6/01/2014

In the Santa Barbara killings, the media tries to avoid discussing murders committed with anything other than guns

On February 23, 2001, David Attias, a University of California-Santa Barbara freshman, "plowed his turbo-charged Saab into a group of young adults in the same Isla Vista neighborhood of the coastal community, killing four and permanently injuring another before climbing atop the car and declaring himself 'the Angel of Death.' Charged with murder, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a state mental institution. He was released in 2012, having been locked away for slightly more than two years for each of his dead victims. 'He’s out because he got treatment and he finally learned what he needed to say,' said Sally Divis, whose son, Christopher, was just 20 when he was run down by Attias. 'Do I actually think he’s safe? Not really.'"

Given that both Elliot Rodger and Attias used cars to hurt people and that they occurred in the same place, you might think that the media would bring up comparisons.  But while a Google news search comes up with 156 news stories on "Elliot Rodger," there were only two news stories on "David Attias" and "Elliot Rodger."  (Click on screen shots to make them bigger.)


Google is pretty abysmal these days for any useful search.  Bing does a better job.  There are only 9 news stories that mention both names and if you limit yourself to real news services, there are four such stories.



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