Shenandoah County Virginia sheriff Sheriff Timothy Carter has apologized to a black pastor Leon K. McCray Sr. of Woodstock, Va. who was arrested this month after calling 911 for help when a white family threatened and accosted him after trying to dump a refrigerator on his property.
Black Pastor accosted yet the one arrested
The Washington Post reported the following.
McCray said he was visiting an apartment property he owns in Edinburg, population 1,100, when he saw a man and a woman who did not live there dragging a refrigerator to his dumpster. They grew “irate” when confronted, McCray said, and the man left and returned with three others.
McCray said the group surrounded, jostled and threatened him, “telling me that my black life and the Black Lives Matter stuff, they don’t give a darn about that stuff in this county, and they could care less and ‘We would kill you.’ ”
McCray drew a legally concealed handgun, he said, giving him time to call 911. But when sheriff’s deputies responded, he said, “I was not given the opportunity to tell what was going on.”
Instead, he was “handcuffed in front of the mob,” the members of which were yelling racial epithets and threatening him, McCray said. An officer whom McCray said he has known for more than 20 years told him he did not agree with the order but had to arrest McCray for brandishing a gun.
“All this happened on my property,” McCray said. “I said, what about the trespassing and the assault?” McCray said he was driven away while the five stood with deputies “waving at me as I go down the road. You think about how disturbing that is.”
In other words, it was assumed that the Pastor was the offender. Why would that be?
When it was all settled, the Pastor was released. Two sheriff’s office supervisors were placed on unpaid administrative leave. The white family, Donny Salyers, 43; Dennis Salyers, 26; Farrah Salyers, 42; and Christopher Sharp, 57, were arrested and charged with felony abduction and assault by a mob and assault in a hate crime, both misdemeanors. A fifth person, Amanda Salyers, 26, was also charged with misdemeanor assault by a mob and assault in a hate crime.
This is a classic example why many POCs are reluctant to interface with the police at all cost. This incident is not an exception.
Pastor McCray likely needed the police. As strange as this may sound, it is lucky for him that they arrested him and not just came guns a-blazing. He could have been Rayshard Brooks without the taser but with a gun as they would claim fear for their lives. Sad!
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We have an education problem in this country in that the history books don’t tell the truth about black culture in America, and the irrational fear and ignorance by those who keep racism alive is passed on generation after generation. There is no more time for making excuses. We white people Must stand shoulder to shoulder with POC and give our support, our time, our effort. Anything else and we’ve failed.