The verdict infuriated Audre Lorde, who heard it on the radio as she was driving home in New York. “They almost killed me,” she reflected bitterly, “and I almost killed them.” Campbell was one of the few voices against acquitting Shea, but, perhaps out of fear of reprisal from the majority white jury, she voted with them. Later, Shea claimed that he fired because Clifford-a fourth grader-had brandished a firearm at him, though no gun was recovered from the scene.įor more than a year, the trial was a major news story, dying away only after the policeman’s acquittal in court-a verdict rendered, unsurprisingly, by a jury composed of eleven white men and a single Black woman, Ederica Campbell. “Die, you little fuck,” Shea’s partner, Walter Scott, was recorded saying on a radio transmission, though he denied it was his voice. The cop, Thomas Shea, pulled out his pistol and fired into the boy’s back, killing him almost instantly. Thinking the mysterious car contained someone who wanted to rob them, Clifford Glover and his stepfather fled. ![]() A white policeman had pulled up in a Buick Skylark behind them, the crunch of the car’s wheels on the pavement interrupting the quiet semidarkness. ONE APRIL MORNING in 1973, just before dawn, a ten-year-old Black boy and his stepfather began to run through South Jamaica in Queens.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |