Only Tucker Carlson and Fox News would use the case of Jazmine Barnes, a murdered 7-year-old African American girl, as a vehicle to scold African Americans who thought her killing was a hate crime.
As The Washington Post reported, Barnes was inexplicably shot to death while riding in a car with her mother and sisters on December 30. Eyewitnesses identified the shooter as a white man and many speculated that the shooting was racially motivated. However, a tip to civil rights activist Shaun King led to the arrests of two black men. Authorities now believe the shooting was a case of mistaken identity.
When Carlson began to cover the story, albeit at the very end of his program, I first thought he was trying to counter his (well-deserved) reputation as a bigot with the good news that Barnes’ killer had been caught. But no, Carlson’s focus was on Blacks Behaving Badly.
Sure, Carlson referred to the case as a “horrifying murder” but he spent no time on who the girl was, how her family was faring or how the mistake had happened and jumped right to suggesting it was because black people are too racist and anti-white. Plus, there was the hint of the old “blacks should pay more attention to black crime than white racism” trope that is so popular on Fox. Here’s what was said:
CARLSON: Well, the horrifying murder of Jazmine Barnes in Houston was briefly a rallying cry for activists across the country who said it was an unprovoked act of racial terrorism. Scared people. Now police have made an arrest and that story line is changing. Trace Gallagher has a lot more on that. Trace?
GALLAGHER: Good evening, Tucker. Even with zero evidence and no motive, the shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes was labeled as a hate crime by some. An attorney for the victims’ families said he believed the murder was racially motivated because the nation is racially charged.
Jazmine was in a car with her mom and three sisters on December 30th when a vehicle pulled alongside them and opened fire. The family reported seeing a red truck with a white driver in his 40s. A description that led to a sketch and this statement from Texas Democratic Congresswoman [African American] Sheila Jackson Lee. Quoting: I believe – and having written hate crime legislation, knowing the criteria, I believe that this should be looked at as a hate crime.
But three days later, New York-based social activist and writer Shaun King got a tip that the suspect was a 20-year-old black man named Eric Black. King gave the tip to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Eric Black was later arrested and reportedly admitted driving the car, saying his passenger was the shooter. The potential second suspect is currently being held on drug charges.
But critics point out that Shaun King and Sheriff Gonzalez continued tweeting and promoting the white-suspect narrative even after the credible tip. And Congresswoman Jackson Lee maintains that her hate crime statement was just fine. Watch.
[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]
JACKSON LEE: Absolutely not. Nothing is irresponsible when it comes to the loss of a precious 7 or 8-year-old.
[END VIDEO CLIP]
GALLAGHER: Investigators say Jazmine’s death appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Tucker.
CARLSON: These people are so irresponsible, it’s unbelievable.
What Carlson and Gallagher didn't bother to highlight is that King turned gave the tip to the sheriff, apparently without concern for the fact that it implicated a black man. Also, as Jackson Lee noted, “No one tried to take the law into their own hands.” In other words, the system worked. But Carlson and Gallagher deliberately ignored the good news in order to stoke white resentment.
Watch Carlson prove that even when it comes to the senseless murder of a child he has no decency below, from the January 7, 2019 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
In the context of Carlson suggesting that African Americans cooked up a hate crime and that King baselessly tried to blame white people, I thought King’s act undercut Carlson’s theory. Even more noteworthy to me was that neither Carlson nor Gallagher mentioned that King behaved with the kind of integrity those two were suggesting he lacked.
Why do you find that commendable or noteworthy? Is that not what any decent citizen would do; put a girl’s death and the solving of such a heinous crime above race loyalty?