The Human response to the Murder of Mr. Shawn Greenwood!!

Author: Maj*K

Many Ithaca community members have articulated that numerous community members have
supposed various things in regards to the February 2010 slaying of Mr. Shawn Greenwood. Here are a
few of the communities assertions regarding the individual and social reasons and “justifications” for the
murder: The corruption of the Injustice system, Urban/Rural/Collegetown drug use and trafficking,
exclusive “national” ethos in the U.S.A., lack of credible employment opportunities and/or access to
positions that yield hiring power for Original People (so-called African-American, Black or Brown People,
First Nation, Latin@, etc), personal vendetta and jealousy, unethical; incomplete and otherwise faulty
police training and practice, police corruption, a lack of opportunities for social engagement that fruit
quality, ethical and complete representative power for all non-wealthy-white males, parenting struggles,
compulsory educational system, imposition of negative “self-fulfilling” prophecies through the
corruption and inequity of U.S. schools and the Ithaca school district in specific, Xenophobia, structures
of class and poverty, mis-guided urban/rural conflict imposed by the class elite in a divisive effort to
maintain the exploitation of lower-class people in our imposed social position as economically
dependent upon a fiat capital system that offers little political/social representation for people living in
poverty, and a plethora of additional conjecture…

All of the suppositions are conclusions that upon further ethical, inclusive and honest discussion
could beget radical movement and remedial action that would plausibly inspire revolution to
implementation of individual and social solutions. However, limiting our objectivity to the implications
and reality of conforming, political or academic debate and/or policy change within the current flawed
socio-political structure allows for the opportunity for dangerous and simple separation from personal
human reaction and leaves only a conditioned reality of individualistic, inhumane and emotionally
disconnected responses.

I would like to humbly remind us that at the root of the conjecture regarding the murder of Mr.
Shawn Greenwood, is the fact that he is no longer alive. As a result, it is impossible to fully validate or
invalidate who he was presently and who he was to become as he grew older. Therefore, every
defensive or offensive explanation/rationale dependent upon character diagnosis, as a barometer of
justice, or justification, for the murder of Mr. Greenwood, relevant to the circumstances that led to his
murder and of the murder itself, are inherently misleading, incomplete and inhumane. Partially as a
result of the exclusivity entrenched in any public critic, state investigation or media conclusion we have
disengaged from the only sensible reaction and relied on slander, exceptionalism and petty debate; A
Suggestion: The People must secure individual and social, collectively constructed and implemented,
accountability for what has occurred and demand that it never occur again using the mechanisms of
accountability as the method for assuring the end to the murdering of the People and circumstances
that perpetuate continual repression and oppression. Essentially, in the sentiment of Clarence 13X,
Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, and many others, “the People cannot denounce violence as long as
violence continues to be perpetuated against us”.

To make the movement to creating a non-recyclical atmosphere of ethical and inclusive social
accountability for people and social structures that produce violations of civil and human rights (in this
case murder of a human without the due process of law) requires trust, cooperation and commitment
among people. A start to trusting one another is to be trustworthy and for people to witness others
working towards solidifying the respect of self and faith in human potential required to produce
trustworthiness. Essentially, it is up to all of us to acknowledge our participation in the social deception
that thrives on hate and creates the conditions that produce mistrust. Simply put, beyond the
perceptions of social exceptionalism, and the feelings of superiority supposedly justified upon, over
accumulation of material, and thriving on a “We versus They” mentality, is the foundation of our natural
inclination to exist in peace. In the aftermath of our communities loss of Mr. Shawn Greenwood, I call
upon Ithaca to forge forward with producing our necessary individual and social behavioral adjustments
required to install trust and ultimate peace for all; “By any means necessary”…

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