Sunday, September 25, 2016

Charlotte police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott highlights racial divide in North Carolina city

There have been a lot of protests. Places where residents tire of seeing police only when teams of officers sweep in to make arrests, and remember well other blacks killed by police officers who did not face punishment.
Their anger at Scott's death made its way downtown. Rioting in Charlotte's center killed one protester, shattered windows and rattled finance executives whose salaries boost the city's median income to $10,000 above the national average. They told their workers in the skyscrapers to stay home.

To the protesters, home is a world away from those skyscrapers.
"For the people we serve, the Queen City is only the Queen City if you get on the train and ride into the glimmering, crystal core," said the Rev. Peter Wherry of Mayfield Memorial Missionary Baptist Church, about 5 miles from downtown.

Police officers face off with protestors on the I-85 (Interstate 85) during protests.
(Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Nearly all of Charlotte lies in Mecklenburg County, which the U.S. Census Bureau estimated had the largest increase in the country in the percentage of people living in distressed neighborhoods during the first 15 years of this century — an index that combines unemployment, poverty rates and other items, like how many businesses close.
Those pockets of poverty aren't immediately evident. Charlotte doesn't have many stereotypical slums. Instead, lower-rent housing is in apartment complexes or condominiums nestled behind tree-lined roads or off the main thoroughfares.

That's the kind of place where Scott lived. Tracy McLean lived in the condominium complex just down the road; she said teams of police frequently come to the neighborhoods full of black and Latino families in a show of force, looking for suspects they often don't find, instead of talking to residents and getting to know them.
"The fear needs to be dispelled," Tracy McLean said. "It's fear, and it's ridiculous fear."
In the mid-1990s, as Charlotte pushed to become a world-class city, its leaders cracked down on crime with a heavy-handed police force. Longtime African-American residents remember James Cooper, a 19-year-old black man killed by a white officer in 1996 as he reached back in his car window during a traffic stop to check on his 4-year-old daughter. The officer said he thought he had a gun.

BILL NUNN DIES AT 63

Movies

Bill Nunn, Who Played Radio Raheem in ‘Do the Right Thing,’ Dies at 63

By LIAM STACKSEPT. 24, 2016

Bill Nunn at a 25th anniversary screening of the movie “Do the Right Thing” in 2014. Credit Craig Barritt/Getty Images

Bill Nunn, a versatile actor best known for playing the role of Radio Raheem, the boombox-toting neighborhood philosopher killed by police officers in Spike Lee’s 1989 film “Do the Right Thing,” died on Saturday in Pittsburgh. He was 63.

His death was announced on social media by Mr. Lee. His wife, Donna, told The Associated Press that Mr. Nunn had cancer.

The first major acting role for Mr. Nunn, the son of a well-known professional football scout, was in the 1988 film “School Daze,” also written and directed by Mr. Lee. The next year brought the critically acclaimed “Do the Right Thing,” in which he played the iconic Radio Raheem, who carries a boombox blaring Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” through the streets of the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn on the hottest day of summer.

Radio Raheem sits at the moral heart of the film, delivering a soliloquy directly to the camera on the ceaseless contest between love and hate, symbolized by the four-finger rings he wears on each hand. The character’s choking death at the hands of police officers in front of a crowd of his neighbors incites the film’s wrenching final scenes.

Do the Right Thing (6/10) Movie CLIP - LOVE and HATE (1989) HD Video by Movieclips

Mr. Nunn became a popular character actor after “Do the Right Thing” and appeared in a variety of films, including “New Jack City,” “Sister Act” and the “Spider-Man” trilogy by the director Sam Raimi. In 2004 he appeared in a Broadway revival of “Raisin in the Sun” as Bobo, alongside Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad and Sean Combs.

But it was his performance as Radio Raheem that allowed him to make his greatest mark, Mr. Nunn said in an interview with ABC News to mark the 25th anniversary of the film’s release.

He was a frequent collaborator of Mr. Lee and also appeared in his films “Mo’ Better Blues” and “He Got Game.” Mr. Lee referred to him on Saturday as "my dear friend, my dear Morehouse brother.” They both attended Morehouse College in Atlanta.

William Goldwyn Nunn III was born in 1953 in Pittsburgh. His father was Bill Nunn, a scout for the Pittsburgh Steelers who helped build a football powerhouse in the 1970s by recruiting from the often-overlooked football programs at historically black colleges and universities. He died in 2014.

Mr. Lee memorialized Mr. Nunn in a series of social media posts on Saturday, sharing the text of his “Do the Right Thing” soliloquy as well as pictures of him as Radio Raheem.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Hillary Quick Bio

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton is a former U.S. Senator, Secretary of State and First Lady running for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton, 68, entered the primary race as a heavy favorite and a hero among Democrats who think she could be the country's first female president. She has spent decades in the national public eye, beginning with the election of her husband, Bill Clinton, as president in 1992. After serving as a Senator from New York for 6 years, she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Despite entering the race as the favorite, she lost to Barack Obama, who then named her Secretary of State.
But her career in politics has also generated a lot of criticism, starting with her efforts to reform health care in the 1990s. More recently, Clinton has been under fire for using her private email while serving as Secretary of State and her actions around the 2012 Benghazi consulate attacks in which four Americans were killed.
The Clintons have one daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and a granddaughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.

Hillary Clinton is a former U.S. Senator, Secretary of State and First Lady running for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton, 68, entered the primary race as a heavy favorite and a hero among Democrats who think she could be the country's first female president. She has spent decades in the national public eye, beginning with the election of her husband, Bill Clinton, as president in 1992. After serving as a Senator from New York for 6 years, she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Despite entering the race as the favorite, she lost to Barack Obama, who then named her Secretary of State.
But her career in politics has also generated a lot of criticism, starting with her efforts to reform health care in the 1990s. More recently, Clinton has been under fire for using her private email while serving as Secretary of State and her actions around the 2012 Benghazi consulate attacks in which four Americans were killed.
The Clintons have one daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and a granddaughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.

Al Sharpton V Guiliani

Crime

U.S.

World

Politics

NEXT ARTICLEDonald Trump would be terrible as president during racial tension

Al Sharpton: Improving police-community relationships starts with holding everyone — including cops — accountable for their actions

Al Sharpton: Rudy Giuliani clueless on police-community relations

BY Al Sharpton

SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Sunday, July 10, 2016, 8:16 PM

Sharpton says he was troubled by Giuliani's recent remarks.
(MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS)

Following last week’s tragedies in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas, New York City’s former Mayor Rudy Giuliani made some shocking comments, including stating that black children have a 99% chance of killing each other.
The reality is, blacks are killed by other black people a majority of the time, just as whites are killed by whites a majority of the time.
But what his words show is an appalling lack of understanding of the notion that the issue of fighting crime in black and brown neighborhoods must include the fact that police crime embellishes the chaos in those communities and must be dealt with as well. It is that repeated and documented pattern of profiling, excessive force and shootings by police that we see in our communities and not in others. If we are to ever solve the issue of crime, we must tackle all crime — including crime committed by those who wear a badge.
My organization, National Action Network, has dedicated over 25 years toward fighting for social justice and equality across the board. That struggle includes reducing crime and uplifting our communities on every level. In addition to holding gun buyback events, we’ve coordinated programs like “Occupy The Corner” in cities like Chicago in order to help diffuse shootings. The residents of that community, and others around the nation, fully understand the challenges facing them, which includes the manner in which law enforcement sometimes interacts with them.

We cannot have neighborhoods under siege by both those that may be doing criminal acts and by those that are supposed to be protecting citizens from danger. Society can no longer ignore the fact that policing in white communities is starkly different than it is in communities of color.

NYC PAPERS OUT. Social media use restricted to low res file max 184 x 128 pixels and 72 dpi — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani doesn't understand the impact that police crime has on neighborhoods of color, Sharpton says.

A clear example of this disparity is when the stop-and-frisk program was heavily touted and implemented in places like New York City. According to the NYCLU, a weapon was found only in 1.8% of blacks and Latinos who were frisked, but was found in 3.8% of whites who were frisked.
Despite stats like this, the number of stops of young black men exceeded the entire population of young black men in the city itself. That is just outrageous. When things like profiling, pulling people over disproportionately, searching people walking down the street excessively, locking people up unreasonably and shooting people unnecessarily are all realities, then we have a severe problem in this country.
We must have a sincere commitment to address crime not only on one side (while excusing crimes on your own side), but as it takes place whether at the hands of a citizen or someone in uniform. Blacks don’t make excuses about their communities, therefore police, officials and ex-officials shouldn’t make excuses for those officers that cross the line and abuse their power.

According to The Guardian’s data tracker, “The Counted,” 136 Black people have been killed by police in 2016 alone. Ask yourself, how many cops have gone to jail or even been remotely held accountable?

https://www.facebook.com/100007611243538/videos/1690073837922975/?pnref=story — Philando Castile's death helped fuel rage throughout the nation.
(Lavish Reynolds via Facebook)

Rather than choosing which crimes we want to focus on, there should be a total commitment to all crimes. To exclude alleged police abuse and misconduct is not the answer — it only adds to the problem. This isn’t about taking sides, but rather it is about having a society that’s crime free from both bad officers and bad citizens. Police should enforce the law, but they are not above it.
I have never been one that justifies black-on-black crime. I’ve preached at many funerals, including that of a 4-year-old who was shot and killed by a stray bullet. I have seen the anguish and pain in a parent’s eyes firsthand after such a tragedy. But I have also seen the same pain when a parent loses a loved one at the hands of those who were supposed to serve and protect them. I have stood alongside grieving mothers, fathers and grandparents who cannot comprehend how their child was shot and killed for reaching for a wallet, for simply walking down the street, for just driving home or a slew of other unfathomable and unjustifiable reasons. Just like we arrest and charge criminals, we must arrest and charge the bad cops so that there is accountability and fairness under the law.
Anytime someone says that you shouldn’t question police or the system, then the nation loses. We fight and march when there is an anti-gay killing in Orlando, when there is a black-on-black killing, when nine Church members are shot and killed in a hate crime and when police break the law or are alleged to have broken the law.

If we genuinely want to improve relations between law enforcement and the communities they serve, then we must have the consistency to hold everyone responsible for his or her actions in order to heal society. Otherwise, we’re simply shifting blame and that is a delay tactic none of us can afford.
Sharpton is founder of the National Action Network.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Hillary and Sanders

Hi. Back The Game. April 11, 2016.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Spar Over Fossil Fuel Donations

12:31 pm ET

Amy Chozick

and

Yamiche Alcindor

Updated, 6:01 p.m. | Hillary Clinton defended her commitment to combating climate change on Friday, after an eruption with Senator Bernie Sanders over whether she accepts campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry rattled the relatively civil Democratic contest as both candidates vie for support in New York.

A day after Mrs. Clinton grew enraged, telling a young climate change activist after a rally in Purchase, N.Y., that she was “sick of the Sanders campaign lying” about her accepting political donations from the fossil fuel industry, Mr. Sanders doubled down on the accusation, saying on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday that Mrs. Clinton had “taken significant money from the fossil fuel industry.”

The encounter on Thursday was not the first time Mrs. Clinton has been confronted by activists affiliated with Greenpeace, but it came as the two Democrats fight to win liberal support as the race turns toward New York’s April 19 primary.

Polls show that Mrs. Clinton’s significant lead in New York, her adopted home state, has narrowed in recent weeks, as Mr. Sanders’s promise to take on Wall Street and special interests has resonated with liberals in New York City and in economically hard-hit areas upstate.

On Thursday, Mr. Sanders, introduced by famous New Yorkers including the actress Rosario Dawson and the filmmaker Spike Lee, addressed a crowd of thousands of people in the South Bronx. Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, kicked off her New York campaign at a rally on Wednesday at the Apollo Theater.

On Friday, she held a round-table discussion at the Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central high school, during which she unveiled a $10 billion proposal to bolster jobs in manufacturing. The event was the beginning of a concerted effort by Mrs. Clinton to win back the voters upstate who twice elected her a New York senator.

“We fundamentally believe her work in upstate New York really represents a blueprint or road map for people to follow in looking at what she will do as president in terms of creating good-paying jobs,” Mrs. Clinton’s policy director, Jake Sullivan, told reporters.

But the environment, in particular the candidates’ positions on hydraulic fracturing, is also a driving issue for Democratic voters in New York, one that was thrust to the forefront this week.

The back and forth began on Thursday when the Greenpeace USA activist asked Mrs. Clinton to pledge to reject fossil fuel contributions. Mrs. Clinton tersely responded, saying: “I am so sick — I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me. I am sick of it.”

Later, her campaign addressed the issue.

“The simple truth is that this campaign has not taken a dollar from oil and gas industry PACs or corporations,” Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, said in a statement. “The simple fact is that the Sanders campaign is misleading voters with their attacks. The money in question is from individuals who work for these companies.”

On Friday, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign went a step further, enlisting New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, to defend the former secretary of state’s record on climate change. “Any suggestion that she is in anyone’s pocket on the issue of climate change, or on any other issue, is flat-out false and inappropriate,” Mr. de Blasio said on a conference call with reporters, calling fighting climate change a “central force” throughout Mrs. Clinton’s career.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, of the $157.8 million the Clinton campaign has raised over all, $307,561 has come from individuals who work in the oil and gas industries. The Sanders campaign has raised more than $50,000 from individuals who work in the oil and gas industries.

Jeff Weaver, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, said in a statement that it was “disappointing” that Mrs. Clinton has accused Mr. Sanders’s staff of lying on the issue of fossil fuel industry donations. “Fifty-seven lobbyists from the industry have personally given to her campaign and 11 of those lobbyists have bundled more than $1 million to help put her in the White House,” he said.

“If you include money given to super PACs backing Clinton, the fossil fuel industry has given more than $4.5 million in support of Clinton’s bid,” Mr. Weaver said.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Louis Stokes, Great Man

Early life[edit]

Born in Cleveland, Stokes and his brother Carl B. Stokes lived in one of the first federally funded housing projects, the Outhwaite Homes. Louis attended Central High School. Stokes served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946. After attending Western Reserve University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Stokes began practicing law in Cleveland in 1953.
Stokes argued the seminal "stop and frisk" case of Terry v. Ohio before the United States Supreme Court in 1968. Later in 1968, he was elected to the House, representing the 21st District of Ohio on Cleveland's East Side. He shifted to the newly created 11th District, covering much of the same area following a 1992 redistricting. Stokes served 30 years in total, retiring in 1999.

Career[edit]

Stokes' tenure in the House of Representatives included service on the House Appropriations Committee, where he was influential in bringing revenue to Cleveland. He was particularly interested in veterans' issues and secured funds for health-care facilities for veterans in Cleveland. In the 1970s, Stokes served as Chairman of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, charged with investigating the murders of President John F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.. Stokes also served on the House committee that investigated the Iran-Contra Affair.

Personal life[edit]

Stokes' brother, Carl B. Stokes, was the first African American mayor of a large American city. His daughter, Angela Stokes, serves as a Cleveland Municipal Court judge while another, Lori Stokes, is a journalist with WABC-TV New York. His son, Chuck Stokes, is also a journalist with WXYZ-TV in Detroit. Funk and soul musician Rick James was a cousin.
Stokes and his wife, Jay, have seven grandchildren. He is also a Prince Hall Freemason,^[2] and a member of the Cleveland Alumni chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

Later life and death[edit]

Stokes retired in 2012 as Senior Counsel in the law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, with offices in Cleveland and Washington.^[3] On July 20, 2015, it was reported that Stokes had both brain cancer as well as lung cancer.^[1]
Stokes died on August 18, 2015 at his home in Cleveland from lung and brain cancer at the age of 90.^[4]

Legacy[edit]

The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, located in Cleveland, Ohio, opened the Louis Stokes Museum on September 13, 2007. This Museum houses Stokes memorabilia, video interviews, misc. video footage, awards and a written history about Stokes and his rise to prominence. The museum is located at Outhwaite Homes, 4302 Quincy Avenue. Hours are from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays. Private viewings can be scheduled by calling 216-432-3840.
From 2006 to 2008, the Western Reserve Historical Society opened an exhibition on the lives of Congressman Stokes and his brother titled "Carl and Louis Stokes: From the Projects to Politics". The exhibit uses photographs, manuscript collections, and personal items to showcase Louis Stokes' rise from the Outhwaite homes, his legal career, and his Congressional service.
The former Congressman was inducted into the Karamu House Hall of Fame in 2007 for his contributions to the continued legacy of Cleveland's black settlement house and theatre.
Many buildings throughout the country have been named in Stokes honor including: Howard University's medical library, the Cleveland Public Library's main building expansion, GCRTA's Windermere station Louis Stokes Station at Windermere, and the greater Cleveland area Veteran's hospital was renamed the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Trump Does It Again

NEWS

Trump camp doubles down on ‘blood’ comment

By David K. Li

August 9, 2015 | 6:00am

Trump camp doubles down on ‘blood’ comment

Photo: Reuters

Another weekend, another raging war of words triggered by shoot-from-the-lip presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

The unapologetic mogul on SaturdayDENIED

he took a gross, sexist shot at Fox News host Megyn Kelly — and called anyone accusing him of that a “deviant.”

Trump, who sparred with Kelly at Thursday’s GOP debate over derogatory comments he has made about women, got into hot water Friday night when he said of Kelly during a CNN chat: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her . . . wherever.”

He took to Twitter Saturday morning to say he meant that blood was, metaphorically, coming from Kelly’s nose.

Hours later, Trump’s campaign took off the gloves.

“Mr. Trump said, ‘Blood was coming out of her eyes and whatever,’ meaning nose, but wanted to move on to more important topics,” a campaign statement read.

“Only a deviant would think anything else.”

A Fox News Channel spokeswoman on Saturday declined to comment on behalf of the network and Kelly.

The Donald’s remark got him barred from the conservative political meeting RedState Gathering 2015 in Atlanta on Saturday.

Trump called the event’s organizer, RedState.com editor Erick Erickson, a “loser” and said he didn’t want to attend anyway.

Photo: Getty Images

“He has a history of supporting establishment losers in failed campaigns, so it is an honor to be uninvited from his event,” his campaign said. “Mr. Trump is an outsider and does not fit his agenda.”

Even after his Kelly comment inci

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Police officers face off with protestors on the I-85 (Interstate 85) during protests.

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