{news} DC Statehood Green Mayoral candidate murdered!

Sun Jul 9 18:27:45 EDT 2006

1. DC Statehood Green mayoral candidate murdered (Washington
Post) (Scott McLarty)

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Message: 1
Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2006 08:34:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott McLarty 
Subject: [usgp-dx] DC Statehood Green mayoral candidate murdered
(Washington Post)
To: usgp-media at gp-us.org, natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org,
dcsgp at yahoogroups.com
Message-ID: <20060709153444.52841.qmail at web51102.mail.yahoo.com>
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Activist Fatally Shot In NW
Man Who Took On Bigwigs Had Filed To Run for
Mayor

By Robert E. Pierre
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Washington Post, July 9, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070800861.html

A community activist who made a habit of
confronting the powerful and had filed papers to
run for D.C. mayor was fatally shot early
yesterday in a park a block away from the city's
thriving new convention center.

Chris Crowder, 44, was shot multiple times and
found by police next to the wheelchair he had
used since 1990, when he was shot and paralyzed
from the waist down on a playground in the same
neighborhood.

The earlier shooting -- a case of mistaken
identity, Crowder had said -- came near the end
of the crack epidemic, in a year when the
District logged 474 homicides and was known as
the nation's "murder capital."

Now his Mount Vernon neighborhood is in the midst
of a rapid transformation, luring developers of
pricey condominiums and suburbanites itching to
be close to downtown. But homicides, sexual
assaults, robberies and assaults with a deadly
weapon have increased this year in the police
district that includes Mount Vernon, according to
police statistics.

Crowder was found at 3:43 a.m. in a park near
Sixth and N streets NW, a place where his mother
said he and other men his age often hung out and
talked. D.C. police spokesman Joe Gentile said
investigators know of no motive or suspects in
the shooting and do not know whether it was the
result of a dispute, a robbery or a random act of
violence. Another man was shot multiple times in
the same incident and was in critical condition
last night, police said, declining to release his
name.

Around the neighborhood and in political circles,
Crowder was known as a loud-talking guy who had
opinions -- often good ones -- on everything. He
gained some fame for an appearance in 1995 on
CBS's "60 Minutes," in which he spoke about the
1990 shooting, and for his penchant for taking on
bigwigs. He would yell at D.C. Council members
during hearings, and in May he bumped heads with
entertainer Bill Cosby.

Often brash and disheveled, Crowder also came
across as thoughtful, according to those who
encountered him at public meetings.

"He stood out because of his energy and his
passion," said D.C. Council member Adrian M.
Fenty (D-Ward 4), a leading mayoral candidate.
"He was an advocate for affordable housing, more
services and programs for young people. He spoke
very loud. Even when he was challenging the
government, he was always the type of person who
would walk over and shake your hand. He really
seemed concerned about the future of the city."

Crowder was among 12 candidates who had filed
official petitions to run for mayor. He had filed
as a member of the D.C. Statehood Green Party,
which advocates for the elimination of federal
oversight of the District, statehood for the city
and reparations for descendants of slaves, among
other causes.

"He said he wanted to help the city be better,"
his mother, Gracie Brown, said of Crowder's
mayoral bid. "He didn't have much money, but he
was running."

Crowder shared an apartment with his mother on
Seventh Street NW, a few blocks from the scene of
the shooting. Brown rushed to the park after
neighbors knocked frantically on her door. A
detective told her that her son had been shot
seven times, she said. Yesterday afternoon, a
steady stream of neighbors visited and telephoned
her to offer condolences.

Crowder had graduated from Howard University and
was working his way through law school in 1990
when he was shot the first time. Five years
later, during the "60 Minutes" interview with
Mike Wallace, Crowder said he had been shot by
one of three teenagers who mistook him for a
police officer. That attack led to years of
health problems, he told Wallace, explaining that
he required a nurse daily, medication for bed
sores and several skin grafts.

Asked what he would have told the people who shot
him, Crowder said: "Man, do you know how much
you've sidelined me? Do you know how much you've
cost me and how much it's costing me now? Do you
know how much pain I have to go through certain
days? How I feel when I wet myself?"

During Cosby's recent speech at the University of
the District of Columbia, Crowder yelled to Cosby
that he was hosting a "watered-down dialogue."
Cosby has traveled across the country criticizing
black people who shun personal responsibility,
blame police for incarcerations and let their
children speak improper English. After Crowder's
outburst, Cosby came down from the stage to
confront him. "You don't deserve an audience with
me," the entertainer said.

Brown said her son had been unable to work
because of his injuries and was receiving
disability payments. She said he was always
helpful with seniors in their apartment building
in the 1300 block of Seventh Street.

One neighbor said that too many youths in and
around the building are violent and disrespectful
to adults.

"We bring this up at tenants meetings, but
nothing is ever done," said the woman, a friend
of Brown's who has lived in the same building for
15 years and declined to give her name.

One question bothered Fenty and others yesterday:

"How does a guy in a wheelchair get shot?" the
council member asked.

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End of Natlcomaffairs Digest, Vol 31, Issue 14
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