Boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter Dies of Prostate Cancer

Hurricane Carter death from prostate cancer at age 76 was announced the New York Times.

RIP, Rubin!

RIP Ruben.

There's an old saying "de mortibus nisi bonum, which means (don't say anything but good things about the dead.  However, after reading these adulatory comments about Mr. Carter, I must say that while I'm sorry to hear of any death, I'm not swayed by Bob Dylan's song or Hollywood's at least temporary glorification of this man.

Yes, a sympathetic judge reversed his conviction(s), but try Googling "was Hurricane Carter innocent" and read some of the not-so-sympathetic articles.  Here's one, for what it's worth:  http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/04/spare_us_the_lies_about_the_late_hurricane_carter_mulshine.html

Maybe he was truly innocent, maybe the support by certain elites made it inevitable that he would be acquitted, and I'll try to keep an open mind (not that it matters), but I truly doubt that he was, in any way, a heroic figure.

well you could argue that he was convicted by an unsympathetic judge swayed by testimony of known criminals in a time and place of heightened racial tensions.

Neither of us will ever know the truth and it shouldn't matter anyway, Clock. But clearly it's easier for us all to dismiss an angelic face such as that of Amanda Knox as being framed than that of an African American boxer from the ghetto in Patterson who had a history as a petty criminal.

btw, Bob Dylan followed in the steps of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie is singing for/about and to the masses, not the elite.