July 10, 2016

The Choice We Face is So Clear
By Jesse Jackson Sr.

July 9, 2016

When Will All Lives Matter?
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - No one in her or his right mind would expect to leave home and not return alive. Those engaged in warfare and in other special circumstances may contradict this; but, under normal conditions, people expect to return home in the same or better condition as when they left home.

Although I’ve never accepted it as a carte blanc argument for every action of those in public safety, I’ve always been respectful of the concept that police officers have the right to expect to return safely to their homes and their families after each shift of duty. The horrific scene in Dallas was a stark reminder that some police die trying to serve and protect.  For them we are grateful, but there are so many who need to find other professions.

We’ve come to believe that we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  We were taught that in basic civics. Unfortunately, for far too many, the expectation for a safe return home becomes a 'dream for fools.'  This past week, the tragedy for two more Black males, Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota, was that two officers sworn to "Serve and Protect" them were the ones who snatched the dream of a safe return home from them without a trial to determine guilt or innocence.

While searching for a reason for these murders, one begins to understand that there are no simple answers to the question "Why?"  Those gun lovers and those sympathetic always to the police, and never Black people, are surfacing reports that each of these men was armed and gave justification to being shot. Never mind that based upon available video, Alton Sterling in Louisiana had been subdued by the police and that an officer drew his service weapon with his finger on the trigger, clearly indicating intent to shoot.  This intent is understood because traditional law enforcement training dictates that unless the intent is to shoot, the officer's trigger-finger is to remain outside the trigger guard.  Never mind that, based upon available audio and video, Philando Castile, in Minnesota, was reaching upon his person to present his concealed carry weapon permit to the officer who detained him in a 'routine' traffic stop.

The question "Why?" remains unanswered.

Simplistically and based upon a false equivalence, some try to explain these events away. They suggest that instead of focusing on homicides committed by cops upon Black Americans, we should instead focus on Black-on-Black murders.  They argue that until there’s as much outrage about B-on-B crime, criticism of the police is unwarranted.  Dick Gregory dispels the myth of B-on-B crime by pointing out that proximity of the races (in our segregated society) creates what appears to be disproportionate B-on-B crime.  He also points out that whites are never identified or condemned for their disproportionate crime against other whites, but we never hear about white-on-white crime.

Some suggest that the recent racist/sexist/xenophobic rants of Donald Trump in his Presidential race have emboldened bigots to emerge from their sewers of intolerance. Not many would argue that there is not evidence to support this position, but it, too, does not offer a more complete explanation.

In 240 years of existence, the United States has not yet dealt with its filthy little secret.  That secret is that intolerance, racial and otherwise, has been woven into the fabric of our nation and how we interact and do business.  The de-valuation of others is accepted as long as we are not affected, and those in control are rarely affected.  My heart is broken for the families of Alton, Philando and the Dallas police. When all lives begin to matter, maybe we can end senseless violence of all kind.

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

July 9, 2016

Hate, Hypocrisy and Hubris
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Just a day after millions of Americans celebrated the “Fourth of You Lie”, our nation got more evidence of the lie we live when we “celebrate” freedom.  On July 5, 2016, Alton Sterling was killed by white police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in an encounter that was blessedly videotaped and showed a man being shot, even as he was down on the ground.  A day later, on July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was shot four times as he attempted to comply with a police officer’s request to provide identification.  His fiancée, Diamond Reynolds, who was driving the car (her 4 year old daughter was in the backseat) videotaped this encounter.

If patriotic fireworks make you feel warm and fuzzy about our nation, these two videos ought to be enough to throw ice water on them.  I am chilled, disgusted, and angered at yet more senseless killings of black men by police officers, 136 so far this year (about 25.3 percent of all police killings).  You ought to read Frederick Douglass’ speech and understand why those videos leave me with cold antipathy for “my country”.  Many things have changed since he delivered this oratorical masterpiece in 1852.  Many things have not.

Watching Philando Castile’s blood seep from his body reminds me of our nation’s hypocrisy, and of Douglass’ searing words:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

Indeed, while there is talk of fighting the terrorism of ISIS, when will we fight the terrorism that too many African Americans experience?  If a law-abiding person with a right to carry a concealed weapon (hello National Rifle Association) can be killed because his taillight is busted, that’s terrorism, defined as the use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aim.  The aim is the maintenance of white supremacy “lite”.  It dictates “the talk” all young African American men get from their dads (white men don’t have to have the talk because they aren’t the victims of violence and intimidation).  It explains the fear and mistrust between so called law enforcement officers and the African American community.  It is a gut-wrenching reminder that, black President or not, it is still important to assert that Black Lives Matter.

Diamond Reynolds is a woman of amazing grace and courage.  She had the foresight to use Facebook to live stream what happened after her fiancée, Philando Castile, was shot four times in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.  She had the composure to respond with civility and respect, and in a level tone of voice, to the hysterical human being masquerading as a police officer who shot Mr. Castile.  She had the presence of mind to remind the officer that Castile had indicated that he had a conceal carry permit for a weapon before he reached into his jacket to provide the identification that had been demanded.

If you had a heart the ten-minute video would break it at least a dozen times. I know that when the officer barked at Ms. Reynolds to get out of the car and get on her knees, my stomach lurched and I cried out in outrage.  After witnessing an execution, and clearly not armed, why was Diamond Reynolds forced onto her knees and handcuffed?  Did that sick white police officer think he was a god that had to be knelt to, paid homage to?  He already had a license to kill.   I guess a badge also gives you a license to humiliate.  Diamond Reynolds had done nothing wrong.  The police, surely, had a right to detain her as a material witness to Philando Castile’s murder.  They also claimed the right to demean her and to deny Philando Castile’s relatives the right to identify his body the morning after his death.

I am, oh, so weary of these police killings, and all the more weary of our nation’s hate, hubris, and hypocrisy.  I am weary of the attempts, already, to discuss Alton Sterling’s criminal record.  And I will be weary of the conversation that will ensue as these murders are investigated and as the so-called police officers are not prosecuted because there was “reasonable doubt” that they “intended” to kill.

In the wake of Michael Brown’s murder, President Obama appointed the Task Force on 21^st Century Policing.  A year ago, they submitted a report that talked about issues like trust between police officers and communities, and “best practices” for police officers.  Nearly fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson appointed a similar commission, the 1967 President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. In their report, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, one of the major findings stated, “Officials of the criminal justice system . . . must re-examine what they do. They must be honest about the system’s short- comings with the public and with themselves.” Not much has changed in fifty years.  Too many police officers are guided by hate and hubris, and protected by hypocrisy.  And too many black men are the “collateral damage” of our broken system.

July 3, 2016

Democratic Platform Committee Calls for End to Mass Incarceration
By Frederick H. Lowe

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Democratic Platform Drafting Committee has approved a plank, calling for the end of mass incarceration, which occurred under President Bill Clinton and then First Lady Hillary Clinton, who is expected to become the party’s nominee for President when Democrats convene July 25th to July 28th in Philadelphia.

Prison barsPrison bars“The current draft calls for ending the era of mass incarceration, shutting down private prisons, ending racial profiling, reforming the grand jury process, investing in the re-entry programs, banning the box to help give people a second chance and prioritizing treatment over incarceration for individuals suffering with addiction,” the Drafting Committee announced on June 25.

Clinton’s 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, a tough-on-crime bill led to mass incarceration of black men and significant increases in the imprisonment of black women. This a was a major issue at the sparsely attended National Black Political Convention last month in Gary, Ind. Attendees said they wanted to influence the Democratic Party’s platform.

Most, if not all members of the Congressional Black Caucus, voted for the legislation, but now some are saying they regretted their vote.

Drafting Committee members also voted to support states that choose to decriminalize marijuana because police are arresting blacks who possess marijuana at much higher rates than they arrest Whites.

The committee also called for increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, expanding Social Security and launching an aggressive jobs plan that would include historic investments in the nation’s infrastructure, a commitment to small businesses and a robust technology agenda.

The platform draft covers a number of other issues, including universal health care and the environment.

The draft will be put before the full 187-member Platform Committee for final approval during a meeting in Orlando, Fla., on July 8th and 9th.