Memphis, Tennessee is 65 percent black.
Boise, Idaho is 1.5 percent black.
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| In 90% white Boise, Idaho, black criminal from 65% black Memphis, TN couldn't blend in... |
These are the only facts you need before you read this story. [Mass stabbing suspect flew under the radar in Memphis. Then, he came to Boise., Idaho Statesmen, 12-17-18]:
Several Boiseans interacted with Timmy Earl Kinner Jr. in the weeks before he was accused of going on a murderous rampage at a 3-year-old’s birthday party.
As he sought meals at local shelters and worked to get school transcripts, his behavior seemed normal, they told the Statesman. And they were unaware of the 30-year-old homeless man’s erratic, violent criminal history in Memphis, Tennessee — or what that might portend.
Kinner is a habitual offender, charged with one or more new crimes almost every year since he was 18. Mostly misdemeanors, his past charges include assaulting a relative with a knife and shooting a man during an alleged robbery. Boise is the first place he’s been accused of a murder, according to a Statesman review of his criminal record.
His crimes, while serious, did not capture the attention of police or prosecutors in his hometown. A look at violent crime in Memphis, and it’s not hard to see why: Memphis hit a record high 228 homicides in 2016, with 18 ruled as justified, The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.
Boise had seven homicides in 2016, according to police.
Kinner’s mental health also came into question long before he arrived in Boise, as did signs of drug use. A judge was asked in 2009 to send him through anger management training and substance abuse treatment, and his mental competency was evaluated in 2012, Tennessee and federal court records show. In one filing, a defense attorney described a complicated, abusive childhood that may still affect Kinner today.
Kinner got several breaks that reduced his previous time behind bars. Those included an early release from prison, a suspended sentence and a victim who declined to press charges.
Was there a failure in the system in the years before Kinner reached Boise?
“I guess the answer to that is yes, because he continued to victimize people,” said Amy Weirich, district attorney general for Shelby County, Tennessee, after reviewing records compiled by the Statesman. “Now, who you lay the failure at the feet of is the $64 million question.
“At some point, you’ve got to start asking the question: When do we blame the defendant? It’s real easy to say: ‘Did the prosecutor mess up? Did law enforcement mess up? Did the school system mess up? Did [Tennessee children’s services] mess up?’ But at some point, he’s got to be held accountable.”
His attitude in Boise was ‘upbeat’
Kinner most recently served a year and a half in federal prison in Kentucky. It’s unclear why, but soon after his release last February he decided to move west. In April, he was arrested for theft in St. George, Utah, and pleaded “no contest” to stealing a man’s wallet. Shortly after that, he was in Boise.
Why Boise? That’s unclear. But his family told Memphis media that he had first gone to California to look for a job, and not finding one decided to look in Idaho.“That’s an awfully big jump for a kid from [Memphis neighborhood] Orange Mound,” Weirich said. “You’ve been in prison. How do you all of the sudden get the money to go to California?”
Those who met Kinner in Boise used the same words to describe him: polite and friendly. He came for meals, bus passes and other resources at the Corpus Christi House day shelter on Americana Boulevard once or twice a week in late May and June, and sought overnight shelter for a week or two at Interfaith Sanctuary, shelter officials said.
In late May, he asked a College of Western Idaho tutor working at Corpus Christi House for help in obtaining his GED records from the Kentucky prison where he was incarcerated in 2017. Karen Parkinson, who is no longer with CWI, said she got those records for him. She said that he told her he had recently acquired a bicycle, and he appeared “upbeat.”
“He seemed to be a reasonable guy,” said Rick Bollman, who manages Corpus Christi House. “He didn’t ever seem to fly off the handle or get upset or angry ... He was always a ‘yes sir, no sir’ kind of guy.”
Marc Schlegel-Preheim, pastor at Hyde Park Mennonite Fellowship, had a few very brief interactions with Kinner as he was coming or going from Corpus Christi House.
Schlegel-Preheim said Kinner seemed almost “overly nice” and respectful, which he decided was much preferable to the alternative. “Hey, if that’s how you’re being in our shelter, we’ll take it.”
Boise police have declined to say whether Kinner tested positive for drugs on the day of the stabbing. But some who met him believe drugs were a factor that day because they had otherwise found him so mild-mannered. Those who work with the homeless said there was a concern over the summer about a new, unidentified drug, or people possibly having bad reactions to fentanyl, bath salts or other drugs.
“I would say this summer was one of the most violent summers, maybe ever,” said Dan Ault, shelter director for Interfaith Sanctuary, noting two people were stabbed outside the shelter doors. “Cooper Court has more drug use than we’d all like to admit. This summer it’s created a lot of violent behavior in this population.”
Interfaith now uses a wand to check people for weapons at the door.
“It sucks. It has changed our shelter,” he said. “It’s not this inviting shelter that we had.”
Troubled early life in Memphis
Memphis, a city of about 652,000, is known for its barbecue, music and Elvis’ Graceland mansion. It also ranks as the third most violent of the largest 50 cities in the country, behind only Baltimore and Detroit, DailyMemphian.com reported in October.
Here’s what that looks like: Nine people were shot in one weekend this past June, and four of those people died, USA Today reported. The victim of a Sept. 27 murder was the 64-year-old president/CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce. Philip H. Trenary was shot to death during a robbery downtown.
Kinner’s criminal record in Memphis dates back to 2000, when he was about 12 years old. He was charged with aggravated burglary, according to Shelby County juvenile court records. Two years later, he was charged with aggravated assault for slashing a cousin with a knife. In a description of that incident filed in federal court in 2009, public defenders wrote that Kinner’s cousin was trying to discipline him and choked him before the slashing.
That same public defenders’ filing states Kinner and his two siblings were largely raised by his paternal aunt, Betty Kinner, along with his father, Timmy Kinner Sr., and grandmother, Retha Kinner. He was moved there at nearly age 3 after state investigators found him and his siblings living in a storage shed without a bathroom or utilities, abandoned for days by his drug-addicted mother, Deborah Hull, the filing states.
Kinner’s misconduct at home and school, including truancy and breaking into a house, landed him in state custody and foster care at times. He eventually dropped out of high school. And in 2005, he left his aunt’s home for good, court records show.
We are told over and over again this racial group represents America's greatest untapped resource, unfortunately held back by structural inequality, implicit bias, and a white power structure; the reality is this racial group represents America's greatest liability, dragging down western civilization to the black mean wherever they are found.
Even in Boise, Idaho, where they represent 1.5 percent of the population.
