this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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Chapotraphouse
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Are we actually sure this is a lynching? Like yeah cops lie as often as they talk, but is there any reason to think it other than the idea that a black person in the US isn't likely to hang themselves from a tree?
I'm not doubting it could be a lynching. I just don't want to spread this info if there is no evidence yet.
A Black man hanged from a tree in Mississippi is 100% a lynching.
Even if they did it themselves? I already addressed the idea that it seems unlikely a black person would hang themselves from a tree, but no matter how unlikely it is that doesn't mean it's impossible.
Further consider that there's no note and I don't think we have evidence of him being suicidal. People do kill themselves without notes and people do hide their depression, but how many times do we say "well, all these things that are consistent with a lynching are possible in a suicide" before occam's razor forces us to accept that it being a lynching is a much more reasonable conclusion?
Was there any evidence, even retrospectively, of suicidality or a mental health crisis leading up to his death? Did something awful happen to him or a loved one? did he express being depressed even indirectly? Does this being a suicide make sense to the people close to him?
Black men sometimes get lynched with no real antecedent in their own lives (e.g. they may have no real connection to the killers), but no one deliberately kills themselves without antecedent. There is no neutrality here; if there's an overall absence of evidence, that leans unambiguously toward it being a lynching.
He didn't. If the cops says otherwise, that just means the cops were in on it.
if he hanged himself, then there's a high chance faced a lot of racism throughout his life and could be the reason of being suicidal.
Broken limbs. Cops didn't investigate. Pretty obvious.
My "No broken bones found here, none at all, I say unprompted" t-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.
It wasn't unprompted, they were responding to a question specifically about the internet rumors that there were broken bones.
I believe he was talking about the coroner mentioning the social media rumors. Which seems a bit weird when they play hard-ball with taking questions and giving out any information but go "No, no, no broken bones here, none at all" with...once again, the history of the nation, the state and the police in both.
How do we know there are broken limbs?
https://people.com/body-black-student-found-hanging-tree-college-campus-11810983
"Bolivar County Deputy Coroner Murray Roark told the Mississippi Free Press that he “saw no broken limbs” on Reed, but did not elaborate due to the ongoing investigation.
“I don’t think I should probably discuss this any further than that, my opinion is that it was self-done, and I have reasons for that,” Roark said.
Should be huge alarm bells there. It's not rare, but uncommon for people to hang themselves in public. Two curious points are immediately being brought to mind with the history of the nation and state behind the scenes.
https://wreg.com/news/mid-south/coroner-says-no-evidence-of-assault-after-body-found-hanging-on-ms-college-campus
I guess the county coroner could be covering up a lynching, but he's also a black man and it seems unlikely given the family will just have an independent autopsy done. Surely the family will make a statement if they saw the body and there were obvious signs of an attack.
Let's hope.
I mean, black cops exist. Being black doesn't strictly translate into solidarity, unfortunately.
Not only that, but he could be under threat of being fired and losing his position, or maybe he does not care about the person at all and see his corp colleagues as his true brotherhood. Or the coroner may simply be incompetent. Too many possibilities.
The US being the US, the police or any institution cannot be trusted in matters of racism and hate crime against minorities. It's just like the fruit of the poisonous tree principle, but applied to the whole US institutions, and specially in the case of Southern US institutions.
For sure, which is why I said it would be unlikely and not impossible. Maybe it's more likely than I'm thinking, but idk I just grew up in a town not unlike Cleveland and not that far from it. It might not even be a majority white population, which is true in a lot of small southern "cities" (they aren't large cities, populations of ~15k)
And I mean Candace Owens exists so anything is possible
I mean, being people, and Americans at that, black people run the gamut, including those complicit in the white supremacist criminal punishment system. Which a coroner knowingly enters, usually having other options in medical fields. According to some random site, Ohio coroners are elected positions, so they are even members of the political class!
Yeah, I agree. This town is in Mississippi, though. Also doesn't even require medical qualifications, they take a class after being elected.
tbh that could be a wash on who joins because it may then attact "criminology" types and nepo hires. I don't know anything about this one particular guy though.
Why would you even consider the coroner is telling the truth here.
coroners
cops
Factually? At the moment, no.
Statistically, pretty safe bet.