Black man found dead against tree with rope around his neck in NC: 'Not a lynching,' sheriff says
Black man found dead against tree with rope around his neck in NC: 'Not a lynching,' sheriff says
The family of Javion Magee and people in Vance County want answers and transparency in his death investigation.
"The young man was not dangling from a tree. He was not swinging from a tree. The rope was wrapped around his neck. It was not a noose. There was not a knot in the rope, so therefore, it was not a lynching here in Vance County."
Umm, are you saying it wasn't a lynching on a technicality? Everyone in the south must be Olympic level mental gymnasts. In particular to say there's no evidence of foul play, at least.
This is like Russian dissidents falling out of windows or down stairs.
The legal definitions can be far removed from normal usage: in California “lynching” is when a crowd forcibly removes a suspect from police custody, which historically was often a prelude to what we would recognize as actual lynching (presumably it was defined that way so participants could be charged even if they were stopped before harming the victim). But it’s been used in more recent times to charge protesters with “lynching” for interfering with the arrest of other protesters.
That is interesting that it has bespoke legal definitions. The Wikipedia entry is what I expected
Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an extreme form of informal group social control, and it is often conducted with the
He said Magee went to a nearby Walmart shortly before he died. That is where he is believed to have bought the rope found around his neck.
If this young man bought the rope himself, if there is evidence of this like surveillance video, that paints this situation in a pretty different light.
Edit: I want to be very clear that the police should be presenting any evidence they have of this. I would not take the police at their word. My comment here hinges on the report being true.
Brame told ABC11 that there were no signs of foul play in Magee's death.
Suicide and lynching can look similar. The officer said no signs of foul play first, then got a little too technical on the details of lynching as a response to speculation which probabky contained those details.
Yes, the response about specific details sounds ridiculous in a vacuum. But keep in mind that what he is saying is also a way to describe why a suicide isn't a lynching.
At least the police are reaching out to an external agency to hopefully provide some conformation on the circumstances.
I didn't realise lynching had to be done in a certain specific way.
Yeah, otherwise it's just sparkling racism.
otherwise is general racism, not specific enough for "lynching"
/s
Call it what you will, it’s a travesty and should be taken very seriously. But, this is the south, and most southerners love to mince words; especially when it comes to race and politics.
very high chances they were interrupted trying to hang him or the body afterwards. sheriff is a tool.
It's not a real lynching unless you know how to tie a proper noose. That means 13 loops.
"Special strangulation operation"
He obviously hung himself from the tree with nothing to stand on and then untied the rope as a precaution. You know, in case any kids walked by.
This could be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Reminds me of the episode in The Wire where the various departments wouldn’t take responsibility over the dead girls in the can because of they could t pinpoint where exactly they died and when. They care too much for the state. God forbid there’s a lynching and instead of admitting they have a problem they focus on cooking the stats.
Read between the lines, from what they revealed.
His feet were on the ground.
He bought the rope himself.
He was found not far from his semi.
The rope was wrapped around his neck and not tied together.
The guy was doing some self choking to get off. His "safety" was thinking that if he blacked out the rope would drop off him, but it didn't work.
Or intentional suicide. Hard to know at this point since all three can end with a body and a rope around the neck.
Given that the sheriff in question is black, and that he has requested investigations from outside parties, I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt until the investigations are complete.
The sheriff is blue.
In addition to...
Just like internalized misogyny is very much a thing in women, internalized racism is a thing, too. It's sort of like a poor person aligning themselves with the rich against their own interests, if that's easier for you to visualize. All that to say, I agree with the other commenter— that cop is blue.
OK, like, MAYBE everyone should quit knee-jerking and claiming being experts off a headline, and maybe this guy is a grown-up who understands the situation more than you do?
I could be wrong. But the pitchfork mentality and outrage addiction is even worse on Lemmy than it was on Reddit, and that's really not a good thing.
I'm not saying assume nothing is wrong. I'm just suggesting that it accomplishes nothing to jump to conclusions until all the evidence is available. Is that so unreasonable to you?
Butbutbut... the internet demands instant answers to everything!
I finished ace Attorney in a since day. How do they not know who did it yet?! Are they dumb?
/s
There are a concerning amount of not-a-lynchings in this country.
"Lynching-lite"? "I can't believe this is not a lynching"? "Lynching adjacent"?
What are we going with for the new term?
It's only a lynching if it's from Lynch, Kentucky
Otherwise it's just a sparkling hate crime
I can see why the sheriff doesn't want to rush to call it lynching when there isn't evidence of lynching specifically. BUT it appears to be a horrific and violent crime that surely should be their first priority. Sheriff's statement is downplaying the whole thing.
No defensive wounds, if the sheriff''s office isn't lying.
Well, they themselves are bringing in the SBI and Attorney General's Office. If they're lying, they just fucked themselves hard for no reason.
It seems they're actually being extremely thorough.
There are 50,000 suicides a year in the US and only 22,000 murders, but y'all suspect it's more likely a guy with his feet on the ground, a rope not even tied, no defensive wounds, and a rope he bought himself, is a murder victim instead of the far outnumbering suicides.
Well yes if they had said "by technicality this is not a lynching, but it certainly smells like one" I don't think we'd be thinking the sheriff is fucked in the head. But he didn't say that
I would say this department is full of "bad apples." You might remember the kid being slammed a few years back. Even if the event was a suicide, the community will always wonder. They like to hid stuff and pay corrupt sheriffs.
This reminds me of those people that commit suicide by shooting themselves in the head six times.
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And driving said car over a cliff.
This should be an interesting one for seeing who reads articles and who reads just headlines.
So... Pretty much everyone then? Lol
I got a lot of negative comments I could make; I will not. The only comment I will make will be that I hope he has evidence it isn't.
FBI needs to investigate the local sheriff office
People overblowing shit like wild.
He bought the rope, and pd will only say so much to the public. They'll tell the family.
From what has been revealed, there's two really obvious likelihoods. Suicide, and auto erotic asphyxiation. With the rope just being wrapped around his neck and him not up in the air, I'm leaning towards the latter. Bet he was thinking the rope would unwind if he blacked out, but it didn't.
Also possible that someone could have murdered him with his own rope, and left him in a way that looked like a suicide. Definitely something that needs time to investigate further.
People overblowing shit like wild.
He bought the rope
They need to release the video of him making the purchase. They claim to have it but refuse to release it. There is no reason not to. So until that happens, there’s no reason to believe the cops.
Edit: 🥾😋’s get blocked.
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Suicide rate is 2.5 times more likely than murder. There's currently no reason to not believe them.
I say this because if there wasn't footage of him buying it, not mentioning it would be the obvious way to go if you were trying to cover up possible foul play. Saying there is footage though; footage that never gets produced screams the opposite.
So if the footage didn't exist, they never would have even hinted that it does.
Obviously the investigation should be thorough to rule out alternatives, especially considering the history of such racist crimes, but it may legitimately be a suicide.
Ah, yes, suicide. Like Epstein.
It's only lynching if it's commited in the Lynch region of the deep south. Otherwise it's just sparkling hate crime.
I had a man deliberately swerve at my car, stop in front of me so I couldn't move, and then when I argued back and he lost the argument, he blasted an illegal train whistle horn at me and drove off. I immediately reported him (attempted assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, illegal attachment that cpupd also be considered assault), had the location and license plate and everything.
The officer told me he couldn't do anything because I didn't have video proof. I knocked on doors and will continue to do so to see if anyone has a camera that overlooks the intersection or if anyone has a dash camera that caught it. The officer may think I'm cool with a 50 something year old man attempting to hunt down people and cause accidents, but I'm not.
Cops are fucking USELESS, their ONE helpful role is to deal with violent offenders and they can't even do that.
Is it more racist to assume it was a lynching because he's black so therefore any death involving a rope -- an accident, happenstance, autoerotic asphyxiation, suicide -- must be a lynching, or to assume that it might not be a lynching because it would be stereotyping and objectifying black bodies to assume any death involving or related to a rope must be a lynching? 😬
I mean there is literally video of him buying the rope that he was found with from Walmart, buying smokes from a smoke shop, which were found next to his body, him driving to where his body was found, and not returning to his truck. There was no signs of assault or trauma. It would be pretty crazy if someone happened to stumble upon him near a tree with a rope and smokes and was able to then lynch him without him resisting.