About our ‘adorable drug kingpin’ post
On Tuesday, Death and Taxes picked up a local news story about Sarah Furay, a 19-year-old in College Station, Texas, who was arrested for alleged possession of a 31.5 grams of cocaine, 126 grams of high-grade marijuana, 29 tablets of Ecstasy, an undisclosed amount of methamphetamine and 60 hits of LSD. She faces felony charges that could technically result in fines up to $30,000 and decades in prison. Furay, as seen in her mugshot, cracked a proud smile at the time of her processing at Brazos County Jail, the refulgent detail which raised our antennae.
The headline we ran, “Texas cops arrest adorable drug kingpin,” was purported to convey the suspect’s flippant attitude toward the mountain of charges against her. Furay’s gleeful flashing of her chompers inside the police precinct demonstrated what must have been, for her, a cathartic “fuck you” to authorities designed “to protect and serve.” And it was probably a photo through which many felt worth living vicariously, a relatable form of rebellion. Honestly, who doesn’t love a story that serves uniformed pigs a smorgasbord of turd sandwiches?
I’d like to believe that, no matter the color of Furay’s skin, we would have still characterized Furay’s actions as “adorable” or something synonymous. And we’re not advocating that Furay deserves to walk free from her actions. But we still very poorly missed the mark on this one, and, on behalf of the site, I wanted to say I’m sorry. Many on Twitter have called out our post for racist implications, and they are not unfounded. The very reason we were attracted to writing this post — Furay’s smile — is the very thing that is upsetting.
Furay is smiling, I feel safe to presume, because the criminal justice system works to her favor. Even perhaps unconsciously she knows it. Black males are sentenced inordinate amounts of time in prison for drugs never even found on their person; meanwhile, Furay’s grin almost deliberately relates her knowledge that her consequences won’t meet the same extreme. Is it because her parents are friendly with attorneys? Maybe. Will the authorities in College Station garner sympathy and bias toward a lily-white college-aged female? Probably. The reality is, people like Furay don’t get the short end of the stick — not how they’re treated within the criminal justice system or, for that matter, by the media. People like Furay often get off easy. We all know it.
Back to the matter at hand: Moments like these prove why the often dubiously critiqued social media pile-ons can turn into a positive. Not to be too grandiose about what we do here, but I’m comfortable saying that Death and Taxes aims to fight the good fight at covering the cultural apocalypse that consumes us all. And yet, even if we remain committed to reporting on news narratives that call bullshit on corrupt and phony assholes in power, we are just as capable of making the same mistakes as anyone else. For “Texas cops arrest adorable drug kingpin,” we failed to see the larger story. I acknowledge this was a slap in the face to many, and, as you’ve probably gathered by now, it was not intentional.
I’m grateful to those of you who called us out, and I hope you accept our apology.
