Thursday, April 30, 2015

She Said, Kill All White People

Here's a dose of good ole African-American honesty. I absolutely cannot stand stupid black people!! People like this woman/moron/psycho!

A nutty Georgia woman was taken into custody after allegedly writing a Facebook post that reportedly incited people to kill white police officers.

Police say that Ebony Monique Dickens, under the Facebook name of Tiffany Milan, posted the statement to Facebook on Monday evening, saying in part, “All Black ppl should rise up and shoot at every white cop in the nation starting NOW…Death to all white cops nationwide.”

According to the news station, the Atlanta Police Department alerted police in East Point, Ga., once it was determined that the message came from that area and it was traced back to Dickens.

Dickens has been charged with one count of dissemination of information to facilitate terrorist threats and is in custody as she awaits her first court appearance.

The post also drew the attention of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, who are investigating the case, according to the station.

PR


Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The New N-Word.

Thug! President Obama said it, and Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings said it. But I notice that this word is exclusively applied to young Black men and women. But is it fair to characterize young people who are the effect reacting to a cause? Young Black people who are tired of being ignored and marginalized, and brutalized with impunity? What amazes me is the fact that the perpetrators in uniform who murder black men without probable cause are NEVER referred to as "thugs". But since the beginning of time Black people who have stood up and protested peacefully or otherwise have always been demonized. Sometimes by other Black people who did not agree with their methods. 
This is my challenge to those in power, white, or black, If you don't agree with how people react to oppression, instead of giving them labels, GIVE THEM JUSTICE! 

PR

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Baltimore Is Mad!

Black people are mad, and anybody in their right mind should be. Each and every time their is a case of police brutality it represents are tax dollars at work. Just in case you haven't heard, Black people pay taxes. So imagine your tax dollars funding a police mans salary, said policeman beats your brother or kills your mother under "suspicious" circumstances, and you can't get justice? Not once, not twice, but over and over again.

Black people are MAD!
Streets in Baltimore looked like a war zone early Tuesday after a night of riots, fires and heartbreak.

"Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who, in a very senseless way  are trying to tear down what so many have fought for," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said.

Buildings and cars across the city were engulfed in flames. About a dozen businesses looted or damaged. At least 15 officers were wounded, six of them seriously, the police commissioner said.

Late Monday night, looters breaking in through the roof of a Baltimore liquor store. They were tossing bottles and cans of alcohol onto the street below.

All this came just hours after the funeral for Freddie Gray, who died of a severe spinal cord injury as a result of a brutal police beating.

Gray's family denounced the violence.

"I want y'all to get justice for my son, but don't do it like this here," his mother told journalists.

Gray's twin sister, Fredericka, said she couldn't understand the riots.

"I don't think that's for Freddie," she said. "I think the violence is wrong."

The destruction was so bad that children couldn't go to school Tuesday.

Six Baltimore police officers were seriously injured in Monday's violence, Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said. He said many of the instigators appeared to be high school students.

"I think they thought it was cute to throw cinder blocks at police," Batts said.

Video showed police in riot gear taking cover behind an armored vehicle as assailants pelted them with rocks.

More than two dozen people have already been arrested, Baltimore police Col. Darryl D. DeSousa said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries among the rioters.

Senior center engulfed in flames

An enormous fire broke out at affordable housing center for seniors. It was just months away from opening.

Pastor Donte Hickman of the Southern Baptist Church, which owns the facility, said 60 units of senior housing were lost.

The mayor said it's not clear whether the fire was related to riots, as the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Regardless, the loss has been devastating.

"My eyes have been filled with tears," Hickman said. "Someone didn't understand that we exist in the community to help revitalize it."

State of emergency declared

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. The mayor of Baltimore said every possible resource was being deployed to "gain control of this situation."

Rawlings-Blake said the city will impose a mandatory curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily, effective for one week starting Tuesday night.

She stressed that the city already has a mandatory curfew for young people -- 9 p.m. ET for children under 14, while teenagers 14-16 have to be inside by 10 p.m. 

Earlier Monday, Baltimore police said they had received a "credible threat" that gangs were teaming up to "take out" officers.

It did not say where the information came from, nor did it say whether the threat was tied to the recent death of Freddie Gray.

"The Baltimore Police Department/Criminal Intelligence Unit has received credible information that members of various gangs including the Black Guerilla Family, Bloods, and Crips have entered into a partnership to 'take out' law enforcement officers," police said. "This is a credible threat."

Reinforcements coming in

Up to 5,000 law enforcement officials will be requested from the mid-Atlantic region to help quell the violence in Baltimore, Col. William Pallozzi of the Maryland State Police said Monday night.

And authorities say about 1,500 members of the National Guard have been deployed.

Maryland State Police ordered an additional 40 troopers to Baltimore to join the 42 troopers already sent there Monday afternoon to assist city police. Since last Thursday, more than 280 state troopers have provided assistance in Baltimore.

"Today's looting and acts of violence in Baltimore will not be tolerated," said Hogan. "There is a significant difference between protesting and violence, and those committing these acts will be prosecuted under the fullest extent of the law."

New attorney general speaks out

Just hours after she was sworn in, Attorney General Loretta Lynch decried the "senseless acts of violence" in Baltimore.

She said the Justice Department "stands ready to provide any assistance that might be helpful."

"Those who commit violent actions, ostensibly in protest of the death of Freddie Gray, do a disservice to his family, to his loved ones, and to legitimate peaceful protesters who are working to improve their community for all its residents," she said.

'They don't deserve this'

"I am sure that the family is concerned, and I am positive that they are against what is beginning to develop here in town," said Billy Murphy, an attorney for the Gray family.


There might be a lot of people who sympathize with the rioters in Baltimore, Maryland, tonight, but one mother is not one of them. Footage is going viral on Facebook and Instagram of an African-American woman grabbing a young African-American male in a hoodie who is rioting in the street, and she grabs and smacks him hard several times as the incident is caught on video.

This proves that not all Baltimore residents are in agreement with this violent behavior, as seen in the video in which a mother decides to take matters into her own hands with her son and screams obscenities at him as she attacks him, no doubt worried about his safety in the midst of the chaos.

The importance of this footage is undeniable because the media would have us believe that each and every Black person in Baltimore is in favor of the looting, riots, and rebellion. But at the same time this single mother is not unique. There are millions of strong Black mothers who are raising their children to be good citizens and they are not afraid to reenforce these lessons with a smack in the head, and an unapproving tone of voice.

Okay, I know you're waiting for me to condemn those who are rioting. But I won't. Black people are mad, and while I cannot, and will not condone their actions, I will not condem them either.

PR

Monday, April 27, 2015

Swedish Cops Don't Kill, At Least Not In N.Y.


You always hear stories about how progressive other countries are compared to the United States, and every now and then we see proof.

 New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton is thanking four Swedish law enforcement officers who broke up a fight on the subway without killing anyone. Imagine that!

Erik Naslund, Samuel Kvarzell, Markus Asberg and Eric Jansberger were headed to see a Broadway performance of "Les Miserables" on Wednesday when a brawl broke out between two men on a crowded train.

Police say the four held one of the brawlers until New York Police Department officers responded and took him to a hospital. The Swedish officers went on their way. But witnesses captured the scene on video.

Bratton said Friday that he's grateful the Swedes stepped in and broke up the fight.

The four men were treated to a tour of NYPD headquarters and were getting a ride on a police boat last week. Commissioner Bratton should think long and hard about adapting Swedish police training, then maybe more NYPD would start defusing situations instead of lighting the fuse.

PR

Saturday, April 25, 2015

And Now He Cannot Walk.

On the last morning of the last day that Dontrell Stephens could still walk, the 20-year-old was riding his across Haverhill Road, talking to a friend on hid cellphone.

A truck slowed down because he rode against traffic.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputy Adams Lin was watching schoolchildren waiting for a bus.

Later, he would say he followed Stephens to give him a traffic ticket for not bicycling properly. Because everybody knows that not bicycling properly is a heinous crime against humanity. But Lin also acknowledged that he was suspicious of Stephens, whom he had not seen in the neighborhood before that morning, according to court records.

He intended to stop him, ask for identification and find out where he had come from and where he was going. He considered frisking him. But Lin, who is of Asian descent, denied racially profiling Stephens, who is black, and wore his hair in long locks.

When Stephens turned down a side road, Lin followed, stepping on the gas, turning on the siren and then the lights. He thought the way Stephens rode his bike was suspicious. He thought the way Stephens got off his bike was suspicious. He probably thought the fact that Stephens was Black and minding his own business was suspicious.

And four seconds after Lin got out of his patrol car, he shot Stephens four times, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

Lin said he opened fire because Stephens was reaching in his back waistband, possibly for a gun.

There was no gun.

An internal investigation and the State Attorney's Office have both cleared Lin of the September 2013 use of force. It was a good shoot, they ruled. Even though there was no weapon and no provocation whatsoever,

But the Stephens shooting illustrates key findings identified in a joint year longinvesyigation analyzing every officer-involved shooting in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast since 2000: In roughly one of every four shootings, Palm Beach County deputies fired at unarmed suspects. The Department of Justice has criticized jurisdictions where the percentage of shootings at unarmed suspects was sharply lower. Deputies disproportionately shot at young black men, a third of whom were unarmed. Non-deadly force options, such as Tasers or batons, were seldom used prior to shooting. PBSO rarely found fault with a deputy's decision to shoot, sometimes basing its decisions on cursory or incomplete investigations.

All of those issues figured prominently in the Stephens shooting.

Because Stephens is suing, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw can't discuss the case.

In a recent interview with The Post, though, Bradshaw acknowledged policies and procedures regarding shootings can always be improved as new "best practices" are adopted.

But Bradshaw said he believes PBSO has a firm grasp on its use of lethal force. And he emphasized another belief that he also voiced in the wake of the Stephens shooting: Do what the deputy says and no will be injured.

Just what Lin told Stephens to do, though, remains up in the air. The crucial seconds before the shooting when Lin and Stephens speak to one another can't be heard on the recording from the patrol car's dashboard-mounted camera.

The gunshots can.

Of course in the days after the shooting irrelevant details regarding Stephens life were made public. According to reports, In September 2013, Stephens had no job, and he had recently served a few months in jail on a drug charge. But he also had no shortage of friends and a cousin who had offered to let him stay on her couch. He had a little brother whom he played ball with, and whose shoes he was wearing when he hopped on a borrowed bike to get an energy drink at a corner store.

Nearby, Lin was sitting in his patrol car at Haverhill, watching schoolchildren waiting for a bus.

He had worked hard to get there. PBSO's Community Policing Deputy of the Year in 2010-11, Lin had applied at several law enforcement departments in South Florida before PBSO hired him in 2004 and, after a 2007 tour in Afghanistan, welcomed him back.

Stephens said later he had probably seen the deputy before he started biking across Haverhill, holding up a cracked black flip phone while talking to a friend.

Lin saw a truck slow to avoid hitting him.

That alone warranted a citation, Lin said later. But the deputy also said he was suspicious because he caught a glimpse of Stephens' face — enough to convince him Stephens was a stranger to the neighborhood.

Stephens turned down a side street toward his friend's house.

Lin turned in after him. Believing Stephens was running away from him, he "chirped" his siren, turned on his lights and hit the gas.

When Stephens then biked between a mailbox and a fence toward his friend's house, a shortcut Lin could not easily follow in his patrol car, the deputy considered that further evidence of Stephens' intent to flee.

The dashcam video shows that Stephens looks back, then continues about 20 more feet to his friend's house, where he gets off the bike. Lin is now even more convinced that Stephens is about to take off on foot, not because he got off the bike, but because he put both feet over the same side to do so.

"The manner he stopped and got off his bicycle was consistent with someone who had run from me in the past," Lin said in a deposition: a "rolling run" where someone jumped off with both feet on one side and just kept going.

What happened next happened fast, and mostly out of sight: Lin runs from his car. The deputy is out of range of the dashcam and can't be seen. Stephens walks toward the deputy, then also disappears from the dashcam video. There is no audible recording of either.

Three seconds pass.

The audio suddenly snaps with the sound of pops. Stephens abruptly moves back into view, almost as though he is turning to run.

He isn't running. He's falling.

In his right hand, he is clutching the cellphone.

Lin walks over to him and orders him to roll over on his stomach. He maintains a shooting stance a few feet from the wounded man, until backup arrives.

"He was hiding behind the car," a clearly shaken Lin said at the scene. "I'm just giving him commands, I'm taking cover behind this car as I'm giving him commands, all of a sudden his left hand goes like this.

"He starts backing away from me and as soon as he backs away I'm like, 'Get on the ground. Get on the ground.'

"And I'm like 'Oh, s—t.' And I just threw three rounds."

Video shocks deputy

It is the description of events Lin will tell and retell. He said Stephens had nothing in either hand, reached toward his back waistband and, Lin thought, raised what looked like a gun, "a dark black object," in his left hand.

Stephens did have something in one of his hands, but it was not a gun, not in his left hand and it had been visible all along: It was his broken cellphone, seen on video as he crossed the road, as he approached his friend's house and in his right hand as he approached the deputy, arms at his side.

PR


Friday, April 24, 2015

Just When You Thought You Heard It All News 4-25-2015


A brilliant Washington state high school student was suspended this week forwearing a fake bomb in the cafeteria to help him ask a girl to prom, and he believes the punishment he received was unjust.
Ibrahim Ahmad, 18, carried a sign reading “I Kno it’s A little late, But I’m kinda… THE BOMB! Rilea, Will U Be My Date To Prom?”..........................................Stupid! Just stupid! I told myself I'd try to get through this Saturday's post without calling somebody stupid but, HE IS!
“I’m Middle Eastern, and I thought the bomb was kind of funny and clever,” Ahmad, a senior at La Center High School told The Columbian. “I wasn’t wearing the vest for more than, like, 20 seconds. I asked her, took a picture, took it off, and then the school got upset.”
A Middle Eastern guy wearing a fake bomb is like a black man pointing a toy gun at a cop! C'mon, you know why!
A video of the Tuesday “promposal” shows a lunch room full of students clapping and cheering as the girl, Rilea Wolfe, says yes. He said teachers even saw him make the sign beforehand.
Administrators were less  amused Amhad was suspended the-next day for five days, according to ABC News.
“Given the way the world is today and school safety, even if one parent or one student was upset about this, it causes issues," Superintendent Mark Mansell told the Columbian. He admitted that no students seemed frightened by the incident.
Ahmad told The Columbian the suspension “kind of felt racist” and that “I feel like no one else would have gotten in trouble for it.”
Because his suspension includes weekend events, Ahmad isn’t allowed to go to the prom. Instead, he and Wolfe are planning on going to dinner and a movie.


AH HA! This explains it!!!
A Sweetwater, Florida Police Officer has been arrested after allegedly buying crack cocaine from a dealer in Cutler Bay, according to police.
Authorities said they were conducting an operation in Southwest Miami-Dade when they saw 25-year-old Christopher Heredia purchasing the drugs. The hand-to-hand transaction, police allege, took place in the parking lot of a Walgreens on Quail Roost Drive and Southwest 114th Avenue, Thursday afternoon.
According to the arrest report, officers observed Heredia drive away, and they pulled him over. During the traffic stop, Heredia said that he was a police officer and that the drugs weren't for him but for his wife. 
Yes! Being married to a crackhead is okay, but actually being a crackhead is unacceptable?!
Tina Schofield, the woman who sold the Sweetwater cop the crack cocaine was also arrested. She appeared in bond court Friday morning.
Heredia is facing charges of purchasing cocaine, possessing a controlled substance, possessing drug paraphernalia and being the worst husband in the world! . It is unknown if he remains in jail or if he has bonded out.


Yep! You guessed it! This guy is a crackhead too! 
Seems like a lot of baloney.
An Arkansas truck driver has pleaded guilty to trading $50,000 worth of lunch meat for crack cocaine. It couldn't have been Boar's Head! Who in their right mind would trade Boar's Head?!
Larry Ron Bowen was sentenced on Monday to a year of inpatient drug treatment and six years of probation, the Memphis Flyer reports. He also must pay $18,500 in restitution.
Bowen, 45, of Mabelvale, Arkansas, was hired last June to deliver $50,000 worth of lunch meat to locations in Alabama and Florida.
But Bowen never delivered the meat, I'm trying not to say, "That's what she said!", according to prosecutors.
When the truck went missing for three days, the company that hired Bowen used the truck's GPS to locate it at a service station in Memphis, WMCActionNews reports.
Officers told the station they found Bowen near the truck eating a lunch meat sandwich.
The refrigerated trailer holding the lunch meat was gone and the truck tires had been replaced with cheaper ones, according to the Associated Press.
Police said Bowen told them he stopped at the service station three days earlier and inadvertently tradedthe rig to two men who offeredhim crack cocaine.
 Crack makes you do a LOT of inadvertent things!
It is unclear exactly how much crack was traded for the truck of lunch meat.

PR

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Pregnant Woman Fired!


A pregnant woman is fired after being robbed at gunpoint. At first glance it seems unfair, unjust, and unwarranted. You be the judge!

Marissa Holcomb was held at gunpoint late last month in an armed robbery at Popeyes in Channelview, Texas.

Then, she was fired.

The shift manager, who is five months pregnant says she was reprimanded because she refused to pay back $400 that the gunman got away with.

"I told them I'm not paying nothing, Holcomb said. "I just had a gun to me. I'm not paying the money."

On March 31, the gun-toting robber walked into the fast food joint and demanded that employees get on the floor. He grabbed Holcomb by her shirt and told her to empty the safe, but she said she could only open the registers.

Security video of the incident shows the gunman leap over the counter like some sort of deranged Batman to get to the registers.

The restaurant was reportedly unusually busy that day, so the thief made off with a hefty sum. Holcomb claims that her manager demanded that she reimburse the company the $400 that was stolen, or be fired.

A Popeyes spokesperson said that it's against company policy to have that much money in the register at any given time, so Holcomb was fired. The rep denied hearing that she was given the option to pay the money back. This is a common practice in many business that require a certain among of money to be withdrawn for registers periodically to maintain and acceptable "drawer amount".

Holcomb said she's pregnant with her fourth child and that the firing came at the worst time.

"I don't think it's right because now I'm struggling for my family", she said.

What I had to do was keep my life."

Supporters say they tried to set up a GoFundMe page to help her out, but that page has since been taken down. Holcomb told the New York Daily News that she's applying for jobs every day.

While she was the pregnant victim of a crime, Holcomb did violate company policy. So, the question is, if she was not pregnant would this be news?

PR

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Black Men Broken!!


I get tired of writing about police brutality. But as long as I have a voice, and their is a cultural indifference to Black lives, I will do so. But the fact that things like this not only happen over and over again, but seem to escalate, is so bizarre, unsettling, and perverse I have began to wonder what kind of shift there would be in the narrative if we began to arm ourselves in record numbers.

The suspicious circumstances surrounding Freddie Gray's death have inflamed tensions across the country. How could a man suffer a severe spinal cord injury after getting arrested? And what happened in the 30 minutes before he was taken to a hospital?

Gray wavered in and out of a coma and died Sunday, one week after his arrest.

It's not clear how he suffered the spinal cord injury. But Gray is far from the only suspect who died under questionable circumstances after he was already in custody.

Here are several other cases:

Phillip White, 32

Date of arrest: March 31, 2015

Date of death: March 31, 2015

What happened:

Police in Vineland, New Jersey, responded to a call of a disorderly person, and White was arrested and handcuffed.

Police dispatch recordings include an officer saying White "tried to grab my gun."

One witness, Agustin Ayala, said that White was resisting arrest. But two others told the local media that police attacked White while he was already handcuffed.

"They punched him, stomped him, kicked him and then they let the dog out of the car," Ricardo Garcia told the station. "The dog bit him on his face and around his body. There's no call for that. Once a man is handcuffed and unconscious, you should have stuck him in the patrol car and take him to the police station."

Witness Luis Martinez gave a similar account.

"The other cop let the dog out, and they just kept punching him and the dog kept biting him at the same time," Martinez told WCAU. "He was on the floor, like he was knocked out."

As White was taken to a hospital, he became unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The aftermath:

The Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office has been investigating White's death, and officials have been waiting for the results of White's autopsy to learn the exact cause of death, NJ.com said. Two Vineland officers have been placed on administrative leave.

And after Vineland police received criticism on its Facebook page about White's case, the department started hiding unfavorable comments.

An activist filed an Open Public Records Act request, saying the department's official Facebook page was a matter of public record. Vineland police later restored the critical comments on its page.

Victor White III, 22

Victor White III

Victor White III

Date of arrest: March 2, 2014

Date of death: March 2, 2014

What happened:

Sheriff's deputies in New Iberia, Louisiana, claimed White shot and killed himself in the back of a squad car -- even though White had been frisked and handcuffed.

"Short of him being Houdini or David Copperfield, it's not possible," White family attorney Carol Powell-Lexing said.

The incident began when authorities were responding to a fight in a gas station parking lot. About six blocks from the store, an Iberia Parish deputy saw White and stopped him, state police said.

According to the service report from the Sheriff's Office, Cpl. Justin Ortis received no description of the men involved in the fight. He was told only that they were black, "and one of the males mentioned having a gun," the report said.

White consented to a pat-down, and Ortis found marijuana in his pocket.

Attorney Benjamin Crump said that detail makes the official narrative even more suspicious.


State police said once White arrived at the police station, he refused to get out of the patrol car.
"If you pat someone down and you can feel a small package of marijuana, wouldn't you feel a gun?" he said.

"As the deputy requested assistance from other deputies, White produced a handgun and fired one round, striking himself in the back," state police said. White was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The aftermath:

An autopsy concluded White's death was a suicide -- but said he was shot in the chest, not in the back, like police had said.

The autopsy report also said White was "reportedly in a locked patrol car with his hands handcuffed behind him when officers heard a shot and found the decedent slumped over."

State police have handed over their investigation to prosecutors, who said a decision won't be made until a federal civil rights investigation wraps up.

Kelly Thomas, 37

Date of police encounter: July 5, 2011

Date of death: July 10, 2011

What happened:

Officers in Fullerton, California, were responding to a call about a homeless man looking into car windows and pulling on handles of parked cars.

Video of the incident showed Thomas, who was schizophrenic, slow to cooperate.

Fullerton police Officer Manuel Ramos then tells him: "You see my fists? They're getting ready to f--- you up."

Thomas, who is unarmed and shirtless, stands and another officer walks over. They hit him with their batons and hold him on the ground as he begs for help.


Toward the end of the beating, the video shows, Thomas cries out for his father: "Dad! Help me. Help me. Help me, Dad."
"OK, I'm sorry, dude. I'm sorry!" he screams. At one point, Thomas says he can't breathe. The officers tell him to lie on his stomach, put his hands behind his back and relax.

By the end of the video, he is lying in a pool of blood.

The aftermath:

The Orange County coroner ruled Thomas' death a homicide and said he died after having his chest compressed, leaving him unable to breathe.

Thomas' mother, Cathy Thomas, received a $1 million settlement from the city of Fullerton.

Officer Ramos was charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, and Cpl. Jay Patrick Cicinelli was charged of involuntary manslaughter and felony use of excessive force.

Both pleaded not guilty. In 2014, a jury acquitted both Ramos and Cicinelli.

Jorge Azucena, 26

Date of arrest: September 6, 2013

Date of death: September 7, 2013

What happened:

Azucena was arrested after running a red light and leading Los Angeles police on a chase.

Over the next half hour, Azucena repeatedly said he had asthma and couldn't breathe,. Officers continued ignoring him.

"Help me, help me, help me," he said, according to a report. "I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Help me, please."

"You can breathe just fine," one sergeant told him, according to the Times. "You can talk, so you can breathe."

He didn't breathe for much longer. Azucena was so weak that officers had to carry him to a station's holding cell for booking and left him face-down on the floor, the Times reported. By the time paramedics arrived, Azucena's heart had stopped.

The aftermath:

A coroner concluded that asthma probably killed Azucena and that his death was an accident.

Last month, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously agreed to $1.35 million for Azucena's mother.

The investigation into the officers' actions is ongoing.

Jesus Huerta, 17

Jesus Huerta

Jesus Huerta

Date of arrest: November 19, 2013

Date of death: November 19, 2013

What happened:

An officer in Durham, North Carolina, was taking Huerta to the police station for a second-degree trespassing violation.

The Durham Police Department said the teen died from a self-inflicted gunshot while handcuffed in the back of the squad car.

Durham police Chief Jose Lopez said gunshot residue tests were conducted on Huerta and the arresting officer, and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation "found that Huerta was wearing gloves and that his gloves had a saturation of gunshot residue on it. Officer (Samuel) Duncan's revealed that he had no gunshot residue on his hands."

But Huerta's family, like Victor White's family in Louisiana, suspect foul play by police.

The aftermath:

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Durham to decry Huerta's death. Some carried banners that read, "Fue Matado Por La Policia" or "Murdered By Police."

A vigil for Huerta turned violent, with six people arrested.

The police chief said that as a Hispanic, he had trouble believing the allegations among the Hispanic community that Durham police unfairly target Latinos.

In response to a number of high profile instances of police brutality committed against blacks, one local NAACP leader is calling on blacks to arm themselves.

The president of an NAACP branch out of Memphis, Tennessee said blacks should be prepared to defend themselves.

As a firm believer in the second  amendment I believe that all Americans have the right to bear arms. But I an also a firm believer in avoiding battles that are unwinable. With that being said, there are times when  battles must be faught even in the face of insurmountable odds. In comparison to law enforcement, Black people in America are severely outdone, out regulated and out manned. But if we arm ourselves, maybe just maybe, rogue officers will think twice before murdered African-American men.

“They have a right to defend themselves,” said Crittenden Co. NAACP President Shabaka Afrika, “We’re not suggesting people go out and start shooting folks and taking the law in their own hands, but it is clear that law enforcement or prosecutors or the judicial system cannot or will not defend us.”

Afrika says he is partnering with the Crittenden County Justice Commission to teach NAACP members about firearms as well as their rights under the law.

“We’re going to study law, what our rights are, we’re also going to be looking at our constitutional rights in carrying our weapons and in self-defense,” said Hubert Bass of the Crittenden County Justice Commission.

The group says both religious leaders and the justice system have failed the black community.

Although Afrika made these comments late last week, they now seem prescient considering that a black suspect died on Sunday after his back was broken by Baltimore police.

Freddie Gray passed away after undergoing surgery stemming from injuries he sustained while being arrested by police.

“What we know is that while in police custody for committing no crime — for which they had no justification for making the arrest except he was a black man running — his spine was virtually severed, 80 percent severed, in the neck area,” said Billy Murphy, an attorney for the Gray family.

PR

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Shot In His Own Driveway.


There used to be a time when police would at least let you leave your property before they shot you for no reason. But Mr. Middleton didn't even get a head start.

Was he a suspect or a victim?

A Florida sheriff says an unarmed man --mistaken for a car thief and shot by deputies in his own driveway, is both.

He refused to obey commands and lunged at the deputies who fired their weapons 15 times to subdue him, they say. Even though 15 times seems far less like submission and more like attempted murder.

Roy Middleton, 60, was hit by two of those rounds in his legs. He is in good condition at a Pensacola hospital after a metal rod was placed inside his shattered left leg.

Sheriff David Morgan of Escambia County, Florida actually had the nerve to say, "The tragedy of this is the noncompliance to the directions of law enforcement officers. Had that occurred we wouldn't be having this discussion. It's a tragedy all the way around. He is both a suspect and a victim." As if their is some possible way to justify shooting 15 times.

The bizarre story started Saturday around 2:30 a.m. as Middleton was returning home.

Searching for a cigarette inside his White Lincoln Town Car, he appears to have been mistaken for a car thief by a concerned neighbor who called 911. Escambia County Sheriff's Deputy Jeremiah Meeks and Sgt. Matthew White responded to the call.

This is where the story takes a fork in the road.

Middleton's family said he was not feeling well enough to discuss what happened to him.

But earlier this week, he told the Pensacola News Journal that he first thought someone was joking when they yelled at him to, "Get your hands where I can see them."

He said that as he was turning around to face deputies with his hands raised, they opened fire.

"It was like a firing squad. Bullets were flying everywhere," Middleton said.

But, of course, the deputies involved told a different story.

Meeks fired 12 shots and White fired three times, authorities said. They are now on paid administrative leave. Five of the bullets hit the White Town car, which was parked under a carport in a dark area of the property.

The deputies were in fear for their own safety, according to the sheriff.

"He came out of the car with more of a lunging motion coming out of the car, and the deputies were standing behind him and he had what appeared to be a metallic object in his hand," Sheriff David Morgan said

But Middleton's family doesn't believe that story. His mother, Ceola Walker, 77, told CNN that her son was holding his car keys with a small flashlight on the key chain. She does not believe he lunged at deputies.

"I don't believe that. He said he didn't. I don't believe that," she said.

She says her son is incredibly lucky.

"They could have hit his upper body, but they didn't ....God just shielded him. I know he did, cause they was trying to kill him," she said.

Andre Lauzon, who lives next door and witnessed the incident, said it lasted less than 30 seconds.

He was out smoking a cigarette on his front lawn when the deputies arrived, he said. His view was obscured by darkness, and at one point he lost sight of Middleton.

But the sound of gunfire, he said, was deafening.

"I'm very surprised that all they did was hit him in the leg," he said.

Lauzon says his neighbor may have had trouble getting down to the ground because he was standing between his car and the wall of the carport.

"I don't have any doubt -- even not being able to see what was going on -- that he was complying with them," he told CNN. " Maybe not in the time frame that the officer was looking for -- but it seemed he was complying."

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has taken over the investigation at the request of the Sheriff's Office.

"FDLE investigators are developing a timeline and conducting interviews and crime laboratory scientists are conducting lab analysis," Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in a statement. "Once our investigation is complete, FDLE will provide the case to the state attorney's office. The state attorney will determine whether or not any laws were broken.

Walker said her son takes pain medication for a bad back. The investigation will determine whether that played a role in the incident.

"The message to the public is this was a tragedy," Morgan said. "And it was a tragedy because we had an individual, a citizen, who for whatever reason, either impairment due to alcohol or drugs, or just taking it upon himself not to be compliant to following basic direct orders."

But his mother disputes the sheriff's theory that her son was a suspect and a victim at the same time.

"How can you be a suspect and a victim at your own house? In your own yard, in your own car?" Walker asked. 

Are Black men in America victims the minute to venture away from home?

PR

Monday, April 20, 2015

He Didn't Shoot Him....So What!

It's a sad day in America when the standard for being a good police officer is not shooting anybody when you could have. Somebody white.


In New Richmond, Ohio, a police officer is being praised for holding his fire even as a slaying suspect charged him, saying repeatedly, "shoot me."

The bizarre moments were captured Thursday on a body camera worn by New Richmond officer Jesse Kidder.

http://youtu.be/dhJKyK6VqDI

The video shows Kidder backpedaling and telling 27-year-old Michael Wilcox he doesn't want to shoot him.

Wilcox is charged with killing his 25-year-old girlfriend and is a person of interest in a Kentucky killing. Kidder says dispatchers told him Wilcox could try to force a "suicide by cop" after a chaotic, violent chase.

If suicide really wanted to commit suicide by cop, all he had to do was charge the officer while in black face!

Kidder says a relative gave him the body camera following the deadly officer-involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.

Wilcox was being held Saturday on $2 million bond. No attorney information was available.


PR