The shooting of Iziah
Dec 19, 2017 8:45:55 GMT -5
Post by 40oz on Dec 19, 2017 8:45:55 GMT -5
I talk a lot of shit about social justice warriors here, and I have my reasons for doing that. I often find these people haranging others with radical statements of their views before they care to understand them. And in my experience addressing that, these same people attempt to put me on the defense, which is ridiculous. I find the methods of telling people what they really believe in or what they are really saying instead of attempting to unpack their statements and listen to them is wrong. It contributes much more to the problem than they realize.
My wife's cousin and coworker's family has front row seat with systemic racism in our justice system. Her stepson, Iziah, had just graduated high school, was a member of the high school football team, and was an excellent role model for his younger siblings. One night he was in a car with his girlfriend in the parking lot at a public park. He was approached by three kids he went to school with, things got confrontational, and one of the kids produced a handgun from under his jacken and shot Iziah in the chest. He was brought to the emergency room and pronounced dead shortly after.
My cousin was approached by newscasters and Black Lives Matter advocates to comment on this. She politely declined and wished not for the media attention and would rather respect the loss of their dear family member, which is completely understandable. But as the trials proceed, the real issues in our courts is coming out of the shadows and is getting out of her control.
The hearing for the kids involved with Iziah's murder is in progress, and so far, it's not looking good. The evidence for the trial includes phone records with text messages and phone calls that reveal that the kids had been planning this for some time now. This information is not in the article, but my wife's cousin was at the hearing. She described it to my wife and I, and she's not one to exaggerate. The parents of the kid who shot Iziah are completely unsympathetic towards her, and the shooter laughs during the trial. He doesn't seem to express any regret or consolation for what he's done. The lawyer is pulling some strings to get these kids tried as juveniles, which means these fucking murderers will do 4 years in a juvenile detention center and then will be released back into the streets.
I don't know Iziah very well, he's much closer to his dad than his stepmom so I've never really gotten a chance to talk to him. But I'm pretty close to his younger sisters. Their too young and naive to to face this hard truth. They once had faith in the justice system and were sure these sociopaths would be locked up forever, but they are now seeing that the law is biased. Every adult around them knows that if this were a case of three black kids who shot a white kid in the chest, the results of this trial would be waaaay different. I know, especially, because I once had my house burglarized by four 15yo's, and these kids are doing much more time for that than what these murderers will be facing.
The situation is really fucked. I know this is all anecdotal and I'm not asking you guys to weigh in on it. Honestly, I'm not expecting you guys to care or do anything at all. It's not really your responsibility to empathize with me or my cousin's family. You have your own lives to worry about. I personally get frustrated with those who want to "spread awareness" for things as if it will solve any problems. People accosting each other about things like "autism awareness" and reminding them to use the correct "mentally disabled" vernacular like that's the real problem with society. Shit, like a third of the doom community admits to being autistic. We deal with this every day. The hard truth is that your average person isn't equipped with the know-how or the resources or the connections to do anything about it. Trying to out all the crypto-racists on the internet is not the solution, but that doesn't necessarily mean I know what the solution is. It's really heartbreaking. I just don't know.
www.theintell.com/57e2e92c-a549-11e7-a236-d3690fec96b0.html
My wife's cousin and coworker's family has front row seat with systemic racism in our justice system. Her stepson, Iziah, had just graduated high school, was a member of the high school football team, and was an excellent role model for his younger siblings. One night he was in a car with his girlfriend in the parking lot at a public park. He was approached by three kids he went to school with, things got confrontational, and one of the kids produced a handgun from under his jacken and shot Iziah in the chest. He was brought to the emergency room and pronounced dead shortly after.
My cousin was approached by newscasters and Black Lives Matter advocates to comment on this. She politely declined and wished not for the media attention and would rather respect the loss of their dear family member, which is completely understandable. But as the trials proceed, the real issues in our courts is coming out of the shadows and is getting out of her control.
The hearing for the kids involved with Iziah's murder is in progress, and so far, it's not looking good. The evidence for the trial includes phone records with text messages and phone calls that reveal that the kids had been planning this for some time now. This information is not in the article, but my wife's cousin was at the hearing. She described it to my wife and I, and she's not one to exaggerate. The parents of the kid who shot Iziah are completely unsympathetic towards her, and the shooter laughs during the trial. He doesn't seem to express any regret or consolation for what he's done. The lawyer is pulling some strings to get these kids tried as juveniles, which means these fucking murderers will do 4 years in a juvenile detention center and then will be released back into the streets.
I don't know Iziah very well, he's much closer to his dad than his stepmom so I've never really gotten a chance to talk to him. But I'm pretty close to his younger sisters. Their too young and naive to to face this hard truth. They once had faith in the justice system and were sure these sociopaths would be locked up forever, but they are now seeing that the law is biased. Every adult around them knows that if this were a case of three black kids who shot a white kid in the chest, the results of this trial would be waaaay different. I know, especially, because I once had my house burglarized by four 15yo's, and these kids are doing much more time for that than what these murderers will be facing.
The situation is really fucked. I know this is all anecdotal and I'm not asking you guys to weigh in on it. Honestly, I'm not expecting you guys to care or do anything at all. It's not really your responsibility to empathize with me or my cousin's family. You have your own lives to worry about. I personally get frustrated with those who want to "spread awareness" for things as if it will solve any problems. People accosting each other about things like "autism awareness" and reminding them to use the correct "mentally disabled" vernacular like that's the real problem with society. Shit, like a third of the doom community admits to being autistic. We deal with this every day. The hard truth is that your average person isn't equipped with the know-how or the resources or the connections to do anything about it. Trying to out all the crypto-racists on the internet is not the solution, but that doesn't necessarily mean I know what the solution is. It's really heartbreaking. I just don't know.
www.theintell.com/57e2e92c-a549-11e7-a236-d3690fec96b0.html
