374 replies to this topic

[FolsomBarb]

FolsomBarb - Accolades to your son, he did a wonderful job on Andre’s video.

On his behalf, thanks. I was very proud of him. It was a very difficult task for him to do that, but I believe it was very cathartic and helped him in ways we don't yet know.....he was able to remember Andre as he knew him.....and helped everyone else do the same thing.

[Deb aka Resume Lady]

On his behalf, thanks. I was very proud of him. It was a very difficult task for him to do that, but I believe it was very cathartic and helped him in ways we don't yet know.....he was able to remember Andre as he knew him.....and helped everyone else do the same thing.

He did a great job, and honoring Andre with that video was one of the best, last gifts he could have given Andre.

[nlove4ever]

I think one of the main issues was the response time to the incident regardless of what else was going on at the time and the automatic speculation by the police department. There is no way in HELL that the next day the police department can do a FULL and THOROUGH investigation and determine that quickly that there was no foul play involved. This I am sure pissed the parents off, and I would do the same thing Andre's Father did. I am Caucasian so I would not have called the NAACP, but you better believe I would be calling everyone TV station in the city along with any other organization I could to help find out what happened. They gave Folsom PD a chance to do their job and they obviously failed at it in my mind (this is obvious by FolsomBarb and Mindwideopen’s statements from their children.) Andre’s Father had every right to call them and if he wants to play the race card to help him find out what happened to his Son, then so be it. We aren’t the ones sitting at home with the empty feeling due to the loss of a child, so who are we to judge him? And as far as I am concerned Folsom PD should be calling him everyday with an update until they SOLVE this! This family needs closure but they also need the TRUTH and for FPD to throw out to the public so quickly what they did (possible suicide/choking game) is an outrage! If anything I think that was a total compromise to the investigation.

Of course this is just my opinion and if I offend anyone, I apologize. I am sure that FPD is a good Police Department, but it looks like they screwed up on the wrong case! This I am sure will be a very hard lesson for them to have learned.

Although I never knew Andre, there is not doubt in my mind how much he was loved! He had a HUGE impact on people’s lives and I go on to his myspace page every few days to see this while I cry my eyes out for his family and friends (if you would like to view it, please PM me). He had so many friends and I amazed at how much his friends loved him. Also, the posts that these teens make on his site about how much they love him and how much they believe in him and how they know this was not an accident is obvious. It also amazed me at how compassionate they were. They wrote some of the most beautiful words I have ever heard!

I think that this has really hit home with us parents. There has never been an incident that has ever affected me in this manner. I only wish I could take the pain away from all!

We all want the truth and I hope one day that we will get it. I hope that one day his family will get closure and be at peace.

[4thgenFolsomite]

As I recall when the young man's body was first found there were rumors of everything from murder to lynching flying around Folsom. That is not good for the community. Could it be that the FPD wanted to put to rest any rumors that other kids are also in danger and that black kids were being lynched in Folsom? Sounds like they wanted to try to douse the flames of speculation. I never heard them say they were done with their investigation. I suspect, as others on this forum have, that they found some information on his computer that led them to believe it wasn't suicide or murder. Let's let them finish their work and perhaps mind our own business a little.

Maybe when passions have calmed down a little it will be easier to understand the police department's actions. So far they seem pretty reasonable to me. of course, we don't have any teenagers at home to keep us up to date on how the police are conducting their investigations.

[supermom]

of course, we don't have any teenagers at home to keep us up to date on how the police are conducting their investigations.

I'm sorry but that was quite an inflammatory statement. The teen-agers in town do not deserve being attacked by anyone on this site. They are just kids-perhaps knowing Andre in a better light often times than his own parents would have known him in some aspects. Because the kids do have a unique ability to see things so different than adults- it is our job to flesh out stories at times; and at other times to trust their instincts. I reserve speculation as unwarranted, as well as nonsense rhetorical histrionics. Let the family and kids grieve, and should they vent by calling the police inadequate; well the police have tough skins and I'm sure they understand there are many grieving souls in folsom.

[mindwideopen]

The information I posted about my daughter's FPD interview is first-hand information NOT second-hand, I was present during the phone interview (which I asked her to put on speaker phone). All facts in my post were of my own accord.

[Steve Heard]

I see the father's side and that of the police.

The father is in the kind of pain none of us can imagine unless we've been there. He said on camera that he cries every day and every night. As a parent, I think I'd cry for my loss, for my child's loss, for the loss the rest of my family and my wife would feel, I cry thiking about what that kid went through before he died. The father says the police have not been communicating with him. He wants answers.

The police position is that the case is open and on-going, so they would be irresponsible to release information and draw conclusions at this point. That makes sense to me.

They have promised to communicate more effectively with the family from now on. I think this will be reassuring to the family.

You have to understand, however, where the emotion, the suspicion, and the doubt comes from.

When word got out that a young black male was found hanging from a tree, how many of us thought of suicide? How many thought 'the choking game'? How many thought 'lynching'?

Our country has a long and shameful history of committing, allowing and endorsing lynchings and other crimes against blacks.

It was less than 2 years ago that the US Senate voted, by 80%, to issue an official apology for not passing any of the over 200 anti-lynching bills that came before them over about 100 years. Time after time, they refused, giving tacit endorsement of the practice, which continued on. During this time, from 1882 to 1968, over 4700 Americans, most of them black.

I grew up hearing the stories from my dad and other relatives. Everyone knew someone who was lynched or related to someone who was.

The government didn't place the same value on black citizens as they did on whites, and along with denying basic rights, crimes against blacks and deaths of blacks routinely went uninvestigated. To this day, there remains complaints that these practices continue to happen.

There was a famous case in the 80's, described this way, " On Saturday 21st March, 1981, Bennie Hays's son, Henry Hays, and James Knowles, decided they would get revenge for the failure of the courts to convict a man for killing a policeman. They travelled around Mobile in their car until they found nineteen year old Michael Donald walking home. After forcing him into the car Donald was taken into the next county where he was lynched.

A brief investigation took place and eventually the local police claimed that Donald had been murdered as a result of a disagreement over a drugs deal. Donald's mother, Beulah Mae Donald, who knew that her son was not involved with drugs, was determined to obtain justice. She contacted Jessie Jackson who came to Mobile and led a protest march about the failed police investigation."

After local police faild to do their jobs, the FBI was brought in, and the two klansmen were convicted.

I am not saying that the Folsom PD is was guilty of this, but if you are black in this country, if your child is found hanging in a tree, and you don't get the answers that you seek, it isn't hard for thoughts of lynchings, cover-ups, just apathy to creep into your mind.

It's like many other things that we face in life. If I get ignored by a clerk at a store store, I try to tell myself that it's just because they don't provide good service. I am old enough to remember, however, when it was because they didn't provide any service to blacks.

So, in light of our history, and the pain the Andersons feel, and the police having to play it close to the vest, I can totally understand why the Andersons might contact the one organization that has stood up for black Americans for nearly 100 years, the NAACP.

[D's TK]

We all want the truth and I hope one day that we will get it. I hope that one day his family will get closure and be at peace.

I think this says it all...and I pray everyday for this very thing.

[snutey]

I have been reading several posts on this forum and on the other for several days now. I understand that all of you have your opinions, some more than others, and I respect all of them. I am in law enforcement (not FPD) and I have a few friends who work for the Folsom PD. In my "opinion" several of you have been unfairly accusing FPD of "screwing up" this investigation or "covering up" this incident. The one thing we all need to realize is they have A LOT more information and evidence than any of us, and if we are not the Anderson family, we have no right to know what that information and evidence is.

I do know that a few of my FPD friends told me that the family sent a "represenative", a family friend from Southern California, to meet with FPD last week, because Andre's parents were not ready to hear what they had to say. I know that the family friend was told what evidence they had collected from the scene, Andre's room and computer. That family friend was going to relay the information to the family.

I do know from my many years of experience, when a department says that they want to protect the "dignity" of Andre and respect the privacy of the family, that they have information that the family might not want people to hear.

The FPD owes the community nothing in regards to information about this case, unless the community is in danger......obviously they don't feel that the community is in any danger.

I also know from someone who was at the NAACP news conference, that Andre's dad made a statement that was drastically edited by the media. Andre's dad said that he does NOT think this is a "racial issue" and that he believes the FPD is doing a good job with the investigation. THANKS MEDIA!

As I said before, I respect all of your opinions but I do think the FPD is getting a bad rap. Just because the community does not know what is happening in the investigation does no mean that the FPD is not doing a good job. Sorry if you think I am biased, because I am a cop.

Please remember that the FPD is filled with mothers and fathers that have also been affected by this.....thanks for your time...

[4thgenFolsomite]

well said, Snutey. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

[jsb]

well said, Snutey. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

I agree. It's not like Folsom is Mayberry, in the middle of nowhere. The Folsom Police has been around for 40 years, I've lived in Sacramento for 30, and I have never heard of them royaly screwing anything up before. I'm sure they know what they are doing. Even the family, on KCRA, seemed more upset over the death then with the police department. I'm sure the family is still in shock and want answers that no one but Andre has.

Its a tragedy, and it's to bad people are trying to use it to divide a community.

[Deb aka Resume Lady]

I do know from my many years of experience, when a department says that they want to protect the "dignity" of Andre and respect the privacy of the family, that they have information that the family might not want people to hear.

The FPD owes the community nothing in regards to information about this case, unless the community is in danger......obviously they don't feel that the community is in any danger.

As I said before, I respect all of your opinions but I do think the FPD is getting a bad rap. Just because the community does not know what is happening in the investigation does no mean that the FPD is not doing a good job. Sorry if you think I am biased, because I am a cop.

Please remember that the FPD is filled with mothers and fathers that have also been affected by this.....thanks for your time...

Excellent points. Thank you for posting and thank you for being a police officer.

[Steve Heard]

I also know from someone who was at the NAACP news conference, that Andre's dad made a statement that was drastically edited by the media. Andre's dad said that he does NOT think this is a "racial issue" and that he believes the FPD is doing a good job with the investigation. THANKS MEDIA!

As I said before, I respect all of your opinions but I do think the FPD is getting a bad rap. Just because the community does not know what is happening in the investigation does no mean that the FPD is not doing a good job. Sorry if you think I am biased, because I am a cop.

Please remember that the FPD is filled with mothers and fathers that have also been affected by this.....thanks for your time...

Thanks, snutey. Nice to get your perspective.

[camay2327]

I keep seeing; I wasn't contacted, so and so wasn't contacted. Hey you can contact the police too you know. If you have something to contribute in this case contact the police and let them know. I personally think that other people more than likely was there and will not come forward. That is just my opinion.

I do think that a person could climb up into a tree and tie their legs to the tree and then place a rope or belt around their neck and then fall forward and kill themselves.

I really did not want to come out and talk about this, but it could happen.

If someone out there knows what happened then fess up.

[cybertrano]

the NAACP makes me nervous.

It seems counterproductive to play race cards and bring in the antagonizing NAACP. If the family wants answers they are more likely to get them if they speak to the police directly. First, I've heard that the family doesn't even bother to speak to the police but rather sends a representative in their place, so things are very likely lost in translation. Also, it seems like the police don't have all the answers and quite possibly never will. All they can do is to investigate fully and provide the answers they do find. That will include reaching a conclusion that might simply be based on ruling other things out. It's not going to be a definitive answer that will satisfy grieving parents. Often, a parent can never get satisfying answers when they have lost a child. Often there remains a desire to blame someone, and I think in this case there is nobody to blame except the or the police, so naturally the police will remain under attack.