NYPD: Too Many Black Men Have Records..

I am a Black man from Brooklyn, and I know a lot of  Black men from Briooklyn who have criminal records. Those of us who still live in, and are from New York know that there are a significant amount of Black men who have been incarcerated. So when New York City Police Comissioner Williiam Bratton says "The NYPD has a hard time hiring black men to become police officers because too many have criminal records", we are we so surprized? Or are we? There is a time to object, there is a time to protest, and there's a time to fight. But most importantly there is a time to think, especially when someone outside of the Black community makes a comment about the Black community. Anger and outrage as a result of some absurd rhetoric is 100% warranted. But if an observation or comment has the "ring of truth", rather than focusing on the source and making them the object of our fury, we need to look at the validity or the statement and the facts. The thing is, it's always easier to get mad than to think analytically. 

 Bill Bratton said it’s a challenge to find hirable blacks because so many African-American men have been arrested.

“We have a significant population gap among African-American males because so many of them have spent time in jail and, as such, we can’t hire them,” 

Bratton put at least part of the blame on the NYPD’s use of the controversial tactic stop and frisk. He acknowledged the “unfortunate consequences (of) stop, question and frisk,” a policy that hit communities of color hardest.

So given the fact that Bratton acknowledges the fact that stop and frisk is a major part of the blame the influx of Black men with arrest records. Our primary focus should be how to fix the problem as opposed to taking issue with someone who admitts that there is one.

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Just When You Thought You Heard It All News! A White Women Pretends To Be Black!

This is by far the most outlandish story that I've ever heard. An epic tale that was made for "Just When You Thought You Heard It All News" A white woman who not only made a conscious decision to pass as a Black woman, but became president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP! I'm going to ask the question that I imagine both  black and white people are probably asking themselves. Of course for different reason, but never the less, why would anybody, especially somebody who just happens to be white, want to pass as black? Don't get me wrong, I love being Black, but I would love it more if I did not have to constantly navigate my way through a systematically racist society. That is to say that if I could choose to be African-American without the African-American struggle, I would do so in a heartbeat. But the reality is that racism is just a part of our journey. As far as Caucasians are concerned, I believe that there are those who would never choose to be Black simply because they believe that they are superior, and there are those who sympathize, but want no parts of what Black people experience. The thing that both have in common is that neither one of them want to be Black.

There have always been white people who have tanned themselves, gotten lip injection, butt implants, and have even went so far as to take on "black traits". But Rachel Dolezal has done what is basically the racial equivalent of "jumping the shark", she chose to "change" her race. Dolezal, 37, is president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, works as a part time professor of the Africana Studies Program at Eastern Washington University and is dubbed "one of the Inland Northwest’s most prominent civil rights activists," according to the Spokesman-Review. She is chairwoman of the city’s Office of Police Ombudsman Commission, and identified herself as white, black and American Indian on her application. She also has published numerous blogs about being black in America on the Inlander. It has been reported that Dolazel attended Howard University, which is an HBCU for 4 years on a full scholarship.

However, her family is saying she is actually a white woman of European descent. Photos from her childhood show her as a blond, white child.

"It’s very sad that Rachel has not just been herself,” her mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, told the Spokesman-Review, revealing that Rachel began to disguise herself as a Black woman in 2006 or 2007 after the family adopted four African-American children. “Her effectiveness in the causes of the African-American community would have been so much more viable, and she would have been more effective if she had just been honest with everybody.”

When pressed by local media outlets Dolezal still insists that she is African-American as if she actually believes that she is. 

In his last interview noted author James Baldwin said that he believes that "whiteness" is as much a state of mind as it is a color, and I personally believe that "blackness" is as much a state of mind as it is a color. With that being said, could Dolezal's identifying herself as African-American be legitimate. Of course not. But, if the "gay community" can stand on the premise that  they are who they feel like they are inside regardless of their outward appearance, then why doesn't this woman have the right to make the same claim? Don't get me wrong. there is no doubt in my mind that she "kuku for coco puffs" but in my opinion my supposition is no more outlandish than many other claims used to justify other "alternative lifestyles."

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Teacher Allowed Students To Have Sex In Class.

This story is shocking to say the least, and it begs the question, has a shortage of teachers nationwide forced desperate municipalities to hire people of questionable character to become teachers?

A Georgia middle school teacher has been removed from the classroom for allegedly allowing students to have sex in his classroom closet, and a judge has issued a warrant for his arrest.

One outraged mother discovered what was going on after she looked at her 14-year-old son’s phone and saw the text messages that were being exchanged between the young teen and Quinton Wright, a math teacher and coach at Champion Theme Middle School in DeKalb County, Georgia.

“I was in a state of disbelief when I read all these messages,” the mother, who wished to remain unidentified said. “Basically he’s allowing the students to have sex in a storage room of his classroom.”

Apparantly Wright acted as a pimp or the equivalent of a male madam. In the text messages, the teacher allegedly told the student that he couldn’t be long and that he didn’t have any condoms. The mother claimed that Wright even sent her son a calendar to show teachers’ schedules.

“He told my son you can have it from 7:30 to, like, 8:30,” the mother said, reading some of the text messages to the local media. “‘Did you tell the girl what’s going to happen? That she cannot tell anybody?’ Basically, ‘Don’t tell anyone I’m allowing you to use my room.’   

“It’s very sickening and disheartening, because we trust administrators and educators when we drop our kids off at school,” the mother added.

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McKinney Cop Quits!!! But Is It Enough?!

Cpl. David Eric Casebolt, the out of control cop who was seen brutalizing a petite 14 year old African-American girl at a pool party in McKinney, Texas, has resigned. But Casebolt, who had been placed on administrative leave after the episode on Friday, remains under investigation, Chief Greg Conley said at a news conference. However, Casebolt will keep his pension and benefits. Which is exactly why he chose to resign rather than wait for his inevitable termination. At a press conference yesterday Casebolt apologized with his lawyer by his side who explained his behavior by saying "He allowed his emotions to get the better of him."

But is a resignation and an apology enough? The first time I watched the video I was shocked. The second time I watched the video I was outraged, and after watching it yet a third time I was angry. As I watched Casebolt with his knee in this little girls back as he held her faced down in the grass, all that I could think about was, what if that was my daughter? Is there anything that anybody could say to soothe my rage? Probably not. I can guarantee you that if there was no video footage there would be no controversy, no resignation, and no remorse. So, no it is definitely not enough! With that being said, let's be careful not to make this about color. Anyone who has a daughter, sister, niece, or Grandchild should be outraged because this officer did not approach this with race on his mind, although it was an element. After watching the footage it appears to me that Casebolt felt slighted because his authority was questioned. We must look at the victim of this crime as a child. Regardless of race, color, demeanor or attitude, a child was hurt by some one who's job it was to protect her and his violation of the public trust makes him deserving of prosecution.

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Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (6-6-2015)

Despite what it looks like, this man is a "good" dad. Just a little unorthodox.

A Chicago man arrested on drug charges allegedly chewed off the seat belt in a cop car because he didn't want to miss his son's birthday party! 

Spoiler alert: He didn't make it.

Lashon Stuckey, 33, was arrested Monday afternoon after police say they saw him selling $30 worth of herion on a street on the city's Near West side, .

Stuckey was placed in a squad car and taken to a nearby station. During the brief drive, the Stuckey managed to chew through his seat belt, causing several hundred dollars worth of damage.

Officers said Stuckey told them he didn't want to miss his son's birthday party.

Wow! What an awesome Dad!!!

As heartwarming as his excuse might sound, for some strange reason, the police just didn't buy it.

Stuckey was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of criminal damage to property.

A super inappropriate extra credit assignment that suggested student pose for selfies with their parent's sex toys has aroused controversy among parents and resulted in a probe for the teacher.

The controversy concerns Wing Wah Leung, a 10th grade geometry teacher at Enceni High School in Alameda, California.

Leung is said to have suggested students pad their grades by searching in their parent's drawers for condoms, dildos, vibrators and other adult toys and taking photos with the erotic items.

Kimberly Cobene said that her daughter said Leung added, “if you got caught, that would be funnier.”

Actually him getting caught is funnier!

Not every student took the extra credit offer as a joke.

There are reports one not particularly intellectually gifted student went through with the assignment and showed his photos to fellow students as an example of what the photos should look like.

“If the kids took it as a joke, then why did one kid take it serious and actually didthe extra credit work, and was shown as an example in class?” Garcia told the station.

No word as to whether this freaky teacher has been fired yet or whether the fool who actually turned in the photo will be left back or not.

What's the opposite of a Happy Meal?

This McDonald's marriage proposal, served between two buns, which ended with an unfortunate rejection.

"I met my girlfriend 2 years ago in LA. I've never been good at planning in advance which is why we wound up ending our first date at this exact McDonalds," Michael Joseph, the Los Angeles based man who actually had the nerve to propose at a McDonalds drive-thru wrote in a description accompanying a video he uploaded of the failed proposal. "She joked for months about how 10 years down the road I would probably propose to her in a chicken nugget box so I thought she would love when I surprised her this way."

Inspired by that memorable first date, Joseph decided to pop the big question by convincing McDonald's to put the engagement ring atop the patty of a Crispy Chicken Deluxe sandwich. He placed a hidden camera in his car to film the proposal.

Perhaps McDonald's forgot the special sauce, because things didn't quite go as planned. While his girlfriend is initially speechless after finding the ring, she recovers enough to say, "This is a joke."

"You're not serious," she continues, covering her mouth in surprise as she realizes he totally is. "This is not what you do," she says, as she alternates between laughing and sobbing. "You can’t ask me to marry you in a chicken sandwich."

In a subsequent interview with Australian news outlet ninemsn, Joseph days that he uploaded the video to you tube at the behest of his friends, even though it was filmed in late May.

"It was a doofus move by me," he acknowledged in the interview, "but it wasn't a tragedy. I couldn't care less if people call me or dumb or not ... I think the people who know me understand. It's humiliating, a little, I guess but I don't pay attention to stuff like that."

"We agreed to wait longer until it's time to get engaged," Joseph wrote in the video description. 

If he asked us in the drive-thru at Burger King she would have probably said yes!

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Shot & Killed For Wearing Red......

Killing over a color is one of the most ridiculous things in the world! It is nothing more than an insidious sense of false morality that has warped an entire generation. Besides that, it is by far the deadliest form of stupidity.

Nineteen-year-old Tavin Price and his mother, Jennifer Rivers, stopped at a South Los Angeles car wash Friday on their way to the beach. Rivers began vacuuming out the car. Price, who had special needs, went inside to buy some cigarettes.

SIDE BAR: Just in case you're asking. No, I don't know why a "special needs" kid was buying cigarettes, and it doesn't matter!!

A man told Price to take off his red shoes because the color is associated with the notorious Bloods gang in the neighborhood. Price told the man he wasn't in a gang and left the store. As Price and his mother gathered their things to leave, the man reportedly shot Price four times. Price suffered gunshot wounds to his back and chest and later died during surgery.

"All I can see is my son's eyes rolling to the back of his head, grabbing my arm right here, saying, 'Mommy, I don't want to die. Mommy, please don't let me die,' " Rivers said.

Price was small for his age, standing 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighing only 99 pounds, according to family who spoke with the news station.

"It's senseless," his sister Nisha Canson is quoted as saying. "He looked like a kid. He looks like a 13-year-old kid. Why would you do that?"

On Monday, Price would have turned 20, so friends and family sang "Happy Birthday" and released balloons during a vigil for him at the car wash where he was shot down.

Los Angeles police have arrested a woman they believe was with the man who shot and killed Price. She has been charged with aiding and abetting, according to CBS Los Angles.

Police are reviewing surveillance footage from the car wash to try to identify the gunman. The family hopes the person who took Price's life turns himself in.

"I want him to live miserably for the rest of his life," Ceritha Daily, Price's cousin says. "Because we're going to live miserably for the rest of our lives."

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Fired For Giving Children Free Food.

This lunch lady was served a pink slip! Not for being late or not doing her job, but for giving hungry children free lunches. 

Della Curry, a former kitchen manager at an elementary School in Aurora, Colorado, was reportedly dismissed for giving school lunches to students who could not afford them. 

"It is policy to never give out free food ... that is all fine and dandy until you have little kids not on the free and reduced program and their account goes negative," said Curry, reported the Denver Post.

While the school does have a program in place for children who meet federal income guidelines, Curry was giving lunch to children whose parents made too much money to qualify for the program. Throughout this past school year, Curry says she has handed out about 20 hot lunches to children who didn't qualify for free lunch. 

So it seems that America has become a place where feeding children has become offensive. A place where rules trump humanity. But despite the decline of decency, we must always endeavor to do what is right, even  when the righteous path is not an easy one.

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What Makes The News!

Yes, take a long hard look kids! That guy on the cereal box with his hair blowing in the wind is, or was Bruce Jenner during his Olympic glory days, long before he decided to transform himself into a low brow "TV star" and then some kind of "straight" man/woman person.

Side bar: 

Ever notice how the Kardashian women seem to destroy, confuse, and or bewilder every man that they meet?!?! Think about it, was Lamar Odom on crack before he met Chloe? And no Kanye doesn't count. Because he came into it with his own special brand of crazy.

But this really has nothing to do with these people, and everything to do with what makes the news. On Monday certain parts of the Patriot Act expired, and are up for a vote. These parts or components include but are not limited to things like the ability of the government to wire tape, conduct suvailance, and seize the phone records of any United States citizen suspected of engaging in "suspicious" activity. The Patriot Act was passed into law post 911 and has a huge impact on the freedom that we enjoy and take for granted as Americans. That sounds like pretty important news, right? But this morning at 4:30am the first thing that I saw on the news was Bruce Jenner's Vanity Fair cover. This is not news. In fact Bruce had been heading in this direction for 20 years.

There seems to be a deliberate attempt to influence the thought process of the viewing audience, and change to priorities of an entire nation. Instead of independent thought being encouraged there is a movement afoot to create a generation of dependent thinkers. The media is now taking it upon itself to tell consumers what is important by emphasis, and sometimes promotion. Make no mistake about it. The way a story is reported has just as much impact as the subject of the story itself. It's all about who controls the narrative, and an unbiased media is practically non-existant. Be that as it may. Everyone has the right to promote, or push their own agenda, whether it is acceptance, tolerance or intolerance. But should that agenda take priority over the entire nation because the "taste makers" say so? And since when does the needs of a few outweigh the needs of many? The last time I checked, all Americans want, need, and enjoy freedom, and what is essentially a media shell game that takes the eyes of America off of the all important ball is damaging, distracting and counter productive in building a nation of thinkers. If that is still the goal. 

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We Don't Want You Here!!

As American days pass we get more and  used to the concept of freedom (more about that in the coming weeks). Those of us who are a part of generation X are in our early to mid forties now, and we are accustomed to having complete autonomy when it comes to how we live our lives. We've been able to go any place we want, and live any place we want for the most part, without having to worry about a cross being burned on our front lawns or having clowns covered in white sheets show up to express their "disdain". While many of us are aware of the impact of history. The fact is, to us it is just that. History. Until we actually experience it!

Police in Suffolk County, N.Y., are investigating a possible hate crime aimed at an African-American family in Lindenhurst.

Ronica Copes, a resident of the Long Island suburban neighborhood, received the hate letter, written in bold capital letters, warning her family that they did not belong in the neighborhood because “Lindenhurst is 84% white population.” The letter writer goes on to say that her family should leave “as soon as you can.”

Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone called the author a coward in a statement released soon after.

“To the coward who committed a hate crime against an innocent family in Lindenhurst—there is no place for intolerance in Suffolk County,” he wrote, according to the television news outlet. “I know the Suffolk County Police Department will do everything possible to solve this hate crime, out you and see you punished. I stand together with all Lindenhurst residents who decry this act of hatred. This community and all of Suffolk County are better than that.”

Copes thanked supporters, adding that she would keep everyone informed of the outcome of the investigation.

So it seems, at least in Suffolk county New York, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

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No More Discipline....

Believe it or not, there was a time in America when we were free to discipline our children without being criticized by strangers who have no intention of contributing to the child's upbringing. The latest example is misplaced outrage is the controversy over "cyber shaming".

"Cyber shaming" is the latest trend in which parents discipline their children by posting footage of their punishments on the internet. Perhaps the most popular form of punisrnent is "the George Jefferson" haircut pictured below. 

Recently I read an article in which yet another opinionated stranger has the nerve to say that there was no difference between "cyber discipline" and "cyber bullying"! Talk about overrating. Does every child deserve to be embarrassed in this way? Absolutely not. But there are certainly some instances in which embarrassment is certainly appropriate and hopefully effective. Such as the following.

a 12-year-old boy named Terrence, who came home smelling like marijuana, got a “George Jefferson” haircut from his stepmom. To make matters worse, the stepmom, Aaliyah Hines, found out that he also failed the seventh grade and will have to repeat it next year. In the caption for the video that was posted to Hines’ Facebook page, she said she’s selling his Jordans. He also won’t be sleeping in his new bed, he’s going to summer school and she’s sending him to stay with her mom. Oh, and she promised to give him that George Jefferson haircut again the following week. Of course Hines could have chosen a different punishment that would have been a little less harsh. But her form of punishment pales in comparison to the punishment he would have received from law enforcement had he been caught with marijuana.

The author of the article in The Root.com writes:

 "What I take issue with is the “whole world” knowing about it. It’s one thing to screw up and be punished, even embarrassed, but it’s quite another to know that there is an everlasting video telling millions of people what you’ve done, and one that they’ll be able to pull up anytime".

When the author fails to realize is that having a criminal record is also something that the "whole world" could no about. Especially those in it who would be responsible for hiring young Terrence a few years from now. Furthermore, a criminal record is just as "everlasting" and far more damaging than any video.

The decision must be made. Are we going to discipline our children or allow the criminal justice system discipline our children?

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