Video that went viral over the weekend shows an officer punching a man multiple times and then tackling him
A Baltimore police officer caught on video repeatedly punching a man has quit the force, police said.
The Baltimore police department said on Twitter late Sunday night that the interim commissioner, Gary Tuggle, accepted the resignation of the officer involved in the incident.
“This remains an active criminal investigation,” the department said.
Video that surfaced online and went viral over the weekend shows an officer punching the man around the head multiple times and then tackling him.
The city has not identified the officer, but a lawyer for the man who was punched told the Baltimore Sun the officer was Arthur Williams.
A second officer involved in the run-in has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation, according to the department.
“I am deeply concerned by the conduct I witnessed today,” Tuggle said in a statement on Saturday. “I have zero tolerance for behavior like I witnessed on the video today. Officers have a responsibility and duty to control their emotions in the most stressful of situations.”
According to police, the incident happened around 11.45am on Saturday when two officers approached the man, who one of the officers “was familiar with”, for reasons that were not spelled out. They released him, and then approached him again to provide a citizens contact sheet, a form city cops are required to fill out after interactions with residents.
Things escalated after the man declined to provide identification, the department’s account says.
Video shows the man and one of the officers exchanging heated words before the confrontation turns physical, with the cop punching the man repeatedly before he falls to the ground, where the officer continues to throw punches and jumps on top of him.
The officer who threw the punches, who has been with the department for about a year, was suspended with pay before he resigned.
The man who was beaten was released from custody and was not charged with any crime.
The man, named as Dashawn McGrier, 26, had a previous run-in with Williams in June, and was at that time charged with assaulting the officer and other offenses, his lawyer, Warren Brown, told the Baltimore Sun. The lawyer said he was unfairly targeted in both incidents and was taken to the hospital for injuries suffered on Saturday.
“It seems like this officer had just decided that Dashawn was going to be his punching bag,” Brown said. “And this was a brutal attack.”
A former St. Louis police officer was acquitted Friday in the fatal shooting of a drug suspect following a chase.
Jason Stockley was charged with first-degree murder in the 2011 death of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith. Testimony in the trial ended Aug. 9, but Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson weighed evidence for more than a month before ruling.
Stockley and his partner sought to question Smith after observing what appeared to be a drug deal on a fast-food restaurant parking lot. Smith drove away, prompting a chase.
Stockley shot into Smith's car five times after the chase. He testified Smith was moving his hand toward an area of the seat where a gun was found. But prosecutors said Stockley planted the gun.
Stockley is white and Smith was black. The case is among several across the United States in recent years that have increased debate about race and policing. Here are some other high-profile deaths of blacks during police encounters:
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FREDDIE GRAY
The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday it won't bring federal civil rights charges against six Baltimore officers involved in the arrest and in-custody death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man whose death touched off weeks of protests. Gray was shackled but alive when he was put in a Baltimore police van in April 2015. He came out with severe neck injuries. Six officers were charged initially, but prosecutors in July 2016 dropped all remaining charges after acquittals and a hung jury. Gray's family agreed to a $6.4 million settlement with the city in September 2015.
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LAQUAN MCDONALD
Chicago officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder in November 2015, on the same day that the city, under a judge's orders, released dashcam video showing 17-year-old McDonald being shot 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014. Van Dyke, who is white, has pleaded not guilty. The Justice Department determined in January that Chicago police have a long history of civil rights violations and excessive force. A Cook County grand jury looking into allegations of a cover-up is weighing further indictments in the case, the Chicago Sun Times reported in August.
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KEITH LAMONT SCOTT
A split review board announced in August that it won't challenge a police department's finding that its officer was justified in the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2016. The board split 4-4 after reviewing the internal police probe. The board will issue confidential recommendations for policy changes. The shooting provoked several days of unrest, resulting in a death, dozens of arrests and millions of dollars in damage.
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SAM DUBOSE
A judge in July dismissed charges against Ray Tensing, a white former University of Cincinnati officer who fatally shot Sam DuBose, an unarmed black motorist, during a 2015 traffic stop. The judge's decision came after a prosecutor declined to pursue a third murder trial; the first two ended in hung juries. Tensing has said he feared he could be dragged or run over as DuBose tried to drive away. The university fired Tensing, restructured its public safety department and reached a $5.3 million settlement that includes free undergraduate tuition for DuBose's 13 children.
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SYLVILLE SMITH
A jury in June acquitted former Milwaukee officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown, who is black, of first-degree reckless homicide in the death of Sylville Smith in 2016. The shooting ignited rioting in the city. Smith was shot following a traffic stop. Police say Smith ran away holding a gun. Prosecutors say Smith fell and Heaggan-Brown shot him once in the arm as he was getting up, still holding the weapon while facing the officer. They say Heaggan-Brown's second shot came after Smith had thrown his gun over a fence. Heaggan-Brown, 25, said he thought Smith was reaching for another gun in his waistband when he fired again.
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PHILANDO CASTILE
St. Anthony, Minnesota, officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter in June in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, a black motorist who had just informed the officer that he was carrying a gun. The case in suburban St. Paul garnered immediate attention because Castile's girlfriend streamed the aftermath live on Facebook. Yanez testified that Castile was pulling his gun out of his pocket despite his commands not to do so.
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JORDAN EDWARDS
Roy Oliver, a white police officer in suburban Dallas, was fired and is charged with murder in the fatal shooting in April of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards. The U.S. Department of Justice also is investigating. Oliver fired a rifle at a car full of teenagers leaving a party, striking Edwards, who was a passenger in the vehicle. Balch Springs, Texas, police had originally said the vehicle was reversing "in an aggressive manner" toward officers, but police Chief Jonathan Haber later said video taken at the scene proved the vehicle was actually driving away. Oliver is free on bond.
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TERENCE CRUTCHER
An Oklahoma jury in May found white Tulsa police officer Betty Jo Shelby not guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the 2016 death of Terence Crutcher, 40, who was shot shortly after Shelby arrived to find Crutcher's SUV stopped in the middle of the road. Shelby testified that she was afraid because Crutcher didn't obey her commands and appeared to reach inside his vehicle. Prosecutors told jurors that Shelby overreacted, noting that videos from a patrol car dashboard and a police helicopter showed Crutcher had his hands in the air and did not have a weapon.
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ALTON STERLING
Federal prosecutors announced in May they would not seek charges against two white police officers who were involved in a deadly encounter with Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last summer. Sterling, 37, was shot to death on July 5, 2016, as the officers pinned him to the pavement outside a convenience store where he had been selling CDs. The killing was captured on cellphone video and circulated widely online, sparking demonstrations across Baton Rouge. U.S. Attorney Corey Amundson said Sterling was armed during the confrontation and the investigation didn't find enough evidence to pursue charges. State authorities are investigating whether to bring charges.
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JAMAR CLARK
Jamar Clark's November 2015 shooting death sparked weeks of protests in Minneapolis. Two white officers, Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze, were trying to arrest the 24-year-old when he was shot once in the head. He died a day later. Some witnesses said Clark was handcuffed when he was shot, but federal and state probes concluded that he was not. Investigators said Ringgenberg felt Clark's hand trying to grab his weapon and shouted to Schwarze, who then shot Clark. Prosecutors decided not to charge either officer, and an internal police investigation cleared them.
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JEREMY MCDOLE
Jeremy McDole, 28, was sitting in his wheelchair when he was shot and killed in September 2015 in Wilmington, Delaware, after police received a 911 call about a man with a gun. A bystander's cellphone footage showed officers repeatedly telling McDole to drop his weapon and raise his hands, with McDole reaching for his waist area before shots erupted. The Delaware attorney general's office decided not to criminally charge four Wilmington police officers involved. A federal judge approved the city's $1.5 million settlement with McDole's family.
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WILLIAM CHAPMAN II
Former Portsmouth, Virginia, police officer Stephen Rankin was sentenced last October to 2½ years in prison for fatally shooting William Chapman II while responding to a shoplifting call outside a Walmart on April 22, 2015. Prosecutors allege Rankin killed the unarmed 18-year-old "willfully, deliberately and with premeditation." Some witnesses said Chapman was combative, and one said he knocked away Rankin's stun gun. Rankin, who is white, was fired.
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WALTER SCOTT
Prosecutors are recommending decades in prison for white South Carolina police officer Michael Slager, who shot Walter Scott in the back as the motorist fled following a traffic stop. Slager pleaded guilty in May to a federal charge of violating Scott's civil rights. A judge will determine his sentence, which could range from probation to life in prison without parole. Scott's shooting in April 2015 was captured on cellphone video and seen worldwide.
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ERIC HARRIS
Former Tulsa County volunteer sheriff's deputy Robert Bates, 74, was sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for second-degree manslaughter in the April 2015 death of Eric Harris, 44, who was unarmed and restrained. Bates, who is white, has said he confused his stun gun with his handgun. That shooting led to the temporary suspension of the reserve deputy program after a report found poor training of the volunteer officers, a lack of oversight, and cronyism. Bates is appealing his conviction.
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TAMIR RICE
Tamir Rice, 12, was fatally shot by a white Cleveland police officer in a recreational area in November 2014. Officers were responding to a report of a man waving a gun. The boy had a pellet gun tucked in his waistband and was shot after the officers' cruiser skidded to a stop, just feet away. A grand jury in December 2015 declined to indict patrolman Timothy Loehmann, who fired the fatal shot, and training officer Frank Garmback. The city settled Rice's family's lawsuit for $6 million. Cleveland in May fired Loehmann and suspended Garmback for 10 days. The officers' union called the discipline politically motivated.
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AKAI GURLEY
Rookie New York City police officer Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter last year in the November 2014 death of 28-year-old Akai Gurley. Liang, an American of Chinese descent, said he was patrolling a public housing high-rise with his gun drawn when a sound startled him and he fired accidentally. A bullet ricocheted off a wall, hitting Gurley. A judge reduced the conviction to negligent homicide and sentenced Liang to five years' probation and 800 hours of community service. The city settled with Gurley's family for $4.1 million.
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MICHAEL BROWN
Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, was fatally shot by a white officer, Darren Wilson, in August 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. A grand jury declined to indict Wilson, and the U.S. Justice Department opted against civil rights charges. Wilson later resigned. The death of Brown led to months of sometimes-violent protests and became a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement.
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JOHN CRAWFORD III
Police in the Dayton, Ohio, suburb of Beavercreek responded to a Walmart store in August 2014 on a call of a man waving an apparent rifle. A white officer fatally shot John Crawford III, 22, who was carrying what turned out to be an air rifle from a store shelf. Police said they believed it was a real gun and that he didn't respond to their commands to put it down. A grand jury declined to indict the officers. The U.S. Justice Department said it was reviewing the case, and an attorney for Crawford's family has filed a federal lawsuit.
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ERIC GARNER
Eric Garner, 43, died in July 2014 in New York City after a white officer placed him in a chokehold during an arrest for selling loose cigarettes. A grand jury declined to indict that officer, or any others involved in the arrest. The city agreed to pay a $6 million civil settlement.
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REKIA BOYD
Chicago police officer Dante Servin resigned in May 2016 after the police superintendent said he should be fired for killing Rekia Boyd four years earlier. Servin was off duty when he shot the 22-year-old unarmed woman. She had been walking down a street with her friends when he told them to be quiet, and he fired when he thought he saw a gun. Prosecutors charged Servin with involuntary manslaughter; a judge acquitted him in April 2016, saying he'd been improperly charged. The city settled a wrongful-death lawsuit in 2013 with Boyd's family for $4.5 million.
Recent high-profile cases of unarmed black men dying at the hands of the US police have sparked protests and civil unrest in several American cities.
The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, and Freddie Gray are - some claim - evidence of long-standing problems with police racism and excessive violence.
Four expert witnesses talk to the BBC World Service Inquiry programme, including the head of President Obama's taskforce on police reform, Charles Ramsey.
"I'm 24 years old. I'm a black man. It's incredibly depressing to see people just like me who have been killed.
"I started the project to provide answers in the wake of the shooting of Mike Brown. It's very heavy to read these stories, and yet it feels like the right work to do. It's important.
"There are statistics on all kinds of violent crimes. And yet, when it comes to people being killed by police officers, there's no data on that. So a light bulb went off in my head. I looked at two crowd-sourcing databases which collected all of the names. I then went through the media reports listing each of those people who were killed."
He counted 1,149 people of all ethnic groups killed by the police in 2014.
"I identified whether they were armed or unarmed. I identified them by race by looking at if there was an obituary or another picture of them online.
"In the aftermath of Ferguson [where the unarmed teenager Michael Brown was killed], there was this big question 'Is this a pattern, is this an isolated incident?' What [my data] shows is that Ferguson is everywhere. All over the country you're seeing black people being killed by police."
The youngest recorded was 12, the oldest 65. More than 100 were unarmed.
"Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police in the United States than white people. More unarmed black people were killed by police than unarmed white people last year. And that's taking into account the fact that black people are only 14% of the population here.
"It goes back to this question of how do they perceive young black men? There's something in the US called Vision Zero, a commitment by mayors to achieve zero traffic fatalities in a specified timeframe.
"We haven't seen mayors step up and make clear commitments to eliminate the level of police violence in their communities. I think that says a lot about the relative value that they place on those constituents' lives."
"I'm a white, middle-class professional woman. I enjoy a great deal of privilege. And I certainly have the black crime implicit bias: I am more likely to see threat in African Americans than I would Caucasians.
"Racial profiling was the number one issue facing police [in the 1990s], and I came to understand two things. Bias in policing was not just a few officers in a few departments; and, overwhelmingly, the police in this country are well-intentioned. I couldn't put those two thoughts together in my head until I was introduced to the science of implicit bias.
"We all have implicit biases whereby we link groups to stereotypes, possibly producing discriminatory behaviour - even in individuals who are totally against prejudice.
"The original 'Shoot, Don't Shoot' studies have a subject sitting in front a computer monitor and photos pop up very quickly, showing either a white or black man. That man either has a gun in his hand or a neutral object like a cell phone. The subject is told 'if you see a threat, hit the 'shoot' key and if you don't see a threat, hit the 'don't shoot' key'. "
The studies suggest that implicit biases affect these actions - for example in some studies people are quicker to 'shoot' an unarmed black man than an unarmed white man. A Department of Justice report released in March looking at the use of deadly force by Philadelphia police, supports the idea that police are susceptible to implicit bias:
"One of the things they looked at is what they called threat perception failure. The officer believed that the person was armed and it turned out not to be the case. And these failures were more likely to occur when the subject was black [even if the officers were themselves black or Latino].
"Officers, like the rest of us, have an implicit bias linking blacks to crime. So the black crime implicit bias might be implicated in some of the use of deadly force against African-Americans in our country.
"An important message in our training is that stereotypes are based in part on fact, and we have to recognise this because in our country, people of colour are disproportionately represented amongst the people who commit street crime.
"That does not give you licence to treat every individual in a group as if they fit the stereotype, that's where we go wrong."
"The first rule of law enforcement is to go home at the end of your shift. The key principle is officer survival. That's what all training is designed to promote. But it ends up endangering civilians rather than preserving their safety.
"The warrior culture - the belief that police officers are soldiers engaged in battle with the criminal element - that has contributed to some shootings that were most likely avoidable.
"It starts in police recruitment videos that show officers shooting rifles, strapping on hard body armour, using force. That attracts a particular type of candidate, and the Police Academy further entrenches this.
"It teaches officers to be afraid by telling them that policing is an incredibly dangerous profession.
"Officers are trained to view every encounter as a potential deadly force incident: you walk up to a person who is loitering outside of a convenience store, their hands are in their pockets. You as the officer begin talking to them, and without saying a word they pull a gun out of their pocket and begin shooting you.
"Training involves an average of about 60 hours on deadly force - the use of firearms - and just over 60 hours on self-defence. Compare that to de-escalation conflict resolution training: the average there is only eight hours of training, and most of that is classroom-based.
"When the military is designing a mission, they have in mind the fact that they're going to lose soldiers. The police profession has strongly repudiated that notion. No officer fatalities are acceptable.
"If all of the states had the same approach and the same numbers of officer-involved homicides as the best states, the states that had the fewest, we could expect about 300 to 600 lives to be saved every year."
"We live in a society where everybody wants to point fingers, but we have a lot of deeply-rooted societal problems: poverty, education, poor housing stock.
"We've got to deal with the issue of extreme poverty. Philadelphia has the highest rate of poverty among US cities. You have an underground economy that supports many of these neighbourhoods - drugs, prostitution, illegal cigarette sales.
"Why are police in large numbers in some of these neighbourhoods? We have to deal with the reality that there's a disproportionate amount of crime occurring in many of these neighbourhoods.
"We've had several police officers shot and killed during the past seven years. I've had eight officers killed in the line of duty - five shot dead. So there is violence that takes place against police as well, and that needs to be taken into consideration."
To tackle the problem, he has divided Philadelphia into separate areas with their own teams:
"They have monthly community meetings to talk about crime and disorder. Cadets that come out of the academy are assigned to foot patrol right away, they don't automatically go into cars. So that they actually get to know people in these challenged communities, good folks that are there entrapped in certain conditions."
In response to the Department of Justice report criticising Philadelphia police's use of force, Commissioner Ramsey introduced new training that focuses on de-escalation, as well as armed response:
"Putting them in scenarios where they have to exercise good judgement and being able to critique that so that when they are in these real live situations, their reaction, their response, is really more consistent with what the actual threat is."
Wednesday, July 5, 2016 Philando Castile, 33, (another Black man) was murdered by White Cops during a TRAFFIC STOP in Minnesota.
Although Philando was legally carrying a Concealed Weapon when stopped by Police Wednesday, he posed absolutely no threat to the five Police Officers who brutally murdered him in cold blood.
And yes.....
The Officers who murdered him should be prosecuted!
I don't care if Philando did have a criminal record, he did NOT deserve to DIE like an animal if he posed NO threat to a Police Officer or any other human being.
However It's not fair nor reasonable to Hate the POLICE, nor blame all Cops because not all Cops are Racist.
In fact there are many good Cops still serving in our communities.
Thus I DON'T condone Killing Cops out of Vengeance for any reason.
So what can Black citizens in America expect now?
What ACTION do we take for RESOLUTION?
Demonstrations or Riots appear to be Futile and outdated.
Instead Black voters should express their anger at the Polls this November.
POLICY Changes occur on the Federal level and nominating SCOTUS Justices who have not become NUMB to the plights of regular people are the best SOLUTIONS to curbing Police Brutality.
Voting for a new President is not the panacea for curbing Police Brutality, but if Black voters forsake the system, they indeed forsake their future.
Especially the futures of Black men in America.
It's time to hold our Elected Officials accountable!
To the family of Philando Castile I send my prayers and condolences for his senseless murder.
**** Are Black People at Risk When They Carry a Concealed Weapon?
Here’s what three Minnesota gun instructors think.
TThe story of how Philando Castile died, as told by his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds, is one of a man who did everything he could to comply with the police officer who pulled him over.
Reynolds says she then told the officer the gun was legal and that her boyfriend had a permit allowing him to carry it. Moments later, the officer shot Castile multiple times, causing injuries that soon proved fatal.
It’s important to note that we don’t know exactly why the officer decided to shoot Castile—there’s no footage of the shooting itself and the St. Anthony Police Department has yet to release its version of events.
The actions that Reynolds describes, though, sound perfectly reasonable—it’s hard to imagine what Castile, a 32-year-old black man, could have done differently.
It’s also reasonable to wonder, given the horrific litany of cases in which police officers have used deadly force against black men and women, whether Castile ever had a chance at surviving the encounter.
Thursday, I spoke with three men who don’t agree with that assessment: a trio of white firearms instructors in Minnesota who provide formal training to people applying for concealed-carry permits like the one Reynolds says her boyfriend had.
In spite of what seems to have happened to Castile, all three instructors told me they firmly believe there are steps people with concealed firearms can take to ensure their safety when dealing with law enforcement.
Underlying their conviction on this point is a deeply felt optimism about the reasonableness of police.
Their thoughts, which have been lightly edited for clarity, are below.
Advice to students: “Here’s the first thing we say: If you get pulled over and you’re friendly and you don’t lie, and when they ask for ID, if you voluntarily hand up your permit to carry, our experience is you’ve got a huge chance of getting out of your ticket. Cops in Minnesota appreciate you volunteering it up.
A lot of police in Minnesota teach this class, and most police officers are in favor of permit to carry. And they appreciate you being forthcoming.
“By putting your permit to carry right underneath your license and just giving it to them, you’ve told them without saying a word, I’m a good guy or I wouldn’t have a license to walk around with a gun.
The sheriff has checked me out. I don’t have to volunteer this up but here you go. You don’t have to worry about me.
And then if they start asking questions, you answer them truthfully. And that’s what we tell all of our students.”
~ JON KAUTZ, director of operations and instructor at Gun Permit Center
Personal experience: “I myself have gotten out of several tickets by law enforcement officers by being friendly and completely honest when I got pulled over. When they ask for ID, I don’t say a word—I just put my permit right with my ID and give it to them. And then most of them will say, ‘Are you carrying a firearm?’ And then I’ll say, ‘Yeah, it’s in my center console, or it’s in my backpack, or under my seat, or whatever. What would you like me to do next?’ A lot of them have even been sort of funny with it. I had one state trooper say, ‘You keep your gun in your holster, I’ll keep mine in mine.’ ”
On whether black people can safely follow the same protocol as whites: Absolutely. For sure. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white. The instructions and the advice are the same.
On Philando Castile: To be honest with you, it sounds to me like he did everything you’re supposed to do. That’s what I’m assuming so far. It sounds like he handled it the way you should. And it sounds like the officer had a short-circuit. That’s what it’s sounding like, but I don’t know what happened before the video.
Advice to students: “In Minnesota there’s no standard protocol for a traffic stop like this, where you have someone who’s carrying. Each police department sets their own policy for how to handle it. Minneapolis might do one thing; in Falcon Heights they might do another. So we always instruct our customers in our training to do whatever the officer says, to always keep their hands visible at all times, and to always ask, ‘How would you like me to proceed?’ and leave it up to the police officer to offer directions on how they want to handle it.”
Personal experience: “If I’m pulled over and an officer asks for my credentials, the next thing I would say is, ‘Officer, I am a permit-to-carry holder. I am carrying at this time. The pistol, or whatever, is located in X spot.’ I’d keep my hands visible on the steering heel or on the dashboard, and I’d say, ‘How would you like me to proceed?’ ”
Thoughts on concealed carry: “If you’re a concealed-carry permit holder and you’re carrying, you assume some risk, you know? Things happen. Whether it’s on accident or intentional—you’re carrying a firearm. You’re assuming some risk in carrying a firearm. You have to assume some risk—it’s just like when you drive a car.”
How the Philando Castile situation will affect his work: “Will we change the way we do the training? No, because we believe we’re teaching it correctly. Will we emphasize this part of the training more? Yes. Will it come up for discussion? Guaranteed.”
Advice to students: “Be totally compliant. If they ask if you have a gun, tell them you have a gun, and make sure you ask them what to do next.
“I also say that if you have a gun on you and it’s on the same side as your wallet, and going for your wallet is going to expose the weapon, it would behoove you to tell the officer at that time, even though you don’t necessarily have to, ‘I have a weapon on me and it’s on the same side as my wallet.’ ”
Personal experience: “I usually start out by asking, ‘Are you having a good night, sir?’ I do. So few people ever say anything like that to a police officer. I’ve ridden with police many, many, many times. And all they ever do is get yelled at, spit on, cussed out. ‘Why aren’t you out arresting real criminals?’ and stuff like that. What does it hurt to ask, ‘Are you having a nice day?’ Wouldn’t you say that to someone at a Home Depot or a Dairy Queen? The only reason you’re not saying that is you’re getting pulled over and generally you don’t get pulled over unless you’ve done something wrong.”
On whether it’s dangerous for black people to take his advice: “Absolutely not. I have quite a few black people in my classes. I just don’t see that as a problem.”
JESSE WILLIAMS' SPEECH WAS POLITICAL RHETORIC BUT LONG OVERDUE
BLACK PEOPLE GET EXCITED AFTER HEARING GREAT SPEECHES BUT DO NOTHING.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Sources: BET, TIME, Google, YouTube
June 26, 2016 at the BET Awards, actor and activist Jesse Williams (a light-skinned Black Man) delivered an awesome speech on Racial Injustice in the United States.
Just as they did after Pres Obama delivered a great speech, Black people became very emotional and celebrated the Orator.
However after their emotional sugar high subsided the challenges and Racial Injustice plaguing Black America returned to business as usual.
While I do admire Jesse Williams demonstrating a great deal of Courage for his bruising monologue, it is imperative that I ask "NOW WHAT"???
When is the Black Community going to UNITE and Help itself??
I'm am referring to CONSTRUCTIVE ACTION not Riots!
Referencing recent victims of police brutality, Williams discussed the violence against black people and the struggles they’ve faced throughout history: “There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. There is no tax they haven’t leveed against us,” he said.
Peace peace. Thank you, Debra. Thank you, BET. Thank you Nate Parker, Harry and Debbie Allen for participating in that .
we get into it, I just want to say I brought my parents out tonight. I just want to thank them for being here, for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career, and that they make sure I learn what the schools were afraid to teach us. And also thank my amazing wife for changing my life.
Now, this award – this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the country – the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do.
It’s kind of basic mathematics – the more we learn about who we are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize.
Now, this is also in particular for the black women in particular who have spent their lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves. We can and will do better for you.
Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people everyday. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours.
Now… I got more y’all – yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on 12 year old playing alone in the park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better than it is to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that toEric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt.
Now the thing is, though, all of us in here getting money – that alone isn’t gonna stop this. Alright, now dedicating our lives, dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back for someone’s brand on our body when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies.
There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. There is no tax they haven’t leveed against us – and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here. “You’re free,” they keep telling us. But she would have been alive if she hadn’t acted so… free.
Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but you know what, though, the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now.
And let’s get a couple things straight, just a little sidenote – the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander.That’s not our job, alright – stop with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you have no interest, if you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.
We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is though… the thing is that just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.
BEFORE WE ARE STRONG, BLACK PEOPLE ARE HUMAN BEINGS FIRST.
Sources: The New Black Magazine, TheNIB.com, Youtube
In the video above I address the centuries old myth of how American society has frequently used the phrase "Strong Black Women" as an excuse to continue forcing Black Women to accept Abuse, Disrespect and Poverty versus living their lives as the Queens they were created by GOD to be.
Contrary to popular propaganda broadcasted about Black Women by the Mainstream Media:
Black Women are not resilient and strong when their Sons are Murdered due to Police Brutality or Gang Violence.
Black Women are not resilient and strong when their Sons are sentenced to Prison for petty, non-homicidal crimes.
Black Women are not resilient and strong when our Black Men can't find JOBS due to RACISM.
Black Women are not resilient and strong 24 hours a day.
Black Women are human beings first who need love, relaxation and time to heal from our losses or from being overworked.
The myth of the STRONG BLACK WOMAN (SBW) is so simple and so clear that it is somewhat amazing that we are still bamboozled.
The myth of the STRONG BLACK WOMAN (SBW) is so simple and so clear that it is somewhat amazing that we are still bamboozled.
You see, we - being the black women who are the “johns” of this particular scam - think that being an SBW is something to which one should aspire; we feel complimented when we are included in the category of others similarly valorized; and we blame ourselves for any indication that we are falling below the standards of the SBW.
Is this not the most delicious trick ever played on anyone?
The greatest achievement the rest of the world ever achieved was convincing black women that SBW existed, and that our job was to grow up into one. Black women are raised to be SBW in the most exemplary fashion possible, and faithfully to remain one without pause or rest until the grim reaper relieved us of the burdens of our mortality.
It is really terrifyingly, astonishingly and ineffably well-crafted, this myth. Insofar as, so long as we are kept either desiring, or believing ourselves actually to be, Strong Black Women, there is no amount of pure nonsense, abuse, overwork, ingratitude, exploitation, underappreciation, and just plain shit that we will not put up with.
You see, SBW, of course, can make $10 stretch into meals for a week, clothes for everyone, payment of bills, and school fees, etc.,— this is just a well known and, indeed, required characteristic of SBW.
SBW are, by nature, ready, nay, eager to work five jobs at a time so as to feed and clothe their nearest and dearest without expecting, and more properly, absolutely rejecting any help.
One has, after all, one’s pride as a Strong Black Woman. SBW are also expected to give command performances as free, endlessly sympathetic and reliable therapists, counselors, substitute mothers, and wise women, who willingly provide free emotional and mental labour to everyone else.
You have a problem? Go and cry on an SBW shoulder, which is guaranteed (why else are they SBW?) to be there, to provide cleenex, food and appropriate ego validation and finally, to manage to complete the four hours worth of work interrupted and delayed by your tales of woe.
This function of the SBW is usually taken advantage of by non-Strong Black Women This is because of course non-SBW’s problems are real and agonizing,
SBW, it is understood, do not suffer emotionally as much as the other, more fragile and helpless non-SBW population: because they are strong, and thus, better able to endure better.
This is like having a bullet-proof vest when the shooting starts: the unprotected get to scream and wail and run for cover whilst the SBW who are already armoured and thus have no fear, should promptly assume their assigned rescue service, feeding service, administrative, and problem-solving roles.
Whence, in addition to everything else, comes the ugly fact that SBW are granted less time for grieving, assumed to have less sense of loss and suffering and required to have a faster recovery time from trauma than everybody else, so that they can go and take care of the anguish and malaise of others. Well, naturally. It is an SBW thing: you wouldn't understand and are very careful not even to try.
Do you know how much crap that a black woman has had to go through?
Do we ever ask ourselves what sort of toll it took on her, what scars were left, whether she ever needed to lock herself in the bathroom and weep, if she ever thought of giving up and why she didn't?
Do you know what demons plagued her at night whilst the world slept, what private spaces of knowing pain and knowing suffering her poetry comes from?
Whether she ever lost her faith and her certainty in the cause, and if, indeed, by now she is not so tired by all those years of giving, giving and giving--to us?
Many of us who have or have had the kind of mothers or aunts or honorary aunts whom we admire and who make us proud and to whom we owe everything – those we see as Strong Black Women.
Whilst acknowledging all their sacrifices, their struggles overcome and their achievements, have you ever thought that they accomplished then not because of some spurious “extra” strength but despite the weaknesses common to us all?
I’ve thought of my own mother, whom I have idolized my whole life, because she did just amazing things.
She was the first this and the first that. She was the only African woman ever to do x. She left a lasting legacy through her work in y. She also managed to bring me up, protect and shelter me, and mould me into a competent human being.
But what about her life?
How often do I ask myself if she was ever frightened, insecure, confused, lost? How often do I ask if she ever yearned for opportunities lost, regretted decisions made, missed absent friends?
The answer to that would be “once.” Today.
Because before today, she was just absolutely perfect and pristine. Before today I would have reacted to such a suggestion of human failings and fears in my mother with snorting and indignant incredulity—except I realised how wrong that would be. Pedestals do not really give one much room to move or to be.
The problem with the myth of the SBW is this. It falsely supposes that SBW have powers, skills and capacities beyond those of ordinary mortals - sort of like super heroes –
So much so that their achievements are not as difficult to attain as they would be for others and somehow inhere in the very quality of SBW-ness, itself.
When you look at this logic for long enough, it becomes pretty obvious that we don’t need to thank SBW or even to congratulate them.
After all, they have only achieved what their innate SBW-ness allows, nay, compels them to achieve. Where is the agency of these women here? How do we honour them by making their achievements banal by not contextualizing them in human frailty?
If Superman leaps over a tall building at a single bound, well, yawn, stretch and change the channel. If I were ever to leap over a tall building at a single bound, I would expect some serious attention, astonishment, adoration and for everyone to realise that having done all this leaping about, I would fairly obviously need a good long rest.
Conversely, I most certainly would not appreciate having immediately presented to me another building, over which I am also expected to leap without question or hesitation.
Well, that is it for me.
Strong Black Women are permanently off the list of things that I want to be when I grow up. I am going to treasure and revel in and treat tenderly all my weaknesses and mistakes and failures—all of which I have in amazingly copious quantities - because they make my achievements that much more precious to me.
Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday joined a chorus calling for Chicago's police superintendent and a top prosecutor to resign for the way they handled last year's fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer.
More than a year after the October 2014 shooting, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez this week announced a murder charge against Officer Jason Van Dyke in the slaying of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
Hours later, the Chicago Police Department, headed by Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, released a graphic video of the shooting to comply with a court order.
Van Dyke's lawyer has said the officer opened fire because he feared for his life and the lives of other police officers when he saw McDonald had a knife.
In addition to calling for the removal of Alvarez and McCarthy, Jackson demanded the appointment of a special prosecutor to try Van Dyke. He said he wanted a federal investigation into the police department with the aim of changing what critics say is a culture of racial bias.
“We need bold comprehensive change in the police department and the criminal justice system,” Jackson said during a news conference at his Rainbow PUSH headquarters. “Too much time for too little crime.”
McDonald's death has rekindled a national debate over police treatment of African-Americans and other minorities. The soul-searching was triggered last year by high-profile police killings of black men in Missouri, New York and elsewhere.
Jackson also called for a White House conference on violence for cities in urban areas and innovation to help create opportunities in disenfranchised communities.
The video clip, taken by a camera mounted on the dashboard of a squad car, showed McDonald being shot as he walked away from officers. A total of 16 shots were pumped into his body, even after he lay motionless on the pavement.
Jackson spoke the a day after about 2,000 protesters flooded Chicago's Magnificent Mile, a strip of designer stores, to voice outrage over the killing and how the case was handled.
Some shops temporarily closed their doors because of the protests, which coincided with the start of the holiday shopping season, as demonstrators locked arms and blocked entrances.
At times, police had to escort shoppers inside.
Post Sources: CNN, Reuters, Chicago Suntimes, YouTube
WHAT HAS MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL REALLY DONE FOR CHICAGO'S BLACK VOTERS?
In this video I discuss how Pres OBAMA'S close friend Chicago Mayor RAHM EMANUEL, may have played a significant role in the cover up in the Murder of LAQUAN MCDONALD who was shot 16 times in 2014 by a Chicago Police Officer.
When he died LAQUAN was a 17-yr old Foster Care kid.
Long before 17-yr old Laquan McDonald (Black, male Youth) was shot 16 times by Chicago police, he was a walking dead person.
Laquan's Mother, his troubled childhood and the Foster Care system in Ilinois were actually responsible for his premature death.
So although Laquan recently died due to SUICIDE BY COP, the Police should not be solely blamed for his Murder.
~ After Police Shooting in Chiacgo, Calls for Emanuel to Resign.
"A leader has to be held to account for the code of silence... in the Chicago police department," one civil rights lawyer says.
For nearly two years, he was the second-most powerful Democrat in Washington, a famously confrontational, joyously profane White House gatekeeper who traded in his job as the first black president's right-hand man to run for mayor of Chicago, their shared, beloved hometown.
Now, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama's former chief of staff, is facing calls for his resignation amid disturbing questions on the latest and, arguably, most egregious, incident of police use of deadly force against an African American citizen.
Tuesday's release of a graphic video showing a white Chicago cop pumping 16 bullets into a black teenager will likely cast a pall over Obama's push to ease strained relations between police and the black community in cities nationwide, an issue he personally elevated to the national agenda last year.
Besides adding the Windy City to the ever-expanding list of places that which have become shorthand for deadly confrontations between police and African Americans:
Ferguson Missouri; Staten Island, New York; Cleveland; Baltimore -- the incident isn't a good look for the president.
Despite Emanuel's strained relations with the black community, Obama endorsed him for office during his first campaign in 2011, and Emanuel surged to office -- and to re-election in 2015 -- in part on the black vote.
Yet Obama's former top aide is suspected of helping police cover up the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, the newest name in an issue that cuts to the heart of the black community.
When Officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald on a city street last year as police responded to reports of theft and vandalism in the area, police administrators and city officials "said things that were knowingly, demonstrably false within minutes of the shooting," says Craig Futterman, a Chicago civil rights lawyer who helped break open the case.
"A leader has to be held to account for the code of silence that continues to exist in the Chicago police department. He has to acknowledge it and address it," he says.
In a press conference Tuesday with Chicago Superintendent Garry McCarthy, Emanuel announced the city would release a long-sought video of the shooting, recorded on a dashboard camera in Van Dyke's police cruiser that night.
Both the mayor and the commissioner said they expect protests from an angry black community, but wouldn't tolerate violence; they also stressed that Van Dyke, who was charged with first-degree murder just days earlier, was a lone bad actor.
Demonstrators on the streets of downtown Chicago hours later, however, didn't seem to agree.
"While we know the system has failed, no one can specifically say how," city Alderman Roderick Sawyer told ABC-7, a local TV station. "You cannot change a system by ignoring a system."
The grainy, nighttime video -- which police and city authorities had refused to make public until a judge ordered it released by Thursday -- shows McDonald jogging past Van Dyke and other officers, a small knife in his hand.
Although McDonald doesn't appear to confront the officers, several of them draw weapons on him; Van Dyke opens fire within seconds, gunning McDonald down.
Although the young man lies motionless on the ground, Van Dyke continues to fire, emptying his 16-round clip.
When the gunfire ends, a second officer walks over to McDonald's body and kicks the knife from his hand. Although several officers are on the scene, no one gives first aid to McDonald.
Shortly after the shooting, Futterman says, the Chicago police released a statement declaring that McDonald was the aggressor, was under the influence of PCP and that Van Dyke shot once in self-defense.
Days later, however, a police whistleblower came to Futterman and independent investigative journalist Jamie Kalven with a tip: Authorities are withholding a videotape, trying to sweep an unjustified shooting under the rug.
After a year of legal wrangling with the department amid growing publicity about the shooting, Futterman says, a judge ordered the release of the dash-cam video from Van Dyke's cruiser -- a decision that triggered a series of rapid-fire developments in the case.
Under pressure, prosecutors who said they'd spent months on the investigation quickly charged Van Dyke with murder, Emanuel and McCarthy met with African American community leaders and braced the city for release of a potentially explosive piece of evidence.
"I believe this is a moment that can build bridges of understanding rather than become a barrier of misunderstanding," Emanuel said in Wednesday's press conference. "I understand that the people will be upset and will want to protest when they see this video. We as a city must rise to this moment."
While Van Dyke's attorney insists his client acted in self-defense, Emanuel says the officer will be held accountable for his actions.
But Futterman says the buck ultimately stops at Emanuel's desk: the mayor let linger a false narrative McDonald's death, didn't compel the police to release the video when reporters asked for it and neither he nor McCarthy have taken steps to demolish the department's wall of silence.
After the shooting, Futterman says, officers destroyed videos of the incident recorded at a nearby fast-food restaurant ("Ironically, other security videos show them doing this," he says), rounded up and intimidated a group of eyewitnesses into silence and used news reporters to feed disinformation to the public.
"All the evidence appears to point to it: That a lie was told to the media," Futterman says.
"No official corrected that lie. And there were actions on the part of multiple officers to intimidate witnesses, to destroy evidence and to lie."
On Twitter Wednesday, #ResignRahm was trending, and Futterman agrees the mayor himself must answer for "keeping people in the dark and letting lies be told on behalf of Chicago police officers to hang in the air."
While Futterman doesn't hesitate to call it a "coverup," he stops short of accusing Emanuel of direct involvement, although "it's a fair question" to ask what he knew, when he knew it and what he did to ensure justice in the case.
The mayor "has fallen far short in this case, and I think it's up to the voters to decide" whether he should continue to lead Chicago, Futterman says, noting Van Dyke is the only one who's clearly been punished.
"What about all these officers that participated in covering up what happened and intimidating witnesses?
That's criminal," Futterman says. "Heads need to roll because this has become the practice and culture that's established by leaders like Mayor Emanuel and Superintendent McCarthy."
"I'm too cynical to say I'm surprised" no one's been fired, Futterman says.
While the majority of the Chicago police rank-and-file do a fine job, he adds, the culture at the top "protects the minority of officers who are out there abusing people.
That's fundamentally what needs to change."
If that were actually addressed, he added, "there's a good chance [McDonald] would be alive."
JOE SCARBOROUGH vs BALTIMORE'S POLICE BRUTALITY: (VIDEO)
"BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT"
Monday, May 4, 2015 on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show with Lead Hosts JOE SCARBOROUGH (a former Congressman) & MIKA BREZINSKI (her dad advises Pres OBAMA), there was indept discussion about 6 BALTIMORE Cops charged with FREDDIE GRAY'S Murder.
It appears Joe Scarborough strongly disagrees with these Criminal charges.
According to Joe and a Legal Expert Guest, the Grand Jury panel must find these 6 Rogue Cops GUILTY "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt".
Why is it whenever a Victim is BLACK and the Murderers involved are WHITE, "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" is the Legal Standard??
However if the Victim is WHITE and the Murderer is BLACK, he or she is automatically GUILTY??
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