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Sunday, May 31, 2009

PA newspaper runs ad calling for assassination of Barack Obama

More Post-Racial America

Yes, the latest attack on Obama becomes personal with an ad that calls for his assassination.

As reported by Francis L. Holland, Michael Morrill and Philadelphia Enquirer The Warren Pennsylvania Times-Observer (www.timesobserver.com) published an ad on Thursday calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama.

Francis L. Holland has a link to the AD. The Warren, Pennsylvania Times-Observer has apologized, saying that the person who approved the ad "didn't recognize the significance of the names" and that they have "notified the authorities." Seriously? Garfield and McKinley...sure. But Lincoln and Kennedy? MORE HERE

Get this, as reported by the Reuters, the paper says it mistakenly ran ad urging Obama killing.

AAPP: It seems that the newspapers in the United States are comfortable with these attacks. Now the question is when will the Secret Service and the Justice Department say, enough is enough?


Update on investigation into Obama classified

A representative of the U.S. Secret Service was in Warren Friday, accompanied by a Warren City police officer to investigate the circumstances surrounding the placement of a classified ad in the Times Observer on Thursday. Get this, Secret Service representatives, who interviewed the ad taker and the publisher, and indicated that they would also talk to the person who placed the ad, requested that the paper not publicly reveal the name of that person because it would hamper their investigation. More HERE

AAPP says: Why not publicly reveal the name of that person? Shouldn't the people of that city, state and country need to know the person who would like to do harm to elected officials? If it where a black man they would have released that fact in a heart beat.

Note: There have been multiple assassination attempts on Presidents of the United States; there have been 90 known attempts to kill sitting and former Presidents as well as Presidents-elect. Four attempts on sitting Presidents have succeeded: Abraham Lincoln (the 16th President), James A. Garfield (the 20th President), William McKinley (the 25th President) and John F. Kennedy (the 35th President). Two other Presidents were injured in attempted assassinations: then former President Theodore Roosevelt and then sitting President Ronald Reagan. Source



Thursday, May 28, 2009

Oklahoma Highway Patrol - Video of a Post - Racial Moment

AAPP says: Welcome to Post-Racial America!

Hat Tip and Shout Out to blogger Intersection between Madness and Reality for reporting on this incident involving a black family assaulted by wreckless Highway Patrol Officers. I agree with this blogger, all black folks should travel with video cameras. These color aroused highway patrol officers should be brought up on charges. More HERE

Hat Tip to the Emergency Medical Technician who was involved in a scuffle with an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper for speaking out about the incident.
Maurice White, Jr. thank you for standing up against these troopers. MORE HERE

[troopervsparamedic_0509.jpg]



Saturday, May 9, 2009

Kentucky Fried Chicken - Post Racial Chickens?

File this under: The Politics of chicken. Or better yet, chicken-crazed black folks and Post Racial Chickens.

The fact of the matter is Americans of all races became copying experts this week as the free chicken coupons were printed on home and office printers/copying machines across America. KFC should have known in the economy there would be millions of people printing free chicken coupons for everyone in the family, and then some. Fact is, many folks started selling the coupons in front of KFC, in this hard economic times. DON'T HATE!

KFC Coupons Have Area Residents Fried



As reported by BNET Advertising Blog Oprah Winfrey’s offer of a free KFC grilled chicken meal for anyone downloading a coupon has created two interesting things:

  1. A 1960s-style sit-in at a Manhattan KFC when management refused to continue honoring the offer.
  2. Yet another opportunity to debate whether using black people to advertise a fried chicken chain is racist.
You can read about the mini-riot over on Gothamist. More HERE



News outlets such as the Huffington Post, NY Times, and bloggers like TheLoop21.com
and Carmen D at Black Voices Blog are covering the story. Many bloggers are asking is Oprah wrong for feeding us with KFC?

There is one thing for sure, Oprah's KFC free-for-all has sparked a number of civil rights era-style protest.

Blogger AverageBro.com is on point when he wrote: "There are soo many things wrong with this story. Although I can’t help but laugh at the fact that those who actually wanted to pay faced beatdowns from angry coupon holders.

But the fact remains that people staged a sit-in for chicken. Chicken! These weren’t starving people begging for a meal, but crazy Americans angry that KFC wouldn’t honor a coupon. And I just know that after the whole Popeyes debacle, black people were involved. Probably spearheaded the revolt. The special runs until May 10. So these angry customers could have just come back to get their free chicken on another day.

And KFC and Oprah hold the responsibility for this foolishness. Oprah, I never thought you’d make the Do Better list, but alas, the day has come." More HERE

AAPP says: Candidly, I like many bloggers wonder why Kentucky Fried Chicken has black folks dancing around buckets of chicken?

It's all about the money! Now they (Kentucky Fried Chicken) are willing to spend money to make more money from.... guess who?

Check it out -
The KFC President Apologizes For Oprah Fiasco




Feel better now?

Customers wait in line on East 42nd St. to redeem their free coupon for KFC's new grilled chicken.

After being turned away angry Tuesday, customers left a bit happier Wednesday.


Why is it that news outlets like, Forbes, the NY Daily News, and other news outlets can cover and shame Kentucky Fried Chicken and find Oprah's KFC Promotion Hypocritical yet also on many occassions fail to address real issues impacting black America?

Why is it that black folks can lead demonstrations to get KFC to mail out rain checks for Oprah chicken freebie, but seem to refuse to address issues of impacting our own community?

It's too bad black folks by and large don't address crime in our communities, poverty, teen pregnancy, tasering while blacks, high unemployment rates among black youth, lower educational attainment, high rates of incarceration among black males, the unwillingness of some businesses to employ ex-offenders, and the loss of between $71 billion and $92 billion in black home ownership assets - the worst loss of wealth for people of color in modern U.S. history.
But let's get irate and demonstrate about some free chicken of course. We should be signing a petition to save black folks, instead we are more interested in some silly chicken.

File this under: The Politics of chicken. Or better yet, Chicken Wars

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Taser Torture In Fort Worth, Texas - "Not Post-Racial"

H/T to Eddie Griffin and the folks in Fort Worth, Texas for
"Taking it to the next level"



Eddie Griffin


OHCHR-UNOG
Committee against Torture
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Telephone Number (41-22) 917-9000
Fax Number (41-22) 917-9006
E-mail to urgent-action@ohchr.org


RE: Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 39/46 of 10 December 1984, entry into force 26 June 1987, in accordance with article 27

PART I, Article 1
1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

On May 4, 2009, the Fort Worth chapters of the Southern Leadership Conference (SCLC), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and the community-based Carver Heights East Association, convened a joint press conference and prayer vigil outside City Hall for the families of Michael Jacobs, Jr., Noah Lopez, and Carolyn Daniels.

These families were interviewed by WFAA New 8 TV. (See Prayers for end to Taser use by police, reference http://www.wfaa.com/video/index.html?nvid=358374&shu=1)

In an article by Peter Gorman of the Fort Worth Weekly, entitled “US: Torture by Taser” (Ref. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12455), published June 24, 2005, the author details two prior taser deaths in Fort Worth. Robert Guerrero, who was apprehended in a petty burglary, was stunned for 10 seconds, “double the normal length of time”. In the next minute, Guerrero was jolted three more times with five-second blasts. When he stopped breathing and could not be revived, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office later listed the cause of death as heart failure brought on by “acute cocaine overdose”. But a member of the Medical Examiner’s staff —who asked not to be named — told Fort Worth Weekly that “the amount of cocaine found in Guerrero’s blood would not normally have caused him to have heart failure.”

The other Fort Worth Taser victim, Midland architect Eric Hammock, died in April 3, 2005 after he ran from police, tried to take on an officer, and ended up suffering heart failure — like Guerrero, after getting hit repeatedly with a Taser while he had cocaine in his system. The medical examiner’s report, released on April 28, showed that Hammock suffered from heart disease and that he was jacked way up on cocaine. The official cause of death, in layman’s terms, was heart failure caused by cocaine intoxication. As in the Guerrero case, the Taser was not considered a contributing factor in Hammock’s death, despite the multiple jolts he had received.

According to Amnesty International, between 2001 and 2004 more than 70 deaths occurred in the United States and Canada to people in police custody within hours or days of their being hit with a Taser. By 2005, those kinds of deaths reached 103 just by March — and there were at least two additional deaths in April, including Eric Hammock’s in Fort Worth. Michael Jacobs, Jr. was reported to be # 405.

Here is the numeric chronological listing of taser deaths by the Fort Worth Police Department, along with date of death and age of victim.

#81 November 2, 2004: Robert Guerrero, 21, Fort Worth, Texas
#109 April 3, 2005: Eric Hammock, 43, Fort Worth, Texas
#130 June 24, 2005: Carolyn Daniels, 25, Fort Worth, Texas
#214 August 23, 2006: Noah Lopez, 25, Fort Worth, Texas
#405 April 18, 2009: Michael Jacobs Jr., 24, Fort Worth, Texas

As of this date, May 6, 2009, the investigation into the death Michael Jacobs, Jr. continues. Here was a mentally ill young man, distraught, and refusing to take his medication. His family called for the assistance of the authorities and medical personnel. But EMS (Emergency Medical personnel) was, instead, sent away from the scene. They were called back nearly an hour later while Jacobs was in the process of dying.

TASER International, Inc., the manufacturer of the Electronic Control Devices (ECDs), has been careful and meticulous to disassociate its weapons from causation of death, although these instruments emit up to 50,000 volts of electricity through the human body. Besides this, the company has repeatedly boasted that no Taser has ever been proven to be a “direct cause” of a fatality, a statistic that has not gone unnoticed by the new Fort Worth chief of police, Jeff Halstead, who hails from Phoenix, a few miles from Scottsdale, home of the taser producing corporation.

In its strategy to win the hearts and minds of the public, TASER set out to “gain market acceptance, establish and expand direct and indirect distribution channels”, through its “ability to attract and retain the endorsement of key opinion-leaders in the law enforcement community.”

Secondly, TASER has waged an intense propaganda and legal battle against the press. The company sued newspaper publisher Gannett Co. for libel, arguing that it published a series of articles that misled readers about the safety of its products.

“Taser will use litigation in any way it possibly can to persuade the public that these stun guns don't hurt people,” said Robert Haslam, a Fort Worth, Texas lawyer and chair of AAJ's Taser Litigation Group. “There seems to be a lot of smoke, but Taser says there's no fire.”

Robert Haslam is misinformed, as well as Chief Jeff Halstead, who has, in turn, misinformed the public about the danger of tasers. A San Jose federal jury awarded the family of Robert Heston, Jr. an amount of $6 million against Taser International on the grounds that the company “failed to warn police that its stun guns could be dangerous when used on people under the influence of drugs or in conjunction with chest compressions”…. this award was a Product Liability award against Taser international, the “stun gun” manufacturer.

More recently, the company has fought back, forcing some medical examiners to change their autopsy reports on taser-related deaths.

In Taser Intl., Inc. v. Chief Med. Examr. of Summit Co., Ohio, No. CV 2006-11-7421, Taser International, Inc. sued a county medical examiner to remove any mention of the device from the autopsy reports of three men who died after being shot with the Taser, and the court sided with the company.

Judge Ted Schneiderman, of the Summit County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas, found: “There is simply no medical, scientific, or electrical evidence to support the conclusion that the Taser X26 had anything to do with the death of Dennis S. Hyde, Richard Holcomb, or Mark D. McCullaugh. The medical examiner failed to present any evidence on the use and effect of Taser devices.”

THEREFORE:

WE CHARGE that TASERS ARE TORTURE, as defined by the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

WE CHARGE that Tasering is “an act by which severe pain and suffering” is “intentionally inflicted”, willfully and knowingly that these devices emit 50,000 volts, more than enough to electrocute anyone on the spot.

WE CHARGE that Tasering has caused more than 400 deaths in the United States since 2001 to victims who, otherwise, would not have been given a death sentence, and in many cases, totally innocent of any offense.

WE CHARGE that TASER International is deceiving the public, public officials, and politicians with its non-lethal or less-the-lethal claim, giving civilian law enforcement the false assurances that its product is not deadly.

WE CHARGE that TASER International has used strong arm tactics against the press, against medical examiners, and anyone else who might causally taint its devices with “direct cause” of death.

WE CHARGE that TASER International has created a lexicon of its own to obscure real cause-effect relationship in taser-related fatalities. This includes the creation of the “Sudden In-Custody Death Syndrome”, since after tasing, a subject is taken into custody. In theory, it is “excited delirium” of an agitated state while being taken into custody that the subject has a seizure and dies. This is nothing more than legal babble designed to disassociate the manufacturer from liability of its product.

WE CHARGE that TASER International, Inc. and its supporters, backers, and investors are insensitive in not recognizing the innocent victims killed by its weapon. They assume no responsibility, nor do they express sympathy to the families.

WE CHARGE that TASERs have been used to inflict punishment on subject or to force compliance. In most of these instances, either no crime was committed by the subject, or the offenses are minor. They have tasered children with behavioral problems, women (some pregnant), and men (mostly minorities).

WE CHARGE that the Tasered Victims of Fort Worth were of minority persuasion. When more pain and suffering is intentional inflicted, disproportionately upon minorities, that also constitute TORTURE.

IN CONCLUSION: The U.S. government is TASER International’s largest customer, which is why our appeal to Washington, D.C. has been in vain. Hereby, we have exhausted all avenues to petition our government for redress to the above grievances.


Presented by Eddie Griffin (BASG), AfroSpear and Afrosphere Action Coalition

More on Taser Torture & Death Cases in Fort Worth, Texas, USA HERE




Monday, May 4, 2009

Anger in Texas, Killing of Black Man causes cautionary words

"If you kill one more black man, I guarantee you we'll tear this whole damn city down,"
says New Black Panther Party.


Black Panthers News Conference Ends Peacefully



Davd Ingram, of station KBMT12 reports that New Black Panthers leader Quanell X spoke to about 300 people on Monday. He called a press conference in front of the Lumberton Police Department and talked for a half-hour about the death of 35-year-old Kevin LaDay.

Quanell X said the Lumberton Police beat LaDay to death last Thursday morning and he told the crowd that this behavior wouldn't be tolerated.

"If they kill another black man," said a heated Quanell X." We will take this damned town down."

It was those heated words that almost resulted in fights. But law enforcement controlled the entire protest and there were no reports of any injuries or arrests. More HERE

More HERE:

Publisher: This is not Post-Racial folks.
More HERE



Please sign the petition against Taser Torture In America - A Call For Congressional Hearings

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Are Black Americans Stupified by Barack Obama?

Stupified: Confused and stupid at the same time.

AAPP: There seems to be a new sense of racial optimism. Very few
newspapers or bloggers are talking about "The black-white divide in Obama's popularity. For many, including Obama, silence is golden regarding color and racial matters. Most newspapers and bloggers are talking about how African-Americans are optimistic about Obama. While some blogs dare to ponder The Obama effect: Have blacks in general suddenly become smarter?



I guess black America is going Post Racial or just stupified by post racial madness - like Jay-Z . Soon Obama like Jay Z will say "There Is No Such Thing As Black Music"

Speaking of Stupified and Post Racial - There is a great article in The Atlantic by Ta-Nehisi Coates. regarding The Essental Americanness of African Americans. Ta-Nehisi Coates notes that a CBS News polling data has some interesting results on race. Matt was surprised that a significant number (44 percent) of African-Americans believe that blacks and whites have the same shot at success in this country:

I'm surprised that as many as forty-four percent of blacks say that both races have equal opportunity. I think the evidence is unambiguously clear that they do not. African-American children have parents with lower levels of income and education. Their families, even when they have above-average incomes, tend to have less wealth than white families. And even controlling for parental income and educational attainment, black kids do worse in schools than white kids. Then beyond all that, there's clear evidence of discrimination against job applicants with "black" names that tends to suggest a broader pattern of employment discrimination. There are inequities in the criminal justice system both in terms of more punishment being meted out to black offenders, and the police and the courts doing less to protect black victims.

I'm not surprised that most white people prefer to ignore this sort of evidence and believe in the existence of equal opportunities, but it's surprising to me how many African-Americans have adopted an unrealistically optimistic view.

Ta-Nehisi Coates says: I obviously agree with Matt's assessment of the socioeconomic plight of black folks. But I don't share his surprise. First there is this--If you're black, a quick way to go insane is to think about how much racism has altered your life. But beyond that, I spent a lot of time in my youth as a left-black nationalist arguing with friends and family about race. One thing that became clear is that while a large number of black people recognize the ugly history of racism in this country, many have a hard time seeing themselves as victims of that racism.

This makes sense if you think about it from a human perspective. Black people have to compete, and their kids have to compete. In order to wake up every morning, work your ass off, and pay taxes, then tell your to do the same, it helps to buy in to the idea that "you can win." Perhaps more important than that, African-Americans are Americans, and "you can win" is a part of our ethos. I suspect that overestimating the extent to which "individual effort" matters is an American trait. Maybe even a human one, I'm not sure. More HERE

AAPP: Let me be very clear, I'm no Obama hater. President Obama is hands down, better than George W Bush any day. There are Obama haters who criticize his every move.

There are also some people that are looking at Barack Obama's policies for urban America. At this point Obama is getting an F from a number of Chicago activists. Candidly, I'm hoping that Black Americans are not becoming stupified by President Barack Obama.

President Obama does not want to be called the "Black American - President," and he shouldn't be. He is the President of all the United States, including Black citizens of America. We should hold him accountable like any President and forget about his blackness.

I'm not stupified by Barack Obama. Are you?