Cress Welsing: The Definition of Racism White Supremacy
Dr. Blynd: The Definition of Racism
Anon: What is Racism/White Supremacy?
Dr. Bobby Wright: The Psychopathic Racial Personality
The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy)
What is the First Step in Counter Racism?
Genocide: a system of white survival
'Racism is a behavioral system for survival'
Fear of annihilation drives white racism
Dr. Blynd: The Definition of Caucasian
Where are all the Black Jurors?
The War Against Black Males: Black on Black Violence Caused by White Supremacy/Racism
Brazen Police Officers and the Forfeiture of Freedom
White Domination, Black Criminality
Fear of a Colored Planet Fuels Racism: Global White Population Shrinking, Less than 10%
Race is Not Real but Racism is
Chomsky on "Reserving the Right to Bomb Niggers."
A Goal of the Media is to Make White Dominance and Control Over Everything Seem Natural
Spike Lee's Mike Tyson and Don King
Black Power in a White Supremacy System
The Image and the Christian Concept of God as a White Man
Why do White Americans need to criminalize significant segments of the African American population?
Who Told You that you were Black or Latino or Hispanic or Asian? White People Did
Malcolm X: "We Have a Common Enemy"
Sunday, November 2, 2014 at 03:21AM The US is considering bombing pipelines in Syria, which it claims is in an attempt to cut off the huge profits being made by ISIS from captured oilfields.
Sunday, November 2, 2014 at 03:17AM If you think anything is going to change for the better after Republicans take control of the Senate, you might have come down with a severe case of stupidity. Just like the Democrats before them, the new crop will answer to the same Wall Street masters.
Saturday, November 1, 2014 at 08:43PM Several people who were convicted of drug-related offenses have been released from prison after it was discovered an FBI agent was investigated for allegations of misconduct.
According to court records, four people who entered guilty pleas and were serving their sentences have been released.
An attorney for one of the men says his client was serving seven years. He said after his client noticed other co-defendants being released, he called his lawyer.
Several other people arrested in the same 2013 sting that netted 3.5 kilograms of cocaine and 2 kilograms of heroin who were awaiting trial have also been released.
The charges have not yet been dropped and the convictions are still in place until the investigation into the FBI agent is resolved, or a court vacates the convictions.
The FBI released a statement Friday night saying in part: “During the week of Sept. 29, 2014, the Washington Field Office became aware of possible misconduct by a Special Agent. The Field Office took immediate steps address the incident, to include notification to the appropriate U.S. Attorney’s Offices. The misconduct has been referred to the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General. Due to the ongoing investigation, we must decline further comment.”
Saturday, November 1, 2014 at 08:42PM The news media reminders arrive almost daily now: President Obama's approval rating is low and going lower. McClatchy Newspapers highlighted the "dropping approval ratings," while the Washington Post declared "President Obama's approval ratings have plunged to record lows." The Christian Science Monitor noted the numbers have "plummeted." The Washington Examiner stressed the president's approvals were "sinking to historic lows," while an Atlantic headlined announced, ""Obama's Sinking Approval Could Drag Democrats Down With Him."
The portrait being painted by an array of media artists is unmistakable: Obama's approval ratings are not only weak but they're going down, down, down.
But it's not true.
The part about Obama's "dropping" and "sinking" polling numbers simply isn't accurate, not matter how many times it's repeated inside the Beltway echo chamber.
Does the White House wish Obama's job approval rating was higher? I'm sure his advisers do. Does polling indicate that Democrats face the possibility of deep losses next week in the midterm elections? Yes. Does that mean the press should just make up narratives about the president's approval rating simply because it fits in, again, with anti-Obama spin that Republicans are pushing?
It does not.
According to the cumulative ratings posted daily at Real Clear Politics, which averages together an array of national polls to come up with Obama's composite job approval rating, the president's approval on January 1, 2014 stood at 42.6 percent. The president's approval rating on October 30, was 42 percent. So over the course of ten months, and based on more than one hundred poll results in 2014, Obama's approval rating declined less than one point.
One point.
I can safely say Obama is only president in U.S. history whose approval rating dropped a single digit over a ten-month stretch and it was described as having "plummeted."
Saturday, November 1, 2014 at 08:42PM Forty-four years after being sued by the federal government, the Jefferson County School District in Florida has met its obligation to desegregate its public schools, a federal judge ruled.
The government sued the district, which is located in northern Florida, at the top of the bend in the state's panhandle, on July 9, 1970. At the time the government said the district hadn't done enough to balance the racial population of the district or to eliminate perceived bias in the hiring of faculty and staff, transportation and extracurricular activities.
In August 1970 the federal court in Tallahassee, Fla., enjoined the district from operating racially segregated schools, and in August 1976, it approved a desegregation plan hashed out by the district and federal regulators. The court then placed the case on its inactive docket, pending further developments.
On January 5, 2012, the government moved to have the case returned to the active docket as it planned to investigate whether the district had achieved the goals outlined nearly four decades earlier.
The government was pleased by what it found. For instance, on the classroom level, federal investigators found no evidence that classroom assignment decisions improperly considered race; rather they said, the "[d]district assigns students to different classes based on ability."
In regard to staffing, the government said it found no case were the racial composition of staff indicated that a school in the district was intended for black or white students.
The government also concluded that facilities and extracurricular activities were available equally to all students in the district.
And while the majority of students bussed in the district were black and that some all-black schools remained in Jefferson County, the investigators concluded this was caused by shifting housing patterns and changes in enrollment rather than intentional segregation.
"Based on the foregoing analysis, the Court finds that the school district has fully and satisfactorily (1) complied with the court's desegregation orders for a reasonable period of time, (2) eliminated the vestiges of past de jure discrimination to the extent practicable, and (3) demonstrated a good faith commitment to the while the Court's desegregation order," Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice Paul wrote.
As a result, "[t]he Jefferson County School District is declared unitary, all prior injunctions in this case are dissolved, jurisdiction is terminated, and this case is dismissed with prejudice," Judge Paul said.
The case, however, remains in place for two other north Florida entities: the Gadsden County School District and the Jackson County School District.
Saturday, November 1, 2014 at 03:42AM The United States ranks near the bottom of the pack of wealthy nations on a measure of child poverty, according to a new report from UNICEF. Nearly one third of U.S. children live in households with an income below 60 percent of the national median income in 2008 - about $31,000 annually.
In the richest nation in the world, one in three kids live in poverty. Let that sink in.
The UNICEF report pegs the poverty definition to the 2008 median to account for the decline in income since then - incomes fell after the great recession, so measuring this way is an attempt to assess current poverty relative to how things stood before the downturn.
With 32.2 percent of children living below this line, the U.S. ranks 36th out of the 41 wealthy countries included in the UNICEF report. By contrast, only 5.3 percent of Norwegian kids currently meet this definition of poverty. [MORE]
Saturday, November 1, 2014 at 03:16AM There is "no obvious" link between tough laws and levels of illegal drug use, a government report has found.
Liberal Democrat Home Office minister Norman Baker said the report, comparing the UK with other countries, should end "mindless rhetoric" on drugs policy.
He accused the Conservatives of "suppressing" the findings for months.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the research did not offer "specific conclusions" and said he did not "believe in" decriminalising drugs.
Drugs policy was debated in the House of Commons earlier, with Green MP Caroline Lucas urging the government to review "failing" drugs laws.
Under current laws, offenders can be jailed for up to seven years for possessing Class A drugs, and can be jailed for life for producing or supplying drugs.
The Home Office report compared the UK's approach to drug misuse with that of 13 other countries.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 at 09:53PM Condemnation of blockade is nearly unanimous at global body.
Today the General Assembly of the United Nations once again voted overwhelmingly in favor of ending the blockade of Cuba by the United States. 188 countries voted in favor of the resolution and 3 abstentions, with only the United States and Israel voting against it.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 at 09:49PM |
Mass arrests, violent settlers, expulsion, and dispossession: With that as the lot of Jerusalem's Palestinians, no one should have been surprised with Wednesday's terror attack. October 29, 2014 "ICH" - "Haaretz" - The terror attack in Jerusalem on Wednesday night should not have surprised anyone. After all, two nations live in the Pretoria of the State of Israel. Unlike the other occupied areas, there is supposed to be a certain equality between the two peoples: blue ID cards available for everybody, freedom of movement, property tax payable to the municipality, national insurance — Israelis all. But Jerusalem is engulfed by lies. It has become the Israeli capital of apartheid. With the exception of Hebron, no place has such a blatant and brazen separation regime. And now the Israeli boot is coming down even harder in the capital, so the resistance in the ghetto-in-the-making is intensifying: battered and oppressed, neglected and poor, filled with feelings of hatred and an appetite for revenge. The uprising is on the way. When the next wave of terror emerges from the alleys of East Jerusalem, Israelis will pretend to be astonished and furious. But the truth must be told: Despite Wednesday’s shocking incident, the Palestinians are turning out to be one of the most tolerant nations in history. Mass arrests, violent settlers, deprivation, expulsion, neglect, dispossession — and they remain silent, except for the recent protest of the stones. There is no self-deception from which the city doesn’t suffer. The capital is a capital only in its own eyes; the united city is one of the most divided in the universe. The alleged equality is a joke and justice is trampled on. Free access to the holy sites is for Jews only (and yes, for elderly Muslims). And the right of return is reserved for Jews. A Palestinian resident of Jerusalem is now in far greater danger of being lynched than a Jew in Paris. But here there’s nobody to raise hell. Unlike the Parisian Jew, the Palestinian can be expelled from Jerusalem. He can also be arrested with terrifying ease. After 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir was burned to death, sparking a wave of protest, Israel arrested 760 Palestinians in the city, 260 of them children. |
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 at 09:41PM White Domination is carried out through violence and/or tactics based on deception, through pretention. Such as: pretending to provide economic progress while working to hinder it, pretending to to provide educational progress while working to hinder it and Pretending to promote justice, while working to continue, and refine, the practice of injustice. [MORE]
Israel's decision to accelerate planning for some 1,000 new settler homes in East Jerusalem raises serious doubts about the Israeli commitment to peace with the Palestinians, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday.
An Israeli government official said on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will expedite preparations for new settler homes in East Jerusalem.
The Israeli plans, along with Palestinian concerns about Jerusalem's holy sites, prompted the Palestinians to ask Jordan to request an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting in the hope that its 15 members would condemn recent Israeli actions. Diplomats said the council was unlikely to take any action.
"If pursued, these plans would once again raise grave doubts about Israel's commitment to achieving durable peace with the Palestinians as the new settlements threaten the very viability of the future State of Palestine," U.N. Under Secretary-General for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman told the meeting.
Palestinian observer Riyad Mansour said Israeli settlements were eroding the future Palestinian state, of which East Jerusalem is to be the capital.
"Every day the territorial contiguity and integrity of our state is being fragmented and undermined by such illegal actions, seriously diminishing the viability of the two-state solution," he said.
He also complained about Israel's approach to Jerusalem, including holy sites like the Temple Mount and al-Aqsa mosque.
"Jerusalem is under siege," Mansour said, adding that Israeli provocations at al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques were "threatening to incite yet another cycle of violence." [MORE]
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 at 09:38PM For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her checking account, almost $33,000.
The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report.
“How can this happen?” Ms. Hinders said in a recent interview. “Who takes your money before they prove that you’ve done anything wrong with it?”
The federal government does.
Using a law designed to catch drug traffickers, racketeers and terrorists by tracking their cash, the government has gone after run-of-the-mill business owners and wage earners without so much as an allegation that they have committed serious crimes. The government can take the money without ever filing a criminal complaint, and the owners are left to prove they are innocent. Many give up.
“They’re going after people who are really not criminals,” said David Smith, a former federal prosecutor who is now a forfeiture expert and lawyer in Virginia. “They’re middle-class citizens who have never had any trouble with the law.”
On Thursday, in response to questions from The New York Times, the I.R.S. announced that it would curtail the practice, focusing instead on cases where the money is believed to have been acquired illegally or seizure is deemed justified by “exceptional circumstances.”
Richard Weber, the chief of Criminal Investigation at the I.R.S., said in a written statement, “This policy update will ensure that C.I. continues to focus our limited investigative resources on identifying and investigating violations within our jurisdiction that closely align with C.I.'s mission and key priorities.” He added that making deposits under $10,000 to evade reporting requirements, called structuring, is still a crime whether the money is from legal or illegal sources. The new policy will not apply to past seizures. [MORE]
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 at 09:33PM Last month, I posted a long investigation of how the 80-plus municipal courts and 90-plus municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty by extracting money from residents for minor infractions such as moving violations, occupancy permit violations, business permit violations and code violations. It’s a system built on a history of racial discrimination, one that supports far too many towns and the public officials who work for them considering the size of the county, and one that makes the survival of some of those towns contingent on issuing an extraordinary number of citations, arrest warrants and fines.
The system weighs most heavily on the poor, who are less likely to have legal representation. Those without attorneys are more likely to be swept into the cycle of accumulating fines and arrest warrants. And of course, those fines and court costs amount to a much higher proportion of a poor person’s income. Compounding all of this, most municipalities in the county derive most of their revenue from a sales tax. Poorer towns are less likely to generate revenue from a sales tax. That makes them more reliant on the municipal courts for revenue.
Now the nonprofit organization Better Together has put out a report offering a lot more detail on all of this. As the name suggests, Better Together advocates merging the city of St. Louis with St. Louis County, or at least merging many of the services between the two entities. In the past the group has been more about producing data and research than advocating explicit policies, although this report does more of the latter. The group’s data and work also suggest support for the idea of merging or eliminating a good number of St. Louis County’s tiny towns.
The report begins with an overview of the problem:
Missouri’s framework for municipal-court oversight provides administrative power to a presiding judge in each of the forty-five circuit courts of Missouri. While this mechanism for oversight appears sound, in a highly fragmented region such as St. Louis County, it becomes completely untenable due to the sheer number of courts.
To put this in perspective: A judicial circuit in Missouri contains 8.6 municipal court divisions on average. St. Louis County’s circuit contains 81 municipal court divisions. So, the presiding judge of St. Louis County’s circuit courts must oversee nearly ten times the number of courts and judges as an average presiding judge in Missouri. This significant flaw in the oversight structure manifests itself in a number of problems.
One such problem is the prolific collection of court fines and fees in the St. Louis region. In 2013, the municipal courts of St. Louis City and County collected $61,152,087 in fines and fees. During that same time, the combined total of court fines and fees collected by Missouri municipal courts was $132,032,351.63. This means that the municipal courts in the St. Louis region accounted for 46% of all fines and fees collected statewide, despite being home to only 22% of Missourians.
Further analysis revealed that St. Louis City accounts for 5% of Missouri’s population and 7% of municipal fines collected statewide, while unincorporated St. Louis County accounts for roughly 5% of Missouri’s population and 5% of Missouri’s municipal fines and fees revenue. This seems logical. However, while the combined populations of the 90 municipalities in St. Louis County accounts for only 11% of Missouri’s population, those municipalities bring in 34% of all municipal fines and fees statewide ($45,136,416 in 2013).
Municipal courts are used most frequently as a revenue stream in municipalities north of Olive Boulevard and within the boundary of I-270. In fact, 20 of the 21 municipalities that derive at least 20% of their general budget from fines and fees are located in that geographic area. [MORE]
Sunday, October 26, 2014 at 12:24AM The racists always do the classifying, the victims cannot classify themselves. Who decided that you were a Black person or a Latino person? White people did. They created the race concept. Who made up the terms "Hispanic", "Latino" and "Negro"? The same people who made up the terms Tostitos, Doritos and Africa! [MORE]. The only purpose of race is to practice racism.
If the ONLY purpose of “race” is to practice racism, and whites are the only group or “race” (in a white supremacy system) that can practice racism, then it is logical to assume there is only one race: the white race. [MORE]
According to Dr. Blynd, race is an artificial "European" invention with real consequences. Race is not real but racism is. Race has been created to be wrongly confused with ethnic identity in order to establish the sense of "otherness" and dehumanization of melanated peoples around the globe. [MORE]
Mexico moves to do something it has not attempted in decades and never on its modern census: ask people if they consider themselves black.
Or Afromexican. Or “moreno,” “mascogo,” “jarocho,” or “costeño” — some of the other terms sometimes used to describe black Mexicans.
What term or terms to use is not just a matter of personal and societal debate, but a longstanding dilemma that the government is hoping finally to resolve.
An official survey of around 4,500 households this month asked about African descent and preferred terms as part of plans to include the question on a national housing and population survey of 6.1 million households next year, a broad snapshot of the country in between the main censuses. It has not yet been decided if the question will be on the full census in 2020.
The sample next year would allow for a rare, official estimate of the total black population in Mexico — a number that until now has been the subject of educated guesses of tens of thousands.
When it comes to official classifications of race and ethnicity, the census has typically asked only if an indigenous language is spoken at home and, if so, which one. That information has been used to evaluate the size of the Indian population (about 6 percent of the total of 112.3 million).
Although Mexico’s indigenous peoples persistently rank at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, the country takes pride in its indigenous heritage and carefully preserves the remnants of ancient civilizations.
But African-Mexicans say their role as Mexico’s “third root” is ignored in textbooks and by society as a whole. They are seeking the census count as a prelude to official recognition in the Constitution, which could mean deeper study and commemoration of their history and better services for their communities.
The coalition of scholars, community groups and activists that has been pushing for the census question has gained traction for a number of reasons: renewed attention to non-Spanish cultures after a 1994 indigenous uprising in the southern state of Chiapas; a civil society grown more vociferous since the first democratic handover of the presidency after the 2000 election; and a sense that Mexico was falling behind in international agreements it had signed over the years to confront racial discrimination. Mexico has increasingly looked out of step with other Latin American nations, including Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, that have included questions of race on their census forms.
“Gradually, we have been moving toward this step,” said Ricardo Bucio Mújica, president of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, a government agency formed 11 years ago. As for Mexico’s black population, he added, “If it is not known how many there are, their conditions, there can’t be an agreement on the part of the government for their inclusion at large.” [MORE]
Sunday, October 26, 2014 at 12:18AM AIDSVu has been mapping the prevalence of HIV/AIDS across the country. This past week, the project unveiled an interactive map that shows where HIV/AIDS is affecting the most people—down to the neighborhood.
“By creating [an] interactive map based on Chicago community areas, AIDSVu allows Chicagoans to more meaningfully visualize the characteristics of the HIV epidemic and who is most affected,” said Dr. Bechara Choucair, M.D., Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. “The map will allow us to explore social determinants of HIV like poverty and education. This new view will help researchers and community organizations optimize HIV prevention and efforts.”
The map is a project of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. Based on their collected data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health departments, a user can visualize the city’s HIV/AIDS epidemic in terms of sex, race and ethnicity, age range. That same user can also see the data by ZIP code and census tract.
For example, the map can take a user down to the 60657 ZIP code—within which the Boystown and Lakeview East neighborhoods are a part—and learn that 2,138 of every 100,000 people were living with an HIV/AIDS diagnosis in 2011. In comparison, 60660—within which the Edgewater Beach enclave is a part—has a much larger number at 2,656 of every 100,000 people.
Another color-coded map can be laid on top of these neighborhoods to show levels of poverty. For example, 60657 had 11.2% living in poverty in 2011 versus 60660, which had 20.2% living in poverty. [MORE]
Sunday, October 26, 2014 at 12:14AM Toney Jennings was illiterate when he was arrested at age 16. In the six months he spent at the Lowndes County Jail in Eastern Mississippi, he says he played basketball, watched TV and "basically just stayed to myself."
A special education student, Jennings qualified for extra help in school. Those services should have carried over to the justice system, but Jennings said he never even attended class while in jail. Now 20, he is still unable to read or write.
Each year, thousands of Mississippi teens cycle through the justice system, where experts say the quality of education is often low. Incarcerated juveniles have the same educational rights as those outside — five hours of instruction a day that meet their learning needs, including special education. The state does not currently track how many of those juvenile offenders are entitled to those extra education services, but according to a 2010 federal survey, 30 percent of youth in custody of the juvenile justice system have a diagnosed learning disability — six times the amount in the general population.
Following several lawsuits, Mississippi has worked to improve the quality of education for all students in the system, with some successes.
Still, many of the kids who need help the most, like Toney, aren't getting it, experts say. These students tend already to be academically behind, and encounters with the justice system early on only increase the likelihood they'll drop out of school or end up incarcerated as adults.
"Every day they're not getting a real education, then that's a day that we've lost," Sue Burrell, a staff attorney at the San Francisco-based Youth Law Center said. "The kids that are in juvenile justice cannot afford to lose those days."
Once arrested, male and female juveniles in Mississippi first go to detention centers to await trial. They can also be sentenced to these facilities for short periods of time. For longer stays – of several weeks or months – youth go to the Oakley Development Center, 30 minutes west of Jackson. All facilities are expected to provide classes on site with certified teachers.
Although centers may monitor the number of special education students that pass through their doors, no state department has collected or analyzed that information. When reporters from The Hechinger Report asked the Mississippi Department of Education and the Office of Public Safety about the number of special education students in detention centers in the state, both agencies said that they believed the other entity was tracking those statistics. The Department of Education said it will track those numbers in the future.
To comply with the federal law that requires extra educational services for any student diagnosed with a disability, a school will create a legal document known as an Individual Education Program (IEP). This might include one-on-one time with a teacher or additional time to complete assignments. A student's right to an IEP extends to juvenile justice and adult correction facilities. But experts around the country say that the legally mandated services these students need are rarely provided once they enter the criminal justice system.
"Kids with special needs are not being served well," David Domenici, director of the Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings, said. "My take is a lot of facilities don't thoughtfully look at the IEP."
Lawsuits bring change
Jennings, now 20, was raised by his grandmother, Cornelia Glenn, in Caledonia, Mississippi, who said he rarely got in trouble as a child. He was diagnosed at age 8 with a learning disability and by the time he was in high school, he was placed in a classroom of only special education students for "behavioral issues" that weren't part of his diagnosis, according to his IEP.
Aware of how far behind he was, Glenn agreed to send him to an alternative school that was recommended by school officials who said the smaller class sizes could help him academically.
In 2010, Jennings was arrested on a charge of statutory rape. He was convicted as an adult and first sentenced to Lowndes County Jail. Lauderdale County Sheriff William Sollie, who oversees the jail, said that as a primary short-term holding facility, it does not provide education to inmates. For the few who are sentenced to long-term stays, GED classes are offered. Jennings did not take them.
After several months at Lowndes, he was sent to the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. At the time, the prison, a privately-run facility an hour northeast of Jackson, was the only place for youths age 13 to 22 who had been tried as adults. Although the facility did have a school, a 2010 lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center alleged that, among other things, fewer than half of the 1,200 inmates there attended classes.
Jennings, who is out of prison on appeal, unemployed and living with his grandmother, said he took GED classes at Walnut Grove, but did not get the extra help he needed. Before going to prison, he read at a kindergartener's level, according to his IEP. His math skills were that of a first grader.
"If he hadn't gone to prison, I think he'd be reading by now," Glenn said. "He would have learned more. [Now] he'll always be dependent."
As a result of the lawsuit, a new private company took control of the jail and Walnut Grove was converted into an adult facility. Current Walnut Grove warden Lepher Jenkins said he could not speak to the specifics of Jennings' case because he was not in charge at the time. But he said that Walnut Grove has always placed an emphasis on education and that any learning disabilities should be identified as soon as youth are admitted, and addressed in class.
Now that Walnut Grove serves adults, minors who are convicted as adults will go to the Youthful Offenders Unit at the Central Mississippi Correction Facility. The unit's school, which was accredited in May, teaches all core subjects and offers vocational programs in lawn care, barbering and custodial services. The Department of Corrections denied a request to visit the school.
The Walnut Grove lawsuit was one of many brought against Mississippi facilities. Legal action by the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups about general conditions and abuse have also forced the closure of two detention centers and one youth development center.
The one remaining juvenile correction facility in the state only recently got out of legal trouble. In 2003, the Oakley Youth Development Center was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for violating youth's civil rights with "staff violence and abusive institutional practices, unreasonable use of isolation and restraints, and inadequate medical, mental health and educational services." In 2005, Oakley entered into an agreement to reform. The facility's school was accredited in 2012 and this fall, the lawsuit was dismissed. [MORE]
Sunday, October 26, 2014 at 12:05AM As The Daily Mail reports (and these stunning photos show), the police officers involved in securing Dr. Spencer tossed their gloves, masks and the caution tape used to block off access to his apartment in a public trash can. Not just any trash can, but one on a public street corner...
Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 11:59PM A powerful new device has hit the market that promises to warn drivers of nearby emergency vehicles, including police cars, fire trucks and ambulances. The device is called “Target Blu Eye” and is being sold by the Dutch Company “Target Automotive.
The Blu Eye system works by monitoring frequencies that are used by emergency vehicles and then alerts the driver when those frequencies are nearby. It does not allow the driver to listen in on the encrypted communications, but will simply give a signal when those frequencies are nearby.
This is far more advanced and accurate than a traditional radar detector, because this device works even when the officer has their radar and other equipment turned off.
Police representatives and mainstream media sources are not pleased that this device is on the market, because it will give oppressed drivers an edge on police who depend on the element of surprise to generate their revenue.
The Sunday Times published an attack piece on the invention this week, calling it a “gadget for crooks,” and suggested that it undermines the goals of law enforcement.
David Bizley, the Royal Automobile Club’s chief engineer responded to The Sunday Times, saying that his device actually makes the roads safer.
“As it does not distinguish between a police car, ambulance or fire engine responding to an emergency or one that is simply driving under non-blue-light conditions, this particular device is sadly just as likely to be bought by a minority of motorists who wish to evade being caught behaving illegally,” Bizley said.
The Target Blu Eye system sells for about $1,600 in Europe, where the device is currently being sold. The type of frequencies that the system is trained to detect are only used by emergency vehicles in Europe. However, according to Fox News, Target Managing Director Jan Rijks said a version that will be compatible with emergency vehicles in the US is nearly ready for release, and could be released sometime in 2015.
Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 11:56PM Employees at a Jennie-O Turkey Store processing plant in Willmar, Minnesota, were taken to a local hospital on Friday evening after a mystery illness caused about 30 workers to show symptoms such as vomiting and coughing. Reports said that seven ambulances and a bus were dispatched to the scene and about two dozen employees were hospitalized. Most were treated and released, but one employee was admitted and was in a stable condition, according to Pat Solheid, Jennie-O Turkey Store vice president of human resources and administration. Jennie-O is owned by Hormel Foods Corporation.
Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 11:50PM The leader of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America disproportionately fired minorities after expressing an intent to move the group away from serving its base of ethnic minorities, two black former employees claim.
Former Big Brothers marketing manager Erick C. Brown, of Illinois, and former general counsel and vice president Kelley Gilbert, of the District of Columbia, sued the Irving, Texas-based volunteer mentor program in Federal Court on Thursday.
They say former Tampa Mayor Pamela Ioria was hired as chief executive in March and informed senior leadership of her "intent to shift the focus of BBBSA away from serving ethnic minority communities, namely African-American, Latino and Native-American children and their families."
"A direct outcome of Iorio's new vision was a race-based change in BBBSA's national office staffing," the complaint states. "With a staff of forty-three (43) employees in its Irving, Texas national headquarters, Iorio took steps to reduce BBBSA's Irving-based staff to twenty-two (22) employees. ...
"(T)he organization retained sixteen (16) Caucasians and only six (6) minorities among its Irving-based national office staff. Of the 16 Caucasians retained, three were promoted to senior roles and received increased remuneration, while the majority of the remaining minority staff work in administrative or junior management roles."
Iorio is not a party to the lawsuit, though the plaintiffs claim she Iorio "systematically terminated" 14 minority employees while firing only seven white ones "as part of her vision" to shift focus from serving minorities.
They say Big Brothers went on to hire back some of the fired white employees, further increasing the racial disparity.
The plaintiffs say they are not challenging Iorio's authority to determine the group's mission.
"Instead, plaintiffs challenge ... Iorio's decision to slash BBBSA's staff to match this ethnically-altered vision. Simply put, it is not axiomatic that ethnic minorities can serve only ethnic minority populations."
Big Brothers serves more than 200,000 children and families nationwide, more than 70 percent of whom are black, Hispanic or Native American.
The plaintiffs point out the group receives "significant federal funds," including from the Department of Labor's Reintegration of Ex-Offenders grant program.
"BBBSA recognizes this target population is largely minority and cites the populations it serves and assessment data to support federal grant applications," the complaint states.
Big Brothers did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
The plaintiffs seek actual and punitive damages for racial discrimination. They are represented by Michael Coles in Dallas.
