LISTEN: White Tennessee judge claims Black-on-Black crime more effective than Klan
Wayne Shelton, a judge in northern Tennessee, has no idea what he's talking about.
Wayne Shelton, a white judge in northern Tennessee, is fed up with the violent criminals that he sees coming into his courtroom, reports the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle.
Unfortunately, he made a pretty terrible comparison while trying to get his point across that Black Lives Matter, when he compared Black-on-Black crime to racist killings by the Ku Klux Klan.
During a preliminary hearing for Vincent Merriweather, one of three men accused of killing Antorius Gallion, 22, on Nov. 19 in Clarksville, Tenn., Shelton went on a rant, stating Black men are killing so many other Black men that they are putting the Klan to shame, the news outlet wrote.
READ MORE: Seriously? Trump supporter wants Joy Reid to give sworn testimony about so-called bias
“I grew up in a time where people wore white robes, and they shot at Black people,” Shelton said last Friday. “And now, we see young Black men wearing black hoodies shooting at Black men and doing a much more effective job than the Klan ever thought about doing.
READ MORE: Ex-NFL player Devon Still reflects on daughter Leah’s cancer remission
“The Klan doesn’t exist anymore,” he incorrectly continued. “Who doesn’t care about Black lives now? I’ll let you answer that. I’m tired of Black men killing Black men. If I offended anyone, I can’t help it.”
As is often pointed out, intra-racial crime—Black-on-Black and white-on-white violence—doesn’t have that much of a negligible difference. Most violent crime that is committed is intra-racial.
Also, since 2016, there has been a stark increase in hate crimes committed by white supremacist groups— including the KKK— across the country.
This is not the first time that Shelton has gone on this tangent. In 2015, after another young Black teenager was killed, Shelton went off in much more measured terms.
“That life mattered,” he said to a pair of murder suspects. “That Black life mattered to them, and it matters to me.
“That’s the absolute tragedy,” he continued. “It’s Black men killing Black men.”
Shelton claims it doesn’t matter if the killer is a racist cop or rival gang members, it’s an inexcusable disregard for human life and for Black life, in particular.
“Black lives really do matter,” he said. “The total disregard of that fact by any in our society is totally reprehensible.”
