Greetings,
For the last few days, I have been sending this letter out to all major news corporations and online newspapers. Sometimes it was deleted from post, and at other times, it was ignored. Hopefully with the article that you wrote, you will be able to send this out so that this case can get some recognition.
Thank you for your time.
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Hello,
The reason why I am writing this letter is to discuss an unjust in the media world.
Here is the story:
This past Monday, Eliott from “Eliott In The Morning,” based out of Washington, DC. spoke about a story out of Knoxville, TN. When he read the story, I was so shocked and appalled at the severity of the crime. The link to the story is posted below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channon_Christian_and_Christopher_Newsom_murder
(side note, there was massive mutilations involving the 2 victims, which is not stated in the wikipedia article)
After reading this, you can see my concern. After doing some research and finding out as much info as I could, I was horrified that something like this could have happened and yet it has only been covered locally.
Now, I am mixed black male and I am by no way racist nor biased, because the public should know what happens in the public. But the problem is, why is it that whenever a Caucasian person commits a crime against a particular race, especially black, that it takes no more than a few hours to have it circulate the world if it is a major issue. When it comes to Caucasians as victims, you don’t necessarily hear anything about it, especially if the crime is as severe as this one.
Now, why is it, that the USA Today, can put the faces of black African Americans on the FRONT page to tell about all kinds of crimes, but something as severe as this one, it is kept under wraps.
The worst part about this story was told today on his show. Now, this is the most appalling thing i have heard and it goes as follows:
http://www.nowpublic.com/knox_blacks_celebrate_carjacking_rapists_in_party
So, in lieu of the vigil for the 2 victims, a certain group of African Americans are constructing this “celebration.”
Now you might be wondering why I am telling you all this, but it is NOT to bring out the worst in people, but to show how the media, race, and violence of this nature should be addressed. Furthermore, I am ASHAMED of being black to think that a group of people would actually celebrate a death like this because they feel they are not privileged. I know that the KKK would celebrate or whatever, but think about it. It all boils down to this group vs. this group. And it is sick.
I’d like for you to please voice the outrage in regards to this story and please have your listeners explain to me as to why things like this get swept under the rug. It was mentioned on Court TVs website, but nothing else.
For the last portion of this email, I would like to say:
“Why is it that when it comes to lesser crimes, the media will portray African Americans in the broad spectrum of light, but when it comes to something as serious like this, why keep it under wraps.”
BTW, the Washington Post has stated that they couldn’t send an investigator reporter to the area to inquire about the story, because “they didn’t have anyone down there.” You would think that the Washington Post would have had more sense than to say something like that. Am I right?
In closing, I just want to say, thank you for all that you bring to the community and would to tip my hat off to you all and let you know that even if you don’t put this on the air, I know that at least you hear from a good fan of your show and that is all that matters.
Thank you.
But there is also this interesting tidbit from that link:
"If you come down here, you're either visiting someone or you're buying drugs," said, Misty Boshears, 31, who lives near Washington Pike. "I'm shocked, but I'm not shocked," of Christian and Newsom's murders, Boshears said. "I don't allow my girl to play outside because of the danger."
I had wondered how these two got picked - what random chance drew the murderers to them. If actually they were in the area trying to buy drugs, then perhaps the crimes weren't quite so random as FR posts have led us to believe.
Stay away from certain activities and out of certain neighborhoods, and you reduce your crime risk by about 99.9%. These two kids might have failed to heed that lesson, and it cost them dearly.