nhboy
Ubi bene ibi patria
" A man was lynched this week.
Timothy Caughman, 66, was a former social worker who, in his retirement years, had taken to recycling to keep busy and help pay for his apartment, a room in a building for people transitioning from homelessness to permanent housing (a longtime tenant, he was not homeless himself). Caughman was black, which made him a target for his professed killer, James Harris Jackson, 28, of Baltimore.
By his own account, Jackson hated black men. “I’ve hated black men since I was a kid. I’ve had these feelings since I was a young person. I hate black men,” he reportedly told police. And armed with a sword and several knives, he traveled to New York City to kill them. On Monday, according to a police account from the New York Times, Jackson confronted Caughman—who was sifting through trash for recyclables—and stabbed him. He then tossed his sword in a nearby garbage can and went to a restaurant restroom to wash away the blood.
There’s nothing ambiguous here. Jackson says he targeted a black man for death to make a statement about the kind of society he wants to have. Once finished with his task, he turned himself into police.
Prosecutors say this was a hate crime and “most likely an act of terrorism.” We should also think of it as a lynching, the latest episode in an American form of racial violence that stretches back to the 19[SUP]th[/SUP] century. Jackson’s professed crime has all the hallmarks of the lynchings that scarred the American landscape from the close of the 19[SUP]th[/SUP] century to middle of the 20[SUP]th[/SUP]. This isn’t a semantic point. To describe this attack as a lynching is to emphasize the reality of anti-black violence, its persistence through time, and the way in which it’s justified. "
Read more here: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/03/timothy_caughman_s_murder_was_a_lynching_in_trump_s_america.html
Timothy Caughman, 66, was a former social worker who, in his retirement years, had taken to recycling to keep busy and help pay for his apartment, a room in a building for people transitioning from homelessness to permanent housing (a longtime tenant, he was not homeless himself). Caughman was black, which made him a target for his professed killer, James Harris Jackson, 28, of Baltimore.
By his own account, Jackson hated black men. “I’ve hated black men since I was a kid. I’ve had these feelings since I was a young person. I hate black men,” he reportedly told police. And armed with a sword and several knives, he traveled to New York City to kill them. On Monday, according to a police account from the New York Times, Jackson confronted Caughman—who was sifting through trash for recyclables—and stabbed him. He then tossed his sword in a nearby garbage can and went to a restaurant restroom to wash away the blood.
There’s nothing ambiguous here. Jackson says he targeted a black man for death to make a statement about the kind of society he wants to have. Once finished with his task, he turned himself into police.
Prosecutors say this was a hate crime and “most likely an act of terrorism.” We should also think of it as a lynching, the latest episode in an American form of racial violence that stretches back to the 19[SUP]th[/SUP] century. Jackson’s professed crime has all the hallmarks of the lynchings that scarred the American landscape from the close of the 19[SUP]th[/SUP] century to middle of the 20[SUP]th[/SUP]. This isn’t a semantic point. To describe this attack as a lynching is to emphasize the reality of anti-black violence, its persistence through time, and the way in which it’s justified. "
Read more here: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/03/timothy_caughman_s_murder_was_a_lynching_in_trump_s_america.html