Monday, December 17, 2012

Compare And Contrast

     - 27 people, most of them children, are murdered in a picturesque little whitebread Connecticut town and the media and politicians are all over it, with plenty of emoting and shrill cries to "do something."  In Chicago, over 30 people, most of them young adults and most of them nonwhite, are murdered and it's "a typical month."  (But remember, the media and the mostly-Democrat pols who are all over the Newport outrage couldn't possibly be racist -- nope, nope, nope.)

     - The worst school killing in the United States was committed with bombs: Bath School, 1927, in which 38 children and six adults were murdered.  Don't look for any mention of it in the news today.

     - Why are the mass media all over these events, despite the advice of copycat-crime experts like Dr. Park Dietz?  Here's a tiny personal glimpse: this blog usually gets between 400 and 500 hits on weekdays and around 400 on weekends.  It got 640 hits per day Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  People slow down to look at car wrecks; always have, always will.

16 comments:

pdb said...

I'm guessing you need 5 dead black people to every 3 dead white people for the media to care.

Jess said...

The media made a ton of money this past weekend. People were glued to their television, newsmongers were gleefully morose and the general public was enthralled they could find carnage as convenient as a click of the remote.

Bob said...

There's little moral equivalence between "young adults and most of them nonwhite" and the Sandy Neck kids, Roberta. The former are, for the most part, violent felons involved in drug wars with other violent felons. The latter are innocents by anyone's definition.

Roberta X said...

They're still dead.

Bob said...

Yes. And the coverage each group receives indicates the comparative value placed on the lives by the MSM and the peer groups involved.

Bubblehead Les. said...

Well, since the Common Denominator in these Mass Shootings and the Street Gangs seems to involve Teenage/20 Something Males, why don't we just pass a Law locking up all Males from the Age of 15 until they turn 30?

Hey, it makes as much sense as saying a Glock 26 is "BAD" and needs to Banned because it holds more than 10 Rounds in its Magazine, while a Ruger LC9 is "GOOD" because it only holds 9 in its magazine.

But I never expect Logic and Reason to permeate through the mind of the Anti-Gunner.

Dave H said...

Les: How do you get 9 in an LC9? Mine only holds 7.

The problem we face is mental health, not firearms. Banning guns only lets our society sweep the mentally ill back under the rug.

Ken said...

"Well, since the Common Denominator in these Mass Shootings and the Street Gangs seems to involve Teenage/20 Something Males, why don't we just pass a Law locking up all Males from the Age of 15 until they turn 30?"

Reminds me of something Heinlein wrote in Job: A Comedy of Justice. The protagonist opined that boy children should be kept in barrels and fed through the bung hole until the age of 21, at which time the solemn decision could be taken to let him out of the barrel...or drive in the bung.

He was kidding, I think.

Ken said...

PS: Jess wins the Internet. Unfortunately.

Anonymous said...

I've got more sympathy for the first-graders shot dead in their classroom, than I do the Chicago gang-bangers shot dead over turf, or money owed, or maddogging, or whatever the reason is. Doesn't affect my attitude about the Domestic Enemies taking advantage of the opportunity to do a little blood dancing in aid of their cause--don't like 'em.

I think I get your point, but I have my doubts about scoring points at identity politics. It's a sucker's game for the pro-liberty side. I wish I was wrong about that.

Mike James

Dave H said...

Mike: Unfortunately little kids are getting shot in the crossfire between the gang-bangers. Three in the last 6 years were shot sitting on their front porch or playing in front of the house. There are the usual "we need to stand together and take back our streets!" rallies for a while but nobody will come forward and finger the shooters out of fear.

Anonymous said...

You've got me there, Dave, I hadn't considered that sort of casualty. One tends to focus right in on a singular atrocity, more than a less specific report about a geographical region. I was being a tad sloppy.

Mike James

Dave H said...

Mike: Sorry, I was the one being sloppy. I forgot to say those kids were in Rochester, NY. I only know because I've worked there for a number of years and drive through some of the worst areas. But you almost never hear of these deaths outside the immediate area because virtually every city has them.

Old NFO said...

Good points Roberta...

Comrade Misfit said...

And yet we still let kids get on school buses.

JohninMd.(help!) said...

Like 300+ dead messicans due to Fast & Furious ain't worth the media's notice, either. Hipocrits.