Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 3-19-19

Page Seven
Puzzling Number Of Men Tied To Ferguson Protests Have Died
Trump Appointee Completes Month Of Public Housing Stays
FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Two young men were found dead inside torched cars. Three others died of apparent suicides. Another collapsed on a bus, his death ruled an over- dose.
Six deaths, all involving men with connections to protests in Ferguson, Mis- souri, drew attention on social media and speculation in the activist community that some- thing sinister was at play.
Police say there is no evi- dence the deaths have any- thing to do with the protests stemming from a white police officer’s fatal shooting of 18- year-old Michael Brown, and that only two were homi- cides with no known link to the protests.
But some activists say their concerns about a possi- ble connection arise out of a culture of fear that persists in Ferguson 4 1⁄2 years after Brown’s death, citing threats
— mostly anonymous — that protest leaders continue to re- ceive.
The Rev. Darryl Gray said he found a box inside his car. When the bomb squad ar- rived, no explosives were found but a 6-foot (1.8-meter) python was inside.
“Everybody is on pins and needles,” Gray said of his fel- low activists.
No arrests have been made in the two homicides. St. Louis County police spokesman Shawn McGuire said witnesses have simply refused to come for- ward, leaving detectives with no answers for why the men were targeted.
“We don’t believe either one was connected to each other,” McGuire said, but adding, “It’s tough to come up with a motive without a sus- pect.”
Ferguson erupted in protests in August 2014 after
officer Darren Wilson fa- tally shot Brown during a street confrontation. Brown was unarmed, but Wilson said he fired in self-defense when the black teenager came at him menacingly.
A grand jury declined to charge Wilson in November 2014, prompting one of the most violent nights of demon- strations, and one of the first activist deaths.
Deandre Joshua’s body was found inside a burned car blocks from the protest. The 20-year-old was shot in the head before the car was torched.
Darren Seals, shown on video comforting Brown’s mother that same night, met an almost identical fate two years later. The 29-year-old’s bullet-riddled body was found inside a burning car in Sep- tember 2016.
Four others also died, three of them ruled suicides.
NEW YORK — Since she took over as President Don- ald Trump‘s top housing of- ficial in the New York City area, Lynne Patton has been criticized for bringing a reality TV approach to what’s tradi- tionally been a bureaucratic job.
She’s feuded with journal- ists, calling one White House reporter “Miss Piggy.” On Twitter, she tosses barbs at liberal politicians and lavishes praise on the Trump family, which she worked for as an aide before being installed in 2017 at the Department of Housing and Urban Develop- ment. Patton, 46, even sought guidance from HUD last fall as to whether she could take time off to appear in a TV “docuseries” about black Republicans.
So when Patton an- nounced she’d be living in New York City‘s decaying pub- lic housing system for four weeks to get a sense of what it was like for tenants, there was skepticism. Was she there to learn and come up with policy solutions? Or was it a stunt?
As the experiment winds down this week, several ten- ants who met her said they were impressed by her pas- sionate advocacy.
“Listen, she’s the messen- ger. I think she deserves a chance,” said Leilani Smith- Simon, a longtime tenant who attended a town hall with Patton at the Queensbridge Houses in Queens. “I have to hope things can change and
things can get better. She seems trustworthy and she wants us to hold her account- able. There’s something to be said for that.”
Some were more skeptical.
“This is all a show,” Queensbridge tenant Tracy Harris said. “I don’t believe one word that’s coming out of her mouth. She’s saying all the right things, but they’re empty promises. Just like the last person who came up in here, and the person before that. She’s all for show.”
Patton spent her last week of overnights at Brook- lyn’s Fenimore-Lefferts Houses, where she held a media event Tuesday.
Wearing high-heeled boots, a chic black cape and sunglasses perched atop her head, she led reporters through apartments with moldy ceilings and down to a fetid basement where she cov- ered her nose and mouth with her scarf.
“I’m happy that she’s here,” Patton’s host in Brooklyn, Gwendolyn Jones, said. “She can share some insight with whoever, let them know that enough is enough. She’s wonderful. She’s concerned.”
After delays caused in part by the 35-day government shutdown, Patton launched her tour on Feb. 11, toting an air mattress into the Patterson Houses in the Bronx. She went on to stay with other host families in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.
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