Sniper Caught?

[DSTSolo01]

So did everyone hear that they caught the sniper? And it turns out, it is two BLACK men? How does eveyone feel about that? Do you think these are the guys?

[Shani26]

I just saw BET News and they announced it too...hmm...they didn't say they were both black...BET Tonight is doing a story on it tonight too. Were any of the victims black?? It's unfortunate they both had to be black though...I mean normally we stay away from these types of crazy acts of violence ...

[ladygreek]

Originally posted by Shani26
Were any of the victims black??

Are you kidding? The teenage boy who survived is Black, the bus driver was Black, the guy on his way back home to Philly was Black, and several of the others were people of color or looked as if they could have been. That's what makes the alleged perpetrators being Black even crazier.

[treblk]

It came as a shock when they showed a sketch of the suspect they wanted for "questioning" and it was a black man. It sounded like he may know who the sniper is/was BUT not be the sniper!!!

Now days, you can't but nothing past folks

[1913CrimsonQT]

I'm so shocked he is from Baton Rouge. They say he was even down here this summer for a short while. That's scary.

[CrimsonTide4]

Sniper Case Shows Old Ways Of Thinking Are Hard To Break


By Dr. Barbara A. Reynolds
TBWT Contributor
Article Dated 10/20/2002

WASHINGTON: Why did the killers have to be black?

That’s the question my black friends have been asking. Initially at the news the snipers had been caught, like most others they breathed a sign of relief that they had been liberated to return to the malls and pump gas without fear of their heads being blown off.

Then when reality set in that the accused snipers were black, a new wave of depression set in among my friends, many of whom felt some of the guile would rub off on them.

For a minute, I even felt a loss for words. I had been on national TV shaking my fist at the twisted minds of the “white” serial snipers.

I was wrong just like zillions of others. And there is a lot to be learned from the dangers of ascribing evil to a certain skin color, religion or ethnic group—a circumstance blacks have lived with for generations.

First, when police thought “white”--white men were the suspects riding in a white van--innocent white guys found themselves forced spread-eagle on the pavement with guns pointed at their heads.

For decades I had seen these acts become common occurrence for those living in black skin. This obsession with a black face being an automatic sentence of guilt has resulted in thousands of black motorists being pulled over by police to be beat, humiliated and in the worse cases murdered.

“White” was now associated with wrongdoing, a dramatic detour from centuries of “black” being the designated color of evil. Think about “black magic,” the crash of the stock market--“a black day,”-- and the outlaws always wore the black hats in the movies.

With the shoe on the other foot, with “white men driving white vans” being the suspected evil among us, some blacks felt a certain comeuppance.

Some African-Americans had always felt a little “holier than thou” when the subject turned to the most perverted kind of murder. No matter what other stereotypes could be pinned on us, at least we could stick out our chests and say, “blacks have generally not been the crazy, freaky kind of serial killer like Jeff Dahmer, the cannibal, or the gory-kind of criminal like Charles Manson.

But now with the arrest of suspected snipers, John Muhammad and John Malvo, maybe, blacks have been taught a thing or two.

The tendency to view people as groups rather than individuals is just as wrong when blacks do it as it has been for whites that have done it to blacks for generations.

There is certainly a need for blacks and whites to view each other with less suspicion but it is not easy when vestiges of the old ways keep nipping at your heels.

For example, Montgomery Police chief Charles Moose, performed admirably as a law enforcement official and a compassionate human being during the investigation and capture of the snipers.

Moose was much more than a plain old ordinary chief of a small suburban police department as he was depicted. He has a master’s degree in public administration and a doctorate in urban studies. Yet not once on any talk show did I hear anyone call him by his academic title—Dr. Moose-- which is the normal deference paid to experts with earned doctorates.

And when you look at the myriad law enforcement jurisdictions fighting over which state should be the first to electrocute the accused snipers, it reminds me of the lynch mobs of old.

As detestable as the charges against the pair, you can’t help but wonder does anyone want to hear any mitigating evidence, like mental insanity or what influence the older John Muhammad might have had on his suspected teenage partner, John Malvo.

Aren’t they still innocent until proven guilty?

And if they weren’t black, wouldn’t there be an outcry against the rush to death row?

I know things have changed, but I still wonder how much and if we will ever really be able to put aside our old ways of thinking.

[CrimsonTide4]

More Deaths Link to Sniper Suspects
8 minutes ago
By MELINDA DESLATTE, Associated Press Writer

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Authorities charged the Washington-area sniper suspects with murder Thursday in a Louisiana attack and said they had definitively linked the two men to an Alabama slaying just two days earlier.


AP Photo
Slideshow: D.C. Area Sniper Shootings



Related Links
• Timeline on Sniper Shootings (AP)



John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, are now charged with a month-long series of killings stretching from the Gulf Coast to the suburbs of the nation's capital. Police nationwide are said to be looking for links to the men with help from federal authorities.


The two suspects face multiple state and federal counts in the Alabama and Louisiana cases and the sniper spree that left 10 people dead and three others wounded in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. They are also suspects in a February killing in Washington state.


Baton Rouge Police Chief Pat Englade issued first-degree murder warrants for Muhammad and Malvo after ballistics tests matched the rifle used in the sniper shootings to the Sept. 23 slaying and robbery of a beauty shop worker in the Louisiana capital.


Hong Im Ballenger, 45, died from a single shot to the head as she left work. Witnesses said the gunman was a young black man who fled into a nearby park and evaded bloodhounds called in to track him down.


According to the arrest warrant, police believe Muhammad shot the woman and Malvo stole her purse and fled.


Earlier in the day, Alabama authorities said the same rifle, a .223-caliber Bushmaster, had been linked to the shooting death of a liquor store worker in Montgomery on Sept. 21, two days before the Louisiana slaying and 315 miles away.


In that case, the suspect — allegedly Malvo — was seen rifling through one of the victim's purses before he was chased off by a police officer.


The sniper suspects have been in custody in Maryland since they were captured at a highway rest stop Oct. 24. Authorities found the rifle in their car, which they say was modified so someone could fire unseen through a hole in the trunk.


In Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said the investigation was continuing into the possibility other people may be involved or that the suspects have committed more crimes.


"We will proceed deliberatively, cautiously and not jump to any conclusions," Ashcroft said. "The facts ... will determine the final outcome and we intend to follow the facts wherever they may lead."

A senior Justice Department (news - web sites) official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no specific evidence that others were involved but authorities would not rule out the possibility.

Police nationwide are checking unsolved crimes for links to the sniper suspects, the official said, with a particular focus on the Gulf Coast and East Coast.

In Alabama, officials said new ballistics evidence had linked the rifle to Claudine Parker, 52, who was shot to death during an attack that also wounded her liquor store co-worker, Kellie Adams, 24.

State forensics director Taylor Noggle said the slug taken from Parker's body matched bullets test fired from the Bushmaster. Muhammad and Malvo have already been charged with capital murder in the crime.

First-degree murder carries a possible death penalty in Louisiana. Doug Moreau, the Baton Rouge district attorney, said he did not know when he would get the case and did not know whether he would push for the death penalty.

Englade said the unusual type of bullet used to kill Ballenger led police to investigate a possible connection. Police also said dated receipts from two Baton Rouge stores were found in the suspects' car.

Muhammad grew up in Baton Rouge and still has relatives and friends there, including one of his ex-wives. He visited the area this summer, friends said.

A task force working on the serial killings of three Baton Rouge women in the past year is working to obtain DNA evidence from Muhammad and Malvo. However, the two have not been linked to those killings, Englade said.

Also Thursday, officials in Prince Georges County, Md., where a 13-year-old boy was wounded outside his school, charged Muhammad and Malvo with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, both of which carry life sentences.

Ashcroft is considering whether the federal government will take the lead in prosecuting the two men or have the first trials in Maryland, Virginia or elsewhere.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._shootings&e=5