This couldn't happen anywhere: how coverage of the shooting failed Highland Park

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text:

Elad Nehorai
@EladNehorai
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He targeted a synagogue.

He called Black Lives Matters protesters "monkeys."

He posted about hating Jews, Black people, and Asian people.

He was part of more than one hate community.

The town is 50% Jewish. 10% Latino.

This wasn't random.

My latest.

forward.com
This couldn’t happen anywhere: how coverage of the shooting failed Highland Park
The first moments after finding out about a shooting in my hometown felt like living in slow motion. My hands shook as I saw “Highland Park” trending on Twitter. When I found out why, I desperately...
2:42 PM · Jul 7, 2022

https://forward.com/opinion/509570/how-coverage-of-shooting-failed-highland-park/


*snip*

I was sure that pundits, writers, the media and our political leaders would note that many of the parade attendees came from the neighboring Latino community, that the population of Highland Park itself is half Jewish, and that Jews historically moved here specifically because they were being turned away from nearby suburbs due to antisemitism.

But that’s not what I saw.

Instead, I saw mainstream media outlets describe Highland Park as an “affluent, mostly white suburb,” and the shooting described as one of those “it could happen anywhere” situations (the vice president said this very line while addressing residents of Highland Park). I listened as the police described the attack as “completely random” (which would make it a profound outlier among mass shootings).

Meanwhile, the Jews pleading for them to talk about our community and how it was affected were completely ignored.

The next day, I found out that the suspect might have earlier targeted the synagogue where I went to Hebrew school — the place where my wife and I got married, where my wife’s parents still go, and where we attend services every time we visit. The suspect had visited the synagogue on Passover, and thankfully, the rabbi made him leave (possibly saving the synagogue itself from becoming a target).

I was sure that the narrative would now change once this horrifying detail came to light.

I should have known better.

*snip*

[ARPad95]

1. Thank you!

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[mopinko]

3. thank you. i kinda knew this about the town, but i didnt get this frame, either.

[yorkster]

4. Thank you. I have been waiting for msm to cover this.

Possible motive? Are they are kidding? It's right there in front of them. The fact the visit to the synagogue has gotten almost no mention speaks volumes.

[crickets]

5. +1

[H2O Man]

6. Recommended.

[SheltieLover]

7. The account of him visiting synagogue 2 blocks from site of massacre is chilling!

[MontanaMama]

8. Kick.

The MSM got it wrong again. Profoundly frustrating.

[Rhiannon12866]

9. Twitter followup:

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Cha]

12. TY, Rhiannon so much! The GD

MSM Fails America AGAIN!

This is WHY WE NEED TWITTER & Social MEDIA! I'm here crying at the Injustice!

Please Fight to Save Our Democracy💙 in 2022 & 2024!:

[Rhiannon12866]

13. Such a nice town and such good people were killed, made no sense at all

One of my best friends from college here in New York lived there, but after I read this, it dawned on me that she was Jewish...

[Cha]

17. Tragically it makes sense when we

learned that the Shooter was a Magat Spawned Monster who hated Jewish People, Blacks, and Asians. :

Please Fight to Save Our Democracy💙 in 2022 & 2024!:

[Cha]

10. This is So Sickening to read about

the GD MEDIA Again.. who can Only be Counted ON to FUCK UP the Reporting on Anything to Cover their Stupid LAZY Collective ASS!

They're Fucking ZOMBIES with Bully Horns

Rt💕🤷‍♂️😢TY Neviilledog & Elad Nehorai

[lees1975]

11. That's not the only part of this that the MSM is ignoring

He wrapped himself in Trump flags and took pictures.

He lived there. His dad had recently been defeated in a mayoral race. And there's been a lot of coverage, at least here locally, about his being turned away from the synagogue. I don't think the media should make more of that than is there. It seems, from the evidence they've found, including his arsenal of weapons, that he may have planned to do this in several different locations and the fact that this was close to home and a place with which he was familiar was more of a factor than the Jewish population of the community. He drove to Madison, Wisconsin after he left Highland Park apparently planning to do the same at a celebration there.

The people who I have seen on the local media and on MSNBC, which is the only national coverage I've watched, have been excellent. They are articulate, they are clear and concise, and the views they have expressed on second amendment rights and interpretation, and what must be done have made the case for constitutional gun control and regulation. Also noted, the Mayor, the state representative, and the congressman who represent Highland Park are all Democrats.

[ARPad95]

16. He didn't shoot up the celebration in WI because he had made no prior plans to do so. He just

happened to drive by and see it and thought in the moment about using the gun in his car. Decided not to because he hadn't put any planning into it like he did the Highland Park massacre. He planned for HP several weeks in advance according to HP authorities.

[Cha]

18. The M$M Better Start Reporting Crimo

Magat Monser, Wrapped himself i trump Flags!

Please Fight to Save Our Democracy💙 in 2022 & 2024!:

[Demsrule86]

24. I call bullshit. It is a hate crime which as usual is not reported by the mediac who suppport and

protect right wing murderers.

[SunSeeker]

14. Yep, this was a hate crime. The Jews of Highland Park didn't elect his RW dad mayor.

As soon as I heard Crimo's corpulent pile of puss of a Republican dad (who said he has "no regrets" that he got guns for his son) ran and lost a campaign for mayor in 2019 in Highland Park, a largely Jewish, blue community, the dots were too obvious not to connect.

VP Harris is right though, a mass shooting like this could happen anywhere. There are no shortage of dangerously equipped people in America with hate in their hearts for one group or another.

[mountain grammy]

15. K&R

[ShazzieB]

19. Antisemitism was my first thought when I heard that Highland Park was the site of a mass shooting.

I'm familiar enough with the town to be aware there's a large Jewish population there, so it was the very first thing I thought of. Somehow, as I processed the horrible news and tried to absorb the various pieces of information that were emerging about the victims, the shooter, and everything else, I got caught up in all the minutiae and lost sight of what no one was talking about: the possibility of antisemitism being a key factor in this creep's motivation.

I'm grateful for this reminder, although I wish I hadn't needed it.

[Withywindle]

21. My first thought too n/t

[Demsrule86]

25. Mine too. Iam a navy brat...born at Great Lakes. Lived in Chicago as a child and have

family there. I suspected it knowing the town pretty well . And when I learned he cased a synagogue and wore a pepe the frog shirt, I knew.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

27. It didn't enter my mind until they started reading the names

I didn't know a thing about the community. When they started reading the names, I thought, "Trump and Fox aimed him at them".

[electric_blue68]

20. I believe NPR and possibly local WNYC mentioned that the town had a large Jewish...

population.

Hadn't heard he was turned out of a synagogue, or that
his RW dad had run for Mayor there. (eeeeps!)

[brer cat]

22. K&R

[Demsrule86]

23. I had someone here argue that this was not a hate crime right here despite citing the evidence

you related on this post. I finally stopped responding as facts are stubborn things. But I still can't understand the motivation of the poster who refuses to look at the evidence.

[BComplex]

26. That's what I've been trying to tell people: the civil war has ALREADY started. They're killing

democrats and minorities. On purpose. With guns of war. What part of this is NOT a civil war?

[maxsolomon]

28. This isn't going to be popular to say, but

It DOES happen anywhere. Uvalde, Buffalo, Miami, Seattle, Newtown; it happens everywhere there are alienated men and guns. Which is anywhere.

Sometimes the Rampage Shooter has a political/religious/racial motive, sometimes they don't, sometimes they do and don't at once. Rarely is the motive singular and explicit like in Buffalo.

The signs point to Anti-Semitism here, but it's not explicit. Yet.