Black on White crime - Urban Legend?

I was reading a great column by Walter E. Williams on WND.com entitled "Media conceal black interracial crimes" and wanted to do a little poking around as to the content that Dr. Williams discussed. The premise of the article is that black on white crime goes mostly unreported while white on black crime is highlighted on every major news outlet and the question is why? First off, some data to ponder. A summary of a crime below from a Canada Free Press article.

On Saturday, January 6, 2007 Christopher Newsom, Jr., 23, and Channon Gail Christian, 21, were out on a date enjoying themselves. They went to eat at a local restaurant and were supposed to head to a friends house to watch movies, but they never made it.

The night from hell would begin when the young couple was carjacked, bound and blindfolded, then taken back to suspect Lemaricus Devall “Slim” Davidson’s rented house.

Perhaps the young couple only thought they were being dumped someplace else and were only going to lose their SUV and a few personal items. They were dead wrong.

Once at the home the perpetrators brutally assaulted the couple before killing them and dumping the bodies is seperate locations.

Right now Eric Boyd, George Geovonni, Thomas Lemaricus, Devall Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins and Vanessa Coleman who range in age from 18 to 34 are sitting in jail in Knoxville awaiting trial.

Note #1 that Newsom and Christian were white and the rapists/murderers were black. This note didn't make it into the article I quoted from. Note #2 that the Williams article is a little more graphic (both victims were raped and the one of the bodies was discarded in a trash bag with bleach thrown on it for good measure and one body was burned). So I could go into a diatribe about the death penalty (I support it for animals such as these (Boyd, Geovonni, Davidson, etc.) but I won't do that here. What I will say is why is this not common knowledge? Why isn't Nancy Grace or Greta Van Sustern taking this on? We certainly heard a lot about the Duke Lacrosse players (of whom I have written about before on this space) so why not about these scumbags? As usual, Dr. Williams has a response.

You can bet rent money that were the victims black and the perpetrators white, Knoxville would have been inundated with TV crews, with Jackson, Sharpton and other civil rights spokesmen and politicians from both parties condemning racism, possibly blaming it all on George Bush.

Isn't this true? Wouldn't the media be on this if the colors of the victims and the perpetrators were switched? I firmly believe that this would be the lead of each broadcast as all the white anchors from the Major Networks have a chance once again to showcase how racist America is and how minorities are routinely abused and victimized in such a country as this. I am sure the BBC would even pick it up to showcase what a terrible people we are that we can't get away from our racist history. Oh and of course there is no "bias" in the media.

I heard from a friend that this might be an urban legend so I checked it out. SNOPES.com does report this crime to have happened but it also takes time to note that the lack of National media stories on this doesn't mean that there is a conspiracy to not highlight savage black on white crime. Actually the reason SNOPES.com offers is that crimes like this are too frequent to garner national attention. Interesting theory but one I don't buy. Every single day, editorial boards make decisions on what stories to run and what stories to bury. You mean to tell me that not one of the Mainstream or Cable News shows wouldn't take this on? This story certainly strikes me as more interesting than many of the lead stories (like the Food Pyramid being re-worked). Where is the ever dapper Keith Olberman on this? Or Katie Couric for that matter? This story is compelling and actually showcases a horrid fact. Racism is not just white on black and hate crimes are not just straight on gay. Shouldn't the FBI be brought in for possible hate crimes charges? Thank God the Bloggers are on this and keeping this story alive.

This lack of coverage on this is shameful. Newsom and Christian deserve at least as much publicity as Matthew Shepard got. At least Shepard has a foundation and shrine. What do Newsom and Christian have? Let's hope they at least get justice.

Outspoken Roman