I never thought of it that way » « So…then fecal transplants could be a kind of mind control?

Reagan’s ‘morning in America’ has acquired a different resonance

We have another of those really long-running threads, focused on the problem of race in America, and particularly the issues highlighted by events in Ferguson, Missouri. There’s no shortage of material, and it keeps going and going, hampered only by the limitation of the blog medium: in particular, that I automatically shut down all discussion threads after 3 months, to block spam. That’s not enough time!

So here’s another semi-open thread — talk about America’s race problem. Forever, or until it’s fixed.

I never thought of it that way » « So…then fecal transplants could be a kind of mind control?

Comments

  1. rq says

    This is what should be kept in mind:
    We was peaceful all week but people was provoked today and control was lost….its not all bad dont believe the news.

    This is #Baltimore; this is what the news won’t show you! #FreddieGray

    Immensely proud of #Baltimore for showing enormous restraint despite generations of neglect, deprivation & state violence. #FreddieGray

    Tonight was not a protest, it was an occupation. Hundreds of police for a few people, most lived in neighborhood.

    At 1:45am cop begins to mace. Can slightly see mace stream in 2nd pic. I’m so close I feel mist in air. #FreddieGray

    my final pic of night as cops advance and copter threatening arrest to anyone still on the street #FreddieGray

  2. rq says

    Robbery suspect fatally shot by police in East Village

    Police shot and killed a man Saturday after he turned violent as they tried to arrest him at an East Village halfway house, authorities said.

    Felix David, 22, was wanted for beating and robbing a female acquaintance in a classroom building at City College in Harlem on Thursday evening, police said.

    A pair of detectives from the 26th Precinct in Harlem tried to arrest David at around 1:45 p.m. Saturday at a facility for people released from psychiatric institutions near East 6th Street and Avenue A.

    When they approached David on the building’s sixth floor, he fled out a window and down a fire escape.

    But to get away, he had to re-enter the building’s first floor lobby — where the two officers were waiting for him.

    David fought the officers for five minutes, and some of the fight was caught on video, cops said.

    During the struggle, David — who police sources said had a record of arrests for violent offenses — grabbed one of the detectives’ radios, and used it to strike both officers in the head.

    David hit the officers so hard, the radio broke, cops said.

    Then, one of the officers fired one shot at David, striking him in the torso, police said.

    David was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital in critical condition.

    He was in a half-way house for the mentally ill. I’m thinking the police had a wrong approach somewhere.

    I’m in Baltimore. I’m not sure what they’re showing on the news but this is serious business. Thousands protesting.

    Baltimore Cops Admit Failing to Provide Freddie Gray With Medical Treatment

    In an admission that came after a week of protests demanding information about what happened during the arrest of Freddie Gray by police officers in Baltimore, Md., the police chief on Friday said mistakes were made, including a failure to provide Gray with timely medical treatment, CNN reports.

    Police Commissioner Anthony Batts made the observation Friday amid rising protests, saying Gray was not belted into his seat in the rear of a police van as he was driven to a police station. Further, Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said Gray should have received medical treatment at the scene of his arrest before being placed inside of the vehicle, CNN reports.

    The police van carrying Gray made three stops on the way to the police station, the report says, and investigators are trying to learn more about Gray’s condition at each stop.

    At the first stop, Gray was placed in leg irons. The driver stopped a second time “to deal with Mr. Gray, and the facts of that interaction are under investigation,” Davis said, according to CNN. The van reportedly stopped once more to pick up a second prisoner.

    Medical treatment was requested when the van arrived at the Western District station, the report says.

    Still unclear is how Gray’s spine was broken and how much time elapsed during his transport to the station and his receiving medical treatment. The identity of the second prisoner has not been revealed, and it is unclear what that person may have witnessed.

    a poem by @ClintSmithIII – same author who had the one about the cicada and the brown boy, and the short video last night. This one’s called Playground Elegy:

    The first time I slid down a slide my mother
    told me to hold my hands in towards the sky

    something about gravity, weight distribution,
    & feeling the air ripple through your fingers.

    I remember reaching the bottom, smile consuming
    half of my face, hands still in the air because

    I didn’t want it to stop. Ever since, this defiance
    of gravity has always been synonymous with feeling alive.

    When I read of the new child, his body strewn across
    the street, a casket of bones and concrete I wonder how

    many times he slid down the slide. How many times
    he defied gravity to answer a question in class. Did he

    raise his hands for all of them? Does my mother regret
    this? That she raised a black boy growing up to think

    that raised hands made me feel more alive. That raised hands
    meant I was alive. That raised hands meant I would live.

    His words are so fucking pointed. There’s a video of him reading it online, plus the hashtag #BlackPoetsSpeakOut has more from others, too.

    HEre’s two more links to his ‘How to raise a black boy in America’ video:
    How to raise a Black son in America

    “I wrote this after Tamir Rice was killed, and after reflecting on how hard it must have been for my parents, for black parents everywhere, to have to teach their children to navigate a world that is so often taught to fear them. I can never thank them enough for doing everything in their power to protect me and my siblings, to keep us safe in an unsafe world. I hope we’re on our way to something better. Thank you TED for posting. #BlackLivesMatter” – Clint Smith

    And the TED link: How to raise a black son in America.

    As kids, we all get advice from parents and teachers that seems strange, even confusing. This was crystallized one night for a young Clint Smith, who was playing with water guns in a dark parking lot with his white friends. In a heartfelt piece, the poet paints the scene of his father’s furious and fearful response.

  3. rq says

    Do not allow the media to muddle #EricSheppard’s image! He’s the one who walked on the USAmerican flag the other day.

    More photos of yesterday’s counter protest. And again, shoutout to movement folks in STL doing that #WhiteFolkWork

    This photo is so crazy to me. And reminder, STL city police removed the anti-racist white folk. Astonishing.

    Out so media only showing the bad well here are so beautiful captures from today :::: #Baltimore #DVNLLN i was there.

    Last night I drove right through some of the protest sites in Baltimore. Were overwhelmingly peaceful. #FreddieGray

    Look. At. This. Photo. This (via @cmcampbell6) lays bare how we fail to invest in cities, and invest instead in state violence. #FreddieGrey

  4. rq says

    CNN MIA, local TV tries to step up as Freddie Gray protests turn ugly

    After a week of cable and network news providing most of the best TV coverage of protests in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, the national outlets were mainly missing in action tonight when things got ugly.

    For all the praise I heaped on CNN earlier in the week for its journalistically sound coverage of the protests here, the channel has my utter contempt for its commitment to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner tonight. It focused its cameras on this self-aggrandizing exercise in black-tie narcissism while just 55 miles down the road civil unrest led to smashed car and store windows, convenience store looting and vandalism, and more than three hours of face-to-face confrontations between police and protesters that led to gridlock on the streets of downtown Baltimore.

    Fans were kept from leaving Camden Yards during the Orioles game because police did not yet have adequate control of the streets around the park. That sounds like news to me, how about you?

    Or, is it only news if it’s Nationals Park? I wonder if Washington journalists and editors know how disconnected they are from the real America?

    I guess the so-called 24/7 “news” channels don’t go all out to do real news on weekend nights any more. Did I miss that memo?

    I expected nothing of MSNBC with its commitment to exploitative prison reality programming on the weekends. But for CNN to set up shop here the way it did all week and then provide next to nothing when the real trouble starts is unforgivable.

    Oh, the people on CNN’s empty-headed, Hollywood-style, studio show dedicated to the talking about the White House Correspondents’ Dinner made note of what wasn’t being covered in Baltimore, but they then excused it. In the best style of Hollywood spin, they reminded us of the scholarships the dinner provides. As if that justified their self-absorption and the channel’s lack of attention to a serious moment of civil unrest right down the street.

    The good news is that local TV generally made an effort to fill the void. There was live streaming during the afternoon, with program managers at WBAL (Channel 11) and WJZ (Channel 13) getting their helicopters and reporters on air by 6 p.m. when things started getting serious in the downtown streets. And they kept them on the street and hovering over the confrontations and violence into and through the 11 p.m. news — blowing out all network programming and commercials through prime time as far as I could tell.

    I understand that not all stations are equal when it comes to resources, but helicopters were essential on this story with disturbances and confrontations breaking out simultaneously in different part of the city and the downtown streets gridlocked. Don’t expect me to judge a station by different standards just because its parent company doesn’t think Baltimore warrants copter coverage. You don’t get a pass for your parent company being cheap or greedy.

    WBFF (Channel 45) and WMAR (Channel 2) got on air last, and WMAR was the first to leave live on-air coverage to show a “Toy Story” movie during the 9 o’clock hour. I am not going to rag on WMAR, except to say if you are watching WMAR when as big a story like this breaks, good luck.

    And don’t tell me about digital – everyone was live streaming and working social media with their coverage. If you can’t give over your TV airwaves to cover this kind of civil unrest, what will you break out of movies and infomercials for?

    WBFF won back some major ground and respect in my book with its late-night, essentially cinema-verite coverage of police battling rock, brick and bottle-throwing gangs to regain control of the Western District after even WJZ and WBAL returned to normal entertainment programming.

    Nothing I saw anywhere all night matched the intensity of the up-close-and-personal, on-the-street camera work as Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts gave the command for waves of police in riot gear to advance on the rock throwers and sweep the streets of the Western District block by block. The choreography of deployment was stunning with phalanxes of officers advancing shield to shield in the night surrounded by similar teams advancing up the side streets to outflank the rock throwers.

    The police were far more aggressive than I had seen them in the five hours before. I saw one officer injured and five persons arrested in the space of 10 minutes just before midnight.

    As committed as WBAL was to covering this important story, I have to voice a complaint about its helicopter pilot, Roy Taylor, referring to the vans that police used to transport those who were arrested as “paddy wagons.”

    It’s an ethnically offensive term originating in 19th Century prejudice against the Irish. It is meant to define and denigrate the Irish as drunks and troublemakers who are disruptive to a civil society. And if Taylor doesn’t know it, one of his bosses at WBAL should have – and should have told him to stop using it Saturday night. It’s time for all of us to get past using language that stereotypes and demeans any ethnic group.

    And even as I complain about WJZ for not going live to the mayor’s press conference, I have to say one of the most impressive performances of the night was that of Denise Koch anchoring solo from 6 p.m. on. That’s a long time to do live TV on a story breaking on multiple fronts, but Koch was more than up to it.

    There was a lot of good camera work done on the streets of Baltimore on Saturday night. Here’s to the folks behind the cameras who brought us the images of Baltimore on the brink Saturday night.

    And: After peaceful start, violence mars Freddie Gray protest in Baltimore

    A day of mostly peaceful rallies to protest the death of Freddie Gray turned confrontational as dark fell over Baltimore on Saturday with demonstrators smashing the windows on police cars, blocking traffic near the Inner Harbor and shouting, “Killers!” at officers dressed in riot gear.

    More than 100 officers — wearing helmets, gloves and vests and carrying batons — formed a wall along several blocks of Pratt Street, and began to make arrests. State police in full tactical gear were deployed to the city to respond to a crowd that was becoming unruly.

    Protesters shouted: “Killers!” and “You can’t get away with this!” and “Hands up don’t shoot!” Some threw rocks, water bottles, even hot dog buns and condiments at police mounted on horses, smashed windows at local businesses and looted at least one convenience store.

    The crowd — estimated at 1,200 — had remained mostly peaceful from about noon until about 6:30 p.m., near the time the Orioles game was set to begin.

    Near the intersection of Howard and Pratt streets, police chanted at the crowds, “Move back. Move back.”

    The protest was the largest of daily gatherings in the week since Gray died. The 25-year-old had sustained spinal cord injuries while in police custody following his arrest April 12 near Gilmor Homes in West Baltimore.

    At the Gallery at Harborplace around 7 p.m., a window at the Michael Kors store was smashed and shoppers were evacuated. Those running from the mall held coats and scarves over their faces and reported hearing a loud bang as the window was smashed with a trash can.

    Leila Rghioui, 20, of Randallstown had stopped by the mall after protesting earlier in the day with her friends.

    “All I remember is the security guards started barricading doors and everyone started losing their minds coughing,” said Rghioui, who said she threw up from pepper spray in the air.

    Outside Oriole Park at Camden Yards, demonstrators clashed with police.

    A few protesters jumped on police cars and smashed their windows with trash cans and traffic cones as the group moved north on Howard. They grabbed police caps from the cars and posed atop them to cheering and howls of laughter. The group quickly dispersed, sprinting away as a line of police officers came running down the street.

    The crowds began to assemble about noon at the site of Gray’s arrest. Some participants came from as far as Ferguson, Mo. Most of the marchers, estimated by the Fire Department to number 1,200, were men, women and children from Baltimore.

    From Gilmor, they marched to the Western District Police Station, where about 50 officers formed lines around the perimeter of the building.

    Twelve-year-old Charles Sheppard leaned against the barricade, holding a sign with a quote attributed to James Baldwin: “Ignorance allied with power is the most ferocious enemy of justice.”

    His mother, Tina Commodore, yelled toward the line of officers: “He’s a murder! He’s a murder!”

    “You know how a volcano erupts?” Charles asked. “That’s how I feel inside about this.”

    Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, who a day earlier defied calls to step down, walked briefly into a crowd of a hundred or so outside the station. He told reporters he had been working to change the culture of the Police Department.

    Some demonstrators shouted: “There’s blood on your hands!” and “sellout!”

    Before he walked back behind the police line, Batts paused to give 52-year-old Resa Burton a hug.

    Burton, a lifelong West Baltimore resident, said she had a message for Batts: “We need justice.”

    “They killed a man,” Burton said. “It could’ve been me! It could’ve been me! It could been my brother, my nephew! It could’ve been you!”

    Moer at the link.
    And there’s a distinct… dissonance between what the media is saying and what people on the ground have been tweeting. Maybe I’m getting the wrong tweets…?

    What we know about the Freddie Gray case – a text timeline:

    What we know:

    * Gray was apprehended April 12 after a foot chase, transported in a van that stopped at least once, and was transported to Shock Trauma from the Western District station. [Full timeline]

    * A family attorney says Gray’s spine was “80 percent severed.”

    * Gray died April 19, a week after his arrest.

    * Gray repeatedly asked for medical care while in transit. Police said he was carrying a knife and was “arrested without force or incident.”

    * Gray’s injury suggests there was “forceful trauma,” according to a medical expert.

    * Gray was known to police, and was recognized in his neighborhood as a well-liked jokester.

    * Police have identified the officers involved.

    * The U.S. Department of Justice is opening an investigation into Gray’s death.

    * Five of six of the officers involved in the arrest have provided statements to Baltimore police.

    * Gray’s funeral and burial is set for Monday morning.

    * In an April 24 news conference, Baltimore Police acknowledged that officers made mistakes during Gray’s arrest.

    * Police say the investigation into Gray’s death will continue even after their findings are delivered to state prosecutors by May 1.

    What we don’t know:

    * Were police justified in chasing and arresting Gray?

    * Was force used by police in the arrest?

    * What happened on the ride in the van?

    * How was Gray’s spine injured?

    * How will the investigations unfold?

    I think we all have some pretty educated guesses about those last few questions.

    If you see video of protest in Baltimore that doesn’t end with bystanders putting themselves btwn cops and protestors you missed the story.

    But the Protesters are Thugs…oh ok… As response to tweet about police tackling a photographer.

    A DoC bus rolled up, people threw more rocks, then cops poured out, came around from all sides. People scattered.
    Ugly, indeed.

  5. rq says

    Where is the headline about officers beating up a photographer and bystanders stepping in? Forthcoming? Don’t hold your breath??

    There’s a DEEP irony in the press laughing with the President in the White House while Baltimore burns from police brutality.

    Over 1200 police officers in #Baltimore streets tonight, but NOT ONE ambulance called for #FreddieGray. It was hard to hear him crying out.

    Different city: Cop who shot teen 16 times faulted in 2007 traffic stop

    It’s been seven years since Ed Nance was roughed up by a Chicago police officer who handcuffed him so violently during a 2007 traffic stop he seriously injured both shoulders, costing him tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills and lost wages.

    Nance, a cable company employee with no convictions, says he will never forget the nonchalant look on the officer’s face when, two years later, a federal jury ruled he and his partner had used excessive force and awarded Nance $350,000 in damages.

    “They looked like, OK, so what, go (back) to work,” Nance told the Tribune in an interview. “They was back on the street like nothing ever happened.”

    When Nance was recently told that Officer Jason Van Dyke, who aggressively handcuffed him that night, is being investigated by the FBI for shooting a teen 16 times, he broke into tears.
    Laquan McDonald’s wounds
    Laquan McDonald’s wounds

    “It just makes me so sad because it shouldn’t have happened,” Nance said. “He shouldn’t have been on the street in the first place after my incident.”

    The Tribune has learned that it was Van Dyke who was on patrol in the Chicago Lawn District on Oct. 20 when he was called to the 4100 block of South Pulaski Road, where 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was acting erratically and refusing police commands to drop a 4-inch folding knife.

    Within moments of arriving, Van Dyke jumped out of his squad car with his gun drawn and opened fire on McDonald, killing him, authorities have said. Lawyers for the McDonald family said the officer emptied his semi-automatic. None of the five other officers there fired a shot, according to authorities.
    lRelated
    Why did a Chicago cop shoot Laquan McDonald?

    Editorials
    Why did a Chicago cop shoot Laquan McDonald?

    See all related
    8

    Earlier this month the U.S. attorney’s office announced a criminal probe into the shooting, which was captured on a dashboard camera from another police vehicle. The news of the investigation broke as the Chicago City Council voted unanimously to approve a $5 million settlement with McDonald’s family even before a lawsuit was filed.

    The investigation comes amid the public outcry nationwide in recent months over police use of lethal force against minorities, including in Chicago where last week a white Chicago police detective was acquitted on a legal technicality for a fatal off-duty shooting of a 22-year-old black woman in 2012. Van Dyke is white, while McDonald was African-American. Nance also is black.

    Van Dyke has been stripped of his police powers and assigned to paid desk duty. Police have maintained the officer, whose name has not been released by the city, fired in fear of his life because the teen lunged at him and his partner with the knife.

    The officer did not return calls seeking comment, and no one answered the door at his Chicago home Friday. […]

    According to police and court records, Van Dyke, 37, joined the department in 2001 and spent more than four years with a specialized unit since disbanded by police Superintendent Garry McCarthy — that aggressively went into neighborhoods experiencing spikes in violent crimes.

    After serving as a patrol officer in the Englewood police district, one of the most violent neighborhoods in the city, he transferred in 2013 to the Chicago Lawn District, where the McDonald shooting occurred, records show.

    According to Independent Police Review Authority records, Van Dyke has received 17 citizen complaints since 2006. At least three complaints in the last four years were for excessive force-related allegations, and another accused him of making racial or ethnically biased remarks, according to the records.

    In one incident from April 2008, Van Dyke and his partner came upon what they thought was a robbery in progress of a convenience store at 71st Street and Ashland Avenue, according to the IPRA reports. They chased a male black suspect into an alley who allegedly made suspicious movements toward his waistband, prompting Van Dyke’s partner to take him down to the ground.

    The man claimed in his complaint that the partner kicked him in the face and that Van Dyke drew his gun and pointed it at him without justification. The man was not charged with a crime and was treated at Holy Cross Hospital for injuries and swelling to his left eye. Van Dyke said in an interview with investigators he could not recall if he’d removed his gun from its holster that night. His partner denied kicking the suspect.

    A year later, IPRA exonerated Van Dyke of the allegations, concluding his actions were justified and fell within department policy. The allegations against his partner, however, were not sustained because they couldn’t be proven or refuted.

    More recently, in December 2013, Van Dyke was part of a team of 11 officers executing a search warrant at a home in the Englewood District, records show. An African-American woman who was at the scene later filed a report claiming the officers were physically and verbally abusive and used the “n” word toward those in the home.

    In finding the complaint unfounded, an IPRA investigator noted the officers had claimed in reports that the complainant had been loud and disruptive at the scene and had to be arrested. “The officers at the scene acted with apparent restraint,” the report said.

    ‘It could have been me’

    In July 2007, Ed Nance was driving on East 87th Street with his cousin one night when Van Dyke and his then-partner pulled him over, purportedly because the front license plate was missing on his mother’s Chevrolet — a claim disputed by Nance.

    Nance alleged in his lawsuit as well as in his complaint to internal affairs that the partner ordered him out of the car and then slammed him over the hood of the squad car, causing injuries to Nance’s neck and face. Van Dyke then forcibly handcuffed him, pulling his arms back violently and causing injuries to the tendons in his shoulders as well as one rotator cuff, according to the suit.

    In a deposition taken before the case went to trial, Nance said when he asked the officers why they were roughing him up, they swore at him repeatedly and threatened him with arrest. Van Dyke then threw Nance into the back of the squad car while they questioned his cousin, who was arrested for possessing a small amount of marijuana.

    Asked if he was concerned for his safety, Nance was quoted in a transcript as testifying, “Basically yes, because every story I hear about the police getting pulled over in my neighborhood, they beating them up, they pulling them out of the car. Some people die.”

    After about 20 minutes, Van Dyke returned to the squad car and yanked Nance out painfully by the arms, according to the suit. He was issued a ticket for the missing license plate and told his mother’s car would be towed because of his cousin’s pot possession charge. Records show the misdemeanor was dismissed at the first court date.

    In his sworn deposition, Van Dyke testified he was concerned Nance could be dangerous because he hadn’t pulled over immediately when his partner activated the emergency lights.

    “Just didn’t feel right,” Van Dyke said, according to a transcript.

    Van Dyke testified that once Nance was out of the car, he was loud and belligerent, causing Van Dyke to further fear for his safety because he might be violent or armed with a weapon.

    When Nance’s attorney, Michael McCready, asked specifically why he was concerned about Nance, Van Dyke said, “His actions … his voice escalating, for one.”

    Van Dyke denied using excessive force in handcuffing Nance and said he couldn’t recall seeing his partner slam him over the hood of the car.

    In the months after the incident, Nance went through two shoulder surgeries and was taking medication for pain and anxiety that was making it difficult to sleep, according to his testimony. In October 2009, a federal jury found the officers had used excessive force, awarding Nance $350,000 in damages. The judge later ordered the city to also pay $180,000 in legal fees of Nance’s attorneys, records show.

    By March 2011 IPRA cleared both Van Dyke and his partner of all the allegations due to a lack of evidence, records show.

    “Although (Nance) sustained injuries to his shoulders, there is no way to determine the exact cause of his injuries,” IPRA concluded. “There were no independent witnesses present during the incident.”

  6. rq says

    Some slaves were diagnosed with a “mental illness” in which the slave possessed an “irrational desire for freedom.”

    Unarmed #FelixDavid was killed by the NYPD yesterday, 4/25. They say he “fought the officers” and reached for an officer’s radio.
    Reports: Man Shot and Killed by NYPD at East Village Halfway House

    NYPD officers shot and killed a man as they tried to arrest him Saturday afternoon at a halfway house in the East Village, the New York Post reports. Police said the man was wanted on a robbery charge.

    According to the Post, detectives from the 26th Precinct, in Harlem, tried to arrest Felix David, 24, at a facility for pyschiatric patients on East 6th Street between Avenues A and B.

    Witnesses reported hearing a single gunshot come from inside 538 East 6th Street. “I think there was a scuffle and then the single shot. I heard that. Other people who happened to be right there said they heard a scuffle,” one told EV Grieve.

    David grabbed one of the detectives radios and hit another detective over the head, the New York Daily News reports. One of the detectives shot David in the chest, and he was taken to Beth Israel Hospital in critical condition, where he died.

    The detectives were taken to Bellevue Hospital. Their injuries, the Post reports, are not considered serious.

    The breathless wall-to-wall coverage by our local news of a couple smashed windows has already exceeded coverage of murder of #FreddieGray.

    I just watched the video of #ErvinEdwards tased to death by 7 officers in a jail cell in Louisiana. I didn’t think I could still be shocked.
    Ervin Edwards: Arrested for sagging pants, Ervin Edwards tasered to death in custody; police lie in report

    On November 26, 2013, 38-year-old Ervin Edwards, partially deaf and mentally ill, was arrested by police for sagging his pants and taken to the West Baton Rouge Parish jail in Louisiana. He only lived for a few more minutes inside of the cell.

    For 18 months, police have lied over and over again about what happened the night Ervin Edwards died in their custody. Now that a video of their despicable actions has been released, it’s clear they murdered this man and left him to die all alone in his jail cell. The Advocate has provided an annotated video. See the video and my breakdown of their lies below the fold.

    Read that breakdown. Discrepancy after discrepancy. Are we surprised?

    Action in STL: 3-5pm.
    March for Women Lost to Police Violence.

    5:30pm.
    Protest for #ThaddeusMcCarroll.

    Keiner Plaza. STL. 4/26.

  7. rq says

    Godsdammit, moderation.
    But I go on.
    It’s funny how much folks watched The Wire and felt all the emotions but are confused the people who live it feel anything at all.

    #TheWire showed grit-but showed little emotion in black characters. Which is why ppl are surprised at ACTUAL black folk in BMore this AM.
    So try loving #Baltimore as much as you loved #TheWire. Love #FreddieGray like you loved Dukie.
    To be clear, I know dope ppl doing impt work in #Baltimore before and during these protests. we gotta care beyond Season 5.

    Someone just told me the story of Christopher Dorner. Who?
    Christopher Dorner (wiki): Christopher Dorner shootings and manhunt

    On February 3, 2013, a series of shootings began in Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties in California, United States, in which the victims were law enforcement officers, their families, or civilians misidentified as the suspect. Christopher Dorner, 33, an involuntarily terminated Los Angeles police officer, was named as a suspect wanted in connection with the series of shootings that killed four people and wounded three others. The rampage ended on February 12, 2013, when Dorner committed suicide during a stand-off with police at a cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains.

    A manifesto posted[2][3][4] on Facebook,[5] which police say was written by Dorner,[6] declared “unconventional and asymmetric warfare” upon the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), their families, and their associates, unless the LAPD admitted publicly he was fired in retaliation for reporting excessive force.

    In two separate incidents during the manhunt, police shot at three civilians unrelated to Dorner, mistaking their pickup trucks for the vehicle being driven by Dorner. One of the civilians was hit by the police gunfire, another was wounded by shattered glass, and a third individual was injured when police rammed his vehicle and opened fire.[7][8] […]

    Allegations against training officer

    Two weeks after the arrest of Gettler, Evans gave Dorner a performance review that stated he needed to improve in three areas.[22] The next day Dorner filed a report alleging that Evans had used excessive force in her treatment of Gettler,[22] accusing Evans of twice kicking Gettler in the face while he was handcuffed and lying on the ground.[23][24][25]

    The LAPD investigated the complaint, examining the allegation against Evans and the truthfulness of Dorner’s report, through an internal review board of three members—two LAPD captains and a criminal defense attorney. During the seven-month investigation of Dorner’s complaint, Teresa Evans was assigned to desk duty and wasn’t allowed to earn money outside of her LAPD job. Dorner’s attorney at the board hearing was former LAPD captain Randal Quan.[23]

    The review board heard testimony from a number of witnesses. Three hotel employees who witnessed “most” of the incident claimed that they did not see the training officer kick the man. Gettler was brought to the police station and given medical treatment for injuries to his face, but he did not mention being kicked at that time.[13] Later that day when he was returned to his father, Gettler told his father that he had been kicked by an officer, and his father testified to that at Dorner’s disciplinary hearing.[13][26] In a videotaped interview with Dorner’s attorney, shown at the hearing, Gettler stated that he was kicked in the face by a female police officer on the day in the place in question; however, when Gettler testified at the hearing, his responses to questioning were described as “generally . . . incoherent and nonresponsive.”[27][28]

    The investigation concluded that there was no kicking and investigators later decided that Dorner had lied.[29]
    Termination and failed appeal

    Dorner was fired by the LAPD in 2008 for making false statements in his report and in his testimony against training officer Evans.[26] Dorner’s attorney at the board hearing, Randal Quan, said that Dorner was treated unfairly and was being made a scapegoat.[23][30][31]

    Dorner appealed his termination by the LAPD Board of Rights by filing a writ of mandamus with the Los Angeles County Superior Court.[27] Judge David Yaffe wrote that he was “uncertain whether the training officer kicked the suspect or not” but nevertheless upheld the department’s decision to fire Dorner, according to the Los Angeles Times.[32] Yaffe ruled that he would presume that the LAPD’s accusations that Dorner’s report was false would stand even though he did not know if Dorner’s report of Officer Evans kicking the suspect was false.[33] This enraged Dorner as he screamed in disbelief at the end of the hearing “I told the truth! How could this (ruling) happen?” [34] This anger was repeated in The Dorner Manifesto.

    Dorner appealed to the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District, which affirmed on October 3, 2011, the lower court’s ruling. Under California law, administrative findings (in this case by the LAPD) are entitled to a presumption of correctness and the petitioner (in this case Dorner) bears the burden of proving that they were incorrect. The appeals court concluded that the LAPD Board of Rights had substantial evidence for its finding that Dorner was not credible in his allegations against Sergeant Evans.[27] […]

    Final mountain cabin standoff

    On February 12, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded to a report of a carjacking of a white Dodge truck at 12:22 pm (PST) and began looking for the vehicle on the ground and from the air. The car driver was not harmed. Fish and Game officers were first to spot the car and recognized Dorner as the driver. Officers from numerous agenices chased Dorner to a cabin near Big Bear Lake, California.

    Dorner opened fire on two officers from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, hitting both. The officers were airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where Detective Jeremiah MacKay was pronounced dead.[75]

    The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department confirmed to the media that Dorner was barricaded in a cabin, near the command center set up for the man hunt, in a mountainous rural area northeast of Angelus Oaks, California and the building was surrounded by law enforcement.[76] The Los Angeles Times reported that there might be hostages in the cabin with Dorner.[77] A three-mile perimeter was set up around the cabin and residents were told to remain inside with their doors locked.[78]

    Police initially attempted to get Dorner out of the cabin by using tear gas and demanding over loudspeakers that he surrender. When Dorner did not respond, police used a demolition vehicle to knock down most walls of the building. They then shot pyrotechnic tear gas canisters into the cabin, starting the cabin on fire. Such devices are nicknamed “burners”, as the heat generated by detonation often causes a fire. Shortly thereafter, a single gunshot from the cabin was heard.[79] As the fire continued, ammunition was exploding from within the cabin, making it dangerous for officials to try to put out the fire.[80] Law enforcement experts differ on whether using pyrotechnic devices to end the standoff, instead of waiting Dorner out, was justified.[79]

    In the evening of February 12, Los Angeles police and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office denied reports that a body believed to be that of Dorner had been recovered from the burnt cabin. In a press conference, LAPD Commander Andrew Smith stated that no body had been removed from the site, adding that reports of a body being identified were untrue as the cabin area was “too hot to make entry”.[81][82] […]

    There were online protests against the LAPD as well as a protest at police HQ on February 16, 2013.[108] Protestors stated they object to the manner in which Dorner’s dismissal was handled, the reckless shooting of civilians by the LAPD during the manhunt, and allegations that the police had intentionally set fire to the cabin in which Dorner was hiding.[109]

    So, did he deserve to die?
    When white people shoot at law enforcement officers, they tend to survive the incidents. Even after long standoffs. In my admittedly limited experience in reading about such matters.

  8. rq says

    Baltimore resident, Loring Cornish, displays homemade signs and noosed babies in response to the death #FreddieGray Warning for strong imagery used.

    Baltimore’s @MayorSRB just released this statement re: the protests. 20+ pastors have signed. #FreddieGray A call for peaceful and respectful demonstration. Not a word to the police.
    20 pastors need to sign a letter re: the police, not the protestors. This is the problem, @deray.

    When a broken spine and a broken social contract are viewed as more of a crisis than broken windows, maybe there will be progress.

    Who needs to watch #AmericanCrime We have Real Life Racial drama on these American Streets #BlackLivesMatter

    Cars honk in solidarity with #FreddieGray’s family driving past the viewing today. Baltimore.

  9. rq says

    “You’re lucky the cops are here. … I’ll tear your fucking guts out!” – #AryanNation to #AntiRacist (STL)

    S/O To The Mighty FOI from Mosques #6 & #4 For Holding It Down! #FreddieGray @deray @RMFinalCall @BrotherJesse

    #BrandonTateBrown’s mom and her lawyer will be filing a civil suit against the Philadelphia Police Department for wrongful death.

    @deray Black Womens Lives Matter Vigil. Mount Vernon Square, DC. Tonight. 6:30 pm. We remember *all* black lives. Please retweet.

    And the @BaltimorePolice is present at #FreddieGray’s viewing.

    And this has been a theme recurring more and more often, re: the legalization of marijuana. All of a sudden it’s white faces and future entrepreneurs – when all the black faces have been criminalized and put away. When the face of weed turns white, it gets reality shows and photoshoots. A couple clicks in there’s an article on new reality shows about white people trying to make a business out of weed. With annoying sidebar titles, like ones about understanding the lingo.

  10. rq says

    “The news wont show this the Sun paper turned me down multiple times I CAPTURE the real The Good & Bad” @byDVNLLN The photo within is strangely captviating – not sure what it is, the look, the context… but it works for me.

    Atta girl. @ayse @zeynep @krgpryal @andreactually @aelizabethclark @tarheeltreske @jmolich @MargaretAtwood Cartoon, panel 1: mother asks daughter, “Are your dolls having a party?”; panel 2: daughter replies, “No, they’re revolting against an oppressive government that is trying to remove their civil rights.”

    The @BaltimorePolice arrested 34 people yesterday during the protests. #FreddieGray

    Folks have come to support #FreddieGray, standing across the street from the viewing. Baltimore.

  12. rq says

    The numbers could be off, but still, worth a thought (At the very least): The Police Homicide Rate increased 35% in March. Among black people, it increased 71%. #FreddieGray

    Albuquerque cop arrested for allegedly beating suspect after turning off body cam

    An Albuquerque police officer was taken into custody and booked Friday evening after an investigation showed he turned his body cam off before allegedly beating a suspect, reports KOB4.

    Officer Cedric Greer, 24, is facing misdemeanor aggravated battery charges after witnesses say he repeatedly punched a suspect who was offering no resistance during a stop.

    An investigation was launched into Greer’s actions after a police cadet reported him to his superiors.

    According to the State Police report, Greer, “… battered an individual during a call for service that he was conducting at a local Albuquerque hotel. He struck the individual’s head several times with a closed fist and then delivered several strikes to the individual’s chest causing bruising. Witnesses claimed the individual was cooperative with Mr. Greer before and after the battery.”

    Further investigation revealed that Greer had turned his body cam off before the alleged beating, turning it back on afterward. Video from the camera captured his finger shutting down the camera attached to his lapel.

    According to a spokesperson for the APD, Greer is currently on administrative leave following his release from jail on a $5,000 bond.

    Greer is one of two officers being investigated for the alleged assault.

    Albuquerque which used to be (still is?) the murderingest PD in USAmerica.

    You want to talk about ‘riots.’ I want to talk about what makes someone *that* angry, and how we fix what’s at the root.

    i need a video of this – Cecily Strong at the Whitehouse, where the punchline is that the Secret Service is the only law enforcement agency in the world that will get in trouble if a black man gets shot.

    Y’all didn’t tell me about this racist Orioles logo with its Jim Crow lookin self. Quick tumblr on the origin of the Jim Crow image and the Baltimore Orioles logo resurrected for an anniversary.

  13. rq says

    #Ferguson protesters are holding a march in Downtown #STL for our own #ThaddeusMcCarroll AND IN SOLIDARITY W/ #Baltimore Activists!

    Batts email praises police for being ‘scary good’ at protests

    In an internal email to police officers, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts praised his department’s response to protests in the city on Saturday as “scary good.”

    “In more than 30 years of law enforcement experience, I’ve been involved in many protests. Today, the restraint, professionalism, and attention to duty you demonstrated were nothing short of remarkable,” Batts wrote in an email obtained by The Baltimore Sun. “I am proud and truly humbled to lead this organization. You stood tall in the face of challenge after challenge and you were a credit to the city and your families today.”

    People from across the city, and some from places much farther away, gathered in Baltimore on Saturday to protest the April 12 arrest and subsequent death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray from injuries sustained while in police custody. The protests were mostly peaceful, but shifted later in the evening toward vandalism and violent clashes between police and protesters.

    Police arrested 34 people related to the protests. Six officers sustained injuries. Many other clashes between police and protesters occurred with no arrests taking place.

    Batts, in his email, said these “have been challenging days and there may be more ahead,” but encouraged his officers to keep doing what they have been doing.

    “We will be tested, and as today showed, many will try to provoke you just to record a response. Don’t give it to them,” he wrote. “Once again today, we represented Baltimore on a world-wide stage, and you did so in a very impressive manner.”

    Batts said media “across the country commented on your calm and restraint in the face of extraordinary circumstances,” and asked his team to remain calm and work together.

    “I’m proud, your Command Staff is proud, you should be proud of the honor your actions brought to the badge today,” Batts wrote. “You all were scary good.”

    I sure wish we would stop policing Black rage, and instead, begin policing law enforcement officials who cause said rage. #FreddieGray

    A Litany for Those Slain By Violence and Traumatized By Those Called to “Protect & Serve.” Baltimore. #BlackChurch Worth a read.

    Banner drop: Activists “redesign” the Union Square Forever 21 for all those lost too young. Never21[dot]com

    Activists have “redesigned” the Union Square Forever 21 for all those lost too young. Never21[dot]com

  14. rq says

    Robbinsdale woman shot by police is charged with assault. That’s the story about Tania Harris, shot in the pelvis, sitll recovering – it had somehow slipped my mind that they’d actually charged her for something.

    West #Baltimore: last night vs. tonight

    Defenders exclusive: New video shows Inkster cops laughing while Floyd Dent bleeds. That’s more from Detroit.

    There’s no audio with the video, which may be a good thing for the officers because it looks like the police are reliving the arrest and alleged assault of Dent while he was just off camera and in earshot.

    “He is bleeding like a sieve, there is blood everywhere,” said Rohl. “The officers don’t seem at all disturbed by what happened at the scene. They appear happy, pleased, even celebratory over the arrest of Floyd Dent—a man who was just beaten kicked and tased.

    As the officers continue wiping Dents blood off them, an officer decides to do a little acting. He lies down on a bench and imitates Dent being on the ground at the scene choked by Officer William Melendez. His acting seems to thrill rather than disgust his audience.

    At the same time, Dent is suffering from a closed head injury, broken ribs, and a fractured orbital but had not been allowed to see a doctor for his injuries.

    Dent could not even respond to this video. He told Local 4 he was just too disgusted to respond.

    When a judge looked at the video of the vicious beating following a traffic stop, she was appalled. She threw out multiple charges against him.

    When Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy saw the video she dropped the rest of Dent’s charges and issued criminal charges against Melendez, the now-fired officer caught on tape choking and punching Dent in the head.

    “Mr. Dent’s drug charge will be dismissed to the best interest of justice and accordingly Mr. William Melendez is being charged by our office,” Worthy said last week.

    Niggas walk around with “assata taught me” hoodies all day but won’t show up for black women;
    Assata didn’t teach your misogynistic asses shit.
    We should be embarrassed and angry at how consistently and unapologetically we have failed our women.
    Those last three area very, very small sample of the many, many tweets defending women’s rights to have a march representing them. Because yesterday in STL, they held a Black Women’s Lives Matter rally, and just the fact of the event had huge, huge backlash. But feminism, it doesn’t matter in this post-feminist world. Right?

  15. Pteryxx says

    For navigation, here are page 2 and page 1 of this current thread.

    Citation for the statistic that police killings of black people in March increased 71%: interactive database for March 2015 at Mapping Police Violence dot org

    36 black people were killed by police in March. One black person every 21 hours.

    71% increase in police killings of black people compared to the previous month.

    4x higher chance of being killed by police for a black person compared to a white person.

    47% of black people killed by police were unarmed. [Compared to 16% of white victims.]

    Graph of black people killed by police for the past eight months: 36 in March, 21 in Feb, 24 in Jan, 19 in December 2014, 19 in November, 30 in October, 19 in September, and 43 in August 2014.

    The raw count is taken from a spreadsheet of victims for the month of March, organized by race, also linked on that page.

    After looking at the MappingPoliceViolence graphs for 2014, I would suggest a summer effect where more police killings happen just because more people are out and about in the spring and summer, not necessarily because of media coverage or backlash. That still means the 71% increase in March just foreshadows the months to come.

  16. rq says

    Reading Racist Literature, for the literary types. And everyone else.

    To feel personally insulted when reading old books struck me as provincial, against the spirit of literature. For the purposes of reading an English novel from 1830, I thought, you had to be an upper-class white guy from 1830. You had to be a privileged person, because books always were written by and for privileged people. Today, I was a privileged person, as I was frequently told at the private school my parents scrimped to send me to; someday, I would write a book. In the meantime, Rabelais was dead, so why hold a grudge?

    Earlier this year, I assigned Thomas De Quincey’s “Confessions of an English Opium Eater” in my nonfiction-writing class at Baruch College, part of the City University of New York. Many of my students are first-generation college students, and/or immigrants or first-generation Americans; several of them work forty hours a week in addition to carrying a full course load. They didn’t take a huge liking to De Quincey. “He’s always trying to prove how he’s smarter than everyone else,” one student said, citing the line “From my very earliest youth it has been my pride to converse familiarly, more Socratico, with all human beings, man, woman, and child.”

    I explained that De Quincey would reasonably have expected his readers to know that “more Socratico” was Latin for “after the fashion of Socrates”—that, in 1821, Latin was taught to nearly everyone in a certain class, that people who weren’t in that class generally didn’t read books like this one, and that De Quincey had no way of knowing those things were going to change.

    “O.K., he sounds kind of like an asshole now,” I conceded. “But you have to try to forget that while you’re reading. Believe me, we’re going to look just as bad to future generations.”

    “We are? Why?” a student asked, more Socratico.

    “That’s the whole point—we don’t know!” I said. “Maybe the way we treat animals.”

    That got a few nods—the class felt sorry about the way we treat animals—and we moved on.

    That night, I found myself seriously questioning this assumption I’d held since childhood: “You have to try to forget that while you’re reading.” You do? Why? And, more to the point, how? Obviously, I hadn’t forgotten that line from “Lady Chatterley”: “I’ve asked my man if he will find me a Turk.” Maybe it was because of some inkling that this might still be what life had in store—that Lawrence hadn’t lived all that long ago, and it might still take a “queer, melancholy specimen” to want to marry a Turkish woman.

    Part of the difficulty about such grievances is that they’re so isolating: they single out some people, and glide over the heads of others. Reading De Quincey, I had registered, with a shade of annoyance, the description of “Turkish opium eaters”—“absurd enough to sit, like so many equestrian statues, on logs of wood as stupid as themselves”—but hadn’t been particularly bothered by his claims of being the best Greek scholar in Oxford. For some of my students, those Greek and Latin lines were like an electric fence, keeping them out of the text. How could I not have anything better to tell them than “Try not to think about it”? […]

    The audience “hears” the play in two registers simultaneously: the register of 1859 and the register of 2014. The two are united only in the part of Zoe, which is taken almost intact from Boucicault’s script and played straight by Amber Gray; the harrowing effect is a testament to both of the playwrights, and to the actress. Zoe’s soliloquy on discovering that she is to be sold at an auction—“A slave! A slave! Is this a dream—for my brain reels with the blow?”—affords one of many glimpses at the basic horror that Boucicault, for all his sentimentality, never lost sight of: people, who viewed themselves as the protagonists of their own lives, were sold as property. A similar realization underlies the comic banter, written by Jacobs-Jenkins, of the house slaves Minnie and Dido; their gossip about their lives periodically discloses a horror of which they seem half-oblivious. “Damn,” Minnie says, after a debate over whether it was Rebecca or Lucretia who got sold to the Duponts. “There are too many niggas coming and going on this plantation. I can barely keep track.” In a later scene, when Dido is fretting over whether Zoe will poison herself, Minnie tells her, “You can’t be bringing your work home with you.… I know we slaves and everything, but you are not your job.” It’s funny because it isn’t true.

    How do you rehabilitate your love for art works based on expired and inhuman social values—and why bother? It’s easier to just discard the works that look as ungainly to us now as “The Octoroon.” But if you don’t throw out the past, or gloss it over, you can get something like “An Octoroon”: a work of joy and exasperation and anger that transmutes historical insult into artistic strength.

    Report confirms that police killed Natasha McKenna with her hands cuffed and legs shackled

    This woman was Natasha McKenna, a petite mother of a young child. Any explanation as to why it was acceptable to use a Taser four times on a woman whose hands are handcuffed behind her back, legs restrained, with a mask on is completely bogus.

    Numerous experts said the use of a stun gun on a fully restrained prisoner was an unreasonable use of force, particularly in a jail setting where a person is unlikely to flee. They also said Tasers are not recommended for use on the mentally ill, that even the Taser manufacturer warns against using them on people in a state of “excited delirium,” and that using a stun gun more than three times is thought to be above the threshold for use on a single person.

    “She wasn’t a threat; she wasn’t going anywhere; she was restrained,” said Richard Lichten, a use-of-force expert and former jail official in Los Angeles. “It feels excessive, unnecessary and out of policy, based on what you’re telling me.”

    The truth is, though, that police have been covering up the real details on Natasha’s death for months. Furthermore, multiple sources told NBC that police detectives were denied access to the Fairfax County jail for their investigation into her death. Only after two months of pressure was it revealed that Natasha McKenna was as physically restrained as a human being could possibly be when she was tasered over and over and over and over again.

    Even after all of this, police are not quite clear on why Natasha McKenna was even jailed in the first place. On the day she was arrested, she had actually called the police herself to report being assaulted and appeared to be struggling mightily with mental illness before she bounced around between hospitals and jails for days.

    Calls the police for assistance. Ends up dead.

    State of The Movement. Quick inforgraphic of events since the death of Michael Brown.

    Every #WestWednesday the #TyroneWest family has mobilized. We’ve documented nearly every one, link to youtube channel: Baltimore BLOC – also video links to the Freddie Gray protests.

    Wisconsin police billboard features officer who shot two people in 10 days . Great PR.

    Amidst national tension over perceived police brutality, Kenosha, Wisconsin, a city of roughly 100,000 on the shores of Lake Michigan, just north of Chicago, has come into focus.

    The Kenosha Professional Police Association (KPPA) posted a billboard thanking the community for its support. Some residents question the message behind the ad. It features Pablo Torres, a young officer who shot two people within a 10-day period in March. In the second shooting, Torres killed 26-year-old Aaron Siler.

    Police have said the shooting occurred after a chase, when Torres was confronted with a weapon. A spokesperson for the Siler family, Kathy Willie, told the Guardian the billboard was “hurtful”.

    “To me that doesn’t make the department look good,” she said. “What are they trying to say? Are they trying to say he’s not guilty and they know that for a fact? Why are they thanking him?”

    The investigation is ongoing. Torres is on administrative leave.

    The Kenosha News called for the billboard to come down, and said: “The billboard, and events such as the Back the Badge rally in Pennoyer Park on Saturday, may be intended as support for law enforcement and appreciation for that support, but they could also be seen as attempts to intimidate people who might criticize the police.”

    Another local outlet reported that Torres’s record shows nine citizen complaints for excessive use of force and seven departmental reprimands, including improper chase and failing to appear in court.

    Seems an appropriate face for the local PD.

  17. Pteryxx says

    NY Times opinion by Charles M. Blow on the misuse of the term “lynch mob”: (warning for graphic lynching descriptions at the link) NY Times

    Maybe Mr. Ryan does not appreciate the irony that it was not the officers’ bodies that video showed being dragged limp and screaming through the street, but that of Mr. Gray. Maybe Mr. Ryan does not register coincidence that actual lynching often damages or cuts the spinal cord, and according to a statement by the Gray family’s attorney, Gray’s spine was “80 percent severed at his neck.”

    And this is not the first protest of the killing of people of color where “lynch mobs” have been invoked.

    Fox News’s Howard Kurtz accused “some liberal outlets” of “creating almost a lynch mob mentality” in Ferguson.”

    Possible presidential candidate Mike Huckabee also compared Ferguson protesters to lynch mobs, as did Laura Ingraham, FrontPage magazine and an opinion piece on The Daily Caller.

    In 2013, after almost completely peaceful protests the weekend after George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, Newt Gingrich said that protesters were “prepared, basically, to be a lynch mob.”

    These “lynch mob” invocations are an incredible misuse of language, in which the lexicon of slaughter, subjugation and suffering are reduced to mere colloquialism, and therefore bleached of the blood in which it was originally written and used against the people who were historically victims of the atrocities.

  18. rq says

    The Family of #FreddieGrey has asked for no protests today or tomorrow – during the wake & funeral. We, @BmoreBloc will respect their wishes.

    Just another word to teacher allies: When your students show up tomorrow in black do not harass them, and do not let them be harassed.

    Staff of @spectator, the mag denouncing a campus meeting for BME women & non-binary ppl. Ta @orbific 4 the tip-off. I believe they were the magazine complaining earlier about not being allowed into a space specifically meant for minority groups – though I can’t be sure, as I understand something similar happened recently at Ryerson (Toronto). Annnyway, there’s a picture of the all-white staff at that link. The irony. Is lost.

    And here is Sharpton’s statement re: #FreddieGray. (h/t @cbsbaltimore) – it’ll probably be in print soon, but here’s a quick preview: he will be going to Baltimore because the police deadline to have a report by May 1 will not be met. He will meet with local activists and bring their and other cases to the new Attorney General.

    This will be a theme next few posts, more comments and thoughts on this from a couple of women in the movement (from Ferguson specifically). No One Showed Up to March for Rekia Boyd Last Night

    Last night in New York City’s Union Square, a modest crowd of about 100 people (depending on who you ask) showed up to rally for Rekia Boyd and Black women and girls who’ve been killed by police. The rally, organized by #BlackLivesMatterNYC, reflects much of what we already know about the value placed on Black women’s lives.

    The narrative on deadly police violence continues to exclude women, and precious few are willing to fight for justice both within the community and outside of it. A judge, this week, acquitted Rekia’s killer, Dante Servin, of all charges. But Rekia’s name will not spark a mass movement.
    In the same city where thousands flooded the frigid streets months ago in the name of Eric Garner, few could be seen. We sent a photographer to capture the crowd. The images are a somber, moving reminder that the work is ongoing. Thanks to Marino Mauricette.

    This particular article is a repost here, a sample of a deeper issue.

  19. rq says

    My day was cool yesterday until I got on here and saw black women I love be called “b*tches” by straight black male “activists”;
    And the most misogynistic, homophobic, hateful, sexist men formed together to call these women all kinds of names last night.
    It’s _____ to be in spaces where men will not acknowledge you. Only want to speak to other men about “freedom work”;
    Leaving it blank because depending on the day it can be some bullshit, or tiring, or wack as hell.
    But I’ve gone to meetings in 2015 where straight black men will ignore the presence of women.
    I got over that shit in August/September by just not going to the meetings anymore. B/c that early on? To me? Revolution wasn’t in a room.
    (tbc)

  20. rq says

    Especially not in a room that I didn’t have to fight to be in, but had to fight or be loud to be heard/not talked over/not disrespected.
    It was easy in the early days to ignore being called a “b*tch” by black men at actions b/c of whatever reason & stay focused on the work.
    Not anymore.

    But I’m supposed to ignore you calling me a variety of “_____ b*tch”, see you call other women “_____ b*tch”, watch you ignore trans women.
    AND STILL stand and face state violence on the street for you?
    She does acknowledge her male friends who are allies, too.

  21. rq says

    Next person:
    Tried to remain at the “love & support” level, but after seeing a Black man call my wife a b*tch tonight? Y’all might can’t have it.
    Black women were just really hurt that Black men didn’t show up for them today. Some women literally cried.
    Black women really just wanted Black men to acknowledge, or be made aware, that we are dying…as well. Couldn’t get that.
    To see the strength those women possessed then, be stomped on by the very men they fight for? Made my heart sink, man.
    As I’m typing these series of tweets I’ve seen “If Black women stopped showing up for Black men, there would be no movement” about 20 times.

    And a BW’s life only matters when she’s being selfless for a BM.

  22. rq says

    And Jamilah Lemieux: When I first started writing, around 07-08, I talked extensively about feeling like BM did not support BW in the way BW support them…
    …I was not as skilled at communicating difficult-to-receive ideas as I am now, to be fair. But I also wasnt a ‘Black man hater’ by far…
    Anyway, all that to say that as painful as it is, I’m heartened that when we have these convos now, more sisters are speaking up…
    There was def a time where I encountered sisters who didn’t want BM to hate them or reject them, so they wouldn’t talk about these things.
    S/O to those of y’all who can’t even bear this convo about Black men showing up for Black women without defending BM. Like clockwork.

  23. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Chicago, you’re facing financial woes why exactly?

    With 49 elementary schools closing this summer, with pensions being slashed, and with public services being cut all over Chicago, the city now admits it has paid out over $521 million in settlements and legal fees due to police violence, misconduct ,and abuse over the past 10 years alone—with a whopping 500 cases still pending.

    But of course, it will never end without wholesale cultural change. Currently officers like this spend years on the force getting away with who-knows-what before finally being convicted.

    He asked her what she was doing, … then shocked her with his Taser…. Walters ordered her to put her hands behind her back, then shocked her four more times before she could respond, prosecutors said.

    By the time Brown responded, Walters had determined Davis did nothing wrong and was removing the Taser probes from her back. Brown [then] noticed one of Davis’ hands had slipped from her improperly applied handcuffs and ordered everyone to move away and shocked Davis again, even though she was not trying to fight or escape, according to court papers.

    Brown shocked Davis twice more, then offered to let her go if he could shoot her in the forehead one more time with his Taser, prosecutors said.

    So… you shock her because you noticed while you were releasing her from custody that her handcuffs weren’t secure? Because when you’re releasing her from custody, the most important thing is that she remain shackled? WTF?

    Apparently there were many jokes about that offer to let her go if he could shoot her in the forehead/between the eyes (I wonder why they don’t use that latter formulation in the press reports?)

  24. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Just when you think that police culture couldn’t be worse?

    Yeah. It’s worse.

    As the officers continue wiping Dents blood off them, an officer decides to do a little acting. He lies down on a bench and imitates Dent being on the ground at the scene choked by Officer William Melendez. His acting seems to thrill rather than disgust his audience.

    You know that this shit happens sometimes, but this really large part of you doesn’t want to believe it. I used to work with police officers. It was in a part of the country not particularly known for abusive policing or for lethal cops (though I was more than aware of these things on occasion, “not particularly known” is not the same as “it doesn’t happen”). That area hasn’t had a video like this come out. And even though I know better, even though I know that just because the odds are high this one officer isn’t someone who gets off on the idea of excessive force that doesn’t mean that the odds are high that none of the officers with whom I worked got off on the idea of excessive force, …and still I have a hard time visualizing this happening in my town.

    Don’t believe it for a minute. Even if it’s not happening in your town, the only way to keep it from happening in your home town is to act like it just might at any minute.

  26. rq says

    Right now, in Baltimore, pepper spray, riot police and possible use of tear gas (or something smoke-like that the police are using towards crowds). Tweets on that tomorrow, but they basically shut down all public services that might allow crowds (esp. high school kids, some of this stuff is happening in a standoff with fucking high school kids) to disperse because of possible ‘gang violence’. Setting the stage for themselves, I suppose…

  29. leerudolph says

    It’s only March.

    Oh, thank goodness; the project I’m avoiding finishing (by reading Pharyngula) is not, in fact, 27 days over deadline!

  31. says

    Update; according to CNN and Reuters, the governor of Maryland has declared a state of emergency in Baltimore and has activated the National Gard.

    Lots of photos of burned out and smashed cop vehicles.

    Heard earlier from a friend that the Baltimore Metro has been shut down, hindering many residents ability to leave the areas where rioting is occurring, including students; I’ve been told there is no school bus system inside the city and that most students rely on the metro to get to and from school.

  33. says

    Reuters and wbtv.com are reporting that a 10pm to 5am curfew will be instituted starting tomorrow, to last for at least a week.

    National Guard to be deployed as soon as possible –Reuters

    —-
    Seeing in a couple of places that peaceful protesters are still allowed/still occurring in spite of violence.

  34. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Damn, I didn’t want any rioting. Fucking hell.

    Fucking fascists are just going to lovvvvvve them this rioting.

  36. says

    Senior Center (or senior housing, conflicting reports), apparently newly built, on fire.

    —
    Baltimore City schools closed tomorrow.
    —-
    Just saw a vine of a young man with a messenger bag and his hands up get body-slammed by a cop, knocked to the ground and arrested. Video is a Vine so no context. Video on Twitter #BaltimoreRiots

  37. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Saw that photo too.

    National guard is going to be deployed AGAIN with orders that frame the outraged citizens of the USA as enemy combatants AGAIN.

    AGAIN when the citizens are furious at unjustified use of force, the response is MOAR FORCE!

    I saw a picture of a looter…with one package of toilet paper and some other paper products, looked like maybe napkins, maybe diapers. The looter **also** had the capacity to carry much more, but didn’t. It may well be that the person is a complete jerk and grabbed everything in reach, but damn. That person thought snatching a 12 pack of TP was worth running through broken glass in the middle of a mob? Is that person just grabbing some needed necessities that would have been purchased if the store was intact and open?

    Fuck if I know, but looters carrying toilet paper, it’s gotta make you question where the fuck in all this any justice lies. One fuckhead breaks some glass windows on stores, some person who has robbed in the past takes the opportunity, and suddenly all these folk who wouldn’t have done anything like that are looting. I’m not saying that they’re blameless, but there’s a great deal of psych studies that show decision making is really different in those contexts.

    And now **not only** are cops are going to use it to justify treating the entire population as if they’re just waiting for their moment to commit violent crime, but the governor is validating that view.

    And treating absolutely anyone who happens to more quickly as ZOMG a safety threat to the Universe! is exactly the attitude that led to police killing Freddie Gray int eh first place.

    If I were governor, I’d invite every county commissioner, every one I’d appointed to anything, every state-wide elected official, all of ’em to come down to Baltimore UNARMED and simply meet the situation the way it deserves – with gravity but with peace. Talk with the majority of protestors that want their protest actually remembered for its message and not for ancillary violence and between the elected officials and protestors, there will be enough folk to hold back the violent and to record their faces for civil and criminal liability if absolutely necessary.

    Yes, after-the-fact enforcement is less than ideal…the damage is already done. But

    1) before the fact force to prevent law-breaking is unconstitutional
    and
    2) you’re obviously still getting damage. Having the cops fire gas at the protestors and throw rocks at the protesters is only making things worse.

  38. Saad says

    The language they’re using is making my stomach turn

    Baltimore PD

    Groups of violent criminals are continuing to throw rocks, bricks, and other items at police officers.

    “Groups of violent criminals”

    Fucking look in the mirror!

  40. says

    Reports now saying that the senior center/housing fire may not be related to the riots. Hard to find solid sources.

    —
    Also, if you value your stomach staying in place do not, I repeat, Do Not, read #BaltimoreRiots. For every single tweet that is useful information, there are 200 that are racist bile.

  42. rq says

    So going to have a few pictures of the beginning, when it was just a funeral and people protesting peacefully.
    Well first about the funeral, it was a media feeding frenzy: The family & community are yelling to the media “MOVE BACK” so they can bring the family out. The media isn’t budging, so there was some heightened emotion there.

    Following a request by police, a request by citizens was made: Dear @BaltimorePolice: Please remain peaceful. Several of our citizens have been killed.

    Here is what excused the BD riot gear, a ‘credible threat’ of gang violence: Excuse for open season on POC RT @ABC Info received of “credible threat” from gangs seeking to “take-out” LEO’s. See statement attached. Bloods and Crips have entered into a partnership to take out police, apparently – I heard they had just declared a truce in order to focus on police brutality, but hey. Let’s not argue words here, right?
    Speaking of the Bloods and the Crips, Bloods and Crips Team Up to Protest Baltimore’s Cops. I suppose things get dangerous when the oppressed realize they have bigger issues than fighting each other.

    Editor’s Note: Hours after this story published, the Baltimore Police Department issued a warning about a “credible threat” against law enforcement from gangs who they say have formed a partnership to “take out” officers. A police spokesman declined to say whether the threat is related to Freddie Gray’s death.

    Before protests over Freddie Gray’s death turned chaotic, an unlikely alliance was born in Baltimore on Saturday: Rivals from the Bloods and the Crips agreed to march side by side against police brutality.

    The alleged gang members are pictured on social media crowding together with Nation of Islam activists, who told The Daily Beast they brokered the truce in honor of Gray, who died last week after sustaining spinal injuries while in police custody.

    In one photo, a gang activist in a red sweatshirt crouches to fit into a group photo with rivals decked out in blue bandanas.

    “I can say with honesty those brothers demonstrated they can be united for a common good,” said Carlos Muhammad, a minister at Nation of Islam’s Mosque No. 6. “At the rally, they made the call that they must be united on that day. It should be commended.”

    The detente was only a small part of the demonstration drawing 1,200 people to Baltimore’s City Hall, but it raised eyebrows among activists. Are things so bad that even Baltimore’s gang adversaries are joining forces to combat law enforcement?

    “We can unite and stop killing one another,” Muhammad told The Daily Beast, “and the Bloods and the Crips can help rebuild their community.”

    DeRay McKesson, an organizer known for his work in Ferguson, also confirmed the street-crime ceasefire. He live-tweeted Saturday’s mostly peaceful demonstration, which later descended into clashes with police and smashed storefronts and cop cars, and alerted followers of a possible respite in gangland.

    “The fight against police brutality has united people in many ways that we have not seen regularly, and that’s really powerful,” McKesson told The Daily Beast. “The reality is, police have been terrorizing black people as far back as we can remember. It will take all of us coming together to change a corrupt system.”

    Still, it’s not the first time gangsters called a truce to focus on another foe. In August, the MadameNoire web publication reported on two former Bloods and Crips rivals in St. Louis—now protesting against police in Ferguson, Missouri—who held a sign in red and blue letters: “NO MORE CRIPS. NO MORE BLOODS. ONE PEOPLE. NO GANG ZONE.”

    Some photos from a couple of days ago, too.

    Oh, and then the BPD started closing shit down: The Baltimore City Police Dept. is now telling some universities to close as they are saying there are “credible threats” of gang violence.
    More of this next comment.

  43. rq says

    Love this headline. Police targeted, stores looted in Baltimore riots. The cops were fucking everywhere, so it’s not like they were hard to hit.

    Rioters looted stores and pelted police with rocks in Baltimore on Monday after the funeral of an African American man whose death in custody has reignited outrage over US police conduct towards blacks.

    Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency in the port city of 620,000 and activated the National Guard as rioters prowled in small groups, ransacking shops and trashing police vehicles. Other cars were set on fire.

    At least seven officers were injured in the violence, and police said one was “unresponsive.”

    Local and state police in riot gear struggled to restore order as the rioters veered off in different directions, refusing to heed dispersal orders.

    “We have seven officers injured during the course of this. They have broken bones; one is unresponsive,” Baltimore police spokesman Captain Eric Kowalczyk told reporters.

    “You’re going to see tear gas… We’re going to use appropriate methods to ensure that we’re able to preserve the safety of that community.”

    NBC affiliate WBAL reported there had been at least one arrest, and the Baltimore Orioles baseball team postponed its evening game against the Chicago White Sox.

    That covers the night in short.
    Here’s another: Hogan declares emergency and activates Guard; mayor imposes curfew, with pictures a lot more ominous (gas masks!). This one is a text update, actually, with the last update:

    Maryland’s governor says activating the National Guard to help police with riots in Baltimore was a last resort.

    Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday night that he did not make the decision lightly. He earlier declared a state of emergency, activating the Guard. Hogan took office in January.

    The call for the Guard comes after people set cars on fire, looted businesses and threw bricks at police officers, hours after the funeral for Freddie Gray.

    Gray died after suffering injuries in police custody.

    Univ. of Maryland Baltimore says it has closed early at recommendation of police dept. due to threat of “potentially violent” activities.
    They’ve closed Mondawmin Mall and Target, too, at the request of the Baltimore Police because of the “threat of gang violence.”
    And the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office is allowing people to leave early because of the threat of “gang violence.”
    I had one about banks, too.

    The Baltimore PD announcement re: the “credible threat” of gang violence is meant to preemptively make all groups of black people guilty.

  44. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Saad, #38:

    Groups of violent criminals are continuing to throw rocks, bricks, and other items at police officers.

    “Groups of violent criminals”

    Fucking look in the mirror!

    Did you see the photo and video of a cop in riot gear picking up chunks of concrete and hurling them at protestors?

    Perhaps the Baltimore PD meant to say something more like:

    Groups of violent criminals are continuing to throw rocks, bricks, and other items at groups of violent criminals.

    ….

    Also? Yeah, they finally admitted it: They didn’t put a seatbelt on Freddie Grey when he had no control over his body.

    At least one ex-Baltimore cop has written or stated that it was common in Baltimore to leave off the seatbelt and give the arrestee a “rough ride” by telling the driver to make some hard turns & hit extra pot holes and speed bumps on the way to the station. Now that they’ve admitted they left the seatbelt off a man who couldn’t use AT LEAST his legs (the fact that they’re dragging him by the arms in the video doesn’t mean his arms were under Grey’s conscious control, it means we can’t see either way whether they were under his conscious control), is absolutely **anyone** willing to bet on that being anything other than part of a deliberate strategy to fuck with him that included leaving off the seatbelt and **at least** “rough ride” instructions – if not even more abusive tactics?

  45. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    I’ve been thinking about Kent State since they called out the ND in Missouri to “deal with” Fergusson’s folks.

  46. rq says

    Baltimore Police made people leave work early, interrupted school demonstrations and were waiting outside a funeral.

    Who caused what?

    Do they realize that Mondawmin Mall is were students all over the westside go to get home. Shutting down MTA means they can’t get home.

    Here at Mondawmin. Students everywhere. Police line. Officers are ducking bricks and bottles being thrown at them. Crazy.

    Why is the SWAT team out here for high school kids ?

    Teargas has just been fired on high school kids protesting the #FreddieGray murder in #Baltimore. #BaltimorePD

    Standoff. Police keep pepper spraying this unarmed man. And he remains still. Mondawmin.

  47. rq says

    Quick break from Baltimore, another man shot in STL last night – during the Freddie Gray funeral, as it were. Fleeing man fired at officers before being shot by them, St. Louis police say

    A suspect who ran from an officer investigating a stolen vehicle fired at pursuing officers and was shot when they returned fire, according to the St. Louis Police Department.

    The man is expected to survive, and no officers were injured in the shooting just before noon Monday, according to St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson.

    Police said one suspect, a man in his early 40s, had been taken to a hospital after the shooting, in the 5000 block of Ridge Avenue. The scene is southwest of Kingshighway and Martin Luther King Drive, near Sherman Park.

    The injured suspect is black. Officers involved in the shooting included two black officers and one white officer, Dotson said during a press conference at the scene.

    Another black man shot by 12 in North St. Louis.

    Officers still searching the field with metal detectors. Annnyway.
    Back to Baltimore.

    What in the actual eff? The #Baltimore mayoral office’s official Twitter account is using the hashtag BaltmoreRiots. And that’s before there was anything close to a riot.

    #Baltimore

    Speaking of officers throwing rocks, here’s a link to the video: Baltimore Police Officers throwing rocks at student protesters.

  48. rq says

    This was a high school WALKOUT. And the police showed up with riot gear after learning of it via Twitter. #FreddieGray

    The response right now in #Baltimore to protesting, which has incited basically a riot, is for high schoolers. Children 13-18. #FreddieGray
    That just seems like a really ,really key point to highlight: this all started because some high school kids walked out. And the police saw a credible threat.

    Kinda hard to identify ur kids w/pepperspray in your eyes RT @BaltimorePolice we are asking for PARENTS to please bring your children home. I could laugh.

    The rock-throwing cop: Baltimore Cop Caught on Camera Throwing Rock Back at Protesters

    Clashes between Baltimore police and protesters today reportedly left seven cops injured, including one that was left unconscious and others with broken bones, according to media reports.

    But so far, the mainstream media has not made any mention of police throwing rocks at protesters, even though one of their overhead helicopters captured it on camera.

    The footage was downloaded by a viewer and uploaded to Youtube, which you can see below.

    It’s short. Fifteen seconds. But it shows a cop hurling a rock at protesters before the protesters swarmed them, forcing them to run back.

    The second video appears to be the same incident but captured on the ground from behind.

    The clashes took place this afternoon after the funeral of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old man who died in police custody with police refusing to explain how he died.

    A Baltimore police captain said one cop was left “unresponsive” which is the exact way they described Gray when they transported him to a hospital after dragging him into the back of a police van two weeks ago.

    But the captain still did not elaborate on the “credible threat” they spoke about earlier that the Bloods and Crips gang joining forces to “take out” police officers.

    When pressed by a reporter at a press conference today, Captain J. Eric Kowalczyk said they gathered that information through “intelligence,” which means they probably based it on earlier news reports that the gangs had called a truce to protest against police for the death of Gray.

    The youths throwing rocks in the videos below do not appear to be wearing any gang colors.

    It’s a group of more than one black person. Must be a gang.

    One Tweet Shows the Hypocrisy of the Media’s Reaction to Riots in Baltimore – and here it is!

    A false narrative: The vast majority of people who turned out to protest Freddie Gray’s death on Saturday didn’t engage in violence, smash windows or hurl beer bottles at people. Out of the more than 2,000 people who marched to City Hall that afternoon, Al-Jazeera America reports that about 100 were responsible for the chaos. CNN noted that there was an “overwhelming peaceful majority” and that members of protests put themselves between the “small group” of angry demonstrators and police lines, leading Police Commissioner Anthony Batts to thank the peacemakers in the crowd.

    Despite the fact that there have been peaceful protests in Baltimore every day since Gray died on April 19, some folks seem determined to frame the narrative around the actions of a disgruntled minority.

    As Mic’s Zak Cheney-Rice previously pointed out while covering the protests in Ferguson, Missouri over the death of 18-year-old unarmed black man Mike Brown at the hands of police, somehow the media doesn’t react with the same kind of breathless denunciations when white college students turn unruly […]

    Somehow, photos of peaceful protesters intervening — the same peacemakers the police commissioner credited with helping to neutralize the angry minority — aren’t getting the same coverage. […]

    Why you should care: Disproportionate focus on the violent actions of a few hurt, pained and disenfranchised people unfairly ignores the much larger peaceful movement protesting Gray’s death. It paints an entire minority community as intrinsically violent and unreasonable when, in fact, they are the ones under siege by a police department that has paid out millions of dollars to the plaintiffs of excessive force lawsuits. Officers in Baltimore have been accused of vicious misconduct on a regular basis.

    “Please don’t allow a few angry protesters shift the focus of what created this movement in the city,” local activist Albert Phillips wrote on Facebook. “Rioting and looting is only a reaction to compounded injustice. The larger issue here is police brutality. Stay focused.”

    When the police have so clearly lost the trust of the public, there’s a bigger problem than one night of rioting at hand. Baltimore’s residents deserve better than for the nation to ignore that problem.

    US human rights crisis exposed to world: Activist

    Press TV has conducted an interview with Ajamu Baraka, a human rights activist in Cali, Colombia, to discuss police brutality against African Americans in the United States.

    The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

    Press TV: When it comes to the situation as far as racial profiling in the United States goes, it was hopes that after images coming out of Ferguson particularly and the Department of Justice report, things would be better. Why have they not changed though?

    Baraka: Because the issues in the US are systemic. They are not connected to any issue of so-called bad apples, but they are in fact endemic to the US system.

    Part of the problem with what happened with Ferguson was not just the report that was done that condemned the Ferguson police forces, but the failure on the part of the federal government to hold accountable the killer cop that was involved in the shooting. In this situation in Ferguson and the failure of the federal government to be proactive in terms of real accountability, is something that has been in place across the country. It is part of the history of the US.

    The US has an ongoing human rights crisis that it can no longer shield from the international community, and that is really the main concern of the authorities that the human rights hypocrisy of the US has been finally and formally exposed to the international community.

    Press TV: The US still continues to claim that it is a post-racial society, specifically when you see that the country has elected an African American to the office of the presidency?

    Baraka: That is mythology. Basically, it really does not matter the pigmentation, the race of the individual who occupies an office. It is connected to what objective interests does that individual uphold, and we know that that particular structure, that position, upholds the interest of concentrated white power in the US and globally.

    So Barack Obama, his Attorney General Eric Holder, they have been very effective in upholding the oppressive power of the European dominant class in the US.

    So post-racialism is a mythology, especially when you look at the fact that he was elected three years after Katrina, a situation where basically it was absolutely clear that the value of black life was not the same as the value of white life.

    Press TV: There are some who do claim that the reason that we are seeing such high numbers of African Americans incarcerated or even killed and becoming victims of police brutality is because of the high crime rates within the black community. How would you respond to that?

    Baraka: The basic objective is that the crime rates are going down in the black community, but we have had an intensification of police in those communities. Why? Because the objective here again is to create a situation where the anticipated uprising from these communities have been marginalized politically and economically to be able to intensify the control and containment measures of these communities.

    So this is part of the internal contradictions we have in the US, that basically you have crime rates going down but yet you have an intensification of police in those same communities.

    It is a contradiction that again has been finally exposed to the international community.

  49. rq says

    Respect to the people of this neighborhood, cleaning up the debris left behind by the police #FreddieGray

    They’ve incited a riot. Flat out. They = police.

    Yo…police pepper sprayed a 6y/o boy in the face and there are white folks commenting “that’s what you get for bringing a child”. Bruh…

    #Ferguson currently in solidarity with #BALTIMORE #FreddieGray

    The Baltimore police chief said they were outnumbered and outflanked. Cops prevented a lot of kids from going home, so, yeah, I imagine.

    Hey, Step Back with the Riot Shaming

    On August 11, 1965, the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles exploded after a confrontation with police grew to a critical mass. The neighborhood smoldered for six days. Almost a thousand buildings were looted and burned to the ground. The unrest marked an important turn in the struggle against an overtly racist America. That was forty-nine years ago today.

    Listen: police in this country attack poor people of color. It’s happening. Like, it’s still happening. Every day. All across the country. It’s been happening. The story of America is an uninterrupted chapter book of brutality and horrific violence. Racist violence in America is a story with no interludes.

    The narrative of “progress” steadily advances divorced from the reality on the streets. For all the online discourse about oppression, identity, and ‘shaming’, there is a disturbing lack of insight and nuance when it comes to riots, vandalism, and looting in the wake of these unsettling acts of violence against people of color. So I thought I’d put together my responses to the phenomenon of “riot shaming” – the policing of young black and brown bodies in the aftermath of police murder. […]

    In closing, I’d like to offer a message to the youth: with murderous cops on the loose, the safest place to be a young black or brown person in America is in the streets with all of your friends. Stay tight.

    Police apologists: if you still think a few looted shops ‘distract from the message’, wait until you see the guillotines.

    In between are five rebuttals for the riot shamers, those who like to talk about distraction from the message or black community leaders opposing violence.

  50. rq says

    Two things that stand out:
    1) The press and everyone seem to be waiting for Freddie Gray’s family to make some kind of statement – they just had the fucking funeral yesterday, what statements are they expected to make? Leave them the fuck alone.
    2) Baltimore schools are closed tomorrow. For… safety reasons? Anyway, that’s about 80 000 (by twitter estimate) kids who will have nowhere to go tomorrow. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

    Mish-mash of last night’s events and commentary upcoming, I want breakfast.

  51. rq says

    SO of course there were a couple of press conferences where the authoritehs of various stripes spoke.
    Here’s police commissioner Batts:
    “These are Baltimore youthful residents… Wish I had more parents who took charge of the students,” Commissioner Batts #FreddieGray
    And Commissioner Bratts is calling 14-17 year old teens, young adults #FreddieGray
    You have to remember, Batts is also black. And here he is.

    For some background, The Brutality of Police Culture in Baltimore. An examination of more than 100 cases over 3, 4 years. Think about that – and those are only the ones where they paid compensation to someone.

    In Baltimore, where 25-year-old Freddie Gray died shortly after being taken into police custody, an investigation may uncover homicidal misconduct by law enforcement, as happened in the North Charleston, South Carolina, killing of Walter Scott. Or the facts may confound the darkest suspicions of protestors, as when the Department of Justice released its report on the killing of Michael Brown.

    What’s crucial to understand, as Baltimore residents take to the streets in long-simmering frustration, is that their general grievances are valid regardless of how this case plays out. For as in Ferguson, where residents suffered through years of misconduct so egregious that most Americans could scarcely conceive of what was going on, the people of Baltimore are policed by an entity that perpetrates stunning abuses. The difference is that this time we needn’t wait for a DOJ report to tell us so. Harrowing evidence has been presented. Yet America hasn’t looked.

    I include myself.

    Despite actively reading and commenting on police misconduct for many years, I was unaware until yesterday that the Baltimore Sun published a searing 2014 article documenting recent abuses that are national scandals in their own rights.
    […]

    So I join all who say that protests in Baltimore should remain peaceful, and I will continue to withhold judgment about Gray’s death until more facts are known.

    But I also insist that Baltimore protests are appropriate regardless of what happened to Freddie Gray, as is more federal scrutiny and intervention. Although much was rightly made of Ferguson’s racially unrepresentative local leadership, the presence of a black mayor and a diverse city council has not solved Baltimore’s police problem, partly because the DOJ responded to revelations of epidemic brutality with less than the full-scale civil rights probe that some residents requested and because Maryland pols have thwarted reform bills urged by city leaders.

    There are so many good reasons for locals to be outraged. […]

    $5.7 million is the amount the city paid to victims of brutality between 2011 and 2014. And as huge as that figure is, the more staggering number in the article is this one: “Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil-rights violations.” What tiny percentage of the unjustly beaten win formal legal judgments?

    If you’re imagining that they were all men in their twenties, think again:

    Victims include a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson. Those cases detail a frightful human toll. Officers have battered dozens of residents who suffered broken bones — jaws, noses, arms, legs, ankles — head trauma, organ failure, and even death, coming during questionable arrests. Some residents were beaten while handcuffed; others were thrown to the pavement.

    The 87-year-old grandmother was named Venus Green. A former teacher with two college degrees, she spent her retirement years as a foster parent for needy children. She was on her porch one day when her grandson ran up crying for an ambulance.

    He’d been shot.

    The article goes on to tell her story from a legal document in her successful lawsuit:

    Paramedics and police responded to the emergency call, but the white officer became hostile. “What happened? Who shot you?” Green recalled the officer saying to her grandson, according to an 11-page letter in which she detailed the incident for her lawyer. Excerpts from the letter were included in her lawsuit. “You’re lying. You know you were shot inside that house. We ain’t going to help you because you are lying.”

    “Mister, he isn’t lying,” replied Green, who had no criminal record. “He came from down that way running, calling me to call the ambulance.”

    The officer, who is not identified in the lawsuit, wanted to go into the basement, but Green demanded a warrant. Her grandson kept two dogs downstairs and she feared they would attack. The officer unhooked the lock, but Green latched it. He shoved Green against the wall.

    She hit the wooden floor. “Bitch, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black bitches I have locked up,” Green recalled the officer saying as he stood over her. “He pulled me up, pushed me in the dining room over the couch, put his knees in my back, twisted my arms and wrist and put handcuffs on my hands and threw me face down on the couch.”

    After pulling Green to her feet, the officer told her she was under arrest. Green complained of pain. “My neck and shoulder are hurting,” Green told him. “Please take these handcuffs off.” An African-American officer then walked in the house, saw her sobbing and asked that the handcuffs be removed since Green wasn’t violent. The cuffs came off, and Green didn’t face any charges. But a broken shoulder tormented her for months.

    When pondering the fact that Baltimore paid out $5.7 million in brutality settlements over four years, consider that the payout in this case was just $95,000. (For the story of the pregnant woman and many others, the full article is here.) […]

    There was a murder-suicide, with a policeman killing a firefighter, his girlfriend, and himself. There was a different officer who killed himself in jail after being charged with killing his fiancée. In yet another case, “Abdul Salaam, 36, says he was beaten in July 2013 after a traffic stop by officers Nicholas Chapman and Jorge Bernardez-Ruiz and that he never got a response to his complaint filed with internal affairs,” The Sun reported. “Those officers would be implicated less than three weeks later in the death of 44-year-old Tyrone West while he was in police custody.” Also in 2013, a jury acquitted an off-duty police officer on manslaughter charges after he chased down and killed a 17-year-old boy who may or may not have thrown a rock that thumped harmlessly into his front door. And that’s not even getting into serious corruption that wasn’t brutality.

    I could go on, but I’ve long since started to skim past stories like “Baltimore police officer pimps out his own wife” and thinking, meh, I’ve seen worse from cops there. The cop who shot himself and lied about it to get worker’s comp benefits? Meh, at least he didn’t shoot someone else and then lie about what happened. There is just a staggering level of dysfunction in the department, and residents of Baltimore, a city that could use a professional crime-fighting force if ever there was one, have suffered under it year after year after year. Pick one. (Take 2008! A Baltimore cop shot a man twice in the back. He was acquitted, too.)

    There is so much I haven’t included (example), and I’ve just trawled through the archives of The Baltimore Sun for a two-year period. They cover most police-involved deaths, but no newspaper covers more than a minuscule subset of use-of-force incidents.

    So no wonder protestors are out in Baltimore after this latest death.

    No wonder that a meeting on police brutality this week had to be moved to a bigger venue because so many Baltimore residents are concerned enough to come out in person. “Dozens of residents—most of them black—inundated federal officials with their assertions that city police have been brutalizing residents with impunity,” a just-published Baltimore Sun article reports. It includes a quote from a 35-year-old who asked the feds, “When are you all going to help us?”

    The article spoken about is this one, UNDUE FORCE, linked also somewhere on page 2 of this thread. It’s rather long. With good reason.

    City of Baltimore says they will review video & hold protestors accountable. Can they review video & hold #FreddieGray killers accountable?! That’s from Chris Rock. Good to see a prominent celebrity voice chiming in.

    Yes, Black America Fears The Police. Here’s Why. It’s also a repost, which, via a specific incident, details why black people tend not to call the cops when something happens – and this is a mild case, that ended relatively well.

  52. rq says

    SO of course there were a couple of press conferences where the authoritehs of various stripes spoke.
    Here’s police commissioner Batts:
    “These are Baltimore youthful residents… Wish I had more parents who took charge of the students,” Commissioner Batts #FreddieGray
    And Commissioner Bratts is calling 14-17 year old teens, young adults #FreddieGray
    You have to remember, Batts is also black. And here he is.

    For some background, The Brutality of Police Culture in Baltimore. An examination of more than 100 cases over 3, 4 years. Think about that – and those are only the ones where they paid compensation to someone.

    In Baltimore, where 25-year-old Freddie Gray died shortly after being taken into police custody, an investigation may uncover homicidal misconduct by law enforcement, as happened in the North Charleston, South Carolina, killing of Walter Scott. Or the facts may confound the darkest suspicions of protestors, as when the Department of Justice released its report on the killing of Michael Brown.

    What’s crucial to understand, as Baltimore residents take to the streets in long-simmering frustration, is that their general grievances are valid regardless of how this case plays out. For as in Ferguson, where residents suffered through years of misconduct so egregious that most Americans could scarcely conceive of what was going on, the people of Baltimore are policed by an entity that perpetrates stunning abuses. The difference is that this time we needn’t wait for a DOJ report to tell us so. Harrowing evidence has been presented. Yet America hasn’t looked.

    I include myself.

    Despite actively reading and commenting on police misconduct for many years, I was unaware until yesterday that the Baltimore Sun published a searing 2014 article documenting recent abuses that are national scandals in their own rights.
    […]

    So I join all who say that protests in Baltimore should remain peaceful, and I will continue to withhold judgment about Gray’s death until more facts are known.

    But I also insist that Baltimore protests are appropriate regardless of what happened to Freddie Gray, as is more federal scrutiny and intervention. Although much was rightly made of Ferguson’s racially unrepresentative local leadership, the presence of a black mayor and a diverse city council has not solved Baltimore’s police problem, partly because the DOJ responded to revelations of epidemic brutality with less than the full-scale civil rights probe that some residents requested and because Maryland pols have thwarted reform bills urged by city leaders.

    There are so many good reasons for locals to be outraged. […]

    $5.7 million is the amount the city paid to victims of brutality between 2011 and 2014. And as huge as that figure is, the more staggering number in the article is this one: “Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil-rights violations.” What tiny percentage of the unjustly beaten win formal legal judgments?

    If you’re imagining that they were all men in their twenties, think again:

    Victims include a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson. Those cases detail a frightful human toll. Officers have battered dozens of residents who suffered broken bones — jaws, noses, arms, legs, ankles — head trauma, organ failure, and even death, coming during questionable arrests. Some residents were beaten while handcuffed; others were thrown to the pavement.

    The 87-year-old grandmother was named Venus Green. A former teacher with two college degrees, she spent her retirement years as a foster parent for needy children. She was on her porch one day when her grandson ran up crying for an ambulance.

    He’d been shot.

    The article goes on to tell her story from a legal document in her successful lawsuit:

    Paramedics and police responded to the emergency call, but the white officer became hostile. “What happened? Who shot you?” Green recalled the officer saying to her grandson, according to an 11-page letter in which she detailed the incident for her lawyer. Excerpts from the letter were included in her lawsuit. “You’re lying. You know you were shot inside that house. We ain’t going to help you because you are lying.”

    “Mister, he isn’t lying,” replied Green, who had no criminal record. “He came from down that way running, calling me to call the ambulance.”

    The officer, who is not identified in the lawsuit, wanted to go into the basement, but Green demanded a warrant. Her grandson kept two dogs downstairs and she feared they would attack. The officer unhooked the lock, but Green latched it. He shoved Green against the wall.

    She hit the wooden floor. “B*tch, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black b*tches I have locked up,” Green recalled the officer saying as he stood over her. “He pulled me up, pushed me in the dining room over the couch, put his knees in my back, twisted my arms and wrist and put handcuffs on my hands and threw me face down on the couch.”

    After pulling Green to her feet, the officer told her she was under arrest. Green complained of pain. “My neck and shoulder are hurting,” Green told him. “Please take these handcuffs off.” An African-American officer then walked in the house, saw her sobbing and asked that the handcuffs be removed since Green wasn’t violent. The cuffs came off, and Green didn’t face any charges. But a broken shoulder tormented her for months.

    When pondering the fact that Baltimore paid out $5.7 million in brutality settlements over four years, consider that the payout in this case was just $95,000. (For the story of the pregnant woman and many others, the full article is here.) […]

    There was a murder-suicide, with a policeman killing a firefighter, his girlfriend, and himself. There was a different officer who killed himself in jail after being charged with killing his fiancée. In yet another case, “Abdul Salaam, 36, says he was beaten in July 2013 after a traffic stop by officers Nicholas Chapman and Jorge Bernardez-Ruiz and that he never got a response to his complaint filed with internal affairs,” The Sun reported. “Those officers would be implicated less than three weeks later in the death of 44-year-old Tyrone West while he was in police custody.” Also in 2013, a jury acquitted an off-duty police officer on manslaughter charges after he chased down and killed a 17-year-old boy who may or may not have thrown a rock that thumped harmlessly into his front door. And that’s not even getting into serious corruption that wasn’t brutality.

    I could go on, but I’ve long since started to skim past stories like “Baltimore police officer pimps out his own wife” and thinking, meh, I’ve seen worse from cops there. The cop who shot himself and lied about it to get worker’s comp benefits? Meh, at least he didn’t shoot someone else and then lie about what happened. There is just a staggering level of dysfunction in the department, and residents of Baltimore, a city that could use a professional crime-fighting force if ever there was one, have suffered under it year after year after year. Pick one. (Take 2008! A Baltimore cop shot a man twice in the back. He was acquitted, too.)

    There is so much I haven’t included (example), and I’ve just trawled through the archives of The Baltimore Sun for a two-year period. They cover most police-involved deaths, but no newspaper covers more than a minuscule subset of use-of-force incidents.

    So no wonder protestors are out in Baltimore after this latest death.

    No wonder that a meeting on police brutality this week had to be moved to a bigger venue because so many Baltimore residents are concerned enough to come out in person. “Dozens of residents—most of them black—inundated federal officials with their assertions that city police have been brutalizing residents with impunity,” a just-published Baltimore Sun article reports. It includes a quote from a 35-year-old who asked the feds, “When are you all going to help us?”

    The article spoken about is this one, UNDUE FORCE, linked also somewhere on page 2 of this thread. It’s rather long. With good reason.

    City of Baltimore says they will review video & hold protestors accountable. Can they review video & hold #FreddieGray killers accountable?! That’s from Chris Rock. Good to see a prominent celebrity voice chiming in.

    Yes, Black America Fears The Police. Here’s Why. It’s also a repost, which, via a specific incident, details why black people tend not to call the cops when something happens – and this is a mild case, that ended relatively well.

  53. rq says

    @BaltoSpectator
    Here is what happened this afternoon according to a #Baltimore public teacher     – see attached text. In short, school children were forced off buses because the buses were cancelled, and were left milling about away from home – with riot police advancing on any small group of school children that looked like they were milling about aimlessly.
    Which is like all of them at that point.

    #LosAngeles
    Call to action
    Solidarity with #Baltimore
    8 PM thru ALL NIGHT!!!
    65th and Broadway

    #FergusonToBaltimore

    20-year-old suspect fatally shot by fugitive task force officer – in Detroit.

    A 20-year-old man was fatally shot by a fugitive task force officer trying to serve a warrant in Detroit Monday.

    Police say the Terrence Kelom charged the officer with a hammer leading to the west side shooting.

    “They are saying it was an old warrant that he had was the reason he came,” said Lakeisha Watkins, the victim’s cousin. “But that boy was changing his life around. He has a baby, a little girl due any day now.

    Family members say he was a good kid who made some bad decisions. They said police had no reason to shoot the man also known as “TT” in front of his parents and sister.

    “He was reaching for his father when they killed him,” said Larry Watkins, his uncle. “That boy had nothing in his hands. And they did that. They executed him. Ten shots, that’s execution.

    Detroit Police Chief James Craig spent much of Monday trying to restore the calm in the 9500 block of Evergreen. It is where a Detroit fugitive apprehension team went to serve an arrest warrant and the ICE agent shot and killed a man.

    “I am told there was no forced entry into the residence,” Craig said. “That they were allowed inside and let in. I am also told the agent may have been faced with a threat. It was at that point he decided to use deadly force.”

    None of this is going to end well.

    Live updates: Riots in Baltimore. I really hate when they call it a riot. But anyway that’s the Washiington Post live updates from last night.

    I’m hearing folks planning to show solidarity with #Baltimore tonight at 8p in #SouthLA on 65th and Broadway. #EzellFord

  54. rq says

    This is Baltimore. You can’t destroy your community if it’s already destroyed. Most of them already have nothing.

    Here’s an article on the London rioting, with relevance to Baltimore re: ‘mindless rioting’, etc. Panic on the streets of London.

    Violence is rarely mindless. The politics of a burning building, a smashed-in shop or a young man shot by police may be obscured even to those who lit the rags or fired the gun, but the politics are there. Unquestionably there is far, far more to these riots than the death of Mark Duggan, whose shooting sparked off the unrest on Saturday, when two police cars were set alight after a five-hour vigil at Tottenham police station. A peaceful protest over the death of a man at police hands, in a community where locals have been given every reason to mistrust the forces of law and order, is one sort of political statement. Raiding shops for technology and trainers that cost ten times as much as the benefits you’re no longer entitled to is another. A co-ordinated, viral wave of civil unrest across the poorest boroughs of Britain, with young people coming from across the capital and the country to battle the police, is another.

    Months of conjecture will follow these riots. Already, the internet is teeming with racist vitriol and wild speculation. The truth is that very few people know why this is happening. They don’t know, because they were not watching these communities. Nobody has been watching Tottenham since the television cameras drifted away after the Broadwater Farm riots of 1985. Most of the people who will be writing, speaking and pontificating about the disorder this weekend have absolutely no idea what it is like to grow up in a community where there are no jobs, no space to live or move, and the police are on the streets stopping-and-searching you as you come home from school. The people who do will be waking up this week in the sure and certain knowledge that after decades of being ignored and marginalised and harassed by the police, after months of seeing any conceivable hope of a better future confiscated, they are finally on the news. In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything:

    “Yes,” said the young man. “You wouldn’t be talking to me now if we didn’t riot, would you?”

    “Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you.”

    Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere ‘’’

    There are communities all over the country that nobody paid attention to unless there had recently been a riot or a murdered child. Well, they’re paying attention now.

    Baltimore riots: Looting, fires engulf city after Freddie Gray’s funeral . There’s CNN. Nothing was ‘engulfed’, neither by flames or by looting, but ah, it sounds good! Look within for a recap of the night, incl. the fire – supposedly a construction fire not related to protests at all.

    Baltimore has learned nearly nothing from the past 8 months of unrest. Announcing the schools closing tonight was a mistake. 80,000 kids. Keep in mind that 80 000 number later.

    They not showing this on the news #BaltimoreRiots – short video of a person standing between police and the protestors.

    Maryland state police requesting 5,000 police officers from across the mid-Atlantic to help out with the protests. Apparently they’re getting that many National Guard – I just don’t know if that is in addition to or instead of.

  55. rq says

    Black owed businesses leave signs #FreddieGray #baltimoreprotests #BaltimoreRiots – it makes a difference.

    She’s directing traffic in the neighborhood. Fulton.
     The cops couldn’t maintain order, so other people did.

    I sincerely hope leaders in Baltimore/Maryland learn from the mistakes of Ferguson/Missouri. So far, it doesn’t look like it. Still time.

    Baltimore has massive surveillance infrastructure, where they’re not making arrests now, they will be analyzing footage for post hoc action.

    Too many people have invested in building up this city to allow thugs to tear it down. Yes, the black woman mayor of Baltimore said that. For real.

    The 300 are here now and they’re organized and are providing structure out here. North Avenue. Baltimore. Again, people on the ground, not police or NG. Too busy, them.

  56. rq says

    Baltimore photo editor reportedly beaten by police at Freddie Gray protests

    City Paper Photo Editor J.M. Giordano was tackled and beaten by Baltimore City police outside of Western District headquarters last night while covering protests over the death of Freddie Gray in police custody.

    In a video shot by City Paper Managing Editor Baynard Woods you can see Giordano, wearing a green jacket, and a protester, both of whom had just been knocked to the ground by police, being beaten as Woods yells, “He’s a photographer! He’s press!”

    Giordano says he was standing next to the protester in the video, facing the police line, at about 12:30 when someone threw a rock which hit a police officer’s shield.

    “They mobilized,” he says. The police line moved forward and Giordano did not move fast enough for them. “I always move at the last second,” he says. Five or six police officers in riot gear hit Giordano and the other protester with their shields, knocking them to the ground.

    “They just swarmed over me,” he says. “I got hit. My head hit the ground. They were hitting me, then someone pulled me out.”

    “I kept shooting it,” he says. “As soon as I got up I started taking pictures.” He says the guy who was next to him (who did not throw anything, he is sure) got arrested and was loaded into a van. Joe was not. He thinks it is because police recognized him as a local reporter and figured arresting him would cause a backlash.

    “They [police] tried to block me from shooting.”

    He says a Reuters photographer who was standing nearby did get arrested and taken away in the police van, and was later released and cited for disorderly conduct.

    That’s from the night before, not last night.

    This one’s kind of a stand-out, on foreclosures and the housing market with ref. to the black community: Them That’s Got Shall Get

    Driving through Prince George’s County, Maryland, it’s not obvious that its towns and cities are at the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis in the Washington, D.C., region. In the town of Bowie, for instance, large colonial-style homes with attached two-car garages, spacious apartment buildings designed for families, and modern shopping centers line the streets. As in any other middle-class community, school-aged children chase each other in front yards while their parents monitor from the porch, and twentysomethings in workout gear jog the tree-lined streets. There’s no shortage of schools, community centers and places of worship, and if any homes are abandoned, it’s not glaringly obvious.

    What sets Prince George’s County apart from other upscale regions is that most of its citizens are black. No other majority-black counties in the United States are even comparable in terms of numbers of educated citizens and middle-class incomes, but when the economy crumbled, so did the dreams of many homeowners living in Prince George’s. And despite promises of help by President Barack Obama and lawmakers, seven years after the housing bubble burst, the county’s foreclosure crisis has only slowed, not abated.

    As the wealthiest black-majority county in the United States, Prince George’s has long represented the pinnacle of black success. The county’s median household income is $73,568—a full $20,000 more than the median household income of the United States as a whole. Only 7.1 percent of U.S. firms are black-owned, but in Prince George’s that number stands at a whopping 54.5 percent.

    A full 29.5 percent of people over the age of 25 hold bachelor’s degrees—slightly higher than the 28.5 percent rate for all persons in the United States. Known colloquially as just P.G., the county is filled with lawyers, entrepreneurs, teachers, and federal employees. In popular lore, Prince George’s was proof that, while blacks still lagged behind in education, wealth and employment, the black community was finally catching up.

    But in 2007, the bursting of the housing bubble triggered an economic recession that rippled throughout the global economy. For years, the housing market had been booming; in 2007 the U.S. median price for a house hit a record high of $247,900. By 2009, though, that number had fallen to $216,700. For Prince George’s County, however, the decline was much more stark. In 2009 the median price for a house dropped by nearly $100,000, from $343,000 to just $245,000.

    Although the foreclosure crisis left no part of the country untouched, in the Washington, D.C., area—which, overall, weathered the crisis well—Prince George’s County bore the brunt. The reason? Subprime lending. […]

    Across the nation, black homeowners were disproportionately affected by the foreclosure crisis, with more than 240,000 blacks losing homes they had owned. Black homeowners in the D.C. region were 20 percent more likely to lose their homes compared to whites with similar incomes and lifestyles. (See the December 2012 issue of The American Prospect, “The Collapse of Black Wealth,” by Monica Potts.) The foreclosure crisis also affected blacks of all income brackets; high-earning blacks were 80 percent more likely to lose their homes than their white counterparts, making the homeowners of Prince George’s County prime targets.

    Even the most stable of P.G. County homeowners wound up with subprime mortgages, presumably made to believe that subprime was their only option. Not even a good credit score would have spared blacks from these discriminatory lending practices. The Center for Responsible Lending found that during the housing boom, 6.2 percent of whites with a credit score of 660 and higher received high-interest mortgages but 21.4 percent of blacks with a score of 660 or higher received these same loans.

    It turned out that several of the major banks had been purposely giving people of color subprime mortgages, including borrowers who would have qualified for a prime loan. The City of Baltimore took Wells Fargo to court, bringing some of the banking giant’s abhorrent lending practices to light. One former employee testified that in 2001, Wells Fargo created a unit that would be responsible for pushing expensive refinance loans on black customers, especially those living in Baltimore, southeast Washington, D.C., and Prince George’s County—all locations with large black populations. […]

    Specifically targeted for subprime loans among the minority demographic were black women. Women of color are the most likely to receive subprime loans while white men are the least likely; the disparity grows with income levels. Compared to white men earning the same level of income, black women earning less than the area median income are two and a half times more likely to receive subprime. Upper-income black women were nearly five times more likely to receive subprime purchase mortgages than upper-income white men.

    The services of data collection agencies made it easy for lenders who were able to buy information about a potential borrower’s age, race and income. Armed with that information, it was easy for lenders to target moderate-to-high income women of color.

    Without admitting to any wrongdoing, Wells Fargo finally settled with the City of Baltimore in 2012. Still, Wells Fargo agreed to pay to the tune of $175 million dollars; $50 million of the settlement went towards helping community members in the Washington, D.C., region, as well as those in seven other metropolitan areas, make down payments on new homes. The settlement, however, was hardly a fix for the loss of family wealth suffered by those who lost their homes.

    More at the link, and all of it steeped in racism. And that’s in Maryland, where there is also a city called Baltimore.

    Amor trucks & big ass guns I haven’t seen since ferguson Baltimore. #FreddieGray

    Military style. Picture of a canister for green smoke, military style.

    We understand people are angry and that the community is upset, but violence only distracts us from the justice we seek. #Baltimore Just shut up and don’t bother us anymore!

    Nation of Islam just walked up on North Ave: “If your children are out here, send them home!”

  57. rq says

    With link to actual executive order, Governor Larry Hogan Signs Executive Order Declaring State Of Emergency, Activating National Guard

    Governor Larry Hogan today, at the request of Baltimore City, has signed an Executive Order declaring a state of emergency and activating the National Guard to address the growing violence and unrest in Baltimore City.

    The governor, along with Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford and National Guard Adjutant General Linda Singh, will hold a press conference at the Maryland Emergency Management Agency this evening at 8:30 PM.

    Church & State. Baltimore. #FreddieGray

    Gang members are playing a surprisingly important role keeping a semblance of order right now;
    I saw a line of Nation of Islam guys get between looters and police, linked arms. The crowd through some rocks but eventually left.
    You know who wasn’t keeping order? Yeah. Those guys in uniforms.

    Baltimore. #FreddieGray

    Baltimore in 1968 vs. 2015 #FreddieGray #BlackLivesMatter

  58. rq says

    Another comparison picture set: Baltimore 1968….Baltimore 2015…nothing has changed….@deray @Nettaaaaaaaa

    The idea that West Baltimore hasn’t been rebuilt since the 1968 riots seems like a pretty powerful condemnation of generations of leaders.

    RT @nixonron: Gang members in Baltimore say they protected black owned stores during rioting.

    This. (ABC headline: Thousands attend Freddie Gray rally)
    This. (CNN headline: Rioters set fire to looted drug store)

    There was a series of tweets from different people commenting on how, if these protests (and riots, okay) were occurring elsewhere – like, say, the Middle East? – that USAmerica would be applauding their revolutionary spirit and willingness to stand up to an oppressive government. But on home soil? Nah.

    Someone Gets It

    While many will not understand why the protests sometimes turn violent, the COO of the Baltimore Orioles, John Angelos, does:

    Brett, speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical that in any democracy, investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.

    That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.

    The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut short by excessive violence, surveillance, and other abuses of the Bill of Rights by government pay the true price, and ultimate price, and one that far exceeds the importances of any kids’ game played tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards. We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.

    I’m not excusing rioting, but I understand it.

  59. rq says

    Yes, City Schools is making grief counselors available to students tomorrow. And yes, schools are closed tomorrow. I’m confused too.

    I just learned that in December @BaltimorePolice arrested #FreddieGray for drugs, but he DIDN’T HAVE ANY DRUGS. This is fact.
    Just like Eric Garner had huge interaction history with the NYPD.

    If you’ve got places serving #Baltimore kids tomorrow that need volunteers, organizational support and supplies, pls respond. May have help.

    This was mentioned earlier: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shoots, kills suspect on Detroit’s west side

    We’re told the ICE officer was serving the warrant to 19-year-old Terrence Kellum as part of task force investigation. Police say he was allegedly wanted for armed robbery.

    The task force was known as “D-FAT” which stands for Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team. It includes members of Detroit Police and U.S. Marshals.

    Craig also said the officers were allowed inside, and one agent may have been threatened, and that’s when he opened fire.

    “I am committed that the Detroit Police Department will do a very thorough and very timely investigation,” Craig said. He also said he is committed to having a conversation with the Wayne County Prosecutor who will make the final decision on what will happen next.

    #TerrenceKellum was killed by ICE federal task force Not DPD. Shot 10x and handcuffed on a fed warrant 4 armed robbery. He was unarmed

    Dear white people: your discomfort is progress. Keep talking about Ferguson – and beyond

    Rebecca Carroll: Whatever your actions as a white person in the current racial climate – a climate that is quickly escalating to a place of irreparable disrepair in terms of productive communication – there still exists a level of comfort, of self-satisfaction, of: I can afford to be smug because my life doesn’t depend on it. It leaves me with the same reaction I have when grown white people tell me they’re taking “baby steps” towards racial awareness.

    That’s cool, you go ahead and take your baby steps – take your time. I’ll just keep hoping I don’t get dead. Great then! If you’re a baby, take those steps. If you’re a grown, adult white human living in America right now and you’re not there yet, take bigger steps.

    JZ: I guess my question is, which direction should those baby steps go? How do we balance the responsibility to speak up with the responsibility to shut up? How do we use a platform without stealing the podium? And how do we deal with even ASKING these questions when they just put white people at the center of the conversation LIKE ALWAYS?

    RC: Use the platform to talk to other white people. If you are a racially conscious person, you are affected. You are angry. It matters.

    JZ: But talking to other white people includes, presumably, talking to white people who aren’t racially conscious, who don’t have black people in their lives – or don’t work hard to understand how their black friends’ experiences are different, or think they’re actually less racist if they pretend the differences don’t exist.

    What white people should be doing is thinking really hard about ways to make change in an immediate way.

    RC: Seriously, if you have black friends and black people in your life and it still doesn’t gut you when another black boy or man or person gets shot and killed, then you need to examine your friendship. If on some level you and your white peers, those racially conscious and not, don’t feel bad – like really bone-deep bad – then you’re not there yet.

    Our legacy as black folks is of pain and strife; your legacy as white folks is of cultural decimation, violence and human ownership. Bummer. Who wants to look at that? And when you do, if you can, that’s gotta feel bad. […]

    RC: We have to get up in folks’ faces, follow it through, listen and think. We can’t “try to convince people” forever. Protesting is important regardless of the result, I think – it’s the rare combination of visceral and intellectual movement that I will always support and respect and encourage, because what else is more potent?

    JZ: So, OK, there are two things I don’t want to do right now (or in general):

    – One is that thing where people act as though acknowledging and self-flagellating for their privilege, or their cowardice or their insufficiency, somehow magically negates it. My goal isn’t to get acknowledged for being a white person who knows that white people suck; my goal is to figure out how I can try to make things better without accidentally making things worse.
    – And the other thing I don’t want to do is ask you is: “OK, what should white people do?” Because that is extremely not your job.

    RC: I just watched a clip from Spike Lee’s Malcolm X – the scene where the well intentioned white girl approaches Malcolm and is like: “What can I do?” And he says: “Nothing” and walks away. I feel a real pull to that response, because really, if there was something you all could do, wouldn’t you have done it by now? Just mind your business and stop killing us? Take care of your business. It’s like detox.

    I have long maintained that white privilege is an immaculate high – it’s free, you feel (I imagine) magnanimous and amazing all the time, there are no side effects and there is no comedown. Unless you choose to come down. And then you’re gonna go through it – withdrawal, anxiety, agitation, all of it. And then you have to figure out how to live your life without it. We’ve been doing it for the past 400 years, so.

    JZ: Honestly, until this conversation I didn’t even realize how focused I was on trying to do my part just by talking at problems, and talking online in particular, instead of taking useful action. But I mean, I guess what springs to mind is the obvious stuff: Say something when a person acts unjustly, and make them stop. Say something when an organization is imbalanced, and refuse to participate if it isn’t fixed – and seek out organizations and businesses with black leaders, too. Vote and get involved politically to try and chip away at inequities at the national level.

    RC: Those are all good, common-sense action goals. And as I’ve said, I will always support and encourage talking with each other – it’s why we are here on the planet, as far as I’m concerned: to communicate, listen, articulate, understand, work through, pause and keep going. And for every white fool you shut down on Facebook or school or take on, I personally am grateful.

    But also, as a white people primer:

    – Do protest; do not take selfies as you protest and then post them on social media – good for you, I don’t care, not what it’s about.
    – Next time you are shopping in an upscale store and no salesperson is watching you, ask them why they aren’t watching you.
    – Check your tone, your tenor and your composure when you’re engaged in dialog with black and brown people. Literally. Don’t say “I get it” because you don’t.
    – Read Ta-Nehisi Coates Reparations piece in The Atlantic, and then read it again.
    – If you are a celebrity or public figure and have a national platform, use it, because the young folks are watching you every second. I’m not talking about Erase the Race or USA for Africa type action (fine), I mean go hard in a national campaign, publicity junket type way (see: Chris Rock). Because your celebrity is among the most extraordinary, astonishing privileges there is. As Chris Rock likes to say: “I love being famous. It’s almost like being white.”

    JZ: Maybe this isn’t so different from trying to argue with your racist Facebook friends – or it’s a difference of degree. It’s just calling bullshit at different points along the power structure. Being white means I have better access to the upper levels; I have to go up and call bullshit there, too. It’s like being the tall person who needs to get cans off the top shelf, only the shelf is ingrained power structures and the cans are basic human rights. […]

    Lesley McSpadden waited over 100 days to hear whether or not the cop who shot her son, her child, would be indicted for murder. That probably felt pretty awful. And the non-indictment decision probably feels a lot more awful, not to mention the fact that her son is dead. Forever. So check your right track – it’s likely not going to look like progress or rainbows or magic anytime soon.

  60. rq says

    A favorite shot from when the sun began to set on St. Louis during yesterday’s #ferguson2Baltimore march.

    Police Throw Rocks Back At Protesters In Baltimore, HuffPo article on that and a few details from the rest of the night. “Video appears to show a piece of concrete leaving an officer’s hand”. That’s not word-for-word, but that basic sentence is within that article. Not kidding.

    I mentioned Eric Garner. Copy of the heartbreaking civil rights lawsuit Eric Garner filed against the NYPD in 2007

    On September 1st, 2007, seven years before NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo would choke Eric Garner to death in a video watched all over the world, he filed a heartbreaking civil complaint against NYPD Officer William Owens, the City of New York, and the NYPD over an awful incident in which he was illegally strip searched near his home.

    In the complaint, Eric describes how Officer William Owens, in the middle of the street, inserted his fingers up Eric Garner’s rectum and made Eric pull his underwear completely down while he “searched” around Eric’s testicles.

    In the section where it asks Eric what injuries he sustained, he details what the humiliating encounter did to injure his “manhood”. See the entire complaint below.

    University Of Maryland Asks: Are We Still *Thugs* When You Pay To Watch Us Play Sports? #BalitmoreRiots #FreddieGray

    FROM #BALTIMORE TO THE #WORLD: WE ARE REQUESTING FOR NATIONWIDE #SOLIDARITY ACTIONS, TOMORROW, AND THE NEXT. #BALTIMOREUPRISING

  61. rq says

    Remember those 80 000 children in Baltimore schools? “Last school yr, 84.08% of City Schools students qualified for free/reduced price lunch.” Closed schools means missed meals. #BaltimoreLunch
    That’s over 70,000 students. That’s why #BaltimoreLunch matters. Follow the hashtag. Several orgs and organizers pulling together resources!

    In the interest of boosting the signal, maybe someone can help out:
    Help #BaltimoreLunch feed #Baltimore students that will be off school tomorrow. Many fams rely on meals from school to avoid child hunger.
    If you live in Baltimore, check the @ophelporhush account to see where food donations can be made in-person! Thank you!
    If you’re not able to be in Baltimore to assist, amplifying info for those that will be assisting is awesome.
    To avoid overcrowding mentions #onhere, please email @ophelporhush with locations for feeding students (think centrally please)
    More specific info next comment.

  62. rq says

    And if you are willing to help, the time and at what capacity. The sooner we know who can do what, the better we can serve.

    If you have anything in particular that would be helpful (say a car to load up items) that would be a huge help.
    Thank you so much everyone for your support of @ophelporhush So far we’re looking at feeding 150 people tomorrow.

    1) 222 N Bentlou. 2) 655 N Bentlou (church) 3) 1121 W. Lanvale (church). Follow #BaltimoreLunch hashtag (planned locations)

    @ophelporhush is handing out free lunch tomorrow in #Baltimore to students missing school. Please donate if you can. http://operationhelporhush.org/donate/ , that’s the donation link there.

  63. rq says

    Some random items from yesterday:
    Ava Duvernay on Selma “When I got the script there were no women” #avaatrutgers

    Respect to @ms_tjp and @geauxAWAYheaux and others fighting for black women’s rights, often without the credit or gratitude they deserve.

    Today at 6pm, meet us at 2526 Jeff Ken Dr for a candlelight vigil for #michaelwillis. His mother has requested the protestors. Michael WIllis is another shot by police in STL last year. See here: Man Shot By Police is Identified.

    The Road to Hell: The Dangers of Volunteer Police and Poverty Tourism

    The sick joke was always the same. Maybe it was the one where a white Christian missionary was dismayed to find bustling metropolises in Nairobi, rather than destitute and desolate collections of mud hut villages full of starving and sick people waiting to be saved. Or perhaps the one about exchange programs that send mostly white American students to visit African nations to build libraries and orphanages. Only, they’re so inept and inexperienced that local people must tear down and rebuild their shoddy work each night, a real life rendition of the cobbler gnome fairy-tale. Sometimes these stories have a more topical, geo-political bent, one that might furrow brows and provide cause for collective hand-wringing. The example comes to mind of American veterans, dissatisfied and disconnected from civilian life, seeking out honor, vindication, and purpose by playing mercenary in the Middle East . The nuances of internecine conflicts are ignored, the Hemingway-esque promise of finding self-fulfillment in conflict overshadowing all other considerations.

    But have you heard the one where a 73 year-old insurance executive acts as a police deputy, is allowed to carry live weapons without proper training, and then shoots a man, resulting in his death?

    Eric Harris was shot by the police and denied urgent medical attention, his death making him the 294th person to be killed by police in 2015. Robert Bates, his killer, a volunteer with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, donated multiple vehicles, weapons and other equipment to the Sheriff’s Office since he became a reserve deputy in 2008. Bates is not alone in leveraging his wealth into a volunteer position with the police, as “ [many] other wealthy donors are among the agency’s 130 reserve deputies.” Reporters have unearthed documents that indicate that Bate’s “supervisors at the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office were ordered to falsify [his] training records, giving him credit for field training he never took and firearms certifications he should not have received.” That Robert Bates served under the auspices and legal sanction of the state does not change the fact that he participated in an especially vile incidence of poverty tourism.

    Poverty tourism is a phenomenon predicated on the privileges of wealth and white supremacy. Americans, the majority of them white, seek out experiences to gain absolution, a false emulation of lived experiences or a new story to add to their dinner party repertoire. They come to these experiences with little in the way of knowledge, understanding, or preparedness. They believe that distant nations and U.S. inner cities alike are inferior and rife with violence or poverty. Many believe that good intentions and positive attitudes can compensate for non-existent skill and capabilities. They believe that a proper application of force is the correct response to any and all obstacles, regardless of the ramifications or circumstances. And they carry these beliefs and messages back home, to be shared with friends and family and coworkers, facilitating a normalization of poverty, oppression, and violence as unfortunate happenstance rather than deliberate choices by the societies we inhabit.

    As volunteering becomes increasingly associated with haphazard and shortsighted projects, the tenet of altruistic service is undermined by the emphasis on the moral or emotional gratification of the volunteer. America’s desire to believe that the lives of the marginalized and oppressed can be improved through increased proximity to whiteness manifests in these poverty tourism excursions into black and brown communities, who are then expected to cater or capitulate to their supposedly selfless benefactors. Americans must interrogate within themselves the ends to which they are serving by participating in paternalistic, white supremacist volunteer efforts, especially those which are only open to the educated and wealthy. As radical Austrian critic and philosopher Ivan Illich once said, any American who seeks to volunteer in aiding another community or culture must “recognize your inability, your powerlessness and your incapacity to do the “good” which you intended to do.” Now more than ever there is a need to ensure that the arbiters of what is “good” and “necessary” are the oppressed and marginalized, rather than the privileged seeking to reconcile their complicity with their good intentions.

    Bates became complicit in this trend that predicates the desires of those who volunteer over the needs of the populations they claim to serve. It is especially jarring to find that black and brown lives can be taken without recourse not just by the police, but by volunteers who pay for the privilege to play cop. Just as disheartening is the likelihood that Bates will be absolved by both the justice system and public opinion as a concerned citizen whose attempts to help went sadly awry, while his victim is portrayed as a criminal and therefore unworthy of life. Little attention will be paid to how racism and middle class noblesse oblige enabled one citizen to act as an enforcer of the law and an executioner towards another.

    White Americans, lulled into believing the problem is a lack of sufficient action on their part, double down on their incursion into black movements, black lives, and black communities. This is the especially pernicious root of poverty tourism, an idea that certain groups are inferior, without value, and incapable of saving themselves, representing themselves, or creating value for themselves without the largesse, interjection or approval of the racial or moral majority. There are numerous examples of failed attempts to save minority communities or solve social ills being advertised in the media in order to both cosset the consciences of white Americans and to remind minorities that we dare not attempt to end our exploitation without their involvement. After all, when was the last time you heard a news story about a mission trip, failed or successful, to Owsley County, Kentucky, a ninety-nine percent white community with the highest welfare rate and lowest median income in the U.S.?

    It’s worth reading to the end at the link.

  64. rq says

    6 arrested in police brutality protest in South Los Angeles

    Three women and three men were arrested following a protest on police brutality in South Los Angeles Monday night.

    Of the arrests, four were for refusal to disperse and two were for attempting to set the four in custody free, Los Angeles police said.

    The group, estimated to be around 25 to 50 people, gathered after 11 p.m. to demonstrate against police brutality, Los Angeles police said. They marched near 65th Street and Broadway, where 25-year-old Ezell Ford was shot by LAPD officers on Aug. 11.

    By midnight, protesters were still wandering the streets, but were no longer blocking traffic.

    The protest comes the same day where riots broke out in Maryland after the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died from a severe spinal injury he suffered while in police custody. The Maryland governor declared a state of emergency and National Guard was called to restore order.

    They say ‘riots broke out’ like it happened on its own.

    You See How The Media Do A Black Man? The photo attached is text, very tiny text, but basically – the picture? Got spun by media as the black man trying to snatch the white woman’s purse. When in reality it was the young woman and her friends trying to keep the white woman from lunging at the man, as they were present and trying to keep drunk angry people away from protestors.

  67. rq says

    Nonviolence as Compliance

    Rioting broke out on Monday in Baltimore—an angry response to the death of Freddie Gray, a death my native city seems powerless to explain. Gray did not die mysteriously in some back alley but in the custody of the city’s publicly appointed guardians of order. And yet the mayor of that city and the commissioner of that city’s police still have no idea what happened. I suspect this is not because the mayor and police commissioner are bad people, but because the state of Maryland prioritizes the protection of police officers charged with abuse over the citizens who fall under its purview.
    Related Story

    A State of Emergency in Baltimore

    The citizens who live in West Baltimore, where the rioting began, intuitively understand this. I grew up across the street from Mondawmin Mall, where today’s riots began. My mother was raised in the same housing project, Gilmor Homes, where Freddie Gray was killed. Everyone I knew who lived in that world regarded the police not with admiration and respect but with fear and caution. People write these feelings off as wholly irrational at their own peril, or their own leisure. The case against the Baltimore police, and the society that superintends them, is easily made […]

    The money paid out by the city to cover for the brutal acts of its police department would be enough to build “a state-of-the-art rec center or renovations at more than 30 playgrounds.” Instead, the money was used to cover for the brutal acts of the city’s police department and ensure they remained well beyond any semblance of justice.

    Now, tonight, I turn on the news and I see politicians calling for young people in Baltimore to remain peaceful and “nonviolent.” These well-intended pleas strike me as the right answer to the wrong question. To understand the question, it’s worth remembering what, specifically, happened to Freddie Gray. An officer made eye contact with Gray. Gray, for unknown reasons, ran. The officer and his colleagues then detained Gray. They found him in possession of a switchblade. They arrested him while he yelled in pain. And then, within an hour, his spine was mostly severed. A week later, he was dead. What specifically was the crime here? What particular threat did Freddie Gray pose? Why is mere eye contact and then running worthy of detention at the hands of the state? Why is Freddie Gray dead?

    The people now calling for nonviolence are not prepared to answer these questions. Many of them are charged with enforcing the very policies that led to Gray’s death, and yet they can offer no rational justification for Gray’s death and so they appeal for calm. But there was no official appeal for calm when Gray was being arrested. There was no appeal for calm when Jerriel Lyles was assaulted. (“The blow was so heavy. My eyes swelled up. Blood was dripping down my nose and out my eye.”) There was no claim for nonviolence on behalf of Venus Green. (“Bitch, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black bitches I have locked up.”) There was no plea for peace on behalf of Starr Brown. (“They slammed me down on my face,” Brown added, her voice cracking. “The skin was gone on my face.”)

    When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is “correct” or “wise,” any more than a forest fire can be “correct” or “wise.” Wisdom isn’t the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the rioters themselves.

    10,000 Strong Peacefully Protest In Downtown Baltimore, Media Only Reports The Violence & Arrest of Dozens

    10,000 people from across the country peacefully protested in Baltimore in support of the seeking of justice of the death of Freddie Gray. Despite the fact that 100 of the 10,000 acted up and approximately 35 people were arrested after the peaceful protest, (that’s about 1%), much of the mainstream media used attention grabbing words in their headlines like ‘Protest Turns Destructive, (USA Today)’ ‘Scenes of Chaos In Baltimore… (NY Times), Dozens Arrested After Protest Turns Violent (WBAL TV). One website BreitBart.com’s headlines read: 1,000 Black Rioters In Baltimore Smash Police Cars, Attack Motorists In Frenzied Protest.

    The truth is you had 10,000 plus people come together in unity in support of the fight for justice for Freddie Gray. While the numbers vary, 100 or so were the ones you saw acting up on the news and the 35 persons who were arrested were the ones you read about. But reporting that won’t bring in the ratings that attract a heavy advertising revenue.

    CNN reported: Protesters angry over the death of Freddie Gray got into physical altercations with police Saturday night in downtown Baltimore near the city’s famed baseball stadium.

    Some of the hundreds who confronted lines of police officers got into shoving matches with helmeted cops while other demonstrators threw objects. At least five police cars were damaged by people who smashed windows and jumped on them.

    Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she was profoundly disappointed by the violence, adding that 95% of the protesters were respectful but a “small group of agitators intervened.”

    Time.com reported: The demonstration was aimed at police, who had Gray in their custody when he suffered injuries that would prove fatal. Baltimore police said 35 people, including four juveniles, were arrested and six officers suffered minor injuries during the latest protest.

    As you read most of the nationwide coverage, the various news media and websites do admit that most of the protesters were peaceful as you read further down their stories, despite the attention grabbing headlines that speaks of only the violence, destruction and criminal mischief of a few. Unfortunately there will always be a few agitators in any crowd this size. Some of which are purposely positioned among the peaceful protesters for just that reason.

    After what has been going on with black men being killed nationwide without any justice taking place even after grand juries, video evidence, incidences being ruled homicide by medical examiners, No officers go to jail, very few cops lose their job and the Ferguson officer who killed Mike Brown was allowed to retire and protect his pension, there is a sense of frustration in these protests, yes!

    What happened in the streets of Ferguson was worst by comparison. But let’s be very clear, the scene the media is describing, the picture being painted with all headlines are something no one, I repeat NO ONE wants to see. What they’re showing you are the actions of 100 or so people, there were 10,000 people there, and despite some of the headlines, and you can see by the pictures below all the protesters were not black and out of control. And despite what a local pastor would have you believe, some of those who were acting up the most were doing so before those (he called outsiders), who came to town in support showed up.

    Words have power, they create perceptions that make other actions possible and allow the most outrageous of explanations why they kill black people believable and acceptable by other groups of people. Let’ be clear here, NO ONE wants to truly see Scenes of Chaos: 1,000’s of Frenzied Protesters Rioting In Baltimore, the city would truly still be burning. But they media will show the worst or the worst, you know if it bleeds it leads. It’s true it’s great for ratings which leads to heavy advertising revenue, but it is not good for our community or the race relations nationwide.

    Just like the media takes the liberty to show the worst of the worst like they did in Baltimore, I am taking the liberty to show the worst of the worst in their reporting and calling them out. It’s important to not allow the mass media to distort the narrative and take away from the message of this fight for justice.

    Bad comparison with Ferguson, but hey. It’s an article about the protest on Saturday.

    #MyaHall Black transwoman slain by police in #Baltimore. #RekiaBoyd killer walked away. #KyamLivingston died in handcuffs. #BlackWomenMatter So I didn’t know who Mya Hall was.
    Well, now you shall know, too, and I suppose a TW for transphobia applies to both following articles:
    They Were Our Sisters: Feminists Should Not Abandon Mya Hall or Miriam Carey

    When I heard the news about how the NSA’s headquarters was supposedly attacked by two “men dressed as women” who tried to barrel through a security cordon around Fort Meade — one of whom was fatally shot – I immediately feared the worst. A knot twisted in my stomach, even as I kept studiously silent in public about the issue, waiting for more facts to come out about the two people, each detail seeming to confirm my worst fears. And then, finally, trickles of truth began to flow from Washington D.C.-area media about the identity of the people in the ill-fated SUV. The person killed by NSA’s security forces was, in fact, a trans woman of color and a sex worker named Mya Hall.

    The lead-up to that revelation is instructive, however, and should widen the conversation about black women murdered by police, and what our press coverage can reveal about why it happens. The women in question are often posthumously fitted to fantasies about extremism, a peculiar form of the usual justifications for the murder of black Americans by police where “erratic” behavior on the part of black women is quickly construed as a mortal threat. […]

    Why did the press so forcefully assert and repeat the “men dressed as women” meme? The obvious answer seems to be transphobia, but it’s, as ever, more complicated. The misgendering speaks to the very fears that saw Mya and her companion in the SUV shot at in the first place. We are so inured to fanciful stories about terrorist activity that we’ll believe the staggeringly unlikely — that a group of terrorists dressed up in women’s clothes to crash into an NSA car as some sort of big plot — before accepting a more mundane, far less threatening truth: that someone in distress made a wrong turn, lost their bearings, and panicked when police surrounded them. According to new AP reports that interview those who knew Mya, she was struggling with her mental health and was unable to afford treatment.

    ***

    The idea that male Islamic extremists would launch attacks in the US while dressed as women has been a popular idée fixe for armchair generals and pundits throughout the West for some time now.

    One might argue that as vulgar as this impulse toward the fanciful may be, it stems from an understandable place. In the wake of 9/11 our intelligence services were derided for what many were calling a “failure of imagination”– few people imagined that extremists might hijack passenger jets and turn them into missiles, after all.

    But in response we seem to have overreacted — not a new observation, I’m aware. It’s so old I could justly say I grew up with that observation lingering in the background of news and opinion I consumed. Yet it bears repeating here, with a twist, recognizing how in the Fort Meade case our trigger-happy society not only put a woman in an early grave but also led the press to sensationalize the story to make it fit with our 24-style narratives about the nature of terrorism.

    The story echoes the tragic death of Miriam Carey, a black mother of an infant child, near the White House in 2013. Carey, with her one year old daughter in the backseat of her car, mistakenly drove into a White House checkpoint. When several Secret Service officers drew weapons on her, she panicked and drove away at speed, prompting a police chase that ended with 8 bullets in her car and Carey slain. Miraculously, the infant was unhurt.

    Like the Fort Meade tragedy, we find a situation where a woman of color was interpreted as a terroristic threat to be excised violently when she acted in a way deemed to be unusual. […]

    Similarly, in Mya Hall’s case, although some of the media, like the Washington Post, are making a shift toward gendering her correctly, we see some of the same tropes of reporting on black deaths at the hands of police: the use of a mugshot, an emphasis on past crimes and misdeeds, and so forth, as if to assert that there is some sort of karmic explanation for the tragedy. All as if to suggest that there was something seemly about her summary execution as a suspected threat to national security.

    The role of feminists in these cases, then, should be to keep the flame of attention alive for these women that our society would prefer to forget as rounding errors in the machinery of anti-terror. We should be asking how it is it that two black women, whose wrong turns and sudden (if understandable) panics were interpreted as violent attacks, and why the wages of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong skin color and neurotype seem to be death. […]

    It is not an accident that this keeps happening, and I fear it will happen again. The noxious mixture of paranoia over terrorism and a law enforcement institution rife with anti-black racism will lead not only to more deaths but more media carnivals that serve to re-sow the seedbeds for these types of killings. For women of color and particularly black women in this country, that is the all too urgent and very real terrorism that breeds here at home. And as feminists, we would do well to not be complicit in leaving these women in unmarked graves where the tragedies that claimed their lives are forgotten.

    I naively hoped that the killing of Miriam Carey would touch off a scandal that would shake up our security establishment, with ample and aggressive press coverage asking how something like this could happen– but she has been unclaimed even by many of those (outside of black activist communities) who would call themselves radicals. Mainstream feminism must mend that mistake, and refuse to repeat it with Mya Hall.

    Except I heard nothing about Mya Hall. Beginning of April. Nothing.

    One more for her: Baltimore’s transgender community mourns one of their own, slain by police

    Mya, on the streets since 2009, was killed and a newcomer, Brittany, was injured when officers opened fire Monday after the pair allegedly crashed into a guard post at the National Security Agency, 28 miles away.

    In the early moments, the incident had the Washington region on alert, with fears that it could be terrorism or another type of planned attack. But in the end, authorities said the pair were in an SUV stolen from a man who had picked them up the night before. They mistakenly took a restricted exit and panicked when they saw police.

    Officials identified them by their legal names: Ricky Hall, 27, who went by Mya, and Kevin Fleming, 20, or Brittany. When police initially noted that the two were dressed in women’s clothing, it seemed a strange twist. Later, authorities made a point to say that the garb had not been meant as a disguise.

    Now, their friends in Baltimore’s historic Old Goucher neighborhood, many with questions about the encounter with law enforcement, are in mourning. Death, they say, comes too often, too young and too easy to a transgender population marginalized by a society that they say forces some to resort to prostitution, or what they call becoming “survivor sex workers.”

    “They are being driven to their deaths,” Bryanna A. Jenkins, 26, who runs a transgender advocacy group, said while on a tour of the neighborhood. “Out here, you can be attacked. You can be raped. You can be arrested for being trans.” […]

    On the street early Friday, the women hustled for tricks as cars slowed for drivers to survey the scene. Shannen, one of the women working Charles Street, declined to share her last name. “None of us want to live like this,” she said. “But we learn lessons in life, and we die.”

    The women were just as interested in posing questions as answering them. Who claimed Hall’s body? What did her parents say? How many times was she shot? Why did the police have to shoot her?

    Most of all, they felt isolated from the normal ritual of grief as they mourned together on Charles Street.

    Asked Buttacup, a tear running down her cheek, “Will she have a proper funeral?”

    Well, that was a misgendering mess there, by the Washington Post. And I know black trans women’s lives are difficult, but most of that article was just how much trouble she was experiencing, in a rather victim-blamey way. So I didn’t quote much of it. The most human response is from the others on the street, those most interested in what happened to Hall, rather than her troubled past. Anyway, yeah. Never heard about this case before. :(

  68. rq says

    Nonviolence as Compliance

    Rioting broke out on Monday in Baltimore—an angry response to the death of Freddie Gray, a death my native city seems powerless to explain. Gray did not die mysteriously in some back alley but in the custody of the city’s publicly appointed guardians of order. And yet the mayor of that city and the commissioner of that city’s police still have no idea what happened. I suspect this is not because the mayor and police commissioner are bad people, but because the state of Maryland prioritizes the protection of police officers charged with abuse over the citizens who fall under its purview.

    The citizens who live in West Baltimore, where the rioting began, intuitively understand this. I grew up across the street from Mondawmin Mall, where today’s riots began. My mother was raised in the same housing project, Gilmor Homes, where Freddie Gray was killed. Everyone I knew who lived in that world regarded the police not with admiration and respect but with fear and caution. People write these feelings off as wholly irrational at their own peril, or their own leisure. The case against the Baltimore police, and the society that superintends them, is easily made […]

    The money paid out by the city to cover for the brutal acts of its police department would be enough to build “a state-of-the-art rec center or renovations at more than 30 playgrounds.” Instead, the money was used to cover for the brutal acts of the city’s police department and ensure they remained well beyond any semblance of justice.

    Now, tonight, I turn on the news and I see politicians calling for young people in Baltimore to remain peaceful and “nonviolent.” These well-intended pleas strike me as the right answer to the wrong question. To understand the question, it’s worth remembering what, specifically, happened to Freddie Gray. An officer made eye contact with Gray. Gray, for unknown reasons, ran. The officer and his colleagues then detained Gray. They found him in possession of a switchblade. They arrested him while he yelled in pain. And then, within an hour, his spine was mostly severed. A week later, he was dead. What specifically was the crime here? What particular threat did Freddie Gray pose? Why is mere eye contact and then running worthy of detention at the hands of the state? Why is Freddie Gray dead?

    The people now calling for nonviolence are not prepared to answer these questions. Many of them are charged with enforcing the very policies that led to Gray’s death, and yet they can offer no rational justification for Gray’s death and so they appeal for calm. But there was no official appeal for calm when Gray was being arrested. There was no appeal for calm when Jerriel Lyles was assaulted. (“The blow was so heavy. My eyes swelled up. Blood was dripping down my nose and out my eye.”) There was no claim for nonviolence on behalf of Venus Green. (“B*tch, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black b*tches I have locked up.”) There was no plea for peace on behalf of Starr Brown. (“They slammed me down on my face,” Brown added, her voice cracking. “The skin was gone on my face.”)

    When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is “correct” or “wise,” any more than a forest fire can be “correct” or “wise.” Wisdom isn’t the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the rioters themselves.

    10,000 Strong Peacefully Protest In Downtown Baltimore, Media Only Reports The Violence & Arrest of Dozens

    10,000 people from across the country peacefully protested in Baltimore in support of the seeking of justice of the death of Freddie Gray. Despite the fact that 100 of the 10,000 acted up and approximately 35 people were arrested after the peaceful protest, (that’s about 1%), much of the mainstream media used attention grabbing words in their headlines like ‘Protest Turns Destructive, (USA Today)’ ‘Scenes of Chaos In Baltimore… (NY Times), Dozens Arrested After Protest Turns Violent (WBAL TV). One website BreitBart[dot]com’s headlines read: 1,000 Black Rioters In Baltimore Smash Police Cars, Attack Motorists In Frenzied Protest.

    The truth is you had 10,000 plus people come together in unity in support of the fight for justice for Freddie Gray. While the numbers vary, 100 or so were the ones you saw acting up on the news and the 35 persons who were arrested were the ones you read about. But reporting that won’t bring in the ratings that attract a heavy advertising revenue.

    CNN reported: Protesters angry over the death of Freddie Gray got into physical altercations with police Saturday night in downtown Baltimore near the city’s famed baseball stadium.

    Some of the hundreds who confronted lines of police officers got into shoving matches with helmeted cops while other demonstrators threw objects. At least five police cars were damaged by people who smashed windows and jumped on them.

    Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she was profoundly disappointed by the violence, adding that 95% of the protesters were respectful but a “small group of agitators intervened.”

    Time[dot]com reported: The demonstration was aimed at police, who had Gray in their custody when he suffered injuries that would prove fatal. Baltimore police said 35 people, including four juveniles, were arrested and six officers suffered minor injuries during the latest protest.

    As you read most of the nationwide coverage, the various news media and websites do admit that most of the protesters were peaceful as you read further down their stories, despite the attention grabbing headlines that speaks of only the violence, destruction and criminal mischief of a few. Unfortunately there will always be a few agitators in any crowd this size. Some of which are purposely positioned among the peaceful protesters for just that reason.

    After what has been going on with black men being killed nationwide without any justice taking place even after grand juries, video evidence, incidences being ruled homicide by medical examiners, No officers go to jail, very few cops lose their job and the Ferguson officer who killed Mike Brown was allowed to retire and protect his pension, there is a sense of frustration in these protests, yes!

    What happened in the streets of Ferguson was worst by comparison. But let’s be very clear, the scene the media is describing, the picture being painted with all headlines are something no one, I repeat NO ONE wants to see. What they’re showing you are the actions of 100 or so people, there were 10,000 people there, and despite some of the headlines, and you can see by the pictures below all the protesters were not black and out of control. And despite what a local pastor would have you believe, some of those who were acting up the most were doing so before those (he called outsiders), who came to town in support showed up.

    Words have power, they create perceptions that make other actions possible and allow the most outrageous of explanations why they kill black people believable and acceptable by other groups of people. Let’ be clear here, NO ONE wants to truly see Scenes of Chaos: 1,000’s of Frenzied Protesters Rioting In Baltimore, the city would truly still be burning. But they media will show the worst or the worst, you know if it bleeds it leads. It’s true it’s great for ratings which leads to heavy advertising revenue, but it is not good for our community or the race relations nationwide.

    Just like the media takes the liberty to show the worst of the worst like they did in Baltimore, I am taking the liberty to show the worst of the worst in their reporting and calling them out. It’s important to not allow the mass media to distort the narrative and take away from the message of this fight for justice.

    Bad comparison with Ferguson, but hey. It’s an article about the protest on Saturday.

    #MyaHall Black transwoman slain by police in #Baltimore. #RekiaBoyd killer walked away. #KyamLivingston died in handcuffs. #BlackWomenMatter So I didn’t know who Mya Hall was.
    Well, now you shall know, too, and I suppose a TW for transphobia applies to both following articles:
    They Were Our Sisters: Feminists Should Not Abandon Mya Hall or Miriam Carey

    When I heard the news about how the NSA’s headquarters was supposedly attacked by two “men dressed as women” who tried to barrel through a security cordon around Fort Meade — one of whom was fatally shot – I immediately feared the worst. A knot twisted in my stomach, even as I kept studiously silent in public about the issue, waiting for more facts to come out about the two people, each detail seeming to confirm my worst fears. And then, finally, trickles of truth began to flow from Washington D.C.-area media about the identity of the people in the ill-fated SUV. The person killed by NSA’s security forces was, in fact, a trans woman of color and a sex worker named Mya Hall.

    The lead-up to that revelation is instructive, however, and should widen the conversation about black women murdered by police, and what our press coverage can reveal about why it happens. The women in question are often posthumously fitted to fantasies about extremism, a peculiar form of the usual justifications for the murder of black Americans by police where “erratic” behavior on the part of black women is quickly construed as a mortal threat. […]

    Why did the press so forcefully assert and repeat the “men dressed as women” meme? The obvious answer seems to be transphobia, but it’s, as ever, more complicated. The misgendering speaks to the very fears that saw Mya and her companion in the SUV shot at in the first place. We are so inured to fanciful stories about terrorist activity that we’ll believe the staggeringly unlikely — that a group of terrorists dressed up in women’s clothes to crash into an NSA car as some sort of big plot — before accepting a more mundane, far less threatening truth: that someone in distress made a wrong turn, lost their bearings, and panicked when police surrounded them. According to new AP reports that interview those who knew Mya, she was struggling with her mental health and was unable to afford treatment.

    ***

    The idea that male Islamic extremists would launch attacks in the US while dressed as women has been a popular idée fixe for armchair generals and pundits throughout the West for some time now.

    One might argue that as vulgar as this impulse toward the fanciful may be, it stems from an understandable place. In the wake of 9/11 our intelligence services were derided for what many were calling a “failure of imagination”– few people imagined that extremists might hijack passenger jets and turn them into missiles, after all.

    But in response we seem to have overreacted — not a new observation, I’m aware. It’s so old I could justly say I grew up with that observation lingering in the background of news and opinion I consumed. Yet it bears repeating here, with a twist, recognizing how in the Fort Meade case our trigger-happy society not only put a woman in an early grave but also led the press to sensationalize the story to make it fit with our 24-style narratives about the nature of terrorism.

    The story echoes the tragic death of Miriam Carey, a black mother of an infant child, near the White House in 2013. Carey, with her one year old daughter in the backseat of her car, mistakenly drove into a White House checkpoint. When several Secret Service officers drew weapons on her, she panicked and drove away at speed, prompting a police chase that ended with 8 bullets in her car and Carey slain. Miraculously, the infant was unhurt.

    Like the Fort Meade tragedy, we find a situation where a woman of color was interpreted as a terroristic threat to be excised violently when she acted in a way deemed to be unusual. […]

    Similarly, in Mya Hall’s case, although some of the media, like the Washington Post, are making a shift toward gendering her correctly, we see some of the same tropes of reporting on black deaths at the hands of police: the use of a mugshot, an emphasis on past crimes and misdeeds, and so forth, as if to assert that there is some sort of karmic explanation for the tragedy. All as if to suggest that there was something seemly about her summary execution as a suspected threat to national security.

    The role of feminists in these cases, then, should be to keep the flame of attention alive for these women that our society would prefer to forget as rounding errors in the machinery of anti-terror. We should be asking how it is it that two black women, whose wrong turns and sudden (if understandable) panics were interpreted as violent attacks, and why the wages of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong skin color and neurotype seem to be death. […]

    It is not an accident that this keeps happening, and I fear it will happen again. The noxious mixture of paranoia over terrorism and a law enforcement institution rife with anti-black racism will lead not only to more deaths but more media carnivals that serve to re-sow the seedbeds for these types of killings. For women of color and particularly black women in this country, that is the all too urgent and very real terrorism that breeds here at home. And as feminists, we would do well to not be complicit in leaving these women in unmarked graves where the tragedies that claimed their lives are forgotten.

    I naively hoped that the killing of Miriam Carey would touch off a scandal that would shake up our security establishment, with ample and aggressive press coverage asking how something like this could happen– but she has been unclaimed even by many of those (outside of black activist communities) who would call themselves radicals. Mainstream feminism must mend that mistake, and refuse to repeat it with Mya Hall.

    Except I heard nothing about Mya Hall. Beginning of April. Nothing.

    One more for her: Baltimore’s transgender community mourns one of their own, slain by police

    Mya, on the streets since 2009, was killed and a newcomer, Brittany, was injured when officers opened fire Monday after the pair allegedly crashed into a guard post at the National Security Agency, 28 miles away.

    In the early moments, the incident had the Washington region on alert, with fears that it could be terrorism or another type of planned attack. But in the end, authorities said the pair were in an SUV stolen from a man who had picked them up the night before. They mistakenly took a restricted exit and panicked when they saw police.

    Officials identified them by their legal names: Ricky Hall, 27, who went by Mya, and Kevin Fleming, 20, or Brittany. When police initially noted that the two were dressed in women’s clothing, it seemed a strange twist. Later, authorities made a point to say that the garb had not been meant as a disguise.

    Now, their friends in Baltimore’s historic Old Goucher neighborhood, many with questions about the encounter with law enforcement, are in mourning. Death, they say, comes too often, too young and too easy to a transgender population marginalized by a society that they say forces some to resort to prostitution, or what they call becoming “survivor sex workers.”

    “They are being driven to their deaths,” Bryanna A. Jenkins, 26, who runs a transgender advocacy group, said while on a tour of the neighborhood. “Out here, you can be attacked. You can be raped. You can be arrested for being trans.” […]

    On the street early Friday, the women hustled for tricks as cars slowed for drivers to survey the scene. Shannen, one of the women working Charles Street, declined to share her last name. “None of us want to live like this,” she said. “But we learn lessons in life, and we die.”

    The women were just as interested in posing questions as answering them. Who claimed Hall’s body? What did her parents say? How many times was she shot? Why did the police have to shoot her?

    Most of all, they felt isolated from the normal ritual of grief as they mourned together on Charles Street.

    Asked Buttacup, a tear running down her cheek, “Will she have a proper funeral?”

    Well, that was a misgendering mess there, by the Washington Post. And I know black trans women’s lives are difficult, but most of that article was just how much trouble she was experiencing, in a rather victim-blamey way. So I didn’t quote much of it. The most human response is from the others on the street, those most interested in what happened to Hall, rather than her troubled past. Anyway, yeah. Never heard about this case before. :(

  70. Saad says

    Giliell, #64

    Ta Nehisi Coates on the dishonest calls for nonviolence

    When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.

    Yes! This.

    Excellent writing from Coates as usual.

    The people now calling for nonviolence are not prepared to answer these questions. Many of them are charged with enforcing the very policies that led to Gray’s death, and yet they can offer no rational justification for Gray’s death and so they appeal for calm. But there was no official appeal for calm when Gray was being arrested. There was no appeal for calm when Jerriel Lyles was assaulted. (“The blow was so heavy. My eyes swelled up. Blood was dripping down my nose and out my eye.”) There was no claim for nonviolence on behalf of Venus Green. (“Bitch, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black bitches I have locked up.”) There was no plea for peace on behalf of Starr Brown. (“They slammed me down on my face,” Brown added, her voice cracking. “The skin was gone on my face.”)

  71. rq says

    The Baltimore mayor’s office says there were 144 vehicle fires, 15 structures fires and nearly 200 arrests in the unrest that broke out.

    Gang members: We did not make truce to harm cops

    Members of the Black Guerrilla Family, the Bloods and the Crips talk to 11 News, saying they did not make a truce to harm police officers.

    Video.

    As the city of Baltimore shakes awake, state police and National Guard troops gather, prepare.
    Surreal scene as dozens of National Guardsmen line the street at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore:

    Gangs call for calm in Baltimore

    Charles Shelley, a member of the Crips gang, along with a Bloods member named Jamal, called for protesters in the streets of Baltimore to stop rioting.

    Again, video only. The media doesn’t seem to want to ‘waste’ text space on these stories…

    A website for information: #BaltimoreUprising

    On April 19, 2015, Freddie Gray was killed by a Baltimore City Police Officer, sparking sustained unrest. We expect that the officers will be held responsible for his murder and many people have come together to demand justice.

    We will update this page daily with key information regarding the organizing underway in Baltimore as we are in contact with many folks on-the-ground. And this isn’t meant to replace twitter, but to be a central space for information that can be updated in real-time.

    We are all on the right side of justice.

    Schedule of clean-ups, where you can help or receive free meals, etc.

  72. rq says

    .@9thWonderMusic Baltimore.
    .@9thWonderMusic Baltimore.
    Those two look the same, but they’re pictures of peaceful protest. Two different sets.

    Updates on riots, aftermath in Baltimore over death of Freddie Gray

    Rioters plunged part of Baltimore into chaos Monday, torching a pharmacy, setting police cars ablaze and throwing bricks at officers hours after thousands mourned the man who died from a severe spinal injury he suffered in police custody.
    Donte Hickman, pastor of a Baptist church that has been helping to develop the Mary Harvin Senior Housing and Transformational Center shed tears over the fire that engulfed that building Monday evening. Deputy Chief Fire Marshall Shawn Belton says some 80 firefighters were called to fight the huge fire that engulfed the unoccupied building under construction in east Baltimore. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is condemning the rioting in Baltimore that followed the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died from a spinal injury he suffered while in police custody. Police say at least seven officers have been injured in a violent clash with a large group of youths.

    The governor declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to restore order.

    I don’t think the National Guard did a good job, there… Annnyway.

    You realize the same people YOU called thugs are the very ones cleaning up empty police shell casings, right? @MayorSRB #FreddieGray
    Citizens cleaning up Baltimore. Rec and Parks crews now helping. #Baltimore

    Why Baltimore Burned, a look at the economic imbalances of the city.

    Do you know why Baltimore burned on Monday?

    Blame pent-up anger over police brutality and the mysterious death of Freddie Gray.

    And blame the disgusting looters who robbed stores and beat up reporters — in broad daylight.

    But the real culprit isn’t a new problem.

    For decades, Baltimore has struggled to solve persistent inequality that puts people down — and keeps them down.

    Life in Baltimore is a tale of two cities.

    And I grew up in the charmed city — truly, Charm City — that stretched along tree-lined streets near Johns Hopkins University, near the art museum, near a small encampment of a half-dozen private schools. The part of Baltimore where we not only dared to dream big, but believed that those dreams would actually come true.

    Freddie Gray died in the other city.

    About a quarter of Baltimore residents live below the poverty line. The unemployment rate in zip code 21217, where the riots broke out on Monday, was 19.1% in 2011.

    Less than 60% of Baltimore’s high school students graduate, the worst mark in the state — by far.

    Taken together, these disparities illustrate what poverty’s like in big-city America. And the effects are brutally obvious in Baltimore’s health care statistics.

    Black infants in Baltimore are almost nine times more likely to die before age 1 than White infants. AIDS cases are nearly five times more common in the African-American community.

    “Only six miles separate the Baltimore neighborhoods of Roland Park and Hollins Market,” interim Hopkins provost Jonathan Bagger said last year. “[B]ut there is a 20-year difference in the average life expectancy.”

    That inequality is staggering when you consider that one of the best health systems in the world — Johns Hopkins Health System — is based in Baltimore. And many of the nation’s top government health care officials live in or commute to Baltimore, to work at the Medicare and Medicaid office.

    Yet Baltimore’s infant mortality is on par with Moldova and Belize.

    When the Baltimore riots broke out, I was flying back to D.C., sitting next to one of America’s leading public health experts.

    We talked about what went wrong in Baltimore, and what needs to change.

    The city needs better schooling, the expert said, given the inescapable link between education and opportunity. And better nutrition, in light of the city’s vast food deserts.

    More focus on social determinants of health. More culturally competent policing. Better housing. And so on.

    It was a laundry list of necessary fixes.

    It was depressingly long.

    And no, Baltimore isn’t alone, the author goes on to note. As we saw with STL. Huge disparities only a few miles apart.

  73. rq says

    Just want to add the closing of that article:

    Broken schools. Bad jobs. No opportunities. These problems need to matter to all of us. Inequality needs to matter to all of us.

    Trust me. You can watch fires burn in Ferguson, and cluck your tongue in concern and sadness. But it doesn’t seem like it can happen in your hometown.

    Then it happens in your hometown.

    Yuh.

    Baltimore students, parents protest state budget cuts proposed for city schools. Those same schools that are closed today for murky reasons.

    More than 100 of Baltimore’s students, parents, teachers and community members on Thursday protested Gov. Larry Hogan’s $35 million in proposed budget cuts to city schools.

    Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) co-chairman, the Rev. Andrew Foster Connors explained the cuts and referenced a Baltimore Sun report that revealed the school system faces an additional $60 million deficit in next year’s budget.

    “Our children are being threatened,” Connors said.

    He also criticized Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for giving out tax breaks to developers, which increased the city’s property wealth by more than $1.3 billion with the construction of hotels like the Mariott in Harbor East.

    Since the state’s school funding formula is based in part on property wealth, Connors said allowing developers not to pay taxes constituted “developing Baltimore on the backs of our children.”

    Tyhera Bennett, 11, a fifth grader at Robert W. Coleman Elementary, read a letter by her sister Tykaila Taft, in front of the auditorium full of people. The letter mentioned Taft’s Gospel dance teacher, Ms. Tia, who she said is “strict” but “always makes me want to do better.”

    “I would be angry if Ms. Tia or a classroom teacher lost their job,” Bennett read. “She is a great dance teacher. If students work hard, we deserve to have other privileges and have fun in school.

    “If Gov. Hogan were here, I would not want to speak to him, because my mother always told me if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.

    “But if he were here, I would say ‘you shouldn’t cut schools,'” she read. “Please don’t cut Baltimore and don’t cut my education.”

    The governor’s office has argued that his budget includes more statewide funding for elementary, middle and high school students than any other in history and has said it is open to ideas for how the state can increase its investment in education.

    Carol Augustine, of St. Matthew Parish in Northwood, said she doesn’t have children but realizes how crucial the success of Baltimore’s schools are to the city.

    “I’m here as somebody who loves and believes in kids,” the 68-year-old former teacher said. “I believe kids deserve the best we can give them.”

    We are feeding the children of Bmore this morning and afternoon. Breakfast and lunch will be served. #BaltimoreLunch List of locations and times attached.
    And remember that 84-5% qualify for receiving lunch at school. That’s a lot of hungry kids today – almost as if someone is trying to provoke these communities into some sort of action to justify… I don’t even know.

    Here’s a project put up by @justiceconnect4 called Baltimore is Rising Solidarity: All Plans of Actions with information on what’s happening, and a section on livestreams. They’re trying to centralize some of them, though there’s only two up right now.

    This morning Baltimore youth cleaning up their neighborhoods.

    We the protestors policy cards: policy cards to identify the right questions to ask.

    cWe created these policy cards to help protest groups identify the policies that need to be put in place at the local level to protect our communities from police violence. No one policy will end police violence. It will take a range of policies from each of these cards to produce the kind of meaningful change that we need to truly be safe. We hope you will use these cards together with strategic protests and advocacy efforts to force mayors, city council members, police chiefs and other officials to change the policies and systems that have allowed police to threaten black lives with impunity.

    Under headings like ‘Establish Trust and Legitimacy’ and ‘Respect and Reflect the Community’, there are questions concerning the racial make-up of your local police, what kinds of police code of conduct is there, local police use of force policies, civilian access to police records and what kinds and in which situations, etc.

  74. rq says

    @deray things the media hardly show ! #PrayForBaltimore #RIPFreddieGray

    Contact Information for organizations helping out on the ground – providing all kinds of support, incl. food.

    To the Media, ‘Black’ Is Too Often Shorthand for ‘Poor’

    What does poverty look like in America?

    Judging by how it’s portrayed in the media, it looks black.

    That’s the conclusion of a new study by Bas W. van Doorn, a professor of political science at the College of Wooster, in Ohio, which examined 474 stories about poverty published in Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report between 1992 and 2010. In the images that ran alongside those stories in print, black people were overrepresented, appearing in a little more than half of the images, even though they made up only a quarter of people below the poverty line during that time span. Hispanic people, who account for 23 percent of America’s poor, were significantly under-represented in the images, appearing in 13.7 percent of them. […]

    But it’s not just that poor people are imagined to be black—they’re also commonly thought of as lazy. In 2008, only 37.6 percent of Americans considered black people hardworking, whereas 60.9 percent said the same of Hispanic people. For white people and Asian people, these percentages were 58.6 and 64.5, respectively. “To the extent that photo editors share these stereotypes,” van Doorn writes, “it is no surprise that African Americans are over- and Hispanics are under-represented among the pictured poor.”

    One potential hole in van Doorn’s study is that he analyzed weekly news magazines published in print, which makes sense when approaching the question for 1992, but made less sense by 2010. On top of that, Time and Newsweek’s print staffs (likely a relatively old-school bunch) might not be reflective of today’s entire media world. Still, some of the discrepancies between print publications’ “pictured poor” and reality are so large—38 percent of welfare recipients are black, yet 80 percent of the people pictured alongside Newsweek’s stories on welfare were black—that it’s hard to imagine that digital publications would have shaken the habit entirely.

    Van Doorn is interested in the relationships between the adjectives “poor,” “black,” and “lazy,” arguing in his paper that they must have something to do with why some Americans are opposed to generous welfare programs. A 1999 book that he leans on heavily, Why Americans Hate Welfare by Martin Gilens, made the case that supporting impoverished adults with cash payouts is unpopular because white voters see such efforts as primarily benefitting black people—whom they believe to be lazy and thus undeserving. If the media’s portrayal of poverty were to reflect its actual diversity, perhaps voters would view social welfare programs more favorably. But that wouldn’t change the underlying phenomenon: that many still believe skin color says something about work ethic.

  75. Pteryxx says

    Thanks again to rq for staying on top of the Baltimore situation in real time and real voices. I was out of contact, and it’s a good thing I looked here before getting exposed to Deep South news coverage. *gag*

    PZ’s latest: The right wing responds to Baltimore

    This is a theme: it’s always the rioters fault (unless they are white, like the Tea Party, and are cunningly dressed up as a minority racial group to displace the blame, like the Tea Party.) And any of the arguments that demand the root problems be addressed will be dealt with via a “blah blah blah” dismissal. Are these people not members of an oppressed community? Do they not have a cause to cry for justice? Are they not ignored, does the problem not persist? What would you have them do?

    He [National Review writer] also quotes from one of his stable of racist apologists for the elite, Steven Crowder.

    You are animals. If you are able to destroy the home or business of your neighbor, you’ve lost your humanity. If you are able to harm your fellow man, to scare their children, to do so with a clean conscience, merely because of something that some cop may or may not have done, which has nothing to do with you . . . you are a horrible human being. You disgust me, as you should anyone who wishes to be a part of civilized society.

    So you’re an “animal” if you destroy property in a protest. What does that make a policeman who murders human beings at will?

    PZ also linked to a 2001 Philly dot com investigation of “nickel rides”. I’m digging up the rest of the series and will post the links to it shortly.

  76. rq says

    HAHA, real time. :D I go to bed during all the action and gather in the voices in the morning. But you’re welcome.

    +++

    Baltimore on edge: a collection of photos and a few articles (like this one and this one) by CNN. So you have been warned – it’s CNN.

    Justus Howell: Autopsy concludes death of Zion teen was homicide. Well, he was shot by a cop. Whether that cop will see any consequences remains to be seen. Paid leave doesn’t count. :P

    @deray Let non-violence become a two-way street. Non-violence by the oppressed alone isn’t working out so hot.

    81% of unarmed people killed by police in 2014 in major U.S. cities were people of color.

  77. rq says

    The Economic Devastation Fueling The Anger In Baltimore

    Last night, peaceful protests after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man killed in police custody, turned into more violent unrest when protesters were met with phalanxes of police.

    The protesters’ anger was fueled, at least in large part, by the Baltimore police department’s long history of ugly violence against the city’s residents and a pattern of officers facing few, if any, repercussions. But the protests also take place in the context of a city that has been ravaged economically, most recently by the foreclosure crisis and predatory lending.

    Freddie Gray grew up in a neighborhood particularly plagued by the problems that have long faced the city of Baltimore. In Sandtown-Winchester, more than half of the people between the ages of 16 and 64 are out of work and the unemployment rate is double that for the city at one in five. Median income is just $24,000, below the poverty line for a family of four, and nearly a third of families live in poverty. Meanwhile, almost a quarter of the buildings are vacant, compared to 5 percent in the city as a whole.

    Each of these conditions — high unemployment, low incomes, and widespread foreclosure — has a long history in the city of Baltimore. It was once a thriving economy built on the steel industry. Bethlehem Steel set up shop in the early 1900s with the Sparrow Point mill, and the industry boomed during World War II, employing 35,000 workers at its peak in 1959, according to a 2004 report from the 1199E-DC union. But American manufacturing began its precipitous decline in the 1970s, and Sparrows Point laid off 3,000 workers in 1971, then another 7,000 in 1975. Just 8,000 people were employed at the mill by the 1980s. Overall, the city lost more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs between 1950 and 1995.

    The city never really recovered from that loss and the effects can still be seen today. The country’s unemployment rate stood at 5.8 percent in February, down from 7 percent a year earlier, and the rate for the greater Baltimore area was the same. Yet in the city itself, the rate was 8.4 percent, just one percentage point lower than the 8.9 percent rate it had experienced a year earlier.

    Those rates also mask huge racial differences. As of 2012, just 5.6 percent of white people living in the state of Maryland were out of work and looking for a job; the unemployment rate was in the double digits for the state’s black residents. In the city of Baltimore itself, the share of employed black men between the ages of 16 and 64 dropped more than 15 percent from about three-quarters in 1970 to just 57.5 percent by 2010. Yet more than three-quarters of white men of in the city were employed by 2010. That racial gap has grown steadily since the 1970s, from a 10 percentage point difference in how many men had work to a 20 percentage point one.

    As with other cities that have experienced unrest, like Ferguson, economic decline was paired with white flight. The city’s black population nearly doubled between 1950 and 1970 but whites began moving away: Almost a third of the city’s population left the city between 1950 and 2000. The city’s population peaked at 949,708 in 1950 but began dropping quickly after 1970, falling 118,984, or 13 percent, between 1970 and 1980.

    Aiding that flight were real estate agents who would play up racial fears and worries about falling property values, getting white residents near expanding black neighborhoods to sell their houses and then turning around and selling them to black families at a much higher price. A fair housing coalition discovered in 1969 that the Morris Goldeker Company, a developer, had bought homes for an average of $7,320 and sold them for $12,387 to black families, a 69 percent markup. Today, more than half of black men between the ages of 16 and 64 in the Baltimore area live in the city; just 11.5 percent of white men do. Black people make up less than a third of the state’s population but two-thirds of Baltimore residents.

    Housing discrimination came in another form just before the financial crisis: predatory lenders. In 2012, a former loan officer with Wells Fargo testified that she and the other officers targeted majority black communities in Baltimore and nearby areas, forging relationships with churches and community groups. They pushed homeowners with perfect credit into loans that had higher interest rates than they should have been paying and also gave mortgages to people with low incomes who couldn’t afford them without any income paperwork or down payments. Bank employees called their clients “mud people” and called the subprime mortgages “ghetto loans.” The Department of Justice eventually found out that 4,500 homeowners in Baltimore and Washington, DC had been affected by these practices.

    When the housing market crashed, many of these borrowers with adjustable rates or mortgages they simply couldn’t afford ended up facing foreclosure. Maryland foreclosures surged 280 percent between the end of 2012 and 2013, likely delayed some years by the state’s requirement that foreclosed homes be processed through the judicial system. More than half of Baltimore properties subject to foreclosure on a Wells Fargo loan between 2005 and 2008 are vacant, 71 percent of them in predominantly black neighborhoods. Baltimore still had the ninth-largest number of foreclosures in the country last year at 5,200.

    The foreclosure crisis devastated black wealth across the country. Today, black families in the area have much less money than white ones. While white income fell 6.5 percent between 1999 and 2013, from $72,860 to $68,112, black income started lower — at $62,639 — and fell faster, 7.2 percent. Income is also lower in Baltimore — about $39,000 — than in the surrounding county, which makes about $62,400 on average. The city also grapples with an incredibly high poverty rate — 24 percent of households live below the official poverty line.

    That’s the entire article, a good synopsis of many of the factors underlying the current unrest. It’s not going to be a simple answer, or a short process, but godsdamn it would be nice to start it somewhere.

    Folks exiting #FreddieGray’s funeral had to face this as they walked out church yesterday…

    #MediaGaggle

    All Baltimore City Recreation & Parks recreation centers will be open from 11am to 7pm today, 4/28. #BaltimoreUprising That’s someplace for young folk to go to.

    Here’s a text article on the gang truce, finally. Fight Against Police Brutality in Baltimore Unites Rivals

    Long known for their deep animosity towards each other, the opposing Bloods and Crips gangs joined forces in Baltimore Saturday to take on what many would say is a common foe to all black people: police brutality.

    The rival gangs agreed to call a truce and march together in response to the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody. He suffered deadly injuries (including a severed spine) during his April 12 arrest and died as a result of them a week later.

    “I can say with honesty those brothers demonstrated they can be united for a common good,” Carlos Muhammad, a minister at Nation of Islam’s Mosque No. 6, told The Daily Beast. “At the rally, they made the call that they must be united on that day. It should be commended.”

    DeRay McKesson, an organizer who has been especially visible in Ferguson, Mo., where Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old-year Michael Brown, was also in Baltimore to see the two gangs join forces.

    “The fight against police brutality has united people in many ways that we have not seen regularly, and that’s really powerful,” McKesson told The Daily Beast. “The reality is, police have been terrorizing black people as far back as we can remember. It will take all of us coming together to change a corrupt system.”

    Baltimore, at least for the moment, is the most potent Ground Zero city in the U.S. for activists fighting police brutality. More than 1,200 people filled the streets of downtown Baltimore Saturday and protested peacefully until the things turned more contentious and the day ended with 31 arrests, according to the Baltimore Sun. Friday, officials admitted that Gray should have received medical attention after his arrest. His funeral is today.

    What makes this story so incredible is that it was the people who are closest to the issue of police brutality who empowered themselves to solve their own issues. The call for unity, even among rival gangs, was a moment in which one could really appreciate the power of community-based conflict resolution.

    The Black Lives Matter Movement is teaching America is that black Americans are forming partnerships with anyone who is ready to fight police brutality–that includes the Crips and the Bloods.

    AG Loretta Lynch on the #BaltimoreUprising. Blockquote from here:

    Statement by Attorney General Lynch on the Situation in Baltimore

    Attorney General Loretta Lynch released the following statement on the situation in Baltimore, Maryland:

    “I condemn the senseless acts of violence by some individuals in Baltimore that have resulted in harm to law enforcement officers, destruction of property and a shattering of the peace in the city of Baltimore. Those who commit violent actions, ostensibly in protest of the death of Freddie Gray, do a disservice to his family, to his loved ones, and to legitimate peaceful protestors who are working to improve their community for all its residents.

    “The Department of Justice stands ready to provide any assistance that might be helpful. The Civil Rights Division and the FBI have an ongoing, independent criminal civil rights investigation into the tragic death of Mr. Gray. We will continue our careful and deliberate examination of the facts in the coming days and weeks. The department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services has also been fully engaged in a collaborative review of the Baltimore City Police Department. The department’s Community Relations Service has already been on the ground, and they are sending additional resources as they continue to work with all parties to reduce tensions and promote the safety of the community. And in the coming days, Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division, and Ronald Davis, Director of Community Oriented Policing Services, will be traveling to Baltimore to meet with faith and community leaders, as well as city officials.

    “As our investigative process continues, I strongly urge every member of the Baltimore community to adhere to the principles of nonviolence. In the days ahead, I intend to work with leaders throughout Baltimore to ensure that we can protect the security and civil rights of all residents. And I will bring the full resources of the Department of Justice to bear in protecting those under threat, investigating wrongdoing, and securing an end to violence.”

    Though that seems to be from yesterday.

  78. Pteryxx says

    The 2001 Philly News series investigating police van brutality: “Battered Cargo”

    Part one: Battered cargo: The costs of the police ‘nickel ride’ In city patrol wagons, suspects slam into walls and slide across the floor. Paying the price are the injured and the taxpayers – not the police.

    Thompson had been arrested outside a North Philadelphia convenience store after a drunken argument with a girlfriend over a set of keys. Police put him in the back of a patrol wagon, his hands cuffed behind his back.

    The low, narrow benches had no seat belts. The bare, hard walls had no padding. As the wagon headed south on Broad Street, toward the 22d District police station, the driver accelerated – “like they were going to a fire or something,” Thompson said.

    Then the wagon came to a screeching stop, Thompson and one of the officers recalled.

    Thompson was launched headfirst into a partition and suffered a devastating spinal-cord injury.

    “They took me right out of the store and into the wagon, and that’s the last I walked,” said Thompson, father of 11 children. “That wagon changed my whole life.”

    Thompson was a victim of a secretive ritual in Philadelphia policing: the wild wagon ride, with sudden starts, stops and turns that send handcuffed suspects hurtling into the walls.

    Top commanders acknowledge that rough rides are an enduring tradition in the department. The practice even has a name – “nickel ride,” a term that harks back to the days when amusement-park rides cost 5 cents.

    An Inquirer investigation documented injuries to 20 people tossed around in wagons in recent years. Thompson was one of three who suffered spinal injuries, and one of two permanently paralyzed.

    Most of the victims had clean records. They were arrested on minor charges after talking back to or arguing with police. Typically, the charges were later dismissed.

    Those wagon injuries have cost taxpayers more than $2.3 million in legal settlements, but the Police Department has responded to the problem with a conspicuous lack of urgency.

    […]

    Calvin Saunders, arrested in South Philadelphia in 1997 driving a stolen car, was propelled from his seat in the back of a police van and rammed his head against a wall.

    He ended up a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down. To this day, Saunders cannot feed, bathe or dress himself and depends on others for his most basic needs. The city paid him a $1.2 million settlement to help cover his lifetime medical care.

    There is no official tally of wagon injuries, no way to know exactly how many people have been hurt.

    The 20 cases documented by The Inquirer were culled from court files and records of city legal settlements. They likely represent a fraction of all wagon injuries – those in which the victims hire lawyers and win financial compensation.

    […]

    Police Commissioner John F. Timoney said he knew of the injury to Saunders but was not aware that officers intentionally subjected prisoners to jolting wagon rides.

    “Such behavior – if it does exist – certainly isn’t condoned by myself or anybody else in this department,” Timoney said.

    He added: “We are making efforts, as much as humanly possible, to reduce . . . the number of incidents where prisoners get hurt in the back of these vans.”

    Timoney’s top deputies say that wild wagon rides are mainly a thing of the past.

    “We’ve had some where the person goes flying and hits their head,” said Deputy Police Commissioner John J. Norris, head of the Internal Affairs Bureau. “They get taken for a ride.”

    Norris, a 30-year veteran of the force, said such abuses had diminished greatly and were now “minuscule” in number.

    Yet many wagon injuries go undetected by Internal Affairs – even some that resulted in legal settlements.

    Of the 20 cases documented by The Inquirer, 11 were never investigated by the Police Department. Norris said he was not aware of the injuries until reporters asked about them.

    Of the nine cases that were scrutinized by Internal Affairs, the department took disciplinary action against the wagon officers in only one – the Thompson case – and then for infractions committed after the wagon ride, not for the injury itself.

    The punishment: a three-day suspension for the driver, Officer Demetrius Beasley.

    A year later, Beasley was promoted to sergeant.

    […]

    An argument ensued. The parking-enforcement officer called police and accused DeVivo of throwing bottles at her. He denied it.

    He was arrested, handcuffed, and taken by wagon to the Southwest Detective Division.

    “We went two blocks, and they slammed on the brakes,” said DeVivo, now 36.

    He was thrown from the seat and landed on the floor, fracturing his tailbone, medical records show.

    DeVivo, who had no criminal record, sued and collected $11,000. As in all the legal settlements, the city did not admit police wrongdoing. The assault charges against DeVivo were later dismissed.

    When the ride was over, DeVivo said, he asked the wagon officers why it had been so rough. He said they told him a dog ran in front of the wagon.

    “They were laughing,” he said.

    […]

    The “nickel ride” has been around for decades, winked at by generations of police commanders and commissioners.

    Rookies learn about it as “part of your street training,” said Norman A. Carter Jr., a retired Philadelphia police corporal whose 25 years on the force included a six-month stint as a wagon officer.

    When the arresting officers wanted to punish someone in custody, Carter said, they would tell the wagon crew to “take him for a ride.”

    The practice persists, current and former officers say, because it is a nearly foolproof way to get back at someone who resists arrest or otherwise angers police.

    Officers out to settle a score need not use their fists.

    Because there usually are no witnesses, injuries can be attributed to busy traffic, bad roads, or a sudden stop made to avoid a cat or dog.

    A nickel ride is a way for officers to assert their authority when someone challenges it, said James B. Jordan, a lawyer who reviewed numerous wagon injuries as the Police Department’s in-house corruption monitor from 1996 through 1999.

    “What better way to show who’s in control than stopping at a light and slamming on the brakes, knowing that they’re going to go flying?” Jordan asked. “And maybe the prisoner was yelling, and maybe this will shut him up.”

    Chief Inspector Frank M. Pryor, head of the department’s patrol operations, said rough rides were once a common method of punishing recalcitrant prisoners.

    In the 1970s, he said, the police ranks included wagon officers who were eager to lash out at uncooperative suspects.

    “If you pissed them off,” he said, “you were going to get the ride of your life . . . and nobody did anything about it.”

    But Pryor said such behavior was no longer tolerated.

    “If we see that happen, we’re on it now.”

    Note all those repetitions of nickel-riding being a thing of the past and how it’s not tolerated now.

    Part 2: Injuries evident, but accountability elusive

    Those cases cost taxpayers more than $2.3 million in legal settlements. The largest, $1.2 million, was paid to Saunders, who remains a quadriplegic.

    Yet the Police Department’s disciplinary system has been toothless in responding to the problem.

    The Inquirer asked the department how many times officers had been punished for taking prisoners on wild wagon rides.

    The answer: none.

    Top commanders say it is hard to pin blame for wagon injuries because there are rarely independent witnesses and the driver can blame a swerve or sudden stop on city traffic.

    But that is only part of the explanation.

    Police stonewalling can make it difficult to get at the truth. In the Saunders case, Internal Affairs concluded that four different officers lied to investigators about their treatment of the suspect.

    Many wagon injuries never come under departmental scrutiny at all – even when the victims are taken to hospitals or collect large settlements.

    That is because a requirement that Internal Affairs be alerted whenever someone is injured in custody sometimes goes unheeded.

    A hospital visit is supposed to trigger an immediate report by a police supervisor to the department’s investigative arm. Often, it does not.

    Of the 20 wagon injuries uncovered by The Inquirer, 11 never came to the attention of Internal Affairs, even though the victims needed hospital treatment, department records show.

    Asked for an explanation, Police Commissioner John F. Timoney expressed surprise and ordered an investigation into those lapses.

    “If you’re being stitched up in a hospital . . . Internal Affairs should be notified,” he said. “We’ll look into it.”

    Of the nine wagon injuries that were investigated, Internal Affairs recommended disciplinary action in just two: the Saunders case and that of Gino Thompson, who was thrown headfirst into a wall during a 1994 wagon ride and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

    In both cases, punishment was recommended for infractions committed before or after the wagon rides that caused the two men’s injuries.

    As for what occurred inside the wagons, Internal Affairs saw no grounds for discipline.

    “It’s pretty difficult to prove these cases,” said Deputy Police Commissioner John J. Norris, head of Internal Affairs. “To prove deliberateness, you really have to get lucky.”

    Because nearly all patrol wagons lack seat belts and protective padding, it can be hard to sort out accidental injuries from those inflicted deliberately, Norris said.

    “It could be totally unintentional, and you could wind up with a broken neck,” he said.

    Since injuries occur in a closed-off rear compartment, without anyone laying a hand on the victim, it is easy for wagon officers to deny knowledge or responsibility.

    “They’ll say a little cat ran in front of the van or ‘I don’t remember any sudden stops,’ ” said Alan Denenberg, a Philadelphia lawyer who handles many police-brutality cases.

    “The officers will say, ‘I don’t know what happened. He was on the floor. I assume he jumped.’ “

    An example of just this sort of excuse-making in practice:

    In piecing together that day’s events, Internal Affairs confronted a sharp divergence between Saunders’ account and those of police officers.

    Saunders said he was injured behind the ear when the arresting officers, Brian Madalion and Brian Sprowal, pistol-whipped and kicked him. Both denied it, but witnesses corroborated Saunders’ story.

    In its report, Internal Affairs concluded that the two officers had used excessive force and lied about it.

    Saunders also told investigators that after the wagon pulled up outside the St. Agnes emergency room, the two wagon officers – Thomas Fitzpatrick and Nancy Morley – ordered him to his feet.

    “I said, ‘I can’t stand up,’ ” Saunders said. “They dragged me out of the wagon, stood me up, and let go. I collapsed on the pavement.”

    Fitzpatrick, the driver, and Morley, his partner, gave investigators a different account.

    They said Saunders never told them he was paralyzed and never fell to the ground. Rather, the officers said, Fitzpatrick lifted Saunders from the wagon and put him into a wheelchair.

    But a firefighter and two police officers who were at the hospital told investigators that they heard Saunders telling Fitzpatrick and Morley that he could not move. These witnesses also said they later saw Saunders lying on the ground, his hands still cuffed behind the back.

    Internal Affairs again concluded that Saunders was telling the truth.

    On the crucial issue of how Saunders suffered his paralyzing injury inside Emergency Patrol Wagon 101, investigators again faced a stark contradiction.

    Saunders said the wagon stopped abruptly, launching from his seat.

    “We were riding for about a minute or two when they jammed on the brakes,” Saunders said. “I was sitting near the door, and I went sliding to the front of the wagon and hit the top of my head. . . .

    “I yelled, ‘Help!’ but they didn’t hear. I was lying on the floor on the wagon. I felt numbness in my neck area and couldn’t move my arms and legs.”

    Fitzpatrick and Morley said the wagon did not make any sudden stops and they never heard Saunders hit the wall or call for help.

    “Nothing happened on the way to the hospital to make that injury occur,” Fitzpatrick told Internal Affairs.

    The report said the wagon officers could not explain how Saunders was injured in their custody. But it did not blame them for causing his paralysis.

    Instead, the report said the injury “could be the result of a fluke set of circumstances.”

    That conclusion was based on a theory offered by Ian Hood, a deputy city medical examiner who reviewed the case for the Police Department.

    Hood told investigators that if Saunders stood up during the wagon ride to shift position, “he could have been propelled into the front wall or rear doors . . . even without a drastic change in speed.”

    The report said: “Hood stated that this sequence of events is a freak occurrence, but could explain the injury.”

    Madalion and Sprowal, the officers who pummeled Saunders after his arrest, were suspended for 30 days.

    Internal Affairs recommended that Fitzpatrick and Morley be disciplined for lying about what happened outside the hospital and for failing to put Saunders on a spinal-injury board.

    They appealed to the Police Board of Inquiry, a departmental tribunal, and were cleared of the charges.

    Sgt. Roland Lee, a police spokesman, said the department would release no information about the board’s reasoning.

    Fitzpatrick and Morley, both still on the force, declined to comment.

    […]

    When passengers are injured while riding in police wagons, the officers typically disavow any knowledge or responsibility. That is what happened after Calvin Saunders suffered his paralyzing injury during a 1997 wagon ride, according to an Internal Affairs Bureau report.

    * Officer Thomas Fitzpatrick, the driver

    “P/O Fitzpatrick did not come to any quick stops and did not swerve the wagon. He did not hear any loud noise . . . . P/O Fitzpatrick stated that he did not know the prisoner was injured in his wagon and that nothing happened . . . to make that injury occur.”

    * Officer Nancy Morley, Fitzpatrick’s partner

    “They did not make any sudden or unusual stops. She did not hear any noises from the rear of the wagon. She cannot offer any explanation for how Calvin Saunders became paralyzed in their custody.”

    Part 3: Why risky wagons remain on streets While officials study van upgrades, injuries continue.

    The parade of injuries did not stop even after Calvin Saunders was paralyzed from the neck down during a wagon ride in April 1997.

    In fact, of 20 wagon injuries documented by The Inquirer in a review that went back seven years, half occurred after the Saunders tragedy.

    Why are these wagons still on the road – and in most cases still lacking even rudimentary safety features?

    Because police commanders and city officials were slow to recognize the safety problem. And when they did, they were slow to adopt the obvious solution: equipping the vehicles with seat belts and padding.

    Even as the list of injuries and taxpayer-funded legal settlements grew, city officials did not hurry to make the wagons safer. Instead, they studied how to do so.

    […]

    The department now says it will launch an all-out safety effort, buying dozens of new wagons and retrofitting old ones so that the entire fleet will have belts and padding by 2003.

    Attorneys for the injured say that should have happened years ago. They contend that the city dithered while people were harmed in vehicles whose dangers were well-known.

    Police brass say the long wait was unavoidable.

    “Granted, it’s taken a long time, but . . . we had to be sure” the new vehicles “would satisfy all of our needs,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Thomas J. Nestel, who oversees the department fleet.

    Nestel said the injuries to Thompson and Saunders did not trigger an urgent response because they were “aberrations.”

    “When you look at the number of people we transport in those vehicles . . . overall our safety record is good,” he said.

    Saunders’ attorney, Fortunato N. Perri Jr., said he was dumbfounded to discover, while researching his client’s 1997 case, that Thompson had suffered a similar injury only three years earlier.

    “And they’re still using these wagons,” Perri said. “It’s frightening.”

    […]

    For two years, Police Department vehicle managers and city fleet experts worked with Sundy to develop a safer wagon. They contacted other police departments and studied a variety of vehicles and safety options.

    The city wanted the vans to continue to serve multiple purposes – transporting evidence and equipment as well as handcuffed suspects. That ruled out some safety features, such as interior partitions to keep prisoners from sliding around.

    Seat belts were also a difficult issue. They had been available in the Ford vans for 10 years, and Havis Shields has long recommended them to its customers, Sundy said.

    But seat belts had never been installed in Philadelphia’s police wagons. Top commanders say they feared prisoners would harm themselves with the straps.

    As the planning group weighed various safety options, police representatives again rejected individual lap belts, this time citing the need to protect officers.

    With individual belts, officers would have to climb into the wagon to secure a prisoner. Police said this would leave officers vulnerable.

    The planning group developed an alternative – a single large seat belt on each side of the wagon, securing all prisoners seated on one of two facing benches. Officers can pull the belts in place from the rear of the wagon, without having to get inside.

    Still, “there was skepticism that this was the solution,” Sundy said.

    […]

    The plan was to continue phasing in new vans at the rate of 10 per year. At that pace, it would have taken until 2008 to retire all the old models.

    In March, after The Inquirer had raised questions with city officials about wagon injuries, the city accelerated its safety program.

    Instead of the expected 10 new wagons, the city will buy 25 over the next year, and it will pay Havis Shields to retrofit 25 older wagons. The total cost: about $900,000.

    Nestel said that he expected to secure additional funding to replace or retrofit the entire fleet by 2003.

    Gary Stowell, a Haddon Heights lawyer and former police officer who was a consultant on Saunders’ case, said it was hard to fathom why the department did not do that years ago.

    “They had notice,” he said. “I just can’t see using these wagons without seat belts. I just don’t believe the fact that they’re criminals means they should be treated like cattle.”

  79. Pteryxx says

    Addendum to the 2001 “Battered Cargo” series: Most cities have moved to patrol cars for moving prisoners

    The City of Chicago, prodded by a string of injuries and a federal lawsuit, pledged to pull its police wagons off the street in 1985. It took 11 years.

    Chicago’s wagons had hard interiors and no seat belts, just like Philadelphia’s. And, as in Philadelphia, passengers tossed around during rough rides had suffered serious injuries, even paralysis.

    The American Civil Liberties Union sued Chicago in 1982, contending that the wagons were inherently unsafe and that police intentionally punished passengers with “green-light rides” or “joy rides” that sent them flying off their seats, bouncing off walls, or rolling around on the floor.

    […]

    The safer wagons were phased in at a rate of 10 a year. It took until 1996 to get all the old ones off the street.

    Chicago’s new fleet of 50 GMC passenger vans cost $2.5 million.

    But most suspects will never see the inside of those wagons. The city now uses patrol cars to transport most prisoners, reserving the wagons for unruly prisoners or mass arrests.

    “Offenders are now transported in a safe environment, and injuries have diminished,” said Sgt. Robert Cargie, a Chicago police spokesman.

    And within days of the series hitting press, Philadelphia police institute an investigation: Phila. police begin own ‘nickel ride’ probe

    Investigators yesterday were pulling files on the cases and assembling information for Deputy Police Commissioner John J. Norris, head of the Internal Affairs Bureau.

    “We’re reviewing all of the cases,” said Lt. Thomas Fournier of Internal Affairs.

    The aim is to determine whether any of the injuries resulted from police misconduct and why 11 of the 20 cases originally went undetected by Internal Affairs.

    Also yesterday, City Council voted unanimously to hold public hearings into wagon injuries. Council gave its Public Safety Committee, which will conduct the hearings in the fall, power to subpoena witnesses and documents.

    “Everything is on the table,” said Councilman Angel L. Ortiz, chairman of the committee. “We are looking into everything that has been reported and everything that’s brought to our attention.

    “Not everybody who rides in those vans is guilty of crimes,” he said, “and even if you are guilty, you shouldn’t be getting punishment before you get a trial.”

    […]

    In a resolution approved unanimously yesterday, Council said it was proceeding with hearings, despite Timoney’s action, because “there are still too many policy questions and issues of accountability that remain unanswered.”

    Among those, Ortiz said, is why 11 of the 20 cases went uninvestigated.

    Fournier said Internal Affairs also wanted an answer to that question.

    “Some of them we have no information on, and we’re trying to figure out how come Internal Affairs didn’t get notified,” he said.

    Of the nine cases involving wagon injuries that did receive departmental scrutiny, Internal Affairs recommended disciplinary action against police officers in just two, for infractions committed before or after the wagon rides.

    No Philadelphia police officer has ever been disciplined for causing injuries with a wild wagon ride, The Inquirer found.

    Ortiz said he rode in a police wagon a year ago, after he was arrested at a protest at Broad and Cherry Streets. He was handcuffed, put in a wagon with 15 others, and driven to the Ninth District police station.

    “It was very uncomfortable,” Ortiz said. “When you are handcuffed, there’s no way to maintain leverage.”

    Referring to the Council hearings, he said: “All of this . . . has to do with changing the culture of the way people are treated when they are arrested.”

    And from an article on the same day as the series began: Police now press for safer vans The department cut 5 years off its plan to upgrade the wagons. Just a month earlier, questions had been raised.

    Sundy has worked with the city for several years, researching safety options for the wagons. He was expecting to equip 10 new vehicles per year with seat belts, padding and seat dividers.

    In March, Sundy said, he got a call from city officials informing him that they now wanted to “do what it takes” to upgrade the whole fleet “at full throttle.”

    The first of the older wagons to be overhauled was delivered to Havis Shields last week.

    “The request from them is to get up and rolling and outfit the vans as soon as possible,” Sundy said.

    Nestel said he hoped to secure more money to replace or retrofit the remaining wagons by 2003.

    “We will get it done as fast as we can,” he said. “Even one injury is extremely serious and important.”

    Problem being taken care of, eh? Well…

  80. Pteryxx says

    Following the Philadelphia “Battered Cargo” series in 2001, now it’s December of 2013.

    Lawsuits accuse Phila. police of resuming ‘nickel rides’

    McKenna alleges police subjected him to a form of abuse – a jolting and dangerous ride in a police wagon – that has a long, dishonorable history in Philadelphia.

    The practice was entrenched before the department vowed to end it a dozen years ago after an Inquirer investigative series. The articles detailed crippling injuries, including paralysis, suffered by people placed unrestrained in the vans.

    In recent years, at least four lawsuits or complaints have been brought alleging that people were injured during police transports. The three most recent complaints are detailed in this article.

    In a city in which police make about 80,000 arrests every year, it’s unclear whether these complaints are isolated allegations or point to a larger problem.

    Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey declined repeated requests for an interview on the issue. His department also rejected requests to provide a statistical breakdown of cases in which police were disciplined for violating policies on transporting suspects.

    Craig M. Straw, the chief deputy city solicitor who directs city lawyers who respond to lawsuits alleging police misconduct, said his unit couldn’t provide a count of suits alleging mistreatment during police transport. But he said the allegation was not common. “It’s not that prevalent,” he said.

    In the last decade, the department has reequipped its 80 vans in a way that police officials say has made them safer but that critics say has made them more dangerous for prisoners.

    Police commanders say the force has retrofitted almost all the wagons to replace seat belts with so-called grab belts. These are belts that run behind prisoners’ backs. Suspects, seated with their hands cuffed behind them, are expected to hold on during rides.

    Police Capt. Raymond Convery, commander of fleet management for the department, says the new approach has spared prisoners from potentially harmful entanglements with belts and kept police from having to reach over hostile suspects to strap them in.

    But critics say it’s unreasonable and unsafe to expect handcuffed prisoners, sometimes already injured or intoxicated, to secure themselves by holding on to a belt behind their backs.

    “You can’t depend on a person just to hold on with their grip, especially on a belt,” said Lawrence Schneider, a professor in the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute’s Biosciences Group. He helped advise the ACLU in Chicago when it successfully fought to block police there from using vans to transport prisoners.

    Critics also say the grab belts pose an obvious hazard for prisoners in an accident.

    “They just can’t deal with the forces that would be exerted on you in a crash,” Schneider said.

    […]

    Handcuffed, McKenna was put in the back of a police wagon. He said he wasn’t strapped in.

    He said the van took off, taking turns at high speeds, then braking suddenly, throwing him from the seat and to the floor.

    McKenna was charged with simple assault, a misdemeanor. At a trial, the bartender testified that McKenna had struck him, but McKenna said he had not seen the bartender that night. The judge found McKenna not guilty.

    In his testimony, O’Shea said he was not among the officers in the wagon that carried McKenna. He said he drove from the bar and met the van at the police station to help process the arrest.

    At the station, he testified, McKenna injured himself in a cell.

    “He banged his face multiple times off the iron steel bar, which caused a laceration, which caused an injury,” O’Shea testified.

    Police took McKenna to Hahnemann University Hospital. Doctors treated him for three broken vertebrae in his neck.

    They also took notes.

    One typed physician’s assessment says, “Mechanism of injury: banged head against cell in police custody hit head.”

    But another staffer’s handwritten notation reads: “While being transported, pt. hit his own head against divider as reported by arriving officers.”

    A note from a third staffer said, “Hit head on police car door.” This notation doesn’t specify who told that to the staffer.

    McKenna sued the Police Department in 2012 but withdrew his lawsuit this year.

    His lawyer quit the case after McKenna’s neck surgeon, Jay Zampini, said he might testify it was possible McKenna could have inflicted the injury on himself, McKenna said. Zampini didn’t respond to numerous requests for comment for this article.

    O’Shea, in the interview, said McKenna’s initial lawsuit had been “laughed out of court.”

    For his part, McKenna said he planned to refile his suit. He was interviewed at his kitchen table overlooking Quincy Bay, outside Boston. He said he had left Philadelphia because he no longer felt safe there.

    “Why can’t I get some justice here?” he asked. “What if I’d broke an officer’s neck?”

    September 2014: $490,000 settlement for man who said neck was broken in police van

    The city agreed last week to pay the money to resolve the suit brought by James McKenna after he was injured following a confrontation with an off-duty officer in Center City in 2011, according to his lawyer and attorneys for the city.

    Handcuffed, but otherwise unrestrained, his suit says, McKenna was taken on a jolting and dangerous ride in the back of a police wagon. His experience echoed a practice that has a long and dishonorable tradition in Philadelphia.

    […]

    Police say they arrested a drunk and belligerent McKenna after he punched a bartender.

    McKenna denies that. He said a police officer jumped him from behind because he was annoyed at how McKenna spoke with some women at the bar.

    He said that the officer summoned on-duty police, who arrived in a police wagon, and that the officer told his arriving colleagues, “F- this guy up.” The officer has denied saying that.

    McKenna said in an interview last year that he was put in the van handcuffed, but not strapped in with a seat belt. He said police accelerated and decelerated the wagon, knocking him to the floor four times.

    After the last tumble, he said, he couldn’t stand. “I couldn’t muster the strength,” he said.

    In hospital records obtained by The Inquirer, medical workers wrote on his chart, “While being transported, pt. hit his own head against divider as reported by arriving officers.”

    Another hospital note says he “hit head on police car door.”

    However, another note read: “Mechanism of injury: banged head against cell in police custody hit head.”

    At trial, an officer testified that McKenna injured himself in a cell. “He banged his face multiple times off the iron steel bar, which caused a laceration, which caused an injury,” the officer said.

    As part of the lawsuit, Gibbons, McKenna’s lawyer, presented an expert opinion from a doctor who said McKenna’s injuries were far too serious to have been self-inflicted.

    Gibbons said the driver of the van said in a deposition that he had never driven a police wagon before that night. Gibbons said this raised the possibility that poor driving, rather than malice, caused McKenna to be hurt.

    Either way, he said, police were negligent. He said putting McKenna into the van unrestrained set the stage for him to be injured.

    October 2014: After $490,000 settlement, Phila. to review safety of police wagons

    Inspector Michael Costello, who will lead the study, said the department would examine how police elsewhere in the region and the nation transport people under arrest.

    “We’ve had the issue raised to us: are we, in fact, safe?” said Costello, commander of the force’s planning and initiative unit who is looking at the department’s wagon fleet.

    “We are taking steps and making inquiries to determine how safe they are. And if we have a problem, what’s the best way to address it?”

    Really. Because that worked SO well thirteen years ago. What happened to those padded walls and studies about lap belts? What happened to those promises to do better and statements of ‘we don’t do that anymore’ ?

    Maybe the vehicles aren’t the real problem here.

  81. rq says

    Never without humour: Body cams won’t stop bad policing. Can we equip cops w/ a conscience instead? How much federal funding to hire Jiminy Cricket?

    White House faces new racial crisis in Baltimore

    Newly sworn-in Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Monday night the Justice Department will continue its investigation into the death of Freddie Gray and send two top officials to Baltimore in an effort to quell the riots unfolding there.

    Lynch met Monday evening with President Barack Obama to discuss the riots in Baltimore. The meeting was not called specifically as a result of the situation in Baltimore, the White House said, but Lynch told Obama she’d be monitoring the situation there.

    “As our investigative process continues, I strongly urge every member of the Baltimore community to adhere to the principles of nonviolence,” Lynch said in a statement. “In the days ahead, I intend to work with leaders throughout Baltimore to ensure that we can protect the security and civil rights of all residents. And I will bring the full resources of the Department of Justice to bear in protecting those under threat, investigating wrongdoing, and securing an end to violence.”

    Obama also spoke with Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Monday, while his senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett, spoke with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, the White House said.

    Freddie Gray funeral draws White House officials

    The growing violence in Baltimore, just 40 miles from the White House, represents another challenge for the Obama administration in addressing racial unrest across the country. Since the police killing of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer, the administration has worked to acknowledge deep frustrations in minority communities while also supporting law enforcement.

    Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, has spoken in personal terms about police harassment. So far, he hasn’t spoken about the unrest in Baltimore, but White House officials say they’re considering releasing a statement to address the situation.

    The violence in Baltimore comes on the same day as the funeral for Freddie Gray, who died in police custody under circumstances that remain unclear.

    The situation presents an immediate challenge for Lynch, who was sworn in on Monday after a five-month confirmation battle in the Senate. Her strong relationship with law enforcement was touted as a key qualification for the attorney general job.

    She said she will send Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Ronald Davis, director of Community Oriented Policing Services, to Baltimore “in the coming days” to meet with religious and community leaders.

    More at the link, but wow, what a debut for her.

    Apparently, Whole Foods is feeding the National Guard: But those hungry schoolkids can suck it. Gotcha.

    Obama weighs in, and it ain’t pretty. LIVE: Obama expected to make statement on Baltimore . Not live anymore, obviously.

    President Obama is expected to address the state of emergency in Baltimore during a Tuesday press conference from The White House.

    Obama has not publicly made remarks about the protests and violence in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray, a Baltimore man who was arrested and died after a spinal injury. Obama did meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss the matter Monday, but reporters were barred from covering the gathering.

    Obama could also address news that Iran seized a U.S. cargo ship that the Pentagon identified as the MV Maersk Tigris.

    The briefing is a joint conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and was original scheduled to focus on a cybersecurity alliance between Japan and the U.S.

    Watch Obama’s remarks in the video above.

    Waiting for a trnascipt.

    White House awakes to ‘national crisis’

    For President Barack Obama and Congress, one thing was clear amid the smoke in Baltimore: A task force didn’t solve the problem.

    There weren’t a lot of firm recommendations from the 11 people whom Obama appointed after last year’s uproar in Ferguson, Missouri, to give him an interim report on 21st Century Policing last month (No. 1 recommendation: “Law enforcement culture should embrace a guardian mindset to build public trust and legitimacy”). They skipped over body cameras. They skipped over racial bias training.

    They did recommend the creation of another task force, this one called the National Crime and Justice Task Force.

    Congress managed to do even less.

    Since then, Walter Scott was shot five times in the back by a police officer in North Charleston, S.C., and Freddie Gray died from spinal injuries he didn’t have before he was taken into custody by the police in Baltimore, which burst into riots and looting Monday, right in the middle of the day.

    With a dozen incidents in a year and a half, all around the country, the frustrations appear to transcend local conditions. And though local officials keep blaming round-the-clock cable news coverage for encouraging the violence, the speed and intensity of the protests in city after city make clear how much deeper than police misconduct these frustrations are — joblessness, hopelessness, racial double standards.

    “It’s a state of emergency of tremendous proportions,” said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League. “The response you’re having is not about the incidents. The response is about lack of faith in the political system to adequately respond to what we’re dealing with here.”

    Black men are the ones getting killed, but this isn’t just about the black community, or something that confronts Obama because he’s black.

    “This is more of an issue of the presidency, than an issue of the president who happens to be black,” Morial said.

    Obama and Congress are busy arguing over the Iran nuclear negotiations, a trade deal, what could become the broadest climate change agreement in history. But each city that erupts is a reminder of how little’s been done to address what’s hitting Americans in communities across the country much more immediately.

    “We’re in the throes of a national crisis,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “People are looking at our system of criminal justice and our system of law enforcement and they recognize that something is wrong.”

    The president’s response has been constrained, both by the need to avoid prejudicing any federal legal action and because of a political environment that pins him between those who think he needs to say more on behalf of African-Americans and those who think anything he says about African-Americans shows his bias in their favor. […]

    Federal action has its limits. With few exceptions, police are under state or local authority, and even a much more active Obama and Congress could only force some reforms. But advocates say that the impact of legislation increasing police accountability alone would be significant.

    People “understand that they will be held responsible for looting, but there’s a tacit understanding that when law enforcement assaults or kills somebody, they will not be,” Ifill said.

    Changing that requires moving beyond task forces and conversations that only come up every time another black man’s killed and the national media runs to another city to for a few days of coverage on the ground, Ifill said. Obama needs to address the problem, she said, Congress needs to address it, and everyone running for president needs to do so, as well.

    “This is not something that can be put to the side and ghettoized,” she said.

    Monday night in Baltimore, Police Commissioner Anthony Batts was looking out at his burning city and raising the specter of Watts.

    “I don’t know if it’s going to get worse,” Batts admitted, as he tried to end his late night press conference.

    Obama will have a press conference Tuesday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He’ll have the White House press corps and national cameras focused on him to hear him if he chooses to say more about what’s going on in Baltimore and around the country.

    “Look at the attention the Iran nuclear issue is getting from Congress, and from the beltway media. There’s a sense that this is isolated and it’ll blow over,” Morial said. “This is a problem of national proportions and national dimensions.”

    “It’s Baltimore today,” Morial said. “Who will be next?”

    It’s good to see that some people are realizing the depth of the crisis, but not encouraging to see the perception that this has somehow been ongoing since last summer, when it’s a far more ancient issue.

    “They need to be treated as criminals”-@BarackObama on “looters” in #Baltimore. Guess what, they already have been their whole lives. @deray
    I had to double-check to see if that was really Obama speaking. Other quotes aren’t any more encouraging.

  82. Pteryxx says

    Daily Show via Alternet: Jon Stewart and Jessica Williams’ Hilarious Bit Comparing CNN Silence on Baltimore to Hunger Games

    On last night’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart mocked cable news for the festival of smarmy self-congratulation that is the White House correspondent’s dinner. Obama told some good jokes, Stewart concedes, but here’s the problem: as media A-listers celebrated, Baltimore was burning up after the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody. What did CNN do? Briefly mention events in Baltimore before returning to the White House correspondent’s dinner.

    “Hey, the red carpet isn’t going to interview itself!” Stewart points out.

  84. Pteryxx says

    #52 on this page linked to the account of a teacher in Baltimore describing how students were stranded yesterday afternoon. Here’s a transcript I made. Twitter source, with screenshot of a Facebook post

    A clear narration of what my students and I just saw (and please SHARE this so people know the story): we drove into Mondawmin, knowing it was going to be a mess. I was trying to get them home before anything insane happened. The students were JUST getting out of Douglas, but before that could even happen, the police were forcing busses to stop and unload all their passengers. Then, Douglas students, in huge herds, were trying to leave on various busses but couldn’t catch any because they were all shut down. No kids were yet around except about 20, who looked like they were waiting for police to do something. The cops, on the other hand, were in full riot gear marching toward any small social clique of students who looked as if they were just milling about. It looked as if there were hundreds of cops. So, me, personally, if I were a Douglas student that just got trapped in the middle of a minefield BY cops without any way to get home and completely in harm’s way, I’d be ready to pop off, too.

    I hope everyone’s kids are getting home to them safely tonight.

  85. rq says

    Tonight will probably be similar to yesterday.
    In the meantime.
    What you really need to know about Baltimore, from a reporter who’s lived there for over 30 years

    It was only a matter of time before Baltimore exploded.

    In the more than three decades I have called this city home, Baltimore has been a combustible mix of poverty, crime, and hopelessness, uncomfortably juxtaposed against rich history, friendly people, venerable institutions and pockets of old-money affluence.

    The two Baltimores have mostly gone unreconciled. The violence that followed Freddie Gray’s funeral Monday, with roaming gangs looting stores and igniting fires, demands that something be done. […]

    Baltimore is not Ferguson and its primary problems are not racial. The mayor, city council president, police chief, top prosecutor, and many other city leaders are black, as is half of Baltimore’s 3,000-person police force. The city has many prominent black churches and a line of black civic leadership extending back to Frederick Douglass.

    Yet, the gaping disparities separating the haves and the have nots in Baltimore are as large as they are anywhere. And, as the boys on the street will tell you, black cops can be hell on them, too. […]

    So far this year, the city counts 68 murders, according to a Web site maintained by the Baltimore Sun. That is after 663 murders were recorded over the three previous years. That is a lot of killing, but not nearly what it was in the 1980s and 1990s, when the body count routinely surpassed 300 a year.

    Most of these problems are confined to the pockmarked neighborhoods of narrow rowhomes and public housing projects on the city’s east and west sides. They exist in the lives of the other Baltimore of renovated waterfront homes, tree-lined streets, sparkling waterfront views, rollicking bars and ethnic restaurants mainly through news reports. The two worlds bump up against one another only on occasion. Maybe when a line of daredevils on dirt bikes — the storied 12 O’clock Boys — startle motorists by doing near-vertical, high-speed wheelies in city traffic, or when groups of kids brawl in the tourist zone surrounding the Inner Harbor.

    Still, this leads to a lot of police interaction. When I moved to Baltimore after growing up in New York City, I was surprised at how often I would be forced to squeeze my car over to the side of the road as a police car, lights flashing and siren blaring, roared by. During my 13 years as a reporter at The Baltimore Sun, I heard many people complain that when the police got where they were going, they sometimes exacted their own brand of justice.

    Baltimore police have faced a series of corruption allegations through the years. They have been accused of planting evidence on suspects, being too quick to resort to deadly force and, long before Gray’s suspicious death, of beating suspects. Like police everywhere, they have been accused of routinely pulling up black youth. When he was a teenager, my own son was pulled over while driving his old Honda Civic on several occasions. It has gone on for decades. […]

    On the day that the nation’s first female African American attorney general took office, school kids led the charge as looters stripped and burned a defenseless CVS. Later, roving bands of people smashed store windows downtown and near the Johns Hopkins medical campus. A senior citizen’s housing project under construction in a particular desolate corner of East Baltimore was burned to the ground.

    Hundreds of people — including luminaries such as Jesse Jackson, Kweisi Mfume, and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake — packed the soaring sanctuary of New Shiloh Baptist Church for Gray’s homegoing service. Many others turned out not because they knew Gray, whose death in police custody earlier this month remains unexplained pending outcomes of multiple investigations. Instead, they are concerned about what is happening to young black men in Baltimore and elsewhere. The pity is that more of us did not reach Gray sooner.

    As Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D) said: “Did anybody recognize Freddie when he was alive? Did you see him?”

    I find some of the language… interesting. School kids leading the charge? A ‘defenseless’ CVS (which I understand is a pharmacy, not a person)? No racial issues? But then he lists a bunch of issues, but never seems to examine how they divide along racial lines.

    Short clip: Community Organizer Deray McKesson shuts down CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. Very short but not taking any shit.

    Grab your cousins & red, blue & white bandanas nd get to Red’s BBQ lot Mike Florissant 6pm today #FreddieGray #Baltimore please share. If the authoritehs believe anyone was cowed last night, well…

    … try, try again? National Guard and Maryland State police along with Baltimore police are staging at M&T bank stadium.

  86. rq says

    The local article. Check out the picture gallery. A striking documentation of the vandalism that occurred, surprisingly (HAHA) little of the peaceful protest.
    And don’t read the comments, even if you can. *shudder* I tried. I’m ashamed.

    Citizen journalist @SamwiseEyes will livestream tonight’s #Baltimore solidarity protest, 6PM CST #Chicago2Baltimore

    Black lives matter: Differential mortality and the racial composition of the U.S. electorate, 1970–2004. GRAPHS!

    Can we get a running list of all these businesses feeding law enforcement agencies during this time- b/c that’s a statement & position – and why are they asking?
    Five Guys join Whole Foods, pass free burgers to National Guard soldiers lined along Pratt St at Baltimore harbour. There’s hungry kids that could use that kind of attention.

  88. rq says

    I just heard the police are tear-gassing folks somewhere over West Baltimore. #BalitmoreUprising So soon?

    the water and snack station. #BaltimoreUprising

    STL: Castro: Promise Zone will encourage ‘holistic’ collaboration to boost St. Louis

    U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Juliàn Castro announced Tuesday that parts of the St. Louis region were designated by his agency as a Promise Zone.

    Speaking at the MET Center in Wellston, Castro said that St. Louis was one of eight communities picked for HUD’s program. Among other things, the program gives selected cities greater access to federal money and manpower to redevelop struggling areas.

    Castro announced that portions of north St. Louis and north St. Louis County would be encompassed under the Promise Zone. In addition to the northern part of St. Louis the zone includes cities such as Berkeley, Wellston, Ferguson, Jennings, Normandy Pagedale, Pine Lawn and Moline Acres.

    “With this announcement, we’re making a simple but bold declaration,” Castro said. “We believe in the St. Louis community. We believe in its people. We believe in its vision. And we believe in its future as well.”

    Castro said St. Louis’ policymakers have provided plans for expanding economic development, job training and early childhood education in struggling parts of the region.

    “The Promise Zones are about connecting some of the dots that are essential for sparking more opportunity in people’s lives and lifting up the overall quality of life,” Castro said. “[St. Louis and St. Louis County’s] teams are working holistically in education, in health, in housing, in infrastructure to lift up the overall quality of life of residents.”

    St. Louis was one of eight communities picked as a Promise Zone out of more than 120 applicants. Both St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and then-St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley had told reporters they had applied for the designation during the height of the turmoil in Ferguson.

    Baltimore 1968 and Baltimore today. #BaltimoreRiots

    And the march for today has begun. Hoping the police and NG will be less confrontational. Catchup tomorrow.

  89. Pteryxx says

    Lots of RTs of Deray McKesson schooling Wolf Blitzer: (Twitter link) (Interview on youtube)

    deray: there has been a lot of positive demonstrations the last couple of months because the police have continued to kill people +

    wolfblitzer: you want peaceful protests, RIGHT?!

    @deray: remember, the people who have been violent since august have been the police.

    wolfblitzer BUT AT LEAST 15 POLICE OFFICERS HAVE BEEN HURT! 144 VEHICLE FIRES! THERE’S NO EXCUSE FOR THAT KINDA VIOLENCE RIGHT?! +

    deray: no excuse for the 7 people the @BaltimorePolice killed in the past year either, RIGHT?

    @wolfblitzer we’re not making comparisons

    deray: you ARE making a comparison. you’re suggesting that broken windows are worse than broken spines. we’re looking for justice.

    Deray: “I also know that Freddie Gray will never be back, but those windows will be.”

  90. Pteryxx says

    Twitter tonight:

    Baltimoreans are standing in between police & protestors, taking on the responsibility to protect both groups. Wow.

    Police State. #BaltimoreUprising

    Picture of a line of riot cops with face guards and riot shields, shoulder to shoulder, blocking a few teenage black students with backpacks.

    And the NOI is out here. Pennsylvania and North. #BaltimoreUprising

    Joy. #BaltimoreUprising

    Vine of protesters singing and playing trumpets, saxophones, and a trombone together.

  92. Pteryxx says

    continued:

    Storytelling is resistance. We have always faced erasure in blackness — our stories are simply not told or are told by anyone but us.

    I once asked an elder, “How do we keep the movement alive?” to which the elder replied, “The police will do it for you.”

    And apparently there is a training of 300 people on non-violent tactics happening at Empowerment Temple right now too. #BaltimoreUprising

    That was less than an hour ago. I won’t be able to follow the net tonight; hope y’all reading and passing by keep a watch.

    Buzzfeed: Orioles Will Play Wednesday’s Game Against White Sox Without Audience

    The team also announced their next series will be moved to Tampa.

    In a statement released today, the Baltimore Orioles announced tomorrow’s game against the White Sox will be played as scheduled but “closed to the public.”
    In a statement released today, the Baltimore Orioles announced tomorrow’s game against the White Sox will be played as scheduled but “closed to the public.”

    The team postponed games Monday and Tuesday due to clashes between police and protesters that took place near Camden Yards.

    Their next series, against the Tampa Bay Rays, has been moved to Tampa Bay. The Orioles will play as the home team, despite the relocation.

    According to MLB, this will be the first closed-door game in league history.

  93. says

    I almost cannot believe my eyes. I just read that FOX “News” host Shep Smith schools the hosts of The Five ‘Start covering Baltimore and stop trying to indict it’

    “Where are the parents?” Greg Gutfeld asked over images of looting from the city on Monday evening.

    “Well, you know, I’ve not been on the phone with them,” Smith replied. “But if we want to sit here and indict the civil rights community and indict the parents for what we’re watching right now, instead of for now, just covering what happens and then later talk about whose fault it is, because we don’t know whose fault it is.”

    “No one’s indicting anyone,” Eric Bolling told Smith. “We’re watching the pictures. We’re asking the legitimate questions. A lot of our viewers are probably asking the same questions.”

    “Bolling, the question was, ‘Where are the parents?’” Smith shot back. “Surely you don’t expect me to know that.”

    “I agree, Shep, it was a hypothetical,” Gutfeld offered, before Bolling asked where civil rights leaders like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were, apparently unaware that Jackson was a speaker at the funeral for 25-year-old Freddie Gray earlier in the day.

    Gray’s death in police custody earlier this month was the catalyst for a round of demonstrations leading up to Monday’s unrest. But, Smith explained, multiple factors are also coming into play that have been festering for years.

    “We’ve got a major American city that has decades of turmoil within this neighborhood,” Smith said, pointing at an image of the rioting and citing Fox reporter Doug McKelway’s accounts of residents saying police had made them feel “powerless and hopeless.”

    Gray’s arrest and subsequent death, Smith argued, set the stage for “those who would do harm” to take advantage of the unrest.

  94. Saad says

    I can’t believe my eyes either, Tony.

    CNN has a story up about 2,000 National Guard and 1,000 cops deployed and they went with the headline “RECLAIMING Baltimore”

    Reclaiming.

    WTF, CNN?

  95. Saad says

    Shep Smith has had some reasonable moments uncharacteristic of FOX. Remember when he took time to tell people not to buy into all the hysteria regarding Ebola?

  96. says

    Freddie Gray not alone: 1997 police case raised same issue:

    Shannise Boyd felt a shiver the moment she saw Freddie Gray’s picture on the news last week. Tubes and wires protruded from Gray’s 25-year-old body as he clung to life in a Baltimore hospital bed. Days before, he suffered a severed spinal cord while in police custody, an incident that remains under investigation. He died on Sunday, April 19.

    For Boyd, the scene and circumstances surrounding Gray’s injury were strikingly familiar. Nearly 20 years before, Jeffrey Adrian Alston–with whom Boyd had a daughter–wound up with a broken neck during an encounter with the Baltimore police, leaving him a quadriplegic.

    “It was absolutely chilling,” says Boyd, a 40-year-old physician’s assistant. “It was exactly the same. I remember the whole thing like it was yesterday.”

    As the investigation into what exactly happened to Gray widens, other Baltimore cases have started to surface, raising deeper questions about police conduct and their characterization of these incidents. Several publications reported this week that in 2005 another Baltimore man, Dondi Johnson, suffered a fatal spinal injury after being placed in a police van.

    Baltimore police stopped Alston on Nov. 3, 1997, for speeding in his BMW. According to reports, officers initially planned to write Alston, then 32, a ticket. But they ultimately took him into custody after smelling alcohol on his breath.

    Kerry Staton, an attorney who represented Alston after his arrest, told Vocativ that his client was subsequently cuffed with his hands behind his back and placed in leg shackles. While still on the street, the cops began to search him, dropping his pants and searching inside of Alston’s underwear for contraband. According to reports from around the time of the court case, police and Alston both acknowleged that he gave a pelvic thrust during that part of the search, striking an officer who had crouched down to Alston’s waist to search him.

    What happened next is a matter of contention. Alston claimed that the cops responded to his maneuver by placing him in a chokehold that ultimately snapped his spine, paralyzing him from the neck down. The officers, however, said the injury was self-inflicted after he was placed inside a police van and buckled to a bench.

    “The police claimed that somehow, with his hands behind his back, Alston managed to extricate himself from his seat belt,” Staton says. “Then, they said, with his legs shackled he ran from the rear to the front of the police van like a charging bull and repeatedly head-butted the partition, breaking his neck in the process.”

    In 2004, nearly seven years later, a civil jury sided with Alston, finding that two Baltimore police officers caused the neck injuries that rendered him a quadriplegic. A key factor in the decision was the testimony of Adrian Barbul, a trauma surgeon, who ruled out the officers’ claim that Alston had injured himself inside the police van. When reached by phone this week, Barbul declined to comment on the record.

  97. says

    Legal expert says Michael Brown’s ‘pain and suffering’ may fator in his settlement:

    (excerpt)

    Wrongful death suits often seek millions of dollars, but Michael Brown’s parents are seeking $75,000 in damages, plus attorney’s fees. While this sum might seem paltry considering the high-profile nature of the young black man’s death, Brown was just 18 years old and had no dependents, which will limit the potential settlement in the suit his parents are bringing against the city of Ferguson.

    Most of the country has focused on the fact that Michael Brown was killed during his run-in with police, but the jury deciding the wrongful death lawsuit may also factor in the final moments of his life, according to one seasoned personal-injury lawyer with whom we spoke. “The Brown family could also get money for the pain that [Michael Brown] was in before death. Can you imagine lying there after being shot?” says Gary Burger, a St. Louis lawyer who has worked on dozens of personal-injury cases. This aspect of Brown’s death is referenced in the suit, it reads: “Prior to his death, (Brown) endured a substantial amount of conscious pain and suffering from the moment he was first shot by Defendant Wilson until his body ultimately succumbed to death by six to eight fatal bullets.”

    The suit also names former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson and alleges that Wilson “unjustifiably shot and killed [Brown], using an unnecessary and unreasonable amount [of] force in violation of [Brown’s] constitutionally guaranteed right to life.” Vocativ spoke with Burger about the factors that will be key in determining the settlement.

    How do you calculate settlements in wrongful death lawsuits?
    This is a claim for Michael Brown’s death, that they killed him and that they shouldn’t have. How do you value a life? In Missouri for a wrongful death case you do not get damages for grief and bereavement. You do get damages for loss of wages. So if a father with kids [died] there would be damages for his wages lost that he would have contributed to his children and to his spouse.

    Now with Michael Brown in particular, let’s say that you die and you don’t have a steady job—how do you figure out what your wage loss would be? There are several ways to do that. There are presumptions under the law. You can bring in a vocational expert who could say that a guy with this type of background was going to get this type of job and make this amount of money. Then take it out through his life expectancy, estimate what he would have made and that he would have contributed X amount to help his parents out in the first couple of years or whatnot. His case is interesting. If you are not married and you don’t have kids you are not really supporting your parents that is a harder row to make in terms of tangible wages lost.

    Are there any other factors could affect the settlement in the Michael Brown case?
    The types of relationships lost. It’s like this: If you took all the family photos for the rest of his life and cut him out of the picture—what is that going to look like?

    How do you assign value to those relationships?
    There is no mathematical formula. There is no clear way. Some juries might hear the evidence and assign one number to it, and another jury might hear the same evidence and assign a much lower number to it — or a much greater amount. I hate to say that it depends, but it depends. If someone isn’t a good person and we aren’t losing a lot, the jury could give him less money than the greatest person ever. But a life is a life, and this is a young man. It is an intangible.

  98. says

    (apologies if this is a double post)
    Witnesses in photos of Baltimore protests dispute MSM version of events:

    As people in Baltimore organize to defend their community against police brutality, there are many different stories coming out both through both the mainstream and social media describing what happened during this week’s Freddie Gray protests.

    There is now a heated debate surrounding various videos and photos that allege acts of violence, theft, and vandalism. However, it has now been confirmed that mainstream media sources have been posting pictures and creating their own stories to go along with them. In some cases, witnesses or people who were actually seen in these pictures have come forward to dispute the stories that have been ascribed to these images.

    One aspect of the violence this weekend that has not been covered by the mainstream media is the fact that drunk sports fans were actually instigating fights with the protesters. This is not surprising, given the notorious history of violence for which sports fans across the country are well-known.

    Just a few weeks ago, Kentucky fans set fires and brawled in the streets while rioting after a Final Four game. Then there was the time a man named Matt Fortese ended up in the hospital in critical condition after being brutally assaulted by fans at an Orioles game. Or how about that Broncos game when at least three people were stabbed in the parking lot outside of the stadium? Ring any bells? And who could forget about Jonathan Denver, 24 years old, who was stabbed to death during a fight after a Dodgers game.

    The media, apparently.

    Many of the photos that were taken of protesters interacting with drunk sports fans were misconstrued by the mainstream media to portray only the protesters as violent, and the sports fans completely innocent.

    There are a few screen caps at the link that set the record straight about some of the false narratives perpetuated by the MSM.

  99. says

    Colorado legislation that fines cops $15K for interfering in citizens filming them passes House

    A recently proposed bill in Colorado imposing legal penalties on police officers who interfere with citizens filming them could soon become law. The state’s House Of Representatives passed the bill this week, and it will now move on to vote in the Senate.

    If it becomes law, the bill would reportedly require police officers to have someone’s consent or a warrant to physically take or destroy a persons camera or footage. If an officer violates this law, the victim would then be able to seek damages up to $15,000 plus attorney fees. This would also be the first law in the country that would guarantee civil damages to people who have their recording rights violated by police.

    After passing in the House on Wednesday, Colorado House Bill 15-1290 will now make its way to the Senate for a final vote.

    Police union officials are not happy about the bill, and they say that it treats officers unfairly and holds them to a standard that citizens are not held to, which is ironic because police typically behave as if they were above the law, and not subject to the same standards as everyone else.

    “The CACP does not believe that the people who put their lives at risk every day should have different standards of liability than anyone else in government,” police union representative AnneMarie Jensen, said in a statement.

    According to 7 News Denver, Rep. Joe Salazar, co-sponsor of the bill, said House Bill 15-1290 has support from both Democrats and Republicans and is not intended to penalize police.

    “It takes a very special person to be a police officer,” Salazar said. “We want to honor them, but at the same time, we have a few bad apples who need to be aware that their conduct now has major, major consequences.”

    One of the incidents that caught the attention of Salazar was the case of Bobbie Ann Diaz. Diaz was trying to film what happened after police shot and killed 17-year-old Jessica Hernandez.

    As Diaz was trying to film the incident, she says an officer stopped her and threatened her with arrest if she continued to film.

    “At that time, (the officers) put Jessie down and they were on their knees yelling at Brianna that she better not record. She better not,” Diaz said. “She got scared. She got intimated. These are big officers and she didn’t want to make things worse.”

    Diaz didn’t know that she was protected by law to film the police as long as she wasn’t interfering with their investigation.

    Only through shining light into the darkness, i.e., filming police encounters, will enough people finally see how corrupt and violent this system is becoming. Your right to film the police must be protected.

  100. says

    The ugly history of racist policing in America

    Last August, during the unrest in Ferguson, Vox spoke with historian Heather Ann Thompson, a professor at Temple University who writes extensively on 20th-century urban politics and criminal justice and worked on the National Research Council’s 2014 report on mass incarceration, to talk about the tense and often hostile history between African Americans and the police in America.

    Dara Lind: What does history teach us about what’s going on in Ferguson?

    Heather Ann Thompson: There are some locally important things about this, and there are some nationally important things. There’s been a lot of attention to the fact that St. Louis did not riot during the 1960s, for example. But St. Louis has always had this very tortured racial history. In July of 1917, there was one of the most brutal riots against African Americans there — scores and scores of white folks attacking blacks simply for being employed in wartime industries. There were indiscriminate attacks and, in effect, lynchings: beatings, hangings of black residents.

    So the fact that St. Louis didn’t erupt in the ’60s is almost an anomaly or an outlying story. Because St. Louis does have very tense race relations between whites and blacks, and also between the police and the black community.

    Nationally, it suggests that we haven’t learned nearly enough from our history. Not just 1917, and all the riots that happened in 1919, and 1921 — but, much more specifically, from the ‘60s. Because of course, this is exactly the same issue that generated most of the rebellions of the 1960s. In 1964, exactly 50 years ago, [unrest in] Philadelphia, Rochester, and Harlem were all touched off by the killing of young African Americans. That’s what touches off Harlem. It’s the beating of a young black man that touches off Rochester in ’64. It’s the rumor that a pregnant woman has been killed by the police in Philadelphia in ’64. So in some sense, my reaction to this is: of course. Because until you fundamentally deal with this issue of police accountability in the black community and fair policing in the black community, this is always a possibility.

    DL: This continuity from the white attacks on black citizens after World War I, to the rioting of disenfranchised African Americans in the 1960s, is interesting. Is there a relationship between those two and between the violence of private white citizens and violence of police?

    HT: On the surface they seem unrelated: you’ve got racist white citizens who are attacking blacks in the streets, and then years or decades later, you have the police acting violently in the black community.

    In response to all those riots in the 1910s and 1920s, civil rights commissions were set up in cities, and there was pressure on both local and federal governments to address white vigilantism and white rioting against blacks. And while it was not particularly effective, it certainly had this censuring quality to it. And then what historians would agree happened is that, in so many cities, the police became the proxy for what the white community wants.

    So one of the answers is that police became the front line of the white community — or, at least, the most racially conservative white community. It’s the police that are called out, for example, when blacks try to integrate white neighborhoods. It’s the police that become that body that defends whites in their homes.

    DL: How did this play out after the unrest that you mentioned?

    HT: We start the war on crime in 1965, which, of course, is very much in response to these urban rebellions. Because politicians decide that protests against things like police brutality are exactly the same thing as crime — that this is disorderly. This is criminal.

    And so, police are specifically charged with keeping order and with stopping crime, which has now become synonymous with black behavior in the streets. The police, again, become that entity that polices black boundaries. And I will tell you that one of the most striking things about the media coverage of Ferguson is that they are absolutely doing what they did in the 1960s in terms of the reporting: “This is all about the looters, this is all about black violence.”

    DL: It certainly seems that even before any looting actually happened in Ferguson, police were anticipating that kind of thing.

    HT: Any time that there is urban rebellion, the way that it is spun has everything to do with whether it’s granted legitimacy. Notably, when there was rioting in the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, and you saw the police with fire hoses and police dogs, it was very easy for white Northerners, particularly the press, to report that for exactly what it was — which was police violence on black citizens who were protesting. Everyone’s very clear about that. Sheriff Bull Connor is a racist, the police are racist, and that is why it is violent.

    But the minute that these protests moved northward, the racial narrative was much more uncomfortable. “Why in the world would blacks be protesting against us good-hearted white folks in the North? And how dare they?” And what it means is that they were demanding too much, and that they were in fact just looking for trouble. So that narrative of who gets to be a legitimate protester shifts dramatically once protests move northward. It’s all about violence, troublemaking, looting, and so forth.

    More at the link.

  102. says

    Once again, taxpayers have to foot the bill for victims of police brutality.
    Settlement won’t even cover medical bills for baby whose face was blown apart by police grenade

    Habersham County, GA– In May of last year, Bounkham “Baby Bou Bou” Phonesavanh, 19-months-old, was asleep in his crib. At 3:00 am militarized police barged into his family’s home because an informant had purchased $50 worth of meth from someone who once lived there. During the raid, a flash-bang grenade was thrown into the sleeping baby’s crib, exploding in his face.

    Beyond the disfiguring wounds on the toddler’s face, the grenade also left a gash in his chest. As a result, Bou lost the ability to breathe on his own and was left in a medically induced coma for days after the incident. Bou was not able to go home from the hospital until July.

    No officers were charged for their near-deadly negligence, and the department claimed that they did not know that there were children in the home. They defended their reckless actions by saying that they couldn’t have done a thorough investigation prior to the raid because it “would have risked revealing that the officers were watching the house.”

    Now, a nearly $1 million dollar settlement has been reached between the family and the county. One of the terms of the settlement is that the family may not sue individuals involved in maiming their son. Instead of coming from the wallets of the negligent officers, it will come strictly from the taxpayers.

    “Over the last few months the Board of County Commissioners has sought a way to bring some measure of closure to this matter while doing what is right, both for the Phonesavanh family and the law enforcement officers involved,” said a statement issued on behalf of the county. “For that reason we have reached a limited settlement with the Phonesavanhs that allows for a payment to them in exchange for protection of the officers and the county.”

    The settlement does not mean that there can be no further litigation, but that all litigation must be directed at the county insurance policies, not individuals or the county’s general fund.

    The settlement is to be broken up as follows:

    • $538,000 paid to Baby Bou Bou’s parents, Alecia and Bounkham Phonesavanh, to cover medical expenses
    • $200,000 set aside “to provide for the schedule of future periodic payments” to the todller
    • $137,000 paid to Baby Bou Bou himself for “personal injuries”
    • $62,000 to Alecia Phonesavanh for “having been subjected to emotional distress”
    • A total of $27,000 split evenly among the Phonesavanh’s three other children

    Medical bills for the treatment of Bou’s injuries are expected to reach $1 million dollars.

  103. says

    Legalized murder is the norm. Dallas police escape all accountability for killing mentally ill man:

    A grand jury has decided not to indict two officers who fatally shot a mentally ill man after his mother called the police for help getting her schizophrenic son, 39-year old Jason Harrison, to the hospital.

    Officers John Rogers and Andrew Hutchins responded to the call placed last June, arriving to find the mother calmly greet them at the door. Body cam footage from one of the officers shows her explain to the officers that her son was schizophrenic and rambling, at which point he appears behind her in the doorway, playing with a screwdriver.

    Upon seeing the man, one officer yells for him to drop the screwdriver, giving him only 5 seconds to reply before the cops opened fire. Harrison was shot five times, taking two of the bullets in his back as he collapsed into the garage door. He died only a few feet away from his mother as she yelled, “Oh, they killed my son! Oh, they killed my son!”

    The officers continued to command the dead man to drop the weapon. After removing the screwdriver from his motionless hand, one of the officers puts his arms behind his back, preparing to handcuff a dead body. A spokesperson for the Dallas Police said the officers acted in fear for their life. In affidavits, the officers said they were forced to shoot the mentally-ill man after repeated orders to drop his weapon were ignored.

    Again, the officers opened fire in under ten seconds.

    Harrison’s mother has called the police for help with her son in the past with no incident.

    The family is devastated at the grand jury’s decision, but has filed a federal civil lawsuit. The wrongful death suit was filed by family attorney Geoff Henly and names the city and officers Rogers and Hutchins, claiming they should have used nonlethal means to attempt to de-escalate the situation.

    The reluctance to indict officers who are clearly guilty of misconduct is a very clear problem in the judicial system. According to a study released by the Washington Post, for every one thousand people killed by police, only one cop is convicted of a crime. According to the analysis, in order for prosecutors to press charges, there had to be exceptional factors at play. These include “a video recording of the incident, a victim shot in the back, incriminating testimony from other officers or allegations of a coverup.” This case had two of those exceptional factors, and it’s not even going to trial.
    This sends an alarming message not only to the families of victims seeking justice, but to other cops – police officers have been and will continue to get away with murder.

  104. says

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-officer-misconduct-payment-20150428-story.html

    [Th]e San Diego City Council agreed Tuesday to pay $250,000 to a woman who alleged that she was groped by an on-duty police officer after being arrested on suspicion of driving a stolen truck.

    The woman alleged that Officer Donald Moncrief made “unwanted sexual comments” and then touched her breasts and exposed himself while he was taking her to jail in February 2013.

    Moncrief, now 40, was suspended after the allegation was made public. He later left the Police Department, although city officials decline to say whether he resigned or was fired.

    The incident was investigated but no criminal charges were brought.

    The payment settles a lawsuit filed by attorney Daniel Gilleon on behalf of the woman against the city and Moncrief.

    Along with approving the $250,000 settlement, the council also agreed to pay a total of $1.3 million to two women sexually assaulted by ex-Officer Christopher Hays.

  105. says

    From Color of Change:

    ColorOfChange partnered with Media Matters for America to study the representation of Black people in local news reporting on crime.

    The result is an outrageous level of distortion: while 2 out of every 4 people the NYPD arrest for murder, assault and theft are Black, 3 out of every 4 people the news media show as responsible for those crimes are Black. The exaggerated amount of Black faces linked to crime breeds suspicion and hostility toward Black people, as does the under-reporting of white-perpetrated crime. (And that’s not even factoring in the vicious over-targeting of Black people by police in the first place.)

    With WABC being the worst, local news stations are singling out Black people — unfairly and disproportionately focusing their crime reporting on Black suspects, and inaccurately exaggerating the proportion of Black people involved in crime. They are reinforcing stereotypes and biases that have serious consequences for Black people in everyday life.

    These stations have failed the most basic responsibility of journalism: to report the news accurately. Our News Accuracy Report Card evaluates each major network affiliate in New York City for their accuracy in crime reporting. They can and must do better.

    Here is the full report:
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.colorofchange.org/images/ColorOfChangeNewsAccuracyReportCardNYC.pdf

  106. says

    Baltimore official battles CNN host ‘just call rioters ‘n*****s’ if you’re going to call them thugs’

    [Ba]ltimore City Council member Carl Stokes clashed with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday when she argued in favor of calling rioters in the city “thugs.”

    “Isn’t it the right word?” Burnett asked.

    “No, it’s not the right word to call our children ‘thugs,’” Stokes said. “These are children who have been set aside, marginalized, who have not been engaged by us.”

    “But how does that justify what they did?” Burnett countered. “That’s a sense of right and wrong. They know it’s wrong to steal and burn down a CVS and an old persons’ home. I mean, come on.”

    “Come on? Just call them n*ggers. Just call them n*ggers,” Stokes told her. “No, we don’t have to call them by names such as that. We don’t have to do that. That is exactly what we’ve sent them to. When you say, ‘Come on,’ come on what? You wouldn’t call your child a thug if they should do something that would not be what you expect them to do.”

    “I respect your point of view,” Burnett replied. “I would hope that I would call my son a thug if he ever did such a thing.”

    The city’s mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, has been criticized for blaming the unrest in the city on “thugs” while seemingly ignoring police violence that contributed to escalating tensions between law enforcement and residents leading up to the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody earlier this month.

    “You need to do better, Rawlings-Blake,” Hillary Crosley Coker wrote in Jezebel. “Because, right now, you look like the woman who is protecting the people who are killing your voters.”

    On Tuesday, Burnett attempted to get Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) to weigh in on the topic, only for Mfume to describe it as a derailing.

    “It’s important that we not shift the focus into something that has absolutely nothing to do with poverty, despair, hunger, homelessness and the sense of not belonging,” Mfume said.

    The exchange between Burnett and Stokes came hours after her colleague, Wolf Blitzer, was called out by activist DeRay McKesson for also downplaying the use of lethal force by authorities.

    Referring to those who have engaged in civil unrest as ‘thugs’ is a [sometimes] subtle attempt to shift the discussion away from issues like police accountability, the use of excessive force, or the disproportionate impact of policing on black bodies. Calling protesters ‘thugs’ delegitimizes their concerns and paints them as a problem. It’s disgusting and dehumanizing.

  108. says

    Why blacks running from cops is entirely logical and so common
    Long article. Here’s a snippet:

    As the list of victims of police violence grows longer, the public outcry is getting louder. Not because this is a new phenomenon, but because so many communities have seen the police act as an occupying force for so long.

    Nowhere is this more apparent than in On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, by Alice Goffmann, chronicling the six years she spent immersed in the Philadelphia neighborhood of “6th Street.” Documenting interactions between the police and her roommates, friends and neighbors, Goffmann shows us a community living under the shadow of mass incarcerations and police violence, trapped by the vagaries and technicalities of the criminal justice system, where minor infractions can result in a lifetime on the run. In the “fugitive world,” running not only becomes a way of life; it’s the science and art of survival.

    I had a conversation with Goffmann, speaking from her office at the sociology department at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, earlier this week. The following is edited for clarity.

    6th Street isn’t poorest, or most crime-ridden neighborhood in Philadelphia—it’s a mixed income neighborhood, with some middle class families. Yet, according to your book, you saw the police detaining or arresting someone within that four block radius, with a few exceptions, every single day.

    It’s a fact in America that in these poorer communities—and in largely African-American neighborhoods like the one I was in—you’re much more likely encounter a police officer. The level of police presence is just off the charts compared to similar white neighborhoods. So you have the increased likelihood of interaction, and the high probability that that interaction will not be good. Even if there’s no arrest, there can still be a detention, a search, whatever, and who knows how long that’s going to last? It means you won’t be home to dinner tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow. It makes you not only fearful of police contact, but also of the places where the police might go to find you—your girlfriend’s house, your kid’s school, your place of employment.

    You noted that your assumptions behind the project changed very quickly, from the idea that only felony offenders were marginalized, to the idea of a “fugitive” subclass that’s far more complex.

    Definitely. When we began, we were focusing on the impact of mass incarceration on a community. It was based on a lot of quantitative research, and the image that we had from this research was that: first you were free, then you were charged with a felony and hauled off to jail, and after you got out came all the financial, emotional, political pressures of being a felon. That was the model: free, prison, felon. But that just wasn’t what I was seeing. I was seeing a lot of non-felons—people with low-level warrants, on probation or parole, with traffic fines or custody support issues, in halfway houses or rehab—living like fugitives, under the radar.

    These low-level warrants in particular are a huge issue with police interactions.

    When I was writing this book, we didn’t know was how many people had low level warrants; we just weren’t collecting that data nationally. We now know that there’s about 2 million warrants that have been reported voluntarily to the database, and leaving a huge number that haven’t been reported. About 60% of these warrants are not for new crimes, but for technical violations of parole, unpaid court fees, unpaid child support, traffic fines, curfew violations, court fees. And it’s this group of people that are terrified. If they’re stopped by the cops, any of these reasons is enough to bring them in, to get them trapped into the system again.

    It goes well beyond being guilty, or even just running from the cops. There’s this story in your book where this young man wants to get a state I.D. during the time he’s clean (i.e. free of warrants). But he just sits there—this big tough guy—and he can’t bring himself to go in.

    If you’re part of this class, it means you don’t go to the hospital when you’re sick. You’re wary of visiting friends in the hospital, or attending their funerals. Driving your kid to school can be daunting. You don’t have a driver’s license or I.D. Most of the time, you can’t seek legal employment. You can’t get help from the government. It comes from, partly, growing up in a neighborhood where you’ve watched your uncles and brothers go to jail, and your aunts and mom entangled in the court system without ever getting free.

    You note that women in particular face a great deal of police pressure to inform or cooperate in some fashion.

    In a poll I did of the women [living in the four block radius of 6th Street], 67% said that they’d been pressured by the police to provide information on a male family member or partner in the last 3 years. If you’ve got a low-level warrant or some probation issue, you can be violated by authorities if you don’t inform when asked. So you’re really talking about a policing system that hinges on turning families against each other and sowing a lot of suspicion and distrust. It’s very ironic that people blame the breakdown of black family life on the number of black men behind bars when the policing strategies that put them there are exactly about breaking those family bonds.

  109. rq says

    So it’s smoke bombs (apparently not tear gas) and rubber bullets in Baltimore, standoffs in Chicago and Denver, shots fired at protestors in Ferguson… Still going on right now.
    Here’s a start on things.

    Speaking truth to power. #BaltimoreUprising

    Family. #BaltimoreUprising

    Video: Will the results of the BPD Investigation into Freddie Gray’s death be made public on friday? Apparently not – they will be released (to the police?) but not public.

    Baltimore gang members call bullshit on police reports that gangs called truce to kill cops, in case anyone needs a reminder.

    Baltimore members of the Black Guerrilla Family, the Bloods and the Crips talk to a Baltimore TV news reporter, and say they did not make a truce so that they could unite and harm police officers. A police warning was issued nationwide yesterday, warning police departments that these three gangs had threatened to kill cops.

    FBI Warned Cops to Lock Down Their Social Media After Freddie Gray’s Death

    Although the alert—sent through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center—doesn’t mention Gray’s death or Baltimore, the timing of the alert suggests a rising fear of anti-police sentiment off and online:

    Law enforcement personnel and public officials may be at an increased risk of cyber attacks. These attacks can be precipitated by someone scanning networks or opening infected emails containing malicious attachments or links. Hacking collectives are effective at leveraging open source, publicly available information identifying officers, their employers, and their families.

    It’s been years since “hacktivists”—usually a reference to Anonymous—have wielded much power on the web (the last time Anonymous tried to exact revenge against the police, it fingered the wrong officer). Nonetheless, the FBI suggests local cops and “public officials” pay extra attention to their social media activity (“the act of compiling and posting an individual’s personal information without permission is known as doxing”), and do what they can to conceal the fact that they’re actually cops

    And as an aside, Sarah Kendzior has had some amazing essays on poverty and racism in St Louis, and has now self-published a collection of these – have a look here: The View From Flyover Country: Essays by Sarah Kendzior.

  110. rq says

    Right now, at the corner where Freddie Grey was beaten and arrested by @BaltimorePolice.

    The Baltimore PD Commissioner just said that the police suffered “bruised hands” from rocks thrown. Bruised hands? Are you fucking serious?

    Whole Foods & Five Guys come under fire for tone-deaf police stunt

    All Baltimore City public schools were closed on Tuesday in response to violent protests breaking out across the city in response to Freddie Gray’s death. About 84 percent of students in city’s public schools receive free or reduced-price lunches, according to the school district’s website. The closings mean that these students were unable to access these lunches, and churches and community centers have been scrambling to fill the gap.

    That’s why it was so shocking to hear that Whole Foods and Five Guys had taken the initiative to provide free food for National Guard soldiers instead of for thousands of high-need children.

    #Baltimore Justice for #FreddieGray march on the move – #BaltimoreUprising (livestream link there)

    And they’re off, heading west on Presbury. Were staying here handing out some books and cupcakes for the youths

    Families whose loved ones were killed by NYPD waiting to be acknowledge in assembly chamber thx @CharlesBarron12

  111. rq says

    And the Billy Graham staff has arrived. #BaltimoreUprising

    Those retweeted Deray quotes Pteryxx had upthread? Here’s the youtube of the interview: Wolf Blitzer interviews Deray McKesson about violence in Baltimore . WATCH IT.

    Joy. #BaltimoreUprising

    CNN Feasts on Baltimore Riot Coverage

    A casual CNN viewer would have had good reason this morning to think that the rioting, looting and arson that took place yesterday in Baltimore after the Freddie Gray funeral was still happening because the signature airborne shot of the pillaging of that CVS drug store was still airing.

    I isolate my criticism on CNN, but it’s not the only cable network to loop scenes of Monday’s violence as video wallpaper for Tuesday’s jabbering anchors—even though the real rioting had ceased. Nor is such looping unusual. Cable news routinely recycles and re-recycles the most striking video from newsworthy accidents, plane crashes, riots, and natural calamities without adding a time/date stamp to indicate that they’re not “live.”

    Nor am I the only one complaining. Today, President Barack Obama groused about the practice. “One burning building will be looped on television over and over again,” Obama said, adding his disappointment that the peaceful demonstrations that preceded the uprising were relatively ignored by the press.

    Of course, Obama is wrong to think that two days of peaceful demonstrations outrank one day of violence. He’d last five minutes in my profession with news sense like that. In fact, violent and graphic footage is almost always newsworthy in its first dozen times airings. If video exists of an unarmed man being repeatedly shot in the back, that’s news. If floodwaters transform New Orleans streets into a river delta, and cameras are there to record the images, that’s news, too. If the trade towers fall, that’s news, as well. But Obama is right to slam cable’s tendency to use yesterday’s clips to bolster viewer interest in stories that have already peaked. TV news reruns and reruns sensational footage because it knows sensational footage, no matter how dated, is an easy way to keep viewers emotionally engaged—and, in turn, keep them tuned in.

    More than ever today, CNN feasts on unfolding, breaking news—after all, its ratings are always best when there’s real legitimate news. (Anyone remember the disappearance of Malaysia Air Flight 370?) Network chief Jeff Zucker understands that viewers love actual stories; CNN’s brand, try as hard as they might in recent years, has never been about the punditry that has marked other cable networks. Its brand is news, so real news means real viewers. […]

    But enough about preventing and stopping riots, and back to media coverage. Should we suspend the First Amendment and censor riot coverage in the name of saving lives and property? That might have been technological possibility a generation ago, but YouTube, Vine, Periscope and other mobilized platforms make radical censorship moot. Haddock and Polsby say no, too, warning of the “serious danger of political opportunism if authorities were permitted to interdict the flow of news merely because they asserted a fear of that riots might otherwise ensue.”

    And so we’re left with this: The best way for the press to get riots right is to study their causes and their trajectories and to report on them as accurately and dispassionately as possible. If there was more attention paid to the conditions in places like Ferguson and Baltimore, more media attention that pushed for political solutions, the media could play a key role in preventing riots from starting in the first place. That’s my long-term instruction.

    For the short term, though, do me and Obama a favor and get rid of the video wallpaper.

    500 members of clergy have come together to strategize at Empowerment Temple. #BaltimoreUprising

    And apparently there is a training of 300 people on non-violent tactics happening at Empowerment Temple right now too. #BaltimoreUprising

  112. rq says

    NJSP Unified Command CTR headed to Baltimore to assist in maintains order #BaltimoreUprising

    I once asked an elder, “How do we keep the movement alive?” to which the elder replied, “The police will do it for you.” Worth repeating.

    Standing in Kirkwood for Baltimore. @deray @jdlynf29

    There Is Truth Behind the Anger in Baltimore

    Baltimore is not a think piece. Not every action in a riot is a metaphor. Freddie Gray’s back is really broken and he is actually dead.

    As the city variously rests and burns, lots of smart folks have glossed over these facts. Most of us have the luxury of not living in the city today, wondering if our homes, stores or community centers will make it through another rough night. Many of us also have the fortune of not having lived in the city’s toughest neighborhoods these last few years and years before that, wondering if our sons, fathers or selves will make it out alive after another encounter with the police.

    We have to hold two important truths in tension.

    First: There are deep roots to Freddie Gray’s death, and to these riots, that cannot be papered over. This is the city of dozens of slave markets, a place that grew and thrived on separate-but-equal, a city that carefully tucked and stacked black folks into the poorest of houses, schools and neighborhoods, year after year, until this day. When it comes to Freddie Gray, that history matters. Perhaps more than anything. And it must be addressed, maybe before everything. We don’t yet have all the facts—never will—but there is a solid chance that racism killed Freddie Gray.

    Second: We must proactively address systemic racism, excise this poisonous root, while pulling our young people close to us and speaking truth to them as well. It’s foolish to uncritically accept every rock thrown in Baltimore’s streets, just as it is foolish to accept every police narrative. When black people live in fear in their own communities, their dignity and their black lives and their black spaces matter as well. It’s simple reality, not pandering or privilege, to acknowledge this fact. We can lend a listening ear to young people’s pain, speak back to them in truth and love and help guide them into less destructive decisions for themselves and their communities, as they guide us in many ways as well.

    The ongoing reaction to unrest in Baltimore has exposed a gap between our most thoughtful commentators and folks currently living in these communities. Conservatives, who use their pens to dismiss the legacy of white supremacy and instead focus on supposed black pathologies, and liberals, who use theirs to refuse to reject any form of black anger, are doing actual neighborhoods no practical good. Don’t listen to them. Don’t listen to me. Listen to the folks on the ground.

    Hear from the mothers of Baltimore, the activists, the clergy, the teachers, who continue to live there and have for years. The people who simultaneously want to hold accountable a police force that just doesn’t get it, and help young people avoid destruction.

    The real truth in Baltimore is hard, messy and in the middle. It’s found in a space between the delusion of colorblindness and the destruction of rioting. It involves addressing legacies of racism in practical ways through bias reduction, affordable housing, economic development and criminal-justice reform; while also supporting young people through mentoring, fatherhood and motherhood programs, mental-health services, job training, education and more.

    A man is dead and he should not be. A community is threatened and burning and it should not be. Let’s acknowledge that and do the hard, practical work of rooting out Baltimore’s racial evils and rebuilding its neighborhoods. In this way, perhaps we can give our grandmothers some modicum of peace and their grandchildren some semblance of hope.

    Funny, yesterday an article insisted Baltimore had no racial issues. This one says there are racial issues. WHO COULD BE RIGHT?

    Oooh, nice one. How Lyndon Johnson Responded To Baltimore’s Last Riots

    The April 1968 riots came months after President Lyndon Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission, released a report that examined the cause of race riots in 1967 and warned that the nation was “moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” Its recommendations — “programs on a scale equal to the dimension of the problems,” aimed for “for high impact in the immediate future in order to close the gap between promise and performance” and “new initiatives and experiments that can change the system of failure and frustration that now dominates the ghetto and weakens our society,” were largely ignored as the Vietnam War continued to drain government resources.

    As Baltimore and other cities exploded, many public officials and Baltimore citizens described the riots as an inevitable outgrowth of vast racial injustice, in a segregated city with an African American population struggling with poverty and legal discrimination — triggered by a tragic death.

    Here’s what some of them have to say.

    President Lyndon Johnson

    What did you expect? I don’t know why we’re so surprised. When you put your foot on a man’s neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what’s he going to do? He’s going to knock your block off.

    The Maryland Crime Investigating Commission Report of the Baltimore Civil Disturbance of April 6 to April 11, 1968

    [S]ocial and economic conditions in the looted areas constituted a clear pattern of severe disadvantage for Negroes compared with whites . . . Our investigation arrives at the clear conclusion that the riot in Baltimore must be attributed to two elements—”white racism” and economic oppression of the Negro. It is impossible to give specific weights to each, but together they gave clear cause for many of the ghetto residents to riot.

    Baltimore Mayor Tommy D’Alesandro

    There was a hurt within the black community that they were not getting their fair share… We were coming from a very segregated city during the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s—and it was still a segregated atmosphere.

    Art Cohen, Baltimore Legal Aid attorney

    There had been this commission and it came out with its report in March just before King was assassinated. That report sounded a very loud warning saying that what had happened in these cities was likely to happen in other places if some very great changes weren’t made. Then to have this followed on April fourth by the killing of Martin Luther King was just, that set everybody off. Obviously not just in Baltimore but all around the country. There was a lot of tension. Whatever happened in Baltimore as a result of King’s death didn’t come from nowhere. It had been brewing there. There’s no question about that. We could see in the court system the situation for blacks. I’d rather use the word “black” because at that time it was all white and black, I mean that’s the way they said it in the city. For black folks at that time in the courts; we only had to go and visit the jails and the prisons: There were more people of the African American race there than white. Was this because somehow they were worse? We didn’t think so. We thought that the way the system was set up was to their great disadvantage.

    Robert Birt, 15-year-old Baltimore resident

    Baltimore wasn’t as mobilized as Bull Connor’s Birmingham where you had children facing police dogs. And of course the authorities here weren’t quite as extreme as in the deep South. I don’t think Baltimore had the extreme racial tension that some cities had. It was there – it still is there – but it seemed sort of undercover, so maybe that’s the reason why there was – I don’t know if it’s civility, but there was something. But the tensions were there.

    Thomas Donellan, Baltimore Catholic pastor

    [U]nderstand the antecedents that caused the riots. And, there are several that have to be very clear. The riot did not just happen. They had very definite antecedents.

    Richard Friedman, Maryland Department of Juvenile Services official

    Well, I don’t think it was inevitable that Baltimore would break into riots. There was certainly enormous poverty and tremendous segregation and disparity in the city, but from my perspective and the people that I worked with and the people that I knew, I didn’t sense that it was about to break out. I think the…the assassination itself certainly was a trigger— to have taken the life of someone who stood for non-violence certainly was an enormous trauma particularly in the African American community but also for me and many of my colleagues, too.

    Indeed, days before his own assassination, King — who had two years earlier called riots “the language of the unheard,” warned: “I don’t like to predict violence, but if nothing is done between now and June to raise ghetto hope, I feel this summer will not only be as bad but worse than last year.”

    They all seem to get it…

    Cartoon on looting, showing three officially-dressed figures carrying away boxes labelled ‘Hopes’, ‘Lives’ and ‘Dreams’ from a store with broken windows labelled ‘Black American Men’.

    More later.

  113. rq says

    FYI I’m probably going to be out of commission tomorrow as I’ll be in the car most of the day, but by Friday I should be more or less back on track.
    Now to finish what I started this morning…
    National Guardsmen in front of #Baltimore City Hall. 1 hour until curfew goes into effect. #BaltimoreUprising

    Video of Chicago police aggressively pushing & roughing up #Chi2Baltimore protest in street. Video link at the link.

    A reminder: Your rights to photograph police & Freddie Gray protests

    Here are seven tips to protect your rights. But remember – particularly in conditions like those escalated at Freddie Gray protests – police can ask everyone to move out of an area, including photographers, and pushing your constitutional rights could land you in jail.

    For updates on our investigation into violations of First Amendment rights, follow @russptacek on Twitter or like Russ Ptacek on Facebook.

    “You can, if you’re not physically interfering, you can photograph police officers performing their official duties,” said National Press Photographer Attorney Mickey Osterreicher. “Let’s say a sidewalk or a park, then and you can observe something, then you can photograph and record it.” […]

    Here are Osterreicher’s seven tips to protect yourself if you’re confronted by police while trying to take pictures from a public space:

    – Be polite.
    – Stay calm.
    – Explain your understanding of your right to photograph/record.
    – Keep recording or have someone else record the interaction.
    – Comply with request unless you are willing to be arrested.
    – Carry government issued identification and press identification if you are working for a news organization.
    Photograph with a partner

    Although the general rule is you can photographs anywhere that is open to the public, police can establish emergency security zones and some areas restrict the way you can photograph.

    @keenblackgirl @deray @Nettaaaaaaaa @facesofthemvmnt on mike florissant. Now #FreddieGray #MikeBrown

    Go Home. #BaltimoreUprising

    retweet,shelter for the #homeless during curfew,please help,let them use a phone
    Baltimore,MD 410-837-1400 shelter for homeless men & women

  114. rq says

    We are in the streets in support in #Ferguson #FergusonToBaltimore

    Just interviewed kids who say they’re Bloods, “It’s a lie that we planned violence. We come together for a cause.”

    Press. Helmet. #BaltimoreUprising

    National Guard says “let’s go home.” And people respond, “We are home! You go home!” #BaltimoreUprising

    oh no! not Chiraq

    “@MinkuMedia: #CHICAGO COPS GET VIOLENT at 35/MLK, AS CROWD TAKES STREETS

    #Chi2Baltimore ”

    Full Show: The United States of Ferguson, video, with transcript available.

    In the wake of decisions by grand juries in both Missouri and New York’s Staten Island not to indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed African-Americans, this week we present an encore broadcast of Bill’s conversation earlier this year with journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates.

    First telecast in May 2014, Coates had just written a cover story in The Atlantic magazine, provocatively titled “The Case for Reparations.” It urged that we begin a national dialogue on whether the United States should compensate African-Americans not only as recognition of slavery’s “ancient brutality” — as President Lyndon Johnson called it – but also as acknowledgement of all the prejudice and discrimination that have followed in a direct line from this, our original sin.

    His words are remarkably prescient in light of recent events. As Coates explained to Moyers, “I am not asking you, as a white person, to see yourself as an enslaver. I’m asking you as an American to see all of the freedoms that you enjoy and see how they are rooted in things that the country you belong to condoned or actively participated in in the past. And that covers everything from enslavement to the era of lynching, when we effectively decided that we weren’t going to afford African-Americans the same level of protection of the law…

    “There are plenty of African-Americans in this country — and I would say that this goes right up to the White House — who are not by any means poor, but are very much afflicted by white supremacy.”

    Reparations, Coates said, are “what the United States, first of all, really owes African-Americans, but not far behind that, what it owes itself, because this is really about our health as a country… I firmly believe that reparation is a chance to be pioneers. We say we set all these examples about liberty and freedom and democracy and all that great stuff. Well, here’s an opportunity for us to live that out.”

    Still applicable.

  115. rq says

    More images from last night:
    111 pinwheels outside CPD HQ to represent each person Baltimore cops have killed since 2010. #chi2baltimore

    Lone protester standing in front of armored vehicle, lots of press and people in area behind. #BaltimoreCurfew

    Protesters blocking traffic, #Ferguson police arrive at West Florissant and Canfield some rocks thrown at cop cars
    <
    Smoke grenades fired by police

    Most people are on the sidewalks now. And the media vehicles are a barrier between us and the police. #BaltimoreUprising

    Another article with video on the Wolf Blitzer – Deray McKesson interaction. Activist smacks down Wolf Blitzer: ‘You are suggesting broken windows are worse than broken spines’

    CNN host Wolf Blitzer seemed determined to make the focus of his Tuesday interview with Deray McKesson about the amount of trouble protesters had caused in Baltimore, but the community organizer managed to turn the tables on the veteran journalist.

    “You want peaceful protests, right?” Blitzer began his interview by asking McKesson.

    “Yes,” McKesson replied, after being momentarily taken aback by the obvious nature of the question. “Remember, the people that have been violent since August have been the police. When you think about the 300 people that have been killed this year alone. Like that is violence.”

    McKesson agreed that the property damage in Baltimore on Monday night was unfortunate, but he urged Blitzer to remember that there had been “many days of peaceful protests here in Baltimore City and places all around the country.”

    “But at least 15 police officers have been hurt, 200 arrests, 144 vehicle fires — these are statistics,” Blitzer countered, robotically reading a police press release. “There’s no excuse for that kind of violence, right?”

    “Yeah, and there’s no excuse for the seven people that the Baltimore City Police Department has killed in the last year either, right?” McKesson shot back.

    “We’re not making comparisons,” Blitzer stuttered. “Obviously, we don’t want anybody hurt. But I just want to hear you say that there should be peaceful protests, not violent protests in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King.”

    “Yeah, there’s should be peaceful protests,” the community organizer replied. “And I don’t have to condone it to understand it, right? The pain that people feel is real.”

    “And you are making a comparison,” McKesson added. “You are suggesting this idea that broken windows are worse than broken spines, right?”

    “And what we know to be true is the police are killing people everywhere. They’re killing people here. Six police officers were involved in the killing of Freddie Gray, and we’re looking for justice there. And that’s real. The violence the police have been inflicting on communities of color has been sustained and deep.”

    Gold.

  116. rq says

    Possibly a repost: Media Blackout: How Baltimore Cops Turned a Peaceful Student Protest into a Riot

    I’ve seen it too many times with my own eyes; peaceful protests where cops show up in riot gear and start agitating the crowd. First they arrest one or two people for no reason, then the crowd gets even more agitated. Based on experience I can predict that the uprising in Baltimore will not stop until the police back off.

    According to Baltimore police, there is credible evidence that gangs have united to fight against police. The more likely scenario is that gangs have united to protest the police — which was confirmed by an interview released last night. When gangs stop fighting one another, cops get scared because police depend on gang fighting to justify their very existence. In response, Baltimore police put out warnings to shut down many parts of the city and brought out riot cops to agitate stranded high school students.

    Reports from the ground indicate that it was police tactics that triggered a peaceful high school protest to turn into a full-scale riot. I’ve curated some first hand accounts to show how the scenario played out in Baltimore yesterday

    See link for more.

    Media huddling in between cars. #BaltimoreUprising

    WATCH LIVE: Smoke grenades thrown at crowd in #Baltimore. There’s a link within but I doubt it’s live anymore, see picture instead.

    You should probably not live tweet “@BaltimorePolice: Officers are now advancing on the group. They remain aggressive and disorderly.” What a slip, but so appropriate.

    Baltimore, Chicago, Ferguson, Detroit, DC, and LA are ALL out tonight in solidarity.

    #BaltimoreUprising

    Shots fired. #FergusonToBaltimore #Ferguson

  117. rq says

    Fire. Burning bus stops. #Ferguson

    We’ve been shot at, and chemical emissions are in the air and we are still resisting. #Ferguson #FergusonToBaltimore
    And Ferguson also had the issue that their livestreamers were all out to Baltimore. Interesting that the moment the livestreamers were gone, protestors were once again shot at.

    Seconds before they shot pellets at the press and few protesters remaining. @MedinaMora got hit but is ok. That’s Baltimore again.

    Rubber bullet I was just hit with. #BalitmoreUprising

    Solidarity looks like this. #chi2baltimore

    TRIGGER WARNING FOR THE IMAGE They dismiss our anger as thuggery & tell us 2 forget crimes committed against us! #NeverForget ! #BaltimoreUprising

  118. rq says

    Some #WhiteFolkWork: 1)Help w/ #JailSupport. 2)Help feed ppl. 3)Donate $ and share donation links. 4)Contact officials. 5)HELP TAKE STREETS!

    The black riot cop truck just got here with all the riot cops #FergusonToBaltimore

    MO Highway Patrol also here. Captain Ron Johnson is back on W. Florissant. #Ferguson Hi, Capt. Johnson! People were wondering where’d you’ve been off to.

    Police ordering people to start moving towards Chambers. #Ferguson

    Double linked lines of us. A line of jumpy cops. #Ferguson2Baltimore

    Protesters locked arms 3 rows deep

  119. rq says

    Lord RT @allshiny: Classic. RT @MarkAgee: When your police tweet is a lie but also accurate – see attached tweets: “@BaltimorePolice says, A group of criminals have just started a fire outside the library located at Pennsylvania Ave and North Ave.’ to which @jonswaine replies, ‘Fire beside Pratt library was not caused by Molotov cocktail. The teargas grenade landed on trash and its sparks caused the fire. Watched it.'”
    Too funny if it wasn’t so serious.

    Resistance. #Ferguson2Baltimore #Ferguson

    Tense stand off w/ Denver cops at union station … #freddiegray #defenddenver

    Journalist @ShawnCarrie was shot in face w/rubber bullet & arrested yesterday, still not released. #BaltimoreUprising

    These Are The Tear Gas Canisters Cops Used In Baltimore Tonight

    The Spede-Heat™ CS Grenade is a high volume, continuous burn it expels its payload in approximately 30-40 seconds. The payload is discharged through four gas ports on top of the canister, three on the side and one on the bottom. This launchable grenade is 6.12 in. by 2.62 in. and holds approximately 2.9 oz. of active agent.

    Hundreds Rally at Police Headquarters, Then March South to Midway Plaisance

    A crowd of several hundred people protesting police brutality marched around Chicago’s South Side Tuesday night, in a show of strength and solidarity with protesters in Baltimore.

    The crowd ranged from 100 to 300 people during a rally Tuesday evening at Chicago Police Department headquarters at 35th Street and Michigan Avenue, but it grew as it headed into Hyde Park.

    Around 7:55 p.m., 100 to 200 of the protesters began marching east on 35th Street, at times yelling: “Back up, back up, we want freedom!”

    The march then went south on Cottage Grove Avenue. By 9:25 p.m., about 300 marchers were at 55th Street and Drexel Avenue on the University of Chicago campus.

    They congregated at 55th and Cottage Grove at 10 p.m. and then marched east on the Midway Plaisance at 10:20 p.m. The protesters formed a giant circle on the Plaisance about 10:30 p.m., and the crowd started to dissipate around 10:45 p.m., with a smaller group heading south on Cottage Grove toward 63rd Street.

    “All night 30 to 40 officers worked tirelessly to keep us from this [University of Chicago] property,” said organizer Malcolm London, who added it was the only property during the march that police cared about protecting.

    “This doesn’t end here,” London added.

    The crowd at one point was just blocks from President Barack Obama’s Kenwood home. The president was in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night.

    As police in Baltimore began to institute a 10 p.m. curfew there, police in Chicago blocked streets in an effort to steer the chanting crowd.

    The “Emergency Action in Solidarity w/Baltimore” protest, which included Rekia Boyd’s brother, Martinez Sutton, began at 6 p.m. at police headquarters. More than 1,700 people said they would be attending, according to the event’s Facebook page.

    “We’ve been out here fightin’ and screamin’, and they think it’s over,” Sutton said Tuesday with tears in his eyes. “[But] there’s 12 rounds in a heavyweight battle, [and] I’m just gettin’ started.”

  120. rq says

    Look. At. It. #Baltimore

    CNN said nothing. There’s a reason why we’re heading down to Baltimore. #TWIBnation Watch the video, and wonder, where did that man disappear to?

    They are telling people to leave but won’t allow people to get out off the street #ferguson

    Sheriff of #Baltimore PD taunting &taking a pic of us seeking refuge in a church #BalitmoreUprising #BaltimoreCurfew

    The protester shot in #Ferguson appears to be well. I examined him myself. Minimal blood. Moving on his own power. Protesters driving.

    Gunshots coming from Canfield. Word is someone has been shot.

    #Ferguson

  121. Pteryxx says

    PZ’s latest thread quoting Ta-nehisi Coates: All that needs to be said

    When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is “correct” or “wise,” any more than a forest fire can be “correct” or “wise.” Wisdom isn’t the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the community.

    Original here: Nonviolence as Compliance

  122. Pteryxx says

    Leaving a couple of articles for reference:

    Vocativ yesterday: Baltimore Riot: Teachers Say Police Herded Students Into Chaos

    Meghann Harris, a teacher at Baltimore Design School, told Vocativ that she saw police unloading buses full of students from Frederick Douglass High School at the mall.

    “Students told me they were nervous to take the bus that day,” said Harris, “because they could see on social media that a protest was going to happen right after school at the mall’s bus station.” Harris said she watched high school students trying to leave the area, but that they couldn’t because all the other buses were also shut down.

    “They let the kids off exactly where the protest was happening. Protesters ran past the students, who looked scared and confused,” said Harris.”The police didn’t look like they were doing anything to help the students get away to a safe place.” Although she left to take some of her own students home and was not there when the angry protest turned violent, Harris—who has herself participated in some of the peaceful protests that followed the death of Freddie Gray—believes this transportation blunder caused the riot at the Mondawmin Mall.

    After giving a few students a ride home, Harris published a follow-up Facebook post, saying: “Students were trapped in the mess, whether they were choosing to participate or not…they were thrown into the middle of essentially a battle field.” A fellow educator confirmed Harris’s observation with a tweet of his own.

    And in Albuquerque. Remember county DA Kari Brandenburg, who dared charge officers with murder? DailyKos:

    The DA, Kari Brandenburg, has been under massive pressure from the APD thanks to her decision to charge two officers with murder in the death of homeless camper James Boyd last spring. The image of Boyd being shot down while retreating from police in the foothills east of the city went viral, leading to major demonstrations locally and heightened interest shortly thereafter when the U.S. Department of Justice issued a scathing report on years of excessive force by the APD.

    More recently, in what was perceived as an act of preemptive retaliation before Brandenburg had even filed the murder charges, police announced that they were investigating her for intimidation and bribery of witnesses in relation to a burglary case involving her son. In spite of that, Brandenburg maintained her cool, answering those accusations and not backing down on the murder charges.

    She’s gone on the record with Albuquerque Free Press saying she’s been told to fear for her safety. FreeABQ:

    The DA said she’s been told by friendly APD officers that she’s a target of forces who want her out of office and punished for daring to challenge the police department.

    In a wide-ranging interview, Brandenburg told ABQ Free Press that she knows who those forces are but isn’t yet willing to go public with their names and motives. But she says her fear is real.

    “I fear for my safety because other Albuquerque Police Department officers have told me that I should,” Brandenburg said. “I don’t think they’re going to kill me, but I have been told to fear for my safety.”

    Brandenburg has hinted that APD’s criminal investigation into allegations that she intimidated and bribed witnesses in connection with a burglary case involving her son are part of the wider attempt to intimidate and smear her.

    But she does have allies in the police department. Those friendly officers have told Brandenburg about other problems in the department – revelations apparently so serious they’ve caused the four-term DA sleepless nights, she said.

    […]

    There are other things about the leaders at the police department and at City Hall that trouble Brandenburg; they won’t communicate with her, she said.

    “When I talk to the chief [Gorden Eden], it’s kind of odd saying that because I never talk [with him]. There is no communication going on with City Hall and the brass of the police department,” Brandenburg said. “Since the chief has been in office, he has not responded to any correspondence. I have not talked to him on the job.”

    That lack of communication is remarkable considering two things: One is the U.S. Department of Justice probe of APD and the city’s effort to develop constitutional police practices, and the other is a New Mexico Supreme Court rule that took effect in February.

    The rule change requires district judges to dismiss criminal cases if APD fails to share evidence with both the DA and defense attorneys within 10 days of an arrest. Because APD isn’t geared up to meet that deadline, criminal cases are being dismissed. While Brandenburg’s lawyers are working with lower-echelon APD officials on how to comply with the new rule, there have been no discussions between Brandenburg and Eden or his top commanders, she said.

    Apologies if this is a repost. From April 23, re the new mayor of Kinloch near Ferguson:

    New Kinloch mayor locked out of City Hall and Alleging voter fraud, Kinloch refuses to swear in new mayor and alderman

    Betty McCray, Kinloch’s newly elected Mayor, arrived at City Hall on Thursday morning with an entourage and the intention to fire multiple city employees.

    But before she could enter the building, McCray was told she was the one who was out of job.

    In the parking lot, McCray was met by a half-dozen police officers and City Attorney James Robinson, who held a manila envelope under his arm containing articles of impeachment.

    “You can’t come in as mayor,” Robinson said. “You have been suspended.”

    McCray refused to take the envelope, saying, “You may be the attorney now, but I promise you, you won’t be later.”

    […]

    According to documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch through a records request, the city has raised concerns to the St. Louis County Board of Elections and the Missouri Secretary of State about people being registered to vote in Kinloch who no longer live there. On April 2, the city gave the Election Board a list of 27 names of people who it claimed were illegally registered; many of those individual addresses were listed at city-owned apartments.

    McCray said that the concerns about people’s being illegally registered were “absurd.”

    “It never came up until I ran for mayor,” she said, adding that people were still living at the addresses the city claims are empty.

    At least two of the apartments in question on Tuttle Street, where six people are registered to vote, according to the city, appeared this week to have been unoccupied for some time. Both were stripped of furniture and appliances. In one, a jar of pickles and two spent oxygen tanks sat amid other debris on the floor.

    Petty said the homes were vacant because the city began evicting people behind on rent shortly before the election because the tenants were supporters of McCray.

    But City Manager Justine Blue said that wasn’t true. The only people who the city is evicting still live in their apartments, she said. The city did file lawsuits to evict some residents, but that was on Thursday, court records show. Blue said those residents have yet to be formally served with eviction notices.

    “Besides, we would have no idea who would be supporting Ms. McCray,” Blue said.

    And there’s the direct connection between evicting people who live in crappy neighborhoods and alleging voter fraud.

  123. says

    From Fusion:
    I saw hope on the streets of Baltimore

    A toddler, playing on the steps of a row house next to the CVS that had been burned the day before, tumbled to the ground and began to cry. I picked him up and handed him back to his mother, who was seated at the top of the steps. Once in her arms, I made a funny face at him, and he began to giggle. Then I poked his belly and he laughed even harder, the tumble a distant memory.

    It was a refreshingly honest moment in the middle of the surreal scene around us. I’d been walking towards Pennsylvania Avenue and West North, the locus for media and protesters coalescing in this city: full of drumming and flyer-ing, a white guy on a bullhorn ranting about Jesus, and, of course, the media. Directly behind me, a row of television vans. Ten paces ahead were close to a dozen cameramen wielding their giant machines, anchors in the street chatting with interviewees. So I sat with the Thompson family for a bit on their stoop, a respite.

    “What about the people who live here? Don’t [the media] want to hear from us?” Carla Thompson asked.

    “We tried to move away from the animosity, but we moved right to it,” said Edward Thompson, Carla’s husband, of the recent unrest in his (literal) backyard. The family came to West Baltimore just two months ago from Washington D.C. looking for a better life, a safer life. But now they’re not so sure. Carla recalled the day before: “It was nothing but teenage kids,” she said of those who damaged a few establishments in the area on Monday. “We’re the only house on this block, all the rest are boarded up. Our whole thing was, ‘we’re next.’” She shut their doors and they waited it out.

    The looting was a culmination of a 10 day-long holding pattern Baltimore city residents have been in since 25 year-old Freddie Gray died in police custody with a crushed voice box and severely damaged spine. “I agree with the protests,” said Carla. “But to tear up a city where you live, shop, work…” That was something she couldn’t comprehend.

    But other Baltimore residents do understand. “I can’t even really call them looters. They’re uprisers,” said D. Watkins, a professor at Coppin State University and native son of Baltimore who wrote about his experience growing up harassed by the police for New York Times. “Non-violent protest doesn’t really work in America, especially when police do nothing but implement violence,” he said.

    A fresh-faced senior from Morgan State University who calls himself “The Keenan System” sees himself in the young protestors, who he called “misled.”

    “I’m a product of Baltimore City streets,” he said. “I done been through foster care, I done been without my parents, I done been homeless at a very young age. So I know and I understand. It would have been me out there.” And though he doesn’t agree with the destruction, he added: “I refuse to condemn them, because that could have been me.”

    Keenan was on Pennsylvania Avenue when the looting started on Monday afternoon. After a rumor circulated on social media that people were planning on looting the area, Keenan and his friends showed up to defuse the situation. “The police didn’t come to help. They came already armored and ready to destruct,” he said. “They were agitating these kids.” Keenan blames the heavy police presence for the worst of the violence. “You’re going to get agitated,” he explained. “Your rage is going to be expressed on so many different levels. Levels the whole world doesn’t understand, or America may not understand.”

    In response to the rage, Keenan and his friends organized a peaceful, day-long antidote to the lingering stench of burning pharmacy items over on Pennsylvania Avenue. They called it #Ilovebaltimore, and I never would have known about it had they not marched by Pennsylvania Avenue on Tuesday chanting the slogan. I walked alongside them until we ended up at a basketball court just three blocks down. Baltimore residents were barbecuing, eating, and talking. Organizers took to the megaphone to encourage everyone to get inside by 8:30 pm, a full hour and a half before the city’s mandated 10:00 pm curfew. The young people I talked to were not optimistic about the likelihood that any of the six police officers involved in Freddie Gray’s death will see the inside of a prison, but were intent upon keeping the community whole.

    “What is working? You got the peaceful protests, you got the violent protests. What is working? These kids are still getting killed every day,” said life-long Baltimorean, Anthony Cooper. I asked him what will be needed to restore peace. “Some type of answer,” he said. “It seems like [the police] are just protected by their shield.”

    Yes, they are. But I do think something is working. I saw 30 or so black men from the community linking arms in front of the police line for hours. I saw an older woman hold a sign that read “go home” as curfew loomed. I witnessed the beautiful scene at #ilovebaltimore gathering. And yes, I encountered angry kids who felt the only way they could be heard is by burning shit to the ground. But all the people I spoke to had one resounding demand: things in Baltimore have to change.

  124. Pteryxx says

    I don’t have a lot of highlights from last night, but I did briefly see the crowds of protesters rapidly clearing right at the curfew deadline, while their Congress representative Elijah Cummings pleaded with them to go home, brushing aside reporters who tried to interrupt his work. Rawstory:

    Cummings ignored Hannity and called for protesters to obey the curfew.

    “Excuse me, I want you to help get these people to go home,” he said, brushing past Vittert.

    “Obviously, Sean, the congressman didn’t have much interest in answering your question,” Vittert said, as Cummings continued walking.

    “I’m interested in people going home,” Cummings shouted through the bullhorn.

    Bloomberg: (the same from Tuesday night)

    The tone started to change when Elijah Cummings, the congressman for most of black Baltimore, arrived and slowly moved toward the police megaphone. The veteran Democrat was swarmed by reporters and by protesters who wanted to be convinced to leave. “If you say everybody disperse, we disperse,” said one of them. “But at the end of the day, they tryin’ to shoot us at 10 o’clock.”

    By the time Cummings reached the megaphone, the crowd was indeed thinning, from hundreds to around 100 people.

    “There’s nothing wrong with peaceful protest, and we want to maintain peace,” said Cummings. “I live in this neighborhood. I’m with you. We hear you. And I’m asking you, I’m begging you, to please turn around and go home. Please turn to your neighbor and say, let’s go home.”

    The congressman waded back through the crowd, after 10 p.m., ahead of whatever the police would do. “By being out here, are you slowing up the police from doing their job?” asked Fox News reporter Mike Tobin.

    “No,” said Cummings. “This is my neighborhood. I live five blocks away from here.”

    MSNBC reported some of the two dozen or so protesters arrested Tuesday night were high schoolers with no previous criminal record, who are now facing criminal charges for not obeying the curfew. Their clean histories may now have permanent marks for disobeying a temporary restriction on their own neighborhood.

  125. Pteryxx says

    While the curfew deadline approached, within minutes of it, the news broke that an anonymous police source (fearing for the prisoner’s safety, natch) leaked a police document claiming the second prisoner in the van with Freddie Gray heard him trying to injure himself. Rachel Maddow said right away that these leaks always happen with a purpose. MSNBC was able to speak to the Gray family’s attorney and to a WBAL reporter who immediately pointed out the contradictions between this claim and both the medical information and previous police claims. Maddow Show video segment, Maddowblog: Leaked document blames Freddie Gray for his injuries

    Though the claims are extraordinarily hard to believe, this is the first tidbit of information the public has received from inside the official investigation into Gray’s death.

    As Rachel noted on the show last night, “Leaks like this always serve somebody’s purpose. We have no idea who gave this to the Washington Post or what their interests are in having done so.”

    An attorney representing the Gray family said in a statement, “We disagree with any implication that Freddie severed his own spinal cord.”

    What’s more, WBAL investigative reporter Jayne Miller talked to msnbc’s Chris Hayes last night and disputed this version of events. “According to our sources by the time that prisoner is loaded into that van Freddie Gray was unresponsive,” Miller said. “Secondly, we have reported [there] is no evidence, medical evidence that Freddie Gray suffered any injury that indicate that he injured himself.”

    A DailyKos report linking to Jayne Miller of WBAL speaking to Chris Hayes: MSNBC video link

    The Kos writer:

    Oh, and by the way, from Jayne Miller at Baltimore’s WBAL on April 23:

    BPD Comm Anthony Batts says 2nd prisoner in van with Freddie Gray reports no erratic driving by van driver and Gray mostly quiet
    — @jemillerwbal

    Oops.

    Coincidentally, over the past several hours, three different friends or relatives of the suspended police officers have gone on the news—anonymously and without showing their faces—to give amazingly similar stories of what really happened that night. (Hint: Not the cops fault!)

    You can see where this is all going …

    and a detailed takedown of the account from Shaun King:

    (UPDATE) The Baltimore Police just admitted on Thursday, after security camera footage was released from a private business, that the van made at least two more stops that were not reported or included in their original timeline.

    So Gray arrived at the police station a full 40 minutes after they arrested him. When they arrived at the station, he was unconscious and unresponsive.

    3. The Baltimore police’s leak to the Washington Post that Gray injured himself in the van and that another suspect heard him doing it is not supported by the facts.

    a. On April 29, the Baltimore police claimed in documents leaked to the Washington Post that a second suspect who was arrested heard Freddie Gray deliberately banging up against the walls of the van, but here is where we’ve caught them in a lie:

    A full six days earlier, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts claimed that the second suspect said Gray was quiet in the back of the van.

    b. Gray did not have ANY injuries, cuts, scrapes, bumps conducive with someone forcefully breaking his own vertebrae, voice box, and severing his own spine.

    But as Jayne Miller, the WBAL investigative reporter, has said, none of the evidence presented thus far corroborates the police explanation of the injuries:

    “The medical evidence does not suggest at all that he was able to injure himself,” Miller said. “The force of this injury, akin to have the force involved in a car accident with all that momentum going, that is much more force than you would get trying to bang your head against the wall of the van.”

    “You have to have other injuries,” she continued. “You can’t bang your head against the van, to injure yourself in a fatal way, without having a bloodier head. There is just no information that would corroborate that.”

    More at the link, including brief takedowns of the jumped-from-a-third-story-window lie and the doctored-lead-paint-lawsuit lie going around conservative media.

  126. Pteryxx says

    MSNBC video link to Jayne Miller of WBAL speaking to Chris Hayes: (Link) The link in my previous was to The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, also speaking with Jayne Miller. That link again

  127. Pteryxx says

    Other items of note, from an MSNBC article as it’s close to hand: Protests erupt in major cities in solidarity with Freddie Gray

    Protests in solidarity with Baltimore, Maryland in the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray erupted in major cities across the country on Wednesday night, leading to at times violent clashes with police in New York City. There were also peaceful demonstrations in Seattle, Washington D.C., Denver and Minneapolis.

    In what started as a peaceful rally of as many as 1,000 supporters in New York’s Union Square soon dissolved into clashes with police after groups attempted to take the protests to the street. Police initially made dozens of arrests just minutes into the demonstration and managed to disperse the crowd, but only temporarily. The protest soon split into factions, with demonstrators marching for hours through some of Manhattan’s most iconic landmarks – Times Square, the shadow of the Empire State Building and even blocking the Holland Tunnel. More than 100 people were arrested, according to the New York Police Department.

    “New York is Baltimore and Baltimore is New York,” was chanted by protesters in Times Square as police attempted to pin back increasingly tense crowds. Some protesters were pushed into barricades, while bewildered tourists found themselves in the middle of heated confrontations. Authorities were at times aggressive – even throwing punches – when addressing protest groups that were openly defying orders to stay off of major thoroughfares. Protesters attempted to thwart police efforts to contain the demonstration by trying to outrun the barricades being placed at their every turn.

    “We are seeing rebellion. We are seeing revolution. We are seeing revolt,” said Ahmad Greene, with the group Black Lives Matter.

    […]

    Despite frequent press conferences throughout the day, police offered no new information Wednesday about the 25-year-old Gray’s police-custody death, leaving an outraged public – and his family – with more questions than answers 17 days after Gray’s arrest. Hopes of enlightenment were dashed by police Wednesday afternoon when Capt. Eric Kowalczyk told the press that the police department would release all of its findings not to the public, but to the state attorney’s office on Friday. [Bolds mine]

    […]

    Early Wednesday evening, the Baltimore Public Defender’s office said that 101 of those arrested amid Monday night’s rioting were being released without charges. As of late Wednesday afternoon, 111 of the 209 people arrested Monday night remained jailed without charges, pushing the 48-hour constitutional limit on such detentions. “If we are not able to meet the 48-hour window … they will be released,” Kowalczyk told the press earlier in the day.

    […]

    The U.S. Dept. of Justice – led by new Attorney General Loretta Lynch – is pursuing a parallel investigation into Gray’s death.

    The Guardian on the protester who was ‘snatched’ or ‘black-bagged’ Tuesday night: Baltimore activist ‘kidnapped’ on live TV is in jail despite having hands up ‘the whole time’

    Exclusive: The Guardian has established the whereabouts of Joseph Kent, whose disappearance into a phalanx of riot police prompted an outcry on social media

    Kent, who has been charged with one count of breach of a 10pm curfew, wants the public to know he is “well and safe” and is asking Baltimore residents to follow his lead by refraining from violence.

    Kent’s sudden disappearance around 11.10pm ET Tuesday was filmed by live CNN cameras, and prompted an outcry on social media. He had his hands in the air when riot police swooped in, and a police humvee-style truck temporarily blocked him from view of the media.

    Kent might still be missing were it not for the efforts of Stephen Patrick Beatty, a local attorney who has been defending protesters and watched the ensuing drama unfold on Twitter.

    “I was supposed to be going to bed,” Beatty told the Guardian. “Instead I was up all night and still haven’t gone to sleep.”

    Beatty said he had to draw on local law enforcement contacts and tip-offs to help locate the young man in the chaos of the city’s overflowing jail system.

    He only discovered Kent was in Baltimore’s central booking and intake center – a major holding facility for suspects – after 3am.

    […]

    “His description was very similar to what happened on television,” Beatty said. “As the video shows, he was trying to get people to leave. He’s sick of the violence. He didn’t want to see any more of it. He was telling people to disperse.”

    Beatty said his client “wanted police to know he was harmless so he had his hands up the whole time”.

    And another protester who turned himself in: Baltimore rioter turned himself in – but family can’t afford $500,000 bail

    Allen Bullock’s mother and stepfather told him to surrender for smashing a police car, but they say authorities ‘are making an example of him – and it is not right’

    Hawkins, 44, said Bullock had agreed to surrender to the police after being told by his stepfather the police would “find him, knock down our door and beat him” if he did not.

    “By turning himself in he also let me know he was growing as a man and he recognised what he did was wrong,” Hawkins said on Wednesday at his home in a low-income block in south Baltimore. “But they are making an example of him and it is not right.”

    “As parents we wanted Allen to do the right thing,” said Bobbi Smallwood, Bullock’s mother, who wept and dabbed her eyes. “He was dead wrong and he does need to be punished. But he wasn’t leading this riot. He hasn’t got that much power.”

    “It is just so much money,” Smallwood, 43, said of the bail sum of $500,000. “Who could afford to pay that?” Hawkins said the total exceeded the bonds placed on some accused murderers in Baltimore. Smallwood added: “If they let him go he could at least save some money and pay them back for the damage he did.”

    […]

    At the one district courthouse open in Baltimore’s south on Wednesday three courtrooms were open and processed bail applications all day. At one late-afternoon hearing in courtroom four around a dozen cases were heard in little over an hour.

    Inmates appeared before Judge Flynn Owens from the Baltimore City Detention Center via videolink. They routinely requested via their public defenders for bail figures to be lowered. Often this was denied and in some cases bail figures put forward by the state’s attorney were increased by Judge Owens.

    Roselyn Michelle Roberts, a 43-year-old grandmother, faced two charges of fourth-degree theft and burglary. The court heard that Roberts suffered from manic depression and earned around $60 a week babysitting her grandchild. The state’s attorney argued for a $50,000 bail. Judge Owens revised the figure to $100,000 citing two pending cases against her and a record of eight prior convictions.

    The court heard how Antonio Jackson, a father of one who works as a warehouse labourer, was allegedly caught with a pair of tennis shoes still with their price tag. He was not arrested at the scene of looting and his public defender argued he would lose his job if not released. The state’s attorney requested $50,000 bail. This was revised by Judge Owens to $100,000, who cited a single occasion when Jackson failed to appear at a scheduled court date.

  128. Pteryxx says

    Brief update – I’m seeing on MSNBC that WBAL *just interviewed the second prisoner from the van* and he reiterates, Freddie Gray was barely moving during the last few minutes of that van ride. Apparently he came forward under his own name.

    Video and text article at NBC News: Second Detainee Recalls Ride in Baltimore Police Van with Freddie Gray

    A Baltimore man has come forward to talk about his April 12 ride in a police van with Freddie Gray, saying in an interview that he heard his fellow prisoner briefly making noise on the other side of a metal barrier.

    “All I heard was a little banging for like four seconds,” 22-year-old Donte Allen told local NBC affiliate WBAL. “I just heard a little banging.”

    Gray suffered spinal injuries while in custody, and died a week later. His death sparked citywide protests that devolved into rioting and looting Monday.

    Allen’s account, given in an interview on the street with WBAL reporter Jayne Miller, differs slightly from the one described in a report in the Washington Post. Citing police documents, the newspaper quoted a prisoner telling investigators he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” and that he believed Gray “was intentionally trying to injure himself.”

    The quotes came from an application for a search warrant that was sealed by court order but provided to the newspaper under condition that the witness not be named. Allen appears to be that prisoner; police have said that only two prisoners were in the van during the April 12 ride through West Baltimore.

    Asked if he told police that he heard Gray banging his head against the van, Allen provided WBAL with a conflicting reply: “I told homicide that. I don’t work for the police. I didn’t tell the police nothing.”

    Even with Allen’s account, it remains unclear what Gray was doing on the other side of the partition. Sources have told WBAL that Gray was unconscious by the time that Allen was loaded inside.

    Allen told WBAL that when the van reached a West Baltimore police station, he heard officers saying Gray didn’t have a pulse. “They were calling his name, ‘Mr. Gray, Mr. Gray, and he wasn’t responsive,” Allen said.

    Another new piece of info from police sources:

    A Washington D.C. television station WJLA, citing law enforcement sources, reported Thursday that the a Baltimore police investigation found no evidence that gray’s fatal injuries were caused during the videotaped arrest and interaction with police officers. The sources told the station that the medical examiner found Gray’s catastrophic injury was caused when he slammed into the back of the police transport van, apparently breaking his neck; a head injury he sustained matches a bolt in the back of the van.

    The police department has handed its findings to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, which will decide whether anyone will face criminal charges.

  130. says

    Right-wing media blames everyone but police for Baltimore unrest:

    (thank you Truthout, for referring to the events in Baltimore as ‘unrest’ rather than ‘rioting’)

    The right-wing response to stories of police violence and brutality against blacks, and black deaths at the hands of police, is becoming as predictable as the stories themselves. Only the names and locations seem to change.

    Here we are again. Another unarmed black man has died in the custody of another city police department with a long record of brutality, under highly questionable circumstances. By now its de riguer on the right to blame the victims, and spout racist rhetoric.

    A couple of weeks ago, it was Walter Scott, shot in the back while fleeing a traffic stop in North Carolina, and denied medical help while the officer in question joked about the “adrenaline rush” he got from the killing. This week, it’s Freddie Gray, who emerged from a ride in a police van with serious, unexplained injuries, and died a week later. As in many other recent cases, some of what happened to Gray was caught on video.

    While the media ignored the thousands of peaceful protestors across the country to focus on the protests that turned violent, right-wingers were quick to blame the protestors, their parents, and even President Obama – everyone but the police – for the conditions that fueled the unrest.

    Billionaire real estate mogul and reality start Donald Trump fired off several angry tweets blaming President Obama for the unrest in Baltimore. One read: “Our great African-American President hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore.”
    Fox News host and Fox contributor Lou Dobbs and Dr. Keith Ablow blamed President Obama for the violence in Baltimore. On his show, Dobbs claimed that “there is a war on law enforcement” that is “corroborated if not condoned by this administration.”
    Fox News host Carson Tucker called the protests “a threat to civilization itself,” and asked, “Why wouldn’t someone fire a shotgun in the air and say knock it off?” Because random gunfire from the police always calms things down.
    Presidential candidate Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blamed the unrest in Baltimore on “the breakdown of the family structure, the lack of fathers, the lack of sort of a moral code in our society.” Paul’s comments came just days after his son, was arrested for driving under the influence in Lexington, Kentucky. This was 22-year-old William Hilton Paul’s third alcohol-related arrest.
    Rush Limbaugh asked why Democrats are suddenly calling on parents to control their kids.
    A Baltimore protestor shamed Fox News host Sean Hannity. “We shouldn’t be moralizing people’s frustration and pain. What we should be moralizing is the systemic violence that has been put on people in Baltimore,” Adam J. Jackson said, before Hannity ended the interview.
    On “Fox & Friends,” Dr. Phil McGraw, of televisions “Dr. Phil,” asked “Where are their parents?” in reference to the protesters.

    Not really news to most I’m sure.

  131. says

    “Thugs”, “Hooligans”, and “Riots”, challenging narratives with Dominique Stevenson.
    There is a video at the link as well as a transcript, which is copy/pasted below:

    JARED BALL, HOST, I MIX WHAT I LIKE: What’s up world, and welcome to this edition of I Mix What I Like for The Real News Network. I’m Jared Ball, and today with [inaud.] We are down here in the Gilmor Homes community in Baltimore, Maryland. Right here at the spot where on April 12th, police took Freddie Gray to the ground and caused injuries that would a week later cause him to die.

    Today we’re going to be talking with members of the community and including Ms. Dominque Stevenson of the Friend of a Friend Committee. So Dominque tell us, you were – you have been involved with this community, this spot where Freddie Gray was, where he sustained injuries that would eventually kill him. You worked in the Gilmor Homes community for a long time prior to this incident and will continue after this incident. Tell us about the conditions in this community that precipitated that and about the work that you were doing already. And then tell us a little bit about what you saw last night with the uprisings, your perspective on that, and what’s going to come next.

    DOMINQUE STEVENSON, FRIEND OF A FRIEND PROGRAM: One of the main things we’ve been doing here for at least a year is really trying to build a relationship with members of this community. We call it accompaniment. You know, being there, being present. We knew about some of the issues that were going on with police prior to Freddie Gray’s death. We also in talking to people understand the situations that they’re living in, the financial constraints that people are dealing with. They’re, you know, look around you. There are no jobs, there are no really thriving businesses in this community where folks are employed.

    So we have been for a long time doing food programs. In the summer we got started maybe three years ago doing a free lunch program one time a week for children. And the brothers I work with, we just go out, walk through the community and hand out bag lunches. And then that kind of stepped up a little bit more to doing regular food giveaways, but also just engaging members of the community and talking about what they need.

    Because what we find is people in Baltimore have been overrun by nonprofits. There’s not a lot of trust. And so it’s been really critical for them to just see us here with no agenda bringing resources when we can. And that’s what we’ve been trying to do. When talking to some of the brothers earlier today about the situation with Freddie Gray one of the things they said is, okay, this is not the case where this is somebody who’s really on the street and characterize him as a ladies’ man. And were like, you know, they feel like because he made eye contact with the police, that created a problem as far as the police were concerned. You’re not supposed to look us in the eye.

    They’re also talking about –

    BALL: Which itself has its own long history in terms of black relationships with white people, and particularly that whole eye contact concern has its own long, troublesome history connected with lynchings and all kinds of other acts of violence. So unfortunately, this is nothing new. That particular thing is nothing new in terms of what precipitates hostility from the state. Yeah.

    STEVENSON: Yeah. It’s nothing new. I mean, what the brothers were talking about is just the regular police harassment that they deal with. One of them, the men we spoke with, he after this, after the protest started he was walking across the street. I think they stopped him for jaywalking, and they stunned him. They used a stun gun on him. And so they’re talking about just the regular harassment that they have to deal with in effect that – when all of this publicity dies down, and publicity is, as essentially what it is. Okay, I mean that literally. Like, when all the cameras are gone, they’re like, we’re still here and we’re fearful because they’re gonna retaliate. They’re gonna come back on us.

    And so really what we need to be looking at is who’s going to stay here with these folks? Who’s going to continue to accompany them through this, and who’s going to help bring resources into this community?

    BALL: You know, you also live right across the street from Mondawmin Mall where a lot of the uprisings that took place last night were centered. But there’s a perspective that you have that is not getting a lot of coverage of that incident on major media. So a lot of the narrative in popular media is these are young thugs, these are hooligans. These are, you know, people who are disrespecting the memory of Freddie Gray and his family, who are calling for peace, et cetera. But tell us what you saw actually taking place down there yesterday.

    STEVENSON: At the mall? Or –

    BALL: Yeah, at the mall. What precipitated the uprising and the police response.

    STEVENSON: Initially what I saw – I got there at around 3:30, which is the time that one of the high schools we do work with lets out, Connexions. My son works there so he had told me that they had been on lockdown for about two hours, and that some of his students were fearful because they were hearing so many stories. But the primary story that they were being told is they’re on lockdown because white supremacists had made threats, okay?

    So they had these students in that area, in all the schools, on lockdown for a couple of hours. The police in the meantime went and they set up at Mondawmin, okay, they had riot gear, there were armored vehicles. They were there already. Then they –

    BALL: Before children had gathered. Before the young people had gathered.

    STEVENSON: Yeah. So they’re letting them out, the students come out, they head to Mondawmin. And from what I understand from what people were telling us, then they tell them, you know, get off the buses. They shut down the buses, they shut down the subway, so people were stuck. People who had actually left the mall because the stores closed were also stuck, because none of the buses or anything was moving. So folks were kind of standing around.

    We were standing around and watching it. Apparently something kicked off between the police and the kids. And some of the kids I guess ran, probably toward Pennsylvania North. And it seems like at that point it probably swelled into a larger group of people. But from where we were watching, we’re seeing police jump out of vehicles with M16s, and they’re running after kids. And we know these are kids because they’re in school uniforms. And so it was like, they escalated the situation, and it spun out of control.

    And then – so this, mind you, I’m talking about it was there at 3:30, and outside for a number of hours. By the time people showed up at the mall it was probably, it was getting dark. So it was much later. So the situation at the mall occurred later on. And honestly, people were casually driving up. I was like, it looked like the mall was open, you know.

    So even for the way that it was portrayed, the free-for-all, it wasn’t quite that hectic. It was like, the police left. I guess they went further in to Pennsylvania Avenue and North, and they left. In the mall there were no police there at that point so people decided we’re going to go up in these stores. And they did.

    BALL: Now, one of the things I saw on social media and Twitter in particular was that people were making the point that the police had shut down, or the city had shut down the bus and the train, trapping those young people there. And what a lot of people who were not from this area don’t realize is that this is not like New York where you walk up a block and catch another train. They were stuck. So it created a cauldron out of which they could not escape, and the police could then do their, their business. Yeah.

    STEVENSON: And the other thing people don’t understand is like, we have what are called city-wide schools. So you might go to Connexions but you might live in East Baltimore. Okay? So that’s not, you’re not gonna be able to walk from school over to East Baltimore, you know what I’m saying? So it’s like, they – I heard Elijah Cummings this morning on the news admit that the city government made a choice to escalate the situation, which is what they did. They escalated it. They were circulating rumors all day long, and those kids in the school were hearing different rumors than the rumors that the police were circulating outside, where they’re talking about the gangs threatening them. Kids in the school were being told, like I said, that white supremacist groups were coming up there. So they created this environment of fear.

    Mondawmin already is a tinderbox in terms of the MTA police and students. They, in February and March they made a number of arrests of students up there for trespassing. So it’s already – there had already been conflict and things going on. They knew this, and so I felt like it was a setup. It was a very bad situation that didn’t have to happen. Just like they can call preachers and folks out in the street for peace now, they could have sent folks, they could have made a call for people to go up to Mondawmin as these children are coming out of school to stand there. You know, stand vigil, make sure that the kids are all right, make sure that they’re getting on their buses.

    That call could have gone out. But no, you send not just Baltimore City police. Before they declared a state of emergency there were state troopers there, there was armored equipment from Prince George’s County. I saw all of this stuff, took pictures of this stuff.

    BALL: One of the things I also wanted to ask you about was one of the pieces in this media narrative that’s being generated. I heard Governor Hogan say that he was concerned about roving gangs of thugs and criminals destroying or hurting the community. Something to that effect. Now, at first I thought he might have been actually talking about the police. But of course he wasn’t.

    So if you could, having done the work, being from here in Baltimore and doing all this work all these years, talk about that narrative. Who are the thugs that Hogan is talking about, that the Mayor has made reference to? Who are actually the ones causing all of the problems that we see bubbling over and getting all the attention at the end, but who’s causing all of these problems?

    STEVENSON: First of all, the way that people are using thug and the way that that term is coming out of their mouth it sounds like a euphemism for nigger, to me. That’s my personal opinion. When I talk to the brothers in this housing project, what they will tell you is they’re like, look. Those were schoolchildren. They’re like, first of all, we are on edge, we’re scared. Those are the worlds they’re using. And it’s not like they’re scared of the police in like a, a man-to-man way. They’re scared because they know that these folks have – are [armed to] them, they know what they’re capable of. They know that they can manufacture charges.

    So it’s like, you’re right about that. I also made that assumption to, that okay, we’re talking about the police in a real way now. We’re talking about roving groups of thugs. You know, these were children who were let out of school who, in some ways, the police escalated the situation and had already set the stage by spreading rumors about these attacks. And their interactions with the children were such that it created a situation where it could only escalate out of control.

    BALL: So let me just ask you finally here, we’re hearing a lot about – well, obviously this is drawing a lot of attention to the city, to these communities. What would leadership look like if it really genuinely cared about changing these situations and these relationships, and the conditions that start all these issues in the first place? What would it look like, what would you like to see happen?

    STEVENSON: First of all, it would not come out in times of crisis. People would know and see these people all the time. You would be with the folks when there is no crisis. ‘Cause the reality is, Baltimore is one big crisis in terms of the poverty, the policing, the mass incarceration, all of that stuff lends to folks living in a continual crisis. These folks come out and actually, what they’re doing in criticizing parents and trying to place the blame, it’s just making the situation worse. Leadership looks like taking responsibility for your shortcomings, for your failures. To me that’s what leadership looks like.

    Leadership also would care about folks. You know, would be concerned with the fact that children are not getting the education that they should be getting, that the police are killing young men like Freddie Gray, and that they’ve continually gotten away with it. And true leadership would have made sure that there was an indictment for murder. That supersedes the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights. You don’t, that – if the State’s Attorney chose to charge them with murder, they wouldn’t be concerned with the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights. That’s something that they can do right here right now.

    BALL: Dominque Stevenson, thank you again for joining us. Thank you for checking us out here at I Mix What I Like for The Real News Network. We’ll catch you in the whirlwind. As Fred Hampton used to say, to you we say peace if you’re willing to fight for it. Peace, everybody.

  132. says

    Crap. I just hit submit on an article that contains a racial stlur or two, so it went into moderation.
    Oh well, I’m sure PZ will release it in due time.

    ****
    In what will come as no surprise to most, the NRA uses Baltimore uprising to promote ‘Stand Your Ground’. They really want to see a lot of dead black bodies it seems.

    ****

    From DiversityInc comes an article about the misery that is Black Baltimore:

    Baltimore’s current dire situation can find its roots in a history of crushing poverty, a segregated populace, and long-running police brutality. The Black population of the city has suffered considerably through booms and busts of the U.S. economy, with little in the way of relief.

    A city with about 16,000 abandoned structures, a fifth of its children living in poverty, and a high rate of homicides, Baltimore qualified as a powder keg, making a frustrated outbreak of violence and vandalism inevitable in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death.

    Poverty

    According to 2013 data, Blacks make up 63 percent of the population of the city, with white people at nearly 32 percent. However, almost 24 percent of Blacks live below the poverty level, compared to the 13 percent of their white counterparts.

    But such a snapshot comes from a long trend of tremendous economic pressure, beginning with the decline of manufacturing jobs and the steady, precipitously falling rate of Black male employment. Between 1970 and 2010, employment rates for Black men of working age fell by over 15 percent, according to a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee paper. The types of jobs available have largely been low-wage service sector jobs, with a 60 percent growth in retail and food services between 1980 and 2007, and middle-wage jobs and high-wage jobs growing at less than 10 percent.

    The low income figures, the lack of employment and employment opportunities, the homelessness figure (estimated at 5,000), and a high school graduation rate of under 60 percent make up only part of this tale of two cities, however, with the smaller white population benefiting heavily from gentrifying developments.

    In fact, race and income predict the grim outcomes of Baltimore’s Black residents right from birth. As a 30-year study by Johns Hopkins sociologist Karl Alexander illustrated, being poor and Black in Baltimore set an inevitable path very early on:

    • 4 percent of children from low-income families had a college degree at age 28, compared to 45 percent of children from higher-income families.
    • 45 percent of white men were working in dwindling construction trades and industrial crafts, versus 15 percent of Black men from similar backgrounds and virtually no women, at age 28.
    • At age 22, 89 percent of white high school dropouts were working, compared to 40 percent of black dropouts

    “The implication is where you start in life is where you end up in life,” said Alexander. “It’s very sobering to see how this all unfolds.”

    Segregation

    In The Baltimore Book by Elizabeth Fee and Linda Shopes, the decades have also shown a substantial shrinking of Baltimore’s overall population, a detriment to its tax base. Beginning with the white flight of the 1950s and ‘60s, predatory “blockbusting” allowed real estate developers to purchase homes from white residents by playing up racial fears of expanding Black neighborhoods and then flipping the homes to Black purchasers at high markups.

    This has led to a heavily segregated population, seen in a Brown and Florida State University study describing the city as having a “black-white dissimilarity score” of 64.3 (scores above 60 are considered “very high segregation”).

    Modern pressures on segregating Baltimore’s populace come from the paradoxical influx of white, college-educated residents gentrifying areas such as the city’s Middle East section around Johns Hopkins and the affluent Inner Harbor. Much of this change in recent years comes with the predatory behavior of real estate developers yet again, this time promoting the displacement of the Black residents.

    Police – Heavily White and Out of Control

    Stories of police brutality towards Blacks during the eras of slavery and Jim Crow would hardly surprise many. But the Baltimore Police Department’s mistreatment of the Black populace over recent decades is finally coming to light.

    Not surprisingly, the makeup of the Baltimore Police Department does not reflect the populace that it polices. In a Washington Post analysis of 2010 census data, 46 percent of the department was white, compared to a community that was about 30 percent white and highly segregated from the Black population.

    From the NAACP calling for federal investigation of the BPD in 1980 to the brutal death of Freddie Gray today, the police force has maintained a tumultuous relationship with its populace. The police did not ingratiate themselves on the public with its “zero tolerance policing” in 2005, a practice that even led prosecutors to ignore the mass arrests for minor infractions, according to the Baltimore Sun. In terms of how the community reacted, people were outraged.

    But even with the heavy-handed policing directive removed, Black residents continued to suffer from a police force with a reputation for abuse and brutality. The Baltimore Sun did an exposé last year showing that between 2011 and 2014, Baltimore Police paid out $5.7 million in lawsuits stemming from excessive force cases.

    Much like in the cases of Ferguson, Chicago and North Charleston, the city of Baltimore, its police, and the state of Maryland have been watching inequality grow, infrastructure crumble, and designated protectors torturing its populace with little effort towards a course correction.

  133. says

    Another DiversityInc article-
    “Ask the white guy”: Why are police losing credibility and what does diversity have to do with it?

    [preface]Luke Visconti is the founder and CEO of DiversityInc. Although the title of his column is meant to be humorous, the issues he addresses and the answers he gives to questions are serious—and based on his 16 years of experience publishing DiversityInc. Click here to send your own question to Luke.

    [article]
    In response to a column I wrote, a police officer left a comment that criticized an assumption I made. Here is his comment (edited) and my response. The police officer starts by quoting my assumption, and then critiquing it.

    Q. “There is no reliable data for race and gender, but 58 percent of prisoners are Black or Latino. I don’t see why 58 percent of the people killed by police wouldn’t be.”

    That’s a very dangerous assumption. You are correct that finding reliable statistics regarding police shootings is difficult but by all indications of the CDC data, there have been anywhere from 1.5-3x as many whites killed as blacks over the past 15 years. Compare that with the overwhelmingly high arrest rates of minorities and the probability of being killed during an arrest is still significantly higher if you are white than black.

    We are entering a dangerous time where the perception is that every incident involving a white cop and black man HAS to be racial much like any black killing a white cop also has to be motivated by race. How is this supposed to improve police relations with blacks or any citizens for that matter? All the police officers I work with are growing increasingly disgusted by the lack of personal responsibility for those committing crimes. Police brutality is a problem, but so is blatant lack of respect for the law among today’s young adults, especially in urban areas.

    A. I don’t think it’s very dangerous at all—in fact, I’d say I’m being generous. The FBI, despite a court order 20 years ago, does not track police shootings. You don’t think there’s some bias there? The FBI’s racial history is not a good one: J. Edgar Hoover, the most famous and longest-tenured FBI director, notoriously went after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in many underhanded, illegal and immoral ways. Even today, if you go to the FBI’s website and look at the leadership page, the top 17 people are white—14 white men and three white women. Zero percent Black. Zero in 2015. Zero.

    The CDC data have huge holes in them. For one, they only count shootings the police say were justified and they do not include nearly all states. Even so, the data show that there is clear bias against Black people.
    […]
    The ratio you cite seems to come from Bill O’Reilly. Citing Bill O’Reilly on racial issues is kind of like citing Ruth’s Chris on vegetarianism. Here’s an article debunking his use of the numbers.

    Here’s a good article on the subject in The New York Times. The quote below refers to a study of the St. Louis Police Department:

    “Their conclusions, presented last November at the American Society of Criminology’s annual meeting, were striking. Officers hit their targets in about half of the 230 incidents; in about one-sixth, suspects died. Of the 360 suspects whose race could be identified—some fled before being seen clearly—more than 90 percent were African-American.”

    I’m not saying, nor does the report say, that the enormous disparity of law enforcement and imprisonment is overtly racist by every participant. I’d assume that most police officers are not racist. They are immersed, however, in a racist system.

    This is why you are seeing less and less respect for the law. It’s the culmination of this preposterous “War on Drugs,” started by President Richard Nixon (a racist) 40 years ago. It has resulted in the destruction of families and of the lives of millions of Black men in particular. Drugs are more plentiful and less expensive than they were 40 years ago, yet the “war” rages on. Nobody fights a war for 40 years unless somebody’s winning. People running for-profit prisons, arms manufacturers, even police officers and prison workers are all the winners. It’s a multibillion dollar per year win. Everyone else in the country loses, a hundreds of billions of dollars per year loss. Lost productivity, lost GDP, wasted money, wasted time and effort. Destruction of our society.

    Combine that with the ubiquitous nature of video that shows the bad apples in action, and I’m afraid police credibility in general is gone forever because there is no national will amongst the police leadership to change direction. You’re going down with the ship.

    You’re not alone. As an entrepreneur, I pay over 50 percent of my income in taxes. “Mittens” Romney pays 17 percent. Apple (which claims it’s an Irish company) pays 2 percent. If I tried the same thing, I’d be in prison. The subprime-crisis thieves stole billions of dollars, yet nobody went to prison. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, abetted by Condoleezza Rice, concocted a rationale to invade Iraq and then went on to mismanage it so badly that we lost the war and spawned ISIS—after killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi noncombatants. Nobody went to prison. I served over eight years on active duty and another almost two in the reserves, and I’d do it again tomorrow. But it disturbs me that I feel our government has almost no credibility either.

  134. says

    From the Daily Beast-Morgan Freeman on Baltimore protest coverage: “Fuck the media”

    Freeman says the Baltimore coverage, while fairly biased in its focus on the rioting, has been an improvement over the very one-sided coverage of the Ferguson protests in the wake of Michael Brown’s death. “Now, they’re getting more of the whole picture. Ferguson? No. Baltimore seems to be coming up with a different scenario in the background,” says Freeman. “People are saying, ‘You were not all there when we were just talking and trying to make a point, but if we set something on fire, all of a sudden you’re all here. Why is that? What’s the difference?’ And some young reporters are listening. That sort of observation is very useful.”

    “The other thing is that technology lets us see behind the scenes a little bit better,” he continues. “Police have a standard reaction to shooting somebody. I fear for my life and I fear for my safety. Now, at least you can see, ‘Hey, his hands were up in the air! What part of your safety were you afraid of? The guy was running away, what part of your safety was in danger?’ There was one situation I saw where a cop told a guy to get out of the car, said, ‘Show me your driver’s license,’ and the guy reached back into the car and the cop shot him!”

    “Anyway, off the media,” he says, waving his hands in the air and chuckling. “F-ck the media.”

    The above is an excerpt of the Daily Beast article, which is itself an excerpt of a longer interview with Freeman. That interview will be available next week.

    ****

    More from the Daily Beast-
    Experts “You can’t break your own spine like Freddie Gray

    But if Freddie Gray was trying to break his own spinal cord in the back of a van, according to experts in spinal trauma injuries, it might be the first self-inflicted injury of its kind.

    “I have never seen it before. I’ve never seen somebody self-inflict a spinal cord injury in that way,” says Anand Veeravagu, a Stanford University Medical Center neurosurgeon who specializes in traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries.

    “It’s hard for me to understand that, unless those terms (like ‘intentional’ and ‘injure himself’) are being used incorrectly. It’s hard for me to envision how a person could try to do that,” he says. “It would require them to basically hang themselves in a car where there isn’t anything to hang yourself with.”

    Veeravagu says that there are only a few ways you can injure your spine in a similar way to the injuries that ultimately led to Gray’s death. One, he says, is by a sharp injury, which is a direct penetrating injury—either somebody with a knife “who knows what they’re doing, or something else that cuts through, like a gunshot wound.”

    The other way, more pertinent to Gray’s case, is by trauma, where the bones are fractured and the ligaments are torn as a result of force or impact.

    “It is very difficult to sever your spinal cord without a known fracture,” says Veeravagu. “Often, when patients come in with this kind of injury, you’ll find they’ve been either in a car accident or something similar to that kind of impact.”

    There are times where Veeravagu, who is a former White House Fellow, has seen suicide or self-harm by means of a spinal cord injury, but it’s always by hanging, or by using an apparatus Gray couldn’t have on-hand.

    “Unfortunately, sometimes people attempt suicide by hanging themselves. It’s one of the only ways I’ve seen where you can (commit suicide or intentional self-harm) by spinal fracture. They kick their chair out, they fall, they snap their neck. It results in immediate spinal cord injury,” he says. “But it’s very hard to see how somebody could attempt suicide by a spinal cord injury without the use of something else.”

    But it’s even in those instances, he says, patients often don’t die of a spinal cord injury. And most who are taken to the hospital in time after suffering spinal cord injuries—self-inflicted or not—survive the trauma.

    “Most spinal cord injuries are not fatal if patients are taken to the hospital,” Veeravagu says. “Most survive.”

    Outlets covering The Washington Post’s leak have called the claims from the unnamed source “a twist” and a “new narrative (that) questions police brutality claim.” On Wednesday night, CNN’s broadcast ran a breaking news banner that read: “BREAKING NEWS: WASH. POST: GRAY TRIED TO HURT HIMSELF,” and the video remains on CNN’s Youtube page.

    The Washington Post’s initial report does not reach out to any medical professionals to determine the feasibility of the leaked document’s claims.

    The official police report of Gray’s arrest was scheduled to be released publically on Friday, but police delayed the release on Wednesday.

    “I’m surprised they released that piece of information without a more detailed account,” says Veeravagu.

    Another trauma surgeon, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the political nature of the case and because he is “surprised time and again by what I previously believed to be impossible,” thinks that it’s “highly unusual (if not impossible) to deliberately make yourself a quadriplegic while shackled in the back of a police van.”

    There are, Veeravagu says, situations that would make Gray more prone to a fatal spinal injury, however—like if someone or something applied pressure to his spine as it snapped.

    “Certain conditions make people more prone to spinal injury. If you were to apply leverage to the spine at certain points, it basically converts the spine to a long bone,” says Veeravagu.

    Veeravagu also says it’s possible Gray’s spinal fracture could have occurred before entering the van—and that symptoms of his broken vertebrae could have been delayed until he was placed in the van.

    “That is possible: It’s possible to have an injury to your spinal cord that gets worse over time and eventually progresses to complete paralysis,” he says. “Did he have an expanding blood clot in his spine? Did he have an exact fracture to his spine? Both are important to understand. If the family does an autopsy—finding that out, that’s ideal.”

    Police apologists are falling all over themselves to blame anyone other than the police, so it’s no surprise that people are claiming Gray’s injuries were self-inflicted. It doesn’t make such claims any less ludicrous.

  135. says

    New ACLU app lets you report police behaving badly

    A new app from the ACLU of California will automatically transfer video straight to the user’s local ACLU chapter, saving the footage just in case something happens to the phone. This can be especially useful for recording police activity.
    Mobile Justice CA is available via iOS or Android, and will allow users to send footage directly to their local chapter of the ACLU, the L.A. Times reports. Users can also write a report of what they witnessed, and ACLU officials will review reports and look for incidents of police misconduct. The ACLU may release relevant video to the public, and users may choose to submit anonymously. Mobile Justice could be especially useful in instances where the users may be facing arrest, during which their phone may be confiscated, or if they feel their phone might be destroyed.
    We downloaded the free app and checked it out. It’s simple to use, and has a couple cool features. By tapping ‘rights,’ you can check and see what your rights are when dealing with the police. When you want to record, just press ‘record.’ Tap again when you’d like to stop recording, and your video will be on its way to the ACLU. You will next be prompted to fill out a description of what you saw, though you don’t have to and you can select ‘unsure’ to any questions where you don’t have a certain answer. Your report will also be sent to the ACLU. You can also elect to be a Witness, which will send you an alert whenever nearby users are reporting police activity. You can toggle this feature on or off.
    Civilians have the right to record the police, and civilian footage can be helpful in figuring out what exactly happened in controversial interactions between the police and the public. Just recently, civilian footage revealed police officers captured police tasing a homeless man on Venice Beach. Civilian footage also exposed a CHP officer repeatedly punching a woman. Of course, for the footage to be useful, you will need to submit it. Recently, a woman in South Gate who was recording police had her phone smashed by a U.S. Marshal. In a video produced by the ACLU to promote the app, they show a similar interaction and how Mobile Justice might be useful in such a case.

  136. says

    Los Angeles to pay $700,000 to minorities who cops racially profiled:

    It’s been over three years since the U.S. Justice Department announced that they would be opening an investigation about L.A. County Sheriff’s Department deputies racially profiling minorities in the Antelope Valley. And on Tuesday, justice was served as L.A. County agreed to pay a settlement of $700,000 to residents who were unfairly targeted.
    The settlement is just one part of the agreement. The Sheriff’s Department is also required to better train their deputies on policing without biases, and only making warranted stops and searches, the AP reports. They’ll also be monitored on its progress. However, under the terms of the agreement, the department doesn’t have to admit to any wrong-doing.
    Originally, the Justice Department wanted Palmdale and Lancaster to pay out $12.5 million to the victims, but as part of the agreement, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors agreed to shell out $700,000 to the victims of discrimination. Each claimant can receive a maximum of $20,000, the L.A. Times reports. They also have to pay an extra $25,000 to the federal government as a penalty.
    Federal officials released a report in June 2013, two years after they announced their investigation, that detailed a pattern of civil rights abuses. The report found that deputies were targeting blacks and Hispanics in Palmdale and Lancaster. They noticed that these minorities were subject to excessive force and searches, and unconstitutional stops. Black tenants in low-income public housing told investigators they deputies would perform surprise searches on their residences and sometimes draw guns on them—a violation of the Fair Housing Act, the report said, according to City News Service.
    It seems like there has been a change in policing recently. Community member Emmett Murrell told the AP: “They’re not harassing and stopping individuals for minimal offenses anymore.”

  137. says

    Top Chicago cops plan ‘listening tour’ of 22 districts:

    Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and other top cops are planning a “listening tour” of the City’s 22 police districts in an attempt to mend fences between officers and community members. According to the Sun-Times, First Deputy Al Wysinger and Deputy Chief of Community Policing Eric Washington will attend along with rank and file cops. Superintendent McCarthy told the Sun-Times:

    “This initiative will help strengthen the relationship between the department and residents we serve as well as build trust, which is crucial to our efforts in lowering crime and ensuring everyone enjoys the same level of safety.”

    Alderman Howard Brookins Jr., chair of the City Council Black Caucus, believes the tour has merit. “I think it’s a great idea, the timing aside,” said Brookins. “It can’t be seen as an election ploy because the election is over. We have to restore the trust of the community.”
    But Brookins and McCarthy have an uphill battle in attempting to rebuild a more than strained relationship between various communities, particularly those on the South and West sides. Last week’s ruling in the shooting death of Rekia Boyd by Detective Dante Servin sparked the latest in a growing and regular series of demonstrations against the police, particularly over the shooting of often unarmed people of color.
    Brookins said that it would be good for CPD brass “to hear from people and see what they can do about their concerns” especially since crimes can go unsolved because people refuse to cooperate with the police. Despite the rhetoric coming from elected officials and others about a return to “community policing” in the City’s neighborhoods, it’s going to be more than difficult to undo decades of mistrust. Chicago is still one of the most segregated cities in America and economic opportunities for people living in communities of color—often the poorest in the city—are nearly non-existent. There is little to no social safety net in many of those communities, which have seen a large swath of neighborhood mental health clinics and public schools closed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
    Charlene Carruthers, national director for the group Black Youth Project 100, told the Huffington Post that she was encouraged by the listening tour, but pointed out many communities have been voicing concerns for too long.

    “I think if the [Chicago Police Department] is at all serious about changing their relationship with the black community, a listening tour could be perhaps a good first step, but the community has made these demands for quite some time and they haven’t been met.”

    Indeed, it is a concern how much listening will actually happen at these meetings, of which dates and locations have yet to be announced. According to the Chicago Tribune, McCarthy said that the fact that Servin was even charged with anything created a “safety hazard,” for officers. “My concern was how is this going to affect policing in general in the Chicago Police Department because every single officer who’s out there now might be in a position where they hesitate, and as a result, they could lose their lives,” McCarthy told the paper. That shoot first, ask questions later policy is what has ended up costing the lives of many men and women of color, who often turn out to be unarmed and unthreatening. While the City has yet to admit wrongdoing in most cases, it’s still paid out half a billion in settlements.
    To make that first step become one in the right direction, CPD brass will have to make sure they actually connect with the members of the community. Speaking about both the civil unrest in Baltimore, which sparked an hours-long demonstration last night, as well as the strained relationship between cops and the community, Father Michael Pfleger told ABC7:

    “I’m a student of Dr. King so I never believed in violence as a solution, but at the same time this didn’t come out of a vacuum. This comes out of years and years of rage and anger and feeling neglected and abandoned.”

    (bolding mine)
    Many people are assuming that the civil unrest is meant to be a solution, when it’s actually a reaction to decades of harassment and brutality from law enforcement officials, as well as income inequality and unemployment.

  138. rq says

    I’m so behind, accidentally. I didn’t mean to take a break.
    Annnyway I have a bunch of stuff lined up form the past couple of days but I’ll only be getting to it tomorrow/Sunday, but I’m more or less up to date with the news from Baltimore. And yeah, the current thread with discussion is linked above by Pteryxx, comment 121. Thanks to Tony and Pteryxx for keeping this going.
    I’ve tabs open with some pictures from protest, which I may or may not still put up as they’re out of date by now (haha), just as a reminder that there are people protesting peacefully.
    Anyway. It goes on and nothing is over, the charges are just a small, small step towards possible justice, but considering how these things usually go? Not holding out much hope that real justice will be done. But it’s a great first step.

  139. rq says

    Oh and apparently extra national guardsmen have been requested in Baltimore.
    For whatever reason.

  140. rq says

    Baltimore Sergeant Warns Superiors: “It Is About To Get Ugly”

    A Baltimore police sergeant informed his Eastern District superiors Friday afternoon that officers “are now being challenged on the street.” The sergeant sent the letter following the announcement that State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby was indicting six officers on felony charges associated with the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in Baltimore police custody on April 12.

    The letter, provided to BuzzFeed News from an anonymous source, warned of heightening tensions between police and residents on a day when many locals have taken to the streets to celebrate.

    Sgt. Lennardo Bailey told the “Eastern Command Staff” [sic’d]:

    “I have been to five calls today and three of those five calls for service; I have been challenged to a fight. Some of them I blew off but one of them almost got ugly. I don’t want anybody to say that I did not tell them what is going on. This is no intel this is really what’s going on the street. This is my formal notification. It is about to get ugly.”

    BuzzFeed News has also learned that the Baltimore Police Department’s chief of patrol sent out a text message to all commanders ordering officers to take added caution: “2 OFFICERS PER CAR.. DOUBLE UP ALL PATROL CARS,” the order read.

  141. HappyNat says

    Well, all 6 officers who killed Freddie Grey are being charged so that’s something positive. Of course, none of them have a bail as high as the teenager who broke a car window, so things are still fucked up. Baby steps I guess.

  143. says

    I’m going to do a quick post or two with link dumps, but no quoted material as I need to head to bed soon-

    ****

    Racism is real (video)

    MD State Attorney General Marilyn Mosby has 8 family members who were cops.

    D.L. Hughley to Bill Maher- “You’ll never see a Black Lives Matter t-shirt at a GOP convention.
    No, you really won’t.

    Mug shots have been released for the 6 Baltimore officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, Jr.
    5 men, 1 woman.
    3 white guys, 2 black men, 1 black woman.

    GoFundMe fundraiser set up by Baltimore police unit vanishes after 41 minutes.
    They were seeking $600,000 to help pay legal fees for the officers charged for the death of Freddie Gray, Jr. Yeaaah, fuck that.

  144. says

    The police officer who drove the transport vehicle carrying Freddie Gray, Jr has been charged with depraved heart murder. Click the link to find out what depraved heart murder is.

    At the center of the Baltimore protests: racial disparities in police use of force and the criminal justice system.

    7 things to know about Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby, America’s new favorite prosecutor.

    If Black America and White America were two separate countries, this infographic shows where they would rank in incarceration and mortality compared to 162 other countries. Whether the real world or this mythical Black America, the incarceration rate is atrocious.

  145. Pteryxx says

    Thanks Tony and rq and folks in the All that needs to be said thread for keeping on top of the Baltimore news. Some links I’m listing came from there.

    MSNBC summary in video and text: Marilyn Mosby: Officers charged in death of Freddie Gray

    The six Baltimore police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray were charged with crimes ranging from murder to manslaughter to assault, Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced Friday – a significant new development in a case that has provoked days of widespread protests in the highly segregated city.

    Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died April 19 following a severe spinal cord injury suffered while in police custody. He was arrested on April 12, apparently for possession of a switchblade. Mosby, at a press conference, said the knife was not a switchblade and was legal under Maryland law, making Gray’s arrest illegal.

    “No crime was committed by Freddie Gray,” Mosby said to cheers, adding that the investigation is ongoing.

    […]

    Office Caesar Goodson, who drove the police van that carried Gray to a local precinct, faces the most severe charge, second-degree depraved heart murder, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. Other charges include manslaughter and second-degree assault. A full list of the officers’ names and charges is below.

    […]

    All six of the indicted officers were taken into custody Friday and NBC News has confirmed that all of them were bonded out less than 24 hours later.

    Rawlings-Blake said that most officers on the city’s police force serve with “courage and distinction.” But, she added, “to those of you who wish to engage in brutality, misconduct, racism and corruption, let me be clear, there is no place in the Baltimore Police Department for you.”

    […]

    Mosby, at 35 the youngest chief prosecutor of any major American city, drew widespread praise for her leadership and forceful action in the case. Her name was the top trending item on Twitter Friday afternoon. She spoke passionately about the case Friday, recounting her recent meeting with the Gray family. “I assured his family that no one is above the law, and I would pursue justice on their behalf,” she said, noting her family’s ties to law enforcement.

    But the Fraternal Order of Police, the union representing the accused officers, called for a special prosecutor in the case, citing what they consider to be conflicts of interest in the case. Among other things, Mosby is married to Baltimore City Councilman Nick Mosby, who has spoken out about the riots that Gray’s death has prompted.

    List of officers’ names and charges: here are images of the Baltimore attorney’s office press release, posted by Trymaine Lee of MSNBC via Twitter: (page 1) (page 2)

    and a listing from USA Today:

    If convicted, the maximum punishment is listed after the charge.

    OFFICER CAESAR R. GOODSON Jr.: Driver of the wagon, checked on Gray several times but never restrained him or sought medical attention when Gray reported that he needed it, according to Mosby.

    • Second-degree depraved heart murder, 30 years

    • Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years

    • Second-degree assault, 10 years

    • Gross negligent manslaughter by vehicle, 10 years

    • Criminal negligent manslaughter, 3 years

    • Misconduct in office

    OFFICER WILLIAM G. PORTER: Asked Gray at one of the stops if he needed medical attention, according to Mosby. Porter assisted Gray onto a wagon bench, but didn’t restrain him or get medical assistance.

    • Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years

    • Second-degree assault, 10 years

    • Misconduct in office

    LT. BRIAN W. RICE: Bike patrol officer who first chased Gray, along with Nero and Miller, according to Mosby. Gray surrendered to them and they arrested him, even though they “failed to establish probable cause” for his arrest. Mosby said no crime had been committed and the knife that Gray was carrying was legal. Rice, Nero and Miller loaded Gray into the police wagon without restraining him; they later placed flex cuffs on his wrists and leg shackles on his ankles, placing him on his stomach, head first in the wagon, without a seatbelt.

    • Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years

    • 2 counts of second-degree assault, 10 years each

    • 2 counts of misconduct in office

    • False imprisonment

    OFFICER EDWARD M. NERO: One of the three officers who pursued Gray. Nero and Miller handcuffed Gray and placed him in a prone position, according to Mosby. When they placed him in a seated position, they discovered a knife. Nero “physically held him down against his will” until a wagon arrived. Nero, along with Rice and Miller, loaded him into the wagon without restraining him; they later placed cuffs on his wrists and leg shackles on his ankles without a seatbelt.

    • 2 counts of second-degree assault, 10 years

    • 2 counts of misconduct in office

    • False imprisonment

    OFFICER GARRETT E. MILLER: One of the three officers who pursued Gray, arrested and handcuffed him; Miller placed Gray in a restraining technique known as a “leg lace,” then was one of three officers who loaded him into the wagon without restraining him, according to Mosby.

    • 2 counts of second-degree assault, 10 years each

    • 2 counts of misconduct in office

    • False imprisonment

    SGT. ALICIA D. WHITE: One of three officers who later found Gray unresponsive on the floor of the wagon, according to Mosby. White spoke to the back of his head, but when he didn’t respond, she did nothing further “despite the fact that she was advised that he needed a medic,” Mosby said. “She made no effort to look or assess or determine his condition. Despite Mr. Gray’s seriously deteriorating medical condition, no medical assistance was rendered or summoned for Mr. Gray at that time by any officer.”

    • Involuntary manslaughter, 10 years

    • Second-degree assault, 10 years

    • Misconduct in office

  146. Pteryxx says

    From Tony’s #144 above, an explanation of “depraved heart murder”: Vox

    “Depraved heart” murder is a description of a specific type of scenario and mindset that can lead a court to decide someone has committed murder. It’s actually just one of the many specific kinds of murder you can be charged with if you kill someone in America. (For example, the legal doctrine of “felony murder,” which some states use, means you can be charged with murder if you accidentally kill someone while committing a totally separate felony — like robbing a store).

    Sometimes it’s called “depraved-indifference murder,” which means the same thing. Either way, it’s how courts in some states talk about the actions of a defendant who demonstrated “callous disregard for human life” that ultimately killed someone. Most states — including Maryland, where Freddie Gray was killed — consider killing someone in this way a form of second-degree murder.

    […]

    Burke said examples of people who might be convicted of depraved heart murder would include someone who fires a gun into a crowded room, killing someone, or a person who drives a car recklessly into a parade route, striking and killing a bystander.

    The exact definition varies by state, and the best way to understand what it takes in Maryland is to look at what the courts have said in previous cases there. Depraved heart murder was described by the judge in one frequently cited 1986 case — Robinson v. State, like this:

    “A depraved heart murder is often described as a wanton and willful killing. The term ‘depraved heart’ means something more than conduct amounting to a high or unreasonable risk to human life. The perpetrator must [or reasonably should] realize the risk his behavior has created to the extent that his conduct may be termed willful. Moreover, the conduct must contain an element of viciousness or contemptuous disregard for the value of human life which conduct characterizes that behavior as wanton.'”

    Translation: More than just being careless or reckless, the defendant — in the Gray case, Officer Goodson — should have known that what he was doing could risk a human life and simply didn’t care.

    “The critical feature of ‘depraved heart’ murder is that the act in question be committed ‘under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.”

    Translation: The situation suggests that the defendant really didn’t care at all whether someone died — this is a must for a finding of depraved heart murder.

    “The terms ‘recklessness’ or ‘indifference,’ often used to define the crime, do not preclude an act of intentional injury. They refer to ‘recklessness’ or ‘indifference’ to the ultimate consequence of the act — death — not to the act that produces that result.”

    Translation: Although the definition uses the word “reckless” a lot, that doesn’t mean this kind of murder only applies to mistakes. Even if the defendant harmed the victim on purpose, the murder still falls under the “depraved heart” category.

    […]

    Today we learned more about the specific actions that state believes provide the basis for the charges against Goodson. Mosby said Gray “suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet, and unrestrained” in the paddy wagon.

    Once shackled, she said, he was placed on his stomach, head first on the floor of the vehicle. And she said Gray pleaded for medical help, saying he couldn’t breathe and asking for his inhaler, but officers ignored him.

    […]

    Whether Goodson took Gray on a “rough ride” that day — with a depraved heart, as Mosby said — will be decided in court. But in the meantime, the very existence of the charges against the officers — especially Goodson’s — seem to validate the concerns of protesters who suspected Gray was treated with “callous regard for human life.” In other words, like his life didn’t matter.

  148. Pteryxx says

    CaitieCat – so they avoid situations like Rekia Boyd’s killer having charges dropped because they weren’t the exact right ones, I assume? Though that decision was made by a judge and not a jury or grand jury: Chicago Tribune link

    Judge Dennis Porter ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that Dante Servin acted recklessly, saying that Illinois courts have consistently held that anytime an individual points a gun at an intended victim and shoots, it is an intentional act, not a reckless one. He all but said prosecutors should have charged Servin with murder, not involuntary manslaughter.

    Servin cannot be retried on a murder charge because of double-jeopardy protections, according to his attorney, Darren O’Brien.

    I was about to say, it looks like “depraved heart murder” or the equivalent could have been viable in the case against officer Servin.

  149. Pteryxx says

    From Time, Transcript of Marilyn J. Mosby’s Statement on Freddie Gray also with video

    As the city’s Chief Deputy Prosecutor I’ve been sworn to uphold justice and to treat every individual within the jurisdiction of Baltimore city equally and fairly under the law. I take this oath seriously and I want the public to know that my administration is committed to creating a fair and equitable justice system for all. No matter what your occupation, your age, your race, your color or your creed. It is my job to examine and investigate the evidence of each case and apply those facts to the elements of a crime, in order to make a determination as to whether individuals should be prosecuted. This is a tremendous responsibility, but one that I saw and accepted when the citizens of Baltimore city elected me as the state’s attorney, and it is precisely what I did in the case of Freddie Gray.

    Once alerted about this incident on April 13, investigators from my police integrity unit were deployed to investigate the circumstances surrounding Mr. Gray’s apprehension. Over the course of our independent investigation, in the untimely death of Mr. Gray, my team worked around the clock; 12 and 14 hour days to canvas and interview dozens of witnesses; view numerous hours of video footage; repeatedly reviewed and listened to hours of police video tape statements; surveyed the route, reviewed voluminous medical records; and we leveraged the information made available by the police department, the community and family of Mr. Gray.

    The findings of our comprehensive, thorough and independent investigation, coupled with the medical examiner’s determination that Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide that we received today, has led us to believe that we have probable cause to file criminal charges.

    I’m excerpting parts of the statement of probable cause below, with the prosecutor’s step-by-step explanation of the events and what officers did at each stage. Bolds and some notes are mine.

    Warning for detailed descriptions of, well, callous indifference.

    Officer Miller and Nero then handcuffed Mr. Gray and moved him to a location a few feet away from his surrendering location Mr. Gray was then placed in a prone position with his arms handcuffed behind his back. It was at this time that Mr. Gray indicated he could not breath and requested an inhaler to no avail. Officer Miller and Nero then placed Mr. Gray in a seated position and substantially found a knife clipped to the inside of his pants pocket. The blade of the knife was folded into the handle.The knife was not a switchblade and is lawful under Maryland law. These officers then removed the knife and placed it on the sidewalk.

    Mr. Gray was then placed back down on his stomach at which time Mr. Gray began to flail his legs and scream as Officer Miller placed Mr. Gray in a restraining technique known as a leg lace. While Officer Nero physically held him down against him will while a BPD wagon arrived to transport Mr. Gray.

    Lt. Rice, Officer Miller and Officer Nero failed to establish probable cause for Mr. Gray’s arrest as no crime had been committed by Mr. Gray. Accordingly Lt. Rice Officer MIller and Office Nero illegally arrested Mr. Gray.

    […]

    At Baker Street, [the first ‘extra’ stop – Ptx] Lt. Rice, Officer Nero and Officer Miller removed Mr. Gray from the wagon, placed flexi-cuffs on his wrists, placed leg shackles on his ankles and completed required paperwork.

    Officer Miller, Officer Nero and Lt. Rice then loaded Mr. Gray back into the wagon, placing him on his stomach, head first onto the floor of the wagon. Once again Mr. Gray was not secured by a seatbelt in the wagon contrary to a BPD general order.

    Lt. Rice then directed Officer Goodson to transport Mr. Gray to the Central Booking & Intake Facility. Following transport from Baker Street, Mr. Gray suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained inside of the BPD wagon.

    […]

    Officer William Porter arrived on the scene at Dolphin Street and Druid HIll Avenue. [This is the third ‘extra’ stop – Ptx] Both Officer Goodson and porter proceeded to the back of the wagon to check on the status of Mr. Gray’s condition. Mr. Gray at that time requested help and indicated that he could not breathe. Officer Porter asked Mr. Gray if he needed a medic at which time Mr. Gray indicated at least twice that he was in need of a medic. Officer Porter then physically assisted Mr. Gray from the floor of the van to the bench however despite Mr. Gray’s appeal for a medic, both officers assessed Mr. Gray’s condition and at no point did either of them restrain Mr. Gray per BPD general order nor did they render or request medical assistance.

    […]

    Officer Goodson arrived at North Avenue [the fourth stop since first picking up Gray – Ptx] to transport the individual arrested at the location of North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue at which time he was again met by Officer Nero, Miller and Porter. Once the wagon arrived, Officer Goodson walked to the back of the wagon and again opened the doors to the wagon to make observations of Mr. Gray.

    Sgt. Alicia White, Officer Porter and Officer Goodson observed Mr. Gray unresponsive on the floor of the wagon. Sgt. White who is responsible for investigating two citizen complaints pertaining to Mr. Gray’s illegal arrest spoke to the back of Mr. Gray’s head. When he did not respond, she did nothing further despite the fact that she was advised that he needed a medic. She made no effort to look or assess or determine his condition.

    Despite Mr. Gray’s seriously deteriorating medical condition, no medical assistance was rendered or summoned for Mr. Gray at that time by any officer.

    After completing the North Avenue arrest and loading the additional prisoner into the opposite side of the wagon containing Mr. Gray, Officer Goodson then proceeded to the Western District Station where contrary to the BPD general order, he again failed to restrain Mr. Gray in the wagon for at least the fifth time.

    At the Western District Police Station the defendant arrested at North Avenue was unloaded, escorted and secured inside of the police station prior to attending to Mr. Gray.

    By the time Officer Zachary Novak and Sgt. White attempted to remove Mr. Gray from the wagon, Mr. Gray was no longer breathing at all. A medic was finally called to the scene where upon arrival, the medic determined Mr. Gray was now in cardiac arrest and was critically and severely injured.

    Mr. Gray was rushed to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma where he underwent surgery. On April 19, 2015, Mr. Gray succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead. The manner of death deemed homicide by the Maryland Medical Examiner is believed to be the result of a fatal injury that occurred while Mr. Gray was unrestrained by a seatbelt in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department wagon.

    I’ve seen comments elsewhere suggesting there are no witnesses or video showing the police van being driven in a reckless or wild manner. To that I say, when a handcuffed and shackled person is laid face down on the floor with their head towards the front wall, it wouldn’t take wild driving or excessive speed to cause them to crash into the wall and receive injuries. A sudden stop from 25 miles per hour or less might do it. It’s practically a setup to get the person hurt.

    I’ve also seen it suggested that the officers drove a short ways after first picking up Freddie Gray, and *then* stopped to cuff and shackle him, place him belly down, and fill out paperwork, to get away from the citizens taking video. That seems plausible, and horrific, to me.

  150. Pteryxx says

    Shaun King at Daily Kos: Updated route of Baltimore Police van proves they were deliberately off course with Freddie Gray

    Newly released evidence now shows that Freddie Gray was deliberately taken far outside of the 2 minute route to the police station. Mind you, the only person to not yet give a statement to the police is the driver of this van.

    After driving one city block from where they arrested Freddie, the police van pulled over. Police claim that this is where they shackled his legs. They are now just four blocks away from the precinct in a drive that would’ve taken them about 90 seconds.

    This is the exact moment where the Baltimore Police decided that they were going to critically injure or kill Freddie Gray.

    As you will see below, the driver of the van, just four blocks away from the precinct, decided not to drive those four blocks and to instead drive Freddie Gray far outside of the path to the police station on stops that were not previously reported by police.

    Image link to a street map with overlays of each stop: (image)

  151. Pteryxx says

    The Atlantic from April 27: Freddie Gray, Rough Rides, and the Challenges of Improving Police Culture

    A rough ride. Bringing them up front. A screen test. A cowboy ride. A nickel ride.

    Police say that intentionally banging a suspect around in the back of a van isn’t common practice. But the range of slang terms to describe the practice suggests it’s more common that anyone would hope—and a roster of cases show that Freddie Gray is hardly the first person whose serious injuries allegedly occurred while in police transit. Citizens have accused police of using aggressive driving to rough suspects up for decades in jurisdictions across the country. Though experts don’t think it’s a widespread practice, rough rides have injured many people, frayed relationships, and cost taxpayers, including Baltimore’s, millions of dollars in damages.

    […]

    Once police caught Gray, a friend saw one officer with his knee on Gray’s neck and another bending his legs back. In video of the arrest, a bystander shouts that Gray’s legs are broken and he needs help. He was then placed in the van and driven away. Police now say he should have received medical attention at the scene. Because the investigation didn’t start for several days, they also missed opportunities to gather crucial evidence, like a surveillance tape from a store that was taped over.

    That’s why the van, and the alleged “rough ride,” remains central. While medical professionals said the level of damage to Gray’s spinal cord—which was 80 percent severed, with a crushed voice box—was the sort of injury that usually only happened in a serious car accident, Dr. Ali Bydon, a Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, told the Sun that it could have happened progressively, so that the fact that Gray could stand when he got into the van proves nothing. “It can be a progressive, cumulative loss of function if the spinal cord is unstable and unprotected,” he said. “You don’t need tremendous force to follow up on further injury to the spine—a force you and me can take because we have stable necks, but that an unstable neck cannot withstand.”

    Once Gray was in the van, he was handcuffed. Apparently because he was “irate” during the ride, officers stopped and shackled his legs, too. The one thing they didn’t do was buckle his seat belt. Not only does that sound like common sense, it’s also department policy—and BPD admits it was violated. A lawyer for one of the six officers involved in the Gray case, all of whom have been put on desk duty with pay, implied that the policy was frequently ignored. “Policy is policy, practice is something else,” Michael Davey told the Associated Press. “It is not always possible or safe for officers to enter the rear of those transport vans that are very small, and this one was very small.”

    […]

    As one might expect, it’s hard to know how common this practice is, and there are no good tallies. There are multiple ways a suspect could be injured, including while being apprehended, and the accounts of police and suspects about what happened may vary. (The Bureau of Justice Statistics found about 688 arrest-related deaths per year from 2003 to 2009, with 60 percent ruled homicides.) The multiplicity of slang terms is one metric. “Bringing them up front” refers to jamming on the breaks so a prisoner flies forward. “Screen tests” are the same, so that a prisoner rams into the screen between the front seat and the passenger area of a van or cruiser.

    […]

    Baltimore starts out with some advantages over a town like Ferguson in responding to this kind of anger against officers—the department has a more representative (though still not fully representative) force, and it has elected leaders who are open about the problems between police and citizens. But Ferguson’s department had just 54 officers when the Justice Department investigated it. Baltimore has nearly 3,000 officers. Even if rough rides are only a tiny element of the police culture, it will take a cultural shift to root them out, the sort of change that marches and national attention can’t effect on their own.

    See also Shaun King: Had you ever even heard of police doing rough rides before Freddie Gray? They’re everywhere. and the New York Times: Freddie Gray’s Injury and the Police ‘Rough Ride’

    In Baltimore, they call it a “rough ride.” In Philadelphia, they had another name for it that hints at the age of the practice — a “nickel ride,” a reference to old-time amusement park rides that cost five cents. Other cities called them joy rides.

    The slang terms mask a dark tradition of police misconduct in which suspects, seated or lying face down and in handcuffs in the back of a police wagon, are jolted and battered by an intentionally rough and bumpy ride that can do as much damage as a police baton without an officer having to administer a blow.

  152. Pteryxx says

    From CityLab via DailyKos: How Baltimore’s curfew is hurting businesses and service workers

    Sinai Hospital in Northwest Baltimore received no credible threats in the wake of violent clashes between residents and police on Monday. So there were no National Guard soldiers or armored vehicles stationed out front, like there were at Johns Hopkins Hospital in East Baltimore.

    But it was far from business as usual at Sinai. Things were too quiet, according to an emergency-room nurse who was preparing for another overnight shift on Wednesday evening.

    “Emergency care is primary care for a lot of people in Baltimore,” says the nurse, who spoke anonymously because she was not authorized to speak for the hospital. “People who didn’t feel like they were in a critical emergency probably didn’t come into the hospital last night. But I’m sure there are people who thought, ‘I’m in pain, I’m having trouble breathing.’ ”

    […]

    “We had a rehearsal dinner scheduled on Friday for 40 people. It’s completely canceled,” says Tommy Bruce, a host at City Cafe, a popular Mount Vernon restaurant. “The wedding was actually moved out of Baltimore city as a result of the curfew. That was probably $1,000 in revenue that we lost right there.”

    It’s not just Camden Yards that’s empty this week. Late-night carryouts and high-octane night clubs are shuttered. The Baltimore Comedy Factory is closed all weekend. The major downtown cineplex at Harbor East isn’t scheduling any evening screenings of The Avengers: Age of Ultron over the film’s sure-to-be-blockbuster opening weekend.

    Venues across town have been forced to shuffle schedules, cancel events, and send staff home.

    “Obviously for a small, independently run venue, this is a huge financial blow to us,” says Sarah Werner, owner of Metro Gallery, a music venue that was forced to cancel all its shows for the week. “We are trying to add more shows to our May calendar to make up for the lost revenue.”

    […]

    “With a curfew, you will do more damage financially to our bars and restaurants than rioters will do,” writes Liam Flynn, proprietor of Liam Flynn’s Ale House, a Station North tavern not far from the CVS burned on Monday night, in an open letter to the mayor. “We have insurance for vandalism, not loss of revenue.”

    For Hong’s part, the Thames Street Oyster House is stopping its dinner service at 7:30 p.m. While the restaurant could stay open later, Hong says he’s concerned that his workers get home on time—no mean feat, given bus-service interruptions and road closures, especially in West Baltimore. Plus the hassle could be a problem for some workers.

    “The mayor stated that, if you are stopped in violation of the curfew, you would be required to show an ID and a letter from your employer stating that you are traveling to or from work. I’m sure this is true across the service industry,” Hong says, “but some of the staff might not have IDs that they can just pull out, whether it’s due to immigration status or other concerns.” (Hong notes that the Thames Street Oyster House is extremely strict about hiring only workers who are legally eligible for employment.)

    […]

    A bartender by the name of Beazly made the same complaint at Brewer’s Art, a brewpub in Midtown, right after an early last call of 8:30 p.m. He says he’s pulling in about one-fifth of what he usually makes. Over the weekend, that will add up.

    “It’s Thursday going into a weekend. It’s April going into May. And it’s the end of the month,” says Hong, who has offered to reduce his own salary proportionate to the time he’s losing. “Rent is due, and for people in the service industry, this weekend’s when you make rent.”

    […]

    “People who come in with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or congestive heat failure? We see them a day too late, they go to the ICU,” the nurse at Sinai says. “If we don’t see them for three days or four days, it could have a disastrous impact.”

  153. Pteryxx says

    Open Democracy: The problem with wanting ‘peace’ in Baltimore

    Peace disgusts me.

    Let me clarify.

    We all want peace. Even in the prison system, where I often work with people who have committed serious acts of violence and who are very comfortable using violence — people want peace in their lives.

    But calls for people to be “peaceful” in the face of the most recent police killing infuriate me. The calls for “peace” that act as a euphemism for “stop protesting” sickens me. When law enforcement and politicians tell people to protest “peacefully” as a way of saying “stop being so mad,” it repulses me. The gross and dangerous misunderstanding that people have of the concept of “peace” disgusts me.

    In 1956, a young woman named Autherine Lucy became the first black student enrolled in the University of Alabama. From the first moment she stepped foot on campus, there was violence. People rioted. And in response, the school expelled her, blaming her for inciting the violence. The next day, with Autherine expelled from campus, the riots stopped. The local newspaper ran a headline that read, “Things are quiet in Tuscaloosa today. There is peace on the campus of the University of Alabama.”

    And that peace disgusts me.

    People too often associate “peace” with quiet, with calm, with candles and kumbaya. People too often understand “peace” simply as the absence of tension. And that is a problem.

    In a sermon he gave in response to the incident, Marin Luther King Jr. described this peace as a “negative peace.” A false peace, the simple absence of violence that came at the expense of justice.

    It is this understanding of peace that allows people to justify going to war to create peace. “If we just kill all the bad people, then we will have peace.” It is this understanding of peace that allows us to justify mass incarceration to create peace. “If we just lock up all the bad people, then we will have peace.” And it is this understanding of peace that allows people to demand “peace” from the Black Lives Matter movement. “If the protesters would just stop yelling, we would have peace.”

    And it’s true, if all we want is the quiet, calm, polite “negative peace.” If all the protests stopped, Baltimore would be quieter and calmer than it has been recently. If we simply arrested all the protesters, Baltimore would be “peaceful.” But as King reminded us, “This is the type of peace that all men of goodwill hate. It is the type of peace that is obnoxious. It is the type of peace that stinks in the nostrils of the Almighty God.”

    […]

    The actions that the protesters have been engaged in are a response to that violence. The violence of police brutality. The violence of poverty. The violence of structural racism. People are fed up, and their actions are not violent as much as they are actually a cry for peace — the positive peace that only comes about through justice. It is the deep yearning and desire for peace and justice that is moving people into the streets.

    Former Baltimore Ravens star Ray Lewis recently implored the protesters to “stop the violence.” Ironically, that’s exactly what the protesters are trying to do. They are the warriors fighting for peace in a society that seemingly doesn’t honor the value of their lives. They are the ones who are sick of the violence.

    […]

    The biggest misunderstanding that exists of nonviolence is that it means simply to “not be violent.” You can watch someone get beaten and killed right in front of you and not do anything to help, and you would be “not violent.” You can watch police get away with murder after murder and not take a stand, and you would be “not violent.” However, true nonviolence is about taking a stand against violence and trying to transform unjust situations. A riot, as inarticulate as it may be, is an attempt to transform unjust situations. It is the cry of a people who have been unheard for generations. And it’s time we listen.

  154. rq says

    I’m home and about to dump days-old stuff on this link, so be prepared. I hope I won’t be repeating too much, and I will try to avoid duplicates, but as always, at least some repetition is inevitable and, I believe, even beneficial (even the repetition arising from same-story-different-source situations).
    As it is, I’m experiencing a mild case of guilt for being away from the thread for so long, and again, many thanks to those posting here and the other current Baltimore thread. ♥ Apologies for being lax, but here I am again.

  155. rq says

    A note on media: Dear Fox News: Stay away from our truck. Says ABC (see photo). Heh.

    Baltimore riots: Whole Foods under fire for handing out free sandwiches to National Guard The organic grocery chain faced scathing attacks from some of its customers after publishing a photograph on its Market Harbor East Facebook page showing sandwiches being delivered to law enforcement teams on the ground in Baltimore.

    A caption above the photo, which has since been deleted from the account, added: “We teamed up with Whole Foods Market Mt. Washington to make sandwiches for the men and women keeping Baltimore safe. We are so thankful to have them here and they’re pumped for Turkey & Cheese.” […]

    Customers threatened to boycott the brand with the hashtag #boycottwholefoods for feeding enforcement officers when children were prevented from going to school that day. Many come from low-income families and may rely heavily on the meals served while they are in school.
    Possible repost. I think I have a couple more articles on this, only the titles will appear.

    In praise of the libraries of Baltimore, and how you can help: the link within – Baltimore Libraries Stay Open For Their Communities

    This is a brief reminder that libraries are there for communities when communities need their libraries.

    In the spirit of Ferguson library and public libraries everywhere, all locations of the Enoch Pratt Free Library system, which serves the city of Baltimore, opened their doors to the public yesterday despite being in close proximity to protests stemming from the death of Freddie Gray.

    Many thanks to all the libraries in Baltimore for their hard work and dedication so that people of all ages can use their services and have a safe place to go.

    I suppose librarians are braver than all those municipal government workers who were let off early, huh? Go librarians!!!

    AND very important: Baltimore isn’t the only city in unrest (As no doubt many of you know), and things have been happening in Ferguson, as well. So, interspersed with Baltimore, I give you Ferguson.
    Resistance…
    R &R portable toilet on fire
    From Wednesday night.

  156. rq says

    Wow, there’s a blockquote fail in the above comment re: Whole Foods. None of that commentary is mine.

    If a portapotty & a sign are the only other casualties tonight, I think we all can live with that. Crowd almost gone. That was Ferguson.

    #JosephKent was kidnapped by Baltimore law enforcement officers on live television. I’m fairly sure I got that posted up a few days ago? Filmed on national TV, nary a remark? He was in custody for a while and was released. He appears later in the story again. 1/2 Re: #JosephKent As a service to the community I can confirm that Mr. Kent is at CBIF awaiting processing. Report is he is ok and safe.

    Michigan Cops Want In On That Whole ‘Beating Unarmed Black Guy’ Civil Unrest – that’s the Wonkette.

    It’s difficult to keep track of all the unarmed black men receiving treatment on a scale of illegal-to-lethal at the hands of American law enforcement. But hopefully you remember Floyd Dent. He is the retired auto worker who was pummeled by police officers following a routine traffic stop in Inkster, Michigan. In addition to the dash-cam video showing Officer William Melendez using his fists to protect and serve all over Dent’s head, new video has emerged purporting to show the manly and tough Inkster police officers guffawing and fist-bumping about the savage beat down they just gave the 57-year-old man. […]

    After the uniformed thugs beat, choked, Tasered, and mocked him, Dent was charged with assault, cocaine possession, and obstructing a police officer. Thankfully, these charges have since been dropped, and Inkster’s interim police chief resigned in the wake of this mess. Melendez is now facing felony assault charges. This is great except that over the course of his career, the terrible officer has shown roach-like resilience in his ability to weather 12 lawsuits, including a 2003 indictment for planting evidence. While with the Detroit Police Department, Melendez’s “aggressiveness” earned him the nickname “Robocop,” although his behavior clearly does not harken back to the heroic cyborg with the tortured soul and unyielding adherence to the rule of law. Maybe things changed in Robocop 3. I don’t know.

    At this point, none of Melendez’s cohorts have been charged or lost their jobs. So rest easy, Inkster.

    The media will only show you what they want to show you. There’s a link in Russian within, plus added photos of people cleaning up after all the protests.

    And Chris Rock weighs in. Rand Paul blames the #BaltimoreRiots on poor parenting. Of course he’d know, his son was just arrested for assault.

  157. rq says

    Oh, and a note on the media that just appeared today. But that’s for the very end.

    Whole Foods & Five Guys come under fire for tone-deaf police stunt Salon link.

    Orioles Executive on Baltimore Unrest: It’s Inequality, Stupid. I believe he is quoted above either directly here or via the All that needs to be said thread, so here for the record.

    Black Lives Matter Protesters Stock Forever 21 With ‘Never 21’ T-Shirts

    Posing as employees at Forever 21 Union Square, a group of Black Lives Matter protestors managed to clothe the front-window mannequins in “Black Lives Matter/Never 21” T-shirts on Saturday afternoon. Protesters also dropped a banner with the same message across the store’s second floor windows, and stocked several clothing racks with “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts.

    The action was carried out by a group of anonymous protesters who go by the name The Never 21 Project. According to a statement issued by the group, their goal was to draw attention to the number of “young black lives that have been lost to police violence before ever reaching 21-years-old, who were never afforded a true childhood… by the police.” […]

    Never 21 stresses that their action was not an attack on Forever 21. Rather, they see this as an opportunity for a huge company to stand behind Black Lives Matter. However, one participant acknowledged a bit of negative feedback. “Someone online wondered where the proceeds were going,” she explained. “They thought Forever 21 had made the shirts themselves, and were selling them for profit.” However, “Once people realized that it was a culture jam, they were more positive than I expected.”

    °With video.

    That moment when researching the history of BPD’s dirty tricks and you come across a familiar name. Your father’s. Ta-Nehisi Coates uncovers family history in amongst the police brutality.

    Oh yeah, this happened: There will be no fans allowed at today’s afternoon @Orioles game due to #BaltimoreUprising, thought to be a first in MLB history.

    And keep in mind: despite the unrest in Baltimore, and hopefully all the raising of awarenesses and consciousnesses, killings still happen: Hector Morejon, Unarmed Teen Shot, Killed By Police, Cried For His Mother: ‘Mommy, Mommy, Please Come’

    Hector Morejon, the youngest of five children, made that plea for help after he was shot by a Long Beach, California, police officer, who allegedly thought the 19-year-old was in possession of a firearm Thursday afternoon.

    The teen, who Lucia Morejon’s attorney says was unarmed, directed the cries for help toward his mother when she saw him in an ambulance directly after the shooting.

    His final words to his mother came, the attorney alleges, after police denied Lucia Morejon access to her son before the ambulance drove away.

    “He was reaching for her — reaching out to her for help,” lawyer Sonia Mercado told The Huffington Post. “She identified herself as his mother, expecting to ride with him to the hospital, but they refused to let her in.”

    The chilling words — “Mommy, Mommy, please come, please come” — are the same words Lucia Morejon hears when she closes her eyes today, five days after her son’s death, Mercado said.

    “It’s a tough thing to live with as a parent,” said Mercado.

    Mercado said Lucia Morejon is so distraught by her son’s death that she is unable to speak about it and has asked Mercado and her associate, R. Samuel Paz, to speak on her behalf.

    “She is deeply in shock,” Mercado said.

    According to the Long Beach Police Department, the shooting occurred after officers were dispatched to a vacant residence in the 1100 block of Hoffman Avenue on Thursday, to investigate a report of trespassing and vandalism.

    When the officers arrived, they allegedly looked through an open window and saw Hector Morejon standing inside the residence.

    “The officer observed [Morejon] turn towards him, while bending his knees, and extending his arm out as if pointing an object which the officer perceived was a gun,” Long Beach police said in a Friday press release.

    “At this point, an officer involved shooting occurred,” the release continued.

    Morejon, who was in critical condition when he was admitted to a local hospital, was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

    According to police, “a weapon was not recovered from the scene.”

  158. rq says

    Book recommendation: @deray this book is great: Why Civil Resistance Works. The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. By Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth.
    And in case anyone wonders, non-violent =/= peaceful or non-disruptive.

    Questioning of Garner Protesters in New York Renews Concerns About Police Practices

    Last December, as people arrested during protests related to the death of Eric Garner waited to be released from Police Headquarters in Manhattan, an officer removed a 28-year-old woman from a holding cell there.

    The woman, Leighann Starkey, a doctoral student who lives in Harlem, said recently that she was escorted to a separate area where she was asked by two detectives how she knew about the demonstrations, what social media she used to keep track of them and whether she was part of a protest group. One detective, she said, asked whether she had ties to terrorists.

    Another protester held that night, Christina Wilkerson, said officers told her she would not be released until she had been questioned; she stayed in custody for about 12 hours. Ms. Wilkerson, a social worker who lives in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, added that detectives asked who employed her, whether colleagues had attended the demonstrations and who had organized them.

    “It started to feel like an interrogation,” Ms. Wilkerson, 30, said. “I wondered whether they would continue monitoring me.” […]

    In 2003, the judge overseeing the Handschu settlement rebuked the Police Department when it emerged that Intelligence Division detectives had been using a document called the Demonstration Debriefing Form to record where arrested antiwar protesters went to school, their membership in organizations and their involvement in past protests. Police officials maintained that the questioning had been lawful but said that the department had stopped using the form and had destroyed a database derived from it.

    Some civil liberties lawyers say the recent questioning appeared to be substantially similar to the questioning in 2003, with detectives in both instances focusing on political involvement rather than criminal behavior.

    “When the police investigate political affiliations and political activities, that poses a serious threat to First Amendment rights,” the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Christopher Dunn, said. “The N.Y.P.D. should stop this immediately.”
    Continue reading the main story

    Lawrence Byrne, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, said the questioning, which did not involve the Intelligence Division, had been conducted in accordance with the consent decree and department rules.

    He added that the questioning began in late November, during protests connected to events in Ferguson, Mo., after a demonstrator in Times Square splattered Police Commissioner William J. Bratton with fake blood and detectives began seeing threats against officers on social media.

    “The Detective Bureau began a process of interviewing defendants arrested during the protests,” Mr. Byrne said, “in an attempt to obtain information about the specific acts of violence, vandalism and threats directed at police officers, as well as the general threat environment relating to such acts.”

    Police departments across the country have long sought to quietly gather information about those who they believe may be dangerous or disruptive, but federal court settlements in the 1970s and 1980s in cities like New York, Chicago and Memphis restricted some efforts after lawsuits argued that cataloging lawful behavior and subjecting people to special scrutiny because of political or religious activity violated the Constitution and deterred free speech and association. […]

    It is not uncommon for detectives to ask people who have been arrested about a specific investigation or about continuing criminal activity in their neighborhood. But Eugene O’Donnell, a lawyer and a former police officer who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said the questions described by the protesters seemed “to go beyond ordinary criminal debriefing or ordinary arrest processing” and raised concerns about why the Police Department was gathering information from protesters and how it would be used.

    For years, such issues have been discussed within the context of the Handschu case, which has sometimes reflected changing perceptions of how to address issues of safety and surveillance.

    The lawsuit asserted that the Police Department’s Special Services Division, or Red Squad, had violated the rights of political activists in the 1960s and 1970s by using wiretaps, undercover officers and provocateurs to monitor and disrupt their actions. The consent decree created guidelines that allowed the investigation of political groups only when there was specific information about criminal activity.
    Continue reading the main story
    Continue reading the main story
    Continue reading the main story

    In 2003, after police officials argued that detectives needed greater latitude to investigate terrorism, Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. of Federal District Court in Manhattan, as overseer of the Handschu settlement, relaxed the guidelines.

    Soon afterward, the New York Civil Liberties Union learned that the debriefing form had been used to question antiwar protesters. Lawyers later said the detectives also questioned protesters about topics like their political leanings and their views on Israel and Palestine. The questioning revealed “an N.Y.P.D. in some need of discipline,” wrote Judge Haight, who modified the consent decree to ensure that lawyers could seek to hold the city in contempt of court if the police violated people’s rights.

    Some of those questioned in December said they were disturbed that detectives were gathering information related to a movement protesting actions by police officers. […]

    Ms. Pierre, 28, from Harlem, said detectives also asked if she had helped organize the Dec. 3 protests and wanted to know when and where the next demonstrations would take place.

    “What we were being asked had nothing to do with what we were being charged with,” she said. “It was like they were trying to find out where their problem was coming from so they could stifle it.”

    Baltimore protester Joseph Kent ‘kidnapped by police’ on live TV

    Joseph Kent, a 21-year-old student at Morgan State University who rose to local prominence during the Michael Brown protests, was seen on live television standing with his hands in the air alongside a line of riot gear-clad police officers just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday. Moments later, a National Guard humvee rolled up and a swarm of officers swallowed Kent. The vehicle blocked the camera’s view of the arrest. […]

    “They drove the vehicle up and when it got close enough to create a wedge they ran out an grabbed him, pinned him against that and arrested him,” CNN anchor Chris Cuomo said. He also told viewers Tuesday night that police had earlier shot pepper spray at the young protester as he approached their line in the street.

    “He told all the media, you need to disperse, and then as he was walking back and forth the humvee came and they used it as an opportunity and he’s been taken into custody.” […]

    A local attorney, Stephen Beatty, who said he would offer Kent his services pro bono, tweeted early Wednesday morning that Kent was safe and at Baltimore Central Booking.

    “As a service to the community I can confirm that Mr. Kent is at CBIF awaiting processing. Report is he is ok and safe,” he said. “Due to large numbers of arrests, processing is slow. He is not even in system yet. More will be known in about five hours. I do not yet rep him although I will gladly if he wants me to. But everyone breathe. No longer in [Baltimore Police Department] hands. [Correctional officers] have him. Safer,” he said.

    Hours later, Beatty tweeted that he had spoken with Kent, who is “healthy and positive.”

    Beatty tweeted that Kent was a “free man” Thursday morning.

    David Simon on Baltimore’s Anguish

    David Simon is Baltimore’s best-known chronicler of life on the hard streets. He worked for The Baltimore Sun city desk for a dozen years, wrote “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets” (1991) and with former homicide detective Ed Burns co-wrote “The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood”1 (1997), which Simon adapted into an HBO miniseries. He is the creator, executive producer and head writer of the HBO television series “The Wire” (2002–2008). Simon is a member of The Marshall Project’s advisory board. He spoke with Bill Keller on Tuesday.
    “The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood”1″The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood” by David Simon and former Boston homicide detective Ed Burns, 1997

    BK: What do people outside the city need to understand about what’s going on there — the death of Freddie Gray and the response to it?

    DS: I guess there’s an awful lot to understand and I’m not sure I understand all of it. The part that seems systemic and connected is that the drug war — which Baltimore waged as aggressively as any American city — was transforming in terms of police/community relations, in terms of trust, particularly between the black community and the police department. Probable cause was destroyed by the drug war. It happened in stages, but even in the time that I was a police reporter, which would have been the early 80s to the early 90s, the need for police officers to address the basic rights of the people they were policing in Baltimore was minimized. It was done almost as a plan by the local government, by police commissioners and mayors, and it not only made everybody in these poor communities vulnerable to the most arbitrary behavior on the part of the police officers, it taught police officers how not to distinguish in ways that they once did.

    Probable cause from a Baltimore police officer has always been a tenuous thing. It’s a tenuous thing anywhere, but in Baltimore, in these high crime, heavily policed areas, it was even worse. When I came on, there were jokes about, “You know what probable cause is on Edmondson Avenue? You roll by in your radio car and the guy looks at you for two seconds too long.” Probable cause was whatever you thought you could safely lie about when you got into district court.

    Then at some point when cocaine hit and the city lost control of a lot of corners and the violence was ratcheted up, there was a real panic on the part of the government. And they basically decided that even that loose idea of what the Fourth Amendment was supposed to mean on a street level, even that was too much. Now all bets were off. Now you didn’t even need probable cause. The city council actually passed an ordinance that declared a certain amount of real estate to be drug-free zones. They literally declared maybe a quarter to a third of inner city Baltimore off-limits to its residents, and said that if you were loitering in those areas you were subject to arrest and search. Think about that for a moment: It was a permission for the police to become truly random and arbitrary and to clear streets any way they damn well wanted.

    How does race figure into this? It’s a city with a black majority and now a black mayor and black police chief, a substantially black police force.

    What did Tom Wolfe write about cops? They all become Irish? That’s a line in “Bonfire of the Vanities.” When Ed and I reported “The Corner,” it became clear that the most brutal cops in our sector of the Western District were black. The guys who would really kick your ass without thinking twice were black officers. If I had to guess and put a name on it, I’d say that at some point, the drug war was as much a function of class and social control as it was of racism. I think the two agendas are inextricably linked, and where one picks up and the other ends is hard to say. But when you have African-American officers beating the dog-piss out of people they’re supposed to be policing, and there isn’t a white guy in the equation on a street level, it’s pretty remarkable. But in some ways they were empowered. Back then, even before the advent of cell phones and digital cameras — which have been transforming in terms of documenting police violence — back then, you were much more vulnerable if you were white and you wanted to wail on somebody. You take out your nightstick and you’re white and you start hitting somebody, it has a completely different dynamic than if you were a black officer. It was simply safer to be brutal if you were black, and I didn’t know quite what to do with that fact other than report it. It was as disturbing a dynamic as I could imagine. Something had been removed from the equation that gave white officers — however brutal they wanted to be, or however brutal they thought the moment required — it gave them pause before pulling out a nightstick and going at it. Some African American officers seemed to feel no such pause.

    What the drug war did, though, was make this all a function of social control. This was simply about keeping the poor down, and that war footing has been an excuse for everybody to operate outside the realm of procedure and law. And the city willingly and legally gave itself over to that, beginning with the drug-free zones and with the misuse of what are known on the street in the previous generation as ‘humbles.’ A humble is a cheap, inconsequential arrest that nonetheless gives the guy a night or two in jail before he sees a court commissioner. You can arrest people on “failure to obey,” it’s a humble. Loitering is a humble. These things were used by police officers going back to the ‘60s in Baltimore. It’s the ultimate recourse for a cop who doesn’t like somebody who’s looking at him the wrong way. And yet, back in the day, there was, I think, more of a code to it. If you were on a corner, you knew certain things would catch you a humble. The code was really ornate, and I’m not suggesting in any way that the code was always justifiable in any sense, but there was a code.

    In some districts, if you called a Baltimore cop a motherfucker in the 80s and even earlier, that was not generally a reason to go to jail. If the cop came up to clear your corner and you’re moving off the corner, and out of the side of your mouth you call him a motherfucker, you’re not necessarily going to jail if that cop knows his business and played according to code. Everyone gets called a motherfucker, that’s within the realm of general complaint. But the word “asshole” — that’s how ornate the code was — asshole had a personal connotation. You call a cop an asshole, you’re going hard into the wagon in Baltimore. At least it used to be that way. Who knows if those gradations or nuances have survived the cumulative brutalities of the drug war. I actually don’t know if anything resembling a code even exists now.

    LOTS more at the link. So much more. I encourage everyone to read it. Here’s the ending bit:

    When you say, end the drug war, you mean basically decriminalize or stop enforcing?

    Medicalize the problem, decriminalize — I don’t need drugs to be declared legal, but if a Baltimore State’s Attorney told all his assistant state’s attorneys today, from this moment on, we are not signing overtime slips for court pay for possession, for simple loitering in a drug-free zone, for loitering, for failure to obey, we’re not signing slips for that: Nobody gets paid for that bullshit, go out and do real police work. If that were to happen, then all at once, the standards for what constitutes a worthy arrest in Baltimore would significantly improve. Take away the actual incentive to do bad or useless police work, which is what the drug war has become.

    You didn’t ask me about the rough rides, or as I used to hear in the western district, “the bounce.” It used to be reserved — as I say, when there was a code to this thing, as flawed as it might have been by standards of the normative world — by standards of Baltimore, there was a code to when you gave the guy the bounce or the rough ride. And it was this: He fought the police. Two things get your ass kicked faster than anything: one is making a cop run. If he catches you, you’re 18 years old, you’ve got fucking Nikes, he’s got cop shoes, he’s wearing a utility belt, if you fucking run and he catches you, you’re gonna take some lumps. That’s always been part of the code. Rodney King5 could’ve quoted that much of it to you.

    But the other thing that gets you beat is if you fight. So the rough ride was reserved for the guys who fought the police, who basically made — in the cop parlance — assholes of themselves. And yet, you look at the sheet for poor Mr. Gray, and you look at the nature of the arrest and you look at the number of police who made the arrest, you look at the nature of what they were charging him with — if anything, because again there’s a complete absence of probable cause — and you look at the fact that the guy hasn’t got much propensity for serious violence according to his sheet, and you say, How did this guy get a rough ride? How did that happen? Is this really the arrest that you were supposed to make today? And then, if you were supposed to make it, was this the guy that needed an ass-kicking on the street, or beyond that, a hard ride to the lockup?

    I’m talking in the vernacular of cops, not my own — but even in the vernacular of what cops secretly think is fair, this is bullshit, this is a horror show. There doesn’t seem to be much code anymore – not that the code was always entirely clean or valid to anyone other than street cops, and maybe the hardcore corner players, but still it was something at least.

    I mean, I know there are still a good many Baltimore cops who know their jobs and do their jobs some real integrity and even precision. But if you look at why the city of Baltimore paid that $5.7 million for beating down people over the last few years, it’s clear that there are way too many others for whom no code exists. Anyone and everyone was a potential ass-whipping – even people that were never otherwise charged with any real crimes. It’s astonishing.

    By the standard of that long list, Freddie Gray becomes almost plausible as a victim. He was a street guy. And before he came along, there were actual working people — citizens, taxpayers — who were indistinguishable from criminal suspects in the eyes of the police who were beating them down. Again, that’s a department that has a diminished capacity to actually respond to crime or investigate crime, or to even distinguish innocence or guilt. And that comes from too many officers who came up in a culture that taught them not the hard job of policing, but simply how to roam the city, jack everyone up, and call for the wagon.

    In 179 NYPD-involved deaths, only 3 indicted — EXCLUSIVE How’s that for police privilege?

    A Daily News investigation found that at least 179 people were killed by on-duty NYPD officers over the past 15 years. Just three of the deaths have led to an indictment in state court. In another case, a judge threw out the indictment on technical grounds and it was not reinstated.

    Only one officer who killed someone while on duty has been convicted, but he was not sentenced to jail time.

    The analysis of the police-involved deaths begins with the 1999 slaying of unarmed Amadou Diallo in a hail of bullets and ends with last month’s shooting death of Akai Gurley, who police say was hit by a ricocheting bullet fired by a rookie cop in a darkened housing project stairwell in Brooklyn. Gurley was also unarmed.

    The News found that since 1999:

    Roughly 27% of people killed by cops were unarmed.
    Where race was known, 86% were black or Hispanic.
    Twenty-one people were killed — three of them by off-duty cops — in 2012, the highest during the 15-year span.

    […]

    The News’ analysis was based on information compiled by organizations such as the Prison Reform Organizing Project and the Stolen Lives Project, the NYPD’s annual firearms discharge reports, press reports, and court documents. The News only included deaths that involved an active member of the force and were a direct result of the officer’s actions. So, cases where individuals died from swallowing drugs during an arrest or hitting a tree during a car chase, for example, were not included.

    The News found 222 deaths total during the 15-year span — 43 of which involved off-duty officers, some of whom bravely stepped in when they saw trouble, others who were embroiled in personal disputes or driving drunk. The News was only able to identify 10 convictions covering 14 of those off-duty deaths, and one case that is ongoing.

    Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, pointed out that during the same time period, nearly 80 officers have been killed in the line of duty, a number that includes cops who heroically died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and from related health complications.

    “When there is a life-or-death situation on the street, be it an armed robbery, a homicidal maniac on the street or someone driving a vehicle in a dangerous and potentially deadly way, it is New York City police officers who step in and take the risk away from the public and put it on themselves,” Lynch said in a statement. “Our work has saved tens of thousands of lives by assuming the risk and standing between New Yorkers and life-threatening danger.”

    The NYPD declined to comment for this article or provide its own internal statistics on officer-involved deaths, and the information has not been submitted to the FBI since 2006.

    This and that else at the link.

    Maybe some of you saw it. The photo (was there video?) of a mother pulling her son out of the crowd of protestors and giving him what-for. People cheered (mostly white people). Saw it described, too, as repurposing the Angry Black Woman trope – and also, that she was angry not that he was protesting, but scared that he could be killed or arrested or beat by cops. Anyway.
    We Celebrated That Mother in Baltimore. Now, Are We Willing to Face Our Own Hypocrisy?

    Tonight, as I scan the news coverage coming out of Baltimore, another mother—not unlike my own—is being heralded as a hero. She is, for many, a rose blooming from the concrete. The video captured shows her striking her son repeatedly about the head and shoulders. We can sense her desperation, her disappointment. We can feel her fears.

    Mothering sons and daughters, I know something about that. I know something about bad, immature choices that can sometimes open unfortunate pathways to the criminal justice system or worse. I remember hanging with the “wrong crowd” myself as I came of age and being snatched off a corner by the nape of my neck. I know firsthand about the diminishing options when the only thing standing between your child and the streets is you.

    My mother shot a man for abusing me. Her then-fiancé put me in a bath of scalding hot water, leaving scars I can still see and feel some 40 years later. Like I said, she would do anything for us.

    But I wonder now, with jail cells and graveyards packed with people who faced similar discipline, if it had the societal payoff we intended. The hard data tells another story. Children who are subjected to corporal punishment are no more likely to refrain from bad behavior than those who are not. In fact, studies show it has the opposite impact, and that they seek out more crafty ways to cloak unwanted conduct.

    That is no indictment on the mother from Baltimore or my own. It does, however, speak to our collective hypocrisy.

    As a society, we have supported public policies that create deep pockets of poverty and need. We built interstate highways that cut off entire communities, producing dead-end streets and drug traps. We permitted institutions to crumble without investment, and then wonder why families fall by the wayside. We redlined whole cities, allowing predatory payday loan, title pawn, and check cashing stores to flourish. Today, they are more prevalent than liquor stores and churches.

    We burn bridges to meaningful opportunity then blame the people we isolate when they fail to embrace the “American Dream.” When families struggling on the margins cry out for help, we turn a blind eye. We stand safely beyond the walls of containment we erected and cast moral aspersions to assuage our own complicity. That is the enduring legacy of Jim Crow, segregationist policies that kept people locked up and locked out.

    From the comfort of our living rooms, or from behind a computer keyboard, we watch the unrest unfolding in cities like Ferguson and Baltimore. Why can’t they be like us, we ask, with no small irony. Why can’t they be like Dr. King?

    We are the arbiters of their rage. We decide what, if anything, they have to be angry about. We decide when they can march and whether it will be on the street or the sidewalk. We castigate the lawlessness, the broken windows and vandalized squad cars. We call them “savages” and “thugs,” believing we would be better—more moral—given similar circumstances. Why would they burn their own community, we beg to know.

    On the one hand, we lift up and celebrate the non-violent legacy of Dr. King. On the other, we want to know why aren’t there more mothers, like the one in the video, willing to beat their children into submission. Forgive me cable pundits, if I am not able to hear you talking out of both sides of your neck.

    My children are grown now– educated, law abiding, and out meeting the world on their own terms. I was swift with discipline and sometimes, I admit, too much. I count myself lucky. The wind blew in just the right way, in just the right moments.

    My parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and anyone else within earshot, raised me with strong hands. But there is, I should tell you, no man alive today in my immediate family who was born before 1986. For every one of them lost, to the grave or to a prison, there is a weeping mother who mourns for him.

    I do wonder what the response might have been if that mother had been kicking a dog rather than whooping her son. I wonder if it would have turned, snarling, and bitten her or tucked that anger inside until it bit someone else.

    I wonder if we understand the few choices we left her with.

  159. rq says

    6 Maps That Show How Deeply Segregated Baltimore Is

    Protests erupted in Baltimore this week following the fatal arrest of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who died on April 19 after sustaining a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody.

    The city is deeply segregated, and areas with high percentages of black residents also generally have high unemployment rates. Almost 20 percent of Baltimore families live below the poverty level, and the median family income is $41,385.
    Here are a few maps that show how divided the city of Baltimore is today:

    It’s not graphs, but it’ll do.

    ‘Mom smacks kid’ is the Baltimore version of Ferguson’s ‘Kid hugs cop’. Ref. the last article comment above.

    Critics question delay in calling out the Guard – yep, some wanted it earlier! And now they have so much of it.

    It was nonetheless clear Tuesday that the two powerful politicians had viewed Guard intervention quite differently — the new Republican governor eager to marshal troops and the Democratic mayor reluctant to appear as though she were quashing protesters.

    “We didn’t think it was appropriate to come in and take over the city without the request of the mayor,” Hogan told reporters as he explained why it took hours after violence erupted to activate the National Guard. Once he got the mayor’s call, he said, “it was about 30 seconds before we completely activated all of the resources that we had to bear.”

    Rawlings-Blake dismissed the critique from Hogan — and a chorus of national experts and others in Baltimore — that she may have waited too long to ask for help as outrage over the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray boiled over into violent mayhem.
    lRelated
    Hogan speaks to the press at Western District police station

    The Baltimore Sun
    Hogan speaks to the press at Western District police station

    See all related
    8

    “We responded very quickly to a very difficult situation,” she said. “It’s understandable to armchair quarterback and second-guess, but there is a very delicate balancing act that you have to do in order to respond but not over-respond.”

    A week of peaceful protests about Gray’s death while in police custody first turned violent Saturday evening, but on Monday a confrontation between teenagers and police quickly flared out of control.

    “They just outnumbered us and outflanked us,” police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said later. “We needed to have more resources out there.”

    Reminder: outnumbered and outflanked by high school students. Anyway, this is old news.

    On Baltimore city councilman Carl Stokes saying “just call them n******”. Text attached. Post-racial America.

    Ferguson activist perfectly schools Wolf Blitzer: “You are suggesting broken windows are worse than broken spines” . That again. Because it’s bloody fantastic.

    Joseph Kent: Internet up in arms over ‘kidnapped’ Baltimore protester, article within.

    The hideous white hypocrisy behind the Baltimore “Hero Mom” hype: How clueless media applause excuses police brutality

    Baltimore’s “Hero Mom” has a name. It’s Toya Graham.

    And the woman lionized nationwide for beating her 16-year-old son on camera, and dragging him away from Monday night’s riots, doesn’t feel at all like a hero.

    “I don’t. I don’t,” Graham told CBS “This Morning” on Wednesday. “My intention was just to get my son and have him be safe.” Later in the interview, Graham confesses, “I just lost it.” (Watch the whole thing at the end of this post.)

    Her moment of losing it made her a hero to much of white America – and not just to the right. Coast to coast, the media is hyping Graham as “Hero Mom” and her on-camera beating as “Tough Love.” It’s not just Fox News or the “New York Post,” whose tabloid “Send in the Moms” front page this time reflects rather than rebukes the mainstream media. And that’s heartbreaking.

    The debate over the moment Graham says she “lost it” is complex. There’s a parallel black debate going on that, as always when it comes to racial issues, is richer and more nuanced. But anyone white who’s applauding Graham’s moment of desperation, along with the white media figures who are hyping her “heroism,” is essentially justifying police brutality, and saying the only way to control black kids is to beat the shit out of them.

    I’m aware that a lot of African Americans are lauding Graham, too. This piece isn’t directed at them. Whether they applaud or critique Graham’s corporal punishment, most black people debating the issue acknowledge that the desperate public beating came from centuries of black parents knowing they have to discipline their children harshly, or else white society will do it for them – and they may not survive it.

    The hypocrisy of the white mainstream applauding Graham is sickening. Let’s be honest: many white folks are reflexive critics of the greater frequency of corporal punishment in the black community. Witness the media horror at Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson beating his young son. If Graham beat her child like that in the aisles of CVS, you can be sure somebody would call CPS. […]

    For the most part, the CBS team ignored the big social issues behind Graham’s confrontation with her son. Graham didn’t. Like other Baltimore teens, Graham told the table, “he doesn’t have the perfect relationship with the police officers in Baltimore city…But two wrongs don’t make a right.” Nobody followed up on the young man’s “relationship” with police.

    Graham also shared that she recently lost her job. Nobody asked about that. When the church-going single mother of six confessed that the first thing she thought, when she saw herself on television, was “Oh my God, my pastor is gonna have a fit,” Norah O’Donnell reassured her: “The police commissioner of Baltimore said “We need more moms like you.”

    In the interview’s closing moments, Gayle King (who is African American) did bring the conversation around to the “relationship between the community and the police,” and the killing of Freddie Gray. Graham was eloquent.

    We haven’t received any information about what happened to this young guy. It seemed like he was harmed…We can’t talk to the police. The news keeps showing how he was dragged to the paddywagon…as a mother, that was just devastating to see.

    It sure was.

    I don’t fault CBS for interviewing Graham. She’s a “newsmaker,” and I’d talk to her in a heartbeat. But the way the network hyped its “get” falls into the category of white media applauding a black woman for beating up her son. As though that’s the only way to discipline a black child.

    These weren’t segments exploring the heartbreaking desperation of black inner city mothers, faced with an eternal “Sophie’s Choice” when it comes to their kids. They weren’t looking at the lack of options for teens in Sandtown-Winchester, or the history of Baltimore cops acting “in loco parentis” and beating the shit out of young black men, sometimes just for sport.

    Not a word of this is intended to criticize Toya Graham. I cannot say to her, “Ma’am, I have a better way to keep your son safe.” But when I watch that video, I don’t merely see a loving mother disciplining her son. I see a desperate mother being forced to wield the club of white violence, “in loco” white cops. As a mother, the footage of cops dragging an agonized Freddie Gray into custody was indeed “devastating to see.” So was the footage of Graham beating her son, with the approving gaze of white media.

    I’d forgotten how much of this reading puts me on the edge of tears.

  160. rq says

    Whoops, 159 in moderation. But take courage! I’m almost half-way done with the archived tabs, and then I only have to find what I’ve missed since yesterday, and then everything is all caught up!

    This is old news. And not much of an apology. Or, really, anything else. I wanted to clarify my comments on “thugs.” When you speak out of frustration and anger, one can say things in a way that you don’t mean.

    You can feel the tide turning among Black people. You see it in the CNN interviews with @deray and Carl Stokes. People are focused.

    Most Of The 235 Baltimore Protesters Arrested Monday Remained Jailed For Days. Yah yah yah that’s from Wednesday or so. Still old news.

    Most of the 235 protesters — 34 of them juveniles — who were arrested in Monday night’s riots in Baltimore remain in jail as of Wednesday morning, without being formally charged or having a bail hearing, officials told BuzzFeed News.

    The court system and state’s attorney’s office were closed Tuesday due to the violence, leaving nearly all of the demonstrators in Baltimore’s Central Booking and Intake Facility, a spokesperson for the facility told BuzzFeed News. One court was open Wednesday.

    Katie D’Adamo, a lawyer with the Office of the Public Defender, told BuzzFeed News that the adults are being held in tiny cells and have not been able to shower. The juveniles are being held in a separate facility across the street, she said.

    Rochelle Ritchie, director of communications for the state’s attorney’s office, said only deputies, directors, and the state’s attorney worked through Monday night and on Tuesday. She said “some” got formally charged in court on Tuesday but didn’t specify how many.

    But D’Adamo said that none of the protesters got a court hearing until Wednesday morning, starting at the John R. Hargrove Sr. Courthouse about six miles from central booking. About 93 people so far have been charged, Ritchie said.

    At the court, defendants appeared via video link. The court was steadily hearing cases by Wednesday afternoon.

    State law in Maryland reads that people who are arrested have to have a court appearance within 24 hours, the central booking spokesperson said. D’Adamo said the relevant law is 4-212 (f): “When a defendant is arrested without a warrant, the defendant shall be taken before a judicial officer of the District Court without unnecessary delay and in no event later than 24 hours after arrest.”

    Baltimore City Police Captain Eric Kowalcyzk said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon that 111 people have yet to be charged and that the police department has 48 hours to do so before releasing them.

    D’Adamo said she believes those laws may have been usurped by the State of Emergency declared by Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday evening. A spokesperson for the governor didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

    Again, the media. Controlling the Narrative: A Case Study within Baltimore

    Exactly why have I gone on for four paragraphs about Sleepers in a post about Baltimore? Because I want you to understand the greatest power there is, not just in situations like this, but in any situation you can imagine. That is the ability to start and stop the story wherever you want. It’s called “framing the narrative” and it’s not just a catchy buzz phrase that the token black interviewee says when they get asked about a racial incident or that lets a writing blogger shoehorn in the occasional commentary on current events. […]

    A lot of people are going to blog about Baltimore in the next few days. A lot already have. (We’re writers; when shit works us up, we write it out.) Most of them are going to do a much better job cataloguing the injustices that led to the powder keg of anger or pointing out the breaking news. Many will attempt to draw the focus towards the thousands protesting peacefully. Some will share poignant images of a community that is grieving, and calling for justice. Some will point out that it was drunk sports fans who sparked the initial violence.

    And of course others will try to frame the narrative in a different way. They don’t want you to see that stuff above. They want to frame this story for you by starting and stopping it where it suits them (at best because peaceful protests “aren’t news,” but some due to an agenda to validate their bigotry). They will point their cameras only when they see violence. They will ignore any calls for non-violence or attempts by protestors to calm flash points. They will clutch their pearls at the horrible treasonous image of protesters throwing rocks at riot police, but edit out the part where riot police provoked them by throwing rocks first. They will ignore police brutality. They will ignore what started that violence and chalk their analysis up to “lack of education,” “lack of leadership,” or among the less charitable, “‘those people’ are just thugs and animals.”

    Mostly though they will start the story half way through, like I did with the Sleepers DVD. They will frame the narrative in an incomplete way so that the story you get is of random sociopaths striking out against the innocent for no particular reason. They will start the story with a riot. Or if they’re “balanced” they will start the story with Freddie Gray and what was almost certainly a nickel ride that killed him and provoked a protest that became a riot.

    But even these narratives are framed in a way that disregards the background that led to the powder keg, and insinuate that destruction is happening in a contextual vacuum. They ignore the top down violence that has been going on for decades (for centuries, really) where on a horrifyingly regular basis, unarmed black people are extrajudicially killed by agents of the state in a way that simply does NOT happen to whites with such statistical regularity. They ignore Baltimore’s particularly egregious history with police brutality that is disproportionally doled out on Blacks. They ignore the eighteen months of cell phone camera coverage of blacks being shot in the back despite holding BB guns, shot within seconds of police arriving, despite being a child with a toy, shot in the back while running away, choked to death while begging to breathe, and an avalanche of police reports that turn out to be completely false when video footage surfaces.

    The words you pick are another way to control the narrative.
    They ignore whatever doesn’t suit their narrative.

    I hope if I’ve taught you nothing else on this blog, it is that controlling the narrative is power. It is absolute power. You decide who is good, who is bad, who’s off the rails, and who is being noble. You get to decide who is “reasonable” and who is “too angry.” That is the power to shape reality. It’s why publishing is whitewashed. It’s why e-publishing is so exciting. Facts and truth are entirely different creatures and you can decide what truth you want people to see by disseminating facts with discretion.

    So watch closely in the coming weeks as attempts to control the narrative unfurl in their typical modus operandi.

    I read further and I realize that Tony may have posted this link either here or elsewhere (or both) so I will cite no further, but it is a good link to read, and to keep in mind when reading media stories (and which media stories, not just which media stories – if you get what I mean).

    Here’s a list, a long list, a painful list. And at the same time it is a short list, and a list that is far too long. PLEASE DON’T FORGET THE WOMEN!

    Tanesha Anderson (37) was slammed against the pavement by police officers. She was apparently disturbing the peace in the neighborhood.
    Duanna Johnson (43) was tortured, then shot in the head by police officers. She was transgender.
    Rekia Boyd (22) was shot in the head by a police officer after someone “threatened” said officer…with a cell phone.
    Aiyana Stanley-Jones (7) was shot in the head while sleeping during a police raid. This was for a reality show, apparently.
    Tarika Wilson (26) and her 14-month old son were shot by police moments after they broke into her house. A companion was suspected of dealing drugs.
    Miriam Carey (34) was killed by police officers while trying to protect her daughter. It was apparently a traffic incident, and she wanted to protect the baby after confronting guns.
    Tyisha Williams (19) was shot 27 times by cops, minutes after her family called 911, worried about her not waking up. She had a flat tire during an evening with her friends and was waiting in a locked car for help.
    Kendra James (21) was shot while trying to flee from a police officer. She was wanted for failing to appear in court.
    Shelley Frey (27) was shot in the neck during a police chase on suspect of shoplifting. The police officer feared for his safety because of the position he was in, even though he could’ve easily shot a tire instead.
    Shereese Francis (30) was suffocated by police and then put into cardiac arrest. She was mentally ill.
    Alesia Thomas (35) was beaten to death during a struggle with a police officer. She’d been arrested because her children were left outside a police station.
    Darnesha Harris (17) was shot several times after crashing into three parked cars and a bystander (who suffered moderate injuries).
    Mackala Ross (13) and her mom Delores Epps (53) were killed in a car by a speeding police officer with no siren.
    Robin Taneisha Williams (21) was killed when a state trooper who was driving drunk crashed into her car.

    ‘We call it Mount Ghetto:’ Colorado HVAC company won’t service ‘colored’ neighborhood. No, you’re not contributing to the racial climate at all!!! Assholes.

    A heating and cooling company that claims to serve the entire Denver region refuses service homes in a racially diverse neighborhood it refers to as “Mount Ghetto,” a local Fox affiliate reports.

    A concerned employee at Mile High Heating and Cooling in Westminster, Colorado alerted the “Problem Solvers” at FOX31 Denver to the company’s racist service policies. To investigate the claim, the reporting team sent a producer to apply for an “appointment setter” position Mile High happened to be advertising at the time.

    A manager at the company, who FOX31 Denver refers to only as “Andrea,” hired the news producer to book appointments at “one of Denver’s premier residential and commercial HVAC companies” almost immediately. Within an hour, Andrea was training the reporter on how to cold call around the region to identify new customers.

    Andrea gave the producer a paper schedule of which zip codes to concentrate calls on in the coming days. The producer asked why one certain zip code — the one for Denver’s Montbello neighborhood — had the words “do not call” written under it on the list.

    “We call it Mount Ghetto,” Andrea explained. She further elaborated that Montbello is a “colored neighborhood.”

    Meanwhile, the reporter she’d just hired was filming the entire conversation.

    The Problem Solvers had enough evidence to conclude Mile High Heating and Cooling didn’t seek out customers in Montbello. But would the company provide service to a home in that neighborhood if someone called and asked it to?

    The answer, apparently, is probably not.

    In cahoots with FOX31 Denver, grandmother and Montbello homeowner Pam Jiner called Mile High and asked the company for help with a broken furnace. An employee asked Jiner for her zip code and informed her they would call her back with details in a few minutes. But no one from the Westminster heating and cooling company ever called Jiner back.

    A Problem Solver then called Mile High Heating and Cooling asking for the same service, using the same name, but citing a different zip code. A dispatcher booked her appointment immediately.

    Jiner found the zip code servicing disparity “beyond offensive.”

    Jiner’s neighbor Duane Topping shares her opinion, and describes the neighborhood’s diversity as a strength rather than a weakness. “Those stereotypes are born of ignorance,” Topping says. “I’ve grown up with all of these people in this neighborhood, so this is a family. We don’t care how much money you make, we don’t’ care what color you are, we don’t care what religion you are.”

    “Saddened and stunned by what [they] found,” FOX31 Denver reporters went in full news regalia to Mile High’s offices to ask some follow up questions. When Andrea saw the reporters, she ran away and camped out in her office, thinking the investigators would eventually go away.

    When she came out an hour later, however, the news team was still there.

    “When you refer to colored people, what color are you referring to?” a journalist inquired of Andrea.

    Of course, she isn’t racist. And neither is the company. It’s a business decision made for economic reasons.

    And James Baldwin. James Baldwin Tells Us All How to Cool It This Summer

    Q. What would you say ought to be done to improve the relationship of the police with the black community?

    BALDWIN : You would have to educate them. I really have no quarrel particularly with the policemen. I can see the trouble they’re in. They’re hopelessly ignorant and terribly frightened. They believe everything they see on television, as most people in this country do. They are endlessly respectable, which means to say they are Saturday-night sinners. The country has got the police force it deserves and of course if a policeman sees a black cat in what he considers a strange place he’s going to stop him; and you know of course the black cat is going to get angry. And then somebody may die. But it’s one of the results of the cultivation in this country of ignorance. Those cats in the Harlem street, those white cops; they are scared to death and they should be scared to death. But that’s how black boys die, because the police are scared. And it’s not the policemen’s fault; it’s the country’s fault.

    Q. In the latest civil disorder, there seems to have been a more permissive attitude on the part of the police, much less reliance on firearms to stop looters as compared with last summer when there was such an orgy of shooting by the police and the National Guard.

    BALDWIN: I’m sorry, the story isn’t in yet, and furthermore, I don’t believe what I read in the newspapers. I object to the term “looters” because I wonder who is looting whom, baby.

    Q. How would you define somebody who smashes in the window of a television store and takes what he wants?

    BALDWIN: Before I get to that, how would you define somebody who puts a cat where he is and takes all the money out of the ghetto where he makes it? Who is looting whom? Grabbing off the TV set? He doesn’t really want the TV set. He’s saying screw you. It’s just judgment, by the way, on the value of the TV set. He doesn’t want it. He wants to let you know he’s there. The question I’m trying to raise is a very serious question. The mass media-television and all the major news agencies-endlessly use that word “looter”. On television you always see black hands reaching in, you know. And so the American public concludes that these savages are trying to steal everything from us, And no one has seriously tried to get where the trouble is. After all, you’re accusing a captive population who has been robbed of everything of looting. I think it’s obscene.

    Q. Would you make a distinction between snipers, fire bombers and looters?

    BALDWIN: I’ve heard a lot of snipers, baby, and then you look at the death toll.

    Q. Very few white men, granted. But there have been a few.

    BALDWIN: I know who dies in the riots.

    Q. Well, several white people have died.

    BALDWIN: Several, yeah, baby, but do you know many Negroes have died?

    Q. Many more. But that’s why we’re talking about cooling it.

    BALDWIN: It is not the black people who have to cool it, because they won’t.

    Q. Aren’t they the one’s getting hurt the most, though?

    BALDWIN: That would depend on the point of view. You know, I’m not at all sure that we are the ones who are being hurt the most. In fact I’m sure we are not. We are the ones who are dying fastest. […]

    Q. Do you feel that there’s a conscious understanding of American imperialism by…

    BALDWIN: The Americans are not imperialists. According to them, they’re just nice guys. They’re just folks.

    Q. But we are talking about a form of imperialism…

    BALDWIN: We’re talking about the very last form of imperialism, you know—Western imperialism anyway— the world is going to see.

    Q. But do you feel the under class of black people, given an insufficient education, understands the specifies of this imperialism you describe?

    BALDWIN: We understand very much better than you think we do, and we understand it from letter we get from Vietnam.

    Q. Is there any white man who can…

    BALDWIN: White by the way is not a color, it’s an attitude. You’re as white as you think you are. It’s your choice.

    Q. Then black is a state of mind too?

    BALDWIN: No, black is a condition.

    Q. Who among the white community can talk to the black community and be accepted?

    BALDWIN: Anybody, who doesn’t think of himself as white. […]

    Q. Do you think the riots can be considered in another light than simply an outburst against the system? Are they possibly also, consciously or unconsciously, a struggle to bring to a culture purification by blood?

    BALDWIN: Well, that refers back to Thomas Jefferson, I think, who said, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”

    Q. He also said that the tree of liberty should be watered with blood…

    BALDWIN: The blood of tyrants. We call it riots, because they were black people. We wouldn’t call it riots if they were white people.

    Q. What does the death of Martin Luther King signify?

    BALDWIN: The abyss over which this country hovers now. It’s a very complicated question and the answer has to be very complicated question and the answer has to be very complicated too. What it means to the ghetto, what it means to the black people of this country, is that you could kill Martin, who was trying to save you, and you will face tremendous opposition from black people because you choose to consider, you know, the use of violence. If you can shoot Martin, you can shoot all of us. And there’s nothing in your record to indicate you won’t, or anything that would prevent you from doing it. That will be the beginning of the end, if you do, and that knowledge will be all that will hold your hand. Because one no longer believes, you see—I don’t any longer believe, and not many black people in this country can afford to believe— any longer a word you say. I don’t believe in the morality of this people at all. I don’t believe you do the right thing because you think it’s the right thing. I think you may be forced to do it because it will be the expedient thing. Which is good enough.

    I don’t think that the death of Martin Luther King means very much to any of those people in Washington. I don’t think they understand what happened at all. People like Governor Wallace and Mister Maddox certainly don’t. I would doubt very much if Ronald Reagan does. And that is of course where the problem lies, with the institutions we mentioned earlier. But to the black people in this country it means that you have declared war. You have declared war. That you do intend to slaughter us, that you intend to put us in concentration camps. After all, Martin’s assassination–whether it was done by one man or by a State Trooper, which is a possibility; or whether it was a conspiracy, which is also a possibility; after all I’m a fairly famous man too, and one doesn’t travel around—Martin certainly didn’t without the government being aware of every move he made— for this assassination I accuse the American people and all its representatives.

    For me, it’s been Medgar. Then Malcolm. Then Martin. And it’s same story. When Medgar was shot they arrested some lunatic in Mississippi, but I was in Mississippi, with Medgar, and you don’t need a lunatic in Mississippi to shoot a cat like Medgar Ever, you now, and the cat whoever he was, Byron de la Beckwith, slipped out of the back door of a nursing home and no one’s ever heard from him since. I won’t even discuss what happened to Malcolm, or all the ramifications of that. And now Martin’s dead. And every time, you know, including the time the President was murdered, everyone insisted it was the work of one lone madman; no one can face the fact that this madness has been created deliberately. Now Stokely will be shot presently. And whoever pulls that trigger will not have bought the bullet. It is the people and their representatives who are inciting to riot, not Stokely, not Martin, not Malcolm, not Medgar. And you will go on like this until you will find yourself in a place from which you can’t turn back, where indeed you may be already. So, if Martin’s death has reached the conscience of a nation, well then it’s a great moral triumph in the history of mankind, but it’s very unlikely that it has.

    Q. Some people have said that the instant canonization by white America is the cop-out…

    BALDWIN: It’s the proof of their guilt, and the proof of their relief. What they don’t know is that for every Martin they shoot there will be ten others. You already miss Malcolm and wish he were here. Because Malcolm was the only person who could help those kids in the ghetto. The only person.

    Q. I was just about to say, we white people…

    BALDWIN: … wished that Malcolm were here? But you, the white people, no matter how it was done actually, technically, you created the climate which forced him to die.

    Q. We have created a climate which has made political assassination acceptable…

    BALDWIN: … which made inevitable that death, and Medgar’s and Martin’s. And may make other deaths inevitable too, including mine. And all this in the name of freedom.

    Q. Do you think “cooling it” means accepting a culture within a culture, a black culture as separate?

    BALDWIN: You mean, white people cooling it?

    Q. Yes.

    BALDWIN: White people cooling it means a very simple thing. Black power frightens them. White power doesn’t frighten them. Stokely is not, you know, bombing a country out of existence. Nor menacing your children. White power is doing that. White people have to accept their history and their actual circumstances, and they won’t. Not without a miracle they won’t. Goodwill won’t do it. One’s got to face the fact that we police the globe–we, the Americans, police the globe for a very good reason. We, like the South African black miners, know exactly what they’re protecting when you talk about the free world.

    Q. Are there some viable black institutions that…

    BALDWIN: Why does a white country look to black institutions to save it?

    I must add, which I didn’t before, that this interview is from the ’60s. Which makes this next fragment make a lot more sense:

    Q. What kind of President should we have? Would a black President help?

    BALDWIN: You’re going to need somebody who is willing, first of all to break the stranglehold of what they call the two-party system. John Lewis was right on the day of the March on Washington, when he said we can’t join the Republican Party— look who that is made up of. We can’t join the Democratic Party— look who’s in that party. Where’s our party? What we need is somebody who can coalesce the energies in this country, which are now both black and white, into another party which can respond to the needs of the people. The Democratic Party cannot do it. Not as long as Senator Eastland is in it. I name him, to name but one. I certainly will never vote for a Republican as long as Nixon is in that party. You need someone who believes in this country, again, to begin to change it. And by the way, while we’re on this subject, on of the things we should do is cease protecting all those Texas oil millionaires who are one of the greatest menaces any civilization has ever seen. They have absolutely no brains, and a fantastic amount of money, fantastic amount of power, incredible power. And there’s nothing more dangerous than that kind of power in the hands of such ignorant men. And this is done with consent of the federal government.

    Q. Are there any natural allies for the black people?

    BALDWIN: We’re all under the same heel. I told you that before. We are all under the same heel. That’s why everyone was so shocked when Fidel Castro went to Harlem. They think Negroes are fools, as Langston Hughes put it once. Second-class fools as that.

    Q. You feel that any people who are oppressed outside the United States are natural allies for the black Americans?

    BALDWIN: Yes, From Cuba… to Angola. And don’t think the American government doesn’t know that. This government which is trying to free us is also determined we should never talk to each other. […]

    Q. So that when we come to you with the question, How do we cool it? All we’re asking is that same old question, What does the Negro want?

    BALDWIN: Yes. You’re asking me to help you save it.

    Q. Save ourselves?

    BALDWIN: Yes. But you have to do that.

    Q. Speaking strictly, from your point of view, how would you talk to an angry black man ready to tear up the town?

    BALDWIN: I only know angry black men. You mean, how would I talk to someone twenty years younger than I?

    Q. That’s right.

    BALDWIN: That would be very difficult to do. I’ve tried, and I try it, and I try it all the time. All I can tell him, really, is I’m with you, whatever that means. I’ll tell you what I can’t tell him. I can’t tell him to submit and let himself be slaughtered. I can’t tell him that he should not arm, because the white people are armed. I can’t tell him that he should not let anybody rape his sister, or his wife, or his mother. Because that’s where it’s at. And what I try to tell him, too, is if you’re ready to blow the cat’s head off—because it could come to that—try not to hate him, for the sake of your soul’s salvation and for no other reason. But let’s try to be better, let’s try—no matter what it costs us— to be better than they are. You haven’t got to hate them, though we do have to be free. It’s a waste of time to hate them.

  162. rq says

    Onwards! Things from here on in might get a bit backwards or temporally mixed up, as I didn’t arrange things as chronologically as I would have liked. And I kept some protest photos and such, just to show, but generally speaking I tried to be judicious in my selection of links so as not to overload…
    Joseph Kent, Baltimore man arrested on live TV, is released. But we knew that already (CNN link).

    Towson students going in. Recruiting for the 545 action at Penn Station #BaltimoreUprising

    Baltimore shows police killings America’s real state of emergency (CBC – I’ll be fishing there later, too, to see what comes up).

    Baltimore crackled with violence and rage this week. The governor declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard after rioting erupted following the funeral of Freddie Gray, yet another black man who died in police custody.

    The times really haven’t changed so much. Gordon Lightfoot once wrote a famous song about another governor who did the same thing 48 years ago in Detroit.

    The public conversation isn’t much different, either.

    Liberals are worrying about what triggered the rioting (“…And they really know the reason, and it wasn’t just the temperature and it wasn’t just the season …”).

    Conservatives are pointing out the shameful looting and the rocks and fire, telling us we should be grateful we have brave police to stand between us and anarchy.

    Turning the tables

    But the reality the modern surveillance society is providing us is impossible to ignore.

    Just as the authorities use technology to collect unprecedented data on the citizenry, the citizenry is constantly crowdsourcing video evidence about the authorities, and it’s ugly.

    It used to be the cop’s word against the perp’s. Now it’s the cop’s word against clear video evidence, and the cop still usually prevails.

    In Baltimore, as is most often the case these days, bystanders recorded Freddie Gray’s takedown by police on their smartphones. Sometime afterward, his spine was nearly severed. He perished in hospital.

    But it’s improbable that anyone will answer for the killing — that’s what it was, after all — in a court of law.

    A recent investigation by the Washington Post and Bowling Green State University stated that of the “thousands of people” shot dead by police in America during the last decade, only 54 officers have been charged.

    And most of those who were charged were acquitted.

    The series examined cases ignored by the national media: a lot of them unarmed people shot at point-blank range. The officers involved always claimed they feared for their lives; juries almost always took their word, even when the victim was shot from behind, execution-style.

    The system doesn’t really want to document police crime; governments are for obvious reasons reluctant to keep statistics on such shootings (“not necessarily considered an offence”) and police close ranks. […]

    Stinson, a former officer himself, suggested that many of these police shootings are really “crimes of passion.”

    “They are used to giving commands and people obeying. They don’t like it when people don’t listen to them, and things can quickly become violent when people don’t follow their orders.”

    Today, though, even the conservative voices that have for so long defended law enforcement are wavering.

    Take some time and browse the libertarian Cato Institute’s online National Police Misconduct Reporting Project[link within].

    It’s a scholarly work, and evidence gathered is weighed carefully; in fact, the last full year for which they have issued a definitive report is 2010.

    That report identified 4,861 formal incidents of police misconduct involving 6,613 law enforcement officers and 247 civilian fatalities for that year alone.

    If just a fraction of those fatalities were criminal, then the inescapable conclusion is that more people have been murdered by police in America in the last 10 years than by terrorists.

    Of course, we are told, we don’t know how many terrorists have been thwarted by vigilant behind-the-scenes enforcement.

    Well, true. But given the minuscule number of prosecutions, let alone convictions, neither do we know how many of the people who are supposed to be guarding us have gotten away with murder.

    Another from CBC: Baltimore Orioles game to be 1st in MLB history without fans. Somehow I’m not realyl weeping.

    Across the street from Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore. Yep, just across from the school. Of course, it’s right by Mondawmin mall, too.

    The acquittals of the four #LAPD officers who beat #RodneyKing happened at 3:15p on Apr. 29, 1992. #LosAngeles #SouthLA #NeverForget
    Keep that in mind as people celebrate charges against the six officers.

  163. rq says

    More old news: Latest on police-custody death: More protests in Ferguson. Just an update from April 30.

    Baltimore Residents Urged To Stay Indoors Until Social Progress Naturally Takes Its Course Over Next Century. Yep, that’s the Onion.

    Illinois teen admits plan to loot Ferguson, sell dozens of stolen guns to protesters.

    Dakota R. Moss, 19, and a juvenile used a stolen truck on Nov. 29 to ram their way through a fence outside the Buchheit farm and home store in Centralia, his plea documents say. They broke in and over a period of 80 minutes took 39 rifles, pistols and shotguns and at least 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

    They armed themselves with stolen guns “to use in the event that store personnel or police interrupted the burglary,” the documents say. They allegedly talked about taking the stolen guns to Ferguson to sell and loot stores, and also tried to find gun buyers locally.

    Note headline: they call him a teen. He’s fucking 19. Which means ‘teen’ is, yes, accurate. But how many black boys get labelled as adults when they’re 16, 17? This falls under #CrimingWhileWhite.

    Police in Baltimore fire pepper balls directly at press https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVcoeI2YiF0&feature=youtu.be&a … No command to disperse can be heard in video. Yep, you can see the video at the link. Freedom of the press, indeed.

  164. rq says

    Amnesty International USA: Baltimore Police Must Exercise Restraint During Protests

    Following protests over the death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray in police custody, Amnesty International USA Executive Director Steven W. Hawkins issued the following statement:

    “The police-related death of another young unarmed black man has understandably sparked anguish and protests in the streets of Baltimore this week. While we await the findings of a prompt, impartial and independent investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, we call on the Baltimore Police to exercise restraint during the protests, to prioritize non-violent means and only use force when absolutely unavoidable, in a manner designed to minimize injury.

    “The right to protest and peacefully assemble must be protected by law enforcement, not inhibited by intimidation and excessive force. Officers have the right to defend themselves and a duty to protect the safety of the public, but when confronting violence they must work in accordance with international standards governing the use of force. Large-scale use of tactics like tear gas and smoke bombs should not be used to quell acts of violence by a minority when the majority of protesters are non-violent. Such tactics will only lead to an escalation that places everyone at greater risk.

    “In too many cases, state laws governing the use of lethal force are overly broad and unclear, as they are in Missouri, or nonexistent, as they are in Maryland. There must be a statewide review of police policies to ensure that cases like Freddie Gray’s will not be repeated.”

    And Amnesty again: Amnesty International USA Sends Human Rights Observers to Baltimore.

    Amnesty International USA is sending a human rights observer delegation to Baltimore today to observe police and protester activity in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. The delegation will be monitoring compliance with human rights standards for the policing of protests. […]

    On April 28, Amnesty International USA sent a letter to the Baltimore Police Department to express concern over the death of Freddie Gray and the use of tear gas at protests demanding accountability for his death.

    For a list of best practices on the policing of protests with respect for human rights, as identified by Amnesty International, please see the following: http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/GoodPracticesForLawEnforcementForPolicingDemonstrations.pdf

    Gov suspends timely due process in criminal arraignments, citing executive privilege. #BaltimoreUprising @KeeganNYC There’s a link-within-the-link with text letter attached re: this. Executive privilege.

    .@wale w local gang leaders. “we could turn 1 of roughest cities in America & turn it into something positive”

    Protesting in a “PoliceState”: How to Stay Safe When Exercising Your Rights, pictures attached.

  165. rq says

    Anti-Oppression Clippy is back! That’s the one about quoting MLK out of context.

    Here’s Why I Need People To Stop Bringing Up Freddie Gray’s Arrest Record

    We’re sick and we’re tired, and so we fight. Protests in Baltimore began in the aftermath of Freddie’s funeral on Monday, but protests of a different kind have popped up on Facebook feeds and across the internet: people are protesting the idea that Freddie Gray was an innocent young man whose life ended prematurely and unjustly, and they are protesting this because… he had an arrest record.

    Listen.

    The word “innocent” has the strict legal definition it holds in the context of judicial proceedings, but it is also a word that has meaning in common conversation. Freddie Gray may have been arrested in the past, and indeed he was, mostly on drug charges related to marijuana, but in the context of dying at 25 at the hands of police, I am comfortable calling him both innocent and a victim.

    I said up front that I’m not a lawyer, but what I am, and what Freddie Gray was before he was killed, is black in America. Comparatively speaking, I enjoyed the relative geographic luxury of growing up in New York versus Freddie’s neighborhood of Sandtown-Winchester, the area of Baltimore where he lived his entire life. [..]

    I will not entertain conjecture or levy judgement about the details of Freddie Gray’s life that may have led to his arrests in the past, but since they are a matter of public record and are now being trumpeted as evidence of his lesser status by people who could only ever have seen him as less than, I will say this:

    If selling drugs deemed one deserving of death, a healthy amount of folks would be shot on sight, and if using illegal substances made a human being expendable, millions more of us would be gone. Myself included.

    Self-medication is real regardless of economic status, but there is a link between substance abuse and poverty. Also, survival by means that may be outside the law when avenues within the law are closed to you is very real for many people. I say this not to belabor the point of Freddie Gray’s arrests in a scurrilous way, but to remind those who do that they have no idea who he was outside of a rap sheet, nor can they even begin to understand why that rap sheet even exists.

    In more vulgar parlance, you don’t know Freddie Gray’s life so keep his fucking name out of your mouth unless it’s to pay your respects.

    The causality of that link between poverty and substance abuse, or associated illegal or illicit enterprises, is what the residents of ivory towers and the riders of high horses get consistently wrong. There is no inherent defect associated with being born black, poor, or both, but rather structural barriers in place in our country that must be broken down. With force.

    To look at Freddie Gray’s arrests, (not all of them prosecuted or convicted), and see only a “criminal” or a “thug” (light code for nigger) is to deny the context in which they took place, and context always matters. […]

    Inquiring minds who trust the police want to know, If you’re innocent, why would you run?

    If you’re black and innocent and have watched law enforcement officers avoid indictment and be hailed as heroes after forcefully taking black lives with impunity even when caught on camera, why wouldn’t you run?

    Regardless of the actual legal crime in question, we don’t get justice or taken alive; we face the death penalty daily for the perceived crime of being black in America.

    So when there is an actual criminal record to point to, too many will reach as far as they can to shine a light on it. But how many arrests does it take until a life doesn’t matter? What’s the secret formula? Is it two felonies and a misdemeanor? Would three arrests of any type but no jail time do the trick, or do we need to get into double digits? How about a thousand parking tickets? How many violations does it take to make someone a walking target for those who swore to protect and to serve?

    Even if each arrest had been completely justified and legally sound, which is highly doubtful, I see no record of a capital offense, so how dare anyone bring up his record as though it even remotely mitigates his death while in police custody?

    Freddie Gray’s death was, best case scenario, a highly suspicious and tragic loss while in the custody of law enforcement. At worst, it was an execution, extreme corporal punishment carried out illegally by the very enforcers of the law.

    @deray #BalitmoreUprising For the attached text. Teacher discusses Freddie Gray only when lone black student is not present. And the result is about what you would expect. *sigh*

    Ferguson! Shots, warnings of tear gas and protest return to Ferguson

    Police and protesters returned to West Florissant Avenue Tuesday night.

    People came together near the former Original Reds BBQ in Ferguson around 8 p.m., as demonstrations continued in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray. […]

    But while the early days of the demonstrations in Ferguson may have been intense, there were few gunshot injuries then. At least two people were shot Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. A man was shot in the leg early on and the Post-Dispatch reported that police quickly took a suspect into custody. Around midnight, as most of the protesters were leaving the area, there were reports on Twitter of at least two volleys of gunfire, with one person shot.

    During the demonstrations, officers — reportedly from Ferguson, St. Louis County and the Highway Patrol — moved against those who had blocked the streets. At one point, according to photos and video on Twitter, protesters linked arms and faced off against the police.

    During the course of the night and early morning, police announced an unlawful assembly and said tear gas would be used. The announcement was apparently in accordance with a court decision requiring warning before the use of chemical agents.

    It was after the warnings, as much of the crowd was said to be dispersing, that the second person was shot. Reports of someone “emptying a clip” or “shooting into the air” were seen several minutes before tweets went out about more shots and a person hit.

    And it’s the end of April. Summer is still ahead.

    Even the City of Ferguson thought last night was August all over again… Attached picture of a letter sent out, with the date as Tuesday, August 28. …

    Why is America celebrating the beating of a black child? Because this is what America does.

    It’s not surprising that a black mother in Baltimore who chased down, cursed and beat her 16-year-old son in the middle of a riot has been called a hero. In this country, when black mothers fulfill stereotypes of mammies, angry and thwarting resistance to a system designed to kill their children, they get praised.

    “He gave me eye contact,” Toya Graham told CBS News. “And at that point, you know, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that — that’s my only son and at the end of the day, I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray. Is he the perfect boy? No he’s not, but he’s mine.”

    In other words, Graham’s message to America is: I will teach my black son not to resist white supremacy so he can live.

    The kind of violent discipline Graham unleashed on her son did not originate with her, or with my adoptive mother who publicly beat me when I was a child, or with the legions of black parents who equate pain with protection and love. The beatings originated with white supremacy, a history of cultural and physical violence that devalues black life at every turn. From slavery through Jim Crow, from the school-to-prison pipeline, the innocence and protection of black children has always been a dream deferred.

    The problem is that Graham’s actions do not assure that her son, and legions like him, will survive childhood. Recall the uncle who in 2011 posted a video recording of himself beating his teenage nephew for posting gang messages on Facebook. Acting out of love and fear for his life, he whipped the teen, but months later he was found dead anyway.

    Praising Graham distracts from a hard truth: It doesn’t matter how black children behave – whether they throw rocks at the police, burn a CVS, join gangs, walk home from the store with candy in their pocket, listen to rap music in a car with friends, play with a toy gun in a park, or simply make eye contact with a police officer – they risk being killed and blamed for their own deaths because black youths are rarely viewed as innocent or worthy of protection.

    If there were an easy way to keep black children safe from police, out of prisons, morgues and graves, we would not have spent the past three years in an almost endless cycle of grieving the loss of young black people: Trayvon Martin, Renisha McBride, Rekia Boyd, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray and . . . and . . . and . . . The list is too long to fit into my word count.

    This celebration of Graham reflects a belief that black youths are inherently problematic, criminal and out of control. The video also supports the idea that black fathers are absent, suggesting that all we need is an angry black mom to beat the “thug” out of an angry young man – and everything will be fine.

    What is so disturbing is that white supremacy is let off the hook. A militarized and racist police force is not the problem. Systemic racism — from the War on Drugs to racial profiling, from hyper segregation to community divestment — is not the issue. The message becomes: Black children’s behavior is the true enemy of peace.

    This distracting conversation turns the spotlight back to black youth. If only Freddie hadn’t run; if only his parents had beaten him; if only he was perfect, maybe he would still be with us. And the praise of Graham reflects a belief shared across race lines that beating black children is the only way to keep them safe from the dangers of a racist society, or from stepping out of line. Rather than embracing her son Michael, rather than hearing and seeing his pain and assuring him that she’s got his back, Graham beat and shamed him in front of the world.

    The public shaming and devaluing of black children has a long heritage. On Nov. 8, 1893, the Anderson Intelligencer, a South Carolina newspaper, reported that a black boy was caught stealing a lunch that had been left inside of a horse buggy. The locals tied the boy up in a stall and called his mother. Upon her arrival, the 200-pound mom was told of the trouble her son made. She then exclaimed, “Dar now, told you so, tank de good Lord I dun got you dis time. I bin trying to git hold of you for six munts and you git away from me ebery time. Bit I got you now, tank de Lord.”

    The mother asked for a whip or cowhide, but was given a buggy trace. She stripped her son’s pants, bent him over a cross bar and beat him. The reporter noted, “Those licks and those yells were awful to hear and awfuller to behold.” And then the mother “lynched him while other humane gentlemen looked on and approved. That darkey will never steal another lunch from that stable nor any other stable.”

    While Graham did not literally lynch her son Michael, she metaphorically strung him up for the world to see — in hopes of keeping him alive. We can all appreciate the pain and fear in her cry that “I don’t want my son to be a Freddie Gray.” This is every black mother’s cry heard over hundreds of years in America. From the plantation moms who whipped their kids so white masters and overseers wouldn’t more harshly do the same, to the parents during Jim Crow who beat their children to keep them safe from the Klan and lynch mobs, these beatings are the acts of a people so desperate and helpless, so terrorized and enraged, that heaping pain upon their children actually seems like a sane and viable act of parental protection. […]

    Where is celebration of moms whose children have been at the forefront of peaceful protests? Where is the celebration of black mothers and fathers who have been organizing against police violence, against food injustice, and against the violence and looting in Baltimore and beyond? The history of the civil rights movement is one of parents and children joining together on the front lines of the struggle for justice, not one of black parents beating their children. Yet this is the image captivating the nation.

    What’s most tragic is that Graham said that she unleashed on her son after making eye contact with him on the street. Tragically, Freddie Gray’s offense that led to his killing was that he made eye contact with police. A look from and the mere presence of black bodies leads to violence and death, and that is the real crime, which no amount of shaming or corporal punishment will fix.

  166. rq says

    Anti-Oppression Clippy is back! That’s the one about quoting MLK out of context.

    Here’s Why I Need People To Stop Bringing Up Freddie Gray’s Arrest Record

    We’re sick and we’re tired, and so we fight. Protests in Baltimore began in the aftermath of Freddie’s funeral on Monday, but protests of a different kind have popped up on Facebook feeds and across the internet: people are protesting the idea that Freddie Gray was an innocent young man whose life ended prematurely and unjustly, and they are protesting this because… he had an arrest record.

    Listen.

    The word “innocent” has the strict legal definition it holds in the context of judicial proceedings, but it is also a word that has meaning in common conversation. Freddie Gray may have been arrested in the past, and indeed he was, mostly on drug charges related to marijuana, but in the context of dying at 25 at the hands of police, I am comfortable calling him both innocent and a victim.

    I said up front that I’m not a lawyer, but what I am, and what Freddie Gray was before he was killed, is black in America. Comparatively speaking, I enjoyed the relative geographic luxury of growing up in New York versus Freddie’s neighborhood of Sandtown-Winchester, the area of Baltimore where he lived his entire life. [..]

    I will not entertain conjecture or levy judgement about the details of Freddie Gray’s life that may have led to his arrests in the past, but since they are a matter of public record and are now being trumpeted as evidence of his lesser status by people who could only ever have seen him as less than, I will say this:

    If selling drugs deemed one deserving of death, a healthy amount of folks would be shot on sight, and if using illegal substances made a human being expendable, millions more of us would be gone. Myself included.

    Self-medication is real regardless of economic status, but there is a link between substance abuse and poverty. Also, survival by means that may be outside the law when avenues within the law are closed to you is very real for many people. I say this not to belabor the point of Freddie Gray’s arrests in a scurrilous way, but to remind those who do that they have no idea who he was outside of a rap sheet, nor can they even begin to understand why that rap sheet even exists.

    In more vulgar parlance, you don’t know Freddie Gray’s life so keep his fucking name out of your mouth unless it’s to pay your respects.

    The causality of that link between poverty and substance abuse, or associated illegal or illicit enterprises, is what the residents of ivory towers and the riders of high horses get consistently wrong. There is no inherent defect associated with being born black, poor, or both, but rather structural barriers in place in our country that must be broken down. With force.

    To look at Freddie Gray’s arrests, (not all of them prosecuted or convicted), and see only a “criminal” or a “thug” (light code for n*gg*r) is to deny the context in which they took place, and context always matters. […]

    Inquiring minds who trust the police want to know, If you’re innocent, why would you run?

    If you’re black and innocent and have watched law enforcement officers avoid indictment and be hailed as heroes after forcefully taking black lives with impunity even when caught on camera, why wouldn’t you run?

    Regardless of the actual legal crime in question, we don’t get justice or taken alive; we face the death penalty daily for the perceived crime of being black in America.

    So when there is an actual criminal record to point to, too many will reach as far as they can to shine a light on it. But how many arrests does it take until a life doesn’t matter? What’s the secret formula? Is it two felonies and a misdemeanor? Would three arrests of any type but no jail time do the trick, or do we need to get into double digits? How about a thousand parking tickets? How many violations does it take to make someone a walking target for those who swore to protect and to serve?

    Even if each arrest had been completely justified and legally sound, which is highly doubtful, I see no record of a capital offense, so how dare anyone bring up his record as though it even remotely mitigates his death while in police custody?

    Freddie Gray’s death was, best case scenario, a highly suspicious and tragic loss while in the custody of law enforcement. At worst, it was an execution, extreme corporal punishment carried out illegally by the very enforcers of the law.

    @deray #BalitmoreUprising For the attached text. Teacher discusses Freddie Gray only when lone black student is not present. And the result is about what you would expect. *sigh*

    Ferguson! Shots, warnings of tear gas and protest return to Ferguson

    Police and protesters returned to West Florissant Avenue Tuesday night.

    People came together near the former Original Reds BBQ in Ferguson around 8 p.m., as demonstrations continued in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray. […]

    But while the early days of the demonstrations in Ferguson may have been intense, there were few gunshot injuries then. At least two people were shot Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. A man was shot in the leg early on and the Post-Dispatch reported that police quickly took a suspect into custody. Around midnight, as most of the protesters were leaving the area, there were reports on Twitter of at least two volleys of gunfire, with one person shot.

    During the demonstrations, officers — reportedly from Ferguson, St. Louis County and the Highway Patrol — moved against those who had blocked the streets. At one point, according to photos and video on Twitter, protesters linked arms and faced off against the police.

    During the course of the night and early morning, police announced an unlawful assembly and said tear gas would be used. The announcement was apparently in accordance with a court decision requiring warning before the use of chemical agents.

    It was after the warnings, as much of the crowd was said to be dispersing, that the second person was shot. Reports of someone “emptying a clip” or “shooting into the air” were seen several minutes before tweets went out about more shots and a person hit.

    And it’s the end of April. Summer is still ahead.

    Even the City of Ferguson thought last night was August all over again… Attached picture of a letter sent out, with the date as Tuesday, August 28. …

    Why is America celebrating the beating of a black child? Because this is what America does.

    It’s not surprising that a black mother in Baltimore who chased down, cursed and beat her 16-year-old son in the middle of a riot has been called a hero. In this country, when black mothers fulfill stereotypes of mammies, angry and thwarting resistance to a system designed to kill their children, they get praised.

    “He gave me eye contact,” Toya Graham told CBS News. “And at that point, you know, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that — that’s my only son and at the end of the day, I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray. Is he the perfect boy? No he’s not, but he’s mine.”

    In other words, Graham’s message to America is: I will teach my black son not to resist white supremacy so he can live.

    The kind of violent discipline Graham unleashed on her son did not originate with her, or with my adoptive mother who publicly beat me when I was a child, or with the legions of black parents who equate pain with protection and love. The beatings originated with white supremacy, a history of cultural and physical violence that devalues black life at every turn. From slavery through Jim Crow, from the school-to-prison pipeline, the innocence and protection of black children has always been a dream deferred.

    The problem is that Graham’s actions do not assure that her son, and legions like him, will survive childhood. Recall the uncle who in 2011 posted a video recording of himself beating his teenage nephew for posting gang messages on Facebook. Acting out of love and fear for his life, he whipped the teen, but months later he was found dead anyway.

    Praising Graham distracts from a hard truth: It doesn’t matter how black children behave – whether they throw rocks at the police, burn a CVS, join gangs, walk home from the store with candy in their pocket, listen to rap music in a car with friends, play with a toy gun in a park, or simply make eye contact with a police officer – they risk being killed and blamed for their own deaths because black youths are rarely viewed as innocent or worthy of protection.

    If there were an easy way to keep black children safe from police, out of prisons, morgues and graves, we would not have spent the past three years in an almost endless cycle of grieving the loss of young black people: Trayvon Martin, Renisha McBride, Rekia Boyd, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray and . . . and . . . and . . . The list is too long to fit into my word count.

    This celebration of Graham reflects a belief that black youths are inherently problematic, criminal and out of control. The video also supports the idea that black fathers are absent, suggesting that all we need is an angry black mom to beat the “thug” out of an angry young man – and everything will be fine.

    What is so disturbing is that white supremacy is let off the hook. A militarized and racist police force is not the problem. Systemic racism — from the War on Drugs to racial profiling, from hyper segregation to community divestment — is not the issue. The message becomes: Black children’s behavior is the true enemy of peace.

    This distracting conversation turns the spotlight back to black youth. If only Freddie hadn’t run; if only his parents had beaten him; if only he was perfect, maybe he would still be with us. And the praise of Graham reflects a belief shared across race lines that beating black children is the only way to keep them safe from the dangers of a racist society, or from stepping out of line. Rather than embracing her son Michael, rather than hearing and seeing his pain and assuring him that she’s got his back, Graham beat and shamed him in front of the world.

    The public shaming and devaluing of black children has a long heritage. On Nov. 8, 1893, the Anderson Intelligencer, a South Carolina newspaper, reported that a black boy was caught stealing a lunch that had been left inside of a horse buggy. The locals tied the boy up in a stall and called his mother. Upon her arrival, the 200-pound mom was told of the trouble her son made. She then exclaimed, “Dar now, told you so, tank de good Lord I dun got you dis time. I bin trying to git hold of you for six munts and you git away from me ebery time. Bit I got you now, tank de Lord.”

    The mother asked for a whip or cowhide, but was given a buggy trace. She stripped her son’s pants, bent him over a cross bar and beat him. The reporter noted, “Those licks and those yells were awful to hear and awfuller to behold.” And then the mother “lynched him while other humane gentlemen looked on and approved. That d*rkey will never steal another lunch from that stable nor any other stable.”

    While Graham did not literally lynch her son Michael, she metaphorically strung him up for the world to see — in hopes of keeping him alive. We can all appreciate the pain and fear in her cry that “I don’t want my son to be a Freddie Gray.” This is every black mother’s cry heard over hundreds of years in America. From the plantation moms who whipped their kids so white masters and overseers wouldn’t more harshly do the same, to the parents during Jim Crow who beat their children to keep them safe from the Klan and lynch mobs, these beatings are the acts of a people so desperate and helpless, so terrorized and enraged, that heaping pain upon their children actually seems like a sane and viable act of parental protection. […]

    Where is celebration of moms whose children have been at the forefront of peaceful protests? Where is the celebration of black mothers and fathers who have been organizing against police violence, against food injustice, and against the violence and looting in Baltimore and beyond? The history of the civil rights movement is one of parents and children joining together on the front lines of the struggle for justice, not one of black parents beating their children. Yet this is the image captivating the nation.

    What’s most tragic is that Graham said that she unleashed on her son after making eye contact with him on the street. Tragically, Freddie Gray’s offense that led to his killing was that he made eye contact with police. A look from and the mere presence of black bodies leads to violence and death, and that is the real crime, which no amount of shaming or corporal punishment will fix.

  168. rq says

    Food Station. Organized Struggle. #BaltimoreUprising Does this get into mainstream media?
    #BaltimoreUprising See photos of peaceful protest.
    .@MayorSRB This mayor stands by while the governor suspends due process for those arrested. #BaltimoreUprising Attached letter reads:

    On April 27th, 2015, I declared by Executive Order 01.01.2015.16 that a State of Emergency exists in Baltimore City. By virtue of the authority vested in me by Title 14 of the Public Safety Article, including Section [numbers], I am suspending the effect of Maryland Rule [number], which requires individuals arrested without warrants to be taken before a Judicial Officer of the District Court within twenty-four (24) hours of arrest. This exercise of my authority is necessary to protect the public safety and to address the more than 200 arrests that were made by Baltimore Police Department and other law enforcement officers during the civil unrest in Baltimore City. The suspension of Rule [number] will remain in effect for twenty-three (23) hours as it applies to each person subject to the rule, allowing for individuals to be taken before a judicial official of the District Court no later than forty-seven (47) hours following arrest.

    Tpyos and mistypings all mine, most likely. It was very tiny type.

    Protest. Penn Station. #BaltimoreUprising

    Grammar 101: Understanding Uprisings as Predicates of Racism

    We need to go back to the basics. We can’t understand the meaning of a sentence by only looking at the predicate, or verb. We have to know what the sentence is about—the “subject.” Similarly, our understanding of the uprisings in Baltimore, St. Louis, Oakland is thin and lacking if we don’t know what they are about. The “subject” is racism.

    Subject: the noun or pronoun that a sentence is about

    Racism destroys.

    Predicate: the verb or part of a sentence stating something about the subject

    Racism destroys.

    Direct object: a noun or pronoun that received the action of an action verb

    Racism unchecked incites riots.

    Subject complement: is linked to the subject by a linking verb

    Racism is destructive.

    Destruction is a byproduct of racism. Therefore, shaming individuals for being destructive fails to acknowledge the context. If my five year old has a tantrum, it does me little good to simply shame his behavior. Sure, that will quiet him and save both of us public embarrassment, but if I want to get to the root of the problem, I have to know what the tantrum is about. Did someone harm him? Taunt him? Does he need a nap? Only in the context of understanding the subject of his fit can I help. More dramatically, if we hear about a young man shooting his father, we could focus on throwing the book at him and trying him as an adult for his intentional act of murder. But that’s simply focusing on the predicate, the action. Might you feel differently about this young man if you knew the subject—or what it’s all about—is that his father violently abused him, his sister and his mother over the course of his lifetime, constantly threatening their lives if they told? You might at least understand the predicate—shooting his father—in a different way. The subject matters. It gives context, and if you allow it, provides clues on what the next sentence could or should be.

    In the context of the call for nonviolence in Baltimore Ta-Nehisi Coates brilliantly responds, “When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.” It’s simply dishonorable. And calling out this double standard does not excuse violence, but it certainly helps us understand where it is coming from.

    If you are outraged by the outrage, focus your energy on dismantling racism. It is unfair and inaccurate to only focus on instances of rioting and fail to name the context. The subject is racism. Honest conversation about why we have a culture of policing that so consistently uses excessive force towards Black bodies is linked to our country’s history of racism. The coded language we use to not talk about race is linked to our fumbled attempts to appear less racist yet still perpetuates racism. The media’s inability to see itself and the disparate way it covers violence on the basis of race is rooted in racism.

    Racism destroys. It destroys relationships, connection and progress. It has stunted the growth of our nation. And if we fail to learn the lessons now, we will be in this same predicament 40-50 years from now.

    It’s as basic as the grammar lessons we learned as children. We will be doomed to fumble with where things go and what they mean unless we acknowledge what they are about. At the present moment, too many are focused on the predicate and are missing, ignoring, or refusing to acknowledge the subject.

  169. rq says

    NY Times article here to which I may not go because I am not subscribed. About Freddie Gray’s autopsy report being given to Baltimore prosecutors.
    Also, getting to the point where the officers were charged, so again, warning for repeating information both on that, and Mosby. And so.

    The truth about Freddie Gray’s ‘pre-existing injury from car accident’

    Online reports are swirling that Freddie Gray had spinal surgery shortly before he died in police custody, and had collected a payout in a settlement from a car accident. Those reports — which raise questions about the injury that led to his death in April 19 — point to Howard County court records as proof.

    [photo caption]For reasons not yet known, a member of central booking videotapes people who are released from central booking as the sun sets. Over 100 people, some claiming to be held for up to three days, level claims of extreme conditions they experienced since being arrested during protests and uprisings since six officers confronted and then placed Freddie Gray into custody on April 12, eventually resulting in the death of the 25-year-old West Baltimore resident seven days later.[/caption]

    But court records examined Wednesday by The Baltimore Sun show the case had nothing to do with a car accident or a spine injury. Instead, they are connected to a lawsuit alleging that Gray and his sister were injured by exposure to lead paint.

    Paperwork was filed in December allowing Gray and his sister, Fredericka to each collect an $18,000 payment from Peachtree Settlement Funding, records show. In exchange, Peachtree would have received a $108,439 annuity that was scheduled to be paid in $602 monthly installments between 2024 and 2039.

    In her documents, Fredericka Gray checked “other” when asked to describe the type of accident. She also said that the date of the accident was “94/99” and that she was a minor when the case was settled.

    In his documents, Freddie Gray checked “work injury, medical malpractice and auto accident” as the type of accident. When asked to explain, he also wrote something that is unreadable. He also wrote something unreadable when asked if he was a minor when the case was settled.

    Both cases were filed at the same time by a New Jersey law firm.
    We have no information or evidence at this point to indicate that there is a prior pre-existing spinal injury. It’s a rumor. –

    A judge dismissed the case on April 2 when neither Gray nor his sister appeared in court, records show.

    Gray’s death has sparked more than a week of protests in Baltimore including some that turned violent and led to looting.

    Baltimore attorney William H. “Billy” Murphy, who represents the Gray family, confirmed that the Howard County case was connected to the lead paint lawsuit.

    Jason Downs, an attorney who is with Murphy’s firm and represents one of Gray’s relatives, said, “We have no information or evidence at this point to indicate that there is a prior pre-existing spinal injury. It’s a rumor.”

    A 2006 injury case listed in online Maryland court records lists Freddie Gray as a plaintiff, but Downs said that case involves his father, who shares the same name.

    As children, Gray and his two sisters were found to have damaging lead levels in their blood, which led to educational, behavioral and medical problems, according to a lawsuit they filed in 2008 against the owner of a Sandtown-Winchester home the family rented for four years.

    While the property owner countered in the suit that other factors could have contributed to the children’s deficits — including poverty and their mother’s drug use — the case was settled before going to trial in 2010. The terms of the settlement are not public.

    Baltimore imposes bail bonds of half a million dollars in legal crackdown. These numbers hae already been brought up in comparison with bail set for the officers, so I won’t quote in depth.

    Seddiq said alleged first-time offenders, including one minor, were being held unless they could pay an entire $10,000 bond in cash – practically unheard of in a city where defendants pay deposits upfront and use loans from bondsmen.

    The attorney said three of Baltimore city’s district courts – which would ordinarily have shared the load of cases – were closed for no apparent reason. She reacted angrily to Hogan’s unilateral interference in detention-without-charge rules.

    “The fact they have rescinded this rule, which was introduced specifically to protect citizens from being screwed over, is insane,” she said. “But it’s business as usual for Baltimore. The justice system in this city is broken. This situation to me is the story of how Baltimore works.”

    The vast majority of arrests on Monday night had not been accompanied by police reports meaning no charges had been placed, further complicating the processing the hundreds of people detained. The backlog has been exacerbated by the unexplained closure of three of the city’s four district courts. By around midday Wednesday only 22 of those arrested on Monday had presented for bail hearings, a criminal attorney said.

    The attorney said that the sheer volume of arrests had resulted in severe overcrowding at the Baltimore city detention center, where an entire floor had to be cleared to house those detained for rioting.

    Several public defenders in the city said they planned to challenge Hogan’s decision to overrule habeas corpus law, which states that suspects will “in no event” be held for longer than 24 hours.

    Six Baltimore police officers charged in Freddie Gray’s death (Baltimore Sun);
    Six Baltimore Police Officers Charged in Freddie Gray Death (Wall Street Journal).

    Beyond Hashtag Activism

    If you’ve heard of Joseph Kent, you probably only learned his name in the last couple of days. Late Tuesday night, a CNN camera caught a spooky video of Kent being arrested in Baltimore: As Kent walked in the street, a humvee drove between him and the camera, just as a line of police lunged at the young man. Then he wasn’t heard from again for 24 hours. Talib Kweli tweeted a demand to know where he was, and Kent’s name trended on Twitter. Dark conspiracy theories suggested he’d been kidnapped or disappeared.

    It turned out that Kent, a 21-year-old student at Morgan State University in Baltimore, was waiting in a holding cell in the city jail. The facility was so crowded with people swept up by police during unrest that he hadn’t been booked, which meant his name wasn’t in the jail’s system yet and so no one could find him. His attorney, Steve Beatty, was able to locate him Wednesday and to get him released on his own recognizance that night.

    Kent is, in fact, more easily recognizable in Baltimore. City Paper, the local alternative weekly, profiled him in November 2014, in a piece about how the aftermath of Michael Brown’s shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, was creating a new cohort of civic leaders. Reporter Baynard Woods recounted Kent maintaining peace during a tense situation, near the end of a march in Baltimore protesting a grand jury’s decision not to charge Officer Darren Wilson for Michael Brown’s death:

    “We been peaceful all day, and now everybody want to show your ass,” Joseph Kent, a 21-year-old student from Morgan State University, said from the center of the crowd near the end of Tuesday’s protests over the grand jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri. “We’re not here for that.”

    Kent says he was again trying to keep the peace when he was arrested Tuesday. His attorney, Steve Beatty, told me on Thursday that the only charge pending was for one count of violating curfew, a misdemeanor. “I’ve read it a couple times; I don’t even see a penalty in it,” he said. Beatty believes the media attention helped Kent get out of jail faster, noting that other people arrested in the protests had their bail set at unusually high levels—$500,000 or $750,000—in contrast to Kent’s release on self-recognizance.

    “I don’t think he’s ever been arrested before,” Beatty said. “He led the charge in keeping the Ferguson protests peaceful.” In fact, Kent was back out on the streets Thursday, leading a march from City Hall to the Penn North area.

    Kent’s role in the marches shows the way that Ferguson has created a new group of leaders across the country dedicated to civil rights and pushing back against police. While the national attention paid to Ferguson was astonishing, critics complained that it was little more than “hashtag activism”: People could express their support from the comfortable distance of a computer, retweeting sympathetic messages without ever having to buy in. And once the marches for Michael Brown died down, where would those people go? Would they simply lose interest and move on, leaving the movement to sputter?

    One of the most prominent activists to emerge from Ferguson was DeRay McKesson, at the time a school administrator in Minnesota who traveled to Ferguson to take part in protests and was also extremely active in social-media networking. (He has since quit his job and moved to St. Louis.) In an Atlantic interview with Noah Berlatsky, McKesson pushed back on the claim that what was happening was mere hashtag activism.

    “What is different about Ferguson, or what is important about Ferguson, is that the movement began with regular people,” McKesson said. “There was no Martin, there was no Malcolm, there was no NAACP, it wasn’t the Urban League. People came together who didn’t necessarily know each other, but knew what they were experiencing was wrong …. And Twitter allowed that to happen.”

    Even if it just seemed like people chatting online, that effort would pay dividends later, he argued: “Twitter has enabled us to create community. I think the phase we’re in is a community-building phase. Yes, we need to address policy, yes, we need to address elections; we need to do all those things. But on the heels of building a strong community.”

    The marches in Baltimore and elsewhere are at least preliminary vindication of that claim. McKesson, who is from the area and lived in Baltimore for years, has been in the city for the protests. […]

    As marchers took to the streets of other cities around the nation on Wednesday night, the names of the organizers were familiar as people who have been leading protests since Michael Brown’s death. In Boston, Brock Satter organized a march Wednesday night; he previously helped put together a Martin Luther King Day march and a New Year’s Eve die-in. Umaara Elliott, a New York teenager who co-organized Millions March NYC in December, was out marching Wednesday as well.

    These continuities suggest a real network of organizers around the country who can turn people out into the streets, not just inspire them to retweet. Sadly, there seems to be no end in sight to the deaths of young black men at the hands of the police, which will likely provide plenty of additional tests of the movement’s ability to cohere. As for Joseph Kent, his lawyer said he was planning national media interviews for Thursday evening, but his client wasn’t as excited about that as he was about getting back out on the protest lines.

    “You’d think for a 21-year-old kid, getting on TV would be his priority,” Beatty chuckled. Instead, he was out marching. “He remains resolved in his dedication to peaceful protest and he hopes other will follow his lead.”

    Side link there titled ‘Baltimore Riot Didn’t Have to Happen’. Might be of interest.

    May we protect Marilyn Mosby and her family for speaking against police and holding them accountable. Im SURE death threats will pursue.

  170. rq says

    168 in moderation. Some kind of record here.
    Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby Is an Instant Political Sensation

    Marilyn Mosby, the Maryland state’s attorney for Baltimore, announced Friday that her office had charged six police officers in Freddie Gray’s death. Mosby now becomes a, perhaps the, focal figure in the biggest ongoing news story in the United States, and the content and delivery of her speech announcing the charges—as well as her star-on-the-rise backstory—suggest she is eager for the challenge.

    Mosby, 35, was elected to her office and sworn in this January; she’s reportedly the youngest top major-city prosecutor in the United States. A Boston native, she met her husband—Baltimore City Councilman Nick Mosby, described Thursday as a rising star himself by NPR—as an undergrad at Tuskegee University in Alabama before attending Boston College Law School. She worked as an assistant state’s attorney in Baltimore from 2006 to 2011 before becoming a “field counsel” for Liberty Mutual insurance.

    This January a Baltimore magazine interview discussed Mosby’s belief in the importance of trust between law enfrcement officials and the communities they serve, a theme she also spoke about in her forceful and often eloquent Friday press conference. Here’s the full video thereof:

    After describing her office’s version of Gray’s treatment—in summary, she said officers negligently failed to buckle him in the police van in which he was being transported and then repeatedly ignored clear evidence of a medical emergency after he was hurt—Mosby began speaking more broadly, alluding to the common “no justice, no peace” chant of civil rights protesters.

    Her words:

    To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America: I heard your call for “no justice, no peace.” Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man. To those that are angry, hurt, or have their own experiences of injustice at the hands of police officers, I urge you to channel the energy peacefully as we prosecute this case.

    That “no justice, no peace” reference, not surprisingly, has already been criticized by a Fox News host. (On the other side of the aisle, the Huffington Post called her “objectively badass.”)

    Mosby also spoke about her family’s history in police work, perhaps as a response to potential pushback against her move to charge the officers—pushback that has already begun via a police union open letter that calls for the appointment of an independent special prosecutor in the case, noting Mosby’s connections to Gray family attorney William Murphy, who donated to her campaign and advised her during her transition into the prosecutor’s office.

    Her words:

    To the rank and file officers of the Baltimore city police department—please know that these accusations of these six officers are not an indictment on the entire force. I come from five generations of law enforcement. My father was an officer. My mother was an officer. Several of my aunts and uncles. My recently departed and beloved grandfather was one of the founding members of the first black police organization in Massachusetts. I can tell you that the actions of these officers will not and shoudl not in any way damage the important working relationships between police and prosecutors as we continue to work together to reduce crime in Baltimore.

    And she closed her remarks with a statement directed to “the youth of this city.”

    Said Mosby:

    To the youth of this city—I will seek justice on your behalf. This is a moment. This is your moment. Let’s ensure that we have peaceful and productive rallies that will develop structural and systemic changes for generations to come. You’re at the forefront of this cause. And as young people, our time is now.

    Much remains to be done in the case of Freddie Gray’s death, and the response by the accused, their attorneys, and their supporters will no doubt be substantial and immediate. For better or for worse, Marilyn Mosby’s time is now.

    I believe there’s a transcript available upstream, so I won’t be quoting much from her initial press conference anymore.

    The woman who just vowed to deliver justice to Baltimore.

    Lots of politicians promise change, but few deliver as aggressively as Mosby did just after taking office. She cleaned house of many of the city’s veteran prosecutors — part of her campaign vowed to end the comfy relationship between police and the prosecutor’s office. Those she didn’t fire, had already left, abandoning ship just after she was elected.

    She is black, and a woman. I wonder how many racist-misogynists she got rid of? (And no, this isn’t to say she is perfect, but initial signs point to ‘Positive’.

    these guys really just threatened Marilyn Mosby’s husband. Attached is an open letter from the Fraternal Order of Police, moaning about due process (uh, isn’t that what this is?), but the type is really small so I’m hoping for someone else’s sacrifice somewhere later in these tabs. But you can imagine.

    Morgan Freeman: Unrest in Baltimore exposed ‘the terrorism we suffer from the police’. I believe already seen elsewhere.

    And the killings go on.
    #AlexiaChristian, 26, killed by Atlanta police on 4/30.
    How can you shoot 3 shots at an officer in the front seat of a police car when #AlexiaChristian was handcuffed w/her hands2 the back? @deray

  171. rq says

    Man who shot Freddie Gray arrest video: “I finally made a difference”

    Kevin Moore, who shot video of Freddie Gray’s arrest, said he feels he “finally made a difference in the world.”

    Video at the link, unsure about a transcript.

    Audio interview: Exclusive: Activist DeRay McKesson Weighs In on Baltimore Arrests with Emma Bracy & Mtali Banda

    And the Baltimore Police Union (@FOP3) has started a GoFundMe for the officers who killed #FreddieGray, which got shut down, so they went to IndieGoGo.

    We are marching with heavy police escort #M1Chi #Mayday #Chicago May Day.

    Freddie Gray charges: what is ‘depraved heart murder’? Probable repost. So only this:

    The Legal Information Institute, part of Cornell University Law School, describes the charge as “killing someone in a way that demonstrates callous disregard for the value of human life.

    “For example, if a person intentionally fires a gun into a crowded room, and someone dies, the person could be convicted of depraved heart murder.”

    Another way of putting it is “wanton indifference to the consequences and perils” of a “reckless act”, as judge Charles Moylan Jr wrote in 1981. Moylan added that depraved heart murder “is just as blameworthy, and just as worthy of punishment, when the harmful result ensues, as is the express intent to kill itself”.

    “Wanton” is also the key word used by judge Alan Wilner in 1991, who wrote: “The conduct must contain an element of viciousness or contemptuous disregard for the value of human life which conduct characterizes that behavior as wanton.”

    Solidarity with #BaltimoreUprising from Greece. #FreddyGray @Nettaaaaaaaa @deray See photo.

  172. rq says

    Again, global reach – ‘Baltimore Is Here’: Ethiopian Israelis protest police brutality in Jerusalem





    Ethiopian Israelis took to the streets of Jerusalem on the evening of April 30 to protest police brutality and systemic racism. Haaretz reports that approximately 1,000 protesters gathered, principally from the Ethiopian Jewish community.

    The citizens condemned racism and police brutality toward the Ethiopian Jewish community, calling for the end of impunity for cops who harass them.
    – See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/05/ethiopian-brutality-jerusalem#sthash.rUdpsi6K.dpuf





    Ethiopian Israelis took to the streets of Jerusalem on the evening of April 30 to protest police brutality and systemic racism. Haaretz reports that approximately 1,000 protesters gathered, principally from the Ethiopian Jewish community.

    The citizens condemned racism and police brutality toward the Ethiopian Jewish community, calling for the end of impunity for cops who harass them.

    A video released of a white Israeli police officer attacking a black Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv on April 26 angered many in the Ethiopian Israeli community, which is disproportionately targeted by Israeli police. The video shows officers pushing Demas Fekadeh, an Ethiopian Israeli soldier, to the ground and beating him.

    Zionist Union Member of Knesset Shelly Yachimovich remarked in a Facebook post “It wouldn’t be far-fetched to expect that if [Demas Fekadeh], the soldier who was hit, was a light-skin soldier, preferably with an Ashkenazi appearance, he would not have sustained harsh blows without consideration from police.”

    This is by no means an isolated incident. In March 2014, an Ethiopian Israeli by the name of Yosef Salamseh was in a public park with his friends when police approached him. They accused him of breaking into a house, a claim he adamantly denied. The cops then attacked him with a Taser gun, kicked him, handcuffed him, shackled his legs, threw him in a police car, and detained him in a nearby police station. His family later found him unconscious and tied-up. A few months later, he died. Police claimed it was a suicide.

    In the wake of the incident, Salamseh came to be known by many as “Israel’s Michael Brown,” referring to an 18-year-old black American man who was walking down the street with a friend in Ferguson, Missouri when white police officer Darren Wilson shot him nine times, three times in the head.

    Numerous journalists reported that the Ethiopian Jewish protesters in Jerusalem were chanting “Baltimore is here!”, connecting their struggle against racist brutality in Israel to the struggle of black Americans against racist brutality in the US.

    Civil unrest emerged in Baltimore on April 25, in response to the police killing of Freddie Gray, an innocent, unarmed black man who was arrested for looking at a police officer in the face and then running away. While in police custody, Gray’s voice box was crushed and his spine was 80% severed. Baltimore police later accused him of injuring himself, although video footage was released of cops pummeling Gray. In the video, Gray can be heard asking for his inhaler, as he had trouble breathing, and appears to be incapable of walking, because of the brutal beating he suffered. (Police also harassed and later arrested the man who captured the attack on camera.) A medical expert revealed that it is virtually impossible that Gray injured himself.

    Black Israelis have tied their own struggle to that of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US—a civil and human rights movement that emerged in response to the constant police murders of unarmed, innocent black Americans at the hands of white police—not just by drawing connections between Baltimore and Jerusalem, but furthermore by launching an Israeli offshoot of the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” campaign.

    More at the link.

    Adverse Note to MLK on Political Cartoon. Hard to read, but handwritten note on a cartoon showing a police officer writing in his notebook while talking to Dr Martin Luther King Jr, who is saying that he plans to lead another non-violent protest tomorrow, with a giant mess of a city around them. The handwritten note added underlines the word non-violent and, from what I could decipher, was basically refusing to agree that MLK’s tactics were non-violent. So to all those asking for protestors to be more like the non-violent MLK? Newsflash: he wasn’t necessarily seen as non-violent back then.

    6 officers charged in Freddie Gray’s death (USA Today).

    Interlude: The classic miniseries Roots is getting a remake

    The black TV renaissance continues. A&E Networks announced yesterday that it is remaking Roots, the classic 1977 miniseries that traced a black family’s history from slavery on to the end of the Civil War. The eight-episode series, which has been in the works since 2013, will air simultaneously on The History Channel, A&E, and Lifetime in 2016.

    Roots became a cultural phenomenon when it first aired on ABC, and has since become on the most celebrated programs in history. Starring a mostly black cast, it launched the career of executive producer LeVar Burton, who played abducted slave Kunta Kinte before going on to play Geordie La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The series finale broke Nielsen viewing records for its time, and sequel efforts Roots: The Next Generation and Roots: The Gift were also well-received by viewers.

    The remake is being planned at a time and cultural climate when media aimed at black audiences is doing particularly well. Fox’s Empire, starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, recently became a ratings juggernaut, the first show to grow its audience every week in 23 years. Shows like Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, and Black-ish are all critical and ratings successes, and movies like 12 Years a Slave and Django Unchained prove that people will see efforts that tackle slavery head on. However, with remake fatigue already on the rise, it’s still uncertain how well the new Roots will do.

    Protests Continue After Officers Involved In Freddie Gray’s Arrest Face Charges

    Thirteen days of protests yielded the answers many had hoped for.

    Friday night, at least half a dozen people were arrested for violating the curfew.

    Christie Ileto has more.

    “Here we are as a proud city saying here we are, charging people who committed a crime and it’s actually happening now,” said one protester.

    The state’s attorney’s office slapped the six officers involved in Gray’s arrest with criminal charges; his death now a homicide.

    “They did a thorough investigation,” said Juan.

    Juan is one of Gray’s best friends.

    “No more sitting on your couch; no more getting paid. You murdered someone and you belong in jail,” he said.

    “We need to keep the pressure on because we need to have those officers convicted,” said Sharon Black, People’s Power Assembly.

    Marchers say the fight isn’t over. They looped the city, stopping at City Hall, the jail and Western Police District, arguing the curfew should be lifted and the National Guard should leave.

    “No one is burning down any buildings, rioting and going into stores. Everything is more peaceful,” said Taylor Lomax.

    But Baltimore is gearing up for one of its largest protests since Gray’s death.

    “I’m hoping everyone is just going to peacefully return to their lives and go home and get back to work and let the city get back to normal,” said Governor Larry Hogan.

    Concerns linger from the looting that swept parts of Baltimore last weekend and exploded on Monday into violence.

    “Right now, this is just one step, one step to the beginning,” said Juan.

    A first step to bring peace to a riot-torn city.

    There is a massive protest planned for Saturday; the curfew will still be in effect.

    Barricades as far as the eye can see. The police don’t want anyone taking over streets unless they say so. #MayDayNYC

  173. rq says

    I think I’m about half-way.
    May Day Marches Across US Incorporate Protests Against Police Brutality

    The death of Freddie Gray in police custody has already caused a massive ripple effect felt across the country. After protests erupted in Baltimore over the weekend, they spread to major cities across the US over the past week. Aside from Monday night’s riots and a few other isolated incidents, the protests have been largely peaceful.

    Now many organizers who have long-planned the traditional May Day marches are also incorporating the Black Lives Matter movement, which first came to prominence after the police shooting of unarmed Michael Brown last August.

    “It is important to support movements and struggles that stand up for people being singled out by the system,” Miguel Paredes, coordinator for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, told the Associated Press. “Right now, immigrants share that distinction with African-American youth, that we are being targeted by the system.”

    In many ways, including police brutality protests into May Day demonstrations seems like a logical decision. International Worker’s Day has been celebrated since 1886, when a bomb blast in the middle of a Chicago labor demonstration caused a large riot. That event has been cited as a major factor in establishing the 8-hour workday, and Black Lives Matter protesters certainly hope that the protests of the past week could cause similarly monumental changes.

    Many May Day organizers recognize that the struggles faced by black minorities in inner cities are the same faced by many immigrant groups. Distrust of police and the US judicial system is a common thread.

    “This is one of these times where the savvy political move is also coherent political ideology,” professor of sociology and political science at University of California, Irvine, told the AP.

    Los Angeles isn’t the only city hosting the expanded marches. Many activists in New York will carry a banner reading “No police from Baltimore to Ayotzinapa,” taking the police brutality message even further, referencing the 43 students who went missing in Mexico last year.

    And protests continue in Baltimore. The announcement made Friday by Baltimore City’s State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, stating that criminal charges have been brought against all six officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, have filled many protesters with a sense of accomplishment.

    This man. Baltimore Man: When I Was A Marine I Was Called A Patriot, When I Fight For My People I’m A Thug

    A man, identifying himself as a Marine, yelled at law enforcement after the charges against six Baltimore City police officers were announced. Many members of the Baltimore City Police Department are veterans.

    “We gave our lives for this country,” the emotional man said to the police suited up in riot gear. “Look at you. Is this what it’s coming to, man? I love this fucking country, too. Just as much as you do. We’re fighting for a reason, man. I was willing to give my life for this country, man. Look at this community now, man.”

    “You’re the same people I went to war with,” he said.

    “I see that you are very emotional. You’re very emotional. Tell me and explain to me where that’s coming from,” a CNN reporter asked the man.

    “This is crazy. They tell me we are apart of this country, man. How can we be? How can we be part of this country? Look at this,” he told her.

    “I don’t believe anything until I see the end result,” the man said about the state’s attorney filing charges against six police officers. “We got to stop being pacified every time they throw us a bone where they want us to calm down, man. We need to wait for the end result to come in.”

    “I was willing to give my life for this country. Look at my community, man. Look around here. The same people who we go to war with coming to war on us.”

    “When I was in the Marine Corps, they called me a patriot. A marine. But now that I’m fighting for my people they call me a fucking thug. They called me a thug when I fight for my people,” the enraged man said.

    The man was later accosted by a resident of Sandtown, Baltimore (where Freddie Gray was arrested) when he said he was from Belvedere Square, Baltimore and was told to go home. Belvedere, while not nearly as impoverished as Sandtown, is also in the inner-city and is only a few blocks away.

    “I am Darren Wilson”: St. Louis and the geography of fear. Repost, worth a re-read re: the reaction of police to charges filed against the officers responsible for Freddie Gray’s death.

    Here’s A Timeline Of Unarmed Black People Killed By Police Over Past Year. And that’s just one year.

    When Michael Brown was shot to death by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, it awakened a movement that began with the previous killing of another black teenager, Trayvon Martin, who was shot in 2012 by neighborhood watch volulnteer George Zimmerman.

    Brown’s death was not the first of its kind since Martin’s; just a month prior, Eric Garner died after being placed in a chokehold by NYPD officers. Both deaths sparked protests across the country — protests that were renewed when grand juries declined to charge the officers involved in either case.

    The national outcry has cast light on similar cases from the past year, some leading to charges against the police officers involved, others not.

    Here’s a breakdown of when the killings happened and their outcomes.

    (Note: This list is not exhaustive.)

    From April 30 2014 to April 30 2015.

    People react to officers being charged. Neighbors shocked that Officer William Porter charged in Freddie Gray’s death

    On April 12, however, the two men’s paths crossed at Dolphin Street and Druid Hill Avenue in Gray’s part of town. That’s where Porter met the police van carrying Gray and helped the driver check on his passenger. Now Porter is among the six officers facing charges in Gray’s death.

    “This is unbelievable,” said Regina Bennett, who lives two doors down from Porter and has known him since he was about 10. “He is a good, humble kid. I have never seen him in trouble.”

    Court records show that Porter has no criminal record. He has worked for the Baltimore Police Department since 2012 and was earning a yearly salary of $44,104 — until he and the other officers were placed on unpaid leave Friday.

    Local police union President Gene Ryan defended Porter and the other officers, saying, “None of the officers involved are responsible for the death of Mr. Gray.”

    “Each of the officers involved is sincerely saddened by Mr. Gray’s passing,” Ryan said in a statement released by the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3. “They are all committed police officers who have dedicated their careers to the Baltimore City Police Department.”

    Porter and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.

    And yes, they mention his police record (or possibility thereof). Want to guess his skin colour?
    Also, haven’t had a chance to check yet, but wondering which officer was charged with murder (and put that to a face and a skin colour, because it seems like it could be relevant). Because there was one.

    Marilyn Mosby Went Into Today’s Press Conference Unknown, Emerged A Champion Of Reform.

    If history is any indication, Mosby may face an extraordinary uphill battle going forward. When Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg recently filed charges against two police officers for the first time in recent memory over the shooting of an unarmed homeless man, police responded by excluding her from future investigations of police shootings. After Chicago prosecutors filed charges for the first time in 15 years against a cop for an on-duty shooting, a judge acquitted the officer in a bizarre ruling that reasoned the charges filed against the officer actually weren’t severe enough. If Mosby’s prosecution reaches a jury, she could face an audience with its own set of biases, as juries also tend to favor the police.

  174. rq says

    Two more men allege ‘rough rides’ in Baltimore police van

    Two more people came forward Friday and said Baltimore police gave them “rough rides,” purposefully tossing them around in the back of a transport van, causing them injuries.

    The men, Jacob Master Jr. of Baltimore and Patrick Hoey of Seattle, were put in the back of a police van in June 2012 as the result of a noise complaint, according to their lawyers at the Norman Law Firm in Dagsboro, Del.
    Freddie Gray not the first to come out of Baltimore police van with serious injuries
    Freddie Gray not the first to come out of Baltimore police van with serious injuries

    Neither man was strapped into the van, and during the ride they were “violently tossed around the interior of the police van” as an officer drove “maniacally” to a police station, according to a statement from the firm. “As a result, each man sustained injuries.” […]

    At least five other people or their families have alleged they were harmed in the back of a police van since 1997, with several winning judgments or settling with police. Three were paralyzed by the ride, according to a recent review by The Baltimore Sun.

    In one case, a 43-year-old plumber arrested for public urination was handcuffed and put in a van in good health but emerged a quadriplegic. He told his doctor he was not buckled into his seat and after a sharp turn he was “violently thrown around the back of the vehicle as [police officers] drove in an aggressive fashion,” according to a lawsuit.
    cComments

    @mimi.barron ..Sounds as if you have not yet evolved into being a Civilized Human Being. Your statement says a lot about your culture and upbringing. One more thing, the job of the Police is to protect LAW ABIDING citizens from non law abiding citizens.
    bhd2801
    at 8:09 AM May 02, 2015

    Add a comment See all comments
    5

    The man died two weeks later of pneumonia caused by his paralysis, and his family initially won a $7.4 million award after a jury agreed three officers were negligent. It was reduced to $219,000 by Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals because state law caps such payouts.

    In another case, Christine Abbott, 27, is suing city officers in federal court, alleging she got such a ride in 2012. Abbott was hosting a party at her Hampden home when two officers arrived to follow up on a noise complaint. According to her lawsuit in U.S. District Court, the officers began to argue with a guest for not putting out a cigarette while they spoke to him, and when Abbott tried to calm both sides, the officers threw her to the ground. According to the suit, officers cuffed Abbott’s hands behind her back, threw her into a police van, left her unbuckled and “maniacally drove” her to the Northern District police station, “tossing [her] around the interior of the police van.”

    A former city police officer testified five years ago, in a case that resulted in a death, that rough rides were an “unsanctioned technique” in which police vans are driven to cause “injury or pain” to unbuckled, handcuffed detainees.

    Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new allegations, but officials have in the past denied that officers drove recklessly, sometimes claiming those in custody thrashed around or were belligerent.

    Party in the streets. #BaltimoreUprising Protestor response to the charges.

    In Baltimore, the Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell. This looks like a repost or posted by someone else, so only a small quote:

    In Baltimore, it’s easy to internalize the notion that no one outside of the city gives a fuck about you. You grow up feeling like where you’re from is second-rate and nobody makes it unless they leave. Our culture, outside of drugs and vacant houses, is widely unknown but we make our own unique club music, we like slapping Old Bay on everything, we eat chicken boxes—you know, regular, non-The Wire shit. So to be the center of international attention feels strange, especially when that attention could have been so easily avoided if police did not allegedly facilitate the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man from West Baltimore. But since that did happen and since the people of Baltimore City decided to respond to that by taking to the streets in anger at not just Gray’s death but the whole rigged system, we are where we are: Images of looting replayed on cable news, solidarity protests all over the country, and blacks and whites in Baltimore doing their best to repair their communities.

    How is one supposed to act when their lives are decided for them before they’re born? How are we as black people supposed to react when we are murdered by police, then blamed for our own deaths? I grew up in East Baltimore and while I can’t claim to have suffered the exact hardships that Freddie Gray did, you can only do so much to escape the ills of inner city life as a black person in this town. […]

    So, what is actually being said when we publicly shun our people for acting on the frustrations bottled up from being oppressed? What is being said when a mother who beat her son on national television for defending himself is made into an overnight celebrity? If she had spanked her son on TV for anything other than him being a threat to the white supremacist structure, she would have been shamed if not hit with a charge. But because it paints what her son did as wrong, she’s being championed for it, even out on the cover of pro-authority rags like the New York Post.Just like black people have been rewarded for turning on one another since they were brought to this country.

    I don’t advocate the harm of innocent people but I do know that destroying people’s property—a.k.a. screwing with their money—is one way of forcing them to listen to you. None of the people who have tied themselves arguing for “nonviolent protest” this week gave a shit about Baltimore until someone set a cop car on fire.

    This morning, Gray’s death was ruled a homicide and the six officers involved in his death were handed charges ranging from second degree depraved heart murder to involuntary manslaughter to false imprisonment. I don’t know what the final outcome of Gray’s passing will be but I have a feeling that if justice is not brought down upon the officers involved in his death, no amount of scare tactics or projected embarrassment from within the black community will be able to limit what happened on April 27th to just one night of crying out.

    And here’s why GoFundMe shut down the fundraiser for the officers who killed #FreddieGray (h/t @soniamoghe) Violates the terms of service.

    Ferguson #BALTIMOREisRISING #BaltimoreUprising #Ferguson2Baltimore #BlackLivesMatter @OpFerguson @KWRose Now that is what one might call ‘police presence’. Mildly put.

    Protest line arms linked in front of riot line #BaltimoreCurfew

  175. rq says

    Sorry, forgot to clean up that blockquote there.

    Baltimore: Human Rights Observers Must Be Allowed to Observe Past Curfew – I think a couple of tweets on this upcoming, but they had their legal observer IDs taken away by police.

    Amnesty International USA is disappointed to learn that the City of Baltimore has revoked permission for our observers to continue to monitor the situation during the curfew. Yesterday, Amnesty International USA was issued badges to allow four of our observers to be out after curfew. Today we were told that the badges “have been made invalid due to counterfeits.” We call on the Mayor’s office to grant Amnesty and other legal and human rights observers permission to work during the curfew. Independent observation is crucial for ensuring respect for human rights and accountability for violations.

    Tonight, @baltimorepolice revoked the “peacekeeper passes” for human rights observers/legal observers #freddiegray #BaltimoreUprising

    Baltimore Teen Encouraged by Parents to Turn Himself in Is Held on $500,000 Bail, Faces Life in Prison. Yuh, that’s the one whose bail is bigger than that of officers committing far more serious crimes.

    Allen Bullock, the 18-year-old seen in photos smashing in a police car with a traffic cone, turned himself in after being encouraged by his parents. But now he is being held on $500,000 bail, an amount his parents cannot afford, The Guardian reports.

    Bullock faces charges of rioting and malicious destruction of property, among other criminal counts, after turning himself in at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center with his stepfather, Maurice Hawkins, at his side.

    According to Hawkins, who saw footage of his stepson on Saturday, the teen agreed to turn himself in after his stepfather told him that the police would “find him, knock down our door and beat him” if he didn’t, The Guardian notes.

    However, no good deed goes unpunished, and Hawkins now believes that they are making an example of the teen. “By turning himself in, he also let me know he was growing as a man and he recognized what he did was wrong,” Hawkins told The Guardian on Wednesday. “But they are making an example of him, and it is not right.”

    “As parents, we wanted Allen to do the right thing,” Bullock’s mother, Bobbi Smallwood, said. “He was dead wrong, and he does need to be punished. But he wasn’t leading this riot. He hasn’t got that much power.”

    Hawkins noted that the proposed amount is higher than that placed on some accused murderers in the city. “Who could afford to pay that?” the stepfather asked.

    “If they let him go, he could at least save some money and pay them back for the damage he did,” his mother agreed.

    I wonder if that sentence with ‘accused murderers’ is a subtle stab at the officers at all.
    The Guardian on the same: Baltimore rioter turned himself in – but family can’t afford $500,000 bail .

    It’s about to get crazy in Dallas! A woman named Olinka was harassed and assaulted by the police.. #DallasToBaltimore She was a protestor and activist. With flyers. Now charged with 2 felonies.

    BREAKING NEWS: Protesters have taken over Seattle Plaza in what has been a violent day. #MayDaySea

    I know these are just small glimpses into the May Days of other cities, but that’s all I have right now.

  176. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    My biggest complaint about PINAC?

    They aren’t bigger.

    Once again, they get the right story at the right time:

    A man wearing a Fuck the Police t-shirt said fuck the curfew, defiantly refusing to leave the streets after a city-wide curfew remained in effect in Baltimore Saturday night, prompting an aggressive cop to run up to him and unleash a cloud of pepper spray in his face.
    But the man remained standing, his arms by his side, his face dripping with oleoresin capsicum as more cops rushed up to arrest him, including one cop who grabbed his dreadlocks and yanked him backwards down on the street.

    Man in dreads, standing quietly, doing nothing, pepper sprayed and thrown down and arrested because he doesn’t like that the response of authority to outrage at cops’ killings is curfew.

    Oh, and because he’s black:

    in a white, trendy neighborhood in North Baltimore called Hampden, several protesters also defied the curfew by refusing to vacate the streets at 10 p.m., according to the Baltimore Sun.
    But they were met with much less hostility.

    A group of about 50 mostly white protesters stood on a corner in Hampden on Saturday just as the citywide 10 p.m. curfew went into effect because, they said, they knew they’d be treated differently than black protesters in poorer parts of the city.

    They were right.

    Racism, I cordially invite you to fuck off forever.

  177. rq says

    Charged Baltimore officers post bail, but we knew that already.

    Police brutality, life expectancy and voting, intersection! Black lives matter: premature deaths skew US election results

    Dead men cast no votes. A new study has found that the premature death of millions of black voters in the US has affected the outcome of several elections.

    “We are talking here about deeply entrenched biases and prejudices in the operation of the economic, political and socio-cultural system which place blacks at a severe and systematic disadvantage,” says Chik Collins of the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley, UK. “It is a very well-founded challenge to the claims of America to be a ‘decent’ – let alone a ‘democratic’ – society.”

    This week saw protests in Baltimore and across the US touched off by the death of Freddie Gray, an African American man who died of a spinal cord injury sustained in police custody. His death has now been ruled a homicide and six police officers involved will face criminal charges.

    Overall, in the US, the mortality rate for blacks, across age and gender, is almost 18 per cent higher than the rate for whites.

    But while Gray’s and other high-profile killings make the headlines, the far greater cause of premature death in African Americans is stress-related disease, says Arline Geronimus of the Stanford University Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, California. For example, the diabetes rate for black people is almost twice as high as for whites, and blacks have higher rates of cancer and heart disease.

    “People have tabloid images of why there are so many black excess deaths, but those are only a small part,” Geronimus says.

    When one demographic group dies at a faster rate than another, it skews the makeup of the electorate in favour of the group with the better survival rates. Geronimus and her colleagues wondered what effect this difference might have on US politics.

    To find out, the team looked at the 35-year period between 1970 and 2004, and asked how the outcomes of elections in this period, including the 2004 presidential contest between John Kerry and George W. Bush, might have been different if the mortality rate of black and white people had been equal.

    Using cause of death data from the US Centers for Disease Control, Geronimus and colleagues calculated that if blacks died at the same rate as whites, 5.8 million African Americans would have died between 1970 and 2004. The actual number of black deaths over that timespan was 8.5 million, meaning that African Americans had 2.7 million “excess deaths”, compared with whites.

    Of those 2.7 million, Geronimus and colleagues calculated that 1.74 million would have been able to vote in the 2004 elections, of whom 1 million would have actually voted.

    The researchers then looked at how this extra million might have influenced elections if they had voted in line with actual black voters. African Americans tend to vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic party, so that party’s presidential candidate, John Kerry, missed out on around 900,000 votes. Kerry’s Republican opponent, George W. Bush, lost around 140,000.

    The missing black voters alone would not have been enough to change the result – Bush was elected with a majority of more than 3 million votes. But the story is different at state level, especially if another cause of lost black votes is taken into account.

    In 2006, Joe Manza of New York University and Christopher Uggen of the University of Minnesota estimated that 1.95 million voting-age African Americans were unable to vote in 2004 due to the fact that they had been convicted of a felony. A 2013 Pew Research Center study found that black men were six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated in 2010 – an increase from 1960, when black men were incarcerated five times as often as white men. This disenfranchisement meant that around 15 per cent of voting-age African Americans were excluded from the 2004 national election.

    Geronimus and her colleagues estimated that seven senate and 11 gubernatorial election results between 1970 and 2004 would have been reversed had their hypothetical survivors been able to vote. These were close elections in which the margin of victory was less than a third of the number of estimated hypothetical survivors in the state. Accounting for people disenfranchised by felony convictions would have likely reversed three other senate seats. In at least one state, Missouri, accounting for just excess deaths or felony disenfranchisement would not have been sufficient to reverse the senate election – but both sources of lost votes taken together would have.

    To think about and consider carefully.

    Again on perspective and framing the narrative: Is It An ‘Uprising’ Or A ‘Riot’? Depends On Who’s Watching

    Two years ago, University of Southern California sociologist Karen Sternheimer wrote “Civil Unrest, Riots and Rebellions: What’s the Difference?” for the Everyday Sociology Blog.

    While the 1992 crisis was often called a riot, Sternheimer wrote that it had elements of all three terms: “Civil unrest often occurs when a group strives to gain attention for something they feel is unjust.” When the jury declared “not guilty” for the officers on trial, there was disbelief.

    “People felt angry enough to disrupt the social order,” Steinheimer continued, “because many felt like the justice system had severely let them down.”

    Over time, black communities in LA and Ferguson, Mo., had come to believe they were occupied by hostile police departments that didn’t resemble their civilian populations and focused their policing on containment and suppression, rather than protecting and serving. In LA, the last straw was the exoneration of the officers despite clear video evidence of the abuse: Parts of the city burned in a matter of hours. Fifty-five people died and property damage reached $1 billion.

    “Riots are characterized by unruly mobs, often engaging in violence and mayhem,” Sternheimer wrote.

    Jack Schneider, an assistant professor in the education department at the College of the Holy Cross, noted at the Huffington Post last year that throughout American history, white citizens were lauded when they rose up against perceived tyranny. Actions that came to be known as Shay’s Rebellion and Bacon’s Rebellion were called rebellions; participants were considered patriots. “When blacks become involved, however,” Schneider wrote, an uprising isn’t a rebellion. It’s a riot. Harlem, Watts, Chicago, or more recently, Ferguson.”

    These have been characterized as “resistance to authority or control,” Schneider added. The assumption by those in power is those instances of civil unrest were hooliganism, not “simmering resentment and honest anger” to oppressive conditions.

    Need a clear example of how perspective can cloud the media mirror? Here’s this, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, after a student riot in 2011 that left windows smashed and cars flipped:

    “More than 10,000 students rallied Wednesday night in anger after Penn State University trustees announced that longtime football coach Joe Paterno had been fired.”

    What was a riot became a rally.

    Riots can also start out as one thing and morph into something else. Ferguson protests were largely peaceful until an aggressive police response infuriated many marchers. What started as a demonstration against police brutality and racism became, some said, a demonstration of police brutality. […]

    Resistance, Hill said, “looks different ways to different people.” And, he added, it’s not something that can be neatly contained or scheduled. “You can’t tell people where to die-in, where to resist, how to protest.” While many in and on the media were referring to the Baltimore demonstrators as rioters, Hill refused. “I’m calling these uprisings,” he insisted, “and I think it’s an important distinction to make.”

    Baltimore, Hill said, is one in a series of cities where people pushed back against “the state violence that’s been waged against black female and male bodies forever.” Just as the media are covering the flames when cities are burning, Hill told Lemon, they should also be looking at root causes behind the fires. Riot, unrest, rebellion, uprising — what we call them is not a to-may-to, to-mah-to argument. The words may describe the same event, but they mean very different things.

    Tucker Carlson’s Site: ‘Sexy’ Baltimore Prosecutor Flashed ‘Crazy Girl Eyes’. I think Lynna covered this on the All That Needs to Be Said thread, which should be checked for a few updates, by the way.

    At least 53 arrested in Friday’s Freddie Gray protests

    Baltimore police arrested at least 53 people during peaceful protests Friday, the day charges were brought against the six officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray.

    Fifteen of the arrests were made for curfew violations outside City Hall, where more than 100 people remained outside on the lawn past 10 p.m. to protest. Most ran away when hundreds of officers marched through carrying shields, mace, batons and zip-tie handcuffs; the stragglers were detained.

    If police arrested anyone Friday night at Pennsylvania and W. North avenues, another of the more than week-long protest gathering points, “they haven’t been processed yet,” a department spokesman said.

    “Protest-related arrests” made up the other 38, though on a mostly peaceful day of marching and celebrating over the unexpected charges being brought, it wasn’t clear what charges those people faced.

    Police did not take questions at their final briefing Friday just before midnight.

    The six officers face manslaughter and other charges in the death of Gray a 25-year-old man who suffered a fatal spinal cord injury in police custody.

    Baltimore Activists Recount How Police Unions Crushed Accountability Reforms– which they tried in Ferguson, too.

    Police unions play a significant role in Maryland politics, from campaign endorsements to influence peddling. According to public records, the largest police associations, including the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police, donated $1,834,680 to state politicians over the last decade and retained several of most prominent lobbyists in the state.

    The Maryland State FOP organized its members to show up in force during the hearing on the police reform bills. The Facebook page for the group shows officers packing the legislative room when the reform bills were debated.

    “It was not a level playing field, we’re not the FOP, we don’t have the same type of strong relationship with the delegates, the state legislators,” said Farajii Muhammad, one of the organizers of the reform effort.

    “Our people said that the committee leadership was worried about the police reaction,” explained Thomas Nephew, an activist with the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition, who was present at the March 12th hearing. “One of the legislative leaders said something like, if these bills go through, the cops will riot in the streets, which really tells you something.”

    The police were simply more organized and had better relationships with the lawmakers, Nephew said.

    A coalition including Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the ACLU, the NAACP and members of Maryland’s faith community pushed for changes to the “Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights,” a law that critics say sets a standard that makes investigating and disciplining police misconduct nearly impossible.

    “We’re still going to have this fight,” said Muhammad in an interview over the phone. Muhammad, who has organized community efforts in Freddie Gray’s neighorhood and has worked with the American Friends Service Committee, says he is working on building a diverse coalition to force discussion of the issue.

    “I think it’s a shame, it’s an absolute shame, given the nature of this issue, what we’re seeing right now in Baltimore and all across this country, that in a state like Maryland, we’re still using a very old era way of thinking,” said Muhammad. […]

    Judiciary member Del. Brett Wilson is a prosecutor. Del. John Cluster, another member of the committee, is a retired police officer who called for a new law this year that would hire 900 additional cops in Maryland to place an armed officer in every school in the state. Custer, who was honored as the legislator of the year by the Baltimore County FOP in 2014, is also chairman of Maryland Correctional Enterprises. The MCE is a state-owned company that manages Maryland’s prison labor, a workforce that manufacturers Maryland flags and furniture for the legislature and University of Maryland, College Park.

    But activists are not giving up hope.

    “This tragedy has brought triumph in uniting people together, street organizations, Muslims and Christians, various neighborhoods,” said Muhammad. “There’s a new level of awareness, of consciousness right here in Baltimore.”

  178. rq says

    Ha, Crip Dyke, I’m still getting to that part of my tabs. But yes, the Mayor of Baltimore rescinded the curfew after a serious racial disparity in curfew enforcement was noticed and broadcast publicly over twitter and elsewhere.

    Cops Shut Down CNN Broadcast; Reporter: “Are We Under Martial Law?” They shut down CNN.

    Baltimore police shut down Miguel Marquez’s live shot as he attempted to cover the arrest of Freddie Gray protesters, leading the CNN reporter to ask officers, “Are we under martial law?” in the face of law enforcement who demanded he “comply.”

    As he signed off, an exasperated Marquez—who appeared close to being arrested himself—announced that “I think that the First Amendment still applies in Baltimore, and tonight police are changing that rule.”

    If they’re shutting off CNN, then…

    Several Marches Convene At Saturday’s ‘Victory’ Rally For Freddie Gray

    Ten thousand people are expected to come into Baltimore today to rally for justice for Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old man who died in police custody.

    After Friday’s announcement that the six police officers, involved in Gray’s arrest when he allegedly received his critical injuries, were charged celebrations began in the streets of Penn-North — the area where Monday’s violent riots started and the place where Gray was initially taken into police custody.

    “To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America, I heard your call for ‘No Justice, No Peace,’ your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man,” City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Friday during her announcement of the charges.

    But protestors said Friday — there was still more to do — and that they were continue to rally until justice is done.

    “Right now, this is just one step, one step to the beginning,” said Juan — a friend of Gray’s Friday.

    Gray’s stepfather, Robert Shipley, said the family was happy the officers were charged, and he reiterated a plea to keep all public demonstrations peaceful.

    “We are satisfied with today’s charges; they are an important step in getting justice for Freddie,” Shipley said. “But if you are not coming in peace, please don’t come at all.”

    The family lawyer, Billy Murphy, said the charges are “a first step but not the last,” adding that Baltimore now has an opportunity to set an example for cities across the nation grappling with police brutality.

    “The overwhelming number of people who have protested over the days didn’t know Freddie personally, but the people of Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, and in numerous cities and towns are expressing their outrage that there are too many Freddie Grays,” Murphy said. “If Freddie Gray is not to die in vain, we must seize this opportunity to reform police departments throughout this country, so there are no more days and times like this.”

    Here’s an interesting video put out by organizers today featuring Nina Simone singing #Baltimore, vimeo link: #BlackSpring — Baltimore by Nina Simone
    History, repetition, wow.

    QUESTION: Are the 3 men who arrested #FreddieGray included in the mugshots? Doesn’t quite look like it to me.

    @deray Support for LGBT & Queer folk who are subjected to violence by the police and vigilantes.

  179. rq says

    That video at vimeo features a clip of an officer throwing a rock back at a protestor – and I can’t tell if it’s from this year or from the ’60s.

    Memorial shrine for Vonderrit Myers, more than six months later #Ferguson #BlackLivesMatter

    Atlanta police fatally shoot handcuffed woman after gunfight inside patrol car – I mentioned this earlier.

    Atlanta police shot and killed a handcuffed black woman on Thursday after she fired on two officers from inside a patrol car, the city’s police department said.

    The woman had been arrested and was in the back of the vehicle in downtown Atlanta around 5 p.m. local time, Atlanta Police Sergeant Gregory Lyon said in an email.

    She then fired on the officers, who were also black, sitting in the front of the car, Lyon said. The officers returned fire. The woman was taken to a local hospital where she later died, he said.

    The shooting comes as protests reignite in cities around the United States over police use of lethal force against minorities, especially of unarmed black men.

    The woman’s name was not being made public pending notification of next of kin, police said.

    Cuffed. She shot at the officers. I have some questions.

    Baltimore protesters breathe sigh of relief after officers charged in Freddie Gray’s death

    Rage turned to relief in Baltimore Friday when the city’s top prosecutor charged six police officers with felonies ranging from assault to murder in the death of Freddie Gray.

    State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Gray’s arrest was illegal and unjustified and that he neck was broken because he was handcuffed, shackled and placed head-first into the back of a police van where his calls for medical attention were repeatedly ignored as he bounced around the van.

    The announcement comes less than a day after receiving the police department’s criminal investigation and official autopsy results. Her detailed description of the evidence supporting probably cause to charge all six officers with felonies took some by surprised because of the swiftness of the announcement.

    Mosby said the police did not have a reason to stop or chase Gray. They falsely accused him of having an illegal switchblade when in fact it was a legal pocketknife. The van driver and the other officers failed to strap him down with a seatbelt, a direct violation of department policy.

    Mosby did not indicate whether there was any indication the driver deliberately drove erratically, causing Gray’s body to strike the van’s interior. In 2005, a man died of a fractured spine after he was transported in a Baltimore police van in handcuffs and without a seatbelt. At a civil trial, an attorney for his family successfully argued police have given him a “rough ride.”

    The officers missed five opportunities to help an injured and falsely imprisoned detainee before he arrived at the police station no longer breathing, Mosby said. Along the way, “Mr. Gray suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained inside of the BPD wagon,” she said.

    I guess a recap.

    They’re looking into their pasts. Guns Confiscated in 2012 From Lieutenant Charged in Freddie Gray’s Death

    One of the officers charged Friday in the death of Freddie Gray was taken to a hospital in 2012 and had his guns seized after he allegedly made alarming comments to the mother of his son, according to a sheriff’s department incident report.

    Lt. Brian Rice, 41, one of three Baltimore police officers who first made “eye contact” with Gray before his arrest, was charged Friday with involuntary manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment.

    Records filed by the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office indicate that in April of 2012, officers were called to Rice’s Carroll County house by another Baltimore police officer, identified in the document as Karyn Crisafulli, who had been romantically involved with Rice and was the mother of his then 6-month-old child.

    Crisafulli contacted the sheriff’s office because she was “concerned” after Rice had insisted that she bring their child to his house and when she didn’t, he threatened to commit an act of some kind in his laundry room which alarmed her, the report said. The act is redacted in the report.

    A history of violence?

    Toronto Police Headquarters. 5pm. #TDotToBMore #BaltimoreUprising #FreddieGray Good. Needs more Canadian cities.

    1,000’s At #Baltimore City Hall
    #BaltimoreUprising 4 #FreddieGray
    Live 3:05pm Saturday 04.02.15     – I think the date there is wrong, but you get the idea.

  180. rq says

    For fun: First Queen in Buckingham Palace, Queen Charlotte of African-German descent. Her portrait. See Prince Wm a bit?

    @deray 300 protesters in chapel hill march today in solidarity.

    This is a pic of #josephkent being taken into custody – the kidnappee who was released and is now in custody again. Or maybe released, don’t know yet.

    The mainstream press is giving you a very limited story in #BaltimoreProtest @BaltoSpectator – and just look at that picture toknow why.

    HEY @Indiegogo TAKE THIS DOWN NOW [indiegogolink] TOS VIOLATION!!! They’re up on MURDER CHARGES!

    Not to worry America. Barnes & Noble in Baltimore is safe. The troops are playing cards & laughing at this absurdity.

  181. rq says

    So Ferguson hired a lawyer a while ago, remember? Here’s the engagement letter. Check out how much they’re paying. Webb engagement letter with Ferguson – that is, how much taxpayers are paying.
    Article on the same: A look into Ferguson’s pricey pick to negotiate DOJ settlement

    In the days following a Department of Justice report accusing Ferguson’s police and municipal court of widespread abuses, the city made a series of conciliatory moves. Three employees involved in racist emails were forced out. The city manager stepped down. So did the police chief and municipal judge.

    Less than a month later, on March 27, a City Council that’s been grappling with declining revenues voted unanimously in a closed meeting to hire one of the nation’s most distinguished and highest-paid trial lawyers to navigate what could be a prolonged and expensive reform process.

    His name is Dan K. Webb.

    The city of Ferguson is paying him $1,335 an hour. […]

    Webb’s private clients have included tobacco giant Philip Morris, Microsoft and the New York Stock Exchange. He also has defended some of Illinois’ more notable politicians, including former Gov. George Ryan, as well as one of the nation’s most notorious sheriff’s departments. [Albuquerque?] […]

    Webb’s fee will be in addition to expenses and the fees for any lawyers or paralegals in his firm who may work on the case, according to an engagement letter between the city and Webb’s firm Winston & Strawn.

    Webb’s hourly rate is nearly double the highest billing rate in Missouri in 2014, which, according to Missouri Lawyers Weekly, was $700 an hour.

    The city fought to keep the engagement letter secret. For two weeks, it refused to release a copy of the letter to the Post-Dispatch, arguing that it was privileged communication that could reveal the city’s litigation strategy. After the Post-Dispatch argued that it was illegal to keep the document secret under the state’s open records law, the city council voted in a closed meeting Thursday night to release it. Still, the city did not turn over the letter, which was partially redacted, until just before 5 p.m. Friday.

    Webb will play a key role in working with the Justice Department, which spent seven months investigating Ferguson’s police department and municipal court after the death of Michael Brown. The department concluded that the police shooting of Brown was justified, but said the city had tolerated a culture of police brutality while pressuring the police chief and court officials to increase traffic enforcement and fees without regard to public safety.

    Now it’s up to the two sides to negotiate an agreement for reforming the police department and municipal court. Then, if the process plays out as it has elsewhere, the city will pay for a federal monitor to ensure that Ferguson keeps its promises.

    In other places, the process has taken years and has cost police departments across the country millions.

    Ferguson is already reeling from financial setbacks, and has had to dip into its reserves.

    More at the link, but this waste of money is atrocious, considering where it could be spent. In improving the community, rec centres, educational items, etc. …

    Nice #BlackSpring march in #Cleveland in support of #MalissaWilliams #TimothyRussell #TamirRice #TanieshaAnderson

    Re-claiming the QT on W. Florissant #BlackSpring #BlackSpringStL #Ferguson #ABanks

    Exclusive look inside the Freddie Gray investigation

    The scene on Thursday was part of a high-stakes police investigation — and came as Baltimore was reeling from protests that brought thousands of marchers, and some violence, to city streets. International attention was focused on the city, and many residents were protesting alleged police brutality and calling for criminal charges.

    The Baltimore Sun was granted exclusive access to the task force and monitored the investigation for days. The Sun agreed not to publish details about the investigation until Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby decided whether to prosecute any of the officers involved in the Gray incident, though reporters continued to use other sources for information. On Friday, she announced charges against six officers.
    Exclusive access inside the Freddie Gray investigation

    Baltimore Sun crime reporter Justin George got exclusive behind the scenes access of the Baltimore Police investigation into the death of Freddie Gray. (Baltimore Sun video)

    Mosby’s announcement came just a day after police provided her with a lengthy report on their probe, but prosecutors had conferred with police from time to time, and Mosby said she also used an independent team of investigators. Her announcement Friday took members of the police task force by surprise.

    Officers assigned to the task force had been working for two weeks to complete an investigation that might otherwise have taken months. They canvassed West Baltimore for witnesses and mapped out the locations of security camera footage. To recreate Gray’s 45-minute ride in a police van, plainclothes officers rolled a $250,000 laser imaging system on a tripod down potholed roads and cracked sidewalks, ready to tell residents who questioned them that they were city surveyors.

    At least 30 members of the Police Department were pulled onto the task force, including staff from the crime lab, Force Investigation Team, Internal Affairs, Homicide, and automobile CRASH team. Each brought with them an expertise to help answer the questions a volatile city desperately needed: how Gray sustained the severed spine and other injuries that led to his death on April 19, a week after his arrest.

    They all realized the importance of their investigation and that they were part of a pivotal moment in Baltimore history. There were no days off.

    “As I’ve said before,” Col. Garnell Green told the task force Thursday morning. “What happens … rests on our shoulders.” […]

    Investigators tried to determine what had happened during the foot and bicycle chase that preceded the takedown of Gray. Did he fall? Had Gray been in a fight prior to the arrest? Was the Internet rumor about an insurance settlement for a car accident true (it was not). When was he sitting and when was he “prone,” without a seat belt, in the van?

    Task force members continued to investigate all possibilities even though they felt confident that Gray had suffered a “catastrophic injury” while being taken from the arrest at Gilmor Homes to the Western District police station. They discovered that the van’s video camera was broken and that one of the officers during the transport said Gray had “jailitis” — a faked illness — when he complained about his condition.

    And they spent many hours retracing the actions of Officer Caesar R. Goodson, Jr., the wagon driver. Goodson, the investigators said, had heard Gray ask for medical help a number of times — a key factor in the charges Mosby would bring against him. Still, there were gaps along the route where no video or witness statements existed.

    The investigators sought to understand why Goodson had made a stop that was discovered in a review of video camera footage. All they could determine was that Goodson looked into the back of the van, but did not touch Gray. But they wondered: Were there other stops? […]

    Late last week, Brandford, the homicide commander, said he felt “confident” about where his investigation was pointing, but he never locked onto an explanation for Gray’s spine injury. He left open the possibility that Gray was beaten or handled too roughly.

    “We’re still going strong as far as this task force is concerned. We have to fight fatigue,” he told his team. “I feel confident we have a solid case here but we still have things to do.”

    On Friday, more remained. The task force was planning to go full-bore straight through the weekend, feeding supplemental reports to Mosby’s office, and the investigation was to remain active indefinitely, according to Brandford.

    “Important that the state’s attorney continue to get things as we collect them,” Brandford told his tired members Friday morning.

    Then his cellphone rang. He stepped into the hall and didn’t return.

    Minutes later, task force members found out why: Mosby was holding a news conference on the steps of the nearby Baltimore War Memorial. From a flat-screen television in Green’s office, they watched a live broadcast.

    They stood motionless as Mosby began speaking. A lieutenant wearing a suit and bow tie rested his left hand on a leather chair; Green stood in uniform against the wall, hands behind his back. As Mosby read off the charges — including second-degree depraved-heart murder, the most serious, against Goodson — stunned looks crossed their faces.

    They had not expected the state’s attorney’s office to act so soon.

    Later on Friday, Mosby said the charges were the result of prosecutors working 12- and 14-hour days alongside police investigators. She also said prosecutors had been working on a “parallel investigation” that included using city sheriff’s deputies.

    “This was not something that was quick, fast and in a hurry,” she said. “We reviewed hundreds of hours of camera footage and statements. This is something we worked really hard to get to the bottom of.”

    Still, plenty of items remained on the police task force’s checklist. Members soon were back to their investigation.

    Etc.

  182. rq says

    More #ShutItDownATX photos, courtesy @John_J_Anderson!
    #MayDay #FreddieGray #Austin

    LIVE BLOG: Day Of Prayer & Peace, re: Saturday.

    Another day of peaceful demonstrations in Baltimore as people continue to rally for justice. A rally and march to City Hall turned into a block party at the site of the riots Monday in the Penn-North community of Baltimore.

    After the Baltimore city state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby announced charges against all six officers in the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, many celebrated what they call the “first step” to justice for Gray.

    Although the officers have been charged, they were release on bond on Friday.

    – On Saturday night the curfew remained in place and several people protested the curfew, but were arrested
    – Gov. Larry Hogan has called for a day of “prayer and peace.”
    – Another march is planned for Sunday at 3 p.m. It’s being lead by local religious leaders.
    – It’s possible the curfew may end Sunday.

    We’ll continue to cover any Freddie Gray protests and the investigations into his death here. Follow along and join the discussion by tweeting at us @cbsbaltimore.

    Reclaiming the old QT. #BlackSpringSTL

    #tdot2bmore heading to the US Consulate #BlackLivesMatter But honestly, they don’t even need to go that far – the Toronto PD will do.

    My favorite shot of the protest earlier today. “With Justice Comes Peace” #BaltimoreDispatch

    Handing out diapers and toiletries at Gilmore Homes. #Baltimore #BaltimoreUprising Yes, that happened, too.

  183. Pteryxx says

    rq #175 – protester Joseph Kent was indeed snatched by police last week, then released, and has now been arrested again as of last night: Twitter link referencing this story in the Guardian: Freddie Gray: legal volunteers among those arrested after defying Baltimore curfew

    On Saturday night two volunteers, who identified themselves as belonging to the National Lawyers Guild, were seen by the Guardian being arrested alongside four street medics outside the Baltimore City Correctional Center.

    One of the legal observers was wearing a bright green cap emblazoned with her organisation’s name – caps which have proven useful for protesters seeking legal advice during this past week.

    As police were seen handcuffing the volunteers, a seventh man walked past and was apprehended, after one officer with a handheld stun gun asked him where he was going. The man had said he lived in the neighborhood and was on his way home.

    The arrests happened less than 10 minutes after the start of the curfew.

    […]

    The arrests outside the building on Greenmount Avenue stood in contrast to the police’s treatment of curfew-defiers in Hampden, a predominantly white neighborhood in northern Baltimore.

    Earlier in the day, a group of activists had called for a “silent curfew protest” which they said was intended to highlight the police’s differing treatment of protesters based on race, and to expose the police’s “anti-black racism, an institutionalized practice of the police force and government”. They were mostly white.

    […]

    “The last thing I want to do is put someone in handcuffs,” a white police officer told the crowd, before issuing a last warning and asking them to “please leave”. According to several accounts on social media, this was the officer’s third warning to the group.

    Also among those arrested on Saturday night was Joseph Kent, the 21-year-old activist who was seen last week getting “kidnapped” live on television. Kent’s lawyer, Steve Beatty, confirmed on Twitter that his client had arrived at Baltimore central booking station. It was the second arrest for the Morgan State University student in connection with the Freddie Gray protests.

  184. rq says

    Thousands pack W North and Pennsylvania. #BaltimoreUprising #justice4Freddie
    I believe that is yesterday. Nearing the end.

    We will be delivering food and supplies to residents of the Gilmor Homes this afternoon in lieu of participation in the action downtown. ‘Destroying their community’ indeed.

    Outside agitators from Pennsylvania & New Jersey spotted at #FreddieGray march in Baltimore. #BalitmoreUprising Please see photo for clarification.

    The @FOP3 tried to start up donations 3 times and it was shut down 3 times: not by us, but by all of you. That is the power you have. <– This is important to see. Because they keep trying. I hear the count could be as high as 5 now.

    So the racists out there are facing a big dilemma: Do they start Indiegogos, etc. for the Black cops indicted in Baltimore?

    March moving up Fayette.

  185. rq says

    $1,000,000,000 Lawsuit Claims Empire Story Was Stolen From an Ex-Gangster

    The makers of Fox hit show Empire are being sued on allegations they have been doing what empire builders have been known to do since the dawn of man: stealing.

    Ron Newt, author of the book and script “Bigger Than Big,” has filed a $1 billion lawsuit in California against the Fox network’s Rupert Murdoch, Empire, Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Terrence Howard and Malcolm Spellman alleging copyright infringement and plagiarism, according to documents filed on April 15, 2015, according to Entertainment Weekly.

    Newt, known as “Gangsta Pimp” back in the day, alleges that the Empire team stole his story, and he outlines the similarities, including the fact that he and Lucious Lyon, played by Terrence Howard, wear the “same style” of coats. Further, he says that Lucious’s ex-wife, Cookie, played by Taraji P. Henson, and Newt’s wife, “China Doll,” have the “same look” when sporting hats, EW writes.

    The story line also cuts close to Newt’s tale, the suit alleges, including claims that Lucious killed four drug dealers. In chapter 7 of Newt’s book, four drug dealers are killed, writes the entertainment news site. And someone shoots a longtime friend in both works.

    The suit alleges that problems began when Newt met Howard at the Four Seasons Hotel and they discussed “Bigger Than Big,” the story of Newt’s life as a “ghetto player,” the report says.

    A Fox representative did not respond to EW’s request for comment.

    Donations being given to @FOP3. #BaltimoreUprising #FTP – but it was fake money, and the people ‘donating’ are a group of people that shut fundraisers down. I think this was an action to show police readiness in accepting donations for colleagues charged for crimes.

    Why isn’t the curfew being enforced in predominately white neighborhoods like it is in black ones? @MayorSRB #BaltimoreUprising This question will not be answered, but rather illustrated, in coming tweets.

    Nuevas protestas contra el racismo en Baltimore, article in Spanish.

    Interlude: Music! 5 Ben E. King Classics That Aren’t ‘Stand by Me’

    Within the pantheon of classic rhythm and blues, the Drifters stand out as one of the few outfits that helped to define the sound — that irresistible synthesis of doo-wop, gospel, blues, and soulful harmony. At the center of the group was Ben E. King, the brilliant musician and singer from North Carolina behind the hit 1961 ballad “Stand by Me,” which, years later, would inspire the Rob Reiner film of the same name. The song, King’s biggest single, is universally adored for its sweeping string arrangements, bass line, lyrical sentiment, and, of course, King’s stunning vocals. King wrote it for the Drifters before a series of legal conflicts led to his departure and a fortuitous solo release. As the fourth-most-played song of the 20th century, it’s what King, who passed away at the age of 76 from natural causes today, is best known for, but his influence is much greater than that one song. Here are five other Ben E. King efforts beyond “Stand by Me” that deserve a listen.

    #RestInPower #BlackLivesMatter @RiseUpGeorgia – they organized a motorcade because the neighbourhood isn’t pedestrian friendly. Cyclists joined, too.

  186. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Head of Baltimore PD Union is so committed to avoiding the fact that Freddie Gray is fucking DEAD that he doesn’t even notice that speaking in euphemisms result in lying his ass off:

    Not one of the officers involved in this tragic situation left home in the morning with the anticipation that someone with whom they interacted would not go home that night …

    Ha. Ha. Ha.

    Nice one, Mr Ryan.

    Meanwhile, it might be useful to notice that the quote comes from a letter demanding the recusal of Mosby, the state’s attorney whose office is responsible for prosecuting the case. Why?

    Because
    1. She knows the victim’s attorney.
    2. She has talked to the victim’s attorney and the victim’s family during the course of her participation in the Freddie Grey case.
    3. She’s married to a politician.

    He has “full faith in [her] professional integrity,” but being married to a politician is an insurmountable conflict of interest.

    I see. That says quite a lot about Ryan’s definition of “professional integrity”. As confirmed elsewhere in the same letter:

    None of the officers involved are responsible for the death of Mr. Gray. To the contrary, at all times, [sic – excessive comma force is Ryan’s] each of the officers diligently balanced their obligations to protect Mr. Gray and discharge their duties to protect the public.

    Yeah, that’s what we’re worried about, Ryan. That’s what we’re worried about.

    Read the whole letter on its original letterhead here.

    …and, just for cynicism’s sake, I’ll leave this here without drawing any conclusions about the credibility of Ryan’s defense of the officers. No conclusions at all.

    Retired miami cop gets lots of current and former cops testifying to his good character.

    Despite video evidence that a former Miami police officer … molested a 7-year-old girl,[Crip Dyke: which, btw, also constitutes child pornography and led to conviction for same] not to mention a conviction for downloading hundreds of child porn videos, Juan Roman still has a stellar reputation among several of his former co-workers.

    After all, many of them wrote “character” letters on his behalf, asking for leniency,

    Yeah, he’s been convicted, but while waiting for sentencing a number of cops insist he’s one of their best and brightest, a bright moral beacon in a sea of midnight blue.

    :puke:

  187. rq says

    @WeCycleAtlanta leading the way! #RestInPower #BlackSpring
    Today. #RestInPower
    Photos from Georgia.

    WATCH: Unprovoked Baltimore cop pepper sprays passive protester wearing ‘F*ck the police’ t-shirt, as per CD above.

    Deputy police commissioner of internal affairs retiring – article from April 15.

    In Baltimore, Rodriguez created a Force Investigation Team to investigate all incidents in which police interactions resulted in death or serious injury.

    Under his direction, the department posted all use-of-force investigations on its website. However, the agency has been slow to release final reports of the incidents as promised; it has posted fewer than 10 final reports out of nearly 40 investigations listed since 2014.

    Police say complaints of discourtesy and excessive force have fallen by more than 40 percent in the past two years.

    When allegations of police misconduct or abuse surfaced, Rodriguez was most often called upon to address them at news conferences. That included this week, when a man was critically injured during his arrest near Gilmor Homes in West Baltimore.

    Rodriguez’s departure comes amid a federal review of the Police Department’s policies and procedures. Batts requested the review after The Baltimore Sun found that the city had paid $5.4 million in the past five years to settle hundreds of cases of alleged police brutality.

    The Justice Department meeting is open to the public. It is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in Room 109 of the Coppin State University Physical Education Complex.

    Baltimore City Council member Brandon M. Scott said Rodriguez struck the right tone when he addressed misconduct or abuse investigations, but said his words did not add up to the level of transparency that police had pledged.

    “Switching the way they handled those kinds of incidents and changing the way they got out in front of them is what they did a great job of,” Scott said. “Unfortunately, with what’s still in place, the problem I have is that there’s not enough information being shared.”

    Scott said he hopes Rodriguez’s replacement is someone from the department’s ranks who “understands Baltimore.”

    There’s a lot to understand in Baltimore right now.

    Solidarity with #BaltimoreUprising from Madrid, Spain. #MayDay #BlackLivesMatter @Nettaaaaaaaa

    We are strong, we are loud, and we take up space #BlackSpring #TDOT2BMORE

  188. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Awwwww, mayor, you’re so transparent there’s a real risk that your constituents won’t even see your blackness.

    Under the curfew, residents were ordered to stay home from 22:00 until 05:00, and officials had been expected to keep it in place for another day.
    But on Sunday morning, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she did not want to maintain it any longer than was necessary.
    “My goal has always been to not have the curfew in place a single day longer than was necessary,” the mayor wrote on her Twitter account. “I believe we have reached that point today.”

    Oh, you mean the point when the press first starts reporting on the racist disparity in enforcement? That point?

  189. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    What do the cops want?

    To get back their familiar unaccountable power, you know, that power that creates the aura of fear that for so long guaranteed instant civilian obedience!

    When do they want it?

    Now!

    Two officers approached the group about 10 minutes before the curfew went into effect and chatted with them about other neighborhood events having gone well and about respecting their First Amendment rights.

    One officer said police are “worn out,” and want things to “go back to normal” like everyone else.

    A protester said the recent protests have been about the fact that what’s normal in Baltimore isn’t what people want at all, and suggested the officer was “missing the point.”

    A-hem.

  190. rq says

    N.Y cop under investigation for racist Facebook post, fellow officers turned him in – which, I suppose, is encouraging.

    According to LoHud, police officer Brad DiCairano is under investigation for an image posted to his social media account.

    The post showed side-by-side photos of African-Americans on a van during last year’s protests in Ferguson, Missouri, next to a picture of baboons swarming a car driven by a white woman.

    Beneath the photo a caption read: “What can I say?”

    The picture comparing black people to baboons was posted on Wednesday as protests raged in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray. The account has since been shut down and Police Chief Christopher McNerney called the officers lapse in judgment “disturbing”.

    “I am very troubled and disappointed by this,” McNerney said. “Members of this department are held to the highest standard and we take all allegations of misconduct very seriously. I want to assure the members of the public and the men and women of this department that we will investigate this swiftly and appropriately.”

    DiCairano, who is currently on vacation, is already on limited duty due to a work-related injury. When he returns he faces having his responsibilities further limited as the department conducts an internal investigation.

    He joins a long list of first responders from the Lower Hudson Valley who have come under scrutiny for posting offensive images online and forwarding racist emails.

    After the racially disparate application of the curfew is exposed, @MayorSRB ends it immediately. #BaltimoreUprising

    Freddie Gray Went to an “Apartheid School”

    Many of the protesters venting their frustrations over the April 12 death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who sustained fatal injuries while in Baltimore police custody, are equally fed up with the systemic failures that keep African Americans marginalized in Baltimore and elsewhere.

    Consider the city’s public schools. President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and even Orioles execs have spoken out about inequality in Baltimore, touching on problematic trends in the neighborhood schools Gray and his peers attended. And while we don’t know much about Gray’s time in high school (apart from the fact he played football), we were able to dig up some facts about his alma mater, Carver Vocational-Technical High School, and some of the other schools around the Mondawmin Mall, where rioting first broke out.

    Demographics

    As of September 2014, 917 students were enrolled at Carver—98 percent black, 1 percent white. This lack of racial diversity qualifies Carver as an “apartheid school”—one where white students make up 1 percent or less of the student body, according to UCLA’s Civil Rights Project.
    Nearby Frederick Douglass High, the closest school to the mall, is also an apartheid school, and has the same percentage breakdown as above. Same with Maryland Academy of Technology and Health Sciences, a charter school near the mall.
    Apartheid schools, as you might expect, tend to have large numbers of low-income students. In 2011, the most recent year for which data was available, 79 percent of Carver’s kids qualified for free and reduced lunch. At Frederick Douglass, 83 percent did. This, according to the Civil Rights Project, “highlights the double segregation of students by race and class.”

    ACADEMICS

    In 2011, nearly half of Carver’s teachers missed more than 10 days of school. At Walt Whitman, a mostly white school in Bethesda, with few low-income students, only 9 percent did.
    Carver now offers Advanced Placement classes—which it didn’t when Gray attended—and students have fared poorly. In 2014, out of 73 AP exams taken by Carver students only one student did well enough—scoring a 3 out of 5—to earn college credit. In the two years preceding, no student got more than a 2.
    In the 2013-14 school year, a little more than half of the students at Frederick Douglass graduated in four years. Out of nearly 1,100 students, only 73 took the SAT. Average score: 990. (A perfect score is 2,400*.)
    In the 2013-14 school year, only 27 percent of the students at Maryland Academy of Technology and Health Sciences, a charter school, were proficient in math, and just over 50 percent were proficient in reading.

    DISCIPLINE

    During the 2011 school year, 88 Carver students received home suspensions. The wealthier Walt Whitman, with more than twice as many students, had 40. That disparity is consistent with US Department of Education data showing that black and Latino kids are disciplined at far higher rates than white students.

    Gray had been out of school for years by the time he died, but the realities of his school system likely played a role in his trajectory. So says Georgetown University sociologist Peter J. Cookson, whose book Class Rules: Exposing Inequality in America’s High Schools posits that schools are instrumental in the institutionalization of racism and class stratification. Cookson points out that, while physical segregation plays a role, there are other factors at play, including disparities in the safety of buildings, extracurricular and support activities, quality of curriculum, funding (earlier this month Gov. Larry Hogan suggested cutting $35.6 million in funding to Baltimore City Public Schools), and the ability of schools to recruit and retain good teachers.

    Dare we forget last fall’s viral video of a high-school teacher slamming a student into a row of lockers and saying, “I’ll kill you in here!” Yep, you probably know what’s coming: It was Carver High.

    Here’s a photo comparison, curfew enforcement among white people and among black people. @MayorSRB why are some people’s first amendment rights respected & not others #BaltimoreUprising

    “We Ain’t Choosing No Sides; We Just Choosing Our Side”

    It’s a few minutes before midnight on Wednesday and I’m sharing a cigarette with a Blood and Crip at a diner 20 minutes outside of Baltimore. It’s two hours past the government-imposed curfew on this broken city and outside its margins the unlikeliest of encounters is happening.

    Just two days earlier, Baltimore police put out a very different version of gang unity, issuing a memo — just hours after 25-year-old Freddie Gray’s funeral — warning that the rival gangs were planning a possible attack on cops.

    It put the city on edge, and as violence unfolded in the afternoon as teenagers were trapped in the streets and prevented from going home, the rival gangs watched on TV what was unfolding. The cops couldn’t have predicted this — who could have? — but instead the Bloods, the Crips, the BGF flipped it. Historically. And now, here, on a ramp leading into this diner, the preposterous is happening as Scooby, 27 and a Crip, and Flex, 25 and a Blood, bond over their newfound bond.

    “In what world, in what dimension, in what time,” Scooby says to Flex, “was I supposed to meet you and we’d be cool like that?” […]

    It was just down the hill where kids and cops first clashed on Monday and what sparked the gangs into the streets. Gang members told me that there was never an official sit-down; it all happened organically because the confusion on the streets was so severe — and the desire to protect their people from the cops and keep the others from damaging the buildings so intense and desperate — that in the swirl of chaos the colors just didn’t matter.

    Since then, they’ve been Facebooking each other and exchanging cell numbers. That’s how they got out the word to all meet at this Metro station at 2 p.m., their goal to police the kids and prevent more violence.

    Tragedy, Flex, and Bowden arrive and slowly more gang members begin to trickle in; school is getting out soon and cops begin to line up in full riot gear, protecting the entrance to the mall parking lot. The police are wary at first of the gangs coming together, and it’s a bizarre sight as the gangsters line the perimeter and position throughout the station, all the colors cohabitating.

    But as gang members admonish kids to not be stupid, to go home, to stay off the streets, cops watch as they self-police and choreograph positioning tactically, expertly, to achieve maximum impact. Within the hour, the cops concede the space to the gangs and retreat back to the parking lot, a remarkable achievement.
    Rojos, right

    Rojos is one of the first gang members who posts up at the station. He’s 27 and stands right next to a Crip. But early on there’s still a lot of apprehension from the cops; at times they seemed confused, unsure of what to do. There’s a lot of mound meetings. As I’m talking to Rojos, a white cop tells me that I can only stand there if I’m waiting for the bus, so I just circle around for the next hour, never standing anywhere too long.

    “We’re here to show [cops] that instead of them trying to shoot our youth, we can get the youth under control being leaders in the neighborhood,” Rojos says. “Not [because we’re] in gangs, but just being leaders in the neighborhood on a positive level. We doing something legal right now. We’re standing up for the cause, and not because.” […]

    “The Bloods and the Crips are coming together,” she says. “We’re sitting out here now just wanting to be citizens and just want to be helping.

    “I feel like until this over there’s always going to be a finger pointed at somebody. They want to point it at us, they want to blame it on us, then so be it. Somebody gotta get the finger pointed at and maybe that will be part of the solution.”

    She understands how the optics lead politicians and others to label them.

    “I don’t feel bad [when people call us thugs] because I’m going to look at them and say, I’m not a thug. I got my high school diploma, I got my GED, I went to two years of college. I’m going to Baltimore school of massage to study esthetics. I want to be a dermatologist. Even though I did decide to be a Crip, I’m still a citizen. I pay my taxes, I do right — I don’t brake into places, I don’t steal. A lot of us don’t do things like that. A lot of people put us in a [box] and that’s fine, I’m really used to being [seen] a statistic but to me, I’m not nowhere close to being a statistic.” […]

    This is where I first meet Scooby, the Crip who I shared a smoke with. He’s gregarious, but relentless in his desire to educate the outside world about his world, his poverty, Baltimore’s struggle. He’s been making the rounds this week with the media and appeared at a press conference with city council president Jack Young earlier this week alongside another Blood. I ask him how he feels about being framed as a thug by his mayor, governor, and president.

    “What the fuck is a thug? Everybody wants to call somebody a thug but has anybody gotten on TV and told you what the fuck a thug is yet? Because they don’t know. … Is there a difference between us right now and [the cops] right now? What’s the difference? I don’t see a difference so if I’m a thug, they a thug. Only difference is they got a gun, all I got is hands and feet. They have direct orders if things get out of hang to shoot and kill. I have direct orders just to make it home safe and make sure everybody else get home safe. So I don’t know who’s the thug?

    “I just feel like if you don’t understand something you shouldn’t speak on it. You come down here, we gonna show you nothing but love and a whole lotta respect. You talk to us; and if you not ready to talk to us, than don’t judge us.” […]

    There had been about a half dozen other media members at the station, encircling the same way I had been. But by 5 p.m. a lot of the gang members and most of the media had left. Then Treach from Naughty By Nature randomly shows up. He had driven down from New York City; he wanted to help ease any pain, try and calm people’s minds, he says. He tells me the media had already asked him why he was supporting the gangsters.

    “Because the gangsters control the streets — if the gangsters want peace, if the gangsters want a truce — if [people can’t] see the positive out of that? The gangbangers out here putting the truth down.”

    And that may be the biggest divide: Getting people to understand that the true nexus of power on the streets of Baltimore — it’s at this Metro station. […]

    It’s 7:00 p.m. and pastor Dr. Frank Reid is hosting a community meeting at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and he’s invited the gangs. There’s been a lot of criticism about the clergy’s outreach to the gangs; but inside the church, there is universal frustration with how officials and police have framed the gangs as instigators, exasperation with the word thug. Councilwoman Helen Huton is here, and tells me, “I don’t use the word thug; that’s my colleagues. I have stated specifically, Do not use the word thug.”
    Dr. Frank Reid leads a prayer with gang members and members of the church.

    Melech Thomas, 27, and a youth minister, says: “How it made me feel as a black man? Carl Stokes said it best: It’s almost as if they just called me a nigger. Really. That’s really what it is, they wanted to say nigger, they wanted to say animal, so thug is a nice political translation of nigger.”

    Reid and the roughly 50 people in this church know how important a role the gang members play on the street. They are the last line of defense; all sides say they are desperate to work together. Nathanial, 25, a gang member, stands up. “I’m here to do anything I can do that’s possible. Anything,” he says. He comes across as genuine, the people respond to him.

    “A lot of people judge me, see my face tattoos and judge me automatically before I even open my mouth,” he says. “But when I open my mouth, I speak values.”

    Pledges are made to work together, numbers are exchanged. Will it matter? Despite skepticism about the intentions of the fans, the clergy has publicly promoted the partnership, amid criticism, and even the mayor’s office has been open to the idea. Flex, Tragedy and a few other gang members sit in the front pew and speak with the various pastors. Reid closes the meeting asking everyone in the room to hold hands.

    “Let’s link up arms as we gather tonight as one Baltimore, every color is your color, every sign is your sign, and we come now living in a city that the devil wants to divide and destroy. But we declare that there’s power in unity.” […]

    “You know how long I’ve been waiting for something like this?” Flex asks Scooby. “We had a peace treaty a long time ago, like in the ’90s. The police infiltrated it…But it’s stronger now, our bond is stronger now. I’ve been waiting for years for something like that. I was born into the gang; I’ve been bangin’ 25 years. So, aw, man, to see something like this, like brothers gathering?

    “I’m not even gonna lie. I cried.”

    “I cried last night,” Scooby says. “We made history.”

    They say that because of their unity, gangs in Oakland, D.C., Chicago and other cities are forming truces. But why would anyone believe any of this has longevity? Can a bunch of gangbangers from Baltimore change the modern makeup of gangs in this country? They ones at Double-T diner are convinced they can, they say they’re determine to make this stick, that they’re family now.

    “As kids, little innocent kids, you don’t know nothing, you blind to the world,” Scooby later tells Wilmore. “How do you think it would have benefitted us if we had older people — like us — around doing what we’re doing right now? It would have been big. And that’s what we’re doing for them. I’ve got kids. I’ve got two kids I’m doing this for my kids, their kids, your kids, everybody’s kids, we doing this for them. So that way, 15, 20 years down the line, they can be like, well, we safe because our daddies did this.” […]

    “From now on, Bloods, Crips, BGF we gonna control our own neighborhood we don’t need the police,” said an OG named Bigg Wolfe, “it’s our job from the beginning. We gonna sleep or own patrols it’s our own movement and if you ain’t with it that’s your issue. Bloods, Crips, BGF, man.”

    Tragedy was a bit more guarded. Partially because he’s always more like that when on the street, but also just conservative, too, about whether they are going to keep the truce going.

    “We gonna try,” he says. “We got put an effort to it though to do it. You can’t just say you gonna do it and then do something else. That’s what gets a lot of people mad then if you don’t do it it’s like you crushed their dreams or something.”

    Flex was in the shower listening to the radio when word came through. He jumped out and headed to Penn North. One of the most positive throughout, born into a gang, he is unequivocal.

    “I’m confident — no, I know it’s gonna stay like this,” he says.

    Then he thanks me because “you were here to see us as human beings and we love and respect you for that. It might not be big to a lot of people that’s on TV or people who normally talk to reporters. It’s big to us; we actually changed history. We changed history.”

    Amid the blaring horns, jubilant celebration, and happy chaos, a TV reporter in the scrum tells the OGs she sees that they’re linked arm in arm, and asks how did they got to this point. They don’t hesitate.

    “Freddie Gray.”

    Let me highlight the key point for you: “you were here to see us as human beings”. You were here to see us as human beings.
    Not saying they’re perfect. But if all you need to do for positive interaction is to treat others as human beings, well…

  191. rq says

    N.Y cop under investigation for racist Facebook post, fellow officers turned him in – which, I suppose, is encouraging.

    According to LoHud, police officer Brad DiCairano is under investigation for an image posted to his social media account.

    The post showed side-by-side photos of African-Americans on a van during last year’s protests in Ferguson, Missouri, next to a picture of baboons swarming a car driven by a white woman.

    Beneath the photo a caption read: “What can I say?”

    The picture comparing black people to baboons was posted on Wednesday as protests raged in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray. The account has since been shut down and Police Chief Christopher McNerney called the officers lapse in judgment “disturbing”.

    “I am very troubled and disappointed by this,” McNerney said. “Members of this department are held to the highest standard and we take all allegations of misconduct very seriously. I want to assure the members of the public and the men and women of this department that we will investigate this swiftly and appropriately.”

    DiCairano, who is currently on vacation, is already on limited duty due to a work-related injury. When he returns he faces having his responsibilities further limited as the department conducts an internal investigation.

    He joins a long list of first responders from the Lower Hudson Valley who have come under scrutiny for posting offensive images online and forwarding racist emails.

    After the racially disparate application of the curfew is exposed, @MayorSRB ends it immediately. #BaltimoreUprising

    Freddie Gray Went to an “Apartheid School”

    Many of the protesters venting their frustrations over the April 12 death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who sustained fatal injuries while in Baltimore police custody, are equally fed up with the systemic failures that keep African Americans marginalized in Baltimore and elsewhere.

    Consider the city’s public schools. President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and even Orioles execs have spoken out about inequality in Baltimore, touching on problematic trends in the neighborhood schools Gray and his peers attended. And while we don’t know much about Gray’s time in high school (apart from the fact he played football), we were able to dig up some facts about his alma mater, Carver Vocational-Technical High School, and some of the other schools around the Mondawmin Mall, where rioting first broke out.

    Demographics

    As of September 2014, 917 students were enrolled at Carver—98 percent black, 1 percent white. This lack of racial diversity qualifies Carver as an “apartheid school”—one where white students make up 1 percent or less of the student body, according to UCLA’s Civil Rights Project.
    Nearby Frederick Douglass High, the closest school to the mall, is also an apartheid school, and has the same percentage breakdown as above. Same with Maryland Academy of Technology and Health Sciences, a charter school near the mall.
    Apartheid schools, as you might expect, tend to have large numbers of low-income students. In 2011, the most recent year for which data was available, 79 percent of Carver’s kids qualified for free and reduced lunch. At Frederick Douglass, 83 percent did. This, according to the Civil Rights Project, “highlights the double segregation of students by race and class.”

    ACADEMICS

    In 2011, nearly half of Carver’s teachers missed more than 10 days of school. At Walt Whitman, a mostly white school in Bethesda, with few low-income students, only 9 percent did.
    Carver now offers Advanced Placement classes—which it didn’t when Gray attended—and students have fared poorly. In 2014, out of 73 AP exams taken by Carver students only one student did well enough—scoring a 3 out of 5—to earn college credit. In the two years preceding, no student got more than a 2.
    In the 2013-14 school year, a little more than half of the students at Frederick Douglass graduated in four years. Out of nearly 1,100 students, only 73 took the SAT. Average score: 990. (A perfect score is 2,400*.)
    In the 2013-14 school year, only 27 percent of the students at Maryland Academy of Technology and Health Sciences, a charter school, were proficient in math, and just over 50 percent were proficient in reading.

    DISCIPLINE

    During the 2011 school year, 88 Carver students received home suspensions. The wealthier Walt Whitman, with more than twice as many students, had 40. That disparity is consistent with US Department of Education data showing that black and Latino kids are disciplined at far higher rates than white students.

    Gray had been out of school for years by the time he died, but the realities of his school system likely played a role in his trajectory. So says Georgetown University sociologist Peter J. Cookson, whose book Class Rules: Exposing Inequality in America’s High Schools posits that schools are instrumental in the institutionalization of racism and class stratification. Cookson points out that, while physical segregation plays a role, there are other factors at play, including disparities in the safety of buildings, extracurricular and support activities, quality of curriculum, funding (earlier this month Gov. Larry Hogan suggested cutting $35.6 million in funding to Baltimore City Public Schools), and the ability of schools to recruit and retain good teachers.

    Dare we forget last fall’s viral video of a high-school teacher slamming a student into a row of lockers and saying, “I’ll kill you in here!” Yep, you probably know what’s coming: It was Carver High.

    Here’s a photo comparison, curfew enforcement among white people and among black people. @MayorSRB why are some people’s first amendment rights respected & not others #BaltimoreUprising

    “We Ain’t Choosing No Sides; We Just Choosing Our Side”

    It’s a few minutes before midnight on Wednesday and I’m sharing a cigarette with a Blood and Crip at a diner 20 minutes outside of Baltimore. It’s two hours past the government-imposed curfew on this broken city and outside its margins the unlikeliest of encounters is happening.

    Just two days earlier, Baltimore police put out a very different version of gang unity, issuing a memo — just hours after 25-year-old Freddie Gray’s funeral — warning that the rival gangs were planning a possible attack on cops.

    It put the city on edge, and as violence unfolded in the afternoon as teenagers were trapped in the streets and prevented from going home, the rival gangs watched on TV what was unfolding. The cops couldn’t have predicted this — who could have? — but instead the Bloods, the Crips, the BGF flipped it. Historically. And now, here, on a ramp leading into this diner, the preposterous is happening as Scooby, 27 and a Crip, and Flex, 25 and a Blood, bond over their newfound bond.

    “In what world, in what dimension, in what time,” Scooby says to Flex, “was I supposed to meet you and we’d be cool like that?” […]

    It was just down the hill where kids and cops first clashed on Monday and what sparked the gangs into the streets. Gang members told me that there was never an official sit-down; it all happened organically because the confusion on the streets was so severe — and the desire to protect their people from the cops and keep the others from damaging the buildings so intense and desperate — that in the swirl of chaos the colors just didn’t matter.

    Since then, they’ve been Facebooking each other and exchanging cell numbers. That’s how they got out the word to all meet at this Metro station at 2 p.m., their goal to police the kids and prevent more violence.

    Tragedy, Flex, and Bowden arrive and slowly more gang members begin to trickle in; school is getting out soon and cops begin to line up in full riot gear, protecting the entrance to the mall parking lot. The police are wary at first of the gangs coming together, and it’s a bizarre sight as the gangsters line the perimeter and position throughout the station, all the colors cohabitating.

    But as gang members admonish kids to not be stupid, to go home, to stay off the streets, cops watch as they self-police and choreograph positioning tactically, expertly, to achieve maximum impact. Within the hour, the cops concede the space to the gangs and retreat back to the parking lot, a remarkable achievement.

    Rojos is one of the first gang members who posts up at the station. He’s 27 and stands right next to a Crip. But early on there’s still a lot of apprehension from the cops; at times they seemed confused, unsure of what to do. There’s a lot of mound meetings. As I’m talking to Rojos, a white cop tells me that I can only stand there if I’m waiting for the bus, so I just circle around for the next hour, never standing anywhere too long.

    “We’re here to show [cops] that instead of them trying to shoot our youth, we can get the youth under control being leaders in the neighborhood,” Rojos says. “Not [because we’re] in gangs, but just being leaders in the neighborhood on a positive level. We doing something legal right now. We’re standing up for the cause, and not because.” […]

    “The Bloods and the Crips are coming together,” she says. “We’re sitting out here now just wanting to be citizens and just want to be helping.

    “I feel like until this over there’s always going to be a finger pointed at somebody. They want to point it at us, they want to blame it on us, then so be it. Somebody gotta get the finger pointed at and maybe that will be part of the solution.”

    She understands how the optics lead politicians and others to label them.

    “I don’t feel bad [when people call us thugs] because I’m going to look at them and say, I’m not a thug. I got my high school diploma, I got my GED, I went to two years of college. I’m going to Baltimore school of massage to study esthetics. I want to be a dermatologist. Even though I did decide to be a Crip, I’m still a citizen. I pay my taxes, I do right — I don’t brake into places, I don’t steal. A lot of us don’t do things like that. A lot of people put us in a [box] and that’s fine, I’m really used to being [seen] a statistic but to me, I’m not nowhere close to being a statistic.” […]

    This is where I first meet Scooby, the Crip who I shared a smoke with. He’s gregarious, but relentless in his desire to educate the outside world about his world, his poverty, Baltimore’s struggle. He’s been making the rounds this week with the media and appeared at a press conference with city council president Jack Young earlier this week alongside another Blood. I ask him how he feels about being framed as a thug by his mayor, governor, and president.

    “What the fuck is a thug? Everybody wants to call somebody a thug but has anybody gotten on TV and told you what the fuck a thug is yet? Because they don’t know. … Is there a difference between us right now and [the cops] right now? What’s the difference? I don’t see a difference so if I’m a thug, they a thug. Only difference is they got a gun, all I got is hands and feet. They have direct orders if things get out of hang to shoot and kill. I have direct orders just to make it home safe and make sure everybody else get home safe. So I don’t know who’s the thug?

    “I just feel like if you don’t understand something you shouldn’t speak on it. You come down here, we gonna show you nothing but love and a whole lotta respect. You talk to us; and if you not ready to talk to us, than don’t judge us.” […]

    There had been about a half dozen other media members at the station, encircling the same way I had been. But by 5 p.m. a lot of the gang members and most of the media had left. Then Treach from Naughty By Nature randomly shows up. He had driven down from New York City; he wanted to help ease any pain, try and calm people’s minds, he says. He tells me the media had already asked him why he was supporting the gangsters.

    “Because the gangsters control the streets — if the gangsters want peace, if the gangsters want a truce — if [people can’t] see the positive out of that? The gangbangers out here putting the truth down.”

    And that may be the biggest divide: Getting people to understand that the true nexus of power on the streets of Baltimore — it’s at this Metro station. […]

    It’s 7:00 p.m. and pastor Dr. Frank Reid is hosting a community meeting at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and he’s invited the gangs. There’s been a lot of criticism about the clergy’s outreach to the gangs; but inside the church, there is universal frustration with how officials and police have framed the gangs as instigators, exasperation with the word thug. Councilwoman Helen Huton is here, and tells me, “I don’t use the word thug; that’s my colleagues. I have stated specifically, Do not use the word thug.”
    Dr. Frank Reid leads a prayer with gang members and members of the church.

    Melech Thomas, 27, and a youth minister, says: “How it made me feel as a black man? Carl Stokes said it best: It’s almost as if they just called me a n*gg*r. Really. That’s really what it is, they wanted to say n*gg*r, they wanted to say animal, so thug is a nice political translation of n*gg*r.”

    Reid and the roughly 50 people in this church know how important a role the gang members play on the street. They are the last line of defense; all sides say they are desperate to work together. Nathanial, 25, a gang member, stands up. “I’m here to do anything I can do that’s possible. Anything,” he says. He comes across as genuine, the people respond to him.

    “A lot of people judge me, see my face tattoos and judge me automatically before I even open my mouth,” he says. “But when I open my mouth, I speak values.”

    Pledges are made to work together, numbers are exchanged. Will it matter? Despite skepticism about the intentions of the fans, the clergy has publicly promoted the partnership, amid criticism, and even the mayor’s office has been open to the idea. Flex, Tragedy and a few other gang members sit in the front pew and speak with the various pastors. Reid closes the meeting asking everyone in the room to hold hands.

    “Let’s link up arms as we gather tonight as one Baltimore, every color is your color, every sign is your sign, and we come now living in a city that the devil wants to divide and destroy. But we declare that there’s power in unity.” […]

    “You know how long I’ve been waiting for something like this?” Flex asks Scooby. “We had a peace treaty a long time ago, like in the ’90s. The police infiltrated it…But it’s stronger now, our bond is stronger now. I’ve been waiting for years for something like that. I was born into the gang; I’ve been bangin’ 25 years. So, aw, man, to see something like this, like brothers gathering?

    “I’m not even gonna lie. I cried.”

    “I cried last night,” Scooby says. “We made history.”

    They say that because of their unity, gangs in Oakland, D.C., Chicago and other cities are forming truces. But why would anyone believe any of this has longevity? Can a bunch of gangbangers from Baltimore change the modern makeup of gangs in this country? They ones at Double-T diner are convinced they can, they say they’re determine to make this stick, that they’re family now.

    “As kids, little innocent kids, you don’t know nothing, you blind to the world,” Scooby later tells Wilmore. “How do you think it would have benefitted us if we had older people — like us — around doing what we’re doing right now? It would have been big. And that’s what we’re doing for them. I’ve got kids. I’ve got two kids I’m doing this for my kids, their kids, your kids, everybody’s kids, we doing this for them. So that way, 15, 20 years down the line, they can be like, well, we safe because our daddies did this.” […]

    “From now on, Bloods, Crips, BGF we gonna control our own neighborhood we don’t need the police,” said an OG named Bigg Wolfe, “it’s our job from the beginning. We gonna sleep or own patrols it’s our own movement and if you ain’t with it that’s your issue. Bloods, Crips, BGF, man.”

    Tragedy was a bit more guarded. Partially because he’s always more like that when on the street, but also just conservative, too, about whether they are going to keep the truce going.

    “We gonna try,” he says. “We got put an effort to it though to do it. You can’t just say you gonna do it and then do something else. That’s what gets a lot of people mad then if you don’t do it it’s like you crushed their dreams or something.”

    Flex was in the shower listening to the radio when word came through. He jumped out and headed to Penn North. One of the most positive throughout, born into a gang, he is unequivocal.

    “I’m confident — no, I know it’s gonna stay like this,” he says.

    Then he thanks me because “you were here to see us as human beings and we love and respect you for that. It might not be big to a lot of people that’s on TV or people who normally talk to reporters. It’s big to us; we actually changed history. We changed history.”

    Amid the blaring horns, jubilant celebration, and happy chaos, a TV reporter in the scrum tells the OGs she sees that they’re linked arm in arm, and asks how did they got to this point. They don’t hesitate.

    “Freddie Gray.”

    Let me highlight the key point for you: “you were here to see us as human beings”. You were here to see us as human beings.
    Not saying they’re perfect. But if all you need to do for positive interaction is to treat others as human beings, well…

  192. rq says

    Few Arrests After Baltimore Curfew

    Dozens of protestors defied the 10 pm curfew in Baltimore on Saturday, the Washington Post reported, and police arrested one or two people for breaking the stay-home rule. At Pennsylvania and North avenues, one man was handcuffed and had been pepper sprayed, the paper reported, and police were washing his eyes with water and had called a medic. Another woman was detained, but showed no signs of distress.

    That man, pepper-sprayed, we will see him again!

    Video of medics, legal observers being arrested as prisoners chant from inside BCDC

    Minutes after the 10 p.m. curfew went into effect on Saturday, Baltimore police arrested several self-identified medics and legal observers who arrived at Greenmount Avenue just after protester Joseph Kent was arrested on the street near the city jail facilty. Kent led a group from Pennsylvania and North avenues to Greenmount, but seemed to be alone when he was arrested just as City Paper arrived along with the street medics and legal observers, who were separately approaching the scene. They were in handcuffs within minutes of arrival.

    One source, who wished to remain anonymous, said that similar teams had been on site the last two nights to assist anyone processed and released after curfew.*

    Police allowed the medics to hand over their medical supplies to City Paper to hold for them before they were handcuffed and loaded into waiting police vans.

    As the medics and legal observers were waiting to be loaded into the van, after this video was taken, observers heard banging from inside the adjacent Baltimore City Detention Center, and then prisoners chanting, “All night, all day, we gonna fight for Freddie Gray.”

    *Full disclosure: When City Paper staffers Baynard Woods and Brandon Weigel were teargassed, street medics like those arrested provided treatment. We do not believe any of those who directly assisted us were among those arrested, but they seem to be affiliated.

    ACLU letter to Baltimore mayor re: curfew, it’s in pdf format.

    I write on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland to express our grave concern about the continuation of the curfew and the manner in which it is being enforced. It has now become clear that the curfew is serving as nothing more than a tool for curtailing the First Amendment rights of peaceful demonstrators, legal observers, and the news media. Indeed, the curfew itself has become the target of protest and the source of new problems rather than a solution. Further, the curfew is having a dramatic effect on the ability of Baltimore residents to simply go about their daily lives free from the fear of arbitrary arrest. We therefore once again strongly urge you to lift the curfew immediately. For at least two days now there have been no reports, to our knowledge, of any significant violence at gatherings and demonstrations around the city. Nonetheless, last night police showed up at City Hall in great numbers, dressed in full riot gear, to break up a peaceful assembly of about 100 individuals. In total, police arrested at least 53 protesters yesterday, including at least 15 of the people gathered at City Hall. Police also interfered with news media outlets that were attempting to cover the arrests, even though the terms of the curfew allow them to be present in the street past curfew hours in order to cover events as they unfold.
    1
    Even more disturbingly, police suddenly revoked permits that had previously been issued to legal observers, forbidding
    them from witnessing and documenting police actions against peaceful demonstrators and the media after curfew hours.
    2
    These actions appear to serve no purpose other than to stop protected First Amendment activity and to quash coverage of police activity during the hours the curfew is in effect. Moreover, numerous residents have expressed concern that the curfew is being enforced arbitrarily and selectively. These actions raise serious constitutional concerns and needlessly engender the same kind of hostility and tension that have led to the breakdown of community/police relations in our city.
    Reported incidents of discord over the past two days all seem to have a single feature in common: large numbers of fully-armed police officers appearing at a peaceful scene and turning citizen gatherings into scenes of flight, arrest, and chaos. At this stage, the curfew, particularly in conjunction with the visible presence of military personnel and vehicles, has clearly become a source of resentment and frustration among Baltimore residents. As Senator Bill Ferguson observed last night via Twitter, the “costs are outweighing the benefits.” Yesterday’s events highlight the urgency of ending these restrictions, which have become nothing more than a pretext for inappropriate police conduct and curtailment of the First Amendment rights of peaceful protestors, the media, and legal observers.
    The curfew is not necessary to allow police to intervene in acts of actual lawbreaking, nor is it a necessary tool to allow police to take peaceful and reasonable actions to ensure that protestors and traffic can co-exist on city streets. Instead, it is an extraordinary measure that has outlived any necessity and usefulness it may previously have had. We therefore once again join the chorus of voices calling for an immediate end to the curfew.
    I ask that you please respond to this letter as soon as possible so that we may decide how to proceed.

    °Paragraph breaks mine, mostly for terrible copy-pasta.

    link to marilyn mosby’s entire press conference. RT @ginnefine https://youtu.be/w5EIjwn1g6k , in case the video hasn’t been put up here yet.

    Beautiful action full of community love @MillennialAU #blacklivesmatter #Ferguson #Baltimore #blackspring

  193. rq says

    #BaltimoreUprising Solidarity March Shuts Down Highways and Tunnels in NYC, Over 100 Arrested

    #breakthecurfew – Please compare images.

    Police spray shouting man in face at close range, then drag him 2 ground by his hair #Baltimore There’s that man again! But a CNN reporter says he wasn’t beaten, just kind of dragged along the ground for a bit…

    UPDATE: Curfew, decried by ACLU and citizens, today lifted. And there was much rejoicing.

    Today civil liberties lawyers said it, speakers outside of City Hall got a crowd to chant it and a 61-year-old legal secretary among them directed an angry message about it at Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake:

    “She has got to stop this curfew,” said Amanda B., who lives in Northeast Baltimore and spent her Saturday with over 1,000 marchers fired up by both the fatal arrest of Freddie Gray and restrictions stemming from the five-day-old curfew.

    “Look at all the people going to jail for nothing,” she said, referring to the curfew. “Grown adults like us have got to go and sit in the house like children? No!”

    This evening Police Commissioner Anthony Batts held a news conference to call on citizens to be “patient” and to announce that the curfew would continue tonight – despite widespread calls for it to end immediately amid civil liberties concerns and the growing economic effects of the shut-down on restaurants and other businesses.

    UPDATE: Mayor lifts curfew Sunday morning. “My goal has always been to not have the curfew in place a single day longer than was necessary. I believe we have reached that point today,” she said via @MayorSRB. “Effective immediately, I have rescinded my order instituting a city-wide curfew. I want to thank the people of Baltimore for their patience.”
    At a news conference outside Mondawmin Mall, Rawlings-Blake was asked when the National Guard would leave the city. “They unwind. It’s not like. . .you flip a switch,” she said, adding that it will happen “over this next week.”

    Speaking separately in Baltimore, Gov. Larry Hogan said he had spoken with the mayor, agreed with her that the curfew should be lifted and said the evacuation of the Guard had already begun this morning.

    Hogan said it would take time to evacuate the 4,000 people moved into Baltimore this week – “1,000 police officers and 3,000 Guard.”

    “We had to build an entire city to save the city,” Hogan remarked.

    It took them a few hours to bring them in, why shouldn’t it take the same amount of time or less to move them back out? Sheesh.

    It seems that they are segregating arrested protestors by race at Penn and North. Unreal. #BaltimoreUprising

  194. rq says

    Repeat: A Look at the Baltimore Police Officers Charged in Freddie Gray’s Death.

    Approx. 52 officers in riot gear for abt 18 mostly white curfew breakers. #BalitmoreUprising Hampden
    Y’all, listen to this. You must. This is the 3rd warning. An additional 5 minutes. #BaltimoreUprising See attached video.
    #BaltimoreUprisings at this ally Hamden action police gave at least 6 warnings, and no one was arrested. amazing disparity #BreakTheCurfew

    Compare… We’ve been cornered both sides #Freddiegray #baltimoreuprising

    Seattle ‘riot’: Police deploy flashbangs, tear gas against May Day marchers (VIDEOS)

    Protesters at a May Day march in Seattle, Washington clashed with police during what law enforcement called “a riot” on Friday. Officers deployed flashbangs and pepper spray to try and get the crowd under control.

    Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets Friday to participate in pro-worker, anti-police-brutality rallies, as well as one that was billed as anti-capitalist. According to the Seattle Times, one protester broke a window and others threw rocks at police before law enforcement responded with flash bangs. […]

    Three officers have been injured at the scene of a melee at Broadway and Howell, the Seattle Police Department tweeted, two of which were hurt seriously. A total of fifteen people have been arrested across the city, police said.

    One protester has reportedly thrown a burning object into a vehicle. Police said fires have been ignited at Seattle Plaza and that 25 vehicles have been damaged. […]

    The Seattle Times reported that earlier in the day, a Black Lives Matter march planned to meet up with the May Day March for Workers and Immigrants Rights. Earlier in the day, police said they were concerned about a third group of self-proclaimed anarchists who might try to cause chaos in the city.

    Flash bangs are what killed Aiyana Jones. Just so you know.

  195. rq says

    GoFundMe For Freddie Gray Officers Removed After 41 Minutes

    The Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police created a GoFundMe page for the six officers who were charged Friday in the death of Freddie Gray—but it lasted for less than an hour before being removed from the site.

    The Fraternal Order of Police, a union representing Baltimore City police officers, set a fundraising goal of $600,000 to pay for the living expenses of the six officers, who were placed on unpaid suspension after they were charged in Gray’s death. In 41 minutes, the page raised $1,135.

    It’s unclear whether GoFundMe deleted the fundraiser set up for the six officers, but the FOP posted on its Facebook page, “Apparently our GoFundMe account has been suspended with no explanation. We are working to find a new site for donations. Thank you!”

    Vocativ previously revealed that GoFundMe has an interesting criteria for what types of causes it allows to raise money on its site. “‘Campaigns in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes’” are prohibited by our terms,” a spokeswoman said for that article. Asked to comment on the removal of this campaign, a spokeswoman told Vocativ, “GoFundMe cannot be used to benefit those who are charged with serious violations of the law.”

    @deray 300 protesters in chapel hill march today in solidarity.

    It is being reported that Amnesty International Human Rights Observers are now being permitted to stay past curfew. #BaltimoreUprising (It was previously noted that they wouldn’t be allowed out after curfew – and yes, these tweets are moving in reverse chronological order right now, it’s due to how I set up my tabs for easier posting.)

    Governor Larry Hogan Calls For Statewide “Day Of Prayer And Peace”, for today.

    Governor Larry Hogan today called for a statewide “Day of Prayer and Peace” to start tomorrow following the weeklong demonstrations in Baltimore City. The governor released the following statement:

    “Just a few days ago, the people of Baltimore City, Maryland, and the entire nation watched as Baltimore was consumed by violence and tragedy. Homes and businesses were devastated and police officers were openly attacked by the few who chose aggression over peaceful demonstration. Tonight, I once again strongly urge all citizens of Baltimore, and those from outside our city and state, to remain peaceful, and nonviolent. As we prepare to start a new week, I ask that all Maryland citizens join me in a day of prayer and unity for Baltimore City and the State of Maryland.

    “Over the last week, I have witnessed countless acts of compassion, kindness, and leadership by the residents of Baltimore. I have seen what is possible when we stand united against violence in our communities. As we begin to rebuild and restore, let us renew our faith in the true spirit of our city and its people. I pray that tomorrow will be a day of reflection and will serve as a foundation for how we all conduct ourselves in the days and months to come.”

    As part of the statewide “Day of Prayer and Peace,” Governor Hogan will attend a church service at St. Peter Claver, tomorrow at 10:45 AM with Archbishop William E. Lori. The governor will be available for brief questions following the service.

    Detroit prosecutor resigns over Facebook post saying Baltimore rioters should be shot. Racism, it’s in the system.

    An assistant prosecutor in Detroit, Mich. resigned from an eight-year career after brazen comments — calling for the death of Baltimore rioters — surfaced.

    “Simple. Shoot em. Period. End of discussion,” Teana Walsh, formerly of Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, took to Facebook at the peak of the city’s unrest.

    “I don’t care what causes the protesters to turn violent … what the ‘they did it because’ reason is … no way is this acceptable. Flipping disgusting,” she continued in her comment.

    She quickly deleted the friends-only remark late Monday night as looters busted into Baltimore businesses and police wrangled at least dozens of protesters into custody. But like most things on the Internet, it lived on in the form of a screenshot captured by a defense attorney.

    “When a member of law enforcement seeks, not to enforce the law, but to execute its judgment without due process, they have become part of the animal kingdom themselves,” Cliff Woodards wrote of Walsh’s comments he found on Facebook.

    Both Walsh and Woodards were, at the time, Facebook friends.

    Her resignation on Friday followed undisclosed disciplinary action, according to the Detroit News.

    In light of Walsh’s violent solution to protests that overran areas of Baltimore over the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, fellow prosecutors defended Walsh.

    “During her tenure in the office, Teana Walsh has been known for her great work ethic and her compassion for victims of crime and their families,” Maria Miller, an assistant prosecutors also with Wayne County, said in a statement to the Detroit News.

    “This isn’t who she is.” Well, it’s her Facebook. Obviously, that is who she is.

    And because we focus on the negative, here’s a small, tiny, shining light: .@BaltimorePolice this officer knows how to do it. Surrounded by residents, rationally conversing w/ them.

  196. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @rq:

    Seattle ‘riot’: Police deploy flashbangs, tear gas against May Day marchers

    You think the headline writer is on our side? I’m not saying it’s a direct indictment, but it’s probably as far as a daily-newspaper published can go without sabotaging their own sales. And in times past, it seems like that headline would have been written very differently.

  197. rq says

    Obama, Boehner react to charges in Gray’s death

    Washington (CNN)News of the indictment of six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray quickly rippled from Baltimore to the nation’s capital on Friday, striking a nerve with top elected officials.

    President Barack Obama said it is “absolutely vital that the truth comes out on what happened to Mr. Freddie Gray.”

    “Justice needs to be served,” Obama said. “What I think people of Baltimore want more than anything else is the truth. That’s what people around the country expect.”

    The Justice Department, now led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, is continuing to lead a separate civil rights investigation into Gray’s death.

    Obama spoke shortly after Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby took to the podium to describe the circumstances that led to Gray’s death and read out the litany of charges against the Baltimore officers. Obama had not yet heard the nature of the charges as he spoke to reporters.

    House Speaker John Boehner called the officers’ actions “outrageous” and “unacceptable” if the charges are proven true. [emphasis mine]

    “Public servants should not violate the law,” he said Friday in an interview set to air Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

    Boehner also said he believes the relationship between African-Americans and law enforcement is a national crisis.

    “I think that if you look at what’s happened over the course of the last year, you just have to scratch your head,” Boehner said.

    The Congressional Black Caucus applauded Mosby’s “swift and decisive action,” but cautioned that the charges are just the beginning of a long process.

    “This is the first of many steps to begin the process of mending the fractured relationship between law enforcement and the people of the city of Baltimore,” said Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, the group’s chairman. “Every citizen has a right to due process of law, and we are pleased to see the legal system is working. We continue to call for calm in the weeks and months ahead as we await the outcome of these cases.”

    Report These 3 Cop Fundraisers, within – 3 fundraisers for the Baltimore officers to be reported, with links and contacts as needed.

    We Spoke to Kevin Moore, the Man Who Filmed Freddie Gray’s Arrest, previously posted as video.

    The man who used his cellphone to record video of Freddie Gray’s arrest by Baltimore police officers was himself arrested by officers after he left a protest on Thursday, in what he describes as a clear case of witness intimidation.

    Baltimore police arrested Kevin Moore along with two friends of his from Ferguson, Missouri, who work with the group Copwatch, an activist organization that advocates for the filming of interactions with police. Police released Moore on Friday morning without charges being filed against him. His two companions, Chad Jackson and Tony White, remain in custody.

    Moore told VICE News that, prior to his arrest, the police department’s internal affairs division had already interviewed him for several hours about what he witnessed when Gray was arrested. His video showed the arresting officers lifting Gray from the ground where they had handcuffed him and carrying him limply to the back of a police van. Gray was later determined to have a severed spine and died a week after his arrest.

    The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office announced on Friday that it had filed criminal charges against the six officers involved in Gray’s arrest and subsequent death. […]

    Police arrested Moore, Jackson, and White after the three of them walked to Bruce Court, an area where Moore lives that is located not far from the site of the protest. The pretext for the arrest was not clear.

    “They had assault weapons, rifles, they had everything — their tank, two choppers,” he recalled. “They took me to the Western District [police station], never gave me charging papers or anything.”

    “It’s called witness intimidation,” he added. “But if they hadn’t let me go it would have been a whole lot of BS that they didn’t want to deal with, so they decided it was in their best interest to let me go. But they still have my friends.” […]

    Moore said he felt intimidated by the police when they earlier sought to question him about Gray’s death, and particularly after they subsequently circulated his photo and personal information online, saying that he was wanted for questioning.

    “They plastered my picture all over the internet hoping people would come forward and tell on me,” Moore said. “I gave them that video… They asked me, like, ‘You seem like you are a positive leader in your community.’ And [I was like], ‘Oh, so you know who I am?’ I’m not hiding, I’ve never been hiding.”

    Moore praised the decision this morning by Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby to press criminal charges on the officers involved in Gray’s death, and said that he is determined to seek “justice for my man Freddie.”

    Baltimore Riots: Poll Finds 96% Expect More Racially-Charged Unrest Nationwide.

    A whopping 96 percent of Americans say that they expect more racially-charged unrest around the country this summer, similar to the past week’s violence in Baltimore. And more than half — 54 percent — believe a similar disturbance is likely in the metropolitan area closest to where they live.

    In a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 68 percent of adults said they believe it is “very likely” that there will be more protests and clashes around the country like those after the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. Another 28 percent said that they believe such unrest is “somewhat likely.”

    The expectation of more events nationwide like those in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, was similar among respondents regardless of race.

    But white respondents were slightly more likely than African-Americans to say that they expect racially-charged disturbances in the metropolitan area closest to them.

    Fifty-three percent of whites said they think more confrontations in their closest city are likely this summer, while 46 percent of African-Americans said the same.

    And questions about the best way to explain the tensions between police and members of the African-American community yielded very different answers from black and white respondents.

    Six-in-10 African-Americans said that the discord in Baltimore is attributable to “people with longstanding frustrations about police mistreatment of African Americans that have not been addressed.” Twenty-seven percent said that the riots were “caused by people who used the protests about the death of an African-American man in police custody as an excuse to engage in looting and violence.”

    Among whites, those results were almost exactly flipped. Just 32 percent cited longstanding frustration about African-Americans’ treatment at the hands of police, while 58 percent said the Baltimore violence was caused by those using Gray’s death as an excuse for looting.

    The poll of 508 adults, including 111 African-Americans, was conducted from April 28-30.

    The full poll will be released Monday, May 4, at 6:30pm ET.

    Let’s await the results in all their post-racial glory.

    Black St. Louis Moms Wonder if Their Lost Babies Are Still Alive – a different kind of injustice, but an injustice towards black lives all the same.

    Eighteen women, who were told decades ago that their newborns had died by officials of a St. Louis hospital, now wonder if the infants were stolen at birth, reports the Associated Press.

    The questions came after the dramatic reunion last month between Zella Jackson Price and her biological daughter Melanie Gilmore after nearly 50 years.

    Price, who was 26 in 1965 when she gave birth Gilmore, said officials at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis told her that her newborn had died, the report says. She never saw a body or death certificate.

    In fact, Gilmore, who now lives in Eugene, Ore., ended up in foster care and was always told by her adoptive parents that she was given up by her birth mother, the report says.

    But they were reunited after Gilmore’s children tracked down Price to mark their 50th birthday. The search led them to the now 76-year-old Price, who lives in suburban St. Louis, notes the AP.

    News of the emotional reunion sparked other mothers, whose newborns allegedly died mysteriously at the now-closed hospital during the same era.

    Now, Price’s attorney, Albert Watkins, is asking city and state officials to investigate the mothers’ claims. Watkins said in a letter to Missouri’s governor that he suspects the hospital was engaged in a scheme “to steal newborns of color for marketing in private adoption transactions,” notes the report.

    The Missouri Department of Health and Human Services called the allegations “troubling” in a letter to Watkins, and pledged to help him track down relevant documents it might have, such as birth or death certificates, the report says.

    Human trafficking for profit.

    Game hunting. It’s that man again. And I can’t get over the faces of those officers holding him like that. Like they’re posing for a photo. Which they probably are.

  198. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Scuse me.

    Just realizing that that wasn’t the headline from the Seattle PI. My bad.

    In RT they can write articles critical of US governmental entities *anytime they want* without risking their revenue. It’s not the same thing at all.

    The Seattle PI headline was much worse by comparison: “May Day turns violent in Seattle”

    The Oregonian?
    about seattle: “Seattle May Day ‘riot’: police injured, vandalism, arrests”

    about portland: “Portland May Day marchers clash with police, disrupt traffic and transit”

    Oh, progressive Oregon, we hardly knew ye.

  199. rq says

    Crip Dyke
    Well, the ‘riot’ was in quotes, and the first line basically says that that’s the label given bylaw enforcement.
    And I still think your point went completely over my head. :/ But I know you have one, and a very good one, and it’s about the language used in what publications re: people doing people things in the streets.

    Annnnyway.

    +++

    A Portrait of the Sandtown Neighborhood in Baltimore – and once again, I feel it is portrayed mostly as an exception, not the rule. Like it is an isolated island of poverty, when in reality it is just one neighbourhood among many – both around Baltimore and nationally – experiencing such incredible poverty. It happened to Ferguson, too.

    Freddie Gray grew up in Sandtown-Winchester, a Baltimore neighborhood that has been depressed for decades. It takes a long memory to recall when the neighborhood was a different place, but in the 1950s and ’60s, Billie Holiday and Diana Ross performed in venues on nearby Pennsylvania Avenue, and some referred to the area as “Baltimore’s Harlem.”

    After riots in 1968, many residents fled, looted businesses did not reopen, and drug use and violent crime became commonplace. Since 1970, the Sandtown population has declined much more rapidly than the rest of the city; despite efforts to rebuild the neighborhood beginning in the late 1980s, disrepair has persisted. Now, more than a third of its houses are abandoned, more than a fifth of working-age residents are unemployed, and nearly a third of its families live below the poverty line.

    With 3 percent of the community’s population incarcerated, Sandtown has more people in prison than any other Baltimore neighborhood. Sandtown residents face these challenges, as well as a police presence that many residents describe as harassing. They are still finding a way to survive, even if, for some, it means living in the only occupied building on their block.

    Remember the woman shackled and masked and then tased to death by 6 corrections officers? (Or was it just 5? I really can’t remember…) Death of woman shocked by stun gun in Fairfax jail is ruled an accident

    In a statement released Tuesday, police officials quoted the autopsy report, which stated that the cause of death was “excited delirium associated with physical restraint including use of conductive energy device, contributing: Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar Disorder.”

    In addition, it gave the manner of death: “Accident.”

    The medical examiner’s report as quoted by police did not define “excited delirium.” An abstract of a 2011 medical journal article said characteristics of the term include acute distress and sudden death. The description said the term is sometimes associated with death in law enforcement custody.

    In the Tuesday statement, police said they are awaiting reports on an examination of the medical equipment that was used to monitor McKenna’s vital signs before paramedics responded to the adult detention center.

    The autopsy report will be included in material that will be turned over to the county commonwealth’s attorney’s office for final determination of any criminal liability, police said.

    A. Fucking. Accident.
    You have got to be kidding me.

    Confrontation Between Baltimore Police, Protester Caught on Video. Yes, that man again. I’m afraid this may be a repeat link.

    #Now: Ethiopian anti-police violence, #BlackLivesMatter protest blocks Tel Aviv’s main highway | @activestills
    Despite threat of arrest, African-Israelis continue to block major TelAviv highway to protest racist police brutality

    Officers shoot suspect firing from back of police cruiser

    A woman is dead after police said she opened fire in the back of a police cruiser early Thursday evening.

    The incident happened just after 5 p.m. in front of the Atlanta police precinct near Underground Atlanta on Pryor Street.

    Channel 2’s Richard Elliot was around the corner at the Fulton County Courthouse reporting on the re-sentencing of three APS educators when he saw officers running toward the scene.

    Atlanta police said officers took the woman into custody after finding her in a vehicle that was reported stolen. A police source said when officers detained the woman, they found drugs and learned she had a warrant.

    “Shortly after that, that individual opened fire with a handgun or with a weapon firing at least twice at the officers. The officers retreated and opened fire,” said Maj. Darin Schierbaum with the Atlanta Police Department.

    “They came out of the parking deck because they were searching the wrong place, guns drawn. Like I said, about 10 of them, to the back of the police car. At the police car they found the (woman) that was shot,” a witness told Elliot.

    Police identified the woman as 25-year-old Alexia Christian.

    The patrol car’s back windshield had a gaping hole from the gunshot while officers investigated the shooting.

    Christian was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital to be treated for her wounds. She later died from her injuries.

    Investigators said no officers were hurt in this incident.

    A couple of things: 1) previously, she was said to have been in the front seat of the police car; 2) she is previously said to have been handcuffed (not mentioned at all in this article) and 3) if they found drugs, that seems to indicate that they searched her yet somehow didn’t find a gun.
    But as we know from previous cases, black people are Master Wizards when it comes to hiding guns on their bodies and retrieving and using them while cuffed.

  200. rq says

    Hard but Hopeful Home to ‘Lot of Freddies’, yet another portrait of Sandtown.

    The teenagers stood inside Sun Deli and Grocery, ordered iced tea and fruit punch through the bulletproof glass and casually divided the marijuana they planned to sell, unconcerned that it was broad daylight or that other people were present.

    Then a man in his 20s stepped into the tiny shop and handed them small plastic bags of white powder — evidently heroin or cocaine destined for this city’s thriving corner drug trade. Scrawled on the deli wall were the words “no snitching.”

    “You don’t be selling fast enough,” the man chided one 15-year-old boy in a blue polo shirt and khaki pants, the uniform of his high school. “I need $2,000. I’m going to Disney World next week.”

    It was a stark glimpse of the hazardous world of young people in Sandtown-Winchester, the West Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray came of age and where police officers chased him down, loaded him in a van and took him for a ride that proved fatal.

    Now Sandtown, as it is called by its 9,000 residents, is the improbable focus of national attention, the setting for the latest on a list of police-violence cases that over nine months have inflamed tensions in black communities in Ferguson, Mo.; Cleveland; New York City; and North Charleston, S.C. […]

    “Sandtown is a tough community to grow up in,” said Lamar Prilliman, 19, a college student with no criminal record who said he was harshly questioned by an officer who accused him of discarding drugs when he stopped to tie his shoelace while walking to his grandmother’s house in March. “And I’m quite sure it’s a tough community to police. But the reason Freddie Gray is so personal to me is that I could have been Freddie Gray. It could have been me in the back of that van.”
    Continue reading the main story

    At the Secret Society Barbershop on the edge of Sandtown, George Butler, 40, the owner, pointed to abandoned buildings and recalled the many small businesses that had once thrived here. It struck him especially, he said, when he returned in 2013 from a nine-year term in prison, a common chapter in men’s lives here.

    “That used to be a dentist’s office, that was a print shop, there was a doctor’s office,” he said. “Now, there is a sign that says doctor’s office, but there is no doctor.”

    For every depressing Sandtown story, however, there seems to be a counterpoint. Though residents say arsonists singled out businesses owned by Asian-Americans during the rioting on Monday, black neighbors rushed to try to douse the flames at a Sandtown shop run by a Korean woman, Grace Lyo, known in the neighborhood as “Mama Grace.”

    And at exactly the same time that the drug crew boss was resupplying his sales force on Thursday, a group of Sandtown men met in a church a few blocks away to consider how to prevent a repeat of the disorder on Monday, which included looting, rock-throwing and extensive property damage, in response to Mr. Gray’s death. […]

    A 2011 report on Sandtown and an adjacent area, Harlem Park, compared those neighborhoods’ social indicators with those of Baltimore as a whole — not a high bar, since the city lags the state of Maryland and the nation on many counts. Still, Sandtown and Harlem Park had roughly double the city’s rates of unemployment, poverty, homicides and shootings, as well as liquor and tobacco stores per capita. Lead-paint violations were four times the city average, as was the percentage of vacant buildings. Sandtown and Harlem Park also had more residents in jails and prisons than any other neighborhood in the city, a recent study by the Justice Policy Institute found, with an annual cost of $17 million just to lock them up. […]

    All that violence, of course, would seem to cry out for a major police presence. But ask Mr. Morgan about the police and he talks about being arrested last year with three other young men on what he insists were false charges of assaulting and robbing a couple, Baltimore Orioles fans who had left a game in the early morning.

    The charges were later dropped, he said. But family and friends had to scrape together money for bail and a lawyer. He missed his graduation from Carver Vocational-Technical High School. “I didn’t walk,” he said with dismay, referring to the appearance on stage to collect his diploma. “That’s something you achieve for. I worked hard for that. I loved school.”
    Continue reading the main story
    Continue reading the main story
    Continue reading the main story

    And the stain of a false charge lingers. “You Google my name, this is what pops up,” he said, showing a television news story about his arrest on his phone. “I want them to see the real me, a hard-working, educated young man that’s trying to make something of himself.”

    William Stewart, 27, was a lifelong friend of Mr. Gray’s. He recalled the time they took a bus across town for a Pop Warner football game, spent all their money on hot dogs and nachos, and had to walk many miles back. “You couldn’t be mad at him,” Mr. Stewart said. “He’d laugh, joke and rap.”

    Mr. Stewart compiled a record not unlike his friend’s, mostly for marijuana charges. He served 14 months in a prison “boot camp” program, he said, and, on another occasion, spent six months in jail on a heroin charge that he said the police had concocted.

    Mr. Stewart said he still had fond memories of three police officers — “Officer Nurse, Officer Mellon and Officer Thomas” — whom he got to know years ago in a Police Athletic League program. That program closed, and his many encounters since with suspicious and rough police officers have darkened his view.

    The FUCK?! RT @paulmgardner: Let this be the lasting image of this past week and of @mayorsrb’s time in office. Let it.

    TEL AVIV: PD throw stun grenades to disperse crowds. Protestors hurl rocks, bottles at cops, overturn PD car. (I know, I know that’s not the US. I know.)

    Mom Arrested After Asking Police to Talk to Young Son About Stealing: Suit , story from March, worth a re-read.

    Police fire stun grenades as Tel Aviv protest by Ethiopian Israelis turns violent , article. With photos, etc.

    Police Kill Woman In Gunfight Inside Atlanta Cop Car – now it’s out-and-out a gunfight. Okay.

    Atlanta police said officers fatally shot a woman who may have been handcuffed in the back of a police car after she somehow pulled a pistol and fired at them twice Thursday evening.

    Alexa Christian, a 25-year-old mother of two, died at a hospital after the gunfight.

    Christian was placed in the back of the police cruiser after two police officers claimed they found her inside of a car that had been reported stolen, according to WSB-TV. The officers reportedly frisked her and found drugs, but not a weapon.

    Both officers were black, which means that if she was found to have been unarmed, they will probably be facing charges or some other form of penalty slightly harsher than paid administrative leave. [/guessing]
    Also, she must have been a contortionist, or else they parked funny, because I seem to recall a car having two back doors, and if she’s shooting out the one door, it should, most probably, be possible to circle around behind her and disarm her from the other door. But she’s a black person, super skills are only to be expected?
    Gahds.

  201. rq says

    Ethiopian-Israelis Protest in Tel Aviv Over Police Treatment. As twitter just noted, black people don’t like how they’re being treated anywhere.

    Maryland Governor Orders Withdrawal of National Guard from Baltimore

    Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has ordered the withdrawal of the National Guard from the city of Baltimore, Agence France-Presse reports. Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake lifted the 10 p.m. curfew this morning.

    “We’ve already started withdrawal of the Guard,” Hogan said at a news conference on Sunday.

    According to a press release on the governor’s website, 3,000 National Guardsmen, as well as 578 State Troopers (“and other allied law enforcement officers”) were mobilized to assist the Baltimore Police Department. Nearly 300 law enforcement officers from Pennsylvania and another 149 from New Jersey were brought in as well.

    “The trucks are pulling out this morning,” Hogan said. “It’s going to take a little bit of a while.”

    A (More or Less) Definitive Guide to Hillary Clinton’s Record on Law and Order, seems relevant.

    In her first speech on the issue since launching her campaign for president, Hillary Clinton discussed criminal justice as though it were relatively new to her. “I don’t know all the answers,” she said, asking the audience to “start thinking this through with me.”

    But Hillary Clinton has a long and winding history on the subject of criminal justice.

    Much of the coverage of Clinton’s remarks has centered on the fact that the views she expressed – including an avowal to “end the era of mass incarceration” – seem to clash with the policies of her husband, who signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.

    By this logic, Hillary Clinton will need to live down the Bill Clinton legacy: Harsher sentencing guidelines; $9.7 billion in new funding for the construction of prisons; $10.8 billion for 100,000 new police officers; more federal crimes punishable by the death penalty; the end of higher-education grants for prisoners; the exclusion of drug offenders from food stamps and welfare; encouragement to states to try more children as adults; the distribution of surplus military equipment to local police departments; and time limits on death-penalty appeals. On his watch, the American prison population increased by more than 673,000 inmates in just eight years.

    But Hillary is not Bill, and her history on these issues is more nuanced than simply cheerleading for her husband’s “tough on crime” approach. It is the story of a Barry Goldwater supporter who became a fighter for prisoners on death row who became a tough-on-crime First Lady who became a senator with a very mixed record who is now embracing the language of reform without yet offering much in the way of concrete proposals – apart from a largely uncontroversial suggestion that all police officers be equipped with body cameras.

    Whether this represents evolution or expediency or some of each, we’ll let you decide. Below, a rundown of almost half a century of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s rhetoric, activism, policy positions, and changes of heart on the subject of criminal justice.

    Protests likely to accelerate retreat from tough police tactics of the 1990s

    Even before protesters burned Baltimore, before they filled the streets of New York and other cities, police departments across the nation had begun to retreat from the aggressive tactics of the 1990s that focused heavily on arresting petty offenders.

    But a bitter legacy of anger lingers in West Baltimore and other urban neighborhoods. And the disturbances that have erupted after the death of Freddie Gray and other men stopped by police for minor violations are likely to accelerate the trend away from mass arrests and zero tolerance, policing experts said.

    “There are cycles in policing, just as there are cycles in economics . . . [and] the tide is turning,” said Thomas Reppetto, a former Chicago police detective and the author of a two-volume history of policing in America. “We’re hearing a lot of the same things that we heard in the 1960s: The police have got to be less aggressive.”

    New York City has already drastically reduced its controversial “stop and frisk” program, in which police questioned and patted down large numbers of pedestrians. The city is considering using warnings instead of arrests for low-level offenses such as public drinking or riding a bike on a sidewalk.

    A presidential task force — appointed in response to the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y. — issued a report in March urging less confrontational police practices and more respectful ties with residents. […]

    The protests last week in Baltimore highlighted the residue of rage left by “zero tolerance.” Martin O’Malley (D) became a champion of the strategy after his election as mayor in 1999. The result was a sharp spike in arrests that peaked in 2005, when Baltimore police made more than 100,000 arrests — one for every six city residents.

    “The goal was to go out there and make as many low-level drug arrests as possible,” said former Baltimore police officer Neill Franklin, a frequent critic of O’Malley who was fired from the force during O’Malley’s tenure as mayor. Franklin now works for an organization that campaigns against the war on drugs. “Officers did whatever they had to do to lock up as many people as they could to satisfy police headquarters.”

    After O’Malley left office in 2007, his successors pulled back. By 2013, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the number of arrests had fallen to just over 50,000. Police officials have also encouraged a softer community policing approach, including more foot patrols and stronger relationships between officers and the neighborhoods they serve.

    However, many people who participated in the recent protests said Baltimore police continue to deploy overly aggressive tactics. Police chased and arrested Gray, for instance, because he ran from them. On Friday, State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby called his arrest unjustified and filed criminal charges against the six officers involved. […]

    The perception that police were overly aggressive in making arrests has fueled protests in other cities, including Ferguson and North Charleston, S.C., where police shot and killed Walter Scott last month after stopping him for a faulty taillight. In Staten Island, protests erupted after Garner died in July, when police used a chokehold to restrain him after arresting him for selling untaxed cigarettes.

    In Ferguson, the aggressive tactics were aimed at raising revenue, according to federal investigators. But in many cities, including New York and Baltimore, they have been deployed as part of an intentional strategy to target petty criminals in the hope of preventing more serious crimes.

    That strategy is known as the “broken windows” approach to policing, and it is based on the notion that a neighborhood that fails to fix the little things — e.g., broken windows — will quickly deteriorate. It was pioneered as a policing strategy in New York City, particularly under Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the mid-1990s.

    Giuliani — and later O’Malley — credited the strategy with producing a sharp drop in homicides and other violent crimes. But these days, many criminologists question that claim.

    Defenders of the strategy say the results are self-evident. As O’Malley tweeted Friday, FBI statistics show violent crime dropped by 41 percent while he was mayor, the largest reduction for any major U.S. city.

    But skeptics note that violent crime has dropped sharply across the nation — and even around the globe — over the past two decades. The phenomenon is not fully ­understood and has been attributed to factors, including broad demographic trends, ­that have nothing to do with the police.

    “Crime has gone down in every large urban area in the country, including places that haven’t practiced zero tolerance or ‘broken windows’ policing,” said Robert Gangi, director of the Police Reform Organizing Project in New York.

    Because the rate of violent crime in the United States is at its lowest point in more than four decades, criminologists say it’s easier for authorities and the public to reassess the aggressive tactics adopted during a more violent era. [..]

    “There’s nothing wrong with saying that in poor communities, it’s important to let the population know that we care about small crimes, because we don’t want big crimes,” Rice said. “The problem is when you execute it in such a ham-fisted way that you end up having a dragnet that ensnares most of the population — and humiliates most of the black or Latin community.”

    Even those who see benefits from the aggressive tactics are starting to question their cost. Rob Weinhold spent years as a Baltimore police officer and agrees with O’Malley that the get-tough policies “yielded terrific results from a crime standpoint” in Baltimore.

    But “when a department begins to arrest everyone for any infraction, the first thing that happens is your criminal justice system becomes overwhelmed,” Weinhold said. “And then it creates a lot of anger within the community.”

    With little choice and under scrutiny, O’Malley embraces Baltimore tenure – isn’t he the one that started the cycle of zero tolerance??

    When Martin O’Malley makes his expected announcement for president later this month, he plans to do it in riot-scarred Baltimore.

    “I wouldn’t think of announcing anyplace else,” O’Malley, the city’s former mayor and Maryland’s former governor, said Sunday during an appearance on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” calling the events of the past week “a wake-up call for the entire country” that would become a central part of his campaign.

    He may have little choice. Despite a tumultuous week for Baltimore and for O’Malley — and the risk of staging an announcement in a place that has been fraught with unrest — there’s another risk as well: being seen as running away from a drama in which O’Malley has been cast as a central character.

    Perhaps because of that, O’Malley appears to be embracing it.

    The Democrat cut short a trip to Ireland last week after the rioting broke out, inserting himself into the chaos surrounding Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old African American whose death in police custody resulted in indictments Friday of six officers.

    Though O’Malley no longer has any official role — he left City Hall eight years ago and his tenure in Annapolis ended in January — he surfaced amid the protesters, visited churches, participated in a food drive and drove himself around the city where he lives trying to reconnect with old friends and allies.

    The effort brought political peril; O’Malley was peppered with questions about the “zero-tolerance” policing he brought to Baltimore that, while driving down crime, critics have said contributed to the community distrust that erupted after Gray’s funeral.

    But O’Malley has stayed the course. By the end of the week, he was incorporating Baltimore’s unrest into his campaign narrative and arguing that the upheaval highlighted the need for a national urban agenda on issues beyond policing.

    “There are people in whole parts of our cities who are being totally left behind and disregarded,” O’Malley said during the Sunday morning TV appearance. “They are unheard. They are told they are unneeded by this economy. . . . We need to stop ignoring especially people of color and [acting] like they’re disposable citizens in this nation. That’s not how our economy’s supposed to work. It’s not how our country works.” […]

    As O’Malley has traveled the country preparing to run for president, he has made a populist pitch — pledging to reform Wall Street and break up the big banks — and he recounts a litany of liberal accomplishments as governor, including the legalization of same-sex marriage, the repeal of the death penalty and a number of measures to help immigrants.

    Although he is now nearly a decade removed from Baltimore City Hall, O’Malley’s record as a crime-fighting mayor also has been a central part of his pitch. When he was elected in 1999, he says, Baltimore was the “most violent, the most addicted and the most abandoned city in America.” Over the following decade, it went on to experience the steepest drop in violent crime in the country.

    O’Malley’s challenge now is to reconcile those claims against the images of burned cars and angry protesters that emerged from Baltimore last week. Activists in early presidential nominating states said that, if nothing else, his time as mayor is bound to be scrutinized more now.

    “People certainly know more about Baltimore, or think they know more about Baltimore, than they did a week ago,” said Nathan Blake, a Democratic activist in Iowa who is a former Maryland resident. “But I feel like we’re still in the middle of it, and all sorts of things could still happen.”

    For a closer look at the crime-dropping numbers, see somewhere in the comments above, an interview with David Simon.

  202. rq says

    And for some general racism:
    Student suspended for ‘too revealing’ prom dress; mom says it’s because she’s plus-sized. Take a look at that dress and let me know where it is too revealing. Also, happy confident black girl looking good is, apparently, an offense worthy of suspension.

    Great Moments in Peaceful Protest History, a cartoon. Haitian slaves ask nicely to be liberated, are immediately liberated by all the reasonable white people. French people politely ask for liberal democracy in strongly-worded letter, Louis XVI gleefully abdicates, everyone parties. Etc. (Paraphrasing mine.)

    Stinging With The Queen Bey! Beyonce Signs Three Teenage Singers For $1.5 Million, because she can.

    Here’s A New ACLU App To Record Police Brutality, And 7 Tips On How To Use It (VIDEO), via Tony.

    A new mobile app distributed online by the ACLU of California can protect your right to record police brutality in public, even if law enforcement tries to take away your smartphone to delete the video. Even if they destroy the phone, too. And as recent history tells us, this is long overdue.

    Think back to 1991, before the era of smartphones, when George Holliday was lucky enough to have his VHS video camera nearby to record Los Angeles police beating Rodney King. This incident of police brutality that caught worldwide attention may not have ended with justice (the four officers were later acquitted), but it remained in public memory long enough to inspire many others to take witness, and to record what they witness.

    Now, fast-forward to 2015. While Walter Scott was unjustly shot in the back by a North Charleston, South Carolina police officer, Scott’s family and his entire community were served justice through a witness’ smartphone recording of the murder, leading to the policeman’s arrest. When Freddie Gray wound up dead in Baltimore, it was a smartphone recording that indicated the cause of death could be abuse from the police who arrested him. (And it was another smartphone recording that proved the officers’ first excuse – that Gray hurt himself being “irate” in the police van – was wrong, too.) And these are just two of many recent incidents in which public recordings captured police brutality.

    But law enforcement is on to this recording trend, even attempting to stop it. In some cases, police took away a recorder’s phone to erase the video. In others, they completely destroyed the phone.

    These attempts to restrict public recording of public events is why ACLU of California recently introduced a new mobile application program that can protect this right. The “Mobile Justice” app, available in both Android and iPhone formats, quickly uploads video recordings directly to a local ACLU, and even if someone tries to take away or damage the phone, the recording is still there. […]

    If you download ACLU’s new “Mobile Justice” app, there are still a few things you should know before you use it. Here are seven tips on recording police, provided by “Flex Your Rights” executive director Steve Silverman:

    1) Know The Local Law

    Recording the police in public is completely legal, but with some variations state-by-state. Some officers may still attempt to arrest you for made-up charges such as public disorder, for example. It’s best to stay a reasonable distance away from the incident you are recording.

    2) Don’t Record Them Secretly

    The incident has to be in public, and you have to be visible while recording. Doing it in secret can be against the law.

    3) Respond Politely If Questioned By Police

    If an officer sees you recording police activity, he or she might approach you and ask what you’re doing. “Flex Your Rights” recommends that you respond politely and respectfully that you are simply exercising your rights with no intentions of interference. For example, “I’m only using my First Amendment rights for documentation purposes, and from a safe distance. I am not attempting to interfere with your work.”

    The officer may still question you or even be verbally abusive, but you should remain professional while responding. “With all due respect, the law says I can record in public as long as I don’t interfere.”

    4) Don’t Share Your Video With The Police

    After you complete your video, the “Mobile Justice” app will immediately send it to the ACLU. You can also post it online, such as on YouTube, and send it to local media, too. But don’t send it to the local police department, though, “Flex Your Rights” says. That gives them opportunity to respond against you, and lets them have time to drum up an excuse.

    5) Prepare For Arrest

    No, you’re not violating the law. That doesn’t mean an officer might not arrest you, though. Be compliant, “Flex Your Rights” recommends; remind police that you’re only exercising your rights, remain calm, and don’t resist if they still try to arrest you. Your video will be your defense.

    6) Be Sure You Use Your Smartphone Correctly

    To record an incident, you first need to know how to use your smartphone’s video camera. Practice enough so that you know how to quickly activate it.

    7) Don’t Point Your Smartphone Like A Gun

    Remember, police may be under stress when they respond to a call. If you whip out your smartphone too quickly, it might look like you’re reaching for a weapon.

    When using it, don’t hold the phone in an aggressive position, either, and even watch your stance. Hold it with both hands, too, and if approached by an officer while recording with your smartphone, keep it at waist level and slightly tilted upward, “Flex Your Rights” recommends. That way, you can respond directly to the officer while still recording the conversation.

    This is a repost, but heck, useful advice.

    And a Thunderdome comment byJacob Schmidt (62) on police killings in USAmerica. A few frightening numbers included.

  203. rq says

    CBC:
    Freddie Gray death: Baltimore curfew lifted 6 days after riots;
    Baltimore rally celebrates charges in Freddie Gray police custody death;
    Baltimore police officers charged in Freddie Gray death released on bail.

    Toronto Star:
    Baltimore mayor lifts curfew as tensions ease;
    Baltimore protest turns to victory march in wake of charges.

    And because:
    Nigerian army rescues 300 more girls from Boko Haram. And then the article calls them ‘females’. Females that have been released. It sounds so… dehumanizing.

  204. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @rq:

    In the headline:

    Seattle ‘riot’: Police deploy flashbangs, tear gas against May Day marchers

    The only violent actions described are the actions of…

    …the police. So the headline describes a riot, but the only possible rioters based on the headline facts are????

  205. rq says

    Crip Dyke
    Ah. :D I’ve been sort of including the police in all ‘riot’ labels since the beginning. Like, if police are involved, it’s a riot – if it was the ordinary peaceful march, then it’s a protest.
    But I see your point. Thanks for the explanation.

  206. numerobis says

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/opinion/paul-krugman-race-class-and-neglect.html

    Krugman: Baltimore isn’t about race, it’s about class.

    My take: I used to believe this. Then it was pointed out to me (partly through pharyngula) that while class and economic inequality problems are one bad horrible thing, racism is a problem in itself: even blacks who “act white” aren’t accepted as such. The two interact in insidious ways, but we can’t solve racism just by solving income inequality.

  207. rq says

    Pepper spray and mace in Baltimore right now – people on the ground saying police shot someone (incl. media reports), BPD insists it hasn’t shot anyone. More later.
    *sigh*

  210. rq says

    Baltimore Curfew Ends, National Guard Moving Out This Week

    The citywide curfew was lifted Sunday as demonstrations remained peaceful. On Friday, the state’s attorney announced charges against six city officers for their roles in the death of Freddie Gray. It’s a move many demonstrators were calling for.

    Meghan McCorkell has more on the developments.

    The mayor has lifted that curfew here in the city after protesters have remained peaceful.
    This is yesterday’s news, FYI.

    Prince Writes Song Honoring Freddie Gray And The People Of Baltimore

    Prince has recorded a song that will address the recent riots in Baltimore after the death of 25-year-old Baltimore man Freddie Gray.

    According to Billboard, who spoke with a spokesperson for Prince, the track will be a “tribute to all people of the city of Baltimore.”

    The track will address the death of Freddie Gray, who died after suffering a spinal injury while in custody of the Baltimore police last month.

    It will also take a closer look at the socio-political issue in not just that city, but the nation following the many deaths of young black men including Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin.

    No release date or title has been revealed for the track, which was reportedly recorded at Paisley Park earlier this week.

    Billboard was able to get a first look at the cover art, which features an illustration of Prince with sunglasses and a long chain around his neck.

    Internal Investigation Reveals Baltimore Police Called Freddie Gray’s Requests for Medical Help “Jailitis”

    Details about Freddie Gray’s ride in the back of a police car last month have emerged, including that Baltimore police made fun of his pleas for medical assistance.

    The details were part of the Baltimore Police Department’s internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Gray’s death. The Baltimore Sun agreed not to share them until a decision was made on whether or not the officers involved in Gray’s arrest would be charged for their actions. On Friday, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby ruled Gray’s death a homicide, and charges were filed against all six officers.

    According to the Sun, Gray’s requests for help were dismissed as “jailitis”

    … with excerpts taken from the recent Baltimore Sun article on the investigation into Freddie Gray’s death, posted somewhere above.

    We ask these kids to protest non-violently and then they are treated like this. This is wrong. #Baltimore Youtube link at the link. :/

    Freddie Gray memorial, Baltimore, May 2, by @LBPhoto1

    My 49 hours in a Baltimore cell – for being a reporter

    As the 2015 uprising continues, fueled by the anger at Freddie Gray’s death in police custody, the state has been taking extraordinary measures to attempt to restore order.

    For some, this comes at the expense of our constitutional rights. I was one of them.

    As a working member of the press, I was arrested on 27 April, just as Baltimore began to erupt, and detained for 49 hours before being released without charge. A flurry of legal maneuvering, coupled with the fog of a state of emergency, meant that I and several others were deprived of our constitutional protections under the first, fourth, sixth, and eighth amendments.

    My journey started after Freddie Gray’s funeral, when I heard reports of a riot breaking out at Mondawmin Mall. I arrived in the middle of a melee. Unmasked people were running straight up to the police lines, brazenly pitching bricks from as little as 10 feet away. Clouds of teargas filled the air. I didn’t witness a single arrest – I only heard a captain shout out: “Just remember their faces.”

    A line of riot police then charged against a throng of rioters – I followed them, camera in hand, trying to capture the tumultuous scene. I was hit directly in the forehead with a plastic “less lethal” projectile that explodes with an irritant powder on impact. I stumbled over to the sidewalk. Everything went black for a moment, and the next thing I saw were faces staring down at me as I lay on the grass.

    Stunned, I got up and tried to continue reporting. Within a few minutes, the intersection cleared, and the riot squad stood at bay. A few television cameras remained, and I joined them to try to snap some photos of the police line. An officer from behind the line came up to me and told me that I needed to move. I reached in my jacket to show my press pass, and asked the armor-clad giant which way I should go. He started to say, “I don’t know, but you can’t stay here …” and was interrupted by a captain barking: “Him! He goes!”
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    Before I could say another word, I was thrown to the ground and put in handcuffs.

    I was brought over behind the police lines to sit behind an armored vehicle, where I would remain with my arresting officer for about two hours. I tried to make small talk with him to buy some leniency, telling him I was just a reporter. He asked me where I’m from; I said New York City. He then became much more convivial, chatting about Washington Heights, where he was from, saying that he’d much rather be at home eating dinner with his family.

    I heard him say to another cop: “I don’t even know why they told me to lock this guy up. He’s a reporter.” But reporter or not, I was now under arrest and on my way to Central Booking.

    The Baltimore city jail is a squalid, gray and soulless place. Hundreds of prisoners streamed in and were herded by the eights and nines into cells built for twos and fours. The cell that would be my home for the next 48 hours was 8 feet wide by 10 feet long, with a barely concealed toilet occupying about a quarter of the room.

    Cells marked “single” had as many as five people, and those marked “group” had up to nine prisoners crammed inside.

    In jail, the corrections officers (COs) are god and master, savior and executioner. All requests for basic necessities like water, toilet paper, food, or medical attention were brusquely denied. Every eight hours when “food” arrived, it was a uniform regimen of one elementary school milk carton and four slices of laundered bread-matter with one slice of either a yellowish cheese substance, or processed bologna. It was utterly inedible. […]

    Despite his unapologetic endorsement of pillaging, after listening to him talk for hours, I couldn’t shake the impression that looters like Dante couldn’t just be condemned as opportunistic thieves. His life story was unmistakably dotted with socioeconomic fault lines of Baltimore’s cycle of crime and punishment, lack of opportunity, and recidivist violence.

    An 18-year-old caught fleeing police with a gun on him said he only carried it because of the tough guys in his neighborhood. “I stay strapped so I can stay alive,” he confided to our cellmates. He approached his predicament with a rationale not unlike the national guard: more guns mean more safety.

    In jail, your constitutional rights are worth about as much as the food they feed you. Asking to see a lawyer when it took four hours to get water was like asking for caviar. When I cited the fourth and sixth amendment protecting due process, and Maryland state law banning detainment beyond 24 hours without a charge and statement of probable cause, the COs told us that the state of emergency meant that “24 hours is out the window”.

    We pleaded to talk to someone, anyone. When I asked one of the higher-ups, a lieutenant, what he was doing to ensure that the law was being followed, he told me bluntly: “They are violating your rights. And everyone here knows it.”

    And it goes on.
    Freedom of the press.

  211. rq says

    Gadsdamn blockquote fail.
    Joseph Kent addresses the crowd at Pennsylvania & North, Baltimore, May 2 by @LBPhoto1

    Texas Police Kill Gunmen at Exhibit Featuring Cartoons of Muhammad – somewhat tangential and a mix of issues, but there it is.

    “It was a setup both times” #JosephKent says police assured him he & group was safe moments b4 arrest #FreddieGray

    Video shows 4 black officers held at gunpoint by police

    Four black parole officers on official business were held at gunpoint and detained by police last year, videos recently obtained by The Journal News show.

    Black law enforcement leaders are criticizing Ramapo police for the incident last April, saying it highlights a larger problem with how police treat members of the black community.

    “If these guys aren’t safe, imagine what a young black man feels about interacting with the police,” said Damon Jones, the New York representative of Blacks in Law Enforcement of America. “They have no chance.”

    The state parole officers have a federal lawsuit pending against the town, its police department and others, alleging racial profiling and civil rights violations. Jones said Ramapo police need to explain “why they held the parole officers after they were identified.” Town officials maintain police did nothing wrong.

    On a cloudy morning last April, just as the commuter rush was beginning to die down, at least five police officers surrounded the parole officers’ car at a busy intersection in Airmont near restaurants and often crowded shopping plazas.

    Dash cam videos obtained by The Journal News under the Freedom of Information Law show police cars, with flashing lights, boxing in a vehicle later determined to be state-owned. One police officer can be seen immediately drawing a gun and aiming at the vehicle, using his police SUV as cover. Another officer can be seen reaching into the driver’s side of the state vehicle as parole officer Mario Alexandre emerges, raising his hands in the air.

    After the parole officers were ordered out of the vehicle and were talking to police a third police officer carrying a rifle is shown approaching the group.

    Police later said they were responding to a report of people wearing bulletproof vests in a car and that the parole officers did not make a courtesy call to alert the department that they were in town for an arrest. The parole officers’ car was not marked.

    Jones, who viewed the videos at the newspaper’s office, questions why the parole officers were held at least six minutes after being identified over the police radio as state employees. “Would they receive the same treatment if these parole officers were white?” he asked.

    The parole officers claim in their lawsuit that they were traumatized, humiliated and feared for their lives.

    Ben Carson mother’s health delays campaign events

    Retired physician Ben Carson told Sinclair Broadcasting on Sunday night that he plans to announce his candidacy for president of the United States, but his campaign said Monday he’ll reschedule a planned trip to Iowa to say goodbye to his ailing mother.

    “I’m willing to be part of the equation, and therefore, I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States of America,” Carson told Jeff Barnd.

    He is expected to make the official announcement Monday morning at the Detroit Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts. He had plans to travel to Iowa immediately after the announcement, but campaign spokeswoman Deana Bass said Monday that trip would be rescheduled to allow Carson to fly to Dallas to be with his mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.

    “After his announcement in Detroit, Dr. Carson will travel to Dallas to be at his mother Sonya Carson’s side. Dr. Carson’s mother who has been in failing health is now critically ill,” she said in a statement.

    The Washington Post, which first reported the news, recounted a tearful Sunday night of preparation and prayer in advance of his Monday morning announcement.

    Carson, 63, will become the fourth candidate to formally seek the Republican nomination in the 2016 race. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul have also announced their candidacies amid a widening field.

  212. rq says

    Loretta Lynch Unveils $20,000,000 Program to Expand Cop Body Cameras – which is a nice first step. But let’s look at training, attitude, etc. …

    Just a week on the job, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Friday unveiled a $20 million pilot program to expand the use of police body cameras for “transparency” amid nationwide protests over law enforcement treatment of suspects, according to NBC News.

    “Body-worn cameras hold tremendous promise for enhancing transparency, promoting accountability, and advancing public safety for law enforcement officers and the communities they serve,” Lynch said in a press release, notes the television news outlet.

    The move follows protests over allegations of police brutality in black communities across the nation following several high profile deaths, including Michael Brown by a white officer in Ferguson, Mo., the killing of a homeless man on Los Angeles’ Skid Row and most recently the spinal injury while in police custody that led to the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, the report says.

    NBC says the program includes $17 million in competitive grants for cameras, $2 million for training and technical assistance, and $1 million for evaluation.

    Police departments around the nation have begun equipping officers with the cameras, with encouragement from the Obama administration, which has asked Congress for increased funding for the cameras, notes NBC.

    A day after Lynch announced the program, the Democratic National Committee at its quarterly meeting on Saturday in San Francisco, Calif., supported the program and passed a resolution calling for reform of the criminal justice system and community investment.

    “[S]ince Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, we have witnessed over a dozen high profile officer-involved shooting cases and the loss of dozens more unarmed black men and women whose names we do not see in headlines or hashtags,” the resolution reads in part. “We can no longer endure the pain, heartbreak and destruction.”

    Elijah Cummings praises Baltimore response to Gray death

    Rep. Elijah Cummings on Sunday praised Baltimore’s response to the death of Freddie Gray and the state’s attorney who charged six police officers in the incident.

    “We did pretty good,” said the Maryland Democrat, whose West Baltimore congressional district has been the center of unrest in the wake of Gray’s death in police custody.“We had a lot of problems on Monday, but overall it’s been a lot of peaceful protests, and that’s a good thing.”

    Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Cummings backed Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who leveled charges, including false arrest, assault, murder and manslaughter against six officers allegedly implicated in the 25-year-old’s arrest and death in police custody.

    “Her integrity is impeccable without a doubt,” he said.

    Cummings called for an “inclusion revolution” to address the poverty and frustration in black communities in American cities. And he said all levels of government as well as the business community and foundations should participate in efforts to increase access to education to and job training.

    The hopelessness felt by many Americans, he said, was encapsulated by a young man who recently said to him, “Mr. Cummings, I feel like I’m in my coffin trying to claw my way out.”

    At BMore Booking last 2 hours w/ group waiting & greeting each protesters as they get released. All love #FreddieGray

    Non-violent civil disobedience training with @RevSekou in #Baltimore #BaltimoreUprising

    Mural. Selma. Baltimore. #FreddieGray That is going to be an impressive work of art.

    Speaking of art, Yall should definitely come check out #ManifestJustice if you’re in LA. Free to the public. Some amazing art. If you check out the hashtag, it has some very very fine examples.

  214. rq says

    Protest followed by candle light vigil for the people murdered this week in St. Louis. #HealSTL

    Duke Student Writes Open Letter About Why They Left A Noose On Campus. Excuses, excuses.

    A Duke University student who admitted to hanging a noose on the Durham, North Carolina campus released an open letter to the community on Friday saying, “Not a day goes by that we don’t think about the incident.”

    The student, not identified other than saying they are an undergraduate, said they did not hang the noose for racist reasons, but do not blame those who were outraged about it. Additionally, the student said, they are now reading more to learn about the noose’s historical context.

    A noose was discovered hanging from a tree on the Duke campus one month ago. It was swiftly condemned by university administrators at the time as “hateful and stupid.” A student came forward within a day to take responsibility for hanging it.

    “I told them the sequence of events whereby something that I made out of a piece of yellow cord I found, for what I considered at the time to be innocent fun, was instead taken for something so terrible,” the student wrote. “My purpose in hanging the noose was merely to take some pictures with my friends together with the noose, and then texting it to some others inviting them to come and ‘hang out’ with us — because it was such a nice day outside. If there was ever a pun with unintended consequences — this was certainly one. In addition, when I left I carelessly forgot the noose hanging on the tree for the rest of the afternoon and the evening rather than discarding it, as I should have.”

    The student said due to their “background and heritage,” they were “completely unaware” of the historical meaning of the noose in the South.

    Conclusions were “made that whomever had made the noose did it for racist reasons. This led – completely justifiably — to the student demonstrations, and the school’s expression of disgust of my actions,” the student continued. “The Duke Community should take pride in the spirit that unfolded and was demonstrated by the student body during those peaceful demonstrations.”

    Law enforcement will not press charges. The student “received a sanction through the university conduct process and is eligible to return to campus next semester,” the university said.

    Tune into #TelAviv. Article later.

    Convoy of 8 military vehicles on I-695 headed toward city. Last truck filled with plastic shields.

    Streets of #Athens, #Greece

    #BaltimoreUprising

    We are calling for pieces with the theme: #Uprising . No cost to submit. Link within.

  215. rq says

    Police fire tear gas during demo against racism, police brutality in Tel Aviv (VIDEO). Happens there, too!

    It’s Time to Talk About the Female Victims of Police Brutality

    Even though women account for 20 percent of unarmed people of color killed by the police between 1999 and 2014, their cases rarely garner the attention that the deaths of black men and boys do. Part of that has to do with the widespread assumptions about racial violence. “From lynching to police brutality, the presumed victim is a black male,” Dr. Treva B. Lindsey, an assistant professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Ohio State University, explained to Dame. “Therefore, black women and girls are viewed as exceptional victims as opposed to perpetual victims of anti-black racial violence.”

    The gendered assumptions around victims of police brutality have cropped up in protests and efforts to track excessive police force. A slideshow on the Root — “Black and Unarmed” — only showed men and boys killed by the police. Though Black Lives Matter was started by three queer black women, most posters at the protests that have sprung up across the country in the wake of Michael Brown’s death only list male victims of police brutality. In the wake of last winter’s #BlackLivesMatter protests, Evette Dionne put it succinctly when she wrote, “all black women request is that our deaths matter too.”

    The understanding of black victimhood as male can lead to broader initiatives that leave out female victims. When Obama launched his My Brother’s Keeper program, hundreds of women of color signed a letter requesting the inclusion of girls. “The need to acknowledge the crisis facing boys should not come at the expense of addressing the stunted opportunities for girls who live in the same households, suffer in the same schools, and struggle to overcome a common history of limited opportunities caused by various forms of discrimination,” the letter stated.

    Black girls are subject to discipline that’s harsher than punishment doled out to white girls; they’re also six times more likely to be suspended. (Black male students suffer, too, but the racial disparity in punishment is greater for girls than it is for boys.) On the street, black girls face police harassment just like their brothers and male cousins. In one instance, four black girls (ages 8, 9, 13, and 16) were stopped and even though cops found nothing illegal, the girls were taken to a precinct and had to wait until their mom picked them up.

    Black mothers are vulnerable to police violence as well. In one case, a black woman was made to put her infant child on the sidewalk so police could search the stroller for drugs. (Nothing was found.) Tarika Wilson’s 1-year-old son was injured when cops killed her during a drug raid. Not only was she unarmed, she was holding him when she was shot. When Miriam Carey was killed in a hail of bullets, her 1-year-old daughter was in the backseat. A few weeks after Eric Garner died in an illegal chokehold, a New York police officer put a seven months pregnant woman in a chokehold after a dispute over illegal grilling.

    And being female makes black women especially vulnerable to sexual harassment. During a stop-and-frisk in New York, a police officer searched a young woman’s phone, then copied her number down in order to send her threatening text messages. Most recently, former Officer Daniel Holtzclaw was charged with the rape and sexual assault of 13 black women carried out while on-duty.

    Black women and girls are killed in their homes, outside their homes, in the street, and even while in custody. (Natasha McKenna, a mentally-ill black woman, was likely Tasered to death in police custody while fully restrained.) In either direction, age doesn’t seem to protect black women from excessive force. Aiyana Stanley-Jones was 7; Tyisha Miller was 19. Pearlie Golden was 93 when she was fatally shot in her home by police; Kathryn Johnston was 92.

    As cases across the country have shown, black women are not exceptional victims. Yet stories of female victims of police violence don’t fit into the familiar narrative and thus don’t get the same attention, despite the efforts of black feminists. These women and girls have lost their lives — now they’re in danger of being forgotten.

    Martin O’Malley: Baltimore unrest a ‘heartbreaking setback’ – a setback to what?

    Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said on Sunday the unrest in Baltimore has boosted his motivation to address economic marginalization and that it would be a central theme of his expected Democratic presidential campaign.

    “It has to be central,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in the wake of protests and riots following the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in Baltimore police custody.

    O’Malley, who was Baltimore’s mayor from 1999 to 2007, rejected House Speaker John Boehner’s contention that liberals have been applying their solutions for urban poverty for 50 years and failing.

    “We haven’t had an agenda for American cities probably since at least Jimmy Carter,” O’Malley told NBC host Chuck Todd. “We have left cities to fend for themselves.”

    Boehner (R-Ohio) had pointed to the continued struggles of Gray’s Baltimore neighborhood, even after a government-led effort at urban restoration had poured $130 million into the area to build schools and homes and provide job training and health care, as evidence that spending money on big poverty-alleviation efforts had not succeeded.

    O’Malley rejected Todd’s suggestion that plenty of money has been available to help inner cities, calling $130 million “a spit in the bucket” of what was needed to address systemic poverty and decrying the Republican speaker’s “crocodile tears.”

    The former governor defended his record against critics who blame his tough-on-crime approach as mayor to contributing to strained relations between Baltimore residents and police, citing the drop in the city’s violent crime, incarceration and recidivism rates and his efforts to effectively decriminalize pot possession and other minor transgressions.

    “This has been a heartbreaking setback for an otherwise remarkable comeback,” O’Malley said.

    The frustration spilling forth in Baltimore, he said, stemmed from systemic issues in American society. “The problem is the fact that we’ve built an economy that’s leaving … so many citizens behind,” he said.

    If he announces for president as expected later this month, O’Malley said he still would do it in Baltimore. “I wouldn’t think of announcing any place else,” he said.

    For fun: Michelle Obama on Sasha and Malia Growing Up: ‘They’re Conditioning Us for Empty-Nest Syndrome’. Now I’m waiting for Barack’s interview on the same subject. :P

    Written in 1969. Still relevant. Book recommendation, for “Black Is”, by Turner Brown Jr., Illustrated by Ann Weisman.

    The Best and Worst Places to Grow Up: How Your Area Compares

    Location matters – enormously. If you’re poor and live in the New York area, it’s better to be in Putnam County than in Manhattan or the Bronx. Not only that, the younger you are when you move to Putnam, the better you will do on average. Children who move at earlier ages are less likely to become single parents, more likely to go to college and more likely to earn more.

    Every year a poor child spends in Putnam County adds about $150 to his or her annual household income at age 26, compared with a childhood spent in the average American county. Over the course of a full childhood, which is up to age 20 for the purposes of this analysis, the difference adds up to about $3,100, or 12 percent, more in average income as a young adult.

    These findings, particularly those that show how much each additional year matters, are from a new study by Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren that has huge consequences on how we think about poverty and mobility in the United States. The pair, economists at Harvard, have long been known for their work on income mobility, but the latest findings go further. Now, the researchers are no longer confined to talking about which counties merely correlate well with income mobility; new data suggests some places actually cause it. […]

    Across the country, the researchers found five factors associated with strong upward mobility: less segregation by income and race, lower levels of income inequality, better schools, lower rates of violent crime, and a larger share of two-parent households. In general, the effects of place are sharper for boys than for girls, and for lower-income children than for rich.

    “The broader lesson of our analysis,” Mr. Chetty and Mr. Hendren write, “is that social mobility should be tackled at a local level.”

    In some places, the new estimates of mobility conflict with earlier estimates. For example, previous estimates suggested that New York City was a good place for lower-income children to grow up: Children raised in lower-income families in New York had above-average outcomes in adulthood.

    But New York appeared above average in part because it has a large number of immigrants, who have good rates of upward mobility no matter where they live: Nothing about New York in particular caused these children to do better.

    To remove variation that was simply caused by different types of people living in different areas, Mr. Chetty and Mr. Hendren based the latest estimates on the incomes of more than five million children who moved between areas when they were growing up in the 1980s and 1990s. These estimates are causal: They suggest moving a given child to a new area would in fact cause him or her to do better or worse.

    The Baltimore City FOP (@FOP3) is raising money to support criminal activity, in violation of your TOS, @PayPal. Link to the fundraiser within, I don’t know if it’s been taken down yet.

  216. rq says

    Starting the morning with moderation. Woot! Check backfor a new 215.
    ‘Our Demand Is Simple: Stop Killing Us’

    Since Aug. 9, 2014, when Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department shot and killed Michael Brown, Mckesson and a core group of other activists have built the most formidable American protest movement of the 21st century to date. Their innovation has been to marry the strengths of social media — the swift, morally blunt consensus that can be created by hashtags; the personal connection that a charismatic online persona can make with followers; the broad networks that allow for the easy distribution of documentary photos and videos — with an effort to quickly mobilize protests in each new city where a police shooting occurs.
    Continue reading the main story

    We often think of online activism as a shallow bid for fleeting attention, but the movement that Mckesson is helping to lead has been able to sustain the country’s focus and reach millions of people. Among many black Americans, long accustomed to mistreatment or worse at the hands of the police, the past year has brought on an incalculable sense of anger and despair. For the nation as a whole, we have come to learn the names of the victims — Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Tony Robinson, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray — because the activists have linked their fates together in our minds, despite their separation by many weeks and thousands of miles.

    In the process, the movement has managed to activate a sense of red alert around a chronic problem that, until now, has remained mostly invisible outside the communities that suffer from it. Statistics on the subject are notoriously poor, but evidence does not suggest that shootings of black men by police officers have been significantly on the rise. Nevertheless, police killings have become front-page news and a political flash point, entirely because of the sense of emergency that the movement has sustained. […]

    Elzie is “Day 1,” the term given to Ferguson protesters who showed up on Aug. 9. She grew up all around St. Louis, spending much of her childhood in the beauty salons where her mother worked. The day Michael Brown was killed, Elzie, who had been mourning the death of her mother, went down to Canfield Green, a housing complex near where Brown was shot, to pay her respects.

    The first thing Elzie did was tweet: “It’s still blood on the ground where Mike Brown Jr was murdered. A cone in place where his body laid for hours today. #STL #Ferguson.” She experimented with other networks to see if they could do a better job of spreading what she was seeing. “I took an Instagram photo — there was one teddy bear; maybe three, four candles on the ground,” she told me. “I even tried Tumblr, a social-media platform that I never use. Those videos got hundreds of thousands of reposts.”
    Continue reading the main story

    Over the next few weeks, Elzie, who studied journalism in college, emerged as one of the most reliable real-time observers of the confrontations between the protesters and the police. She took photos of the protest organizers, of the sandwiches she and her friends made to feed other protesters, of the Buddhist monks who showed up at the burned QuikTrip. Mckesson, too, was live-tweeting when he was back in Ferguson, integrating video and referring to protesters and police officers alike by name. Mckesson’s tweets were usually sober and detailed, whereas Elzie’s were cheerfully sarcastic, mock-heroic and forthright: a running account of events that felt intimate.
    Photo
    Credit Christaan Felber for The New York Times

    Other voices came to the fore as well. There was Bassem Masri, perhaps Ferguson’s most famous live-streamer, who attracted tens of thousands of viewers to nightly feeds that showed what the protests looked like beyond the media barricades. Another local activist, Ashley Yates, created T-shirts and hoodies that read “ASSATA TAUGHT ME” — a reference to the former Black Panther Party member Assata Shakur — and that became part of the protest iconography. Clifton Kinnie, a senior in high school, organized other students throughout St. Louis. By the fall, these activists and a handful of others had gone from lone Internet figures to recognized faces of the movement.

    Mckesson and Elzie focused much of their attention on criticizing the mainstream media, who devoted too much airtime, they felt, to violence and discord among the protest community. As a corrective, in mid-September, they teamed up with Brittany Packnett, the executive director of St. Louis’s Teach for America program, and Justin Hansford, a law professor at St. Louis University, to publish the This Is the Movement newsletter, which scrutinized and curated the daily news out of Ferguson. A wide range of readers, from reporters to protesters to officials within the Department of Justice, subscribed. Pretty soon, Mckesson and Elzie were appearing regularly on TV and radio. The two cultivated appealing personas, becoming easily recognizable to their many followers. Mckesson had begun wearing red shoes and a red shirt to protests. Later, he replaced this outfit with a bright blue Patagonia vest, which he now wears everywhere he goes. (Someone created a DeRay’s vest Twitter account.) Elzie often wore dark lipstick, a pair of oversize sunglasses and a leather jacket: the beautician’s daughter channeling a Black Panther.

    Mckesson and Elzie have always insisted that the movement is leaderless, that it is a communal expression of pent-up anguish spilling onto the streets, but over the fall, they were frequently called upon to serve as its spokespeople. Elzie was invited to conferences and panels, and talked with established social-justice activists around the country about the actions in Ferguson. Mckesson, who was dutifully putting out the newsletter during this time while still working at his job in Minneapolis, began using Twitter to announce actions throughout St. Louis. He and Elzie would tweet a time and location and then wait for the people to show up. By October, they were also being followed by the police, who would sometimes arrive at the scene of the action before the protesters themselves.
    Continue reading the main story

    Together, Mckesson and Elzie were developing a model of the modern protester: part organizer, part citizen journalist who marches through American cities while texting, as charging cords and battery packs fall out of his pockets. By Nov. 24, when Robert McCulloch, the St. Louis County prosecutor, announced that Darren Wilson would not be indicted on murder charges, a network of hundreds of organizers was already in place, ready to bring thousands of people into the streets with a tweet. […]

    In March, Mckesson and Elzie traveled to Selma, Ala., for the 50th-anniversary commemoration of Bloody Sunday, the pivotal moment in the civil rights era when protesters marching on the Edmund Pettus Bridge were brutally attacked on national television by Alabama state troopers. I stood with Mckesson on the bridge. “We’re really up high,” he said, staring down at the brown waters of the Alabama River. “Can you imagine having all those troopers on horseback riding toward you, trying to beat you down? Where do you run? You definitely can’t jump over the side here.” All day, hundreds of tourists had been walking over the bridge, solemnly touching its supports and snapping selfies in front of its historical markers. If Mckesson was feeling the sway of the 50th anniversary, he betrayed no emotion. Instead, he asked me how far I thought the drop was down to the river, and started searching Google for answers.
    Continue reading the main story

    Mckesson and Elzie have each expressed ambivalence over whether the youth movement should try to draw from the popular image of the civil rights movement. They worry that the constant comparisons with something that happened 50 years ago will dilute the immediacy of today’s protests. Much as they admire the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — each is well versed in his writings — they feel his legacy has been distorted. He is held up as an avatar of genteel protest, invoked by conservative politicians and leaders in the black community as a way to discredit their movement. Mckesson and Elzie frequently point out that King was in fact a revolutionary who believed in the power of confrontation, and that it’s a crime against American history to confuse the real King with an appealingly passive one. To make their point, they participated in an action called #ReclaimMLK, which sought to counter “efforts to reduce a long history marred with the blood of countless women and men into iconic images of men in suits behind pulpits.”

    “Also,” Elzie often says whenever someone brings up King as a way of questioning their work, “they killed him too.”

    If you ask Mckesson and Elzie why there is no central figure in today’s movement, they will again insist on the advantages of leaderlessness. If you bring up legislative reform, they will point out that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been all but rolled back and that their aims go well beyond small changes to the criminal-justice system. If you bring up nonviolence as the only civilized way to effect change, they will recite King’s words: “A riot is the language of the unheard,” or they will say they don’t condone rioting, but they understand it. Their resistance to confining the civil rights movement to a museum made Mckesson and Elzie an awkward fit for Selma, which was filled with people doing just that. […]

    In an interview with People magazine to promote the release of the film “Selma,” Oprah Winfrey voiced some of the questions skeptics have had about the modern protest movement. “I think it’s wonderful to march and to protest, and it’s wonderful to see, all across the country, people doing it,” she said. “But what I’m looking for is some kind of leadership to come out of this to say: ‘This is what we want. This is what has to change, and these are the steps that we need to take to make these changes, and this is what we’re willing to do to get it.’ ”

    Certain factions of the movement have made explicit demands. During the Eric Garner protests in New York, a group called the Justice League NYC, which is affiliated with Harry Belafonte, came out with a list that included the immediate firing of Officer Pantaleo and the appointment of a special prosecutor. In the wake of the Department of Justice’s report on Ferguson, some people within the St. Louis protest community demanded the recall of Mayor James Knowles III. But on the whole, the movement does shy away from specific policy prescriptions. Instead, the work seems to be aimed at an abrupt, wide-scale change in consciousness, channeling the grief and anger that these police killings engender around the country. The pipelines for that energy are still under construction, but asking the leaders of the youth movement what they plan on doing with it is akin to barging into a funeral and asking the mourners why they haven’t donated their inheritance to charity yet.
    Continue reading the main story

    Soon after I met them, Mckesson and Elzie took me on a tour of some of the sites around St. Louis where black men have been killed by the police. Many of the buildings that burned during the protests were standing in ruin. “They want to leave them all up,” Elzie said, referring to the St. Louis city government. “They want this to be a museum of black rage.” As we drove from the Six Stars Market, where Kajieme Powell, 25, was shot in August, to the gas station where Antonio Martin, 18, was killed in December, Elzie talked about the emotion behind the movement and how, for many people in St. Louis, the Ferguson protests represented the first time they were able to collectively voice their frustrations with the police. “Our demand is simple,” Elzie said. “Stop killing us.” […]

    Perhaps the most telling evidence of change was the charges filed on May 1 against six Baltimore police officers related to the death of Freddie Gray, which ranged from misconduct in office to second-degree depraved heart murder. While making the announcement, Marilyn Mosby, the Baltimore state’s attorney, said: “To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America, I heard your call for ‘no justice, no peace.’ Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.”
    Continue reading the main story
    Continue reading the main story

    The attention that political figures are paying to the movement points to real anxiety that African-American voters who supported President Obama won’t turn out again. “This issue is at the forefront of people in the black community,” Quentin James, co-founder of the public-affairs firm Vestige Strategies, which specializes in engaging communities of color, told me. “Not voting is a choice, and many may choose to stay home. If you look at a pivotal state like Ohio, African-Americans ended up overvoting in 2012. If they undervote in 2016, the election becomes a little bit shakier.”

    In talking about the problem of police violence at all, these national political figures are reversing a three-decade presumption within the Democratic Party, one established by Bill Clinton himself in 1994, that there is zero incentive to advocate for the rights of criminal suspects. “The narrative used to be: ‘We support the police and whatever police unions say,’ ” James said. “That has changed. Technology, having a video camera anywhere, has changed the game.”

    Most of the activists are deeply skeptical that the candidates will follow through on their promises. Rachel Gilmer, the associate director for the African American Policy Forum, pointed to the long history of Democratic candidates who have “embraced rhetoric that implies their willingness and readiness to produce systemic change. However, once they’ve solidified our support and are elected into office, we’ve seen that they aren’t willing to confront or align themselves with the powers, systems and interests that continue to exploit black lives.” Gilmer went on to say that, absent a candidate who would be willing to address white supremacy directly, many within the movement would be content to opt out of voting for “the lesser of two evils.”

    But perhaps the question of political follow-through is misplaced. “Black lives matter” is a vital statement, especially when people are confronted with all the footage that shows police officers who may not agree. But it is more a provocation than a platform, a phrase that might be more appropriate for a rally than a sustained political movement. Jim Crow was an evil that could be addressed by Congress and argued against before the Supreme Court. But how do you legislate the worth of black lives? Could a law force a police officer to cut out the possible prejudice and fear he feels when he sees a young black man, however seemingly unarmed, reach for his waistband?

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    For now, the victories of the movement are difficult to quantify — the paradox, perhaps, of a movement that exists to raise awareness of death. Shortly after Tony Robinson was shot and killed in Madison, Mike Koval, the city’s police chief, released the name of the officer involved and visited Robinson’s mother. In an interview with CNN, Koval said: “We have a person of color cut down in his prime — he was unarmed — by a police officer. So whether I like it or not, I am inextricably tied to the Ferguson phenomenon.”

    “Do I think that was influenced by the protests in Ferguson?” Mckesson said. “Yes. But Tony’s still dead, so how do you call that a win?”

    I like Deray, I really do. But I was hoping for more about Johnetta Elzie, or perhaps a media profile of one of the other hundreds of activist leaders out there (and no few are from Ferguson, either!).
    It looks like the media has chosen its leaders.

    “Your Peace Is Violence” hanging from Langdell Hall at Harvard Law School

    Interactive map of an article posted in the moderated comment: Find out how well your child will fare financially at age 26, based on where you live.

    Going out swinging? Obama Finds a Bolder Voice on Race Issues

    Many presidents have governed during times of racial tension, but Mr. Obama is the first to see in the mirror a face that looks like those on the other side of history’s ledger. While his first term was consumed with the economy, war and health care, his second keeps coming back to the societal divide that was not bridged by his election. A president who eschewed focusing on race now seems to have found his voice again as he thinks about how to use his remaining time in office and beyond.

    In the aftermath of racially charged unrest in places like Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and New York, Mr. Obama came to the Bronx on Monday for the announcement of a new nonprofit organization that is being spun off from his White House initiative called My Brother’s Keeper. Staked by more than $80 million in commitments from corporations and other donors, the new group, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, will in effect provide the nucleus for Mr. Obama’s post-presidency, which will begin in January 2017.

    “This will remain a mission for me and for Michelle not just for the rest of my presidency but for the rest of my life,” Mr. Obama said. “And the reason is simple,” he added. Referring to some of the youths he had just met, he said: “We see ourselves in these young men. I grew up without a dad. I grew up lost sometimes and adrift, not having a sense of a clear path. The only difference between me and a lot of other young men in this neighborhood and all across the country is that I grew up in an environment that was a little more forgiving.”

    Organizers said the new alliance already had financial pledges from companies like American Express, Deloitte, Discovery Communications and News Corporation. The money will be used to help companies address obstacles facing young black and Hispanic men, provide grants to programs for disadvantaged youths, and help communities aid their populations. […]

    The alliance was in the works before the disturbances last week after the death of Freddie Gray, the black man who suffered fatal injuries while in police custody in Baltimore, but it reflected the evolution of Mr. Obama’s presidency. For him, in a way, it is coming back to issues that animated him as a young community organizer and politician. It was his own struggle with race and identity, captured in his youthful memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” that stood him apart from other presidential aspirants.

    But that was a side of him that he kept largely to himself through the first years of his presidency while he focused on other priorities like turning the economy around, expanding government-subsidized health care and avoiding electoral land mines en route to re-election.

    After securing a second term, Mr. Obama appeared more emboldened. Just a month after his 2013 inauguration, he talked passionately about opportunity and race with a group of teenage boys in Chicago, a moment aides point to as perhaps the first time he had spoken about these issues in such a personal, powerful way as president. A few months later, he publicly lamented the death of Trayvon Martin, a black Florida teenager, saying that “could have been me 35 years ago.”

    President Obama on Monday with Darinel Montero, a student at Bronx International High School who introduced him before remarks at Lehman College in the Bronx. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

    That case, along with public ruptures of anger over police shootings in Ferguson and elsewhere, have pushed the issue of race and law enforcement onto the public agenda. Aides said they imagined that with his presidency in its final stages, Mr. Obama might be thinking more about what comes next and causes he can advance as a private citizen.

    That is not to say that his public discussion of these issues has been universally welcomed. Some conservatives said he had made matters worse by seeming in their view to blame police officers in some of the disputed cases.

    “President Obama, when he was elected, could have been a unifying leader,” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican candidate for president, said at a forum last week. “He has made decisions that I think have inflamed racial tensions.”

    On the other side of the ideological spectrum, some liberal African-American activists have complained that Mr. Obama has not done enough to help downtrodden communities. While he is speaking out more, these critics argue, he has hardly used the power of the presidency to make the sort of radical change they say is necessary.

    The line Mr. Obama has tried to straddle has been a serrated one. He condemns police brutality as he defends most officers as honorable. He condemns “criminals and thugs” who looted in Baltimore while expressing empathy with those trapped in a cycle of poverty and hopelessness. […]

    “Which is why in addressing the issues in Baltimore or Ferguson or New York, the point I made was that if we’re just looking at policing, we’re looking at it too narrowly,” he added. “If we ask the police to simply contain and control problems that we ourselves have been unwilling to invest and solve, that’s not fair to the communities, it’s not fair to the police.”

    Moreover, if society writes off some people, he said, “that’s not the kind of country I want to live in; that’s not what America is about.”

    His message to young men like Malachi Hernandez, who attends Boston Latin Academy in Massachusetts, is not to give up.

    “I want you to know you matter,” he said. “You matter to us.”

    And black women and girls, too. And it’s not only the policing, but don’t ignore it, please.

    As Ben Carson bashes Obama, many blacks see a hero’s legacy fade

    For many young African Americans who grew up seeing Carson as the embodiment of black achievement — a poor inner-city boy who became one of the world’s most accomplished neurosurgeons — his emergence as a conservative hero and unabashed critic of the United States’ first black president has been jarring.

    Carson has been a black icon since 1987, when he became the first person to successfully separate twins conjoined at the backs of their heads. He was a rare and much-desired role model: a black man who became known for his intellect, not for telling jokes or shooting basketballs.

    Posters of Carson hung on bulletin boards in classrooms. Reading “Gifted Hands,” his 1992 autobiography, was practically a rite of passage.

    But now retired from his medical career, Carson, 63, has become known more widely since using his speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast to offer a conservative critique of U.S. health-care and spending policies, while standing a few feet from President Obama.

    In the ensuing months and years, Carson’s attacks grew sharper — deriding Obama’s signature health-care law as the “worst thing to have happened in this nation since slavery” and, in the pages of GQ, likening Obama to a “psychopath.” Carson’s 2014 book, “One Nation,” assails a decline of moral values in America and its government.

    As Carson prepares to announce his candidacy for president on Monday in his home town of Detroit, his political base is now whiter and more rural.

    Carson’s personal accomplishments — and the work he has done to help black communities — still garner respect and pride among African Americans. Yet, while he has been a conservative for as long as he has been famous, many worry that he risks eroding his legacy in their community and transforming himself into a fringe political figure.

    Some black pastors who were Carson’s biggest promoters have stopped recommending his book. Members of minority medical organizations that long boasted of their affiliations with him say he is called an “embarrassment” on private online discussion groups.

    “Has he lost his sense of who he is?” said the Rev. Jamal Bryant, a prominent black pastor in Baltimore, where Carson lived for decades when he was director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. “He does not see he is the next Herman Cain.” [..]

    The admiration many blacks have long felt for Carson differentiates him from past black conservative presidential candidates such as Cain, the former pizza executive who briefly rose in the polls during the 2012 primary season, Carson’s political supporters say. He has won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by Republican President George W. Bush, and the Spingarn Medal, the top honor given by the traditionally liberal NAACP.

    His stature, Carson supporters say, helps him combat the perception that the far right is exclusive and out of touch. Critics, these supporters say, underestimate Carson’s potential impact on the race at their own peril.

    [He’s already a famous surgeon and author, so why is Ben Carson toying with a long shot presidential bid?]

    “I would be elated if the left felt this too shall pass and he is just the chocolate flavor of the election cycle,” said Vernon Robinson, a fellow black conservative and chairman of the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee. So far, Robinson said, the group has raised $16 million.

    “Despite everything so far,” Robinson said, “he still has a reservoir of residual admiration.”

    Carson’s renown — and his stature in black America — dates to his early years as a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins. Even then, Carson said, he always felt a sense of duty to help advance his race. […]

    Presidential politics was not originally in Carson’s plans, he said.

    Retirement, he said, meant relaxing in his Florida home, playing golf, maybe a television appearance here or there.

    That all changed after his appearance at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast. It was the second time Carson was invited to speak at the event. The first time, in 1997, he made quips about the unfairness of HMOs. But this time, he went further. With repeated references to his tendency to be politically incorrect and offend the “PC police,” he offered an alternative view of health-care reform in which people would simply have private accounts to pay for their own care with pre-tax income. He railed against the debt and tax policies that seek to force the wealthy to pay a higher share than others — endorsing a flat tax, similar to tithing.

    Carson, who does not often speak with notes, insisted that this was not a political speech but an exhale of frustration of the state of the country. But then new admirers started suggesting he run for president. Within days, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial proclaiming “Ben Carson for President.” He began thinking maybe he should.

    The political turn was unexpected for many who knew him. The Rev. Frank Reid of Bethel AME Church in Baltimore found it “astounding.” When they were at Yale together, Reid said, Carson was universally regarded as brilliant and hard-working. Reid could not recall Carson participating in student activism because he was too busy studying with his future wife, Candy, in the library.

    When Carson first promoted “Gifted Hands,” Reid invited him to his church so his congregation could hear the story. But if Carson were to speak today, Reid said he would ask him to come in for a “family session, with our leaders, behind closed doors, to find out what is really going on.

    “I am hedging about what to say, because you cannot take away the impact that he’s had,” Reid said. “But before we turn on the brother, we have to hear him out. As shocking as some of the things he’s said are, I would rather have a discussion than attack someone who has done respectful work.”

    Carson says he is willing to put his legacy aside to do what he thinks is best for the country. Still, it matters to him.

    Sitting at the Sheraton Hotel in New York last month, Carson seemed anxious as he prepared to address the National Action Network a few hours later. This audience, a mostly black group seeking the advancement of black people, used to be an easy crowd for Carson. But times had changed.

    “I have no idea how they are going to receive me,” Carson said.

    Obama to Launch ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ as Independent Organization

    President Barack Obama will announce the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a new non-profit organization, at an event in New York City Monday, the White House announced.

    My Brother’s Keeper, a key initiative of Obama’s administration, was launched in 2014 to address the needs of boys and men of color. In launching a non-profit organization separate from the White House, Obama is preparing to continue those efforts when he leaves office.

    The announcement is especially timely as tensions in Baltimore this week surrounding the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who was injured in police custody, have stoked conversations about poverty, race, and the unmet needs of young people. In remarks to the media this week, Obama urged a focus on broader issues in addition to police reform. He also alluded to My Brother’s Keeper.

    “If we are serious about solving this problem, then we’re going to not only have to help the police, we’re going to think about what can we do, the rest of us, to make sure that we’re providing early education to these kids to make sure that we’re reforming our criminal justice system so it’s not just a pipeline from schools to prisons,” Obama said.

    My Brother’s Keeper has encouraged interagency efforts, public-private partnerships, and work at the local level to address issues like disproportionate rates of school discipline for black boys and mentorship programs.

    More than $300 million has now been committed to the White House from the private sector in grants, in-kind contributions, or other resources, according to a first year progress report released earlier this year. And more than 200 mayors, tribal chiefs, and county executives from across the country have signed on to the compact and have taken concrete steps to address cradle-to-career opportunities for boys of color and address issues of equity, according to the report.

    The president had given some indication that he planned to continue focusing on issues related to boys of color after he leaves the White House, including in a meeting with big-city superintendents and school leaders who met with him in March to discuss progress on the boys-of-color initiatives they were implementing in their school districts.

  217. rq says

    All black lives matter. Transgender woman arrested during Baltimore riots, jailed among men: attorney

    A transgender woman collared among the multitude of rioters during Baltimore’s chaotic unrest on Monday was detained in men’s quarters at the city jail, a defense attorney that oversaw the woman’s bail hearing says.

    Deairra Venable was forced to go braless when she appeared before a judge on Wednesday on misdemeanor burglary charges, attorney Mirriam Seddiq told the Daily News.

    “They took away her bra. You can see she has breasts,” Seddiq said. “She’s a woman.”

    A glass panel separated Venable from one of Seddiq’s attorneys on Thursday evening. The two spoke of the other inmates “ogling” at her naked body through a small window after being told to strip for an intake search.

    The guards are “taunting” her, too, Venable has claimed. Because of Maryland’s state of emergency, the correctional guards overseeing her time in custody can apparently get away with mistreatment.

    “The whole situation is degrading,” one of the firm’s four attorneys, Astrid Munn, told The News.

    Their client, who is 30 years old, has lived a majority of her life as a woman, transitioning as at age 14 while attending Baltimore County Public Schools. She graduated in 2002.

    Unfortunately for her, she was not among more than 100 people who had to be released from Central Booking when cops were unable to compile and file the necessary paperwork in the required timeframe, Seddiq said.

    The state’s Office of the Public Defender is already challenging what it calls the unlawful detention of 230 inmates arrested during the riots that erupted among those protesting the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray while in police custody.

    Venable faces fourth-degree burglary charges after allegedly entering one of the businesses that was looted on Monday. She reportedly has no record of violent criminal offenses.

    “She has lived a fairly difficult life as a black transgender woman in Baltimore,” Seddiq added. […]

    Her concern for the woman is grounded in the lack of facilities and care that a transgender inmate needs while in custody. She was initially booked as a woman until officials inspected her identification, which revealed that she was born a male.

    Intake guards then took away her bra, gave her a sheer top and placed her in a small holding cell with several men. It was either that, or solitary confinement.

    She’s now wearing a yellow jumper, Munn observed during Thursday’s meeting.

    The placement of transgender women inside male correctional facilities may lead to sexual assaults, advocates say. […]

    The situation is similar in Baltimore, where there is no alternative facility for transgender inmates to find safe harbor, subjecting them to a stream of abuses and what advocates have called cruel and unusual punishment.

    “Our argument is that you have to treat her separately,” Seddiq continued. “I don’t see where her safety and security is less than her going out and looting and rioting again. I just don’t get it.”

    It’s been four days since Venable has had access to her estrogen pills and medication to block testosterone, tossing her into the throes of withdrawal with symptoms of hot flashes and nausea, as described by Munn.

    Her arrest happened while inside a clothing store on Pennsylvania Ave., recording video of the riots when police arrested her, according to Mashable.

    Her bail was initially set at $75,000, and later increased to $100,000, one of the highest bonds Seddiq said she saw on Wednesday. A percentage of that bail was posted Friday allowing Venable to go free for now.

    Seddiq wasn’t alone in her observation, as noted by the Public Defender’s Office in a challenge to Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to suspend a rule that dictates the release of any jailbird against whom formal charges have not been filed within 24 hours of an arrest.

    “We are being told that, now that the hearings have resumed, the bails that are being imposed on our indigent clients from this impoverished community are prohibitively high,” the office wrote in a statement. “The practice of setting excessive money bail, which only the wealthy could post, is discriminatory.”

    Just… words fail. Flail. Quite literally.

    The Languages of the Unheard, on MLK, quotes, and what he really meant.

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was addressing the Universalist Unitarian Assembly. The year was 1966, late spring, in the slow interstitium between Selma’s success with the Voting Rights Act and the SCLC’s next project with the Chicago Freedom Movement. King’s tone at the lectern was pensive. In a speech known now as “Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution,” he presented in guarded tones his philosophy of nonviolence as a vehicle for social change as the superior option to strategies prescribing violence as revolution. The speech marked a slight inflection of Kingian philosophy in the increasingly tense environment of the late 60s. Less optimistic, less morally rigid, and less certain than the oft-quoted pre-VRA body of work, it reads as King trying to convince himself of the certitude of his path as much as anyone in that crowd:

    People talk about the long hot summer that’s ahead. I always say that I don’t think we have to have a long, hot violent summer. I certainly don’t want to see it because I hate violence and I don’t think it solves any problems. I think we can offset the long, hot, violent summer with the long, hot, non-violent summer. People are huddled in ghettos, living in the most crowded and depressing conditions. They need some outlet; some way to express their legitimate discontent. What is a better way than to provide non-violent channels through which they can do it? If this isn’t provided they are going to find it through more irrational, misguided means. So the non-violent movement has a job to do, in providing the non-violent channels through which those who are caught in these conditions can express their discontent and frustration. Now let me say that I’m still convinced that non-violence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and human dignity. tweet

    Half a decade of upheaval. Five straight long, hot summers starting with the deaths of four little girls in Selma and culminating with the seething, white hot wave of riots in 1968 after King’s assassination. Violence, both in the overwhelming systemic forces of racist oppression that created the situation and in the Black riots of frustration and sorrow, was woven into the fabric of the era. It bled into the anti-Vietnam movement and into the burgeoning gay liberation movement at places like Kent State and in Stonewall, respectively. The sheer scale of rioting and the asymmetrical violence that it existed in response to-the numbers of children, protesters, notable leaders, and demi-celebs bombed, beaten and gunned down-would be unfathomable if exported to the present-day.

    King was deeply aware. His speeches and actions from Selma onward are deep acknowledgements of an aspect of the Civil Rights Movement that oft goes overlooked in the shallow contemporary quote-mining reading of history: that it was as much defined by sometimes-violent upheavals as it was by nonviolent protests. King may well have had control of the moral center and proved effective, but his “The Other America” speech, the penultimate circuit speech he would give before his death, indicated a growing defensiveness and a framework for understanding violence, without condoning it:

    Now I wanted to say something about the fact that we have lived over these last two or three summers with agony and we have seen our cities going up in flames. And I would be the first to say that I am still committed to militant, powerful, massive, non-violence as the most potent weapon in grappling with the problem from a direct action point of view. I’m absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt. And I feel that we must always work with an effective, powerful weapon and method that brings about tangible results. But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear 3 of 8 that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity. tweet

    Perhaps it was Malcolm X that understood best the somewhat symbiotic relationship that radical nonviolence had with radical violence. “I want Dr. King to know that I didn’t come to Selma to make his job difficult,” he said after a speech while King was in jail in Selma. “I really did come thinking I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they will be more willing to hear Dr. King.” The constant threat of riots was a part of the leverage that gave King such wide latitude to operate, and the fear of Black frustration spilling over sent many White leaders to listen to the SCLC’s proposals.

    Half a century after that half-decade, the world watched in Baltimore (as in Ferguson and other cities before it) erupted in rage following the mysterious death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police. As his spine was shattered, so was the tense municipal facade of peacefulness, of compliance with the rule of police. But the protests, despite numerous attempts by onlookers to classify them as war zones, have been largely absent of the kinds of violence that followed events such as the King riots in 1968 that razed entire streets in Baltimore and destroyed the entirety of the U Street neighborhood in D.C. By many accounts other than CNN’s, the protests throughout the week have been largely peaceful, well-organized, and constructive. If anything, small-scale incidents of looting (the same couple of stores looped hours and hours on cable news), rock-throwing, and vandalism early on resembled less historical “riots” and more the events often found at the periphery of King’s own marches, where even his influence and the iron organizing will of the SCLC could not always keep rage from manifesting as rage often does. In fire.

    Now, American culture and media writ large use a facile facsimile of Quotable King to shame any protest not deemed docile enough, often to almost comedic effect. “What would MLK say?”

    The damage done is so deep that the contextless quotations of Dr. King rankle many Black millennials as deeply as the constant mentions of “post-race” in the early years of the Obama Presidency. While King was a revolutionary, his philosophies (by design) often hewed the closest to the most palatable social compromises for people in power. As other revolutionaries less beholden to nonviolence were demonized over time, so was King’s message allowed to dominate and become the only morally accepted means of Black movement expression, at the expense of those revolutionaries’ ideals. And then King’s message itself was whitewashed over the decades and sucked free of inconvenient notions of meaningful non-compliance. What would Stokely say? What would El-Hajj say? What might Ella Baker want? What might King himself actually say if he had been allowed to keep evolving and hadn’t been assassinated?

    History has a way with words. Here, I’d define that voice loosely as the media, and it might be that the voice telling the story is just as important as the actual story in historical struggles. Were the events leading to the Revolutionary War a sustained–and often violent–riot or noble resistance against tyranny? Was the Civil Rights Movement mostly nonviolent or mostly violent? Could either have been both? Perhaps revolutionary violence and nonviolence are fingers on the same hand of oppressed frustration; perhaps King was right in both his moral condemnation of retaliatory violence and his understanding recognition of its inevitability? […]

    Asking what King might think about modern events can be instructive with enough information. We can get the broad strokes: the denunciation of tyranny and violence, the respect for the community, and the deep empathy for Black lives gnashed in the maw of injustice. Asking can help us better understand our own convictions and the nuances of present situations. It can help us contextualize our own movements and personal dilemmas in understanding the internal conflicts of a man most often portrayed as an unbreakable paragon of confidence. But what it cannot do now is actually lead us.

    Quotations cannot be the sole moral backbone of any movement, and ours must change and adapt just as the man and the Movement he represented did. So what would King say about the character of the protests in Baltimore? Would he be busy condemning? Or would he be busy spreading his message through empathy and real action?

    A few omitted things at the link. Probably useful for all those white friends of ours who like to use Dr King as a weapon against black anger.

    By Clint Smith, My hopes, dreams, fears for my future black son

    Son, I want to tell you how difficult it is to tell someone they are both beautiful and endangered. So worthy of life, yet so despised for living. I do not intend to scare you. My father, your grandfather, taught me to follow a certain set of rules before I even knew their purpose. He told me that these rules would not apply to everyone, that they would not even apply to all of my friends. But they were rules to abide by nonetheless. Too many black boys are killed for doing what others give no second thought. Playing our music too loud, wearing a sweatshirt with the hood up, playing with a toy in the park. My father knew these things. He knew that there was no room for error. He knew it was not fair. But he loved me too much not to teach me, to protect me.

    I have told you this story before, but it is worth revisiting. Many a Saturday morning, my friends and I would ride bikes throughout the neighborhood together. The wind chiseled our faces into euphoric naiveté. The scent of breakfast being prepared seeped out from beneath the cracked windows of the shotgun homes that lined our streets. All that we deemed worthy of our attention were the endless possibilities that lay atop our handlebars. Which is to say, we were children. We were a motley crew, an interracial assemblage of young boys that would have made the Disney Channel proud. We dreamed of building tree houses with secret passwords; of fighting dragons effortlessly side-stepping their perilous, fiery breath; of hitting the game-winning shot in stadiums of thousands of people chanting our names. Our ambitions were as far-reaching as the galaxy we had been born into. We were small planets simply attempting to find our orbit.

    On one afternoon, we went to the field where we so often played football — tackle, of course — as we were set on replicating the brawn and bravado that we watched each Sunday on our televisions. This time, however, the field was closed. The fence bolted by a lock that could not be snapped. One friend, whose long, blond hair dangled gently over his eyes, tossed the football to me, and immediately began to climb the fence. I watched him: the ease with which he lifted one foot over another, the indifference of his disposition to the fact that this was an area we were quite clearly not supposed to enter. I remember hearing the soft, distant echo of a police siren. Perhaps a few blocks away. Perhaps headed in a different direction. I couldn’t be sure, but I knew better than to ignore it. He reached the other side, and looked back, beckoning the rest of us to join him. I held the football in my hand, looking at him through the chain link fence between us. It was at this moment I realized how different he and I were, before I had the words to explain them to either him or myself. How he could break a rule without a second thought, whereas for me any mistake might have the most dire of consequences.

    I hope to teach you so much of what my father taught me, but I pray that you live in a radically different world from the one that he and I have inherited. I do not envy his task, one that might become my own. I tell you these things because I know how strong and resilient you will be. How you will take their fear and make a fort of this skin, and turn it into a bastion of love against unwarranted inhumanity. […]

    I hope the world you inherit is one in which you may love whomever you choose. I hope you read and write and laugh and sing and dance and build and cry and do all of the things a child should do.

    I pray that you never have to stand on the other side of a fence and know that it is a world you cannot enter simply because of your skin.

    Mr Coates strikes again. The Clock Didn’t Start With the Riots, an edited version of his remarks at Johns Hopkins.

    When you think about the period of Jim Crow and the stripping of black people’s right to vote, this is not the mere stripping of some sort of civic ceremony. It’s the stripping of your ability to have any sort of say in how your tax dollars are used. It’s this constant stripping, this taking away of rights that allowed us to enter into a situation that I talk about in “The Case for Reparations,” where—within the 20th century—you have programs being passed by which white families can accumulate masses of wealth through housing. The main group of people who are cut out of that are black people.

    That’s federal policy. It’s not just a matter of private evil individuals. We get this picture of these white racists walking around with horns, you know, who use the “n-word” all the time, and I guess look like Cliven Bundy. That’s what we’re looking for, for a bunch of Cliven Bundys. But Cliven Bundy has never really been the threat; it’s the policy that’s the threat. And many of those people, are people who look like you and me—or maybe not quite like me—but who are like me in terms of they’re human beings. They’re mothers and fathers—good people, nice to their neighbors, but these are people who are responsible for policies in our country that leave us where we are.

    Now, the reason why I say that piece [The Case for Reparations] was incomplete was because there is a methodology, a tool that has been used to make sure that black people are available for plunder. And a major tool in making that process happen has been the criminal justice system. It’s very, very important to understand. I read the governor in the New York Times today and he was saying in the paper that—you know, because it’s going to be a big day tomorrow—he was saying “violence will not be tolerated.” And I thought about that as a young man who’s from West Baltimore and grew up in West Baltimore and I thought about how violence was tolerated for all of my life here in West Baltimore. […]

    But I have a problem when you begin the clock with the violence on Tuesday. Because the fact of the matter is that the lives of black people in this city, the lives of black people in this country have been violent for a long time. Violence is how enslavement actually happened. People will think of enslavement as like a summer camp, where you just have to work, where you just go and someone gives you food and lodging, but enslavement is violence, it is torture. Torture is how it was made possible. You can’t imagine enslavement without stripping away people’s kids and putting them up for sale. And the way you did that was, you threatened people with violence. Jim Crow was enforced through violence. That was the way things that got done. You didn’t politely ask somebody not to show up and vote. You stood in front of voting booths with guns, that’s what you did. And the state backed this; it was state-backed violence.

    Violence is not even in our past. Violence continues today. I was reading a stat that the neighborhood where the “riots” popped-off earlier this week is in fact the most incarcerated portion of the state of Maryland. And this is not surprising. We live in a country where the incarceration rate is 750 per 100,000. Our nearest competitor is allegedly undemocratic Russia at 400 or 500 per 100,000. China has roughly a billion more people than America; America incarcerates 800,000 more people than China. And as bad as that national incarceration rate is, the incarceration rate for black men is somewhere around 4,000 per 100,000. So if you think the incarceration rate for America is bad, for black America it’s somewhere where there is no real historical parallel. […]

    There’s a phrase I’ve been thinking about a lot recently by the great Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn has this great, great quote that I think about all the time: He says in his book The Gulag Archipelago, “Wherever the law is, crime can be found.” And I love this quote—it’s a beautifully written sentence—because it hints at, though it does not say, the human agency in law and what we call people. And so, certain things are violence, and certain things are not. Certain things are the acts committed by thugs, and certain things are the acts committed by the law. And in terms of rendering black people illegitimate, in terms of putting black people in certain boxes where things can be done to them, the vocabulary is very, very important—the law is very, very important—in terms of where we draw the line.
    None of us individuals asked for this. Nobody asked to be part of it. But when you are an American, you’re born into this.

    My words, particularly here at Johns Hopkins, and since I’m here at Johns Hopkins—and I’m not out in West Baltimore and I’m not on North Avenue and I’m not at Mondawmin Mall—my words for Johns Hopkins is that you are enrolled in this. You are part of this. You are a great institution here in this city. And I know that the president of Johns Hopkins didn’t ask for this. None of us individuals asked for this. Nobody asked to be part of it. But when you are an American, you’re born into this. And there are young black people who folks on TV are dismissing as thugs and all sorts of other words (I know the mayor apologized, I want to acknowledge that), but people who are being dismissed as thugs—these people live lives of incomprehensible violence.

    And I know this! This is not theory here. I’m telling you about what my daily routine was, but I went to school with some kids who I can’t even imagine what the violence was like. It was just beyond anything. You know, I had a safe home, I had people who loved me and took care of me. I can’t imagine how crazy it actually can get.

    So when we label these people those sorts of things—when we decide we’re going to pay attention to them when they pick up a rock, and we’re going to call them “violent” when they act out in anger—we’re making a statement. Again, being here in a seat of power, being here at Johns Hopkins—where I’m happy to be, thank you for hosting me—it’s a very influential institution! You’re a part of that! There are powerful people here sitting in the audience who can talk to folks and say, “Maybe we need to change our vocabulary a little bit.” What are we doing to actually mitigate the amount of violence that is in the daily lives of these young people? Let’s not begin the conversation with the “riot,” let’s back up a little bit. Let’s talk about the daily everyday violence that folks live under.

    INterlude: supportive parents! Herschel Walker’s son pursues competitive cheerleading

    Walker’s teenage son Christian decided last year that instead of picking up a football, he wanted to fly, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford.

    “It feels like you’re flying, but then you land and you just want to do it again. And that’s what really drew me to cheerleading,” Walker said.

    Walker won the Heisman Trophy in 1982. He went on to become a superstar in the NFL, playing for the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and other teams.

    Christian never felt like he would disappoint his father if he didn’t follow his footsteps to play football.

    “He’s always encouraged me to do what I need to do. So that’s what I’ve done,” Christian said.

    At first, Walker was baffled. In Dallas, he played on a team with the most famous cheerleaders in the world. Christian was talking about competitive cheering — something entirely different.

    “I didn’t know what that was. Then he’s, ‘Oh, no. People turnin’ flips and all this stuff. Dance and all this.’ And I came out to see it. And I saw how athletic the kids were that was doin’ it,” Walker said.

    He was shocked at the amount of people gathered to watch.

    “I was like, ‘Geez, I didn’t realize it was that big of a sport,'” Walker said. “And I was proud that he was doin’ it.’

    Editorial: Missouri spending on mental health goes down; suicide rate goes up. Guess who will feel a lot of that impact?

    Missouri whacked the state’s mental health department budgets from 2007 through 2012, and during that time the statewide suicide rate climbed 13 percent.

    There has been no scientific study to connect those two facts, but it is hard to imagine they are not related. Suicides in Missouri now account for more deaths than homicides and drunken-driving accidents combined.

    Untreated or undertreated mental illness is a leading cause of suicide, mental health experts say. Most people living with mental illness receive treatment from public mental health providers. When the state stops making money available for such treatment, people who can’t afford care elsewhere all too frequently turn to suicide.

    Data from the American Association of Suicidology show the rate in Missouri to be higher than much of the nation. The state’s suicide rate of 15.9 per 100,000 people in 2012 puts it at 18th in the nation. The national average is 13 suicides per 100,000 people.

    Missouri’s mental health system is overwhelmed and underfunded. Nearly a third of the system’s budget was cut in the five years between 2007 and 2012. There have been slight increases the past two years — pushing it from $1.2 billion in 2012, including federal funding for Medicaid-reimbursed services — to $1.6 billion last year.

    More neglect at the link.

  218. rq says

    The NYPD paid over $428 million in settlements over the last five years (UPDATED)

    In response to the points brought up post-publication, we wanted to clarify two things:

    – One, these figures only represent settlements from cases which began after January 1st, 2009. The actual total amount of settlements from that five-year period – which would include all cases that were ongoing as of that date – is likely much, much higher.

    – Two, the New York City Law Department clarified the scope of the list on Tuesday. The spreadsheet is comprised of all lawsuits in which the NYPD was listed as a defendant. Why the police department was a defendant in lawsuits like the Sasha Blair-Goldensohn case is not clear.

    Any other observations, please let us know!

    As part of an ongoing investigation, MuckRock’s Todd Feathers asked the NYPD for a list of all civil rights lawsuits brought against the department. To his surprise, what he got was every case brought against the NYPD since 2009, and how much those cases cost them. To all of MuckRock’s surprise, that amount is almost half a billion dollars.

    We’ve only just begun to look through the data, but already there’s a couple interesting take-aways: one, the sheer volume of capital that is being spent on settlements, and two, that the overwhelming majority of these cases end with the NYPD at fault. While’s there a handful of Zero Disposition and Administrative Closing statuses, the Settlement category outnumbers them three to one.

    We encourage readers to take a look at the data and see what they can find.

    Links to charts and data can be found at the link.

    ACLU: Police Body Cameras Without FOIA Are “One More Tool” for Surveillance

    The District’s ACLU chapter isn’t on board with Muriel Bowser’s attempt to shield new police body-camera footage from open records requests. In a press release, the group says equipping officers with the cameras while shielding the results from the public would amount to another tool for police surveillance.

    Bowser’s budget support act includes language that blocks all Freedom of Information Act requests for body-camera footage, an unusually wide-ranging exemption.

    The mayor’s office says the footage would take too long to redact. Mayoral spokesman Michael Czin claims that redacting just one minute of footage takes more than four hours. The police camera pilot program produced 5,000 hours of footage, which Czin claims would take more than a million hours to redact. While the footage would still be available in investigations or court cases, it would leave the general public in the dark.

    “We’re really trying to strike the right balance between transparency and privacy,” Czin says.

    But the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital isn’t buying it.

    “Without establishing a FOIA exemption that allows for public access, the Council and Mayor are using taxpayer funds to give MPD another tool to surveille communities—not provide a tool for police accountability,” the ACLU chapter’s release states.

    The debate heads to the D.C. Council next week. Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie has scheduled a hearing on the exemption for May 7.

    More charts and graphs! Think the poor don’t pay taxes? This chart proves you very wrong. Careful, lots of state violence within.

    One of the stranger conservative tax talking points is the claim that the tax code is somehow unfair to rich people, who are unduly burdened by the progressive income tax. “The top 10 percent pay two-thirds of the income tax,” the Heritage Foundation’s Stephen Moore notes in a representative piece. “And the bottom 50 percent — all Americans with an income below the median — pay just 3 percent of the income tax.” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) made a similar argument in his 2013 and 2014 budgets, which included a flat tax to make “the system more efficient and fair by broadening the tax base, letting everyone contribute to their government instead of a few people contributing for everyone.”

    Leaving aside the fact that this is exactly how a progressive tax system is supposed to work, this analysis has a big conceptual flaw: it only focuses on federal income taxes. That’s not the biggest part of most families’ tax bill — most pay more in payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, for example. And it also leaves out state and local governments, which tend to rely heavily on regressive sales and property taxes. Citizens for Tax Justice, a left-leaning tax policy shop with a strong reputation for careful modeling, puts out an annual report looking at how much Americans pay in all taxes put together. It reveals a tax code that, while still progressive for low earners, hits the uber-rich and the upper middle class at roughly the same rate:

    The lowest 40 percent of the income distribution definitely gets a break, but above that, everyone pays 30 percent of their income, give or take a couple percentage points. It’s a much flatter curve than if you look only at federal income taxes. This also means that each income group’s share of the tax burden is roughly equal to its share of income. The top 1 percent has 22.2 percent of the income, and pays 23.8 percent of the taxes:

    Again, this is mildly progressive, but only very mildly. One big reason, CTJ explains, is that state and local taxes are actively regressive: the bottom 20 percent pay 12.1 percent of their income, on average, in state and local taxes, while the top 1 percent pays only 8.3 percent.

    UPDATE: Police say 43 arrests, 55 police hurt, 1 moderately. 12 protesters injured in #TelAviv. #BlackLivesMatter So yeah.

    Soledad O’Brien calls out media’s use of the word “thug”: “It’s a word we use instead of the ‘N-word’”, which is why it’s so disappointing to see it used by the President and the Mayor of Baltimore.

    Former CNN host Soledad O’Brien offered a tough analysis of the media’s widespread use of the term “thug” to describe protestors in Baltimore on Sunday, asserting that the word is too often applied to inner-city communities of color and almost never against white protestors.

    Butting heads with guest host Frank Sesno on this week’s edition of “Reliable Sources,” O’Brien claimed the epithet lacks critical nuance and reinforces dangerous conceptions of African-American protestors.

    “Thug is a proxy, a word we use instead of the ‘N-word,’” O’Brien explained. “I think when you examine when the word is used, it’s used to describe the actions of people of color, specifically people who are in the inner city. I think for journalists to have a debate back and forth about ‘thug’ and ‘thuggery’ is naive … Journalists should strive to use words that describe accurately what’s happening.”

    When pushed to provide examples of other words journalists should use to describe the “lawless activity” taking place in Baltimore, O’Brien stayed firm. “Wouldn’t the protestors — the people who have been going out of their way on the streets of Baltimore in peaceful protest — object to the words that ‘there are protestors throwing rocks and bottles?’” Sesno asked.

    “I think there’s violent protestors, I think there’s peaceful protestors, I think there’s drunk protestors, I think there’s angry protestors,” O’Brien responded. “I think when you look specifically at how the word ‘riot’ is used and the word ‘thug’ is used, it’s always used around people of color, specifically in an inner city context.”

    SC refuses to release ‘horrible and offensive’ dashcam video of officer killing unarmed black man

    On April 7, two white police officers in South Carolina were arrested for shooting and killing unarmed black men. One case was told around the world and the other is being quietly swept under the rug. When Officer Michael Slager unjustly shot Walter Scott in the back over and over again in North Charleston, South Carolina, it’s highly likely we would’ve never really known about it if the disturbing cell phone video of the shooting wasn’t released. It was that video that rocked the nation and reverberated around the world. Before the video was released, the local news stories about the shooting were pretty much dismissive of Scott and painted Slager as someone who did what he had to do. The video changed everything.

    Just hours after Slager was charged with the murder of Walter Scott, another South Carolina officer, Justin Craven, was arrested for shooting an unarmed black man over and over and over again. Sixty-eight-year-old great grandfather Ernest Satterwhite was shot and killed in the driveway of his home near North Augusta. The dashboard camera of Officer Craven filmed the entire shooting.

    Craven’s dashcam video has been shown to a few people outside of law enforcement. Several who saw say say it’s horrible and offensive, and Satterwhite had no time to respond to Craven. They won’t speak on the record because they have been threatened with legal action since the video hasn’t been publicly released.

    The State Law Enforcement Division’s decision to withhold the video contrasts with its handling of another police shooting. Earlier this year the agency quickly released a dashcam video of a case in which a white officer shot an unarmed black man in North Charleston.

    The shooting was so egregious that the family of Ernest Satterwhite received a $1.2 million settlement for his wrongful death. Officer Craven is using the same old tired excuse that Satterwhite tried to go for his gun, but the dashcam video apparently shows that Satterwhite never even got out of his car when Craven fired five times into the car and shot Satterwhite four times at close range.

    Instead of being charged with any serious crime in the shooting, Craven was charged with the misdemeanor charge of “misconduct by an officer” and posted a $20,000 bail two hours later.

    This much is clear—the early public release of videos of shootings by police has a real impact on how serious the subsequent charges are. If this video is as “horrible and offensive” as public officials privately claim it to be, the public pressure to charge Justin Craven with a serious crime would have been substantial. Instead, his case flew under the national radar and he was charged with a crime in which he could literally just receive a $1,000 fine. While a 10-year sentence for police misconduct is the maximum, police officers are almost never given maximum sentences, even when charged with murder.

    We must have credible national standards on police dashcam videos that require them to be released immediately. They are paid for by public funds and are public record. Officers cannot and should not be able to hide under the protection of them being hidden by their colleagues.

    Did you read that? This happened on April 7, and they’ve already paid the family to stay quiet. That fast.
    And as for the officer? Fuck him. This is why being charged means nothing.

  219. rq says

    THe news got beyond STL: Ferguson to pay Chicago lawyer Dan Webb $1,335 an hour to pursue reforms. Kind of a reform in and of itself, no?

    South Carolina police won’t release dash-cam video of fatal cop shooting

    The State Law Enforcement Division’s decision to withhold the video contrasts with its handling of another police shooting. Earlier this year the agency quickly released a dashcam video of a case in which a white officer shot an unarmed black man in North Charleston.

    SLED says its reasoning is simple. Unlike the North Augusta case, the North Charleston shooting happened away from the dashcam video.

    SLED Chief Mark Keel worries releasing the North Augusta video could hamper the officer’s right to a fair trial.

    “In the North Augusta case, you’ve got a different set of facts that has a great concern. It’s about justice and seeing everybody regardless gets a fair trial,” said Keel, whose agency denied a Freedom of Information Act request for the video from the Associated Press in September and again in April after SLED released footage from the North Charleston case.

    But public records advocates said that reasoning is wrong. They cite a 2011 court ruling that law enforcement agencies can’t refuse to release dashcam videos unless they give a specific reason, like concerns about releasing the name of a suspect before an arrest or the location of a sting operation

    “That is totally unequal. Public records law needs to be applied the same in every case. Why do the police get to decide what the public sees? That’s not their job,” said Bill Rogers, executive director of the South Carolina Press Association.

    My brother @contrabandjames of the @OHIOStudents leading the call #JusticeforTamir

    Freddie Gray: legal volunteers among those arrested after defying Baltimore curfew . Basically, it sounds like they rounded up everyone, except the residents of white communities enjoying a drink on the streets.

    Legal observers and medical volunteers were among around 50 people arrested in Baltimore on Saturday night, as another evening of protests over the death of Freddie Gray ended in yet more clashes as protesters attempted to defy curfew restrictions.

    Gray died a week after he was arrested on 12 April, then handcuffed and shackled in the back of a police van without a seatbelt.

    On Saturday night two volunteers, who identified themselves as belonging to the National Lawyers Guild, were seen by the Guardian being arrested alongside four street medics outside the Baltimore City Correctional Center.

    One of the legal observers was wearing a bright green cap emblazoned with her organisation’s name – caps which have proven useful for protesters seeking legal advice during this past week.

    As police were seen handcuffing the volunteers, a seventh man walked past and was apprehended, after one officer with a handheld stun gun asked him where he was going. The man had said he lived in the neighborhood and was on his way home.

    The arrests happened less than 10 minutes after the start of the curfew.

    Concern has spread over how the Baltimore curfew has been applied. On Saturday Deborah Jeon, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, issued a statement which said: “At this point, it is being used to restrict the first-amendment rights of protestors, legal observers, and the media, and is engendering needless tension and hostility.”

    The arrests outside the building on Greenmount Avenue stood in contrast to the police’s treatment of curfew-defiers in Hampden, a predominantly white neighborhood in northern Baltimore.

    Earlier in the day, a group of activists had called for a “silent curfew protest” which they said was intended to highlight the police’s differing treatment of protesters based on race, and to expose the police’s “anti-black racism, an institutionalized practice of the police force and government”. They were mostly white.

    A video tweeted out by activist Deray McKesson – a Baltimore native who was a prominent figure and organiser at the Ferguson protests last August following the death of the unarmed black teenager Michael Brown – showed police officers trying to reason with the assembled crowd at Hampden.

    “The last thing I want to do is put someone in handcuffs,” a white police officer told the crowd, before issuing a last warning and asking them to “please leave”. According to several accounts on social media, this was the officer’s third warning to the group.

    Also among those arrested on Saturday night was Joseph Kent, the 21-year-old activist who was seen last week getting “kidnapped” live on television. Kent’s lawyer, Steve Beatty, confirmed on Twitter that his client had arrived at Baltimore central booking station. It was the second arrest for the Morgan State University student in connection with the Freddie Gray protests.

    Thirty people were reportedly arrested at the intersection of Pennsylvania and North avenues. A protester wearing a “Fuck the Police” T-shirt appeared to be pulled to the ground by police and pepper-sprayed.

    A transgender woman was shot in Baltimore and no one is talking about it –

    Hall, 27, and her friend, 20-year-old Brittany Fleming, crashed a stolen SUV into the gates of the NSA on March 30 after officials began shooting at their vehicle. Authorities stated that they began shooting because the pair did not initially stop proceeding toward the building when authorized to do so, instead accelerating towards a police vehicle. Hall was killed in the incident. Fleming was wounded.

    Hall and Fleming reportedly went on their joy ride while in a drug-fueled haze after a party. “Driver killed at NSA had history of robbery, prostitution,” the Baltimore Sun headline read. Hall was on probation and had an arrest warrant issued the day before she died.

    Yet although a gun was found in the stolen SUV, Hall was unarmed at the time of her death. An FBI spokesperson stated after the incident that it was not connected to terrorism.

    What’s more, wrong turns at that particular exit are an extremely frequent occurrence. Yet early reports from authorities described the incident as an attempt to “ram” the gates, and some media reports referred to events as a “gunfight.”

    Initial reports of the incident that led to her death described Hall and Fleming as “men dressed as women,” “crossdressers,” “men in drag,” and “transvestites.” Hall was also frequently misgendered and typically referred to as a man, using her legal name.

    The few media reports on Hall’s death have been tinged with transphobia, with a Washington Post article continuing to describe Hall and Fleming as “men dressed as women,” a revelation which it referred to as a “shocking twist.” The Post also described the street scene where Hall and Fleming worked as a “choreography of cliches,” focusing on the high heels, short shorts, and heavy makeup of the women.

    In contrast to the outrage that the deaths of black men like Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and Gray have prompted on social media, there has been very little attention given to Hall’s death. As a black trans sex worker, she and Fleming have been written off as “troubled.” On Tumblr and Reddit, platforms that are usually supportive of transgender victims of violence and black victims of police brutality, Mya Hall’s name is notably absent.

    But the Baltimore protests have renewed public concern over Hall’s death, as well as criticism of the lack of attention it received and the way the media has covered it. […]

    The names of Hall and Boyd have joined an ever-lengthening list of victims of police brutality. And while protests like those in Baltimore remind us that #BlackLivesMatter, the lives of fallen black women tend to matter less when it comes to summoning public outrage over their deaths.

    When black men are killed, slogans like “hands up, don’t shoot” or “I can’t breathe” echo across the country,” wrote Darnell Moore in Mic after Servin’s acquittal. “When black girls and women like Boyd are killed, there is comparative silence.” […]

    Yet awareness of Hall’s death is growing. A post on Tumblr simply proclaiming Hall’s name has gotten 14,000 notes in under a day.

    And as the protests continue, more women will be reminding us that the lives of black women, black transgender women, and sex workers matter just as much as those of the men who are frequently at the center of the media’s attention.

    Here’s hoping the attention keeps growing.

  220. rq says

    Baltimore Police Union has the gall to start a ‘My Life Matters’ campaign after 6 officers arrested

    After six Baltimore police officers were arrested on felony charges in the death of Freddie Gray, the tone-deaf Baltimore Police Union decided to start a new online campaign called #MyLifeMatters.

    Mind you, not one of the officers who played a role in killing Freddie Gray was harmed in any way whatsoever by Gray or anyone else. Why even start such a campaign?

    Of the 10 most dangerous jobs in America, being a police officer is not even on the list. Yet they’d have us believe that their job is as dangerous as it gets.

    Yeah, your life matters, but we’d like for you to start acting like black lives matter, too.

    Judge OKs Hogan’s order to extend hold on riot suspects

    A Baltimore circuit judge ruled Monday that Gov. Larry Hogan did not violate the Maryland Constitution when he ordered that hundreds of people arrested during last week’s riots could be held longer than 24 hours before seeing a court commissioner.

    Judge Charles J. Peters said the extended detentions were a result of a system “simply overwhelmed by the large number of arrests that occurred,” and not a deliberate move to hold arrestees.

    Hogan issued the order at the height of unrest over the April 19 death of Freddie Gray from injuries sustained in police custody. About 500 people have been arrested during rioting last week and subsequent protests that often lasted beyond a 10 p.m. curfew implemented to bring calm to the city.

    Defense attorneys had challenged Hogan’s order and say the mass arrests have left a legal morass they are only beginning to sort through.

    The protesters face a range of charges, including burglary stemming from alleged looting, assault and rioting — a charge that carries a sentence of up to life in prison. Many were held for days or remain detained on bails as high as $500,000.

    The rioting and looting damaged more than 235 businesses, according to the Baltimore Development Corp., and some economists said the financial toll could last years.

    Critics have noted that police officers charged in Gray’s death posted bails of $250,000 or $350,000 and were released within a few hours.

    “When accused murderers walk free because they have wealth, and a teen arrested for breaking a car window is stuck behind bars because of poverty, not risk, it undermines trust in our justice system,” said Cherise Fanno Burdeen, an executive director of the Washington-based Pretrial Justice Institute who chaired a recent General Assembly task force on bail reform.

    On Monday night, a dozen protesters interrupted the City Council meeting, unfurling a banner and chanting, “Drop the charges, drop the bail, protesters shouldn’t go to jail.”

    Baltimore United for Change, a coalition of citizens and organizations that advocates on justice issues, launched a fundraising campaign for legal and bail fees for protesters on a CrowdRise website. Donors had contributed nearly $100,000 as of Monday afternoon.

    State Sen. Fort, others question Atlanta police shooting – that’s the handcuffed black woman shooting at officers from a cop car.

    Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s senior adviser told civil rights activists via Twitter Monday that she expected they would “soon” be able to view video-recordings of what preceded the killing of a woman in police custody last week.

    “I understand the concern, clamor for answers,” Melissa Mullinax, Reed’s senior adviser, tweeted to state Sen.Vincent Fort. “Atlanta will do what is right.”

    Mullinax was responding to a press conference called by Fort and other activists Monday in front of Atlanta Police headquarters. They are pressuring city and police officials to release the recordings of the shooting of Alexia Christian Thursday while she was in the back of a patrol car.

    “We’re not saying it was a good shoot or a bad shoot,” Fort said. “We’re saying regardless we need to see the tape.”

    Fort said at this point the question wasn’t so much whether the shooting was justified but whether the Atlanta Police Department is going to be transparent with available video that may have recorded how the shooting happened.

    Atlanta police said video-recordings will not be released until the investigation is completed, which Fort called a delaying tactic and an unwise in the national mood regarding similar shootings

    “The public has a right to see the video from the dashboard camera and the surveillance cameras immediately,” Fort told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “In the post Ferguson era, if anything has been taught it has been the need for openness and transparency.”

    It never ends, does it – As investigation enters fifth month, Tamir Rice’s mother has moved into a homeless shelter

    The City of Cleveland has asked the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy shot and killed while he played with a toy gun in a Westside park in November, to halt their civil lawsuit until the official investigation has concluded.

    The request, penned by city lawyers, says that delaying the lawsuit will protect the two officers involved in the shooting from making statements now, before knowing if they’ll be charged with a crime.

    On Monday, Rice’s family responded: They can’t wait any longer.

    In a court filing dated Monday, Rice’s family said they cannot agree to hold off on their lawsuit until the investigation is complete in part because they are worried that crucial evidence could be lost. In addition, they said, the elongated pace at which the investigation is moving is causing them sustained distress.

    “The incident has shattered the life of the Rice family,” the motion stated.

    Rice’s mother, the motion goes on to state, has moved into a homeless shelter.

    “In particular, Samaria Rice, Tamir Rice’s mother, has since been forced to move to a homeless shelter because she could no longer live next door to the killing field of her son,” the motion said.

    And, with the investigation still lingering, the Rice family said they have yet to bury Tamir because it is unclear if there will be need for any additional medical examination.

    “Plaintiffs are incurring expense daily and are unsure if they can finally rest Tamir Rice due to the pending investigation,” the motion filed by the family reads. “A stay would exacerbate this expense and emotional distress.” [..]

    When marchers took to the streets, blocking freeway traffic, police stood back and allowed them. Then, when some commuters complained, Mayor Frank Jackson declared that the protests are “the inconvenience of freedom.”

    Last week, as parts of Baltimore burned following the funeral of Freddie Gray — a black man who died in police custody after what prosecutors have called an illegal arrest — Jackson wrote a letter to community and business leaders.

    “In the wake of the tragic events that unfolded in Baltimore, and bearing in mind the series of police-related matters and legal proceedings currently in process here in Cleveland, I am writing to let you know that the City of Cleveland has been planning and is prepared to address upcoming developments,” Jackson wrote. “Clearly, these are very complex situations that affect people at every level in our community. We are focused on how best to create a sense of safety, trust and confidence in our community, while empowering our police to enforce the law and maintain order.”

    Penn and North. This is prior to the incident where no one got shot. (More later.)

    AH, like right now. Conflicting reports on gun incident in Baltimore

    Conflicting reports about a police chase that may have involved gunfire roiled Baltimore Monday, just a week after riots rocked the city.

    An initial report from a Fox News Channel crew on the scene indicated a man had been shot while being chased by police, but authorities later said a gun dropped by a fleeing man had gone off, and that no one was hit by a bullet. Police Lt. Col Melvin Russell said police had chased the unidentified man after he had been seen on a security camera carrying a gun.

    The revolver was recovered, and one cartridge had been spent, Russell said.

    Earlier, a witness had told a news crew she saw the shooting take place, and claimed the victim was not armed.

  221. rq says

    Information on a Fundraiser for Tamir Rice’s family, pdf format, via Feminista Jones, with a link to the verified fundraising account plus additional info.

    VIDEO: Fox News Reporter Says He Saw Black Man Shot While Running From Police, one of the first reports that caused the confusion. There’s a small retraction at the bottom.

    And @CouncilmanMosby is out here at Penn and North. #BaltimoreUprising I believe that is Marilyn Mosby’s husband. What a powerhouse couple.

    An article on Kent State from five years ago: Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming

    I was ten. I can’t claim to remember the event very well. What I do remember is this: I was living in another town in Ohio, Athens, home of Ohio University. I don’t remember the ensuing riots; we lived a ways from campus, and we stayed the hell away. I do remember seeing the damaged businesses downtown and the damage around campus: broken windows, smashed doors, debris in the streets, smoke stains from fires. I remember grim National Guardsmen everywhere. Being stopped by armed guards when we tried to drive back into town. Personnel carriers with guns pointed out over their tailgates.

    It was a scary education for a ten-year-old boy.

    But nothing like the education those Kent State students got on that spring day so long ago.

    Baltimore police: Man arrested near scene of recent riots

    Officers arrested a man who appeared to be armed with a handgun in the same neighborhood where riots have broken out over the death of a man injured in police custody, but no one was hurt during the confrontation, authorities said Monday.

    Lt. Col. Melvin Russell said police pursued a man who was spotted on surveillance cameras and appeared to be armed with a handgun. Police said the man was taken into custody after a brief chase, during which the sound of a gunshot was heard.

    Russell said that police never fired their weapons and that no one was shot. Russell said police recovered a handgun loaded with three rounds, one of which was spent. The suspect was not injured and did not want to be transported to a hospital but was taken to the hospital anyway in an ambulance, he said.

    Live television coverage and photos tweeted from the scene showed medics putting a man in an ambulance and a large police presence, with officers lining up to apparently block one street.

    The activity is taking place in the same area where police first spotted Freddie Gray on April 12. He was arrested and fatally injured in police custody. Six officers were charged Friday in Gray’s death.

    A few dozen police officers wearing helmets and carrying shields formed a line across North Avenue as crowds gathered across the street, occasionally shouting “control the police” at the officers. Minutes after police briefed reporters, the line of officers left the street and police began to allow traffic to get through the intersection.

    That’s the arrest that was confused with a shooting. People were understandably wary of the police version.
    And once more with feeling: Jumping the Gun: Fox News falsely reports that Baltimore police shot protester in the back, via Salon.

  222. rq says

    Kent State: “Never Forget” [It’s so weird, because this is the second commemoration day of some kind that overlaps with a local one, with totally opposite meanings. May 4 is the Redeclaration of Independence of Latvia, following 50 years of Soviet occupation… while in USAmerica, it is a tragedy. The other day is July 4: in Latvia, that is the day of commemoration for victims of the holocaust genocide (the wording makes more sense in Latvian).]
    Just a note. Back to May 4 in Ohio:

    Every May 4, I can count on getting a message from John J. Lopinot, friend and former chief photographer at The Palm Beach Post.
    Never Forget

    The subject line is always “Never Forget.” Sometimes that’s all it says. That’s all it needs to say.

    This morning’s message was a little longer: NEVER FORGET! 39 years ago today, Kent State.
    On the morning of May 4

    On the morning of May 4, another photographer and I decided to leave Athens, OH, where I was chief photographer for The Athens Messenger, and go to Marietta, OH, where there was an army-navy surplus store that sold gas masks. From there, we were going to drive to Kent State, where things looked like they were heating up.
    We didn’t make it to Kent State

    On the way to Marietta, we heard a radio bulletin that there had been a shooting at Kent State University and that there were fatalities. The first broadcast made it sound like students had killed troopers. In fact, the guardsmen had killed four students and wounded nine others.

    We decided that we should still get the riot gear, but we should get back to Athens in case violence broke out there.
    An Athens County Deputy pulled me over

    Shortly after we had crossed over into Athens County, a deputy I knew (fortunately) pulled us over. “We got a call from a surplus store over in Marietta that some student hippy-types were buying up riot gear and heading to Athens. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

    I confessed that “that would be us.”

    “Do you know anything I should know?” he asked.

    “Just being ready,” I replied. “Your guess about what’s going to happen is as good as mine.” […]

    During that time, though, there was some kind of march, protest or building burning almost every night. What is exciting at first gets really tiring after a week. I swore that I was going to go crazy if I had to hear one more rendition of “Give Peace a Chance.”

    Everybody else was just about burned out, too. The students were just going through the motions. I thought it had hit the point where there was going to be one last march to the university president’s house and then the movement would have lost its steam.

    Suddenly, though, students who had been drifting back to their dorms returned saying that the Main Green was surrounded by cops, many from surrounding towns. Instead of letting the students go home, they were turning them back to the demonstration. […]
    We were living in a ghost town

    The decision was made to close the university and send everyone home as quickly as possible. Students were given the option of a pass/fail grade in their classes.

    [ Personal note: I had 10 hours of independent studies classes I had every intention of finishing, so I opted for an incomplete in the courses, instead of taking the pass / fail deal. That came back to bite me when I took a job in Gastonia, NC, before the end of the next quarter. I’m still 10 hours short of a BFA. That doesn’t keep some poor student from OU from calling me every year asking for money. I just say, “Let me tell you a long, sad story….”]

    With powdered tear gas still falling from the tree leaves, students descended on the bank where Wife Lila worked as a teller. The bank was less than a block from the Main Green of the university, and since students had been told to leave town, they were lined up out the door of the bank and down the sidewalk . The line was continuous from opening to closing.

    From 9 AM to 3 PM, three tellers did nothing but cash checks and close accounts… and breathe teargas. Since the doors were open all day, there was no way to avoid it. Lila came home with red, stinging eyes that barely opened and a nose that burned for days. I’ve never seen her so fried.
    ohio-university-closed-in-aftermath-of-kent-state-shootingsBy nightfall, we were living in a ghost town.

    “Never Forget,” John says.

    I won’t.

    I still get nostalgic for the smell of tear gas in the springtime. But, 40 years later, I cringe when I hear “Power to the People” or “Give Peace a chance.” Nice sentiments in those songs, but I heard them sung too many times by too many naive kids.

    Fox News forced to apologise after mistakenly reporting Baltimore police shooting . At least they’ve apologized. Right?

    Obama on Baltimore: ‘No Dispute’ Men of Color Disproportionately Targeted by Police

    Today, Barack Obama re-launched his My Brother’s Keeper initiative as a non-profit foundation, which addresses the opportunity gap for young men of color, and he was acutely aware that the timing could not have been better.

    In a speech, Obama said he planned on focusing on the initiative, “long after” he departs as president, and argued that the lack of opportunity for young men — particularly ones without fathers, such as himself — was a root cause of the mass protests throughout the country.

    “You all know the numbers,” he said. “By almost every measure, the life chances of the average young man of color is worse than his peers. Those opportunity gaps begin early, often at birth, and then compound over time, becoming harder and harder to bridge, making too many young men and women feel like no matter how hard they try, they may never achieve their dreams.”

    I hope he sets up something similar for girls eventually. Like, soon-eventually.

    Police Start to Reconsider Longstanding Rules on Using Force

    Now, amid the largest national debate over policing since the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, a small but vocal set of law enforcement officials are calling for a rethinking of the 21-foot rule and other axioms that have emphasized how to use force, not how to avoid it. Several big-city police departments are already re-examining when officers should chase people or draw their guns and when they should back away, wait or try to defuse the situation.

    “In a democratic society, people have a say in how they are policed, and people are saying that they are not satisfied with how things are going,” said Sean Whent, the police chief in Oakland, Calif. The city has a troubled history of police abuse and misconduct, but some policy changes and a new approach to training have led to sharp declines in the use of force, Chief Whent added.

    Like the 21-foot rule, many current police practices were adopted when officers faced violent street gangs. Crime rates soared, as did the number of officers killed. Today, crime is at historic lows and most cities are safer than they have been in generations, for residents and officers alike. This should be a moment of high confidence in the police, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement policy group. Instead, he said, policing is in crisis.

    “People aren’t buying our brand. If it was a product, we’d take it out of the marketplace and re-engineer it,” Mr. Wexler said. “We’ve lost the confidence of the American people.”

    Mr. Wexler’s group will meet with hundreds of police leaders in Washington this week to call for a new era of training, one that replaces truisms such as the 21-foot rule with lessons on defusing tense situations and avoiding violent confrontations. While the Justice Department and chiefs of some major police departments are supportive, the effort has not been widely embraced, at least so far. Some police unions and others have expressed skepticism, saying officers are being unfairly criticized.

    “All this chatter just increases the idea that these encounters are avoidable and law enforcement is at fault,” said Jeff Roorda of the St. Louis Police Officers’ Association, who said officers already thought about ways to avoid confrontations.
    Continue reading the main story

    The typical police cadet receives about 58 hours of training on how to use a gun and another 49 hours on defensive tactics, according to a recent survey by Mr. Wexler’s group. By comparison, cadets spend just eight hours learning to calm situations before force is needed, a technique called de-escalation. [emphasis mine] […]

    “In most cases, time is on our side,” Chief Whent, of Oakland, said in an interview. “We’re chasing someone whose name we know, and we know where they live.”

    The Oakland department, which is still working to repair its troubled history, now prohibits officers from chasing suspects alone into yards or alleys if they might be armed. All officers receive training that emphasizes smart decision-making. After averaging about eight police shootings annually for many years, the city had none last year and cut in half the number of times officers drew their guns, Chief Whent said.

    Whether a shooting is justified often hinges on the fraction of a second before the officer fires. In Cleveland in November, officers thought that 12-year-old Tamir Rice was wielding a pistol, not realizing he was playing with a replica. In Ferguson, Mo., an officer said he killed Michael Brown, 18, last summer because Mr. Brown had lunged at him after a scuffle through the window of his cruiser. In Seattle, the officer who shot the woodcarver said that the man had refused to drop the knife and that he had struck a “very confrontational posture.”

    But earlier decisions can also be critical. In Cleveland, officers pulled their cars extremely close to Tamir, immediately increasing the possibility of a confrontation. In Ferguson, the officer, Darren Wilson, got out of his car after the tussle and pursued Mr. Brown alone. In Seattle, internal investigators chastised the officer, Ian Birk, for approaching the armed man and then using the 21-foot rule to justify shooting him.

    “Officer Birk created the situation which he claims he had to use deadly force to get out of,” a police review board concluded. The officer resigned. […]

    That focus on officer safety has underpinned many police policies, but Mr. Wexler argues that it is a false choice. Officers in Britain, most of whom do not carry guns and typically face fewer suspects with firearms than some American police officers do, regularly confront suspects carrying knives, as do their counterparts here. British officers follow what is known as the National Decision Model, which emphasizes talking, patience and using no more force than necessary.

    No police officer in England has died from a weapon attack during the past two years, according to the most recent published data, and none have been involved in fatal shootings during that period. (Officers with guns back up those who do not carry them.)

    But Mr. Wexler acknowledged that changes in policing would be slow. “Not everybody’s going to accept it,” he said. “We’re asking them to rethink in a major way things they have done for 20 years.”

  223. rq says

    The Milwaukee Experiment and mass incarceration

    The recent spate of deaths of unarmed African-Americans at the hands of police officers has brought renewed attention to racial inequality in criminal justice, but in the U.S. legal system prosecutors may wield even more power than cops. Prosecutors decide whether to bring a case or drop charges against a defendant; charge a misdemeanor or a felony; demand a prison sentence or accept probation. Most cases are resolved through plea bargains, where prosecutors, not judges, negotiate whether and for how long a defendant goes to prison. And prosecutors make these judgments almost entirely outside public scrutiny.

    Chisholm decided to let independent researchers examine how he used his prosecutorial discretion. In 2007, when he took office, the Vera Institute of Justice, a research and policy group based in New York City, had just begun studying the racial implications of the work of the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office. Over several years, Chisholm allowed the researchers to question his staff members and look at their files. The conclusions were disturbing. According to the Vera study, prosecutors in Milwaukee declined to prosecute forty-one per cent of whites arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia, compared with twenty-seven per cent of blacks; in cases involving prostitution, black female defendants were likelier to be charged than white defendants; in cases that involved resisting or obstructing an officer, most of the defendants charged were black (seventy-seven per cent), male (seventy-nine per cent), and already in custody (eighty per cent of blacks versus sixty-six per cent of whites).

    Chisholm decided that his office would undertake initiatives to try to send fewer people to prison while maintaining public safety. “For a long time, prosecutors have defined themselves through conviction rates and winning the big cases with the big sentences,” Nicholas Turner, the president of the Vera Institute, told me. “But the evidence is certainly tipping that the attainment of safety and justice requires more than just putting people in prison for a long time. Prosecutors have to redefine their proper role in a new era. Chisholm stuck his neck out there and started saying that prosecutors should also be judged by their success in reducing mass incarceration and achieving racial equality.” Chisholm’s efforts have drawn attention around the country. “John is a national leader in law enforcement, because he is genuinely interested in trying to achieve the right results, not only in individual cases but in larger policy issues as well,” Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney, told me.

    Chisholm reflects a growing national sentiment that the criminal-justice system has failed African-Americans. The events in Baltimore last week drew, at least in part, on a sense there that black people have paid an undue price for the crackdown on crime. Since 1980, Maryland’s prison population has tripled, to about twenty-one thousand, and, as in Wisconsin, there is a distressing racial disparity among inmates. The population of Maryland is about thirty per cent black; the prisons and local jails are more than seventy per cent black.

    In 2013, former Attorney General Eric Holder announced an initiative, known as Smart on Crime, that directed federal prosecutors to take steps toward reducing the number of people sentenced to federal prisons and the lengths of the sentences. “Prison is very costly—to individuals, to the government, and to communities,” Jonathan Wroblewski, a Justice Department official who was part of the Smart on Crime team, told me. “We want to explore alternatives.” By 2014, federal prosecutors were seeking mandatory minimum sentences in only half of their drug-trafficking cases, down from two-thirds the previous year. The number of these prosecutions inched downward as well. […]

    Chisholm’s experiment is important on its own terms, but it is especially notable now. Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin and a presumptive Republican Presidential candidate, is a fierce ideological adversary. Chisholm, a Democrat, who is fifty-two, and Walker, who is forty-seven, both grew up in the state and both attended Marquette University, in Milwaukee. Both have spent virtually their entire lives working for state and local government in Wisconsin. As a state legislator, Walker pursued a traditional law-and-order agenda, and he sponsored bills that sought to increase mandatory minimum sentences for a variety of crimes. He became a statewide figure by sponsoring Wisconsin’s “Truth in Sentencing” legislation, which increased prison time and abolished parole for certain offenders. As governor, Walker has continued to oppose parole opportunities for prisoners. In 2010, the year before he took office, the state granted thirteen per cent of parole requests; in 2013, only six per cent were granted. As the Presidential campaign begins, the debate between these opposing visions of mass incarceration will play out across the nation. […]

    “I basically divide our world in two,” Chisholm told me in his office. “There are people who scare us, and people who irritate the hell out of us. The first group includes the people charged with homicide and other gun crimes. It’s about ten or fifteen per cent of our cases, a relatively small group, and there’s not much change with them from the old days. The most important thing we can do with those people is incapacitate them, so they can’t do any more harm.”

    Chisholm decided to make changes in the larger pool—the “irritating” defendants. “The racial disparity spoke for itself, starting with the disparities in the state prison system,” he told me. “But there were very significant disparities in specific categories. The one that stood out the most was low-level drug offenders—possession of marijuana or drug paraphernalia. There were clearly a disparate number of African-Americans being charged and processed for those offenses.”

    Even findings in the Vera report that seemed encouraging turned out to have a troubling subtext. In addition to the city, Milwaukee County includes more than a dozen suburbs, most of which are predominantly white. “When I first saw the data, I thought, Here is some good news,” Chisholm told me. “It said that we charge white offenders for property crimes at a higher rate than we do black offenders for those kinds of cases. So I thought, Good, here is a disparity the other way. That must balance things out. But a deputy of mine pointed out that what the data really meant was that we devalue property crimes in the center city. We don’t charge a car theft, because we think it’s just some junker car that’s broken down anyway. It meant that we were devaluing our African-American victims of property crimes—so that was another thing to address.”

    Chisholm decided to move to what he calls an evidence-driven public-health model. “What’s the most effective way to keep a community healthy?” he asked. “You protect people in the first place. But then what do you do with the people who are arrested?” There are two basic models of prosecutorial philosophy. “In one, you are a case processor,” he said. “You take what is brought to you by law-enforcement agencies, and you move those cases fairly and efficiently through the system. But if you want to make a difference you have to do more than process cases.”
    Cartoon
    “Dylan needs a classroom where I don’t have to talk to any of the other mothers.”
    Buy the print »

    So Chisholm began stationing prosecutors in neighborhoods around Milwaukee. “If people view prosecutors as just the guys in the courthouse, who are concerned only with getting convictions, then you are creating a barrier,” he said. He and his team started asking themselves in every instance why they were bringing that case. “In those that were seen as minor, it was the least experienced people who were deciding whether to bring them. And these people saw that we had generally brought those cases in the past, so they went ahead with them again. But we started to ask, ‘Why are we charging these people with crimes at all?’ ”

    Much more reading at the link. Good reading.


    News Misrepresents 150 Rowdy Teens As ‘Rioting,’ Conservatives Go Full-On Racist (SCREENSHOTS)

    News Misrepresents 150 Rowdy Teens As ‘Rioting,’ Conservatives Go Full-On Racist (SCREENSHOTS)
    Author: John Prager May 3, 2015 5:47 pm

    If you have been keeping track of the days since a mob of internet conservatives have spewed vitriolic hate speech toward African-Americans en masse, don’t even think of putting a “1” on the board. On Saturday, near closing time, a large crowd of unruly teenagers took advantage of Kennywood Park’s evening special to run around like morons — exactly the sort of thing that can be expected from a group of kids near the end of the school year.

    Initially, the local news reported everything from a “fight” to a “riot” at the park — an assessment that seems to be been borne of one thing and one thing only: the race of many of the participants.

    News Misrepresents 150 Rowdy Teens As ‘Rioting,’ Conservatives Go Full-On Racist (SCREENSHOTS)
    Author: John Prager May 3, 2015 5:47 pm

    If you have been keeping track of the days since a mob of internet conservatives have spewed vitriolic hate speech toward African-Americans en masse, don’t even think of putting a “1” on the board. On Saturday, near closing time, a large crowd of unruly teenagers took advantage of Kennywood Park’s evening special to run around like morons — exactly the sort of thing that can be expected from a group of kids near the end of the school year.

    Initially, the local news reported everything from a “fight” to a “riot” at the park — an assessment that seems to be been borne of one thing and one thing only: the race of many of the participants.
    via Boring Pittsburgh

    via Boring Pittsburgh

    The term “riot” was “a great exaggeration,” explained Kennywood Park spokesman Nick Paradise.“Around dusk, we saw several large groups of teenagers running through the park, scuffling, pushing and shoving.”

    Paradise says that the park was closed, and people exited “in an orderly fashion.” Absolutely no damage was done to the park, he told TribLIVE.

    For all the chaos, surprisingly few were hurt; According to Paradise, park security reported four minor injuries ranging from minor abrasions to ear pain.

    No one was arrested and, contrary to reports on social media, there were no “shots fired” or “brawls.” Some say that the “fighting” spilled into a nearby McDonald’s, but with the park closed. . . where were kids who were expecting rides later to go?

    Kennywood is near Pittsburgh, which boasts a significantly high African-American population, 26.1 percent, which is more than 15 percent higher than the state average. This, and this alone, seems to be the only reason a high percentage of the teens who ran wild were. . . black.

    And the public’s response, in screenshots at the link, is… bad. About as bad as you’d expect.

  224. rq says

    Targetting protestors? We are hearing that @DenverPolice just pulled over & arrested an organizer of the local #BaltimoreUprising solidarity march. #DefendDenver

    You all have shown up in a major way for the Tamir Rice fund for his family. Over $15k given today alone. GoFundMe link: Tamir Rice Memorial Fund. It’s at nearly $30 000 right now.

    Negative View of U.S. Race Relations Grows, Poll Finds

    Public perceptions of race relations in America have grown substantially more negative in the aftermath of the death of a young black man who was injured while in police custody in Baltimore and the subsequent unrest, far eclipsing the sentiment recorded in the wake of turmoil in Ferguson, Mo., last summer.

    Americans are also increasingly likely to say that the police are more apt to use deadly force against a black person, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds.

    The poll findings highlight the challenges for local leaders and police officials in trying to maintain order while sustaining faith in the criminal justice system in a racially polarized nation.
    Continue reading the main story
    Related Coverage

    document
    The New York Times/CBS News Poll on U.S. Race RelationsMAY 4, 2015
    Lt. Sekou Millington of the Oakland Police Department trained with a video simulation. He used his Taser to respond to a scenario where a woman stepped away from a man who was holding a large knife.
    Police Rethink Long Tradition on Using ForceMAY 4, 2015
    President Obama announced a new nonprofit group that is being spun off his My Brother’s Keeper initiative.
    Obama Finds a Bolder Voice on Race IssuesMAY 4, 2015
    Children playing last week in Sandtown-Winchester, the Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray was raised. One young resident called it “a tough community.”
    Hard but Hopeful Home to ‘Lot of Freddies’MAY 3, 2015
    Demonstrators marched in Baltimore on Thursday in protest of the death of Freddie Gray.
    Police Killings Rise Slightly, Though Increased Focus May Suggest OtherwiseAPRIL 30, 2015

    Sixty-one percent of Americans now say race relations in this country are generally bad. That figure is up sharply from 44 percent after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown and the unrest that followed in Ferguson in August, and 43 percent in December. In a CBS News poll just two months ago, 38 percent said race relations were generally bad. Current views are by far the worst of Barack Obama’s presidency.

    The negative sentiment is echoed by broad majorities of blacks and whites alike, a stark change from earlier this year, when 58 percent of blacks thought race relations were bad, but just 35 percent of whites agreed. In August, 48 percent of blacks and 41 percent of whites said they felt that way.

    Looking ahead, 44 percent of Americans think race relations are worsening, up from 36 percent in December. Forty-one percent of blacks and 46 percent of whites think so. Pessimism among whites has increased 10 points since December.

    The poll finds that profound racial divisions in views of how the police use deadly force remain. Blacks are more than twice as likely to say police in most communities are more apt to use deadly force against a black person — 79 percent of blacks say so compared with 37 percent of whites. A slim majority of whites say race is not a factor in a police officer’s decision to use deadly force.

    Overall, 44 percent of Americans say deadly force is more likely to be used against a black person, up from 37 percent in August and 40 percent in December.

    Blacks also remain far more likely than whites to say they feel mostly anxious about the police in their community. Forty-two percent say so, while 51 percent feel mostly safe. Among whites, 8 in 10 feel mostly safe.

    One proposal to address the matter — having on-duty police officers wear body cameras — receives overwhelming support. More than 9 in 10 whites and blacks alike favor it.

    More at the link, plus graphs!

    Missouri Senate votes to override veto of welfare limits

    Missouri senators have voted to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a bill removing several thousand low-income families from a welfare program.

    The Republican-led chamber voted 25-9 Monday to pass a measure that cuts the lifetime limit for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program from five years to three years and nine months. The bill also imposes stricter work requirements.

    The bill now goes to the House, where a two-thirds vote also is needed to override Nixon’s veto.

    The Democratic governor says the bill would harm thousands of children due to the actions of their parents.

    Republican supporters say the measure would end dependency on welfare and encourage people to get jobs.

    The cash assistance program provides up to $292 a month for a single parent with two children.

    Making poor people poorer. That should be Missouri’s new slogan.
    Because people aren’t already encouraged to get jobs.

    Loretta Lynch, Justice Department officials go to Baltimore, with video.

    Attorney General Loretta Lynch will travel to Baltimore on Tuesday for meetings with city officials, members of Congress, law enforcement officials, as well as faith and community leaders, a Justice Department official told CNN.

    Also going from the Department of Justice are head of the Civil Rights Division Vanita Gupta, Director Ronald Davis of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and Director Grande Lum of the Community Relations Service.

    Lynch, who was sworn into her position just over a week ago, has been closely monitoring the unrest in Baltimore that followed the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who suffered a fatal injury to his spine while in police custody.

    Lynch’s visit comes days after Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced Friday charges against six police officers involved in Gray’s death, which has been ruled a homicide.

    On her first day on the job, Lynch briefed President Barack Obama on riots unfolding in Baltimore and last week announced a $20 million program to supply police departments with body cameras.

    Obama has also said he may head to the city to meet with city officials and community leaders, but said he would wait until the situation cooled off to allow law enforcement to focus on keeping the peace in Baltimore — rather than escorting his motorcade and ensuring his safety.

    Obama, like Lynch, has also spoken directly with Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and Baltimore Democratic Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

    And on Monday Obama looked to broaden the focus to discuss the root causes of tensions between police and urban communities — and solutions to bolster those inner-city neighborhoods — as he launched a new phase of his “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative.

    “There’s no shortage of people telling you who and what is to blame for the plight of these communities,” Obama said Monday. “But I’m not interested in blame. I’m interested in responsibility, and I’m interested in results.”

  225. rq says

    No Charges for Retired Correction Cop Who Fatally Shot Man in Subway

    The retired New York City correction officer who fatally shot a man in a Brooklyn subway station in March won’t be charged in man’s death, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced Monday.

    The officer, 68-year-old William Groomes, fatally shot Gilbert Drogheo inside the Borough Hall subway station on March 10 after the two got into an argument that turned physical on board a No. 4 train.

    District Attorney Ken Thompson said in a statement that he’s determined criminal charges are not warranted in the matter.

    “Based on interviews of multiple eyewitnesses to the events leading up to the shooting, our review of video tapes of the shooting itself and other evidence, I have decided not to put this case into the grand jury and will not bring criminal charges against Mr. Groomes,” he said. “While the death of this young man was indeed tragic, we cannot prove any charge of homicide beyond a reasonable doubt.”

    Okay, he shot him – he died due to the actions of another person, therefore homicide. Legally? Can’t they go with something like ‘manslaughter’, voluntary or involuntary? It’s not like the man died accidentally.

    Reforming Baltimore police will be expensive, costly. Racism is also costly, FYI.

    Months before Freddie Gray died of the broken neck he suffered during what Baltimore’s top prosecutor called an illegal arrest, the city’s mayor and police commissioner said the department needed reform and asked the Justice Department for help reviewing officer misconduct.

    Now that Gray is buried, six officers are charged in his death and an uneasy calm has returned to the streets, critics are wondering whether city leaders are capable of implementing the change the city needs without the direct, intensive oversight that comes with a full-fledged civil rights investigation resulting in a federal consent decree.

    Democratic Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has already pushed back against this possibility, saying it would deprive Baltimore’s leaders from having a say in fighting crime in one of the nation’s most violent major cities, with more than 200 homicides a year.

    “Nobody wants the Department of Justice to come and take over our city,” she said last week.

    Baltimore’s leaders should welcome federal oversight, because it’s doubtful any police department can fix itself from within, said Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the University of California-Irvine School of Law.

    Consent decrees have been mostly effective since Congress responded to the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles by granting the Justice Department the power in 1994 to sue police departments for civil rights violations. Los Angeles went through it, and proved that it works, said Chemerinsky, who has studied reform efforts there.

    “I think that there is less likelihood of excessive force today, less racist policing today in Los Angeles, than prior to the consent decree,” he said. […]

    The Justice Department already announced a separate federal probe of Gray’s death. And a broad civil rights investigation would not begin unless federal authorities conclude the ongoing voluntary review is insufficient.

    Federal consent decrees also create new challenges. It can take more than a decade for police departments to satisfy their requirements, and meanwhile, expenses add up: It can cost tens of millions of dollars to retrain officers, hire new ones and modify use-of-force policies.

    “Cities don’t want to invest their scarce resources in the costly process of reforming a police department,” said Stephen Rushin, a visiting assistant professor of law at the University of Illinois who is working on a book about police reform. “Typically, it takes away from investments in schools, roads, parks, other things the city is going to value.”

    Then again, the city is already spending millions in legal settlements with people alleging officers have injured them or killed family members. The mayor and Police Commissioner Anthony Batts asked for the Justice Department review last year after The Baltimore Sun tallied $5.7 million in payouts to resolve more than 100 police misconduct lawsuits since 2011.

    The voluntary review should result in recommendations and give the city access to federal funds to implement them, but they would not be enforced by any court order or independent monitor.

    Meanwhile, Baltimore faces financial challenges so serious that in 2013, the mayor hired outside consultants who forecast that the local government was on the path to insolvency. The mayor has implemented spending reforms, but has little leeway to raise taxes. The city’s property taxes are already the highest in Maryland after being raised repeatedly between 1950 and 1985, in part to cover the cost of city services as the city lost manufacturing jobs and shed population.

    Some residents and legal advocates think the city’s government won’t be able to impose change unless it’s forced to.

    I wonder how much the consultants are getting paid? And also, taxes.

    Arrest of officer could void drug convictions. This could be some good news in Philadelphia.

    The arrest of former Philadelphia narcotics Officer Christopher Hulmes on perjury charges has forced the review – and possible reversal – of hundreds of convictions in which he was a key witness, the District Attorney’s Office said Monday.

    First Assistant District Attorney Ed McCann said his office would work with the Defender Association of Philadelphia to determine which cases will be affected by the 19-year police veteran’s involvement. Hulmes was arrested April 23 on multiple counts, including lying under oath.

    “It’s not thousands, but it’s hundreds” of cases, said McCann, explaining the impact a single problem officer can have on the city.

    In 2011, Hulmes, 42, admitted to a city judge that he falsified paperwork in a drug arrest. After the admission, Hulmes stayed on the street, making more arrests and testifying in court.

    The case has been an embarrassment for the District Attorney’s Office since last summer, when Philadelphia City Paper published an article detailing Hulmes’ 2011 admission in court that he had falsified an arrest warrant.

    In addition to perjury, Hulmes was charged with tampering with public records, false incrimination, obstruction of justice, and related offenses.

    His attorney, Brian McMonagle, could not be reached for comment Monday.

    Loretta Lynch to travel to Baltimore, Politico link.

    When Black Lesbians Are Killed by Black Men

    Thus, like Shani and Ray-Ray, like Shani’s older lesbian aunt (and Amiri’s sister) Kimako before her, like 15-year-old lesbian Sakia Gunn who like Shani called Newark home, black lesbians Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson from Houston, Texas, were killed by Black men—some of whom were family members. And whether the force that propelled the use of gun, or hand, or knife in the cases referenced above was sexism, misogyny, disdain of homosexuals, or all of the above, the killing of black women, black women loving women, by black men is a clarion reminder that the want for power and the afforded privileges offered to straight/queer/trans men folk—black, brown, and white—has dangerous and violent consequences. Murder is but one.

    And we need not memorialize another black woman sister daughter whose blood has been spilled at the hands of a black man.

    While not a case of police violence, still pertinent to the silence on black deaths that are not cis-het men.

    Israel must eliminate racism – PM Netanyahu, yes, BBC, it used tear gas and water cannons to do so over the weekend. WIN! You can read the article for yourselves.

  226. rq says

    Great distillation of the conservative paradox re: racism and beyond. Either history matters or it doesn’t. American exceptionalism vs. slavery and genocide.

    @AntonioFrench Help the homeowners of the St. Louis Place neighborhood save their homes! Poster for Protest at 10.30, May 6, and additional info.

    What it’s like to ride in back of police van, with video.

    Denver Community Organizer Arrested – Call out for Jail Solidarity

    Denver community organizer Dave Strano has been arrested again in the wake of Wednesday’s Baltimore Solidarity protest. He was originally arrested with misdemeanor charges of interference, resistance and assault. He was bonded out on Thursday morning and released later that day. He was pulled over tonight at 5:30pm with his children in the car, after DPD followed him home. It appears that immediately after his release on Thursday, DPD changed his charges from misdemeanor to felony assault on an officer and issued a warrant.
    At the Baltimore solidarity protest on Wednesday night, police attacked the protesters on the sidewalk and in the park, cornering them between motorcylces and busses and maliciously pepper spraying the crowd, including 12 year old children.

    Dave was assaulted and received injuries by the police, including a gash to his head, a broken clavicle and a twisted knee. He was take to the hospital where he was left shackled to the bed covered in pepper spray, and they refused to provide him with crutches after 8 hours. His friends were able to to bring crutches to the jail so that he could walk when he was finally released.

    In the past few months Denver police have been issuing felony assault charges to people they themselves have assaulted during protests. These charges are then reduced or dropped later for lack of evidence. The police have been recorded many times lying about what happened, and then being disproved with video evidence.
    It is a corrupt intimidation tactic to silence people who are speaking out against police murder.
    Dave is currently in custody with a bond of $5,000.

    So, yes, targetting protestors…

    Tamir Rice’s Body Still Isn’t Buried Because the Criminal Investigation Keeps Dragging On – when in real reality I would say no dragging should be necessary…

    The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department’s ongoing criminal investigation of the officers’ actions have delayed the burial, the family says in a motion filed Monday.

    “Because it is unknow [sic] whether there may need to be an additional medical examination; the body of Tamir Rice has not be put to rest,” says the motion, published by Cleveland.com. “Tamir Rice not being finally laid to rest prevents emotional healing and incurs a daily expense. The foot dragging of this investigation has now spanned three seasons.”

    It is not a mystery what happened to Tamir Rice. The shooting was caught on video, and shows an officer firing at Rice seconds after arriving at the scene. “In that video,” the motion says, “it is clear that Tamir Rice was shot within a [sic] one second of the officers arrival and he was never given an opportunity to comply with any verbal commands (if they actually had been given).”

    The two officers involved, Timothy Loehmann and his partner Frank Garmback, have asked a federal judge to halt the family’s federal civil rights lawsuit while the sheriff completes an independent criminal investigation. Neither have been charged in Rice’s death. City attorneys argued in Loehmann and Garmback’s motion that they fear their answers in the federal investigation may self-incriminate them in the criminal case, “where the stakes are significantly higher and their liberty is directly at risk.”

    If the officers get their wish, the family worries that more delay would weaken their case, as eyewitnesses’ memories fade.

    “Plaintiffs are incurring expense daily and are unsure if they can finally rest Tamir Rice due to the pending investigation,” the motion says. “A stay would exacerbate this expense and emotional distress.” Samaria Rice, Tamir’s mother, is now living in a homeless shelter because she “could no longer live next door to the killing field of her son.”

    I’m thinkin’ they want to re-examine and maybe say it was appendicitis that really really killed him.

    Flowers Are Still Better Than Bullets 45 Years After the Kent State Massacre, from the ACLU.

    Thank you for attending the 45th commemoration of the Kent State massacre and honoring, remembering this important day.

    My sister Allison Beth Krause was one of four Kent State students killed by the Ohio National Guard in a campus parking lot here at Kent State University 45 years ago. As many of you know, this terrible day was memorialized in the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song ‘Four Dead in O-hi-o’ – one of the many reminders of how far and wide this tragic story has resonated in the United States. I am very proud to say that Allison was peacefully protesting the Vietnam war on that day and for this she was killed by the Ohio National Guard. Allison took a stand against American war – and she died for the cause of peace. I am so honored to remember my big sister for this.

    Three other students and protesters died that day — Sandra Lee Scheuer, William Knox Schroeder and Jeffrey Glenn Miller — and nine were critically injured. The Kent State massacre prompted the largest national campus protest strike in history, involving four million students nationwide. A sense of collective trauma followed as it registered with the Vietnam generation that this could have been any one of them. These were ordinary American students, no different from many of you, who were balancing a deep concern for their country’s role in aggression in Southeast Asia with simpler, teenage worries like dating, getting good grades, and what the coolest new clothes looked like. To this day I cannot believe my sister was taken at that moment.

    In experiencing Kent State first hand since I was 15, I was shocked when the American leadership blamed my sister and other Kent State students for the violence, the bloodshed, and the massacre. We heard them say that the students brought it on themselves and that the guard should have shot more. My family heard the last quip as we identified Allison’s dead body at Robinson Memorial Hospital. Kent State survivors, stakeholders, and just about every young American had to hear this traumatic propaganda in our grief over what our government did to us. It was a two-fold injury that permanently sealed the trauma of this day.

    And to this day the families of the victims have not had an independent hearing on the murders that took place on May 4. We worried that the FBI, local law enforcement, and even that Kent State University itself were working and colluding with each other against the students, and were part of the government force that killed the innocent students and anti-war protesters. It was a real concern for us because the United States government refused to examine government complicity at Kent State.

    Our government tried Kent State in civil courts, refusing to characterize and treat Kent State as an event involving the killing of American students and protesters. For Allison’s loss of life, my family received $15,000 and a statement of regret.

    Even today, 45 years later, a culture of impunity persists. We read the news and see law enforcement killing young African-Americans across the country. Those of us who witnessed Kent State have to ask whether things might have been different if this era of brutal suppression of political protest had resulted in accountability. I see echoes of Kent State when I read that Mike Brown’s family has to file a civil lawsuit because there will be no criminal accountability for his killing. This is the legacy of past impunity, and it saddens me greatly to see it continue.

    There is an important legal distinction to be made as we pursue accountability for the killings. Because the statute of limitations for civil rights expires quickly, survivors and stakeholders have a time limit in seeking justice when our loved ones are murdered by U.S. law enforcement and the U.S. government. But the statute of limitations never expires for murder.

    Once Kent State litigation ended in the civil settlement in 1979, our government destroyed key evidence and promoted only its own view, revising Kent State history ever since. I founded the Kent State Truth Tribunal in 2010 for this reason. Telling the truth about what happened at Kent State is at the political heart of this barbaric incident. They took our family members, but we will not let them take our truth.

    An incredible thing happened at the 40th Kent State anniversary in 2010. The first digital, forensic examination of a tape recorded on a Kent State University dormitory window ledge at the time of the massacre surfaced in an archive at Yale University.

    Stuart Allen, an evidence expert with a lifelong forensic career, was commissioned to digitally examine the recording. Allen forensically verified that the audio on the tape revealed a command to fire. Despite government assertions that the killings were a spontaneous act of self-defense by frightened soldiers, the tape irrefutably established that in fact there was an order to shoot. I wept when I heard the words uttered by the guard commander on tape.

    The U.S. government response to Allen’s Kent State forensic analyses was to ignore it. Two years later, the Department of Justice officially refused to reopen the investigation and bring new federal charges: “There are insurmountable legal and evidentiary barriers to bringing a second federal case in this matter.”

    Last year the Kent State Truth Tribunal brought Kent State before the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva. There, something remarkable happened. The U.S. delegation at their formal treaty hearing and review admitted, “In 1970, four students were killed, were murdered and nine injured.” In a simple phrase, and for the first time in 45 years, our government finally admitted what we all knew to be true — this was government-executed murder.

    Our response was also simple. Now that our government has established that Kent State was murder, we demand they treat Kent State as murder and immediately examine the evidence in the forensic digital findings that captured the order to shoot. We know the statute of limitations never expires for murder.

    Will the U.S. government do this? Not without pressure from those of us who still care deeply about Kent State and not without help from all of you.

    Our work at the United Nations with the Human Rights Committee continues in 2015. Please stand with Allison, the Kent State Truth Tribunal, and me in this 45th year. Let’s demand U.S. government accountability for the unlawful killings at Kent State.

    I’d like to close with a portion from my speech at the United Nations:

    The right to assemble and protest is professed as a cherished American value and is a fundamental facet of our democracy. The Kent State precedent has cast a shadow over this democracy for over 40 years. If Kent State remains a glaring example of government impunity, it sends a message that protestors, especially young men and women, can be killed by the state for expressing their political beliefs. My sister died protesting for peace and I would like to honor her memory by ensuring that this never happens to another American protestor again.

  227. rq says

    McClellan: Too many see only black or white in police shooting. From October, worth a re-read.

    This Tiny Town Near St. Louis Is Making Minor-Crime Arrests At 100 Times The National Average

    A study of policing in the St. Louis area released Monday, which criticized the profit-driven practices of many departments in St. Louis County, revealed a startling statistic about arrests for minor crimes made in one tiny municipality.

    Beverly Hills, Missouri, population 574, has taken in over a quarter of its revenue from court fees and fines in recent years, at an annual rate of nearly $400 per resident. Its police department patrols Beverly Hills as well as nearby Velda Village Hills, a combined area totaling less than a quarter of a square mile.

    Between 2010 and 2014, Beverly Hills made an average of 1,087 arrests per 1,000 residents for less serious offenses, meaning they arrested more people for such offenses each year than actually lived in the jurisdiction they patrolled, according to the new report from the Police Executive Research Forum. That’s “more than 100 times the national rate of arrests” for such offenses, according to the report.

    Other St. Louis County cities — including Edmundson, Moline Acres, Pine Lawn, Calverton Park and Pagedale — made more than 10 times as many arrests for less serious offenses as they did for more serious crimes, according to the report. Nationally, police make an average of less than two arrests for minor offenses for every one arrest for a serious crime, the report stated.

    “The dramatic difference in arrest rates in so many municipalities in St. Louis County suggests that some agencies are devoting disproportionate attention and resources to less serious crime issues,” the report stated. “This seems to be occurring even in communities that have problems with more serious crime.”

    The Police Executive Research Forum, which has worked with hundreds of police departments across the country, had “never before encountered” the type of profit-driven ticketing policies it found in parts of St. Louis County, according to the report. PERF studied policing in the St. Louis region at the request of Better Together St. Louis, an organization that has focused on municipal fragmentation in the area.

    Policing around St. Louis County has come under scrutiny since a police officer in Ferguson killed 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9 last year, sparking protests and looting. A Justice Department report on the operations of the Ferguson Police Department and municipal court system resulted in the resignations of several high-ranking officials, including the police chief.

    Missouri Senate Votes to Override Veto of Welfare Limits – the way they phrase that headline, it could be assumed to be a good hting: as in, someone wanted to cap welfare sums or whatever, and they’re overriding that. *sigh*

    Missouri’s legislation would make it among the 10 most restrictive states for the duration of welfare benefits. Two-year limits are imposed on families in Arizona, Arkansas and Idaho. Indiana also has a two-year limit, but it applies only to adults, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

    Missouri’s lower limits would kick 3,155 families off of the program starting January 1, according to Department of Social Services estimates. Nixon said that translates to about 6,400 children.

    The most a single parent with two children can get from Missouri’s program is $292 per month.

    Democratic Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, of St. Louis, said that’s not enough for a family to live on and that most people are looking for work. She asserted that the tougher provisions could lead parents to turn to crime to get money to buy food for their children.

    “If they have to go rob, shoot, steal, kill, that’s what many of those individuals may do,” she told colleagues. “You need to think about the unintended consequences.”

    The measure also would impose sanctions for the entire family if a parent doesn’t comply with requirements to work, volunteer, attend school or take job training. Six weeks after a face-to-face meeting with a social worker, noncompliant adults would lose half their family’s benefits. All benefits would be cut off after an additional 10 weeks.

    The Social Services Department estimates more than 6,600 families could lose benefits for violating work requirements.

    The legislation would also require people to engage in work activities before becoming eligible for benefits and create a lump-sum option within the cash assistance program.

    Any savings from the changes would be redirected to other initiatives for low-income families, such as child care, transportation and education assistance. A portion would also go toward funding alternatives to abortion and promoting marriage and fatherhood. [emphasis by rq]

    The Rationality of Running Away, on why black people (men and boys and girls and women) run from cops.

    One question I hear and read often is “why do (black) people run away from the police?” Implicit in that question is the idea that running away is pointless, that you’ll be caught anyway. Fortunately, we have sociologists who study this stuff (boldface [author’s]):

    Those who interact rarely with the police may assume that running away after a police stop is futile. Worse, it could lead to increased charges or to violence. While the second part is true, the first is not. In my first eighteen months on 6th Street, I observed a young man running after he had been stopped on 41 different occasions. Of these, 8 involved men fleeing their houses during raids; 23 involved men running after being stopped while on foot (including running after the police had approached a group of people of whom the man was a part); 6 involved car chases; and 2 involved a combination of car and foot chases, where the chase began by car and continued with the man getting out and running.

    In 24 [out of 41] of these cases, the man got away. In 17 of the 24, the police didn’t appear to know who the man was and couldn’t bring any charges against him after he had fled. Even in cases where the police subsequently charged him with fleeing or other crimes, the successful getaway allowed the man to stay out of jail longer than he might have if he’d simply permitted the police to cuff him and take him in.

    ….Running wasn’t always the smartest thing to do when the cops came, but the urge to run was so ingrained that sometimes it was hard to stand still.

    Add to this the belief that many outstanding warrants are illegitimate–which in many cases seems to be correct (boldface mine):

    We now know that there’s about 2 million warrants that have been reported voluntarily to the database, and leaving a huge number that haven’t been reported. About 60% of these warrants are not for new crimes, but for technical violations of parole, unpaid court fees, unpaid child support, traffic fines, curfew violations, court fees. And it’s this group of people that are terrified. If they’re stopped by the cops, any of these reasons is enough to bring them in, to get them trapped into the system again….

    If you’re part of this class, it means you don’t go to the hospital when you’re sick. You’re wary of visiting friends in the hospital, or attending their funerals. Driving your kid to school can be daunting. You don’t have a driver’s license or I.D. Most of the time, you can’t seek legal employment. You can’t get help from the government. It comes from, partly, growing up in a neighborhood where you’ve watched your uncles and brothers go to jail, and your aunts and mom entangled in the court system without ever getting free.

    …In a poll I did of the women [living in the four block radius of 6th Street], 67% said that they’d been pressured by the police to provide information on a male family member or partner in the last 3 years….So you’re really talking about a policing system that hinges on turning families against each other and sowing a lot of suspicion and distrust. It’s very ironic that people blame the breakdown of black family life on the number of black men behind bars when the policing strategies that put them there are exactly about breaking those family bonds.

    If you believe that the justice system is not just, then the decision to obey law enforcement simply becomes a cost-benefit analysis decision, not a moral or ethical one: running away is making the best of a bad situation.

    Something most non-poor people never think about.

    Freddie Gray arrest documents drawn up for wrong people. Seriously?

    When charges were announced Friday against Alicia White for the death of Freddie Gray, her phone started buzzing from journalists and bail bondsmen.

    The problem was, they were calling the wrong Alicia White. The elementary school cafeteria manager from East Baltimore was not the Baltimore Police sergeant charged with manslaughter in the high-profile police custody death – even though court records listed her.

    The Sun was among those who contacted the other White on Friday based on the information in court records, seeking comment from her or her family.

    “The middle initial was off. Her address, her height, her weight, her driver’s license number – all of the information was my client’s information,” said Jeremy Eldridge, an attorney who says he has been hired by the resident.

    “Her life has been a living hell the past four days,” he said.

    An attorney for Lt. Brian Rice said his client’s information was also entered incorrectly when prosecutors filed charges, but declined further comment.

    On Friday evening, Tammy and Brian Rice of Brunswick, Md. said they were receiving multiple calls from reporters looking for the lieutenant. Brian Rice of Brunswick is a plumber, they said.

    The Baltimore Sheriff’s Office, which assisted the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office in charging the officers, declined to comment and referred questions to prosecutors, who could not immediately be reached.

    Eldridge said no one ever tried to arrest his client, which he attributes to the officers’ surrenders being coordinated by authorities. But he believes officials showed a reckless disregard for White’s safety by entering incorrect information in the public database.

    “In light of the violence and emotion our city has seen, to not send someone out and tell her, ‘Hey, we issued a warrant for you by mistake’ is unreal,” Eldridge said.

    Court records now show a general mailing address for the Baltimore Police Department for each of the officers.

    I think that’s what you call ‘incompetence’.

  228. rq says

    Multiple Causes Seen for Baltimore Unrest

    About six-in-ten (61%) say that “some people taking advantage of the situation to engage in criminal behavior” contributed a “great deal” to the unrest, while 56% say the same about tensions between the African-American community and the police.

    However, majorities say all five factors mentioned in the survey – including anger over the death of Freddie Gray, poverty in some neighborhoods and the initial response by city officials – contributed at least a fair amount to the unrest.

    The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted April 30-May 3 among 1,000 adults, finds relatively modest racial differences in opinions about the factors that contributed to the unrest in Baltimore.

    More Blacks than Whites Say Poverty Contributed a ‘Great Deal’ to UnrestTwo-thirds of whites (66%) and 54% of blacks say that people taking advantage of the situation to commit crimes contributed a great deal to the unrest. Blacks are more likely than whites to say that poverty is a major cause: 50% of blacks say this contributed a great deal to the turmoil, compared with 39% of whites.

    Majority Says It Was ‘Right Decision’ to Charge Baltimore Police OfficersThe survey finds that majorities of both whites and blacks say Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby made the right decision in bringing criminal charges against some Baltimore police officers, including a charge of second-degree murder against one of the officers.

    Overall, 65% say the decision by the state’s attorney to charge the officers was right, while 16% see it as the wrong decision; 18% do not offer an opinion. The question was asked May 1-3 among 798 adults. (Mosby announced the charges on May 1.)

    Nearly eight-in-ten blacks (78%) and 60% of whites say the decision to bring charges was right. There are sharp partisan differences in these views: 75% of Democrats, 71% of independents and 45% of Republicans express positive views of the decision to charge the six officers.

    While the public generally supports the decision to charge the police officers, most Americans do not have a great deal of confidence into the ongoing investigations into Gray’s death.

    Just 13% say they have a great deal of confidence into the investigations while 35% say they have a fair amount of confidence. About four-in-ten (44%) have little or no confidence in the investigations. However, the share expressing confidence in the investigations rose during the latter part of the survey period: 40% expressed a great deal or fair amount of confidence on April 30, while 50% expressed at least a fair amount of confidence from May 1-3, after the charges were announced.

    More numbers and graphs at the link. A lot more.

    CVS plans to rebuild as city works to help riot-torn businesses

    Looted and burned, the CVS store at Pennsylvania and North avenues was one of more than 235 businesses damaged in the violence that shook the city last week, said Baltimore Development Corp. President William H. Cole IV. While much of the damage was done in Penn North and from Mount Vernon into downtown, the mayhem affected neighborhoods around the city, including Pigtown, Highlandtown and Hamilton.

    The Penn North drugstore was vital to the community, which is considered a food desert for its lack of fresh food options for residents. Five CVS stores in the city were damaged, but only the store in Penn North and another on West Franklin Street remain closed.

    Cole said CVS committed Monday to reopening its stores.

    “We have a long history of serving inner-city communities and are 100 percent committed to serving our patients and customers in Baltimore,” said CVS spokeswoman Carolyn Castel on Monday. “We are working diligently to formulate our rebuilding plans.”

    She declined to be more specific about those plans, saying the company hopes to make an announcement in the near future.

    Toronto police will be allowed to turn body cameras off and won’t record carding, which kind of defeats the purpose, no?

    Toronto police officers equipped with body cameras as part of a pilot project rolling out this month won’t be recording when they “card” citizens not under arrest or investigation, a police spokesperson said Monday.

    It’s a restriction one activist dubs “absolutely laughable,” and one that hints at the tough choices the force may face as it seeks to balance policing and privacy with calls for greater transparency.

    The one-year trial, prompted in part by the shooting death of teenager Sammy Yatim, will see 100 officers from four units wearing the cameras on shift, starting May 18. The body-mounted devices won’t be on at all times, though.

    Officers will turn on the cameras “prior to arriving at a call for service or when they start investigating an individual,” according to the police. They’ll turn them off “when the call for service or investigation is complete” or when the officer determines the recording is no longer serving its intended purpose.

    That policy means most instances of carding—perhaps the most contentious issue in Toronto policing at the moment—will go unrecorded during the trial.

    Yay, Toronto. You’re so progressive.

    “Urban” is more than just a synonym for “black”, PZ on education and neighbourhoods and university.

    Gunshot at scene of protests underscores tension in Baltimore, with video.

    A gunshot Monday near a city intersection that saw the worst of the rioting a week ago and became the scene of frequent protests over the death of Freddie Gray underscored continuing tensions in Baltimore.

    A fleeing suspect pulled out a revolver, which went off, and no officers fired their weapons, police said, denying conflicting reports from people at the scene. No one was injured, but the incident brought out a crowd of people and dozens of additional officers in riot gear. At least one person was pepper-sprayed as police tried to disperse the crowd.

    The suspect was arrested for a gun violation and taken to a hospital “out of an abundance of caution,” police said.

    Police officers in riot gear stand at the ready on West North Avenue after tensions flared when police apprehended a man they say had a gun in Penn North.

    The Freddie Gray case not only continued to fray nerves but also sparked a national dialogue on race and economic disparities as President Barack Obama invoked Baltimore on Monday in calling for more opportunities for young men and Gray’s family said in a televised interview that perhaps the 25-year-old would “live forever” as a “martyr.”

    For a smile: see the link within and the video. :D Yasss. We’re the coolest on the planet.

  229. rq says

    Donate for Give STL Day: Support your favorite organizations! A list within.

    ‘Ain’t I a woman?’ : A response to ‘A continuing crisis in black leadership’. A nice smackdown.

    I recently read an opinion piece by a man I have respected for my entire life. And I was severely disappointed.

    In his piece titled “A continuing crisis of black leadership,” Mike Jones names a cadre of leaders whom I also respect, but something was missing. He didn’t name one black female leader also working in the trenches to change things in our community.

    He starts with the “For The Sake of All” study, stating that those who haven’t read it should be “given their immediate and unconditional release.” If he read it, he would know that I, a black female, have committed to fulfilling one of the reports goals, establishing children’s savings accounts.

    He also talks about how we’re not indigenous to the community. Last time I checked, I live in the 26th Ward, north of Delmar. I made a conscious choice to move back to the neighborhood where I started, just behind the shuttered hospital, the old St. Luke’s, where I was born.

    Speaking of moral black leadership demanding justice, one needs to look no further than St. Louis County Councilwoman Hazel Erby, who in a show of amazing courage, stood up to the St. Louis County Democratic Party last summer by forming the Fannie Lou Hamer Democratic Coalition. She challenged the status quo and took the heat for supporting Republican Rick Stream in the race for county executive. And came close to winning!

    Jones then mentions businessmen, but I can name a couple of businesswomen also empowering people and changing lives. One needs to look no further than Sandra Moore, president of Urban Strategies, or Deborah Patterson, president of the Monsanto Fund.

    In the halls of justice, are you aware of Loretta Lynch, our newly confirmed U.S. attorney general? Or how about Kamala Harris, California attorney general? Or if you just have to have a local comparison, what about Judges Anne Marie Clarke, Angela Quigless or Gloria Reno?

    There are many more examples of black moral leadership, but my point is simple: It doesn’t just come in one gender, Mr. Jones. Rev. Karen Anderson said it best, “It’s one thing to be invisible to the majority, but it’s entirely something different when we are invisible to our own race.”

    In 1851, Sojourner Truth said, “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together, ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.”

    We aren’t asking to lead, Mr. Jones. Women are and have been leading right alongside (and at times in front of) the men you named in your opinion piece. We don’t need your permission or acknowledgement. We will continue to lead, with our without you.

    Tishaura O. Jones is treasurer for the City of St. Louis.

    Yes.

    Historical Society wants your photos and video from Freddie Gray protests and aftermath, in case anyone here might have any. That archive should be interesting.

    The Maryland Historical Society has issued a public call for images from professional and amateur photographers to document the recent Freddie Gray protests, civil unrest and cleanup efforts in Baltimore City.

    “We believe this is an important topic for public history,” said historical society president Burt Kummerow in a release.

    Images and video may be submitted to the Maryland Historical Society through Dropbox online file sharing at Remembrance@mdhs.org.

    Submissions should include the photographer’s name, email address, date and location that images were taken, and camera type/model.

    The images will become part of a digital collection to be housed on a website maintained by the society. The group also hopes to make the images available for viewing by the general public, the Maryland State Archives, and the National Archives.

    “By submitting images to the society, photographers should be assured that they are not waiving their rights to these images,” the release stated.

    Laura Rodini, historical society spokeswoman, said the museum plans to launch the web site within the next month.

    Cops: Ga. Sheriff Refuses to Talk After Shooting Woman in Stomach

    On Sunday evening, a Georgia sheriff allegedly shot a woman in the stomach inside a model home in Lawrenceville, Ga. Police said Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill “refused to cooperate” when investigators arrived on the scene. He still hasn’t been arrested or questioned.

    Hill and the woman, identified by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a 43-year-old real estate agent named Gwenevere McCord, were the only two in the model home at the time of the shooting and were apparently acquaintances.

    McCord was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she remains in critical condition. “She’s not able to give any information due to her condition,” police Sgt. Brian Doan told WSB-TV.

    After calling the shooting in just after 5:30 pm Sunday, Hill reportedly refused to cooperate or give statement to responding Gwinnett police officers. As of Monday afternoon, he still hadn’t given a statement to police and has not been arrested.

    Some more at the link.

    @deray Tonight 9pm EST #HipHopEd celebrates the Teachers throughout Life’s Classrooms #NationalTeacherDay

    Hey, remember Martese Johnson, who was charged for being beat up by cops? State police find U.Va. student falsely charged

    State ABC agents charged University of Virginia honor student Martese Johnson with public intoxication even though they knew he was not drunk, according to a state police report on the controversial and bloody arrest of the 20-year-old African-American that shocked the state.

    The finding that Mr. Johnson was falsely charged was disclosed Wednesday by Mr. Johnson’s attorney, Daniel Watkins of Williams Mullen law firm in Richmond.

    It also confirms what Mr. Watkins and the university reported just a few days after the U.Va. junior was injured by white Alcoholic Beverage Control agents during his March 18 arrest outside a pub in downtown Charlottesville. […]

    Mr. Watkins noted the State Police report runs several hundred pages and details, among other things, several hours of interviews, including one with Mr. Johnson on March 26.

    The report also contains statements from the ABC agents involved in the early morning arrest and from University of Virginia and Charlottesville police officers who responded after the fact, Mr. Watkins said.

    According to Mr. Watkins, the report states that ABC officers targeted Mr. Johnson after he was turned away from a bar to find out if he might be using a fake ID.

    Along with public intoxication, Mr. Johnson also was charged with obstruction of justice without force for allegedly resisting as agents tried to handcuff him.

    Mr. Watkins stated that Mr. Johnson cooperated with the agents and showed them his ID before he was grabbed suddenly and slammed to the sidewalk.

    Mr. Johnson is due in Charlottesville General District Court on May 28. There is a possibility that Mr. Chapman will decline to prosecute based on the findings in the report.

  230. rq says

    NYCLU to File Appeal for Public Release of Garner Grand Jury Transcripts

    The New York Civil Liberties Union will today pursue an appeal from a Staten Island judge’s March 19 decision to keep secret records from the Grand Jury that failed to indict an NYPD officer in the death of Eric Garner. The NYCLU in December petitioned the court to release to the public the transcript, as well as the evidence presented and the instructions the jury was given.

    “Across the country people are coming together to protest the failure of our criminal justice system to value black lives,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “New York has an opportunity to end the secrecy that has heightened deep-seated suspicions about the criminal justice system’s willingness and commitment to hold police officers accountable when they kill unarmed civilians. We hope the court seizes this moment to provide some much needed transparency for the thousands who continue to demand answers in the streets.”

    The NYCLU will file its brief in the Appellate Division, Second Department today. It is joined by the Legal Aid Society, the NAACP of Staten Island and the Public Advocate’s Office in appealing Judge William E. Garnett’s rejection of their requests to disclose the records.

    “The Garner controversy has provoked a debate about the need for Grand Jury reform. But discussions regarding the need for reform are proceeding without any real understanding of how and why the Grand Jury reached its decision,” said NYCLU Legal Director Arthur Eisenberg. “This absence of public information can and should be corrected. In a democracy, decisions about the need and nature of reform should rest upon a fully informed discussion by the electorate and its representatives. To provide for that reasoned decisionmaking, the general presumption in favor of Grand Jury secrecy should yield to transparency in this case.”

    I’m so glad Ty is getting this exposure he deserves, #JusticeForTy – there’s some attached text. Ty Sawyer, 20, beaten to death by a hockey player, Patrick Downey, who also happens to be the son of two former police officers in the town. Police ruled the death not a homicide, as supposedly the two agreed to fight at a party.

    Former Ladue Police Chief alleges he was ordered to profile black motorists. Oh.

    More than any police department in the St. Louis area, Ladue has been repeatedly singled out for allegedly racially profiling black motorists.

    Reports filed with the Missouri Attorney General show that in Ladue, blacks are far more likely than whites to get stopped, searched, and arrested.

    News 4’s Craig Cheatham tried repeatedly to get a comment from the current Ladue Police Chief. News 4 wanted to interview current Police Chief Rich Wooten about policing in the richest and whitest suburb of St. Louis, where blacks have been repeatedly stopped, searched, and arrested at much higher rates than whites.

    Wooten refused to be interviewed.

    Larry White was the Ladue Chief before Wooten. As police chief of Ladue from 2008-2010, he says then-mayor Irene Holmes encouraged him to target blacks, but ignore DWI cases involving wealthy white Ladue residents.

    White remembered one incident in particular that he says was described to him by former Mayor Holmes.

    “There were four blacks in the car and the officers pulled them out and she got very excited. ‘That’s what we want, that’s what we want to see. Pull them out, get them handcuffed and let their friends, brothers or whoever connected to ‘those people’ can see what happens to blacks and that we don’t want them here.”

    As chief, White says he reduced the percentage of traffic stops of blacks by about 30 percent. He was fired after only two years. He sued for wrongful termination, but the case was dismissed.

    The city denied his allegations, and in written statements insisted that the mayor never told him to target blacks or take it easy on drunk drivers. However, in recent years, the Missouri Attorney General has singled Ladue out for having such a disproportionately high rate of stopping black drivers.

    Adolphus Pruitt, the President of the St. Louis City NAACP, helped negotiate a memorandum of understanding several years ago with the city of Ladue that he hoped would address the issue, but he believes the attempts failed because blacks are still being searched and arrested in Ladue at a rate four times higher than whites.

    “We, both parties to that document, the NAACP and the city of Ladue, have failed to abate the cause and that’s why the outcomes are the same” said Pruitt.

    Ladue leaders insist that the system for evaluating them is unfair and inaccurate because the city has less than a one percent black population and a busy interstate runs through Ladue, and that makes it much more likely that there will be a higher difference in the stops, searches, and arrests rates of African-Americans.

    Oh, the excuses.

    @FOX2now isn’t #KorieHodges the woman that was killed last week? Are they charging the deceased? 2 diff people? Korie Hughes, apparently deceased, is also being charged with looting on the night following the Ferguson Grand Jury decision. There’s a link to a Fox article, but it has since been taken down.

    Helpful Responses to Baltimore, cartoon by Tom Tomorrow. With caveat, helpfulness not guaranteed. Basically a list of racist responses from the right wing (at least, I recognized Donald Trump in one of the pictures…

    Here’s a TV interlude: Shonda Rhimes, Dee Rees Team for FX Drama Based on ‘The Warmth of Other Suns’

    The prolific producers behind ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder are teaming with Pariah writer/director Dee Rees to adapt Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns as a limited series for FX, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

    The historical study, published in 2010, chronicles the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, the exodus of almost 6 million people changed the face of America.

    Cover story Shonda Rhimes on ‘Angry Black Woman’ Flap, Messy ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Chapter and the ‘Scandal’ Impact

    Wilkerson — who in 1994 became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism for her coverage of the 1993 Midwestern floods — tells the story through the lives of Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left Mississippi for Chicago; George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem; and Dr. Robert Pershing Foster, who left Louisiana for Los Angeles in 1953.

    Wilkerson gave up her post as Chicago Bureau Chief at The New York Times to pen the 622-page historical study, which took her 15 years. The book, which takes its title from a Richard Wright poem, received the National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a NYT best-seller — it was one of the paper’s best books of 2010 and earned several other accolades. […]

    For FX, The Warmth of Other Suns comes as slave dramas continue to be in high demand. History, A&E and Lifetime will take on one of TV’s most successful miniseries with a Roots remake due in 2016, while WGN America handed out a straight-to-series order for slave drama Underground. Not to be outdone, NBC is teaming with Stevie Wonder for an underground railroad miniseries and musical called Freedom Run.

    Slave dramas continue to be in high demand. Hm.

  231. rq says

    Here’s the story behind that striking photo of Baltimore girl, armed Guardsman

    “Everyone thinks this picture is cute. I took it, and I think it’s tragic,” Amanda Moore wrote in a tweet about the photo she took Friday, which she hashtagged #BaltimoreUprising, just hours after city authorities announced criminal charges against six officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray.

    The photo shows a young girl playing with a glow stick while kneeling in front of a National Guardsman. The soldier, sitting relaxed and leaning back amid a wall of riot shields, appears amused. His assault rifle rests upon his body, with the front of the weapon pointed on the ground just inches away from the girl.

    “I just thought it was really strange, and it really was sad,” Moore told TODAY.com. “It was sad for the National Guardsmen because they had to be there, it was sad for Baltimore. And it was sad to explain to your children what’s going on.” […]

    And Moore said she’s fine with the different views people have expressed in reaction to the photo she took.

    “At the end of the day, if people look at the photo and it helps just one person say, ‘Oh, I guess Baltimore wasn’t a violent, terrible mess all week,’ great. I want to get people back into the city, shopping at local businesses,” she said. “That would be fine with me, even if it’s everybody taking the picture the wrong way.”

    Transgender is the New Black in Hollywood – that first headline there? Re-routes to this: Transgender Hollywood: Will Bruce Jenner Change the Industry?

    In June, Cox will slip back into the unglamorous outfit that opened these doors — the drab beige prison uniform from Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” which enters its third season. It’s one of the many priorities on the 30-year-old actress’s packed schedule. She just wrapped a CBS pilot called “Doubt,” in which she plays a defense attorney dressed in Hillary Clinton-like power suits; landed a Daytime Emmy for producing the MTV doc “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word”; and travels to college campuses to deliver lectures as an LGBT activist.

    On a spring night over dinner in downtown Manhattan, Cox spoke about how far Hollywood has come — and still needs to go — in embracing transgender artists across all facets of the entertainment business. “I never wanted to be the only one,” she says, referencing an interview she heard with Sidney Poitier about how it felt to be the first African-American to win a best actor Oscar, in 1964. “The change will happen when there’s a slew of us.”

    That day may be quickly approaching. A whopping 17 million viewers tuned in last month to a two-hour ABC interview with Bruce Jenner to hear his story about transitioning into a woman. And there is a smattering of transgender-themed film and TV projects about to premiere, which could signal a dramatic shift in the industry. […]

    Hollywood has long forced transgender performers into staying closeted — like ’80s model-turned-Bond girl Caroline Cossey, whose career stalled after a British tabloid wrote about her gender reassignment; or Jet cover-beauty Ajita Wilson, whose story was revealed only after her death in a 1987 car crash. In her seminal 2007 book “Whipping Girl,” Julia Serano describes two transgender stereotypes that often appear in the movies: the deceptive transsexual (who tries to trick heterosexual men into having sex with her, a la “The Crying Game” or “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”) or the pathetic transsexual (characters with overtly mannish features, such as in “The World According to Garp” or “The Adventures of Sebastian Cole”). When a rare sympathetic portrait has appeared — e.g., Felicity Huffman in “Transamerica” — these roles were frequently played by cisgender (or non-transgender) thespians. “Trans actors have a really hard time getting established in Hollywood,” Serano says.

    … And I can’t help but see the headline (ref. Bruce Jenner, who happens to be white) and then notice that most of the article is about Laverne Cox (where a specific person as actor is spoken to/about, and who happens to be black). [But within, there’s a whole list of positive things happening to improve representation of trans* people in the media. I can’t say I’m comfortable with them portraying shows and movies about trans* people as some sort of current ‘hot’ thing, a fashion trend if you will (which is what it sounds like right now). Is that just me?]

  233. rq says

    http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/5-step-guide-police-repression-protest-ferguson-baltimore-and-beyond . Can’t seem to blockquote the text, but it’s a very revealing article. The list includes:
    1. equate dissidents with domestic terrorists (even when no threat of violence presented);
    2. arm police with ‘less lethal’ weapons (which can still be lethal and create more lethal situations);
    3. wage wave warfare (which is sound cannons, stink bombs, etc.);
    4. replace humans with robots and predictive technology (hello, surveillance!);
    5. make “friends” and “follow” people (open source intelligence like twitter, facebook, etc.).

    So inspiring to see black folks we’ve trained throwing down & coordinating actions with equipment! #SaveE12th

    Working, but Needing Public Assistance Anyway, in reference to Missouri’s decision to cut people off welfare and ‘encourage them to get jobs’.

    A home health care worker in Durham, N.C.; a McDonald’s cashier in Chicago; a bank teller in New York; an adjunct professor in Maywood, Ill. They are all evidence of an improving economy, because they are working and not among the steadily declining ranks of the unemployed.

    Yet these same people also are on public assistance — relying on food stamps, Medicaid or other stretches of the safety net to help cover basic expenses when their paychecks come up short.

    And they are not alone. Nearly three-quarters of the people helped by programs geared to the poor are members of a family headed by a worker, according to a new study by the Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California. As a result, taxpayers are providing not only support to the poor but also, in effect, a huge subsidy for employers of low-wage workers, from giants like McDonald’s and Walmart to mom-and-pop businesses.

    “This is a hidden cost of low-wage work,” said Ken Jacobs, chairman of the Berkeley center and a co-author of the report, which is scheduled for release on Monday.

    More reading at the link (article from April).

    Staten Island special election 2015: Dan Donovan wins Congress seat. In case you were wondering, he’s the guy who returned no indictment of Pantaleo in the murder of Eric Garner. Apparently you can still win popularity contests if you don’t care about black lives.

    Donovan was long considered the front-runner in the race, as he is a well-liked Republican in a conservative-leaning borough of Staten Island that makes up about three-quarters of the 11th Congressional District.

    A part of southern Brooklyn makes up the remainder of the district and is where Gentile represents constituents in the City Council.

    Donovan, a 12-year district attorney whose office presided over the controversial Eric Garner case, raised about three times as much money in the race — about $615,000 compared to Gentile’s $196,000.

    With a little help from the National Republican Congressional Committee, Donovan took the Island seat in the election and will be sworn into office in Washington, D.C., shortly.

    Gentile’s campaign didn’t see any help from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — the organization that pumped about $5 million into the failed congressional campaign of Democrat Domenic M. Recchia Jr. in November when he ran against Republican Rep. Michael Grimm.

    Five Months After Tamir Rice’s Death, His Mother Is Forced To Move Into Homeless Shelter; Victim Not Yet Buried

    “We come here to Cleveland, Ohio, brothers and sisters, where we had video capture the whole entire episode of what happened to claim this baby’s life,” Crump said. “And yet, after five months and counting, no one has been charged, no one has been held accountable for the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.”

    ‘Biker Cop’ sent ‘mayhem’ text day before bloody 2013 attack

    Oh, please, no, don’t blame the lead. Why Freddie Gray Never Had a Chance: Lead Poisoning Is Killing Inner-City Baltimore

    Whenever something like the death of Freddie Gray happens, we usually get around, by the third or fourth day, to the broader poverty discussion. This debate usually boils down to the Great Society programs. Liberals say they worked, and what we need are more of them. Conservatives say they failed and the real answer is to found in a sterner moral code.

    Between the two, I unsurprisingly endorse the liberal view above (although I don’t think the conservatives have been 100 percent wrong, more on which later). But there’s a more constructive way to talk about poverty than to fight over 50-year-old programs; it’s to use a tragedy like this not just to defend old policies but to promote new ways of understanding poverty and the anti-social behavior that helps keep so many people trapped in it. And Gray’s sad case is a prime example.

    Freddie Gray grew up with lead poisoning. A great piece in The Washington Post last week laid out the whole history, Gray’s personally and that of West Baltimore generally. Gray lived in a home where lead paint peeled off the walls.

    Now certainly he had other problems—he was born prematurely to a mother who may have been using heroin while pregnant, and he spent the first few months of his life in a hospital. But even at that young age, he was tested for lead, and the tests found unusually high levels in his blood. At one point his family sued a landlord and won an undisclosed settlement. And all over West Baltimore, there were thousands of kids like him, breathing lead paint fumes, swallowing the little chips that got stuck under their fingernails, and so on.

    And what did this do to him? Obviously we don’t exactly know in his case. But we’ve known for a long time that lead makes children sick and impairs mental functions. An expert is quoted in that Post piece makes this rather eye-popping assertion—not doubt exaggerating somewhat, but driving home the basic point: “All these kids that grew up in those houses, they all have ADHD.” Also, read this 2013 New York Review of Books piece by Helen Epstein, uncannily prescient today, with its emphasis on Baltimore.

    But it’s not just about learning disorders. More recently, research has gone beyond that realm and has been starting to make more direct links between childhood lead poisoning and social dysfunction of the sort Gray exhibited, and even a tendency toward violence and crime. […]

    The one thing I’ll say for conservatism with respect to the poverty debate, and the crime debate, is to remind us that on some level, individuals are responsible for their own actions. If we don’t accept and impose this standard, we have moral chaos. (Of course, we ought to be imposing it on bankers, too.) Social pathologies can explain anti-social behavior but can’t excuse it. We can agree to that, although we can however do without the obnoxious right-wing preaching at poor people that cascades out of certain word processors at times like these.

    But no poor person, whether his character is closer to that of Mohandas Gandhi or Charles Manson, can control how much lead is in the paint of the walls of the crappy apartment that he can afford and where he’s trying to raise his little children. Conservatives like to tell us poor people need to make better choices, but how much lead his children breathe in or swallow has nothing to do with any choices he made. It has to do with choices made by others, from his landlord on up to appropriators in Congress.

    And what if, 15 or 20 years from now, the science is crystal clear on the connection between lead exposure and the kinds of problems Freddie Gray had? I’ll tell you exactly what. Liberals will say: The scientific verdict is in. Let’s do what we have to do here once and for all.

    But conservatives will stand athwart history yelling stop as they always do—the moral scolds will blame single parents, and the ones who just don’t want their tax money spent on the moocher class will whistle up outfits like the Competitive Enterprise Institute to produce alternative “studies” questioning what actual science knows to be obvious, and we will be stalemated. And that will be another “choice” that people poor didn’t make that will help consign their children to society’s margins.

    I STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT HAS TO DO WITH FREDDIE GRAY’S DEATH AT THE HANDS OF POLICE.

  234. rq says

    That is a terrible, terrible first comment (formatting, not content). And it’s in moderation.
    And old case: Spotlight shows #JohnGeer with his hands up moments before an officer fatally shot him in his doorway.

    Witness to Michael Brown shooting sues Ferguson and Darren Wilson

    A witness to a police officer’s fatal shooting of Michael Brown last summer in Ferguson, Missouri, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was wrongly stopped and fired on during the encounter on a city street.

    The lawsuit, filed last week by Dorian Johnson, claims that the officer, Darren Wilson, fired at him and Brown as they ran away from him on Aug. 9. The lawsuit claims Wilson targeted him without probable cause.

    “Officer Wilson acted with either deliberate indifference and/or reckless disregard toward” Johnson, the lawsuit says.

    The suit also cited many of the Departmet of Justice findings, arguing that the city and former Police Chief Thomas Jackson “facilitated, encouraged and/or instigated” biased police behavior, including the “excessive force” used against Brown and Johnson.

    The lawsuit seeks $25,000 in damages.

    A Ferguson spokesman said the city would not comment on pending litigation.

    They just keep throwing things at Darren Wilson, and godsdammit, why won’t anything stick??

    Loading up last bit of #BaltimoreLunch goods! What a morning. @ophelporhush
    #BaltimoreLunch goods to distribute on Monday. You all showed OUT today!!! #BaltimoreUprising @ophelporhush

    Freddie Gray officer threatened to kill himself and ex-partner’s husband, court document alleges

    The Baltimore police lieutenant charged with the manslaughter of Freddie Gray allegedly threatened to kill himself and the husband of his former partner, during incidents that led to him being disciplined and twice having his guns confiscated.

    Brian Rice, who pursued and arrested Gray after the 25-year-old “caught his eye” on 12 April, was reportedly given an administrative suspension after being hospitalised for a mental health evaluation when he warned he was preparing to shoot himself in April 2012.

    Rice, 41, also received an internal discipline when a judge granted a temporary restraining order against him after a request from Andrew McAleer, the husband of Karyn McAleer, who is the mother of Rice’s young son and a fellow Baltimore police officer. Rice has been married to and divorced from two further women, according to court records.

    A sharply critical 10-page complaint against Rice, which Andrew McAleer filed to a court in Maryland in January 2013, is being published in full for the first time by the Guardian. It details what McAleer, a Baltimore firefighter, described as a “pattern of intimidation and violence” by the officer.

    So, any bets on how this will be used to exonerate him in the Freddie Gray case? Mental illness, stress, etc.? Though really it just indicates a history of violent and harmful behaviour…

    No Boundries Coalition meeting in West B’More; Discussing how to improve the neighborhood after #freddiegray incident

  235. rq says

    Surveillance planes spotted in the sky for days after West Baltimore rioting

    The plane appeared to be a small Cessna, but little else was clear. The sun had already set, making traditional visual surveillance difficult. So, perplexed, Shayne tweeted: “Anyone know who has been flying the light plane in circles above the city for the last few nights?”

    That was 9:14 p.m. Seven minutes later came a startling reply. One of Shayne’s nearly 600 followers tweeted back a screen shot of the Cessna 182T’s exact flight path and also the registered owner of the plane: NG Research, based in Bristow, Va.

    “The Internet,” Shayne, 39, told his wife, “is an amazing thing.” [Yes, indeed!]

    What Shayne’s online rumination helped unveil was a previously secret, multi-day campaign of overhead surveillance by city and federal authorities during a period of historic political protest and unrest. […]

    Civil libertarians have particular concern about surveillance technology that can quietly gather images across dozens of city blocks — in some cases even square miles at a time — inevitably capturing the movements of people under no suspicion of criminal activity into a government dragnet. The ACLU plans to file information requests with federal agencies on Wednesday, officials said.

    “A lot of these technologies sweep very, very broadly, and, at a minimum, the public should have a right to know what’s going on,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU specializing in privacy and technology issues.

    The FBI declined to comment on the flights. Capt. Eric Kowalczyk, a Baltimore Police Department spokesman, referred questions about the flights to the FBI.

    A government official familiar with the operations, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters not approved for public release, said the flights were aerial support that Baltimore police officials requested from the FBI. […]

    The Twitter follower who unearthed the first round of facts about the surveillance flights was Pete Cim­bolic, a former ACLU employee and current aviation buff who lives in North Baltimore. He had grown accustomed to following the Twitter feed of Shayne, 39, a fellow Baltimorean who runs Scanbaltimore.com, a Web site that monitors police activity and live-streams the ongoing chatter on official radio channels.

    When Cimbolic saw Shayne’s query about the flights, he checked the aviation radar Web site and began tracking the first, smaller Cessna as it was still in the air.

    It showed a continuous, circling path that appeared to have its center directly above the intersection of Pennsylvania and North avenues, where the most violent unrest was centered after Gray’s funeral on April 27. Six police officers have been charged with crimes related to Gray’s death.

    That plane was registered to NG Research in Bristow, near Manassas Regional Airport. Searches of public records revealed little about the company, which could not be reached. Cimbolic initially thought it was part of Northrop Grumman, a leading government contractor, and made reference to his hunch in a tweet. The company told The Washington Post on Wednesday that it had no relationship with NG Research.

    Cimbolic also linked to a long Reddit posting that included reports of seeing the same plane — tail number N539MY — circling above Langley and McLean in Northern Virginia last year.

    “The fact that at any point the government or a contractor for the government could have a wide view or a large picture of what’s going on on block after block of the city is really concerning,” Cimbolic said. “It’s scary.”

    Dorian Johnson files lawsuit against Ferguson, with video.

    A friend who was with Michael Brown when the 18-year-old was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer is suing the city, the officer and the former police chief.

    Dorian Johnson contends in his lawsuit filed last week that Officer Darren Wilson initiated the confrontation that ended in Brown’s Aug. 9 death. Johnson says Wilson used excessive force and “acted with deliberate indifference or reckless disregard” for Johnson’s rights.

    A grand jury and the U.S. Justice Department declined to charge Wilson, who has left the police force. Neither Wilson’s attorney nor the former chief responded to messages seeking comment Tuesday.

    Ferguson’s city attorney said she was unaware of Johnson’s lawsuit and couldn’t immediately respond.

    Johnson’s attorney is New Orleans based James Williams. He said he has been in regular contact with the attorneys representing Michael Brown’s family, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the defendants on April 23.

    “The criminal justice system would not bring Darren Wilson to justice, we intend to bring Darren Wilson to justice through the civil justice,” Williams said. Many allegations are similar between the two lawsuits.

    Johnson’s lawsuit refers to the Department of Justice investigations, especially its findings about racial bias in the Ferguson Police Department.

    When asked if that federal probe –which also discredited many of Johnson’s initial claims, would impact their case — Williams pointed to a different threshold.

    “The Department of Justice did a very different kind of investigation. That investigation was focusing on whether or not there would be a civil rights violation in this matter. That’s a very different threshold,” he said.

    “They just looked at this through a different lens. There are more discovery devices available to us in litigation. I think more information will come out in a more organized fashion, in a more public fashion, and I think through that process — going through the traditional litigation process — we will uncover facts and circumstances the Department of Justice investigation just wasn’t aimed at doing.”

    Johnson is seeking damages in excess of $25,000 for each cause of action. His lawsuit includes four causes of action.

    Williams said Johnson has a new job, and planning to enroll in a university to complete his education.

    Missouri Senate roll call on override of welfare limit cuts

    The 25-9 roll call vote Monday by which the Missouri Senate overrode Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a measure to lower the lifetime limit for people to receive temporary cash assistance from five years to three years and nine months. The measure also needs a two-thirds vote in the House to override the governor’s veto.

    Voting “yes” were 25 Republicans.

    Voting “no” were 9 Democrats.

    Full list available at the link.

    Attorney general does not rule out broader federal probe of city police

    U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Tuesday that the Justice Department will examine the best options to improve the Baltimore Police Department in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death, and a full-scale civil rights investigation has not been ruled out.

    After meeting with elected leaders, clergy and activists at four locations in Baltimore, Lynch said the city has come to symbolize police and community mistrust — an issue that plagues many cities across America.

    Meeting community leaders, the mayor and police officers, Attorney General Loretta Lynch pledged support to help rebuild relations in the embattled city of Baltimore.

    “We’re going to try to come up with solutions, real solutions for the city of Baltimore to improve this city,” Lynch said. “That is our goal. That is our commitment. It is my commitment on behalf of the Department of Justice.”

    Lynch’s visit comes four days after Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced criminal charges against six officers involved in Gray’s arrest and transport. He died April 19 — one week after suffering a spinal injury while in police custody.

    Much of Lynch’s five-hour fact-finding mission was spent behind closed doors listening to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, clergy leaders and activists who frequently protest alleged police brutality and excessive force.

    Lynch first met privately with Gray’s family at the University of Baltimore. Gray family attorney William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr. said Lynch expressed condolences to the family; the family members declined to comment.

    “It was wonderful for the first black woman attorney general in the history of this country to care so much about our city that she came here today to express her full involvement in coming up with a solution to our common problems,” Murphy said. He said the culture of policing must change “across the country.”

    Lynch then held talks for nearly an hour with more than 30 faith leaders and members of the city’s congressional delegation. […]

    The last stop of the day brought Lynch and other agency officials together with Baltimore United Leaders, a group of residents who have protested against police actions. The group included Tre Murphy, Dayvon Love and Tawanda Jones, whose brother died during an altercation with police in a traffic stop in 2012.

    “We hope that there’s going to be some deliverables that come out of this,” Murphy told Lynch.

    “You all know there’s a lot of work to be done, ” Lynch replied. “All of you have worked so hard on these issues. I’m here to listen and meet with young people.”

    Lynch told the group she has been briefed several times a day on the issues in Baltimore, adding that “there had been a lot of discussions for ways we can provide tools for change.”

    The deaths of Gray and others have sparked a national debate over the way police departments treat black men.

    Ferguson mulls removing Brown shrine from middle of street

    To some, a makeshift shrine in the middle of the Ferguson street where Michael Brown was killed last summer is a hallowed symbol of a new civil rights movement over race and policing. To others, it has served its purpose and is now more of an eyesore and a road hazard.

    Within hours of Brown’s Aug. 9 shooting death by a white police officer, people began placing stuffed animals, candles and other tributes in the middle of Canfield Drive, where the unarmed black 18-year-old’s body lay for about four hours before it was removed.

    The shrine stretches several yards down the center of the two-lane road that bisects a housing complex, and city leaders are grappling with the thorny question of whether to remove or replace it and risk further inflaming racial tensions in the 21,000-resident St. Louis suburb, which is two-thirds black. Another section of the shrine sits along the curb a few yards away.

    “It’s a very sensitive topic,” says Janie Jones, a black, Washington-based mediator who says she has been working behind the scenes with Ferguson municipal leaders and the Brown family on how to clear out the memorial without agitating the black community.

    “It represents a community’s cry for justice — not just for Michael Brown, but for people all over the world,” Jones told The Associated Press on Monday. “The city has some serious decisions to make going forward.” […]

    Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III, while appreciative of the memorial’s status as a nexus of protests and prayers, said it is now a public safety issue that comes with “any time you leave items in the middle of the roadway.” Knowles, who is white, pointed to last Christmas Day, when an unidentified motorist — whether intentionally or accidentally — plowed through the shrine. Neighbors and Brown supporters swiftly cleaned up the damage and rebuilt the site.

    Now, Knowles said, “the city would like it moved,” adding that “we’re working on getting a buy-in with the family and community” to make it happen. He said no decisions have been made and there isn’t a deadline to decide the matter.

    During a Ferguson City Council meeting last month — the first since city elections tripled black representation on the governing board that had been largely white — Jones proposed replacing the shrine with a permanent dove-shaped marker embedded in the street.

    That would “take a very tragic situation and use it as a teachable moment to encourage community healing and symbolize the unity that is very much needed,” said Jones, president and CEO of the Joint Council on Policy and Social Impact. “The way we deal with this memorial is how we move forward in Ferguson, because that memorial represents the best and the worst of Ferguson.”

    Jones said Brown’s mother wants a portion of the road where the memorial rests carved out and repaved because “she feels like her son’s blood is still in the streets.”

    Jeff Small, a Ferguson city spokesman, said discussions about the memorial’s fate likely would go the city’s traffic commission comprised of various Ferguson residents and newly elected Councilwoman Ella Jones, who did not return telephone messages seeking comment for this story.

    The Brown family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, also did not reply to messages seeking comment.

    Media in America be like:
    #BaltimoreUprising     Black people holding signs saying “injustice”, “poverty” and “listen to us” staring down at a bunch of flies labelled with media network symbols feeding on a pile of shit labelled ‘riots and looting’.

  236. rq says

    St Louis Co. prosecutor has charged a woman with looting in Ferguson in November. She died in a homicide last week. That’s McCullogh for ya, never let a bit of death get in the way of (in)justice!

    Fla. Sheriff Fired for Reportedly Calling a Black Man a Monkey on Facebook

    Authorities in Lee County, Fla., have fired Jean Lopez, a former deputy sheriff who reportedly referred to a black man as a monkey on his Facebook page, NBC2 reports.

    According to an investigation by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office internal-affairs unit, Lopez posted a video on his Facebook page that showed a black man talking negatively about his company and his competitors and using expletives and slang. Lopez captioned the video, “Can someone please tell me what the [f–k] this monkey is saying?”

    Lopez also allegedly posted, “Get a real life f–king monkey.”

    Lopez insisted that he and his friends use the word “monkey” to refer to someone they consider stupid, implying that his use of the word carried with it none of the racial connotations usually associated with its use in relation to black people.

    Florida authorities aren’t buying it.

    “It’s not acceptable, and that’s why he’s out of a job,” Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott said.

    Fine, among your friends, that’s what the word means – somehow it doesn’t sound like you were addressing one of these friends in this case, making your argument invalid.

    Interview: Chance the Rapper on Relationships, Losing a Mentor, and Police Brutality

    A lot of hip-hop artists have been speaking out about the situation in Baltimore—and beyond. Do you feel, as a prominent black man in the industry, that you have the responsibility to say something about police brutality?
    I think, as a black man, I have a responsibility to have knowledge and have an opinion. I don’t necessarily think, as a person of influence, that it’s always my job to influence people regarding my opinion. I try to explain to people a lot: There is no singular black experience or black opinion or black thought. We are united in a lot of experiences. Because I’m a black man, the life that I live is a part of the black experience, but it’s not something I can just pass off as the ultimate.

    I think it’s important for me to be qualified to have an opinion on it, and it be informed, but I don’t necessarily think using my platform is always the right thing. It’s more important for [people] to have information. I don’t necessarily always have information. If they’re getting it directly from an uninformed source, or they’re getting it from a source that they don’t really have a filter on in terms of how they take it in, it kind of becomes more propaganda.

    Prosecutor in Eric Garner case nears election to Congress, belated news, as he is now elected.

    The Disproportionate Burden of Student-Loan Debt on Minorities

    Cummings and Warren say they’re particularly concerned about the effect student debt has on African American borrowers. “African American students are more likely to take on debt—and more debt—than white, Latino, and Asian American students,” Cummings said at the event. In 2013, 42 percent of African American families had student loans, compared to 28 percent of white families, according to the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

    That racial gap is driven by an enormous wealth disparity, Cummings said. The average African American household has a total net worth of $11,000, according a Pew Research Center analysis. That’s not enough to pay for even a single semester at Howard, and it’s barely enough to cover a year of tuition at a public university like the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. In contrast, the average white family has a net worth of $141,900.

    The discrepancy in household wealth means that a white family and a black family can have the same income but a radically different financial situation. It’s a disparity rooted in history, as The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates has explained, and it means that the average black family today essentially lives without a financial safety net.

    Student loans can be a lifeline, helping students finance college degrees even as tuition prices rise. Tyrone Hankerson, a current Howard senior, told forum attendees that he’s financing his education through a combination of scholarships, work-study aid, and a loan his parents took out on his behalf. After he graduates, he plans on going to law school.

    But loan payments can become a heavy burden. One Howard graduate, Latechia Mitchell, said that her undergraduate degree was largely financed by scholarships, but she took out $60,000 for graduate school and to get a teacher certification. Although she and her husband both have college degrees and professional jobs, they can afford to pay only the interest on their cumulative student debt.

    “These degrees have come at a steep cost,” Mitchell said. She works a second job during the summer, her family forgoes vacations, and they are postponing buying a home. Now she and her husband are worried they won’t be able to set aside money to help their children pay for college.

    Previous research has shown that African Americans may experience a lower return on their investment in education for a number of complicated reasons, including lack of access to wealthy social networks and discrimination in hiring. Add disproportionate levels of student-loan debt, and young African Americans face a discouragingly steep path to financial security, even with the benefit of a college degree. [..]

    There are also steps that institutions, policymakers, and individuals can take to decrease debt loads. Howard, for example, gives graduating seniors a rebate on part of their final semester’s tuition. Financial education can help students make better decisions before they take out loans, and federal income-based repayment programs can keep payments manageable after graduation.

    Warren also argued that Washington lawmakers have two options: They can give existing borrowers some debt relief, and they can use federal dollars as a lever to bring down the cost of college. She’s proposed allowing students to refinance their loans at a low interest rate (and to pay for the change by raising taxes on millionaires).

    Grassroots advocacy will pressure lawmakers to focus on this issue, Warren said. And she encouraged event attendees to get in touch with their representatives, sign petitions, and get friends, family, and local organizations involved. “This is democracy,” she said. “It may be slow, but ultimately, democracy works.”

    Missouri lawmakers vote to remove thousands from state welfare program. We heard – at least the headline is a lot less ambiguous.

  237. rq says

    I want to know what is at this link as it won’t open for me, but the address includes the words motherhood, art and police brutality, so I’m curious. Anyone?

    Absolute dehumanizing desecration, the word ‘ALL’ in bright red paint sprayed over every instance of ‘Black’ in a ‘Black Lives Mural’ graffitti/mural.

    18 St. Louis-area moms seek decades-old hospital records amid baby-selling probe. I’m guessing black moms are disproportionately affected.

    The women, all of whom are African-American, say they were told their babies had died at Homer G. Phillips Hospital, a city-owned facility that closed in 1979. They have reached out to attorney Albert Watkins, who represents Zella Jackson Price, 76, and filed a petition Monday in St Louis Circuit Court, seeking adoption records at the hospital. Watkins said the women all tell a similar, sad story. [..]

    The women who have since come forward, all of whom gave birth between the 1950s and mid-1970s, are hoping to find their own long-lost children. One, Brenda Stewart, said she was 16 and unmarried when she gave birth to a seemingly healthy girl on June 24, 1964. She cried as she recalled to The Associated Press how a nurse told her the baby had died.

    “They told me I didn’t need a baby,” Stewart said. “I was too young to have a baby. They told me my parents didn’t need another mouth to feed.

    “I know my baby’s not dead,” she added.

    Watkins believes there could be many more parents and children to reunite, and that the babies were sold to adoptive parents. He has asked Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay to launch investigations.

    Federal judge says grand juror argument against secrecy belongs in state court

    A federal judge has ruled that a grand juror who wants to speak out about the experiences of evaluating the evidence in the Michael Brown shooting should bring that case in state court.

    In a memorandum issued Tuesday, Judge Rodney Sippel wrote that there was no need yet for a federal court to tackle the balance between the right to free speech and the tradition of grand jury secrecy. He outlined several paths Grand Juror Doe could take in Missouri’s courts.

    Tony Rothert, the legal director of the ACLU of Missouri, is representing Grand Juror Doe. He was pleased Sippel ruled on technical grounds.

    “I think that the court clearly understood our claim and why we think there should be a right for Grand Juror Doe to speak in the case about the grand jury experience,” Rothert said. “That part is heartening.”

    Rothert says his client should decide in “days” how to proceed in state court.

    McCulloch’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

    I’m just thinking there’s a reason they didn’t go to state court right away…
    Same story from the St Louis Post-Dispatch, Federal judge says St. Louis County grand juror’s request to talk about Ferguson belongs in Missouri court

    Gov. Nixon vetoes cuts to unemployment benefits – he vetoed the welfare cuts, too, and was overridden.

    Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has vetoed a measure that would cut the weeks of unemployment benefits available to workers who lose their jobs.

    Nixon’s veto Tuesday returns the bill to the Republican-controlled Legislature, where leaders have already said they plan to try to override the Democratic governor.

    Republicans hold at least a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate. But the measure fell short of the 109 votes that would be needed for an override in the House when it was sent to the governor last month. It passed with just 88 votes.

    The measure could reduce unemployment benefits from the current 20 weeks to as low as 13 weeks by linking the maximum number of weeks to the statewide average employment rate.

  238. rq says

    Baltimore rioting caused 10 flights to be canceled at BWI airport, just FYI. Someone should tell those police they’re disrupting people’s travel plans. Probably no few missed connections due to their violence.

    Baltimore to pay $50K to train police on how to legally stop people. *raises hand* So what kind of training do they get right now?

    City officials are set to pay $50,000 to a local law firm to better train police officers on how to legally stop people they encounter, among other topics.

    The Board of Estimates is expected to award the contract, to be funded through a federal grant, on Wednesday.

    The firm, Warnken LLC, headed by University of Baltimore law professor Byron Warnken, was selected by the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office. The contract lasts from May 6 to June 30.

    Warnken said he has created a 130-page document to train more than 300 police officers. His three sessions will be entitled, “Cars, Cops & Stops,” “Seeking, Obtaining, and Executing Arrest Warrants and Search Warrants,” and “Preparing for and Presenting Police Testimony in Court.”

    Warnken said city officials asked him to do the training prior to the national furor over the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody. Six officers are charged criminally in that case.

    Warnken said officers will be selected at random to go through the 12-hour training program. He said he will be explaining Maryland law regarding “stops,” “stops and frisks” and “what the police can do and should do.”

    “Maryland law holds that running in the sight of police is not enough for probable cause,” he said. A charging document in Gray’s case said police chased and detained him because “he fled unprovoked” from officers.

    Rochelle Ritchie, a spokeswoman for State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby, said the training is designed to “improve case outcomes.”

    “Training has been a top priority of this administration and has been in the works since State’s Attorney Mosby took office,” Ritchie said.

    She speaks: Toni Morrison on Baltimore: “What astonishes me… is the obvious cowardice of the police”

    “Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison talks talks to Charlie Rose about the recent protests over the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in Baltimore, and about what can be done about the breakdown in trust between law enforcement and the community. “What astonishes me… is the obvious cowardice of the police” who are responsible for these deaths, she says.”

    Video interview. Worth watching. 3 minutes.

    Officer charged in Gray death contends arrest was legal

    One of the Baltimore police officers who arrested Freddie Gray wants the police department and prosecutor to produce a knife that was the reason for the arrest, saying in court papers that it is an illegal weapon.

    The city’s top prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, said Friday in charging the officer and five others that the knife was legal under Maryland law, meaning they had arrested Gray illegally.

    The motion was filed Monday by attorneys for Officer Edward Nero in Baltimore District Court.

    Nero is charged with second-degree assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment — charges that can only be proven if Gray was wrongly arrested, said Andy Alperstein, a Baltimore attorney who has represented police officers but is not involved in the Gray case. If the knife was illegal, “there is no case” against Nero and another officer, he said.

    “If the facts were that the knife was illegal then the Gray arrest would be justified. Even if it wasn’t illegal and the officers acted in good faith, it would be the same result. All charges fail,” Alperstein said.

    Marc Zayon, Nero’s attorney, argues in his motion that the knife in Gray’s pocket — described in charging documents as “a spring assisted, one hand operated knife” — is illegal under both Baltimore’s switchblade ordinance and state law. Gray was charged under the city ordinance, which has a different definition than the state law of what constitutes a switchblade.

    A city ordinance says any knife with an automatic spring or other device to open and close the blade is illegal. State law says a knife is illegal if it opens automatically by pushing a button, spring or other device in the handle.

    Some spring-assisted knives are opened by pushing a thumb stud attached to the blade.

    Many knives have these spring-assisted opening mechanisms but are not the automatic knives prohibited under Maryland law, said Michael Faith, marketing director for Henderson’s Sporting Goods in Hagerstown.

    “An automatic knife means all you do is push a button and the blade pops out,” Faith said. “A lot of knives will have a little spring assist so when you push it open with your thumb, the knife will open up pretty much by itself.”

    Police said officers chased Gray two blocks after making eye contact with him and subsequently found the knife in his pocket.

    The Associated Press has made repeated requests to the police department for a physical description of the knife as well as photographs. Police later referred the request to the state’s attorney’s office.

    The Pentagon Finally Details its Weapons-for-Cops Giveaway

    You may have heard that the image-conscious Los Angeles Unified School District chose to return the grenade launchers it received from the Defense Department’s surplus equipment program. You probably have not heard about some of the more obscure beneficiaries of the Pentagon giveaway:

    – Police in Johnston, R.I., with a population less than 29,000, acquired two bomb disposal robots, 10 tactical trucks, 35 assault rifles, more than 100 infrared gun sights and two pairs of footwear designed to protect against explosive mines. The Johnson police department has 67 sworn officers.

    – The parks division of Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources was given 20 M-16 rifles, while the fish and wildlife enforcement division obtained another 20 M-16s, plus eight M-14 rifles and ten .45-caliber automatic pistols.

    – Campus police at the University of Louisiana, Monroe, received 12 M-16s to help protect the 8,811 students there (or perhaps to keep them in line).

    – The warden service of Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife received a small aircraft, 96 night vision goggles, 67 gun sights and seven M-14 rifles.

    For more than 20 years, the Pentagon program that distributes surplus weapons, aircraft and vehicles to police departments nationwide received little attention or scrutiny. Defense Department officials closely guarded the details of which agencies across the country received which items.

    Then, events in Ferguson propelled the 1033 program, as the surplus distribution is called, into the public eye.

    Flooded with calls for greater transparency, in late November, the Pentagon quietly released data that details the tactical equipment it tracks through the program, and for the first time identified the agencies that received items.

    The program has doled out $5 billion in equipment since 1990. Most of it was general office and maintenance equipment – shovels, copiers, computers – but the Pentagon largesse included tactical military equipment worth more than $1.4 billion, disseminated in 203,000 transfers to about 7,500 agencies. Even after Ferguson, the program continues to chug along, transferring $28 million in tactical equipment in the past three months.

    Graphs and more information at the link.

    Baltimore Free Farm Feeds Protestors Through ‘Culinary Solidarity’

    Inside a small, unassuming warehouse in a quiet neighborhood nestled near the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland, a small group of activists are busy cooking, shuffling about and giving marching orders as veggies simmer on a stove and potatoes bake in an oven. Though they’re used to the hustle and bustle of cooking massive amounts of food, the past two weeks have taken a more urgent tone.

    As protests enveloped the city following the death 25-year-old Freddie Gray, whose spine was severed while in police custody, the organization Baltimore Free Farm immediately began working around the clock to feed hungry demonstrators.

    Normally, Free Farm — along with other organizations including Food Not Bombs — feeds the homeless organic vegan food weekly. The supply comes from supermarkets and kitchens across the city that deem the food below standards to serve. Free Farm first sifts through the food then proceeds to prep and serve hundreds of meals to individuals in need.

    “We normally feed 80 to 100 less fortunate people every Sunday, rain or shine,” 33-year-old volunteer Kenny Vetra told the Huffington Post on Sunday. Along with their normal numbers, they’re now feeding hundreds more at multiple protests across the city.

    “Feeding people at protests has helped calm things down,” Vetra says. “It’s brought people support and love through food, basically culinary solidarity with the people. It’s helped break the tension a little bit.”

    As volunteers cook food inside the commune-of-sorts, a dozen or so other activists sit cross-legged in dirt out back by the garden talking plans of action. Free Farms is mainly comprised of young white adults. Today, they’re discussing how they can help the black community while acknowledging their own white privilege. […]

    At the detention center, arrested protestors slowly trickle out, each met with a round of applause by Free Farm and other organizations there to provide free legal advice and assistance.

    “Thank you so much for all you do,” says one recently released protestor as a volunteer piles his plate with food. “This is what it’s all about.”

    Boicourt says long after the media is gone, Free Farm will be around to help a struggling community.

    “We want to feed this movement,” she says. “We want to support the community during their struggle, and do what we can as allies, and be in real solidarity with them. That means getting out there, being at the protests, and following and supporting their actions.”

  239. rq says

    Baltimore and The Unheard

    Do you know the names #AkaiGurley, #MeaganHockaday, #HectorMorejon, #KendraJames, #TerrenceKellum?
    (more here and here).

    If you have learned about Freddie Gray this past week, but these names remain unfamiliar to you, examine your heart for the reason that might be.

    For many, the killing of Michael Brown and the protests that followed were a wake up call. Many white folks woke up for the first time to the epidemic of violence against black and brown bodies in the United States. We woke up to the militarization of police forces. We woke up to the systemic injustices of the legal system.

    And then we fell back asleep.

    Since the killing of Michael Brown, there have been ongoing protests against police violence for months on end. There have been hundreds of marches all across the country. A massive movement that has continued, unrelenting, week after week.

    Have you followed them? Have you payed attention to the movement over these many months? Or had it drifted from your attention? Settled into an unpleasant memory of last year?

    Now, we stand aghast at the property damage in Baltimore and condemn the violence with moralistic indignation. But where were we for the months of peaceful protests that preceded it? Where was the media coverage? Where was the national attention?

    “Freddie Gray will never be back,
    but those windows will be.”
    We have had months of videos, of evidence, of pleas. And yet you’ve simply shaken your head and mumbled “what a shame.”

    What will compel you to compassion? Were not the hundreds of marches, and actions, and protests enough to cause your heart to cry out?

    No. It wasn’t enough. You did not pay attention to the broken lives. You only woke up again when it became broken windows (see interview by Deray McKesson).

    Baltimore saw weeks of peaceful protest advocating for the life of Freddie Gray. But his death didn’t become a national story until the fires of injustice became a visible reality. His killers were not prosecuted until glass was broken.

    You have clearly demonstrated to the city of Baltimore that this is what is necessary to merit your attention. You have shown which kinds of violence will move you to protest. You have shown that you will only listen when the oppressed are pushed to their very limit. So whose fault is it really when violence finally erupts?

    Who is to blame when the message is sent the only way it will be heard? You were the one that has shown that this is what it takes to grab your attention. And so when it finally does, why are you so surprised?

    Maybe you were one of those who were blissfully unaware before the Ferguson protests. Maybe you were jolted into reality by video of Eric Garner being suffocated. But if you have not continued to rail since then, you have no business being indignant now.

    While so many of us were all too ready to “move on”, to “get over it”, to “just stop talking about it”, we left those affected by systemic violence every single day to deal with its consequences. They can never fall asleep to the perils of been black or brown in this country. Daily reminders keep the reality of this ever-present danger fresh in mind. On the other hand, those in power only pay attention long enough to ensure that the oppressed, the ones crying out for justice, will finally shut up about it. We don’t want peace, we just want quite.

    So Baltimore went back to the strategy that first got your attention this past summer. If ever violence emerges, it is because we have not listening when it’s peaceful. Pay attention, and then maybe it won’t have to get to this point.

    ACLU: 2 black men in Colorado Springs victims of police racial bias, autoplay video.

    Two African-American men pulled over by police in Colorado Springs and taken into custody in a video-recorded encounter are victims of racially biased policing, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.

    The group is representing siblings Ryan and Benjamin Brown in the incident, which was recorded in a March 25 traffic stop.

    The incident — recorded by Ryan Brown, a passenger in a car driven by his brother — shows Ryan being pulled from the car by an officer and forced to the ground.

    WATCH the video at the center of the Colorado Springs arrest case

    “What Ryan and Benjamin Brown experienced at the hands of the Colorado Springs police is sadly all too familiar for young people of color,” ACLU of Colorado legal director Mark Silverstein said in a news release. “No reasonable person could watch the video recording of the traffic stop and say that two white men would have been treated the same way.”

    “Benjamin Brown, the driver, was ordered by police to exit the vehicle at Taser-point, immediately handcuffed, searched, held in the back of a police car, and finally issued a citation for an obstructed view,” the ACLU said.

    Ryan Brown faces a criminal charge of “interfering with official police duties,” the ACLU said. Benjamin Brown was cited for a cracked windshield.

    While Benjamin was being patted down by an officer, Ryan began recording what was unfolding.

    “What’s the reason why you pulled us over, officer,” Ryan asks aloud, also announcing that he is recording the encounter.

    Police, outside the car, ask Ryan Brown for identification.

    “Am I under arrest?” he responds. “You failed to identify who you are.”

    On the video, Brown says they were pulled over for no reason.

    A uniformed officer knocks on the passenger window. Ryan Brown opens the door and asks: “Am I being placed under arrest?”

    A female officer says: “You are not under arrest.”

    Ryan Brown is pulled from the car and wrestled to the ground.

    “This is assault,” he says. “You see this? You see this? Excessive force!”

    The video ends. [..]

    Benjamin Brown, who was watching from the back of the police car, feared that his brother was about to be shot.

    “It seemed like forever,” Benjamin said in the ACLU release. “I was scared that the officer was going to pull the trigger.”

    This summer the ACLU of Colorado plans to launch Mobile Justice, a free smartphone app that will allow people to record video that automatically uploads to the organization, ” preventing law enforcement from deleting or destroying it,” the ACLU said.

    @deray Support our incredible youth female filmmakers of color get to @LAFilmFest: http://www.gofundme.com/youthfx

    Speaking of fundraising, Online activists raised $60K for Tamir Rice’s family — so where did all that money go?

    For King and many of the other activists who have been some of the driving forces online behind the Black Lives Matter protests, the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice last November as he played in a park near his home was one of the most difficult of the many anecdotes.

    For many of the most vocal activists, that Tamir was a child and that his shooting was captured on grainy camera footage makes this case the most difficult to stomach. When extended video of the shooting — which showed Cleveland police tackling Tamir’s sister to the ground as she ran to his dying body — was released late last year, one of the top protest organizers in Ferguson texted to tell me it had made him physically sick, imagining what he would do if his younger sister was wounded and he was tackled while trying to help her.

    So when a new court filing in the Rice family’s civil suit against the city of Cleveland revealed that Tamir has yet to be buried and that his mother was, at least temporarily, living in a homeless shelter, King was incensed.

    “Absurd!” he insisted to me in a direct message on Monday afternoon, especially, he noted, because just months earlier an army of online samaritans had raised almost $60,000 for the Rice family.

    So where had all of that money gone? […]

    Timothy Kucharski had been one of two attorneys representing the Rice family for several weeks when he got a call from a friend in early December, asking about an online fundraiser he was seeing in the Rice name.

    Created on the Web site YouCaring[dot]com, thousands of dollars were pouring into a fund for the Rice family. But Kucharski had never heard of King — one of the fund’s primary organizers — and Rice’s mother told him that she was unaware of the fundraiser.

    As the fund surpassed $27,000, Kucharski contacted law enforcement as well as YouCaring[dot]com directly, asking that the assets being donated to the fund be seized and held for the Rice family. He contacted King, who has previously used his social media following to raise money for victims of police shootings and natural disasters and who insisted that his plan was always to give the money to the family. As they went back and forth, a number of Twitter users — led in part by right-wing blogger Charles C. Johnson — began insisting that the fundraiser was a scam and demanding it be halted.

    Online fundraising has become commonplace in these racially charged police death cases. Hundreds of thousands were raised for both the family of Michael Brown and for the legal defense of Ferguson officer Darren Wilson. Within hours of six Baltimore police officers being charged in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, a legal defense fund had been created and was being heavily promoted by the local police union.

    Even as the confusion spread over whether or not King’s pledge drive for Rice was legitimate, the fundraiser still ended up netting almost $60,000 — money that, at the request of the Rice family attorneys, was seized by the court.

    The court set up a trustee to manage the funds, placing all the money into Tamir Rice’s estate, meaning any withdrawal would require a judge’s ruling. Rather than being gifted the money directly, the Rice family would now have to apply for each disbursement.

    “I never touched the money, I never had control over any of the money,” Kucharski said. […]

    By Wesley Lowery May 5 at 1:13 PM

    Tamir Rice, who at 12 was fatally shot by police in Cleveland after brandishing what turned out to be a toy gun. (Richardson & Kucharski Co. via AP)

    Shaun King was furious.

    The author and life coach turned activist has been one of the most prominent online voices in recent months, as protests of police impunity that began in Ferguson, Mo., spawned demonstrations in cities across the country. For those following the ever-growing roster of names of black men and boys killed by police, he has been one of the essential follows.

    But his latest tweet storm, published Monday afternoon, was not about a new police shooting. In fact, it was about an old one.

    For King and many of the other activists who have been some of the driving forces online behind the Black Lives Matter protests, the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice last November as he played in a park near his home was one of the most difficult of the many anecdotes.

    For many of the most vocal activists, that Tamir was a child and that his shooting was captured on grainy camera footage makes this case the most difficult to stomach. When extended video of the shooting — which showed Cleveland police tackling Tamir’s sister to the ground as she ran to his dying body — was released late last year, one of the top protest organizers in Ferguson texted to tell me it had made him physically sick, imagining what he would do if his younger sister was wounded and he was tackled while trying to help her.

    So when a new court filing in the Rice family’s civil suit against the city of Cleveland revealed that Tamir has yet to be buried and that his mother was, at least temporarily, living in a homeless shelter, King was incensed.

    “Absurd!” he insisted to me in a direct message on Monday afternoon, especially, he noted, because just months earlier an army of online samaritans had raised almost $60,000 for the Rice family.

    So where had all of that money gone?

    ***

    Timothy Kucharski had been one of two attorneys representing the Rice family for several weeks when he got a call from a friend in early December, asking about an online fundraiser he was seeing in the Rice name.

    Created on the Web site YouCaring.com, thousands of dollars were pouring into a fund for the Rice family. But Kucharski had never heard of King — one of the fund’s primary organizers — and Rice’s mother told him that she was unaware of the fundraiser.

    As the fund surpassed $27,000, Kucharski contacted law enforcement as well as YouCaring.com directly, asking that the assets being donated to the fund be seized and held for the Rice family. He contacted King, who has previously used his social media following to raise money for victims of police shootings and natural disasters and who insisted that his plan was always to give the money to the family. As they went back and forth, a number of Twitter users — led in part by right-wing blogger Charles C. Johnson — began insisting that the fundraiser was a scam and demanding it be halted.

    Online fundraising has become commonplace in these racially charged police death cases. Hundreds of thousands were raised for both the family of Michael Brown and for the legal defense of Ferguson officer Darren Wilson. Within hours of six Baltimore police officers being charged in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, a legal defense fund had been created and was being heavily promoted by the local police union.

    Even as the confusion spread over whether or not King’s pledge drive for Rice was legitimate, the fundraiser still ended up netting almost $60,000 — money that, at the request of the Rice family attorneys, was seized by the court.

    The court set up a trustee to manage the funds, placing all the money into Tamir Rice’s estate, meaning any withdrawal would require a judge’s ruling. Rather than being gifted the money directly, the Rice family would now have to apply for each disbursement.

    “I never touched the money, I never had control over any of the money,” Kucharski said.

    Not long after the money was handed to the court-appointed trustee, the Rice family shook up their legal team.

    Kucharski and David Malik, a well-known civil rights attorney in Cleveland with a history of winning settlements from the Cleveland Police Department in use-of-force cases, were out. They were replaced by Benjamin Crump, who has represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, and Ohio-based civil rights attorney Walter Madison.

    According to people who’ve spoken with both the Rice family’s former and current legal teams, the shake-up stemmed from a number of disagreements. The new legal team felt as if the Rice family had been unnecessarily shielded from the media, a detriment to their ability to create public awareness of the case. The Cleveland attorneys felt slighted, that they had been ditched for higher profile attorneys without local ties and knowledge.

    After concluding their service, Kucharski and Malik filed for attorney’s fees and were paid a combined $23,700 from the estate fund, according to court documents. Several other small disbursements have been made from the fund, to cover things including funeral costs and securing Tamir’s body — which has yet to be buried.

    According to Doug Winston, the court-appointed trustee of the Tamir Rice estate, there is currently about $23,000 remaining in the Cleveland-based estate, but that money is restricted for specific purposes and cannot be used freely by the family at its own discretion — despite the fact that many had donated to the fund under that assumption.

    “Technically it’s not their money, it’s the estate’s money,” Winston said. “Distributions from the assets of an estate have to meet specific guidelines, so to say that they would have free disposal to the money in this account would be inaccurate.” […]

    “When I think about black mothers and all that they have to do to keep their families together, everyone always expects them to be strong and when anything goes wrong, they are accused of being bad parents,” said Madison, one of the Rice family’s current attorneys. “As stressful as life was before the death of Tamir, this woman has had the death heaped on her, the violent killing of her son, by those who are here to protect us. Not only is she betrayed, she is confused and emotionally shattered … but she has to keep pushing for her other three children.”

    As of Monday evening, the Rice family was still residing in that small apartment, described by someone close to the family as “sparse” in its accommodations, amenities and decor.

    “I am heartbroken. … She is a wonderful woman with a terrific family and she deserves so much more,” Kucharski said Monday night, later adding, “I’m more than happy to be part of the solution. I’d like to help Samaria … I still care about her as a human being … whether I was the right attorney for the case or not.”

    In the meantime, King and other online activists created a second fundraiser, coordinated through Crump’s Florida-based law firm, money that will be directly available to the Rice family.

    “This time we have it in writing that these funds go directly to her with no impediment,” King said.

    By noon Tuesday, $25,000 more had been donated in Tamir’s name.

    “Tremendous!” Madison said. “Yesterday when we woke up, there was $300 or $400 in [Samaria Rice’s] account. In one day’s time, she has experienced human touch via computer, love through all of the donations, and it was so overwhelming for her that a 30-minute conversation she and I had, for 28 of the 30 minutes she just sobbed with joy.”

    May 5, 1950: Gwendolyn Brooks Becomes the First African-American Awarded a Pulitzer Prize

    The Pulitzer was only the first of many awards Brooks would earn throughout her long career. In 1967 she published in The Nation a brief prose eulogy for Langston Hughes: “Mightily did he use the street. He found its multiple heart, its tastes, its smells, alarms, formulas, flowers, garbage and convulsions. He brought them all to his table-top. He crushed them to a writing-paste. The pen that was himself went in…” The dazzlingly named Rolfe Humphries, who wrote this review of Brooks’s second volume in 1949, the year before she won the Pulitzer, was a poet and educator who mentored Theodore Roethke. In 1939, he smuggled into Poetry magazine an acrostic poem in which the first letters of each line spelled out, “Nicholas Murray Butler is a horse’s ass,” referring to the president of Columbia University. He found himself briefly banned him from Poetry magazine.

    Where the subject is the Negro people, or the Negro person, Miss Brooks has gone considerably beyond some of the quaint and for-tourists-only self-consciousness that at times made one a little uncomfortable in reading her first book. Her weakness lies in streaks, as it were, of awkwardness, naïveté, when she seems to be carried away by the big word or the spectacular rhyme; when her ear, of a sudden, goes all to pieces…. Her strength consists of boldness, invention, a daring to experiment, a naturalness that does not scorn literature but absorbs it, exploits it, and through this absorption and exploitation comes out with the remark made in an entirely original way, not offhand so much as forthright. Miss Brooks, by now, must realize that the greatest danger to her progress lies in the risk of her being taken up; she needs to be both very inquisitve about, and very remorseless to, her weaker side.

    Baltimore artist makes his point with a brush – that’s the mural!

    Marches, protests and demands for action have followed the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old who died last month after suffering injuries in Baltimore police custody.

    Among the varied responses, a Baltimore City street artist is making his mark with a brush.

    Justin Nethercut, who prefers to go by Nether, is painting a mural around the corner from the site of Gray’s arrest. “A lot of my artwork is kind of an outcry for the ignored in the city,” he says.

    Last week, he was part of the marches around Baltimore. On Sunday, Nether started work on the mural.

    “It was an issue that got to me, and really I wanted to continue to push for justice through my artwork,” he says.

    The large portrait of Gray is surrounded by civil rights leaders from the 1960s on one side, and family and friends leading the candlelight vigil for Gray on the other. Nether met with Gray’s friends and family to come up with the concept. His work attempts to show importance of movement.

    Even unfinished, the mural is already an attraction. People stop by to take photos and discuss the meaning.

    A woman who gave her name as LaShawn says it really resonates with the neighborhood.

    “Even when the cameras are gone, you can still think back on what’s going on and what’s still the issue here,” she says.

  241. rq says

    Statement from State’s Attorney Mosby on Freddie Gray Case

    While the evidence we have obtained through our independent investigation does substantiate the elements of the charges filed, I refuse to litigate this case through the media.

    The evidence we have collected cannot ethically be disclosed, relayed or released to the public before trial. As I’ve previously indicated, I strongly condemn anyone in law enforcement with access to trial evidence, who has or continues to leak information prior to the resolution of this case. These unethical disclosures are only damaging our ability to conduct a fair and impartial process for all parties involved.

    There’s word but no confirmation that some members of her team are even sabotaging the investigation.

    Ferguson Mulls Removing Michael Brown Shrine From Mid-Street, basically the same text as above.

    Ben Carson running means I gotta sit with my grandma and explain why she shouldn’t vote for a man whose framed picture is in her living room

    Are the Baltimore Police Using Twitter for Public Safety, or Propaganda? Or just plain grammatic ambiguity?

    Some of the information that the department has provided to its 127,000 Twitter followers seems to have been at best incorrect and at worst deliberately misleading. “A group of criminals have just started a fire outside the library located at Pennsylvania Ave and North Ave,” the police tweeted on Tuesday night. But according to Guardian reporter Jon Swaine, it was the police themselves who caused the fire, when sparks from a tear-gas grenade landed on trash.

    Individual tweets were often framed as safety advisories, but together they created a selective narrative of events that later bled into news coverage. On Monday afternoon at 3:01 pm the department warned on Twitter and Facebook about “a group of juveniles in the area of Mondawmin Mall. Expect traffic delays in the area.” Half an hour later the police said that kids had started throwing bricks; 15 minutes after that the department reported that an officer had been hurt. Later, media accounts would describe a violent riot started by teens who were hungry for a fight. But as eyewitnesses pointed out, the cops had shown up in full riot gear just as a high school near the mall was letting out. The police shut down the subway station and the bus lines, effectively trapping the students. “Those kids were set up, they were treated like criminals before the first brick was thrown,” one teacher wrote. Social media functioned as a sort of virtual riot gear, manufacturing the narrative of violence in the digital realm as the police were escalating it on the ground.

    “Someone follows the police Twitter feed for two reasons, the first being public safety. I want to know if there’s a crime in my neighborhood, or a road blockage,” said Jacob Simpson, the pastor of the Salem Lutheran Church in south Baltimore. “Or, someone follows it as a cheerleader of the police department.” Simpson’s impression is that the police are using social media to cater to the latter, and at the expense of safety. “Their job is to provide a basic account of where hotspots are, but they are editorializing…. They’re galvanizing people who have this nasty narrative about what’s going on.”

    Lawrence Brown, a public health professor at Baltimore’s Morgan State University, sees the police department’s social media strategy as part of a broader campaign to darken public opinion towards demonstrators and build sympathy for the police. “Why would they tweet this out in the middle of a funeral?” he asked, referring to the “credible threat” announcement. Brown traced a pattern in the communications of city officials, from the police union president comparing protesters to a “lynch mob” to the governor, the mayor, and the city council president’s invocation of “thugs” to the police department’s repeated use of “criminals.”

    “The protesters were winning the narrative in local media and so it seemed like [city officials] were trying to find a way to capture the dominate position,” said Brown. “Once you paint them as the enemy to the media, to the general public, then you can really justify the way you go about treating the people after that.” […]

    The Baltimore Police Department did not respond to an inquiry about management and oversight of its Twitter feed. The department’s activity on social media over the past several days has raised a number of bigger questions, too, questions that are likely to come up again as law-enforcement agencies increasingly find their narratives challenged by skeptical citizens. What is the purpose of law-enforcement agencies’ social-media communications—is it appropriate to use them as tools for publicity and commentary, as well as to distribute public safety information? How can that line be meaningfully drawn? Does using language like “criminals” to dehumanize whole groups of people—who have not been charged with a crime—really promote peace in a community, or instead make it harder to achieve?

    Interlude: Music! Watch Fetty Wap perform ‘Trap Queen’ with The Roots on The Tonight Show

    Fetty Wap was the musical guest on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon earlier this evening. The 24-year-old performed his platinum-selling single ‘Trap Queen’ backed by house band The Roots.

    Fetty also dropped two new tracks in the past 24 hours—a ‘My Way’ remix featuring Drake and a remix of ‘Trap Queen’ featuring Azealia Banks, Gucci Mane and Quavo of Migos.

    The Guy Who Failed To Prosecute Eric Garner’s Killer Just Became A Congressman – now that’s the right kind of headline.

  242. rq says

    Accused Ferguson looter found dead two days after being charged – well, good thing she wasn’t charged while dead.

    Police have charged a woman in connection with looting in Ferguson after the Darren Wilson grand jury decision. Korie Hodges, 25, was charged with burglary in the 2nd degree just before she was shot to death. The charges came down on April 28th, she was shot and killed on April 30th.

    Surveillance video shows Hodges entering a Walgreens on West Florissant two times during active looting on November 24, 2014. Police say she was seen carrying items out of the store. She was arrested the second time she entered the store.

    Hodges body was found by her father last week an a bedroom of north St. Louis home near Fairground Park. Keerica Bolden, 22, was also found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in the same room.

    Hodges had been shot multiple times in the head and torso. Bolden had gunshot wounds in the chest, back, and head.

    It appears the suspect may have known the victims. Police said there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle, suggesting at least one of the victims may have known the killer.

    Two children, ages five and two, were also found in the duplex. It’s believed the children had come to the apartment with Bolden. The children are physically okay.

    *confetteh* Congratulations, New York, You’re #1 in Corruption

    New York doesn’t so much have a culture of corruption as an entire festival. So far, Senate Republicans are standing by Skelos, but if they decide to make a change, they probably won’t turn to Thomas Libous, the chamber’s Number Two leader. He faces trial this summer on charges of lying to the FBI, while his son faces sentencing later this month on similar charges. All told, more than two dozen members of the New York state legislature have been indicted or resigned in disgrace over the past five years. “Albany for a long time has had a culture of self-interest, where private gains are woven in with public policy,” says Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause in New York.

    Clusters of corruption and even convictions are not unique to New York. Silver was one of four state House Speakers to face indictment over the past year (Alabama, Rhode Island and South Carolina are home to the others). In Massachusetts, three Speakers prior to current incumbent Robert DeLeo all resigned and pleaded guilty to criminal charges. When Dan Walker died last week, it was hard for obituary writers not to note that he was one of four Illinois governors over the past five decades who ended up in prison. “While I’m a proud New Yorker and want my state to be ahead in everything, I’m not sure we’re ahead on corruption,” says Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who teaches law at Columbia University.

    Richman is kidding, but he makes a serious point. Give any U.S. attorney a year and 10 FBI agents and he or she can probably come back from the state capital with a passel of indictments. Having said all that, however, the waters in Albany have long been heavily stocked with potentially big fish. Remember in the movie Lincoln, when the president decides he has to resort to low dealings to get the anti-slavery amendment through Congress? The characters he relies on to do the trick come from Albany. […]

    While tight control on power clearly benefits the top leaders, it also helps out rank-and-file members in certain ways. New York has a strong governor and legislators look to a single leader to stand for them in negotiations. They may not get to shape the final legislation, but they are typically rewarded with earmarks—known as member items in Albany parlance—and informal control over some state contracts. Meanwhile, top leaders act as a sort of shield, taking what media attention there is away from more minor members. When the cats are so clearly the stars of the show, the little mice are free to play. “Brazenly hitting up lobbyists for campaign contributions the night before they meet with them on policy doesn’t strike anyone as unreasonable or inappropriate,” says Blair Horner, legislative director for New York Public Interest Research Group.

    Why Tamir Rice has not yet been buried six months after being shot and killed by Cleveland police, Shaun King via Daily Kos.

    Shot and killed by Officer Timothy Loehmann of the Cleveland Police Department all the way back on November 22, 2014, 12-year-old sixth-grader Tamir Rice has still not been buried. This alone is a new crime all by itself. Even though the entire shooting was filmed and took less than two seconds, the so-called investigation into the shooting has carried on for a ridiculous six months.

    According to family attorney Walter Madison, Tamir’s family is waiting for the investigation to end so they will not be subjected to burying him and having to exhume his body from the ground for yet another medical examination. Via text, Madison pointed out: “The city of Cleveland knows that too. The delay incurs a daily $75 fee. To date, the outstanding expenses are $18k which at some point Samaria Rice would have to be obligated to pay. They talk nice and are apologetic but they are waging war of a different brand.”

    Beyond the fact that the shooting death of Tamir was traumatic, the artificial delay of this investigation is outrageous. They are acting as if key pieces of evidence or central witnesses are missing. They aren’t. This investigation is not being delayed for any substantive reasons, but in an artificial attempt to cause public attention to die down.

    Police brutality the topic of Maryland forum tonight

    A panel of leaders will discuss “best practices for improving relations between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve” after the recent riots and protests the erupted in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, who died while in police custody last month, organizers said in a statement. The panel will also discuss 17 bills related to police accountability that were defeated in the General Assembly.

    Panel members include Coates, who is Senior Pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church, and was Del. Heather R. Mizeur’s running mate in the election for governor; Vince Canales, president of the Maryland Fraternal Order of Police; attorney J. Wyndal Gordon; Rev. Maulin Chris Herring with the Institute for Homeland Security and Workforce Development; Sara Love, public policy director at the ACLU; Lt. Keisha Powell with the Prince George’s County police department; state Sen. Victor R. Ramirez; and Rev. S. Todd Yeary, Senior Pastor with Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore.

    The forum is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Mt. Ennon Baptist at 9832 Piscataway Road in Prince George’s County.

    Join The West family at Northeast BPD District at 6:30pm tomorrow for a demonstration for #TyroneWest!

    Baltimore mayor asks DOJ to investigate police

    Baltimore’s mayor announced Wednesday that she had asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether the city’s police department has acted unconstitutionally.

    “Throughout my administration, we have taken a number of steps to change the culture and practices of the Baltimore Police Department,” Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) said.

    “Despite this progress, we all know that Baltimore continues to have a fractured relationship between the police and the community.”

    The announcement comes one day after new Attorney General Loretta Lynch visited the city and met with Rawlings-Blake.

  243. rq says

    Police Struggle With Loss of Privileged Position

    During the urban crime epidemic of the 1970s and ’80s and the sharp decline in crime that began in the 1990s, the unions representing police officers in many cities enjoyed a nearly unassailable political position. Their opposition could cripple political candidates and kill police-reform proposals in gestation.
    Continue reading the main story
    Related Coverage

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    Lynch Visits Baltimore in First Official Trip as Attorney GeneralMAY 5, 2015
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    Police Rethink Long Tradition on Using ForceMAY 4, 2015
    A frame grab from video showing Freddie Gray being put into a police van during his arrest on April 12.
    6 Baltimore Police Officers Charged in Freddie Gray DeathMAY 1, 2015
    The police in North Charleston, S.C., on the day an officer shot Walter L. Scott. A union did not defend the officer but lashed out at critics of the force.
    Police Unions, Facing Public Anger, Rethink How to Address ShootingsAPRIL 18, 2015

    But amid a rash of high-profile encounters involving allegations of police overreach in New York, Baltimore, Cleveland, Ferguson, Mo., and North Charleston, S.C., the political context in which the police unions have enjoyed a privileged position is rapidly changing. And the unions are struggling to adapt.

    “There was a time in this country when elected officials — legislators, chief executives — were willing to contextualize what police do,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a former New York City police officer and prosecutor who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “And that time is mostly gone.”

    In Baltimore, the local police union president accused protesters angry at the death of Freddie Gray of participating in a “lynch mob.” In South Carolina, the head of the police union where an officer had shot and killed an unarmed black man who was fleeing fulminated against “professional race agitators.” In New York, Patrick Lynch, a local police union chief, accused Mayor Bill de Blasio of having blood on his hands after the shooting death of two police officers last December.

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    If voters’ reactions to Mr. Lynch’s statements are any indication, the provocative language has largely served to alienate the public and isolate the police politically. According to a Quinnipiac University poll in January, 77 percent of New York City voters disapproved of Mr. Lynch’s comments. Sixty-nine percent disapproved of police officers turning their backs on Mr. de Blasio at funerals for the two slain officers, a protest seen as orchestrated by the union.

    In Baltimore, too, the police union has been less than sure-footed in navigating the more hostile political terrain of the past few years. The union, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, has responded with open resistance to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s proposals to make it easier to remove misbehaving police officers, and to give the city’s police civilian review board a “more impactful” role in disciplining officers.

    The union also opposed the decision by Ms. Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts to invite the Justice Department in to help overhaul the city’s Police Department after an investigation by The Baltimore Sun produced numerous allegations of police brutality.
    Continue reading the main story

    Union officials say they have been fulfilling their mandate to protect their members, airing legitimate concerns about overreach on the part of their civilian overseers. And sympathetic observers have questioned the political motivations of the mayor.

    “She seems to suggest that the blame lies elsewhere, when the buck should stop with the mayor, always,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “She’s been there five years. The thing is an institutional disaster. It’s your institution.”

    A spokesman for the mayor said that some of her efforts, like disbanding a plainclothes unit linked to an unusual number of excessive-force complaints, began shortly after she took office.

    In some cases, the union’s hostility to scrutiny has been self-defeating. In 2014, the Fraternal Order of Police declined to endorse Gregg Bernstein, then the state’s attorney for Baltimore, after members of the union’s endorsement committee complained that Mr. Bernstein had been too aggressive in prosecuting police misconduct, according to two people briefed on the discussions.

    Mr. Bernstein, who suffered from diminishing support in districts where the union has long been influential, lost his re-election bid to the current state’s attorney, Marilyn J. Mosby, who has made prosecuting police misconduct a priority. Ms. Mosby recently charged six Baltimore police officers in the death of Mr. Gray, the resident whose death last month set off tumultuous protests around the city.

    St. Louis offers a particularly vivid example of the inability of police unions to update their tactics amid widespread frustration with policing. The St. Louis Board of Aldermen first passed a measure creating a civilian oversight board back in 2006. Mayor Francis G. Slay, a Democrat, vetoed the bill at the time, citing its “inflammatory antipolice” language and questioning whether it would survive a legal challenge given that the State of Missouri still formally controlled the local Police Department. […]

    The St. Louis Fraternal Order of Police, one of two prominent local unions, was not persuaded. Although the alderman involved in drafting the legislation met with union officials around the same time and asked them for input, the union offered suggestions in writing only on April 13, two days before the board was set to vote on the bill, and far too late to incorporate any of its changes.

    “When we met with them in December, I was honestly interested in their thoughts,” said Alderman Terry Kennedy, who sponsored the legislation. “I would have tried to incorporate as much as I could have.” But, Mr. Kennedy said, the union’s objections proved to be a “constantly moving target.”

    Jeff Roorda, a spokesman for the union, said that once it became clear that the Board of Aldermen was determined to give the oversight board investigative authority, rather than simply review powers, the union felt it was better to save its reservations for a future legal challenge.
    Continue reading the main story
    Continue reading the main story
    Continue reading the main story

    “It put us in a tough spot, to tip our hand about what our legal objections were, telling them how to write legislation within the legal parameters,” Mr. Roorda said. The measure will become law this week.

    In contrast to the unions’ hard-line public stance, many can be pragmatic behind the scenes when dealing with prosecutors over individual allegations of misconduct. In Baltimore, for example, there have been several recent instances when the police union declined to fund the legal defense of an officer whose behavior it had concluded was beyond the pale.

    “People have the impression, when it comes to police unions, that there’s never an unwarranted case of police abuse,” said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor relations at the University of Illinois. “The public would be surprised by the level of rational behavior on the part of union grievance officers.”

    But when it comes to what the unions perceive as larger, institutional threats, they are characteristically unrelenting, even when a more nuanced response might better serve their long-term interests.

    There may be no better example than the creation of New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board two decades ago. In September 1992, after a monthslong standoff between the administration of Mayor David N. Dinkins and the city’s police over his proposal for an independent review agency, a union-organized protest degenerated into what the news media called a “riot,” as thousands of police officers overwhelmed barricades blocking the steps of City Hall.

    “It was a very bad inning for the unions,” Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union said. “Most people view that as being the incident that pushed civilian oversight over the line.”

    And that bit about the fundraisers in Baltimore? I find that particularly… amusing, especially considering the Baltimore FOP’s many, many, many attempts at setting up a fundraiser for the six officers charged in Freddie Gray’s death.
    Laughable. “Beyond the pale”.

    Baltimore mayor seeks DOJ probe of police, promises body cameras

    Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Wednesday asked the U.S. Department of Justice to probe city police practices and said officers will have body cameras by 2016.

    Rawlings-Blake, in a morning news conference, noted that complaints of police brutality have been down, and highlighted other improvements by the department.

    “We have seen results from these efforts,” she said. But she said more efforts must be made to build on reforms that have already been put into place.

    “We have to get it right. Failure is not an option,” she said. The mayor said the department of Justice will investigate what “systemic challenges exist in our department.” At the end of the process, she said she will hold those accountable if changes are not made.

    The announcement comes a day after a visit by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who pledged to improve the police department. Lynch met with city officials, community leaders and the family of Freddie Gray, who was fatally injured in police custody.

    The FBI and the Justice Department are investigating the death of Gray for potential civil rights violations.

    Also Wednesday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is expected to address the state of emergency related to rioting in the city after Gray’s funeral.

    Group’s prom picture with guns and a Confederate flag causes controversy

    A prom picture is stirring up controversy in Parker.

    Chaparral High School hosted prom in Denver on Saturday, but it’s a picture of students posing with guns and the Confederate flag that is grabbing the town’s attention.

    While the teens have done nothing illegal, students and parents are questioning their logic.

    “When he got out there he was surprised that guns were brought out and the Confederate flag was brought out,” said a mother of one of the students in the picture, who spoke to FOX31 Denver exclusively on the condition of anonymity. “There were other parents there fully supporting it and taking pictures.”

    The student’s mom says she doesn’t condone the behavior and that her son made a mistake. She says the picture was taken at a home in Elizabeth.

    “I think in their immaturity they kind of think it is a cowboy thing, but to have parents feed into it and support it is really upsetting to me,” she said.

    In a statement, University of Colorado-Boulder ethnic studies professor Arturo Aldama said, “The image is pretty disturbing, especially if they have real assault rifles in their hands. Not to mention, the Confederate flag and its legacy of white supremacy, Klan violence and the Jim Crow South.”

    Everyone’s faces are blanked out, but I suppose that makes sense, if they’re high school students… And it’s a terrible picture.

  244. rq says

    Wow, I have gotten so bad at cleaning up the blockquotes. Sorry about that again. :(

  246. rq says

    chigau
    Eh, I know. It just looks sloppy. I try to do better (for myself).

  247. rq says

    Catching up on Mano Singham’s blog, he has some thoughts on policing, Baltimore, fines, etc.
    And so, in reverse chronological order:
    A brief history of white paranoia;
    Due process protections should cut both ways;
    Will this spur changes?;
    And some wonder why there is so much anger;
    The Daily Show on Baltimore;
    Violent protests and their root causes;
    Part 1 of 2 (sending Part 2 deliberately to moderation otherwise will have lone hanging link and I feel sorry for it).

  249. says

    From Fusion- Police torture has cost Chicago taxpayers $100 million:
    (content warning: disturbing imagery)

    Chicago’s city council just took a major step in closing a dark and costly police saga that has “stained the city’s reputation,” in the words of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

    The plan, which passed unanimously on Wednesday, will set up a $5.5 million compensation fund for victims of a rogue torture program run by the city police force from the early 1970s through the early 1990s.

    During that time period, police are believed to have used torture to illegal coerce confessions out of as many as 120 victims. Many of those victims, who are mostly black men, have already settled with the city and had their charges dropped, some after spending over 20 years in prison stemming from those confessions.

    By the time the last settlements are paid out, the program will have cost the Chicago taxpayers an estimated $100 million, according to the Chicago Tribune.

    In addition to the dollars that will be made available to victims, the plan, brought forth by Mayor Emanuel, also provides funding for a “permanent memorial” for torture victims to be built in the city. And it ensures that the era will not be forgotten by requiring that all Chicago public schools teach the shameful program and its legacy in 8th and 10th grade history classes.

    “This is another step, but an essential step, in righting a wrong — removing a stain,” Mayor Emanuel said of the passing of his plan. “Chicago has finally confronted its past and come to terms with it.”

    ‘It felt like a thousand needles going through my body’
    The program is believed to have started in 1973, with the alleged torture of Anthony Holmes, then a leader of the Black Gangster Disciples gang. Former Cmdr. Jon Burge arrested Holmes at his home and took him to a South Side police station for questioning in a murder case. While in custody, Burge and officers under his command hooked Holmes up to an electrical box, used a plastic bag to suffocate him, and shocked him all over his body until he confessed to the murder, Holmes testified at a trial against Burge in 2010. The confession was the only evidence used against him in that murder case.

    “It feel like a thousand needles going through my body,” Holmes said at the time. “It feel like something just burning me from the inside, and I shook, I gritted, I hollered, then I passed out.”

    Others after him claimed that police shocked their genitals with cattle prods, held mock executions, and beat them with phone books, among other things.

    Dozens of cases remain unaddressed
    Holmes’ allegations of torture have not been settled in the courts, since the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit had already expired by the time he was released from prison in 1983. Others could still potentially file suit, but have not done so. These many unaddressed cases are what Wednesday’s legislation aims to address.

    The city believes there are 55 of these cases remaining, which explains why it included a payment cap at $100,000 per person, according to the Chicago Sun Times. Plaintiffs’ attorneys said they believe there might be as many as 80 remaining victims, in which case the money will be equally distributed among all victims.

    Burge, the commander who ran program, never faced criminal charges for crimes directly stemming from the violence. But in 2010 he was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury, after lying in a civil lawsuit about the torture program. He served four and a half years in prison, but he was released in 2014.

    Today, he continues to receive a police pension of over $4,000 a month.

  250. Pteryxx says

    rq, the mystery link from #237 is an essay by poet Tameka Cage-Conley on art and black motherhood: Motherhood, Art, And Police Brutality This is just part of it:

    On Saturday, April 18, David, [infant son] Maze, and I drove four hours to Washington, DC. The next day, Sunday, April 19, “Rise,” my collaboration with brilliant composer and friend Judah Adashi, premiered at the resplendent, historical Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC, just a short walk from the White House. “Rise” examines fifty years of the Civil Rights movement, from Selma to Ferguson, and includes the great triumphs and pains of freedom fighters, from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Congressman John Lewis and their hope for socio-political freedom and equality for every person breathing in America. Yet the work also tells the story of Black men who have fallen to soon, like seeds that will never sprout, killed by a cop’s bullet. I wrote the poems that Judah composed from the time Maze was sixteen days old until he was six months old. They are my love-song for him, as well as my hope for the nation. After the performance I told Judah that if I were a composer, I would have done exactly what he did with the music, which was beautifully sang by the Cantate Chamber Singers and the exquisite jazz ensemble Afro Blue of Howard University.

    The premiere was one of the most powerful events of my career as an artist-writer. There was a positive review of the collaboration and praise for the poems I’d written in The Washington Post, and I’d read the poems with Gwen Ifill, brilliant journalist, newscaster, and author who, as a member of Metropolitan AME, had secured the venue. I was honored to meet her, but any moment to be star struck was struck down when she greeted me with a warm, sincere smile and a comment that we were both wearing blue. Later, we would read the poems together. I felt like the hard work I had put in over the years as a writer was paying off. The “national platform” I had been striving to hit with every step was being realized, and my words seemed to have meant something to each person who occupied the church that night.

    I felt like someone hit me with a car when Judah informed me days later that Freddie Gray died on the same day “Rise” premiered. I could see my heart inside my chest, and it was overwhelmed. It was red and swelling with pain and burden. While we were remembering Trayvon, Mike Brown, Amadou and so many others, yet another young Black man lost his heart, lungs, muscles, everything, everything, everything that made him human and therefore worthy of life because cops decided his breath did not mean anything and his beating heart did not mean anything and did not care that he was loved and as such, was someone’s baby. I’d written poems but another Black man was dead.

    Instantly, I felt a two-ness. On one hand, why write poems and words about justice, fairness, equality? What difference does it make? On the other: This is exactly why you write and must continue to write poems about the value of Black men, women, children, and families. In her article, “No Room for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear,” Noble Prize-winning author Toni Morrison asserts, “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” I use my pen and my work to remember, to call forth hope, to call out for change and social transformation. If words are a sword, I want mine to cut deep into that part of America that believes the loss of Black male life isokay; just fine; happens all the time; or is to be expected because that’s what they do. “They die, don’t they?” And as a writer and mother, my job is to say, NO. NO. NO. They don’t die because we are fighting for them. They are beautiful, brilliant and deserve their breath to stay in their bodies for a long, long time, until they are old men ready to turn to dust or go to heaven or live again as a child, flower, breeze, morning tide, or tree.

  251. Pteryxx says

    following up on Singham’s Due process protections should cut both ways, a commenter pointed out Ken White at Popehat tearing into Maryland’s LEO Bill of Rights point by point:

    Cops: We Need Rights More Than You, Citizen

    It’s untrue that cops scorn constitutional rights. It’s unfair to say that they oppose fair procedures designed to promote truth. It’s inaccurate to say they oppose measures designed to protect suspects from coercion.

    They understand and believe in all of those things.

    For them.

    Chuck Canterbury, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, wrote a revealing column in the New York Times today. He extolled the virtues of due process:

    The right to due process, enshrined in our Constitution, is one of the cornerstones of our republic. The existence of this right – that everyone is presumed innocent and that everyone is entitled to a fair hearing – is woven tightly into American society. Why should this not be true for police?

    […]

    So. What kind of due process do cops want? They want bills of rights. Cops like Canterbury attempt to portray these as simply giving cops the same rights enjoyed by civilians:

    Maryland was one of the first states to enact a “bill of rights” for its police, and other states followed. In other jurisdictions, those protections are a result of collective bargaining and embedded in negotiated contracts.

    These laws and contracts do not protect the jobs of “bad cops” or officers unfit for duty. Nor do they afford police any greater rights than those possessed by other citizens; they simply reaffirm the existence of those rights in the unique context of the law enforcement community.

    That’s simply not true, unless Canterbury is using “the unique context of the law enforcement community” to mean “for people whose rights we actually respect and care about.”

    Let’s take a look at Maryland’s Law Enforcement Officer Bill of Rights that Canterbury mentions, and contrast the rights and procedures cops demand for themselves versus their habits in dealing with us.

    Excerpts from a long list:

    Cops routinely start investigations based on hearsay tips from informants. Cops even take action based on wholly anonymous and uncorroborated informants. But when it comes to themselves, cops demand a sworn statement from a witness with direct knowledge:

    (1) A complaint against a law enforcement officer that alleges brutality in the execution of the law enforcement officer’s duties may not be investigated unless the complaint is sworn to, before an official authorized to administer oaths, by:

    (i) the aggrieved individual;

    (ii) a member of the aggrieved individual’s immediate family;

    (iii) an individual with firsthand knowledge obtained because the individual was present at and observed the alleged incident; or

    (iv) the parent or guardian of the minor child, if the alleged incident involves a minor child.

    […]

    Cops routinely prolong interrogations to wear down suspects. They also routinely threaten dire consequences if the suspect doesn’t “cooperate.” But for cops:

    (2) Each session of interrogation shall:

    (i) be for a reasonable period; and

    (ii) allow for personal necessities and rest periods as reasonably necessary.

    (i) Threat of transfer, dismissal, or disciplinary action prohibited.- The law enforcement officer under interrogation may not be threatened with transfer, dismissal, or disciplinary action.

    Cops routinely avoid recording interrogation sessions. This allows them to claim that the suspect confessed without contradiction and conceal their interrogation techniques. But for themselves:

    (k) Record of interrogation.-

    (1) A complete record shall be kept of the entire interrogation, including all recess periods, of the law enforcement officer.

    (2) The record may be written, taped, or transcribed.

    (3) On completion of the investigation, and on request of the law enforcement officer under investigation or the law enforcement officer’s counsel or representative, a copy of the record of the interrogation shall be made available at least 10 days before a hearing.

    […]

    When cops interrogate you, they don’t hand you all their evidence and ask you questions once you’ve had time to review it. They don’t want you to know what they know. They’re happy if you lie in a way they can easily disprove. That will help them prove guilt. So they’ll pull the story out of you, a bit at a time, and show you pieces of evidence after you’ve committed to parts of the story, hoping to shake you.

    But for themselves, cops want the right to review evidence, especially in an age of omnipresent video cameras. In Los Angeles, cops are demanding the right to view videos of incidents before giving statements about them:

    The proposed policy would also allow officers to have a union representative with them when they review the video – and they can exclude the LAPD investigator looking into their actions during that process.

    Similarly, in Dallas, the police chief announced a new rule requiring officers to wait 72 hours before giving statements about use of force incidents so that they can review any videos or witness statements. That change just happened to follow an incident in which a video of a police officer shooting an unarmed man turned out to contradict the officer’s immediate statement about the shooting.

    Conclusion:

    The Search for the Truth

    Cops like Canterbury aren’t just saying that cops need special administrative rights because of the unique circumstances of being a government employee being investigated. Instead, cops relentlessly portray these rights as promoting truth and accuracy in investigation. Canterbury says:

    These requirements help to protect the officer as a public employee but also ensure the integrity of the investigative process.

    In Los Angeles, the Chief echoes him:

    In the past, Beck has said it’s valuable to have an officer review video because it improves the accuracy of their account. The proposed policy reflects that view.

    “The accuracy of police reports, officer statements, and other official documentation is essential,” the policy states.

    Perhaps that’s true. If so, what does that say about cops’ typical tactics?

    Cynics might say that these policies simply empower police officers to lie effectively — to use time, information, and deliberation to frame a story consistent will all of the available evidence. But maybe that’s not right. Maybe the police are genuinely worried about the truth and believe that these techniques: delay, non-coercive circumstances, opportunity to review evidence — promotes the search for the truth and the accurate recollection of facts.

    So why don’t they extend those same practices when they interview suspects? Why aren’t they as concerned about accurate statements from us?

    To me, when the police demand these special procedures, it necessarily means one of two things. Either they (1) want to protect their ability to lie, or (2) don’t give a shit about whether their regular interrogation tactics used on us are fair or reliable.

    Or maybe a little of both.

  253. rq says

    At the national geospatial spy center this morning to say HANDS OFF THE NORTHSIDE! Join us at 10:30! 3200 s. 2nd st. That’s activity in north STL to prevent the development of a less-well-kept neighbourhood, which would put people out of their homes.

    ‘Empire’ Breaking Barriers With Overseas Viewers. The only issue is that (at least locally) this is how they think all black people actually live all the time.

    The Cosby Show was the first — and last — television series starring an African-American cast to become a worldwide hit. But the U.S. success of shows like Fox’s Empire, ABC’s Black-ish and How to Get Away With Murder, and, in the pay TV sphere, Starz’ Power and Survivor’s Remorse, is beginning to attract the attention of international broadcasters and is opening up the global market for more diverse primetime programming.

    Succeeding on the global market is the last glass ceiling. Despite diverse casts on international ratings juggernauts like CSI: Miami, Grey’s Anatomy and NCIS, no series in the past 30 years with an African-American lead — much less an entirely black cast — has become a worldwide hit.

    A Fox executive that first pitched Empire to global networks says if the show had had an all-white cast “it would have sold out immediately.” Starz executive vp worldwide distribution Gene George admits selling Power and Survivor’s Remorse — the latter a half-hour comedy about a basketball star from the ghetto made good — has been a struggle.

    “It’s been hard to get [international broadcasters] to think outside the box,” he admits.

    But then the shows hit the U.S. airwaves and everything changed.

    Empire’s phenomenal ratings — viewership increased week-over-week, every week, closing with a season high of nearly 17 million total viewers — convinced buyers to take another look.

    “When it started to air — every week it grew and grew — many important clients of ours have contacted us to rethink what they were doing,” Marion Edwards, 20th Century Fox Television Distribution’s president of international TV, told THR in March.

    Empire is now sold out in virtually every major territory worldwide. Big terrestrial broadcasters like Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1, Network Ten in Australia and France’s M6 — networks with market positions similar to Fox’s in the U.S. — have acquired the series. In the U.K., where U.S. shows of any kind have a hard time getting on major networks, it went to E4, Channel 4’s smaller digital pay TV outlet. Fox International Channels, which is a smaller pay TV player in most foreign territories, has picked up the show for multiple global markets including Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and South Africa.

    All in all, though, well done!

    #BlackLivesMatter at @stnorbert the movement lives @deray @ShaunKing

    UVA Student’s Lawyer: Officers ‘Lacked Legal Justification’ for Arresting Client. Well, they needed a reason to beat up Martese. Doesn’t count?

    University of Virginia student Martese Johnson was charged with public intoxication even though the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control agents who detained the 20-year-old in a brutal and bloody arrest in March didn’t think he was drunk, the Richmond Free Press reports. The officers in their statements noted that they did believe that Johnson might have been using a false ID.

    The Virginia State Police have given a detailed report on the incident to the Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman, who is studying it but has not yet made it public, according to the Free Press. Johnson’s attorney, Daniel Watkins, has yet to see the report but hopes to do so before Johnson makes his court appearance later this month.

    “We have already reviewed the reports from the arresting ABC agents and the local police on the scene, and our position remains that the [agents] lacked legal justification to arrest or brutalize young Martese,” a statement from Watkins’ law firm read, according to the news site.

    Johnson’s case drew nationwide attention when he was arrested by ABC agents while he was trying to get into a bar in the early morning after St. Patrick’s Day and was slammed into a sidewalk, causing a head injury that left his face bloody and required 10 stitches.

    Johnson was charged with public intoxication and obstruction of justice without force. However, witnesses said that Johnson was compliant with officers and even showed them his ID before he was accosted. Video of the incident showed the young man screaming that he was a student at UVA, but Johnson never appeared to try to physically engage the officers.

    Lots of media at the torture reparations ordinance hearing. #RahmRepNow

    And this: Go Behind TIME’s Baltimore Cover With Aspiring Photographer Devin Allen

    A few days ago, Devin Allen, a 26-year-old West Baltimore resident, only aspired to be a professional photographer. For the past two years, he had been photographing models and had tried his hand at street photography, drawing his inspiration from photographers such as Gordon Parks and artists like Andy Warhol.

    But, when protests took over his city in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death, the young amateur photographer took to Instagram and found himself propelled on the global stage.

    His photographs of the demonstrations — peaceful at first, then more violent — grabbed the headlines: they were featured on the BBC and CNN, and shared by thousands of Twitter and Instagram users, including Rihanna.

    Now, one of his most iconic images, shot at the heart of the protests on April 25, is featured on this week’s cover of TIME.

    The photograph shows a man running away from a pack of charging policemen. “When I shot that, I thought it was a good picture, so I uploaded [from my camera] to my phone,” he told TIME LightBox earlier this week. “By the time I’d done that, the police was all around me. I was in the middle of it.”

    The shot perfectly captures the intensity and chaotic nature of the protests, making it the natural choice for TIME’s cover.

    “For me, who’s from Baltimore city, to be on the cover of TIME Magazine, I don’t even know what to say. I’m speechless,” says Allen. “It’s amazing. It’s life changing for me. It’s inspiring me to go further. It gives me hope and it gives a lot of people around me hope. After my daughter, who’s my pride and joy, this is the best thing that’s happened to me.”

    Fantastic photo, and I hope for a bright future for Allen!

  254. rq says

    Baltimore Police Commissioner to CNN: ‘We Are Part of the Problem’. I had to read that twice to make sure that negative was deliberately left out.

    “We are part of the problem,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts told CNN’s Evan Perez of his officers and department on Monday in his first interview since the death of Freddie Gray. “The community needs to hear that,” he added. “The community needs to hear from us that we haven’t been part of the solution, and now we have to evolve. Now we have to change.”

    Batts admitted that he was “probably surprised” to hear that Maryland State Attorney Marilyn Mosby had charged six of his officers for the death of Gray, saying he found out just 10 minutes before the rest of the world. “And then my mind started going to, what is going to be the response in community?” he said. “My officers, how do I keep them engaged, how do I keep them focused on getting their job done as a whole?”

    He also said it was a bit unusual for Mosby’s investigation to be so disconnected from his, but understood that she wanted to limit leaks and prevent any impressions that they were working too closely together. “She didn’t want to be seen connected to the police organization, so the communication was limited as compared to what I’m used to,” Batts said.

    Today in court, one of the six officers who was charged, Edward Nero, defended the arrest of Gray, who he says was carrying an illegal knife. If the weapon, which Nero’s lawyer described as a “spring assisted, one hand operated knife” in deemed illegal, that would mean that Gray’s arrest was legally justified and the officer could have charges of second-degree assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment dismissed.

    Video at the link.

    Chicago Creates Reparations Fund For Victims Of Police Torture. Yup, they did it!

    The city of Chicago has become the first in the nation to create a reparations fund for victims of police torture, after the City Council unanimously approved the $5.5 million package.

    Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the abuse and torture of scores of mostly black, male suspects in the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s by former police Cmdr. Jon Burge and his detectives is a “stain that cannot be removed from our city’s history.”

    “But,” Emanuel says, “it can be used as a lesson of what not to do.”

    Today’s unanimous vote in favor of the reparations fund is “an essential step in righting a wrong,” he adds.

    Burge and his “midnight crew” of detectives on the city’s South Side used electric shock, beatings, suffocation and even Russian roulette to coerce confessions out of suspects. The city has already paid more than $100 million in judgments and legal settlements to some victims. The reparations fund will compensate up to 80 others and will provide them counseling, education and job training.

    More at the link.

    We discuss #MayPac, @MarilynMosbyEsq and spotlight @deray in our first #BlackLivesMatter #MovementMoment Link to a Bossip podcast within.

    Transient man shot to death by LAPD in Venice after ‘disturbing the peace’ call

    A transient man was shot to death in Venice by Los Angeles police responding to a report of someone “disturbing the peace.”

    The man, identified as Brendon Glenn, was described as a black male in his mid-to-late 20s. The officer who shot the suspect is also black, LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.

    The shooting occurred near Pacific and Winward avenues around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday just a block or so away from the beach.

    Two LAPD officers responded to the scene after people called police saying a man was causing a disturbance outside of a bar. Friends of the suspect say he was panhandling, but police said he was disturbing the peace.

    After officers spoke with the suspect, he walked away in the direction of the boardwalk.

    A short time later, the officers “observed the suspect physically struggling with an individual on the sidewalk west of their initial location,” LAPD said in a statement. The responding officers made contact with the suspect, and at some point, there was a struggle between the man and the two officers. That’s when the shots were fired.

    The officer who shot the suspect, described by police as a veteran of the force, was on crutches after injuring his knee during the incident.
    […]

    William Henson, a friend of the suspect, said the man was still alive and asking for help after he was shot. The suspect was transported to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.

    Henson described the man as a lost soul.

    “He was a recovering crackhead for 13 years, came out here, got real bad on alcohol, but if he wasn’t on alcohol, he was OK,” Henson said.

    Don Wige, who lives on the streets, also knew the suspect.

    “He had a lot of anxiety inside of him and frustration. He couldn’t understand why the world was so negative,” Wige said, adding that the suspect’s size and strength could easily look threatening.

    “But then again, that’s not a reason to kill somebody because they look threatening,” Wige said. “They could have shot him in the arm. They could have Tasered him. They have so many options to handle the situation, but they immediately go to the extreme which is the gun.”

    LAPD Officer Meghan Aguilar said police protocol is to use the least amount of force necessary to control the situation. She said she doesn’t know why a Taser was not used in the incident.

    “That will be something that force investigation division does ask the officers. They will ask them why they chose to use the force they did and why they didn’t choose to use the force that they did not use,” Aguilar said.

    The two officers involved in the shooting were not wearing body cameras, and there was no dash camera on their vehicle. However, police said they will retrieve surveillance video from the surrounding area that they believe captured the shooting.

    Somewhere it was noted that the man shot was also a veteran (unconfirmed information at the moment) – if he is, then he’s not the first veteran with mental issues to be shot by the police (there was Anthony Hill in Atlanta). That intersection, veteran-mental illness-black… And how much of that (un? little? treated) mental illness is due to being a veteran?

    School W/O Walls March & Die-in to the White House rallying for civil justice @deray @ShaunKing

    Black college student arrested for public intoxication even though officers knew he wasn’t drunk, one more for Martese Johnson.

  255. rq says

    Justice for Tamir Rice, from The Nightly Show. Worth a look.

    New online fundraising campaign starts up for officers charged in Gray’s death. They’re persistent, I’ll give ’em that.

    Another fundraising website has launched to raise money for legal expenses of the six Baltimore officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray.

    The effort on OfficerDown.US comes after the Baltimore police union had set up a GoFundMe.com fundraising site on Friday with the same purpose before the online campaign was shut down by the host company. GoFundMe officials said web pages cannot benefit people charged with “serious violations of the law.”

    OfficerDown.US is a similar fundraising website but it’s devoted specifically to raising money for law enforcement officers or people associated with law enforcement, including family members.

    The latest fundraising campaign is called the “Officer Distress Fund” and it says it has the Baltimore police union’s backing and permission.

    A call and email to the union, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, was not immediately returned on Wednesday to confirm its support.

    “All monies collected will be used to assist our officers with their living expenses during their unpaid suspension, as well as to help defray their legal expenses,” said the page. “We thank you, in advance, for your continued support.”

    As of noon Wednesday, the site had raised $340 toward its goal of $600,000. The web page said it will be up for 80 days.

    Police union president Gene Ryan has said the charges against the officers were “an apparent rush to judgment.” The officers face various charges including manslaughter and misconduct in office. One officer — the police van transport driver who carried Gray after his April 12 arrest — has been charged with second-degree murder.

    Seen earlier today on campus.. “True Spartans Support Baltimore Uprising” #BlackSpring @deray @Nettaaaaaaaa

    Why white kids in Baltimore get more second chances than black kids

    For all that’s been said about inequality in Baltimore over the last week, one of the most devastating paragraphs comes from Karl Alexander, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist — and he wrote it back in October, long before Freddie Gray’s name was ever in a headline:

    Eighty-nine percent of white high school dropouts were working at age 22; the figure for black dropouts was 40 percent. Contrary to popular portrayals of inner-city Baltimore, this isn’t due to differences in drug use and related social maladies. Higher- and lower-income white men were more likely than their African American counterparts to use hard drugs and marijuana, smoke, and binge drink. These young men, poor white and black alike, had numerous problem encounters with the law, but a police record was less of an impediment to whites in the job market.

    The numbers come from an extraordinary study that took Alexander almost 25 years to complete. The project began in the early ’80s, when the researchers began following almost 800 children attending Baltimore public schools. The sample included white children and black children, boys and girls, poor and middle class.

    What was different about Alexander’s study, though, was that it didn’t stop. He and his colleagues followed that group of 800 until they were 28 years old. They talked to their parents, got their academic records, tracked the kinds of jobs they held, the kinds of crimes they committed, the kinds of lives they led. And they watched, year after year, to see who rose and who fell. “In sociology talk, it’s a study of intergenerational mobility from early childhood to young adulthood,” Alexander says.

    And what they found, basically, was that holding all else equal — city, income, schooling, prison records, etc. — it’s much, much harder for a black man to rise up the income ladder than a white man. […]

    Any time there’s a discussion of inner-city poverty among young African Americans, the conversation turns quickly to debate about personal responsibility — what does society owe someone who made bad, even criminal, choices?

    But Alexander’s work shows something often forgotten in that debate: all kids make some bad choices, but he finds, over and over again, that society is much more forgiving of the mistakes white kids make than the mistakes black kids make, and that high crime in black neighborhoods has created an aggressive approach to policing — often, though not always, for well-intentioned reasons — in which black kids get caught for their mistakes more often than white kids.

    At the same time, Alexander’s results show how a legacy of racial discrimination can lead to a persistent disadvantage for young black men. Alexander finds one of the reasons that low-income white kids without much education recover more easily from criminal records is that they often have family in skilled trades who can help them out. The industrial and construction trades, which were the best-paying jobs available to men without much education, employed 45 percent of whites but just 15 percent of blacks, and in those trades, whites earned twice as much as blacks.

    The result was that a white kid who made a mistake as a 19-year-old was a lot likelier to have an uncle in plumbing or construction who knew him as a good kid who screwed up and could give him a second chance. That kid’s uncle wasn’t being a racist when he helped out his nephew, but because of historical racism in those professions, many more of those uncles are white, and so it was easier for white kids to get their lives back on track than it was for black ones. That same black kid was often just a resume with a criminal record, and so he didn’t get that second chance.

    As promised, here’s how you can support @ophelporhush’s free “farmers market” this Saturday. #BaltimoreLunch Food donations!

    Jack Young: Justice Department must investigate Baltimore police – aren’t they? And then you check the date, and realize that this was written in October 2014.

    As I view the constant protesting by residents of Ferguson, Mo., nearly two months after a police officer fatally shot an unarmed teenager, I know that it’s only a matter of time before the streets of Baltimore are filled with the same sustained clarion call for justice that has rocked the once inconspicuous Midwestern city.

    On the surface, the city of Baltimore and Ferguson are worlds apart.

    With a population nearly 30 times larger than Ferguson, Baltimore is a major American city and cultural hub. From Francis Scott Key to H.L. Mencken to Thurgood Marshall, Baltimore has produced more than its fair share of American icons. While African Americans make up the majority in both cities, Ferguson’s elected representatives remain overwhelmingly white. In Baltimore, the majority of elected officials and our appointed police commissioner are African American.

    But look below the surface and it quickly becomes clear that the two cities have more in common than might appear at first glance.

    Like Ferguson, residents of Baltimore City have long complained of a strained relationship with police officers. In 2010, the Baltimore City Police Department settled a lawsuit stemming from a pattern of unlawful arrests. The settlement included an award of $870,000 for the 13 plaintiffs, some of whom were illegally detained and strip searched. And the zero tolerance policing policies of the early to mid-2000s resulted in record numbers of African Americans arrested for quality of life infractions.

    But the changes promised as a result of these and other violations have failed to produce the type of reforms that would allow citizens to form true partnerships with local officers.

    Rarely does a week go by without the City of Baltimore paying tens of thousands of dollars in settlements to victims of police misconduct. On September 24, the city’s five-member spending panel, of which the mayor and I are members, approved a $49,000 payment to a man who testified that a Baltimore City police officer struck him in the face and broke his jaw during an arrest in September 2010. And a recent investigative report in The Baltimore Sun detailed how allegations of police brutality have cost the city of Baltimore nearly $6 million in settlements to victims since 2011.

    As an 18-year member of the City Council, I have participated in countless oversight hearings related to improving relations between the police department and citizens. I have even volunteered to personally talk to incoming police recruits about the importance of practicing great customer service during their many encounters with the public.

    But the cases of alleged police misconduct continue to grow.

    In October 2012 the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled 46-year-old Anthony Anderson’s death in police custody a homicide. Although charges were never filed against the arresting officer, a number of witnesses said that Anderson became unresponsive after being grabbed from behind and violently slammed to the ground. And a second in-custody death in July 2013, which was subjected to an independent review, found that officers failed to follow a number of “guidelines during several aspects of this incident; there were also several tactical errors in their attempts to control the situation.” The independent review resulted in nearly three dozen recommendations for reform. And the recent release of video appearing to show an unarmed man being repeatedly punched in the face by a police officer has sparked outrage and familiar calls for fixes to the department.

    It is a cry that, sadly, has become all too familiar in Baltimore. That’s why on Oct. 1 I took the step of formally requesting that the U.S. Department of Justice conduct a comprehensive review of the Baltimore City Police Department’s policies, procedures and practices. I am looking forward to working with federal officials to achieve measurable reforms that would go a long way toward repairing the compact between our citizens and local police.

    I know our police force is filled with many men and women who take seriously their oaths to protect and preserve life. There remains, however, a stubborn minority whose actions violate the civil liberties of far too many Baltimoreans.

    Similar to Ferguson, the horrific incidents of police misconduct in Baltimore have sparked an honest dialogue about how discrimination and bias factor into the daily lives of many of our city’s African Americans.

    Oh, and THANK YOU Pteryxx for revealing the Mystery Link above!!

  256. rq says

    Witness To Michael Brown’s Shooting Sues Darren Wilson And Ferguson. I believe we had this and that on this yesterday. The story has a second part, though. Stay tuned.

    Interlude: baby-cute! Kelly Rowland Is All Smiles And Cuddles With Baby Titan In New Ad . For positive representation. And yes, it’s a detergent ad. Keep that in the background this once.

    Police torture has cost Chicago taxpayers $100 million. This the same as above? Yes? Okay.

    LAPD chief concerned about fatal shooting of unarmed man in Venice. Concerned.

    The fatal police shooting of an unarmed homeless man near the Venice boardwalk Tuesday night had investigators turning to an increasingly reliable witness: video.

    Sometimes the images captured by a camera or cellphone help justify an officer’s use of deadly force. This time, however, police officials didn’t like what they saw.

    Less than 16 hours after the deadly encounter, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck stood before reporters and said he was “very concerned” about the shooting, which was recorded by a security camera.

    “Any time an unarmed person is shot by a Los Angeles police officer, it takes extraordinary circumstances to justify that,” Beck said. “I have not seen those extraordinary circumstances.”

    The LAPD’s investigation into the death of the man — identified by those who knew him as Brandon Glenn — is ongoing. The shooting will be reviewed by the civilian Police Commission, its inspector general and the district attorney’s office.

    The two officers involved in the shooting have been removed from the field.

    Craig Lally, president of the union that represents rank-and-file police officers, criticized Beck’s comments as “completely irresponsible” considering the investigation was still in its “early stages.”

    “We encourage everyone to reserve judgment until the investigation has run its course, and the facts are collected and assessed,” Lally said in a statement.

    But the chief’s remarks indicate the video will be a key piece of evidence in the investigation, as others have been in recent high-profile incidents involving the LAPD. […]

    On Wednesday morning, as a gray marine layer hung heavy over the Venice boardwalk, those who knew Glenn described him as a kind man who constantly told people he loved them. He was known for his “hand hugs” — grabbing hold of someone’s hand before saying goodbye. Glenn treated his black Lab mix, Dozer, like “his baby,” one man said.

    Of course, he had his struggles. But it’s amazing how fast they shift from people saying nice things to asking about his problems.

    Baltimore County officers upset over 911 center employee’s ‘anti-police’ Facebook post. Also from the end of last year, but here’s what they were upset about:

    “So, it’s okay to KILL black children and their lives do not matter because they may or may NOT have made a bad decision,” the post on Murray’s page read, a post which was shared by police-related Facebook pages across the country.

    “And Police officers should be able to kill them and get away with it because they CHOOSE to accept a position that PAYS them to put their lives in danger…I would rather MY son to be approached by so-called THUGS, then for him to encounter any policeman…

    “This in no way discredits what SOME police officers do. They CHOSE a career that happens to put their lives in danger, (sic) so does Bge workers, so do construction workers, so does firefighters. I can go on & on…”

    Anti-police indeed.

  257. rq says

    Multiple MPLS residents speak in support of the repeal of lurking and spitting. #MplsBlackCodes
    Council member Gordon: MPLS one of two major cities in the U.S. with a distinct lurking ordinance #MplsBlackCodes
    A glimpse at how the #MplsBlackCodes play out. Pie charts of arrests for lurking.
    Lurking citations disproportionately given to Black ppl while 70% of calls re: lurking from White ppl #MplsBlackCodes

    The ordinance can be found here. Apparently lurking is like loitering with intent.

    Dream Defenders Protest Racist Fort Lauderdale Cops at Commission Meeting

    Wearing T-shirts with the words “Am I Free to Speak” written across the chest, the Dream Defenders were back at Fort Lauderdale’s City Commission meeting to protest the city. It was the first time the group had been back at City Hall since one of its members was arrested at the previous meeting they had attended. The Dream Defenders are activists who often stage protests over police brutality and the private prison industry.

    At a February meeting, the local affiliate showed up to protest the city passing an agenda item honoring the work of Fort Lauderdale Police at December’s Winterfest Boat Parade. At the time, the group said it was upset that the police “were being awarded for their negative behavior'” at Winterfest.

    At that February meeting, the Dream Defenders began to express their frustration when they learned they would not be able to speak to the commission. One member of the group grabbed a microphone and announced, “The Police Department told me they would shoot me.” He was then promptly arrested. Mayor Jack Seiler called the arrest justified.

    Last night, the group was back, wearing shirts referencing that incident. Dream Defender Jasmen Rogers spoke up against the recent incident involving four former Fort Lauderdale officers who were caught sending racist text messages to one another and making a racist video.

    “Fort Lauderdale is harboring a culture of men and women who think it’s humorous to kill, torture, traumatize, dehumanize, stalk, and harass black people,” Rogers said at the meeting.

    Rogers and the group showed up Tuesday specifically to ask the city manager why a request by a Citizens Police Review Board to investigate the cops’ behavior further was denied. The officers recently appealed their firings in an attempt to get their jobs back.

    “Will you stand by your decision to not allow openly racist officers to patrol our streets, or will you cave under pressure of lawsuit?” Rogers asked the commission.

    The Dream Defenders believe that the racist incident is only the tip of the iceberg of what they call “major systemic issues” with the police force.

    “It is not isolated,” Rogers said in an email sent to New Times. “The lackluster investigation completed by internal affairs shows us that they are not at all seeking true justice. Everyone from the mayor on down have been asking about increasing trust between the community and the police. How about you investigate your own officers the way you would investigate your citizens?”

    Tuesday’s meeting ended without incident, and Seiler told the group the city has been thorough in its investigation of the officers.

  258. rq says

    Georgia Sheriff Shoots Woman in Stomach

    On Sunday evening, a Georgia sheriff allegedly shot a woman in the stomach inside a model home in Lawrenceville, Ga. Police said Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill “refused to cooperate” when investigators arrived on the scene. He still hasn’t been arrested or questioned. Hill and the woman, identified by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a 43-year-old real estate agent named Gwenevere McCord, were the only two in the model home at the time of the shooting and were apparently acquaintances.

    McCord was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she remains in critical condition. “She’s not able to give any information due to her condition,” police Sgt. Brian Doan told WSB-TV. After calling the shooting in just after 5:30 pm Sunday, Hill reportedly refused to cooperate or give statement to responding Gwinnett police officers.

    As of Monday afternoon, he still hadn’t given a statement to police and has not been arrested.

    Snoop/Stokey Project Youth Rally. Restore/Rebuild Baltimore. Judging from all the photos, a great time was had by all (only one photo there, though).

    We are now @ 404 men, women, boys, and girls killed by American Police so far in 2015.

    That’s 51 MORE than this exact date last year. Not just black people, all people, but that’s still a huge number.

    As Part of a Reparations Deal, Chicago Teens Will Learn About Police Brutality in School. That sounds promising.

    After decades of denial, Chicago is officially coming to terms with its notorious history of police torture by creating an unprecedented reparations package for survivors. Passed unanimously by the City Council on Wednesday amid sobs and a standing ovation, the hard-fought, sweeping deal includes a formal apology, a $5.5 million fund for torture survivors, and other assistance ranging from counseling services to free city-college tuition for survivors and their families. As part of the new package, the city will also create a memorial and build or designate a counseling center on the city’s South Side.

    “We can never bring total closure,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to the largest gathering of the city’s torture survivors—15 men, representing scores of other known victims—and their families. “We will be there for as many tomorrows as you need as we try to heal as one city.”

    But for Darrell Cannon, a torture survivor who spent two decades behind bars after falsely confessing to murder charges in 1983, the opportunity for compensation is not the most important victory. Instead, topping his list is the requirement that Chicago Public Schools teach eighth and tenth graders about the city’s history of torture.

    “Finally, this ugly, dark chapter in the history of Chicago will now be analyzed by a lot of potentially brilliant minds,” Cannon told VICE. “This is the kind of conversation that needs to be in school.” […]

    A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said in an emailed statement to VICE that the curriculum will teach eighth- and tenth-graders to make a connection between the facts surrounding the Burge torture era and the protection of civil liberties as defined in the Bill of Rights. The high school students will also “delve deeper into the Burge case, examining the implications of police accountability.”

    In practice, however, teaching these lessons alongside the realities many students face is fraught with systemic challenges.

    “The big obstacle here is teachers aren’t trained to confront these kinds of issues, and they’re uncomfortable doing so,” said Maureen Costello, director of Teaching Tolerance at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). On top of this, when it comes to civil rights education, Costello said, “There is no uniformity whatsoever and virtually no accountability. Nationally, standards vary from state to state.”

    According to the 2014 SPLC “Teaching the Movement” report, fewer than half of US states today include in their main curriculum any information on Jim Crow laws and only 11 states included mentions of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan (Illinois was not one of them). In some states, curriculum is left entirely to local districts. Other states have minimal to zero content standards for social studies curriculum.

    “Marginalized students need to understand why they’re marginalized, and if you pretend that they’re not, and you think we haven’t engineered a society in which they’re marginalized, then you have no credibility,” said Costello, who taught high school history for 18 years.

    In Chicago, some high school kids have direct experience with law enforcement as part of their daily lives, whereas in other neighborhoods, teens are largely unexposed to police. For the latter group, the Burge torture is just a history lesson, but for many of the city’s kids, the legacy of brutality isn’t exactly abstract, as evidenced by the city’s latest payout of $5 million to the family of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who police shot 16 times last October.

    “There are certain dangers of teaching about egregious human rights violations by the police in the past tense,” said Jamie Kalven, director of the Invisible Institute, which recently pioneered the Youth/Police Conference at the University of Chicago. “This history of this horrible saga of police torture in Chicago—it has to be paired with contemporary realities.”

    It sounds like good brains are on it, may they succeed and may this kind of education spread to other cities. The historical and the contemporary lessons.

    April 2015 Police Violence Report. Infographic. Sad stats.

    Beyoncé Shows Support for Embattled Baltimore with Powerful Social-Media Posts

    Beyoncé took to Instagram Thursday to show support for those affected by the riots in Baltimore, Maryland.

    “People are hurting. Join us in supporting the NAACP to help in the cleanup efforts and to provide housing, food and supplies to those affected by the unrest in Baltimore,” the singer, 33, captioned a photo of a protester draped in a flag.

    Chaos broke out following the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died while in custody of the city’s police on April 19.

    Though protesters continue to swarm the streets, Baltimore has come together in a positive way as volunteers and community and law enforcement leaders gather in hopes of restoring their city.

    However, questions remain as to how these riots and protests will effect change. Bey posted a powerful video from TIME magazine’s most recent cover that asks, “What has changed? What hasn’t?” comparing the issues arising in 2015 to those in 1968.

  259. rq says

    Baltimore mayor to Justice Department: Please investigate my police force

    Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Wednesday asked the US Department of Justice to investigate the Baltimore Police Department for abusive practices, following protests over police brutality after Freddie Gray died of a spinal cord injury while under police custody.

    “Throughout my administration, we have taken a number of steps to change the culture and practices of the Baltimore Police Department,” Rawlings-Blake said, according to the Hill’s David McCabe. “Despite this progress, we all know that Baltimore continues to have a fractured relationship between the police and the community.” She added, “Such an investigation is essential if we are going to build on the foundation of reforms that we have instituted over the last four years.”

    Rawlings-Blake also said the Baltimore Police Department would adopt body cameras before the year’s end.

    The mayor’s comments come after Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts acknowledged in an interview with CNN’s Evan Perez that police “are part of the problem.” Last Friday, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced 28 criminal charges against the six police officers involved in Gray’s arrest.

    The mayor’s office pointed to numerous changes to policing Rawlings-Blake has pushed during her time in office, including bringing in the Justice Department’s COPS Program to help carry out reforms following a September 2014 report by the Baltimore Sun’s Mark Puente that found the city had paid out $5.7 million to more than 100 people over allegations of police brutality between 2011 and 2014.

    Attorney General Loretta Lynch hasn’t yet decided whether the Justice Department will accept the mayor’s latest request. “The Attorney General has received Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s request for a Civil Rights Division ‘pattern or practice’ investigation into the Baltimore Police Department,” Justice Department spokesperson Dena Iverson said in a statement. “The Attorney General is actively considering that option in light of what she heard from law enforcement, city officials, and community, faith and youth leaders in Baltimore yesterday.”

    It’s unusual for city leadership to directly appeal to the Justice Department to conduct an investigation, which can lead to sweeping legal decrees that mandate specific policing reforms. In Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting of Michael Brown, the Justice Department unilaterally opted to carry out an investigation, which found a pattern of racial bias in the Ferguson Police Department that was at least in part explained by unlawful bias and stereotypes against African Americans. Ferguson and the Justice Department will negotiate how, exactly, the city will reform its police department.

    This map shows where Americans are doing the most Google searches for the n-word – didn’t think that was a thing….

    What exactly are people hoping to find when they type the word “n*gg*r” into Google? That’s unclear.

    But what is clear, from a new study, is that there’s a relationship between how often people do this search in certain places in America and how often black people die in those places.

    The University of Maryland’s David H. Chae and a team of researchers concluded in a paper published this month by PLOS One that comparing “n-word searches” (a proxy for racism) with mortality rates adds to the fast-growing pile of evidence that bigotry and prejudice hurt more than just feelings.
    How they did the research

    First, the researchers measured the proportion of Google searches containing the n-word in different “designated market areas” (regions of the country that receive similar media programming).

    Taking note of the fact that “nigga” generally means something different, they didn’t include that variation on the word.

    They called this figure “area racism.”

    On this map, the red areas represent places where “area racism” as measured by Google searches for the n-word was highest (more than half a standard deviation about the mean), and the green areas are where it was the lowest.

    Next, researchers took their measurements of area racism for each media market and compared them with the mortality rates of black people from 2004 to 2009, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, for the same areas.

    The result: a strong association between an area’s level of racism and mortality of African Americans. The areas that ranked high on racism, with scores one standard deviation about the country’s average, had an 8 percent increase in mortality rates. “This effect estimate amounts to over 30,000 deaths among Blacks annually nationwide,” Chae said in a press release about the study.

    After they controlled for other factors, like education and wealth, the association was not as strong, but it still remained, especially with deaths caused by cancer, heart disease, and stroke.

    Researchers also controlled for white mortality rates. “By doing this, we are showing that it [area racism] is not only associated with the Black mortality rate, but also the excess Black mortality rate relative to Whites,” Chae explained. […]
    The study authors were careful to clarify that they could not conclude that an area’s racism directly caused the deaths of black people — just that the two things they measured were strongly associated.

    But what Chae did feel comfortable concluding, given his research in the context of established knowledge, is that “racism is a social toxin that increases susceptibility to disease and generates racial disparities in health.”

    LA Cops Cracked Down on a Bizarre Illuminati-Loving Club of Alleged Police Impersonators –

    In what is either the exposing of a secret, shadowy cabal that has governed the planet for 3,000 years or a simple case of a few weirdos, three alleged members of a bizarre organization known as the Masonic Fraternal Police Department were arrested last week in Los Angeles.

    Human rights practices inform Chicago ordinance in police torture case

    On Wednesday, the City Council approved an ordinance to compensate Burge’s victims, most of them African-American men, and their families. The reparations ordinance is the first of its kind in the country to address police abuse. The measure draws from the United Nations Convention against Torture and human rights practices around the world, especially in nations that overcame the legacy of violent, repressive regimes.

    “There have been so many examples of torture regimes coming to an end — in Chile, El Salvador, South Africa — where some kind of compensation and support for community and individuals and healing has been developed,” said Susan R. Gzesh, a lecturer at the University of Chicago who designed a class that examines the Burge case in an international human rights framework. “The ordinance puts Chicago up there.”

    The city will pay eligible survivors from a special fund, offer psychological counseling, create a public monument and teach Chicago Public Schools students about what has been called “an ugly chapter” in the city’s history.

    Before the vote, Ald. Joe Moreno (1st), who co-sponsored the ordinance, thanked Mayor Rahm Emanuel for moving forward with the measure “when others preceding you did not even want to acknowledge it.”

    “This is truly a historic day for Chicago, for [the] City Council and, most importantly, for the victims of some horrific behavior that happened right here in Chicago – not in Iraq, not in Syria, but right here in Chicago,” Moreno said.

    The council chambers were packed, and torture survivors had a strong presence in the room. One of Burge’s victims, Gregory Banks, burst into tears as Moreno spoke.

    Emanuel said of the reparations ordinance, “This is another step, but an essential step toward righting a wrong.”

    Mayor Slay and Terry Kennedy signing off on #STLPD civilian oversight board…we got our foot in the door #Ferguson

    .@deray can we please get a retweet to spread the word about the #MOVE9 rally in #Philly?! #MoveBombing30

  261. says

    Hmmm, yes. Why *did* she have a gun in the patrol car?
    Atlanta woman fatally shot by police while detained in back of squad car:

    Authorities have released the name of a woman who was fatally shot when officers say she fired at them from the back of a patrol car in downtown Atlanta.

    The Fulton County medical examiner’s office on Friday identified the woman as 25-year-old Alexia Christian.

    Major Darin Schierbaum said Thursday that two officers took her into custody when they saw her sitting in a stolen car in a parking deck.

    He said the woman fired at the officers from the back of the patrol car. Schierbaum said the officers returned fire, critically wounding her. She died at a hospital.

    Schierbaum said it’s unclear how the woman had a gun in the patrol car. Police are investigating whether she had been handcuffed.

    Department spokesman Greg Lyon said the two officers weren’t injured.

  262. says

    From Forward Progressives comes an article sure to piss off the take pride in Southern heritage crowd-
    Yes, honoring the Confederacy is like honoring Nazi Germany or any other hate group:

    It’s not a “symbol for Southern pride” – it’s a symbol for hate, barbaric cruelty, racism, murder, oppression, abuse and shame. In my eyes, honoring the Confederacy is like honoring Nazi Germany. There is a big difference, however: Modern day Germany is ashamed of its horrific history, whereas millions of Americans honor those who fought to preserve their “right” to treat African-Americans like pieces of property. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Now, am I saying the two movements were exactly the same? No, of course not. But the ideologies of both groups (Nazis/slave owners) are similar in that they viewed a specific demographic of people like some sort of subhuman animals to be abused or slaughtered. While Nazi Germany was about genocide whereas the Confederacy was focused on slavery and basically treating people like farming equipment, it’s undeniable that both groups treated the people they abused/killed/enslaved like they weren’t human beings or equal to them in any aspect. Now I’ve heard the ridiculous notion that the Confederacy wasn’t about defending slavery, it was about states’ rights. Right, and Nazi Germany was just about some Germans expressing their nationalistic pride. The reason states’ rights were an issue prior to the Civil War is because of slavery. Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery into western territories while southern states wanted to expand the barbaric practice. Without going into every mundane detail that led up to the Civil War, it essentially comes down to these slave-owning states recognizing that their “right” to own slaves was in jeopardy, so before Lincoln was even inaugurated the Confederate States of America were created. Hell, Lincoln hadn’t even been president a month before the Confederacy fired the first shots of the Civil War against Fort Sumter. Oh, by the way, the Confederacy was essentially a treasonous group that declared war against the United States government. You know, the government created by our Constitution and elected by the American people. Because nothing says “proud patriotism” and “Constitutional values” quite like seceding from the United States, opening fire on one of its military installations and trying to create your own nation – all because you don’t like the fact that your ignorant opinions about how things “should be” lie in the minority of what most Americans think. Just think about that for just a moment – the Confederacy attacked a United States fort. If something like that occurred today, those responsible would be labeled domestic terrorists – not honored by millions of Americans in the South.

  263. rq says

    Chicago agrees to pay $5.5m to victims of police torture in 1970s and 80s , Grauniad version.

    Slay signs bill establishing St. Louis police civilian oversight board

    Mayor Francis Slay on Wednesday signed a bill into law establishing a Civilian Oversight Board for city police.

    Board Bill 208, introduced by Alderman Terry Kennedy and sponsored by Alderman Antonio French, creates a civilian board to receive and review complaints about the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The board can investigate and report but will not have the power to issue subpoenas or file charges.

    The measure will take effect June 5.

    The new board will “enhance trust between police officers and the community, be fair to police and protect their rights, ensure that civilians have a role in our police department, and increase transparency,” Slay said in a statement.”

    Four protesters arrested after group walked onto Ravenel Bridge around 5 p.m. Bond court tomorrow. #chsnews

    FBI admits providing air support to Baltimore Police during Freddie Gray unrest

    In the wake of last week’s riots, federal authorities provided aircraft for surveillance flights over Baltimore, keeping a quiet aerial eye on the lookout for new outbreaks of violence, an FBI spokeswoman said Wednesday.

    “The aircraft were specifically used to assist in providing high-altitude observation of potential criminal activity to enable rapid response by police officers on the ground,” said spokeswoman Amy Thoreson. “The FBI aircraft were not there to monitor lawfully protected First Amendment activity.”

    Thoreson did not say what kinds of aircraft were used or who operated them. But the unusual activity in the sky over several days last week has attracted the attention of civil libertarians, who want more details about the aircraft and the flights.

    On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the Justice Department and the Federal Aviation Administration seeking more details about flights by two planes.

    “These are not your parents’ surveillance aircraft,” said Jay Stanley, an ACLU analyst. “Today, planes can carry new surveillance technologies, like cellphone trackers and high-resolution cameras that can follow the movements of many people at once.

    “These are not the kinds of things that law enforcement should be using in secret.” […]

    According to the website, all three aircraft were using identification or “squawk” codes that the FAA says are reserved for law enforcement.

    Cessna markets its 182 and 206 models to law enforcement under the brand name Cessna Enforcer.

    “You can transform your Cessna propeller aircraft into a stealth eye-in-the-sky machine,” its website reads.

    The company did not respond to a request for comment.

    The airplane manufacturer promotes fixed-wing aircraft as superior in almost every way to the helicopters long used by police. They are stealthier, can fly farther and carry more weight than a helicopter, the company says, while being much cheaper to operate.

    Thoreson did not confirm that the three planes were provided by the FBI.

    She said the aircraft the FBI provided were used to capture images and help coordinate the police response to unrest in the city.

    Plans to fly planes equipped with surveillance equipment have proved controversial elsewhere. In 2013, Dayton, Ohio, backed off a plan to acquire the technology after residents expressed concerns, and a test of a system over Compton, Calif., last year also raised hackles.

    Persistent Surveillance Systems was involved in both cases. Ross McNutt, president of the Xenia, Ohio, company, said it also ran a brief operation in Baltimore in 2008.

    “We watched … nearly all of the East and South East Police Districts and witnessed shooting and a range of other crimes during our short operation,” McNutt wrote in an email. “We had centered out of the Johns Hopkins medical center and fed the live data into the Police Command Center downtown.”

    McNutt said his company offers police an effective tool for fighting crime and takes steps to guard the privacy of people on the ground. But the ACLU and other groups worry about persistent and wide-ranging snooping that can capture information about people who are doing nothing wrong.

    Civil liberties advocates are particularly concerned that aircraft could offer a powerful platform for controversial new technology that captures information about cellphones.

    That tool, known as a “stingray,” mimics a cell tower to force all cellphones within range — including those of law-abiding citizens — to connect to it.

    Baltimore police recently acknowledged using a stingray thousands of times. The Wall Street Journal has reported that U.S. marshals have a version mounted on aircraft.

    There is no indication that the flights over Baltimore were monitoring cellphone information.

    These Powerful Side-By-Side Photos Highlight The Tension Of A Divided Baltimore. Some good images.

    “The day after the Baltimore uprising, I went out to photograph with a group of my students, to document and bear witness to the tragic events of last night. When we started, we saw lots of communities and volunteers helping each other, cleaning up, pitching in. We saw many stores with broken glass and a CVS that was completely burned out inside, products fused into indistinguishable debris. But amid all of this, there were families with small children helping to sweep broken glass, volunteers passing out garbage bags and water, and more press credentials than I could count. There were community organizers passing out voter registration forms and trying to encourage civic participation.”

    “While we were by North Ave & Pennsylvania Ave, we watched the police mass, leading to sealing the block, displacing all those that were trying to help peacefully. The police held the block – 27 officers standing shoulder to shoulder in full riot gear – while continuing to stage behind their line. I made a portrait of each of the officers comprising the human wall with my mobile phone.”

    “That same evening, I went back, and there were 26 citizens forming a human wall, separating the crowd from the police, to protect the crowd from provoking a police response. One citizen kept calling out, “Don’t give them an excuse to hurt us.” I made a portrait of the 22 members of the wall that gave their consent. My heart was heavy all day but lifted at this spirit of self-sacrifice and generosity.”

    “It feels important to put faces to all these groups that are otherwise abstracted by the national media coverage. I’m suspicious of easy narratives and think that the truth is much more complicated. I hope that these portraits embody the complexities of Baltimore City and lend nuance to the narratives surrounding the events. I further hope due process in the courts and a justice that rings true for all citizens might be the start to a slow process of reconciliation and systemic reform.”

    What’s interesting is that protestor faces are out in the open and easy to connect to, while the police faces are still behind the shields of their helmet and hard to discern from under all the reflections.

    LAPD Chief: Shooting Of Unarmed Venice Man Doesn’t Look Justified

    LAPD Chief Beck is speaking out after viewing surveillance footage of an unarmed man being shot in Venice. He said that he is “very concerned” about the shooting.

    Brendon Glenn, 29, has been identified by acquaintances as the man fatally shot by police officers last night near the iconic Venice sign last night, according to KTLA. Beck says that though the investigation into the shooting is just starting, he’s worried about what he saw in surveillance video.

    “Any time an unarmed person is shot by a Los Angeles police officer, it takes extraordinary circumstances to justify that, and I have not seen those extraordinary circumstances at this point,” Beck said, according to KTLA.

    The officer who opened fire on the suspect still hasn’t been interviewed yet. Beck says they don’t want to interview him while he is on medication for the knee injury he got during the altercation.

    “We have not been able to interview the officer at this point,” Beck said. “I don’t know what was in the officer’s mind. We expect to know more tomorrow. At this point, it appears that it was a physical altercation.”

  264. says

    From Fusion–
    Trayvon Martin’s mother ‘Collectively we have a problem’:

    It’s been three years since Sybrina Fulton’s son was shot and killed by a vigilante neighbor in Florida. Now, she says, after seeing what’s happened to other young black unarmed men, it’s never been clearer that Trayvon’s skin color led to him being profiled and killed.

    “It was not about that hoodie, and I need to tell you that,” Fulton told a standing room only crowd in Los Angeles on Wednesday. “It was absolutely about the color of his skin.”

    Fulton, who became an activist against gun violence after Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012, spoke during a discussion hosted by Manifest Justice, a week-long art exhibition centered around justice. The line of 1,000 people waiting to hear Fulton speak went around the block, with some people standing up to two hours in line on an unusually cold day.

    “It’s about admitting when we have a problem,” Fulton told the crowd. “Collectively, we have a problem that we need to fix. It’s time to stop pretending we don’t have an issue.

    “My son is not here to speak for himself. I am Trayvon Martin,” she said.

    Through her Trayvon Martin Foundation, Fulton works with other mothers who have lost their sons to senseless gun violence, helping them to heal and training them to become advocates in their own communities to end gun violence. Martin’s father, Tracy Martin, has a similar program working with fathers who have lost sons to gun violence.

    She has also spoken out about “stand your ground” laws, the state-level laws that allow a person to use deadly force in self-defense. George Zimmerman, the man who killed her son, told a courtroom he shot Martin because he feared for his own life.

    “Prior to this happening to my son I didn’t know anything about ‘stand your ground,’ and I think people are more aware of these types of laws and racial profiling and the disparities we have here in the United States,” told Fusion before the discussion, which was moderated by actress Rosario Dawson.

    “I just think it’s unfortunate that a person has to lose their life in order for us to uncover certain things,” she said.

  265. rq says

    Last time the police chief appeared before us, I asked him about the #KajiemePowell case, which was still ongoing:, youtube link within.

    Byrnes Mill Police stun man with two knives, un petit comparaison of #CrimingWhileWhite.

    Byrnes Mill Police used stun guns to subdue a knife-wielding man after officers responded to a domestic dispute call Friday (April 24), police report.

    Two calls came in to the department about 5 p.m. on Friday evening – a 911 hang up and a call about a disturbance on Sandy Lane, Byrnes Mill Police Chief Gary Dougherty said.

    “When police arrived, they found a man outside brandishing two knives,” Dougherty said.

    One was a large kitchen knife with about a 12-inch blade and the other was a hunting knife with a 6- to 8-inch blade, Dougherty said.

    The man, about 30 of House Springs, challenged the officers, the chief said.

    “He requested that they (the officers) shoot him,” Dougherty said.

    Both officers used a stun gun on the man and then apprehended him, Dougherty said.

    North Jefferson County Ambulance responded to the scene and took the man, who had several lacerations, to an area hospital, he said.

    Police believe the incident stemmed from an argument between the man and his girlfriend. The woman, about 27, who lived at the residence, had a minor injury and was not transported for medical care, Dougherty said.

    After treatment, the man was then taken to the Jefferson County Jail pending application for warrants, the chief said.

    And yet when black men hold one knife, or just have one somewhere in a pocket, or when they hold things that are not knives, they somehow end up dead.

    At least eight charged in May Day protest turned ‘riot’ on Capitol Hill, SPD to brief City Council — UPDATE

    At least eight people have been charged with crimes related to the May Day protest last week that Seattle Police say turned into a “riot” on Capitol Hill. Of the 16 total that were arrested, only four were from Seattle.

    Three males and one female, ages ranging from 19-24, were arrested for felony assault, though no charges were filed in the arrests as of Wednesday afternoon. Charges are expected to be filed in at least two of the cases, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, while the other two cases have not yet been referred to prosecutors.

    Eight other male suspects all pleaded not guilty to charges in municipal court, mostly for obstruction. No arrests were made this year for property destruction, though several vehicles — including a much-photographed KIRO radio news jeep — were damaged and tagging and broken windows were reported up and down Broadway.

    Gary Tonks, 24, pleaded not guilty to an illegal weapons possession charge and is being held on $15,000 bail. Brendan McCormack, 28, pleaded not guilty to reckless endangerment and is being held on $30,000 bail.

    UPDATE 4:30 PM: “Idiotic.” That’s how council member Bruce Harrell described to two SPD officials the way officers handled the first May Day arrest that appeared to spark a burst of mayhem on Capitol Hill.

    The incident on Broadway, which was captured on video from a TV news helicopter overhead, appears to show an officer on a bicycle ramming the back of a protestor in the anti-capitalist march, then taking the suspect to the ground.

    Captain Chris Fowler, who was giving a May Day debriefing to Harrell and the Council’s public safety committee Wednesday, said the arresting officer had probable cause that the man assaulted an officer minutes before the arrest. Still, Harrell questioned the decision to arrest the suspect at that moment.

    “If we had intel that one person assaulted an officer, and that person was not fleeing, we could have avoided using all these devices,” Harrell said. The suspect in the video, Adrien Roques, 32, pleaded not guilty to assaulting an officer with a traffic cone.

    Plenty more at the link.

    LAPD Chief Beck: No ‘Extraordinary Circumstances’ to Justify Venice Fatal Police Shooting, so let’s hope he goes and charges someone with something. Or whoever does the charging.

    Dorian Johnson, figure in Michael Brown case, arrested in St. Louis. They just reported on his lawsuit yesterday…

    Dorian Johnson, the man who was with Michael Brown when Brown was fatally shot by a Ferguson police officer last summer, has been arrested on suspicion of drug charges and resisting arrest, a St. Louis police source said Wednesday.

    Police released details of an incident involving three men taken into custody after officers were called to the 5700 block of Acme Avenue at 3:21 p.m. Wednesday by someone “reporting a large group of subjects who were possibly armed with firearms.”

    The police report did not name Johnson, but a police source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the incident involved Johnson and two of his brothers. Johnson allegedly had a cough medication mixed with what police believe to be an illegal narcotic on him.

    The report said that as the officers who went to the scene dispersed the crowd, they noticed that one man had a bulge in his clothes that they suspected might be a weapon. A second man grabbed the arm of the officer who attempted to pat the first man down. The officer then attempted to detain the second man.

    That prompted a third man to approach the officer and yell at him in an attempt to stop the arrest, the report said. That man allegedly then discarded narcotics onto the ground.

    All three were arrested. One of Johnson’s brothers was found to be wanted in Bridgeton on warrants for armed robbery and armed criminal action, the police source said.

    On Aug. 9, Johnson was walking with Michael Brown when the two were approached by Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson. The encounter ended with Brown fatally shot and led to months of protests and unrest in Ferguson.

    Johnson recently filed a lawsuit against the city, Wilson and former police chief Thomas Jackson. The suit claims that Wilson assaulted Johnson, violated his constitutional rights, and intentionally and negligently inflicted emotional pain.

    The lawsuit seeks damages, including punitive, of at least $25,000. It also seeks an injunction to prevent the city of Ferguson and its police from engaging in assault, unlawful arrest and excessive use of force.

    Any bets on how his lawsuit is gonna go?

  266. says

    Ugh.
    I shouldn’t try to eat while reading an article like this one from Jezebel–
    No marker, no memorial: The Lakin State Hospital for the Colored Insane:

    There was nothing there. No marker. No memorial. The hospital had been massive, a campus. Its mission had been legendary. And now there was no trace of it at all.

    The Lakin State Hospital for the Colored Insane opened in 1926 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The mental health facility was one of a series of community services proposed by African American legislators T.G. Nutter, Harry Capehart, and T.J. Coleman. The trio also established the Lakin State Industrial School for Colored Boys, a reform school for non-violent juvenile offenders, age 10 and up (previously, so-called delinquent boys had been sent by judges—or their parents—to a center which housed “inmates” as young as 6).

    The main building of the Hospital for the Colored Insane was an imposing brick structure, wide and featureless: unadorned windows, skeletal columns. It looked like a prison, though the “prison” was technically across the street. Both the facilities had opened under the auspices of separate but equal treatment for African Americans.

    But Lakin was special: It was purportedly one of only 2 hospitals in the country to have an all-African American staff (the other was Tuskegee US Veterans Hospital 91 in Alabama).

    A small river town at the base of the Allegheny Mountains, Point Pleasant sits in the foothills of Appalachia. It’s a rural and desolate area, known for poverty. The county was then, as it is now, mostly white.

    Upon Lakin’s opening, the Journal of the National Medical Association noted West Virginia “has recognized ability in the colored medical profession to manage this enterprise…[Lakin] gives an opportunity for young medical men of the race to fix themselves in this heretofore rather exclusive line of practice.”

    But Lakin didn’t just provide career opportunities for African American doctors, it provided comfort and safety for patients. Everyone at Lakin, not just the doctors, but orderlies, secretaries, aides, nurses, was black. Lakin was “the only state hospital under the management of an African American Superintendent,” according to Vanessa Jackson’s Separate but Equal: The Legacy of Racially Segregated Hospitals.

    Larry Moore, who worked for more than 40 years as a social worker at Lakin, described the hospital as a “serious attempt to accomplish the ‘equal’ portion of the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine” without the prejudice of predominantly white-staffed hospitals.

    The campus of the hospital looked flat and bare, almost treeless, a far cry from the landscaped grounds of other, mostly white institutions, like the one in my own Ohio town, just across the river: The Athens Lunatic Asylum, whose gardens were designed by a disciple of Frederick Law Olmstead, landscape architect of Central Park.

    Lakin may not have had fancy gardens, but the hospital had a working farm. It had orchards and livestock the patients tended. There were barbers and beauticians on campus, an auto shop and ministry. Patients cooked. They canned. “If it hadn’t been for the patients, that hospital would’ve never made it,” Edith Ross, who started working at Lakin as an aide in 1951 when she was 18, said in an interview with the Point Pleasant Daily Register. “The patients cleaned that place up like a hotel.”

    As well as working next to the staff, patients lived alongside them. Employee dorms weren’t constructed until the early ‘50s, and before then, staff slept in rooms in the patients’ wards. This meant employees were pretty much constantly on call, but Ross also said this helped make Lakin “like family”—a statement Jackson echoes in her description of archival photographs: “After an endless parade of white men in hats in the official portraits at all of the other African American facilities, the Lakin official photo looks more like a family portrait with female staff and even a small child present.”

    Then, in the late 1940s, Dr. Walter Freeman came to Lakin.

    Freeman was the inventor of the “ice pick lobotomy,” where a tool is inserted through the tear-duct, destroying the prefrontal cortex of a patient’s brain by scraping or cutting most of the connections away, ostensibly to cure the patient of mental illness. Dr. Freeman, a white man, performed between 150 to over 200 of the radical procedures on black patients at Lakin.

    He operated at Lakin so much that a 2014 PBS documentary on Freeman prominently features the hospital; it was, after all, one of the central places he worked.

    In his book The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and his Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness, biographer Jack El-Hai writes: “Freeman devoted an intensity and energy to his mission in West Virginia… he frequently visited the state, with the result that its per capita rate of lobotomy was the highest in the nation.”

    El-Hai references Freeman performing lobotomies on patients whom Freeman called “twenty very dangerous Negroes.” Freeman later saw the men relaxing on the ground with only a single guard watching them, and reported that half the men were soon released.

    Families and hospital staff may have been less pleased. Ross did not report many success stories from the treatment done by Freeman, whom she described as “cold”—and at least two patients died at Lakin from the procedure. Freeman himself admitted in the study “West Virginia Lobotomy Project,” which included patients from Lakin, and was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 1954: “Of the 195 patients remaining in hospital [after receiving lobotomies] not more than 8 could be considered improved.” Freeman’s arrival marked the beginning of the end of Lakin.

    After desegregation in 1954, the hospital became a place of mostly white doctors and nurses, mostly white (and wealthy) patients. Its mission switched from mental health care to treatment for alcoholism and other addictions. Currently, Lakin serves as a long-term nursing facility.

    Very little has been written about Lakin’s history, and few, even in West Virginia, know about its years as a home for the “colored insane.” Internet searches for the hospital turn up primarily ghost stories, page after page of “sightings”—the only reason many people have heard of the place at all.

    The main hospital building was demolished in the ‘70s. A historical marker was “removed for cleaning,” according to multiple sources, but never replaced. The school across the street was razed in 2006.

    “I do find it frustrating that political correctness has led to many years of efforts to deny the history and legacy of Lakin,” Moore said, arguing that the removal of the marker won’t “change the fact that racial prejudice and discrimination did actually exist in West Virginia, and was a factor in every aspect of the lives of West Virginia residents, just as it was in the rest of the United States of America.”

    Comments on the few stories published about Lakin, the hospital or school, are often pleas for answers (my grandfather was imprisoned for stealing chickens, where can we find his records?) with no replies. All that remains of Lakin now is questions.

    Why did Dr. Freeman operate on so many black patients? Where are the records? Why is there no marker? Why were the buildings not preserved? Moore called them: “reminders of where we were, what we tried.”

    Most of Lakin is now a bare field. The only original building still standing is the Office Building, used for storage for the women’s prison, which now shares the grounds with the nursing home. The campus is still mostly treeless, and the wind howls down the long bare drive. When I visited, it had just snowed.

    A layer of white concealed everything.

  267. rq says

    Here’s a completely different version from Fox2. Arrested for resisting arrest, and yet police themselves say he was not combative and did not physically confront the officers. So what, he just sat there? Eh.

    You’re telling us we’ve made no political progress, meanwhile @RE_invent_ED + @OBS_STL got civilian review passed in STL City.

    You think we’ve only yelled and not built, but @samswey + @deray have compiled national police violence stats that the fed doesn’t have.

    Many thanks, everyone! WishList for #TamirRice’s family is fully purchased in under an hour! @FeministaJones @ShaunKing @WalterMadison (There’s a new wishlist up via this tweet.)

    Ramsey Orta, Kevin Moore & now Dorian Johnson the latest to be targeted after witnessing a murder by police #Ferguson

  268. rq says

    Damn, Tony, but that’s some history you’ve found there. :/

    +++

    Alderman, residents complain about tall grass in city-owned property. Guess which part of the city – the part they want to sell!!!

    Alderman Sam Moore of St. Louis’ fourth ward told News 4 he is fed up with grass overgrown up to six and seven feet high in his ward, which the city is responsible for mowing.

    “If you find me a lot that looks like this in South St. Louis, I will resign my position,” Moore said.

    According to Alderman Moore, there are 1700 vacant lots in his ward and the city cuts the grass in his ward three times a year.

    “As you can see, this grass is tall, taller than I am and I am six feet tall. And then someone next door is trying to live decently and keep their grass cut, and then we have this eyesore,” Moore said.

    Moore, along with residents, want the fourth ward to get more attention and does not believe mowing the grass three times a year is enough.

    “Who would want their child, or grown-up, to walk through this kind of mess? This is crazy, this is unacceptable and this prevails throughout my entire community,” said Moore.

    News 4 visited the ward and found tall weeds and grass all over the area. Lanyia Smith walks through the grass and weeds to get to school.

    “How does it make you feel when you look at something like that?” News 4’s Brittany Noble-Jones asked Smith, who said, “Like they don’t care, like we’re nothing.”

    The city did not have anyone available to talk to News 4 Wednesday about the issue, but wanted their side of the story to be heard.

    News 4 will follow up with the city on Thursday to hear their side of the issue.

    It’s this conscious neglect, this is what ruins those neighbourhoods, what doesn’t let them improve until the white folk are good and ready for them to improve (by moving the black folk out).

    Dorian Johnson, figure in Michael Brown case, arrested in St. Louis

    Dorian Johnson, the man who was with Michael Brown when Brown was fatally shot by a Ferguson police officer last summer, has been arrested on suspicion of drug charges and resisting arrest, a St. Louis police source said Wednesday.

    Police released details of an incident involving three men taken into custody after officers were called to the 5700 block of Acme Avenue at 3:21 p.m. Wednesday by someone “reporting a large group of subjects who were possibly armed with firearms.”

    The police report did not name Johnson, but a police source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the incident involved Johnson and two of his brothers. Johnson allegedly had a cough medication mixed with what police believe to be an illegal narcotic on him.

    The report said that as the officers who went to the scene dispersed the crowd, they noticed that one man had a bulge in his clothes that they suspected might be a weapon. A second man grabbed the arm of the officer who attempted to pat the first man down. The officer then attempted to detain the second man.

    That prompted a third man to approach the officer and yell at him in an attempt to stop the arrest, the report said. That man allegedly then discarded narcotics onto the ground.

    All three were arrested. One of Johnson’s brothers was found to be wanted in Bridgeton on warrants for armed robbery and armed criminal action, the police source said.

    A bulge in his clothes. Fucks’ sakes.

    Mother of Tamir Rice not homeless, despite court filing that indicates otherwise, attorney says – I’m glad to hear she’s not, though she has a slew of other expenses to cover related to the not-on-going investigation into Tamir’s murder.

    The mother of Tamir Rice is not homeless, her attorney said Wednesday, despite a court filing that indicates otherwise.

    Walter Madison said Samaria Rice and her family are living in a small home. He said Samaria was homeless from mid-January until a few weeks ago.

    “Due to the outpouring of support, she has been able to find a safe, private domicile for her,” Madison said.

    A motion filed in a federal lawsuit filed by the Rice family against the city of Cleveland says Samaria Rice, whose 12-year-old son was shot by Officer Timothy Loehmann at Cudell Recreation Center in November, “has since been forced to move to a homeless shelter because she could no longer live next door to the killing field of her son.”

    Madison said he did feel it would be appropriate to comment on the filing before a hearing that he requested in front of Chief U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr.

    The filing was entered in response to a request from the city of Cleveland to halt the civil case while a criminal investigation into Loehmann and his partner, officer Frank Garmback, is pending.

    It also said Tamir Rice has not been buried. Madison said that is still the case, largely because the family does not have the means to pay for the burial. However, he said this was also because the family did not know whether the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office would need to re-examine the 12-year-old’s body.

    Madison said the family still owes $18,000 for Tamir Rice’s memorial service, which was held Dec. 3 at Mount Sinai Baptist Church on Woodland Avenue.

    Lynching Charges Dropped Against Black Lives Matter Activist

    Lynching charges against Maile Hampton, a 20 year-old activist, have been dropped according to the Guardian.

    The Sacramento, Ca. native was charged with lynching during a Black Lives Matter protest for pulling a fellow activist away from a police officer. She was charged under an archaic 1933 California law that defines lynching as, “The taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer.”

    “I am very surprised that Sacramento chose to do the right thing but happily surprised. That could have straight-up ruined my life,” Hampton told supporters.

    Hampton now faces a misdemeanor charge of “interference with a peace officer in the performance of his/her duties”. That charge could lead to one year of imprisonment, but could be resolved through a fine or jail diversion program.

    Million Moms March. May 9th. DC.

    Can we have some examples of positive policing? YES WE CAN! In Fresno, police focus on building relationships, not making arrests.

    At a time when other cities were aggressively arresting people for minor crimes, a strategy known as “zero tolerance,” officials in Fresno chose a different path. They embraced the softer community-policing ethos popularized under former president Bill Clinton, which relies on partnerships and problem-solving instead of mass arrests.

    The result has been a significant drop in gang-related violence — and inoculation against the kind of angry protests over police brutality that have rocked Baltimore, New York, Ferguson, Mo., and other American cities over the past year.
    Retired deputy police chief L.H. McDaniels, center, mingles during an event in Fresno in April. (Carl Costas/For the Washington Post)

    “Our community has been completely transformed,” said Carlotta Curti, 66, who moved to Fresno for college and never left. “The fact that these officers are out here, with these kids, every week, makes the difference.”

    A sprawling city set in the almond fields of California’s Central Valley, Fresno still has its issues. The recession has lingered longer here than in many places, and the city is plagued by a major methamphetamine problem as well as one of the highest per capita homeless rates in the country.

    In Southwest, an economically depressed stretch not far from downtown, street gangs still prowl, particularly at night. But there’s also a new school building, a new mixed income housing development and a Family Dollar that ranks near the top nationally for selling fresh produce.

    It was the gangs that drew Dyer’s attention in 2002. They were responsible for much of the area’s violent crime, and pushing a lot of drugs. Dyer summoned Greg Garner, one of his most-respected officers, and asked him to take on a challenging assignment: Captain of the Southwest District.

    A Fresno police officer since the early 1980s, Garner had a reputation for developing deep, trusting relationships both inside and outside of the department. Now, Dyer hoped he could do the same in one of the city’s most troubled communities.

    “This area was leading the city in violent crime,” Garner said. “We knew we had to figure out a way to figure out the real causes of crime, the quality of life issues, and be seen as a source of help — not just the people who show up to make arrests.”

    Garner began by assembling a new unit, funded in part with a federal policing grant. He hand-picked five officers, including Oliver Baines, a young black officer who had grown up in Los Angeles and expressed interest in community policing.

    As a teen in L.A., Baines had been pulled over time and again as he drove to and from work after school. That experience convinced him that the best way to fix Southwest was by rebuilding the community’s trust in law enforcement.

    “We drank the Kool-Aid on this community policing stuff,” Baines said.

    They reached out to local clergy, then hit upon the idea of a block party to build relationships with the young kids then being drafted into ranks of the city’s street gangs.

    The first party was an awkward event; local residents were skeptical. But the officers kept at it. And as they strengthened their church relationships, the parties drew more people. Before long, police said, they began seeing renewed cooperation even in the toughest neighborhoods.

    Baines recalled a fatal shooting in 2006, when a woman was caught in the crossfire in an area then under control of the Dog Pound, a notoriously violent gang.

    “Everyone in the community knew who did it,” Baines said. “But most of the time, no one will say anything.”

    So Baines was shocked when police got a call from a tipster — someone who now trusted them enough to take a risk. A Dog Pound member was quickly arrested for the killing.

    “That would never have happened a few years before,” Baines said. “And a few weeks later, we had a block party there and we began disbanding that gang.” […]

    “When you respect and empower the young people, they want to build a bridge,” said YouthBuild USA founder Dorothy Stoneman. “It makes them want to improve the community, and that always includes police-community relations.”

    Under the partnership, the parties have multiplied, from just one or two annually to more than 20 a year. Today, there’s a police block party almost every Saturday throughout the spring and summer. And the parties are now planned by teen volunteers who gather at police district headquarters for regular Tuesday morning meetings.

    Volunteer Ismael Barajas, 24, who used to hang out with gang members, said the program has changed his view of police.

    “Each time, when I used to see a cop, I’d feel nervousness,” he said. “Now I want to become a police officer.” […]

    Fresno still has its challenges. Earlier this year, deputy chief Keith Foster, the highest ranking black officer involved with the community policing initiative, was indicted on drug trafficking charges. He faces 45 years in prison. And in 2009, shaky home camcorder footage showed two Fresno police officers — both white — beating a homeless man.

    The video prompted an independent investigation and a round of national outrage. But Fresno has avoided the kind of violent uprising that has attended alleged cases of brutality since a police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., last summer.

    “We didn’t have protests in Fresno last August, and September and October. And that’s not by accident,” said Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin. “It’s because there has been such consistent and constant work between law enforcement and the community.”

    In 2013, Garner moved on. He is now chief of his own department in nearby Selma, where he has begun hosting similar community events.

    As for Baines, his faded blue police jacket now hangs in the corner of his City Hall office. After 11 years on the force, Baines was elected to the city council in 2011 and now serves as council president.

    “The narrative around the city is how dangerous and violent Southwest is,” Baines said. “But there’s a lot of promise here, and I’m proud of what we’re doing.”

    I’ll admit, I laughed at the Kool-Aid reference, but it seems to have been the right kind of Kool-Aid. And I hope they can hold onto what they’ve built in the town.

  269. says

    From Alter Net–
    White America’s greatest delusion “They do not know it and they do not want to know it”
    (excerpt)

    Though perhaps overused, there are few statements that so thoroughly burrow to the heart of the nation’s racial condition as the following, written fifty-three years ago by James Baldwin:

    …this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it…but it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime

    Indeed, and in the wake of the Baltimore uprising that began last week, they are words worth remembering.

    It is bad enough that much of white America sees fit to lecture black people about the proper response to police brutality, economic devastation and perpetual marginality, having ourselves rarely been the targets of any of these. It is bad enough that we deign to instruct black people whose lives we have not lived, whose terrors we have not faced, and whose gauntlets we have not run, about violence; this, even as we enjoy the national bounty over which we currently claim possession solely as a result of violence. I beg to remind you, George Washington was not a practitioner of passive resistance. Neither the early colonists nor the nation’s founders fit within the Gandhian tradition. There were no sit-ins at King George’s palace, no horseback freedom rides to affect change. There were just guns, lots and lots of guns.

    We are here because of blood, and mostly that of others; here because of our insatiable and rapacious desire to take by force the land and labor of those others. We are the last people on Earth with a right to ruminate upon the superior morality of peaceful protest. We have never believed in it and rarely practiced it. Rather, we have always taken what we desire, and when denied it we have turned to means utterly genocidal to make it so.

    Which is why it always strikes me as precious the way so many white Americans insist (as if preening for a morality contest of some sorts) that “we don’t burn down our own neighborhoods when we get angry.” This, in supposed contrast to black and brown folks who engage in such presumptively self-destructive irrationality as this. On the one hand, it simply isn’t true. We do burn our own communities, we do riot, and for far less valid reasons than any for which persons of color have ever hoisted a brick, a rock, or a bottle.We do so when our teams lose the big game or win the big game; or because of something called Pumpkin Festival; or because veggie burritos cost $10 at Woodstock ’99 and there weren’t enough Porta-Potties by the time of the Limp Bizkit set; or because folks couldn’t get enough beer at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake; or because surfers (natch); or St. Patty’s Day in Albany; or because Penn State fired Joe Paterno; or because it’s a Sunday afternoon in Ames, Iowa; and we do it over and over and over again. Far from mere amateur hooliganism, our riots are indeed violent affairs that have been known to endanger the safety and lives of police, as with the infamous 1998 riot at Washington State University. To wit:

    The crowd then attacked the officers from all sides for two hours with rocks, beer bottles, signposts, chairs, and pieces of concrete, allegedly cheering whenever an officer was struck and injured. Twenty-three officers were injured, some suffering concussions and broken bones.

    Seventeen years later, one still waits for the avalanche of conservative ruminations regarding the pathologies of whites in Pullman, whose disrespect for authority suggests a larger culture of dysfunction, no doubt taught to them by their rural, corn-fed families and symbolized by the easily recognizable gang attire of Carhartt work coats and backwards baseball caps.

    On the other hand, it is undeniably true that when it comes to our political anger and frustration (as contrasted with that brought on by alcohol and athletics) we white folks are pretty good at not torching our own communities. This is mostly because we are too busy eviscerating the communities of others—those against whom our anger is aimed. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Panama, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Manila, and on down the line.

    When you have the power you can take out your hatreds and frustrations directly upon the bodies of others. This is what we have done, not only in the above mentioned examples but right here at home. The so-called ghetto was created and not accidentally. It was designed as a virtual holding pen—a concentration camp were we to insist upon honest language—within which impoverished persons of color would be contained. It was created by generations of housing discrimination, which limited where its residents could live. It was created by decade after decade of white riots against black people whenever they would move into white neighborhoods. It was created by deindustrialization and the flight of good-paying manufacturing jobs overseas.

    And all of that is violence too. It is the kind of violence that the powerful, and only they, can manifest. One needn’t throw a Molotov cocktail through a window when one can knock down the building using a bulldozer or crane operated with public money. One need not loot a store when one can loot the residents of the community as happened in Ferguson—giving out tickets to black folks for minor infractions so as to rack up huge fines and fees, thereby funding city government on the backs of the poor. Zoning laws, eminent domain, redlining, predatory lending, stop-and-frisk: all of these are forms of violence, however much white America fails to understand that. They do violence to the opportunities and dreams of millions, living in neighborhoods most of us have never visited. Indeed, in neighborhoods we consider so God-forsaken that we even have a phone app now to help us avoid them.

  270. says

    From Al Jazeera America–
    Just say yes to harm reduction:

    Today marks the second annual International Harm Reduction Day, a collaborative effort by medical experts, drug-reform advocates and dozens of associated nongovernmental organizations to draw attention to the most promising alternative to the war on drugs.

    The harm reduction approach focuses on mitigating the adverse consequences of drug use rather than attempting to eliminate it. As policymakers confront the futility of drug prohibition, the two primary harm reduction practices — clean needle exchanges for intravenous drug users and medication-assisted treatment for addicts — are more widespread today than ever before. The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs has endorsed harm reduction, and the International Drug Policy Consortium has brought together 134 NGOs to promote evidence-based practices that reduce the risk of injury and premature death for drug users. Last year nearly a dozen U.S. states passed laws allowing for the distribution of the opioid blocker naloxone to laypeople, and a number of others passed good-Samaritan laws providing immunity from some criminal penalties for those who call emergency services to report a drug overdose.

    But harm reduction is still far from a consensus view. A recent outbreak of HIV in Indiana, tied to a lack of access to clean needles, demonstrates that in many places public health considerations are outweighed by punitive drug policy and enduring stigma against drug users.

    A recent report from the U.K.-based group Harm Reduction International (HRI) warns that the measurable benefits of harm reduction can be realized only through a fundamental shift away from a law enforcement approach to drug use.

    UNAIDS, a United Nations effort to increase access to HIV prevention and treatment, disburses only about $160 million a year to prevent blood-borne infections in drug users, while the United States alone spends $50 billion annually on drug interdiction and enforcement. HRI estimates that if the world spent just a tenth of its enforcement budget on harm-reduction practices, it could “fill the gap in HIV and hepatitis C prevention among people who use drugs twice over.”

    As a result of these warped priorities, a third of injecting drug users in some areas of sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV. Globally, only 8 percent of opioid addicts have access to methadone or buprenorphine, potentially life-saving substitutes that can be administered at a low cost.

    Harm reduction is not a new concept, although, given the efforts to exclude it from policy discussion, one could be forgiven for thinking so. In its modern form, the philosophy was born out of the responsible-use movement of the 1960s, which sought to educate users on safe ingestion methods and avoiding tainted drugs. (Think of the famous broadcast at Woodstock warning revelers to stay away from the “brown acid.”)

    The model fell out of favor as the war on drugs took off under President Richard Nixon and governments instated zero-tolerance prohibition and abstinence-only treatment programs. By the early 1980s, federal funding for addiction research and treatment in the U.S. was contingent on the promotion of abstinence-only models. Researchers preaching alternative approaches found themselves attacked and ostracized.

    As harm reduction fell from favor, the disease theory of addiction became dominant. That theory helped reduce the stigma around alcoholism and drug addiction. However, it also promoted the idea — now accepted as medical fact — that compulsive behavior tied to drug or alcohol use is unmanageable short of total abstinence and that a problem with one substance translates into a de facto problem with all of them. (Imagine if we held compulsive eaters to the same strict scrutiny.) Such inflexible thinking and the conflation of abuse and addiction have created an environment in which helping drug users mitigate the harm of their use is widely considered as dubious as telling cancer patients to smoke less.

    The emergence of HIV in the mid-1980s and the decadelong AIDS crisis that followed broke down the resistance to harm reduction. From 1984 to 1990, 14 European nations launched needle exchange programs, the majority of them publicly funded. By last year, that number had grown to 90. Yet we have barely scratched the surface of harm reduction’s potential to improve the lives of millions of people around the world.

    The U.S. in particular has lagged behind other developed nations. Drug policy reformers have recently expressed optimism about President Barack Obama’s new drug czar, Michael Botticelli, a recovering alcoholic who has promised to champion harm reduction efforts. However, it’s unclear whether Botticelli has the power to make more than cosmetic changes.

    Many U.S. laws run counter to harm reduction principles, and fixing them will require action by Congress. Thirty-three U.S. states and the District of Columbia allow needle exchange programs, but federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for the programs, keeping North America far behind Europe and Australasia in the number of clean syringes distributed per user.

    While opioid substitution therapy is available at more than 2,400 facilities in the 50 states, federal restrictions prevent doctors from prescribing methadone and limit the distribution of suboxone. Along with funding disparities, these regulations prevent many people from getting the treatment they need, particularly in rural America, where access to methadone is “almost nonexistent,” according to a paper published last year by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    Despite having the largest prison population in the world — including the highest percentage of inmates who inject drugs — harm reduction in U.S. prisons is extremely limited, and hepatitis C runs rampant in the U.S. prison system. A handful of prisons and jails provide opioid substitution therapy to inmates, but most limit access to inmates who happened to enter the system already on methadone or suboxone.

    Taking principles of harm reduction to their logical conclusion would require rethinking prohibition itself. History has demonstrated that outlawing one drug serves only to open a pathway for other, often more dangerous, substances. The deadly bathtub gin of 1920s Prohibition is paralleled today by synthetic drugs manufactured in makeshift labs or in unregulated industrial plants in China. Last year dozens of people in the U.S., Canada and Britain were sickened, many of them fatally, by an impure derivative of MDMA, a drug that in its purest form can be used relatively safely if certain precautions are taken.

    More recently, a wave of poisonings tied to the synthetic cannabinoid K2 sent youths in several states to emergency rooms. K2 was blamed for eight deaths in Pennsylvania in April. A harm-reduction approach would recognize that legal marijuana — which has never been blamed for a single toxicity death — is far preferable to legal poison.

    But perhaps no harm-reduction strategy would have more widespread impact on American communities than ending the war on drugs. A glimpse at the arrest record of Freddie Gray — whose death in police custody sparked the Baltimore riots — shows that of 18 charges dating to 2007, all but two were for low-level drug offenses. Imagine all the harm that could have been avoided if he had not been criminalized in the first place.

  271. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Hmmm.

    If we’re going to have a “harm reduction day” I really think it shouldn’t be limited to just the drug war. I have no problem with a “Reduce Drug Harm” or “Reduce Addiction Harm” or some other such specific day. But harm reduction is about a hell of a lot more than drugs, addiction, and the drug war.

    they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it…but it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime

    I had read this a long time back when I was first exploring Juneteenth (how I got to my 20s without having even HEARD the term Juneteenth is but another example of the crime Baldwin decries). I know that, however, only because in looking up the source I vaguely recognized it. The actual quote, however, hadn’t stood out to me and I hadn’t remembered it specifically. But back when I read it there were a lot of concepts I hadn’t yet explored that would later become important in my thinking.

    Now?

    I think this is a fabulous definition of white privilege and the next time someone asks me what the fuck white privilege is, I’m just going to link to Baldwin’s letter.

    @rq

    Here’s a completely different version from Fox2.

    I read that as FoxP2 and was momentarily confused.

  272. rq says

    Ah shit. Murder charges against Freddie Gray cops may be DROPPED because police findings don’t support the case, say officials

    The murder charges filed against the Baltimore officers who arrested Freddie Gray could be dropped, because the police investigation into his death doesn’t support the prosecution’s case, it’s been reported.

    Last Friday, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby levelled charges ranging from assault to second-degree murder at six police officers involved in Gray’s death. He had suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody.

    However, officials familiar with the case have revealed that police investigators do not agree with the charges.

    The officials said that the internal probe team do not believe a charge more serious than manslaughter should be brought against any of the officers, according to CNN.

    What’s more, defense lawyers are mounting a challenge to Mosby’s assertion that the officers had unlawfully arrested Gray because the knife he had in his pocket is considered legal under Maryland state law.

    Marc Zayon, the attorney for Edward Nero, one of the officers charged, argued in a motion filed Monday that the knife in Gray’s pocket — described in charging documents as ‘a spring assisted, one hand operated knife’ — is in fact illegal under state law.

    ‘If the facts were that the knife was illegal then the Gray arrest would be justified. Even if it wasn’t illegal and the officers acted in good faith, it would be the same result. All charges fail,’ said lawyer Andy Alperstein, who is not involved in the investigation.

    Defense lawyers may also exploit the past of a member of Mosby’s investigative team, CNN said.

    One of her lead investigators is Avon Mackel, a former senior Baltimore police officer whose reputation is tainted by a 2009 incident that led to him being removed his command post.

    Swift: Thousands praised Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore’s young top prosecutor, for quickly moving forward with charges against the police officers they see as responsible for the death of Freddie Gray
    CCTV: Van transporting Gray makes second unreported stop

    He was accused of not tackling two officers who failed to report a robbery.

    Nero and Officer Garrett Miller are charged with misdemeanors. Four others — Sgt. Alicia White, Lt. Brian Rice and officers Caesar Goodson and William Porter — are charged with felonies ranging from manslaughter to second-degree ‘depraved-heart’ murder.

    An official told CNN: ‘If this case falls apart, then does Baltimore burn?’

    More at the link, but if true, this is… terrible. So charges brought are only a small step towards victory… but certainly not the end.

    Bill Clinton Blames His Own Policies for America’s Bursting Prisons – and as was noted, is his wife going to clean up after him now?

    In an interview with CNN Wednesday at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Morocco, former President Bill Clinton renounced in part his approval of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, the 1994 bill whose “three strikes” provision has long been maligned as the root cause of over-incarcerations (and prison overcrowding) in the U.S.

    “The problem is the way it was written and implemented is we cast too wide a net and we had too many people in prison,” Clinton told Christiane Amanpour in Marrakech Wednesday. “And we wound up…putting so many people in prison that there wasn’t enough money left to educate them, train them for new jobs and increase the chances when they came out so they could live productive lives.”

    Indeed, as the Justice Department has found in its own accounting, the United States’ prison population has grown disproportionately with the country’s overall population. From the Washington Post:

    Between 1983 and 2011, the number of people in federal and state prisons sentenced to a year or longer grew from 405,000 to over 1.3 million — a jump of 225 percent during a period that the population only grew by about a third.

    Clinton was careful to characterize his signing of the bill—which called for 100,000 more police officers and pumped billions into prisons—as strategic political maneuvering. Republicans fought for the “three strikes” provision, Clinton told CNN, “But I wanted to pass a bill and so I did go along with it.”

    The former president’s statements Wednesday also align him with his wife Hillary, who a week ago said, in what’s been considered one of the first big speeches of her 2016 presidential campaign, that “it’s time to end the era of mass incarceration.” (In 1994, CNN notes, she described the omnibus bill as “well-thought out crime bill that is both smart and tough.”)

    “I strongly support what [Hillary is] doing and I think any policy that was adopted when I was president, any federal law that contributed to it needs to be changed,” Bill Clinton said.

    Combination of @SLMPD officers, @STLFireDept, officials w/ @MayorSlay, aldermen, media & public in attendance at BOA Public Safety mtg @KMOV

    LAPD chief, citing video, faults officer in fatal shooting. That one again.

    Michael Brown Witness Dorian Johnson Arrested by St. Louis County Police, via Slate.

    Sources: Baltimore police investigation doesn’t support some of prosecution’s charges, from CNN.

    The Baltimore police investigation into the death of Freddie Gray doesn’t support some of the charges, including the most serious, filed by the Baltimore City State’s Attorney, potentially allowing lawyers representing the police officers the opportunity to undercut the prosecution, according to officials briefed on the separate probes conducted by the State’s Attorney and police.

    Already, defense attorneys are filing motions seeking to exploit differences between the separate state attorney and police investigations.

    Lawyers for two officers have challenged a key finding of State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s case: that a knife found on Freddie Gray was legal in Maryland and therefore the officers didn’t have a right to arrest Gray. The police investigation found that the knife is illegal under Baltimore city code.

    Officials familiar with the probes also say the homicide investigation run by police investigators at most contemplated a manslaughter charge, not second degree murder as Mosby charged one of the officers, Caesar Goodson. To win conviction for murder, prosecutors must prove intent to kill. Manslaughter relates to unintentional killings.

    In addition, homicide investigators who were briefed by the medical examiner’s office believed the examiner’s autopsy report would likely find the cause of death to fall short of homicide, according to one official familiar with the case.

    Instead, Mosby said that the medical examiner concluded that Gray’s death was a homicide and that Gray’s fatal injury to the head occurred in a police transport van that was taking him to the police precinct.

    According to an official with Maryland’s office of the chief medical examiner, where Gray’s autopsy was performed, information was shared with police investigators throughout the process, a common practice. But the official said there is only one conclusion on manner of death and that was contained in the final autopsy report delivered to Mosby on the same day she announced her decision to bring charges.

    Another issue could arise from the team Mosby relied on to lead her case: one of her top investigators, Avon Mackel, is a former high-ranking Baltimore police officer who was stripped of his command post in 2009 for failing to follow through on a robbery investigation that two of his officers mishandled and did not report. A Baltimore Sun report said police in the district were accused of classifying serious crimes as lesser in order to log lower crime rates.

    I wonder at that accusation, if it was indeed trying to lower crime rates, or simply a more rational approach to certain arrests and charges in a way that would diminish the disparate racial impact that police have on black people. Of course, Mackel’s character is now under question. Mosby, you have a big job ahead of you.
    More:

    “While the evidence we have obtained through our independent investigation does substantiate the elements of the charges filed, I refuse to litigate this case through the media,” she said in the statement. “The evidence we have collected cannot ethically be disclosed, relayed or released to the public before trial. As I’ve previously indicated, I strongly condemn anyone in law enforcement with access to trial evidence, who has or continues to leak information prior to the resolution of this case. These unethical disclosures are only damaging our ability to conduct a fair and impartial process for all parties involved.”

    Mosby has good reason to separate her probe from the police.

    There is widespread community distrust of the police. And many critics say letting police departments investigate themselves is partly why alleged excessive use of force incidents by officers rarely draw serious punishment.

    Police Commissioner Anthony Batts told CNN in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that Mosby called him about 10 minutes before she told the world about the charges.

    However, Batts had an inkling that Mosby was preparing for a surprise move, according to people familiar with the matter, which is why he turned over his department’s findings a day ahead of the deadline he had set.

  273. rq says

    FILM FEST PREVIEW 2015 – why here?

    The Maryland Film Festival is this week, but most of Baltimore is far less interested in films and much more interested in video.

    Video of Freddie Gray being pulled off the ground and into a police van, events that would lead to the 25-year-old’s death in police custody and six police officers facing criminal charges; CNN footage of local activist Joseph Kent calling for nonviolence putting his hands up and being pulled into a humvee-style truck on Tuesday night; the dozen or so videos of Baltimore residents telling national media to shut up and listen to the people that are actually from here, including Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes challenging the usage of the word “thugs,” Baltimore Spectator trolling Geraldo Rivera, or any number of residents disrupting the blathering of national news anchors and letting some truth sneak through; a curfew-breaker getting doused with tear gas last Saturday. We could keep going.

    Along with the usual diversity of the festival’s lineup, this year’s MFF feels particularly prescient to this historical moment for Baltimore. Many films are explicitly political, such as Khalik Allah’s expressionistic chronicle of residents of 125th Street, “Field Niggas,” or Stanley Nelson’s studious documentary “Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.” Others films screening resonate in new ways in light of current events like Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing,” which will be presented by rapper Abdu Ali, “Beats of the Antonov,” “Crocodile Gennadiy,” “Frame By Frame,” “Welcome To Leith,” and “Western.”

    And then there are the films afforded brief reviews in this issue, which, although they do not tie to the current situation, are considered expressions of empathy and understanding. So whether you want to find something relevant to recent events or something to help you escape from them, you should be able to find a film that fits the bill.

    Tawanda Jones.After 90+ #TyroneWest wednesdays will #BaltimoreUprising help her cause? #BlackLivesMatter

    The DHS claimed Black protesters in Ferguson were linked to ISIS…not Fox News, the DHS. That’s the Department of Homeland Security. FYI.

    Baltimore’s Toxic Legacy Of Lead Paint – and while I understand it affects communities of colour disproportionately due to the disproportionate poverty they experience, I find that it’s been more of a misdirection (a way to excuse criminal behaviour that seems to justify excessive police force in a rather indirect yet definite way), so I’m just leaving the headline here.

    For those who didn’t know Native Americans protested in solidarity with Baltimore.

    Ha. These cops are tired of white people getting freaked out by their black neighbors

    “People, please stop making my job so difficult.”

    That’s the opening of a discussion in “ProtectAndServe,” reddit’s community of law enforcement officers. The poster, who goes by the handle “sf7” and has been verified as a law enforcement officer by the forum’s moderators, goes on:

    So I’m working last week and get dispatched to a call of ‘Suspicious Activity.’ Ya’ll wanna know what the suspicious activity was? Someone walking around in the dark with a flashlight and crow bar? Nope. Someone walking into a bank with a full face mask on? Nope.

    It was two black males who were jump starting a car at 930 in the morning. That was it. Nothing else. Someone called it in.

    People. People. People. If you’re going to be a racist, stereotypical jerk…keep it to yourself.

    Other forum users sympathize. One tells a story about someone asking the cops to investigate a middle-aged black man fishing in his own community. Another was asked to respond to a report of two Middle Eastern guys sitting in the same car. Another laments that “we frequently get calls about black men and woman and kids, yes [expletive] kids, walking. Like WWB [walking while black] was actually a crime and not a Twitter joke.” [not really a twitter joke, not in some places…]

    The stories pile on. A white security officer tells of the year he and his black wife lived in an apartment complex. “She got cops called a total of 9 times in the year we lived there I got zero,” he says. A retired cop recalls the time a “lady called scared to death because some black guy was sitting in his truck across from her house” — it was the water meter reader.

    These are simply anecdotes on a public website. But they illustrate an aspect of the relationship between cops and minority communities that doesn’t get much attention.

    In stories like Ferguson and Baltimore, we tend to focus on the relationship between police and minority communities as if it were purely binary and took place in a vacuum. But the Reddit thread shows that cops can become frustrated by the frequency with which some members of a community — most likely white people — call the authorities. […]

    From the reddit thread, it’s clear that many cops hate the thought of racially profiling their community members. They’re embarrassed by having to check in on behavior that they know is almost certainly 100 percent innocuous.

    Sf7, the cop who started the thread, says he has a strategy for dealing with these calls. He’ll approach the “suspicious person,” and “I will roll up and ask them if they need any help. If they need help, I will help them start their vehicle. If they don’t, I will leave. I am not going to waste their time because some random ***** is being racist. Nope.”

    It’s a good reminder that the problem of American race relations goes far beyond the interactions between police and black communities.

    It’s sad. It almost made me tear up.
    So there you go, today a whole two examples of positive policing.

  274. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Officials familiar with the probes also say the homicide investigation run by police investigators at most contemplated a manslaughter charge, not second degree murder as Mosby charged one of the officers, Caesar Goodson. To win conviction for murder, prosecutors must prove intent to kill. Manslaughter relates to unintentional killings.

    While technically true, that’s so misleading as to constitute a lie when presented to the public, not a legal community, and when used as a reason to dismiss “depraved heart murder” as a possible charge.

    Fucking lying scumbags. You KNOW the cops wouldn’t undercut the prosecutor if some group of folks from children’s services killed a runaway tween they had just taken into custody while driving the tween to a foster home. Given that there’s no way the cops would publicly undermine the prosecutor in THAT situation, the cops speaking out publicly in THIS situation can ONLY mean that they don’t want cops who commit criminal actions to be held criminally responsible.

    Another way to say that is that the cops publicly undercutting the prosecution want police to be unaccountable.

    Another way to say that is that the cops are happy with the status quo that kills hundreds of unarmed citizens a year, that they are happy with a social dynamic that values the employment status of police officers more highly than the lives of people of color, people with disabilities (especially of communication or that are addressed in part by using a can or crutch or assisting dog), people who don’t speak English, and trans* folk. (Woe be-fucking-tide you if you’re in more than one of those categories.)

    These cops say that they want justice, but act as if they want anything but. They act as if the unjust status quo is perfectly acceptable.

    In other words, they are lying scumbags, racism-apologists, ableism apologists, trans* oppression apologists, and murder-apologists.

    The USA would be much better off as a country with all such LEOs stripped of their legal authorities and privileges… even if zero replacements were hired for the huge numbers of bad cops fired.

  275. rq says

    Crip Dyke @274
    Agreed, absolutely. They’re working pretty hard to sabotage the investigation, the public’s perception of it, and, pretty much, everything else.
    What’s funny is if you compare and contrast that excuse you blockquote up there with the reasons why Rekia Boyd’s killer had his charges thrown out in court. Well, when I say ‘funny’ I don’t actually mean funny.

    +++

    Pastor: Black families made a lot more progress as slaves – this one’s via Tony elsewhere, and boy-oh-boy.

    Black people should blame themselves for the current state of the black community, according to Tony Evans of the Urban Alternative ministry.

    In an interview with Darrell Bock, Evans said the black community needed to get back to “the biblical standard that God holds us to,” and stop blaming white people, The Christian Post reported.

    “The biggest problem in Black America today is the breakdown of the family,” he explained. “The breakdown of the family is unraveling us as a community. When 70 percent plus of your children are being born out of wedlock and the fathers are not there to tend to them, you’ve got chaos in the community. That’s crime, that’s unemployment and most of these kids are going to be raised in poverty. So and that’s something we control. That’s something we control.”

    “The white man is not making you do that. He’s not forcing you into that position. That’s a convenient out.”

    Evans added black families had become weaker since the United States abolished slavery.

    “In slavery when we did not have laws on our side, the community on our side, the government on our side, the broader community on our side, our families were a lot stronger. We were a lot more unified and we made a lot more progress. We’re going through regression right now and a lot of that is because of decision-making we are responsible for.”

    I’m just trying to think of all those slave families that were separated because some were sold, or those who were raped, or those who were killed. Sounds like a lot of progress (though I don’t doubt for a minute that those families were strong – just as today’s black families are strong, in different ways for different reasons, some of which aren’t so readily apparent).
    And I wonder, too, which ‘community’ is he talking about, because the one I see out on the streets seems pretty solid to me.

    And because it worked so well in Ferguson,
    Virginia GOPer: We Could Have Stopped The Baltimore Riots With Attack Dogs    , also via Tony. Seriously, do these people ever look at any kind of evidence for their opinions? No?

    It’s not just their politics, some Republican politicians seem as if they’re still living in the 1950s.

    Take, for instance, Virginia state Del. Hyland “Buddy” Fowler Jr.’s eye-brow raising suggestion on how to stop racial unrest: Sic dogs on them.

    In a Facebook post captured by Blue Virginia, Fowler shared a picture of a heavily armored police officer with a dog bearing its teeth with the caption “Go ahead and run. He likes fast food.” Fowler added his own comment: “I wonder if a few of these would help bring calm to Baltimore?”

    The picture had originally appeared on the page of pro-law enforcement website PoliceOne[dot]com, a group of retired and active police officers that serves as a sort of informal police officer defense machine.

    Fowler’s post lasted about a day before the backlash became so great that he pulled it from his Facebook page.

    Contrary to Fowler’s belief, using police dogs to attack protesters does not, in fact, de-escalate the situation. They tried it in Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown, and it was rightfully called out as repugnant. Even worse, using police dogs to attack protesters — especially African-American protesters — has a long, racist history.

    During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, white police departments would frequently use police dogs in an effort to terrify and hurt members of peaceful protests. Many of the resultant images have come to define the inhumanity of the Jim Crow Era South.

    Ah yes, the golden age of uppity blacks kept in their places. Sure did wonders back then, those attack dogs. Everyone just rolled right over and shut up.

    Baltimore Protester Who Confronted Geraldo Says It’s Not About Some Viral Video, ‘It’s About Black Lives’

    The Baltimore resident who challenged Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera this week over the networks coverage of the Freddie Gray protests has spoken out. “This issue is bigger than some clip of me, it’s about Black Lives,” he told Media Matters.

    “I have been out protesting for almost two weeks now without being on one camera,” he said. “After Monday night when the media started pouring in, I sat at work and watched how the media basically forced people to believe that Baltimore was some Third World city.”

    Tuesday night, Rose made headlines when video captured him telling Geraldo and Fox News to “get out of Baltimore city” until they start reporting “the real story.”

    “You’re not here for the death of Freddie Gray,” he shouted at Rivera. “You’re here for the story.”

    He told Media Matters in an email that he never thought the video would go viral, but said he just needed to let people know that “this generation refuses to be misinterpreted.” Rose added that much of the media, like Fox News, is exploiting the situation in Baltimore and lying to viewers by not showing the entire story.

    “I sat and watched the media set up their camps in front of boarded up homes … while we were cleaning up the streets as one community,” he continued. “The cameras weren’t rolling, nobody cared.”

    “Geraldo is like the majority of America,” Rose concluded. “He fears a Black man so much that he [would] rather try to instigate a fight than to engage in a conversation.”

    ‘A Conversation About Growing Up Black’

    Imagine strangers crossing the street to avoid you, imagine the police arbitrarily stopping you, imagine knowing people fear you because of the color of your skin. Many of this country’s young black men and boys don’t have to imagine.

    In this Op-Doc video, “A Conversation about Growing Up Black,”we ask African-American boys and young men to tell us candidly about the daily challenges they face because of these realities. They speak openly about what it means to be a young black man in a racially charged world and explain how they feel when their parents try to shelter and prepare them for a world that is too often unfair and biased.
    As we debate the headlines about the deaths of young black men and police misconduct, from Baltimore to Ferguson to Staten Island, we fear our society is turning away from the painful conversations that need to be had at home, in our own communities, schools and families. Focusing our attention on the nation’s latest racial hot zone often devolves into the same old invectives about race and politics, and we lose sight of the bigger picture. Worse, it allows us to avoid the painful discussions we need to have with our young people about their concerns, and the role we each may play in them. We can be a part of the solution only if we dare to open up and have the conversation.

    Video at the link.

    The Baltimore City Police Union (@FOP3) is trying to brand the officers who killed #FreddieGray as “The Baltimore 6.” They’re wild.

  276. rq says

    St. Louis Residents Fight to Keep Spy Agency From Taking Their Homes

    North St. Louis is grappling with many problems: underperforming schools, a stubbornly-high murder rate, lack of good jobs, dirty vacant lots and now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

    The NGA, a lesser-known cousin of the National Security Agency, has long had facilities in South St. Louis located a short walk from the historic Anheuser-Busch Brewery. But the NGA is now looking to move and has narrowed its list of possible new locations to four, including one in North St. Louis that would require the demolition of 47 homes.

    Not surprisingly, North St. Louis residents are not welcoming the NGA with a fruit basket. On Wednesday the local organization Save North Side STL delivered a petition with nearly 100,000 signatures to the NGA asking it to remove their neighborhood from consideration.

    The charge is led by 79-year-old Charlesetta Taylor, who has lived in one of the threatened homes for the past 70 years. “We were the first black family on this block,” she told me during a phone conversation. “It was in 1945. Black families couldn’t live in certain areas but my father was able to buy the house anyway.”

    “I don’t know what the NGA does exactly,” added Taylor, “but it sounds bad.”

    Many of the 46 other threatened homes also belong to elderly residents.

    The city says the spy agency brings delivers about $2.4 million in tax revenue every year. None of the other three possible locations are located within city limits.

    In February the board of alderman — St. Louis’ version of a city council — passed an ordinance that designated Taylor’s community a blighted area. With the area now considered ruined, the city may use eminent domain to seize the property. Shortly after the ordinance’s passage the residents, including Taylor, received letters notifying them of the city’s interest in acquiring their property. If the city does take the homes, residents like Taylor would, of course, be compensated.

    But they don’t want the money.

    “This isn’t about money. Money can’t buy everything,” Taylor said. “Money can’t replace my memories and the three generations that grew up in this big old house.”

    For some fun: People Are Creating Hilarious Memes Of Shaq’s Epic Fall To Win $500.

    Legislature sends municipal court reforms to Gov. Jay Nixon

    Qiana Williams, 36, of St. Louis, spent two weeks in jail in Pine Lawn last summer after being arrested as a fugitive for unpaid parking tickets. She has been visible at protests this year, speaking out against abusive practices by municipal police and courts.

    She said the Missouri Legislature’s approval Thursday of a bill removing a municipality’s ability to jail someone for a minor traffic infraction was “magnificent.”

    “I feel like we won,” she said.

    The House passed and sent to the governor a bill that takes aim at what critics call predatory municipal practices that target the poor and use courts and police departments as ATMs.

    If Gov. Jay Nixon signs the bill, people could be fined no more than $300 for minor traffic offenses. Cities couldn’t pile on extra “failure to appear” charges because an offender missed a court date. And in most cases, traffic offenders couldn’t be jailed for failing to pay fines.

    Fingers crossed.

    Dorian Johnson Charged with Resisting Arrest; Drink Tests Negative for Illegal Substances – that’s the cough syrup laced with narcotics that he apparently dropped.

    The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office has charged Dorian Johnson — a key witness in the Michael Brown case, and also the plaintiff in a suit against the city of Ferguson — with “resisting or interfering with arrest/detention/stop” for trying to prevent a police officer from arresting his brother, Demonte.

    The rumored drug charges against Dorian Johnson, however, have evaporated. The drink Dorian discarded, described to the Post-Dispatch by an anonymous police source as “cough medication mixed with what police believe to be an illegal narcotic,” tested negative for drugs.

    “A drug charge was brought to our office. It was refused by our office,” says Lauren Trager, spokeswoman for the circuit attorney.

    That doesn’t mean the Johnson brothers are in the clear. Not only does Dorian Johnson face a charge of resisting arrest, but Demonte Johnson has also been charged with resisting arrest, as well as 3rd degree assault against a police officer.

    The altercation began, according to court documents, when someone called the cops on a group of men whom the caller believed could have weapons. The officer approached a man named only as “O.M.” who, according to the documents, “had a bulge in his waistband which I believed could possibly be a concealed gun.”

    Demonte allegedly grabbed the officer’s arm and told him he couldn’t arrest O.M. When a second officer grabbed Demonte’s arm, Dorian ran over and tried to stop the officer, according to the probable cause statement.

    “Dorian further stated that the police could not arrest any of them,” one of the officers wrote. “Dorian Johnson then struggled with me and tried to pry himself away from me. I had to physically struggle with Dorian Johnson until I was able to take him to the ground and get handcuffs on him.”

    So, considering the lawsuit he’s bringing against Ferguson, intimidation tactic or no?

    Dorian Johnson, Man Who Witnessed Michael Brown Shooting, Is Arrested. Same BuzzFeed article as yesterday, with an update at the bottom.

    San Diego police promises probe into body camera failure in fatal shooting. Promise a probe and then take years?

    San Diego’s police chief promised on Thursday to conduct an investigation into why a body camera worn by a police officer was turned off when he shot and killed an Afghan immigrant last month.

    Police Officer Neal N. Browder shot 42-year-old Fridoon Rawshannehad on April 30 after the man failed to obey commands and continued to advance on the officer, a police statement said.

    Browder, a police officer for 27 years, had responded to a midnight call from an adult bookstore reporting that a man with a knife was threatening people inside and outside the establishment.

    But Browder did not record the ensuing interaction, according to Homicide Lieutenant Mike Hastings. That appears to be contrary to department policy, which requires officers to record all “enforcement contacts.”

    The incident comes amid a series of fatal police confrontations across the country that have put law-enforcement agencies under scrutiny over the use of lethal force, especially against minorities, the poor and the mentally ill.

    San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said she did not know why the encounter was not recorded, and promised a full investigation. In the past, she has indicated that officers who do not use body cameras according to department policy would be disciplined.

    “In any officer-involved shooting, we conduct a very methodical, comprehensive and thorough investigation, and that question will be answered during the investigation,” she said in a statement.

    Let’s see that methodical, comprehensive and thorough investigation in action.

  277. rq says

    Justice Department to launch federal investigation of Baltimore police

    Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch has decided to launch a federal investigation into whether the Baltimore Police Department has engaged in a “pattern or practice” of excessive force.

    Lynch’s announcement about the Justice Department’s probe — the latest in a string of municipalities that are being investigated by the federal government for civil rights violations — could come as early as Friday, according to two law enforcement officials.

    A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment Thursday night.

    Lynch hinted Thursday that a decision could come soon, when she testified during her first hearing on Capitol Hill as attorney general. She said that she would decide “in the coming days” whether to have the department’s civil rights division open an investigation into the Baltimore police force.

    Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Wednesday called on the Justice Department to open a federal investigation. Rawlings-Blake made the request after Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby filed criminal charges against six Baltimore officers who were involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, who died of injuries sustained while he was in police custody.

    Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts welcomed any federal review. “I think it’s a good thing,” Batts told WBAL-TV on Thursday after a conference of police chiefs. “We could use the extra weight. Lawsuits are down. Citizen complaints are down. Officer-involved shootings are down. But the community doesn’t feel it.”

    Already people are anticipating the emails that will be dug up.

    A note on social media: @deray there were over 1 million tweets before CNN began coverage on Ferguson. Without social media, who knows where the movement would be.

    And mainstream media: This says more about the people who still get their news from TV than it does about the networks.

    Ex-Baltimore cop labeled ‘rat’ after police brutality claim

    Before he became public enemy No. 1 inside the Baltimore Police Department, Det. Joseph Crystal was considered one of its rising stars.

    The son of two NYPD cops, Crystal was put in charge of his police academy cadet class on day one.

    He was promoted to detective before he reached his second year on the force.

    And he went on to lead his violent crime unit in gun arrests, racking up high-profile collars that made the evening news.

    For Crystal, rooting out crime in one of the most violent cities in the nation didn’t even feel like work.

    “Being a cop was all I ever wanted to do,” he says. “A dream come true.”

    But that dream turned into a nightmare four years ago when his brothers in blue turned on him – bombarding him with taunts and threats, refusing to come to his aid during drug busts and even leaving a dead rat on his windshield.

    His crime? He reported a case of police brutality.

    Crystal drew the ire of his department after coming forward to report the 2011 beating of a drug suspect by a fellow officer. Crystal’s subsequent trial testimony helped secure convictions against the cop who carried out the beating and the sergeant who helped facilitate it.

    Crystal says the pattern of abuse that followed led him to resign from the job he loved.

    “I never imagined that doing the right thing as a cop could cost me so much,” Crystal, 31, told the Daily News this week in his most extensive interview to date.

    Crystal filed a federal lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department three weeks ago, claiming it failed to protect him from retaliation after he blew the whistle on his fellow officers. […]

    The harassment escalated after Gialamas and Williams were criminally charged in the assault in Oct. 2012, according to Crystal’s lawsuit.

    Out of the blue, a sergeant called him and said: “You better pray to God that you’re not the star witness,” Crystal recalled.

    Now officers were no longer backing him up on the streets. On two separate occasions, Crystal said, he called for backup while pursuing drug suspects but nobody showed up.

    The second time it happened, Crystal was in the process of arresting a suspected drug dealer and buyer. Suddenly, his supervisor called his cell phone and “gave him a direct order to return to the district and that he would not be given backup,” the lawsuit says.

    Crystal had no choice but to let the suspects go.

    “Nobody wants to ride with you,” a detective later told him, according to the suit.

    Around the same time, Crystal was told he was being demoted back to patrol.

    And his security clearance was inexplicably revoked, forcing him to stop working on an assignment with the FBI. […]

    The suit Crystal filed on Dec. 22 seeks at least $2.5 million and names the department, Chief Batts and his former supervisor Sgt. Robert Amador.

    “It seems to me that the Baltimore Police Department and any police department across the country needs individuals like Joe Crystal,” said his lawyer, Don Discepolo. “He did stand up for what he thought was right and he was persecuted for it.”

    Crystal and his wife now live in Florida where he’s working as an officer with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.

    Crystal understands that some might draw parallels between his case and the coordinated displays of disrespect shown to Mayor de Blasio by NYPD officers at the funerals of slain cops Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.

    But Crystal doesn’t see a connection.

    “I see people here as they’re hurting and upset right now at the loss of two of their own,” Crystal said. “I saw what happened to me as somewhere along the line we lost our way.

    “What I saw was criminal. What I see here is an emotion,” Crystal added. “And those are two very different things.”

    He tried for months to get a law enforcement job near Maryland but found no takers.

    “Looking back, I still can’t fathom what happened,” Crystal said. “How do you honestly expect people to have faith, to trust the cops, when they let this happen?”

    We’ve seen his story before under the banner “Where are all the good cops?” but it’s being brought out again in light of the investigations into the BPD.

    L.A. Police Chief’s ‘Convenient Integrity’ Put to the Test with Venice Shooting

    Tuesday’s officer-involved-shooting in Venice that left 29-year-old Brendon Glenn dead is going to be a test of sorts for Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.

    Yesterday at a department press conference Chief Beck put on full display for anyone watching and listening some of that convenient integrity I spoke of before.

    Beck said that after seeing video footage of the incident that he was “very concerned” about the shooting, adding that it generally takes “extraordinary circumstances” for police to shoot an unarmed person, and that he was unclear if those circumstances existed in Tuesday night’s shooting.

    Just to recap, the last time Chief Beck was “very concerned” after watching a video involving his officers it was the brutal beating of Clinton Alford in South Los Angeles by Newton Division officers.

    In that case, according to Beck, his “concern” caused him to personally call Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey to ask her office to investigate and press criminal charges.

    “I contacted personally the district attorney and expressed my desire for her folks to not only look at this case but to file criminal charges,” Beck told the media. “We have to keep in mind that the ultimate goal is justice here. And we want the justice system to be able to address this use of force, which I believe is a criminal act.”

    Prior to that statement, Chief Beck told us that after watching the video of Walter Scott being shot and killed in South Carolina that it was a “criminal act,” and said he also would have arrested the officer.

    He then went on to say that “based on what I have seen, based on the video … it is a criminal act. It is well beyond any policies of the Los Angeles Police Department, and I would have done exactly what the chief in Charleston did. I would have arrested the officer.”

    So let me break this down for you Jasmyne style.

    There was no way for Chief Beck to know all of the facts regarding the Scott case. He’s the chief of police here in Los Angeles—not Charleston. Like everyone else, he just saw the video and joined in on the Monday morning quarterbacking—that convenient integrity.

    However, Tuesday’s shooting in Venice is a different case.

    In this case, Chief Beck has all of the facts. He pretty much told us as much and then some at his news conference. So here’s Beck’s chance to prove his claim that he actually would have done the same thing as the chief in Charleston. Brandon Glen was unarmed and at least according to Chief Beck, there was nothing to warrant his killing on Tuesday.

    So then why hasn’t Beck called DA Lacey—or has he?

    The plot thickens.

    More at the link.

    Bellefontaine Neighbors police officer uses racial slur

    The Bellefontaine Neighbors Police Department is all-white, policing a city that’s 70 percent black. That does not explain all of the conflicts the police have had with residents in the community, but critics of police practices say race is sometimes at the root of the problem.

    News 4 Investigates obtained video from 4 years ago of what appeared to be a routine traffic stop: white Bellefontaine Neighbors cops pulled over a black woman driving a rental car.

    An officer admitted the stop was a mistake, so the police didn’t write a report, often referred to as NRN, or no report needed, but in this case one of the cops used a racial slur to describe the woman leaving town and heading north.

    The audio recorded him say “n—- running north,” his version of NRN. Seconds later there is laughter.

    News 4 Investigates emailed questions about the recording and the identity of the cops to the interim police chief and mayor, but they did not respond.

    Rev. Phillip Duvall has filed two complaints to the U.S. Department of Justice about policing practices in Bellefontaine Neighbors.

    “Those videos speak to not just a pattern, but a culture that exists in the Bellefontaine Police Department. That has existed for a very long time” said Duvall.

    Complaints to the DOJ so far have yielded nothing.

  278. rq says

    Crime up in St. Louis; Chief Dotson faces tough questions about violence.

    St. Louis Chief of Police Sam Dotson faced a steady stream of criticism Thursday during a public safety committee hearing at city hall.

    The hearing comes as alarming crime numbers are revealed. There have been 59 so far in 2014. Forty of those murders are unsolved. There were 47 murders at this time in 2014.

    Reports of stolen guns are up 70 percent.

    During the hearing, Alderman Antonio French referred to the chief’s hot spot policing as “whack a mole” policing. Several of the alderman said that instead of temporarily flooding more violent areas with officers, the chief should place more officers in those areas long-term.

    The city is set to hire 160 more police officers, but Chief Dotson said there will still be limits to what he can do.

    “The reality of the world is that I have a budget,” Dotson said. “I have to worry about the entire city.”

    The chief will meet with the public safety committee again next Thursday.

    More police officers! Yeah, that’s the ticket – how about allocating that budget to, say, sensitivity training, training on racial biases and overcoming them, use of force, community policing, that kind of thing? No, that would just be too much, wouldn’t it.

    *waits for all those people crying about a flag to never come show support for a homeless veteran* #BrendonGlenn See, this is not the first time Brendon Glenn has been labelled a veteran, I just haven’t seen that being reported in media. And I wonder, why is that…

    Today’s Justice for #BrendonGlenn march and rally in Venice – video https://youtu.be/N2Ivsvu2paQ pls watch & RT #blacklivesmatter

    50 Cent’s Net Worth In 2015: $155 Million, for anyone who was maybe wondering. In case.

    Man leaves prison after robbery case dropped

    A man who says he was wrongly convicted of an armed robbery walked out of prison Thursday evening a free man after a three-year legal battle ended when the St. Louis circuit attorney dismissed the charges against him.

    She said the victim couldn’t go through another trial. Cornell McKay, his lawyers, his pastor, and his mother say, he walked away from prison because he was innocent.

    Three years of a mother’s tears of sadness, turned into tears of joy. McKay’s mother and grandmother got to hold and kiss her son. […]

    Even though the circuit attorney dropped the case, McKay was not allowed to leave prison until next Friday. But his lawyers said, an innocent man shouldn’t have to spend one more second in prison. A judge came in on his day off to sign the paperwork, and McKay’s lawyers lobbied people in the governor’s office and the Department of Corrections to process McKay.

    So they wanted to keep him in prison for some extra time just because. Gotcha.

  279. rq says

    Something from TV. BET had a Baltimore Speaks series of panels. Some small insights.
    And here’s the pre-show crowd. There are a little over 200 folk here. #BETBaltimoreSpeaks
    Aye. We’ve just begun and it’s being called the “rioting.” I saw an uprising. What are these “riots” they speak of? #BETBaltimoreSpeaks
    When we were in the green room, I asked @CouncilmanBMS about him calling some of the protestors “cowards” previously. #BETBaltimoreSpeaks
    Frmr Baltimore Officer Crystal is about to talk about his experience speaking out on corruption. #BETBaltimoreSpeaks
    When folks went to the streets in August, there wasn’t an organization. And look at the national conversation.
    And here is the first question/comment at the aftershow. #BETBaltimoreSpeaks That rumble of agreement when he asks if anyone has ever been pulled off their own front step by police…
    A bit more next comment.

  280. rq says

    I hear y’all re: the lack of female voices present on the panels tonight. It’s an issue. #BETBaltimoreSpeaks I think I counted 4 or 5 panels of at least 4 people each. Two women. Yup.

    I’m shocked at the intensity of the “black on black crime” arguments here. Shocked. #BETBaltimoreSpeaks
    So, that’s black people discussing black issues and still facing the same bullshit as everywhere else. But it seems to have been a good discussion, and I hope bits of it will show up in video on the internet sometime soon.

    re:publica 2015 – #AfricaBlogging – Political bloggers in Sub-Saharan Africa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eatvc89J0y0 … #rp15 It’s an hour long video in there, but still.

    Also, another corner of racism – but it’s in Canada! London, Ontario Was a Racist Asshole to Me. It ain’t pretty, that’s for sure. And there’s some ablist and fat-shaming language within, just FYI.

    In the four years I’ve spent in London, Ontario I’ve been called names like Ebony, Dark Chocolate, Shaniqua, Ma, Blackish, and Boo. I’ve encountered blackface on Halloween and been told to go back to my third-world country (twice). I’ve been pushed off the sidewalk by white kids. I’ve been humiliated by white guys shouting, “Look at that black ass!” as I walked down a busy street. I’ve been an ethnic conquest for curious white men. I’ve witnessed my boyfriend get called a nigger over 20 times, been called “you people” and been asked by white friends if it’s okay to “use the N-word” around me while desperately trying to rap to Yeezus.

    But, yes, after all that, I went back to Jack’s a month ago, a charmingly shitty bar that reeks of bleach and tequila and where I spent most of my undergrad acquiring alcoholic gastritis (I graduated from London’s Western University last June). And not even 20 minutes into an Ariana Grande song, I feel my left ass cheek fly way up. I turn around to see a white guy walking back to his table of cheering 20-year-old Justin Biebers.

    I could have confronted them, but then I’d be that angry black girl. I could have slapped him, but after what happened to Aaron Ferkranus, a healthy, young 26-year-old who went into medical distress after being restrained by bouncers at Thorny Devil nightclub (a short walk from Jack’s) and died this February, no black person in London is safe from a perfectly normal bar scrap. I could have also dumped my nice, cool beer on his young, receding hairline, but that would be a waste of $2.75. So instead, as I had been doing for the past few years in this city, I bit my tongue and allowed it. […]

    London for black people is like Harvey Dent’s face: beautiful, white, and smiling until he turns to the right. For me, London is still the place that I call home, and yet it’s a home that makes me feel unwelcome. And while some of the idiocy I experienced in London was unintentional (“I love black people!” “Your English is excellent!” “Yo girl, wa gwan?”), this ignorance has rotted London to its core, and has a long history of far-right ideologies stemming back to the mid-1800s.

    London is an old white man in a Klan hat

    Ironically, there was a time when London was considered one of the more accepting cities of black settlers. By the 1850s, London was an active little city that was home to some of the richest black settlers in Ontario, many of whom had come through the Underground Railroad as refugee slaves. But ex-slave Dr. Alfred T. Jones said that in London, there was a “mean prejudice” that couldn’t be found in the States. By 1863, segregated schools were in the works, but a lack of funding crushed the dream.

    Ola Osman, now a student at Western, tells me about growing up in London’s school system. In Grade 7, she asked her white teacher why they weren’t talking about black history. “His answer was, ‘because it’s not important,'” she tells me. A few days later, the same teacher put together a slideshow of brutalized slaves.

    “A slide came up of a black man being lynched,” Osman says. “My teacher pointed at the picture, and said, ‘This, is a n*gg*r.'”

    Osman never reported it because she wasn’t sure if it was an actual issue. “I was so young. I knew I was uncomfortable but I couldn’t articulate why,” she adds.

    It’s not surprising, considering the city’s supremacist history. The Ku Klux Klan made their grand debut in London by 1872. A decade later, a group of white hoodlums burned down the house of a black man named Richard Harrison. More than a century after that, fearing we’d eat up all the white people, the white supremacist group, Northern Alliance, formed in 1997 and is still active today. The esteemed group even has its own mailing address on Richmond Row, the city’s main street.

    I often re-play an escape scenario in my head should I ever be waiting for a bus late at night across from their office. I think I’d pull a Tyler Perry in A Madea Christmas when she stumbles across a KKK meeting in a barn. She pounds the pavement running, tits flapping and all.

    Luckily, I had no tit-flapping moments while I lived in London, although I did come face-to-face with a white supremacist/neo-Nazi at a Jewish friend’s wedding (ironically, he was the best man). He seemed a little too eager to hold my hand during the Hora dance (I’ll bet you Ebony porn is his favourite), although he tried to brush it off by calling me a n*gg*r girl all night. I’d have been more afraid if he wasn’t Persian and morbidly obese. […]

    According to 2010 Statistics Canada data, London ranked fifth in all of Canada at 8.1 percent for police-reported hate crimes. In Ontario, Guelph ranked first at 15.2 percent, followed by Peterborough (12.3 percent) and Kitchener (10.5 percent). But need not worry, Londoners: Hamilton’s black community remains the greatest target of hate crimes.

    While the number is uncertain now, London newspapers covered the most amount of hate crimes from 1997 to 2000 of all of Ontario dailies. I found an 2002 Western Gazette article about a black female student who was punched in the face by a white guy after leaving a bar. The reason? She asked what his shirt said. The answer?”[T]he shirt says, ‘I hate motherfucking n*gg*rs.'”

    I’ve had eerily similar experiences, though minus the violence. Ten years after the Gazette article, a drunk arsehole asked me and my ex, Amir, where he and his friend could get food. When Amir answered, the drunktard told him to “shut the fuck up,” then turned to me and said, “go back to your third-world country, you b*tch” as he approached, promising to beat the shit out of me.

    Naturally, I told him his father loved third-world country women, and turned to leave.

    “Your boyfriend is a n*gg*r,” he yelled, and the Jerry Springer bell went off in my head. It took two guys to hold me back while his horrified friend pulled him away, apologizing.

    Amir didn’t flinch at being called a n*gg*r; it was something he was used to since he started driving a cab two years ago to pay for school. Most of his nights consisted of being treated like shit by entitled drunk white boys.

    But Amir told me white female students were worse. He’d let me listen through his phone. They would take off their panties, tell him they loved black guys, tried to grab said black guy’s junk (once, a girl leaned and said, “What would happen if I sucked your dick right now?”), and would ask him to come inside. “One girl even got into the front seat against my will,” he tells me. “When her friend started arguing with her, she said ‘just let me be with a black man for 10 minutes.'”

    Sounds like a dream? Mostly, they would call him a n*gg*r, a fucking immigrant, beat him with their purses, make fun of his English, and threaten to tell the police he raped them if he didn’t give them a free ride home. […]

    Western University’s “zero-tolerance policy” for racism and sexism was part of the reason naive 18-year-old me decided to go there. But when I got there, I was the token black person that nobody wanted to talk to. White kids walked through me like I didn’t exist.

    During a class discussion on racism in my third-year, an offended white girl raised her hand and said, “Like, I don’t get why we’re still talking about slavery. Like, it’s done. Get over it.”

    Like, that girl made the mistake of forgetting there two black girls in the class. We chewed her up (she tasted like Juicy Couture and stupidity), but—surprise!—she still didn’t give a fuck about slavery. […]

    Perhaps the biggest eye-opener to racism in the city was the recent death of Ferkranus on February 15 at Robinson Hall/Thorny Devil. According to the video footage, Ferkranus was restrained outside the club by bouncers after knocking a guy out around 3 a.m on February 14. He was unresponsive and taken off life support the next day.

    A candlelight vigil for Ferkranuswas held on February 22, and a petition urging for transparency has over 1,700 signatures. Some in the black community have boycotted the club, also calling out Cobra, Jim Bob Ray’s and Jack’s for their ill-treatment of black people. A business owner known as “Freash” tells me since moving from Toronto to London 12 years ago, bartenders have refused to serve him or even let him in.

    I can barely count the few times I’ve seen black men start a bar fight—and I partied almost every night for nine months straight. Every Thursday, black people would go to this event in the backhouse of a local bar. No surprise, it was the only night in the city that had scanners and pat-downs. Meanwhile, white guys would kick the shit out of each others, roofie girls in a nearby alleyway, and smoke weed, all right outside clubs and bouncers had the shits and giggles watching. What a coincidence that none of them died. […]

    Lwam Berhe, a Western student and vice-president of the Black Student Association, feels that she is carrying a burden by virtue of just being black. “It may not be your history, but they make it your history,” she says.

    I agree with Berhe. Growing up mixed race with my mom’s Pakistani family, I suddenly took on the full heaviness of being black. In four years, I went from never thinking about race to seeing it everywhere. I’ve morphed from MLK into Malcolm X. I’m skeptical of white people. The world is no longer full of rainbows and unicorns as it once was, but now full of dead black kids and Klan hats.

    But more than anything, I’m tired. I haven’t met a black person in London who isn’t. The comments, the glances, the denial, the jokes—are mentally exhausting.

    I honestly don’t know what can be done for the city. The people making progress in London are the very people experiencing the racism, and that’s the biggest problem—the actual inhabitants don’t care. Whether it’s a banana peel thrown at a black NHL player or a city councillor’s signs being vandalized with fried chicken and watermelon, Londoners have no shame, and it’s embarrassing.

    But in a strange way, London has shaped my identity. It’s made me critical, strong-willed, educated, and most of all, experienced. It’s where I became an adult, and where I made the most epic memories. But it’s an asshole. A big, gaping, racist asshole that will shit you out once you’re inside, back into the white porcelain pot called life, and flush you into the sewage tank with the rest of the shit, condoms, and dead goldfish. But I’d rather be down there than with the trash on land.

  281. rq says

    I hear y’all re: the lack of female voices present on the panels tonight. It’s an issue. #BETBaltimoreSpeaks I think I counted 4 or 5 panels of at least 4 people each. Two women. Yup.

    I’m shocked at the intensity of the “black on black crime” arguments here. Shocked. #BETBaltimoreSpeaks
    So, that’s black people discussing black issues and still facing the same bullshit as everywhere else. But it seems to have been a good discussion, and I hope bits of it will show up in video on the internet sometime soon.

    re:publica 2015 – #AfricaBlogging – Political bloggers in Sub-Saharan Africa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eatvc89J0y0 … #rp15 It’s an hour long video in there, but still.

    Also, another corner of racism – but it’s in Canada! London, Ontario Was a Racist Asshole to Me. It ain’t pretty, that’s for sure. And there’s some ablist and fat-shaming language within, just FYI.

    In the four years I’ve spent in London, Ontario I’ve been called names like Ebony, Dark Chocolate, Shaniqua, Ma, Blackish, and Boo. I’ve encountered blackface on Halloween and been told to go back to my third-world country (twice). I’ve been pushed off the sidewalk by white kids. I’ve been humiliated by white guys shouting, “Look at that black ass!” as I walked down a busy street. I’ve been an ethnic conquest for curious white men. I’ve witnessed my boyfriend get called a n*gg*r over 20 times, been called “you people” and been asked by white friends if it’s okay to “use the N-word” around me while desperately trying to rap to Yeezus.

    But, yes, after all that, I went back to Jack’s a month ago, a charmingly shitty bar that reeks of bleach and tequila and where I spent most of my undergrad acquiring alcoholic gastritis (I graduated from London’s Western University last June). And not even 20 minutes into an Ariana Grande song, I feel my left ass cheek fly way up. I turn around to see a white guy walking back to his table of cheering 20-year-old Justin Biebers.

    I could have confronted them, but then I’d be that angry black girl. I could have slapped him, but after what happened to Aaron Ferkranus, a healthy, young 26-year-old who went into medical distress after being restrained by bouncers at Thorny Devil nightclub (a short walk from Jack’s) and died this February, no black person in London is safe from a perfectly normal bar scrap. I could have also dumped my nice, cool beer on his young, receding hairline, but that would be a waste of $2.75. So instead, as I had been doing for the past few years in this city, I bit my tongue and allowed it. […]

    London for black people is like Harvey Dent’s face: beautiful, white, and smiling until he turns to the right. For me, London is still the place that I call home, and yet it’s a home that makes me feel unwelcome. And while some of the idiocy I experienced in London was unintentional (“I love black people!” “Your English is excellent!” “Yo girl, wa gwan?”), this ignorance has rotted London to its core, and has a long history of far-right ideologies stemming back to the mid-1800s.

    London is an old white man in a Klan hat

    Ironically, there was a time when London was considered one of the more accepting cities of black settlers. By the 1850s, London was an active little city that was home to some of the richest black settlers in Ontario, many of whom had come through the Underground Railroad as refugee slaves. But ex-slave Dr. Alfred T. Jones said that in London, there was a “mean prejudice” that couldn’t be found in the States. By 1863, segregated schools were in the works, but a lack of funding crushed the dream.

    Ola Osman, now a student at Western, tells me about growing up in London’s school system. In Grade 7, she asked her white teacher why they weren’t talking about black history. “His answer was, ‘because it’s not important,'” she tells me. A few days later, the same teacher put together a slideshow of brutalized slaves.

    “A slide came up of a black man being lynched,” Osman says. “My teacher pointed at the picture, and said, ‘This, is a n*gg*r.'”

    Osman never reported it because she wasn’t sure if it was an actual issue. “I was so young. I knew I was uncomfortable but I couldn’t articulate why,” she adds.

    It’s not surprising, considering the city’s supremacist history. The Ku Klux Klan made their grand debut in London by 1872. A decade later, a group of white hoodlums burned down the house of a black man named Richard Harrison. More than a century after that, fearing we’d eat up all the white people, the white supremacist group, Northern Alliance, formed in 1997 and is still active today. The esteemed group even has its own mailing address on Richmond Row, the city’s main street.

    I often re-play an escape scenario in my head should I ever be waiting for a bus late at night across from their office. I think I’d pull a Tyler Perry in A Madea Christmas when she stumbles across a KKK meeting in a barn. She pounds the pavement running, tits flapping and all.

    Luckily, I had no tit-flapping moments while I lived in London, although I did come face-to-face with a white supremacist/neo-Nazi at a Jewish friend’s wedding (ironically, he was the best man). He seemed a little too eager to hold my hand during the Hora dance (I’ll bet you Ebony porn is his favourite), although he tried to brush it off by calling me a n*gg*r girl all night. I’d have been more afraid if he wasn’t Persian and morbidly obese. […]

    According to 2010 Statistics Canada data, London ranked fifth in all of Canada at 8.1 percent for police-reported hate crimes. In Ontario, Guelph ranked first at 15.2 percent, followed by Peterborough (12.3 percent) and Kitchener (10.5 percent). But need not worry, Londoners: Hamilton’s black community remains the greatest target of hate crimes.

    While the number is uncertain now, London newspapers covered the most amount of hate crimes from 1997 to 2000 of all of Ontario dailies. I found an 2002 Western Gazette article about a black female student who was punched in the face by a white guy after leaving a bar. The reason? She asked what his shirt said. The answer?”[T]he shirt says, ‘I hate motherfucking n*gg*rs.'”

    I’ve had eerily similar experiences, though minus the violence. Ten years after the Gazette article, a drunk arsehole asked me and my ex, Amir, where he and his friend could get food. When Amir answered, the drunktard told him to “shut the fuck up,” then turned to me and said, “go back to your third-world country, you b*tch” as he approached, promising to beat the shit out of me.

    Naturally, I told him his father loved third-world country women, and turned to leave.

    “Your boyfriend is a n*gg*r,” he yelled, and the Jerry Springer bell went off in my head. It took two guys to hold me back while his horrified friend pulled him away, apologizing.

    Amir didn’t flinch at being called a n*gg*r; it was something he was used to since he started driving a cab two years ago to pay for school. Most of his nights consisted of being treated like shit by entitled drunk white boys.

    But Amir told me white female students were worse. He’d let me listen through his phone. They would take off their panties, tell him they loved black guys, tried to grab said black guy’s junk (once, a girl leaned and said, “What would happen if I sucked your dick right now?”), and would ask him to come inside. “One girl even got into the front seat against my will,” he tells me. “When her friend started arguing with her, she said ‘just let me be with a black man for 10 minutes.'”

    Sounds like a dream? Mostly, they would call him a n*gg*r, a fucking immigrant, beat him with their purses, make fun of his English, and threaten to tell the police he raped them if he didn’t give them a free ride home. […]

    Western University’s “zero-tolerance policy” for racism and sexism was part of the reason naive 18-year-old me decided to go there. But when I got there, I was the token black person that nobody wanted to talk to. White kids walked through me like I didn’t exist.

    During a class discussion on racism in my third-year, an offended white girl raised her hand and said, “Like, I don’t get why we’re still talking about slavery. Like, it’s done. Get over it.”

    Like, that girl made the mistake of forgetting there two black girls in the class. We chewed her up (she tasted like Juicy Couture and stupidity), but—surprise!—she still didn’t give a fuck about slavery. […]

    Perhaps the biggest eye-opener to racism in the city was the recent death of Ferkranus on February 15 at Robinson Hall/Thorny Devil. According to the video footage, Ferkranus was restrained outside the club by bouncers after knocking a guy out around 3 a.m on February 14. He was unresponsive and taken off life support the next day.

    A candlelight vigil for Ferkranuswas held on February 22, and a petition urging for transparency has over 1,700 signatures. Some in the black community have boycotted the club, also calling out Cobra, Jim Bob Ray’s and Jack’s for their ill-treatment of black people. A business owner known as “Freash” tells me since moving from Toronto to London 12 years ago, bartenders have refused to serve him or even let him in.

    I can barely count the few times I’ve seen black men start a bar fight—and I partied almost every night for nine months straight. Every Thursday, black people would go to this event in the backhouse of a local bar. No surprise, it was the only night in the city that had scanners and pat-downs. Meanwhile, white guys would kick the shit out of each others, roofie girls in a nearby alleyway, and smoke weed, all right outside clubs and bouncers had the shits and giggles watching. What a coincidence that none of them died. […]

    Lwam Berhe, a Western student and vice-president of the Black Student Association, feels that she is carrying a burden by virtue of just being black. “It may not be your history, but they make it your history,” she says.

    I agree with Berhe. Growing up mixed race with my mom’s Pakistani family, I suddenly took on the full heaviness of being black. In four years, I went from never thinking about race to seeing it everywhere. I’ve morphed from MLK into Malcolm X. I’m skeptical of white people. The world is no longer full of rainbows and unicorns as it once was, but now full of dead black kids and Klan hats.

    But more than anything, I’m tired. I haven’t met a black person in London who isn’t. The comments, the glances, the denial, the jokes—are mentally exhausting.

    I honestly don’t know what can be done for the city. The people making progress in London are the very people experiencing the racism, and that’s the biggest problem—the actual inhabitants don’t care. Whether it’s a banana peel thrown at a black NHL player or a city councillor’s signs being vandalized with fried chicken and watermelon, Londoners have no shame, and it’s embarrassing.

    But in a strange way, London has shaped my identity. It’s made me critical, strong-willed, educated, and most of all, experienced. It’s where I became an adult, and where I made the most epic memories. But it’s an asshole. A big, gaping, racist asshole that will shit you out once you’re inside, back into the white porcelain pot called life, and flush you into the sewage tank with the rest of the shit, condoms, and dead goldfish. But I’d rather be down there than with the trash on land.

  282. rq says

    Okay!

    Losing Ferguson council candidates in spat with campaign manager

    Bynes, the Ferguson Township Democratic Committeewoman and one of the more recognizable faces of the protest movement, is demanding that Hudgins and Smith pay her $4,000 each for her services.

    But they have refused and closed their bank accounts to block her access.

    “Lee and I would have given her a couple of thousand dollars each if she had done a good job,” Hudgins said. “But she did a horrible job.”

    Hudgins and Smith accuse Bynes of raising the money at the 11th hour over the Internet to ensure her payday — not to help their campaigns.

    Bynes said she established an account with ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising organization that generates money for candidates over the Internet, the week before the April 7 election, after Hudgins forwarded her an email from the group about its desire to help. She also contacted the Daily Kos, a liberal blog, to put the word out.

    The effort was intended to help with “any last-minute bills that might come up,” Bynes said.

    “I didn’t know they would be able to raise that much money,” she said.

    Aldermen grill St. Louis police chief on rise in crime

    A group of St. Louis aldermen grilled Police Chief Sam Dotson for about 2½ hours Thursday, expressing doubt that his flagship policing strategies — hot-spot policing and redistricting — are working in the face of rising crime.

    Alderman Antonio French said he considers hot-spot policing a “whack-a-mole” approach, in which crime driven from a target area by intense patrols just pops up somewhere else. French was one of about a members of the Public Safety Committee who gathered for a hearing at City Hall.

    Dotson agreed with French on the analogy to a point, but he said research by University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist Rick Rosenfeld shows that the strategy does work.

    Rosenfeld said in an interview later Thursday that he saw a 50 percent reduction in firearm assaults in hot spots during nine months of study. He said the key to success with turning up the heat on high-crime areas, through tactics that may be visible or not, is consistency.

    “We found that we can see results when an officer on an eight-hour shift spends as little as 15 to 20 minutes in a hot spot area three times during their shift,” he said. “In an ideal situation, officers are moving back and forth from one hot spot to another, so that any given officer is not spending lots and lots of time in one hot spot.”

    But Rosenfeld said he fears there has been a “major disruption” to that rhythm in recent months as officers have been diverted to manage civil unrest following the Ferguson shooting.

    “And the crime increase has more officers responding to crimes that have already been committed as opposed to patrolling to prevent crime,” Rosenfeld said. “The important thing to remember is that police have some effect on crime, but they’re not the sole driver of crime in St. Louis or anywhere else.

    “I always say doctors and nurses can have an impact on a disease, but nobody presupposes that doctors and nurses are the only remedy of a disease. There are lots of environmental causes that come into play.”

    Dotson told the committee that crime across the city is up about 22 percent compared to the same time last year.

    He said there have been 12 more homicides so far this year than in 2014, which at 159 saw the most murders since 2008.

    He said 911 calls were up citywide by about 11 percent.

    But one trend he said he was happy to report was that arrests were up by about 7 percent citywide — a significant change from the nearly 40 percent decline in arrests that marked the end of 2014.

    French also criticized Dotson for not connecting a network of cameras the alderman has placed throughout north St. Louis to the department’s new Real-Time Crime Center. It links many public and private surveillance cameras for monitoring at all times.

    Dotson later told reporters the system is new and cameras are still being added, and that the department would happily add the cameras in north St. Louis.

    “There’s no reason why I would not want to work with (French’s) cameras,” Dotson said.

    Just-recieved letter from inmate: Basically, a positive and hopeful sentiment towards Mosby’s charges against the officers.

    The full video from yesterday’s Public Safety Committee meeting with @ChiefSLMPD regarding crime in St. Louis: https://youtu.be/6js6AXvaSic

    And Lynch noted that the Baltimore Police Union (@FOP3) fully supports the DOJ investigation. #BaltimoreUprising

  283. rq says

    In other news, Baltimore City Schools is considering disciplining arrested students protestors. #BaltimoreUprising

    Info learned tonight: @BaltimorePolice Commissoner Batts tutors a kid through @RPBaltimore & he has gotten 75 fellow officers to tutor

    125 days after Savannah police killed Matthew Ajibade, they’ve still provided no answers whatsoever

    Could you imagine having your loved one, your son, your brother, your significant other killed by police, in their custody, and hearing no response whatsoever as to how or why it happened?

    Such is the extremely disturbing case of the Savannah Police Department murder of 22-year-old Matthew Ajibade on this past New Year’s Day. After his family called 911 for medical assistance, police arrested Ajibade instead of taking him to a hospital. His family begged them to not to take him to jail. His girlfriend gave the police officers his medication, as noted in the police report.

    That evening, Ajibade was dead. Tied to a restraining chair, he was apparently tasered to death by officers while he was in the chair.

    A full 125 days later, the Chatham County Police Department and the jail refuse to release any video footage, any official reports on what happened, or any other actionable information to the family or legal team, claiming that it is under investigation.

    What does that even mean?

    Now that we are into the fifth month following Ajibade’s death, are they claiming that they have more to investigate or have they truly been investigating at all?

    Below, watch a gut-wrenching interview with Ajibade’s family and attorney on CNN. This family deserves answers and it shouldn’t take this damn long.

    DOJ on BPD: Justice Department Opens Pattern or Practice Investigation into the Baltimore Police Department

    Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced today that the Justice Department has opened a civil pattern or practice investigation into Baltimore Police Department (BPD), pursuant to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The department’s investigation of BPD will seek to determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution or federal law by officers of BPD. The investigation will focus on BPD’s use of force, including deadly force, and its stops, searches and arrests, as well as whether there is a pattern or practice of discriminatory policing.

    While the pattern or practice investigation is ongoing, the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing will continue to work with BPD and the collaborative reform process that was started in October 2014 will convert to the provision of technical assistance to the BPD allowing for changes and improvements even as the pattern or practice investigation is underway.

    “Our goal is to work with the community, public officials and law enforcement alike to create a stronger, better Baltimore,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has conducted dozens of these pattern or practice investigations, and we have seen from our work in jurisdictions across the country that communities that have gone through this process are experiencing improved policing practices and increased trust between the police and the community. In fact, I encourage other cities to study our past recommendations and see whether they can be applied in their own communities. Ultimately, this process is meant to ensure that officers are being provided with the tools they need – including training, policy guidance and equipment – to be more effective, to partner with civilians and to strengthen public safety.”

    During the course of the investigation, the Justice Department will consider all relevant information, particularly the efforts that BPD has undertaken to ensure compliance with federal law, and the experiences and views of the community. The Justice Department has taken similar steps involving a variety of state and local law enforcement agencies, both large and small, in jurisdictions throughout the United States. These investigations have in many instances resulted in comprehensive, court-overseen agreements to fundamentally change the law enforcement agency’s police practices.

    In addition to gathering information directly from community members, pattern or practice investigations involve interviewing police officers and local officials; gathering information from other criminal justice stake holders, such as public defenders and prosecutors; observing officer activities through ride-alongs and other means; and reviewing documents and specific incidents that are relevant to our investigation.

    Pattern or practice investigations of police departments do not assess individual cases for potential criminal violations. The investigation into BPD is separate from the department’s concurrent criminal civil rights investigation related to the death of Freddie Gray.

    This matter is being investigated by attorneys and staff from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. They will be assisted by experienced law enforcement experts. The department welcomes the views of anyone wishing to provide relevant information. Individuals who wish to share information related to the investigation are encouraged to contact the department at 1-844-401-3733 or via email

    Loretta Lynch opens federal inquiry into Baltimore police department

    The US Department of Justice will conduct a federal civil rights inquiry into the Baltimore police department, attorney general Loretta Lynch announced on Friday.

    The investigation, which comes amid the prosecution of six officers over the death of Freddie Gray, will look into whether the department displayed a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional policing.

    “Recent events, including the tragic death in custody of Freddie Gray, have given given rise to a serious erosion of public trust,” Lynch said at a press conference in Washington, adding that the crisis in Baltimore had caused her “profound sadness”.

    Protests and riots were prompted by the death of Gray, 25, on 19 April. His neck was broken during a journey in a police van in handcuffs and leg shackles after his arrest in west Baltimore. Officers failed to seatbelt him in the vehicle.
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    Prosecutors said Gray’s arrest was illegal, because a knife found in his pocket for which he was later charged was in fact lawful. The van driver has been charged with murder while five other officers face a series of other charges.

    The attorney general said the investigation would focus on the Baltimore department’s use of force, including deadly force, as well as searches, seizures and arrests. It will also look for signs of systematic discriminatory policing.

    Lynch said on Friday her intervention was welcomed by Baltimore’s city authorities. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake made a public request for the inquiry earlier this week. “We have to get it right. Failure is not an option,” Rawlings-Blake said.

    As in previous civil rights inquiries into other American cities, the findings may result in the US government drawing up a series of reforms that must be made under threat of a federal lawsuit.

    “If unconstitutional policies or practices are found, we will seek a court-enforceable agreement,” said Lynch.
    Lynch’s department is currently negotiating a reform agreement with Ferguson, Missouri, where protests erupted after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, last August. […]

    The Community Oriented Policing Services (Cops) division of the Justice Department was already carrying out a so-called “collaborative reform initiative” with the Baltimore police department when the crisis struck.

    The project, which was announced in October last year, was looking into the “use of force and interactions with citizens” by Baltimore officers. It was due to publish a report on its findings including recommendations for reforms. However, Lynch said on Friday the COPS initiative would be “rolled into” the wider civil rights inquiry by the Justice Department.

    Earlier this week the Maryland governor, Larry Hogan, rescinded a state of emergency he declared in Baltimore last Monday in response to rioting and looting that left around 250 businesses and 170 cars damaged and 130 law enforcement officers injured.

    The state of emergency prompted the deployment of 3,000 Maryland national guard troops, along with 1,000 additional law enforcement officers from around the state and other parts of the US.
    Hogan also controversially extended the time limit of detention without charge to 48 hours, resulting in hundreds of people being jailed for two days without charging documents. The move prompted a slew of habeas corpus petitions from the Baltimore city public defenders office, leading to the release of more than 100 people arrested during the riots.

    Lynch warned on Friday that reforming Baltimore’s criminal justice system would be a prolonged process.

    “The challenges we face, and that Baltimore faces now, did not arise in a day, and change will not come overnight,” she said. “It will take time and a sustained effort.”

    Inquiry to Examine Racial Bias in the San Francisco Police. Them, too.

    First came disclosures of racist and homophobic text messages exchanged by officers of the San Francisco Police Department. That was followed by the discovery that sheriff’s deputies had been gambling on forced fighting matches between inmates at a city jail.

    Then on Thursday, the San Francisco district attorney announced that he was expanding the investigation of the city’s police and sheriff’s departments to examine whether those agencies have a deep-seated culture of systemic bias that has led to unlawful arrests or prosecutions.

    In a year in which many of the nation’s major cities have been rocked by protests after the fatal police shootings of unarmed African-Americans, the broadened inquiry made clear that even a city known for its liberal politics can be buffeted by accusations that its officers behaved in a racially biased manner.

    African-Americans in San Francisco have complained for years about harassment and the use of excessive force by the police. And while African-Americans make up about 5 percent of the city’s population, they account for half of its arrests and jail inmates, and more than 60 percent of the children in juvenile detention, according to city statistics. […]

    At a news conference in San Francisco announcing the expanded inquiry, the district attorney, George Gascón, acknowledged that the racist text messages had particularly undermined public confidence in both his office and the local criminal justice system.

    He also said he believed that the city’s tradition of inclusiveness would allow it to avoid the tumult in Ferguson, Mo., and other cities where racial bias has been found to have played a role in the actions of police officers.

    “In the last few months, we have seen city after city where police use of force or other police activity is coming to the light and indicating that racial animosity and other types of biases play a significant role,” he said. “I think at one point we felt we would be immune from that type of activity.”

    Concerns that the San Francisco Police Department may be rife with racial bias were reignited in March when racially inflammatory text messages sent between 14 police officers became public as part of the federal corruption trial of two San Francisco officers.

    Mr. Gascón, a former San Francisco police chief, said Thursday that a task force of prosecutors had already been scrutinizing some 3,000 cases — including about 1,600 convictions — related to contacts or arrests made by the 14 police officers during the last decade to determine if biases had led to any unlawful arrests or wrongful prosecutions.

    The investigation by the panel, which will add three former judges as investigators, will now be broadened to include an examination of whether entrenched biases exist in the 2,000-member department.

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    “If just one individual was wrongly imprisoned because of bias on the part of these officers, that’s one too many,” Mr. Gascón said. “What is the potential impact in our justice system when a juror in a criminal trial questions the credibility of the arresting officer on the evidence that is being presented because they believe that this process may have been influenced by racial or homophobic bias? Can justice prevail under such conditions? Probably not.”

    The text messages the officers exchanged discussed lynching African-Americans and proposing that African-Americans “should be spayed.” One text read “White Power.” Some referred to African-Americans using a racial slur.

    Other texts contained denigrating comments about gays, Mexicans and Filipinos, who make up a significant number of residents in one of the nation’s most culturally diverse cities. […]

    In addition to the text messages, the task force is also investigating gladiator-style fights among San Francisco jail inmates that the city’s public defender, Jeff Adachi, has said were arranged by sheriff’s deputies. The jail guards, according to a report by Mr. Adachi, bet on the fights and threatened inmates with violence or withheld food if they did not take part.

    A third area being examined is the possibility that hundreds of convictions in criminal cases may have been compromised by analysts at the police laboratory who appear to have improperly handled DNA samples.

    The broadening of the panel’s focus was met with relief by residents who have long questioned police behavior and arrests made in Bayview-Hunters Point and other African-American neighborhoods.

    “Fighting for civil rights is really part of the San Francisco culture and legacy and so it only makes sense that we move forward on this,” said Malia Cohen, a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors who has urged a similar inquiry in the past.

  284. rq says

    #BaltimoreLunch FREE FARMERS MARKET SAT 5/9 Donation Drop Off 10AM-12PM Gilmor Homes Follow @ophelporhush for updates

    High-tech system scans destruction after Baltimore riots

    Engineer Robert Graham mounted a high-tech camera and scanners on the rear and roof of a police sport utility, running wires through the windows to his laptop in the front seat.

    When he and Thomas Wisner, a crime lab technician, pulled out of the police headquarters parking bay Thursday, a Foxtrot helicopter hovered, ready to follow them.

    The sport utility vehicle embarked on a first-of-its kind mission to map and scan buildings and blocks ravaged by the Baltimore riots. The goal: to treat the city as a crime scene writ large and assess the damage as officers would for a police report.

    Only this time, the report would be more detailed than ever before — and hopefully would provide information that could help city officials and police better protect businesses and blocks when civil unrest turns violent.

    “There’s no precedent for this. Most of the post-riot documentation is not well developed,” said Steve O’Dell, director of the Baltimore police crime lab.

    Using nearly $200,000 worth of imaging and surveillance equipment typically used by engineers to build roads and bridges, police took 3-D images of the protest routes, burned-down convenience stores, blown-out businesses and a senior center left in rubble, to create a multidimensional map and model.

    O’Dell said the uses of the information are almost limitless, as forensic science has rarely been applied to studying riots. He said the data will not only help pinpoint damage but will aid arson investigators and inform future plans for how to deploy in large-scale events.

    Details at the link.

    Sexism in the movement. Still a thing. There’s no reason to say Tamir without Aiyana. No reason to say Freddie without Mya. You want to keep pretending men are endangered more.
    Yall use our faces to promote your event and then refuse to invite our voice. #BETBaltimoreSpeaks #WailingWomen

    It’s not okay that black women & WOC are doing work, putting their bodies & lives on the line & it’s not being reciprocated @ the same level.

    Y’all, CBS called the police on members of the Baltimore street orgs who came for #BETBaltimoreSpeaks while they were on the sidewalk.

  285. rq says

    The lost baby saga expands: 70 Women Call About Babies at Homer G. Phillips Hospital

    Many black women who were told decades ago that their babies died at birth at a St. Louis hospital are now wondering if their children are still alive.

    Suspicions arose from the story of Zella Jackson Price, who was 26 in 1965 when she gave birth at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. Hours later, she was told that her daughter had died, but she never saw a body or a death certificate.

    Price was reunited with her 49-year-old daughter last month.

    Price’s attorney, Albert Watkins, is asking city and state officials to investigate.

    In a letter to Gov. Jay Nixon and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, Watkins said he suspects the hospital coordinated a scheme “to steal newborns of color for marketing in private adoption transactions.”

    Price’s story has moved other women to come forward who also suspect their babies were stolen. The city of St. Louis has set up a hotline for other suspecting women to call.

    Maggie Crane from Slay’s office tells KMOX News that since late Tuesday night, they have received 70 calls from women who gave birth at the same hospital.

    Crane says women have a right to know, and the city plans to help them through the process.

    She adds that if enough people come forward, the city attorney and police can investigate.

    If you have concerns that your infant born at the Homer G. Phillips hospital may still be alive, please contact (314) 657-1511.

    Restaurant to give ‘White Appreciation Day’ discount.
    Yup, it’s a thing. All Americans should be treated equal.
    A “White Appreciation Day” Is Being Hosted By A Hispanic-Owned BBQ Joint;
    and – Colorado barbecue joint to host ‘White Appreciation Day’: ‘We have a whole month for black history’.

    Policing scandals threaten to overwhelm Justice Dept.

    The woes of the nation’s 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies have been placed on the shoulders of around 50 lawyers.

    These Justice Department lawyers, housed within the agency’s Civil Rights Division, for the past 20 years have represented an aggressive option for the federal government to step in and force rogue law enforcement bodies to clean up their acts.

    But a series of headline-grabbing incidents in which unarmed black men have died after encounters with police has thrust this unit of lawyers into the forefront. And in a move that could set a precedent for police scandal responses, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake this week proactively asked for and was granted such a probe as part of the solution to her city’s policing crisis sparked by the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray.

    It’s a big ask for a small unit.

    Even before the series of deaths at the hands of police — which President Barack Obama said “come up, it seems, like once a week now” — this Special Litigation Section was clamoring for more resources.

    Attorney General Loretta Lynch acknowledged the department’s limitations at a press conference Friday in which she announced a new pattern or practice probe into the Baltimore Police Department.

    “We always ask for increased resources” from congress, Lynch told reporters. But she added that “we cannot litigate our way out of this problem” by investigating every police department with alleged patterns of misconduct. […]

    Since taking office, the Obama administration has opened 21 investigations into police departments of various sizes — from Los Angeles and New Orleans to Missoula, Montana, and Beacon, New York.

    Such probes can result in legally binding agreements or lawsuits that force reforms in department policy. In its first five years, the Obama-era section secured double the number of agreements of the last five years of the Bush administration.

    But the investigations are incredibly labor-intensive, demanding numerous visits to the city and the attention of large numbers of employees. The Justice Department’s 2014 budget request said that each investigation requires, on average, 1,900 hours of attorney time in its first year, a number that would likely increase in a large city such as Baltimore.

    Also, the section’s lawyers do not have subpoena power, which can make it challenging to get all the documents they need.

    The DOJ, perhaps recognizing how significant a commitment an investigation in Baltimore would be, didn’t immediately agree to launch a pattern-and-practice investigation. A separate part of the Civil Rights Division, focused on criminal investigations, has already launched a more narrow probe into the circumstances around Gray’s death, and on Thursday the Maryland delegation of lawmakers sent a letter asking for the pattern-or-practice investigation.

    Rawlings-Blake’s move to call for an investigation into patterns of abuse in her city, though not entirely unprecedented, has until now been quite uncommon. One notable other example is Charles Ramsey, who called for the DOJ to investigate the police forces of Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., when he led those departments.

    But many experts believe that with so many cities plagued by unrest, other mayors and top police officials could follow suit, stretching the section even thinner.

    Samuel Walker, a criminologist and the author of “Presidents and Civil Liberties from Wilson to Obama,” said that Obama should seek to expand the office’s size and powers. […]

    In 2011, the Obama administration added a new program in the Community Oriented Policing Services office for law enforcement agencies actively seeking reform. But the program has no legally-binding authority and relies on the consent of local leaders who may be reluctant to agree to major overhauls that could include their firing.

    To date it has only launched efforts in six cities, one of which was Baltimore last year.

    And Yeomans said reviews by the COPS office are no substitute for the patterns or practice investigations, which carry real legal consequences.

    “This is the best stick that the Department of Justice has,” Yeomans said. ”Without an effective stick, all of the carrots — federal government collaborative programs [for police reform] — will be less effective.”

    Teen charged with rioting at Freddie Gray march released on $500,000 bail

    Allen Bullock, the 18-year-old accused of smashing a traffic cone through the windshield of a car last month, was released from jail Thursday on a $500,000 bail — higher than the six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray.

    Bullock is charged with eight counts, including rioting and malicious destruction of property stemming from a protest that turned violent downtown on April 25. He was released after his family was able to raise money from around the world, according to his attorney Brandon Mead.

    “He’s got a very stable two-parent home,” Mead said. “He’s got a ton of family support. He’s got a ton of community support. Many from around the country and the world are supporting this young man.”

    Bullock’s parents encouraged him to turn himself in after seeing images of him in the media, they said.

    “He turned himself in. That’s not even right,” said Maurice Hawkins, who is engaged Bullock’s mother. “They are trying to make an example out of him. They are trying to say my son started it. He’s 18 years-old. He’s just a teenager.”

    Hawkins said the family had previously not been able to get him out of jail due to the high bail.

    “He’s doing OK. He’s taking one day at a time. There’s nothing he can do. That’s a ransom. That’s a high bail,” he said during a phone interview earlier this week.

    The online fundraising site, life[dot]indiegogo[dot]com, shows that 345 people have donated $8,800 toward Bullock’s release.

    While Hawkins said the family is still trying to get the amount lowered, they acknowledge Bullock was wrong and must be held accountable for his actions.

    “He got himself in this hot water. He’s got to be patient. He made a mistake,” Hawkins said. He said his fiance, Bullock’s mother, Bobbie Smallwood, blames herself for what happed.

    “She’s stressing but there’s nothing she can do about it,” Hawkins said. “She is getting along but she is missing her son though. She feels like it’s her fault.”

  286. rq says

    ACLU asks schools to not suspend, expel students involved in riots

    A coalition of youth and juvenile justice advocates called on the city school system Thursday to refrain from suspending or expelling teenagers arrested in last week’s rioting in Baltimore.

    In the days after the melee outside Mondawmin Mall, which sparked rioting in other parts of Baltimore, city schools CEO Gregory Thornton said that students who participated in the incidents would face consequences.

    The Coalition to Reform School Discipline — which includes the American Civil Liberties Union, Maryland Disability Law Center, Advocates for Children and Youth, and Office of the Public Defender — issued a joint statement asking the school system to employ “restorative practices,” such as community service and anger management counseling, rather than expulsion.

    They noted that state discipline regulations were revised recently with the aim of keeping more students in school.

    They said “unique circumstances” may have contributed to the unrest, such as heavily militarized police, suspended bus service at Mondawmin, the arrests of innocent bystanders, and the throwing of bricks and debris back at students by police.

    “We hope that this important moment in history will be used as a teachable one, and call on Dr. Thornton, and other administrators, to exercise the utmost care and consideration as they make any disciplinary decisions,” the statement said.

    In a letter to the public the day after the rioting, Thornton wrote that he was “deeply angered” and wanted to “assert in the strongest possible terms that the students who engaged in violence on Monday will be held accountable.”

    “We are working to identify those students, who will experience consequences in full accordance with the law and City Schools’ code of conduct,” Thornton said.

    He also said that a group of 75 students walked out of Frederick Douglass High School at 3 p.m. on the day of the rioting, about an hour before dismissal time, and those students would face consequences.

    On Thursday, the city school system declined to answer questions. Thornton also declined a request for comment.

    […]
    “That rush to criminalize all childish behavior contributes to some of the systemic problems we see in impoverished communities, and what we see in Baltimore City,” Egan said.

    The public defender’s office has criticized the high rate of juvenile arrests that happen in schools.

    The office found that in 2013, 90 percent of the state’s in-school arrests and referrals to the juvenile justice system were in Baltimore. Egan followed 152 cases in the 2013-2014 school year and found that 73 percent were either dismissed, diverted to a program such as teen court or found to be non-delinquent. Only two of the students arrested were found guilty of a felony offense, she said.

    […]
    The juveniles were held because of the unrest, Solomon said, adding that they must be released to a parent or guardian.

    “This is a situation that doesn’t occur too often in Baltimore. It was a state of emergency. We protected the youth,” he said. “Any other time, if they were going to be released, we would do it. We need a guardian to come pick them up. During this time, to get around the city, it was very difficult. We made a decision to hold on to the kids until a judge could hold on to their case.”

    Dorian Johnson Charged with Resisting Arrest; Drink Tests Negative for Illegal Substances, saw that yesterday.

    72-year-old man killed in officer-involved shooting in Gwinnett County

    The Georgia Bureau of Investigations is looing into a fatal officer-involved shooting on the 2800 block of Avalon Meadows Court in Lawrenceville.

    Gwinnett County police say officers were dispatched to a suicide threat call at a home on Avalon Medaows Court around 10:44 a.m.

    According to police, officers arrived to a 72-year-old man who barricaded himself inside his home.
    Gwinnett County police investigate officer-involved shooting photo
    Gwinnett County police investigate officer-involved shooting

    Police say the 72-year-old man, later identified as Joseph Roy, charged at two officers with a chef’s knife six to eight inches in length.

    Two Gwinnett County police officers fired a total of three shots at Roy, hitting him with two shots.

    Investigators say Roy got within five feet of the officers before they opened fire.

    Police confirm Roy was killed in this incident.

    East St. Louis officer allegedly high on cocaine when he shot a suspect. That’s the long, high arm of the law.

    An East St. Louis Housing Authority officer was allegedly under the influence of cocaine when he shot a man during a robbery investigation.

    Arthur Sargent Was charged with aggravated battery, official misconduct and driving under the influence of drugs related to the April 25th incident at the John De-Shields Housing Complex.

    Three security guards from the housing authority were investigating the report of burglaries when they got in a confrontation with Ormond Mosley. Sargent shot and wounded Mosley in the back.

    Sargent has been on administrative leave since the shooting.

    During jailhouse interview, Dorian Johnson claims police are targeting his family

    Dorian Johnson, one of the witnesses to the shooting of Mike Brown, and his two brothers say they believe police are out to get them after they were all three arrested on Wednesday.

    “Dorian has this target on his back,” his grandmother, Brenda Johnson, said. “So it makes it easy. If we can’t get you, we will get your brothers. We will get your family. We will get anybody that’s close to you.”

    Dorian and his two brothers, Demonte and Otis, were arrested Wednesday after police say they resisted a lawful arrest. The brothers claim police mistreated them at the time of the arrest and are still mistreating them while they are in jail.

    The incident began on Wednesday after police responded to the 57800 block of Acme after they say someone in a large group may have had a gun. “He [the officer] grabbed Otis by his wrist and just yanked him real hard off the sidewalk and threw him into the grass,” Demonte Johnson said. Demonte claims he instinctively grabbed the officer in order to protect his brother, Otis. “So as he was doing that, I grabbed the officer and Otis by the wrist. Then I thought ‘I can’t touch the officer.’”

    Family members say they are surprised at Demonte’s behavior because he is a graduate of the Prestige Chaminade Preparatory Academy and is currently enrolled in college.

    However, Brenda Johnson is not surprised and says she saw this coming. She believes police have been on the lookout for Dorian because he spoke out about what happened the day Mike Brown was shot. Dorian was arrested for resisting arrest, but he claims he was just trying to help his brothers.

    “I have injuries on my body. I have injuries and scars from [when the officer] slammed my face down on the concrete,” Dorian said. “[They] hit me on the cruiser, put me in the cruiser, raised up all the windows, and put it on high heat.”

    Otis was arrested at the scene on a Bridgeton warrant. News 4 reached out to speak with him, but was unable to get ahold of him because he was in school. Brenda says detectives have dropped the case against Otis.

    Missouri Legislature Votes to Reform Exploitative Municipal Fine System

    When Michael Brown’s August 2014 death in Missouri was followed by chaotic protests, a number of writers investigating the broader causes of local discontent—most notably the Washington Post’s Radley Balko—concluded that one major source of distrust between police and community members was St. Louis County’s overbearing, abusive system of municipal fines. Thousands of the area’s predominately black residents were—and are—stuck with compounding fines and warrants originating from minor infractions they may not have even committed in the first place. A Department of Justice investigation of Ferguson came to the same conclusions as writers like Balko, observing that “maximizing revenue” seemed to be more of a goal for the Ferguson PD than protecting citizens. (Prosecutors and judges in particular make out quite well in the area.)

    On Thursday the Missouri state legislature passed, with bipartisan support, a bill that seeks to reform the much-criticized system by capping the revenue that can be raised from municipal fines. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

    If Gov. Jay Nixon signs the bill, people could be fined no more than $300 for minor traffic offenses. Cities couldn’t pile on extra “failure to appear” charges because an offender missed a court date. And in most cases, traffic offenders couldn’t be jailed for failing to pay fines.

    Cities that use municipal courts as revenue generators would have to look elsewhere. Fines and fees from minor violations could furnish no more than 12.5 percent of the general operating revenue for municipalities in St. Louis County and 20 percent in the rest of the state.

    The bill passed Missouri’s state House by a 134–25 vote and its Senate by a 31–3 vote. Nixon is expected to sign the measure into law.

  287. rq says

    San Francisco arrests under review after officers’ slur-filled texts revealed

    At least 3,000 arrests in the past decade are under review in San Francisco in a widening scandal over how police officers allegedly wrote racist and homophobic text messages.

    San Francisco’s top prosecutor has impaneled a trio of retired, out-of-town judges to see if bias led to wrongful prosecutions or convictions in thousands of cases investigated by a total of 14 officers.

    Prosecutors have already dismissed charges in some cases involving the officers, District Attorney George Gascon said Thursday at a news conference.

    The judges — Cruz Reynoso, LaDoris Hazzard Cordell and Dickran Tevrizian Jr. — will also investigate whether a “deeper culture of bias” exists within the department, Gascon said. The retired judges won’t be paid, Gascon said.

    San Francisco’s police chief has proposed firing eight officers implicated in the scandal, including a police captain and a sergeant, the San Francisco Chronicle reported last month. Three of the officers have resigned, the newspaper reported.

    The panel of retired judges joins a task force in Gascon’s office already investigating the city police department and the county sheriff’s office after federal prosecutors revealed text messages among police officers including references to cross burnings and a suggestion that it would be OK to shoot a black person because it’s “not against the law to put an animal down.”

    That task force is also investigating faulty testing at the DNA crime lab and prize-fighting of inmates in the county jail, Gascon said.

    Much more at the link.

    Department of Justice Asking Why Full Probe Wasn’t Launched in Dover Officer Assault Case

    The Department of Justice is looking into why federal prosecutors only opened a preliminary investigation into the assault of a Delaware man at the hands of a police officer.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wilmington, Delaware told NBC10 Friday that officials did review dashcam video showing Dover Police Cpl. Tom Webster kicking Lateef Dickerson in the head during an August 2013 arrest as part of an initial review of the case.

    But the office maintained Dickerson’s civil rights were not infringed upon and closed its investigation. Officials can’t or won’t say why a formal probe was not launched.

    The video was released by the Dover Police Department on Thursday — less than a week after Webster was indicted on a 2nd Degree Assault charge.

    A grand jury indicted Webster more than a year and a half after the incident. It was the second grand jury to review the case. The first grand jury, convened last March, did not bring charges. It is not clear whether they reviewed the video.

    Webster was suspended following the arrest and later disciplined by the department, but returned to the force in June 2014.

    The ACLU later sued the department on the man’s behalf claiming brutality.

    Webster has not commented on the indictment, but his attorney, Jim Liguori, said the officer is innocent. No one was at his home Friday. He has been suspended from the force once again, this time without pay.

    Dickerson faced several charges after the arrest, which took place after a large fight at a Hess gas station. Those were later dropped.

  288. rq says

    Ack, didn’t finish that one.
    My baby put together a amazing women’s march today brought out the past mayor and the new one ::: #BALTIMORE

    Officer in Freddie Gray case demanded man’s arrest as part of personal dispute

    The most senior Baltimore police officer charged over the death of Freddie Gray used his position to order the arrest of a man as part of a personal dispute just two weeks before the fatal incident, prompting an internal inquiry by Baltimore police department.

    During an erratic late-night episode in March, Brian Rice boasted he was a Baltimore police lieutenant and warned “heads will roll” if officers in a nearby city did not “go arrest” his ex-girlfriend’s husband, according to a police report obtained by the Guardian.

    The incident is the latest in a series revealed by the Guardian that policing experts said raised questions over Rice’s ability to perform his duties as a supervising officer and the Baltimore department’s decision to keep him on front line patrols.

    Two weeks later, it was Rice who initiated the arrest of Gray after the 25-year-old “made eye contact” with the lieutenant in a west Baltimore street and ran away. Gray was chased and subjected to a fatal arrest that was declared unlawful by the city’s top prosecutor.

    Gray suffered a badly broken neck while travelling in a police van in handcuffs and shackles. He later died in hospital, prompting protests and violent unrest across the city.

    Investigators from Baltimore police’s internal affairs division, which looks into allegations against the department’s officers, made inquiries over the 29 March incident after learning of Rice’s actions, according to a separate police document obtained by the Guardian.

    Spokespeople for the police department on Friday declined to say what, if any, disciplinary action was taken against Rice, or whether his fitness for work was reassessed. They referred a list of detailed questions to the state’s attorney’s office, which has had no involvement in the March incident.

    It was previously disclosed that Rice was accused of threatening to kill the same man, Andrew McAleer, and himself during an alleged campaign of harassment between 2012 and 2013, which earned him a temporary restraining order. Rice was twice disciplined in this period by Baltimore chiefs and consigned to paperwork with his police gun and badge revoked, according to police sources.

    Prosecutors allege he and his colleagues illegally arrested Gray because a knife discovered in the 25-year-old’s pocket was lawful. Rice and some of the other six officers involved are accused of being culpable for Gray’s death after failing to seatbelt him in the police van or answer his pleas for medical attention. Rice, 41, is charged with manslaughter, assault and misconduct in office.

    Freddie Gray case: Defense attorneys call for prosecutor to be dismissed – no way!

    Attorneys for the six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray want the case dismissed or State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office to be taken off the case.

    A lengthy motion filed Friday in Baltimore City District Court cites a variety of concerns, including conflicts of interest and questions about the office’s independent investigation.

    Earlier this week, Mosby told CNN she would stay on the case.

    “There is no conflict of interest. I’m going to prosecute. I’m the Baltimore state’s attorney. My district includes every city in Baltimore city. A number of crimes that take place in Baltimore city and unfortunately in the district we live. Where is the conflict?” she said.

    The court document spells out what the defense sees as five conflicts of interest:

    1) Mosby and her husband, City Council member Nick Mosby, stand to gain financially and politically. […]

    2) Someone in her office has a personal relationship with a potential witness. […]

    3) Her office took a role in investigating the case. […]

    4) There is a pending civil claim against her office. […]

    5) An attorney for Gray’s family, William “Billy” Murphy, is a close friend, supporter and a lawyer who represented Marilyn Mosby in an ethics complaint. […]

    The motion also says Mosby “egregiously violated” the officers’ rights to due process when she “publicly and with inciting rhetoric” announced the case against the officers by reading every word of the charging documents. The motion also says Mosby’s statements to the young people of Baltimore revealed her political and personal motivation in the case and betrayed the U.S. Constitution and ethical requirements of prosecutors.

    The motion calls for the case to be dismissed, and if not, for a special prosecutor to be appointed.

    The six Freddie Gray cops threaten to sue @MarilynMosbyEsq & @MayorSRB unless they’re paid $75k+ damages. Letters: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2075542-lawsuit-notifying-letters.html …

  289. rq says

    Maria & Nate Hamilton speaking on @CNN this morning about the Million Moms March and police brutality @mommas4justice

    @sarahkendzior, saying the things that need to be said in her new book. #BlackTwitter #ArabSpring #BlackSpring

    And @Beyonce marched for Trayvon, has used her IG re: #FreddieGray, and performed re: hands-up, amongst other things. She’s with us, y’all.

    The new #FreddieGray / #BaltimoreUprising mural that was unveiled in Gilmor Homes by #BmoreYouthRise this morning

    Media calls us “thugs”. Yik Yak anons call us “n*gg*rs”. But make sure you call us graduates too.

    South Carolina Cop Shoots Homeowner Who Called for Help

    A black South Carolina man was in serious condition Friday after being shot by a white deputy sheriff responding to his report of someone breaking into his house.

    Authorities moved quickly to try to calm tensions over the episode, which occurred in the same county as the April 4 police shooting of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, and amid a furious national debate over police use of force in minority communities.

    “We’re as sorry as we can be,” Charleston County Sheriff James Alton Cannon Jr. said in a Friday meeting with community leaders.

    “What makes this even more of a tragedy for us is that someone in effect called us for help and we ended up being a part of him getting injured seriously,” Cannon said.

    The victim, Bryan Heyward, called 911 around 11 a.m. Thursday to report that armed men were trying to enter his mother’s home in the rural town of Hollywood, authorities said. “It’s an emergency and they have guns,” Heyward said, according to recordings released by authorities.

    Two deputies arrived and were told that shots had been fired and two black suspects had been seen fleeing the back yard, the sheriff’s office said. The deputies went around back and noticed damage to a front window and a back door, Cannon said.

    Then Heyward, 26, appeared in the back doorway, holding a .40-caliber handgun that he’d been using to protect himself, Cannon said. One deputy, Keith Tyner, told him to drop it.

    Heyward did not immediately do so. The deputy fired twice, hitting Heyward in the neck with a single round, according to the sheriff’s office.

    It was not clear how much time elapsed between the warning and the shot. […]

    Representatives of Heyward’s family said that the deputies at the scene were also wearing microphones, and found it curious that recordings from those devices have not been shared with the public.

    “Just as that tape was released today so quickly to try to justify the shooting, why can’t those other audio tapes be released?” said the Rev. Charles White Jr., a field director of the National Action Network and a cousin of Heyward’s.

    Those recordings could reveal how long Tyner waited before shooting Heyward, the family representatives said.

    “We have no issue with officers protecting themselves and others when they have their lives endangered,” lawyer Chris Stewart said. “But to not take the time to make sure you’re not shooting the person that called you is a concern.”

    The family representatives also stressed that Heyward was clearly frightened when he called 911, and might not have known who was shouting at him when he stood in the back door.

    “I challenge each of you to ask yourself in a situation as traumatic as that, what would you do?” lawyer Justin Bamberg told reporters. “Can you say definitively that your first thought would be to drop the firearm?”

    Cannon said he did not fault Heyward for arming himself. “In my opinion he was doing what he had a right to do in protecting himself from these individual who were apparently attempting to get into the home,” the sheriff said.

  290. rq says

    FOP #3 response to DOJ announcement 5/8/15, text attached.

    Honoring Moms in Palestine #MillionMomsMarch

    Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton giving demands to a rep of the Department of Justice #MillionMomsMarch

    These @TuskegeeUniv alums met Eleanor Roosevelt during her historic visit in 1941 to fly with the #TuskegeeAirmen.

    Have a music by Prince: Prince3EG
    BALTIMORE

    The original recording subsequently became a demo when Prince, that very same night – all alone in Studio A, played all the instruments on an entire new version of the song. The next morning Joshua Welton and Kirk Johnson transferred Prince’s tracks in2 Studio B. and mixing began. As the song neared completion at Prince’s behest Eryn Allen Kane graciously flew in on a moment’s notice and graced the track with her angelic presence.

    Speaking of presence, Prince was not during Eryn’s vocal sessions. After being given the green light by Prince, via the studio intercom, Ms. Kane basically listened down 2 the track a few times and instinctively knew what was needed.

    Black Homeowner Calling 911 for Help Shot by White Officer.

    Another black man has been shot in the same county as Walter Scott. On Thursday around 11 a.m., Bryan Heyward called 911 and said men were trying to break into his mother’s home in Hollywood, South Carolina. “It’s an emergency and they have guns,” he reportedly told the dispatcher. When two officers arrived, shots had been fired and they were told two black males had fled out the back of the house.

    Then, Heyward came to the back door with a gun he had been using to protect himself. One of the deputies told him to drop it, and when he did not immediately do so, he was in the neck. He’s now in serious condition in the hospital.

    “We’re as sorry as we can be,” said Charleston County Sheriff James Alton Cannon Jr. Friday. “What makes this even more of a tragedy for us is that someone in effect called us for help and we ended up being a part of him getting injured seriously.”

    Heyward was recorded speaking to an investigator on the way to the hospital. “The officer did it, but it was an accident,” he said. “I should have put the gun down, but I didn’t.” The deputies who responded to the call were also wearing microphones, and the Heyward family are calling for those recordings to be released as well.

    Yeah, just a second perspective on that.

  291. rq says

    For Mother’s Day, I’m a Single Mom, But I Am Also the Greatest Mom of All Time, So There

    On March 29 of 2013, my ex-turned-co-parent and I welcomed the birth of a beautiful, bouncing baby girl who would change both of our lives very quickly. Though I always thought becoming a single parent was a fate just slightly worse than death, the past two years have been an incredible journey for me—one that’s lonely and overwhelming at times, but always worth it.

    I decided early on that I wouldn’t allow single parenthood to be the end of Jamilah. My career ambitions, my interest in men and sex (yes, sex… I said sex and I meant it), and my relationships with my loved ones would shift to revolve around this magical girl child, of course. But I was not willing to sacrifice everything that made me who I was prior to becoming pregnant for the sake of this child.

    It isn’t that she’s not worth it; rather, I didn’t feel I could be a good mom if I was a miserable shell of myself. I’ve observed long-suffering single moms and 1) eww, I’m too fly for that, and 2) I couldn’t see that making for a healthy, happy relationship to my child. […]

    I think about silly things I don’t think I would be concerned about if I were partnered, like not having on the shortest dress at a someone else’s kid’s birthday party, or working hard to make sure that I’m “successful, middle-class career mom,” not “perpetually struggling single mom” (motherhood triggered class anxieties and aspirations I didn’t realize I had) and flipping out internally when someone refers to my ex as my “baby daddy.”

    Side note: Despite years of writing and various little accolades along the way, “Jamilah Lemieux baby daddy” comes up when you type my name in a Google Images search. I don’t know who you awful human beings are who have been searching that, but please consider taking a class at your local rec center if you are so lacking in hobbies. Zumba is a good one, I hear.

    I also have anxiety about falling in love again. Though I’ve healed from my breakup, I’m not naïve enough to dismiss the fact that it is simply harder to find someone when you are a single mom. (I’m sure dads struggle with it too, particularly those who are the custodial parent. However, so long as we treat Black single moms like failures and Black single dads like EGOT winners, I wouldn’t say it’s the same.) I really do want to be married—not as pressed about a second baby, and I’d remove my ovaries before I signed up to be the single mom of two children. But if I meet the right person, I’d gladly ruin my body again—and sometimes I fear that it just won’t happen for me now.

    That my ex has since married and had a second baby, thus giving my daughter the nuclear family household I can’t yet provide, has added some additional soreness here, that’s for sure–something I overcompensate for with pretty clothes and new toys and treats. What if one day she looks at me like I’m a failure for not being married when I had her? What if I never give her a sibling, will my household pale in comparison to her dad’s in her eyes? Can making her read my résumé make that go away or nah? How much money do I need to earn to compensate? She literally said “I miss daddy’s house” this morning and I immediately started pricing ponies.

    But for all the bad, sad or simply difficult things, my life as a solo parent has been pretty darn great. I might not have found love yet, but I have an active dating life. I’m not saying I’ve had better luck dating in the past year and a half than some of these women who would list “I DON’T HAVE KIDS” at the top of their romantic resumes… actually, yes, I am saying exactly that. Because my child’s time is divided (not evenly, but significantly) between two households, I have time to still embrace this part of myself, and I am very grateful for that.

    I’ve also traveled extensively for work and pleasure, been promoted at work, raised my platform and began the early stages of my first book—all in this first two years of motherhood. I got what I wanted: I’m still Jamilah. Though I rarely call on folks to babysit, my extensive village has been so supportive by sharing resources, encouragement or simply clicking “like” on baby pics when I needed to share them with the world to try filling the void of sitting with a partner and lovingly gazing at our work. Her father has been a great co-parent and though we aren’t friends (good for Lenny and Lisa, but I will pass on that), I’m happy she has such a close relationship with him.

    Oh, and… my daughter? She is funny, sweet and absolutely beautiful (shameless plug: you can see her in this month’s EBONY), a total joy to everyone she meets. She’s not starting daycare for another month, but she can count past 20, knows her ABCs and has even started recognizing words. She has made me a better person and changed my life in profound, unspeakable ways. The circumstances may not be ideal, but I couldn’t ask for a greater child.

    #BmoreUnited #BmoreYouthRise @Bmore_United

    And there is a new Baltimore Police Union (@FOP3) website for the six officers who killed #FreddieGray. Sick. http://www.baltimore6.com/

    My newest show #MayDay is #GrayDay a look at global insurrections on May 1st + a round up of the #BaltimoreRiots http://m0therfuck.in/Gray_Day

  292. rq says

    Nine Georgia deputies fired over death of inmate

    Nine Georgia sheriff’s deputies were fired over the death of a 22-year-old college student who was placed in restraints in police custody, officials said Friday.

    Chatham County Sheriff Al. St. Lawrence said the firings followed an internal investigation and a separate probe by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations into the New Year’s Day death of Matthew Ajibade.

    Ajibade was arrested on domestic violence charges Jan. 1 after Savannah-Chatham police found his girlfriend with a bruised face and broken nose while responding to a domestic disturbance call, police said.

    His girlfriend handed police a bottle of Ajibade’s prescription medication for bipolar disorder before he was carted off, Ajibade’s family said.

    During booking, Ajibade allegedly began fighting with deputies and injured three of them, the sheriff’s office said. One reportedly had a concussion and broken nose.

    Ajibade was placed in a restraining chair in an isolation cell, where he was later found unresponsive, officials said. The results of his autopsy have not been released because a prosecutor is weighing whether to file criminal charges, officials said.

    While the cause of Ajibade’s death has not been made public, the sheriff’s office released a Feb. 9 memo instructing deputies never to use stun guns on detainees in restraints.

    The sheriff’s office noted that it instituted new policies to check on the use of stun guns in jail and notify medical staff immediately when a detainee requiring medication arrives.

    Supervisors Cpl. Maxine Evans and Cpl. Jason Kenny were suspended after the death and fired Friday.

    The other fired deputies include: Pvt. Eric Vinson, Pvt. Abram Burns, Pvt. Christopher Reed, Pvt. Burt Ambrose, Pvt. Paul Folsome, Pvt. Frederick Burke and Pvt. Andrew Evans-Martinez.

    “The fact that nine people were fired tells us how terrible this incident was,” Will Claiborne, an attorney for Ajibade’s family, said in a statement. “But the family still has no answers about what happened to Matthew.”

    Three other deputies who were involved in the incident left the department earlier for reasons unrelated to Ajibade’s death, the Savannah Morning News reported.

    Lawrence said he “deeply regrets the death of Mr. Ajibade.”

    Chatham County District Attorney Meg Heap said she likely will present the case to a grand jury next month, the Morning News reported.

    “I want this case to be tried in a court room, not a court of public opinion,” Heap said.

    Sorry about that, Heap, but public opinion gets a go at you, too.

    Violence surges as Baltimore police officers feel hesitant

    State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby’s decision last week to charge the officers has stoked strong opinions across the country — including praise from those who want accountability and derision from some legal experts.

    But perhaps the most jarring effect has been on the Baltimore Police Department.

    “In 29 years, I’ve gone through some bad times, but I’ve never seen it this bad,” said Lt. Kenneth Butler, president of the Vanguard Justice Society, a group for black Baltimore police officers. Officers “feel as though the state’s attorney will hang them out to dry.”

    Several officers said in interviews they are concerned crime could spike as officers are hesitant to do their jobs, and criminals sense opportunity. Butler, a shift commander in the Southern District, said his officers are expressing reluctance to go after crime.

    “I’m hearing it from guys who were go-getters, who would go out here and get the guns and the bad guys and drugs. They’re hands-off now,” Butler said. “I’ve never seen so many dejected faces.

    “Policing, as we once knew it, has changed.”

    Remember all that chaos in NYC when the NYPD refused to make arrests except if they really, really, really had to? Yeah, I don’t either.

    Mothers Against Senseless Killing. M.A.S.K. #MillionMomsMarch #BlackLivesMatter

    Signs of the Freddie Gray Protests, photo gallery. See creative people working for social justice!

    Tidal to stream Prince’s Rally 4 Peace Concert in Baltimore in full for free

    Jay-Z’s music streaming service Tidal will be not only streaming Prince’s Baltimore Rally 4 Peace Concert in full for free.

    It’s also promised to “match funds” of all donations made through the Tidal website to Baltimore youth charities. In addition, Tidal have announced their support for the Baltimore Justice Fund which aims to end racial discrimination, create schools, reduce drug addiction and eliminate police brutality.

    Following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody and the ensuing riots, Prince’s surprise show was announced as an effort to help heal the community. Tidal will be streaming the concert “pre-paywall” meaning that users will not have to subscribe to the paid service in order to listen to the high quality audio. Jay-Z gave this statement about the announcement:

    “I am honored to join Prince in his mission to inspire through the uniting power of music and be able to offer a platform where this moment can be shared globally. We invite all to experience the music and contribute in their own way to promote peace, tolerance and understanding,” “Our prayers go out to Freddie Gray’s family and every family affected by brutality and senseless violence.”

    The concert will take place this Sunday (10th May) with Price’s band 3RDEYEGIRL in tow and Prince has requested all attendees wear grey in tribute to those lost in the recent violence.

    Could be worth a look.

    State’s Attorney Mosby: Drop all charges against protesters. Petition.

    The people of Baltimore have had enough. Over just the last 4 years, police have killed 109 people in the city. And in 2014, 100% of the people killed by Baltimore police were Black. Baltimore — like most cities in America — has a long and ongoing history of violent, discriminatory and illegal policing.

    Following the tragic police killing of 25-year-old Freddie Gray the people of Baltimore rose up and moved State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to charge all 6 officers who killed Freddie Gray. But while the police who killed Gray are out of jail, hundreds of protesters languish in overcrowded, inhumane jail conditions facing unjust criminal charges and outrageous bail.

    Urge State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to drop the charges against all protesters.

    The text of the letter to be sent in your name:

    Dear State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby,

    I am writing to thank you for pursuing criminal charges against the officers who killed Freddie Gray. I cannot say how much this means. In the midst of rampant police violence against Black women and men, it is important to me that our city officials work to ensure that killer cops are held accountable.

    After Freddie Gray’s death, thousands of protesters took a stand and spoke out against the brutal violence of Baltimore police officers. And now, in an ironic twist of events, protesters are being criminalized for speaking out against state-sanctioned violence. This is unacceptable.

    Please, continue to be the voice of justice and protect the voices of those of us who are frustrated with a system that continues to abuse our families and loved ones.

    I urge you to drop the charges against all protesters and be an advocate for those of us tired of the violence in our communities.

    Sincerely,

  293. rq says

    Scientists Find Alarming Deterioration In DNA Of The Urban Poor

    The urban poor in the United States are experiencing accelerated aging at the cellular level, and chronic stress linked both to income level and racial-ethnic identity is driving this physiological deterioration.

    These are among the findings published this week by a group of prominent biologists and social researchers, including a Nobel laureate. Dr. Arline Geronimus, a visiting scholar at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study and the lead author of the study, described it as the most rigorous research of its kind examining how “structurally rooted social processes work through biological mechanisms to impact health.” […]
    Researchers also highlighted the hypersegregation in the Detroit area. “Most blacks in our sample live almost exclusively with other blacks (97% of Eastside Detroit residents are black) or are the majority group in integrated neighborhoods (e.g., 70% of Northwest Detroit residents are black), [and] whites are a clear minority in all of our Detroit areas (ranging from 2% to 21% of residents).”

    They found that associations between telomere length and perceptions of neighborhood physical environment and neighborhood satisfaction were strongest for blacks, and questioned whether “safety stress, physical environment, and neighborhood satisfaction tap into a more global construct of how black participants experience Detroit neighborhoods, which on balance may be more positively than for white or Mexican participants.”

    In contrast, regarding white Detroit residents, the researchers wrote, “Perhaps with the exodus of most whites and many jobs from Detroit, the shrinking benefits of labor union membership and public pensions, and the overall reduction in taxation-based city services, the poor whites who remain are particularly adversely affected by the social and ecological consequences of austerity urbanism. Lacking the financial resources, social networks, and identity affirmation of the past, remaining Detroit whites may have less to protect them from the health effects of poverty, stigma, anxiety, or hopelessness in this setting.”

    Geronimus summarized, “I think a lot of people just don’t understand how bad it is for some Americans. It’s disproportionately people of color given our history of residential segregation and racism, but it’s also anyone who gets caught. It’s like the dolphins who get caught in the fishing nets, it’s anyone who gets caught there. If anything, some of our evidence suggests that whether it’s the poor Mexican immigrant or the African-Americans who have been discriminated against and dealt with hardship for generation after generation, they’ve developed systems to cope somewhat that perhaps white Detroiters haven’t. So there’s great strength in these populations. But it’s not enough to solve these problems without the help of policymakers and more emphatic fellow citizens.” […]

    Blackburn believes that vital questions relevant to social policy have remained unanswered because the issues were highly complex and it was easy to question data from qualitative research methods, like people’s questionnaire answers about their personal experiences and perceptions. “When something’s really hard to assess, the easy thing is to dismiss it. They say it’s soft science, it’s not really hard-based science.”

    But now telomere data is providing a new way to quantitatively analyze some of these complex topics. Blackburn ticked off a list of studies in which people’s experiences and perceptions directly correlated with their telomere lengths: whether people say they feel stressed or pessimistic; whether they feel racial discrimination towards others or feel discriminated against; whether they have experienced severely negative experiences in childhood, and so on.

    “These are all really adding up in this quantitative way,” she said. “Once you get a quantitative relationship, then this is science, right?”

    New Tenn. law bans racial profiling by law enforcement. Small victory – and now to enforce!

    Gov. Bill Haslam has signed legislation that requires all of Tennessee’s law enforcement agencies to adopt written policies to ban racial profiling.

    The Republican governor signed the measure earlier this week. It unanimously passed the House 93-0 and was approved 27-0 in the Senate during the recent session.

    Supporters say the measure is in response to a series of incidents involving white police officers killing unarmed black men over the last year.

    Previous efforts to require racial profiling policies fell short in the Legislature over the years.

    Lawmakers in 2005 ordered a comptroller’s study on the role of ethnicity in traffic stops by the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

    Excerpt: The NYPD Patrol Guide (from 2004):

    All uniformed members of the service are responsible and accountable for the proper use of force under appropriate circumstances. Members of the service are reminded that the application of force must be consistent with existing law and with New York City Police Department Values, by which we pledge to value human life and respect the dignity of each individual. Depending upon the circumstances, both federal and state laws provide for criminal sanctions and civil liability against uniformed members of the service, when force is deemed excessive, wrongful or improperly applied.

    The primary duty of all members of the service is to preserve human life. Only that amount of force necessary to overcome resistance will be used to effect an arrest or take a mentally ill or emotionally disturbed person into custody. Deadly physical force will be used ONLY as a last resort and consistent with Department policy and the law.

    At the scene of a police incident, many members of the service may be present and some members may not be directly involved in taking police actions. However, this does not relieve any member present of the obligation to ensure that the requirements of the law and Department regulations are complied with. Members of the service are required to maintain control or intervene if the use of force against a subject clearly becomes excessive. Failure to do so may result in both criminal and civil liability. EXCESSIVE FORCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

    All members of the service at the scene of a police incident must:
    (a) Immediately establish firearms control
    (b) Use minimum necessary force
    (c) Employ non-lethal alternatives, as appropriate.

    Members of the New York City Police Department will NOT use chokeholds. A chokehold shall include, but is not limited to, any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.

    Whenever it becomes necessary to take a violent or resisting subject into custody, responding officers should utilize appropriate tactics in a coordinated effort to overcome resistance (for example see PG 216-05, “Aided Cases-Mentally Ill or Emotionally Disturbed Persons”). The patrol supervisor, if present should direct and control all activity. Whenever possible, members should make every effort to avoid tactics, such as sitting or standing on a subject’s chest, which may result in chest compression, thereby reducing the subject’s ability to breathe.

    In 1972, the CDC reported black people were killed by police at a rate of 6.6 per million population. In 2014, it was 7.1 per million.

    From Popehat, Cops: We Need Rights More Than You, Citizen – a look at the ‘due process’ letter sent in the wake of Mosby’s charges.

    It’s untrue that cops scorn constitutional rights. It’s unfair to say that they oppose fair procedures designed to promote truth. It’s inaccurate to say they oppose measures designed to protect suspects from coercion.

    They understand and believe in all of those things.

    For them.

    Chuck Canterbury, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, wrote a revealing column in the New York Times today. He extolled the virtues of due process:

    The right to due process, enshrined in our Constitution, is one of the cornerstones of our republic. The existence of this right – that everyone is presumed innocent and that everyone is entitled to a fair hearing – is woven tightly into American society. Why should this not be true for police?

    Well, it is true for police. Practically speaking police are far more likely to receive methodical deliberation and the benefit of the doubt than the rest of us.

    But when Canterbury says “due process,” he means a little something extra for cops. They need it, you see:

    This higher standard and increased visibility renders police vulnerable to unfounded scrutiny.

    So. What kind of due process do cops want? They want bills of rights. Cops like Canterbury attempt to portray these as simply giving cops the same rights enjoyed by civilians:

    Maryland was one of the first states to enact a “bill of rights” for its police, and other states followed. In other jurisdictions, those protections are a result of collective bargaining and embedded in negotiated contracts.

    These laws and contracts do not protect the jobs of “bad cops” or officers unfit for duty. Nor do they afford police any greater rights than those possessed by other citizens; they simply reaffirm the existence of those rights in the unique context of the law enforcement community.

    That’s simply not true, unless Canterbury is using “the unique context of the law enforcement community” to mean “for people whose rights we actually respect and care about.”

  294. rq says

    Eh. Meant to say, Ken White goes on to look at legal aspects of policing. Very informative.

    Michelle Obama delivers Tuskegee University commencement address

    Michelle Obama invoked the storied history of Tuskegee University as she urged new graduates to soar to their futures.

    The First Lady gave the commencement address Saturday at the historically black university in Alabama.

    Obama said the defining story of Tuskegee is that of rising hopes for all African Americans.

    Obama described how the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots of World War II, endured humiliating slights and how the schools’ first students made bricks by hand when there was no money for construction.

    She told the 500 graduates to trust themselves to “chart your own course and make your own mark in the world.”

    The Tuskegee commencement is one of three graduation ceremonies that Obama will speak at this year. She will also deliver remarks at Oberlin College and a high school in her hometown of Chicago.

    The first lady last visited Alabama in March. She accompanied President Barack Obama and their two daughters to Selma for the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.

    Michelle Obama is the second first lady to visit the private school. Eleanor Roosevelt was the first in 1941, when she flew with a black Army pilot to show support for the famed Tuskegee Airmen.

    The private university was founded in 1881 by Booker T. Washington. The university in central Alabama has an enrollment of about 3,000.

    Baltimore Photographer Captures Zeitgeist, with audio at the link.

    A photograph on the cover of Time magazine captures the moment we find ourselves in now – or is it 1968?
    Devin Allen’s photo is the cover of Time magazine.

    Devin Allen’s photo is the cover of Time magazine.

    Devin Allen is the photographer. He’s 26, a Baltimore native, self-taught and his photos have gone viral (scroll down to see more).

    As arrests continued and buildings burned to the ground, Allen was out in the streets documenting the violent riots and protests, but also the moments that remind us that one crowd is made of many individuals – just as human as the rest of us.

    The Time cover photo was from a protest that Allen photographed on April 25.

    “It was a peaceful day, it was a peaceful rally, but it got a little out of hand,” he told Here & Now’s Robin Young. “And the cause of that were the police putting on their riot gear and slowly approaching, because of the other rioters that was basically defacing and destroying the police cars.” […]

    “After this situation, I want to take this further,” Allen said. “This situation inspired me.” Allen, who picked up his first camera in 2012, is now thinking about going to film school.

    While the media is paying a lot of attention to Allen, he says he’s not in it for credit or money.

    “A lot of people are saying, ‘why didn’t you put your name on your pictures?’ I didn’t put my name on these pictures because I wanted them to go viral, I wanted everybody to post them, I wanted people to see,” he said.

    “If I did it for money, it would be tarnished. I did this from the heart.”

    Lots more faantastic photos at the link.

    Women’s day march recently held in Baltimore. Attended by past and current mayor. Photo @byDVNLLN

    Inquiry to Examine Racial Bias in the San Francisco Police (NY Times version)

    RT@Ms_Workes Ferguson activist and mother of three halfway to go fund me goal please help get out this tight spot http://www.gofundme.com/s3vqng

  295. rq says

    #BmoreYouthRise peaceful walk on this sunny day

    Officers Charged in Freddie Gray’s Death Call for Prosecutor’s Recusal, Gawker.

    Ohio Man Claims Employer Ordered Him to Cut Dreads or Be Fired. So he claims. But there’s no racism involved. Eh.

    Charles Craddock of Cleveland, Ohio, is studying mechanics at a local community college, so he needs a steady job to help pay his tuition, ABC News reports.

    So it was a godsend when the 20-year-old landed a job recently as a food service associate at Cedar Point amusement park, which describes itself as the “roller coaster capital of the world,” in Sandusky, Ohio, the report says.

    One prerequisite, though, he says: He was instructed to cut his shoulder-length dreadlocks or lose his new job, which he obtained to help pay tuition at Cuyahoga Community College, ABC reports.

    The news came after Craddock completed orientation and moved into dorms at the amusement park, he tells ABC News.

    The amusement park, however, contradicted his claims, saying he was told about the dress code. A park spokeswoman tells ABC that the standard for male workers is that their hair can’t be longer than their collars. Also banned are ponytails and “extreme hairstyles.”

    And “any twisted hair has to meet the other requirements,” the spokeswoman says.

    Furthermore, Craddock was not fired, Cedar Point spokesman Bryan Edwards said in a written statement to ABC News.

    “Charles Craddock resigned from his job as a food services associate on May 3rd because he chose not to comply with our grooming standards,” the statement read. “Mr. Craddock was informed … three times prior to moving into the dorms [that] his hair would need to be trimmed or pinned up to meet those guidelines. It’s important to note, we employ 5,000 associates and their personal appearance plays a very important role in Cedar Point’s overall image.”

    Although told he could pin up his hair, Craddock said a worker told him during training he did not have that option, ABC’s report says.

    “The trainer said I couldn’t pull it back,” Craddock tells ABC News. “He said I would have to cut it. They told me I had to leave, because I wasn’t going to cut my hair.”

    Yep, he didn’t meet their grooming standards.

    #VonDerrittMyers Vigil.
    Klemm and Shaw.
    5:30pm
    5/9

    @deray just met the democratic party in Feguson talking about election reform at @VoteRunLead in St Louis. Check out #RankChoiceVoting.

  296. rq says

    Laci Green! With an excellent overview of what makes racism today (hint: it’s not using the n-word!). IS RACISM OVER YET? Read the info about that video, there are SO MANY links at the bottom. That’s a reading list all its own.

    In case anyone hasn’t noticed, Tony writes a blog with all kinds of wonderful stuff, but he also looks at racism. Here’s one of the more recent examples: Racism is totes a thing of the past

    On a regular basis, conservatives (and liberals on occasion) claim that the United States is a post-racial country. In other words, racism, racial discrimination, and prejudice based on race are all things of the past. Leaving aside the fact that people who feel this way have an incomplete understanding of racism (seriously, they need a 101 lesson), these ignoramuses are also blind to the individual examples of racism (rather than institutional or structural) that occur all the damn time. Here are five recent incidents that put the lie to the notion that racism is a thing of the past:

    Five recent incidents with an article each, plus Tony’s fantastic commentary.

    Citizen journo who videod Eric Garner’s murder now hounded by NYPD. It’s a recent article, so I’m not sure if new things have happened or not, but there doesn’t seem to be any particularly new information within.

    #WhiteFolkWork [emoji] RT @keenblackgirl: White Folks who “get it” are holding their version of #BlackChurch at a white church tomorrow.

    Ferguson Police May be Held in Contempt of Court for Continuing to Arrest Citizens who Record (Updated II)

    The video begins with at least seven Ferguson police officers standing in the street, blocking a lane of traffic, with an eighth cop jaywalking across the street, forcing more cars to stop. The cops are facing a group of protesters standing on the sidewalk across the street from the police department, a common occurrence since the shooting death of Michael Brown last year.

    Within seconds, the cops move into the group of protesters to begin making arrests, specifically targeting a woman named Deborah Kennedy, a postal worker turned activist who announced she will be running for city council next year.

    The cops chase her into the crowd on the sidewalk, obviously singling her out from other protests who were standing in the middle of a side street, grabbing her and twisting her arms behind her back, shoving her into in the main street to continue their arrest.

    That was when Scott Kampas, who was documenting the interaction for the National Lawyers Guild, stepped into the street to record the arrest.

    Within seconds, police turned to him and arrested him as well.

    Ferguson police claim they did not arrest Kampas because he was recording, but because he had stepped into the street.

    However, they charged him with “peace disturbance,” the Missouri version of disorderly conduct, a statute which lists a wide range of arrestable actions, including the following, which most closely pertains to stepping into the street.

    (2) Is in a public place or on private property of another without consent and purposely causes inconvenience to another person or persons by unreasonably and physically obstructing:

    (a) Vehicular or pedestrian traffic; or

    But it’s clear from the video that even though he may have stepped into the street, he did not physically obstruct any vehicles because the cops were already doing that, first, by standing in the street facing off with the protesters, and second, by dragging Kennedy into the street to arrest her. Furthermore, he was not interfering with the arrest in any way.

    Kennedy was apparently also arrested on the same charge, but the video doesn’t show her in the street. If, in fact, she was standing on the side street before the video panned in that direction, then she was one of many people standing there.

    So it still happens. More on the legalities etc. at the link.

    @deray @capetownbrown ..#JusticeForTy march in Middletown DE. ..no justice no peace

  297. rq says

    Also, we seem to be approaching yet another 90-day limit on this post. Turning this into a blog is still on the radar, probably as posts in similar format (though with more links per post – separated by theme?). With maybe posting the external link still here on the continuation of this thread (should PZ let us keep this corner of the basement), to reduce the inconvenience of yet another blog somewhere.
    Note: I know for me another blog external to the FtB network would be an inconvenience, which is why I mention that, but I don’t know if that is an issue for others in the readership.
    Anyway. That’s kind of a heads-up and rumination.

  298. says

    Another possibility is that I give you author privilege, and then you can create entries whenever you want on Pharyngula.

    To do that, though, you need to be a registered user on this site — you aren’t on the list. Are you registered through FtB in general?

  299. rq says

    PZ
    I think I am. I know I have a separate wordpress login which isn’t the same as the FtB login I use.
    I’ll look into registering tomorrow (I thought I already was, oh well), it’s late right now (and yeah it probably takes 5 minutes but I want those 5 minutes).
    Author privilege, though. O.o Cool! I’ll think about it. :)

  300. rq says

    So (a) I can’t seem to figure out how to register at Pharyngula specifically, unless I need a brand new login and email for Pharyngula itself, which seems kind of… self-defeating (I may be on the list of registered users but under my username, not the ‘nym that appears); and (b) I’m still not the only contributor, so writing posts sort of… makes links from other people seem off-topic or weirdly placed; and (c) some days I go through 70+ tabs of links, which means either (1) a very very long link-filled post or (2) a lot of smaller posts that clutter up the front page. If I’m missing something in my logic, let me know and I can revise my opinion.
    So I kind of like the blog idea with posting links to there from here, because that would allow other people to keep posting interesting things and personal opinions here while getting the bulk of material somewhere else in potentially easier-to-read form, which means paying some more serious attention to the blog set-up.
    In other words, thanks, PZ, but for now I’ll pass on the author privileges.

    Anyway. Work to be done, things to be read today.
    +++

    Georgia school founder accused of making racist remarks – I think this was on twitter 2 days before it got to the media.

    A white Georgia teacher has come under fire for what onlookers called racist comments at her school’s graduation ceremony.

    According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (http://bit.ly/1EYHbkZ) TNT Academy founder Nancy Gordeuk made the comments Friday, as she tried to get graduates and their families to pay attention after accidentally dismissing them before the class valedictorian could give his speech.

    “You people are being so rude to not listen to this speech,” Gordeuk tells the audience, according to video recordings of the ceremony posted to social media. “It was my fault that we missed it in the program. Look who’s leaving — all the black people.”

    Several black honors graduates appear to walk off the stage in protest.

    Gordeuk could not be reached for comment Saturday by the AJC, but told Channel 2 Action News that she did not mean harm.

    Her being racist isn’t a crime, so saying “accused” is unnecessary. I just liked that comment.

    Another for a giggle: “I used to stop & search a disproportionate number of young black men until everyone started doing it” #hipstercop

    #ReclaimMothersDay #BlackLivesMatter #WhiteFolkWork

    Freddie Gray’s knife could be key factor as charges challenged

    Gray was charged with carrying an illegal knife, but authorities have come to differing conclusions about it. Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby said in announcing charges against six officers that the knife was not an illegal switchblade under Maryland law. Baltimore police have said the knife violates city code.

    A defense attorney for one of the officers has challenged the claim by prosecutors that Gray was falsely arrested and filed a motion demanding to inspect the knife.
    cComments

    @gsnorris My apologies, I should’ve said the only one to figure it all out. BTW I’ve owned at least 5 real switchblades in my life and believe me, I know the difference.
    Septimus_Pretorius
    at 12:08 AM May 11, 2015

    Add a comment See all comments
    22

    The knife has not been shown to the public, so it is unclear who is right. But here’s a look at the relevant state and city laws:

    Law to be found within.

  301. rq says

    Black and white agree on Baltimore police prosecution

    Majorities of both black and white Americans support the decision to prosecute a group of Baltimore police officers for the death of Freddie Gray

    With yet another death of a black man where police have been involved, this time in Baltimore, Americans seem more supportive of bringing indictments against police officers: in this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll, majorities of both whites and blacks approve of the indictment of the six police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, who died in custody in a police van. […]

    There is video of Gray being arrested by the police. There was also video of the shooting of Walter Scott by a police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, and of the arrest of Eric Garner, who died afterwards in Staten Island, New York. In both those cases, Americans say there should have been indictments of the police officers involved – which there was in South Carolina, but not in New York.

    In all three cases, Gray, Scott, and Garner, blacks and whites agree. Majorities of both races approve of charging the police officer who shot Scott with murder and charging the six officers transporting Gray in Baltimore; majorities of blacks and whites disapprove of the Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to charge the police officer involved.

    But there are still racial differences in the earliest of the recent cases, the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Like the recent killing in Baltimore, that death brought protests which occasionally led to violence. Unlike the three other cases, there was no video of the shooting. And the races disagree on the outcome: 73% of blacks disapprove of the lack of an indictment of the officer involved; 53% of whites approve.

    But support for the grand jury’s decision not to indict in Ferguson has dropped since January, and in this week’s poll, Americans are closely divided on whether or not the officer who shot Brown should have been indicted. Agreement with the grand jury’s decision has dropped among both whites and blacks.

    Americans point to another culprit, too. There is agreement across racial lines on how the media has handled both the deaths of black men in police custody and the community protests that have followed in some of those cases. They are not seen as doing a good job. Both whites and blacks agree that the tone of the media coverage of both has been more unfair than fair.

    There is also agreement that local police departments shouldn’t investigate themselves. 78% approve of the recent Wisconsin law that requires deaths in police custody to be investigated by outside organizations. However, in general, whites prefer police misconduct investigations to be handled by the state; African-Americans what the federal government to take charge.

    Very happy to wake up this morning to see the white mamas out here doing their work! Church action happening now! (Text attached.)

    Death of woman shocked by stun gun in Fairfax jail is ruled an accident – we saw that previously.

    Natasha McKenna, 37, of Alexandria died after she was restrained with handcuffs and leg shackles and shocked four times, county records show. After the shocks were administered Feb. 3, she stopped breathing, was taken to a hospital and died several days later.

    In a statement released Tuesday, police officials quoted the autopsy report, which stated that the cause of death was “excited delirium associated with physical restraint including use of conductive energy device, contributing: Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar Disorder.”

    In addition, it gave the manner of death: “Accident.”

    The medical examiner’s report as quoted by police did not define “excited delirium.” An abstract of a 2011 medical journal article said characteristics of the term include acute distress and sudden death. The description said the term is sometimes associated with death in law enforcement custody.

    There’s more at the link, but yes, that term seems to be associated with death in law enforcement custody – the APA, from what I understand, has no definition for it.

    Kanye West sings HEY MAMA with his mother.

    Interlude: Music! Meet the Mystery Man Who Rapped on Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White’

    A couple of years ago, I heard the song “Black or White” by Michael Jackson on the radio in my car. When it got to the rap (” See, it’s not about races, just places, faces, where your blood comes from is where your space is, etc…”) I realized that I had no idea who had done the rapping on the song. After googling, I saw that it was credited to someone called L.T.B. who, according to what I could see online, had done nothing before or since dropping that verse.

    A friend of mine who I mentioned this to emailed the producer of the song, Bill Bottrell, who is also credited with writing the lyrics to the rap, and asked him for more info on L.T.B.

    Bottrell responded the same day and provided a Gmail address that he said belonged to L.T.B. I sent a message to the address asking for an interview, but never received a response.

    The mystery of L.T.B. sat in the back of my brain for the next couple of years, rearing its head whenever I heard the song. Each time it crossed my path, I would take to the internet again to try and figure out who the mystery rapper was, but was never able to find anything. Despite the fact that he had rapped on a song that was number one in over 20 countries, with a music video that broke records by being watched by 500 million people on its initial broadcast in 1991, L.T.B.’s internet presence is limited to personnel lists for “Black or White” and unresolved Yahoo Answers threads asking who he is.

    Then, last week, after hearing the song again, I thought fuck it, and decided to try hitting up Bottrell again to ask if he’d talk to me about the rap. “I can do that,” he emailed back. “It’s not a long story.”

    When I spoke to Bottrell on the phone the next day, he admitted that he was the one who had actually performed the rap, using the name L.T.B. as a pseudonym. He explained that, when my friend had emailed him, he had given us another email address of his with the intention of pretending to be another person named L.T.B. to fuck with us. “I was gonna do a ruse,” he explained, but had backed out when he realized it would most likely fail. “I think there are a lot of people who already know and the joke wouldn’t have worked so well,” he said. […]

    Though I’ve been confounded by the mystery of the rapping on “Black or White” for years, Bottrell told me that he has, in fact, publicly revealed that he is L.T.B. before. That was in a 2001 interview with Sound on Sound, a publication that describes itself as the “world’s premier music recording technology magazine.” But, Bottrell said, the revelation flew under the radar due to the technical nature of the publication. (Sample quote: “I just hooked up a Kramer American guitar to a Mesa Boogie amp, miked it with a Beyer M160, and got that gritty sound as I played to his singing.”)

    I’m no music expert, but I can’t think of an earlier example of a huge pop star having a rapper come into their song for a guest verse about two-thirds of the way through the track (something that has become pretty ubiquitous today, on everything from Rihanna’s “Umbrella” to Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and a Beat”). I asked Bottrell if he had been the first person to do this, and he said, though he had never really thought about it before, he couldn’t think of a song where someone had done this before him.

    He also explained that, when the song had first been released, he had to make an edited version with the rap cut out because mainstream radio stations had no-rap policies and wouldn’t play the song otherwise. “I believe this record might have opened some doors,” he explained. “It’s always a process, right? I think it changed over the next two years, very quickly.”

    When I suggested that this might mean that Bottrell might be, without realizing it, one of the most influential rappers of all time, he cut me off with a laugh. “Stop.” he said. “No. Don’t even go there.”

    Hawaii Cop Charged With Civil Rights Violations After Attack On Bystanders

    A Hawaii cop has been charged with civil rights violations after a video showed him attacking two bystanders during a police raid.

    Honolulu police officer Vincent Morre has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of depriving people of their rights under color of law, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. Morre faces a maximum of 10 years imprisonment for each count, according to TV station KHON.

    Surveillance video emerged in October showing Morre slapping, kicking and punching two men who do not appear to be threatening or engaging the officer during a raid of an illegal gambling house.

    At one point in the footage, Morre throws a metal stool at one of the men’s heads. According to Hawaii News Now, that man went to the hospital with a broken finger and required stitches.

    Myles Breiner, attorney for one of the men, said Morre and two other officers in Honolulu Police Department’s crime reduction unit were looking for an individual who wasn’t in the gambling room at the time of the raid. Morre took his frustration out on the bystanders, according to Breiner.

    Morre was assigned to desk duty shortly after the raid and the FBI launched an investigation, according to Hawaii News Now.

    Morre’s attorney, David Hayakaya, said in a statement that Morre “deeply regrets the impact his actions have caused the victims, his fellow Honolulu police officers and his family. … Mr. Morre will not make any excuses for his actions. He will take full responsibility.”

  302. rq says

    Thousands turn out for Prince’s ‘Rally 4 Peace’ benefit concert

    Devoted fans like Luther Washington said Prince’s “Rally 4 Peace” concert Sunday was just what Baltimore needed to heal after massive protests shook the city in recent weeks.

    Outside Royal Farms Arena, Washington was part of a celebratory crowd of thousands who waited peacefully for the doors to open.

    Washington and his wife, Beate — who paid about $200 apiece for floor seats to the show — felt the expensive tickets were worth the price to see the mercurial and unpredictable artist, who pledged a portion of the proceeds would go to Baltimore-based youth charities.

    “This city could use a little joy, a little healing; Prince will do that,” said Washington, a 44-year-old broadcaster from Odenton. “Music is medicine. People want to reflect a little bit. His message has always been in his lyrics, if you just look deep enough.”

    Many adhered to the Purple One’s request to wear gray “as a symbolic message of our shared humanity and love for one another.” But plenty in the audience wore colorful outfits that reflected the full swing of spring — a red strapless dress, T-shirts and cargo shorts, and an L.A. Dodgers jersey.

    Nikki Harris, a 36-year-old mother of three boys from Baltimore’s Northwood neighborhood, said she spent three days crocheting an image of Prince in purple and white yarn on the back of her camouflage jacket. Harris said she participated in a peaceful protest about a week ago as a way to force the city to become a better place to raise her sons.

    “I didn’t know it was a rally for peace,” she said. “When I found out, it only made me happier to come.”

    The audience spanned a wide range of ages and backgrounds, much like Prince’s fanbase. Many were surprised to see Baltimore’s State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby invited on stage shortly after Prince began to perform around 9 p.m. A spokeswoman for Mosby — an avid Prince fan — said late Sunday the tickets were a Mother’s Day gift from her husband, Councilman Nick Mosby. […]

    Prince — whose performance was the first time he’s played in Baltimore in 14 years — surprised many when he announced the concert and released a song, titled “Baltimore,” an upbeat toe-tapping ode to ending police brutality.

    He played the song shortly after taking the stage, and invited Mosby to join him, where she waved to the crowd but didn’t offer remarks.

    The song opens with a cheery “Baltimore” before moving onto heavier lyrics: “Nobody got in nobody’s way, so I guess you could say it was a good day, at least a little better than the day in Baltimore. Does anybody hear us pray, for Michael Brown or Freddie Gray? Peace is more than the absence of a war.” Portions — such as, “If there aren’t no justice than there ain’t no peace” — recall the chants heard around the city during the weeks-long peaceful protests.

    Prince had previously said he wanted the concert to be a “catalyst for pause and reflection following the outpouring of violence that has gripped Baltimore and areas throughout the U.S.”

    He made brief remarks from the stage, telling the crowd: “The system is broken. It’s going to take the young people to fix it this time. We need new ideas, new life. … The next time I come to Baltimore I want to stay in a hotel owned by you.”

    As promised, the concert featured special musical guests with rapper Doug E. Fresh and R&B singers Estelle and Miguel joining Prince on stage. Prince delivered many fan favorites with hits, including “When Doves Cry” and “Little Red Corvette.”

    It’s unclear what portion of the tickets — which cost between $22 and $497 before fees — will be donated or to which charities the funds will go.

    The first hour of the show was offered for free online on Tidal, the music streaming service backed by entertainment mogul Jay-Z. Tidal committed to match money donated through its website to the “Baltimore Justice Fund.” That fund, created by the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, says its mission is to improve police accountability and increase racial justice.

    They’ve set up a specific Baltimore Fund from the concert sales, TIDAL matched it, & Jay Z contributed on top of that. That’s amazing.
    It appears that Prince arranged for the family of #FreddieGray, & the mothers of #MikeBrown and #EricGarner to attend the concert.
    So, no, I’m not criticizing Prince’s involvement at all. If anything, I think he may be a model for others re: engaging in the movement.

    Y’all, the crowd is chanting “No Curfew” and it’s amazing. Folks are chanting it like at a protest.

    So marijuana being all legal now n shit? How Black Farmers Are Getting Left Out Of The Medical Marijuana Industry

    A provision of a Florida medical marijuana law has caused much controversy among black farmers in the state who say it’s shutting them out of the potentially lucrative industry. This group has now taken their fight to the Florida legislature in the hopes of passing an amendment that takes the regulation out of the bill.

    Last year, Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) signed the Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act, which allows some nurseries in the state to grow and distribute low-THC marijuana to patients who suffer from cancer, seizures, and muscle spasms. But the law stipulates that those who qualify for licensing must have operated as a registered nursery in Florida for 30 consecutive years — a criterion that many, if not all, black farmers in the state can’t meet. Farmers of color say they’ve been hampered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s past discriminatory practices that have made it difficult for them to thrive in the industry.

    “There weren’t that many black farmers 30 years ago in the nursery business,” Howard Gunn, Jr, the president of the Florida Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association, told FOX News. “Because of that, we weren’t able to produce as much or be as profitable as [other] farmers. If we found one [black] farmer growing that many plants, it would be surprising.”

    But altering the language in the 2014 legislation has proven to be an uphill battle. When Florida Sen. Oscar Brayon, a black Democrat who represents Miami, introduced an amendment earlier this year, a Republican colleague reportedly tried to convince him to withdraw it, promising that he would change the language in the bill with another piece of legislation that would end legal challenges in the bill Gov. Scott signed last year. An early end to the session, however, thwarted those plans.

    Expanding entry into the medical marijuana industry could prove immensely beneficial to vendors of colors and their clientele. Medical marijuana advocates say that the plant can treat symptoms of HIV/AIDS, anxiety disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments that disproportionately affect black Americans. With Florida’s current law in place, however, the likelihood of a black-owned farm winning one of five licenses the state will award remains slim.

    The provision of the Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act notwithstanding, black people — a group that accounts for a significant portion of marijuana arrests and convictions — find difficulty entering the medical marijuana industry, which experts say can garner $5.6 billion in annual sales. In many states that have legalized medical marijuana, people with drug-related felony convictions cannot open their own businesses. Additionally, nonrefundable application fees and annual licensing fees for medical marijuana dispensaries often total tens of thousands of dollars, further keeping opportunity at arm’s length for anyone who wants to take on the entrepreneurial endeavor. Opening a clinic at home isn’t an option either. Besides Arizona, legally growing and selling medicinal marijuana in one’s residence isn’t a viable alternative in any of the states that have medical marijuana laws in place.

    In a column published at Madame Noir last year, writer Charing Ball noted that consumers of color with medical issues also face challenges in smoking legally, despite the passage of laws that protect their right to do so. High prices can compel some to resort to the black market for their product. Doing so creates a demand among black market distributors, many of whom wouldn’t be able to enter the medical marijuana industry legally. With decades-long drug laws still on the books, people of color still get shorthanded at a time when the War on Drugs has come under more scrutiny.

    With Florida’s legislative session well behind, advocates’ focus has shifted to the next meeting of lawmakers with the hope that the amendment gets reintroduced and approved so that black farmers can enter the medical marijuana market without difficulty.

    Regardless of the outcome, the current case in Florida has reminded some farmers of color that their economic position didn’t occur by happenstance. During the Reconstruction Era, the USDA marginalized black farmers because of fear among white farmers about competition from freed slaves. Institutionalized practices — like the policy under scrutiny in Florida — have kept black farmers out of the industry since then. For example, freed slaves couldn’t receive farming loans without credit history.

    The USDA later marginalized farmers of color by increasing tax sale, seizing of land through eminent domain, delaying loans until after the end of the planting season, and denying crop disaster relief funds. By the early 1990s, the black farmer population fell by nearly 100 percent, eventually prompting a class action lawsuit against the USDA that resulted in the allocation of more than $2.3 billion to more than 13,000 farmers. In their appeal to Florida state lawmakers, the Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association cited that court case, called Pigford v. Glickman.

  303. rq says

    Discrimination against students of color rampant in Louisiana school district

    Three years after a Southern Poverty Law Center complaint sparked a U.S. Department of Education (DOE) investigation into the disproportionate number of African-American students arrested for minor rule violations in Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish Public School System, the problem has worsened, the SPLC told federal authorities this week.

    The SPLC is now asking the Department of Justice to intervene.

    The proportion of African-American children arrested for school-based misbehavior is now higher than when the initial complaint was filed, according to a supplemental SPLC complaint.

    One black eighth-grader spent six days in juvenile detention after being arrested for throwing Skittles candy at another student.

    “The Jefferson Parish Public School System has continued its destructive practice of arresting and jailing children for minor, and often trivial, violations of school rules and decorum,” said Eden Heilman, managing attorney for the SPLC’s Louisiana office. “It’s nothing less than a racially biased system of criminalizing African-American children. It must stop now.”

    The SPLC’s complaint urges federal officials to take action, noting that the district’s arrest and law enforcement practices violate Titles VI and IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It states that there has been “little to no movement” since the DOE launched its investigation three years ago.

    The school district maintains contracts with local law enforcement agencies, including the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, that give officers stationed at district middle and high schools the authority to stop, frisk, detain, question, search and arrest schoolchildren on and off school grounds.

    “If law enforcement officers are on school grounds at all, they should be there in a very limited capacity – to protect children in the unlikely event of some kind of violent attack,” Heilman said. “But, as in many other places across the country, school authorities have inappropriately handed off their responsibility to administer routine school discipline to the police.”

    Jefferson Parish stands out in Louisiana as the school district with, far and away, the most school-based arrests and law enforcement referrals. The overwhelming majority of these arrests are for nonviolent, minor student misbehavior. African-American students are disproportionately targeted. […]

    The complaint also describes how a 10-year-old African-American student diagnosed with autism ended up handcuffed and face down on the ground with a police officer’s knee in her back. Police were called after the girl had an outburst in class and began running around the classroom, jumping on desks, and knocking down chairs. She climbed out a classroom window and up a tree. The police dragged her away from the tree by her ankles and handcuffed her. Several officers were on the scene.

    When the girl’s grandmother arrived, she found a police officer pressing her granddaughter’s face so close to the ground that she was having difficulty breathing. Officers eventually released the girl. Since the incident, the girl has said the police are not her friends and has asked, “Why do they hate me?”

    Another Jefferson Parish student, a seventh-grader, became upset during a conference with school officials and her mother this year. After arguing with her mother, she was handcuffed and charged with “interference with an educational facility,” according to the latest complaint. She was held overnight at Rivarde Juvenile Detention Center and suspended from school.

    The supplemental complaint was filed with both the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in Washington as well as its local office in Dallas. It also was filed with the Educational Opportunities Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

    Another Musical Interlude. Gucci Mane Is One Of The Most Prolific Prison Rappers Ever

    Gucci Mane’s hustle can’t be overlooked. For nearly a decade, his relevance in hip-hop has remained consistent. The Atlanta rapper has released more mixtapes and albums while being in and out of jail than most rappers do in their whole careers. In 2009, he reinvented himself by recording at an almost impossible rate. He dropped over a dozen mixtapes while doing a bid that took him through 2010 for violating his probation. His commitment to putting out new music becomes evident when looking at everything he’s dropped from behind bars.

    Looking through his catalog, XXL has examined the number of albums, mixtapes and songs Big Guwop has dropped while on his various iron vacations, which would put him near the top of the list of most prolific rappers from prison ever (though X-Raided might give him a run for his money). Check out a full rundown of Gucci’s releases while locked up, from the good to the bad to the hits and misses.

    Unarmed. Riding bike.

    Dontrell Stephens. Shot 4 times in the back by Palm Beach, Florida police.

    No charges. From 2013.

    WATCH: Mother’s Day #BlackBrunch for Black Mothers in Gainesville, FL http://bit.ly/1J3udp2 @UF_DDOD

    Woman disputes account of sister’s shooting by St. Louis police

    The sister of a 38-year-old woman shot by St. Louis police officers responding to a report Friday night of an intruder at a Chippewa Street home is disputing the law enforcement account of the incident.

    Becky Morgan, of Cedar Hill, on Sunday accused police of firing 16 bullets into the back of her sister, Jennifer Morgan-Tyra.

    Morgan said the wounds paralyzed Morgan-Tyra, the wife of a lieutenant with the St. Louis city sheriff’s office. The couple had plans to celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary later Friday night.

    Morgan-Tyler is being treated at St. Louis University Hospital.

    Officials announced on Sunday that prosecutors filed warrants charging Morgan-Tyra with second-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and armed criminal action.

    According to the St. Louis police account, officers observed a “screaming” male fleeing the residence when they responded to a disturbance call in the 4200 block of Chippewa about 7 p.m. Friday.

    Inside the home, officers encountered a “female armed with a weapon,” the report says.

    Police said the woman refused an order to drop the firearm and “began to raise the weapon toward the officers. Fearing for his safety, one of the officers fired his department-issued firearm at the suspect, striking her in the chest.”

    A police source, who spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said one of the officers fired seven times.

    The source said the woman’s weapon was a 9mm Glock that had live rounds in it, and that police later found indications the gun had misfired at least once. The source said the woman was told multiple times to drop her gun, by both police and by others in the house.

    Morgan said her sister summoned police after encountering an intruder in the residence, which is occupied by a disabled brother. Morgan claims the gun was not loaded.

    […]

    Morgan-Tyra, according to her sister, was holding an intruder at bay with a 9-millimeter handgun when the police entered the home.

    Morgan said she has been told her sister responded to the demand that she drop the weapon by pointing the barrel toward the floor.

    Morgan accused police of firing the shots as Morgan-Tyra turned away.

  304. rq says

    OSI-Baltimore launches the Baltimore Justice Fund, with a few interesting articles right on the opening page there,

    ‘Our Kids Are Being Killed’: On Mother’s Day Weekend, Moms are Rising Up for Black Lives

    This Mother’s Day weekend, moms across the United States are leading protests, vigils, and marches to demand justice for children slain by police and vigilante violence—and to send the message to parents and young people alike that Black Lives Matter.

    From Chicago to Washington, D.C., many of those organizing mobilizations on Saturday and Sunday are mothers who have lost their own children.

    “What better way to spend my Mother’s Day than to be fighting for my child,” said Panzy Edwards, whose 15-year-old African-American son Dakota Bright was shot in the head and killed by a Chicago police officer in November 2012. “I’m marching to honor my son’s life that was taken by the Chicago police department,” Panzy Edwards told Common Dreams. “I’m marching to honor lives taken by police everywhere.”

    Panzy Edwards is not alone in her loss. According to a report released in April 2013 by the Malcom X Grassroots Movement, in 2012 an average of one black person was killed every 28 hours through extrajudicial means—by police, security guard, or vigilante violence.

    The research collaborative Mapping Police Violence found that, in March 2015, 36 black people were killed by police, averaging one every 21 hours.

    […]
    “This Mother’s Day, let’s come together to demand an end to this cycle of violence, this society of institutionalized racism and police militarization,” wrote Valerie Bell, the mother of Sean Elijah Bell, who was killed by New York plainclothes police officers on his wedding day in November 2006 at the age of 23. “We are healers, teachers, caretakers, givers of life, and so much more. Mothers are powerful; if we come together, we can be unstoppable.”

    Bell is joined in the capital by mothers across the country, who plan to march to the Department of Justice, where they will “present their demands for justice and racial equality, in the names of their slain children.”

    Organizers emphasize that, while it’s important to make visible the role of mothers in the movement for racial justice, their leadership is not new.

    “For generations in this country, it has been mothers picking up the pieces of state violence against communities of color and leading the charge to defend their families and children,” said Audrey Stewart who is co-organizing a Mother’s Day Gathering for Black Lives in New Orleans on Sunday as part of the informal collective Mothers With a Vision, mostly comprised of mothers with black children.

    “We have been concerned about the way that women and transgender women’s experiences haven’t always been centered in the coverage of police killings,” Stewart told Common Dreams. “We felt it was an important time to speak to women’s experiences and how black women and black transgender people are affected.”

    […]
    Nationwide, a harrowing number of transgender women of color across the United States have been murdered in 2015 alone, including: Penny Proud, Goddess Edwards, Michelle (Yazmin) Vash Payne, Ty Underwood, Lamia Beard, and Taja Gabrielle De Jesus. In addition, one gender non-conforming person of color, Lamar Edwards, was killed this year.

    “As mothers, we have problems with what is going on around the country,” said Stewart. “What everyone is talking about right now in Ferguson and Baltimore—the police killing of black men and women—is nothing new, but we are seeing increased attention to issue.”

    “As mothers of black children, we want to see a world where our children are safe and valued and grow up knowing their lives matter,” Stewart added. “It is an important time for us to come together and envision the world we want to create.”

    Ava DuVernay on being a rebel, distributing diverse films and her new Barbie

    The Selma director, who recently had a Barbie made in her likeness, is pushing film lovers to support her organization, the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement, or AFFRM for short. The collective, which is financed out of DuVernay’s pocket and supplemented with donations, supports diverse filmmakers who need distribution.

    DuVernay founded AFFRM in 2011, which has since distributed eight films, including two of her own. She’s now catalyzing a second annual membership drive, with a goal to land 1,000 new members within 30 days, she tells Mashable.

    The director chatted with Mashable about this new initiative, why arthouse cinemas are still segregated and her new Barbie doll.

    Interview within.

    Beyoncé & Jay Z with #FreddieGray’s family backstage at Prince’s concert last night #Rally4Peace #Baltimore

    The Most Diverse Cities Are Often The Most Segregated

    On Dustin Cable’s interactive “Dot Map” of racial residency patterns, Hyde Park appears as an island of blue and red dots — meaning, mostly white and Asian students and residents — in contrast to Chicago’s almost uniformly black South Side, designated in green dots. Washington Park, the neighborhood just to Hyde Park’s west, is 97 percent black3. Woodlawn — the neighborhood on the other side of 60th Street — is 87 percent black.

    Chicago deserves its reputation as a segregated city. But it is also an extremely diverse city. And the difference between those terms — which are often misused and misunderstood — says a lot about how millions of American city dwellers live. It is all too common to live in a city with a wide variety of ethnic and racial groups — including Chicago, New York, and Baltimore — and yet remain isolated from those groups in a racially homogenous neighborhood.

    You can see that by zooming out on Cable’s map and taking the 30,000-foot view of Chicago. Things start to look a little different: You notice the city’s diversity as much as its segregation. Citywide, Chicago’s population is almost evenly divided between non-Hispanic blacks (33 percent of its population), non-Hispanic whites (32 percent) and Hispanics (29 percent). So at a macro level, Chicago is quite diverse. At a neighborhood level, it isn’t. […]

    In Lincoln, this supposed integration looks awfully blue — which is to say, awfully white, since blue is Cable’s color for caucasians, who make up 83 percent of Lincoln’s population. True, Lincoln’s few nonwhite residents are fairly evenly distributed throughout the city. But while Lincoln may be integrated, it’s not very diverse.

    So let’s aim to develop a slightly richer vocabulary. I’m going to describe three statistical measures of segregation and diversity. Like any statistical definitions, they are precise but limited in scope. They refer to racial diversity only and not economic diversity or diversity within racial groups. They pertain to where people live, and not where they work or go to school. In other words: They’re a starting point and not an end point. No one of them is inherently more valid than the others; it’s best if you look at them holistically.

    The data we’ll use is drawn from Brown University’s American Communities Project, which is, in turn, based on the 2010 Census. Brown’s data defines five racial groups: whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians and “other,” where “other” principally refers to Native Americans. The groups are exhaustive (they add up to 100 percent of the population) and mutually exclusive (they don’t overlap). 4

    In this article, we’ll look at cities proper rather than metropolitan areas. Venturing beyond the city limits and into the surrounding area can sometimes lead you to different conclusions about a city’s demographic makeup, so we’ll look at those in a follow-up post. But cities themselves matter too, especially for questions of urban planning and city-administered services like schooling and policing. […]

    The lowest possible citywide diversity index is 0 percent, which is what you get if everyone is the same race. The highest possible one is 80 percent. Why not 100 percent? Because the Brown data only includes five racial groups. Even if the population is divided exactly evenly between these groups, you’ll still have 20 percent of the people belong to the same race as you.

    A few cities actually get pretty close to this ideal of complete diversity. Oakland, California, is not far from being evenly divided between whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians; its citywide diversity index is 75 percent. New York’s is 73 percent. And Chicago’s is 70 percent.

    At the low end of the scale are extremely white cities like Lincoln and Scottsdale, Arizona. There’s also extremely black cities like Detroit, and extremely Hispanic cities like Laredo, Texas. Laredo, which is almost entirely Hispanic, has a citywide diversity index of just 8 percent. […]

    The counterpart to the citywide diversity index is the neighborhood diversity index.6It answers basically the same question we asked above, but applied at the neighborhood level. That is: For an average resident in the city, what percent of the people in her neighborhood belong to a different racial group? (I’m using the term “neighborhood” loosely. More precisely, the index is based on census tracts, which are units of about 4,000 people.7)

    The neighborhood diversity index is always equal to or lower than the citywide diversity index. In other words, if a city doesn’t have much diversity overall, it can’t have racially diverse neighborhoods.

    But the reverse can be true, and often is: You can have a diverse city, but not diverse neighborhoods. Whereas Chicago’s citywide diversity index is 70 percent, seventh best out of the 100 most populous U.S. cities, its neighborhood diversity index is just 36 percent, which ranks 82nd. New York also has a big gap. Its citywide diversity index is 73 percent, fourth highest in the country, but its neighborhood diversity index is 47 percent, which ranks 49th.

    To be clear, New York and Chicago are still more diverse than cities like Lincoln, even at the neighborhood level. But as the numbers show, they are segregated because they underachieve their potential to have racially diverse neighborhoods. […]

    The integration-segregation index is determined by how far above or below a city is from the regression line. Cities below the line are especially segregated. Chicago, which has a -19 score, is the most segregated city in the country. It’s followed by Atlanta, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Washington and Baltimore.

    Cities above the red line have positive scores, which mean they’re comparatively well-integrated. Sacramento’s score is a +10, for instance.

    But here’s the awful thing about that red line. It grades cities on a curve. It does so because there aren’t a lot of American cities that meet the ideal of being both diverse and integrated. There are more Baltimores than Sacramentos.

    Furthermore, most of the exceptions are cities like Sacramento that have large Hispanic or Asian populations. Cities with substantial black populations tend to be highly segregated. Of the top 100 U.S. cities by population, 35 are at least one-quarter black, and only 6 of those cities have positive integration scores.9

    So while Chicago really is something of an extraordinary case, Baltimore isn’t an outlier, exactly. Most cities east of the Rocky Mountains with substantial black populations are quite segregated. There’s not a lot to distinguish Baltimore from Cleveland, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Philadelphia or St. Louis.

    We’ll follow this up with an analysis of what these numbers look like when taken at the the metro rather than city level. In the meantime, you can find where your city ranks below:

    Oh! And speaking of Reagan, via Tony: Noam Chomsky: Reagan was an ‘extreme racist’ who re-enslaved African-Americans

    In an interview with GRITtv’s Laura Flanders, linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky discussed how the events in Ferguson, Missouri and the protests that followed demonstrate just how little race relations in the United States have advanced since the end of the Civil War.

    “This is a very racist society,” Chomsky said, “it’s pretty shocking. What’s happened to African-Americans in the last 30 years is similar to what [Douglas Blackmon in Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II] describes happening in the late 19th Century.”

    Blackmon’s book describes what he calls the “Age of Neoslavery,” in which newly freed slaves found themselves entangled in a legal system built upon involuntary servitude — which included the selling of black men convicted of crimes like vagrancy and changing employers without receiving permission.

    “The constitutional amendments that were supposed to free African-American slaves did something for about 10 years, then there was a North-South compact that granted the former the slave-owning states the right to do whatever they wanted,” he explained. “And what they did was criminalize black life, and that created a kind of slave force. It threw mostly black males into jail, where they became a perfect labor force, much better than slaves.”

    “If you’re a slave owner, you have to pay for — you have to keep your ‘capital’ alive. But if the state does it for you, that’s terrific. No strikes, no disobedience, the perfect labor force. A lot of the American Industrial Revolution in the late 19th, early 20th Century was based on that. It pretty must lasted until World War II.”

    “After that,” Chomsky said, “African-Americans had about two decades in which they had a shot of entering [American] society. A black worker could get a job in an auto plant, as the unions were still functioning, and he could buy a small house and send his kid to college. But by the 1970s and 1980s it’s going back to the criminalization of black life.”

    “It’s called the drug war, and it’s a racist war. Ronald Reagan was an extreme racist — though he denied it — but the whole drug war is designed, from policing to eventual release from prison, to make it impossible for black men and, increasingly, women to be part of [American] society.”

    “In fact,” he continued, “if you look at American history, the first slaves came over in 1619, and that’s half a millennium. There have only been three or four decades in which African-Americans have had a limited degree of freedom — not entirely, but at least some.”

    “They have been re-criminalized and turned into a slave labor force — that’s prison labor,” Chomsky concluded. “This is American history. To break out of that is no small trick.”

    Watch the entire interview via GRITtv on YouTube below.

  305. says

    From rq’s #301:

    Myles Breiner, attorney for one of the men, said Morre and two other officers in Honolulu Police Department’s crime reduction unit were looking for an individual who wasn’t in the gambling room at the time of the raid.

    Funny…shouldn’t a member of a crime reduction unit not, y’know commit a crime?

  306. rq says

    All in the family. Georgia principal blames Satan for racist graduation rant as son blames ’n******s’ in Facebook tirade

    The Georgia educator whose rant about black people walking out when they thought a graduation ceremony had ended went viral over the weekend has apologized and blamed the devil for making the words “come out of my mouth.”

    However, at the same time that Nancy Gordeuk was apologizing, her son threw gas on the fire by using “n****rs” in a Facebook tirade while defending his mom, reports the New York Daily News.

    Footage of the event at TNT Academy showed Gordeuk criticizing crowd members after she mistakenly ended the ceremony before the valedictorian made his speech.

    “You people are so rude to not listen to this speech,” Gordeuk said, as the unidentified valedictorian, a white person, stood near her while people filed out. “It was my fault that we missed it in the program. Look who’s leaving, all the black people.”

    The video of the incident went viral after being posted on social media by a person Gordeuk accused of being a “goober” and a “coward,” leading the educator to apologize and ask for forgiveness.

    “The devil was in the house and came out from my mouth. I deeply apologize for my racist comment and hope that forgiveness is in your hearts,” Gordeuk wrote in an email to parents of students at the private school.

    Her son Travis, responded quite differently on his Facebook page, challenging people to a fight for criticizing his mother and writing: “Yall n*****s aren’t talkin about sh*t so if u got somthing [sic] to say come see me face to face.”

    Travis Gordeuk later deleted the posts from his Facebook account, but not before the Daily News was able to take screen shots of them, seen below.

    Gordeuk did replace the posts with a Mother’s Day greeting and an apology of his own, writing: “I hope everyone had a great mothers day and to everyone tgere [sic] are ppl hating getting on my page and posting shit so Imm [sic] sorry in advance if it happrbx [sic].”

    Apology skills in action.

    Beyoncé, Alicia Keys & Miss Tina with #MikeBrown’s mom last night

    Freddie Gray among many suspects who do not get medical care from Baltimore police. Pattern! Practice!

    From June 2012 through April 2015, correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center have refused to admit nearly 2,600 detainees who were in police custody, according to state records obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act request.

    In those records, intake officers in Central Booking noted a wide variety of injuries, including fractured bones, facial trauma and hypertension. Of the detainees denied entry, 123 had visible head injuries, the third most common medical problem cited by jail officials, records show.

    The jail records redacted the names of detainees, but a Sun investigation found similar problems among Baltimore residents and others who have made allegations of police brutality. […]

    Some critics say the data from the state-run jail show that city officers don’t care about the condition of detainees.

    “It goes to demonstrate the callous indifference the officers show when they are involved with the public,” said attorney A. Dwight Pettit, who has sued dozens of city officers in the past 40 years. “Why would they render medical care when they rendered many of the injuries on the people?”

    Criminologists and law enforcement experts say Gray’s death shows that police lack adequate training to detect injuries. Many suspects fake injuries in an effort to avoid a jail cell, they add.

    “The curriculum has been generally the same for the past 20-30 years at the [police] academy,” said Hamin Shabazz, chair of the Department of Criminal Justice at Stevenson University and a former police officer in Camden, N.J, He served on the panel that reviewed the death of Tyrone West, who died from a heart condition made worse by a struggle with officers during a traffic stop amid summer heat in 2012.

    Officers, Shabazz said, “do get some in-service training, but what happens is training is usually reactive, after something has happened.”

    The Sun’s examination of more than 100 lawsuits against officers — in which the city paid more than $6 million in court judgments and settlements — found that dozens of residents accused police of inflicting severe injuries during questionable arrests and disregarding appeals for medical attention.

    Such problems have damaged relations between police and residents, according to officials and community leaders. On Friday, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced a broad civil rights investigation into the police department, a move designed to address the “serious erosion of public trust.”

    Baltimore police did not respond to several requests for comment.

    I guess fake injuries are like false rape accusations, but for black people? Everybody thinks they’re super-common, but in fact, they’re so rare as to be exceptions…?

    It was really cool meeting a few of the young women doing organizing work at UVA around #MarteseJohnson in Baltimore. They were dope.

    Charges issued against woman who allegedly shot at police, and who was then shot 11 times by police. Hmm.

    2 months ago, my love, #AnthonyHill was taken away… There are no words to even explain how much I miss him.

  307. rq says

    Tony
    They’re reducing everybody else’s crime by committing their own. Perfectly logical!!

    +++

    Inmates riot at Tecumseh prison, which disproportionately affects people of colour. But. Here’s a point:

    Inmate Daryl Eskridge said the disturbance broke out after repeated attempts to get prison officials to address grievances.

    “This is not a white thing, a black thing,” Eskridge said in the phone call from the housing unit. “This is a people thing.

    “We understand this is a prison, but we have been subjected to a lot of things the department doesn’t want people to see.”

    He said inmates intended to give Corrections Director Scott Frakes a copy of a petition, and then things went wrong.

    “They came with the force,” he said. “Nobody (inmates) had any weapons.”

    They came out with riot gear and shot two inmates. Yeah. Sounds like a proportionate response or whatever.

    Front page from Yahoo news this morning. #BaltimoreUprising

    When Will We Demand Justice for Natasha McKenna?

    There have been no marches for her.

    Natasha McKenna’s name eased in and out of America’s collective consciousness before it could make an imprint, just like those of Aura Rosser, Tanisha Anderson and so many other African-American women killed by police before her.

    But the information that we do know is heartbreaking.

    McKenna, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was 12 years old, died Feb. 8 after a lieutenant at the Fairfax County, Va., Sheriff’s Department delivered four 50,000-volt shocks with a Taser to restrain her while she was having a psychotic episode in custody on Feb. 3. Why she was there in the first place reveals how ill-equipped law-enforcement officers are to effectively interact with and restrain people who have severe mental illness. [..]

    In an autopsy report released Tuesday, McKenna’s cause of death was listed as “excited delirium associated with physical restraint including use of conductive energy device, contributing: Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar disorder.”

    The FBI defines excited delirium as a “serious and potentially deadly medical condition involving psychotic behavior, elevated temperature and an extreme fight-or-flight response by the nervous system. Failure to recognize the symptoms and involve emergency medical services (EMS) to provide appropriate medical treatment may lead to death.”

    Detainees suffering with excited delirium—characterized as a medical emergency disguised as a law-enforcement issue—should receive immediate medical attention, not increasingly brutal force. According to Harvey J. Volzer, an attorney for McKenna’s family, she arrived at the hospital after she was tased with two black eyes, a bruised arms and a finger that required amputation. […]

    Not only has the diagnosis of excited delirium long been suspected of being used as a cop-out to avoid police-brutality cases and lawsuits, but there is no one—not from the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Department, not from the Alexandria Police Department—taking responsibility for the roles they played in McKenna’s death. (Calls for comment to the Fairfax County sheriff and the Alexandria police were not returned.)

    And with barely any public pressure—certainly not the level of national attention driving support for 25-year-old Freddie Gray or other recent victims of police brutality—McKenna’s story languishes on the fringes, as do the stories of so many other women suffering with mental illness who are killed by police with barely a ripple of outrage to remember them by.

    To better prepare officers for encounters with people suffering from mental illnesses, Fairfax County implemented the Crisis Intervention Training program in 2001. The program, so far, is voluntary, and participating officers have undergone 40 hours of training to recognize symptoms of mental illness and de-escalate potentially violent situations. […]

    Will we demand justice for Natasha McKenna?

    Even though #BlackLivesMatter was created by three black women, and women are still very much the heart and the soul of the movement, men have migrated to the center, both in leadership and in whose lives are deemed worthy of collective concern and organized disruption.

    McKenna did absolutely nothing wrong. The criminal-justice system failed her. The mental-health system failed her. And, arguably, we’re failing her now. There may never be an uprising in her name and her hashtag may never trend, but she mattered.

    Somebody, anybody, sing a black-girl song.

    This is not a zero-sum game or an either-or proposition. Now more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to demanding justice for black women—especially the most vulnerable among us—with as much passion and conviction as we do for black men, because there is no such thing as halfway justice.

    How Baltimore’s Young Black Men Are Boxed In

    The economic realities facing men like Gray — and many of the young people who took to the streets after his funeral — are indeed harsh. The unemployment rate for black men in Baltimore between the ages of 20 and 24 was 37 percent in 2013,1 the latest data available; for white men of the same age range, the rate was 10 percent.2 Nor do the prospects for black men improve much as they grow older: Just 59 percent of black men between the ages of 25 and 54 are working, compared with 79 percent of white men. Just 1 in 10 black men in Baltimore has a college degree, compared with half of whites (for ages 25 and up). And the median income for black households, at about $33,000, is little more than half that of whites. Moreover, none of those figures takes into account the high incarceration rate for African-Americans, which makes the disparities even starker.

    Baltimore isn’t an outlier. There are other cities with more poverty, higher unemployment and greater inequality. The racial disparities evident in Baltimore are common across the country.

    But Baltimore isn’t exactly typical, either. By a wide range of metrics — income, employment, education — the racial divide in Baltimore is wider than in the U.S. as a whole. And Baltimore residents as a whole, regardless of race, tend to be worse off:

    Nearly 1 in 4 Baltimore residents lives in poverty, versus 1 in 6 Americans
    18 percent of Baltimore’s homes are vacant, compared with 13 percent in the U.S.
    The unemployment rate in Baltimore is nearly 3 percentage points higher than in the U.S. as a whole.3

    Baltimore’s economic challenges are even greater when compared with the state as a whole; Maryland has the country’s highest median income, largely because of the wealthy Washington, D.C., suburbs that sit less than an hour away.

    In many ways, Baltimore looks a lot like Ferguson, Missouri, the St. Louis suburb where protests broke out last summer after a police officer killed another young black man, Michael Brown. Both are relatively poor African-American communities surrounded by wealthier, whiter suburbs. Both have a history of complicated relationships between residents and police. Both suffer from high rates of unemployment among their large populations of young black men.

    But Ferguson wasn’t an outlier, either. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of American cities, large and small, with the same stew of poverty, inequality and discrimination. The box that confined Freddie Gray and Michael Brown is just as hard to escape in those cities.

    Baltimore Has A History Of Improper Arrests

    Baltimore’s top prosecutor on Friday didn’t just charge police officers with murder and assault in the death of Freddie Gray. She also said the arrest that led to Gray’s death was itself illegal.

    Claims of wrongful arrests have a long history in Baltimore. Legal advocacy groups have argued for years that the Baltimore Police Department routinely arrests citizens without cause, many of them young black men like Gray. And they have cited the city’s own data to back up those claims.

    In a news conference on Friday, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Gray ran from officers after they made eye contact with him — a flight that wasn’t itself illegal — and that the knife that Gray was carrying was “not a switchblade and was lawful under Maryland law.” Officers, she said, “failed to establish probable cause as no crime had been committed by Mr. Gray.”

    The police department didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment, but in a statement Friday, police union President Gene Ryan called the charges a “rush to judgment” and said he expected the officers to be found innocent.

    Whatever happens in the case, Gray’s arrest fits the pattern cited in a 2006 lawsuit that accused the Baltimore police of arresting thousands of people on minor or even made-up charges, then releasing them before the police had to present the case to a judge. The suit was filed by the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union.1

    According to data from the state’s attorney’s office cited in the suit, in 2005 the Baltimore Police Department arrested 76,497 people without warrants2 and released a third of them “prior to any involvement by a defense attorney or any decision by a court commissioner or judge.” Forty-three percent of those arrests were for minor crimes that rely heavily on officers’ discretion, such as loitering, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.

    “Thus,” the suit claimed, “prosecutors indicated that they could not prove charges against those persons arrested for often vague ‘quality of life’ offenses in 2005, which amounted to nearly 15 percent of the persons arrested without a warrant during that year.”

    More at the lilnk.

    Racial And Ethnic Gaps Remain A Big Question in Medicine, focusses on the Hispanic community, but is related to an article posted here recently.

  309. rq says

    So yeah, George Zimmerman was involved in yet another shooting incident, this time being wounded himself (non-fatally). Someone on twitter is keeping score, apparently that’s his fifth such incident. I think it makes a striking point towards that history of violence that a lot of cops shooting unarmed black men also have, that these incidents are not even exceptional or unique to the individual but a part of a pattern of behaviour. Yes, part of the pattern of behaviour of the police as such, but also of the individual. Which is an argument for hiring less people obsessed with manifestations of toxic masculinity, and more of those with a predisposition towards resolving issues using non-violent means.
    Anyway.

    Michelle Obama ‘felt the sting’ of racial inequality

    During a commencement speech at Tuskegee University in Alabama on Saturday, Obama spoke frankly about the role her racial identity played during the 2008 presidential campaign.

    “As potentially the first African-American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations, conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others,” she told the class of 2015. “Was I too loud or too emasculating? Or was I too soft? Too much of a mom and not enough of a career woman?”

    Obama referenced her satirical portrayal on a July 2008 cover The New Yorker magazine as a terrorist.

    “Then there was the first time I was on a magazine cover,” Obama told the graduates at the historically black Alabama college. “It was a cartoon drawing of me with a huge afro and a machine gun. Now, yeah, it was satire, but if I’m really being honest, it knocked me back a bit. It made me wonder ‘just how are people seeing me?’”

    Directing her remarks directly toward her African American audience, Obama spoke from her own experience on how racial inequality impacts opportunity.

    “The road ahead is not going to be easy,” Obama said, “It never is, especially for folks like you and me.”

    Obama then aired a laundry list of slights she said black Americans deal with on a regular basis.

    “We’ve both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives. The folks who crossed the street in fear of their safety, the clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores. The people at formal events who assumed we were ‘the help’,” Obama said.

    “And those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country, and I know that these little indignities are obviously nothing compared to what folks across the country are dealing with every single day. Those nagging worries about whether you’re going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason. The fear that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds.”

    Obama also stressed that those experiences were “not an excuse” to “lose hope.”

    Video available at the link.

    U.N. review of human rights in U.S. focuses on police brutality, and how did the US respond? Hm?

    The United States defended its human rights record before a council of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, but recognized progress needs to be made.

    The U.S. delegation, led by Keith Harper, representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council, and Principal Deputy Legal Adviser Mary McLeod, is expected to face questions about human rights at the Universal Periodic Review, some stemming from the deaths of unarmed African-Americans.

    “We must rededicate ourselves to ensuring that our civil rights laws live up to their promise,” James Cadogan, senior counselor in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said Monday. “The tragic deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Michael Brown in Missouri, Eric Garner in New York, Tamir Rice in Ohio, and Walter Scott in South Carolina have… challenged us to do better and to work harder for progress.”

    The U.N. council turned its attention to the human rights record of the United States after ongoing racial tension due to deaths of black men by police officers accused of excessive use of force.

    “When federal, state, local or tribal officials willfully use excessive force that violates the U.S. Constitution or federal law, we have authority to prosecute them,” Cadogan added.

    All U.N. members must take part of the Universal Periodic Review every four years. The United States is also expected to face questions on its widespread incarceration of illegal immigrants, including children, the death penalty and use of long-term solitary confinement in prisons.

    The United States underwent its first review in 2010, but activists argue that the country has done little to carry out 171 recommendations it accepted out of 240 from the review board.

    “The U.S. has little progress to show for the many commitments it made during its first Universal Periodic Review,” U.S. advocacy director at Human Rights Watch Antonio Ginatta told VOA News.

    I guess, ‘we’re working on it, yeah, really we are’?

    Ooooh, a little test! An unbiased test to prove how suited to voting one is!
    Harvard Students Take 1964 Literacy Test Black Voters Had To Pass Before Voting — They All Failed    . So I guess no Harvard students should be voting?

    Recently, a group of Harvard students were asked to take the 1964 Louisiana Literacy Test — one of the extreme efforts to stop African Americans from voting that eventually led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act. Since racism is no longer a thing in America, according to the Supreme Court, and the Voting Rights Act has been effectively gutted, it might be time for a lesson from the past.

    The test required those who took it to correctly answer 30 questions in 10 minutes — something even a group of Harvard students could not do today. The students were recorded struggling with the vaguely-worded questions. Under Louisiana law at the time these students would each require a 100% score on the test to be able to vote.

    Carl Miller, a resident tutor at Harvard who administered the test, says that the purpose of the students’ participation was to teach them how unjust the electoral process was toward African Americans.

    “Exactly 50 years ago, states in the American South issued this exact test to any voter who could not ‘prove a fifth grade education,’” said Miller. “Unsurprisingly, the only people who ever saw this test were blacks and, to a lesser extent, poor whites trying to vote in the South.”

    Miller said he hoped to “see if some of the ‘brightest young minds in the world” could pass a test that was intended to “prove” someone had at least a fifth-grade education, according to the Daily Mail.

    “Louisiana’s literacy test was designed to be failed. Just like all the other literacy tests issued in the South at the time, this test was not about testing literacy at all. It was a legitimate sounding, but devious measure that the State of Louisiana used to disenfranchise people that had the wrong skin tone or belonged to the wrong social class,” Miller said. “And just like that, countless black and poor white voters in the South were disenfranchised.”

    Because the test was designed to allow officials to conveniently interpret any and all answers as wrong, not a single student passed.

    Since the Voting Rights Act was gutted, we have seen a wave of voter ID legislation across red states. While these laws are purportedly intended to prevent fraud, the effects are the same as the literacy tests in the south. For the midterm elections, the state of Texas passed some of the most restrictive identification legislation in the country’s history. While this was initially blocked because a federal judge deemed it to be a poll tax, the law was later reinstated.

    The result? According to MSNBC, no one knows how many voters the law disenfranchised. However, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the law had a very negative impact.

    You can take the test yourself at the link, too. You’re only allowed one error. And ten minutes.

    Satan, a Ga. Educator and Her Son: The Racist School-Graduation Rant Continues

    On Friday, Nancy Gordeuk, founder of TNT Academy in Lilburn, Ga., went viral after she spouted racist comments at the graduation ceremony during which she forgot the valedictorian’s speech and became upset when students began leaving before the speech was over, thinking the program was done.

    Gordeuk tried to get people to return to their seats to hear the speech, but assuming the ceremony was over, many in the audience began leaving.

    “It was my fault that we missed it in the program,” Gordeuk pleaded with the crowd. “Look who’s leaving—all the black people.”

    The crowd gasped.

    Gordeuck also called one young man a “gober” and a “coward.” She has since apologized for Satan being in attendance, saying it was the “devil,” not her, that used such language, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

    “The devil was in the house and came out from my mouth. I deeply apologize for my racist comment and hope that forgiveness is in your hearts,” Gordeuk wrote in a statement sent out to parents at the school.

    However, her son, Travis Gordeuk, took to Facebook Saturday to post his own missive about what took place.

    “If anyone has something to say about my mom and how she ran her graduation—come say it to my face,” he wrote.

    “Yall [n–gas] aren’t talkin about [s–t] so if u got somthing (sic) to say come see me face to face,” he added.

    Young Gordeuk even posted his address to his Facebook post in case anyone wanted to take him up on his offer of visiting to explain his or her position.

    Travis Gordeuk explained in his posting that his mother’s “gober” comment was directed to a young student who was “standing up during the ceremony and walking around with a tablet.”

    “My moma (sic) not racist one bit she’s done nothing but help kids so yall need to get stories straight,” he added.

    The New York Daily News notes that TNT Academy is an independent school that offers students failing in public schools the opportunity to make up credit and “is accredited through the Georgia Accrediting Commission.”

    Mothers of Police Violence Victims March on Washington

    They marched down Pennsylvania Avenue with arms linked to deliver their demands for change to law enforcement to the Department of Justice.

    They told the stories of their dearly departed children and why they had come to demand change in Washington. They spoke in the language of nostalgia–of memories of Mother’s Days past.

    The Mothers carried their children’s pictures in frames, wore them on buttons and tee shirts, and pasted them to heart signs with gold and silver glitter.

    They said this shouldn’t ever happen again–not to another Mother-not this.

    They called forth their children’s spirits, naming them one by one, as a bell chimed over the din of the circled crowd. All that was left for them was to remember so others couldn’t forget.

    Then the scattering of herbs, invoking every faith-each was welcomed. There was tribute to each mother who had lost a son or daughter to police or vigilante violence.

    How can a parent say goodbye to their child forever? It can’t be done. […]

    They carried their heavy burdens and their demands to the Department of Justice, delivering them to its doorstep. Ms. Maria Hamilton. the main organizer of the Million Mother’s March, and Mother to Dontre Hamilton, read the demands to Kevin Lewis, the Dept of Justice Press Secretary.

    She asked him to deliver the demands to the Attorney General on all Mothers’ behalf. Among those demands were to appoint special prosecutors to investigate police killings of the unarmed, demilitarize police forces, and immediate investigations in cases where such killing occur.

    She also left her business card and a warning she would be back next year.
    “I will be back here every year to make sure that these police officers that are taking human life go to jail,” she told Mr. Lewis.

  310. rq says

    Just some CBC, I have another couple old CBC links open at work, so I’ll get to those, too.
    Freddie Gray death: Prince plays benefit concert in Baltimore

    Prince took the stage on Sunday in a “Rally 4 Peace” concert in response to the death of a 25-year-old man, whose death from injuries suffered while in police custody triggered riots, telling the crowd: “We are here for you.”

    The Grammy-winning musician, appearing at Royal Farms Arena along with his backing band 3RDEYEGIRL, performed such hits as When Doves Cry and Raspberry Beret, as well as a new song called Baltimore, which he dedicated to the city.

    “We are here for you tonight,” he said.

    “It’s going to be all right. We’re going to figure this thing out,” Prince said while performing Purple Rain.

    “It’s going to take the young people to fix it this time. We need new ideas,” he said.

    Fan Jamal Terrell, 41, said: “I think he showed why he’s still extremely important. He brought a community together.”

    “It’s much bigger than a color issue. There’s people from all walks of life here,” Terrell said.

    Surprise guests were promised, and delivered, including Doug E. Fresh and Miguel.

    Returning to the stage for one of many encores, Prince said, “No curfew,” a reference to the citywide curfew put in place after rioting in Baltimore last month.

    Many concert-goers wore gray in response to promotional images, an apparent reference to Freddie Gray, who died in a Baltimore hospital a week after his arrest on April 12.

    … Though someone did comment that, to make this more powerful, he should have called it the ‘Rally 4 Justice’, because that is actually what is being demanded. But anyway.

    Interlude: TV! Stephanie Mills Lands Role in NBC’s The Wiz

    As previously reported, entering into a partnership with NBC on “The Wiz” — to be executive-produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron — is Cirque du Soleil, whose new stage theatrical division will co-produce the live TV event and then present it as a major Broadway revival for the 2016-17 season.

    Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon will stage both the television production and Broadway revival in collaboration with Tony winner Harvey Fierstein, who will contribute new material to the original Broadway book by William F. Brown.

    “We love this yearly tradition and we’re more excited than ever to not only bring another Broadway musical to America’s living rooms, but also see it land on Broadway as well,” said Greenblatt in a statement. “It’s a natural next step for our live musical events and we’re so pleased to be in business with this award-winning creative team and Scott Zeiger, President and Managing Director of Cirque du Soleil’s new theatrical division. Cirque’s incredible imagination will help bring the fantasy world of Oz vividly to life and give this great show a modern spin on the age-old story we all love.”

    “We are delighted that NBC and Cirque du Soleil will present ‘The Wiz,’” added Zeiger. “It’s a musical I have wanted to produce for years and it’s the perfect show to present under the new Cirque du Soleil Theatrical banner.”

    “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to not only produce this as our next live musical for NBC, but to then see it move to Broadway for a new generation to experience,” said Zadan. “It will be a joy to work again with Kenny Leon, who did ‘Steel Magnolias’ and ‘Raisin in the Sun’ with us,” added Meron.

    Universal Television will produce. Casting for both the NBC telecast and Cirque du Soleil’s Broadway production will be announced at a later date.

    William F. Brown wrote the book for the soulful contemporary retelling of L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” The Wiz also features music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls. The original 1974 production, directed by Geoffrey Holder and choreographed by George Faison, won seven Tony Awards including Best Musical. The premiere Broadway company featured Hinton Battle, Tiger Haynes, Stephanie Mills, Ted Ross, Dee Dee Bridgewater, André De Shields and Mabel King. Diana Ross and Michael Jackson starred in the film version.

    Police confirm man found hanging from tree in Greensboro Homicide investigation underway @FOX5Atlanta @NewsRadio1067 Not much more information from me at this point.

  311. rq says

    GBI conducts death investigation after man found hanging from tree

    Authorities say they found a man hanging from a tree in Greene County, Ga. Monday morning.

    A spokesperson for the Greensboro Police Department tells News Radio 106.7’s Nathalie Pozo that a 43-year-old African-American man was found hanging from the tree just after 11 a.m. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation say Roosevelt Champion III was found dead in a brushy area behind a home in the 600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

    Investigators say a witness spotted the man and called authorities. Authorities say the man does not live at the house where it happened.

    The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is assisting the Greensboro Police in the death investigation. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of death.

    Good night.

  312. says

    From rq’s #307:

    This is not a zero-sum game or an either-or proposition. Now more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to demanding justice for black women—especially the most vulnerable among us—with as much passion and conviction as we do for black men, because there is no such thing as halfway justice.

    One of the things I’ve noticed-even among progressive media outlets-is the erasure of black women (cis and trans) from discussions of police brutality, abuse of power, and the racism inherent in the USAmerican criminal justice system. It’s an ongoing source of frustration for me, and I imagine it’s so much worse for African-American women (and other women of color) that so many people think the Black Lives Matter Movement-a movement started by 3 African-American women -is about the impact of racist practices and beliefs on African-American men.
    And yeah, I’ve mentioned that more than a few times in several articles over the last few months.

  313. says

    From The Atlantic–Getting the news to everyone, not just the wealthy:

    Who is the news made for? In answering that question, the free market tends to sniff out potential readers with a good amount of spending money, because they’re more attractive to advertisers. But that can exclude entire communities—tens of millions of people—with relatively low incomes and levels of wealth.

    How might the media start to serve the informational needs of these overlooked swaths of the population? That’s the question that Sarah Alvarez is interested in answering. Alvarez currently works in public radio in Michigan, where she is a senior producer for State of Opportunity, a grant-funded reporting project that focuses on how poverty shapes the lives of local families.

    She’s heavily influenced by the work of James Hamilton, a Stanford professor who studies the market dynamics of information. With Hamilton’s work in mind, Alvarez started Infowire, a pilot project that caters to low-income news consumers with stories about education, food, and healthcare, among other topics. (She’ll be thinking about how to expand this project during her upcoming John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford.) I spoke to Alvarez about what it would look like if the media started delivering information that was relevant to people of all financial backgrounds. The interview that follows has been edited and condensed for the sake of clarity.

    Here’s a snippet of the interview:

    Pinsker: So how do the needs and, more importantly, wants, of low-income news consumers differ from those of people who are more well-off?

    Alvarez: I wish I knew more. There’s just not enough people working on this, so most of what I know, I’m looking at proxy studies that are close but not exactly right. We know that people want more information about local news. They want better information on how they can make decisions. I also know from my reporting that people need more information on how to navigate certain systems because that information is put out by groups or government offices that are bad at filling information gaps.

    Pinsker: When you say “systems,” what do you mean?

    Alvarez: Healthcare, education, benefits—but it’s not only stuff like that. It’s just that systems are involved. Low-income people have a lot more interactions with systems, and there is not a lot of reporting on where those systems truly break down. There are a lot of stories like, “Oh! We’re cutting off benefits for these people.” But there’s not a lot of information on how to navigate those systems. The thing that totally got me interested in this was what James Hamilton said about how when information gaps exist, accountability is what suffers. And that’s when I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is what I want to do.” There’s also not a lot of stories about, “Who do you hold accountable?” There are a lot of stories about, “Business is totally messed up,” but there are not stories that say, “And this is whose doorstep that lies at.”

    Pinsker: I know that some of your thinking requires setting up low-income news consumers as very different from people who are not low-income news consumers. But how do you think they’re similar? Is there something lost when you try to draw a dividing line between those demographics?

    Alvarez: Definitely. I think they’re much more similar than they are different. I think that we’ve gotten into trouble as media organizations by thinking these populations are so different, because all they want is high-quality news, high-quality information. Coverage of parenting is a really interesting place to look at this because you’ll see this examination of parenting ad nauseam in publications that are aimed at me, basically—moms who are in their thirties or forties. There’s so much information on parenting, but it’s aimed at people with a ton of economic resources. If that would just be written not for rich people, then it would be useful to everybody. It’s not that low-income news consumers need a different article. It’s just that rich people don’t need their own article, necessarily.

    Pinsker: So it’s clear to me that there’s a moral or democratic case for filling the information gap. Do you think there’s a good argument for doing that, from a business perspective?

    Alvarez: I think there’s more of a business case for doing it. Again, I wish I knew more. I feel like somebody has to know this, some for-profit. In public media, we’d be the last to know. [Laughs] I feel like for-profit news organizations must know that they’re missing a giant slice. You see commercial endeavors really targeting lower-income individuals—yes, sometimes in ways that are predatory—but a lot of people have changed their business models. But news is so far behind. We haven’t figured out how to bring those folks in, and I’m not sure why. I don’t think it’s because there’s not a good business case. I think it’s because news organizations are under siege, and they’re just freaking out and not thinking clearly.

    Pinsker: You talked a little bit before about how reporting on systems and where systems break down can be really useful to a low-income audience. In general, do you think the information gap that you’re talking about should be filled more with service journalism and stuff that’s intended to deliver actionable information? Or do you have more narrative-based reporting in mind? Or maybe both of those things?

    Alvarez: I think the information gap is just so big that it needs to start with more information, with a little narrative tint. And then I hope that other people who are really skilled at narrative will do that. But I think that already exists, storytelling projects that are more focused on narrative.

    Pinsker: From what I understand, the biggest single project of yours that’s trying to put Hamilton’s ideas into practice is Infowire.

    Alvarez: Right. And by biggest, that’s like incredibly small. [Laughs]

    Pinsker: What is its distribution strategy? Do you think about that differently than how most media companies might think about delivering stuff to a middle-class or upper-middle-class audience?

    Alvarez: I think what we know about how people access information is it’s increasingly more mobile, and it’s increasingly online. So I definitely make Infowire to be web-first, and sometimes the stories have radio pieces attached to them. Infowire has a text component where you can get an alert sent to your phone. I think that I have to have a real distribution strategy, but first I really want to know where the information gaps are before I figure out a strategy of how to get information to people. There’s more information on how people are consuming news than on what it is they want from that news. Pew has done a ton of work on how people get news, so I think distribution is the least of my problems. That’s better understood than anything else.

    Pinsker: Have you seen any other publications or media outlets try to cater to low-income news consumers? Are there any models out there for you to pattern any of your work on?

    Alvarez: Yeah, there are. I think ethnic press and local—super, super local. Because they’re more inclusive, right? Their target consumer is already kind of a small universe. If you look at how the Spanish-language press handles immigration, it’s super information-driven. It’s helpful. It’s written in a way that’s accessible for everybody.

    The most information-heavy pieces that I see are generally in the local press or ethnic press. After Ferguson, it was the same thing: There was a lot of information-driven coverage that was very, very local. Nobody else was picking that up, but nobody else really needed it. It was made for people in that community.

  314. says

    Those who read this article from Forward Progressives may want to sit down, bc it makes a bold, shocking statement about the GOP-that racism drives much of their base (I know…I could hardly believe that*).
    Senator Lindsey Graham shows why Republicans are stuck between a rock and a racist place:

    Many Republicans are so terrified to even try to tackle immigration that they basically just ignore it altogether. Almost two years ago the Senate passed a bipartisan bill aimed at reforming our immigration policies, but House Speaker John Boehner flat-out refused to let the House vote on it out of fear that it might actually pass.

    He was also afraid that if he allowed the bill to come up for it a vote it would put on public display just how many House Republicans (and where they’re from) voted against a common sense approach to immigration reform supported by the vast majority of Americans.

    Naturally, Republicans often like to use the word “amnesty” to get conservatives really worked up; meanwhile, the immigration policies President Obama supports are basically just a path to citizenship, not amnesty. I think too often they’re confusing this president with conservative icon Ronald Reagan who did pass an amnesty bill in 1986.

    Well, probable 2016 GOP presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) recently came out and said that the GOP has done a poor job at appealing to “non-whites,” and that if he were president he wouldn’t sign any immigration bill that didn’t offer a pathway to citizenship.

    Clearly it seems Graham realizes that the “crazy Bible” section of the party is locked down with candidates like Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee, so he’s attempting to appeal to Latino voters to win his party’s nomination.

    It’s not going to work, but I guess it’s worth a shot.

    To be fair, Graham has been one of the few Republicans who’s advocated for more common sense policies when it comes to immigration – which is a bit surprising considering how ridiculous he’s proven he can be on some issues.

    But what Graham’s comments do is highlight the fact that Republicans are caught between a rock and a racist place. They realize they’re eventually going to have to bring in more of the minority vote (especially when it comes to Latinos) very soon, otherwise they’re never going to win the White House again. But at the same time, by embracing common sense approaches to immigration reform (which is a big issue for many Latino voters), they risk alienating a huge part of the Republican base that’s largely built upon racism and strong anti-immigrant beliefs.

    Though to be honest, Republicans aren’t really doing much of anything about immigration – nor will they. Sure, they like to talk a lot about “securing the border,” but they’re not really pushing through any sort of immigration bill because the last thing the GOP wants to do is officially go on public record voting for something that will expose just how bigoted and anti-immigrant their party really is – especially heading into the 2016 elections.

    But when it’s all said and done, each of these Republican candidates has a choice to make:
    Embrace common sense immigration reform while hoping to appeal to Latino voters, probably alienating much of their “base” that’s built on a strong anti-immigrant sentiment. -or-
    Continue to embrace that anti-immigrant bigotry and continue to alienate the vast majority of Latino voters.

    History shows us that when it comes to the Republican party, when the chips are down, they almost always choose bigotry over equality.

    *If you can’t tell and/or aren’t familiar with me, I’m being snarky as fuck

  315. says

    From Fusion–
    What you are actually saying when you say you don’t see color:

    That particular combination of words is often used in discussions about race and racism, and it doesn’t, on its surface, mean anything. “I don’t see color” is the Forever 21 clearance bin costume jewelry of cliched statements about race. It might seem nice, but it crumbles and unfastens and falls apart pretty easily once you try to use it for anything.

    So here are some things you are actually saying when you default to that grouping of words:

    You are a silly person.

    Color exists. As in both, like, actual melanin in skin and the constructs and history that surround having or not having varying degrees of it. Race exists, whether you think of it as a construct people created over time or as a Legit Really Real Thing, as do hatred and prejudice and well-meaning-but-ultimately-clueless interactions based on ideas we have about how people of different races act or should be treated. To say that you don’t see color is silly, because it exists. You are literally seeing it — and how people talk about it — every day.

    You are ok with ignoring other people.

    Because color and race are things that surely exist in this world we live and participate in, some people are treated differently — and sometimes badly or unfairly — based on ideas other people have about color and race. A lot of people have talked about it, sharing what they’ve gone through and teaching people how they can treat other, differently-colored people in ways that maybe aren’t so bad or unfair. By claiming to not see color you are, by extension, declaring an ignorance of either the reality that this bad or unfair treatment exists, despite people who have experienced it telling you that it does, or you are saying that you do not and have never taken part in it, even in a subtle or innocuous or casual manner. And I do not believe you when you say that.

    You are comfortable.

    You do not have to see color because you are not treated badly or unfairly because of yours. You have not, say, been followed very closely by salespeople with tense smiles while browsing in a store. You have not watched a tiny parade of different thoughts and emotions cross strangers’ faces as they silently debate whether or not to sit beside you on a bus. You have not overheard a joke comparing people who are like you to an animal. You have not had your emotional state discredited because of assumptions about your “anger” or your “passion.” You are very comfortable, and that must be really nice.

    Or maybe you are angry.

    You are maybe saying you don’t see color because you do not trust comments you might make about color in a discussion taking place within a public forum, like, say, on a cable news network aimed at diverse young people.

    You do not want to talk about race.

    And also

    You do not want to listen to people talk about race.

    If color is not a thing you see, it is pretty impossible for you to follow statements other people are making about color. Probably you see a lot of negative space making noise in your direction. That must be really weird for you!

    You are not familiar with major works of art.

    There are lots of books and movies and TV series and paintings and plays and dance productions and essays by people about color, and how people have been treated and are treated because of color. If you don’t see color, something like Invisible Man or Beloved or To Kill a Mockingbird or The Means to an End: A Shadow Drama in Five Acts or On Beauty or The Jungle (the 1943 painting) or The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao or All in the Family and then The Jeffersons or Love and Rockets a giant chunk of frightening and beautiful and sublime and hilarious and heartbreaking and cool things created throughout time and right now.

    And that is very sad for you.

    You will not change.

    Because why would you need to? You are either above or apart from a world where color exists. Because you will not see color, you will not see that differences aren’t something to be ignored in polite company or a fact to be borne and struggled with quietly in private. The color of our skin impacts much of the way we interact with the world, and the world with us. This is part of who are are and the people we have yet to become each day.

    You are above or apart from a world where differences exist, and so cannot see that the problem is not, actually, that we are different from one another.

  316. rq says

    U.S. admits it can ‘do better and work harder’ to stop police abuses

    A senior official of the Department of Justice told the United Nations on Monday that the U.S. could do more to uphold civil rights laws, citing several incidents with police killing unarmed black men.

    James Cadogan, a senior counselor in the justice department’s civil rights division, told the UN’s Human Rights Council that “we must rededicate ourselves to ensuring that our civil rights laws live up to their promise,” according to the Agence France-Presse.

    “The tragic deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Michael Brown in Missouri, Eric Garner in New York, Tamir Rice in Ohio, and Walter Scott in South Carolina have… challenged us to do better and to work harder for progress,” he said.

    The delegation from the U.S. was meeting for the Universal Periodic Review of its human rights record, which all 193 U.N. members must undergo every four years.

    The comments come days after the DOJ announced that it would be opening a “patterns and practices” investigation into the Baltimore Police Department. The investigations look into whether specific police departments unnecessarily use excessive force, and if they operate with respect to civil and constitutional rights.

    In a speech last Friday announcing the launch of the investigation, Attorney General Loretta Lynch called police-community relations “one of the most challenging issues of our time.”

    After last summer’s unrest following the shooting of unarmed Michael Brown by a white police officer in the city of Ferguson, Mo., one of the investigations led to a wave of city officials, including the former police chief, resigning in the city.

    Late last week, activists in Los Angeles made calls for a DOJ investigation into the police department there, following the shooting of an unarmed homeless man.

    It’s a lot like the link @307.

    As mentioned by Rob Grigjanis elsewhere, The Agenda with Steve Paikin: Desmond Cole: Black Like Me, on racism in Canada.

    In a recent Toronto Life article, Desmond Cole writes that he has been stopped by police on more than 50 occasions because of his skin colour. He tells Steve Paikin about these experiences and discusses the challenges and hopes for Toronto’s new Police Chief Mark Saunders.

    Latest Zimmerman dust-up linked to prior road rage incident

    The dispute this time was with the same man that authorities said was involved in a road rage incident with Zimmerman last year. A bullet missed his head, spraying glass from the vehicle’s windshield, said his attorney, Don West. He said the bullet lodged somewhere in the vehicle. He was treated at a hospital and released.

    No charges were immediately filed against either man. […]

    Last September, Apperson said Zimmerman threatened to kill him, asking “Do you know who I am?” during a confrontation in their vehicles. Apperson decided not to pursue charges, and police officers were unable to move forward without a car tag identified or witnesses.

    “I explained to Matthew that without the tag, witnesses, and/or clear video identifying the driver as George Zimmerman, it might be difficult to prove the alleged suspect was in fact Zimmerman,” the Lake Mary police officer wrote in a report last September.

    West said before the news conference that Zimmerman thought he knew who was responsible for the shooting and is cooperating with authorities.

    Zimmerman was acquitted in the February 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in a case that sparked protests and national debate about race relations. The Justice Department later announced it was not bringing a civil rights case against Zimmerman.

    Since then, Zimmerman has had several brushes with the law, including:

    The list follows.

    Mayor’s authority to impose curfew questioned

    The Maryland Public Defender’s Office is arguing in court that Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake exceeded her authority last month when she imposed a citywide curfew amid the unrest that followed the death of Freddie Gray.

    City prosecutors, meanwhile, have decided to drop all charges against those whose sole charges were for curfew violations, saying “the arrest was punishment enough.”

    Dozens were arrested on curfew violations during the five nights the curfew was in effect. Businesses complained of sharp drops in revenue, and some people said the curfew was enforced disproportionately in majority-black neighborhoods.

    In announcing the curfew, aides to Rawlings-Blake cited a provision of the city charter that deems her a “conservator of the peace.” The powers of that title are not clearly defined in the city charter or state law, but City Solicitor George Nilson said there is “substantial supportive authority” for a conservator of the peace to impose a curfew.

    But Baltimore Deputy Public Defender Natalie Finegar, in a motion to dismiss a client’s curfew charge filed Monday, said the mayor overstepped her bounds.

    “The Governor has the statutory authority to establish a curfew in times of emergency. The City Council of Baltimore is vested with legislative authority to create criminal ordinances,” Finegar wrote. “The Mayor, however, acting alone, may not do so.”

    While Rawlings-Blake declared it a crime for adults to be outside with certain exceptions, Finegar wrote, her order did not establish any penalty.

    In online court records, Finegar said in an interview, no charges are listed for the people who face curfew violations, because there’s no corresponding criminal code to enter into the computer.

    Still, some people spent 24 hours waiting to be processed at Central Booking after being arrested for violating the curfew.

    Rochelle Ritchie, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office, said prosecutors decided to drop cases in which the sole charge was for breaking curfew before Finegar filed her motion. Those with additional charges, such as rioting and disorderly conduct, could still face prosecution.

    By John Legend, ‘Southern Rites’ Documentary Examines a Town’s Sharp Racial Divide

    “Southern Rites,” a new documetary executive-produced by John Legend, delves into a 2010 racialized killing in Montgomery County, Georgia.

    Director Gillian Laub—who in 2009 photographed a Montgomery County high school’s racially segregated prom—shows how a local white man is charged with murdering a 22-year-old black man who had appeared in her prom pictures.

    The killing occurred just a year after the town finally decided to merge its proms. It also took place at a time when a man named Calvin Burns was running to become the town’s first black sheriff.

    HBO will broadcast “Southern Rites.” It will air on May 18 during the week of the 61st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.

    Watch the trailer above.

    Yep, trailer at the link.

    Michelle Obama on being black: ‘There will be times when you feel like folks look right past you’

    Of course, any time the president or first lady gives a commencement speech, their words are carefully chosen for mass consumption, vetted for a world when anything said to a small crowd on a college campus is now heard on all of cable TV. But the speech Michelle Obama gave Saturday to graduates at Tuskegee University in Alabama, a historically black college famous for training the military’s first black pilots in an era of official segregation, sounded more intimate than that.

    The text reads like the kind of private talk the first black first lady would give a largely black audience about a shared burden beyond the frame of reference for many of the rest of us. “The road ahead is not going to be easy,” she told them. “It never is, especially for folks like you and me.”

    Within that intimacy, she gave a thoughtful window into what it’s like to be a black American today:

    So there will be times, just like for those Airmen, when you feel like folks look right past you, or they see just a fraction of who you really are.

    The world won’t always see you in those caps and gowns. They won’t know how hard you worked and how much you sacrificed to make it to this day — the countless hours you spent studying to get this diploma, the multiple jobs you worked to pay for school, the times you had to drive home and take care of your grandma, the evenings you gave up to volunteer at a food bank or organize a campus fundraiser. They don’t know that part of you.

    Instead they will make assumptions about who they think you are based on their limited notion of the world. And my husband and I know how frustrating that experience can be. We’ve both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives — the folks who crossed the street in fear of their safety; the clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores; the people at formal events who assumed we were the “help” — and those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country.

    And I know that these little indignities are obviously nothing compared to what folks across the country are dealing with every single day — those nagging worries that you’re going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason; the fear that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds; the agony of sending your kids to schools that may no longer be separate, but are far from equal; the realization that no matter how far you rise in life, how hard you work to be a good person, a good parent, a good citizen — for some folks, it will never be enough.

    Obama here gives a hint of how she’s felt about her own critics. But she’s also talking about a more pervasive kind of alienation that’s integral to our understanding of what’s happening with race relations in America today. This is the alienation that comes from people seeing “just a fraction of who you really are.” Some empathy for that feeling — or recognition of the power of it in frustrated black communities — seems like part of what we’re missing today.

    She goes on:

    And all of that is going to be a heavy burden to carry. It can feel isolating. It can make you feel like your life somehow doesn’t matter — that you’re like the invisible man that Tuskegee grad Ralph Ellison wrote about all those years ago. And as we’ve seen over the past few years, those feelings are real. They’re rooted in decades of structural challenges that have made too many folks feel frustrated and invisible. And those feelings are playing out in communities like Baltimore and Ferguson and so many others across this country.

  317. rq says

    Thomas Jefferson: “I hold it that a little rebellion now & then is a good thing.”
    #BaltimoreUprising #PeacefulProtest

    Chief: Man shot by police pointed phone at cops like a gun. Funny, I think white people do that, too, but they seem to die less.

    A dark object that officers thought was a gun being pointed at them when they fatally shot a man in a lumber yard last month turned out to be a cell phone, according to interim Lakewood Police Chief Mark Zaro.

    Zaro made the new revelations in the shooting that took the life of 37-year-old Daniel Covarrubias during a press conference Monday afternoon.

    An employee at the lumber yard had called 911 to report seeing Covarrubias running through the lumber yard as if he was running from police. The man then climbed atop a 25-foot tall stack of lumber.

    When officers David Butts and Ryan Hamilton arrived, they attempted to talk to the man, who wasn’t speaking, according to Zaro.

    “Mr. Covarrubias was in an elevated position atop the stack of lumber and was seen reaching into his pockets,” Zaro said. “Officers gave numerous commands to show his hands, but Mr. Covarrubias did not respond. Seconds later, Mr. Covarrubias raised up with a dark object in his hands and pointed it at the officers in a manner that was consistent with pointing a firearm.”

    Zaro said the man crouched down, then raised up a second time and pointed the dark object at the officers. That’s when both officers began shooting, firing nine shots in all, of which five struck Covarrubias, Zaro said.

    Covarrubias raised up a third time with the dark object, then dropped back onto the lumber. Zaro said six seconds elapsed between the first time Covarrubias raised up and the final shot was fired by the officers.

    Covarrubias was taken down via ladder and loaded into an ambulance. That’s when officers discovered the dark object in Covarrubias’ hand was a cell phone, not a gun, Zaro said.

    Zaro said their investigation revealed that Zaro wasn’t running from police when the 911 call came in and still aren’t sure why he was running. The employee heard sirens in the area and then spotted Covarrubias running when they made the 911 call, but Zaro said they were not seeking him, adding he might have been heading to his home in Parkland. Investigators also found Covarrubias had been potentially been awake without food for three straight days under the influence of meth and possibly hallucinating, Zaro said, adding it would be a possible explanation as to why he would point a cell phone at officers to mimic a gun.

    “It was not him holding the phone in his hand like he was making a phone call, it was not just him holding up a dark object, he was definitely described by not just the officers but the civilian witnesses as him mimicking a gun,” Zaro said.

    Zaro said the officers made every effort to verbally communicate with the man, but he wouldn’t reply.

    “He would not do anything other than point what they thought was a gun at them, making de-escalation impossible for our officers,” Zaro said. “I’m not going to ask officers to stand there with what they believe to be a gun pointed at them and not take actions to defend their lives.”

    Zaro said both officers have completed the process all officers go through during officer-involved shootings and have returned to duty.

    Brazilians who keep alive the accents of Civil-War-era US southerners – don’t know why, but that strikes me as… odd and interesting.

    After the American Civil War, a group of Southerners left for Brazil — where the “Confederados” remained so culturally separate from the rest of Brazilians that to this day their ancestors speak in the cadences of South Georgia: A linguistic time capsule “preserved in aspic”.

    With “Confederates in the Jungle”, Ron Soodalter has written a great piece about these Civil-War expatriates, and the curiously historical value of their language patterns:

    One clear indicator of the fierceness with which the rebel settlers maintained their identity is in their speech. Despite five generations of assimilation, the English language has survived, perfect and intact, among a number of the bilingual Confederados. Amazingly, although most have not visited the United States, their speech clearly reflects that of the American South. When Jimmy Carter, then the governor of Georgia, visited Campo in 1972, he was stunned: “The most remarkable thing was, when they spoke they sounded just like people in South Georgia.”

    The Confederados represent a human treasure trove for modern-day linguists. Throughout the past century and a half, scholars have puzzled over what the Southerners of the Civil War era actually sounded like. The Brazilian descendants’ English, in the words of one latter-day rebel, has been “preserved in aspic”; in its purist form, it stands virtually frozen in time, reflecting the pronunciations and speech patterns of their forebears, dating from the third quarter of the 19th century.

    That photo above is two of the original Confederados, Joseph Whitaker and Isabel Norris. Go read the whole article — it’s worth it!

    Telling the Story of Civil Rights: A Conversation in Baltimore

    Taylor Branch spent twenty-four years writing “America in the King Years,” and he’s been trying for almost as long to get his civil-rights trilogy adapted for the screen. The project has bounced around film studios and television stations for so long that Alex Haley even worked on a script. “Film is about intimacy,” Branch said on Friday, at a panel during the Maryland Film Festival, “and it’s hard to get people in Hollywood to show the civil-rights movement for what it was, which was people every day in internal conflict with themselves about things that really mattered.”

    Branch was speaking in Baltimore’s Station North Arts and Entertainment District, not far from the recent protests over the death of Freddie Gray and ongoing police brutality in the city. The panel, “A Work in Progress: Writing Race,” featured the writers who are, along with Branch, finally bringing his masterwork to the screen, as a miniseries on HBO: the novelist James McBride, the journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the writer David Simon.

    The panel was organized hastily when the festival’s director, Jed Dietz, asked Simon for ideas about how to acknowledge the protests. Worried that the unrest might scare off attendees, Simon wanted to participate, but with nothing to screen, he offered a look into the writing room as the collaborators “figure out how to squeeze Taylor’s opus, his trilogy, ‘America in the King Years,’ through the keyhole.” […]

    All scripts to six parts of the series have been assigned, but as they work on their individual episodes, the writers said that the protests in Baltimore and around the country are on their minds. McBride remembered one of the first things David Simon had said to him about this project: “The civil-rights movement never stopped, it continues”—only “the faces have changed.”

    Simon recounted how a section of Branch’s book had challenged him recently as he debated the unrest in Baltimore. He’d written on his personal blog, “If you can’t seek redress and demand reform without a brick in your hand, you risk losing this moment for all of us in Baltimore. Turn around. Go home. Please.” At the panel, he described his mindset at the time, saying, “I find myself becoming tactical,” worrying that the violence of the riots and the “optics” of the protests were alienating potential allies. But he was troubled by a fight between James Bevel and James Forman that took place at Beulah Baptist Church, in Montgomery. Bevel criticized the younger leaders for their disobedience and urged patience, but the disagreement, emblematic of growing tensions between S.N.C.C. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference over violent resistance, culminated with Forman shouting from the pulpit: “If we can’t sit at the table of democracy, we’ll knock the fucking legs off!” “Oh shit,” Simon thought, “I’m playing the Bevel part online against someone who is arguing Forman.”

    Ta-Nehisi Coates said that Baltimore hadn’t changed his perspective, and he challenged Simon to look beyond individual actors, to consider cities like Baltimore as “an ecological system,” where investments in excessive policing and incarceration have been like pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. There are “effects,” he said that go “beyond whether people are good, whether people are nice, whether they’re bad.” “That’s like the point of ‘The Wire,’ right? It’s structural, it doesn’t matter how noble people are,” Coates said, “it’s rigged. It’s rigged from the jump.”

    “I would like for people to be nonviolent, that’s my desire, but I’m not surprised when they’re not. You wonder how much CO2 you can pump in,” Coates said. “I am not calling for riots any more than I would call for global warming.” […]

    The disagreements among these writers about Baltimore seemed illustrative of their disparate understandings of the civil-rights movement. And their own shifting between despair and optimism made the presence of that past palpable on this Friday evening. Branch said he hopes that, together, they can “do the history good enough” to make their audience see “how deep this goes.”

    Inquiry to Examine Racial Bias in the San Francisco Police – did I mention this already? If yes, sorry:

    First came disclosures of racist and homophobic text messages exchanged by officers of the San Francisco Police Department. That was followed by the discovery that sheriff’s deputies had been gambling on forced fighting matches between inmates at a city jail.

    Then on Thursday, the San Francisco district attorney announced that he was expanding the investigation of the city’s police and sheriff’s departments to examine whether those agencies have a deep-seated culture of systemic bias that has led to unlawful arrests or prosecutions.

    In a year in which many of the nation’s major cities have been rocked by protests after the fatal police shootings of unarmed African-Americans, the broadened inquiry made clear that even a city known for its liberal politics can be buffeted by accusations that its officers behaved in a racially biased manner.

    African-Americans in San Francisco have complained for years about harassment and the use of excessive force by the police. And while African-Americans make up about 5 percent of the city’s population, they account for half of its arrests and jail inmates, and more than 60 percent of the children in juvenile detention, according to city statistics. […]

    “In the last few months, we have seen city after city where police use of force or other police activity is coming to the light and indicating that racial animosity and other types of biases play a significant role,” he said. “I think at one point we felt we would be immune from that type of activity.”

    Concerns that the San Francisco Police Department may be rife with racial bias were reignited in March when racially inflammatory text messages sent between 14 police officers became public as part of the federal corruption trial of two San Francisco officers.

    Mr. Gascón, a former San Francisco police chief, said Thursday that a task force of prosecutors had already been scrutinizing some 3,000 cases — including about 1,600 convictions — related to contacts or arrests made by the 14 police officers during the last decade to determine if biases had led to any unlawful arrests or wrongful prosecutions.

    The investigation by the panel, which will add three former judges as investigators, will now be broadened to include an examination of whether entrenched biases exist in the 2,000-member department.

    “If just one individual was wrongly imprisoned because of bias on the part of these officers, that’s one too many,” Mr. Gascón said. “What is the potential impact in our justice system when a juror in a criminal trial questions the credibility of the arresting officer on the evidence that is being presented because they believe that this process may have been influenced by racial or homophobic bias? Can justice prevail under such conditions? Probably not.”

    Interlude: Music! Boosie Badazz Releases Updated ‘Touch Down 2 Cause Hell’ Tracklist

    May 26 is right around the corner, which means Boosie Badazz​ fans will finally get their hands on the highly anticipated Touch Down 2 Cause Hell album. After whetting appetites with the London On Da Track assisted single, “Retaliation,” Boosie returns with some more good news in the form of the album tracklist. Touch Down 2 Cause Hell will be a lengthy experience, with seventeen tracks. Boosie has some big names on the album, including: Webbie, Rick Ross, Chris Brown, Rich Homie Quan, T.I., and Keyshia Cole. You can view the entire tracklist below.

  318. rq says

    Kanye West Receives Honorary Doctorate From School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago – listen to his acceptance speech here: Kanye’s Speech. Honorary Degree Ceremony. https://soundcloud.com/dnainfo-radio/kanye-wests-speech-after-receiving-honorary-doctorate-from-art-institute-of-chicago …

    Important read: Why do we applaud rebellion in film, but not in Baltimore’s streets? Full text:

    Over the past few years, Americans have spent millions of dollars to enjoy fictional rebellion. Combined, “The Giver,” the “Hunger Games” series, and the “Divergent” series — all novels turned films — have amassed over $2 billion globally. In addition to their financial success, they have accumulated enormous fan bases, especially among young people.

    All of those stories deal with protagonists attempting to overthrow oppressive dystopian societies. Often, particularly in the case of the latter two, the characters accomplish their goals through violence, destruction and outright murder. So why do we admire these rebellious fictional characters while viewing those in Baltimore and Ferguson with contempt?

    When Katniss (“Hunger Games”) shot an arrow into some highly complex (and likely very expensive) equipment in “Catching Fire,” the audience didn’t think less of her for destroying someone’s property. In “Divergent,” when Tris hurled a knife into the villain’s hand (film version only), no one shook their heads and said “She’s going about this the wrong way.” Yet when black people throw rocks at police officers who routinely terrorize and even kill members of their community, the public is quick to demonize the victim and defend the oppressor.

    In all of the fictional stories mentioned above, there are (at least) two requisite elements that make audiences root for the rebellious protagonist. First, there is an obviously unjust and unbalanced social structure that threatens the life of the protagonist and her loved ones. Second, the people taking drastic measures to overthrow those societies are depicted as heroes.

    I posit that the reason audiences fail to see the similarities in fictional uprising (which we love) and what occurs in real life, is the absence of that second element. Excluding the most ignorant and racist in our country, Americans generally get a sense that there is a problem with the unjustified killing of innocent black people by unsympathetic police officers. While they may not fully comprehend the scale of implicit bias, they understand that black people are more likely to be treated unfairly by the criminal justice system. So we can check off the first element.

    As for the second, black rioters have been called plenty of things by the mainstream media; “heroic” is not one of them. Instead of being depicted as people who are doing what little they can do to bring attention to injustice, they have often been cast off as looters, criminals, “thugs” and miscreants taking advantage of the political climate.

    Broadcast journalists contrast the rioters with Martin Luther King Jr. (white people’s favorite civil rights leader) and criticize rioters for failing to adopt MLK’s supposedly superior method of passive protest. All of this rhetoric is used to firmly embed in the minds of Americans, both black and white, that there is nothing noble about those participating in the riots — that what we are seeing on television is not the type of righteous revolution we associate with the civil rights movement — it’s mere buffoonery.

    Yet, King himself — who said much more than the blurbs that populate your Facebook feed — believed that looting functions as a type of “emotional catharsis.” Knowing that our society cherishes property above people, looters attempt to “shock the white community” by abusing the property rights whites hold so dear. Since people in urban neighborhoods do not have an opportunity to make the type of grand revolutionary gestures we applaud on the big screen — like exploding Parliament in “V for Vendetta” — they settle for damaging what they have ample access to, like liquor markets, police cars and convenience stores.

    On that note, headlines continue to inflate the deleterious effect rioters have had on their community — referencing the supposed “200 minority-owned businesses” that have been “destroyed” in Baltimore. What they fail to mention is that a far larger number of businesses were not damaged physically but by lost revenue resulting from the mayor’s week-long 10 p.m. curfew. To place that blame solely on the riots is to ignore the oppressive apparatus that sparked them.

    To be clear, we live in a world of laws; and those laws should apply equally to everyone.

    But if black rioters were imaginary, they would be heroes. As long as they present a real-world threat to the comfort of white supremacy, force us to face long-ignored truths and embarrass the nation’s more compliant black population, they will continue to be typecast as villains.

  319. rq says

    Universities, pillars of enlightenment… Boston University Disavows Dr. King’s Legacy

    Boston University, an elite higher education research institute that boasts such esteemed alumni as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Uzo Aduba and Bill O’Reilly Miss Universe Olivia Culpo, has recently found itself in the news several times thanks to a complete disregard for at least maintaining the illusion of caring about Black students.

    On April 25th, 2015 an article was published in the Boston Globe about the lack of diversity on Boston-area campuses.

    [the] subject of racial diversity surfaced on one local campus this week with news that BU plans to shutter its African Presidential Center, prompting the center’s director, Charles Stith, to charge that the school lacks commitment to issues concerning black people.

    The article oddly boasts that Boston University now has a 4.6% rate of Black students incoming next year (!!!). And this is when we get to read an incredibly offensive and racist quote:

    “The data shows important progress,” said Jean Morrison, BU’s provost and chief academic officer.

    The challenge, Morrison and other administrators say, is that the pool of academically qualified black students is slim…

    You: Ummm… how is that racist?!

    Well, Timmy, when a man and a woman hate each other, and also have the power to systematically keep their children from progressing, that’s racism. So racism is hate + power. Jean over here is chief academic officer and she thinks there aren’t enough qualified Black students. That’s… kind of an issue, to say the least.

    As a Boston University alumna, it has me (and other alumni and current students) asking #AmIEnough?

    Then, right when I thought there’s no way Boston University could get even further from Dr. King’s message and legacy (I mean, closing the African Presidential Center AND having the provost come out and say Black students aren’t smart enough? That’s olympic-level racism!) here comes Boston University with the hail mary play to keep the white students placated and the white heteronormative narrative in place:

    Critics also point to the low representation of black full-time faculty at BU, which has risen less than one percent over the past three decades and now stands at 2.8 percent. Overall, 7.4 percent of BU faculty are considered members of under-represented minority groups. Among local large private colleges, only Boston College had a smaller percentage of minority faculty.

    This brings us to the Saida Grundy situation, which is likely the reason you’re here. According to this “article” at Fox News (which, let’s be real, is basically TMZ at this point. I mean, how does a news team witness a cop shoot a man and then change their story?) Supposedly a UMass, Amherst student, Nick Pappas, found some tweets and then posted them to a website. From there, Boston University students were enraged by Professor Grundy’s statements on white students in higher education. Nick Pappas, who are you?

    What brought me to that article:
    I don’t want to send more attention her way, but Fox News just called a professor, a black woman, racist because she summarized US history;
    A black woman working as a professor at Boston Univ. is not racist for saying “white masculinity is an issue on campus” & giving details;
    Forget it. @saigrundy needs your support. She tweeted her analysis on the anatomy of white supremacy & news media is punishing her for it.;
    Not only is news media punishing @saigrundy, her employer, Boston University has taken a public stance against her comments.

    Massive Protest Saturday @ Light & Pratt @ 3. Amnesty 4 all arrestees. #BaltimoreUprising #BlackLivesMatter

  320. rq says

    #ISupportSaida because regardless of how you feel about her tweets, the people targeting her are dangerous. More on Grundy in those tweets and attached texts.

    And Georgia officials are reporting “no signs of foul play” in the hanging death of #RooseveltChampion.
    #RooseveltChampion
    #OtisByrd. #RooseveltChampion
    Saad in the Lounge has an article on the lack of incriminating evidence.
    What’s interesting is that to declare suicide, pretty much all other options have to be exhausted, due to the stigma attached to suicide and the difficulty for families to accept it. And these are not usually conclusions one can come to within a few hours of discovering the body, even with a note.
    Anyway.

    Officers charged in Freddie Gray’s death seek recording of anticipated grand jury proceedings

    Lawyers for the six Baltimore police officers arrested in the death of Freddie Gray have requested any potential proceedings before a grand jury be transcribed or recorded. The lawyers have “concerns” that the investigators behind the charging documents have “misidentified certain facts, as well as the applicable law that should be considered when determining the appropriateness of the charges” against the officers, according to a motion filed Monday in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

    Apparently there’s more but I don’t have a login.

  321. rq says

    The Nightly Show: “Thug” Debate – Felonious Munk.

    Let’s take a moment for ALL black lives matter, even those too small and too ignored to be heard: Dear media, when peacekeepers rape African kids, don’t call it a “sex-for-food scandal”

    I have two modest proposals: 1) peacekeeping troops should not rape children, and 2) if peacekeepers do rape children, the media should go ahead and call that a “child rape scandal,” not a “sex-for-food scandal.”

    Seems reasonable enough, right? After all, there are no “peacekeeper” or “food” exceptions to the moral and legal rule that children cannot consent. Adults having sex with children is rape. That is terrible enough under any circumstances, but it is particularly appalling to think of peacekeepers taking advantage of the desperate people they are supposed to be protecting.

    And yet, as my friend Kate Cronin-Furman points out in a post on Wronging Rights, that turns out to be a tall order. An internal UN report that recently leaked has accused French soldiers in the Central African Republic of forcing “hungry, homeless young boys to perform sex acts on them in return for small amounts of food, water and sometimes some cash.”

    For some reason, much of the international media has apparently decided to report that story as a “sex-for-food” scandal […]

    The idea seems to be that when peacekeepers rape children who are desperate for food, for some reason it does not actually count as rape, but rather is an exchange of food for sex. Worse, the wording suggests that by dispensing food to their victims, the rapists were merely causing a “scandal,” not committing a crime.

    And this isn’t the first time this has happened. Cronin-Furman rounds up other examples of peacekeepers sexually abusing children that were also covered as “sex-for-food” stories in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2011.

    This needs to stop. When child rape occurs, the media should call it what it is. Describing such incidents as “sex for food” minimizes the gravity of the crimes, by implying that the soldiers were compensating locals for transactional sex, rather than acknowledging what they were truly doing to vulnerable children. It’s not “sex.” It’s rape.

    So many streets blocked so many streets shut down ::: its only the beginning #DVNLLN

    Seven Scribes website to have official launch – Come to our launch party Friday!

    Kendrick Lamar to Appear in Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” Video – interlude!

    The friendship between Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift has taken a new step. The Compton rapper is set to appear in the country pop star’s new video “Bad Blood.” “Meet Welvin Da Great,” tweeted Swift on Monday morning, revealing the character Kendrick will play in the Joseph Kahn-directed clip. The video will feature cameos from plenty of stars, including Lena Dunham, Hailee Steinfeld, Hayley Williams, Zendaya, and more.

    “Bad Blood” will premiere during the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, May 17. Check out the flyer for Kendrick Lamar’s character below.

    Obamas announce Sweet Home Chicago for presidential library center

    President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle on Tuesday said they wanted to locate their Obama library and museum in Chicago – with an announcement on their foundation website declaring “Sweet Home Chicago.”

    While the South Side of Chicago gets a massive Obama complex associated with the University of Chicago, the first couple made a somewhat split decision, giving something to all four finalists – with the lion’s share to Chicago.

    “As a future neighbor and collaborator on the Center, the University of Chicago has pledged to make resources and infrastructure available to the Foundation in the near term for its planning and development work,” the foundation said in a statement.

    In addition, “the Foundation intends to maintain a presence at Columbia University for the purpose of exploring and developing opportunities for a long term association. In addition, the Foundation will work with the state of Hawaii to establish a lasting presence in Honolulu. Within Chicago, in addition to its association with the University of Chicago, the Foundation also plans to collaborate with the University of Illinois – Chicago,” the Barack Obama Foundation said in a statement.

  322. rq says

    Chris Rock, Alicia Keys and Lenny Kravitz to Guest Star In Empire Season 2. Fun!

    Not so fun: REVISED
    Press Conference Updates Today:
    10am CST/11am EST – #TamirRice
    2:30pm CST/3:30pm EST – #TonyRobinson
    The press conference update re: the killing of #TamirRice began at 11am & ended by 11:05am. Essentially, there was no update.

    Harriet Tubman is your potential replacement for Jackson on the $20

    A group that wants to kick Andrew Jackson off of the $20 bill and replace him with a woman has, after months of collecting votes, chosen a successor: Harriet Tubman.

    Tubman, an abolitionist who is remembered most for her role as a conductor in the “Underground Railroad,” was one of four finalists for the nod from a group of campaigners calling themselves “Women on 20s.” The campaign started earlier this year and has since inspired bills in the House and the Senate.

    The other three finalists were former first lady and human rights activist Eleanor Roosevelt; civil rights figure Rosa Parks; and Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. Now that voters participating in the campaign have chosen Tubman, Women on 20s will bring a petition with the people’s choice to the White House.

    “Our paper bills are like pocket monuments to great figures in our history,” Women On 20s Executive Director Susan Ades Stone said in an e-mailed statement. “Our work won’t be done until we’re holding a Harriet $20 bill in our hands in time for the centennial of women’s suffrage in 2020.”

    In all, the group said, it has collected more than 600,000 votes for its campaign.

    Of course, even if the government agrees that it’s time to replace Andrew Jackson on the bill, its choice might not end up being Tubman. But the idea of putting a woman on America’s paper currency has attracted some notable support.

    “Last week, a young girl wrote to me to ask why aren’t there any women on our currency,” President Obama said in a July speech in Kansas City, before the launch of the voting campaign. “And then she gave me a long list of possible women to put on our dollar bills and quarters and stuff — which I thought was a pretty good idea.”

    Although the Women on 20s campaign plans to petition the White House, it is the Treasury Department that ultimately makes decisions on which bills feature which portraits. The last overhaul of paper money portraits by the department was in the 1920’s, when Jackson replaced Grover Cleveland on the $20.

    Image of sample bill at the link.

  323. says

    Via Raw Story–
    Wisconsin cop will not be charged in the shooting death of Tony Robinson:

    Officer Matt Kenny used justified lethal force in the shooting of Tony Robinson, 19, who struck the 12-year police veteran in the head during an altercation on March 6, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said.

    “I conclude that this tragic and unfortunate death was the result of a lawful use of deadly police force and that no charges should be brought against officer Kenny in the death of Tony Robinson Jr.,” Ozanne said in a 25-minute televised statement in which he recited the facts of the case and repeatedly mopped his face.

    The March 6 shooting in Madison, Wisconsin’s capital, was one of a number of officer-involved deaths that have led to increased scrutiny of police use of force in the United States, particularly against young black men.

    Ozanne began his statement by saying he was sorry for Robinson’s death and that he shares concerns of many Americans over racial profiling by law enforcement officers. He said he is biracial, like Robinson, and that he also fears being singled out by police because of his race.

    But he said in-depth investigations by two different agencies showed that criminal charges were not warranted.

    Ozanne said Kenny was responding to multiple emergency calls reporting that a man had battered someone was dodging traffic in the street. Robinson’s friends had made an emergency call saying they were scared of him because he was acting violently and was on drugs.

    Ozanne said Kenny followed Robinson into a dwelling and shot him after the teen struck Kenny in the head.

    The prosecutor’s announcement came days after the U.S. Justice Department announced a civil rights investigation into the Baltimore police department’s use of force to determine if there are patterns of discriminatory policing.

    Riots broke out in the streets of Baltimore over the April 19 death of Freddie Gray, 25, who died after suffering a spinal injury while in police custody. Baltimore’s chief prosecutor has charged six police officers in Gray’s death.

    Under Wisconsin law, the state’s Department of Justice investigated Robinson’s death and turned over its reports to the Dane County District Attorney’s office, which makes the ultimate decision on whether charges should be brought.

    Robinson’s death prompted large but orderly demonstrations in Madison. The city of 240,000 people about 80 miles west of Milwaukee is nearly four-fifths white and 7 percent African-American, according to U.S. Census figures.

    Last year, Robinson pleaded guilty to armed robbery and was put on probation. Sentencing documents show it was his first brush with the law, and he was not the armed person in the group that committed the robbery.

    Kenny has been on paid administrative leave during the investigation. In 2007, he was involved in a fatal shooting that was found to be justified.

    Sigh.
    I’m not surprised.
    Dismayed, but not surprised.

  325. says

    From Mic–
    The other devastating effect of police abuse that deserves our attention:

    In November 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun in a park on the west side of Cleveland when Officer Timothy Loehmann, mistaking the toy for a real weapon, shot him twice. It’s been 165 days since his death and the boy has yet to be buried, according to a court motion filed Monday by his family.

    The shooting has “shattered the life of the Rice family,” the motion states. For one thing, they have been unable to properly grieve and hold a funeral for Rice, because they are not yet sure if an additional medical examination will be required as they proceed with a lawsuit against Loehmann, Officer Frank Garmback (who was also present at the time of the shooting) and the city of Cleveland. Rice’s mother, Samaria Rice, also temporarily moved into a homeless shelter because she “could no longer live next door to the killing field of her son.”

    The story of Rice’s family is a cruel reminder that pain does not subside when the protests end and news crews leave. Families still grieve. And some live in the same neighborhoods where their loved ones were killed.

    Internal and grand jury investigations can take several months. This period of time can be difficult for families that must navigate drawn out court cases while their deceased are memorialized in the streets and the last few violent scenes of their loved one’s lives are replayed in the media. Time can feel brutal as families await justice.

    The Rice family is not alone in experiencing the type of pain that resurfaces during and after investigations and court proceedings. The grand jury investigation surrounding the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, for example, lasted three months before Officer Darren Wilson was acquitted of all charges that November. Lesley McSpadden, Brown’s mother, said the nights following the acquittal as “sleepless, very hard, heartbreaking and unbelievable,” according to MSNBC. It would be another four months before Wilson was cleared of civil rights violations by the Department of Justice.

    The family of Rekia Boyd, the 22-year-old fatally shot by Chicago Det. Dante Servin in March 2012, had to wait until November 2013 for involuntary manslaughter charges to be brought against Servin. Two years later, Servin was cleared of all charges.

    Three years after Boyd’s death, her brother Martinez Sutton remains devastated. “I hurt every day. I just wish that I could hold my sister just one time,” he told a crowd at rally in March in Chicago, according to the Chicago Tribune.

    It’s clear the consequences of police abuse go beyond its direct victims, and negative mental health effects can manifest in the communities where these victims once lived. These include the emotional toll endured by families and friends awaiting legal process, the trauma of being bombarded with images of black individuals killed by police and the stress and anxiety experienced by activists organizing in response to those deaths.

    “The immediate or more acute violence endured by those of us on the frontline in Ferguson is compounded by the daily trauma of living in a world that refuses to acknowledge that #BlackLivesMatter,” Ferguson activist Ashley Yates told Mic.

    Indeed, the blood-stained streets in the neighborhood where Brown’s body laid for four hours is more than a memorial site — it is also home to his family and friends, an ever-present reminder of the encounter that ended his life. Similarly, the park where Rice played is not only the scenic backdrop of a widely watched video chronicling a shooting that killed a child — it is also a reminder to a mother that her son is dead.

    The pain and exhaustion of dealing with the aftereffects of police brutality is just as violent as the gunshots used to kill unarmed civilians. Justice should not have to arrive at the expense of people’s mental and emotional health. Justice might look like arrested officers, but justice is also evidenced when communities disproportionately impacted by police abuse are healed.

    As the Rev. Osagyefo Sekou of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which has been active in the fight against police brutality across the country, told Mic, “The struggle must hold space for broken people trying to make the world whole.”

  326. rq says

    Tony already mentioned the non-indictment of Officer Kenny in Tony Robinson’s shooting – I’ll have a few more on that, incl. twitter commentary. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty, that press conference. :/

    Not sure where else to start.
    How African Americans are victimized by both crime and the criminal justice system

    One of the things people don’t always get about “criminal justice reform” is that what actually needs to be reformed, and how that reform looks, differs from state to state and county to county. Pretty much every state in America has contributed to the country’s mass incarceration problem, but they’ve gotten there by many different policy routes. And while there are some defining themes — like racial disparities between black and white offenders — there are plenty of different points in the process where those disparities might come out.

    If you want to learn what it looks like on the ground when an official wants to fix criminal justice in his jurisdiction, it’s worth reading Jeff Toobin’s article on Milwaukee County prosecutor John Chisholm from last week’s issue of the New Yorker. In particular, the article gets at one of the underappreciated paradoxes of the criminal justice system: that it devalues both African-American offenders and African-American victims of crime.

    This is what researchers from the Vera Institute of Justice found was happening in Milwaukee County shortly after Chisholm took over:

    Prosecutors in Milwaukee declined to prosecute forty-one per cent of whites arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia, compared with twenty-seven per cent of blacks; in cases involving prostitution, black female defendants were likelier to be charged than white defendants; in cases that involved resisting or obstructing an officer, most of the defendants charged were black (seventy-seven per cent), male (seventy-nine per cent), and already in custody (eighty per cent of blacks versus sixty-six per cent of whites).

    The racial disparities persisted across the board — with one big exception:

    “When I first saw the data, I thought, Here is some good news,” Chisholm told me. “It said that we charge white offenders for property crimes at a higher rate than we do black offenders for those kinds of cases. So I thought, Good, here is a disparity the other way. That must balance things out. But a deputy of mine pointed out that what the data really meant was that we devalue property crimes in the center city. We don’t charge a car theft, because we think it’s just some junker car that’s broken down anyway. It meant that we were devaluing our African-American victims of property crimes—so that was another thing to address.”

    It’s an excellent illustration of a phenomenon we’ve discussed at Vox: that African-American communities are both overpoliced and underpoliced. But it’s also a challenge to anyone who wants to reform criminal justice to reduce racial disparities. If police and prosecutors are told to be less aggressive in going after low-level offenders, how can they make sure they don’t end up devaluing African-American victims? If they’re told to take property crime in black communities as seriously as property crime in white communities, how can they avoid overreacting by rounding up and hauling in too many young men of color for things white men would get away with?

    This isn’t to say it’s impossible to find a balance between overpolicing and underpolicing. But law enforcement experts are only just beginning to recognize how powerful implicit racial bias is, and it’s going to take a while to figure out how to counteract it.

    It’s also a recognition of the simple reality that black communities are victimized both by crime and by incarceration. Later in Toobin’s article, the Milwaukee police chief puts it succinctly: “Everything we do is going to have a disparate impact on communities of color.”

    I think we saw the full article earlier.

    The police killing of Tamir Rice and the rampant lie of cases being ‘under investigation’, something on-topic right now because of the chief’s refusal to set any kind of end date for the investigation in Tamir Rice’s shooting. Not even a date for the next update report, which is… I mean, honestly, what are they waiting for? (The article Tony has above is a good summary of the consequences beyond the direct ones of such extended ‘investigation’.)

    Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was shot by Officer Timothy Loehman of the Cleveland Police Department on November 22, 2014. He fought to live until the next day, but died because of the gunshot to his torso.

    November passed.

    December passed.

    January passed.

    February passed.

    March passed.

    April passed.

    Here we are, in the middle of May in 2015, and the family of Tamir Rice hasn’t even seen a police report from that tragic day where their beloved son and brother was shot and left to die, ignored by police, there on the pavement of his local park.

    No officers have been charged, no reports have been released, no grand juries have been convened, nothing.

    Winter and spring have passed in Cleveland and we are entering into the summer, yet still no answers have been given into what justice will look like for this devastated family.

    The entire incident was caught on film. It took place in broad daylight. […]

    It doesn’t take 165 days (3,960 hours or 237,600 minutes) to complete this investigation. Period.

    What the Cleveland Police Department and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department are doing is what police departments do all across the nation—they deliberately stall and delay their most egregious cases, not because they are actually investigating around the clock, but because it allows the public profile of cases to significantly diminish.

    Every person involved in the case of the murder of Tamir Rice could’ve literally been interviewed in two or three weeks. Attorneys involved in the civil suit against the Cleveland Police Department did just that. It’s been 24 weeks.

    No tests, no examinations, no interviews take this long.

    On January 2, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post wrote:

    Department policy mandates that the deadly force investigation must turn over information to the county prosecutor within 90 days of an officer-involved shooting so it can be presented to a grand jury. It is expected that any independent review of the shooting would also abide by that timeframe, with a final report issued to county prosecutor Timothy McGinty by the end of February.

    The 90 days came and went.

    The end of February came and went.

    Who’s going to do anything about it, though? The police? The prosecutors? Who?

    Just today, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office held a press conference that they widely promoted to the media. Guess what Sheriff Clifford Pinkney announced?

    “The investigation is still ongoing. More witnesses need to be interviewed and more forensic evidence needs to be examined.”

    Sadly, that’s an actual quote. He then refused to take questions. Guess why … it’s an ongoing investigation. As soon as the press conference was over, Tamir’s family members, yet again, expressed their disappointment in how ridiculously this case has been handled.

    This stonewalling is pervasive across the country in cases of police brutality and murder. […]

    These cases don’t have around-the-clock task forces that are doing all they can to get to the bottom of things. Officials are simply sitting on these cases and doing nothing because it protects the officers, allows cases to escape the public memory during times of tension, and drastically increases the odds that they can announce an injustice with much less public anger.

    In interviews with attorneys and family members and police departments, I couldn’t find one person able to tell me one specific thing that is currently happening with the cases of Tamir Rice, Natasha McKenna, or Matthew Ajibade.

    Think about it. What exactly could they being doing six months after Tamir was killed?

    It’s a farce.

    A horrible, violent farce.

    No charges, a common result: No Charges For NYPD Cop Who ‘Stopped and Frisked’ 14-Year-Old, Then Smashed His Head Through Window

    Javier Payne, a 14-year-old boy who was sitting in front of the Hookah Shop in the Bronx, just moments before a New York City police officer smashed him through the store’s plate glass window. The assault happened after an altercation with a man on the street, according to witnesses.

    Now, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said the State has decided against filing criminal charges against Sgt. Eliezer Pabon, who assaulted the handcuffed 14-year-old.

    Payne had been placed under arrest even though he was bleeding critically. EMT paramedics finally arrived and found a boy near death and “nonchalant” officers, who did not seem concerned about the condition of the young boy, according to witnesses on the scene.

    Payne’s clothes were soaked in blood and yet in spite of his critical conditions, officers had made sure to cuff him, with his hands cuffed behind his back.

    “He looked like a young man who was facing down his own mortality,” one city employee said in assessing the situation. “This is a kid who was staring at his own doom. He looked like he was going to die. And if he didn’t get help when he did, he would have.”

    While the boy was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, paramedics had to hold the boys chest wound closed. As they wheeled him in to the hospital, Payne was screaming in desperation: “They threw me through a glass window and now I’m going to die, I’m going to die.”

    To add insult to injury, officers did not indicate that there was a pediatric emergency, involving a child. So EMT paramedics say there was no indication that there was to be a rush to the scene. As a result, Payne could have bled out and died because of officer negligence.

    An NYPD spokesperson said only that two teenagers were arrested, ages 13 and 14, and that officers charged both with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and assault.

    As for the cause of Payne’s critical injuries?

    “It’s not listed in the report here,” the spokesperson said. […]

    Prosecutors say that there was no case because the plate-glass window had been compromised by two BB holes and was not shatter-resistant, according to lawyer Scott Rynecki. That means the police argument is basically that the window should have been a hard surface for them to have smashed the youth into violently.

    If you have had it with the NYPD’s unconstitutional and racist “Stop and Frisk” policy, and their sheer brutality, SPREAD THE WORD to raise awareness about this police abuse, which has – so far – gone completely unpunished.

    So he almost went the way Tamir Rice went, through medical neglect of the same officers who assaulted him.
    I believe he is incredibly lucky to be alive, and the system is remiss in not pressing any charges against those officers. 14 years old.

    Baltimore police warned of Freddie Gray officer’s feud with man he got arrested

    The Baltimore police lieutenant charged with the manslaughter of Freddie Gray had an innocent man arrested and prosecuted as part of a years-long personal feud over his love life that city police chiefs were repeatedly warned about.

    Brian Rice filed criminal charges against his ex-girlfriend’s husband in 2013, incorrectly accusing him of breaking a court order, according to sealed court documents obtained by the Guardian. Rice tried to have the same man, Andrew McAleer, arrested again two weeks before Gray’s arrest last month.

    The incident raises further doubts about whether Baltimore police department should have allowed Rice to remain in his job, according to policing experts. McAleer was acquitted after being arrested in a dawn swoop on his home by police. A county court judge later said McAleer had been charged because Rice was a police officer.
    Officer in Freddie Gray case demanded man’s arrest as part of personal dispute
    Read more

    The Guardian reported on Friday that Rice used his position to demand McAleer’s arrest on 29 March. Rice was also earlier accused of threatening to kill McAleer in 2012 and was given a temporary restraining order by a judge.

    Rice, 41, initiated the arrest of Gray on 12 April after the 25-year-old “made eye contact” with him in a west Baltimore street and ran away. Gray was chased and subjected to an arrest declared unlawful by the city’s top prosecutor. Gray suffered a badly broken neck while travelling in a police van in handcuffs and shackles. He died a week later in hospital, prompting protests and unrest across the city.

    The Guardian can also reveal that another erratic episode involving Rice in June 2012 – in which Rice allegedly threatened to kill McAleer – was reported directly to his superior officer at the Western District police station in Baltimore. This supervisor, Major Cliff McWhite, was later promoted to lieutenant colonel by the city’s police commissioner, Anthony Batts, but subsequently stepped down and was charged with theft in 2014.

    A history of violence.

    That black man, hanging from a tree in Georgia? GBI rules Greensboro hanging death a suicide. Because that seems most probable, given the history and the context. I dunno, maybe.

    Investigators with the GBI said the man hanging from a tree in Greene County, Ga. Monday morning was previously questioned in a homicide investigation. Tuesday afternoon, officials ruled the death of Roosevelt Champion a suicide. “The results of the autopsy are that the manner of death is suicide and the cause of death is hanging. After a thorough autopsy examination, there was no evidence of any inflicted trauma to Champion’s body” the GBI stated in a news released.

    Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat said he performed the autopsy Tuesday morning, fully aware of the questions and concerns around the discovery of a black man found hanging from a tree in rural Greensboro, Georgia.

    Dr. Eisenstat is the Deputy Medical Examiner who performed the autopsy. He said he ruled out homicide and concluded the death was a suicide based on evidence around the tree where Champion’s body was found. He said the lack of any signs of trauma or struggle helped him conclude the death was a suicide.

    The spokeswoman for the GBI said the agency has received calls from across the country inquiring about the appearance of foul play. Sherry Lang said the agency released the autopsy results hours after the procedure was complete to help ease fears that Champion was murdered.

    A spokesperson for the Greensboro Police Department told News Radio 106.7’s Nathalie Pozo that the 43-year-old African-American man was found hanging from the tree just after 11 a.m Monday. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Roosevelt Champion III was found dead in a brushy area behind a home in the 600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

    Investigators said a witness spotted the man and called authorities. Authorities said the man does not live at the house where it happened.

    Not even his own house – and the irony of the street name. Geez.

    An update on Tulsa and its reserve volunteers: Another top Sheriff’s Office official to resign, reserve deputy program on hold. Dammit, there’s a login required – but word is the man resigning is the father of the man who sat on Eric Harris’ head as they held him down as he was shot. Anyone?

    100 volunteer peacekeepers set to be deployed today by Black Leadership Council. That’s in Madison. Yes, there was protest, photos of that later.

    Around 100 volunteer peacekeepers are set to observe protests in Madison today related to the Tony Robinson case and intervene if necessary, a coalition of black leaders said at a morning news conference.

    The first team of about 15 peacekeepers will be on Williamson Street at 2:30 p.m. when Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne announces whether he will criminally charge the police officer who fatally shot the 19-year-old Robinson on March 6.

    Robinson, who was black, was shot by white police officer Matt Kenny at a residence on the street. Police say the shooting followed an altercation initiated by Robinson.
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    Other peacekeeping teams will be deployed as needed around Madison, said Ruben Anthony, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison, which will be the base for the volunteer operation.

    “We can help the young people who may be out there protesting, maybe give them a different perspective,” Anthony said.

    The peacekeepers will seek to prevent young people from getting into any kind of trouble, from being arrested to being ticketed or cited, said the Rev. Harold Rayford, pastor of The Faith Place Church in Sun Prairie. […]

    Faith leaders are planning to gather at the time of Ozanne’s announcement on Williamson Street, and around 5 p.m. they are planning to march in their clerical vestments through Downtown to Grace Episcopal Church on the Capitol Square for prayer and song, said Linda Ketcham, executive director of Madison-area Urban Ministry.

    “We know that regardless of what the district attorney’s decision is, the community will still be divided and in pain,” she said. “So we’re joining our voices to those that are committed to addressing and pressuring our elected and appointed officials to really address these systemic issues that have been going on so long.”

    More than a dozen congregations plan to open their doors to the public after today’s announcement, including First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Ave. It intends to remain open until 9 p.m.

    “We just hope to provide a safe place where people can process this and be in prayer, a place where they can let out whatever emotion it is in a positive way,” said the Rev. Eldonna Hazen, senior minister.

    Additionally, Pres House, a Presbyterian ministry on the UW-Madison campus, is planning a vigil at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at its facility, 731 State St.

  327. rq says

    Moderation. :P SO I’m just going to go ahead with the commentary on the non-indictment announcement in Tony Robinson’s shooting.
    It looks like the smear campaign against #TonyRobinson has begun in advance of the upcoming press conference. (in reference to accusations of drugs in the possession of Tony Robinson)
    In 2007, Officer Kenny killed #RonaldBrandon. Kenny was exonerated. In 2015, Officer Kenny killed #TonyRobinson
    This feels eerily like November. I feel like Bob McCulloch trained this DA – justify the officer when making the announcement. #TonyRobinson
    The DA says that it was a “lawful use of police force” and that “no charges should be brought against Officer Kenny.” #TonyRobinson And then he invoked MLK.
    Folks keep invoking Martin, not realizing that people are beginning to self-identify with Malcolm and Assata more and more each day.
    Martin Luther King Jr., is not the God of Black America. We did not all come out of his loins. Please stop acting like it for Heaven’s sake.

  328. rq says

    Some randoms:
    I want to see photos & medical records of Officer Kenny’s injuries. Leaking everything else, leak that. #TonyRobinson

    Y’all, these are the new t-shirts in support of the 6 officers who killed #FreddieGray. http://fw.to/SXHdgoS

    Somebody in STL stole this church’s Black Lives Matter sign, so… “You can steal our banner but black lies still matter.”

    Press Release from @YGBCoalition in #Madison calling for 9 AM #TonyRobinson protest Wednesday http://us10.campaign-archive1.com/?u=d0a66ff56753743ec32cb7cd4&id=c92e331070&e=01f080e9b8 …,

    Today Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne announced his decision not to pursue a criminal complaint against Madison Police Officer, Matt Kenny, after Kenny shot and killed an unarmed Black teenager, Tony Robinson on March 6, 2015. The Young Gifted and Black Coalition (YGB) invites those in the Madison area to attend a rally at 1125 Williamson Street, the house where Tony was killed, on Wednesday, May 13, 2015 starting at 9:00AM for Black-Out Wednesday in conjunction with Black Spring, a national Black Lives Matter campaign for Black liberation.

    YGB did not anticipate justice would be served by the same system that killed Robinson and continues to violently target Black and Brown people. This is the same system with practices that have resulted in an 11-to-1 racial disparity in arrest rates between Blacks and whites. Despite anticipation of the results of the DA’s decision, YGB is extremely disappointed that the criminal system has once again supported the idea that Black Lives Do NOT Matter.

    “This is what we mean by state violence,” said YGB’s Alix Shabazz. “Black people continue to be denied our human right to dignity and justice, even in death.”

    YGB Demands Justice for Tony:

    1. That the UN conduct an independent investigation on two fronts: First, the killing of unarmed 19 year old Tony Robinson by Madison police officer Matt Kenny, and second, the gross racial disparities in Dane County, Wisconsin. Tony’s death and the lack of charges against Matt Kenny are gross examples of human rights violations against the Black community and deserve to be brought the attention of an international audience.

    2. That there is community control over the police. Community members, especially Black people, must have the power to hold police accountable for their actions. Communities must be able to hire, fire and set priorities, policies and procedures on community level for the police who so significantly impact their lives and neighborhoods.

    “We’ve known for a long time that the only way to get justice is to take to the streets,” insisted YGB’s M. Adams. “We will continue to make our presence and our demands for justice known in the streets.” YGB sees all of these as injuries incurred in the war against Black people across America. Black Lives Matter calls us all to see that the long winter must be over. It is time to move into Black Spring and grow by demonstrating resistance and resilience against the assault on Black people in Madison and across the country.

  329. rq says

    Tamir Rice investigation mostly complete, but sheriff won’t impose ‘politically expedient’ deadline. Because a deadline is politically expedient, oh yah, thousands of pages!

    While the investigation into the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice at the hands of a Cleveland police nears an end, Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney refuses to set a deadline, despite claims from the boy’s family that investigators are dragging their feet.

    “While it would be politically expedient to impose an arbitrary deadline, for the sake of the integrity of this investigation, I am not willing to do that,” Sheriff Clifford Pinkney said Tuesday. “Of course that does not mean that this investigation should drag out beyond what is reasonable.”

    Pinkney twice called Tamir’s death “tragic” during the four-minute press conference held more than a week after Rice’s mother made critical statements about the nearly six-month investigation into her son’s death. Her plea came after the swift indictment of six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of a man in their custody.

    Pinkney said his investigators still have more evidence to gather in the Nov. 22 shooting, but a majority of the work is finished.

    Rice’s family members who attended the press conference were not satisfied with Pinkney’s remarks, shouting at the newly appointed sheriff as he walked out of The Blue Room at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center.

    Latonya Goldsby, who described herself as Tamir Rice’s cousin, expressed frustration after a Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney said there is no deadline for deputies to complete the investigation into Tamir’s death.

    “There was no update,” Latonya Goldsby, who described herself as Tamir’s cousin, told reporters after the briefing. “If you were going to update, you would be announcing that charges have been filed and we were going to pick these officers up.”

    In lieu of taking questions from reporters or discussing any details of what investigators have found, Pinkney used the briefing to outline what investigators have done since the department agreed to take over the case from Cleveland police on Jan. 2.

    The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office removed so-called Garrity statements — legally protected statements made by police officers to investigators — from the police department’s investigative file and handed the file over to sheriff’s investigators Feb. 13.

    Since then, deputies have reviewed thousands of pages of documents and interviewed witnesses of the shooting. They’ve also reviewed all surveillance footage from the area around the Cudell Recreation Center where the shooting took place. Investigators also coordinated with the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations to take 3D measurements of the park. […]

    Goldsby said Tamir’s family members found out about the press briefing Monday evening through news outlets.

    “I feel so disgusted with the city of Cleveland for not showing some type of compassion,” Goldsby said. “We have had to bury a 12-year-old kid. A 12-year-old child. Nobody understands that. I’m asking for the mayor and for the sheriff to show us some transparency.”

    An African American child born in West Oakland can be expected to live 14 fewer years #teachTheBabies #AfAmEdChat, compared to a white child born in Oakland Hills.

    If Obama and Clinton are “affirmative action” candidates, so are white men

    The Weekly Standard’s Joseph Epstein has written a piece that’s worth responding to because his argument is the kind of thing we’ll probably hear a lot more of between now and the 2016 election: that Hillary Clinton, like Barack Obama, is an “affirmative action” candidate.

    This, of course, is based on the laughable idea that only women and African Americans — and not white men — have ever benefited politically from their demographics.

    Here’s Epstein’s main argument:

    If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency in 2016 she will not only be the nation’s first woman president but our second affirmative-action president. By affirmative-action president I mean that she, like Barack Obama, will have got into office partly for reasons extraneous to her political philosophy or to her merits, which, though fully tested while holding some of the highest offices in the land, have not been notably distinguished. In his election, Obama was aided by the far from enticing Republican candidates who opposed him, but a substantial portion of the electorate voted for him because having a biracial president seemed a way of redressing old injustices. They hoped his election would put the country’s racial problems on a different footing, which sadly, as we now know, it has failed to do. Many people voted for Obama, as many women can be expected to vote for Hillary Clinton, because it made them feel virtuous to do so. The element of self-virtue—of having an elevated feeling about oneself—is perhaps insufficiently appreciated in American politics.

    Guess who else benefits from their demographic, and always has? White men.

    The most generous read of the piece is that Obama received and Clinton could receive a boost from voter excitement about what an African American or woman president would be motivated to do to ensure full civil rights for others who share his or her identity, or about the barrier-breaking symbolism of someone who is not a white man being in office.

    Epstein is probably right that, at least on the surface, Obama and Clinton both have an angle that allows them to stand out among white male candidates who don’t typically stir up much enthusiasm talking about the struggle and rights of their demographic groups, or about glass ceilings being broken. The obvious — but apparently overlooked — reason for this is that white men have not, as a group, been oppressed in this country because of their identity.

    Most important, to argue that only members of racial minority groups and women have ever benefited from their identity in elections is absurd.

    Epstein seems to forget that there are other ways to benefit from your identity: such as being a white man.

    Women and black Americans were legally or practically (because of racism and sexism) prohibited from making serious runs for president for the vast majority of our country’s history, making white men the only ones who had a chance to compete or win until very recently.

    And more recent data confirms that being white and male can still give a politician a boost among a certain percentage of the population. In 2008, 5 percent of white voters acknowledge that they, personally, would not vote for a black candidate. This year, an Emily’s List poll found that 75 percent of Americans thought a woman president would be a good thing — but that still leaves 25 percent who aren’t open to the idea. This happened even in what some would complain is a far too politically correct society, where Epstein argues that perceived “victims” thrive.

    Epstein’s affirmative action argument only makes sense if you imagine white men as completely neutral — free of race and gender, and thus incapable of enjoying any political boost connected to their identities — and if you think the benefits they enjoy (and have always enjoyed) are the only ones that are standard and fair. Even people who resent the particular kind of excitement around Obama and Clinton’s campaigns should be able to look at the evidence and admit that’s not the case.

    Justice4Tony Banner held by family and friends marching down Williamson

    Memorial built outside of the Justice Center for Tony Robinson #TonyRobinson

    ‘I Put in White Tenants’: The Grim, Racist (and Likely Illegal) Methods of One Brooklyn Landlord

    We’re small, so we look into places that haven’t caught on — we just did a place on Nostrand Avenue. People are not even there yet. We put in $600,000 and everyone was laughing at us. “It’s crazy, you’re over there. A building for yuppies, white people? It’s not going to work.” The building was full of tenants — $1,300, $1,400 tenants. We paid every tenant the average of twelve, thirteen thousand dollars to leave. I actually went to meet them — lawyers are not going to help you. And we got them out of the building and now we have tenants paying $2,700, $2,800, and they’re all white. So this is what we do.

    My saying is — again, I’m not racist — every black person has a price. The average price for a black person here in Bed-Stuy is $30,000 dollars. Up over there in East New York, it’s $10,000 dollars. Everyone wants them to leave, not because we don’t like them, it’s just they’re messing up — they bring everything down. Not all of them.

    Most of them don’t believe you at first. “Oh, you Jewish people you’re a bunch of thieves, you’re never going to give me my money.” But once you start actually having a base of people who know you, who you actually gave the money, it’s better. Sometimes it’s really tricky because you’ll have one person willing to leave for $2,000 and another wants $20,000. And the second this guy finds out that guy is getting 20 he says, “Hell no, I’m not leaving. I want 20, too.”

    They don’t know — here he lowers his voice — that even if they get the money and they left, they could always come back. They don’t know that part. And it’s so scary sometimes because they could come up in the middle of construction and say, “It’s my property, I didn’t understand what I was signing, and I want to come back.”

    Some blacks have an attorney and everything. So I try to make them happy, even if they’re going to go for $7,000 or $8,000, I’d rather give them an extra grand so they’re happy and they’re not going to think about it too much. Again, I don’t want to be a racist, but when I have a building—I can’t even say it because it’s not going to sound right.

    […]

    If there’s a black tenant in the house—in every building we have, I put in white tenants. They want to know if black people are going to be living there. So sometimes we have ten apartments and everything is white, and then all of the sudden one tenant comes in with one black roommate, and they don’t like it. They see black people and get all riled up, they call me: “We’re not paying that much money to have black people live in the building.” If it’s white tenants only, it’s clean. I know it’s a little bit racist but it’s not. They’re the ones that are paying and I have to give them what they want. Or I’m not going to get the tenants and the money is not going to be what it is.

    The scary part about doing this is, if the black guys start to realize how much the property will sell for. This is a new thing now, the past year. A million, two million dollars—it’s crazy, crazy numbers. None of them realize yet—some of them do—the amount of money you can get. The scary part is they’re going to realize they can get the same exact house in East New York for $400,000, $500,000 and they can get paid $1.5 million for their home in Bed-Stuy, they’re going to start dumping houses on the market and the market’s going to be flooded and it’s going to cool down. It’s already cooling down.

    Whether all of his methods are legal or ethical or morally right, not going to discuss, but those paragraphs, right there? That’s a fine example of subtle yet overt racism that puts black people constantly at a disadvantage. And nobody’s being racist because nobody’s using the n-word, right, but see how people’s biases shape the world that others have to live in…

  330. rq says

    Thug Is Not
    The New N Word .
    It’s Worse Than That

    There has been a lot of discussion recently about the word “thug” and what it means when it’s used to describe black men. While the term has been in regular use for a few decades, discussion of the coded nature of “thug” has intensified. Richard Sherman, Soledad O’Brien and others have been arguing that thug has become a replacement for n*gg*r when denigrating black men, while detractors eagerly research the etymology of thug to show that it couldn’t possibly be racist.

    But thug isn’t the new n*gg*r. Thug is nothing like n*gg*r. Thug is much worse.

    In order to understand what thug is, let’s look at what n*gg*r is. N*gg*r is the term of oppression, enslavement, dehumanization. It is the word black people were called when we were traded on markets, bred like cattle, beaten worse than dogs.

    When black people ceased to be slaves, n*gg*r stopped being a word that could enslave us. N*gg*r is a symbol not of blackness, but of white hatred toward blackness. When we hear the word n*gg*r, we hear white hatred, we hear white longing for the days when we were in chains. When we hear the word n*gg*r, we learn everything about the person saying it and nothing about the person it is being said to. It is a vile and hurtful word, because of the hatred and violence towards black people that it represents.

    The shadow that black people now live under is cast more by post-slavery racial terrorism and exploitation than by slavery. No longer able to control black people through whips and chains, white male patriarchy saw black men as competition. Determined to keep what they deemed as theirs (land, power and white women) many found a new way to justify brutal oppression of blackness — the black brute.

    No longer exploited as weak, hapless and childlike, a narrative of the black man as an animalistic, irredeemably violent, sexual predator began to rise. Thousands of black men were lynched under the justification that they had raped white women, had threatened to rape white women, or had engaged in consentual sex with white women. Stories of the black man who would defile your wife and kill your children spread like wildfire through the south and were used to segregate and control black people.

    Even as lynchings were outlawed, the threat of the violent black man continued to be used to justify violence against black men. Just as claims that black men were raping white women were never matched with outrage that white men were also raping both white and black women, modern day claims that black men are killing each other with black on black violence are not matched with outrage at how many white men are killing each other with white on white violence.

    When states pass “Stand Your Ground” laws, they aren’t passing them so that black men can defend themselves against white men who threaten their lives. When the NRA talks about families needing to defend themselves against gang violence, they aren’t talking to the people of color most likely to be impacted by gang violence. When cities develop “stop and frisk” policies, they aren’t developing them in hopes of reducing violent crime in white men. These are all built on the same violent narrative used to lynch black people in the past.

    Only now, instead of saying “brute” or “savage” they say thug.

    By design, this narrative not only justifies violence against black people, it also denies black people the access to protection and government services that would help end cycles of violence in the black community. Black people do not have access to police protection for fear of police brutality. Black people do not have access to jobs when fear of blackness has made them unhireable. Black people do not have access to quality education when the narrative of black violence leads teachers to view young black kids at play as violent. It is not in the best interest of white supremacy for violence in the black community to end. How else would they be able to justify oppression and exploitation?

    Thug is the word that says a thousand words. Thug sheds no light on the accuser, only the accused. Thug instantly condemns. Thug is a word that says “You. You deserved this. You are a menace who must be stopped. You are a danger to good people everywhere. Your death is justified — even required.” Thug removes the accuser from criticism, and reduces racist violence to a shootout in an old western. It’s the good guys versus the bad guys.

    Thug is racist because it removes race from the picture. Thug is racist because unlike n*gg*r, which places the racist opinions of the aggressor front and center, it takes an act of racist violence and legitimizes it. It takes an act of hatred and turns it into an act of heroism. It turns murderers into martyrs.

    Without these justifications the murders of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray and so many others would look like what they are — murders. It’s time we recognize the word thug for what it is, an attack on black people.

    Wow.

    Chief Koval’s Response to DA’s Decision

    The verdict is in on the Tony Robinson case. After applying the law to the unique facts of this incident, District Attorney Ozanne has determined that MPD Officer Matt Kenny will not be charged criminally.

    In the aftermath of this decision, our City finds itself at a crossroad. How will we–as community–choose to respond? Will the narratives portrayed elsewhere become our “moment” where Madison becomes another provocative story line marred with senseless acts of disorder which only serve to disrespect the rights and property of others? Or will we choose to take the higher road and show the nation that civic dissent and even acts of civil disobedience can co-exist with MPD officers who have consistently demonstrated respect for First Amendment rights and restraint in the exercise of their lawful authority?

    We have the capacity to be a part of a “movement” rather than settle for a “moment.” Months prior to the outset of this tragic event, an initiative was well underway through the facilitation of the United Way seeking more thoughtful, long-term approaches to police and citizen encounters. MPD and other law enforcement agencies have been consistently meeting with not-for-profits, clergy, leaders of color, MMSD, and members of City government to establish both a dialogue and a mechanism for exploring ways in which police can be more effective in promoting trust while also examining systems that may contribute to racial disparities in our criminal justice system.

    With the death of Tony Robinson came a collective sense of urgency. While the MPD was/is the most immediate object of scrutiny, the fact remains that the issues confronting Madison go well beyond the pale of this verdict or our control. Pronounced issues of poverty exacerbate feelings of despair and helplessness. Schools are not meeting the needs of all of our students. Joblessness and unskilled labor are punctuated with double digit deficits for people of color. Ever-prevalent gun violence has become the “new” normal plaguing our City and the news headlines. And I am not going to absolve law enforcement for whatever role we have played in being complicit in the calculus of racial disparities. Given this sobering backdrop, one can understand why there is a sense of hopelessness and desperation with those who have not enjoyed (or even had the same access to) all of the opportunities that many of us take for granted. Systems improvements borne out of intentional, long-term, collaboration is our “best” option for the future. Unrest like we have witnessed elsewhere in our country cannot possibly aid in constructive engagement and only holds us back. The environment for healing and reconciliation has been forged, owing to the incredible capacity of the Robinson family and their urging of the community to deal with the issues at hand with responsible activism. For their incredible sense of the “moment” as well as the “movement” taking place, the City is very beholden to the Robinson’s for their capacity to speak to peace in spite of their own sense of personal loss and grief.

    I have no doubt that some individuals will make a principled decision to get arrested in order to make a definitive statement. That is, in fact, a hallmark of civil disobedience and that decision is highly personal and should not be coaxed from others as the consequences will only affect the violator. Arrests CAN have long term implications which I feel duty-bound to discuss.

    There are basically two kinds of unlawful behavior(s) that can lead to an “arrest.” There are the more benign types of violations that are classified as city ordinances. Ordinances are “forfeitures” or fines; so long as you pay them, they go away. In the vast majority of the demonstrations we work, we try to avoid enforcement options altogether, preferring to work WITH folks in allowing them some reasonable options prior to resorting to tickets or physical arrests. If your activity is confined to that of a city ordinance violation AND you have a valid form of identification with you, then when placed under arrest we will take you to an off-site location, write the ticket, and then release you from there. This is called the classic “cite-and-release.” HOWEVER, should you not have valid identification that proves who you are OR you choose to engage in additional behavior that elevates matters (i.e., lying about your name, actively resisting arrest), then “cite-and-release” is no longer on the table. Having no identification can lead you to jail as can being charged with a “crime.”

    Getting charged with a city ordinance violation is expensive; but if you have identification, then at least you can be cited-and-released. The other behavior that will precipitate an arrest is a “crime” (whether misdemeanor or felony). This is more significant for obvious reasons: physical arrest to jail, fingerprinted and photographed, DNA swab (potentially), FBI number and an entry into CCAP (Consolidated Court Automation Programs)! CCAP is a particularly thorny issue to resolve because it has a shelf-life longer than nuclear waste! Even if the charges are dropped or the individual is acquitted of all charges, the CCAP entry does not go away (Frankly, if left to prospective unscrupulous landlords or employers, abuse of CCAP can be a mechanism for discrimination). I would strongly urge complete avoidance of getting a RAP sheet (a record of arrests and/or prosecutions)! […]

    And now I have no doubt that people will ask about the future plans for Officer Matt Kenny. There are a number of conditions that must take place before considering his return to active duty. Since March 6th, Officer Kenny has been placed on administrative leave and taken off the streets. That status will continue until such time as an internal policy review is conducted, examining whether any of our procedures or protocols may have been violated during the course of the Robinson call. Our Professional Standards Unit conducts an independent investigation, which began some time ago, and this report is not expected to be completed for another week or so.

    In closing, on the night of March 6th, I expressed my personal sense of loss to the grandmother and grandfather of Tony Robinson and subsequently met with other members of the family in the weeks that followed. As a father of two adult sons, I cannot begin to grasp at the magnitude of their loss. The difficulties that they have faced have been formidable and I hope that some measure of healing can begin.

    Plus instructions on how to protest!

    Current scene on Willy Street #NBC15

    Madison DA decides no charges warranted in Robinson shooting, another one on that.

    Chicago Protestors: We Need A Trauma Center, Not Obama’s Presidential Library

    The University of Chicago’s status as a shoo-in for the future Barack Obama Presidential Library site has taken a hit in recent weeks — and now, even some of Obama’s South Side neighbors are speaking out against the proposal.

    They argue the university needs to re-open its hospital’s trauma center far more than it needs to host a presidential library.

    Demonstrators staged a die-in to that end at Hyde Park Academy High School on Tuesday night, just before hundreds of attendees packed the auditorium for the first of two contentious public hearings on the university’s library bid.

    Advocates and doctors have urged the University of Chicago Medical Center for years to fill the void in the area’s “trauma center desert” by re-opening its Level 1 trauma center for adults, which shuttered in 1988. Not one of Cook County’s nine Level 1 adult trauma centers is located on Chicago’s South Side, meaning some residents face ambulance rides of 10 miles or more before they arrive at a hospital that can treat them.

    A 2013 study in the American Journal of Public Health linked Chicagoans’ distance from trauma centers to higher mortality rates, and in Chicago, a disproportionate number of shootings happen on the city’s South and West sides.

    Angry neighbors and activists say it’s “no trauma, no ‘bama.”

    “Why would you want to give the first black president’s presidential library to an intuition that has not at all shown any concern, care, or priority for your life,” resident Veronica Morris-Moore said to ABC Chicago Tuesday night. […]

    “Let’s not accept the argument that the Obama Presidential Library has to be in a park on the South Side or we lose it,” Lauren Moltz, a chairwoman with the preservation group Friends of the Park, said at the Tuesday hearing, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The parks “are neither the City of Chicago’s, the Chicago Park District, or the University of Chicago’s to carve up,” she said.

    Despite protests from trauma center activists and park preservationists, support for placing the Obama Presidential Library on the city’s South Side has the support of local councilmen, a majority of residents and business owners, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former Obama staffer.

    The University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia University in New York City and the University of Hawaii in Honolulu have also submitted bids. The president and first lady are expected to make a selection by the end of March.

    If even Michelle Obama can’t speak about race without being told to ‘quit whining’ then who can?

    First lady Michelle Obama existed this week, so naturally the internet is very, very upset. Specifically, Obama had the gall to approach a microphone at Tuskegee University’s commencement ceremony and say, in the mildest possible terms, that racism is real, and that the eager, bright-eyed Tuskegee graduates should devote their lives to some combination of the following anti-American subterfuge techniques: voting, doing a dance, having self-esteem, becoming teachers, following their dreams, fighting the kind of structural inequalities that historically forced black luminaries to build science labs out of literal garbage, and intermittently hula hooping. Truly a vile brew of verbal witchcraft and reverse-racist skullduggery!

    You can judge for yourself just how controversial the speech was. Here’s an excerpt from its climax: “I know that these little indignities are obviously nothing compared to what folks across the country are dealing with every single day – those nagging worries that you’re going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason; the fear that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds; the agony of sending your kids to schools that may no longer be separate, but are far from equal; the realisation that no matter how far you rise in life, how hard you work to be a good person, a good parent, a good citizen – for some folks, it will never be enough.”

    Fortunately, the internet’s brightest (and whitest) are on the case to make sure that Obama doesn’t unravel the very fabric of America itself with her nefarious listing of easily verifiable historical facts, rigorously vetted academic studies, and relentlessly encouraging platitudes. Ride on, brave patriots! Thomas Jefferson is totally waiting to high-five you in heaven!

    “Michelle Obama is a reverse racist,” one Twitter user helpfully explains. “She attacks white people & gets black people to think they’ll have a hard life no matter what. Ugh!!!” Yeah, ugh! When will black people learn to recognise REAL hardship, such as being a white woman under “attack” from incessant George Washington Carver anecdotes in a speech that she voluntarily sought out and hate-watched!?

    “I can not believe the negative commencement speech that you gave at Tuskegee,” scolded another. “Not uplifting at all.” Yo, goateed white dude named Kevin or something, maybe the commencement speech about black people’s lived experiences delivered at the historically black college that you did not attend wasn’t intended to lift YOU up? Maybe not everything is for Kevin?

    Others described the speech as “racist against white people,” “ghetto,” “un-American,” “uppity,” and “a disgusting display of race baiting and division.” Rush Limbaugh said that Obama “played the race card”, while Glenn Beck delivered one of his rambling monologues about how Booker T Washington totally would have declared racism over in 1968 and only “Harvard know-it-alls” are keeping that silly myth alive.

    Black people being disproportionately and spuriously detained by police; candidates with “black”-sounding names being passed over for jobs; black families being trapped in cycles of poverty by red-lining and mass incarceration and forced to send their children to unsafe, impoverished schools – whatever your feelings about our current first lady, these are not opinions. They are facts. Acknowledging them should not be radical. They are simply true, and you either care about them or you don’t, and this is not up for discussion.

    And as for whether or not you can ever “be enough” for some folks, just look at the internet’s response to an erudite, beautiful, Ivy League-educated black lawyer-turned-first-lady-of-the-United-States stating (almost understating, even) the undeniable fact that racism still exists: “boo hoo.you can get the fuck out anytime you want c*nt. Quit whining about how much this country hates you. YOU DON’T MATTER.”

    Certain white people, it seems, are so fragile when it comes to discussions of race, they’re not even capable of absorbing and accepting basic, observable truths. Forget nuance. Forget dialogue. The depth of white denial – of what’s happening right in front of us, and has been happening for centuries – is nauseating. A friend of mine, who grew up a sharecropper on a plantation in the deep south, put it to me the other day: “I’ll never understand it. Everything that black folks have put up with and swallowed over the years – and white people are mad at us? Scared of us?”

    Here’s more from the first lady: “And all of that is going to be a heavy burden to carry. It can feel isolating. It can make you feel like your life somehow doesn’t matter – that you’re like the invisible man that Tuskegee grad Ralph Ellison wrote about all those years ago. And as we’ve seen over the past few years, those feelings are real. They’re rooted in decades of structural challenges that have made too many folks feel frustrated and invisible. And those feelings are playing out in communities like Baltimore and Ferguson and so many others across this country.”

    Obviously Michelle Obama can do whatever she wants with the remainder of her husband’s term (a good portion of her speech emphasises as much), but I hope this is a harbinger of things to come. How impactful would it be if every speech from now until the end of the Obama presidency used this as a baseline?

    Martinez Sutton, brother of #RekiaBoyd, describes how he just returned from Geneva, having gone before the UN regarding US police brutality.

  331. rq says

    One more for moderation, lots of reading in that one.
    Nelson County Sheriff Ed Mattingly on suspect shot by police in Bardstown KY: “we are glad that he is white” https://youtu.be/5D8dp7xgqGs?t=11m49s …

    Yeah, that happened…

    Interlude: Marvel Movies! A positive sign? Marvel Eyes ‘Selma’ Director Ava DuVernay to Direct Either ‘Black Panther’ or ‘Captain Marvel’

    Marvel is definitely not messing around right now. In addition to hiring a pair of talented ladies to script their upcoming Captain Marvel solo film, the studio has their eye on one very awesome woman of color to take on one of their “diverse” upcoming movies: Selma director Ava DuVernay is reportedly being courted by Marvel for either Captain Marvel or Black Panther, and either film could benefit from having DuVernay behind the camera.

    The Wrap reports that Marvel is eyeing DuVernay for one of their upcoming films — Captain Marvel marks their first solo female superhero film, while Black Panther is their first film featuring a hero of color in the leading role. Given DuVernay’s incredible accomplishment with the intensely poignant Selma, it’s easy to see her take on either film, delivering an inspirational and triumphant story of heroism.

    The smartest thing Marvel can do right now is to hire a great woman to direct Captain Marvel, and a great person of color to direct Black Panther — with DuVernay, they have a very talented director with both qualities, and a director who would be a great fit for both of those films, period.

    Black Panther is set to make his debut in Captain America: Civil War before heading his own solo movie in 2018. The Captain Marvel movie is set to arrive in 2019. DuVernay’s hiring would be the first time a woman has directed a film for Marvel — they previously replaced Patty Jenkins with Alan Taylor on Thor: The Dark World; Jenkins recently replaced Michelle MacLaren on DC’s Wonder Woman solo film.

    This news also comes on the heels of the ACLU’s announcement of an inquiry into the hiring practices at major studios, networks and agencies, to investigate prominent gender discrimination, specifically with regards to the hiring (or lack thereof) of female directors. Both Charlize Theron and Kathryn Bigelow have been speaking out about the gender discrimination in Hollywood — now is the time for a studio like Marvel to put someone like Ava DuVernay on one of their biggest upcoming projects.

    Besides, regardless of her gender or color, DuVernay is one seriously amazing director, and Marvel would be damn lucky to have her.

    Rawlings-Blake defends handling of Baltimore rioting

    Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake defended her handling of the recent rioting in Baltimore, arguing Tuesday that more aggressive police or military tactics could have escalated the violence.

    “Nobody died during the riots,” Rawlings-Blake said. “Out of the two weeks of demonstrations, we only had a few hours of unrest, and then we were able to restore peace and calm. …

    “If you take a look at the overwhelming amount of officers who responded, they did a masterful job of responding and keeping peace and calm. They showed an amazing amount of restraint. Had they been different, the outcome of [that] Monday could have been substantially different,” she said. […]

    “Both of us were working as hard as we could to try to do the best job we could to help Baltimore,” Hogan said. “Sometimes we agreed, and sometimes we didn’t. But I think we worked together pretty well, and the result was pretty good. … By the time we got together on Monday night, almost immediately everything stopped.”

    Last month, Hogan said Rawlings-Blake did not return his repeated phone calls for more than two hours as rioting spread across the city, causing him to wait rather than call in the National Guard without her.

    “A lot has been made about this back-and-forth and rift [with] the mayor,” Hogan said Tuesday. “I look at it as we’re both passionate people, we were in the middle of a crisis. … I’ve said multiple times I think she did a good job. People kept trying to create more of a controversy, and I just wouldn’t take the bait. I didn’t want to criticize her, and I didn’t think she deserved some of the criticism.” […]

    The violence that day began with students throwing rocks at police at Mondawmin Mall and exploded into looting and fires throughout the city. Rawlings-Blake has faced criticism over what some perceived as a reluctance to order the Police Department to engage rioters.

    Her voice broke Tuesday as she addressed that criticism.

    “To hear people say, you let our city burn… I love this city. I love what I do. But it comes at tremendous personal sacrifice,” Rawlings-Blake said. “To hear that — all I’ve ever wanted to do is to make our city better.”

    She contrasted the Baltimore Police Department’s response to that in other cities. For instance, Ferguson, Mo., was the site of months of protesting that turned violent at times. Looting, vandalism and fires broke out in the months after a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen. Thousands of National Guard troops were deployed, and protesters encountered rubber bullets, tear gas, officers wearing riot gear and armored vehicles.

    “If you look at other jurisdictions around the country that have jumped the gun on bringing in a militarized response, you’ll see how that has escalated and caused that few hours to go into days,” Rawlings-Blake said. “You’ve seen that militarization of a city turn into violence.” […]

    “To say, ‘Overwhelmingly, the demonstrations were peaceful and there was only one night of rioting,’ is like saying, ‘Right up until Lincoln got shot he had a great time at the play,’ said Todd Eberly, an associate professor of political science at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. “No one is focused on what happened before the rioting. The key is what happened once it became clear that the situation was out of control. Nobody suggested to militarize the situation when the protests were peaceful.”

    Eberly said Rawlings-Blake and Hogan did a lot right, and they deserve credit for that. But mistakes were made, he said, “that should be acknowledged and discussed openly.”

    For the mayor’s part, Eberly said, a more effective message to the public is to talk about how she spent the night: talking to her advisers, traveling between key operation sites, remaining in contact with the governor.

    Doug Ward, director of the Johns Hopkins University’s Division of Public Safety Leadership, said that luck more than successful strategy prevented more pervasive violence that night.

    “Baltimore was lucky,” Ward said. “The fact is, if the rioters were more violent and decided to do more harm, for instance, to the people driving down the street, a lot of people could have been killed. The police were nowhere to be seen.”

    Ward said he agrees with Rawlings-Blake’s decision to be cautious about escalating the situation by calling in a “militarized response.” But, he said, more law enforcement personnel should have been immediately available, stationed at nearby armories, for example.

    It all sounds so proportional. WOo!

    Ferguson residents & business owners. DOJ ON HAND. @KWRose @search4swag @Doge4ferguson @JDKnowlse Elephant ignored.

    Gilmore Homes Teens
    In Solidarity w/ the #TonyRobinson Protest in Madison WI

    #Sandtown #Baltimore #FreddieGray

  332. rq says

    Right now!! Protests at location of murder of #TonyRobinson by Madison police. #BlackLivesMatter

    It is really telling that at the sight or sound of police, residents are taking precaution by calling for help just in case. #Baltimore

    Crowd mostly students now chanting “send them killer cops home.” Vibe is festive for #TonyRobinson

    LBSBaltimore co-hosting community cookout/voter registration event at Liberty Recreation Center Friday #BmoreUnited

    In case you couldn’t make it, #CornelWest speaking in #Baltimore at #BmoreUnited event https://soundcloud.com/bmoreresilient/cornel-west-baltimore …

  333. rq says

    The “Western Wall” remains in west #baltimore. #freddiegray. Mister Commissioner, tear. down. this. wall.

    19-year-old dies in Indiana police custody

    Indiana State Police detectives are investigating the death of a 19-year-old inmate who died in police custody Monday after he was found unconscious in the back of a jail transport van.

    The unidentified male teenager was arrested by the Greenwood Police Department Sunday night and was booked into the Johnson County Jail Monday morning on preliminary charges of reckless possession of paraphernalia.

    At some point between the time he was booked and noon Monday, police said the inmate was seen by the jail nurse, who asked that the 19-year-old be taken to the hospital.

    According to police, the inmate was conscious and walked himself to and into the jail transport van. When the vehicle arrived at Johnson Memorial Hospital, which is next door to the jail, officials found the teenager unresponsive.

    “He was rushed into the emergency room where life saving measures were attempted and were unsuccessful,” a release from the Johnson County Sheriff’s office stated.

    State Police investigators and Crime Lab technicians have been processing the scene throughout the day, interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence, the release said.

    A Johnson County coroner will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death Tuesday morning.

    I believe this is the case where, above, there is some comfort in the fact that the victim is white…

    Marching to the Capitol. Hundreds strong for #TonyRobinson.

    Mother of #TonyRobinson takes the streets with Maria Hamilton by her side after the announcement this afternoon.

    Participants in a #TonyRobinson vigil file into Pres House on the @UWMadison campus.

  334. rq says

    White supremacists accused of planning for ‘race war’ in Florida

    Members of a white supremacist skinhead group called American Front trained with AK-47s, shotguns and explosives at a fortified compound in central Florida to prepare for what its reputed leader believed to be an “inevitable race war,” prosecutors said Tuesday.

    According to court documents, members of American Front discussed acts of violence that included causing “a disturbance” at City Hall in Orlando, shooting at a house and attacking an anti-racist skinhead group.

    At least 10 members of the group, which authorities described as a militia-styled, anti-Semitic domestic terrorist organization, have been arrested in Florida since the weekend, including at least three people on Tuesday.

    More at the link. Post-racial Americaaaaa!

    Madison faces walkouts after decision in fatal police shooting – pictures to come.

    Some of the Madison Police Department’s toughest critics peacefully protested in the hours after a prosecutor said he wouldn’t charge a white officer who killed an unarmed biracial man. But the city faced another test Wednesday as activists called for a widespread walkout.

    After recent riots in cities where white officers have killed black men — including Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore — Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne’s announcement Tuesday raised concerns that things could turn violent in Wisconsin’s capital city. […]

    The Young, Gifted and Black Coalition, which called on black people and students to walk out of work and school Wednesday morning, has staged multiple non-violent protests since Tony Robinson’s death March 6. The group had demanded that Madison Officer Matt Kenny be fired and charged with homicide.

    Ozanne, who is biracial but identifies himself as black, is Wisconsin’s first minority district attorney. He pointed out his racial heritage as he made the announcement, noting his black mother participated in the Freedom Summer, a black voter registration drive in Mississippi in 1964. He said he views Robinson’s death through that lens, but made his decision based on the facts.
    lRelated
    A look at the players in unarmed Wisconsin man’s shooting

    News
    A look at the players in unarmed Wisconsin man’s shooting

    See all related
    8

    “I am concerned that recent violence around our nation is giving some in our community a justification for fear, hatred and violence,” Ozanne said as he wrapped up his announcement. “I am reminded that true and lasting change does not come from violence but from exercising our voices and our votes.”

    Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said at a press conference Tuesday evening he was “hoping for a different sort of outcome in our community in the days to come” than the unrest experienced elsewhere.

    “I’m confident those outcomes can be more constructive,” he said, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

    On Tuesday, about 275 supporters joined Robinson’s family in a march to the Capitol after the announcement, but they dispersed peacefully long before sunset. […]

    Another officer arrived and checked the apartment only to find it empty. Kenny rendered aid to Robinson.

    “Stay with me. Stay with me,” Kenny said he told him before paramedics took over. A responding firefighter told investigators it was clear Robinson was dead at the scene. As other officers led Kenny away, she heard him swearing to himself over and over.

    Kenny told the DOJ agent he couldn’t use nonlethal force because of “space and time considerations.”

    They seem to forget that Baltimore was peaceful, too, until the rioters arrived in full uniform. Huh.
    Also, note sympathetic portrayal of Kenny at the end, there. ‘Rendered aid’.

    Here’s something less sympathetic: Just released dash cam video of #TonyRobinson shooting shows cop firing from outside home: https://www.youtube.com/embed/P8lZOVDLP-8 … Note timing of shooting vs. timing of address.

    In Ferguson, they keep doing things wrong. Preivous tweet, the one about a meeting with the DOJ with only residents and business owners allowed? @Koster4Missouri Can find nothing in #MOSunshineLaw allows City of #Ferguson to ban non-residents from public mtg.

  335. rq says

    General positive news: Senators Scott and Graham Announce Body Camera Hearing Next Week

    Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) announced today the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism will hold a hearing at 2:30PM, next Tuesday, May 19, entitled “Body Cameras: Can Technology Increase Protection for Law Enforcement Officers and the Public?”

    Last month, Senator Scott approached Senator Graham about holding a hearing on body cameras—an issue important to both South Carolina senators. 

“I appreciate Tim pushing this issue forward,” said Graham, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism. “I look forward to the hearing and learning more about this important issue for law enforcement and the public.” 



    “I want to thank Chairman Graham for working to quickly schedule a hearing on this important matter,” Scott said. “I believe that body-worn cameras will keep both law enforcement officers and citizens safer, while providing invaluable evidence for potential investigations. I look forward to continuing our efforts to find the best path forward on this issue at the hearing.”

    More positive news: Maryland Governor Could Soon Restore Voting Rights Of 40,000 Ex-Offenders

    A bill currently on the desk of Maryland Governor Hogan (R) would give ex-offenders in the state the right to vote while still on parole or probation, impacting about 40,000 currently disenfranchised citizens. If signed into law, the bill would bring Maryland in line with 13 other states and the District of Columbia, where citizens can vote immediately after serving their sentences.

    Returned citizens and their allies have been demonstrating in Baltimore this week to push the Governor to sign the bill, but he has not yet announced whether he will do so. The bill’s author, freshman Delegate Cory McCray (D-Baltimore), told ThinkProgress that he’s hopeful, because Hogan has expressed any problems with the bill or a desire to veto it.

    “We all know this is the right thing to do,” he said. But the people have to make our leaders accountable and push them to be great. Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Lyndon Johnson — they all had people pushing them to make the right decisions.”

    Over the next few weeks, those in favor of the bill will be writing letters, phone banking, and holding more public demonstrations, emphasize the importance of voting in helping people reintegrate into society after jail or prison.

    “When you can’t vote, you don’t have a seat at the table,” said McCray, whose Baltimore district has one of the highest ex-offender populations in the state. “Obviously, they’ve made mistakes, but these are our family members, our friends, our neighbors. These folks pay taxes. You can’t leave 40,000 people out of the conversation on subject matters that directly and indirectly impact them, like criminal justice reform, housing, access to fresh foods, employment and transportation.”

    Nationally, nearly 6 million Americans are disenfranchised because of a felony conviction. Before leaving office, Attorney General Eric Holder railed against laws that disenfranchise ex-offenders, calling them a racist holdover from the Reconstruction Era and a contributing factor to high recidivism that states should quickly abolish.

    Across the country, some states are moving in that direction. In late April, the Minnesota Senate passed a bill to restore the voting rights of approximately 47,000 people on probation and parole. The House has yet to take it up. […]

    Despite his silence this week on the voting restoration bill, Governor Hogan did sign into law several bills related to criminal justice reform. The bills include measures to create special Baltimore City and County Police units trained to deal with people with mental illnesses, expand the scope of the Civilian Review Board, increase disclosure about those — like Freddie Gray — who die in police custody, and the Second Chance Act, which will allow some non-violent offenders to expunge their criminal records.

    If Hogan doesn’t sign the voting rights bill by May 30, but doesn’t veto it either, it will automatically become law.

    Action by inaction, I kind of like that.

    #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay via @Nike & @Converse. Today.

    The police have killed 420 people in 2015.

    America.

    Wisconsin Law School students create ‘use of deadly’ force video

    A new video aims to provide answers to the minority community, on police use of deadly force. The 15 minute video was unveiled in Madison Mayor Paul Soglin’s office on Monday, and comes as Madison awaits a decision by the Dane County District Attorney on the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer.

    Bishop Harold Rayford with Madison’s African American Council of Churches said that the video addresses a need for information, in the wake of Tony Robinson’s death. D.A. Ismael Ozanne has scheduled a press conference for 2:30 Tuesday afternoon

    “We realized that our community didn’t fully understand the process the district attorney is going through, to make his decision,” Rayford said. “We encourage the schools and students and young people to take the few minutes necessary to watch this video, and learn the legal process and understand the laws that are at work here.

    The video, “Understanding Police Use of Force,” was created by members of the Black and Latino Law Student Associations, at UW Law School. “We thought that this video was important, we saw a need in our community,” said Jared Prado, one of several students who explain use of force in the video, which can be viewed at the City of Madison website and on YouTube.

    Mayor Paul Soglin was asked whether the video might be a starting point, for discussions about whether policies on the use of deadly force by police officers need to be reviewed and modified. “I don’t see how those who are engaged in discussions about change can start without knowing the basis for existing laws, and why they exist,” Soglin said.

    Video at the link.

    Aside: Religion. America is becoming less Christian, and US Christianity is becoming less white. Will that change the fundamentalism running rampant?

    Black Ga. Man’s Hanging Death Ruled a Suicide: Authorities. Read more of the same information on that.

  336. rq says

    Cop shoots W. Oak Lane man after 4 cops allegedly are hit by car

    A FATHER of eight who was shot by police after his car allegedly struck four cops yesterday in Olney was disoriented because he had experienced a seizure while driving, according to the man’s family members and a woman who was in the car with him.

    Rudolph “Blue” Keitt Jr., 46, of West Oak Lane, remained in a medically induced coma last night after undergoing surgery for a gunshot wound to his chest at Einstein Medical Center, his family said.

    Keitt, who already has two stents in his heart from a previous heart attack, also suffered a heart attack during surgery, his family said. He remained in critical but stable condition late last night.

    All four 35th District officers who were injured in the incident – which Mayor Nutter described as “bizarre” – were treated at Einstein and released last night, according to police.

    Teresa Clement, 50, a Keitt family friend, said she and Keitt were driving in his red Chrysler sedan to get sandwiches shortly after 2 p.m. when Keitt started to have a seizure.

    She said Keitt drifted through a stop sign and “bumped” a wall, although police described the collision as a crash. The wall Keitt hit was a retaining wall near Cherashore Park, on Olney Avenue near Wagner.

    With her door blocked by a pole and with Keitt’s body “stiff as a board,” Clement said, she grabbed his keys and crawled into the back seat and out of the car.

    Clement said she then began to yell that her friend needed medical help.

    Things disintegrated from there, but note the title doesn’t mention a medical emergency of any kind. Eh.

    Anniversary day: ‘Let The Fire Burn’: A Philadelphia Community Forever Changed

    On May 13, 1985, after a long standoff, Philadelphia municipal authorities dropped a bomb on a residential row house. The Osage Avenue home was the headquarters of the African-American radical group MOVE, which had confronted police on many occasions since the group’s founding in 1972.

    The resulting fire killed 11 people — including five children and the group’s leader, John Africa — destroyed 61 homes, and tore apart a community.

    In Let the Fire Burn, a new film showing at the AFI Docs festival, director Jason Osder chronicles the years of tension between police, MOVE and neighbors that ended in tragedy.

    The title of the film refers to local authorities’ decision to let the fire engulf the compound without intervention.

    Osder, assistant professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, grew up in Philadelphia and was roughly the same age as the children who were killed in the fire.

    “Those of us that are lucky to have, sort of, traditional childhoods, we grow up sheltered in a certain way. And for most people, there’s a moment where that shelter is broken,” Osder tells NPR’s Neal Conan.

    “My parents’ generation will always remember where they were when JFK died, but for me, it was the MOVE fire.”

    166 days after they killed Tamir Rice, officers have still not been interviewed by investigators. The. Officers. Who. Shot. Tamir. HAVE. NOT. BEEN. INTERVIEWED. YET.

    Just yesterday, nearly six months after police shot and killed Tamir Rice, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office announced that they were nearing the end of their investigation and that they had a few more people to interview.

    Those people they have not yet interviewed are Cleveland Police officers Timothy Loehmann, who fired the fatal shot that killed Tamir, and his partner, Officer Frank Garmback, who irrationally drove the car right up on Tamir this past November 22nd. How in the world could these officers have months and months and months to formulate their stories before speaking to investigators?

    It’s because of Garrity rights. Heard of them? Most people haven’t.

    In 1961, the New Jersey attorney general began investigating allegations that traffic tickets were being “fixed” in the townships of Bellmawr and Barrington. The investigation focused on Bellmawr police chief Edward Garrity and five other employees. When questioned, each was warned that anything they said might be used against them in a criminal proceeding, and that they could refuse to answer questions in order to avoid self-incrimination. However, they were also told that if they refused to answer, they would be terminated. Rather than lose their jobs, they answered the investigators’ questions. Their statements were then used in their prosecutions – over their objections – and they were convicted.

    The U.S. Supreme Court then ruled in 1967’s Garrity v. New Jersey that the employees’ statements, made under threat of termination, were compelled by the state in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The decision asserted that “the option to lose their means of livelihood or pay the penalty of self-incrimination is the antithesis of free choice to speak or to remain silent.” Therefore, because the employees’ statements were compelled, it was unconstitutional to use the statements in a prosecution. Their convictions were overturned.

    In short, Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback, by law, don’t have to say a single solitary word to investigators and anything they may have said to the Cleveland Police Department before the case was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office in January is completely inadmissible in court.

    Speaking to Daily Kos, spokespersons for both the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office and the Cleveland Prosecutor’s Office each confirmed that they had not yet interviewed or even attempted to interview Officers Loehmann or Garmback. Garrity protections were cited by both offices.

    Joe Frolik, Director of Communications for the Cleveland Prosecutors Office, when asked by Daily Kos about whether they had or will ever interview the officers, said

    “We have not interviewed the police officers. Here’s how it works:

    The Sheriff’s Department is leading the investigation, working with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. When they are done, and Sheriff Pinkney said today that most of their work is complete, the file will be turned over to our office. We will review. We may ask for additional investigative work. We may retain outside experts, if we deem necessary.

    Then we will present all of the evidence to the Grand Jury. If they want, the grand jurors can ask to hear from additional witnesses or experts. When all that’s done, we will discuss potential charges and make a recommendation. But the final decision on charging rests with the citizens on the Grand Jury.”

    So, as the family of Tamir Rice waits and waits and waits, the officers who shot and killed their son and brother, are free to go about life as normal without even saying when single word about what they did. Unless the officers break protocol and waive these rights and speak to investigators, the Cleveland Prosecutor’s Office will have to make its decision on whether or not they press charges without any statements from those who know the most.

    It’s ugly that in the name of protecting the rights of these officers, sworn to uphold the law, Tamir Rice, a 12 year old sixth grader, even in death, is being completely railroaded.

    THIS IS NOT DUE PROCESS.

    This map proves that the Tampa Police Department is beyond guilty of racially profiling Black people.

    Breaking: Police Shoot and Kill Hammer-Wielding Suspect

    A man who was sought for attacking several people with a hammer in the Manhattan area, was shot and killed by Police officers a short while ago, NYPD sources told JP.

    The police were on the lookout for a hammer-wielding man who hit at least five people on the head, wounding them, in tourist-packed areas.

    The suspect was shot by police Wednesday morning after two officers tried to question him. He took out a hammer of his bag and tried hitting a police officer in the head at 8th Avenue and West 37th street at around 10:00am, when the other officer shot him. The incident was captured on video.

    He was transferred to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

    The 30-year-old suspect, identified as David Baril, had 24 prior arrests, sources said.

    We will update the story as soon as more information becomes available.

    So, does he deserve to be dead?

    Freedom, Inc. and YGB Respond to the Non-Indictment

    It came as no surprise that Dane County, Wisconsin District Attorney Ismael R. Ozanne refused to charge Madison police officer Matt Kenny with killing unarmed 19 year old Tony Robinson. Even though it is no surprise, we are still bitterly disappointed.

    Freedom, Inc. and the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition (YGB) denounce the non-indictment decision and renew the call to grow the Black Liberation Movement with the following demands and actions:

    1). Free the 350
    Blacks make up just 6% of the general population in Dane County, WI, but almost 50% of jail inmates. This disparity demonstrates structural racism. Because of the Black poverty rate, many people sit in pre-trial detention- while they are still presumed innocent- merely because they cannot pay bail of $1,000 or less. Because anyone with bail as low as $1,000 does not represent a public safety threat, those human beings are in jail because they are Black and poor. If Matt Kenny, who killed a 19 year old, did not go to jail, then no one should. Therefore, we demand the release of 350 Black inmates to end the racial disparity of incarceration.

    2). Independent Investigation
    We demand a dual track independent investigation into the murder of Tony Robinson and the persistent racial disparities in poverty, education, housing, public services, incarceration and policing. Because the US Department of Justice has proven incapable of bringing justice to Black communities, we demand the independent investigations are conducted entirely by the human rights bodies in the United Nations and Organization of American States.

    3). Community Control Over Police
    In Black communities across the country, the police serve as an occupying force. We can never expect fair or just treatment from an occupying force. Therefore, we demand full Community Control Over Police, with the power to set priorities, policies and enforce the proper practice of those mandates. We do not want a review board or community policing, but Community Control Over Police.

    We are asking our supporters to take three (3) actions:

    SIGN THE PETITION. To convince the United Nations and Organizaion of American States to come investigate, we need petition signatures. Please follow the link and sign the petition. If you have already signed, please share the petition with your friends and networks.

    A few other actions to support at the link, including Blackout Wednesday.

  338. rq says

    Per @ChiefSLMPD it would cost $8.7M for the new officers, $9M for 2nd yr, $9.3M for 3rd yr. @AntonioFrench wants 10yr projection of costs – extra officers cost money! Except now they’re saying 120 not the original 160. Annnyway.

    Prosecutor agreed to bond reduction on Dorian Johnson from $1000 to $100 so he’ll be walking soon if not already.

    Legal Observers. Madison, #TonyRobinson

    New book!!! “The answer is American history.” –Between The World And Me. September 8, 2015. See you soon.

    Purple bandana “buffers” use yellow string to direct the crowd. Safety 1st. Madison, #TonyRobinson

    Madison, #TonyRobinson

  339. rq says

    Sharing the Load: On Supporting Black Women in Protest Times

    I’ve encountered many black women who felt overwhelmed with the responsibility of being “everything” to everyone. While these women were the cornerstone in personal and familial relationships, a majority of them perceived these relationships as one-sided. Feelings of under-appreciation were rampant, as these women gave themselves to everyone and believed they either didn’t have enough to give to themselves or the energy given wasn’t being reciprocated. Eventually, these women felt crushed underneath the weight of these relationships.

    I wondered if the narrative of the “strong black woman” was responsible for the experiences these women had gone through. Any discussion I initiated with my ex-girlfriends/lovers and past/current friends surrounding the idea of creating a healthier balance or establishing boundaries with others would be met with reasons why it wasn’t possible. Conversations with them devolved into their overwhelming sense of failure because of being unable to handle the burden of others or extended sessions of self-depreciation because they felt they were complaining too much. In some cases, they were actually ashamed that they couldn’t juggle everyone else’s lives in conjunction with their own. As a man, saying “no” had been an option I freely and frequently exercised at my discretion. For women, that option didn’t seem to exist.

    A pattern I’d noticed is the ease with which these women sacrificed themselves for the greater good of the people relying on them. The “mule” trope, introduced to me in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, was something I witnessed first hand. As a black man, I rarely find myself in situations where I’m asked to sacrifice myself for anybody. To be honest, I can’t even think of the last time I even felt obligated to do anything for anyone else. Black women in both real life and pop-culture however, are frequently asked to take a backseat or find their efforts overlooked.

    Black women who’ve battled on the frontlines during the #BlackLivesMatter and Ferguson movements have taken issue with the blatant sexism taking place during these movements. In an interview with The Feminist Wire, Zakiya Jemmot spoke directly to some of the issues women have faced; “Gender inclusion is a major issue that we have all faced since our involvement. When we go out to protest or even speak at town hall meetings there is a lack of support from a majority of the men and we are treated as if we’re invisible and haven’t been the most vocal since the movement mobilized.” From my observation, women have done a tremendous job of taking these movements forward, and it’s more than disheartening to hear they have to fight to make sure they aren’t relegated to the background. In the wake of the deaths of women like Rekia Boyd and Natasha McKenna by the same system that killed the men that we march for, the relative silence on protecting the value of Black women’s lives is deafening.

    I believe a key method to fighting the patriarchal subjugation of black women is for both black men AND women to work to uplift black women. Black women have been incredible in terms of exemplifying strength, character, and the ability to move forward despite the tremendous obstacles that lay before them. With that said, they aren’t bottomless pits of resilience and despite the frequent labeling of being “Superwomen,” do not possess superhuman abilities. Recognizing their humanity and acknowledging the weight carried by them, a weight that often would be carried voluntarily but almost always is assumed now by necessity, would go a long way toward removing the “mule” trope that’s so prevalent in the community. […]

    We should work to keep that complexity at the forefront of how we perceive black women and appreciate them. Black women are often almost forced to relegate themselves to a background position, one of a “mule,” that as a black man I have never had to consider assuming. Challenging that will involve challenging myself. It will involve challenging black masculinity and black protest ideals. I believe that best way to even begin to combat this trope is for members of the community to challenge themselves to humanize black women; to try empathy and identify that the position of carrying our burdens isn’t (usually) a voluntary one. Black women often do it because they have to, and we can start to make it so they don’t.

    Hands Up! Don’t shoot!! Madison, #TonyRobinson #Ferguson

    Whoa, whoa… Ferguson Shooting’s Witness Denied Bond-Reduction Request

    A key witness in the Michael Brown shooting death has lost his request to have his bond lowered on charges that he resisted arrest during another confrontation with police, keeping him jailed in advance of a court appearance next month.

    St. Louis Associate Circuit Judge Michael Noble on Monday refused 23-year-old Dorian Johnson’s bid to lower the $1,000 cash-only bond set after he was charged last week resisting arrest or interfering with a lawful stop or detention, a misdemeanor. Noble set Johnson’s next court appearance for June 15.

    Messages left Wednesday for Johnson’s attorneys, Ryan Smith and Daniel Brown, were not immediately returned.

    Last week’s criminal complaint against Johnson accuses him of trying to hinder the May 6 arrest of his younger brother, 21-year-old Demonte Johnson, “by using or threatening the use of violence, physical force or physical interference.”

    Dorian Johnson was a prominent witness to the shooting death in August of Brown, a black, unarmed 18-year-old who was killed by white Ferguson officer Darren Wilson during a confrontation in a street. Brown’s death led to sometimes-violent protests in Ferguson and other U.S. cities, spawning a national “Black Lives Matter” movement seeking changes in how police deal with minorities.

    People’s court. Madison, Wisconsin. #TonyRobinson

    Wisconsin ACLU says they’ve trained 80 folks to be Legal Observers across the state within the last week. Work. #TonyRobinson

    St. Louis aldermen consider funding options for adding 160 police officers

    Aldermen on Wednesday considered funding options for hiring 160 additional officers in a quest to tamp down crime throughout the city.

    If approved, the additional officers would increase the police budget by an estimated $8.7 million in the first year, and $9 million in the second year.

    To pay for it, aldermen are looking to increase the city’s vehicle license tax, instituting a 10 percent tax on parking garages, and dedicated funding from red light camera revenue—something that is far from certain because it is still being considered by the courts.

    The tax increase would have to be approved by voters. Aldermen have little time to act. The bills must be approved by the aldermen before May 26 to get it on a ballot.

    Some alderman questioned the fast-track nature of the bill on Wednesday at a meeting of the city’s public safety committee.

    Alderman Donna Baringer, who introduced and sponsored the bill, said the additional officers are necessary and the city must act fast.

    “If we don’t get this on the ballot that means we go further down the road without more police officers,” Baringer said, noting persistent complaints of rising crime.

    She added: “The people in my ward will move out. They are going to start selling their homes.”

    Alderman Joseph Vaccaro expressed concern about raising more taxes, especially in a time where the city is planning on floating a $180 million real estate tax increase to pay for infrastructure improvements.

    “It’s a recipe for defeating everything,” Vaccaro said.

    Mayor Francis Slay supports the measure.

    The current force of roughly 1,250 is already smaller than it used to be. In 2012, Slay’s administration pledged to reduce the city’s police force by 80 officers through attrition. That helped save the city’s budget and credit rating from the threat of soaring pension costs. But it left the police force with fewer officers to fight the rising crime.

    So, Slay said reduce the force, and now he’s all increase the force?

  340. rq says

    “If not Matt Kenny, NO ARRESTS” Chained. Madison, #TonyRobinson

    Noticing a lot of ppl who follow “the movement” keep up with the actions and people involved but aren’t as learned on the issues. Problem.
    And in many ways, Twitter “reporters” just emulate MSM by providing play-by-plays of what’s happening without proper context.
    Which is why I appreciate that @MillennialAU provides a statement before their actions about what the action is and why it matters.

  341. says

    From Adam Lee at Daylight Atheism–
    How we built the ghettos, why we built the ghettos:
    (excerpt)

    Americans like to think that our country is the land of opportunity, the nation of unlimited promise, where anyone who’s got a great idea or a lot of elbow grease can make something of themselves and get rich. But the reality has never lived up to that rosy aspiration. The truth is that our present distribution of wealth isn’t the product of chance, nor is it the result of hereditary differences in talent or work ethic. The gap between rich and poor, and especially white and black, is a deliberate creation of the elite. The ghettos were planned out, every bit as much as the suburbs, through a combination of racist law and private discrimination.
    Baltimore, not coincidentally, is a prime example. In the early 20th century, racial segregation was an omnipresent system of control, enforced with the collusion of private parties and every level of government. Its Jim Crow laws, which were among the strictest in the nation, forbade black citizens from buying houses on majority-white blocks and vice versa. Building inspectors were the tools of enforcement, filing stacks of nuisance citations against landlords who wouldn’t cooperate. Banks also got into the act with redlining policies, which either outright denied mortgages to black borrowers or corraled them into specific neighborhoods. And the Federal Housing Administration, which could have been a powerful thumb on the scale defending civil rights, instead backed up Baltimore’s apartheid by refusing to guarantee loans in black communities.
    Thus segregated, minority neighborhoods could be starved of amenities like good schools, accessible transportation, and job-creating investment. When black borrowers did get loans, they were often predatory “contract” loans where their homes could be repossessed if they missed a single payment. Again, Baltimore was one of the leaders, but policies like this were replicated in towns and cities all over the country.
    Last but not least, when black families and communities defied the odds and started building wealth in spite of all the obstacles put in their path, white racists often incited riots on some flimsy pretext to destroy them. The Tulsa riot of 1921, where the wealthy black community of Greenwood (known as “the Black Wall Street”) was burned down and many of its citizens killed, is the chief example.
    Even though restrictive covenants, redlining and other racist policies no longer have legal force, their effects are real and ongoing. Black families who were denied the opportunity to acquire wealth through homeownership can’t pass that wealth down to their children, propagating the racial fault lines of poverty down through generations. The effect is strikingly persistent: Baltimore’s mostly-black slums today map almost exactly to the segregated slums of the 1910s. As I’ve mentioned before, studies show that laissez-faire, rags-to-riches America has one of the lowest rates of social mobility among all developed nations, and this is a big part of the reason why.

  342. rq says

    MEdia attention apparently gets things done: After six months of waiting, family of Tamir Rice makes traumatic decision to have him cremated

    Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehmann nearly six months ago. While his family has waited for months on end for the investigation to close, they were told that a second medical examination of his body may be needed at some future date.

    Not wanting to suffer the emotional trauma of burying her son and then having to exhume his body from the ground for another examination, Samaria Rice patiently waited on the Cleveland Police Department and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office to close their investigations. Expecting it to close months ago, she had no idea that so much time would pass before she could properly bury her son.

    The family and the investigators never released to the public the information that Tamir had not yet been buried. When the national news broke on May 4 that Tamir’s family was still in limbo, the pressure for Samaria Rice was just too much to handle. A bill in her name for nearly $18,000 accumulated as well, because the family had been charged $75 a day for the housing of Tamir’s body, according to Walter Madison, the family’s attorney, when reached by phone. Madison made the following statement:

    Samaria is a mother first.

    Whether or in life or death, her instinct is to care for her child.

    Due to an unfortunate turn of events she was faced with the unspeakable decision to finally put her son to final rest or endure this legal morass and its hardness.

    After the tremendous amount of support from around the world, Samaria made the grief stricken decision to be a mother. Tamir Rice was cremated.

    No longer will Tamir’s cold body, scarred by a bullet wound and the surgery to save him, be stuck indoors somewhere waiting on investigators and politicians to play their games.

    This, of course, isn’t justice or peace. Her son, a great boy who broke no law on November 22, was shot and then ignored by the very people sworn to protect him. Cremating Tamir was no easy decision, but in a society that gives a heartbroken mother so little power to advocate for her son, Samaria made the only decision she was empowered to make.

    We can only hope that the deep, unthinkable pain that Tamir’s family is facing is just a little less today.

    Rest in peace, young man. We will never stop fighting for you.

    To be honest, I don’t understand everything here (is cremation taboo? why was she billed for holding the body – was she the one not moving forward, or was it the police?), but I do think it’s a bit of closure for the family. Not complete, but something.

  343. rq says

    Also, macing people (incl. teenagers, a 10 year old boy, woman with infant, everyone – yah, don’t bring your kids to protest!) in Minneapolis, protesting in solidarity for Tony Robinson, more later. Gahds, what is it with the police?

  344. chigau (違う) says

    Since we are coming up for a resurrection of this thread, I have a thing…
    (I may be wrong on the cause but…)
    The really long quotes make the thread really hard to load.

  345. rq says

    chigau
    I wouldn’t be surprised, but I put in really long quotes because I know some people won’t go to the links to read and it seems important. So… I don’t know? :/ I’ll keep that in mind.

  346. chigau (違う) says

    rq
    I’m just impatient.
    Don’t change what you’re doing on my account.

  347. rq says

    Via Tony in the Thunderdome, from Adam Lee, How We Built the Ghettos, Why We Built the Ghettos – ostensibly about Baltimore, but applicable to many, many other cities around the US of A.

    Americans like to think that our country is the land of opportunity, the nation of unlimited promise, where anyone who’s got a great idea or a lot of elbow grease can make something of themselves and get rich. But the reality has never lived up to that rosy aspiration. The truth is that our present distribution of wealth isn’t the product of chance, nor is it the result of hereditary differences in talent or work ethic. The gap between rich and poor, and especially white and black, is a deliberate creation of the elite. The ghettos were planned out, every bit as much as the suburbs, through a combination of racist law and private discrimination.Baltimore, not coincidentally, is a prime example. In the early 20th century, racial segregation was an omnipresent system of control, enforced with the collusion of private parties and every level of government. Its Jim Crow laws, which were among the strictest in the nation, forbade black citizens from buying houses on majority-white blocks and vice versa. Building inspectors were the tools of enforcement, filing stacks of nuisance citations against landlords who wouldn’t cooperate. Banks also got into the act with redlining policies, which either outright denied mortgages to black borrowers or corraled them into specific neighborhoods. And the Federal Housing Administration, which could have been a powerful thumb on the scale defending civil rights, instead backed up Baltimore’s apartheid by refusing to guarantee loans in black communities.Thus segregated, minority neighborhoods could be starved of amenities like good schools, accessible transportation, and job-creating investment. When black borrowers did get loans, they were often predatory “contract” loans where their homes could be repossessed if they missed a single payment. Again, Baltimore was one of the leaders, but policies like this were replicated in towns and cities all over the country.Last but not least, when black families and communities defied the odds and started building wealth in spite of all the obstacles put in their path, white racists often incited riots on some flimsy pretext to destroy them. The Tulsa riot of 1921, where the wealthy black community of Greenwood (known as “the Black Wall Street”) was burned down and many of its citizens killed, is the chief example.Even though restrictive covenants, redlining and other racist policies no longer have legal force, their effects are real and ongoing. Black families who were denied the opportunity to acquire wealth through homeownership can’t pass that wealth down to their children, propagating the racial fault lines of poverty down through generations. The effect is strikingly persistent: Baltimore’s mostly-black slums today map almost exactly to the segregated slums of the 1910s. As I’ve mentioned before, studies show that laissez-faire, rags-to-riches America has one of the lowest rates of social mobility among all developed nations, and this is a big part of the reason why.

    Incidentally, spreading racism around, via Lynna in the Lounge: Virginia mining exec claims he’s an African king, daughter a princess; Disney making a film of it

    Jeremiah Heaton, a mining executive and native of Mt. Airy, Georgia, a town with 604 residents and hometown of Ty Cobb, the most racist player in the history of major league baseball, heard his daughter say she wanted to be a princess and doggone it, what Jeremiah’s daughter wants, she gets. Where Jeremiah’s from, they don’t read Walter Rodney.

    Now living and working in Virgina, Heaton, as a birthday gift for his daughter, has claimed the land as his own. He didn’t buy it—he just put his homemade flag on it. […]

    First, Disney really is making a fanciful movie of this beautiful family tale. I don’t even know why we’re shocked when this stuff happens anymore, but color me surprised. How in the hell did Disney think this story was worth telling to the world? As the backlash has grown, it appears Disney is sticking with it.

    Second, this man is now raising money online and will allow you to become a knight, a real knight, or name a street, or have your face on the money in his newfound kingdom of North Sudan.

    I already commented in the Lounge. In short, this is disgusting on so many levels but that whole appropriation-of-Africa-for-my-needs bit? Fukitol.

    One man’s response to a police request for a search (language advisory), via Mano Singham, one man’s surprisingly peaceful encounter with the police.
    Also from Mano, What black people experience at the hands of the police. I suppose a kind of contrast.

    The forgotten Move fiasco, a third from Mano Singham, a little slice of history.

    The Book of Negroes Episodes: I’ve heard it’s a good show, on slavery and escaping and generally a good show. Will have to watch. In the meantime, some of you can get to it. :)

    Some dated and then some Canadian stuff up next.

  348. rq says

    Umm, I swear there were paragraph breaks in Adam Lee’s piece. Somehow they didn’t transfer. #NotMyFault

    The dated stuff, via CBC: Freddie Gray death: Baltimore officers charged want case dismissed;
    Freddie Gray death: Prince plays benefit concert in Baltimore;
    Baltimore mom who smacked son during riots: ‘I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray’;
    The Current in Baltimore, audio.

    Now for the Canada stuff: Toronto police have a practice known as ‘carding’, which is much like stop-and-frisk though with an electronic rather than physical frisk (could be wrong on that one, though). As you can imagine, people are protesting the practice, esp. without evidence of its utility. Group questions why Toronto police don’t have stats to defend carding

    “We have yet to be provided evidence that carding impacts crime in any shape or fashion,” Rinaldo Walcott, an associate professor at U of T said at a press conference Wednesday. “We have yet to be provided evidence that the database developed from carding impacts crime and its resolution in any way or shape.

    “We find this totally unacceptable in the age of information,” said Walcott. “We believe that by ignoring available evidence, that the mayor, the Toronto Police Service and its board have clearly declared black communities collectively a public safety threat.

    “The only way to think of such a declaration is to call it anti-black racism.”

    Walcott was joined by Anthony Morgan of the African Canadian Legal Clinic, Ryerson University professor Akua Benjamin, Pascale Diverlus who is vice-president of United Black Students Ryerson and a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto and academic Chris Williams, a vocal opponent of carding.

    The group is asking for meetings with new police chief Mark Saunders, Mayor John Tory (open John Tory’s policard) and Premier Kathleen Wynne.

    Toronto police defend carding — during which people are stopped and documented in mostly non-criminal encounters — as an invaluable intelligence-gathering tool and say they police high crime areas of the city and not by race.

    “We know our interactions with the community help keep neighbourhoods safe,” said TPS spokesperson Meaghan Gray in an email “We will do our jobs as police officers while honouring a person’s rights and explaining our roles and responsibilities. We will not abolish the practice of interacting with members of the public; but we will redefine the purpose for which we do.”

    A Star investigation published in 2012 found that between 2008 and mid-2011, the number of individual young black men, aged 15 to 24, who were “carded” was 3.4 times greater than the city’s population of young black men.

    Fewer than one in five (15.6 per cent) of 788,050 individuals who were carded during that time had been arrested between 2002 and mid-2011.

    Rights activists say the police practice violates the Charter and amounts to an arbitrary detention.

    The police board passed a carding policy last month — called community engagement — that was devoid of the citizen right protections that dozens of activists have called for, including one that would have asked officers to inform people of their right to walk away.

    That right was in the news this week after Justice Frederick Myers awarded Mutaz Elmardy $27,000 in damages after he was randomly stopped in Moss Park in January, 2011 and unlawfully arrested and punched in the face by a Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) officer because of non-co-operation.

    A police spokesperson said a probe by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director found Elmardy’s complaints against the officer were unsubstantiated.

    Punched in the face by the anti-violence police, yet complaints were unsubstantiated.

    Not just black people. Quebec Mohawks angry over ‘savages’ T-shirt (and jacket, it’s not just a t-shirt – I suppose it’s ‘edgy’, if racism is the kind of edge you’re looking for).

    “Savages” appears on a jacket under a skull sporting a traditional First Nations headdress, and under the company’s logo on a T-shirt.

    “It seems so silly that people are up in arms about just this one word, but it comes with so much,” said Jessica Deer, the interim president of the Kahnawake Youth Forum, and a reporter at local newspaper, The Eastern Door.

    “As Indigenous people we’re constantly stereotyped. And that stereotype of savage is just one . . . that we’re constantly trying to fight.” […]

    “It’s hard when non-Natives, whether fashion designers or a sports team, are appropriating images and words that don’t represent us well. When our own people start to internalize that . . . that’s a prime example of the effects of those stereotypes,” she told the Star.

    Headrush did not respond to the Star’s request for comment.

    But in a company statement the Star obtained from The Eastern Door, Headrush said the word savage “is meant to describe oneʼs intensity and strength when achieving an athletic goal. In the (mixed martial arts) and training world, the term ʻsavageʼ is meant to describe that intensity of training.”

    The designs were “never meant to offend anyone,” the company continued. “We are a multi-cultural brand whose mission is to empower all people.”

    But the term savages has an “extremely racist” connotation, according to Marie-Pierre Bousquet, who heads the Indigenous studies program at Montreal University.

    The word, she said, was commonly used across the country until the 1970s to disparage First Nations peoples.

    “It goes back to a very evolutionist, and therefore racist, idea that Indigenous peoples, and First Nations peoples in general, are backwards and primitive people,” Bousquet told the Star.

    She said Indigenous peoples may want to re-appropriate the word, but that is an internal matter that concerns their communities directly.

  349. Tony! The Queer Shoop says

    From Raw Story–
    Video reveals Baltimore cops were looting during Freddie Gray protests:

    According to the Baltimore Sun, correction officers Tamika Cobb and Kendra Richard were suspended without pay after footage showed them exiting a local convenience store holding Slim Jims and Tostitos chips on April 25.

    That same day, riots broke out in the city after six hours of peaceful protests calling for charges to be filed against the officers who arrested Gray earlier that month. Six officers were later charged in connection wih Gray’s death.

    Both Cobb and Richard were assigned to corrections facilities downtown, near the site of the unrest. They face charges of burglary and theft, and bail was set for each of them at $35,000.

    Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Stephen T. Moyer said in a statement that authorities began investigating the two officers following a tip.

    “We will not allow the vast majority of our employees who are honest and hardworking to be tainted by the actions of a few,” he said.

    A separate sting operation led to Officer Maurice Lamar Jeffers being charged with theft of government property and “converting property of another” after allegedly stealing $3,000 that authorities left in a hotel room.

    The Sun reported that Jeffers, who is part of a fugitive task force, was told to help secure the room so that Prince George’s County police could execute a search warrant. He was then filmed putting the money in his pockets after his partner left the room to alert a supervisor that it was clear.

    After checking around, I found that Cobb and Richard are African-American. I’m not sure about Jeffers. I only mention this because I worry how the MSM will report on this (if they do at all) and the inevitable comments along the lines of “see, black people are uncivilized thugs; even black cops are”.

  350. says

    Jay Smooth: The problem with honoring Harriet Tubman on the $20. (video)

    In this installment of The Illipsis, Jay Smooth takes a hard look at the push to honor women’s contributions to society by putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. (Suck it Andrew Jackson!) While well-intentioned, our nation’s complicated history with slavery and the devaluation or black bodies taints the tribute. “What we are doing right now is honoring the work Harriet Tubman did to free us from slavery by putting her face on the reason we were in slavery,” he says, while raising a $20 bill to the camera. “The dollar is history’s measure of the distance between power and virtue, how far we will travel from our humanity in pursuit of this thing.”

  352. says

    Shouldn’t have hit submit so soon. Jay Smooth ends his video with some powerful points on how to properly honor Harriet Tubman. Sent chills down my spine.
    I think the [short] video is well worth watching.

  353. rq says

    Yeah, Tony, I mentioned the looting cops upthread, but I’ve been hesitant to post more on it, because of the race factor, and because they’re probably both at the most disadvantaged end of the employment spectrum, position-wise. So while it’s important to point out how law enforcement officers (off-duty) also participate in the looting, it’s also important to consider the entire context (the way the headlines are wrote for those stories, you’d think they were in full riot gear when they went into the store).
    Funny how little information about Jeffers is out there.

  354. says

    rq:
    Oops, I missed that you’d already posted about those cops. Like you, I was torn posting it. I opted to bc I trust that many (most?) of the people reading this are capable of considering the context of the situation (not saying you don’t have the same trust in them, just laying out my thoughts).

    ****
    From Fusion–
    Fixing the problem not the blame on racial and sexual assault:

    On Tuesday morning, Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough ran a segment on “The Hunting Ground,” a new documentary about rape culture on college campuses. The documentary focuses on 2012 sexual assault allegations made against Heisman Trophy-winning-quarterback and 2015 NFL Draft first pick Jameis Winston while he was enrolled at Florida State University.

    But after watching Brzezinski and Scarborough’s take, I was troubled about more than the subject matter.

    The segment began with Brzezinski, 48, saying she screened the film with her daughter, who’s heading off to college later this year. “I thought it could be something we could talk about,” she explained, echoing a sentiment shared by most parents sending their kids into a world that still needs films like “The Hunting Ground.”

    As the segment progressed, the film’s producer, Amy Ziering, and director, Kirby Dick, summarized their investigation, sharing thoughts on Winston’s guilt, and, more broadly, on the ways in which institutions systematically fail sexual assault victims.

    But the discussion wasn’t without speed bumps. Scarborough, for his part, said he was troubled by the way in which female FSU fans called Winston’s alleged assault victim awful names [like slut and whore.] “And it reminds us of after Ray Rice was found beating up his wife; you had women in Baltimore wearing a Ray Rice jersey immediately after,” he explained. Later, he turned to the camera and and implored audiences to take action. “If you have a daughter going to any college in America, you need to see The Hunting Ground,” he said. “Call your daughter, whatever college she’s at. Tell her to watch this.”

    No doubt Scarborough meant well, but it was hard not to notice a problematic, but common trend that emerged over the course of an almost-11-minute segment: a focus on the role of women in ending sexual assault. As formulated by Brzezinski and Scarborough, it is daughters who need to watch the film, women who need to quit name-calling other women, women who should to stop enabling rapists.

    I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Brzezinski or Scarborough actually think that women are ultimately responsible for their safety when it comes to sexual assault. But how we talk about sexual assault, collectively, matters. The fact that one in five women will experience a sexual assault in college is the most widely touted statistic on campus violence. Although that number is regularly disputed, other independent university surveys have released comparable numbers. Many of these surveys have helped amplify what women on campuses have been saying for years: that colleges and universities have been doing a terrible job creating a safe environment for women. It’s a shame that on top of having to endure that environment, women are being given more homework.

    Whatever the intent, discussing potential victims’ responsibility for their own safety while neglecting to address the people who are abusing or have the power to create real change is de facto blaming. Even if we can create a world where women diligently watch every film there is to watch about sexual assault, refrain from condemning women who allege sexual assault, abstain from wearing jerseys of known abusers, and answer every phone call from concerned parents, sexual assault will still take place if boys and men aren’t included in the conversation.

    In fact, continuing to collectively speak in a way that carelessly places responsibilities on the shoulders of the victimized actually makes it harder to reform the very spaces that films like “The Hunting Ground” reveal are failing our daughters. That’s because we tend to only address problems that we can articulate. Thus, when we consistently make potential victims responsible for their safety, we are funneling essential capital — time, focus, conversation, and ultimately money — away from addressing men who inflict damage.

    The burden reflexively placed on women when discussing sexual assault isn’t unique: It’s how most Americans treat all victimized and marginalized populations. A particular conversation that’s been taking place in black America for decades is good example. Almost every black male in America is familiar with “The Talk,” essentially a stern briefing that black parents give pre-teen black sons about what they have to do — and not do — in order to survive. The underlying idea is that, as a black male in America, one will always be under suspicion, and that type of attention, from a society that perpetually views black males as threatening and dangerous, makes one more likely to get arrested or killed. Black males don’t get the benefit of the doubt, and the burden is on them to manage their survival.

    In a way, “The Talk” is another example of burdens falling squarely on the shoulders of a victimized population in the face of institutional impotence, or even callous negligence.

    Institutions failing oft-victimized communities in America is all too common. But the reflexive response to further burden the victimized because, as a nation, we’ve been too lazy, or too indifferent, or too vested in investments deemed more valuable (e.g., football, institutional reputation) to share the responsibility for historically ignoring the brutality inflicted on large swaths of the population, is ludicrous. But the instinct to burden victims is just as problematic when it comes from well-intentioned members of society with desire to protect and preserve life. The macro concern about the ease with which so many casually cast the responsibility of avoiding harm on victimized demographics is that it broadens the pool of those complicit in misallocating responsibility for deplorable behavior, which makes solving problems even more difficult.

    Focusing on Brzezinski, Scarborough, and people who give “The Talk” — people who are, for the most part, on the side of institutional reform on these issues — may seem like a case of focusing on the wrong target, especially when hoards of victim-blamers and conservative advocates seem to be crouched behind every bush saying things like “let’s really ensure that the first thing a young boy sees in a girl is not her cleavage” or “the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman.”

    Is talking to daughters or black children about the realities of the world wrong? Of course not. But make no mistake, historically victimized populations are the most informed about the dangerous realities they face. But they need help, not more homework. As “The Hunting Ground” concludes, stopping assault is as much about understanding power as it is telling women to protect themselves.

    How we talk and who we talk to is an integral part of understanding and reforming power structures. Imagine a world where sexual assault documentaries are “must-sees” for sons, not just daughters, or a world where “The Reverse Talk” is given to white children as a way to begin understanding privilege in America.That kind of change is as much a key to institutional reform as legislative or policy reform. It’s actually probably more powerful. Language matters. Not only does it instruct us on where we really are; it also tells us where we need to go.

  355. rq says

    Two days’ worth of tabs (though mid-week, so not THAT much!) plus a weekend in the country coming up. There’s got to be a better way to keep this going.

    Poll: Most Americans supported charges against officers in Freddie Gray death

    In the days immediately following the announcement of charges against six Baltimore police officers in Freddie Gray’s death, a majority of Americans said they supported the decision, a poll found.

    Sixty-five percent of people polled said State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby made the “right decision” in charging the officers, according to the Pew Research Center.

    Mosby announced the charges May 1. Pew conducted the survey of 798 adults between May 1 and May 3.

    Opinions were split based upon both race and political affiliation – but the partisan divide was much sharper.

    Nearly 80 percent of blacks and 60 percent of whites said charging the officers was the right decision, the poll found.

    Seventy-five percent of Democrats, 71 percent of independents and 45 percent of Republicans supported the decision to charge.

    Pew also found “significant differences between Republicans and Democrats in their views of the factors behind the unrest in Baltimore.”

    For instance, nearly half of Democrats said poverty and lack of opportunities contributed a great deal to the unrest, compared to 30 percent of Republicans.

    The survey also explored public confidence in the investigation into Gray’s death and people’s opinion on news coverage of the Baltimore protests.

    Online fury over Boston University professor’s tweets on race

    Fury erupted this month over incoming Boston University sociology and African-American studies professor Saida Grundy’s tweets about white men, race and slavery.

    College student Nick Pappas wrote about Grundy’s tweets on his website SoCawlege.com a week ago with the headline “Boston University assistant professor Saida Grundy attacks whites, makes false statements on Twitter.”

    Pappas, who will be a senior at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst next school year, launched the site last fall, intending it as a conservative BuzzFeed-style website.

    Grundy, a sociologist who studies race, gender and class, received her doctorate last year from the University of Michigan’s joint program in sociology and women’s studies. She is to start work in a tenure-track position at Boston University — the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s alma mater — on July 1.

    Her personal Twitter account has since been made private, but the Boston Globe reported some of the tweets: “why is white america so reluctant to identify white college males as a problem population?” and “every MLK week i commit myself to not spending a dime in white-owned businesses. and every year i find it nearly impossible.”

    “Why are young white males a singled out issue to you Ms. Grundy, as opposed to all young males?” asked the SoCawlege article. “If you are going to work at Boston University you have to teach college aged white males eventually no?”

    And the Twitter fight was on.

    Twitter user @ClairelyParker wrote, “Okay to be a racist professor as long as you target the “white” race @BU_Tweets #BostonUniversity #SaidaGrundy SHAME ON YOU Boston U.” […]

    A few days after the debate went into overdrive, Grundy made a statement to the Boston Globe.

    “I regret that my personal passion about issues surrounding these events led me to speak about them indelicately,” she said in the statement. Issues of race “are uncomfortable for all of us, and, yet, the events we now witness with regularity in our nation tell us that we can no longer circumvent the problems of difference with strategies of silence.”

    Boston University President Robert Brown weighed in, defending Grundy’s right to express her opinions but expressing “concern and disappointment” about her tweets.

    “At Boston University, we acknowledge Dr. Grundy’s right to hold and express her opinions. Our community is composed of faculty, staff, and students who represent widely varying points of view on many sensitive issues,” Brown wrote on the school’s website.

    “At the same time, we fully appreciate why many have reacted so strongly to her statements,” he wrote. “Boston University does not condone racism or bigotry in any form, and we are committed to maintaining an educational environment that is free from bias, fully inclusive, and open to wide-ranging discussions. We are disappointed and concerned by statements that reduce individuals to stereotypes on the basis of a broad category such as sex, race, or ethnicity. I believe Dr. Grundy’s remarks fit this characterization.”

    Pappas, who is from the Boston area, told CNN via email that he was glad Grundy hadn’t been dismissed.

    “I am happy with how Boston University’s President reacted in his letter yesterday,” he wrote. “Firing Doctor Grundy would have been the wrong choice, since everyone has a right to be mean spirited or even hateful. We published the story to expose the bias and factual problems with modern humanities classes, which are many, and common at colleges across the country.”

    Efforts to contact Grundy for comment have not been successful.

    “Too often conversations about race quickly become inflamed and divisive,” Brown wrote in her Boston Globe statement. “We must resolve to find a vocabulary for these conversations that allows us to seek answers without intemperance, rancor, or unnecessary divisiveness.”

    As for Grundy, she says students will be able to discuss those issues “openly and honestly without risk of censure or penalty,” according to her statement to the Boston Globe.

    Noting that most students are already gone for the summer, university spokesman Colin Riley told CNN via email that the university plans more conversation around the issues raised by Grundy and her critics.

    As of fall 2014, Boston University’s full-time faculty was 2.8% black, 3.6% Hispanic and 1% multiracial, Riley said. The domestic student body was 4.7% black, 9.3% Hispanic and 3.4% multiracial.

    I hope she keeps speaking out and educating people.

    Ferguson names new interim city manager – yep, another one.

    The city of Ferguson has a new acting city manager.

    The city council on Tuesday named Matt Unrein to the position. He is the public works director and will continue at his current salary of $90,000 while the city seeks a permanent city manager.

    Unrein replaces interim manager Pam Hylton, who is taking a job with Richmond Heights.

    City Manager John Shaw was among several city officials who resigned in March following a scathing report by the U.S. Department of Justice over racial profiling among police and a profit-driven municipal court system. The report was spurred by the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson.

    The article ends with the stock FYI phrase that DW was cleared of any wrongdoing by a grand jury – a statement that still makes me slightly physically ill every time I read it

    Exactly How Often Do Police Shoot Unarmed Black Men?

    The killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, was no anomaly: As we reported yesterday, Brown is one of at least four unarmed black men who died at the hands of police in the last month alone. There are many more cases from years past. As Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Missouri chapter put it in a statement of condolence to Brown’s family, “Unarmed African-American men are shot and killed by police at an alarming rate. This pattern must stop.”

    But quantifying that pattern is difficult. Federal databases that track police use of force or arrest-related deaths paint only a partial picture. Police department data is scattered and fragmented. No agency appears to track the number of police shootings or killings of unarmed victims in a systematic, comprehensive way.

    Here’s some of what we do know:

    It’s actually an older article from August 15, 2014, but well worth a re-read. Not too much has changed.

    Police Shoot Hammer-Wielding Man Sought in 4 Manhattan Attacks. I still think they didn’t have to shoot him.

    Six months after shooting, Tamir Rice’s family has him cremated, Washington Post.

  356. says

    rq:

    I still think they didn’t have to shoot him.

    I agree. In fact, I just pointed this out to a few commenters over at Fusion who felt that the police were justified in using deadly force against the guy. It’s like people don’t realize that cops have weapons *other* than guns (and cops appear to forget this).

  357. rq says

    Tony
    It’s not that I don’t trust people here (I posted it), but it’s not the thing that needs to be focussed on by posting multiple links on the subject, like I might with other things. Because yeah, I posted it. Not going to dwell on it. :)

    +++

    Some tweets from the Minneapolis protest that ended with the 10-year-old being pepper-sprayed. Look through the photos and try to spot where the protestors got threatening enough to be pepper-sprayed. :P
    crowd gathering to show support for #TonyRobinson
    #MPLS2Madison

    Fearless elderly woman in wheelchair kept blocking traffic at #TonyRobinson protest. Cop was not pleased.

    #YGB kept track of arrests and say roughly 30 people were willingly arrested in the name of justice

    Car tried to run thru us again so we shut down the lightrail #BlackLivesMatter #MPLS2Madison #TonyRobinson

    This is 10 y/o Taye before he was maced and this is him after #MPLS2Madison #TonyRobinson @MPD_PIO #BlackLivesMatter

    Cats are skatin in the middle of the street with upside down american flags #MPLS2Madison
    (more)

  358. rq says

    ‘We don’t die, we multiply’ #MPLS2Madison #BlackLivesMatter #BlackSpring #TonyRobinson

    Cop threw the pepper spray can at Miski, this is the first time we’ve been maced durin an action in mpls #TonyRobinson #MPLS2Madison

    The young black women that joined us are leading & turning up the whole crowd. #MPLS2Madison

    And now @MPD_PIO just maced a group of teenagers on the sidewalk, man kids are screaming holdin their faces #MPLS2Madison #TonyRobinson

    Cops reportedly macing kids in #Minneapolis at #MPLS2Madison #Justice4Tony solidarity demo right now
    p/v @blklibmn

    They maced a woman with an infant #MPLS2Madison #TonyRobinson #BlackLivesMatter @MPD_PIO

  359. rq says

    #TonyRobinson protesters unlocked from chains in front of door to jail, protest winds down

    Mentioned above in a tweet, here’s an article: Kentucky sheriff glad shooting victim was white: ‘We do not want any backlash or violence’. Hint, white people.

    The sheriff of Nelson County, Kentucky expressed relief that a 25-year-old man shot by one of his deputies was white during a press conference on Monday, suggesting that black protesters would become violent because they were misinformed by the media.

    In remarks posted online by the Nelson County Gazette, Sheriff Ed Mattingly said both he and Bardstown Police Chief Rick McCubbin “took notice of previous cases” before holding a joint press conference with state police.

    “We are glad that he is white, and we shouldn’t have to be worried about that,” Mattingly said. “We do not want any backlash or violence in this community because people have been misinformed.”

    Mattingly was responding to a question regarding the potential for community backlash following the shooting of John Kennedy Fenwick on Sunday morning.

    “The media has not done a very good job of informing the public, and the public is not educated on how the system actually works,” he said. “We don’t want those type of troubles in our community.”

    McCubbin said that local police first encountered McCubbin around 9 a.m. on Sunday when he yelled at an officer while driving a pickup he allegedly stole from a local dealership. When the officer tried to pull Fenwick over, Fenwick backed the truck into the patrol car and fled the scene.

    Fenwick then allegedly hit another patrol car belonging to a deputy, causing it to burst into flames, before driving off. A second deputy, Bryan Voils, managed to catch up to Fenwick and ordered him to get out of the truck at gunpoint. However, authorities said, Fenwick tried to disarm Voils, prompting Voils to shoot him. WHAS-TV reported that Fenwick was hospitalized and was listed in serious condition.

    Mattingly said that both he and McCubbin opted to hand the investigation off to the state police for the sake of transparency.

    Kennesaw State University. @IamKB_ waits to meet with his advisor. America.

    #ItsBiggerThanKSU – 30 seconds of video at the link, watch it. …

    And the Minneapolis Police Chief @ChiefHarteau has noted an investigation re: policing at #MPLS2Madison.

    TNT Principal Released Following Racial Remarks at Graduation

    The principal who made racially charged comments during the TNT Academy’s graduation ceremony has been let go from the school.

    Dr. Francys Johnson, Civil Rights Attorney and State President of the Georgia NAACP, confirmed the news about TNT’s founder Nancy Gordeuk.

    Gordeuk had just finished handing out diplomas on May 8 when things went awry. Gordeuk forgot to introduce the valedictorian. When he started speaking, some audience members began to leave and that was when the principal made her most controversial remark.

    “Look who’s leaving all the black people,” Gordeuk says.

    The video of the remarks went viral and set off a firestorm of controversy.

    The crowd erupted; voiced displeasure and most people appeared to leave.

    In an interview with Channel 2’s Jessica Jaglois, Gordeuk tried to explain her remarks.

    “So I introduced him, he started speaking, then a man, he was black, came across carrying his tablet back and forth filming the students in front,” Gordeuk said.

    She said he was being disruptive so she called security and people began to leave.

    “Who I saw leaving were black people so that’s where the statement came from, ‘look who’s leaving, all the black people,’” Gordeuk told Jaglois.

    Video exclusively obtained by Channel 2 Action News showed one woman defending the school leader.

    “This lady has spent countless hours, weeks, months and years. She’s done a lot for our children when the public school system rejected our system,” she said. “She was gravely disrespected.”

    Nike’s Law Enforcement Appreciation Day triggers calls for boycott I think I have some more twitter commentary on this later, but I’m not certain.

    Sneaker and sportswear giant Nike and their subsidiary company Converse had their second annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day on May 13. Police officers all over the country were able to receive 30% off their purchases at the companies’ retail stores. All the officers had to do was flash their badges at the register. According to a flyer circulating on social media, the initiative was part of National Police Week.

    There is nothing new about companies offering discounts to military and law enforcement. Multi-billion dollar corporations and mom and pop stores alike have been offering freebies and discounts to the boys in blue (and camouflage) for ages. However, some were disturbed by the timing of this celebration.

    Perhaps at no other point in American history has police violence against black people been more discussed, debated and analyzed on all of the major networks, newspapers and magazines, not to mention dinner tables. Thanks to social media, this critical national conversation about race and law enforcement has many more participants today than it did 50 years ago.

    Activist DeRay McKesson posted the image of the discount flyer and tweeted, “The police have killed 420 people in 2015. America.” The hashtag #BoycottNike became a trending topic, with some calling on athletes who have lucrative endorsement deals with Nike and Converse to take a stand on the issue. One Twitter user asked if Nike would also offer 30% off to victims of unjust police violence. Others wondered how much Nike has reinvested in the black community since so many of its customers are young black people.

    But not everyone was on board with a boycott of the footwear giant. Critics of #BoycottNike saw nothing wrong with giving police officers discounts. After all, the majority of police officers are hard-working and honest people who should be thanked for their service.

    Another faction of Twitterers were annoyed by the call for a boycott now after some groups have been advocating for a Nike boycott for years due to human rights violations at international manufacturing facilities referred to as sweatshops. Nike has previously admitted to the use of child labor (though it said it did so by “accident”) and vowed to not allow the practice to happen again.

    The social media accounts of both Nike and Converse are silent about the criticism, and none of the public accounts even have the flyer posted as of the publication of this article. A call made to a Nike store in Manhattan confirmed that May 13 was in fact Law Enforcement Appreciation Day at Nike and Converse stores and officers were able to receive 30% off of their purchases.

    They have since attempted an apology. Which is kind of a notpology.

  360. rq says

    Here’s something eductional:
    This piece by Desmond & Emirbayer is helpful in illuminating the misguided way that race is understood in the U.S. There are five fallacies:
    1) Individualistic Fallacy: Racism is perceived as only being interpersonal, ignores systemic, structural realities (ie underfunded schools);
    2) Legalistic Fallacy: assumes that abolishing racist laws automatically leads to the abolition of racism in practice (ie Brown v Board).
    3) Tokenistic Fallacy: assumes that the presence of POC in influential positions is evidence of the eradication of racism (ie Oprah, Obama).
    4) Ahistorical Fallacy: believes the period when basic rights were not extended to POC is inconsequential today. (ie “but slavery is over”).
    5) Fixed Fallacy: denies that racism assumes different forms in different historical moments (ie “prisons have nothing to do with race”).
    Must learn to identify these and counter them.

  361. says

    rq @360:
    I really, really appreciate those Tweets. Wow. Those fallacies. I went looking for the original work by Desmond & Emirbayer and while I’ve not found anything as such (yet), I did stumble upon a book by the two at Amazon-
    Racial Domination, Racial Progress: The Sociology of Race in America.

    Racial Domination, Racial Progress: The Sociology of Race in America looks at race in a clear and accessible way, allowing students to understand how racial domination and progress work in all aspects of society. Examining how race is not a matter of separate entities but of systems of social relations, this text unpacks how race works in the political, economic, residential, legal, educational, aesthetic, associational, and intimate fields of social life. Racial Domination, Racial Progress is a work of uncompromising intersectionality, which refuses to artificially separate race and ethnicity from class and gender, while, at the same time, never losing sight of race as its primary focus. The authors seek to connect with their readers in a way that combines disciplined reasoning with a sense of engagement and passion, conveying sophisticated ideas in a clear and compelling fashion.

    I want this book.

    I also found an academic paper from them-
    What is racial domination?
    Ah, this is the paper where they lay out the 5 fallacies. It’s a pdf, so I can’t quote anything from it, but at roughly 16 pages it isn’t terribly long.

    And here’s another book from them-
    The Racial Order

    Proceeding from the bold and provocative claim that there never has been a comprehensive and systematic theory of race, Mustafa Emirbayer and Matthew Desmond set out to reformulate how we think about this most difficult of topics in American life. In The Racial Order, they draw on Bourdieu, Durkheim, and Dewey to present a new theoretical framework for race scholarship. Animated by a deep and reflexive intelligence, the book engages the large and important issues of social theory today and, along the way, offers piercing insights into how race actually works in America. Emirbayer and Desmond set out to examine how the racial order is structured, how it is reproduced and sometimes transformed, and how it penetrates into the innermost reaches of our racialized selves. They also consider how—and toward what end—the racial order might be reconstructed.
    In the end, this project is not merely about race; it is a theoretical reconsideration of the fundamental problems of order, agency, power, and social justice. The Racial Order is a challenging work of social theory, institutional and cultural analysis, and normative inquiry.

  362. rq says

    Baltimore teen hit with $500,000 bail: ‘It hurt’ to see Freddie Gray videos

    A teen who faced a $500,000 bail after turning himself in to face misdemeanor charges for rioting in Baltimore last month spoke out about the death of Freddie Gray on Tuesday, saying he was still supportive of protests in the city but that “not all police” are to blame for Gray’s death.

    Allen Bullock, joined by his family and attorney J Wyndal Gordon, spoke softly on Tuesday as he told reporters that he knew Gray, and that “it hurt” to see videos of the 25-year-old’s detainment by Baltimore police officers shortly before he suffered fatal injuries in police custody.

    “It wasn’t that he died, it was how he died,” Bullock said. […]

    Bullock, 18, a maintenance laborer employed through Baltimore City’s YouthWorks, joined protests after Gray’s death, where he was recorded smashing a police car with a traffic cone. He turned himself in on 27 April, encouraged by his parents, to face misdemeanor charges, and was hit with a $500,000 bail.

    He was held for 10 days in a Baltimore jail until someone anonymously posted his bail through a bondsman. Neither Bullock and his family nor Gordon seem to know who provided the minimum $50,000 required to make this bail, although they do acknowledge contributions made through crowdfunding efforts.

    Bobbie Smallwood, Bullock’s mother, expressed frustration with the high bail placed on her son, considering that the bail amounts for the six officers charged with involvement in Freddie Gray’s death ranged from $250,000 to $350,000.

    “I thought [the bail amount] was a joke,” Smallwood said of her reaction upon hearing the amount for which her son was held. “Busting out two windows is more important than a life?” […]

    When asked who they blamed for all of this behavior, from the riots to the alleged harassment of their family, Hawkins said: “Blame the people who killed Freddie Gray.”

    While much emphasis has been placed on a brief period of rioting and looting, in between weeks of community organizing efforts that have included peaceful rallies, food drives and programming for children, Gordon noted: “The last few weeks have exposed the underbelly of our criminal justice system in a major way.”

    Thank you, kind anonymous person.

    [Maryland] approves $30 million youth jail, but oh no, there’s no money for education (we’ve spent it all on a jail, see…).

    State officials approved plans Wednesday to build a $30 million, 60-bed jail to house Baltimore teenagers charged as adults, a step to address years of concern about the practice of housing young city defendants alongside adults.

    The U.S. Justice Department has said the state-run Baltimore City Detention Center has been violating the law by keeping the youths in the same facility as grown-ups, where teens often are secluded and do not receive school or other services while incarcerated.

    The contract to renovate an existing pretrial facility on North Forrest Street near the detention center represents a compromise to an earlier proposal to build a much bigger youth jail in the city.

    The Board of Public Works unanimously approved the deal without discussion on Wednesday, a marked shift from the debates that consumed plans to build a $70 million youth jail twice as large two years ago.

    Advocates say they hope plummeting populations of young offenders charged as adults and changes in state law will eventually render the $30 million project obsolete.

    “It’s definitely not we want,” said Kara Aanenson, director of advocacy at Community Law In Action, a Baltimore nonprofit that works on juvenile justice issues. “We’re really hopeful that will be able to change the law and we won’t need to use it for this population.”

    Gov. Larry Hogan signed a law Tuesday that advocates say would funnel a lot more children charged as adults to juvenile justice facilities, which are generally smaller than jails and provide schooling and counseling.

    Jesus, it was approved without any discussion.

    Duke professor, Jerry Hough, says blacks have “strange new names” and don’t desire integration via @ebonithoughts You have to read the attached comment text to believe it.

    More on the Toronto police practice of carding, Police carding: racist, anti-black, and useless

    A new coalition called the Anti-Black Racism Network (ABRN) held a press conference at the Ryerson Student Centre Wednesday morning to blast police carding and the civic leaders who support it — namely, Mayor John Tory, Toronto Police Services Board Chair Alok Mukherjee, and new Police Chief Mark Saunders.

    Carding, if you’ve somehow missed it, is the police practice of arbitrarily stopping, questioning, and documenting a person — then entering their information into a database — to which young black men are disproportionately subjected.

    The ABRN argues that the exercise is racist not only in practice but in theory. Especially in the absence of any evidence to support carding’s ostensible public safety objective, it can only be viewed as the latest manifestation of a centuries-old legacy of colonial efforts to put black people in their place.

    Below, we’ve transcribed (and edited and condensed) excerpts from the statements delivered by each of the press conference’s five participants.

    Minneapolis Police Pepper Spray a 10yr Old at Tony Robinson Solidarity March , the article on that from Revolution News.

    People gathered at Hennepin County Government Center Plaza to hold a solidarity rally & protest for 19yr old Tony Robinson who was shot and killed by police. It was announced yesterday that charges would not be brought against the officer who killed Tony Robinson, sparking today’s event.

    People held a peaceful rally at the park, speaking about the injustices on the black community and remembering loved ones lost to police violence before beginning on a march that also went along peacefully for hours. […]

    We spoke with Susan Montgomery the mother of 10yr old Dyvonte (Taye) to ask her what happened. Do you know why the police sprayed the first time? Was there any warning given or command to leave the road?

    I personally do not. I heard nothing. I was standing a few feet from him. I saw a car that was not fully stopped, so I think some protestors were upset, rightfully so. They started getting close to his car to check him out, we all were looking back to see. While trying to move on I called my son’s name, and said come on, but there was so much commotion. Within seconds. A squad car comes rushing in with sirens. An officer just starts spraying. My son was already trying to run but people were running into him and he got sprayed so he could not see. He was screaming bloody murder.

    He was worried that he could not find me. I was trying to than get him far from the crowd, and other activists helped me gather close to him. After we saw the police were not backing down & how many more people were hit, someone carried him into the hotel for me. We found milk 4 his eyes.

    How is he doing now?

    He is doing a lot better. He cried for some time. Was asking “why did they do this to me mom and why do the police hate us and what did I do wrong?” I just said, you didn’t do anything. You are a warrior. You fight for justice. You want change and you demonstrated peacefully. His eyes are swollen a bit, very bloodshot, cant get to sleep yet because his face is on fire he says. I want to say or hope the officer “didn’t see him”, but if it is the cop I am thinking of, he saw my son several times.

    What gets me is,(earlier) there was a group burning 2 or 3 flags in front of the police precinct. Not one cop did crap. In fact some of them laughed, smoked cigs and video taped on cell phones. P.S. I did not let my son partake in that motion, we stood back on the sidewalk for that part.
    Non the less, we go back to marching and around the corner we are near a fancy hotel, traffic, stores and cop wants to show out now?

    More at the link.

    Now This Is Dope And Deep – see photos.

  363. says

    From Racialicious–
    The hollow promise of “Inclusivity”: Saida Grundy and Boston University:
    (long article, so I’m only posting an excerpt, but it’s worth reading in full)

    It’s hard out there for white men on college campuses. At least, that’s what American media would have us believe, given its coverage of the current controversy swirling around Dr. Saida Grundy, a Black scholar recently hired (effective July 1, 2015) by Boston University as an assistant professor of Sociology and African American Studies.What do you think?

    In reality, the way in which Dr. Grundy has been unceremoniously shoved into the spotlight proves the exact opposite: Black women on our campuses, even those who have reached the highest levels of educational achievement, are political and cultural targets simply for existing. There is no other explanation for the fact that this all began with a white man whose response to Grundy’s hiring was to go in search of something he could use to undermine her intellectual and professional standing.What do you think?

    What do you think?Nick Pappas is a conservative student activist at University of Massachusetts Amherst (for those who aren’t familiar with my home state’s geography, that’s basically on the other side of the state from Boston). Pappas apparently saw BU’s hiring of Grundy as enough cause for concern that he decided to dig through her Twitter account. He then published some of her tweets online—taken out of their original context—to “expose the bias and factual problems with modern humanities classes, which are many, and common at colleges across the country.”

    A sampling of what Pappas saw as evidence of Grundy’s “bias”:What do you think?

    Why is white America so reluctant to identify white college males as a problem population?What do you think?

    Deal with your white shit, white people. slavery is a *YALL* thing.What do you think?

    Every MLK week I commit myself to not spending a dime in white-owned businesses. And every year I find it nearly impossible.What do you think?

    White masculinity isn’t a problem for america’s colleges, white masculinity is THE problem for america’s colleges.What do you think?

    The rest is predictable: conservative media picked up Pappas’ post and ran with it, lambasting her as “anti-white,” “anti-male,” a “major-league-twit…[and] a certified, dyed-in-the-wool, four-square, in-your-face racist.” BU’s initial response to all this was tepid support—”free speech,” etc. etc. In the last few days though, the school has seemed increasingly spooked by the furor. BU issued two statements in rapid succession—one of them from university president Robert A. Brown—essentially validating right wing smears of Grundy as “racist.”What do you think?

    Long story short, BU threw Dr. Grundy under the bus in a scramble to prove that it is an “inclusive” institution that “does not condone racism or bigotry in any form.” The irony.What do you think?

    As for Grundy, these smears and the ensuing online attacks on her have forced her to make her Twitter account private. She has also released a statement expressing regret for “depriv[ing]” the issues she raised in her tweets “of the nuance and complexity that such subjects always deserve,” and assuring the BU community that she is ”professionally and ethically…unequivocally committed to ensuring that my classroom is a space where all students are welcomed.”

    On the plus side: Grundy has gotten a wave of support online. #ISupportSaida and #IStandWithSaida have taken off on Twitter, and there’s a petition urging BU to stand behind her. There have also been several articles published in her defense.What do you think?

    It also looks like this controversy won’t cost Grundy the job she hasn’t even started yet, which, frankly, is a relief. It wouldn’t be the first time a scholar of color was denied a professional opportunity because of their inconvenient politics. Still, you can bet that Grundy will be under intense scrutiny and suspicion at BU, even beyond the already high levels that Black women academics routinely face.What do you think?

    Grundy earned her doctorate only last year; her job at BU would be her first appointment as a professor. Now, some might question the wisdom of posting the comments she did, in public, as a Black woman just starting her academic career. But so long as we recognize that white supremacy, patriarchy, and systemic racism are real forces in the world, the worst we can say of Grundy’s comments is that they were impolitic and arguably ill-advised.What do you think?

    It’s certainly the case that she didn’t use the often abstracted, punch-pulling language of academia. But it’s also the case that there’s a wide and deep body of scholarship that says exactly what Grundy said—white masculinity is a major source of societal dysfunction and violence—only more formally.What do you think?

    It’s also a mystery what is so “offensive” about a Black woman to choosing to exclusively support businesses owned by people of color, much less to do so for only one week out of the year. If only people were as scandalized by the fact that systemic racism makes building wealth and owning businesses a herculean task for many POC.What do you think?

    That’s not the world we live in. In this world, intentionally supporting POC businesses is “racist”; a system that entrenches whole communities of color in poverty is not. To add insult to injury, BU’s leaders have now signaled to students, staff, faculty, and the entire country that this perverse redefinition of “racism” is correct.

  365. rq says

    Raven Symone on Harriet Tubman potentially being chosen to be on the $20 bill. 2015. A… different opinion.

    Nike & Converse Called Out By #BlackLivesMatter Movement For #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay Promotion

    Both Nike and Converse have been taken to task on social media by highly visible members of the #BlackLivesMatter movement today, for a new promotion built around the idea and hashtag #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay. At stores across the nation, law enforcement officers are being encouraged to show their badge or ID card to redeem a 30 percent discount on their purchases, a promotion announced by the Nike apparel company (Converse is a subsidiary of Nike Inc.) in a circulated advertisement that reads in part:

    “To show our support and appreciation for the officers who keep our communities safe and support our stores and outreach initiatives, Nike is excited to announce our second annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day…We thank you for your service to our communities and look forward to your patronage.”

    Consequently, the promotion and the corporate sneaker giant behind it have been lambasted on twitter by noteworthy activists including Deray Mckesson, who posted both advertisement images to his personal account and remarked, “The police have killed 420 people in 2015. America.” Other voices within the Black Lives Matter movement were quick to echo Mckesson’s sentiments, expressing disappointment and disgust. […]

    Ferrari Sheppard has even gone as far as to put out an open call for original Anti-Nike poster art centered on the phrase #DontDoIt (aspiring guerrilla advertisers, tweet your work directly @StopBeingFamous. Sheppard has stated that the most compelling images will be shared at 5pm EST tomorrow, May 14th.)

    As the nation continues to reel in the wake of high-profile police killings of unarmed, uncharged suspects including Baltimore’s Freddie Gray and evidence emerges that police killings have risen nationwide, Nike’s timing could not have been worse, especially amongst its key demographic of black youth customers. Several would-be customers have commented that company will no longer receive their business. At the very least, the #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay sale shows a basic-level deafness to America’s current social discussion and clumsy marketing on Nike’s part, no matter what its intentions.

    It also makes plain Nike’s ignorance of recent and painful history. Today’s pro-cop sale falls on the 30 year anniversary of the MOVE bombings in Philadelphia–a standoff between city police and Black Liberation activists that ended in two bombs being dropped on a row house from helicopters. The resulting explosion caused a massive fire, one in which 65 homes were destroyed and 11 people were killed–collateral damage of police-sanctioned violence. Five children were amongst the dead, and those that ordered the police bombing were ultimately never charged. The 1985 MOVE bombing was extensively documented in the 2013 film Let The Fire Burn–essential viewing for those anyone who wants to understand how we arrived at the current climate of paramilitary policing–and the corresponding necessity of stating that #BlackLivesMatter.

    Given Nike’s massive sneaker market share (and the Law Enforcement Appreciation Day promotion’s relatively low profile), it’s fair to presume that the company will continue to reap massive profits and enjoy a revered public image–thanks in no small part to President Obama‘s recent touting of the company as a global trade success story. We, however, may well be sitting out the next Jordan launch. Hell, Jordan may be sitting out the next Jordan launch, unless cooler heads prevail at Nike, and quickly. We know Air Force Ones are made for dunking. Let’s see how they look while walking it back.

    So did Nike walk it back?
    Heh. Right.
    And @Nike has responded re: #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay. Basically, Nike has always had discounts for first responders since 9/11, they never meant to offend anyone, they are not insensitive to today’s issues between law enforcement and the black community, they support positive change. Eh.
    Yet, @Nike didn’t offer a discount for people impacted by state violence, they chose to support police.
    #DontDoIt

    Boy struck by police cruiser in Hampden

    A 12-year-old boy was in critical condition at an area hospital Thursday evening after being struck by a police cruiser in Hampden, Baltimore police said.

    The incident occurred at 4:15 p.m. in the 3800 block of Falls Rd., as the officer driving the cruiser was headed to a call two blocks away. The cruiser was headed south, without its lights and sirens on, when the boy walked in front of the vehicle, according to a police spokeswoman.

    Police said the boy had tried unsuccessfully to enter a business on the east side of the street and was hit while crossing the street to join a group of people walking on the west sidewalk.

    The officer was not injured. Neither he nor the boy were identified. Detectives from the Accident Investigation Unit were investigating.

    Just a thing that police do, run over people while on the way to a call.

  366. rq says

    State’s attorney’s office hits back at defense in Gray case

    Prosecutors responded Thursday to the request by lawyers for the police officers accused in the Freddie Gray case that State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby be removed from the proceedings, calling their arguments “illogical, unsupported, frivolous, and unprecedented.”

    Lawyers for the six officers charged by Mosby have asked a judge to dismiss the case or recuse Mosby over what they say are conflicts of interest. They are seeking an expedited hearing on their request.

    In a response filed Thursday, Mosby’s deputy called the “emergency” filings “increasingly desperate efforts to hijack the grand jury process” and an “an ’emergency’ of their own making.”

    Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow said the state is allowed 30 days to respond to the defense motions, and noted that the six officers charged in the case are all free on bail.

    “The facts asserted by the plaintiffs in support of the relief requested are of little moment, and their arguments are illogical, unsupported, frivolous, and unprecedented, [but] the relief that they seek is serious indeed,” Schatzow wrote. “To the extent that a substantive response is ultimately required to their complaint, more time and care must be devoted to that response than 48 hours would allow.”

    A judge is expected to rule on the motions at a later date. The next step in the case is expected to be a grand jury indictment, which defense attorneys believe could occur within the next two weeks. A preliminary district court hearing for the officers is tentatively scheduled for May 27.

    Also Thursday, police classified Gray’s death as a homicide. […]

    Mosby has dismissed the allegations of conflicts of interest. She told The Baltimore Sun this month that Murphy never represented her. She acknowledged receiving a campaign donation from Murphy but noted that she also received money from the Fraternal Order of Police, which has denounced the charges.

    Police added Gray’s death to their list of city homicides Thursday, nearly two weeks after Mosby filed charges.

    Cases normally are added to the list after prosecutors provide autopsy results from the state medical examiner. But in Gray’s case, police have not received autopsy information beyond details shared by Mosby when she announced the charges against the officers at a news conference May 1.

    Mosby said “the manner of death deemed a homicide by the State Medical Examiner is believed to be the result of a fatal injury that occurred while Mr. Gray was unrestrained by a seatbelt in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department wagon.”

    A spokesman for the medical examiner’s office said state law requires only that the office to deliver autopsy information to prosecutors.

    “As a matter of courtesy, it used to be provided to the police as well,” spokesman Bruce Goldfarb said. But the practice stopped in recent years, he said, out of concern that autopsy information was being circulated too widely.

    The medical examiner now provides two copies of an autopsy to the state’s attorney’s office, one with a letter that says prosecutors “may provide this to law enforcement at your discretion when you feel it’s appropriate,” Goldfarb said.

    Police spokesman Capt. Eric Kowalczyk said police have not received the autopsy findings on the manner of Gray’s death. But after receiving inquiries from The Sun, they added the case based on the criminal charges.

    Every time I’m in Wisconsin I think about these two articles “Worst States for Black People”, link to this article and this article within, both repeats for here, but hey, take another look!

    Upthread I posted a short video of a woman telling a black student that she willcall the cops on him because his waiitng for his advisor to be free to consult constitutes harrassment (comment 359, and she is as ridiculous as this sounds, writing it out). Anyway, here’s more:
    That’s everything that led up to it . #ItsBiggerThanKSU – basically, student goes to see his advisor without an actual appointment because she keeps cancelling appointments, and sitting in the waiting room constitutes harrassment. WOo! Oh and then the head of the department told him he wasn’t allowed to wait without an appointment, and Student comments that advisors are supposed to meet with students, so department head… tells him to go to a school where the advisors do their jobs. o.o
    Set aside everything else. That video is a campus employee calling the cops on a black man because she’s annoyed by him. #ItsBiggerThanKSU
    And that basically sums it up.

    Also, belatedly, Tony @361, thank you for following up on those two authors!!! I opened the article, and boy, it’s going to be awesome though informatively slow reading.

  367. rq says

    US cited for police violence, racism in scathing UN review on human rights

    The United States was slammed over its rights record Monday at the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, with member nations criticizing the country for police violence and racial discrimination, the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility and the continued use of the death penalty.

    The issue of racism and police brutality dominated the discussion on Monday during the country’s second universal periodic review (UPR). Country after country recommended that the U.S. strengthen legislation and expand training to eliminate racism and excessive use of force by law enforcement.

    “I’m not surprised that the world’s eyes are focused on police issues in the U.S.,” said Alba Morales, who investigates the U.S. criminal justice system at Human Rights Watch.

    “There is an international spotlight that’s been shone [on the issues], in large part due to the events in Ferguson and the disproportionate police response to even peaceful protesters,” she said.

    Anticipating the comments to come, James Cadogan, a senior counselor to the U.S. assistant attorney general, told delegates gathered in Geneva, “The tragic deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Michael Brown in Missouri, Eric Garner in New York, Tamir Rice in Ohio and Walter Scott in South Carolina have renewed a long-standing and critical national debate about the even-handed administration of justice. These events challenge us to do better and to work harder for progress — through both dialogue and action.”

    All of the names he mentioned are black men or boys who were killed by police officers or died shortly after being arrested. The events have sparked widespread anger and unrest over the past year.

    Cadogan added that the Department of Justice has opened more than 20 investigations in the last six years — including an investigation into the Baltimore Police Department — as well as the release of a report of the Presidential Task Force on 21st Century Policing in March, which included more than 60 recommendations.

    But advocates like Morales say the U.S. could do much more.

    “Use of excessive force by police was a major part of this year’s UPR, and the fact that we still don’t have a reliable national figure to know how many people are killed by police or what the racial breakdown is of those people is a travesty,” she said. “A nation as advanced as the U.S. should be able to gather that number.”

    The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.

    Although the problems are not new, the death of young men like Gray and Brown and the unrest that followed their killings in U.S. cities over the past year has attracted the attention — and criticism — of the international community.

    “Chad considers the United States of America to be a country of freedom, but recent events targeting black sectors of society have tarnished its image,” said Awada Angui of the U.N. delegation to Chad.

    The U.S. responded to questions and recommendations from 117 countries during a three-and-a-half-hour session in Geneva on Monday morning, with the high level of participation leaving each country just 65 seconds to speak.

    But they all had a word! Whoa.

    Poverty, Jail, Media Harassment: The Worst Year of This Mother’s Life , by Shanesha Taylor. Prepare for heartbreak.

    2014 was the most traumatic year of my life. I was tested mentally, physically and emotionally. The year began as the previous year had ended. My unemployment benefits had run out. My endless job search was yielding nothing promising. But I kept persevering. I was the mother of three beautiful children who needed me.

    They did not know our struggle, even though they lived in the midst of it. We lived from place to place, taking advantage of the generosity of friends and family. I made sure my children slept under a roof every night. I did not always have that same fortune. But that was okay. My primary task was to take care of them. It was a cycle of poverty I was determined to break.

    As mothers, especially single mothers, we often tend to suffer in silence, shouldering the burden of care for our young, doing all we can to provide, crying at night for the things we feel we should provide but cannot. We do this only to dry those tears in the morning and go back out in the world with our heads high and shoulders back. We are determined, every day, to make the world a better place for our children.

    My chance in a lifetime came in mid-March 2014. I was invited to interview with a reputable insurance company that promised a salary guaranteed to end our struggle. I’d also been approved for Section 8 housing. It had been a four-year wait, and it came not a moment too soon. I was told by the person living in the home where the children had been sleeping most recently that their finances had become so strained they needed to move within 30 days. I was facing my own financial worries: I was bringing in less than $50 a week at that time, just enough for gas and diapers. I could do little to help them out. My daughter would ask me every week if she would ever have her own room again. I would reply, “Very soon.” That was my job as their provider: to make sure they had enough. It may not have been the best, but they always had enough.

    I prepared the entire week of March 20 to be ready for my interview. I picked out the perfect business casual outfit. I borrowed a pair of black pumps. I collected cans and babysat all week to make sure I had the gas money to make it there and back. I made arrangements for my sons. I even spoke to the babysitter the day before to confirm my arrangements. That interview meant a new life for us. I called the recruiter a few days before the interview also to inquire how long the interview would take. I wanted to make sure my babysitting arrangements would be enough to cover the time. I was told the interview would take about 15 minutes. In my mind, I had 15 minutes to change our lives.

    On that fateful day, my babysitter was nowhere to be found. No answer to my calls. No answer at her door. I was devastated. What would I do now? The interview of a lifetime was on the line. And I had no babysitter. I drove in a daze across town to the interview, trying to come up with a fabulous story I could tell my interviewer in order to allow me to reschedule. My two boys were sound asleep in the back seat.

    I arrived at the location completely beside myself. I needed this job. We needed this job. We needed this chance. Something had to change! Something had to give! We were at the end of our rope and I was not sure how much longer I could hold us together.

    My mind flashed to the recruiter saying the interview would take 15 minutes. My boys were still quietly napping. I sat in the car with them for an additional 25 minutes trying to compel myself to do something, anything. But what? We needed this job. I looked to the backseat, thinking, “They need me to get this job. They deserve this job and all it will mean for us.” I exited the car. I had to make this the best 15 minutes of my life – and the clock had just started.

    When I exited the interview I was on cloud nine. I had sold myself to the best of my abilities and walked out with the job.

    All that changed in a matter of 130 steps. I rushed back to the parking lot to find my car doors wide open and the area surrounded by police. My children had been taken to the hospital. I was arrested for two counts of child abuse for leaving my boys in the car alone. The boys were released the same day with no injuries by the hospital. Records show they were administered juice and grahams crackers, and their body temperatures had rose to 99.3 degrees. I was put in jail for 10 days with no hope of getting out. My bond had been set at $9,000. For me, that was an astronomical amount; I did not have $1 to my name. […]

    However, while I was incarcerated, unbeknownst to me, my world was changing. A Good Samaritan in New Jersey saw my story and started an online fundraiser that went viral. Thousands of people donated more than $114,000 to help us. My name and story had become a nightly headline on news stations around the world. Another Good Samaritan in Arizona rallied her church to come to my aid and post my bail. I was released on my 11th day in jail. I thought the worst of it was behind me.

    Instead, it turned out, I was just beginning my fight against the State of Arizona for my freedom and to regain custody of my children. The media inquiries were pouring in. Local reporters were beating down the door, all promising their coverage would help with my online fundraiser. I received hundreds of emails, cards and letters from supporters empathetic to my situation. It was all so overwhelming to go from a quiet struggle to the center of a world debate over whether my actions were right or wrong.

    This rosy time didn’t last for long. I went from being portrayed as the face of the poor to being portrayed as one of the worst mothers in the United States in a matter of months. What I thought were funds donated to re-establish my family became a point of contention. False media reports alleged the funds were used for rap albums, spent on designer clothes and bags, and wasted on trips to the nail salon and hairdresser. Some allegations claimed a majority of the funds were used for drugs, even though I’d completed eight months of random drug screens with all tests being confirmed as negative for any usage. I’d even provided a hair follicle test to prove that six months prior to the incident there was no drug usage. […]

    I’ve been asked, again and again, how I spent the money donated to my family. While I find the question belittling, I will answer it. As a mother, my first obligation is to provide for my children, and the funds were used to do that. I paid past due bills and two parking tickets. I paid a year’s worth of rent. Many people have questioned this decision. However at the time, I was uncertain of my fate and with the possibility of jail time still on the horizon, I needed to make sure my children had a secure home.

    I paid my child care for one year in advance. This was a decision made to ensure my children would receive proper care in the event I had to be absent for an extended amount of time. Guaranteed child care would ensure their father and my parents could work during the day and work together to care for them in the evenings. I furnished our home through bargain pricing and sale shopping. I also spent money obtaining proper clothes, shoes and toys for the children as well as appropriate business casual clothing for myself to attend court hearings, legal meetings and job interviews. I maintained my legal fees, retaining up to five lawyers at a time. I attended several legal consultations in search of attorneys who would suit my needs. It was an exhausting search. Many failed to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation. They only wanted the publicity associated with the case. I attended mandatory evaluations, drug testing, parenting classes and substance abuse classes in order to comply with court orders. (My legal fees exceeded $10,000 by the time they concluded in December 2014.) During this time, I’d also maintained my household bills, including car payment, car insurance, utilities, transportation costs for the children, medical insurance and food. I also contributed to the household where the children were living while under Child Protective Services (CPS) supervision. The monthly cost to maintain everything necessary to keep us afloat added up quickly, but this spending was very important to make sure the family had all we needed.

    There were leisure trips as well – ice cream twice a month, McDonald’s Happy Meals twice a month and day trips to the park for picnics. I had to acknowledge that as traumatic as my life had been, my children’s lives were equally affected by the chaos. I had to make extra efforts to reinforce that they were loved. These expenses were always kept within a frugal budget. I often take advantage of local discounts websites, use coupons and seek out free offers.

    My children may not have “the best,” but they always have enough. They are and will always be my world. […]

    At a point in December 2014, there were five to 10 articles per week being written or shared, with false information being quoted. I received, at that time, 15 to 30 hateful emails a week, telling me how horrible a person I was, how I did not deserve my children, how I should be in prison for the rest of my life, how my children would fare better in foster care, how I should rot in hell, how I should have my womb burned out. It was as if the whole world turned against me.

    During this time, I had just come out from under the CPS umbrella. My children had been joyously returned home to me in August 2014. My case was closed, with the charges of child abuse being found unsubstantiated. I was still feverishly seeking a job, attending job fairs and job interviews as often as I was invited. My search was hopeless. Employers would invite me to be an unpaid intern. They wanted me to host job fairs, press conferences and other public events exploiting my notoriety to advertise for their company. I was invited to be a seasonal company spokesperson, only being paid per appearance – paid to be a public spectacle. And under these arrangements, when my publicity wore off, they would be free to release me from their service.

    Others invited me to interview only to ask about my case, its progress, the publicity or the media allegations. Still others would immediately end the interview once they found out who I was. Eventually, the interviews stopped being offered.
    If I had other options that day, I would have chosen differently.

    I was offered a position as a waitress and another as a clothing store attendant, both at minimum wage. Both promised consistent night and weekends work. Still living in the shadow of CPS, I could not chance accepting a job without guaranteed child care. I was living my life walking on eggshells. My only guaranteed care was during daytime hours; my daycare is open from 5 am to 6pm. So any position I accepted would have to offer work hours (including the commute) that would fit in this window of time. Coupled with that, I understood eventually I would need to pay for my child care again. At $266 a week, I knew a minimum wage job would not be enough to cover child care plus our monthly expenses. My day-to-day schedule as primary provider does not afford enough time for me to work two jobs in order to make up the difference in wages by working a second job. In addition to the minimum wage jobs, I was offered one other position at $12 per hour. The company, however, was located an hour and a half east of my home with a shift beginning at 6 am. This would require someone being available for my children at 4:30 every morning, as well as being able to transport the children to school. I did not have anyone available to do this.

    My children’s father, accepting the difficulty of my situation, works 15 hours a day for the Phoenix Transit System. He works five days a week to support us. He contributes his paychecks to assist with the household bills, and spends his weekends with the children, allowing me time to myself. He does not ask me to support him financially.

    This entire experience has left me self-conscious and very withdrawn. I’m still often recognized in public. In an effort to protect my children from scrutiny, I don’t attend my daughter’s school events, so others won’t identify me as her mom. She suffered from bullying when my story first hit the media. I won’t subject her to that again. I shop only when the children are in daycare or school so they are not seen with me.

    I limit my time in public as much as possible. I make my trips to the supermarket short, getting only the essentials. I’ve been asked for money in public, followed through the grocery store and heard my name yelled while I shop. Those not bold enough to say anything simply point and whisper. Others just stare.

    When I feel I’ve been in any particular place for too long or that others are judging me, I break out in a heavy sweat and find myself shaking uncontrollably. I’ve been told by a therapist that I have anxiety issues and mild depression. I visit only close family and friends. I still look for jobs, but I’m easily discouraged by the lack of responses. I don’t sleep most nights. I feel stressed out most days, as I see the balances in my accounts decline and no hope of a job on the way. I have to remind myself to eat – I sometimes only remember to eat late in the evening when I feel lightheaded. I don’t intend to not take care of myself, but I feel so overwhelmed at times that my only thought is to make sure the children are secure. I take care of myself later. I suffer from constant migraines. I used to cry at the constant media reports and articles, so I’ve learned to stop reading them.

    At no point have I attempted to say I did nothing wrong. I made a bad choice out of a set of bad options, which included much worse options than the one I chose. If I had other options that day, I would have chosen differently.

    I often come across stories of those with privilege receiving lesser consequences for much more detrimental actions than mine, and I find them very difficult to read. They only reinforce the fact that my being a poor, Black, single mother is counted against me.

    I hate that this is true and that she is not the only one going through that or similar or worse circumstances.
    And people have the nerve to blame poverty on the poor – when even those who struggle hard to do better are kept down as much as possible.

    Speaking of finances, #Ferguson protesters occupying MOREs office at the WCC over allegations that MORE has taken money from the movement check @search4swag TL The organization ‘Organize MO’ has apparently collected funds and will not distribute them as was promised. Which led to a whole conversation on twitter on being poor, being an activist, and making money. This series was about the best synopsis I could find that provides a glimpse into both sides:
    Whoever told you that you shouldn’t get paid for your work if you’re really a revolutionary is on some ol bs.
    Should you be driven by money? No. Should you be able to take care of your basic needs? ABSOLUTELY. Stop with this martyr madness.
    I’ve worked many places for little to no pay. I worked in an org once for free for months. Couldn’t pay rent. Couldn’t eat.
    I ran an organization and got paid less than some of my staff. Listen. Yall. Value your work or no one else will.
    (Basically, activism is a job! Continued next comment.)

  368. rq says

    These are going to seem out of context without the previous comment (moderation) but I promise they make sense:
    Ella Baker got paid y’all. MLK got paid yall. May not have been a salary, but the community took care of them. Jus saying.
    LAWD. Ahistorical narratives are killing us yall.
    And real talk for the people who died broke but sacrificed for all of us–SHAME ON US FOR THAT.

    OSU School of Social Work Dean Is Not Silent on the #BlackLivesMatter Movement

    Over the past year, we have witnessed massive protests around the world spawned by human rights violations, declining labor rights, and austerity cuts to public services. The plight for many Americans struggling with poverty and located in low-income neighborhoods are not being spared the same fate in our “land of plenty”.

    These protests have brought to light the use of police forces and government resources being used to further suppress the voices of the poor and what appears to be an acceptable disdain for policing communities of color. Many have predicted this period in our history will be remembered as the third reconstruction, but how will social work be remembered regarding the most important issues in our life time?

    Since Ferguson and the development of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement, it is my opinion that social work leadership is failing to engage and participate in discussions on behalf of vulnerable populations with very little political power. Largely, I have been disappointed in the social work profession as whole for the lack of any organized national efforts to advocate on a range of social issues affecting the clients we serve.

    However, I was able to get a glimpse of what a top down effort could look like when social work leadership leads an effort instead individuals being forced to act autonomously without social work leadership support. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Ohio State University College of Social Work Dean Tom Gregoire who lead a #BlackLivesMatter March for their community. Here is what Dean Gregoire had to say about why it was important for him to get involved.

    Interview follows.

    Why hasn’t someone made a big budget Harriet Tubman movie yet. Or a even a TV drama. Could be great. cc: @netflix Just a thought, and a good question!

    Yo. I can’t wait to be in the Smithsonian talking to my children about this one dude named @byDVNLLN
    Loving the photo.

  369. Pteryxx says

    following up on #365:

    It also makes plain Nike’s ignorance of recent and painful history. Today’s pro-cop sale falls on the 30 year anniversary of the MOVE bombings in Philadelphia–a standoff between city police and Black Liberation activists that ended in two bombs being dropped on a row house from helicopters. The resulting explosion caused a massive fire, one in which 65 homes were destroyed and 11 people were killed–collateral damage of police-sanctioned violence. Five children were amongst the dead, and those that ordered the police bombing were ultimately never charged. The 1985 MOVE bombing was extensively documented in the 2013 film Let The Fire Burn–essential viewing for those anyone who wants to understand how we arrived at the current climate of paramilitary policing–and the corresponding necessity of stating that #BlackLivesMatter.

    So I went digging for more information on the MOVE bombing.

    Summary of the situation (in listicle form) from a 2013 article in Global Grind:

    On May 13, 1985, a bomb was dropped on a row house in Philadelphia, unleashing a relentless fire that eventually burned down 61 houses, killed 11 people (including five children) and injured dozens.

    The fire department stood by idly. The Philadelphia Police Department did the same. The fire raged on, swallowing up home after home until more than 200 were without shelter in an entire community distrustful of the individuals responsible for the blaze.

    The police.

    It’s a shameful part of recent American history that’s somehow been buried under 28 years and other destructions that have fallen on the city of Philadelphia. But in the wake of Birdie Africa’s death this week, the only child to survive the bombing, GlobalGrind decided to take a trip back in time to explore what happened the day American bombed its own people.

    […]

    – The MOVE Organization is a Philadelphia-based black liberation group that preached revolution and advocated a return to nature lifestyle. They lived communally and vowed to lead a life uninterrupted by the government, police or technology. They were passionate supporters of animal rights and members adopted vegan diets. Members also adopted the surname “Africa.” Often times they would engage in public demonstrations related to issues they deemed important.

    – MOVE did, however, have a past with the police. Since inception in 1972, the group was looked at as a threat to the Philadelphia Police Department. In 1978, police raided their Powelton Village home and as a result, one police officer died after being shot in the head. Nine MOVE members were arrested, charged with third-degree murder and sent to prison. They argued that the police officer was shot in the back of his head on his way into the home, challenging the claim that he was shot by members inside the house. Eventually the group relocated to the infamous house on 6221 Osage Street.

    – There are differing reports about the group and how troublesome they actually were. According to AP, neighbors complained about their house on Osage, which was barricaded with plywood and allegedly contained a multitude of weapons. It has been said that the group built a giant wooden bunker on the roof and used a bullhorn to “scream obscenities at all hours of the night,” which angered those living in nearby row houses. Eventually, they turned to city officials for help, which put into motion the events of May 13, 1985.

    – On that day armed police, the fire department and city officials gathered at the house in an attempt to clear it out and arrest MOVE members who had been indicted for crimes like parole violation and illegal possession of firearms. When police tossed tear gas canisters into the home, MOVE members fired back. In turn, the police discharged their guns.

    – Eventually a police helicopter flew over the home and dropped two bombs on the row house. A ferocious blaze ensued.

    – Witness and MOVE members say that when members started to run out of the burning structure to escape a fiery death, police continued to fire their weapons.

    – The fire department delayed putting out the flames. After the blaze, they claimed they didn’t want to put their men in harms way, as MOVE members were still firing their guns. But MOVE members and witnesses say the wait was deliberate.

    – In the end 11 people, including MOVE’s founder John Africa, were dead. Five children died in the home.

    From Philly Mag in 2010, a narrative made of quotes from a survivor, witnesses and investigation transcripts: MOVE: An Oral History

    Regarding the previous, 1978 raid in which one officer died and MOVE was forced out of their house:

    Ramona Africa: [MOVE spokesperson and the sole adult survivor of the 1985 fire:] We are not a violent people. We are uncompromisingly opposed to violence. But we do believe in self-defense. You’re violent if you don’t defend, because then you’re endorsing violence.

    Andino Ward: In the mid-’70s, I went to the Powelton house. I tried to initiate conversation, and somebody shot at me. I took off running. I wouldn’t see my son for another 10 years.

    Tigre Hill: Today you have this revisionist history of this peaceful group in West Philly. They were not peaceful.

    Ramona Africa: In May of ’77, we took a stand after MOVE people were beat bloody. You come at us? We’re coming back at you. We took to a platform built in front of our house, and we displayed weapons.

    James Berghaier: We got called in. The commissioner said, “I don’t want any crazy shootings. Find good positions. If shooting starts, do you have a problem taking them out?” I said no.

    Charles “Tommy” Mellor, retired Philly police officer: I never heard of MOVE until ’77. When I saw them brandishing their weapons, I was taken aback. Them standing out there with automatic weapons, and no one was doing anything about it.

    James Berghaier: From 1977 to 1978, 24 hours a day, we sat outside and listened to the rhetoric. If they came out, we were to apprehend.

    Ramona Africa: Our main demand was that the members in jail for riot and weapons be released. Mayor Rizzo said he didn’t negotiate with terrorists, so we stood our ground.

    Frank Rizzo Jr., son of then-mayor Frank Rizzo: My father made the decision to evict them with a court order.

    Ramona Africa: They turned off our water, didn’t pick up our trash. Then on August 1st, the city said they wanted every MOVE person out, we had to give up our home, and we said no. It wasn’t about the house. They wanted to get rid of — to murder — MOVE.

    […]

    William Richmond: We set up deluge guns to knock down the wooden slats they had over the windows.

    Ramona Africa: They pumped almost six feet of water into that basement, knowing there were men and women and babies and dogs in there.

    James Berghaier: After Monsignor Devlin wasn’t able to talk them into coming out, the fire department started the deluge gun. I thought they were going to come out, I really did. I didn’t think they were that devoted. The worst thing you can do is underestimate your adversary.

    Tommy Mellor: We broke down the fence surrounding the house. I was the third person through the front door. We eventually got to the basement with the tear gas.

    James Berghaier: Pretty soon, gunfire erupts. I fired two or three rounds.

    Tommy Mellor: Bullets were flying, hitting pipes. We were in water up to our waist, and there were rats and feces. It was a bad place to be.

    William Richmond: When the shooting started, our firefighters were in the wrong place. We had a number hit. Whatever plan was in place didn’t flow.

    Tommy Mellor: I couldn’t tell what was going on.

    James Berghaier: I can’t say I saw a MOVE member shoot, and I can’t tell you I saw a cop shoot. But I did see the result of it. Officer Ramp was dead. After the shooting, the women came out with the kids. That was the end of it. They knocked the house down.

    Ramona Africa: The cops emptied their guns and then emptied them again. James Ramp was on street level facing MOVE, and he was shot by a bullet traveling downward. Obviously, somebody above him killed him.

    Tigre Hill: From all of the documentation I’ve seen, it’s clear that Ramp was killed by MOVE.

    Angel Ortiz: Did the MOVE members shoot Ramp? This has never been fully answered. The MOVE compound was razed without proper forensic analysis.

    Ramona Africa: A team came to demolish MOVE headquarters. They were accusing my family of killing a cop. That makes it the scene of a crime. Why destroy the evidence?

    That’s the history leading to the 1983 situation:

    On August 4, 1981, nine MOVE members were sent to prison for the murder of Officer Ramp. In the years that followed, during which time MOVE supporter Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death for the murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner, MOVE relocated its headquarters to 6221 Osage Avenue, and continued to fight for the MOVE 9, becoming even more of a thorn in the side of the neighbors, the city, and the new mayor, Wilson Goode.

    […]

    Ed Rendell, former mayor and then–district attorney of Philadelphia: The neighbors were complaining about everything from loud noise to a horrible smell. All sorts of nuisance complaints.

    Seth Williams: By the spring of ’85, they’re on bullhorns shouting obscenities all the time. People were fed up. The public forced the hand of the managing director [Leo Brooks] and police to do something.

    Ramona Africa: The cops claimed we were bad neighbors. Since when has this government shown any interest in black people complaining about black people?

    […]

    Gregore Sambor, former police commissioner, in testimony to the MOVE Commission, October 17, 1985: We had lessons from sad experience. In the spring of 1977, we had hoped that armed threats would disappear if pacified. By the fall of that year, we had thought that an indefinite state of siege would starve MOVE into submission. By August of 1978, we hoped that an overpowering police presence … would intimidate MOVE to peaceful surrender. The plan for May 13th was the most conservative, controlled, disciplined and safe operation that we could devise based upon these lessons.

    William Richmond: Late Friday, I get a call that there was a meeting at the police administration building on Saturday morning. At the meeting, we were told that Sambor would make a pronouncement by bullhorn for MOVE to exit the house. If they didn’t exit, we’d start the squirts and throw water at quite a volume to neutralize the bunkers. Then the police would get the tear gas in. But we hadn’t been out there. The planning was terrible.

    James Berghaier: We were going to breach walls in the basement and second floors and use tear gas, leaving the first floor as an escape for MOVE people. And I think, I’m okay with this.

    […]

    Marc Lamont Hill, Columbia University professor and former Fox News correspondent: I was only seven, living in Germantown. During the day, as things developed, the teachers were talking about it. I remember one was crying. They were upset.

    Michael Moses Ward, formerly Birdie Africa, in 1985 testimony before the MOVE Commission: We was in the cellar for a while … and tear gas started coming in and we got the blankets. And they was wet. And then we put them over our heads and started laying down.

    Ramona Africa: They were shooting. They knew there was children. They had arrest warrants, yes, but we hadn’t been convicted of anything. And what they claimed to be arresting us for was not capital offenses. They had artillery of war. M16s. Sidearms. Sniper rifles with silencers — the weapon of an assassin.

    […]

    William Richmond: So the decision was made to take a helicopter, and use a satchel charge — that’s the term for explosives in a gym bag. The helicopter made two or three passes with Frank Powell strapped in.

    Frank Rizzo Jr.: I’ll never forget it. My father was in the family room, watching it all on TV. When he saw the state police helicopter, all the intelligence he had started coming together, and he said, “Son, they’re going to drop a bomb on this headquarters.”

    Frank Powell: As soon as I dropped the satchel, the pilot got the hell out. The rotor wash blew it across the roof. I said, “Oh shit!” And then it went off. There was a football-shaped hole. It missed the bunker.

    Michael Ward, in testimony: That is when the big bomb went off. It shook the whole house up.

    William Richmond: Frank dropped it, which took a lot of moxie. The concussion knocked out windows of nearby homes. Debris went everywhere. Minutes later, someone said to me there was a fire on the roof. These things start small and build up over time.

    Ed Rendell: When I heard that they used an incendiary device on the roof, I was amazed, because you could clearly see drums of oil up there. And it would seem to me to have been lunacy under those circumstances to drop an incendiary device. But they did. And as the afternoon rolled on and the fire started, it became almost a holocaust.

    Frank Rizzo Jr.: When my father saw the fire department shut the water off, he couldn’t believe that anyone in the U.S. would use fire to force people from a building.

    […]

    Theodore Price: We had no idea what was going on, so we checked out of our hotel on Monday. When we got to the street, there was a whole lot of action. And after they dropped it, the fire starts trickling to each house. Boom! Boom! Boom!

    Sam Katz: I was landing in an airplane in South Philly, and the sky was bright orange. I had no idea what it was. But it was a remarkable scene from up there. Then I was on the ground in my car, with KYW on. The whole thing just careened completely out of control.

    Theodore Price: It burnt 61 houses. It looked like a war zone. My house was completely destroyed. I had just put in new siding and picture windows. I lived in that house since 1957. It was bought and paid for.

    Wilson Goode, in a press conference that night: I stand fully accountable for the action that took place tonight. I will not try to place any blame on any one of my subordinates. I was aware of what was going on, and therefore, I support them in terms of their decisions. And therefore, the people of the city will have to judge the mayor, in fact, of what happened.
    Gregore Sambor, in testimony: I remain convinced that any approach on May 13th would have presented an immediate and deadly danger. … It remains a fact that if MOVE members had simply come out of the building, they would be alive today. But they announced that morning that they would never surrender and that they would kill as many of us as they could.

    […]

    On March 6, 1986, the 11-member Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission — or MOVE Commission — issued a report condemning city officials, stating: “Dropping a bomb on an occupied rowhouse was unconscionable.” No criminal charges were filed against anyone in city government. Wilson Goode was reelected to a second term.

    A 2010 interview with Ramona Africa: Democracy Now

    RAMONA AFRICA: OK, the first thing I want people to understand is that that bombing did not happen because of some complaints from neighbors. This government had never cared about black folks complaining about their neighbors or any other people complaining about their neighbors. They bombed us because of our unrelenting fight for our family members, known as the MOVE 9, who have been in prison unjustly going on thirty-two years now, as a result of the August 8th, 1978 police attack on MOVE. I just wanted to make that clear.

    In terms of the bombing, after being attacked the way we were, first with four deluge hoses by the fire department and then tons of tear gas, and then being shot at — the police admit to shooting over 10,000 rounds of bullets at us in the first ninety minutes — there was a lull. You know, it was quiet for a little bit. And then, without any warning at all, two members of the Philadelphia Police Department’s bomb squad got in a Pennsylvania state police helicopter and flew over our home and dropped a satchel containing C4, a powerful military explosive that no municipal police department has. They had to get it from the federal government, from the FBI. And without any announcement or warning or anything, they dropped that bomb on the roof of our home.

    Now, at that point, we didn’t know exactly what they had done. We heard the loud explosion. The house kind of shook. But it never entered my mind that they dropped a bomb on us. But the bomb did in fact ignite a fire. And not long after that, it got very, very hot in the house, and the smoke was getting thicker. At first we thought it was tear gas. But as it got thicker, it became clear that this wasn’t tear gas, that this was something else. And then we could hear the trees outside of our house crackling and realized that our home was on fire. And we immediately tried to get our children, our animals, our dogs and cats, and ourselves out of that blazing inferno.

    The adults were hollering out that we’re coming out, we’re bringing the children out. The children were hollering that they were coming out, that we were bringing them out. And we know that the police heard us. But the instant, the very instant, that we were visible to them, you know, trying to come out, they immediately opened fire. We were met with a barrage of police gunfire. And you could see it hitting all around us, all around the house. And it forced us back in to that blazing inferno, several times. And finally, you know, you’re in a position where either you choke to death and burn alive or you possibly are shot to death.

    So we continued to try to get out of that house. And I got out. I got Birdie out. You could hear the shots hitting all around us. A cop grabbed Birdie, took him into custody, grabbed me, they threw me down on the ground and handcuffed, you know, me behind me, in the back of me. And I just knew that everybody else had gotten out. They were right behind me. And I didn’t find out until police took me to the homicide unit of the police administration building that there were no other survivors.

    […]

    RAMONA AFRICA: Why MOVE people talk about how this system intended to kill MOVE, that this was not an attempt to arrest. They came out there to literally wipe MOVE out, exterminate MOVE. People want to poo-poo us and act like, “Oh, you’re just taking it out.” But the fact that they deliberately shot at us as we tried to exit the building and the fact that you just brought up of how, you know, firefighters stood there and allowed that fire to burn, I defy people to tell me, you know, when William Richmond or really any other fire commissioner or firefighters had made a decision to let a fire burn in a building, a row house, where there are men, women, babies and animals inside. I mean, firefighters are known for running into burning buildings to save people. Now, William Richmond tried to excuse or explain away, you know, their actions by saying he wasn’t going to have his firefighters, you know, in danger or come under fire from MOVE. But for hours, when there was no fire, they put — they had four deluge hoses, each of which pump out 10,000 pounds of water pressure, according to them. They aimed those water hoses at our home for hours in the morning of May 13. Now, why wasn’t it a danger then? It’s only a danger when in fact there is a fire? I mean, it is very clear to any fairminded person looking at this situation that their intent was to kill. Wilson Goode said he wanted a permanent end to MOVE. That’s what he said.

    And this article from just a couple of days ago, on the 30th anniversary of the police bombing of MOVE: Democracy Now

    LINN WASHINGTON: Good morning, Amy. Good morning, Juan. The one word that I would use to describe that day is “surreal,” to have witnessed a police firing 10,000 bullets within a 90-minute period—the bullets were so intense that they were raining from the sky like hail—and then, later in the afternoon, to see a bomb dropped on a house occupied by children. And then the very callous decision of the authorities to let the fire burn was just unreal. It’s a sight and a memory that I can’t get out of my mind.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Linn, I remember it was on Mother’s Day, 1985, and we were out there most of the day and saw that helicopter suddenly hover over the house and drop something. And I remember saying to you at the time, “What’s going on?” until the explosion occurred. But the most fascinating thing, as you said, and most people are not aware, is how long before—after the bomb dropped before the firefighters even attempted to douse the flames that erupted.

    LINN WASHINGTON: It was almost an hour, because we were sitting there on Cobbs Creek Parkway, and you and I were both talking, and actually talking to some of the firefighters as to why they weren’t doing it, and the firefighters didn’t know. What they didn’t—what they were told was to not fight the fire, which is unbelievable. And we could watch—or, actually, we saw the fire go from what looked like the beginning of a backyard barbecue grill fire to a blazing inferno. And we just literally watched it jump across the rooflines and also across the street. So by the time that the decision was finally made to fight the fire, it was a blazing inferno, and it was totally out of control.

    […]

    LINN WASHINGTON: Yes, the—inside the house were, at that point, five children aged seven to 13 years old. They perished, along with six adults. One of the six adults was the founder of the MOVE organization, John Africa. A number of MOVE members tried to escape, and as you’ve indicated, Ramona was the sole surviving adult. There was a child named Birdie Africa, who later became Michael Ward. They were able to escape. When they were coming out, we heard gunfire. And it was later determined that the police fired on the escaping MOVE members, driving some of them back into the house. But in the convoluted logic that many of us have seen over the last year from grand juries in St. Louis County and in New York and in southern Ohio, where the guy was shot in a Wal-Mart, the grand jury, under the control of Philadelphia prosecutors, determined that MOVE members ran back into the house not because police were firing at them, but because they mistakenly believed that police were firing at them and/or they ran back to intentionally commit suicide.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Linn, what did the—what were the main conclusions of the MOVE Commission that was established subsequent to that tragedy?

    LINN WASHINGTON: Well, the MOVE Commission, which was a panel that the—Mayor Goode had set up to investigate it, but had no power to do anything other than make recommendations, found monumental incompetence on the part of all city officials, from the mayor through the managing director to the police director—or, should I say, the police commissioner. One of the findings, though—I think one of the most prominent findings was that the deaths of those children were unjustified homicides, and they recommended a criminal investigation and also charges to be brought. The grand jury determined that they were not unjustified homicides, that the deaths were as a result of this proposed or presumed suicide. And they came to many startling conclusions, one of which was the bomb that was dropped on the children, there was no illegality there because the force of the bomb only applied to the adults in the house, as if the bomb could blow up and the fire could burn, and it wouldn’t impact the children. It was absolutely ridiculous, but it’s the kind of convoluted reasoning we see too often with grand juries involving issues of police abuse.

    Also in that article, a short essay from prisoner and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who as noted above and previously is serving life without parole for supposedly killing an officer.

    MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: May 13th at 30, why should we care what happened on May 13th, 1985? I mean, seriously, that was 30 years ago, a long time ago, way back when. Know what I mean? Most people won’t say that, but they think that. Why, indeed? I’ll tell you why. Because what happened then is a harbinger of what’s happening now all across America. I don’t mean bombing people—not yet, that is. I mean the visceral hatreds and violent contempt once held for MOVE is now visited upon average people, not just radicals and revolutionaries like MOVE. In May 1985, police officials justified the vicious attacks on MOVE children by saying they, too, were combatants. In Ferguson, Missouri, as police and National Guard confronted citizens, guess how cops described them in their own files. “Enemies.” Enemy combatants, anyone? Then look at 12-year-old Tamir Rice of Cleveland. Boys, men, girls, women—it doesn’t matter. When many people stood in silence, or worse, in bitter acquiescence, to the bombing, shooting and carnage of May 13, 1985, upon MOVE, they opened the door to the ugliness of today’s police terrorism from coast to coast. There is a direct line from then to now. May 13, 1985, led to the eerie robocop present. If it had been justly and widely condemned then, there would be no now, no Ferguson, no South Carolina, no Los Angeles, no Baltimore. The barbaric police bombing of May 13, 1985, and the whitewash of the murders of 11 MOVE men, women and children opened a door that still has not been closed. We are today living with those consequences. From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.

  370. Pteryxx says

    I have not been able to find the text of the 1986 Philadelphia MOVE commission report online – apparently it’s in the Special Collections library of Temple University – but there are excerpts in these 1986 articles from the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer:

    Report On Move Finds Goode ‘Grossly Negligent’ In Decisions Children’s ‘homicide’ Is Alleged

    In a harsh and relentless denunciation of the city’s command structure, the MOVE commission has concluded that Mayor Goode and his top aides displayed a ”reckless disregard for life and property” in planning and executing the May 13 siege on Osage Avenue.

    The commission, appointed by Mayor Goode, bluntly attacks virtually every decision made before and during the confrontation, in which six adults and five children died, 61 homes were destroyed and 250 people were left homeless.

    “Dropping a bomb on an occupied rowhouse was unconscionable and should have been rejected out of hand by the mayor, the managing director, the police commissioner and the fire commissioner,” the commission says in a draft report of its findings. In a sweeping condemnation of the entire command structure, the report says, “The plan to drop the bomb was reckless, ill- conceived and hastily approved.”

    The draft, which was obtained by The Inquirer, says the mayor was “grossly negligent” and “clearly risked the lives” of the five children who died by approving the operation when he knew the youngsters were in the MOVE house.

    Likewise, the report says that former Managing Director Leo A. Brooks and former Police Commissioner Gregore J. Sambor were “grossly negligent” for not recommending that the siege be called off on May 12, when they knew the children were in the house.

    Overall, the commission concludes that the operation was badly planned, badly supervised and one in which many of the participants were badly trained.

    The commission calls for a grand jury to investigate the deaths of the five children who perished in the compound at 6221 Osage Ave., saying their deaths ”appear to be unjustified homicide.”

    District Attorney Ronald D. Castille yesterday said he would be willing to call a grand jury if the evidence in the final report, which he said he had not seen, warranted it.

    […]

    Among the other conclusions:

    * The barrage of 10,000 rounds of ammunition fired by police at the MOVE compound on the morning of May 13 was “clearly excessive and unreasonable” and needlessly jeopardized the lives of the children. This was one of the conclusions that drew a strong dissent from Kauffman, who said it was a mistake to find fault with the police. They “were simply trying to make the best of this impossible situation imposed on them by the city administration,” Kauffman wrote.

    * The fire that consumed the MOVE compound and 60 other houses on the 6200 blocks of Osage Avenue and Pine Street was caused directly by the bomb dropped by police at 5:27 p.m.

    * Once the fire began, it could have been quickly put out if the Fire Department immediately had used two high-pressure Squrt water guns it had trained on the house. However, the draft says Sambor and Fire Commissioner William C. Richmond hastily made the “unconscionable” decision to let the fire burn, hoping to force the MOVE members to flee.

    * At least two adults and four children attempted to escape after the house caught fire, but police gunfire prevented them from fleeing. Kauffman dissented from this conclusion.

    * Police officers repeatedly were given assignments for which they were not properly trained. The report is especially critical of the department’s Bomb Disposal Unit, which planned not only the bombing of the MOVE house roof but also an attempt to breach the basement walls.

    * The city administration failed to approach the situation with ”sensitivity and care,” and many of the crucial decisions probably would not have been made had the MOVE house, in the words of the commission report, ”been situated in a comparable white neighborhood.”

    * The district attorney’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice should take new testimony as part of their investigations of the MOVE incident “to resolve any issues that may arise as to possible perjurious testimony before the commission and before any grand jury.”

    […]

    For the adult MOVE members themselves, the commission offers little sympathy. The report refers to MOVE as an “authoritarian, violence- threatening cult.”

    “The residents of 6221 Osage were armed and dangerous, and used threats, abuse and intimidation to terrify their neighbors and to bring about confrontation with city government,” the report states.

    The report characterizes Goode’s policy toward MOVE as one of ”appeasement, non-confrontation and avoidance” – a policy he continued, the commission says, even after he was told in the summer of 1984 that there was a legal basis to act against some MOVE members.

    During that time, the report says, the city lost “critical tactical advantage” by permitting MOVE members to construct their bunker without challenge.

    […]

    In addition, the report notes that work crews found only two pistols, a shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle in the rubble of the MOVE compound.

    “The failure of those responsible for the firing to control or stop such an excessive amount of force was unconscionable,” the report states.

    […]

    Quoting testimony it heard during its hearings, the commission states that several MOVE members did try to flee the house through a back alley. However, it concludes that they were driven back into the blaze by police gunfire.

    In his dissent, Kauffman says that conclusion was not based on any reliable firsthand testimony.

    “The police have testified consistently that after the bomb was dropped, they fired no shots in the alley, nor did they see or hear other police fire their weapons,” Kauffman wrote.

    Kauffman also dissents from the commission’s comments about the role that race played in the decisions made about MOVE, saying it was an inflammatory statement that was not based on fact.

    “On May 13, 1985, a black mayor and a black managing director were responsible for the city’s operation against a black terrorist group holding a black neighborhood hostage,” Kauffman wrote. “The tragic events of that day were caused, purely and simply, by incompetence, bad judgment and other errors. These inadequacies know no racial boundaries and, unfortunately, would have resulted in the same tragedy wherever the site of resistance may have been located.”

  371. Pteryxx says

    The Independent Lens documentary “Let the Fire Burn” isn’t streaming from PBS anymore (but it’s on the u tub with a little digging). Here’s a PBS interview with filmmaker Jason Osder:

    What led you to want to make this film?

    I was eleven years old, growing up on the outskirts of Philadelphia when the fire happened. I remember being truly scared. I was struck that the children killed in the house (burned alive) were my own age, living in my own town. Their parents and the police had utterly failed to protect them. I knew even as a child that the children were not to blame for what happened to them and that a fundamental injustice had occurred.

    How do you think revisiting this story now (or visiting it for the first time, for the many Americans who didn’t know about it) can lead to a meaningful discussion on how government agencies react to sects and other communities outside society? Have things changed in the ensuing decades or could the MOVE bombings happen again?

    Yes. I think the MOVE story illustrates some essential questions that are still very relevant. Where in the world today is violence being done to people with no regard for their humanity? As police and military gain access to more deadly weapons, what are the safeguards as to how these weapons can be used on civilians? How is democratic society to deal with groups that are in open opposition to it and willing to risk their own lives and the lives of their children for their cause?

    Although a cliché, it does seem like an example of being doomed to repeat the history that we do not remember.

  372. Pteryxx says

    Another interview with filmmaker Jason Osder, one hour long, from We Act Radio: youtube link

    At about 27 minutes he’s talking about reactions to the film from individuals he interviewed and befriended in the course of making it. One was Philadelphia police officer James Berghaier, who was part of the assault team and who helped 13-year-old Birdie Africa get away from the burning rowhouse. Just before that he’s speaking about another former child of MOVE who wasn’t there at the time, but who said the children killed in the fire were like brothers and sisters to him, and he’d never heard the full story of what had happened to them. Then, 28:30 of the video, my best effort at a transcript:

    And then the other person is the cop, James Berghaier, who is the cop that sort of breaks ranks that day and runs in to save Michael Ward, who is the only child who survives. And… *sighs* … to make a long story short, you know, no good deeds go unpunished, and James really has crossed the thin blue line and can’t be a cop anymore after this. And it was a hard thing. And he saw it for the first time, and he shook my hand and he said “You did good here.”

    And I said, you know what, if those two people – and I’d include Ramona there, with much respect, but she’s still – she’s still really vested in it. But if I have the younger member, who is too young to remember it, but grew up in it, and I have James who dealt with it his whole life, I was like, *nodding* I think I can feel good about doing it.

    This is a Philadephia Inquirer article about Berghaier from 1996: Ex-officer Bares His Torment To Move Jury James P. Berghaier Was There To Take Birdie Africa’s Hand When He Fled The Burning House. Berghaier Remains Emotionally Scarred.

    He probably did more to redeem one of the sorriest events in Philadelphia history than anyone else, but 11 years later, he remains perhaps the most guilt-stricken participant.

    Yesterday, an anguished James P. Berghaier – the former police officer who rescued Birdie Africa – took the stand in the MOVE civil trial and told a riveted courtroom of how, for him, the confrontation has never really ended.

    “We didn’t obtain our objective. And as a result of us failing in doing what we did or didn’t do, people died,” said Berghaier. “And that’s a guilt I’ve got to carry with me the rest of my life.”

    […]

    He was called to the stand by the city and two former top city officials who are defending themselves against a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by Ramona Africa, the only adult MOVE member to emerge alive from the fortified MOVE rowhouse after it was bombed and set ablaze by the city. Eleven bodies were found in the MOVE rubble, including those of five children.

    While Berghaier spoke of his profound remorse over those deaths, his testimony seemed of little help to the plaintiffs in the case, who are trying to prove that police gunfire kept MOVE bottled up in its house.

    Berghaier said neither he nor any of his fellow officers in the elite Stakeout unit fired their weapons when Ramona Africa and Birdie Africa fled the burning home. And he said flatly that his guilt had nothing to do with “negligence or any wrongdoing.”

    […]

    A member of a special “insertion team” that had tried and failed to blow holes into MOVE’s fortified house in the morning so tear gas could be pumped in, a weary Berghaier and other members of the Stakeout unit took up positions in an alley behind MOVE’s house right after the city bombed the place.

    Police dropped a hastily improvised bomb on top of 6221 Osage to destroy a rooftop bunker. The bomb, hitting off target, didn’t greatly damage the bunker, but did start a fire that the city let burn in the hope it would spread and do the job the bomb had not.

    It did destroy the bunker, but then spread out of control, jumping across the alley to Pine Street – the next street over – and ultimately gutting 61 homes.

    About 7:30 p.m., two hours after the bombing, Berghaier suddenly saw Ramona Africa and Ward emerge from the rear of the MOVE house, about 12 rowhouses away.

    Ramona Africa had scrambled up some debris to an elevated walkway behind the alley, but Ward was walking toward Berghaier at an eerily deliberate pace. “I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t running,” Berghaier said.

    Turning to fellow Officer Charles Thomas Mellor, Berghaier said, “Here, Tommy, take my shotgun, I’m going to get the kid.”

    […]

    Before his retirement, Berghaier told Ramona Africa’s lawyer, Andre Dennis, yesterday, he was treated scornfully by some of his fellow police after the confrontation. He was mocked as “Birdie Berghaier” and with other slurs, some of them racist. Some of this was apparently due to resentment at the favorable media attention he had received.

    In interviews, Berghaier said the pressure played havoc with his marriage and at one point briefly put him into a psychiatric institution.

    He retired from the city police after 17 years in 1987 – the first officer to be granted a disability pension for a service-related stress disorder.

    one more note – both Ramona and Birdie suffered third-degree burns before escaping the house. For some reason that’s rarely mentioned in the articles I’m finding, such as this one, where it really should have been.

  373. Pteryxx says

    and Michael Ward in 1995 talking about life as a child in the MOVE compound: Philly dot com

    The scars on his arms, torso and face remind him of the day 10 years ago when the shooting started, the day the city dropped a satchel bomb on the roof from a helicopter and let MOVE’s whole Osage Avenue neighborhood burn. Six adults and five children perished.

    Birdie got away.

    He says now he escaped more than flames that day.

    “In a way, I’m glad it happened.”

    There is defiant certainty on his face as he says this. It is the face of a proud young man, now 23, a man with a daughter named after his mother, who perished in the fire.

    He is old enough to speak for himself for the first time since his timid testimony as a child before the MOVE Commission.

    He speaks of a childhood of deprivation, of being forced to live on a diet of raw vegetables and fruit while the adults ate hearty cooked meals, of being denied schooling and neighborhood playmates, of stealing toys and burying them in the MOVE compound.

    He speaks of his mother Rhonda’s frustrated desire to break away from MOVE and of threats to harm him if she dared leave. He says he and the other children lived trapped inside concentric circles of fear – fear of the cops, fear of the neighborhood, and mostly fear of “The Big People,” especially of founder and leader John Africa, whom the children called “Ball,” and of Frank Africa, who once, in a rage, punched 8-year-old Birdie in the face and knocked him unconscious.

    When Michael speaks the words “I’m glad,” the firm set of his jaw says he knows better than anyone how terrible that sounds.

    But he means it.

    “The only regret I have is about me being hurt and my mom dying and the other kids,” he says. “I feel bad for the people who died, but I don’t have any anger toward anybody. See, I got out.”

    […]

    For years, as Michael was growing up, the only public voice of MOVE has been that of Ramona Africa, the sole adult to escape the fire. She has tirelessly spread the vision of MOVE as a gentle, familial group hounded irrationally by a racist system. The deaths, especially the children’s, have added authority to her voice.

    Michael does not remember much gentleness. He says he and the other children were afraid to cross the Big People – Ball, Frank, Rad, Raymond, Theresa, Ramona, and his mother, Rhonda.

    The adults cooked themselves regular meals – chicken, potatoes and other fare – and hid snacks for themselves. They were particularly fond, according to a local grocer, of Dorito chips.

    But they insisted that the children eat only raw, “pure” food. Sometimes the children would sneak a bite of chicken or meat, and then there would be trouble.

    After the fire, the damage done by that doctrine was found to be severe. Solomon Katz, a biological anthropologist and child-growth expert at the University of Pennsylvania, found the undersize 13-year-old Birdie to be ”much closer in development to a Third World child than a normal Philadelphia child.” He said the MOVE diet had been far more primitive than that of hunting and gathering tribes and had delayed Birdie’s physical and intellectual development to such an extent that he might never fully recover.

    While there were plenty of fruit and raw vegetables to eat, Michael says, the children were always on the lookout for forbidden foods. They once broke into a local store and discovered peanut butter and ate as much as they could before they got caught. The store owner turned them over to the Big People.

    When a rule was broken, the offender would be summoned to the meeting room upstairs.

    “And they’d be shouting at us and lecturing us,” Michael says. “The idea was they were raising us to be wild. They talked about taking us back to Africa, and they wanted us to be pure and wild and not polluted by things like cooked food and candy and treats. They said they were used to eating those things, so it was hard for them to break old habits, but that we were only to eat the right things.”

    Michael told the MOVE Commission in 1985 that he and the other children were never spanked. He now says that wasn’t the truth.

    “We were spanked. We weren’t beaten or anything like that, but they spanked us with their bare hands. There would be, like, two or three swats.”

    On at least one occasion, it was worse. The children were always plotting to escape, Michael says. Their dream was to run away and live a normal life, go to school, play with toys, eat normal foods, watch TV. Tree, the oldest child and the most defiant, hatched a plot with the older children to escape together.

    But they thought their big, matted dreadlocks would give them away as MOVE children.

    “So Tree cut our hair,” Michael remembers. “She must have been about 10 or 11 then. We were serious. We were really going to do it. But when we got our hair cut, we didn’t know where to go. We chickened out or something because we didn’t try to run away.

    “When the adults came for us and saw we had cut our hair (which was expressly forbidden by John Africa), they didn’t say anything to us for a couple of days. Then they had one of their meetings upstairs, and they called us up. They told us to sit down. We sat down, and everyone was talking, shouting at us, yelling. They told us if we ran away, they would track us down and ‘cycle’ us. That was their word for killing people.

    […]

    Michael says his mother grew disillusioned with MOVE in the year before the fire but was afraid to leave. She had wanted to escape with Gail Africa and her daughter, he says, but when the time came, Gail left without her.

    “She got real depressed,” he recalls. “She was real quiet. I was too small to really understand, but I don’t think she wanted to be there. They threatened to kill me if she ran away.”

    Rhonda’s mother, Ramona Shannon, confirms her grandson’s memory.

    “She definitely wanted out,” Shannon says. “I talked to her about it several times. But she was scared. She was afraid that they would come after her. I told her I would protect her, that I would get her help, but then she said she was afraid they would do something to Michael if she left. She also felt a sense of responsibility toward the other children.”

    On the day of the fire, as the children huddled under wet blankets in the basement, the worst stories Birdie and the others had been told about the police came true. The house shook when the bomb went off. Water poured in from neighboring houses. Flames turned their refuge into an inferno.

    Ramona Africa escaped across a back alley. Michael remembers being shoved from the burning basement into the alley by his mother.

    Stories have credited former Police Officer James F. Berghaier with scooping Birdie from the skillet of the alleyway and carrying him to safety. Michael disputes the standard version of his rescue.

    “I wasn’t saved by a cop,” he says. “I was saved by my mother. She pushed me out. She could have saved herself but instead she got me out.

    “If the cops had been interested in saving anybody, I would never have been burned. I wasn’t burned when I left the house; I was burned when I fell on the hot pavement trying to climb out. I fainted.

    “But no cop came and picked me up. I came to, and I had to run to them to get away from the fire. I ran under the balcony to where they were hiding. Then they grabbed me, one of them under each arm, picked me up, and ran with me to the van.”

    As the police carried him, Birdie pleaded: “Don’t shoot me! Don’t shoot me!”

    I don’t include this to imply that MOVE members somehow deserved to be raided and bombed – whether they were a gentle familial group or not, they *were* in fact also hounded irrationally by a racist system, and eventually burned to death because of it. Michael Ward’s story is not that different than accounts from survivors of Quiverfull, Christian faith healing or Mormon polygamist communities. While Quiverfull communities tell horror stories about predatory Child Protective Services workers, black families have a real history of being presumed unfit parents by a racism-drenched system. And while FLDS police departments serve as runaway-catchers for polygamist groups, police departments in general offer just another level of threat to black women and children trying to escape domestic abuse. Cult-like practices thrive when their victims have nowhere to turn.

  374. says

    From DiversityInc–
    Ending the myth of absent black fatherhood:

    In 2013, the CDC released its National Health Statistics Report data regarding the involvement that fathers had with their children. Interestingly, the report showed that Black fathers were often more engaged with their children than their white and non-white Hispanic counterparts – countering many of the myths surrounding them as absent parents.

    Data from Pew Research showed that 72% of Black children were born to unwed parents in 2011 (and the CDC showed that much the same was true the following year). Many people equivocate “unwed” to no father being in the picture.

    However, some samples from the 2013 CDC report debunk that assumption:

    Fathers not living with children (under 5 years old):

    Bathed, diapered or dressed children daily
    • 12.7% Blacks
    • 6.6% Whites
    • 7.3% Hispanic

    Fathers not living with children (5-18 years old):

    Helped with or checked homework daily
    • 9.7% Blacks
    • 5.0% Whites
    • 3.2% Hispanic

    The numbers in the report show little difference in how fathers who live with children, across races, tend to be involved (the majority of fathers in each racial group presented), and that Black fathers who do not live with their children tend to show more attentiveness compared to the other dads.

    The CDC survey seemed forgotten by thought leaders and media professionals until the Daily Kos resurrected the information in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore and the subsequent violence and vandalism that engulfed parts of the city:

    But what we’ve heard the most, is that the real problem is the Breakdown in the Black Family™. That too many black fathers have abandoned their children, allowing them to be raised by the streets like feral cats. They don’t learn morals, and they don’t learn values—so naturally police have to shoot them down like rabid, foaming dogs. Even when they’re unarmed. Even when they have their backs turned and are simply running away. It’s all just their own fault really.

    The Black family tends to be depicted in “crisis,” and often with the implication that Black culture is the culprit – rather than a multitude of systemic factors involving racism and economics. Rand Paul, Bill O’Reilly and even President Obama himself have advanced the narrative to one degree or another.

    Prior to the death of Freddie Gray, however, Baltimore residents had actually been addressing questions about fathers in the community:

    “One misconception that people have about black fathers is that they don’t want to be involved or that they’re deadbeat,” says Vernon Wallace, who manages the Baltimore Responsible Fatherhood Project. “More so, they’re just dead broke.”

    The Colorlines article that quotes Vernon Wallace also referred to the 2013 CDC report and showed the neglected faces of Black fatherhood by profiling the Baltimore Responsible Fatherhood Project.

    When tragedy sparks unrest in Black communities like Ferguson and Baltimore, there is a tendency to reach for the well-worn trope of the unengaged Black father. However, if crisis does exist in the upbringing of kids in Black families, it’s likely less one of culture and one more of historic inequality

  375. Pteryxx says

    New on Buzzfeed – a sad, detailed, and beautiful piece revisiting the story of former Baltimore police detective Joe Crystal, driven out as a “snitch” and “rat” after whistleblowing on a police beating, with more depth and context regarding Baltimore and Freddie Gray.

    Breaking Baltimore’s Blue Wall of Silence

    Baltimore detective Joe Crystal watched a fellow officer beat up a handcuffed suspect. After he broke ranks and reported the assault, he was run out of town, his career ruined. During his former city’s most chaotic week, he went back.

    —

    Joe Crystal hadn’t been back to Baltimore since he left the city in November, weeks after he had resigned from the police department. Leaving Baltimore hurt so much he tried to forget. He gathered his business cards, old files, and photos of drugs and guns seized from busts and lit them on fire in his backyard. He gave away his box set of The Wire. He threw his BPD shirts in the garbage.

    Before “everything went to shit,” as Crystal put it, he had been one of the Baltimore City Police Department’s brightest young stars. “A work ethic that is unmatched,” said one officer, “and has the utmost integrity.” Crystal, another officer said, “made it his personal goal to become the best narcotics detective the department had and he attacked that goal with ferocity.” He was “a stubborn motherfucker,” in the words of a third officer, and he loved the street action and lived for the job. Made detective a year after graduating from the academy. Assigned to one of the most prestigious investigative units in the department. On the short list for a federal task force. All by the time he was 26.

    But none of that mattered on the night of Oct. 27, 2011, when he witnessed an off-duty cop brutally beat a handcuffed suspect, saw a detective cover it up with a police report full of lies, and watched his sergeant approve the whole thing.

    […]

    The blue wall of silence is an age-old tenet of policing. New York City Police Officer Frank Serpico was shot in the face by a suspect when he didn’t receive backup during a drug raid months after he reported corruption within his department in 1970. In the early ’90s a New York City commission investigating the department found that the code of silence was strongest among officers working in high-crime, dangerous neighborhoods. Similar studies found the wall’s impact in departments across the country. A Los Angeles commission concluded that the code of silence was “perhaps the greatest single barrier to the effective investigation and adjudication of complaints” against officers. A New Orleans study found that “anyone who rats on another guy will find himself never promoted. Those signals come from the top and work their way down.”

    Among Baltimore locals, Detective Joe Crystal was a hero. But within his own department, he had become a villain. He had betrayed the brotherhood, and for that he was driven out of the Baltimore City Police Department. He had spent years chasing down drug dealers and gunrunners, but this was the first time he felt unsafe.

    […]

    Crystal followed the Gray story from his living room in Santa Rosa, Florida, on a sleepy suburban block a world removed from the street action of Baltimore City. He watched the protests, riots, fires, police lines, and 10 p.m. curfew arrests on TV. It felt wrong being away from Baltimore as this all went down, and so he returned.

    He arrived at the airport on a Saturday morning, the first day he could get off from his new job at the Walton County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, and drove his rented black Dodge Charger north toward the city. He was 30 now, his arms just as chiseled and his head just as bald and his New Jersey accent just as thick as the day he became a cop seven years before. Officers and locals called him “mini-Vin,” because he looked like Vin Diesel and stood 5’6”. He turned the volume up on the speakers. Tupac’s “Hail Mary” boomed through.

    He felt nervous being back in the city. As he drove through West Baltimore, he saw officers posted up all over, gathered on corners and lined up against storefronts.

    “Hope they don’t see me,” he said.

    […]

    Crystal made his first gun arrest a few months out of the academy. Then he wrote a search warrant that led to a bust that netted four unregistered guns. Baltimore police brass loved gun arrests, and they rewarded Crystal. Almost exactly a year after his academy graduation, Crystal was promoted to detective and assigned to one of the department’s top investigation units, a violent crime unit that had previously disbanded and reemerged under new leadership and a new name because of too many brutality complaints. Crystal’s detective badge became his most prized possession. He attached a money clip to it so that he could use it as his wallet. He kept it on the nightstand beside his bed.

    “Nothing will compare to that badge,” he said. “It was everything. It was more than my job. It was my life. I was whatever I was investigating at the time.”

    Guns and violence in Baltimore were often tied to drugs, so Crystal followed the drugs. Narcotics took a unique dedication: obsessive enough to hit the streets at any hour an informant called with a tip about a package about to be dropped off at a stash house, patient enough to lie on a roof surveilling a drug crew for hours and not just swoop in at the first sight of a hand-to-hand, and trustworthy enough to build long-term relationships with a network of confidential informants.

    “His work record was more than stellar,” said the sergeant. “He’s intense. He seems never to get tired. He was getting all these big cases. He had a gift for talking to people and a really good gift to do investigations.”

    On the night of Oct. 27, 2011:

    The car crept up a street known for heavy dealing. A crowd of people dispersed. The officers couldn’t tell who might be a dealer or buyer. But then a man tossed something over a chain-link fence and burst into a sprint. Tiedemann took off after him. “If he would have just put the drugs in his pocket and walked away, nothing would have ever happened,” Crystal said. “He would have just blended into the crowd and we would have lost him.”

    Crystal stepped out of the car to find the drugs. Gialamas drove off toward the pursuit. Crystal followed on his radio. A call came in about a suspect fitting the description of the dealer busting through the back door of a house on Prentiss Place around the corner. Police surrounded the house. The suspect surrendered. Crystal headed over. The suspect, Antoine Green, sat handcuffed on the curb. All the vacant houses on this block, Crystal told Green with a friendly grin, and you picked the only mothafuckin’ one that had somebody in it.

    “A lot of the guys who sold out on the street, they’re just doing what they gotta do,” Crystal said while driving through the city this May. “At the end of the day we’re all men. It’s a cat-and-mouse game. Their job is to sell drugs and my job is to arrest ‘em. Some days they’re gonna win. Some days we’re gonna win. On that day we won.”

    The police van left and Crystal and other officers secured the scene. Then an off-duty officer, Anthony Williams, showed up and approached Gialamas. They spoke for a minute or two, and then Crystal heard Gialamas radio for the van to come back. Officers opened the back of the van and pulled Green out. Gialamas ordered Crystal and other officers to get Green into the house. Crystal stood by the front door and watched Williams take Green into the kitchen.

    Days, months, years later, Crystal would wonder if he could have stopped it right then. But at the time, Crystal said, he hadn’t realized what was happening. Gialamas had been one of the best sergeants he’d ever worked with. Crystal considered Gialamas a friend. He was a veteran cop, with nearly two decades on the force, revered by his high- and low-ranking colleagues. “I had never seen him do anything underhanded,” Crystal said. “He didn’t have that type of reputation.”

    Crystal didn’t realize what was happening, he said, until he heard banging, crashing, guttural grunts and shouts. He heard the beating go on for minutes. He watched Williams drag Green back out of the house. Green’s shirt and jeans were torn and he was limping. Later, Crystal learned that Green’s ankle had been broken. He learned that the woman who lived in this house was a girlfriend of Williams’.

    The police report Tiedemann wrote up said that the wagon returned to the scene because Green “expressed a desire to apologize to Ms. Epps for breaking into her home.” Inside the home, the report continued, Green “then attempted to charge and head-butt off-duty officer Williams,” and that led to a “scuffle.” Crystal realized that the cover-up had begun.

    “The guy it happened to, he wasn’t a great guy, but no man deserves to be beaten up while in handcuffs,” Crystal said. “I can’t describe how sickening of a feeling it was to be a part of that.”

    Back at his apartment that night, Crystal called another sergeant, an old family friend, to ask what he should do. The sergeant told him to keep his mouth shut. If he talked, Crystal recalled the sergeant saying, it would fuck up his career. But Crystal thought the sergeant was being too dramatic. So he told a friend who worked in the state’s attorney’s office, and a year later the state’s attorney’s office filed charges against Williams and Gialamas.

    […]

    The code of silence conflicts with the laws on the books. In 2008, a jury awarded $1.4 million to three officers who had sued the Long Beach Police Department and its chief for failing to protect them against retaliation after they had reported that colleagues had gone lobster diving while on the clock. One of the officers had testified that the department’s chief had called them “malcontents” during a meeting. The Long Beach police chief was Anthony Batts.

    By the time Batts came to Baltimore in September 2012, nobody wanted to ride with Joe Crystal. It was unheard of for a narcotics cop to ride solo, multiple Baltimore officers said. When Crystal radioed for backup, no one would show. Eventually, his sergeant told him that the department was revoking his detective shield and sending him back to patrol. “Low performance” was the only explanation he got.

    […]

    His bosses were promoted or transferred, replaced by unfriendly faces. His new lieutenant was the one he’d left in the violent crimes unit, and his new major was once Gialamas’ partner. Crystal soon found himself working what he considered dead-end details on minor cases. Then in February 2014, the trial started, and the harassment heated up. Somebody created a fake Joe Crystal Twitter account that claimed Crystal had made up lies about Gialamas because they were hooking up with the same woman. Officers were calling him “snitch” to his face again. Crystal testified anyway. Gialamas was convicted of misconduct and sentenced to probation. Williams was convicted of assault and obstruction of justice and served 45 days in jail.

    […]

    “They were going at him so bad,” said an officer who spoke with the [department’s internal] investigators. “I had never seen that. They were looking for something. You could tell it was higher-level people trying to go after him. Their remedy for dealing with the Crystal thing was just get rid of him. They wanted him gone by any means necessary.”

    One evening in September, Crystal’s longtime partner came over to his house unannounced. Crystal had bought the home a year before and had fixed it up into his and his wife’s “dream house,” he said. He built a new deck. He set up cushy chairs, a flatscreen TV, and a bar in the basement. He had planned to spend the rest of his life there. The partner and Crystal talked for many hours in the living room. They talked about good times and they talked about all that had happened over the past year. They both cried. They could both see where the discussion was going.

    “Dude,” the partner said, somber but forceful, “you need to get the fuck out of here.”

    On Sept. 3, Joe Crystal resigned from the Baltimore City Police Department. At the time, even though they had been convicted more than six months earlier, Williams and Gialamas remained on the force.

    —

    Not all — perhaps not even most — officers within the department disapproved of what Crystal had done. Sgt. Lisa Robinson told the Baltimore Sun in May that she hoped the Department of Justice review of the BPD, which came in response to Freddie Gray’s death, would look into “the ‘stop snitching’ culture that is prevalent on the streets of Baltimore as well as within the Baltimore Police Department.” But those against Crystal were louder than those who supported him. Those who supported him risked their own careers. One of Crystal’s police friends said that he faced some harassment himself just by association. “Being friends with him meant having to sacrifice and I was fine to do that,” he said. Those officers who believed that Crystal did the right thing watched how he was treated for it. And perhaps that is Crystal’s most lasting impact on the department.

    In spring 2015, a Baltimore City police officer filed a complaint against a detective for an undisclosed incident of alleged misconduct. After meeting with a superior about the complaint, the officer changed his mind. “I wish not to move forward with my complaint for fear of retaliation and that the investigation will negatively impact my career,” he wrote in an email obtained by BuzzFeed News. “Unfortunately I feel if I move forward with this complaint my career will be forever changed to my detriment. I just watched a detective that I know go through an enormous amount of stress and eventual severance from the department for a complaint he made against fellow detectives. I really do not wish to experience even a fraction of what he went through.”

    […]

    Freddie Gray’s death brought more attention to Crystal’s experience, and he did more cable news rounds in the days following the riot. During a town hall at Morgan State University, the moderator asked what people wanted to see changed in the police department.

    “I’m just gonna mention one name: Detective Joe Crystal,” said a man in the audience. “The administration did not support him, the Fraternal Order of Police did not support him. … If we can’t protect police officers, how are citizens gonna…” but the applause drowned out the rest of his answer.

  376. rq says

    I think we’re about to hit a deadline, which means the post is closing down. I will try to fit in some last updates before then, but until a new one goes up, I’ll be preparing comments with links to put up once it is up.
    Thank you Pteryxx for that history on MOVE. To be honest, reading all of that just took up my allotted comment-time.
    Worth it.

  377. rq says

    First up some tailends from yesterday. (These are some of yesterday’s leftover links, we left before I could finish everything.)


    Claudia Jordan Demands Apology After Racial Profiling In Alabama Mall (VIDEOS)

    Model, actress, singer and radio host Claudia Jordan posted a video of an encounter with security guards at an Alabama Mall on May 8. According to her Instagram posts, Jordan and singer Ginuwine had just entered the mall, when she was approached by a security guard. The guard told her that it is a violation of the mall’s “code of conduct” to wear sunglasses. She was then directed to remove her glasses or leave.

    According to her posts, she looked around and saw that there were several white patrons wearing sunglasses inside the mall.

    She claims that at first she thought it was some kind of joke. But a few moments later she was approached by a second guard, who also told her it was against ‘mall policy’ to wear sunglasses while shopping. Jordan posted video of the incident to her Instagram account, along with comments voicing her frustration:

    What kind of BS us this?!!!!! This was the second security guard that the other white security guard sent to “handle us” after the first one harassed us 1 minute after we walked thru the door of the AUBURN mall. He followed us demanding I take my sunglasses off. There were no signs stating “sunglasses were prohibited” this was so blatant. I thought it was a joke at first then shit got real.

    Posting about her experience Jordan wrote:

    Never go to the Auburn Mall if you’re a minority and you chose to wear sun glasses. Clearly it’s against the law if you are black. Meanwhile we saw 2 white women and a white man wearing sunglasses who were not harassed or even approached. There were no signs saying that sun glasses were not allowed. Please do NOT tell me racism is dead. I’m a classy, educated woman with no criminal record simply wanting to shop in the local mall who was harassed by punk ass mall security and police were called. The message is clear- our KIND was not welcomed here and they are willing to use any excuse to get us all the way up outta there. Way to go Auburn Mall!

    Apparently mall security felt so threatened by a Black woman in sunglasses that they had to call in the cops for reinforcement. […]

    The comment posted by this Instagram user would make sense, were it not for the fact that the definition of racial profiling is a discriminatory enforcement of policies. According to Jordan, there were three white patrons wearing sunglasses in the mall, at the time she was approached. The writer assumes the white people were approached as well, when the fact remains that Jordan says she was approached the moment she walked in the door. To say that the security guards were probably, possibly going to deal with the white people later (after they subdued the real threat?) is to invent facts that are not present, presumably so you can keep telling yourself nice stories about how racism doesn’t exist in your town. […]

    The most ridiculous thing about all the comments in defense of ‘mall policy’ is that, according to a statement released by the Hull Property Group, there is no ban on sunglasses at the Auburn Mall. In fact, management claims that the problem was the result of mall management and security supposedly ‘misinterpreting’ the actual code of conduct. The statement reads:

    “Hull Property Group has a code of conduct in place at the Auburn Mall to ensure all patrons have a safe and enjoyable shopping experience. The code of conduct states that ‘apparel or accessories that may conceal or disguise the identity of the person is strictly prohibited’. We regret that our Auburn Mall management and security team misinterpreted this policy to include sunglasses as that was not our intent. We are taking appropriate action to ensure we do not have another incident of this nature again. We aim to treat all patrons with respect and will continue to work to improve the shopping experience at the Auburn Mall.”

    Let’s hope that they take it one stop further, and make an effort to determine whether the ‘misinterpreted’ policy was also applied selectively by mall security and management. According to Jordan’s narrative of events, it seems the non-existent rule of not shopping while wearing sunglasses was primarily enforced on Black shoppers. In spite of white America’s denial, racism is real and it happens far too often. In this case, it happened to someone with the ability to speak out against it.

    Larry Wilmore Demolishes ‘Democrats Are Real Racists’ LIE With Epic ‘Dixiecrat’ History Lesson (VIDEO)

    In response to Michelle Obama finally speaking up about the racism her family has experienced during the six years her husband’s been in office, Coulter hit the revisionist history talking points. She blamed Democrats for Jim Crow and she blamed modern-day racism on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs.

    Larry Wilmore, on his Tuesday night show, was having none of that. He, for once and for all schooled Coulter and other Republicans who claim that it’s Democrats who are to blame for racism.

    Wilmore did admit that for the first half of the 20th Century, there were Southern Democrats, called Dixiecrats, who were some of the most vile racists of all, but it was Lyndon Johnson who sent the Dixiecrats over to the Republican party when he signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

    The Dixiecrat voters ended up voting for Richard Nixon and Wilmore played some of Nixon’s most racist sound clips. He had something to say about nearly every ethnic group, including about black people. He even said, “there are times when abortion’s necessary like when you have a black and a white.” Republicans should love that one.


    Florida Pub Owner Held ‘N*ggers’ At Gunpoint, But She’s ‘Not Racist’

    Florida Pub Owner Held ‘N*ggers’ At Gunpoint, But She’s ‘Not Racist’
    Author: John Prager May 14, 2015 4:39 pm

    The owner of the George & Dragon British Pub location in Orlando, Florida was arrested last week after she held a young black couple at gunpoint while hurling racial slurs, but she says that no matter what police records say, she isn’t a racist in the least.

    According to police records, Kayla Davis and boyfriend Darian Elwin arrived at the pub at around 6:30 p.m. last Saturday to celebrate his 20th birthday after they received a discount for dinner online. Davis says that their difficulties began when she asked Bruns for a drink recommendation, having turned 21 just two months prior. Bruns returned with a Kamikaze for her soon-to-be victim, but then she said something “weird,” Davis explained:

    “As soon as she gave it to me, she said, ‘I’m watching you, and you better not give any drinks to minors.’ It felt weird and racist a little bit.”

    After another employee suspiciously checked on her, Davis says she and Elwin elected to leave and returned the untouched drink to Bruns. After they notified her of their intent to leave, things got very racist. According to the arrest report, Bruns told other customers:

    “Don’t let that [numerous unspecified slurs] leave!”

    Then, things got really crazy. According to the arrest report, Bruns came out of the barroom with a large black revolver police later confiscated and identified as a .357-caliber Magnum Colt Python.

    “Bruns pointed the firearm at her and stated, “I will shoot you [profanity],” the report reads. “Bruns then picked up a drinking glass from the bar, throwing it at Davis. The glass missed and shattered against the wall.”

    After the glass was thrown, Elwin says he attempted to pay for the drink that was not consumed so they could leave, but Bruns simply swore at him.

    “I’ll shoot you too if I have to. It’s legal,” Bruns said, according to the arrest report. “Call Jesse Jackson, [profanity].”

    At this point, police arrived. Bruns refused to allow police to view surveillance video, but claims that she never threatened the couple with a gun. Despite her protestations, Bruns was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a firearm and aggravated assault.

    “I can’t believe you would take those [racist profanity] side over mine,” Bruns then told an officer, according to the arrest report. This was Bruns’ tenth arrest in Florida since 1984. the Orlando Sentinel reports.

    “It’s all false accusations” Brun told the Sentinel. “I have black people who work for me. I have never used a racial slur.”

    Yup, she’s definitely about as post-racial as they come.

    NY pastor: Baltimore rioted because blacks aren’t mature enough to have a black president. *tee hee* Well, I have some thoughts about those mature whites and their presidents, too – and if women take issue with the first woman president, we’ll also be too immature for her, right? Okay, mature old man, what’s your proof?

    ATLAH World Missionary Church Pastor Dr. James David Manning asserted this week that Baltimore residents rioted after the death of Freddie Gray because black people were not ready for a black president.

    In his Wednesday video broadcast, Manning said that he didn’t have any “hatred for the idiots who voted for Obama,” but “sometimes when you speak the truth it sounds like or feels like hate.”

    According to Manning, black people did not deserve a black president because “young black men” had not accomplished anything, and instead believed that they were “owed” government benefits because their ancestors were slaves.

    “Hamite [or black] people were saying we should have a black president simply because we were once slaves in this nation,” he said. “It’s like saying because I went swimming one day, I should be the captain of the world’s largest aircraft carrier. You know nothing about a boat. You just got wet swimming one day.”

    “To put a Hamite in office just because and only because — there was no other reason — is that Americans were once slaves,” Manning continued. “I stated as well that there would be riots in the streets. I stated that young people born after the plagues will look around and say, ‘We don’t have to accomplish anymore. We don’t have to discipline ourselves anymore. We don’t need a family structure anymore. We don’t need to be hardworking anymore. We can just demand because we were slaves, we ought to be given a penthouse, we ought to be given government subsidies.’”

    The pastor declared that “the proof is in the pudding.”

    “If you can become the president of American without every proving that you should be and a nation now has a leader that comes from absolutely out of slavery, and not our of an understanding then why would black youth want to complete high school?” he asked. “We don’t have to earn our way in life anymore, we can demand simply because we were slaves.”

    But Manning said that the real problem was that white liberals were allowing blacks to have power “because they were once slaves.”

    “Give them the presidency, give them mayors office, give them the state attorneys office,” he said. “Give them food stamps because they were all slaves.”

    “What we see now, you can attribute it to the ignorance and the barbarism of black people, but you can also surely know that it’s been unleashed by white liberals and Fox News watchers that have turned loose this plague of black people with unaccountability on America,” he concluded. “Don’t blame blackie for this. This one we’re going to lay at the feet of whitey.”

    So the proof is in the pudding. Sadly, I have no pudding, so no proof, so I think he’s wrong. Ta-dah! Logic at work.

    More seriously, No charges in Zion police shooting.

    A Zion police officer who shot a teenager twice in the back will not be charged in the death, officials said Thursday.

    Justus Howell, 17, was shot while running from police the afternoon of April 4 near 24th Street and Galilee Avenue in north suburban Zion.

    Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim said during a press conference that his office had concluded its investigation and that the officer was “justified in his decision to use deadly force.”

    A gun was recovered within a foot of Howell’s body, officials said. Witnesses told investigators that during a foot chase between the officer and the teen they had seen Howell carrying the gun and heard the officer tell the teen to drop it.

    “These are the facts, Justus Howell was armed and dangerous,” Nerheim said. “For those reasons, Officer Hill was in fear for his life and acted reasonably and justifiably to protect himself and his fellow officers.”

    Howell, a high school senior from north suburban Waukegan, had smoked marijuana within a few hours of his death and his blood-alcohol level was well below the legal limit, the Lake County Coroner determined last month.

    During the press conference, Nerheim showed surveillance video footage from a city lot across the street that captured the shooting. Stopping frame by frame, Nerheim pointed to a slight turn by Howell as the point in which the officer had seen a gun in the teenager’s hand. Seconds later, the officer shoots the teen in front of a white house.

    Nerheim also showed video that allegedly shows Howell before the shooting, struggling with another man over a gun – a stolen 9-millimeter semi-automatic. When the gun went off, a neighbor called police. Officer Eric Hill and another officer showed up to the scene. That’s when Howell ran away and Hill chased after him.

    After today’s announcement, protestors gathered to denounce the decision. They said it is the latest example of a white police officer killed a young African American man. The group plans to protest outside the Lake County States Attorney’s Office Friday afternoon.

    “We don’t want people out here to be tearing nothing up and burning buildings or anything, we just want justice,” said Derell Howell, the victim’s uncle.

    A family spokesperson said Howell’s parents are upset, but want protests to be peaceful. They have met with an attorney to explore their legal options.

    The officer involved in the shooting is on administrative leave, but officials said during the press conference that they expect him to return to full duty.

    Zion Police Chief Stephen Dumyahn said of Officer Hill: “This has been a very tense situation for him and his family. They’ve been under a lot of pressure.”

    Armed, sure. Dangerous? Not so sure.

    Here, I think it’s a repeat, but it’s a happier read: Baltimore teenager released after anonymous supporter pays $500,000 bail .

  378. rq says

    More on Madison and protests in Tony Robinson’s name: Members of YGB, Madison community march to demand justice for Tony Robinson

    Roughly two dozen protesters were arrested Wednesday after refusing to vacate a street near Capitol Square as part of a protest against Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne’s Tuesday decision not to press charges against a Madison police officer who shot and killed a biracial teenager in March.

    The march—organized by Madison’s Young, Gifted and Black Coalition—began as an estimated 400 protesters descended on the Williamson Street house where MPD Officer Matt Kenny shot and killed 19-year-old Tony Robinson in an effort to draw attention to what they view as systemic police violence.

    After walking to the Dane County courthouse, protesters rested at the intersection of West Doty and South Carroll streets for over two hours before law enforcement requested the group vacate the street. While most of the crowd did so, roughly 25 protesters remained in the road and were arrested without incident.

    As the arrests were carried out, YGB leader Brandi Grayson decried what she called “an occupying force” and iterated that the arrests were “a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

    “Violence started when your comrade shot Tony Robinson. Violence started March 6th,” Grayson shouted at police. “If you want a relationship with us, march with us. You are part of insanity.”

    Before the march, members of YGB, which organized the event in solidarity with similar movements nationwide, spoke as the crowd swelled to around 500 people.

    The group wound its way through the east side of Madison, halting traffic on Williamson Street and John Nolen Drive, one of the main thoroughfares entering the city. Chants of “no justice, no peace” and pleas for justice for Robinson rang out as the protesters moved underneath Monona Terrace toward their final destination.

    Upon arriving at the courthouse, YGB leaders Grayson and M Adams led a “people’s court” in protest of Ozanne’s decision. Grayson said before the march Ozanne, who is biracial, had political motivations in not charging Kenny.

    The remaining protesters served as jurors to determine whether they felt Kenny should be charged. As the “hearing” built to a crescendo, the crowd roared in approval when asked if Kenny deserved to be charged. Adams declared it was “clear” the community wanted justice for Robinson and local police “should work for the people.”

    Soon, the group turned their attention to the Dane County jail. Speakers admonished a proposal to expand the jail and the group demanded the release of over 300 African-Americans allegedly incarcerated for crimes of poverty.

    Several protesters chained themselves to an entrance to the jail in an act of civil disobedience and proclaimed they would not move for roughly four hours.

    Protester Sasha W., one of the six protesters who blocked entrance to the jail, said the decision not to indict Kenny was “an example of state violence.”

    “This is what state violence looks like,” she said. “The violence that black people are subjected to in this city is extreme. There are 350 black people who have been incarcerated for crimes of poverty in this city and there are massive disparities. There is no reason to incarcerate people for poverty when people like Matt Kenny are not arrested.”

    While speakers were critical of the city and state, there were notes of optimism among group members. A local high school student opened the march with a rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” and other youth addressed the assembled crowd.

    “Seeing so many people here gives me hope that there can be change,” said JT Ruffin, a Sun Prairie High School student and friend of Robinson. “People aren’t going to loot or riot. Madison can be the start of change for this movement.”

    I feel like there’s a lot of misperception out there about what happened in Baltimore, like protest organizers there did something wrong. That it was the movement that failed, not the overbearing pressure that strained tensions to a point where people into illegal activity. Perhaps Madison is a happier place for black people, and maybe the rioting and the looting isn’t something so close to the surface, but I don’t know if ‘starting change for the movement’ by this kind of comparison is a productive sort of thing… If anything, it’s law enforcement and city officials that should look into the Baltimore reaction and the Madison reaction, contrast and compare, and learn, not so much the protestors. But that’s just my opinion. (It’s just a phrase that bothers me, protestors in other cities all ‘oh, we wouldn’t riot or loot, we wouldn’t do that!’. I mean… you don’t know until you’re pushed that far, right? But on the other hand, I’m absolutely unqualified to lecture them on reaction or their opinion on others’ reactions. So there’s that, too.)

    I Spent Sixteen Hours in Manhattan Criminal Court

    I’ve spent my fair share of hours at the courts in each of the five boroughs in the course of my duties as a reporter. I’ve waited on the long line that curls down Queens Boulevard to get into Queens Criminal, I’ve researched in the stacks of Brooklyn and Bronx Criminal, and I’ve gone to an arraignment for murder in Staten Island. By and large, each borough maintains a dominant characteristic. In one of the most diverse counties in the world, the Queens courthouse is characterized by an almost exotic eccentricity; Brooklyn Criminal, on the other hand, is defined by the grit of Brownsville and East New York, two of the more notoriously crime- and police-ridden neighborhoods in the city. The Bronx courthouse has a Bonfire of the Vanities–esque old-fashioned (and dirty) New York-in-the-70s grit to it. And the Staten Island courthouse is the only place I’ve heard both the court officer and judge say “fucking.”

    The Manhattan Criminal Court on 100 Centre Street is the mothership, a 17-floor concrete beast. From 8:30 in the morning until one at night, an endless stream of New Yorkers are squeezed through a brutal system, facing the short- and long-term consequences of all types and degrees of violations, misdemeanors, and felonies.

    It’s pretty easy to find: Even the hot dog stand outside has a number for a criminal defense lawyer plastered on it.

    But in a city where prosecution of low-level infractions like subway performances, panhandling, and even selling churros reigns supreme, the Manhattan Criminal Court also functions as a zoo exhibit for broken windows theory. This is a place that ebbs and flows with the whims of 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York Police Department. During the police slowdown this past January, when cops basically decided to stop arresting people, the courtrooms were reportedly ghost towns. […]

    In between proceedings, I navigated through the different floors of the complex, peering down corridors that reminded me of the scariest parts of The Shining. On one floor, I saw a line of people entering a courtroom for the notorious Etan Patz trial, which centers on a boy who went missing some 40 years ago. On another, I walked right into the Department of Probation, where a sign warned, “Probation is a long process.” Then, up on the highest floors, where the Criminal Supreme Court rooms are located, I turned left and saw three court officers walking toward me, escorting a man in handcuffs

    I escaped down below to Room 130, which is perhaps the most “popular”—the arraignment room. That might explain why, just as I sat down, a crowd of about 20 older white people entered brandishing their green “Visitor’s Pass” tags while a handful of young black and Hispanic men faced the judge—and possible prison time. One of the tour members told me they were upstairs on the seventh floor, the office of the Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, and figured “they’d come see what this was all about.”

    These voyeuristic forays to Manhattan Criminal Court, especially at night, have become quite common in recent years. A court officer later told me tourists come to see the arraignments because they think they’re exciting. They’re interested in seeing real-life Law & Order crime dramas, but instead are handed the dystopian reality of criminal justice in this country.

    Some of the old white women gawked at a large black man in handcuffs who was charged with petty larceny for stealing from Target.

    That was one thing you’d have to be blind to not notice: the racial undertones. In every courtroom I visited, the people that found themselves behind the bar were almost always black or Hispanic, and the people in front of the bar—the judges, the lawyers, the administrative officials—were almost always white. I found myself more times than not as the only white guy on the “wrong” side, jotting down notes. […]

    Throughout the day, the city’s money machine was in action. Possession of marijuana? $75, with an $88 surcharge. Traffic infraction? $70, with a $120 surcharge. Disorderly conduct? $50. The ATM outside of the court doubles as a broken windows deposit bank. All in all, I must’ve seen at least $1,000 collected from people who couldn’t even afford an attorney. (Hence the permanently installed Legal Aid Society office a few floors up.)

    “On three separate occasions, academicians have told me that a criminal prosecutor from Germany or some other European country visited the Manhattan Criminal Court, and had three questions to ask,” Gangi told me. “First: ‘Is there no real due process?’ Second: ‘How can you administer justice if it’s happening so fast?’ And third: ‘Where do the white people get prosecuted?’

    “Our takeaway is that it’s the same old bad business,” Gangi continued. “And nobody in the courtroom stands up and says, ‘What the fuck is going on?'” […]

    One of the most frightening parts of it all is how routine the madness is. It becomes exhaustingly predictable. The court workers laugh and joke, as men and women have their lives decided in front of them. During my visit, one employee even started singing, ironically, “Eight Days a Week” by The Beatles. You start to notice that the only people in the room having regular conversations are the cops, while family members try to listen in to find out what will happen to their child, nephew, or friend.

    It angers you, but what’s even scarier is how much a part of it you become. When a prosecutor suggests a high bail set at $2,000 for something like harassment, you turn to the guy sitting next to you, raise your eyebrows, and give a look, like, Holy shit! There’s a small burst of cheers after each dismissal. One defendant was released on his own recognizance after being charged with sexual harassment because his lawyer convinced the judge that he was just an old, innocent man. The guy sitting next to me whispered, “Damn, I want that guy’s card.”

    I kept telling myself that this is a court, so of course it’s terrible. There is no good court in America. But now those tour groups made sense to me. And, at a certain point, this system—broken windows policing, all of it—almost made sense, too. It’s meant to be a showcase, to present to the people just how swift “justice” is in New York City. Here officials can bang out hundreds of cases in a matter of hours, and anyone who wants to make sure criminals are getting theirs can come have a look. […]

    “I haven’t had my cell phone all day, so my wife is worried sick,” he told me as we waited for the subway together. “I left my house this morning at 9 AM. She has no idea what happened to me, or where I might be. And I’ve got a four-month-old son.” His voice grew angry as he described the conditions in the Tombs, where he waited for hours before being squeezed in at the last minute. (He hates peanut butter.)

    “It’s like, we get so crazed about what other countries are doing, and how they treat their people,” the man said. “Meanwhile, we’re doing the same shit right here, right in our own backyard, right in the middle of New York City. How does that make any sense?”

    It’s like a circus, but worse, because a circus is easier to dismantle and control.

    Active Duty Soldier slowly dies in police custody from a sickle cell crisis. Police ignore his pleas for help. There’s a matryoshka link in there, but a more open one later. Sort of like a bookmark, is this one. In case the thread goes.

    City of Charlotte will settle with family of Jonathan Ferrell for $2.25 million, sources say. Yes, your emotional distress and the loss of your family member is worth that much.

    The city of Charlotte is on the verge of settling a lawsuit over the 2013 shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell for $2.25 million, according to sources familiar with the case.

    Ferrell was shot numerous times by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Randall Kerrick in September 2013. Ferrell was unarmed, and Kerrick is scheduled to go to trial on a voluntary manslaughter charge in July. The officer’s attorneys say the shooting was tragic but justified.

    Kerrick is the first CMPD officer charged with an on-duty shooting in at least three decades. Ferrell’s family filed suit in January 2014 against the office, CMPD and city and county government. The civil trial in federal court had been scheduled to start in November.

    The family stands to receive an amount that is three times higher than the $700,000 settlement the city reached January 2014 with the family of of a cellphone tower repairman fatally shot on the job by police in 2006. […]

    The North Carolina attorney general’s office is prosecuting the case after Mecklenburg District Attorney Andrew Murray recused himself and his office because he’s a former law partner with Kerrick’s defense team.

    Kerrick has made one appearance in court, drawing a small but angry group of protesters. One woman cursed the officer in the courtroom and called him a killer.

    Kerrick attorneys Michael Greene and George Laughrun attempted to move the trial outside of Mecklenburg County, arguing that the potential jury pool has been tainted by the coverage the shooting has received.

    Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin refused, saying the case has drawn statewide attention and that there’s nowhere to relocate the trial where jurors may not have read or heard reports about the case.

    This story will be updated.

    Whoa whoa, there’s to be a trial? Well fuck me.

    Oh, then there was that principal who made racial remarks at convocation. Yes, ‘was’. School principal who made racially charged remarks removed from position

    According to the NAACP, the principal of a school in Stone Mountain who made controversial statements about black graduates has been removed from her position.
    Additional Links
    Son of principal in racial controversy joins her in hot seat
    Accrediting body of controversial Principal’s school says comments “inappropriate”
    School principal apologizes for singling out, stereotyping black people at graduation

    Nancy Gordeuk, the principal and founder of TNT Academy in Stone Mountain, said she accidentally skipped the valedictorian’s speech in the program, and she asked the crowd that was leaving early to come back inside of the church where the ceremony was being hosted.

    As she addressed the crowd, people with cell phones recorded her saying, “Look at who is leaving, all of the black people.”

    Georgia NAACP President Francys Johnson said he received an email from TNT board chair, Dr. Heidi Anderson confirming that Gordeuk was removed as principal.

    The NAACP forwarded an e-mail Anderson sent them that said:

    “In light of recent events, the board of directors of TNT academy has moved to dismiss Nancy Gordeuk as principal. During the coming transition, we will continue to prioritize support for our most recent graduates. Moreover, we will continue our commitment to providing students with the best educational classes, transcription services, and academic credit recovery possible.”

    But there are still questions regarding Gordeuk’s dismissal. CBS46 wanted to know, because she is the owner of the school, is it actually possible to fire her? What, if anything has changed about Gordeuk’s relationship with TNT Academy now that she has been “dismissed.”

    CBS46 found the headmaster of another non-traditional school in the area. We asked him what kind of power a private school’s board of directors really has.

    Peter Meents of the Heritage Classical Study Center in Lilburn, said, “There are certain things that I just can’t do without [the board’s] okay- mainly having to do with money.”

    But Meents said as far as firing the owner of the school, that’s not something his board of directors can do.

    “They don’t have really any say other than an advisory role on hiring and firing of staff,” said Meents.

    As owner of his school, Meents added that the board of directors is a group of people who he has chosen to serve in that position. They are advisers who look out for the school’s best interests, but have no share in the profits.

    In the past, we had no problem speaking with Nancy Gordeuk.

    We were the first television station she talked to after the original incident.

    On Saturday, she said, “I apologize to everyone who was in attendance. I’m sorry for what I said.”

    We wanted to ask her about the details of her dismissal, but when we went to her house, she did not come to the door.

    Representatives of TNT Academy could not answer our questions.

    Sorry ’cause she got fired, I bet.

    Rally at #SupremeCourt in #DowntownBK. They want justice for the police-involved death of 28yrold #AkaiGurley.

  380. rq says

    Officer Kenny was not indicted. Ofc Kenny shot #TonyRobinson as he LEFT the house. He “did not know how he got to the bottom of the stairs.” Graphic. Again there is a mismatch between the official narrative, and what video evidence seems to be showing.

    When pushed on what made him think his claim on the 800 African square miles was legit, Jeremiah Heaton said this… Because that’s how historically many countries were founded (incl. the USA), except those were acts of war and his is an act of love. Did he ask the Sudanese?

    Jefferson Davis Statue at University of Texas Campus Sparks Protest

    Student leaders at the University of Texas in Austin are seeking to remove from their campus a statue of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis, which recently was defaced with the words “Davis must fall” and “Emancipate UT.”

    An overwhelming majority of the Student Government adopted a resolution in March calling for removal of the statue because it represents “slavery and racism.” Student body president Xavier Rotnofsky said those things are “just not in line with the university’s core values.”

    The university has not made a decision on the resolution. Gary Susswein, director of media relations for UT-Austin, told USA Today College that the university is going through a presidential transition, so it is not an appropriate time for outgoing leadership to make a major decision about a change in policy.

    Don Carleton, executive director of the Briscoe Center for American History at UT-Austin, says the World War I-era statue “was not conceived as a tribute to the confederacy, it was used to show reconciliation.” Students and the NAACP say Jefferson Davis’s statue has no place on campus because he has no affiliation with the university or the state beyond Texas’s ties to the Confederacy.

    The Associated Press reports that the number of sites on public and private land in Texas that honor the Confederacy is growing, despite opposition from the NAACP and others. The Texas Historical Commission has recognized more than 1000 sites statewide, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans are planning more, including a 10-foot obelisk to honor Confederate soldiers buried at the city-owned Oakwood Cemetery, just a few miles from the Davis statue.

    Other projects include a Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas, featuring 32 waving flags representing Texas regiments of the Confederate army and 13 columns symbolizing the Confederate states, and a Confederate Veterans Memorial Plaza in downtown Palestine, Texas, near what the NAACP says was the site of a lynching.

    Sons of Confederate Veterans spokesman Marshall Davis, whose organization is fighting Texas’s decision to ban Confederate flag license plates, said these memorials and statues are part of an effort to “honor our heroes.” […]

    The legacy of slavery, emancipation, white supremacy, and revisionism in the South, and throughout this nation, continues to shape discourse about racial history and impede progress toward honest and hopeful engagement with the past. EJI’s race and poverty project is focused on developing a more informed understanding of America’s racial history and how it relates to contemporary challenges.

    EJI believes that reconciliation with our nation’s difficult past cannot be achieved without truthfully confronting history and finding a way forward that is thoughtful and responsible. EJI began that effort by partnering with the Black Heritage Council of the Alabama Historical Commission to sponsor three historical markers in downtown Montgomery that memorialize the domestic slave trade that flourished in Alabama’s capital city. The markers in downtown Montgomery were dedicated on December 10, 2013.

    #Justice4Daniel still taking the Lakewood streets #DanielCovarrubias

    The People’s Manifesto on Police Body-Cameras

    Body cameras are beginning to be used by law-enforcement agencies across the country. And they’re starting to hit snags.

    In Fort Worth, two police officers shot a man—and, despite both wearing body cameras, the incident wasn’t captured on film. The department says both cameras were turned off.

    In San Diego, when an experienced officer shot an unarmed 31-year-old man, a body camera didn’t capture the footage, either—despite the city owning more than 600 of the devices.

    And in California, a bill that was written to guarantee certain protections for citizens captured on body-camera footage has been amended—under pressure from local law enforcement—to have nearly the exact opposite affect.

    All three of these cases confound the idea that body cameras increase accountability. Indeed, they suggest that body cams, in the hands of law enforcement, will only increase unchecked police power. But, say civil-rights leaders, it’s not too late to make the technology serve the people.

    On Friday, 34 civil rights groups—including the ACLU, NAACP, and Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights—announced principles that they hope will guide national and local policy on body cameras.

    The principles are listed at the end of this post. Broadly, they say that city and state rules about body cams must be public: developed with the public and then available to the public. They ask for “limitations” on what kinds of technology can be used to sift through the footage, like facial-recognition algorithms. And—in the most specific policy described—they dictate that police officers should submit their own incident reports before getting to view body-camera footage, thus preserving the “independent evidentiary value” of both.

    The principles also set up a balance between public interest and individual privacy. At a minimum, “footage that captures police use of force should be made available to the public and press upon request,” they say, but they also specify that “departments must consider individual privacy concerns before making footage available to broad audiences.”

    “It’s not a foregone conclusion that [body cameras] will be a force for good, but the possibility exists, and we want to ensure that possibility is greatest by having these principles,” said Sakira Cook, a policy counsel at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. […]

    Below, the full text of the guidelines.

    To help ensure that police-operated cameras are used to enhance civil rights, departments must:

    1 Develop camera policies in public with the input of civil-rights advocates and the local community. Current policies must always be publicly available, and any policy changes must also be made in consultation with the community.

    2 Commit to a set of narrow and well-defined purposes for which cameras and their footage may be used. In particular, facial recognition and other biometric technologies must be carefully limited: If they are used together with body cameras, officers will have far greater visibility into heavily policed communities—where cameras will be abundant—than into other communities where cameras will be rare. Such technologies could amplify existing disparities in law-enforcement practices across communities.

    3 Specify clear operational policies for recording, retention, and access, and enforce strict disciplinary protocols for policy violations. While some types of law-enforcement interactions (e.g., when attending to victims of domestic violence) may happen off-camera, the vast majority of interactions with the public—including all that involve the use of force—should be captured on video. Departments must also adopt systems to monitor and audit access to recorded footage, and secure footage against unauthorized access and tampering.

    4 Make footage available to promote accountability with appropriate privacy safeguards in place. At a minimum: (1) footage that captures police use of force should be made available to the public and press upon request, and (2) upon request, footage should be made available in a timely manner to any filmed subject seeking to file a complaint, to criminal defendants, and to the next-of-kin of anyone whose death is related to the events captured on video. Departments must consider individual privacy concerns before making footage available to broad audiences.

    5 Preserve the independent evidentiary value of officer reports by prohibiting officers from viewing footage before filing their reports. Footage of an event presents a partial—and sometimes misleading—perspective of how events unfolded. Pre-report viewing could cause an officer to conform the report to what the video appears to show, rather than what the officer actually saw.

    Followed by a list of organizations and people supporting this manifesto.

    It’s Been 6 Months Since Tamir Rice Died, and the Cop Who Killed Him Still Hasn’t Been Questioned. And, apparently, neither has the one who didn’t render first aid.

  381. rq says

    Borkquote upthread, the guidelines should be blockquoted as well.

    Tulsa, land of the incompetent reserve deputy. Shot by a wannabe cop in Tulsa, #MonroeBird is now fighting to survive. Every system has abandoned his family.

    Fathers’ Involvement With Their Children: United States, 2006–2010, pdf from the CDC, I believe mentioned upthread by Tony. You can read the report here.

    Man who died in Spokane Police custody identified

    The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the identity Thursday of the man who died at Sacred Heart Medical Center after being in Police Custody on Wednesday.

    The Medical Examiner’s Office said 37-year-old Lorenzo Hayes died Wednesday morning after suffering a medical emergency while in police custody and being taken to the hospital.

    According to reports, the Medical Examiner’s Office is still currently investigating the cause and manner of death.

    Spokane Police arrested Hayes Wednesday morning after a domestic violence call on N. Addison and E. Sanson where he was allegedly armed with a rifle.

    Officers were able to determine there was a domestic violence no-contact order in place and Hayes was in violation of that order. Officers said that the order also made it illegal for him to possess firearms. Police said Hayes violated the no contact order, but family members disagree saying this was his home and that he was not the one who violated it.

    Officers took Hayes into custody without incident and located a firearm at the residence and noted that the suspect appeared to be high. Officials said that he admitted to “drinking something” prior to being transported to the jail.

    Hayes was transported to the Spokane County Jail to be booked for unlawful possession of firearm and felony violation of a domestic violence no contact order, which under Washington law is mandatory booking.

    Officials said that while being transported to the jail, Hayes began kicking on the back of the patrol car. Officers notified jail staff to be prepared for an uncooperative male. According to reports, the jail staff met Hayes upon arrival and escorted him while still handcuffed into the booking area. Because he continued to be uncooperative, jail staff prepared to place him in a restraint chair to keep him from hurting himself or others, according to officials. Reports said that during that process, the suspect had a medical emergency.

    Corrections officers tried to resuscitate Hayes and Spokane Fire Medics were called to the jail. He was then taken to the hospital where he later died.

    Officials said there is an investigation underway. Officers said the incident was caught on surveillance video and the SIRR Team is reviewing the video and talking to witnesses about what happened.

    Witness Accounts in Midtown Hammer Attack Show the Power of False Memory

    The real world of our memory is made of bits of true facts, surrounded by holes that we Spackle over with guesses and beliefs and crowd-sourced rumors. On the dot of 10 on Wednesday morning, Anthony O’Grady, 26, stood in front of a Dunkin’ Donuts on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. He heard a ruckus, some shouts, then saw a police officer chase a man into the street and shoot him down in the middle of the avenue.

    Moments later, Mr. O’Grady spoke to a reporter for The New York Times and said the wounded man was in flight when he was shot. “He looked like he was trying to get away from the officers,” Mr. O’Grady said.

    Another person on Eighth Avenue then, Sunny Khalsa, 41, had been riding her bicycle when she saw police officers and the man. Shaken by the encounter, she contacted the Times newsroom with a shocking detail.

    “I saw a man who was handcuffed being shot,” Ms. Khalsa said. “And I am sorry, maybe I am crazy, but that is what I saw.”

    At 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the Police Department released a surveillance videotape that showed that both Mr. O’Grady and Ms. Khalsa were wrong.

    Contrary to what Mr. O’Grady said, the man who was shot had not been trying to get away from the officers; he was actually chasing an officer from the sidewalk onto Eighth Avenue, swinging a hammer at her head. Behind both was the officer’s partner, who shot the man, David Baril.

    And Ms. Khalsa did not see Mr. Baril being shot while in handcuffs; he is, as the video and still photographs show, freely swinging the hammer, then lying on the ground with his arms at his side. He was handcuffed a few moments later, well after he had been shot.

    There is no evidence that the mistaken accounts of either person were malicious or intentionally false. Studies of memories of traumatic events consistently show how common it is for errors to creep into confidently recalled accounts, according to cognitive psychologists. […]

    She now believes that she saw the initial encounter and then looked away, as she was on her bicycle. In that moment, the man began the attack, which lasted about three seconds until he was shot. “I didn’t see the civilian run or swing a hammer,” she said. “In my mind I assumed he was just standing there passively, and now is on the ground in handcuffs.”

    “With all of the accounts in the news of police officers in shootings, I assumed that police were taking advantage of someone who was easily discriminated against,” she added. “Based on what I saw, I assumed the worst. Even though I had looked away.”

    Her own certainty was gone, Ms. Khalsa said.

    “It makes me think about everything in life,” she said.

    There’s more at the link, I just thought it was an interesting account of memory and how it works and the current narrative of police shooting unarmed black men (or at least, not directly threatening black men) being so prominent.

    Pine Lawn officer suspended after accusations of assaulting resident. You know, just another member of the fine upstanding force of gentlemen in the St Louis area.

    In honour of a music legend, Remembering B.B. King, an Icon of the Blues, with photos.

    One of the most celebrated figures in the world of music, blues master B.B. King, died in Las Vegas on Thursday at the age of 89, according to the Associated Press, citing King’s lawyer.

    The leading bluesman of his generation sold millions of albums over the course of his phenomenal career and was an inductee in both the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

    His 2009 album, “One Kind Favor,” earned him his 15th Grammy.

    Gallery right below that one is one segregated schools in the ’70s, also interesting.

  382. rq says

    #CrimingWhileWhite: Teen hate-crime suspect accused of Instagram post: ‘Let’s shoot some cops’

    A hate-crime suspect’s Instagram activity has landed him in deeper trouble — after cops found a post suggesting, “Let’s shoot some cops in their patrol cars,” police allege.

    Michael Kish, 19, of Clifton, was arrested last week on charges he and an accomplice, Christian Schlagler, 18, of Sunnyside, scrawled swastikas, the words “White Power,” and other racial epithets at the Eltingville station of the Staten Island Railway.

    The graffiti included what investigators believe is Schlagler’s Instagram handle, and that led police to Kish’s account, law enforcement sources said.

    Investigators then found a conversation about a month ago detailing what’s thought to be Schlagler’s recent arrest on a bench warrant, sources said.

    Kish, posting as “hurt_shoulder,” then wrote, “He’s out. Let’s shoot some cops in their patrol cars,” followed by “emoji” images of a smiling police officer, an alien and three guns, authorities allege.

    He continued, “(Expletive) the #NYPD bunch of (expletive). (Expletive) the squad that got lit up in Brooklyn, and (expletive) their families,” police allege.

    Sources said that’s likely a reference to the fatal ambush of NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn on Dec. 20.

    Police re-arrested Kish when he returned to court Wednesday for the graffiti case.

    Prosecutors have charged him with fourth-degree criminal solicitation, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, according to information from Acting District Attorney Daniel Master’s office.

    I have a feeling things would be different if he were black.

    No charges against Zion police in fatal shooting of teen Justus Howell

    A Zion police officer will not face criminal charges for fatally shooting a 17-year-old in the back, an incident that has fueled public anger and highlighted tension between Lake County authorities and some minority residents.

    Revealing details that had been obscured since police shot Justus Howell on April 4, State’s Attorney Mike Nerheim announced Thursday that he had decided the officer’s use of force was justified. Nerheim, who displayed low-resolution video of the shooting at a news conference, said investigators determined that Howell had a gun in his hand and turned toward the officer just before he was shot.

    Controversy over the white officer’s shooting of a black teenager has been fed by circumstances specific to the case and grievances over police use of force against minorities in recent incidents across the country. Thursday’s airing of the evidence did not settle disagreements over Howell’s death. […]

    Activists called for protests, the family’s attorney promised a federal lawsuit and the teen’s mother, LaToya Howell, said she was unconvinced by the evidence, including grainy footage of the shooting caught by a surveillance camera.

    “I have seen that video. There is nothing that suggests they should execute my son. His back was turned. He was no threat,” she said outside the courthouse. “This is not proper policing. This is not the end. Justice for Justus.”

    For the first time, Nerheim publicly identified the officer who shot Howell as Eric Hill, a nine-year veteran of the department, according to state records. He remained on paid leave Thursday but was expected to return soon, authorities said. Hill could not be reached for comment. […]

    As activists decried Nerheim’s decision, Howell’s uncle, Derell Howell, called for calm.

    “We don’t want people out here tearing anything up or burning anything. We just want justice. We don’t want a circus or anything like that. We just want to be treated right,” he said.

    “He didn’t deserve to die,” the uncle said.

    Protests in the wake of Howell’s shooting have focused both on his death and on more general complaints about law enforcement in Lake County’s northern cities, where episodes of police violence against black and Hispanic residents have periodically sparked uproars. Police in those cities have more routinely faced brutality allegations than officers in the wealthier, whiter towns to the south.

    Zion, a city of some 24,000 that is about 60 percent black and Hispanic, is patrolled by a police force of about 50 officers that includes three African-Americans and four Hispanics, according to recent state records. The far northern suburb is not unique in having a largely white police department and a mostly black and Latino population.

    Zion police Chief Stephen Dumyahn said at the news conference that the city will review the case, though he said the police response appeared to have been appropriate.

    Charlotte settles with Jonathan Ferrell’s family for $2.25 million in police shooting

    The settlement – which was unanimously approved by the City Council in closed session – shields Kerrick, the city and the police from any further civil suit or penalty. It comes after three months of mediation, beginning with a Feb. 16 meeting between Georgia and Willie Ferrell, Jonathan Ferrell’s mother and brother, Clodfelter, police Chief Rodney Monroe, City Attorney Bob Hagemann and Mayor Pro Tem Michael Barnes.

    “Georgia [Ferrell] and Chief Monroe had a particularly meaningful dialogue. Everybody respected Georgia and respected her loss,” said Monnett, who also was on hand.

    The money, which will be mostly paid from a city fund to cover legal settlements, should be in the family’s hands “in a matter of days,” Hagemann said. “While we realize that money is an inadequate means of compensating Mr. Ferrell’s family, we feel that this was a fair and equitable settlement.”

    Georgia Ferrell said Thursday afternoon that some of the settlement will be used to launch the “Justice for Jonathan Foundation.” Its goal, she said: “to help law enforcement and the community better understand one another.”

    “Our mission has always been to ensure that no other innocent person unnecessarily loses their life to police violence,” she said in a statement released after the press conference. “We are grateful that this case has been resolved, but it is devastating to know that nothing we do will ever bring Jonathan back.”

    She said she hopes the loss of her son will lead to changes in police policies and attitudes – in Charlotte and around the country.

    Laughrun and Greene criticized the City Council for first cutting money for Kerrick’s defense, then going behind closed doors “to spend precious taxpayer dollars” paying off the Ferrells while knowing little about the evidence.

    “This civil settlement has absolutely no bearing on Officer Kerrick’s criminal case,” they said.

    Shot by a 51 y/o security guard IN FRONT OF HIS OWN home, while in HIS OWN car, the health insurance company is now denying #MonroeBird care. I swear I have an article on him somewhere in here.

    @stopbeingfamous @deray let’s see @nike make it better, asking for a blackness appreciation day with a 31% discount. :D

    KSU investigating viral video of student insisting to see advisor

    Leaders at Kennesaw State University are scrambling to contain a social media firestorm sparked by a video that’s gone viral.

    Officials told Channel 2 Action News that they have placed academic advisor Abby Dawson on administrative leave pending a comprehensive investigation after threatening to call campus security on a student who showed up for help.

    Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant spoke to the student who shot that video.

    Diamant has been unable to reach Dawson after several attempts.

    Kevin Bruce, a junior at KSU, says he was just simply waiting for one of his exercise science advisers to sign a form when Dawson came out and accused him of harassment.

    Bruce recorded the exchange with his phone.

    Bruce: “I’m not harassing no one.”

    Dawson: “You are.”

    Bruce: “I’m not.”

    Dawson: “I can call security. You can fill out the form just like everybody else does.”

    Bruce: “OK. I’m just waiting to talk to talk to someone. I’m not harassing no one, though.”

    “I was shocked, but I wasn’t surprised,” Bruce said.

    He told Diamant he’d dealt with Dawson before and she is difficult to get a hold of.

    Bruce says he’s still shocked that an academic adviser at the school’s WellStar College of Health and Human Services threatened to call security on him.

    Dawson: “Sitting here until somebody’s available is harassing them.”

    Bruce: “That’s not harassing them.”

    Dawson: “It is. Would you like me to call campus security?”

    Bruce: “I mean…”

    Dawson: “I will go do that.”

    Bruce: “OK.”

    The video went viral online and reaction on social media was swift from people lashing out at the adviser, to accusations of racism.

    “I don’t know her that well to say it’s a race thing, I just know she’s disrespectful,” Bruce told Diamant.

    Dawson hasn’t returned our messages. According to University officials, the investigation is expected to take approximately two weeks to complete.

    “Kennesaw State is dedicated to providing a positive academic experience for all students,” said Ken Harmon, Kennesaw State’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. “We also have a responsibility to provide all students, faculty and staff with a fair and thorough review process.”

    Bruce told Diamant he’s supposed to meet with school leaders Thursday evening. He does admit to having a previous incident with Dawson.

    At this point we can’t confirm what happened before or after what was recorded in the video.

    Diamant will keep working to get in touch with Dawson to get her side.

    We’ll have more on the latest developments in this case on Channel 2 Action News.

  383. rq says

    Univ. of Detroit Mercy School of Law #BlackLivesMatter

    Boy, 10, pepper-sprayed by Minneapolis police: ‘At least I got Maced and not shot’. Funny-not-funny that that’s his first thought.

    Authorities in Minneapolis have launched an investigation into reports that police pepper-sprayed a 10-year-old boy who was with his mother at a demonstration to protest against police shootings.

    Speaking to reporters on Thursday the boy, Taye Montgomery, asked protesters to remain peaceful and said: “At least I got Maced and not shot.”

    City police chief Janeé Harteau and Mayor Betsy Hodges called for the public’s help, meanwhile, appealing for witnesses who had seen what happened or recorded video of the incident, which is alleged to have occurred on Wednesday night.

    “We need to speak with the public who marched, and motorists. We must have a full set of facts,” Harteau said at a press conference.

    Taye, 10, took part in a demonstration in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The demonstration was organized principally to protest against the decision the previous day not to charge the police officer who shot dead teenager Tony Robinson in Madison, Wisconsin, in March.

    Police said the protest became unruly, with demonstrators stopping traffic and harassing motorists. When officers pushed back one group of protesters, an officer used pepper spray on the crowd. The chemical reportedly hit Taye. […]

    Susan Montgomery said police had given no warning that they were going to spray people.

    Taye Montgomery told reporters on Thursday: “It hurt. I couldn’t see where I was going, I couldn’t find my mom.”

    A police report said some protesters on Wednesday night “engaged motorists, jumping on cars and trying to pull open doors. Officers pushed back the crowds to get the motorists out of harm’s way … Chemical aerosol was used to drive back the hostile crowds.”

    I must have missed something among all those twitter photos I posted previously, I didn’t see anything outright hostile. Disruptive, yes. Hostile? No.

    #CutTHeChecks “Clarification Official Statement” @keenblackgirl @ms_tjp @bdoulaoblongata @geauxAWAYheaux @aloveken, MAU statement on yesterday’s action re: the undistributed finances. Synopsis: white non-profit receives donations on behalf of black lives mattering, doesn’t distribute the funds while black people remain in the streets, standing up for justice.

    SPEAK OUT AGAINST INJUSTICE: BLACK WOMEN NOW NOT ALLOWED TO WALK STAGE FOR THEIR PROTEST SIGNS #BlackLivesMatter – four high school graduates-to-be suspended and not allowed to walk onstage for graduation due to ‘black lives matter’ elements in fashion show.

    Miami Beach police shared hundreds of racist and pornographic emails

    A handful of Miami Beach police officers sent hundreds of racially offensive and pornographic emails and possibly jeopardised dozens of criminal cases in which they were witnesses, the department’s chief said on Thursday.

    An internal investigation revealed that two of the 16 officers were high-ranking within the Miami Beach police department and were the main instigators, Chief Daniel Oates told reporters. One has retired, and the other was fired on Thursday.

    Oates said the investigation revealed about 230 emails demeaning to African Americans and women or pornographic in nature. Many were depictions of crude racial jokes involving President Barack Obama or black celebrities such as golfer Tiger Woods. One showed a woman with a black eye and the caption: “Domestic violence. Because sometimes, you have to tell her more than once.”

    One of the racially offensive emails depicted a board game called “Black Monopoly” in which every square says “go to jail”.

    Miami-Dade state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said about 540 cases in which the officers were witnesses were being reviewed to determine if they were tainted racially. Some charges could be dropped as a result or prisoners freed from jail.

    “These activities are a breach of trust. They are disgusting,” Rundle said. “Our goal is to make sure our office reviews with a fine-toothed comb all of these cases.”

    More at the link.

    The artricle on Monroe Bird, via Shaun King. If Trayvon Martin had lived: Meet Monroe Bird. Shot, paralyzed by his own neighborhood security

    It’s no accident that Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Mike Brown, and Akai Gurley are dead.

    The men who shot and killed them showed them absolutely no compassion after they were fatally wounded. Officer Timothy Loehmann stood and watched 12-year-old Tamir Rice struggle to live and offered him no aid whatsoever. Officer Peter Liang literally called and texted his union reps and stepped over the body of Akai Gurley instead of offering him assistance after shooting him in the stairwell of his own apartment building. You won’t see any pictures of Officer Darren Wilson checking the pulse of Mike Brown. Eric Garner, completely unconscious on a Staten Island sidewalk, was virtually ignored by officers who performed no CPR. Baltimore police expressed zero concern for the well-being of Freddie Gray.

    In many ways, these dead boys and men are much less dangerous to those who killed them than they would be alive. They can’t give their side of the story. We’ll never again hear from Tamir Rice or Akai Gurley or Freddie Gray.

    As George Zimmerman, the Florida asshole/neighborhood watch volunteer who racially profiled, chased, confronted, and shot teenager Trayvon Martin in his own neighborhood, continues to abuse women and pile up mugshots all over Florida, we’ll never be able to hear from Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman made sure of it.

    But a case with a living survivor shot by an overzealous wannabe cop in his own neighborhood is out there, a case with many parallels to the killing of Trayvon Martin, and his story needs to be told.

    Meet Monroe Bird III below the fold.

    On February 4, sitting in his own car in his own neighborhood, talking to a female passenger, Monroe Bird was shot in the neck by a security guard, Ricky Stone, a 52-year-old white man. The bullet pierced the C3 vertebrae in his neck. Standing 6 feet, 8 inches, Bird, a gifted athlete, is now unable to move his arms or legs and relies on a ventilator to breathe. Beloved by his family and friends, Monroe had a larger-than-life personality and was really a model citizen. His parents pastor a church outside of Tulsa, Okla., and actually serve on the city council of their hometown.

    Below we will dig into exactly how this happened and identify some very troubling aspects of the story.

    1. The security guard who shot Bird possessed marijuana at the time of the shooting. He told the Tulsa police that he hadn’t smoked it in a few weeks, and they didn’t even give him a citation. This is the definition of white privilege. In Oklahoma, possession of marijuana is an automatic misdemeanor. Why was Ricky Stone not cited?

    Mind you, Tulsa was quick to test Eric Harris for drugs after they killed him and then released the results widely—even though he never acted violently toward officers.

    2. The security guard went to the tired, age-old excuse and claimed that he saw Bird reach into his glove compartment. According to the police report, no weapons were found in or near the car, and no items that even seemed to belong in the glove compartment were found out or about in the car. Yet, in a hurry to leave, we are expected to believe that Bird randomly fidgeted in the glove compartment just for the hell of it.

    3. The security guard claimed he thought Monroe and his female passenger were having sex in the car and that he only approached them because of this.

    She’s white. Bird is black.

    Both she and Bird have adamantly denied any such thing was happening and denied it when the security guard confronted them. What role did race play in this confrontation?

    The security guard has claimed that Bird, who has no criminal record, attempted to run him over and basically kill him there on the spot—a preposterous claim—and that is when the guard says he began firing his weapon into the car.

    Both the female passenger and Bird denied the guard’s account and stated that they were driving away when Stone began recklessly firing his gun into the car.

    4. The security guard who shot Bird worked for Benjy D. Smith, who owns Smith & Son Security Company. This important to know because Smith is a reserve deputy for the same Tulsa Sheriff’s Office that is currently under national scrutiny for its unethical practices with Reserve Deputy Bob Bates, who shot and killed Eric Harris earlier this year.

    In the past few weeks alone, Major Tom Huckeby of the Tulsa Sheriff’s Office, whose son, Michael, was the officer with his knee on the head of Harris (see above) as he bled to death, has resigned. Before Major Huckeby resigned, Tim Albin, the second in command of the Tulsa Sheriff’s Office, resigned. Both officers were directly implicated in earlier reports that they knew Bob Bates was not adequately trained to be a deputy, but was rammed through the approval process anyway.

    5. Here is where we get a real glimpse of what life could perhaps have been like for Trayvon and his family, had he survived the gunshot wound from George Zimmerman.

    Even though Bird has not been charged with a crime of any kind, his insurance company has denied him coverage because of comments made by the district attorney, who claim the entire ordeal was Bird’s fault and not the fault of the security guard who fired his gun into the car.

    Because of this, Bird, who needs 24/7 care and attention, is going to be sent home and denied rehabilitative care. Because his bed and equipment are too big for his bedroom, he will have to live in the living room of his family’s home while his mother cares for him. The insurance company will not even cover home nursing care and has advised that the family simply call 911 if they need help. Mind you, Bird is on a breathing machine and is a quadriplegic.

  384. rq says

    30 years ago. May 13, 1985, America bombed its own neighborhood and killed 11 Afrikans. #MOVE #movebombing, for the pictures.

    Black Lives Matter Vs. Nike, Converse: Anti-Nike Posters

    I cannot deny my love for Air Jordan sneakers, especially the retro products. The innovative designs from Tinker Hatfield, creator of Jordan 3 through 15, exploded into my world in 1989 and soon became my sole desire. Sleek and futuristic, the Air Jordan motif was in stark contrast to my urban surroundings and temporarily soothed the crippling effects of poverty.

    For my peers and I, owning a pair of the overpriced Nike sneakers meant attaining a tiny portion of the American dream — a dream that we eventually discovered wasn’t intended for us.

    Black Americans have had an intimate relationship with Nike for several decades, and even when the love affair with Nike inspired young Blacks to commit murder, Blacks stood by the company. There isn’t a section of the Black community where you won’t find a steadfast allegiance to the Nike brand.

    It is for this reason, that many in the Black community are infuriated with the corporation’s second “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day” sale. For Nike to pretend to be oblivious to the Black Lives Matter movement, and the increasing national unrest brought on by a torrent of unpunished killings by police, is beyond an insult.

    When Whole Foods donated sandwiches to National Guard soldiers sent to curb protests in Baltimore last month, for many, it was upsetting. But Nike? The Black community is Nike. Black athletes and superstars are the embodiment of the strength and style Nike wishes to emulate as a brand.

    This move by the corporation isn’t just another day at the park; it’s a middle finger to kids who buy Nike products religiously. Kids who remain to this day the victims of centuries of economic inequalities, systemic racism and unpunished police brutality and killings. We have heard of Nike’s questionable ethics in terms of slave labor abroad and have ignored it. Now, the company is calling for our deaths.

    My hope is that Nike, and its subsidiary Converse, will suffer substantial profit loss to the extent that a board meeting is called to review where the company went wrong. The estimated buying power of Black Americans in 2015 stands at 1.1 trillion dollars. That is political power.

    The goal isn’t to sink a juggernaut like Nike, but only to cause substantial profit losses over the next 8 months. My answer to Nike’s “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day” will be to never buy Nike again.

    To this extent, I am urging young people who’ve been racially profiled, stopped and frisked, or have experienced gross injustice at the hands of law enforcement officers to boycott Nike. #dontdoit

    Let’s stop saying bad police officers are rare. Fact is they’re plentiful from coast to coast.

    A regular refrain from politicians who speak on the issue of police brutality is that bad police officers, be they corrupt or brutal or racist or sexist, are rare. If by rare, we mean that it is rare for a police officer to be convicted for brutality or corruption or anything else, then yes, you are right, convictions are outrageously rare. Only about 1% of police officers who kill someone are ever convicted for misconduct of any kind, even though the evidence routinely and overwhelmingly shows that police misconduct far outpaces convictions.

    I’d like to suggest three new ways for you to consider just how widespread police brutality and corruption and ugliness truly are in the United States.

    1. The ugliness knows no geographical or political boundaries. It’s truly nationwide.

    Not including police departments that are currently being investigated, such as the Baltimore Police Department, the Justice Department currently has enforced agreements in which it was forced to intervene in widespread problems with police departments and jails and juvenile detention centers in almost every state in the country.

    Often thought to be the most liberal big city in America, the San Francisco Police Department, while being investigated for corruption, was also found to have a deep and horrendous problem with racism.

    The same thing happened in Ft. Lauderdale.

    And in Miami.

    And Ohio.

    And Baton Rouge.

    And New Jersey.

    And Georgia.

    And, of course, Ferguson.

    If you click any one of those links above, you will find police officers routinely and freely speaking with one another in the ugliest, most violent, hateful manner toward African Americans as if it’s no big deal.

    Few things, though, show just widespread and truly nationwide killings are by police than this disturbing animated infographic as it grows like the plague across America these past 18 months.

    And to be clear, it’s getting worse. Last year by May 14, police in America had killed 380 people. This year, in 2015 by the same date, that number is 423.

    Clearly, we’re not talking about a Democratic or Republican problem here. It’s nationwide.

    2. Corrupt, racist, violent, sexist police officers aren’t just low-level newbies, but chiefs and captains.

    All across the United States, as police departments become embroiled in controversy and corruption, the investigations are revealing a disturbing trend. It’s not the new recruits that continue to be implicated, but the highest-ranking officers within the departments. […]

    [examples]

    3. Collectively, police departments in the United States have spent billions of dollars settling hundreds of thousands of lawsuits.

    Police brutality and corruption is expensive and it’s expensive for two primary reasons.

    a. It causes great and irreparable harm to its victims
    b. So many cases exist

    As it shuts downs schools and cuts public services all across the city, Chicago just admitted it has paid over $500 million in settlements because of police misconduct.

    In 2010, the NYPD announced that they had spent nearly $1 billion settling cases of police misconduct in the previous 10 years.

    They spent an additional $428 million in the five years that followed.

    Since 1990, Oakland has paid $74 million in settlements for police misconduct.

    Los Angeles has paid $54 million in settlements for police misconduct during the past few years.

    Philadelphia has settled more than $40 million in police misconduct cases the past few years.

    It was just announced that the Boston Police Department, in just the past 10 years, has settled more than 2,000 cases of misconduct that cost the city $36 million.

    In six years Minneapolis paid $14 million in settlements for police misconduct.

    Baltimore has paid millions.

    Mind you, none of these costs include the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on legal fees by departments all over the nation as they attempt to defend their officers against an hour-by-hour stream of misconduct charges and work through the exhaustive settlement agreements with thousands of families. Not only that, but cities like Chicago recently admitted that they have an outrageous backlog of over 500 pending settlements to families who’ve been affected by police brutality and misconduct in their city. Police abuse has been so widespread in Chicago that the first reparations fund for torture victims from its police department has been created.

    These problems aren’t rare, they aren’t isolated, and they are taking an enormous human and financial toll on our country. If we are to ever properly address this problem, we cannot do so if we do not honestly admit its expansive size, scope and depth.

    A rare problem will get a tiny solution. That’s what we’re getting right now, but the United States is facing a true moral human rights crisis with police brutality and corruption in our country. The United Nations just sharply criticized our country for our police brutality crisis. For the first time in its history, Amnesty International is sending human rights monitors to the United States to monitor American police and is issuing scathing reports on what it is finding.

    For millions of Americans, this issue is the most important issue in our nation. It’s time we act like it.

    It takes all kinds. Seven corrections officers fired after allegedly beating inmate in retaliation

    News 4 has learned that seven corrections officers have been fired in the wake of an alleged beating of a prisoner in an act of retaliation. The officers were fired just last month for an incident that happened back in 2013.

    According to the Mayor’s Office, the incident started when the inmate attacked a corrections officer back in November of 2013 at the City Workhouse on Hall Street. The officer was taken to the hospital, but was not seriously hurt. Then at some point after that assault, the seven corrections officers attacked and beat the inmate in a suspected act of revenge.

    “An inmate and a corrections officer got into a scuffle and then this group ended up using excessive force and we just don’t tolerate that,” said St. Louis Director of Public Safety Richard Gray.

    The inmate was checked out at the hospital, but was not seriously injured.

    The assault on the inmate came to light, officials said, when they city began an investigation into the original assault on the officer. It was then that another corrections officer came forward with information on the beating of the inmate. It took more than a year and a half to see any punishment for the officers.

    “Well, you’re dealing with the city, you’re dealing with structure that you have to follow with the unions,” Gray added, “We had to make sure everything was done correctly.”

    In response, an investigation into the corrections officers was instigated and produced enough evidence to fire the seven. The information was then handed over to police and prosecutors. St. Louis City police filed for assault charges, but none were brought because there wasn’t enough evidence. The inmate refused to cooperate while his attorney also declined to help. With no victim, the prosecutor took charges under advisement with no further action.

    “There still aren’t cameras in all of our locations,” Gray said, but he doesn’t think cameras would have stopped an incident like this. “You always have the opportunity to pull off to the side and hide and do things. So cameras are good, but they’re not going to always prevent things from happening.”

    Interlude: white movies! Apparently, it’s an awesome movie for women. Now, let’s not let them get off easy – count the black women! I’ll wait. But for a futuristic imaginatory exercise, some more colour would have been nice. ‘Specially since they shot in Namibia.

    Web Extra: Video of Sgt. James Brown inside El Paso County Jail

    WARNING: The video attached to this story may be graphic for some viewers.

    EL PASO, Texas – KFOX14 obtained a video from inside the El Paso County Jail that shows the final moments of a Fort Bliss soldier who died while in custody.

    Sgt. James Brown self-reported to the jail for a two-day DWI sentence, and his family is suing the county claiming Brown’s constitutional rights were violated.

    The family said Brown told the jail upon arriving that he was diagnosed with PTSD and they claim the jail violated the American with Disabilities Act and used excessive force.

    Seriously, take note of that trigger warning at the beginning.

  385. rq says

    Got this in our building today. Guess we know how the Brelo verdict is gonna go. It’s a pamphlet for residents of Cleveland, a how-to engage with protestors (which authorities to call, to pull the fire alarm, etc.) in anticipation of Monday’s announcement re: the (non)indictment of Brelo. Who is Brelo? Here’s a reminder: Cleveland prepares for police officer’s verdict with eye on Baltimore protests

    Officer Brelo was near the front throughout the chase, until police boxed in the car in a middle-school parking lot. The two people in the car, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, both African Americans and unarmed, died under a hail of 137 bullets.

    Brelo, 31, a five-year police veteran who had never fired his service revolver while on duty, shot 49 bullets into the car. The last 15 of those 137 shots came from Brelo’s Glock 17 pistol while he was standing on the hood of the Malibu, where he fired downward through the windshield of the car and into the two bodies in the front seat.

    Brelo was charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter for his firing from the hood of the car, and though there were about a dozen other Cleveland police officers firing at the car in the school parking, he was the only one charged in the death. The month-long trial ended on Tuesday as both sides presented their closing arguments to a judge, who is expected to rule in the coming weeks.

    Two weeks after the Brelo trial began on 6 April, Freddie Gray died in police custody in Baltimore, leading to a week of protests. The judge in the Brelo trial, Ohio governor John Kasich and Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson all indicated that the Baltimore protests have caused for further security details to be put in place once the verdict is rendered. Jackson sent out a memo last week to police officers to have their “emergency equipment” ready in case of protests.

    “We are working hard to ensure that the men and women of the Cleveland Division of Police expand on the trust with the community and mend relationships where there has been mistrust. In turn, it is my hope that all citizens will come to better understand and respect our police officers and work with them to make our city the best it can be,” Jackson wrote in a letter on Tuesday, posted shortly after the Brelo closing arguments wrapped.

    Kasich set up a taskforce late last year to examine fractured police-community relations in Ohio based in part on the Cleveland car chase case. At a press conference on Monday detailing some early findings from the taskforce, he said he was concerned about the possibility of violent protests in Cleveland once the Brelo verdict is returned. “Communities melt down and it takes forever to recover,” he said. “We can’t afford to let that happen.”

    More at the link, about the trial (bench trial, so a single judge will decide) and recent news on Tamir Rice. So… I think people may be upset, depending on how things turn out. Even if they celebrate, I hope law enforcement authorities interfere as little as possible.

    Georgia Educator Who Singled Out ‘Black People’ During Graduation Is Fired, NBC on a story listed above. No word on the son, though, not since word about his facebook commentary came out.

    Dozens of Ferguson-related reforms were proposed in Missouri. Just one passed. There’s your pledge for change and doing better!

    The Missouri legislature ended its session Friday night having passed virtually none of the reforms activists sought in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown.

    Activists had been tracking more than 60 bills related to criminal justice and policing, but just one of substance had made its way out of the legislature.

    “This was such an opportunity for the Missouri legislature to step up and do the right thing. The people of the state called on our lawmakers to fix this broken system,” said Denise Lieberman a senior attorney for the Advancement Project, a civil rights group, and co-chair of the Don’t Shoot Coalition, a group formed to address policy reform after Brown’s shooting.

    When the session began in early January, advocates had high hopes for, at the very least, a fruitful discussion. They were encouraged, they said, by word from the legislative black caucus that legislative leadership and the governor were supportive of their efforts. But, in the end, several expressed frustration with the course the legislature took.

    “To now, at this point, see every piece of legislation that they put forward get stifled, get choked out, it’s disheartening,” said Montague Simmons, chairman and executive director of the Organization for Black Struggle, a black political empowerment organization.

    The scores of bills — introduced mostly by the legislature’s few Democrats — offered a menu of reforms. They would have developed standards for eyewitness identification, required body cameras, restricted police from racial profiling, required diversity and sensitivity training, and modified state rules governing the use of lethal force, something Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon threw his support behind in his State of the State address.

    The legislature did pass one bill advocates had been calling for, which was aimed at limiting municipal reliance on fines for revenue, a practice highlighted in a scathing Justice Department report on Ferguson released earlier this year. The bill lowers the cap on how much revenue a municipality can generate from traffic tickets from 30 percent to 20 percent statewide and to 12.5 percent in St. Louis County, which is plagued by excessive traffic violations and is home to Ferguson. The bill also bans courts from throwing individuals in jail over minor traffic offenses.

    Despite their hopes, advocates were not encouraged by legislative leadership early in the session.

    “We’re not going to have a ‘Ferguson agenda’ here in the House,” House Speaker John Diehl (R) said at his opening day news conference on Jan. 7. “I think that the Senate has indicated the same thing. I view the situation of Ferguson as really a reflection of decades of bad government policy,” he said, adding that the chamber would look at issues related to economics, educational opportunities, and the role and function of government. […]

    Though their efforts may have largely failed this session, proponents of reform said they plan to continue their fight.

    “Long-term policy change takes time,” Lieberman said. Advocates plan to use the recommendations of a state commission on Ferguson, expected to wrap up its work in the coming months, to engage lawmakers over the summer and work with them on pre-filing bills for the next session.

    May they have strength and endurance to keep fighting.

    Baltimore protests won’t affect Preakness, organizers say – honestly, I think they should interfere with the horse race. What a perfect venue that would be. A nice walk onto the track (between races, of course). How visible that would be!

    More than 100 are expected to meet at 3 p.m. Saturday at McKeldin Square and march through the Inner Harbor demanding amnesty for those arrested during the Freddie Gray protests in the past month, said the Rev. Cortly “C.D.” Witherspoon, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

    Gray, a 25-year-old West Baltimore man, died on April 19, a week after sustaining a severe spinal cord injury in police custody. All six officers involved in Gray’s arrest have been criminally charged.

    In a statement, the Baltimore Police Department pledged an “increased police presence in the surrounding neighborhoods” this weekend but did not specify how many officers or say how they would deal with any unannounced protests outside the racetrack.

    “The plan is what it always is — to ensure the peaceful expression of people’s First Amendment Constitutional rights,” police spokesman Capt. Eric Kowalczyk said.

    During the April 25 Orioles game, lines of officers blocked the northeast entrance to Camden Yards, preventing marchers, and some fans, from entering the ballpark. Scuffles broke out nearby at Camden and Howard streets soon afterward.

    Protesters who marched toward M&T Bank Stadium during the Army-Navy game in December were met at Lombard and Greene streets by a phalanx of city officers, state troopers and a police van, preventing them from going anywhere near the football stadium.

    This and that else at the link, too.

    Hogan funds pensions, but nothing more for schools. They forgot to headline the part about the youth jail.

    Gov. Larry Hogan has decided to take $68 million that lawmakers set aside for schools and use it to shore up the state’s pension system instead — disappointing school officials in Baltimore and other large districts around the state.

    He said giving the extra money to schools instead of putting it into what he said is an unfunded pension system would be “absolutely irresponsible, and it will not happen on my watch.”

    Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, House Speaker Michael E. Busch, teachers union officials and parents had held news conferences and rallies in recent weeks to urge Hogan to spend the money as earmarked for the state’s most costly school districts.

    Rawlings-Blake said she was “disheartened” by Hogan’s decision. Baltimore would have received $11.6 million.

    “Given how the needs of our children have been highlighted by the events of the past few weeks, I hoped that the governor would have agreed with the General Assembly that these dollars are critical for expanded educational opportunities,” she said in a statement.

    Hogan accused the teachers union of launching “a heavily financed smear campaign” against him.

    “Recently, the misleading rhetoric has shifted to something like, ‘Why won’t the governor release the money?'” he told reporters in Annapolis.

    “There is no magical pot of money that can simply be released or doled out. They’re asking us to rob from the pension fund.”

    Hogan said weekly news conferences by the union and their allies distorted the choice before him.

    In a play on Hogan’s “Change Maryland” campaign slogan, advocates pleaded: “Don’t Shortchange Maryland.”

    At a rally in Baltimore on Monday, Rawlings-Blake urged the governor: “Write that check. You can do it today. … There’s nothing holding you back.

    Hogan pointed out that Maryland is spending record amounts on education at a time when it is cutting spending to most state agencies. Maryland spends $7.5 billion on K-12 education each year.

    Busch said bond rating agencies have given no indication that the state had underfunded the pension system.

    The House speaker told reporters that Hogan’s decision was “disappointing.” Busch said the governor had overruled the will of the majority of the General Assembly, and in doing so alienated the three largest political jurisdictions in the state. Delegations from Baltimore City and Prince George’s and Montgomery counties — which would have seen a total of more than $49 million in additional funding — make up 45 percent of the legislature.

    “It’s hard to figure out what the overall game plan is for the governor and where he stands on valuing the education system that we have,” Busch said.

    Wow, that’s even worse.

  386. rq says

    Governor Larry Hogan To Re-Open Annapolis State Police Barrack And Add 100 Troopers. Just FYI.

    True story… One cop’s comments about a tall young black man walking past – ‘That’s why we have guns’. o.O

    A #BlackLivesMatter Leader At Teach For America, a short profile of Brittany Packnett, a Ferguson protestor (also on the Ferguson Commission).

    When 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., last summer, Brittany Packnett felt that she had no choice but to get involved.

    “I’m a North County kid,” she said, referring to the region of St. Louis that includes Ferguson. “These are my people. Mike could have been my brother.”

    Packnett helped launch a newsletter covering the protests that unfurled around Brown’s death and other police killings of African-Americans across the country — what has become known as the #BlackLivesMatter movement. At 29, she was the youngest member named to the Missouri governor’s Ferguson Commission, set up to inquire into the root causes of the unrest in that city.

    Packnett is also a 2007 Teach for America corps member, worked on Capitol Hill on the organization’s behalf and is the current executive director of St. Louis’ Teach for America program. She was a founding member of The Collective, the TFA-alumni-of-color organization we profiled last fall (you can read that story below this one). She sees her work in schools and her political work as feeding into each other.

    She and her TFA teachers have found themselves mentoring high school students turned activists. “For me, personally, the function of the classroom is to create not only strong learners but strong leaders,” she says. “We need great learners and critical thinkers, deeply engaged and pushing back on the status quo.”

    As we wrote last fall, Teach for America has been the target of increasing criticism lately, much of it from its own alumni. Critics have raised questions about the systemic impact of bringing minimally trained teachers, who until this year were mostly white, into high-needs, high-poverty, majority-minority schools. Applications to the program have been dropping, though the diversity of corps members has risen.

    “I think the way that TFA has responded [to #BlackLivesMatter] quite frankly has surprised a lot of people,” Packnett says. She sees the organization “learning from this movement and this moment,” as teachers and students respond to the unrest in Baltimore and elsewhere. She notes that co-CEO Matt Kramer quietly showed up at the protests in St. Louis.

    With her experience in Washington and as an executive with TFA in St. Louis, and her roots in the community, Packnett sees her role in the movement as being “a bridge.”

    This includes, she adds, working alongside people who may not agree with everything TFA stands for or does. “I think I often find myself in common cause with people who, if we dug into the weeds, we might not agree on everything and that’s OK. As long as I am aligned with people who act on the belief that all children are great and all children are meant to be great, then we can get together.”

    Prosecutor In Freddie Gray Case Seeks Gag Order. They seem to have just that one photo of Mosby.

    Baltimore prosecutors are seeking a gag order as they pursue a criminal case against six city officers in the case of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who died a week after suffering a spinal injury while in police custody.

    A court document that references the gag order, obtained by The Associated Press, is dated Wednesday. Assistant State’s Attorney Antonio Gioia wrote that the gag order motion was mailed to defense attorneys.

    Rochelle Ritchie, a spokeswoman for State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, confirmed Friday the office is seeking a gag order. She declined to provide further details.

    A gag order typically prevents attorneys and witnesses from publicly commenting on or releasing information about a particular case.

    Mosby announced the charges, which range from second-degree misdemeanor assault to “depraved-heart” murder, in a lengthy news conference one day after receiving an investigative report from police. The May 1 announcement came after more than a week of protests that on two occasions gave way to rioting, prompting Democratic Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to implement a curfew and Republican Gov. Larry Hogan to declare a state of emergency for the city.

    Attorneys for five of the six officers have not spoken publicly about the case since charges were filed. Ivan Bates and Tony Garcia, who represent Sgt. Alicia White, gave a news conference Wednesday to defend White and criticize the prosecution.

    “I can say emphatically when this trial is complete and all the evidence is laid bare, you’ll see perhaps justice wasn’t the only thing the state’s attorney was attempting to accomplish here,” Garcia said at the event, “and that perhaps you’ll see that there’s a fine line between fame and infamy.”

    The defense attorneys have filed numerous motions calling into question the basis for the charges, and whether Mosby is objective.

    Attorneys representing two officers who face only misdemeanor charges earlier filed a motion to inspect a knife found on Gray on April 12, the day he was arrested. In charging documents for Gray, Officer Garrett Miller wrote that the knife was illegal under a city ordinance banning spring-activated knives. But in charging the officers, Mosby said the knife was not a switchblade, is therefore legal under Maryland state law and Gray’s arrest was unlawful.

    Additionally, attorneys for the officers have filed a joint motion arguing Mosby should be replaced with an independent prosecutor because of what they call “conflicts of interest.” The motion argues that part of the reason she acted so swiftly was to quash protests that gave way to violence in West Baltimore, where Gray was arrested and where Mosby’s husband is a city councilman. Other claimed conflicts of interest outlined in court papers include Mosby’s political relationship with Billy Murphy, a defense attorney who represents the Gray family, and who donated $5,000 to Mosby’s campaign. Murphy also once represented Mosby regarding a complaint made to the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland about statements she made during her campaign.

    The officers are slated to appear in Baltimore District Court on May 27. However, the case could be transferred to Circuit Court before that date. Mosby has indicated in motions that she plans to take the case to a grand jury to seek indictments, which would eliminate the need for a preliminary hearing in the lower court.

    In a joint statement issued Friday, the defense attorneys said it is “imperative that the public understand the facts and the law beyond the bald allegations publicized by Ms. Mosby.” The charges, the attorneys said, “have yet to be supported by a single piece of evidence. We have made one simple repeated request: Show us the evidence.”

    The allegations are bald.

    Cops Pepper-Spray 10-Year-Old Boy During Protest in Minn.; Police Launch Investigation, via The Root (same story).

    9 St. Louis aldermen call for public vote on new football stadium. Just, you know, an example of white priorities in St Louis. Because obviously what the city needs is a giant new stadium. Yeah, that’ll take care of those uppity blacks out on the streets. Yeah…

  387. rq says

    Shocking Video: Texas Soldier Dies After Telling Jail Guards He Couldn’t Breathe 20 Times. Ah, but they’re always faking it, right.

    Newly released video has revealed the dying moments of an African-American active-duty soldier who checked himself into the El Paso, Texas, county jail and died while in custody nearly three years ago.

    Sgt. James Brown reported to jail for a two-day sentence for driving while intoxicated. His family said Brown informed the jail he had a history of post-traumatic stress disorder after two combat tours in Iraq.

    Local news station KFOX14 said they fought all the way to the Texas attorney general to obtain video of the 2012 incident. The video shows something happened which caused Brown to bleed in his cell. When he refuses to speak with guards, a team in riot gear storms in and swarms on top of him, while he repeatedly says he can’t breathe and appears not to resist. His condition deteriorates, as he is carried to an infirmary, and has a mask placed over his face.

    Toward the end of the video, after Brown has said he can’t breathe at least 20 times, he is left naked in a cell, not blinking or responding, his breathing shallow. Attorneys say an ambulance was never called. Brown was eventually brought to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities claim he died from natural causes after an autopsy report cited a “sickle cell crisis,” but his family says he died as a result of his treatment in jail. Their attorney, B.J. Crow, spoke to KFOX.

    B.J. Crow: “When a 26-year-old active military person checks into jail for a court-imposed sentence on a Friday, and he leaves Sunday, you know, in a casket, something went horribly wrong there. … He was bleeding out the ears, the nose, the mouth. His kidneys shut down. His blood pressure dropped to a very dangerous level. And his liver shut down.”

    James Brown’s family has filed a lawsuit against El Paso County saying his constitutional rights were violated.

    Constitutional rights, at the very least. Fuck.

    ‘Don’t Shoot’ Mural in Prospect-Lefferts Draws Criticism from Locals.

    A new anti-violence mural in the neighborhood is stirring up plenty of reactions from residents this week.

    The work, displayed on a sneaker shop’s rolldown gate at Flatbush Avenue and Maple Street, spells the words “Don’t Shoot” in red, dripping letters. Bedford-Stuyvesant artist Russell Murphy, a.k.a. CASH4, finished the piece on Tuesday with the help of curator Jenny Ulloa, a Prospect-Lefferts Gardens resident. She said passersby gave them a lot of positive feedback as he worked.

    “I heard so many stories from people,” she said. “This young guy came up to me and had a scar from a bullet wound… That was just amazing to me.”

    But when the paint dried, criticisms flooded into a neighborhood Facebook page and on a local blog, with some commenters calling it “uncreative,” “ugly” and “inappropriate.”

    “They don’t like the aesthetic of it and the language, and they feel that that is a misrepresentation of the neighborhood,” Ulloa explained.

    The message is important for the neighborhood, as well as personal For Ulloa. Her step-cousin was the victim of an accidental shooting in Florida, and another shooting this year outside of a kids birthday party she attended with her son rattled her and her neighbors, she said.

    “There’s this issue that I feel like some people want to sweep under the rug,” she said, especially in light of several shootings in the Prospect-Lefferts area recently.

    “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” has become a common refrain among demonstrators in recent protests against police shootings. While Ulloa acknowledged the piece was a nod to the phrase, she wanted to open up the conversation to violence in general.

    “Of course, this is not the same neighborhood as it was 20 years ago, but [shootings are] still happening,” she explained. “And even if it’s happening once a month, that’s one time too many.”

    Personally, I think it’s awesome.

    They even incarcerating black products smh (see photo). You can laugh, but… I guess it’s best to laugh.

    Interlude: John Legend. John Legend Needs You To Know Why This Young Man Is Dead

    So much of our nation’s bigoted past and present is justified with the word tradition: It’s how the privileged rationalize unequal treatment, an easy way to explain away separation and stratification. Sometimes we even say it to shrug off something we know is wrong.

    In the South, racially segregated proms are nothing new—something you might call a tradition. It’s a symptom of our national culture (and at times, our government), which has before fought to keep black and white people from falling in love and “mixing.” Prom night is the symbolic flashpoint for American sexual adolescence, a charged night that means much to many. But how, in the Age of Obama, are they still a tradition?

    Montgomery County High School in southern Georgia didn’t get its integrated prom until 2010, one year after photojournalist Gillian Laub startled a lot of readers with her images of two separate-but-equal proms in the New York Times Magazine. A new HBO documentary, “Southern Rites,” directed by Laub and premiering on Monday, May 18, tells the story of Laub returning to Georgia and finding more stories to tell. The film explores the shooting death of Justin Patterson in 2011—committed by white homeowner Norman Neesmith, who shot the 22-year-old as he and his younger brother were running away from Neesmith’s home—and the subsequent plea bargain. The documentary also covers a local law enforcement official running to become Montgomery County’s first black sheriff.

    When the musicians John Legend and Common won their Academy Award for Best Original Song earlier this year, Legend quoted Nina Simone in his acceptance speech, saying, “it’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times in which we live. We wrote this song for a film that was based on events that were 50 years ago, but we say Selma is now, because the struggle for justice is right now.” Given his conscious support and uplifting of the message of black liberation, I found it fitting that he also served as the executive producer of “Southern Rites” and contributed an original song.

    Earlier this week, I spoke to Legend about the project and the renewed prominence of black struggle in the national zeitgeist.

    Interview follows.

    We Shall Not Be Removed: Black Gay Men Respond To The Sentencing of Michael Johnson, because ALL black lives matter.

    Today at Michael Johnson’s trial, the jury recommended a 30 year sentence. Yesterday, after just a few days of testimony and only two hours of deliberation, a nearly all-white jury convicted Michael Johnson on one count of recklessly infecting a partner with HIV, one count of attempting to recklessly infect a partner with HIV, and three counts of recklessly exposing partners to HIV. We are saddened and enraged by what seems to have been a lackluster defense of Johnson, but ultimately we are not surprised. There are many people in this country who still believe, out of ignorance or cruelty, that people with HIV are pariahs who we all need to be protected from. But Michael Johnson is a part of our community and he is not disposable. Far too many young Black gay men receive an HIV diagnosis in this country, and nearly one in three can expect to in their lifetimes. And Missouri’s solution, to a problem they helped create, is prison.

    Contracting HIV isn’t Michael’s fault. For decades, so few resources have gone toward a community based HIV prevention and treatment response for Black gay men. This has created a situation where contracting HIV feels almost inevitable. It is ironic that the state of Missouri would convict Michael Johnson of criminal transmission out of a claim of concern for “the public.” If Missouri has such concern about the health and wellbeing of its residents, why won’t the Missouri state legislature even expand Medicaid—a very easy way to ensure nearly all people with and at risk for HIV could have access to health care? After the trial is over, it is very likely that the young men accusing Johnson will continue living in a state that will do very little to ensure they have access to HIV prevention services and basic access to health care. Johnson will be in prison, and the accusers who are currently HIV negative will likely remain highly vulnerable to HIV infection. That’s the state’s fault—not Michael Johnson.

    It is hard to ignore the racial optics of this case. A very muscular and attractive Black man stood accused by mostly white men, in a small county, and was tried in front of a nearly all-white jury. Whether in health care, or the courtroom, there is no justice for Black gay men in either location.

    We want to reiterate that our support for Johnson will continue, whether or not he disclosed his status to the accusers, and despite whatever sentence he receives. We will continue to fight until he is released, and until all such laws are removed from Missouri and across the country. We will continue to work to support Michael through any appeals, and his time in prison, however long it may be.

    But in the meantime, this is the agenda we will be actively pursuing:

    1.Support Michael Johnson while he’s in prison, continue to raise awareness about his case, work to support any potential appeals or strategies to reduce his sentence or overturn this ruling altogether.

    2.Continue to dialog with Black gay men around the country in person and through social media about the importance of opposing such laws.

    3.Repeal of the laws that criminalize HIV exposure and transmission, in Missouri and nationwide.

    4.Challenge our allies in Black progressive organizations, criminal justice reform, HIV prevention and treatment, and the LGBT movement to take more of an active role in challenging HIV criminalization.

    5.Develop more capacity for Black gay men’s grassroots organizing.

    We know that many people still remain incredibly frightened of an HIV diagnosis, which undergirds the logic behind many of these laws. We also know that this country has an all-too vivid imagination when it comes to ideas of out-of-control Black sexuality, and a commitment to prisons and punitive responses to challenges. This allows state actors to be absolved of responsibility for creating the conditions that lead many Black gay men to become HIV positive, or imprisoned, or both.

    We will fight until Johnson is released, and until we are all free.

    Sincerely.

    [long list of names]

    City shuts off water to delinquent residents; hits Baltimore Co. homes hardest, and guess who’s delinquent!

    Baltimore officials, trying to collect some $40 million in long-unpaid water bills, have shut off service to more than 1,600 customers in the past six weeks.

    But records reviewed by The Baltimore Sun show the city’s enforcement has been starkly uneven.

    While large commercial properties owe the biggest amounts, not one has been shut off. All of the service cuts so far have been to homes.

    And while the majority of homes with unpaid bills are in the city, nearly 90 percent of shut-offs have been in Baltimore County. Dundalk and Gwynn Oak have each had more service cuts than all of Baltimore.

    Baltimore County Councilman Todd Crandell, a Republican who represents Dundalk, said he found it “odd” that his community, with a population of less than 64,000, saw more enforcement than a city more than 10 times that size. He has asked officials to verify the accuracy of their data.

    “There have been a lot of billing errors and mistakes,” he said.

    The numbers also trouble Charly Carter, director of the advocacy group Maryland Working Families.

    “If the city can shut off 1,600 working families from their water, but hasn’t shut off even one commercial account, I think that speaks volumes about where their priorities are,” she said.

    Jeffrey Raymond, a spokesman for the city Department of Public Works, cautioned against drawing conclusions from the first weeks of enforcement data.

    “We’re making every effort to make collections without turning off water,” he said. “Several large customers have paid, or made arrangements to do so. Others have not yet sent payments or made payment arrangements and remain subject to turnoff.

    “I would remind you we are just in our sixth week of the turnoff season, which lasts through October. [Public Works Director Rudolph P. Chow] has signaled his insistence that large customers who do not pay their bills or take necessary steps to do so will be subject to turnoffs.”

    But City Councilman Carl Stokes called current enforcement “unfair.”

    He said the city has lost revenue because it didn’t go after delinquent commercial accounts in previous years.

    “We should do it a way that’s fair across the board,” he said. “The city should not allow businesses to run up high bills. We’ll probably never collect from the former Bethlehem Steel plant.

    “It’s absolutely wrong to nickel-and-dime the average taxpaying resident and allow the business to get away with not paying for long periods of time.”

    Exactly.

  388. rq says

    I feel like the portcullis is going to drop any second.
    Almost done for today. :)

    +++

    Cop Who Shoots Unarmed Boy with Down Syndrome Says He Feared for His Life: Video Shows He’s Lying

    Jeremy Hutton is a 17-year-old boy with Down Syndrome, who nearly lost his life after an officer shot him three times as he fled.

    The incident happen in October of 2010, and the subsequent internal “investigation” cleared Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Deputy, Jason Franqui, the officer who shot Hutton.

    Hutton was a somewhat troubled teen and had taken his mother’s minivan for a joy ride.

    Deputy Franqui was the officer who responded to the mother’s call for help. When Franqui caught up to Hutton, he stopped at a red light. Franqui then pulled in front of the van in an attempt to stop Hutton.

    According to the report and the results of the investigation, Franqui feared for his life because he said Hutton drove directly at him, so he was forced to shoot.

    “I watched the driver, he turned the wheel and started coming right at me,” Deputy Franqui told investigators. “I was in fear he was going to hit me.”

    Dashcam video of the incident did not refute the deputy’s claims as it only showed a portion of the perspective. The shooting was eventually ruled justified.

    The incident was also caught on traffic camera video and despite the “investigation” mentioning the existence of the video, its detail was not mentioned.

    The traffic cam video refuted the entire deputy’s description. It showed that Hutton made an overt attempt to steer away from deputy Franqui. After the van passed Franqui, is when he opened fire. Hutton was struck in the head, shoulder and arm. Thankfully he lived.

    “I don’t think anybody knew or anticipated that they were going to get caught by a traffic camera,” said Stuart Kaplan, the Hutton’s civil attorney.

    “This case is one of the most egregious, one of the most disturbing cases that I have pending in my office,” explained Kaplan.

    “The traffic camera clearly shows that Jeremy Hutton apparently was driving away from the deputy but actually turned his vehicle as far to the left as possible to completely try and avoid hitting this deputy so it’s completely inconsistent to what was told by the deputy, it’s appalling,” said Kaplan.

    “The deputy was not in any danger,” said Kaplan.

    What this case illustrates is that not only did an officer lie about what happened and go unpunished, but the officers involved in the investigation seemingly covered up the lies.

    “In this particular case there was absolutely nothing done on the state attorney’s side other than to gather all the information that was provided to them by the very office who has now cleared this deputy. To me that’s a rubber stamp,” said Kaplan.

    Have yall seen this? The difference between a white/black person legally carrying a firearm. @deray https://youtu.be/BKGZnB41_e4 Nice comparison.

    Interlude: sports! Allen Iverson Is PSYCHED To Promote His New Showtime Documentary “Iverson”. Just for funs.

    Lawsuit Alleges Police Cover-Up In Fatal Shooting Of Sleeping 7-Year-Old Aiyana Stanley-Jones (whose anniversary of death was just recently).

    The family of a 7-year-old who was fatally shot during a botched raid in 2010 is suing Detroit police, alleging officers lied about how she was killed as part of a cover-up.

    The civil rights lawsuit was filed in federal court Wednesday by attorney Geoffrey Fieger over the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones. It names as defendants the city, the Detroit Police Department, Joseph Weekley, Robert Rowe and about 20 other, unknown officers on the Special Response Team involved in the incident.
    The circumstances of the shooting are unclear. A flash-bang grenade was thrown at the beginning of the raid, potentially making it difficult to see. In court, Weekley acknowledged that he shot Aiyana. He said that he was in the house and accidentally pulled the trigger when Mertilla Jones, the girl’s grandmother, grabbed his gun. She denies touching it.

    The lawsuit disputes Weekley’s version of events, alleging that the grenade went through the window and struck Aiyana. Then, the suit says, police “blindly fired random shots” from outside the home, with one of the bullets fatally striking Aiyana in the neck.

    Officials have said Weekley was first through the door. According to the complaint, he “rushed into the house and made physical contact [with Mertilla Jones] in an intentional cover-up conspiracy to hide what happened.”

    The suit accuses Weekley and Rowe of excessive force and/or unlawful use of deadly force. It further accuses the city, police department and the unnamed supervisors of the Special Response Team with violating Aiyana’s civil rights through policies and training; all defendants are accused of conspiracy […]

    The botched raid drew additional scrutiny to the Detroit Police Department, because it was filmed for a reality television show. A crew for the A&E show “The First 48,” which follows murder investigations, caught the beginning of the raid on tape. Critics have questioned whether the filming affected how police executed the search warrant, suggesting it influenced the decision to go at night and use a flash-bang grenade.

    The mayor banned the DPD from working with reality TV crews, and the police chief resigned several months later, after his own pitch for a reality show was unearthed. Producer Allison Howard was charged with obstruction of justice for showing the video from that night to Fieger, and she was sentenced to two years of probation.

    About those reparations. 40 Acres and a Mule Would Be at Least $6.4 Trillion Today—What the U.S. Really Owes Black America.

    Slavery made America wealthy, and racist policies since have blocked African American wealth-building. Can we calculate the economic damage?

    Followed by a lengthy yet informative and interesting infographic that does precisely that.

  389. rq says

    New York Police Dept. Questioning of Protesters Was Improper, Rights Lawyers Tell Commissioner

    Five civil rights lawyers have sent a letter to Police Commissioner William J. Bratton saying that the recent questioning of protesters by detectives violated a federal consent decree and was not conducted by the proper New York Police Department division.

    The questioning, in December, was of people arrested at protests after a decision by a Staten Island grand jury not to indict a police officer in the case of Eric Garner, who died last summer during an attempted arrest.

    Eleven people who said they were questioned at Police Headquarters as they awaited their release told a reporter for The New York Times that they were removed one by one from holding cells and asked who had organized the demonstrations, who had participated in them and what forms of social media protesters used to keep track of them.

    One man said he was asked whether he had attended meetings of a protest group. Another said detectives asked how they could receive messages from a Union Theological Seminary student email list discussing the demonstrations.

    “We want to ensure that remedial measures are put in place to prevent the recurrence of such wrongful inquiries into First Amendment protected activities,” the letter stated. “The December questions do not pertain to unlawful activity, but to political activity.”

    The letter, which was sent to Mr. Bratton by certified mail on Monday and was also sent to Zachary W. Carter, the head of the New York City Law Department, said that the questioning had violated a set of rules known as the Handschu guidelines, which govern how the city police may investigate political activity. The guidelines were created in 1985 by the settlement of a class-action lawsuit, Handschu v. Special Services Division, that asserted that the police had violated the Constitution while monitoring political groups.

    Spokesmen for the Police Department and the Law Department said the letter — from Paul G. Chevigny, Arthur Eisenberg, Jethro M. Eisenstein, Franklin Siegel and Martin R. Stolar — was being reviewed.

    @deray would have LOVED Black Graduation last night (275 black HS students graduating)

    7 Actual Facts That Prove White Privilege Exists in America

    White privilege is a concept that far too many people misunderstand. These are the same people who argue that white privilege is made-up, that people of color and others who work to point out entrenched social injustice are just complainers.

    People of color aren’t unfairly discriminated against, the argument goes, they are just unwilling to work hard to get ahead. Or maybe it’s their “inner city” mentality, to quote Congressman Paul Ryan.

    But despite the wrongheaded belief that people of color are bootstrap pullers, structural inequality dictates that some people are beginning life sans boots. Peggy McIntosh explains the concept of white privilege as an “invisible backpack” of unearned rights and privileges that white people enjoy. “Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do,” reads a quote commonly attributed to Peggy McIntosh. “Access to privilege doesn’t determine one’s outcomes, but it is definitely an asset that makes it more likely that whatever talent, ability, and aspirations a person with privilege has will result in something positive for them.”

    Here are just a few of the things that are more or likely to be true if one happens to have been born white in America:

    Possibly a revisit of previously-seen info, but worth a re-read.

    A history of Tasers in Australia. Apparently they’re actually worried about this in Australia.

    Mike Brown means…we got to fight back. #RecallKnowles2015. Action continues to encourage Knowles to resign.

    #BaltimoreUprising #JailSupport March Action Alert Today 3pm McKeldin Sq. @deray @akacharleswade #BlackLivesMatter , FYI.

  390. rq says

    Man accused of firing at George Zimmerman arrested. But what about stand-your-ground???

    The queen of the carefree black girls, she helped me appreciate my own style & individuality #SolangeAppreciationDay, for some appreciation.

    Too Many Black Students Suspended Leads Oakland Schools to Stop Punishment

    Board members of California’s Oakland Unified School District unanimously voted on Wednesday to cease suspending students for what they call “willful defiance.” Those behaviors can include swearing/yelling at teachers, refusing direct orders, texting, and storming out of class, to name a few.

    The reason? Concern that too many black students are being suspended for willful defiance.

    One sophomore student, Dan’enicole Williams, told the San Francisco Gate, “They never take time out, if someone is sleeping in class, to ask what’s wrong. They may be acting that way because they didn’t eat the night before.”

    “We’re getting pushed out of schools,” she added. “They don’t care about us.”

    Along with suspensions, the new policy will also include bans on expulsions and transfers of students to other schools for multiple infractions.

    According to the SFGate, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has been investigating Oakland schools’ “disproportionate suspensions” for several years. The district signed a voluntary agreement in 2012 that brought in Manhood Development classes for black males to address behavior issues and to begin discussions on “restorative justice.” These programs, dubbed “alternative discipline,” can cost districts upwards of $2.3 million dollars per school year.

    Vowing to cover those costs in his 2015-2016 budget, Superintendent Antwan Wilson said, “This is about reintegrating students into the classroom rather than excluding them from learning.”

    Though the new policy is being slowly phased in with full integration expected in July, 2016, district officials report having already seen a near 40% decrease in suspensions for black students since 2011 and the federal governments involvement.

    Oakland is joining a handful of other California districts who already have suspension restrictions in place.

    Sounds like a positive step!!

    As a mom of two daughters my heart breaks reading #AiyanasDreams, in her honour. Some art to follow.

    #AiyanasDreams

    ALL black girls’ dreams matter. queer, trans, rich, poor, homeless, autistic, dark skinned, boney, shy, loud, hood, muslim. #aiyanasdreams

  391. rq says

    Just some art:
    blue magic. (by @kashmirVIII)

    act of magic. (by @nelsonmakamo)

    see. (by @nelsonmakamo)

    the only one. (by @nelsonmakamo)

    In support of those whose water was shut off in Baltimore, Water is a human right.
    Join 9,000+ people giving to turn it back on.

    Baltimore Water Project matches people across the globe with Baltimore residents without running water in their homes.

    Donors have given over $30,000 for water bills in Baltimore.
    I need help paying my water bill

    If you need assistance with your water bill, we’ll try to help you get your account paid off. Call our 24/7/365 helpline at 1 (844) 505-4005 (applicants only) or apply below.

    I want to help pay a water bill

    If you want to donate money to help with a water bill, we’ll match you with a family in need. You can give as little as $5 and don’t have to pay an entire bill. 100% of your donation goes to a bill.

    More info at the link.

    People, Cool Refreshments, Music, & Dissent #FreddieGray #BaltimoreUprising #JailSupport Oh My! @deray

  392. rq says

    Protester listening to fellow protesters sing and recite poetry on a Redline train to 95th for #TrainTakeover.
    Chicago, wrap your tongue around truth. #TrainTakeover
    #TrainTakeover because folks gotta hear #BlackLivesMatter

    Leaving the intro in: Article and links within are good display of cold concepts v. lived experience in US racial/gender understanding. And here’s the article under question: If we’re putting someone new on the $20, Harriet Tubman is actually a perfect choice

    I confess that finding a replacement for President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill wasn’t high on my personal wish list. Although his unsavory record as chief proponent of the Indian Removal Act and overseer of the Trail of Tears atrocity probably merits demotion off our legal tender, I admit that as long as he remains the face of $20s, I’m likely to go right on tendering those bills.

    But as long as Women on 20s is campaigning for a replacement — and if Harriet Tubman is the people’s choice — I’m all for it: She’s an American hero, and it’s about time another woman joined Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea on our currency. It’s why I take a different view than Time’s Sierra Mannie, PostEverything’s Feminista Jones and The Root’s Kirsten West Savali, my friend and former colleague, who all believe Tubman on the $20 would be an affront. Because if we’re talking about American heroes, Tubman really is the gold standard.

    That this is particularly controversial seems to miss the point.

    Mannie calls it a “pat-on-the-back apology for being black,” but it’s really just the standard way that we honor people. Regardless of race, when your contributions to this country’s history are as consequential as Tubman’s — leading African Americans from slavery to freedom, spying for and fighting with the U.S. Army in the Civil War, advocating for women’s suffrage alongside Anthony — this is how you’re commemorated, or, at least, should be. You get a school named after you, maybe your own postage stamp, a biopic, a Google doodle on your birthday or — if there’s a vacancy — your face on the $20. If Tubman were somehow still alive, it’d be nice to see the first black president present her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but since that’s not possible, taking over for Jackson is it.

    Savali writes that it’s an “insult” to depict Tubman on American money when black women earn 64 cents to every dollar earned by white men — a point that underscores the very real persistence of inequality, but one that doesn’t change the fact that we’re a thoroughly capitalist society, in which currency itself, for better or worse, holds an exalted place in our culture. A place where we recognize our first president and first Treasury secretary in a way that winds up being more prestigious for an American legend than having a national park or street bear their name.

    And, depending on how you look at it, putting a self-emancipated, self-described conductor on the Underground Railroad on a $20 bill is sort of a fitting rebuke to the slave owners who bought and sold human beings as commercial property. They’re consigned to being known as the villains of history, while her portrait would be dispensed at every ATM in America.

    Jones argues that because “America’s currency is viewed as a place to honor people of historic political influence” it’d be wrong to “suggest that black women are part of that club.” I don’t see it that way, though.

    Slavery was and is as American as apple pie. But so was opposing it — even if America didn’t recognize it that way at that time — by any means necessary, including, in Tubman’s case, leading fellow African Americans to freedom under cover of night, on penalty of death and, as her story goes, armed with a pistol and giving orders to men. If you like analogies, she’s something like the black woman Paul Revere.

    Jones is right that focusing on “the symbolism” of the $20 bill “risks masking inequalities that are far more important” in our society, throughout our history. And she’s right that Tubman was in it “to ensure that enslaved black people would know they were worth more than the blood money that exchanged hands to buy and sell them.” Not for accolades like having her visage printed on paper.

    Maybe putting her on the $20 runs the risk of giving Americans a false sense of progress — that if Harriet Tubman is on a 20, then racism and sexism must be history. That’d be the wrong conclusion to draw, of course. But that risk doesn’t mean that, as Jones says, “until the economic injustice against women in America ends, no woman should” be pictured on legal tender. Let’s deal with that economic injustice, but understand that specifically not putting Tubman on the $20 bill won’t accomplish anything toward that end.

    Even if the only thing a Tubman Twenty did was teach kids about an American hero other than President Abraham Lincoln or Benjamin Franklin, it’d be a worthwhile effort. That’s really all these types of honors are meant to do. And while I’d probably be fine if one of the other finalists — Eleanor Roosevelt, Wilma Mankiller, Rosa Parks — were pictured on a $20, there’s something about Tubman that just seems right.

    As freedom fighters go, she was money.

    No comment.

  393. rq says

    Community based responses to violence don’t have to involve calling the police. #blacklivesmatter Examples within.

    Activists stage “train takeover” for racial inequality, video.

    #TamirRice Family Delivery Thx To Brothers of #OmegaPsiPhi @akacharleswade @deray @ShaunKing @FeministaJones That’s what community looks like.

    MLK’s Mother Was Assassinated, Too: The Forgotten Women Of Black History Month. Repost, but good for a re-read.

    7 Things You Never Knew About Dr. Martin Luther King Jr…

    On this wonderful day where we commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I felt the need to share some seldomly known things about the him and his life. Things ranging from his actual name, favorite food, to even his impacts on Hollywood. Do enjoy and share with others.

    1 Fact: Martin Luther King Jr. was christened Michael King Jr. When his father became pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1931, he adopted the name Martin Luther King Sr. — in honor of Protestant leader Martin Luther.

    2 Fact: When Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott got married, they decided to stay in a White motel to celebrate the occasion. Upon arrival, they were denied access and had to spend the night at Black-owned funeral home.

    3 Fact: Martin Luther King’s favorite foods were pecan pie and fried chicken.

    4 Fact: King skipped the ninth and eleventh grades and never graduated from high school. He enrolled in Morehouse College in 1944 when he was just 15. He completed his doctorate at Boston University when he was 25.

    5 Fact: Dr. King apparently improvised parts of the “I Have A Dream” speech in August 1963, including its title passage. Clarence B. Jones worked on the draft of the speech, which was being revised up to the time Dr. King took the podium. He says Dr. King’s remarks were up in the air about 12 hours before he spoke, and the “dream” reference wasn’t in the speech. Dr. King later added it live when singer Mahalia Jackson prompted him to speak about the “dream.” In June 1963, Dr. King had talked about his dream in a speech in Detroit.

    6 Fact: King was jailed 29 times over the course of his life. Most of the reasons he was jailed were for acts of civil disobedience, and utterly ridiculous charges including driving 30mph in a 25mph zone- evidence of the time.

    7 Fact: When Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, at the time he was the youngest Peace Prize winner ever, at the age of 35.

    *Bonus*: Actress Nichelle Nichols, who made history playing the first non-black stereotype role on a television show, planned to quit Star Trek after the first year when her role as Uhura was reduced to a supporting character. It was only after King sought her out at an event to tell her he was a huge fan — and entreated her to stay when she told him of her imminent departure — that she reconsidered and stayed.

    Statement regarding Kennesaw State University academic advisor

    Kennesaw State University officials have placed an academic advisor on administrative leave pending a comprehensive investigation.

    The investigation follows a student complaint against Abby Dawson, director of advising and internships in the Department of Exercise Science and Sport Management. The complaint stemmed from an interaction the student had with Ms. Dawson on May 13, which was documented by the student and distributed via social media.

    According to University officials, the investigation is expected to take approximately two weeks to complete.

    “Kennesaw State is dedicated to providing a positive academic experience for all students,” said Ken Harmon, Kennesaw State’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. “We also have a responsibility to provide all students, faculty and staff with a fair and thorough review process.”

  394. rq says

    one hand. It’s not just black men who can play football. Impressive catch.

    Not wrong. Not at all. By David Simon.

    From an essayist on Bloomberg today comes the claim that because raw numbers of arrests have fallen since Martin O’Malley zero-toleranced his way to the governor’s chair, or because O’Malley, after ballooning the number of minor arrests, brought them down again at the end of his tenure, zero-tolerance and over policing can’t therefore be a fundamental cause of the declining standards of police work in Baltimore, the unprofessionalism of officers, and the lower regard for civil liberties by Baltimore police.

    “David Simon, creator of “The Wire,” gave an interview recently laying blame for Baltimore’s recent upheaval at the feet of Martin O’Malley, the city’s former mayor and now a Democratic presidential hopeful. Simon charged O’Malley with initiating a policy of indiscriminate “mass arrests” for nonexistent low-level offenses, where officers learned to “roam the city, jack everyone up, and call for the wagon.” This breakdown in good police work and erosion of rights, according to Simon, contributed to Freddie Gray’s death and fueled the anger that boiled over into riots.

    Simon worked for years as a Baltimore Sun police beat reporter, so his allegations carry an air of streetwise authority. “If you think I’m exaggerating,” he said, “look it up.” So I did. According to FBI data, Simon is not only taking some dramatic license; he’s leaving out important parts of the story.

    Arrests did indeed increase under O’Malley, which isn’t surprising: He ran for mayor in 1999 promising a get-tough approach to crime in one of America’s most dangerous cities. After he was elected, crime fell, and total arrests went up — from 89,000 in 1998 to a peak of 114,000 in 2003. Whether a 28 percent increase warrants Simon’s colorful characterization is debatable, but let’s grant him the point: many more arrests were made.

    But Simon didn’t mention something else: By the time O’Malley left office in 2007, arrests had returned to their 1998 levels.”

    Um, Simon didn’t mention that because……it isn’t true.

    Martin O’Malley wasn’t the mayor of Baltimore in 2007. He defeated Robert Ehrlich in November 2006 and he was in Annapolis for all of the ensuing year. It was his successor, Sheila Dixon, who began the process of backing the police department away from the overpolicing and zero tolerance ordered up and defended by her predecessor. Mr. O’Malley’s last year to influence Baltimore’s crime problem was 2006, when arrest numbers were still in the mid 90,000s for a city of 600,000. And of course, his claimed arrest numbers are, for every year of his administration, underinflated apples to every other mayor’s oranges. Why? Well, read my original remarks: Only the O’Malley administration saw fit to implement a dynamic in which dozens of illegally detained arrestees were transported to BCDC every night only to be presented with liability forms by morning that would “unfound” their arrest paperwork if they promised not to sue the city. Failure to sign meant you took a charge and waited a day or two to see a court commissioner. Those unfortunate people — perhaps as much as 20-25 percent of the total number of arrests if ACLU-monitored samples are credible — are not in the data on which Bloomberg so devotedly relies. […]

    Actually, Mr. Barry, here is what I am alleging:

    1) That the decline in arrests toward the end of Mr. O’Malley’s tenure was not the result of some benign and discerning reconsideration of policy within Mr. O’Malley’s administration, or some nuanced reapplication of the Fourth Amendment by officers who had been rewarded for earlier discarding civil liberties. No, it was the result of an ongoing law suit by the ACLU and NAACP on behalf of the thousands of innocent people dragged to the city jail without probable cause and in many cases without having their arrests actually recorded as criminal charges by the O’Malley administration.

    Had that lawsuit not gone forward, and had not complaints been mounting from city residents — and indeed civil rights leaders here pleaded with Mr. O’Malley personally to end the street sweeps to little avail before filing suit — the O’Malley administration was willing to embrace mass arrests until the cows came home. Furthermore, Mr. Barry, many of those bodies that washed up on Eager Street without probable cause are uncounted in the stats that you cite. That’s right: Many innocent Baltimoreans, upon being evaluated at the City Jail by police supervisors, were encouraged to sign liability waivers in order to go home within a few hours rather than being falsely charged on petty humbles and waiting in jail overnight or longer to see a court commissioner. Get it? These people aren’t even counted in the 30 percent bump in raw arrests that you attempt to portray as somehow insignificant. But thanks, Mr. Barry, for playing the game with corrupted data.

    2) That by utilizing zero-tolerance and massive street sweeps for a significant portion of his time in office, Mr. O’Malley damaged both the policing culture of the BPD and the relationship between the BPD and the inner-city communities in which probable cause became a marginalized concept. A generation of sergeants and lieutenants were promoted and rewarded for the quantity, not the quality of arrest. Clearance rates for all part one felonies — murder, aggravated assault, rape, robbery, burglary, auto theft — declined under Mr. O’Malley as actual crime prevention and retroactive investigation was deemphasized and street sweeps were rewarded. Those mid-level supervisors who came up in the department are now responsible for training today’s investigators and supervisors. Good police work was ignored, bad enforcement practices were emphasized. A generation of Baltimore cops failed to master the basics of probable cause, which was irrelevant to grabbing every body on a corner and tossing them all into wagons. Yes, the subsequent administration could cease the mass arrest policy and attempt to emphasize other things, but of course they were doing it with a police agency that had learned some ugly lessons, and would continue to apply those lessons at the street level.

    3) That because fewer Baltimore officers were given any incentive to learn the hard job of policing, the arrest rates in Baltimore — not overall arrests for bullshit, but arrests for major crimes — suffered during Mr. O’Malley’s administration and they remain low today because those who never learned the skill set for real retroactive investigation of crime and crime suppression are now teaching the next generation of BPD personnel how not to do the job. Mr. O’Malley’s policy of emphasizing street sweeps over clinical crime solving broke many links in the chain of institutional knowledge within the department. Anyone care to guess at how many of the 91 murders in Baltimore this year are cleared by arrest? It ain’t pretty, and it pales in comparison to the felony clearance rates that Mr. O’Malley inherited when he became mayor.

    4) Once Martin O’Malley left City Hall for the political horizons of Annapolis, yes, some fundamental restoration of balance between real police work and zero-tolerance was attempted and even achieved. But credit were it is due: A new mayor and new police commissioner with made real gains by going the exact opposite way of Mr. O’Malley in their policing strategies. And despite Mr. Barry’s implication to the contrary, nothing I said in my original remarks suggests that I do not personally credit the new priorities, or that I am not aware that zero-tolerance was halted after Mr. O’Malley’s mayoralty. I’ve been doing so for years now:

    “It is my understanding that Commissioner Bealefeld – by finally choosing to emphasize the quality, rather than the quantity of arrest – has been able to reduce the homicide rate somewhat in our city. If true, this is not only commendable, it is a long time coming. Too long, in fact.”

    That was something I wrote in the Baltimore Sun in January 2011, years after Mr. O’Malley had departed for Annapolis and well into a prolonged effort by the Rawlings-Blake administration — and even earlier, by the abbreviated Dixon administration — to do a complete about-face from Mr. O’Malley’s zero-tolerance policies. That’s right: After Martin O’Malley and zero-tolerance failed to achieve more than modest reductions in violent crime – those who inherited Baltimore’s crime problem did exactly the opposite and deemphasized mass arrests, targeted gun crime, and in that same year of 2011, pushed the city below 200 murders a year for the first time in decades. […]

    Unequivocally, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld completely abandoned Mr. O’Malley’s policies and principles, lowered the arrest rate meaningfully, and in doing so actually achieved some of the real crime reduction that Mr. O’Malley claimed, falsely, on paper. Even now, with violence in Baltimore cresting after the disorder here, the murder rate is still below that which Mr. O’Malley left the city on his departure for Annapolis. And again, the murder rate is ever the true-tell when it comes to crime stats: How does it actually stay consistent, and even rise slightly during Mr. O’Malley’s tenure while attempted murders are magically, dramatically falling by as much as a third? Are the criminals all suddenly better shots? Has trauma care at Johns Hopkins returned to the dark ages? No, the O’Malley stats on overall crime reduction have been cheated to create a narrative amenable to political ambition. Guns have disappeared from agg assault reports, rapes have been unfounded, robberies have been categorized as Part II larcenies. But murder is always the tell; it can’t be cheated for political advancement. (More detail on this to come; it’s worthy of another post entirely to carefully parse the stats, review the history of crime categorization in Baltimore, and Mr. O’Malley’s astonishing claims of success unseen in any other American city.)

    Most embarrassing is Mr. O’Malley’s incredibly tone-deaf coda in late 2013, a moment that I am sure he would like to call back now in the wake of Mr. Gray’s death and the revelations over the past year about how unprofessional and reckless the BPD has become with regard to police violence and with routine violations of civil liberties:

    With the real credit for reducing arrest rates and abandoning zero-tolerance policing going to the present mayor’s administration and a police commissioner. who turned away from Mr. O’Malley’s arguments completely in 2010-2011, Mr. O’Malley nonetheless journeyed back to Baltimore not even two years ago to chastize Mayor Rawlings-Blake for lowering the number of arrests and deemphasizing street sweeps and allegedly allowing crime to again rise as a result. […]

    If you want to assess what a mayor and police commissioner can achieve when they actually abandon zero-tolerance and over-policing, look four years after O’Malley was gone from Baltimore. Even operating with a damaged police agency in which the investigative prowess and the deterrent of felony arrest was signficiantly weakened because of Mr. O’Malley’s priorities, Ms. Rawlings-Blake and Mr. Bealefeld achieved actual results. Not merely reductions on paper.

    Zero tolerance doesn’t work. It just doesn’t.

    That was long. And the skipped bits are good, too.

    The Family Of #TamirRice Thanks the world for making these days comfortable #LoveWins

    Mixed feelings: Mark Zuckerberg’s reading list. He has over 30 million followers and he’s sharing his desire to learn more about social justice. I’ll wait until there are results. He’s about to read The New Jim Crow, we’ll see what he takes away from it.

  395. rq says

    Ooo, missed one. Study Reveals Police Are 10 Times More Likely To Shoot African Americans

    It’s official: African American residents are 10 times more likely than Caucasians to be shot by police. At least that’s what one study found for residents of Chicago.

    In an analysis of recent data from the City of Chicago Independent Police Review Authority, “In black and Latino, lower-income neighborhoods you will see police officers who are instructed to stop and frisk and aggressively search every day,” civil rights attorney Craig Futterman told the Chicago Reporter, which first crunched the data.

    Futterman founded the University of Chicago’s Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project. He explained that, “These opportunities for conflict to escalate present themselves. And they often do.”

    The Chicago Reporter’s analysis also revealed that while African Americans residents are less than a third of Chicago’s total population, three-quarters of the city’s police-involved shooting victims were in fact members of the African American community in such incidents spanning 2009-2013.

    In the midst of a widely-reported drop in the Windy City’s shooting rate and homicide rate, African Americans still accounted for more than 67% of the city’s police-involved shootings in 2013.

    For their part, the City of Chicago has paid out millions in settlements to the families of police victims over the past few years. One prominent example, the killing of Rekia Boyd, an unarmed 22-year-old woman shot by an off-duty officer in 2012, cost the city $4.5 million in a wrongful death settlement, paid out to Boyd’s family.

    The real question is why this isn’t front page news in the mainstream media? If you agree that this story needs more attention, then “Like” and share it on social media with everyone you know who cares.

  396. Pteryxx says

    More details on housing segregation on NPR’s Fresh Air: “Historian Says Don’t ‘Sanitize’ How Our Government Created Ghettos” Summary and 36-minute audio here, transcript here. Terry Gross interviews Richard Rothstein, who has written about Ferguson and neighborhood segregation and poverty.

    GROSS: I think the American public, including the people trapped in poverty in inner cities, don’t understand how literally ghettos were legislated into existence. Do you consider it part of your mission now to explain that, to put some of the anger that’s happening that we are seeing now in context?

    ROTHSTEIN: Yes. We’ve forgotten all this history. It’s not that we never knew it. But we’ve forgotten it. We have a myth today that the ghettos in metropolitan areas around the country are what the Supreme Court calls de facto, just the accident of the fact that people have not enough income or – to move into middle-class neighborhoods – or because real estate agents steered black and white families to different neighborhoods or because there was white flight. But the truth is that while those things existed, the major reason we have ghettos in every metropolitan area in this country is because federal, state and local governments purposefully created racial boundaries in these cities. It was not the unintended effect of benign policies. It was an explicit, racially purposeful policy that was pursued at all levels of government. And that’s the reason we have these ghettos today, and we are reaping the fruits of those policies.

    […]

    GROSS: I suppose one should never be surprised by the extent of racism in America. But it’s still shocking that that would be legal in the North, where there wasn’t legal segregation.

    ROTHSTEIN: But there was. This was not legal; it was unconstitutional. But this was the policy the federal government followed. As I said, it was once well known. You know, in 1970, George Romney, who was the secretary of housing and urban development under Nixon, the father of the recent presidential candidate, announced that the federal government had created a white noose around African-American neighborhoods – Negro neighborhoods, he called them – in central cities. And it was the federal government’s obligation now to untie that noose. And Romney implemented a series of policies designed to integrate the suburbs, to reverse the policies that had been pursued in the previous 20 years. He proposed to withhold federal funds for all kinds of things, sewer projects or water projects or parklands, from any suburban community that didn’t desegregate, by repealing ordinances that prohibited the construction of multifamily units or that didn’t take their fair share of public housing throughout the metropolitan area or that didn’t accept subsidized housing. And he actually – Romney actually did withhold federal funds from three suburbs as his first round of this policy. He called it Open Communities. And there was such an uproar in the country about it that President Nixon reined him in. Romney was forced to cancel the Open Communities program. He was eventually forced out as secretary of housing and urban development. And we’ve had nothing since from the federal government that was anywhere near as aggressive in trying to reverse the policies that the federal government had pursued to create segregation.

    […]

    GROSS: Let’s turn back the clock and go back to 1910. You’ve written a story of a black Yale Law School graduate who bought a home in a previously all-white neighborhood in Baltimore in 1910. And the Baltimore City government reacted by adopting a residential segregation ordinance restricting African-Americans to designated blocks. Would you explain that policy and the rationale behind it?

    ROTHSTEIN: Well, the policy was again not only in Baltimore, although Baltimore was the first city to enact such an ordinance. But it was across the country. These ordinances typically prohibited blacks from buying homes on blocks that were predominantly white. They weren’t necessarily all white because our urban areas were much more integrated at that time than they are today. And it prohibited whites from buying homes on blocks that were primarily black. In 1917, the Supreme Court found such ordinances unconstitutional, not because they discriminated against African-Americans but because they prevented property owners from selling homes to whomever they wanted.

    GROSS: In other words, it was disadvantageous to white people. That’s why.

    ROTHSTEIN: That’s right. They couldn’t sell their property to anybody that they wanted. And cities around the country figured out ways of evading the Supreme Court decision. Some outright ignored them. In Baltimore, they reacted to the Supreme Court decision by not enforcing the ordinance anymore. But instead, the mayor of Baltimore set up a Committee on Segregation. And that Committee on Segregation was designed to use city agencies to enforce the boundaries that had been previously set up by the ordinance without using the ordinance itself. So health inspectors and building inspectors were charged with the responsibility of condemning properties that were sold to the wrong race. The Committee on Segregation also organized neighborhood associations around the city of Baltimore to circulate restrictive covenants. These were legal documents that were either attached to deeds or were covenants, contracts among neighbors that would prohibit African-Americans from moving into homes previously owned by whites. And this was all done by city government. So this is another example of policies that were not benign with unintended consequences but explicit racial policies designed to segregate Baltimore and every city in the country. St. Louis, where Ferguson took place, evaded the Supreme Court decision by establishing a zoning commission. If a neighborhood was populated with African-Americans, even if not all African-Americans, the St. Louis zoning commission permitted liquor stores and polluting industries, even houses of prostitution in those neighborhoods, in effect creating those neighborhoods as slums.

    GROSS: Let me quote something that the mayor of Baltimore said. And I’m not sure if this was in 1910 or shortly after. But this pertains to the restrictive housing ordinance. He said, “blacks should be quarantined in isolated slums in order to reduce the incidence of civil disturbance, to prevent the spread of communicable disease into nearby white neighborhoods and to protect property values among the white majority.” That pretty much sums it up (laughter)…

    ROTHSTEIN: Yes (laughter).

    GROSS: What the policies were intended to do. I mean, that’s – quarantine black people in slums… I mean, that’s a good summary.

    ROTHSTEIN: Yes. And as I said, once that ordinance was declared unconstitutional, the mayor of Baltimore set up a committee of segregation to enforce the policy in other ways. I want to emphasize, this was public policy. This is what the lawyers call de jure segregation. This was a violation of the Fifth, Fourteenth and Thirteenth Amendments. And it’s never been remedied. It established the boundaries of racial ghettos that persist to this day.

    That’s just in the first ten minutes or so. Much much more at the links.

  397. Pteryxx says

    …One more point from that NPR piece because it’s so disturbing. Emphasis at the end is mine.

    GROSS: Before the housing bubble burst and the stock market collapsed, African-American home buyers were being targeted for subprime loans and so these are loans that, you know, usually had, like, a low teaser interest rate, but then the interest rate would rise and you’d be stuck with a much larger loan than you realized you were signing up for. And a lot of people couldn’t pay those loans; they lost their homes. So can you talk a little bit about how African-Americans were targeted for these subprime loans?

    ROTHSTEIN: Sure, there were a number of lawsuits filed against banks for their behavior during the housing bubble. One of them, it so happens, was from Baltimore County – Baltimore itself. Wells Fargo Bank was sued by some civil rights groups. And testimony in that suit in Baltimore was that the bank had set up a special sales unit of African-American salespeople in the bank whose job it was to go out to black churches and market these kinds of loans, refinancing loans, so that blacks would give up their existing mortgages for an initial low teaser rate, not realizing that the interest rate would later explode and that there would be enormous prepayment penalties if they tried to get out of it. But this was specifically targeted at African-American families.

    GROSS: So how do you think the subprime loans targeted at African-Americans added to the chronic housing segregation in our country?

    ROTHSTEIN: Well, many of the families who lost their homes as a result of foreclosures when they could not refinance these mortgages were pushed back into the ghetto. They lost – they were homeowners; they were pushed back into living in apartments and tenements in much denser neighborhoods. So it’s reinforced the segregation of many urban areas. I mentioned earlier that black wealth is now about 5 percent of white wealth even though black income is 60 percent of white income. Before the subprime bubble burst, African-American wealth had risen to about 10 percent. But the subprime crisis pushed African-Americans way back so that many of the gains they had made in the previous years were lost.

    Too-big-to-fail banks that caused the subprime mortgage crisis, got bailed out and suffered minimal penalties, targeted black people and stripped them of so much wealth that the racial wealth gap in the country significantly increased. And this just happened a handful of years ago.

  398. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Am I ever glad racism is over in the US. But Christians, hooboy, do they face some heavy handed and unfair persecution! We’d better get to solving that.

    Doggart was arrested last month after he was recorded on a wiretapped phone talking about his intention to take a private militia to Hancock and burn down a mosque and schools while using deadly force on anyone who resisted. “Our small group will soon be faced with the fight of our lives. We will offer those lives as collateral to prove our commitment to our God,” said Doggart in a Facebook post. “We shall be Warriors who will inflict horrible numbers of casualties upon the enemies of our Nation and World Peace.”

    Doggart pleaded guilty to interstate communication of threats and he has been released on a $30,000 bond to home confinement and faces between 0 to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

    What’s particularly unusual about this case is first that the FBI chose not to publicize it and that no terror charges were brought. The second is that Doggart, despite expressing intent to commit terrorism, has been let out on bail.

  399. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    How weird! How bizarre! It’s only now, as we get ubiquitous surveillance that is in the hands of the public and pointed at the police that police have started lying. We must get a team of psychologists to study this phenomenon right away!

    More and more cops are giving false statements in official documents or when questioned about their misbehavior, the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board said.

    The NYPD watchdog group determined that 26 cops made false statements either to the CCRB or in their paperwork last year — double the amount of officers found fudging reports the year before

    which definitely means it’s the lying that’s increasing, not the catching of the liars that’s increasing.

    Oh, and by the by?

    Many of the bogus statements were debunked by video evidence collected at the scene of the incident, …

    Yeah. Doubled lying! My goodness! Amongst our best, our boys in blue! They would never have lied **before** the invention of portable recording equipment.

    Ah, America! If only we could go back to the good ol’ days, before gay marriage destroyed the moral foundations that made our cops moral paragons .

  400. rq says

    Okay, going to try to see how much I can still fit in before the portcullis inevitably cuts off communication here.

    raising funds to implement #fergusonselfcare. donations $75+, receive a free Ferguson self care tshirt. FergusonSelfCare@gmail.com paypal A worthy cause, I think.

    To everyone who answered the call to support the family of #TamirRice, I want to PERSONALLY thank you.

    79.4% of all students in “unaccredited” school buildings in Missouri are African American. “Separate and Unequal” is BAD, racist policy.

    California Cops Using Less Force Thanks to Body Cameras, even if they do lie about things more (as per the above).

    California police officers equipped with body-worn cameras are engaging in less force during encounters with citizens, according to a report.

    The San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier this week that law enforcement records in two cities — Oakland and Menlo Park — pointed to a significant drop in use of force incidents since some officers began wearing body cameras during their shift. The paper reported use-of-force incidents were down 72 percent in Oakland since officers there began wearing body cameras in 2010. Oakland’s police department currently has 700 body cameras, more than any law enforcement agency in the country, the Chronicle noted.

    Similarly, force reports fell in other California towns — including Brentwood, Menlo Park and Campbell — since officers in those areas began wearing body cameras. In Menlo Park, records reviewed by the Chronicle found that force incidents were down more than 30 percent in the three years its police officers had been wearing the cameras.

    The numbers point to a promising trend as the Obama administration continues to push for law enforcement agencies across the country to purchase and equip officers with body-worn cameras. […]

    In California, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee pledged more than $6 million for city police officers to be equipped with the cameras, while the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department announced a smaller program to equip some of its deputies with the technology. The Sheriff’s department program will allocate just $50,000 for the purchase of 30 body-worn cameras, while the city’s plan would provide around 60 times that amount, the Chronicle said.

    So, it won’t fix everything, but it can help.

    How a teacher saved my life, a personal story about the value of having teachers one can identify with.

    Mr. Vargas was Latino, but believed that African-American history played a critical role in all of our lives. I valued that someone who did not look like me was immersed in black history and knew that it did not begin with slavery.

    He fostered a profound love of knowledge and appreciation for learning about the U.S. government and the ways in which the political process can bring about substantial change for those who need it most.

    Last summer – shortly after my mother died from breast cancer – the killing of Michael Brown Jr. thrust my community of St. Louis and Ferguson into utter chaos. Using the knowledge Mr. Vargas taught me four years ago, I was able to channel my frustration into social activism.

    I became involved in the Ferguson Movement, organizing demonstrations inside and outside of schools, youth voter registration drives, community service, and pursuing policy reforms in the Missouri Legislature and the U.S. Congress.

    In my high school, I recently finished an innovative Black History Month program that focused on sharing the narratives of students who were affected by Ferguson and coming up with solutions for racial and community healing. There was a lot of pain felt by students, and the program allowed for dialogue to be openly exchanged, regardless of opinion.

    We raised over $2,000 for the Ferguson Burger Bar – a black-owned business on West Florissant Avenue that uses funds to directly help the underprivileged youth in Ferguson. I plan to organize several more community service projects within the Ferguson area and to launch my own community outreach program.

    Through all of my experiences of tear gas, rubber bullets and personal challenges, I still remember the hope a teacher instilled in me. A hope that the education and political system still works. A hope that starts with youth and their relationships with teachers. Teachers like Mr. Vargas embody the power of that hope.

  401. rq says

    More on teaching, Real Corps Stories: Gary

    Gary James knows it’s an uphill battle for African American male teachers but has dedicated his life to the cause.

    James was a 2010 D.C. Region Corps Member, and he currently works for Teach For America as Manger of Regional Communications in the D.C. Region.

    More on the real-estate situation in St Louis, re: a developer who has a rather shady financial history. Real estate roulette: Where will Paul McKee land?

    Developer Paul McKee allegedly owes more than $17 million on loans tied to his massive effort to remake 1,500 acres just north of downtown.

    The related lawsuit, filed last week, threatens to put hundreds of NorthSide Regeneration properties into receivership, complicating plans for the long-stalled development and its quest to lure the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s new $1.6 billion headquarters.

    That setback, though, is just the latest for McKee in recent years.

    He owes more than $31 million from a 2012 judgment connected to his company’s development of a Hazelwood industrial park, a property that faces the auction block this summer after millions of dollars in property taxes have gone unpaid. […]

    McKee in 2003 started buying properties on the near north side, which for decades had been in decline. The city eventually argued that having a primary landholder would help jump-start development in the 2-square-mile area just north of downtown.

    McKee asked the Missouri Legislature for help, and so it approved the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage program, through which he obtained $45 million in state tax credits to solidify his control of real estate within NorthSide. The program expired years ago. The city of St. Louis, in two stages, also approved a $390 million tax increment financing (TIF) for the area. The city has not yet allocated any of the TIF funds for NorthSide since nothing has been developed. It was for years stalled by a lawsuit that alleged legislation establishing the TIF was too vague.

    Now a Kansas entity organized by Joe Campbell, which bought $12 million in loans originally issued to McKee by Corn Belt Bank, has filed a lawsuit in St. Louis County Circuit Court to collect on the debt it now says totals $17.6 million. Campbell’s Titan Fish Two LLC has asked the court to appoint a receiver on 427 NorthSide Regeneration properties.

    The NorthSide properties threatened with receivership, which McKee has characterized as a “small part” of the development, were used as collateral for 65 percent of the original loan amount, or $7.8 million, according to Titan Fish Two’s petition. McKee and his trust personally guaranteed the rest, $4.2 million, Titan Fish Two said. […]

    The city never asked McKee whether he faced loan defaults or judgments, said Otis Williams, executive director of the St. Louis Development Corp. (SLDC). Williams said SLDC vetted McKee in a 2009 application for tax increment financing and again in early 2013, before the city activated the second half of $390 million in TIF funding for NorthSide. Two other parts of the TIF were activated in 2009. The 2009 application asked about McKee’s ability to finance projects. Williams said McKee gave examples, including NorthPark, a business park in North County with Express Scripts as a major tenant that McEagle, the McKees’ company, is developing with Clayco, and Winghaven in St. Charles County. The application also asked whether McKee was able to obtain bonds of “significant value,” Williams said.

    But it did not ask about defaults.

    “I think (in the future) we will ask about defaults or judgments,” Williams said. “But we did not ask in this case.”

    Rainford said the mayor’s office was aware of McKee’s troubles in Hazelwood. But he was unable to say why other city lawmakers were not told about it prior to the 2013 TIF vote.

    “I don’t know what they were told or not told,” Rainford said. “But the project is too important to simply walk away.”

    NorthSide critic Alderman Antonio French said the city failed to complete due diligence for McKee, and cited the developer’s friendly relationship with City Hall; though McKee, his family members and their companies have given Slay more than $68,000 in campaign contributions since 2003, it totals less than 1 percent of what Slay’s raised since 2001, according to a Business Journal review of Missouri Ethics Commission records.

    Told that McKee owes more than $30 million in connection with the Hazelwood development, French said, “It is unbelievable to me that you can get this far in the process of public subsidy and never have to make a representation about your financial situation.

    “It’s amazing how differently perceived wealthy people are compared with average citizens,” French said, citing what he said is a rigorous screening process to purchase Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority property.

    And from the residents, Meet the 79-Year-Old Fighting to Save Her St. Louis Home, Neighborhood From Possible Bulldozing . Seen before, a repost.

    Housing Apartheid, American Style

    The riots that erupted in Baltimore last month were reminiscent of those that consumed cities all over the country during the 1960s. This rage and unrest was thoroughly explained five decades ago by President Lyndon Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission. The commission’s report was released in 1968 — the year that the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. touched off riots in 125 cities — and contains the most candid indictment of racism and segregation seen in such a document, before or since.

    The commission told white Americans what black citizens already knew: that the country was “moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.” It linked the devastating riots that consumed Detroit and Newark in 1967 to residential segregation that had been sustained and made worse by federal policies that concentrated poor black citizens in ghettos. It also said that discrimination and segregation had become a threat to “the future of every American.”

    As part of the remedy, the commission called on the government to outlaw housing discrimination in both the sale and rental markets and to “reorient” federal policy so that housing for low- and moderate-income families would be built in integrated, mixed-income neighborhoods, where residents would have better access to jobs and decent schools.

    Soon after the King assassination, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act, which banned housing discrimination and required states and local governments that receive federal housing money to try to overcome historic patterns of segregation and to “affirmatively further” federal fair housing goals. But the effort was hampered from the beginning by local officials who ignored or opposed the goal of desegregation and by federal officials, including presidents, who simply declined to enforce it.

    A growing body of evidence suggests that America would be a different country today had the government taken its responsibility seriously. For example, a Harvard study released earlier this month found that young children whose families had been given housing vouchers that allowed them to move to better neighborhoods were more likely to attend college — and to attend better colleges — than those whose families had not received the vouchers. The voucher group also had significantly higher incomes as adults.

    But little of the promise of progressive-sounding laws was truly realized. The government’s failure to enforce the fair housing law can be seen throughout much of the country; metropolitan areas with large black populations have, in fact, remained highly segregated. […]

    Ronald Reagan was openly hostile to fair housing goals, as the sociologists Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton have shown in their book, “American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass.” The Justice Department under President Reagan challenged the ability of civil rights activists to sue for fair housing violations. The administration also conspired with the National Association of Realtors to undermine HUD’s already feeble enforcement authority.

    Bill Clinton tried to bring pressure to bear on states and localities to further integration. But the bureaucracy at HUD resisted these efforts, and, as usual, the politics of the issue became treacherous.

    Mr. Clinton’s second HUD secretary, Andrew Cuomo, tried in 1998 to retrace the path that George Romney had walked exactly 30 years earlier. He proposed rules that would have denied federal housing money to communities that flouted fair housing laws. This drew outrage and opposition from local governments that were accustomed to getting billions of dollars from HUD with no preconditions attached. Weakened by scandal and impeachment, Mr. Clinton lacked the political capital for a big fight over fair housing.

    In the absence of strong federal leadership, the task of securing fair housing has largely fallen to housing and civil rights groups, which have routinely taken cities and counties and the federal government itself to court for failing to enforce anti-discrimination laws. Their lawsuits have changed the lives of many citizens who were once trapped in dismal neighborhoods.

    The Obama administration has proposed new fair housing enforcement rules, which should be finalized soon, that make states, cities and housing agencies more accountable for furthering fair housing.

    But for these rules to be meaningful, the federal government will have to restructure its own programs so that more affordable housing is built in low-poverty, high opportunity neighborhoods. Federal officials must also be willing to do what they have generally been afraid to do in the past — withhold money from communities that perpetuate housing apartheid.

    Given what we now know about the pervasive harm that flows from segregation, the country needs to get on with this crucial mission.

    Rawlings-Blake says Baltimore ‘ready to exhale’ at 2015 Preakness, ’cause all you need is a horse race to make htings better, as this horse race will be equally attended by both the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy!!

    Political and police leaders said they saw Preakness as an opportunity to celebrate a city battered by the turmoil over the death of Freddie Gray, who suffered what ultimately was a fatal spinal injury after he was arrested on April 12.

    Anne Marie Dunn, Cleveland, attends her fourth Preakness race at Pimlico Race Course.

    Rawlings-Blake said that she hoped national audiences were seeing the real Baltimore on Saturday, rather than the devastating images of the fires, looting and confrontations with police that erupted after Freddie Gray’s funeral.

    “We kept saying over and over, the images (the national media) ran on a continuous loop are not the Baltimore that we know and love,” she said. “It’s not our great city.”

    The mayor did not respond to a question about whether her gray dress was a reference to the 25-year-old man whose death sparked the protests, but instead tapped her gray and purple hat as if she chose her outfit to match it.

    Gov. Larry Hogan, who declared a state of emergency and sent the National Guard to the city, seemed to want to focus instead on the sunny, festive day at the race track.

    “It’s a beautiful day here,” he said to a question about how it felt to be in the city under such different circumstances. “I couldn’t be prouder of us for hosting the 140th Preakness Stakes.

    “It’s a terrific day and a great crowd,” said Hogan, a Republican who took office in January.

    As for how Baltimore would look in the national broadcasts on Saturday compared to several weeks ago, Hogan said, “It should be a better show.

    “Everything’s under control,” he said. “Everybody’s enjoying themselves.”

    Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford struck a serious note amid the light-hearted atmosphere at Pimlico Race Course.

    “The unrest is a not-so-distant memory,” Rutherford said. “We’re trying to address the long term issues.

    “The trouble with government programs that try to address poverty is that they maintain people,” he said. “We have to have policies that help people get out [of poverty]. We don’t want to maintain people.”

    Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said he was heartened by the positive response officers were receiving at Pimlico — where particularly in the corporate tent village, fancily-dressed people angled to take their pictures, give them a thumbs-up or thank them for their work during the unrest.

    “It’s a good opportunity for Baltimore to get back on its feet,” Davis said. “Things like this serve to bring people back together, and get back to normalcy.”

    Except for one officer who had heat exhaustion, Davis said in the early afternoon that the day seemed to be going smoothly.

    This is what the @BaltimorePolice car looked like after striking the young boy in Hampden. No words from @MayorSRB

    Stop the censorship & silencing of black voices. Call to support these young black women. #BlackLivesMatter That’s re: the black girls who got suspended for supporting black lives matter openly.

  402. rq says

    Moderation wins.
    Blackprint Project Quote of The Day: October 2014. Is it dated? No:

    “There exists today a chance for Blacks to organize a cooperative state within their own group. By letting Negro farmers feed Negro artisans, and Negro technicians guide Black home industries and Black thinkers plan this integration of cooperation, while Black artists dramatize and beautify the struggle, economic independence can be achieved. To doubt that this is possible is to doubt the essential humanity and the quality of brains of Black People.”

    W.E.B. Dubois

    And more quotes at the link.

    and the children shall lead. #BaltimoreUprising (by @byDVNLLN)

    Richard Ross’ photos hold mirror up to society. 100yr from now this’ll be evidence of our barbarism. #KidsBehindBars
    BE CAREFUL WITH EACH OTHER SO YOU CAN BE DANGEROUS TOGETHER. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty #Ferguson
    Previous two for the photos.

    Jay Z. 2015. Listen. And yeah, he is getting criticism for those words, as coming from someone wealthy and far more privileged and for some odd comparisons. But still.

    @deray Found this photo in biography book about Ida B Wells. Racial profiling, since 1919 (at least).

  403. rq says

    Ta-Nehisi Coates strikes again:
    I don’t think people should be fatalistic, but there has to be some sense of “You know we really could lose. Good people lose all the time.”
    Also an argument that the “We Will Inevitably Triumph” perspective–actually hinders change. If you’re fated to win, why struggle?
    Always sad when I have to say, “Failure is the norm for most activists. You can’t really fight solely to win. Because you might not.”
    Whenever I give a talk there’s always that part at the end where someone says, “Wow that was bracing, but can you give us a reason to hope?”
    And yes, I think there’s reason to hope. Though some days I have doubts.

    After Tony Robinson shooting, Matt Kenny wants to return to Madison police

    Matt Kenny wants to return to his job as a Madison police officer, after more than two months in which his actions in the controversial shooting of 19-year-old Tony Robinson have been the subject of passionate protests and intense public scrutiny.

    Doing so would require Kenny to overcome obstacles any officer would face after a shooting, such as an internal department review of the incident and the potential for post-traumatic stress. But in the wake of the Robinson shooting, which drew national attention to Madison — and Kenny — and has led some to regard him as a murderer, that return could be further complicated in a way few officers have experienced.

    Kenny’s attorney, Jim Palmer, said Kenny’s desire to return to policing is rooted in a dedication to service, pointing to the 12-year MPD veteran’s prior time in the U.S. Coast Guard and as a lifeguard.
    Advertisement: Story Continues Below

    “At his core, he is someone who is extraordinarily dedicated to helping people,” Palmer said. “He feels a very deep and genuine connection to this community, and he wants to get back to serving it.”

    Shane Pueschner, a retired Madison police officer who struggled with post-traumatic stress after he was involved in a 2004 shooting, said the road back from such an incident can be a difficult one.

    Kenny has been in that position once before, when he returned to policing after a 2007 shooting in which he was also cleared of any wrongdoing.

    But after the controversy of the past two months, Pueschner said Kenny could be in uncharted territory if he returns to the field.

    “Every time (people) see that nameplate … is that going to create difficulties above and beyond the call he’s on?” Pueschner said. “I don’t know.”

    Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne on Tuesday announced that Kenny will not face criminal charges for the shooting, saying the officer lawfully used deadly force during an altercation with Robinson in a Near East Side apartment home on March 6.

    Kenny told investigators he shot Robinson, who was unarmed, after the teen punched him in the head and continued to attack him in the cramped stairway of 1125 Williamson St., leading Kenny to fear he could be knocked unconscious and disarmed. Friends told investigators that the normally easygoing Robinson had been acting aggressively and unlike himself after using hallucinogenic mushrooms, Xanax and marijuana in the hours before the shooting.

    Robinson was black; Kenny is white.

    Kenny remains on paid leave, pending an internal investigation to see if he violated MPD policies during the incident. That review could still subject Kenny to department sanctions or firing. It has not been completed, officials said, but its results are expected soon.

    More about returning police officers at the link. My heart breaks for them. (Not really.)

    Black Girls Should Matter, Too

    In a classroom at the University of Pennsylvania, more than a dozen black girls and women gather on a recent Saturday afternoon. A simple game begins as an icebreaker for the workshop. “Stand up if your racial identity ever made anyone doubt your abilities,” the session’s leader says. Everyone stands. “Stand up if you’ve ever been told to act like a lady.” Everyone stands again. “Stand up if you’ve ever been called aggressive or bossy.” Universal affirmation. “Stand up if you’ve ever taken AP classes.” Less than five rise.

    Across generations—from high-school students to professionals with salt-and-pepper hair—a common reality appears. “Day-to-day things—you’re bossy, you’re aggressive, you’re not ladylike—all of us share that experience,” explained Melanie Horton, a 17-year-old senior from Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Horton helped lead the session, which focused on gender, race, and class expectations and was part of a recent “Penn Summit,” a symposium sponsored by the school’s Center for the Study of Race & Equity focused on exploring the educational lives of black girls and women.

    With a tone of resignation, Horton recalled a counselor who she said doubted her aptitude for an honors biology course. She also spoke of a teacher who belittled her in front of an entire class after she questioned the cost of an Advanced Placement exam. “Constantly being treated as if I don’t belong” led the teen to transfer out of her district’s only public high school to a cyber school—a move that Horton described as “the best of a bad situation.”

    A mounting body of evidence suggests that black students across the country face daunting odds in their quest for an equitable education. Federal statistics show that black students in the U.S. are suspended and expelled three times as often than white students. Research on racial discrepancies in discipline underscores that the higher rates of punishment among black students don’t correlate with a greater tendency to violate school policies—rather, the data suggests they’re disciplined more harshly than whites and other students for identical infractions. A number of studies also suggest that racial stereotyping by teachers is a key reason black students are often stigmatized as both troublemakers prone to misbehavior and underachievers incapable of academic excellence.

    Given the growing recognition that race and poverty hinder educational opportunity and outcomes, leaders ranging from policymakers to businesspeople have committed to tackling this crisis. Yet their interventions and solutions are centered on boys of color. This often renders black girls all but invisible.

    “The gender-exclusive focus on boys (of color) as ground zero … continues to undermine the well-being of our entire community,” said Kimberlé Crenshaw, a professor of law at UCLA and Columbia who cofounded the African American Policy Forum, a gender and racial-justice think tank based in New York City. “We have to accept that there are wrongs that are happening to black girls.”

    Much of the current discourse revolving around boys of color is driven by President Obama’s signature initiative, My Brother’s Keeper, which is aimed at removing barriers to education and employment—closing the “persistent opportunity gaps” faced by this demographic. Launched last February, the program has since expanded to include 60 of the nation’s largest school districts, pledging to improve access to preschool and gifted courses, reduce suspensions and expulsions, and boost graduation rates. And in a nod to this initiative, just last week Obama announced a nonprofit spinoff—My Brother’s Keeper Alliance—which comes with more than $80 million from major corporations, among other backers, for programs earmarked for young black and Latino men.

    The president’s crusade is spreading across the country. In Washington, D.C., for example, the public-schools chancellor and mayor earlier this year promoted their own version of My Brother’s Keeper: An initiative titled “Empowering Males of Color,” which aims to bring the public and private sectors together and invest $20 million in specialized programs to shore up the academic performance among black and Latino boys.

    The emphasis on boys is also gaining traction in Boston. There, Nikki Delk Barnes, the principal fellow at KIPP Academy Boston, which is part of the national KIPP charter network, has designed programs to change the trajectory of boys’ lives. “Our school is 100 percent black and Latino, so everything is targeted to that group,” Barnes said. When school staff looked at trends for the 2013-14 year, however, a troubling pattern surfaced: The boys were suspended twice as often as the girls were. “While our suspensions are lower than the average [rate] in Boston Public Schools, we were not excited about this,” she said. “It was my job to change our culture and build up our male students’ ability to manage their emotions.”

    Barnes in part credits gender-exclusive advisory groups that meet daily with empowering the school’s boys—giving them the agency and voice of which they’re so often deprived. “It’s the place where we learn that their parents broke up, dad just got out of jail, or a brother was shot,” she said. “It’s where they have a chance to argue and fix it before they jump into work for the day. It’s absolutely crucial to our desire to have students’ voices heard.” Moreover, to build rapport and trust with the school’s families, Barnes started after-school “Mother to Son Meetings,” in which mothers, grandmothers, and aunts get together to discuss raising males. Based on the Langston Hughes poem, Barnes said, the meetings offer a “very organic space to cry, laugh and be open with their challenges.” Genuine student-teacher relationships, paired with high expectations for all students, are the school’s core ingredients, Barnes continued, but these factors are especially important for black boys because “low expectations have been their enemy.”

    But for Crenshaw, a scholar in race and gender theory, the widespread targeting at boys only is a shell game. “Even though we might experience racism in different ways,” she said, “at the end of the day, it’s a group experience—and at the end of the day, the solutions should be a group experience.” She points to D.C., where Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration is touting its initiative as a testament to its commitment to “advancing achievement and opportunity … for boys and young men of color.”

    Yet the challenges faced by their female counterparts don’t seem to get as much attention—even though one in four black girls in the nation’s capital will become teen mothers. That significantly lowers their prospects for high-school completion.

    In D.C., black girls stack up poorly with black boys on measures ranging from school satisfaction and attendance to reading at grade level. In some areas, they fare far behind their peers. Nationally, the same holds true. Black girls are six times more likely to be suspended from school than white girls are, compared to black boys, who are suspended three times more often than their white peers are. In interviews, black girls report feeling marginalized in learning environments that they often describe as unsafe and unwelcoming and subjected to sexual harassment and violence. And family responsibilities, like caring for siblings, disproportionately fall on black girls. Societal biases and gender-based obligations often combine to derail their education.

    Black girls are mostly ignored in policy discussions. This in turn results in scarce research-based interventions designed to improve the outcomes for this demographic, often leaving the false impression that girls are fine and don’t have a problem. To position the needs of black girls more prominently in policy talks, a new school of thought and action led mainly by women of color is emerging. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Women’s Law Center, and the African American Policy Forum are changing the status quo with reports, studies, and the #WhyWeCantWait movement—which is urging Obama to include women in his initiative—that challenge single-gender racial agendas and the erasure of females of color.

    The responsibility that schools and educators have to better support black girls is also gaining attention. Sherell McArthur, an educational researcher at Georgia State University who studies black girls, says understanding among teachers and administrators about how race, gender, and class affect students differently is fundamental.

    Research has found that educators focus more on the behavior and attitudes of black girls than on their academic development, dismissing them as “loud,” “ghetto,” or “sassy,” McArthur said. This is an obstacle to the academic success of black girls if educators judge them based on their presentation instead of their intellectual abilities, she said.

    “When we examine … the unique racialized-gender position of black girls, we have to focus on the intersections of race, gender and class,” she said, emphasizing the need to create more opportunities that allow their voices to be heard. “Black girls are judged according to a meter of white girlhood as the standard.”

    Horton, the high-school senior, found the power to push boundaries and speak up through a girls-rights organization in Philadelphia. The group sponsors activism trainings on gender justice designed and facilitated by girls of color and works to bring these issues to the forefront. “I think it’s interesting that the labels that we’re all given are so unified among all of us,” said Horton, who plans to study psychology and sociology at Tufts University in the fall.

    “It brings up the scope, so it no longer feels like a personal issue,” she said. “It’s a societal issue.”

    Yep, I put the entire article up.

  404. rq says

    Gov. Hogan says he will divert funds from arts center to Md. state police

    Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced Friday that he would reopen a state police barrack in Annapolis and add 100 troopers to the law-enforcement agency despite the legislature refusing to fund those moves as part of a budget amendment.

    Hogan said he would pay for the actions by vetoing $2 million from the capital budget that is dedicated to renovating the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis.

    “I am a huge proponent of the arts, and the first lady is a former member of the Anne Arundel County Arts Council,” Hogan said. “But in the current environment, a State Police barrack in our state capital and adequate funding for public safety in Annapolis must be the priority.”

    Aides to Democratic lawmakers said the governor’s plan is impossible, because capital funds cannot be shifted for operational expenses. David Juppe, a senior budget official with the Department of Legislative Services agreed.

    “It’s not like that money can be used for any purpose – it’s gone,” he said. “Maybe it’s an aspirational statement, but the parameters of the budget are such that you can’t do it.”

    The Maryland State Police facility in Annapolis, known as Barrack J, was closed during in 2008, during the tenure of then-Gov. Martin O’Malley. Hogan said the facility is scheduled to reopen in the fall.

    To do that, Juppe said, the governor must find money for the barracks within the State Police budget. Noting that the budget passed by the legislature earlier this year requires the agency to trim $5 million in spending, he added: “It would be a tall order.”

    With the planned expansion of troopers, the number of uniformed personnel for the state police would grow to 1,656, reaching the highest level in more than a dozen years, according to the governor’s office.

    Hogan’s veto would not affect other parts of the capital budget, which will pass into law without the governor’s signature.

    And yet… @deray Yet according to his own office (http://www.goccp.maryland.gov/msac/crime-statistics.php …), the state’s crime rate is the lowest ever recorded:

    Family of emotionally disturbed Bronx man that died in police custody files complaint claiming cops caused death

    The family of an emotionally disturbed Bronx man who died in NYPD custody on Friday filed a complaint against the cops involved in the dispute, claiming the officers caused his unexpected death.

    “They came and they killed my son,” Denis Reyes’ heartbroken mother Blanca Sierra told the Daily News. “My heart left when they took him out the door. He was 40, but he was still my baby.”

    “When (police) brought him out I kissed him…when I kissed him he was cold,” she said.

    Family members said the 40-year-old Reyes, who suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, started acting strangely inside their E. 194th St. apartment in Fordham on Thursday night.

    “He started saying he wasn’t feeling well, then he went into the bathroom and pulled down the shower curtain,” Reyes’ brother Wilfredo Bracero, 45, said. “He came out and threw a pot of beans on the stove onto the floor. He was knocking over lamps. He was throwing furniture.”

    Cops received a 911 call that Reyes had been breaking furniture.

    Sources said arriving officers handcuffed Reyes and, when he kept kicking at officers, used other cuffs on his ankles.

    When other cops arrived with a Velcro strap that was wrapped around his legs below the knees, the ankle cuffs were removed, the sources said.

    With EMS now on the scene, Reyes, who had never been arrested but had a history of psychological issues, was placed into a wheelchair. But according to the sources, as paramedics were taking Reyes to the ambulance, he went into cardiac arrest.

    EMS performed CPR on him en route to St. Barnabas Hospital, where the father of seven died.

    Reyes had been drinking, popping prescription pills and taking synthetic pot before his mother called 911, police sources said.

    Sierra, 65, admitted that she called police, but was hoping to get paramedics. Instead, her son was tackled by eight cops, family members said.

    “(The cops) took me out in the street and closed the shades so no one could see,” Sierra said. “They had him alone for 40 minutes while I was out on the street.”

    Bracero remained in the apartment, but said cops forced him into a hallway, so he couldn’t see what happened.

    “He was yelling, ‘Stop, you’re hurting me.'” Bracero said. “He was calling my name, yelling, ‘Please don’t leave me.’ When they took him out one of his eyes was bloody like he was beaten. There should have been less force.”

    Bracero refuted claims that his brother was smoking synthetic pot before the incident and “may have had” only one beer before police arrived.

    Elizabeth Calacios, Reyes’ ex-wife, said the family plans to sue the NYPD.

    “Police need to learn how to handle disturbed people,” the 45-year-old woman said. “If they can’t, then they need to go back to school to learn to be real police officers.”

    An autopsy was being done Friday. The NYPD is conducting an internal investigation, as it does for all deaths in custody. The FDNY is conducting what a spokesman called a “basic review.”

    Call for medical help, get the cops. Whew.

    END ALL forms of violence against Black women/girls. Comprehensive wholistic systemic change NOW! @bdoulaoblongata Poster for a rally May 21.

    51 years ago today, Landmark: Brown v. Board of Education

    May 17, 1954 marks a defining moment in the history of the United States. On that day, the Supreme Court declared the doctrine of “separate but equal” unconstitutional and handed LDF the most celebrated victory in its storied history.

    Although the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown was ultimately unanimous, it occurred only after a hard-fought, multi-year campaign to persuade all nine justices to overturn the “separate but equal” doctrine that their predecessors had endorsed in the Court’s infamous 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision. This campaign was conceived in the 1930s by Charles Hamilton Houston, then Dean of Howard Law School, and brilliantly executed in a series of cases over the next two decades by his star pupil, Thurgood Marshall, who became LDF’s first Director-Counsel.

    Brown itself was not a single case, but rather a coordinated group of five lawsuits against school districts in Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. To litigate these cases, Marshall recruited the nation’s best attorneys, including Robert Carter, Jack Greenberg, Constance Baker Motley, Spottswood Robinson, Oliver Hill, Louis Redding, Charles and John Scott, Harold R. Boulware, James Nabrit, and George E.C. Hayes. These LDF lawyers were assisted by a brain trust of legal scholars, including future federal district court judges Louis Pollack and Jack Weinstein, along with William Coleman, the first black person to serve as a Supreme Court law clerk. In addition, LDF relied upon research by historians, such as John Hope Franklin, and an array of social science arguments. This research included psychologist Kenneth Clark’s now famous doll experiments, which demonstrated the impact of segregation on black children – Clark found black children were led to believe that black dolls were inferior to white dolls and, by extension, that they were inferior to their white peers.

    After the five cases were heard together by the Court in December 1952, the outcome remained uncertain. The Court ordered the parties to answer a series of questions about the specific intent of the Congressmen and Senators who framed the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and about the Court’s power to dismantle segregation. Then the Court scheduled another oral argument in December 1953. Wrapping up his presentation to the Court in that second hearing, Marshall emphasized that segregation was rooted in the desire to keep “the people who were formerly in slavery as near to that stage as is possible.” Even with such powerful arguments from Marshall and other LDF attorneys, it took another five months for the newly appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren’s behind-the-scenes lobbying to yield a unanimous decision.

    Recognizing the controversial nature of its decision, the Court waited another year to issue an order enforcing the decision in Brown II. Even then, the Court was unwilling to establish a firm timetable for dismantling segregation. It ruled only that public schools desegregate “with all deliberate speed.” Unfortunately, desegregation was neither deliberate nor speedy. In the face of fierce and often violent “massive resistance, ” LDF sued hundreds of school districts across the country to vindicate the promise of Brown. It was not until LDF’s subsequent victories in Green v. County School Board (1968) and Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (1971) that the Supreme Court issued mandates that segregation be dismantled “root and branch,” outlined specific factors to be considered to eliminate effects of segregation, and ensured that federal district courts had the authority to do so.

    Even today, the work of Brown is far from finished . Over 200 school desegregation cases remain open on federal court dockets; LDF alone has nearly 100 of these cases. Recent Supreme Court decisions have made it harder to achieve and maintain school desegregation. As a result of these developments and other factors, public school children are more racially isolated now than at any point in the past four decades. This backsliding makes it even more critical for LDF to continue defending the principles articulated in Brown and leading the ongoing struggle to provide an equal opportunity to learn for children in every one of our nation’s classrooms. As then Senator Obama observed in a 2008 speech in Philadelphia, “segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education – and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.”

    The legal victory in Brown did not transform the country overnight, and much work remains. But striking down segregation in the nation’s public schools provided a major catalyst for the civil rights movement, making possible advances in desegregating housing, public accommodations, and institutions of higher education. The decision gave hope to millions of Americans by permanently discrediting the legal rationale underpinning the racial caste system that had been endorsed or accepted by governments at all levels since the end of the nineteenth century. And its impact has been felt by every American.

  405. rq says

    Felony Disenfranchisement Overview. (via @SentencingProj), see attached informative poster.

    Felony Disenfranchisement Policy Updates By State. (via @SentencingProj), see attached informative poster.

    Nancy G., former TNT Academy Principal, explains her side of the story. Y’all. 2015. She’s not racist, because she didn’t use the n-word as it is not in her vocabulary.

    Some photo:
    standoff. Baltimore. (by @byDVNLLN)
    for the forgotten ones. Baltimore. (by @byDVNLLN)

    Stop demanding the impossible of police

    The events surrounding Freddie Gray’s death all but shattered what remained of Baltimore’s confidence in its police department. The department’s relationship with the community did not break down overnight. It eroded gradually, as a result of overzealous police tactics that left many residents feeling oppressed by those sworn to protect them. Before attending law school, I spent three years as a Baltimore patrol officer and saw the troubling effects of those practices firsthand. Why do officers use methods that alienate and offend the communities they serve? In large part, the answer is because the public majority pressures them to do so. Elected officials, supported by voters, require police to shoulder an impossible burden — they must not only respond to crimes as they occur but prevent crime from happening in the first place. But in an effort to prevent crime, the police employ aggressive tactics that may do more harm than good.

    We can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to the way that our demands shape officer actions. To meaningfully improve police/community relations, we have to change what we expect officers to do.

    Most Baltimore residents, city politicians included, consider it normal to praise the police commissioner when the crime rate goes down and criticize him when it goes up. Subordinate police commanders, appointed by the commissioner, know that their job security depends upon their ability to prevent crime — especially violent crime. Absent considerable luck, however, it is impossible for cops to intercept criminals just before they strike. As a result, commanders pressure their officers to prevent violence indirectly, either by arresting potential perpetrators for gun or drug offenses, or by controlling the very movements of suspected criminals, such that they do not have the opportunity to do harm. Officers are told to generate enforcement statistics (primarily by making arrests) and to keep their designated patrol areas “under control.” Constantly making arrests and controlling their assigned beats, however, requires officers to use precisely the tactics that so many Baltimore residents find offensive. […]

    When it comes to maintaining order, as a lieutenant once explained to me, police commanders believe that by keeping people from hanging around or congregating on the streets, they can quash squabbles and keep known enemies from crossing paths, thereby preventing violence. Cops are constantly pressured to “clear the corners.” From their time in the academy, officers are told that when they order people hanging out on the corners to disperse, there must be consequences for non-compliance.

    But standing on the corner isn’t a crime, so cops get creative. Those who defy the police are often arrested for any crime the officers can find. Sometimes the arrests are for legitimate but petty offenses, such as public drinking. At other times, as the ongoing Department of Justice investigation will likely reveal, officers make arrests for minor offenses even though the elements of the crimes aren’t really met. Charges for loitering, disorderly conduct and trespassing, for example, are sometimes immediately dismissed because prosecutors find that the defendants’ conduct did not merit such charges.

    While the public is right to demand accountability for individual officers who commit misconduct, we should be careful not to demonize these officers. The pressure that encourages cops to engage in these practices is constant, and civilians aren’t the only ones who resent it. I remember, on one occasion, several of my colleagues bristling when a district commander instructed officers to stop “every person who is walking” in a particular high crime area. Another colleague was banished to an unfavorable detail because she went a whole month without arresting someone. And it is not lost on Baltimore police officers that their tactics disproportionately affect lower-income African-Americans. Police commanders’ belief in violent crime prevention at all costs means that officers are deployed heavily — and told to be most aggressive — in the poor, black neighborhoods where crime rates are the highest.

    We can do better, and almost everyone believes that we should. Many of Baltimore’s rank-and-file officers are just as ready for change as the public is. We should start with the following reforms:

    •Overhaul performance metrics. Stop judging officers by the number of arrests they make and the quantity of guns and drugs they seize. Give officers more time to investigate crimes against persons and property. Credit them for assisting detectives with investigations of serious felonies, or for working the minor cases for which they are the sole investigators. Additionally, judge officers by how competently they handle calls for service, and by their efforts to build relationships with community members and learn of concerns. Lastly, judge the success of the police department as a whole not by the city’s crime rate, but by the department’s record for solving crimes and the public’s level of satisfaction with the service it receives from officers.

    •End pretextual traffic stops and consent searches. Instruct officers to enforce traffic laws only when faced with an immediate safety concern such as a drunk or erratic driver. Red light and speed cameras (despite their flaws) are better mechanisms for fairly enforcing the traffic code. Cops should also cease routinely asking motorists and pedestrians for consent to search.

    •Suspend street-level enforcement units. Stop the use of specialized units, usually consisting of plainclothes officers, dedicated to searching the streets for people carrying guns and dealing drugs. These crews, sometimes called “knockers” or “jump-outs,” make regular use of aggressive police tactics. Those officers should be assigned to the overburdened patrol division or to the backlogged detective units that investigate crimes against persons and property. Drug enforcement should be narrowly focused — aimed at dismantling criminal organizations that are known to be violent or at providing support to proven interventions such as Ceasefire, which uses prior notice of targeted enforcement, community engagement and social service support to convince violent criminals to alter their lifestyles.

    •Curtail order-maintenance enforcement. When officers are on patrol, they should focus on monitoring for crimes against persons and property and should investigate victimless public-order crimes only when prompted to do so by a citizen complaint. When officers arrest people for these crimes, such as misdemeanor drug possession or loitering, the department should post the arrest reports online, so the public can scrutinize how the officers exercised their discretion.

    These reforms would provide the public, as well as rank-and-file officers, with much-needed relief. This is not to suggest that individual officers should not be held accountable for wrongdoing. Robust, impartial investigations into police misconduct, along with the arrival of body cameras, are important parts of the solution to the current crisis. But real change won’t occur unless Baltimore’s political leaders move to end overly aggressive policing. This will not be an easy change to make. These tactics do, to some extent, quell violence and deter crime. But the benefits of these practices are not worth the costs to individual privacy and liberty. Moreover, regaining the public’s trust will be a more effective long-term crime prevention strategy than the current approach. With renewed public confidence, we can expect to see crime rates decrease as communities lend much-needed support to a police agency that they trust. The mayor and City Council should call for these reforms and start Baltimore down the road to meaningful change.

  406. rq says

    Long-awaited justice in cop’s killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson, whose death helped spark Alabama civil rights marches

    On Feb. 3, 1965, the conference staged an event with great lens appeal, leading hundreds of black children on a march around Marion’s colonnaded antebellum courthouse.

    Police stopped the demonstration and arrested more than 600 children for unlawful assembly. James Orange, a mountain-sized leadership conference organizer known as a gentle giant, was collared and jailed for causing their delinquency.

    As days passed with Orange locked up, his peers grew concerned about his well-being.

    On Feb. 18, King sent C.T. Vivian, one of his lieutenants, to speak at Zion Chapel Methodist Church in Marion. At 9:30 that night, 400 people lined up two-by-two and set out from the church for a short march up Pickens St. to the county jail.

    Col. Al Lingo, Alabama’s public safety boss, was waiting with a phalanx of 50 state troopers spoiling for a fight.

    The group had gone just a half-block when someone cut the electricity to the streetlights.

    Obscured by darkness, helmeted troopers waded into the column of marchers, poking with cattle prods and flailing with nightsticks. At the same time, white townie thugs targeted the press, clubbing NBC’s Richard Valeriani and two UPI photographers, Pete Fisher and Reggie Smith.

    Marchers fled the assault. Some made it back to the church, and others sought refuge at Mack’s, a black café.

    One of those huddled at Mack’s was Jimmie Lee Jackson, 26, a farm laborer and church deacon regarded as quiet and contemplative.

    He had planned to get out of Alabama and join the black migration north after finishing high school in the late ’50s. But he stayed in Perry County to look after his mother, Viola, after his father died suddenly.

    Mother and son were side by side that night 50 years ago. Amid the chaos, Jimmie Jackson’s grandfather, Cager Lee, staggered into the café, bleeding from a trooper’s blow to the head.

    The Jacksons tried to lead their kin out of Mack’s and to a hospital, according to witnesses. They were blocked by troopers, who clubbed Viola Jackson. When Jimmie Jackson interceded, another trooper shot him in the abdomen.

    The next morning, as Marion mopped up blood, reporters found Alabama’s governor 150 miles away in Gadsden, where he was being feted at “Gov. George Wallace Week.”

    He blamed the violence on “career agitators.”

    “I don’t want to jump to conclusions of what happened in the still of the night in a small community,” Wallace said. “You have to remember there were 400 Negroes trying to conduct a march and there was a lot of confusion going on.”

    He added, “I am conducting a full investigation.”

    But even Montgomery’s avidly segregationist Alabama Journal recognized the Marion events as a cop riot, calling it “a nightmare of state police stupidity and brutality.”

    Jackson died eight days after he was shot. […]

    In 2005, John Fleming of the Anniston (Ala.) Star found Fowler, 70 years old, living on a farm in southern Alabama. Fowler admitted the shooting but claimed self-defense.

    “Jimmie Lee Jackson was not murdered,” he said. “He was trying to kill me … That’s why my conscience is clear.”

    But the story prompted black legislators in Alabama to demand a new investigation, and Fowler was indicted for murder in 2007. He eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter, served a six-month jail sentence and was released in 2011.

    While Fowler’s comeuppance was modest, historians who keep track of racially motived slayings from the civil rights campaign regard his prosecution as a significant example of delayed score-settling.

    As the Anniston paper put it, “Justice has no expiration date.”

    Why Baltimore police just listed Freddie Gray’s death as a homicide

    Baltimore Police added Freddie Gray’s death to their list of city homicides Thursday, nearly two weeks after city State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby filed charges.

    Cases normally are added to the list after prosecutors provide police with autopsy results from the state medical examiner. It’s a routine step in all cases authorities investigate together.

    But in Gray’s case, police have not received autopsy information beyond details shared by Mosby when she announced the charges against the officers at a news conference on May 1.

    Mosby said “the manner of death deemed a homicide by the State Medical Examiner is believed to be the result of a fatal injury that occurred while Mr. Gray was unrestrained by a seatbelt in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department wagon.”

    A spokesman for the medical examiner’s office said state law requires only that the office to deliver autopsy information to prosecutors.

    “As a matter of courtesy, it used to be provided to the police as well,” spokesman Bruce Goldfarb said. But the practice stopped in recent years, he said, out of concern that autopsy information was being circulated too widely.

    The medical examiner now provides two copies of an autopsy to the State’s Attorney’s Office, one with a letter that says prosecutors “may provide this to law enforcement at your discretion when you feel it’s appropriate,” Goldfarb said.

    Police spokesman Capt. Eric Kowalczyk said police have not received the autopsy findings on the manner of Gray’s death. But after receiving inquires from The Baltimore Sun, they added the case based on the criminal charges, saying it was clear it met the criteria.

    The circumstances underscore divide between the agencies on the high-profile case. Police initially announced a May 1 deadline to finish their investigation of the case, with prosecutors noting that they had no such timetable for a decision on possible charges.

    But when police wrapped their investigation a day early, they were stunned the next day to find out prosecutors were filing charges. Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts told CNN he found out 10 minutes before the announcement.

    The Sun has reported that police never locked onto an explanation for Gray’s spinal injury, and planned to continue investigating. The parallel investigation being conducted by Mosby’s office, in conjuction with the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office, concluded the case merited serious criminal charges – including second-degree murder and manslaughter – and cited the medical examiner’s finding of homicide as the cause of death.

    Those investigators have seen the autopsy – police have not.

    Law can be a lucrative trade: Law firm charges Fairfax $85,000 to write second letter in John Geer police killing

    Fairfax County’s decision to hire outside lawyers to handle matters related to the 2013 police killing of John Geer has now cost Fairfax taxpayers more than $225,000, after county officials revealed Thursday that a second letter prepared by a Richmond-based law firm cost at least $85,000. Also Thursday, the Fairfax County prosecutor said he hopes a special grand jury in the case will hear evidence on the case in July.

    Geer was shot and killed by Officer Adam D. Torres as Geer stood unarmed in the doorway of his Springfield home on Aug. 29, 2013. No decision has been made by either state or federal prosecutors on whether Torres should be charged, in part because Fairfax police refused to cooperate with a county prosecutor’s request for Torres’s previous internal affairs files, records have shown. In November 2014, as the delay stretched on, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent letters to the police and the Justice Department, asking why the case was taking so long.

    Fairfax County officials said their lawyers had no experience dealing with congressional inquiries, so they hired Mark Bierbower of Richmond’s Hunton & Williams law firm to answer Grassley’s inquiry. Bierbower previously represented baseball slugger Mark McGwire in his appearance before Congress during hearings on steroids in baseball. Bierbower helped craft a six-page letter to Grassley on behalf of Fairfax police Chief Edwin C. Roessler. Fairfax officials later said they paid Hunton & Williams $130,000 for their assistance on the letter.

    Then in February Grassley sent another letter seeking answers from Fairfax police about the case. Hunton & Williams was enlisted again to help with the response, and county spokesman Tony Castrilli said the bill for the firm’s legal services was $85,261.73, but that “there may be additional outside counsel bills” from the law firm.

    In addition, Fairfax retained attorney David J. Fudala to represent Officer Torres in the civil suit filed by Geer’s girlfriend on behalf of the couple’s two teenaged daughters. Castrilli said Fudala was paid $10,192 and the county did not expect any further charges from him.

    The Geers’ civil suit against Roessler was settled last month for $2.95 million, paid by two insurance funds, before Torres was ever named as a defendant.

    [Officer claims Geer jerked hands to waist, three nearby officers say Geer didn’t.]

    Torres remains on duty in an administrative capacity, nearly 21 months after the shooting. Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh, who originally referred the case to the Justice Department in January 2014 after being stonewalled by Roessler on Torres’s internal files, said Thursday that he expects the Fairfax Circuit Court to begin empaneling a special grand jury on the case in June, and that evidence should be presented to that group in July. Justice Department officials have given no indication when or if they will rule on federal charges, but they said in their second response letter to Grassley that they did not object to Morrogh conducting a “parallel investigation.”

    Below is the second Fairfax County police letter to Grassley, at a cost (so far) of $85,261.73

    Funny how I don’t really get the feeling that those lawyers charging such rates are necessarily on the side of justice…

    Dream Hampton Says Jay Z Wired “Tens of Thousands” of Dollars to Cover Protestors’ Bail

    dream hampton — social justice organizer, writer, and award-winning filmmaker — just unloaded an enlightening, reality-checking series of tweets. Speaking on the current difficulties surrounding protests, hampton pointed to one of the most damaging wars being waged against black resistance — a financial stronghold. “Protest is literally punished with tariffs,” hampton tweeted.

    The Decoded contributor also spoke openly about Jay Z’s numerous private contributions to the resistance, indirectly confronting the constant flurry of detractors who repeatedly hurl claims of hypocrisy at Jay and Beyoncé surrounding their perceived silence on the issues surrounding Ferguson, Baltimore, and protests in general. In short, the Carters have — according to dream hampton — privately donated large amounts of money to ease the burden of posting bail for protestors, as well as other equally impactful donations that are simply “too much to list.”

    These tweets will likely be deleted, so we’ve compiled some screenshots below.

  407. rq says

    Taser shooting in Broward ruled a homicide. Funny, some Taser deaths are accidents, some are homicides…

    The death of a black man shot multiple times by Coconut Creek police firing Taser stun guns has been ruled a homicide by the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office.

    “It is our understanding that there has been a finding that the cause of death was electrocution, which is consistent with having been over-Tased,” said Jack Scarola, a West Palm Beach attorney who represents the family of Calvon “Andre” Reid.

    The medical examiner’s office released its findings to Broward prosecutors last week. Its results were first reported by FloridaBulldog.org.

    Reid, a 39-year-old meat salesman, died Feb. 24 – two days after being Tasered in a parking lot in the largely white Wynmoor retirement community. His death has been shrouded in secrecy by local authorities amid ongoing national controversy over police, race and the use of deadly force following police-related deaths of black men in Ferguson, Mo., New York City and Baltimore.

    Coconut Creek police did not disclose the shooting or the death until after FloridaBulldog.org published the eyewitness accounts on Feb. 27.

    John Arendale and his wife, Bonnie Eshleman, live in a ground-floor apartment steps away from the scene of the confrontation and watched what happened through their windows. They told a reporter that as many as four police officers fired four Taser shots in two volleys. Between volleys, about five police officers “were around and on top of the man” who cried out, “Baby! They are going to kill me!” and “I can’t breathe! […]

    Reid died two days later at Northwest Regional Medical Center.

    Mann declined to provide further details, but told reporters “there was no cover-up” of what happened by his department. His boss, City Manager Mary Blasi, forced him out as chief less than a week later.

    The new acting chief is Gregory B. Lees, who has declined to comment.

    FloridaBulldog.org reported that Coconut Creek detectives returned to the scene weeks later and re-questioned Arendale and Eshleman. They took photographs through the windows the pair used to observe what happened and did what Arendale called “a kind of mini-reenactment.”

    At one point, Detective Frank Fuentes asked Arendale if he saw Taser shots being fired at Reid.

    “John said ‘yes’ and the detective said, ‘You didn’t say that before.’ But John said that all along,” Eshleman said in an interview.

    Law enforcement sources, including Ken Harms, former Miami police chief and a police policy expert, said the re-interview of the witnesses was an apparent attempt to discredit their testimony.

    Four city officers have been under investigation: Sgts. David Freeman and Darren Karp and Officers Thomas Eisenring and Daniel Rush. Freeman, Karp and Eisenring are white. Rush is African-American.

    The Broward State Attorney’s Office is also investigating for likely presentation to the grand jury – standard procedure for Broward State Attorney Mike Satz’s office. Assistant State Attorney Deborah Zimet questioned Arendale and Eshleman under oath last week. The office has not commented publicly.

    The indictment of police officers in Broward would be highly unusual. More than a generation has passed since 1980, the last time a Broward grand jury charged an officer as a result of a police shooting.

    Still, the family of Calvon Reid hopes the grand jury considers the case soon.

    “This case is a wound festering in the darkness,” said attorney Scarola. “The sooner the facts are exposed to sunlight, the faster the community can ultimately begin to heal.”

    Cleveland officers’ silence frustrates prosecutor in police trial

    Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty says he’s run into a blue wall of silence.

    Before Officer Michael Brelo’s trial began, 16 Cleveland police officers declined to meet with prosecutors to review their testimony about the officer’s shooting of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.

    Once the case reached a courtroom, seven officers exercised their 5th Amendment rights and refused to testify about Brelo, who prosecutors say leaped onto the hood of Russell’s car after a lengthy pursuit and fired 15 rounds from his pistol, killing both occupants.

    The officers’ lack of cooperation led McGinty to ask the court to treat them as hostile witnesses. In court documents, he likened their silence to the actions of an “organized crime syndicate.”

    McGinty declined to comment on the pending case, but in court documents his office has lambasted the officers and the police union.

    “This unprecedented failure to cooperate with investigators then and now is relevant and direct evidence that some of these Cleveland police officers subpoenaed to testify refuse to do their duty and are adverse to the best interests of the city,” prosecutors wrote.

    Police union President Stephen Loomis, commenting that the prosecutor has “lost his mind,” said he believes McGinty is trying to win a conviction by capitalizing on nationwide scrutiny of police that has grown after the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Eric Garner in New York and Tamir Rice in Cleveland.

    “It’s smoke and mirrors, it’s disappointing, and it’s the act of a desperate man who doesn’t have any facts,” Loomis said.

    “We’ve done nothing to obstruct — we’ve done everything to cooperate.”

    The pull-apart brawl between Cleveland’s police and elected prosecutor marks one of the harshest face-offs between officers and the prosecutors responsible for investigating police wrongdoing.

    While the conflict has grown during a year in which police are under increasing scrutiny over their use of force, the Brelo case marks one of the first times the sparring has spilled into a courtroom.

    It’s a sharp turnaround from the once-chummy relationship between prosecutor and union president. […]

    The case sparked a federal investigation into the way Cleveland’s police use force. That review became even more pressing after the killing in November of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot by an officer while holding a toy gun.

    The Department of Justice in December published the results of its investigation, which found that Cleveland police routinely used unnecessary force and often used stun guns and chemical sprays to punish unruly suspects.

    Brelo’s trial began in April, and the string of refusals to talk has deepened the public skepticism of the Police Department.

    Of the seven officers who refused to testify at trial, five face a lesser criminal charge, dereliction of duty, in connection with the chase, Frolik said.

    The remaining two faced no charges and had no reason to fear prosecution, he said. They had described the pursuit to state investigators in earlier interviews, court records show.

    During questioning in April, both officers invoked the 5th Amendment as soon as an assistant prosecutor asked them about anything related to the night of the chase.

    Both times, an assistant prosecutor stated in open court that it would be impossible for the officers to incriminate themselves, but they still maintained silence.

    City Councilman Jeff Johnson said the sight of so many police officers taking the stand and saying nothing has only deepened residents’ concerns with police.

    “Even though you have a constitutional right not to testify, the ultimate question is, is this the right time to use it?” asked Johnson, who has attended most of the trial.

    “We expect citizens to come into court and testify against their own neighbors, their own relatives. When [police] don’t do that, we question them and their commitment to justice.

    Police leaders, however, say there is little they can do about it.

    “It’s part of their constitutional right,” Pillow said. “There’s nothing that the division can implement or influence regarding it.”

    Loomis is angry that prosecutors are trying to paint the officers as part of some conspiracy.

    “Let me get this straight. We’re not cooperating because we’re exercising our constitutional right against self-incrimination?” he asked.

    Given the number of shots fired in the 2012 pursuit, Loomis believes it would be impossible for prosecutors to prove Brelo fired the fatal rounds. Though he acknowledged that investigators did not find a gun in Russell’s car, Loomis said ballistics tests showed gunpowder residue inside the vehicle.

    Loomis said the public rancor over the officers’ silence was an indictment of McGinty’s weak case.

    “He can say whatever he wants to say about a blue wall,” Loomis said. “He can’t prove it.”

    John DeCarlo, author of a book on police unions and coordinator of the police studies program at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said police officers and police unions have to consider softening their stances in police abuse cases or risk being seen as averse to reform.

    “The fact of the matter is that 2014 was maybe one of the worst years for police-community relations in the last 75 years, and what we see is unions kind of looking for an explanation,” said DeCarlo, a former Connecticut police chief. “They’re hunkering down.”

    Yep, I definitely think they’re conspiring, even if it is, ostensibly, well within their rights. Justice: not a priority for cops.
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    Creative Mornings with Devin Allen

    The theme of this month’s Creative Mornings talk was supposed to be about robots. Katie Boyts, the organizer of our local chapter, had it all planned out. That was until a couple of weeks ago, when “robot” didn’t feel like the right subject to tackle.

    Though Creative Mornings is a national platform for artists—with 112 branches around the country following the same theme at breakfast lectures every month—she decided to switch things up.

    “I looked ahead to June and saw that the theme was revolution,” she said in front of an audience at Center Stage this morning. “That made sense to me for a lot of reasons, mostly just to stay relevant to the community.”

    Her other main motivation was to get Devin Allen on stage. Allen is a 26-year-old photographer from West Baltimore who is self-taught “mostly from YouTube and a lot of trial and error,” he says, whose photograph from the riots on April 25 was published on the cover of Time magazine two weeks ago.

    Allen first bought a camera in 2013 and and his predominantly black-and-white photography began with a focus on fashion and street scenes. But after the protests in Ferguson and, subsequently, Baltimore his images veered toward the political.

    “We are blinded by a lot of pain around the world,” he says. “And I knew I had to voice that in my art.”

    The photographer is quick to point out that, not only was he documenting the unrest in Baltimore from day one, but he himself was peacefully protesting and was able to see what was happening “on both sides.”

    “I try to tell the whole story,” he says. “I have my problems with police, but you just can’t profile them all as bad. We need to see police out walking their beat everyday, making a connection with the community.”

    Of course, the clash with police and community came to a head just a few weeks ago when 100 rioters, out of the thousands of peaceful protestors, stirred violence near Camden Yards on April 25. And Allen was on the front lines to capture it.

    “I was right on the side of the street and my back was turned, but when I turned around, I saw the police coming towards us and I focused on them on purpose,” he says of the Time cover photo. “I took the shot and said, ‘Damn, this is a good-ass picture’ and then I bent down to send it to my phone and tweeted it out. Next thing I know, police were telling me to move and helped me over the railing to get out of the way.”

    The next few hours, and days, were a blur for Allen. Not only was he dealing with caring for family and friends affected by the unrest, but his photograph went viral. He received calls from the BBC, got tweeted by Rihanna, and then Time magazine reached out.

    “I was like, ‘Time magazine…what?!'” he says with shock still in his voice. “At first it was just supposed to be a blog, then a feature spread, then I saw a tweet: ‘Amateur photographer snags cover of Time magazine.’ I just called my mom and we both started crying.”

    (Ironically, his mom, like any mother, wanted Allen to come home that Saturday night. “I told her, ‘Aren’t you glad I didn’t come home?'”)

    Allen says he still cries every time he sees the cover. “I just want to inspire kids that a leap of faith can change what you want,” he says. “You don’t have to be a rapper or basketball player to make it.”

    I’ve been posting others of his photos here, too. Very much enjoying his work.

    Guardian on the Philadelphia bombing, Philadelphia’s Osage Avenue police bombing, 30 years on: ‘This story is a parable’.

    “The story is a parable of sorts; it’s a parable of how the unthinkable comes to happen,” said Jason Osder, the director of the documentary Let the Fire Burn. “It’s a tragedy. In my opinion everyone who was an adult in the city failed that day. Move failed, the police failed, the neighbors failed those children in some ways. Collectively, the whole city failed.”

    Osder noted that police still remembered an officer killed in an altercation with Move seven years earlier, and that leadership was unwilling to risk any officer’s life. “Fear is real regardless of how illegitimate it is, and police felt that they are the wounded party.

    “And on the other side people have been beaten and arrested, who fear that the justice system is rigged – not an unreasonable thing to think in 1985 or 2015.”

    Eventually police tried to break the siege by bombing the bunker, which they feared would allow Move to fire on them with impunity.

    “There was a real opportunity there for cooler heads to prevail,” Osder said. “But they decided it needed to be over.” […]

    A recent Justice Department review of Philadelphia’s use of force – requested by current police commissioner Charles Ramsey in 2013 – found systemic, unresolved deficiencies similar to those analyzed by the Move commission in 1986, said Greg McDonald, the attorney who was deputy director and legal counsel for the commission.

    “I was struck how many DoJ recommendations were right out of the assessments from the commission, and not just the police but the city government and services,” McDonald said, listing some shared findings: “federal authorities supplying military equipment to urban police departments, the lack of preparation and training”.

    “We’ve got a lot of real tinderboxes in large cities now,” he said. “Move was certainly not a normal neighborhood problem, but the police reaction to it was so overdone that it reminded me of the way that police actions taking place at a much smaller scale are also overreactions.”

    Slave-owning families, a census from 1860. See what percentage of families owned slaves, by state. This in response to some people saying that Confederate soldiers had no vested interest in maintaining slavery. Ummm… Well, probably some of them didn’t…

    The graduating class of 2015 at Morehouse College. Well done gentlemen.