62-year-old white resident of Rosewood, #Florida David Allen Emanuel, was sentenced to one year and a day in prison for driving his pickup truck at Black historian Marvin Dunn and his son during a racist attack. Emanuel was convicted on six federal hate crime counts in July and faced up to ten years in prison. Instead, U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor sentenced him to a year and a day for each count, to be served concurrently.
Dunn, 83, had asked the judge for mercy for Emanuel during sentencing on Thursday, October 19. “For me, my faith requires forgiveness and so I must,” reads Dunn’s statement on behalf of the victims. “It requires me to love my neighbor as well, but I have more work to do on that. I am not asking my neighbor to love me or even to apologize to us. I only ask that he assures the court that we can live in peace as neighbors.”
On September 6, 2022, Marvin Dunn, who is planning to build a “peace house” in memory of the Rosewood Massacre, was at the property with his son and others to brainstorm how to bring his vision for the monument to life.
As Dunn and his son were standing with a group of Black men on SW 96th Court, a neighbor drove up in his pickup truck, demanding to know why they were there and why their vehicle was parked on the side of the road next to the man’s property. After Dunn explained that his car was legally parked on a public road, the neighbor went into a rage. He started screaming racial slurs at them and then attempted to hit them with his truck.
Dunn also told #TheNewTimes that the defendant’s grandchildren played a factor in his decision to ask for a light sentence, especially seeing them in court. Dunn is an emeritus professor at #Florida International University and has been an advocate for the victims of the Rosewood massacre of 1923.
In his statement, Dunn emphasized the importance of peaceful conflict resolution and mutual respect despite differences.
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Link: Miami New Times
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