THE INTERSECTION | MADNESS & REALITY » Police Brutality http://www.rippdemup.com It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder... Sun, 22 Jul 2012 23:33:35 +0000 en hourly 1 Video: Florida Man Tasered and Arrested for Jaywalking http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/07/video-florida-man-tasered-and-arrested-for-jaywalking/ http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/07/video-florida-man-tasered-and-arrested-for-jaywalking/#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2012 03:20:04 +0000 Rippa http://www.rippdemup.com/?p=7098

Oh great, black people are getting tasered and arrested for jaywalking now. Yep, we should all feel safer these days… There is some pretty saucy news coming out of Florida as new evidence released in the case of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The big news of the day involves witness [...]

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Oh great, black people are getting tasered and arrested for jaywalking now. Yep, we should all feel safer these days…

There is some pretty saucy news coming out of Florida as new evidence released in the case of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The big news of the day involves witness testimony of a witness who alleges that Zimmerman was a child molester… as a child. I’m not going to get into a discussion of the allegations because in my opinion, none of the allegations are relevant to the case at hand. Let’s be honest, Trayvon Martin isn’t dead because George Zimmerman allegedly sexually molested a girl two years his junior when he was 8-years-old.

But don’t tell that to the media or the many folks around the internet chattering about it; let them tell it, this is the proverbial smoking gun that kills Zimmerman’s defense. Which is funny in itself because it was announced by the FBI last Thursday, that after months of investigation, the Trayvon Martin homicide showed no evidence of racial motivation or bias; nor were there any civil rights violations. But somehow the media missed that tidbit, and opted to go with the sensationalist headlines.

Federal authorities investigating the death of black teenager Trayvon Martin interviewed dozens of people who knew shooter George Zimmerman – and none said the neighborhood watch volunteer was racist, according to news reports of documents released Thursday.

{…] Agents also interviewed the Sanford Police Department’s lead investigator, Chris Serino, on the Zimmerman case, the Sentinel reported. Serino reportedly said Zimmerman pursued Martin based on his attire. But, he added, though Zimmerman has a “little hero complex,” he wasn’t a racist.

Similarly, Zimmerman’s former fiancee told the FBI that Zimmerman had a bad temper but did not seem racially biased. The violence in their relationship escalated and culminated in domestic-violence injunctions against each other in 2005.

His fiancee also said Zimmerman had mentioned wanting to be a police officer. (Source)

However, on another note, it would appear that there’s a huge crime problem in the state of Florida. No,the crime problem is not related to young black teens being innocently shot to death; nor does it involve black women with false self-defense claims serving prison time. Given the fact that I’m discussing it, obviously this problem has something to do with race. So what’s the problem down in Florida? Well, it would appear that in the bedding metropolis that is Castleberry, Florida, there’s a huge problem with jaywalking. Not quite the menacing crime where you currently reside; but, clearly it’s a crime and problem of epic proportions in the Sunshine State. Why do I say this? Check out what happened to Zikomo Peurifoy recently when he encountered the police.

Peurifoy was stopped by Castleberry’s finest for improperly proceeding along a local thoroughfare. When asked to produce identification by police, Peurifoy’s refusal resulted in an arrest after having a taser deployed on him three times. The entire incident was caught on tape by Peurifoy’s friend, Noelle Price, who was also arrested for allegedly aiding and abetting this criminal mastermind.

Check out the video:

Now here’s the funny part: upon review of the above recording, local police have concluded that officers acted appropriately. Not only that, they’re now going to use the above recording as a teachable moment. Yes, the video will utilized in the training of future police officers.

Florida police said they followed procedure when they Tasered accused jaywalker Zikomo Peurifoy three times when he refused to provide identification after police stopped him for allegedly jaywalking.

A video of the altercation taken by Peurifoy’s friend Noelle Price, who was arrested along with him, and which Peurifoy posted to his Youtube account, may now be shown to officers as an example of how to properly handle an uncooperative suspect, said Capt. David Del Rosso, of the Casselberry Florida Police Department.

“The officers were polite the whole time through and gave good verbal commands,” Del Rosso said. “You hear the officer saying why he stopped him.”

[...] Del Rosso said asking for identification when a person is stopped is standard police procedure. It allows officers to check for outstanding warrants. (Source)

Now I won’t go into detail about how this serves as yet another example of how police officers harass black folks — nope, we’ve discussed this at length before. Instead, I’ll leave it up to you to debate whether you believe the officers in this case were justified in handling the situation in the manner they did. Yeah, I know none of this would have happened if the officers request for identification were granted. And of course that might be true. However, I wonder how many of you are aware that in some states you’re not required to identify yourself if asked by police? Unfortunately for the brother in the video above, Florida isn’t one of those states — currently, there are 24 states with “stop and identify” laws. Oh, and about police harassment and people of color, checkout the following video.

 

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How “Stop-and-Frisk” Takes a Toll on Innocent Youth http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/06/how-stop-and-frisk-takes-a-toll-on-innocent-youth/ http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/06/how-stop-and-frisk-takes-a-toll-on-innocent-youth/#comments Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:05:15 +0000 Rippa http://www.rippdemup.com/?p=6574 In my own sick and twisted way I recently joked about New York City being safer if the NYPD were to expand it’s “stop and frisk” policy to include random white people in not-so-high crime areas. Of course if you’ve never lived in these communities. it’s hard to understand just how much of an aggravation [...]

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In my own sick and twisted way I recently joked about New York City being safer if the NYPD were to expand it’s “stop and frisk” policy to include random white people in not-so-high crime areas. Of course if you’ve never lived in these communities. it’s hard to understand just how much of an aggravation it can be. To some, being a black man being harassed — yes, “stop and frisk” is in fact police harassment –by the police, just serves as the price paid for being poor and forced to live in impoverished communities of color. I mean, who needs dignity when you’re poor and black, right? The sad truth is that such police policy does more harm than good to our communities; and, they serve as fuel to the burning fire that is malcontent to an already dissected urban youth; and sadly, this isn’t a good thing. To understand, checkout the following from the New York Times:

Last year, police officers in New York City stopped and frisked people 685,724 times. Eighty-seven percent of those searches involved blacks or Latinos, many of them young men, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The practice of stop-and-frisk has become increasingly controversial, but what is often absent from the debate are the voices of young people affected by such aggressive policing on a daily basis. To better understand the human impact of this practice, we made this film about Tyquan Brehon, a young man who lives in one of the most heavily policed neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

By his count, before his 18th birthday, he had been unjustifiably stopped by the police more than 60 times. On several occasions, merely because he asked why he had been stopped, he was handcuffed, placed in a cell and detained for hours before being released without charges. These experiences were scarring; Mr. Brehon did whatever he could to avoid the police, often feeling as if he were a prisoner in his home.

Tyquon Brehon

His fear of the police also set back his education. At one high school he attended, he recoiled at the heavy presence of armed officers and school security agents. “I would do stuff that would get me suspended so I could be, like, completely away from the cops,” he recalled. He would arrive late, cut classes and refuse to wear the school uniform. Eventually, he was expelled.

Mr. Brehon’s life turned around when he transferred to Bushwick Community High School and joined Make the Road New York, a community organizing group that is part of Communities United for Police Reform, a coalition of organizations. Because of his experiences, he now hopes to attend John Jay College of Criminal Justice and to become a lawyer, in part so he can help others who are subjected to racial profiling.

Watch the following video Of Tyquons’s story: The scars of Stop-and-frisk

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Wouldn’t NYC be Safer if the NYPD Started Randomly Feeling-Up White People with “Stop and Frisk”? http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/06/wouldnt-nyc-be-safer-if-the-nypd-started-randomly-feeling-up-white-people-under-stop-and-frisk/ http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/06/wouldnt-nyc-be-safer-if-the-nypd-started-randomly-feeling-up-white-people-under-stop-and-frisk/#comments Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:06:56 +0000 Rippa http://www.rippdemup.com/?p=6542 So let’s get right into it, shall we? OK, no need for me to tell you that the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” policy is racist; nope, mo need for an argument over whether it is or not; bottom line, it’s fucking racist. Even so, a few days ago, New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg defended the [...]

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So let’s get right into it, shall we? OK, no need for me to tell you that the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” policy is racist; nope, mo need for an argument over whether it is or not; bottom line, it’s fucking racist. Even so, a few days ago, New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg defended the practice by saying it helped “take guns off the street and saves lives.

Of course everybody knows a black person with a gun is problematic; hell, just look at what happened in Chicago last weekend — 46 people shot, of which 8 were killed. So here’s the thing, with crime being down in New York, clearly the racist “stop and frisk” policy is working. I mean, rarely do we hear news stories about weekend shooting sprees in the Big Apple. So yeah, maybe Bloomberg is right; as racist the practice may be, it works.

This from the New York Times:

Some former officers who worked the area say the stops seem less geared to bringing down crime than feeding the department’s appetite for numbers — a charge police officials steadfastly deny. Though none said they were ever given quotas to hit, all but two said that certain performance measures were implicitly expected in their monthly activity reports. Lots of stop-and-frisk reports suggested a vigilant officer.

“When I was there the floor number was 10 a month,” one officer said. Like many of the officers interviewed for this article, he asked not to be identified because he was still in law enforcement and worried that being seen as critical of the New York department could hurt his future employment opportunities.

He said if you produced 10 stops — known as a UF-250 for the standardized departmental reports the stops generate — you were not likely to draw the attention of a supervisor. “And in all fairness,” he said, “if you’re working in that area, 10 a month is very low. All you have to do is open your eyes.”

According to him, the program should be “mended not ended.” Obviously it’s an effective policing tool; so yes, maybe mending the policy is in order. Hell, as effective as it has been by getting guns and suspicious looking melanin afflicted criminals off the streets, if the program were expanded to not only include supposed high-crime areas, one could expect to see zero crime, and or guns on the streets of New York. I mean just think, if the NYPD starts groping random white people (just like they do people of color) New York City would be the safest place on the planet. No really, just look at the following results of in communities of color via Think Progress:

1. In 2011, NYC officers made 685,724 stops as part of the “stop-and-frisk” policy. Of that group, 605,328 people were determined not to have engaged in any unlawful behavior. [NYCLU]

2. Only 5.37% of all stops in a recent five-year period resulted in an arrest. In short, many people stopped did nothing wrong. [NYT, 5/17/12]

3. In 2009, 36% of the time officer failed to list an acceptable “suspected crime.” Reasonable suspicion of a crime is required to make a stop. [NYT,5/17/12]

4. More than half of all stops last year were conducted “because the individual displayed ‘furtive movement’ — which is so vague as to be meaningless.”[NYT, 5/14/12]

5. Of those frisked in 2011, a weapon was found just 1.9% of the time. Frisks are supposed to be conducted “only when an officer reasonably suspects the person has a weapon.” [NYCLU]

6. 85% of those stopped were black or Hispanic even though those groups make up about half of NYC’s population. [NYT, 5/17/12]

7. Young black and Latino men account for 4.7% of NYC’s population but 41.6% of the stops in 2011. [NYCLU]

8. The number of stops involving young black men in 2011 (168,124) exceed the city’s population of young black men (158,406).[NYT, 5/15/12]

9. Even in overwhelmingly white neighborhoods, police stopped more blacks than whites.[NYT, 5/15/12]

10. In 2012, police are on pace to make more than 800,000 stops, more than twice the population of Miami. [NYT, 5/15/12]

Yeah, in the interest of public safety, I propose that “stop and frisk” be expanded to cover the greater tri-state area; yes, be sure cops in all five boroughs are doing their jobs. Yes I live in Memphis, but my mother lives in New York. So let’s just say that I’ll be able to sleep better at night knowing that NYC cops are shaking down white folks with impunity, so she can be safe as she walks the streets.

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Post-Racial Update: Rudy Eugene, the Maryland Cannibal, & the Detroit Kool-Aid Shootout http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/06/post-racial-update-rudy-eugene-the-maryland-cannibal-the-detroit-kool-aid-shootout/ http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/06/post-racial-update-rudy-eugene-the-maryland-cannibal-the-detroit-kool-aid-shootout/#comments Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:39:08 +0000 Rippa http://www.rippdemup.com/?p=6300 I’m so disappointed with the black community this week. First off, I can’t believe that none of you are protesting the police shooting death last weekend of  the naked face-eating black man down in Miami. OK, so maybe some of you have yet to get over the shock of him being black  – I know, [...]

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I’m so disappointed with the black community this week. First off, I can’t believe that none of you are protesting the police shooting death last weekend of  the naked face-eating black man down in Miami. OK, so maybe some of you have yet to get over the shock of him being black  – I know, it’s like the DC Sniper all over again. Let’s be honest, what he did wasn’t the normal type of black crime. Sure we might buss a fool in the head with a 40oz bottle, but eat a white man’s face off? Yeah, that ain’t our thing; it’s nothing like the stuff black folks do.

Listen to what his mother says:

Rudy Eugene: Naked Face-Eating Man Shot By Miami Police

But that aside, I figured black folk would be raising all kinds of hell and protesting in Miami by now; I mean, now that we know it was a brotha shot and killed by the police. OK, so he was eating another man’s face while growling like a wild animal; not normal, I get that. But damn, he was naked and unarmed. Hell, I know he wasn’t wearing a hoodie or nothing, but did they really have to shoot him? I’m only asking because you know how that hoodie thing plays out in Florida. But yet ain’t nobody marching or nothing, so I guess it doesn’t matter; yep, maybe he should’ve had Skittles.

To hear his friends tell it, he never used hard drugs:

Speaking of which, remember when we were all fired up about Trayvon Martin? Remember how we were all debating about how racist George Zimmerman and those “stand your ground” laws are? Yeah, and how it was yet another tool of an already racially biased criminal justice system hell bent on arbitrarily running up in the asses of black folk? Well, forget about those “stand your ground” laws, y’all; because, when black folks are shooting at each other after arguing over Kool-Aid like two fools did in Detroit, I’d say we have bigger problems than white folks trying to kill us.

I mean seriously, is this what’s hot out in the streets?

No really, is this where we’re at now as a people? Shooting at each other over who can make the best Kool-Aid?  You know, I was down with the whole “hope and change” thing back in 2008. But I’d be damned if Barack ain’t changed shit; yes, my people are still acting like fools. But RiPPa, did you really think Obama was gon’ change all forms of niggerdom and fuckery in the black community? Honestly, I didn’t; I just thought my cousins n’em would have a sense of pride about themselves — especially since white folks are watching — and act like they got some damn sense. You know, act like they’re all full of hope like I did back in ’09 at the inauguration. But naw, “mu’fuckas wanna show how hard they is,” I suppose. Shit, how we ‘posed to fight the power after some shit like this?

C’mon y’all, Harriet Tubman didn’t take a front seat on the bus for this type of foolishness:

JOPPA, Md. — A Maryland college student has admitted murdering and dismembering a man and then eating his heart and part of his brain, police said Thursday.

Kenyan-born Alexander Kinyua, who has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Nigerian national Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie, allegedly carried out the gruesome deed after ranting online about human sacrifices and death cults.

The 37-year-old victim had been living at the Kinyua family home in Joppa, Md., for the past six months, the Baltimore Sun reported.

His severed head and hands were found in the home and more of his remains were dumped in a trash container outside a church, police said.

Kinyua, 21, allegedly confessed to killing Agyei-Kodie with a knife then eating his heart and portions of his brain. 

Alexander Kinyua (L), has confessed to killing his roomate, Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie (R), and eating his heart and part of his brain.

Harford County Sheriff Jesse Bane said the crime was among the most brutal and bizarre he had seen in his 40 years with the force — and he had never come across a case of cannibalism.

“I’ve not encountered that in this county, and I hope we never encounter it again,” Bane said.

Kinyua’s father, Antony, reported Agyei-Kodie missing last Friday after going for a jog.

Then Tuesday night, Antony called police to say his other son, Jarrod, had found a human head and two human hands inside metal tins under a blanket in the laundry room, according to charging documents.

Kinyua told his father they were instead animal remains but when interviewed by police he allegedly admitted to killing Agyei-Kodie.

Kinyua faced a court Thursday via live video feed from Harford County Detention Center. The judge ruled he be held without bail.

Kinyua is a third-year electrical engineering major at Morgan State University and fellow students said his behavior had become increasingly troubled in recent months, the Baltimore Sun reported.

He was charged with first-degree assault and reckless endangerment for allegedly fracturing the skull of a classmate with a baseball bat on May 20, in what police described as a random attack.

Kinyua, who was born in Kenya but has lived in Maryland with his family for the past nine years, had also began making threatening online posts, including recent Facebook messages about “mass human sacrifices.”

I don’t know what’s really going on in Black America; and, it’s a damn shame I can’t even blame it on crack. I don’t know, but black folks eating  other people here in America, sounds a little bit like Negroes taking this post-racial thing too seriously. Sure we might be all “equal” now, but does that mean we gotta do what “other people” do? I tell you one thing that hasn’t changed, cannibal or not, police will still buss a cap in a nigga’s ass. I know assimilation can be a bitch; but, being post-racial doesn’t give black folks creative license to start eating people and having shootouts over Kool-Aid.

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Does Anti-Profiling Legislation Really Work? http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/05/does-anti-profiling-legislation-really-work/ http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/05/does-anti-profiling-legislation-really-work/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 15:15:47 +0000 JuJuBe http://www.rippdemup.com/?p=6059 There is not a person in this country who does not know that the police engages in racial profiling. If a Black person says they are not aware of this practice, they are either not yet beyond the toddler stage of life, or being intentionally deceptive in hopes of receiving special considerations from the white [...]

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There is not a person in this country who does not know that the police engages in racial profiling. If a Black person says they are not aware of this practice, they are either not yet beyond the toddler stage of life, or being intentionally deceptive in hopes of receiving special considerations from the white dominators. We all know that every day in every city, every town and every rural community in this country, the very life of a Black person is in danger when they come across a member of the law enforcement community.

But, politicians want to sit around and debate the issue. They want to request a whole bunch of statistical analysis to prove what every Black person over the age of 2 years old understands: police profile racially. Why do politicians play this game? To pretend they are actually attempting to address the scourge of law enforcement bigotry without actually doing a goddamn thing about the problem.

If all these folks are going to do is sit around in a little room and say, “profiling is bad…. we should do something about it…” and then move onto the next topic, they need to get the fuck out of office, because they do not care about what happens to real people in the real world.

Who are the people compiling the statistics and where are they coming from? Most of the time, they work FOR the people in power, who are invested in maintaining the status quo. So, not only can they manipulate the facts to make them fit the narrative of the white dominators, but they rely on information given to them by the oppressive law enforcement community. Somehow, the word of a cop is seen as more reliable than that of his victim, so he can lie about absolutely anything and be seen as the “good guy” in the story. What is to stop a white police officer from incorrectly listing the race of his victims in order to “prove” that he is not engaging in racially biased behavior on the job? (In fact, it was proven that in East Haven, Connecticut, police officers did exactly this for many years)

If a victim of police oppression reports the crimes that officers commit against him, it is usually written off as unfounded, or uncorroborated. Yet the word of a single pig is enough to land a man behind bars. Why are police given more credibility than an ordinary community member, especially if that community member is Black?

There is also nothing stopping police officers from harassing and endangering anyone who reports profiling or brutish behavior. Everyone knows about the “blue wall of silence”. If a Black person walks into a police station to report to an officer that one of his fellow “boys in blue” has committed criminal acts against him, he is putting his safety in the hands of people who are invested only in defending and protecting the man carrying the badge.

Combating racial profiling is not about crunching numbers, compiling reports and making recommendations that the police look at as optional. In order to fight racist police practices, there needs to be serious consequences for officers who are caught profiling. They should be kicked off the police force and charged with a felony. They need to be held accountable. As it stands today, police officers can commit even most egregious offenses, like the murder of unarmed people, with little to no chance of repercussions. ANYTIME a police officer shoots an unarmed person, they should be charged and convicted for murder (or attempted murder if the person is lucky enough to survive.) Police officers complain that they do not want to have to stop to think before they act, that it could put their lives in danger… well… tough shit. Shouldn’t you HAVE TO take a second to think before you take the life of another human being?

Police officers also should not be foreign invaders. If there is a need for law enforcement presence in a given community, the officers should be recruited from among local residents only. No more white “good ole boys” rolling into a Black community and running roughshod over the rights of the people who actually live there. Let the white boys stay in their little suburban communities and arrest the folks with the meth labs in their garage.

I understand the desire for activist groups to enforce racial profiling laws. There is this belief that compiling statistics to “prove” that racial profiling exists will somehow force police departments to change their ways. That the threat of removing funding sources to police departments who are non-compliant will help alleviate the insidiousness of racial profiling. However, I think that until a police officer has to worry about facing VERY REAL CONSEQUENCES, like PRISON TIME for engaging in such practices, there is really no incentive for an individual officer to change his behavior.

Recently, there was an amendment passed for Connecticut’s racial profiling law, the Penn Act. A huge production was made about the “much needed changes” to the Penn Act that were added. Basically, the legislators decided that the Penn Act provisions would be enforced more stringently if they added a “traffic stop receipt” concept to the legislation, so that motorists who have been pulled over can be sure that their race was listed correctly. They also included a provision that allowed people to anonymously launch complaints about profiling, and appointed a committee to investigate the claims, as well as to examine the statistics compiled for evidence of profiling. Honestly, I do not see the efficacy of this sort of approach. Why do people need “proof” that profiling happens? We all know it does! How do statistics protect motorists from police officers? Where is the incentive for officers to stop this behavior?

And what about pedestrians? How many anti-profiling laws include people on foot? We all know that “stop and frisk” policies are steeped in racial profiling. Why not include people who are walking through the community under the umbrella of these profiling laws? One proponent of the Penn Act Amendment here in Hartford actually became angry when another activists mentioned that the Act did not go far enough because it only “protected” motorists! He said that the Penn Act was not intended to protect people on foot, therefore the amendment did not include them. Well, if you are “amending” a piss poor law, why not make the logical choice to extend the legislation to cover ALL people who are profiled, not just those in cars?

Compiling statistics is not the solution. SERIOUS consequences for INDIVIDUAL officers as well as departments who violate the rights of community members MUST BE INCLUDED in order for an anti-profiling law to offer any serious protection for the public. It is one thing to “work within the system”, it is quite another to ignore what REALLY needs to be done to address police profiling and brutality simply to get a piece of legislation passed.

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Post-Racial Update: Republican KKK Leader Running for Sheriff Invites Media to Cross Burning http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/05/post-racial-update-republican-kkk-leader-running-for-sheriff-invites-media-to-cross-burning/ http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/05/post-racial-update-republican-kkk-leader-running-for-sheriff-invites-media-to-cross-burning/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 00:04:11 +0000 Rippa http://www.rippdemup.com/?p=6046 As if Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio wasn’t bad enough, in steps Shaun Winkler, a white supremacist running for sheriff. As a Republican, Winkler hopes to become Bonner County, Idaho’s next sheriff. As anybody running for office will tell you, media attention is something welcomed and often sought by candidates. That said, not one [...]

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As if Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio wasn’t bad enough, in steps Shaun Winkler, a white supremacist running for sheriff. As a Republican, Winkler hopes to become Bonner County, Idaho’s next sheriff. As anybody running for office will tell you, media attention is something welcomed and often sought by candidates. That said, not one to be self-effacing, Winkler invited media outlets to a “family gathering” hosted at his compound where they were treated as any Republican political candidate would have them, to a lovely evening of wining and dining, complete with a cross burning ceremony under the stars. As a member of the northern Idaho Klu Klux Klan klavern, Winkler explained that it was important to include the sacred and religious observances to change perceptions. After all, how can one hate the Jews if they love Jesus Christ, right?

This from the Bonner County Daily Bee:

SANDPOINT — It’s unlikely that any other Bonner County sheriff candidate spent their Friday night like Shaun Winkler.

At his compound just outside Priest River, Winkler and other family members of the northern Idaho Ku Klux Klan klavern held a get-together that included a nighttime cross lighting. Winkler, 33, is also tied to the Aryan Nations and Church of Jesus Christ-Christian. He has participated in racially-charged Kootenai County protests.

According to Winkler, cross lighting, more commonly known as cross burning, often provokes strong reactions from most people. That’s why the ceremony is conducted in private within the compound once a month or so.

“Generally, for a cross lighting, it’s extremely rare we’d let any media there at all,” he said.

However, after discussing the matter with his family and associates, Winkler agreed to allow photos and outside observation for the ceremony. He said the evening was meant to express both camaraderie and religious devotion.

The evening began like many a family picnic elsewhere in the country. Group members barbecued and enjoyed a congenial meal with one another. About 20 people attended the event, although not everyone wore the iconic klan robes. Three attendees specifically identified themselves as members of the klavern. Winkler mentioned that not every member of the group could make the trip.

Afterward, Winkler called everyone’s attention to speak for about a half-hour on the racial, political and social groups they opposed. Finally, once darkness fell, the evening concluded by setting a wooden cross afire.

That particular action, Winkler predicted, would be the source of much misunderstanding.

“Mainstream society looks at cross lighting as a symbol of hate, but it predates the klan by hundreds of years,” he said. “We look at it more as a religious symbol.”

According to Winkler, the religious component of the ceremony dates back to back to Scottish origins, when clan members used it as a means of communication. He also saw it as a pointedly Christian symbol, a representation of Jesus Christ’s light spreading to the rest of the world.

[...] Despite the unpopularity of his racial views, Winkler is soldiering on with his sheriff’s candidacy. On Monday, he participated in a candidate’s forum at the Blanchard Community Center. He continued to insist his Ku Klux Klan ties would not impact his performance as sheriff or make him susceptible to racial profiling. Instead, he would focus on tough stances regarding drugs and sex offenders.

“Most people don’t know that we don’t just oppose the Jews and the negroes,” he said. “We also oppose sexual predators and drugs of any kind.”

Winkler added that if he had his way, perpetrators of sexual crimes would be hung immediately.

As for the cross lighting and his other white supremacist links, Winkler admits that those who oppose him for his viewpoints probably won’t come around. Given that likelihood, he’s not worried about alienating potential supporters.

“I think at this point, whoever is going to disagree with me will keep on disagreeing, and those who agree with me will keep on agreeing,” he said.

Personally, I think it’s good to see a Republican candidate brave and honest enough to show their true color. I wish there were more candidates like Winkler. You know, this way we don’t have to waste time with the silly arguments about whether the Republican party is made up of racist xenophobes, and bigots. I don’t know about you, but voters tend to place a premium on a candidate’s honesty. That said, with candidates like Winkler, we sure can’t go wrong, no?

“In the event I was elected sheriff, I would not act on racial profiling,” Winkler said. “Being in the white power movement, I know how it feels to be profiled by law enforcement.” (source)

Yeah, I’m sure you do know about that profiling thing, Shaun…

I’m sure you do remember Cherie Buckner-Webb, and what y’all did to her.

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“Occupy the Department of Justice”: Trayvon Martin, Mumia Abu Jamal, & Mass Incarceration http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/04/occupy-the-department-of-justice-trayvon-martin-mumia-abu-jamal-mass-incarceration/ http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/04/occupy-the-department-of-justice-trayvon-martin-mumia-abu-jamal-mass-incarceration/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:52:13 +0000 Rippa http://www.rippdemup.com/?p=5920 Remember the silly talk last year that suggested that the Occupy Movement was racist? Well, it’s spring again; and, though the revival of tent cities has been slow. Check out the following video to see what occupy activists of color engaged in this past week. Given the recent rise in interest to the cries of [...]

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Remember the silly talk last year that suggested that the Occupy Movement was racist? Well, it’s spring again; and, though the revival of tent cities has been slow. Check out the following video to see what occupy activists of color engaged in this past week. Given the recent rise in interest to the cries of justice for Trayvon Martin. In my opinion, this weeks act could not come at a more opportune time. My hope is that recent efforts for “justice,” as expressed throughout social media and elsewhere continues, or dies a very slow death.  It may seem pointless, but it is very necessary.

This via The Real News Network:

We are here to say that incarceration has nothing to do with solving the problems of American society it has everything to do with putting people in their place repressing people and it’s time for this to end, we want jobs, education, health care, we do not want jails…right now the United States represents 5 percent of the world’s population but we incarcerate 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, this in a nation that’s obsessed with the idea of freedom, the question is why, why do we incarcerate so many people than other places in the world, we clearly don’t have the answers so we are here to say we have to stand up for people like Mumia Abu Jamal. - JOHANNA FERNANDEZ, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, BARUCH COLLEGE, CUNY

It is imperative that we continue to bare witness to the many injustices suffered particular by people of color and poor people in general, all across these United States of America – a country where as you know, said people are over-represented within the criminal justice system, by no accident.

More at The Real News

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Gun-Toting “White Civil Rights Activists” Defend White Sanford, Florida Residents http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/04/gun-toting-white-civil-rights-activists-defend-sanford-white-residents/ http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/04/gun-toting-white-civil-rights-activists-defend-sanford-white-residents/#comments Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:10:48 +0000 Rippa http://www.rippdemup.com/?p=5457 Hey, guess what? George Zimmerman is still a free man; yes, he has yet to be arrested in connection with the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Now, as far as I know, as of the time of first punched keystroke in this entry he was still a free man. Of course, all of this could [...]

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Hey, guess what? George Zimmerman is still a free man; yes, he has yet to be arrested in connection with the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Now, as far as I know, as of the time of first punched keystroke in this entry he was still a free man. Of course, all of this could change by the time you get to the last sentence of this particular post. Which would actually be a great thing considering that tensions have been red-lining with the passing of each day in recent weeks.

To say that racial tension around this thing has morphed into epic proportions beyond throwing a garbage can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn would be an understatement. This is Obama’s America, folks; and it looks like post-racial bliss is currently on timeout. Yes, from the looks of things, for now at least, walls spray painted with the words, “Long Live Zimmerman,” might be the norm as “certain people” embrace this new cult-like hero.

OK, so just how bad has it gotten? Well, apparently there’s a race war pending. So much so that a website called SaveWhitePeople.com has emerged. – I took some time to visit the site and listen to their podcast; let’s just say that humanity needs an enema. Now I’m not sure when white folks became an endangered species, and how they have. But let’s just say that racist certain Caucasians are prepared to not go out with a fight. Hear that New Black Panther Party? According to the Miami New Times, there are Neo-Nazi militias armed to the teeth in Sanford, Florida:

Neo-Nazis are currently conducting heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida and are “prepared” for violence in the case of a race riot. The patrols are to protect “white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety” in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting last month, says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement. “We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody, but we are prepared for it,” he says. “We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over.”

[...] Schoep, whose neo-Nazi group is based in Detroit, tells Riptide the patrols are a response to white residents’ fears of a race riot.

A group called the New Black Panther Party recently offered $10,000 for a citizens’ arrest of George Zimmerman, Martin’s shooter. Schoep said the bounty is a sign that “the possibility of further racial violence… is brimming over like a powder keg ready to explode into the streets.”

The patrols are comprised of between 10 and 20 locals and “volunteers” from across the state, including some from Miami, he added. He couldn’t go into specifics on what kind of firepower, exactly, the patrols had with them.

“In Arizona the guys can walk around with assault weapons and that’s totally legal,” Schoep said, referring to the group’s patrols of the US-Mexico border. “What I can tell you is that any patrols that we are doing now in Florida are totally within the law.”

Oh, I’m not sure if this is the very same militia group, but a couple of years ago I wrote something about one of them literally having shoot to kill hunts for “illegal immigrants” on the Arizona border. Yeah, just the type of Boy Scouts you need around down in Sanford.

Asked if the patrols wouldn’t just make things worse — spark a race riot, for instance — Schoep insisted they were simply a “show of solidarity with the white community down there” and “wouldn’t intimidate anybody.”

I guess the potential of having a bullet lodged in your body, isn’t exactly intimidating; nope, not when you have a Stand Your Ground law at your back just in case someone Black feels the urge to break your nose and bash your head into the concrete. Yep, such thrill seekers those blaks.

“Whenever there is one of these racially charged events, Al Sharpton goes wherever blacks need him,” Schoep said. “We do similar things. We are a white civil rights organization.

He went to great lengths to contrast his organization with the New Black Panther Party, who he blamed for scaring local whites and spurring the need for NSM patrols. Schoep admits that the NSM and the Black Panthers are actually alike in that they are both racial separatists. But he sees a double-standard in the government’s treatment of the two groups.

“The Black Panthers have been offering bounties and all that,” he says. “But if we called for a bounty on someone’s head, I guarantee we’d be locked up as quick as I could walk out of my house.”

Schoep was also quick to clarify that he isn’t taking sides in Trayvon Martin’s controversial shooting. “That’s for the courts to decide,” he says. Besides, Schoep says, Zimmerman’s not even white.

“I think there is some confusion going on,” Schoep says. “A lot of people think that this guy who shot Trayvon was white… but he’s half Hispanic or Cuban or something. He certainly doesn’t look white to me.”

Oh, so lemme guess: they’ll take a shot at Zimmerman if need be? Oh yeah, and that whole White Civil Rights organization thing? It’s nice to know that there’s such an organization around should the dictator of a president who happens to be black decides to force people the same color as his maternal grandparents to drink from segregated water fountains. Yep, you need that type of fire power when you’re up against water hoses and German Shepherds trained to chew the ass off of a Caucasian with a single command. Thank White Jesus for the fine folks at nsm88.org.

White Civil Rights Activists Along Arizona Border

I’m not sure how productive these guys actually will be. But check out what happened when they showed up in Trenton, NJ last year. Yeah, from the following video, it’s quite apparent that these are a bunch of yahoos who just love getting their asses kicked; seriously, it’s like sexually arousing:

These jokers are just as bad as the New Black Panther Party in my book, with all their talk of a pending race war. Shit, said race war has long been a mainstay here in America; and, it has been government sanctioned. Last time I checked, these so-called angry white men still had it pretty good in this here land of milk and honey called the United States. But let them tell it, they’ve lost their ground to people of color. How’s that for that whole sense of entitlement thingy they talk about.

No word on whether Rush Limbaugh thinks this is all manufactured racism by Black leaders:

Meanwhile, checkout how random Black people are being shot out in Tulsa, Oklahoma by a white suspect:

TULSA — Several members of the Tulsa chapter of the NAACP gathered at a north Tulsa church Friday evening for an emergency meeting to discuss what police have characterized as a possible “shooting spree” that targeted five people early Friday morning.

As news spread that the police are looking for a white man in connection with the shootings of five black people, people began saying they believe the shootings were racially motivated.

KRMG spoke with Tulsa City Councilor Jack Henderson as the meeting continued in the 2200 block of N. Peoria Avenue.

When asked if people in the community felt that the shooter or shooters were deliberately targeting black people, he replied “yes, absolutely.”

He told KRMG the “word on the street is that this person would drive up to people walking, ask for directions, and when they would turn away, walk away, begin firing. That’s truly a concern, and anybody would be (ill) at ease if you knew this was going on.”

He added that “I’ve talked to the Mayor, and the Mayor assures me that the city is on top of this. The police chief, I’ve talked to him, they have a lot of people that are on this case, they’ll be working around the clock.”

Henderson said he urges anyone with information to come forward, and in the meantime he wants people to be careful. Also, he definitely wants to avoid any sort of vigilantism.

“Don’t go out late at night walking by yourself, until these people are apprehended. We need to be careful, and we don’t want anybody to go out and do any vigilante-type stuff either. Let the police do their jobs.”

I guess this is all the fault of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson as well. Pfft!

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New Orleans: Hurricane Katrina Danzinger Bridge Killer Cops Sentenced, Up to 65yrs http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/04/new-orleans-hurricane-katrina-danzinger-bridge-killer-cops-sentenced-up-to-65yrs/ http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/04/new-orleans-hurricane-katrina-danzinger-bridge-killer-cops-sentenced-up-to-65yrs/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:28:35 +0000 Rippa http://www.rippdemup.com/?p=5444 Today marks the 44th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; ironically, justice was also served today. For many of us who remembered the the story of victims of Hurricane Katrina being shot and killed on Danzinger Bridge as they attempted to seek higher ground, The following news of the sentencing of police officers [...]

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Today marks the 44th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; ironically, justice was also served today. For many of us who remembered the the story of victims of Hurricane Katrina being shot and killed on Danzinger Bridge as they attempted to seek higher ground, The following news of the sentencing of police officers who took an oath to serve and protect the community is very welcomed:

April 4, 2012 (NEW ORLEANS) – Five former New Orleans police officers were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms ranging from six to 65 years for their roles in deadly shootings of unarmed residents on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina.

Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon were convicted of firearms charges in the shootings. Retired Sgt. Arthur “Archie” Kaufman, who was assigned to investigate the shootings, was convicted of helping orchestrate the cover-up.

Faulcon received the stiffest sentence of 65 years. Bowen and Gisevius each got 40 years while Villavaso was sentenced to 38 years. Kaufman received the lightest sentence at six years.

A federal jury convicted the officers in August 2011 of civil rights violations in the shootings on the Danziger Bridge and the cover-up.

Police shot six people, killing two, less than a week after the storm’s landfall on Aug. 29, 2005. To make the shootings appear justified, officers conspired to plant a gun, fabricate witnesses and falsify reports.

The case became the centerpiece of the Justice Department’s push to clean up the troubled New Orleans Police Department.

U.S. District Kurt Engelhardt heard hours of testimony earlier in the day from prosecutors, defense attorneys, relatives of shooting victims and the officers.

I’m really happy that these killer cops got what they had coming to them. My only disappointment is that the many racist civilians responsible for the shooting deaths and assaults on folks attempting to escape the flood waters were never indicted. But hey, Karma is a bitch named Katrina.

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Scott Henson, Trayvon Martin, & the Kinda Sorta Argument in Support of Racial Profiling http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/04/scott-henson-trayvon-martin-the-kinda-sorta-argument-in-support-of-racial-profiling/ http://www.rippdemup.com/2012/04/scott-henson-trayvon-martin-the-kinda-sorta-argument-in-support-of-racial-profiling/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:37:53 +0000 Rippa http://www.rippdemup.com/?p=5406 OK, let’s face it: the only reason anyone is talking about Trayvon Martin is because he’s dead, and George Zimmerman hasn’t been arrested. Yes, if Zimmerman never followed Martin, pending on what the police did once they showed up after his 911 call, Trayvon may still be alive today. Yes, there would  be no million hoodie marches, [...]

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OK, let’s face it: the only reason anyone is talking about Trayvon Martin is because he’s dead, and George Zimmerman hasn’t been arrested. Yes, if Zimmerman never followed Martin, pending on what the police did once they showed up after his 911 call, Trayvon may still be alive today. Yes, there would  be no million hoodie marches, no outrage, and more importantly, n o discussion of Black men and the look of suspicion cast upon them. Trayvon would have eventually continued walking to his father’s fiance’s house a bit aggravated at having to pay the small price for being Black, but he would be alive to drink ice tea and eat Skittles yet another day. With that scenario in mind, I ask the following: is racial profiling really a bad thing? I mean it can’t be that bad if it prevents crimes, no?

Alright, so I realize that coming from me, that has to be an absurd question. But ever since a good friend and long-time reader tipped me off to a recent incident in Austin, Texas where she lives, I’ve been struggling to answer that very question myself. Now I realize that for someone like me — a professional racism-chasing minority — to be in support of racial profiling automatically makes me a hypocrite. Not only that, but by having that opinion serves as grounds for having my hood pass revoked and labeled a slave-catcher like Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson and others. So with that in mind, I found myself asking myself the following question: would racial profiling be a bad thing if it involved the profiling of white folks? After all, don’t we look at the redneck in his pickup truck with the Confederate flag  bumper sticker sorta funny? Or what about the white boys with shaved heads, and swastika tattoos who wear Doc Marten boots? Or what about the guy in the child molester conversion van who just loves to pass out candy to kids at playgrounds?

Is it wrong to racially profile those guys?

After reading the story of Scott Henson, and his recent run-in with the police while walking down the street with his 5-year-old granddaughter, after a 911 caller reported what appeared to be an attempted kidnapping. I found the scenario to be familiar with one exception: Hanson is white and his grandchild is black. And let’s be honest: as oddly unusual a sight, I can see why someone would assume this to be an attempted kidnapping. And quite frankly, I can see why someone would want something done about it; at least, that’s what I think.

This according to newsone.com:

Scott Henson (pictured), a self-described White Texas redneck, was cuffed last Friday by a swarm of policemen, because he was walking his Black 5-year-old grandchild down the street. The Austin resident spoke to NewsOne about how he was accosted by police for being in the company of his grandchild, Ty(pictured).

Ty’s mother is not Henson and his wife’s biological child; the couple decided to raise her after her own father died.  Still, the woman calls Henson and his wife “Mom” and “Dad,” and naturally, her daughter refers to the couple as her grandparents.

Henson’s grandchild typically spends Friday nights with her grandfather and his wife, so that the little girl’s parents can get a break.  Last Friday, Henson, who is a journalist and creator of two popular blogsGritsforBreakfast and Huevos Rancheros, took his grandchild to a skating rink near his home as a reward for being a high achiever at school.  The kindergartener grew tired of skating, so the pair decided to walk home rather than have his wife pick them up from the rink.

Ty’s mother is not Henson and his wife’s biological child; the couple decided to raise her after her own father died.  Still, the woman calls Henson and his wife “Mom” and “Dad,” and naturally, her daughter refers to the couple as her grandparents.

Henson’s grandchild typically spends Friday nights with her grandfather and his wife, so that the little girl’s parents can get a break.  Last Friday, Henson, who is a journalist and creator of two popular blogsGritsforBreakfast and Huevos Rancheros, took his grandchild to a skating rink near his home as a reward for being a high achiever at school.  The kindergartener grew tired of skating, so the pair decided to walk home rather than have his wife pick them up from the rink.

After walking a distance from the rink, Henson felt as if he was being followed.  Suddenly, someone called out to them, and it turned out to be a deputy constable.

“She told me to take my hand out of my pocket and to step away from Ty, declaring that someone had seen a White man chasing a Black girl and reported a possible kidnapping. Then she began asking the 5-year-old about me. The last time this happened, Ty was barely 2, and I wasn’t about to let police question her. This time, though, at least initially, I decided to let her answer. “Do you know this man?” the deputy asked. “Yes, he’s my Grandpa,” Ty said.  “What did you say?” the deputy repeated. “He’s my Grandpa!” Ty yelled, then rushed back over to me and grabbed hold of my leg. “Okay,” the deputy responded.

The constable asked for Henson’s name and address, and he chose not to answer stating that if he was not being held for anything, he would like to take the child home.  The woman complied and allowed Henson to leave.

Just as Henson and Ty were approaching their home, a police cruiser that had passed them by after the constable released them suddenly turned around and threw on his flashing lights.  Four more police cars joined, surrounding Henson and Ty.  Officers jumped out of their vehicles with tasers drawn, demanding that Henson throw up his hands and step away from the child.  The officers grabbed the child and put her in the backseat of a vehicle.  By now there were a total of nine to ten police cars surrounding Henson and his granddaughter.

“ I gave them the phone numbers they needed to confirm who Ty was and that she was supposed to be with me (and not in the back of their police car), but for quite a while nobody seemed too interested in verifying my story. One officer wanted to lecture me endlessly about how they were just doing their job, as if the innocent person handcuffed on the side of the road cares about such excuses. I asked why he hadn’t made any calls yet, and he interrupted his lecture to say, ‘We’ve only been here two minutes, give us time” (It had actually been much longer than that). Maybe so, I replied, sitting on the concrete in handcuffs, but there are nine of y’all milling about doing nothing by my count so you’ve had 18 minutes for somebody to get on the damn phone by now so y’all can figure out you screwed up.”

According to Henson, the same  deputy constable who had questioned him earlier walked in on the scene and briefly looked his way as she spoke to police personnel. Soon after, a supervisor arrived and began questioning the officers.  The woman came over to Henson and began explaining how the police department has to take complaints about possible kidnappings seriously. By this point, though, Henson felt he was guilty in the eyes of law enforcement for the “heinous crime of babysitting while white.”

After Henson was released, there were no apologies issued.  After being interrogated, Ty was given a flashlight as a consolation prize.  According to Henson, the deputy constable who could now barely look him in the eyes, “You knew better. This is on you.”

Now of course you know my motto: there are three sides to every story – there’s bullshit, bullshit, and there’s the truth. So with that in mind, and after reading Henson’s blog post myself, I decided to take a look into it and see what the police was saying. And well, I found their story to be intere4sting. Yep, their story even included a release of the dashboard camera video that tells a different story. Yep, Henson wasn’t beaten, tasered, or had a broomstick up the butt like any innocent Black man would have; but, I guess that’s because he was melanin deficient:

Like many of the people with whom I share the same skin color, I often complain about the lack of media coverage placed on missing Black children. I also complain about a similar lack of attention given to missing women of color – it’s a sad reality, and it’s all too real. Having said that, I can’t be mad at the woman who called 911 to report what she thought she saw. She could have simply ignored the fact that a little Black girl was being chased down the street by a white man like some of us Black folk would have done. You know, much in the same way we ignore the traffic that frequent drug houses in our communities? Oh please believe, we all know the dope spot; and, we all know what white folks are doing riding around in cars in those areas. We know it, and the police knows it; but, would it be wrong if he pulled said would-be Caucasian drug consumer?

Yes, so with that in mind, I’d have to say that the woman who found Scott Henson to be “suspicious”, just like George Zimmerman, she was right to call 911. For me, being vigilant and acting in the interest of safety and security in my neighborhood is what being a good neighbor is all about. But I guess in today’s world where we don’t even know our next door neighbors, being vigilant is a lost art. Hell, no wonder young folks are into that whole “Stop Snitching” thing.

This is what ignorance looks like; and why racial profiling continues to negatively impact the lives of minorities. This is what keeps us apart.

Look, the fact that we live in a society riddled with racism and prejudice is undeniable. As such, racial profiling will always be the order of the day. It has always been a problem for minorities when employed as a crime fighting tool by the police. As trusting as we’re taught to be of people in positions of power, the truth is, they’re not always right. Contrary to what your nightly news tells you, not all Black people are criminals; not all Latinos are “illegal immigrants”; not all people of middle-eastern heritage are terrorists; not all people of Asian persuasion are math, science, and computer geeks; and, though they may not say it on the news regularly, not all white people are racist and fearful of people of color. But maybe if more white folks were racially profiled and it lead to negative consequences, maybe the evil practice of racially profiling minorities would stop.

Maybe then and only then, would my 60-year-old mother would be without fear when she encounters young Black males in hoodies, baggy jeans, and doo-rags while she walks the streets of Brownsville out in Brooklyn, New York as she often does. Talking to her about Trayvon Martin I was ashamed when she told me this, but given the society within which we live, I can totally understand.

Now watch and learn about one Black police officers fight for justice:

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