The email from Paris [this refers to the initial post from a Paris resident criticizing the Chicago Tribune’s reporting] is a good example of whats wrong in Paris. Its full of lies. And those lies came straight for the D.A.s office, the judge who sentenced ShaQuanda Cotton and The Paris News. I know because I was there.While its true, ShaQuanda had numerous writeups, some were found to be untrue and some exaggerated. Thats why, since they are allowed to be used in court as absolute fact but are one sided and created, at least ShaQuanda Cottons case, by those who brought the charges against her, they should have both sides of the story on them. There should be a place where the student or parent can respond. After her arrest, ShaQunada’s writeups were tripled and most of those were minor such as “looking around”, messing with her sweater”.

School policy, at least at that time, stated a parent must fill out a complaint form in order to talk to the superintendent. You had to fill it out if you talked to the principal as well because if you failed to do that and wanted to talk to the superintendent or school board you were not allowed. But ShaQuanda Cotton was punished because of her mother following those rules.

In court, the D.A. went on and on about how she was always filing complaints. The incident with the hall monitor was not “the last straw”. It was the golden opportunity because they were tired of Creola Cotton and myself filing complaints. The hall monitor walked around the school laughing and talking for two hours before she was told by the principal and school police officer, who is also a teacher at the school, to go to the emergency room on a stretcher.

The incident was most likely captured on video.When Creola Cotton requested it be pulled and reviewed, at first she was told they would do that but a couple days later, she was told the equipment mal-functioned.

Superville went the TYC route because thats the route the school officials and D.A. wanted him to take. There was never any mention of giving up custody. There was never any mention of probation except when Gary Young questioned Creola Cotton regarding her going along with the terms of probation and she repeatedly said “Yes” and “Of Course I will”.

As we all know by now, sentencing a 14 year old to “Up to 7 years”, can be all of 7 years if you are given an extra pair of socks or a cup of water and you forget to throw away the cup. Superville had publicly claimed he only sentenced juveniles to TYC after he had exhausted all other options. In ShaQuanda Cottons case, he never exhausted anything. He never even concidered any other option.

I don’t know what “local black community” the email writer claims it was that supported the sentencing but the black community I live in certainly did not support it. Of course there were a few who believed anything they were spoonfed but in general, the black community was well aware that it could have just as easily be done to their child. Thats why to this day, they live in fear of openly complaining about racism. I know because they come to my organization, Concerned Citizens For Racial Equality with their complaints.

Many white citizens of Paris show great concern with the fact the white juvenile was placed in a facility where the guards were rapists and abusers but they fail to care that ShaQuanda Cotton was placed in the exact same facility in the care of those same rapists and abusers. They try to explain how she deserved it.

In the white Juvenile’s case, Superville stated, according to a Paris News article, that he didn’t want to send her to TYC because TYC was only for punishment and didn’t offer rehabilitation but in ShaQunada Cottons case, Superville said he had to send her there because it was the only place that offered rehabilitation.

Rickey Smiley came over from Dallas and held a large demonstration with some Black Panthers participating. Thats called exercising your rights. It did help by bringing more attention to ShaQuanda’s plight.

Brandon McClelland was dragged to his death by means of a pickup truck. I still haven’t figured out how anyone can claim a “friend” did it, especially when that “friend” shot another “friend” three times in the head.

Are Judge Superville and Gary Young racist? It depends on who you ask. White public officials and friends and family of the two say no but almost everyone I’ve talked to in the black community say yes.

Superville went on a local radio show in Paris the day after the last DOJ meeting and made claims that Brandon McClelland was not dragged and that we were just saying it in order to make it sound worse.

The statements he made in the Chicago Tribune regarding racism not being a reality in Paris but the real problem being illiteracy, drugs, and a lack of parenting and the blacks were just lashing out blaming white for our problems is just washed up. Its just not going to cut it. If most of the blacks are illiterate, that would mean theres an enormous problem in the schools since most blacks graduate in Paris. Drugs are an enormous problem in Paris but the problem is within the white community just as much as it is the black community and I haven’t seen a single public official try to come up with solutions to address that problem other than giving the black offenders 40 to life.

None of this explains why a white person with an equal criminal history can get “shock probation” for the same crime a black person gets 60 years for or why a white person gets a $3000 dollar bond for the same crime a black person gets a $50,000 bond. It doesn’t explain why its mainly black students sitting for days in ISS when white students misbehave at the same rate. Rather than trying to attack reporters for writing the articles you should be trying to address the issues. Otherwise, there will be much more racist incidents for reporters to write about.