Why Black Lives Still Matter

No charges? Unbelievable. That was a murder if I've ever seen one.

If we two can agree on something, I'm inclined to believe you're right.

Loaded topic. All life matters. Positive descrimination in place of normalization is not the best political aproach to deal with this problem.

I agree.
And would add - Politics are corrupt and only aid the politicians and their puppetmasters.

Of course all life matters, but black lives haven't mattered until now.

Black lives mattering is not an attack on you, Its a positive statement for those who haven't been considered as important as you or I. Institutional discrimination has never been a roadblock against you or I. You and I have never been held back by racism.

All life matters, Bobs.
From slugs to monkeys, of all colours and all creeds.
'They' separate (Group) folk, intentionally.
They popularise it through the media and pop/culture and create a division between all.
White, black, lesbian, old, short, muslim, fat, transgender, democrat.......etc.
DIVIDE & CONQUER!

I'd go into it further - But nobody hears other than what they want to hear.

Justice department steps in against jailing practices that target poor people

Source: The Guardian

Justice department steps in against jailing practices that target poor people

The case of Maurice Walker in Georgia is a potentially precedent-
setting battle on when and how cities may continue to jail people
who can’t afford bail bonds

Jamiles Lartey
Wednesday 24 August 2016 17.19 BST

-snip-

Walker sued the city of Calhoun, Georgia, where he was detained, in a class action suit alleging that the city routinely “jails the poor because they cannot pay a small amount of money”.

Unlike in other similar lawsuits filed by Karakatsanis’ organization Equal Justice Under the Law, the city of Calhoun didn’t settle and agree to reforms.

Walker won his case. Then the city appealed the decision, elevating it to a federal appeals court and setting up a potentially precedent-setting legal battle on the question of when and how cities may continue to jail people for being poor.

-snip-

And then, the US justice department intervened to say it was on Walker’s side.

“Incarcerating individuals solely because of their inability to pay a fine or fee ... effectively denies equal protection to one class of people within the criminal justice system while also offending due process,” the DoJ said in a a filing to the court.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/24/justice-department-jail-bond-case-georgia-maurice-walker

Black Teen Pushed Down by Iowa Officer Got Money for Secrecy
Source: Associated Press

Black Teen Pushed Down by Iowa Officer Got Money for Secrecy

By RYAN J. FOLEY, ASSOCIATED PRESS WATERLOO, Iowa — Aug 24, 2016, 2:02 PM ET

A black teenager who was shown on video getting thrown down by a white police officer in Iowa received thousands of dollars to keep quiet about a settlement including a secrecy provision that may violate state law.

After resolving his federal lawsuit for $95,000, the city of Waterloo negotiated an extra $5,000 payment to Malcolm Anderson last month in exchange for guarantees that the 19-year-old and his attorney would not have any press conferences, make any disclosures to civil rights groups or ever mention the deal on social media. The Associated Press obtained the confidentiality agreement from the city under the Iowa open records law.

Critics say it may be illegal for an Iowa government agency to demand confidentiality and goes against the public interest.

"The people of Waterloo should be troubled that the city is paying $5,000 to Malcolm Anderson just to allow the government to try to remain silent about the police officer's mistreatment of him," said Randy Evans, director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. "Iowa law clearly does not allow secret settlements by government. Such secrecy is not in the best interests of government. It interferes with a full and frank discussion by the public and city officials of the police officer's actions that led to the litigation and $95,000 settlement."

Whenever a state or local government agency in Iowa reaches a legal settlement, the document and a summary of the dispute "shall be a public record" under Iowa law. The Iowa Attorney General's Office has long advised government agencies that "in government, settlements are not secret."

-snip-


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/black-teen-pushed-iowa-officer-money-secrecy-41620678

Katrina Pain Index 2016 by the Numbers: Race and Class Gap Widening

Despite receiving $76 billion in assistance after Katrina, poor people in New Orleans got very little of that help.
By Bill Quigley / AlterNet
August 22, 2016


Hurricane Katrina hit 11 years ago. Population of the city of New Orleans is down by over 95,000 people from 484,674 in 2000 to 389,617 in 2015. Almost all this loss of people is in the African-American community. Child poverty is up, double the national average. The gap between rich and poor in New Orleans is massive, the largest in the country. The economic gap between well-off whites and low-income African Americans is widening. Despite receiving $76 billion in assistance after Katrina, poor and working people in New Orleans, especially African Americans, got very little of that help.

Here are the numbers.

35. The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority reported that 62 percent of pre-Katrina service has been restored. But Ride New Orleans, a transit rider organization, says streetcar rides targeted at tourists are fully restored, but bus service for regular people is way down, still only at 35 percent of what it was before Katrina. That may explain why there has been a big dip in the number of people using public transportation in New Orleans, down from 13 percent in 2000 to 9 percent now.

44. Over two of every five children in New Orleans lives in poverty—about double the national rate. The current rate of 44 percent is up 3 percentage points from 1999 and up 12 points from 2007. Overall, there are 50,000 fewer children under the age of 18 living in New Orleans than there were in 2000. In 2000 there were 129,408, and the latest numbers have dropped to 79,432 according to the census figures reported by the Data Center.

50. Since Katrina, home values have risen 54 percent and rent is up 50 percent. The annual household income needed to afford rent in New Orleans is $38,000, but 71 percent of workers earn on average $35,000. The average yearly income for service workers is $23,000 and only $10,000 for musicians. New Orleans has only 47 affordable rental units for every 100 low-income residents. Thirty-seven percent of households in the city are paying half of their income for housing, which is much higher than recommended. 36 percent of renters pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing, up from 24 percent in 2004. The New Orleans metro area ranks second in the top 10 worst metro areas for cash-strapped renters, according to the Make Room Initiative. Government leaders bulldozed over 3,000 apartments of occupied public housing right after Katrina but now say there is a critical immediate need for at least 5,000 affordable low-income apartments.

93. Ninety-three percent of New Orleans’ 48,000 public school students are in charter schools, the highest percentage in the U.S. Before Katrina, there were over 65,000 students enrolled in New Orleans public schools, less than 1 percent in charter schools. There are now 44 governing bodies for public schools in New Orleans. There are seven types of charter schools in Louisiana. The public schools are 87 percent African American. Widespread charter school problems for students with disabilities are getting a little bit better according to a federal court monitor report. The public has very mixed feelings about the system reflected in the most recent poll, which shows 43 percent of whites think the schools are getting better, compared to 31 percent of African Americans; while 23 percent of African Americans thought schools were getting worse, in contrast to 15 percent of whites.

2,000. Black median income in New Orleans rose from $23,000 in 2005 to $25,000 eight years later, while white median income rose by $11,000 from $49,000 to $60,000 during the same time.

6,811. White population of New Orleans is down from 128,871 in 2000 to 122,060 in 2015 according to the Data Center.

7,023. Hispanic population in New Orleans grew from 14,826 in 2000 to 21,849 in 2015. There has been significant growth in the Hispanic population in metro New Orleans area from 58,545 in 2000 to 109,553 in 2015, mostly in Jefferson Parish.

64,000. Over 64,000 working women in New Orleans earn less than $17,500 per year. One source of good jobs, working for the school board, was eliminated when 7,500 employees were terminated right after Katrina.

95,057. The population of the City of New Orleans is 95,057 less in 2015 when it was 389,617, compared to 2000 when it was 484,674, according to the Data Center.

95,625. There are 95,625 fewer African Americans living in New Orleans (Orleans Parish) now than in the 2000 census, according to census figures reported by the Data Center. The percentage of New Orleans that is African American has dropped from 66 percent to 58 percent. Overall African-American population in New Orleans dropped from 323,000 in 2000 to 227,000 in 2015. Black residents of New Orleans continue to be unfairly and disproportionately stopped and searched by police and also more likely to be arrested for marijuana use than other residents. That situation is even worse for other New Orleans metro residents as Gretna Louisiana, just across the Mississippi River, was recently cited as the arrest capital of the nation.

2,800,000. The U.S. Department of Justice reported Louisiana has 2.8 million people in its criminal database. There are 4.6 million people in Louisiana.

Last. Louisiana continues to rank dead last in poverty, racial disparities and exclusion of immigrants. But New Orleans has plenty of wealthy people; in fact, Bloomberg ranked New Orleans the worst in the entire country in income inequality. Louisiana also ranks last in national rankings of the quality and safety of school systems. Louisiana incarcerates more of its citizens than any of the other 50 states at a rate double the national average. And Louisiana has the highest health-care costs because of high rates of premature deaths, diabetes, and obesity. In a welcome but too rare piece of good health news, Louisiana’s new governor expanded Medicaid coverage and enrolled 250,000 additional people in the health-care program in July 2016.

$76 billion came to Louisiana because of Katrina. This information makes it clear who did not get the money.

Special thanks to the Data Center.

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. He is also a member of the legal collective of School of Americas Watch, and can be reached at [email protected].

Shotgun-Toting Cops Chase 10-Year-Old Boy Through Streets of Newark, Thinking He Was a Robbery Suspect

Childhood is for white kids.
By Kali Holloway / AlterNet
August 23, 2016



Photo Credit: Facebook

A 10-year-old child was chased by police—who admit to having their guns drawn—after they mistook him for a robbery suspect. Unlike numerous other cases in which African-American teens were gunned down by police officers who assumed their guilt, the intervention of neighbors ensured this case ended with the boy's safety.

Fifth-grader Legend Preston told WABC-TV he was playing basketball in his front yard when the ball rolled into the street. When he ran to retrieve it, the preteen was confronted by officers with their weapons drawn who began to pursue him. Legend thought the cops were upset with him for not practicing the right street safety.
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“I ran because [I thought that] they thought that I rolled the ball into the street on purpose, and they were just holding shotguns at me trying to shoot me,” he told the station.

Thankfully, neighbors saw the chase and prevented the cops from pursuing the 10-year-old further, yelling that they were after “a child.” According to the New York Daily News, the neighbors formed a “human shield” to prevent the occurrence of a tragedy, like those captured with frightening frequency on cellphone videos gone viral in recent years.

Via her Facebook page, Legend’s mother—who was inside the house as the incident was unfolding—claims the cops countered by stating her son “match[ed] the description.”

“The [Newark PD] chased down my 10-year-old son with loaded shotguns ready to shoot because they said he matched the description of the over 6-foot-tall man, dark skin with long locs... which my son is none of,” Legend's mother, Patisha Solomon, wrote on the social media site. “They had pictures of the perp who was in eyesight running down the next block!!! Yet they broke off from chasing the perp to chasing my child.”

The actual suspect, Casey Joseph Robinson—a 20-year-old man—was later apprehended on armed robbery charges.

A 2014 study from the American Psychological Association found that, “Black boys as young as 10 may not be viewed in the same light of childhood innocence as their white peers, but are instead more likely to be mistaken as older, be perceived as guilty and face police violence if accused of a crime.” The study, in part, was based on tests given to 176 police officers, the majority of whom were white, in their mid-to-late 30s and working in urban centers.

The report concluded, “perceptions of the essential nature of children can be affected by race, and for black children, this can mean they lose the protection afforded by assumed childhood innocence well before they become adults. With the average age overestimation for black boys exceeding four-and-a-half years, in some cases, black children may be viewed as adults when they are just 13 years old.”

The childhood denied to African-American children can have terrifying, and in some cases fatal consequences. In Legend Preston's case, quick-thinking neighbors may have made the difference between life and death. But the traumatic imprint of that experience will likely remain.

“Why try to abuse our children and turn our young men into fearful heartless men? My son is in counseling, even scared to go play because it happened right at our house... You despicable cops have no care for our children... My fun-loving child is forever changed!” Solomon said in her Facebook post.

After the incident, she posted video of her visibly upset son on Facebook.

One of my best youth friends was a deep coloured African...too me he was just Fernando (Ferdinand). Simple ! (yeah I know what you meant...)

Why Does It Come So Easily for Pundits to Lecture Black Lives Matter Activists?

Will media pundits ever try listening to the Black Lives Matter movement?
By Adam Johnson / AlterNet
August 22, 2016

There’s been a wave of backlash from U.S. pro-Israel groups against a Black Lives Matter umbrella group, Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), after its platform released three weeks ago contained harsh condemnation of Israel and expressed unqualified solidarity with Palestinian liberation. What made this platform so impactful is its reach; M4BL is endorsed by a large number of Black Lives Matter organizations, including relatively influential names like Center for Media Justice, Baltimore Bloc, Dream Defenders, and the Black Lives Matter Network.

Nominally left-leaning pro-Israel groups cried foul, specifically at the description of Israel as an “apartheid” state that was committing “genocide” against the Palestinian people. Emma Green, an editor at The Atlantic, joined the outrage train Wednesday with a piece documenting the controversy, framing the blowback as a division between American Jewish and black communities and expressing, time and time again, “concern” over how M4BL could divide liberals along ethnic lines.

The first problem with Green’s piece is the casual nature with which it conflates Jews and Israel. From the sub-headline, the piece begins by positioning the discussion as “black vs. Jew” as opposed to “black vs. empire.”

A controversy over anti-Israel statements in the Movement for Black Lives political platform shows the long history of tension between Jews and blacks in the U.S.

But the word “Jew” is never used by the Movement for Black Lives. It levels a brief but scathing critique of Israel in the context of its much longer, just as scathing critique against the United States military apparatus. Its solidarity with the Palestinian people is specifically put in the context of a broader anti-imperialist struggle. Movement for Black Lives, like many black activist groups before it, sees parallels between the racist oppression of Palestinians and its own struggle. But this specific critique doesn’t lend itself to allegations of bigotry, so the author sets up the confrontation as being American Jews against African Americans and goes from there. A false binary is established:

But this is also a conflict of history. Jews and blacks in America have long danced around one another, at times feeling solidarity and at others, opposition. Both groups have developed a self-understanding rooted in a history of oppression and struggle, often in solidarity with others in need. Their clash on Israel may be a testament to how much U.S. views have changed on this issue, or how much Israel’s self-vision has changed since 1948.

Green assumes that all American Jews are Zionists and makes no mention of the long history of American Jews fighting on behalf of Palestinian liberation. She decides to skip the messy work of addressing M4BL’s anti-imperialist critique on its own terms, and instead accepts the pro-Israel canard that being Jewish automatically makes one a defender of Israel and vice versa. In doing so, Green must paint M4BL as being part of a larger problem of black antisemitism and to do this, must give Palestine the “All Lives Matter” treatment:

While the platform names a number of nations, claiming they’ve been victimized by the United States’ colonial-style foreign policy, it condemns only one foreign government: Israel. The platform does not express sympathy with the Kurds in Iraq or the Rohingya in Burma; it does not condemn Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers or Saudi Arabia’s oppression of Shiite Muslims. Perhaps, just like the landlords and grocers and pawnshop brokers of New York, Israel is held to a different standard by black activists—because Jews, they think, should know better.

This is common trope among Israel’s defenders, that Israel is somehow being singled out, the implication being that this supposed selectivity on the part of M4BL can only be explained by antisemitism. This charge doesn’t pass the most cursory review. Israel is “singled out” because the country Black Lives Matter cites as its primary oppressor, the United States, singles it out. This is the frame the Movement for Black Lives uses, that Israel is an instrument of American imperialism. A traditional leftist critique leveled by everyone from Noam Chomsky to Malcolm X to Chris Hedges.

Israel issingled out because president after president insists that the military and diplomatic bond between Israel and the U.S. (the primary oppressor of African Americans) is unique and unimpeachable. In an anti-imperialist context, a settler colony backed by another, much larger settler colony is not at all comparable to the sectarian or ethnic injustices Green references above (Iraqi Kurds, Saudi Shiites, etc.) and this connection—between the two European settler colonies—is an obvious one to people of color throughout the world. Israel is singled out in the context of military spending because of its unique closeness with the U.S. military apparatus; the U.S., for example, gives more aid to Israel in than the last seven countries it bombed, combined.

Green goes on to insinuate, again and again, that the Movement for Black Lives is antisemitic, with little or no evidence.

Jewish groups have also objected to what they hear as coded anti-Semitism in the linking of Israel, Zionism, and thus Jews to oppressive systems of global power. “To try to conflate the military-industrial complex with America’s support of Israel is to play on some pretty discomforting tropes—anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish power and the way that Jewish power is leveraged in the world,” said Daniel Burg, a Baltimore-area rabbi who serves on the board of the progressive group Jews United for Justice, speaking on behalf of his own views rather than any of the institutions he represents. “As a Jewish American, and as a rabbi, I am concerned about the increase in anti-Zionism in the world that is bleeding into anti-Semitic language tropes and canards,” he added. “It’s not to say that everyone who disagrees with Israel is anti-Semitic—on the contrary. But I do think that, increasingly, the rhetoric around Israel and those who critique Israel can be anti-Semitic rhetoric.” These feelings were echoed separately in statements put out by a number of Jewish groups.

So, Rabbi Burg has a vague fear that anti-Israel language plays into antisemitic sentiments, but doesn’t quote exactly where the Movements for Black Lives does this, simply alluding to the conflation of the “military industrial complex with America’s support for Israel.” The only problem is that U.S. support for Israel is overwhelmingly militaristic in nature, as the Movement for Black Lives expressly notes: "The U.S. requires Israel to use 75 percent of all the military aid it receives to buy U.S.-made arms."

This is money allocated for military use mostly for the purpose of the continued occupation of Palestinian territories. Since Israel’s founding 70 years ago, the U.S. has given almost a quarter-trillion dollars to Israel, the vast majority of which has been for the express purposes of feeding the American military-industrial complex. This is a critique of Israel and its dependence on U.S. empire, not a critique of Jews, as Green keeps insisting. Indeed, antisemitism would be if M4BL insisted (as many on the far right do) that the U.S. is somehow being corrupted by Zionist plotters rather than viewing (as many leftists do) Zionism as a logical extension of an already existing Anglo-U.S. imperialism in the Middle East.

Rabbi Burg and Green are correct in saying that criticism of Israel can serve as cover for antisemites, but nothing in the platform language suggests this. To make the connection, the article relies on innuendo and the bashing of strawmen. The Movement for Black Lives’ common leftist critique of Israel somehow becomes evidence of a lurking black hatred of Jews, complete with this highly suggestive framing:



Perhaps, just like the landlords and grocers of New York, Israel is held to a different standard by black activists.https://t.co/D7jCyI76AX
— Emma Green (@emmaogreen) August 18, 2016



Green won't outright say it, so she relies on insinuation (by way of an out-of-context James Baldwin quote): “Those hot-headed blacks are blaming Jews again!” Except the movement for Black Lives is simply echoing the criticisms leveled by anti-imperialist left for decades. Someone's getting unfairly singled out here, but it's not Israel.

The piece primarily suffers from framing the controversy as competing realities and makes little effort to dissect the object truth of the Movement for Black Lives' claim that Israel is indeed an “apartheid” state that commits “genocide” against the Palestinian people. It simply asserts these claims as the hyperbole of black radicals, then spends the majority of the piece interviewing one concern troll after another, all of whom insist they would otherwise support M4BL if they just dropped their unequivocal support for Palestinian liberation. Nowhere in the piece are the claims of genocide and apartheid addressed in good faith; they are simply dismissed out of hand and the author moves on to the meta-story of how pro-Israel liberals have had their feelings hurt.

In fairness, Green does populate the story with some historical context and interviews a vaguely sympathetic expert on black-Jewish relations but nowhere in the piece does she interview any member of the group that’s a critical part of the story: Palestinians. After all, the Movement for Black Lives likely adopted these terms because they are used by Palestinian activists who do indeed see their ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as genocidal and the two-tiered political system for those living in territories as apartheid. Instead, Green confronts the use of these urgent terms with naked condescension:

Part of this fits with language used throughout the Movement for Black Lives platform. The United States is an “empire”; the world is shaped by “interlinked systems of white supremacy, imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchy.” The claims are sweeping and conceptual; they’re written in a revolutionary idiom cribbed from academia.

It’s unclear what’s “academic” about any of those terms. Activists, from prisons to soup kitchens, routinely use these terms. Those whose struggle is defined in terms of white supremacy, imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchy don’t view these ideas as ethereal or abstract, but as different manifestations of clear, everyday oppression. Green’s attempt to paint Movement for Black Lives' rhetoric as a bunch of radical academics is patronizing and cynical; white liberal ideology policing under the guise of PR advice. Don’t be so harsh, don’t be so confrontational. Don’t be so provocative. These are criticisms that white liberals have been finger-wagging black activists with for decades. Green’s attempt to do so, regardless of all its writerly trappings and historical filler, is no different.

Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst at FAIR and contributing writer for AlterNet. Follow him on Twitter @AdamJohnsonNYC.

That's a stupid thing. I am surprised that Blickers the literalist hasn't been by to tell you what a moron you are by posting this.

Video: Gov. Paul LePage says most drug dealers are black or Hispanic
Source: Sun Journal



NORTH BERWICK — Maine Gov. Paul LePage is in hot water once again for comments about drug dealers arrested in the state, saying photos he's collected show more than 90 percent of them are black or Hispanic.

The comment came after one man in the audience accused the governor of creating a "toxic" environment for racists in the state.

The governor took a lot of questions from residents at Wednesday night's town hall, but maybe the one that struck a chord the most with the governor was one from a resident who questioned his political correctness on recent racial comments.

"The fact of the matter is sir I am not a racist and I don't promote it," LePage said.

<more>

Read more: http://www.sunjournal.com/news/maine/2016/08/25/gov-paul-lepage-says-most-drug-dealers-are-black-or-hispanic/1982219

Are they though? Is the truth racist or is it just racist if you are speaking about some facts?

Blicker's probably supports the sentiment of the meme.

Do you think 90% of the smack dealers in a 95% white state are black?