 Obama and Putin are embarking on tentative path toward possible military coöperation, as bitter rift over Ukraine gives way to common cause against ISIS. |
| Middle East Online |
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MOSCOW — In a striking shift, President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin are embarking on a tentative path toward closer ties and possible military coöperation, as the bitter rift over Ukraine gives way to common cause against the Islamic State (ISIS) group. After weeks of accusing Moscow of trying to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad by bombing US-backed rebels, Obama changed his tune on Wednesday, praising Putin as a “constructive partner” in a nascent diplomatic effort to resolve Syria’s civil war. Putin, too, has issued conciliatory signals, softening his tone about the US and calling for the US and Russia to “stand together” against the extremist threat. Speaking on the sidelines of a summit in the Philippines, Obama even raised the prospect of military coördination with Russia — a possibility that has seemed remote ever since the US cut off military ties last year over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. Obama said Russia had been a “constructive partner in Vienna in trying to create a political transition,” referring to international talks in Austria. But, he said, there were still differences over the fate of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, and Moscow’s current military focus on defending him. “There is obviously a catch, which is Moscow is still interested in keeping Assad in power,” Obama said. But he added: “Those differences have not prevented us at looking at how could we set up a ceasefire.” Obama also expressed hope that Russia may shift the military focus from defending Assad to attacking the Islamic State group. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the October 31 crash that killed 224, and Putin has vowed to hunt down those responsible and punish them. “In their initial military incursion into Syria, they have been more focused on propping up President Assad,” Obama said. “If, in fact, he shifts his focus and the focus of his military, to what is the principle threat, which is ISIL, then that is what we want to see,” Obama said using another acronym for the group. “We are going to wait and see whether Russia does end up paying more attention to ISIL targets. If it does so, that’s something we welcome.” For Putin, the terror attacks in Paris marked a watershed moment in relations with the West. At a summit this week in Turkey, Putin huddled amicably with Obama and other Western leaders, whose changing attitudes reflected the political reality that the US and its allies need Russia’s help to confront an extremist threat now striking at the heart of Europe. In a sign of an emerging Russia-West axis, French President Francois Hollande announced he would travel to Washington next week and Moscow two days later to discuss stepping up coöperation against ISIS with Obama and Putin. Forging an alliance with the West to fight ISIS would offer Putin a chance to raise Russia’s global clout and prestige and to repair relations that were shattered by the Ukraine crisis. “The West may find it hard to discuss a degree of Russia’s responsibility for what happened in Ukraine, or the legitimacy of its presence in Syria, at a moment when the ISIS has reached all the way to the Eiffel Tower,” Gleb Pavlovsky, a political strategist who used to work for the Kremlin, said on Ekho Moskvy radio. Yet, while the Kremlin is clearly hopeful that coöperation against ISIS will push Ukraine to the sidelines, both the US and Russia have rejected any link between Syria and Ukraine. A White House official said no matter what happens in Syria, the US won’t lift crippling economic sanctions against Russia until it fulfills its obligations under a Ukraine peace deal reached in February. Because Obama has suspended formal US-Russia military ties, coördination in the fight can only go so far — even if Moscow sharpens its focus on ISIS. In recent days the US has seen Russia begin focusing some of its strikes on ISIS, but the vast majority have targeted moderate rebels fighting Assad, said an official who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity. Putin’s high-intensity air campaign makes him a major player in the Syrian conflict, and Russia’s influence over its ally, Assad, gives it a key role in diplomatic efforts to negotiate a political solution. Obama said that for weeks now, Russia has played a helpful role in talks in Vienna that US Secretary of State John Kerry says could produce a ceasefire within weeks. Though distrustful of Russia’s government after years of skirmishes, Obama has sought to compartmentalize the various conflicts in which the former Cold War foes inevitably cross paths. Despite its quarrels over Syria and Ukraine, the US worked with Russia to secure the nuclear deal with Iran, after which Obama thanked Putin for his “important role” in that formulating the accord. Obama’s interactions with Putin at the Group of 20 summit this week were notably devoid of the grim-faced exchanges they’ve had in the past. Instead, the two were spotted leaning in close at a coffee table and, in another run-in, grinning broadly as they casually chatted. And Putin, who has rarely missed a chance to mock the US, avoided outright gloating as he spoke to reporters at the meeting in Turkey. Instead, he deployed even-mannered restraint when asked to assess the efficiency of the US-led coalition’s air war against ISIS, which has thus far fallen woefully short of Obama’s goal of defeating the extremist group. “It’s not the right moment to judge who is better and who is worse,” Putin said. “Now it’s necessary to look forward and pool efforts to fight the common threat.” Whether the US and Russia can make good on hopes of cooperating in Syria will likely hinge on their ability to reconcile their disagreement about Assad’s future. That effort will likely be daunting. While Russia has sought to buttress Assad, the US and its allies insist he’s lost legitimacy and can’t be part of any future Syrian government. US officials waxed hopeful that Russia was finally coming around, pointing out that Russia signed on to a diplomatic statement in Vienna on Saturday calling for a “Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition.” But Putin later said the issue must be decided by the Syrians as part of that process. Assad’s political future, Putin said, is a “secondary issue,” to be decided later. ISIS threat pushes Russia to reconsider priorities in Syria |
Terrorism Is A Reality For The Caribbean, Says Barbados AG
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The Caribbean is no longer isolated from international criminal networks, including the threat of terrorism, and Barbados attorney general, Adriel Brathwaite, has made it clear that the time has come for countries in the region to put the necessary legislative framework in place and conduct the relevant training to counter these acts.
He made these comments as he addressed a specialised national workshop on countering terrorism and its financing in Bridgetown on Wednesday, hosted by the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism of the Organization of American States, and the government of Barbados.
“We think, terrorism, what has that to do with the Caribbean? … Terrorism is something that you read about in other parts of the world. The reality, though, is that the Caribbean is no longer isolated from the rest of the world. Who would have thought that we have seen some individuals from Bulgaria being charged here recently in a scam to do with our ATM machines?” Brathwaite pointed out.
He warned that a failure to put the necessary systems in place and to conduct the required training would open the doors to the country being exploited.
As he addressed the gathering, Brathwaite, who is also minister of home affairs, stressed that his ministry had a responsibility to ensure that the necessary legislative framework was in place to address issues such as terrorism, and to ensure that all personnel were trained to identify when the island’s facilities, whether corporate trust or banking, were being used for terrorist financing.
“I just want to highlight that it has my overwhelming support because we can provide as much legislation in the world, but if you do not have the requisite training that legislation is of no use to you,” he told participants, who included police and immigration officers, judges and personnel from the Central Bank of Barbados.
Brathwaite also gave the commitment that his ministry would do all within its power to ensure that persons who benefited from the illegal proceeds of crime knew that they would have their assets sought after.
“I want to stop talking about it and start some serious action,” he stated.
He added that he had seen two case studies which outlined how the Financial Intelligence Unit could be used as a catalyst to initiate investigations into criminal networks, and noted that it opened the door to see how Barbados’ resources could be better utilised to attack the proceeds of crime.
Brathwaite cautioned participants that just as they were training, so too were the terrorists and money launderers.
“They have their resources, they have the best brains possible, and they sit down and they plan just likeyou on how they can get around our laws, how they can get through our system. So, we therefore have to work harder because we have less,” he stated.
During the two-day workshop, participants were due to examine a range of topics, including the regional legal framework against terrorism and its financing, the universal legal framework against terrorism and its financing and confiscation and asset sharing.
Terrorism Is A Reality For The Caribbean, Says Barbados AG
This Is Why They Hate Us: The Real American History Neither Ted Cruz Nor The New York Times Will Tell You
The soi-disant Land of the Free and Home of the Brave has a long and iniquitous history of overthrowing democratically elected leftist governments and propping up right-wing dictators in their place.
U.S. politicians rarely acknowledge this odious past — let alone acknowledge that such policies continue well into the present day.
In the second Democratic presidential debate, however, candidate Bernie Sanders condemned a long-standing government policy his peers rarely admit exists.
“I think we have a disagreement,” Sanders said of fellow presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. “And the disagreement is that not only did I vote against the war in Iraq. If you look at history, you will find that régime change — whether it was in the early ’50s in Iran, whether it was toppling Salvador Allende in Chile, or whether it was overthrowing the government of Guatemala way back when — these invasions, these toppling of governments, régime changes have unintended consequences. I would say that on this issue I’m a little bit more conservative than the secretary.”
“I am not a great fan of régime changes,” Sanders added.
“Régime change” is not a phrase you hear discussed honestly much in Washington, yet it is a common practice in and defining feature of U.S. foreign policy for well over a century. For many decades, leaders from both sides of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats, have pursued a bipartisan strategy of violently overthrowing democratically elected foreign governments that do not kowtow to U.S. orders.
In the debate, Sanders addressed three examples of U.S. régime change. There are scores of examples of American régime change, yet these are perhaps the most infamous instances.
Iran, 1953
(Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public domain)
Iran was once a secular democracy. You would not know this from contemporary discussions of the much demonized country in U.S. politics and media.
What happen to Iran’s democracy? The U.S. overthrew it in 1953, with the help of the U.K. Why? For oil.
Mohammad Mosaddegh may be the most popular leader in Iran’s long history. He was also Iran’s only democratically elected head of state.
In 1951, Mosaddegh was elected prime minister of Iran. He was not a socialist, and certainly not a communist — on the contrary, he repressed Iranian communists — but he pursued many progressive, social democratic policies. Mosaddegh pushed for land reform, established rent control, and created a social security system, while working to separate powers in the democratic government.
In the Cold War, however, a leader who deviated in any way from free-market orthodoxy and the Washington Consensus was deemed a threat. When Mossaddegh nationalized Iran’s large oil reserves, he crossed a line that Western capitalist nations would not tolerate.
The New York Times ran an article in 1951 titled “British Warn Iran of Serious Result if She Seizes Oil.” The piece, which is full of orientalist language, refers to Iranian oil as “British oil properties,” failing to acknowledge that Britain, which had previously occupied Iran, had seized that oil and claimed it as its own, administering it under the auspices of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which later became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, and eventually British Petroleum and modern BP.
The Times article noted that the U.S. “shares with Britain the gravest concern about the possibility that Iranian oil, the biggest supply now available in the Near East, might be lost to the Western powers.” The British government is quoted making a thinly veiled threat.
This threat came into fruition in August 1953. In Operation Ajax, the CIA, working with its British equivalent MI6, carried out a coup, overthrowing the elected government of Iran and reinstalling the monarchy. The shah would remain a faithful Western ally until 1979, when the monarchy was abolished in the Iranian Revolution.
Guatemala, 1954
Less than a year after overthrowing Iran’s first democratically elected prime minister, the U.S. pursued a similar régime change policy in Guatemala, toppling the elected leader Jacobo Árbenz.
In 1944, Guatemalans waged a revolution, toppling the U.S.-backed right-wing dictator Jorge Ubico, who had ruled the country with an iron fist since 1931. Ubico, who fancied himself the 20th-century Napoleon, gave rich landowners and the U.S. corporation the United Fruit Company (which would later become Chiquita) free reign over Guatemala’s natural resources, and used the military to violently crush labor organizers.
Juan José Arévalo was elected into office in 1944. A liberal, he pursued very moderate policies, but the U.S. wanted a right-wing puppet régime that would allow U.S. corporations the same privileges granted to them by Ubico. In 1949, the U.S. backed an attempted coup, yet it failed.
In 1951, Árbenz was elected into office. Slightly to the left of Arévalo, Árbenz was still decidedly moderate. The U.S. claimed Árbenz was close to Guatemala’s communists, and warned he could ally with the Soviet Union. In reality, the opposite was true; Árbenz actually persecuted Guatemalan communists. At most, Árbenz was a social democrat, not even a socialist.
Yet Árbenz, like Mosaddegh, firmly believed that Guatemalans themselves, and not multinational corporations, should benefit from their country’s resources. He pursued land reform policies that would break up the control rich families and the United Fruit Company exercised over the country — and, for that reason, he was overthrown.
President Truman originally authorized a first coup attempt, Operation PBFORTUNE, in 1952. Yet details about the operation were leaked to the public, and the plan was abandoned. In 1954, in Operation PBSUCCESS, the CIA and U.S. State Department, under the Dulles Brothers, bombed Guatemala City and carried out a coup that violently toppled Guatemala’s democratic government.
The U.S. put into power right-wing tyrant Carlos Castillo Armas. For the next more than 50 years, until the end of the Guatemalan Civil War in 1996, Guatemala was ruled by a serious of authoritarian right-wing leaders who brutally repressed left-wing dissidents and carried out a campaign of genocide against the indigenous people of the country.
Chile, 1973
September 11 has permanently seared itself into the memory of Americans. The date has also been indelibly imprinted in the public consciousness of Chileans, because it was on this same day in 1973 that the U.S. backed a coup that violently overthrew Chile’s democracy.
In 1970, Marxist leader Salvador Allende was democratically elected president of Chile. Immediately after he was elected, the U.S. government poured resources into right-wing opposition groups and gave millions of dollars to Chile’s conservative media outlets.
The CIA deputy director of plans wrote in a 1970 memo, “It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup… It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG [U.S. government] and American hand be well hidden.” President Nixon subsequently ordered the CIA to “make the economy scream” in Chile, to “prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him.”
Allende’s democratic government was violently overthrown on September 11, 1973. He died in the coup, just after making an emotional speech, in which he declared he would give his life to defend Chilean democracy and sovereignty.
Far-right dictator Augusto Pinochet, who combined fascistic police state repression with hyper-capitalist free-market economic policies, was put into power. Under Pinochet’s far-right dictatorship, tens of thousands of Chilean leftists, labor organizers, and journalists were killed, disappeared, and tortured. Hundreds of thousands more people were forced into exile.
One of the most prevailing myths of the Cold War is that socialism was an unpopular system imposed on populations with brute force. Chile serves as a prime historical example of how the exact opposite was true. The masses of impoverished and oppressed people elected many socialist governments, yet these governments were often violently overthrown by the U.S. and other Western allies.
The overthrow of Allende was a turning point for many socialists in the Global South. Before he was overthrown, some leftists thought popular Marxist movements could gain state power through democratic elections, as was the case in Chile. Yet when they saw how the U.S. violently toppled Allende’s elected government, they became suspicious of the prospects of electoral politics and turned to guerrilla warfare and other tactics.
Modern example: Egypt, 2013
These are just a small sample of the great many régime changes the U.S. government has been involved in. More recent examples, which were supported by Hillary Clinton, as Sanders implied, include the U.S. government’s overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Qadhafi in Libya. In these cases, the U.S. was overthrowing dictators, not democratically elected leaders — but, as Sanders pointed out, the results of these régime changes have been nothing short of catastrophic.
The U.S. is also still engaging in régime change when it comes to democratically elected governments.
In the January 2011 revolution, Egyptians toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak, a close U.S. ally who ruled Egypt with an iron fist for almost 30 years.
In July 2013, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, was overthrown in a military coup. We now know that the U.S. supported and bankrolledthe opposition forces that overthrew the democratically elected president.
Today, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a brutal despot who is widely recognized as even worse than Mubarak, reigns over Egypt. In August 2013, Sisi oversaw a slaughter of more than 800 peaceful Egyptian activists at Raba’a Square. His régime continues to shoot peaceful protesters in the street. An estimated 40,000 political prisoners languish in Sisi’s jails, including journalists.
To Hell With Hundreds Of Dead Jamaicans (indecom Act) Stops Cops Killing Criminals..
A Joint Select Committee of the Jamaican Parliament has requested oversight of (indecom) . This after the Police the JDF and Director of Public Prosecution has formally made known their disquiet with the operational tenets of the Agency and more so it’s Commissioner Terrence Williams>
Williams who is on his second term as Commissioner uses the Agency as a personal tool of vendetta against law enforcement, berating, harassing the police agency as well demeaning the DPP’s office when his wishes are not adhered to on his timeline.
Additionally Williams have done immeasurable harm to the neophyte agency from its inception by in-advisedly aligning the agency with forces openly hostile to the police and military.
For all intents and purposes the well of goodwill which ought to exist between the JCF, JDF, Corrections and (indecom) has been seriously poisoned.
As a result (indecom) is arguably hardly as effective as it would be had it not pursued an adversarial path with the agencies over which it has oversight.
The Parliamentary committee say oversight is for ensuring internal accountability and oversight of the management of the organisation.
It’s important to note that the (indecom) Act came into existence (signed into law) under the JLP and Bruce Golding.
It was no surprise that Opposition member, Delroy Chuck’s position is that he could only support an oversight board as a purely review body.
In other words he supports a toothless paper tiger as oversight of an agency many believe clearly is out of control.
In other words despite the failings of the law and the hundreds of dead Jamaicans each year as a result of police pulling back Delroy Chuck sees no need to have supervision of Williams and (indecom).
Minister of National Security Peter Bunting insisted that a submission from the director of public prosecutions pointed to the need “to hold the deliberative process to a higher standard and to heighten accountability within (indecom)”.
Lets remember that it was the continued overstepping of his bounds which prompted the DPP to make a submission to the Parliament that Williams was a loose cannon dangerously out of control.
Bunting to this point seem to be the only person within the political apparatus from either side of the political aisle with an iota of operational; brain cell . Bunting maintained ” if members of the security forces conclude that engaging armed violent criminals is a ‘no win’ exercise for them, then we run the risk of facilitating criminal impunity with obvious adverse consequences to society,”.
This publication and this writer have maintained that perspective from the inception of (indecom).
I have been accused of wanting carte blanche for the police, those who know me know this is the furthest thing from the truth.
I also advocated proper oversight of the police, one which is fully aware of what we ask police officers to do and the commensurate need which comes with that.
That there be latitude in the interpretations of their actions.
This perspective have earned me the ire of some police officers who view that position as anti-police as well , go figure?
As I have maintained from the very beginning no one in his right mind could argue that the police do not need keen oversight and expect to be taken seriously .
I have am also of the opinion that the answer to corruption in the JCF is not (indecom) as it is configured.
The creation of (indecom) is merely another layer of Governmental bureaucracy which is not only costing the Jamaican people dearly in terms of dollars and cents but in blood and other treasures as well.
The monies wasted on (indecom) could have been invested in the police department making it a 21st century police agency capable of dealing with emerging threats.
Conversely what we have is yet another layer of bureaucracy which we are now learning will need another layer of you guessed it , bureaucracy.
CRIME NOW REQUIRE NEW THINKING IS SECURITY APPARATUS UP TO THE TASK…
The Jamaican people and Government thus far is beholden to the old adage of not looking a gift horse in the mouth .
The help coming into the country to (indecom) subsequently avoids scrutiny, so too are the motives of the donors. Never mind that law enforcement is paramount in the donor countries.
Nothing shackles law enforcement in their countries.
Jamaicans steadfastly refuse to ask themselves why are they helping to shackle the police ? Why would they not help the police to control crime?
Terrence Williams points to the reduction in police shootings as a metric for what he wants the country to believe is (indecom’s) success. What he does not point to is that murders have increased over 22% over the corresponding period the previous year . Oh and by the way that year also saw an increase over the previous year .
As long as the goal remains the preservation of the Island’s criminals then Terrence Williams and (indecom) are doing a great job . Hundreds and hundreds of dead Jamaicans be damned.
Crime Now Require New Thinking Is Security Apparatus Up To The Task…
“People judge a commissioner’s performance mainly based on murder figures and with currents trends on the rise I do not expect positive feedback”.
Those comments belong to Commissioner of Police Dr.Carl Williams.
The Commissioner of police seem to be having an Epiphany or come to Jesus moment of sorts as it relates to how his job performance should be judged.
I thought to myself “wow” you think? when I saw the Commish’s comments. I wondered when did the top cop realize that people dying on his watch would indeed be a reliable metric as it relates to his job performance?
Then I said to myself “oh well better late than never”
I am reluctant to beat up on the Commissioner because I know he has been given basket to carry water as every other police chief before him on the Island has .
But I have to at least ask.
Is it just me or does it seem like the Élite in Jamaica are far more patient with Carl Williams despite the massive loss of life and the seriousness of other crimes ?
Well never mind it may just be me !
I just believe that that PhD will get you a lot of passes that other police Commissioners never enjoyed.
You know how Jamaicans think . The Élite sees him as one of them , they can’t call him “dunce police bway”.
And the man on the street fundamentally believe that PhD is a cure all for everything .!
He must know what he is doing right?.….….….….….….….….….… Right !
Crime takes on new and serious dimensions every day . The strategies employed in dealing effectively with it must also take on new and out of the box thinking beyond the traditional norms.
Unfortunately I am yet to be convinced that there is political will or desire to see the monster tamed much less neutralized.
Unfortunately the Police Department has not demonstrated an awareness of the challenges of law enforcement in the 21st century, nor the ability to convince us it has solutions should other situations arise outside the regular phalanx of murders and other crimes.
At the same time the Nation’s Prime Minister makes public statements of solidarity with France which recently experienced terrorist attacks on its soil.
She was silent about attacks in Kenya Nigeria and other parts of Africa .
More profoundly she is curiously silent about the wanton shedding of blood right there at home.
Not only is she silent but steadfastly refuses to take any steps to empower law enforcement to root out the criminal cells which are operating within strongholds controlled by her political party for obvious political reasons.
In law if you enable the commission of crimes before they occur or give aid and comfort to the principal after the offence you are guilty of a crime as well .
Based on those principles the Government in Kingston is guilty of aiding and abetting in the killing of hundreds of Jamaicans annually.
If not by co-mission then certainly by omission.
It behove the Prime Minister to stay low with all of that public talk about solidarity with France.
Not because freedom loving people across the Globe should not stand with each other in times of trial but because France has the means to defend itself, Jamaica does not.
The last thing Jamaica needs is to attract the attention of a terror group because we have a big mouth and want to be seen.
The JCF can barely gain a conviction for a domestic murder based on the liberal nature of the Islands courts and of course police ineptness. The country certainly does not need any more problems.
Commensurate with the times the security forces must now look to developing solutions which can potentially arise before they occur. This however demands Legislative action which demands plans of action from the security services.
The JDF should be heavily invested in this process as there are no real external threats to the country just yet.
It is crucial that at this time the Police high command and the JDF come together through new Legislation to create possible scenarios and work out solutions for them ahead of time.
Those solutions should be at the Prime Minister’s fingertips for authorization should the need arise.
Of course these solutions must be classified .…Only a select group of people should have access to classified information and there must be serious penalties for divulging classified information.
It cannot be that the security chief briefs the Prime Minister and Minister of National Security about a crime lord and as soon as the briefing is complete and the chief leaves the crime Lord knows everything which was briefed to the two leaders.
Those are criminal acts, any public figure so convicted should be looking at a minimum of 25 years in prison.
Some members of the Officer Corp of the JDF can certainly find the time to brainstorm with certain parts of the JCF in strategically thinking of possible scenarios the country may face.
They must look at scenarios which occurred in other countries, see how their responses worked , see how they may be applied in our country should the need arise as well as developing strategies for situations which are yet to occur.
Jamaica simply cannot afford the luxury of a military for show anymore.
The country certainly cannot sit and wait for situations to arise then try to come up with reactive band aid solutions.
The Private sector can play a role in helping to fund a project which would hire a few of the brightest from the Nation’s colleges to help with working on solutions the country may face.
I believe it is clear that the strategies being used are not working .
The fight against crime must now evolve to include in a broader sense strategies to include dealing with Terrorism.
We saw what happened in Tivoli Gardens. We saw how homes are being firebombed even in once quite serene areas of the Island.
We have seen police stations attacked and burned to the ground. We have certainly seen local criminals exert their will at will.
Guaranteed, despite all of what we have witnessed in the past the people tasked with the nation’s security have no strategies in place should there be recurrence.
Yet it is almost assured there will be recurrences and yes much worse.
As Terror merchants unleash their wares against those to whom they are opposed large powerful nations like the United States , Canada , Britain, France and others will take steps necessary to protecting themselves.
The terror groups will not simply walk away saying “okay we can’t fight these guys”,they will look for soft targets wherever their enemies have interests.
Is Jamaica prepared to deal with any of this ?
You decide.
Minneapolis Mayor Seeks Federal Investigation Into Shooting
The mayor of Minneapolis on Monday asked for a federal civil rights investigation into the weekend shooting of a black man by a police officer during an apparent struggle.
Mayor Betsy Hodges said she wrote to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and to the U.S. attorney for Minnesota seeking the investigation in the “interest of transparency and community confidence.” The state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is already conducting a criminal investigation, but Hodges said the city needs “all the tools we have available to us.”
Authorities have released few details about the shooting, which has angered some community members after witnesses said the man was handcuffed when he was shot. Police said their initial information showed the man, a suspect in an assault, was not handcuffed. He was taken to a hospital after the shooting, and his family says he is on life support.
The incident sparked protests Sunday and an overnight encampment at the north Minneapolis police precinct near the site of the shooting. Community members and activists called for a federal investigation, as well as for authorities to release video of the incident and the officer’s identity.
Protests continued Monday, with a few hundred people gathering at an evening rally outside the same precinct, beating a drum and chanting for justice. At least eight tents were set up outside, and a handful of protesters were sitting behind glass doors in the foyer, including one who was knitting.
“We’re still not moving until we get that footage,” said Michael McDowell, a member of Black Lives Matter.
Later, hundreds of demonstrators blocked Interstate 94, shutting down the northbound lanes.
Two officers are on paid leave, standard practice after such an incident. Police Chief Janee Harteau said the officers were not wearing body cameras, but declined to say whether squad car or surveillance video was available, citing the ongoing investigation.
Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, called the civil rights request a step in the right direction, “given that we do not trust Minnesota law enforcement officials to hold themselves accountable.”
Police said they were called to north Minneapolis around 12:45 a.m. Sunday following a report of an assault. When they arrived, a man was interfering with paramedics helping the victim, police said. Officers tried to calm him, but there was a struggle. At some point, an officer fired at least once, hitting the man, police said.
Authorities have not released the man’s name, but family members identified him as Jamar Clark, 24, and said he was on life support. His father, James Hill, told The Associated Press that his son suffered a single gunshot wound over his left eye.
Ramona Dohman, the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, said the officers’ identities would be released after investigators interview them. She declined to say how long the investigation could take.
Harteau said she welcomed a federal investigation.
“Everyone involved needs and deserves the truth and the facts,” she said.
Gov. Mark Dayton also issued a statement saying he supported the request for a federal probe.
Authorities said a window at the precinct was broken amid the protests and two police vehicles were damaged, including a marked squad car in which all the windows and a camera were broken, and an expletive was scratched into the hood. One person was arrested in connection with damage to an unmarked police car.
The protests are just the latest expression of tension between the department and minorities in the city.
Outrage and a civil lawsuit followed the 2013 death of 22-year-old Terrance Franklin, a burglary suspect whom police pursued and shot in a Minneapolis basement. A grand jury declined to indict the officers involved.
In 2014, prominent civil rights activist Al Flowers complained of being the victim of brutality when police served a warrant on a relative at his home. Police say Flowers instigated their aggression.
The rocky relations have led to discussions between police and minorities and the creation of task forces designed to quell concerns. This spring, Minneapolis was selected for a federalJustice Department program to rebuild trust between police and the communities they patrol.
KG Wilson, a peace activist who retired weeks ago after 11 years of building relationships between the community and the police department, said he’s hurt by the reaction he is seeing and disagrees with the protests.
“I hate that this is going on right now. My heart is so crushed. I have not stopped crying,” he said, adding that some protesters are looking for an excuse to be angry. “I think everything is being gone about in the wrong way. … Peace is always the way. You can’t bring peace with aggression.”
Minneapolis Mayor Seeks Federal Investigation Into Shooting By AMY FORLITI AND KYLE POTTER, ASSOCIATED PRES
Commish Believes Feedback On His Performance Mainly Based On Murder Trends
Dr Carl Williams says his time as Police Commissioner to date, does not indicate that he has been a successful crime fighter in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
He says people judge a commissioner’s performance mainly based on murder figures and with currents trends on the rise, he does not expect positive feedback. Dr Williams, a 30-year veteran of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, was appointed commissioner in September last year.
Commissioner Williams has been credited as being instrumental in the development of programmes aimed at reducing the supply of illegal drugs in Jamaica and developing a task force to target lottery scamming. It is part of the reason why, while speaking yesterday to Gerrard McDaniel onRJR’s Palav, Dr Williams said he has been a “pretty successful police officer”. However, he notes that since his appointment last September, it has been a difficult journey. He says the journey is even harder when there is an increase in murders, the key factor used by the public to judge a commissioner’s performance.
Last week, he told a parliamentary committee that 1,038 people were murdered for the period January to October, representing a 22 per cent increase compared with the similar period last year. The commissioner says he does not expect murders to pass the 1,200 murder figure recorded in 2013. The JCF has received additional vehicles to assist members of the force with crime fighting initiatives. The army has been called out to play a more active role in fighting crime.
Read more here: http://jamaicagleaner.com/article/news/20151116/commish-believes-feedback-his-performance-mainly-based-murder-trends
Where Is The Warrior Spirit Of American Blacks?
Speaking about events unfolding at the University of Missouri in an expansive and vividly articulate Article written for the Huffington Post on instances of racism, Matt Ferner said the following.
(Matt Ferner
“The first response from many has been to question and reject the veracity of each episode, as if the idea of a black person facing oppression or aggression because of their race is so unbelievable in today’s America that it must be made-up. Apparently it’s easier for some people to accuse the black community of concocting an elaborate racial conspiracy than it is to confront the difficult reality of racism in America”
It Shouldn’t Be So Hard To Accept That Racism Is A Problem At Mizzou
In the midst of racial tension, some people are doing everything they can to avoid facing the uncomfortable truth.
Change is afoot at Mizzou.
On Monday, University of Missouri system president Tim Wolfe tendered his resignation. His announcement followed weeks of intense backlash over his perceived mishandling of high-profile incidents of racism on campus and failure to address the lack of diversity in the university’s faculty, among other issues. While many of the student activists who campaigned for Wolfe to step down have called his departure a positive first step, they say there’s plenty of work left to do to make Mizzou a more racially aware and inclusive institution.
But as students move forward with that push, critics have emerged to claim that activists’ demands — and their early victories — have been propelled by lies and oversensitivityto a problem that doesn’t actually exist. These skeptics seem to be suggesting that the institutional and overt racism black students say they experience from the Mizzou community is imaginary — and that demanding these issues be addressed is not only disingenuous, but dangerous to the fabric of a free America that has supposedly achieved the fundamental principle of equal opportunity for all.
We shouldn’t need to write a story unpacking the absurdity of this argument, which mirrors a much broader denial about the state of race relations in the U.S. Racism is a dark part of the nation’s past, and it’s paralleled not just in the history of Mizzou, but in the histories of countless other universities around the country. It should go without saying that the issues of the past have an effect on the present. But what’s happening at Mizzou isn’t simply a response to historic injustices. It’s not a matter of rehashing issues that our ancestors resolved, or of black students not being able to just “get over it” or “move on,” as a crowd of mostly white people told a group of African-American protesters at a Mizzou homecoming parade last month.
The movement at Mizzou is an effort to draw attention to the modern manifestations of racism, which students say still rears its head in the form of structural inequality and individual acts of hate. The incidents below document the latter, and together suggest that more blatant displays of racism contribute to concerns among black students that they are not valued by the university.
This is, of course, not a comprehensive list of every racist incident that has happened on campus. Yet sadly, the first response from many has been to question and reject the veracity of each episode, as if the idea of a black person facing oppression or aggression because of their race is so unbelievable in today’s America that it must be made-up. Apparently it’s easier for some people to accuse the black community of concocting an elaborate racial conspiracy than it is to confront the difficult reality of racism in America. But if these people would take a second to actually listen to those who are affected by racism, it’s the only proof they’d need to understand that the current protests at Mizzou are a necessary response to a very real issue.
Two white dudes littered the black culture center with cotton balls.
On the morning of Feb. 26, 2010, in the final days of Black History Month, students woke up to find cotton balls spread across the grounds in front of the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center on campus — a scene evoking slavery.
Days later, Zachary Tucker, then 21, and Sean Fitzgerald, then 19, both white male students, were arrested and suspended for dropping the cotton balls in front of the center.
Both students were convicted on misdemeanor littering charges.
The incident, which Tucker and Fitzgerald later described as a “prank,” has been cited frequently by protesters on Mizzou’s campus as examples of a racially intolerant culture that has existed on campus for years.
A white guy with dreadlocks spray-painted a racial slur on a statue.
A year after the cotton ball incident, also during Black History Month, a racist slur was spray-painted on a statue outside a dormitory. That same day, police found an anti-Jewish messagepainted on a car near campus.
Police investigated a connection between the two bigoted acts of vandalism but never found a link.
Benjamin Elliot, then 18 years old, was arrested and charged for the graffiti near the dorm, receiving two years probation and 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty to misdemeanor property damage.
A professor recounts being called racial slurs innumerable times.
Mizzou journalism professor Cynthia Frisby, who lives in Columbia, Missouri, and has worked at the university for almost 18 years, says she has been confronted with racism and called racial slurs “too many times to count.”
In a Facebook post last week, she described an encounter she experienced while jogging near campus in May.
Profile
I have been silent on FB about the racial situation on the Mizzou campus for a variety of reasons, but the main one is this: some of my friends say and post updates that are really hurtful and offensive when it comes to race and offending people of color and I keep quiet because I just don’t think Facebook is the place to hold arguments or candid discussions of race. Think about it: No one changes their attitudes or beliefs after seeing offending posts and respond to the post by saying: “Oh my God,Thank you for showing me that I am a racist” or “Oh my God, because of you, I just realized that I am so privileged.” smile emoticon However, after many events on and off campus over recent months, I feel I have to say something and say it here. (You know this is going to be long, right? LOL)
I have lived in Columbia and been at the University for almost 18 years. During this time, I have been called the n word too many times to count. Some of you may recall my most recent experience while jogging on Route K in May of 2015 when I was approached by a white man in a white truck with a confederate flag very visible and proudly displayed. He leaned out his window (now keep in mind I run against traffic so his behavior was a blatant sign that something was about to happen). Not only did he spit at me, he called me the n‑word and gave me the finger. Of course, I responded with “Oh yea, get out of your car you coward and say that to my face.” He then raced off. Typical. Others of you may recall that after the Zimmerman trial, I wrote about my experiences being called the n word twice while I was on my jog. And yes, I have had a few faculty call me the n word and treat me with incredible disrespect. Yes, faculty. I have had a student who said he couldn’t call me Dr. Frisby because that would mean that he thinks I am smart and he was told that blacks are not smart and do not earn degrees without affirmative action. Yes, true story. I have so many stories to share that it just doesn’t make sense to put them all here.
What I am responding to is the frequent question I have been asked all week: How have I endured these many hateful experiences for over 17 years and why am I still here? I endured because God allows me to see the good and cup half full. I endured because I know my life is in God’s hands and I do not walk alone. I endured because I find these to be teachable moments that I use in my classroom with my students. I endured (or better yet endure) because I have an amazing support system. I endure because there are far too many of my white friends that have a heart of gold, love people of any color with a passion and who have a strong trust in and love for the Lord. I endure because I have friends who are white and daily show me that there are people who can hurt when I do and who sincerely want to make this culture a better place. I endure because I look to the Lord to help me grow and be the best person I can be. I endure because I CHOSE AND CHOOSE to endure and overcome and I choose to overlook ignorance. Choosing to overlook these idiots doesn’t make me a “sell-out” or be an uncle tom. I choose to endure because my mom and civil rights leaders taught me to never run but stand straight, tall and do not run. Racism is alive and it’s everywhere. I endure because what I have gone through is nothing like what my mom went through in the 50s and 60s nor is it even close to what my Lord and Savior had to endure while on the earth (he, too, was spat at, made fun of and even nailed to a cross simply because He loved us/me that much). Yes, we are better off now than we were in the 50s but to some extent we are taking many steps backward by ignoring or not talking about the racial issues.
We need to have open discussions where people share their ignorance and learn from people who are different (I do this in my classroom every day and we learn and I learn so much.) So where am I going with this post?
I understand the anger. I understand that we’ve had enough. I also understand and agree with my friend Traci Wilson-kleekamp when she wrote “Jonathan L. Butler and #ConcernedStudent1950 please give space for mistakes, listening, learning and dialogue. This on the job training thing is powerful because it is SO VERY PUBLIC.” I not only see this as on the job training for our administrators at MU, but I also see it as training for some of my very educated white friends.
The saddest of all things for me is to see how a few of my white friends are responding to these events and basic conflicts in race relations in our nation (i.e., police shootings, the President, etc). It hurts my heart when I see posts from these friends that make fun of us because we find things hurtful like dressing up in black face costumes or confederate flags flying high in my neighborhood. What bothers me is that the few of my white friends who feel this way have not taken time or energy to reach out to me and ask me why these things hurt or to understand what is going on or even send an email saying they are confused. For the two friends that have in the recent days, thank YOU. That speaks volumes of your openness to understand. You are not even saying that you agree, you just want to hear from me and my thoughts and experiences. Kudos to being open. Unlike my “other” so-called acquaintances. Instead they take to social media and make jokes of the students, say things like “oh my God, what else are these people going to find offensive?” or even dumber things like “i guess next year I will dress up as nothing.” By the way: The Halloween costume event is not about not dressing up like someone, but it is about dressing up as characters not as a race of people. It is the heart and intent of a person.
I write this post to ask if those folks who find that the situation on campus is ridiculous to please be a little more open minded. Ask questions. Do your research. Heaven forbid you will put yourself in their shoes. Maybe you should dress up in black face and spend a month walking around in that costume and maybe then you will understand how we feel when you walk in a room or a store and get treated like a second class citizen. Maybe then you will understand that our feelings about being constantly referred to as niggers is more than “just getting over it.” Maybe then you will understand why telling the students to get their “a@&S” in class because they are making much a do about nothing hurts and doesn’t solve the problem.
I am much more than the n word. I am an educated black woman who happens to have worked hard for my PhD. I am a mom. I am a grandmother. I am a daughter. I am a sister. I am an auntie. I am a niece. I am a neighbor. I am a professor and mentor. I am a cousin. I am loved by my family and friends. I am smart. I am funny (or so I think). I am a Christian who loves the Lord Jesus with my whole heart. I would die for Him as He died for us. I am YOUR FRIEND! Yes, I am all of these things. There is so much more to me than the n‑word implies. Please consider that when you criticize the events on campus. yes, I am silly. yes, I am a drama queen who thinks I should have been born a celebrity. But what I am not is a nigger! Let me just say that. Consider that you have a friend who deserves and simply wants to be treated equally. You have an know a friend who jogs on route k and wants to do that without fear that some kids in a car will think it is funny to yell at me and pretend that they will run me off the road. Know that you have a friend who wants to walk out every day with confidence that she will not be spat on or yelled euphemisms simply because of the color of her skin. To make things better in our world, that would be a start. Does this make any sense?
Frisby says while on her run, she was approached by a white man in a white truck adorned with a “very visible” Confederate flag. The man leaned out his window, spat at her, yelled something racist and flashed his middle finger.
She adds that this was not the first time she had been verbally assaulted with racist language while jogging, and goes on to say she has faced similar disrespect even from other faculty members.
Someone repeatedly shouted a racial slur at the black president of the student body.
On Sept. 12, Payton Head, president of the Missouri Students Association, described in a Facebook post that a passenger in a pickup truck repeatedly shouted a racial slur at him while he walked on campus one night.
His statement went viral and many posted messages of support on social media. They also voiced frustration with the lack of response from MU.
“I’d had experience with racism before, like microaggressions, but that was the first time I’d experienced in-your-face racism,” Head told the Columbia Missourian about the incident.
“These n****rs are getting aggressive with me.”
On the night of Oct. 5, members of the Legion of Black Collegians, a historic black student government group at Mizzou, were rehearsing for a homecoming performance at an on-campus outdoor theater space. They noticed what they later described as an “obviously intoxicated” young white male approaching the group while talking on his cell phone.
LBC ignored the man at first, members wrote in an open letter to campus, until he entered the plaza and got on stage, interrupting their rehearsal. An LBC member approached the man and asked him to leave. The man shouted back, “I don’t give a fuck what y’all are doing.”
When he finally decided to get off stage, he lost his balance and stumbled over onto the pavement.
Still on the phone, he rolled over onto his side and was heard saying: “These n****rs are getting aggressive with me.”
The group was stunned by the remarks.
“There was a silence that fell over us all,” the letter from LBC describing the incident reads, “almost in disbelief that this racial slur in particular was used in our vicinity.”
The LBC letter notes that a safety officer was present and heard the racial slur but did not move quickly to address the man and never got his identification.
Protesters confronted Wolfe, were heckled by a mostly white crowd.
On Oct. 10, a group of black students interrupted the Mizzou homecoming parade wearing T‑shirts that read, “1839 Was Built On My B(l)ack” — a reference to the year of the university’s founding, made possible due to slave labor — to deliver a message that they were not going to be ignored by the school administration regarding discrimination issues on campus.
The protesters blocked the path of the convertible Wolfe was in as he waved to a group of mostly white parade-watchers. Some people in the crowd started yelling back at the protesters, saying “move on” and to get out of the street. Others changed “M‑I-Z, Z‑O-U” in an attempt to drown out the protesters who were using a megaphone to speak about incidents of racism on campus.
The confrontation got testy, as members of the crowd moved in and began pushing the students out of the way. At one point, Wolfe’s car attempted to drive around the protesters, clipping one of them in the process. Police eventually intervened and got the students to step aside, eliciting cheers from spectators.
Wolfe remained in his car throughout this entire ordeal, not saying a word as the incident unfolded in front of him.
Days later, the Concerned Student 1950 group, whose name paying tribute to the year the first black students were admitted to Mizzou, issued a list of eight demands. Among their many requests to increase racial awareness and diversity on campus was one for Wolfe to be removed as president.
“We’ve sent emails, we’ve sent tweets, we’ve messaged but we’ve gotten no response back from the upper officials at Mizzou to really make change on this campus,” Jonathan Butler, a graduate student who later went on a seven-day hunger strike that ended with Wolfe’s resignation, told the Missourian.
It took Wolfe almost a month to issue an apology for his inaction during the protest, but the damage was already done.
Someone smeared a swastika in human feces in a dorm bathroom.
In one of the most disturbing — and what became one of the most galvanizing — incidents to take place on MU’s campus, in October students discovered a swastika scrawled in feces in a dorm bathroom.
Truthers have since emerged online, saying the incident sounded so over-the-top that it couldn’t be true. But it was, as a report filed by a campus police officer this week confirmed.
Resident staff members discovered the swastika and reported it to the police around 2 a.m. on Oct. 24, according to the police report from the incident. Police saw the swastika “drawn on the wall by someone using feces [along with] feces on the floor located by the entry way to the restroom,” the report reads.
No one has been arrested in connection to the vandalism, and a police investigation remains ongoing.
The Internet did what it does best: acted racist as hell.
On Nov. 5, Head posted on Twitter a collection of racist comments he says were made by MU students on the anonymous messaging app Yik Yak.
The tweet came just days after the Concerned Student 1950 group attempted to address race and discrimination concerns on campus on a number of occasions with Wolfe.
“I’m going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see.”
Just a day after Wolfe resigned, anonymous threats began targeting black students on social media.
“I’m going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see,” one post on Yik Yak read.
“Some of you are alright. Don’t go to campus tomorrow,” read another.
“We’re waiting for you at the parking lots,” read a third. “We will kill you.”
Police arrested two suspects, both young white males, on Wednesday for making the threats.
Wolfe suggested “systematic oppression” is just a feeling black people get.
Protesters with Concerned Student 1950 confronted Wolfe last week outside a fundraiser at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City.
In a video posted to Twitter, a protester can be heard asking Wolfe: “What do you think systematic oppression is?”
“Systematic oppression,” Wolfe begins, “is because you don’t believe that you have the equal opportunity for success.”
The crowd erupted with frustration before he could finish his statement. As Wolfe walked away, one protester shouted: “Did you just blame us for systematic oppression, Tim Wolfe? Did you just blame black students,” as the video cuts off.
“Black.”
In the early hours of Nov. 12, someone spray-painted over the word “Black” on a sign at the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center on campus.
Another tweet showed that the “Black” had been painted over on both sides of the sign.
Police said they are reviewing surveillance video from the area as part of their ongoing investigation. There have been no arrests in connection with the vandalism.
It Shouldn’t Be So Hard To Accept That Racism Is A Problem At Mizzou
Olympic Figure Skater And Doctor Debi Thomas Reveals She’s Broke, Living In Bug-infested Trailer In Emotional Interview
Fallen Olympic figure skater and doctor Debi Thomas is now living in a bed bug-infested trailer park where she’s penniless and begging former fans for money, she revealed in a new interview.
The 48-year-old former athlete has hit rock bottom nearly 30 years after becoming the first African American to win the women’s title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, she told Iyanla Vanzant on the relationship expert’s “Fix My Life” series.
“(I feel) frustrated,” the once-trailblazing Thomas says before breaking down in tears in the emotional episode that aired Saturday on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
The two-time U.S. national champion and 1988 Olympic bronze medalist turned to the renowned life coach after “crippling life challenges” from two divorces left her family broke and forced her to shut down her medical practice in Virginia.
A desperate GoFundMe page she started about 10 months ago failed to raise even a quarter of what she had hoped.
Thomas is now living in a run-down mobile home in the Appalachian Mountains with her fiancé, who has admitted to having alcohol and anger issues, and his two children. She lost custody of her 13-year-old son.
“You got to a point where you couldn’t afford to do anything other than live in a trailer. Is that what I’m hearing you say?” Vanzant asks before ripping into Thomas for only feeling “frustrated” at her heartbreaking circumstances.
“Not sad, not angry, not ashamed?” the TV host asks.
“No,” Thomas responds.
“Not guilty that you’ve got a man, two kids and a bedbug infestation in a trailer,” Vanzant says. “Frustration is what you feel? Nothing else?”
Thomas starts to cry and shakes her head as Vanzant digs deeper, according to a short clip.
“This is what I know: You’re living in a trailer in the Appalachian Mountains and your son ain’t with you!” she shouts. “You’re raising somebody else’s children! So, you can tell me whatever you want to tell me. Telling yourself the truth is important.”
The Poughkeepsie, New York native pursued a medical degree after graduating from Stanford University in 1991 and soon after became an orthopedic surgeon.
Thomas lays out a list of ambitious prospective projects she had hoped to complete in the fundraising page that collected about $2,000 out of the $10,000 goal. One of her plans was to star in a reality TV show.
“What we need now is help keeping our heads above water until we can make our dreams a reality,” she pleads in a video posted on the GoFundMe page.
The episode is aired on Saturday at 9 p.m.
Olympic figure skater and doctor Debi Thomas reveals she’s broke, living in bug-infested trailer in emotional interview
Video Shows Virginia Cops Tasering Handcuffed Man 20 Times Until He Died
Newly-released video shows police in South Boston, Virginia subjecting a restrained man to repeated taser attacks and denying him medical treatment, causing his death less than an hour later.
Officers initially responded to calls about 46-year-old Linwood Lambert, who was causing a scene at a motel while having an apparent mental health episode in May of 2013, reportedly having hallucinations and “acting paranoid,” according to motel guests who initially reported the incident. Lambert was unarmed at the time of his apprehension, and not initially charged with a crime.
When officers Travis Clay and Clifton Mann arrived on the scene with Cpl. Tiffany Bratton, they handcuffed Lambert, put him in a squad car, and drove him to a nearby hospital. After opening the door of the vehicle, Lambert ran into the hospital door and fell on the ground, as the officers emerged from their cars and used their tasers on him repeatedly. Officers continued to taser Lambert on the ground in front of the hospital and in the squad car on the way back to the local jail, despite police department rules stating that use of tasers is “no longer justified” after a suspect is handcuffed. Those rules also state that officers should take tasered suspects to an emergency room first before taking them to jail.
After tasering Lambert repeatedly, the officers arrested him on charges of disorderly conduct and destruction of property. Officers attempted to use CPR to revive Lambert, who was unconscious upon arrival at the jail. Lambert was pronounced dead at 6:23 AM at Sentara Halifax hospital — where the officers tasered him earlier that night.
Linwood Lambert’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit for $25 million. As of the time of this writing, none of the officers involved in Lambert’s death has been charged with a crime.
Florida Police Fire Officer Who Fatally Shot Black Musician Corey Jones
The Florida police officer who shot and killed a black amateur musician waiting for help alongside a highway after his car broke down last month has been fired, a Palm Beach Gardens spokeswoman said Thursday.
Officer Nouman Raja, 38, had been on administrative leave from the city’s police force following the shooting of Corey Jones on Oct. 18. Jones’ death drew outrage after law enforcement officials revealed the officer was in plainclothes and never showed a badge.
The death of the 31-year-old Jones is the latest fatal incident across the country involving police and black men. It has sparked anger and calls for greater transparency, as local law enforcement officials have been slow releasing details about the Oct. 18 shooting.
Jones was waiting for a tow truck beside a highway off-ramp at 3 a.m. when Raja pulled up in an unmarked van. A confrontation ensued and Raja fired six shots hitting Jones three times, authorities said.
Jones never fired the .380 caliber handgun recovered at the scene, according to the Palm Beach County state attorney’s office. He had a permit allowing him to carry a concealed gun, which he had purchased legally three days earlier.
Raja, who had been hired by the upscale community’s police department in April, had previously been investigating robberies in the area.
Telephone records obtained by the Palm Beach Post newspaper show that Jones had been on a 53-minute phone call with AT&T roadside assistance at the time of the shooting.
Florida police fire officer who fatally shot black musician Corey Jones
How Much Black Blood Is Enough For America ?
It’s the year 2015 , half a century after man walked on the moon. African-Americans have evolved from slavery, the chain gangs, Jim crow and the prison industrial complex to hold the Presidency the most cherished office in America.
A black man is the President. There has been a black Attorney General. In fact a black woman now heads the justice department. A Black man held the top military post as chairman of the joint chiefs, and no greater Chairman has America seen. As if that was not enough he went on to become secretary of state.
Blacks have held top positions in almost all areas of civil society from NASA to the Supreme Court, from the hallowed halls of academia to the powerful board rooms across the country.
Despite the adversities inherent in securing those positions black Americans have been twice as effective , twice as impactful as their white counterparts.The present occupant of the white house is no exception.
Despite the myriad layers of impediments placed in the way of black upward mobility in this supposed land of the free, blacks have triumphed and excelled.
Which leads to the million dollar question .
Why is it that whites in America and across the Globe refuse to compete on a level playing field?
The myth that Caucasians are superior based on concocted mythical perceptions of grandiosity have long been debunked leaving those who believe it looking ignorant and stupid.
So they don’t say it in public anymore they merely recite it in their little inner circles where ignorance is the defining theme.
The rest of the world which by the way is majority people of color have long exposed the nonsense that white superiority as a concept is little more than the thinking of a frightened inferior people who deal in lies and bullyism.
In America when students of color are placed in classrooms with white students in most cases black students coming from middle class homes do better academically than their white counterparts.
Don’t mention the Jewish or Asian kids or the kids who come here from Africa.
So it would be instructive to learn from the purveyors of white superiority what metric they use in arriving at their conclusion.
It can’t be that they are more athletic, that lie has be dead and buried long ago so what is it?
Is it that whites are better swimmers ? Are they superior because there are hardly any swimming pools in urban areas just like tennis courts and golf courses are conveniently absent ?
I guess you get my point !!!
The fact of the matter is that well into the 21st century a large swath of white America are acting like petulant little children.
They cannot be captain of the team because other members of the team are more talented and have better leadership skills, so they want to pick up the ball and go home.
Only the ball does not belong to them.
The ball belongs to the team so they are not allowed to pick it up and take it home with them.
And therein lie the problem in 2015, whether it’s Missouri University Campus or Ferguson Missouri, Be it Staten Island the south of New york State or Cleveland Ohio and all places beyond the despicable ignorant racist attitudes of white people are the same.
They couch it by pretending to support Police aggression against people of color but more specifically Black people the subject of their hatred. Every year more and more people are killed by American police and most of those killed are white. It is true that more blacks are disproportionately killed based on their numbers but in raw numbers more whites are killed each year.
Whites though rabid supporters of police cannot be happy with the number of unarmed white men being killed by those sworn to protect and serve. In fact they aren’t.
Their righteous indignation[sic] is unbridled when white men are victims of police abuse, or they are conveniently silent.
The killing of Black men becomes a feeding frenzy for them. The chosen tact is demonize distort and devalue.
They look at everything the murdered person ever did, use it to demonize him/her then they use their media to distort his/her life history, subsequently devaluing his/her life which in the end validates the murder or assault on the victim’s person.
One of the things I personally have a problem with is the passivity and sense of security blacks demonstrate while it is clear that white people are actively teaching their children to hate.
There can be no reasonable argument that seeks to convey a message that America is getting better with race relations. Look at the neanderthal persona of America since Barack Obama rose to the presidency.
And please do not insult me with the gobbly gook that Obama was elected by white voters.
Obama did receive some white votes of course, after all there are decent white people , most of whom are enlightened to vote Democratic and they did vote for Obama twice. However Obama was elected twice because those whites, unprecedented amounts of Blacks,Latinos, Jews, Asians, Gays and Lesbians and those with other socially defining characteristic voted for him.
Yes white students have always stood for what’s right and decent , my critique is in no way a blanket indictment of the white race but there are far too many white curmudgeons who are content to benefit from white privilege.
Too many of those hypocrites chose to remain silent in the face of unmitigated hatred and aggression against black people in America.
Too many are content to have police abuse and kill black people while they sit in their little circles and gloat because they are too chicken shit to compete on a level playing field.
Too many are comfortable with Police departments becoming active militaries against the nation’s black population.
How much black blood is enough for America ?
From the shores of Western Africa through the middle passage to the shores of the western world , from slavery through jim crow , from the chain gangs to present day , how much black blood will appease the gluttony of America’s white vampires?
How much is enough? When will it stop? When will black people be allowed to live without the vitriolic hatred fuelled by white people’s low self esteem and sense of insecurity?
Gov’t To Provide Transport From Work For Police In Some Areas
The government is to provide buses to transport police personnel to and from work in Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine and St James.
The provision is part of the new wage agreement between the government and the Police Federation which represents rank and file members of the force. The agreement was signed yesterday.
The Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre obtained a message from the federation sent to its members this morning, informing that the bus service will be implemented shortly. It said Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips has committed to the early implementation of the service. The issue of a dedicated transportation service for police personnel was raised following the murder of woman constable Crystal Thomas in July while on her way from work. She was shot and killed by armed robbers while on a bus traveling along Spanish Town Road in Kingston.
Police Federation chairman, Sergeant Raymond Wilson, argued following the incident, that cops have been lobbying the government on the transportation issue for the last five years.
The new wage and fringe benefit deal, will cover the period 2015 to 2017.
Gov’t To Provide Transport From Work For Police In Some Areas
It Is Absolutely Fair Game To Hold The Government Responsible For Failing At Its Most Basic Function.
The Jamaica Observer Editorial Page is usually reasoned and objective in my view , even when I disagree I always walked away feeling that at least there was an attempt at objectivity.
As an opinion writer myself I run the risk of being harshly criticized every time write an opinion piece.
Every person who takes it unto himself/herself to opine on events simultaneously take on being harshly criticized.
It is in that spirit that I have to disagree with the Editorial Page of Wednesday November 11th.
The writer crows about being right that Commissioner of Police Carl Williams should not testify openly for a select committee of the parliament on the crime situation affecting the country.
In its Article titled : Bringing the top cop before Parliament: We told you so!
The writer said quote.…
We were sceptical about the decision of Opposition spokesman on national security, Mr Derrick Smith, to use his position as chairman of Parliament’s Internal and External Affairs Committee to summon the police commissioner to explain his anti-crime strategy. As we feared, the presence of the top cop at the committee meeting yesterday turned out to be another big occasion for our parliamentarians to keep this country divided on a matter as critical as crime-fighting. We have Mr Smith to thank for the fight over whether to have the commissioner answer questions openly in the presence of the media or to speak in-camera, where sensitive information would not be exposed to every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Thankfully, the forces of reason prevailed and the questions posed to the commissioner were answered in-camera.
There was no way that those politically charged-up parliamentarians would have a nice quiet discussion seeking solutions around which they could unite the populace to fight crime with elections seemingly just down the road. How intimidated and uncomfortable Dr Carl Williams must have felt. To use the police commissioner to score political points is irresponsible in the extreme and is a further demonstration of the immaturity of those involved.
We are not fooled by Mr Smith’s pretence at innocence in telling yesterday’s meeting that the commissioner would not have to answer openly any questions that could elicit sensitive information. Why bring him there then? If he wanted non-sensitive information, he needed only to ask for a report to be sent to his committee. Furthermore, the fact that he did not want the commissioner to speak in-camera suggested ulterior motives for having him come before the committee.
Bringing the top cop before Parliament: We told you so!
The member Derrick Smith, who wanted the Commissioner to tell the people’s representatives exactly what measures he is undertaking to guarantee them some degree of safety is well within his rights to ask the Nation’s top cop to come before his committee and tell the Nation what is being done to arrest the runaway crime in the country.
In fact, failing to do so would have constituted dereliction of his responsibilities .
The fact that there is now procedure in place to demand that kind of accountability from those who are tasked with various responsibilities is exactly how a Democratic and transparent society work.
If there are concerns surrounding how witnesses testify before these committees those concerns should not deter or prevent more testimony in the interest of transparency and accountability.
If there are not enough procedures in place to facilitate witnesses giving classified information it is an indictment on parliament rather than it is on a member or the process for that matter.
It is a bit of a stretch to ascribe political motives to Derrick Smith for doing his job. It may very well be that of course there is political mileage to be gained from the crime situation in the country.
Why would the Opposition (any opposition) not seek to gain traction from crime as it should every other area where the Governing Administration(any administration) has been lacking?
Crime is a political issue and the member has every right to hold the administration accountable for its poor performance.
It is exactly the role of the political opposition to politicize these issues.
Whether it is rampant poverty. Rampant crime. Rampant corruption. Rampant lack of accountability. Dead babies or whatever else.
It is exactly why we have opposition to hold the Government accountable and keep the people informed.
What better time to do so than at election time?
The Commissioner of Police is an educated man, even without the PhD, as chief constable he must be patently aware that there are going to be things which he cannot divulge in public. That’s really not rocket science, every constable worth his salt knows he cannot divulge sensitive information to everyone.
The Commissioner must also know that under the most intense grilling from Parliamentarians he is within his rights to say I cannot divulge certain information but the answer you seek will be supplied confidentially.
For crying out loud the Commissioner of police now has lawyers representing the JCF, that was not so years ago.
On that basis the Observer’s criticism of Shadow Minister Derrick Smith is partisan and a little bit petty.
If the Observer editorial writer does not want the issue of crime to be discussed as a failure of the PNP Administration then it should simply say so.
The most fundamental responsibility of any Government is to keep people safe.
This Administration has failed dismally.
It is absolutely fair game to hold the Government responsible for failing at its most basic function.
The Opposition should not be silent on this and neither will this medium nor this writer.
Man Pulls Gun From Crotch, Shot Dead At Police Station
ST Catherine – OBSERVER ONLINE has been informed that a man was shot dead at the Spanish Town Police Station after pulling a gun on a police officer.
The incident is said to have occurred around 4:45 pm on Tuesday, in the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) area of the police station.
Information is that the man was taken to the station on a road traffic offence when he allegedly pulled a gun from his crotch, pointed it at a police officer and was shot.
Man pulls gun from crotch, shot dead at police station
Cop’s Ear Bitten Off In Clash With Motorist, Gun Allegedly Stolen
KINGSTON, Jamaica – An off-duty policeman who reportedly witnessed a motor vehicle accident in St Andrew on Saturday is now in hospital after he was attacked by a motorist.
OBSERVER ONLINE has learnt that the policeman’s ear was bitten off and his gun allegedly stolen.
The Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Corporate Communications Unit has confirmed the attack on the off-duty policeman. The unit said Sunday that the incident occurred after the policeman witnessed an accident and attempted to assist. They were, however, unable to provide further details.
Reports reaching OBSERVER ONLINE are that the policeman witnessed the motor vehicle accident on Hope Road some time before midnight. One of the motorists involved fled the scene and the policeman reportedly gave chase, intercepting the motor vehicle at West King’s House Road.
This was when the policeman was reportedly attacked, beaten, one of his ears bitten off, and his gun allegedly stolen.
His alleged attacker fled the scene, abandoning the motor vehicle.
More information later. Cop’s ear bitten off in clash with motorist, gun allegedly stolen
Netanyahu’s Arrogance; Our Stupidity
President, Arab American Institute; author, ‘Arab Voices
“When I entered the Prime Minister’s office for my second term, I was summoned to Washington. ‘Not one brick’, they told me…The pressure from the international community and the Americans was enormous…And still, after five years on the job, we built a little more than ‘one brick’…the important thing is to do it in a smart way…to stand up to international pressure by maneuvering…we continue to head straight toward our goal, even if one time we walk right and another time we walk left.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, 2014
“I know what America is. America is a thing that can be easily moved in the right direction. They will not bother us. Let’s suppose they will say something…so they say it?…We have such support there!”.
Benjamin Netanyahu, 2001
For over two decades, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been playing us for fools – a role we have filled to the detriment of our national honor and the cause of peace.
His entire political career has been focused on demonstrating to Israelis that he could “move [America] very easily” – and, on too many occasions, he has done just that. Since his first election as Prime Minister in 1996, he has been proud of his ability to get away with defying American presidents, while paying no price for his defiance.
His successes, in large measure, have been due the ties he has built with Republicans in Congress, using them to counter peace-making efforts led by two Democratic presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
After the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, Netanyahu went into action. Together with a small group of Likudniks, he launched a lobbying campaign against Oslo. Weekly faxes were sent to Congressional offices warning of the dangers that peace with the Palestinians posed for Israel and providing talking points that some Members of Congress followed. It was unprecedented – an Israeli opposition party acting against their government lobbying the US Congress to turn against the policy of our government. The effort won allies among Republicans in Congress who were only too happy to place obstacles in Bill Clinton’s way. When the GOP won control of Congress in 1994 and Netanyahu won the Israeli elections in 1996, he was in a perfect position to accomplish his goal of ending the Oslo Accords.
The Gingrich-controlled Congress invited Netanyahu to speak to a Joint Session. He used the opportunity to attack the peace process and to call on Congress to join him on a war footing against Iraq and Iran. Throughout the rest of his first term, Netanyahu defied pressure from the Administration to curtail settlement construction and to make a serious commitment to peace. He knew that Congress would “have his back”.
Even when President Clinton did force the Israelis to negotiate with the Palestinians, Netanyahu never fully implemented the agreement they concluded. And when Clinton vigorously objected to Netanyahu’s plans to construct a new colony between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Netanyahu defiantly broke ground erecting Har Homa – a settlement that now houses almost 20,000 Israelis.
President Obama’s aspirations to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace, were also frustrated by Netanyahu, whose second election as Israeli Prime Minister coincided with Obama’s entry to the White House. After two frustrating years, Obama put the process on hold.
In 2010, Republicans again won control of Congress and their new leadership once again invited Netanyahu to speak to a Joint Session of Congress. The Israeli used this appearance to rebuke Obama’s call for an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on “the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed land swaps”. In the face of Israeli intransigence and Congressional pressure, once again the Administration shelved peace-making, until after the 2012 elections.
Secretary of State John Kerry’s ill-fated effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were eclipsed by the disastrous and deadly Syrian conflict and the effort to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran – a deal which Netanyahu was determined to stymie. And so, when the Republican-led Congress invited Netanyahu to deliver his third address to a Joint Session, he used this appearance to call on Congress to block the Administration’s support for the P5+1 deal with Iran.
Netanyahu’s Washington performances have been focused on two audiences. He sought to muster the support of his Republican allies to defeat the work of Democratic Presidents, while at the same time seeking to demonstrate to his Israeli supporters how “very easily” he could “move America in the right direction”.
While his first two efforts were a success, he failed with the third. Not only was he unable to block the Iran deal, but his gambit exposed a partisan divide over support for his policies, leaving Israelis uncomfortable about Netanyahu’s ability to manage their relationship with the United States.
When he comes to Washington next week, Netanyahu is a man on a mission. His mission? To make it clear to Israelis that he is still the “master” of America. Unfortunately, Democrats and Republicans, alike, will serve as his enablers.
Netanyahu will meet with the President. This time there will be no real pressure to stop settlements and make peace. Instead, we are told that Israel is in line to receive a dramatic increase in US aid – possibly as high as $4.5 Billion a year. Netanyahu will then be honored at an event hosted by the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute. And in order to reassure to Israelis that the “master” can still dominate US politics, the Prime Minister wrangled a speaking engagement at the liberal Center for American Progress and secured a glowing op-ed written by Hillary Clinton who pledged that, if elected president, she “would reaffirm [the] unbreakable bond with Israel – and Benjamin Netanyahu.”
The entire exercise is shameful and distressing. Enabling Netanyahu’s bad behavior only encourages more of the same. It’s embarrassing and it’s dumb. It’s one thing to acknowledge that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is dead, but it makes no sense to reward the guy who two decades ago pledged to kill peace, and then spared no effort to do just that.