The Rude Pundit - In Brief: Victor White Deserves Your Marches, Too

[meegbear]

You might vaguely remember, in the fog of all the cops-on-black-men brutality, the story of Victor White III, a young black man who was taken into custody in New Iberia, Louisiana in March and somehow, with his hands cuffed behind his back, managed to pull out a gun that wasn't found in a pat-down and shoot himself dead in the back of a police cruiser. Even at the time, there was a certain amount of "What the fuck?" to the story (Note: The Rude Pundit refuses to use "WTF" because fuck your abbreviations). Like "Did he pull the gun out of his asshole? What the fuck?" and "He killed himself after being arrested for possession of pot and a dab of coke? What the fuck?" and "They could find a little bit of coke on him but no gun? Are you fucking kidding me?"

The cops at the time said that White had refused to leave the cruiser, which makes one wonder, "You have a choice in that matter? What the fuck?" Oh, by the way, the cops also said that White shot himself in the back. About that...

Yeah, the coroner's report was obtained by White's father, a preacher, and by NBC News. It shows that White was shot in the chest with no wounds to his back. It shows that left-handed White somehow shot the right side of the chest with the bullet heading left. While handcuffed. Which is only possible if you shoot from the right. It shows that White's wound was not consistent with a close-range shot. Oh, and by the way, the coroner didn't test White's hands for gunpowder residue. And White had abrasions on his face which he did not have when arrested, according to someone who was with White at the time.

Of course, the coroner declared White's death a "suicide." Because it's fucking New Iberia in fucking Louisiana, where the biggest tourist attraction is former plantation house, where the slaves in general worked the sugar cane fields, which was some of the most brutal, backbreaking labor in pre-industrial agriculture.

The Rude Pundit knows New Iberia and its racist history (including beatings of NAACP organizers in the 1940s). He knows a city that is as starkly divided as any he's ever seen. Now, he's not saying that the cops shot Victor White and tried to cover it up. But you can believe that or believe in anatomical magic.

So on this day when people are mourning Michael Brown, take a moment for Victor White, a man who was working at a Waffle House, who lived with his girlfriend and new baby, who was thinking about going to community college or getting a better job to support his family. And then get fucking pissed off all over again.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2014/08/in-brief-victor-white-deserves-your.html

[Cha]

1. Yes, Victor White does.. thank you, Rude and meegbear~

[drm604]

2. K&R

I've wondered why we haven't heard more about this. Could it be because it's so unambiguous?

There's no believable way for the right to spin this. Who, regardless of their politics, could be convinced that this was suicide?

So rather than even trying to spin it, the response is to have the media ignore it. I like to think that the media isn't that controlled, but damn, the low profile of this story makes me wonder.

[Jerry442]

6. Not a journalist, so I have no direct knowledge, but...

...it's not so hard to believe that the grapevine carries messages that let reporters and editors know that pushing too many of a certain kind of story will send their careers right down the crapper.

[drm604]

9. But surely his family and friends are screaming bloody murder about this.

Surely they have a lawyer and are planning to sue.

Surely a story like this could make the career of some unknown journalist or lawyer.

People like Maddow and Sharpton talk about this kind of thing all of the time. So why not this case? It's very confusing to me.

I'm hoping that the latest finding, that he was shot in the chest and not the back, will finally bring this into the public eye.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Kicking. Thank you. nt

[abelenkpe]

4. K&R

Wasnt there a kid shot in LA in the back while on the ground and cuffed recently too?

[Enthusiast]

5. Kicked and recommended! It sounds like a James Lee Burke novel.

A cop shot Victor White while he was handcuffed in the back seat of the cruiser. The same thing nearly happened to a friend of mine. It happens. The cops are out of control!

[Hestia]

7. The same thing supposedly happened in West Memphis - guy in back of cruiser committed

"suicide" because the cops supposedly didn't find a gun. Yeah...sure...right...

[Enthusiast]

8. Like we're supposed to believe them just because they are the cops.

You know, cops wouldn't make stuff up.

[malaise]

10. So where is the fugging governor and where are the fugging representatives

and all the righteous church folks?
Where are the leaders of civil society?
Where are private sector interests?

Is this OK with these folks?

[Fantastic Anarchist]

11. Un-fucking-believable. n/t

[Scalded Nun]

12. Someone other than the victim and his/her family needs to care

Unfortunately in LA, if you are black, no one does. At least no one cares enough to risk their well-being trying to get the story out.
An individual trying to get this message out will more than likely find themselves a 'suicide' victim as well.
MSM does not care in a state like LA. It's a shit hole. LA politicians do not care. Most are RW nut jobs who hate minorities and know their base will support that position. The few moderates know they are politically (and literally) outgunned. The police are racist thugs who act with impunity.

Yes, Victor White deserves justice. Unfortunately that is not going to happen.

[jwirr]

14. What does the voter registration look like in LA? Do minorities register and come out? I am not

trying to make this look like it is the victims fault - just want to know what kind of help is needed to get the vote out - and I am not talking about getting the white voters. Is there any way that this can be helped.

[jwirr]

13. Yes. And there are a lot of other young people both black, mentally ill and just young, that have

been shot for little or nothing. Very early in the marches in Ferguson MO this fact was acknowledged. They wanted this protest to reflect on all these other cases also. And my guess is that all these other areas that need our help are in areas that need help in getting out the vote by registering voters. What they also need is some justice. It appears that all too many police forces have forgotten that justice is what it is all about.