Media Lies About Laken Riley’s Murder Need To Be Called Out To Protect Other Young Women: Mary Katharine Ham
On Thursday, a young woman named Laken Riley went on a run around Lake Herrick in Athens, Ga. and never came back. The 22-year-old nursing student died of blunt-force trauma after her innocent jog allegedly crossed paths with Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, whom police say killed her in a "crime of opportunity." He has been charged with murder after authorities say video evidence led them to him. Riley’s body was found in the woods after her friend reported she did not return from her run.
I suppose it’s natural, when I look at Riley, to see a version of myself. I ran that exact trail every single week of my college career, sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. She was a brunette Bulldog with a promising life ahead of her. I think of all the life I’ve lived between those days and now— all the giant joys and sorrows I’ve been lucky to have. I think about how she won’t get that chance. I think about the smell of the Kudzu plants as the weather got hot and the wild blackberries I stopped to eat, the way the mist came off the lake water on a winter morning. I think about how she’ll never see those things again and how no young person running at Lake Herrick will feel the uncomplicated pleasure of them for a long time to come. I think about the tailgates she went to and the half-marathon she completed with her best friend and the champagne toast she made to 2024, all frozen in time on an Instagram account that will add no more memories. I think about her family and friends living the rest of their lives without her. It’s deeply unfair, horrific, as the loss of a person gone too soon always is.
She was taken from her family and friends. Grappling with that will be a full-time job for them, as they must live through pleadings and trials and attempts to get justice for a thing that can never be corrected. As is often the case, our national discourse has the power to make even the most awful moments even worse. It seems unlikely, but never put it past a national media far more obsessed with a narrative than facts.
Media Shamefully Misses The Mark When Discussing Laken Riley's Murder
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution referred to Ibarra as an "Athens man," relatively incurious about how a violent Venezuelan immigrant came to be on a trail in Athens on this fateful day. Later, when right-leaning commentators and politicians started noticing the facts of the case and restating them, including Ibarra’s immigration status, the AJC deemed it worthy of this tweet: "Top Georgia Republicans quickly tied the killing of a student on the University of Georgia campus to President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, decrying what they see as lax border controls after a suspect from Venezuela was charged with murder."
It’s very important for the media to discourage people from having a conversation about unprecedented illegal immigration and how lax federal and local enforcement of immigration law might have contributed to this murder. Having that conversation, even though it deals with facts, might lead to wrongthink among the citizenry and bad thoughts about the preferred candidate of the press, which is President Joe Biden.
But Ibarra’s immigration status is a pertinent fact of the case, not just a political football. That there might be policy and law-enforcement failings that allowed an alleged murderer to be around college students and escalate to this crime is important. We will learn more as he faces trial. But we know Ibarra arrived by crossing the border illegally from Venezuela in 2022. He was then released into the interior of the country with a court date to adjudicate an asylum claim, as is often the case with illegal immigrants. That’s one offense. He went to New York City, where he was then stopped for driving an unregistered vehicle without a license - two more offenses - with a five-year-old as a passenger. He was charged with endangering a child, yet another offense. He was released before an ICE detainer notice could be issued for him. He then left New York for Georgia by fall of 2023, where he joined up with his brother, who also seems to be here illegally and now has three arrests to his name, though he still got a job at a campus cafeteria - shoplifting (in which Jose might also have been detained) DUI, and faking a green card.
Athens is a sanctuary city with a district attorney who made promises to treat illegal immigrants with kid gloves. What does this mean for other people in Athens worried about their safety? How did the immigration and justice systems fail this young woman and how will they be held accountable?
Laken Riley was allegedly murdered outside the University of Georgia
(Facebook / Laken Riley)
Instead of informing us about this, the AP gives us "The killing of a nursing student out for a run highlights the fear of solo female athletes." This embarrassing display of missing the story describes Ibarra as an "Athens resident." Incredibly, the story also references the 2018 disappearance of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts to make its case about dangers to female runners. What they leave out is that Tibbetts was murdered by an illegal immigrant, who was later convicted and is serving a life sentence. Of the very small sample of female solo runners featured in this piece, there is a very specific threat that disproportionately affects them, but it is purposely omitted.
The very least reporters could do is be truthful about the case of Riley’s murder. Not only is that the job description, but it’s a better way to prevent future pain for future families. Ridding the country of illegal immigration will not end the problem of violent crime. But if millions of largely un-vetted people come into the country over a short period of time, some of them will commit violent crime. Every single one of those crimes was preventable by enforcing the law before the perpetrator crossed the border, or upon any of the perpetrator’s subsequent arrests, which go ignored and unpunished in sanctuary cities. Those crimes are the consequences of these actions, and people are right to be angry about the hurt they've caused.
There is no satisfying, perfect "why" for any senseless murder. The damage cannot be undone. But there are facts and there are failures, here. Ignoring them just keeps us from protecting other young women out for a jog, chasing a future they may never get to see.