Family and friends say goodbye to Clarisse, Star Tribune ignores

On July 2, five-year-old Nizzel George of North Minneapolis was buried. Little Nizzel was sleeping on a couch when he was hit by a bullet apparently intended for someone else, part of the gang warfare that is all too common in Minneapolis. It's a horrible, tragic story.

The Star Tribune's story of the funeral carried two bylines and the paper's web site contained about a dozen photos of mourners and the funeral. Virtually every day from June 27 to July 8, the "Newspaper of the Twin Cities" carried a story, or its web site had a staffer's blog post, about the death of little Nizzel and the aftermath.

Wednesday was burial day for 16-year-old Clarisse Grime, killed last week by an illegal immigrant who lost control of his vehicle and ran her over in her schoolyard. It's another horrible, tragic story, except that in this case, the Star Tribune couldn't be bothered to show up at the funeral, which was held in Minneapolis.

Clarisse's death is an uncomfortable story for the Star Tribune. As we've written before, the man charged with her killing - Carlos Viveros-Colorado - was an illegal immigrant who had no driver's license and a series of traffic violations - including a 2001 DWI - in his past. He went through a "voluntary deportation" a few years ago but quickly returned to the United States.  The Star Tribune's "reporters" have done their very best to minimize these facts, and the headline writers have chosen instead to focus on the vehicle, as if the type of vehicle were relevant to the story.

A search for "Clarisse Grime" on the Strib's web site reveals three stories, one photo gallery and one video about Clarisse's death. Here are the five headlines:

Out-of-control SUV kills 16-year-old St. Paul girl
Students mourn girl killed by SUV
Teenager killed by SUV
Driver of SUV that killed teen in St. Paul had no license
SUV driver is charged in St. Paul student's death

Got it? Clarisse wasn't killed by an illegal immigrant who shouldn't have been driving, she was killed by one of those evil SUV's! It's a good thing Carlos wasn't driving a Prius or the story might not even have made the paper.

Over at the Pioneer Press, where the budget cuts of the last few years have reduced the reporting staff to about the same size as that of your local shopper, the coverage was better. Clarisse's funeral was a front-page story and the headline at least acknowledged that she was killed by an "unlicensed driver," even though it took 16 paragraphs before the reader was told of Carlos' status as an illegal immigrant.

(Another sad irony of the story: Clarisse's mother, a widow, met and married Clarisse's step-father in Italy in 2008. Clarisse and her mother, however, didn't come to the U.S. until 2010 because they couldn't legally do so. Instead, they waited until they obtained permanent legal resident status. Both Clarisse and her mother were in the process of becoming citizens, a process her mother said she will continue.)

Besides the tragic end of a young, promising life, I fear that the other tragedy will be that the story of Clarisse and her killer will soon be forgotten. Minneapolis and St. Paul will continue with their "Sanctuary City" policies that provide a safe harbor and breeding ground for illegals like Carlos Viveros-Colorado. The media will continue to ignore the issue of the illegals in our midst and in a few weeks no one outside the Harding High School neighborhood will remember the story of a family that came to this country to pursue its dreams, only to find a government and media elites that had no interest in their protection.