On June 26, seven white teens, perhaps best-described as white supremacists, in Jackson, Mississippi, repeatedly and continually beat a black man, then once they were done, took their SUV and ran over him, killing him. The leader of the teens, 18-year-old Deryl Dedmon, Jr., reportedly raised his fists and shouted “White Power!” as he murdered the 49-year-old black man, James Craig Anderson, simply for being black.
“As the teens were partying and drinking miles away from Jackson that night, in largely white Rankin County, Dedmon told friends they should leave, saying ‘let’s go fuck with some niggers,’ according to law enforcement officials,” CNN reports.
“Mississippi officials say it was a racially motivated murder,” CNN adds. “What the gang of teens did not know was that a surveillance camera was focused on the parking lot that night, and many of the events, including the actual murder of Anderson, were captured live on videotape.”
“This was a crime of hate. Dedmon murdered this man because he was black,” said Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith. “The evidence will show that.”
Asked if there could be any doubt whether the intent was to actually hurt and kill a black person, Smith responded: “No doubt about it. They were going out to look for a black victim to assault, and in this case, even kill.”
“I ran that nigger over,” Dedmon allegedly said in a phone conversation to the teens in the other car.
“He repeated the racial language in subsequent conversations, according to the law enforcement officials.
“He was not remorseful he was laughing, laughing about the killing,” said district attorney Smith.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=crime/2011/08/05/griffin.mississippi.hate.crime.cnn
So, what do you think? Is this a one-of-a kind assault, or evidence of a very large and growing problem of violent racism in America? And if so, who’s to blame? The teen and his family? The community? Our political system? Rhetoric from political groups?