Michael Brown jury: putting a value on a black life in the United States

The Manchester Guardian ^ | October 10, 2014 | Gary Younge

[2ndDivisionVet]

Is there a price to pay for summarily killing a man, or is it just what happens in Ferguson when one man has a badge and the other too much melanin?

In September 1955, an all-white jury took just 67 minutes to acquit Emmett Till’s killers. Till, 14, said either “Bye, baby” or wolf-whistled at a white woman in a grocery store in Mississippi. Three days later his body was fished out of the Tallahatchie river with a bullet in his skull, an eye gouged out and his forehead crushed on one side. “If we hadn’t stopped to drink pop,” said one juror, “it wouldn’t have taken that long.”

In 2014, racism is more sophisticated but no less deadly. The grand jury investigating the killing of Michael Brown is taking its time. Brown, 18, was unarmed when he was fatally shot by police officer Darren Wilson in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, in August. Wilson has been suspended on full pay and has not been charged. The four-month period that a panel usually convenes for expired last month. The judge gave the grand jury 60 more days to make a decision, so it has until January 7 to decide whether to indict Wilson. That’s a lot of pop.

Clearly the hope has been that passions would calm if the authorities put some time between the shooting and the verdict. But the opposite has happened. Ten days ago, the St Louis symphony was interrupted by protesters singing a requiem for Brown, which received support from some in the orchestra and the audience. At a St Louis Cardinals game earlier this week, protesters for Brown were heckled by Cardinals fans chanting, “Let’s Go Darren”. In Ferguson, a gathering of at least 30 demonstrators meet every night opposite the police station...

[Vaquero]

Unarmed??? A 300lb brute smashes a cop’s eye socket unprovoked is ripe for the killing. And the fact that he just strong armed ripped off a convenience store is just icing.

[trebb]

Till, 14, said either “Bye, baby” or wolf-whistled at a white woman in a grocery store in Mississippi.

Well heck - if Brown had actually addressed a White woman in such a familiar tone, I could definitely see him being killed on the spot. The minor infractions of assault/robbery/assault of a Cop should have never even been reacted to.

The author is so far out in left field that he doesn't even compare apples to oranges.

[missnry]

Oh forgot to also mention this... Every one of these “peaceful” demonstrations has a chant that the media always leaves out!
“WHO DO WE WANT? DARREN WILSON!! HOW DO WE WANT HIM? DEAD!!!!”
“WHO DO WE WANT? DARREN WILSON!! HOW DO WE WANT HIM? DEAD!!!!”
“WHO DO WE WANT? DARREN WILSON!! HOW DO WE WANT HIM? DEAD!!!!”

These are not “peaceful” demonstrations! This is nothing more than the Black KKK coming to St. Louis.

[maddog55]

Starting out by referencing the 1950’s and Emmett Till I stop reading.

[Savage Beast]

From the Readers' Comments:

fordassh rumagin
10 October 2014 1:16pm

I will repeat the last two sentences for you just to make it easier..."there is more to justice than the law. And the law is too often, too brutally and too brazenly proving itself unjust."

I suspect if the races of the people involved were reversed, that quote would be bemoaned as evidence of some sort of vigilante menace.

[ought-six]

“I think I despise them even more.”

I know I do.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Now if we can get a segment of the black population to put a value on white lives -- other than claiming them. Of course the segment of the white population that takes black lives must also cease.

But considering that whites outnumber blacks by at least six-to-one aren't these figures a bit out of whack?

Expanded Homicide Data
Table 6 data for multiple years.

FBI Homicides Statistics

Year of Stats	Race of Victims	Total	White Offenders	Black Offenders	Unknown & other
2012	White	3,128	2,614	431	83
	Black	2,648	193	2,412	43
2011	White	3,172	2,630	448	94
	Black	2,695	193	2,447	55
2010	White	3,327	2,777	447	103
	Black	2,720	218	2,459	43
2009	White	3,518	2,963	454	101
	Black	2,867	209	2,604	54
2008	White	3,643	3,036	504	103
	Black	3,024	230	2,722	72
2007	White	3,587	2,918	566	103
	Black	3,221	245	2,905	71
2006	White	3,709	3,026	573	110
	Black	3,303	208	3,034	61
2005	White	3,785	3,150	516	119
	Black	3,289	230	2,984	75
2004	White	3,727	3,123	522	85
	Black	3,067	228	2,784	55
1995	White	4,954	4,124	699	131
	Black	4,764	281	4,422	61

I did not find data for the years 1996 through 2003

www.fbi.gov About Us CJIS UCR Crime in the U.S. Here's the links to most of the FBI tables I referenced above.

Here's 2012

Here's 2011

Here's 2010

Here's 2009

• choose Continue to Crime in the United States, 2009
• choose Homicides
• choose Expanded Homicide Data Table 6

Here's 2008

Here's 2007

• choose Homicides
• choose Expanded Homicide Data Tables / Table 5

Here's 2006

• choose Expanded Homicide Data
• choose Expanded Homicide Table 5

Here's 2005

• choose Expanded Homicide Data
• choose Expanded Homicide Data Table 5

[Mark17]

“I think I despise them even more.”

I know I do.

Of course, I do too. I was just trying to be diplomatic about it. I remember years ago, there was a radical ACLU lawyer, who earned our disdain. He was one of these chumps. Perhaps you might remember that POS.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: Mississippi

Bad Laws Make Hard Cases: Hate Crime Laws and the Supreme Court's Opinion in Wisconsin v. Mitchell (This is more about reversing the hate crime conviction of the offenders and not the assault.)

I suspect more than one white's last sound heard was something like "This is for [insert name here]!" "This is for Trayvon" for example.

"On October 7, 1989, a group of people gathered at the Renault apartment complex in Kenosha, Wisconsin,' where some members of the group had watched the movie "Mississippi Burning" and were discussing it. They particularly noted the scene which depicted a Caucasian man hitting an African-American child who was praying. Todd Mitchell, who had joined the group, said, "There goes a white boy; go get him," after which a group of eight to ten young, African-American males ran across the street and severely beat a 14-year-old Caucasian boy, Gregory Reddick, who was passing by."

[TigersEye]

Yeah, no kidding.