Paris, Texas--Its Your Turn to Laugh

West Sacramento Gang injunction voided

Police serve only one gang member wanna-be whom they expected to notify all 350 Broderick Boys gang members

Read full story: Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, April 25, 2007, Sacramento Bee

A three-judge panel for California's 3rd District Court of Appeal unanimously and rightly struck down a court order that imposed an overly broad injunction against a West Sacramento gang known as the Broderick Boys.

The sweeping injunction, first imposed in 2005, had been criticized by law-abiding citizens and even members of the West Sacramento City Council. It barred some 350 unnamed gang members from "standing, sitting, walking, driving, gathering or appearing" together in a 3-square-mile area that police designated as a "safety zone." It also imposed a curfew that prohibited gang members from being on the streets after 10 p.m. or before sunrise.

Free Shaquanda Cotton In The News

Olberlin Times
Uproar over Texas teen‘s imprisonment
27 March, 2007
By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press


The Socialist Worker Online
Racism On Display in Texas Town
By Cindy Berringer


CBS Dallas/Fort Worth
Teen in Jail Prompts Racism Rally in Paris, Texas
By Steve Pickett


The Paris News
Smiley: 'It is time for a new movement'
By Mary Madewell

Paris Texas Case Highlights Challenges Faced by Black Children Across the Country

This article by Shawn Williams of the Dallas South Blog offers an interesting perspective on the Shaquanda Cotton case.

Mr. Williams is a graduate of Paris High School and currently has two nephews and a Godson going there.

Paris NAACP Calls for Timely Release of Shaquanda Cotton

"NAACP president Joann Ondrovick said the group has spent more than 100 hours conducting court watch and witness interview on this case."

Read complete story here: Paris News

Carpetbag Anyone?

Hey, I got a good idea.

Let’s all of us move to Paris, Texas, “The Best Small Town in Texas.”

Low Property Values

Property values are low there. Look what’s being asked for this huge custom built house--$160,000. I live in California. You couldn’t touch this for at least three times that amount, and our housing market is depressed. I’ve seen other equally nice houses listed in Paris for $100,000 and less. Honest.

Charter Schools?

Of course we would probably have to home school our kids. We don’t want them to be treated like Shaquanda Cotton. Do they have charter schools there? I’ll have to check on that.

Good Ole Sixties

I don’t know about the rest of the boomers out there, but I miss the sixties. We knew how to organize. We knew how to protest. We knew how to party. We knew how to get down. We just didn’t know how to dress. We would have a booming commune there by now.

Good Citizens

Let’s move to Paris and be good citizens and good neighbors. Let’s start businesses, hire employees, pay taxes, join the Kiwanis and the Rotary Club.

Memorial to Lynch Victims

We could join the Lamar County Historical Society. Maybe we could join their campaign to build a memorial to the countless people lynched in Paris. History is remembering but not repeating. History helps us see how far we’ve come and how far we have to go.

Good Ole Fashion Blues

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of moving to Paris, but I’m not going with y’all. If we hurry, we can make it in time for Camp ShagBark Blues Party.

You know I love me some blues.

Paris, Texas Faces Flood Threat--From Crocodile Tears

Bloggers Having Impact on Shaquanda Cotton Case

In today's Paris News, writer Phillip Hamilton bemoaned:

"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."

Lynching Metaphors R Us

Using highly emotional lynching metaphors, Hamilton describes how Paris, Texas is being wronged:

"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."

The nerve, Sir. The very nerve. The gall to compare the public scrutiny your town is receiving to a lynching. I am forced to quoted my sainted mother here--You, Mr. Hamilton have, more nerve than a brass ass monkey.

Blogs Cited for Causing City Pain

"Consider, said Mr. Hamilton, "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."

Was that you, YBP causing so much heart burn?

I think I'll buy some stock in those companies, if any are publicly traded, then I can stand up at share holder meeting and have my say.

Remember--It's All About the Money

Hamilton lamented:

"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."

Hamilton Doesn't Get It

Listen Mr. Hamilton and listen closely--This is about a child. It is not about economics. It is not about plant expansion. This is about the life of Shaquanda Cotton. We demand that it be returned to her.

And stop feeling sorry for yourself. Why not directing your energy toward building a museum commemorating the people who were lynched in Paris, Texas, and I'm not speaking metaphorically.

Children Don't Belong in Prison

Children don't belong in prison.


In Paris, Texas or Sacramento, California children should not be imprisoned, especially for percieved sins of their parents.


Fourteen-year-old Shaquanda Cotton should be freed from her indeterminate sentence in a Texas prison immediately.


Last night I spoke with Shaquanda's mother, Creola Cotton. Shaquanda tells her she's tired and she doesn't know how long she can hold on. Ms. Cotton says Shaquanda has attempted suicide more than once.


Shaquanda enjoys receiving cards and letters, says her mother. She can receive mail at:


Ron Jackson Correctional Complex,
Unit 2, Dorm 4
P.O. Box 872
Brownwood, Texas 76804
1125308


Ms. Cotton also requsts that we write letters to Texas Governor Rick Perry asking him to intervene on Shaquanda's behalf.

I'm sending Shaquanda a card and writing the governor. I hope you will ,too.

Letter to Editor of Paris News re Shaquandra Cotton

The Paris News of Paris, Texas, today published a rather balanced article on the imprisonment of 14-year-old Shaquanda Cotton for shoving a hall monitor, admitting that the story has made headlines across the nation.

The following is a letter to the editor I submitted to The Paris News:

I am outraged by the blatant miscarriage of justice in the case of Shaquanda Cotton. She had no criminal record and she should not have received such a harsh sentence for a crime that may or may not have happened. Since she is serving an indeterminate sentence she should be release immediately.

I’m calling on Governor Rick Perry to intercede on this matter and secure this child’s freedom from persecution—persecution because of her mother’s civil rights activism.

Governor Perry the world is watching. Don’t let this be another Tulia.

Black Child Lynched in Paris, Texas

Creola Cotton comforts her daughter, Shaquandra

Slowly.

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.

“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.”

Shaquanda is a first time offender. She has no prior arrest record. She did cause no serious injury, but that didn’t matter.

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.