The Knoxville atrocity is covered by the major media at last

I don’t know whether it’s coincidence or synchronicity or what, but after a week during which VFR has repeatedly discussed the Knoxville atrocity, trying and finally succeeding in getting an accurate account of what actually happened to the victims of this inconceivable crime, Geraldo Rivera had a segment on the case tonight on his television program, the first time I’m aware of that the national media have paid any attention to this story. VFR reader David B., who is a Tennessean, watched the program and tells us about it:

I was able to tape the segment, just under four minutes, on my VCR. It starts with Geraldo saying, “Is this a hate crime?” Then Channon Christian’s parents are shown. Her father says, “It’s not about color. It’s about animals. People who have no respect for life.”

Her parents then tell how Channon was missing and they tried to find her. The police said they could not do anything until she had been missing 72 hours. Her father and her friends organized their own search party. They found her truck, and federal and local authorities started looking. Geraldo says that “Channon and Christian had been out partying with friends in a tough Knoxville neighborhood, literally on the other side of the tracks. Driving through it, the young white couple was carjacked by armed black gunmen. (This goes against what your source said.) [LA note: Geraldo was mistaken on this point; he later corrected it, as David reports below.] Searchers found Chris’s body first, wrapped in a blanket and burned, a short distance from where Gary had found his daughter’s truck.

Rivera continues, “Then, Christopher Newsom’s parents tell how their son’s body was identified, by his eyes. It was two more days before they found Channon’s body in a seedy house were two of the suspects had lived. Both victims had been raped and tortured before being murdered by the thugs.” Rivera then named the suspects over their photos, announces they are charged with 46 counts and says, “Since the suspects were black and the victims white, many suspected a hate crime.” Rivera then says, “Complicating the question is the fact that many white supremacist sites who are themselves hate groups, have taken up the case.”

The parents say that they do not support the hate-mongers. They do look very, very angry. Geraldo says, “The parents are wonderful people,” and adds, “We just got off the phone with the Knoxville District Attorney who says that Tennessee does not have a hate crime statute.”

The above is the segment word for word, as I reran it on my VCR.

LA replies:

Thank you for this.

At least Geraldo gave the main facts, though he doesn’t mention that they were raped repeatedly and tortured over a period of days before being murdered. He doesn’t mention the disinfectant injected into Channon while she was still alive. He doesn’t describe the industrial-style sexual humiliation, torture, and destruction of two human beings.

Beyond that, the problem is that the way the story is framed, what happened is either a hate crime, or it’s … nothing.

We have this formal category, “hate crime.” To our liberal society, a hate crime is really bad. To demonstrate a hate crime of blacks against whites would be a big deal. But if it’s not a hate crime, then it’s just … a crime, like millions of other crimes. So the whole angle becomes, “Is this a hate crime or not?”

Our response needs to be: whether or not the killers are PROVED to have done this BECAUSE the victims were white, they certainly did pick white victims and they did this to them. Whether it’s formally a “hate crime” or not, it is a RACIAL CRIME. Why is this horrendous racial crime not covered in the national news? Society covers it up because it’s black perps and white victims.

Further, regardless of motive, the fact is that blacks do commit crimes like this against whites, have previously done crimes like this, and whites are in danger, and the society never addresses this out of protectiveness toward blacks and out of the idea that whites are racially guilty and can never be victims.

David B. continues:

After I sent the previous message, as his show was about to go off, Geraldo again talked about the Knoxville murders, and corrected a mistake. His reporter said that the couple was carjacked near Newsom’s sister’s house, not “on the other side of the tracks.” He continued, “They were not partying in that neighborhood. They were picked up and taken there. Wrong place, wrong time, the car was the target. These were two good kids. There is no hate crime law in Tennessee, but in sentencing, the brutality of the crime is considered.” Geraldo concludes, “I expect if they are found guilty, they will be sentenced to death. If ever a crime deserves it, this one does.” As Geraldo said these words, Laurie Dhue and his reporter were standing beside him nodding their heads in agreement.

Your source from Knoxville looks to be correct.

David continues:

There is something else I would like to add. I know Knoxville pretty well. My brother was an attorney in a major law firm there for many years. He now works in Nashville. I used to visit him and also went to two or three Tennessee football games every year.

I never felt in danger in Knoxville, although I stayed on the West side of town. The East side is black. Knoxville didn’t seem to have the “big-city” atmosphere that Nashville and Memphis have. Or it used not to have it. I know that upper middle class people do not drive around at night in East Knoxville. The off-ramp that would take you to the murder scene is four miles east of the off-ramp for the University of Tennessee.

This illustrates that white people are not 100 percent safe from a racial attack in any city that has nonwhites in it. Even in the “safe” part of town. A fact that people know at some level, but can’t say publicly.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 16, 2007 12:24 AM | Send