By Krista Goerte
Published June 9, 2009
Tempers flared close to the breaking point for the first few minutes of a Monday rally at the Lamar County Courthouse in response to the Thursday release of two defendants connected to the Brandon McClelland case.
As Jim Blackwell of the Tarrant Local Organizing Committee began speaking at the rally, a local resident protesting the rally spoke over his own megaphone, saying “Leave Lamar County,” “Y’all are racists” and “That is a lie.”
As an argument between the two men with the megaphones ensued, several law enforcement officers of the dozens on scene at the courthouse intervened, moving David Stewart beyond protest lines in the interest of his safety after much of the crowd of about 125 protestors moved toward him.
Several minutes passed before the crowd moved back to the rally organizers.
“There is more hate here than in Nazi Germany,” Stewart told The Paris News minutes later. “Those boys have been exonerated. You can’t condemn the whole county because of the actions of a few.”
According to rally organizers — the Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality of Paris, the New Black Panther Party, the Tarrant County Local Organizing Committee and Nation of Islam — one of the main reasons for the rally is to let people know about and plan a national rally to be held at the Lamar County Courthouse on July 21. The group met at Leon Williams Park following the downtown rally to make plans for the July rally.
Organizers said they plan to go up the chain of command, to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and to President Barack Obama. Among multiple speakers at the rally, profanity and name-calling was rampant, spread among chants of “black power” and “no justice, no peace.”
Signs in the crowd of men, women and children read “We want justice,” “Justice is real, Big Boy,” and “Justice will prevail.”
Brenda Cherry of Paris, president of the Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality, spoke about what she termed unjust cases in Paris, dating to 1893. Among those mentioned were Keyon Mitchell, Bobby Yates, Aaron Hart and Detwonne Alexander.
“The Brandon McClelland case is just evidence of what devil we are working with here,” said Blackwell. “You cannot be friends to these people. What they want us to do is they want us to bow down to them every time they come around with something, but they don’t want to bow to us... We are here to fight.”
Blackwell also talked about evidence in the McClelland case against Ryan Crostley and Shanon Finley and about an unnamed truck driver and how the case was handled by local investigators, law enforcement and the justice system.
In contrast to the angry words by most speakers at the rally, Brandon McClelland’s father, Bobby McCleary, and brother, Tevin McCleary, spoke in quiet tones.
“All I want is my son to get some peace,” Bobby McCleary said. “He’s been dead now for almost nine months. Nine months, no peace.”
He asked the crowd to think about their own children if they were in the same situation.
“He didn’t call me ‘dad,’ he didn’t call me ‘daddy’ — he called me ‘pops’ ... We’ve got to stick together,” he said.
“I miss my brother, but I know he’s in a better place,” Tevin McCleary said. “I cry, but I don’t cry as much, because he’s in a better place — a better place than down here.
“I’m young, I just graduated ... I wish my brother was there with me to see me walk across the stage.”
The deceased’s mother, Jacqueline McClelland, fired up the crowd with words laced with expletives. Among other things, she said she was “mad as hell” at what happened to her son and the handling of the case.
“A decision was made to let two murderers run free,” said Deric Muhammad of the Nation of Islam. “The powers that be in Lamar County decided that they would make a statement, that no matter what happens, no matter the evidence, no matter who you bring in from outside of Paris, Texas, we run Paris and Lamar County.”
Muhammad said a letter has been written to President Obama and Holden to the effect that the racial situation in Paris today is much like it has been in years past.
“If you can change race relations in Paris, Texas, you can change it anywhere,” Muhammad said as he related to earlier remarks by Holden about the challenge to improve race relations in the United
States. “Don’t start at the top, start at the bottom.”
Anthony Bond, founder of the Irving NAACP, spoke before the rally about getting justice not only for Brandon McClelland, but for his mother.
“What we are saying is the whole system up here is corrupt, from Toby Shook, to Gary Young, to the Paris Police Department, the (DPS) state troopers that investigated the case and especially the judge in this case,” Bond said. “They granted a change of venue in this case on the testimony of Mary Madewell (managing editor The Paris News) alone. It was ridiculous. Ain’t never seen nothing like it…
“The only way Brandon is going to get justice is we are going to get Eric Holder, and we’ve been in contact with the White House, and they are watching this situation. The Justice Department, the civil rights division, is watching this case, and sooner or later an outside investigator will be assigned to this whole racial problem here in Paris.”
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