RF23 - Really?! In Long Beach, California?!

Last week, former Long Beach Poly(Technic) football standout, Brian Banks was fully exonerated for a rape he did not commit. What did he lose? Nothing but ten years of his life; Nothing but three or four years at the real USC, and nothing but a probable three, four and five year career in the NFL.

Why?

For those of you not following or did not follow the story, he was falsely accused by a girl, who by the way, was awarded a $1.5 million dollar settlement from the Long Beach Unfied School District for her false tale of being rape and kidnapped by this promising young man, who by all accounts is/was the nicest young man, would give his right arm to others and oh! unlike the young man, who made hoodies, skittles and soda popular, was never in trouble with the law. I know this is a shock to some in our community, but there are good citizen young black men in our areas, who just want to work their way out of their situation. For this story, It’s Brian Banks.

But this is not the crime here, the crime was what happened to Brian Banks during his ordeal in 2 thousand and freakin’ 2! In Long Beach, California, not Long Beach, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia in 1952, 62! But in 2002 in the bluest of all blue states, a young man was told by his attorney, the one person who is hired or appointed to fight for their client! Committed a moral crime, equal to or just one degree, less than Long Beach’s best story teller, Wanetta Gibson. This individual, an attorney, an officer of the court, the person who was supposed to fight for their client to prevent criminal injustice failed! not only did this person fail, but this person’s egregious act to cause this young man, who was being intimidated by a district attorney office tasked with just putting criminals away, either by plea bargain or trial due to other young men, the same age as Banks, who are committing crimes, terrorizing our streets and would have made Gibson a legitimate victim, but due to “no snitchin,’” she would have been just a victim.

Banks’ attorney advised him to take a plea to avoid being seen as a big black man raping a girl. Again the problem is that Banks did nothing wrong! There was no physical evidence of rape and according to Banks, he and Gibson only made out, which included no sex! but wait a minute, the attorney gave Banks a glimpse of what it was like in the Jim Crow south, the taboo of black man/ white woman and the atrocious attacks, which includes murder and lynching of innocent black men throughout the south and other parts of the country. This is where the comparison of Emmitt Till comes into play, but since the liar is black, we’ll still give that prominence to the suspended, burgular tool carrying, weed smokin’, hoodie wearing, skittle eatin’ individual that is no longer with us. In 2002, Banks plead no contest to rape of Wanetta Gibson, a black girl, to avoid being seen as a big black man raping a girl.

I’m not going to beat the young man up for copping to something he did not do and not fighting it. I’m not going to beat the parents of this young man up for allowing this to happen to their son, who had such great promise. I can’t. What I can do is place blame on the attorney, place blame on Gibson and place blame on the DA for rushing to send another black kid to jail and assuming they’re all guilty. I can also place blame on the young men who are out there ripping and running the streets causing havoc and fear in communities like Long Beach, CA. The only fear and havoc Bank’s caused was on the football field. Off the football field, he was a victim.