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Murder and Hate Crime Charges Filed in Tulsa Shootings of Black Men by Hazel Trice Edney

April 16, 2012

Murder and Hate Crime Charges Filed in Tulsa Shootings of Black Men

By Hazel Trice Edney

england-watts

Jake England and Alvin Watts

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Murder and hate crime charges have been filed against the two Tulsa, Okla. men arrested on Easter Sunday for the random shootings of five Black men on Good Friday.

Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 33, both White, have confessed to the shootings, which killed three of the men, Dannaer Fields, 49, Bobby Clark, 54 and William Allen, 31. Wounded were Deon Tucker, 44, and David Hall, 46.

Though the two men have confessed to the shootings, they pled not-guilty to the charges. England had used the N-Word toward Blacks on his Facebook page shortly before the shootings, noting that his father was shot and killed by a Black man two years ago.

The suspects are being held on more than $9 million bond. The men could get the death penalty on the murder charges. Oklahoma’s hate crime charge carries only a one-year sentence and $1,000 fine. Federal hate crime charges have not yet been filed.

The quick arrests within 36 hours of the shootings are being applauded by civil rights leaders. Rev. Jesse Jackson traveled to Tulsa last week to assure the maximum charges amidst uneasiness. Tulsa was the site of the worst race riot in history in 1921. More than 300 Blacks were killed and more than 1,000 of their homes and business on “Black Wall Street” were burned by Whites after an uprising over what was a lie. After a Black man mistakenly stepped on the foot of a White female elevator operator, the false rumor spread that he had raped her.

There has been no connection made between England, Watts and the memory of those riots. But, memories of the incident quickly rose in the aftermath of the shootings.

"We are glad that the Prosecutors in Tulsa, Oklahoma have filed first-degree murder and hate crime charges against the two suspects in the Oklahoma shootings. I was scheduled to be in Tulsa this weekend but now feel that I can be more useful to the families of the victims to remain at my national convention and raise money for them,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement. “I will conduct my national radio broadcast from my national convention Sunday and will kick off the drive with $3000 from National Action Network, $1000 for each family of the three deceased victims. I am available to come to visit at the family’s request at a later date."

Trayvon's Killer Arrested After 45 Days, National Protests

Trayvon’s Killer Arrested After 45 Days, National Protests

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

trayvoninhood

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A special prosecutor in Florida announced Wednesday she had charged Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman with second-degree murder in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.

The decision followed weeks of demands from Trayvon’s family and their supporters around the country for justice
for the slain 17-year-old.

Zimmerman was in custody in the Seminole County Jail in Florida, special prosecutor Angela B. Corey said. He had earlier surrendered to authorities, she said.

“I can tell you we did not come to this decision lightly,” Corey told media at a news conference. “Let me emphasize that we do not prosecute by public pressure or by petition,” she continued. “We prosecute based on the facts of any given case as well as the laws of the state of Florida.”

Trayvon’s mother gave praise after hearing the news. “Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. We simply wanted an arrest,” said Sybrina Fulton, still grieving. “We wanted nothing more, nothing less. We just wanted an arrest, and we got it.” Fulton and Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, spoke Wednesday at a Washington news conference in reaction to the arrest of their son’s killer.

Corey’s decision came 45 days after the fatal shooting in a quiet gated community in the central Florida town of Sanford, located near Orlando. Sanford police and the county prosecutor had declined to charge Mr. Zimmerman based on his account of self-defense, setting off civil rights demonstrations
across the country.

More than 2 million people signed an online petition calling for Zimmerman’s arrest, and in Richmond and other cities there were vigils and protests against Sanford Police inaction in numbers reminiscent of the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s.

Civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, members of Congress, celebrities and outraged people descended on Central Florida to call for action. Rev. Sharpton warned that the lakeside city of 53,000 was on the verge ofbecoming the Birmingham or Selma of the 21st century.

The firestorm of protest prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to launch a probe. The outcry also forced Sanford’s police chief to step aside and the prosecutor for the county to remove himself from the case, leading to Corey’s appointment by Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

The decision on whether to charge Zimmerman rested with Ms. Corey since she was handed the case March 22. By seeking second-degree murder rather than a lesser charge, such as manslaughter, Ms. Corey reaffirmed her reputation as a prosecutor who will seek to bring the most serious charge possible. If convicted, Mr. Zimmerman would face a prison sentence of 25 years to life.

Zimmerman claimed he acted in self-defense in shooting Trayvon during a confrontation with the teen Feb. 26. A big, hefty man who weighs more 200 pounds, Zimmerman claimed he fired in desperation at the smaller, 150-pound
teen after Travyon attacked him, broke his nose, knocked him down and was pounding his head on the pavement, Sanford police said.

However, photos of Zimmerman have shown no indication of or treatment for a broken nose. Before the confrontation happened, Trayvon was talking to his girlfriend on a cell phone while walking back to his father’s girlfriend’s home in the gated community after buying iced tea and a bag of Skittles for his little brother.

Zimmerman saw the teen and described him as “suspicious” after calling police because Trayvon was wearing a hooded sweatshirt. The confrontation happened 70 yards from Trayvon’s destination and apparently began when Mr. Zimmerman went after Trayvon after a police dispatcher advised him not to do so.

As the basis for their refusal to arrest Mr. Zimmerman, Sanford Police cited Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows people to use deadly force when they believe they are in danger of being killed or suffering great bodily harm. The law also provides immunity for such individuals from arrest or civil suit.

The shooting received scant media attention at first, but Trayvon’s parents and their lawyer, Benjamin Crump, kept making public calls for Zimmerman’s arrest. That eventually led to a media frenzy and an Internet explosion of concern about the case. Even President Obama commented on the case, saying: “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.”

The disputed facts surrounding the shooting have been picked apart endlessly by television commentators while dominating the headlines and reigniting a discussion about guns, self-defense laws and what it means to be
black in America.

Zimmerman’s relatives and supporters have insisted he is not racist and has been unfairly vilified. They said he feared for his life during his altercation with Trayvon, despite having a size advantage.

Thirteen Ways Government Tracks Us by Bill Quigley

April 16, 2012

New Analysis

Thirteen Ways Government Tracks Us

By Bill Quigley

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Privacy is eroding fast as technology offers government increasing ways to track and spy on citizens. The Washington Post reported there are 3,984 federal, state and local organizations working on domestic counterterrorism. Most collect information on people in the US. Here are thirteen examples of how some of the biggest government agencies and programs track people.

One. The National Security Agency (NSA) collects hundreds of millions of emails, texts and phone calls every day and has the ability to collect and sift through billions more. WIRED just reported NSA is building an immense new data center which will intercept, analyze and store even more electronic communications from satellites and cables across the nation and the world. Though NSA is not supposed to focus on US citizens, it does.

Two. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) has more than 1.5 billion government and private sector records about US citizens collected from commercial databases, government information, and criminal probes.

Three. The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Times recently reported that cellphones of private individuals in the US are being tracked without warrants by state and local law enforcement all across the country. With more than 300 million cellphones in the US connected to more than 200,000 cell phone towers, cellphone tracking software can pinpoint the location of a phone and document the places the cellphone user visits over the course of a day, week, month or longer.

Four. More than 62 million people in the US have their fingerprints on file with the FBI, state and local governments. This system, called the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), shares information with 43 states and 5 federal agencies. This system conducts more than 168,000 checks each day.

Five. Over 126 million people have their fingerprints, photographs and biographical information accessible on the US Department of Homeland Security Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT). This system conducts about 250,000 biometric transactions each day. The goal of this system is to provide information for national security, law enforcement, immigration, intelligence and other Homeland Security Functions.

Six. More than 110 million people have their visas and more than 90 million have their photographs entered into the US Department of State Consular Consolidated Database (CCD). This system grows by adding about 35,000 people a day. This system serves as a gateway to the Department of State Facial Recognition system, IDENT and IAFSIS.

Seven. DNA profiles on more than 10 million people are available in the FBI coordinated Combined DNA index System (CODIS) National DNA Index.

Eight. Information on more than 2 million people is kept in the Intelligence Community Security Clearance Repository, commonly known as Scattered Castles. Most of the people in this database are employees of the Department of Defense (DOD) and other intelligence agencies.

Nine. The DOD also has an automated biometric identification system (ABIS) to support military operations overseas. This database incorporates fingerprint, palm print, face and iris matching on 6 million people and is adding 20,000 more people each day.

Ten. Information on over 740,000 people is included in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) of the National Counterterrorism Center. TIDE is the US government central repository of information on international terrorist identities. The government says that less than 2 percent of the people on file are US citizens or legal permanent residents. They were just given permission to keep their non-terrorism information on US citizens for a period of five years, up from 180 days.

Eleven. Tens of thousands of people are subjects of facial recognition software. The FBI has been working with North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles and other state and local law enforcement on facial recognition software in a project called “Face Mask.” For example, the FBI has provided thousands of photos and names to the North Carolina DMV which runs those against their photos of North Carolina drivers. The Maricopa Arizona County Sheriff’s Office alone records 9,000 biometric mug shots a month.

Twelve. The FBI operates the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (SAR) that collects and analyzes observations or reports of suspicious activities by local law enforcement. With over 160,000 suspicious activity files, SAR stores the profiles of tens of thousands of Americans and legal residents who are not accused of any crime but who are alleged to have acted suspiciously.

Thirteen. The FBI admits it has about 3,000 GPS tracking devices on cars of unsuspecting people in the US right now, even after the US Supreme Court decision authorizing these only after a warrant for probable cause has been issued.

The Future

The technology for tracking and identifying people is exploding as is the government appetite for it.

Soon, police everywhere will be equipped with handheld devices to collect fingerprint, face, iris and even DNA information on the spot and have it instantly sent to national databases for comparison and storage.

Bloomberg News reports the newest surveillance products “can also secretly activate laptop webcams or microphones on mobile devices,” change the contents of written emails mid-transmission, and use voice recognition to scan phone networks.

The advanced technology of the war on terrorism, combined with deferential courts and legislators, have endangered both the right to privacy and the right of people to be free from government snooping and tracking. Only the people can stop this.

Bill teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans and works with the Center for Constitutional Rights. A longer version of this article with sources is available. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Black Empowerment Movement Registers Thousands of New Voters by Zenitha Prince

Black Empowerment Movement Registers Thousands of New Voters

By Zenitha Prince

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper

jamal-harrison bryant

Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The ranks of the nation’s voters grew by 100,000 Black voters Easter Sunday, part of a
campaign spearheaded by Black clergy across the nation.

The Empowerment Movement, a coalition of Black ministers from a range of Black faith groups, was created to advance the power of the African-American community in politics, education and economics using
Christian principles as a foundation.

Led by Rev. Jamal Bryant, founder and pastor of the Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, Md., the group challenged Empowerment Movement officials estimate of 500,000 Black churches in the U.S., to register at least 20 persons with the goal of securing 1 million registrants in total.

“This is going to be a critical election,” Bryant told NewsOne in a video posted on the group’s website, “We’re
dealing with foreclosures, dealing with bankruptcies, dealing with healthcare....And we obviously see that our president has an agenda but he needs some people that can back him up.”

That support, according to Bryant and others, can come from the estimated 5 million unregistered voters in
churches nationwide. Voter participation advocates want to repeat 2008’s surge in voter registration and turnout that made a difference in the election.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s November 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration Supplement, 146 million people were registered to vote in 2008, an increase of approximately 4 million people since 2004. Census figures show 69.7 percent of Blacks who are eligible are registered to vote while the registration rate is 73.5 percent for non-Hispanic Whites.

On the downside, however, 2.9 million eligible African Americans did not register to vote. Among the chief reasons: not interested in politics (33.7 percent), missed registration deadlines (17.7 percent) and ineligibility (14 percent).

The Easter Sunday voter registration initiative was the latest effort of the Empowerment Movement. Bryant and the
group most recently led a march of over 8,000 protesters in Sanford, Fla., in the wake of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

Terror in Tulsa: Two Whites Arrested in Shootings of Black Males by Hazel Trice Edney

Terror in Tulsa: Two Whites Arrested in Shootings of Black Males

By Hazel Trice Edney

england-watts

Jacob England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, were arrested in the shooting of five Black men over the weekend.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – The Tulsa, Oklahoma Police Department has quickly arrested two White men as suspects in the apparently random shootings of five Black men out walking.

Three were killed and two survived the shootings, which occurred at four different locations over four hours starting around 1 a.m. Friday.

Initially, witnesses described a lone White man driving a White pickup truck as the suspect. Police announced Sunday that they had arrested two White males.

Jacob England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, were charged with three counts of murder and shooting with an attempt to kill. They were set for arraignment on Monday. The pickup truck was discovered burned near a house where the two men were found hiding early Sunday.

Police say it’s too early to attribute race as a motive, but a posting on England’s Facebook page, shown by CNN, said, “Today is two years that my dad has been gone, shot by a f----ing n----r. it’s hard not to go off between that and sheran I’m gone in the head.”

Though police continue to investigate, speculation is that the possible motive was that England’s father was shot and killed two years ago during an alleged burglary by a Black man who was never prosecuted. England’s girlfriend, named Sheran, reportedly shot and killed herself in front of him and their baby in January.

Police and city officials issued widespread pleas for information from witnesses. Officials credit numerous tips with the quick arrest. As the investigation developed, they expressed fear that some in the Black community might become vigilantes.

“We feel like he’s targeting African-Americans,” said the Rev. Warren Blakney, Sr., president of the Tulsa NAACP. “We have to handle this because there are a number of African-American males who are not going to allow this to happen in their neighborhood.”

The FBI has joined the investigation to determine whether the shootings are in fact hate crimes.

The three who died are Dannaer Fields, 49, found with gunshot wounds in a yard about 1 a.m.; Bobby Clark, 54, found an hour later shot in a street; and William Allen, 31, was found shot to death in a funeral home yard around 8:30 a.m. The two surviving men were found with gunshot wounds in a yard two blocks from where Fields’ body was found.

One of the two survivors said the truck pulled up and someone inside asked the men for directions before firing the gun when they walked away.

“This is an event that is unprecedented in our recent history, and it is certainly one that ... we want to bring to an end very quickly,” said Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett in an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon.

The shootings easily sparked recollections of the historic 1921 race riots in Tulsa, described as the bloodiest in U. S. history. Despite what some describe as racial harmony in the city 91 years later, the facts of that incident remain just under the surface since African-Americans never fully received justice.

In that situation, Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old African-American accidentally stepped on the foot of Sarah Page, a White elevator operator in a downtown Tulsa office building, who in turn tried to hit Rowland with her purse and he quickly fled. The incident quickly spread into a rumor; then a lie that Rowland had raped the woman.

More than 400 Whites gathered at the county jail intending to lynch the Black teen. Meanwhile, two waves of armed Blacks showed up at the jail, offering to help protect the prisoner. The second wave of Blacks, like the first, was told their services were not needed. As they began to depart, a White man, possibly a deputy, attempted to disarm one of the African-Americans and a shot was fired. Other shots followed, leaving more than a dozen dead.

Within hours, mobs of Whites converged upon the Black residents of Tulsa’s Greenwood Avenue district, a 40-block showcase of Black businesses and homes, known as the Black Wall Street. The governor activated the Oklahoma National Guard and two companies of soldiers from nearby Fort Sill were called to duty.

Machine guns were used to shoot any Black person in sight; airplanes dropped nitroglycerin on the neighborhood. When it was over 16 hours later, at least 300 Blacks were dead, 1,503 residences had been destroyed and more than 600 businesses had been closed, including two Black newspapers, the Tulsa Star and the Oklahoma Sun.

Now, more than nine decades later, victims never got justice. A 2005 Supreme Court ruling said the statute of limitation to file claims in the case had expired.

The shootings also come amidst heated racial tensions around the nation in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida.

Some see the weekend shootings as revenge killings for the death of England’s father. But, to shoot innocent men because they are the same race as an alleged killer is still categorized as racially motivated; therefore a hate crime. Nevertheless, Police Chief Chuck Jordan will not jump to any conclusions.

“It sickens me. It angers me. This is not what Tulsa, Oklahoma is all about,” Jordan told reporters Sunday afternoon. “You can look at the facts of the case and appear to come up with a logical theory, but we’re going to follow the leads where they take us…We’re going to explore any possible motives.”

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