I posted recently about Newsweek’s coverage of the Lawrence King murder. While I am happy that the story got coverage, I – like many others, including Sara Whitman at the Huffington Post - am not happy with the tone. Far too much sympathy was given the killer, Brandon McInerney. And excuse me, but NOTHING excuses killing someone just because they may make you uncomfortable. Using that excuse means, for example, that many blacks in the South are open game for murder. It is ridiculous. As Sara Whitman notes:*
The article is one of the poorest forms of journalism I've ever read. If it is an Opinion piece, okay, but to write "Even as homosexuality has become more accepted, the prospect of being openly gay in middle school raises a troubling set of issues" and to state it as fact? To whom? The author? Is he an expert?
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I can go on and on about this piece -- and I will -- but for today I am so deeply troubled by yet another piece of crappy, sensationalist reporting that is only geared towards selling magazines. It is obviously too boring and too common to focus on a 15 year old boy who snuck a gun into school and blew off another kid's head. A kid with drug abusing parents, with divorce and lack of parental supervision. A kid with an obsession with Hilter.
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Because it's really about this bad boy, who wore girls clothes, got what he deserved. Homosexuality was the evil here. Playing "grown up" without knowing it could get you killed. The article takes a kid who is dead and reports how he asked for it? That, in my opinion, is a hate crime.
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How much more of this “blame the victim” game will go on now that, as reported by the Ventura County Star, Brandon McInerney will be tired as an adult. Sadly, I suspect that the defense will do all that it can to try to shift matters around and put Lawrence King on trial rather than McInerney nothwithstanding that it is very obvious that McInerney's actions were premeditated and planned out. Naturally, such a defense will play directly to the extreme homophobes who feel that kill gays is perfectly okay. I likewise expect the Christianists to do all they can to depict McInerney as the victim rather than the dead gay youth. Here are some highlights from the Star story:
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Relying on past court decisions, a judge ruled Thursday that trying a 14-year-old boy accused of murder in an adult court does not violate the constitution, swatting down legal arguments raised by the boy's attorney that it was cruel and unusual punishment to do so. "I cannot say that this is unconstitutional," said Ventura County Superior Court Judge Douglas Daily.
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Teenage defendant Brandon McInerney of Oxnard is charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime in connection with the Feb. 12 killing of classmate Larry King, 15, who sometimes wore makeup and told friends he was gay.
[Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve] Fox told the judge that state law mandates that if there are special circumstances in a murder case involving juvenile defendants, the district attorney is required to file in adult court. So, even if the judge sided with Quest's legal arguments, Fox said she could, hypothetically, go back and file a "lying in wait" special circumstance against McInerney and by law, the case would have to be transferred back to adult court.
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I can go on and on about this piece -- and I will -- but for today I am so deeply troubled by yet another piece of crappy, sensationalist reporting that is only geared towards selling magazines. It is obviously too boring and too common to focus on a 15 year old boy who snuck a gun into school and blew off another kid's head. A kid with drug abusing parents, with divorce and lack of parental supervision. A kid with an obsession with Hilter.
*
Because it's really about this bad boy, who wore girls clothes, got what he deserved. Homosexuality was the evil here. Playing "grown up" without knowing it could get you killed. The article takes a kid who is dead and reports how he asked for it? That, in my opinion, is a hate crime.
*
How much more of this “blame the victim” game will go on now that, as reported by the Ventura County Star, Brandon McInerney will be tired as an adult. Sadly, I suspect that the defense will do all that it can to try to shift matters around and put Lawrence King on trial rather than McInerney nothwithstanding that it is very obvious that McInerney's actions were premeditated and planned out. Naturally, such a defense will play directly to the extreme homophobes who feel that kill gays is perfectly okay. I likewise expect the Christianists to do all they can to depict McInerney as the victim rather than the dead gay youth. Here are some highlights from the Star story:
*
Relying on past court decisions, a judge ruled Thursday that trying a 14-year-old boy accused of murder in an adult court does not violate the constitution, swatting down legal arguments raised by the boy's attorney that it was cruel and unusual punishment to do so. "I cannot say that this is unconstitutional," said Ventura County Superior Court Judge Douglas Daily.
*
Teenage defendant Brandon McInerney of Oxnard is charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime in connection with the Feb. 12 killing of classmate Larry King, 15, who sometimes wore makeup and told friends he was gay.
[Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve] Fox told the judge that state law mandates that if there are special circumstances in a murder case involving juvenile defendants, the district attorney is required to file in adult court. So, even if the judge sided with Quest's legal arguments, Fox said she could, hypothetically, go back and file a "lying in wait" special circumstance against McInerney and by law, the case would have to be transferred back to adult court.
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