We paid attention and took notice of the disturbing trend. We read the stories and saw the videos of not only blatant police harassment but of vicious police violence visited not on black men – but on black and brown women. All across the country we saw it over and over - black women pushed, punched, kicked, and at times suffering this violence while being handcuffed by the police. In those cases that did managed to reach national attention, we saw that these black women were college professors, house wives, bathing suit clad teenagers and yes – even pregnant black women felt the brunt of this police violence.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
What really happened to Sandra Bland?
By Charles Brooks
We paid attention and took notice of the disturbing trend. We read the stories and saw the videos of not only blatant police harassment but of vicious police violence visited not on black men – but on black and brown women. All across the country we saw it over and over - black women pushed, punched, kicked, and at times suffering this violence while being handcuffed by the police. In those cases that did managed to reach national attention, we saw that these black women were college professors, house wives, bathing suit clad teenagers and yes – even pregnant black women felt the brunt of this police violence.
We paid attention and took notice of the disturbing trend. We read the stories and saw the videos of not only blatant police harassment but of vicious police violence visited not on black men – but on black and brown women. All across the country we saw it over and over - black women pushed, punched, kicked, and at times suffering this violence while being handcuffed by the police. In those cases that did managed to reach national attention, we saw that these black women were college professors, house wives, bathing suit clad teenagers and yes – even pregnant black women felt the brunt of this police violence.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
The Throwaways: who are they?
Curiously, let’s
start with the name of the film – The Throwaways. What immediately comes to mind when you think
of term throwaways - what comes to mind first? Items, things that you no longer
want or need. An item that is no longer working or has passed its usefulness to
you. Items or things that do not meet
your needs or demands any more. Spoiled food, batteries, shoes, clothes…the
list can go on and on for sure. This film, The
Throwaways is not about things but about people – people who are routinely
dismissed, neglected, and yes – thrown away. Think about that for minute or two
- the high school dropout, unemployed, the homeless, the drug addict, and yes,
your convicted ex-felon are your typical throwaways. There’s this notion that they are less than
human with little or no value. Simply put,
they’re not look upon in the same way as those whose humanity is recognized. Featured in the film is Michelle Alexander, author of widely acclaimed, The
New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the age of Age of Colorblindness explains
it this way in the film:”… That’s ultimately
what The Throwaways is all about, right… groups of people who are
defined as different enough that you don’t have to care and can be just thrown
away…”
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
What really happened to Freddy Gray?
With each incident of police violence unleashed
on yet another unarmed African-American – another wave of consciousness sweeps
the country as new rebellious uprisings emerge.
There are black and brown communities all over the country – the
constant targets of police violence – who have said no more and are actively
galvanizing, mobilizing, organizing and yes, resisting. There is something emerging in this country
that can longer be contained – and we recently bore witness to that in
Baltimore, Maryland.
For the last two months there’s been relatively two
burning questions asked by those in and out of Baltimore - what exactly happened to Freddy Gray and how did he die? Since Mr. Gray died from horrific spinal injuries
occurring while in police custody - these questions were left unanswered only
for the public to draw their own conclusions – until now. The recent “leaking” of the autopsy report to
the Baltimore Sun is supposed to finally address these questions. The “leaked” autopsy report revealed that Mr. Gray
suffered from what the report described as a “high energy” injury while making
a comparison to injuries suffered from shallow-water diving accidents. The
report states: The type of
fracture/dislocation documented in imaging studies on admission is a high
energy injury most often caused by abrupt deceleration of a rotated head on a
hyperflexed neck, such as seen in shallow water diving incidents.”
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Pres. Obama's Task Force: The Battle for the Public Trust begins...
By Charles Brooks
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Official White House Photo by Pete Souza |
The interim report
recently released by President Obama’s task force on policing will shed some
light on their view of the public trust - a view that is not shared by those
who seek more than just a laundry list of recommendations to address police
violence. The report was released just
days before the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report of their
investigation into the Ferguson Police Department – a flashpoint of racial
frustrations and deep seated tensions unleashed in the face of aggressive and
excessive policing. A rather scathing
report that detailed the apparent racist activities engaged not just by the
Ferguson police officers but the Ferguson municipal government. However, the
explosiveness of DOJ’s Ferguson report on the Ferguson Police Department should
not be allowed to overshadow the president’s task force interim report because
as the president himself said: “This time will be different,” President Obama
said, regarding the effectiveness of the task force compared to prior ones, “because
the President of the United States is deeply vested in making it different.”
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Attorney General Confirmation Hearings: "...I will be Loretta Lynch."
By
Charles Brooks
Confirmation
hearings were recently held for
President’s Obama’s nominee for U.S. Attorney General, Ms. Loretta Lynch to
replace Eric Holder, who resigned four months ago. Ms. Lynch currently serves as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. If confirmed, Ms. Lynch would be the first
African American woman to lead the Department of Justice – certainly a plus for
the President’s legacy. Since the start of the Obama administration, both the President
and Attorney General – both African Americans – have been the source of some
very intense opposition and hostility from Republicans. When Holder announced
his resignation, he was immediately described as “the most divisive U.S.
Attorney General in modern history” by Republican Congressman Dan Issa, who
serves as Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. This is what Mr. Issa had to say: “Eric
Holder is the most divisive U.S. Attorney General in modern history and, in a
vote supported by 17 Democratic House Members, has the dubious historic
distinction of being the first Attorney General held in criminal contempt by
the U.S. House of Representatives,” said Chairman Issa. “Time and again, Eric
Holder administered justice as the political activist he describes himself as
instead of an unbiased law enforcement official. By needlessly injecting
politics into law enforcement, Attorney General Holder’s legacy has eroded more
confidence in our legal system than any Attorney General before him. Republicans have attacked
Mr. Holder on critical national issues such as voting rights, terrorism, and
immigration while pointing to controversial issues such as the Fast and Furious
and IRS scandals.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
2015 State of the Union: "...Imagine if we did something different..."
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Official White House Photo by Pete Souza |
By Charles Brooks
Typically
the president uses the State of the Union to outline their political agenda for
the year as well as their vision for the nation. The president makes his address not just to both
chambers of Congress but also to the players of national government who are in
attendance – members of the President’s cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and
Supreme Court justices. The State of the
Union provides an annual opportunity to identify those critical political issues
as the national priorities. Yet despite heavy losses suffered by the Democrats in
the 2014 mid-terms, President Obama appeared before the nation apparently bolstered
by recent reports of higher approval ratings.
Just a few days ago President Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union address where he outlined the accomplishments and achievements of his
administration, “…Tonight, after a breakthrough year for
America, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since
1999. Our unemployment rate is now lower than it was before the financial
crisis. More of our kids are graduating than ever before; more of our people
are insured than ever before; we are as free from the grip of foreign oil as
we’ve been in almost 30 years.”
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Official White House Photo by Pete Souza |
![]() |
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza |
Internationally, the president discussed trade agreements, identified climate change as the “greatest challenge”, mentioned the efforts to fight an Ebola pandemic, renewed his six year old promise to close Guantanamo Bay - again, and repeated his proposed changes to an antiquated 50 year old ineffective policy towards Cuba. But this year’s state of the union address was different – there was a different feel. The president admitted as much when he said this year there will be no checklist – his submission of the budget will suffice. There were no catchy slogans this year where last year, 2014 was to be known as the Year of Action symbolized by presidential veto and executive orders.
The truth is that while the president is showing higher approval ratings – the critical question will be whether the higher ratings are enough to enable President Obama steer the political narrative that will inevitably drive the national debate. Consider for a moment on the heels of devastating losses in the 2014 elections, the president has now entered the lame duck years of his presidency, and he will now be facing Republican majorities in both chambers on Congress – the House and the Senate. Meanwhile the Republican Party's agenda has set their sights on repealing the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare), anti-abortion bills, and of course, tax cuts. The president will be hard pressed to move his agenda forward in this hostile political climate where Republicans are empowered on the national and state level. "...Imagine if we did something different...” the president asks.
But the significance of the president’s state of the union address is not so much about what was discussed but what was not discussed – or discussed enough. Issues such as income inequality, K-12 education, criminal justice reform and policing quickly comes to mind. Disturbing was the president’s stance on advocating for political prisoners abroad while refusing to acknowledge America’s political prisoners. Although, the president has proposed transformative changes for community colleges he remains muted on K-12 education. The president’s plan to address increasing income inequality appears to be based on his proposal to raise taxes on the high income earners and place fees on the richest financial institutions and then redistribute the money to pay for free community college tuition, and tax credits targeted for the middle class – “middle-class economics” says the president. President Obama never mentioned the poor or poverty – not even once during the nearly 60 minute speech. But what about the millions who have not reached middle class status? Or the dim prospects of these bills passing through a Republican controlled Congress? Certainly the political drama will be played out before the national stage over the next two years for all to witness – will the president’s pragmatism get bipartisan support? What will be the president’s legacy?
But what about criminal justice reform in the aftermath of the visceral public response to violent policing? President Obama indeed mentioned the need for criminal justice reform but in light of the world wide protests raising the public consciousness about policing – the president failed to cast his spotlight by not providing details as to what criminal justice reform would look like. He even refused to relent to the obvious symbolism to having the parents of Tamir Rice and Michael Brown, and the wife of Eric Garner in attendance as his guests: “…We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York. But surely we can understand a father who fears his son can’t walk home without being harassed. Surely we can understand the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift,” President Obama went on to say, “Surely we can agree it’s a good thing that for the first time in 40 years, the crime rate and the incarceration rate have come down together, and use that as a starting point for Democrats and Republicans, community leaders and law enforcement, to reform America’s criminal justice system so that it protects and serves us all.” The president’s lack of detail regarding his idea for criminal justice reform is particularly disappointing considering the Justice Department's recent refusal to federally charge police officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown.
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