For months, right wingers have leveled accusations of reverse racism against the President, the Department of Justice and even the media, which did not touch the Trayvon Martin case until public outcry was so widespread that the media could not ignore the protests, rallies and celebrity calls for an arrest to be made. Never mind the fact that these youths were arrested immediately, as soon as they were fingered for the crime, rather than 45 days later. Never mind the fact that they never confessed to the killing as George Zimmerman did. Never mind the fact that unless the following – breaking – evidence is spread far and wide to demand a fair trial for these young men, they will almost certainly be convicted, in spite of all of the damning evidence that implicates the parents in the killing (as you will see). On July 16th new evidence was released to the public that implicates the parents involvement in the child’s death. Police tests immediately following the shooting revealed gun powder on the hands of both Sherry West and the baby’s father, Louis Santiago. Santiago claimed that he was nowhere near the scene of the shooting. This evidence too, was withheld for months, until the defense attorney in the case demanded that it be released in mid July. Both the father and mother of baby Santiago, had gunshot residue on them the day their son was killed, according to the state’s forensic report obtained by CBS affiliate WTEV. West claims that she was walking her baby by herself when two teens, De’Marquise Elkins and Dominique Lang, tried to rob her at gunpoint on a Brunswick sidewalk. The teens allegedly shot her in the leg and baby Antonio in the head. Both are behind bars on charges of murder and are scheduled to stand trial next month. Ashley Glassey told CBS News in March, that her mother has serious mental health issues. These include a diagnosis of bi-polar with accompanying schizophrenic tendencies. West also talked with the media about how she was removed from her mother’s care at the age of 8, because of abuse and neglect in the home. Evidence in the Baby Santiago case seems to point more and more toward the fact that the two black youth accused of this shooting are innocent of the crime they’ve been blamed for. Yet their pictures have been plastered all over social media, and they’ve been labelled as “baby killers” – a favorite phrase of the right-wing since the day of the shooting. Can we hope that there will be a fair trial for these youth? Can we hope that our justice system will not continue to convict the innocent, while allowing the guilty to go free? Can we hope that the media will report fairly and accurately on this case? Can we hope that the Georgia court system will be fairer and more just than the one in Florida? Racism is a threat to every American. The Baby Santiago case may prove that it’s not just the African-American population or the Latino population or the Muslim population, that suffers the consequences. If something does not change, murderers will continue to go free, while innocent people’s lives are destroyed. If our underlying belief system continues to reinforce the idea that the black person is always the guilty party, there’s little to stop people like Sherry West and George Zimmerman, from committing murders of teenagers and even toddlers of any color, having full confidence that as long as they implicate a black person, no-one will even question their innocence. politicalblindspot/new-evidence-suggests-the-black-teens-accused-of-shooting-white-baby-were-not-involved/?fb_source=pubv1
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 08:23:07 +0000
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