U.S. to Reopen Probe of Till Slaying

[Must_B_Free]

Till was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Miss., on Aug. 28, 1955. The mutilated body of the 14-year-old from Chicago was found by fishermen three days later in the Tallahatchie River.

Pictures of the slaying shocked the world. Two white men charged with murder — Roy Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam — were acquitted by an all-white jury.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&e=4&u=/ap/20040510/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/civil_rights_killing

[Gman]

1. Polls say Bush must get more of the Black vote

that's the only reason for this. It damn sure isn't because of an unquenchable thirst for justice. This is about as hypocritical as possible within the grand scheme of the entire universe.

[bemildred]

2. Well, it makes a nice distraction too.

If this goes on a while, we may get to open up a bunch
of old atrocity cases. "Bush reopens investigation of
Wounded Knee".

[JoFerret]

15. It is still good news

.

[struggle4progress]

13. Even if you're right (and you may well be) ...

who could object to federal prosecution of anybody associated with this old crime? It was shocking then; it helped define a generation; and the acquitals certainly provided no sense of justice.

[othermeans]

3. Are any of the principles still alive?

I imagine there would have to be in order to bring charges.

[candy331]

4. Wasn't there a black man

decapitated and drug by a pick up truck in Texas while Bush was in Office as Governor? He couldn't stop that in his own state but now they want to rectify something in another state. Just goes to show the brown skins in other lands the true America in my book.

[starroute]

6. Yes, and his gravestone was desecrated just a couple of days ago

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/20380.htm

May 7, 2004 -- JASPER, Texas - The tombstone of James Byrd Jr. - a black man who was dragged to death - was found broken yesterday, with an obscenity and racial epithet carved into a metal plate on the bottom of the stone.

"We hoped he could rest in peace," said Stella Byrd, his mother. "They've done enough to him already."

[Eye and Monkey]

14. Bush suppressed Texas Hate Crimes Bill - refused to sign if passed

His hair-ball lieutenant signed it reluctantly after it was gutted. Junior maintained that "all crimes are hate crimes".

http://www.laglc.com/section01/news03/050801B.htm
AUSTIN, Tex., May 7, 2001
Joining the Texas House, the State Senate today approved a hate crimes bill, two years after Senate allies of Gov. George W. Bush suppressed similar legislation opposed by conservatives because it specifically included protections for gays. The vote on the measure, which would strengthen penalties for hate crimes against explicitly designated groups, was 20 to 10. It followed rejection of an amendment that would have deleted designation of those groups, including gays and lesbians.
MORE -

Also:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/hate_groups/hategroups307.html
Associated Press/May 12, 2001

Austin, Texas -- After refusing for months to say where he stood, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas signed a hate crimes bill today that strengthens the penalties for offenses against minorities, gays and others. The measure, the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, was named for the East Texas black man who was dragged to his death from a pickup truck in 1998 by three white men. Mr. Perry's predecessor, President Bush, had refused to support the measure two years ago, saying all crimes are hate crimes.
MORE -

[Judi Lynn]

7. Probably the worst thing anyone had heard in years and years

So much hatred poured out in hideous stupidity on one lonely man who was unlucky enough to be alone on the road when those goblins from the Ku Klux Klan clattered by in their pickup.

George W. Bush didn't have time to go to the man's funeral, or to visit with the grieving and shocked family members. If I'm not mistaken, he said something snotty about James Byrd's sister, too. I'm fuzzy about that.

This crime from the 1990's equals what happened to that poor young man, Emmett Till ALMOST, with the exception the victem was fully mature.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Emmet Till in his casket



The Death of Emmett Till

Words and Music by Bob Dylan
1963, 1968 Warner Bros. Inc
Renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

Twas down in Mississippi no so long ago,
When a young boy from Chicago town stepped through a Southern door.
This boy's dreadful tragedy I can still remember well,
The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till.

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up.
They said they had a reason, but I can't remember what.
They tortured him and did some evil things too evil to repeat.
There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds out on the street.

Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a bloody red rain
And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain.
The reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it ain't no lie,
Was just for the fun of killin' him and to watch him slowly die.

And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial,
Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till.
But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful crime,
And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind.
(snip/...)

http://www.strangefruit.org/emmett_till.htm

[Say_What]

5. Both self confessed murderers dead...

Wanna get p*ssd off? See the documentary.

<clips>

...Roy Bryant was also interviewed for the same Soundprint program. Legally blind and plagued with back trouble, he refused to talk about the case. Even though he was protected by double jeopardy, he still feared he would have to pay for his crime before he died.

"Let that goddamn stuff die," Bryant said. "Look what they done with Beckwith. And now they want to get me, well, to hell with them. I'm not gon' talk about it. Can't ever tell what they might do nowadays, they might change the Constitution."

(White supremacist Byron de la Beckwith was convicted of murder in 1994, 31 years after assassinating black NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers.)

Embittered, Roy also claimed that his half-brother J. W. got all the money from the Look deal. "A lot of people made a bunch of money off of this. I ain't never made a damn nickel."

In 1981, Milam died of cancer of the bone. In August 1994, shortly after the Soundprint interview, Roy Bryant died of cancer.

No one ever did time for Emmett Till's murder.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/peopleevents/p_defendants.html

[Judi Lynn]

8. How can people get that sick? What's more, there are still so many of them

left, and THEY are passing on the "benefit" of their world-views, too.

I've seen those two and their wives at various times in documentaries, too. It's hard to miss their jaunty, cocky, smirking, swaggering displays of self-importance.



"After acquittal: Roy Bryant, Carolyn Bryant, Juanita Milam, J. W. Milam (left to right)"

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. Now they'll spend eternity wishing

they'd paid for their crime while they were alive.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Article says there are others who have been uncovered

God only knows how long they've been aware of them, of course. It stands to reason this is a cynical play for votes, and that they've simply been keeping this for a time it could be used to the greatest advantage.

R. Alexander Acosta, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said a recent public television documentary about the killing and other new information brought to the Justice Department's attention suggests that additional people still alive were involved in the killing.

It seems Senator Schumer has already been working on this, himself:

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat who has pushed for reopening the case, said the recent PBS documentary identified seven more people who may have been involved in Till's kidnapping, murder or both.

"In this rare instance justice delayed will not be justice denied," Schumer said Monday. "I hope the Justice Department will conduct a thorough, complete and speedy investigation as time is of the essence because of the advanced age of many of the potential witnesses."

_Bush's Justice Department is taking time out from its busy schedule trying to stamp out right-to-die progress, medical marijuana, pro-choice, privacy rights, etc., to get involved in a project they undoubtedly have known about from the first.

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. There is a Hell

And I like to believe that these men are in it. That's all I can say.

[Catherine Vincent]

11. Ditto!