AARON JACKSON’S TRIBUTE TO A FRAT BROTHER (RIP)

If I ever found myself in the position where one of my dearest friends was taking away in a untimely death and local media outlets choose to be disrespectful in covering this event, I would not only be mad as hell but I would hope to have the insight, courage and patience to do what Aaron Jackson in defense of his frat brother.

So we meet again...

As African American citizens living in the City of Buffalo, we are all too familiar with The Buffalo News and the way it's staff reporters have chose to do business. Sensationalized stories and biased portrayals of our people are what many in our community have grown accustomed to and thus we have chose to continue boycotting The Buffalo News.

It's almost amazing the "positive spin" you've begun to put on this case within a few days of it happening. I personally find it strangely odd that throughout your article in Sunday's paper entitled "Two cousins identified as Kensington crash victims", you've chose to focus more on the driver instead of the victims. The strangest, most glaring thing about your article and what boggles my mind the most is this... of all the things you wrote, absolutely nowhere in your article did you ever make mention that he killed two people!! Was that fact purposely left out, and if so, that alone shows me and many others that there is some serious errors in your method of reporting or lack thereof.

Was this story intended to build up Matthew Ruckdaschel and his family to make him out to be a good kid that made an honest mistake?? Was this a conscious attempt to sway potential jurors in case he lives and has to one day stand before a judge or was this an attempt to leave us with a few positive thoughts about him and his family in case he doesn't survive his injuries?? Tell me this, what was the significance of mentioning the past sports history of Matthew Ruckdaschel and his family?? Was that another attempt to place him and his family in a positive light and spare them any further embarrassment from the fact that their son was possibly driving drunk while going the wrong way on the Kensington expressway eventually killing two people?? Whatever the case, mentioning Matthew Ruckdaschel's past accomplishments while never mentioning anything more than Eric Anderson and Thomas Johnson's name was nothing more than insensitive, disrespectful, classless, offensive, blatantly negligent and grossly racist yet typical of The Buffalo News. Plain and simple.

The Buffalo News and it's staff reporters have become synonymous with dealing with "sources close to the case" and it's ridiculous. I find it hard to believe that a "source" close to the case gave you a major amount of positive information about the driver and his family, yet gave you absolutely nothing about the decedents?? I've come to believe that not only are YOU the "source close to the case" but your methods of reporting are seriously deficient, always slanted and lack integrity. As far as my thoughts on the Buffalo Police Department and their spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge, they are still just as inept as they've always been. Tell me this, how did Eric Anderson and Thomas Johnson "appear" to be cousins, yet no other information about them was available?? Are you serious?? And more importantly, charges are "pending" against the driver?? Are you serious?? Of all the glaring inconsistencies thus far, the crackerjack of them all is the fact that they are still trying to determine if alcohol played a role in this case!! You have got to be kidding me... this case SCREAMS alcohol!!

Maki Becker, Jay Rey, Patrick LaKamp, Matthew Spina and "your source close to the case" even went as far as researching Matthew Ruckdaschel's FB page and listing his hobbies in an attempt to show him in a more positive light, I wonder why?? On several occasions, I've personally watched The Buffalo News tear down other African Americans in similar situations and not even once venture onto their FB page to make them appear more human. Makes me wonder what else your organization has strategically included in or left out of this story.

In ending I say this, had either of you or "your source" taken the time to seek out and fully look into Eric Anderson's background you would have come to find that he was a full time working productive citizen. He was a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology with a Degree in Engineering and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated, but most importantly, he was the Father of three children, Onajae, Oniya and August, three children that will never get to see him again. In fact, had you looked just a little bit further you would have also noticed this passage on Eric Anderson's FB page, Ecclesiastes 7:20 which in turns states, "There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins" and to that I say this, no matter what type of positive spin you've attempted to put on this story, this passage pertains to you and The Buffalo News, but most importantly Matthew Ruckdaschel.

Albeit, we refuse to respect your stance, we understand it. Please take time to understand and respect ours!

Yours truly,

Aaron Jackson & The People