There has been an inordinate amount of coverage over the last decade over the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey. Yes the incident is tragic, a little strange, and plagued by poor police work and media speculation.
I can't stand the fact that the media has spent all of their time sensationalizing this topic, to the point of arresting a man that most certainly did not commit the murder (i will take all bets). Why do they do it?
What really bothers me is that this cute, beauty queen wannabe has been sucking police resources for over a decade. During the same period of time (1996-2006) there have been approximately 2,530 murders in DC. (source MPD and DoJ).
Many of these are unsolved, most are not covered in the TV or print, even in DC much less nationally. The one exception: Chandra Levy. Case, still open. There have been manhunts, scouring the park and intense investigation.
Wouldnt it be nice if the resources could be reallocated from high viz cases to an equitable effort for all murder cases whether it be a black, brown, yellow or white victim? And even better, what if we spent money on patrols, better trained and equiped cops and community policing rather than bloated overtimes by senior MPD staffs and whiz-bang technologies like cameras?
Just one more point; it is interesting to me that the recent spate of violence in Gtown and the mall has sparked a ton of interest. Where was Fox 5 when there were about 6 shootings on my block in a week?
Crime needs to be addressed city-wide (and accross the country) and not based on color, race or religion.
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Don't even get me started on this subject. I am baffled why the media are covering this creep in such depth other than for the obvious sensationalism which easily distracts us from the mess in Iraq. As for coverage on the local murder scene. The local writer George Pelecanos, invariably, makes mention of this practice in his books when he talks about the high profile murders versus the "In Brief"/Metro section death in an alley murders. They definitely set a hierarchy on life in this town.
Here's my take on it. What sells.
Missing, dead people who look like the target audience sells. Everyso often throw in a minority death in a minority neighborhood to re-enforce the target audience's biases. Sell the people what they want. There is a story people want to buy and it is difficult to tell anything different.
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