The Princeton Packet
We begin with a brief guest editorial from “Joe,” whose contribution to the torrent of online postings about Congo, the German shepherd facing euthanization for the mauling of landscape laborer Giovanni Rivera in Princeton begins:
“Look, if you want to save the dog, that’s fine. But please stop the vile, stupid demonizing of the laborer.”
While we share Joe’s sentiments, an unsung virtue of the First Amendment is the way it draws the snakes crawling around in the heads of some people out into the light of day. Here are a few samples, as posted to this newspaper’s Web site at www.packetonline.com by the not-insubstantial fringe element among Congo’s many supporters:
"If this ‘alien’ had stayed in his own country, and not crossed our border illegally, this never would have happened.”
“It was an illegal alien. The dog is doing what any home guard dog should do. The dog deserves an award. One less Mexican alien is a boost to society.”
“Congo is welcome at my home anytime. I think a larger issue here is the victim does not speak English. So here is yet another good example of why English should be the only language spoken in our country.”
In dozens, if not hundreds, of Web postings, intimations of “trespass” and an “attack” by Mr. Rivera on Mrs. James — fabrications contradicted by the police report — thrive like fungus on the murky mix of in´ flammatory leaflets, echo chamber radio and the rancid reflections of the blogosphere’s foggiest regions, where no scenario is too nonsensical. A landscape laborer arrives early for work, runs into a pack of German shepherds and decides to “assault” their mistress on the spot?
Cruel trivializations of Mr. Rivera’s June 5 injuries as a mere dog bite and a few scratches are belied by three hours of surgery, 65 anti-rabies injections and graphic photographs of his wounds. Insurance companies are not in the habit of writing $250,000 checks for a dog bite and a few scratches.
The contemplation of such an ordeal cries out for comic relief and the looniest fringe of Congo’s supporters have obliged by painting Mr. Rivera (who is from Honduras, not Mexico) as a crazed alien who crept into the U.S. in the guise of a manual laborer so that he could assault puppies and their owners in New Jersey, get himself critically mauled by a German shepherd and collect a generous settlement.
No less hilarious is the portrayal of Princeton as a community under siege by armies of Spanish-speaking landscape work´ ers, wielding noisy power equipment in a crusade to disturb the peace and deprive affluent Americans of the right to cut their own lawns with hand mowers.
Again, some healthy societal purpose may yet be served by an occasional glimpse into the cranial cavities of the human species and the snakes that reside there. But don’t bother calling Animal Control. It has no jurisdiction over those critters.
