Greene County Democrat

Category: Newswire

  • After recent police shootings, NNPA declares a ‘State of Emergency in the Black Community’

    By Freddie Allen (NNPA Newswire Managing Editor)

    ben-chavis-nnpa-speaks Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. (center), president and CEO of the NNPA, speaks during a press conference on police brutality and police misconduct in the Black community joined by Denise Rolark Barnes (left), the chairwoman of the NNPA and publisher of The Washington Informer, Bernal E. Smith II, a member of the NNPA Board of Directors and publisher of The New Tri-State Defender. (Freddie Allen/AMG/NNPA)

    The recent extrajudicial killings of three Black males, including a 13 year-old boy, have sparked protests across the country, and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) has now declared a state of emergency in Black America.

    The NNPA, is a trade group that represents more than 200 Black-owned media companies nationwide and reaches more than 20 million readers a week.

    “Millions of our readers across the nation are once again outraged at the latest fatal incidents of police brutality in Tulsa, Okla., and Charlotte, N.C.,” the group said in a joint statement released on Friday, September 23, by Denise Rolark Barnes, the chairwoman of the NNPA and publisher of The Washington Informer, Bernal E. Smith II, a member of the NNPA Board of Directors and publisher of The New Tri-State Defender, and Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., president and CEO of the NNPA. “These are not isolated incidents, but are a deadly national pattern of police violence and prosecutorial misconduct.”

    On September 14, thirteen year-old Tyre King was shot and killed by police in Columbus, Ohio who were responding to an armed robbery call. Police said that King ran when they approached him and then pulled a weapon from his waistband, which was later found to be a BB gun, a toy that couldn’t even fire bullets.

    On Friday September 16, Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby fired the fatal shot that killed Terence Crutcher after the truck he was driving broke down on the road. In a video captured by the Tulsa Police Department, Crutcher can be seen walking back to his truck with his arms raised, just before he was tased then shot. Shelby was charged with felony manslaughter.

    On Tuesday, September 20, police in Charlotte, N.C. shot and killed 43 year-old Keith Lamont Scott at an apartment building. Witnesses said that Scott was sitting in his car reading a book when plainclothes officers approached him and asked him to exit his vehicle. On Saturday, September 24, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police released body-worn camera and dashboard camera video footage of the incident. None of the videos show Scott holding a gun or pointing a weapon at the police.

    “We’re tired of covering these stories,” said Denise Rolark Barnes, chairwoman of the NNPA and publisher of The Washington Informer, “We have been covering these stories long before mainstream media ever saw them.” Barnes continued: “The situation has escalated and it is time for us to step up to not only tell the story, but to also make some demands.”

    Bernal Smith, the publisher of the New Tri-State Defender in Memphis, Tenn., said that, “I’ve had way too many conversations with our readers and with people in our community that feel like we’re under siege…that feel that driving, walking or even sitting while Black is a threat to their lives.” Smith continued: “We are here today to declare that there is a state of emergency in our communities across America and it requires immediate and significant action on behalf of the federal government…it can no longer be business as usual.”

    April Goggans, who represents the Black Lives Matter movement in Washington, D.C., said that the narrative about the killings of Black men and women at the hands of those sworn to protect them is still being controlled by mainstream media.

    “As much as we want to protect Black lives, we also have to protect the mediums and ways in which the stories that are true about Black lives are spread and that is through the Black Press,” said Goggans.

    At a recent press conference, the NNPA announced that they want President Barack Obama, Attorney General and the U.S. Congress to address four principle demands immediately:
    — Appoint a Special Federal Prosecutor on Police Brutality;
    — Establish a National Police Oversight Commission on Use of Deadly Force, Training and Cultural Sensitivity;
    — Create of a National Police Brutality and Misconduct Database that is publicly accessible;
    — Establish tougher federal penalties for police officers and prosecutors who violate constitutional rights.

    “We’re not waiting for a new Congress, we’re not waiting for a new Supreme Court Justice, we’re not waiting for a new president, we’re not waiting for a new Attorney General,” said Chavis. “We want action, today.”

    While critics of the civil rights groups that are fighting the epidemic of police brutality in the African American community quickly point to so-called “Black on Black crime” as the real problem hurting Blacks, Smith said that crime in the Black community and the need to address police brutality are two separate issues.

    “In our community, when a Black person kills another Black person, in those cases the [perpetrator] is prosecuted and goes to jail,” said Smith. “When police are murdering Black men, women, and children in the street, there is no justice. In most cases, there isn’t even an indictment or charges filed.”

    According to a study conducted by The Guardian, young Black men between the ages of 15 and 34, “were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by police officers in 2015” and “Their rate of police-involved deaths was five times higher than for White men of the same age.”

    Most criminal justice experts agree that murder is often a crime that’s more closely associated with proximity to a victim and less connected to race and that police are seldom prosecuted in shootings that result in deaths, facts that detractors of the Black Lives Movement often ignore.

    Chavis said that on the eve of opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture it’s important for everyone to remember, that Black history is not only a history of oppression, but it is also a history of overcoming that oppression.

    “It is a history of us standing up and protesting injustice,” said Chavis. “So what we’re doing today is consistent with our history and our culture.”

  • Inmates strike in prisons nationwide over ‘slave labor’ working conditions

    By: Tom Kutsch, The Guardian

    national-prison-strike National Prison Strike graphic

    A nationwide prison strike over conditions and wages behind bars, which organizers tipped to be the biggest of its kind in US history, was under way in at least several correctional facilities across the country on Friday, according to prison rights advocates.

    Inmates from several states, who had bound together with the help of activists and organizing groups, aimed the national strikes – which had been in the making for several months – against what they said amounted to slave labor conditions amid mass incarceration in the country.

    The coordinated events, which organizers targeted in as many as 24 states, occurred on the 45th anniversary of the riots at Attica prison in New York – the largest prison uprising in American history – over grievances today’s protesters say are similar, including poor sanitary conditions and prison jobs that amount to forced labor.

    In April, one of the main national groups organizing the campaign, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), under the banner of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, announced its call to action.

    “This is a call for a nation-wide prisoner work stoppage to end prison slavery,” it said. “They cannot run these facilities without us.”

    “Work is good for anyone,” Melvin Ray, who is incarcerated at the WE Donaldson correctional facility in Bessemer, Alabama, told Mother Jones on Friday. “The problem is that our work is producing services that we’re being charged for, that we don’t get any compensation from.”

    Ray is a member of the group called the Free Alabama Movement, which has been instrumental in leading the strike efforts, along with other groups formed with the help of incarcerated individuals such as the Free Ohio Movement, the Free Mississippi Movement and the End Prison Slavery in Texas movement.

    According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, prisoners at federal facilities can make between 12 and 40 cents an hour for their work, while state prison rates can be higher or lower. In several states, including Texas and Arkansas, inmates are paid no wage for their labor.

    But the issue is not merely about earning meager amounts of money on the side. Inmates and outside organizers say that many US prisons simply would not run without the labor of inmates, including the work of building maintenance, cooking and cleaning.

    “These strikes are our method for challenging mass incarceration,” Kinetik Justice, a founder of the Free Alabama Movement, who serves at the Holman correctional facility in Alabama, told Democracy Now in May, during a prior 10-day strike which mirrors what he and others planned for Friday.

    Justice said that effort to push for a coordinated strikes came after “we understood that our incarceration was pretty much about our labor and the money that was being generated through the prison system”. He added that the prisoners, as a result, “began organizing around our labor and used it as a means and a method in order to bring about reform in the Alabama prison system”.

    A press release from the Free Alabama Movement said that a widespread strike at Holman correctional facility had been launched a minute after midnight on Friday. The Alabama department of corrections subsequently said that at least 45 inmates had gone on strike.

    The Free Alabama Movement also said also that strikes were under way at other prisons in Florida, South Carolina and Texas. It is difficult to get information from inside these prisons on the strike. Strike leaders are being placed in solitary confinement as punishment for striking and to disrupt the strike.

    An IWOC statement on Friday said the South Carolina prisoners who were striking had released a set of demands before they would return to work, including the end of “free labor”. The IWOC also said on Friday that inmates at the Fluvanna correctional center for women in Virginia had gone on strike.

    A report from the Miami Herald said that two prisons in the state had put their facilities on lockdown, a day after it reported that prison guards across the state were gearing up for possible strikes in conjunction with the national protests.

    The full scope of Friday’s planned protests, however, has not yet emerged. Strikes have happened at many prisons across the country over wages and conditions in the past several years.

    In 2013, one of the largest coordinated inmate resistance actions to date occurred when some 30,000 inmates across California went on hunger strike to protest at penal conditions, including a heavy reliance upon solitary confinement.

     

     

  • Black Congressional Caucus holds press conference to blast Donald Trump on the ‘birther issue

    By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor)

    black-congressional-caucus

    Black Congressional Caucus hold news conference

    On Friday, September 16, members of the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee (CBC PAC) took a break from the CBC Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference and hastily called a press conference to address Donald Trump’s recent comments about the “Birther Movement.” The Republican presidential nominee and reality television star said that President Barack Obama was born in the U.S., but not before claiming that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton started the Birther Movement. Mainstream media treated Trump’s announcement like some groundbreaking revelation, and it dominated the news cycle for the rest of the day.

    Trump has been called the leader of the Birther Movement for his role in promoting the falsehood that President Obama was not born in the United States. Trump continued these attacks, even after President Obama released his birth certificate in 2011.

    “Donald Trump is nothing more than a two-bit racial arsonist who has done nothing, but fan the flames of bigotry,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Then Jeffries ran down Trump’s legacy of racial discrimination and reminded journalists about the racially-charged, full-page advertisement that the real estate developer purchased in a number of newspapers in New York City that called for the reinstatement of the death penalty during the controversial “Central Park Five” case. The five teenagers, who were interrogated until they delivered forced confessions about the sexual assault and then convicted of the crime, were later proven innocent.

    “Run to the polls and make sure this hater is not elected President of the United States…he’s not man enough to render an apology to the President of the United States,” Jeffries added.

    Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), speaking as a board member of the CBC PAC, called Donald Trump “a disgusting fraud” and noted that the Republican presidential candidate began to question President Obama citizenship almost from the very beginning of his first term.

    “He would never have done this to Mitt Romney…he would have never done this to any other White [person] running for president,” said Butterfield.

    Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) said that Trump wanted to delegitimize the most iconic African American in history. Moore and several other members of the CBC PAC called what Trump was doing “classic dog whistle politics.”

    Moore added: “This is not just about degrading the reputation of Barack Obama, it’s about degrading the hopes of all African Americans.”

    Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) went even further and compared Donald Trump’s rhetoric and racist chants that are often heard at his rallies to the howling of wolves.

    “These are in-your-face kinds of efforts who are misusing the media in order to heap indignities onto the President of the United States,” said Clyburn. “[Trump is] floating a narrative that has been a part of this country for over two hundred years.”

    Many Democrats and some Republicans feel that Trump has led a campaign of inaccuracy that began with his effort to call into question the very legitimacy of President Obama. From asking to see his college transcripts to the so-called “Birther “issue, Trump has tried to lead a communications effort to promote the idea that President Obama is not a real American.

    “Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has been based on the Birther campaign, which he founded,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). “Our work now should be about unifying the country.”

    Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said that there has never been this low level of electioneering at this high a level.

    Jackson Lee then made a call to all minorities to get out and vote on November 8, adding that, “Mr. Trump has given up his right for running for President of the United States. He is unfit.”

    Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), who is retiring at the end of the year, said that this issue is bigger than politics and the press.

    “We’re talking about the future of the United States,” said Rangel. “When Trump put out that Obama wasn’t President, he knew it wasn’t true at the time…what they did was to say we’re going to send the signal out and remind people his ancestors were from Africa.”

    Rangel continued: “I hope this is not reported as a Black issue. This is an American issue.”

    Lauren Victoria Burke is a writer and political analyst. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke.

  • Anger grows in Tulsa as police release video of fatal shooting of unarmed black man

    By: Kristi Eaton and Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times

     

    tulsa-police-photoIn this photo from a Sept. 16 police video, Terence Crutcher, left, is followed by police in Tulsa, Okla., moments before an officer shot and killed him. (Tulsa Police Department)

    terrance-crutcher-with-his-sister-tiffany-crutcherTerrance Crutcher with his sister, Tiffany Crutcher

     

    A fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man by a white officer has reopened fresh wounds in this city with a fraught history among African Americans, white residents and police officers.

    A graphic police video shows Terence Crutcher, 40, being fatally shot by a police officer Friday night as he walks with his hands up toward his SUV, stalled out in the middle of the road.

    The incident quickly became the latest flashpoint in a string of controversial police shootings of Black Americans. Protesters chanted Tuesday evening in downtown Tulsa, the ACLU asked that criminal charges be filed against the officer, and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said news of the shooting was “unbearable.”

    “We have got to tackle systemic racism,” Clinton said on “The Steve Harvey Morning Show.” “This horrible shooting again. How many times do we have to see this in our country?”

    An attorney for Officer Betty Shelby, who shot Crutcher after responding to a dispatch call about an abandoned car, said Crutcher failed to heed police commands and that she and another officer, Tyler Turnbough, felt threatened and fired simultaneously. Turnbough used a stun gun.

    The city’s police chief, who released both helicopter and dash-cam video of the shooting, called the images “disturbing” and vowed to “achieve justice.”

    Protesters quickly demanded that Shelby to be fired, and the Crutcher family called for criminal charges against the officer, who has been put on routine administrative leave. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation and local authorities are independently investigating the shooting.

    The last night of life for Crutcher, a father of four who was on his way home from a class at Tulsa Community College, began with a pair of 911 calls reporting an abandoned car with its engine running and doors open in the middle of the road.

    “I got out and was like, ‘Do you need help?’ reported one caller, who said Crutcher “took off running” after asking her to “come here, come here,” and saying the car was going to “blow up.”

    “I think he’s smoking something,” the same caller said.

    Police videos show Crutcher walking toward his SUV with his hands up. Four officers, three male and one female, approach Crutcher he walks to the driver’s side and seems to lower his hands and put them on the car. The dash-cam video is blocked by officers, and Crutcher is partially blocked by his own car in the the helicopter video, making it difficult to see his movements. A man in the helicopter video suggests it’s “time for a Taser” before saying, “That looks like a bad dude, too. Probably on something.”

    Within seconds, Crutcher drops to the ground. “Shots fired!” a woman yells on police radio as officers slowly back away while holding their guns up. Officers wait more than two minutes before approaching Crutcher again.

    He was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.

    Police say the videos did not capture Shelby arriving on the scene because she did not turn her dash cam on.

    Shelby’s attorney, Scott Wood, says that when she showed up and asked Crutcher whether the car was his, he did not respond. Crutcher put his hands in his pockets as he walked toward her, then removed them and put his hands up before walking toward the back of her patrol car and putting his hands back in his pockets, Wood said.

    He said she planned to arrest Crutcher, who she thought was intoxicated, and called dispatch. Crutcher did not comply when Shelby took out her gun and told him to get on his knees, but instead walked toward his car, the attorney said.

    Wood said Shelby fired her gun at the same time that Turnbough fired a Taser at Crutcher because she had “tunnel vision” and did not realize other officers had arrived on scene.

    “When unarmed people of color break down on the side of the road, we’re not treated as citizens needing help. We’re treated as, I guess, criminals — suspects that they fear,” said Benjamin Crump, one of the attorneys representing the Crutcher family.

     

     

  • Obama: Low turnout by Black voters would be ‘a personal insult’; ‘You want to give me a good send-off? go vote!’

    By: Elise Foley Immigration & Politics Reporter, The Huffington Post

    obama-at-bcc-dinner

    President Obama at Black Congressional Caucus Dinner

    President Barack Obama told a predominantly black audience on Saturday that if they want to protect everything the community has fought for over the past eight years, they can’t let voter turnout fall now that he’s off the ballot.

    “I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy, if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election,” he said at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation conference. “You want to give me a good send-off? Go vote.”

    It was Obama’s last speech as president at the annual event, and served as both a reflection on his presidency and a rallying cry for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who spoke earlier in the evening and who he said is the only candidate who can continue his legacy. Although Obama isn’t running for re-election, “Hope is on the ballot, and fear is on the ballot too,” he said.

    The line about fear was one of many references to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, a man who tried for years to delegitimize Obama’s presidency by claiming he likely lied about being born in the United States. Trump finally said on Friday that he accepted that Obama was born in the U.S. ― while still lying about his own history as a birther and patting himself on the back for his role in urging the president to release a long-form birth certificate in 2011.

    Obama kicked off his speech by feigning relief over Trump’s comments, as he did on Friday.

    “There’s an extra spring in my step tonight. I don’t know about you guys, but I am so relieved that the whole birther thing is over,” Obama said. “I mean, ISIL, North Korea, poverty, climate change ― none of those things weighed on my mind like the validity of my birth certificate. And to think that with just 124 days to go, under the wire we got that resolved. That’s a boost for me in the home stretch.”

    “In other breaking news, the world is round, not flat,” he added with a laugh.

    Obama also mocked Trump’s claim that being a black person in the U.S. is so bad now that black voters should support the Republican because, in Trump’s own words, “What the hell do you have to lose?”

    Trump must have “missed that whole civics lesson about slavery and Jim Crow ― but we’ve got a museum for him to visit so he can tune in,” Obama said, referring to the new National Museum of African American History and Culture, which he said he’d toured earlier.

    “[Trump] says we’ve got nothing left to lose, so we might as well support somebody who has fought against civil rights and fought against equality and who has shown no regard for working people for most of his life,” Obama said. “Well, we do have challenges. But we’re not stupid.”

    “We know the progress we’ve made, despite the forces of opposition, despite the forces of discrimination, despite the politics of backlash,” he continued, “And we intend to keep fighting against those forces.”

    Clinton’s speech was shorter and not as fiery, and was spent largely praising Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for what they’ve done for the country.

    “I know I speak for not just everyone in this room but so many tens of millions of Americans: Mr. President, not only do we know you are an American, you’re a great American and you make us all proud to be Americans too,” Clinton said after receiving the organization’s Trailblazer Award.

    She said she would not take for granted the vote of anyone in the room, and contrasted her vision with Trump’s.

    “We need ideas, not insults. Real plans to help struggling Americans in communities that have been left out and left behind; not prejudice and paranoia,” Clinton said. “We can’t let Barack Obama’s legacy fall into the hands of someone who doesn’t understand that ― whose dangerous and divisive vision for our country will drag us backwards. Instead, we need to come together.”

     

  • Commission recognizes two employees for completing bridge inspection certification

    commissioner-bridgesL to R: Commissioners Corey Cockrell, Michael Williams Tennyson Smith, County Engineer Willie Branch, Jamichael Jones, Tauri Powell, Commissioners Lester Brown and Allen Turner

    At their regular meeting on Monday September 12, 2016, the Greene County Commission recognized two employees – Jamichael Jones and Tauri Powell – for completing a five-year training and certification program to be bridge inspectors for the county.
    The two men who live in Eutaw had to take periodic courses, a written examination and work under the supervision of the County Engineer or another previously certified inspector for five years. Willie Branch, County Engineer said, “We are very proud of these employees for completing this course. They will be able to take on additional responsibilities related to bridges in the county. As inspectors they have the power to close a bridge if they determine it is unsafe.”
    The Commission also recognized three of its own members for training with the Alabama Local Government Training Institute. Commissioners Lester Brown and Michael Williams completed 120 hours of training and Commissioner Corey Cockrell completed 50 hours of training relative to the regulations, issues and concerns facing county government officials.
    The Commission received and approved a detailed financial report from Paula Bird, Financial Officer. She reported that revenues and expenses for the eleven months of the fiscal year ending August 31, 2016 were in the 90 to 96% range, which closely matches the budgetary time period. Greene County has $4,072,710 cash in a variety of bank accounts not including accounts set up to retire bonds The Commission approved payment of $900,000 in bills and claims submitted.
    The Commission appointed Shirley Ann Edwards (District 3) and Pinnia Hines (District 5) to the Greene County Hospital and Health System Board of Directors.
    In other actions, the Commission:
    • tabled consideration and approval of its 2016-2017 fiscal year budget, which begins on October 1;
    • approved purchase of a Certificate of Deposit from Robertson Bank at 1.25% interest;
    • approved purchase of a Boom Mower at $118,632.81 and an Asphalt Zipper at $108,990.00 for the Highway Department;
    • approved travel for staff to various conferences and trainings;
    • approved negotiating a loan with Merchants and Farmers Bank to purchase new trucks;
    • approved a contract with the Department of Youth Services for youth detention services.

  • The full cost of incarceration in the U.S. is over $1 trillion, study finds

    By: Matt Ferner National Reporter, The Huffington Post

    A new study examining the economic toll of mass incarceration in the United States concludes that the full cost exceeds $1 trillion ― with about half of that burden falling on the families, children and communities of people who have been locked up.

    The United States is the biggest jailer on the planet, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population but nearly 25 percent of its prisoners. Another 7 million Americans are either on probation or on parole. Operating all those federal and state prisons, plus running local jails, is generally said to cost the U.S. government about $80 billion a year.

    But in a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found that the $80 billion price tag is likely a gross underestimation, because it does not factor in the social costs of incarceration.

    “We find that for every dollar in corrections costs, incarceration generates an additional $10 in social costs,” Carrie Pettus-Davis, director of the university’s Concordance Institute for Advancing Social Justice and a co-author of the study, said last week.

    At $1 trillion, the broader costs of incarceration dwarf the operational costs of the U.S. government. And disturbingly, more than half of that cost, researchers say, is borne by the families, children and communities of incarcerated people.

    A growing body of research has established that formerly incarcerated people who get jobs tend to have significantly diminished incomes, even long after they leave prison. Researchers at Washington University found that incarcerated people lose about $70 billion in wages they would have otherwise earned as part of the workforce. And people who do find employment after incarceration miss out on an estimated $230 billion in reduced earnings over the course of their lifetime.

    “Formerly incarcerated persons earn lower wages because they face occupational restrictions, encounter discrimination in the hiring process, and have weaker social networks and less human capital due to their incarceration,” the researchers note.

    The formerly incarcerated also have a mortality rate 3.5 times higher than that of people who have never been incarcerated. Their shortened life spans collectively add a cost of almost $63 billion.

    But the single greatest cost the researchers found has to do with the fact that high levels of incarceration may actually increase crime, not deter it, by “reinforcing behavior and survival strategies that are maladaptive outside the prison environment.”

    The researchers note that there may be an additional destabilizing effect on communities where many people have been jailed, imprisoned or otherwise detained, thereby “weakening the social controls that bind neighborhoods together.”

    Altogether, researchers put those costs of the criminogenic nature of prison at a whopping $285 billion.

    The children of incarcerated people pay enormous costs. They are five times more likely to go to prison than their peers. They’re likely to be stigmatized and suffer long-term emotional and behavioral challenges. They also have a greater chance of living in poverty or general instability at home or becoming homeless themselves.

    Ten percent of children of incarcerated parents are unable to finish high school or attend college. Many teenage children of incarcerated parents forego their education and enter the labor force early in order to make up for lost family income. And incarcerated people have triple the divorce rate of people who are convicted of a crime but not placed behind bars. Altogether, costs involving the children of the incarcerated reach over $185 billion.

    In the researchers’ estimation, the full economic burden of mass incarceration in the U.S. comes to about 6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. It’s also over 11 times larger than the operational costs of correctional facilities.

    “Recent reports highlighting the costs to incarcerated persons, families, and communities have made it possible to estimate the true cost of incarceration,” Pettus-Davis said. “This is important because it suggests that the true cost has been grossly underestimated, perhaps resulting in a level of incarceration beyond that which is socially optimal.”

  • Obama Administration steps in after Federal Judge rules against Standing Rock Sioux tribe on pipeline

    By: Dierdre Fulton, Common Dreams

    A series of “game-changing” developments impacting the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) battle on Friday afternoon were testament to the power of organizing.

    Striking a blow to the vibrant, Indigenous-led resistance movement that has sprung up against the four-state oil pipeline, a federal judge on Friday denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s attempt to halt its construction.

    Shortly afterward, however, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army, and the Department of the Interior issued a joint statement indicating that “important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribal nations and their members regarding [DAPL] specifically, and pipeline-related decision-making generally, remain.”

    As a result, the statement read, construction on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe—which straddles North and South Dakota—will be halted until the Corps “can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws.”

    “In the interim,” the agencies continued, “we request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe.”

    The statement continued: Furthermore, this case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects. Therefore, this fall, we will invite tribes to formal, government-to-government consultations on two questions: (1) within the existing statutory framework, what should the federal government do to better ensure meaningful tribal input into infrastructure-related reviews and decisions and the protection of tribal lands, resources, and treaty rights; and (2) should new legislation be proposed to Congress to alter that statutory framework and promote those goals.

    Sen. Bernie Sanders, who on Thursday proposed legislation that would prevent the Army Corps from approving the pipeline until the agency has completed an environmental impact statement, praised the agencies’ decision:

    As Common Dreams has reported extensively, the Standing Rock Sioux had challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline, saying that the project violates federal laws—including the Clean Water Act and National Historic Preservation Act—and would endanger both water supplies and ancient sacred sites.

    But in his decision (pdf), U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., said “the Tribe has not carried its burden to demonstrate that the Court could prevent damage to important cultural resources by enjoining the Corps’ DAPL-related permitting.” He ordered the parties to appear for a status conference on Sept. 16.

    Still, those who have voiced their opposition to the controversial project said they’d fight on.In the lead-up to the ruling, tribal chairman David Archambault II declared: “Regardless of the court’s decision today, we will continue to be united and peaceful in our opposition to the pipeline. Our ultimate goal is permanent protection of our sacred sites and our water. We must continue to have faith and believe in the strength of our prayers and not do anything in violence. We must believe in the creator and good things will come.”

    Earthjustice, who filed the lawsuit in July on behalf of the tribe, said in the days before the ruling that it would be challenged.

    A press conference and protest will take place at the North Dakota Capitol starting at 3pm local time on Friday. Solidarity events are planned nationwide next week.

    Updates are being shared under the hashtags #NoDAPL, #RezpectOurWater, and #StandWithStandingRock.

     

     

  • Georgetown University to make amends for slavery history

     By: Ian Simpson, Reuters News Service

     

    student-at-georgetown
    WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 28: Georgetown University freshman, Darryl Robinson, 19, poses for a photograph on campus on Wednesday March 28, 2012 in Washington, DC. Robinson said he was unprepared and had terrible study habits when he arrived as a student at Georgetown University. Healy Hall is seen in the background. (Photo by Matt McClain for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

     

    WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Georgetown University apologized on Thursday for its historical links to slavery, saying it would give an admissions edge to descendants of slaves whose sale in the 19th century helped pay off the U.S. school’s debts.

    The 1838 sale, worth about $3.3 million in today’s dollars, was organized by two of Georgetown’s early presidents, both Jesuits. A portion of the profit, about $500,000, was used to help pay off Georgetown’s debts at a time when the college was struggling financially. The slaves were uprooted from the Maryland plantations and shipped to estates in Louisiana.

    The Washington-based university, run by the Roman Catholic Jesuit order, will create an institute to study the history of slavery at the school. It will also rename two buildings that had honored presidents who oversaw the 1838 sale of the 272 slaves, who had worked on church-affiliated plantations in Maryland.

    “The most appropriate ways for us to redress the participation of our predecessors in the institution of slavery is to address the manifestations of the legacy of slavery in our time,” Georgetown President John DeGioia said in a statement.

    The school’s steps go further than those taken by other U.S. universities that are confronting their past association with slavery, including Harvard, Brown, Princeton and the University of North Carolina.

    But some criticized as inadequate the decision to give the descendants of the sold slaves the same admissions preference as the children of faculty, staff and alumni.

    “We remain hopeful that we can forge a relationship with Georgetown that will lead to ‘real’ atonement,” Karran Harper Royal, an organizer of a group of descendants, said in an email.

    She added that the school should have offered scholarships to descendants of the slaves and included them on a panel that made the recommendations.

    The steps follow recommendations by a committee DeGioia appointed in September 2015 on how to recognize Georgetown’s links to slavery.

    The 18,000-student university will also create a memorial for slaves whose work benefited the school, including those sold to plantations in Louisiana to pay off Georgetown’s debts. Descendants of the slaves will be included in a group advising on the memorial.

    The two buildings being renamed by university officials originally paid tribute to the Rev. Thomas F. Mulledy and the Rev. William McSherry, the college presidents involved in the 1838 sale. Now one will be called Isaac Hall to commemorate the life of Isaac Hawkins, one of the slaves shipped to Louisiana in 1838, and the other Anne Marie Becraft Hall, in honor of a 19th-century educator who founded a school for black girls in Washington.

    Students at dozens of U.S. universities staged protests last fall over the legacy of racism on campus. The protests led to the resignation of the president of the University of Missouri and prompted many schools to review their diversity commitments.

    Dr. DeGioia said he planned to apologize for the wrongs of the past “within the framework of the Catholic tradition,” by offering what he described as a Mass of reconciliation in partnership with the Jesuit leadership in the United States and the Archdiocese of Washington.

    “This community participated in the institution of slavery,’’ Dr. DeGioia said, addressing a crowd of hundreds of students, faculty members and descendants at Georgetown’s Gaston Hall. “This original evil that shaped the early years of the Republic was present here. We have been able to hide from this truth, bury this truth, ignore and deny this truth.”

    “As a community and as individuals, we cannot do our best work if we refuse to take ownership of such a critical part of our history,’’ he said. “We must acknowledge it.”

    When Dr. DeGioia invited questions from the audience, a man in a gray suit took the microphone. “My name is Joe Stewart,’’ he said, “and I am a descendant of the 272.”

    Mr. Stewart, a retired corporate executive and an organizer of a group of more than 300 descendants, expressed gratitude to the university’s working group on slavery and to Dr. DeGioia for their efforts. But he said that descendants, who had not been included as members of the committee, must be involved in decision making on these initiatives moving forward.

    “Our attitude is nothing about us, without us,’’ said Mr. Stewart, who was flanked by five other descendants.

     

     

     

  • Black unemployment rate falls to 8.1% in August

    By Freddie Allen (NNPA Newswire Managing Editor)

    The unemployment rate for Black workers improved from 8.4 percent in July to 8.1 percent in August, according to the latest jobs report from the Labor Department. Even though the Black jobless rate has decreased more than a percentage point since last year (9.4 percent in August 2015), it is still nearly double the White unemployment rate (4.4 percent).

    Nationally, the economy added 151,000 jobs in August, but the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.9 percent, the same mark set in July and June.

    The labor force participation rate, which measures the share of workers that are employed or looking for jobs, was 61.9 percent for Black workers in August, an increase from 61.2 percent in July and only a slight uptick from the Black labor force rate last year (61.7 percent in August 2015). The participation rate for White workers was 62.9 percent in August, July and June and has only edged up slightly since last August (62.6 percent)

    The unemployment rate for White workers was 4.4 percent in August, the same mark set in August 2015, and a slight increase from the 4.3 percent rate recorded in July.

    The unemployment rate for Black men over 20 years-old was 7.6 percent in August, an improvement from 8.2 percent in July. The jobless rate for Black women over 20 years-old was 7.1 percent in August, which was a step forward from the 7.3 percent rate a month ago.

    The unemployment rate for White men over 20 years-old was 4.1 percent in August, the same as July. The participation rate, which was 72 percent in July showed no improvement. The unemployment rate for White women was 3.9 percent in August slightly higher than the 3.7 percent mark set in July.

    The unemployment rate for Hispanic workers was 5.6 percent in August 2016 a step back from the 5.4 percent rate set in July.

    According to The Hamilton Project, an economic policy think tank at the Brookings Institution, the economy would need to add 204,000 jobs every month until May 2017 to reach pre-recession employment levels.

    In a statement about the August jobs report, Main Street Alliance, a national network of small business coalitions, noted that growth in the retail and restaurant sectors signaled “increased consumer confidence and spending heading into the holiday shopping season.” The Alliance also reported that Washington state led the nation in small business job growth and Seattle topped the list of metropolitan areas.

    “With job creation and small business success widely attributed to consumer confidence and spending, it is hard to ignore Seattle’s rising minimum wage and the role boosting the wages of the lowest-level earners played in earning them the top spot on the list,” the Alliance statement said.

    The Labor Department also reported upward trends in several service industries, including food services and drinking places.

    Bill Spriggs, the chief economist for the AFL-CIO, a national group of 56 unions that represents more than 12 million workers, noted gains in fast food jobs and in health care in a series of tweets last Friday. “Despite whining about minimum wage increases, fast food establishments gain 34,000 last month, 312,000 over the year,” Spriggs tweeted.

    Spriggs suggested that the Black unemployment rate likely decreased, “for right reasons,” because the employment-population ratio, which is the share of the population that is currently employed. also improved from July (56.1 percent) to August (56.9 percent).

    Spriggs also tweeted that Black workers that earn associate degrees experience a 5.4 percent jobless rate, which is only slightly better than the unemployment rate for White high school dropouts (5.6 percent).

    In a statement recognizing the importance of Labor Day, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), said that although America has made significant strides toward an economic recovery in recent years, too many working people are still going without the basic necessities.

    “It does not have to be this way,” said Scott. “Ensuring that all Americans have the opportunity to make a decent life for themselves and their families is the central challenge of our time. Whether we rise to meet that challenge will define us for generations to come.”