By now, most readers of this blog know that four Chicagoans were arrested yesterday for the live-streamed kidnapping and torture of a mentally-disabled man.
They hog-tied him, put duct tape over his mouth, forced him to drink toilet water, cut his clothes off, cut off some of his hair (or cut him in the head), flicked ashes at him, made him denounce Donald Trump and white people in general (of all things), all the while live streaming much of the festivities - as they drank and took puffs of cheap ghetto cigars - to their Facebook friends.
Two of them were women - Brittany Covington, 18 (Brittany Herring on Facebook) and Tanisha Covington, 26. Indeed, it was Brittany who put the video on her Facebook page. As far as I can tell from what the police have said, the women didn't merely "go along with it" but may have been instigators. Or perhaps at the least, the men - one of whom was a "friend" of the victim - may have turned a private "play-fight" into a serious crime in order to impress the women.
There are many ironies and developing controversies about the case. One of them is that Facebook is on record as claiming that the torture video did not violate their "community standards."
Brittany Herring's Facebook page is still up.
This is surreal for a number of reasons. Among other things, people have flooded into the comments boxes of her last ten or so posts denouncing her and her associates. And little Facebook arguments have erupted within the boxes about race and crime in America, etc.
You can also check out her "friends," virtually all of whom seem to be narcissistic young people who "communicate" exclusively in black slang. Some of them have put up the kidnapping story on their own pages, a few defending their friend or focusing their ire on the Chicago police who allegedly beat a confession or something out of her - a strange accusation given the fact that she literally live-streamed her own virtual "confession" as she was committing the crime.
Then there's Ms. Herring/Covington, who appears to be in the two-new-profiles-a-month club. Most of them are of her in slutty/selfie-fashion poses, two are of (I think) her 2-year-old niece and a few include her boyfriend (who was recently arrested for another crime).
After the Paris terrorist attacks she put the French flag over one of her slutty poses.
In jail you can't update your profile picture. I assume that bothers her.
Think of the following as an homage to community standards.
What is interesting is that five years ago, maybe even three, you never saw people discussing these things. You had to accidently wander into the seamy underbelly of the Internet to find them. I think the willingness of ordinary folks to talk about these events is a huge cultural watershed. Maybe this will get me labeld racist. I'M A BEAR. I can barely tell humans apart, except nice, slow fat ones.
ReplyDeleteAnother observation as a defense lawyer: why do so many kids feel compelled to produce People's Exhibit A on their cell phones?
I guess the lesson is that black racism against white people is more honest and justified, while the opposite is sneakily kept out of sight so we can all get away with the oppression we all have so much time for, when we're not bitching about the Pope.
Was there any pre-internet version of people publicly broadcasting their own crimes? Or is this that rare social phenomena that is genuinely new and original?
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!!!
ReplyDeleteSerious - that's all? Seems like this trash should receive their trial against a wall at 10 paces. ...and show it on facebook. They're animals.
ReplyDeleteIt's horrifying, how low the culture has sunk. Ignorance. Willful ignorance. This is what happens when you gin up folks who have limited resources of any kind, and fill their minds with resentment and blind hatred. Obama built this, but our public schools are the primary culprits.
ReplyDeleteThey should get federal charges (is that right Bear?) and federal penitentiary, with no parole.
Maybe this is the only way we, the USA will take the problem seriously especially in Chicago and work on resolving it. Obama only reinforced the anger that may have some justification, but still not acceptable.
ReplyDelete