January 9, 2009
For many, it was a case about race
As black leaders criticized the trial and conviction of John White on manslaughter and weapons charges, all agreed yesterday that the case was bedeviled at every turn by the issue of race.
Lucius Ware, president of the Eastern Long Island chapter of the NAACP, said the racially-charged nature of the case dates back to the August night in 2006 when White, a black father of three, fatally shot one of several angry white teenagers who confronted him at his Miller Place home.
"This case was soaked with racism from start to finish and every step along the way," said Ware, who sat in the audience throughout the trial.
"If this event had occurred with five immature and chemically-altered black boys going to any neighborhood, it would have been justifiable homicide," he said. "This is a clear signal to the purveyors of racial hatred and slander that their activities are free to be pursued."
But Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux, who prosecuted the case, said the argument amounted to saying that John White's actions should not be a crime. "This was not about race. It was about an adult who was put in a bad situation by teenagers. He reacted poorly," Chalifoux said. "We all live by the same laws."
Chalifoux's boss, District Attorney Thomas Spota, declined to comment abut the race issue, according to spokesman Robert Clifford. Dan Aug, spokesman for County Executive Steve Levy, said he was unable to locate Levy for comment about the issue.
Noel Leader, a spokesman for 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, a New York City-based civil-rights group that provided security to the White family during the trial, recalled White's trial testimony that he feared for his family the night of the shooting. "He thought these guys were coming over to kill his son," Leader said. "If there was a role reversal with the races, I doubt there would be a jury in this country that would convict a man for trying to defend his
family."
Others said the racial makeup of the jury -- predominately white with only one black member -- made it tougher for the black community to accept its judgment as fair.
"If you had a more diverse jury you remove the inclination to criticize," said Reginal Tuggle, pastor of Memorial Presbyterian Church in Roosevelt. "Racially-charged cases ought to have as diverse a jury as possible."
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who said he has closely followed the case since White's arrest, contrasted the father's conviction with that of Bernhard Goetz, the so-called "Subway Vigilante" who in 1984 shot and wounded four black youths he believed wanted to rob him. Goetz, who is white, was acquitted of attempted murder and served eight months in jail for illegal possession of a weapon.
"Goetz was under far less threat," Sharpton said. "And he only went to jail for the gun."
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