Just as Donald Trump has reportedly begun putting pressure on sanctuary cities, you suddenly can’t turn on Fox News without seeing a report about a rape in a Rockville, Maryland school that the Trump administration is using as “proof” a crackdown is needed.
As KTLA reported, Monday, the Trump administration “opened up its first line of attack on so-called sanctuary cities, naming jurisdictions that decline to detain immigrants who could be subject to deportation.”
By coincidence, “the Rockville rape atrocity,” as Fox host Tucker Carlson called it, was suddenly all over Fox News. That was the main story on FoxNews.com as I wrote this Tuesday night.
The subtitle is, “Crime fuels opposition to ‘sanctuary cities.’” The first headline in the sidebar states, “White House blames Md. school rape on lax border, sanctuary policies.” That Rockville story also got attention on The First 100 Days, Special Report, The O’Reilly Factor and special attention from Trump-worshipper Sean Hannity. He spent three segments fear mongering about immigrants.
Don’t get me wrong. Rape is an atrocity no matter when, where or by whom. It’s especially awful when it happens to a 14-year-old victim at school, as was the case in Rockville. But Fox is falsely suggesting that cracking down on immigrants will avoid rapes or the worst kind of rapes. Just look at the lede in the FoxNews.com report:
Critics - including the White House - blamed the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in a high school restroom by two much older immigrants students, at least one here illegally, on failed federal policies.
In fact, the opposite appears to be true. From Politico:
A 2011 U.S. Government Accountability Office study “Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests and Costs” found that of the three million arrests of immigrants, legal or not, examined by investigators, only two percent were for sex offenses—two percent too many, but hardly an epidemic. It didn’t break down the ethnicity or legal status of the offenders, but the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey breaks down such stats by victims. For 2013 (the most recent year available), it shows that whites accounted for 71 percent of all sexual assaults documented (above their total percentage of 63 percent of the U.S. population), while Latinos accounted for 9 percent, far below their total percentage of 17 percent. And as a percentage of all “serious violent victimizations,” sexual assaults represent 11 percent of the violent crimes against Latinos. For gabachos? 18 percent.
It just so happens that that Politico story, from July, 2015, was in response to Trump’s accusation that Mexico is “sending” a cavalcade of rapists across the border.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best...They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
And remember when Trump warned about “what’s happening in Sweden” last month (which Fox also did its best to validate)? It turned out he was referring to a discussion on Tucker Carlson Tonight. As Vox noted, Carlson’s guest alleged “’an absolute surge in gun violence and rape in Sweden’ as a result of mass Muslim immigration.” Vox pointed out that there is no rape epidemic in Sweden. But there is a right-wing narrative otherwise:
If you spend any time in the conservative media, particularly alt-right or anti-Islam sites, there’s a more specific narrative about Sweden than the one about crime in general. It’s about rape — specifically, that Muslim immigrants are raping Swedish women in unprecedented numbers.
Breitbart has published an enormous number of pieces in recent years on the alleged immigrant rape crisis in Sweden, focusing on cities like Malmö with large Muslim immigrant populations. Representative headlines include “Police warn of child rape epidemic in migrant-occupied Malmö” and “Migrants jailed after woman abducted at gun point, gang-raped in hookah bar basement.”
So Trump has merely “translated” the “Muslim rape” trope to “Mexican/immigrant rape” in the U.S.
And Fox is happy to oblige.
Watch Sean Hannity use the Rockville incident as proof Trump spoke “candidly” about Mexican rapists below, from the March 21, 2017 Hannity show.
If a female family member was assaulted at this satanic network, Gunslinger Hannocchio would probably tell her to keep her mouth shut, so he can continue to take his massive salary.
NOTE TO HANNITY
With any luck, Judge Nap won’t be the only mouthpiece tossed from the network.
Throw these 2 kids into the ocean with a rock around their neck, then do the same thing with Catholic priests (Matt 18:6-14).
If you’re going to use it as an argument to keep Mexicans out, keep Catholic priests out.
I’m frankly also wondering how Mexico will respond once Trump makes a show of starting to build the racist wall he’s been insisting he would make Mexico pay to build. In my opinion, it would make the most sense for Mexico to cut off diplomatic relations with this country the moment Trump makes a big event of “breaking ground”. Yes, they’ll lose some financial aid – but they’re going to lose that anyway under Mike Pence. Better for them to take the bull by the horns and give an appropriate response. Building what Trump has threatened is nothing more or less than a giant middle finger to the people of Mexico. They really need to respond in kind – if only to demonstrate that bullies like this never win and never should.
