Texas dragging case sparks fears of interracial violence
Published: July 17, 2009
Updated 4 months ago
The East Texas town of Paris is bracing for protests over an alleged hate crime that it is feared could trigger clashes between black nationalists and white supremacists.
The New Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam have plans to protest a recent decision to release the alleged killers of Brandon McClelland for lack for evidence, and authorities are worried that other groups will show up as well.
“We have some very specific intel that there would be some counterprotestors — white supremacists, KKK, skinheads — who wish to attend,” stated first assistant district attorney Bill Harris.
Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville offered more details, saying, “Information we are getting about what to expect is somewhat vague. At first we thought it was going to be a national call for the African American cause and we received word from the U.S. Justice department that the Ku Klux Klan was going to come as well.”
The Lamar County Commissioner’s Court has ordered protest zones to be set up on Tuesday to keep the two groups on opposite sides of Main Street, an arrangement which the local head of Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality called “racist and ignorant.”
Last fall, Raw Story reported on the dragging death of McClellan, whose body had been found lying in the middle of a road. Although the victim was black and the two men who had been seen picking him up earlier that day in their pickup truck were white, the three men were known to be friends, and the Lamar County district attorney downplayed the possibility of a racial motivation.
Members of McClelland’s family insisted, however, that one of the two suspects had fallen in with white supremacists while in prison for an earlier killing. Local civil rights leaders agreed that McClelland’s death was a hate crime, and in November they protested outside the Lamar County Courthouse, along with members of the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party.
Now those two men, Shannon Finley and Charles Crostley, have been released after more than eight months in jail, with a special prosecutor who was appointed at the time of the earlier protest citing a lack of evidence.
Activists, angry at what they call a pattern of unequal justice, are planning Tuesday’s protest to draw attention to their cause.
10 comments
Printer Friendly |
Email
| Get breaking news alerts: Email/mobile |
I’ve been reading a lot about Texas police and justice lately and none of it has been good. Police who basically take people’s money away from them..and keep it. And spend it on themselves and it’s okay. Letting these guys out sounds fishy. I think it is best to keep both groups apart. It’s a matter of keeping two extreme groups apart–black and white. It’s also a matter of common sense and NOT race outside the courthouse.
Yep, sounds about right for Texas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Deneke
Too bad McClellan wasn’t carrying a handgun so he could protect himself by shooting these thugs…but wait, then he would be on death row.
I worked in the Paris ISD more than 15 years ago and found the community to be the most racially polarized that I have seen since the Civil Rights movement of the early sixties. I cannot put my finger on one particular thing to explain the animosity, but it appeared to me that the people who tried to find common ground and make things better whether black or white, were always vilified. It is very sad to see where hate always seems to triumph over goodwill and common sense. I hope that Paris can some how heal the wounds just like many communities in East Texas have. This certainly won’t happen as long as the hotheads continue to prevail.
http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/index.html - This guy does a pretty good job of putting his finger on it. Jacob Holdt is his name.
Your experience is the same as I’ve seen in my visits to East Texas. East Texas is still very “old South” in its customs and beliefs. My daughter lives there and she says it’s a very strange environment. Much, much different than the one she grew up in out in West Texas.
That is sooo typically Christian. Texass, the state that is slathering at the mouth to lethally inject everyone they can get their hands on, let two inbred white murders loose from a horrid crime because the person they tore to pieces was Black. I’d like to donate a couple dozen RPGs to the Black Panthers.
Are you all REALLY this stupid!?!?!?! Suddenly we are getting report after report of racial violence and racial problems.. When in fact the level of racial strife has REDUCED significantly!!!! Nirac’s link is a MUST SEE!!! Look, after 9-11 even the klan changed their slogan from “white pride worldwide” to “AMERICAN pride worldwide”… Now that is something the government will NOT tolerate, uppity racists realizing that they are just as poor and victimized by centralized society as the other races they purport to HATE!!! This entire race conflict is a real SHAM!!!(as well as a SHAME!!) It is NOTHING more than the racial hate prison systems employ in prison to keep the inmates focused and fighting each other rather than the guards!!!(only writ large on a national scale!) So you do nothing but suck a Nazi d@#k when you knee-jerk hate a hater. WHY DO THEY HATE? Have you NEVER asked yourself this and sought a comprehensive answer?!?!?!? So attila, you wanna give the panthers some rpg’s? That’s just as good as giving them to the skinheads!! You are now a victim of the very hate you purport to fight!!! WAKE UP BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!! OR YOU WILL GET WHAT YOU ASK FOR, AND EVERY BIT OF WHAT YOU DESERVE FOR ALLOWING THIS TO CONTINUE!!!!!!! Hate is not a cure for hate!! That’s like using gasoline to put out a grease fire! Look to the SOURCE of hate, and that source tends to be those who benefit the most from the status quo. That would be the corporatist F.I.R.E. economy, defense industries, and centralized federal government control. They are the guys who set the protocol for all this strife. Many people have asked over the years: “Who are the “them” in us vs. “them”? They would have you believe that it is your neighbor who has a different skin color, or some foreigner who believes in God differently than you. So they grab the media horn of propaganda, and like good sheeple you all line up for the door of the slaughterhouse. “they” have names, like goldman sachs, the federal reserve, the republican party, the democratic party, fox news, msnbc, clear channel, G.E., boeing, bell textron, anybody who took a bailout, every president since James Buchanan, and on and on.. No, so it is MUCH easier to hate your neighbor of another color, rather than spit into the face of your oppressors, who truly deserve your hate. Go on little sheeple, graze upon the HFCS and pre-processed highly refined starch, eat the pain away of a life less lived… The masters want you fat, to make your souls sweeter when they consume you..
You know, I’m getting really SICK of people trashing Texas when something happens here. I find what happened in Paris, Texas, despicable; however, for you folks here to trash the ENTIRE state for the actions of some really sick, hateful people is ridiculous. What you are doing is NO better than the idiots who performed this despicable act. You are applying a FALSE stereotype to a group of people and you are spewing hatred.
Most Texans are good, fair-minded people who don’t condone what happened in Paris, Texas, and find it JUST as disgusting as you folks who are sitting here TRASHING an entire state . . . a very, very LARGE, very DIVERSE state . . . . for the actions of a few hate-filled JERKS.
Cut the stereotypes . . . they’re wrong.
It’s funny, whenever there’s a black victim white assailant, you’re all quick to say RACIST. When it’s a black assailant, white victim then your all claiming it was just a ‘robbery’ even when there are witnesses stating racial remarks were used against the victim. Go to hell Black Panther party, scum! Also, the article says ”black nationalists white supremacists” What, so a black person inclined to spreading hateful sentiments is only classified as a ‘black nationalist’? What about the White Nationalist who is proud of his culture and heritage? Oh that’s DEFINITELY a supremacist now isn’t it? What a biased article, and the comments are definitely from scumbags aswell.