Stop-and-Frisk Judge Thrown Off Case
A federal appeals court stayed Judge Shira Scheindlin’s ruling that stop-and-frisk, as practiced by the New York City police, is unconstitutional, and removed Scheindlin from the case for bias against cops. However, that doesn’t phase Robert Gangi, of the Urban Justice Center’s Police Reform Organizing Project. “Our judgment is that, while litigation and legislation can be helpful, they are not the critical components to the ultimate success of the police reform movement,” said Gangi. “The politics of the issue have changed, dramatically.” Gangi is convinced that Democrat Bill de Blasio, the city’s next likely mayor, will eliminate the worst abuses of stop-and-frisk.
A Slap in the Face
“My immediate reaction is that the federal appeals court stopped-and-frisked Judge Scheindlin,” said Carl Dix, a co-founder of Stop Stop-and-Frisk, which launched a campaign of direct action protests at police precincts across New York, two years ago. The panel’s action is a “slap in the face of all of the people who hate stop-and-frisk,” he said. “Them finding impropriety in Judge Scheindlin’s handling of the case, but seeing no impropriety in the way stop-and-frisk demonizes and criminalizes Black and Latino youth – that’s the real story, here.”
Don Obama and the Health Insurance Mob
The Affordable Care Act is neither affordable nor universal, said Dr. Margaret Flowers, co-director of It’s Our Economy and one of the authors of the recent article, “Obamacare: The Biggest Insurance Scam in History.” “They’re marketing the insurance products for the insurance companies, paying people to knock on doors,” said Flowers. “We’re spending billions of taxpayers dollars to subsidize the purchase of private insurance. What better deal could there possibly be for a private insurance company?”
Caribbean Slavery Suit: Reparations or Pay-Off?
The 12 nations of the Caribbean economic community, plus Haiti and Surinam, plan to sue Britain, France and the Netherlands for the crime of slavery. However, the plaintiffs’ lawyers are already talking about a settlement. “Reparations is an issue whose time has come,” said Omali Yeshitela, head of the African People’s Socialist Party and chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition. But, it seems that the Caribbean leaders are “asking for a kind of pay-off, and nothing that actually challenges the relationships of power and the economic relationships that exist between Europe and the oppressed nations of the world.”
Sociologists Boycott Israel
Dr. Johnny Williams, professor of sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut, said the Association of Humanist Sociology has joined the global boycott Israel campaign. Dr. Williams, a vice president of the association, said his colleagues demand Israel end its colonization and occupation of Palestinian lands, recognize the full citizenship rights of Palestinian Israelis, and allow Palestinian exiles to return to their homeland. The association felt compelled to join the boycott because “sociology is about transforming the human societies that we find ourselves in. It is nor merely about interpreting data.”
“Soul Summit” Recounts Legacy
Black cultural and media practitioners gathered recently at pubic television’s WNET, in New York, to discuss the legacy of “Soul,” the 1968-73 public affairs program produced by the late Ellis Haizlip. Such programs were a response to the Black rebellions of the Sixties, said Dr. Todd Burroughs, an independent journalist and authority on African American media. Haizlip was able to convince Black artists “to talk about their art as Black people engaged in a struggle for Black liberation,” said Burroughs. Funding for the genre dried up in favor of “shows that would allow a more comfortable viewing experience.”
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: One hour.
Sonya Massey’s brutal murder at the hands of the police has resulted in anguish and anger but no difference in how state violence is protested. Instead, we see surrender to the crumbs of condolences…
For the late Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Black music was a tool in the struggle for Black liberation, and not what it has mostly become today: a retrograde appendage to neoliberalism and white power.
Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report editor and columnist, discusses observing the recent elections in Venezuela and why the U.S. still seeks to undermine that democracy.
Rwanda weaponizes the Rwandan Genocide to justify its violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), just as Israel weaponizes the Holocaust to justify its violence in Gaza and the West Bank.
The visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States highlights the role of imperialism in the genocide in Gaza.
