In a way, Russia has kidnapped Brittney Griner. News reports say the Biden administration is working to arrange a trade to gain her release. No doubt, swapping violent gangsters for famous athletes surely must be a tricky business.
Officially, Griner's jailers say she broke their drug laws. Now she has to pull nine years. Like millions of people in lots of places, I hope Griner is released from imprisonment soon and comes home safely.
Still, there's a trend in motion that isn't helping that cause. Her captors already know America wants its All-Star basketball player back much more than the Russian bosses want to hold her prisoner. Right now, with Griner's victimhood story at the top of the news, her celebrity status is being enlarged. Moreover, that's only making the ransom price go up.
Maybe the best thing the professional news business could do to help Griner's cause is talk about something else for a while. For the time being, we know Boss Putin and his drinking buddies are reveling in glee as they watch the pain this whole matter is inflicting on the USA. That goes double for how it is making Americans get pissed off at Biden for being unable to free Brittney.
Meanwhile, it looks to me like a new crime wave is coming: The kidnapping of particular people -- especially well known Americans -- in order to extract a ransom of some sort, is going to be a bigger and bigger problem in the future. After all, it's not hard to do on a low budget. Even easier when the kidnappers are professionals working for/in cooperation with an authoritarian government.
Rogue nations and other audacious mobster organizations are bound to use kidnapping for ransom more and more. Hey, why wouldn't they? It's a crime older than dirt. And, naturally, the media will probably go on helping to promote the kidnappers' work.
Bottom line: Don't go to Russia.
-- Photo: NPR
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