Mon 13 Aug 2007
At this moment a press conference is being held in the North End. Undercurrents was provided with the statement; it is provided below in its entirety (hypertext links have been added to provide background). HIMC volunteer Kevin Lamkins will have video of the event- stay tuned to Undercurrents for that!
We are here today because we are outraged, shocked and saddened by the recent deaths in our state. We grieve with the Hawke-Petit family in Cheshire as well as with the numerous families throughout the state of Connecticut who have had to deal with the senseless murders of their loved ones.
We are also here to question the disparity of value assigned to certain lives. It has been observed that murders in Hartford, where the median household income is $22,140, garner none of the fanfare that the tragedy in Cheshire, a town with a median household income of $85,664, has received.
We are sure that the horrific nature of the Cheshire home invasion contributed to the local as well as national media coverage of this tragedy. And we are sure that this tragedy hit home for many people who live in neighborhoods similar to the one that the Hawke-Petit family lived in. But we are unsure as to why murders that are just as random and senseless in our inner-cities don’t garner the same attention or outpouring of grief. Xion Davidson and Kent McLaurin were gunned down and killed less than a month ago, and their murders have been all but forgotten by the major news outlets, yet we are inundated daily with stories of how the murders in Cheshire are affecting the lives of the people of Connecticut.
Have we as a society become so far removed from each other that we can only identify and grieve over the lives of those who share our own background? We are not suggesting that there was any malice on the part of anyone who identified with or grieved for the Hawke-Petit family. What we are saying is that institutionalized racism and classism have led to a society that assigns different levels of value to different lives.
We believe that any loss of life due to violence is a tragedy and should be treated as such.
We believe that ALL human lives should be valued and that any premature loss of life should be mourned by the community, not just those who identify on a personal level with those who have been murdered.
We believe that the deaths of poor people of color are just as tragic as the deaths of rich white people; material advantages should not imply value or worth.
We are not trying to pit one tragedy against another; this would be pointless and disrespectful to anyone who has lost a loved one through violence. We are trying to make sense of a society that is willing to ignore certain murders, while elevating others to near mythical status. We are trying to bring together a community that is so fractured that we are willing to value the privileged over the disadvantaged. We are looking to work with all Connecticut residents who feel that all lives are important and all senseless violence needs to end.
August 13th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Thanks. Hope this statement gets a wide circulation.
August 13th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
[…] As Josh reported, we have just returned from a press conference held on 2550 Main Street. The behavior of the media covering the event was just as telling as some of what was said by Cornell Lewis, Francis Davila, and Jerimarie Liesegang. […]
August 13th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
[…] As Josh reported, we have just returned from a press conference held on 2550 Main Street. The behavior of the media covering the event was just as telling as some of what was said by Cornell Lewis, Francis Davila, and Jerimarie Liesegang.Hartford Independent Media Center journalists overheard a WTNH employee ask the community activists to delay the press conference because his reporter was running late. Then, while waiting for things to start, the WFSB and WTNH photographers told each other that they were planning on taking a similar approach to covering the story because they could not figure out how else to deal with the absence of a speaker’s podium. Just as the conference was starting, Moses Price, an NBC 30 photographer, plowed into me, pushing me out of his way, as if he had more of a right to be in that space than I did. He apologized, but still, it’s unprofessional to do that, and I did not see him treat his mainstream media colleagues in that fashion. […]
August 13th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
[…] The Cheshire killings have gotten a lot of press and so today, activists in Hartford held a press conference. Undercurrents has the story and the statement: We are here today because we are outraged, shocked and saddened by the recent deaths in our state. We grieve with the Hawke-Petit family in Cheshire as well as with the numerous families throughout the state of Connecticut who have had to deal with the senseless murders of their loved ones. […]
August 13th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
My best friend’s son, Xion Dupree Davidson was murdered a month ago. — veritably, he was murdered twice-once by an unknown person(s)and again by the Hartord news media. The local newspapers published graphic, horrifying, tactless details about Xion’s murder that has caused his mother unmeasurable pain. The most difficult part to get over is the fact that her son has been branded as a “masked robber” without any concrete evidence. We hardly mention Xion’s name when we speak over the phone as it is too much to deal with right now. But, once-out of now where-his mother quietly said to me, “It was probably the mesh covering he wore over his braids”. “What..are you speaking of?”, I asked. “The mesh mask that they said was covering his face. It was probably the covering he wore over his braids…..” To which I could only offer silence. Who was I to tell? Who would listen or even care? No one cared to know that Xion did not hang out on the streets unsupervised because he had a mother who did not care. Xion’s mother worked two jobs to make sure he lived in a safe area. It was typical of her to make this type of sacrafice for her only child. He had mostly attended private schools as a youngster in Florida. His typical curfew was 10 p.m. His mother trusted that he was home while she worked a second job in te banking industry. Unfotunately, like many teenagers, he made a bad choice. But, unlike others, the consequences were fatal. I am encouraged to see this writing. At times, I think to myself- I guess it took the counter treatment of the murders of members of a affluent white family to remind some that we redress these types of injustices.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Channon, thank you so much for commenting. You so clearly convey how loved Xion was, and what a tragedy his death was for friends and family. Xion wasn’t “just another Hartford murder,” he was someone’s son and his death leaves a hole in the world.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Channon,
Thanks for sharing your story.
I hope that the public begin to act and speak more sensitively about Xion and Kent than they have been.