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The cold formality of the letter is seared in Debra Long’s memory. It began “Dear Claimant,” and said her 24-year-old son, Randy, who was fatally shot in April 2006, was not an “innocent” victim. Without further explanation, the New York state agency that assists violent-crime victims and their families refused to help pay for his funeral.
Randy was a father, engaged to be married and studying to become a juvenile probation officer when his life was cut short during a visit to Brooklyn with friends. His mother, angry and bewildered by the letter, wondered: What did authorities see — or fail to see — in Randy?
It felt racial. It felt like they saw a young African American man who was shot and killed and assumed he must have been doing something wrong,” Long said. “But believe me when I say, not my son.”
Debra Long had bumped up against a well-intentioned corner of the criminal justice system that is often perceived as unfair.
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