SC mayor's brother-in-law killed in Charlotte

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

SC mayor's brother-in-law killed in Charlotte
| December 7, 2013 | Updated: December 7, 2013 12:20pm

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Police say the brother-in-law of the mayor of Columbia, S.C., was shot and killed outside a Charlotte, N.C., store.

Donald Gist Jr. was pronounced dead in the parking lot of the Queens Mini-Mart north of Charlotte's Uptown Friday afternoon.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police detectives have said they think Gist was killed by someone he knew. They issued a murder warrant Saturday for 40-year-old Arthur Givens. They did not release a motive for the killing.

Gist's sister is Circuit Court Judge DeAndrea Benjamin, who is married to Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/SC-mayor-s-brother-in-law-killed-in-Charlotte-5044056.php

[840high]

1. Sad.

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. This Moment in Patriarchy/Male Privilege ...

Compare the article's title:

SC mayor's brother-in-law killed in Charlotte

to this sentence:

Gist's sister is Circuit Court Judge DeAndrea Benjamin, who is married to Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin.

In a "different" world, the title would have read:

Brother of Circuit Court Judge killed in Charlotte

[BlueEye]

3. Perhaps

But from a journalistic perspective, I think it makes more sense to relate the victim to the most well known figure. The mayor is a better known public figure than his wife.

If the mayor was a woman and the judge was her husband, or if they were a same-sex couple, either way I believe the story's title would have been written relative to the mayor, not the judge.

[seveneyes]

4. court records revealed they both have a criminal past

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2520111/SC-mayors-brother-law-executed-career-criminal-broad-daylight-outside-mini-mart.html

Mr Givens has an extensive criminal history dating back four decades to 1989.

Among the 38 criminal complaints leveled against him during his lifelong crime spree are several breaking and entering charges, multiple narcotics possession with the intent to distribute charges, several assault charges - including three this year alone - and multiple stints in prison.

Mr Gist has a handful of fraud and theft charges, one count of burglary and multiple drug charges on his criminal record. He served one year in prison for the drug charge.
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While drug charges are not a good measure of someone's proclivity to harm others, when someone has several assault charges against them, perhaps they should be kept somewhere that does not allow them access to harm other people.