Activists from around the country marched on Tallahassee Monday to protest what one writer for Salon is calling “open season on black teenagers: The onslaught of white murder.”
Speakers such as Al Sharpton reminded the crowd of the most famous example of this onslaught from two years ago, when George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. A jury ruled it was self defense. The next example was last year, when Michael Dunn shot Jordan Davis after feeling threatened by Davis and his friends.
Earlier this month, a jury found Dunn guilty of three charges of second degree murder for firing several bullets into a car, but could not reach a verdict for the killing of Jordan Davis. This prompted howls of protest from black writers and activists who say these two killings form a trend.
Several national media outlets including Time and USA Today glommed on to the narrative: Black people are victims of white violence. Not the other way around, despite crime statistics that show white-on-black crime is a rarity compared to black-on-white crime and black mob violence.
If everything that speakers and reporters at the rally knew came from the daily newspapers, they could be forgiven for not being aware of the disproportionate nature of racial violence. So let’s fill in a few blanks with recent examples:
In Annapolis, Maryland, two black men, Devery Kelley and Cornell Robinson were arrested earlier this month for robbing a pregnant woman while she was in labor on her way to the hospital delivery room.
In Madison, Wisconsin, about the same time as the protest, police arrested six black people for the home invasion and beating of a young couple. They were also charged with sexual assault on the woman, who was six months pregnant.
In Seattle last week, police found 100 black people fighting in the street. Some were shooting guns. Some wore black ski masks. No one was arrested.
Ski masks seem to be a popular accessory this year: In Washington, D.C. over the weekend, black people wearing ski masks fired guns and threatened a homeowner who confronted a crowd of 100 black people fighting and stomping on the hood of her car. The Washington Post reported that “someone wearing a ski mask used a racial slur, told her to shut up and threatened to kill her.”
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