09/24/2019
OK Army Times, let's to better. First of all, this is a terrible crime, and those responsible should face the harshest of penalties. What follows here is not a discourse on the crime but on your reporting. After reading this article this morning, I followed the trail (hyperlinks) to other four stories related to this. What I found disturbing is that three of the four articles with pictures showed benign images, two of gavels ("P**n, s*x charges tied to Army love triangle death case" dated 17 Mar 16, and "Soldier facing murder trial guilty of s*x abuse" dated 7 Jul 17) and one of Tripler Army Medical Center (this article). However, one of them ("Woman arrested in stabbing of Soldier's wife" dates 29 Apr 15) shows what appears to be a mug shot of the African American woman accused of the murder. My issue: When does the Army Times take responsibility for perpetuating negative stereotypes of minorities? In this series of articles, her picture appears in one that states that she had been arrested (not convicted) of this crime, however, his picture did not appear in ANY of the articles including those that detailed his conviction for assault, communicating a threat, child po*******hy, s*xual abuse of a child AND second-degree murder. Not to mention that he was also accused of prostitution. It did not take a leap of imagination to assume that the convicted former Army SGT was not a minority. Upon further research, this man, from upper New York area was indeed very much NOT a minority. So, Army Times, are you APATHETIC that you are furthering the racist narrative of African American's propensity for crime? Are you (as a renown internationally read media source) IGNORANT of the messaging that such a series of pictures have? Are you INTENTIONAL in your promotion of a stereotype that plagues our national consciousness? Additionally, I find it "interesting" that the "byline" for the April 15 story with the unfortunate picture is "Staff and Wire Reports" and not an individual. This individual or collective cowardice exacerbates the issue. Surely, somebody had to approved and make a conscious decision to put a photo of an accused (African American) from one article and not any photos of the convicted (European American) in any of the three articles published. If the Army Times contends that this was not done purposely, then that would mean that there must be an underlying subconscious space in the Times collective that did not think it worthy of introspection, reflection, or consideration. That level of carelessness is astonishing. For a publication that serves members of the greatest profession in the world, with multiple forms of diversity...THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!! Let's do better.
A former Army medic stationed in Hawaii was expected to plead guilty Monday to the murder of his wife, about a week before a trial was about to begin in a case involving p**n, s*x charges and a love triangle.
