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Summary of

The Lost Sons of Omaha

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Summary of Joe Sexton’s book

Two Young Men in an American Tragedy

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Summary of The Lost Sons of Omaha by Joe Sexton: Two Young Men in an American Tragedy

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This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Joe Sexton’s “The Lost Sons of Omaha: Two Young Men in an American Tragedy” designed to enrich your reading experience.

 

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PART ONE

PART ONE

“I Hated Fire Watch”

Jake Gardner was a successful nightclub owner in Omaha who had been involved in a dispute and shuttered due to the global coronavirus pandemic. He had stocked his bar with high-end liquor, which was his single most important financial asset. The protests in Omaha had been ignited by the killing of a Black man, George Floyd, by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which had been captured on video and broadcast to the world. Gardner had stocked his bar full of high-end liquor, which was his single most important financial asset. Omaha, a city of half a million people on the Missouri River, is known for its deep-pocketed philanthropy and entrenched segregation.

It has an overlooked history of lynchings and race riots, but has come to beat with a faint but durable blue Democratic heart. The Jesuit school Creighton University and the University of Nebraska Omaha help give the city a liberal character, and Gardner had been a lightning rod on matters of race and gender. He had also worked on Donald Trump’s run for president and had a cardboard cutout of Trump set up inside his nightclub. He was no fan of the Black Lives Matter movement. On May 30, Omaha Scanner allowed Gardner to monitor the events unfolding on the streets of Omaha, where protesters were abandoning the scene of the initial standoff with police.

The Douglas County Courthouse and Orpheum Theater were also under assault, and Gardner used his cell phone to text a former Marine and one of his best friends. Fire watch is a military term for guard duty, which is often seen as a way to kill time. The Marine Corps takes fire watch seriously and has a dozen or so requirements for performing it properly. When George Floyd's killing occurred, Gardner was in charge of his area and had the authority to stop and question any rank who sought to pass his area. He walked his post in a military manner, kept observant with keen attention to details, reported all violations of orders, was especially watchful at night, challenged all persons on or near his post, and quit his post only when properly relieved.

The protests ignited by Floyd's killing became more than just the latest angry reaction to an outrageous police killing, but a genuine moment of national reckoning. Donald Trump was seeking a second term and the COVID pandemic had already taken a toll on the nation's people of color. James Scurlock, a 22-year-old African American man, was one of the protesters making his way along Harney Street. He was born in an ambulance and had a nomadic childhood, living with his grandmother in Denver and a homeless shelter in Norfolk, Nebraska. His family and teachers thought he was a promising student, bright, creative, and taken with music.

Scurlock and his friend, Tucker Randall, found themselves in the offices of an architecture firm on Harney Street, one block from Jake Gardner's club, The Gatsby. James had rebelled against his father's strictness and ran off to Norfolk, where he was sentenced to three to five years in a juvenile correctional facility and two other arrests. Scurlock had a good heart, but it found itself in some bad places.

Fuck the Police”

The first night of protest in Omaha during the summer of 2020 was held outside the Northeast Police Precinct at 30th and Taylor Streets. Anthony Baker, one of the leaders, addressed the crowd, asking why police wanted to arrest George Floyd for the crime of forgery. Ernie Chambers, a Black firebrand from North Omaha, was also at the rally. The rally lasted an hour and ended without incident. The Omaha Police Department has had its share of scandal, with local advocates filing a formal complaint with the U.S.

Department of Justice in 2012. The Omaha Police Department has been accused of a pattern of use of force incidents, illegal arrests, disregard for state law, constitutional principles, and official police department policies, and a disproportionate concentration of abuse against racial and ethnic minorities. The complaint did not lead to any action by the Justice Department, and the catalogue of problems extended over generations. The city has no independent civilian oversight agency to keep check on the police department, and the killing of a young Black teen by a white police officer in 1969 was documented and analyzed by historians. George Floyd's killing sparked three days of protest and violence in North Omaha, with almost ninety people injured and sixty arrested.

The local chapter of the Black Panthers protected the neighborhood's Black churches, but the damage done had left scars in North Omaha. One night after the rally outside the police station at 39th and Taylor, Omaha was increasingly roiled by the maelstrom provoked by George Floyd's killing. At 72nd Street and Dodge, protesters blocked traffic and set upon a Nebraska State Patrol vehicle, with one person climbing atop it with a megaphone. The police fired rounds of PepperBall, nonlethal ammunition that sets off an explosion of searing smoke upon impact. The most important details in this text are the events that occurred on May 29th and May 30th in Omaha, Nebraska.

On May 29th, officers set off smoke grenades and cops on horses were enlisted. By 9 p.m., the scene had grown chaotic and protesters used wooden pallets to build a blockade across Dodge Street. At 10 p.m., police got reports that protesters planned to break into the Target store nearby. At 10 p.m., police got reports that protesters planned to break into the Best Buy store nearby. At 10 p.m., police got reports that protesters planned to break into the Target store nearby.

At 10 p.m., police got reports that protesters planned to break into the Target store nearby. At 10 p.m., police got reports that protesters planned to break into the Target store nearby. At 10 p.m., police got reports that protesters planned to break into the Best Buy store nearby. At 10 p.m., police got reports that protesters planned to break into the Target store nearby. At 10 p.m., The protests in Omaha caused hundreds of people to be reported outside police headquarters, leading to the deployment of a mounted squad and Rapid Deployment Force.

At least fifty people were arrested and a 23-year-old protester was shot by police in the eye with a PepperBall. Civil rights advocates called for an investigation and successfully sued, challenging the legality of police tactics and requiring reform.

Pretty Crazy”

Jake Gardner was a veteran of the Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion who had driven an LAV-25 in Iraq in 2003. He brought his favorite pistol, a Springfield 9mm, and a second sidearm with bullets designed for maximum damage. He also had a shotgun loaded with nonlethal ammunition. Years earlier, Gardner had driven an LAV-25 and was among the first to cross into Iraq in 2003. Drivers of combat vehicles such as the LAV-25 wound up particularly vulnerable to traumatic brain injuries, which would become the signature wounds borne by those who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gardner had a service dog named LeBron, which he named after LeBron James. On May 30, he sent a meme to his best friend out in Oregon, which invoked President Trump's controversial remark about the unrest that had been set off by George Floyd's killing. Gardner also learned his fifth safety rule, which was to be sure of his target and what's beyond. By 10 p.m., things were heating up outside The Gatsby, with construction debris and equipment in front of his establishment becoming weapons for angry protesters. Business owners should stay away from their properties and let insurance cover any losses.

Gardner had researched that damages suffered in riots were often uncovered by insurance. At 10 28 he called 911 to report a man heaving a construction flagpole against the windows of The Gatsby's bar, smashing them and throwing rocks. He was pulled back from the windows and heard a gun being thrown, but it was a pop. The dispatcher will get a call out and see Gardner as soon as they're available.

He Was Getting That Reality Check”

James Scurlock had become a father for the first time in the months before George Floyd's murder. His relationship with his daughter's mother, Mari Agosta, was combustible and one night in February of 2020 it turned violent. Scurlock, nicknamed Juju, was arrested and wound up in the Douglas County Jail. He wrote to Agosta from jail, confessing their relationship was "toxic" and asking her to forgive him for hurting her. He was committed to their daughter and wanted to make things right.

James Scurlock was released in the third week of May and stayed with his father and siblings. Rajeanna Scurlock, his brother's junior and one of his two full sisters, was delighted to see him and asked for Rajeanna's help with rudimentary things. James had been arrested at age eleven and had obtained his high school degree while behind bars, but it was not the best preparation for being a young father. Rajeanna and Scurlock had been together in Denver, then back in Omaha. Rajeanna and James were adopted and moved to Omaha by a white couple when they were seven months old.

After George Floyd's killing, the family discussed what it meant and encouraged them to protest. Mari Agosta first met Scurlock on Facebook during her senior year in high school. She had struggled to figure out who she really was and what she wanted to do. Scurlock was a mix of the exotic and familiar, a kid with a criminal record out of the tough streets of North Omaha, but a member of a quirky, yet bonded Black family. Scurlock was an undersized kid who had been arrested for the first time at eleven and pleaded guilty for his role in an armed robbery at sixteen.

He had a quick, wide smile, two prominent front teeth, and a big bunch of kinkiness. He wrote letters to Agosta to explain himself, and Mari loved his energy, laughter, mischief, and hint of menace. They had their share of fights, some provoked or driven by her own refusal to be controlled or overly cared for. Agosta was hurt and frightened by what had happened when Scurlock hit her that winter in 2020, which felt as much a mystery as a crime. Agosta and Scurlock met on the back porch of a house belonging to Scurlock's sister, Marissa, who had helped care for Jewels while Scurlock was locked up.

Agosta wanted Scurlock to be able to see the baby regularly and discussed co-parenting. On May 30, Rajeanna and her boyfriend saw a repeat of the dustup between protesters and police, with tear gas and bottle throwing. Rajeanna and James had a powerful sense of fear when the crowd set off for downtown Omaha. James was with his sister Qwenyona and Tammy Johnson, who had spent several nights since his release. They returned to the apartment where Qwenyona and Tammy lived and James ate Jolly Ranchers with P.T., who wanted to see for himself.

Qwenyona said James would not let P.T. go alone, and he was soon out of the door.

Lest We Forget”

The Great Plains Black History Museum at 2212 N. 24th Street in Omaha is dedicated to the history of racism in the city. It was built in the 1920s by James Grant Jewell and hosted performances by Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and others. Whitney Young, a civil rights activist, spoke to crowds inside the building in the 1950s. Eric Ewing is the director of the museum and is a son of North Omaha, having been the first Black person elected to a countywide office and a family friend would become Omaha’s first Black police chief.

Will Brown was lynched in 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the one hundredth anniversary of the massacre has become a subject of national remembrance. Orville D. Menard's account recounts the events of September 25, 1919, when Milton Hoffman and Agnes Loeback were assaulted and robbed at gunpoint, taking Hoffman's watch, money, and billfold, plus a ruby ring from Loeback. The U.S. military was eventually called in to end the chaos and bloodshed. Loeback and Hoffman identified Will Brown as their attacker and he was found and confronted by a crowd of 250 men and women. Police managed to get Brown to a police jail, then to the newly built Douglas County Courthouse.

Police Chief Marshall Eberstein climbed to a second-story windowsill to speak to a quieted audience, but the mob rushed back to the courthouse and the riot escalated. Policemen and sheriff’s deputies took to the fourth floor with flames and angry men below them. Sheriff Clark led Brown and his 121 fellow prisoners to the roof, but bullets fired from nearby buildings sent them back downstairs. Ten officers in Court House Court Room 1 were threatened by the flames, but their call for help was refused. Several men pulled Brown’s body into the air as the crowd cheered, and the swaying body became a target for gunfire.

The most important details in this text are the history of Greater Omaha, Nebraska, which is the second-largest city on America's Great Plains. It was once an Irish mob-controlled gateway to the West, but has since evolved into a city that is nearly 80 percent white and has 12 percent of the population that is African American living in North Omaha, a part of town whose historic economic and racial isolation was deepened

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 11.05.2023
ISBN: 978-3-7554-4210-3

Alle Rechte vorbehalten

Widmung:
Joe Sexton's The Lost Sons of Omaha explores the complex political and racial mistrust and division of today's America, as well as the need for gun control and mental health reform.