Friends of Justice
posted by Alan Bean, February 4, 2009
In recent years, Paris, Texas has been reluctantly entered into a competition for the uncoveted title of Most Racist Town in America. The competition comes from towns like Jena, Louisiana and Texas communities like Tulia and Jasper. It hasn’t been the intention of groups like Friends of Justice to encourage this silly competition, nor do reporters like Nate Blakeslee (currently with the Texas Monthly) and Howard of the Chicago Tribune set out to blacken the reputation of small southern towns. Unfortunately, it is impossible to chronicle troubling instances of injustice without drawing unwanted attention to places like Tulia, Jena and Paris.
Recently, a community meeting in Paris degenerated into a angry free-for-all. At least that’s the way it appeared to Chicago Tribune reporter Howard Witt. In the wake of this debacle, a prominent resident of the North Texas community who had seen my post on Witt’s story, expressed his frustration to a Dallas resident. I don’t know the identity of the author, but these comments were passed on to me in the interest of airing all sides of the story.
I have been given permission to pass these comments on to my readers with the understanding that (a) the author should remain anonymous and (b) Mr. Witt would be given an opportunity to respond. My guess is that the comments below are widely shared in Paris and I share them with you because I believe the issues in Paris should be vigorously debated from every c0nceivable angle.
An email from Paris, Texas
The Tribune has been pushing this story for a long time. They came to Paris to write a discrimination article and they wrote one the facts not withstanding. Shaquanda Cotten had a long term history of relatively serious problems including an average of over an incident per day at school, all of which her mother chalked up to racism. The hall monitor was the last straw. She was almost 60 years old, barely five feet tall and left the school in an ambulance.
Superville went the TYC route only after offering different options if her mother would give up custody so as to stop the enabling. He, of course, did not sentence her to seven years but gave the normal “indeterminate” sentence which would have allowed for her to be released at any time after she showed any remorse and indicated she might be able to interact in society.
The Tribune knows this but continues to print misleading commentary. The local Black population not only was not “up in arms” — they were very supportive. The Black Panthers from Dallas came over and held a small demonstration — which was very helpful. Leaving alone the question of whether personal assault or the property crime of arson is more serious, the Tribune either didn’t bother to print or didn’t bother to learn that the “white” arsonist was also a victim of domestic assault and was acting out and that every psychologist and advocate that dealt with both cases recommended the sentences that Chuck handed out. They also didn’t follow up and learn that the “white” girl didn’t make her probation and went to TYC. And while no one knew what was going on at TYC at the time that girl was assaulted while under TYC jurisdiction.
The last case [Brandon McClelland] is more troubling, but once again the Trib ignores facts and details that confuse the situation. There were two white guys and a black guy, the black guy was killed in a horrible manner, they were also friends of some duration who were out drinking together. I don’t know whether it’s a hate crime but I know it was hard for the DA to figure what to make of it so they farmed it out to the former chief prosecutor from Dallas–the guy Watkins beat–which I think was a good idea.
Don’t get me wrong there’s racism in Paris and all our communities need a lot of work, but Chuck Superville ain’t a racist and the Chicago Tribune ain’t trying to promote social justice.
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