Wednesday, August 25, 2010
News Meet Michael Enright: Photo Essay
Posted by Henry Stewart on Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 4:00 PM
- Enright, Left
The following is a series of photographs of Michael Enright, alleged hate-crime stabber of a Muslim cab driver, downloaded from his public Facebook page and those of his friends. Enright, who's emerging as more complex than a classic out-of-town Islamophobe (though he does count among his Likes on Facebook the Tea Party politician Greg Ball), is currently 21, according to news accounts; he was raised in Brewster, NY, near the Connecticut border, roughly six miles due west of Danbury and forty miles north of the city, where he lives now as an SVA student.
According to Talking Points Memo, "A former high school classmate of Enright's, speaking to [TPM] on background, expressed shock about the crime and spent the morning eliminating electronic footprints that connected the two. 'It's just disgusting, sad, horrific,' he said, adding that, like the group Enright was working with, he supports the Cordoba Project."
TPM continues that Enright, whose Facebook page reveals he liked Scorsese, Frank McCourt and "Life," was working on a documentary about a high-school friend fighting in Afghanistan, a film that was to be apolitical. You can watch the trailer here. According to Salon, which pegged the profile as the alleged stabber's, "police say [Enright] was 'very, very intoxicated' when he got in the cab at 6 p.m. last night." Six p.m.!?!
Here's a picture from December 2007, in which an 18-at-best Enright (rear, glasses) can be seen holding a can of Bud Light:
This photo is also from December 2007. It's not tagged, but it's from Enright's "Profile Pictures" album, and the bottle-finisher on the left is wearing the same sweater (and the same hat, worn the same way, with similar hair) Enright is wearing above.
This is from June 2008. (This picture was untagged, from one of Enright's friends' albums. Based on evidence from a tagged photo in the same album—similar shirt, same cap—we have inferred that this is Enright.)
Here's a picture of him, about 19 years old, in October 2008.
This photo, of Enright in a bar, was added in January of this year, though it looks to us to be a little older.
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For the record, the last picture isn't of him in an actual bar, it's a bar set at SVA.
The Greg Ball link has been removed from Enright's Facebook page, but I captured it in a screenshot here:
http://bit.ly/9t8ooJ
A little more detail. The link that was scrubbed from Enright's Facebook page was a link to Ball's Facebook page, which is here:
http://www.facebook.com/ball4ny
(I think this link might be more helpful than the link posted in the article above, because this link I'm providing will work even if you're not logged into Facebook.)
Ball's Tea Party campaign page is here:
http://ball4ny.com/on_the_ball/press-relea…
Enright's Facebook page is here:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Enr…
Of course the Ball link isn't on Enright's Facebook page anymore, but it can be seen via the screenshot link I posted above.
Enright mentions on his FB page that he is a fan of Frank McCourt, author of Pulitzer Prize winning "Angela's Ashes," a boof featured on Oprah's Book Club lists for a year. Really, can you imagine a right-wing, gun-toting Tea Partier admitting to such a thing?
I'd expect someone named "texasguy" to know a lot about closet homos. Texas!? Only queers and steers come from Texas. And you don't look much like a steer...so that kind of narrows it down doesn't it?
I think this is actually kind of a pointless blog post. The kid is someone I knew who was troubled and lashed out in a horrible, stupid and foolish way. To snatch a bunch of photos and try and provide a "meet him photo essay" it beyond unfair and unnecessary. What he did was horrible and inexcusable but the way he's going to be portrayed and also crucified/used for political agendas and debates over mosques, our city is so far beyond the facts and the point.
well, the point, in so much as there is one, is to establish a pattern of alcohol abuse in photographs, modestly dispelling the portrait of a crazed Islamophobe out for unfocused revenge.
Slashing a cab driver, by the way, is "beyond unfair and unnecessary" and by doing so, one effectively relinquishes one's claims to not being the subject of photicles such as this. Welcome to being a Public Figure. If the worst that Enright gets is a blog post full of photographs that doesn't tell the "full story" about him, lucky him.
Wow...such fine investigative reporting! A spectacular photo essay featuring only Michael's Facebook pictures of him drinking. I am sure he is the ONLY person ever to post on Facebook party pictures with drinks, and therefore this is a complete and accurate portrayal of Michael Enright's entire persona. It is easy to judge someone at face value...for the sake of the 'author's' prestige, let him hope we do not judge him based on this investigative photo essay.
Aren't all priests who raped children had nice biographies? Background is not an excuse, right?
Henry, I certainly agree what he did was wrong and as an artist/journalist you have every right to cover/interpret the story and person however you feel. I just think, as someone who's read your other work, you could have done something different and more creative then just pointing out photos take from a social networking site. He was a trouble kid that gave in to some awful demons and the rest of his life is ruined for it and he almost took the life of an innocent person. I think worse than a photo-blog showing off to be a dumb, frat drunk with misplaced and unfocused attacks are people that are going to simply label him a bigot or worse use him an avatar for political agenda towards the mosque and other pro-/anti-Islamic rhetoric that seems to be boiling and completely removed from the real issues.
The last picture is of a film shoot in SVA's bar set and everyone drinks in college. They don't all stab people. Great investigating. You guys should be proud.
So lame. I have no sympathies for Enright, but this article is just trying to make news where there is none. Not that I ever expected courageous reporting from the L but this is definitely a new low.
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