Tornado Alley (PROG)

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On the Killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn

Ta-Nehisi Coates
Feb 15 2014, 10:07 PM ET

I wish I had something more to say about the fact that Michael Dunn was not convicted [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/us/florida-killing-over-loud-music.html ] for killing a black boy. Except I said it after George Zimmerman was not convicted of killing a black boy. Except the parents of black boys already know this. Except the parents of black boys have long said this [ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/in-god-we-trust-but-we-have-put-our-faith-in-our-guns/283534/ ], and they have been answered with mockery.

Jordan Davis had a mother and a father [ http://jacksonville.com/news/2014-02-15/story/jordan-davis-had-problems-and-dreams ]. It did not save him. Trayvon Martin had a mother and a father. They could not save him. My son has a father and mother. We cannot protect him from our country, which is our aegis and our assailant. We cannot protect our children because racism in America is not merely a belief system but a heritage, and the inability of black parents to protect their children is an ancient tradition.

Henry "Box" Brown [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Box_Brown ; http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/brown_henry_box_ca_1815 ; http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brownbox/brownbox.html ], whose family was destroyed and whose children were trafficked, knew:

I stationed myself by the side of the road, along which the slaves, amounting to three hundred and fifty, were to pass. The purchaser of my wife was a Methodist minister, who was about starting for North Carolina. Pretty soon five wagon-loads of little children passed, and looking at the foremost one, what should I see but a little child, pointing its tiny hand towards me, exclaiming, "There's my father; I knew he would come and bid me good-bye...”

Spare us the invocations of "black on black crime." I will not respect the lie. I would rather be thought insane. The most mendacious phrase in the American language is "black on black crime," which is uttered as though the same hands that drew red lines around the ghettoes of Chicago are not the same hands that drew red lines around the life of Jordan Davis, as though black people authored North Lawndale and policy does not exist. That which mandates the murder of our Hadiya Pendletons necessarily mandates the murder of Jordan Davis. I will not respect any difference. I will not respect the lie. I would rather be thought crazy.

I insist that the irrelevance of black life has been drilled into this country since its infancy, and shall not be extricated through the latest innovations in Negro Finishing School. I insist that racism is our heritage, that Thomas Jefferson's genius is no more important than his plundering of the body of Sally Hemmings, that George Washington's abdication is no more significant than his wild pursuit of Oney Judge [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oney_Judge ], that the G.I Bill's accolades are somehow inseparable from its racist heritage [ http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/a-religion-of-colorblind-policy/276379/ ]. I will not respect the lie. I insist that racism must be properly understood as an Intelligence, as a sentience, as a default setting to which, likely to the end of our days, we shall unerringly return.

Copyright © 2014 by The Atlantic Monthly Group

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/on-the-killing-of-jordan-davis-by-michael-dunn/283870/ [no comments yet]


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Dunn attorney: 'Everybody lost something in this'
February 16, 2014
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/local/michael-dunn-trial/2014/02/15/cory-strolla-dunn-attorney/5520731/ [with embedded videos, and comment]


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Brevard County pastors dismayed at Dunn trial's outcome

Video [embedded]

Michael Dunn guilty of attempted 2nd degree murder: Jurors have reached a verdict in the Michael Dunn trial. They found him guilty of four of the five counts including attempted second degree murder in the killing of Jordan Davis, over loud music. The judge declared a mistrial on the count of murder.


Denise Hunt tears up as she finds out the jury is deadlocked on the first-degree murder charge for Michael Dunn outside of the Duval County Courthouse the jury enters the fourth day of deliberations, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, in Jacksonville, Fla. Large crowds gathered outside the courthouse to wait for a verdict in the Dunn trial. Dunn was convicted Saturday of attempted murder in the shooting death of a teenager during an argument over loud music, but jurors could not agree on the most serious charge of first-degree murder.
(AP Photo/The Florida Times-Union, Kelly Jordan)

Written by Scott Gunnerson
Feb. 16, 2014 7:54 AM

A mistrial in a Jacksonville murder case Saturday made Rev. Glenn Dames’ job of getting black youth in Brevard County to respect the system more difficult.

“What do we tell our youth now,” said Dames, pastor St. James AME in Titusville. “We have told them to believe in the system, let the system work this out.

“Tonight, we’ve seen again how in the case of an African-American male, the system has clearly let us down again.”

A mistrial was declared in Jacksonville after a jury was unable to reach a verdict on a charge of first-degree murder against Michael David Dunn in the shooting death of Jordan Davis during a confrontation over loud rap music.

The jury found Dunn, 47, of South Patrick Shores guilty of four lesser charges: Three counts of attempted second-degree murder and shooting a deadly missile when he fired 10 shots at an SUV.

Pastor Jarvis Wash of the REAL Church in Rockledge was dismayed.

“I don’t know where the breakdown is in justice,” Wash said. “I think there is a big issue with the stand your ground law and it really needs to be changed.”

Wash works with youth and is a community organizer who started a series of seminars aimed at changing youth behavior in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin trial.

Dames is concerned the verdict will reinforce a double-standard.

“I want to believe that color plays no part, but I know that is naive,” he said. “It seems that when young African-American boys are killed, we have to prove they were good boys, they didn’t make any mistakes, that they didn’t mess up in life. It just seems that is not the case with anybody else with any other nationality.”

As he grappled with the theology of the moment, the pastor went on Facebook last night to urge his congregation to attend church today.

“That’s my job to compel them to be the best that they can be and to trust and use the system,” Dames said. “Now they don’t trust it and they don’t believe the system is effective.

“I have to start over Sunday morning.”

Copyright © 2014 www.floridatoday.com

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20140216/NEWS01/302160074/Brevard-County-pastors-dismayed-Dunn-trial-s-outcome [with comment]


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State attorney vows to retry Michael Dunn on first-degree murder charge

Michael Dunn is brought into the courtroom for the jury's verdict to be read. He was convicted Saturday of attempted murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis.
February 16, 2014
JACKSONVILLE -- A jury's inability to agree on a murder charge will give prosecutors and defense attorneys fodder for their next moves in the case of a teen fatally shot after an argument over loud music.
Michael Dunn, a 47-year-old software developer, was convicted Saturday of attempted murder for shooting into a carful of teenagers after the argument. But jurors couldn't agree on the most serious charge of first-degree murder. A mistrial was declared on the murder charge.
State Attorney Angela Corey said her office would seek a retrial of Dunn on a first-degree murder charge.
"We intend to try him ... retry Michael Dunn on first degree murder," she said.
Defense attorney Cory Strolla said he plans to appeal based on several issues, including how the jury could reach guilty verdicts on four counts and deadlock on another.
[...]
http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2014/2/16/state_attorney_vows_.html ; video "Angela Corey on Dunn: 'We intend to retry him'" at http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/video.html?clip=http://static.baynews9.com/newsvideo/bn9/web_video/Web_Dunn_Reax_021614.f4v&vtitle=Angela%20Corey%20on%20Dunn%3A%20%27We%20intend%20to%20retry%20him%27


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