What Gabby Petito’s Case Says About Cops—and Us

Gabby Petito is among the 1000’s of girls who disappear annually, as almost three women are murdered every day in America by their romantic companions, however in contrast to nearly all of these girls she has turn into entrance web page information and, in her disappearance and potential demise, a sort of human Rorschach test: a meme, a hashtag, a social media second and motion.

Gabby Petito’s hashtag was searched 268 million times on TikTok. In the identical space that Gabby Petito disappeared, 710 indigenous people— mostly girls—disappeared between the years of 2011 and 2020 however their tales didn’t lead information cycles, web sloths didn’t clog Instagram and Twitter making an attempt to unravel the thriller of their disappearances. Personally, I discover it greater than a bit infuriating that these 710 folks didn’t get the identical consideration as this white, model-thin 22-year-old who’d been documenting her travels by way of Utah’s nationwide parks in a white van with her boyfriend on Instagram.

Whereas her story has resonated on many ranges—to some she is an abused girlfriend, to others the sufferer of a serial killer of the sort you may discover in a chilly case podcast sequence (two newlywed women were murdered in Moab at across the identical time as Petito got here to city), and many people see proof on this story of how police typically don’t take home violence as critically as they need to.