by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World.
Davion Powell was just three years old when a bullet took his life. The shooter, 21-year old Roderick Moss, appeared in court this week on charges of murder. Moss allegedly shot through the window of an apartment building with children inside. Powell was hit in the head by one of the bullets and died in the hospital.
Little Davion was described as the “child that everybody loved.”
“He was a loving little boy,” Gwen Jordan, Davion’s daycare provider told the Courier-Journal.
Moss turned himself in to police on Friday. Jordan says she spoke with the young man’s mother, who says she is “very hurt” that her son would do this to a child. He is being held on $1 million bond and appears in court again on May 31.
“She’s very hurt” Jordan said ”Her emotions…she’s so sorry that her son done this. She wanted justice. She wanted her son to turn himself in. She wanted justice.”
I can’t put into words the depth of agony that went through my heart when my daughter told me the story of Davion Powell. My stomach turned and I cried, because a child so young and innocent expects adults to protect him, not try to kill him. I also felt pain for the perpetrator, Mr. Moss, who likely experienced a sequence of events in life that turned him into the kind of monster who shoots at little children. But the time of sympathy for Mr. Moss is gone, and as much as I advocate for equality for black men in the criminal justice system, I sincerely hope that Moss receives the punishment he deserves.
When you see the mugshot of Moss, you see a man who honestly reminds me of “O-Dog,” a character from the 1993 film, “Menace 2 Society.” Played by actor Larenz Tate, O-Dog was the kind of vicious, homicidal maniac rarely seen in film. Tate’s performance was crucial in making the film iconic. Even though a full generation has passed since the release of that film, you can see the role that a violent subculture plays in the creation of young men who are wired not to “give a f*ck” about anyone who suffers the wrath of their fury.
The violent urban sub-culture connects readily to the worst of hip-hop music, as we all remember Lil Wayne saying publicly that he would kill newborn babies. But commercialized hip-hop artists are not solely to blame, for the sub-culture is further fueled by the easy availability of drugs and guns in the black community (which began with the CIA -inspired crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s), creating the men who pose serious threats to every law-abiding man, woman and child in America. In many communities, it’s easier for a young black man to get a gun than it is for him to get an education or a job, and there is no one on Capitol Hill rushing to change that.
To make our community socially-solvent, we must save both the Davion Powells and the Roderick Mosses. When Menace 2 Society came out, Roderick himself was the same age as Davion, and our society made a collective decision to allow him to grow into a man who decided to create nightmares instead of nurture dreams. We, as a society, had the option of turning Roderick into the type of man who would mentor young Davion, protect him and perhaps even serve as a husband to his mother. Instead, we turned him into the man who put a bullet in his brain. Every policy decision we make has real-world implications on the lives of human beings, and we must be proactive in deciding what to do with little black boys.
By allowing a young boy to grow into a man who had nothing to live for, we must confess that this baby’s blood lies in the hands of us all. I am completely convinced that this tragedy was avoidable, and that this baby did NOT have to die.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
