Justice for Joe McKnight
12th December 2016 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
What makes anyone think that he or she can take a human life because of a traffic dispute and not think he or she should go directly to jail and spend a considerable amount of time behind bars? Two words: White privilege.
Only a person of European descent who is quite used to doing whatever he or she pleases to Black or Brown people would think he or she doesn’t deserve to go to jail for unjustifiably ending someone’s life.
I don’t know much about the accused killer of former John Curtis, USC and NFL standout Joe McKnight, Ronald Gasser, but I know he unnecessarily ended a human life because he obviously felt like he was well within his rights to do so.
I also know that no one has the right to follow someone who is unarmed for six miles before killing him and later expect anyone to believe that he killed McKnight because he was afraid for his life or well-being.
The whole stalking and killing scenario sounds an awful lot like George Zimmerman’s cold, calculated murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida several years ago.
Jefferson Parish Newell Norman, the second coming of the late, always-controversial Sheriff Harry Lee, made a bad situation worse by flexing in a Friday, Dec. 2, news conference in which he pretty much dared those who spoke out against the killing on social media to come to “his” parish to protest the incident and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office’s initial refusal to arrest the suspect, who was reportedly in another road-rage incident in 2006 during which he allegedly punched another motorist in the face and spat on him.
Isn’t it interesting that authorities acted like the first road-rage incident was no big deal when law enforcement agencies and mainstream media routinely bring up past legal problems of unarmed Black and Brown people who are murdered by police? They did this to Alton Sterling after he was murdered by police in Baton Rouge this summer and they assassinated the character of Trayvon Martin by suggesting that a photo he posted online proved he was a gang member.
It was clear from the start that Sheriff Normand was not happy about being so widely criticized for taking his sweet time to arrest Ronald Gasser in McKnight’s death. What he didn’t anticipate was the groundswell of people across the city, nation and the world that have demanded justice for Joe McKnight.
He responded by daring protesters to get out of line in “his” parish, by drafting hand-picked Negroes to publicly defend him and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and by publicly reading emails and text messages from protesters that contained racial epithets and profanities.
He has also defended Ronald Gasser’s actions like he was his lawyer rather than the person elected to protect and serve ALL residents of Jefferson Parish. He felt compelled to plead Gasser’s case in the media and has pushed hard the narrative of Gasser standing his ground.
Who follows someone for six miles to stand his or her ground?
Even though Gasser was ultimately arrested, he was only charged with manslaughter, not first- or second-degree murder.
There is no guarantee that a mostly white grand jury will green-light an indictment or that the Jefferson Parish district attorney will even push for one. There is also no reason to believe that a Jefferson Parish jury would convict a white man for taking a Black life, even though this murder happened in 2016.
It is difficult to imagine a jury filled with supporters of President-elect Donald Trump sending a white man to jail for taking a Black man’s life, given the current racial climate.
Those of us who do not want to see any of those things happen need to keep demanding justice for Joe McKnight because justice for McKnight is justice for all of us.
None of us is safe as long as angry white people think they have the right to end someone’s life because they are having a bad day or got into some kind of traffic dispute.
In Jefferson Parish and many other parts of the country, there are clearly still a lot of law enforcement agencies, elected officials and individuals who believe that Black and Brown people have no constitutional rights that whites are bound by law to respect.
We need to check them on that for our own safety and welfare and for that of future generations of people of color and the poor.
Sheriff Normand should be advised that with the “browning” of Jefferson Parish and the rest of America, the racial landscape is changing and there will come a day when a majority of Jefferson Parish residents will not allow him or anyone else to get away with unconstitutional policing or trampling upon anyone’s rights or dignity.
Frankly, I would love to see a peaceful “die-in” at Lakeside Shopping Center, Clearview Mall or the Oakwood Shopping Center on Christmas Eve. Nothing sends a message to those in power about the need for change like messing with somebody’s profits.
Imagine how quickly things would change if Black and Brown folks decided to give up shopping at Walmart for a month, buying Popeye’s Fried Chicken or patronizing supermarket chains that show little regard for the patronage of Black customers.
Who else but Black people pay somebody their hard-earned dollars to disrespect and abuse them?
That has to change and it is going to change.
We need to strategically identify businesses that have not earned our loyalty and invoke the courage, resilience, vision, dedication and dignity of our Beloved Ancestors to sustain us as we go all in for a protracted, sustained boycott of mainstream businesses with the power to convince law enforcement agencies and elected officials that the time to end all forms of injustice is now.
If we take a stand now for Joe McKnight, we will be able look back — as we did after the brutal murder of Emmett Till inn 1955 — and say that this young man did not die in vain.
All power to the people.
This article originally published in the December 12, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
