The Video hopefully will follow today for those who didn't see it. Working on it right now to get it. But for now...here is the transcript. The official link is HERE
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ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL
Taking a Post-Racial Look at Crime;
Aired December 2, 2008 - 19:00:00 ET
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Tonight, outrage over the Hudson and Pressly murders continues, even though cops have made arrests. America is entering a post-racial era. But I`ll show you the shocking role race is playing in these cases. And I`ll take your calls on race and crime in America.
Plus, now that we`re officially in a recession, will the Big Three get their bailouts? Spanked over using fancy jets the last time, the begging CEOs are now showing up to Congress in hybrids. But have they really learned their lessons?
And after shooting himself in the leg, NFL superstar Plaxico Burress went to a celebrity hospital to help him cover up the injury. I`ll look at this, and other outrageous cases of special celebrity treatment, to find out why they get away with it.
These issues, and more, tonight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: The Big Three fat cats drop their private jets. So will Congress reward them with a bailout this time? I`m going to tell you whether Detroit deserves your tax dollars.
Plus, star NFL receiver Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg at a nightclub, and then tried to cover it up. I will be taking your calls on celebrities getting special treatment for their stupidity.
But first, on this show, we`ve been bringing you the very latest developments in two separate and horrific murder cases that occurred within days of each other.
On October 20, Arkansas anchorwoman Anne Pressly was brutally beaten in her home by an intruder. Her parents say she was also sexually assaulted. She died without ever regaining consciousness. Twenty-eight- year-old Curtis Vance has been charged in this case.
Then, just four days after Pressly was attacked, three members of Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson`s family were shot to death in Chicago. Twenty-seven-year-old William Balfour, the estranged husband of Jennifer`s sister, has just been charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
Both stories have been the subject of incredible media attention.
But you`ve got to wonder, would the Hudson murders be in the spotlight if Jennifer Hudson weren`t a big star? What if celebrity Jennifer was just an unknown African-American woman in Chicago? Would we be talking about it? Probably not.
Would the Pressly murder have gotten as much coverage had she not been a pretty white TV anchorwoman? Probably not. How much does celebrity and race determine coverage? How much does celebrity and race determine outrage?
Here is my issue tonight. We, as a society, should be outraged by all murders, regardless of the race of the victim, regardless of the race of the killer, regardless of the social status of those involved. A victim is a victim. A murderer is a murderer.
Both the Pressly and the Hudson cases are horrific murders, of innocent people who did not deserve to die. So let`s be outraged. But let`s be outraged for the right reasons: not because of the color of the victim`s skin or the perpetrator`s skin. America is entering a post-racial society, and we need to start taking a post-racial look at crime.
Joining me now, Mark Sawyer, associate professor of political science at UCLA and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. And Judge Jeanine Pirro, former D.A. and host of "The Judge Jeanine Pirro Show." And Morris O`Kelly, author of the nationally-syndicated online column, "The Morris O`Kelly Report."
Morris, your latest column focuses on these two murders, and how race may have affected the coverage and outrage over each. Explain what you mean when you say they`re the big elephant in the room.
MORRIS O`KELLY, COLUMNIST: Well, there`s a fundamental misconception when we talk about these cases. You say that we`re entering a post-racial America, when in fact, if we look at the election of Barack Obama, the elevation of Barack Obama as an individual does not fundamentally change how black people generally and black men, specifically, are viewed.There is a history in this country of a fear of the black man in terms of how black men and interracial crime is -- is conceived. Now, if we look at the history, where you can`t talk about interracial crime and not also acknowledge the baggage that`s attached.VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me -- let me ask you this. I just want to ask you, are you possibly projecting your own stereotyping onto this situation? Because in the entire Pressly case, nobody to my knowledge has mentioned race whatsoever: not the parents, nobody. So you`re actually the one who`s bringing this issue to the surface.
O`KELLY: I don`t think you can honestly have an intellectually honest conversation with Anne Pressly and not acknowledge the history of this country. When you talk about Anne Pressly, you have to also talk about Emmett Till. You have to talk about Susan Smith. You have to acknowledge the campaign against Harold Ford in Tennessee. All these things impact the discussion of race and the perception of black men in America.VELEZ-MITCHELL: Look, I want to bring Mark Sawyer, associate professor of political science at UCLA. You are an expert in race. Do you feel that there is a racial component in terms of the discussion, or the outrage surrounding this murder?
I can tell you that I am outraged over the Pressly murder, outraged that this woman`s face was beaten in to the point where her bones were sticking out, that her mother had to find her that way. But it had nothing to do with the fact that the perpetrator, or the alleged perpetrator, is African-American.
MARK SAWYER, ASSOCIATED PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, UCLA: Well, Jane, any thinking person is always outraged by these cases. But one of the things that we found when we do studies is you see that, when whites see coverage where there`s an African-American criminal, they`re more likely to support more punitive measures.
Also, when they see crimes and murders and they didn`t even see a suspect, we did a study at UCLA. Forty percent of them remember seeing a black suspect. They strongly connect. It`s a nightmare for the African- American community, the way they connect African-American men and crimes together, even when the story isn`t -- doesn`t have that connected into it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Jeanine Pirro, former district attorney and judge, in this case, tragically, this is the suspect, the person arrested in the murder of Anne Pressly. What`s your take on whether there is a racial component or not? Is this something that`s being projected onto a story, or is it something that people just aren`t talking about publicly?
JEANINE PIRRO, FORMER D.A.: I`ve got to tell you, Jane, this is being projected. The truth is that the Pressly case was in our, you know, in the front of all the newspapers because she was an interesting woman, who was on television, and everyone was wondering, was she killed by a competitor? Was she killed by a stalker? Who was she killed by? It was really a question of whodunit, how does someone get killed in a situation like this.
And no one knew it was an African-American until five days after she died. So no one can assume that race had anything to do with it.
And by the way, the whole premise of this, that race is relevant, is belied by the fact that you`ve got African-American victims on -- in the Hudson family, and you`ve got Anne Pressly, who was a Caucasian. This is not about race. It has nothing to do with race.
The Hudson case is about domestic violence. And Anne Pressly is about a beautiful woman who was on television, and who was killed, and everyone wanted to know who did it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me add this. And by the way, a reminder: we are taking your calls at 1-877-JVM-SAYS. That`s 1-877-586-7297. We want to know what you think about this entire issue.
Pressly`s parents were on "The Today Show" yesterday. Listen to what her mother told Matt Lauer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATTI CANNADY, ANNE PRESSLY`S MOTHER: Six weeks ago this morning, I found my daughter beyond recognition, with every bone in her face broken. Her nose broken, her jaw pulverized so badly that the bone had come out of it. I actually thought that her throat had possibly been cut. But that was possibly the first knockout punch. Her entire skull had numerous fractures from which she suffered a massive stroke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mark Sawyer, does the sheer brutality of this murder, combined with what the parents say was a sexual assault, suggest that this could be a hate crime?
SAWYER: I don`t think so. I mean, there`s no evidence of that. And these cases, these details are just absolutely shocking. I mean, it`s terrible. And as an African-American man, I always get upset. I mean, we see these crimes, and we say, we hope the perpetrator wasn`t black, because we understand that when these things happen, despite a lot of our success and the things that we do, a lot of people ascribe these kind of crimes to the community in general, rather than thinking of it as bad individuals.
I`m not responsible for this guy, and neither is anyone. So I don`t disagree with what Jane said.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jeanine, ten seconds.
PIRRO: Yes, yes. Hate crimes are when someone, a victim is targeted because of the color of their skin, their religion, their ethnicity. If you`re saying she was targeted because she was white, then that`s a hate crime. But if she was targeted because she was beautiful and because she was a reporter and because he knew her and was obsessed with her...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He didn`t know her. According to authorities, they described this as a random robbery. And a lot of people in this community say, "We just don`t buy it."
PIRRO: Now, the reason why I raise the question, Jane...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: The reason I raise the question is that there was such viciousness in the execution of this crime against an apparent stranger. That is the definition of hate, if I`ve ever heard it. I think sometimes rape can be a hate crime. It`s a crime against hate, vis-a-vis gender.
PIRRO: Yes. And gender is a category in many states. But the fact that she was so brutally murdered speaks to a personal rage and a personal somewhat obsession with a woman like this. It`s not just that -- you know, most murders are not as brutal as this was.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right.
PIRRO: It suggests that maybe there was something.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But what -- what is this man, and we have to take a break. But think about this question, what was this man so -- allegedly, so angry about that he would perpetrate this on a stranger knowing nothing about that person except their appearance?
Stay right there. I will have much more on the tragic Hudson and Pressly murders. Do you think race is playing a role in these cases? The outrage or the coverage? I will be back with your calls at 1-877-JVM-SAYS. That is 1-877-586-7297. It is time for you to sound off on race and crime in America.
Back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: NFL star Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg and then tried to cover it up by going to a celebrity-friendly hospital. I`ll have the very latest on this and other outrageous cases of celebrities getting special treatment.
But first, we are back looking at crime in America through a post- racial lens, focusing on two horrific recent murders: first, the murder of Arkansas anchorwoman, Anne Pressly, and second, the tragic triple homicide of Jennifer Hudson`s family members. Is race a factor when it comes to how we react to these cases?
Back with me, my fabulous panel: Mark Sawyer, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at UCLA; Judge Jeanine Pirro, former D.A. and host of "The Judge Jeanine Pirro Show"; and Morris O`Kelly, author of the nationally-syndicated online column, "The Mo Kelly Report."
And let me say that I am speaking and analyzing this case and discussing with you as a person of color myself, a woman of color. I`m Puerto Rican. I know what it`s like to be a minority. So we are all approaching this issue through our own glasses, as it were.
And -- and as far as I`m concerned, I believe that bigotry and prejudice isn`t about one particular race attacking another particular race, it is a very primitive mindset that we, as a human race, need to evolve beyond.
The phone lines lighting up.
Erica in Alabama, your thought or question, ma`am?
CALLER: Yes, my question is, do you honestly think -- let`s take O.J. Simpson, for instance...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hello?
CALLER: Can you hear me?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, I can. Go ahead.
CALLER: I have a question.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.
CALLER: Let`s take O.J. Simpson, for example. Do you honestly think, if Nicole Brown Simpson had not been white, would O.J. Simpson`s trial been on the TV the way that it was every day for months? I mean, it was ridiculous. I don`t think there`s any African-American woman that has been killed that has gotten that type of treatment.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s talk about that, Jeanine Pirro. The larger issue, a very valid one, because the O.J. case is a vortex that we could get into. But the larger issue is, yes, there is something actually called the missing white woman syndrome, where focus on pretty white women in glamorous, exotic locales gets a lot of coverage. Do you think that that`s a fair criticism?
PIRRO: Well, you know, I think that the O.J. case in particular was on television, because if you`ll recall, Jane, in 1994, when that crime happened, and the trial, I believe, started in 1995, there was -- there were laws being passed in many states which allowed for the televising of criminal cases.
Now, O.J. Simpson was big enough that I don`t know that it mattered what the race of the victim was. But I think that there is some legitimacy, that it`s really more -- in terms of the caller`s question, I think it`s more about celebrity. I mean, you know, Jennifer Hudson is a celebrity. O.J. Simpson is a celebrity. This is really about...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Morris, what do you think?
O`KELLY: Well, if you`re going to mention O.J. Simpson, you have to look at it in terms of there`s still an anger against O.J. Simpson now that is unprecedented. Why is he more of a social pariah in 2008 than Robert Blake, when ostensibly both of them are equally guilty as the day is long? But there`s still more concern with O.J. Simpson. Why is that?PIRRO: Well, I`ll tell you why it is, because O.J. Simpson was so guilty, it wasn`t funny. There was more...
O`KELLY: And Robert Blake was not?PIRRO: Wait a minute. We had DNA. We had footprints. We had everything in this case. Both men were acquitted of the criminal charges, and both men were found responsible in the civil cases.
(CROSSTALK)
PIRRO: But there are some cases that is overwhelming. And that was the case with O.J. And that`s the problem. It had to do with the evidence and not the race.
O`KELLY: That`s a failure of the prosecution. PIRRO: I agree.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think, also, in the Robert Blake case, for better or for worse, the victim was far less sympathetic. She was a woman who had been described as a grifter, and who had been involved in various unsavory activities.
SAWYER: Her life is equally valuable, is it not?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely. I`m not saying...
O`KELLY: He was guilty, was he not?VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m saying that`s part of the explanation for the coverage that some people have offered.
Clara from South Carolina, your thought or question, ma`am?
CALLER: Yes. I do not believe that this is racially motivated. I`ve been a victim. I`ve been listening to some of this war against women. I believe our problem is people don`t take it serious. The lawyers, law enforcement.
I mean, I`ve tried everything I can to bring it forth within my own state. And I`ve seen things that really shocked my conscience. We all have to realize, violence is violence, and when you go to law enforcement, they need to assert the truth, find the truth, and let`s get the situation resolved.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, I could not agree with you more.
Mark Sawyer, in this case, I think perhaps the biggest outrage is that -- and I`m talking about the Anne Pressly murder -- the man who was charged with that is also a suspect in a rape that occurred back in April, and it took them seven months to get the DNA back on that first case.
And a lot of people, women feel, hey, that`s -- that`s a crime against women. In other words, that the segment of the population, the demographic that`s really suffering here isn`t one particular race; it`s a gender. And that`s women.
SAWYER: Yes. One in four women in America are victims of sexual assault. It`s a huge problem, and it`s one that we don`t talk about. And in fact, one of the things that`s true is that most women are victimized by people they know. Most violent crimes committed by someone they know.
So the rapist is as much likely to be someone who`s sitting in the cubicle next to you as it is a stranger, like the -- like the case in Arkansas. And so we have to do something about it. And in some ways these kinds of cases, where the details are very salacious and extraordinarily violent, hide the really silent, deadly thing that`s going on with one in four women being victimized.
PIRRO: And law enforcement`s failure, Jane, to prioritize and to move along the DNA of these rape kits is really a problem, because many of these rapists are career criminals. They`re serial rapists. And if we were able to identify them quicker, then there would be fewer victims down the road.
And make no mistake, the DNA data base, CODUS, that we have, which only recently has been enacted, which is what allows us to connect these rapes together, which is what happened in Anne Pressly`s case.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.
PIRRO: There was a teacher raped by the same person, the same DNA.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And let`s face it: that woman was living for seven months not knowing, waiting, trying to find out who did this to her. And that person, the man who was accused of it, lived in the same small town outside Little Rock. It`s awful.
Alan in Florida, your thought or question, sir?
CALLER: Well, I just have a comment. This conversation, the debate between whether race or celebrity is the bigger issue. I think without question, in comparing O.J. Simpson to Robert Blake, it`s all about celebrity.
Robert Blake was an actor and a celebrity. But let`s face it, a famous football player and an actor, O.J. Simpson, was a million times more famous and well known. That`s why the outcry with his case received a lot more attention than Robert Blake.
Well, I would just say this, as we wrap up. Thank you so much for that, I would like to say -- and our panel is absolutely fabulous. I hope you come back. We need to continue this dialog. We need to really look at a new way of dealing with crime.
Let`s get to the underlying causes. Let`s talk about education. Let`s talk about prevention. Let`s talk about peaceful conflict resolution for kids in the schools. That`s what we need to be talking about.
Morris, Mark, Judge Pirro, thank you.
The Mo'Kelly Report is an entertainment journal with a political slant; published weekly at www.eurweb.com. It is meant to inform, infuse and incite meaningful discourse...as well as entertain. The Mo’Kelly Report is syndicated by Newstex and Blogburst. For more Mo’Kelly, http://www.mokellyreport.blogspot.com.
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Morris W. O'Kelly can be reached at mokellyreport@sbcglobal.net and he welcomes all commentary.
