Police: Teens killed man -- just because

In My Humble Opinion
1

Christopher Lane, a promising 22-year-old Australian athlete, was gunned down in Duncan, Oklahoma. The motive, police say? Three teens who had nothing better to do.

No controversy here. No neighborhood watch. No threats, real or perceived.
Just a wish to watch someone die who’s NOT in Reno.

My first thought was I hope this isn’t a revenge thing for Trayvon Martin. We’re still having marches and rallies here in Georgia over this.

But I couldn’t tell, because no news outlets described the kids other than their ages.
Oh, I bet CNN knows they’re black, but doesn’t want to start shit. Fox will tell me. Nope. Not ABC, NBC, or any other news outlet from Tulsa to Tampa. I found that odd. Not that I must know now. This will get big, and we’ll know in a day or two.
Maybe the 15yo can hide, but the 16 & 17yo usually get a picture and some background, but there’s nothing.

Until you get to Australia, home of the shooting victim. There, we get names and mugshots.
And what does Momma say?
Jennifer Luna, whose son is suspected of firing the fatal shot, claimed her son was at home saying: “My son is not that way. My son is a good kid.”

No, he’s not. He is a thug and a murderer. ***My ***son is a good kid. He’s an Eagle Scout. He saved a life with CPR. He saved the life of a fallen rock climber with proper first aid and having a radio to call for help where cell phones don’t work. He leads food drives. He graduated school with a 3.98 GPA. He’s doing the same in college, where his goal is to become an FBI agent like his G,G, grandfather.

Your piece of shit just got the Prime Minister of Australia to call for a boycot of our country. And killed someone.
Am I the only one who finds it odd that no American news source will identify these thugs?
I don’t believe in conspiracies, but what could be the motive behind failing to report a point of information that is reported with regularity and even glee in virtually every other crime report?

2

It’s SOP in the U.S. to withhold the names of minors.

3

Just to address the last part, the accused are 15, 16 and 17. If they are juveniles, then there might be some sort of restriction on reporting their names.

4

I’m not often embarrassed to be an American. I am right now.

5

An Oklahoma TV station reported the names yesterday.

6

This is horrible.

I think I wouldn’t mind pulling the plug on these. All three of them.

7

:rolleyes:

8

Often true, but 17yo suspects get named/shown here in Georgia daily.

We’re progressive like that.

+1 for embarrassment. We’re so much more than a random shooting, but that’s the only thing that gets reported across the pond…:smack:

9

The motive for withholding the names (their minor status) has been mentioned, and I demonstrated that a local news station that popped up in the first couple of search results had revealed the names yesterday. Do you have any comment on the fact that the last part of your OP was factually incorrect and lazy?

10

This part makes you sound a little racist and possibly a Jayhawks fan.

11

Don’t feel too bad, duc. We know you can’t be everywhere at once.

12

Haha!

13

I’m glad your son is a true American.

14

ducati, it sounds like you’re faulting the US news outlets for not mentioning that the three teens are black.

The victim’s nationality is a prominent part of the story, but the three teens were identified as Americans so that’s parallel. Neither victim nor murderers had their ethnicities mentioned, so that leaves race. I would argue that unless race was a factor in the shooting, which it may or may not have been, it’s not really pertinent to the story. They were being exceptionally and criminally dumb teenagers, but I don’t see any evidence that black culture played a part in that, or that they targeted a white person. Perhaps it’s just really irrelevant. I would never accuse CNN of good reporting, and I agree they’re more likely to withhold the detail from hypersensitivity than because it’s not important. Still, in this case, probably a good call.

15

Isn’t it a legal requirement, not just a custom?

16

I’ve not cross-checked their cites, but this article from the Student Press Law Center argues the opposite. According to them, it is perfectly legal for a media outlet to report the name of a juvenile accused of a crime. So, if the article is correct in its statement of the general rule in the U.S., a minor’s status isn’t a bar to his or her name being reported as the suspect in a crime. Cynically, I don’t even think the refusal to state their name is even due to what their names are: James, Chancey, and Michael provide no clue as to any ethnicity other than white.

Congrats on your son’s Eagle Scout achievement, ducati. It’s very tough to do.

17

That’s it, you’re done.

18

I kno, rite?! That’s exactly what I think too when I hear post-Trayvon news about uhm…guns and people. It’s all related to the Skittles!!!

19

Dammit! Ninja’d again.

20

It was their guy, and since they can’t have guns, they are jealous of ours. :slight_smile: