03 March 2009

Another One Bites The Dust...
And another one down...
Okay, now that this song by Queen is running through your heads, let's park that morning's refreshing beverage and tune in to what's going on around town, shall we?
Here are two different stories from our newspapers relating to the latest shooting (read 5th homicide) in the city Early Monday morning.
Please note that the first TWO homicides were (justified) POLICE ACTION SHOOTINGS, and NOT "perp on perp" or "perp on vic" shootings.
--Who: Markevious Q. Jackson
--Cause of death: Gunshots
--Circumstances: Jackson was found fatally shot Monday morning in a backyard at 110 W. Concord Lane
--2009 homicide tally: 5
--Number of homicides last year as of March 2: 1
--Sources: Allen County Coroner’s Office, Fort Wayne Police Department
((1 - Homicide victim planned to leave area soon
By Evan Goodenow of The News-Sentinel
Homicide victim Markevious Q. Jackson will return to his hometown of Dumas, Ark., but not the way he or his family planned.
Unemployed and unhappy, Jackson – gunned down Monday morning – had spoken of returning to the town of approximately 4,600 later this month.
"He was tired of being up there and he didn’t want to get in (any) more trouble,"
Jackson’s mother, Louise Jackson, said by phone Monday night from Dumas. "I just want to find out what really did happen."
Jackson, 24, was found lying in the backyard of a south side apartment house at 110 W. Concord Lane, near the intersection of South Calhoun Street, with a red bandanna over his face around 7:05 a.m. A neighbor letting out his dog spotted the body, according to Officer Michael Joyner, a Fort Wayne Police spokesman. Two neighbors told the News-Sentinel they heard from three to five gunshots around 1:15 a.m.

{editor's note: While TWO people heard gunshots, absolutely NOTHING was reported to FWPD in that time period, either a *48* - suspicious activity call, code 113 - shots fired, or anything close at all, and that speaks VOLUMES as to the rampant apathy in many areas. It's called DESENSITIZATION, and that is a BAD. habit to get into}
Police have not given a motive for the killing or said if it was related to Jackson’s criminal history, which includes violence. He was imprisoned for about three months last year for resisting arrest after brawling with a police officer on June 22 and served approximately three years for robbery for an aborted shoplifting attempt in 2003, in which he pulled a knife on workers.
Jackson’s criminal history also included drug charges. He pleaded guilty to marijuana possession in 2007 the same year he was charged with cocaine possession.
While he had a temper, relatives said the young man they called "Bubba" was often good natured and laid back. "He just liked to sit around and laugh and crack jokes," Louise Jackson said.
After the death of his grandfather in Dumas, with whom he was close, Markevious Jackson became depressed. "He said he didn’t have anybody to talk to," said his grandmother, Joy Jackson. He was sent to live with his aunt, Lisa Jackson, in Fort Wayne in 2003, but experienced more problems.
"He was the kind of kid who got too friendly with people," Joy Jackson said. "He got mixed up with the wrong people running with the wrong crowd."
Lisa Jackson said she warned Markevious Jackson about some of his friends. She said she last saw him Sunday night when he came home to change clothes. When not living with his aunt, Markevious Jackson sometimes stayed with his cousin, Vashenya Jackson and her boyfriend, James Dodson whose three children he babysat.
The two said Jackson mentioned Sunday that he had recently feuded with another man over a woman, but they were baffled why anyone would kill him. Dodson said he deserved better.
"He wasn’t no saint. I’m not going to paint a picture of somebody who never got in no trouble, because we all got our faults, but he wasn’t from here," Dodson said. "He was getting ready to go back home for good, and now the next time his family sees him, he’s going to be in a casket." ))
And here's the second story:
((2 - Parolee found shot to death behind home
Holly Abrams The Journal Gazette
A recent parolee was found shot to death behind a south-side home Monday morning, Fort Wayne police said.
The body of Markevious Q. Jackson was discovered when a man let his dogs
outside for a walk about 7 a.m. near his apartment, at 110 W. Concord Lane, just off of South Calhoun Street.
The Allen County Coroner’s Office ruled Jackson’s death the fifth homicide this year. All have occurred in the city.
Jackson, 24, was released Dec. 20 from the Indiana Department of Correction,
said spokesman Doug Garrison. He was sentenced in Allen Superior Court in May 2004 to five years in prison for robbery and resisting law enforcement, court records state.
When tenant Jaime Acosta let his dogs outside his apartment, they took off
behind the building. Acosta followed the dogs and found a man lying in the backyard "I thought it was a plastic garbage bag," he said. "The closer I got I was like ‘Whoa!’ There was a guy lying on the ground."
Acosta, 47, said the man appeared to have been dead for some time, and he
immediately called police. Acosta said he had left work before 1 a.m. Monday
but that when he arrived back home neighbors told him they heard gunshots shortly after that time.
"It’s safe to assume that it (the shooting) happened in that neighborhood,"
police spokesman Michael Joyner said.
Joyner said he was uncertain whether Jackson had been living in the residential neighborhood where his body was found.
The last listed address for Jackson before his incarceration is a now-abandoned home on Radcliffe Court on the city’s southeast side.
Before moving to Indiana, Jackson lived in Dumas, Ark., court records state.
When Acosta discovered the body, he said there were no outward signs of injury besides a bloody nose. Jackson was lying on his left side, facing the back of the home, which consists of four apartments, he said.
"It’s not one of those things you see every day," he said, adding that he has lived there for four years.
Jackson’s conviction stemmed from an August 2003 robbery at Meijer, 6309 Lima Road.
Clerks at the store observed Jackson shoplifting electronic equipment. They tried to detain him and Jackson pulled out a knife, court records state.
Joyner said detectives do not have a motive. Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at 436-STOP.))
Now this is far from the end of the "Real Story", but take a look at this man's history, and then look me in the face and proclaim that the BLACK COMMUNITY did NOT let this man down in ANY way, okay?
Tell me that he was given the opportunity to become a worthwhile person, and that he had black leadership mentoring him, teaching him to become a better person.
Sorry, looks like "someone" fumbled the ball in that regard.
But that's not what frustrates me...
What REALLY pisses me off is the "family" that comes along and says "What a good boy he was, never hurt a fly, always joking and smiling...yada, yada, yada..."
Gimme a break!
I'm not "employed" (per se), and I get very unhappy (living in an area that wants to become a ghetto), and have relatively FEW people to talk to (THEY all moved or passed away, or are back in Philly), but I sure as hell don't have ANY desire to "hang with the wrong crowd".
(must be that ETHICAL behavior and personal responsibility my PARENTS instilled in me from little on up, 'ya think?)
Jackson had a friggin' rap sheet as long as my grocery list. And that didn't happen "overnight", people. He worked at it (if you can call THAT work).
Listen friends, if he was THAT good a person, wouldn't the road he chose to travel in life be a LOT better one than the one he found himself ambling along with absolutely NO direction or purpose?
I mean you always make your bed, and you have to sleep in it, right?
And isn't life about making AS GOOD CHOICES as one can, under given circumstances?
Sure, we will make mistakes, but we ARE supposed to LEARN FROM THEM, not keep doing the same dumb $hit, are we?
This guy chose unwisely, and it caught the hell up to him, as it always will.
It does make one wonder about the state of our black community here when the lesser number of a particular race are responsible for the majority of the criminal activity in Fort Wayne.
I mean there's some pretty WIDE cracks that all these people are falling the hell through.
Now I'm sure "mister" Jackson didn't suddenly wake up one morning and say, "Today, I'll become a criminal". He didn't just flip a switch in his head and start down the road to ruin. He had to have had some help along the journey.
And it must have started a lot earlier in his life.
When a group of people, ANY group of people are provided "something for nothing" (that would be entitlements in any form or fashion you can dream up), they WILL lose the ability to appreciate what they WORK for (as they don't have to work to get whatever they get for free from the taxpayers). They WILL lose the sense of accomplishment, the ability to challenge themselves, thereby becoming better people in the process.
They WILL stagnate, and eventually devolve into the realm of criminal behavior.
The time for THAT mentality must cease.
ALL people are capable of great things, and it's about time we begin to understand that.
Time to make those accountable who have enjoyed a "pass" for all this time.
It is very difficult to see my way clear of real "equality" in men, when I see those getting handouts and subsidies when they have no intention of providing ANY useful reciprocity to acknowledge those who give freely TO them.
That, my friends is INEQUALITY through SUPERIORITY (by way of taking from others to "even out the playing field").
It's also akin to socialism.
We ALL have to learn to succeed OR fail based soley on OUR OWN MERITS.
And then maybe....MAYBE people like Mr. Jackson won't have to become the latest statistic on some police blotter.
I don't mourn the family's loss. They could see it coming, but they're in denial, and as Mark Twain once stated:
"Denial ain't just a river in Egypt".
Put THAT on the tombstone...in case anyone forgets.
Stay safe out there, America.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

even close family members of mine started criminal careers back when they were young. that is the true profile. i dont speak to them anymore. and i am "lonely" too. but, i work and i live a good clean life. between my child, best friend, and work i have really no void.

the key is i believe God wants us to be gainfully employed weithor its traditional work, volunteer work, or work around the house/neighborhood.

Bob G. said...

Indy:
Better to be LONELY and "crime-free" than to suffer the alternatives.

The black community has failed it's people time and again in cities all over the country.
They should stop "preaching to the flock" and start trying to "convert the wolves" instead.
It comes down to the whole "GIVE a man a fish or TEACH a man to fish" axiom all over again.
(that basket's getting kinda empty with all the giveaways)

Thanks for your thoughts and comment.

B.G.

Murphy's Law said...

You caught a lucky break as a baby...no one named you "Markevious" so you had a chance to grow up normal. With a name like Markevious, you just gotta be devious, doncha' know.

But I'm sure that he was just about to get his life all turned around. They always are just before they get killed.