It happens late each summer. Things start getting boring, people are hot and tired — and, hey presto, the media jumps on some sort of Hot, Exciting Story that will Wow the Masses, usually without any sort of journalistic merit. In August-September 2001, for example, it was Sharks Eating People at the Beach!
This summer, it’s JonBenet Ramsey Killer Captured (Maybe)!
Okay, if the dude did it, I hope he fries. I don’t know, and nobody else (save, maybe, the Boulder DA, knows) what sort of evidence links the fellow in question to the crime. But what’s remarkable is not just the media paroxysms over the whole thing (in the Denver/Boulder area, at least, but I suspect nationally, given what coverage I’ve seen), but how it’s reawakened all the dormant beliefs and conclusions that folks had about the case, from “Neener-neener, I told you the parents were innocent”
to “Gah, look at the DA’s office sucking up to cover for the family again.”
Again, I have no idea where the truth lies, except that the various law enforcement organizations in the Boulder area that were involved in the investigation did a generally accepted poor job of it. But aside from the general creepiness of the whole Kiddie Beauty Pageant scene, this is hardly worth the media feeding frenzy going on. Nor, given the dearth of released information from the Boulder DA’s office to date,
is it worth the space it’s being given in the blogosphere.
And yet, here you are blogging about it.
Although he probably didn’t kill JBR, the guy should probably fry anyway just for being a self-aggrandizing pain in the ass. Besides, what do you have to do to get arrested for sex crimes in Thailand?
Seriously, he does appear to be some kind of a pedophile. Or maybe a murdered-kidbeautyqueen-ophile. Ewww.
Like I have said…
It all comes down to the DNA. If there is no match the DA has to set him free, and if it is “inconclusive” then he most likely is not guilty of this crime, and our useless DA’s office once again becomes a laughing stock of the legal profession.
Having been out of state I will tell you that it is still big news out of state, but it is the news story on crack here.
DOF, he wasn’t arrested for Sex Crimes in Thailand, the Boulder DA put out a warrent for him and they picked him up.
I couldn’t have said it better myself Dave. ;P
I never wanted to see that adult-ized and sexualized picture of the 6 year old again, and then the News went and made it the whole front page. With hundreds of other pics of her to choose from.
Frankly, I think general repugnance over that picture (and the whole Pageant Kid Scene) contributed mightily toward a lot of folks being viscerally willing to believe the parents were involved (other evidence and indications aside).
And … it all comes a cropper.
I don’t necessarily blame the Boulder DA’s office for following up on the lead of someone who privately confessed to the killings. Why DNA testing wasn’t done in Thailand (or, hell, California) is beyond me, save for the publicity. Which, justly, is now turned back in the DA’s face.