Just a good old boy....

June 8, 2005 10:41 AM

"The black boy was somewhere he shouldn't have been, although they brought him out there."
posted by eriko (50 comments total)

That's an intriguing lead, eriko, but the site requires registration. Gotta non-reg alternate link for those of us who don't like sites with registration? (Or, barring that, care to summarize?)
posted by jdroth at 10:47 AM on June 8, 2005

This kind of stuff makes my blood boil. The sentencing should have been equivalent to the crime they committed, namely torturing and abusing a man who suffered likely permanent disability.

Yeah, he shouldn't have been there and wouldn't have if the kids hadn't abducted him. So that's his fault? WTF?

And I think its pretty despicable that the ex-mayor refers to a 42 year old man is a "boy". Racism's alive and well in Linden, Texas.
posted by fenriq at 10:51 AM on June 8, 2005

Old news, covered in the libertarian section of the internet last month. Here's a link.
posted by Kwantsar at 11:02 AM on June 8, 2005

blood-boiling, indeed. I simultaneously can and cannot believe shit like this still happens.
posted by pmbuko at 11:03 AM on June 8, 2005

jdroth - use bugmenot.com. Man, that's a disturbing story... parts of the South, just terrifying. The last line of the article actually brought tears to my eyes.
posted by jonson at 11:05 AM on June 8, 2005

jdroth - if you use Firefox, there is a lovely wee extension called 'bug-me-not' that will auto-fill registrations to news sites such as this. Sadly, I'm at work and cannot see it either (IE dominates government run organisations) so we're both in the same boat.

On preview - jonson beat me... ta!
posted by mnemosyne at 11:07 AM on June 8, 2005

"These boys' names are ruined for life," Howell said. "And [Johnson] is better off today than he's ever been in his life. He roamed the streets, the family never knew where he was. Now in the nursing home he's got someone to take care of him."

Wow.

That said, if you read the whole article you might have a bit of a different take. The jury that tried to give the attackers probation had three black people on it. (Instead the judge added on 30 to 60 days of extra jail time). Apparently the guy was only punched a single time, and I doubt they knew they were dumping him on a fire-ant nest.

The argument basically boils down to: Were they making fun of him for being black, or for being retarded? If they were just doing it because he was retarded, then it's not a hate crime. I'm not quite sure I agree with that reasoning, but whatever.
posted by delmoi at 11:10 AM on June 8, 2005

jdroth: Sorry about that. Apparently, at some point in my past, I registered with the Chicago Tribune, and so, I never saw the registration.

I'll see if I can't find a better link. The thing that really made me despair was that one sentence. "It was his fault for being there -- never mind that we took him there."

Remember, kids: The media tells us that the Red States are the real America. And they are right.
posted by eriko at 11:12 AM on June 8, 2005

I'll see if I can't find a better link.

Here's a start.
posted by Kwantsar at 11:15 AM on June 8, 2005

Or, better yet, if you want the link to include the quote that you (inaccurately) plucked, try one of these.
posted by Kwantsar at 11:22 AM on June 8, 2005

Part of me wants to call them up at home (an easy find with teh internets), but I'd rather direct my spite towards the jury...
posted by iamck at 11:23 AM on June 8, 2005

This reminds me of being told once that Greenville, TX used to have a sign over the main street saying, "The Blackest Land, The Whitest People". This was until, like, the '70s.

Nice.
posted by belling at 11:24 AM on June 8, 2005

Don't be saying things like "parts of the South" -- these types of incidents are on the rise all over the country.

A lovely example of jury nullification in action.
posted by warbaby at 11:25 AM on June 8, 2005

these types of incidents are on the rise all over the country.

Can you support this statement?
posted by Kwantsar at 11:35 AM on June 8, 2005

If there was any inaccuracy in that quote, it was made by The Chicago Tribune, not I. I quoted the entire sentence, as written, with not. one. fucking. syllable. elided.

Matter of fact, here's the entire 'graf, courtesy of two keystrokes.

"It was a very unfortunate and senseless thing," said Wilford Penny, 73, who last month completed a 6-year term as Linden's mayor. "But I don't think there was anything racial about it. These guys were drinking, and this guy [Johnson] liked to dance. I'm not surprised when they get to drinking and use the n-word. The black boy was somewhere he shouldn't have been, although they brought him out there."

As to your other points, well, "meh."
posted by eriko at 11:37 AM on June 8, 2005

eriko-- where in the article does it read "It was his fault for being there -- never mind that we took him there."?

Because that's what you wrote, in quotations, and I can't find it in the story. You know what quotations are, right?

As for your "meh," boo-hoo. This is a lazy, sloppy, single-link, old-news newsfilter post with no supporting commentary. But you did manage to take one disgusting miscarriage of justice and subsequently turn loose the awesome powers of induction to carry the event from a jury in Texas to "the Red States" to "the real America."
posted by Kwantsar at 11:47 AM on June 8, 2005

Kwantsar, sure I can and so could you

here, or here for the more general approach.
posted by warbaby at 11:52 AM on June 8, 2005

eriko-- where in the article does it read "It was his fault for being there -- never mind that we took him there."?

"The black boy was somewhere he shouldn't have been, although they brought him out there."
posted by iamck at 12:02 PM on June 8, 2005

Why is there a metafilter link on that linked page?
posted by agregoli at 12:07 PM on June 8, 2005

Kwanstar,
I don't understand, was the FPP changed? Because I see the last sentence of the graph eriko quoted as the FPP. In quotation marks and all. I don't agree with you, but I'm not trying to snark either. Was there something I'm now missing?
posted by OmieWise at 12:10 PM on June 8, 2005

Man, that's what seems to happen with hate crime laws. That subconsciously, it seems that if you have hate crime laws on the books, and the jury finds that the crime wasn't a "hate crime", then the subsequent crime is seen as pretty much just horsing around.

I was an alternate on a jury for a trial where two kids threw Molotov cocktails at a synogogue the night before Yom Kippur. One jury thought it was a hate crime and their kid found him guilty of everything to the highest degree. My jury thought that it wasn't a hate crime, and found our guy guilty of next to nothing.

It seems to me that something in your head goes "Well, it's not a HATE crime. That would be horrible indeed, if it was a HATE crime. It's just a regular crime, so it's not that bad by comparison."

I mean, crap, I don't care that the guy's black, or that he's retarded. Shouldn't it be enough that they coerced someone to hang out with them, got him drunk, hit him in the face, didn't call 9-1-1, dumped his unconscious body on the side of the road, and then lied about having anything to do with it? Shouldn't that alone be enough to send him to jail?

(Answer: Yes.)
posted by 23skidoo at 12:12 PM on June 8, 2005

The argument basically boils down to: Were they making fun of him for being black, or for being retarded? If they were just doing it because he was retarded, then it's not a hate crime. I'm not quite sure I agree with that reasoning, but whatever.

Having lived in Texas all my life, and having been around idiots like these more times than I'd like to remember, I can (grudgingly) see that it's very possible it wasn't a hate crime. These kinds of idiots will pick on a person just because he's mentally retarded. But race was a big part of it, even if it wasn't a hate crime - the overall attitude of the region left these idiots feeling like there would be little to no consequences for their actions.

And even if it wasn't a hate crime, legally speaking shouldn't there be huge punitive damages? There was real injury done here, regardless of intent - shouldn't these families be paying Johnson's family for every medical bill, as well as pain and suffering?
posted by blendor at 12:13 PM on June 8, 2005

Was there something I'm now missing?

The phrase linked in the FPP is a quote from the article, given by someone who was not involved in the assault.

This phrase, which was presented as a quote: "It was his fault for being there -- never mind that we took him there."? was never used in the article, and it clearly suggests that one of the people involved in the assault said something about it, which is misleading.
posted by 23skidoo at 12:18 PM on June 8, 2005

It's not old news.....justice has not been served yet.
posted by doctorschlock at 12:21 PM on June 8, 2005

iamck-- Isn't it commonly accepted that quotation marks aren't for paraphrases?

23skidoo, thank you.
posted by Kwantsar at 12:24 PM on June 8, 2005

I was married in very rural Alabama, to a sweet non-racist non-fundamentalist southern girl, and at our pre-wedding dinner the older generation busted out the 'nigger jokes'. I said nothing since the wedding was not yet over and the people laughing at those jokes were involved in hosting it, but I was struck at how much lack of harmony there is between the deep South and western Canada, where we now live.

Something like this (likely with Indocanadians or Southeast Asian immigrants rather than black) would still create an uproar here. In Alabama, it was just part of the culture and no one said a thing or showed any displeasure or discomfort.

A lot of people say "racism is everywhere" and they are probably right...but it certainly takes different forms in different areas.
posted by Kickstart70 at 12:27 PM on June 8, 2005

agregoli-- I think it automatically posts a link to the referring page (in this case, MeFi). Try to copy and paste the link into your browser and the MeFi link disappears.

OmieWise, I take issue, specifically, with the quote (here) that reads: "'It was his fault for being there -- never mind that we took him there.'" No one in the story, least of all the attackers, said this. It was exclusively eriko's work. So why put quotes around it? And why sling poo at me when I say the quote is inaccurate?
posted by Kwantsar at 12:30 PM on June 8, 2005

Oh, I see, thanks, I had missed that quotation in the comments. Bad form, but I think not too egregious given the correct quotation in the FPP. Poor reading, perhaps.

On preview-Good point, eriko shouldn't get so huffy about his mistake. I really was not snarking, I just couldn't find the (mis)quote you were referring to and was confused.
posted by OmieWise at 12:34 PM on June 8, 2005

Don't be saying things like "parts of the South" -- these types of incidents are on the rise all over the country.

Not to mention that the North's cities are, by and large, nowhere near as integrated as those in the South.
posted by oaf at 12:58 PM on June 8, 2005

" Why is there a metafilter link on that linked page?"

I suspect the page simply displays whatever URL referral was used to arrive at the article.
...
"Remember, kids: The media tells us that the Red States are the real America. And they are right."

Canada's self-proclaimed benevolence and do-gooderness is just a fascade, racism in Canada tends to be more subtle and quiet, but it is very much alive up here.

I find myself becoming more and more of an "Angry Black Man™" with age and I don't want to be angry. I want to be naive and idealistic. I wish human beings would allow me to become that kind of person once again.
posted by haasim at 1:02 PM on June 8, 2005

re: bugmenot
Those of you without the firefox extension due to IE should just be able to go to bugmenot's webpage and enter the URL manually...

mnemosyne: is there something about IE that won't let you visit the actual page?
posted by hototogisu at 1:09 PM on June 8, 2005

The mural is here, bottom of page. Seems like it means something different now than was originally intended.
posted by PHINC at 1:58 PM on June 8, 2005

There was the case in 1994 when a black man who had been dating a white woman was found dead from a gunshot to the groin. And another in 2001, when a black man who had been dating a white woman was found hanging from a tree. Local officials ruled the first case a hunting accident and the second a suicide, despite the persistent doubts of family members and civil rights officials.

Yeah, a hunting accident and a suicide. Sure.

Anyone who can't see that these were lynchings needs to be placed in an assisted-living facility, as they are obviously too stupid to breathe on their own.

"These boys' names are ruined for life," Howell said. "And [Johnson] is better off today than he's ever been in his life. He roamed the streets, the family never knew where he was. Now in the nursing home he's got someone to take care of him."

It sickens me that someone could say this with a straight face.

You know, I'm not sure I even care if it's a hate crime. I don't want to live in a world where 4 worthless rednecks can punch someone out, leave them in the desert to die, and not recieve jail time.

What the hell can go so wrong with people that they don't see this as a horrible crime?
posted by Mitrovarr at 2:23 PM on June 8, 2005

If he wasn't there already, the judge in the case probably just put himself on the White House radar for an appointment to the Federal bench.
</troll>
posted by spock at 2:28 PM on June 8, 2005

How does a person live with themselves if they are like this? I mean I'm trying to be a better man and it's hard work, but do you at some point throw up your hands and say "Well, looks like it's the 9th circle of Hell for me, so fuck it" ? Certainly introspection can be painful, but c'mon. I certainly pity the victim here, and no pity for the rednecks of course, but they are so lost I can't imagine how much climbing it would take just to reach sub-sub-human.
I think part of that too is those folks' culpability and unwillingness to face the uglyness in themselves.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:35 PM on June 8, 2005

I have no doubt that a bunch of idiots would exploit a mentally challenged man regardless of race. That doesn't make it any less disgusting when they spew racial epithets at him. Look at it this way: they treated another human being like he was less than human in several ways, provoked him into self-harm, assaulted him, then negligently left him somewhere unsafe. While all of these things are independently repulsive, together they sound like a horrible pattern of abuse and I don't believe their punishment fits the crime.
posted by mikeh at 2:47 PM on June 8, 2005

Don't get me started goddammit!! Horrible and inexcusable! NOT limited to the south!
posted by Carbolic at 3:12 PM on June 8, 2005

haasim i live in the south , tennessee to be exact.
i love this area, and i love the people. i also know that racism is alive and well in the south, it is true.

i love the south. (i have a t shirt that says just that :D )
but i wish she would grow up. i would like to extend a friendly hand to you as a white southern man, for what its worth.
in my opinion the south is a beautiful place , and it is because of the different cultures here, black and white.
thats why the racism is so foolish, if they were to get their way and exclude african americans from our community, they would , in effect, destroy the south.
as i sit here thinking about how some have struggled against racial equality here . . .and for what? so we could get rid of the music , food , art , litterateur, and in general the feeling of the south? one culture informing the other, growing its art, its home spun wisdom, its heart. for those of us who know and love the south, it hurts us to think that people in our community would give us such a bad name abroad.
posted by nola at 3:17 PM on June 8, 2005

But R.C. Taylor, a white retired heavy equipment operator and barber, said the boys didn't deserve harsh punishment.

"It's been handled good as far as I'm concerned. They ought not to have been tried at all," Taylor said. "I think they should be turned loose, set free, with a slap on the wrist. It was just one of those things."


Just one of those things, you know, like when your wife slips and falls in the kitchen breaking her arm and giving herself a black eye.

Like when your babysitter turns up pregnant and names you as the daddy.

Like when your neighbor's yappy dog happens to eat some poisoned meat.

Like when you have to knock some sense into your son who would rather sit on his ass listening to that crappy music than try out for the football team.

You know. Just one of those things.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:33 PM on June 8, 2005

From the article: Confederate flags fly in some front yards. . .

Terrorists. Flying the flag of an army that took up arms against the United States government.
posted by mlis at 5:36 PM on June 8, 2005

On this story: strictly speaking, their only crime was punching a man, once, and not taking him to a hospital as they should have. Their sentences reflect that. Of course, they are ignorant, racist fools and all that but they got what the law should give, IMHO.

Also, can we put an end to people criticizing posts when they themselves have not posted any ever? I'm looking at you, Kwantsar, instead of sitting here sniping at people, why don't you raise the bar by posting some interesting shit? It's like a tremendously fat guy telling passers-by they need to work out more.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 7:10 PM on June 8, 2005

When we're all done snarking at one another for misquotes, criticisms, and so on, and let's go back to remembering that a mentally-retarded African-American man was severely injured by a group of white boys for no reason other than amusement, and members of their community seem to think that the boys were doing something socially acceptable that shouldn't have been punished?
posted by davejay at 7:43 PM on June 8, 2005

(feel free to snark about my misplaced '?', however)
posted by davejay at 7:43 PM on June 8, 2005

Don't be saying things like "parts of the South" -- these types of incidents are on the rise all over the country.

Not to mention that the North's cities are, by and large, nowhere near as integrated as those in the South.

Anyone care to support one, the other, or both of those assertions?
posted by mzurer at 8:04 PM on June 8, 2005

i'm not going to go after the stats on how racist incidents are on the rise, because i don't really trust reportage. oh, and i'm too lazy at the moment.

but it took me one google search to find this on North vs. South segregation.
posted by RedEmma at 11:34 PM on June 8, 2005

mnemosyne wrote "Sadly, I'm at work and cannot see it either (IE dominates government run organisations)"

FYI: Firefox can run off of a USB key, leaving no local tracks, most extensions work fine. Just in case you need a non-sucky browser to go.

As for the story in the FPP, christ. I'm glad I don't live in Texas. It's bad enough around here with the quiet mutterings about "those people" (referring to the South Asian, Pakistani and Indian immigrants) buying small mom & pop stores in the small towns. Nobody gets beat up, the locals just don't shop there because the folks running them are "different". I'm glad that's as far as it goes.

Texas. Christ. Hell, maybe they're getting better about all this. At least they didn't drag this guy behind a pickup. That shows some improvement, right? I mean, how fucking long is it going to take for these self-important, Jesus fearin' Bible thumping cross-burning mint julep sipping dinosaurs from the 1930s to figure out that having darker skin does not make a person sub-human? Fucking makes me embarassed as hell to be white. Thanks for that, Texas.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:27 AM on June 9, 2005

The reactions of some of the people in the article are fuckced up, I tell you what. delmoi makes some good points, what with the jury composition and the judge being the one to add a little jail time. I don't care if they went after him because he was, black, retarded or had a funny shirt, it's pretty damned unexcusable do to something like that and have it written off as boyish exuberance.

Fucking makes me embarassed as hell to be white.

Why should you be embarassed to be white?
posted by Snyder at 3:01 PM on June 9, 2005

Similar reactions to crime has happened in Canada. A while ago back, three white men got a 12 year old Native girl drunk and gang-raped her. The people in the town said they didn't believe those "good boys" could do such a thing. (I heard more about this on the radio soon after it happened - it's something very hard to forget.)
posted by jb at 7:29 PM on June 9, 2005

Sorry, the crime was sexual assault. Apparently they tried to have sex with her, but couldn't get it up.
posted by jb at 7:31 PM on June 9, 2005

Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Project:
Active U.S. Hate Groups in Texas (2004).
posted by mlis at 3:38 PM on June 10, 2005