An Act of Desperation

I don't know where you stand, sit or lie on the Trayvon Martin Case.  But of late there is an act of desperation to make other events seem to be in the same vein except that it is always a white guy beat up by black kids.  The problem is that the white guy is pretty much random, and the attack has nothing to do with his race. It is pretty clear that George Zimmerman picked Trayvon because he was black.

Those posting this, please ask yourself one simple question: Why do you need an evil black attacker?  Isn't the fact that someone was senselessly killed enough of a reason to be outraged? Take for example the meme above.  I am sure the family of Delbert Benton are thrilled to have him used this way.  By the time this meme showed up on my timeline, the two culprits, both had been identified by name, one was in custody, and the other was pretty well on his way to being captured.  The attack was a robbery, and it was a random.  But it's the question at the bottom: will the mainstream media pay attention.  The story has appeared on several sites like NBC which includes the video of the news report.  Meanwhile, angry extreme groups were on NBC's Facebook page demanding they report on it.  Perhaps if they got off the extreme conspiracy pages and actually look at news somewhere other than The Blaze or Fox, they would see it being reported.  If you want to follow the actually story, here is a link to KXLY in Spokane who have been covering the story.  They are, I think, a CNN affiliate.  Both suspects are in custody, and it does indeed appear to have been a random attack.

Then came this meme.

Actually I'd seen one like this first, but didn't really pay that much attention to it.  Note the pictures to make sure that it appears all three attackers are black.  They aren't. One is black, one is half black and one is white.  When they were first arrested, the 17 year old, Michael Jones said "they were bored." Notice that Jones looks surprisingly African American.  Let me show his real picture. 

This combination made with booking photos provided by the Stephens County, Okla., Sheriffs Department, shows, from left, James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, and Chancey Allen Luna, 16, all of Duncan, Okla. Stephens County Sheriffs Department/AP.

You may notice that Michel Jones is the one in the middle. He's white. Now look at the meme.  Notice anything.  I don't know whose picture is being used as Michel Jones, but it is clearly, not Michael Jones. In fact, I am not terribly certain that any of the pictures are pictures of the people arrested. 

There were some racist tweets on the account of Francis Edwards, but it doesn't make the tragic and random slaying of Chris Lane a hate crime.  It makes it a stupid, senseless crime by three very sick and violent young men who went out for a thrill kill.  Perhaps rather than trying to turn this into something it isn't, we should be discussing how three individuals could become this violent.  As to the mainstream not reporting it, that's true, providing you don't count CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC,  Huffington Post, The Guardian (a British News Outlet), or The Christian Science Monitor (and that was just the first page of reports on Google news).  You can also find links to Washington Post, New York Daily News and the Birmingham News.  So I guess maybe there was some reporting done. While you're bringing up this as a hate crime, you may also want to discuss how three bored teens had easy access to guns to commit the murder.  

Trayvon Martin's death was a long ways away from a thrill kill or a random robbery. All three deaths are tragic and all three acts a mark of some disturbing issues we need to face.  Trying to make the acts a competition of racist hate is not helping.  I ask again, why are these people posting these memes so desperate for a black hate crime.  Don't we already have enough people getting killed for seemingly no reason? Let's deal with the cause of these random deaths rather than trying to make it a competition to see who has the most racially motivated crimes.