Black Blogger Inflicts Final Indignity On Memphis Murder Victim
When John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash with his wife and sister-in-law in 1999, his family had the money, the power, and the privilege to demand that no autopsy photos be taken of any of the bodies, in fear that the photos would end up in the wrong hands. The family had good reason to be fearful, extremely graphic post-death photos of JFK Jr.'s father, President John F. Kennedy still circulate around the Internet today.
If one is morbid enough, sick enough, and has enough time on their hands, such graphic photos exist of the murdered bodies of African American icons such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and rapper Tupac Shakur. These kind of photos contribute nothing to the stories of these men's lives, but only adds to the sadness that their lives were cut short so brutally. There is nothing to be learned or gained from looking at these kind of pictures.
Recently, black blogger Thaddeus Matthews made the horrible and completely selfish decision to post illegally obtained photos of Memphis murder victim Shindri Roberson on his blog. Mr. Matthews is not a journalist, he is not a crime beat photographer, he has absolutely no credentials as media personnel that would have gained him any kind of credibility to attain or post these pictures. To gain access to take pictures of Ms. Robinson's corpse, Mr. Matthews used the fact that he had a connection with the owners of the funeral home where Ms. Roberson's family had unfortunately entrusted to preserve and protect her body before burial.
Mr. Matthews admits never asking anyone at the funeral home for permission to take pictures of Ms. Roberson's corpse, he surely did not have the permission of law enforcement and he most definitely did not have the permission of Ms. Roberson's family. After posting various pictures of Ms. Roberson's bullet-riddled body including a picture of her face, that clearly exhibited the fear and pain Ms. Robinson had to have endured before she finally died, Mr. Matthews has been subjected to well-deserved backlash from other bloggers, journalists, and law enforcement.
Instead of removing all the photos of Ms. Roberson immediately from his blog, Mr. Matthews removed only the picture of her face, the pictures of her body remain on his blog. Before Mr. Matthews removed this one picture, at least one other black blogger posted these pictures on their blog as well. This blogger has since removed all the pictures from his website, but has failed to follow up with any commentary or condemnation of how Mr. Matthews attained the
photos.
Mr. Matthews has issued a very tepid and weak apology to the family of Ms. Roberson, an apology which will continue to be meaningless and empty as long as any of the photos of her body remain posted on his blog. In fact, Mr. Matthews has spent more time making excuses for his violation of Ms. Roberson's corpse than apologizing. He has blamed others for allowing him to take the photos and then pointed fingers at other operations that have been guilty of the same atrocity as himself. Mr. Matthews just doesn't get it. If you do wrong, admit it, don't make excuses or talk about what others are doing, accept your culpability.
In my opinion, the posting of these pictures exhibited a complete lack of integrity, a complete moral breakdown, a complete failure to exhibit compassion for Ms. Roberson and her family, a complete loss of understanding that a human being has the right to maintain their dignity even in death. I believe that the only reason that Mr. Matthews posted these photos SOLELY to get more attention driven to his blog. Posting those photos did not contribute to the case being resolved. Those photos didn't add anything to this horrific murder case at all. This was not an attempt to make news or inform others, but a direct and exploitative attempt to gain a bigger readership.
I didn't need autopsy pictures of a murder victim to understand this was a horrific and disgusting crime that needed major attention. When I posted about this story, the picture of a mother crying in grief over her dead son and her dead grandchildren told the story all by itself. Posting those pictures of Ms. Roberson just added insult to injury and is completely indefensible. As a blogger, as a black blogger, you have a responsibility to do no harm to others, particularly other black people. Mr. Matthews failed Ms. Roberson and any other black blogger that posted those disgusting pictures failed her as well.
