Remembering the Scottsboro Case (was Re: Breaking Butterflies& Poisoning Wells)

[Kelley]

At 09:29 PM 2/10/2000 GMT, you wrote:
>	From sokol at jhu.edu Thu Feb 10 13:03:11 2000
>
>	I once tried to explain the Mumia case to my black neighbors
>	who have never heard of it, they just shrugged and commented
>	"well, if he killed a cop, he deserves it."
>
>Let's hear it for 15-second-man-on-the-street analysis!  Of course,
>the question is not "Should he be punished if he killed a cop?"
>(which seems to be the question they must have thought you asked)
>but rather "Does a person accused of a crime where there are no
>living witnesses deserve a fair trial even if the only evidence is
>circumstantial?" ... and what does it have to do with your neighbors
>being black?  I bet if you asked my French neighbors, they'd say
>the same thing.  So?
>
>	I absolutely understand them.
>
>Doug is right: you *are* scary.

not as scary as your inability to read and follow a thread.  the thread at
this point was about why blacks in chuck0s neighborhood weren't into the
mumia case.  hence woj's reference to his neighbors' race whic, til now,
he's never bothered to mention before.  furthermore, woj obviously tried to
*explain* [his word] the case to neighbors whose reponse was above, as it
is for a lot of people.  he didn't take a 15 second on the street opinion
poll.

kelley