[guest post by Dana]

The news has been pretty heavy this week, so here’s a crazy little story from Florida about a couple who planned to hold their wedding at a luxurious estate. Problem was, they didn’t have the owner’s approval:

Two lovebirds thought a palatial mansion in scenic Southwest Ranches was the perfect place to tie the knot.

God called them there, they said. So the pair, referring to themselves as “the Royal Couple,” posted an online invitation to “our dream home and estate” — a 16,313-square-foot home with nine bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, a bowling alley, a theater and an 800-square-foot bar.

Trouble was, it was someone else’s home.

The owner was confounded when groom Courtney Wilson and another person showed up at the gate Saturday morning, prepared to set up for Wilson’s wedding to Shenita Jones at what the invite called “the Wilson estate.”

“I have people trespassing on my property,” a fed-up Nathan Finkel told a 911 dispatcher. “And they keep harassing me, calling me. They say they’re having a wedding here and it’s God’s message. I don’t know what’s going on. All I want is [for] it to stop. And they’re sitting at my property right at the front gate right now.”

Wilson, his bride and their guests never made it onto the sprawling $5.7 million property.

Oops:

The wedding was supposed to start at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. A “Red Carpet Cocktail Hour” was to take place immediately afterward followed by a reception that was to last well past midnight until 2:30 a.m.

Guests were invited to return the following day for Sunday brunch from noon to 4 p.m.

“The guy figured it was a vacant house and didn’t realize Nathan lived on the property in a different home,” said Poliakoff, the town attorney. “This guy had no idea he lived there. You know the shock that must have been on his face when he showed up at the gate and the owner was home?”

The individuals left when directed.

P.S. Some months before the wedding, Wilson reportedly visited the property and presented himself as a potential buyer. He then asked Finkle if he could use the mansion for his wedding. Finkle said no.

–Dana

Yesterday, a Columbus police officer shot and killed a teenage girl who was in the process of attacking another girl with a knife. The police department rushed out the bodycam footage and presented it at a press conference:

Typical of the media coverage of the incident was this Washington Post story: Ohio police fatally shoot Black teenage girl just before Chauvin verdict:

Police said at a late news conference on Tuesday that the girl had threatened two others with a knife before the shooting, playing segments of body camera video that showed the victim lunging toward someone in a driveway before an officer fired four shots. A knife is visible in the driveway next to the girl as police perform CPR on her.

You would never know from reading the story that the girl had the knife in her hand and was in the process of attacking the girl in pink when she was shot. But that is clearly what happened if you watch the video.

Screengrab from the Columbus bodycam video. Police & the mayor say the girl in black was attempting to stab the girl in pink. Officer shot the girl in black just after this.https://t.co/zrTpAPHH8B pic.twitter.com/FEnpFZwoOy

— Steve Lookner (@lookner) April 21, 2021

That story is not an isolated example.

some news outlets seem awfully keen to make the ma’khia bryant shooting a story about race instead of a story about cops intervening to prevent an imminent stabbing pic.twitter.com/9oJFG8Y3nP

— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) April 21, 2021

Why would a newspaper not report the clear evidence that the girl was attacking another girl with a knife that was visible in her hand for all the world to see? Why would newspaper headlines make this about race?

Donald Trump poisoned media criticism; even when the media misbehaved, calling it out always fed into a narrative that protected an administration fueled by lies.

But it’s time to call this what it is: media malpractice. This intense hyperfocus on race is spurring a moral panic, causing presumably otherwise rational people to jump to conclusions and trumpet them far and wide.

So far online the reactions I am seeing include:

• The police should never kill anyone under any circumstances.
  

  Was she not the victim of being shot? Is she not dead?

  Your ability to strip humanity from others is amazing.

  Police should not be killing anyone. That's not the job.

  — Caren (@carentarvin) April 21, 2021

  • Why not shoot her in the leg, ar only shoot once? Or shoot the knife out of her hand?

  That person needed to be stopped. No question about it

  But was murder the only choice? How about a shot to the leg or arm?

  — Jabberwocky (@JbberWcky) April 21, 2021

  He could have shot the knife out of her hand

  — The Beer Nerd (@_The_Beer_Nerd_) April 21, 2021

• Knife fights with girls happen; what’s the big deal?
  

  I mean, read this… if this is where things are headed, what hope is there? pic.twitter.com/GYTc6YuE25

  — Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) April 21, 2021

The widespread insanity inherent in these reactions, to me, is the kind of thing you see in a moral panic. And the media is stoking it by constantly playing up the racial angle, and failing to give statistics that might provide context to what we are seeing (such as noting the disproportionate number of police killed by black shooters, a fact that would contextualize the disproportionate number of blacks killed by police; or noting the currently uncovered examples of police shootings of white people). It’s malpractice and it’s creating a frenzy.

Something has to give.