Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV was emphatic.
"There was absolutely no evidence," Owen said, that the murders of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom were "racially motivated."
The chief had to be direct in his admonition about the torture and heinous killing of the Tennessee couple in January. Both are alleged to have been repeatedly raped, with Newsom's body set on fire. The young victims were White. All five of the defendants, including one woman, are Black.
Some Whites -- rightfully so -- are outraged because of the perceived lack of media coverage resulting from this racial dynamic.
Police subsequently arrested an organizer after he fought with officers during a protest last Saturday about this case. Alex Linder, who operates a White supremacist and anti-Semitic Web site, ignored orders from police. The Missouri man faces charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, vandalism and assault on a police officer.
Fewer than 30 protesters, but about twice as many counter-protesters attended the rally. Police say Linder was the only one arrested.
While Christian's parents have said they no sympathy for extremists who want to use the racial aspects of the case for their own purposes, the perpetrators could have had racial ulterior motives.
Black writer Earl Ofari Huthinson explores this and insinuates that perhaps race did play a role. I agree with this analysis and would go one step further. If the hate-crime enhancement can not be legally proven, this should not in any way deter the judge, upon conviction, in sentencing the perpetrators to the maximum prison time allowed.
Black folks must be outraged and not mitigate in any way how savagely these innocent victims were treated. If the folks were Black and the accused were White, this story would be huge and we know it - especially in the Black blogosphere.
There would be special reports about racism in the South, how will this case affect the 2008 Presidential Election, and Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton racing each other to the airport so they can be the spokeshole for the grieving family.
Now if we're going to keep it real, we also have to talk about Natalie Holloway, or Madeleine McCann, the missing blond, blue-eyed little London three-year old that has saturated the news of late. Meanwhile, Black, Latino, Asian, and Native-American children turn up missing all the time and their families can't buy airtime. Or what about the enormous amount of time the mainstream media spends discussing Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Mischa Barton, Kim Kardashian, etc....
That's what the Aryan Nation needs to be protesting.
Stop me when I start lying!