The sniper saga
continues to puzzle
|
When the Montgomery County police chief announced that
the two chief suspects in the 14 sniper shootings were Black men, the hearts of Black
America sunk. Far too often, when a major crime is committed, a Black collective voice
that can be traced back to slavery says, “Please don’t let them be Black.”
That voice didn’t even peep this time, because it didn’t really occur to
anyone--Black or White--that the phantom snipers were anything other than angry White men.
What that says about all of us -- Black and White alike -- is most interesting.
Any time an act leads us to reorder our thinking on race it is an intriguing experience.
All of the television crime profilers had the snipers pegged for White men.
We had no reason to doubt them, they are experts after all. Besides, we know killers in
our community to be the outraged husband, the jealous boyfriend, the abused wife or
girlfriend who can’t take it anymore, the gambling rivals, and the gang bangers.
It probably never entered our collective conscious that the people who were cold bloodedly
doing drive-by shootings of innocent men, women and children were anything other than
angry White men. Did that mindset cause a delay in the apprehension of the killers?
Did that incorrect racial profiling allow the murders to increase in number? It is
entirely possible.
While authorities were looking for a Timothy McVeigh prototype, two Black men allegedly
were continuing their killing spree. In fact, the car in which they were travelling was
stopped several times, but each time they were allowed to go.
Even now, as authorities in Virginia vow to seek the death penalty for John Williams and
John Malvo, many African Americans say they don’t believe the real sniper has been
captured.
These are just the accomplices, they say. Are they merely in disbelief or denial? The FBI
folks at Quantico are anxious to interview these two suspects; they need to add a chapter
to their book on criminal profiling, they say. A chapter on the angry Black men who turn
their anger outward, instead of inward, perhaps.
In the meantime, how will this change the book on how African Americans look at themselves
or each other? When you expect the bogeyman to be an outsider and you find out he is like
you, it can be more than a little frightening. |
