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| Carlee Russell |
Carlee Russell, the Birmingham-area woman who reported being abducted on July 13, now sits at the heart of a story that has received an extraordinary amount of national and international attention. Along with that attention has come criticism that longtime Alabama attorney Donald Watkins calls "vicious." Watkins suggests that critics should examine themselves in the mirror before thrashing Russell.
The young woman returned to her parents home on July 15, and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance remain under investigation, Hoover, AL, police chief Nick Derzis said.
Watkins, publisher of his own news site and a leading investigative voice in online coverage of scandals surrounding the Southern Company utility and its Birmingham-based subsidiary, Alabama Power, takes a broader view of the Russell disappearance than generally has been found in the mainstream press. Noting that Black Alabamians (and poor Whites) face ongoing obstacles that dwarf issues found in the Russell case, Watkins writes:
This is a personal message to the vicious critics of Carlee Russell. It takes no courage to publicly berate a young, distraught woman whose tragic personal experience is subject to more than one interpretation.
Show me some real courage by taking a direct, firm, and public stand against the present-day forces of "in-your-face" racism, subjugation, and failed leadership in Alabama:
1. Publicly criticize the all-white, 19-judge Alabama appellate court system in a state that is 26% black. Criticize the Confederate flag-waving Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. If you are a Black lawyer with expertise in litigating civil and criminal cases, lead the effort to desegregate Alabama’s all-white appellate courts. This will tell me whether you have “balls” or you are just a talker.
2. Publicly criticize the federal, state, and local officials who failed to force six industrial polluters to clean up the toxic pollutants that have been killing the innocent men, women, and children who have lived in North Birmingham and the city of Tarrant since 1933.
3. Publicly criticize Walter Coke (which is now Bluestone Coke), U.S. Pipe, Alagasco, KMAC, ABC Coke, and the Drummond Company for knowingly polluting the air and ground in North Birmingham and the city of Tarrant since at least 1933.
4. Publicly criticize the failure of federal, state, and local law enforcement and government agencies to protect the lives of the 4,000 or more residents of North Birmingham and Tarrant from slow, painful deaths due to environmental pollutants in their neighborhoods.
5. Publicly criticize Jefferson County, Alabama, Circuit judge Tamara Johnson, who is shielding the misconduct of the Drummond Company and Balch & Bingham law firm in the Oliver Robinson bribery case from public view for no good and valid reason. While you are at it, take a close look at Judge Johnson’s largest campaign contributors and tell me what they have in common.
6. Publicly criticize Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and his Republican political allies (including Gov. Kay Ivey) for continuing to overtly discriminate against Black voters by racially gerrymandering the state’s newest Congressional redistricting map.
7. Publicly criticize the complete lack of an economic-empowerment agenda for African-Americans in Alabama by the federal, state, and local government officials. This is one of the many reasons Birmingham is dying.
8. Publicly criticize the fact that black state and local officials in the Birmingham metro-area fought harder to save Birmingham-Southern College than they have ever fought for any HBCU in Alabama. Interestingly, Birmingham-Southern is one of the many entities that the Southern Company, Alabama Power, U.S. Pipe, Alagasco, KMAC, ABC Coke, and the Drummond Company reportedly relied on to suppress the environmental-justice rights of the residents of North Birmingham and Tarrant.
9. Publicly criticize U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) for jeopardizing the readiness of America’s armed forces with his ignorant political hold on promotions within the top military command and control structure.
10. Publicly criticize Alabama’s legendary practice of engaging in the mass incarceration of African-American and poor white criminal offenders. This practice amounts to a legal form of modern-day slavery.
Watkins says he has found little of substance in the criticism of Carlee Russell, noting that much of it seems driven by cowardice and ignorance. In fact, Watkins invites the Russell critics to step up in weight class and take on someone with a well-honed ability to fight back -- and that would be Watkins himself:
Carlee Russell's critics should grow some “balls” and publicly attack one of the many conditions that is killing the future of African-Americans, poor whites, women, and children in Alabama. They are plentiful. Their silence on the ten matters listed above is deafening.
As I watch the people who are throwing spitballs at Carlee Russell, I am reminded that none of them has EVER been on the front line of any fight for civil rights, environmental justice, social justice, or constitutional rights in Alabama.
For the most part, Carlee Russell's critics are spitball throwers and social-media pundits. The only "target" they are comfortable enough to publicly attack is a distraught young woman who needs our empathy, love, and support at this time.
If these critics need somebody to pick on right now, let it be me. Please beware, I tend to hit back -- very hard. Just ask Howard Koplowitz.
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