Feb. 17, 2013

Obama, Congress Applaud 102-year-old for Election Day Grit

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Desiline Victor, a Florida centenarian who persevered for hours in a voting line last November, was given a presidential shout-out and standing ovation during the State of the Union address on Feb. 12.

“When Desiline arrived at her polling place, she was told the wait to vote might be six hours,” President Obama said. “And as time ticked by, her concern was not with her tired body or aching feet, but whether folks like her would get to have their say. And hour after hour, a throng of people stayed in line to support her -- because Desiline is 102 years old. And they erupted in cheers when she finally put on a sticker that read, ‘I voted.’”

Victor, a native Haitian and retired farmworker now living in North Miami, was present in the congressional chamber during the speech as a guest of Michelle Obama.

The elderly voter’s experience was indicative of a broken election system, the president said. He announced a nonpartisan commission to fix the problems at the ballot box, saying, “When Americans, no matter where they live or what their party, are denied [the right to vote] because they can’t afford to wait for five or six or seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying our ideals.”

The Advancement Project, the voting rights group that brought Victor’s story to the attention of the White House, seconded the president’s remarks, saying her case was one of thousands.

“Ms. Victor’s story of waiting for hours to vote is both inspirational and tragic at the same time,” Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis said in a statement. “Thousands applauded her when she emerged with her ‘I Voted’ sticker and her dedication was the reason why many of them decided to stick it out despite the long wait. What we need however, are federal standards for voting. Unfortunately, we have 13,000 election jurisdictions that run elections 13,000 different ways. That is what we have to fix.”

Feb. 17, 2013

Jesse Jackson Jr. Possibly Faces Prison

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Former Chicago-area Congressman JesseJackson Jr. - the son of the veteran civil rights leader - has signed an agreement with the government pleading guilty to misuse of campaign funds. A judge will decide whether he should serve time in prison.The younger Jackson reportedly will plead guilty to a single felony count.The U.S. Justice Department in Washington and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago had no comment on the news reports.

Jackson, 47, resigned his congressional seat on Nov. 21, 2012, saying treatment for bipolar disorder, a condition marked by extreme mood swings, was incompatible with serving his constituents. Jackson confirmed at that time that he was under federal investigation and acknowledged “mistakes.”

According to earlier news reports, Jackson was investigated by the FBI over possible misuse of campaign money and his wife, Sandi, also was part of the probe. He disappeared from public view at the beginning of last summer and speculation swirled for weeks about his condition. Jackson eventually confirmed that he had undergone extensive treatment for mental illness at the Mayo Clinic. Jackson had served in Congress since1995 and was easily re-elected in November despite his absence from the district. His resignation came two weeks after the election. Sandi Jackson resigned from the Chicago City Council on Jan. 11, citing the need to help care for her husband. 

Feb. 17, 2013

Ex-cop Seeks New Judge in His Retrial

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Louisiana Weekly

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A former New Orleans police officer has asked a federal judge to disqualify himself from presiding over his retrial on charges he fatally shot a man without justification in Hurricane Katrina’s racially volatile aftermath before the man’s body was burned in a car, the Associated Press reported last week.

A court filing by lawyers for the former NOPD officer, David Warren, said U.S. District Judge Lance Africk made comments on the case that could call his impartiality into question.

During Warren’s sentencing, Africk said Warren’s testimony about his shooting of Henry Glover, 31, was “contrived and fabricated.’’

“For you to suggest … that Glover caused you to fear for your life by feigning the fact that he had a weapon in his hand is farcical,’’ the judge said. “Henry Glover was not at the strip mall to commit suicide. He was there to retrieve some baby clothing.’’

In another instance, Africk said, “The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office can be commended for unmasking your deceit.’’

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Warren last month, ruling that Africk should have separated his trial from four other officers charged in Glover’s 2005 death.

Unlike the other officers, two of whom were acquitted at trial, Warren wasn’t charged with participating in a cover-up of Glover’s death. The 5th Circuit judges agreed with Warren’s argument that the “spillover effect’’ from other evidence unrelated to the shooting, including the burning of Glover’s body, prevented him from getting a fair trial.

Africk recently set a March 18 trial for Warren, who was a rookie when prosecutors say he shot Glover on Sept. 2, 2005. He sentenced Warren to more than 25 years in prison for the shooting outside the strip mall.

“Isn’t it amazing that more than 150 years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation and a half century after the Historic Civil Rights Movement, there are still cops of all races running around in New Orleans and other cities who think they have the right to gun down unarmed Black people,” Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a New Orleans-born businessman and former congressional candidate, told The Louisiana Weekly. “With New Orleans police gunning down Black people whenever they feel like it, City Hall pretending that it doesn’t know what’s going on, a former U.S. Attorney who prides himself on being an effective prosecutor first dragging his feet in these NOPD murder cases before mishandling the trials and a Department of Justice that refuses to give the City of New Orleans and the NOPD what it needs to get better — a complete overhaul — it’s not a good time to be Black in New Orleans.

“We need to seriously consider taking our case as Black people back to the United Nations and charge the DOJ, U.S. Attorney’s Office, NOPD and the City of New Orleans with violating our human rights,” Ramessu Merriamen Aha added.

In a recent interview with The Louisiana Weekly, W.C. Johnson, host of local cable-access show “OurStory” and a member of Community United for Change, said that the U.S. Department of Justice must be held accountable for its failure to protect the citizens of New Orleans and their constitutional rights.

“After more than two years of working directly with the U.S. Department of Justice, face-to- face meetings with Tom Perez and Roy Austin, I am perplexed as to why the DOJ has not addressed the serious issues of a totally corrupt criminal justice system,” Johnson told The Louisiana Weekly. “After witnessing the charade of an ongoing Consent Decree process, I am not sure if the DOJ is serious or just wants to cut their losses.

“In the more than two years CUC worked with DOJ, many groups and individuals alerted DOJ to the unethical and illegal activities the NOPD was involved in. From the DOJ’s own Findings Letter (prelude to Consent Decree) it was evident that police corruption was allowed to exist because of a corrupted criminal justice system covering for the NOPD. Federal court and the DOJ’s amazement at the behavior of the Landrieu Administration’s efforts to derail the Consent Decree after agreeing to the Consent Decree is the historical legacy of the City of New Orleans. With all of the work the DOJ has done in New Orleans over the past two years, I don’t know what could possibly jumpstart Attorney General Eric Holder into a different posture than all of the data and documentation he already possesses. If I had to sum up the work of the DOJ over the past two years, I would have to say; politics as usual.”

“Just because there hasn’t been a violent racial explosion like you’ve seen in other cities here doesn’t mean that there will never be,” the Rev. Raymond Brown, president and founder of National Action Now, told The Louisiana Weekly. “There is a lot of rage and frustration among the Black masses in New Orleans about the Landrieu administration’s refusal to address the needs and concerns of the poorest among us. That’s a recipe for disaster and conflict.

“All parties involved in efforts to clean up the NOPD and protect the rights of civilians need to come together and have a frank discussion about the challenges this city faces and devise a strategy for protecting the constitutional rights of everyone who lives in New Orleans, not just white people or politically connected residents.”

Additional reporting by Louisiana Weekly editor Edmund W. Lewis.

Feb. 10, 2013

President, First Lady Focused on Street Violence This Week
By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle, for the first time in the Obama Administration, has now targeted street violence as part of the President’s political focus.

The President was scheduled to head for his home town of Chicago on Friday where, in less than 40 days, more than 40 people - 42 as of Monday this week - have been homicide victims this year. His visit comes on the heels of First Lady Michelle Obama’s who attended Saturday’s funeral of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, a majorette, who performed in the Obama’s Inaugural Parade Jan. 21. White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Education Secretary Arne Duncan were also slated to attend the Pendleton funeral at Greater Deliverance Temple Church of Christ.

The First Lady did not speak publically, but reportedly comforted Pendleton's family friends privately with the words, “Hang on” and “Stay strong”. The President reportedly sent a letter to Hadiya’s immediate family, promising to work hard to "end this senseless violence."

In Chicago, he is slated to speak about the issue of gun violence in that city and across the nation, a topic that was also strongly included in his preparations for the Station of the Union Address on Tuesday this week. Pendleton’s mother, Cleopatra Cowley, was also expected to attend the President’s State of the Union Address as a guest of honor.

President Obama has advanced new proposals for dealing with gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre of 20 first grade children in Newtown, Conn. Dec. 14. Those proposals include universal background checks as well as bans on high-capacity ammunition magazines as well as military-style assault weapons similar to those used at Sandy Hook, the movie theatre shooting that killed 12 people and injured 58 in Aurora, Colo. on July 12 last year among other mass shootings in recent years.

The President is also scheduled to visit Asheville, N.C. and Atlanta, Ga. this week on his tour on gun violence. This is the first time the President has directly spoken to and legislatively targeted street violence, which are usually the result of hand guns.

Hundreds of thousands of Black men and women have been killed by gun fire in cities across the U. S. over the past four decades since the Federal Bureau of Investigation began charting gun violence by race in the mid-1970s. Such shootings are often marked by a code of silence afterward during which even eye witnesses refuse to come forward because of fear of retribution.

Chicago police have reportedly spoken to “persons of interest” in the Pendleton homicide, but had made no arrest as of Monday this week, nearly two weeks after the killing Jan. 29. A gunman is said to have opened fire on a group of young people, killing the majorette as they gathered in a public park only blocks from the Obamas’ home. The youth were under a shelter, shielding themselves from rain when they came under fire. The shooting is said to be gang-related and that she was not an intended victim.

An anti-gang advocate in her own rite, Hadiya Pendleton, is still posted on a YouTube video she made in the Sixth Grade, telling friends: “It is your job as students to say no to gangs and yes to a great future.”