Don't "stir up trouble in my county". "They ran him over because he was black"
It was last July but seems appropriate to discuss as we celebrate Martin Luther King ,Jr.'s birthday on Monday. Here is what happened: Johnny Lee Butts, a 68 year old man from Como, Mississippi left his house for his regular 4 mile early morning walk. A half hour later he was laying dead in the road. His leg was almost severed and he suffered fatal head injuries from being hit by a car traveling between 55-70 miles an hour. Did I mention he was hit from behind...from a car travelling on the OPPOSITE side of the road?
This car was driven by Whit Darby and held two other passengers, Tony Hopper and an unnamed youth. Tony Hopper has testified that they all saw Mr. Butts walking on the opposite side of the road. When Whit started to turn slightly towards the old man, the boys warned him not to do anything stupid.
Well, Whit Darby ran over Johnny Lee Butts. It was no accident! It was murder and Whit Darby is in prison awaiting trial next month. But guess what? He is NOT being charged with a hate crime! This has many people in Como understandably shaken, and it has Tony Hopper fearing for his life if he testifies against Darby. Hopper's mother has said her family has received numerous death threats.
Residents of Como are accusing the police and lawyers involved of negligence in the case. They believe the boys would "crack" if questioned harder about their motives in running down Mr. Butts. They believe this was certainly a case of racial prejudice.
The sheriff of this county has even threatened CNN for reporting on this case, warning that if the news organization "stirs up trouble in [his] county" he will be "coming after" them.
How could this possibly be happening? Isn't it 2013? How do we stop this cycle of violence and hate in the world?
The idea of spending mlk day "doing" instead of "doing nothing" gives us hope. If we sit back and just tsk, tsk, tsk, the problems of the world we will be soon overcome with gloom. If we "act" instead of doing nothing we are committing ourselves to each other and to making the world a better place.
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I haven't decided what I will do on Monday for my act of service. But whatever it is, you can bet I will be thinking of Mr. Johnny Lee Butts and praying for justice!
This is outrageous! How can the authorities not examine motives for this murder?! I am not saying this was or wasn't a hate crime, because I cannot find enough evidence to support a conclusion either way. But, that is up to the authorities to determine.
ReplyDeleteThat is absurd that Hopper is receiving death threats! This racist community obviously wants truth to remain hidden, implying that they all fear or have some knowledge as to the motives of Darby.
And why are the authorities so secretive? Do they have something to hide? Their lies to CNN saying that the passengers could not see the race of the victim reenforce suspicion as to their hesitancy to determine a motive.
This is wrong. We must speak out and fight for truth and justice. May Mr. Butts receive justice and his family consolation.
God Bless America
The more of this story I kept reading, the more insane it sounded. First off, Mr. Butts was hit by a car in the early morning, which might be a little understandable because the driver may not of seen him. But the fact that the car and Mr. Butts were on opposite sides of the road raised my eyebrows. Then when I read a passenger in the car, Mr. Hopper, testified that the driver, Mr. Darby, clearly saw Mr. Butts and ran him over on purpose defiantly sounds like murder. Secondly, the fact that Mr. Hopper is receiving death threats for his testimony against Mr. Darby is ludicrous, obviously Mr. Darby is not the only one who did not like Mr. Butts. Thirdly, it is insane that the sheriff of the county does not want national news to know about the case. This murder committed by Mr. Darby may or may not have been a hate crime, but I am not going to be the judge of that. Anyways, this defiantly sounds like murder to me, and Mr. Darby, racist or not, should go to jail.
ReplyDeleteThis is ridiculous. I am utterly left without any words after reading this article. The authorities are being completely negligent with their jobs to uphold justice. This is murder. No if's, and's, or but's. Now although there isn't any strong evidence that this was racial prejudice, I strongly believe that this act of murder was done with this racism in mind. My main reason that I believe that this is a form of racist crime is the location of the crime. This occurred in Mississippi, a state that used to be pro-slavery. I mean seriously! The article even says that in Como many people still fly Confederate flags! The fact that it isn’t being investigated as a hate crime is just upsetting. And then there is the issue with the sheriff. Talk about suspicious behavior! Making threats to “come after” CNN if they reported the case? He is just asking for trouble. It seems to me, and this might sound a bit harsh, that the sheriff is just trying to hide his racist little town from the justice of the American people. To be honest it angers me that this would even happen in this day and age. Aren’t we supposed to be better than we were back then? My main hope is that people will see this and realize how much racism still is a problem today, especially in lieu of upcoming Martin Luther King Day. May we all see to live out his dream and better this country.
ReplyDeleteWell, regardless of color of skin, it's pretty sickening that somebody would run over an old man just for giggles. The only way that this man gets charged with a hate crime is if he comes out and says it. Any assumptions made before then are just that, assumptions. It's useless to speculate, but the authorities on the other hand should be doing more than they are to bring out the truth.
ReplyDeleteWhoops. By "it" I mean that he ran over the man out of racism.
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