Hello and welcome to Friday, June 12, 2026. Today is National Peanutbutter Cookie Day, National Red Rose Day (or if you're Barbara Walters, Wed Wose Day), National Jerky Day, and National Movie Night.
1903: Niagara Falls, Ontario, incorporated as a city.
1908: RMS Lusitania crosses the Atlantic in a record four days, 15 hours.
1917: U.S. Secret Service extends protection of the President to include his family.
1931: Al Capone is indicted on 5,000 counts of prohibition violations and perjury.
1936: First 50 KW U.S. radio station (KDKA, Pittsburgh, Pa.).
1978: David Berkowitz sentenced in N.Y. Supreme Court to 25 years to life.
1987: President Ronald Reagan challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall.
Birthdays today include: Anthony Eden, British Prime Minister (1955-57); David Rockefeller, CEO, Chase Manhattan Bank; Dave Berg, Mad Magazine cartoonist (The Lighter Side of...); George H. W. Bush, 41st President; Anne Frank (The Diary of a Young Girl); Jim Nabors, comedian, actor, and singer (The Andy Griffith Show; Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.); "Chick" Corea, jazz-fusion pianist and composer; Marv Albert, sportscaster; Reg Presley, rock vocalist (Troggs - "Wild Thing," "Love Is All Around"); Len Barry, singer, songwriter and producer (The Dovells - "Bristol Stomp," solo - "1-2-3"); Barry Bailey, guitarist (Atlanta Rhythm Section); Brad Delp, singer (Boston - "More Than A Feeling"); and Jordan Peterson, psychologist and author.
Happy Birthday to you if today is your day.
* * *
I found myself getting angry, truly angry, last night as I went over my notes (a rather extensive file) on the Karmelo Anthony case. I vented somewhat last night, far more than I've ever done before, in the internal communications channels to my fellow authors here at PJ Media. I daresay I annoyed some of them. Not that there was a great deal of disagreement, mind.
I came away from that conversation deciding that I was a bit too angry to write a piece on the topic fairly. The more I sat with it, though, the more I recognized that anger in this case is the valid approach. I've toned the anger down somewhat to a more analytical view. So, strap in, kids. Here we go.
Matt Walsh the other day, on X:
Keep in mind, if Karmelo had plead guilty early on, it would have cut the fundraiser short. His parents chose to send him to trial so they could keep raking in the cash. They don’t love or care about him. Awful people who inevitably raised an awful son. My only regret is that…
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 8, 2026
Harsh? Maybe. Then again, truth often is.
Sad to say, Walsh has a point, and the evidence of that keeps piling up. I watched with interest as the takedown of the first GiveSendGo account — which had already hauled in $625,000 — happened. The Anthony camp launched a new one, timed conveniently to the appeal. That's not grief. That's a fundraising strategy.
Then there's the housing situation. The Anthony family relocated to a luxury gated community — a $900,000 home, by New York Post reporting — after standing before a judge and pleading financial hardship to get that $1 million bond reduced. Let that land for a moment. They cried poverty in open court, then signed a lease on a nearly seven-figure gated estate. This doesn't just smell bad. It reeks.
And please, I beg you: Spare me the “love-for-your-child” argument. You don't monetize your son's murder conviction if love is what’s driving you. You don't shake the money tree while another family buries their kid. That’s colder than an Antarctic night.
Let's remember that the Metcalf family faced legal bills, too — real ones, the kind that come without a crowdfunding campaign or a cause to rally race-baiting donors. They got nothing. Well, they got death threats. So, too, the Anthony clan. They've both been doxed as well. The Anthony camp got $625,000 and counting. The Metcalfs? Nada. Zero. Zilch. At some point, love stops being the explanation for the Anthonys' actions, and opportunistic avarice fits better. Looks from here like that point got passed several times already.
And look, we both know the appeal itself will go nowhere. The trial record — you know, the actual evidence — makes that plain. But the facts of the case are not really the point, are they? The appeal keeps the story alive, keeps the donations flowing, and buys another year of victimhood narrative before the whole thing finally collapses under its own weight.
Now, watch the defenders circling the wagons. Observe their words and actions. On what grounds do they defend Anthony? His grades? His potential? No — his color. His race. That's the argument, stripped bare.
Every time someone makes that argument, they confirm exactly what the street was selling him: that race is armor, that grievance is currency, and that accountability is something that happens to other people. Particularly, white people. That’s the message coming from mental midgets like Jasmine Crockett, and it’s all over social media like a bad rash, mostly from the robots, which have already been tuning up for the midterm elections. I mean, that's not racist or anything. [/sarc] I mean, you know this is going to get played between now and November.
Indeed, the longer this thing drags out — and it will drag out, high-profile appeals being what they are — the more that mantra spreads. Victimhood as identity. Victimhood as strategy. Victimhood as a fundraiser. (Can you say “reparations?” I knew you could.) This is what you get when you build a culture around victimhood. When victimhood is the coin of the realm, when victimhood is celebrated, you can't help but get more of it.
Related: Wesley Hunt: Austin Metcalf Got the Death Penalty, Karmelo Isn't the Victim
One thing on that point that’s surprised me a bit about all of this is the lack of harangue from the usual race-baiting crowd, the Hakeem Jeffrieses and Al Sharptons of the world. I've not heard a peep. Indeed, the silence of the usual race-baiting crowd is both pervasive and indicative. It’s an undercurrent to all this: They know that every bit of this is indefensible, and to try to defend it publicly would cost them dearly. So, silence. It's worth noting also that there don't seem to be riots in the streets after this case, as there have been in other cases. I see Ben Shapiro has noted that lack also in his most recent shows. What it means for the immediate future, I won't speculate on here.
One more thing worth examining is the precedent. Take the 2021 case of Jennifer and James Crumbley — a genuine landmark in American legal history. When their son Ethan shot and killed four students at Oxford High School, Michigan prosecutors didn't just go after the shooter. They went after the parents. The Crumbleys bought Ethan the gun. They ignored explicit warning signs. And on the morning of the massacre, a teacher showed them a drawing their son had made depicting violence — and they left him in school anyway. A Michigan jury convicted both parents of involuntary manslaughter. Michigan courts upheld those convictions. The Crumbleys each got 10 to 15 years. I suspect you know why I've brought that up. The Crumbleys got jail terms. Guess who didn't?
Here's what makes this genuinely tragic: Karmelo Anthony wasn't a street thug by any conventional measure. At least, that's so if you go by the public reports. Honor roll student. Team captain. A standout, by every metric that's supposed to matter. But someone — indeed, many someones, over many years — kept telling him that the street thug posture was not just acceptable, but expected. That this was what authenticity looked like for a young black man. Overt aggression is the passage to greatness. When that fails, claim victimhood based on race. That message didn't arrive overnight. It accumulated. And apparently, nobody along the way — not peers, not adults, and apparently not a mother who was certainly quick to excuse her good kid's rougher edges — pushed back hard enough to matter.
It’s noteworthy that Anthony’s father died when the kid was 2 years old. This left the young man to form relationships with his older brothers and cousins, who were often caught up in violence and drugs in the neighborhood. He did have a stepfather, but according to reports, the relationship there was rather cold. We might consider the environment Anthony grew up in to be effectively a single-parent household. We all know the long-standing stats on that situation.
There’s another little tidbit I’ve not seen much on. CBS11 in Dallas/Ft. Worth reported that Anthony had been suspended from school for bringing a knife on campus — presumably the same knife he used to kill Austin Metcalf. According to the report, Anthony wasn't even supposed to be on campus at all. Reporter Amelia Mugavero broke that story. Then, CBS 11 pulled the story, hiding behind the statement that they needed "further clarification from the school district." The school district refused to answer. So CBS 11 yanked the story and told the public to wait. The school district never responded, and CBS11 apparently hasn’t pushed the issue to a conclusion. Easy to see why. That's not a small detail. That's potentially the whole ballgame. My guess is that neither the school nor the TV station was interested in being ripped up by angry rioters, to say nothing of the legal implications of each.
There's a lot going on here. Frankly, I'm to the point where I don't take a bit of it at face value because there's not a bit of the overly loud defense that makes even the slightest sense at all.
This may shake you a bit, but I am not without sympathy for Karmelo Anthony. He reacted predictably to the poison that was fed him over a period of years, and is now paying at least part of the price for believing it. (I still think 35 years is a slap on the wrist.) The sadder part is that he continues to be a victim of family members and a legal system, neither of which can seem to separate graft from grief.
That said, the indisputable primary victims here are Austin Metcalf and his family. There are many of Anthony's defenders who try to paint Metcalf as the aggressor. Let me say this straight out: He was not. Every bit of sworn testimony indicates that much.
My call, therefore, is that we should never lose sight of who the real victim is. Victimhood, being the coin of the realm, claimed the innocent life of Austin Metcalf and irrevocably changed the lives of everyone around him forever. Every other factor in this case is secondary to that immovable fact.
Thought of the day: We had a choice between a nuclear tipped Iran or a short-lived spike in gasoline prices. Since you’re unable to decide if you’re a man or a woman, Trump made the decision for you. You're welcome.
VIP members: Hit the heart and let's hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments. You do make a difference.
Take care today. I'll have more vids on Big Boy in the next day or two. And of course, I'll be back to make further observations on the chaos tomorrow. See you then.
Editor's Note: Do you enjoy PJ Media's conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member