"Suicide" of black male in NC may have been lynching

[TDAS04]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ruled-a-suicide-black-teens-hanging-death-in-north-carolina-raises-specter-of-lynching/2014/12/13/89321c0e-831a-11e4-9f38-95a187e4c1f7_story.html

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Rest of story can be found at above link.

[Lambsbread]

Welcome to the 1950s.

[Ban my account ffs!]

It was probably a suicide... But given recent events, it should be investigated thoroughly to put any rumors to rest.

[NewYorkExpress]

It was probably a suicide... But given recent events, it should be investigated thoroughly to put any rumors to rest.

Unless this guy had enemies we don't know about, there's no reason to fake a suicide (and frame others) in the manner of a lynching. Therefore, I'm inclined to believe it was a lynching until new evidence is presented otherwise (and even then I probably won't believe it).

[Cory]

Is there any actual evidence whatsoever that this was a homicide?

[TDAS04]

Is there any actual evidence whatsoever that this was a homicide?

Later in the article

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[TDAS04]

Also, as I heard on CNN, there were no swings on the swing set, and there weren't any items around him could have plausibly been used as steps, so it would have been difficult for him to get up there alone to hang himself.

More details about that here

[memphis]

Welcome to the 1950s.

Are you under the impression that lynching was a common thing in the 1950s?

[Simfan34]

Highly disturbing if true, considering that the last known lynching happened 33 years ago, although the last "mob" lynching was in 1968. But that's academic to a certain degree- Emmett Till, for example was neither killed by a mob nor hung from a tree, but his murder was a brutal act of racial hatred all the same. The background story sounds chillingly like what incited what we think of as the lynchings of old, though...

[ingemann]

Isn't a lynching a act commited in public by a large group?

I would say this, if it's not a suicide, would fall under the category murder.

[CLARENCE 2015!]

They ought to find the murderer a good tree to hang from.......what kind of despicable,evil bigots would do this now..... in 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had thought that acts like these stopped long ago
I am sorry that blacks still have to see this kind of hatred

[bedstuy]

I don't see how there's any evidence indicated a lynching took place.  People have mentioned a bit of circumstantial evidence, but I think there's circumstantial evidence in the other direction.  You're not going to allow that to happen without a struggle, so the lack of injuries indicating a struggle seem to indicate this was a suicide.

And, given the fact that there are thousands of suicides annually and around zero racial motivated hangings per year, I don't see a reason to jump to any conclusion.  Just because we've had Eric Garner and Michael brown protests doesn't mean there needs to be some automatic kneejerk political reaction to the death of black people.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

This is what the whole nation ought to be starting protests over. There's definitely more to this story, and people shouldn't stop until there is a thorough investigation.

^^
This and Eric Gardner's murder are worth the protests, certainly.