The sudden spread of carjackings has cast a net of fear over the Twin Cities. The Star Tribune explored it in yesterday’s page-one story by David Chanen: “Carjackings sweep through Twin Cities communities.” Subhead: “Police struggle to keep with the latest crime trend.” In the paper’s hard copy, the headline asked: “Who is stealing so many vehicles?” It answered in the subhead: “Carjacking surge is blamed on armed teens who seize, ditch cars for a quick thrill.”
Chanen purports to be interested in the perpetrators’ demographics. The carjackers are identified as teenage boys. So far as I have been able to tell from video and from the few who have been apprehended so far, the perpetrators have been black. Yet Chanen studiously avoids any mention of race. It is taboo in this context — more taboo than public reference to sex in Victorian England. I wrote our friend Howard Root to ask if he noticed the omission of race from Chanen’s story and, if so, what he made of it. Howard responded (below the break).
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Amazing. I just read that Star Tribune article and thought the exact same thing.
All of the [Star Tribune] stories repeat the same refrain — “the causes of increased crime are very complicated and it’s partly to do with the pandemic but absolutely nothing to do with defunding the police or liberal policies.”
And then they refuse to tell us the racial breakdown of the perps that could shine a light on the causes. But that’s not where the Star Tribune wants to head, and as I read following one of your links today, “when propaganda is the goal, accuracy is the victim.”
This story is even worse because the Star Tribune seems to scratch its collective head (or lower appendage) by quoting the “experts” wondering why-oh-why are these “yutes” doing these carjackings (not sure that’s one word or two because I didn’t learn to use that term in school because we had no need to describe nonexistent events) since the perps don’t get any money and therefore it’s high risk and low return.
As if a carjacking by a 15-year-old is an economic crime with a calculated ROI! Next up, the Star Tribune wonders why the guy cheated on his wife since he didn’t make any money off it. I want to scream, “it’s an emotional act, you idiot!”
The next time I read a Star Tribune article where they even raise the possibility that the recent spate of Minneapolis crime could be attributed to the degradation of respect for the law (and individual responsibility) combined with widespread acceptance of the “injustice” of law enforcement will be the first time. I hope I live long enough to see 2050.
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Howard cites Burton Folsom’s essay on the “robber barons” for his quote (“when propaganda is the goal, accuracy is the victim.”) He adds: “I think that applies to the Star Tribune every single day.”
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