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Bleekindigo
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Bleekindigo
Post Number: 184
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 04:08 pm: | 
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How do you folks feel about the reopening and possible prosecution of the remaining 5 folks still alive. Should they still go to jail for the rest of there lives?
And, what was the response in and around your neighborhoods and homes when this murder first happened?
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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 315
Registered: 07-2004
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 04:13 pm: |
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I wish somebody would send that woman who murdered Latasha Harlins to prison and remove that White woman JUDGE from the bench.....so that JUSTICE can be served.
I wish that would happen.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 1873
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 04:13 pm: |
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Bleekindigo,
I was still an itch in my daddy's pants when Till was killed. So I can't speak on what went down then from a first person basis.
But there's no Statute of Limitations on murder.
So if guilt can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, I say they should FRY those murderous sonsofb@#$%es! |
Bleekindigo
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Bleekindigo
Post Number: 185
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 04:26 pm: |
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Yeah, you are right Abm-there probably aren't many folks reading this board that can say what it was like in their homes and neighborhoods at that time.
How about this then. The murdering b#%($*( that admitted to the murder later on after they were acquitted obviously could not be retried thanks to the protection of the 5th amendment(?) "double jeopardy"
Who does the double jeopardy clause work for? Who does it work against? Is it affective or is it foolish and irrational?
Bleek- |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 742
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 04:47 pm: |
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Bleek:
I was five years old. I never heard of the case until I was a teenager and saw it in Jet or Ebony. I never heard my folks talk about it, even after that.
Of course, I live in St. Louis--lots of folks here got their heads in the sand. When Martin Luther King came here in the 60's no black church would let him speak--he had to go to a white one. And it was not because the brothers were scared.
Be that as it may, yes they need to be punished, although I do say Justice delayed is justice denyed--his mom is dead and unless somebody flips, its going to be hard to make a case now--they will have to use statements, the crime scene is non existent.
The ones that admitted it I think are dead. You don't want to get rid of the double jeopardy clause. Do you want Angela Davis retried? OJ Simpson? Don King? Black people who get off, few as they are, are the ones who would be repeatedly tried if there was no double jeopardy clause. |
Brelei715
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Brelei715
Post Number: 78
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 04:57 pm: |
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I personally have 2 ideas about it. My first would be yes. I was not even an itch in my daddy's pants when this occurred but I do remember reading on it and the pain was just as fresh as if he was my peer. I always wanted those people to be brought to justice. Never thought I'd live to see the day but i'm sure we all thought the same about the Medgar Evers case. My 2nd opinion would come from an episode of Crossing Jordan that I saw last night. This guy (Keith from Six Feet Under) wanted Jordan to re-open his father's case. His father was killed in front of his door steps 6 weeks before his only childs birth. There was a hung jury twice but the case was open and shut. The mother did not want to proceed because besides not wanting to re-open her old wounds she felt that it wasn't worth it. She said all the other people were dead and the man who SHE SAW do it was old and taking care of his wife who had Alzheimers. She felt that he was already in his own hell. The son did not feel that way. He wanted to proceed and he found that the doctor who proformed the autopsy 40 year ago had left a bullet in his father just in case the day of justice had come. The funeral director used like 3 times the amount of embalming fluid so the man was exactly the same 40 years later just in case the day of justice had come. And the old judge, he kept the gun just in case that day should come. Anyway to make a long story short they found all the evidence they needed to convict this guy but the mother felt it was not needed, she said if the man would just come aplogize that would do her fine. That comment made me realize that sometimes you have to look at things from all perspectives. what justice if any will emmitt tills mother/family gain from this? How healthy are these people? Will we really gain or make any type of statements by locking up 6 old decrepid {sp} dying men? Yes we may say, that's what ya'll get, old bastards but what will be gained? Is it worth it?
Now before ya'll start blowing up, I did not say ye or ne, just what ifs. |
Bleekindigo
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Bleekindigo
Post Number: 186
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 05:06 pm: |
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Breeeeleeeeiiii---
An apology???
Bleek- |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 1881
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 05:23 pm: |
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Brelei,
No "blowing" at you here, My Sistah. Those are some very REASONABLE views. But here is why I may disagree with you.
1) And few people know and realize this, a crime is not, for the purpose of law, a wrongdoing committed against a individual, it is against the entire community.
So no offense intend to Till mother, family or friends, but that really should be left to those who are duly/right authorized to determine what to do.
2) Emmit Till's murder is a pivotal event in the history of the United States. It was the rallying point for near every significant Civil Rights change to occur in the last 50 years.
Yet the murder itself was never adjudicated.
Now. We've got brothahs doing 10 years for having too many vials of crack cocaine on'em. You telling me it is more important that THEY do time than it is those who committed the crime that changed the lives of Black people throughout the nation and even the world? |
Moonsigns
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Moonsigns
Post Number: 433
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 05:34 pm: |
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If guilt is proven, I don't care how old they are, they need to sit in jail until they die. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1690
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 06:09 pm: |
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I hate to tell how old I was when this tragedy happened. But, you know I live right outside of Chicago, and although I didn't go view the body I knew people who went and stood in the lines that snaked around the funeral home, waiting hours for a chance to see how horrible Emmitt looked under the glass of his coffin. Oddly enough, at first, although everybody was outraged, black people were mumbling among themselves that Emmitt should've known better than to go down in Mississippi and whistle at a white woman. After a while, however, the significance of this tragedy started to sink in and the anger started to gain momentum, giving impetus to the fledgling civil rights movement. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 319
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 07:23 pm: |
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Wow Cynique.
Maybe in time....the black community will also come to see the enormous malfunction in our reaction to R. Kelly's sex tape with a 14 year old girl (on whom he urinates after sex)--and will stop supporting him and making him richer and richer.
And perhaps we will come to see how we really didn't demand justice for this generation's Emmett Till---Latasha Harlins, the 14 yr. old girl shot in the back by a Korean grocer on video only to have a white woman Judge put the grocer on 5 yrs. probation.....because the little black girl had a "bad attitude" that day (but committed no crime).
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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 320
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 07:53 pm: |
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Was the actual viewing of the body in Chicago?
Was that in 1955?
I've been trying to look up some info about it.
Where in Chicago did they have the viewing, Cynique?
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Lawchic
Newbie Poster
Username: Lawchic
Post Number: 14
Registered: 10-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 10:19 pm: |
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The real problem I see with this case that no one has mentioned is the race of the man currently being investigated.
The confessed murderers were white men, both long dead. The problem is that there were two black men that helped them The FBI is looking at one of them that I know of. He is now in his 80's. The black man was identified by Till's uncle and another black eyewitness that was outside the barn/shed that he was being tortured in. The uncle is dead; the other black witness is still alive.
The other person this investigation is focusing on is the woman who was whistled at. She was the wife of Bryant, one of the men tried for the murder. They are considering kidnapping charges against her because she pointed Till out to her husband and the others and they took him away from his family at gunpoint.
Now, the white woman will probably never get what's coming to her because the old uncle is long dead and I'm not sure what the cousins who were there that night can testify to. It was said she was sitting in a darkened pick-up and all they heard was a woman's voice; never saw her face. They just assumed it was her.
But this is the real problem. The black men who were assisting worked for Bryant (white man). They may not have wanted to help him torture this boy, but what would have been the repercussions to them and their families if they refused? Can we as black people forgive them for what they did under the circumstances of those times? Or should we say "you should have been stronger!" |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 323
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 10:32 pm: |
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Fascinating!
This would make a compelling film.
I say prosecute the black men as accomplices to murder....and do everything in creation to find the evidence to drag the white woman in as well---she's CONFESSED to somebody in her life time.
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Lawchic
Newbie Poster
Username: Lawchic
Post Number: 15
Registered: 10-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 10:41 pm: |
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Kola: There is a documentary in the making. The opening of the investigation came about because a young filmmaker has been studying this case since he was a teenager. He studied volumes of documents from the original investigation and hunted down numerous witnesses, relatives, etc. and with the help of a lawyer, presented his findings to a U.S. Senator. The Senator was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He had the info sent to the Justice Dept. and they decided to re-open the case.
I don't know when the documentary will be finished. But, who knows? The young man may delay it until he sees where this investigation is going. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1692
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - 12:00 am: |
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Emmitt Till's killers confided how they murdered him to some of their friends who later sold their story to LIFE magazine who printed it. This was maybe a couple of years after it happened. The details are no secret. Till's uncle was involved because he was told that if he'd turn him over to them, all they were going to do was whip Emmitt and then let him go. Obviously all of the black people involved were intimidated and probably a little miffed that this young "uppity" kid from Chicago came down there and was causing them a lot of trouble. The killers also said that Till was defiant till the end. They beat him and shot him and tied him to a cotton gin motor and threw him in the river. Based on this info, these men were brought to trial and the uncle pointed them out in the court room and then snuck out of town the next night, knowing his life was in danger. It took the all-white jury about a half hour to find the defendants not guilty. Till's body lie in state at one of the black funeral parlors on Chicago's south side. His body, after being in the water all that time, was grotesque and unrecognizable but his mother insisted the casket be open so everyone could see what had been done to her son. These are my recollections. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 326
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - 12:03 am: |
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Thanks Cynique.
This is making me angrier and angrier.
It's heartbreaking. I'm so PROUD of that boy standing his ground to the very end.
His mother was raising a real man.
God bless him.
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 746
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2004 - 10:48 am: |
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I suppose my whole problem with this is that Emmitt Till's murder was not a crime that took place in a vaccuum--
We have those that actually killed him. Then those who actually aided and abetted or stood by, who I suppose are the ones they are going to prosecute.
But a jury of twelve let the original killers go. Weren't they involved? How about the judge who sat over the trial? How about a community that sat on its hands after the verdict was in? That stayed silent all this time? That created a climate in the first place where a man could feel he could kidnap and murder a boy with impunity? That saw this trifling act as a mortal insult that he must avenge if he was to keep standing in that community?
The guilt runs real deep. |
Brelei715
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Brelei715
Post Number: 80
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2004 - 11:20 am: |
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I know Bleek, that's what I said when she first said it. I was with the son on convicting the old geezer but I did see the logic by the end of the show.
Yes, Abm I feel what you are saying but just because people (white people) skated through crimes 50-60 years ago that should not give ANYONE {black or white} the OK to skate now. Yes, the person who had 100 vails of crack cocaine selling it out and destroying their own people should go to jail. Hopefully there they will learn from their mistakes and become a reliable product of society when they return.
AND SINCE YOU FEEL THAT IMPORTANT FOR THE PERSON/PERSONS WHO COMMITED THE CRIME THAT CHANGED THE LIVES OF BLACK PEOPLE THORUGHOUT THE NATION AND EVEN THE WORLD TO BE CONVICTED SHOULDN'T IT BE JUST AS IMPORTANT FOR THE PERSON/PERSONS WHO ARE CURRENTLY COMMITING CRIMES AND HAVE CHANGED AND ARE CHANGING THE LIVES OF BLACK PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE NATION AND EVEN THE WORLD TO ALSO BE CONVICTED?
Kola, being that this R. Kelly thing is bothering you so deeply (you bring it into EVERY single post regardless of if it is relevant or not) maybe you should start some kind of website or petition or something to express your concerns and maybe you'll be able to reach more people and make your points valid. DON'T TALK ABOUT IT, BE ABOUT IT!!!
And if what Cynique said true....that they were found not guilty than I would have to say no they should not re-open it. If you are tried and found not innocent by a jury of your peers (regardless if they were all a bunch of racist bigots) than YOU CAN NOT BE RE-TRIED. That is against the law and don't you think that we as a people would be opening additional problems for us. They would re-try and re-try and re-convict er' body on er' thang.
Wouldn't it benefit us {as a people} more if we focused on problems in the present. It seems to me that it would be a little hyprocrytical for us to fight for justice for back in the day when so many people died for our justice in the future and we don't appreciate nor do we take advantage of all the opportunities WE COULD HAVE TAKEN? Personally I beleive Dr. King, Malcom and maybe even Emmit would be very dissapointed in our progress (if you can even call it that). We ain't neva gonna get that forty acres or the damn mule so why are we still waiting for it???
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1716
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2004 - 11:47 am: |
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Her son's death certainly motivated Mamie Till. She was a young divorcee, just getting by, working at a dead-end job when Emmitt was killed. But she enrolled in college, got a degree, became a school teacher, a playwrite, a civil rights activist and a mother figure was was loved and revered by Chicago's black community. She died last year in her middle 80s. She did re-marry but never had any more childlren, I think after bcoming deeply religious, she said that she forgave Emmitt's killers. |
Brelei715
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Brelei715
Post Number: 81
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2004 - 12:41 pm: |
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Cynique I do beleive that if you don't forgive you can't excel in life. I also beleive things happen for a reason. On the day that Emmit Till was born, though I'm sure it sadden God, he knew just when and how he would leave this world. You see how the death of her child made Mrs. Till stronger than ever. Unfortunately sometimes God ALLOWS things to happen to make change and/or to bring you closer to him. It's just sometimes we ignore the signs or pay no mind to it. Emmit, Dr. King, Malcom, Medgar and so many others lost their lives for a reason unfortunately the ones they lost their lives for didn't see the value or should I say didn't instill it within their children or their children's children and now their children's children's children's children are so lost and will remain there until we stop talking about it and BE ABOUT IT...
NOTE: THE ABOVE COMMENTS WERE NOT MEANT TO OFFEND BUT TO SERVE AS A WAKE UP CALL TO ALL INCLUDING MYSELF....my children are just as lost in this world as the next. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 1907
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2004 - 02:20 pm: |
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Brelei,
Just because we choose to forgive doesn’t mean the criminal should avoid being prosecuted/punished for his or her crime. Forgiveness really has nothing to do with the criminal. It is more for the benefit of the aggrieved. Forgiving allows those who have been victimize to spiritually reconcile what has happen to them.
But that should have little bearing on whether/how one is made to make recompense to committing the capital crime of murder.
And here are some other reasons why I hope there is trial:
3) It could be used to provide one of the best civics lessons EVER. Most of our kids have NO IDEA why Till’s murder is such a pivotal event in the Civil Rights. So I hope that the attention surround the trial (Court TV segments of it should be replayed in classrooms) would help to remind us all, old and young about where we come from, how we got where we are and where/how we need to move forward together.
4) Why should time/age have ANY bearing on murder? Time didn't bring Emmitt back to life. Time didn't make Mrs. Mosley and her family stop missing their kin. So, I believe old criminals, especially concerning what happened with Till, deserved just as harsh treatment as young ones, if not WORSE. Because these men were undeservedly allowed to live out their lives, have families, good times, acquire property and position in life that they denied Emmit.
So I say let’s hurry up and try/convict their crusty @$$e$ before the wrinkly sonsofb@#$%&es die on us. |
Brelei715
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Brelei715
Post Number: 90
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2004 - 02:44 pm: |
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Abm said: So I say let’s hurry up and try/convict their crusty @$$e$ before the wrinkly sonsofb@#$%&es die on us.
Brelei: just fell out on the f'kin floor and died laughin....... |
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