The Many Degrees of Murder

All murders are not equal. In the news in general, and the Times in particular, only a few murders actually make it into public view. Murder, in general, implies some intention, a minimum of planning, that varies from one state's criminal code to another. Many kinds of killing by one human of another are not murder.

Most murders, I expect, are done by the criminal underclass, and are almost universally ignored in the media. On the other hand, you can understand that certain murders are automatically newsworthy, like murders involving celebrities, politicians and other headline names. And recently, all too often, murders with political motives, that is, terrorism.

But there are murders of a special class.

These are done by people who look so normal. Like the woman in a middle-class suburb of Tampa, Fla., who shot her two sweet teen-aged children to death in January. This one is worth good play and 1,600 words in the Times.

I wonder, then, why is this old murder worth attention? The standard editor's response begs the question: It's news judgment. But I think I can explain. A story like this sends a cheap shiver up the spines of other middle-class people because it could happen right there in their own peaceful communities, with good schools, maybe a golf course, just like Tampa Palms.

The point is not lost on book publishers and authors with vague literary ambitions. Together they turn out scores of these true crime titillating tomes.

I think the most economical way to convey the tone of the article is to quote chunks of it. I hope this doesn't run afoul of legalities of the Internet.

The community is stunned. The story says, "But in recent weeks, the residents have become all too aware of how deceptive surface appearances can be. On Jan. 28, the police arrived at a two-story house on a quiet cul-de-sac in Tampa Palms to find Julie Schenecker unconscious on the patio, blood on her white bathrobe. Inside were the bodies of her two children, Calyx, 16, and Beau, 13."

It goes on: "Since the killings, neighbors, teachers and others who knew the family have struggled to reconcile the outward trappings of a picture-perfect suburban life — the car pool, the soccer games and track meets, the Christmas card photos of a beaming couple with their two handsome, popular, high-achieving children, the family weekends spent boating or skiing — with an act so dark that, as one neighbor, ... , put it, 'there’s no words to describe it. It was stunning, unthinkable.'"

But no Times story about people is complete without a touch of psychology: "Yet such extreme violence rarely comes out of the blue, and since the killings, fragments of information have surfaced that hint that the family’s veneer may have covered a more turbulent reality." It turns out that the suspect had a car accident in November. (She drives a Mercedes, by the way.) Investigating officers noted signs of drug use.

Since there's a hint of some systemic oversight, for example, some failure by society to recognize the warning signs, it's typical to get academia involved.

The story continues, "Forensic researchers who have studied mothers convicted of killing their children said that such women often leave a trail of clues behind them." It continues quoting Cheryl L. Meyer, a professor at Wright State University, at length.

What does it all mean? The story says the suspect will likely plead insanity.

Suburb’s Veneer Cracks: Mother Is Held in Deaths

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Meanwhile, much closer to home, and probably more than few steps down the socio-economic ladder, we have a most curious wire story.

A heavily armed man who luckily crashed his pickup truck on Long Island before he did too much damage. He shot an emergency medical technician who went to the accident scene, but was shot and killed by the police soon after.

The suspect was so heavily armed, with six weapons and ammo strapped to his body, that the police said he appeared to be on his way to carry out a mass killing.

From the map, it looks like he was on a local street, but like most of Long Island he was close to one of the highways leading into the city.

I checked the New York tabloids and they had the same scant wire story, which did not include the suspect's name. The tabloid did, however, allow comments, and some readers immediately suggested that the suspect had an Islamic name. The comments alone don't feed that anti-Islamic hysteria, but the uncharacteristic politeness of the media invites it.

Here's the Times editing of the wire.

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A look at Long Island Newsday provides some answer: At least the motive and a name.

"The family of the man, Jason Beller, 31, of Commack, who was killed in a shootout with police, Wednesday night described him as 'extremely troubled.' They offered an apology to ... " the EMT worker who was wounded, Newsday said.

But few of us will know more, for Newsday sits behind a paywall that very few of us who don't have Long Island cable television ever pay to get behind. Newsday is owned by the cable company, which provides an online subscription to subscribers. Beyond them, almost no one else ever bought the paper that once advertised that it was dedicated to "truth, justice and the comics," when the paper's former owners had ambitions to compete in the New York. The Times respects that.

A precis from Newsday