DID YOU KNOW THIS? You must see this crime!!!

Chamberlain, a 68-year-old African American and former Marine, was shot dead by police in his own home in White Plains, New York, after he mistakenly set off his LifeAid medical alert pendant. The Westchester District Attorney says no police officers will be charged in the fatal shooting of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. after a grand jury declined to indict any of the officers involved.

We air newly released audio and video of the shooting, as well from his sister’s call to police as she tried to defuse the situation. This is what they call “protect and Serve”.

And that is my Thought Provoking Perspective…

Thank you Democracy Now! 
You must see this!!!

The Beating And The Aftermath

It’s hard to believe that two decades have passed since the beating of Rodney King and the verdict that resulted in the most violent episode of social unrest in U.S. history, which unfolded before our eyes. Maybe I should qualify that to say in modern times, because there are many instances of unrest and riots that, in my opinion, were worst.

Nonetheless, the crime in this case occurred when four white policemen were accused of delivering a vicious beating unto Mr. King, a year before, during a traffic stop. The criminals were acquitted and the city of LA exploded. Lest be mindful that the beating was captured on videotaped and the whole world saw what African Americans have alleged for years.

Since America has been America it has faced challenges as it relates to racial tension that has divided blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, and nearly all non-whites. Is it getting better? I would say no and I would use the current case of Trayvon Martin as an example of the disparity of justice as an example. It has been so bad so long, with respect to racial profiling, it's hard to see the difference, particularly in many African American communities. Let me add this is not unlike what happens in many African American communities.

I’m sure if we could put ourselves in the shoes of King, now 47, who must continue to live in the shadow of the beating he took from the four cops in 1991. This event fueled an already heated racial tension that existed in Southern California, particularly between the African American community and the Los Angeles Police Department.

To be sure, King is still pained by the incident and his life since has not been easy. He has had several run ins with the law, battled depression, alcohol and drug abuse, as seen on VH1's Celebrity Rehab in 2008. He made a statement during an interview where he said, "I wouldn't want to be in black skin, 30, 40, 50 years ago. I wouldn't want to undergo what they went through." King went on to say the incident “exposed the LAPD for what it was, and it exposed some of the courts and brought attention to people's minds to what was so unfair.”

The uprising killed 55 people, destroyed 1,573 businesses and cost $1 billion in the initial three days, eclipsing the damage done in the Watts Riot of 1965. Like Watts, the hardest hit area was South Central, home to much of the city's African American population. I suppose the only positive to come out of this was that in 1992, 60% of the LAPD was white - now it is 60% minority.

On the other hand there are still the institutional issues as they were in 1992. For instance, the graduation rate, according to most recent Los Angeles Unified School District statistics is 56%, well below the national average of 75%, meaning jobs in California's increasingly technological and skilled trades-based economy are less accessible to those without at least a high school diploma.

I wanted to mention this huge event because with what may happen in the Trayvon Martin case we may see history repeat itself, as history has been known to do. God forbid Trayvon’s assassin should get off, found not guilty, like the murderers of Emmett Till and as we saw with these cop who beat King nearly to death.

Just saying, and that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

RELIVE HISTORY AND SEE THE INSANITY 

Shock and Awe!

I think the trepidation of the title is appropriate in light of the circumstances of today, particularly as it relates to African Americans. Since the Trayvon Martin case has, unbearably, consumed our consciousness they are now calling racism "bias".

Admittedly, we all know there is a long history of African American suffering from injustice in the state of Florida. Does anyone remember the incident in “Rosewood”? By the way, Malcolm X famously said, “anywhere south of Canada is south” which means injustice is embedded in the culture of America.

The Rosewood incident is not withstanding to the countless events where African Americans, and others, have come up on the short end of the long arm of the law in Florida. This police department where the Martin murder occurred has an unconsciously notorious history of abuse at the hands of the law. Before I go any further, let me state clearly that my interpretation of the Martin murder has changed. It was an ASSASSINATION!

Let me go further and connect this to the age old theory of States Rights, which means in a society or at least the belief in a dynamic that those who feel entitled are now endangered species. The extreme elements then revert back to what is instilled in their consciousness that the promise of Manifest Destiny is dead.

America, today, where millions of white people out of work, a president of color, and some say outnumbered by a multi-cultural society has given rise to hate. This I would argue is a huge problem concerning the conversation of racism that has raised its ugly head in this continuous political environment. Maybe this is synonymous with what some call a cultural of whiteness with the feeling of entitlement being lost.

When we talk about race, the major problem that exit is that most of society believes it does not exist. For example in 1963 85% of white people surveyed said black people had as much chance of receiving a good education as white children. Now, let’s look at this statistics! Brown v Board was decided in 1954 that gave us those profound words - "With all deliberate speed" but in fact it was not for 13 years that equal education showed any semblance of reality to the ruling in the form of education.

There were many whites in 1963 in the same survey that said, most whites thought everything was fine in terms of race relation. They also said Dr. King was wrong to stir up the coloreds and they were happy with their current state at the time. I will remind you that this was the same argument that those who where ardent slaveholder and supporter of that immoral institution made at the time of slavery. Also be reminded that almost all president up to Lincoln owned slaves.

So it is my contention that if the system is designed to protect the system - how can people of color who were referred to in the constitution as being less than human expect justice for all? I’ll leave you to answer this question. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective.

http://johntwills.com

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x52xIaVPtdw]

Justice or Just-Us

Today was one of those days where I awoke to hear the disturbing news concerning the outcome of a court case in Oakland California involving the verdict of a police shooting of an unarmed man, which from my perspective was murder. If memory serves me correctly Moses came off of Mount Sinai with two tablets given to him by God that said, “thou shall not kill”, which means murdering a human being is a capital sin. I wonder if there was a subtext on the tablet that says unless you are the police because we see repeated cases where the judicial system places the people who took an oath to protect and serve above the law.

This case involved an “incident” where a former BART Officer, Johannes Mehserle, on the morning of Jan. 1, 2009, fired a fatal shot into the back of Oscar Grant III while he was on the ground being restrained by several Officers. Mehserle is white, Grant was black. The Officers excuse to justify his action was that he was “reaching for his taser”, which by the way happened to be on the opposite side of his body. So the jury was required to second-guess whether the transit-system cop intended to reach for his gun or his Taser.

In this case like many others, i.e., Rodney King that was among the most racially polarizing cases in California where four Los Angeles officers were acquitted, was captured on videotape. In fact, there were at least five videotapes by different bystanders of this shooting incident. Now, in the mind of a reasonable person and what I saw, it looked like murder. Yet, the verdict that was rendered by the jury was clearly different to that opinion. The jury said, felt, believed, and viewed this crime from what they saw “through evidence” as a case that showed an act of involuntary manslaughter and an unintentional accident due to criminal negligence.

Apparently the jurors didn't believe Mehserle acted without regard for Grant's life nor did they believe he was provoked and acted in the heat of passion. Instead, they found that he acted negligently, but without malice resulting in a guilty verdict of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a 2 – 4 year jail term or less depending upon “time served”.

It was a quick verdict. The case was given to the jury on Friday. Monday was a holiday. A juror was sick Tuesday. And then on Wednesday, one juror was replaced because of a previously scheduled vacation, forcing the jury to restart deliberations with a new member. Talks that day were cut short because of another juror's medical appointment. So Thursday was the first time jurors had the opportunity to deliberate for a full day. But by mid-afternoon, they had reached a verdict.

It was reported that this was never a clear-cut case in spite of the overwhelming video evidence we saw “with our lying eyes” over and over again. These same voices said there's an important point to remember here: Reasonable minds could have looked at the evidence from the three-week trial and come to different conclusions. Therefore, with respect for the legal process and respecting the jurors' verdict that might not be perfect in the minds of many, it was a rational outcome concerning a reasoned process. In other words the word ‘guilty’ is not expected to be heard involving cops.

The jury’s conviction on a lesser charge than murder raised concerns of a repeat of the unrest in Oakland that followed in the initial days after the shooting. There were scattered incidents of violence reported Thursday night and unfortunately those fears have been realized. Police arrested at least 83 people in Oakland Thursday night for failing to disperse, resisting arrest, burglary, vandalism and assaulting a police officer. Protesters defiled several downtown smashing windows, sporadic looting, busted doorways and some newly scrawled walls with graffiti.

Let me be clear, laws are necessary as it relates to maintaining civilization and it is required to have law enforcement to insure order or as they say protect and serve. However, every police shooting, particularly those of this nature, is not justified and deaths like Grant's must not be forgotten or tolerated because if history is any indication there are sure to be more in the future.

Let’s not resign ourselves to accept that there is an unwritten code of unfairness and wrong that is engrained within the system of justice that cannot be addressed and corrected. Maybe the comedic genius Richard Pryor was right when he famously said; as it relates to JUSTICE what we get is JUST-US.

SEE FOR YOURSELF!!!