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| MS Judge Bill Weisenberger |
It’s sometimes necessary to check the date on an article, if for no other reason than to make sure a piece from years ago wasn’t accidentally re-published. This Clarion-Ledger piece from the weekend, for example, may sound like news from a bygone era, but it deals with accusations of alleged behavior from this month in Mississippi.
In an echo of Mississippi’s past, a Justice Court judge here is accused of striking a mentally challenged young man and yelling, “Run, n—–, run.”The family has filed a complaint with police against Madison County Justice Court Judge Bill Weisenberger, who is white, alleging he struck their 20-year-old African-American son, Eric Rivers, on May 8 at the Canton Flea Market.“This is 2014,” said former Canton Mayor William Truly, president of the Canton branch of the NAACP, “not 1960, where someone could slap a young man and call out, ‘Run, n—–, run.”
In the wake of recent racial controversies surrounding Cliven Bundy and Don Sterling, it’s been an ugly spring. But if the allegations involving Weisenberger are accurate, this is arguably the most disgusting incident of the bunch.
