No Work, No Justice

Human Rights Fighter
-
0
No Work, No Justice

I grew up in a part of St. Louis, Missouri, just 10 minutes from the suburb of Ferguson, and spent a summer in New York while I was in law school, so the cases of Michael Brown’s shooting and Eric Garner’s chokehold have really hit home. Like so many across the country, and even around the world, I have watched intently as these tragic stories have unfolded. Moreover, as a legal analyst and commentator, I have debated these issues with some of the country’s top attorneys and experts on race relations on TV networks as diverse as Al Jazeera to MSNBC. Along with the millions of other concerned citizens and civil …

I grew up in a part of St. Louis, Missouri, just 10 minutes from the suburb of Ferguson, and spent a summer in New York while I was in law school, so the cases of Michael Brown’s shooting and Eric Garner’s chokehold have really hit home. Like so many across the country, and even around the world, I have watched intently as these tragic stories have unfolded. Moreover, as a legal analyst and commentator, I have debated these issues with some of the country’s top attorneys and experts on race relations on TV networks as diverse as Al Jazeera to MSNBC.

Along with the millions of other concerned citizens and civil rights leaders, my head shakes in disbelief and my concern deepens as our society continues to fail not only black men in the criminal justice system, but millions of men and women whose lives are deemed less valuable because of their education, income and skin color. Nonetheless, I remain hopeful. I know we can do better. But so often, in situations like these, the TV cameras and constant media coverage never capture when the real life-changing transformations occur. They are long gone by that point.

While everyone has their eyes on the U.S. Department of Justice with hopes it will launch federal civil rights actions against Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo, the two police officers involved in the Brown and Garner matters, it’s actually equally important for us to focus on local politics. It’s there that the power for change lies. If we can’t create change within our own communities, we can’t expect change on a much larger scale, and the justice department, as a practical matter, can’t be expected to prosecute all the white officers that kill black men every year in this country. Change starts at home.

State legislators enact laws and county district attorneys rely on those penal codes when prosecuting police excessive force cases. Most of the cases never make international or national headlines like Brown and Garner, but they all require an application of state law. These cases are reviewed either by grand juries who determine if there is probable cause to force an officer to face a criminal trial, or by a judge who must decide in a preliminary hearing if the district attorney has presented sufficient evidence to meet the threshold for the next step in a criminal prosecution.

In the tragic instances in Ferguson and Staten Island, the penal codes relied upon were enacted years before the encounters leading to the violent use of force. Likewise, the decision to present these two high-profile cases to grand juries, which meet in secret, was made solely by local district attorneys. These top lawyers are elected officials whose only boss is the constituents who voted for them. They report to you, the voter!

Although activists and elected officials called for the county district attorney in Ferguson, Robert McCulloch, to recuse himself, or for Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to remove McCulloch by appointing a special prosecutor to decide Wilson’s fate, neither was done. McCulloch’s record of less-than-aggressive prosecution of police did not start with Brown’s case and replacing an elected official who has no actual conflict of interest is rare and, in many ways, antithetical to the democratic process. Regrettably though, McCulloch’s reputation for rarely prosecuting law enforcement officials is no secret throughout St. Louis County.

If African-American progressive Democrats and other ethnic groups built coalitions and ran candidates in St. Louis County, I doubt Robert McCulloch would be elected or the one making the decision to present Ferguson’s most racially-charged case ever to the 12 grand jurors who ultimately decided not to indict Wilson. The mayor of Ferguson would also better reflect the residents he serves and the community he represents. And since the mayor appoints the chief of police, we can only imagine that a chief more sensitive to, and aligned with, the residents of Ferguson would not have allowed his team to leave Brown’s body lying in the street for over four hours.

In fact, if communities like Ferguson built coalitions focused on education, job creation and civic engagement, we wouldn’t even be having a conversation about community policing, which has taken on a surreal sense of urgency since the deaths of Brown and Garner. Community policing would be the norm and not the exception in places like Ferguson and throughout this nation. Imagine how different the law enforcement power structure in Ferguson would be if the 50-percent African-American constituency had a 100-percent turnout for all elections.

When we understand the inextricable link between local government and accountable policing, we can create change. Let’s begin to think beyond the protests. No doubt mobilizing people across the nation to express outrage has both historical significance and current day relevancy; but equally important is the ability to see the bigger picture, strategize and innovate for change. History has taught us that sustained activity and disciplined work that occurs beyond the cameras and high-profile criminal cases create systemic change.

I challenge my peers in the legal field, my media colleagues, my friends in elected office, the men and women I work along with in the disability community, my teenagers and young adult family members to commit to putting boots on the grounds and working for the change we want to see. Take voter registration forms to a protest; use social media to raise awareness of local candidates and issues; take a friend to their polling location; tutor an inspiring and future police chief and district attorney; and most importantly be willing to work on a daily basis to build bridges and coalitions that empower rather than destroy. Social transformation is no easy task, but neither was sending a man to the moon. And we did that. Likewise, we can do this.

Areva Martin is a nationally known civil rights advocate, attorney and on-camera legal expert and analyst. Martin is the founding partner of Martin & Martin, LLP, one of Los Angeles’s largest minority-owned law firms. She is a frequent commentator on topics related to societal issues impacting minority populations and underserved communities.

Originally from – 

No Work, No Justice

Cedric Bartee, Unarmed Black Man Shot By Florida Deputy, Allegedly Had Hands Up

Human Rights Fighter
-
0
Cedric Bartee, Unarmed Black Man Shot By Florida Deputy, Allegedly Had Hands Up

By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Fla., Dec 8 (Reuters) – A Florida sheriff called for calm after a 28-year-old unarmed black man in a stolen car was shot and critically wounded early on Monday by a white officer, after witness reports that the man had his hands up and amid racially charged protests nationwide about police violence. “I ask everyone to not rush to judgment and allow the investigation to be completed,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said at a news conference in Orlando. Demings, who himself is African American and was surrounded by six religious leaders from the black community, said investigators have found some eyewitness accounts that conflict with that of the …

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Fla., Dec 8 (Reuters) – A Florida sheriff called for calm after a 28-year-old unarmed black man in a stolen car was shot and critically wounded early on Monday by a white officer, after witness reports that the man had his hands up and amid racially charged protests nationwide about police violence.

“I ask everyone to not rush to judgment and allow the investigation to be completed,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said at a news conference in Orlando.

Demings, who himself is African American and was surrounded by six religious leaders from the black community, said investigators have found some eyewitness accounts that conflict with that of the officer involved.

Witnesses at the apartment complex said that the men had their hands up when the deputy opened fire, according to local media reports.

Cities across the United States have seen major protests in recent days after grand juries declined to indict anyone in the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers in New York and Ferguson, Missouri.

After locating a stolen car at an apartment complex just after midnight on Monday, Sergeant Robert McCarthy fired three shots, one of which hit Cedric Bartee.

Demings said Bartee failed to comply with McCarthy’s commands and “made extensive furtive movements,” making the deputy fear for his safety.

Bartee underwent surgery and was in stable but critical condition late in the afternoon, the sheriff said. A second man in the car was arrested unhurt.

The shooting also comes only a few days after a 32-year-old Latino man was shot and killed in a car by an Orlando detective investigating a burglary. Police said the detective opened fire after he saw Alejandro Noel Cordero had a gun.

On Monday Demings said he was trying to be transparent in holding the press conference “because of the backdrop of everything happening in the country at this time.”

He added: “It’s concerning to me” how the public might react.

Bartee had a history of arrests on at least 45 charges since 1999, according to a list provided by the sheriff, but the deputy was not aware of his background at the time of the shooting, Demings said.

McCarthy has been reassigned to administrative duties for at least a week, and the shooting is being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as part of a standard procedure. The FDLE is also investigating Cordero’s shooting. (Editing by David Adams and Eric Walsh)

This article:

Cedric Bartee, Unarmed Black Man Shot By Florida Deputy, Allegedly Had Hands Up

My Conversation With Bryan Stevenson

Human Rights Fighter
-
0
My Conversation With Bryan Stevenson

Tonight on PBS I’m joined by Bryan Stevenson, activist, attorney, and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. This McArthur Genius Grant recipient has dedicated his life to fixing what many perceive as a broken justice system. He won the landmark Supreme Court case striking down life sentences for juveniles, just one issue he details in his New York Times bestseller Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. In the clip below I ask Professor Stevenson about a new poll that finds that a majority of Americans believe race relations have worsened since the election of our nation’s first Black president. For more of our conversation, be sure to tune in to Tavis Smiley …

Tonight on PBS I’m joined by Bryan Stevenson, activist, attorney, and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. This McArthur Genius Grant recipient has dedicated his life to fixing what many perceive as a broken justice system. He won the landmark Supreme Court case striking down life sentences for juveniles, just one issue he details in his New York Times bestseller Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.

In the clip below I ask Professor Stevenson about a new poll that finds that a majority of Americans believe race relations have worsened since the election of our nation’s first Black president.

For more of our conversation, be sure to tune in to Tavis Smiley on PBS. Check our website for your local TV listings: pbs.org/tavis.

Link: 

My Conversation With Bryan Stevenson

VH1 Dancer Stephanie Moseley Dead In Reported Murder-Suicide

Human Rights Fighter
-
0
VH1 Dancer Stephanie Moseley Dead In Reported Murder-Suicide

Stephanie Moseley, a dancer and actress featured on VH1’s drama series “Hit the Floor,” is dead after a reported murder-suicide involving her boyfriend, rapper Earl Hayes.

Stephanie Moseley, a dancer and actress featured on VH1’s drama series “Hit the Floor,” is dead after a reported murder-suicide involving her boyfriend, rapper Earl Hayes.

Originally from: 

VH1 Dancer Stephanie Moseley Dead In Reported Murder-Suicide

Minister Says Police Split Open Her Head During Berkeley Protests

Human Rights Fighter
-
0
Minister Says Police Split Open Her Head During Berkeley Protests

SAN FRANCISCO — As police broke up protests in Berkeley Saturday night, a local minister went to the hospital with a gaping head wound and a concussion — allegedly the result of an officer striking her from behind with a baton. Cindy Pincus, 29, told HuffPost she was among a group of ministers and seminary students near the front of the protest as police in riot gear began advancing to disperse the crowd of hundreds. Pincus said she was helping a woman who’d fallen when, from the corner of her eye, she saw an officer swing a nightstick. She said the blow sent her staggering. “I had a brief blackout in my vision. I saw stars,” Pincus said. “I would say…

SAN FRANCISCO — As police broke up protests in Berkeley Saturday night, a local minister went to the hospital with a gaping head wound and a concussion — allegedly the result of an officer striking her from behind with a baton.

Cindy Pincus, 29, told HuffPost she was among a group of ministers and seminary students near the front of the protest as police in riot gear began advancing to disperse the crowd of hundreds. Pincus said she was helping a woman who’d fallen when, from the corner of her eye, she saw an officer swing a nightstick. She said the blow sent her staggering.

“I had a brief blackout in my vision. I saw stars,” Pincus said. “I would say it’s an indiscriminate and disproportionate reaction to peaceful protests. It was completely way out of line.”

A gory photo that Pincus tweeted became widely seen in the aftermath of Saturday’s demonstration.

WARNING: Graphic photo below may not be appropriate for some audiences. Story continues below.

The Berkeley demonstration began peacefully to oppose a Staten Island grand jury’s decision on Dec. 3 not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for killing Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, with a chokehold. Hours into the protests, however, stores were vandalized and some objects were thrown at police. Protests on Sunday also turned violent, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Pincus, the intern minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco and a student at the Pacific School of Religion, said that she was with people behaving peacefully when she was hit.

Police had just begun firing tear gas as Pincus stumbled for safety, she said. Two blocks away from the center of the chaos on Telegraph Avenue, Pincus met friends who took her to a hospital in nearby Richmond. She was discharged early Sunday morning.

cindy pincus

Pincus getting examined at the Richmond Medical Center early on Sunday, Dec. 7.

The gash to Pincus’ head took three staples to close. Two days after getting hit, she said, she’s not sleeping well and has “cloudy thinking.” Health insurance covered some of the cost of the trip to the emergency room, but the copay amounted to a $250 bill. A fellow seminarian offered to help pay, she said.

The Berkeley Police Department didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

At least 18 people were arrested in Berkeley during the two nights of altercations. The extent of protesters’ injuries was unknown. Media reports said that several officers were injured.

Officials at the University of California, Berkeley, told HuffPost that they weren’t sure how many students and faculty might have been injured. But one creative writing professor offered an extension on an assignment for any students harmed Saturday night.

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said Monday to KCBS that the right to demonstrate has been abused by outsiders.

A “massive headache” stopped Pincus from joining Sunday’s protests, but she said she’ll be back on the street Monday night.

“Just because I got hit doesn’t mean that nobody else will,” she said. “I have to keep going back until police brutality is over for everybody.”

A third night of demonstrations in Berkeley is scheduled to begin Monday at 5 p.m. PST.

Read this article: 

Minister Says Police Split Open Her Head During Berkeley Protests

New York City Council Members Demonstrate After Eric Garner Decision

Human Rights Fighter
-
0
New York City Council Members Demonstrate After Eric Garner Decision

NEW YORK — A large group of New York City Council members staged a “die-in” on the steps of City Hall Monday, before marching into the street and blocking traffic, all while chanting “I can’t breathe!” and “Black lives matter!” The protest mimicked the chants and demonstrations that occurred in New York City and across the country this week, in light of a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict the officer who put Eric Garner into a chokehold before the 43-year-old’s death. “I am Eric Garner!” about 25 council members screamed in unison Monday, while bringing traffic on Broadway to a …

NEW YORK — A large group of New York City Council members staged a “die-in” on the steps of City Hall Monday, before marching into the street and blocking traffic, all while chanting “I can’t breathe!” and “Black lives matter!”

garner

garner

The protest mimicked the chants and demonstrations that occurred in New York City and across the country this week, in light of a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict the officer who put Eric Garner into a chokehold before the 43-year-old’s death.

“I am Eric Garner!” about 25 council members screamed in unison Monday, while bringing traffic on Broadway to a five-minute standstill. The council members, joined by a large group of clergy from assorted faiths, read from a long list of victims of police brutality across the country.

The reading of the names brought council member Jumaane Williams to tears.

garner

The council members — many of whom were wearing “I can’t breathe!” t-shirts — chanted the words 11 times. It’s the same number of times Garner repeated his dying words during an arrest for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes this past July.

A video of the arrest shows NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo wrapping his arm around Garner’s neck — a chokehold maneuver that’s banned under NYPD guidelines.

Marching back in through the gates of City Hall, the council members thrust their hands into the air and screamed, “Hand up! Don’t shoot!”

“We’ve been shot and killed as dogs,” council member Andy King told reporters. “We will no longer tolerate it.”

Council member Antonio Reynoso told The Huffington Post that the group planned the protest just this morning. “The council’s standing together, knowing that we have the power to make a difference,” he said.

Last month, Reynoso was a lead sponsor of the Right to Know Act, which would require NYPD officers to identify themselves when stopping a person on the street, and to explain the reason for the stop. The bill would also require police to make people aware that they have a constitutional right to refuse a search if there’s no legal basis for it besides consent.

Council member Rory Lancman told HuffPost that Monday’s demonstration is the beginning of a new oversight process that will reform “every aspect of police and community relations in the city, from the broken windows strategy to interactions between police and young men and of color, to how these cases are handled in the courts.”

“We need to have active investigations of misconduct and hold people accountable,” he added.

Lancman introduced a bill last month that would make police chokeholds illegal. He said support for the bill is “gaining steam” after the Garner grand jury decision.

As council members marched back inside city council chambers, the clergy led them in singing songs including “This Little Light Of Mine” and “We Shall Overcome.”

Once inside the chambers, the council members put their hands up to their necks in a choking motion.

“There are too many unarmed people of color dying as a result of over aggressive policing,” the council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus said in a statement after the demonstration. “We will work with our state and federal legislators and the Office of Mayor Bill de Blasio to hold the NYPD accountable to change.”

“Earlier today, [New York] Attorney General Eric Schneiderman told us that we are the only country in the world that utilizes a grand jury system,” the statement continued. “We are seeing, time and time again, that grand jury decisions do not reflect the voices of our local communities. The lives of Blacks, Latinos, Asian and many other minorities are devalued and not represented when we don’t hold police officers accountable for negative actions. We came together collectively from all walks of life to say: Black Lives Matter!”

Read this article:  

New York City Council Members Demonstrate After Eric Garner Decision

Barack And Michelle Obama’s Love Story Is Getting The Hollywood Treatment

Human Rights Fighter
-
0
Barack And Michelle Obama’s Love Story Is Getting The Hollywood Treatment

The love story of Barack and Michelle Obama is headed for the big screen. The forthcoming film, titled “Southside With You,” will center on the day young Barack first convinced Michelle to go on the couple’s now-storied first date, Deadline first reported. Actress Tika Sumpter (“Get On Up”) is slated to play the young Michelle Obama (nèe Robinson) in the flick, written and directed by Richard Tanne (“Worst Friends”). No actor has been attached to the role of young Barack Obama, though The Guardian speculated possible stars could include musician Drake, actor Michael B Jordan or even “Saturday Night Live” Obama impersonator Jay Pharoah. The indie film has a relative unknown in the director’s chair, but it has a double dose of veteran executive producing …

The love story of Barack and Michelle Obama is headed for the big screen.

The forthcoming film, titled “Southside With You,” will center on the day young Barack first convinced Michelle to go on the couple’s now-storied first date, Deadline first reported.

Actress Tika Sumpter (“Get On Up”) is slated to play the young Michelle Obama (nèe Robinson) in the flick, written and directed by Richard Tanne (“Worst Friends”). No actor has been attached to the role of young Barack Obama, though The Guardian speculated possible stars could include musician Drake, actor Michael B Jordan or even “Saturday Night Live” Obama impersonator Jay Pharoah.

The indie film has a relative unknown in the director’s chair, but it has a double dose of veteran executive producing talent from women of color: Tracey Bing, a former executive from Warner Independent, and Stephanie Allain, the indie producer behind films like “Hustle & Flow” and “Black Snake Moan.”

tika sumpter

Actress Tika Sumpter is slated to play Michelle Obama (nèe Robinson) in the forthcoming “Southside With You.”

Michelle Obama famously rebuffed her now-husband’s advances when they met at the prestigious Sidley & Austin law firm in Chicago where she was a 25-year-old attorney and he was a 27-year-old summer associate.

On meeting the man who would become her husband, Michelle Obama previously told Obama: From Promise to Power author David Mendell: “So we had lunch, and he had this bad sport jacket and a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and I thought: ‘Oh, here you go. Here’s this good-looking, smooth-talking guy. I’ve been down this road before.'”

The first lady also recalled to The Washington Post in 2008 that “she felt it would be ‘tacky’ if they started to date because they were ‘the only two black people’ at the firm.”

Still, love conquers all, and eventually she agreed to go out with him. The couple’s first date had them criss-crossing Chicago to the Art Institute, taking a long walk, seeing Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing,” and eventually heading back to the city’s South Side for some ice cream.

“On our first date, I treated her to the finest ice cream Baskin-Robbins had to offer, our dinner table doubling as the curb,” Barack Obama said in a 2007 O Magazine feature. “I kissed her, and it tasted like chocolate.”

(There’s now a plaque at the site commemorating the first couple’s first kiss.)

The filming for “Southside With You” will begin next July in Chicago.

Originally from – 

Barack And Michelle Obama’s Love Story Is Getting The Hollywood Treatment

Beyond the Paralysis of Analysis: Proposed Actions Following the Deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Etc.

Human Rights Fighter
-
0
Beyond the Paralysis of Analysis: Proposed Actions Following the Deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Etc.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was our nation’s preeminent apostle for social change and the acquisition of political power by nonviolent direct action. Part of the genius of his leadership was his astute recognition that no matter how compelling the argument for ending racial segregation may have been on the merits, there was no way African Americans, who were just 12 percent of the population, could achieve this without the support of a majority of white people in America — hence his unavoidable need reach to reach white people and persuade them of the justness of ending segregation and supporting the enactment of the Civil Rights Act…

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was our nation’s preeminent apostle for social change and the acquisition of political power by nonviolent direct action. Part of the genius of his leadership was his astute recognition that no matter how compelling the argument for ending racial segregation may have been on the merits, there was no way African Americans, who were just 12 percent of the population, could achieve this without the support of a majority of white people in America — hence his unavoidable need reach to reach white people and persuade them of the justness of ending segregation and supporting the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Today we are at tipping point. In the wake of the deaths of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida; Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri; Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, a substantial number of African Americans (and many white people too) no longer believe that the police operating in their communities will treat them fairly and impartially. Samuel Walker, co-author of the book The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America, told the AP:

Within the African-American community, there has been an experience of disrespect, offensive language, mistreatment in terms of stops and so on. And there’s a sense that the police are out to get them.

Inimai Chettiar of the New York University law school’s Brennan Center for Justice echoes this sentiment, telling the AP:

African-American communities are tired of being over-policed, over-prosecuted, sent to prison, having men taken away from their communities, having families broken.

This lack of trust in police is further aggravated when we learn that, according to the Wall Street Journal:

A Wall Street Journal analysis of the latest data from 105 of the country’s largest police agencies found more than 550 police killings during those years were missing from the national tally or, in a few dozen cases, not attributed to the agency involved. The result: It is nearly impossible to determine how many people are killed by the police each year.

What we do know, however, is that young black men are 21 times more likely to be shot dead by police officers than young white men are, and six times more likely to be arrested for drug offenses, despite a lack of evidence that black people use or deal drugs more than white people do.

Against this reality, I believe the following proposals for action should be seriously considered:

  1. This Jan. 15, 2015, on the occasion of the 86th birthday of Dr. King, before the nation commences its annual weekend celebration of his birthday, President Obama should address the nation from the Oval Office on the issue of race and policing in America. The precedent and template for such a nationwide address is the March 18, 2008, speech he gave in Philadelphia when, while still a U.S. senator running for president, he was compelled to address the issue of race following the national frenzy over his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of the church that President Obama and the first lady had attended for years.
  2. The president should aggressively follow up with the task force that the White House created last week to spend 90 days studying police practices in African-American communities across the nation.
  3. A procedure should be in place whereby any disputed shooting of an African-American person by the police automatically triggers the appointment of a special prosecutor to handle the case.
  4. In the event of a disputed shooting of an African-American person by the police, local African-American civil, religious and political leaders must publicly and unequivocally denounce any resort to violence as a credible or acceptable response to the disputed shooting.
  5. In the event of a disputed shooting of an African-American person by the police, local white civil, religious and political leaders must publicly support the appointment of the special prosecutor mentioned above and understand that their silence on the matter will be construed by most African Americans as support for the police shooting.
  6. The Department of Justice and the Department of Defense must show strict accountability for the military equipment provided to local police departments in their policing of African-American communities.
  7. Local African-American and white civil, religious and political leaders must forge a coalition of self-interest to insist that the federal government recognize the need to repair and develop our nationwide infrastructure of roads, bridges, and highways and address our polluted rivers to create jobs, at a minimum wage of not less than $15 an hour, for young African-American and Hispanic men.
  8. Police must wear body cameras at all times.
  9. Just as FBI Director James Comey requires all new FBI agents to visit the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., all members of police departments serving African-American communities should be required to read Dr. King’s April 1963 “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”
  10. The Department of Justice should engage Dr. Joseph Marshall, a former MacArthur Fellow and the executive director of San Francisco’s Alive & Free (formerly known as the Omega Boys Club), to train and educate members of police forces serving urban communities about African-American teenagers and young adults.

If the current widespread distrust of the police among African Americans (and a significant number of white people) continues unabated, we as nation may face a threat greater and more immediate than ISIS to the peaceful existence of our society in the near term.

View the original here – 

Beyond the Paralysis of Analysis: Proposed Actions Following the Deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Etc.

Presidential Scripts for the Stages of Police Brutality

Human Rights Fighter
-
0
Presidential Scripts for the Stages of Police Brutality

Does this sound too familiar? “I urge all Americans to approach this situation with calm, with tolerance…the Department of Justice has been monitoring this case since its inception as is customary in these kinds of situations. The Justice Department moved last night to accelerate the investigation that it started several months ago.” It wasn’t Barack Obama talking, but the president could have used this script for Michael Brown or Eric Garner or how many other names of black men. That was actually George Herbert Walker Bush calling “for calm and tolerance” in 1992, responding to the verdict in the Rodney King case. “What you saw and what I saw on the TV video was revolting. I …

2014-12-06-unnamed.jpg

Does this sound too familiar? “I urge all Americans to approach this situation with calm, with tolerance…the Department of Justice has been monitoring this case since its inception as is customary in these kinds of situations. The Justice Department moved last night to accelerate the investigation that it started several months ago.”

It wasn’t Barack Obama talking, but the president could have used this script for Michael Brown or Eric Garner or how many other names of black men. That was actually George Herbert Walker Bush calling “for calm and tolerance” in 1992, responding to the verdict in the Rodney King case. “What you saw and what I saw on the TV video was revolting. I felt anger. I felt pain. I thought: How can I explain this to my grandchildren?

“Civil rights leaders and just plain citizens fearful of and sometimes victimized by police brutality were deeply hurt. And I know good and decent policemen who were equally appalled.

“I spoke this morning to many leaders of the civil rights community. And they saw the video, as we all did. For 14 months they waited patiently, hopefully. They waited for the system to work. And when the verdict came in, they felt betrayed. Viewed from outside the trial, it was hard to understand how the verdict could possibly square with the video. Those civil rights leaders with whom I met were stunned. And so was I, and so was Barbara, and so were my kids.

“But the verdict Wednesday was not the end of the process. The Department of Justice had started its own investigation immediately after the Rodney King incident and was monitoring the State investigation and trial.”

Here is another presidential script on the issue:

“I didn’t sit there and listen to all the evidence, but I know most people in America of all races believe that if it had been a young white man in a young all-white neighborhood, it probably wouldn’t have happened. That doesn’t mean they were guilty under criminal law and the Justice Department is looking into that, in the Civil Rights Division and that’s the way to handle that. But what it does mean is there’s this huge gulf out there still in too many places where people wonder if they can be treated fairly.”

That one was Bill Clinton on Amadou Diallo. Perhaps he should save the draft for his wife–if she gets lucky and has to one day make the proverbial presidential comment. It is easy to become a cynic when reading those comments and seeing how closely they resemble the words of President Obama — even considering his push for body cameras on cops. Actually, Bush’s words were arguably more passionate than what we’ve heard from Obama who inevitably can’t escape a higher expectation to address this issue. In fact, the elephant in the Oval Office in response to anything racial is the reality of living in the age of the first black president.

However, something does feel different in the reactions to Ferguson and Eric Garner when talking to some local lawmakers and reporters in Bush-Obama counties. For example, “South Carolina may well be ahead of the curve,” writes Brian Hicks in an article from The Post and Courier in Charleston, a Bush-Obama county. Hicks is referring to the two black state senators, Marlon Kimpson and Gerald Malloy, who pre-filed legislation this week for all state law enforcement officers to wear body cameras. “The fact that, this is a legitimate issue being raised by our president, gives us, local officials, credibility when we speak about these issues on that state level where, historically, we’ve had so much difficulty in light of this nation’s history,” says Senator Kimpson.

Really? Even in flaming-red South Carolina. The president’s popularity may be high in Kimpson’s majority black Senate district. Statewide, it is another story. Kimpson still insists the president’s voice on this issue matters across the state. Regardless, I’ll keep hoping for the day when George Herbert Walker Bush’s words on Rodney King will be just a piece of history and not a template for a presidential script.

Read more:  

Presidential Scripts for the Stages of Police Brutality

What’s Truly Unique About #Blackstormtrooper

Human Rights Fighter
-
0
What’s Truly Unique About #Blackstormtrooper

On November 28, JJ Abrams released the teaser trailer for Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens and just like every other fanboy I watched the video over and over, often pausing to pick out even the most minute details. My dissection of the trailer was handled with the same level of precision as a group of Spaceballs with a giant fine-tooth comb. I mean this is JJ Abrams we’re talking about here. The guy who made Lost. Do you know how many Easter Eggs he snuck into that series? Of course, I wasn’t the only person with their eye on the trailer and it…

On November 28, JJ Abrams released the teaser trailer for Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens and just like every other fanboy I watched the video over and over, often pausing to pick out even the most minute details. My dissection of the trailer was handled with the same level of precision as a group of Spaceballs with a giant fine-tooth comb. I mean this is JJ Abrams we’re talking about here. The guy who made Lost. Do you know how many Easter Eggs he snuck into that series?

Of course, I wasn’t the only person with their eye on the trailer and it didn’t take long before people shared their discoveries and doubts to social media. It took no less than 10 frames before some members of the Star Wars fan base had a collective head burst. The scene I’m talking about is the one that opens the trailer, where we see a stormtrooper with his helmet off, looking out into the distance with fear in his eyes.

Oh yeah, and he’s black.

The amount of outrage over this stormtrooper’s race has been well-documented over Twitter and other social media outlets under the hashtag #blackstormtrooper. Although most is overwhelmingly positive, some try and point out the supposed “inconsistency” of his race due to the fact that stormtroopers were shown to be cloned from Jango Fett in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones:

Still others believe this is an attempt to appease the “PC lovers”, “Social Justice Warriors” or whatever other term kids are using these days to describe people who want to see women and minorities in films because they exist in a place we call society, just a small subset of the universe:

How this is still an issue is beyond me, although I’m sad to say I’m not surprised. I was under the assumption that science fiction had moved beyond this nonsense decades ago. Duane Jones was cast in a starring role in a major Horror/Sci-Fi film in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. That was in 1968, the same year Kirk kissed Uhura. Also, I don’t remember anyone accusing George Lucas of checking “diversity boxes” when he cast Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu in 1999. It’s 2014, a black stormtrooper shouldn’t be considered progress or pandering, it should be considered the norm.

That’s not to say the scene doesn’t mark a historic moment in the series. Go back and take a look at that scene.

There is definitely something striking and out of place about this stormtrooper that has nothing to do with the color of his skin.

Look again.

It’s his expression, or better yet, the fact that he has an expression at all. Provided this is truly an Imperial Stormtrooper, JJ Abrams has done something that has never been done in the Star Wars universe. He’s humanized a stormtrooper.

Stormtroopers have traditionally been portrayed as a cookie cutter military outfit. Their uniforms are monochrome, without any semblance of coloring. No personalization, like stickers. No nametags. Their appearance is skeletal, the most stripped down our bodies can be while still maintaining their shape. Their voices are monotone, devoid of any kind of inflection. Even when they’re introduced as Jango clones, they are portrayed as mindless copies unlike the strong-willed Fett. For all intents and purposes, stormtroopers are meant to be mindless automatons, lacking any modicum of emotion or marksmanship.

There’s a reason for this in filmmaking, particularly Science Fiction, Horror and even some War and Western films. Things like zombies, robots, ninjas, orcs, brood-like aliens and the like are meant to be devoid of any humanizing features. This is so heroes can easily shoot and slash through swaths of enemies without eliciting an emotional response from audiences. It’s what differentiates Starship Troopers from becoming the sniper scene in Full Metal Jacket.

This method is used to great effect in the Star Wars franchise as the Empire is often depicted as masked or cloaked in battle, but the Rebels’ faces are exposed and possess features that make them unique. As an example take the first assault on the Death Star. On one side you have the the Imperial TIE Fighter Pilots, completely concealed in black masks. Yet all the rebel pilots, from Wedge Antilles to my favorite, the portly Jek Tono Porkins, have open faced helmets.

During the battle, no one cares as TIE fighters are blasted into particles, because they might as well be piloted by Death incarnate. But audiences feel for guys like Porkins as we witness him meet an untimely death as he sizzles (heh) among the stars. Porkins speaks with authority, we can tell he’s respected among his squadron and he sports a rocking neck beard. And for those of you wondering, yes, Lucas really named the heavy guy Porkins. (This was just to illustrate that Lucas humanizes his characters, not that he’s good at it.)

It’ll be interesting to see if Abrams is planning on giving the Empire a human side. It’ll certainly change the way we look at the Empire as well as explain the motivations of those within their ranks. Furthermore, it might reveal that there’s more than one side of the story when it comes to the battle between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Perhaps like most rebellions the outcome didn’t turn out as planned.

Link:

What’s Truly Unique About #Blackstormtrooper

1...1,7281,7291,730...1,820Page 1,729 of 1,820