'Stop & Frisk' and Racist Policing: Cops Arrest Man 56 Times for Trespassing - At His OWN Job - Terrorizing Blacks To Inflate Arrest Stats

Earl Simpson being arrested at his place of employment for "Trespassing." The
store owner installed a camera to document police harassment.

In the city of Miami Gardens, outside of Miami, FL, the police use aggressive campaigns of stop-and-frisk and absurd arrests to bolster their records, to the great detriment of the African-American majority who live there. For example, a young man named Earl Sampson has been stopped by Miami Gardens police 258 times; they've searched him more than 100 times; and they've arrested him for trespassing 56 times. He's never been convicted of anything apart from simple possession of small amounts of marijuana. 

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Appeals Court Denies New York City’s Motion to Annul Landmark Stop and Frisk Ruling

On Friday (Nov. 22, 2013), an appellate panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied the City of New York’s request to vacate District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin’s ruling in the class action lawsuit Floyd v. the City of New York. The Center for Constitutional Rights made the following statement in response:

Silent march to end stop and frisk and racial profiling.
(Photo: Long Island Wins)

“Following the appellate panel’s shocking decision to remove the district court judge from our case, the City sought to double down and ask that the entirety of the judge’s decision be vacated without further briefing on its merits. 

The appellate panel has correctly rejected this request and will allow full briefing on the appeal to move forward as scheduled. 

We hope Mayor De Blasio will drop the City’s desperate appeal to undo the district court’s carefully considered ruling and work with plaintiffs and the community to enforce every aspect of the remedial order. He has an extraordinary opportunity to use the expertise of a court monitor and policing experts to end discriminatory policing in NYC."

Read the order here

Reprinted with permission from the Center for Constitutional Rights

Prison-Industrial Complex: High Bail for the Poor Is Kidnapping - 3 Yrs In Jail For Teen Who Wasn't Even Convicted | Lawsuit

Detroit Police Officer Humiliates Mentally Ill Black Man: Made Him Dance 'Like a Chimp' - Cops Posted Videos and Pics Degrading Black Men

By Nicole Flatow
A suburban Detroit police officer admitted he asked a mentally ill black man to sing and dance and video recorded the incident.

Videos and and photos with degrading portrayals of black men were submitted earlier this month to the blog, Motor City Muckraker, purportedly from officers who disseminated them to friends and colleagues in the upper class, majority-white Michigan suburb of Grosse Pointe Park. One video portrayed a voice alleged to be an officer asking black men to do humiliating tasks, including “dance like a chimp.” In another incident, an officer allegedly texted a photo of a black man in the back of his trailer with the text, “Gotta love the coloreds.” The journalist, Steve Neavling, told the Huffington Post that he has more than a dozen videos shot by officers, but has not shared most of them because of their “humiliating nature.”

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White Supremacy at CNN: Network Giving A National Platform to White Racists

From Left - Frank Taffee, Newt Gingrich, and Mark O'Mara: Their presence on CNN suggests
an attempt to attract right-wing viewers at the expense of everyone else.

By Ronald Jackson
Perhaps we should have been forewarned when CNN "threw African-Americans under the bus" by hiring notorious race baiter Newt Gingrich to be a co-host for the re-incarnation of talk show "Crossfire" which had been shamed off the air by a blistering attack by comedian and social critic John Stewart (you can watch the now famous video here).  The dust had barely settled from a bruising 2012 presidential campaign during which Newt Gingrich dog whistled his way through the Republican primaries in a losing bid to be the presidential candidate for the Tea Party-dominated Republicans.  Outraged by the hiring of Newt Gingrich at the time, I listed eight reasons why CNN should not have hired Newt Gingrich in an online petition:

1) Newt Gingrich has implied that there was something "inherently wrong" with being African and Kenyan by suggesting that President Obama was informed by a Kenyan heritage. With this statement, Newt Gingrich also pandered to racist so-called "Birthers" who question President Obama's "Americaness." - "What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior."

2) Newt Gingrich has suggested that the children of poor parents were inherently inferior by implying they were lazy and prone to crime. He was race baiting in this instance, since most Americans think the vast majority of poor Americans are African-American. - “Really poor children, in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works so they have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day, they have no habit of I do this and you give me cash, unless it is illegal.”

3) Newt Gingrich has slandered Palestinians by suggesting there is no such thing as a Palestinian people. - "I think we have had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs."


4) Newt Gingrich supported stripping Hispanic Americans of their voting rights by getting rid of bilingual ballots. - "I would have ballots in English."

5) Newt Gingrich implied that there was something inherently wrong with being Muslim and pandered to bigoted "Birthers" by suggesting it was President Obama's own fault that bigots think he's Muslim. - "You have to ask, why would they believe that? It's not because they're stupid."

6) Newt Gingrich implied that there was something inherently wrong with being Muslim and pandered to bigoted "Birthers" by suggesting that the media was hiding President Obama's "Muslim friends." - “It is just astonishing to me how pro-Obama they are,” he said, “Do you think you are going to see two pages on Obama’s Muslim friends?"

7) Newt Gingrich deliberately catered to racist voters by stereotyping President Obama as "The Food Stamp President." Most Americans believe African-Americans are the primary recipients of Food Stamps, which is false. Gingrich was cynically exploiting this misperception for racist reasons. CNN itself posted an article on Newt Gingrich's "Foodstamp" remark titled "'Food stamp president': Gingrich's poetry of hate"

8) Newt Gingrich signaled his hatred for gays by funding an Anti-Gay hate group. - "The Associated Press revealed that one of the cogs in Newt Gingrich’s vast network of business enterprises and front groups, ReAL Action, provided $125,000 to the American Family Association Action, an anti-gay activist organization that has been officially labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center."

I concluded by pointing out the following about the signal CNN was sending by the hiring of Newt Gingrich:

By hiring Newt Gingrich as a host of "Crossfire" CNN endorses, validates, and mainstreams racism, religious intolerance, and homophobia - all in a sleazy attempt to appeal to and attract bigoted viewers. CNN is blowing its own racist 'dog whistle' by hiring Newt Gingrich. 

CNN ignored the pubic outrage concerning the bigoted Newt Gingrich and hired him anyway, signaling that attracting some of FoxNews' right-wing viewers was more of a priority than respecting the interests and sensitivity of their African-American viewers.

It was a clear sign of what was to come.

The next thing we know, CNN hires lawyer Mark O'Mara as a legal pundit. O'mara was fresh off of his role as defense lawyer for George Zimmerman, who was on trial for murdering an unarmed teenager named Trayvon Martin.  Zimmerman was found "not guilty" during that trial, after which one of the jurors came forth and admitted she (and other jurors) thought Zimmerman was guilty but had been swayed by the slanted and straighjacketing instructions from the judge. During the trial, O'Mara defamed the dead teen with a blizzard of boogieman stereotypes: claiming he had video tape of Martin and his "gang friends" roving around attacking people. O'Mara was forced to apologize when it was discovered the video tapes didn't exist.

So with all the legal pundits available, why did CNN hire Mark O'Mara?  Clearly CNN was trying to send a signal to all the bigots who were "wowed" by O'Mara's mean-spirited treatment of the deceased teen Trayvon Martin. CNN was dogwhistling to right-wingers: "Come to CNN, we have your backs!"

And now there's the case of Frank Taffee, a so-called "friend" of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman has had numerous run-ins with the law soon after he was acquitted in the murder of Trayvon Martin. In the latest incident, Zimmerman was accused of threatening a girlfriend with a shotgun—the second time after the trial he was accused of threatening a woman with a gun. After Zimmerman was arrested and let out on bail for this latest violent incident, CNN invited Taffee to the airways to defend Zimmerman. Unbeknownst to most of CNN's viewers, Taffee is a convicted criminal and unabashed racist who hosts a white-power podcast. CNN didn't bother to tell its viewers about Taffee's supremacist proclivities. 

Here is the video of Frank Taffee, and the welcoming treatment he received at CNN:

Taffe also appeared on another Time Warner media property, cable channel HLN, on the programs "Nancy Grace" (watch it the show: here) and "Dr. Drew On Call" (watch the show: here).

So why does CNN, HLN and Time Warner continue to contaminate the airways with avowed supremacists like Frank Taffee? Perhaps the same reason that big media corporations have provided a national platform for bigots like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh: to keep racism "live and well" in America and to attract the same rabid right-wing viewers that Fox News has been able to attract via an endless stream of racist, anti-women, anti-Muslim, and anti-gay vitriol. This is how networks like CNN prove their "swag" to the white racists of America.

Perhaps the blame for CNN's far-right shift should lay right at the doorstep of CNN's new "head honcho" Jeff Zucker, who was hired to bring CNN out of last place in the cable news ratings war. In an article titled, "The Last Charge of the Master Race: The South’s 'Lost Cause' Addiction," Ishmael Reed points out:

Gingrich, a serial hypocrite called Obama “the food stamps president” and “entertainer-in-chief,” conjuring an image of the president as a white-lipped minstrel adorned with white gloves, which is probably why Gingrich was hired by CNN’s Jeff Zucker, who created an atmosphere at NBC for women described by Ann Curry as “cruel.”

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China, Stop Calling Uyghur Muslims Terrorists

Ethnic Uyghur Muslims are more and more often associated with the term “terrorist” in China. Local authorities and media outlets often define violent incidents in border regions as terrorist activity. This official definition has turned random individual criminal acts into the collective responsibility of an ethnic minority and resulted in the labeling of its members as terrorist suspects.

By Oiwan Lam

The latest officially defined “terrorist case” happened on November 16 2013 in Xinjian Bachu county. Eleven people were killed in a police station, two were local police officers and nine were Muslim Uyghurs from Bachu county.

Uyghur elders with child. (Photo: Todenhoff)

The Xinjiang local authorities quickly defined the incident as a violent terrorist attack and claimed that stability was effectively restored as the nine violent assaulters were shot dead. However according to Radio Free Asia, people who surrounded the police station had managed to capture the young attackers alive while the police officers chose to shoot them dead on the spot. As all the witnesses aside from the police are dead, it keeps people wondering what had exactly happened inside the police station.

Chinese dissident Hu Ping raises a number of questions about the incident:

In reply to Hu Ping, IIham Tohti, an Uyghur university professor, stressed the need to revise the Chinese government's ethnic policy:

 A few months ago in April, a similar ethnic clash happened in the same Bachu police station and the violence left 21 people dead, including 15 police officers and government officials. The incident was also defined as a terrorist assault.

Against the background of the establishment of a top-level national security committee (NSC), many believe that ethnic minorities in border areas will become the target of anti-terrorist security control. For example, Kai Lei, a media worker from pro-Chinese government newspapers Wenhui Bao, urged the NSC to adopt a hard-handed policy in districts such as Bachu:

 
Yet the definition of terrorist assault is highly problematic in China as anonymous writer from Uighurbiz.net, “Little grand father_Aike” pointed out. The writer compared two sets of incidents in 2013 to indicate the arbitrary definition of a violent terrorist assault: the June 7 Fujian bus station arson vs. the October 28 Beijing Tiananmen Jeep cash incident, and the August 25 Chengdu hospital assault vs. the November 16 Bachu police station assault.

The arson case in Fujian left 47 dead and 34 injured, and the police said it was committed by an angry and desperate individual and defined as a criminal case. The Beijing case resulting in five dead and 38 injured was defined an organized terrorist attack. Among the dead were the three Uyghur sitting inside the Jeep.

The writer pointed out that the very definition of the crimes has instigated different reactions to the criminals. In the first casex people see it as an individual act of insanity, but in the latter case as an ethnic-based organized terrorist act:

When comparing the Chengdu assault and the Bachu assault, even though the Chengdu one was well planned and specifically targeted at medical workers in a hospital, which resulted in five dead and 11 injured, the case was defined a random act of individuals, while the Bachu case, in which the nine assaulters were shot dead on the spot, was defined as a terrorist act:

He urges authorities to reflect on the ethnic policy and help minorities establish a positive image of the ethnic group:

 

Reprinted with permission from Global Voices.

Black Teen Murdered While Seeking Help After A Car Accident - Was Shot Through A Locked Screen Door

19-Year-Old Died Nov. 2 After Being Shot in the Face - Killer  charged with murder and possession of a firearm. Which raises the question: If killer's firearm possession was illegal, why wasn't he arrested on the spot?

Poster: dignidadrebelde

A suburban Detroit homeowner who shot a woman on his porch in the middle of the night was charged Friday with second-degree murder in connection with the case, Wayne County prosecutors said.

Theodore P. Wafer, 54, of Dearborn Heights, Mich., also is facing charges of manslaughter and possession of a firearm... Authorities saw no evidence of forced entry on Wafer's home. Renisha McBride allegedly was shot after knocking on the locked front screen door. Evidence suggests that Wafer opened the front door before he fired through the closed and locked screen door, she said.


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Murder and Manslaughter Charges for Man Who Shot Teen Seeking Help After Car Accident

Killer Claimed His Gun Went Off by Accident, His Lawyer Later Said the Killing was "Justified"

Poster: dignidadrebelde

By Ronald Jackson
Theodore Wafer will be charged with murder and manslaughter, according to Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy.  The 54-year-old Wafer shot dead 19-year-old Renisha McBride in the early morning hours of Nov 2, when she knocked on his door seeking help after a car accident. The incident took place in Dearborn Heights, MI.

Wafer told police he thought Ms. McBride was trying to break into his house and his gun discharged by accident, hitting McBride in the face with a shotgun blast. However, his lawyer later claimed that the killing was "justified."

Wafer was not arrested after the killing. There has been a national outcry over the incident because Wafer had not been arrested, charged, or even named by the police or prosecutor's office until today.

Some have argued that if the shooter had been black and the victim white, the shooter would have been arrested and charged immediately. Wafer is expected to turn himself in Friday afternoon.

Melissa Harris Perry On Renisha McBride

US Police Have Killed Over 5,000 Civilians Since 9/11

“A big majority of those killed are Latinos and Black people,” while the police officers are mostly White, says Mike Prysner, one of the local directors of the Los Angeles chapter for ANSWER — an advocacy group that asks the public to Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. “It’s a badge of honor to shoot gang members so [the police] go out and shoot people who look like gang members,” Prysner argued, giving the example of 34-year-old Rigoberto Arceo, who was killed by police on May 11. 
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