The 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington bore little resemblance to the 1963 March on Washington in both style and substance. Not surprisingly, no one filled the shoes of Dr. Martin Luther King in addressing the tens of thousands present on August 24. There was mostly no urgency in the tone of the speakers in addressing the issues of jobs, freedom and justice. In comparing the differences and similarities of the 1963 March on Washington with the 50th Anniversary of the march, there were notable diverse differences and also stark similarities. Women were mostly absent from the 1963 march. Gays were silenced and diversity was absent in all other ways. In 2013, the program was one of the most diverse, discussing the stark reality of continued loss of freedoms for many Americans, mostly minorities. In 2013, women were front and center on the program. Fifty years ago, although the mother of the civil rights movement, Dr. Dorothy I. Height, sat on the podium alongside … [Read more...] about 50th Anniversary March on Washington with Women and Diversity
Archives for August 2013
New York Judge Halts Stop and Frisk
On Monday, July 12, a New York judge put a halt to stop and frisk laws which disproportionately discriminate against Blacks and Latinos. While the law is not always perfect, the issues of liberty and justice for all must co-exist with the right to fight crime. And in the New York laws of stop and frisk, the liberty and justice for all got lost in the process of stopping and frisking over 4 million persons with the vast majority being black ( 53%) and well over 20% being Latino. And the city's argument failed before Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan. The case will not end stop and frisk which is legal when applied legally and under the law. New York's law failed in that regard. The Court held that New York's stop and frisk law violated the constitutional rights of minorities. Judge Scheindlin in a 195 page opinion, at times, scolded the police and senior management for failing to even discuss at meetings the disparity in the application of the law … [Read more...] about New York Judge Halts Stop and Frisk
Racial Profiling and Stop and Frisk are the Same Old Song
From slavery days where free blacks had to show their papers or risk becoming the property of a white slave owner to today’s stop and frisk laws in New York, racial profiling is so ingrained in our society that it is now the norm. I won’t say it’s the new norm because racial profiling has been going on for as long as blacks have been in America. There is no simple fix and there is no such thing as “post racial” society. As the Motown Four Tops song says, it’s the same old song but with a different beat this time. In May, 2010, a lawsuit was filed against the New York City Police Department to stop storing in a database the names and information of persons who were stopped and frisked, arrested but without a criminal conviction. And just last week, the New York Police Department agreed to purge those names and information in their database, in compliance with a 2010 law. It’s ironic that the courts and a lawsuit had to get the police to be law abiding and compliant with the law. The … [Read more...] about Racial Profiling and Stop and Frisk are the Same Old Song
Is Stand Your Ground Self Defense or a Recipe to Justify Murder
In the aftermath of the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict for the killing of Trayvon Martin, one thing for sure is the Florida Stand Your Ground law must be put on trial. And just last week, another troubling Florida incident occurred with Roy Middleton, an unarmed 60 year old black man, who was shot at multiple times by two police, while standing on his own property, due to the robbery suspicions of the officers. The man was getting a cigarette out of his mother’s car. Fortunately, Mr. Middleton survived and ended up with non-life threatening injuries. And a high ranking officer, David Morgan stated that the officers followed proper protocol in almost killing an unarmed man on his own property. “Right now we are comfortable from a training perspective that our officers did follow standard protocols,” Morgan said. And in light of the civic groups including Dream Defenders, a group that has taken to the Florida Capitol in protests of the verdict, the Florida legislature has … [Read more...] about Is Stand Your Ground Self Defense or a Recipe to Justify Murder