Notice the difference?

(This blogpost was written Saturday morning, but publication was delayed until Monday.)

Last week the attorney representing the family of Cyrus Carmack-Belton issued a press release. The attorney is Todd Rutherford, attorney in private practice in Columbia and South Carolina State Representative. One of the local TV stations carried it on its website.

"When Cyrus Carmack-Belton’s mother sent this picture to me I had to do a double take because he looked so much like my middle son,” Rutherford said. “What happened to him wasn’t an accident: it’s something that the Black community has experienced for generations: being racially profiled, then shot down in the street like a dog. Words can’t describe the pain I feel having known this family for decades. One beacon of hope is seeing the resilience of the Black community as they wrap their arms around this family that has joined the club that no Black family ever wants to be a part of. As our firm moves forward with this case, we are working to ensure that justice prevails and work towards building a safer community for all residents of Columbia and the greater South Carolina area, regardless of race. This is why I can’t help but fight to ensure history isn’t whitewashed or forgotten. This isn’t an anomaly, but I know America can be better. And that is what we’re fighting for. Because no family should have to deal with this in 2023."

"this picture" accompanied the release.

The first thing I noticed about this picture was "RUTHERFORD LAW". My immediate thought was, "When was such a current picture of Cyrus taken at Rutherford's office?"

I noticed the institutional tile wall behind Cyrus, and I wondered whether that photo had been taken at a school.

Was it photo-shopped?

The second thing I noticed was my strong negative reaction to Rutherford's assertion that Cyrus had been "racially-profiled". I had never read any such claim in articles or words of the sheriff. So why would Rutherford write that? Is it just his own "stuff" about a black boy's being suspected of (attempted) shoplifting?

And the third thing, worse than the second and even the first, was Rutherford's claim that Cyrus had been "shot down in the street like a dog." That isn't just "lawyer-talk". That's the talk that results in more protests, rioting, street crime, property destruction, vandalism, graffiti.

Then on Friday of last week I learned of the GoFundMe account that lists Todd Rutherford as the Organizer.  And there was a very similar (identical?) photo of Cyrus, but without "RUTHERFORD LAW".

I re-read Rutherford's opening sentence, "When Cyrus Carmack-Belton’s mother sent this picture to me ..."

Was the photo that Rutherford used really the picture that Cyrus' mother had sent to him? Was it deceitful and dishonest of him to add RUTHERFORD LAW to the photo?

So, what you think of Rutherford's comments and the difference in Cyrus' pictures?

Summit Parkway M.S. website

This morning turned out to be a good time to check the website for the Summit Parkway Middle School. Teachers and staff have been in the news this week.

So, what did I find on the school's website?

SUMMIT UP NEWS - where Eagles soar

The page is 18 months out-of-date!

to stay safe and be successful, 

     - wear face mask while on campus

Upcoming Events

     - these are December 2021 events

EARLY DISSMISAL........  Seriously? Somebody needs to go back to school and repeat Third Grade.

(I was reminded of a temporary sign on the front lawn of a high school in Illinois back in about 2012: "KNOLWEDGE IS POWER")

APM Food Truck Festival - Saturday, December 11. That was in 2021.

Maybe the person managing the SUMMIT UP NEWS went home sick and never came back.

LGBT Pride Month - Why???

This is one of Dennis Prager's best Fireside Chats. Just 30 minutes; it seemed a lot shorter.

What's the difference between tolerating and celebrating pride?

Why did Dennis study Russian and read Pravda?

Why did I study Russian and not read Pravda?

I'm so glad school is already out, so that students won't have LGBT (etc.) Pride stuffed down their throats.

I'm about to buy this t-shirt. Will it trigger The Left and Liberal people who see it?

What message yesterday at Summit Parkway M.S.?

When students returned to Summit Parkway Middle School yesterday after the Memorial Day week-end and the shooting death of Cyrus Carmack-Belton on Sunday night, what was the message to them from their Principal?

I don't know, because no one has told me. Of course, I wasn't there to hear the message.

If I had been the Principal, I would have offered a moment of silence in memory of Cyrus.

AND I would have admonished all the students to THINK before they act. And not to do stupid stuff.

And I would have been fired before noon.

Why was a 14-year-old carrying a gun? And why, when he went shopping in a convenience store while visiting in the neighborhood eight miles south of his school and home? The location doesn't matter. Why did he have the gun, at all? (And yes, he did have a gun.)

Did he have the gun when he got a ride there? Did he get the gun after he got there?

Whose gun was it? Where did it come from? Had he ever carried it before? Who knew about it?

I'm sorry for the hell that Cyrus' family is going through. 

Stakeholder Survey Report

Most readers here have no experience of newsboys' standing on street corners, shouting "Read all about it!"

Here it is, without going out to the street corner. Published today on the Richland Two School District website is the Stakeholder Survey Results report that the consultant from McPherson & Jacobson last week told the board they probably wouldn't like.

She chose her words carefully on May 23, throwing softball sentences at them. After all, she was hired by them to identify candidates for the job of Superintendent, starting in July.

Click here for the Results. It is a 110-page report.

What happened to the rest of it? Last Tuesday the consultant told the board it might be up to 150 pages. Were parts of it too ugly to put in print?

A blank page follows the title page, so already it's not a 110-page report.

Read the Executive Summary first, especially the third section. Be sure to notice the DEI slant in the last two words, "therefore inequitable".

Browse through the report. Which board members do you think will read it? All of it? Some of it? None of it?

Why did Cyrus run?

 I'm sure (well, hopeful, at least) that the deputies figured this out before I thought of it.

Why did Cyrus run out of the Shell station Sunday evening after he was suspected of attempted shoplifting? If he had a gun in his pocket, he would not have wanted to be there when the sheriff's deputies arrived. 

They would have searched him and found it.

Why did 14-year-old Cyrus have a gun? Did he? Will RCSD find his DNA and fingerprints on the gun and on the ammo? 

In one of her comments online, WIS' Judi Gatson referred to "shots". Was more than one round fired by anyone? The Coroner mentioned only one wound.

Had that gun been fired? Will there be GSR on Cyrus' hand?

Guilty until found Innocent

Reading the news stories of Sheriff Lott's statement by WIS, WACH, and WLTX about the shooting of Cyrus Carmack-Belton, 14, a Summit Parkway Middle School Student, just about anyone will conclude that Rick Chow murdered Cyrus.

I don't.

In the minds of many, it is heresy to raise any questions about the shooting of a black "child". Comments on Facebook are over-the-top. If I drive by that Shell station today, I expect to see it burned to the ground.

In the online article of WLTX, Sheriff Lott called the "crime 'senseless' ". So he had already decided that a crime occurred, when Chow shot Cyrus. And calling it "senseless" inflames the public, which is already looking for the next "Michael Brown" excuse. You know, an "innocent" black being gunned down by a white person.

Lott denies that Cyrus was shoplifting bottles of water, because he had put them back in the cooler. It sounds to me like Cyrus' shoplifting was interrupted by the owner. The crime of shoplifting did not occur, because Cyrus put the bottles back after "touching" them. He didn't carry them out of the store.

WLTX says Cyrus "left the store". Another media report says he ran from the store. Which is it?

The owner's son (name and age not given) chased Cyrus, with Chow following. Chow was armed. In that neighborhood, if I were a business owner, I'd be armed, too. Wouldn't you?

Cyrus fell and got up. Chow's son tells his father that Cyrus had a gun. Chow shot Cyrus. That leaves a huge hole in the story. "Why?"

In a Facebook comment, WIS' Judi Gatson referred to "shots". Really? Plural? The Coroner refers to only one wound.

RCSD found a gun near Cyrus' body. Will RCSD find Cyrus' fingerprints and DNA on the gun? How soon will the sheriff release that information? What is a 14-year-old doing with a gun??? (Hello, Richland 2 Safety Committee and BeSmart!!!)

Now comes the statement in the article that "investigators determined the gun was not pointed at the men (Chow and his son)." They mean, when they found it. Finding an inanimate object (gun) on the ground tells them absolutely nothing about any direction in which it might have been pointed!

The WLTX article says the sheriff said "there's been a lot of misinformation". Now there is an honest statement. And, to me, it looks like a lot of it came from the sheriff.

For the sheriff to call this "tragic" and "one of these things were [sic] you just stand up and shake your head" and "There's no reason for this to happen" instills a bias in the mind of the public. Law enforcement is supposed to be neutral. Isn't it?