Thread: Hardly a mention that escaped rapist is an illegal alien

A lot of attention has been paid to the manhunt for the escaped rape suspect, Reynaldo Elias Rapalo, 34, from a Miami correctional center. One thing, however, is virtually missing from all reporting of this story - THE FACT THAT HE IS AN ILLEGAL ALIEN - who should not have even been here in the first place to commit his heinous, violent crime spree, including the rapes of an 11 year old child and a 79 year old woman and at least seven other assaults on young girls. There was only one or two news reports I have found that even mentions, however briefly, that he is an illegal alien, a web story from the FoxNews.com website and another from a Hawaii TV website, way down near the end of the report, when news of his escape first broke:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,179363,00.html

http://khon.com/khon/display.cfm?sto...sectionID=1155

{snip}

"Rapalo is an Rapalo is an illegal immigrant who lives in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami; police are worried that more crimes may have been committed that went unreported by other illegal immigrants."


But since then, even in follow-up reports by Fox News, both on their website and the Fox News Channel, every report on this 'Bush willing worker, good hearted folk' has completely omitted the fact that he is illegally in the country. I tried to find any other web reports that mention this little fact, but you will barely find it mentioned anywhere. Is this a simple oversight (yeah right), or did the 'open borders' or 'Hispanic advocate' lobbies get to these news outlets and tell them not to report this minor fact of the story?

Do a Google News search on his criminal escapades and subsequent escape and you will get 142 web stories returned, and from what I have seen, only one or two websites mention the fact that this guy is an illegal alien, the ones I listed above. I am certainly not insinuating all illegals are rapists, but why is the fact that this guy is an illegal being ignored by nearly all of the media?

Google News search:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ne...nG=Search+News

I did not check all 142 reports, but I'd be interested in anyone else can find any mention that this guy is an illegal.

Does not surprise me. That's Jebbie Bush's state. He controls the press down there. And he love his illegals. Obviously he hates Americans.

Not to defend Jebbie who is an IDIOT but we have seen the very same thing right here in North Carolina with "our" serial rapist ALONG WITH ALMOST EVERY NEWS REPORT WE SEE where a crime has been committed by someone with an Hispanic name. We sure saw how difficult it was to even GET this information confirmed with the one we broke and I would be willing to bet it's the same all over the country. Since the American people have awakened to the crisis we are suffering, I think EVERYONE probably wonders about that every time they read one of those reports so my GUESS is that the reporters are having just as difficult time getting the answer to the question about whether they are legal or not as the reporter in Winston-Salem did when he first reported the story about Gilberto Cruz Hernandez.

I believe that ICE ought to have a HOTLINE where average citizens, or CERTAINLY reporters, could call and IMMEDIATELY determine someone's status.

BUT, like you said, reptile--they KNOW this escaped rapist is illegal and they DO seem to be ignoring that. It goes back to what William has contended all along--the AP CHOOSES not to pick up these reports and run with them. That should be PASTED ALL OVER EVERY ARTICLE WRITTEN ABOUT THESE CRIMINALS because THAT is information that is VITAL for Americans to KNOW. I think our cause could be WON if only the press would HAMMER the illegal status of these criminals in the reports. I believe that a LOT of Americans just don't KNOW how many illegals are committing these crimes because it is so under-reported.

I just heard a news update that this MONSTER was recaptured last night. No other details but that is good news.

Good to know!!

There is at least one other article posted about his escape that says he was illegal.

http://www.wral.com/apnationalnews/5672873/detail.html

MIAMI -- The serial rape suspect accused of terrorizing two South Florida neighborhoods with attacks on victims ranging from elderly women to an 11-year-old girl was back in custody Tuesday, a week since his brazen jail escape, after a tipster recognized his face and called police.

Detectives found Reynaldo E. Rapalo, his mustache shaved, about 10 p.m. Monday outside a video store in southwest Miami wearing a fuzzy pink sweater layered under a black sweater, said Amos Rojas Jr., Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent in charge. Officers chased him down on foot.

Rapalo, 34, broke out of jail Dec. 20 by rappelling down the building on bed sheets. He was awaiting a February trial on felony counts of sexual battery and other charges that could have sent him to prison for life. He is accused of sexually assaulting seven women and girls.

Rapalo was being held for questioning and was expected to appear in court Tuesday, police said. Recapturing the suspect was satisfying to authorities.

"He is a very dangerous individual and we are very glad to have him back in custody," Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker said.

"The first time he was crying, very remorseful. Now he's cocky and smiling. But guess what, we got him," said Miami Police Chief John Timoney, who had joined the search on his bicycle.

Rapalo, a Honduran native who had been living in Miami on an expired visa, is accused of terrorizing the city's Little Havana and the nearby Shenandoah neighborhood in 2002 and 2003, including raping three young girls in the span of four weeks. One girl was attacked when she opened the door to a stranger's knock, another was raped when the same man broke into her home, and a third girl was attacked after school when a man rushed her from behind.

The so-called Shenandoah rapist set the communities on edge: Parents walked their children home from school, sketches of the suspect were plastered across town, and a beauty salon owner kept her business door locked even during the day.

Miami police also stopped more than 120 men, most of them Hispanic, and asked them to volunteer DNA samples, a tactic that was denounced by civil rights activists. The DNA samples did not lead to his capture.

Rapalo was arrested September 2004 when officers noticed him driving suspiciously.

He and another inmate escaped from a Miami jail last week by climbing through a vent in the ceiling of a cell and onto a sixth-floor roof, police said. The vent was supposed to be locked, but it had been pried open, and bars blocking it were cut.

The other inmate, also a sexual assault suspect, broke his legs when he jumped and was captured outside the jail.

Police have said the sawlike tools used in the escape may have been smuggled in, and Rapalo apparently plotted the breakout for months.

Officers scoured neighborhoods, airports, train stations and ports for Rapalo, and guards were assigned to victims who still live in the area. Rapalo did not leave Miami-Dade County, and may have had accomplices who helped him elude police, Rojas said.

"We think someone gave him some clothes and he's been communicating with some people," Parker said. "We took some things off of him _ he still had the blade that he used to escape."

He told officers that "he was a homeless guy from Nicaragua, that he was worried about immigration," Detective Alcides Velez said. "He was trying to mislead us in that direction."

After his escape, the director of the Miami-Dade Corrections Department ordered that all vents at the jail be welded shut and that lighting be improved.

Two corrections officers were placed on paid administrative leave. They were not accused of being involved in the escape, and they have not been disciplined.

The tipster who ultimately led authorities to Rapalo will get the $36,000 award offered for information leading to his arrest, police said.