We were gratified to see conversation and comment on our post on the murder of 14 year old Martin Lee Anderson. The issue quickly devolved into a discussion of racism.
As this post shows:
Come off it with the racism crap.I'm lily white and I'm sickened.I'm not denying that racism is pervasive and institutional. But here, in this situation, arguing that Martin Anderson is dead because of racism amounts to paranoid incitement. Representatives Barreiro and Gelber, among the first to see the tape, described the beating as "brutal," "disturbing" and "heinous." Neither are black.
We think this post by Captain hits the nail right on the head:
Rump has stirred the emotions of several bloggers with his first shot about the Martin Lee Anderson death.Here is the "racism" that some of you seem to be missing:On May 30, 2005, a beautiful blonde haired blue eyed teenager disappeared from a foreign country. Only a few days later, the entire country - and the world - new about the disappearance. And for the next several months, every single evening on TV, we watched. We watched Larry King on CNN, and that fat mouthed ugly bitch former prosecutor (sorry but I just can't stand Nancy Grace) on CNN/Headline News, and Joe Scarborough on MSNBC's Scarborough Country and, worst of all, Greta Van Susteren - on Fox's On The Record, cover this story every single day - month after month after month. The only thing that finally stopped the coverage was Hurricane Katrina.Now, we have a young black teenager, beaten to death in our own country, on video, by the police; the medical examiner from another county does the autopsy, and he makes ridiculous findings, and I have to ask the following question:Where is Larry, where is Nancy, Where is Joe, and where is Greta - why - because, guess what fellow bloggers, Martin Lee Anderson did not die in the last few days. For those of you who did not realize it, Martin Lee Anderson died on January 6, 2006 - THAT IS 43 DAYS AGO - and we are now finally hearing about the story.I look forward to the news shows this week to see if any of them even give minimal coverage to the story - or whether Greta will be back this week interviewing the mother or father Holloway on the new lawsuit that they filed last week against the wienersnautchen family. I guess it will take another Katrina to get that story off the air again.There's your racism people ....and the Captain has spoken.....
Rumpole says, well written Captain. Racism was not behind the brutal murder of Martin Lee Anderson. As another post notes, the video shows black and white guards beating Anderson. But racism may well be behind the investigation and prosecution. Martin Lee Anderson was not blond, blue eyed, and sexy like Natalee Holloway, and yet by virtue of the media coverage, you would think she was the only person murdered last year.
Anonymous makes an excellent point on institutional racism:
Black officers are often times the ones most effected by institutionalracism. You don't have to be whiteto be racist. Blacks are often times just as racist towards otherblacks as whites.So to say that because both white and black officers beat Martin, does not mean that they were noteffected by racism.The racism crap you refer to is real. Either way, if you actually read my comments, I never saidMartin was dead because of racism.I said that the pathetic response by Bush and the Government is another example of institutionalized racism at work.Don't be so simple minded.
Anonymous clears up a point in our post:
In saying this kid was in for "grand theft auto", the reader might mistakenly come to the conclusion that the perpetrator was a young thug. Here, the kid was joyriding in his Grandmother's car.
This post gets honorable mention as it made us laugh:
The reason no one commented on the Rosa Parks post is because most of the people reading this blog checked CJIS for her name and found nothing, and then figured she got tranferred to civil in the last judicial rotation.
Rumpole praises “Oh” Susannah the Herald’s courthouse scribe for a nice article on the capital murder case before Judge Blake. But Rumpole notes, almost anyone can memorize a jury chart, and we think the time and energy spent in doing that takes a lawyer away from more important tasks during voire dire. But give ASA Gayle Levine her due, she knows what she’s doing.
More importantly, we wonder did Herald Scribe “Oh” Susannah miss, leave out, or did she just not know about the taped phone calls of the defendant in the DCJ in which he calls his previous attorneys the N word and makes disparaging remarks about Jewish lawyers? Oh well, maybe she should consult us more often about her stories to see if we have any hot tips.
See You In Court. Happy President’s Day.
When you see something that is not right, not fair, find a way to get in the way and cause trouble. Congressman John Lewis
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43 comments:
Sexy? Are you Carl Maztel?
sexy?!? am i the only one who think natalie holloway looks like a drag queen?
OK- She's no Portia, but the point is that Natalee Holloway appeals to more of the american public, than Martin Lee Anderson does.
CARL NATZLE? WHAT IS THIS COMMENT ABOUT?
if fleisher is on the case the outcome looks grim for the defendannt. he must be appointed no one with any common sense would retain him.
Gail Levine can't function with out her meds.
why does everything in this stupid, backwater, cultureless banana republic come down to race? It's idiotic to vote for someone because of their race. It is insulting to group people by color. As if, all black people feel the same about all Issues, or all Jewish people would do the same thing under a particular set of circumstances, and dont even try to group Hispanics, A label that includes at least 30 subcultures.
The founding fathers had it right. voting is too important to be left to the masses, That's how we ended up with our current Idiot in chief.
voters should have to pass an exam on the issues before being allowed to cast a ballot. Other wise you get morons in office because their name sounded right
a democracy is only as good as its people.
Natalie Holloway WAS pretty good-looking. Also, on Jason Grey's point, I'm glad to see somebody coming around to my view that the vote must be restricted. I believe only property owners ought to be afforded the vote. When you allow the vote to extend to folks you have little to no stake in society (other than to take from it), it's predictable what type of governance you'll get.
Just a tidbit: one Mr. Jon Blecher was seen at a starbucks, with a laptop, and a copy of a Rumpole Reader nearby. Is he the mysterious blogger????
or we could just start a poll tax jason. you think bush won because of the uneducated? no way. the rich people voted for him because they thought they could have more money/less taxes. we want everyone to be able to vote. but we want informed elections. our judge elections are not informed at all. that's the problem -- not that dumbies are allowed to vote.
"the rich voted for him so they could have less taxes"? You mean so the gov't wouldn't confiscate their income and give to folks who vote Democrat precisely b/c they expect a "free" benefit from that party? Anyway, your point is a bit illogical: If the problem is one of the electorate being "well-informed" (by who? the Herald????--C'MON!), then how does allowing"dumbies" to vote help that?
i agree with joe blow. that holloway "chick" definitely looked like a dude to me.
Voting by party is as dumb as voting by race. Enough with this democrat / republican bullshit! parties should be abolished. candidates should run on personal beliefs. I hate both parties ,the democrats are tree hugging, politically correct, solcialists, and the republicans are hateful , corporate welfare loving, facists . I dont think anyone who wants to be in charge can be trusted. There is always a motive other then the common good.
by my count, Mike Melnick has written 8 letters to the editor of the Miami Herald in the past year.
i saw his article today and i saw another that he wrote last month.
Someone wrote: Natalee Holloway appeals to more of the american public, than Martin Lee Anderson does.
The primary reason for this is that Holloway's dissapearance was a mystery, while Anderson is just plain dead. When Wayne Williams was killing black kids in Atlanta, it was front page news here in Miami. The victims were black, the perp unknown. I think they called it the "summer of fear." The result? Lots and lots of Media attention. Did anyone care that the children were black?
For a more recent example, take a look at the DC Sniper attacks. It was a big deal even though no-one knew the race of the perpetrator. When John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo were caught, the coverage essentially stopped. Why? Because the fear was gone. Two guys in prison doesn't make for compelling TV.
I don't see anyone here pretending that racism is widespread and institutionalized. But I do see plenty of people ready to blame drought, bird flu, hail and hurricanes on "whitey."
Personally, I think the only way to resolve this is to drop a cute black child down a well. We'll send a white kid down a coal mine the following week as a control. The Neilsen's should answer any lingering questions.
Mea culpa: That should be "I don't see anyone here pretending that racism is NOT widespread and institutionalized.
I suspect the only reason we EVER heared about Martin Anderson is because of the video. Unless you have something for tv networks to show, you got nothing.
Why was Martin Anderson in a fucking boot camp to start with? I heard his grandmother (who he "stole" the car from) wished not to press charges, so what the fuck was his atty doing? Must have been a PD!
Yea, what was Mikey Mellonchuck writing about? i read that shit in the Herald. Was he saying that America today is like Nazi Germany in the 30's? Nice sense of perspective, Mikey, you idiot fuckbird Bitch.
I heard the real Rumpole is a combination of Chris Lyons and Jim Best.
The Captain sure sounds like Steve Levine. The mere fact that you're such an uninventive self-promoter guarantees your opponent a check from me, if you decide to run.
Rumpy, what happened to the Brummer polls? At least give your readers a final tally before pulling them.
The Gail Levine comment is just plain mean and should be removed. Gail is an outstanding prosecutor who has successfully handled some of the most difficult and important cases.
i agree. if someone were murdered in my family i would want her prosecuting the case.
i retract my statement about levine.
The Gail Levine statament was mean, but in the scheme of things, "can't function without meds" has become a generic type of comment about someone. We don't like the comment, its obviously just a cheap shot, but it stays.
At least melnick is doing something with his time other than eating his danish like mr stein does every morning.
Gotta tell you rump that I actually saw the danish lover in mjb the other day. Ran outside the moon was not blue
i felt a bit bad about my comment and i retracted it. rump if she sues i'm joining you as a co-def for keeping it up. that said, she is the most mean spirited human being that i have ever tried a case against.
Who is "Mike Melnick" and why would anyone here care about the letters he writes to the Herald? I guess you would care--if you're a stupid punk and you're too fucking ignorant to know the names of the people you bash. Look who's the real idiot fuckbird.
Stop picking on Gail - think about how mean and angry you would be if you were a lifer at the SAO - are there any lifers there that are not mean or angry? Maybe one?
Fuckbird ?
his name is mike mentrick.
Why are you guys bashing Mike Melinek? He's a pretty good guy. Now, is he a good trial atty? Of course not, but that's no reason to personally attack him and call him a FuckBird (although it was kinda funny in a really mean-spirited way).
What's a Fuckbird? Is that a literal term? Can anyone be a fuckbird?
Gail Levine is an honorable, but very tough, prosecutor. These "fuckbirds" bashing her would probably get their ass beat by her in a trial.
I'm going to start a band called the "Fuckbirds". we will sing folk songs about injustice and have groupies with body parts that are real and spectacular
a "fuckbird" is a cross between a kookoo bird and a turd burglar.
it's real difficult to prosecute a case with a dead body, a full written confession with a guy with 10 felony convictions. yet we still win.
Maybe those birds that swoop at our heads in the parking lot are Fuckbirds
I can kinda picture what a "FuckBird" is, but what the hell is a "Turd Burglar"? Someone who breaks into shits? Who steals Dukes? I thought a FuckBird would be a cross b/t a Douche Bucket and a Shit Leveller.
Bravo for Jason Grey the only person (I could find) who uses his own name. Before I get bashed, I too am in hiding, but nonetheless koodoos to you JASON GREY (MY HERO).....
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