While watching CNN yesterday, I saw a story about a new Justice Department office that would investigate and prosecute ''cold case" murders from the civil rights era. The goal of this office would be to investigate and then attempt to prosecute unsolved homicides motivated by racial hatred that occurred before 1970. The annual budget is $5 million.
The bill was inspired by efforts to reopen the case of Emmett Till, a 14-year old black youth who was murdered in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi.
Senator Jim Talent, Republican of Missouri stated, ''We want the murderers and their accomplices who are still living to know there's an entire section of the Department of Justice that is going after them. We need to unearth the truth and do justice, because there cannot be healing without the truth."
I disagree with a few things. First, I don’t think that unearthing the truth will go very far in the healing realm. In fact, all I see it doing is bringing back feelings of racism and cruelty. I can see picketing by the KKK at these trials, and more confrontations that will stem from these prosecutions.
In addition, most of the men who have perpetrated these heinous crimes are over 60, many in their 70s and 80s. There the story highlighted a man who had just been found guilty of a crime, and he could barely stand up. He received 60 years in prison. I will be surprised if he makes it 5. I am all for justice, but it seems ludicrous to attempt to meet out justice in this way.
Finally, I am concerned with the waste of money and effort that this new branch in our government will cause. Really, all that money for what? To really prove how far we have come as a society? I don’t buy it and I wish there was something I could do to stop it. How about we use that money to deal with modern problems? It is time to move forward and stop trying to rectify the past.
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4 comments:
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This case was all The Greenwood Commonwealth had to publish two months ago, since the Till murder took place not far from Greenwood, MS, where racism is still alive and kicking. Then Katrina hit, knocked Emmett's death off the headlines, and once again, all was forgotton. Maybe the government should take cue & focus on their problems at hand and not those of the past.--Susan
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