In reading a KSHB article about the upcoming trial of Fredrick Demond Scott, I was struck by one sentence: “Some [jurors] have been stricken by both sides due to familiarity with the case, which dominated headlines almost a decade ago.”
Dominated headlines? On the day nine years ago when prosecutors publicly charged Scott, the Kansas City Star deemed the arrest of a Royals pitcher on a DUI charge more newsworthy. On the following morning top honors at the Star went to a dispute over a bid for a new airport terminal.
That makes sense. Serial killer Scott had merely terrorized KC for the previous year shooting six unsuspecting people in the head. Danny Duffy was cited for a DUI at a fast-food restaurant in a nearby suburb. Hard to fault The Star. Its liberal readership must have welcomed the distraction. “Hey, did you hear about the Duffy DUI?” Even today, not one Kansas Citian out of ten could identify Scott by name,
Nationally, the story went nowhere. Twenty-four hours after the press conference not a single mainstream news outlet beyond Kansas or Missouri followed up. The reason why should be obvious to the savvy reader. Scott is black. His six victims were all white.
Mike Darby, well loved restauranteur murdered while walking his dog
The victims’ whiteness was not incidental. According to court records, three years prior to his arrest Scott had threatened to “kill all white people.” Despite their knowledge of this threat, Kansas City police claimed to “not know if the shootings were racially motivated.” Woke Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker “saw no clear motive.” And the FBI, like the media, took no interest at all. Hate crime? What hate crime?
Nowhere in the Star’s coverage of the killings did the word “hate” appear. There was not even any speculation on the part of the Star or the prosecutors that Scott targeted these six people, five men and a woman, several walking dogs, because they were white.
Imagine if a young white man had stalked and executed from behind five middle-class, middle-aged black men or Hispanic men or Muslims or gay men and told the police when arrested, “They didn’t see it coming.” Ben Crump would have been camped out in town before you could say “Kyle Rittenhouse.” For grins, Scott also murdered a homeless white woman. Even that savagery failed to elicit sympathy from the feminist egalitarians who drive the city’s politics.
Karen Harmeyer, the “sweet homeless lady” murdered at her campsite
Scott, it should be noted, stole nothing. On a local blog, I smoked out the hate crime motive after the second murder. The absence of any robbery was a clue. When a friend posted my theory on a local neighborhood chat group, the administrator removed the post for reasons the reader can guess.
Gad Saad would see this news suppression as a symptom of “suicidal empathy.” The male victims were killed in our neighborhood. I often walked the same trail on which they died. Several of those guys wete popular and influential. Their friends were outraged at the inaction, but the media did not share that outrage. Neither did the prosecutor, nor the people who elected that prosecutor. Rather than risk seeming racist, our good liberal friends preferred that their neighbors remain as ignorant as they themselves chose to be.
Dave Lennox survived two tours in Vietnam, shot from behind while walking his dog
For nine years Scott and his attorneys have been gaming the system. As an example of the same, Scott flipped out in court in August 2024 while awaiting trial. This outburst forced a delay as he was committed to a Missouri state behavioral health program. There, officials had to decide whether he “should be sent to an inpatient behavioral health program or assigned outpatient treatment.” Outpatient? Seriously?
The trial is now scheduled to begin on September 3. As the Daily Caller pointed out in 2017, “CNN, MSNBC, New York Times Totally Ignore Kansas ‘Kill All White People’ Murder Suspect.” There is little reason to believe the media will be any more responsive this time around. To this point, not a one of them beyond Kansas City has said boo about the upcoming trial. In their world, some murderers are more equal than others.
Thanks for making a wider audience aware of this Jack. It’s hard to imagine the pain of the families who have lost a loved one. The KC Star and KCUR have tried to keep these targeted murders quiet for years as it doesn’t fit their narrative.
Another good piece. I wonder how much of the common perception that blacks are unlikely to be serial killers is due to media suppression of the stories. I also wonder how many black serial killers were taught in school to hate whites under the guise of “anti-racist education.”