Those words didn't come from a right wing commentator. They came from the Philadelphia City Paper's Brian Hickey, who's been following a murder trial which went strangely unreported in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Some black thugs deliberately targeted a total stranger simply because he was white, and fatally shot him:

....whoever pulled the trigger -- I'd vote to convict even before Wednesday morning's closing arguments -- hurt a whole lot of people more than he could harm himself by manning up. But here's what gets me as riled up as watching a dead kid's family suffer: Six black kids consciously decided to target white people for victimization, and that is no less a hate crime than dragging someone behind a pickup in Texas.

That they were teens, or that the prosecution needed their cooperation to get a conviction -- which could've come as early as Wednesday afternoon -- means nothing. They set out to catch a white body and they got one, leaving countless lives and families shattered on both sides of Girard in their wake.

If the races were flipped, this'd be a national scandal. But instead, it's just another day in Philadelphia's justice system, and at least five racist, violence-prone little punks will walk away scot free with enough life in their bodies to play their sick little "game."

The announcement sent members of Pierson's family, and some of his still-young friends, into both tears and rage. In fact, a Sheriff's Officer got into a near-tussle with one of the kids outside, a near-fight that was averted when more officers, and calmer-headed relatives came outside the Criminal Justice Center.

McCall, however, was found guilty of possessing a firearm and another weapons related charge. Meanwhile, as a Daily News reporter interviewed them after the trial, Pierson's relatives, including his mother Patty Rounds, were livid. In tears, they blasted a system that let a murderer (whether it be McCall or a co-defendant who ratted him out in exchange for dropped charges) walk free. Theirs were tears of pure anger and utter frustration, as they said that nobody's being held accountable for killing their loved one in cold blood.

Now, McCall remains in custody awaiting an Oct. 17 sentencing on the weapons charge which, while not clear at this point, probably adds up to about 5 years in prison.

I have read absolutely nothing about this trial in the Philadelphia Inquirer. While there is an obituary-type entry of over a year ago, it says nothing about the fact that he was deliberately targeted for being white. To its credit, the Daily News does (although I have not seen the Daily News, so I cannot swear it appeared in the hard copy). As to what would account for the disparity in coverage, who knows? The Daily News is more of an urban paper, while the Inquirer reaches the entire metropolitan area. The Inquirer also has a much larger, national circulation.

Maybe the idea is that only certain racially motivated crimes rise to the national level.

The irony here is that unlike many of the crimes which are said to be hate crimes, this one involves undeniable targeting of the victim simply because of his race.

Once again, I do not believe in hate crime laws. But I agree with Brian Hickey that if the races were reversed, this would be huge, huge national news. Here in the Philadelphia area, it doesn't even rate as local news (unless you read the smaller alternatives to the Inquirer).

Why?

Will someone please explain to me why the Inquirer will not report the news?

It's probably a good thing that the Inquirer has some competition -- even in the form of a free alternative weekly.

If you relied on Google News you'd think that only two news outlets were covering the Robert Pierson murder case -- the City Paper and the Inquirer.

But you'd be wrong. Once again, it only appears that the Inquirer covered the story in the daily paper. Yet it isn't there.

Sheesh.

You'd almost think that not reporting news had become a game.

UPDATE (08/18/07): Here's today's Inquirer:

I've looked through it four times, and the story hasn't appeared yet in any of the sections.

For would-be national scandals that can't make the local news, I guess I'll have to start relying on the small leftie alternative newspapers from now on.

MORE: As to other local "coverage," I did find a deleted comment to this article in the (Wilmington, Delaware) News Journal. The comment references the Philly.com writeup, with this deleted comment still in the Google cache:

Posted by: CarlsbergElephant- Fri Aug 17, 2007 9:47 am
You folks here worried about racism? How about this, an admitted HATE CRIME committed by blacks against whites... DID THIS EVEN MAKE PUBLICATION IN TNJ?????

Fairmount murder trial ends in acquittal, angerBy JULIE SHAW

Why it was deleted, I don't know.

If that's any indication, there are probably a few more observant citizens in the area who rely on the Philadelphia City Paper or rely on the Internet.