On a rainy, gloomy Friday in Georgia, services were held for 22-year-old Laken Hope Riley, the University of Georgia nursing student who last week was horrifically murdered during her morning jog.
Fox News reported that “hundreds” were in attendance:
From the New York Post‘s write-up:
The streets around the church were clogged with cars as what appeared to be hundreds of people braved the rain to pay tribute to the jogger, photos from the Daily Mail showed.The family received visitors for two hours ahead of the service, Riley’s online obituary noted.“Laken was special. She was a gift to anyone who knew her. Smart, kind, compassionate and thoughtful don’t even begin to scratch the surface,” pastor Samer Massad wrote before the service, FOX 5 Atlanta reported.“She was a loving daughter, sister and friend. She had a gift for making anyone she was around feel comfortable and seen,” he added.
Riley was found dead on campus last Thursday afternoon after a friend reported her missing. A 26-year-old Venezuelan man, Jose Antonio Ibarra, who authorities say is in the country illegally, has been charged with her kidnapping and murder.
On Monday, a vigil was held at UGA for Riley and another student, 19-year-old Wyatt Banks, who reportedly took his life the day before Riley’s murder. The vigil was packed with people:
Though Laken Riley’s case has sparked a conversation about illegal immigration and how crimes like Riley’s might have been prevented if Joe Biden was not an open-borders president, the national news media hasn’t been much interested in talking about that aspect.
Nor does it seem they were much interested in covering Riley’s funeral beyond giving it the obligatory treatment, with national news outlets like the New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post posting one article each on their respective websites as of this writing.
Of the three, as of midnight Saturday morning, only CNN mentioned Laken Riley on their website’s front page. None of the “big three”—CBS News, NBC News, and ABC News—had mention of her funeral service on their front pages.
Contrast that with how the MSM saturated their airwaves, newspapers, websites, and Twitter feeds with wall-to-wall coverage of George Floyd’s funeral in Houston and his Minneapolis, and Raeford, North Carolina memorial services:
And these clips were two of many from the 24-7 non-stop coverage the media gave of the funeral services for Jordan Neely:
Though then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden gave a pre-taped speech for Floyd’s funeral calling for “racial justice,” he was nowhere to be found for Laken Riley’s funeral.
And to add insult to injury, on the day of Riley’s service, Biden was tweeting about . . . George Floyd:
Needless to say, this did not go over well:
I should also note for the record that First Lady Jill Biden was in Georgia on Friday, but she had other priorities:
Atlanta is about half an hour to 45 minutes from Woodstock, Georgia, where Laken Riley’s family and friends paid their final respects.
RIP, Laken Riley.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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