White folk better watch out
Hurling the word Nigger around might just get you killed, and a judge might say that it’s your own damn fault that you’re dead. (and he might be right)
Judge Rules Victim Provoked Death With Racial Slur
Victim, Neighbor Fought Over NoiseHONOLULU — A judge ruled on Tuesday that a man who was killed in a fight with a neighbor had provoked his own death.
Kendall Edmonds apparently killed his neighbor, Michael Gillum, 46, with a single punch. The confrontation started over noise from Edmonds’ Pearl City apartment that was keeping Gillum and his daughter awake.
“All Michael wanted was for his daughter to get some sleep so she could get up and go to school,” the victim’s sister, Patrice Collins, said.
Gillum’s 15-year-old daughter talked about how scary it was the night that her father died and how she would never forget how good a dad he was.
“No matter what happens in this court today, by my faith, I know that God will judge you,” Gillum’s friend, Roy Anoba, said.
Prosecutors wanted Edmonds sentenced to 20 years for manslaughter, but his lawyer pointed out that Gillum was drunk, demanded a fight and even used a racial slur to provoke it.
“For a young, African American man from Alabama, those words are very serious,” defense attorney William Bento said.
“I tried my best and I wasn’t the bigger man to walk away, and I regret that deeply,” Edmonds said.
Judge Karl Sakamoto agreed with the defense that Edmonds didn’t mean to kill Gillum. Sakamoto also inferred that Gillum, in a way, caused his own death.
“He used incendiary racial epithets and it had the very result that he intended,” Sakamoto said.
Sakamoto gave Edmonds 10 years of probation and 100 days in prison.
I dunnow, I think that same sort of argument has been applied to gay people who hit on homophobes and to trans people who date straight people: they somehow provoked their death as well. That argument is used in the case of sexual assault victims, too – it’s their fault that they were attacked because they were wearing a short skirt.
I’m certainly not defending a person who uses racial epithets; just saying that the reasoning behind the ruling has been used to further oppress already-marginalised people.
The main difference between blaming rape victims, trans people, and gays who hit on straight guys and this is that in none of the cases above were the victims intending to anger or provoke the people who hurt them. In this case, the intent was clear, and it got him killed.
Speaking of: I have wondered what would happen if more gay folk and women started seriously bashing back, even proactively, as it were. That Would Be Wrong, I realize. No, I really truly do. Still, it is a pleasant fantasy at times, I admit (paging Hothead Paisan…)
That’s a good point, I see what you mean.
If a black man was killed the white man would go down. but if a black kills a white man he gets a slap on the wrist and is free to go.
jdsf: Since when?
Ohhh…I get it! You’re from Bizarro World, aren’t you?