Memo From Middle America | The Tulsa Shootings—Does Soledad O'Brien Really Think It's Worse To Be A "Racist" Than A Murderer?
04/29/2012
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The shootings occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the early hours of April 6, 2012—Good Friday.  Jacob England (19) and Alvin Watts (32) entered a predominantly black neighborhood in a white pickup, and started shooting people. They shot 5 black people, 3 of whom died.

The Tulsa police soon discovered who the perpetrators were. They were arrested two days later, on Easter. They confessed and have been charged with three counts of murder in the first degree, and two counts of shooting with intent to kill. Here is the police report.

It appears to be a rather open and shut case. The facts are not in dispute. These guys look guilty as sin and if convicted they could get the death penalty. Most people in Oklahoma—my home state—are not going to object to it.

The way the case is being spun by the Main Stream Media and exploited by the usual suspects is, however, quite telling.

First off, the murderers are referred to consistently as two “white” men. However, Jake England is a Cherokee Indian. His pickup truck, which he was driving to commit the murders, even had a Cherokee nation license plate. (Indian tribes in Oklahoma have their own license plates.)

NPR reports: “Some records describe England as Native American; others show him as white.” That’s not unusual. Cherokees have been in contact with whites since colonial times, and there’s been a lot of intermixture.

Nevertheless, if you look at England’s photo, he would be identified on the street as American Indian.

Most of the MSM persist in calling him white. Don’t you imagine though, if they were reporting on him for doing something good, that they’d call him a Native American?

Although the Tulsa Shootings Case is very different from the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case, racial spinning by the MSM is something they both have in common.

Another aspect they have in common: both are being exploited by professional race hustlers such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Sharpton was going to visit Tulsa but cancelled after the alleged perpetrators had been charged with murder and hate crimes.

Jesse Jackson, however, arrived to Tulsa and spent several days there. He criticized the state of Oklahoma for classing hate crimes as misdemeanors and not felonies (second offenses though are felonies). [Standing-Room Only Crowd Listens To Jesse Jackson Speak in North Tulsa, April 14, 2012]

Despite the fact that the Tulsa police had so quickly arrested the murderers, Jackson had the gall to say that in Oklahoma, blacks are being attacked and the killings are not being solved:

It's not unlike the old South, where local officials spent an awful lot of time covering their tracks.

This led to an editorial at the Daily Oklahoman entitled Does Tulsa Case Really Need Outside Help? [April 17, 2012]. (Conclusion: no).

Apparently though, Jackson had nothing to say in Tulsa about recent black-on-white murder attacks which have recently taken place in the very same city:

You won’t see a big emphasis on these heinous crimes in the national Main Stream Media. See Nicholas Stix Uncensored for more information.

Why did Jake England and his roommate go on this murderous rampage?

England may have done it to avenge his father’s death, at the hands of a black man, two years ago. I guess that didn’t get national publicity when it happened either. England had also been traumatized by witnessing the suicide of his girlfriend (and mother of his son) right before his eyes. [Suspect in Easter Holiday Killings Haunted by Father’s Killing, Friends Say, By Zack Stoycoff, Tulsa World, April 9, 2012]

Jake England had a rough time of it—but of course that still doesn’t justify his murderous rampage on April 6.

Nevertheless, Jake England has his defenders. They aren’t, mind you, trying to prove that he didn’t commit the murders. That would be rather hard. They are trying to prove that he’s not RACIST.

Apparently, that’s considered to be worse than being a murderer. (Mark Krikorian has pointed out that “The charge of racism is so incendiary that even mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer felt it necessary to deny that his crimes were motivated by it. “)

Of course, Jake’s mother and defense attorney are defending him. What do you expect? But notice on what grounds they are defending him.

Jake England’s mother Teri Alexander, (who looks more white than Indian), is currently incarcerated herself, serving an 18-year sentence for arson! She says that Jake was “a very good kid” and that "I'm still devastated from the news. I can't wrap my head around that."

Jake England’s defense attorney Clark Brewster is defending Jake. Well, that’s his job, right? But notice how he does it.

Clark was interviewed by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien. She asked “The big question is, is your client a racist?”

Not “The big question is, is your client a murderer?” but “The big question is, is your client a racist?”.

That’s apparently worse than being a murderer!

Brewster replied, and began by referring to a letter from Jake’s mother,

“The letter [from Jake England’s mother] gives us a little bit of history as to where this young man came from and what he was about and what he went through in life. As this case was progressing nationally with the theme or premise that this was a hate crime, when we met the young man and understood more about him, we realized that that was a complete mis-premise. He grew up in North Tulsa, which is predominately African American, that’s where is home was. Most of the people that he counts among his friends, close friends, are African American, his neighbors are African American. Nobody’s ever really, that knew him, claimed that he is a racist. I think the circumstances of this case given all of the evidence will show that he did not have that motivation whatsoever.”

[Tulsa Shooting Suspect´s Attorney: Client Not Racist, CNN.com, April 17, 2012]

As further corroboration, there is a family friend who told the Associated Press that England was "a good kid”, "a good, hard worker," who "was not in his right mind”. And, just to make the racism question clear, the friend said:

"If anybody is trying to say this is a racial situation, they've got things confused…He [Jake] didn't care what your color was. It wasn't a racist thing."

[Oklahoma Shooting Rampage : Jake England and Alvin Watts Arrested for Tulsa Killings, CBS, April 9, 2012]

Alvin Watts was defended by his brother Gene Watts, who assured the Tulsa World that "I've never known my brother to be no racist or anything like that." [Suspect in Easter Holiday Killings Haunted by Father’s Killing, Friends Say, Zack Stoycoff, Tulsa World, April 9, 2012 ]

Then there’s a video here, entitled “My Brother Wasn’t Raised Like That” which features another Watts brother, Michael, who stresses that Alvin grew up with blacks and is not racist.

The Tulsa shootings were cold-blooded killings. The perpetrators have confessed to them and accepted arrest without resistance. Nevertheless, their defenders make a special point that they are not “racist.” Yes, they are murderers—but please don’t call them RACIST!

Is it worse to be a “racist” than a murderer?

Meanwhile, what about the many black-on-black and black-on-white murders occurring all the time?

As far as the Main Stream Media and the national political discourse, that’s all under the radar—another taboo subject Americans aren’t supposed to notice or talk about.

Ask John Derbyshire!

 

American citizen Allan Wall (email him) recently moved back to the U.S.A. after many years residing in Mexico. Allan's wife is Mexican, and their two sons are bilingual.  In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here ; his News With Views columns are archived here; and his website is here.

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