Report: U.S. Declining Crime Rates Not the Result of Vast Incarceration By Zenitha Prince

Feb. 22, 2015

Report: U.S. Declining Crime Rates Not the Result of Vast Incarceration

By Zenitha Prince

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The ballooning national incarceration rate over the last few decades and the simultaneous decline in crime across the United States is by no means a case of cause and effect, according to a recent report by the Brennan Center for Justice.

Incarceration has long been a popular law enforcement tool in America: since 1970, the imprisonment rate has skyrocketed by more than 400 percent, and there are now 2.3 million Americans in prison or jail. The country is a world leader in incarceration rates—the U.S. has just 5 percent of the global population but 25 percent of its prisoners.

Even as imprisonment increased, crime decreased: the current crime rate is about half of what it was at its height in 1991, according to the report. Violent crime has fallen by 51 percent since 1991, and property crime by 43 percent.

After reviewing more than three decades of crime data, however, researchers concluded in the Brennan report that the explosion in incarceration had a limited influence on the crime rate.

Titled “What Caused the Crime Decline?” the report found that economic and environmental factors, including changes in income, decreased alcohol consumption and an aging population played a greater role in the national crime decline. The report also pointed to the efficiency of the policing program CompStat in the cities where it was introduced; increased numbers of police officers had a limited effect, they found.

The findings could inform policymaking, forcing bureaucrats to devise more effective, less expensive—and less discriminatory—ways of fighting crime.

“The toll of mass incarceration on our social and economic future is unsustainable,” Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor and the 2001 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, wrote in the foreword of the report. “When high levels of incarceration provide scant public safety benefit, it is pointless to continue using—wasting—resources in this way. Instead, the country should shift priorities away from policies proven to be ineffective and focus our energies on truly beneficial initiatives that both reduce crime and reduce mass incarceration. The evidence presented here tells us that these are compatible goals.”

Black Caucus Foundation Discusses Black Male Lives in the U. S. By James Wright

Feb. 22, 2015

Black Caucus Foundation Discusses Black Male Lives in the U. S.

By James Wright

U. S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill)

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Members of the Obama administration and Congress met to discuss issues and challenges faced by young Black males during a forum on Feb. 11. Organized by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the Ron W. Walters Leadership and Public Policy Center at Howard University, the Howard University Student Government Association, the Howard chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and others, the forum, “The State of the African-American Male: A Dream Deferred?” took place at the Howard University School of Business Auditorium.

Former Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek (D), a visiting scholar at the Ron Walters Center, said it is critical that America talks seriously about the problems of Black males. “When you talk about African-American males, you are talking about Americans who have made contributions to our country,” Meek said.

The forum was divided into panels that dealt with education, the criminal justice system, finance and young males.

Ivory Toldson, deputy director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, participated in the education panel. Toldson said stories about Black females outnumbering Black males in higher education institutions at ratios as high as 20-1 are not true. “The real ratio for Black females to Black males on college campuses is 1.54 to 1,” Toldson said. “Coppin State University has the highest ratio of three females to one male. Black males are definitely represented in higher education.”

Toldson said most Black males in higher education attend community colleges, online or distance learning institutions, and for-profit colleges instead of the traditional four-year schools.

Reps. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) and Emmanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) talked about the criminal justice system. Davis said the U.S. has the biggest incarcerated population in the world and that Blacks are a large part of it.

“Black people make up about 14 percent of this country’s population and yet 51 percent of people in the criminal justice system are Black,” Davis said. “In order for Black males to deal with the criminal justice system, there must be reform of the system to make it fairer to poor people and people of color, and [to] educate African-American males on how it works.”

Norton said she started the District’s Commission on Men and Boys several years ago even though she is a “card-carrying feminist.” She said Black males, with the support of Black females, must come together to solve their own problems for the good of the community.

Cleaver said Black males are under attack in America but must continue to persevere and not give into hopelessness.

Kelvin Boston, a financial journalist, and retired Fannie Mae Chairman Franklin Raines said in order to thrive in America, Black males must become more responsible in their personal finances.

“Black must have economic independence and not be dependent on others for their livelihoods,” Boston said. “During the Great Recession, which took place from September 2008 to the end of 2009, Whites had some financial challenges but Blacks were economically in a depression. Blacks lost 50 percent of our net worth during the Great Recession.”

Boston said that presently Blacks are 40 percent unemployed or under-employed and to fight that, they must have a life plan, financial plan, and a business plan or a second income independent of a full-time job.

Raines said that with financial discipline, young Blacks who attend Howard University now, can save $500 a month when they finish school and in 40 years, retire with $1 million in savings.

“I know it sounds hard, but it can be done,” Raines said.

In the panel on young Black males, Anthony Driver, director of political and external affairs for the Howard University Student Government Association, said it seems that America’s capitalistic system is designed to keep Blacks in a certain economic status. “No matter how high you get, you could be Barack Obama,” he said,” you can be pulled down.”

CBC Discusses Agenda in Meeting with President by Zenitha Prince

Feb. 15, 2015

CBC Discusses Agenda in Meeting with President

By Zenitha Prince

In this White House file photo, President Barack Obama meets with the Congressional Black Caucus in the State Dining Room of the White House three years ago. PHOTO - Pete Souza/The White House

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Congressional Black Caucus met with President Barack Obama at the White House Feb. 10 in a 90-minute pow-wow on issues relating to criminal justice, the economy, trade and more.

“Members of the CBC just wrapped up a productive meeting with President Obama at the White House. The CBC looks forward to working with the White House to improve the lives of all Americans,” a CBC statement read following the meeting.

CBC lawmakers have been among the staunchest supporters of the nation’s first African-American president, though the group’s relationship with its former member has been complicated and he has not escaped their criticism. But many also place blame for the president’s handicaps squarely at the feet of obstructionist Republicans.

“There have been isolated disappointments with the White House,” said CBC Chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) said last month in an interview with The Hill. “But generally speaking I think — and I think that the vast, the overwhelming, majority of CBC members feel — that this president has been unfairly isolated by the Republicans. And his legacy is going to be a good legacy.”

Among the chief issues addressed in the White House meeting was criminal justice reform—something Black lawmakers have long championed which gained greater urgency last year in the wake of several police killings of unarmed Black men.

President Obama emphasized the “critical need” to build trust between communities and law enforcement officials, according to a White House statement.

“We had a very robust conversation about criminal justice reform, not only about police misconduct, but also about prosecutorial misconduct,” Butterfield said as quoted by The Associated Press. The chairman said members also raised the need to reduce incarceration in the United States.

The issue of Black unemployment was also a central concern of the CBC members, a concern the president shared, according to the White House statement. Jobless rates among Blacks have usually been double that of the national average—in January, for example, unemployment among African Americans was 10.3 percent, compared to 5.7 percent for the overall population.

CBC members and the president discussed targeted spending in areas with persistently abject poverty rates—an idea long championed by South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn—and how to reach those who are not benefitting from the economy, according to the AP report.

Part of the solution could lie in the administration’s trade agenda, which “would provide new opportunities for workers and support economic growth by opening markets, enforcing high-standards in our agreements, and leveling the playing field for our workers,” the president told the CBC.

Obama called on the CBC to support his bid for trade promotion authority, which would block Congress from changing trade deals negotiated by the White House—though retaining lawmakers’ power to reject or approve the plans.

But Democrats and their allies are skeptical, blaming past trade agreements for lost jobs.

“He acknowledged that there have been some problems in the past with some trade agreements but believes this trade agreement will be infinitely better in terms of safeguards,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, according to the AP. “The bottom line is what we have to make a decision on is how much trust and confidence we have in the president because there is nothing that we’re going to know until it’s been negotiated.”

Report: Nearly 4,000 African-Americans Were Lynched in Acts of Terror by Whites by Frederick H. Lowe

Feb. 15, 2015

Report: Nearly 4,000 African-Americans Were Lynched in Acts of Terror by Whites
The overwhelming majority were men

By Frederick H. Lowe

Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, said nearly 4,000 African-Americans have been lynched.

Crowd stands around and smiles after a Black man has been lynched.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Nearly 4,000 Black men, Black women and Black children were lynched between 1877 and 1950 in 12 Southern states, and their violent murders were celebrated, attracting huge crowds including some who used the occasion to hold picnics.

The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) has published, “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror.” They reported that 3,959 African-Americans were victims of terrorist lynchings in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

More than 90 percent of terrorist lynching victims were Black men, and some of the victims were boys as young as 12 and 13, Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative told NorthStar News Today.com and BlackmansStreet.Today. EJI is based in Montgomery, Ala.

The study noted that at least 700 more African-Americans were murdered in lynchings than had been previously reported. The report focuses on racial terrorist lynching, which Whites, including the police, elected officials, ordinary citizens and federal bureaucrats participated in the murders or condoned them to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation.

“These lynchings were not frontier justice because they generally took place in communities where there was a functioning criminal justice system that was deemed too good for African Americans,” the report stated. “Terror lynchings were horrific acts of violence whose perpetrators were never held accountable….Indeed, some of public spectacle lynchings were attended by the entire white community and conducted as celebratory acts of control and domination.”

Terror victims were murdered without being accused of any crime; they were killed for minor social transgressions, including bumping a White person, wearing their military uniforms after World War I and not using the appropriate title to address a White person.

For example, General Lee, a Black man, was lynched in 1904 by a White mob in Reevesville, Ga., for knocking on the door of a White woman’s home. In 1919, a White mob in Blakely, Ga., lynched William Little, a soldier returning from World War I, for refusing to take off his uniform.

And in 1916, White men lynched Jeff Brown in Cedarbluff, Miss., for accidentally bumping into a White girl as he ran to catch a train.

In one newspaper report, between 3,000 and 10,000 individuals attended the lynching of John Hartfield in Ellisville, Miss., on June 26, 1919.The mob murdered Hartfield for allegedly assaulting a White girl.

Mississippi Gov. Theodore G. Bilbo, one of this nation’s most racist governors, ordered police to hold Hartfield in custody before releasing him at 5 p.m. to the mob. The NAACP asked Bilbo to intervene, but he, the sheriff and federal officials said they were powerless to stop the lynching.

New Orleans States, a newspaper, described Hartfield as “sullen and jerky” hours before his lynching.

The study reported that most terror lynching resulted from a wildly distorted view of interracial sex, casual social transgressions, and allegations of a serious violent crime. The murders included public spectacle lynchings, lynchings that targeted entire African-American communities and lynchings of sharecroppers, ministers and community leaders who refused to be mistreated.

The data and stories for the report were gathered over four years by Equal Justice Initiative staff.

The report names the states that were particularly terrifying for African-Americans. Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana had the highest statewide rates of lynchings. Georgia and Mississippi had the highest number of lynchings. And Phillips County, Ark., and Lafourche and Tensas parishes in Louisiana were sites of mass killings of African-Americans.

Fearing they would be lynched, African-Americans fled the South for the North and West during the first half of the 20th Century. Ironically, the state of Rhode Island was the epicenter of the nation’s slave trade.

“Black people living in Oakland, Calif., Chicago, and New York are refugees from terror. They fled the South to escape lynching,” Stevenson said.

“The history of terror lynching complicates contemporary issues of race, punishment, crime and justice,” the report stated. “Mass incarceration, excessive penal punishment, disproportionate sentencing of racial minorities and police abuse of people of color reveal problems in American society that were framed in the terror era.”

Stevenson said EJI intends to place markers where lynchings occurred.

He said, “I live in the South and there are all these statutes honoring the Confederacy and the defense of slavery. Now we want some truth and reconciliation about the real consequences of what happened to blacks after the Civil War."

Netanyahu's Address to Congress: Arrogance and the Violation of Separation of Powers by Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III

Feb. 15, 2015

Netanyahu's Address to Congress: Arrogance and the Violation of Separation of Powers
By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III

NEWS ANALYSIS

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu

President Obama

“He [the President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties…shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls…” - Constitution of the United States, Section 2.

“…he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers…” - Constitution of the United States, Section 3.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - There are two interesting and powerful concepts that make the Constitution of the United States unique. One is “separation of powers” and the other is “checks and balances”. The United States government has three co-equal branches with defined separate powers and authorities. Each branch is provided with the ability and authority to check the powers of the other branches.

It is clearly delineated in Article II of the Constitution that the Executive Branch (President) is America’s preeminent foreign policy maker as evidenced by his diplomatic, treaty powers and his role as commander-in-chief. In 1936 the Supreme Court confirmed this role by stating in United v. Curtiss-Wright, “… the president is the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations.” It is also important to note that it is the Senate not the House of Representatives that is first in line to consult with the President on international affairs.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has taken it upon himself to ignore the clearly delineated powers in the Constitution and has extended an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint session of congress on March 3. Boehner has three objectives; first, continue to humiliate the first African-American President of the United States. Second, impact the ongoing negotiations between the Obama administration and Iran in the favor of Israel. Third, throw Netanyahu a lifeline two weeks before Israeli elections as his political position in Israel flounders. According to The Times of Israel, “…poll finds dramatic swerve to pessimism among young voters and the right, trends that should worry Israel’s second-longest serving prime minister.”

To their credit a growing number of Democrats are planning to skip Netanyahu’s address. Most notable of those are President Obama, he will not meet with Netanyahu and VP Biden will be “on travel”.

To date the following members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are on record intending to boycott the address, G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), head of the CBC, John Lewis (D-Ga.), James Clyburn (S.C.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Gregory Meeks (N.Y.). According to The Hill, Rep. Butterfield said the move marked an "unprecedented overreach of the Speaker’s authority" that "goes beyond the traditions of his office." Rep. Lewis stated, “I think it’s an affront to the president and the State Department what the speaker did…”

Kudos to those who are standing up and boycotting this insult to the office of the president and the overreach by Speaker Boehner but what about boycotting Netanyahu because he represents a government that is engaging in genocide and apartheid? According to Nobel Prize Laureate, The Most Reverend, Archbishop Desmond Tutu "I have witnessed the systemic humiliation of Palestinian men, women and children by members of the Israeli security forces…Their humiliation is familiar to all black South Africans who were corralled and harassed and insulted and assaulted by the security forces of the apartheid government."

Boycott Netanyahu because Israel’s aggression towards Iran will become the sequel to the failed disaster film we’ve already seen, Iraq.

It’s great that members of the CBC are boycotting Netanyahu’s planned speech. But what about the CBC as an organization? The CBC should stand together on the side of morality and speak with one voice in opposition to Boehner and his henchmen. According to The Hill Reps. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) say they're still on the fence while they push for a postponement.

Note to Reps. Johnson and Ellison; Tutu was correct when he said, “People who are denied their dignity and rights deserve the solidarity of their fellow human beings," Tutu said of the Palestinians. "Those who turn a blind eye to injustice perpetuate injustice. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." Dr. King, said “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” You are still on the fence between justice and injustice choosing political comfort and convenience? Really?

I have issues with a lot of the policies that have been supported and implemented by the Obama administration but I have even bigger issues with hatred, bigotry, and oppression. I can’t sit by as an African American man and allow bigots like Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) to say “you lie” or former Speaker Gingrich and Dinesh D'Souza to say, "What if (Obama) is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan anticolonial behavior can you begin to piece together (his actions)? Just as an aside, why shouldn’t the Kenyan’s and all colonial subjects oppose colonization?

One must never underestimate the blindness that attends hubris and arrogance. Hence, those like Boehner and his ilk will blindly ignore established protocol and violate the Constitution that they have sworn to protect in order to insult the first African American President and support an apartheid regime like Israel. Failing to speak out with a unified voice and for the right reasons will only lead us further down the rabbit hole of hatred, bigotry, ignorance and eventual annihilation.

Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the Sirius/XM Satellite radio channel 126 call-in talk radio program “Inside the Issues with Wilmer Leon” Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. www.twitter.com/drwleon and Dr. Leon’s Prescription at Facebook.com © 2015 InfoWave Communications, LLC