BIG NEWS!!! ANDREW COFFEE (heard of him?) ACQUITTED BASED ON SELF-DEFENSE.
What case, you ask? The Andrew Coffee IV case? Since you are not likely to have heard of it, I shall explain.
In this case, police executed a drug raid on the home of Andrew Coffee IV back in 2017 – but he was acquitted of murder charges on November 19th of this year.
Coffee was sleeping. With him at home was Coffee’s girlfriend, Alteria Woods. Coffee was awakened to the sound of flash-bang devices. According to his testimony, Coffee said he believed that the flash-bangs were gun fire, so he opened fire on the police.
In the exchange of gunfire, Woods was killed. Since Coffee initiated the gunfire, he was charged with both attempted first degree murder for shooting at police and first-degree murder for indirectly causing the death of Woods. As a previously convicted felon, Coffee was also charged with the illegal possession of a gun.
Coffee mounted a self-defense claim in his trial based on his belief that the police were shooting at him. He was acquitted of both the attempted first-degree murder and the first-degree murder of his girlfriend. He was convicted on the illegal possession of a gun.
Why is this case noteworthy?
It serves to show that the American law system is not systemically weighted against black defendants nearly as much as the race-baiters claim in their specious race card responses and narratives. It goes against the racist narrative that black cannot receive fair trials in regions dominated by white folks – especially Republican and conservative white folks. Oh yeah, Coffee is black.
Coffee was acquitted by a white jury in a very red county in Florida. Two-thirds of the voters in Indian River County voted for President Trump in 2020. By similar margin, they elected Republicans to Congress, the State Senate and the State House.
And yet, a black male being raided on suspicions of serious crimes, initiates gunshots at the police and he successfully pleads self-defense based on the unanimous verdict of a white jury. This case was not nearly as clear cut as was the Rittenhouse case – but the jury still found in favor of Coffee. Minimally, they thought his action was “reasonable.” That makes the Coffee case even more significant in evaluating American justice.
Allow me to say that looking more deeply into the FACTS and EVIDNECE in the Coffee case, I agree with the jury verdict. Rightly or wrongly, Coffee believed that the police were shooting — and he thought that he was returning fire. He had every reason to fear for his life when he started shooting.
So, why did this case not get anything near the level of attention from the national media? Why were the left-wing black activists not protesting during the trial? Where were all those Democrat voices playing the race card? Neither Jesse Jackson nor Al Sharpton sat in solidarity with the defendant’s family. There were no assemblages of demonstrators outside the courtroom. Why not?
The answer seems clear. This case does not support the left’s narratives that the American justice system is systemically and pervasively racist. It would not be a good moneymaker for the race-baiting industry.
Unfortunately, the left has the advantage of a systemically biased major media to advance its specious narratives. They filter (censor) the news reports along partisan and philosophic lines rather than the news value – as journalistic standards require. Television producers and newspaper editors arbitrarily decided that the public did not need to know of the Coffee case.
Our justice system is not perfect – and never will be. There arguably are situations in which racism plays a role. But they are not necessarily where the media forces our attention – and nowhere as pervasive as the race-baiters would have us believe.
Racism is more likely to be found in the cases of thousands black defendants in the municipal courts in our major cities. And it is not those highly promoted murder cases with political overtones but rather the thousands of cases that flow through those urban courts every day — usually black-on-black — that get absolutely no attention from even the local media.
In my Chicago homeland, folks in the segregated inner city are gunned down on a daily basis and, at best, they are lumped into a tragic statistic in the local news without any names and faces. A modicum of attention may be given by the media when the innocent victim is a child. But that is it. Those are the hidden crimes and racism that Democrat leadership and the politically compromised press sweep under the rug … routinely.
If you want to understand the work of such race-baiters as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, check how many times they mobilized and protested at the doorsteps of the Democrat-controlled city halls in Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles, etc. — where their political allies are engaging in the most racist policies and practices of modern times.
All the attention – and disinformation – surrounding the high visibility criminal cases is not intended to shine light on injustice, but rather to create racially divisive false narratives for political gain. The Coffee cases gives more evidence of that reality.
So, there ‘tis.
A nicely written article. It’s time these fascist organisations were shut down. All they are interested in doing it turn Americans against Americans. There is more racism between people of colour, than opposites. I am a black music jock, and have many black friends, and I mean friends, not acquaintances. After Portland I made a statement. The BLM should change their name to ODBLM Only Decent Black Lives Matter, and to my surprise, only one person disagreed, and guess what? He was a white student. The people who end up in court, for the most part, are not decent people, BLM leaders are not decent people. Their fund raising has made them millionaires. Buying property worth a fortune in areas ordinary black people never go. Talk about hypocrites. ANTIFA, anti fascist? No way, they are Nazis just like the US government. They are Chancellor Pelosi’s black shirts. They feed the media narrative perfectly, the fact that the dummies who own MSM are not privy to what this governments game is, just blather trash daily, and gag the real news. Whatever you think of Trump, there was not a single thing that he did to damage America, and it’s true people. Roll on 2022, then 2024. It’s time to push the troglodytes back into their caves,
Larry,
When you say: “It serves to show that the American law system is not systemically weighted against black defendants nearly as much as the race-baiters claim in their specious race card responses and narratives” it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that one case does not prove validity for the entire system. Did you really mean to say: “mission accomplished” with all the entails?
Was this a good day, was this a step in the right direction. Absolutely. Is the system fixed? Hell, you don’t even think it’s broken and if it is, it’s the Democrats fault for not only doing it, but for censoring it as well.
“Coffee was acquitted by a white jury in a very red county in Florida.” Just the fact you have to say that indicates there might be a problem here. Worse yet, you never once questioned the very premise of an all-white jury in that county (or a six person jury for that matter in a capital case). And further, if it was all white, which white? Redneck Trump voters or Hispanics fleeing autocratic police states in Cuba. There could be a reason an all white jury wasn’t gung-ho authoritarian cheerleaders for the police state. Beyond that fact that this is a good thing, a nice step forward.
You did allude to the fact that the death was Coffee’s girlfriend, but you didn’t note how that might play with the jury. Especially since it’s Coffee shooting at the cops who instigated the violence, the cops then shooting at Coffee, and Woods caught in the middle, probably killed by the Sheriff’s men. The fact the Sherriff’s men said Coffee used Woods as a human shield probably didn’t help their credibility either. I think that might have weighed in with the jury.
” Minimally, they thought his action was “reasonable.” For me, Larry, it means the prosecution did not prove it’s case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Nor do you note that “The Woods family never blamed Andrew ‘A.J.’ Coffee IV for the death of their daughter, Alteria Woods,” and have a Federal Court Case against the Sherriff’s office as well as seeking DOJ investigation of said office. As a juror, that would give me pause, especially about the “human shield” veracity. Other people were in the residence have Federal cases as well.
But not to worry, systemic racism in America has been proven to be cured by a single court case, the aftermath being that Coffee has a gun charge conviction for being a felon with a gun, and the prosecutor has said he is seeking the maximum of 30 years for Coffee practicing self defense via an illegal gun. The victims parents, and others, are suing the Sherriff so it would appear that the participants and victims in this case do not agree with Larry that “The Coffee cases gives more evidence of that reality” which Larry feels is modern day America.
One case does not cure or prove systemic racism which, IMO, is prevalent in America and is not going away fast enough.
You wasn’t even there so stfu. It’s people like you that cause racial divide in this country. And most blacks that are shot are mostly shot by other blacks
Says the racist cracker from Virginia. Yeah, well most whites are shot by other whites. Between 70% to 80% of all murders are by relatives or known acquaintances, so I think you get the statistical picture. You know numbers. Scientific process. If you don’t get the piciture, it’s that your comment is true, but very stupid since most (fill in the race or group you want to discriminate against) are killed by (fill in that same group). A fact that is true across the globe, so stfu with the stupid.
You say it because you want people to believe what you
And how did I cause the racial divide in America? How did “people like me” cause it? You don’t have a clue, do you….
Frank it’s clear with your post to Larry that you’re trolling for racism again.
Trolling? Why troll when I have a guy who is a stupid lying cracker racist from Virginia right in front of me? I don’t have to troll, I don’t have to bait, this guy is jumping right into the boat. Good try Dan, but honestly, I think I am coming right at you….. And you are pretty much in-our-face with your overt racism too.
So, what were the consequences for the police who invaded Coffee’s home? The exact same thing happened in Louisville to Breonna Taylor – another botched raid / home invasion by police. Any consequence to those police officers?
If you really want to show how much better the justice system “is not systemically weighted against black defendants”, show me statistics of how often white people have their doors busted down in the middle of the night and are shot in their own bedrooms. People like Roger Stone and Steve Bannon are contacted and allowed to surrender at a time negotiated by their lawyers, and allowed to post bail before spending a minute in jail. They never had a police weapon pointed at them.
Big Pharma companies and retail/pharmacy chains like Walmart were responsible for 10’s or hundreds of thousands of deaths due to their fraudulent marketing and sales of opiate drugs – and yet they can negotiate a fine, not a one of them goes to jail, and they even get to keep a share of the profits while eliminating their criminal liability. I’d lay odds that the owners and CEOs of all those companies are white. It’s a different kind of crime, you say? Yes, Big Pharma killed WAY more people, compared to Taylor’s supposed gang boyfriend or Coffee, if they were even accused of that.
Brau, the cops got off slicker than deer guts on the door knob. By the book begins to get stranger after 9/11 and the giant appropriations for military equipment to thwart terrorists for local and state police departments. The problem is once you have this gear, of course you want to use it. Then there’s the, but we don’t use it enough to really learn it, and, of course, systemic racism manifesting itself in differences in use in black versus white neighborhoods, or rich versus poor. But nonetheless Coffee was a felon, he had an illegal gun, he was selling drugs, this was not going to end well for him.
However, you got Coffee, his girlfriend, his father, his grandmother, and one other person, all in the house as a dozen militarily-armed cops descend upon them for the crime of two $40 bags of crack. They are after Coffee’s father for the crime and they arrest him and are holding him at the front door while they decide execute the search order inside the house. So, they announce themselves which the sleeping Coffee may or may not have heard, break in his bed room window, toss a couple of flashbangs in, where Coffee is no longer hearing anything and thinks gunplay is ensuing as he opens fire, they return, and the cops put his girlfriend away. It was dark.
Point is: was this the appropriate way to go after a 2-bag crack dealer? Bullets are flying throughout the house from over a dozen cops, through walls, into the neighbors houses, everyone is put at risk while the intended arrest is held by police at the front door. Oh year, it’s still dark out. The guy has already been arrested, they have no warrants for anyone else in the house. They do have a search order, but wouldn’t a hard knocking on the door, a phone call, bright lights, anything be better than a shooting gallery?
“And somebody said, “Hey man, did you see that?
Her body hit the street with such a beautiful thud”
I wonder what the dudet was sayin’
Or was she just lost in the flood?” Springsteen
There are civil cases underway by the family and other residents of the house. One would think the other residents will settle out of court cuz don’t think local government wants to explain that. Given the dismissal of charges against Coffee, the civil cases look more positive than if Coffee hadn’t walked. Doesn’t hurt that the cop-killed victim’s parents are on Coffee’s side in this; they understand.