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Civil rights attorney Ben Crump discussed the Buffalo supermarket massacre, the 10-year anniversary of Trayvon Martin's death, and the ongoing fight for civil rights on the latest episode of the One Hundred podcast with host Ed Gordon.
Since 2012, Crump has been a part of multiple national cases of police brutality and racial injustice, including Martin's shooting death in Florida, George Floyd in Minneapolis, and now, some of the families of the Buffalo mass shooting victims.
"This is tragic," Crump said, referring to the May 14 racially-motivated shooting that claimed the lives of 10 Black people. "You just think about senseless loss of life and you can conclude nothing else that this was senseless. This young, deprived racist, 18-year-old kid, for him to go out and kill all those innocent people –– innocent Black people –– ... his objective was to kill as many Black people as he could and they were so innocent."
So far, Crump has been hired by the family of Ruth Whitfield, one of the victims of the Tops Friendly Market shooting, in a potential lawsuit in connection to the shooting.
Later in the episode, Crump talked about what he says to people who are tired of the continued injustice and violence experienced against the Black community.
"What I tell them is, 'But by the grace of God, it wasn't your loved one,'" Crump said. "Because then when it happens to you, is it going to be normal? Because what we do know is that if we don't do something radically different, it's going to happen again."
Check out the full episode here.
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