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Shania A. Lao

Selena Wolf Berkley

English 101-13

21, November 2017

Argumentation/Persuasion Snowman

Dear Fox 8 News,

In 2015 a 77-year-old man named Mickey Snow payed a woman money for her

daughters, so that he could sexually abuse these children as well as sell their bodies for other

men to assault out of the comfort of his own home. Snow continued these injustice acts on two

mentally disabled young girls since they were 14 and 12 years old. As time passed these two

young ladies kept growing in age with the eldest now being 17 and the youngest 15 just waiting

for their own mother to dispose of them at Snows nearby home. The children were sold for

prices between fifteen to twenty dollars and now remain within foster care as they struggle to

understand what has been done to them over these past few years. What I have told you so far is

all that you failed to implement into your article for the Mickey Snow case located on your very

own website and yet it is the most powerful information this article could have possessed. As for

the rest I am sure you know that while the case sent the daughters mother to prison as well as

the 3 men that conducted sexual acts on them there is still one person who is not paying the

price. Mickey Snow was set free on a 25-million-dollar bail and continues to still be walking free

since 2015 after being charged with six counts of promoting prostitution of a minor, six counts of
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statutory rape and six counts of patronizing a prostitute who is mentally disabled. This man who

conducted a prostitution ring out of his home on two innocent children has been walking free and

unattended for two years. As you can see there are many reasons as to why I am absolutely

disgusted and opposed to this case, the way it was handled by both the city and the law and not

to mention the way you had it portrayed. You failed to mention that this case went against all

human morals, and that law officers as well as the judge fail to continue to surveillance Snow

properly and not to mention that fact that no consideration of the victims safety was ever taken

into account.

Before Snow was first arrested he had led police officers on a goose chase as he travelled

from Eden, to Holland, Costa Rica, Panama and Thailand before being apprehended. Yet as he

has been walking the streets, for two years already, officer officials have not stepped up their

game with properly monitoring this man. Cop cars were placed outside of Snows house for only

2 months after he was release and now he has the pleasure of leaving the safety of his home to

run out onto the street whenever he seeks fit. This is not just a failure to ensure the protection of

citizens but also a failure to understand that scenarios of Snow getting away have occurred

before and yet they still are not careful. It is something that I would like to relate back to the

story that our parents have told us several times when we were children, the story of the

Tortoise and the Hare. In this story for those of you who are not aware a tortoise and a hare

compete in race, allow me to quickly identify for justification that the tortoise is Snow while the

hare is the law. At first when reading the story, it is pretty obvious to notice who will win, I

mean hares are extremely faster than tortoises so the winner should be obvious. Well before you

get ahead of yourself while racing the hare falls asleep for too long which allows the tortoise to

pass by him and win the race leaving the hare looking like a fool. Now the reason I am focusing
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on this fable is because it is exactly what is happening with the Snow case. The law is believing

that Snow will not do anything to get away because to them it does not seem logical for a 77-

year-old man to do so, yet this man has done so before and all the hare keeps doing is sleeping

through the story. Much like your article where you did not care to state the whole truth and

therefore left very important and detailed descriptions out. It shows that even the media can be

the hare in this story as you pointed out when you failed to speak more about the cases

significance.

The distinction between good and bad and right and wrong are the Google definition of

the words, human morals. It is important to understand this when reading through the courts

decision on Mickey Snows case because as it is pretty well shown that human moral did not

play a role at all. Now we live in a world where rules are made that we are intended to follow

and yet as Snow and countless others have proven throughout the many years that have passed

these laws are not always upheld. We see it every day when an unlicensed weapon is fired into a

crowd of innocent people or when tabloids upon tabloids come out with the same title in bold

letters of SEXUAL ASSAULT. Recently many magazines have had the words written on them

alongside the names of Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Matt Lauer, Russell Simmons and the list

goes on and on. It is not something that is new in this world and yet from my perspective it is not

something I would say we as people take into consideration as much as we should. For example,

when referring to Snow the judge on his case, which you failed to mention, has spoken

repeatedly open about how he believes that Snow should be locked up for the crimes he has

committed. Yet while the judge is saying this Snow continues to shop, eat, sleep and breathe

with no worries in mind. Now I am sure that you in particular will read this case and tell me over

and over again that it is not the laws fault that Snow had the miraculous 25-million-dollars to
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post bail, and yes though I agree I also disagree. You see what you failed to identify is that it has

to be made clear that Mickey Snow is not just your typical average man, by seeing this from

research done by the News and Record located in our very own Greensboro, Snow in fact had a

reputation for living large. Fox 8 should have mentioned the fact that Snow spent money as if

it was all he had and was a very wealthy business man which had been quite known throughout

his whole life. Yet the court continued to raise the bail amount every time Snow would pay it off

and yet never took into consideration that maybe a man like this was better off with a sentence of

life in jail without parole. It is very frustrating in my opinion that we live in a world where we

are told laws are meant to be followed and yet are broken to do bad things, but will not be

pushed out of the way in order to conduct good things.

As for Minor Doe 1 and Minor Doe 2 these were the names given to the 17 and 15-year-

old daughters that had to endure such a traumatic lifestyle. The reason these names were given,

since I am sure you did not know this either, were so that they could have the opportunity of

confidentiality while also keeping the girls out of harms way. For three years over and over

again these children were sold to be used as nothing more than sex objects to a man who then

sold them again after having his fun. The way these young girls are described throughout the

News and Record article is both heartbreaking and disgusting to imagine and yet it cant be

ignored so easily. You see though this part of speaking about the girls is hard you left them as

nothing more than just victims, which should not be where their story ends. You spoke more

about the criminal and less about the ones who had to endured the crime. This in my opinion is

the biggest failure in your poorly written article, and I believe that if you had mentioned these

young ladies as more than just victims than maybe something would have clicked for me when

reading it. The audience should know that these girls were sexually abused for three years by this
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man, they should know what he did to them and how the girls are doing, and they should know

that for two years while this man has been walking free no one has told either of them due to the

fact that it can have even more of a negative effect on them. We cant change the fact that Snow

continues to walk free but we can try to bring more awareness to sexual assault and what it has

done to not just these girls but also many others. With everything going on in newspapers about

sexual abuse I just believe that upholding that and making it more important should not have just

been a job but a responsibility to Fox 8 News.

Hopefully what I have expressed to you all at Fox 8 News is taken into consideration

when writing for Snows follow up trial in February, and even before then try to reach out to the

girls not just as a journalist but as a human being. We as people in a world as cruel and ruined as

this have one thing left to rely on and that is human connection. This is not just a story that will

end up front page on a newspaper, it is real and it is about time somebody realized that this truly

happens and can even happen to you. Eden North Carolina is not far from where I live and where

my sister goes to school, so understanding that difference between something fantasized and

realistic is important to me. Focus more on feeling and less on punctuation and fact, I mean we

know that what he did was wrong so prove that but remember that if you are going to tell a story

tell the whole truth. Do not be the hare in the story, do not be the one who ignores the signs

around him be the one who wins the race and do not win it alone. Mickey Snow is a terrible man

who has done terrible things and you failed to fully explain to what extent that terribleness is. I

pray you take into consideration all that I have told you and hope that in the future this form of

writing that you have displayed will surely change. Also keep in mind that this letter that I am

writing to you is more than 1,900 words long whereas your article only held 189. Snows next
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trial is in just a short couple of months and I cant wait to see what changes and improvements

you have instore, thank you for your time.

Sincerely, Shania

http://myfox8.com/2017/09/25/mickey-snow-eden-businessman-charged-in-teen-prostitution-

ring-arrested-for-bond-violation/

http://www.greensboro.com/search/?sd=desc&l=25&s=start_time&f=html&t=article%2Cvideo

%2Cyoutube%2Ccollection&app=editorial&nsa=eedition&q=teresa+vanover

http://www.godanriver.com/news/danville/with-snow-in-jail-court-records-provide-some-details-

about/article_25162160-c032-5af5-a0a3-f1acac010f6e.html