One morning in early August, a woman was walking her dog in Park Slope, Brooklyn, when a man went crazy on her:
On Aug. 3, Jessica Chrustic, 40, a professional beekeeper, was walking her dog in Prospect Park a little after 6 a.m. when she saw a man rifling through the garbage outside the Picnic House. She had seen the man before — tall, with dreadlocks wrapped in a turban, carrying a long staff and often muttering to himself or cursing — and she usually kept her distance. But this morning there was no room to avoid him.
According to Ms. Chrustic, he started yelling about immigrants taking over the park, then grabbed a bottle of what she later concluded was urine and sloshed it at her and her dog. She tried to run away, but Moose, her 80-pound golden retriever mix, was straining toward the man, trying to protect her.
The man started swinging the stick, she said. One blow hit her, not seriously. Another connected solidly with the dog’s snout. Mary Rowland, 56, a hospital manager who was walking her dog nearby, said she heard the crack of wood on bone and came running toward them, screaming at the man to get away.
The dog wound up dying from the injuries. The New York Times’ John Leland wrote about the incident in a piece that was published today. But Leland managed to distinguish his article from others out there by making his about the progressive quandary that has ensued since the attack on Chrustic and her dog.
A psycho vagrant attacked a woman in Prospect Park, sprayed her with urine and killed her dog
And this is how the New York Times writes about it pic.twitter.com/xuG4dapfmB
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) October 7, 2022
Serious question @johnleland would killing the dog be more or less acceptable if the assailant were white?
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) October 7, 2022
Maybe we’ll have to wait for Leland’s follow-up article to get the answer to that question.
Good Lord.
A man brutally attacked and killed a dog in Prospect Park? What exactly is the social justice situation here cited in the lede? https://t.co/1R0p6HWxI9? pic.twitter.com/K1Ov5xy0JS
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) October 7, 2022
What exactly is the social justice situation in which a serious reporter would indulge the sort of people who would be angry at Chrustic and not at the man who attacked her and was ultimately responsible for killing her dog?
Wild statement here to see a city councilperson come down on the side of not having action taken against someone who murdered a dog and violently attacked a woman. https://t.co/3XJLLLCIHT pic.twitter.com/tfmVGcj0l4
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) October 7, 2022
A statement only made wilder by the fact that said councilperson is referred to in the article as “Mx. Whitesides.” We’ll give the New York Times this much: when they commit, they really commit.
Also, they should actually be committed. They need serious help.
The mere fact that they think law and order clashes with social justice tells you everything you need to know.
— Amphibious Rodent (@inthecitylimits) October 7, 2022
https://twitter.com/foster_type/status/1578444468331589634
Oh God … he’s probably right.
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