Commentary by Dr. Patrick Slattery — All month we have been hearing about the protests at the University of Missouri by black students outraged that allegations of students had been called the N-word by passers-by in a pickup truck and that the school administration had not taken adequate measures to address the allegations. Backed by support from the national media, the BlackLivesMatters movement has caused the resignation of the university’s president and two other top officials.
Also in Missouri this month there was another incident that has not been nearly as high a priority of the Zio media. This horrific murder of a white woman by two black eighth graders has been reported widely, but has not captured the outrage of the Zio media the N-word does. And of course, although this case may be particularly grim, violent crime by blacks against whites has been many times as prevalent as vice versa, despite the well publicized recent incidents involving the police.
But don’t expect anyone to ask BlackLivesMatters or their supporters in the media and political establishment whether Tanya Chamberlain’s life mattered. We can tell from their silence that clearly they do not think so.
Eighth-graders allegedly stab woman to death at car wash, prop her body up for a joyride
The two boys, 13 and 14, allegedly stabbed 43-year-old Tanya Chamberlain in the face, neck, chest and hands on Nov. 1 as she visited a local car wash and vacuumed her vehicle, according to documents obtained by KCTV5.
Surveillance video shows the eighth-graders exiting Quick Clean Car Wash wearing distinct hoodies that would later help police identify them as suspects.
The Nov. 1 time change for daylight saving time screwed up the nearby video footage, which shows the boys getting in the vehicle with Chamberlain in the front seat at around 1:57 a.m. — 40 minutes after Chamberlain is seen on camera vacuuming her car, according to the court documents.
A few minutes later the video boots back up and the car is gone, KCTV5 reported.
The documents state that the teens then took off in the vehicle with Chamberlain’s dead body propped up in the front seat with her feet on the dashboard.
The boys allegedly stabbed 43-year-old Tanya Chamberlain in the face, neck, chest and hands as she vacuumed her car and then took her dead body on a joyride.
Police pulled over the swerving vehicle about 20 minutes later for what seemed like intoxicated driving.
The boys fled from the vehicle and police lost sight of both of them after a brief foot pursuit, KCTV5 reported.
Inside the car, cops found a blood-covered pocket knife, possibly wrapped in Chamberlain’s hair, in the backseat, the documents state.
“I just want to know why. What would make you want to do something like that to a defenseless lady,” Chamberlain’s friend Jeremiah Persinger told KCTV5.
After police released the surveillance footage, neighbors and parents of classmates were able to identify the boys as students at Bernard C. Campbell Middle School in Lee’s Summit, a suburb of Kansas City.
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A 13-year-old and 14-year-old are accused of killing 43-year-old Tanya Chamberlain at a car wash near Kansas City, Mo., early Nov. 1.
The students showed up for school the day after Chamberlain’s death and a fellow classmate’s mother told police that her son said the boys wore the same sweatshirts to school that day.
And another local mom said the boys came to her house in those same sweatshirts after the time of the murder, KMBC-TV reported.
“I thought it was very unfortunate. It’s kind of shocking how two eighth-graders could do something like that,” Scott Thomason, of Lee’s Summit, told KMBC-TV.
Warrants were obtained for the boys’ homes and lockers where clothing was taken matching up to that seen in the surveillance video, including the hoodies and a pair of black and white checkered sneakers, KMBC-TV reported.
The young teens made incriminating statements during police interviews that only someone involved in the crime would know, according to reports.
It has not been determined if the boys will be charged as adults or juveniles.
