Community members’ silence after someone in the community shoots one of their own is not just an issue relegated to the streets of Minneapolis — it’s a national issue that has made its way to Oklahoma this week after three “bored” teenagers shot and killed a White college student.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal this past week said the real story in the killing of Christopher Lane is what didn’t happen: outrage from civil rights leaders, since the White victim was shot by at least two Black teenagers.
« There was no saturation cable TV coverage, no press conference featuring Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, and no statement from the Oval Office. The death of Christopher Lane, while as troubling as that of Trayvon Martin, will not become a national touchstone of racial and cultural debate or reflection. »
A Los Angeles radio host also urged civil rights leaders to condemn the shooting, citing that the crime was racially motivated since one of the suspected shooters had previously tweeted he hated White people.
“This was a heinous murder irrespective of color. And this makes it even more compelling for civil rights leaders to publicly condemn the killing, no matter who the victim is or the alleged perpetrators are, » Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said in a statement. « This is even more urgent given a recent report that one of the alleged shooters posted anti-white tweets. »
According to the Los Angeles Times, 15-year-old James Francis Edwards Jr., once tweeted that “90% of white ppl are nasty. #HATETHEM.” However Edwards’ sister told the LA Times her brother had a White girlfriend.
After The Washington Post ran its editorial, CNN began a discussion on whether or not the killing should be prosecuted as a hate crime, and asked Australia’s ambassador to the U.S., Kim Beazley, how the shooting would be viewed in Australia.
Beazley said “Nobody in Australia would see it as that,” which most Americans seemed to have agreed with, with a few exceptions.
For example, conservative personality Rush Limbaugh asked on his radio show why the left continued to protect racism? “They’re doing so here in the killing of this Australian college student,” he said.
In Minneapolis African-American parents were forced to look for answers to gangland shootings not from the police, but from parents in the African-American community.
“Young people think it’s OK to kill and steal in this town,” said the Rev. Harding Smith, a Pastor at the Spiritual Church of God in Minneapolis, while addressing a crowd in the city the day after a 19-year-old pregnant woman, Trenay Garner, her 14-month-old daughter My’Khalea Smith and 17-year-old brother Javar Smith, were shot in front of their home by a gunman wearing a hoodie.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the shooting happened shortly before 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 20. The gunman fired the shots from across the street and hit a car and the victim’s homes as well. No one has been arrested, prompting community members to stage a rally.
Before the rally began, peace activist and community member K.G. Wilson walked through the neighborhood where the most recent shooting occurred and encouraged residents to “come out and stand up for us.” He said the rally was not about Trayvon Martin or an incident of police brutality, but was for the people of Minneapolis.
“I’m furious, sick and tired,” he said, before briefly mentioning that his 19-year-old son was shot in the neck three weeks ago. “When are people going to come out and protest for us?”
Samiera Garner is the mother of the pregnant shooting victim. She said she hoped something good came out of this tragedy and that the community would come together not just for the sake of her family, but also for all families that have been affected by gang-related gun violence in the community.
But as Loretta King told the Star Tribune, throughout the 22 years she has lived in north Minneapolis, where she raised her four children, violence in the neighborhood hasn’t gotten better, because if children “don’t get attention from adults, they will find something else to fill the void.”
The idea that the only way to restore security and peace in violence-riddled neighborhoods was to pay more attention to the children in the community and actively work to keep them from joining gangs was reiterated throughout the rally by several community members.
“Our children are dying, people are being shot for no reason,” said an unnamed Minneapolis resident and mother. “Enough is enough. I am a single parent and I have raised three boys and a daughter, and none of my boys are street boys.
She said, “We need to go door to door, we need to help those parents, we need to get parents in line, we need to put them in check, we need to check our children, and we need to make sure that we know where they are, what they are doing and who they are doing it with.”
Rev. Smith agreed and said, “We can’t police ourselves away from this situation. It takes a father, it takes a mother, it takes a congregation, it takes a pastor. We have to teach conflict resolution — how do we resolve conflict.”