No charge stirs more disgust, revulsion, and pricks more emotional hot buttons than the charge of child molestation. The accusation stamps the Scarlet letter of doubt, suspicion, shame and guilt on the accused. The accused can never fully expunge it. There is simply no defense against it. Jackson and his attorneys knew that when it came to the charge of child molestation the presumption of innocence, or even actual innocence, is tossed out the window The myth of Jackson as child molester never hinged on evidence or testimony to substantiate it, but solely on the settlement.
|
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
One Last Thought On The Legacy Of Michael Jackson
Thursday, June 25, 2009
R.I.P. Michael
Death Be Not Proud
by John Donne
DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
by John Donne
DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
EM Most Profound Statement of the Year
"Prohibiting discrimination and condemning racism is much less costly and less controversial than confronting the fundamental inequities of our economy and our use of public resources."
The entire article is, IMO, an outstanding and blindingly clear assessment of the current state of race and race relations in America.
The entire article is, IMO, an outstanding and blindingly clear assessment of the current state of race and race relations in America.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
White Folks Are Starting To Scare Other White Folks?!?!
Being a southern boy myself, none of this domestic terrorism surprises me at all.
H/T Crooks and Liars.
H/T Crooks and Liars.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Bite That Elephant!
Well????
|
Sunday, June 07, 2009
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
IT'S TIME SOMEBODY STEPPED UP AND SAID SOMETHING ABOUT THE WAR BEING WAGED ON BLACK AND LATINO COMMUNITIES BY THE POLICE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. THIS TYPE OF INCIDENT IS BECOMING MORE PREVALENT AND MORE PERVASIVE NOW THAN AT ANY POINT IN THE PAST 40 YEARS!
Sorry for screaming at you, but I am literally sick to my stomach. I am pissed off and I'm not gonna take it any more. There is, by all appearances, a concerted effort in the law enforcement and criminal justice system to violently oppress black and brown people. If this type of crap was happening in white communities across the country on an almost daily basis, white folks would have declared war right back on the police. In fact, let's not pretend they haven't done so in many places on far less provocation.
And let me be perfectly clear on this, Black folks also have responded wrongly on far too many occasions. We get mad, march a little, preach a little, pray a little, sometimes even burn and loot a little, but then we go right back to business as usual. Much like radical right wingers, we react without a clear understanding of what the problem is. If we are ever going to change this, we have to understand it for what it really is. This case offers an opportunity to examine the problems in detail. Let me break it down for you.
First of all, why do these police officers feel the need to tell this man to zip up his jacket? Problem number one, the police have grown accustomed to interjecting themselves into the lives of minorities on the least little pretext. At times, and I can say this from experience, they go out of their way to exercise police power, often simply to show that they can do it with impunity. That is in all likelihood what happened here. And, as most often happens, the Black man complies, with obviously less than good graces, but that should be expected when a grown man is accosted by authority figures who are abusing their authority.
What happens next is indicative of how the entire police culture is corrupted. Notice in the video that only one officer felt compelled to physically confront the man. The other officer obviously realized that what was going on was improper and unnecessary or else she would have tried to assist her partner. But the police culture is designed to foster a philosophy of us against them, our gang against theirs; and officers who don't fully buy into that are shunned and ultimately find it all but impossible to maintain both their position and their sense of individuality. That other officer could not, would not, move to intercede, even to simply cuff the man and stop the physical assault of her partner. This is why no officers can be trusted to police their own. The pressures against that happening are far to great. The ones who might feel compelled to speak out against other officers abuse of power simply don't last.
The video is ridiculously cut and dried. There is absolutely no way that officer's behavior can be justified. But the sad story goes and will go much farther than the video. Check out the story. This man, after being viciously assaulted and beaten by a police officer is charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and "wandering for the purpose of obtaining controlled dangerous substances". Here is where the entire criminal justice system adds it's weight to the oppression already heaped upon the poor man. It's bad enough that he is charged with disorderly conduct (I suppose it is disorderly for a chubby black man to have his jacket open on a warm day) and the resisting arrest (even though his resistance was vividly futile and largely ineffective). I'm sure that officer ran to the emergency room to document some specious injury allegedly sustained while the big dangerous Black man was struggling violently to keep this brave officer from performing his sacred duties.
But that other charge is indicative of the bigger problem. "WANDERING FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES". Where do I even begin with this patently unconstitutional law. I shouldn't even have to say anything. How many of you would appreciate the police rolling up on you while you are taking your daily walk in your neighborhood, and arrest you because they think you are walking around trying to by drugs? How many of you would have even thought before today that such a thing was even possible? Well it is, in far too many areas. This type of law is enacted by the local representatives that we elect, that pretend to have the best interests of our communities in mind when then give the police permission to confront the people in our neighborhoods for any reason or for no reason at all, in the name of law and order. This type of law is prosecuted and sentences handed down by district attorneys and judges that we elect, who claim to be looking our for the safety and welfare of our communities, as they cosign on the illicit activities of rogue cops. Some prosecutor in NJ right now is trying to make a case against that Black man so the police officer can be exonerated of his lawlessness.
And I promise you, if you hear a peep from the Black community, or from some Black collaborating politician, it will be to pretend outrage and shock over the actions of this "one rogue cop" while still defending the good work of the police and court system overall. There won't be any discussion about laws that are in place, just like the Black codes of old, simply to allow law enforcement to operate with impunity with regards to Black people. I would bet anything that such a ridiculous law has rarely if ever been enforced against any non-minority or poor person. They wouldn't dare, and besides that's not how they operate.
If we are ever going to see an end to police butality we have to start with the laws that are on the books and with the people and institutions whose responsibility it is to apply those laws equally and fairly. We have to stop letting legislators get away with creating useless law after useless law, in the name of stopping crime. It is well known that new laws don't stop crimes, they just create new criminals. We have to hold prosecutors, district attorneys, and judges responsible to the constituency that elected them rather than to the cops that keep them occupied. AS long as the police know their actions will be sanctioned by all the higher levels of the "justice" system, there will be no incentive for them to change.
Sorry for screaming at you, but I am literally sick to my stomach. I am pissed off and I'm not gonna take it any more. There is, by all appearances, a concerted effort in the law enforcement and criminal justice system to violently oppress black and brown people. If this type of crap was happening in white communities across the country on an almost daily basis, white folks would have declared war right back on the police. In fact, let's not pretend they haven't done so in many places on far less provocation.
And let me be perfectly clear on this, Black folks also have responded wrongly on far too many occasions. We get mad, march a little, preach a little, pray a little, sometimes even burn and loot a little, but then we go right back to business as usual. Much like radical right wingers, we react without a clear understanding of what the problem is. If we are ever going to change this, we have to understand it for what it really is. This case offers an opportunity to examine the problems in detail. Let me break it down for you.
First of all, why do these police officers feel the need to tell this man to zip up his jacket? Problem number one, the police have grown accustomed to interjecting themselves into the lives of minorities on the least little pretext. At times, and I can say this from experience, they go out of their way to exercise police power, often simply to show that they can do it with impunity. That is in all likelihood what happened here. And, as most often happens, the Black man complies, with obviously less than good graces, but that should be expected when a grown man is accosted by authority figures who are abusing their authority.
What happens next is indicative of how the entire police culture is corrupted. Notice in the video that only one officer felt compelled to physically confront the man. The other officer obviously realized that what was going on was improper and unnecessary or else she would have tried to assist her partner. But the police culture is designed to foster a philosophy of us against them, our gang against theirs; and officers who don't fully buy into that are shunned and ultimately find it all but impossible to maintain both their position and their sense of individuality. That other officer could not, would not, move to intercede, even to simply cuff the man and stop the physical assault of her partner. This is why no officers can be trusted to police their own. The pressures against that happening are far to great. The ones who might feel compelled to speak out against other officers abuse of power simply don't last.
The video is ridiculously cut and dried. There is absolutely no way that officer's behavior can be justified. But the sad story goes and will go much farther than the video. Check out the story. This man, after being viciously assaulted and beaten by a police officer is charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and "wandering for the purpose of obtaining controlled dangerous substances". Here is where the entire criminal justice system adds it's weight to the oppression already heaped upon the poor man. It's bad enough that he is charged with disorderly conduct (I suppose it is disorderly for a chubby black man to have his jacket open on a warm day) and the resisting arrest (even though his resistance was vividly futile and largely ineffective). I'm sure that officer ran to the emergency room to document some specious injury allegedly sustained while the big dangerous Black man was struggling violently to keep this brave officer from performing his sacred duties.
But that other charge is indicative of the bigger problem. "WANDERING FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES". Where do I even begin with this patently unconstitutional law. I shouldn't even have to say anything. How many of you would appreciate the police rolling up on you while you are taking your daily walk in your neighborhood, and arrest you because they think you are walking around trying to by drugs? How many of you would have even thought before today that such a thing was even possible? Well it is, in far too many areas. This type of law is enacted by the local representatives that we elect, that pretend to have the best interests of our communities in mind when then give the police permission to confront the people in our neighborhoods for any reason or for no reason at all, in the name of law and order. This type of law is prosecuted and sentences handed down by district attorneys and judges that we elect, who claim to be looking our for the safety and welfare of our communities, as they cosign on the illicit activities of rogue cops. Some prosecutor in NJ right now is trying to make a case against that Black man so the police officer can be exonerated of his lawlessness.
And I promise you, if you hear a peep from the Black community, or from some Black collaborating politician, it will be to pretend outrage and shock over the actions of this "one rogue cop" while still defending the good work of the police and court system overall. There won't be any discussion about laws that are in place, just like the Black codes of old, simply to allow law enforcement to operate with impunity with regards to Black people. I would bet anything that such a ridiculous law has rarely if ever been enforced against any non-minority or poor person. They wouldn't dare, and besides that's not how they operate.
If we are ever going to see an end to police butality we have to start with the laws that are on the books and with the people and institutions whose responsibility it is to apply those laws equally and fairly. We have to stop letting legislators get away with creating useless law after useless law, in the name of stopping crime. It is well known that new laws don't stop crimes, they just create new criminals. We have to hold prosecutors, district attorneys, and judges responsible to the constituency that elected them rather than to the cops that keep them occupied. AS long as the police know their actions will be sanctioned by all the higher levels of the "justice" system, there will be no incentive for them to change.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Black Privilege in the Age of Obama
We are respectable negroes: Chauncey DeVega says: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of Black Privilege in the Age of Barack Obama
It's high time somebody stood up and told the truth about how Black people are getting all the advantages in America today.
It's high time somebody stood up and told the truth about how Black people are getting all the advantages in America today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
