The general level of mayhem in Chicago, NYC, Baltimore, etc. is not news. College student killed by stray bullet was on ‘dream trip’ to NYC, dad says
Ethan Williams, a 20-year-old college student from Indianapolis had been on a “dream trip” to New York and was sitting on a stoop with a group of friends outside their Airbnb in Bushwick when he was shot in the chest around 2:30 a.m.
Police believe he was an unintended target of gunfire in the neighborhood.
HeyJackass! has the stats for Not-A-Lockdown Weekend as 8 killed and 24 shot and wounded. October Month-to-date (as I write this) is 57 shot and killed, 235 shot and wounded, and 52 total homicides. Media attention? [Insert sound of crickets here.]
Then there are the NYC stats. At Least 3 Dead After Night Of Gun Violence In New York City; NYPD Reports 94% Increase In Shootings
The NYPD reports a 94% increase in shootings this year compared to last, including six over the last 24 hours.
We can't ignore Baltimore. 9 shot, 1 killed in shootings across Baltimore on Thursday, police say.
Ellerbe became the fifth Baltimore teenager killed in the past two weeks, and five of the past seven homicide victims were teens. Baltimore police say a total of seven juveniles have become homicide victims since July 1 in the city.
The situation in Chicago does get local attention, as does the crime in New York City and Baltimore. But the shooting of Ethan Williams got (some) national attention. Why? I am not saying his death isn't a tragedy for his family, but what about all the other families?
Note: I included the story from the New York Post, because I've noticed that they are being excluded from Google searches, and Bing Searches. (It was a hunch, based on their Social Media lockout.)
The difference (other than race, and socio/economic status) is that the big city "gun violence" is more properly called "gang violence" and most of those shot or killed were volunteers. (most, there are far too many innocent bystanders involved)
ReplyDeleteWilliams may have been foolish and naive about his safety during his visit, NYFC isn't Disneyland, but he wasn't a willing participant in anything with a high risk of injury or death, like gangbanging. If you roll the dice often enough, you'll eventually come a cropper.
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Part of it is that. "Dog bites Man" is not a news story.
DeletePart of it is that the media don't want to make their Democrat-mayor-friends look bad. To dwell on the different levels of crime in NYC from today versus 15 years ago might not make the Democrats look like geniuses.
But I think part of it is that they are not as "diversity minded" as they like to think. A suburban college student in the city. They can relate to that person, so his death is reported.
This isn't the only story where I noted that discrepancy. And it isn't the only topic in which the media has a strange way of deciding which facts to report and which to ignore.