ZACH HAMMOND FAMILY: WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE FOR WHITE PEOPLE KILLED BY POLICE?

Zachary Hammond, a white teen, was shot to death over a "drug sting" that involved 10 grams of marijuana. Police appear to imply that Hammond was shot dead because he used his car as a weapon to run officer(s) down.

However, a new private autopsy appears to show that the bullets did not enter Hammond from the front. It appears he was shot from the side instead.

Zachary's case has not made a big splash in national news. Hiding their irritation over this lack of attention fairly badly, this is what the Hammond's had a lawyer say on their behalf: 

“It’s sad, but I think the reason is, unfortunately, the media and our government officials have treated the death of an unarmed white teenager differently than they would have if this were a death of an unarmed black teen,” Bland told The Washington Post this week. “The hypocrisy that has been shown toward this is really disconcerting.”

He added: “The issue should never be what is the color of  the victim. The issue should be: Why was an unarmed teen gunned down in a situation where deadly force was not even justified?”

Eric Bland 

Attorney Representing Zach Hammond's Parents

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/06/an-unarmed-white-teen-was-shot-dead-by-police-his-family-asks-where-is-the-outrage/?tid=pm_national_pop_b

Their son is shot down like a dog and this is what they reach for a bottle of white entitlement, guzzle it down, and have a representative start spewing.

As you may have guessed, when I first read this, the vast majority of my sympathy for the Hammond family just leaked out through the soles of my feet and into the ground.  Be aware that when I first read the caption of the article I had plenty of sympathy for a young man killed for nothing. So the ground beneath my feet got soaked to quicksand consistency with the sympathy that poured out of me due to when I read what about poor, white us.

However, some of my empathy came back when I thought a little harder about what is being said here and why. They want their son's death raised up. I understand that. And while the method by which they are complaining about this lack of visibility is the usual black preferential treatment schtick.  I  understand that too. I've lived around white people my entire life. How could I not understand it. I just wish the Hammond family's hard-heartedness wasn't so very typical.

But the truth is, if I was white and 90% of my neighbors are white with the 10% that aren't white were usually silent on race or doing a mime-agreement of whatever I say when racial subjects come up, I'd be thinking that white experience is everybody's experience as well. And I, as a white person, would be thinking that black people, brown people, and Native American people are not having white experience because they are doing life wrong, too.

I'd probably be thinking the very same things the Hammond family attorney is expressing here, if my son was dead and I was white. Yes, I'd probably believe my white son's death doesn't matter because those people, those privileged black people, get all the attention just because they are black.

Maybe I'd be tired of black people playing the race card and grabbing all the attention for themselves all the time. Maybe I'd be as firmly biased in favor of whites and whiteness while claiming colorblindness. Maybe I'd be executing and reproducing racism without any consciously racist thoughts too. Maybe I'd be the very subject of  a book called "Racism Without Racists" without even knowing it.

Okay. I've exaggerated a little bit here, for effect. But the racial-numb-skull routine and soft shoe black people bashing that attends it,  has gotten on my last nerve.  And I'm not confused about what the colorblind and #AllLivesMatter people are saying.


I'm not white. Therefore I see race just fine. 'I am colorblind' which can usually be translated into 'I think everybody is white just like me' doesn't even begin to compute for me.

What's more, I think Zachery might still be alive if Zachery's parents and thousands of white parents just like them acknowledged race and understood that #BlackLivesMatter means "Black Lives Matter TOO" because police choices of who to murder are too often based on race.  And if Hammond's parents and thousands of white people just like them cared about people that don't look like them in an empathetic way, they'd notice then understand that police killing any demographic with impunity means MY DEMOGRAPHIC is in danger as well. 

Empathy is a logical, emotion operated, self-interest if you actually stop and think about it.  And the Hammonds, among many others, are not operating it very well. 


According to the Washington Post article quoted above, so far this year 25% of the people shot by police have been black while blacks are only 12 to 13% of the population. That is, 100% more of black people have been shot by police than is representative of the black population in the United States. 

And when you look at unarmed black people the disparity based on race gets even worse.

Since 2015 began, according to an interactive news website run by "The Guardian" 148* unarmed people have been killed by police.  If race had no impact on who police are shooting,  18 of those 148 unarmed dead via police would be black as blacks are 12% of the population and 102 would be white as white people are 69% of the population.

(*data as of August 8, 2015)

Instead of 18, so far this year  55* unarmed black people have died at the hands of police. And instead of 102, only 61* unarmed white people died at the hands of police this year.

(*data as of August 8, 2015)

Conclusion 1 :  Three times as many black people are among the unarmed dead as there should be.

Conclusion 2: Whiteness appears to act as a bullet proof vest when out of control, violent police officers are around. 

Conclusion 3: Zach Hammond appears to have been one exceptionally unlucky white male.

Conclusion 4: White people just like Hammond are destined to get unluckier and unluckier for so long as #BlackLivesMatter isn't taken more seriously by a wider range of people. 

The police have had lots of practice moving with impunity because there has been little or no outrage from the white community over black deaths until Trayvon Martin Verdict and the birth of  #BlackLivesMatter two days later.

And post #BlackLivesMatter the white outrage over the deaths of black people is about 10 to 20% of what it will need to be effect change in our criminal justice system as white people are 69% of our country's population.

So here is one response to the implied question, "WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE FOR MY WHITE PEOPLE LIKE MY SON, WHO HAS BEEN KILLED UNJUSTLY BY POLICE?"

'It’s sad, but I think the reason is, unfortunately, the media and our government officials have treated the death of an unarmed white teenager' in the same invisible manner as any black person who was killed by police prior to #BlackLivesMatter  because Hammond's parents, as represented by Eric Bland, and most of their white neighbors didn't give a damn about police shooting people unjustly when the injustice was based on race.  

DebLynn

The lesson for all the Hammonds out there is kindergarten simple. If you care about injustice everywhere, even when it's based on race, you reduce injustice everywhere.

If Zach Hammonds white parents and white grandparents and all their white neighbors had been concerned about police murdering black people sans consequence for decades,WE WOULD ALL have a check and balances system in place that doesn't involve police departments, prosecutors, and judges circle-jerk investigating themselves after somebody winds up dead over something as  stupid as 10 grams of marijuana that'll probably be legal in all 50 states before 15 years has passed.

When you refuse to wink at injustice happening to people who don't look like you, you decrease the chances that injustice comes knocking on your door.  #BlackLivesMatter supporters who are black, white, asian, latino, native american, middle eastern etc., all of us, figured this out long ago.

So I can tell Zach Hammond's family and their representative, Eric Bland, exactly where the outrage for their son is.  The national outrage over the death of their son is probably located in the very same place as their own outrage for  Yvette Smith, Rekia Boyd, and Natasha McKenna and 99% of  unarmed black people, male or female, killed prior to the Trayvon Martin Verdict and #BlackLivesMatter. 
All that outrage is mixed together, sitting in a red, white, and blue box marked, "TSK-TSK IF THEY HAD JUST OBEYED THE LAW THEY'D STILL BE ALIVE."  A box that wouldn't exist without their silent, colorblind complicity newly shoved under the #AllLivesMatter banner.

I suggest that the Hammond family stop playing their race card --even if it is always an ace when you're white-- because I've seen more coverage of their son's death by #BlackLivesMatter activists and black websites than anywhere else.  And the #AllLivesMatter "activists" (ha-ha) that the Hammonds appear to have aligned themselves with are nowhere to be found.

Or did I miss the #AllLivesMatter March for their son? 

The lack of concern shown by the #AllLivesMatter crowd shows "the woke" just one more time that #AllLivesMatter has but one concern. They want to make sure that nobody notices that police are shooting unarmed black people, brown people, and native american people at such high numbers simply because they easily observable to be NOT WHITE.

Race Matters.Even if #AllLivesMatter does decide to march, protest, or do something other than e-race racial disparities in all these police killings, a decision to ignore what is happening to people that don't look like you is deadly. 

Time will prove us right on this.  You cannot give a group like the police absolute power and not have them become accustomed to using that power at will. They've already started killing white homeless people. It's a matter of time before these policemen reach a little too deeply into the white middle class. White supremacy based or not, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Police will start "feeling themselves" more every single time one of them walks away after something as blatantly wrong as the killing of Eric Garner, Natasha McKenna, Rekia Boyd, Sandra Bland, and Sam DuBose.

But how many middle class white people will have to die per year before the unchecked power of the police is perceived as a problem? 200? 500? 1000? And how many multiple thousands of black people will be dying per year when that happens?  It's likely that the rest of us will always be dying at a rate 10 to 100x the white middle class, right?
It's time for a tough love response to Hammonds parents and everyone like them. So, somebody sound the alarm.  White allies have clean up to do in their lane.  





 

NO NONSENSE NURTURER CLASSROOM (FOR BLACK AND BROWN KIDS?)

You know how black and brown people are e-raced from many movies, television programs, magazines, and commercials? You know how there's often this illusion put forth by the main stream media that the entire country is entirely white? Yes? Have a picture in your head? Good.

Because you have the exact opposite going on in the advertisement for this "No Nonsense Nurturer" program that teaches new teachers how to discipline children and keep order in a classroom.

Still From The No Nonsense Nurturer Classroom Advertisement

Again, "No Nonsense Nurturer" is a program that teaches teachers how to control a classroom or how to rule the unruly students. In the video advertisement, to sell this program to schools, there were approximately 6 or 7 images chock full of black and brown school children within 12 seconds, before you even get to see the title page of the video.

A few seconds later there were images of the teachers: I saw white man, white woman, and a brown skinned woman with what looked to have an Indian last name.  Is it just me or are the optics problematic? There is an over-representation of black and brown skin in a video about discipline problems in schools. More than that, I think maybe unintended white supremacy attitudes are shining through once more.

Again, this "popular" program possibly being used in a school near you appears to be for teachers who haven't learned to control their classrooms. Instead of using another teacher-slash-human-being to teach the new teacher how to control their classrooms, this program introduces a bug and a earpiece into the classroom environment.

Yes, I said "a bug" - someone listens to everything that's going on in the classroom. They might be able to see as well. And the kids can see the earpiece.  They know someone outside the classroom is controlling the teacher.

Gee, I wonder how kids will feel about privacy policy in the future if they get used to being bugged when they are 5 years old.  But I digress.

The teacher wears the earpiece. Someone, the person on the other side of the bug, else tells the teacher how to respond to a child who is, for example, repeatedly talking out of turn or out of their seat without permission with standardized responses. The person on the other side of the bug even tells the teacher what body positions to use ("Stand in Mountain Pose").

Schools are doing all this instead teaching the teacher to respond to the child like an individual human being.


The thing I worry about most is in the article:

Robotic Step 1) Say this
Robotic Step 2) Do that
Robotic Step 3) Child doesn't obey twice in row
Robotic Step 4) Send child for formal discipline which winds up in your child's written record.

I see formal discipline for dark-skinned students multiplying exponentially in my crystal ball. I see this reducing the chances of the teacher EVER having a nurturing relationship with the students, a relationship without which I might not even be here.

What do YOU see in this video? In this program?

What kind of education is your child getting as a result of this treatment?

Just as important, who is being hired, disciplined, and fired in your school district if the voice in the teacher's ear is wrong just as often as it's right? What if the "natural teachers" the stellar teachers coming up through the ranks absolutely do not fit with the "No Nonsense Nurturer Classroom?"

Isn't this just a scam to get money out of your local school district?

What do you think?

I'm not even sure if a *calmer classroom* matters but so much if the teacher-student relationship is broken. If a teacher can't learn to teach from another human-being maybe the wanna-be-teacher and the teacher job is simply a bad fit. But I'd hate to lose great teachers because the bug and ear-piece instructions were the source of the bad fit.  Wouldn't you?

I think the uglier aspects of our sci-fi projected future are here.





And again, why do I see so many black and brown students in the first few seconds of this advertisement for a training program that teaches teachers who need to learn how to deal with "discipline problems?"  I'm confused. Somebody explain it to me.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/07/25/teacher-blasts-popular-classroom-training-program-it-is-turning-us-into-robots/

BILL COSBY AND DARREN SHARPER: A COMPARISON

I am thinking that Darren Sharper, and other NFL players were  rapists before they retired.

What likely ended when Sharper and other black players played their last games for the NFL was white male protection.

---Same as Cosby?

Feeling Rebloggy

Sharper's rampage of druggings and rapes could have been prevented, according to a two-month investigation by ProPublica and The New Orleans Advocate based on police records in five states, hundreds of pages of court documents and dozens of interviews across the country.

Nine women reported being raped or drugged by Sharper to four different agencies before his January 2014 capture. But police and prosecutors along the way failed to investigate fully the women's allegations. They made no arrests. Some victims and eyewitnesses felt their claims were downplayed. Corroborating evidence, including DNA matches and video surveillance, was minimized or put on hold.

Perhaps most critically, police did not inquire into Sharper's history. Had they done so, they would have detected a chilling predatory pattern that strongly bolstered the women's accounts.

Sharper typically chose victims who were white women in their early 20s, records show. He picked them up in pairs at nightclubs, and took them home to his hotel or residence. Sharper had drinks with them, sometimes lacing drinks he gave the women with drugs that rendered them unconscious.

Jan. 8, 2011: Darren Sharper plays in his final NFL game as a member of the New Orleans Saints, a playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He would officially retire at the end of 2011 after 14 seasons, finishing with 63 career interceptions and 13 defensive touchdowns.
March 18, 2011: Two women file a report with the Miami Beach Police Department alleging sexual assault at Sharper's condo.
March 23, 2011: Miami Beach police close the investigation, classifying it as "miscellaneous/non criminal." They later destroy the rape kits.
Feb. 2, 2013: Sharper allegedly helps to drug a woman the night of a pre-Super Bowl party in New Orleans. The woman is allegedly sexually assaulted by Brandon Licciardi, Sharper's friend and a St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's deputy.
Aug. 31, 2013: Sharper allegedly rapes a woman in New Orleans.
Sept. 23, 2013: Sharper and Licciardi allegedly drug two women in New Orleans. Sharper and accomplice Erik Nunez then rape the women, authorities say. One victim files a report with the New Orleans Police Department.
Oct. 30, 2013: Sharper meets two women at a West Hollywood nightclub, takes them to his hotel room, drugs them and rapes one of the women.
Nov. 7, 2013: One of Sharper's victims from West Hollywood reports the assault to the Los Angeles Police Department. Detective John Macchiarella opens an investigation.
Nov. 20, 2013: Sharper drugs three Arizona State University female students in Tempe, Ariz., and rapes two of them. Victims get sexual assault examinations within 12 hours and file report with Tempe Police Department.
Jan. 14, 2014: Sharper picks up two women at same West Hollywood nightclub, drugs both and rapes one at his hotel. Victims report the incident to Los Angeles police and receive rape examinations.
Jan. 15, 2014: Sharper meets two women and a man in a Las Vegas club, drugs all three. With the women back in his hotel room and unconscious, Sharper sexually assaults both.
Jan. 17, 2014: Los Angeles police arrest Sharper on two counts of sexual assault.
Feb. 27, 2014: New Orleans police issue arrest warrant for Sharper on two rape counts.
March 11, 2014: Grand jury in Arizona files criminal charges against Sharper in Tempe case with two counts of administering dangerous drugs and two counts of sex assault.

Pro-Publica.com

Read More:  https://www.propublica.org/article/police-fail-stop-nfl-darren-sharper-rape-spree?utm_campaign=sprout&utm_medium=social&amp

If you don't believe Sharper was likely a rapist during his football career, the other choice is to surmise that something broke in his head just as he retired; His being a rapist coming to light is just a coincidence?  

Or, maybe the stress of not bringing in millions of dollars per year broke him. And he became a rapist because he was emotionally overwhelmed. But I've drugging and raping multiple women in a single session seems like advanced-serial-raping to me.

Therefore, I think it's  more likely that Darren Sharper was the same man he always was, --during his NFL career and after it -- that the only thing that really changed post-retirement was that he was no longer pulling down millions of dollars for his NFL owner. 

And this sounds Cosby familiar to me. Does it to you? 

BLACKCHICKROCKED.BLOGSPOT.COM

THE TOLERATION OF MAGIC & THE HOUSE YOU LIVE IN

"THE HOUSE YOU LIVE IN" is the name of a Free Housing Discrimination Documentary - through September 7th 2015. See Link Below

But first, Ta-Nehisi Coates

...TOLERATION OF BLACK DISADVANTAGE 

in a world where that disadvantage 

is rarely forthrightly explained, 

LEADS TO THE TOLERATION OF MAGIC...

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Put Differently,
if a society has a history of believing
that black people are less than human,
and yet repeatedly sees
black people living in conditions unlike
other humans in that society,
the original belief is reified.

...[T]he racist practice of redlining black people
did not just rob black people of wealth,
it reinforced racist beliefs already present.

***BECAUSE I AM BLACK, my interest rates and my payments are higher than yours.

***BECAUSE MY PAYMENTS ARE HIGHER
I cannot keep up my property as well as you [do in your neighborhood]
and I need to work a second job to keep up with the higher payments]

***BECAUSE...I WORK A SECOND JOB []
I am not around to supervise my kids

YOU
DON'T
EVER
SEE
the absurd
[high interest/high payment
mortgage]
on my house.

***BUT YOU DO SEE my gutters falling off.

***[BUT YOU DO] SEE my kids out past the hour of streetlights.

No one told you about redlining.
But many people told you that I am lazy and prone to criminality.
You have been told this since somewhere around the 18th century.

And now you see that when I move next door,
[YOU MAY NOT SEE or notice
that some of your other white neighbors move out,
BUT YOU DO SEE] property values dip,

AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD BECOMES A GHETTO

****************
Where science is concealed, magic reigns.
And you will be forgiven for believing
that the fact of the ghetto,
is the fact of my lesser humanity.

And with that lessened humanity,
with all the requisite stereotypes,
comes an entire belief system
that tolerates the killing of Trayvon Martin
by a man who then tours the factory
where the weapon he used
to slaughter a child was made...

Ta-Nehisi Coates for THE ATLANTIC

READ MORE:http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/09/the-killing-of-jonathan-ferrell-in-context/279953/

In light of the continuing plague of neighborhood segregation, housing discrimination, and gentrification, California Newsreelhas posted a video online for free public viewing called “The House You Live In.” It is an episode from their documentary film, “RACE—The Power of an Illusion.”

The episode reveals some of the discriminatory policies supported by the federal government after World War II and the legacy of those policies today.  Viewers are welcome to stream and share this segment through Sept. 7, 2015. And check out our recommended teaching materials below.

http://zinnedproject.org/2015/08/free-viewing-the-house-you-live-in/

Direct Link To Video

https://vimeo.com/133506632

HOW TO RACE BAIT, A MICRO DOCUMENTARY

This video describes social construction. It starts at the linking of black skin to slavery in the United States and moves through to incarceration.


Moving through the first pages of Howard Zinn's "People's History Of The United States" to Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow" to current events this micro-documentary covers slavery; indentured servants; Jim Crow; police brutality; the true level of poverty in the U.S. at fifty percent; current events (Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose) and how most of this feeds the Prison Industrial Complex which already has too many of us in its teeth.

There isn't a lot that's new in the first 5 minutes, but it's concise and well presented. And the three tiered structure used as a framework, though hardly all inclusive racially speaking, makes the divide and conquer being used by the rich, from 1600s to now, very clear.



As for the last five minutes:

Half the country being low-income or below the poverty line will have me doing a  little research. I had no idea.

I knew that 50% of Black Americans graduate high school. But I didn't know that only 75% of white Americans graduate high school.

For me, this is yet another reminder that it always pays to seek out the white statistic when you keep hearing a negative black statistic over and over again. The first time I learned this was when I found out Black on Black Crime and White on White Crime which both stay at or above 85% every single year.  You wouldn't know that by how often "Black on Black" crime is mentioned by Black Americans much less the main stream news media. But this fact is easily found by looking at FBI UCR Data available online.  


Give this video 2 minutes before you decide if you want to hear the whole thing.  It covers a lot of ground in a short time.

PRESIDENT OBAMA MAKING GOOD ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM: PELL GRANTS FOR PRISONERS

Feeling Rebloggy 

The plan, set to be unveiled in July 2015 by the Secretary of Education and the Attorney General, would allow potentially thousands of inmates in the U.S. to gain access to Pell grants, the main form of federal aid for low-income college students. The grants cover up to $5,775 a year in tuition, fees, books and other education-related expenses.

Prisoners received $34 million in Pell Grants in 1993, according to figures the Department of Education provided to Congress at the time. But a year later, Congress prohibited state and federal prison inmates from getting Pell grants as part of broad anticrime legislation, leading to a sharp drop in the number of in-prison college programs. Supporters of the ban contended federal aid should only go to law-abiding citizens.

~WSJ

READ MORE

http://www.wsj.com/articles/pell-grants-to-be-restored-for-prisoners-1438029241

WHOOPI DEFENDS EX-CO-STAR FROM ACCUSATIONS OF RACISM...AGAIN

It's not Mel Gibson this time.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, cohost of "Fox & Friends," suggested that the late Sandra Bland could have attacked a Texas law enforcement officer with her cigarette.  She suggested maybe the officer was afraid.

"But, what if, I mean, there are times, I'm sure, someone has, in the history of this land, used a cigarette against a police officer, maybe chucked it at him, pushed it at him," Hasselbeck said during the segment.  "If he indeed felt it could be a potential threat, was that the wise thing to do?"

There was backlash for this race-based, race-biased stupidity that she rarely got while on "The View."

Whoopi defends her?  Really? REALLY?

READ MORE ON WHOOPI'S DEFENSE IF YOU CAN BE BOTHERED. 
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/whoopi-defends-elisabeth-hasselbeck-from-accusations-of-racism/

MIKE BROWN'S LEGACY: POLICE BODY CAMERAS

Before we look at building on Mike Brown's Legacy, let us get an idea of the size and nature of the police brutality problem.

In 2011, the FBI reported that there were 404 justifiable homicides committed by police departments in the U.S.. But those numbers were not a complete representation. That 404 was reported from less than 5% (750) of our nations 17,000 police departments in this country. Why?  Reporting the deaths of civilians at the hands of police is voluntary. 

And, according to the ACLU, a full 25% of those dead at the hands of white police officers were black people. https://www.aclu.org/police-body-mounted-cameras-right-policies-place-win-all 

Journalists, via collecting local reports from newspapers across the country, put the number of citizens killed by police per year at 1000 per year. "The Guardian" is one such news website that has begun collecting the names of dead.  As of August 6, 2015 "The Guardian" has a reported body count of 690, broken down by race, state, armed or armed victim, and weapon.  (If you decide to check out the link, please do take note of just how frequently people die of being tasered. )

Mike Brown's death, the failure to indict Darren Wilson for murder, and the #BlackLivesMatter protests in Ferguson, Missouri have led to a nationwide call for the police to wear body cameras. 

And this is completely justified. If Darren Wilson had been wearing a body camera, his police chief would never have been able to float the idea that Wilson knew about the shoplifting of cigarillos. There wouldn't be any he said/she said debate about the fact that Wilson stopped Brown for jaywalking.

We'd know a lot more what happened at the Darren Wilson's police car window. We'd be able to see if Wilson started cussing out two black guys for jaywalking as if he's a slave master to be obeyed. We'd be able to see if what Mike Brown's friend, Dorian Johnson, said is correct: Darren Wilson opened the car door, swinging it hard,  hit Mike Brown with it, and the door bounced back and hit Wilson himself.

If what Johnson said is true, Wilson hitting himself is what prompted Wilson to draw and fire his gun. A video might make it crystal clear that Mike was simply too big to run away like Johnson did.


In other words, we'd be as clear about what happened to Mike Brown as we are about what happened to Sam DuBose.

In regards to Dubose, some people are worried about the fact that the body camera didn't stop Ray Tensing from murdering Sam DuBose. While that's true, prevention of murder is possible and likely according to studies. And even though the body camera did stop DuBose's murder it did stop his murderer from walking away like Darren Wilson did. 

If the 45 seconds of interaction between Mike Brown and Darren Wilson had been recorded on video with sound, Darren Wilson's being able to wait to write his official police report or make his official statement for a number of days after the incident wouldn't have made as much of a difference. The Justice Department might have been able to file their own charges against Wilson.

Even if Wilson still had the opportunity (as I recall) to fit his official report to autopsy results etc over a number of days , we would have seen whether or not Mike Brown was already shot  (at the car window) and in pain when he stopped and put his hands up.  There would still be debate with the hard core racists as to whether Brown was bent forward in pain (as Dorian Johnson said) or bent forward for charging like the crazy animal they saw in Mike Brown.

We'd know if Dorian Johnson was more than honestly mistaken on any particular point as well.

But there wouldn't be any debate about Brown having his hands up, which is what some two dozen discredited and ignored witnesses said they saw.  The Justice Department arriving too late to get a clear picture would have mattered less if there had been body cam footage.  
A wide use of body cameras will make police a lot more careful and fewer deaths will result. I'm fairly certain of this based on studies already done -- ESPECIALLY IF the cameras are outfitted with an off switch that takes 2 or 3 minutes to respond.

If all cops in this country were already wearing body cameras that won't shut off for 2 or 3 minutes after you press the "off" button, you'd still have all the critical information you need to solidify: 

1) the federal case against Brian Encinia, had he been wearing one (Sandra Bland)

2) the murder charge against Michael Brelo if he'd been wearing one. (stood on hood of car to shoot unarmed Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell)

3) the case against the 2 or 3 white police officers that beat Freddie Gray to death. And we'd have some idea of whether or not the black police officers implicated (but not on video dragging an unable to walk Gray) knew how badly Gray was already injured.
 

4) We probably still wouldn't have any more information than we do on the shooting of Rekia Boyd.  Even if Dante Servin had had a body camera, he was off duty and the camera wouldn't have been on. Even if the body camera had been on, it was a judge that let Servin go. The judge gave a directed verdict that set Servin free because the charges were too lenient -- keeping Chicago's 17 year record of not convicting a police officer intact.

Still, being able to get  8 out of 9 of these officers into a courtroom with body camera evidence would be better than nothing.  And nothing but he-said/she-said is most of what we really have without  police car dash cams and body cameras.

But failure to get a conviction with body camera evidence, still shouldn't be seen as the body camera evidence being a complete failure.

Ida B Wells, an investigative reporter, left a South still trying to recover from the civil war to go to the north in order to advertise the white south's propensity for lynching black people over property/attempt theft but NOT the rape of white women (which was a cover for the thefts). This damaged The South greatly because the white south needed financial investors in order to complete the business of recovery. Ida B. Wells even went to Great Britain and got anti-lynching resolutions passed with would be investors there. 

In other words, Ida B's exposure of the southern white practice of lynching cut off the southern white cash flow. The NAACP, of which she was a founding member, took up her methods and stopping the lynching of black people became one of their main goals. Eventually lynching slowed significantly and the NAACP position in history became firmly established.  

Martin Luther King was successful for the very same reasons as Ida B Wells but in a much wider way.

The invention of television made Martin Luther King able to show southern whites at their worst during peaceful black protests.  He did this over and over again. When images of hoses, dogs, and police batons went over television into a Europe where ethnoracism had been made real by Hitler's gassing of Jewish people, the United States was embarrassed into political action like the Voting Rights Act, Integrating Schools, and Ending Jim Crow.

Lynching slowed some more. 

United States negotiations on issues having to do with anything happening on the international stage was hampered by Europe's sarcastic response of, "What happened to 'All Men Are Created Equal' "  while pointing at still images from television, images of blacks being abused and killed at will by white people again and again.

Theory by
Lawrence Bobo, Harvard

Exposure of what is happening to black people worked after the Civil War, during Civil Rights, and it will work again.  We have to be patient to work through all the stages of reform. We also have to put the responsibility for change where it belongs. White culture needs to deal with white racism. The body cam video recordings, in my mind, are just the tools to get their share of the work done this time.

Getting those body camera's to 100% of police departments are Mike Brown's legacy. Eighty percent of the remaining 16,250 police departments that don't have body cameras already are looking into them.  I've seen articles on body cameras coming to police departments in Boston, Baltimore, and North Carolina in the last few weeks. We need to make sure 100% get these Cameras. Call a state senator near you!!!
If we can get some sort of national or federal organization that oversees all police departments as well, one that counts all deaths at hands of police and puts the onus on the police officer when the initial stop is minor (no turning signal) but somehow results in arrest or death we can make the police unions want and demand body cameras.   

“A lot is at stake, because we cannot have a safe community if we do not have a police
department that respects the community and a community that respects the police,” he said. As many as 30 percent of the nation’s 17,000 police agencies already use body cameras,  according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Councilor Charles Yancey

http://www.wbur.org/2015/08/06/boston-city-council-police-body-cameras

And the choir said, "Amen."

Our protests our building upon one another. Trayvon Martin protest begat #BlackLivesMatter begat Ferguson, Protest begat Mike Brown's legacy of body cameras possibly begat the recording of Sam DuBose's murder. I'm not sure when or why Sam DuBose's killer got his body camera but a Mike Brown body camera is destined to save one of us one day and a bunch of us a day or so after that.
By the way, as of June of July 2015, New York now how a special prosecutor looking into deaths of citizens at hands of police.   And he is currently looking into the death of Raynette Turner, who died in jail in July. May this catch on nationwide as well.

MICHAEL B JORDAN: "I'LL BE THE ONE TO SHOULDER ALL THIS HATE"

When Michael B. Jordan was cast as *Johnny Storm* in latest FANTASTIC FOUR movie, there was the usual uprising from within white culture who thinks all the superheroes drawn and created during a more overtly racist time period should remain white.

These people appear to think fictional characters have to remain the same color or speak the same language forever. They do not want our fiction to reflect our current culture as opposed to the fictional everybody-who-matters-is-white culture of yesteryear.

Instead of ignoring the haters and calling the reaction something other than "hate" he stood up to be counted. He wrote a response to those upset about a Black American being case as one of the FANTASTIC FOUR

Sometimes you have to be the person who stands up and says, “I’ll be the one to shoulder all this hate. I’ll take the brunt for the next couple of generations.” I put that responsibility on myself.

"Michael B. Jordan 2011 (cropped)" by Greg Hernandez 

READ MORE ON:
"WHY I'M TORCHING THE COLOR LINE"
by Black American Actor Michael B Jordan
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/22/michael-b-jordan-fantastic-four-race?hootPostID=490b10631015593685361f6e938905a9

BLUE TEARS: BUT...WHAT ABOUT ALL THE GOOD POLICE OFFICERS?

This is why the goodness of the good police officers is constantly suspect:

"Thomas Fehr, a representative of the Fraternal Order of Police-Ohio Labor Council, told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the grievance was filed Thursday on Tensing's behalf and with his consent. "We filed the grievance, number 1 because there was no just cause [for firing him], and number 2 because he was not afforded his due process rights under the contract," Fehr said.

I had assumed Ray Tensing wouldn't have a police union because he was a campus cop. Or was he a regular cop doing campus duties? I may have read and re-read a few things because I'm confused. Did this "Fraternal Order of Police - Ohio Labor Council" voluntarily insert itself into the OBVIOUS murder of Samuel DuBose or are they obligated to represent him?

And if this police organization is obligated to send someone to represent Tensing in regards to the violations of the technical rules of firing a police officer,  then where are the regular, due's paying members, the "good cops"  hollering, "OH H*LL NO" not with my money you're not?" Where are these officers? I haven't seen any coverage of their protest on television.  Did I miss this protest?

Or did some of these "good police officers" I keep hearing about contribute to Tensing making bail instead?

One person, two people or ten within the Fraternal Order Of Cops might be obligated to represent Ray Tensing and mis-represent his hair trigger racist reaction. But the entire Union doesn't have to pretend it's okay by being silent. Think my position on this is not entirely fair? Okay. It's not. But I'm less worried about hurt feelings of the good police officers who haven't done anything than I am the weak backbones in so many of these same "good police officers"  --backbones so weak they can't even stand behind a cop that DOES stand up to do the right thing.

  

MEME FROM COP BLOCK

Not only did "all the good police officers" fail to stand behind the whistle-blowers in the image above, Joe Crystal was actually threatened by fellow police officers for reporting on police brutality. And after 19 years of service, Cariol Horne was still fighting for her pension at the end of 2014  despite the officer she reported on was later accused of choking another cop off-duty and has since gone on to face what sound like criminal charges.

The silence in the face of abuse is always suspect. And it is especially suspect when good cops don't stand behind whistle blowers.

ON TROTTING OUT GOOD COPS (See photo below)

As kind as this white police officer looks to be, I cannot give him more than a quarter of a cookie for going slightly beyond basic human decency.

Officer Of The Day: John Nissen went above and beyond for a grief stricken driver named Barbie Henderson.While driving, Barbie got word of her sister's death and pulled over to the side of the road. She was too distraught to drive and didn't know what to do so she called 911.

That's when officer Nissen came on the scene and asked if he could sit and talk with her.

Nissen says: "I turned the air vents towards her – it was over 90 degrees that day – held her hand, and she cried on my shoulder. I had her take sips of water."  He stayed with her for an hour until another family member could come and get her home safely.

I'm all for this kind of story being put on a news website as a positive event in an other wise negative news day. All the news should not be bad.  However, we ought to find it pathetic and sad that stories like these have to be trotted out in order to prove that individual police officers are capable of basic decency when they've signed up for a public service job.

Instead of "Officer Of The Day" pats on the head, how about "Officer Of The Year" bonuses for those who stand up against police brutality--maybe do this instead of firing them?

If the shoes I'm describing don't fit, then some of these "good police officers" should stop wearing them. When the Joe Crystals and Cariol Hornes outnumber the silent bully majority, police officers will collectively earn our trust. 

In the meantime, I'm not going to jump up to wipe blue tears any faster than I do white ones. 

Read More: RAY TENSING DEMANDS HIS JOB BACK

SANDRA BLAND FAMILY FILES FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST ENCINIA AND OTHERS

The lawsuit accuses Encinia of assault during the arrest and “wanton conduct” that violated Bland’s constitutional rights.

The family’s attorney said the family is suing for answers and accountability, not for money

http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/08/04/the-family-of-sandrabland-files-a-federal-lawsuit-against-the-arresting-trooper-and-others/

JONATHAN FERRELL WAS SHOT AT 12 TIMES AFTER HIS CAR CRASH

In 2013, Jonathan Ferrell crashed his car near Charlotte, North Carolina. And when police showed up, instead of giving him aid, they shot him.

"Monday marked the first day of the trial of Randall Kerrick, who was charged with voluntary manslaughter, and the details that emerged are as awful as many of us have imagined.


Even though Ferrell was shot in September of 2013, Charlotte officials have kept a very tight wrap on dashcam footage and other details, claiming it was to help them have an impartial jury."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/04/1408675/-Jonathan-Ferrell-shot-8x-while-crawling-EMT-testified-police-would-not-let-him-administer-first-aid

Jonathan Ferrell was shot at 12 times, 10 bullets struck him and 8 of those bullets struck him while he was crawling. According to testimony, police would not let the EMT administer first aid.

Officer Randall Kerrick is claiming self defense.  He was only charged with manslaughter. 

Read More:http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/n-panicked-shooting-black-man-prosecutor-article-1.2313878

Special Prosecutor for RAYNETTE TURNER

Raynette Turner is one of the 6 women of color (5 black and 1 Native American) to die in a United States jails just last month.

This will be the first such investigation since Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order appointing New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as  the special prosecutor to investigate all cases where an unarmed civilian dies at the hands of police.

READ MORE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-special-prosecutor-raynette-turner_55bf8d04e4b0d4f33a035ba1
Protest works. The Governor appointing a special prosecutor should be counted as a #BlackLivesMatter success as this is a good first step toward stopping the police from investigating themselves.

However, the state is still investigating itself.  And the state has an interest in not making itself look bad.

I'd like to see the federal government investigate all cases where unarmed civilians die at the hands of police. I'd also like to see a federal "depraved indifference charge" that carries jail time. 

CROSSING: A film by Gina Atwater

"CROSSING"was submitted to Shadow and Act 

for BlackLivesMatter Short Films Contest

The story takes place in a rural Georgia town in 1965 and examines the perspective of a black teenage boy, bristling under the rules of segregation.
Seems like a good film for older children.
Preview Here

LINK TO THE FULL FILM HERE:  https://vimeo.com/70381677

Those Suffering Hair Trigger Black Shame? It's Time To Call Them In

Black people who put photo collage memes like this one together are ashamed of being black.



White people, in comparison, don't put up photos of white kids in stupid goth get-ups as proof white kids and therefore white people are ridiculous. They let there kids be stupid kids and grow out of stuff.

 The white people that don't grow out of stuff? The ones that go into motorcycle gang type outfits through their 50s? White mainstream folk STILL don't put photos together like this as if "those people" over there reflect white culture.

Internalized racism comes in many forms and this photo collage meme is one of them. 

DRIVING WHILE BLACK TRAINING REVISITED

You know that ignoramus we as black people come across in our communities occasionally? You know the one. Super black guy, I'm-way-blacker-than-you guy, not too many brain cells. That guy that always looks for an opening to jump up and say "You're acting like slaves" or "Too many of us have that slave mentality."

Got a picture in your head of that guy or gal?

Good.

I'm not that person. I really don't want to come off as that person. But it occurs to me that most of us really have been taught to act like slaves during a traffic stop.

Let me give you a good visual example of actual slave behavior:

trigger warning: violence, rape

There's a scene in "12 Years A Slave," after Solomon has moved from the "genteel, calm" slave master (ha-ha) and has gone to work for the rabid dog slave master.

In one scene rabid dog master is angry, probably looking for Patsy, the black woman he routinely rapes. Rabid dog master walks into the yard screaming. And when he can't find Patsy, he stops and rests, leans on this random black woman. This black woman? She doesn't move. She tries, semi-successfully not to twitch. She is frightened of his anger and is trying not to do anything to draw attention to herself or displease him. In another scene rabid dog slave master actually rests his while arm on a black man's head. This black male slave doesn't move or do anything to risk displeasure either.

Aren't these movie scenes pretty representative of how black parents teach black children, especially black boys, how to stay alive during a traffic stop with a white police officer?*

Black parents teach their children, especially their boys to put their hands on the steering wheel and not move. Black parent teach black kids learning to drive to ask the police officer if they can reach for their wallet. And Black parents sure as hell teach their kids not to talk back or demand rights or say anything displeasing.

When I first listened to Sandra Bland response to the police officer who was basically saying "get that expression off your face, who do you think you are n***er."  I was horrified that she said anything all. The most I probably would have said after being given a ticket that the cop actually caused by tailgating me might have been, "Can I have my ticket please" in as neutral and military a fashion as I could manage---just as I've done before.

But Sandra was bold, so very bold, and in Texas yet. She answered the exact question she was asked and expressed fairly frank annoyance. And I really couldn't believe it the FIRST TIME I watched the video.

Then, I started examining my own response.

I was raised to believe that the white police officer is looking for a reason to kill you. I still believe that too many of them are. And acquiescing to bullying trains the bully to be more aggressive. I've known that since I was in grade school. So I think it's time to apply THAT training, bully response training, instead of slave response training to police officers.

It is 2015, after all. TWO-THOUSAND-FREAKING-FIFTEEN. Slavery is over. Slavery Part 2, official and unofficial Jim Crow has been over decades now too

Sandra Bland, Sam DuBose, and the man in the video below are acting APPROPRIATELY. I don't mean they are acting in a way that's "allowable." I mean they are probably acting as they SHOULD.

We still have to be careful. I don't even know that I would teach my teenagers different than I was taught. But at 30, 40, or 50 years old maybe we should be taking some chances to progress the race past this point where we've been stuck for decades.

It's time for *Driving While Black* to be over and done.

I'm thinking that a suggestion I heard recently might work toward this goal. If you're being stopped and 1) you know you weren't speeding 2) all your tags are up to date 3) and your lights are all working, then dial 911 if you're out on the street by yourself with no passersby in sight. Record the entire encounter.

Be polite. Give the officer the benefit of the doubt. But I think acting like a slave and letting them take our rights away from us at will is the same as training them that they own us once those flashing lights come on.

#17
WE DO NOT BEGIN AS POLICE PROPERTY, 

to be freed or detained based on some guy's mood or feeling. 

We are not theirs

FROM JESSE WILLIAMS' 24 TWEET TWITTER ESSAY

Finding different approaches to putting an end to Driving While Black is the best legacy we can attach to Sandra Bland and Samuel DuBose  and Mike walking-while-black Brown for that matter.

We have to find way to get white people to clean up the only version of racism that kills with regularity in this country. That is in THEIR lane.

 * * * * *
Sam DuBose wasn't the first black man Ray Tensing "got into it with." See video in the link below.

This video in the link below gives a clear indication that Tensing (and most officers?) did not know when to "let it go" or what constitutes a "safety reason" for ordering someone out of their car.OFFICER RAY TENSING AT ANOTHER CONTENTIOUS TRAFFIC STOP OF TWO BLACK MEN. 

See Demitrius Pace's response. He made Tensing call a supervisor.  Good Interviewer here in video--> http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/08/01/previous-traffic-stop-footage-of-officer-ray-tensing-found-intv-newday.cnn

 (* This pertains to any color/ethnicity police officer really. White supremacy and blue culture together should be assumed to have been swallowed by all of them until proven otherwise.)