Dear Editor:
Let us acknowledge that if we fairly scrutinize the Troy Davis and Amanda
Knox cases, we would see an example of present-day racism.
Knox’s case and family receive 24-hour-a-day coverage with the obvious
assumption that she is innocent and a victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Her parents have been so courted and interviewed by the mainstream (no longer
news) anchors that they are treated as friends and are called by their first
names.
Conversely, these media anchors probably do not know, or care, that Troy
Davis has a sister, family, friends, and international support who should
have been given the same opportunity to fight his case in the same “unbiased,
free, and liberal” media.
The anchors stress that there is no DNA evidence to connect Knox to the
murder and that the witnesses were not credible or reliable. The same is
true of the Troy Davis case, yet the media did not drum these facts about his
case to the people of the United States.
The anchors explained the Italian court system in detail to the American
public, outlining ways Knox could benefit in her appeal under the Italian
system of jurisprudence. Troy Davis’s appeal did not benefit him because the
five people (Georgia’s Pardon/Parole Board) who could have stopped his
execution worked for the State of Georgia against him. The unfairness of the
criminal, criminal injustice system
of the United States was never explained in detail as it pertains to the Troy
Davis execution.
Troy Davis’s state lynching was a result of police and judicial coercion,
threats, and abuse of witnesses; the state’s withholding or tampering with
evidence which would have caused the jury to doubt his alleged guilt (later,
many of the jurors did change their minds); and
the state’s quest to kill any black man for the death of a white police
officer.
Troy Davis and his followers did not have a chance. Since the 1500s, poor
black men and their families have been trapped and tortured in an unfair
system of laws, written and approved (until very recently) by white males.
The racism in the corporate media and the criminal, criminal injustice system
of the United States is pervasive and obvious. We should work to change both
systems to protect people and preserve life, and to fix what the Founding
Fathers started centuries ago.
Charlotte N.
Harris, Philadelphia
- From: Runoko Rashidi
- AMANDA KNOW AND TROY DAVIS, Runoko Rashidi, 10/03/2011
Comments
I've witnessed The Amanda Knox case, because it was thrown in my face on television. I have said the same thing, the media puts a lot of attention on white people than black people; unless its a horrific crime like; the student attack in Chicago. The media continues to do this, why? Are white people, more important than black people? Is it the money that is involved? Hmm, I wandered...I keep going back to The Mitrice Richardson Case. A attractive black woman, who was reported missing, after coming from The Sheriffs' Dept. in California. Parents weren't notified, or anything. She was found dead; identified the skull. THERE IS NO JUSTICE, AND IT WILL NEVER BE...WE GOT TO GET JUSTICE OURSELVES...FREEDOM OR DEATH!