Greene County Democrat

Category: Crime

  • Newswire : Civil rights leaders, clergy support Federal crackdown on payday lending

    By Charlene Crowell, communications deputy director with the Center for Responsible Lending

    Richard Corday and  Hilary O. Shelton

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – After five years of field hearings, town hall meetings, multiple research reports, and over one million comments, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced a new rule to rein in predatory payday and car-title loans.
    “These protections bring needed reform to a market where far too often lenders have succeeded in setting up borrowers to fail. . . Faced with unaffordable payments, consumers must choose between defaulting, re-borrowing, or failing to pay basic living expenses or other major financial obligations,” said Richard Cordray, CFPB Director.
    Central to the CFPB’s rule, established Oct. 5, is the establishment of an ability-to-repay principle. High-cost loans of 45 days or less, as well as longer term loans that end in a balloon payment, must first take into account whether the loan is affordable when both borrower income and expenses are considered. These loans allow lenders to seize funds from either a borrowers’ bank accounts (payday loans) or repossess vehicles that were used as collateral (car-title loans).
    Although marketed by predatory lenders as an easy lifeline in a financial emergency, research by CFPB, and other consumer groups found otherwise: payday lending’s business model is the tool that drowns borrowers into a sea of debt. With triple-digit interest rates of 400 percent or higher, payday and car-title loans drain $8 billion in fees on loans averaging $300-$400. Borrowers stuck in more than 10 loans a year generated 75 percent of all payday loan fees. Similarly, 85 percent of car-title loan renewals occur 30 days after a previous one could not be fully repaid.
    Across the country, these high-cost lenders are most-often found in communities of color where Blacks, Latinos, and low-wealth families reside. The data and consistency of business locations in these areas suggest that lenders target financially vulnerable consumers.
    Upon learning of CFPB’s payday rule, clergy and civil rights leaders who have steadfastly opposed payday and car-title lenders’ triple-digit interest rates were swift to speak in support. Their desire to rein-in the debt trap of these unaffordable loans was both strong and consistent.
    “With little accountability for their actions, payday lenders have long preyed upon communities of color and drained them of their hard-earned savings,” said Hilary O. Shelton, the NAACP’s Washington Bureau Director and Senior Vice President for Policy and Advocacy. “This CFPB rule establishes a much-needed set of transparent responsibilities for lenders and basic rights and protection for borrowers.”
    “We will work to defend and strengthen this rule,” continued Shelton, “so Americans face fewer burdens in establishing financial security.”
    For Reverend Willie Gable, Jr., Pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in New Orleans and Member of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., the country’s largest predominantly African-American religious denomination, the payday rule was both personal and pastoral.
    “In my home state of Louisiana, the average payday loan interest rate is 391 percent,” said Reverend Gable, Jr., “With rates this high – and even higher in other states, cash-strapped people who needed only a couple hundred dollars soon discover they are in financial quicksand, paying loan fees were after week, that only sink them deeper into debt.”
    “As best I can, I comfort those caught in payday lending’s web of debt,” Gable added. “Yet I also know that it is time for change. These shackles of debt must be broken.”
    “President Trump and Congress should get on the side of civil rights advocates, the religious community, consumer organizations, and the public at-large by supporting and strengthening the CFPB’s new rules on payday lending,” challenged Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. “Payday lending is bad for many consumers; but like many predatory scams, it invariably ends up as a weapon against the disadvantaged communities that are least able to bear its terrible burden.”
    Looking ahead, many consumer advocates remain hopeful that CFPB will go even further with its rules, to include similar actions against harmful and longer-term loans.
    At both the state and federal levels, civil rights leaders and consumer advocates must remain watchful to preserve, expand, and enforce existing interest rate caps now in effect in 15 states and the District of Columbia. Advocates must also remain watchful for any congressional actions that may be taken to preempt or undermine consumer protection

  • Newswire – Report: Trump Administration labels Blacks concerned about police brutality as potential terrorists

    By Frederick H. Lowe

    demonstratorsshowmurderedbypolicesign
    Demonstrators display Murdered by Police sign

    Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – The Trump administration, FBI and police unions have labeled Black men and Black women who are concerned, angry and distressed about the steady stream of news stories about White cops shooting to death unarmed Black men and not being held accountable for their actions, as possible terrorists who need watching because they may resort to violence in retaliation. The FBI labeled the Black men and Black women who are outraged over the deadly shootings “Black Identity Extremists,” (BIE), reported Foreign Policy magazine, which broke the story titled “The FBI’s New U.S. Terrorist Threat: Black Identity Extremists.
    “Law enforcement calls it a violent movement. Critics call it racist.” Jana Winter and Sharon Weinberger wrote the article published in Foreign Policy’s October 6 issue. Foreign Policy reported Black Identity Extremists is a new term first appearing government documents nine days before the White supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11, where a counter demonstrator was murdered by a Alt-right supporter.
    The FBI “assesses it is very likely that Black Identity Extremists perceptions of police brutality against African Americans spurred an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement and will likely serve as justifications to such violence.”
    Except there is no “BIE movement but in the fertile mind of those within the Trump Administration,” reports The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, which covered the Foreign Policy article. The Brennan Center’s article was written by Andrew Cohen. “No journalist or academics have discovered and chronicled such a movement. No such leaders have come forward to say they are part of a movement. No one has killed a cop in the name of such a movement. The only citations to the movement, the Foreign Policy piece tells us, come from internal law enforcement writings made over the past two months,” wrote the Brennan Center. Knowledge about the alleged movement comes after Trump supported white racists who marched in Charlottesville.
    Conversely, Trump called Black National Football League players who took a knee during the national anthem “sons of bitches” who should be fired because he claims they are disrespecting the American flag and members of the U.S. military, which was far from the truth. The football players are protesting the murders of unarmed black men by white police officers who claim they feared for their lives. So far this year, police and shot and killed 748 people including 168 African Americans.

    Anti-police brutality sign

    “In this sense, the report is the FBI’s version of the cynical “war on cops” argument that President Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and police union officials have been pitching as a policy to justify ending the modest judicial reforms implemented by the Obama administration,” reported the Brennan Center. Foreign Policy cited the July 2016 shooting of 11 Dallas cops by Micah Johnson, a former U.S. Army reservist who was angry about police violence against blacks. The shootings occurred during a Black Lives Matter movement, but the FBI doesn’t mention the organization by name. “The tactic here is almost diabolical. To deflect legitimate criticism of police tactic to undermine a legitimate police protest movement that has emerged in the past three years to protest police brutality, the FBI has tarred the dissenters as domestic terrorists, an organized group with a criminal ideology that are a threat to police officers,” the Brennan Center said.
    Critics argue Trump is shifting attention away from right-wing violence to countering Islamic terrorism. The Brennan Center asks if you become a member of BIE if you believe that police brutality is a significant problem hindering criminal justice? Do you become a member of the BIE if you believe that the police too often escape accountability for the use of excessive force on unarmed black civilians? Does the FBI consider every member of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which actually exists, a member of BIE? The Brennan Center then turns to former FBI Director James Comey who Tump fired. Comey has spoken about the FBI’s racist history. Under former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, special agents ginned up evidence that the civil rights movement was a communist plot. Under Comey, there was a major change.

     

  • Newswire : As war widens in Africa, body bags begin to fly home

    Niger soldiers and medics

    Niger soldiers and medics

    (TriceEdneyWire.com/GIN) – A funeral was held over the past weekend for Sgt. La David Johnson, killed in a country few could find on a map and for a war that few lawmakers knew anything about.
    Sgt. Johnson, a Floridian, was one of a dozen Special Operations and Green Beret forces who, along with 30 Nigerien soldiers, were in southwestern Niger on Oct. 4 in an effort to track down a former member of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa. As the team departed, they were ambushed by members of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
    Four from the U.S. team died in the skirmish as did five Nigerian soldiers. Two Americans were wounded.
    “It turns out that this village was a little contaminated by hostile forces,” said Moussa Aksar, a terrorism specialist interviewed by Voice of America. “The unit stayed a little longer than expected because apparently people were aware that something was going on.”
    Some 800 U.S. service members are in Niger supporting a French-led mission to defeat the Islamic State, al-Qaida and Boko Haram. The U.S. has drone bases in Niger as well as significant intelligence resources.
    Gen. Joseph Dunford, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the American people, including the families of the fallen soldiers in Niger, deserve answers about this month’s deadly ambush.
    But investigative journalist Nick Turse says there is much more to this story. Writing for Vice news, Turse says: “Today, special operators are carrying out nearly 100 missions at any given time — in Africa alone. It’s the latest sign of the military’s quiet but ever-expanding presence on the continent, one that represents the most dramatic growth in the deployment of America’s elite troops to any region of the globe.”
    He continued: “In 2006, just 1 percent of all U.S. commandos deployed overseas were in Africa. In 2010, it was 3 percent. By 2016, that number had jumped to more than 17 percent.
    “In fact, there are now more special operations personnel devoted to Africa than anywhere except the Middle East.” Overall, there are about 6,000 U.S. troops across the African continent. More than half are in Djibouti, with others in Tunisia, Senegal and Somalia.
    In a report obtained by Turse, U.S. Army General Donald Bolduc, who runs the special operations command in Africa (SOCAFRICA) admits: “Africa’s challenges could create a threat that surpasses the threat that the United States currently faces from conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.”
    “We owe the American people an explanation of what their men and women were doing at this particular time,” Dunford said. “And when I say that, I mean men and women in harm’s way anywhere in the world — they should know what the mission is and what we’re trying to accomplish when we’re there.”

  • Newswire :Puerto Ricans suffer apocalyptic nightmare after Hurricanes Irma and Maria

    By Barrington M. Salmon (NNPA Newswire Contributor)

    It’s been nearly a month since two, historic hurricanes savaged Puerto Rico, and despite the utter devastation left after the storms, the island’s 3.4 million residents are still waiting for substantive relief from the federal government.
    Help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been slowed, because of glaring lapses in coordination, a lack of guidance of medical and other personnel, as well as what critics and Puerto Rican officials have said was an almost total breakdown in distribution and supply chains. The result has been a yawning gap between the burgeoning humanitarian disaster and the urgent life-and-death needs of the shell-shocked populace.
    Nearly 85 percent of the island is still in darkness, because the storms destroyed the electrical grid. Governor Ricardo Rosselló estimates that it will cost about $5 billion to repair the island’s power grid that was decimated by Hurricane Maria. Cellphone service towers across the island are slowly being restored; there is a critical shortage of food, medicine and other basic supplies; meanwhile, more than half of the commonwealth’s residents are living without potable water.
    The official death toll is 48, but there are reports that the medical examiner’s office in San Juan is holding 350 bodies. There are also fears that, as the authorities reach the most remote parts of the island and as water-borne and other diseases take hold, that the death toll will inevitably rise.
    Last week, FEMA scrubbed important statistics about the availability of clean drinking water and the paucity of electricity on the island, from its website.
    The fierce winds of Hurricanes Irma and Maria left catastrophic damage, tore roofs from buildings, toppled power lines and transformers; stripped trees bare; triggered mudslides and flooding; flattened and demolished trees; and blocked roads. Beleaguered Puerto Ricans can only buy food, supplies and other materials in what is now a mostly cash-only society.
    Yet, in the midst of all this need, more than 10,000 shipping containers loaded with food, medicine and other needed supplies have sat idle at the Port of San Juan and elsewhere, because of red tape, bureaucratic bungling and logistical logjams.
    Aurora Flores, a New York-based activist, painted a harrowing picture that is slowly emerging as information seeps out of the soaked island. n“Oh, my God! I have such a combination of feelings. This is outrageous,” said Flores, a noted cultural historian and musician. “This is Trump’s Katrina. We’re in a dire situation. There is no electricity; people are waiting in line eight, nine hours for gasoline, food and other needs. Right now, we need the United States Army trucks and drivers. There’s no housing…we need cruise ships to come in.”
    Flores continued: “We also need to secure the streets. Armed gangs are roaming. This is horrific. We’ve been shunned, pushed to the side.” Flores said that she had been in contact with family in Puerto Rico, despite the communications difficulties. She assailed the Trump administration for its slow response and castigated Trump for his constant congratulatory comments to first responders, FEMA, and others in his administration.
    “He’s patting himself on the back. [Trump found time] to put down Black athletes over the weekend and not once did he say anything about Puerto Rico,” she said. We’ve been shunned, pushed to side. We don’t need any more excuses. Puerto Rico needs help right now. You don’t do this to other Americans. We need the federal government to come to the rescue. We need compassion and leadership to come together. We’ve fought for and bled for this country. We’re part of America.”
    Critics have chided Trump for ignoring the crisis for the first week after Hurricane Maria slammed into the island. He spent more time tweeting to demand that NFL players kneel for the anthem than expressing any compassion or concern for Puerto Rico’s plight. And to add insult to injury, Elaine Duke, acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security crowed at the end of the first week that the federal efforts on the island as a “good news” story.
    Trump’s nonchalance has angered Puerto Ricans and a raft of other critics, including singer Marc Anthony and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. “Mr. President, shut the f*** up about the NFL. Do something about our people in need in #PuertoRico. We are American citizens, too,” the singer tweeted on September 25.
    During a recent interview on CNN, Yulín Cruz lambasted attempts by the White House to spin the situation in Puerto Rico as a “good news story.” “When you’re drinking from a creek, it’s not a ‘good news story.’ When you don’t have food for a baby, it’s not a ‘good news story,’” she said. “When you have to pull people down from their buildings because—you know, I’m sorry, but that really upsets me and frustrates me.”
    Yulín Cruz continued: “This is – damn it, this is not a ‘good news’ story. This is a ‘people-are-dying’ story. This is a ‘life-or-death’ story. This is a ‘there’s-a-truckload-of-stuff-that-cannot-be-taken-to-people’ story. This is a story of a devastation that continues to worsen.”
    Latinx activist and community organizer Rosa Clemente said Puerto Ricans have been given the middle finger by Trump and his administration.
    “What’s going on in Puerto Rico is definitely terrifying. People are on the precipice of panic,” said Clemente, during a recent interview. “Right now there are shipping containers stuck on wharfs, because drivers are isolated. Bridges have collapsed, people are trapped…I don’t think Trump would help any people of color. This is who he is. The big issue right now is for Congress to release the aid package.”
    Reuters reported that the Republican-controlled House approved $36.5 billion in in emergency relief for Puerto Rico and other areas hit by recent disasters. “Senate approval is expected in coming weeks,” according to Reuters. “Trump is expected to sign the latest emergency package,” even though the president also suggested that there would be limits on how much federal aid Puerto Rico would receive.
    Clemente, a revolutionary Hip Hop journalist and lecturer—who is the first Black Puerto Rican/Afro Latina to run for vice president of the Green Party—made arrangements to travel with a group of friends to Puerto Rico to hear and document stories from survivors on the ground and to continue to sound the alarm of the catastrophe that has befallen the island.
    In an Oct. 11 Facebook Live post, Clemente detailed the devastation. “What we have now is a total catastrophe—both humanitarian and political. Disaster, crisis, catastrophe, none of these adjectives are describing what we’re seeing,” she said soberly. “People are sick, dying. People are getting infections, babies are sick. The situation in San Juan is bad and in the Western part of the island things are isolated, cut off. This situation is past the critical level. It’s not about getting clothes, food or water. We need generators and chainsaws, SUVs and trucks. We need nurses and doctors.”
    Clemente continued: “They’re letting us die here, but everyone in Puerto Rico is doing everything they can to save themselves. They’ve helping each other, saving each other. Anyone not doing all they can to raise hell is complicit. We need to stop sending things. We need to pressure politically. We cannot talk about rebuilding, if this nation is allowed to collapse.”

  • Alabama AG Marshall files lawsuits to stop ‘electronic bingo’ in Greene and other counties

    Sheriff Benison revised bingo rules to provide funds to hospital

    Last week, the Greene County Democrat received from Sheriff Benison, a revised copy of Section 4 of the Electronic Bingo Rules for Greene County. The revised rules provide for the Greene County Health Services, which includes the Hospital, Nursing Home, Physicians Clinic and related health care facilities, to receive $25.00 per bingo machine to support healthcare for Greene County residents.

    The new rules are effective as of October 1, 2017 and will provided needed revenues for the hospital with the November
    distribution of bingo funds.

     

    (MONTGOMERY)—Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Wednesday the filing of multiple lawsuits against casinos in five counties that continue to operate “electronic bingo,” on what he calls illegal slot machines in defiance of state law.  The lawsuits call upon local circuit courts to prohibit the defendants from promoting, operating and transporting “electronic bingo” machines and slot machines in those counties.
    The civil lawsuits were filed in Greene, Houston, Lowndes, Macon and Morgan counties against the operating casinos, machine manufacturers and vendors, and the governmental authorities responsible for licensing and overseeing electronic bingo operations in those counties. In Greene County, the lawsuit was filed against all five bingo operators, bingo machine providers and Sheriff Jonathan Benison.
    “It is the responsibility of the Attorney General to ensure that Alabama’s laws are enforced, including those laws that prohibit illegal gambling,” said Attorney General Steve Marshall.

    “Through multiple rulings in recent years, the Alabama Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that electronic bingo and the use of slot machines are illegal in all Alabama counties.  Therefore, we have taken action to hold accountable those who defy the laws of our state.  These lawsuits represent a comprehensive legal approach developed by the Attorney General, with the assistance of the Office’s career experts, to finally put a stop to illegal gambling.”
    Responding to the lawsuit, Sheriff Benison stated, “First of all as Sheriff of Greene County I would like to clarify and say that we do not operate as casinos, and never tried to portray ourselves as such.  We are approved, legalized electronic bingo facilities.  This is legal because we the citizens of Greene County voted overwhelmingly in 2006 for Amendment 743 to provide for electronic bingo.”
    Sheriff Benison continued, “We have been operating and providing jobs and funding for Greene County through this Amendment.  I don’t know about the other counties filed in the lawsuit but as for Greene County, even the shortest closure of our Electronic Bingo facilities will result in a devastating economic downfall for our county.  We don’t have big industries or factories that our county runs off of; electronic Bingo is our livelihood.
    “Thousands will be affected because so many are direct recipients of funds made through electronic bingo, such as, Greene County Board of Education, Greene County Commission, Greene County Hospital, Greene County Nursing Home, Firefighters Association, E-911, City of Eutaw, City of Forkland, City of Union, City of Boligee, Greene County Sheriff’s Office and not to mention 16 sub charities that are incorporated to make sure everyone is provided with help.
    “This is all of our youth, senior citizens, our law enforcement. These are the hundreds of employees that each one of the facilities employs.  What are they to do if they lose their job?  I am shocked about this news, but we are willing to do whatever is necessary to make sure that our vote for Amendment 743 was not done in vain.”
    Luther Winn Jr., CEO of Greenetrack issued a statement saying in part,
    “AG Marshall’s actions have real-life consequences. By his own hand, Marshall has now jeopardized the jobs of 115 mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, who work at Greenetrack. These are good-paying jobs with health insurance and retirement benefits. Don’t let Marshall fool you – this lawsuit signals his willingness to increase Alabama’s unemployment, food stamp and Medicaid rolls by 115 from one facility here in Greene County. Marshall’s lawsuit also jeopardizes Greene County E-911 and fire protection for the entire county, both of whom are completely dependent on bingo revenues.”
    Winn goes on to say, “We question AG Marshall’s motives and timing. It is worth noting that AG Marshall has accepted campaign contributions from two individuals and two out-of-state law firms with gambling ties.”
    Winn says that he has made numerous complaints to Federal officials, including U. S. Attorney Jeff Sessions about corruption which has been involved in the fight against electronic bingo and efforts to violate the voting rights of Greene County citizens who overwhelming supported a referendum for Alabama Constitutional Amendment 743, which authorizes electronic bingo in the county.
    Since assuming office in February, Attorney General Marshall has continued to assist other agencies and district attorneys in the enforcement of anti-gambling laws in Alabama.  The multi-county lawsuits filed last week are the culmination of ongoing investigations into these casinos and gambling ventures around the state.   The civil complaints call for the closure of the casinos because the illegal gambling they offer presents legal nuisances in the state.
    Many of these cases are based on an Alabama Supreme Court case in which the justices define bingo in great detail, as a game played on paper cards, with five rows across and five columns down, in which a player must actively participate in dabbing their numbers and recognizing and calling-out when they have a winning bingo. The courts have ruled that electronic bingo machines are in reality “slot machines” and are therefore illegal.
    AG Marshall has brought his legal action in the local circuit courts of the counties where the electronic bingo games are played. It will take some time before these cases are heard and a more definitive decision can be made by the courts on the future of electronic bingo.

  • Newswire : Nigerian ‘unsung hero’ tapped for major U. N. award

    Zannah Mustapha.jpg
    Zannah Mustapha, surrounded by children

    Oct. 2, 2017 (GIN) – Zannah Mustapha, a champion for the rights of displaced children growing up amid violence in north-eastern Nigeria, is the 2017 winner of the Nansen Refugee Award, U.N. officials announced this week.

    In the first online Facebook video of the U.N. agency, long-time journalist Yvonne Ndege recounted how Mr. Mustapha established the Future Prowess Islamic Foundation which houses a school for orphan children of both Boko Haram and the security forces and widows in Maiduguri – the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Over a decade, the school has grown from 36 students to 540. In 2016, Mr. Mustapha opened a second school just a few kilometers away from the first. Eighty-eight children, all of whom have fled conflict in the region, walk through its classroom doors each day.

    The schools provide children affected by violence a free education, as well as free meals, uniforms and health care.

    “Education is one of the most powerful tools for helping refugee children overcome the horrors of violence and forced displacement.” said the U.N.’s refugee commissioner Filippo Grandi. “The work Mustapha and his team are doing is of the utmost importance. With this award, we honor his vision and service.”

    “This school promotes peace,” Mr. Mustapha said. “It is a place where every child matters,” adding: “These children shall be empowered in such a way that they can stand on their own.”

    In addition to his education work, Mr. Mustapha was instrumental in setting up a cooperative for widows, providing much-needed support for nearly 600 women in Maiduguri.

    A lawyer turned property developer in Borno state, Mr. Mustapha also took part in mediating between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government.

    Mr. Mustapha will take home prize money of $150,000, funded by the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Swiss government, the Norwegian government and the IDEA Foundation, to fund a project that complements their existing work.

    A Ugandan group – International Youth Organization to Transform Africa – was among the runners-up. Its mission is to transform the lives of young refugees, particularly girls, through education.

  • Area law enforcement joint efforts result in apprehension of suspect

    sheriff

     

    On Monday, October 2, 2017, an escapee from Livingston, AL was apprehended by authorities at the I 20/59 South bound rest area in Eutaw, AL. After escaping, Brandon J. Harris, of Meridian, MS, stole a vehicle and fled into Greene County. A perimeter of the area was set up by Sheriff Jonathan Benison along with his deputies, assisting. The Alabama State Trooper’s helicopter from Montgomery, AL also joined in on the search for the escapee.
    According to authorities, the suspect attempted to sneak out of the woods and cross the interstate, but was quickly spotted by Greene County deputies, who fortunately apprehended Harris without any injuries. The suspect was taken into custody and returned back to Livingston Police Department located in Sumter County, AL.
    Sheriff Benison stated, “With professionalism and unified teamwork, we will continue to keep our county as well as surrounding counties safe.”

  • Newswire : Kamala Harris: U.S. isn’t as split as it seems

    Bill Barrow, Associated Press

     

    Senator Kamala Harris
     California Senator Kamala Harris

    ATLANTA (AP) — Making her first high-profile foray into the Southern Black church, California Sen. Kamala Harris told a Georgia congregation founded by former freed slaves that the United States remains wracked by racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination that flout the nation’s core values.
    But the rising Democratic Party star added that Americans aren’t as split as “forces of hate and division” suggest. “I believe it is time we replace the divide-and-conquer,” she said from the pulpit of First Congregational Church in downtown Atlanta, adding that national unity comes from citizens’ recognizing their share priorities while still honoring diversity.
    A 52-year-old, first-term senator widely mentioned as a potential national candidate, Harris did not mention President Donald Trump in her remarks.
    Yet her approach highlights a complex political task for Democrats as they try to counter Trump’s economic appeals to working-class whites, while honoring their core supporters among nonwhites, to rebuild the electoral coalitions that twice elected President Barack Obama. And the choice of venue — a congregation that includes business, civic and political players in Atlanta’s black community — also nods to a Democratic constituency that helped sway the party’s last two presidential nominating battles.
    Harris’s future prospects dominated her appearance as the invited keynote for the 150th anniversary of First Congregational Church’s founding.
    Introducing Harris, church member and personal friend of the senator Eugene Duffy called the occasion “a day of projection and reflection.” At the word “projection,” Duffy pointed at the senator.
    Duffy also dispensed with Harris’s avoidance of lambasting the Trump administration, praising her for her aggressive questioning of “that white supremacist Jeff Sessions,” the nation’s attorney general. He said Harris “pulled (Sessions’) sheet off” at hearings on Capitol Hill.
    Harris smiled but did not clap as did many congregants when Duffy blasted Sessions.
    From the pulpit, Harris criticized “the attorney general,” without naming Sessions, for renewing the push for harsher sentences in nonviolent drug crimes and for rolling back some of policing overhauls from the Obama administration.
    A former local prosecutor and California attorney general who opposes the death penalty, Harris says she advocates a criminal justice system that honors “the concept of redemption.”
    Separately, Harris called for a more effective U.S. response to hurricane devastation in Puerto Rico. She did not mention health care. She’s recently signed on as a co-sponsor of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare-for-all” bill.
    Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, does not publicly embrace speculation about her 2020 intentions. Her calendar is noticeably devoid of visits to the early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. But she’s also met in recent months with key Democratic donors and hired aides who worked for 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
    And her path to the Democratic nomination would certainly run through voters like those she addressed Sunday in Atlanta. Obama in 2008 and Clinton in 2016 each lost the cumulative white vote in Democratic primary states, according to exit polls, but both of the eventual nominees won black voters overwhelmingly, propelling them to key victories in Southern states that gave them early delegate leads they never relinquished.

  • Newswire : CBC Chairman’s letter to President Trump expresses ‘utter disgust’ with the way he handles race relations

     

    By Hazel Trice Edney

    cedricrichmond
     CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond (D – La)
    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Fresh on the heels of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Caucus, CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.) has sent a letter to President Donald Trump expressing “utter disgust” with the way Trump has handled race relations.
    “I write today to express my utter disgust with your handling of race relations in America in general and, more specifically, your calculated, divisive response to nationwide demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice by professional football players, owners, coaches, and countless other patriots,” Richmond wrote in a Sept. 27th letter. “African Americans are just as patriotic as any other American. We have fought in every war from the American Revolution to Iraq and Afghanistan, only to come home to a country that has yet to reconcile deep-seated issues of race, inequality, and injustice.”
    Richmond was referring to Trump’s calling NFL players “Sons of B—–s” if they protest racial injustice by kneeling or what is commonly called “taking a knee” during the National Anthem. It was a form of protest started by Colin Kaepernick, a former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, who was not able to get drafted this season because of his controversial stance.
    The letter continues, “As President of the United States, your use of profane, sexually derogatory language in addressing American citizens, or anyone for that matter, is unbecoming of the office you now hold. Moreover, your complete lack of understanding of or empathy for the very painful history and substantive policy concerns that move people like Colin Kaepernick to take a stand, or a knee, in the first place is a reminder of all the African American community has to lose under Read More your Administration. Nonetheless, as Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), an organization with the well-deserved reputation as the Conscience of the Congress, I feel obligated to yet again attempt to educate you and your Administration about the many problems facing our communities and how you can work with us to improve them.”
    Trump’s past racial insensitivities are well known, including his insisting – without apology – that then President Barack Obama was from Kenya instead of Hawaii. But in his inaugural address he promised to represent all of America and to bring unity. Ever since then, CBC leaders have tried to sensitize him to and educate him about the issues of racial inequality in America.
    “As you may recall, I, along with senior leadership within the CBC, met with you on March 22, 2017. In that meeting, we presented you with a 125-page policy book, as well as a letter addressed to Attorney General Jeff Sessions from Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, the Dean of the House, and myself,” Richmond wrote. “Both the policy book and the letter to Attorney General Sessions provided much-needed insight into our legitimate concerns with the criminal justice system, racial profiling, and police brutality, among many other issues. Not only did you and Attorney General Sessions fail to respond to either document in any substantive way, your actions continue to suggest that our pleas for responsible policy solutions were completely disregarded.”
    Richmond then listed several examples of the Trump Administration’s ignoring CBC policy advice pertaining to the Black community. They include:

    Attorney General Sessions has initiated a second failed war on drugs that will wreck the Black community, an over-policed population, and only exacerbate our nation’s shameful mass incarceration problem.
    Black drug users are treated as criminals while White opioid addicts receive a multi-million-dollar federal public health response.
    Trump makes “racist dog whistles”, such as calling for “law and order” in underserved, neglected communities across America while concurrently encouraging police brutality.

    “When we met, you claimed you cared for our communities. At the time, we provided you with several solutions that you could have discussed with us in order to prove that you were not just blowing smoke. Since our meeting, you have done nothing to help our communities and have taken affirmative actions that have harmed our communities,” Richmond wrote. “Almost everything you have done and said on the topic of race or on issues that implicate race demonstrate a shocking lack of knowledge for an adult public official in the 21st century.
    Richmond concluded, “The actions taken by you and your Administration in the short time you have been in office have already caused serious harm to our constituents and the vulnerable communities for whom we speak.”

  • Newswire : Rwanda jails women’s rights activist after presidential bid

    Rwanda election
     Rwandan election rivals Diane Rwigara and Pres. Paul Kagame

    Oct. 2, 2017 (GIN) – Diane Shima Rwigara, who took on Rwandan President Paul Kagame in recent national polls, has been arrested and sits in jail, charged with “offenses against state security and forgery.”

    “These charges are false; and nobody in Rwanda believes the validity of these charges,” said Rwigara’s brother, Aristide Rwigara, who lives in the United States, speaking with Voice of America.

    “It’s punishment to my sister because she was running for president,” he declared. “You don’t do that in Rwanda. You don’t exercise your constitutional rights.”

    A police spokesman said Rwigara and her mother and sister face charges of tax evasion. Diane Rwigara additionally is accused of using fake documents while she was gathering signatures for (her) presidential candidacy. He said Rwigara had failed to respond to three summonses.

    President Kagame’s party has faced criticism from human rights groups for harassing opponents and using intimidation to stifle dissent. After announcing her candidacy, nude photos of Rwigara appeared online, which she denounced as fake. Later, she was disqualified from appearing on the ballot due to an alleged lack of signatures.

    Kagame later won that election with 98 percent of the vote to secure a third term.

    During a recent talk at the Council on Foreign Relations, the President defended his human rights record. “You know, me as the leader of my own people, to be accused of violating their rights is just an absurd insult. But my answer is simple — is to do my best to serve my people the best way they can be served.”

    Journalist and author Anjan Sundaram commented: “Initially, when Kagame took power in 1994, just after Rwanda’s genocide, a lot of observers were willing to make allowances for Kagame’s authoritarian style of leadership believing that it was justified in the aftermath of a genocide.” “And there may have been truth to that.”

    “Twenty-four years since the genocide, however, observers are seeing fewer and fewer justifications for such authoritarian leadership.”

    Under recent constitutional reforms, Kagame is eligible to run for two additional five-year terms as president after his current seven-year term ends.