Federal Probe Into Reported Gaffney Lynching
Three weeks ago Gaffney teenager, Isaiah Clyburn, says five white teenagers called him a racial slur and then almost beat him to death all because he is African American. Gaffney Sheriff’s Deputies charged the teens with second degree lynching but now the federal government is also looking into whether those teens violated his civil rights. Under South Carolina law lynching is defined as an act of violence by two or more people against a person but civil rights leaders and people we spoke to say the lynching charge is simply not enough. Calling for a federal investigation, Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson believes the beating of sixteen year old Clyburn by five white teenagers is nothing more than a hate crime. “We can not blame all while people for that but those who do must face the law. None of us have a right to violate each other physically and brutally. We must learn to live together.” Investigators say sixteen year old Luke Brice, seventeen year old Christopher Cates, seventeen year old Kenneth Millers, eighteen year old Justin Phillips, and seventeen year old Jerry Tony jumped out of three trucks waving the Confederate flag and called Clyburn the N-word. Clyburn’s aunt, Roxann Clyburn, believes their motive was pure hate but says that doesn’t mean her family feels the same. “I told Isaiah don’t hate them, that was spirit of the devil that led them to turn around call you that name and them came back to get out.” South Carolina is one of nine states that do not have any hate crime laws on the books. People we spoke who have been following the story agreed that the beating calls for a much stiffer penalty. Amanda Kent says, “You don’t go around beating people up because of the color of their skin.” Eric Thomas agreed. He says, “This is not 1955, this is not 1960, this is the new millennium. There’s no room or place for that whatsoever. They should get a really harsh punishment for this. [more