Too many black victims of crime wait in vain for justice 

BY MARY  MITCHELL mmitchell@suntimes.com April 12, 2012 12:34AM

 

Updated: May 13, 2012 10:34AM

Despite the divisive nature of the Trayvon Martin shooting controversy, the teen’s death has forced the nation to take notice of how the criminal justice system fails black people.

It should not have taken national protests to force those who are charged with protecting citizens to conclude it was criminal for a self-styled neighborhood watchman to shoot an unarmed teen.

But without those protests, without the intervention of major civil rights figures and without the public advocacy of Trayvon’s mother and father, Trayvon would have been just another young black male shot dead in the street.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Angela Corey, the special prosecutor appointed by Florida’s governor and attorney general, announced that George Zimmerman was finally charged with second-degree murder.

At the time of Corey’s announcement, Zimmerman already was in custody.

The fact that Zimmerman is a white Hispanic and Trayvon was black fueled the perception that Zimmerman reacted out of racial bias, and that made this case even more controversial.

Although Corey denied being influenced by “public pressure” or “petitions,” you can’t ignore the impact protesters have had on this case. Trayvon’s death galvanized African-American communities across the country and motivated a lot of young people of other races to join organized and peaceful demonstrations.

Still, claims of “racially motivated” violence against whites prompted the Rev. Al Sharpton to appeal for calm even before the charge was announced.

“You can’t be more upset than his parents,” Sharpton said. “If they can operate in dignity, then all of us can operate with dignity. To go outside of the justice system is to achieve nothing. What we want is that the justice system is corrected and works.”

Earlier, Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon’s mother, had described the last 45 days as a nightmare. “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that justice will be served,” she said.

But the national outcry over Trayvon’s killing also subjected the black community to criticism that its priorities were mixed up. After all, young black men kill other young black men for senseless reasons every day and civil rights leaders are mute.

Similarly, while Corey’s ruling will give Trayvon’s family some relief from their agony, the families of too many other black homicide victims often wait in vain.

Last week, I received an email from Lawrencestein Walls Sr., who was pleading for help in his family’s quest to get justice for his son, Lawrencestein Walls Jr., who was killed on April 19, 2011. His body was found in his car in the 7000 block of South Ada.

“Our family has been extremely cooperative in giving any information that would help this case,” the father wrote. “We provided our son’s phone records . . . his bank book . . . his bank statements, access to his Facebook account and pictures of items that were stolen.”

“At the crime scene, the 911 caller came forth and gave a statement . . . and provided the detectives with a full statement that she witness[ed] two African American males with black hoods exiting the car wearing white gloves, and they appeared to be wiping the car down,” the father wrote.

“Lawrencestein Walls Jr. was killed in broad daylight and the offender(s) [have] not yet been apprehended. . . . Many cases are never resolved, but we want to prevent the case of our loved one from being one that goes cold.”

This African-American family wants the same thing that thousands of strangers wanted for the Martin family.

“We simply wanted an arrest and we got it,” Trayvon’s tearful mother said Wednesday. “Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus.”

Yet too often family members of black victims are stymied in their quest for justice by claims that witnesses won’t cooperate, or the crime is classified as gang-related and pushed to the bottom of the pile.

The protests for Trayvon taught young black people it takes more than monuments made of teddy bears and balloons to get justice for those who are killed on our streets.

http://www.suntimes.com/11849342-417/too-many-waiting-in-vain-for-justice.html