 |
| The Miami Herald has featured the Trayvon Martin story on six section front pages since last Friday. (Click graphic to enlarge.) |
Question: What do Michael Beatty and Trayvon Martin have in common?
Answer: Both were young black men who were shot to death.
On Nov. 14, 2010, Michael Beatty, 20, was gunned down in broad daylight as he left a Liberty City market. His murder was recorded on a surveillance camera. His killer has never been caught.
 |
| Gunman wearing hoodie chases Michael Beatty on Nov. 14, 2010. |
Trayvon Martin, 17, was also shot and killed. He died last Feb. 26 after being shot by a Crime watch captain at a Sanford, Fla. apartment complex. Trayvon was returning from a nearby 7-11 where he had bought a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles.
But, that's where the similarities end.
Since Trayvon was gunned down less than a month ago, the Miami Herald has published at least 24 stories containing tens of thousands of words on every aspect of the young man's death.
The Herald never printed one word on Michael Beatty's death.
The sad, inescapable fact is that young black men have a greater chance of being murdered by other young black men in their own neighborhoods than they do of being gunned down by a paranoid Crime Watch captain. It's a fact the Herald hasn't bothered to mention in its sometimes breathless and superheated coverage of this story.
And, for some unexplained reason the Herald is treating a story that occurred hundreds of miles from Miami like it's the Crime of the Century. All this while the paper routinely ignores stories of equal importance that occur a just few miles from its building.
Here's a question for Herald editors: Didn't the brutal shooting of Michael Beatty in Nov. 2010 deserve just as much coverage; or at least a tiny fraction of the coverage that Trayvon Martin's death is now receiving?
And, isn't the epidemic of violence occurring almost daily in Liberty City and Overtown just as worthy of coverage as Trayvon's killing at the Retreat at Twin Lakes?
Miami Heat LeBron James hoodies photo Trayvon Martin photo
