Renisha McBride

[browngirl]

Gradientlair posted about Renisha McBride's funeral. I could try to write about this teenager's murder, about how the man who killed her will go unpunished, but what good would it do? The people who know, how we know. Those who listen are listening. Those who don't, who praised Zimmerman's exoneration, who think Jonathan Ferrell's death was justified, that each and every case of an unarmed Black person being killed is at worst an isolated incident and at best a favor to society… what can I say to change anyone's mind?

So I will grieve, and worry, and I probably shouldn't even say this much.

Comments

[jenny_evergreen]

*HUG*

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*hugs you back* I wish I could bottle these hugs and send them to young Miss McBride's family.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

The Gradientlair post is powerful. I honor its intensity and passion.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes this. I kept nodding in agreement as I read her words, and I've saved the article in my files.

[capra-maritimus.livejournal.com]

*huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugs*

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*hugs you muchly* Thank you. I wish I could bottle all the hugs and send them to Miss McBride's family.

[capra-maritimus.livejournal.com]

:)

[anagramofbrat.livejournal.com]

I feel you. *hug*

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*hugs you back, very much* Thank you.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

*hug*

I am so sorry.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*hugs you* Thank you. I wish I could forward these hugs to Miss McBride's family.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

FWIW I saw an article today that the shooter has been charged with 2nd degree murder, manslaughter, and possession of a firearm during a felony. I don't know if anything will come of it, but I thought I would mention it.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

maiac pointed out to me that the prosecutor, Ms. Kym Worthy, lives up to her name and is not the sort of person to throw this case. Which is a great relief.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

If I prayed I would pray that no vigilantes act -- I don't think that would help whatsoever. But/and I deeply hope that the more we publicize these incidents and their connections, the safer society can become for Black kids, for all kids.

*hugs you a lot* Thank you for comforting me.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Today the Wayne County prosecutor announced criminal charges against the man who shot Ms. McBride: second-degree murder, manslaughter, and possession of a firearm during the attempted commission or commission of a felony.

[ron_newman]

Good! Glad to hear this.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

It seems so terrible to be so glad at this news, but I am glad indeed, or maybe just so relieved it seems like gladness. Thank you for telling me.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

It seems so terrible to be so glad at this news

I'd agree that it's relief.

I respect the prosecutor, Kym Worthy. I'd been assuming that the only reason there were no charges (yet) was she was doing a painstaking job of investigating the shooting, so she has solid grounds for the charges.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Her name seemed familiar, so I looked her up -- she is a brave and amazing champion of justice, and I have a lot more confidence knowing she's in charge. Thank you for telling me so. :)

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Kym Worthy is indeed a relentless champion of justice. And southeast Michigan ain't Florida, so there's that, too.

You'll appreciate this Detroit Free Press column about the shooting, particularly the quotes from Ms. Worthy.

[contrarywise]

There are no adequate words in the face of such a horrible thing. I'm glad the killer has been charged, and I hope that justice is done.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Putting the spin on it that is most favorable to the defendant, I still can't see how it's less than involuntary manslaughter, as obviously you should never handle a firearm so that it could accidentally kill someone. And I see that the prosecutor has lodged a full slate of charges. But the legal system doesn't run quickly, partly because the prosecutor really should review all the evidence that can be extracted so he doesn't lodge charges that later turn out to be mistaken, partly because it's all a bureaucracy, and partly because, as one prosecutor said, "there's no hurry because there's no statue of limitations on murder".

The only bright spot in all this is that cases like this get national press. That means that they're fairly rare; if there was more than one a week, we'd only be hearing of the cases in our own state ... if that. And the results are kind of perverse, I mean, around 4,000 black people (out of a total of around 32,000) are killed in auto crashes every year and when was the last time you heard about that? That's about the same as the rate for all homicides, and probably 100 times the rate for hate crimes. Yet people fret a lot about hate crimes and nobody looks twice before crossing a street.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Part of the outcry was that people were worried the shooter wouldn't be charged at all. George Zimmerman was only charged because there was so much outcry; at first the police department were going to let him off with a pat on the back a light scolding.

You would be surprised how frequent these incidents can be -- until recently they just didn't get much official news coverage, but people from where I'm from heard about them all the time. And, you know, I just mentioned the car crash analogy in a post -- the difference is that most car crashes are accidents and most shootings of unarmed young people by people who decide they're worthless for being Black are, well, not.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

You would be surprised how frequent these incidents can be

Hmmm, yes, there's no reason to assume that I've heard of all of them just because I've heard of some of them, though you'd expect that news coverage is fairly uniform.

But the real question is, just how many of these incidents are there? Or at least, how often do you hear of them?

the difference is that most car crashes are accidents and most shootings of unarmed young people by people who decide they're worthless for being Black are, well, not

And yet, if I'm run over by a truck I'm dead in almost exactly the same way as if someone shoots me because he doesn't like the look of me. The two problems need to be attacked by entirely different means, and perhaps it's easier to improve the second problem (in that one might obtain more avoided deaths per unit of political effort expended). But looked at with a cold eye, why I died is much less interesting than the size of the risks I'm running and how to reduce them. I'm not going to feel worse about my death just because somebody with a Bad Attitude was involved, or better because such a person wasn't.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

If I had to quantify how often I heard about such incidents in my childhood… every month or two at least? Not least in the context of cautionary tales, since my parents didn't want me to die in such an incident. I am not going to prepare a report at this time, though, I hope you know.

As for death… actually, I'd rather be hit by a truck than find myself looking into eyes full of malice and hatred just before their owner shoots me. Also, many people killed in hate crimes are killed in drawn-out gruesome ways (think of the 'typical' lynching.)There as such things as worse and better ways to die.

Also, these two different causes of death have different social effects. Knowing other people die in car accidents makes me take steps such as wearing a seatbelt in a car and being careful when crossing the street, developed through research that was inspired by recognizing the patterns of risk involved in car use, but because I can do something about it that knowledge doesn't fill me with fear. Knowing that other people die because people hate them and decide to kill them, and know they can get away with these murders, makes me fear those of my fellow humans who look to be in such a position as to get away with such a murder. The rational ways to deal with the risk of death by hate crime involve, rather than any behavioral change I can make, societal efforts to get people who might kill people because of their demographics to maybe change their minds about that, and such efforts are greeted with a lot of disbelief and pushback (an example: your comments).

So, they continue to be different ways to die, with different emotional impacts on the living and different methods of amelioration, even if at the end one would be dead either way.