The Reverend Jesse Jackson has intervened in the case of Mark Anthony Barmore, the man who was allegedly shot in the back by police at a church in Rockford, Ill. Barmore was unarmed at the time, being sought by police for a domestic dispute. We reported on the Mark Anthony Barmore case here on Black Voices this week.
"I'm extremely disappointed," Jackson said Thursday. "We were hoping that the outstanding facts of the case would prevail over politics. An unarmed man shot in the back is justified homicide? This is a miscarriage of justice."
Mark Anthony Barmore's case has been shocking in light of the fact that the eye witness stories vary so dramatically from the accounts given by the police. Here is the account of events, according to the Winnebago County State Attorney Joe Bruscato:
"As the officers were standing in front of the door, the individual came out, lunged at officer Poole, grabbing his weapon, grabbing the barrel of his weapon, with both hands," Bruscato said. "Officer Poole then had the weapon pushed toward his face. Officer Poole then attempted to push the weapon back, successfully redirecting it, and one shot was fired, which struck Mr. Barmore in the neck."
Sheila Brown (the wife of pastor Melvin Brown who runs the church) and her daughter Marissa gave a completely different description of events that took place that day, stating that Barmore came out of the boiler room with his hands up and was then shot by police. Attorneys representing the Browns have stated that the Grand Jury never heard the testimony of Sheila and Marissa.
According to the county attorney, Sheila and Marissa Brown refused to testify or speak to police. Their attorneys, however, argue that they never refused to testify before the grand jury. According to their lawyer, Keenan Saulter, this is why the grand jury never heard their testimony when they offered it (as he shared with the Rockford Register Star):
"Yet, immediately upon receiving the subpoenas, the attorneys were informed that no grand jury would be impaneled to investigate this matter at that time, and that witnesses need not appear," Saulter said. "Attorneys for Pastor Sheila Brown and Marissa Brown immediately contacted the Winnebago state's attorney's office and advised that Pastor Sheila Brown and Marissa Brown would make themselves available to testify provided that their right to counsel would not be infringed, and that reasonable notice be given as to the date and time for their testimony. Nearly three and a half months passed (from September through Dec. 17, 2009) without any communication from the Winnebago state's attorney's office relating to the investigation or the possible issuance of subpoenas for the appearance of Pastor Sheila Brown or Marissa Brown before the grand jury."
It appears that something fishy is going on here. An independent investigation is necessary to get to the bottom of this. There is no way that the grand jury can make a decision based solely on the officers' description of the shooting. It is a well-known fact that police officers are not inclined to give testimony that is detrimental to their careers or likely to get their colleague's arrested.
I'll keep you posted.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
Comments: (14)
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By: Mike on 12/27/2009 2:44PM
We better start explaining the historic, systemic forces inherent in our 400 yo anti-black supremist capitalist system/machine. This system has ALWAYS targetted black people (especially black men) for this type of unjust treatment - yet none of you with a bullhorn are discussing these entrenched systemic forces. Make no mistake about it - as long as you keep bouncing from outrage to outrage and don't see the 400 yr pattern - you're not helping black people. Believe it or not, you're helping all non-blacks to continue oppressing black people. Get real and get courageous. I know darn well my people possess the eloquence and smarts to explain our situation so that everyone understands and we can begin dismantling these flaws in our system that attack black people. What, do you expect whites to admit this?
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By: shantrell on 12/27/2009 3:45PM
I HAVE ALWAYS SAID AND I STAND ON MY WORD TODAY, THAT WE NEED TO GOVERN OUR OWN PEOPLE. WE DO NOT NEED THESE WHITE RACIST COPS "WHO ARE NOTHING MORE THAN GANGS IN UNIFORMS" OVER OUR PEOPLE, NOR DO WE NEED THE JUDGES AND THE LAME NO GOOD D.A'S. WHO ARE THEIR TO DESTROY LIVES NOT TO BE A HELP TO FIND THE REAL TRUTH ...THE BLACK PANTHERS AND MALCOLM X FOREWARNED US AS TO WHAT WOULD HAPPEN AND LOOK AT US TODAY...IT IS A BATTLE IN WHICH WHITE FOLK HAVE CREATED SUCH JIM CROW LAWS TO PROTECT THEM IN JESTIFYING INPRISONING AND MURDERING OUR BLACK PEOPLE RIGHT BEFORE OUR VERY EYES AND GET AWAY WITH IT AGAIN AS THEIR ROTTEN ANCESTOR DID BEFORE THEM. SO THEY CAN MAINTAIN A STATUS OF POWER OVER WHAT SO DILLIGENTLY BELONG TO THE BLACK FOLK IN THE BEGINNING "MONEY AND LAND" WHITE FOLK RATHER SEE US DEAD THEN TO GIVE BACK WHAT RIGHTFULLY BELONGS TO US IN WHICH OUR ANCESTORS GAVE THEIR LIVES...DO YOU ALL KNOW THAT BLACK MEN ARE TURNING ON BLACK WOMEN SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THE WORD OF A WRITE UP OF WHITE PEOPLE..OH AND "BY THE WAY" THE EPIDEMIC OF AIDS BEING MORE INTENSED IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY IS NOT TRUE, IT IS MORE IN THE WHITE COMMUNITY THAN ANY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP BUT THEY WILL NOT REPORT THAT . IT IS A SIMPLE MATTER OF WHITE PRIDE. THEY DARE NOT PUT THEIR WHITE PRIDE UNDER STRUTNY TO BE EMBARRASSED BY THE PUBLIC..
ALSO BLACK MEN ARE JAILED ON ASSUMPTIONS OF COMMITTING CRIMES WHILE WHITE FOLKS GET A SLAP ON THE RISK AND ARE TOLD TO GO HOME..BLACK PEOPLE, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WE MUST TAKE A STAND ....WORD OF WARNING THINK ABOUT THIS WHAT BETTER WAY FOR WHITES TO GAIN POWER THEN TO TURN THE STRONGEST (ALLYS)ETHNIC GROUP OF PEOPLE AGAINST THEMSELVES? THUS, DESTROYING EACH OTHER. THIS STRATEGY WAS THOUGHT OF BY THE MILITARY WHEN THEY WERE OUT NUMBERED MANY YEARS AGO AND WHITES ARE STILL USING IT..IT LOOKS AS IF OBAMA AND MANY BLACK MEN ARE FOLLOWING SUTE, THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS, OBAMA IS INFLUENCED BY OTHER WHITE MEN AND OUR BLACK MEN ARE INFLUENCED BY WHITE WOMEN WHICH ALTERS THEIR THINKING PROCESS SO THEREFORE THEY CANNOT ADVISE ME HOW TO HELP MY PEOPLE IF THEIR MENTALITY HAS BEEN ALTERED.
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By: brooklyn moe on 12/27/2009 6:16PM
you, obviously, are not well educated. your grammar is horrible and you're not able to put together coherent thoughts and ideas. i don't mean this as an attack on you. it is not necessarily a requirement that one obtain an education of the highest degree to be successful, but if you wish to be taken seriously you should, at the very least, be able to express your ideas clearly and, ideally, without bias. black men are having their mentality altered by white women? that's laughable. i, for one, have had enough of watching the young black thugs in my neighborhood terrorizing the greater law abiding community and then, when they are either shot dead or arrested, reading about what good, caring boys they were according to their mothers and/or grandmothers. it's funny that you refer to "white racist cops" as gangs in uniforms and then speak of the voter intimidating, racist, murdering, thug black panthers as if they were the voice of reason. you can't be taken seriously.
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By: captain midnight on 12/28/2009 11:51AM
I beg you, please get an education, turn off the caps key.Quit making up stories.etc.
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By: Mike on 1/05/2010 10:39PM
Shantrell, you made alot of good points and I understood you completely. Don't worry about people insulting you. God bless and keep you.
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By: Trudy on 12/27/2009 6:22PM
I also agree that we need to goven our own people just as the white man governs his own. We should have that same right. This is the same old time worn story. The cops say one thing and the judges and courst back them up while those who were there on the scene and looking and seeing with perfect vision as well as understanding, say another. It is Time Out for white folks attempting to wipe out our young black men. So what the young man had some problems. I live in the capital cit of Delaware where white young men have more problems than you can shake a stick at. But the cops don't shoot them and they get jobs and all the slaps on the wrists they can give them. They even make up laws to slap them on the wrists, give them jobs, put them in positions they are NOT qualified for. This is the same ole mess reoccuring again and again and I am good and tired of being good and tired of it. We as black people have been messed on and over to much and This is Time for a Change Right Now!! If it means setting up our own courtrooms, jails, lawyers, or whatever. We Need To Do It Now!!
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By: brenda k greene on 12/28/2009 5:56PM
bill or should I say mr bill . you promise not to whip me if I don't say mr. first of all the only chance the white ppl has given the blk ppl are what they getting from you ppl now, the blk ppl were made to build the country while you raped the babies and women and girl. and treated the men like dogs, then you dared them to get an education and live like human beings, so please don;t add your two cent, you have done you damage already to the whole blk race of ppl, now you got the nerve to boost about it, but remember the bible said for those are last shall be first. so look out white ppl your days are numbered, you will be last, and I am living to see that day come and hope you get your ass beat day and nite you sorry ball of crap.
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By: Gwendolyn on 12/28/2009 10:07PM
Bill is NOT a white man. Bill is a Black man. We are killing up each other. The white man doesn't have to kill to many of us, because we are all doing it for them. It is a known fact that we are the only race that does not stick together. If we did hold together as one, the killing would be lesser of our older Black men, younger Black men and boys, by the police, and the killing of each other would STOP. How many of our up scaled men/women, etc., actually take the time out of their business lifes, go to the homes, jails, schools, etc., and speak to these lost children. I know, we leave it all up to the parents. Babies cannot teach a baby "NOTHING". And as Sly Stone said it years and years ago, "Babies Making Babies". And that's exactly what we have now, "Babies Making Babies. Black history has been taken out of the schools, the mojority of the young parents didn't complete the 10th grade, and the young parents today, really don't know who they are and where they really came from. It is really sad.
Mr. Bill, own up to your race. Be the Black man that you really are.
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By: swbey on 12/28/2009 5:05PM
Are you serious? Who taught you how to spell "Negroes?" Someone had to teach you.
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By: Howard on 12/29/2009 12:11AM
Mr. or Ms. “brooklyn moe”:
It is not necessarily accurate to assume that someone is “obviously not well educated” --- based solely on “horrible grammar.” I categorically disagree that “Shantrell’s thoughts and ideas [are not] coherent.” In fact, (in spite of poor, standard, grammar, and less than what you probably consider as being eloquent articulation) --- I am quite sure that I understand (even if I don’t agree with) every, single point that was made, including the point concerning “black men having their mentalities altered by white women.” The latter idea is really quite simple. The idea is that when people enter into biracial and/or bicultural, intimate relationships, including black men with white women, which really is quite common these days --- it’s quite possible, and even probable that their views and actions regarding serious, deep-seated, socioeconomic, political and/or cultural issues may be changed or influenced (at least to some degree) --- based on consideration for their partners, spouses or loved ones --- period. What’s so difficult to understand about that? If we are honest --- we know that this happens all the time. You claim that your comments do not represent “an attack,” but I’m not so sure about that, especially when considering your opening sentence. While you obviously do not take the writer seriously --- I do. In fact, her submission seems (in certain ways) to be more authentic or genuine than yours. As it relates to “bias” --- you clearly are guilty of your own charge, especially as it relates to the Black Panthers. With regard to the Panthers, since you had mentioned “voter intimidating” --- I assume that you are referring to the New Black Panther Party. If so, I challenge you to cite one example of “racist, murdering” behavior by the New Black Panther Party. Talk about making stuff up --- wow! Although you don’t consider the New Black Panther Party as representing “the voice of reason” --- surely you don’t view white, racist, murdering, cops as reasonable --- do you? If there is any doubt in your mind about the fact that racist, white cops (throughout the U.S. of A.) have been murdering black men and women (with impunity) for decades and centuries --- just Google “police brutality.” You will discover “about 2,180,000 items or “hits”, which provide scores of clear-cut cases of racist, white cops murdering black people. If this doesn’t make you a believer --- then I just don’t know what to tell you. By the way, I am certain that (based on your fine education) --- you must be aware of the fact that all of your sentences begin with lower case alphabets, which is not very scholarly --- even when blogging. Also, I found it most interesting that rather than commenting on the information contained in the news article above --- you chose instead to demonstrate (via a diatribe of general rhetoric) your academic “superiority,” and, in my humble view, attempted in the process --- to tear your sister down. If this is what massa’s education trains and equips us to do --- then it is so painfully obvious that not only do we need to control the individuals and institutions that police us, but we also, definitely need to control our educational institutions. Think about it.
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