Personal Note: The death of Mollie Tibbetts is without question tragic. She was a student at the institution in which I work. As a community we mourn her life. She was a young woman denied the most fundamental right of all: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What follows in no way excuses her alleged killer, but presents perhaps a sadder truth: politics loves a tragedy that fits a narrative.
Yesterday afternoon at 4 pm, a press conference was held to discuss the facts at hand of the death of Mollie Tibbetts, a 20 year-old college student who had been missing for five weeks. The alleged killer, Cristhian Rivera, is a Mexican national who lived in Guernsey, Iowa. He secured employment at a local farm as a worker (and was not screened out via the e-verify system). According to his attorney, he is not an undocumented worker or an illegal immigrant, but that doesn't matter. Every day in the United States hundreds of murders take place, but this case has made international news. It fit a narrative.
No sooner had the press conference ended when statements from the Governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds and Senators Joni Ernst and Charles Grassley were released. Reynolds said, “As Iowans, we are heartbroken, and we are angry," she said. "We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community, and we will do all we can (to) bring justice to Mollie’s killer.” Ernst and Grassley released a joint statement which said in part, "As Governor Reynolds said, ‘our immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community.’ Too many Iowans have been lost at the hands of criminals who broke our immigration laws. We cannot allow these tragedies to continue," Grassley and Ernst said in a joint statement Tuesday evening. Later in the evening, President Trump chimed in and said in West Virginia, "You heard about today with the illegal alien coming in, very sadly, from Mexico and you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman,” he said, shaking his head. “Should’ve never happened.” Even Vice-President Pence joined in the clamor stating, "We commend the swift action by local, state, & federal investigators working in Iowa in apprehending an illegal immigrant, who’s now charged with first-degree murder. Now, justice will be served. We will never forget Mollie Tibbetts."
In spite of the tragedy, these politicians chose to make the moment, not entirely about the death of a young Iowa woman, but to make it about the "broken" immigration system and also to cast Cristhian Rivera as yet one more mark against undocumented migrant workers who do much of the manual labor required from the US agricultural industry.
If this politicizing a tragedy seems vaguely familiar, there is precedent. During the 1988 presidential campaign, Republican operatives used a specific case against Democratic nominee for President, Michael Dukakis involving a convicted murderer, Willie Horton, who was weekend furloughed, due to a loophole in the law and went on a crime spree which included rape and robbery before he was rearrested and re-sentenced. The program, itself, while being created prior to Dukakis being elected governor and ended during his administration, nonetheless was used through a series of ads to make Dukakis seem weak on crime. It appears that Cristhian Rivera is the new Willie Horton, a poster-villain for the Republican agenda and potentially a game-changer for the fortunes of Republicans running for office in Iowa.
What we might also conclude is that Mollie Tibbetts' case has been made special because of the amount of publicity surrounding it. Curiously, in Iowa, during the investigation of Mollie Tibbetts a young woman's body was found on a gravel road in Lee County. For a moment, investigators thought it might have been Mollie Tibbetts. When it was determined it was not her, but another 20 year-old women who reportedly died by jumping out of the car of her boyfriend during an argument (and him driving off and leaving her there), it was largely forgotten by the public. Her name was Sadie Alvarado and her case is still under investigation. In Colorado this week, a US citizen murdered his wife and two daughters and buried their bodies in a shallow grave. Any other week this is a big story. Not this week. Doesn't fit the narrative.
Also lost is perspective on murders and how relatively rare they are in Iowa. In a state with 3.1 million people, between 2000 and 2016, 857 Iowans have been murdered or roughly 2.3% of the entire population. Mollie's death is tragic because her family has lost a daughter, her boyfriend lost his love, and her extended family lost the joy of knowing her. To turn this tragedy into a Willie Horton moment to win elections is the worst type of politics: the politics of fear-mongering. I trust that common-sense will help Iowans and others to see through this callous political posturing. But, you never know. It may fit the narrative.
(Updated 8/22 at 3:06 pm)to include the information from the attorney of Cristhian Rivera that he is not an undocumented worker.
No comments:
Post a Comment