Well, I almost witnessed the murder. It happened at 2603 Textile Drive when my new neighbors decided it would be a good idea to operate an after hours liquor house in a residential neighborhood. Last I checked it had yet to covered by any of the local media but I'm not surprised as even WFMY TV which is located only a mile away never covers things that happen in this neighborhood. A few lines will turn up in the News & Record later.
I say almost because I was on the telephone waiting for the 911 operator to answer the phone for me to complain about the noise when I heard the shots ring out at 2 or 3 this morning. The switch to Daylight Savings Time has me confused as to what time it actually was.
Had it not been for the crowds of people who were outside blocking my view I would have been able to see the actual shooting take place as the dead man's body fell into the street. As I told Chief Miller and detectives, seconds later, the first of many cars sped away from the scene through another neighbor's yard. Then while I was still on the phone with the 911 operator, cars and people started leaving in every direction. Others were so drunk they were still fighting even as the first police officers on the scene unsuccessfully tried to save the victim's life.
I'm leaving out a few things because to my knowledge the shooter is still on the loose but I want to make it known that the real problem here isn't the shooter in-so-much as it is the man who was operating an illegal, after hours liquor and possible drug house in a residential neighborhood.
The neighborhood is lucky in that this time the liquor house was just getting up and running and we didn't have to live with it for months or years like we've had to do in the past. Many of the liquor house customers were under age drinkers. The men who run these liquor houses pick this neighborhood because of its many rental properties in close proximity to the housing projects where large numbers of customers can arrive on foot. This liquor house is yet another example of the outcome of the institutional racism that has plagued Northeast Greensboro for 50 plus years.
The customers of the liquor house don't understand. They think they're not bothering anyone and will tell you so. They'll claim it's unfair that neighbors and police want these activities stopped. Some of them aren't bothering anyone. Others drive drunk, have alcohol related accidents, steal to get money to buy their drugs and alcohol, keep neighbors awake all night and shoot people to death.
Neighbors were already working with police to shut it down but more than that I cannot say without putting police efforts and neighbors at risk.
And all these hours later I still hear a young black woman on crutches crying her heart out as she makes her way from the liquor house, past my house and up the street, "Stupid niggers, stupid niggers, they fuck it up for all of us..."
They do, Honey, but it's because the institution never taught them any other way. If stupid white people were put under the same microscope we'd see the same thing. As an old white man who has known more than my share of stupid white people I know it's true.
Update: WFMY finally has the story here. Funny, the ambulance left without flashing lights or sirens and yet WFMY reports he died later at the hospital. I was there, remember.
You've got to love the local media. News 2 and Fox 8 both made it look as if two cars collided in an intersection when in fact the accident happened backing out the driveway And do ambulances carry living breathing gun shot victims to the hospital with the lights and sirens turned off?
News 2 is located 1 mile from where it took place. Twelve hours later and no reporters from ANY media have arrived yet, none will tell the back story of how the shooting came about and most who follow them will think it was road rage when in fact both men were customers at an illegal after hours liquor house.
This is how the local media participates in keeping the status quo in power. This is why Greensboro-- all of Greensboro, North Carolina, suffers.
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