Black Child Lynched in Paris, Texas
Creola Cotton comforts her daughter, Shaquandra
Slowly.
For seven years.
For seven years.
The rest of her childhood.
In March of last year, fourteen-year-old Shaquanda Cotton was sentenced to 7 years in prison for shoving a white hall monitor at her Paris, Texas school. The adult monitor says he was not seriously injured.
Shaquanda is a first time offender. She has no prior arrest record. She did cause no serious injury, but that didn’t matter.“A 19-year-old white man, convicted last July of criminally negligent homicide for killing a 54-year-old black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck, who was sentenced in Paris to probation and required to send an annual Christmas card to the victims' family.”
Now she spends her days and nights at Brownwood Prison trying to stay out of reach of the 2,500, murders, robbers, sex offenders and other violent, habitual offenders she is imprisoned with. She has tried to commit suicide to escape her nightmare.
Just three months earlier, the same judge who sentenced Shaquanda sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.
"Sometimes I feel like I just can't do this no more--that I can't survive this," Shaquanda says.
Brownwood prison is currently at the center of a state scandal involving a guard who allegedly sexually abused teenage inmates.
Mothers Unite!
(fathers, brothers, sisters,uncles, aunties, cousins, too)
I can't stand to see this child suffer like this. She's already been in that hell hole a year. We must do something.
I tried calling her mother to offer support and to offer her a share of my meager funds, but her number was unlisted--can you blame her. I was able to get through to Brenda Cherry, the civil rights worker mentioned in the Chicago Tribune story. I left a message at her home and I'm waiting for her to return it.
I'm ready to load my car and head for Paris. Anybody want to travel with me?
This post is based on the Chicago Tribune story, "To Some in Paris, Sinister Past is Back" by Howard Witt, Tribune Senior Correspondence, published March 12, 2007. Please read it for additional background.
Labels: black child, juvenile prison, lynch, Paris Texas, unjust sentence
posted by Mother @ 4:48 PM
44 Comments
Links to this post
44 Comments:
I'll join you!
This is a great injustice.
Let me know how we can help.
Michelle
That is outrageous!
I'm adding a link....
I serve a God who sits up high and looks down low,and he sees the injustice that has been done. I would like to assist. anythingbutfailministries@yahoo.com
Thank you Pastor Jones. I will forward your email address to the Cotton family.
I'll join you!
Sweetheart, keep your head up because no weapon form against you will not prosper And everything that rise against you will be condemn.
How have we allowed this type of behavior by a class of people or person to happen. Why have paris sat on the side lines a take the attitude that they didn't come for me. If you put blinders on and pretend that it does not affect you, if it is not directed toward you or your family you find yourself alone.
I do not condone the actions of this child; but the end result is BULLSHIT. Why haven't the powers to be (NAACP, stop the internal fighting and bullshit talks)got this child freed, the most she should have gotten is an ass whipping from her moma, commnity service and restitution to the adult she assulted; so that she understands that there is consequences for your actions. FUCK that, this is a case for Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson(this is a prefect soap box moment) Pray my child pray.. Your situation is only temporary, but death is permenante, Life is too precious * Remember this too shall pass.
GOD BLESS!!!!
Her actions are not condoned...BUT she is 14 years old.
We give her a changing live experience to correct a wrong choice...We all have made some wrong choices in our lives even as adults and didn't receive this sentence.
Keep praying for her freedom....
I will past this on her in the St. Louis and Illinois area to stand with you.
This is a grass roots effort to help in the freeing of Shaquanda Cotton.
The point of the letter that we sent to you was an effort to help spread the awareness of this injustice. I hope that you can help us in this endeavor. We need more coverage. This is why we are reaching out to the news papers and reporters all over the nation and the world.
If you can help us in any way please do. Right now we are starting with an email drive, and blog drive, followed by a letter drive, and we are also organizing marches in Paris TX. Please if you can help us by getting the word out. I believe that you can see that this is an injustice that reflects on the nation as a whole not just a small town in Texas, in justice in any form is something that we should all try our best to correct.
Any help that you can provide would be appreciated.
Thank-you.
7 years in jail for pushing a hall monitor--if you're black
(see links section)
What began as a bad day for 14-year-old Paris (Texas) High School freshman Shaquanda Cotton ended up as an apartheid nightmare. It seems that Shaquanda shoved a hall monitor in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun. She was trying to get to the nurse's office to get her daily dose of medicine for her "attention deficit" disorder. Was this African-American youngster suspended? Kept after school? Sent to a counselor for some anger-management intervention? No.
Shaquanda, who had no previous arrest record, was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant," and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years until she turns 21. Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.
For more see Chicago Tribune story, "To some in Paris, sinister past is back."
Contact all news, radio, and others you know. This might not be your child, but might be a child you know in the future if this is not dealt with this true injustice.
Below is just one of the letter's I sent on the behalf of Shaquanda Cotton:
Dear Sir;
This letter is in response to a story published in the March 12th 2007 issue of the Chicago Tribune regarding the continued confinement of Shaquanda Cotton of Paris Texas. I am simply infuriated at the severity of the sentence imposed by Judge Chuck Superville. The incident initially considered a misdemeanor, was elevated to a felony, and Judge Superville imposed an indeterminate sentence with one year certain, up to age 21. Yet despite the Lamar County’s District Attorney and his staff protestations to the contrary, one can only conclude that race and the efforts of the Shaquanda’s parent to receive equal treatment for Black children from the school Board and the administration of Paris High School. This action implies an attempt to squash legitimate dissent, a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. Surely this is not something you would approve, nor any other true American.
Additionally, once Shaquanda was remanded to the custody of the Texas Youth Commission, that initial callousness was further compounded by treating Ms Cotton, diagnosed since age 7 with attention hyperactivity deficit disorder (ADHD), with the drug seratraline (Zoloft). This drug, based on a public warning issued by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), indicated an increased risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior with the use of this antidepressant medication, especially if the recipient was under 18 years old. Shaquanda has since been recorded as having three attempted suicides in the course of the 11 months she has been incarcerated. Shaquanda Cotton, I may add has never been arrested or charged with any other crime previously, at most, a few minor infractions of school rules. Does wearing her skirt one inch too short or pouring too much paint in a cup, deserve such an overwhelming draconian response by the justice system in Paris Texas? I think you will agree with me that it does not.
This situation is unconscionable, Mr. Governor, and I am sure that you, as the leader of the great state of Texas, wants to see Shaquanda Cotton returned home, to recover her childhood, to grow up and become a fine upstanding citizen of whom we can all be proud. Send her home, now, and let her begin, realize her human possibilities.
Thank you.
You would be wise to get all the facts before you spread hysteria in your blog. Ms. Cotton was a problem child in terms of discipline and her mother was her enabler. In fact, it is the mother's fault Ms. Cotton is in the Texas Youth Commission today. To that, let me add, she was not sentenced to seven years in jail. She was given and indeterminate sentence until see reaches age 18. What that means is she can walk out of TYC anytime she proves she can function in school and her mother will ceaase to enable her behavior. See, Ms. Cotton was in alternative school when she attacked the school official. That means she had become such a problem in school, she had to be removed from campus and placed in a school for students with disciplinary problems. She is by no means the lone victim she has been painted to be.
It is interesting to see how you jump on this case simply based on the fact Ms. Cotton is a black student. If this had happened to a white student you would not have even known it happened at all. It is also interesting to see how people who don't know Ms. Cotton, her mother, or any of the school officials or the judge in this case think they have all the facts. You don't. You are accusing all in the school district, and the judicial system of being racist without knowing the facts. Shame on you.
You should know the mother of Ms. Cotton refused to assist the district in gettin a hold on Ms. Cotton's discipline problems. All she wanted to do is blame the white man, to make it a racial issue. That's the worst kind of racism.
I would encourage you to get all the facts, the real facts not the facts as you choose to see them, before you spew your lies and stir up racial tensions where there were otherwise none existant.
TELL THE TRUTH IS IT????? I dont care what the hell you are talking about. Of course she was a problem child. I would be a problem child as well if I was around a bunch of RACISTS PRICKS like yourself who thinks that we are still in the ealry 1900's. I live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and would have never went to jail for being a problem child, let alone shoving an NTA. I would've been sent to a problematic school. There's not too much RACISM going on in Philadelphia that we cannot handle. We are so angry because that WHITE LITTLE GIRL who burned her house down and that WHITE BOY who killed that BLACK LADY and her BLACK GRANDSON are only serving probation sentences!! Paris, Texas is a damn racist city, and something needs to be done about it!!! If you have any problems about what I've just said to you, you can comment back to me, I'll be back to look tomorrow! And yes, I have credentials, I am a Sophomore majoring in Government & Political Affairs at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, website www.millersville.edu if you want to check it out!! Thankyou.
Take Heart - Myspace is LIGHTING ON FIRE FOR YOUR DAUGHTER AND YOU WILL BE AMAZED HOW GOD WILL WORK THAT!!!!!
We are spreading the word.
And Shaquanda -- HEYYYYYY Girl!
Your people, our people - all people of heart and justice have done well.
Continue to say your prayers, listen to your mama, and never forget - to GOD BELONGS THE GLORY!!!
Stand back and be in awe of Him now.
Paris is scared.
But what they need to do instead is get right:
Superville: Look at all the facts
By Mary Madewell
The Paris News
Published March 25, 2007
County Judge Chuck Superville says he fears for the community’s safety and is calling for the national media and other organizations to investigate the facts before drawing conclusions about the Shaquanda Cotton case. The judge said a March 12 story in The Chicago Tribune unfairly painted the community as racist and a recent protest as well as the threat of future protests by organized groups with national media coverage could “spin this thing out of control.”
http://web.theparisnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=702edc9fc0ed587d
The world is turning - people in the UNITED KINGDOM are spreading your story on MySpace. The main press is backing away after the Chicago story - but we don't need them.
BEHOLD, your redemption nears.
Just stay prayed up.
Stay prayed up.
SOULWORKINGS, THERE IS NOTHING TO BE GAINED BY RESPONDING TO IGNORANCE. I KNOW IT ENRAGES YOU AS WELL AS MYSELF HOWEVER, DO NOT MAKE THEM THE FOCUS. THE FOCUS IS HELPING THIS CHILD. YOU WILL NOT CHANGE THE MIND OF EVIL DOERS AS THEY WILL NOT CHANGE OURS. WASTE OF TIME. THIS HURT MY HEART. IT ACHES, NOT TO SOUND CLICHE BUT, IT TRULY DOES, THIS COULD BE MY DAUGHTER. NO PERSON IS PERFECT YET AS BLACK PEOPLE WE OVERALL SUFFER THE HARSHEST OF CONSEQUENCES. THE THING THAT IS SADDEST IS HOW MANY PEOPLE DON'T CARE. YET WHEN THE NOOSE IS TIGHTENING AROUND THEIR OWN NECK, THEY WILL OF COURSE WONDER WHY NO PERSON IS ATTEMPTING TO ASSIST THEM. GOD I DON'T UNDERSTAND BUT, I DO PRAY THAT YOU SEND YOUR HOLY SPIRIT TO COMFORT THIS LITTLE GIRL.
SORRY, NOT SOULWORKINGS, I MEANT JASMINE,PROBLACK.
I am white, but this outrages me to see some places in America have obviously not progressed, so I'm writing a feature story for my english class on this and spreading the word. The 'elite' media has ignored this, but it's starting to get out of hand. In the next week or so (I hope) with enough emails this will have to go national, so keep up the hope! and let me know whatever I can do to help.
Wbrown,
She commited a crime. An act of physical violence against an autoity figure who was only tring to enforce the rules. She should be in jail. The fact that other people got lighter sentences for more serious crimes, is an injustice in THOSE cases, not this one. The issue is her actions, not her race.
Ok, now has anyone told Al Sharpton or Jessie about this. Funny how I received the story via email and it has not got any national attention. I hope she gets justice and get paid of that city/state.
What Ms. Cotton did is always a felony. In Texas, assault on a public servant is a Class III felony punishable by between 2 and 10 years in prison.
The issue before us is not so much a race issue, but an issue with our justice system. Ms. Cotton is not wealthy. She cannot afford a decent attorney. In all likelihood, she confessed while in jail awaiting her preliminary hearing (because she refused to either be silent or ask for a lawyer). In such cases, the prosecutor will go for a more serious punishment because she knows she'll win.
Someone who can afford a private attorney? My guess is that the white girl charged with arson (which in Texas, under the circumstances described in the Tribune article can be charged as a Class A Misdemeanor or a state jail felony (neither of which require jail time) had a private attorney retained by her parents before she was even taken into custody. She, in all likelihood remained in custody for only a brief while because her parents were able to secure bail. While in custody, she was likely well coached on how to deal with cops in prison (i.e., "I want my lawyer.") Arson, without a confession isn't always a slam dunk case. Evidence is often burned up. Evidence of guilt of a particular person is extremely difficult, especially if that person lived in the place that was burned. My guess is that the prosecutor was forced to offer a really sweet deal because she likely thought her case was a bit less than air-tight.
That's the thing though -- the Tribune Article and other blogs have used 2 or 3 examples off of a judge's docket when that judge probably sees thousands of cases each year. If you can only find 2 or 3 cases like that with any judge, you have a fine judge.
You don't know the circumstances of each case, most of the people I've read who have commented on this have shown themselves to be ignorant as to the way the Texas Penal Code handles certain offenses (Google it, it's very easy to find). At any rate, if you have had any significant exposure to the penal system and the juvenile system (not as a defendant) you'll appreciate that the issue here is not as much one of race, but income.
Ms. Cotton's mother obviously didn't see fit to work a decent job so that she could secure a decent attorney to defend her baby girl. Ms. Cotton is guilty as hell, and what she's guilty of is accurately described as a felony. She didn't even get the max. What is everyone complaining about?
Fighting racism should not involve excusing criminal conduct. Listen to these posts.. it's her "A.D.D.," her "medication," her "lashing out at a racist system." None of these things rob a person of her free will. I can't imagine that someone of normal (or even lower) intelligence couldn't comprehend the fact that it's a bad thing to physically attack a fellow human being.
Here's the video of the news story coverage of the protest march yesterday led by Ricky Smiley
http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=17029@ktvt.dayport.com&cid=7
First George Bush made me ashamed to be American now he makes me ashamed to be white. You should immerdiatly recieve a full pardon. I'm sure that hall monitor provoked you with some racial slur. She's the one who should be rotting in jail, not you. I'll be sure to write about your case in my collum "A Little Bird Told Me" in the Orange County Register tomorow. I will urge a boycott of Texas until you are a free woman once again.
Sincerly,
Margret Gray
Most of you on here really need to get over your "I'm black and you owe me something" selves. Or the few white yankees that have probably seen a whole of five blacks in their lives. I won't say what I really want to say about her, but from past dealings with her she is certainly in no way innocent. Perhaps black students are punished more than white students because they are in trouble more than white students. This could, in part, be due to the fact that their parents feel that they are above the rules and laws because over a hundred years ago some blacks were slaves, big deal! It happened, get over it, you have no idea what it was like! Whites are now basically your slaves because we tend to pay for your life because you are too lazy and under educated to work.
Go ahead and boycott Texas, we really don't want you damn yankees here anyway. I would like to remind everyone, however, that Texas did take in the majority of BLACK Katrina victims (most of whom are still here).
"because over a hundred years ago some blacks were slaves, big deal! It happened, get over it, you have no idea what it was like! Whites are now basically your slaves because we tend to pay for your life because you are too lazy and under educated to work.
Go ahead and boycott Texas, we really don't want you damn yankees here anyway. I would like to remind everyone, however, that Texas did take in the majority of BLACK Katrina victims (most of whom are still here)."
How many did you help personally?
I bet not a one.
Besides Texas is part of America.
They didn't do anything more than what a human being, a place where everyone talks about God, and country all day everyday should have done.
Texas is a place where slaves worked sun up to sun down under white folks whip for free.
A place where whites used the bible to justify their greed.
Get over it?
Naw baby, segregation continued long after slavery ended belately in Tx. Whites afraid of competition, quickly established Jim Crow laws after that. Those were JUST struck down in the 1960's. Now we are dealing with institutional racism and quiet bigots like yourself.
Question; don't you have a meeting to attend at the John Birch society, instead of posting on this message board?
Get over YOUR own venomous condescending self.
No one is condeming a act of violence. She should NOT have pushed the hall monitor. She also should NOT have been given seven years.
All of you who are hollering for Jesse or Al, they are damned if they do and damned if they don't!
If they show up they are labeled publicity hounds if they don't folks wonder where are they?!
What's up with that?
Where are all of the local leaders in Dallas, Houston, and other parts of Texas?
Why are folks always hollering for Jesse or Al?
Let some of the youth ministers in Tx, La and other parts of the south lead the way.
Let the Potters House or Bishop Long establish anger management classes, conflict resolution, etiqutte classes, and tutorial services.
Let them use the largess of the church to establish rites of passage courses.
Having a large choir, holding conventions and selling tapes and books are redundant when our youth are going to hell in a hand basket.
Instead of a lier jet or a new Bentley or church facade, use those tithes to equip our kids with character to avoid early parenthood and capitulating to the thug mentality!!
Teach young people to use their minds and develop character that resists violence.
Jesse and Al cannot solve every injustice of 35 million people.
There are plenty of room for other "leaders"!!
Stop hollering for Jesse and Al
..other "leaders" needs to step forward.
How many of you belong to ANY civil rights organization?
How many of you belong to the NAACP?
Yet, let something happen you go hollering.."Where's the NAACP?!!" and don't contribute a dime or time!
The bible says " there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed". Remember God rains on the just as well as the unjust. This judge has done nothing that he will not have to account for. Keep your heads about the situation and take it to God in prayer.
The Chicago Tribune story was nothing more than a smear story on Paris, TX. The reporter had no intention of reporting the full story, but rather part of it to incite an explosive response at the perceived horror of this massive racism. Anyone read the story of the 10 year old white kid who was arrested at school in Houston and quetioned for 4 hours before they were notified for taking a plastic cover off a fire alarm? Then a school official accidentally set off the entire alarm trying to stop the buzzer that sounds when the plastic cover is removed, yet the child was initially charged with a felony, sent to alternative school immediately, and is awaiting trial in May. Where is the outrage here? Oh, there is no racial issue here, so not that big of a deal.
The journalist has unfairly painted the whole town of Paris as racist. I'm sure there is some racism, but this selective journalism doesnt' fix anything, it only creates bigger problems.
The 19 year old white who killed 2 blacks and only received a year probation? Where are the details? There aren't any because the details would deflate the story. What was he charged with? What happened? He killed them with his truck according to the article. Did he run them down in a parking lot and run over them while chanting racial slurs? Or was it an accident in which his negligence caused the accident so blatantly that it was considered criminal negligence? Once again, the journalist doesn't give any details, only one or two sentences to provoke outrage.
The white girl convicted of arson. Did she fight the charge all the way and refuse to cooperate? Or did she plea bargain into a light sentence to avoid being charged with a felony? No info there from the journalist, usually this means the details would deflate the story so they are left out.
The black city council member said that she and her children had never had any problems in Paris. Why would she say that if the city is what the article portrays Paris as?
If you want to see where a huge portion of the problem comes from, try checking www.texaszerotolerance.com and click on their link of reported abuse. There are literally dozens if not hundreds of cases of children who have been criminalized for what would have been considered normal behavior prior to Columbine and 9/11. Shaquanda's case is just another example of a political system that holds school children to higher behavioral standards than the adults. She deserves a break, and I think community service would have been a much better choice for punishment.
Lets not smear an entire city over the injustice done by a few. Find the guilty few and single them out. The article in the Chicago Tribune is not fair to the good people in Paris, don't smear them while dealing with the bad ones in Paris.
This is outrageous. We can no longer sit & be quiet & wait for someone else to fight our battles or clean up or mess. This little girl needs our help. Unfortunately, it comes with exposure to those who have wrongly imprisoned her. Their jobs & security have to be put under scrutiny, because she is not the only one who is sitting in a jail cell with out cause.
Contact your government officials, radio, and t.v personalities to ger the word out. I have sent a letter to the governor & to Oprah. Every little bit helps.
This type of issues happens daily that everyone does not know about. Sure people only tell parts of the stoy, but is't still a story. When you think about what somone has done you think about how much time a person should get. For pushing anyone you would never say give her 7 YEARS!!! This is very much an injustice and something should be done about!
It's true, this type of thing happens daily, which is for the life of me, why I don't understand the hubbub here.
Want to make a real difference? Don't raise hell about a single result (which ain't all that shocking if you're the least bit familiar with criminal law in Texas), raise hell about the system which allows that sort of result!
Granted, many here have no clue. If Ms. Cotton can admit guilt (she's guilty, because she committed an act which touched on all of the elements of a crime which happened to be a Class III felony punishable by 2-10 years in the pokey), and start to show some discipline, reach some educational milestones, etc., she's a free woman. That could happen as early as this month.
Now, if she wants to be an obstinate child and refuse to take responsibility for an act she did commit and was 100% at fault for, she stays in the slammer 'til she's a 21 year old woman, who at that point will probably be so filled with rage that she'll be back in the penal system in no time at all.
Now while I do not condone Ms. Cotton's actions of shoving the hall monitor I will say that the punishment is definately too severe. I have read multiple posts on this blog about blacks are lazy, black think that whites owe them something, blacks, blacks, blacks, whites, whites, whites. I have to think that yes race does have a major part to play in the level of the punishment and the Lamar County/Paris, TX area does need to improve it's race relations. Let's look at the facts:
1. Ms. Cotton is diagnosed by a physician to have ADHD and is required to take scheduled medication to help control it while she is at school.
2. The hall monitor was not allowing Ms. Cotton to enter the school where she has gone daily prior to the start of classes for her medication.
3. After informing the hall monitor of this they still prevented her entrance.
4. Ms. Cotton shoved the monitor though they were not injured it is a capital offense.
5. This was Ms. Cotton's 1st run in with the TX Legal system (no prior arrests or warnings from the police)
Now my thoughts are this are listed below:
1. The school administrators knew that this young lady was on prescription medication to treat ADHD and knew the effects of the disorder, so the monitors should have been informed that she needed to see the nurse daily prior to classes to recieve treatement. With this being said it appears that someone did not want her to recieve her medication and thereby possibly be even more disruptive in class and get suspended or expelled.
2. The monitor could have not pressed charges and this could have been handled by the school internally and Ms. Cotton would not have ended up in prision. In school suspension is one method.
3. The judge had access to her record (clean) and as a 1st offender could have let her off with probation, and even if he just "had to send a message" could have placed her in a juvenile detention facitility for less hardened offenders for a lot less time 6-18 months tops.
C. Mac
Austin, TX
C. Mac:
As a long time "sufferer" of A.D.H.D., which when I was diagnosed many years ago was called "severe," I can tell you that it has not robbed me of my free will. In fact, when I was around Cotton's age, I decided to go off the meds.
Did I hit anyone? Nope. Get in fights? Nope. Trouble? Not that either. I practiced self-control -- something Ms. Cotton has failed to do. For the record, I'm about done with my 2nd year of law school and just got invited to law review. A.D.H.D. is a perfectly manageable condition to live with. It does not force one to attack people.
Ms. Cotton is the only one to blame for her actions, not her lack of medication, not the hall monitor, not her mother, not the judge.
It sounds like her problem is owning up to the fact that she is ultimately responsible for her own actions -- with or without her meds. From what I've read, such an admission is one thing which is standing in the way of her being released.
Hotep!
Power to the people. Shaquanda is free!
peace,
Villager
I guess things still are the ways the used to be. Too lazy??????? Anonymous, who the hell do you think you are? Too bad I am a proud African American who realizes racism when she sees it. It is so amazing that that damn white boy or little white girl committed serious crimes, and got off on probation. Where the hell is the Logic in that? I am a student at Millersville University anonymous. I guess I am still too lazy huh? You prick, shouldn't you be at a meeting? And yes, Texas did take in most of the Katrina's victims; however, it wasn't racist ass Paris, Texas. You said that we can protest Paris because you really don't want us there anyway, isn't that racist? If that isnt than I don't know what is. What your problem is, is that you haven't met a profrofessional African American yet. I bet your ass be hype watching our African American basketball players, football players, actors and actresses on the television don't you? LOSER!!
AND FOR YOUR INFORMATION I ATTEND A MAJORITY WHITE UNIVERSITY, AND YOU'D BE SURPRISED HOW MANY STUPID, CRIMINALS THINGS WHITE STUDENTS DO. YOU ALL ARE VERY CAPABLE OF DOING MANY HARMFUL AND DUMB THINGS, BUT BEING AS THOUGH AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE PERCEIVED AS BEING THE BAD GUYS, WE ARE PUT ON THE SPOT ABOUT IT!!
And MICAT72, mind your business. I wasn't talking to you!!!!
I am glad that justice has been served. Hopefully, judges throughout the United States will take cues from this instance and realize that no form of covert racism will go unnoticed and with impunity.
Good luck to Shaquanda in her future endeavors.
Wow! Wow,!
It's so sad, the "state of affairs" that still surrounds racism in this country today,..... still 500 years later!! Outrageous, just Outrageous!!!
Of all the slaves crossing the Atlantic from their homeland, jumping into the waters, killing themselves, friends and their loved ones, they, I wonder, are truely "the lucky ones." They knew. They just knew this "New Place" would be "HELL" to deal with, least alone ever get right for the blacks. They just knew. My mother taught all of her kids, and I'm sure many others have been taught this saying as well..... "the way it starts off, sometimes (not all of the time) is the way that it will end up in the end."
Shaquanda Cotton's ordeal, reminds me of Emmett Till's ordeal, back in a day. He looked at a white women..... and was gone soon after that incident, brutally, brutally murdered. Shaquanda, on the other hand, is being "murdered" in just a different way today. It's PRISONS now ( the new lynching) for her and the beautiful young black women and men like her. Some of the "most important years of their developement" as a human beings and as young black men/women, being able "to compete and be in the running" with some of this country's "BEST and BRIGHTEST" with a jump start on being able to contribute to their world,society, culture, and their race, (unless she/they can get it behind bars) will be such a "SAD, SAD WASTE" OF TIME and PRODUCTIVETY!!!!!
So, with that being that.........
It seems nothing too, too, too much has changed for all of the struggle (s) with of and about racism.
I'm sure Martin Luther King is still asking:
"How Long? How Long? along with all the "many dead slaves" before him and Shaquanda, who knew..........................it /could/would take a "VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY L-O-N-G................. TIME.
Oh for the Love of God get your facts straight. Facts are facts and you have totally taken this thing too far. Now she is free to go back to school and whose going to clean the mess up when she does something worse. Instead of name calling and pointing fingers why doesnt everyone try to find a way to help this girl, really help her get her counseling or into a church group. Use it for the positive.
You want a story-- how about helping the troops out who are getting discharged with no medical care, and suffering from TBI,no limbs etc. They are black white hispancic. This isnt a black or white issue, and some of the comments show ignorance on both sides. "Shouldnt you be at a meeting? was down right nasty and no amount of education you have makes that comment okay-- it showed igonrance at its worst.
THIS HAS GOTTEN TO FAR OUT OF HAND.
THIS CHILD DOES NOT DESERVE THIS KIND OF PUNISHMENT OF A CRIME SO SMALL REMEMBER BABY ALL YOU NEED IS IN THE OUR FATHER PRAY.PRAY UNTIL A CHANGE COMES GOD CAN AND WILL FIX THIS SOON .I WILL BE IN PRAYER FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY,AS WELL AS THE SICK,CRUEL WORLD.
Truth is the victim in the ‘Baby Cotton’ case
By Phillip Hamilton
The Paris News
Published April 1, 2007
SAN ANTONIO — About the time Rep. Harold Dutton, the Houston Democrat who chairs the House Juvenile Justice Committee, was telling the Associated Press Friday that Shaquanda Cotton would be released from the Texas Youth Commission, San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger was speaking to daily newspaper editors at the annual Texas Associated Press Managing Editors convention.
“Understanding starts with the truth,” Hardberger said. “If it is not the truth, it is not enough to just quote it.”
The mayor was addressing journalism in general, not the Cotton case, but his words certainly apply to the journalistic lynching of Paris that began last month with the publication of a report on her case by Chicago Tribune reporter Howard Witt.
Cotton’s case is not and has not been about racism, a truth Witt never understood because he approached the story with the preconceived notion that Paris is an ultra-racist city where justice and school discipline is administered based on the color of one’s skin. Bloggers across the nation didn’t understand the truth about Cotton either because they relied on the quotes in Witt’s report. Unfortunately, the quotes were a misrepresentation of this community.
In an email last week to the Chicago Tribune reporter, I asked Witt why he didn’t challenge some of the claims of some who said the school and judicial systems in Paris are racist. He explained that because he used their quotes, he didn’t have to challenge them. According to him, all his report required was “balance,” which he claims was achieved through including quotes at the end of his report from Paris City Councilwoman Mary Ann Fisher. He noted he didn’t challenge her quotes either.
That not acceptable in a news report. Remember what the mayor of San Antonio said?
All quotes should have been challenged because that is the only way to determine truth, which should be the essence of journalism but is often not — especially among metro and national newspapers that distance themselves from their readers. Truth is the hallmark of good journalism, not balance. Tell the truth.
At the Texas APME convention this weekend, I listened as speaker after speaker mentioned how the nation’s largest newspapers are those losing readership. Yet, it was noted that community newspapers are not losing readership. Why? Because they remain close enough to their readers to understand their responsibility to present the truth.
So, what is the lesson to be learned from the Cotton case? Apparently it is that guilt doesn’t matter, only who can raise the biggest stink in the national media to exert political pressure.
But let’s review some of the facts lost among the chants of racism that began with Cotton’s mother and Brenda Cherry and echoed throughout the blogs of this nation because Witt sought “balance” rather than truth in his report.
First, Cotton assaulted a public servant — a teacher’s aid. She committed a crime. Her release from TYC Saturday does not change that fact. Two teachers witnessed the assault, and medical personnel treated the teacher at the hospital. Was the aide seriously injured? No. But she was injured.
Cotton was “adjudicated delinquent” in a court of law. I can’t say she was found guilty because guilt is not determined in juvenile courts in this state. But it took a jury only five minutes to weigh the evidence and find her delinquent in her conduct.
And let’s not forget our “racist” prosecutors offered Cotton a plea bargain that would have reduced her charge from a felony to a misdemeanor and placed her on probation for two years. Her mother and her defense attorney turned down that offer. The duo was also responsible for the decision to allow County Judge Chuck Superville, rather than a jury, to set punishment. Yet now they decry his judgment.
I said it last week, but I’ll say it again. Cotton did NOT receive a seven-year sentence. She was given an indeterminate sentence, which meant her efforts toward rehabilitation should have determined when she got out, not political pressure and claims of racism. She could have been released as early as the 17th of last month.
We are all aware of the problems at TYC, but never has it been alleged that Cotton was a victim of the misconduct that took place in the youth corrections system, only that racist school and judicial systems in Paris sent her there. So, why was she released if she was not a victim of the alleged oppression at TYC. Clearly it was a political decision resulting from false claims of racism and had nothing to do with justice.
When political pressure from the legislative branch can influence the executive branch of government to supercede the judicial branch solely for political gain, democracy as our forefathers intended it is in jeopardy. That is exactly what has happened in the Cotton case.
But let’s not forget other facts of this case, like the unwillingness of Cotton’s mother to cooperate with the judicial system to make probation a feasible alternative to commission to TYC. The fact is as the Lamar County District Attorney’s Office stated last week: “The judge's hands were tied by the law and he had no other choice but TYC.” Witt and company would not have readers know that.
And here is food for thought. Throughout the recent days of controversy, when Paris Independent School District officials contended Cotton had been a continuous discipline problem, why didn’t the girl’s mother allow the district to “go public” with her record of disciplinary actions. Could it be that the record would call into question the contention “Baby Cotton” was a victim of racism by teachers and administrators? Would truth harm perception?
Since Cotton is free now and has nothing to lose, I hope this community will join me in calling for her mother to allow the release of her disciplinary records now so that everyone can see whether this girl is a victim of a racist school system or a juvenile delinquent with a history of disciplinary actions. Come on. What will it hurt?
Allow PISD officials to release your daughter’s records to The Paris News, and while you are at it, have them release it to the Chicago Tribune too. Maybe then, Witt can find the truth and present it.
Cotton didn’t have to spend one day in TYC, but she and her mother made some poor choices. That’s the truth. But let’s not let truth get
in the way of a good story.
Truth gets in way of Tribune story
By Phillip Hamilton
The Paris News
Published March 18, 2007
On July 6, 1920, Irving Arthur, 19, and Herman Arthur, 28, were taken to Lamar County Fairgrounds, lashed to the flagpole, doused with kerosene and burned alive.
Instead of receiving justice, the black men accused of murder were lynched — burned at the stake without a fair trial at which guilt or innocence could be established.
The ugly truth is that the lynching were among several that took place at the fairgrounds and on the plaza in Paris in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some are among the most notorious in the nation. They are ugly stains Paris can never wash away, and rightly so, lest this community forget the horrors to which racism leads.
With Lamar County Fairgrounds used as a backdrop, there was another lynching Monday — a journalistic lynching that started at the hands of Chicago Tribune senior correspondent Howard Witt.
Lashed with false statements, omitted facts and inaccurate information, this community is accused of outrageous racism in our courts and school system. Doused with racially charged words like "starkly segregated" and word pictures of blacks "scalded with hot irons and finally burned to death or hanged," Paris is being burned at the media stake by a journalist that didn't get the whole story poking the hot irons and igniting the fire.
Witt's fictional account of Lamar County justice has taken on a life of its own and is now hailed as truth on the Web and talk radio shows across the nation.
Consider this comment posted on a blog: "To the extent that you can spread the word about what has transpired — and reach out to those concerned about the future (and present) of Paris, Texas, please do so. It seems to me that a great place to begin might be the Board of Directors of the Kimberly-Clark Corp., the Campbell Soup Co. and the Sara Lee Bakery Group."
Some folks who read the story will make calls, and corporate officials will remember those calls the next time Paris is in contention for a plant expansion or when deciding whether to close a plant here or elsewhere. Witt's fiction could kill this community's economic future if allowed to stand as truth.
"I have passed this information on to others and we are preparing a media campaign to stimulate action and justice in this particular case," writes another blogger. "Racism is alive and well in Paris, Texas."
The problem is the perception of Paris as a white-hooded community becomes reality in this techno-driven information age in which we live even though the perception is unfounded.
"I feel like I just stepped into a history book," writes another blogger. "These people must feel pretty frickin' empowered and superior to think they can get away with this. A white boy kills two people and gets probation. A white girl burns down her parent's house and gets probation. A black girl pushes a hall monitor and gets seven years. Are they flippin' kidding?"
What is most troubling is that Witt's piece contributes to racial division.
Does racism exist in Paris? Yes, but not nearly to the extent the Tribune reporter would have readers believe. In fact, Shaquanda Cotton's case wasn't about race until her defense team played all they had — the race card. This case was about a student who assaulted a teacher's aide — a criminal offense warranting judicial punishment.
Was her sentence too harsh? Probably, but County Judge Chuck Superville saw the need to remove this student from her home, where such acts were not only tolerated but defended. School officials had exhausted their options, and the law didn't give the judge many choices.
But that doesn't give Witt and the Tribune license to paint Paris as a deeply divided city of racists by comparing her sentence to unrelated cases and omitting facts that reveal just the opposite.
Witt and the Tribune would have readers believe that if you are a white kid in Paris you can run over black people and get probation. The reporter fails to mention the grandmother and her grandchild died in an automobile accident on an icy highway.
In his effort to create the image of an white-hooded community, the Tribune's fiction writer fails to mention black teachers and administrators testified against Cotton at trial. Nor does he acknowledge the fact she received a stiff sentence because she was habitually in trouble at school.
It makes a better story to spin a tale of racist retaliation and suggest whites were sending "a signal to black folks." Here's the facts: there was no conspiracy to send this 14-year-old to "prison" because her mother had protested at school campuses and in most cases blacks and whites live in harmony in Paris.
Fortunately, at least one blogger is defending his or her community.
"I live in Paris, and the neighborhood that I live in is comprised of both white and black families right next to each other," the blogger writes. "To say that there is no racism in Paris would be just as inaccurate as to say that there is no racism in Detroit or Miami or New York, but it is dying. There are whites who are racist against blacks and blacks who are racist against whites in every single town in this nation. That's a (expletive deleted) shame, but the truth is it's dying. Trying to interject racism into a situation in which there is none only serves to perpetuate that which a community is unfairly being accused of."
But officials at Kimberly-Clark, Campbell Soup and Sara Lee are not likely to hear the bloggers comments because he's just one voice. No one will call corporate giants considering locations in this community and tell them Paris got lynched by the Tribune.
Witt spins a good tale, but let's call it what it is — fiction.
IF her mother had not defended her actions she would not have recieved the punishment she did. My daughter had her in a class and she was always in trouble, that is why she went to the alternative school, she had prior problems in school, its sad, she needed guidance and she wasnt getting it from home. Paris like any other town in America has its problems, but to call this town segregated is ignorant. I went to the school yesterday and all the kids were getting along, no one wants a trouble maker in the school of any color.
Maybe all this could of been avoided had she had proper care taking beginning in the home.
Everyone in this town of all colors are not making this a race issue, but because of a underhanded poorly informed journalist and people who dont even live here, now there is dissention -- where there was very little. Utterly ridiculous!
FACT: This juvenile girl assaulted a teacher, who by Texas law is a public servant, in September 2005. It was witnessed first-hand by two other teachers who testified.
FACT: Before trial, the Lamar County and District Attorney's Office (prosecutors) offered a plea bargain reduction from felony to misdemeanor assault and 2 years juvenile probation, which the mother and defense attorney turned down.
FACT: The juvenile had a trial and was found adjudicated delinquent by a jury (we don't refer to juveniles as "guilty" or "not guilty" in Texas - it's "adjudicated" or "not adjudicated") in March of 2006.
FACT: After the jury adjudicated the juvenile as delinquent, the defense asked Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to set punishment. The defense could have had a jury set punishment, but asked for the judge to decide.
FACT: This juvenile did NOT receive 7 years in prison. She was given an indeterminate sentence to the Texas Youth Commission, which means her conduct and cooperation with their behavior rehabilitation programs determines when she gets out. Minimum time to complete those programs is 9 months. She entered TYC in March 2006 and could have been out in December 2006 if she was being cooperative. But note that she never had to go to TYC in the first place: she could have gotten probation.
FACT: Texas statute under the Family Code (governing juveniles) left 2 options for the judge: 1) release the juvenile on probation back to a family member who verbally assures the judge that cooperative efforts to meet probation conditions will be met, and 2) sentence to the Texas Youth Commission. Often, parents are part of the problem and other family members step forward to offer to take the juvenile in their care and see to it probation conditions are met. NO other family members came forward and this juvenile's mother (Creola Cotton) told the judge she would not comply with conditions of probation. The judge's hands were tied by the law and he had no other choice but TYC.
FACT: School officials testified during the punishment phase that this juvenile had been a continuous discipline problem and that her mother continually defended her actions, telling her she did nothing wrong, and fought against disciplinary actions against her daughter for legitimate infractions.
FACT: The defense filed an appeal, fired the defense attorney trial attorney they hired (Wesley Newell of Dallas) and alleged ineffective assistance of counsel (saying the defense attorney didn't do his job well enough). The Court of Appeals in Texarkana ruled that the juvenile would not be released on bond pending their final appeal decision. That decision has not yet been handed down.
FACT: This juvenile would not be in TYC if her mother had agreed to cooperate with conditions of probation after the jury found her essentially guilty.
You will find these facts with additional comments at http://www.lamarcountyattorney.com/cotton.html
Shaquanda,
I'm sure your days and night seem dark but just know that there is a GOD and he is watching over you. I want you to keep praying and believing that this storm will not last forever. Know this that Gods children and praying for you and your family and we are trusting in God to bring this to past. Stacey Pressley
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
I was born in Paris, Texas, and lived there until my family moved from the town and the state in 1970. Paris is known to have been the site of many, many burnings and lynchings of black men -- several writers have documented this. The town has a history of racism and Jim Crow laws, and even required its black citizens to pay a "poll tax" in order to vote. The logic was, that few of the black citizens would be able to pay this poll tax, and therefore they would, in effect, be disenfranchised. I'll never forget my parents scraping together the money to pay that tax, so they could vote. It's why I now vote every chance I get. I know what a hard-won right this was. People died so many of us could vote today.
When I was born, my mother told me the black women weren't allowed to have their babies in the [white] hospital, so they were taken across the way to a house. This is where new mothers and their babies were taken. God help them if there was a crisis, since they weren't in the hospital facility itself. There was a "Colored Waiting Room" sign at Lamar County Medical, and for a long time, blacks had to wait there, WHEN they were finally allowed even to go to this hospital for healthcare. And at another local hospital, blacks were placed in the basement. We blacks went to the black doctor, Dr. Perkins, who was not allowed to practice in the local white hospitals. He had his office on one floor of his home. He was an excellent doctor, I might add.
Another thing about Paris, Texas is that prior to approximately 1966, the schools were segregated. Even after segregation was ended, it wasn't ended completely because we black students went to the white schools, but for a long time there were no black teachers in these schools.
When I was growing up, we black students got the used books from the white schools, filthy, graffiti-filled, the whole nine yards, and our black teachers tried their best to cull from these books, those that seemed to be in better shape. The pickings were slim, though.
A new "rule" was put in place at one point, which said that the black teachers had to resign their positions if they became pregnant, and then reapply for those positions when they wanted to return. This rule was later struck down and although the black teachers were offered their jobs back, few took them because they feared there would be retribution.
I give you this bit of history about Paris, Texas so you know that discrimination is alive and well in that town. Black people are intimidated into spouting the kinds of utopian pablum such as that which we hear from the black city council member. To her way of thinking, she's just looking out for her family, and maybe rightly so. But at what price?
As for the Paris News journalist, the truth is, the Shaquanda Cotton story could only be done by someone objective enough to tell it like it is, someone by necessity, from the outside. I think Howard Witt did a great job of doing just that. People in the town would rather sweep the whole matter under the carpet and forget about it.
People from the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex did go to Paris to protest what happened to Shaquanda Cotton. The incident has been publicized all across the internet, and that's good, to my way of thinking. It lets the racists in Paris know that their actions can't go unreported.
So given this history, why is it so hard to believe that Shaquanda Cotton got a very raw deal? Why is it that people want to constantly point out that she was a "problem child" who needed some discipline? Reports have stated that Shaquanda's mother had complained about discrimination against black students in the Paris public schools, and it seems that once she did so, her daughter came under microscopic scrutiny. Why is that? Why did the judge see fit to mete out the punishment he did toward Shaquanda, when there were other incidents, more serious in nature, committed by whites, which went basically unpunished? What kind of "punishment" is it to have the offender send an annual Christmas card to the family of the victims he killed?
The bottom line is, this case has brought to light just how vicious racial discrimination can be, and how firmly entrenched it can become.
I know one thing, and that is, I'm so glad my family moved away from this town. It doesn't seem that much has changed since we left. Only that the discrimination attempts seem to be a bit more subtle, yet they have the same result -- a community divided. And that's the saddest part of this whole affair. That, and the fact that Paris, Texas doesn't seem to have moved into the 21st century at all.
Hi
It is a very nice and good post and I like it.
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