Unsolved Civil Rights-Era Murders to Get Second Look

Mr. Cox:

With all due respect....how is it that the case for spending time and money on unsolved murder cases dating as far back as 1946 be justified because no killer should be allowed to sleep good believing that he has gotten away with his deeds when in 2007 certain Black communities have a very, very high rate of unsolved murders taking place right now?

The greatest irony is that the Vine City section of Atlanta, which John Lewis represents and who is assisting in getting this legislation passed in the house has a 32% prosecution rate for homicides. (News report - Atlanta's Most Dangerous Zipcode http://www.cbs46.com/investigates/13528113/detail.html).
Two weeks ago Anderson Cooper did a report from New Orleans which noted that out of 160 homicides in question only THREE people were convicted last year. THREE PEOPLE!!! How likely are we to see congressional legislation on this "crime" of a situation?

I have two concepts that I have adopted this year that I wish to introduce to you:

1) Proportionality - When we come across difficult decisions like this one regarding where to put our time and money on two very important issues (past and present homicides) - the notion of PROPORTIONALITY must weigh in to allow us to make a decision. Thus which issue has the greater proportional impact upon African Americans living today and in the future?

I have come to reject the notion that "we can do both at the same time" because the outrageous rates of today clearly indicate that such a call is nothing more than mere pacification and will prevent any meaningful action about the clear and present danger.

2) I have another term called "Non-White White Supremacy". It is clear that the actions of one White man 50 years ago have a greater impact upon some of us than the actions of a killer of a Black man who is likely still living and breathing today and who may possibly strike again. Again - if the emotions behind these two points were not so out of skew I would be in full support of the Dodd/Lewis initiative. When I add the painful reality of today - I can only resort to wondering WHY and then get angry at what can only be reduced to pandering by a presidential candidate and more evidence that John Lewis is out of touch with the realities of TODAY within his district. Clearly the voters in his district look toward the nostalgia of his past efforts than they look to him to solve their modern day crime problems in Vine City.

No doubt it may be unpopular to stand against this legislation. When we apply the concepts of proportionality and the equal standing of any man who has shed the blood of a Black man it seems pretty tragic that such a focus would be adopted.

While Tony queued up questions for Senator Dodd hoping that he would make a negative reference about the Bush Justice Department (which Dodd eventually caught on to the leading question posed by Tony) Mr. Cox should have come to the table having done more research on the CURRENT rate of unsolved murders of Black people today and asked Mr. Dodd to justify his efforts. No doubt more Black people living today would be the one's "resting comfortably" if the killers of their loved ones in recent years were not out walking the streets.

Here is the story of a young Black mother on the south side of Atlanta who had her throat slit as her 5 month old child slept in front of her as she bled to death. This is highly unlikely to get any additional attention: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/8939269/detail.html

Sent by Ron B | 10:43 PM | 6-21-2007