Where’s the outrage over Shawn Tyson?

  • by:
  • 09/21/2022

The country is engrossed in the story of a black teenager who was tragically shot to death in Florida. But there is another black teenager recently involved in shooting deaths in Florida who America needs to get to know. His name is Shawn Tyson.

A year ago, Tyson, a sixteen-year-old black boy, murdered two white British tourists outside his home in Sarasota, Florida. Tyson was motivated by greed and racism. His victims begged him not to kill them. He shot and killed them in cold blood.

Last week, Tyson was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Since the murders, family members and friends of the victims have repeatedly reached out to President Obama and the U.S government for support and condolence. They’ve received nothing in response.

They suspect Obama remains silent because there is no political benefit for him to speak up. In light of the outrage expressed by Obama and most of the left over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, I suspect they are right.

Tyson was 16 years old when he gunned down James Kouzaris and James Cooper in April 2011. The British tourists were vacationing in Sarasota with family and friends when, after a night out drinking, they wandered lost into a low-income housing project. 

Witnesses testified that Tyson told them he saw two “crackers” and that he intended to rob them. As Tyson approached, he pulled out a gun and demanded their money.

They said they didn’t have any. “Well if you ain’t got money,” Tyson replied, “then I got something for your ass.”

Kouzaris and Cooper begged for mercy but Tyson showed none. According to a witness, Tyson said he emptied his clip on them. The next morning, the two men were found shirtless with their pants pulled down to their thighs in the spot they had been killed.

The day before he committed the murders, Tyson, a high school drop-out, had been released from prison where he had served time for shooting at a car. He had the word “savage” tattooed across his chest.

The case generated a lot of attention in the United Kingdom, and some headlines here. One place it didn’t seem to register was at the White House. Friends and family members of the victims say the president’s hasn’t responded to letters sent to the White House by the father of one of the victims.

“We would like to publicly express our dissatisfaction at the lack of any public or private message of support or condolence from any American governing body or indeed, President Obama himself,” a friend of the victim said after the trial ended last week.

Should the president be expected to say something? Obama has a history of commenting on crimes in which race is involved. In July 2009, Obama accused Cambridge, Massachusetts, police of acting “stupidly” when they arrested his friend Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates. Then he cited the “long history” of police mistreatment of minorities. The facts of that case ultimately supported the cops whom Obama accused of acting “stupidly.”

After the Trayvon Martin murder became public, Obama felt compelled to comment publicly even though he had no more information about the case than anyone else. His comments followed to the letter the left-wing script - pointing out that we had to get justice in the case because if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin.

Obama wasn’t alone. Much of the mainstream media, many liberal lawmakers and cultural liberals rushed to comment on the injustice that had been done to Trayvon.

Trayvon’s parents attended an unofficial Capitol Hill briefing on racial profiling and hate crimes last week organized by members of the House Judiciary Committee. The 21 congressmen assembled—Democrats all—denounced the death as a hate crime.

The Congressional Black Caucus showed up. “You have friends in the Congressional Black Caucus,” Rep. Andre Carson told the parents. “We have your back.”

Filmmaker Spike Lee wrote “You can’t keep killing black children.” Race baiter Jesse Jackson advanced the idea that “blacks are under attack” The assumption being that blacks are under attack by whites.

Of course, that’s not true. A justice report has found half of murders are of black people, who make up only 13% of the U.S. population. Ninety-three percent of black murder victims are killed by other black people.

According the FBI statistics, whites are more than twice as likely to be killed by blacks than vice versa. The Shawn Tyson scenario is much more common, it turns out, than the Zimmerman-Martin scenario.

“Mr Kouzaris has written to President Obama on three separate occasions and is yet to receive the courtesy of a reply,” a friend of Tyson’s victims told reporters after the guilty verdict was handed down last week. “It would perhaps appear that Mr. Obama sees no political value in facilitating such a request or that the lives of two British tourists are not worthy of ten minutes of his time.”

Where’s the outrage, Mr. President? A few minutes, and a few well- chosen words, could go a long way.

Image:
ADVERTISEMENT

Opinion

View All

British schoolchildren more violent due to lockdown–causes developmental delays: BBC study

Nearly one in five teachers at schools across England reported being hit by a student in the past yea...

London features 'Happy Ramadan' lights throughout city over Easter weekend

The lights have drawn criticism from prominent conservatives who insisted that the council ought to s...

Polish foreign minister claims US was aware of Nord Stream pipeline attack but 'did not prevent it'

Radoslaw Sikorski suggested it was done by "someone who had a vested interest in it."...