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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLouisiana Horror Story: Race, class, murder, the death penalty, marijuana, vicious prosecutor
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/06/revenge-killingAnnals of Justice JULY 6, 2015 ISSUE
Revenge Killing
Race and the death penalty in a Louisiana parish.
BY RACHEL AVIV
The Caddo Parish D.A. recently told a reporter, I think we need to kill more people.
A week after his son turned one, Rodricus Crawford woke up a few minutes before 7 A.M. on the left side of his bed. His son was sleeping on the right side, facing the door. Crawford, who was twenty-three, reached over to wake him up, but the baby didnt move. He put his ear on his sons stomach and then began yelling for his mother. Look at the baby! he shouted.
Crawford was lanky, with delicate features, high cheekbones, and a patchy goatee. He lived in a small three-bedroom house with his mother, grandmother, uncle, sister, and a younger brother in Mooretown, a neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, bordered by a stretch of factories and next to the airport. His mother, Abbie, a housekeeper at the Quality Inn, rushed into the room and picked up the baby, who was named Roderius, after his father. He looked as if he were asleep, but his forehead felt cool.
Crawfords uncle called 911, and an operator instructed him to try CPR while they waited for an ambulance. Crawfords mother and sister took turns pumping the babys chest.
Im doing it, Maam, but he aint doing nothing! Abbie said, out of breath.
The ambulance seemed to be taking too long, so Crawfords younger brother called 911 on another line. The babys not talking, not breathing, not saying anything, he said. Can you get an ambulance?
They were used to waiting a long time for city services; the alarm could go off at their pastors church and ring all night, and the fire department would never come. There was a saying in the neighborhood that the police were never there when you needed them, only when you didnt. The community was populated almost entirely by black families, many of whom had grown up together. After a few more minutes, Crawfords brother called 911 again. We need an ambulance, Maam, he said. Its been twenty minutes!
<snip>
Much, much more and it gets much, much worse at the link.
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Louisiana Horror Story: Race, class, murder, the death penalty, marijuana, vicious prosecutor (Original Post)
Comrade Grumpy
Jul 2015
OP
This is another reason we need to demand a focus on who this happens to and why.
Jefferson23
Jul 2015
#3
Kicking this horrifying story for one more day. A must read you won't believe.
Comrade Grumpy
Jul 2015
#9
Faux pas
(14,714 posts)1. No words
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)2. I think the prosecutor may be literally clinically insane.
He needs to be removed, not elected DA for the whole parish.
marble falls
(57,537 posts)4. Something is going on with him that should have some sort of intervention.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)3. This is another reason we need to demand a focus on who this happens to and why.
If those among us do not push, the victims will multiply.
Sound the alarm, annoy the hell out of your elected reps.
That story is horrific.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)5. Kick for the afternoon crew. n/t
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)6. Devastating. K&R
Solly Mack
(90,802 posts)7. K&R
damn
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)8. .
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)9. Kicking this horrifying story for one more day. A must read you won't believe.