News: Humanizing Brian Nichols

My initial reaction to opinion pieces I read about the Atlanta murder suspect who engaged in a murderous crime spree last Friday was revulsion. I was appalled to see piece after piece dehumanize Brian Nichols, often with racist language. He was referred to as a monster. There were cries to kill him without benefit of trial. His previous contacts with the criminal justice system, minor until he was accused of aggravated assault, were exaggerated. This entry from is La Shawn Barber's Corner is typical.

Murdering Rapist Thug Brian Nichols Caught in Atlanta

Despite a stunning display of incompetence just a day ago, law enforcement officers in Atlanta finally caught murdering rapist thug Brian Nichols. Although he had a history of hiding weapons on his person, the 6?4? (different sources report different heights), dangerous criminal was being guarded (facing rape charges) by one deputy, a woman five feet tall. He overpowered and shot her, killed the judge, a court reporter and another police officer.

On the loose for 26 hours with two guns, Nichols also killed a U.S. Customs agent before he was caught today not trying to leave the area, but hiding out at a friend’s place. Nichols was in the apartment of a woman he was holding hostage. In addition to being a thug, he’s also stunningly stupid. So he kills three four people to avoid rape charges?

The news wires are so sluggish, they’re still reporting that Nichols continues to elude the cops. (Update: The story has been updated.)

Every time the cable news drones referred to him as Mr. Brian Nichols, I thought I’d lose my breakfast.

. . .Update II: On the Thursday, slain judge Rowland W. Barnes told attorneys that Brian Nichols could be dangerous if convicted. Don’t laugh.

Nichols was dangerous before he set foot in the courtroom (tied up an ex-girlfriend and apparently raped and sodomized her for three days) and after he set foot in the courtroom (a deputy found two weapons on him Wednesday).

Too little, too late.

Barnes is the same judge who offered a baby-killing mother 5 years probation if she consented to sterilization. Exactly how this prevents her from killing other people’s children is a mystery.

. . .Update IV (3/13): Michelle Malkin calls our attention to something about the photo of a handcuffed Brian Nichols being taken in that I hadn’t noticed before. He’s being escorted by another small female cop, although he was on the loose in the first place because be overpowered a small female cop!

I hope this case stirs up a blog swarm over the idiocy of allowing women, big or small, even if they have guns, to watch over big, strong, dangerous, raping and murdering thugs. Is it irony or stupidity?

This wretched political correctness poses a danger to us all. Also see View from the Right.

So, it is with some relief that I've read an increasing humanization of Nichols in the mainstream press. A sin of media in the relatively recent past, when few newspapers or television stations would even hire people of color, was supporting and sustaining stereotypes. It is evidence of an increasing fairness that coverage of the Nichols episode is examination of a life gone awry instead of Birth of a Nation revisited.

Newsday has traced Nichols path from early childhood to his present incarceration pending four charges of homicide. The article provides the most convincing theory of Nichols' personality I've read so far. He seems to have be a capable person who performs well when he is grounded in family and friends. Left adrift, he drifts into trouble. The degree of that trouble has increased over the years until its culmination in alleged crimes that may land Nichols on Death Row.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the trigger for Nichols's eruption may have been the birth of his child three days before.

Sonya Meredith's comments to the Associated Press and transcripts from Nichols' rape trial are the most specific suggestion of a possible motive for the fatal shootings of a judge and three others Friday. Prosecutors have suggested that Nichols, 33, formerly of Baltimore, was worried about being convicted at the trial but have not revealed a detailed motive.

"I do know that he wanted to be with the baby. He did speak about it all the time," Meredith said. She said Nichols made those statements in the weeks leading up to the shootings.

A former cellmate describes a man who was becoming increasingly psychologically disturbed. Rodney Johnson told KLTV that he observed the deterioration.

"With no family members or no one around that's visiting you or to talk to, nobody in the whole world, his mind was getting troubled. I mean real troubled."

Johnson says he reported Nichols' agitation to jail officials, but no action was taken.

Earlier, Nichols' young daughter engaged in a touching display of innocence and loyalty toward a man she has seldom seen, broadcast on ABC.

March 15, 2005 — As Brian Nichols, the suspect in the Atlanta-area shooting spree that left four people — including a judge — dead, prepares to face murder charges, his 13-year-old daughter has a message for him.

I want to let him know that even after all he's been through, I want him to know that I still do love him, because he is my father," Jasmine Jay said on "Good Morning America" today. "And I just want to ask him why hasn't he been in contact all these years? … I want to know, do I have any half-brothers or sisters by him?"

Nichols is emerging as a troubled man who lost control, not the stereotypical black savage being promoted in conservative commentary.

Among the persons creating a lynch mob mentality in regard to Brian Nichols are the African-American talking heads promoted by Project 21. As some of us in the blogosphere have previously said, these people are not to be trusted.

That brings us back to Project 21, the primary water carrier for this disinformation. As I've previously blogged in regard to the similar (perhaps same) African American Republican Leadership Council, the front group is funded and controlled by some of the most conservative forces in American politics. The Olin and Bradley Foundations have both supported the eugenics movement. Bradley is the financier of Charles Murray, the infamous author of The Bell Curve.

Though its spokespersons, including La Shawn Barber, are black, their views are those of the far Right white conservatives. How depraved and self-hating are these people? View from the Right, one of the sources Barber cites with approval above, is the blog of white supremacist Lawrence Auster. He believes that black people are genetically inferior, inherently unintelligent and criminally inclined. Yet, Barber considers him someone to rely on.

When a crime spree such as Nichols' occurs, it provides fodder for political reactionaries. They feel free to present their biases as fact. Therefore, it important that progressive people be ready to refute the racism and misogyny that emerge. Claims urged by participants in Project 21, and, other supporters of white supremacy, include:

1) Nichols set out to murder white people, and

2) The fact that Nichols was guarded by a female deputy proves that women should not be allowed to be law enforcement officers.

Both are easily refutable, Nichols' victims were those who had participated in his trial or got in his way as he escaped. Two male law enforcement personnel who had guns were killed during the crime spree. If maleness is the criteria for effectively stopping an escaped suspect, they should be alive. The truth of the matter is that there was negligence in guarding Nichols. To focus on the gender of the injured officer misses the point.

A week after the crime spree, balanced and believable commentary has become more common. That is a relief to people who care about justice. Brian Nichols should be held responsible for his alleged crimes. But, racism and misogyny should not be the determinants of how he is perceived.

Commentary: In re: Sam Francis

I had intended to mention the demise of Right Wing commentator Samuel Francis sooner. Two occurrences reminded to do so. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that a commercial featuring an interracial embrace is not indecency under the rules governing broadcasters. Blogger DC Media Girl has posted entries about Francis (pictured). Let's consider the second reminder first. DCMG is one of a few bloggers to recall who and what Sam Francis was.

Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out

Here’s the thing about Washington:  No matter how crazy you were and how many people you pissed off in life, there will always be someone to write a nice, whitewashed obituary for you when you kick the bucket. Consider the case of bigot Samuel Francis, who died last week at the age of 57. His old employer, The Washington Times, published a rememberance so chock-full of euphemisms that it begs its own drinking game. 

. . .What goes unmentioned is that the Times fired Francis over his offensive writings about race.

Contrast the Washington Times’ misty water color memories with the non-bullshit approach of the Examiner:

In reality, Sam Francis was merely a racist and doesn’t deserve to be remembered as anything less. . . . He wrote that whites should embark upon a "reconquest of the United States," though he was careful to say it should be a "cultural" rather than armed reconquest. He wanted to "end the political power of non-white minorities." He wanted to mandate birth control for welfare recipients in order to control the increase in the black population. As time went on, he also began to push the limits in his syndicated column. He raised eyebrows in 1995 when he attacked the Southern Baptist church’s official public repentance for having once supported slavery.  

Though there is no question that Francis was as excreable a person as described, I do not believe the Washington Times' asserted reason for his dismissal in 1995. The cover story was that after Indian immigrant and bigot Dinesh D'Souza outed Francis as a racist in a book, Francis' status as a columnist was no longer tenable. But, the Times is a virtual dormitory for bigots. Several of its editors and reporters, including neo-Confederate advocate Robert Stacy McCain, are just as bigoted as Francis. Its sister organization, United Press International (UPI), is the stomping grounds of Steve Sailer and Fred Reed. Indeed, McCain likely attends the same conferences sponsored by the white supremacists at American Renaiisance Francis did. So, something else has to have been going on. Methinks there was personal animosity between Francis and the largely neo-Confederate bigots at the Times. Though he believed blacks and Hispanics to be genetically inferior, and, opposed immigration of non-whites to America, Francis mocked the neo-Confederate belief in a new secession. A similar explanation explains why D'Souza, whose own credentials as a bigot are unassailable, clashed with Francis. The man had nothing positive to say of anyone who was not a whiter shade of pale. So, the 'honorary white' pass that non-white racists rely on from their white brethren would not have been available to d'Souza. Francis consigned him to the same trash heap as other people of color. The result was an attack on a white white supremacist by a brown white supremacist.

My second spur for this entry is the FCC's recent ruling on the Monday Night Football ad featuring Nicolette Sheridan and Terrell Owens. The Mercury News reports.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sure, the steamy introduction to ABC's ``Monday Night Football'' was titillating, showing the bare back of ``Desperate Housewives'' actress Nicollette Sheridan as she jumped into the arms of football player Terrell Owens.

But U.S. regulators ruled Monday the racy clip didn't violate federal indecency standards. In a unanimous decision, the five-member Federal Communications Commission said the segment ``simply is not graphic or explicit enough to be indecent under our standard.''

Francis penned one of his last columns for the racist site VDare. It was an hysterical rant about the ad being part of a conspiracy to encourage interracial relationships. He also cited the fuss over Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction." (The man's columns often had an undertone of sexual frustration that may have had something to do with his unfortunate appearance.) That was the world in which Samuel Francis lived -- one in which everything was an attack on the shrine of white supremacy by dusky 'Others.' His demise means there is one fewer source of such poisonous nonsense.

Reasonably related

•Read the full Washington Examiner article about Sam Francis.

•White supremacist David Duke and a few other far Right commentators have written homages to Francis. However, he had become so obscure that his death was not much remarked on otherwise.

•The Southern Poverty Law Center has published accounts of bias at the Washington Times, including this three-page discussion.