GOODY TWO SHOES: How To Tell When A “Hate Crime” Has Been Committed
Back in June, when Wichita, KS, abortionist George Tiller was gunned down in church, The Stiletto and other conservative and pro-life bloggers, columnists and pundits immediately and forcefully condemned (second item) the murder – along with the editorial pages of leading newspapers nationwide. It has now been a week since James Pouillon, a disabled 63-year old, was shot to death while protesting against abortion outside a high school in Owosso, MI, and The Stiletto has yet to see an editorial or commentary by a staff columnist in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post and other major papers condemning the murder.
A few smaller papers published posts on their blogs, such as this one by George Berkin on The Star-Ledger’s (Newark, NJ) “NJ Voices,” which denounced “the tepid response and seeming lack of genuine outrage over the murder of this good man speaks volumes about the double standard and hypocrisy of so-called "pro-choice" advocates”; this one by Matthew Hay Brown on The Baltimore Sun’s “In Good Faith,” which examined the difference in coverage that Tiller’s murder got as compared to Pouillon’s; and this one by Kerry Picket on The Washington Times’ “Watercooler,” which compares NARAL’s responses to the two murders and notes that NARAL Pro-Choice America used Tiller’s murder to attack the pro-life movement, whereas The National Right to Life Committee's response to Pouillon’s murder to “emphasize their mission to protect innocent life.”
Media Matters For America explains why Tiller’s murder was so widely covered in the news, as compared to Pouillon’s:
Tiller was a nationally known figure at the time of his death, whereas Pouillon was not. And Tiller's nationwide notoriety was due in large part to none other than [Bill] O'Reilly, who frequently demonized Tiller on his program - the most-watched cable news show in the country, as he so often points out - as "Tiller the baby killer."
That may be so, but it doesn’t address the dearth of condemnatory editorials and commentaries – even in local MI papers – about the murderous turn that the abortion wars have taken.
Politics Daily columnist David Gibson, argues that Pouillon is not “a pro-life martyr” because his killer, Harlan Drake, “had no connection with the pro-choice movement, and it seems he had a grudge against a few people.” Though The New York Times reported that Drake "was annoyed by … Pouillon's protests, especially when they were near schools," he was acting on his own initiative so Gibson - along with his media colleagues - is disinclined to count Pouillon as a casualty of the abortion wars.
In other words, Pouillon was a nobody who got killed for no good reason so, who cares – and that’s exactly the message conveyed by the pro-forma statement by President Barack Hussein Obama: "The shooting last week in Michigan was deplorable. Whichever side of a public debate you're on, violence is never the right answer."
Notice that it’s in passive voice, does not term the killing a “murder,” does not cite abortion as a motive for the killing, or even mention Pouillon’s name.
In contrast, here’s what Obama said about Tiller’s death: "I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence." [Emphasis throughout, The Stiletto.]
At Pouillon’s vigil, one attendee called his murder a hate crime – but it is not being treated as such by the MSM or the president.
Similarly, thanks to the MSM, we know that it is always racially motivated when a white kid beats up or kills a black kid. But is it ever racially motivated when the reverse happens? Not if you apply the Al Sharpton standard.
You may have seen surveillance camera tape of a white student on a Belleville West High School bus being beaten up by several black students on a cable or morning news show. Here’s how the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting – and local police are treating – the incident:
"The incident appears now to be more about a couple of bullies on a bus dictating where people sit," said Belleville Police Capt. Don Sax, who originally said Monday's attack may have been racially motivated.
D'Vante Lott, 16, said he was on the bus and witnessed the attack by the two black students.
The victim walked onto the bus, looking for an open seat, but students kept turning him down, as D'Vante said happened often with this student.
But Monday, the victim apparently tired of asking for a seat, D'Vante said, moved one student's book-bag off a seat, and just sat down.
The student next to him then started hitting the victim for moving his bag, D'Vante said.
But the second assailant was just trying to act tough, D'Vante said. "The second guy hit him because he wanted to hit him," he said.
D'Vante didn't think the attacks were racially motivated. …
[S]everal white parents and students said Tuesday afternoon that they felt the incident had to have been racially motivated, and that the school has been struggling with racial tension.
The school suspended the two attackers for 10 days and may expel them; several bystanders, including D'Vante, were suspended for five days for laughing during the attack. It is unclear from media reports whether the suspended bystanders were amongst a group chanting “Boom, boom, boom” each time the 17-year old was punched in the face, or the student who shouted, “Beat his ass.”
Local journalists have not asked Sax why his investigation of the incident led him to backtrack on his original assessment that the attack was racially motivated - D'Vante is hardly a credible or expert witness - and the term “hate crime” never appeared in any of the coverage. In this case, the media are taking the tack that "[a]ll the focus on race is unfortunate and not productive.” Had the race of the victim and his attackers been switched, the media would rush to report the incident as a hate crime and race would be the only focus of the coverage.
As for Obama, he took exactly the wrong message from the flap over his comments about the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and has said nothing about the shocking behavior of the kids on this bus. Out of all of them, only one boy - black - stepped in to stop the second assault, and may have prevented other boys from taking their turn whaling away at the white kid. Obama should have invited that brave and good-hearted student and the victim he rescued to the White House for a root beer float and and explained the importance of doing the right thing even when you're the only one willing to. That's a message America's parents would have welcomed from him.
Editorial Note: Another anti-abortion protester, Ronald Brock, 71, took “Pouillon’s corner” outside the high school and held up a sign like his, with an image of an unborn baby on one side and an aborted baby on the other “to honor another Christian willing to give up his life for the faith.” He added, “The Lord honored this man. What an honorable way to go and meet the Lord.”
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