Dunbar Village Justice, Old School Civil Rights vs New School Black Internet Activism, Black Leadership Accountability

On March 11, 2008 Gina at the blog, What About Our Daughters wrote, Black Folks Get Ready to FIGHT! AL Sharpton to Speak Out in Defense of Dunbar Village Gang Rapist.

She went on to write, you know how all these months we couldn't get anyone in the Black Elite Establishment or the Civil Rights Industrial Complex to speak out about the Dunbar Village gang rape? How we pointed out the sick mental illness of Black leaders who will speak out on behalf of criminals, but never on behalf of the victims of Black on Black crime? Well it has happened again! Now Al Sharpton couldn't be bothered to speak out about the RAPE, but apparently he has no problem speaking out on behalf of the alleged gang rapists! Read More HERE.

Villager, from the blog, Electronic Village recently posted on the situation urging members of his blogging community at Electronic Village and others to Stop NAACP Support of Rapists. He wrote, in the past week, a rapidly-moving viral email campaign was launched, and thousands of concerned Black citizens spread the word about crimes against nature committed in the Dunbar Village complex against a Black woman and her 12 year old son.

“Stop Al Sharpton and the NAACP from endangering Black Women,” described a stunning betrayal in which the NAACP and Al Sharpton held a press conference and demanded bail consideration for three suspects in custody for the crime.

Concerned Black citizens all around the country were outraged by the actions of the NAACP and Al Sharpton, and many vowed to withdraw volunteering and financial support from these agencies “until they make the safety of Black women and children a priority.”

On March 24, 2008 an NAACP memo that attempted to defend this betrayal was sent to Beverly Neal, who is the Director of the NAACP’s Florida State Conference. The memo claims that the NAACP was brought into this fray by Rev. Al Sharpton. Moreover, the memo was written by Maude Ford Lee, who is President of the West Palm Beach Branch of the NAACP Read More HERE

Well the battle lines have been drawn, black bloggers are outraged. Check out these blogs who have posted on the issue (H/T Electronic Village for the link).

Dunbar Village Blog

A Different Story

Anonymiss Blog

A Political Season

Aunt Jemima's Revenge

Black Fire, White Fire

Black Sapience

Black Women Vote

Character Corner

Electronic Village

Episcopalienne

Essential Presence

Focused Purpose

H-Essays

Never Say Never to Your Traveling Self

Privy Concepts

Ravenelven Lady

Roslyn Holcomb's Blog

The Sowing Circle

Tribute to Black Women

What About Our Daughters

What Tami Said

Yanmommasaid

Something Within

Now Howard Witt of the Chicago tribune is following the case and calls it, a case that puts civil rights blocs at odds. Howard Witt reports on how Web-based activists and old-guard leadership not Seeing Eye to eye on Florida assaults. Read More below:

Case puts civil rights blocs at odds

By Howard Witt

A 35-year-old Haitian immigrant and her 12-year-old son were forced into their home at gunpoint in the bleak Dunbar Village housing project in West Palm Beach, Fla. The woman was beaten, raped and sodomized for hours, allegedly by a gang of African-American teenagers, then forced to abuse her son. Finally the attackers doused the victims with household chemicals—pouring them directly into the boy's eyes—and attempted to set the two on fire before fleeing.

Yet outside South Florida, the attack last June largely escaped notice, and it scarcely registered on the radar of national civil rights leaders because it involved the awkward topic of black-on-black crime.

Three weeks ago, however, Al Sharpton and local representatives of the NAACPBoca Raton were freed on bail. held a news conference in West Palm Beach where they declared that four black teenagers arrested for the Dunbar Village attack are being treated unfairly because they remain incarcerated without bond, while five white teenagers recently accused of sexually assaulting two white girls in nearby

Triggering dual outrage

"You cannot have one set of rules for acts that are wrong and horrific in Boca and another set in Dunbar Village," Sharpton said, as parents of some of the Dunbar defendants nodded behind him. "You must have equal protection under the law."

It was, for Sharpton and the NAACP, a familiar situation and a routine news conference: Contrasting the treatment of blacks and whites in the criminal justice system and calling for fairness.

But Sharpton's remarks—and his apparent call for the Dunbar Village suspects to be released on bail—triggered outrage on dozens of blogs devoted to civil rights, feminism and the interests of African-American crime victims. Now the Dunbar Village case is deepening a growing schism between traditional civil rights organizations and a new, Internet-driven generation of younger activists who take a more nuanced view of many issues. More HERE

AAPP: Go ahead, please read the rest of the links and articles share your opinions on the blogs and articles. Stop back by here too. Give us you thoughts. Get involved write the NAACP and Al Sharpton let them know what you’re thinking.