Song of the Day: "Don't Get Captured"

A column about music, and about how the music informs our lives. Today's author is Joe. See the previous songs HERE.

"Don't Get Captured"

Run the Jewels

from Run the Jewels 3

2016

Part III

I'm finally going to write about the development that sent me down this rabbit hole of past neighborhood crimes and injustices, after defining my removed role in the tale, and discussing some complications in the margins. This was all to establish where I'm coming from here. I care but I care from a distance. I am emotionally invested but only to the point that is appropriate. I feel the need to keep this story's spirit alive only because I feel like I am in a space that I am able to see the story from all sides, even though most sides are "this was a horrible tragedy," and I agree with that. I'm viewing myself as an anthropologist, that's all. I don't think that's unreasonable to say.

I've made my anthropological interests known to the people in my life, and so my mom made it a point to tell me a couple weeks ago that she saw a (sigh) Facebook link from Fox News, and it was about how an Eddie Polec murderer was arrested by ICE. The fact that she saw this and her assumption was "look at this crazy thing that AI made up" says so many sad things about my parents' generation and their media illiteracy, but shit, I can't get into that right now.

But being able to see a headline and interpret what it says, what's true, what point it's attempting to make, and how all of that conflicts with one another? That's all important. Here's what I've gathered on the situation. These are the facts, presented without subjectivity. Bou Khathavong, at age eighteen, was convicted of conspiracy, for his involvement in Eddie Polec's death. Max sentence, five to ten years. Prosecutors said that he organized the fight (or the events that led up to the fight, i.e. "hey let's go to Fox Chase and beat the shit out of some kids" or whatever), but there was no evidence, and no testimony, that Khathavong was involved in the beating.

I assume he served his time. I assume that he's been out of jail since the mid-aughts at the latest. Then, on July 25, 2025, he was arrested by ICE, assumed to be deported. Stated reason: he's an illegal alien. ICE also listed him as a "worst of the worst," due to his involvement in the Polec murder.

Where do I even start with this. Okay, let's start with this: there's a difference between a news media company giving FALSE news, and that news media company giving TRUE news but in a specific way so to make a point that could, in fact, be misleading. What you see in that Fox News article (that I won't link to because fuck those assholes) is facts. Khathavong was arrested by ICE, he was not a US citizen, he was previously convicted for crimes involving the death of a teenager. What you don't see is the following: that he came to the US at the age of four, and that he's lived here the entire time since then; that he didn't murder anyone; that, as far as anyone knows, he hasn't committed any additional crimes; that ICE is arresting people based on the color of their skin, by their own admission; that ICE has incentive to arrest as many people as possible to juice their numbers; that ICE has incentive to justify those arrests by citing past crimes, even those that have already been served; that Fox News has incentive to justify the actions of ICE, who are working under the direction of the dictator that they serve.

What this looks like for me, a white person in Northeast Philadelphia, in real time, is that I see Facebook comments underneath this link on my mom's Facebook algorithm from her own peers, white people, MAGA presumably, saying shit like "Good!" and "He should've been deported long ago!" and "They should strap on cement shoes and throw him in the ocean instead!" (These are all real comments.) There are millions of people who are going to see what their news media agency of choice is choosing to report ("illegal adult male who murdered child is deported") and are using that to justify their own shit—racism, fascism, ignorance, all of it. 

And what it looks like for me is that I find myself in a position in which I'm arguing against the punishment of someone who was involved in a murder of a child in my neighborhood. Which is fucked up too, and Fox News knows it, and they do it on purpose. They know that they have the woke liberal asshole backed into a corner, where, in order to explain my own morals and ethics, I need to attempt to thread the needle and explain why this guy, who was absolutely involved in the murdered of a child and is probably not a US citizen, should not be arrested. I'm attempting to thread the needle in this blog post, but, ya know, no one is out there reading Fox News AND Puke on Your Birthday, so I doubt this is gonna do anything.

I think the main point of argument I'd make, if hypothetically I were to make one, is that my (a.k.a. the progressive) view on the justice system is different than others' (a.k.a. the conservative) view on it. In other words, that I try to see the act of punishing someone by jailing them as an attempt at rehabilitating someone, whereas the other point of view might be to see prison as punishment. (And yes, I know that prison probably doesn't "rehabilitate" anyone, but I'm speaking about broad ideals here, not specific outcomes or lack thereof.) So, in my world, Bou Khathavong commits a crime, serves ten years, and then is released because he is supposed to be rehabilitated. To then be arrested again seems like a severe breach of the social contract in that regard. He was already rehabilitated? Why is he being arrested for the same crime?

You can see how it becomes a problem when you believe criminals should be punished and how that punishment never seems like enough. You take that punishment theory to its logical endpoint and you start believing that most crimes should be met with the punishment of death, including organizing a fight when you were a teenager 31 years ago. And then you take it even further and allow some dictator to define what "crime" is, and follow him as he says that being brown is a crime, that being brought into a country at the age of four is a crime, that attempting to live your life after serving your time is still an ongoing crime, now, one that should be punished, again. 

What happens if it gets to the point that non-illegal immigrants are called "illegal" because they committed a crime? What happens when non-immigrants are called "illegal" because they committed a crime? What happens when non-criminals are called "illegal" because they don't support the current "justice" system? What happens when they start rounding up everyone that disagrees with them? If you can change the definition of crime, why not change it to "anyone who disagrees"? What happens if they start arresting anyone who writes a blog post calling for the release of anyone who they believe was arrested by ICE illegally, even if the arrested party was involved in a crime at some point in their lives?

"None of that has happened yet," the person who read that Fox News story will say, and that's true. Kind of. Because it hasn't happened yet, but if you read between the lines, you can pretty easily see that it's starting to happen. It's pointed in that direction, clearly, with big neon flashing arrows. And if you're okay with this, then what next?

To say any of this out loud in Fox Chase would be met with, uh, some pushback, I think. To express this opinion would mean that I would be taken a lot less seriously as the amateur anthropologist and keeper-of-the-tale that I fashion myself to be. But I say all this anyway, and I believe all this, because of how much I care. I care very deeply about this story, and my neighborhood, and what this specific incident and its aftermath says about my home and its place in the world. 

I believe there are so many lessons to be learned through the tragic tale of Eddie Polec. And that's why I'll never stop talking about it, and never stop caring.