Last week, a 14 year old student was brutally raped in the boys’ bathroom of her school. This crime is heinous enough, but what makes it worse is that the alleged perpetrators were two illegal aliens aged 18 and 17, and worse yet, that many news outlets ignored or underreported the story, possibly for political reasons. The salient facts of this case should make one’s blood boil. As reported by Fox News, CNN, and various independent news outlets they are as follows:
- The 18 year-old was from Guatemala. ICE records show he entered the country illegally in August, 2016. He was caught by a Border Patrol agent, issued an order to appear before an immigration judge and given a bus ticket to Maryland to join his father. Classic “catch and release,” as practiced by the Obama Administration. His court date has not yet been scheduled, some eight months later. This is outrageous on many levels, but, sadly, it is not uncommon. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University there is a backlog of in excess of 500,000 such pending cases nationwide.
- The 17 year-old was from El Salvador is here illegally. As I write this, how and when he snuck in is unknown, but it is not significant. What is significant, is the crime he allegedly committed.
- The Montgomery County school placed both men in ninth grade classes with 14 year- olds. School officials stated that their policy has been to place immigrants with language deficiencies with freshmen, rather than with their own age group. I am not an educator, but I do have common sense, and I can see that this is an ill-advised policy. Would you want your 14 year-old daughter commingled with 17 and 18 year- old men? I know local school districts do not have the resources to vett all their students in detail, but at least separate 17 and 18 year-olds from 14 year-olds.
Outrage over the crime has come from many sources. One parent’s comment was typical, and echoed the opinion of many others nationwide. “I know that if this country enforced the laws that are already on the books those young men would not have been here and this rape, this horrendous rape, would not have occurred.” When asked to comment at Tuesday’s press briefing Sean Spicer characterized the crime as “horrendous, horrible and disgusting.” I think we can all agree with those two sentiments.
CONCLUSION
I believe there are broader aspects of this crime that need to be addressed. For one thing, it was yet another example of the country’s utter failure to secure its borders and protect its citizens. I am not talking solely about terrorists. The problem is far broader. FBI statistics clearly and conclusively demonstrate that illegals commit a significant number of drug and gang-related crimes, as well as other serious crimes, such as murder, rape, and sex-related crimes. Our present “catch and release” policy has proven to be an utter failure. Few illegals bother to show up for their hearings, which may be scheduled months or even years in the future. Meanwhile, they are scattered all over the country. We don’t know who they are, where they are, or what they are doing. I realize that most illegals are law-abiding and contribute to society, but, that said, we are being plagued by the actions of a few.
Last, but certainly not least, I would like to address the mainstream media’s lack of coverage and/or underreporting of this crime. According to reports by Fox News and various independent outlets, such as Newsbusters.org, neither ABC, NBC or CBS News reported the story Monday or Tuesday on tv, and CNN gave very sparse coverage. This is despite the fact that Sean Spicer made his above comments at a well-attended White House press briefing. All three networks did, however, find time to report on fluff pieces, such as (a) a comparison between expensive pasta and cheap pasta, (b) The Bachelor, (c) futuristic cars and (d) a flub on The Wheel of Fortune.
In my opinion, these omissions were not because the story wasn’t newsworthy. It was politically-motivated. The story casts the previous administration’s immigration policy in a bad light. And, the media wonders why most Americans view them as biased and don’t trust them.
If any of you saw the story reported on one of the networks, please comment . I would like to know.
We Built It Blog by Larry Jacob 
Your outrage: “the mainstream media’s lack of coverage and/or underreporting of this crime” assumes that this alleged incident, above all other alleged incidents that day, is worthy of our attention. How many less important rapes were reported that day, do you suppose?
Rape is a scourge of epidemic proportions. According to The Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, 2010-2014 (2015). “On average, there are 321,500 victims ( age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States.”
Whoever highlighted this particular alleged rape (Spicer? Fox News? newsbusters.org? Other right-flavored outlets?) among the daily thousands of such incidents, had an obvious and bluntly, xenophobic axe to grind.
As to: “Would you want your 14 year-old daughter commingled with 17 and 18 year- old men?”
At 17 I got commingled with the likes of you!
Wow, Dani! Next time why don’t you say what you really think. Did you just equate me to an 18 year old rapist? Good thing I like you. I appreciate ALL comments, and value your opinions. To paraphrase the late Dick Young (whom I hated btw) I don’t care whether you agree or disagree with my blogs as long as you read them. Best to Rick. Don’t forget, you got “commingled with him also.