The contrast is as evident as it is outrageous. The entire world remembers George Floyd, a habitual criminal from Minneapolis whose death sparked massive riots in more than twenty cities across the United States, with uncontrolled fires, looting, and violence. Monuments were erected in his honor and he was even given a lavish pure gold casket before which the mayor of Minneapolis himself knelt. Elite sports teams, from the NBA to European soccer, knelt before every competition. The Associated Press cited his name 74,221 times.
However, barely a media sigh has been granted to Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who fled the war to start a new life in Charlotte, North Carolina. On August 22, she was stabbed to death on a train by DeCarlos DeJuan Brown Jr., a 34-year-old repeat offender with prior convictions for armed robbery and burglary. The brutal attack, recorded on video that quickly went viral, shocked those who saw it, but not the mainstream press.
The Associated Press, which turned Floyd into a universal martyr, returns a “0” result if you search for Zarutska's name. CNN, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and ABC also chose to look the other way. Even Wikipedia deleted the initial entry about the crime, citing “lack of relevance”. The victim, white; the striker, black. A story that, for the major media outlets, simply “doesn't exist.”
Reality, however, could not be completely silenced. Outrage grew on social media and in the political sphere, where Donald Trump's administration moved quickly. The Department of Justice announced that, in addition to state charges for first-degree murder, Brown will face a federal charge for “committing an act that caused death on a mass transportation system”, making him eligible for the death penalty.
