IIRC, here in NewYork, if you play games with how the law is administered it's called "Selective Prosicution" and it's illegal...
Posted on 06/13/2005 7:18:03 PM PDT by freedom44
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Monday formally apologized for having rejected decades of pleas to make lynching a federal crime as scores victims' descendants watched from the chamber's gallery.
On a voice vote and without opposition, the Senate passed a resolution expressing its regrets to the relatives as well as to the nearly 5,000 Americans -- mostly black males -- who were documented as having been lynched from 1880 to 1960.
These deaths occurred without trials, mostly in the South, often with the knowledge of local officials who allowed mob lynchings to become picture-taking, public spectacles.
During this period, nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress, three of which passed the House of Representatives.
But despite the support of the legislation by seven U.S. presidents, the measures died in the Senate with much of the opposition coming from southern lawmakers who raised procedural roadblocks.
Such legislation would have made lynching a federal crime and allowed the U.S. government to prosecute those responsible, including local law enforcement officers.
SIGNATURES MISSING
Dan Duster, a descendant of Ida B. Wells, a former slave who became an anti-lynching crusader, praised senators who publicly backed the resolution of apology and scorned those who did not.
No lawmaker opposed the measure, but 20 of the 100 senators had not signed a statement of support of it shortly before a vote was taken on a nearly empty Senate floor.
"I think it's politics. They're afraid of losing votes from people of prejudice," Duster said of those who did not sign the statement of support.
The resolution was first proposed last year by Sens. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, and George Allen, a Virginia Republican, after they read the book, "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America," a pictorial history by James Allen.
"The more I learned about this terrorism in America, the more committed I became to doing something positive and passing this resolution," Landrieu said.
"The Senate failed these Americans," said Allen. "If we truly want to move forward, we must admit that failure and learn from it."
The resolution expresses apologies not only to the victims of lynchings, but also to their descendants, nearly 200 of whom came to the Capitol to witness passage of the measure.
Also there was James Cameron, 91, believed to be the only known lynching survivor. Cameron was arrested in August 1930 in Marion, Indiana, and taken to jail along with two of his friends for the murder a white man and suspected rape of a white woman.
A mob broke into the jail and pulled the three out. Cameron's two friends were hanged, and a noose was placed around the neck of Cameron, then a 16-year-old shoeshine boy.
But as the noose was tightened, a voice reportedly shouted out that Cameron was guilty of no crime. He was returned to his cell and later convicted of being an accessory to the white man's death. He was pardoned in 1993, by then-Gov. Evan Bayh, now a Democratic U.S. senator from Indiana.
"The apology is a good idea, but it still won't bring anyone back," said Cameron. "I hope that the next time it won't take so long to admit to our mistakes."
While most lynching victims were deemed criminal suspects, others had merely gotten into a spat with a white man, perhaps for looking at a white woman. Lynchings refer not only to hangings, but mob executions by beatings, bullets and fire.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the first black woman to hold the post, praised the Senate for its apology, saying, "better late than never."
"I remember as a kid the stories about lynchings -- everybody's family had at least one story," Rice, who grew up in the South, told MSNBC' "Hardball with Chris Matthews."
"My grandfather, who ran away from home at 13 because he'd gotten into an altercation with a white man over something that happened with his sister, and he was pretty sure that if he hung around, that's what was going to happen," Rice said.
Lynching is murder...it is already illegal and, IMHO, there is no need to apologize for not creating redundant laws that would further clog up our legal system.
This is getting to be ridiculous.
NOW they'll want money.
Maybe I should dig around the family background and ask them to apologize for wrongs and right them with money too. They've opened the door for that.
The Democrat Senator KKK Byrd needs to answer how many lynchings he and his Klan recruits participated in.
Why was it necessary for the whole Senate to apologize? I can only think of one Senator who could have possibly committed a lynching. Wouldn't it have been enough for Robert Byrd (D-KKK) to say he was sorry?
They haven't apologised for mugging and raping yet.
The Senate never lynched anyone. Most people never lynched anyone. This is ridiculous and insulting to african americans.
Oh come on! It's just an apologize and they deserve to get at least that.
Yes it is ridiculous. It is ridiculous that white men today have deveoped such thin skins over losing a little bit of control over the US, that they can not admitt to being wrong even when it is so obvious to God and mankind.
I have no problem with this. I just hope they get their head out of the sand and apologize for not making abortion illegal someday--something those who object to this story will of course also object to, I'm sure. /s.o.
Hmmm. They yet again avoided saying "Democrats".
Bullseye!
I guess I'll have to exhume my Confederate 2-greats grandfather so he can apologize to my Union 3-greats grandfather for participating in the Civil War and for marrying the old man's daughter.
The republicans however share the blame because they did not speak out and try to stop these atrocities.
This is ridiculous and insulting to ALL Americans.
I don't know if you saw any of this today, but it was the mose condescending, pandering bit of politics I have seen in a long time...
You had John Kerry standing there and giving a speech that didn't even make sense...then you had Osama Obama giving a speech talking about raising kids without prejudice..and then Salazar getting up warning about future racial biases to the Mexican immigrants...blech
The ironic thing was, this was all planned to happen during prime news time....and then the Jackson verdict came in, and no one cared...!!!
I would like to know, though, who the 20 senators were that didn't sign the bill...doncha think ole KKK Byrd was one?
Prosecute the thugs and criminals. Go after them with a vengence. We do not nbeed miriad laws just to make some one or group feel good.
Lynching is a crime and a horrible sin. Prosecute for murder those who committ it...white, black, yellow, brown or pink. Doesn't matter to me.
It was filibustered by the Democrats.
I would like to clarify that my great grandfather fought on the confederate side during the civil war and I do NOT surrender integrity for that. The civil war was about states rights not slavery, although slavery entered into it.
This is a really tough issue for me. I believe in limited government, especially at the federal level.
But when states refused to prosecute these murders, it corrodes or destroys the idea that states should be allowed substantial powers to run their own affairs.
Unpunished lynchings were so shocking to the conscience of the nation that they've helped upset our whole federalist system of government -- and I can't be completely unhappy about that.
The most notorious use of the filibuster was in the 1930s and 1940s, when white Southerners regularly kept black citizens in line by lynching them. Efforts by Northern senators of both parties to pass federal anti-lynching laws were frustrated by Southern senators' filibusters. They simply talked the legislation to death.
Dems' filibustering of judicial nominations is just politics
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/005/05/15/INGPOCNKN51.DTL
There were those who engaged in it, and there were those who covered it up...those people are the cause. Those people are the criminals. Investigate them all for murder. Try them for murder and/or accessories to it. But do not try and lay a guilt trip on me or mine, who, BTW, were raised in the South and did not hold to such actions. Neither did anyone I knew.
Like I said, it is already a crime and should be tried as such. I am sorry for the people who were victims, I abhore and condone the criminals...but I do not owe an apology because me and mine neither participated in or condoned such activity.
That's just my opinion on the matter.
Our tax dollars at work. Last time I thought about it- Lynching was murder.
I am beginning to get tired of our elected representatives living like rock stars and producing crapola for the country.
See my post 23. Use the laws on the books to go after and take down the criminals.
It's an emotional issue. I'm sorry if you feel someone is blaming you -- I sure don't feel that way, and anyone who does is wrong in my firm opinion.
It seems to me that these killing WERE widely tolerated or accepted by the people (not you) who were in charge of enforcing state laws. I think we'd agree that that was a horrible decision on their part -- those people should have prosecuted the guilty parties and done their part to run their states right.
Because it looks like they have.
I do not think slavery is ok, now or in the past. Read all of a persons post before you jump on them ok?
Anyone who condoned or covered up such crimes should themselves have been prosecuted, no matter what position they held, and particularly if they held a position of public trust...and since murder has not statute of limitations, they should be prosecuted now.
Well those of us who aren't african american or Muslim, or Hispanic are used to being insulted. We sort of think we deserve it or something.
The whole apology thing, for something long ago that none of us had anything to do with is laughable.
Sorry oif there was any miscomm.
My own feeling on the issue are simple...nnyone who condoned or covered up such crimes should themselves have been prosecuted, no matter what position they held, and particularly if they held a position of public trust...and since murder has not statute of limitations, they should be prosecuted now.
We do not need new laws to do that. I will not apologize for the actions of said criminals, they need to be hunted down and tried for the criminals they are. I will express sorrow and sympathy for the victims.
Well said.
IIRC, here in NewYork, if you play games with how the law is administered it's called "Selective Prosicution" and it's illegal...
I'm not sure about that. "Selective non-prosecution" is not been illegal in any jurisdiction that I know of. Of course, I'm not a lawyer.
Evidence would have to be brought forward. If people KNOW of these issues, as is contended, then bring forth the evidence and punish the guilty. I would welcome and applaud it. There is no statute of limitations on murder.
Prosecuting the guilty in such instances...wherever it reached...is the only solution for a society based on law. That should never raise more problems than it solves...in fact, not to do so raises the greater problem.
And we do not have to have a special federal lynching law to do this...nor an apology by the senate. What is needed more, if this activity was as wide spread as is contended (and mind you, I was raised in the south in Texas, with all of my father's relatives coming out of Alabama, and I never once so much as heard of any lynching, much less witnessed one or knew directly of one), what is much more needed is a thorough investigation and prosecution of the guilty.
Isn't "whites killing minorities" very rare these days? Isn't "minorities killing whites" very common these days?
This is why it's so important to dwell on the past, so that it can blind us of the present.
That is a sad statistic. Here is a sadder one: How many Americans -- mostly black males -- were documented as having been killed by random violence from 1960 to 2005?
An apology is cheap. Okay, the Senate is sorry, how many lives have been improved?
Sure the Senate is sorry, but they will never let them off of the Federal Plantation.
You cannot and should not apologize for something you did not do. You should also never apologize to pander to some political group.
You sound like a guilty white liberal college professor.
If everyone will notice...it was only the senate...not the house, nor the president. There are lots of reasons why the senate is a total waste and worthless to the American people. This all goes back to 1776 and the fact that small states wanted equal power and representation of larger states. As for being sorry for lynchings...there are another 1,000 things to be sorry about concerning the last 100 years of American history...I'm curious if we will have weekly sessions or perhaps a committee of sorrow...to help speed through these sorrows.
FWIW, my last house had a two cracked/broken sidewalk slabs and the village told me if i didn't have them fixed ASAP they would fix them and send me the bill.I think you and I are on the same page but you didn't understand what I was trying to say. I don't think we should make apologies for what was done, but who it was done too. I think the US has made reparations to any blacks by simply not condoning such acts any longer.
If you're calling for local prosecutors to be charged with a crime for failing to do their job, it just ain't gonna happen -- it's a novel idea that causes more problems than it solves (especially because I think there IS no crime for prosecutors who fail to bring charges, and you cannot retroactively make something a crime). And what about jury nullification? If that happens, are you going to charge jurors with crimes also?
If you're calling for the people who did the lynching to be caught and prosecuted, then I'm totally in agreement.
I don't know how many there really were. The figure of 5,000 seems wildly overblown to me. Maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect it's a lot less. Still, I'm sure the number is too high.
I'm sincerely apologize for all the cancer. And for all the murders, rapes, and assaults too.
Now do we feel better?
Waiting for blacks to apologize over the Wichita killings.
It goes back further than that Paleface. I'll be looking for your check in the mail and you can sign that property deed over to me in behalf of my ancestors.
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