Slava Novorossiya

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Friday, September 21, 2012

I AM NOT TROY DAVIS & I AM NOT LAWRENCE BREWER (BOTH EXECUTED ON SEPTEMBER 21, 2011)


Last year on this day, an African American by the name of Troy Davis who murdered a White American Police Officer, Mark MacPhail and a White Supremacist named Lawrence Brewer who murdered an African American man, James Byrd Jr. were both executed by lethal injection in the U.S State of Georgia and Texas respectively. I am against any racism myself, so I supported both their executions. In my opinion, they both are ranked as the worst of the worst. I heard that there will be a vigil today to honor Troy Davis, I will not even waste my time on it. Why no vigil for Lawrence Brewer or any other killers?

Troy Davis (left) & Lawrence Brewer (right)

To learn more about the Troy Davis Case, please read from this blog post








 
To learn more about the murder of James Byrd Jr. Please read this post from Wikipedia:

The murder of James Byrd Jr. case study: On June 7, 1998, Byrd, age 49, accepted a ride from Shawn Berry (age 24), Lawrence Brewer (age 31) and John King (age 23). Berry, who was driving, was acquainted with Byrd from around town. Instead of taking Byrd home, the three men took Byrd to a remote county road out of town, beat him severely, urinated on him and chained him by his ankles to their pickup truck before dragging him for three miles. Brewer later claimed that Byrd's throat had been slashed by Berry before he was dragged. However, forensic evidence suggests that Byrd had been attempting to keep his head up while being dragged, and an autopsy suggested that Byrd was alive during much of the dragging. Byrd died after his right arm and head were severed after his body hit a culvert. His body had caught the culvert on the side of the road, resulting in Byrd's decapitation. Byrd's brain and skull were found intact, further suggesting he maintained consciousness while being dragged. 

Berry, Brewer and King dumped their victim's mutilated remains in front of an African-American church on Huff Creek Road; the three men then went to a barbecue. Along the area where Byrd was dragged, authorities found a wrench with "Berry" written on it. They also found a lighter that was inscribed with "Possum", which was King's prison nickname. The following morning, Byrd's limbs were found scattered across a seldom-used road. The police found 81 places that were littered with Byrd's remains. State law enforcement officials, along with Jasper's District Attorney, determined that since Brewer and King were well-known white supremacists, the murder was a hate crime. They decided to call upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation less than 24 hours after the discovery of Byrd's remains.

King had several racist tattoos: a black man hanging from a tree, Nazi symbols, the words "Aryan Pride," and the patch for a gang of white supremacist inmates known as the Confederate Knights of America. In a jailhouse letter to Brewer that was intercepted by jail officials, King expressed pride in the crime and said he realized in committing the murder he might have to die. "Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history. Death before dishonor. Sieg Heil!" King wrote. An officer investigating the case also testified that witnesses said King had referenced The Turner Diaries after beating Byrd. 

Berry, Brewer and King were tried and convicted for Byrd's murder. Brewer and King received the death penalty, while Berry was sentenced to life in prison.

Brewer was executed by lethal injection on September 21, 2011 while King remains on Texas' death row.




James Byrd Jr., shown in this 1997 family photo, was tied to a truck and dragged to his death along a rural East Texas road early Sunday, June 7, 1998, near Jasper, Texas. Lawrence Russell Brewer, 44, one of two purported white supremacists condemned for Byrd’s death, is set for execution Wednesday for participating in chaining Byrd to the back of a pickup truck, dragging the black man along the road and dumping what was left of his shredded body outside a black church and cemetery. (AP Photo/Byrd Family Photo, File) Photo: AP / SF


            Ross Byrd, who is the son of James Byrd Jr. opposed the execution of his father’s killer but the MacPhail family wanted to see justice done. I respect both their decisions. I read an article by Brendan O’Neill in The Telegraph.uk with interest and I would like to give my opinion on his writings and also my thoughts about the Abolitionists treatment on the two executions. 

Two men were executed in America yesterday – but only one of them won the pity of the human-rights brigade

By Brendan O'Neill Politics Last updated: September 22nd, 2011


Yesterday in America, two men were executed, but you will probably only have heard of one of them: Troy Davis, who was killed in the state of Georgia for the murder of a police officer. The other executed man, Lawrence Brewer, put to death in the state of Texas for murdering a black man in 1998, has barely featured in the news at all. Unlike Davis, he did not win the backing of Amnesty International and its trendy supporters. No one tweeted and retweeted their sorrow over Brewer or made a public spectacle of how heavy his execution weighed upon their hearts, as many did with Davis. No one lit candles outside the American Embassy for Brewer in full glare of photojournalists’ clicking cameras. No one wore t-shirts saying “I AM LAWRENCE BREWER”.

It might seem obvious as to why Davis was championed while Brewer was ignored: there were many doubts about Davis’s conviction, whereas Brewer was undoubtedly guilty. Furthermore, he was a racist toerag, a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, whose murder of James Byrd Jr was racially motivated and horrifically executed. But if you are opposed to the death penalty on principle, as many of the Troy Davis campaigners claimed to be, then you should be just as outraged by the execution of Brewer as you were by the execution of Davis. You should be as opposed to the state killing of a guilty racist as you are to the state killing of a possibly guilty black man. Even James Byrd Jr’s son asked for the state of Texas to show mercy to his father’s killer, but no army of bleeding-heart Twitterers backed him up.

The airbrushing of Brewer from yesterday’s heated discussions on the death penalty speaks volumes about the Troy Davis campaign. It seems pretty clear that it was motivated, not by a principled, across-the-board opposition to the state killing of citizens, but rather by campaigners’ desire to indulge in some very public moral preening. Unlike the Brewer execution, which was ugly and complicated, the Davis execution could be squeezed into a cosy moral narrative in which the state of Georgia was depicted as backward and racist and those who opposed the execution of Davis presented themselves as purer than pure, good and decent, and more than willing to prove it by writing tweets of concern every four or five minutes. What message should we take from this disparity in campaigning? That Troy Davis did not deserve to die but Lawrence Brewer did? Such moral flightiness, such brutal arbitrariness, reveals much about today’s very changeable campaigners against the death penalty.

The only thing I did not agree with Brendan O’Neill is that there were doubts about Troy Davis’s conviction, no there were no doubts, he is as guilty as sin. However, most of what he wrote was actually true. 

No noise for other killers?
            Nobody is surprise to see abolitionists light candles and mourn killers who are going to be executed. The anti-death penalty websites did mention Ross Bryd’s name as a victim’s family member who is against the death penalty, but they did not do it with as much enthusiasm as they did when they showed support for Troy Davis. I also noticed that the number of people who protested outside the execution chamber of Lawrence Brewer was only nothing compared to those who protested Troy Davis’s execution at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison and at the American Embassy of other countries. It was like comparing the size of an ant to an elephant. 




Ricky Jason wears a photograph of James Byrd Jr. outside the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit before the execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, in Huntsville, Texas. Brewer, 44, one of two purported white supremacists condemned for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., was executed Wednesday. Brewer was convicted for his participation in chaining Byrd to the back of a pickup truck, dragging the black man along a rural East Texas road and dumping what was left of his shredded body outside a black church cemetery in 1998. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) Photo: David J. Phillip, AP / SF
 
As O’Neill wrote above, nobody wore T-shirts saying, ‘I AM LAWRENCE BREWER.’ If you are an abolitionist, I rather you join Ross Byrd in protesting the execution of Lawrence Brewer as he is against the execution of his father’s killer. You should even make a louder noise by saying, “His son is against the execution, so am I.” I have a strong feeling that you will not be doing that. 




Will you be protesting the execution of all these dangerous murderers? Will you be wearing T-shirts saying, “I AM (NAME OF THE KILLER).”? Click on the names and tell me if you will wear a T-shirt like that:



I AM AMROZI






 

I AM OSAMA BIN LADEN

I AM MAMORU TAKUMA 


No, I doubt the abolitionists will even think of doing that as their crimes are too heinous. For me, no way, I will never even wear T-shirts like that. I rather wear T-shirts of the victims’ names than the killers’.

There are many cases of White-Americans being executed for murdering African Americans. I can name two here:

Lisa Yvonne Alexander Crider was murdered by Brandon Hedrick on May 10, 1997. He was executed by the electric chair in Virginia on July 20, 2006.


Everett Curry together with Eddie Brooks were murdered by Edwin Hart Turner on December 12, 1995. Edwin Hart Turner was executed by lethal injection in the State of Mississippi on Wednesday February 8, 2012.

The NAACP should be supporting the executions of Lawrence Brewer, Brandon Hedrick and Edwin Hart Turner if they truly care for murdered victims and their families who are African Americans. To add more, they should even condemn what Troy Davis did. They should also show support for the families of the 11 victims of Anthony Sowell. I care for all murdered victims regardless of their race. So I just want to say two things: “I AM NOT TROY DAVIS! I AM NOT LAWRENCE BREWER!”


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