Black Man’s Family to Sue White Teenagers for Wrongful Death

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

ATLANTA — The family of a black man run down and killed in a motel parking lot in Jackson, Miss., filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Tuesday against the group of white teenagers it says is responsible.

The lawsuit, filed in Hinds County Circuit Court in Jackson, paints the death of James Craig Anderson as a hate crime, and outlines an evening of drinking that culminated with a caravan of teenagers from a largely white suburban county intent on finding African-Americans to harass.

Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center joined Winston Thompson III, the family’s lawyer, in preparing the suit, which includes charges of battery and negligence.

Mr. Anderson, 48, died shortly after 5 a.m. on June 26. He had been leaving a motel in south Jackson, and had either lost his keys or locked them in his car, police investigators said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/07/us/07jackson.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. Good. Hope they bankrupt the families who spawned those monsters.

[SoapBox]

4. Ditto, ditto, ditto...

[demosincebirth]

15. I ditto your dittos

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Judi Lynn]

40. "Satisfy some blood lust?" You seem to wildly exaggerate.

Don't join D.U. just to use your first post to take a kick at someone who defends the family of a victim of a racist, vicious hate-crime.

[Bosonic]

42. I don't support collective punishment on principle

Of course, those responsible for the crimes in question should be prosecuted, but to extend that is regressive to me.

[joeybee12]

2. KNR...keep this visible.

[yellerpup]

3. Take it all, take it all, take it all!

:kick: & Rec.

[Mosby]

5. K and R

[ZombieHorde]

6. Holy shit, those teens are fucked up.

I hope they get every penny available.

[Occulus]

32. No, the fucked-up ones are on this thread defending them.

I have never seen DU allowed to sink so low. Never.

[BobbyBoring]

7. I bet there are a few African Americans in the MS penal system

That would love to have a few minutes with these boys

[msongs]

9. yes one set of criminals preying on another set. ok, if that's your value system nt

[Ruby the Liberal]

36. Didn't catch the video from the security cam, I see.

Where the kid drove over him, then backed up over him and drove over him again.

[RZM]

24. Predators in the penal system prey on other inmates every day

I don't really think that's a good thing. Do you? Maybe when they are done with these boys they can move on to raping a young gay inmate and threaten to kill him unless his mother puts money in his canteen so they can have some extra ramen. I'm sure that happens a lot in Mississippi as well.

[southernyankeebelle]

8. As a white person I hope this family gets justice. This kind of thing has to stop.

[Lunabelle]

10. My heart goes out to this family

[udbcrzy2]

11. A civil suit is easier to win than a criminal suit

In my state you only have to have 60% of the jury to win. I hope the suit can include the teen's parents as well.

[Rebubula]

12. Here come the flames...

...Is no one ever concerned about the 10s of thousands of young black men killed by other young black men?

If you are a black man - no one cares if you are murdered unless a cop or a white guy does the deed.


This crime was horrific and the little bastards deserve everything that is coming to them - it is a bigger crime that we ignore the elephant in the room and another 30 or 40 will be murdered by each other before 48 hours passes....

[LanternWaste]

16. I imagine concern for the one is not

I imagine concern for the one is not predicated upon concern for the other. That we may in fact, hold both concerns dear, while yet maintain that this was indeed a tragic event in and of itself.

[NOLALady]

23. I don't know anyone who's not concerned

about the thousands of young black men who are murdered in this country, by blacks as well as by whites. Mothers of black sons have lived in fear for as long as I can remember. The Klan, the Kops, the bad Kids (black and white), all are threats.

Concerned? You have no idea.

[FrodosPet]

26. America's attitude towards violence is disgraceful.

About 3 weeks ago, a young man in Philidelphia stabbed a young lady who rebuffed his romantic advances (after a "Stop the violence" party no less).

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/127723968.html

There is little doubt - the young man's friends are publically admitting that he did it. Rather than condemn the misogynistic actions of the young man and supporting the victim, people are calling for his release and threatening the young lady.

https://www.facebook.com/FreeCoreyGunz?sk=wall

What is wrong with our value system? Spoiled white racists, urban thug gangsters, how do we deal with them?


Note: edited for spelling

[La Lioness Priyanka]

31. crime in ones own race is not motivated quite the same way

and i think you should know that

[TheMadMonk]

39. Only if you count each in isolation. B on B violence is NORMAL...

...and THAT is the fucking elephant in the room. It's normal, it's expected, it's whatever. Same goes for Hispanic on Hispanic violence, and B on H & vice versa.

It's all dismissed as gang violence, drug violence.

It's passive racism on the part of society.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

44. we commit most crimes in our own race. so yes black on black crime is the norm,

as is white on white crime. so is black on black rape and white on white rape.

[NOMOREDRUGWAR]

43. Black on black crime is usually Drug War-related

Gang members shooting other gang members and/or innocent people. Eliminate the drug war and the black homicide rate would drop tremendously. We could then stop letting murderers, rapists and child molesters out of prison in order to make room for drug possessors and dealers.

[Flatulo]

13. This was a horrific crime. Hope those kids get life.

Let's just hope the hate doesn't escalate. There are a lot of crazies out there.

[graywarrior]

14. Good!

[bluestateguy]

17. Do these kids' families have money?

If not then it will all just be a symbolic exercise to get a jury verdict that will come with no money.

[Hoyt]

18. Civil suit is good idea. Not sure you can get 12 jurors in Mississippi to convict bigots/terrorists

I hope I'm wrong on this, but weirder verdicts have happened recently.

[Hosnon]

21. According to the 2010 census, Hinds County is 70% Black.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/28/28049.html

[Hosnon]

20. Why does it say the story is from "ATLANTA"?

Is the location based on where the story was received from? I always thought it was where the story took place...

[aikoaiko]

27. From a New Yorker's point of view, Atlanta is the only city south of DC and east of TX

[JVS]

41. It's where the story was filed.

[sandyj999]

22. Justice!!

This act still sickens me and due to their "little darlings" action they deserve to lose it all.

[trud]

25. families?

The article says nothing about suing the families. What's the law, are parents responsible for criminal acts of their children? (Another good reason not to have kids.)

Anyone who thinks the parents and siblings of a criminal are responsible for the criminal's acts must have grown up an orphan with no siblings.

[aikoaiko]

29. civilly, the parents could well be responsible for their minors' behavior.

But not criminally. At least not with the known evidence.

[aikoaiko]

28. I don't know if the parents were racists or not, but losing this suit may be worse than prison

for these murderous a-holes.

[Jkid]

30. Why is that?

[aikoaiko]

33. They may be ready to be Brotherhood heros in prison, but ruining their families' lives will burn

and burn for a long time.


edited subject line for clarity.

[Jkid]

34. You mean

"They may be ready to become Aryan Brotherhood heroes in prison, but ruining their families lives will burn and burn for a long time." ?

[aikoaiko]

35. more or less

I edited my post for clarity.

[lonestarnot]

37. Good.

[MellowDem]

38. I wonder what theory of negligence...

they are using to go after the homeowner's insurance policy?

As for the comments of bankrupting the families on here, just disgusting. Somehow, I doubt that will improve the situation, not to mention, bad kids are not automatically the result of bad parenting. And of course, others would be hurt by the ruling than just the parents.

The really disgusting thing in the article though, at the end:

"James Bradfield, Mr. Anderson’s partner of 17 years, is not a plaintiff. Under Mississippi law, same-sex partners have no claim in civil actions like this, Mr. Dees said."

Ironic when the government will convict the murderer on hate crime charges, yet has such laws on the books.