Judging from information that is now being released about Dallas cop shooter Micah Johnson, he was many things. He was a pervert in the view of his bunkmate in Afghanistan, who told the Daily Beast he was kicked out of the service for stealing panties. He was obviously angry, according to Dallas police, who report having found a “devastating” amount of explosives in his home.
One description of Johnson that might be a little harder to lend credence to is that he was “martyr.” That, sadly, is what Alabama’s first-ever black Miss Alabama winner called Johnson in a tearful Facebook video Sunday, in which she also allowed as how she isn’t upset about the five police he murdered.
In 1994, Kalyn Chapman James became the first, and so far only, black woman to be crowned Miss Alabama, before going on to a top-10 finish in the Miss America pageant. Today, she works as a TV host in Miami, and awards an annual scholarship to the top black finisher at each year’s Miss Alabama.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
In a profile of James at a PBS webpage related to a series titled “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross,” she is quoted as saying, “I learned about racism from firsthand experiences growing up in Mobile, Alabama.” Sounds like she’s become a racist since then.
*UPDATE* Apparently, justice is blind. As noted here, James has been placed on administrative leave, pending an “investigation” into her remarks. It’s not immediately clear what there is to investigate. James claims her words were taken out of context, which is the standard defense, though it’s hard to see that argument holding up.
This report, by Blake Neff, was cross-posted in altered form by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.