In all three of the cases, the media were in some way complicit with the killers.
1] Edward Scott McMichael
Late last November 2 or early the next day, Edward Scott McMichael,53, better known as “Tuba Man,” died of injuries he suffered severaldays earlier when he was stomped by five Seattle “youths” at a busstop. Three of the five were arrested but their names were not releasedbecause they were only 15 at the time of the attack. McMichael, alifelong Seattleite, had gained local fame as a busker, a streetmusician who played the contrabass tuba wherever people gathered forsports and cultural events. The gregarious eccentric could beidentified by his tuba, Dr. Seuss or Uncle Sam hat, scraggly beard,horn-rimmed glasses, and by the fact that he often needed a bath. Theclassically trained McMichael took requests for a price, remembered oldcustomers by name, and played rock songs, movie themes, American popstandards, and classical music.
At about midnight on October 25, five teenagers attacked McMichaeland stole his ring and wallet. After they knocked him to the ground hecurled up into a ball but they continued to beat and kick him. Apassing police officer arrested two attackers on the spot. Police havealso caught one of the three who ran away but are still looking for theother two.
2] James Paroline
On July 9, 60-year old, Vietnam War veteran James Paroline waskilled in his residential Seattle neighborhood of Rainier Beach, as hedid his daily duty of watering the garden in a small traffic circle infront of his house. He always put out traffic cones to prevent carsfrom driving over the hose, which he ran from his house. This meantsome cars had to drive the long way around the circle to avoid thecones.
That evening, three black women in their teens and early twenties intwo cars refused to drive the long way around. They stopped their car,and started yelling at Paroline. A neighbor shot a video of theconfrontation, in which Paroline tries to ignore the girls, while onecan be heard claiming they were hosed and beaten by Paroline. One canbe seen throwing a jug of water at Paroline. One girl then fetched hersister’s boyfriend, 28-year-old Keith David Brown, who walked up to theolder man, spoke quietly to him, and then “sucker-punched” him in theface, according to court documents. The blow knocked Paroline to thepavement, fracturing his skull in several places. Mr. Brown got in hiscar and drove away. Paroline died that night in the hospital, withoutever regaining consciousness.
3] Kristopher Kime
During Seattle’s 2001 Mardi Gras celebrations, gangs of blacks—maleand female—charged into the crowd of predominantly white revelers,beating and robbing isolated whites, hitting them with brass knuckles,skateboards, rocks and bottles, and groping white women (see “Bloody Fat Tuesday,” AR, April 2001). White vandals smashed several cars, but the assaults were overwhelmingly by blacks against whites.
Kristopher Kime, a 20-year-old white man who worked in constructionand attended Highline Community College, came to the aid of a lone,petite, white woman on the ground being stomped by blacks. One of them,18-year-old Jerell Thomas, came up behind him and smashed a bottle onthe back of Kime’s head. Kime went down, and the pack stomped him.
Seattle’s Finest were assembled nearby, some on the ground, and someon rooftops, and could see the savagery, but were ordered to stand downbecause Chief Gil Kerlikowske didn’t want to stir up the rioters. WhenKime’s friends telephoned 911 for help, the dispatchers refused to sendofficers into the riot to rescue him. He died that night in thehospital as his grief-stricken father looked on.