Aug. 3, 2015

Remembering Hurricane Katrina: Panel Discusses Mental Health and Race in N.O. 
By Michael Patrick Welch

Jarvis DeBerry

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Louisiana Weekly

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Times-Picayune columnist Jarvis DeBerry told the dozens assembled at the New Orleans Jazz Market in Central City the story of Alfred Postell, picked up for homelessness in Washington D.C. and charged with sleeping outside a building. Postell wished to defend himself in court, having graduated from Harvard Law school in 1978—alongside Supreme Court Justice John Roberts. “Even with all his intelligence,” DeBerry came to his point, “he ended up on the streets in a very desperate situation.”

In honor of national Minority Mental Health Month, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) hosted this panel regarding mental health and race in New Orleans. Led by DeBerry, the discussion, titled Minorities Use Mental Health Services Much Less than White Counterparts with Disastrous Consequences, also featured Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell, forensic psychiatrist and New Orleans Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Rouse, retired Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Calvin Johnson, NAMI board member and licensed professional counselor Chantrelle Varnado-Johnson, plus Charlotte Parent, director of health for the City of New Orleans, and Lisa Romback, NAMI’s local executive director.

Deberry began with a broad question: “What’s the difference between a white person and a person of color receiving treatment?” According to the NAMI, 40 percent of Whites will seek mental health services, down 15 percent for African-Americans and Latinos to about 25 percent, and even less for Asians. Because, NAMI claims, homelessness, family trauma, crime, and addiction all have roots in untreated mental health issues, New Orleans in particular would benefit from focusing on mental health.

Dr. Rouse, who ran the mental health division of the coroner’s office following Hurricane Katrina, explained that he and his office exist partly to help people get mental health aid. “One thing unique to NOLA: the coroners are also the goalies so to speak, the last ditch effort in someone not hurting themselves or others through substance abuse and mental illness,” Rouse explained. “It’s always better to want to get help…but some people don’t want the treatment…so as a last ditch effort a person can call the coroners office at 2 a.m. on Saturday morning or whatever, and we can start walking that person through the process of getting someone involuntarily committed.” Though extreme sounding, an order of protective custody, as it’s called, protects those with mental health issues from being labeled criminals, says Dr. Rouse: “An OPC is not a criminal charge and doesn’t go on a person’s record. It’s to get people into the treatment system so they don’t end up in jail…or in the back of my office. It’s kind of like an order to the police department so they pick the person up and take them to the hospital, not arrest them.”

The panel acknowledged that mental health issues are often exacerbated here in the world’s incarceration capitol, where police seemingly look for any excuse to throw a Black man in jail. “Why did they bring [the mentally ill] to jail?” asked Judge Johnson, who created the state’s first mental health treatment court. “We have no other place to take them—while other urban areas do. A mentally ill person will stay in jail longer and have a worse outcome than [an actual criminal] charged with the same thing. Mental illness makes everything more difficult.”

Dr. Rouse explained that since the NOPD’s federally mandated consent decree came down, new police recruits have been mandated specific crisis intervention training teaching regarding how to treat the mentally ill. “Once they are trained, it does help to decrease the number of individuals that go to jail. The challenge is to get the officers who are already on the force the training,” said Dr. Rouse, who claims he has been seeing a difference. “I am going to say a cautious yes. I think the police have made strides toward professionalism. I believe the problem is being tackled from all the angles it needs to be… Though we are not there yet.”

Charlotte Parent, the director of health for the City of New Orleans talked about the role of the city’s health department as the recent facilitators via the Behavioral Health Council. Parent told the audience, “The New Orleans Mental Health Dashboard gives monthly updates on what we have available, what mental health services are being utilized, and other trends: Are there increases in calls to police? Enough services for children? While we don’t provide direct care, what can we do to let people know what’s out there?” Parent alerted the audience to the city’s “Family Guide” resource (for families with nowhere to turn), the CAP Community Assistance Program (which helps divert those who’ve been arrested into the mental health system, and helps get their charges dropped).

Almost every panelist brought up the problem of getting the word out. It seems letting people know what mental health options are available and how to navigate them is as big of a problem as not having enough options. Most folks don’t know what is accessible or how they would pay for it.

The panel eventually took questions from the likes of Andrea Adams, director of nursing at Charity Hospital for 15 years, in charge of reestablishing mental health services at St. Paul hospital. Adams’ husband, an attorney, was killed on the streets. Her daughter’s boyfriend died in her daughter’s arms during a drive-by. “Had it not been for my knowledge of the mental health system and connections we would have never made it through,” Adams admitted. Idella Johnson, producer of the play “Riding Haley’s Comet” and sibling of a murder victim, wondered aloud about the families of murder victims. Janet Hayes of Healing Minds NOLA mentioned StepUp?Together.com, “Because lack of facilities has made mental health a criminal justice problem.”

Aug. 3, 2015

Blackonomics

Requiem for Sandra
By James Clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Sandra Bland is dead. While many are concentrating on “how” she died, we must also face the reality of “why” she died.  All of the circumstances surrounding her death notwithstanding, Sandra is still dead.  I cannot help but think that along the three-day period from her arrest to her final moments in that lonely and frightening jail cell, there were opportunities to rescue her from such a horrible experience and tragic end.

This is not a rehash of all the conversations, utterances, conjecture, and theories put forth after Sandra died.  Rather, this is a simple critique of what we all saw on video and heard from Sandra herself when she called someone to let them know her current status having received a $5,000.00 bond.  To say the least, she was totally frustrated by entire situation.

Why Sandra Bland died is also obviously connected to who played a role in her death, whether directly or indirectly.  Where were the intervention points by which Sandra’s three-days of horror could have been stopped?  Was there any way, leading up to her demise, for her to have survived?

She should have never been arrested in the first place, but after she was, what could have been done?  My initial inquiry would be directed toward the person who shot the cellphone video, the one to whom the cop said, “You need to leave.”  The bystander replied, “Is this public property?”   That person obviously had enough backbone to refuse to leave and even question the officer’s order; but did he make any attempt to see what happened to Sandra after she was taken away thanking him for recording the incident?

In such a small town, where I am sure the news of Sandra’s arrest got around pretty fast, I wonder if anyone at her new employer, Prairie View A&M University, knew about the incident on the day it took place.  If someone did know, did they follow up to check on Sandra and make an effort to help her?

Surely there are a couple of Black lawyers in Prairie View as well.   I am not a lawyer, but I know there is something called "habeas corpus," which directs a person, usually a prison warden or jailer, to produce the prisoner and justify the prisoner's detention. If the prisoner argues successfully that the incarceration is in violation of a constitutional right, the court may order the prisoner's release.  Am I misinformed about that legality?

Finally, there was the $5,000.00 bond, which called for ten percent to be paid—a measly $500.00—for Sandra to be released.  Does anyone believe that $500.00 was such an enormous amount of money that Black folks in Prairie View could not raise it to pay her bond?  Even the full $5,000.00 could have been put up by a group of people until Sandra’s family was able to send it or bring it to the court.  Now we have to live with the fact that a major reason this young lady died is the lack of $500.00!  Surely her life was worth far more than that.

To have allowed her to stay in a cell for three days with no one checking on her from the outside, no one pursuing legal avenues to see and speak to her, no one willing to put up the miniscule bond for her release is embarrassing, irresponsible, and unconscionable.

We let Sandra down by failing to rescue her.  Every photo I found of her contained a beautifully brilliant smile.  The only ones in which she is not smiling were taken after she was arrested.  We helped take her smile away.

Since mid-July 2015, according to an article written by April V. Taylor on Kulture Kritic, five Black women have died in police custody.  They should not be treated as mere conversational fodder for talk/news shows.  We have a responsibility to be more proactive when these issues arise and not wait for our brothers and sisters to lose their lives before we act appropriately.

We may not like it and we may not agree with it, but Black folks are part of the “why” Sandra Bland met her demise.  There are practical things that could and should have been done, not only by Black folks but by anyone interested in the fate of that young woman.  We must admit that, learn from it, and act before other tragedies occur.

Now that Sandra Bland is dead, many are wringing their hands and saying, yet again, how outrageous this is, how they are fed up, how this must stop, and how things must change. A lot of good that's doing for Sandra Bland now. We are always late when it comes to dealing with these kinds of issues.  In this case we were three days late and one sister's life short.

Aug. 3, 2015

Prosecutor Says Officer 'Purposely Killed' Black Motorist

Samuel DuBose

Officer Ray Tensing

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “He purposely killed him.”

That’s how an Ohio prosecutor described a White police officer’s gruesome actions in gunning down an unarmed African-American motorist he pulled over for not having a front license plate.

“This is without question a murder,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said Wednesday as he announced the indictment of former University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing for the murder of 43-year-old Samuel DuBose during the traffic stop on July 19.

“He wasn’t dealing with someone who was wanted for murder. He was dealing with someone who didn’t have a front license plate,” Mr. Deters said.

The prosecutor called it “a chicken crap stop.”

It’s the latest senseless killing of an unarmed African-American male by a white police officer. The growing number of highly publicized incidents has increased calls across the nation for more effective training of law enforcement officers, for all police to be equipped with body cameras and for nondiscriminatory community policing policies.

Video from the officer’s body camera shows the routine traffic stop suddenly turned violent and deadly when Mr. DuBose leaned toward the passenger seat and the officer fired a single shot into his head. Mr. DuBose did not appear to be belligerent or aggressive before the officer fired.

“I didn’t even do nothing” were Mr. DuBose’s last words before the officer killed him.

“It’s an absolute tragedy that anyone would behave in this manner,” Mr. Deters said of Mr. Tensing. “It was senseless. It’s just horrible.”

The prosecutor said a warrant had been issued for Mr. Tensing, 25, who later on Wednesday turned himself in to authorities as officials announced that he had been terminated from his job. He faces 15 years to life in prison if he’s convicted.

Later on Wednesday, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley vowed to ensure a “just” conclusion to the tragic incident and that an independent review would take place.

Cincinnati’s City Manager Harry Black, a former chief financial officer in Richmond who still serves as rector of Virginia State University, said the city would collaborate with law enforcement to review all evidence in the case and would work “peacefully” with the community to resolve the situation.

The indictment came after 12 Hamilton County citizens reviewed evidence all day Monday as part of a grand jury investigation into the incident, which has put the city on edge and rekindled worries about the sometimes strained relationship between police and African-Americans in Cincinnati.

Tensing claimed he was dragged by DuBose’s car and was forced to shoot him, according to a university police report. The officer said in his radio call to a dispatcher that the car almost ran over him and he fired one shot, striking DuBose in the head.

She said she was confident all along that God would see that justice was done.

“My son did absolutely nothing wrong,” she said at a press conference Wednesday.

The DuBose’s family called for the community to remain peaceful as the case winds through the justice system.

Separately, Sandra Bland was remembered by hundreds of mourners at her funeral last Saturday at DuPage African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lisle, Ill.

Her death made national headlines after authorities said they found the 28-year-old woman hanging by a plastic trash bag in a Waller County, Texas, jail cell July 13, three days after she was arrested during a routine traffic stop by a Texas state trooper that turned confrontational.

Authorities ruled her hanging to be a suicide. Her family said they believe that she was murdered. They said she was about to start a new job at Prairie View A&M University and had no reason to kill herself.

To dispel allegations that Bland was already dead before she was taken to jail and booked, Texas officials released a video on Tuesday they say is of her arriving at the jail and being booked, arraigned and making a series of telephone calls in a holding area.

Deters said that Tensing’s contention that his arm got stuck in the car was “nonsense.”

The officer wasn’t dragged by the car, he said. “He fell backward after he shot (Mr. DuBose) in the head.”

Audrey DuBose, DuBose’s mother, called her son’s killing “wicked” and said it was “murder.”

Aug. 3, 2015

I Am Sandra Bland
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Had I ever met Sandra Bland, I am sure I would have liked her.  She is described as an advocate for justice who had embraced her purpose to fight racism.  She is described as a sister who knew her rights.  She was well educated, assertive, and a resource for her people.  She was dragged out of her car for a traffic lane signal because police officer Brian Encinia chose to abuse his power and violate her rights.  Because he could.

Three days later, Sandra Bland was dead.  The police call her death a suicide.  Her family is disputing the autopsy.  Brian Encinia is responsible for what happened, since there was no reason to arrest Sandra Bland and put her in jail.

Sandra Bland was an “uppity” Black woman who I not kowtow to Mr. Encinia.  Perhaps he preferred a woman who said “yes, sir”, who humbly accepted her ticket.  Certainly, while it was not against the law to take a smoke, he preferred that Sandra put her cigarette out.  Why?  Because he needed to order a woman around who asserted her rights.  Because she knew what her rights were.

Sandra Bland.  The Prairie View A&M University graduate was stopped in Waller County, Texas for failing to signal at a lane change.  She was ordered to put out her cigarette, and she refused to.  She was told to get out of her car, and she had the nerve to assert her rights and to ask why.  Mr. Encinia was clearly exceedingly and outrageously out of order.  His voice escalated to unnecessary shouting as he ordered her out of her car.  He physically grabbed her, threw her on the ground, and shoved his knee in her back so sharply that evidence of bruising was visible in her autopsy three days later. He arrested her with the false charge of assault because she did not acquiesce to his brutality.

Sandra Bland’s You-Tube posts show her as a strong, assertive Black woman who is keenly aware of racial disparities, and committed to social and economic justice.  Former police officer Harry Houck, commenting on this case on CNN, has described her as “arrogant” because she would not put out her cigarette. Houck did not know Sandra Bland, so how did he surmise that she was arrogant?  Isn’t that how some Whites describe Black people when we fail to grovel in the face of their power?

What did Mr. Encinia see when arresting Sandra Bland? Did he, like Houck, see a woman who was not intimidated, a woman who, though not rude, was not “humble”?  Did she scowl when she was stopped?  Probably.   Was she unfriendly or ungracious?  Possibly.  Was she deferential?  Not at all.  But there is no law that says that someone who gets a ticket is supposed to be grateful.  Most folks who get a ticket are annoyed, and have a bit of an attitude.  She did not bow and scrape, or say “yes massa”, so now she is dead, and Encinia is at least partly responsible for her death.

African-American women are often stereotyped as angry Sapphires with chips on their shoulders and a penchant for confrontation.  A Black woman doesn’t have to raise her voice or swivel her neck to be considered angry.  All she has to do is to express herself, or fail to smile.  Perhaps the officer would have preferred a deferential and obedient Sandra Bland.  It didn’t happen. So he retaliated.

I know Sandra Bland, because she is every woman.  She does not conform to the majority culture’s stereotype of what a woman should be.  We, Black women, rarely conform.  As the late Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, President of the National Council of Negro Women, once said, “Black women don’t do what we want to do, we do what we have to do.”  Forty-six percent of African-American families are female-headed.  We do the work.  Black unemployment is higher than White unemployment, and Black wages are lower.   We do the work.  We work harder for less pay than other women.  In the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, we are “sick and tired of being sick and tired”.  Sandra Bland accepted her calling to fight for justice.  Her posts show a woman who would not yield to racism.  She is not dead because she failed to signal when she changed lanes.  She is dead because she knew her rights.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist.  She can be reached via www.juliannemalveaux.com