Of course they had to throw in something for more drama. Otherwise people might not look at the photos and see how insignificant the accident was.
For all we know she saw his turn signal and sped up so he couldn’t get ahead of her. Who knows?
And if 20% of the town now consists of Haitian immigrants, we would expect them to be involved in over a third of all traffic accidents in the town. So really, all the story is saying is that Springfield, like everywhere else in the country, sometimes has traffic accidents.
[Moderating]
Again, Factual Questions, so please stick to the relevant facts. The relevant fact is that there isn’t a psycho dismembering cats in Springfield.
But this is how this shit starts. Every time.
Some pet vanishes or gets torn up, which is just life, and then the rumor mill begins, you hear it from a friend, you tell another friend, and pretty soon “routine life event” is a massive panic.
We should expect to see this fiasco added to the historical list of moral panics soon:
I heard an piece about the immigrant population on NPR. Haiti has been such a disaster for so long that many of the immigrants aren’t vaccinated against measles, whooping cough, etc., so the state government is working to get that done. Also, they are overwhelming the local medical facilities – it may have been years since they had a checkup while back in Haiti, so again, the state is sending in nurses and doctors.
Overall, it will likely end up being a financial boon to Springfield, with the influx of medical professionals. I understand it had been on the decline, so a new group of workers and services users should add nicely to the local economy.
I think that’s the only actual story. The pets part is false.
Paul Krugman came through with the actual financial story about Springfield. Here’s a gift link.
Long story short, immigrants can be an economic boon for a small city, although they will put pressure on existing education and health care facilities. Immigrants can create 1.2 local jobs per immigrant in a small town.
Haitian immigrants or at least certain ones have special status against deportation because they demonstrated a realistic fear of death or persecution in their homeland. They, like nearly all new arrivals in the U.S. tend to form or join communities of people from the same ethnic background.
There was never any truth to the story that they had been eating the pets of other residents.
It is a story invented by an ignorant person who now wants to disavow it.
off-topic
However, once a story vilifies ANY immigrant who isn’t white, the Trump MAGA crowd goes into overdrive spewing hate and magnifying the outrage for all they can get out of it. It is literally the American version of Nazism.
[Moderating]
Again, this is FQ, which is not the place for sharing one’s opinions of those involved in this situation.
I heard something similar on NPR a few weeks ago. The influx of new residents can result in more jobs being available.
Why?
Because a person who comes to a city and takes a job is also a customer to other jobs. So they increase demand.
The other point to this is that there are reporters (or stringers, or self-proclaimed “journalists”) hanging out in Springfield, just waiting for trouble to break out so they can pounce on it. I don’t trust the worst of them not to stir up trouble to get a good story.
I have to mention a quote from JD Vance in which he admits the story is made up. `“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” he added, failing to mention that the false narrative was intended to advance his electoral goals.’
Springfield
for Hatians
and calumny!
JD Vance pointed to an August police report where a woman accused Haitians of taking her cat. The WSJ reported that happily the cat in question was found mere days after she contacted the cops: it was hiding in the woman’s basement.
Also, the 20,000 figure appears to be inflated. It’s probably closer to 4000. Or maybe 10,000.
But the OP wanted to know the actual story. Here’s a good roundup, from Sep 9:
The Haitians are here legally, as a result of,
…the Cuban Haitian Entrant Program of 1980. They moved to Springfield because they learned that it had lots of good jobs. “Haitians who heard that the Springfield area boasted well-paying, blue-collar jobs and a low cost of living poured in, and employers were eager to hire and train the new work force.”
In addition to a few errant Facebook posts, the pot was stirred by the neo Nazi group Blood Tribe, whose representative spoke during a city council meeting and who made up slurs on Gab.
Just as @thorny_locust predicted several days ago:
Until then:
So the cat deliberately hid in the basement to substantiate JD Vance’s narrative. I knew it; the cats (all of them) are Republicans. Fortunately the dogs (all of them) are Democrats.
If so, as it’s been observed, they sit in the Libertarian wing of the Right
Here’s a fairly good article, sprinkled with a bit of opinion, on the immigrant situation in Springfield. The reporter came to Springfield to find out more about the “cats and dogs situation” but came away with some deeper info about the immigrants themselves.
Well of course, that’s why they feign indifference to the Democratic cat ladies who own them. (Sorry)