The family of Darrien Hunt, the young man from Utah who was found to be shot to death in the back by police officers, have been desperately asking questions they painfully know the answers to.
Hunt, 22, who was biracial, was seen smiling with Saratoga Springs officers moments before his was gunned down. His mother and aunt, who both are white, both allege that it was a case of being Black in the wrong time.
It is understandably pain and hurt prompt blanket statements but a recent discovery by The Guardian may go on to support such a claim. Corporal Matthew Schauerhamer, one of the two officers involved in the shooting, had an article published in the local Crossroads Journal, that was to serve as guide on how to spot drug use in children. Midway through his essay, he starts alleging that musical artists, including Bob Marley and various rappers share a gateway with getting kids in the habit of substance abuse.
Bob Marley and his music are sublime to some people. Just because you have an entire archive on your iPod that is specifically dedicated to Bob Marley, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a drug user. Having George Strait’s greatest hits on your iPod doesn’t mean you’re a cowboy.
However, if your child is listening to Bob Marley’s Kaya, is wearing a Bob Marley shirt with Bob Marley on it smoking a joint, has a Bob Marley poster in his room, and is wearing a Rasta hat (red, yellow and green), it is highly likely your child is highly high. If they have Rasta colored anything, it is a good bet your child uses or hangs out with drug users.
Oh, and by the way – if your child hangs out with drug users, your child’s probability of being a drug user goes up exponentially.
Different music subcultures are so closely related to drug use that advertising the music is like advertising the drugs themselves. Artists such as Wiz Khalifa is the modern-day poster boy for weed. Lil Wayne is infamous for codeine abuse also known as “Sizzurp or purple drank.”
The Insane Clown Posse, with its “Juggalo and Jugalette” parishioners, are associated with basically any drug ever used, ever. They have such predominant, mainstreamed drug abuse tones and references in their music that it is impossible to ignore their overt advertisement of drug lifestyles.
Schauerhamer’s attorney Bret Rawson defended the article, telling The Guardian should be considered as “simplified public information piece” and not a “scholarly analysis of race.”
Still, with a slain 22-year-old whose autopsy contradicted the intial police statement, it is hard not to view the piece anything but what it is being accused of trying to accomplish. Furthermore, the Crossroads Journal removed it from its archives.
—
Photo: Good4Utah
