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Vol. 12 Issue 2…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…January 11,
2009
Intuit's Vibe
Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) lyrics
By Marvin Gaye and
James Nyx
Dah (Repeat 24 times)
Rockets, moon shots
Spend it on the have nots
Money, we make it... 'Fore we see it you take it
Oh, make you wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life
This ain't livin', this ain't livin'
No, no baby, this ain't livin'
No, no, no
Inflation no chance..To increase finance
Bills pile up sky high...Send that boy off to die
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my
life
Dah (Repeat 5 times)
Hang ups, let downs
Bad breaks, set backs
Natural fact is, I can't pay my taxes
Oh, make me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands
Yea, it makes me wanna holler
And throw up both my
hands
Crime is increasing
Trigger happy policing
Panic is spreading
God knows where we're heading
Oh, make me wanna holler
They don't understand
Dah
(Repeat 5 times)
Mother, mother
Everybody thinks we're wrong
Who are they to judge us
Simply cause we wear
our hair long
Barry C. Scheck
Born September 19, 1949 in
In 1988, Scheck and co-counsel Peter Neufeld became involved in studying and
litigating issues concerning the use of forensic DNA testing. This important
criminal justice work shaped the course of case law across the country, helped
lead to an influential study by the National Academy of Sciences on forensic
DNA testing, and led to important state and federal legislation setting
standards for the use of DNA testing.
In 1992, Scheck and Neufeld founded the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N.
Cardozo School of Law, where Scheck is a professor and director of clinical
legal education. The Innocence Project is dedicated to the utilization of DNA
evidence as a means to exculpate individuals of crimes for which they were
wrongfully convicted. It does not use legal technicalities to challenge
convictions; it only accepts cases in which newly discovered scientific
evidence can potentially raise a reasonable doubt as to a criminal defendant's
guilt. The Innocence Project highlights flaws in the American justice system.
As of January 10, 2009, 227 wrongful convictions have been overturned by DNA
testing, thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Innocent Project team
and other legal organizations.
In 1996, Scheck received the
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) prestigious Robert
C. Heeney Award for his contributions to the association. The award is
presented annually to "the one criminal defense attorney who best
exemplifies the goals and values of the Association, and the legal
profession" A life member of the NACDL, Scheck served as its president
from 2004-2005. Scheck is a commissioner on
In February 2000, Doubleday
published Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches from
the Wrongly Convicted, a non-fiction written by Scheck, Neufeld and
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Jim Dwyer. The book is based
largely on Innocent Project cases.
Professor Scheck is known for his
high profile cases, which frequently redefine and expand the parameters of permissible
defenses involving forensic psychiatry and laboratory science. He has
represented such notable clients as Hedda Nussbaum, O. J. Simpson, Louise
Woodward, and Abner Louima. Most of this work is pro bono and of public
interest. These cases often result in enhancing public awareness of systemic
problems, call for improvements in the criminal justice system, and legislative
reform. (Sources: www.innocenceproject.org,
http://en.wikipedia.org and www.nacdl.org)
By John Burl Smith
According to the US Census
Bureau, the
When Ronald Reagan took office,
fewer than 400,000 Americans were incarcerated. Today, 2.3 million citizens are
in custody, 2.1 million men and 208,300 women. Black males represent 35.4%,
white males 32.9% and Hispanic males 17.9%. Although blacks are only 12.1% of
the population, their chance of going to prison is 32.2% males and 5.6%
females, Hispanic males 17.2% and females 2.2%, and white males 5.9% and
females 0.9%.
The disparities between black and
white incarceration rates in the United States (US) changed drastically during
the 1980s with the "War on Drugs." The racially disproportionate
affect of the war on drugs challenges the believability of democracy and such
bedrock constitutional principles as justice and equal protection under the
law. Its devastating impact contradicts and undermines the fairness and
efficacy of the criminal justice system for blacks.
The disparate impact of the war
on drugs is borne out by research and statistics from the BJS which show that
not only black men are targeted, but black women are eight times more likely
than white women and twice as likely as Hispanic women to be in prison. Also
black women and girls are primarily incarcerated for "poverty crimes"
- property theft or other economically motivated non-violent offenses.
Professor Paula C. Johnson, a researcher at the Syracuse University School of
Law, interviewed women in prison and found that they often shared similar
experiences of traumas throughout their lives, such as physical and sexual
abuse. In many instances, criminality was a coping mechanism or escape from
abusive circumstances. Often, their traumas were rooted in family dysfunction
surrounding alcohol and drug abuse. In other cases, it was the women's
difficulty in making wiser choices choosing companions, and the perceptions or
realities of limited options for productive, fulfilling, and economically
viable lives. Underlying these difficulties, these women expressed keen
awareness of the devaluation of African American women.
BJS statistics reveal the impact
of the war on drugs on Black girls beginning in the late 1980s. The likelihood
of a young woman born in 2001 spending time in prison in her lifetime is six
times higher than for a woman born in 1974. Approximately two out of three
women (66.6 percent white, 64.8 percent black, 46.6 percent other) serving
federal prison terms in 2002 were convicted of drug crimes. Regardless of
similar or equal levels of illicit drug use during pregnancy, black women are
10 times more likely than white women to be reported to child welfare agencies
for prenatal drug use.
Drug enforcement policies are more vigorously enforced and suspects pursued in black neighborhoods than in white communities and suburbs. The number of delinquency cases involving Black girls increased by 106% between 1988 and 1997, compared with an increase of 83% for all girls; and between 1988 and 1997, Black girls were detained at a rate three times greater than the rate for Caucasian girls.
Proportionally, there are more
white drug offenders, according to BJS statistics; five times as many whites
use drugs as blacks. Yet, blacks comprise the majority of drug offenders
imprisoned. The Federal Household Survey states that, "Most current
illicit drug users are white. There were an estimated 9.9 million whites (72
percent of all users), 2.0 million blacks (15 percent), and 1.4 million Hispanics
(10 percent) who were current illicit drug users in 1998." Yet, blacks
constitute 36.8% of those arrested for drug violations, and over 42% of those
in federal prisons for drug violations. Blacks comprise almost 58% of those in
state prisons for drug felonies; Hispanics account for 20.7%.
The solution to this racial inequity is not to incarcerate more whites, but to
reduce the use of prison for low-level drug offenders and to increase the
availability of substance abuse treatment. Regarding State prison population
growth from 1990 through 2000, the US Dept. of Justice reported, "Overall,
the increasing number of drug offenses accounted for 27% of the total growth
among black inmates, 15% of the growth among white inmates and 7% of the total
growth among Hispanic inmates.
Among persons convicted of drug
felonies in state courts, whites were less likely than blacks to be sent to
prison. Only 33% of whites convicted received prison sentences, while 51% of
black were sentenced to prison. Of the 253,300 state prison inmates serving
time for drug offenses at year-end 2005, 113,500 (44.8%) were black, 72,300
(28.5%) were white and 51,100 (20.2%) were Hispanic.
Private Prisons: Neo-slavery
By John Burl
Smith
Typically, in privatized prison
settings, states lease or contract convict labor to private companies. In some
cases, such as
A series of investigations of state prisons confirmed the tales of horror and
produced public outrage. As with anti-trust legislation and the progressive
reforms which followed, public pressure demanded government regulation to
prevent private sector abuse. By the turn of the century, concerted opposition
from labor, business, and reformers forced the state to take direct responsibility
for prisons, thus bringing the first era of private prisons in
Surprisingly for most, these accounts of private prisons occurred in the
mid-1800s. Then
Today
Facing chronic prison
overcrowding and court mandates, states are looking to house inmate's anywhere
they can. A classic case of "chickens coming home to roost," longer
sentences, mandatory minimums, no parole, three strikes and harsher drug laws,
not to mention illegal aliens, have exploding prison populations looking like
honey combs to private traffickers in human bondage. For instance, 1/3 of
This game of "musical
cells" which sends prisoners thousands of miles away to be warehoused in a
private prison doesn't save money, especially in a time of shrinking budgets.
GEO Group of
The main objective of private prisons is to make money and the easiest way to
do that is to "cut corners." Consequently, conditions in many private
prisons are terrible, and oversight is limited.
The Hidden Secret of Private Prisons
By John Burl Smith
Moving inmates across country and
housing them in other states has unintended consequence, unless you subscribe
to the theory that the private prisons industry was a jobs and revenue
enhancement program for rural white communities designed and initiated by
Ronald Reagan. Republicans during the 1990s mandated prisoners be counted in
the census as residents of the place where they are incarcerated. The census is
the basis on which apportions and representation for states in the House of
Representatives. Shifting individuals from urban areas to thinly populated
rural areas, where private prisons are located, means an awful lot of people
who don't have the right to vote will swell the population in states where they
are confined.
So, if someone in East LA gets arrested and shipped off to, say, South
Carolina, he becomes a 3/5 Compromise resident of South Carolina. This is what the
3/5 Compromise was created to do during slavery, and it is still a working part
of the US Constitution. Consequently, this means that if enough people are
incarcerated in a district, this can skew the population such that very few
people can enjoy over-representation. Take the case of Danny R. Young, a
53-year-old
According to the Census Bureau,
Mr. Young's ward has roughly the same population (include 1,300 inmates) as the
city's three other wards (1,400 people). Only 58 people who live in Ward 2 are
non-prisoners, the rest are residents of
According to the Department of
Justice's latest statistics, there are now 84,867 state prisoners held in
private prisons, an increase of 12.9% between mid-2005 and mid-2006. Inmates in
private prisons not only affect representation which means more federal funds,
that representation can be used as a lobbying force for more prisons and
tougher laws.
On Modern Lynching
By Dot
Not only are black men
incarcerated at higher rates for non-violent offenses than whites, they are
killed at higher rates by police when unarmed and charged with having committed
no criminal or civil offense. Remember Amadou Diabolo and Sean Bell, just to name two unarmed black men
that died in a hail of police bullets? Ironically, while the circumstances
surrounding these deaths and countless others across the
Captured on videotape and witnessed by dozens of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
commuters, the New Year's Day slaying of 22-year-old Oscar Grant in
As is the routine in these
incidences, the officer was placed on paid administrative leave pending an
internal investigation. In the meantime, excuses for the shooting from the
officer thought he was reaching for a taser to
on-the-job stress have been advanced by apologists for police brutality in
black communities. Mehserle has resigned from the
force and hired an attorney; he has made no public statements to justice his
deadly use of force.
In response to Grant's murder, an
already seething
There were ten (10) police
shootings in
Disgruntled wants to know: In December
2008, 24 year old former KMOJ Radio DJ and domestic assault suspect Quincy
Smith clashed with police and died after being shot with a Taser.
The
Disgruntled feels: Terrorized! Who are the terrorists? Are they the group firing unsophisticated rockets into border towns of an enemy nation, which has blockaded their territory and created a humanitarian crisis; their crude rockets kill perhaps a dozen in as many years. Are the terrorists the group, democratically elected by their people, and blamed by mainstream media for the suicide bombers that strap on vests of plastic explosives and ride buses or enter restaurants and shops where civilians and soldiers gather and blow themselves and whoever else in close proximity to smithereens, killing indiscriminately with extreme prejudice. Or, are the terrorist the civilized democratic nations that possess and deploy powerful weapons of mass destruction; they possess standing armies, air forces and marines that can train their destructive force with precision on millions of people, killing thousands? According to Black Panther founder Huey P. Newton, "Power is the ability to define phenomenon and make it work in a desired manner." Western mainstream media, which are controlled primarily by Jewish-run entities, have made Palestinians the terrorists. However, if you are not terrorized by the actions of the mightier foe in this scenario, then you have succumbed to their propaganda.
Disgruntled
says: Some loyal Republicans, like Condoleezza Rice and Laura Bush, are
under the impression that historians, at some distant point in the future, will
render a vastly different assessment of the Bush administration from the one
currently held by a majority of Americans, who believe it has been a dismal
failure. Regardless of how Bush's accomplishment are spun by historians,
pundits and others to make him appear something more than the worst president
in US history, nothing will change the fact that the current economic downturn
occurred on his watch and is the direct result of his policies and lack of
oversight. Neither will their machinations change the fact that he has presided
over the greatest redistribution of wealth ever, an unheard of two wars of
aggression fought on credit and a federal budget deficit likely to reach a
trillion dollars. Single-handedly, Bush has morally and financially bankrupt this country. Any realistic historical assessment
will rank him at the nadir among failed
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Black
Email www.freep.com...Sexual Assaults on Female
Inmates Went Unheeded...By Jeff Seidel...For years, rights groups warned that
male guards were sexually assaulting female inmates in
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