Wednesday, December 12, 2007

No Protection From High Tech "Taser" Torture?

I recently posted on what I considered a video that showed the brutial tasing and torturing of a black man in Georgia back in 2004. No I'm not talking about 1904, I'm talking 2004. And no I'm not taliking about the 3 words, "hi tech lynching' used politically by snow flaker Clarence Thomas during his U.S. Supreme Court nomination. (you remember Clarence Thomas, who was nominated by, get this, Republican President George H.W. Bush).

I'm talking about a real High Tech Lynching, torture and killing of a black man in Georgia just a few years ago. After watching the video in horror, I decided to look into the federal laws against this type of high tech lynching, if any. Then I started to wonder what was the history of prosecution of lynching in America? As there seems to be no prosecution of African Americans taser torture victims, who are being tortured every day in the streets of America by means of the new high tech lynching tool, the taser.



This is what I learned:

Postcard depicting the lynching of Lige Daniels, Center, Texas, August 3, 1920. The back reads, "This was made in the court yard in Center, Texas. He is a 16 year old Black boy. He killed Earl's grandma. She was Florence's mother. Give this to Bud. From Aunt Myrtle."

Lynching in the United States has influenced and been influenced by the major social conflicts in the country, revolving around the American frontier, Reconstruction, and the civil rights movement.

AAPP: Now it appears the threat of lynching has been influenced by another major event, internet activism.


For most of the history of the United States, lynching was rarely prosecuted, and when it was, it was under state murder statutes. In one example in 1907-09, the U.S. Supreme Court tried its only criminal case in history, 203 U.S. 563 (U.S. v. Sheriff Shipp). Shipp was found guilty of criminal contempt for lynching Ed Johnson in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Starting in 1909, over 200 bills were introduced to make lynching a federal crime, but they failed to pass. During the Roosevelt Administration, the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department tried, but failed, to prosecute lynchers under Reconstruction-era civil rights laws. The first successful federal prosecution of a lyncher for a civil rights violation was in 1946, and by that time, the era of lynchings as a common occurrence was over.

Many states now have specific anti-lynching statutes. California, for example, defines lynching, punishable by 2-4 years in prison, as "the taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer," with the crime of "riot" defined as two or more people using violence or the threat of violence. Read More about Lynching HERE

Rewind!

Although lynchings became much more rare in the era following the civil rights movement, they do still occur sometimes. In 1981, KKK members in Alabama randomly picked out a nineteen-year-old black man, Michael Donald, and murdered him in retaliation for a jury's acquittal of a black man accused of murdering a police officer. The Klansmen were eventually caught, prosecuted, and convicted, and a seven million dollar judgment in a subsequent civil suit bankrupted a subgroup of the Klan, the United Klans of America.[20]

In 1998, James Byrd, Jr. was murdered by Shawn Allen Berry, Lawrence Russel Brewer, and John William King, in Jasper, Texas. Byrd, a 49-year-old father of three who had accepted an early-morning ride home with Berry, King, Brewer, was instead beaten, stripped, chained to a pickup truck, and dragged for almost three miles (5 km). An autopsy suggested that Byrd was alive for much of the dragging and died only after his right arm and head were severed when his body hit a culvert. [3] The three men dumped their victim's mutilated remains in the town's segregated Black cemetery and then went to a barbeque. [4] Many of the aspects of this modern lynching echo the social customs surrounding older lynchings documented in Without Sanctuary. King wore a tattoo depicting a black man hanging from a tree as well as Nazi, Aryan and Confederate Knights of America symbols.

Local authorities immediately treated the murder as a hate crime and requested FBI assistance. The murderers were later caught and stood trial. Brewer and King were sentenced to death. Berry received life in prison.

In 2006, five white teenagers—Justin Ashley Phillips, 18; Kenneth Eugene Miller Jr., 18; Lucas Grice, 17; Christopher Scott Cates, 17; and Jerry Christopher Toney, 18—were given various sentences for the second degree lynching of Isaiah Clyburn, 17, a young black man in South Carolina. South Carolina law defines second degree lynching as "[a]ny act of violence inflicted by a mob upon the body of another person and from which death does not result shall constitute the crime of lynching in the second degree and shall be a felony. Any person found guilty of lynching in the second degree shall be confined at hard labor in the State Penitentiary for a term not exceeding twenty years nor less than three years, at the discretion of the presiding judge."

Source: Answers.com

The lynching of Michael Donald, 1981.

I have been wondering, how come there are has been no American Crusade Against the Tasering of Black folks, like there was an American crusade against lynching?

Why is the Tasing and killing of black folks in 2007, not causing the creation of an organization, similar to the one created in 1946 and headed by Paul Robeson. Why are not black entertainers dedicated to eliminating the tasering deaths and torture of black men, women and children, the way black folks fought lynching in the United States. It's interesting that many prominent intellectuals were members, of Paul Robeson group, including one of the smartest men of the century, Albert Einstein.


Fast forward - 2003,04,05 and 06. There were limited voices being raised in the states concerning the high tech lynching of black folk. But at least the United Nations was looking at what has been going on. They say tasers are a form of torture.


Now in 2007 and as we go into 08, we have the afrospear, and afrosphere blogs like Electronic Village, Field Negro, Francis L. Holland Blog, Police Brutality, Prometheus 6, Wichita NAACP Blog, AfroSpear Think Tank, Dallas South Blog, American Journal of Color Arousal, Eddie Griffin (BASG), Pam's House Blend, over analyze it, AfroNetizen, Tasered While Black and many others who are sounding the drums, writing in the blogs, and getting into action - saying - enough is enough.

I guess most white bloggers are scared of getting labeled by the FBI and or Homeland Security. i must give up some respect to bloggers like The Liberal Journal.

I'm glad Einstein was not scared, even though he was branded as a communist sympathizer.

But I guess black folks can't be scared, the only fear we may have is the fear of our children or our children's children getting branded, tortured and Tasered While Black.

I wonder why Obama, Edwards, Hillary and the rest of the Democrats (that's who we vote for by over 80% every 4 years) have gotten a free ride on the question of black folks being Tasered 'and tortured' While Black.

Visit the Blog Tasered While Black


It appears no one in black leadership, except local branches of NAACP and the afrospear have been concerned. Maybe it's because older black leaders are more concerned about Bill Clinton being every bit as black as Barack or get this, how many black women Bill Clinton has made love with?

Thank God for the afrospear, and thank God for local branches of the NAACP.


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