Free Myon Burrell
Say what you want about Senator Amy Kloubacher’s failed bid for the White House.
But her candidacy for President of the United States opened up some harsh realities about her treatment of African-Americans accused of violent crimes.
Myon Burrell has spent his entire adult life in prison for the murder of a young Black girl named Tyesha Edward, 11, who lost her life while doing homework in her Minnesota home.
Throughout her failed presidential bid, Sen. Klobuchar touted how she worked hard to secure justice for African-Americans, while in actuality it looks like that as the former Hennepin County, Minn. Attorney, she sent an innocent Black teenager to prison for life while ignoring evidence that shows his possible innocence.
Although Kloubacher’s obviously not alone in her alleged mistreatment of African-American criminal defendants, Myon Burrell’s case shows a pattern of law enforcement across the country misusing power to get a desired result in a criminal case.
Ignore evidence.
Create witnesses.
Even pay witnesses for false testimony.
Lock up random African-American and Latino boys.
Let the real criminals off scot-free.
Claim that you are tough on crime by playing to the stereotypes of many Americans that young Black and Brown kids are menaces to society that need to be locked up for life or killed for violent crimes that they did not commit.
President Donald Trump knows this playbook all too well, just ask the Exonerated Five (formerly known as the Central Park Five), five teenage boys of color sentenced to prison for a brutal assault and rape of a White jogger that they had absolutely nothing to do with.
In Myon Burrell’s case, prosecutors paid a “witness” to say Myon Burrell killed the little girl.
In the case, they ignored evidence that Myon Burrell was elsewhere at the time of the crime.
No true evidence links Myon Burrell to the senseless murder.
Another man has confessed to the killing.
Does it matter?
No.
Why?
Because all Black men are the same in the eyes of injustice (not in the eyes of true justice).
Although one can be an upstanding citizen doing everything right, that dark skin color makes one a threat and makes some of the good White folks of America scared to death for their safety.
The problem with many district attorneys across this country is that many of them allow their political aspirations to cloud their judgment and decision-making.
In New York City in the late 1980s, crime was rampant in the “Big Apple.”
The drug game had increased violent crime.
And people feared for their lives in New York.
The image that people have of New York City and Time Square today was vastly different than the image many had in the 1980s.
Instead of Time Square being a tourist attraction, the now-vibrant area of Manhattan was filled with peep shows and many unsavory characters.
Playing off of the fear of Black and Brown youth, it did not matter who was convicted of brutally assaulting the Central Park jogger, as long as a N-word or other person of color was taken off the streets that was all that mattered to many New Yorkers.
The same might be true about Minnesota.
As long as a so-called thug was taken off the street, it did not even matter if it was the right so-called thug, which often leads to more crime victims because a non-criminal is placed in jail while a dangerous criminal roams the streets.
And race notwithstanding, we have seen the same thing with Mike Nifong of Durham County, N.C. falsely accusing three White Duke University lacrosse players of raping and sodomizing an African-American exotic dancer at an-off campus house party.
Nifong made up evidence.
He ignored real evidence.
He ignored physical descriptions of the alleged “rapists.”
Nifong basically made the case fit when there was no case in the first place.
The young lady might have had her feelings hurt and ego bruised, but her body was never bruised or violated by the Duke lacrosse players.
However, Nifong saw the case as a way to help him win reelection in the predominantly African-American town of Durham, N.C.
In that city, racial animosity ran high at that time, and maybe it still does.
Durham, N.C. is a working class Southern town, and many of the students at Duke come from elite families and prestigious high schools on the East Coast.
That cultural clash often breeds tension.
The elites versus the populists.
The haves versus the have-nots.
Black versus White.
Rich versus poor.
Nifong exploited those divisions for free publicity and reverence from the African-American community until it was proven that the victim fabricated her story.
Nifong got disbarred and spent a day in jail for his actions.
Regardless of the race or gender of the wrongfully accused, politicians and wannabe politicians have to realize the dirty game they play when convicting innocent people, especially when they go out of their way to ignore evidence or choose to buy “evidence.”
You are playing with someone’s life.
To Klobuchar’s credit, the senator has called for an independent review of Myon Burrell’s case.
Unfortunately, he can never get back the time he lost even if he is freed.
Who is to say that Burrell would not have gone on to become a major leader in his community?
Who is to say that he would not be a parent right now?
Who is to say that he would not be a loving husband right now?
So the lives that are ruined are not just the person that gets locked up, but also everyone else that that person would have touched if they were on the outside.
And those lives get destroyed all to play some political game?
Well, life is not a game especially when it is someone else’s life you are playing with.
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- Linda Fairstein Losing Literary Career Light Punishment for What Central Park Five Lost
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- Police, Stop Coercing Black Kids to Get Your Desired Result
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