Friday, October 26, 2007

Rodney King All Over Again - It's Okay For Authorities to Beat Black People To Death

I guess this has nothing to do with race either.


What's Wrong With Florida's Prisons?

The shocking verdict came down despite a half hour of videotape that showed the guards hitting and kicking the 14-year-old, Martin Lee Anderson, and holding their hands over his mouth for as long as five minutes at a time, while the nurse stood by and watched. The jury seemed persuaded by the first and widely discredited autopsy report that blamed the boy's death on a sickle-cell condition, even though a second autopsy ordered by the state had ruled Anderson died from suffocation (the Justice Department has since announced it will investigate whether federal civil rights violations charges should be brought in the case). "It's wrong!" Anderson's mother, Gina Jones, shouted as she stormed out of the Panama City courtroom after the verdict was read. The Anderson decision was reminiscent of another bewildering verdict five years ago, when three Florida state prison guards charged with stomping 36-year-old inmate Frank Valdes to death in his cell in 1999 were acquitted — even though the guards' boot prints were found all over his back.

Both verdicts were vivid reminders of what critics call the rot of Florida's corrections culture. Despite its Sunshine State image, Florida's prisons and juvenile detention centers are often associated with the more troubled corrections systems of its Deep South neighbors. While no one is asking Florida to coddle its prisoners, adult or juvenile, many fear it has yet to break its dark habit of coddling abusive guards and other officials watching over those prisoners.
The rest of the story...

As Villager would say, we saw the tape; and he's completely limp while they're mandhandling him and slamming him to the ground. They did nothing wrong?

National Spotlight Causes DA Strategy Change In Jena Six Case

Apparently some white people are able to get it, and to be honest about race in the legal system:

From Kathy Gill,
From September 27
National Spotlight Causes DA Strategy Change
Update: Bell released from jail on $45,000 bond.

The Shreveport Times said last week that a lack of political leadership at the local and state level had created a vacuum for "Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the BBC" to fill. That (inter)national spotlight has kick-started Governor Kathleen Blanco (D) into action.

Blanco has persuaded LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters to re-try Mychal Bell as a juvenile, in conformance with two court rulings. Walters was on record saying he planned to appeal the Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that Bell was improperly tried as an adult.

Bell is the first Jena High School student to be tried after a December 2006 schoolyard fight with fellow student Justin Barker. Six students were eventually arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Four of the six were 17; Bell was 16; another student was 14.

Under Louisiana law, anyone who is 15 must be tried as an adult if the charge is attempted murder. However, the charge of battery -- the charge for which Bell stood trial -- is not on the "adult charge" list.

The DA called the attack on Barker pre-meditated. However, others assert that the attack was instigated because Barker was taunting Bailey about being beat up at a party a few nights earlier. Bailey was hit, by a white student, with beer bottles; that student was charged with simple battery and given probation.


The author responds to a comment: 7. To “unknown”

First, there are links in my timeline, I believe, that back up anything I said in comment #2.

No, I’m not a doctor. No, I didn’t examine Barker’s injuries. What I did was examine, in detail, probably a hundred “news” accounts of this case. Barker is described as having a black eye and a cut lip. No where have I read that he even needed stitches. He attended a social event that evening — suggesting his injuries were pretty minor.

Second, I am tired of a justice system that is not just.

Finally, I am QUITE tired of being accused of saying that I’m advocating no punishment — whether it’s for Bell or Genarlow Wilson. No Where … NO WHERE … have I made such a suggestion.

The punishment should fit the crime — and it doesn’t in either Bell or Wilson’s case. And I firmly believe that neither young man would be in the position they are in re the judicial system if they had been white. Both were A students; both were student athletes.

Kathy
http://uspolitics.about.com/b/a/208222.htm

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Divided We Fall - Michael Baisden on Jena 6 March

Baisden address so-called divisions amongst leadership and what was accomplished by the march, as he prepares for Un-equal Justice Fundraiser


Divided We Fall:

By Michael Baisden

Within twenty-four hours of the most powerful civil rights demonstration since the 60’s the critics frantically rushed to their microphones and laptops. What should have been a national celebration of unity and peaceful civil demonstration turned into a barrage of negative commentary and ridiculous questions.

Questions such as: What was accomplished by going to Jena, LA? Why wasn’t the march better organized? Why didn’t Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson march together? Since I was the primary person sounding the alarm for millions of my listeners to organize buses and to wear black to symbolize un-equal justice, allow me to answer those critics, loud and clear!

Let’s begin with the question of why Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton didn’t march together. On the morning of September 17 my manager Pamela Exum arrived in Jena, LA for a site inspection to finalize plans for the march. Due to bad weather the prior week her flight into Alexandria was canceled twice so Monday the 17th was the earliest date she could arrange a meeting with the Louisiana State police, who had primary responsibility for security. When she arrived at Ward 10 Park, which was the proposed staging area for the march by the NAACP she immediately called me on my cell phone and stated, “I don’t feel this is safe.”

Ward 10 Park is surrounded by woods, there’s only one road in and out, and by her estimation there was only enough space for no more then 5,000 protestors. Now keep in mind, this did not include parking space for the hundreds of cars, buses and motorcycles expected to roll into this tiny town.

But here’s where the real problem arouse, their original plan was to meet at the Ward 10 Park, march 2 ½ miles from the park to the courthouse and hold speeches, then march back 2 ½ miles to the park. Later Monday afternoon on a conference call lead by the NAACP a decision was made to cancel the march and hold all activities at the Ward 10 Park. All parties were asked to sign off, those groups included Rainbow PUSH (Jesse Jackson Group), Realizing The Dream (MLK III group), National Bar Association, National Action Network (Al Sharpton Group), Congressional Black Caucus, and the SCLC.

It was my decision not to agree to this plan, mainly because I anticipated over 50,000 protestors. And because there was a rap concert planned in the park later that evening. This plan would have been feasible for 5,000 with no vehicles on site, but there was no way I would agree to putting tens of thousands of my listeners in a potentially dangerous situation. Everyone who saw the area located around the courthouse knows it could not hold 50,000 let alone 5,000, and then do an about face back to the park, I don’t think so!

My responsibility was not to any of these groups, my concern was the tens of thousands of listeners who were headed to Jena, LA because of the call I put out along with other radio personalities.

Ms. Exum made her objection, informed everyone that I was not agreeable to this plan and it would not be promoted on my show, but that we would not interfere with their plans. She then took a ride with the Louisiana State Police and mapped out a new route which started at the courthouse to the Jena High school, then to the Jena City Park where buses would be boarded to make a prompt exit. She e-mailed all parties involved as a courtesy. Rev. Sharpton, The Congressional Black Caucus, National Bar Association, and five of the Jena 6 families all agreed to OUR plan. We all felt it was imperative for the protestors to march passed the Jena High school, the scene of the crime. I announced the itinerary on the air and placed it on the minglecity.com banner.

There wasn’t any riff between Rev. Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, or any other organization; they were all free to go along with the original plan at the Ward 10 Park, if they so desired. Everyone chose the plan they felt best suited their organizations, period!

To the question of why the march wasn’t better organized, there is no way to effectively move 50,000 people in and out of a town where the entire population is 3,000, no one was at fault; it was simply overwhelming. Once the vast majority of people missed the original 9:00 a.m. speech at the courthouse, which by the way, was on time, they were left to march once they arrived, and I’m proud to say they all did without a single incident.

Lastly, to the critics who sarcastically ask, what was accomplished by marching on Jena? Over 50,000 men, women, and children of all races made a statement to the nation and to the world that we are fed up with the un-just legal system, that we will not allow our children to be locked away in prison for 20 years for a high school brawl, and the most important statement of all, we will fight for what we believe in; not just sit back on our behind and complain and criticize but actually do something! Every movement has to have a beginning, and this is it. So instead of asking the ridiculous question of why were we there, maybe you should be asking yourself, why weren’t you!!!

http://www.michaelbaisden.com/Article.asp?id=470156

Monday, October 22, 2007

While Jim Crow Defenders Tout Law Enforcement in Jena 6 Case, They Ignore the National Bar Associations

They can’t say the national group of lawyers knows nothing about the law; to the contrary, they’re experts.



The NBA “has 84 affiliate chapters throughout the United States and affiliations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Africa and the Caribbean. It represents a professional network of over 40,000 lawyers, judges, educators and law students.”

http://www.nationalbar.org/news/releases/release091407.shtml
Bar Association President Vinita Banks sees the application of law and enforcement as abuse of prosecutorial power on the basis of race: “The public concern of abuse of prosecutorial power goes beyond the local legal issues of abuse. Instead, it goes to the national interest in fairness in the application of the law, and that the law is not selectively applied in contravention of constitutionally protected rights, --in this case on the basis of race.”

Also, with the fact that the FBI said the hanging of the nooses was a hate crime from day one, and recommended it as such to the Justice Department; and now the U.S. Attorney in Louisiana has finally admit himself that it's a hate crime, they can't hide behind that anymore.

Yet they feebly try. They including white so-called "progressives" who have now betrayed the Black community one time too many; but this time, the betrayal will not ride.

Nationalist Black Leadership Confrence...As We Go Forth From This Place

Taken from http://www.bringbackblack.org/

As I told you about here the weekend before last there was a Black Nationalist confrence in North Carolina. Here are, I believe, some words from the confrence on the purpose:

Now, I personally am not religious. I do however, consider myself to be a deeply Spiritual person, a “metaphysician” if you will. Notwithstanding that, I know that the Creator Spirit cannot be circumscribed by any belief system, even that which I have chosen for myself. Words in print are physical, the meaning that words are meant to convey are meta-physical; beyond the physical. Therefore, valuable lessons can be gleaned from any book, “holy” or otherwise…, if one knows how to discern the “moral-to-the-story” from the words. If I were speaking to an audience largely composed of people steeped in the Muslim tradition, I would use the Koran as a source-book; likewise, if I were speaking to a gathering of Original Hebrew Israelites I would endeavor to draw from the Torah and Talmud. However, knowing that the vast majority of those gathered here have been influenced by the Christian religion, it is appropriate that I use the Bible as my frame of reference. Those of you who are no longer of that tradition, bear with me.

Some 2,000 years ago, one of our great Ancestors (who might well have been history’s first victim of ‘identity-theft’), was reported to have said of his mission on Earth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” And to distinguish himself from his opposites he said: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” I trust that you will agree with me that the National Black Alliance Network, the New MATTAH Movement, and the NATIONALIST Black Leadership Coalition, have joined forces that our people, The Elect of OUR Creator, WILL have life, and have it more abundantly! Ase and Amen-Ra!!

There are two ‘book-end’ themes for today’s birth-giving program: 1) “Bringing Back the Spirit of the Million Man March,” which Brother Jim Clingman addressed in his opening charge to us this morning and which guided us throughout today’s activities; and 2) “Strengthening the Weakest Patch,” which I will endeavor to encourage you all to commit to as we prepare to go forth from this place and this historic gathering. Those of you who have visited our web site are probably familiar with the paper I wrote entitled “The Patch-Quilt Analogy Explained,” a few copies of which were available here at my booth. If you have not read it in advance, I urge you to visit our site when you return home and study the document. What I will talk about for the next few minutes will make sense when considered in that context.

Twelve-Step programs for recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction maintain that a pre-condition to recovery is that the addict admit he/she is sick. I maintain that we Black folks are sick, and any hope for recovery from our illness requires that we too admit to our condition. Then we can decide on a regimen that can bring about a cure. Heretofore we have either been in denial about being sick, or we have settled for treating the symptoms. That is tantamount to putting the proverbial “band-aid on a cancer.”

The sickness we Blacks suffer from is not a ‘natural’ one. It is a dis-ease concocted by Europeans for the purpose of facilitating our enslavement for their economic gain. I insist that contrary to popular belief, NO slaves were ever brought to America or the Western Hemisphere. Hue-man beings were captured from different parts of Africa, brought to these shores in the holds of boats, and sold into bondage. After that began a process of converting those hue-mans into slaves. That slave conversion was a process, not an event, and the process extended some sixty to eighty years. In other words, those ancestors of yours and mine did not hop off the boat in Savannah or Charleston, and start saying “y’assuh boss! They had to first be “broken,” and conditioned to accept their predicament as being hopeless and inescapable. They had to be divested of their very humanity, and convinced that even their Creator-Spirit had abandoned them to the white supremacists and their racist vanguard!

Even then, many of them merely adapted to the circumstances into which they’d been forced, intending to bide their time until an opportunity presented itself to either kill their enemy, or escape from his clutches. Eventually, the slave makers decided to embark upon a scheme to selectively breed the bondsmen, in much the same way they do with dogs and cats to get the myriad combobulations of those two hapless creatures that we see today. Captives were bred for the right combination of physical strength and mental docility; big strong “bucks,” and hefty, buxom “wenches.” Bucks were valued for their virility and capacity to sire offspring; wenches for their fertility, their ability to have many babies, yet require minimum “down-time” from missed work. Success with this breeding approach enabled the slavers to discontinue the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which had proved to be increasingly problematic due to the propensity of unbroken new captives fresh from Africa to resist bondage, and “make mischief” by inciting previously ‘conditioned’ slaves to revolt. Many Africans who refused to allow their humanity to be take away managed to escape, some to join forces with “tribes” of Native Americans who also had refused to succumb to servitude for the White man. An accurate depiction of one of the procedures used by slave makers is contained in the document titled: “Sixty Four Years to Make A Negro,” which should be required reading for every person of African descent in the world, but most particularly here in America!

It explained how Africans were to be “broken from one form of life to another;” to be “reduced from their natural state in nature;” “whereas nature provides them with the natural capacity to take care of their needs and the needs of their offspring, we break that natural sting of independence from them and thereby create a dependency state so that we may be able to get from them useful production for our business and pleasure.” With that “breaking” process completed, the slave-makers had successfully created a new creature, a slave or Negro, which he then described thusly: “Negro means one who has lost the knowledge of himself and is living an unnatural life contrary to his nature.” What can be more “sick” than a creature that is living an unnatural life contrary to its very nature? We are sick!

The process used to convert our African ancestors into slaves and Negros has never been reversed! I submit to you that it is impossible to reverse the effects resulting from a process, with anything less than an even more effective process. Black folks have tried to accomplish this feat by engaging in events. No matter how wonderful an event may be, or how often we engage in them, events cannot and will not reverse the effects caused by a process!! Slave makers used a process to make our people sick, we who have survived that travesty must now implement a process to bring about the long-overdue healing! This we CAN! This we MUST!! And this we SHALL!!!

Brother Jim Clingman initiated our healing process when he called out to Conscious Blacks across the country to join him in Cincinnati on December 9, 2006 for a day of deliberation about the condition of our people. Over 100 of us responded and traveled to that city at our own expense; something not heard of among Black folks since the early 1960s, before advent of the “War on Poverty” and our discovery of ‘conventioneering’ paid for by agencies funded by federal dollars! We sketched out a plan for action that included setting up ten (10) task forces covering major areas of human needs. Those task forces were to report back at a subsequent gathering in four months. That meeting was held in Atlanta, organized by Mwalimu Joe Seyoum Lewis and Brothers Saadiq Mance, Chike Akua, and Ashiki Taylor. Nearly 250 self-determinists participated in that event over the course of two days. The requisite reports were given by task force chairpersons, and the decision made to hold a birth-giving convention to launch a new national organization, a Black Nationalist, self-determinist organization which would develop the capacity to serve the needs, and advance the interests of Black people in much the same manner as the American Jewish Congress is known to do for our Jewish counterparts!

The “64 Years to make a Negro” document concluded by saying:
“Always remember that the purpose and intent was to create a slave consciousness. Now that this has been accomplished, he will do whatever you will him to do because your mind is his master and his desire is to please you. The time span of sixty-four years (1555 to 1619) has been well spent and should last for centuries until someone comes along and changes the consciousness. Beware of outside influences like their people looking for them or trying to influence their thinking, because once the slave chain of thought is broken by a higher power, then our control over the Negro will be lost. As long as they believe that we are God’s people, then we are secure.”

We have been made sick, mentally, morally, and emotionally sick; and spiritually bereft! As Brother Dalani Aamon would say, a transformation is in order! The Christian Bible advises us to “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind!” We can no longer allow our people’s minds to remain in the possession of our former slavemasters, with no stronger desire than to please that beast! The sickness imposed upon us has indeed lasted for centuries, four-and-a-half centuries as a matter of fact; most of which time we have mentally, emotionally, and spiritually wandered in the wilderness of a land not of our choosing. But ‘that old book called Bible,’ appropriated from our Ancestors, promises that: “Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye shall have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.” Sounds like Black folks to me!

Then the prophet goes on to say: “Yet behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their DOINGS: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.”

So, As We Go Forth From This Place…..

Brothers and Sisters, my fellow Nationalists, Pan-Africanists, Garveyites, Africentrists, self-determinists, ‘Conscious’ Blacks, and those who may eschew labels, but just love Black folks! YOU…, and I…, WE…, are the remnant prophesied in scripture!! “And they shall comfort you when you see their ways and their DOINGS.” Our Creator Spirit has conscripted all of us into Its service, and made promises to our people that they will be comforted when they see the ways in which we will conduct ourselves and our affairs, and by our WORKS! (“Doology” as my friend Minister Lawrance Lee Evans calls it).

The Creator Spirit of the African Family has made a promise to Its people, and charged you and me with responsibility for keeping it! WE are the instrument by which our Creator will “…gather the remnant of my flock out of the countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I shall set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saiith the Lord.”

But if…, if you and I are to prove ourselves worthy of this celestial assignment, we must take heed of yet another scriptural injunction: “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the Kingdom of heaven.” I interpret this to mean that unless we Nationalists have greater spiritual conviction than the integrationists, assimilationists, and White folks, we cannot and will not succeed! After all: “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”

The remnant referred to in scripture, correlates to the “patch” referred to in my ‘Patch-Quilt’ Analogy. We have been rent-asunder, and become scattered and weak, but we have a charge to keep: We MUST ‘strengthen the weakest patch!’ No less a Force than our own Creator Spirit has ordained that it must be so, and “…of he to whom much is given, much is required;” and you and I Brothers and Sisters, have been given the “Keys to the Kingdom!!! Let’s start opening doors!

Baba Amefika D. Geuka
October 13, 2007
Kernersville, North Carolina

Here’s to this flag of mine,
The Red, Black and Green;
Hopes in its future bright,
Africa has seen.

Here’s to the Red of it,
Great nations shall know of it
In time to come;
Red blood shall flow for it,
Historians shall write of it,
Great flag of mine.

Here’s to the Black of it,
Four hundred millions back of it,
Whose destiny depends on it,
The Red Black and Green of it,
Oh, flag of mine.

Here’s to the Green of it,
Young men shall dream of it,
Face shot and shell for it,
Maidens shall sing of it,
Waving so high.

Here’s to the Whole of it,
Colors bright, and pole of it,
Pleased is my soul with it,
Regardless of what is told of it;
Thank GOD for giving it,
Great flag of mine!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

CNN Video Interview with Jena 6 Defendant Bryant Purvis and Mother Tina Jones

Jena Hearings, What Was Accomplished

This is from Alan Bean at Friend's of Justice.

Jena Hearing Postscript
October 17th, 2007 at 3:46 pm (Uncategorized)

In the end, what was accomplished? Most committee members aimed their questions at US Attorney Donald Washington, the man who has been consistently unplaying the seriousness of the noose incident since mid-June. Washington initially felt pressured to side with Jena officials in this matter; now, with some pressure coming from opponents of the status quo, the political appointee has adapted his testimony . . . slightly. It is no longer possible for noose apologists to site Mr. Washington as an ally. So far, so good.

Tragically, most of the people interrogating Mr. Washington and his associate, Lisa Krigsten, seem to feel that the noose hangers should have been tried as adults under federal hate crimes law, even if this meant locking them up for ten years without parole (remember, parole has been eliminated from the federal judicial system).

There are two problems: (1) the limp response of Jena officials to the noose incident; and (2) an inept reaction on the part of the Department of Justice that, in the minds of most observers, appeared to validate the inaction of folks like Roy Breithaupt and Reed Walters.

The hearings represent a giant step forward. They would have been more effective, however, if more attention had been paid to the egregious behavior of Reed and Roy. When Mr. Sharpton focuses on the noose boys he lets Jena officials slip into the shadows.

But this is just a matter of emphasis. The significant fact is that hardly anyone, Democrat or Republican, made the slightest attempt to defend the indefensible. The very fact that most Republicans chose to be elsewhere suggests they have no appetite for this fight.

Unfortunately, proponents of a knee-jerk law-and-order, lock-em-up philosophy don’t have to fight–they currently control the public policy agenda. Nonetheless, we congratulate Mr. Conyers for convening an illuminating hearing on a timely topic.

http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/2007/10/17/jena-hearing-transcript/#comment-2480