Race and Crime: Corey Stingley
I found a video on YouTube about the case of Corey Stingley, which is a case that we hear about all too often. The video was made by Vice News and the title of it is “Racial Injustice in Milwaukee: Crime and Punishment”. Corey Stingley was a 16-year-old star football athlete at his high school, but on December 14, 2012 everything changed. Corey had went to a little convenience store and tried to shoplift a couple of bottles of alcohol (Vice News, 2014). Corey had then grabbed something else and went up front to pay for it and handed the clerk his credit card. It was then that the cashier mentioned the alcohol in his backpack. The clerk told him to give back the alcohol or the police were going to be called, so Corey put his backpack up on the counter. At that point Corey has lunged over the counter to grab something, from the video, it looked like he took his credit card back, and tried to make a run for it. It was then that Corey was forcibly restrained by three customers (Vice News, 2014). He was held in a headlock for about ten minutes, and he had stopped breathing. This murder caused a massive uproar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, demanding justice for Corey.
Months after Corey’s death took place, the District Attorney, John Chisholm, opened a secret investigation to decide whether the three men involved in Corey’s death would face criminal charges (Vice News, 2014). On January 9, 2014 Corey’s father, Craig Stingley, met with DA Chisholm to hear his decision, which was that the three men were not going to be charged (Vice News, 2014). In this video we hear testimonies of the three men who physically restrained Corey in the convenience store, Mario Lauman, Jesse Cole, and Robert Beringer (Vice News, 2014). In all three men’s accounts of the situation, no one had put Corey in a choke hold, but the surveillance video shows otherwise. The video shows that one of the men has Corey in a headlock, and the other two men wrestle him to the ground. They stay in this position until police and EMTs arrive about ten minutes later. One of the three men who restrained Corey (it doesn’t say which one) said that Corey had stopped struggling because he knew that he was caught and that he wasn’t going to be able to get away (Vice News, 2014). In reality, Corey’s heart had stopped beating. Once paramedics arrived they started performing CPR on Corey, at which point they got his heart to start beating again (Vice News, 2014). Once at the hospital, it was found that Corey had severe brain damage from being deprived of oxygen for so long, and it had killed both hemispheres of his brain (Vice News, 2014). Two weeks later on December 29, Corey was pronounced dead. The medical examiner who performed Corey’s autopsy determined the cause of death to be anoxic encephalopathy (a lack of oxygen to the brain) due to asphyxia, physical restraint, and violent struggle with multiple persons (Vice News, 2014). His manner of death was ruled a homicide.
As mentioned earlier, none of the three men said that Corey was not put in a headlock at any point, but there are multiple witnesses that say different. The professionals know that Corey’s airway was blocked, but the man who supposedly had him in a chokehold says that he doesn’t know how that was possible (Vice News, 2014). The surveillance videos are at awkward angles, but it can be seen that there is an arm around Corey’s neck as he falls to the ground.
According to Corey’s middle school principal, the demographics of the town are changing because more Black people having been moving there. From 2000 to 2010 the White population in West Allis dropped from 94% to 87% (Vice News, 2014). A University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee professor, Joe Austin, states that West Allis is “a racist’s dream town”, and that there has always been massive racism within the town. Even with the abundance of racism, on January 17, a crowd gather outside of the DA’s office to protest his decision to not charge Mario Lauman, Jesse Cole, and Robert Beringer (Vice News, 2014).
Craig Stingley has appealed DA Chisholm’s decision to the Department of Justice and hopes to one day get justice for his son. Craig says that he plans on filing a civil lawsuit, which would only give Craig compensation for his loss (Vice News, 2014). Craig says in a soul-crushing quote, “I can never be compensated for my loss. My family can never be compensated for our loss. The only compensation that could ever do that is to have Corey back.” Corey Stingley is just one of hundreds of victims of racism. There is a statistic given from Davis’s (2018) book “Policing the Black Man”, and that is that black men are 21-times more likely to be killed by police than white men. Black men are also more likely to be arrested and have longer prison sentences than White men, even if everything about the crime is the same for a White offender and a Black offender. Even though Corey wasn’t a victim of police brutality, he was a victim of racism, and it cost him his life. Even though Corey wasn’t arrested, we can all guess that he would have been if things had not have escalated the way they did, even though he returned the alcohol. Racism is still an ongoing issue in America that needs to be put at the forefront of everyone’s agenda. It’s 2020. We should be able to live in a world without racism.
References
Davis, A. (2018). Policing the black man: Arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment. New York: Vintage Books.
Vice News. (2014, April 11). Racial injustice in Milwaukee: Crime and punishment [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyEVu8NSWcs
Morgan Shawver
December 7, 2020 @ 2:21 pm
Hi!,
your post seems good, and well put together. Also your post was interesting when you talked about People of color are additionally bound to be captured and have longer jail sentences than White men, regardless of whether everything about the wrongdoing is the equivalent for a White wrongdoer and a Black guilty party. Despite the fact that Corey wasn’t a casualty of police fierceness, he was a survivor of bigotry, and it cost him his life. Despite the fact that Corey wasn’t captured, we would all be able to figure that he would have been if things had not have raised the manner in which they did, despite the fact that he restored the liquor.