For most Americans, her case shocked and horrified the nation — for about a week until the next news story came along. However, we need to realize that these are real people who are affected by this long after the cameras have turned their attentions elsewhere.

FinalCall.com sat down with Megan and her mother, Carmen, to get their side of the story. I encourage you to read the interview. In addition to hearing a story that will break your heart and anger you at once, I found something Megan said startling.

When no hate crime charges were filed, we were told that it was because Megan and one of the defendents, Bobby Brewster, had a prior relationship, implying they had be romantically involved. According to Megan, they were just friends, nothing more.

I also have to give her a lot of admiration for saying the following when asked what should happen to her attackers:

“I just hope they get what they deserve. I hope they get life. I don’t wish nobody dead, because that’s not my belief, but they should be in prison for the rest of their lives.”

Again, I encourage you to read this interview.

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Okay, are we noticing a pattern here?

The latest Republican sex scandal comes out of Wisconsin. The chair of the Republican party of Brown County, Donald Fleischman, is facing charges after allegedly fondling a 16-year-old runaway while the boy stayed at his home last year. Also, Fleischman allegedly provided the boy with beer and marijuana.

The 37-year-old Fleischman was charged with “two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and a single charge of exposing himself to a child” in a Brown County court last month.

Here are some of the sordid details of the boy’s story:

Green Bay police went to Fleischman’s Goodell Street home Nov. 19, 2006, looking for two runaways from Ethan House, a juvenile facility on nearby Emilie Street, according to the criminal complaint filed Sept. 7.

Fleischman opened the door and allowed officers inside where they found a 16-year-old boy hiding on the floor of a walk-in closet wearing only underwear and a T-shirt, the complaint said.

Officers found a black, purple and blue-swirled glass pipe in the living room, which tested positive for marijuana residue, the complaint said.

Police returned to Fleischman’s home on Dec. 8, 2006, and found the boy there again. He had been a runaway from Ethan House for eight days.

The teen, now 17, told authorities Fleischman took him to a hotel in Appleton during that time and then to a cabin near Florence for several days before returning to Fleischman’s Allouez home. The boy said Fleischman provided him with beer and marijuana, the complaint said.

The boy told police that when he would go to bed, Fleischman would fondle him and that on one occasion he awoke to find Fleischman at the foot of his bed masturbating.

Fleischman recently resigned his post as chair. If convicted, he faces up to 52 years in prison.

Sadly, this appears to be a case of a grown man taking advantage of an already-troubled teenager. So, if this is true, this man deserves to do time.

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It took an all-white jury just ninety minutes to wipe away all hopes for justice in the death of Martin Lee Anderson.

Anderson died on January 6, 2006, after being taken off life support. The previous day, he was in an altercation with guards a Florida youth boot camp. Over the course of 30 minutes, seven guards piled on him, beat him and forced him to inhale ammonia capsules in what they say were attempts to revive him. A nurse on staff stood by and watched it all occur. An autopsy performed by a local coroner claimed that he died from a undiagnosed (and, normally, not lethal) sickle cell trait. A second autopsy concluded that he died from being suffocated when guards where covering his mouth while making him inhale ammonia tablets.

Today, a jury acquitted all eight on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child. Reading this article, I couldn’t help but think of Emmit Till’s death, in the respect that it took the jury virtually no time to acquit the accused. It’s hard to believe that any real deliberation went on at all.

But, most telling, was the part about the first coroner’s (the one who attributed his death to sickle cell) reaction to the verdict:

An initial autopsy by Dr. Charles Siebert, the medical examiner for Bay County, found Anderson died of natural causes from sickle cell trait. A second autopsy was ordered and another doctor concluded that the guards suffocated Anderson through their repeated use of ammonia capsules and by covering his mouth.

“I am feeling a little vindicated. People got to see a lot more than what’s been publicized in the media,” said Siebert, who was widely criticized for his autopsy. He said he was going to celebrate with some of the guards. (emphasis mine)

I guess people either lost sight or just didn’t care that a person was killed. However, I want to say that it mattered to me and I hope that we don’t forget that not all is well with race in America and that we have a lot of work to do.

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A few weeks back, I posted about U.S. Attorney John D.R. Atchison, who was arrested in a sting in which he tried, via the internet, to solicit sex with a 5-year-old girl from a detective posing as a mother. Atchison was arrested in Detroit Metropolitan Airport after flying from Pensacola, FL to meet up with the girl.

Today, it is being reported that Atchison has committed suicide. He had been in federal custody since the bust where he tried, once before, to kill himself.

Eerily enough, Atchison was a married father of three who coached girls’ softball and basketball. Transcipts of his conversations with the undercover detective indicate that this would not have been his first sexual encounter with underaged girls.

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Yesterday, the trial began for seven former boot camp guards and a nurse in the killing of Martin Lee Anderson.

Anderson was killed in an incident with the guards to kicked him, beat him and forced him to inhale ammonia tablets in the thirty-minute encounter.

Initially, a local Florida medical examiner reported that Martin died from an “undiagnosed sickle cell trait”.  The family, doubting such claims, called for a second autopsy.  The findings of that autopsy concluded that Martin was suffocated when “guards suffocated Anderson with their hands over his mouth and nose and by making him breathe ammonia.”

Each of the defendents face charges of the manslaughter of a child and could each receive up to 30 years in prison, if convicted.

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At a school for the deaf in Washington, DC, a black student there was attacked in an apparent hate crime. At the dorms of the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, the student was attacked by 7 other students — six white and one black — who held him against his will and scrawled ‘KKK’ and swastikas on his body with a marker.

The offenders, ranging in age from 15-19, have all been sent home. As yet, no charges have been filed. The victim is home with his family.

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Over the last several years, we have heard more and more about people (too many of them black) being released after decades in prison when it was discovered that they could not have committed the crimes for which they were convicted. Too often, this was do to crooked cops forcing confessions out of people in order to closes cases as opposed to actually solving crimes.

It appears that we should be seeing more overturned convictions in the near future after it has been revealed that Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will be investigating claims of the torture of suspects by Chicago police in the 1980s.

A four-year study by two special prosecutors appointed by a Cook County judge, released in July 2006, found that Chicago police beat, kicked and shocked scores of black suspects in the 1970s and 1980s to get confessions. The report said it was impossible to file charges because the incidents were so old that the statute of limitations had long since run out.

On Wednesday, however, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald announced the federal government was stepping into the torture case, saying it would seek evidence of “perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice by members of the Chicago police department.”

“It’s political, it’s cultural, it’s systemic,” said attorney G. Flint Taylor, who represents several former death row inmates now suing Burge and city officials.

Attorney Richard Sikes, who represents Burge in the five civil suits, said after Fitzgerald’s announcement that allegations against his client “have been fairly investigated by the special prosecutors who found that charges were not appropriate.”

All this is being announced in the midst of other investigation of the Chicago special operations officer Jerome Finnigan, who federal prosecutors say plotted to kill another member of this unit to keep him from testifying about about a shakedown scheme in which this unit was allegedly involved.

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Last month, 14-year-old DeOnte Rawlings died after being shot in a confrontation with two off-duty D.C. police officers. Now, the results of his autopsy are raising some very serious questions about police actions in this incident.

According to the police account, Officer James Haskel solicited the help fellow officer and friend Anthony Clay to help him find a minibike Haskel believed had been stolen from his home. So the two off-duty officers, out of uniform, went riding around looking for it. They came up DeOnte, who was riding the minibike.

The officers claim DeOnte shot at them and Officer Haskel exited his vehicle, pursued DeOnte on foot and shot him.

However, the recent autopsy report is somewhat disconcerting. First, it clearly indicates that DeOnte was shot in the back of the head. Secondly, there was no gunshot residue on his hands or fingers, which could very well have been there if he had indeed fired a gun. Thirdly, DeOnte’s family says that there was no gun recovered at the scene. Finally, there were serious traumatic injuries to the side and back of his body. These could have come from the fall or they could have come from him being hit.

Currently, this case is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s office, the FBI and DC police.

Personally, I believe something stinks here. Armed, off-duty police officers, out of uniform, tracking down stolen property and end up in an encounter killing a 14-year-old? Call me paranoid or conspiratorial but, I smell a cover-up.

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Despite holding out hope to the contrary, today police confirmed that a body found Thursday morning was indeed that of Nailah Franklin. She had been missing since September 19.

Her body was found unclothed and no cause of death has been determined. Until the forensic evidence has been processed, police are not ruling her death a homicide. Nailah was identified using dental records.

Yesterday, I held out some hope that she was alive after police admonished that reports of the body being hers were premature. Sadly, today, that flicker of hope was extinguished. As I stated yesterday, let us pray for peace and justice for Nailah Franklin’s family.

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There is a bit of good news in the ongoing saga of the Jena 6. First, it was announced that prosecutor Reed Walters would not appeal the decision to not to try Mychal Bell as an adult and move his case to juvenile court. Second came the news that, after having his bail reduced to $45,000, it was posted and Mychal Bell was able to leave jail after nearly 10 months behind bars.

Rev. Al Sharpton made a statement which sums up this current development quite succinctly:

“Tonight, Mychal can go home, but Mychal is not out of the juvenile process. He goes home because a lot of people left their home and stood up for him.

Let America know — we are not fighting for the right to fight in school. We’re not fighting for the right for kids to beat each other. We’re fighting to say that there must be one level of justice for everybody. And you cannot have adult attempted murder for some, and a fine for others, and call that equal protection under the law. Two wrongs don’t make one civil right.”

So, today, we are seeing a sorting of leveling of justice. However, we still must realize that it took a lot of folks mobilizing to make that happen. Let’s not forget the lessons that are being re-taught in Jena, Louisiana.

Popularity: 36% [?]