Dear Tracy,
I am so sorry that you had to bury your son. It is so wrong for a child to preceed his parents in death.
I understand why you are angry, it is one of the stages of grief.
However, there is no “they” when it comes to your son’s death. One man shot him, in circumstances neither you nor I fully understand.
I understand you want your son to be remembered in a certain way. We all want to be remembered in the best possible light. But if you allow and participate in the scripting of a narrative, based on supposition alone, then you have to expect that there will be those who question and investigate your presentaion of “facts.”
If you want to protect your son’s reputation, demand the Black Panthers resind the bouty they placed on a fellow citizen, demand that those selling tee-shirts with racial slurs in alleged support of your son, cease and desist. Do not allow your son to co-opted into a political game of violence and hate.
If you stand to protect your son’s reputation in this manner, you will have my full, vocal support.