Who is Gilbert?
If you still don't know, it's by design.
Dear white people, we know you are soft-hearted, especially for innocent victims and angelic dogs. American media knows this as well. Do you remember the endless cycles of outrage they generated last year when Kristi Noem casually disclosed that she shot her puppy dead? This was in her newly published autobiography. Noem was under consideration to join Trump’s ticket as Vice President, and the month-long scandal about her years-ago puppy-killing put an end to that. After Trump won the election, “puppy-killer” Kristi Noem was cycled back in as Secretary of Homeland Security. Lucky us!
Two weeks ago was June 14, Trump’s birthday parade day, No Kings Day. We woke up that Saturday to awful news out of Hennepin County (where George Floyd was murdered five years ago). Two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses had been shot in their homes by a gunman. Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were in surgery, struggling to survive after taking 8+ bullets each. Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were dead. With broken hearts, many of us made our way to our local No Kings rallies, as did Minnesotans, despite being warned to stay away from gatherings. The assassin was still free and not yet identified.
We found out later that somewhere between five and 13 million Americans protested nationwide on Saturday — a historic record. Trump’s birthday parade in D.C. was a bust, with miles of empty bleachers and unnecessary barriers set up to corral 250,000 expected attendees, but a lot were TikTokers who never intended to show up. A squeaky tank and off-beat marching were the sad highlights of the military parade, and attendee estimates ranged from just 8,500 to 20,000, not counting the 7,000 soldiers in the sweltering parade.
By Saturday evening, the assassin was identified as Vance Boelter, a Trump-supporter who ran a private security company along with his wife and his brother, a former cop. The day after his mass shooting spree (including visits to two other Democratic lawmakers’ vacant homes), the assassin was captured without being injured or shot. So we knew immediately that he’s white.
Okay, but who is Gilbert, you ask? I’ll give you a clue. He lived and was loved in Minnesota.
Gilbert was the Hortman family dog, a Golden Retriever.
Security camera footage shows that the assassin wore a full-head mask when he entered his victims’ home and sprayed bullets at them. Can you imagine the horror? Now imagine any dog in that home, and consider how he’d react to his parents getting shot. Gilbert must have defended his humans, the assassin inflicted grave injuries on the family dog, and Gilbert was euthanized.
On Monday morning, Hennepin County and federal prosecutors held separate press conferences to update us on the shootings and all the assorted charges they were bringing against Boelter. Gilbert was not mentioned, his tragic end didn’t make it into any national news headlines or articles, and no charges were brought against the assassin for animal cruelty. So we remembered again that he’s white.
Vance Boelter is a puppy-killer. Gilbert was only four years old.
Gilbert was an angelic dog. His parents were innocent victims. The media has already moved on from their violent deaths, enough to make sane people wonder if Gilbert even lived with the Hortmans, or had been trained and placed with someone else.
But Melissa had posted about him earlier in the month.
Minnesota local news wrote about how Gilbert had failed his service dog training and been adopted by the Hortmans.
And the Hortman children, Sophie and Colin, acknowledged Gilbert without naming him in the heartbreaking message they issued to all of us.
Melissa Hortman was a blonde suburban mom, a lawyer, a Democratic lawmaker for 21 years, a good Catholic, a pillar of her community, a service dog trainer. She was white, too, like her assassin, but the media has abandoned her and quietly taken sides with him. So we remember again that he’s white.
Vance Boelter is a puppy-killer who is getting away with it. Is it due to his whiteness or due to his connections with cops? We shouldn’t have to wonder. We certainly shouldn’t have to offer donuts to police to get justice for our Golden Retrievers.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz won many hearts as Kamala Harris’ Vice President, for good reason. He has done his part by arranging for Gilbert to lie in state at the Capitol along with his parents on June 27. Finally, Gilbert’s murder is getting some coverage, as Minnesotans and national figures line up to pay their respects to the entire Hortman family.
Dear white people, please wake up. Don’t you think it’s strange how few Americans know about Gilbert, when Kristi Noem shooting her dog was such big news for so long, years after the murder? Police and media routinely protect white male terrorists from defamation while they await trial. They don’t deserve your blind trust. As we march into fascism under dog-hater Trump and puppy-killer Noem, we must always think about what is being kept from us. Who benefits from us not knowing about Gilbert’s very existence?
Demand justice for Gilbert!
Demand charges for puppy-killer Vance Boelter.
Vara, well done on all levels-I didn’t know about Gilbert, but as soon as I saw your first photo I knew. I have to thank you for calling in white folx-b/c the media attention on this has been too short and shallow; and as many POC know only too well, this would not have been the case had it been an assassin of color. Noem has now ‘graduated’ to rounding up Brown people and deporting us to concentration camps, is there a correlation to puppy killing? Thank you for keeping the light on this Vara-am restacking!
This was beautifully written and it broke my heart.