Police, Fox News Join Forces
To Celebrate Vigilante
Actions
By William
Finucane
Get him! That lowlife raped
a 5th grade girl. So grab him. Beat him so he cannot escape.
Yes, yes some of the normal
rules will have to be set aside. But catching this criminal is paramount. This
all happened in Philadelphia, PA in the beginning of June; someone raped the
girl. This was a senseless, brutal attack. She needed surgery. This crime should
merit full prosecution. Mayor Michael Nutter denounced the act, reminded the
citizens that the girl was just 11 years old, and offered the city’s help in
helping the girl recover.
So grateful was the family
that it hosted a barbecue for the teens that caught the man. This episode gained
notoriety and won high praise from Philadelphia’s Fox 29 News. Words of praise
poured from everyone involved.
David Vargas and Fernando
Genval have been credited with capturing 27-year-old Jose Carasquillo. They got
reward checks from Fraternal Order of Police President John McNesby. Police and
a private businessman teamed up to offer the money.
This was real life that was
as good as any of the programs airing on the regular Fox 29 fiction shows; the
plot involved a poor child raped, a criminal and two nice boys who chased him
down. Why, there was a check for $11,500 available for tracking down the man.
They had a police drawing of the suspect to help them identify the guy. This was
nice, snappy news; lots of real life drama and a satisfying conclusion. But real
life is always more complicated, and so, however, this story was also muddier.
At the cookout, where the
grateful father praised the two teens who captured the alleged rapist, he also
apologized to another man that the two teens beat up before they finally beat up
the current suspect. This was awful and the dad was truly sorry, but neither
teen faced immediate charges of assaulting this innocent man.
They were working, after
all, with a representation police drew of the suspect’s face, in fact the two
vigilante teens had it with them when they assaulted Carasquillo. They chased
him down and hit him with a stick or bat. They inflicted wounds that put him in
the hospital for two days. Some people chasing Carasquillo, and there were more
than the two teens, said they know this man. He has been arrested 20 times on
various chargers.
So, the question arises:
Did the two teens know Carasqillo or not; they beat another man into submission
before they realized that it was the wrong man, all of which raises legitmate
questions. But so far the only answer is: Oh, sorry.
Apparently because a
dangerous man was prowling somewhere, it became acceptable for people on the
hunt to take the liberty of beating a guy who looked sort of like the rapist.
Eh, well, now it gets even muddier. This fellow police sought was not
necessarily a rapist, or the rapist. In current police-speak, he was actually
wanted as a “person of interest” in the case.
In fact, this was still the
designation – “person of interest” – when the $11,500 was given with great
ceremony to the two teens, who were honored as heroes. Very well then, here is
the situation: a man raped a child, neighbors were incensed, police offered a
reward and two men hunted down and beat up two men (one of whom did nothing) and
the victim’s family threw a party thanking everyone and the whole thing had a
happy ending because Fox 29 did a news show where people were praised.
But this is not good time
story. This is the story of a broken system.
Police knew Carasquillo
because they had arrested him 20 times. Any police force – even a large one like
Philadelphia’s – should have some hint of where a veteran criminal might be. The
two youths seemed to have no problem finding the man. He was nabbed in the same
neighborhood. And the teens had the police drawing to rely upon. They also had
the offer of $11,500. So it seems reasonable to assume that the search and
apprehension was driven as much by the monetary reward as it was by outrage;
they might have had some good intentions, but the pair illustrated the effects
of vigilantism when they beat up an innocent man, and the entire incident
reflected the broken system when they were not charged with anything and instead
received the $11,500 reward.
Checks were handed out
without any further confirmation that the detainee was the right person; he was
a ‘person of interest’ given over to the police for prosecution. Yet the
presentation was lavishly public and included thanks and praise. At the party
thrown by the victim’s family, with his face obscured for the Fox 29 viewers,
the girl’s father went out of his way to apologize to the unlucky man who was
wrongfully beat by the teens. But he thanked the teens lavishly. Of course the
whole episode made for a smash story on Fox 29 News.
Yet there is no getting
away from the hard fact that this entire process was a miscarriage of justice.
Even though the right man might have ended up in jail, the process is warped. In
American justice, the process is more important than the arrest. Otherwise, it
no longer protects the innocent.
Police basically told the
citizens of Philadelphia that they were unable to find this suspect and needed
to resort to a bounty. No one would have looked on it as such among police or
neighborhood residents, but a bounty it was. That sets the machinery of tracking
and capture on a decidedly different footing; anyone can find the suspect, hold
him or her and collect the bounty. There is no need for goodness of heart, just
the pursuit of cash. This is not a small amount of money. An $11,500 income is
substantial in these times, especially among young people. The result,
obviously, was teenagers searching to find a man who sort of fits the
description and then attack him.
Encouraging vigilantism
raises many serious questions. What if the criminal carries a gun and kills or
hurts a bounty hunter; does the city or the police organization cover the loss
to the bounty hunter’s family? Does the criminal pay? What if the bounty hunter
carries a gun? What if – as was the case in Philadelphia – the hunter picks on
an innocent victim; what if the hunter kills the blameless person: who pays,
whose fault is it?
How about the local police?
If the police or their fraternal order put up money it is a declaration of
weakness in the municipal government system. Having the mayor give thanks for
the result of such vigilantism underscores the problem.
And having or allowing
television’s Fox 29 News to turn this into a cheerleading piece is exactly the
wrong type of approach. It makes morality stories out of newscasts, and
naturally facts are arranged to enhance the action being celebrated, and the
facts that interfere with the telling of the morality play are simply omitted.
What Fox 29 News presents
is its view of what happened. This can be savory storytelling. Put on the
evening news and watch the ratings soar. But engineered storytelling is never
supposed to be the business of the news department. News people are supposed to
deliver all the pertinent facts to the viewer or reader so that he or she can
judge the issues for themselves. This sanitized and engineered version strips
away the basic function of newsgathering; that is, to tell the story in all its
facets and let the viewers or readers draw their own conclusions. News should
aim to make viewers and readers wonder and seek answers.
Just as the police, and in
fact the City of Philadelphia, walked away from traditional responsibilities by
encouraging vigilantism, so did Fox 29 news march away from traditional news,
becoming part of the story instead of reporting it, and thereby propagandizing
the viewers rather than informing them. This entire situation will likely have a
debilitating, cumulative effect on the City of Philadelphia.
June, 2009
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