Shotgun attack deters black La. mayor from re-election bid
GREENWOOD, La. — The first black mayor in this North Louisiana town says he will not run for a second term, partly because somebody fired a shotgun into his house early this year.
“If I had any intentions of running again, that just killed my ambitions right away,” Mayor Ernest Lampkins said. “That was a cowardly act. It bothered me that someone would shoot in my house and endanger my wife and kid.”
All three were at home when someone shot out two windows of the house early Jan. 8, but nobody was hit.
Police have not made any arrests.
Lampkins, a retired teacher and bass player, said he had another reason to retire, as well.
“We have five daughters and nine grandchildren, and I want to spend some time with them and see them grow up. I want to travel and write a book about my life,” he said.
About three-quarters of Greenwood’s 2,600 residents are white.
Lampkins, then a town alderman, won 57 percent of the vote in March 2004, beating an incumbent whom critics called divisive and dishonest.
Lampkins said the town’s records — on paper and in computers —were destroyed before he was sworn in.
“When I came in office, I had not one sheet of paper,” he said. “It was all destroyed.”
His first act was to fire the police chief and six other town employees.
Sharpton: Hate crime charge needed in W.Va. torture case; prosecutors claim too hard to prove
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Rev. Al Sharpton called on prosecutors last Tuesday to add hate crimes charges against the six people suspected of kidnapping and torturing a young black woman.
“The best way to keep us out of town is to handle hate crimes the right way here in town,” the civil rights activist told a crowd of nearly 100 people gathered at the First Baptist Church in honor of Megan Williams.
Authorities said three men and three women held Williams captive for days at a rural trailer in Big Creek this summer — sexually assaulting her, beating her and forcing her to eat human and animal feces. She was rescued after an anonymous caller alerted Logan County sheriff’s deputies.
The case is expected to go in January before a grand jury, where the defendants face sexual assault and kidnapping charges. The kidnapping count carries a possible sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutor Brian Abraham has said state hate crimes charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, could be difficult to prove because Williams had a “social relationship” with one of the suspects, 24-year-old Bobby Brewster.
Abraham has advised the Williams family not to participate in public events for fear of tainting jury pools.
The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams said she wanted people to know what her daughter had endured.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and several local preachers have also stayed away, saying they were concerned it could harm the prosecution’s case. Local and national NAACP leaders also said they disapproved of the organizers of a November march, a Washington, D.C.-based group called Black Lawyers for Justice because of its ties to black radicals.
Sharpton also criticized Charleston Mayor Danny Jones, who has called for Williams’ supporters to back off over similar concerns. Jones had objected to the involvement of Malik Shabazz, the Williams family’s legal adviser, because of his past ties to black radicals.
“Any public official or preacher who can’t put the pain of his people above the politics of leaders is not fit to be a politician or a preacher,” Sharpton said.
Sharpton called Williams’ case “a national disgrace” and pledged to talk about it every day on his syndicated radio talk show.
“If the federal government can intervene to protect dogs from Michael Vick in Virginia, then they can do something to protect Megan Williams in West Virginia,” Sharpton said.
Bermuda’s ruling party wins election focused on corruption, racial strife
HAMILTON, Bermuda — Bermuda’s ruling party won a third term in elections shadowed by racial resentment and allegations of corruption.
Premier Ewart Brown’s Progressive Labor Party (PLP) won 22 seats last Tuesday, compared with 14 seats for the United Bermuda Party, mirroring the results of the 2003 elections.
Party officials have promised free day care, as well as free bus and ferry transportation to ease traffic congestion.
“We will take care of that hardworking Bermudan mother of four who needs to be relieved of the burden of paying for child care,” party chairman David Burt said.
Opposition leader Michael Dunkley lost his bid for a key marginal seat, and his conservative party now faces its third leadership election in two years.
The PLP took power of the wealthy British territory in 1998, promising a better deal for blacks who comprise about 60 percent of Bermuda’s 62,000 people. The PLP said many continue to face discrimination in a territory that has emerged as a global financial hub.
Dunkley had called for less focus on race and criticized a PLP bill to enforce racial equality in the workplace.
The premier was among several PLP officials implicated by a recently publicized police dossier that alleged corruption in the public housing corporation, but prosecutors found no evidence of criminal behavior.
Brown, 62, accused the UBP of “corruption, deceit, greed and telling lies” during its 30 years in power.
