Le Coz reports: "A gay, black mayoral candidate killed last week in Mississippi was beaten, dragged and set on fire before his body was dumped near a river, according to his family."
Marco McMillian was running for mayor in Clarksdale, Miss. (photo: Reuters)
Family: Openly Gay Mayoral Candidate Was Beaten, Set On Fire
06 March 13
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gay, black mayoral candidate killed last week in Mississippi was beaten, dragged and set on fire before his body was dumped near a river, according to his family.
In a statement issued late on Sunday, the family of Marco McMillian said a coroner who performed an autopsy on his body told them about the gruesome manner of death.
"We feel this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found," the McMillian family said. "Marco, nor anyone, should have their lives end in this manner."
Coahoma County Coroner Scotty Meredith declined to comment on the family's statement that McMillian was beaten and burned.
The body of McMillian, a 33-year-old candidate for mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi, was found on Wednesday. A day later, law enforcement officials arrested a 22-year-old man, Lawrence Reed, who is also black, and charged him with murder in connection with the case.
McMillian was one of the first viable openly gay candidates to run for office in Mississippi, according to the Victory Fund, a national organization that supports homosexual candidates.
Autopsy results are not expected to be released until toxicology tests are complete, which could take two or three weeks, Meredith said.
The Coahoma County Sheriff's Department, which is leading the investigation, has released few details about the killing or a possible motive. Law enforcement officials say the killing is not being treated as a hate crime.
McMillian had been missing since February 25 when his sport-utility vehicle was involved in a head-on collision in a rural part of Coahoma County in the Mississippi Delta. McMillian was not in the vehicle at the time of the accident.
McMillian recently moved from Memphis back to his hometown of Clarksdale to run for mayor as a Democrat. He had faced state Representative Chuck Espy, a Democrat, and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Luckett, an attorney, along with two other candidates.
McMillian's campaign focused on reducing crime and unemployment in Clarksdale, a city of roughly 18,000 people, said campaign spokesman Jarod Keith.
A once-booming agricultural community, the city has steadily bled residents and jobs over the years and now faces high levels of violence and unemployment.
Another Democratic candidate for mayor, Doris Haynes Miller, said she recently was robbed at gunpoint in the town.
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The 1%ers must deny anything that hinders their extracting resources from the earth. Fracking, oil exploration in the Arctic, coal mining, or even the vast use of pesticides used by agribusiness to produce huge crops. Whatever! That is where they make their money, and from that wealth, they gain and hold power. Secrecy and denial is their stock in trade.
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Why would they be concerned about killing a resident of America under the next republican president?
I don't understand as easily why he defers to the Israeli/Saudi alliance.
After all, the current president* doesn't appear to have any ideological positions on much of anything, and he certainly doesn't have any loyalty to anyone or anything.
So, what exactly is the hold that the House of Saud has on him?
Of course, maybe he will turn on a dime and welcome his new BFFs, the Ayatollahs in Iran if they build some monuments in his honor, buy up all the remaindered copies of "The Art of the Deal" or put his puffy mug on a series of brightly colored Iranian postage stamps. His fecklessness is boundless ... especially if there's money in it for him.
The Cheney/Bush administration doubled down on cooperation with these, their business partners, and focused on Afghanistan as the object of vengeance, instead.
History repeats itself as farce. There you have the whole meaning of the Trump regime.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/23/two-numbers-that-explain-why-trump-wont-sanction-saudi-arabia/
It's also 100% clear that trump thinks he's the "ruler" - the "king" and can do whatever he wants.
Look who his friends are, who he hangs with: his new love - Kim Jong-Un, Putin, Duarte, Xi, the guys from Poland,Hungary and any other 2 bit autocrat. His new love is as corrupt and brutal as they come and trump is sucking on his - thumb. The Saudi guy is just the latest trump love.
Trump thinks he's a mob boss, a bully who can push everyone around. In reality he is a small time wanna-be who is just a punk with a lot of $ (given to him by his daddy), and who is the antithesis of a a true leader.
He loves the autocrats while he calls anyone who does not suck up to him 6th grade names - Adam Schiff, Maxine Water, Hillary, Jim Comey, and so many others; he call our Allies silly names and tries to belittle them.
The world is on to him and friends and foe know who this guy is - and they are all laughing at him and us for putting up this imbecile.
So trump hugs the criminals and belittles our friends and leaders.
And the Congressional Repubs are enabling and rewarding this behavior. This will not stand.