Highbrow Magazine - police brutality https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/police-brutality en How Police Use Military Tactics to Quell the Nonviolent U.S. Protests https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10686-how-police-use-military-tactics-quell-nonviolent-us-protests <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 06/10/2020 - 21:46</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1georgefloydprotest.jpg?itok=56wulDz9"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1georgefloydprotest.jpg?itok=56wulDz9" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>Opinion:</strong></p> <p>           </p> <p>The United States is currently experiencing a level of civil unrest not seen in decades. The cause is as old as the country itself: racism. Today, people are protesting across the country and around the world because racism in the U.S. has again shown its ugly and frequent coupling with police brutality.</p> <p> </p> <p>President Donald Trump has responded as a dictator would: He is encouraging the violent suppression of the demonstrations, paying minimal lip service to George Floyd, the victim whose brutal murder sparked the current unrest, and attempting to portray himself as a brave and strong leader.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump, who recently announced that he is a “law and order” president, is anxious to use the Insurrection Act, passed into law in 1807, to quell the demonstrations now happening across the country. The terms of this act enable the president to release the U.S. army onto the streets in U.S. communities to restore order during civil unrest when normal policing is “impracticable.”</p> <p> </p> <p>But U.S. police departments are functioning already as another branch of the U.S. military, with a variety of tactics and equipment taken directly from the armed forces’ engagement abroad:</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2georgefloyedprotest.jpg" style="height:397px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>False Flags</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Throughout U.S. history, non-events, often referred to as “false flags,” have been twisted and used to invade other nations.  Iraq, for example, had no weapons of mass destruction, but the U.S. invaded in 2003 and destroyed not only a nation – but a region. No sailors were fired upon during the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, yet President Lyndon Johnson and a willing Congress used that accusation to escalate the war in Vietnam.</p> <p> </p> <p>Viewed through the lens of the concept of false flag events, one wonders how Trump might justify invoking the Insurrection Act.</p> <p> </p> <p>He has already claimed that the governors of various states are not doing all they can to suppress protest. He wants the police and National Guard to “dominate” the protestors. Since most governors are not willing to do so, Trump might declare that the situation cannot be controlled through normal policing.</p> <p> </p> <p>His own Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, has broken ranks with his Commander in Chief and declared that he does not  regard the current unrest in the United States as requiring the invocation of the Insurrection Act. Esper said the act should be invoked “… only in the most urgent and dire of situations,” adding, “We are not in one of those situations now.” As a result, Esper’s tenure as Secretary of Defense is reported to be coming to an end.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump and his cohorts have accused protestors of stealing bricks from construction sites to use as weapons against police. To hear administration officials discuss it, water bottles in the hands of demonstrators are equal to the projectiles shot by police. All this, according to them, necessitates using the provisions of the Insurrection Act.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3georgefloydprotest.jpg" style="height:401px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>‘Hearts and Minds’ Photo-Ops</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Despite the protests and unrest, for the U.S. president, there are still advantages: photo-ops. Trump officials had no apparent qualms about dislodging peaceful protesters in front of the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., despite the fact that they were fully within their rights to be there. The president then walked to the church and, taking a Bible that his daughter Ivanka pulled from her purse, awkwardly held it aloft. One is reminded of George W. Bush, as president, addressing the nation proudly on a U.S. destroyer under a banner that read “Mission Accomplished” in the early days of the Iraq war. All show; no substance.</p> <p> </p> <p>And these photo-ops are also utilized by police in many cities. They make a show of walking with demonstrators while cameras are rolling, but using their batons and tear gas when cameras are turned off.  Civilians who are present when the news reporters have moved on know the truth, but what the world sees on news programs is what the government and the police want it to see -- until the journalists themselves are shot with rubber bullets and arrested.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4georgefloydprotest.jpg" style="height:401px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Military-Grade Equipment and Training</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>One might shudder in horror at the thought of tanks and soldiers in full riot gear, carrying rocket launchers, patrolling the streets of their city, should the provisions of the Insurrection Act be invoked. But this particular nightmare need not wait for Trump to invoke that act.</p> <p> </p> <p>For years now, the U.S. military has been selling surplus equipment, material designed specifically for war zones, to local police departments. In many cities, police departments have nearly all the equipment, including weaponry and armored vehicles, that the U.S. military uses when it goes to war. Police departments also have tear gas and chemical weapons, which, should the U.S. decide to use against foreign enemies abroad, would violate the terms of the Geneva Convention.</p> <p> </p> <p>The mottos of police departments throughout the country differ, with Los Angeles’s ‘To Protect and Serve’ probably the most well-known. But many of them include the word “service,” or some such variation.</p> <p> </p> <p>Yet, in addition to obtaining military-grade equipment, many U.S. police departments receive training from Israel, whose forces are often cited for human rights violations.  Israel’s brutal oppression of the Palestinians is well-documented, and its racist policies against Arabs and Blacks is well-known and has caused a surge of outrage around the world. Using equipment meant for a war, and learning vicious methods -- including restraint methods -- from Israel, hardly qualify these police departments and officers as providing “service.” These are the tools of repressive regimes  that will stop at nothing to maintain power -- the most recent video of Buffalo, New York, police pushing a man to the ground and not aiding him as he  bled from his head and ears is just one of a long history of brutality on and off camera,</p> <p> </p> <p>These examples are a worrisome combination: a dictator-like president who wants to restore order in the U.S. in time for the civil unrest to be forgotten before he faces re-election in five months, coupled with a military and police force trained by Israel and both of which have access to military-grade war equipment.</p> <p> </p> <p>As of this writing, a memorial service for George Floyd is being held in Minneapolis. Police officer Derek Chauvin and his murderous accomplices are in jail, facing various charges. One might think that the funeral will bring some closure, and we hope it does, for Floyd’s grief-stricken family. But for the nation, especially Black and Brown Americans, this must be more than just another tragedy, followed by business as usual. Real change will take more than simply electing a candidate who is not part of the problem, but who offers a solution -- it will take a wholesale re-evaluation of the role and power of police in society.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Robert Fantina, author of </strong><strong><a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=4tNED-2FM8iDZJQyQ53jATUboMdb6zWHvs70Kzf8mrjzk6YMgZOVTmr4LW-2F0vTCWZGbYvW49Fn9lEmQ9Ta-2BMNjOiOaHwV2D4bNOXamoIDIFFLIulZSfMfTpE7pNzKtbqpE-2FQKEF90dkfwI7XY9IgSYguFhnO4Df5F1fL02TvUcky6ue2sCuBDML9tUeC9ImkgZmPYFtYJ3nh00059MhAu-2BZA-3D-3DA_Nq_nV6Vjoiajps-2BjQUqT0IUhzN1PJJyeSpW1trwHxSaXIA8S-2FBtB6sgBiobJ1iPqi77LRj5OxVeduzw2ODz05BBsxdg-2F-2FhV8wK-2BJxcv3rcW-2FW4V5H4jFldTBph7e24-2FL1-2Fl1GCeSBuq-2F70U1CBsoTdID5PNg-2FjCuHDtdkHkqq9C9Lg-2FiNKiRMI5yT3UbMb41RTpK4YR9MzZnCd1YpJLsAzwXYVmTv8Jwtn-2FyT-2BKRg9s8R9B-2FmjNHXolWxYw9sKb5bthBTAY-2FVPIxR5blO6jAIXCZ2Y-2Fxz1s7nfL7J-2BzFzo02JYyGTK-2ByuQ0anj4wG6immEc4RT8gaCZB1uDqkGSUOKBGkmzuHEmz2ADODiD3lv-2FEFM-3D" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank"><em>Propaganda, Lies and False Flags: How the U.S. Justifies its Wars</em></a></strong><strong>,</strong><strong> is a human rights activist and journalist. Shortly after the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Fantina left the United States for Canada and now holds dual citizenship. A truth-seeker, Fantina is active in supporting the human rights struggles of the Palestinian people, and is the past Canadian coordinator of </strong><strong><a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=4tNED-2FM8iDZJQyQ53jATUSfjs2bOypctdeMljuBtKzANQxk5022hixUjvLeT5-2F4m8VrH_nV6Vjoiajps-2BjQUqT0IUhzN1PJJyeSpW1trwHxSaXIA8S-2FBtB6sgBiobJ1iPqi77LRj5OxVeduzw2ODz05BBsxdg-2F-2FhV8wK-2BJxcv3rcW-2FW4V5H4jFldTBph7e24-2FL1-2Fl1GCeSBuq-2F70U1CBsoTdID5PNg-2FjCuHDtdkHkqq9C9Lg-2FiNKiRMI5yT3UbMb41RTpK4YR9MzZnCd1YpJLsAzwXZrU6Conf-2Fkm-2FIVIScJGwytdwvQuRLTuAslhrUlrdSVIdfHvRmeDLTZXeAaiD0cOoByc-2FVr-2Fgqw6s95s3a32aF8Pk5MG9fJS0eX9xeS6JuVGTCGreTmG8m8kVsBaSDZt2zLKgQMtEfdtZGgCWtE8Kv8-3D" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">World Beyond War </a></strong><strong>. He serves on the boards of Canadians for Palestinian Rights, and Canadians for Justice in Kashmir.  He is the author of several books, including <em>Desertion and the American Soldier: 1776 – 2006</em>; <em>Empire, Racism and Genocide: A History of U.S. Foreign Policy</em>; <em>Look Not Unto the Morrow,</em> a Vietnam-era, anti-war story; and <em>Occupied Palestine: Israel, the U.S. and International Law</em>. His writing appears regularly on <em>Counterpunch</em>, <em>Global Research </em>and several other sites.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><em>--<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fibonacciblue/49940537367" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Fibonacci Blue</a> (Flickr, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Floyd_protests_in_Seattle_-_June_3,_2020_-_police_vehicles_on_Capitol_Hill.jpg" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Sounder Bruce</a> (Wikimedia.org, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reaction_to_tear_gas_at_George_Floyd_protests_in_Washington,_D.C.jpg" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Rosa Pineda</a> (Wikimedia.org, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p>--<em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Floyd_protests_in_Washington_DC._H_St._Lafayette_Square_on_30_May_2020_-_RP1_3245" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Rosa Pineda</a> (Wikimedia.org, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/robert-fantina" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Robert Fantina</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-floyd" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">George Floyd</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/protests" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">protests</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racial-hate-crimes" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial hate crimes</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/derek-chauvin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Derek Chauvin</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Robert Fantina</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 11 Jun 2020 01:46:22 +0000 tara 9608 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10686-how-police-use-military-tactics-quell-nonviolent-us-protests#comments The Trump Administration and the Problem of Small-Town Police Abuses https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/9348-trump-administration-and-problem-small-town-police-abuses <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 09/16/2018 - 13:32</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1policebrutality.jpg?itok=qpmpexgf"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1policebrutality.jpg?itok=qpmpexgf" width="480" height="272" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>ProPublica</strong></p> <p><strong>This is an excerpt from an article originally published in the September 10, 2018 print edition of </strong><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/how-the-trump-administration-went-easy-on-small-town-police-abuses/" style="line-height: 1.6em;"><strong>The Louisiana Weekly</strong></a><strong> newspaper.</strong></p> <p><a name="_GoBack" id="_GoBack"></a> </p> <p>On a chilly morning in December 2016, 12-year-old Bobby Lewis found himself sitting in a little room at the police station in Ville Platte, a town of 7,300 in southern Louisiana. He wasn’t sure exactly how long it had been, but the detective grilling him had been at it for some time. Bobby was a middle school student — a skinny kid with a polite demeanor — and though he got in trouble at school from time to time, he wasn’t used to getting treated like this. He was alone, facing the detective without a parent or a lawyer.</p> <p> </p> <p>A blank piece of paper sat on the table in front of Bobby. He and his friends were thieves, the detective insisted. They sold drugs. They trafficked guns. The detective brushed off Bobby’s denials. She knew what he was up to, and if he didn’t write it all down — inform on his friends and confess to his crimes — she’d charge him. She’d confiscate his dog, Cinnamon, she told him. She’d throw his mother in jail. Bobby was nothing but a “B” and an “MF,” as he later relayed the detective’s words to me, sheepish about repeating them. When his mother finally turned up at the station house, it seemed only to enrage the detective further. “Wipe that fucking smile off your face, and sit up in that fucking chair,” Bobby and his mother recall the detective barking at him.</p> <p> </p> <p>Earlier that day, Bobby told me, he had been walking home from a friend’s house when a police cruiser pulled up alongside him. He recognized one of the officers. Her name was Jessica LaBorde, but like most people in Ville Platte, Bobby knew her only as Scrappy. The sobriquet was too fitting not to stick. Profanity prone in the extreme, LaBorde was known for her tinderbox temper and hostile disposition. She styled herself like a Marine drill sergeant — fastidiously pressed police blues, jet-black hair pulled back tight — and she would become Bobby’s interrogator. (LaBorde did not respond to calls or a detailed list of questions about the incident.)</p> <p> </p> <p>Somebody had put a rock through a window in one of the abandoned houses that litter Ville Platte, and a neighbor had seen three boys taking shelter from the rain under a carport nearby. But, the neighbor later told Bobby’s mother, Charlotte Lewis, he didn’t know which of the boys had thrown the rock. Bobby admitted he had been there but insisted he wasn’t the culprit.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2policebrutality.jpg" style="height:396px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Police need probable cause — evidence sufficient to show there’s a fair likelihood that a person committed a crime — to take someone into custody. Generally, an officer can’t detain somebody just because that person was near the scene of a crime. “Mere propinquity,” the U.S. Supreme Court has written, “does not, without more, give rise to probable cause.” Whether LaBorde didn’t know that or didn’t care, she ordered Bobby into the back of her squad car.</p> <p> </p> <p>LaBorde didn’t call Bobby’s mother to tell her that her 12-year-old was in custody, according to a complaint Lewis later filed with the police department. But eventually another officer did. Lewis says she told the officer not to let anybody question her son until she got there. She had to wait out a morning downpour before she could walk to the station house.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lewis was familiar with LaBorde’s rough reputation. Still, she told me, she was shocked by how her son was treated. “She cussed him out like he’s a stray dog,” she said. “It’s like my child is a convict or a criminal.” After two hours of pressing Bobby fruitlessly, LaBorde finally let him go — but not before charging him with criminal mischief, police records show. (A judge later dismissed the charge, Lewis told me; a friend admitted throwing the rock.)</p> <p> </p> <p>Two weeks later, on Dec. 19, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a scathing report on policing in Ville Platte and surrounding Evangeline Parish. The investigation found that, for decades, the city Police Department and the parish Sheriff’s Office maintained an unwritten policy of jailing people without probable cause — for days and even weeks at a time — to pressure them to cooperate with law enforcement. These “investigative holds” ensnared anybody who might know something about criminal activity, from a suspect to a potential witness to a suspect’s relatives. As the Justice Department report put it, “Literally anyone in Evangeline Parish or Ville Platte could be arrested and placed ‘on hold’ at any time.” Many were. From 2012 to 2014 alone, the police unlawfully held at least 700 people in Ville Platte — close to a tenth of the town’s residents.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1jeffsessions_3.jpg" style="height:313px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>That, the report concluded, amounted to “a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct.” To end this cycle of abuses, the report prescribed an array of institutional changes to eliminate investigative holds, such as imposing new department protocols and overhauling training regimens.</p> <p> </p> <p>The case wasn’t merely about Ville Platte. The Justice Department lawyers viewed it as a template. Similar policing practices exist in scores of towns and villages across the country, and Justice Department officials selected Ville Platte precisely because it was a pure embodiment of a widespread problem. They hoped it would provide a model for reform at other police departments.</p> <p> </p> <p>Justice Department officials planned to negotiate a consent decree — a long-term reform plan supervised by a federal judge — with local officials. Systemic police reform was a defining feature of the Obama-era Justice Department, which considered judicial oversight key to dislodging unlawful practices as firmly entrenched as investigative holds were in Ville Platte.</p> <p> </p> <p>But Jeff Sessions, who took office as attorney general just months after the Justice Department report, has a different view. He considers his predecessors’ reform efforts, particularly via consent decree, to be gross federal overreach that denigrates and demoralizes police. Sessions all but declared that the Justice Department was getting out of the business of meaningful police reform. There would be no consent decree in Ville Platte. Instead, the result is what former Justice Department officials say is an anemic reform plan, announced in June, that largely leaves the future of policing there to the police.</p> <p> </p> <p>There’s little reason, they say, to expect that this plan will induce law enforcement in Ville Platte to change its ways. The town’s policing culture is defined by arbitrary arrest and detention — and it has been for a long time. It’s a culture that’s proven intensely resistant to change. “You do what you know,” one former Ville Platte police official told me. “And that’s all they know.”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>This is an excerpt from an article originally published in the September 10, 2018 print edition of </strong><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/how-the-trump-administration-went-easy-on-small-town-police-abuses/"><strong>The Louisiana Weekly</strong></a><strong> newspaper.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jeff-sessions" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jeff sessions</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-lives-matter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black lives matter</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/justice-department" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Justice Department</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-reform" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police reform</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Ian MacDougall</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 16 Sep 2018 17:32:05 +0000 tara 8261 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/9348-trump-administration-and-problem-small-town-police-abuses#comments The Asian Community’s Uproar Over United Airlines https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/7509-asian-community-s-uproar-over-united-airlines <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 04/16/2017 - 14:29</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1unitedairlines.jpg?itok=6ATmxcr2"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1unitedairlines.jpg?itok=6ATmxcr2" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2017/04/ua-3411-on-being-a-randomly-picked-asian.php">New America Media</a>:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>In America, when a source of authority says it randomly singles you out, you should always be wary.</p> <p> </p> <p>Last week, video surfaced of a Vietnamese-American, David Dao, being forcefully dragged from a United Airlines flight departing Chicago for Louisville, Kentucky. Dao, 69, had allegedly refused to voluntarily give up his seat on the overbooked flight.</p> <p> </p> <p>The video quickly went viral around the world, including in China, one of United’s largest markets, where it broke records for being the most widely shared video on social media. United stocks quickly plummeted, dropping 4 percent early Tuesday.</p> <p> </p> <p>Many of the comments in China and elsewhere, meanwhile, questioned whether Dao, initially believed to be Chinese, was singled out for his ethnicity. His bleeding face is now the poster child for perceived racism in the friendly skies.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Reflecting on my three nightmare-like experiences with United,” Richard Liu, the CEO of popular online shopping platform JD.COM posted on the Chinese site Weibo. “I can say … that United is the worst airline, not one of the worst.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Chinese media also drew attention to an online petition entitled #ChineseLivesMatter calling for a boycott of United Airlines.</p> <p> </p> <p>Reaction from the Asian-American community has been equally swift and stinging.</p> <p> </p> <p>“There is no justification for inflicting violence on any American who poses no physical threat regardless of race, occupation, or other characteristics,” declared the advocacy group PIVOT, which works on civic engagement issues in the Vietnamese-American community. “As an organization that aims to engage and empower Vietnamese Americans for a just and diverse America, PIVOT categorically condemns United Airlines and the Chicago Police for their violent actions.”</p> <p> </p> <p>According to reports, Dao and his wife were among four passengers selected to involuntarily relinquish their seats to make room for United employees. </p> <p> </p> <p>In its response to the growing PR nightmare, despite a public apology, United’s CEO, Oscar Munoz added fuel to the growing fire after a leaked email was released showing Munoz referring to Dao as “disruptive” and “belligerent.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Few in the Asian-American community are buying the airline’s defense.</p> <p> </p> <p>“How exactly were the four people selected to give up their seats on this flight? What is the method of ‘random’ selection?” asked blogger Phil Yu, better known as Angry Asian Man. “Do United computers come with a Random Passenger Removal Generator? Or does a flight attendant just take a quick glance around the plane and pick a poor sucker?”</p> <p> </p> <p>In another online post, one gate agent wrote it is typically the agent that decides whom to bump. “Usually, depending on the airline, it is determined based on the last passenger to check in for the flight.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Reporting on the incident, Business Insider noted passengers can be “involuntarily denied boarding based on a number of factors.” These include “fare class of their tickets, frequent-flyer status, their itinerary, and when they checked in to the flight.”</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2unitedairlines.jpg" style="height:347px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Yet to be sure it is not all algorithm.</p> <p> </p> <p>Like others, Yu believes Dao was selected in part because United staff assumed that as an Asian he would be compliant. “If the ‘randomly selected’ passenger had been a blonde white lady, and she refused to give her seat, there's no way in seven hells that these cops would have dragged her ass out kicking, screaming and bloody,” Yu wrote. “Such indignities are apparently reserved for 69-year-old Asian physicians.”</p> <p> </p> <p>He added, “Clearly, they were not counting on this guy to put up a fight.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Asians, in other words, are often seen as passive and law-abiding. But it turns out that the 69-year-old Vietnamese-American physician and grandfather was a fighter. And a protester.</p> <p> </p> <p>"I have to go home! I have to go home!" he was recorded as saying. "Just kill me. Just kill me."</p> <p> </p> <p>Whatever the facts, clearly United failed to see the very real human and economic cost of treating a paying customer like a criminal.</p> <p> </p> <p>In addition, according to Philly.com, United “had no right to remove Dao.” The story quotes aviation law expert Arthur Wolk, a Center City attorney who read the 45-page “contract of carriage.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Dao “absolutely” had the right to the seat, and this was not a case of “overbooking,” according to Wolk, “because all the passengers had seats. What happened to Dao was assault and battery.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Vietnamese Americans are making their opinions known on social media.</p> <p> </p> <p>“A dumb move compounded by the CEO's dumber move. A PR nightmare that even Kellyanne Conway can't blame on Hillary. United needs to grovel publicly, settle the lawsuit with the passenger … then maybe the public will forgive,” noted Oakland resident Kevin Nguyen on Facebook. </p> <p> </p> <p>“I am boycotting United for life! I think Asians and Asian Americans should, too ... China in particular should too, considering United sees China and the whole of Asia as its cash cow for the foreseeable future!” read another Facebook post by a Vietnamese-American woman. Her voice was echoed by many others.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Totally inhumane &amp; inexcusable,” wrote Thuy Linh of San Jose. “I pray the victim will stay strong and take UAL to the bank.”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Andrew Lam is an editor with New America Media and the author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora and East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres. His latest book, Birds of Paradise Lost, was published March, 2013.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2017/04/ua-3411-on-being-a-randomly-picked-asian.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/dr-dao" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">dr. dao</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/united-airlines" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">united airlines</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/asian-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Asian Americans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/overbooked-flight" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">overbooked flight</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andrew Lam</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 16 Apr 2017 18:29:01 +0000 tara 7475 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/7509-asian-community-s-uproar-over-united-airlines#comments African-American Publishers Announce ‘State of Emergency’ in U.S. https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/6009-african-american-publishers-announce-state-emergency-us <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/media" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Media</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sat, 10/01/2016 - 16:33</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3ferguson_0.jpg?itok=ya3NqgP9"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3ferguson_0.jpg?itok=ya3NqgP9" width="480" height="266" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://washingtoninformer.com/news/2016/sep/28/black-publishers-declare-state-emergency-us/?page=2">The Washington Informer</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The National Newspaper Publishers Association [NNPA], the nation’s largest trade association of African-American-owned newspapers and media companies, recently declared the existence of a police brutality state of emergency in the U.S. with respect to Black America.</p> <p> </p> <p>And during a press conference on Friday, Sept. 23, the leaders of the organization who represent a collective of 211 Black-owned newspapers in 32 states with a reach that extends to 20.1 million readers per week, said they intend to raise their voices in solidarity while issuing a list of four recommended action items that they’ll deliver to President Barack Obama, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and members of Congress.</p> <p> </p> <p>Further, as expressed during the announcement made at the National Press Club in Northwest DC, NNPA Chairman (and publisher of <em>The Washington Informer</em>) Denise Rolark Barnes, Bernal E. Smith II, NNPA Board of Directors member and publisher of <em>The New Tri-State Defender</em> and NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., said in a joint statement that the time for talk has long ended.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Millions of our readers across the nation are once again outraged at the latest fatal incidents of police brutality in Tulsa and Charlotte. These are not isolated incidents but [rather] a deadly national pattern of police violence and prosecutorial misconduct. A state of emergency now exists in Black America,” they said.</p> <p> </p> <p>Two other activists from the District, Black Lives Matter D.C. spokesperson April Goggans and Richard Brown, a returning citizen often called upon to address the concerns of others like him who face similar forms of injustice and discrimination, also spoke during the press conference.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Even here in D.C. we know that Blacks have been the victims in a long history of police brutality – from jump outs to questionable, if not illegal, raids,” Goggans said. “But no police officer who has killed a Black person in the District has ever been charged. Black lives matter in all aspects of life and it’s our duty to protect those lives while at the same time remembering the lost.”</p> <p> </p> <p>In a statement issued several days after the press conference, Chavis stated the following.</p> <p> </p> <p>“The NNPA is receiving numerous statements of endorsements of our declaration of a national police brutality state of emergency. We note the support of our four demands from the National Bar Association [NBA] and the Congressional Black Caucus. Millions of Black American families have been traumatized and hurt by the growing fatalities of Blacks at the violent hands of a system of law enforcement gone mad with racial hostility. The NNPA will continue to advocate for effective remedies,” Chavis said.</p> <p> </p> <p>Kevin D. Judd, NBA president, said the members of his organization support the NNPA’s declaration and efforts.</p> <p> </p> <p>“For years since Trayvon Martin, the NBA has mourned the deaths of all the folks killed by police while unarmed. We have people, lawyers and students, in places across the country like Charlotte, who are serving as protest monitors and pro bono attorneys – a practice that we will continue as long as it’s necessary. We are going to take all of the steps we can in terms of legal support to help stop this violence and to eradicate this state of emergency,” Judd said.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1ferguson_1.jpg" style="height:397px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Attorney Benjamin Crump, president of the National Civil Rights Trial Lawyers Association, said “we have a moral obligation to do something in the face of all this injustice.”</p> <p> </p> <p>“It all comes down to trust. But trust must be earned and it comes as a result of transparency and accountability. Without these essential items, our feelings of mistrust widen. Police must have body cameras on their persons and record their actions at all times. And there needs to be implicit bias training at least annually for all law enforcement officials. When police see people of color, they often stereotype and prejudge us and then act on those stereotypes. That’s why we continue to see so many people of color being shot.”</p> <p> </p> <p>“One has to wonder why the New York bomber, the shooter in the Birmingham church and even the recent shooter in a D.C. mall were all taken alive while Black men whose cars have broken down or who have been involved in an automobile accident tend to wind up dead. We need prosecutors to value and represent black and brown lives with the same vigor that they’ve used to put our kids in jail,” said Crump, who represented the family of Trayvon Martin in the case against his killer, George Zimmerman, and who now represents the family of Terence Crutcher, the 40-year-old Black man recently shot and killed by Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby.</p> <p> </p> <p>The NNPA has submitted four action items upon which they urge the aforementioned group of U.S. political leaders to immediately act. The list includes: appoint a special federal prosecutor on police brutality; establish a national police oversight commission on the use of deadly force, with training and cultural sensitivity; create a national police brutality and misconduct database accessible to the public; and establish tougher federal penalties for police officers and prosecutors who violate constitutional rights.</p> <p> </p> <p>Rolark Barnes said their actions mirror those of Blacks from the past including Ida B. Wells, a reporter and activist, who lobbied U.S. leaders with vigor because of the brutal practice of lynching Blacks.</p> <p> </p> <p>“We’re here again, like others before us, because we have grown tired of covering these stories of Blacks being shot and even killed by law enforcement officials,” she said. “Black men being arbitrarily stopped in our streets and in their cars have escalated. We have reached the point where we must say enough is enough.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Smith said he has personal reasons for his concerns – his children.</p> <p> </p> <p>“I have two sons and I have frequent talks with them about how to stay alive. The conversations I regularly have in my hometown of Memphis often address the fears of Black men who feel like they – like we – are under siege. The statistics confirm our fears. Driving, walking or even sitting while Black can be life-threatening.</p> <p> </p> <p>Chavis added that while American leaders have issued their condolences to the hundreds of families who have lost loved ones at the hands of police, nothing substantive has been done.</p> <p> </p> <p>“There has been no change in the reality of Black Americans. We can no longer be silent nor can we allow external forces to divide us. The publishers who are members of the NNPA intend to let our political leaders understand that we are disgusted and that those running for office must respond if they want our vote. At the same time, it seems that too many of our own people have gone to sleep on this issue. We plan to wake them up,” he said.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://washingtoninformer.com/news/2016/sep/28/black-publishers-declare-state-emergency-us/?page=2">The Washington Informer</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-publishers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black publishers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-newspapers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black newspapers</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-media" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black media</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/congress" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">congress</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/blacklivesmatter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">blacklivesmatter</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trayvon-martin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Trayvon Martin</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/freddie-grey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">freddie grey</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">D. Kevin McNeir</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sat, 01 Oct 2016 20:33:27 +0000 tara 7175 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/6009-african-american-publishers-announce-state-emergency-us#comments Trump Is No Stranger to Law-and-Order Baiting https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5919-trump-no-stranger-law-and-order-baiting <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 07/24/2016 - 14:22</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/6trump.jpg?itok=nollMwku"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/6trump.jpg?itok=nollMwku" width="480" height="312" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/07/trump-is-no-stranger-to-law-and-order-baiting.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>When GOP presidential contender Donald Trump shouts that he’s the “law-and-order candidate,” he is pilfering the line that George Wallace, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton worked to death during their White House bids. The law-and-order line is heavy with racially coded images of rampant black crime, and this is a surefire way to pander to fearful suburban whites.</p> <p> </p> <p>But Trump actually has his own history, apart from presidential racial-scare politics, of being a self-styled tough-guy on crime.</p> <p> </p> <p>The starting point was the now infamous Central Park Five case of 1989. The five were young African-American and Latino youths charged with the rape and beating of a white female jogger in New York’s Central Park. They were convicted and imprisoned for more than a decade. The five were innocent. Their confessions were obtained illegally, through two days of nonstop police intimidation, coercion and lies. There was no physical evidence to connect them to the crime. The actual assailant eventually confessed and the city settled a multimillion-dollar wrongful imprisonment lawsuit with the five.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump sniffed an opportunity with the case. With much fanfare when the case hit the news, he shelled out $85,000 to four newspapers to splash an ad demanding the death penalty for the five. Trump made clear that he was not just outraged over the brutal rape and assault but that the case typified a city under siege from lawlessness and that it was time to crack down. The heavy-handed welding of the death penalty was the only way to send the get-tough message to criminals. He minced no words in his ad: “I want to hate these muggers and murderers.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The ad was a not-so-subtle effort to prod state legislators to override then-New York Governor Mario Cuomo’s annual veto of a proposed law to reinstate the death penalty in the state. Trump did not budge one inch from his tough-guy stance on crime, even after the admission that the Central Park Five were innocent. There were no apologies, no recriminations, no second guesses from him about the horror that if New York had had the death penalty at the time and the five men had been executed at his prodding, he would have had the blood of innocent men on his hands.</p> <p> </p> <p>Instead, he doubled down and lambasted the city’s payout to the men as a disgrace and politics at its lowest form. The bald implication was that the men were still guilty and got a reward for their crime.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump returned to tout the death penalty again last December when he screamed to a meeting of the New England Police Benevolent Association that one of the first things that he’d do if elected would be to sign an executive order urging judges and juries to automatically slap the death penalty on anyone who kills a cop. It was pure hyperbole since only states can apply the death penalty for the murder of local police and the federal government has jurisdiction over the death penalty in a limited number of proscribed federal cases.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/7trump.jpg" style="height:351px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>But Trump wasn’t finished. He solemnly pledged that he’d never let police officers down and that he’d do everything he could to get the police even more military-style equipment and vehicles. This was an obvious slap at the increasing call by many civil rights and civil liberties advocates and even a promise by President Obama to review the heavy-duty surplus military armor and weapons that police departments have gotten free or at bargain prices from the Defense Department.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump masterfully played to the law-and-order crowd with the death penalty and further militarization of police departments to make the political point that he was the candidate who’d crack down on crime and violence. He got the full-throated backing of the New England police group.</p> <p> </p> <p>The San Bernardino massacre and the murder of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge are simply the horrid backdrop to the line that Trump has honed over time about America being supposedly under siege from lawlessness in the streets and the need to do whatever it takes to stop it.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump didn’t need Wallace or Nixon to know that the law-and-order pitch can potentially pay rich political dividends. He first touched a nerve with it in New York decades ago and he’ll play on it again and again in the fall, painting a picture of streets in anarchy, and tarring Clinton and the Democrats as softies on crime. He’s no stranger to that scare tactic.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of Let’s Stop Denying Made in America Terrorism (Amazon Kindle). He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/07/trump-is-no-stranger-to-law-and-order-baiting.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trump-1" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/crime" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">crime</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">violence</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/central-park-five" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">central park five</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 24 Jul 2016 18:22:52 +0000 tara 7064 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5919-trump-no-stranger-law-and-order-baiting#comments No Justice, No Peace in America https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5911-no-justice-no-peace-america <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 16:13</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2blacklivesmatter.jpg?itok=n8LFun1C"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2blacklivesmatter.jpg?itok=n8LFun1C" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner New America Media: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p>If you think there’s justice in America, all you have to do is go on Youtube and search for “cop kills black man“ or “police kill unarmed man“ and you’ll find an array of videos, many of them evidence to police violence against ethnic minorities captured on smartphones.</p> <p> </p> <p>The vast majority of those who pulled the trigger, despite the videos, and the testimonies, will not be prosecuted.</p> <p> </p> <p>On July 6th, 2016, in an especially horrific and egregious case that gained national attention Philando Castile, a black man, was killed while allegedly complying with police officers in Minnesota.</p> <p> </p> <p>It was the second such incident in two days, following the public outrage the previous day due to the shooting of another black man, Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge. Sterling was shot while being pinned down by police officers on the ground. Castile was killed while sitting in his car.</p> <p> </p> <p>That the nation has witnessed so much violence upon black men these days is due to technology. A live-streaming video done in Castile’s case, by Diamond Reynolds, his girlfriend who sat in the car with him, captured the heartbreaking scene of a father bleeding to death.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>A loving father</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>An exemplary worker in a cafeteria feeding school children, Philando Castile was said to be well loved by staff and the children he served. And he in turn knew each of them by their names. He was reportedly ambitious and a loving father.</p> <p> </p> <p>His crime? Pulled over by two officers supposedly for having a busted tail light, Castile reportedly reached for his wallet to take out his ID, at which point the law enforcement officer shot him dead. He had a license to carry a weapon and, according to his girlfriend, had informed the police officer so. Images capturef from Diamond Reynolds live streaming video in the aftermath of the killing of Philando Castile The exchange on the video in the aftermath is especially telling.</p> <p> </p> <p>Officer: “I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his head up.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Woman: “He had... you told him to get his ID, Sir. His driver’s license. Oh my God, please don’t tell me he’s dead...”</p> <p> </p> <p>Worse, according to Reynolds who later told the media that, “the police officer stopped us for a busted tail light that wasn’t busted.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Some African-Americans now say they are being “hunted in America,” and increasingly watching those videos of police killing American civilians, it is harder to argue to the contrary.</p> <p> </p> <p>Black males and Hispanic males are especially vulnerable to law enforcement, shot and killed on a regular basis in the country, and in many cases they are killed while being unarmed. The majority of these shootings are eventually found “justifiable cause” by “district attorneys” as many are reluctant to prosecute police officers, despite evidence to the contrary.</p> <p> </p> <p>The reason is due in part to the Supreme Court’s legal standard for use of lethal force, which gives police leeway for split-second decisions made in “tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving” situations.</p> <p> </p> <p>“The trajectory of police shooting cases has long been determined by police departments themselves, which, until recently, were largely able to control the narrative of events that led to a killing,” according to the Huffington Post. “And when cases have gone to trial, judges and juries have exhibited a tendency to side with the police.”</p> <p> </p> <p>In 2015, police killed 102 unarmed black people, according to the website mappingpoliceviolence.org.</p> <p> </p> <p>Only 10 of those cases resulted in criminal charges, and only two of those charged resulted in convictions.</p> <p> </p> <p>It is especially egregious that in 2015 only one of those two police officers found guilty served time in jail: and only for one year. And even in this case, the individual in question was allowed to serve time on weekends, according to the website.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mapping Police Violence also found that last year, 37 percent of unarmed people killed by police were black, while black people account for only 13 percent of the US population. And unarmed black people were killed at five-times the rate of unarmed whites in 2015.</p> <p> </p> <p>Police brutality is recorded daily. And those who died unrecorded barely get any news coverage. Yet, despite civic efforts and mass protest, the killing hasn’t abated.</p> <p> </p> <p>So far, in 2016, the number of fatal police shootings has increased as compared to the previous year, according The Washington <em>Post</em>. The paper found that “blacks continued to be shot at 2.5 times the rate of whites.” And about 10 percent of all those shot were unarmed.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/castile.jpg" style="height:352px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Understandably outraged</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Many are understandably outraged. Former Salon magazine editor, David Talbot, is one of them.</p> <p> </p> <p>“How many times has a killer cop actually been convicted for his crime — even when they are caught flagrantly on camera?” asked Talbot on Facebook. Talbot also noted that “There is simply no justice in this country for those who are victimized by the police.’”</p> <p> </p> <p>A serious question now to ask: Is America still governed by law or by arbitrary decisions made by individual law officers?</p> <p> </p> <p>Many Americans know that there’s little justice to be had in the court of law for victims of police violence, but in the court of opinion the American justice system has already been found guilty.</p> <p> </p> <p>This verdict can’t change unless actual justice can be had for those who feel hunted. “The police are not here to protect and serve us... they are here to assassinate us, because we are black.” Who can dispute these words, uttered by Reynolds, who bore witness to the wanton killing of her boyfriend, who died a week short of his 33rd birthday and in front of his 4-year old daughter?</p> <p> </p> <p>Increasingly many who live in America feel that they live with a rigged and skewered justice system in which the business of public protection has become, at least in the eyes of the oppressed, the business of public prosecution, oppression, and in some cases, execution.</p> <p> </p> <p>Such feelings may have motivated Micah Xavier Johnson, an Army veteran accused of shooting and killing five police officers and wounding seven others during a protest against police brutality in Dallas, a tragic karmic circle of violence.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Soft power undermined</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Abroad, the lack of accountability for police brutality in its treatment of minorities and the poor undermines its soft power.</p> <p> </p> <p>It is such that for the US to talk of human rights and law and order elsewhere when it cannot practice them at home makes Uncle Sam a laughingstock. Indeed, it is increasingly harder to sell the country’s image abroad when there’s general discontent and rising malaise coupled with an inept congress unable to confront gun violence that kills 33,000 Americans yearly.</p> <p> </p> <p>There was a lot of hope when Barack Obama, a black man, won the presidential election in 2008. His repeated slogans were “Vote for Change” and “Yes We Can.” But if there was an optimistic take that we were entering a post-racial America era in 2008, that hope was quickly dashed as more police killings on unarmed Americans continued unabated.</p> <p> </p> <p>And until America reckons with its chronic racism head-on, its fear and hatred, its racial injustice, and implements real reforms, we cannot move forward from this juncture, and change won’t come.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Andrew Lam is an editor at New America Media in San Francisco and the author of “Birds of Paradise Lost,” a collection of stories about Vietnamese refugees in San Francisco, “ “East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres,” a book of essays on East-West relations, and a memoir, “PerfumeDreams: Reflecitons on the Vietnamese Diaspora.”</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/philando-castile" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">philando castile</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/alton-sterling" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">alton sterling</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police violence</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/blacklivesmatter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">blacklivesmatter</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andrew Lam</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 17 Jul 2016 20:13:01 +0000 tara 7053 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5911-no-justice-no-peace-america#comments The Development of the School-to-Prison Pipeline https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5771-development-school-prison-pipeline <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 04/24/2016 - 16:12</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1racistcop_1.jpg?itok=WbXub9gg"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1racistcop_1.jpg?itok=WbXub9gg" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>On Tuesday April 20<sup>th</sup>, 1999, events in a small town in Colorado forever altered our national understanding of school violence. That was the day when two young men, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, opened fire in their high school, ultimately killing 12 students and 1 teacher and injuring 21 additional people before killing themselves. The attack was meant to be much larger – explosive devices intended to kill hundreds more were littered throughout the school and inside Klebold and Harris’ abandoned cars. Years later it was reported that the duo hoped to rival the Oklahoma City bombings in scope and scale. As <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2004/04/the_depressive_and_the_psychopath.html">reported</a> in <em>Slate</em> by Dave Cullen, author of the book <em>Columbine</em>, “their vision was to create a nightmare so devastating and apocalyptic that the entire world would shudder at their power.”</p> <p> </p> <p>According to Cullen, “Harris and Klebold would have been dismayed that Columbine was dubbed the ‘worst <em>school</em> shooting in American history.’ They set their sights on eclipsing the world's greatest mass murderers…” Although Cullen might be right that Harris and Klebold would be disappointed in what they might have seen as their failure to carry out their full plan, the Columbine massacre had a much larger impact on American culture than this analysis really allows for. The Oklahoma City bombing certainly rattled the country when it happened, but it didn’t really impact our national conversation in any long term way. We wouldn’t allow ourselves to have an honest conversation about domestic terrorism because the perpetrator was a white man and that does not fit into our narrative of who the enemy is.</p> <p> </p> <p>But the Columbine shooting <em>did</em> change the conversation. It made us view our schools as possible warzones, and students as the potential perpetrators. It brought us to where we are today in 2016. There have been countless school shootings – largely committed by white men – yet our response has been to place police officers in inner-city schools in lower-income neighborhoods. The results have been predictable yet incredibly unsettling.</p> <p>This past September, the video of a school resource officer (SRO) in Columbia, South Carolina forcibly removing a 16-year-old female student from her desk and flinging her across the room before arresting her went viral. Officer Ben Fields was ultimately removed from his post but the implications of his actions, and the conversations they have spurred, have continued.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/us/south-carolina-school-resource-officers/">According to the National Center for Education Statistics</a>, during the 2013-2014 school year about 43 percent of all US schools – 63 percent of middle schools and 64 percent of high schools - have SROs. Our public school system employs about 46,000 full-time and 36,000 part-time officers across the country. In theory, these officers supervise lunchrooms, coach sports, teach drug and alcohol awareness and, in many situations, become confidants to kids who need an ally at school or don’t have the support they need at home due to myriad different reasons. But, as the incident in South Carolina indications, the existence of SROs in schools is not always positive.</p> <p> </p> <p>For some groups, the presence of police officers leads to a feeling of safety. Following the school shootings that seem to be increasing exponentially over the past nearly two decades since Columbine, it seems to make sense that police officers would be in school to act as a deterrent to crime, decrease response time if a crime is committed, and offer a sense of security and order to students, educators and parents alike.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2racistcop_1.jpg" style="height:417px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The reality, however, can be very different. As we have learned over the past few years with the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and countless more, having a positive relationship with the police is more a luxury than a given. While white parents oftentimes tell their children to seek out police when they find themselves in a dangerous or scary situation, parents of black and Hispanic children teach their children to exercise caution. Even Bill de Blasio, the current mayor if New York City, chimed in on the issue when a jury failed to indict the white police officer who was involved in the choking death of Staten Island resident Eric Garner, a black man.</p> <p> </p> <p>De Blasio spoke about teaching his son Dante, who is biracial, about how to deal with the police. De Blasio said, “What parents have done for decades who have children of color, especially young men of color, is train them to be very careful when they have ...an encounter with a police officer.” He continued to explain that even something as simple as reaching for a cell phone, keys or a wallet for identification can have tragic results.</p> <p> </p> <p>For many, the presence of SROs in the schools was a way to combat some of these problems, hopefully resulting in a more trust-filled relationship between police officers and young people of color starting at a younger age. But the results in many instances have been the opposite, with community members contending that SROs are actually <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/01/30/are-school-resource-officers-part-of-the-school-to-prison-pipeline-problem">contributing to the school-prison-pipeline</a> by doling out harsh punishments for petty offenses such as tardiness.</p> <p> </p> <p>Much of the problem with police in schools is that, in many instances, their hands are tied. Once a police officer has been called in to handle a problem in the classroom, the damage has essentially been done. Rather than sending a student to the principal when they are misbehaving which has historically been the teacher’s approach, police officers are bound by policy to respond using their role as law enforcement. This means that rather than getting detention or being suspended, many kids are arrested and entered into the criminal justice system – an experience that could lead to difficulties later on in life.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1schoolviolence.jpg" style="height:471px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>According to a <a href="http://www.texasappleseed.net/index.php?option=com_docman&amp;task=doc_download&amp;gid=504&amp;Itemid=">Texas Appleseed report</a>, of the 3,500 student arrests in 11 Texas districts in the 2006-2007 school year, only 20 percent of those involved violence or a weapon, and in more of those cases the weapon of choice was a fist. We all had experiences growing up where kids, affected by high stress and raging hormones, got into fist fights in the hallways or the playground. Those fights almost never led to an arrest and, as a result, those involved were able to move through their lives with an unblemished criminal record.</p> <p> </p> <p>But now, with an uptick in rigid zero-tolerance policies, our schools are in some ways becoming a path into the criminal justice system. And <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/06/03/report-schools-should-reduce-use-of-zero-tolerance-discipline-policies">it has been shown</a> that those most likely to be caught up in this cycle are minorities, LGBT and special-needs students.</p> <p> </p> <p>So what is the answer? It doesn’t seem as though school shootings have decreased, especially considering that most of the school shootings seem to occur in middle-to-upper-class white communities, the exact communities that don’t have SROs wandering their hallways. Has the increased presence of police officers in schools led to a decrease in violence or an improved relationship between minority communities and law enforcement?</p> <p> </p> <p>If the data concerning who is being arrested is any indication, it would seem that the police presence is actually worsening an already fraught situation. Perhaps better, more nationally consistent training of SROs is the best approach. Or maybe, just maybe, we should leave it up to school systems to discipline the students, and simply keep law enforcement out of it. These kids deserve a chance to learn in a safe environment, not another way they can end up being incarcerated.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Rebekah Frank is a contributing writer at</em></strong><strong> Highbrow Magazine. </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine®</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-officers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police officers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-officers-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police officers in schools</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/crime" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">crime</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/prison" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">prison</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/school-violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">school violence</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/students-1" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">students</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Rebekah Frank</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 24 Apr 2016 20:12:14 +0000 tara 6861 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5771-development-school-prison-pipeline#comments Human Rights Watch Lists Police Mistreatment of African-Americans as Violation https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5611-human-rights-watch-lists-police-mistreatment-african-americans-violation <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 02/21/2016 - 14:51</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1humanrightswatch.jpg?itok=8Y9fXG7T"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1humanrightswatch.jpg?itok=8Y9fXG7T" width="480" height="469" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_102895.shtml">The Final Call</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>In its annual review, Human Rights Watch ranked police mistreatment of Blacks in America among human rights crises occurring across the globe.</p> <p> </p> <p>In “World Report 2016: Events of 2015,” experts criticize U.S. police practices and become yet another international body bringing the plight of Blacks in America onto the international stage.</p> <p> </p> <p>Once again, high-profile police killings of unarmed African Americans gained media attention in 2015, including the deaths of Freddy Gray in Baltimore and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina,” the report said.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>The Justice Or Else! Gathering in Washington, D.C. on October 2015 drew cross-generational, cross-cultural groups to the Nation’s Capital demanding equal treatment for Blacks, Indigenous communities and others.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>“The federal government does not maintain a full count of the number of people killed by police each year. The Bureau of Justice Statistics revealed in 2015 that it tracks only 35 to 50 percent of arrest-related deaths on an annual basis. A new federal law incentivizes the collection of data regarding deaths in police custody, but does not require states to provide that data and so fails to ensure reliable data on people killed by police,” it continued.</p> <p> </p> <p>The document focused on harsh sentencing, racial disparities in criminal justice, drug reform, police reform, prison and jail conditions, poverty and criminal justice, and youth in the criminal justice system. It also tackled the rights of noncitizens, labor rights, right to health, rights of people with disabilities, women’s and girls’ rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, national security, and foreign policy.</p> <p> </p> <p>Last May, it further noted, President Barack Obama’s Law Enforcement Equipment Working Group released recommendations to better regulate and restrict the transfer of Defense Department equipment to local law enforcement.</p> <p> </p> <p>Ferguson, Missouri was a focal point of protests against police misconduct and discrimination especially after the shooting death of Michael Brown Jr. by a White police officer.</p> <p> </p> <p>Human Rights Watch criticism of police brutality comes on the heels of a recommendation of reparations for Blacks in America by the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.</p> <p> </p> <p>“We appreciate the work of Human Rights Watch and their solidarity, but on this issue, it has been addressed by the U.N. and will be addressed in September, and we want folks to just know that it’s the work of the people at the bottom, the grassroots community, the people directly impacted, and the Justice Or Else LOC! (Local Organizing Committee) that has brought this to the forefront of the U.N.,” stated Willie “J.R.” Fleming, longtime activist and member of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign and the Chicago Justice Or Else! LOC.</p> <p> </p> <p>“We support the efforts of Human Rights Watch, but we don’t want folks trying to jump in and take credit for the work that Blacks folks have done. That’s the danger of people releasing counter reports after the U.N. left, because history can be easily miswritten,” the activist argued passionately.</p> <p> </p> <p>Fleming further said while grassroots activists applaud the efforts of groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, it is important to note that within these institutions are challenges around White supremacy and racial discrimination that must be addressed, not just by the police, but by some of the so-called human rights institutions.</p> <p> </p> <p>Blacks speak for themselves, Fleming said, and they want the U.N. to do more, but he acknowledged the world organization’s reparations recommendation was one of the greatest forums to hold America accountable and quite a bold move.</p> <p> </p> <p>“We want to keep the focus on the grassroots groups who brought the U.N. here, who got the U.N. to make a recommendation of reparations for not just the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, but the continued acts of genocide that happens at the hands of police, politicians, and policy,” Fleming said.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Human Rights Watch report, as well as the United Nations group’s decision on reparations, expose what’s happening in America to a world view, said Nation of Islam student Minister Jeffrey Muhammad of Mosque Maryam and the Chicago LOC.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, what is also important is the people’s display that they get it, or are starting to show it, that after that fails, they will see that they do not have any other options.</p> <p>“The enemy is not going to change unless he is forced to change,” Min. Muhammad said. “The Minister (Louis Farrakhan) said a long time ago that as time goes by, we will be able to see the devil more clearly. That Allah (God) would make him manifest so that his work will have to become worse, because our people did not grasp that we had an enemy.”</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3ferguson_5.jpg" style="height:346px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Min. Muhammad added, “What we are seeing in Chicago, those that are staunch civil rights activists, they are having the conversation now, we need to do something for ourselves. We need to separate. We need a land of our own, because they are realizing, especially in Chicago, police officers can kill us, nothing is going to happen. We can march, protest, picket, boycott and they are still shooting us. That leaves us with very little options. Now (Black activists) are coming to that conclusion on their own,” Min. Muhammad continued.</p> <p> </p> <p>“I think it’s essential to bring the plight of African Americans and police brutality in the U.S. to a world stage because it’s a history and systemic problem that has plagued African Americans since we were brought on ships against our will as slaves,” said Attorney Nicole Lee, human rights lawyer and immediate past president of TransAfrica, the Black lobby for Africa and the Caribbean.</p> <p> </p> <p>Atty. Lee said it is essential also because the United States has had such an impact on the rest of the world in terms of militarism, economics, and policing that where it is wrong, there must be a recognition and an acknowledgement so that other marginalized people are not so easily violated, and that despots do not just merely follow suit.</p> <p> </p> <p>In addition, she said, it is important when activists step out and demand their full rights.</p> <p> </p> <p> “I think it’s been difficult for some human rights organizations to be able to accept the fact that the ongoing treatment of African Americans falls within violations of human rights, and I do think it’s been incumbent upon local solidarity groups to continue to pressure to make sure that African Americans are recognized,” Atty. Lee said.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, she noted, it’s not uncommon in other places and among other people, such as “Afro Columbians, the people’s landless movements, and indigenous struggles around the globe” for those who are oppressed to seriously advocate for human rights protections.</p> <p> </p> <p>“I think that as more African Americans recognize that they are in an international human rights struggle, they will find that there are many peoples around the globe that will agree and support us,” she said.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_102895.shtml">The Final Call</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/human-rights-watch" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Human Rights Watch</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/freddie-gray" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">freddie gray</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michael-brown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">michael brown</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/blacks" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">blacks</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/civil-rights" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">civil rights</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Charlene Muhammad</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 21 Feb 2016 19:51:40 +0000 tara 6669 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5611-human-rights-watch-lists-police-mistreatment-african-americans-violation#comments The NYPD vs. De Blasio: Why the Police Should Heed the Mayor’s Words https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4916-nypd-vs-de-blasio-why-police-should-heed-mayor-s-words <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 03/27/2015 - 10:23</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3nypd.jpg?itok=7W1LgEp7"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3nypd.jpg?itok=7W1LgEp7" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>On July 17, 2014, police officers approached a 43-year-old man named Eric Garner in front of a Tompkinsville, Staten Island beauty supply store and accused him of selling “loosies.” Garner began arguing with them when Officer Daniel Pantaleo, 29, jumped him from behind and put him in a chokehold, a restraining technique that was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/24/nyregion/kelly-bans-choke-holds-by-officers.html">banned</a> by the New York Police Department in 1993 because it cuts off the flow of blood and oxygen and, when implemented improperly, can cause death. The chokehold brought Garner to the ground. As he repeatedly screamed “I can’t breath,” other officers helped Pantaleo to restrain Garner, putting additional pressure on his chest and abdomen. Garner lost consciousness and remained lying on the sidewalk for seven minutes while the officers awaited the arrival of an ambulance.</p> <p> </p> <p>Upon arrival, officers and the responding EMTs did not perform CPR on Garner nor did they give him oxygen. Garner was pronounced dead upon arrival at Richmond University Medical Center approximately an hour later. On August 1, 2014, Eric Garner’s death was <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/medical-examiner-says-chokehold-police-officer-caused-death-nyc-man-ruled-homicide">ruled a homicide</a> by a New York City Medical Examiner. It was the result of the chokehold implemented by Officer Pantaleo and “the compression of [Garner’s] chest and prone positioning during physical restrain by the police.” On August 19, 2015, the District Attorney for Staten Island, Dan Donovan, announced that the case against Officer Pantaleo would go before a grand jury. On December 3, 2014, the grand jury decided not to indict.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the days immediately following the grand jury decision, and in combination with the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/11/ferguson-verdict-grand-jury/383130/">lack of indictment</a> in the Michael Brown case, as well as the killings of Brooklyn man <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/06/nyregion/brooklyn-grand-jury-to-examine-akai-gurley-shooting-death.html">Akai Gurley</a> and Cleveland 12-year-old <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30172433">Tamir Rice</a> at the hands of police, New York City erupted in marches and protests. People took to the streets to register their disgust at the state of policing and the failure of the justice system in the United States, and to demand that all people, regardless of the color of their skin or the job that they hold, are treated equally under the law. It wasn’t asthma and obesity that killed Eric Garner <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/04/peter-king-blames-asthma-and-obesity-for-eric-garners-death-this-is-a-problem-for-the-gop/">as some people claimed</a>, it was a bigoted and improperly trained police force. <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/eric-garner-victim-blaming/">It was racism</a> that killed him and racism that kept Daniel Pantaleo from standing trial for his actions.</p> <p> </p> <p>The claims of racism within New York City policing are not unfounded. In an <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/eric-garner-victim-blaming/">article</a> from December 5, 2014, S.E. Smith of <em>The Daily Dot</em> lays out recent incidents that add credence to the claim. In the piece Smith states that “police likely would not have harassed [Garner] in the first place, they would not have used such aggressive tactics to arrest him, and they would have rendered medical aid immediately, rather than standing around while he wheezed that he couldn’t breath” if he weren’t a black man. The NYPD has been <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/bloomberg-racial-profiling-nypd_n_3516901.html">accused of racial profiling</a> in the past – the New York City Council introduced a bill under the Bloomberg administration that would allow New Yorkers to sue the NYPD if they felt they had been stopped based on their religion, race or sexual orientation. This was partially due to a report that found that of the 533,042 stops under stop-and-frisk made in 2012, <a href="http://nypost.com/2013/02/09/major-decline-in-nypd-stop-frisks/">87 percent were of blacks or Latinos</a>. In 2013, a judge banned the use of stop-and-frisk in New York City. This past September, police officers in a patrol car in Park Slope, Brooklyn used their loudspeakers to tell a group of black teenagers to “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/01/black-teens-park-slope-brooklyn-police-_n_5914440.html">get out of the neighborhood</a>.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Smith’s conclusions are shared by many citizens of New York City and were voiced by Mayor Bill de Blasio in a <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/york-city-mayor-bill-de-blasios-personal-reaction/story?id=27357694">press conference</a> following the lack of indictment and the citywide protests. During the press conference, Mayor de Blasio said this case made him think about his son, Dante, who is biracial. He said that he and his wife Chirlane “have had to talk to Dante for years about the dangers he may face. A good young man, a law-abiding young man, who would never think to do anything wrong, and yet, because of a history that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face – we’ve literally had to train him, as families have all over this cities for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter with the police officers who are there to protect him.”</p> <p> </p> <p>What Mayor de Blasio was saying was that he and his wife had to train their own son to be more careful than if he was white because of the threat police officers have historically posed to people, and specifically men, of color. He continued by saying that “we’re not just dealing with a problem in 2014, we’re not dealing with years of racism leading up to it, or decades of racism – we are dealing with centuries of racism that have brought us to this day. That is how profound the crisis is. And that is how fundamental the task at hand is, to turn from that history and to make a change that is profound and lasting.” He did not place the blame solely on current police officers or on police officers in general. Instead it is a systemic, society-side problem that we as a country need to address.</p> <p> </p> <p>The reaction from the police department to de Blasio’s speech was swift. Pat Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said that police officers felt that they were “<a href="http://nypost.com/2014/12/04/police-union-prez-rips-de-blasio-over-eric-garner/">thrown under the bus</a>.” He believed that de Blasio told New Yorkers to teach their kids “that they should be afraid of New York City police officers.” In reality, he continued, “our city is safe because of police officers. All of our sons and daughters walk the streets in safety because of police officers. They should be afraid of criminals. That’s what we should be teaching.” He did not address what threat to public safety a person like Eric Garner might pose nor what the outsized physical reaction used by police to that perceived threat communicated to the citizens of New York. What his comments <em>did</em> do was create a very clear division between the NYPD and the mayor’s office. This division was especially poignant when police officers, against the express wishes of Police Chief William Bratton, <a href="http://time.com/3652979/deblasio-nypd-funeral/">turned their backs</a> to the mayor at the funerals of officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos who were killed on December, 20 by a mentally ill man who specifically targeted the officers.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/deblasio.jpg" style="height:416px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>This reaction by the officers was not only disrespectful to Mayor de Blasio, but also to the fallen officers and their families. It also, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/nyregion/police-officers-gather-for-the-funeral-of-wenjian-liu-killed-in-an-ambush.html">according to the <em>New York Times</em></a>, “showed a willingness by the rank and file to disregard the leadership” which does not demonstrate unity within the department. It also communicated the feeling among many police officers that Mayor de Blasio’s speech was somehow to blame for the deaths of Ramos and Liu.</p> <p> </p> <p>The turned backs, according to Edward D. Mullins, president of the sergeants union, represented “a real problem that exists between the police and City Hall.” Tom Burke, who retired form the force in 2007 after 22 years of active duty, said that Mayor de Blasio has been “a cop hater since before he got elected mayor.” Burke believed the officers would never forgive de Blasio for his words or for the deaths of Liu and Ramos and agreed with Pat Lynch who, following the deaths of the officers, stated that “there’s blood on many hands tonight. That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall in the office of the mayor.” Relations between the mayor and the department have become so strained that former NYC police commissioner Ray Kelley <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-new-york-rising-tensions-and-calls-for-unity-after-two-police-officers-are-killed/2014/12/21/6d63e252-8926-11e4-9e8d-0c687bc18da4_story.html">said</a> that de Blasio “probably needs an intermediary to go between himself and the [police] unons, maybe a religious leader.”</p> <p> </p> <p>It is true that de Blasio has always been <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-new-york-rising-tensions-and-calls-for-unity-after-two-police-officers-are-killed/2014/12/21/6d63e252-8926-11e4-9e8d-0c687bc18da4_story.html">committed to police reform</a> – it was a central focus of his mayoral campaign. He has been incredibly vocal about his belief that the police unfairly target minority groups and has been a critic of stop-and-frisk. Unfortunately his beliefs, supported by many in New York City and beyond, combined with actions by the NYPD, have created an unsafe environment in the city. Following the deaths of Ramos and Liu, police officers not only turned their backs on the mayor but also entered into what could only be described as a work stoppage, with arrests down 66 percent and traffic tickets and summonses for minor offenses <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/12/29/arrests-plummet-following-execution-of-two-cops/">down by 94 percent</a>. <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/12/29/arrests-plummet-following-execution-of-two-cops/">According to</a> the <em>New York Post’s</em> communication with the police, “safety concerns were the main reason for the drop off in police activity” but the source added “that some cops were mounting an undeclared slowdown in protest of de Blasio’s response to the non-indictment in the police chokehold death of Eric Garner.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The New York Police Department and the mayor’s office do have a history of clashing. Former Mayor David Dinkins was, in 1992, the subject of a rally called by the Policeman’s Benevolence Association who were upset that Mayor Dinkins called for the creation of an agency to probe allegations of police misconduct. In 1997, officers organized a march in protest of then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani because of a pay dispute. The union used that dispute as part of the reason when, 10 years later, it decided not to support his bid for the presidency.</p> <p> </p> <p>And then there was Mayor Michael Bloomberg whose home was picketed by the police union in 2004 in response to pay and contract disputes. This public rift between the department and City Hall, although not unique to the de Blasio administration, does seem especially contentious, rivaled only by the rift between the NYPD and Dinkins. Interestingly, in both cases the mayor angered the police by bringing up troubling statistics and trying to create ways to work with the NYPD to make their policing more just and less dangerous. Constant reflection and improvements to methods and approaches by the police is the only way to increase the safety of both the citizens of New York as well as the police officers themselves. No person, or organization, is perfect and by refusing to acknowledge areas where the department can improve itself, tragedies such as the ones that claimed the lives of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, and officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos will continue to occur. I</p> <p> </p> <p>It is, of course, impossible to know at this point whether the current rift has caused the city at large to be less safe as there are many other factors at play. But it does seem likely that a decreased police presence will result in an increase in crime, and specifically violent crime, as we enter into the warmer months of the year. What does seem clear, however, is that the police department should heed de Blasio’s words and work to police all communities equally, making it safer for people of all backgrounds. The current approach certainly does not make the city safer for the Eric Garners and the Akai Gurleys of the world and until they are as safe as a white man in Brooklyn Heights there is work to be done.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/ericgarner.jpg" style="height:352px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><br /> <strong><em>Rebekah Frank is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nypd" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">NYPD</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michael-brown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">michael brown</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eric-garner" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eric garner</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police violence</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/polcie-force" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">polcie force</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bill-de-blasio" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bill de blasio</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Rebekah Frank</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 27 Mar 2015 14:23:56 +0000 tara 5856 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4916-nypd-vs-de-blasio-why-police-should-heed-mayor-s-words#comments A Glimpse Inside the Desolate Streets of Ferguson, Mo. https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4579-glimpse-inside-desolate-streets-ferguson-mo <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 01/19/2015 - 10:54</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1fergusonstreet.jpg?itok=2T-VNEe4"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1fergusonstreet.jpg?itok=2T-VNEe4" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2015/01/the-desolate-streets-of-ferguson.php">New America Media</a> </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Commentary</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>FERGUSON, Mo. – The protesting crowds have thinned. The 24-7 news army has packed up its equipment and moved on to the next hot spot. But Ferguson is still simmering.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s breathtaking enough walking through the business district along Florissant Ave. to see one storefront after another still boarded up either because of broken glass or as a prevention against vandalism or looting. But that scene does not ready my companion and me for the devastation a few streets over on West Florissant Ave., the epicenter of the worst violence in the wake of the non-indictment of police officer Darren Wilson for the deadly shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>The destruction stretches for nearly a mile on both sides of the wide avenue. I see for the first time the extent of the spillover rage that the TV cameras somehow did not fully capture. There’s the Walgreens, the McDonald’s, the Little Caesars, the Phillips 66, the Toys R Us, the local beauty salon, the local auto shop, the local diners -- all torched, with smashed windows and dumpsters in the parking lots used to throw away the burnt, wet, broken debris of those chaotic nights in August and then again in November.</p> <p> </p> <p>A National Guard armored vehicle rumbles down the avenue. Another is parked near an underpass. Police cars are tucked in business driveways throughout. A large lit-up construction sign declares that a key intersection in the area will be closed after 5 pm that day. It’s the intersection where protestors gather nightly.</p> <p> </p> <p>Meanwhile, the citizens of Ferguson try to go about their daily lives. They walk the streets to the boarded up grocery store for the day’s ingredients or to the deli for the day’s coffee. An artist advertises his upcoming CD release party.</p> <p> </p> <p>Flashbacks to my growing up in a military dictatorship in Lima, Peru pop up for me. This is what a State of Emergency looked liked. The surreality of the mundane of day-to-day life against a backdrop of militarization, physical destruction, deep distrust, and a feeling that further conflagrations lie just below the surface.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2fergusonstreet.jpg" style="height:349px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>At the same time, just as Mother Nature revels in the green shoots that suddenly emerge here and there in a vast expanse of forest decimated by a massive wildfire, there are signs of resilient hope surrounding the armored vehicles, cop cars, and burnt-out and boarded-up stores.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nearly every single plank of protective plywood nailed to storefront windows were tagged by peaceful protestors with messages of affirmation. Ferguson Strong. Keep Calm and Pray On. Peace in Ferguson. Natalie’s Cakes and More [Is] Open. Love More. Love is Blk + Wht.</p> <p> </p> <p>Hundreds of ribbons with more messages of hope and affirmation are tied to wrought iron fences along the avenue. They flutter in front of desolate burnt-out buildings, as well as a neighborhood school where the students are back at their desks.</p> <p> </p> <p>I’m in town to meet the Chief Diversity Officer for a national corporation with headquarters on the edge of Ferguson. She tells me about various inclusive events her organization is proud of having conducted inside corporate walls. But just down the street, the still-shuttered restaurants, shops, and bars speak to a tense reality facing the citizens of metropolitan St. Louis who walk through her company’s doors every day. She sees an opportunity for healing dialogue that she has been testing in one-on-one conversations, though she has yet to figure out the best way to go about it organizationally.</p> <p> </p> <p>She understands the fragility of it all, but also the need to keep pressing on in bringing a torn community together. The task feels enormous since it’s not just about Ferguson but about the still unfinished work of racial reconciliation and inclusion in America.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>But as the positive graffiti and ribbons testify, it can also be brought down to a simple message: “Peace and Justice are two sides of the same coin.”</p> <p> </p> <p>And these require a people and a nation who care. Do we and can we?</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3ferguson_1.jpg" style="height:346px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Andrés Tapia is Senior Partner at Korn Ferry, a global leadership and talent consultancy. He is the author of "The Inclusion Paradox: The Obama Era and the Transformation of Global Diversity."</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2015/01/the-desolate-streets-of-ferguson.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ferguson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ferguson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/missouri" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">missouri</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/darren-wilson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">darren wilson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michael-brown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">michael brown</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-american-community" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">african american community</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andres Tapia</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 19 Jan 2015 15:54:06 +0000 tara 5631 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4579-glimpse-inside-desolate-streets-ferguson-mo#comments