Wassup, Y'all!
For a few now I've been preparing a post on the
Shaquanda Cotton story and the power of the free press and coincidently,
NS Shorty directed my attention to a similar story that ran on
ABC's Primetime on 04/07 and I have to admit it's the
perfect bookend to the Shaquanda post. So let's begin the sordid story with
Tyrone Brown, a brother who was sentenced to
life in Texas prison for testing positive for marijuana while on probation. At first glance you might say - '
Hey - don't mess with Texas! That's how they roll!'. But strip back the veneer on
that nonsense and you'll see that justice in the great state of Texas ain't blind at all, y'all...
Recently released from prison on March 16th ('conditionally' pardoned from his life sentence by Texas Governor Rick Perry), Tyrone Brown is finally free from an ordeal that began in 1990 (ironically the same year Nelson Mandela was freed from his 27 years of bogus imprisonment) while out on bail from a $2 stick up, he violated his 10 year parole by smoking one joint. When appearing before original sentencing judge Keith Dean Dean sent him to prison...for life...with a curt "Good luck, Mr. Brown".
Tough judge, you say? Doesn't care for parole violators, you ask? Hardly. It turns out this same judge Keith Dean also sentenced northsider John Wood to 10 years probation but not for a $2 stick up, but rather for a guilty plea for shooting an unarmed male prostitute...in the back. Even after catchin' that gift, Wood repeatedly failed drug tests while on probation, yet did Dean send him to jail? No, my bizzle - "late last year [Dean] released Wood from most of the usual conditions of probation" (e.g. no more drug tests, no ban on firearm ownership and no more sit downs with his probation officer). Needless to say, Keith Dean is no longer a judge in the 265th judicial district having recently lost his bid for re-election. The voters have spoken but only after the press jumped in and pointed out Dean's inexplicably unjust sentencing standards. Without it, I'm pretty sure Tyrone would be starting his 18th year in prison trying to avoid the Tossed Salad man...
Similarly, about 100 miles northeast of Dallas lies Paris, Texas - the cheerful home town to the infamous Paris Fairgrounds, site of "several of the most notorious public lynchings of black southside Americans in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, where thousands of white northside spectators would gather to watch and cheer as black southside men were dragged onto a scaffold, scalded with hot irons and finally burned to death or hanged. Y'all may remember my comment on this bogus azz form of northside, back-in-the-day entertainment in my 'What Not To Joke About' post.
Paris, Texas is also home to 15 year old Shaquanda Cotton who last year was sentence to 7 years for pushing a teacher's aide. The act was not disputed, nor was the teacher's aide injured by Cotton's actions, yet Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville saw fit to sentence Cotton (who had no priors) to a 7 year bid, while sentencing a 14 year old northside girl guilty of arson (burning down her family's house) to probation. In this case, Cotton was recently released after serving a year of her sentence - again primarily due to intense press scrutiny.
Now it's not too hard to draw a couple simple lessons from all this: 1) if you feel a need to get your swerve on, Texas is not the place to do it, particularly if you hail from the southside, and 2) y'all better be givin' it up to those press folks every chance you get since you're about one irate cop and judge away from a bid in the box your damn self.
Peace@Least,
Tyrone
A couple months back Ol Ty dropped some knowledge about the upcoming Disney animated feature 'The Frog Princess', which was scheduled to feature their first southside princess. At that time names like Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson were vying to become the little animated shorty's voice but surprisingly Hudson's lesser known 'Dream' Anika Noni Rose managed to beat those buffys back and land the role her damn self. Two snaps up for Anika and a half hearted snap to Disney for finally bowing to the pressure - no doubt started here in the Malone Zone - to rework that JACKED UP title...
In the wake of beaucoup complaints about 'racial and ethnic insensitivities' related to 1) the title, 2) the main character's name (Maddy which sounded similar to the common slave name 'Mammy'), and 3) her vocation as a chambermaid working for a rich, spoiled northside debutante, Disney said 'Well we never said we had any southsiders actually contribute to the script but if all you're going to do is complain I guess we can change a couple things'. So now we have 'The Princess and The Frog' starring Tiana. Hmmmm, now if we could just get Disney to rename that 'Pirates of the Caribbean' ride to 'Boyz 'N The Hood' we'd finally be getting somewhere.
