PR exec Justine Sacco tweets: 'Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!'

NYDailyNews

"Most white people hate Black people. The reason that most white people hate Black people is because whites are not Black people. If you know this about white people, you need know little else. If you do not know this about white people, virtually all else that you know about them will only confuse you." -Neely Fuller

John Miller, after serving CBS, now will serve New York Police Dept. Again

NyTimes

John Miller, a prominent CBS News correspondent who drew both praise and scrutiny for his ability to leverage his law-enforcement and national security contacts for big news stories, is leaving the network to work in counterterrorism for the New York Police Department, CBS announced on Thursday.

After a career spent toggling between television and law enforcement, Mr. Miller will be rejoining an old friend and boss, William J. Bratton, the incoming police commissioner. Mr. Miller’s close relationship with government agencies has troubled some media watchers, who criticized Mr. Miller’s recent “60 Minutes” special report on the National Security Agency for its seemingly cozy treatment of controversial spying programs.

During Mr. Bratton’s first tenure as the city’s police commissioner, Mr. Miller served as the department’s chief spokesman in 1994 before going to ABC News, where he interviewed Osama bin Laden in 1998. In 2003, Mr. Bratton, then Los Angeles’s police chief, hired Mr. Miller to lead the counterterrorism bureau.

Greenwald: US, British media are servants of security apparatus

RT

Journalist Glenn Greenwald condemned the mainstream media during an address at a German computer conference on Friday and accused his colleagues of failing to challenge erroneous remarks routinely made by government officials around the globe.

Thousands of attendees at the thirtieth annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg packed into a room to watch the 46-year-old lawyer-turned-columnist present a keynote address delivered less than seven months after he started working with former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Revelations contained in leaked documents supplied by Snowden to Greenwald and other journalists have sparked international outrage and efforts to reform the far-reaching surveillance operations waged by the NSA and intelligence officials in allied nations. But speaking remotely from Brazil this week, Greenwald argued that the media establishment at large is guilty of failing significantly with respect to accomplishing its most crucial role: keeping governments in check.

When Greenwald and his colleagues began working with Snowden, he said they realized that they’d have to act in a way that wasn’t on par with how the mainstream media has acted up until now.

“We resolved that we were going to have to be very disruptive of the status quo — not only the surveillance and political status quo, but also the journalistic status quo,” Greenwald said. “And I think one of the ways that you can see what it is that we were targeting is in the behavior of the media over the past six months since these revelations have emerged almost entirely without them and despite them.”

“[W]e knew in particular that one of our most formidable adversaries was not simply going to be the intelligence agencies on which we were reporting and who we were trying to expose, but also their most loyal, devoted servants, which calls itself the United States and British media.”

“It really is the case that the United States and British governments are not only willing but able to engage in any conduct no matter how grotesque,” Greenwald said. Nevertheless, he added, journalists tasked with reporting on those issues have all too often been compliant with the blatant lies made by officials from those governments.

Halfway through his remarks, Greenwald recalled a recent quip he made while being interviewed by BBC about the necessity of a functioning media in an environment where government officials can spew untruths to reporters without being questioned.

“[A]t one point I made what I thought was the very unremarkable and uncontroversial observation that the reason why we have a free press is because national security officials routinely lie to the population in order to shield their power and get their agenda advanced,” recalled Greenwald, who said it is both the “the goal and duty of a journalist is to be adversarial to those people in power.”

According to Greenwald, the BBC reporter met his remark with skepticism.

“I just cannot believe that you would suggest that senior officials, generals in the US and the British government, are actually making false claims to the public,” he remembered being told on-air.

A white police officer tries to stop a white man washing his car in his own driveway.

Cnet

'An Objective of White Supremacy is to Decontextualize Subject Matter & Project it as race neutral/objective' - Amos Wilson

How White Society promotes Violence in the Afrikan Community

Blueprint for Black power- Amos Wilson

[MORE] from brothahaneef

“The white people are running away. They don’t want to be our neighbors.”

WashPost

Ventersdorp, South Africa — On the edge of this rural town, poor blacks have been moving into a line of new tin shacks across the road from an affluent white enclave. Now, the whites are taking action. “For Sale” signs are posted on many of their large brick houses.

“The white people are running away,” said Sara Letsie, who moved into her shack two months ago. “They don’t want to be our neighbors.”

Lea Victor is one of the few whites remaining in the neighborhood. “They are afraid of the blacks on the other side,” she said, pointing one by one toward five of her neighbors’ houses. “All of them are selling. They have started to take their stuff out.”

When Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, one of his biggest challenges was bringing his ideals of reconciliation, tolerance and forgiveness to hundreds of conservative, white-run towns. In rural areas, where 40 percent of the country’s population lives, the apartheid system of racial segregation was deeply entrenched, more so than anywhere else in the nation.

Today, blacks live in town and are free to eat and drink anywhere, and they go to school with whites. But as in most parts of the country, whites still dominate the local economy. Whites own nearly all of the most lucrative farms around Ventersdorp, with blacks working as their laborers or servants.

The white community is a meld of liberals and conservative Afrikaners, many of whom mourned the death of Mandela.

Blacks say they no longer fear attacks or evictions by white extremists. But many still don’t enjoy, or can’t afford, the same privileges as whites. A private primary school, the town’s best, is all-white because few blacks can afford the fees. Only two of the 65 members of the Golf Club are black. And blacks say whites still move to the front of the line in stores.

Blacks and whites say they never socialize with each other. At restaurants, it’s rare to see people of different races sitting together. That is true in other South African towns and cities as well. Less than 40 percent of South Africans interact socially with people of another race, according to the SA Reconciliation Barometer, a public opinion poll on race, political and social relations.

“I have no white friends,” said Tommy Lerefolo, a black municipal official.

Many blacks still depend on whites for jobs in Ventersdorp. But black residents and community leaders say many have been fired and evicted from white-owned farms since Terre’Blanche’s murder. White community leaders deny that. “We don’t employ a lot of blacks anyway. Because they steal,” De Bruin said.

ANC officials are still struggling to redress the inequalities of apartheid. In Tshing, electricity, clean water and other basic services have improved. A few thousand houses have been built, but more are needed. Officials plan to relocate more than 1,100 families to the edge of Ventersdorp, essentially joining it with Tshing.

Racism linked to infant mortality, learning disabilities

Bdt.com

In the long list of health disparities that vex and disproportionately affect the lives of African-Americans - diabetes, cancer and obesity among them - one of the earliest and, it turns out, most significant, may be just when a black child is born.

A pair of Emory University studies released this year have connected the large share of African-American children born before term with the biologically detectable effects of stress created in women's bodies after decades of dealing with American racism. The studies' findings don't end there.

Racism, and its ability to increase the odds that a pregnant mother will deliver her child early, can kill. There is also evidence that racism can alter the capacity for a child to learn and distorts lives in ways that can reproduce inequality, poverty and long-term disadvantage, the studies found.

White Teacher to student: “Christopher, don’t you know Santa Clause is white? Why are you wearing that?”

Kob.com

A local World War II veteran responded to racist remarks made by a Rio Rancho teacher.

Friday night, KOB Eyewitness News 4 brought viewers the story of a Cleveland High School teacher who called out an African American student because he was dressed as Santa Claus.

The teacher reportedly told student Christopher Rougier “Christopher, don’t you know Santa Clause is white? Why are you wearing that?”  

Veteran Ear Richards told KOB that he was incredibly moved by the story.

"It’s hard in life to put words together but sometimes you make mistakes, and I hope that you feel that you made a mistake and say you're sorry for what you said,” Richards said. “I think that very important. I have nothing against you, or nothing like that."

Over-criminalization undermines respect for legal system

Washtimes

Despite some of the sharpest political divisions in memory, Congress managed to mount one noteworthy bipartisan effort this year. Since May, the Over-criminalization Task Force, comprising five Republicans and five Democrats from the House Judiciary Committee, has worked diligently to develop recommendations that will address some of the fundamental problems plaguing the federal criminal justice system. The task force has been analyzing worrisome trends such as:

• the dramatic expansion of the size and scope of the federal criminal code over the past few decades;

• the proclivity of Congress to enact offenses without a mens rea — “guilty mind” — requirement, which leaves people vulnerable to being sent to jail for doing something they had no idea was a crime;

• the tendency to pass laws that are so vaguely worded that the limit of their reach is constrained only by the charging prosecutor’s creativity;

• and the ever-increasing labyrinth of federal regulatory crimes.

The 6,000-Page Report on CIA Torture Has Now Been Suppressed for 1 Year by Team Obama

TheAtlantic

It cost $40 million to produce, documents serious wrongdoing, and doesn't threaten national security. Team Obama won't release it.

One year ago today, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to adopt a 6,000-page report on the CIA rendition, detention, and interrogation program that led to torture. Its contents include details on each prisoner in CIA custody, the conditions of their confinement, whether they were tortured, the intelligence they provided, and the degree to which the CIA lied about its behavior to overseers. Senator Dianne Feinstein declared it one of the most significant oversight efforts in American history, noting that it contains "startling details" and raises "critical questions." But all these months later, the report is still being suppressed. 

The Obama Administration has no valid reason to suppress the report. Its contents do not threaten national security, as evidenced by the fact that numerous figures who normally defer to the national-security state want it released with minor redactions. The most prominent of all is Vice President Joe Biden.

Another is Senator John McCain.

"What I have learned confirms for me what I have always believed and insisted to be true—that the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of prisoners is not only wrong in principle and a stain on our country’s conscience, but also an ineffective and unreliable means of gathering intelligence," he said in a statement. "... It is therefore my hope that this Committee will take whatever steps necessary to finalize and declassify this report, so that all Americans can see the record for themselves, which I believe will finally close this painful chapter for our country."

They are hardly alone. 

In order to mark the one-year anniversary of the report being adopted (only to be suppressed), the Center for Victims of Torture has assembled a list of 58 figures of note who insist that the public ought to be able to read the important document. It includes a total of eight U.S. senators and numerous former Obama Administration officials, including Harold Koh and Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering.

18 LA sheriff's deputies face US charges

ABC

Federal officials on Monday unsealed five criminal cases filed against 18 current and former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies as part of an FBI investigation into allegations of civil rights abuses and corruption in the nation's largest jail system. 

The charges were announced at a press conference after 16 of 18 defendants were arrested earlier in the day. They were expected to be arraigned later in U.S. District Court.

"These incidents did not take place in a vacuum - in fact, they demonstrated behavior that had become institutionalized," said U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. "The pattern of activity alleged in the obstruction of justice case shows how some members of the Sheriff's Department considered themselves to be above the law."

Four grand jury indictments and a criminal complaint allege unjustified beatings of jail inmates and visitors at downtown Los Angeles jail facilities, unjustified detentions and a conspiracy to obstruct a federal investigation into misconduct at the Men's Central Jail.

The FBI has been investigating allegations of excessive force and other misconduct at the county's jails since at least 2011. The official said the arrests were related to the abuse of individuals in the jail system and also allegations that sheriff's officials moved an FBI informant in the jails possibly to thwart their probe.

Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore referred calls to the FBI. He said Sheriff Lee Baca would provide a comment later Monday afternoon.

"We've cooperated fully with the FBI in their investigation and we'll continue to do so," Whitmore said.

One federal indictment filed Nov. 20 named seven deputies charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice. It is unclear from the indictment whether they are currently employed by the department.

Among those charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the 18-page indictment are two lieutenants, one of whom oversaw the department's safe jails program and another who investigated allegations of local crimes committed by sheriff's personnel, two sergeants and three deputies.

All seven are accused of trying to prevent the FBI from contacting or interviewing an inmate who was helping federal agents in a corruption and civil rights probe. One of the investigations involved trying to see if a deputy would accept a bribe to provide the inmate with a cell phone, court documents show.

The indictment alleges the inmate was moved to hide him and false entries were made in the sheriff's databases to make it appear as if he had been released.

In an attempt to find out more information about the investigation, one lieutenant and the two sergeants sought a court order to compel the FBI to provide documents, prosecutors said. When a state judge denied the proposed order, the two sergeants allegedly attempted to intimidate one of the lead FBI agents outside her house and falsely told her they were going to seek a warrant for her arrest, the indictment said.

Baca has acknowledged mistakes to a county commission reviewing reports of brutality, but he has also defended his department and distanced himself personally from the allegations.

He said he's made improvements including creating a database to track inmate complaints. Baca has also hired a new head of custody and rearranged his command staff.

Retired sheriff's Cmdr. Bob Olmsted, who is challenging Baca for the voter-elected position of sheriff in 2014, said in a statement Monday that the arrests "underscore the high level of corruption that has plagued the Sheriff's Department."

He said as a commander he tried "several times" to notify the sheriff and his command staff about "ongoing abuses and misconduct" in Men's Central Jail, but his "concerns fell on deaf ears."

"I knew I had to act, and as a result, I notified the FBI of the department's culture and acceptance of excessive force, inmate abuse, sheriff's gangs, and corruption," Olmsted said.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Sheriff's Department in 2012 claiming the sheriff and his top commanders had condoned violence against inmates. The organization released a report documenting more than 70 cases of misconduct by deputies.

Last month the county announced the appointment of veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor Max Huntsman to head a new office of inspector general that will oversee the Sheriff's Department.

The county's jails held more than 18,700 inmates as of Monday.

Baltimore police brutality settlements worth $113K on agenda

BatimoreSun

City officials are set to consider $113,000 in payments to settle two lawsuits alleging police brutality, including a case in which a well-known 77-year-old barber's arm was broken during an arrest.

Baltimore's Board of Estimates is scheduled to vote Wednesday on an award of $63,000 to Lenny Clay, the West Baltimore barber at Lenny's House of Naturals whose case sparked protests in 2009. The spending panel also has before it a $50,000 settlement with Anthony Keyes, 42, whom officers shocked with a Taser before arresting him on charges that were later dismissed.

The city's Law Department recommended the settlements because of "conflicting factual and legal concerns" and the "unpredictability of jury verdicts."

James E. Clay, who goes by the name "Lenny," was arrested Dec. 23, 2009, after he struck a parked car and continued driving, the city said. Clay, who was 73 at the time, did not hear the officers directing him to pull over and eventually stopped his vehicle near Leeds Street and Palormo Avenue, city lawyers said.

The officers, Sgt. Robert Brown and Lt. Sean Mahoney, removed Clay from the car. During the arrest, Clay suffered a broken arm, according to city documents.

Clay filed a $26 million lawsuit against the officers, alleging battery, excessive force and gross negligence. Clay, whose regular barbershop clients have included Rep. Elijah E. Cummings and former Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, repeatedly denied the officers' allegations that he resisted arrest and appeared intoxicated.

Schmoke once referred to Clay as the "Mayor of Poppleton." Friends said the barber spent countless nights on the streets trying to talk kids out of selling drugs, raised money for Pop Warner football league uniforms, and gave money to send talented students to private schools.

The Rev. C.D. Witherspoon, who was among those protesting Clay's arrest, on Monday called the incident "shameful."

"It was egregious, violent behavior," he said. "It really outraged the community. It's a shame the city has to foot the bill for police violence."

Occupy Oakland: Police Brutality Tab Reaches Nearly $2.9M

BlogsSfWeekly

The Oakland City Council has tentatively approved a $693,000 settlement for two of the Occupy protesters who say they were beaten and arrested by Oakland police during two separate Occupy demonstrations.

Roughly $645,000 of the payout will go to Afghanistan and Iraq war vet Kayvan Sabeghi, who claims he was beaten by Oakland police officer Frank Uu, who has since retired, on the evening of Nov. 2, 2011. The attack, which lacerated Sabeghi's spleen, was captured on video.

Neely Fuller on the Carl Nelson Show (9-24-2013)