Molly Tibbett's Murder Is a Tragedy, Not a Political Football

I couldn't be more disgusted by the speed with which partisans on both sides of the political aisle jumped for the political upside or downside of the undocumented immigrant status of 20-year-old Molly Tibbett's suspected murderer, 24-year-old Cristhina Bahena Rivera.

Richard Rahn, special agent in charge at the Department of Criminal Investigation, said that Rivera has lived in the Brooklyn area for four to seven years. Rahn refused to say who his employer is or was, but CBS News just announced that Rivera worked on Craig and Dane Lang's Yarrabee dairy farm. The newspapers today say that Rivera worked on their farm for the past four years. Dane Lang is the son of Craig Lang, a prominent Iowa Republican and the former head of the Iowa Farm Bureau and the former head of the state Board of Regents. Craig Lang was also a candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. His son Dane Lang's defense was that Rivera presented a phony ID and was not who he said he was. KCRG News reporter Josh Scheinblum just said that Lang thought he complied with E-verification of his employee, Cristhian Rivera, but now admits that he did not. Note that Rivera needed a translator at his first appearance in court because he apparently doesn't understand much English. Rivera is being held on $5 million cash only bond.

Molly Tibbetts was a 20-year-old woman, a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a girlfriend, a loving friend, and barely more than a girl. She would be starting her second year at the University of Iowa this week. I feel like I got to know her through the extensive articles about her in the newspapers. Even as I write of how sad I am that such a kind, innocent girl is dead, I'm starting to think of the political ramifications myself. But at least I paused for a day to mourn her loss before expressing within hours of learning of her death more pity for undocumented immigrants than for Molly and her family as a progressive I know did.

He said she was just another white girl and he didn't know her or care. What he was really concerned about was the possible effect on immigrants trying to enter the country. While I too am indignant that women who've fled domestic violence are being illegally denied asylum and that children were separated from their parents and many were lost in the process, I was really disappointed in my progressive acquaintance and everyone who jumped on board to agree with him.

So...Molly's murder is not about Molly; it's about the ethnicity of her killer?

Seemingly, some progressives are as shallow and rigid in many of their partisan beliefs as many of the Trumpsters are, the base that confirms Trump's belief that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still get his base's cultlike support.

Rabid partisans, spare us a moment of grief before jumping into your respective foxholes and aiming at your preferred targets.