CLARKSVILLE, Tennessee – Black men are more dangerous to other black men than white Ku Klux Klansmen ever were, Montgomery County Judge Wayne Shelton told a man accused of murder this week.
Shelton, presiding over the preliminary hearing of Vincent Bryan Merriweather on Thursday, said he's sick and disheartened by what he sees as a lack of respect for human life, especially among young black men willing to shoot at one another for little or no reason.
"I grew up in a time where people wore white robes and they shot at black people," Shelton said. "And now we see young black men wearing black hoodies shooting at black men – and doing much more effective job than the Klan ever thought about doing."
Although Shelton has been saying that "black lives matter" for years, he lamented Thursday that no one is listening. "I'm sick of it," he said.