What Is Justice?
All homicides dismay. Last year's shooting of Powhatan's Tahliek Taliaferro seemed particularly disturbing. Subsequent developments cast darker shadows. Truly, the crime wounded the community.
Reports from the trial of Ethan and Joey Parrish -- charged in Taliaferro's death -- depicted a world of pathos and squalor. Readers probably wanted to take a shower after finishing Jamie Ruff's compelling stories.
The convictions of involuntary manslaughter provoked an outburst in the courtroom and prompted bewilderment outside it. Most people in the Taliaferro family's position would have had similar reactions to the verdict.
In Psalm 99 we read:
"O mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob."
Human justice is less perfect.
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The American justice system is not the same for people of color as it is for whites. Accoding to the bureau of Justice Statistices ‘At yearend 2007 there were 3,138 black male sentenced prisoners per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,259 Hispanic male sentenced prisoners per 100,000 Hispanic males and 481 white male sentenced prisoners per 100,000 white males’. Noone is saying that if you do the crime you should not pay the time. What the Black community is expressing is that over and over again Black men are sentenced to far more severe sentences for the same crimes. One reader commented that based on the scenarios that the jury heard, they could not make a definite determination that this ‘murder’ was intentional. That may be true but at least the muderers had the benefit of the doubt. When black men are in these situations, there are no scenarios to be explored. For example, the ‘driver’ in the Binsted murder recieved 18 years. Was she more scared of the robbers than she was of committing the crime, did the robbers threaten her family, Is she mentally stable? None of these scenarios were explored, nor are they in most black criminal cases. There were two convicts in prison having a conversation. On Black, one White. The Black convict says to the white convict “What are you in for?“ The white convict says “I shot someone, and I am locked up here for 11 years”. The Black convict says “Wow, you are lucky, my little brother got 9 years for stealing a candy bar from the drug store, and two years probation”. The white convict says “Wow, I guess I am lucky. How long do you have”? The Black guy says “I have 29 years”. The white guy says “Wow! How many people did you kill” The Black man looks at him in astonishment as says “None! I was caught with a $50.00 vial of crack”.
At the end of the day, race was only a tangential factor in this sad affair, notwithstanding Michael Paul Williams’ opinion to the contrary. (For Williams, even the weather report has racial undertones.) This incident was about three young chest thumping Neanderthals, awash in testosterone, alcohol and illegal pharmaceuticals, who unfortunately had access to firearms, or what appeared to be firearms. As we have known for years, this is a lethal cocktail. As a result, one of the young men is dead; two are enroute to prison and the collateral damage has been arrayed by the RTD and main stream media for all to react to.
Justice was served. The lynch mob was not. (Look beyond the still warm dust which hasn’t yet settled, Mr. Culbertson.) Had this homicide not involved 2 people of different race, folks wouldn’t have flipped their lids the way they did. And you would not have written this editorial. So now look in the mirror.
Thank you.
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