The families of unarmed black teenagers who died in high-profile cases have come to support and rely on one another.
Michael Brown Sr. yells out as the casket is lowered during the funeral service for his son Michael Brown in Normandy, Missouri, Monday, Aug. 25.
AP Photo/New York Times, Richard Perry
It's been over a month since 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri, by police officer Darren Wilson, and the Brown family have questions but few answers. Weeks ago, their attorneys filed a request for more information on Wilson's police career, but they're still waiting for it. A grand jury has convened in St. Louis County, but won't decide whether to indict Wilson for at least another month or longer.
The slow movement of the case has the family questioning whether the public really gets what happened. "People really don't understand that she lost her son," Eric Davis said of his cousin, Lesley McSpadden, Brown's mother.
Black families thrust into the media spotlight by the death of a loved one are forced to relive their loss over and over, both in court and in the public eye. They have few places to turn for solace and support, other than one another.
"There hasn't been any real improvement [in Lesley]," said Davis, who visits McSpadden either at her home or her mother's house every day after work. "We are still looking for answers. We don't have answers as to anything about the officer, which is really really preventing us from moving on."
The Brown family is not alone. Tracy Martin's son Trayvon was gunned down by a man claiming self-defense in 2012, in an episode that captivated the country and cleaved it along racial lines. Among some supporters of George Zimmerman, the Florida man who shot the younger Martin but was acquitted of murder, school troubles and adolescent drug use became retroactive justifications for Trayvon Martin's death.
Tracy Martin has become the unofficial leader of an exclusive club no parent would ever want to join: the black families who have to find a way to recover from their loss even as they navigate a complex legal system and watch their loved ones tried in the court of public opinion. Martin said he speaks with Michael Brown Sr. "every 10 days or so" since Michael Jr. was killed.
If you ask Tracy Martin what similarities he sees in the trials Brown's family is now dealing with to his own experience after his son was killed, the number 44 comes to mind. It represents the number of days before Martin's killer George Zimmerman was eventually charged with his death.
"It was 44 days before we got an arrest. And I still think it should have been an arrest on day one, hour one," Martin said of Zimmerman. "It's just unfair to the family to have to sit through days and weeks and know that the killer of their son is still roaming the streets."
Unlike what has happened thus far in the case of Michael Brown Jr.'s death, the delay in Zimmerman's arrest played a key part in Sanford, Florida, Police Chief Bill Lee taking a leave of absence and the first state prosecutor in Zimmerman's case, Norman Wolfinger, recusing himself.
Following Zimmerman's arrest, Wolfinger wrote in a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott that he was stepping aside to avoid " even the appearance of a conflict of interest."
In Ferguson, things have unfolded differently. St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch has repeatedly rebuked calls to recuse himself from the grand jury proceeding that will decide if Wilson is charged. McCulloch's impartiality has been questioned by critics who charge that the loss of his father, a former police officer, who was killed in the line of duty when McColloch was 12, could prevent him from indicting Wilson. McCulloch's office did not respond to multiple requests to be interviewed for this article.
Attorneys for the Brown family say Michael Brown Sr. and McSpadden's only updates on the grand jury so far have been what the media reports. Attorney Ben Crump said that McCulloch's office has made no effort to reach out to Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden during the grand jury proceedings.
Edward Magee, executive assistant to McCulloch, told BuzzFeed News that the prosecutor's office contacted the family's attorney initially and offered victims assistance services, which they declined.
Brown family attorney Anthony Gray said that after that initial call, McCulloch's office never reached out to offer any sympathy for the family and they have not gotten day-to-day updates on the grand jury.
"I think the family respects the process. But they're losing respect as the process drags on," Gray said. "They're at a complete loss as to why it takes so much time."
"There is somewhat of a disconnect with the prosecutor's office when the victims are young black males. I just think they cannot relate to the black males' lives having value," Crump said. "They are just so used to prosecuting young black men. This prosecutor isn't even trying to make an attempt to demonstrate to the family that they are there for the victims, no matter who they are or what race they are."
Sybrina Fulton (left) and Tracy Martin, parents of Trayvon Martin, speak at the Peace Fest rally in St. Louis, Missouri, on Aug. 24, 2014.
Adrees Latif / Via Reuters
When Martin speaks to Brown Sr. though, he doesn't ask him about the grand jury proceedings or the county prosecutor.
"I tell him I just want to reach out to you and make sure that you're keeping up with your health," Martin said. "He told me he was living day by day, taking it one day at a time. One day at a time."
This week, Martin joined another father whose son was killed by gun violence at the retrial for 17-year-old Jordan Davis' killer, Michael Dunn. Earlier this year, a jury declared a mistrial in the first-degree murder case against Dunn for Davis' death.
"I'll be heading up to Jacksonville to be with Ron Davis," Martin told BuzzFeed News on Sept. 18. His wife Sybrina Fulton was seen accompanying Davis' mother, Lucia McBath, into the Duval County Courthouse on the first day of jury selection. The judge made a point to ask the family not to interact with demonstrators — some carrying "Justice for Jordan" signs — and disrupt the court.
McBath is waiting to find out if she'll get more than "partial justice," as she puts it, in the death of her son Jordan Davis. But it's likely news won't come until two years after Davis was shot and killed in a Jacksonville, Florida, gas station parking lot.
On Nov. 23, 2012, Davis, a 17-year-old black teenager, was killed by 47-year-old white man Michael Dunn after an argument over loud music, in which Dunn said he feared Davis had a gun. Dunn's lawyer argued that Davis' friends had hidden a gun after the shooting. No gun was ever found, and Dunn was convicted of three counts of attempted murder for Davis' three friends who were riding in the SUV with him and will serve up to 60 years in prison for the charges. But the jury hung on the charge of murder over Davis' death.
from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://ift.tt/1nbvfaj
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