The Racist Media

Our local newspaper regularly reports on a variety of crimes including DUI, robbery, fraud and murder.

Why do the names of many of the perpetrators sound like they are minorities from a Spanish-speaking country in our hemisphere?

Spanish-Surname Criminals

In one article, the two drug dealers arrested were named Amanda Lopez and Anibal Giovanni Ramirez.  Then an article ran on a DUI arrest, and listed Manuel Maldonado Avalos, 23, and Gabriel Becerra Esparza, 18, who were in the car that killed a young woman during a sideshow. In another incident, Juan Saldana Alfaro was apprehended as a hit-and-run driver who killed a pedestrian.

In an insurance fraud scheme, police arrested a roofer, Cosme Cortest-Alva, and a housekeeper, Nancy Benitez.

In April, the San Jose (CA) police finally caught Hector Flores Arias in Mexico, for the 2009 murder of Juan Mendoza.

At the end of April, it was reported that Giovanna Vargas Hernandez, 20, was arrested for residential burglary. There was a scuffle when the victim came home unexpectedly, and Giovanna fled the house. Unfortunately, Ms. Hernandez dropped her driver’s license during the fray, and was easily found and arrested. Will she learn from the error of her ways?

The “ez” suffix, which is found in some Hispanic surnames including Benitez, Ramirez, Lopez, Fernandez, Chavez and Gonzales, may have a patronymic consideration. Adding the “ez” to the end of a father’s name, since “ez” means “descendant of.”  Surnames may also have an “es” name ending.

Do you wonder if the perp’s antecedents would be proud to see their descendant’s names in the local newspaper?

Jewish-Surname Criminals 

More importantly, why do the racist newspapers continue to publish Spanish-surname criminals, and only connected with local crimes? Why do the newspapers hardly ever mention Jewish surnames connected to such crimes? Why is it that Jews seem to be involved primarily on high-finance criminal efforts, such as those perpetrated by three Jewish lads; Ivan Boesky, Bernard Madoff and Michael Milken.

Recently, the difference between Spanish-surname criminals and high-finance Jewish-surname criminals seems to be that the latter received a better education. The Michigan-born Boesky, arrested for insider trading, attended the exclusive Cranbrook High School in affluent Bloomfield Hills, before graduating from Mumford High School. (Disclosure, I lived in the Mumford neighborhood). Boesky took courses at Wayne State University (Disclosure, I have two degrees from that institution), from Eastern Michigan University, and the University of Michigan. Although he never earned an undergraduate degree, he managed to receive a degree from Detroit College of Law.

Boesky was convicted of insider trading, and as a result of plea-bargaining, he received a prison sentence of 3.5 years and was fined US$100 million. Although he was released after two years, he was permanently barred from working in securities.

Bernie Madoff went to the University of Alabama for one year, and received his bachelor's degree in political science from Hofstra University. His wife Ruth attended Queens College, and graduated with a focus on finance. He was an American swindler who was convicted of fraud, with the total estimated to be $64.8 billion. In 2009, the then seventy-one-year-old Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

In 1968, Michael Miliken received an undergraduate degree from UC-Berkeley, and a Masters of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1969. Miliken was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud in 1989, as a result of an insider trading investigation. He served two years of a ten-year sentence.

It is obvious that the obligation of our society is to work harder to get Spanish-surname people into college, so that they can acquire a far better education. If so, they may eventually be knowledgeable enough to commit major crimes worthy of coverage in The Wall Street Journal, and not just in local newspapers.