Let me set the scene:
Jacob and Kristen Couch are parents to two teenage daughters. Last year, Kristen was pregnant with their son Brooks when he was delivered stillborn in May. Still grieving, the Alabama family went on an extended trip via bus to Los Angeles to see if moving would help them process their loss.
Months later, they decided to return home. At a bus stop in Tuscon, Arizona, Jacob was approached by a man with a hatchet, who quite literally tried to take his head off:
The story is horrific. Jacob spent several days in the hospital before (possibly) succumbing to his injuries. Kristen watched her husband's head nearly be taken off. Trauma has been added to trauma. It's a story that should shake the national conscience like the story of the Levite's concubine in Judges 19. Every American should be saying "Think it over, discuss it, and speak up!"
And yet, all I hear is the sound of crickets:
In fact, there is so little coverage that people aren't even sure if Jacob has succumbed to his injuries or is still alive (I read multiple local sources for this article and still am not sure myself!).
Why do you think the media isn't covering this story?
I want to flip the script.
Imagine that a black husband and wife were returning from a trip to process the loss of a child. At a bus stop, a white man came up and started hacking at the black man's neck.
What would the coverage look like?
More from 13 News in Tuscon:
According to Pima County court documents, Jacob and Kristen were sitting on a bus bench on the corner of 6th and Broadway when an unknown man approached them and yelled at them.
Records show Jacob said something back to the man, and that's when he hit Jacob in the neck with a sharp-edged object believed to be a hatchet. Jacob suffered a massive wound to the back of his neck and bled profusely.
The suspect, Daniel Michael is currently being held on two counts of aggravated assault on a $1 million bond.
'Seeing your husband get almost decapitated and being the only one to help like it's, hard,' she said with tears in her eyes.
Shouldn't news coverage, like justice, be equal?
Shouldn't the same media that wants to inform people about systemic problems in policing want to inform people about systemic crime patterns? Shouldn't the news coverage be fair and balanced so Americans know what's happening in the world?
These two quotes from ABC 9 really hit me:
'...those people that say they can't find good men out there anymore,' Kristen said. 'I had one. He was a good man for 11 years.'
And his brother:
'It doesn't look good,' Luke said. 'It hurts knowing that I couldn't be there to protect him because he protected me for my whole life.'
Is it right for good men to die so narratives can be protected?
If there is an epidemic of "Group 1-on-Group 2" crime, shouldn't we tell the truth about it no matter what those groups look like? Ignoring the problem isn't solving racism: It's actually making people more racist (go look at the comments).
And yet the media ignores it.
Here is the GoFundMe for Jacob's family.
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