Nightmare On Wilshire Blvd.

Its simple folks, if you don’t want to get shot or arrested quit walking around while Black, it’s your own damn fault. An African-American television producer, Charles Belk, was arrested for bank robbery in Beverly Hills last Friday as he momentarily left a restaurant to add money to a parking meter. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but it gets worse. Apparently there had been a bank robbery in the area moments earlier and he fit the “description” of one of the suspects. You know the standard description “a tall bald headed Black man”. Thank god I wasn’t in the area or for that matter thank god Kareem Abdul Jabbar wasn’t in the area. Seriously could they possibly be more non-descript or vague? Considering how fashionable bald heads have become among African-American men that description could fit most of the Black men I know. What about skin tone, weight or approximate age? I know they think we all look alike but there’s quite a difference between a tall Black bald headed Shemar Moore and a tall Black bald headed Wesley Snipes…just saying.

In spite of his protestations Mr. Belk was handcuffed and made to sit on the curb at the height of rush hour for 45 minutes where no one bothered to even inform him of why he was being detained. I gotta tell you that has got to be the most humiliating experience ever, made to sit on the curb like some dog in broad daylight while everyone drives around gawking, pointing and making assumptions about you and your character.  And I have to say that while I have seen this “sitting on the curb” punishment inflicted on countless Black and Brown men not once have I seen it done to a White man. So after 45 minutes of curb humiliation he was transported to the Beverly Hills police station where he was booked, finger printed, finally made aware of the charges against him and assessed a $100,000 bail. However he was not allowed to make a phone call or speak to an attorney and no one attempted to check out his alibi, run his ID or attempt to verify he was who he said he was…he fit the description. Oh, and no one ever bothered to read him his rights. Next he was erroneously positively identified by some they all look alike to me White female witness from the bank robbery. At this point after enduring verbal abuse from both the police and an FBI agent they were confident enough to let him contact his attorney. Aided by his attorney he was able to convince them to view the video of the robbery from the bank which they had in their possession the entire time and after 6 hours of mental torture he was released as they realized they had the wrong man…oops. Oh, and they had impounded his car but neglected to inform him. He found out when he went to retrieve it.

Several things come to a rational mind.

• Did the Beverly Hills cop just stop the first bald headed Black man they saw assuming he was the suspect, I mean what other reason would a tall bald headed Black man have to be walking down the streets of Beverly Hills, right? He’s Black so he must be guilty of something.
• Did the cops not realize how vague the description was? I mean were they going to spend the entire day arresting every single bald headed Black man they saw? If the description had been of a tall, bald white man would they have detained the first one they saw and refuse to answer his questions as to why he had been stopped and force him to sit on the curb?
• In the 6 hours he was detained, especially in the first 45 minutes he was curbed, why didn’t someone check his alibi or try to confirm his employment? Did he have a business card? Or did they assume he was a bank robber by day and a Hollywood producer by night. I did a google search and along with the news of his arrest I found his Facebook, twitter and IMDb pages…took all of 10 seconds. You know, simple investigation.
• Charles Belk said the only reason he wasn’t running to get to the meter in time was because he had just received a text. Can you imagine what would’ve happened had he been running down Wilshire Blvd.?
• Wasn’t the car they impounded a clue, after all it was a part of his alibi. Just how many bank robbers do you know who take time to use metered parking?
• If he wasn’t affluent enough to have an attorney on retainer might he still be accused and in jail facing the possibility of a 20 year sentence?
• Can you imagine if there had been a bald headed Black men convention in town?

What happened that day was the Beverly Hills police most likely stopped the first Black man they saw and felt it was absolutely within their authority to accost and arrest him and not listen to his made up fantasies of being a television producer (who ever heard of such a thing for an African-American). The moment they saw him they made up their minds as to who he was and what he was about, plain and simple racial profiling. The same as when a "witness" identifies the first Black person they get shown as the suspect. In the meantime the real suspect escaped…probably on the bus, if he was smart and Charles Belk ends up with an arrest record and in the system. My bad, arrested but charges dropped, as if that fucking helps.

So what’s the moral of the story? Black men stay away from banks, convenience stores, gas stations, restaurants, train stations, bus stops, subway stations, Walmart toy departments and anywhere else you may be accused of being Black. If you feel the need to go out, hire a damn chauffer to drive you around even if you’re just going to the curb to check your mailbox. Oh and make sure he’s White.

I encourage you to read Mr. Belk’s account of his ordeal at the following link:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10152352402863207&substory_index=0&id=543298206

War Zone

So I turn on the news a few nights ago and as usual military police in riot gear are arresting reporters and protestors in what appears to be some Middle Eastern conflict. After watching for a couple of minutes I realized it wasn’t the Middle East it was Ferguson, Missouri and the protestors were African-Americans objecting to the shooting death of yet another unarmed African-American male. It’s interesting to note that of the dozens of peaceful protestors the first 5 minutes of coverage I watched on CNN were focused on the fraction of knucklehead looters. The African-American male, Michael Brown was shot by a police officer several times. According to news reports, he had been stopped because of jaywalking and according to eye witnesses had offered no resistance and had his hands up attempting to surrender when he was shot repeatedly and then left to die on the sidewalk.

Several things came to mind including the ongoing profiling of African-American males and the continuing devaluation of their lives by American society but what stood out immediately was the militarization of the local police, armed with riot gear including body armor and camouflage, tear gas, assault rifles and tanks like they were defending the Alamo. It resembled a scene right out of the civil rights era, the only thing missing were the vicious attack dogs and the water hoses to wash them down. So instead of reaching out to calm the community peacefully, the local police opted to fan the flames and go the intimidation route, which only fueled the anger and cynicism of the demonstrators who ironically were there protesting their distrust of the police. Again, what the media described as a riot was essentially on the first night of the protests when a bunch of idiots used the event as an excuse to ransack and burn their own community…dumb asses. Much more disturbing and what should have been the focus of the reporting was that peaceful protesters and those attempting to report on events were being harassed and arrested.
 

I gotta say the disparity in the reaction of law enforcement to African-American protesters vs. Whites is amazing. Case in point, the Cliven Bundy stand-off. These protesters showed up at the Bundy ranch in Nevada to “air out their discontent”, demanding that cows be allowed to graze on the tax payers’ dime. Armed with sniper rifles aimed at police they were not threatened with tear gas and faced no one sporting camouflage and there were no tanks. Instead law enforcement backed down and the Bundy cows continued to graze. So protesters gather with assault rifles, point them at police to protest the seizure of cattle from a rancher grazing them on federal land free of charge for years and they are deemed “patriots”.  Unarmed protesters gather to protest the street execution of a teenager and are met with tear gas, rubber bullets, nightsticks, and arrests and they are "thugs." Just imagine what would have happened had the Ferguson protestors showed up armed exercising right to carry laws.    

After delaying and stalling for almost a week and refusing to release the name of the officer involved, today the police chief in Ferguson released the name of the officer along with video which appears to implicate Michael Brown as a suspect in the robbery of a box of cigars at a convenience store minutes before he was shot but it doesn’t justify his killing and does not necessarily vindicate the officer involved. There remain unanswered questions involving his death. Was the officer who stopped Michael Brown even aware that he was a suspect in a robbery? Why did it take so long to interview the eyewitness who was accompanying Michael Brown and why hasn’t he been arrested as a suspect in the robbery? Is there evidence of excessive force by the officer and why hasn’t his account of the shooting been released? An autopsy was performed and released to the police, so was he shot in the back as witnesses indicated and how many times was he shot?

Finally, I realize that not all law enforcement officers are corrupt but I have absolutely no respect for those who are deputized to serve and protect and then become bullies based on assumptions of color. I don’t claim to know what happened when Michael Brown was killed I wasn’t there. I don’t know if the eyewitnesses or the police are telling the truth but I can relate to the frustration felt by the community of protestors and I understand their distrust and disgust.  I also know that adversarial aggressive tactics such as those exhibited against the protestors and reporters in Ferguson as well as the lack of constructive interaction with the community do nothing towards promoting goodwill  As long as these methods are allowed, condoned and encouraged the distrust and skepticism of police in the African-American community will unfortunately continue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing Like A New Suit

So this past Wednesday house Republicans voted on and passed a resolution to sue President Obama. According to them the President overstepped his authority by signing an executive order to delay until 2016 the mandate requiring employers with over 50 employees to offer healthcare per the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Of course at the time of his order, the biggest complaint from the Republicans and their corporate masters regarding the ACA was that employers needed more time to prepare and most of them were quite vocal in their demands that the mandate be delayed. Yet when he did exactly what they wanted they complained that he was executing dictatorial laws without legislative consent…to be clear President Obama did exactly what they wanted him to do and now they’re suing him for it. The same Republicans who voted unsuccessfully over 50 times to repeal the ACA are suing the President for following their requests to delay part of a law in order to allow businesses time to get themselves together to provide health insurance to their workers. (Mutters to self) Ok I had to say this ridiculousness out loud to myself to get it straight. I don't understand this lawsuit. Somebody help me, please! Have they changed their minds? Do they want the mandate back? Of course not, this lawsuit is just a distraction…at the expense of our taxpayer dollars. By the way, former President George Bush signed an executive order exactly the same as President Obama to delay implementation of Medicare Part D and nobody sued…Hmm. And you gotta love President Obamas reaction to all of this, “they really need to stop hating, all the time”…classic.

Ok, so on Thursday, the day after the lawsuit was filed these same Republican obstructionist attempted to pass Immigration Reform legislation in the house, which they control and were foiled not by house Democrats but by the nut ball teabags idiots within their own party. The Cubanadian known as Senator Ted Cruz, who to be clear is a member of the Senate and not Congress, decided to stick his nose in congressional business. (Seriously, is he some Canadian infiltrator intent on bringing down the government?) He decided that the Republican bill doesn’t go far enough to the right so he walked his ass from the senate on over to the house, pulled together his anti-immigration tea party congressional lap dogs and convinced them to vote it down. Well he did buy them pizza and beer which apparently is all it takes to buy a vote nowadays…just saying. So what was house cry baby speaker Boehner’s solution?  He pulled the bill and released this statement, “There are numerous steps the president can and should be taking right now, without the need for congressional action, to secure our borders. Wait, what now? Steps the president can and should be taking right now, without the need for congressional action? You mean like an executive order? The same type of order your ass is suing the president for right now? Oh hell no, this has got to be some type of trick…not gonna work. So instead now with the help of Senator Cruz, ole crazy eyes nut job Michelle Bachman and Texas congressman Louie Gohmert (apparently the KKK was unavailable) the idea is to fashion a bill so far to the right that once it passes the house it has absolutely no chance of passing the democratic controlled senate and even if it did President Obama would veto it and again they make him the bad guy…sheesh.

Here’s the real goal of the current Republican Party folks. Create as much chaos, frustration and anger in the country by tapping into old ass reactionary angry white men frustrated at losing their centuries old hold on the country, exploit social biases wrapped in a flag and use them as marketing tools to garner votes in gerrymandered districts to stay in office. They then spin their inability to govern, actually their refusal to govern to gum up the legislative process and paint it as Presidents Obama's Failure. This nonsensical lawsuit against the President and all that comes with it is simply the latest marketing tool used as a means to that end.