Black Lives Still Matter, Con't

Black lives still matter, even in small town Oklahoma.

 

GOP officials from McCurtain County, Okla. are being investigated by the FBI after they were caught on tape expressing their frustration about it not being socially acceptable beat up and hang Black people, as well as their desires to hire hitmen to kill newspaper reporters.

The audio was published by print-only newspaper McCurtain Gazette-News, and it released transcript of a recording from a county commissioners meeting last month to the public that allegedly incriminates several public officials after disturbing comments were made. The full audio recording from Gazette-News reporter Bruce Willingham will be released by the newspaper at a later date.

After hundreds came out in protest, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) has called for the resignation of McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy (R), District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings (R), Investigator Alicia Manning and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix for their comments in the meeting. District 3 Commissioner Robert Beck (R) is also cited in the audio.

The transcript suggests that the group first started discussing a recent fire which killed a woman and her two dogs. The group joked about the woman’s body parts falling off her body, and that it is similar to eating barbecue.

“So we get her in the body bag and Kyler goes, ‘You do know what we gotta do right?’ Faith goes, ‘No, what?’ He goes, ‘You gotta pre-heat the oven 350 degrees, leave her in there for 15 minutes,’” said Clardy.

Later in the transcript, Jennings and Clardy had a racist exchange and went back and forth about society making it unacceptable to lynch Black people.

“I’m gonna tell you something. If it was back in the day, when that when Alan Marshton would take a damn Black guy and whoop their ass and throw him in the cell? I’d run for f—ing sheriff,” Jennings said.

After Clardy said things aren’t like that anymore, Jennings continued.

“I know. Take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a damn rope. But you can’t do that anymore. They got more rights than we got.”

Jennings supposedly went on to say that he knows of two large pre-dug holes “if you ever need them,” referring to disposing the remains of Bruce Willingham and his son, Chris, also a Gazette-News reporter. Jennings also said that he knows of “two or three hit men, they’re very quiet guys.”

Manning chimed in and claimed nobody would care if two of the Gazette-News’ reporters were harmed. “Yeah, but here’s the reality,” Manning allegedly said. “If a hair on his wife’s head, Chris Willingham’s head, or any of those people that really were behind that, if any hair on their head got touched by anybody, who would be the bad guy?”

 

Gov. Stitt has to at least pretend he wants them gone, but let's face it: It's 2023, and what white supremacist Republicans really want is an America where you can go around and shoot, kill, and/or lynch Black folk just like granpappy used to do back in the Good Ol' Days, cause even if you were an Okie from Muskogee shit-kicker dirt poor asshole, at least you could still take a pipe wrench to one of them ni-CLANGs like God intended and then put a couple of them civil rights reporters in the goddamn ground

The problem isn't what these dirtbags said on tape, it's what millions of white folk say when there's nobody around to record it.

And you know what?  The casual way these assholes talked about lynching and putting reporters in the ground, with total indifference to human life?

That sounds like a confession to me.  It sounds like something they've seen or done before, and more than once. I'm glad the feds are involved, because it sounds like there have been decades of "bad guys" over the years here and no effort to investigate the victims.

But the worst part is that we should realize that in 2023, even discussing this case in a school or college classroom would be illegal in several states, because it would be banned under anti "Critical Race Theory" laws. This is exactly the subject my high school in NC discussed more than 30 years ago during the reaction in LA to the Rodney King verdict, and talking about this story would be illegal in a NC classroom or public university course if NC Republicans have their way.

Black Lives Matter.

 

Do better.