapping and enslaving their ancestors.

I don't agree with African American leaders sensationalizing white on black crimes either. Either way that stuff works against what I think we should be working toward.

This is exactly what the OP is outraged at.

So, what do you think should be done? Inflame the situation and sensationalize the incident?

russ puts it perfectly.

How so?