Earlier this week, we reported the story of Demonterrio Gibson, the Black FedEx delivery driver who was allegedly chased around a neighborhood in Brookhaven, Mississippi, by a white father and son duo, Gregory and Brandon Case, one of whom reportedly fired shots into his van because he refused to stop for, well, white men who were chasing and pointing a shotgun at him. (Imagine that, amirite?)
According to the New York Post, Gibson’s attorney Carlos E. Moore is comparing the incident to the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery by Gregory and Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan, and while Gibson survived his attack, unlike Arbery, Moore’s assessment isn’t wrong.
“These people tried to be copycats, and that’s why we need full justice, not Mississippi justice,” Moore said. “This man went to work, and they attacked him like he was a wild animal.”
He also reiterated that it was “clearly a copycat crime,” in reference to what the whitey-Willie-lynch mob did to Arbery in Georgia.
Again, he isn’t wrong. Let’s just look at all the parallels in the two cases based on what Gibson reported happened.
In both incidents, a Black 20-something-year-old was minding his own business when a redneck wannabe Batman and Robin duo decided it was on them to take the law into their own hands.
In both incidents, white men in a pickup truck chased a Black man around a neighborhood for several minutes at least and also tried to corner him and block him from leaving.
In both incidents, local authorities failed to take the crime seriously, resulting in a delay of the suspects’ arrests.
In both incidents, a Black man was characterized as the trouble-maker and not the victim.
In both incidents, the son did the shooting.
And in both incidents, the father’s name is Gregory. (I know that last one is not really relevant, but it’s still weird.)
Meanwhile, the Mississippi Free Press reported that FedEx has reinstated pay for Gibson after the 24-year-old said he was instructed to return to the scene where he was almost shot to death and finish his route, which he declined to do resulting in him being placed on unpaid leave.
Can you imagine telling your boss that, while you were working, you just barely escaped with your life after being shot at, only to have your boss respond, “Whaaaaaah? That’s wild—but I’ma need you to go back there and finish these deliveries, bruh.”
“They put him back on the same route the next day, he rode for two days, it was too much on him, he couldn’t bear it, and then they sent him home—get this—without pay,” Moore said. “He’s at home without pay on unpaid leave because he could not handle the stress of going on that same route.
“They have voluntarily offered to pay for his counseling, which is a step in the right direction, but he also has to live,” he continued. “They should immediately institute a paycheck for this man. He’s gone without a paycheck for over a week now, and they need to do the right thing by him.”
And apparently, that’s exactly what happened as Moore announced in a Facebook post that “FedEx has finally checked on D’Monterrio Gibson and has reinstated his pay retroactive to January 31st.”
According to CNN, FedEx said in a statement that the company “takes situations of this nature very seriously,” that the company was “shocked by this criminal act against our team member, D’Monterrio Gibson” and that the “safety of our team members is our top priority, and we remain focused on his wellbeing.”
Sounds like a generic statement given by any corporation that ends up in the news for something like this, only this statement completely ignores the allegation that someone running one of its branches demonstrated the exact opposite of what the statement claims.
Either somebody’s lying, or somebody’s going to be receiving a pink slip very soon.
I guess we’ll see.