Media Farm is an essay in the weekly allegedly alternative Boston newspaper, Dig Boston (formerly Weekly Dig). The newest senior journalist "wrangler" argues that white men accused of mass murder get better treatment by other journalists, than black or brown mass murderers. (Media Farm, "Estranged Fruit," Dig Boston, July 22, 2015, Page 9) Link here
https://digboston.com/estranged-fruit-how-the-media-bent-over-backward-for-a-white-terror-suspect/
What is perplexing is that it is often the opposite. Seldom do illegal aliens get identified as such. They are always "a man." Same with gangs of black youth after attacking individual white persons. They are called "youth" or "teenagers" by journalists, police and politicians. Same with Muslims who may be terrorists. They are usually called "Lone Wolfs" or "domestic terrorists." The latest incident in Tennessee continues to baffle the FBI and politicians who cannot figure out the killer's motive. He's called a Jordanian American who was born in the United States. His parents are both Palestinian.
Usually it is conservatives who blame mental illness for violence. But this is no right winger writing here. He joins the usual suspects in the mainstream media (not alternative) using the phrase "history of mental illness," to explain the accusation against a suspect. It is widely believed by young and old, left and right that there exists a causal connection between mental illness and violence, if not crime too.
It is also stereotyping of persons with disabilities, which makes this essayist an oppressor of vulnerable persons, even while he exhibits his bona fides among liberals as a defender of black persons and brown persons from racist white people.
Many writers, politicians, and activists speak loudly and clearly defending black people and brown people in alternative and mainstream media. There are few if any defenders of persons with disabilities. They remain easy targets for racists, and anti racists. White people and black people alike. Homosexuals and breeders. Police especially like to demonize people with disabilities. One MA state police officer explained to me that they do not pay attention to people they perceive as mentally ill when they complain about crimes against them. He said you cannot rely on what they say. That implies that "normal" people do not lie. Ahem!
The phrase "history of mental illness" can be heard each day in most courts when suspects are arraigned. It makes no sense other than to discredit a suspect at an arraignment when the prosecutor and police say, "He has a history of mental illness." There is no causal connection between mental illness and crime or violence. But that does not stop the police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges from slandering all persons accused of mental illness.
Massachusetts prosecutors defended their practice of revealing "a history of mental illness," because, they say, a defense attorney must notify the court if a mental illness defense will be used. That is correct. But it is not done at an arraignment. At that appearance the defendant is lucky if he even met with his attorney for more than five minutes. So how does the prosecutor and/or the police learn about this "history of mental illness?" It is a violation of state and federal law to reveal medical records. The only exception for police is if they do not know the identity of a suspect and need to use the medical records to identify the suspect. But at an arraignment the identity of the suspect is clear. So each time there is not only a violation of state and US laws, but it is also an unnecessary allegation, to discredit and to bias the judge.
Why is this not an issue of interest to the civil libertarians who denounce police, media, and court abuses of black and brown persons? Why no concern for persons with disabilities? Is there a cure for myopia?
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