Friday, September 23, 2011

Does TX Senator Whitmire Care about Last Meals or Does He Want Black Votes? Are Hate Crime Laws Racist?

by, David Bellow

Houston, Texas Democrat, State Senator John Whitmire has written a letter to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Director, Brad Livingston, demanding that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice end the practice of giving death row inmates a last meal request before their execution.

Senator Whitmire asked for the practice to be stopped in response to the ridiculous last meal request of Lawrence Brewer, a white supremacist, who was executed this week for killing a black man, James Byrd Jr., in Jasper, TX.

I have no problem with ending last meals. These guys are murderers, who did not give their victims a last meal. They get too much in prison as it is anyway. These extra perks that inmates get strain the prison's time and resources. Earlier this year, I wrote an article explaining how David Puckett broke out of Stiles Maximum Security Prison in Beaumont, Texas, and I explained the problems in this Texas Prison that led up to the escape, including strained resources because the inmates get too many things in Prison.

So I do not have a problem with Senator Whitmire’s decision to ask TDCJ to stop last meals. I do have a problem with the timing and motive of Senator Whitmire.

Senator Whitmire has been the chairman of the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee for several years and there have been ridiculous last meal requests every year that Senator Whitmire has been the chair of this committee.

According to Fox News, just last week, Texas Death Row inmate Steven Woods' last meal request included two pounds of bacon, a large four-meat pizza, four fried chicken breasts, two drinks each of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea, two pints of ice cream, five chicken fried steaks, two hamburgers with bacon, fries and a dozen garlic bread sticks with marinara on the side. Steven Woods robbed and killed 2 people.

So why end the meals after Brewer’s ridiculous request? Why now? Why not end it years ago when Senator Whitmire became chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee? Did Senator Whitmire JUST figure out that inmates are asking for silly last meals? Is he that unintelligent that he does not know what goes in in Texas prisons even though he is the head of that senate criminal justice committee?

Of course he is not unintelligent and he knows that these ridiculous last meals have been going on for years. He has just never said anything before.

So why is he finally standing up against this practice? It is simple. He sees an opportunity to get some positive press and win points with black voters.

Brewer’s execution was a very high profile execution with lots of media attention. It was an especially important execution for black organizations like the NAACP because Brewer killed a black man. That dragging-death murder led to the Texas Legislature enacting Hate Crime legislation.

With all the media attention surrounding this execution, and the eyes of black voters watching the news reports of Brewers execution, this was Senator Whitmire’s opportunity to get some national attention and win points with black voters.

So Senator Whitmire wrote a letter to the TDCJ Director, acting all surprised that Brewer, a white supremacist, got a last meal request. Senator Whitmire made a big scene and demanded that the last meals stop or else he will pass legislation next session to stop it.

Well Senator Whitmire, you had many years to write legislation to stop it, but you never did. TDCJ immediately stopped the last meal requests when they got your letter, so why didn’t you send them a letter years ago? It was only when an opportunity arose to get some national media attention and approval points from black voters that you acted surprised that this was happening and demanded that it stop.


Texas Hate Crime Legislation is Discriminatory and was Passed to End Bad Press and Get Black Votes after James Byrd Jr. was Killed in Jasper, TX

Murder is murder. I don’t care if you are a white guy who kills a black guy or if you are a black guy who killed a white guy. Like Texas Governor Rick Perry said at a Republican Presidential Debate, if you come into Texas and you kill someone, then we are going to execute you (paraphrased). Murder is horrendous and wrong regardless of the color of one’s skin. It is wrong to say that one person’s life is more important than another person’s life simply based on the color of the murdered person’s skin. Hate crime legislation does just that. Hate crime legislation says that the rape and murder of a little girl is somehow less important that the murder of a black man by a white man. Both of the murders killed someone and they both should be dealt with using the strongest penalties allowed. In my opinion, every murder is a hate crime.

We need to break down the walls of using race as a determining factor in America. Whether it is college admissions or a job application, race should never be a factor. Like Martin Luther King Jr. once said, people should be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Having race as a determining factor in any area of government simply keeps racism alive.

I don’t dislike Obama based on the color of his skin. I dislike Obama because I disagree with his policy. One of my good friends is Black, Republican Texas State Representative James White. James White is a strong conservative, and I fully supported him when he ran last year. I didn’t care if he was Black, Hispanic, or Chinese. I cared about what he stood for. We should all be color blind like that. We need to take race out of the equation and judge people based on who they are, not what color they are. Especially in voting, people should vote for someone based on what the person believes and not the color of the person’s skin.

Politicians want votes, and they do not want bad press. When Brewer killed James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, TX the media swarmed Jasper and said that East Texas is full of racial hatred and demanded that legislators do something. The legislators responded by passing a hate crimes bill. The hate crimes bill was to stop the bad press and win votes. In reality, hate crimes legislation really does not do anything except say that one person getting murdered is worse than another person getting murdered. Murder is the worst thing that can happen to an innocent victim, no matter what color the victim’s skin, is and all murder victims should be dealt with at the same level of seriousness no matter what color their skin is.


Same thing with Anti-Gay Bullying Laws

The same thing is happening when a homosexual kid is bullied at school. Many gay rights advocates are pushing for anti-bullying laws that specifically reference anti-gay bullying. Even President Obama has appointed a Homosexual Activist to a top post in the Department of Education. Kevin Jennings will oversee “safety” in schools. Maybe Jennings should try teaching students that homosexual sex is not safe considering that Homosexuals make up the majority of new Aids/HIV cases in America each year!

I am all for state and local laws that punish bullies in schools, but there is no need to make a law specifically against gay bullying. Why is it worse when a gay guy gets bullied than when a straight guy gets bullied? I bet there are more heterosexuals bullied in schools overall than homosexuals. My point is, Bullying is bullying no matter who is getting bullied, and it is wrong and there should be no tolerance for bullying of any kind. Gay rights advocates are just trying to push their agenda into schools. California is even creating mandatory homosexual education in schools! What happened to math and science? Maybe that is what is wrong with California’s economy.


Current Racial Divide in Jasper, TX after Black Council Members Discriminate Against White Applicants in Hiring of New Police Chief

The President of the Jasper NAACP, Billy Ray Robinson, was recently arrested in connection with the arrest of his son who was busted in a school zone with drugs. But that is not the big buzz in the town of Jasper.

The big buzz right now is that the City of Jasper, TX is currently faced with many lawsuits and recall elections over claims of racial discrimination. No, the city is not run by a bunch of white people who are discriminating against black people. It is actually the opposite. The city is run by mostly black leaders, and these black leaders have been accused of discriminating against white people. Earlier this year, the Jasper TX City Council hired a Black Police Chief. I don’t have a problem with that. The problem is that this new black police chief seems to have been hired in a backroom deal by the black city council members based on his race and not his qualifications. Rodney Pearson was at the bottom of the city’s hiring list. He was the least qualified and has a criminal record. The white applicants who were more qualified but passed up for the job have filed lawsuits of racial discrimination against the City of Jasper. The white Police Officers in the Jasper Police Department were demoted and even fired by Pearson when Pearson was hired. The City Council faces several recall elections due to these accusations of racial discrimination in the hiring of this new Police Chief. In response, the council gave Pearson a $5000 pay raise. Pearson has only been hired for 6 months and City policy states that all city employees are ineligible for a pay raise until after their first year. This is not just my opinion. Even the Beaumont Enterprise wrote an Editorial condemning the Jasper City Council for their actions.

What is the solution to all these problems in this article? We just need to stop judging people based on the color of their skin and start judging people based on the content of their character. We need to stop the political games of trying to win votes from certain groups. And we need to come together and break these racial divides that we have kept alive through reverse discrimination practices like hate crime laws.

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