Some people will never learn. Not in life. Not in death. And not in how someone they knew in life met death.
His name is Ted Lawson, a white Democrat in Michigan who was murdered by a black 15-year-old as he was simply trying to knock on doors for a city council candidate. The black youth asked the prominent Lansing Democrat for a dollar bill, then pulled a handgun out and shot Lawson.
Police: Boy, 15, asked Lansing Democrat Ted Lawson for $1 before fatally shooting him, Lansing State Journal, October 11, 2023
A teenager asked a prominent Lansing Democrat for a dollar before pulling a handgun and fatally shooting him on a north Lansing street, court records indicate.
Lansing police identified the shooter as Lamar Patrick Kemp, 15, after reviewing security video that captured Kemp and two other teens in the area where Theodore “Ted” Lawson was shot in the 1100 block of North Jenison Avenue, police said in a court document.
The shooting was witnessed by one of Kemp’s companions, they said. Lawson was knocking on doors for a city council candidate.
Kemp was arraigned Wednesday on murder and weapon charges in connection with Lawson’s death. A 54A District Court judge denied bond for him pending further hearings in the case. Court records did not list an attorney for Kemp.
Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane said he opted to charge Kemp as an adult because of the nature of the offense and the youth’s previous interactions with the court system.
“Unfortunately, this year we have experienced a number of youthful offenders illegally carrying guns and engaging in both fatal and non-fatal gun violence throughout Ingham County,” Dewane said in a news release.
“We continue to support our community partnerships to reduce and interrupt violent incidents in our community. However when individuals are driving violence and fear in our community, we will continue to utilize the legal system to promote community safety and hold these individuals responsible for their actions and the harm they have caused.”
Lawson, 63, was well-known in political circles and worked on many campaigns for Democrats locally and statewide. He was a member of Ingham County’s Board of Canvassers and served as secretary for the Ingham County Democratic Party.
Police for days had released no information about the circumstances surrounding the shooting, but Lansing City Council at-large candidate Trini Lopez Pehlivanoglu told the State Journal Monday Lawson was canvassing for her when he was killed. Lawson lived just a few blocks away and was knocking on doors at the time, she said.
Dewane confirmed her account but noted the killing does not appear to be connected to Lawson’s political activities or beliefs.
In a statement Thursday morning, Lansing Police Chief Ellery Sosebee said Kemp intended to get money from Lawson in what he described as an attempted robbery. There is no evidence indicating politics had anything to do with the shooting, he said.
Sosebee has neither corroborated nor disputed statements that Lawson was campaigning for a political candidate when he was killed.
“The senseless murder of Theodore Lawson speaks to the careless mindset of a very small section of our most violent offenders,” Sosebee said. “It is too often (that) these acts of violence are by youthful offenders with no value of consequence or accountability. I applaud Prosecutor Dewane for his firm stance on gun violence.”
”There is no evidence indicating politics had anything to do with the shooting, he said.”
Will police look into whether this was a hate crime or gang initiation, since one can scarcely believe that the act of a white male bestowing a $1 bill upon a black youth is a situation where he should then lose this life? That’s $42 less than what the mugger got in Hank Williams Jr.’s son A Country Boy Can Survive.
Is there one example in all of American history of a white youth asking an elderly black male for a dollar, then shooting him?
These are questions neither the police nor friends of Ted Dawson will ask because we live in a nation dominated by copious amounts of black privilege.
