Nolan Wells Did Not Undergo An ‘Independent Autopsy,’ Despite What Ben Crump And The Race-Baiting Media Say

You can tell how giddy the national media are about the possibility of more race riots by their repeated use of the fake term “independent autopsy” to describe the latest development in the Nolan Wells case. There was no independent autopsy, but they’re using that phrase to warm up their trusty racial agitation machine. Shakedown artist and alleged attorney Benjamin Crump is back in the national spotlight of late, having parachuted into Jackson County, Mississippi, where 18-year-old Nolan Wells was found dead on July 6, floating face down near an island off the Gulf coast. Wells’ family commissioned a private autopsy, paid for by former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, the results of which — cause of death left “undetermined” — were announced by Crump at a press conference on Wednesday. This is what he does. Crump, in all his illiteracy, seizes on some tragedy involving a dead black person, stirring up suspicions and hurling accusations before ultimately trying to squeeze out a multimillion-dollar settlement from the government, of which he takes something like a third. A big part of that strategy is working with the media, always compliant, to push out racist narratives, along with allegations and insinuations of wrongdoing by authorities, well before official investigations are complete. In the case of Wells, there is neither a publicly available toxicology report nor an autopsy that has concluded his cause of death. The local sheriff’s department has only said Wells appeared to have drowned and that they had not found reason to suspect foul play, though an investigation was still underway. Friends who last saw Wells said they were boating with a large group that included Wells on Independence Day. They said they stopped at an island, and when the friends Wells had arrived with were ready to leave, he remained behind with others. There are reports that Wells’ phone and keys made it back to the home of one of his friends who drove the boat, though it’s unclear how. A publicly available photograph from July 4 appears to show Wells posing and smiling with three other boys, who are white. Three of them, including Wells, can be seen holding canned drinks. Few helpful details outside of that have yet to be confirmed by authorities or public accounts by witnesses. But why should that stop Crump? He’s got a racial sore to rub! Crump has gone on TV to claim he heard about a possible argument between Wells and at least one other person on the day he went missing. He also said he spoke with someone who said Wells told her that he would be returning to the shore with the friends who brought him to the island, information that has not yet been corroborated by authorities. Then Crump hosted a press conference to publicize the details of an “independent autopsy,” a term that was then repeated in media reports, and which suggests there’s something inherently partial or biased about an official state examiner’s own autopsy. To the extent that there’s such a thing as an “independent autopsy,” it’s the one conducted by the state. Anything else is a privately funded project, which means the party who does commission it is the one with the vested interest. In this case, it’s Crump, and every time he does this, he has every motivation to find a pathologist who will raise some form of doubt or suspicion over what happened to the victim. That is Crump’s and the Wells’ family’s right, but to call it an “independent autopsy” is false and misleading. It’s possible Wells was attacked by the people he was boating with or perhaps was the victim of a cruel prank that ended in his death. Or, maybe Wells did stay behind, got drunk, and accidentally drowned. Maybe he had left his keys and phone in his friend’s boat, and nobody realized until his friends got back home. There is an infinite number of possibilities as to what happened that day. To immediately raise suspicions of race-motivated crimes and cover-ups is to encourage blacks and whites to stop socializing altogether, lest someone end up dead for it. That’s what Crump is doing, as he eyes his potential cut of another settlement. Eddie Scarry is the D.C. columnist at The Federalist and author of "Traitors: The Democrat Party’s Collapse into Anti-American Filth." Benjamin CrumpBlack Lives MatterBLMcorporate mediaGeorge Floydlegacy mediaNolan Wellsrace-baitingracism