Howard Witt flips the script – possible black on white hate crime in Knoxville, TN
Howard Witt, who brought national attention to possible black racial bias in Paris, TX and Jena, Louisiana, has a different type of story that will run in Sunday's Chicago Tribune (or is it different?).
See Witt's Sunday article here .
Witt reports on the murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, a young Knoxville, Tennessee couple who were carjacked, kidnapped, and raped before being murdered in January after going out for a date. Apparently conservative groups are trying to push this case as a hate crime.
My first thought upon reading Mr. Witt's story was to reflect upon the murders of two of my college friends, Reginald Broadus and Crystal Miller. Reginald and Crystal, two African-American students at Texas A&M University, were murdered execution style in the summer of 1994. They were killed at the hands of two black teens who were looking to take someone out that night, and they happened to come upon my frat brother and my soror.
I can't say what the motive was in the Knoxville murders for brothers Lemaricus Davidson, 25, and Letalvis Cobbins, 24; Cobbins' girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman, 18; or George Thomas, 24, but it fits a pattern of uber violent crimes that are too often perpetrated by African-American teens an young adults.
Still, there was nothing in Mr. Witt's article that suggested this was a hate crime in the classic sense. If there is a hate crime here, I propose that the accused had hatred of self, which all too often manifests itself in senseless violence against others. I pray for the families of the victims of these criminal acts.
Family photo downloaded from Chicago Tribune website
