DC Sniper: are cops and the press covering up for racist terrorists?

["Jose G. Perez" <jg_perez@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On the DC-area sniper that is terrorizing Washington.

Today's victim was a Black man. I heard the police announcement of the man's
description, which is how I know. Looking at names, at least two of the
earlier victims were Hispanics, and I was told earlier in the week one was
Black.

The press is, as ususal, systematically covering up the race and nationality
of the victims, following the American journalistic practice of pretending
that race and nationality of people involved in the news is irrelevant and
should not be listed unless it is deemed "directly relevant" to the story.
Given the fare that passes for news in the U.S., that's like asking
historians to ignore that most of those killed in the Holocaust were Jews.
If you ask some editor about it, they'll tell you it's because they don't
want to portray minorities in an unfavorable light, frequently identifying
alleged criminals who are Black, Hispanic or whatever.

The reality is that the race of alleged wrongdoers in prominent cases is
*always* presented in the press, and in countless smaller cases, too. That's
what "perp walks" (where the police ostentatiously parade their catch in
handcuffs for the benefit of the cameras) and courtroom sketch artists are
for.

Similarly when a "sympathetic" or "photogenic" (read white) vicitm is
involved, their picture is all over the news, extensive profiles of the
"vic" are done, full of quotes from their (white) relatives and (white)
neighbors -- all the better to railroad whoever the cops decided to frame
for the crime.

Funy, isn't it, you aren't seeing long-form profiles of the victims or their
families on the news magazines. There's no photogallery up for the victims
of THIS terrorism up at cnn.com, or any other web site. Even the *list* of
victims -- sans pictures and race/nationality information, of course -- is
not being run by most newspapers or posted by most news websites, at least
so far as I could tell from checking a couple and googling the names, even
though the list is moving on the wires.

To go on: After today's shooting a white van with two persons was also seen
driving away in a great rush. The same information -- white van, two
persons, came out from an earlier shooting. Why is there no further
description of the two persons? This all happened in broad daylight, with
only a slight drizzle. Could it be because we have two while males shooting
Black and Hispanic women, men and children? That wouldn't be news "that
fits," now would it?

When have you ever heard of the police being so reticent about publicizing
even the most wildly approximate descriptions of the alleged perps in high
profile cases?

Instead, constant emphasis is laid on how the shootings are "random" and
countless hours speculating on how the killer stays in hiding, patiently
waiting for someone to walk into their "killing zone," stopping for at least
a few seconds to allow for a deadly shot. This is, however, complete
speculation. The  most obvious thing to do when confronted with a serial
killer like this is to examine what common elements there might be among the
victims. Yet it occurrs to no one filling the hours of air time on CNN, Fox
or MSNBC to address THIS question. Who were the victims? What were the
victims like? What did they LOOK like?

The other thing one might analyze is the skill set required for carrying out
these attacks. The "perp" is a skilled, most likely military or paramilitary
(CIA, FBI, SWAT squad) killer. From the way the fragmentation of bullets in
the body is being described, he/they are using hollow-point or similar
munitions. The caliber, and quite possibly the model weapon being used are
now known to the cops. Why is the information being withheld from the
public? After all, the fact that you have a crazy uncle or neighbor who
drives a white van is not likely to lead people to phone in a tip to police.
If he just happens to be a white supremacist, an expert marksman, and owns
the same kind of weapon being used, you might feel quite differently about
it -- if you knew the perp was likely to be a white supremacist, expert
marksman who was using a certain kind of rifle. So why aren't people being
told?

Instead the press and especially the 24-hour news nets are providing such
useful information as the location and extent of roadblocks, opening and
closing times of area schools, and the precise nature of the current state
of security pecautions that are being taken, especially at the schools.

With the racist, chauvinist hysteria Bush and the media have whipped up in
the past year, increased racist terrorism and violence is to be expected,
and there have been quite a few reports of such events, all treated, of
course, as "isolated" incidents, "condemned" in newspaper editorials when
they could not simply be shoved under the rug, and dropped from all coverage
as quickly as possible.

One more thing: the cowardly bullet from a distance m.o. is a typical one of
racists assassins, like the ones who murdered Martin Luther King and Medgar
Evers.

Watch this one very carefully. I smell a really big stinking rat.

José





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