Since the murder of Christopher Lane an attempt to turn the story into something racially motivated has been deafening. While all evidence we know of so far (evidence, not assumptions) dispels that claim, Oklahoma does have a history of racially motivated crimes. Let’s go back to April of 2012.
Police are investigating whether the shootings of five African-Americans in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were a hate crime after the weekend arrests of two white suspects in the case, local authorities said Sunday. Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, are scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning. Tulsa police arrested them early Sunday after a series of tips that led investigators to England’s burned pickup, a vehicle that matched a description reported at the crime scenes, according to their arrest reports.
The only common factors between this case and the one of Chris Lane is that people were shot and they happened in Oklahoma. Now I figured the right would have been outraged over the Tulsa case. Shockingly I was wrong. The only mention I could find of it on any right wing blogs was at Scared Monkeys. Here’s the headline:
Two Suspects Arrested in Tulsa Shootings (Alvin Watts & Jacob England) … Charged with three counts of murder (UPDATE: Suspects Father Murdered 2 Years Ago … UPDATE: Jake England Left Message on Facebook)
Nice and rather clean headline. But compare that to their headline of the Chris Lane case:
Three Teens, Two Black, One White, Murder White Australian Baseball Player in Oklahoma … They Were Bored “So They Decided to Kill Somebody”
Notice anything? In the Tulsa case race was never mentioned in the headline, but in the Lane case, it was clearly stated. Let’s look at the start of post about Lane:
Sick, just absolutely sick … where is Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? Three teens who could have been Barack Obama’s son murder a white Australian baseball player Chris Lane in Duncan, Oklahoma.Why did the three thugs do it … just for the fun of it because they were “bored”. UNREAL. 15 year old James Edwards and 17 year old Chancey Luna were charged with first degree murder. 17 year old Michael Jones was charged as an accessory to the killing. The callous story of what occurred the day of the murder is simply inhuman. The three thugs spotted Chris Lane jogging along a road in an upper-class area of Duncan on Friday. The three then got into a car driven by Jones, drove behind Lane and then Luna shot him with .22 caliber revolver in the back. The three will be charged as adults. Question: What kind of low life’s have we raised in this country that would be so void of conscience? Seriously, how does any kid become like this who decides because they are bored, go kill somebody. Their parents should probably be charged as well. And while we are questioning adults … where are the cries from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama? Can you imagine what would have happened had three white kids had gunned down a black kid because they were bored?
Wow seems like there is a strong attempt to draw a Trayvon/Zimmerman comparison into that with the calls for Sharpton, Jackson and Obama to speak out! But go back and look at the first post again. If I hadn’t already told you, you would not have know that the suspects were white and the victims black, unless you watched the CNN video, clicked and read the story at CNN or scrolled all the way down to the 2nd update on that post. That’s where it gets even more interesting:
UPDATE II: Comments on Jake England’s FACEBOOK look like they hold answers to why he might have gone on a murder spree. Although his Facebook is no longer available, the following post was on his wall which speaks volumes.It would seem that those targeted were intentional and the murders were on the two year anniversary of his dad’s murder. 40 year old Pernell Jefferson is serving six years in prison for killing Jake England’s father, Carl. That’s it? Jake England will be serving the rest of his life for the murders he is alleged to have done.
Notice that outrage over the six years? Well know we have a Zimmerman comparison. The biggest irony of the Tulsa case is that it was going on at the exact same time as the rallies in Florida over Trayvon’s death and the right was in full defense mode of Zimmerman and “stand your ground”. Even more ironic is the reason the killer of England’s father only got six years:
Neal later testified in court that Pernell Demond Jefferson, with whom he had previously fought, came to the door looking for marijuana about 9:30 p.m. and that he returned less than a minute later and tried to kick in the door. Carl England reportedly arrived as Jefferson was trying to enter through the back door. Jefferson then left, and Carl England went looking for him, friends said. Jefferson shot him during the subsequent confrontation as Jake watched, according to court records and friends. Jefferson, who is in prison on an unrelated charge, was not charged with murder because prosecutors ruled that the shooting was in self-defense. Instead, he is charged with attempted first-degree burglary and has a court hearing in the case set for May 7.
So Jefferson was only doing six years because the murder was ruled as self defense, or “stand your ground”. Funny, Scared Monkeys didn’t defend him the same way they defended Zimmerman. It’s amazing the difference in the posting of two stories by one author. I’m sure he claims he isn’t a racist and probably believes that, but these two stories make that hard to believe. Even the smallest things like:
Three teens who could have been Barack Obama’s son murder a white Australian baseball player Chris Lane in Duncan
As compared to:
Jake England will be serving the rest of his life for the murders he is alleged to have done.
At the time of both postings their respective cases hadn’t been to court, yet the white suspect is “alleged” as opposed to the teens. Yup, nothing racist about that at all!