Showing posts with label shameful shit. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label shameful shit. Show all posts


  • If Tamir Rice was a blonde-haired, hazel-eyed 12-year-old Caucasian child, he would likely still be alive today. His parents would have been called and he would have been admonished about playing with a BB gun in the middle of a city park. There would be no guns drawn and the responding police officers would have felt a bit annoyed about being called out over some kid playing in the park with a toy gun.

    But Tamir Rice had the misfortune of being a black-haired, brown-eyed 12-year-old black child in a land where being black is considered a credible threat and where such threats are commonly terminated by law enforcement with extreme prejudice, even if you're just a child.

    But it's not like most white Americans see black children as actual children:

    In one experiment, a group of 60 police officers from a large urban police force were asked to assess the age of white, black and Latino children based on photographs. The officers were randomly assigned to be told that the children in the photographs were accused of either a misdemeanor or felony charge. The officers overestimate the age of black felony-suspected children by close to five years, but they actually underestimated the age of white felony-suspected children by nearly a year.

    Particularly relevant to the Tamir Rice case: "Black 13-year-olds were miscategorized as adults by police officers (average age error 4.59 years)."

    Similar experiments involving 169 mostly white students found that "participants began to think of black children as significantly less innocent than other children at every age group, beginning at the age of 10." These experiments also showed that respondents were more likely to see the black children as "culpable" of a hypothetical felony compared with white and Latino children.

    This research comports with other research done in the mid-2000s, which confronted police officers and civilians with photos of black and white armed and unarmed people, and asked them to press a "shoot" or "don't shoot" button for each image. Cops and civilians were more likely to press "shoot" for black images overall, but they were slower to press "don't shoot" for unarmed black images, and quicker to press "shoot" when an image showed an armed black man.

    The APA researchers sum up their findings this way: "Our findings suggest that, although most children are allowed to be innocent until adulthood, black children may be perceived as innocent only until deemed suspicious." The Tamir Rice case illustrates that for some black children, those biases can play out with deadly consequences in just a fraction of a second.

    Threats come in all shapes and sizes. Any "good guy with a gun" can tell you that. And yet:

    A North Carolina woman was arrested on Christmas Eve after she was spotted with a BB gun in front of the police department and pointed it at officers and told them to shoot her.

    Police received a 911 call about a woman in front of the police department with a gun around 7:30 p.m. Thursday. They found Elaine Rothenberg, 66, standing in front of a doorway at the police department with a gun raised and in a shooting stance.

    Police said Rothenberg, who was from North Carolina but had been staying on Cliffside Drive in the city, yelled about hating cops and told officers “what are you doing, shoot me!” and “what are you, scared?” She raised the gun at officers and yelled “boom, boom, boom.”

    After a brief standoff Rothenberg told officers the gun was fake and threw it to the ground, police said. She was taken into custody and police determined she had been holding a BB gun.

    Rothenberg was charged with first-degree threatening, second-degree breach of peace, seven counts of reckless endangerment and interfering with police.

    There was no split-second threat assessment needed. After all, she wasn't a 12-year-old black kid.

  • In any case where a young person of color has been beaten, shot and/or killed at the hands of law enforcement, there are inevitably two competing narratives: one where the victim is described by parents, family and friends in the most positive and loving light as possible and one where the victim is reduced to that of either a mere criminal or a potential criminal.

    Prior to Michael Brown's fatal encounter with Ferguson P.D. Officer Darren Wilson, Brown was featured on surveillance camera at a nearby convenience store, where it appeared that he was involved in a strong-arm robbery. The events, as they unfolded on-screen, fed into the "Michael Brown is a Criminal" narrative trotted by CNN and many other mainstream news outlets. It also gave many with an already-low opinion of Brown and black Americans like him all the justification necessary to consider his life forfeit at the hands of Wilson. In other words, to say that Michael Brown deserved to die, but without actually uttering those words.

    Narratives are a powerful thing. They can easily influence how Americans think or feel about an issue and sway opinion from one end to another. The pictures and footage of 1960s-era civil rights advocates suffering assault after ruthless assault at the hands of a cultural and state apparatus intent on status-quo preservation created a powerful narrative that swayed many on the side of justice. But even that narrative had to compete with the equally powerful narrative firmly codified by D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation and ruthlessly reinforced by the behaviors and actions of both cultural and state actors.

    Painting Michael Brown as a deadly giant of a criminal wipes any sympathy that anyone has for what happened to him that fateful day. It encourages a mindset that figures, "he was a natural-born criminal and he had it coming. He deserved to die."

    He didn't deserve to die, but that's all academic at this point.

    As it turned out, he did pay for what he was suspected by many of stealing. But I suppose that's also academic at this point, too.


    Michael Brown's designated status as a deadly giant and a vicious beast is nothing new. Trayvon Martin was described by many in the media and elsewhere as a powerful Uber-Negro with innate MMA training and the capacity to destroy innocent lives by sheer force of his own blackness, nevermind his actual physical appearance. The powerful narrative of the black man as a superhuman beast is a common one, carefully cultivated over the centuries as proof of his suitability and destiny in the fields of the planter class.

    Sheena C. Howard's Huffington Post piece goes into detail about this powerful and long-lasting narrative and how it's shaped this country's perception of black men and women. By highlighting this prolific and persistent pathology, it's easy to understand why the American public is both in awe and in fear of the black specimen:

    During the Reconstruction Period (1866 -- 1877), many Whites argued that free Blacks were a danger to society because they were animalistic beasts and savages that needed to be tamed by White slave owners. In 1901, the writer, George T. Winston stated, "The black brute is lurking in the dark, a monstrous beast, crazed with lust. His ferocity is almost demoniacal. A mad bull or tiger could scarcely be more brutal. A whole community is frenzied with horror, with the blind and furious rage for vengeance". These sentiments are eerily consistent with the ways in which Officer Darren Wilson describes Mike Brown as a "demon" in his testimony.

    Since the 1930's scientists have been trying to generate evidence of superhuman physical features that characterize Black people to explain their exemplary success in sports. The century old-debate of the "slave gene" seems to resurface every four years, particularly when athletes of African descent outperform competitors at the Olympics, -- most notably in track and field.

    The supposedly untamable, animalistic nature of the black man justifies mainstream America's fear of him while, at the same time, justifying his return to his proper lot in life (under the watchful eye of the slave holder). It also justifies dealing with the so-called superhuman in the most final manner possible. So instead of merely talking a man out of wielding his weapon or spending minutes ordering him to surrender peacefully, law enforcement officers are expected to respond to the dire life-or-death presence of the superhuman Negro by ending said Negro's existence, full stop.

    America's pathological obsession and fear of black men, a current that runs deeply underneath the national bedrock, was useful as a way to destroy any sympathy for the black creature as he was used and abused on the farms and plantations. It remained useful for severing any sense of solidarity between poor freed blacks and their equally impoverished white counterparts, while keeping the rest of America in fear of their mere presence. And today, it's used as an effective narrative to continue justifying the actions and tactics of law enforcement agencies throughout the nation, as well as the corrupt actions of the prosecutors and the judiciary.

    Sadly, enforcing that narrative always comes at a cost. For Michael Brown's family, it cost them their son. For black families across the U.S., it cost them their peace of mind and sense of justice. For America, the cost is its morals and, as some would say, its soul.

  • Courtesy of Bowdoin College

    Until recently, the heartbreaking tale of Malaga Island remained buried within the recesses of Maine's collective history, largely as something most wanted lost in the sands of time. And like the stories surrounding Rosewood, Florida and the Greenwood community of Tulsa, Oklahoma, it's a story where prejudice and hatred took center stage to annihilate a community:

    A century ago this spring, Maine Gov. Frederick Plaisted oversaw the destruction of a year-around fishing hamlet on Malaga Island, a 42-acre island in the New Meadows River, just off the Phippsburg shore. The island's 40 residents -- white, black and mixed race -- were ordered to leave the island, and to take their homes with them, else they would be burned. A fifth of the population was incarcerated on questionable grounds at the Maine School for the Feebleminded in New Gloucester, where most spent the rest of their lives. The island schoolhouse was dismantled and relocated to Louds Island in Muscongus Bay.

    Leaving no stone unturned, state officials dug up the 17 bodies in the island cemetery, distributed them into five caskets and buried them at the School of the Feebleminded -- now Pineland Farms -- where they remain today.

    Several islanders spent the rest of their lives in this state-run mental institution. One couple, Robert and Laura Darling Tripp, floated from place to place in a makeshift houseboat, but, unwelcomed, wound up moored to another scrap of an island. Malnourished, Laura fell sick during a gale; when her husband returned with help, he found the couple's two children clinging to her lifeless body. Many others suffered from the stigma of being associated with the island.

    "After the island was cleared, people did not really want to talk about this incident, especially the descendants, because to raise your hand and say you were from Malaga supposedly meant you were feebleminded or had black blood in you or both," said Rob Rosenthal, whose 2009 radio documentary "Malaga: A Story Better Left Untold" helped draw attention to what is one of the most disgraceful official acts in our state's history. "Nobody wanted to declare that."

    The prelude to Malaga Island's wholesale clearing rings similar to the events preceding the destruction of Rosewood and Greenwood - whereas the latter involved the perceived threat of miscegenation through sexual assault, Malaga Island was a community where not only did black and white Americans co-mingle freely, but the threat of miscegenation was realized through the presence of mixed families on the island. By all counts, that was something that neither the eugenicists of the era nor those who endorsed their views could abide by:

    But the shell middens offered no protection from Gov. Plaisted, who visited the obscure island with his entire executive council in July 1911. That December, the governor ordered the eviction of the community, and officials institutionalized eight residents, some for failing to identify a telephone (which none had likely seen) or for not knowing that William Howard Taft had succeeded Teddy Roosevelt as president. Those who remained were given payments for their homes and ordered to leave -- with or without them -- by the first of July, 1912.

    Later that year, the cemetery was cleared and the island sold to a close friend and business partner of the chair of Plaisted's executive council, Dr. Gustavus C. Kilgore of Belfast, who played a central role in the creation of the governor's policies, including signing the commitment orders for those sent to New Gloucester.

    Nobody has lived on the island since.

    A Sun Journal article (Google cached version here) describes how the island came under ownership of the MCHT:

    In 2001, the MCHT bought Malaga Island from a man who sold it at a bargain price because he wanted the island to be preserved. He wanted to keep developers away and he wanted local fishermen to continue using the island.

    "But for this generous landowner," says Rich Knox, communications director at MCHT, "there would be houses out here. There would be no archeology, no education. If it wasn't for land conservation, you wouldn't have these kinds of places."

    Now this is interesting. I'd like to know about this man and anyone else who came into ownership of the island after Kilgore.


    It took nearly a century for the state of Maine to express regret and issue an apology. That's another common thread linking Greenwood, Rosewood and Malaga Island together. The passage of time does a lot of things. It dries freshly drawn blood and turns hot, vivid pain into a dull, distant ache. It makes people forget, especially if what's to be remember is buried under the ever-growing rubble of history itself.

    But for better or worst, it makes talking about events such as those on Malaga Island "safe" to talk about, as the people involved in this injustice are themselves long in the ground and therefore only culpable in the eyes of history. The descendants of those who perpetrated this terrible act are also removed from any culpability by virtue of time. All that's left is the descendants of the victims and their willingness to make the world aware of what happened. And, of course, the various historians and archaeologists tasked with studying what life was like before the community was destroyed:

    Malaga's people were certainly poor. The island's soil is inappropriate for farming, and fishing, laboring or doing laundry and carpentry for mainlanders didn't pay well. Their homes were modest, and one family lived in a converted ship's cabin. Some relied on charity from the town to get through the winter, and in 1908 private donors stepped in to help build an island school. School ledgers have survived.

    "The papers written by the students show their penmanship was perfect and their spelling was better than mine," said Lynda Wyman, a trustee at the Phippsburg Historical Society, which also will have a small Malaga exhibit this summer. "It absolutely shows that kids were educated, not illiterate or so-called feebleminded or any of those things."

    Archaeological digs by University of Southern Maine researchers Nathan Hamilton and Robert Sanford show the islanders caught lobsters, shellfish, cod and even swordfish. Thousands of buttons near the home of the island's laundress attest to how much washing she took in from Phippsburg's boardinghouses.

    They built their homes on piles of discarded clam, mussel and scallop shells because they could be made level and provided excellent drainage. In doing so, they inadvertently gave a valuable gift to 21st-century archeologists.

    "The shell middens protected almost all the artifacts and household stuff they mixed into it, and we actually know who lived on each spot," Hamilton said. "To actually have a patch of ground where we know the name and age of the individuals associated with it, their race, their jobs and when they lived there -- that's really interesting and unique."

    These people made a life for themselves, free of the interference, strife and hardship that was endemic in many places where various forms of prejudice were tolerated and even given legal sanction. And because the community's existence upset the sensibilities of a powerful few while giving license to naked greed, Frederick Plaisted and his executive council found ample justification to right what they saw as a wrong and, in the process, committed a crime that cast a lingering pall over Phippsburg and the rest of the state for an entire century.

    The events that happened afterward were especially appalling. To erase practically every single trace of the inhabitants' existence from the island by unearthing and removing its dead meant harboring a blinding, intense hatred and nearly unfathomable disrespect. To declare a fifth of the population as "feebleminded" and condemn them to a life of unjustified institutionalization required a mind attuned to the belief of the Negro and those who deigned to mix with them as "feebleminded" as any mentally ill individual. To re-intern those dead on the same grounds of that institution required pure, unadulterated malice.

    It didn't just border on evil - it practically was.

    The first step of reconciliation involves admitting you were wrong, but that's only the beginning:

    Relatives of the Malaga evictees say having a high-profile exhibit at the state's official museum is cathartic, but there is another step Voter would still like to see. "Closure for me is to return the bodies to the island because my aunts died there believing their bones would become part of it," she said. "Removing the bodies was the difference between eviction and annihilation."




  • The above video shows exactly what a "perfect storm of abusive power and arrogance" looks like. Watch the video in its entirety. This is what a police state looks like.

    Also, note the conduct and demeanor of the deputies involved. They crack jokes, hurl abuse, intimidate and issue threats. One deputy even states, "I wish we could cane the both of y'all though." Highly aggressive, antagonistic and waiting for an opportunity to issue physical and possibly lethal violence.

    All because one of the occupants had a warrant for an overdue $1,000 civil fine, which was paid the next day.

    The Dekalb County, Georgia sheriff has already vowed to punish the seven deputies and their sergeant for their conduct. Sadly, most "punishments" involve the words "paid leave" and "suspension with pay."

    As one of the deputies barked, "there's repercussions and consequences behind everything you do!" For the deputies involved in this shameful and arrogant display, we'll see.
  • The following is a special Storify presentation. Viewer discretion is advised.



  • The above is what happens when you dedicate a song to Trayvon Martin and someone who doesn't like it decides to do something about it. Given his age and place of birth, I'm sure Lester Chambers has seen his fair share of stupidity in his life. I wonder if he ever suspected it would meet up with him up close and personal on this day:

    Chambers, 73, was performing at the Hayward Russell City Blues Festival in Hayward, California, when a 43-year-old woman, identified by police as Dinalynn Andrews Potter, jumped onstage and knocked Chambers down. Chambers' wife, Lola, told the Mercury News that the singer had just dedicated Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions' "People Get Ready" to Martin, saying that if Mayfield were alive today, he'd change the lyrics from "there's a train a comin'" to "there's a change a comin'."

    Andrews Potter was wrestled to the ground and subdued by stage hands, and Chambers was wheeled away to an ambulance. As the video shows, he was still in good spirits, even flashing a peace sign. Chambers was treated at the hospital and released. A photo posted to Facebook by his son, Dylan, shows Chambers' injuries: a "bruised rib muscle and nerve damage and he is sore all over," wrote Dylan.

    Andrews Potter, meanwhile, was arrested on suspicion of battery, cited and released. According to Billboard, Chambers' family is pushing authorities to file hate crime charges.

    Fuse spoke with Chambers following the incident. "I was asking for peace," he explains. "She got in my face and called me all kinds of MFs, saying that I started all this."

    After the attack Chambers was "totally out of it," he says. "I've never been so shocked and traumatized."

    Dinalynn Andrews Potter had absolutely no right to assault Mr. Chambers, but nevertheless felt it was within her privilege to. Of course, if Mr. Chambers had been 40 years younger and built like a stack of bricks, she would have been too cowed to even contemplate an attack. If she had a husband or boyfriend with her, she would have sent him up there in her stead. If Mr. Chambers was white just like herself, would she had bothered to approach the stage at all?

    When people claim that there was no racial component worth mentioning in the George Zimmerman case, when people want to pretend to be colorblind and skip over the racially-motivated rationale that caused Zimmerman to exit his vehicle and roust a young man minding his own business, when those same people claim that Trayvon was responsible for his own death, give Zimmerman a pass and plenty of sympathy for killing somone and then become furious when you call them out on their pretend colorblindness, tone-deafness and self-serving attitudes...I point to the above video and other incidents like it.

    When people are scared shitless over the black community "starting a riot" over the injustice that unfolded in that Sanford, Florida courtroom, yet happily gloss over and dismiss racially-motivated actions like the above, it reveals the staggering amount of hypocrisy involved. Of course, when the black community is rightfully outraged, mainstream America responds with cries over "black on black" crime and how the community can't seem to get a handle on it, as though it is supposed to make the community fall silent and contemplate its own so-called hypocrisy.

    This is why we're pissed. This is why we get upset whenever there are attempts to have our voices silenced.

    There are calls to see Potter charged with a hate crime. I hope the authorities do just that. These things simply cannot stand without some serious repercussions being formed in response.

    Again, this woman felt it was within her privilege to clamber on stage and assault a 73-year-old man because he, in her own words, "started this." She saw someone who she figured couldn't fight back. Oddly enough, George Zimmerman saw the same in Trayvon Martin.


  • Graffiti means a lot of different things to different people and how it's used - or even its mere placement - brings out a wide variety of reactions from people.

    Graffiti, at its core, is vandalism, since it involves defacing a public or private area without permission. The presence of graffiti marks an area as run-down and unkempt. The longer it stays on a surface, the further that image is embedded into the conscious of passersby.

    In hotly-contested gang areas, it's a demarcation of territory to be respected on pain of conflict and possible death. Crossing out another gang's "tag" with your own is grounds for deadly retaliation.

    Graffiti is also an art form, as evinced by the colorful, ingenious and expressive works found throughout countless urban environs. Some graffiti artists manage to gain national and global fanfare for their works. Kobra, Banksy and David Choe, for starters.

    Graffiti is also a way for the traditionally voiceless to voice their opinions and vent. Whether it's frustration with law enforcement, an impromptu and brief eulogy for friends and family passed, or to reaffirm one's identity, it's often done with a can of spray paint and a fleeting moment.

    If the graffiti happens to be of the sort the likes of Banksy would produce, it's often admired and photographed by passersby. Otherwise, it's often ignored until the property owner or another graffiti artist or tagger covers it up or tags over it.

    Sometimes, the underlying dynamics surrounding graffiti and assumptions about those who are most likely to do it...makes people uncomfortable.


    Grant Henry is an Atlanta-area artist and owner of Sister Louisa's Church of the Living Room and Ping Pong Emporium, a church-themed bar and lounge located in the Old Fourth Ward, not far from Ebenezer Baptist Church and The King Center.

    Henry and a fellow patron at his bar covered up the above graffiti posted on a building located on the corner of Irwin and Randolph Street, after it had, in his words, "brought fear to the core of my being."

    "Brought fear to the core of my being." As a gentleman of color, I pondered this statement. Exactly what does Grant Henry have to fear from a simple tag left behind by someone obviously affected by the outcome of the Zimmerman trial?

    In Henry's own words:

    Last night around 10:00pm I drove up Randolph and at the corner of Irwin saw the graffiti that brought fear to the core of my being, fear that riots could change the face of our neighborhood in the shadow of The Martin Luther King Center.

    Many thoughts went through my head:
    1: Who owns the building?
    2. Could I be arrested for covering it up?
    3. Is covering evil graffiti justified?
    4. Should I call the city?
    5. Should I get permission from someone?

    Out of fear that this evil message would spread like wildfire, I got home and grabbed a can of black spray paint,went to CHURCH and grabbed a witness, then went back to the scene and painted over the graffiti.

    I was running to my car after blacking out the hate...then bolted back to add the (heart symbol) to justify that my graffiti was not compounding the message of evil.

    When the adrenaline ceased from the fear that I felt, I found out that at the exact moment of adding the (heart symbol), the Zimmerman NOT GUILTY Verdict was announced.

    Whoever owns the building, i am willing to pay to have the wall painted over the graffiti.

    I apologize to whomever, but I would probably do it again to try to nip danger in the bud and to ensure that the positive we are trying to build In our City is not lost to the ignorance of a few.

    "The ignorance of a few."

    In light of the turmoil and trauma surrounding the Zimmerman case, people have chosen to vent in their own ways, many of them extraordinarily productive, others in the most destructive way possible.

    I don't condone graffiti done in public or private venues without permission. However, I do understand a person's need to vent, especially after an emotionally charged event like this. The individual who left the message "Fuck APD RIOT 4 TRAYVON" was venting.

    With a bit of black paint, Mr. Henry, in effect, silenced that individual's voice.

    That's what gets to me. The fact that someone's voice can be silenced wholesale by someone else who hasn't shared any of the trials, tribulations and experiences of that person, after invoking an international black icon for peace and equality to justify his own actions, gets to me.

    Black voices are constantly silenced, muffled, moderated and curated by others who simply don't feel comfortable with these voices ringing loud and unfiltered. Apparently, Mr. Henry just didn't feel comfortable with that so-called "message of evil" being left behind in his neighborhood.

    I'm sure like so many others in his position, Mr. Henry's intentions were rather noble. While many of history's major issues are resolved through the hot fires of violence, many of history's issues have also been settled through peaceful means. Many people have clutched their pearls over the possibility of violent riots, but people who chose to stand in solidarity with Trayvon Martin and others like him have chosen the route of peaceful protest. I'm sure Mr. Henry did not want to see the Old Fourth Ward or any other neighborhood die in the white-hot fires of anger, frustration, misplaced vengeance and hatred.

    With that said, that doesn't justify speaking for another by censoring that person's message. In fact, the only "message of evil" I see is one consisting of three black bars...and a heart symbol. I'm not feeling the love, here.

  • Ta-Nehisi Coates thinks the Zimmerman jury made the right choice. Yours truly thinks the Zimmerman trial had the wrong kind of jury.

    Meanwhile, the hits keep on coming in light of Zimmerman's acquittal:

    Keep posting the "Treyvon: Angel of God" stories.

    Treyvon Martin was no saint.
    * He had a history of criminal behavior,
    * he had been suspended 3 times from school (the most recent of which for vandalism),
    * he had been kicked out of his mother's house due to his behavioral issues.
    * the prosecution went overboard to hide text messages detailing Treyvon's drug use and racist comments. (while at the same time attempting to portray Zimmerman as a racist)

    Combine the above with Treyvon's proclivity for physical violence... It was only a matter of time before Treyvon ended up dead or in prison.

    Zimmerman just made it happen faster.

    Little boy with candy my ass.

    Judging by Frankie SayRelax's posting history, he's firmly committed to the image of "Treyvon Martin" as a worthless thug of the lowest order. That would be Frankie's problem alone if not for the millions of people out there who think just like him, to varying degrees.

    Trayvon isn't alive to tell his side of the story or defend his own character against those who wish to defame him and others like him. Zimmerman's liberty is contingent on his story of defense against a so-called "thug," otherwise he would be made to account for his actions through legal means. Now all that's left is possible civil action and, if Zimmerman doesn't watch his step from here on, extralegal means of action.

    A 17-year-old doing stupid things 17-year-olds do to bolster their nonexistent "street cred" in light of the "gangster" culture propagated by mass media (post pictures of guns, brag about being handy with fists, etc.) does not make him a "dangerous thug." Of course, no one considered Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold "thugs" until it was too late.

    Nope, George Zimmerman did the world a favor by ridding it of one less "thug," at least according to our friend Frankie and those like him. The only comfort and solace that Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin have is the knowledge that not everyone thinks like Frankie. The world isn't completely filled up with assholes.

  • The grand tradition of the all-white jury came through for the man accused of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. "Not guilty" of second-degree murder, "not guilty" of manslaughter, either.

    Yours truly isn't shocked at the outcome. The die was cast in the beginning and America's preoccupation with stereotypes and assumptions played out on a grand scale. All the defense had to do was make the jury wonder if George Zimmerman did America a service by snuffing out a "typical ghetto thug." From all indications, it worked.

    And so goes a story that's played itself out time and again with depressing regularity. You know, the one about how a black American was killed out of various racially motivated assumptions, only for his killer to walk free with few, if any, repercussions. It's an age-old story with no end in sight.

    Knowing that Zimmerman will likely spend the bulk of his life sheltered away from understandably angry black Americans is cold comfort to Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. They have to live with both a dead child and the relative freedom of the man who murdered him.

    Meanwhile, other black parents are left wondering if their son or daughter will end up being the next victim of  someone entitled of their preconceived notions and assumptions. As I've said before, it's a story that's as old and as predictable as the sun rising and setting.

    I think it's high time for me to acquire a passport and think about life outside of the United States for a while, for my sanity's sake. Any black American wanting to start a family should do likewise.
  • Compare and contrast the following. First, from Recollections of Slavery by a Runaway Slave:

    As long as I can remember, I worked round the house in company with about 20 little boys and girls. We worked in the potatoe patch and cotton patch, and sometimes at the cotton gin; grubbed ground, pulled up roots, raked up chips and threw them on the log heap to burn; and rainy days we worked in the garden and cleared up the trash in the yard. As soon as children get old enough to walk about, they always set them to do something or other. Mistress was very strict, and if we did not do every thing exactly to please her we were sure to get a whipping. An old man whipped us on our bare flesh with hickory switches. A school-master named Cleeton, boarded with her, and used to bring home a great many of them and put them in the chimney to dry. He called them "nice switches to whip the little niggers with." A good many of us were entirely naked and the rest had nothing on but shirts. I never wore any clothes till I was big enough to plough. When they whipped us they often cut through our skin. They did not call it skin, but "hide." They say "a nigger hasn't got any skin."

    One day one of the women was planting turnips. She had to sow in rows very regular; but the ground was rough, and when Mallard came by he saw she was scattering the seed. He told her the Devil was in her because she wasted the seed, and if she did not do better, when he came back from the house he would make her. When he came back she had not done any better, and he snatched up a root and knocked her down and kicked her, and then sent a man called Tennant to the house for a whip. Mallard whipped her till he was tired, and then Tennant whipped her. He was so mad he did not stop to tie her up, but beat her about on the ground, and every once in a while hit her with the but end of the whip. They whipped her till she could not scream.

    Mallard had a Guinea man who could not understand a word of English, nor understand anything that was said. When the driver whipped him he did not beg like the rest. We always have to say, "Please massa," "Do massa." Master said he would teach "the -- nigger to beg." Then they told him what to say, but he did not understand. He was tied up by his wrists, and they kept beating him till they were tired. They then went into the house to drink and left him hanging there. While they were gone, a woman named Sarah went to him and tried to make him understand how to beg. She said, "Only say 'do massa[']"--and they'll stop whipping."--When they came out they tried a new plan. They took him down and lashed him to a log, and master stood on one side and the driver on the other. They whipped him with cowskins till they cut a great gash in his side that they had to sew up. All the sound they could get out of him was a kind of grunt,--"ugh," "ugh." The next day he went into the woods and staid five weeks before he was caught.

    When master missed his wood, he took ten of the slaves and carried them to the camp, and after he had whipped three or four of them, Peter's boy got frightened and informed against his father. They carried Peter to his hut, and tied him up so that his feet could not touch the ground, then tied his feet together and put a great log between them, to keep him stretched tight. Then they whipped him till he fainted twice in the rope. They did not leave off whipping him till midnight. One of the men that kept the door said he "guessed Peter would have to be buried the next day, master whipped him so much." They always say "a nigger is not whipped to do him good, unless he faints." They say "cut into him; a nigger has'nt got any feeling;--there's no feeling in a nigger's hide;--you must cut through his hide to make him feel!"

    After they had done whipping Peter, they gave him a dose of salts and put him in the stocks, down in the cellar, where it was so dark, you could not see your hand before you. When any one is put in the stocks a chain is put around his neck with a padlock on it, and the end of it is fastened to a beam of the house. His feet are put into holes between two pieces of wood, which are then bolted down close to his ancles,--his hands are tied, and he has to lie down on his back, without being able to move any part of his body except his head. Sometimes slaves are kept in the stocks two or three weeks, and whipped twice a week, and fed on gruel, because they run away or steal.

    Now watch this.


    It's 2013, approximately 148 after slavery's official end and 48 years after basic civil rights were guaranteed for black Americans. In the absence of overseers, bosses and owners, some black Americans insist on whipping one another or barring that, themselves. In the midst of Black History Month, it looks like some folks forgot some of history's most important lessons.
  • SPECIAL EDIT:

    Video of the incident can be found via this direct link. This is to circumvent NDN Media Player's autoplay feature and keep people from getting written up at work. :D

    This happened on her birthday.

    I'll just say that if the above had happened to anyone in my family...strike that. The last thing I'd want to do is to leave behind a paper trail for investigators. Let's just say that I know people and I know how to do...things. Yeah, let's just leave it at that.

    The LAPD stated it would start its investigation on Jan 21, when schools were back in session. I thought schools were closed on MLK, Jr. Day. At any rate, we can't afford to wait for scum to be brought to justice, no matter the circumstance.

    EDIT:



    UPDATE:

    LONG BEACH, Calif. (KTLA) — A San Pedro woman has been charged with beating up a 12-year-old girl who was a rival of her daughter in an alley fight that first aired exclusively on KTLA.

    Amber Lee Gutierrez, 33, was arrested Tuesday for her alleged involvement in a prearranged fight in a West Gaffey Street alley after school on January 14.

    Gutierrez was charged on Tuesday with assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury. She is being held on $100,000 bond.

    If convicted as charged, Gutierrez faces a possible maximum state prison term of seven years.

    According to police, the 12-year-old and Gutierrez’s daughter had agreed to fight in the alley, but mothers and adults showed up as well and got involved.

    The girl suffered a broken arm. Her mother, who spoke anonymously to KTLA, said she’s disappointed Gutierrez hasn’t been charged with a hate crime.

    Racial slurs are heard repeatedly on the video, which was recorded on a cellphone by an onlooker.

    Prosecutors have not decided whether to charge Gutierrez’s sister, who is also seen in the video throwing punches.

    Both the aunt and the child are said to be in hiding. Not that I have any sympathy for either one or the mother, for that matter. If and when she's convicted, she might have to spend most of those seven years in protective custody.


  • It's not easy being the leader of the "freest" nation in the world, less so if you happen to be a man whose mere skin tone, let alone actual policies, sets off near-homicidal rage in a certain sub-sect of American citizens. Once Barack Obama became President Barack Obama, the number of death threats U.S. presidents usually receive skyrocketed by 400 percent. Each day, the White House receives 30 "love notes" from people who really, really want to extend the president a hollow-point greeting.

    There have always been people who wanted to voice their displeasure with the current sitting president via bullet. With President Obama, there's that added dimension of race. No one wants to admit or acknowledge it, but with that crucial piece, the entire puzzle of why some Americans harbor near-demonic rage against this particular president finally comes together.

    The loons come in all forms and walks of life. They even come from within our nation's military:

    Four Army soldiers based in southeast Georgia killed a former comrade and his girlfriend to protect an anarchist militia group they formed that stockpiled assault weapons and plotted a range of anti-government attacks, prosecutors told a judge Monday.

    Prosecutors in rural Long County, near the sprawling Army post Fort Stewart, said the militia group of active and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components. They allege the group was serious enough to kill two people – former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York – by shooting them in the woods last December in order to keep its plans secret.

    “This domestic terrorist organization did not simply plan and talk,” prosecutor Isabel Pauley told a Superior Court judge. “Prior to the murders in this case, the group took action. Evidence shows the group possessed the knowledge, means and motive to carry out their plans.”

    Prosecutors said the group called itself F.E.A.R., short for Forever Enduring Always Ready. Pauley said authorities don't know how many members it had.

    I shouldn't be surprised. Many people see the presence of a man of a certain hue as an affront to the sanctity of the Oval Office. Others see it as proof of the worm turning, that somehow the nation's majority ethnicity will find itself in a field humming slow, mournful Nickelback tunes while carrying heavy cotton-filled sacks stitched together from old, worn Abercrombie and Fitch outfits.

    On the other hand, many people probably weren't expecting a threat like this. Like I said, from all walks of life:







    I wonder what made Donte Jamar Sims think this was a good idea. Not only was he serious "as a Heart Attack" about the threats, he started snigglin' like a Cheshire cat in front of the Secret Service agent until he realized he was goin' to jail, on the real.

    Later, however, at a police station, he grew penitent, and wrote an apology letter asserting “he was sorry he sent the messages threatening to kill the President of the United States.”

    The self-described #1 Lupe Fiasco fan claimed he was high at the time and “understood what he was doing and that it was wrong.”


    It takes all kinds. Honestly, the only thing Donte Jamar Sims needs is a psychiatric workup and to stay the fuck away from whatever he's been smoking, for his own damn good. I'm not even sure this was one of those "Uncle Ruckus" moments...just a "dumbass sherm-head smoking in his living room" moment. Put the fucking blunt down. I doubt he really had the means or the motivation to pull off any threat. Then again, it's never a good idea to underestimate people.

    Come Election Day, expect those death threats to triple in number if President Obama wins a second term in office. At this point, surviving every day in office is a blessing and a miracle from above.

  • Just as James Holmes did in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, just as Charles Carl Roberts IV did in a one-room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and just as those four bastards did decades ago at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, Wade Michael Page took his hatred, frustrations and bloodlust out on a group of unsuspecting innocents -- people without the ability and foresight to protect themselves or perhaps strike back. After all, who but the most paranoid of individuals expects a gunman to burst into their normally quiet place of worship?

    In my book (and hopefully anyone else's), that's cowardice. It's a trait all of the above players share among each other. When pitted against equal or greater force, these individuals often fold under pressure. Holmes quietly gave up and turned himself in. Roberts took his own life. Cherry, Blanton, Cash and Chambliss scattered like roaches before being found, charged and eventually imprisoned.

    Page apparently chose "suicide by cop."

    Page visited his hate on a community of Sikhs, a people often mistaken (and sometimes used as stand-ins) for the Muslims whom "God-fearing Americans" have been trained to reflexively hate since 9/11, if not longer. Because there are never any Muslim extremists around when you need one, Page figured a Sikh temple would do in a pinch.

    And that's how six people ended up losing their lives.

    Holmes and Roberts' actions were treated as outliers, as something atypical of how men of their societal makeup should behave. It's much harder to do the same for Page, given his connections to and affiliations with Neo-Nazi hate groups, but that doesn't mean they won't try.* Nevertheless, his actions represent the proverbial canary in a  blood-filled coal mine.

    It's funny how right-wing-oriented "patriot" groups grow like weeds during "liberal" administrations, only to fall dormant during conservative ones, like a bad herpes infection:
    The Patriot movement first emerged in 1994, a response to what was seen as violent government repression of dissident groups at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and near Waco, Texas, in 1993, along with anger at gun control and the Democratic Clinton Administration in general. It peaked in 1996, a year after the Oklahoma City bombing, with 858 groups, then began to fade. By the turn of the millennium, the Patriot movement was reduced to fewer than 150 relatively inactive groups.

    But the movement came roaring back beginning in late 2008, just as the economy went south with the subprime collapse and, more importantly, as Barack Obama appeared on the political scene as the Democratic nominee and, ultimately, the president-elect. Even as most of the nation cheered the election of the first black president that November, an angry backlash developed that included several plots to murder Obama. Many Americans, infused with populist fury over bank and auto bailouts and a feeling that they had lost their country, joined Patriot groups.

    The swelling of the Patriot movement since that time has been astounding. From 149 groups in 2008, the number of Patriot organizations skyrocketed to 512 in 2009, shot up again in 2010 to 824, and then, last year, jumped to 1,274. That works out to a staggering 755% growth in the three years ending last Dec. 31. Last year's total was more than 400 groups higher than the prior all-time high, in 1996.

    All of this talk about "taking back our country" didn't really kick into overdrive until the dreaded "Marxist socialist Kenyan" planted his hind parts in the Oval Office chair. From there, memberships to these various "patriot" groups became less about disaffected losers slouching towards hatedom in search of an identity and a scapegoat, and more about people finding new outlets to vent their frustrations through before they suffered a humiliating "Ni*clang!*" moment in front of polite society.

    As long as these people see the current president, along with black Americans, Latinos, Muslims, liberal-minded folk and others who are ideologically, socially or politically different from them as dire threats to be eliminated with extreme prejudice, you'll keep seeing scenes like these. You'll keep seeing cowards pick soft targets to unload maximum death and misery just to make a statement and you'll keep hearing people attempt to explain why these events are somehow in no way connected to any future trends.

    Meanwhile, people are more scared of the raggedy-assed New Black Panther Party frightening elderly white Americans with their mere presence than they are of disaffected Neo-Nazis and other militia types deciding to strike out on their own rampage of terror and mayhem. After all, those ni*clang!*s are pretty scary...

    *For morbid hilarity, check out the FReep comments prescribing the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis as "radical leftist" entities. "National Socialist," indeed.
  • Walton Henry Butler, 59, allegedly shot the 32-year-old Everett Gant in the head, who visited his Port Saint Joe apartment to confront him about making racist comments to children in the apartment complex, according to the Broward Palm Beach New Times. The blog reports that Butler proceeded to eat dinner as Gant lay bleeding outside his door and cites an affidavit saying that Butler used the racial slur when questioned by the sheriff.

    Butler is charged with attempted murder with a hate crime enhancement.

    Police said Butler called 911, and expressed confusion at his arrest. "He was brought to the investigation unit where he was interviewed and basically admitted to shooting the victim and said he shot a, used a racial slur, and said that is what he shot and acted like it was not like a big deal or anything to him," Gulf County Sheriff Joe Nugent told WJHG.

    What's the big deal? He only shot a ni-*clang!*

    When people ask if we're truly in a "post-racial" society, you can include this incident in a growing pile of incidents as evidence to the contrary. If Trayvon Martin and the ongoing abuses meted out by law enforcement throughout the country didn't shank your idea of a "post-racial" America into a bloody heap, this incident should blast it's head clean off its naive shoulders. Black Americans are living in a country where a significant portion of the population actively hates them and, if it wasn't for criminal punishments and societal consequences, they'd grab a rope and have themselves a good ol' fashioned picnic.

    I doubt anything will happen to this guy once he sets foot in prison. The staff will most likely isolate him from the rest of the general population to keep headline-making incidents from happening. Once he's inside, he can always hook up with the resident Aryan Brotherhood for protection. Unless someone's brazen or crafty enough to drive a shank through his cold heart, he's going to remain untouched for the duration of his prison stay.

    Meanwhile:
    A police investigation has been launched in response to the shooting death of a 21-year-old man. The victim was shot in the head and died from his injuries while handcuffed and sitting in the back of a police patrol car on Saturday night. The victim, Chavis Carter, was riding as a passenger in a pickup truck that happened to be pulled over by police in Jonesboro, Arkansas. According to a report, an officer found marijuana and decided to run Carter’s information. The officer discovered that Carter had a warrant from Mississippi so he was put into the patrol car.

    “As protocol, he was handcuffed behind his back, double-locked and searched,” said Jonesboro Police Department Sgt. Lyle Waterworth.

    Minutes after putting Carter in the vehicle, officers claim they heard a thump noise. They turned to the vehicle and found that Carter had been shot in the head. Waterworth said that he believes Carter had a gun hidden on himself, which he pulled out and then shot himself with.

    “Any given officer has missed something on a search, you know, be it drugs, be it knives, be it razor blades,” he said. “This instance, it happened to be a gun.”

    Carter’s mom, Teresa Carter, does not agree with the police. “I think they killed him,” she said. “My son wasn’t suicidal.” She was told that her son suffered a bullet wound in his right temple. Her son is left-handed. “I mean, I just want to know what really happened,” she said. “That’s all I want to know.”

    Yes, exactly how does a left-handed person with his hands cuffed behind his back manage to get a hold of a "hidden" gun and shoot himself in his right temple? Secondly, why would he kill himself over a simple arrest? I hate to say it, but many black Americans who are about the criminal life treat jail as just another phase in their semi-short and violent lives. Suicide doesn't figure in this case.

    Unless it was "cop-assisted 'suicide'." Yep, definitely the worst case of "suicide" I've ever seen. I can bet money on an officer deciding to do away with this gentleman by killing him with a throwdown weapon.

    At least Alexis Sumpter wasn't killed by the cops over a MetroCard. There's a lot going wrong when we're relieved that law enforcement officials merely harass us instead of summarily executing us for frivolous and trivial shit. Something's definitely wrong with that picture.
  • The following video features Atlanta-based rapper "Booghatti" having a severe disagreement with his producer "Sporty" over selling his song "Like a Kid." I can't wrap my head around why, but it was apparently enough to warrant the following ass whuppin':




    When an artist has a dispute with their producer, they often let the lawyers hash things out in court. This one decided to take his dispute "to the streets," resulting in a man literally beaten out of his clothing for some of the most trifling shit imaginable.

    One black man beating another over a trivial dispute. I bet not only does this "Booghatti" character feel good about himself for whipping on someone, he'll probably use this incident to further his "street cred." He should hope the man he senselessly beat doesn't decide to "come back" on him in an effort to save face and salvage what's left of his dignity.

    Now take this scene and multiply that across the country. There's trifling shit happening in just about every neighborhood over some of the most inconsequential shit possible. That's something that needs to come to an end, before more people get hurt or even killed.
  • Today, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was held in both civil and criminal contempt by the House of Representatives.

    Washington (CNN) -- The House of Representatives voted Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to turn over documents tied to the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting -- a discredited operation that has become a sharp point of contention between Democrats and Republicans in Washington.
    The House approved a pair of criminal and civil measures against the attorney general, marking the first time in American history that the head of the Justice Department has been held in contempt by Congress.

    House members approved the criminal contempt measure in a 255-67 vote. Almost every House Republican backed the measure, along with 17 Democrats. Shortly thereafter, the civil measure passed in a sharply polarized 258-95 vote.

    A large number of Democrats -- including members of the Congressional Black Caucus and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi -- walked off the House floor in protest and refused to participate in the criminal contempt vote. A slightly smaller number of Democrats appeared to boycott the vote on the civil measure as well.

    17 Democrats voted along with Republicans on the criminal contempt measure. 21 Democrats did likewise on the civil contempt measure. NBC News' Frank Thorpe thoughtfully provided a list of names:





    And there you have it. Concerned Democrats who chafe at this display of Blue Dog dumbassery can organize a movement to replace these people with actual Democrats. Speaking of which, dozens of Democrats walked off the House floor in protest of the civil and criminal contempt votes.

    So, what happens next?

    Unlike a contempt charge at the county courthouse, AG Holder isn't gonna spend 30 or 60 days cooling his heels in the pokey. But Darrell Issa and crew can push him to resign under the assumption Holder's been tarred and feathered good over this "disgrace." The GOP can also use this to further de-legitimize the Obama administration's authority and run it out on a rail come this Election Day:

    ...the next step would be to send the contempt citation against Holder to the local U.S. attorney for enforcement. Traditionally the Justice Department doesn't pursue criminal contempt of Congress cases against its own administration.

    If, as history suggests, the Justice Department won't prosecute a criminal case against Holder, the House could hire its own lawyer and file a civil lawsuit in federal court. Such a case could lead to an order for Holder to turn over the documents. But the federal District Court in Washington has been reluctant to rush into such cases.

    The hopes of the House winning a legal resolution before the November elections are dim. And the authority behind House subpoenas or contempt citations traditionally are considered to expire when that Congress ends, according to the Congressional Research Service. That happens in January 2013.

    In any event, if Obama loses his re-election bid the case becomes moot. If Obama wins and Republicans retain control of the House, they could vote to restart the fight. But Holder might no longer be in office.

    A contempt of Congress vote against Holder probably would amplify calls from some Republicans for his resignation. Although the administration's shown no signs of that so far, it's widely believed, even among Holder's close associates, that he doesn't intend to return should Obama win a second term. When asked about it, Holder has been noncommittal.

    However, in issuing these contempt measures, the GOP once again verified that it would go to great lengths just to see the president and attorney general bum-rushed out of office by any means necessary. It also has plenty of racial overtones. A lot of people want to see Holder, a black guy, fail in order to validate their beliefs of black American men being incapable of managing leadership positions unless they happen to be both conservative as all get out and under the total and complete tutelage of the GOP (Cain, Thomas, Steele, West, etc). If they can't get Obama to go down in flames, Holder will do just nicely. Even better if they both go down.

    Holder happens to be the first black U.S. Attorney General. He also happens to be the first AG to be held in contempt by Congress. Funny how that works out. Even funnier is this excruciatingly detailed account on how the GOP's narrative of the "Fast and Furious" operation isn't what it appears to be at a close glance.
  • Update: Police are increasing their presence in north Tulsa after an apparent shooting spree Friday morning.

    Police have labeled the overnight violence as 'unprecedented' in Tulsa after 5 people were shot and three of those victims died.

    Here are the names of the three shooting victims killed in what investigators call an "unprecedented" shooting spree overnight.

    Det. Sgt. Dave walker identifies the dead as:
    Dannaer Fields B/F DOB 11-03-1962 killed at 1045 E 51PN
    Bobby Clark B/M DOB 09-10-1957 killed at 300 W 63 SN
    William Allen B/M DOB 04-13-1980 killed at 801 E 36 SN.

    He says police now believe they may be looking for a white male in a white pickup.
    All of the victims were on foot in the early morning hours.

    Sgt. Walker says, "Asking the public to be aware of their safety when they're out and about. Obviously these crimes happened early in the morning from midnight to three a.m. So, if you're out and about at those times and you're out on the street, you shouldn't stop for anybody anyway, especially a car that pulls up."
    More:
    Several members of the Tulsa chapter of the NAACP gathered at a north Tulsa church Friday evening for an emergency meeting to discuss what police have characterized as a possible "shooting spree" that targeted five people early Friday morning.

    As news spread that the police are looking for a white man in connection with the shootings of five black people, people began saying they believe the shootings were racially motivated.

    KRMG spoke with Tulsa City Councilor Jack Henderson as the meeting continued in the 2200 block of N. Peoria Avenue.
    When asked if people in the community felt that the shooter or shooters were deliberately targeting black people, he replied "yes, absolutely."

    He told KRMG the "word on the street is that this person would drive up to people walking, ask for directions, and when they would turn away, walk away, begin firing. That's truly a concern, and anybody would be (ill) at ease if you knew this was going on."

    Color arousal is a hell of a thing. Here's hoping that this sick individual is caught before more lives are lost.


  • Austin was standing less than 20 yards away from Martin when he was shot on the night of February 26. He didn't see much that night, but says he can't shake the screams for help that he heard or the thunderclap of gunfire that nearly shook him from his shoes.

    The screams rattle around in his daydreams, so loud at night that sleep hasn't come easily. And he can't stop asking himself a thousand what-ifs: What if he could have stopped it? What if he had looked "suspicious" that night, and not Martin?

    "...it's really hard to walk the dog by where it happened," he said. He wondered aloud what could have happened if he had been walking the dog just a little later, or behind the house instead of in front. But most of all he wondered what if he had been the one who piqued Zimmerman's interest. What if he looked suspicious?

    What if, indeed. Being a black male is perhaps one of the most hazardous occupations in the United States of America, to date. If it isn't being lured into the world of violent gangs, criminal activity and induction into the Prison-Industrial Complex, it's having your life extinguished for little to no reason, or because someone thought you represented a far-fetched "threat" to them.

    This is what happened to Trayvon Martin, and it could have happened to Austin McLendon. Hell, it could still happen to Austin if he finds himself confronting someone the likes of George Zimmerman. Life is fleeting, but more so for black American males.

    Now this young man has to live with bearing witness to someone having his life forfeit for no reason. And he has to live with the fact that his life could be forfeit at any given moment by anyone who sees him as a "threat." He can't even walk outside of his home without worrying if he'll face Trayvon's fate, too.

    Parents all over the U.S. live with the fear of seeing their child walk out the front door, only to never come back. The extent of that fear for black parents is ten-fold when you combine gang violence, racial bigotry and an militarized police culture that sees nearly all people, but blacks especially, as "threats."

    People have wondered if Trayvon Martin was white or if George Zimmerman was black, would we see the lackadaisical response from the Sanford P.D. or our mainstream media outlets. Chances are Trayvon Martin  would still be alive and George Zimmerman would be so far under the jail, the judge wouldn't even bother with sentencing. But a black kid callously shot by a white "Hispanic" man with a 100-pound weight advantage and a gun illicits no response from the local law enforcement agency or our mainstream media outlets.

    We could talk about how racial stereotypes and preconceived notions about black American have allowed mainstream America to ignore a serious crisis that's under the country's noses. We could talk about how America in general tends to not see these things as problems, at least not until it touches mainstream white Americans. But this also transcends ethnic boundaries, in a way. The "Stand Your Ground" laws allow anyone with a bad temper and a firearm to boldly confront just about anyone they see as a "threat." Without any duty to retreat or resolve the situation another way, just about anyone can be killed, with the killing justified as self-defense. If this isn't America's problem, it will be soon enough.

    If George Zimmerman isn't brought to justice, scores of people like him will know that all it takes to end the life of someone they don't like, find offensive or merely just pisses them off is to deem them a "threat" to themselves. After all, you're just "protecting yourself," right?

  • It's been 18 days and counting since Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman has yet to be charged and jailed for his role in killing Martin, nor has the Sanford Police Department seen fit to do anything other than give excuses, intimidate and tamper witnesses and pray this whole thing somehow blows over or disappears.

    There have been a few developments. For one, the case was turned over to the Florida state district attorney's office for further investigation. Hopefully the state D.A. can find that same probable cause that seemed to elude the Sanford P.D. for the past two-and-a-half weeks. The family of Trayvon Martin is pushing for the FBI to intervene in the case.

    Another development is the release of the 911 tapes, the first featuring the call made by George Zimmerman himself and the second made by a nearby resident. The second tape has Martin screaming "Help me," essentially begging for his life before you hear Zimmerman pull the trigger. Unfortunately, I can't embed those videos, so they're in the links below.

    You might not want to listen to the second 911 tape. To say it's unsettling is a major understatement.

    First video (audio only): Zimmerman calls 911.
    Second video (audio only): Resident calls 911, Trayvon in background, shot fired.

    In the second video, you can hear two shots fired: one shot near the beginning of the call and a second, louder shot towards the end. That pretty much blows Zimmerman's self-defense claims to shit. This child was murdered.

    So now we need the murder weapon and the shell cases from said weapon to bring it all home, right? A commentator over at the Atlantic asked a very important question in regards to that:

    I want to know if they bothered to collect shell casings, or even keep his gun, since he was released. This recording is the first reporting of two shots fired.

    It's something myself and others want to know. If they didn't, it shows the Sanford P.D. didn't just do a extraordinarily sloppy job of locating and securing evidence -- they completely abrogated their duties as sworn law enforcement officers. And it is something that will make any case brought against Zimmerman that much harder to prosecute.

    The entire police department deserves a federal foot shoved up its ass, but chances are the GOP will use any moves made by the DOJ on Eric Holder's watch to bitch about government somehow "overstepping its bounds" or claim Holder's involvement somehow equals racial solidarity. You know, because he's black, Trayvon's black and you know how those darkies black people love sticking up for one another.

    Meanwhile, it seems like gunning down young black men is no big deal for police and other persons of authority in Sanford, Florida:

    In 2005, two white security guards shot and killed Travares McGill, one of them was the son of a Sanford Police officer. The shooting drove city race relations to a modern low, according to some black residents.

    Security guards Patrick Swofford and Bryan Ansley saw Travares dropping off friends in the parking lot of the apartment complex they were hired to guard, according to published reports.

    The two claimed Travares tried to run them down and both fired their weapons at him, they later would claim self-defense.

    Travares was pronounced dead at the scene. Swofford was a police department volunteer and Ansley is the son of a former veteran of the force.

    The pair were arrested and charged, Swofford with manslaughter and Ansley with firing into an occupied vehicle. But a judge later cited lack of evidence and dismissed both cases.

    According to autopsy reports, Travares suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the back, and it was unclear if the pair was in danger.

    Suffice to say, some people are worried that Trayvon's death and Zimmerman's non-prosecution will wind up setting off something ugly in this turmoil-stricken town.  That "something ugly" might just be right around the corner:

    The New Black Liberation Militia, a self-styled black survival group, has announced that it plans to make a citizens arrest of Zimmerman next week, the Associated Press reported.

    It quoted Najee Muhammad, a group leader, saying, "We'll find him. We've got his mug shot and everything."

    Natalie Jackson, a lawyer for the Martin family, said she does not support the threat, but also cannot control them.

    "There are people out there with their own agendas," Jackson said. "It's nothing we condone."

    Zimmerman has moved out of his Sanford home because of death threats, according to his father, Robert Zimmerman.

    If these people get a hold of Zimmerman, there is no guarantee he'll live through the experience. If Zimmerman turns up dead by another man's hand at this point...

    This case has some similarities to that of Easton "DJ" Henry, a young college student who was shot and killed by a Pleasantville, N.Y. police officer who claimed Henry tried to run him over with his vehicle. Henry's family and friends maintain he was moving out of a fire lane when he was murdered:

    A passenger inside “DJ” Henry’s vehicle told New York authorities he thought a police officer wanted Henry to move the car he was driving by tapping the driver’s side window with a flashlight seconds before Henry was fatally shot by police in October 2010.

    Desmond Hinds, 21, a Pace University football player, told police in Mount Pleasant, N.Y., that Henry, the driver, then pulled around the bend “going at a decent speed.”

    Hinds said he looked down briefly, and when he looked up, he saw a person in front of the car “with his hands up together.”

    “And then I saw two to three holes in the windshield,” Hinds told police.

    Trigger-happy cops and young black males who are perceived as "threats," no matter how they look. Trayvon Martin was not the dark, hulking, physically superior but mentally challenged "Supernigger" that exists in the minds of FReepers and the unreconstructed among us. He was a harmless high school student who was just walking from the store with a pack of Skittles and a Arizona Ice Tea in hand.

    Speaking of trigger-happy, a critical component in this entire case is Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, passed in 2005. This provision eliminates the "duty to retreat" clause that is included in most self-defense statutes. It's also how Zimmerman managed to walk away a free man shortly after killing Martin:

    A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

    Given how certain segments of the population feel about other particular segments, this results in cases where one person could perceive as a threat someone who comes from a group that is perceived as a threat as a whole and given such, act in a manner that leads to the death of said person under the guise of the other acting in "self-defense." A person's perception of what constitutes a "threat" can be tainted by racism or personal prejudices. What appears to be an innocent young man can be perceived by someone indoctrinated to view that young man and others like him in a entirely negative manner as a "threat." I doubt a white teenager in a hoodie would have solicited the same sort of reaction that seeing Trayvon Martin had on George Zimmerman.

    Many people have called for Zimmerman's death and I'll admit, I was in that camp, too. Now that I've sat back and cleared the unbridled anger I had over this tragedy, I'd rather see Zimmerman made to account for his actions via trial, where he can then be convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his natural life either in an isolated jail cell or on Death Row. Killing Zimmerman will set off a horrific wave of anger, violence and ill-will the likes no one's seen. Letting Zimmerman walk will do the same thing, except it'll prove once and for all that it's Open Season on young black males and any other group the unreconstructed and Teabagging faux-patriots deem "hostile" or "undesirable" or a "threat."
  • Imagine you live in a gated community where you pay top dollar to a homeowner's association to insure a safe environment. Imagine sending your son to the store to get some candy and a drink. Imagine your son being followed, then confronted by a man who claims he has no business being in the neighborhood. Imagine the confusion on your son's face as he's told he doesn't belong in the neighborhood where his father calls home. Imagine the man attempting to "detain" your son. He fights back, breaking the man's nose and pushing him down to the ground. The man retaliates by pulling a gun. He fires.

    Now, imagine your son lying there in a pool of his own blood, only feet away from your home. Imagine this same man claiming self-defense, despite ignoring warnings from the emergency dispatcher to not follow and confront your son.

    Imagine this man being let free, simply because he "cooperated." Your son is dead, and the man who killed him was let free.

    Put your son in the shoes of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a clean-cut kid with nary a disciplinary record and a bright future ahead of him, at least until that future was terminated by the likes of George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain. Put yourself in the shoes of Trayvon's parents, who now have to fight for Zimmerman's prosecution for their son's death and hope that the media doesn't get bored with the story, consigning this travesty to relative obscurity.

    Put yourself in the shoes of Trayvon's closest friends and relatives, who now have to contend with the loss of someone very special to their hearts. Imagine you're one of his teachers, one of his mentors, his closest friend.

    Put yourself in the shoes of a young black male who has to worry about whether he'll lose his life by merely being a random object of some white or "hispanic" man's aggression. Imagine having to deal with yet another way for an innocent black American to lose his or her life in a country that can't seem to keep its shit together when it comes to ethnic matters.

    But whatever you do, don't put yourself in the shoes of George Zimmerman, a reprobate who is more than likely being protected by the Sanford Police Department. Zimmerman was charged in 2005 for resisting arrest with violence and battery on a police officer, but those charges were dropped. He was aiming for a degree in Criminal Justice, with the possibility of becoming a cop. He wasn't a cop yet, but he sure attempted to play the part. And now a young promising man is dead because, in his words, “these assholes always get away” and he didn't want this one "getting away." He's currently in hiding, for fear of vigilante justice doing what the justice system seems reluctant to do.

    Imagine having your son's death seen as no big deal, because he was more than likely a budding criminal who would have struck at some point. After all, he probably had it coming. "They" all do, according to those "enlightened" minds.

    Finally, imagine you're Trayvon, just after you've been shot, wondering if your little brother's gonna be okay with not being able to bring him his favorite candy.
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