Jesus Christ. No, of course, who WOULD paint you all with the same brush? That's lazy-man's reasoning.

This was especially distressing reading for me, as Frank's nephew was stomped to death just like Shorty. Heartbreaking.

Very well said. Bravo

Too often people have the security of opinions without the luxury of thought.

:( It's a shame that so much good about a place goes unremarked upon and then one horrific crime can suddenly be seen as a representation for an entire state.

Simply put it's the case of a few ruining it for the whole and it's terrible that things like this happen at all. I think that it's good that this crime is getting notice but that the people who are using it as an opportunity to say all of Indiana is a bad place are missing the point. Crimes like this happen all of the time, the media reports very few crimes, this is not a one shot problem.

Horrible story, some horrible reactions. I think people are just trying to deny the nasty truth that this shit can happen anywhere by making it about Indiana.

I never for a moment imagined these swine were typical of Indiana, any more than the Yorkshire Ripper is typical of England. The way the news was treated as "non-news" is disturbing, but hardly something one can say is unique to any one place. To me the use of this topic to attack your state seems like displacement activity - pretend it only happens there where the nastybadwrongmen live - not at all like our nice place.

Feh.

It is an horrific crime - but I totally agree with you - it should not be seen as a reflection on other people from the same state.

It is very wrong that it is simply 'one of the crime statistics' and go more or less unreported - but this happens by the whim of the media all too often, as you will know only too well. Throughout Europe at the moment there is an enormouse poster campaign, daily newspaper and TV coverage etc. about one British child who was seemingly abducted from a holiday flat in Portugal. Over the same period a number of other children have had a fleeting mention or no mention in the papers or on the TV - some things become news, some things don't.

Also I understand the 'tarring with the same brush' and the 'you don't have a law so must all be viscious bigots' as well - we were one of the last places in Europe to repeal anti-homosexuality laws and are regularly lampooned as a lot of gay-bashers - and yet as you know from a discussion of the subject on my journal, our young people seem to be totally unbothered by sexual orientation, and our old people have always thought 'Each to his own'- I'm not sure that anyone was ever prosecuted under those laws, if they were it was before the 1960s and none since.

If there is any sign that the thugs involved do get lighter sentences because they accuse their victim of 'being a minority' then is the time to look further out at the state as a whole and how that could happen.

Re Madelaine McCann - I think that the media took up on this because some of the reporters/editors etc. had a guily complex! Her parents left the children asleep in their holiday flat/villa whichever and went out for dinner to a cafe about 150yds away, from which they could nip back to check on the children and could 'keep an eye on the place'. Except from where they were sitting they couldn't actually see the door to their place - after all if they could they'd have seen the abductor(s).

At the beginning one or two people said 'WTF? They left the kids alone? When there was actually a babysitting service available? And, even if there hadn't been, WTF?'

Then a whole lot of media type people were in the press and on TV saying 'You shouldn't diss them for this - after all we've all done it.'

Well no - we haven't all done it - most of us would never think of doing it whether it has a reputation for being a safe holiday complex or not. And had they been a family from a rundown area in the UK and done the same thing at home by going to the pub 20 yards away they would have been in court on child neglect charges. But these are moneyied, good looking parents and good at talking to the media - and enough editors are thinking 'there but for the grace of God.....'

Well that's my theory.

Re Paris Hilton - my friend szandara had a wonderful bit in her journal about that, but she is a friends only journal (worth friending!) - but here are a few lines of 'The Judgement of Paris by LOL Cats Theatre' -

Lawyer: BLOND PRTTY RICH FAMUS GIRL IS ALLOWD TO DRYV DRUNK, YES?
Judge: O RLY?
Lawyer: YEH RLY.
Judge: WTF. NO WAI!
Paris: WTF? MOMMY HES BEIN MEAN 2 MI
ParisMom: (RANTS)
Judge: TUFF SHIT I GOTS ROBE. NO CAR 4 U!

Media: WE IN UR TV AKTIN LYKE THIS IMPRTNT. OMG WTF STAY TOONED
World: WE IN RL WRLD NOT GIVIN A FUCK
Paris: OH NOES!!!!

Oh I agree that the vast numbers of people in Indiana are wonderful (and tons of my family are still there and among the number). I, too dated interracially back in the 70's...lost lots of "friends" over it too, sadly but that was more than an Indiana thing. Was raised to treat ALL people well and not judge.

Sadly, I also know that many a small town (especially in Southern Indiana...a gloriously beautiful place)has a bad track record when it comes to prejudice. My sister, a Catholic, actually had a cross burned on her lawn in the mid 1960's....scared her and her three small children into moving from New Whiteland! She had no cross but the same reaction from neighbors in Vevay and Scottsburg too.

My mother's parents were members of the Klan in the 1920's and Indiana was the epicenter of the Klan movement at that time. They only dropped out because one of my grandmother's sisters became Catholic and she wouldn't turn against her. Fortunately, my mom was a rebel and I was not raised in that environment (although I have many a memory of my grandmother and uncles and their bigotted comments). Was it Indiana? I doubt it....lots of it was the times and their personality and would have been the case in any state they lived in.

So...with you on the FACT that the majority of Indiana residents are decent hard working kindhearted people...but can see how some folks have had negative experiences that scared them.

Love,
Kathleen Hoosier born and bred

I have horrible memories of Georgia because of a very scary experience with a cop whenI was a kid.

We were on the way to Florida, Catholic with the traditional statue of Mary on the dash board and the Indiana ("Northern") plates on the car. We were caught in a speed trap...no longer allowed they tell me...they had posted a much lower speed literally in a tree then would stop anyone not 'SEEING' it (this was pre interstate) catching all non locals. Anyway the cop was quite menacing and told us it would cost "$25 for the speeding, another 10 for the northern plate and a further 10 for the 'Lady on the dash'. Can pay now or wait 6 months for the curcuit judge to plea the case." We pled, paid and left but I never feel safe driving in Georgia to this day. It sticks with you.

Kathleen

Very true! I know that we just encountered one idiotic bubba and the state has loads of lovely, really lovely people but I admit driving there still gives me the willies (and I have lots of cop friends...not in Georgia *G*....even family on mom's side are usually in law enforcement).

Kathleen

I certainly wouldn't dream of painting everyone in a state with the sam brush

Horrible things happen everywhere.. this was especially horrible but certainly no sane person would think that a few brutal thugs are representative of a whole state


but I would hope that , come election time, the citizens of Indiana might vote for officials who better represent them and get that hate crime law passed

I ran across that story a week or so back, seems it still isn't getting much press coverage.

Bampots live and breed everywhere. Unfortunately, Indiana does not have an exclusive collection of them. I say unfortunately, because if it did, we could airlift out the sane people and leave the idiots there to cheerfully kill each other off.

I seeded it on NewsVine a week back and this is the first time I've run across it again since. Even then, the bulk of the coverage was from independent sources, like IndyMedia, the mainstream press were avoiding it like the plague.

It definitely needs to be brought to people's attention, so I'm happy to see it hitting LJ.

I don't think it's a matter of a common crime that sees it getting dumped. I think it's a little too close to the bone. It's getting dumped in the same way the story about the Christian terrorist bampot with a houseful of explosives in Texas a few years back got dumped. Welcome to head in the sand news.