{"id":4179,"date":"2015-10-09T13:39:55","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T18:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?p=4179"},"modified":"2015-10-09T13:39:55","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T18:39:55","slug":"getting-to-write-and-getting-it-right-a-re-write-on-darriusstewart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/10\/getting-to-write-and-getting-it-right-a-re-write-on-darriusstewart.html","title":{"rendered":"Getting to Write and Getting it Right: A Re-Write on #DarriusStewart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"pics<\/a>Recently, I wondered aloud<\/a> and asked, \u201cDo We Even Care\u201d about the death of Darrius Stewart. That question came as a response to\u00a0Chris Johnson<\/a>\u2018s powerful piece that appeared on Gawker\u00a0titled\u00a0\u201cKilled on Holy Ground: Dispatch from a Sea of Blue.\u201d \u00a0At the time I wrote that it was \u201csome of the best writing I have read in awhile.\u201d \u00a0Further I said<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Johnson powerfully offers not only the story of the Darrius Stewart killing, but tells the story of\u00a0<\/span>Tremaine Wilbourn<\/span><\/a>, who is currently awaiting trial for the killing of Officer Sean Bolton. What Johnson cogently does is to tell the stories of Stewart\/Schilling and Wilbourn\/Bolton to critically examine how WE MEMPHIANS responded to each. It is a piece of good writing that places you at the scene of each death and each press conference and as a good historian, Johnson contextualizes it all within the racial and political climate that is Memphis specifically and Tennessee broadly.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While some of us understood some of the discrepancies in Darrius Stewart story, it did not take away the power contained in Johnson\u2019s essay, especially in the framed that he chose to use. However, Johnson here offers a rewrite; one that includes the testimony of the Stewart family. In so doing, he makes a good essay that much better. Read Johnson\u2019s reflection below.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Love to all folk who read and shared my essay this weekend. I cannot contain my love and appreciation for big brother all-mighty\u00a0Kiese Laymon<\/a>, who aside from being the most honest and generous and loving black southern wordsmith and devastating ether chemist of our times, has created space for me and many other writers of color. Tragically, so many of these narratives shouldn\u2019t exist. So many of these narratives of police violence shouldn\u2019t have to be written.<\/p>\n

Eighty days have passed since Connor Schilling killed Darrius Stewart and DA Amy Weirich has done nothing.\u00a0Mary Stewart<\/a>\u00a0needs your love and support. This city needs your love and support. This city needs regime change. Poverty and crime and police violence sustain the power of the ruling oligarchs of this city. As long as poverty and crime flourish, Jim Strickland, Kemp Conrad, Berlin Boyd, Mike Williams and these other rogues can call for more cops, more force, less oversight, and more kids in jail.<\/p>\n

I have apologies to make. The Stewart family informs me that I got things wrong, particularly about the alleged outstanding warrants and the alleged fight in the police Charger. I am sorry for any mistakes that I made in the essay. I apologize to Mary Stewart for unintentionally perpetuating the character assassination of Darrius Stewart. I apologize for grounding the story in unreliable police and press reports even as I tried to focus my analysis on the unreliability of these press and police narratives. Because the press and the police in this city are habitual liars and vultures. I apologize for calling for greater listening and not first listening to Mary Stewart.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of explanation and atonement: I made deliberate choices in crafting this essay, and I wasn\u2019t invested in analyzing claims about Darrius\u2019s alleged warrants from some six years ago, when he was twelve years old. This stuff about the warrants is irrelevant and ridiculous. Children\u2019s names don\u2019t belong in arrest warrants. Children don\u2019t belong in police Chargers or jails or prisons. And, from what I understand, no one has been able to locate these alleged warrants. Fiction or not, present or past tense, arrest warrants do not justify execution.<\/p>\n

As for the Darrius\u2019s resistance\u2026I tried to frame that as the story of Connor Schilling, an unreliable, untrustworthy narrator employed by an unreliable, untrustworthy police department.<\/p>\n

That being said, I did argue that Darrius\u2019s resistance\u2014by fighting or running or both\u2014was justified. Darrius had every reason to assume that his life was in jeopardy in the back of that Charger. He had every reason to defend his life. He had no choice but to defend his life. Connor Schilling chose to chase him and kill him.<\/p>\n

The MPD does not deserve compliance and submission because they have used public obedience to bludgeon and rape and steal and spy and kill. The MPD does not deserve public trust because they have repeatedly betrayed it, squandered it, shattered it.<\/p>\n

The original title of the essay was \u201cThe Murderous, Cowardly Pack,\u201d in honor of Claude McKay, whose poem \u201cIf We Must Die,\u201d <\/a>is tragically as relevant today as it was in 1919 and as it was for freedom fighters in the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, I wondered aloud and asked, \u201cDo We Even Care\u201d about the death of Darrius Stewart. That question came as a response to\u00a0Chris Johnson\u2018s powerful piece that appeared on Gawker\u00a0titled\u00a0\u201cKilled on Holy Ground: Dispatch from a Sea of Blue.\u201d \u00a0At the time I wrote that it was \u201csome of the best writing I have read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":3958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[702,61,247,201,190],"class_list":["post-4179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-andre-e-johnson","tag-andre-e-johnson","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-chris-johnson","tag-darrius-stewart","tag-police"],"yoast_head":"\nGetting to Write and Getting it Right: A Re-Write on #DarriusStewart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Recently, I wondered aloud and asked, "Do We Even Care" about the death of Darrius Stewart. 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