Yesterday, a young black man with a long rap sheet threw a little boy of unreported race off the third floor balcony of the giant Mall of America outside of Minneapolis.
Various news organizations are covering this horrific story in different ways.
For example, NYTimes.com doesn’t mention it anywhere right now on its vast home page and has only covered it with short AP and Reuters wire service accounts. In contrast, WashingtonPost.com has used its own reporter to write a story.
But there are some common features in all the media coverage. White the 5-year-old victim’s name has been reported as Landen, no national news account has mentioned his race.
There has been no speculation over whether this was a hate crime.
Nor have I seen any analysis of what does the perp’s ability to be walking free despite a long list of unprovoked attacks say about the Establishment’s recent obsession with Ending Mass Incarceration.
Nor have I seen any reporting on arrestee Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda’s immigration status. The name is unusual and non-definitive. The last name is Latin, the middle name African-American, the first name perhaps East African Christian. So he could be anything.
