Federal Hate Crimes Hit Roof by Frederick H. Lowe

July 27, 2015

Federal Hate Crimes Hit Roof

He pulled out a 45-caliber Glock pistol, loaded with hollow point bullets, and began firing at people reading their Bibles.
By Frederick H. Lowe

Dylann Roof, the alleged killer of nine people in a black church. He now faces federal hate crimes laws.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - White terrorist Dylann Storm Roof, who massacred nine African-American men and women during Bible study at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for hate crimes, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced on Wednesday.

The grand jury returned a 33-count indictment against Roof, charging him with federal hate crimes and firearms charges for killing and attempting to kill black parishioners at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Church on June 17.

South Carolina does not have a hate crimes law. Roof, who confessed to the slaughter, is charged with nine counts of murder in South Carolina.

Roof sat in the Bible study for an hour before pulling out a 45-caliber Glock pistol with eight magazines fully loaded with hollow point bullets. He began firing, killing and wounding parishioners because they were black and because he wanted to interfere with the exercise of their religion, Lynch said.

“The federal indictment returned today charges Roof with nine murders and three attempted murders under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” Lynch said. “This federal hate crimes law prohibits using a dangerous weapon to cause bodily injury, or attempting to do so, on the basis of color. The Shepard Byrd Act was enacted specifically to vindicate the unique harms caused by racially motivated violence.”

Lynch said Roof’s goal was to increase racial tensions nationwide and seek retribution for perceived wrongs he believed African Americans had committed against white people.

He faces either life in prison or death.

Ferguson Hires Black Interim Police Chief by Frederick H. Lowe

July 27, 2015

Ferguson Hires Black Interim Police Chief

By Frederick H. Lowe

Regional Leader of Black law enforcement executives takes the top job

Andre Anderson, Ferguson, Missouri’s interim police chief

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Ferguson, Missouri, the scene of a violent rebellion following the shooting death of unarmed black teenager by one of the St. Louis suburb’s cops, has hired an interim police chief, its second in four months since Thomas Jackson, the city’s long-term chief resigned in March. Lieutenant Al Eickhoff replaced Jackson.

Andre Anderson, who has been with the Glendale, Arizona, police department for 24 years, took a six-month leave of absence from his job to work in Ferguson. He commanded more than 200 police officers and detectives in the Phoenix suburb.

“I am hoping I’m a candidate for the full-time position,” Anderson said during a news conference. Speaking at the news conference, he spelled out his main objectives, which includes building trust with the town’s residents and instituting community policing.

Anderson, who is African-American, also wants to hire qualified candidates who reflect the suburb’s demographics. Ferguson is a majority African-American suburb, but its police department is overwhelmingly white. Photographs of Ferguson cops usually show only one black officer, a woman.

Anderson is Region Six Vice President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, where he led the activities of several chapters.

Things began to change in Ferguson following the shooting death of an unarmed Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, a Ferguson cop, on August 9, 2014. Wilson stopped Brown because he was walking in the middle of the street; a struggle ensued and the 18-year-old Brown was shot to death. His death led to weeks of rebellion.

In August 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated policing in Ferguson and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited the suburb and spoke with residents about policing. Last March, the DOJ released a scathing report about Ferguson’s police department that led to then Chief Jackson’s resignation.

A St. Louis grand jury refused to indict the 28-year-old Wilson for Brown’s death. Wilson later resigned from the Ferguson Police Department.

With that backdrop, Anderson said there is a lot of work to be done. “I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work and I appreciate this opportunity,” he said (see today’s video). His first day on the job was Wednesday, July 22.

Sorry is Not Enough by Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

July 26, 2015

Sorry is Not Enough
By Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “That’s what strikes me. There but for the grace of God.”

That was President Obama’s reaction when he became the first sitting U.S. president to visit a federal prison, the medium-security El Reno Federal Correctional Institution near Oklahoma City.

“These are young people who made mistakes that aren’t that different than the mistakes I made and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made,” the president told the press. “(W)e have a tendency sometimes to almost take for granted or think it’s normal that so many young people end up in our criminal justice system. It’s not normal. … What is normal is teenagers doing stupid things.”

Obama’s statement was part of a new-found commitment to reform the criminal justice system, including reducing long-term mandatory sentencing, alleviating conditions within prisons and new efforts to help ex-offenders get a start on the outside.

Obama is not alone. Driven partly by the financial squeeze and partly by spreading protests, reform of mass incarceration suddenly has bipartisan appeal. Hillary Clinton decried mass incarceration policies as “wrong,” even though many of them were championed by her husband. Bill Clinton admitted his policies had “put too many people in prison and for too long.” As Republican governors sought ways to save money and address overcrowding in jails, Newt Gingrich joined in calling for sentencing reform. A new coalition, The Coalition for Public Safety, has been launched with support from everyone from the ACLU and George Soros to FreedomWorks and the Koch brothers. Senators from both parties have rushed to introduce bills to revise federal sentencing guidelines for nonviolent offenders. The president recently commuted the sentences of 46 men and women convicted under those guidelines.

More than 2 million people are still held in prisons and jails. The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of its prison inmates. Millions of lives have been destroyed by harsh sentencing for what the president recognized were the “normal mistakes” that teenagers make.

Of the 2.3 million people in U.S. prisons, 93 percent are men. About two out of three are people of color. The majority is being held for nonviolent crimes (drugs, property theft and “public order” offenses).

Sensible sentences would be a good first step but hardly sufficient. These destructive policies, now admitted to be wrong-headed, have devastated Black and Latino communities, with millions of lives ruined. If you careen recklessly off the road and smash into someone’s living room, sorry isn’t sufficient. At the very least, you will be responsible for repairing the damage done.

We need fundamental reform of our criminal justice system from racial profiling to mandatory sentences. But we also have to redress the damage done to families and communities. Commuting sentences is a start, but we need new programs to rehabilitate those who are sick or addicted. We need investment and jobs so that those who made stupid mistakes can find decent work.

When Reagan and Clinton led a bipartisan push to lock more people up, they provided some of the money needed for new prisons, more cops and more equipment. The bipartisan push to rectify the wrong-headed policies should provide the money needed to correct the damage, and to insure that kids who make mistakes receive a new start, not a life in ruins.

After Baltimore, the reform movement has gained momentum. But apologies and sentencing changes aren’t enough. It’s not enough to save money on prisons the young don’t need; we’ve got to invest in the schools, training and jobs that they desperately need.

Change is “On Us” by James Clingman

Blackonomics

Change is “On Us”
By James Clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In light of the conversations about police abuse, unwarranted stops and arrests, and homicide cases involving Black people and police officers, many Black people get angry, maybe have a march, and then go home to await the next incident. Some of our organizations do their usual thing by making loud threatening statements and then get back in line until the next crisis hits. Amos Wilson said, “Until our behavior changes, the behavior of those who oppress and abuse us will not change.” In other words, the onus for change is on us.

Many of you may not know about the UNIFORM REPORTING LAW ENFORCEMENT IMPROVEMENT ACT (URLEIA), which is proposed legislation that calls for the creation of a National Office of Civilian Oversight that hosts meetings across the nation to garner citizen input. Law Enforcement agents, their spouses, and unions are not permitted to attend or participate in the Civilian Oversight Conferences. These conferences are essentially designed to create policy that governs policing. Police unions and associations are largely responsible for developing the policing approaches we see in effect today; URLEIA will change that practice.

This legislative proposal is provided by ONUS, Inc., and Black Communities United for Progress (BCUP) for presentation to members of the United States Congress and the President of the United States. Now that’s what I call proactive work that will have a direct and positive effect on Black people. This is not just rhetorical bombast; this is attacking the problem of police brutality from a practical, logical, and legal perspective.

Immediately after a White woman was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, Bill O’Reilly called for what he titled “Kate’s Law” to be passed by Congress. Within days 600,000 signatures were collected and members of Congress went to work to get the proposed law passed. They held hearings and brought the family of Kathryn Steinle to Washington to testify. They got swift action.

So where is the Tamir Rice law against cops shooting 12-year olds in less than two seconds? Where is the Eric Garner law against police officers choking a man to death? Where is John Crawford’s law that punishes department store employees for lying to 911 and cops from killing a person for holding a BB gun that is on the shelf of that store? Where is Sandra Bland’s Law that would send a cop to jail for falsely arresting a young lady who questioned why she had to put her cigarette out while seated in her own car?

Why hasn’t O’Reilly’s TV news counterpart, Al Sharpton, gone to his good friend, Barack Obama, and all his friends in the Black Caucus and gotten them to hold hearings and write Sandra’s Law?

Instead of real action we see our vaunted politicians genuflecting before the powers-that-be and our “Black” organizations, the NAACP and Urban League, walking 860 miles and issuing an annual report that tells us how bad our situation is, respectively.

This is exactly why we need and must support ONUS, Inc. and its URLEIA legislation. Instead of symbolic gestures, “ONUS is calling upon Congressional leaders to sponsor, endorse and enact the provisions contained in URLEIA in order to stop law enforcement agents from wreaking havoc on Black Americans…” says Jerroll Sanders, ONUS, Inc. President and CEO.

Sanders states, “The contents of the URLEIA legislative proposal stand in stark contrast to H.R. 2875—a bill titled the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act of 2015 that is currently making its way through Congress. While H.R. 2875 provides additional funding for grants and U.S. Department of Justice policing oversight activities and promotes the creation of national training, accreditation and operating standards, it provides few real solutions to adequately address America’s racist policing problem.

I would add that H.R. 2875 creates a National Task Force on law enforcement oversight composed of individuals appointed by the Attorney General from various DOJ bureaus. The AG's task force will consult with professional law enforcement associations, labor organizations and “community-based organizations.” Along with a few other loosely worded recommendations, of course, the usual suspects, to and through which funds would be channeled are named outright, i.e. NAACP and Urban League.

“URLEIA, on the other hand, addresses the root cause of police brutality in black communities by holding law enforcement agents accountable for the actions and sealing loopholes that currently allow perpetrators of police brutality to walk free,” Ms. Sanders continues, “URLEIA is the type of tough legislation Black Americans have been demanding in order to bring a permanent end to centuries of police brutality and abuse.”

Please go to www.changeisonus.org and read the URLEIA legislation for yourself, and then support it by supporting ONUS. If all we do is say we need change, we will never obtain it. It takes work, and ONUS is doing that work. Get involved.

Questions Must Be Answered By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

July 26, 2015

Questions Must Be Answered
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

williams2

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - I won’t dispute the assertion by Democratic presidential candidate, Martin O'Malley, that all lives matter. I will, however, challenge his understanding and the sensitivity of any other observer who won’t acknowledge the execution of Black people occurring all too frequently. The questions left by the death of Sandra Bland are too unsettling to fully express, and living under the shadow of these executions, I join the declaration that Black Lives Matter.

As a Black woman, I’m angered by the feeble assertion by the Waller County Sheriff's Department that her death was self-inflicted. I’m outraged at the unprofessional and inhumane treatment initially inflicted upon Sandra by this overly-aggressive policing and the ensuing treatment she was forced to endure until her death. Sandra’s treatment provides indisputable evidence that the lives of Blacks - both men and women - are under threat by rogue cops in every corner of this nation.

I’m a native of the south, and I have witnessed the disparate treatment of Black people by southern police. I can only imagine that the initial charge of "improper lane change" resulted, in part, from an Illinois license plate and the complexion/gender of the driver. A lack of subservience in response wasn’t "helpful" either. I imagine some who wear the uniform lack the understanding that Blacks folks, especially the young, are no longer willing to passively take unjustified abuse from anyone. They can no longer expect compliance with any wish or whim of a detaining officer. The officer's demand that Ms. Bland put out her cigarette had nothing to do with the issuance of a traffic citation. His demand that she exit her vehicle had everything to do with the fact that she asserted her rights.

After ordering her from her car, forcefully extracting her and threatening to Tase her ("I'll light you up!"), I find it questionable that she would be directed out of the range of the dash-cam. From that point, we have only the audio of the encounter and an incomplete unofficial video taken by a bystander. Officers who had taken Ms. Bland to the ground and were videoed with their knees in her back, ordered the bystander to leave the area and stop photographing them. The bystander argued that he was on public property, and watched as Bland was picked up from the ground and taken to the police vehicle. Video of the arrest shows two officers on top of Bland as she yelled in disagreement with their apprehension methods. Anyone viewing the dash-cam and bystander video with open eyes can see that the party (ies) escalating the incident wore the uniform of the law.

In management circles, it is said that operational imperatives are determined at the top and filter their way through the organization by way of supervision and leadership. Considering the history of Sheriff R. Glenn Smith, the treatment of Sandra Bland is not surprising. Sheriff Smith was previously fired from his position as police chief of Hempstead, TX, for allegedly making racist remarks and bad police work. After his firing, he ran for and won the position of Waller County Sheriff. His questionable history followed him as the Waller County Jail was (previously) cited by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards for not checking on inmates on an hourly basis, as required by law. Combined with what appeared to be a disingenuous explanation of the death of Sandra Bland, Smith raised more questions than he answered.

In one of her last posted Facebook videos, Sandra Bland stated, "It is not good between Black and white people, but I want us to try and get past that." Before we can get past her death, a significant number of questions MUST be answered truthfully and justice MUST be served.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is President of the National Congress of Black Women. www.nationalcongressbw.org. 202/678-6788)