Texas Jail Death Draws Eyes of the Nation

July 21, 2015

Texas Jail Death Draws Eyes of the Nation
Did Sandra Bland commit suicide or was it death by police officer?

Sandra Bland

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – The name Sandra Bland has become the latest in a string of names of African-Americans who have experienced suspicious deaths in police custody around the nation.

In the rapidly developing case, the medical examiner has ruled the death a suicide. But the FBI is now investigating the case as a possible murder.

According to widespread reports, Bland had been arrested for allegedly kicking a police officer July 11. She was found dead, hanging in a holding cell in the morning of July 13.

Newly released dashcam video shows the police officer Brian Encinia pulling Bland from the car. When she protested, calmly telling him he had no right to do that, he was heard saying, "I will light you up," meaning taze her. Off camera, Bland seems to be yelling from the ground, protesting the way she was being treated.

Family members said the 28-year-old from Naperville, a Chicago suburb, had no indications of an emotional state that would lead to suicide. She was arrested following a traffic stop for failing to signal a lane change and was jailed in a Waller County jail cell in Hempstead, Texas, about 60 miles northwest of Houston, according to the Associated Press.

Protests are rapidly increasing over the death, which is under investigation by Texas Rangers. Already, hashtags #JusticeForSandy and #WhatHappenedToSandyBland are trending on social media.

“Based on the Sandy that I knew, that’s unfathomable to me,” Bland’s sister, Sharon Cooper, said at a news conference in Chicago, according to AP. Another sister, Shante Needham, said they learned of Sandra’s death as they tried to raise money for her bail.

“This family is really looking to understand what happened,” said the family’s lawyer Cannon Lambert, during the news conference. “We don’t understand this. It doesn’t make sense.”

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis claims there is so far no evidence of foul play.

“If I receive information that there’s something nefarious going on, or foul play, we will certainly get to the bottom of that,” Mathis said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. “I understand there’s some disbelief among some friends and family that she would do this to herself. That’s why it’s very important that the Texas Rangers be allowed to conduct a thorough investigation.”

However, Mathis later told a local television station, “I will admit it is strange someone who had everything going for her would have taken her own life. That’s why it’s very important a thorough investigation is done and that we get a good picture of what Ms. Bland was going through the last four or five days of her life.”

Bland was about to start a new job Aug. 3 at Prairie View A&M, a historically Black college, which was also her 2009 alma mater. She was reportedly taking a position as a programming associate for the school’s cooperative extension. She had a bachelor’s degree in agriculture.

Reports say that Needham, her sister, said Bland called her from jail on Saturday afternoon, July 11. Bland reportedly told her that an officer had placed his knee in her back and she thought her arm had been broken.

“She was very aggravated. She seemed to be in pain. She really felt that her arm had been fractured,” Needham said, according to AP. “I told her I would work on getting her out.”

Although the Harris County medical examiner has classified Bland’s death as a suicide, it remains under investigation as a normal protocol when anyone dies in police custody.

Erik Burse, a trooper and spokesman for the Texas Department Public Safety, told the Chicago Tribune that Bland “was outside the car and about to be issued a written warning when she kicked the officer and was then arrested.”

Lambert, the family’s lawyer, said he didn’t know what happened prior to the arrest, but he did not believe Bland would kick an officer unless provoked.

No one in her circle of friends believes the police. LaVaughn Mosley told KPRC TV, “Anyone who knows Sandy Bland knows she has a thirst for life. She was planning for the future, and she came here to start that future, so to say she killed herself is totally absurd.”

Study: New Orleans is 90 Percent Back to Pre-Katrina Status by Christopher Tidmore

Study: New Orleans is 90 Percent Back to Pre-Katrina Status
But, many Black neighborhoods still lag in recovery

By Christopher Tidmore

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, annual music and cultural festivals are back to peak audiences in New Orleans,
but Black neighborhoods still suffer neglect.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Louisiana Weekly

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Orleans Parish may not yet enjoy the 465,000 population it had prior to the evacuations of August 26, 2005, but a new study by the New Orleans Data Center may be on track to return to that number.

As researchers Allison Plyer and Vicki Mack explained, “Ten years after Katrina, more than half [or] 40 of New Orleans’ 72 neighborhoods have recovered over 90 percent of the population they had before the levees failed. There are 16 neighborhoods that now have a larger number of active addresses than they did prior to the levee breaches.”

They did caution that 15 of these neighborhoods largely did not flood because they are in the “sliver by the river” or on the West Bank. Nor is there evidence that the city’s Black population has rebounded to the degree of the Caucasian populace.

Past Data Center studies have suggested a fall of more than five percentage points in the total African-American population, and this July 13, 2015 report seems to confirm those previous findings. It noted, “[F]our neighborhoods have less than half the population they had prior to Katrina, including three public housing sites that have been demolished to make way for new mixed–income housing.

They include B.W. Cooper, Florida Development, Iberville, and the Lower Ninth Ward, which was the most heavily damaged neighborhood of all when the levees failed. The Lower Ninth Ward, the one of the four that is not a public housing site, is bordered by canals to the west and north.”

It also goes without saying that all of the above neighborhoods were overwhelming African-American.

Nevertheless, hopefully, the report stated, “Overall, New Orleans continues to grow 10 years after Hurricane Katrina. The most recent population data from the U.S. Census Bureau are estimates for 2014. According to these estimates, between 2010 and 2014, the New Orleans population grew 12 percent, and New Orleans was ranked 28th on population growth out of 714 U.S. cities with populations of 50,000 or more.”

Plyer added that more current data from Valassis Inc. on households receiving mail suggests the population grew another one percent from 2014 to 2015.

“All told,” she explained, “New Orleans households receiving mail have increased by 19,651 since June 2010, with fully 65 of 72 neighborhoods experiencing gains.”

Most importantly, neighborhoods most heavily flooded by the levee failures grew the fastest. These tended to be Black-majority areas prior to Katrina (though not all). As she observed, “Most of these heavily damaged areas experienced double-digit percentage increases between 2010 and 2015, including growth rates of more than 30 percent in Filmore, Holy Cross, Lakeview, Lower Ninth Ward, Pines Village, Pontchartrain Park, and West Lake Forest.”

Uptown and Downtown have done the best post-Katrina. Almost all of the “sliver by the river” neighborhoods added households between 2010 and 2015. “The biggest gainers in this section of the city (and the number of households each gained) were the Central Business District (CBD) (1,355), Tremé/Lafitte (545), Lower Garden District, which encompasses some of the Warehouse District (321), and the Bywater (297).”

Seven neighborhoods lost households from June 2010 to June 2015. Of those neighborhoods, five were on the West Bank, including Behrman, McDonogh, Old Aurora, New Aurora/English Turn, and U.S. Naval Support Area.

Looking at changes from 2014 to 2015, eight neighborhoods gained more than 100 new households: CBD, Central City, St. Roch, Little Woods, Lower Ninth Ward, B.W. Cooper, Seventh Ward and Tremé/Lafitte.

Justice Tech: Making Jails and Prisons Work By Ben Jealous

July 19, 2015

Justice Tech: Making Jails and Prisons Work

By Ben Jealous

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Obama's impassioned call for criminal justice reform at last week's NAACP national convention was the latest sign that bipartisan criminal justice reform is on the way. In the midst of this movement is another, untold story about an army of entrepreneurs that is changing the way jails and prison work for the better.

When it comes to criminal justice reform, the inside game is just as important as the outside game. America locks up more of its population than any other country on the planet, and more of its Black population than South Africa at the height of Apartheid. Police commissioners brag about being "tough on crime" and cleaning up the streets. But the fact is that more than four out of ten people who are released from prison in the United States will return within three years. Our jails and prisons are failing at their primary purpose - rehabilitation - which means more crime, more violence, and more broken families. When our inside game is broken, our outside game gets even harder.

It doesn't have to be this way. The way we treat people in jail and prison has a direct impact on whether or not they will reoffend. Yet over the past few decades, prison officials and the agencies that regulate them have not only failed to invest in necessities like effective educational programs and cheap phone calls; they have actively opposed those programs that work.

A new movement in the tech world is seeking to change that. A class of social justice-oriented companies - what I call "justice tech" startups - has emerged as a counterweight to the prison-industrial complex. The founders of these startups come from a circle of activists, former prisoners and social entrepreneurs who understand that sometimes change has to come from outside the system.

One of these startups is Pigeonly. In 2007 Pigeonly founder Frederick Hutson was sentenced to 51 months in federal lockup on marijuana charges (a venture that, it's worth noting, would be legal in some states today). He witnessed the pain of isolation for the young men behind bars, and knew that regular contact with family members lowers the odds that an offender will return to prison after he has been released. He also watched as prison officials across the country struck self-serving deals with private phone companies that resulted in wildly inflated prices for phone calls home.

Upon his release, Huston decided to start a company that would cater to the incarcerated directly. Pigeonly's customers in federal prison purchase telephone time from their commissary, which usually charges inflated rates for long-distance calls. Pigeonly uses Google Voice-style technology to change the game so that all calls are "local".

This process shaves 60 to 80 percent off the cost of calls in federal prisons. His service is soon expanding from the federal system to state prisons and jails, where savings promise to be even higher - in some jails, for instance, calling home can cost more than 18 dollars for a 15 minute phone call.

Another justice tech company is Jail Education Solutions. State funding for prison educational programs has continuously decreased since 1982, even as the prison population has swelled. It's telling that most people who arrive in prison illiterate are illiterate when they leave. Brian Hill, a recent business school graduate whose father taught community college classes at Folsom State Prison, saw this as an opportunity to innovate. His company provides jails with tablet devices that offer educational content. Working on a for-profit model that has inmates rent devices for a small fee, the tablets provide content like GED prep, vocational training and college courses.

The tablet service has earned the early support of reform-minded sheriffs who are eager to disrupt the cycle of people repeatedly moving in and out of jail. Inmates who take advantage of educational programming are 43% less likely to return within three years than those who do not. These sheriffs see tech-savvy educational offerings as a practical and affordable solution to recidivism.

As the long-overdue movement for broad criminal justice reform continues, we cannot forget the importance of what happens, or does not happen, inside jails and prisons. We need to improve our inside game as well as our outside game to ensure jails and prisons work, and these justice tech startups can help make that future come faster.

Ben Jealous is former president and CEO of the NAACP, and Partner at Kapor Capital, a social impact investing firm that invests in Pigeonly and Jail Education Solutions.

Eric Garner Case: $5.9 Million and Everything is Not Fine

July 20, 2015

$5.9 Million and Everything is Not Fine
Eric Garner’s family will continue to push for charges against the cop who killed him

By Frederick H. Lowe

Eric Garner got a police death sentence for selling cigarettes.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

The New York City Comptroller announced on Monday that it agreed to pay Eric Garner’s estate $5.9 million in an out-of-court settlement for his murder by a New York City police officer. Garner died July 17, 2014, in Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo placed him in an illegal chokehold for selling individual, untaxed cigarettes.

Garner’s death was captured on video and posted on the Internet. The New York medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide, but a Richmond County (Staten Island) grand jury refused to indict Pantaleo for Garner’s murder. As he was being choked to death, Garner uttered, “I can’t breathe,” which became a rallying cry for the #BlackLivesMatter movement and other movements protesting the murders of unarmed black men by white police officers.

Professional athletes, including Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers wore warm-up shirts with “I Can’t Breathe” written on them. Members of the National Football League also wore “I Can’t Breathe” warm-up jerseys.

Garner’s estate filed a claim against New York City last October for damages related to his death.

“Following a judicious review of the claim and facts in this case, my office was able to reach a settlement with the estate of Eric Garner that is in the best interest of all parties,” Scott M. Stringer, the NYC Comptroller, said in a statement.

He added New York City did not admit any liability in Garner’s death. The fat lady, however, has not sung the final note on his death.

Eric Garner’s family said they will continue to press for charges against Pantaleo and work to reform the criminal justice system.

The “After-Math” by James Clingman

July 20, 2015

Blackonomics

The “After-Math”
By James Clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Now that the confederate flag has been taken down, complete with honor guard and pomp and circumstance, what are Black folks going to do now? Another question is, “what does the math of the aftermath look like?” Everything boils down to economics/business at some point, so let’s take a look at the past few weeks to see what has really taken place.

After all the bluster, the tears, the rallies, the sermons, the rhymes, and the confrontations between pro and anti-flag folks, the sales of confederate flags show an exponential increase. Like never before, folks are driving around with two and sometimes more flags attached to and unfurled on their vehicles.

Stores that sell the flags experienced Christmas in July when it came to their sales revenues. The flag was in high demand, and still is. Thus, the math connected to the aftermath of the flag controversy has already resulted in profits for those who sell it, Walmart and Amazon notwithstanding. Confederate flag hats, shirts, posters, underwear, etc. have suddenly experienced high demand as well. I am not mad at those folks for profiting from the flag. It’s simply part of the “After-Math” involved in protests and other collective strivings. I can hear the storeowners now saying, “Yee-Haaaah!” as they make their way to the bank.

Now let’s look at the “After-Math” for Black folks. First of all the discussion of the flag literally overshadowed the fact that nine Black folks had been killed by Dylann Roof. If that flag had not been in the photos of him, it would not have even come up as an issue and would probably still be flying on the state capitol grounds. It became the focus of our attention rather than the victims of that heinous crime, as if the flag made this guy go to that church and shoot these people. Heck, if the flag had that much power, there would be a lot more us dead from its mesmerizing allure and gravitational pull on mass murderers of Black people.

Many Blacks are now left with a feeling of euphoric victory because the flag is down; they have called off a fifteen year boycott of the state and the NCAA announced it has lifted its ban on holding events there. Uh oh, here comes the money. What will South Carolina Black vendors and contractors get from that?

On several occasions I saw South Carolina State Senator, Marlon Kimpson, on CNN saying the most important thing for Black people in his state is economic empowerment. He warned that folks should never lose sight of that, even in the aftermath of such a tragedy. Of course, he is right, but will Black folks have seats on the money train coming through the state because the flag is gone?

I had the privilege to speak to a group of Black business owners in Columbia, SC on July 11, 2015, after which many of the attendees shared their feelings about the flag controversy. Their words were similar to Kimpson’s. They felt the flag was a distraction, a diversion to what is really important to Black people as we try to survive and thrive in the land of plenty. They know what time is it. I told them now’s the time to really test Governor Haley’s compassion and empathy for Black people. I suggested they go to her and make demands for reciprocity for their tax dollars by opening up the channels for economic inclusion in government purchasing and development.

Now that the private sector has shown its willingness to capitulate to the pressure, go to them and demand they also capitulate to calls for equity in their construction, professional services, and supplier deals. In other words, Blacks in South Carolina should do the “After-Math” of the flag brouhaha and make sure their benefit is more than just a good feeling. And what about the University of South Carolina, which makes a tremendous amount of money from the participation by Black athletes in their various programs? How many Black companies have contracts with that school?

Black folks celebrated the unveiling of the MLK statue, but a Chinese man got the $10 million to sculpt it, and used stone not from Elberton, Georgia, but from China. Each year thousands of people go to Selma and stand on the bridge, crying and making speeches; from their vantage point they can see 40 percent poverty in the town they celebrate. What is the economic “After-Math” of fifty years of that?

The beat goes on with superfluous issues such as flags and now maybe even the carved images on Stone Mountain, but in the aftermath of these kinds of symbolic victories, Black folks must also take a very close look at the “After-Math.”