African American Pundit (AAP) asks how and why a seventeen year-old star high school football player Billy Joe Johnson died on the road, shot with a shotgun, in the presence of a George County, Mississippi sheriff's deputy? The police say Billy Joe Johnson had tried to break into the house of his white girlfriend (he had the admiration of girls of every skin color), but the police also say that Billy Joe Johnson died in a typical traffic stop, after he ran a red light.
The police say that the sheriff's deputy went o radio from his car when all of a sudden Billy Joe shot himself in the mouth with a shot gun, and the shotgun was found laying on top of him. I wish the late Johnny Cochran were alive, such was his ability to show the absurdity of police testimony before a jury. But, Johnny Cochran has gone on to greener pastures, leaving his his legacy for the rest of us to emulate. 'If the story doesn't fit, it must be bullshit.'
So which of the police's two stories is true, if any of them is true. Did he die because his white girlfriend called the police after he allegedly tried to break into her house? Did he die because he ran a red light in a typical traffic stop? Or did he die because he was the most famous and renowned member of his community, beloved by all except those who viscerally hate Black men, and particularly Black men who "usurp" white men's "rights" by dating white women?
This case shows the poverty of the word "racism". If the sheriff's deputy was responsible in some way, was it because he was envious, jealous, color-aroused to envy, jealousy and fury by Johnson's bi-chromatic relationships, or did he die because white policemen believe that all Black males deserve to be in prison or dead? Did Billy Joe die because he didn't bow and scrape in the face of the sheriff's deputy?
It seems to me that the white girlfriend whose home was allegedly the target of a break-in attempt by Johnson that night is a valuable witness in this case. Did she call the police? Was she afraid of her boyfriend? Or is this alleged detail just another piece of propaganda invented by the George County, MS Sheriff's Department in a bold attempt to legitimize the execution of a star football player who had not even allegedly committed a capital or criminal offense, and where it is not even alleged that he threatened an officer?
Don't the police ALWAYS come forward with some unrelated and alleged act of wrongdoing in a young Black man's history in an attempt to demonstrate that police probably made the right decision when they decided to execute a Black man during a traffic stop?
This case stinks like rat that died in a hidden corner of the House of America.
There is so much that we don't know. That's why we call on Attorney General Eric Holder to visit the family in Mississippi and comfort them in the knowledge that the Justice Department is doing everything possible to find and disseminate the facts in this case. If President Obama can meet on the White House lawn with a police officer whose feelings have been hurt, then certainly Attorney General Eric Holder can meet in Mississippi with the grieving and anguished family of the late Billy Joe Johnson, promising them as much action is legally warranted after a full investigation.
It cannot and must not be a capital crime for a Black teenager to be a star football player and to date women regardless of their skin color. And Black young men must not die at random at the hands of sheriffs' deputies in the States of Mississippi in the year 2011.
I call on Attorney General Eric Holder to personally meet with the family, and to order the questioning of the sheriff's deputy and the white girlfriend, and gather others evidence as the facts warrant, before deciding what action is appropriate to vindicate the right to be alive, even if you are a star high school Black football player with a white girlfriend in Mississippi.
