Thx
A lot of people agree with you. People go missing every day and many don’t get even one minute of news coverage. There’s been quite a bit of criticism over some news stations “breaking in” to regular programing to give updates on Nancy Guthrie (which turns out to be nothing new). Everyone is sympathetic and hopeful that she is returned but let’s not forget about the countless others who have gone missing. Maybe the Guthrie case will shine a new light on how we handle missing person cases going forward? I hope so.
Interesting that Trump has offered federal assistance as Savannah is not a fan. Don’t the states have an SBI? Are they already not involved? I don’t have much faith in the sheriff.
The case seems off - maybe it’s because this a rare occasion when we’re getting back-to-back updates on it or maybe it’s because it’s hard to know which news sources are truthful and accurate - resulting in a lot of wild claims. My alarm bells keep going back to someone she knows. I hope she is okay, but I agree that a lot of time has elapsed without proof of life and that’s not good.
I think that crimes that involve famous people get more coverage than those that happen to you or your neighbor. I’m sure there were more kidnappings in the 1930s than the Lindburgh baby, but that’s the one that got all the coverage and that we all remember. The Menendez brothers got a lot of coverage recently, but they weren’t the only two prisoners in California looking to have their sentences adjusted.
I usually watch NBC so of course there has been a lot of coverage. I wasn’t sure about the other networks but they seem to at least give updates (what there have been, not much) and then there are channels like Court TV that keep trying for more info but just can’t find it so repeat the same things over and over.
Although states have their own investigative units, they aren’t anywhere near as good as the FBI or have the resources the FBI has. And they can screw it up! Our famous case here was JonBenet Ramsey. The Boulder Police trampled all over the house (and let the family and friends do it too) and the evidence for hours before better experts were called in and by then it was too late. The sheriff in Pima County said “Oh, we got all the evidence and released the property back to the family.” WHY? No one needed to go into the house or even on the property. Reporters didn’t need to be photographing the blood on the porch or peeping through the windows. What if it IS a family member and they’ve now been allowed into the house to contaminate any evidence?
And it goes far beyond contaminating a crime scene. Chain of custody issues have messed up many cases which should have been open and shut. “Ladies and Gentleman of the jury- here’s the bloody glove, bullet, strand of hair”. Well, if the local cops don’t meticulously bag and tag every single physical piece of evidence- even the stuff that doesn’t appear to be relevant- it doesn’t take Perry Mason to argue that the evidence was swapped, client was framed, the DNA degraded by sitting in a hot car in July for three days before the cops remembered they had a baseball cap from the scene.
She was Black, right? Oh wait, no. She was a missing child dominating the news, so obviously not Black.
Some of the local cops can be excellent and I don’t mean to say they’ll all screw up the evidence, but they CAN and then it makes everything difficult.
On a case I worked on in Boulder (I worked for the judge) the crime was a murder in married student housing, so first on the scene was the Campus police. They were excellent! They bagged and tagged everything, they controlled the crime scene, they kept a log of everyone who entered the apartment. They weren’t trying to solve the case in 5 minutes, just securing the evidence and keeping the number in the apartment down to a minimum.
Then the Boulder Police arrive…and things went downhill fast.
I think we can all agree that upper middle class white people that are victims of crimes are treated in a different way than POC.
Look at Minneapolis, things got attention when it was white people who were killed.
That’s my opinion of course.
It’s still quite unusual for an 84 year old woman to be kidnapped. In a quite obviously upscale neighborhood
I like hearing stories about the competence of campus police. They are often between a rock and a hard place- thanks for sharing this. My personal experiences have all been positive- courteous, professional, not condescending at all. But I think they get a bum rap at times.
I agree that white victims of crime are much more likely to be given attention from the media.
I don’t think Minneapolis is the best example though.
- The situation is much more serious overall than many realize
- The people killed were not the people being targeted
I will not comment further as I want to avoid politics.
JonBenet wasn’t really missing. I don’t remember if they reported it before they found her, but she was found within a few hours so there wasn’t a huge dragnet set up. The extra law enforcement, like the CBI (Colo Bureau of Investigation) and the Denver and State police were brought in after the body was found (but after the evidence was contaminated).
I don’t agree that white victims of crime get more publicity. If Oprah was missing, she’d get coverage, if a black pro football player’s child was missing, there’d be more coverage in the press. Savannah’s getting this coverage because she’s famous and has connections. When my friend was an editor at a paper and her BIL died tragically (he was black), she walked the story down and insisted it printed immediately (and it was much more coverage than the story otherwise would have received). People play the cards they have, and Savannah has this one.
I don’t fault Savannah ( and I really hope for the best outcome in this case), but I think we need to compare apples to apples. Of course a major celebrity like Oprah would get a lot of publicity. But if we were comparing an average, middle class person what was white ( and especially young, female and attractive) vs an average middle class person who was non white, the white person would likely get more media attention.
The longer the case goes on, the harder it is to imagine any scenario where Savannah Guthrie’s profile doesn’t play a role. So maybe the constant press attention is at the very heart of the kidnappers’ demands.
The recent commentary I’ve heard from law enforcement commentators is that this is a “mature” perpetrator(s). Well planned, calm, kidnappers coming from a place of power. Not just your average gang of Tucson criminals who cased a vulnerable old lady.
But Savannah isn’t an average white person. Her net worth is $40M. I don’t know what her siblings do or if they have connections in the Tucson area that may be playing a part, but if it wasn’t Savannah’s mother, I think it would be a local/state news story.
It is getting the coverage because of the NBC connection and the Olympics starting, but I think if it were one of the black or Hispanic reporters and a mother abducted (Al Roker, Gayle King) it would be a big story if they wanted it to be a big story. If Nancy Guthrie had been found immediately, it would have been a one day story (but of course terrible for the family). News sources report the stories people want to follow, and in this case they probably have more access to the story because of Savannah and Savannah is using her connections to keep this in the news. I think any of us would use what we have. We’d call LEOs we know, attorneys, doctors, and reporters to get all the info we can.
@twoinanddone -that’s my point. This case is getting a lot of publicity BECAUSE it involves a celebrity’s parent. I agree with that.
This is what I disagree with.
I think there is a hierarchy in which cases get publicity:
- Celebrities (any race) and their families
- White people
- People of color
And a sad coda to your third category- native Americans. There is abundant data on how law enforcement treats these cases. Another teenager from the tribal community doesn’t come home from school? Barely breaks through as a potential crime.
Who has a ring camera? How long do images last without a subscription? I am really disappointed that they weren’t able to get much from it.
If Internet is cut off, there will be no images. Have to have a camera with some sort of internal memory (and operating on backup power if electricity to the house is also cut off).
Perspective of a celebrity - especially media celebrity - and being on the other side of a very vulnerable situation.
This new video that was just released sounds very different, and not in a good way. I hope I’m wrong.