View Single Post
  #2  
Unread 10-08-2019, 01:12 AM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Posts: 8,307
Default

Not to defend white supremacists, but the article you cited points to a suspect with a different motive:

Quote:
In an interview with "Today," a lawyer who represented Jean's family and is now working with Brown’s relatives, said Sunday that Brown’s role in the trial caused him to fear “for his life.”

The lawyer, S. Lee Merritt, attributed that fear, in part, to a shooting that occurred in recent months during a birthday party at a Dallas club that Brown attended. Brown was shot in the foot, Merritt said, and a friend of his was killed.

It wasn’t clear what caused the incident, but Merritt said Brown knew the shooter and worried the person “might come back to try and finish the job.”

Brown’s relatives told Merritt that he worried about how the trial’s publicity could leave him more exposed to "people who wished him harm," and how he could be viewed as a “snitch” for cooperating with law enforcement in Guyger’s prosecution.

Brown heard such pushback in the days after the trial, Merritt said.

Merritt said he had no evidence to suggest Brown’s death was in retaliation for his testimony, but he added, “it is certainly worth investigating or looking into and we expect the city of Dallas to apply all of its resources and manpower to figure out what happened."
If he was shot by someone he knew--perhaps another Black man--for the sin of cooperating with the police even to enable a member of the police to be brought to justice, that might be a more horrific and intimidating act of terrorism than if he were shot by a white supremacist.

I suppose it could still have been a white supremacist, particularly if the earlier attempt made framing someone else for this shooting a temptation. It's too early to jump to any conclusions, except that Joshua Brown's decision to testify despite very credible death threats was, indeed, heroic.

I'm reminded that the word "martyr" comes from the Greek μάρτυρος, meaning "witness." Testifying to the truth is a very brave thing to do.

Last edited by Julie Steiner; 10-08-2019 at 01:30 AM.
Reply With Quote