Media’s ‘Utter Lack of Humanity’

Chicago police killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo, and some media responded by questioning Toledo’s character. Black and Brown kids deserve better.

Arionne Nettles
Momentum

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Adam Toledo, 13, was killed by Chicago police. This group marches for his justice. Photo: Getty Images

The public has now seen the troubling video of a Chicago police officer shooting and killing Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Latino boy who lived in the city’s Little Village neighborhood.

For Chicagoans, especially for those in Black and Brown communities, the shooting feels like another likely injustice in a long line of cases in which police have killed young Black people — the police killing and subsequent cover-up of the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald offers a high-profile example.

But just seven days after the murder of the child, popular Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn wrote that the public should “wait before turning slain 13-year-old Adam Toledo into a martyr.” Zorn, who is White, criticized references to Adam as a “baby” and wrote “it’s not too early to stop romanticizing and infantilizing 13-year-olds” before listing crimes of teens the same age from around the country.

Many journalists, local and otherwise, immediately condemned the piece — especially for its lack of compassion for the young victim and the community still mourning his loss. “What about Adam’s…

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Arionne Nettles
Momentum

Arionne Nettles is a lecturer at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, a Chicago-based journalist, and a special needs mama.