Benjamin Crump has been representing young black victims of alleged police violence, and their families, for years. “These families want a fighter. It’s hard for them to fight because they’re in the middle of grieving.”
Chris Ritter/BuzzFeed composite
Benjamin Crump often meets his clients for the first time when they're mourning the death of their young black son. And among the first things he tells them is what they should keep in mind at press conferences and in interviews with the media:
"All I want you to do is talk about your baby. Talk about how good he was and what your baby meant to you. I'll handle the rest."
And so as Ferguson, Mo., roiled and simmered after Brown's Aug. 9 shooting, Crump's phone began ringing almost instantly. The president of the NAACP chapter in St. Louis suggested he take on the case, as did a lawyer who is Brown's cousin. A third call came from Tracy Martin, Trayvon's father and an East St. Louis native, who had been Crump's best-known client to date.
"A lot of people are turning to attorney Crump. Even before our incident, we knew a lot of people were reaching out to him," Martin told BuzzFeed. "I knew that this case needed attention right away, and through the resources he has and the contacts he has, that he would bring a lot more attention nationally."
On Aug. 11, Brown's family announced that they had, in fact, retained Crump to represent them in seeking criminal charges against the police officer who shot their son. Their decision cemented Crump, 44, — already a prominent Florida trial lawyer with a decade of high-stakes litigation behind him — as a new figure on the national civil rights stage.
"This is the reason why you go to law school. To try to fight for people, to make sure your community gets equal justice," Crump said. "When I get these calls, like so many other calls, like Trayvon, they're devastated."
But while Crump made his name with the case of 2013 and Trayvon Martin — and is now at the center of the explosive Brown case — he has long, lower-profile experience representing families who don't receive as much media attention, as they seek justice for a child's death.
Michael B. Thomas / Getty Images
On July 29, 2012, Chavis Carter, 21, was stopped by police in Jonesboro, Ark.
A small amount of marijuana was found on him and he was put in the back of a police car, without being handcuffed, when a background check revealed an open warrant for a marijuana charge in Mississippi. He was then searched more thoroughly a second time, according to police, and handcuffed and put in the back of the police car again.
That's when police say the left-handed Carter retrieved a gun he had somehow managed to conceal through two searches, maneuvered his cuffed hands, and shot himself in the right temple.
Police quickly made a video reenacting how Carter could have managed to kill himself in such a position.
from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://ift.tt/1weZUaf
No comments:
Post a Comment