It has been almost a month since I have published a post, due to summer happenings – running around, watching Olympics, vacationing, etc. But the more time that passes between posts, the more news I’m missing and leaving behind. In all honesty, it is hard to write this piece because of the anger that I have for something so wrong to happen to America’s youth.
Take the story of Chavis Carter, a 21-year old black man from Mississippi, who on July 29th was pulled over in his car, along with two of his friends, for “suspicious driving.” Upon approach, the cops of the Jonesboro Police Department decided they needed backup, for reasons unknown. They searched Carter and found a $10 bag of marijuana. Meanwhile, they let the two friends, both white, leave the scene.
During the search of the car, they find a scale and a bag of a white substance, later identified in a report as sugar. The police also reported that Carter had a warrant and previously had given them a false name.
Was this enough to arrest Carter? Sure, it was. Marijuana is illegal, although a $10 sack would not normally put you behind bars. But Carter did have a warrant in another state, so yes, in my opinion that was enough cause for an arrest. Following police procedures, they searched Carter, not once, but twice and placed him in the back of a squad car, HANDCUFFED.
What happened next is a horrendous act by the Jonesboro Police Department. The officers say once they headed back to their cars, they saw Carter slumped in the backseat with a gunshot wound to the right side of his head. Not only do they claim that he somehow committed suicide while being placed in a small backseat of a squad car AND handcuffed, but somehow Carter had got a hold of a gun after being searched not once, but twice.
According to Carter’s mother, Chavis had called his girlfriend and told her that he had been arrested and asked her to come to the jail to bail him out. Also, the gunshot wound was in the right side of his head, and his mother claims he was left-handed.
As the FBI investigates this crime, I cannot sit here and say that this was not racially motivated and planned. My questions to the Jonesboro Police Department are:
- Where is the gun that Carter supposedly had?
- Why is there no dashcam surveillance from the squad car, or was that part of the plan as well? - It is said that there is no camera surveillance because coincidentally, the two squad cars parked trunk to trunk; when does that ever happen on a traffic stop?
- In regards to the question of how could someone break out of handcuffs and commit suicide in the back of a squad car, Jonesboro Chief of Police, Michael Yates, said on CNN: “Well, fact of it is, it’s very possible. It’s quite easy.” - I would like him to elaborate on how it is so easy to break out of handcuffs while in a squad car, find a gun, and pull the trigger – all while using your non-dominant hand.
- How did the police officers not hear the gunshot? – The police officers at the scene, not even a car distance away, according to reports, claim they never heard a gunshot, but rather found Carter’s body slumped over later. How is this possible when other reports say you can hear a gunshot up to five miles away, not just a few feet?
- As for the search and frisk that the police officers say they performed on Carter, how did they seem to find a $10 bag of marijuana but miss a deadly weapon, not after one, but two searches? – Let’s be honest, there was NO weapon.
These police officers should be arrested and charges brought against them for the crime they committed. This case should receive the same attention as Trayvon Martin because there was no right to kill. Having officers of the law shoot a 21-year old man and then lying and claiming it’s suicide is despicable and I hope they are punished for it, as it seems Chavis was punished for being black.
