A Day of Blogging for Justice: Standing Up Against the Police Pre-Trial Electrocution - April 24, 2009

Hat Tip and Shout Out to the Villager at the blog Electronic Village for his recent blog post. Check out how the afrospear is blogging about the issue of the tasing, beating and electrocution of Black folks in America. He writes about A Day of Blogging for Justice: Standing Up Against the Police Pre-Trial Electrocution

The AfroSpear is calling on all bloggers to join us in a Day of Blogging for Justice: Standing Up Against the Police Pre-Trial Electrocution on Friday, April 24, 2009.

The rules are simple:

1. Share a post on your blog focused on your concerns about the tasering of Blacks folks.
2. Send an email to AfricanAmericanPoliticalPundit@gmail.com so that we may document everyone's participation.

He gives examples of what bloggers have been reporting on the police pre-trial electrocution:

• Afro-Netizen - Taser Death of Black man by White cop near Jean ...


• Black Voices - 21st Century Whips


• Diane Dimond - The 50-Thousand Volt Solution


• Electronic Village - Police Taser 16-Year Old Robert Mitchell to Death


• Electronic Village - Taser Policy Defined by 'Use of Force Continuum'


• Jack and Jill Politics - A Day of Blogging for Justice - Against Extra-Judicial ...


• Mondoglobo - Lousiana Police Electrocute Handcuffed Man in Grocery Store
• 
  


• Pam's House Blend - NC: More Freestyle Law Enforcement Death-by-Taser


• Problem Chylde - Tasing as Deadly Force


• Race Wire - Black Teenager Killed by Cop’s Taser


• Tasered While Black - Black Man Pepper Sprayed, Batoned, Tased ...


• Tasered While Black - Police Taser and Kill Black Man and Laugh About It


• Tasered While Black - Black Man Tased and Beaten in Peoria, IL.


• The Super Spade - Tasered While Black


• Ultraviolet Underground - Electrocuted While Black

I like the villager, and so many other bloggers hope that you will participate. Please read villager's complete post on A Day of Blogging for Justice: Standing Up Against the Police Pre-Trial Electrocution

Related Blog Posts

15 Year old Detroit boy with asthma dies after being Tasered While Black

From African American Political Pundit

Fort Worth Police Tasered a Mentally Ill Black Man To Death

From African American Political Pundit

Black U.S. Actress Trina Johnson Jailed in Suriname, South America

Without having personally reviewed the facts in the case below, it does seem to me appropriate that US Congressional Staff use their good offices to investigate. Members of the public and news media can call the telephone number listed below for additional documents and the press packet:

Black Woman Entertainer Wrongly Imprisoned in Suriname, Northern South America. Please help liberate Trina Johnson!

Dr. E. Faye Williams is asking BWFO4Change to call Senator Harry Reid's office in Nevada, at 702/388-5020, to ask him to help liberate Nevada resident and entertainer Trina Johnson, who is imprisoned in Suriname, South America.

Trina is wrongly imprisoned for something her promoter did. She's a professional impersonator and her contract explains that she was an impersonator. Yet, the promoter sold her as the real "Toni Braxton" and later skipped out with the money from the sale of show tickets, and left her in the country. Trina was arrested and has been in jail for 2 months. And, we have learned a South American prison is a cold, lonely and awful place!

Trina is a resident of Nevada--entertainment capital of the world and that's why Senator Reid should lead the effort to get her--a U.S. Citizen out!.

Please send this to the media. Ask them to talk about the case and raise questions about what the U.S. is doing to help bring Trina home. See attached info. Her contract clearly says she is an "Impersonator"--not Toni Braxton herself.

Whenever anything happens with White girls or women, it's all over the media, as it should be, and the country's resources are delivered to do everything possible to resolve the matter. Let's make it happen for our little sister. Dr. E. Faye Williams has read all of the documents and determined that Trina is not the crook--it's the person who set her up and skipped out on her. Please make the call. Remember, it's West Coast time (3 hours different from ET.)

Share this with friends and ask them to help in any way they can. If you personally know a Congressional Black Caucus Member or staffer, call them, too. If you have ideas on what we can do, share with Dr. Williams--contact information below.

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.
National Chair
National Congress of Black Women, Inc.
1251 4th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20024
202/678-6788
Web: Info@nationalcongressbw.org

Color of Change Requests Support for US Sen. Jim Webb's Equal Justice Prison Reforms

We're all looking for leadership toward equal justice for Blacks in America and Color of Change is both advocating and requesting support for an elected advocate, saying that US Sen. Jim Webb from Virginia is providing some of that sorely needed leadership on prison incarceration reform. CoC is asking us to raise our voices in support of equal criminal justice:

Our prison system is broken. We know it and so does Senator Webb. Can you take a moment and support his call for reform?

Dear Francis,

When it comes to issues plaguing Black and low-income communities, a White senator from the South is the last person we'd expect to go out on a limb and sound the alarm.Senator Jim Webb from Virginia just did exactly that when he boldly called out the over-imprisonment of Black folks and the serious problems with our prison system. Most importantly, he's demanding big changes.¹

Now it's up to us to seize the moment and create the pressure necessary to achieve true reform.

The first step is publicly thanking Senator Webb. Our praise will show other politicians that when they take risks and step out on critical issues like prison reform, we will have their backs. It will also show that everyday people stand with Webb and are serious about this issue. Please join us, and ask your friends and family to do the same:

http://colorofchange.org/webb/?id=1780-175369

In recent years, politicians have lacked the courage to create meaningful prison reform. They've been paralyzed by the fear of being branded as "soft on crime." They've been held hostage by prison guard unions and industry lobbies. And the communities most affected--Black and low-income communities--have had a hard time getting a seat at the table and making our voices heard.

Our country has a clear problem. With just 5% of the world's population, America holds nearly 25% of the world's reported prison population. Our prison population has quadrupled since 1984, and most of the increase comes from people being imprisoned for drug offenses--mostly minor and nonviolent.²

Despite the fact that there is no statistical difference in drug use between different racial groups, harsh drug laws have had a devastating, disproportionate effect on Black communities. While only 12% of the U.S. population is African-American, Black people make up 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.³

It's surprising and encouraging that someone like Senator Webb is speaking out in this way. Webb is a White politician from Virginia, a Southern "law-and-order" state that has abolished parole and executed more people than any state besides Texas.⁴ He has nothing to gain politically from this--it's an act of true conviction.

By eloquently making the case for reform and calling for a National Criminal Justice Commission, Webb has created a major opening to address these issues. And it comes at a time when there are increasing signs the country is ready for reform. New York's governor and state legislature just struck a deal to reform the state's "Rockefeller drug laws"--some of the harshest laws in the country, and a great example of the failed status quo.⁵ A panel of federal judges has just told California it must reduce its prison population by a third to alleviate the torturous conditions stemming from overcrowding.⁶ And at the same time that more people are recognizing the deep injustices in our system, the economic crisis is forcing elected officials at all levels of government to realize they can't afford to keep directing so many taxpayer dollars toward law enforcement, jails, and prisons.⁷

We need to make the most of this moment. Take a minute to thank Senator Jim Webb for his courageous stand and support his call for a meaningful commission. And when you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same.

http://colorofchange.org/webb/?id=1780-175369

Thanks and Peace,

-- James, Gabriel, Clarissa, William, Dani and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
April 9th, 2009

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU--your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or corporations and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

https://secure.colorofchange.org/contribute/?id=1780-175369

References:

1. "Senator Jim Webb's Floor Speech to Introduce 'The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009'," 3-26-2009
http://tinyurl.com/chxaup

2. "Why we must fix our prisons," Parade, 3-29-2009
http://www.parade.com/news/2009/03/why-we-must-fix-our-prisons.html

3. See reference 2

4. "Webb Sets His Sights On Prison Reform," Washington Post, 12-29-2008
http://tinyurl.com/8mgyf2

5. "More on Albany's Rockefeller Drug Law Reform," Village Voice, 3-27-2009
http://tinyurl.com/da2xlw

6. "Court Orders California to Cut Prison Population," New York Times, 2-9-2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/us/10prison.html

7. "A Different Drug Czar Signals Shift Away From Emphasis On Punishment," Hartford Courant, 3-22-2009
http://tinyurl.com/c36ubb

New Black FaceBook Group Reports Houston-Area Strategy to End Color-Aroused Traffic Stop Police Persecution

There is a new Black-led Facebook group, called "Slow Down Police Color Aroused Traffic Stops and Brutality," Seventy-two FaceBook members Have joined the group in its first twenty-hour Tewhe group encourages drivers in Houston, TX, particularly, and elsewhere, to scrupulously follow all traffic laws intended for public safety, even if doing so to the satisfaction of color-aroused police causes traffic to slow to a standstill in Houston, TX and elsewhere.

Phil Pierre-Paul, a young Black college student and writer for New Jersey Institute of Tecnhology Stute College Newspaper, who started the group to follow this movement, says,

Black people are tired of constantly being regarded as [traffic] law violators . . . In response, some have started a campaign to protest police color aroused traffic stops and brutality. The campaign is intended to raise awareness of driving carefully and to show participants determination to be law-abiding citizens. [even if the effect of such scrupulous obedience to each and every traffic law is that streets and highways slow to a crawl, or become entirely impassible. . . . As a young black blogger, I have created this group to follow this new initiative of driving carefully. Facebook Group This new Facebook blogs is repleat with Texas laws citations and advocacy links that suggest

strategies for driving slowly while following the applicable Houston Texas traffic laws, to avoid being stopped by police and also to demonstrate the enormous commercial, tourist, and shopping dislocations that will result from Black drivers exhibiting the level of Hoston ,TX police and elsewhere.

I certainly hope these efforts are succesful, since the only proven way to make whites concerned about Black civil rights issues is to demonstrate how they effect whites as well. The scrupulous driving that will be required t stop traffic stops of Blacks will inevitably slow down Houston, TX highways and elsewhere, making Blacks and white drivers allles in this effort to reduce unwarranted police stops and free the highways for dricing once again.

Draft Blog-Circulated Petition Against Traffic Stop Police Brutality

To the Civil Rights Division, US Justice Department:

We respectfully request that the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice review events surrounding the epidemic of police brutality against Black drivers and passengers at traffic stops to identify and prosecute cases in which the civil rights of drivers and passengers have been violated.

Law abiding Black professionals including retired police officers and nationally recognized sports figures caring for family members in times of emergency have been taunted, harassed and humiliated. Black and pregnant women rushing to the hospital have been stopped and denied medical care, leading to miscarriages, with the offending police officers asking, "How is that my problem?"

Each of the abused is but one example of the the menace that Black motorists and passengers face throughout the United States, simply for driving while Black.

According to a 2007 US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics press release:

• The most common reason for police contact in 2002 and 2005 was a driver in a traffic stop, accounting for about 40 percent of all contacts.
• Blacks were almost three times as likely as whites to report that excessive force was used against them in contacts with law enforcement, while Latinos reported excessive force twice as often as whites.
• Police searched three times as many Blacks and Hispanic drivers as white drivers.

We urge the US Justice Department to adopt a policy of vigorously investigating complaints of traffic stop police brutality in every state where it occurs.

We urge that Justice Department financial support for state and local police activities be conditioned upon findings that such police organizations vigorously screen, discipline and terminate police officials whose color-aroused and abusive behaviors, and tolerance of such behaviors, make all police activity seem suspect in minority communities.

We further urge that police make an effort to distinguish between law abiding Americans and others, rather than treating all Black Americans as guilty and inherently insusceptible of being proved innocent.

To underscore our determination that law-abiding Black drivers and passengers be perceived and treated as such, we hereby announce our intention to scrupulously observe each and every traffic law intended for the protection of the public, in every case, and we willingly accept as a group -- with patience, prayer and diligent meditation -- any traffic delays that may result from our determination to be perceived and treated as models of perfect traffic law obedience.

We urge all Americans to be patient with us as we demonstrate, through rigorously responsible driving behavior, that our greatest priority when driving, in addition to traffic safety, is that we be treated with the respect and consideration that all human beings deserve, regardless of how long it takes us to get there.

Signed,

1. ____________________

2. ____________________

3. ____________________

Dallas Police Officer Should Be Fired!

AAPP: More heartless bullying of black men by police, again ... caught on tape. This time it's Police delaying an NFL player from seeing his dying mother-In-Law. The NY Times says it best when they said, a Dallas police officer makes death even worse. The Dallas News is also on point when they write, Editorial: Dallas cop doesn't deserve his badge.

As reported by the Associated Press, A Dallas police officer was put on desk duty after pulling over an NFL player rushing to see his dying mother-in-law in the hospital and holding him in the hospital parking lot as she died. Dallas Police Officer Robert Powell stopped Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats' SUV outside Baylor Regional Medical Center during the early hours of March 18 after Moats rolled through a red light.

The Dallas Morning News provides an unedited Dallas police dashboard camera video shows traffic stop of NFL player Ryan Moats. The Dallas Morning News provides the nearly 17-minute video shows the entire incident involving Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats and Dallas police officer Robert Powell. Moats was rushing his wife and two of her family members to a hospital, where his mother-in-law lay dying. She died while Moats and his wife's grandfather waited outside the hospital for the officer to issue a ticket. Edited

Moats and his family had gotten a call saying his mother-in-law was dying.
Video from a dashboard camera inside the officer's vehicle, obtained by Dallas-Fort Worth station WFAA-TV, revealed an intense exchange in which the officer threatened to jail Moats.
He ordered Moats' wife, Tamishia Moats, to get back in the SUV, but she ignored him and rushed inside the hospital to see her mother, Jonetta Collinsworth, 45, and was by her side when she died a short time later. She had breast cancer.

"Get in there," said Powell, yelling at 27-year-old Tamishia Moats, as she exited the car. "Let me see your hands!"

"Excuse me, my mom is dying," Tamishia Moats said. "Do you understand?"

Moats explained that he waited until there was no traffic before proceeding through the red light and that his mother-in-law was dying, right then.

Moats couldn't find his insurance paperwork, and was desperate to leave.
"Listen, if I can't verify you have insurance...," Officer Powell said. "My mother-in-law is dying," Moats interrupted.

As they argued, the officer got irritated. "Shut your mouth," the officer said. "You can either settle down and cooperate or I can just take you to jail for running a red light."
By the time the 26-year-old NFL player received a ticket and a lecture from Powell, 25, at least 13 minutes had passed.

When he and Collinsworth's father entered the hospital, they learned Collinsworth was dead, The Dallas Morning News reported in today's editions.
The Moatses, who are black, said they can't help but think that race might have played a part in how Powell, who is white, treated them.

"I think he should lose his job," said Ryan Moats, a Dallas native.

Powell was placed on disptach duty pending an investigation. The ticket issued to Moats was dismissed, Lt. Andy Harvey told WFAA-TV.

"There were some things that were said that were disturbing, to say the least," he told the Dallas Morning News.

Powell told police officials he believed he was doing his job, said Dallas Police Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson.

AAPP: What do you think should happen to this cops job? Should he be fired? Was he just doing his job?

Cross posted at African American Political Pundit.com

Black Man Tased and Beaten in Peoria, IL.

A Peoria man was punched in the face, kicked, stomped on at least 20 times and repeatedly stunned with a Taser during his arrest by police after leading them on a brief chase in May.

---

Peoria Police Officers (above) Andrew Smith, left, and Gerald Suelter, were charged Wednesday with multiple counts of official misconduct and other charges in connection with the beating of another man.

Two of at least seven Peoria police officers involved in the arrest were formally charged Wednesday with multiple counts of official misconduct as well as mob action and battery for the alleged beating of then 33-year-old Bryce Scott.

Officers Gerald W. Suelter, 39, and Andrew R. Smith, 29, each face four counts of official misconduct and one count each of battery, mob action and aggravated battery. Both men appeared in court via video from the Peoria County Jail, where they have been held since their arrests on Monday.

Assistant State's Attorney Steve Pattelli on Wednesday offered details of the May arrest, both seen and those not caught on tape from an in-car video camera, that began after Scott stopped his SUV near Abington and Perry streets after a brief chase.

"One officer punched the driver at least twice in his face, and while three officers were handcuffing the driver, Peoria police officer Gerald Suelter approached and drew his electronic Taser . . . Suelter removed the air cartridge from his Taser and began to repeatedly stun the driver," Pattelli said, noting Scott was Tasered by Suelter at least three times.

"Peoria police Officer Andrew Smith was the last of the officers to arrive . . . after (Scott) had been pulled from the vehicle and was on the pavement with five other police officers above him," Pattelli continued. "When Smith arrived, he began to kick and stomp the driver at least 20 times, at one point repositioning himself for leverage." MORE HERE

By Denise Jackson at WEEK-TV reports:

Two Peoria police officers arrested for allegedly beating a man last May remain in custody tonight. They face a barrage of charges including aggravated battery and mob action.

The officers, Andrew Smith and Gerald Suelter (SEWL'–ter) are among six police officers named in a lawsuit filed by the victim Bryce Scott.

Dan Cusack is the attorney for Bryce Scott the man allegedly beaten by Peoria police officers last May after a chase in the North Valley.

The chase was captured on videotape in the squad car. After pulling over Scott put his hands out of the window as instructed by police and got out of his vehicle. The tape shows officers approaching Scott who is on the ground . Scott's attorney says without the videotape they would not have a good case against the police.

"To me it's just absolutely wrong. It's not about lawsuits. It's about a constitution and it's about activity and Bryce Scott is entitled to the constitution as much as Mother Theresa and he wasn't doing anything wrong at that point," Cusack said.

In January of this year Bryce filed a lawsuit against the police officers and the city. Cusack says his office has received about 30 complaints since the Scott incident. He is not sure if there is a pattern of excessive force among some Peoria cops.

He does not expect the civil lawsuit to go to trial until next year. The two police officers Smith and Suelter (SEWL'–ter) are scheduled to appear in Peoria County court tomorrow. More HERE

Now we learn that Taser International has a plan to gain millions in Obama stimulus money. More on this later!

Cross posted on African American Political Pundit and the blog Tasered While Black