Tag Archives: civil rights

State news

No smiling allowed in Houston jail

HT_choke_mugshot_as_160610_31x13_1600

What do you see as you examine this picture?

I’ll tell you what I see. I see a man being throttled by someone else, with a second person’s hand at the back of his neck. The picture was taken apparently as the young man, Christopher Johnson, was being booked into the Harris County, Texas, jail on a charge of drunken driving.

It happened on July 29, 2015.

Guess what. Johnson is suing the Harris County Sheriff’s Office for violating his civil rights by choking him. Why were they treating him like that? Johnson’s suit says it was because he was smiling during the mug shot photo session in the county jail.

I saw this story and started laughing. Out loud. OK, I know it’s not funny. But still …

http://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-man-choked-smiling-mugshot/story?id=

I honestly don’t know what is the more ridiculous element of the story: that he was smiling in the first place after being thrown into the slammer or that corrections officers allegedly thought it was OK to choke the fellow.

According to ABC News: “While posing for what he says were approximatelyĀ 10 photographs, Johnson claims he was choked by the two Harris County employees for approximately 30 seconds, the lawsuit states. ‘This is how I always take my pictures,’ Johnson said to the booking officer, according to the lawsuit.”

Always? Even when you’re being arrested for driving a motor vehicle while drunk?

I won’t go there. Maybe he thought it was funny. Then again, some of us act strangely when we’re under the influence of intoxicants.

As for the merits of the complaint, I won’t pass judgment on that, either. There might have been another reason why the employees felt the need to put their hands on the guy’s throat. He might have been resisting them, which, quite naturally, the lawsuit won’t ever reveal.

If what Johnson’s suit alleges is true, then I’ll just say: “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

national news

Baltimore becomes new face of urban insanity

Now it’s Baltimore’s turn in infamy’s spotlight.

A young man, Freddie Gray, died in police custody after suffering a severed spine. He wasĀ African-American.

Two weeks later, while the young man was saying good bye to him at his funeral, Baltimore erupted.

Thugs tore into innocent bystanders. Police were assaulted, some of them were injured seriously. Property has been damaged and destroyed.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/baltimore-devolves-into-chaos-violence-looting/ar-BBiKXpR

This is how one responds to tragedy? This is how you seek to make political allies to whatever cause you seek to promote?

The nation is witnessing a shameful act of willful destruction.

The violence and destruction defies my understanding of what goes through people’s minds at times like this.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said this: ā€œToo many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who, in a very senseless way, are trying to tear down what so many have fought for, tearing down businesses, tearing down or destroying property. Itā€™s idiotic to think that by destroying your city, youā€™re going to make life better for anybody.ā€

How, then, do you deal with idiocy?

national news

Now it's Freddie Gray

The roster of African-American men whose death involving police activity keeps growing.

When does it stop? How do communities learn to deal with these crises? Have we reached a tipping point?

The latest man to die in police custody is a young fellow, Freddie Gray, whose spine was snapped while he was being held by Baltimore police.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/justice-freddie-gray-185610991.html

And the outrage has begun. As it should.

How does someone get their spine broken by police? What in the world is happening when these officers arrest someone?

* Eric Garner was choked to death by a Staten Island police officer. A grand jury decided to no-bill the officer.

* Michael Brown was shot to death by a Ferguson, Mo., officer. A grand jury there decided against an indictment.

* Trayvon Martin was killed by a neighborhood security officer, who then was acquitted of murder in a Sanford, Fla., trial.

* Walter Scott was shot to death in the back as he fled from a North Charleston, S.C., police officer, who’s now been charged with murder.

I am acutely aware that there are circumstances associated with some of these deaths, such as with Michael Brown’s conduct.

Still, we can add Freddie Gray to the list of individuals who’ve died becauseĀ of policeĀ activity. And once again, parents, siblings and spouses ofĀ African-American menĀ are going to express alarm that more men just like those who have died already will become victims of similar actions by police officers in their communities.

We’ve heard already about the need for a “national conversation” about police relations with African-American communities across the country.

Let’s keep having that conversation. Shall we?

 

national news

Yes, the 'world is watching'

The picture in the link attached to this blog post speaks volumes about modern life.

“The Whole World is Watching.”

So says the crude sign accompanying a New York Times editorial commenting on the shooting death of Walter Scott by former North Charleston, S.C., police officer Michael Slager.

This tragedy is going to stay with us for a long while.

Scott was black. Slager is white. Scott was running away from Slager when the officer fired eight rounds from his revolver, hitting Scott in the back. Scott was unarmed and he apparently died where he fell.

Slager has been charged with murder and was fired from his job.

And through it all, a young man with a camera in his smart phone captured it for the world to see.

There can be no way in the world that Slager will lie his way out of this one. He said something immediately afterward about fearing for his life. He feared an unarmed man who was running away from him? Yep. That’s what he said.

The Times commented: “The case underscores two problems that have become increasingly clear since the civic discord that erupted last year after the police killed black citizens in New York, Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo. The first, most pressing problem is that poorly trained and poorly supervised officers often use deadly force unnecessarily, particularly against minority citizens. The second is that the police get away with unjustly maiming or killing people by lying about the circumstances that prompted them to use force.”

There ought to be some serious heart-to-heart talks in police squad rooms all across the nation in the days and weeks to come about this incident.

The world is watching our police officers. Every moment of every day they’re on the job.

The latest video of a clear police atrocity needs to be part of police departments’ training regimen.

 

national news

S.C. cop charged with murder

Here we go again.

This one is bad. Very bad. A graphic video shows a North Charleston, S.C., police officer shooting someone in the back — as the victim is sprinting away from the police officer.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder-after-shooting-man-during-traffic-stop/ar-AAayMPl

And yes, the officer is white and the shooting victim is black.

Officer Michael Slager has been charged with murder in the shooting death of Walter Scott.

Scott was unarmed. Slager fired eight shots at Scott.

How does one come to grips with this incident? Slager reportedly toldĀ investigators that he felt threatened by Scott. Threatened? By an unarmed man running away at full speed?

A conviction on a murder charge at the very least is going to send Slager to prison for a very long time.

I won’t convict him here. I just hope this time the case is adjudicated correctly.

 

legal news

Ex-cop won't face federal civil rights charges

I truly don’t know what to think about the Justice Department’s decision against prosecuting a former police officer in the death of a young black man.

Darren Wilson, formerly a Ferguson, Mo., police officer, was no-billed by a local grand jury this past year after he shot Michael Brown to death during an altercation.

The grand jury’s decision to let Wilson go set off a firestorm across the nation.

Then the Justice Department said it would weigh in on whether Wilson violated any federal civil rights laws when he shot Brown to death. The DOJ said today it wouldn’t prosecute him.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/234595-feds-will-not-charge-officer-darren-wilson-in-ferguson-shooting

Is this a good thing? For Wilson, who quit the department after the grand jury cleared him, it’s certainly good news. Brown’s family no doubt feels differently.

Me? I tend to honor the local criminal justice system’s view on these matters. The locals said they lacked sufficient evidence to bring charges against the officer and the feds have concurred with what the locals decided.

But there’s an interesting political back story here. Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder has been criticized — wrongly, in my view — as a “race-baiter.” The calls come from those on the right who contend that Holder, the nation’s first African-American AG, too often relies on race to inform his public policies.

Well, here we have a Justice Department deciding that the white former police officer didn’t commit a crime that needed a federal civil-rights trial to resolve.

Does that mean the criticism of Holder will subside, now that his department — which he is about to leave — hasĀ sided with the white guy?

Do not hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

 

entertainment news, Uncategorized

Alzheimer's research needed a shout out, too

The Oscar ceremony/marathon produced its usual political fare from recipients Sunday night — with which I have no particular problem.

Patricia Arquette spoke out for wage equality for women; John Legend and Common offered a comment on the incarceration rate among African-Americans.

Julianne Moore had a chance to speak out for Alzheimer’s research as she accepted the Best Actress honor for her role in “Still Alice,” a film about a woman suffering from early onset of the disease that robs people of their cognitive skill; it is ultimately fatal, always.

The disease affects millions of Americans. It brings untold agony to patients’ families. I waited for Moore to offer a word about the crisis affecting so many families around the world.

It didn’t come. Too bad. She missed a great opportunity. But hey, that’s all right. Perhaps someone out there will remind her of how important this film role is to many of us who’ve experienced the heartache of Alzheimer’s disease.

I’ll be waiting to hear what she has to say in support of funding for Alzheimer’s research.

national news

What if MLK Jr. had lived?

Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, has written a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. in which he declares that the message of peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience is as relevant today as it was when he preached it way back then.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/mlk-s-words-just-as-relevant-today

On this day when we mark what would have been Dr. King’s 86th birthday, I cannot help but get past this historical tidbit that few — if any — historians ever seem to examine.

How in the name of all that is holy did Martin Luther King Jr. summon the poise to stand before the world as he did at such a young age?

MLK was 39 years of age when James Earl Ray gunned him down in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

Thirty-nine! That’s all.

Yet, it seemed at the time as if he’d been on the national stage forever. At least that’s my memory.

He was 34 when he stood before those hundreds of thousands of spectators on the Washington Mall to deliver the famed “I Have a Dream” speech that energized a generation of young black and white Americans. He would be 36 when he led the march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge at Selma, Ala.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_ZgSK9yIbk

How was this young man able to standĀ often in church pulpits, make appearances on national TV news-talk shows, speak to mass gatherings of supporters, accepted a Nobel Peace Prize and became one of the leading voices of protests against the Vietnam War — all before he turned 40. Where did he acquire that wisdom? Or was he born with it?

He wouldn’t reach that milestone age. There would be no black balloons, gag gifts for his becoming an “old man,” or silly jokes and pranks from his friends and family members.

It’s been said of President Kennedy that his life was one of untapped potential, given that he, too, died at a young age.

I cannot stop thinking on this day what impact Martin Luther King Jr. might haveĀ had onĀ his beloved nation had he been given the chance to reach middle age, let alone grow old.

As Dees points out: “In his speech of March 25, 1965, King spoke of the nation we could become ā€“ a ‘society of justice where none would prey upon the weakness of others; a society of plenty where greed and poverty would be done away; a society of brotherhood where every man would respect the dignity and worth of human personality.’ā€

He was just 36 years of age.

 

Uncategorized

Rove calls Holder a 'hack'

That’s the spirit, Karl Rove.

When Eric Holder, the attorney general of the United States steps down after nearly six years of service to the country, “Bush’s Brain” Rove calls him a “partisan hack.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/eric-holder-resign-karl-rove-react-111345.html?hp=l11

Therein lies a big part of the problem with today’s political debate. You have differences with an administration and then as the nation’s top lawyer steps down you inflame those differences with a statement that is stunning in its lack of self-awareness.

It’s been part and parcel of the right’s reaction to Holder’s impending departure. An editorial in my local newspaper, the Amarillo Globe-News, spent a good deal of space condemning him for various perceived and alleged errors while on the job. It made no mention of his sincere commitment to voting rights for all Americans.

As for Rove, the godfather of partisan hacks everywhere, it galls me to no end that he would hang that label on someone else.

The big picture at times is just too complete and puts too much context on someone’s public service to suit some of us.

Uncategorized

Get out and vote, Ferguson residents

There appears to be a fairly straightforward political solution to the problems that have beset Ferguson, Mo., the suburban community being swallowed up by unrest and violence in the wake of the shooting of a young black man by a white police officer.

The town is roiling with turbulence. Cops are under fire for their gross overreaction to residents’ protests; Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has called out the National Guard; U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is going there to assess whether federal involvement is needed; President Obama is calling for calm; the town is swarming with broadcast and print media representatives, not to mention an assortment of civil-rights activists.

The solution? It’s at the ballot box.

National Public Radio reported this morning a few interesting facts:

Ferguson is roughly 65 percent African-American; its mayor is white; its city council is mostly white; its police force has three African-American officers. Here’s the kicker: The 2013 municipal election produced a 12 percent turnout among African-American voters.

The solution? The city needs to elect qualified African-American residents to positions of power on the city council, who then need to perhaps reshape the city’s law enforcement infrastructure to reflect more accurately the city’s population.

Imagine, then, what might happen to a troubled community if the city’s police force and governing council reflected the backgrounds of the residents whose interests they represent.