typical assailant (7.28.05)

"Whoop that Trick"

If somebody is missing, you know the procedural manual
suggests blaming a man, preferably one of a darker shade.
Just ask Jennifer Wilbanks whose April wedding was
supposedly interrupted by a Latino man. Or, let’s go way
back to Charles Stuart in Boston, Massachusetts,
who said a black man shot his pregnant wife –when
actually, he was the assailant. Then there was Susan Smith,
who in 1994 stated that an African American man
kidnapped her sons, but authorities later discovered
that she drowned them herself.

This time, police in Aruba detained Mickey
John and Abraham Jones in connection with Natalee Holloway’s
disappearance. They were eventually released, but
they meet the standard of being males of African descent.
Why they were held so quickly and considered prime suspects
from jump street is not the issue. The issue is that history, replete
with incessant examples of allegations against men such
as myself, tends to repeat itself.

It appears that there has not been much change at all from
the days of law enforcement opening the jails and allowing
groups of white men to freely have their way with us without
due process. Now true, the justice system in Aruba is very
different from ours in the U.S. But the quickness with
which these men were held and condemned as being guilty,
was a continuation of past acts.

The men and women out there who happen to be mothers
and fathers, myself included, must always reinforce to their
daughters that they are valuable and that they will be
looked for if they’re ever missing, regardless of media
coverage. And for our sons, we must remind them that
things are not as they seem and that they too,
instantaneously and without due process can be considered
the typical assailant.--torrance stephens