Crime, race and media hypocrisy Part III: Black and Hispanic kids are invisible

While it was hard to escape last year’s daily media updates on missing baby Lisa Irwin, who was abducted from her home in Kansas City, it is doubtful that most people have ever heard of 3-year-old Carla Espinosa-Alvarez, who was taken from a North Las Vegas foster home in May 2011.

On May 8, 2011, a masked man and woman reportedly entered the home and held the foster mom at gunpoint, eventually grabbing Espinoza-Alvarez and carrying her out of the house.

North Las Vegas Police Officer Chrissie Coon told local CBS affiliate KLAS: “At this point in the investigation, we believe that she is endangered. We do know these suspects to be armed, and we do ask the public if they have information regarding the whereabouts, or if they possibly see this little girl out there, (they) have to call authorities or call 911. Don't try to contact these people on their own.”

Though the case did receive some local coverage, it was completely ignored by the national media.

It is also unlikely that you have ever heard the name Jhessye Shockley, a 5-year-old girl who has been missing from her Glendale, Arizona home since October 11.

Glendale police have assigned a homicide detective as the lead investigator in the case.

Espinosa-Alvarez is Hispanic and Shockley is black.

What follows is a list of a few other black and Hispanic missing children, the media has ignored:

-Joshua Davis, 4Last seen: February 4, 2011New Braunfels, Texas

-Raven Wallace, 13Last seen: March 28, 2011Chicago, IL

-Abraneika Shaneeta Walters, 16Last seen: May 23, 2011Bronx, NY

-Luis Encarnacion, 8Last seen: September 11, 2011Arvin, CA

-Eveny Felix, 7Last seen: March 9, 2011Cathedral City, CA

Another example of this double-standard came shortly after CNN’s Nancy Grace ended her daily wall-to-wall coverage of the Scott Peterson trial, when he was sentenced to death for killing his pregnant wife, Laci.

In July 2005, another young pregnant woman went missing, this time in Philadelphia.

On July 18, 2005, LaToyia Figueroa was reported missing when she failed to report for work. A month later, the father of her unborn child, Stephen Poaches, was charged with her murder after her body was found in a wooded area about 13 miles outside of the city.

At the time of her murder, Figueroa was five-months pregnant. An autopsy determined she had been strangled to death.

Like Peterson, Poaches was eventually convicted of two counts of murder for the deaths of both Figueroa and her unborn child.

However, unlike Scot Peterson, Stephen Poaches is not a household name.

LaToyia Figueroa was of both African-American and Hispanic descent.

Commenting on the stark difference in coverage between the two cases, conservative columnist Michele Malkin coined the term “Missing Pretty Girl Syndrome.”

Then there is the case of 13-year-old Demetria Valentine who went missing on October 12, 2011 from Washington D.C.

Police consider Valentine “endangered,” the same status Richmond police gave to 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University student Taylor Behl when she went missing in August 2005.

Behl’s body was found a month later in a shallow ravine.

Again, Behl’s case garnered a great deal of national attention, while Valentine’s has not received even a mention by the national media.

This writer finds it interesting that the same press which now nearly always omits the race of wanted, often dangerous non-white suspects, also completely omits any coverage of non-white missing women and children.

This country’s mainstream press has seemingly forgotten its obligation to the public (that means everyone).

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