Tag: racial tension
Tell No More Racial Fables About Ferguson

Tell No More Racial Fables About Ferguson

 I have this odd, puritanical quirk. I don’t think people should run for president by pitching racially inflammatory fables to voters. Republicans or Democrats.

And no, I’m not talking about Donald J. Trump, although these days, racial arson is pretty much his stock-in-trade, along with crackpot conspiracy theories. This week it’s Google, the Federal Reserve, and Fox News. Before that, it was the rat and vermin “infested” city of Baltimore and its African-American congressman Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD).

A friend recently directed me to an astonishingly disingenuous Wall Street Journal op-ed by Heather Mac Donald titled “Trump Isn’t the One Dividing Us by Race.” The president, she writes, “rarely uses racial categories in his speech or his tweets.”

Jonathan Chait comments: “Given that historically, American presidents never use racial categories in their public remarks, this is a bit like saying O.J. Simpson rarely murders anybody.”

That said, I might buy Mac Donald’s argument if it read “Trump isn’t the only one dividing us by race.” He’s clearly persuaded lots of white people that they’re the real victims. At intervals, some lone demento picks up an AR-15 and massacres his imagined race enemies.

Mac Donald blames “the academic left and its imitators in politics and mass media.”

Seriously. That’s what she says.

That’s not to say we wouldn’t be better off purging the “r-word” from our political vocabularies. Calling somebody racist never leads to anything useful. It’s the contemporary equivalent of accusing them of blasphemy or the Manichean heresy—not the beginning, but the end of a conversation.

That said, what I’m about to say will result in many emails calling me exactly that. Comes with the territory.

Because sometimes Democrats definitely do contribute to the problem. I’m thinking about presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren indulging in demagogic rhetoric regarding the tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri five years ago. Sen. Harris got things started with a tweet stating that “Michael Brown’s murder forever changed Ferguson and America.”

Not to be outdone, Warren doubled down: “5 years ago Michael Brown was murdered by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael was unarmed yet he was shot 6 times.”

Yes, Michael was unarmed. He was also 6-5, 289 pounds, and had just committed a strong-arm robbery and assaulted Officer Darren Wilson in his patrol car. He’d come perilously close to taking away Wilson’s gun, and, contrary to popular myth, neither had his hands in the air signaling surrender, nor yelling “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Those things never happened.

Instead, Brown bull-rushed the cop—who had no backup—basically giving him just two choices: shoot, or turn and run.

How I know these things is that the Obama Justice Department did a full-scale investigation, interviewing 40 witnesses and examining the forensic evidence before concluding that “there is no credible evidence that Wilson willfully shot Brown as he was attempting to surrender.”

Wilson’s chances of subduing the powerful young man were essentially nil. The report further concluded: “There is no credible evidence to refute Wilson’s stated subjective belief that he was acting in self-defense.”

Repeat: “no credible evidence” for the “Hands up, don’t shoot” scenario that became the inspirational slogan for the otherwise admirable Black Lives Matter movement. It was based upon the oft-broadcast false testimony of Brown’s friend, who’d hidden behind a parked car where other eyewitnesses—the tragedy went down in broad daylight in a largely African-American apartment complex—said he couldn’t possibly have seen what happened.

As a former prosecutor and attorney general of California, Kamala Harris surely knows these things, just as she probably remembers US Attorney General Eric Holder’s press conference announcing the report’s release. Elizabeth Warren also has no excuse. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler awarded them the maximum “Four Pinocchios.” They probably deserved eight.

Corey Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand managed to commemorate the tragedy without using the inflammatory word “murder.”

Alas, Ferguson soon morphed into a partisan loyalty test. It became just as important for some to see poor Michael Brown as the innocent victim of a bigoted white cop as for others to depict him as a marauding black thug.

Neither stereotype fits the facts. Wilson’s no KKK man, while all accounts depict Brown as a gentle giant who’d begun experiencing messianic delusions: reporting visions of Satan fighting angels in the sky, and wandering heedless in heavy traffic in the seeming belief that he couldn’t be hurt.

“Do you know who I am?” he demanded of the shopkeeper he bullied. The answer he sought probably wasn’t “Michael Brown.”

If he’d been a white suburban kid, he’d likelier have encountered a psychiatrist than a cop. It’s just a damn shame.

As for law and order, I agree with the estimable Ta-Nehisi Coates. “I do not favor lowering the standard of justice offered Officer Wilson,” he wrote. “I favor raising the standard of justice offered to the rest of us.”

IMAGE: Police hold a protester who was detained in Ferguson, Missouri, August 10, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

10 Times Police Killed The People They Were Called To Save

10 Times Police Killed The People They Were Called To Save

In San Diego, California, a mentally ill, unarmed black man died late Tuesday night at the hands of the police. His name was Alfred Olango, 30. Before his tragic death, the victim’s sister had contacted the police department for assistance. She said he was “not acting like himself.” So why did Olango end up dead shortly after they arrived?

To the contrary of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s claim at the 2016 Republican National Convention, police don’t always “just come to save you.” Here are 10 times police killed the very people they were called to help:

. Alfred Olango

Protests continue in San Diego where Olango was killed by police, and an investigation is underway.

“I told you he is sick. And you guys shot him!” Olango’s sister told officers in a Facebook video recorded live at the scene. “I called police to help him, not to kill him.”

2. Tawon Boyd

On September 18, Boyd, “feeling disoriented,” called 911 for help. He died the following Wednesday as a result of the altercation with the police who “repeatedly punched” him soon after they arrived.

3. Melissa Boarts

Boarts’ mother, Terry, feared her manic depressive daughter would hurt herself. Now, she insists she will never call the police again. “Parents called 911 to help suicidal daughter—and ‘police ended up putting a bullet in her,'” The Washington Post reported April 6, three days after the incident.

4. Quintonio LeGrier

Antonio, Quintonio LeGrier’s father, hoped police could help with his teenage son’s emotional troubles. Like the Boarts, he never expected they would end his son’s life. Quintonio LeGrier died on Dec. 26, 2015. His death has since led Chicago police to “undergo mandatory ‘de-escalation’ training.”

5. Jeremy McDole

In a truly bizarre turn of events, Wilmington police shot a paralyzed, wheelchair-bound man on Sept. 23, 2015, after receiving a 911 call that he had shot himself.

6. Jason Harrison

Shirley Marshall Harrison needed assistance getting her bipolar schizophrenic son to the hospital on June 14, 2014. According to the lawsuit, “the police had been to the Harrison home a hundred times or more without incident, as it was well-known in the home and community that Jason was nonviolent.”

7. Betty Sexton

On Feb. 18, 2015, Sexton called Gastonia police for help removing unwanted guests from her home. Sexton did possess a gun and had warned officers beforehand that there were weapons in the house. However, according to local reports, “Sexton made no threats and didn’t fire.”

8. Kevin Davis

Imagine Davis’ horror when he came home and found his girlfriend stabbed. Naturally, he called the police, only to have his own life taken. He died on Dec. 29, 2014.

9. Kaldrick Donald

Kaldrick Donald’s mother called the Gretna Police Department on Oct. 28, 2014. During the call she requested police conduct a Baker Act and take her son to a mental health facility. Instead, they killed the 24-year-old in his home.

10. Jack Lamar Roberson

Roberson called 911 on October 4, 2013, “after experiencing an adverse reaction to a medication he took for his diabetes,” according to the Huffington Post. But he never made it to the hospital. “They just came in and shot him,” Alicia Herron, Roberson’s fiancee said.

Photo: Agnes Hasam, a family friend of the Alfred Olango, speaks to protesters gathered at the El Cajon Police Department headquarters to protest fatal shooting of an unarmed black man Tuesday by officers in El Cajon, California, U.S. September 28, 2016.  REUTERS/Earnie Grafton

Congressman: Charlotte Protesters ‘Hate White People Because White People Are Successful’

Congressman: Charlotte Protesters ‘Hate White People Because White People Are Successful’

 

Representative Robert Pittenger (R-NC), a Congressman whose district includes parts of Charlotte, where Keith Lamont Scott was killed by police, told BBC Newsnight this week that protesters “hate white people, because white people are successful and they’re not.”

According to Pittenger, it’s this – and not the unjust killings of black Americans at the hands of police – that is driving the protests in Charlotte.

Pittenger continued his tone-deaf comments, adding, “It is a welfare state. We have spent trillions of dollars on welfare, and we’ve put people in bondage, so they can’t be all that they’re capable of being.”

North Carolina Democratic Party Executive Director Kimberly Reynolds called Pittenger’s comments “inexcusable.”

“At a time when we need calm and understanding while we learn more about the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, Congressman Pittenger is fanning the flames of hate with his racist rhetoric. This sort of bigotry has become all too common under the party of Donald Trump. Our great state should not be represented by someone who would make such hateful comments.”

After receiving criticism from all sides, Pittenger posted a response to the controversy on his website and apologized through a series of tweets.

He also appeared on CNN with host Don Lemon and tried to explain away his comments by stating they “weren’t meant in the context of how many viewed them.”

“Let’s walk through what you said,” Lemon pressed Pittenger. “You said, ‘They hate us — they hate us because we’re successful, they hate white people because we’re successful.’ How is that taken out of context, with all due respect?”

 

Pittenger responded, “I’ve come on the air to apologize in every way I can.”

Photo: Protesters walk in the streets downtown during another night of protests over the police shooting of Keith Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. September 22, 2016.  REUTERS/Mike Blake

Ferguson Activists Change Tactics, Targets

Ferguson Activists Change Tactics, Targets

By Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times

FERGUSON, Mo. — Fulfilling a promise he made to hundreds of activists the night before, Cornel West on Monday did exactly what he came to Ferguson to do: got arrested.
The activist and academic was among a crowd of dozens of clergy and other demonstrators who descended on the Ferguson police station Monday to protest the Aug. 9 police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, as well as the deaths of other black men across the U.S.
West, locking arms with several clergy from various denominations, marched toward a line of police in riot gear protecting the police station. They requested a meeting with Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, and then stepped forward into a line of officers who refused to budge.
After West and the other clergy were arrested, another line of clergy peacefully stepped forward and provoked their own arrests. By Monday afternoon, St. Louis County police said 48 demonstrators had been arrested at the police station and six had been arrested for sitting in a nearby intersection.
The Monday demonstration was among an array of scheduled protests in Ferguson and St. Louis called “Ferguson October,” which drew hundreds of activists from St. Louis and around the country. Other protests were held at a mall and at St. Louis City Hall, where at least one young man with a banner was arrested. Protesters converged on a Wal-Mart to acknowledge the August police shooting of John Crawford III at an Ohio store. And they showed up at a political fundraiser.
Earlier, crowds marched through the streets of St. Louis after midnight and occupied the campus of St. Louis University.
Joining the early-morning protest were the parents of 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers, who was shot and killed by an off-duty St. Louis police officer last week in the nearby neighborhood of Shaw. Myers’ family has said he was unarmed; police said they recovered a gun at the scene and three bullets Myers had fired at the officer, prompting 17 rounds of return fire.
No arrests were reported for the SLU protest, which drew some students from out of their dorms.
“The protesters were peaceful and did not cause any injuries or damage,” said university President Fred P. Pestello. “In consultation with St. Louis Police and our Department of Public Safety, it was our decision to not escalate the situation with any confrontation, especially since the protest was nonviolent.”
The protest movement that has emerged since Brown’s death in Ferguson has become more organized and diversified in its tactics and targets. Demonstrators have protested outside St. Louis Cardinals games, sometimes prompting ugly responses from fans; they have also unfurled a banner in a concert hall during a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performance. Some protesters have angrily cursed officers to their faces, others have prayed before lines of club-bearing police.
“The movement has matured. We are different protesters than in August,” said DeRay McKesson, 29, an activist from Minneapolis who travels to Ferguson for demonstrations.
In August, he said, the protests had emerged organically, fed by anger and a sense of injustice. “Now, it’s all of those, plus strategy,” McKesson said.
A generational fissure between young demonstrators and the older protest establishment broke open Sunday night, when a crowd of hundreds interrupted a rally of older speakers and heckled the president of the NAACP. Young speakers then came to the stage and spoke of a need for people in the streets, rather than platitudes.
From that viewpoint, Monday morning’s clergy protest could be viewed as a nexus between calls for street action and America’s tradition of civil disobedience.
Some pastors’ suits and frocks were drenched with rain as they sang “Wade in the Water,” an old spiritual. Where younger demonstrators had previously been stopped by a wall of riot police, the clergy marched deep into the Ferguson Police Department’s parking lot, sparking a few moments of confusion as some officers failed to stop them.
“We’re standing against the criminalization of young black men … and we believe as people of faith that our faith is supposed to look like something in public,” said Rev. Ben McBride, 37, of Oakland, Calif., after lining up with other clergy to force their own arrests.
Asked about the criticism from the youth the night before, McBride said, “The reality is, our young people are expressing some justified frustration with the faith community, with the world, with the status quo, so we’re here in solidarity. … It is a new movement, it is a new day, and we are not going to hold our young people back.”
Elle Dowd, 26, a youth missionary for the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, was among those arrested outside the police station, tweeting a “selfie” of her handcuffs.
Over Twitter, she told the Los Angeles Times that she was “here out of a deep love for both Black youth and police officers. We all deserve a better system aschildrenofgod (sic). Black lives matter. We stand (with you) & won’t stop til it’s better. We love you.”
When given the goodbye commonly shared during demonstrations in Ferguson — “stay safe” — Dowd responded, while still under arrest, “God doesn’t always call us to safety. God calls us to faithfulness.”

Photo via Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT

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