White Officer Darren Wilson Lives in Crestwood, Black Population 1.3%

ColorLines

Drug Courts in Wisconsin Mostly for White People (84%)

GreenBayPress

Even before Dane County Circuit Judge Sarah O'Brien crunched the numbers, she knew something was amiss. Her strongest evidence: "The courtroom didn't look right when I walked in."

O'Brien, who retired in 2012, was referring to the stark racial disparities in Dane County's drug court. The people in front of her — the ones who had gotten the chance to reduce or avoid criminal convictions in exchange for completing treatment and other programming — were overwhelmingly white.

In 2012, about one-third of those arrested for drug crimes in Dane County were black, according to the state Office of Justice Assistance. But African-Americans made up just 10 percent of those participating in the county's drug court that year, according to Journey Mental Health, a Madison nonprofit that provides treatment and case management for the program.

As recently as May, despite a concerted effort to increase minority participation, 84 percent of defendants in Dane County drug court were white and 14 percent were black.

Black Women in the Military Win Pentagon Hair War

BET News

African-American ministers blast Kobach photo ID law

cjonline

African-American church leaders blasted Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Saturday for his remarks earlier this month tied to the photo identification requirement during the primary elections.

Standing on the steps of the St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church, 701 S.W. Topeka Blvd., ministers from at least five African-American churches in Topeka, Wichita and Great Bend expressed displeasure with the photo ID requirement they contend cut back on the number of minority voters casting ballots in the primary elections on Aug. 5.

"We stand here today to say that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has imposed one of the most stringent voter ID laws in the nation," said the Rev. Carieta Cain Grizzel, director of the Social Action Committee and pastor of Grant Chapel AME Church of Wichita.

Kobach "has caused 24,000 registered voters to be held in suspension that has not only insulted, dehumanized, humiliated and degraded a segment of people, but has denied life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to each and every person affected and has hit the very image of God in the face."

Kobach flatly stated the 24,000 figure was "not accurate." The state doesn't even know how many voters were unable to vote due to lack of photo ID at this time," Kobach said Saturday.

In the 2012 general election, 838 Kansas voters couldn't vote because they didn't produce photo ID, which was .007 percent of those voting in the election. That is less than one in 1,000 voters, Kobach said. The 838 were told they could vote if they returned with a photo ID and about 300 did so, he said.

A Kansas voter can obtain a free photo ID by going to a state Division of Motor Vehicles office to ask for a non-driver's license ID, Kobach said.

During a July 30 interview on WIBW 580 radio, Kobach was asked to respond to several ministers and other critics of the voter ID requirement.

"I don't know what churches — and I would put churches in quotation marks — because the vast majority of church leaders I've spoken to are fully in favor of our photo ID law," Kobach said.

On Saturday, the African-American ministers were asked how they interpreted Kobach's "churches in quotation marks" remark.

The Effects of Ignoring [reality] Systemic Racism

The Nation

White "Super Fans" at Brighton High School Basketball Game Chant "We Want Slurpees" to Demean Indian American Student

RochesterHome

Video is circulating of an incident during a basketball game between Brighton and Pittsford Sutherland high schools Friday night. 

A Brighton student who appears to be of Indian descent is standing at the free-throw line and the crowd chanted, "We want Slurpees." The reference is toward a stereotype of Indian-Americans owning 7-Eleven stores.

The superintendents of Brighton and Pittsford released a joint statement Monday:

"We were very disappointed to learn of this incident. We have been working with our colleagues in both districts throughout the weekend to address intolerant and unacceptable fan behavior. That work continues today. The students involved took full responsibility for their behavior, and attempts are being made to right this wrong between the students and to address the long- term learning that can arise from the disappointing behaviors of a few.

Kevin McGowan , Ed.D., Superintendent , Brighton Central Schools

Mike Pero, Superintendent, Pittsford Schools"

Racial Turbulence on Southwest Flight: The wife pointed at me and told her husband loudly, “I don’t want him sitting there.”

IndianCountry

And I appreciate that. 

First leg of the flight was from Seattle to Chicago.  No problem—I get off the plane for my 4-hour layover (no, seriously) and go get an all-beef dog at Chicago O’Hare.

The second leg of my flight.  Ugh. 

I have a backpack and a small duffle bag.  I’m in the “C” Boarding Group (again), and so I know that I’m getting a middle seat.  Guaranteed. Therefore, I wait to be one of the very last people boarding.  When I get on, there’s a seat in the very first row—it’s a middle seat.  I know I’m going to get screwed on the seating, so I figure “Why not sit get screwed in the front seat of the plane?”  At least I can get off the plane first.  There was a middle-aged white couple (“Sarah Jessica Parker”-type middle aged, where they tried to dress like they weren’t quickly approaching AARP-status.  Not “Wilford Brimley” middle aged) there, the man in the aisle seat holding a baby and the woman in the window seat.  They were being slick (like I do as well) and had a pile of stuff in the middle seat pretending that it was occupied and hoping nobody would sit there.

I know the game—I’m not mad.

I asked, “Excuse me, is somebody sitting there?” 

The lady responded, “Yes, I’m waiting for a friend.  She’s supposed to be boarding.

I was pretty sure she was lying.  Now under normal circumstances, I would’ve just taken the seat—this is Southwest Airlines, for God’s sake—there’s no “saving seats.”  Southwest Airlines is PURE social Darwinism.  Every person for themselves!!  But since I wasn’t getting a good seat anyway, and I’m at the very end of the boarding group, I’ll wait.  No biggie—I’m getting screwed on the seat anyway.

So I decided that I’d just wait it out, “Ok cool.  I’ll wait here to see if your friend gets on.”

Nobody.  Literally, the LAST person boarding—another middle-aged white woman—gets on.  The lady literally grabs her and asks her to sit there.  I’ll call that lady “The Recruit.”

I smirk and tell her, “You don’t know that lady at all—ha! You lied.  You realize how rude that is right?” 

She responded, “That’s not rude.”

I said, “Ok, well I suppose that’s just you then.”  And smiled at her. 

The Recruit got up QUICKLY and strolled toward the back—evidently she had zero interest in this discussion and saw more fertile ground in the back of the plane.  I put my bags up above and went to sit down.  The husband (I’m assuming they were married—so sue me) scooted over to the middle seat, chivalrously.  No problem.  Well, no problem until there was a problem.

The wife pointed at me and told her husband loudly, “I don’t want him sitting there.” 

I looked at her to make sure that I heard her correctly.  She said, “Don’t look at me.”

Yeah, I was pretty sure I heard her correctly.  Damn, I couldn’t believe that—adrenaline rushed through me.  I told her, “Look, you have no input into where I sit or where I look.”  I sat back and got my MP3 player ready to play some Marty Robbins.  I know the drill—I’ve been trained since I was a kid.  “You’re a big brown guy—don’t be too scary.  Don’t be too big.  Don’t be too brown.” 

We’re taught these things for our own safety and to get along.

And I was cool—but before I pressed play on my Sony MP3 player the husband—all 5’5 and probably 125 pounds told me, “You need to shut your mouth!”

WHOA!!!  For a woman to tell me something rude, that’s one thing.  I’m not going to clobber a woman for a rude remark.  But this guy—let’s be clear, he would never talk to me like that under any other circumstances.  Ever.  But he was feeling bold or threatened or insecure or something and turned what were simply words into possibly a really bad situation.

...until you see him as a human being.

I got really close to him and told him, “Look, you know this plane ride is going end at some point, right?  You have to get off this plane.”

At that point he shut up.  He realized that those words had a different significance to me and that he put himself in jeopardy.  But the wife continued, “You can’t sit there.” 

By this time, I’m really mad. Admittedly. Not at the lady, necessarily, but that this grown man would talk to another grown man like this and expect no response. “I’m not moving anyplace so if you don’t want to sit by me, I suggest you move.”

Just then, the Captain comes out. I’m elated. Yes!  I don’t like feeling like I have to run tell anybody anything, but I also don’t want to get thrown into jail for stomping this dude into the luggage area below the plane.  So I’m happy to see an objective person.  But unfortunately, that’s not how it went down.

He comes out and looks at only me.  “Is there a problem?”

I wanted to tell the whole story, but I really just wanted to get to New York.  So I responded, “Well, this lady right here told me that she doesn’t want me sitting here for whatever reason and her husband tells me to shut my mo-…”

The Captain interrupts me. “Well, I only hear you.”

I tell him, “I understand—I have a loud voice, that’s why I’m telling you what happened.  Ask any of the folks sitting here…”  I pointed around to the people staring at us. He didn’t ask anybody anything.  Instead, his focus was squarely on me. 

CAPTAIN: “You need to lower your voice.  Do you want to take the next flight?”  Admittedly, I DO have a loud voice and I WAS agitated by this time.  I think that was understandable. 

ME:  “No, I don’t want to—I’m telling you what happened.”

CAPTAIN: “Well I only hear you out here hollering.”

ME: “Well, I suggest that you have selective hearing.”

CAPTAIN: Staring me down.  “Oh now you want to get in MY face?” I was a bit confused because that implied that I had gotten in someone else’s “face” already. Maybe he meant that I got in the husband’s face that told me that I need to shut my mouth?  I wasn’t sure how that worked, but I started to answer his question.  He cut me off and answered for me, “I suggest you quiet down before you take the next flight.”

I was stewing.  But I knew I couldn’t take the next flight—that would not have been until the next morning and I would’ve missed my very important meeting.  I don’t have a lot of very important meetings—I’m not a very important guy—so I didn’t want to be late to/miss one of the only ones that I’ve had.  I would’ve been sitting in a federal holding cell and the middle-aged, white couple would be laughing to wherever they were going.  When I went to go get my bag at baggage claim, a couple of the younger white guys sitting immediately behind me came up to tell me (one of them was from Hicksville, Long Island.  I laughed when he first told me that—I thought he was joking): “That was bullshit. I told the captain afterwards that everything happened exactly like you said.  She obviously didn’t like you.  I thought the captain was going to ask us some questions.” 

Made the meeting.  Thankfully.  Made a complaint on the Southwest Airlines website.  They responded with an incredibly patronizing and condescending email that said that they were sorry for my “less than pleasant” experience on the plane (it wasn’t “less than pleasant”—it was humiliating).  The email also stated, as a matter of fact, “As you know, our Pilot did not hear any other Passengers, which is why he only addressed his question to you.”  (No, I have absolutely no reason to know that—I do know that he only addressed me).  Also, the Captain flat-out lied and said that he asked me to lower my voice twice before asking if I wanted to take another flight—that’s just not true. Finally, the email said, in ABC After-School Special speak:

We realize that sometimes it’s not what you say, but how you say it, and we apologize that you feel as if our Pilot could have used a more patient and professional tone when intervening in the exchange between you and the Customers in question. 

This is just insulting: as if my problem was with the Captain’s TONE.  No, it was that he didn’t ask anybody else a single question before singling me out and asking me if I wanted to take another flight and then stood staring at me as if I were supposed to stand down from his authority (which I did, by the way, because I had to make the flight.  I would’ve loved to have three minutes alone with that Captain in a small room).

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/01/27/there-problem-discerning-racism-white-privilege-southwest-airlines-flight-30000-feet

After racist MLK party, pressure builds for expulsion of Arizona State University White fraternity

Inmates killed by lethal injection used to get a dose of sodium thiopental. But that drug is no longer available, and, in a blow to transparency, prison officials in Missouri and elsewhere won't say how it has been replaced

TheAtlantic

The sharpest battles over capital punishment today are being fought over the identity of the drugs officials seek to use in lethal injections, how those drugs are manufactured and obtained by executioners, and the obligations state officials have to share material information about the drugs with death-row inmates and the rest of the world. Late Friday, in a case out of Missouri, the Eighth U.S Circuit Court of Appeals rendered the most significant ruling yet to come out of these battles. The result is catastrophic for those who believe the means of capital punishment should generally be as transparent as its ends.

The Missouri case, and many others like it, all stem from the same development in 2011. Early that year, the manufacturers of sodium thiopental, the key ingredient in the lethal "cocktail" states were using, announced they would stop making the drug due to objections about its use for capital punishment.  That prompted state officials to scramble for other drugs and to obtain those drugs in circumstances that raise substantial doubts about the efficacy of the drugs to be used. And that in turn prompted defense attorneys to press for information about exactly what chemicals state officials plan to use to kill their clients.

And that, in turn, has caused state officials to begin to hide, in a way they never have before, the manner in which they are obtaining lethal injection drugs, the identities of the "compounding pharmacies" that are supplying the drugs, and even precisely what is in the drugs officials want to use. Last year in Georgia, for example, state lawmakers, at the request of corrections officials, passed a law that keeps this information secret even from the state's own judiciary. In Texas, meanwhile, state officials announced a few months ago that they would not return to a compounding pharmacy the lethal drugs it had obtained there.

 The issue is not just a semantic one. No execution can be entirely painless, but the Eighth Amendment prohibits "cruel and unusual" punishment, and there now are questions about whether these new injection cocktails cause impermissible suffering on the part of the condemned. In Ohio earlier this month, for example, one of these new cocktails was used on a man named Dennis McGuire, who, according to a journalist who witnessed the execution, "struggled, made guttural noises, gasped for air and choked for about 10 minutes before succumbing to a new, two-drug execution method."

Missouri Breaks

When domestic stores of sodium thiopental started dissipating, the first move Missouri made was to declare that propofol—the same drug that killed Michael Jackson—would be used to execute inmates there. But objections to the use of that drug in executions were even more pronounced than the objections had been to the use of sodium thiopental. The European Union threatened to "forbid or restrict the exportation" of the propofol to the United States (where it is used as an anesthetic in common operations). Last October, Missouri backed down—and backed away from its plans to use propofol.

Plan B, Missouri decided, was to use "an injection of five to 10 grams of pentobarbital" for its executions and to rely upon a compounding pharmacy to provide the drug. Compounding pharmacies are perhaps best known through the years for their ability to skirt federal and state regulations, so much so that President Obama last year signed into federal law a measure designed to properly regulate them. Not only did Missouri plan to use an untested drug on its death-row inmates, then, but to use one manufactured in circumstances that precluded anyone other than state officials to evaluate the drug's quality.

South Carolina Is Still Defending Its Neglectful Prisons

TheAtlantic

Over the objections of the state's best editorial writers and some of its leading legislators, South Carolina has chosen to fight a recent court order declaring its prisons to be unconscionable (and unconstitutional) dens of abuse and neglect for mentally ill inmates housed there. Lawyers for the state filed a motion Tuesday with Judge Michael Baxley, the link to which can be found here, asking him to "alter or amend" his January 8th order in which he found that...

… inmates have died in the South Carolina Department of Corrections for lack of basic mental health care, an hundreds more remain substantially at risk for serious physical injury, mental decompensation, and profound, permanent mental illness.

The motion will be denied, as it should be, and then the legal dispute over the treatment of the inmates will move to the state's appellate courts. The process will take years. It will cost a great deal. And so long as state officials are litigating the matter, and proclaiming themselves aggrieved by the rule of law, there is little reason to think that the wretched lives of the inmates will be rendered any safer. They will instead remain citizens with grand rights but no remedies.

The state's motion is remarkable for the assertions it makes that directly contradict the evidence in the case -- and also generally accepted notions of our rule of law. So, for example, after a contested trial in which mountains of evidence of systemic abuse and neglect were proven, including evidence established by the state's own doctors and investigators going back over a decade, the state's lawyers offered this nugget:

Even if the Plaintiffs have presented some evidence of systemic constitutional violations, which the Defendants deny, the extensive remedies ordered by the Court are far in excess of what might be necessary to remedy any alleged violation [emphasis added].

And even though the evidence before Judge Baxley amply established that the state's policies and practices toward mentally ill inmates had caused the death of some of those inmates, and terrible physical and emotional harm to others, state lawyers told the judge that he had erred in ruling against South Carolina because "only extreme deprivations are adequate to satisfy the objective component of an Eighth Amendment claim." Ponder for a moment what would constitute "extreme deprivation" in South Carolina if death doesn't do the trick. (To briefly summarize some of the points I listed in a previous piece, the state's mentally ill inmates were routinely placed naked in small spaces for hours at a time, or left for days sitting in their own feces and urine.)

Court: Disgraced White ex-journalist can't practice law

CitizensforLegitGov

The California Supreme Court has denied a law license to a former journalist who was caught fabricating stories for major national magazines. The court ruled Monday that Stephen Glass cannot practice law in California because evidence he offered as proof of redemption and rehabilitation fell short. Glass has acknowledged making up all or parts of 42 magazine articles published in the New Republic, Rolling Stone and elsewhere in the 1990s when he was in his mid-20s and a rising literary star.

the myth of police as "law enforcement": British Police ordered to stop and search 15 a month - or face disciplinary action

MirrorUk

Officers in Britain's biggest police force face disciplinary action unless they stop and search at least 15 people a month, it has been claimed.

The Met also orders officers to arrest eight people a month, which has raised fears some officers may let other "things go" in pursuit of hitting their targets.

Yesterday one police source said: "If the public knew the police service had to arrest by numbers rather than crimes there would be a national outcry."

Stop and search is one of the most controversial powers in policing, with people from a black or minority ethnic background seven times more likely to be stopped than white people.

Britain's top cop, Bernard Hogan-Howe, recently claimed stop and search was only used where officers have "intelligence".

But our insider provided evidence that indicated Met officers are being told they have to use the power at least 15 times a month or face disciplinary action.

He said that officers were told to stop and search people at incidents they were called to to keep up their numbers.

The source added: "Targets are set and expected to be obtained with the threat of management action should you not achieve them. The main one is stopand search."

Traffic cops have been told they have to arrest eight drink drivers a year and issue 180 fixed penalty notices for speeding or using mobile phones while driving.

One officer failing to reach his targets was told that every shift he had to "take a laser out and spend at least one hour on this task during the day".

Another source said: "People are discouraged to deal with anything other than offences that count towards our targets."

In one example a PC investigated an allegation of "using a kettle without permis-sion" in a flat with a communal kitchen so it could be counted as a "clear up". But a team of burglars were allowed "free reign" for two years as no borough wanted to link the crimes, the source claimed.

The Sunday Mirror has seen dozens of documents that confirm the targets but Scotland Yard last night denied forcing officers to arrest or stop and searcha minimum number of people.

White N.Y. mayor at closed AIPAC gala: Part of my job is to defend Israel

CitizensforLegitGov

-Mayor Bill de Blasio says 'there is no greater ally on earth' than Israel, in speech to Israel lobby that did not appear on public schedule 25 Jan 2014 New York Mayor Bill de Blasio gave a heartfelt speech praising Israel at a private gala event hosted by AIPAC at the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan Thursday night, the local website Capital New York reported. According to an edited audio recording obtained by the site, de Blasio said that "part of his job description is to defend Israel" and that it is "elemental to being an American, because there is no greater ally on earth, and that's something we can say proudly."

Protesters call for independent investigation of Jan. 18 police shooting of 16-year-old Joshua Alvarez

Highland News

On the afternoon of Jan. 20, about 50 protesters gathered and marched in front of the Highland Police station in order to call for independent investigation and legal action in the case of the officer involved shooting Saturday night, Jan 18, when 16-year-old Joshua Alvarez, armed with a hammer and a sharp object, was shot by a San Bernardino County Sheriff's officer responding to a domestic disturbance call.

According to a Sheriff's Department report deputies from the Highland Police department responded to the 7400 block of Rogers Lane, in Highland, following the report of a domestic disturbance. The reporting party stated that a family member was armed with a weapon and the caller was in fear for their safety. When deputies arrived at the residence, the suspect was walking away from the location. As deputies attempted to make contact with the suspect, he turned toward the deputies; armed with a hammer and a sharp instrument. The suspect attempted to attack a deputy; causing the deputy to fire his duty weapon, striking the suspect.

According to members of Alvarez' family he received emergency surgery for damage to his liver and kidney, and he remains in critical condition.

On Sunday night a candlelight vigil was held followed by Monday's protest organized by the Inland Empire Rapid Response Network. The protesters at the police station, closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, included some of Alvarez' family members (aunts and cousins) and several community action groups dealing with immigration issues.

Joshua Alvarez' aunt and Rapid Response member Alva Alvarez spoke for the family.

The protesters were calling for an independent investigation, prosecution of those responsible and restitution to the family, the institution of a policy against the use of lethal force by police when there is no imminent threat, the repaired use of camera's in officers' lapel and the creation of in independent county commission to investigate incidents of police brutality.

The protestors were signing a petition with these demands to be given to the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department.

MSNBC's Finney Takes Apart Fox's Bogus Report On Discrimination In School Discipline

MediaMatters