Candle Light vigil will be held for Trey Joyner on Sat. June 13, at 7:00PM. Location Holbrook and Morse Street N.E.
Funeral will be held on Friday June 19, 2009 at Temple of Praise, 700 Southern Ave. S.E.
Wake @ 9:00AM and Service will commence at 11:00AM.
As I've said before, I think candle light vigils can help people to heal after a death, or other tragedy. A young man was recently shot and killed by the police. What exactly happened still isn't clear, but there are conflicting accounts. By passing this on I'm not endorsing any particular view point, but rather providing information that I think is relevant to many in the neighborhood who knew him. Regardless of your viewpoint on the shooting, or the events that led up to it, I think we can all agree that it is a tragedy when someone dies so young. That, and I think the living need some outlet for their grief/shock.
As I've said before, I think candle light vigils can help people to heal after a death, or other tragedy. A young man was recently shot and killed by the police. What exactly happened still isn't clear, but there are conflicting accounts. By passing this on I'm not endorsing any particular view point, but rather providing information that I think is relevant to many in the neighborhood who knew him. Regardless of your viewpoint on the shooting, or the events that led up to it, I think we can all agree that it is a tragedy when someone dies so young. That, and I think the living need some outlet for their grief/shock.
12 comments:
Ms. Frozen,
An awesome way to put it. Yes, I don't think the cops are looking to gun anyone down. But yes, it is a complete friggin tragedy that the youth in our neighborhoods get pulled into these no-win situations.
Should the family's assertions be believed... it was a fear of violence in our neighborhoods that resulted in this young man carrying a weapon and subsequently being shot as a result.
The brutalist irony of all.... the lack of protection by the police leading to his young death.
Or, maybe he was into something more nefarious. Thank god my parents and family had no idea of my recreational activities as a youth.
Either way, an untimely death of a man that could have been a contributor to our society. And an untimely career check for officers that take home little pay for the service they do us all.
Godspeed to all involved. I guarantee the officers are in a personal hell even if 100% correct in their decisions, and only hope the young man is given an honorable place of rest (sorry, I'm not sure I can ever say "in a better place" as I'm unsure of such a realm.)
hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....
As of 10 pm, the "vigil" is now a go-go party. There are about 75 people (that can be seen from my angle anyway-- there could be even more out of my eyesite) hanging out in the alley with a live band with a LOUD drum set. I fail to see how this honors anyone's death. It is just disrespectful to the families in the neighborhood.
What a crock. I'm sorry but candle-light vigils should be reserved for true tragedies - those wherein actual innocents are caught in the crossfire of violence that people like Trey have inflicted upon our neighborhood.
There is no honor in this man's death. He wasted his life. We, as a community, must stop holding their deaths as anything but a result of poor persnal decisions.
The rest of the city believes we don't take personal respnsibility and once again our anti-police attitude have put us on the wrong side of this debate
Seriously people, we need to condemn those who bring violence to our neighborhood.
I agree with Anon. 1:53.
This "vigil" is a joke and a slap in the face to the policemen that were doing their job!
I couldn't agree with 1:53:00 AM more....
Anon 5:23: I just don't buy the "needed to defend himself" argument. I live in the middle of Trinidad, walk it and drive it daily. People get robbed here all the time if the DC text alerts are to be believed. Do I get to run around w/ a gun in my hand? No, because right now it's illegal. I follow the law.
As for the rest of the commenters, no one knows the facts of this case and in America you are innocent until proven guilty. It sounds like almost everyone is in agreement that he had an illegal gun. But there's no death sentence for that in DC. Until MPD releases their findings as far as we know this could have been a completely justified use of deadly force or it could have been an extrajudicial execution of an unarmed man...or anything in between. One thing's for sure in my opinion, and that's that we don't have enough facts as a community to try, convict, and sentence this man to death.
In the District of Columbia there is a pattern of lose of life. Inocennt life. It is a pattern that has, for the most part, gone unchecked. Of course there is an initial outcry from the public and our government officials acknowledge the tragedies that take place, and there are even vigils conducted by 'crisis response teams'.
yet when all is said and done, and the cameras leave, and the politicians shortly thereafter, and the vigils fade to ineffectual silence, and no one comes to replace the dead flowers or the moldy rain soaked teddy bears, the conditions that allow such tragic events to occur remain unaddressed.
It is important to uncover the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of Trey Joyner. It is important because his life and every life is precious, but it is equally, if not more, important that we do not allow his death to be in vain.
Citizens must come together and demand that the circumstances that encourage, breed, and allow such violence be rooted out. If we take no action to reduce or eliminate these conditions then our hands may not be as clean as we think they are. We may not be taking "responsibility" for our communities and ourselves.
Why are vigils a slap in the face of law enforcement and not properly policing the underserved citizens not a slap in the face? Whether Mr. try Joyner was good or bad, his life had value and its loss IS a tragedy! It is a tragedy for him, his family,and for every human being who understands the intrinsic value of human life.
it's a "slap in the face" to officers who shot and killed someone to remember the deceased? what kind of logic is that? remembering someone who got shot to death isn't a "slap in the face" to the person who fired a *bullet* into the memorialized person's face. it's just a vigil. what are they supposed to do, hold a vigil to hope the officer gets over feeling bad about shooting someone to death?
police officers get out of dangerous situations all the time without shooting people to death. deadly force is a last resort. that's actually a slap in the face to all the officers who keep their cool and defuse situations *without* shooting the suspect to death.
I am a friend of Trey Joyner, we went to school together as well as I am a friend of his sister. You had to know Trey before you can cast judgement and say his death didn't deem a candle light vigil. Everyone in that neighborhood LOVED him and he loved them & the neighborhood back. The Go-Go band was a tribute to his life, as were several members in the group were his family members. Furthermore how is the police shooting someone in the BACK doing their job? It's not so don't dare sit there and say it's right when you know it's not. Someone with their BACK TURNED is NOT a threat. I as well as my own brothers have had run ins with US Park Police where they are abusing their authority & get mad when you know your rights and know the law. However I'm straying away from my point. Point is NO ONE can say who deserves a vigil & who doesn't just because you don't feel their death was a tragedy. To you it may not be but to the ones who knew & loved him it is because they're left without a son, brother, father & friend.
I'm not gonna dare say Trey was an angel but he didn't deserve to die like that. When one lives in fear you do what you have to do. If you didn't grow up the way we did, you couldn't begin to understand why carrying a weapon is an option. If you have never been robbed at gun/knife point having something you worked hard for IE coat, shoes, phone, etc being taken you can't say he didn't need "said gun". Most people I know who were born, raised & live in this city atleast carry a knife. Also it's not illegal to have a gun if it's registered as I carry mines.
Whether one wants to believe or hear it but Trey was tried, convicted and punished when those cops arrived & decided he was gulity & shot him. And like all cops, they gonna stick together. They gonna try to sweep it under the rug like last summer when that off duty cop shot that kid in the back of the head over a scooter & tried to cover his tracks.
Anyway, NO one can say who deserves a vigil and who doesn't just because you didn't know or like the person. He was loved and those who love him have that right to honor his memory the way they deem fit and no one can take that away.
The one thing that is just a little bit encouraging about the aftermath of Trey's death is that the people that knew Trey and the people that didn't are having a bit of a dialogue here.
Our worlds can be incredibly different.
A few weeks ago I was watching television around 11:00pm when I heard yelling in the alley behind my house. I went upstairs, turned out the lights, and looked out a top floor window.
There were about a dozen kids under the streetlight in the alley staging a boxing match, complete with gloves and a 'referee' who would break the fight after a few minutes, sending the boxers to their 'coaches' on either side of the alley, who would mop the fighters' brows, rub their shoulders, then send them back to the 'ring', formed by about a dozen spectators.
Kids were taking pictures on cell phones, yelling, and cheering.
My initial reaction was surprise at the complexity of the scene, mixed with admiration for their organizing skills and imagination, and with my own nostalgia for my high school years when my friends and I would try desperately to find something to do on hot summer nights in a small Virginia city. I come from a different world from the kids I was watching, but it was easy to understand how much fun they must have been having.
But as a homeowner new to the neighborhood, and as a now older and more-tired person, my admiration quickly turned to concern for the safety of my block and a desire for peace and quiet.
So I called the police, who within five minutes arrived to chase them off (though they disbursed right before the cruiser came down the alley, making me think that their 'organization' included a lookout or two).
In retrospect this experience makes me sad, because it so perfectly illustrates the beginning of the gulf---in understanding, and in sympathy---between people in Trey's shoes and people in mine, which, judging by the responses above, can become unfathomably wide.
I am all for law and order, and have many days where I curse the ignorance, the self-perpetuating barbarism, and the hopelessness of some of our neighborhoods. But I can't help but believe that it is that gulf that is perhaps the greatest tragedy for all of us.
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