Eddie G. Griffin (BASG)

ALERT: Texas AG push for Voter ID law for 2012 Election

2012-01-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

& Texas Redistricting assails Voting Rights Act

A Media Watch Report by Eddie Griffin

The conspiracy to retain political power by voter suppression cannot be summed up in a sentence of two. It takes observation over an extended period of time to discern the pattern and gather the proof.

Prelude: The Texas Attorney General seems insistent and in a hurry to implement a series of voter suppression laws, including a voter ID law, before the general election in 2012.

Texas attorney general asks federal court to OK voter ID law, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, January 24, 2012

Attorney General Greg Abbott asked a federal court Monday to clear the way for the state's voter ID law to go into effect without waiting for a Justice Department decision on whether the law discriminates against minorities.

The Obama administration is hostile to laws such as the one passed last year in Texas that require would-be voters to show an approved photo identification card before getting a ballot, Abbott said.
Abbott filed suit in a Washington court against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department...

"Texas should be allowed the same authority other states have to protect the integrity of elections," Abbott said. "To fast-track that authority, Texas is taking legal action in a D.C. court seeking approval of its voter identification law."

[NOT SO FAST, Cowboy]

Minority groups have complained that the law is intended to discourage voting among the poor and elderly, who are less likely to have a driver's license. In 1965 Congress created the Voting Rights Act, and the section requiring Texas to seek pre-clearance for new election laws, because Texas and other Southern states enforced laws designed to keep minorities from voting.

NOTE: Herein is one in a pattern of voting suppression laws sweeping the nation. The excuse for passing voter identification laws is based upon false fear that, somehow, undocumented immigrants would illegally participate in the elections.

It smells, but it sells. And many states have implemented a rash of new laws like those in Texas, requiring additional proof of citizenship, such as driver’s licenses or pictured IDs.

Also, cropping up are new redistricting lines that disenfranchise minority communities that cannot muster passage under the 1965 Civil Rights Voting Rights Act.

Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott is asking the courts, in both cases, to allow Texas to implement its rules in the interim, in time for the 2012 primaries; and then, if there are violations, let the courts sort it out later. By then, later would be too late.

The logic of this thinking would be like asking the courts to permit the rape, and then sort out the damage later, after the election, after elected parties are seated.

WOULD THE COURTS ALLOW HISTORY TO REPEAT ITSELF?

So far, neither the federal district court, nor the U.S. Supreme Court, have allowed the legislature’s plan to go forward, unchallenged and unabated And, the third court in the district of Washington, D.C. only agreed to hear the controversy because there was obviously something wrong with the legislature’s map, as drawn.

This legal challenge is currently going into its sixth day of hearings, as of this writing.

WHERE DO WE STAND NOW? SCOTUS threw out both district court proposed map and that of the legislature. The State of Texas would have opted for the Court to allow its map to serve as interim for the 2012 elections. But as it stands, there are no maps, no established districts, and no set primary date. Everything is still up in the air.

HOW DID WE GET HERE? By gerrymandering, this minority-majority district was stolen by hook and crook, at the hand of former GOP House leader Tom DeLay, who conspired and illegally laundered corporate money from one hand to hand, to be used to gain a majority in the House seats in the U.S. Congress. He was later convicted and imprisoned, but the ill-gotten gain was never recovered, and our district never rectified.

[Enclosed are attachments to the full reference transcripts. Below is a summary.]

Posted Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"This is an abuse of power," Tom DeLay said Wednesday after an Austin jury found him guilty of politically inspired money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The former U.S. House majority leader and power broker from Sugar Land has maintained that the charges against him were politically motivated, and he vowed to continue fighting on appeal.

The verdict came more than five years after DeLay was indicted for his actions in helping the campaigns of seven Republicans running for the Texas House in 2002. Six of them were elected, helping the GOP achieve its first majority in that body since Reconstruction.

The Legislature, with DeLay's guidance, then pushed through a redistricting plan that helped Texas Republicans gain more seats in Congress.

Gerrymandering of voting districts for political advantage is wrong. It's distasteful. It's a deliberate distortion of the electoral process. But it is not illegal -- sadly, it's even expected as a way for the party in power to maintain or increase its power.

But the case against DeLay was not about redistricting. It was about money and the way he used money in the political process.

So when DeLay decried "the criminalization of politics" after the verdict came in, he was saying that it's wrong to accuse someone of a criminal act for doing something that's accepted in the world of politics.

NOTE: Translate “criminalization of politics” into a state’s right defense. In other words, though the gerrymandered districts were created by a crime, it could not be undone. Therefore, we had to live with the consequence. Even more, the State defends the ill-gotten gain in court.

In December 2005, the Washington Post reported, Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo" uncovered by the newspaper. The document, endorsed by six Justice Department attorneys, said “the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts.”

Posted Saturday, May 14, 2011, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial

All it takes is a glance at the proposed redistricting map for the Texas Senate to know, especially as it pertains to Tarrant County, it is just plain wrong.

The 104,703 residents of southeast Fort Worth, Forest Hill and Everman, 78.2 percent of them black or Hispanic, would be pulled out of Sen. Wendy Davis' District 10 and moved to Sen. Brian Birdwell's 80.7 percent Anglo District 22, which extends south beyond Waco.

"What were they thinking?" jumps to mind. "How could they be so stupid? Isn't that a blatant violation of the Voting Rights Act, and won't the Justice Department or the courts throw this out immediately?"

But give it some time. Remember that the people who came up with this plan are definitely not stupid...

Anyone who watched the 2003 redistricting drama directed by then-U.S. House Majority Leader and now convicted felon Tom DeLay knows the people who do this sort of thing are both smart and crafty.

Republicans painted a target on Democrat Davis the moment she beat one of their valued insiders, 20-year legislator Kim Brimer, in the 2008 general election. Davis and everyone else who follows local politics knew that, this year, she would be hit with a redistricting blast that would make it very hard for her to win again.

That means separating her from the people who delivered the votes she needed to topple Brimer. And that would be the minority communities southeast of downtown and on the near north side.

NOTE: The minority communities southeast of downtown referenced above is us, the core community of U.S. District 33. It is the most focused upon district in the case that went before the Supreme Court and back to the District Court. It is this district that is the more likely to be successfully challenged against the state’s plan.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT about U.S. District 33? Property records dating back to the 1870s will show this area was owned and occupied by mostly African-Americans. It is the seat of the historic Colored Downtown area and just to the east was Cowanville, now Stop Six.

The north side portion of District 33 was occupied by Tejano Mexicans and Native Americans. In the 1870s, Fort Worth was still referred to a fort city, and many indigent people in the area and freedmen found refuge under the banner of federal Union troops.

But there has always been a reminisce of the Confederacy holding stronghold over minorities’ right to vote in the area, which was why blacks formed alliances with their brown, red, and white neighbors to elected representatives that best suited their collective interest. But increasingly dividing this political districts into smaller and smaller pieces, Tom DeLay succeeded into splitting the community into Five Easy Pieces scattered all over creation.

Posted Saturday, May 14, 2011, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial

The new map shows the southeast's black neighborhoods going to Birdwell and the north side Hispanic areas going to District 12, represented by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. Davis is left with a district that is even more white and Republican.

"Partisan greed," she says of the plan, promising a court battle.
But it's not about her, she says. It's about "the human impact of the decisions being made." Fort Worth's minority neighborhoods "will no longer have the opportunity to elect someone who will be that voice for them."

She's right: It is all about the voters. And those minority neighborhoods would be swallowed up and outnumbered by rural Republicans.

The Voting Rights Act is harsh on discrimination by redistricting, but standards of proof are high, or at best hard to pin down.

Davis will have to show that minority groups in her district are large and geographically compact, that they are politically cohesive and vote as a bloc, and that Anglos vote in a bloc in numbers high enough that they usually defeat minorities.

Having only been elected in District 10 once, a narrow victory amid heavy turnout for Democrat Barack Obama's presidential bid, she has no history there to fall back on.

She'll have to show how a new, compact district could be drawn with new population numbers.

There's a long road ahead for this redistricting plan. It will be a difficult one for Davis, and whether she's right at first glance won't really matter once the court fight begins.

Posted Wednesday, Jan. 04, 2012
BY LINDA P. CAMPBELL

Texas' Republican leaders dislike the Voting Rights Act.

No revelation there.

Republicans also supposedly despise having unelected "activist" judges supersede the will of elected representatives.

Heard that broken record.

But if the state's lawyers could entice the Supreme Court to use Texas redistricting as a tool for smacking down Section 5 of the act before the 2012 elections?

Read more… http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/01/04/3635125/texas-redistricting-brief-argues.html

COMMENTARY by Eddie Griffin

The Texas AG Gregg Abbott is not satisfied having the state locked up in three difference sets of courts. Now he goes after U.S. AG Eric Holder in another federal court and a demand for rush-rush judgment.

There should be a warning sign in Austin for Governor Rick Perry and his Attorney General, something to the effect about biting off more than a state can chew.

First, no matter how much they hate the 1965 Voting Rights Act, by seeking compliance and approval through the D.C., rather than the U.S. Justice Department, the state de facto acknowledge the legality of the Act and the validity of its provisions. Therefore, Texas prohibited itself from going after the Act, insofar as it cannot amend it original complaint.

Second, the map will change, but by how much, we do not know. It will most certainly not be like the state legislature’s map. In this respect, the State will lose something. It must concede more political turf to the minority communities.

Third, it crunch time for elections in Texas, and the issue of maps and voter identification are still unresolved. No candidate can get on the ballot without a map. The more pressure to get these issues resolved the less time and patience for more debate. And, after all, with Texas being Red as Hell, who cares if we ever vote in 2012, if they kill District 33?

Black Women of Europe: Best of the Best

2012-01-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

The First Story to catch a gleam in my eye was “Black Women in Europe™: Power List 2011 – A List of Our Own”.

WOW! I was awestruck by the list of accomplished black women in Europe, and the fact that they identify themselves as such, “Black Women in Europe”.

In an age where there is a paucity of black women role models, these are the cream of the crop.

These are tough acts to follow, Girls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOSUNhMCJlM&feature=channel_video_title

RECOMMENDED: TO FWISD All Girls Academy

Eddie Griffin Defends Tatum against Star-Telegram Bias

2011-12-08T09:35:00.004-07:00

Jill Labbe, Editorial Director of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, leaves a bad taste in my mouth by something she wrote in her editorial, “Scramble starts for new congressional seat” (November 26, 2011).

An unnecessarily bias commentary on the candidacy of Pastor Kyev Tatum for the newly redrawn U.S. District 33, Jill Labbe writes:

African-Americans do, which could be why the Rev. Kyev Tatum also is eyeing a run.

He doesn't have a prayer against Veasey or Hicks, but even being mentioned in the same breath gives the community activist legitimacy beyond the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"We need someone in that district who is concerned about the issues of the neighborhood," Tatum told the Star-Telegram's PoliTex reporters Friday.

Note to Tatum: Neighborhood issues are the real estate of the City Council. Perhaps a run for one of those seats would be a better place to launch into the world of elected representation.

What does Jill Labbe imply? First of all, Tatum does have a prayer, at least from Eddie Griffin. He is a good brother and dear friend, a comrade with me in battle, and a man faithful in support and defense of our community and one who comes to aid in times of crisis. He has been a voice for the voiceless and has drawn public attention to many issues that would otherwise have gone uncovered.

Does Labbe imply that this grand Office of U.S. District 33 is too big for Tatum, that maybe he should first cut his political teeth at the City Council level?

How arrogant an assessment! It’s insulting!

Maybe Jill Labbe should begin with a Planet Earth perspective. What is U.S. District 33, but a minor piece in a bigger mosaic? Even more, District 33 is now our little piece of the rock. After all, it’s our 'hood. We have monolithic demographics (seen one, seen them all), a community of mutual common interests, 66% minority (thanks be, if the court decision stands). Again, I would say: This is our turf, our neighborhood.

How then can Labbe prejudge the internal workings of ‘hood politics? By demeaning and insulting Pastor Tatum, she demeans and insults all us hood rats. [I speak for Zip 76104]. Put the zip codes together, Labbe. The Election of 2012 will be a district-by-district dog fight, back to the White House.

District 33 is just a small piece of a bigger puzzle, a link in the chain of our access to real political power.

Historically, Zip code area 76104 (the Historical African-American district) and adjacent minority communities of similar demographics were carved up like a chicken, and divided among Republican-dominated districts. Thereby, they dominated and dictated our socio-economic future. It must be remembered that Zip 76104, once the world class Mecca of the African-America, is now the poorest district of all the districts, with the highest infant mortality rate, and the highest concentration of poverty and despair. Contrary to its outward appearance, however, it has one of the lowest crime rates, because of men on the ground like Pastor Kyev Tatum.

What we need is hope, not more politics as usual. We will take this district ourselves for ourselves, and determine our own destiny.

Therefore, I endorse the candidacy of Pastor Kyev Tatum because he is the most fitting piece in the big puzzle, in a grander scheme to reelect President Barack Obama.

District 33 is a passionate, enthusiastic, and energetic community that loves the incumbent President Barack Obama. And, quiet as it is kept, our ‘hood benefited somewhat from the Obama's Economic Stimulus Plan. [I know. Eat your hearts out.] But we would want more. We deserve more than the under-representation we have been receiving.

We would turn District 33 into a central command center for solving community problems.

In the meantime, Washington, D.C. can have its gridlock. But District 33 would become a gridlock buster, no thanks to Labbe.

And even so, as big as Washington, D.C. may seem to be, it is but a speck on Planet Earth. No matter what powers there be, are they not ordained from above?

Eddie Griffin, BASG

A Day of Peace

2011-11-04T11:25:00.002-07:00

in concert with the international Blog Day for Peace
November 4, 2011

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14)

Today, we give glory to God for the creation of the Day. We pray that the blessings of Peace reside upon you and grace to all men. We wish you well.

Although some may be troubled by the current affairs of this world, there is still peace to be found, and it is the kind of peace that surpasses all understanding.

The passage in Psalm 34:14 says “Seek peace, and pursue it.”

But how can we pursue the illusive? Why does peace evade us so? Lest we forget, the psalmist said first, “Depart from evil, and do good.”

The greatest enemy of peace lies within. As the apostle James said: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? (James 4:1 NIV)

It is hard to keep peace with others in the world, when we cannot find peace within ourselves. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace (James 3:18). Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God (Matthew 5:9).

We must make peace in order to gain peace, first making peace with ourselves.

The quest for peace, on the other hand, does not leave us defenseless. We are not blinded by the stars of idealism as to believe that all is good and well among men. For we have seen man at his worst. But we are not troubled by the battles of life. We have One who fights our battle, and He is the Prince of Peace.

Beyond the veil of blue, the Conquer went forth riding on a White Horse. (Revelation 6:2) Victory is assured to those in his army who ride with him. They are arrayed in white.

The Lord fights our battle for us. He takes vengeance out of our hands and reserved it for Himself. Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord. (Romans 12:19)

Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. (Psalm 24:8)

Who is the Prince of Peace?

Lest we forget the Star of the East, lest we forget that Bright and Morning Star, let us be reminded this season: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Though men may search the whole world over for peace, they cannot find this illusive state outside the Prince of Peace who gives us the peace beyond human understanding.

The Trouble Signs of Mass Incarceration

2011-10-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

An October 26, 2011 Star-Telegram editorial reads: “Signs of trouble were apparent at a Hood County juvenile detention facility before the death of a 14-year-old detainee this month.”

The story of what happened to young Jordan Adams, a middle school student who died in his cell at the Granbury Regional Juvenile Justice Center, is symptomatic of the problems with for-profit private detention facilitates for underage offenders.

The editorial speculates “perhaps because too many local and state officials see the for-profit juvenile centers in Texas as a positive economic alternative to government-run institutions for troubled youths.” Notwithstanding, the article points out the repugnancy of transferring juvenile detainees from the State, by adjudication in a court of law, into the hands of private for-profit contractors, and how easily then that the State abdicates its legal obligations and responsibilities to house, feed, and care for these young offenders who were committed to their oversight. Privateers not so bound by law to the same standard of care.

That the trouble signs at the Granbury facilities should have been apparent is an understatement compared to all the previous complaints of youth-on-youth assaults, supervisory neglect and physical and sexual abuse, and which came on the heels of a 2007 investigation that revealed widespread corruption, brutal practices, and sexual exploitation of young inmates throughout Texas Youth Commission (TYC) facilities.

After extensive investigations, resignation of the entire TYC board, and prosecution of several officials, the public was then assured by members of the Texas legislature that these abuses and neglect would not happen again. At the same time, we began a long and arduous task of trying to keep our children out of these facilities, and free those who deserved to be free, setting up a reentry support system to help reintegrate former offenders back into society.

Nonetheless, our social objective runs counter to the profit motives of the Prison Industrial Complex, which relies on bed occupancy in detention facilities. Corporations like the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) promote prison-building, enter into facility management contracts with state and national government, and supply detention staff by locals. The illusion is job-creation and community enrichment.

A former CCA officer wrote: "I work as a correctional officer at the Corrections Corporation of America in Winnfield, Louisiana and I have an interview with GEO Group Inc for a correctional officer in Jena Louisiana. I was wondering what prison do you think is better to work for? Corrections Corporation is low tech understaffed and pays a dollar above minimum wage and GEO pays $11.27 hr."

Correctional officers for private corporations are underpaid and overworked. Even more, to further squeeze profits out of their contracts, they skimp on the cost and care. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Granbury facility has recorded some 250 complaints and 133 cases of juvenile suicide attempts.

In an earlier Star-Telegram report, Hood County juvenile center, originally designed as a public-private partnership that would not cost taxpayers any money, had problems from the start. A coalition that included the county and a detention management corporation built the $6.5 million facility through the sale of tax-exempt certificates of participation (bonds). In a convoluted scheme, the management group was to lease the facility back to the county, then rent the place to operate a juvenile detention center that would pay off the bonds… The private corporation floundered almost immediately when the daily census was far less than the 78 juveniles it needed to be "profitable." The county took over the operation for a while and then closed the facility because it was too costly, resulting in a downgrade of the county's bond rating by Standard & Poor's.

Such is the fate of communities who bank on prison populations and corporations that depend on filling prison bed space. Many Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) facilities are scrambling for detainees in order to make their operations solvent. The negligence found at Granbury is repeated all over again at other for-profit detention facilities.

These problems cannot be fixed so long as profits are squeezed out of facility operations. The promise of jobs and commercial traffic into little prison towns are tenuous, because there are no guarantees in prison population growth projection, and mass incarceration is not a societal aim. Therefore, prisons must decline with deceasing headcount and bed occupancy. There simply is no profit in it.

Realizing that prison-building is a bad investment in our quest toward a healthy, law-abiding society, we see this trend as a losing proposition, whereupon the State must bit the bullet assigned to it by law, to assume the cost, responsibilities, and liabilities for neglect, abuse, and death of inmates placed in its care.

Kids For Cash Juvenile Judge Sentence to 28 Years

2011-08-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

Mass Incarceration: Naïve Juveniles go into Court looking for Justice and Mercy, while Judge looks for Kickbacks for sending them to prison

Former Luzerne County Juvenile Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. was sentence to 28 years in prison for his part in the “Kids For Cash” kickback scandal. A second juvenile judge, Michael Conahan, pleaded guilty last year and awaits sentencing. The two were accused of taking more than $2.8 million in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facilities' co-owner.

According to accusations, Ciavarella “filled the beds of the private lockups with children as young as 10, many of them first-time offenders convicted of petty theft and other minor crimes.”

“The defendant argues he didn’t sell juveniles retail. We agree with that. He was selling them wholesale,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod, maintaining that the jury found Ciavarella guilty of a racketeering conspiracy for being part of a scheme to extract cash from the construction and operation of the two for-profit centers.

As a result of the corruption case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.

Fellow former Judges Conahan and Michael T. Toole both pleaded guilty to criminal charges last year as investigators untangled a web of corruption. A number of other public officials were caught in the probe as well, including the county's court administrator, the clerk of courts and a member of the juvenile probation services office.

While The Legal had previously reported that sources had tied Conahan to mobsters, following Ciavarella's trial Zubrod said that the investigation into Conahan and Ciavarella's activities "sprang from" a probe of reputed mobster William "Billy" D'Elia.

The case of the juvenile court judge accused of trading kids for cash has garnered national and international press coverage, spawned an ongoing corruption probe that has led to more than 30 arrests and spurred the state Supreme Court to dismiss thousands of Ciavarella's court rulings.

COMMENTARY by Eddie Griffin

Some people may see this case as an aberration and isolated, one-of-a-kind, corruption case that could only happen in Pennsylvania. What people overlook is who is the real beneficiary in the scheme, the ones receiving the bribes and kickbacks, or the one paying them?

The Prison Industrial Complex feeds on incarceration. The more prison beds occupied the more profits for the corporations that build and manage facilities.

Where paying bribes and kickbacks to juvenile justice officials may not be the normal way of doing business, they are instrumental in “get tough” policies, “zero tolerance” and longer prison sentence advocacy.

The irony in the above case is that it began with an investigation into mobster activities. There is an ominous sense of danger for those involved. Once graft is accepted from mobsters, the next bribe cannot be rejected. And so, the corrupt scheme builds upon itself, until there is a steady stream of juveniles going into prison, for little or no offense, as some investigations revealed.

Child Rights advocates cannot stop the pipeline other than warn juveniles to stay out of the juvenile justice system. Any other intervention, such as revealing the truth behind the corruption, can lead to terminal consequences.

So for now, all we can say is: Keep You Hand Out of the Lion’s Mouth.

District Map Attempts to Cuts Us Out

2011-05-16T12:52:00.003-07:00

The Star-Telegram editorial, “Seeing flaws in Texas Senate remap is not the same as proving them”, recognizes that the proposed redistricting map for Senate District 10 is “just plain wrong”. Carving out a chunk of minority communities in southeast Fort Worth, Forest Hill, and Everman, and then merging them into a predominately Anglo voting district some 80 miles south of the county is a terrible usurpation of our voting power. Over 80,000 votes would be diluted, and we would essentially be disenfranchised.

And, if that is not “shameless” enough, as Senator Wendy Davis calls it, the plan would also strip out the Hispanic north side neighborhood in Fort Worth and give it to Anglo-dominated SD 12, now occupied by a Republican based in Flower Mound.

The S-T article goes on to say: “Anyone who watched the 2003 redistricting drama directed by then-U.S. House Majority Leader and now convicted felon Tom DeLay knows the people who do this sort of thing are both smart and crafty.”

That it violates the Voting Rights Act, Texas has done it before and gotten away with it. They simply say prove it if you can. According to them: “Davis will have to show that minority groups in her district are large and geographically compact, that they are politically cohesive and vote as a bloc, and that Anglos vote in a bloc in numbers high enough that they usually defeat minorities… Having only been elected in District 10 once, a narrow victory amid heavy turnout for Democrat Barack Obama's presidential bid, she has no history there to fall back on.”

The article further states that “Her case will have to analyze Fort Worth elections over an extended period of time, examining any racially polarized voting. It will hurt if minority voter turnout is low, which it is. It will be a problem for her if any differences between minority and Anglo voting patterns can be explained away by party affiliation, because that doesn't represent racial or ethnic discrimination.”

Bob Ray Sanders, in his own S-T editorial “Senate redistricting plan demands Justice Department review”, sees the effort as not-so-subtle Jim Crow gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering? No such thing. To let Congressman Michael C. Burgess tell how he inherited his narrow, dumbbell-shaped strip an our historical black community, and stretching it from the Oklahoma border to Waco: "It is the miracle of redistricting”... not to mention a convenient way to silence the black political voice.

So goes Texas. But not without scrutiny from the Justice Department, seeing that Texas is still one of those southern states that must receive preclearance from the Department. It depends on whose at the helms of Justice, and whether the state of Texas can skate through again.

It gets ridiculously redundant, like bad behavior that can find no remorse. No doubt, they will nitpick the law for subtle technicalities and loopholes, such as those above which put the burden of proof upon the shoulders of Senator Davis.

What they willfully ignore is the “totality of circumstances”.

Totality of Circumstances

No one will mention that the current senator district puts all our Fort Worth schools under one representative. The proposed plan would scatter our schools among three different state senators.

No one will mention that as soon as the U.S. Census projects us to become a minority-majority political bloc, they cut us up into slivers and drag our voting boundaries across many counties until we are completely diluted. Silver by sliver, tract by tract, they take away what we rightfully gain in population growth.

According to 2010 U.S. Census, SD 10 has a total of 52.4% minorities, making it a minority-majority district. But based on voter age population (VAP), for Civil Rights purposes, we are only 47.3% majority. Not that the trend shows where we are headed, they want to nip us in the gonads before our young reaches voting age.

Can they continue to cut us up, sliver by sliver, every time we show some growth towards becoming a minority-majority voting bloc? How can we have a future when Pharaoh kill the babies before a Moses arises and deliver them from oppression?

Mission Accomplished: Osama bin Laden Dead

2011-05-02T09:41:00.002-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

As military missions go, there was none more important than bringing down the mastermind of the 9/11 attack upon the United States. Osama bin Laden was Public Enemy Number One around the world: Wanted Dead or Alive.

Early Sunday morning, the search ended in a hail of bullets from Navy SEAL commandoes. Bin Laden was dead.

So ends the nightmare image with which the American people have lived since September 11, 2001. So ends a dark chapter in the lives of peace-loving people across the free world. But the rein of terror does not end here, at least not for the near term. We can expect jihadists who support al Qaeda to continue their destructive rant against the world. However, in due time, the name of Osama bin Laden will be forgotten. Just as President Barack Obama made the announcement Sunday night, “Justice has been done.”

This is the single most important development in the war against terrorism, because it brings us another step closer to ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, the focus of the Middle Eastern wars, from the very outset in 2003, was “to smoke out Osama bin Laden” and bring him to justice, according to the words of President George Bush.

As the war dragged on, many feared that the goal would never be accomplished, that bin Laden would die an old man in hiding and continue to live on as a mythical hero for enemies of the US. In fact, the families of victims of the 9/11 attack had all but given up hope of justice; and Americans, in general, were beginning to despair of the wars that had cost nearly 50,000 troops’ their lives, and countless others among our allies.

Al Qaeda had orchestrated this bloody chapter of the 21st century, but the mastermind and financier was Osama bin Laden. And, though there will be anger and backlash among radical supporters, the finances for terrorist operations will dry up, arms shipments to militant radicals will decline, mastermind strategies will lose the sharpness of their focus, and recruitment to their cause will wane.

Bin Laden himself will go down into the trash bin of history, along with the likes of Adolf Hitler. And, in due time, after our troops come home from war, we as a nation will began to heal.

Clearly Innocent: Wrongfully Tasered

2011-03-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

By Eddie Griffin (BASG)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

After watching the news footage on the tasering of Jonathan Pierce by the Arlington Police Department over the weekend, it is clear to me that this was an innocent man, guilty of nothing but trying to get out of the way of danger while police officers pursued a suspect after a high-speed chase and crash.

So, how did one police officer mistake this black Navy veteran with a young white male suspect? According to news reports, the two men were both wearing basketball jerseys, but of different teams. An eyewitness describes seeing a car race onto the parking lot, slam into a minivan, and the driver exiting and taking off on foot.

Pierce, who had been using an ATM machine inside a club at the time, exited just as people were screaming and scrabbling for cover. “So my natural reaction,” he said, was to go back inside “for safety”. It all happened so fast, he says, that the next thing he knew he heard “a loud pop” and felt a “sharp pain in my side”, and an officer on top of him.

“I didn't even see it coming,” he said. “I'm still feeling shaky about the whole situation. It all happened so fast.”

Jonathan Pierce has a reason to feel shaky after being electrocuted with 50,000 volts of electricity. He could have been the 535th taser related death in North America. Instead, that dubious honor went to Jerry Perea, age 38, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who was tasered and died on March 21, 2011.

Michael Jacobs, Jr. of Fort Worth, Texas, as many may recall, died April 18, 2009. He was victim number 424.

It was only a matter of time before Arlington police would try out their new toys, despite the many warnings. But the police chief was so determined, with Super Bowl XLV coming to the city, 300 new tasers was like a late Christmas present. Discretion is not built into the weapon, and lack of use only itch the trigger finger.

Like many taser victims before him, Jonathan Pierce has retained a lawyer and plans to sue. In times past, such law suits were like throwing stones at the Titan. But as of late, almost every taser victim is winning, because TASER International, the maker of the device, does not inform its client police department that tasers are lethal.

Taser International settles with Butler for ~$3M

Michael Patrick Jacobs Jr., Fort Worth TX, $2.0M

Stanley Harlan, Moberly MO, $2.4M

Taser $6.2M initial judgment for Failure to Warn

What is little known, to victim or lawyer, is the long term effect of taser electrocutions.

We have observed, over time, the same “shaky feelings” that Jonathan Pierce is experiencing now are the same “twitches” that taser survivors still experience, and maybe for the rest of their live.

How then can the true damage be calculated?

The Comeback Kid Falls Again

2011-03-17T14:04:00.001-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Nate Bailey was arrested, along with two other men, for attempting to rob an armored truck in broad daylight on the streets of Washington, D.C. According to news report, Bailey was captured with an AK-47 in the getaway car, a green Ford Taurus SE Station Wagon registered in his name.

Nate Bailey-el was 57 years old, too old to pull a caper like this, especially considering the fact that he had been released from prison less than two years prior after serving 22 years. According to a mutual friend Glenn Simmons, Nate barely knew how to drive, let alone drive a getaway car.

We knew that getting back into society was not going to be easy for him. People kept reminding Bailey that this is 2011. But somehow, he never bridged the time gap nor healed from the mental scares of his prior incarceration.

He was only a 20-year old youth when he first went into federal prison in 1974, sentenced to six years under the Youth Corrections Act. Along the way, he picked up more time in prison, and the “zip 6” turned into 11 years. In an email to me, dated May 12, 2010, he chronicles his journey through the federal prison system, from Petersburg, to El Reno, to Lompoc, to Lewisburg, to Terri Haute, to Marion, to Leavenworth, and finally back to Marion’s Super-max 6 Control Unit. This was where he witnessed two white supremacist inmates kill Raymond “Cadillac” Smith, the leader of the Moors.

Bailey was released on December 15, 1985, after which he describes his reentry back into society like this: “With mental scares created by the behavior modification program at Marion, I did not make it in society for more than 6 months. Longing to get back to the war and my Brothers, I was sentenced by D.C. with a 15-Life sentence on May, 1987 and did not secure my release until September, 2009, 22 years later.”

Now, after only 17-months of freedom, Nate Bailey-el may be on his way back to prison for the rest of his life. His friend and mentor, Glenn, feels that he could have done more to help Nate. I feel even worse, because I was supposed to be his guide and help him recover from the mental scares that he suffered in the Control Unit. The behavior modification program at Marion, which he describes above, was the subject of “Breaking Men’s Minds” written by me in 1977.

Nate remembered my work as a Marion Brother. In his email, he wrote:

It is truly an Honor to be among the ranks of the forgotten few who really earned the degree of MARION BROTHER...For the only few who endured actually know the true meaning of the "SOUTHERN TIP". Those who been and made it out never healed or never was the same, the behavior program laid down there touched the core of the human factor in a man... Brother, the system was a battlefield at which you can attest, we all was in the mist of the fight on a national level. I have a host of rich authentic information which lead up to the Brother’s (Cadillac) passing because I was there. The Brother (Glenn) told me you will be contacting me and I welcome it because I am still finding it hard for those who never been there… (who) fail to understand in our attempt to communicate what it was like for the designed system to suck the LIFE out of a man when he was still breathing...Yes, I do remember you...A MARION BROTHER

Footnote:

A movie production company contacted me in 2008 about doing a documentary on the Aryan Brotherhood, based upon two AB white supremacists, Thomas Silverstein and Clay Fountain, stabbing Raymond “Cadillac” Smith-el to death inside Marion’s notorious Control Unit in 1982. But there were no eyewitnesses for the producer to interview. All were either dead or still in prison. It was not until the release of Nate Bailey in September 2009 that a first hand account could be given. But by then, M2 Pictures had made its documentary, which aired on the Discovery Channel in November 2009. The assassination of Cadillac did not make the cut.

So, it was a project that Nate Bailey and Glenn Simmons were going to complete: The story about Cadillac, one of the toughest prison gladiators that I ever encountered. His death set off the one of bloodiest prison race wars recorded in FBI history. His legacy has been told over and over again.

His assassin, Thomas Silverstein, has been dubbed as the “most dangerous man in prison” by the BBC. Silverstein has been convicted of killing three inmates and a prison guard, though one of the inmate killings has since been overturned. In his own defense of killing Cadillac, Silverstein cites passages of “Breaking Men’s Minds”, claiming that prison officials had pitted him, man against man, against Cadillac, that prison officials wanted them to kill each other.

Nate Bailey is one of the few survivors who saw it. He was supposedly in the process of writing a book about it. But now, here I am, writing about him, in my untold memoirs.

A Response to J.R. Labbe Editorial on Police Shooting

2011-03-14T13:23:00.001-07:00

Jill Labbe would have some of her readers believe that we did something wrong in attending a community forum designed to “discuss police issues and policies that affect east Fort Worth”. We were invited by the FWPD itself. And, Chief Jeffrey Halstead promised to “field questions from the community”.

Labbe characterized the meeting as a “black vs. white grievance” session, because it was called in the aftermath of a white police officer shooting and killing of a black subject. But those who attended went to great lengths to play down the race issue and show that it was a community relations issue with the police department. Only Labbe could contrive this meeting as a black versus white hostility issue- no doubt, a product of her own subjective assumptions and fertile imagination. Nevertheless, she, in turn, has fueled a slew race tinted letters-to-the-editor condemning the black community for its outpouring.

Had she attended the forum, she would have seen speakers of all races: black, brown, and white. Had she attended, she would have heard what she claims was missing from the news clips, that someone did indeed mention that the subject Charal Thomas put himself and his children in danger. She would have heard that suggestion quickly dismissed because “no one knew, for a fact, what happened”. Is this not why there is investigation? And even she acknowledges that the investigation is ongoing. So how then did she reach a conclusive judgment that Charal Thomas endangered anyone, except that she bought into a one-sided inconclusive police report?

Herein is the problem. Labbe writes: “For many whites, Thomas represents generations of black men whose criminal behavior is excused by their community as an acceptable byproduct of that historic abuse.”

What if I we were as callous as to suggest that Labbe’s “many whites” were bias, pious, and hasty to judgment? The Star-Telegram’s depiction of “RaRa” Thomas, along with its selectly published letters to the editor, has hurt the bereaved family as much as the shooting.

Where is the “criminal behavior” of which Labbe speaks? How does a traffic violation get escalated to criminal behavior? It is ASSUMED that he was engaged in drug trafficking. But no drugs were found. It is ASSUMED that he was doing something wrong and that put his children and his passenger in danger. On top of this, based on these assumptions, Labbe places blame on the community “that willingly paints Thomas as a victim” and boast of the fact that he was not “black man beat down by ‘the man’ unjustly.”

No, Thomas was not beaten down by “The Man”. (Where did Labbe get this outdated 1960s movie idiom of so-called black slang?) No, Thomas was not beaten down by “The Man”. He was shot twelve times by a Fort Worth police office, and it made no difference if he was man or woman, black or white.

Yes, of course, RaRa’s family and friends are grief stricken, upset, and outraged. Even if it were an accident or committed by a civilian, they would still be angry. Isn’t that only human? Even during bible times, they provided cities of refuge from the “avengers of blood”, whenever death of a person was at the hands of another. Family and friends of the decease will be upset and angry. And had this happened at the hands of a civilian, we might be talking about gang-style retaliatory violence, instead of this conjured up black-white hostility issue.

Labbe is simply wrong in judging the right to anger of bereaved family.

In adding salt to insult, she further writes: “For many blacks, Romer (the shooting officer) is the physical embodiment of centuries of mistreatment of African-Americans in this country at the hands of powerful whites.”

Where did she get this perception of “powerful whites”? Certainly, she could not have gotten it from black people. Had Officer J. Romer been hurt or killed in this ordeal, some of the same people who attended the forum would have shown their condolences to his bereaved family. No civilized and rational person would have cheered, as Labbe’s white readers cheer the death of as this “convicted criminal”.

Without exception, everyone who spoke at the forum expressed their condolences to the family of the deceased. And, if there were any victims, it was Thomas’ children. When Labbe spoke of the angry 4-year old she once saw during her ride-along with police in another city, she might understand why one of Charal Thomas’ children slapped the officer who shot and killed her father.

If anything is true in Labbe’s article, it is the fact that this type of anger is generational, and it is not because of skin color.

The purpose of the community forum was two-fold: (1) For the family and friends of Thomas needed to vent their anger and frustration, especially in how the children were treated during and after the ordeal; and (2) For the community to raise questions about police policies, practices, and procedures.

People have a constitutional right under the First Amendment to Petition the Government for Redress of Grievances. Is there a grievance here? Is the family not aggrieved at the loss of their loved one? Is it not the responsibility of ministers to minister to their pain?

Lest we forget: Grievance derives from grief, and the root of Redress is dress, as in dressing a wound or addressing the cause of the injury. Does not the community have these right, without being condemned for giving aid and comfort to the family of the deceased, without Labbe and her likes accusing us of justifying an accused criminal?

Which is more wrong: Passing judgment upon a deceased who is only guilty of nothing other than being a suspect, or calling a public servant into question about the circumstances surrounding a citizen’s death?

Labbe rather passes judgment in her article and incites her white readers to do the same, casting the tragedy as a black-white issue. To stir the caldron, she quotes a man who tells the chief of police, “I don’t like you.” But she does not quote his saying that this was “not personal”. Neither does she know his change-of-heart sentiments afterwards.

Many citizens who attended the forum- black, brown, and white- came away feeling that the community had taken a positive step toward healing. Some of us are dealing with the anger issues of family and friends, with hopes that time will heal. Maybe community relations will improve with a police review board.

Whatever the case, this so-called “festering and unresolved black vs. white grievance” and this figment of an officer being “the physical embodiment of centuries of mistreatment of African-Americans in this country at the hands of powerful whites” is a product of Jill Labbe and Labbe’s alone, just as she claims that Charal Thomas alone was the cause of the escalation that ended in his death.

It is always convenient to blame the dead, just as it is convenient to blame the black community and its criminal element for the lack of respect from the police department.

Where Do We Go After the Police Shooting of Charal Thomas?

2011-03-08T13:50:00.001-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath (James 1:19)

The above quote is prudent advice for all circumstances and situations, especially a situation like the shooting death of Charal T. Thomas at the hands of FWPD officer J. Romer. Not only is the incident tragic, it is also complicated: Tragic because a father was shot to death in front of his three children; complicated because the circumstances suggest that the officer fired in self-defense.

Like most people, I have waited for the air to clear and to hear all accounts. But recent Star-Telegram editorials and letters-to-the-editor urge me to speak. According to newspaper accounts, Thomas was under surveillance, sitting in his SUV, with his children in the car. He was under suspicion of possible drug activities, which some readers imply as guilt by past conviction, though no drugs were discovered in the vehicle upon later investigation.

Instead, Thomas had outstanding traffic warrants. And, it was to this end, that Officer Romer approached the vehicle to place the subject under arrest. They say he resisted, that he locked his door, let up his window, and took off, with the officer’s arm trapped in the window. The officer retrieved his weapon and fired 12 shots into the man’s body, thereby killing him.

The subject was a young one-legged black man, the officer white.

Why? That is the question everybody is asking. Some conclude that it was another typical shooting of a black suspect by a white officer. Some say it was excessive force, that it was not necessary to pump 12 bullets into the man’s body. Some say the officer was just defending his own life; otherwise, he would have been the victim.

How do you deal with such a tragedy under such complicated circumstances?

Thomas’ children, ages 7 to 11, were in the back seat of the car. They witnessed the shooting. No matter what later investigations will reveal, they will forever be traumatized by the incident. The family is upset, angry, and aggrieved. No one can measure their pain. The Stop Six community is incensed at yet another incident of a police officer killing one of their own.

Today’s letters-to-the-editor is as oblivious to the community’s indignation as west is to east. The writers probably have never been under surveillance. Being black and driving a late model SUV in an impoverished neighborhood is probable cause for suspicion of drug activity, or so it seems in the minds of people. But the problem is not as simple as “suspicion and black”. Everyone, even the black community, can appreciate public safety. The problem is: Equal Protection and Equal Respect.

After all, it was the black community itself that begged for more police protection in their community, against gangs, drug trafficking, and violence. But when officers get bored, they start making traffic stops for little stuff like: “Failure to make a turn signal”, “A cracked taillight”, “an illegal shift in a turning lane”, etc., etc. And, these ignoble offenses are imposed upon the poorest people, who are already the least that can afford to pay the fines. Instead of feeling protected, some people feel under siege.

This feeling of anxiety, anger, and hostility passes from one generation to another, almost without notice.

Police Chief Jeff Halstead is aware and sensitive to these feelings. This is why he has met with leaders and ministers of the community on a number of occasions. But talk is cheap when nothing is done to ameliorate the underlying problem of alienation between the police department and the black community.

There is a consequence for shootings like these. Children grow up with animosity toward police, similar to the feelings that Palestinian children grow up with at Israeli occupational forces. The anger and outrage that we are witnessing today in the Stop Six community did not start in 2011 with one isolated incident. It goes way back to the time that I describe as “Authority Without Consent”, that is to say, having the power to police does not mean that people consent to being policed, especially in light of a history of offical oppression, abuse, and corruption. There were times of “shakedown cops”, who were complicit with bootleggers and pimps and others who engaged in criminal activity, so long as they were paid off ("under the table"). To “snitch” on them would be equivalent to suicide, which is why black people historically do not cooperate with police.

Fort Worth is not Mississippi, but people remember the southern sheriff with his absolute power over black people. This is not New York, but people remember those who had been arrested only to disappear and have their bodies wash up on the Trinity River bottom. The hostilities, apprehension, and anxiety of African-Americans against the police department is a product of social conditioning in the line and legacy of the infamous Joe D. Fee and Bush.

Surely, there is nothing we can do to bring the dead back to life. We can only comfort the family of Charal Thomas, nurture and minister to his children as they try to grow up, and remove the shooting officer (J. Romer) from the patrol beat, where his continued presence would only be a hostile reminder of this tragic incident.

Thawing community relations is not simply a matter of meeting with ministers whenever something goes wrong, but a commitment and involvement by the FWPD in helping to nurture our children and heal our people. This would mean involvement at the grassroots level, in the schools, churches, community centers, not just coming in and out with packaged PD PR programs; but to educate, mentor, train, and reward the next generation of young leaders who must take the responsibility in building a strong, viable, and law-abiding community.

Face of Hope: Assassinated in Arizona

2011-01-10T11:56:00.002-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Monday, January 10, 2011

There is no excuse for killing an innocent 9-year old child, even in a random act of violence, not even for distraught political purposes. Nothing can justify, nor rationale be given for the senseless shooting death of young Christina Taylor Green, an elementary school student, who had many dreams cut short.

The third grader wanted to be the first woman to play major league baseball. In fact, she was the only girl on the Canyon del Oro Little League baseball team. She played second base.

An All-American young girl, she loved animals, singing, dancing, and gymnastics. She was elected to the student council and begun to explore a career as a public servant “that involved helping those less fortunate than her”. She had dreams of attending Penn State.

Born on September 11, 2001, Christina was no ordinary child. She was once featured in a book called “Faces of Hope”, one of the select 50 babies born from each state, in the wake of the terroristic attack on the New York twin towers. She perished in a hail of gunfire that took the lives of five others in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday, January 15, 2011. She died, an innocent child.

The Faces of Hope was a theme designed to renew the nation’s spirit, in light of the twin towers attack in New York City. It was a theme designed to show our national resolve and prove to the world that “life goes on” in America, even as 3000 souls perished at the hand of al Qaeda. New babies were being born, we said, to comfort us of our loss.

Christina Green typifies a little girl we all knew like Shirley Temple, a wide-eyed wonder child herself. A young girl searching for courage to enter politics some day in life, Christina went to see U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She was among the throng struck by an assassin’s bullet.

Jared Lee Loughner ended all Christina’s hopes and dreams. Loughner, age 22, went to a Tucson supermarket parking lot, for the sole purpose of assassinating a U.S. Congresswoman, Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. Maybe Christina just got caught in the crossfire.

But then we must remember that we gave birth to Christina, as a Face of Hope. On the most tragic day in U.S. history, she was born. And, on an even more tragic day, her soul was taken away from this world, through a so-called random act of gun violence.

No one, but God, knows the mind of a deranged killer. And since the time that Cain killed Abel, there has been violence and murder in the world. Loughner once wrote: “No! I won't pay debt with a currency that's not backed by gold and silver. No, I won't trust in God.”

God Bless America! Have we come to this? Through gun rights advocacy and incendiary politics, and no godly restraint, American has created a mutated aberrant offspring, in its own image. Guns and politics created Loughner.

(See also “Unhealthy Rhetoric” by Eddie Griffin, FW Weekly, 03/31/10)

… someone out there in the vast reaches of America was feeding on all this hateful rhetoric, and found this an opportune time to strike. There may be others (quote by Eddie Griffin after the shootings in Wichita Falls, Texas, April 2010)

Dealing With Bullies in Sagging Pants:

2010-11-08T09:22:00.002-07:00

An E for Effort and I for Idealism to Prof. James T. Branch

RE: The church must rise up to stem the violence

By Eddie Griffin

Monday, November 08, 2010

If we lived in an ideal world, ideal solutions would work perfectly, as Prof. James Branch advocates in his article “The church must rise up to stem the violence”. Considering the church was the first victim of violence, the course of peace has always been the charted path of the Christian. But everybody does not handle violence, or the threat of violence, in the same manner.

Mr. Branch is presumptuous to even suggest setting a pastor’s agenda over his flock. Intervention into youth culture may not be a part of their gospel. His desire for his daughters to grow up and marry “good men” is idealistic and personal. Being in the good-daughter raising business puts him also in the “good men” raising business. Good sons (sons-in-law) are groomed out of a flock of good sheep, and the father is the shepherd.

When men were men, they trained up good young men. If a man wants a good son-in-law, train him up during courtship, lest he get out of control later on.

Branch also writes: “… some adults are intimidated by or have given up on too many of our young boys. We must continue to help them understand that sagging, a fashion originating in the penal system is not needed on the outside.”

Here, I get the image of a young man with sagging pants, exposing his underwear, and clutching his crouch, as if he is proud of something. This overly rebellious image intimidates some people. They avoid the potential for hostility and keep their mouths closed. Bullying follows in the making, not far behind the rebellious trait.

NIP IT IN THE BUD

Whenever I approach a young man with sagging pants, he either voluntarily pulls them up or he gets a word of encouragement from me to pull ‘em up. If not, I have an alternative that has worked more than once.

In one example, there was a young man at an event wearing sagging pants, and one of the elder women asked me: “What’s with the sagging pants?”

I eased into a seat next to the young man and whispered: “Jack ‘em up, or I’ll drag them down to your knees. Don’t mess with me, boy! I’ll snatch the pants right from under you, grab me a hand full of nuts, and squeeze and pull till you holler mama. I’ll make a eunuch out of you, boy; or a paraplegic for life.”

Other people may feel intimidated, but sagging pants is a tactical disadvantage to a street gladiator. This is why I always give this warning to young men coming under my purview, wearing sagging pants, including my own nephews.

Bullies assume that nobody will snatch their pants down, snatch their feet from under them, and grab their testicles. Nevertheless, this is the tactical advantage that I would give to my children and grandchildren, if they must defend themselves against bullying.

Not that I am a violent man or advocate violence or blow-for-blow retaliation, but iron sharps iron. Good strong men build good strong young men, not by verbiages, but by trials of fire. I am a true believer in : Make him or break him, because “As the twig is bent, so the tree inclines”.

Lazy Tendencies: Oversleeping

2010-09-16T09:45:00.001-07:00

Written for and Dedicated to Ex-Offender Re-Entry

By Eddie Griffin

Thursday, September 16, 2010

When a man is not prepared to meet the morning, he has a tendency to oversleep. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands together to take a nap, so shall a man’s poverty come upon him like an armed robbery.

Lazy people are generally poor. But poor people are not generally lazy. Most poor people do not have the luxury of rest and sweet dreams. They cannot afford to slumber, lest they sleep the sleep of death. But the slothful is always looking for a spot to rest, fold his hand, nod off into slumber land, and sleep the sweet sleep of ease. His wake-up is a surprise, as sudden and as shocking as an “armed robber”.

Speaking from experience, nobody likes to be roused out of their sleep by an armed robber or murderer.

One morning in my prison cell, I was paid a visit by Casper, the Unfriendly Ghost. They called him Casper, because he had killed 10 men in Atlanta Federal Prison. Nobody ever saw him. He left no evidence, other than the slit throat of his victims. Over a period of years, during the 1970s, the FBI never caught him. That is how he got the nickname Casper, the Unfriendly Ghost.

Doing time in a super-maximum security prison can be draining. There was always tension in the air and threats of violence all around. And every night, when I returned to my cell, I was totally fatigue and exhausted. My only reprieve was sleep, an escape for the mind, into a painless abyss. But even in the twilight world, there is the dragon.

Out of another world, I was called out of my sleep at the touch of a sharp object at my throat, and immediately I tumbled out of bed clutching the arm of a hand with eagle claws. It was the hand of a man who had sharpened his fingernails into hardened talons like that of an eagle or a falcon.

The dawn had not yet broken. It was chow time. All the cell doors were open. And, I had overslept. Now I was wrestling for my life against a man with a claw for a hand, a convicted murderer.

To make a long story short, we wrestled to an exhausted standoff. He warned me to never oversleep again. And, that was when he told me the story of Casper. He was the infamous killer of 10 inmates who all overslept, and was attacked early in the morning before men emerged from their cells for breakfast.

Strange that we would become friends and he would become one of my trainers. Every morning thereafter, before day, he appeared at my cell door, checking to see if I was awake and alert. From there, we would drink honey, run 10 miles around the track, barefooted on jagged rocks, lift weights, and punch the punching bag until our knuckles bled. And, after all this, he would come at me in fury, and say, “Stop me from killing you.”

He had a killer’s instinct and he thirst for it. And, there was little doubt in my mind that he would kill me, if I slacked off one bit, if I slumbered just a little, got too comfortable, or folded my arms to get some rest. He would kill me at the drop of a hat pin.

So, this is how I learned not to oversleep.

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall poverty come upon you like an armed man. (Proverbs 24:33)

Man on a Chain Gang

2010-09-15T10:14:00.002-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang, sang Sam Cooke. The year was 1960. As listen to this oldie, and watch the video, there is a point in the song that hits close to home and I shed tears.

Can’t you hear them saying, “I’m going home. One of these days, I’m going home. See my woman whom I love so dear. But in the meanwhile I got to work right here.” That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang.

Chained together, by iron shackles, feet to feet, ankle to ankle, hip to hip, wrist to wrist, and yoked together at the neck. From the slave ships to the cotton fields of Texas, some never came home again.

I weep for them, because the spirit of their memories haunts me, day and night. I can still hear the cries of Brother Herman, a prisoner, set to be released within days, stabbed to death by his best friend and running buddy, who could not bear to see him go free. Jealousy is a brutal killer.

Give me water, I’m thirsty. My, my, my, my work is so hard.

Shoot me, Boss. I just can’t do this kind of work no more. Cursed was the ground before I was introduced to the aggie. And, cursed it will be when I return to the dust thereof. So, shoot me now, Boss, before I recover my senses and want to live.

I wasn’t cut out for the ole plantation fields of Texas, with prison guards on horseback riding shotgun over me. I never saw a cloud in the sky, nor a shade tree, and the water wagon only came at the turn-row. And, fields stretched miles and miles, forever, and there was no end in sight, except death.

How many times the thought entertained my mind?

“Griffin, you’re chopping the Captain’s corn,” the man on horseback shouted. “Don’t you know the difference between corn and Johnson grass?”

Really, to tell the truth, I couldn’t tell the difference, even unto the very day.

Somewhere out there is a cemetery for all the nameless inmates that never saw the light of day again. Nobody knows their number. Nobody cares to inquire. Neither the end, nor the means, concerns the public. Death is death, whether by execute or a thousand cuts.

Except for a little red bible, I would have been out there with them, among the dead and forgotten. My end was beyond pain. I had endured entombment in solitary cages, behind steel doors, in refrigerated strip cells, and padded psyche ward cells. And, at last, in the twelfth year of my captivity, I baste to death in the Texas 110-degree heat.

I was beyond pain. I begged for death. I pleaded for death. But first I needed to set things right between me and my Maker. I had to finish reading the little red bible. It was a friend to me, having survived, from solitary cell to solitary cell, throughout all my dilemmas and rebellions. After this, I would take my stand: Shoot me, Boss. Take me out of my misery.

From the beginning of my captivity, I never expected to survive a 50-year sentence. I was unreasonable to even hope. And, I didn’t want to build my hopes up too high.

Every man pays for his sins, and there is an exactor that comes due. With a total of 50-, 20-, and 10-year sentences, I felt the burden of my sins. If I were to survive, I would have to walk through hell on earth. Only about seven men have gone into the dungeon of the abyss, and survived to reemerge. I am one, favored and bless.

I guess Sam Cooke conveys the spirit of my feelings in his soulful rendition of Stand By Me. The song tells of how the Lord delivered Daniel out of the lion’s den. “Do me like you did Daniel,” the singer sings, “Stand by me, Lord.”

[To be continued]

RE-ENTRY: Fort Worth

2010-09-09T14:19:00.001-07:00

Community Working Together & Solving Problems

Dr. Schlessinger: Free Speech or Racist Psychology

2010-08-19T10:19:00.003-07:00

Why must we learn the same lesson over and over again? I thought radio talk show hosts had learned from the Don Imus affair. There are some things radio personalities should not broadcast over the airways. People are sensitive in the area of bruised nerves, and racial sensitivities are on edge as it is.

Don Imus’ blurt about “nappy-headed whores” set off a flurry of outrage and allegations of racism across the nation, forcing him briefly off the air. Where was talk show host and psychologist Dr. Laura Schlessinger at the time? Didn’t she know that racial epithets were taboo over the airways? Nevertheless, her racial tirade in repeatedly using the N-word to a call-in listener was an unwanted and unwelcome attempted to force acceptance of a loathed word we have all since rejected.

As in the case of Don Imus, Dr. Schlessinger claimed impunity because she heard black hip-hop artists use the N-word on the airways all the time. And after being rebuked, she plans to end her radio program and become a martyr for free speech.

Schlessinger can have her free speech, but she must realize that speech brings with it a consequence. That is to say, can she accept the consequences provoked by her chosen words, seeing that nobody forced her to say what she said?

The U.S. Supreme Court also recognizes a person’s free speech right to yell “fire” in a crowded theatre. But the Court also holds that person responsible for whatever harm caused if someone is trampled in a stampede to the exit.

But the real question is this: Does Schlessinger have the right to free speech, considering the that she is a professional psychologist, and her on-the-air responses to callers actually constitutes psychological advice?

The caller in this case was an African-American woman, grappling with an interracial marriage problem. Dr. Schlessinger’s response was like the drill sergeant therapist on the GEICO television commercial who calls his patient a “Jack-wagon” and suggests that maybe he ought to chug on down to “Namby Pamby Land” where we can find some self-confidence.

The commercial commentator asks: Does a former drilling sergeant make a terrible therapist? Maybe the same should be asked of Dr. Schlessinger who suggests to her on-air patient that if she is so “hypersensitive about color and don’t have a sense of humor” then she should not marry out of her race.”

What’s love got to do it?

When the caller attempts to explain or clarify, but Schlessinger rudely cuts her off and chides the woman not to “NAACP” her. [I wonder what NAACP means as a verb. I wonder where “out of your race” is. What race, if not the human race?]

I do not have a problem with Schlessinger’s freedom of speech. I have a problem with the psychology that she studied in school. We have always contended that psychology, as a pseudo-science, was never created with African-Americans in mind.

Also, we contend that racial categories are artificial, and identification by skin color is more a psychosis than a fact.

If Schlessinger wants to be a martyr, it would not be for free speech, but for a faulty psychology for which we are all enslaved. If she wants to be Joan of Arc, then go ahead and light her butt up.

Turning My 10-Year Old Grandson into a Man

2010-08-16T11:46:00.003-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Monday, August 16, 2010

As I sit on a park bench, hedged about, I am unperturbed by the bees and wasps that came to gather nectar among the bushes. I meditate, remembering Sunday with my 10-year old grandson. He has recently attempted suicide, on several occasions. It makes me pondered why a child is so miserable that he would attempt to take his own life at such a tender age.

Maybe I already know.

He, and his two sisters, were taken away from their mother by the courts and given to their father, my son, who already has three kids, two of which are stepsons, ages 7 and 9. The baby girl is one. Altogether, there are now eight of them living in a two-bedroom apartment, and it is hard to find larger accommodations on a single low-income budget. Grandpa’s fixed income covers some of the gaps, but not the whole.

I sense that there is something void in his life.

This Sunday, he just wanted to hang out with Grandpa all day. He wanted to get out of the crowded apartment. He wanted some individual attention, which was hard to do when he was the oldest among the six kids in the house. But hanging out with Grandpa was not all fun and games, as he would discover.

But where would I take a troubled child after church, on a hot Sunday afternoon in August? There is one place.

We first visited the Huguley Nursing Home, where he heard Grandpa delivered a sermon to a group of elderly seniors, who suffer various ailments of aging. They are usually heavily medicated and deeply depressed. And when I did not see Glenn, our resident centenarian, I was concerned, as always, whenever a regular church attendant in the nursing home suddenly disappears. But one by one, they trickled in, including Glenn, peddling his wheelchair with his feet.

My grandson had been here before, singing Christmas carols and passing out gifts. But this was a different mission. This was about a spiritual transformation.

As I preached, the audience faces came to light and a gleam returned to their eyes. But my grandson had dosed off and slumped over in his seat. All the more, I felt unworthy as a preacher, not being able to keep my own child awake. And, here I was an overworked teacher and mentor, stretched between the extremes of this generation, with a 10-year old on one hand and a 100-year old centenarian on the other.

Afterwards, we visited the Michael Jacobs Jr. National Memorial, named in honor of a mentally challenged young man who was tasered to death by a Fort Worth police officer. I was compelled to be here because here were some of the young men whom I had mentored over the years: men like SCLC President Kyev Tatum and Success Movement motivational speaker and author Junichi Lockett.

My hopes would be to someday entrust my male children and grandchildren into the hands of honorable men like these.

At the same time, we fellowshipped with members of the Nation of Islam, New Black Panther Party, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, LULAC, Rainbow P.U.S.H. Coalition, and other community groups who came together to form a coalition and fight to save the Michael Jacobs, Jr. Memorial. These, too, I could rest assured would have my grandson’s wellbeing at heart, for the simply fact that he was a young black man, imperiled by a cruel and dangerous society.

In the end, my grandson took pictures of the Memorial field with its erected 465 crosses, each representing a taser death victim. Then, it was time to go back to church for evening service. At last, he was tired, sleepy, and totally exhausted from the 100-degree heat.

It reminded me of the days I shared with my own grandfather, a preacher in the dusty backwoods of East Texas in the 1950s.

Back to the old man’s morning bench with the bees and the wasps swarming about, I feel like a beekeeper with the ability to summon the bees upon my fingers and hold them in my hand. It is a paradox that a man can be so at peace with nature and yet so at war with the world?

Glenn Beck Calls for Shirley Sherrod’s Job Back

2010-07-21T12:24:00.002-07:00

Glenn Beck Calls for Shirley Sherrod’s Reinstatement

Can you believe it? FOX commentator Glenn Beck is calling for Shirley Sherrod, former USD administrator, dismissed for comments taken out of context by a conservative blogger.

It seems that FOX News and Commentators speak with forked tongues. Only yesterday, it seems, that FOX commentator Bill O’Reilly was calling for her crucifixion.

All content taken from The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel. Each weeknight by 6 PM EST a preview of that evening's show will be posted and then updated with additional information the following weekday by noon EST.

Another Obama official forced out

"As we told you last night, Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod admitted that years ago she held back some government assistance to a white farmer because of the color of his skin. After hearing that I said 'Ms. Sherrod must resign immediately,' and that's exactly what happened. But if you were watching the network news last night you would know nothing about the story. Once again, an embarrassing moment for the Obama administration was not covered. In the big picture this is a small story; every administration has had employees do dumb things. But why the news blackout when things become unpleasant for the Obama administration? The answer has to be bias - the establishment press tilts left and is reluctant to do damage to a very liberal president. There's no other reason to spike stories that bring millions of viewers to Fox News. You would think the other TV news operations, all of whom are not doing well, would want to attract that large audience. Apparently they don't."

Source: http://www.billoreilly.com/show?action=viewTVShow&showID=2649

Didn’t this same FOX News Report issue this story as BREAKING NEWS?

Sure! Breaking News: An innocent black woman is lynched by crafty racist deception: FOX News.

Beck calls for Shirley Sherrod to be reinstated.

Too late, Shirley is a martyr like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose character was assassinated long before he died.

If I were Shirley, I would not go back until America hangs her head in shame, for this mass rush to judgment. In the meantime, she should sue the Agriculture Department for wrongful termination.

There is someone out there retrieving old black video tapes, doctoring them, and create hysteric fears and racial animosities, INTENTIONALLY (Willfully), for purposes other than what is publically known, subversive, spread throughout the television network airways of FOX.

[Isn’t this an FCC issue?]

So much for truth in journalism: THE SPIN STOPS HERE

Tea Party Invitation to NAACP for Summit

2010-07-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

As an ambassador of good will and advocate of human rights, I always welcome the opportunity for peace and understanding between people, races, and nations. Therefore, I welcome the olive branch extended by David Webb, co-founder of TeaParty365, who appeared on CBS “Face the Nation” on Sunday. He proposes a Tea Summit on Race Relation, in response to the NAACP resolution against racism within the Tea Party movement.

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, according to the Wall Street Journal report, was “open to the idea”. He wishes, however, that such a forum should address issues other than race.

Even so, I would welcome the idea of holding a joint town hall meeting, as proposed by Webb, on any terms, for the sake of putting animosities behind us.

NOTE: David Webb is African-American, the same as Benjamin Jealous. And, it appears that only the African-American members of the Tea Party are willing to step forward to deal with racism within the organization. The rests seems more inclined to find a fault with the NAACP and spin cases or instances of “black racism”, to counter the damage done to the party's image.

Nevertheless, there has been progress since the release of the resolution. The North Iowa Tea Party billboard in Mason City, depicting President Barack Obama as Hitler, has been taken down and replaced with a public service announcement. Tea Party Express activist Mark Williams has been expelled from the Tea Party Federation for a demeaning racial satire posted on his website.

These corrections in organizational behavior clears the way for people of good will to move forward toward racial reconciliation, and yet with freedom to air our legitimate political differences.

“There is no debate about racism,” says Jealous. I agree.

Some people would go tit-for-tat on instances of racial bigotry, both white bigotry and black bigotry. And, some African-Americans would fend that they have been more assailed with white racism since the founding of this nation, and point out slavery and lynching and violent oppression and white terrorism, as proof.

These arguments rub raw the wrong way. To get caught up in tit-for-tat acrimony would be fruitless. However, beware that it is the only term with which some can discuss the issue.

Therefore, my advice to the NAACP would be to accept the Tea Party’s invitation to a summit with grace and dignity. Take the high road and not condescend to tit-for-tat on bigotry. Remember: Racial bigotry is only the outward expression of a subjective idea. In this case, when we speak of racism, we speak of the ideology of white supremacy and the discriminatory and prejudicial practices that grow out of it, and how the state apparatus becomes an institution of oppression by it. Everything else is a diversion.

Give all due respect to your adversary, remembering that the bigot is not the enemy, but a victim of a misguided idea. The enemy is the foundation of ideas that lead to hateful and prejudicial behavior. Study from whence these ideas of white supremacy come and how they innocuously and subtly interject into today’s political arena.

FOR EXAMPLE: Tea Party Express activist Mark Williams, in his satire, insinuated that black people were lazy, shiftless, and irresponsible. Needless to say, this is a popular idea within the movement, and forms the basis of why some people think that the government is taking their hard earned wealth and giving to an unworthy group of people.

It is also a popular idea that providing poor and unemployed people with welfare (or "extended unemployment") creates a disincentive to work, and such assistance, such as free food stamps encourages "welfare mothers" to reproduces.

These are very old ideas, dating back to the debate on English Poor Laws in 1536. In 1834, when another round of Poor Laws was introduced, Thomas Malthus, the father of birth control and family planning, opposed the new laws for the very same reasons listed above: that it would encourage the poor to become lazy, irresponsible, reproduce like rabbits, and eventually become a burden on the state.

Today, we have code words like “welfare state”, “entitlement programs”, “socialized medicine”, all with the same underlying meaning that hard working Americans are being robbed by the government to support lazy and irresponsible welfare recipients. Unfortunately, the modern day stereotype is not the British poor, but poor minorities, the faces of which are mostly black.

Thomas Malthus’ “An Essay on the Principal of Population” (1798-1826) was a series on political economy based upon population growth of the “unworthy” people, who would overpopulate the world and consume more food than the earth could produce. The solution was to cut off support for the lazy poor, keep wages at subsistence level, and put malaria in the water of African natives. In short, let the “unworthy” population die off, by natural attrition and haste.

The current debate over government spending is primarily aimed at the programs that helped the poor, unemployed, and aged. The arguments are the same now, as in 1834. Technically, this is not racism, until combined with the goals and aspirations of white supremacy.

In rebuking the NAACP for its resolution, a FOX commentator questioned if the black community did not have enough problems for its organization, such as poverty, unemployment, teen pregnancy, crime, etc.

Somehow, we assumed that these were common problems to America as a whole, not just an isolated group or race of people. To say that these are black problems, instead of America’s problems, puts the onerous African-Americans to build bricks without straw (as in, no government help or assistance). The above arguments stymatizes helping the poor and undeserving. Instead of a theme of Saving America, we see slogans like Save White America in the Tea Party movement.

This is what divides us: that we are not One Nation, but a nation of competing interests along the color line. There must be reconciliation beyond the color of a person’s skin, and one community's problem must be looked upon as a problem for the nation, as a whole.

Mason City Billboard Controversy:

2010-07-19T10:03:00.004-07:00

Last Word
By Eddie Griffin

Monday, July 19, 2010

I must desist in this insane deliberation over character assassination of the president as whether by slander or racism.

What I want to know is why so many people believe that black people are lazy, living off government welfare and handouts, and why so many middle class African-Americans believe the same.

After all, the call for reduction in federal spending is, in fact, aimed at federal social welfare programs, which some believe is the preferred domain of poor black people. They forget federal assistance programs like food stamps actually subsidize rural farmers and agribusiness, stabilize food prices, and give U.S. farmers a guaranteed market. This is why farm goods outside of the country cannot compete. [NOTE: Unfortunately, the government did not buy black farm products; hence, black farmers starved, while their counterparts thrived on the Agriculture Department purchases].

All things being fair and equal

Recently, I heard people in Louisiana, in the aftermath of the BP disaster, talking about not wanting a government “handout”, and a lady boohooing her eyes out because this was her first time receiving food stamps.

Why does such humiliation and shame come from receiving handouts and food stamps?

Federal assistance programs are a stigma of poverty, laziness, depravity, low life style, and no motivation to do better. The stigma applies to both the “poor white trash” and “laziness Negro”. In order for a person to receive handout, food stamps, and welfare, they could only be one or the other. When it happens to middle-America, they differentiate themselves from the former.

That is why some Louisiana shrimpers refuse to take a “handout”. They take pride in being hard workers, and it is not right for people willing to work to receive government handouts like the undeserving who are not willing to work.

Here is the clincher: Somebody is selling the notion that President Barack Obama is taking their hard earned wealth and giving over to these undeserving lazy Negroes, simply because he favors black over white.

They call this a transfer of wealth by socialism.

Stupid is what stupid believes.

There is only one economy, neither black, nor white. It was the Department of Agriculture that first gave white U.S. farmers subsidies to grow and subsidies to forebear, in order to support the rural agrarian economy, and stabilize farm prices. But the Food Stamp Act of 1964, under President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, appeared to benefit the lazily class of people.

This microcosmic chain: From rural farmland, to the government, to welfare recipients, is skewed to make it appear that blacks are the chief reliant upon this system.

They are Unemployed by Choice.

The government disperses it money through contracts, for example in the defense industries. Most of the jobs in these industries are skilled and primarily white labor, from machine to floor supervisor on up, the chain of hierarchy is like nepotism along racial lines. High unemployment among minorities does not signify lack of motivation but bias preference in hiring. In Texas, for example, in the defense industry, African-Americans are only hired to fulfill a federally required quota; otherwise, there would be no blacks working at all, as it had in the past, except sweep floors and taking out the trash. [Who gets the hot dirty jobs of scooping up the tar balls on the gulf beaches?]

There is an argument employers should have the right to hire whomsoever they will. But they forgot from whence come their federal contracts, and all federal monies come from a mixture of all segments and races in the country. When government spending is concentrated on a favored population, the rest is disfavored is the wealth distribution chain.

For centuries, they took black tax dollars and applied these dollars to the white economy, in the form of jobs and neighborhood development, such as streets and sidewalks. Negro neighborhoods did not receive equity for their tax dollars until they gained the vote and exercised political power en masse.

Nevertheless, once having taking all the choicest jobs, monopolized the training, skills, certifications, and licenses, at the exclusion of the Negro, it guaranteed another generation of ignorance and poverty.

Reducing Taxation does not mean a reduction in spending in those vital industries like the defense industry. Nor, does it mean reduction of federal spending in research, at predominately white colleges and universities. Nor, does it mean reduction federal spending in engineering and construction.

Reduction in taxes means to “take back” what is being given to the “undeserving” like welfare cheats and ACORN. It does not mean taking back subsidies to the railroad industries. [Notice the contrast in the color of the workforce on each end, and which labor force is productive and which a siphon].

The Equal Employment Opportunity Act is a federal law that does not necessarily change the sentiments of men’s hearts and their preferences in certain geographic regions. In the Deep South, a contractor or employer can say that they can find no “qualified applicant” in order to be exempt from the law.

This too is racist.

Where is the Racism in the Tea Party?

2010-07-15T11:57:00.003-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Some people are questioning the resolution of the NAACP about racism in the Tea Party- a resolution, mind you, that still has to be finalized. But when NAACP President Benjamin Jealous spoke about the resolution, there were clearly despicable pictures in the background as proof of what he meant.

NO, not everybody in the Tea Party is racist, and I doubt if many really understand what racism truly means outside of bigotry. This is why I stopped using the term “racism” to describe “white supremacy”- the ideology of “white rule”, either by natural divine right or intellectual superiority. Most bigots fall on the low end of the IQ pool, easily aroused, dumped, and hoodwinked, by their more intelligent counterparts.

In an article in the Fort Worth Weekly, I forewarned that “unhealthy rhetoric” coming from the ranks of the Tea Party was comparable to the racist rhetoric hurled at African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. (See “Unhealthy Rhetoric” by Eddie Griffin, Fort Worth Weekly, March 31, 2010). Instead of toning down the hostilities, some readers unleashed their anger upon me as the writer and demanded proof.

I presented a montage of pictures to the editor Gayle Reeves, which was later included in an editorial, “Tea Parties, Racism and Eddie Griffin”. As I asserted in the original article: “Plausible denial is a racist’s chief defense. That nobody saw him, nobody heard him, and nobody can prove what is in his heart is all the cover he needs.”

The YouTube link to Gayle’s editorial has been disconnected (for obvious or unobvious reasons), but the montage is picture proof is here, and here is why these depictions are racially offensive:

(1:34-1:43) A poster read: Save White America

What is “White America”? How is it different from “Other America”? Why the implied dichotomy between White and Black America? Why must I accept the unscientific codification of Race based on skin color? And, why does “White America” feel imperiled and the rest of us do not? There are no white people, per se, only people who are spoofed into believing genetic and pigmentation means something.

Politics is colorless, but not odorless.

(1:17-1:34) A poster read: Slave Owner Taxpayer - Niggar

By civil convention, I thought the N-word was antiquated due its vile nature and hateful conjuring. But here is a man, in patriotic red, white, and blue, with this sign.

(2:06-2:14) A poster read: Obama is the Antichrist – Oust Obama
(4:00-4:09) A poster read: The Antichrist is living in the White House

When people use religion to vilify the president in a demonic way, he or she intentionally corrupts the scriptures, as if there is no respect for the true and living God in heaven, or the leader elected by the majority of the people.

What does this say of those of us who voted for Obama? That we are satanic?

(2:39-2:47) A poster with an image of Barack Obama half-dressed in savage garb with a bone in his nose.

The image is reminiscent of pictures I remember as a child during 1940s and 1950s when we realized our African roots. We were brainwashed into shame about our heritage by these very same pictures. But there were Negro actors willing to portray such roles on stage and in movies.

We were taught that Africans were always uncivilized and dressed like this, not the fact that Africa was colonized, raped and pillaged, carved up like a pork chop, and the people thrown back into the stone ages by European encroachment. In time we discover Timbuktu and the cradle of civilization, and that Africa gave the Greeks their education, and Moors gave the world the Arabic number system.

It took a life time to overcome this shame, and now it returns in this form.

(2:47-2:55) A poster with a cartoon monkey with the inscription: Obama Nomics – Monkey see, monkey spend.

Telling Negroes that they evolved from monkeys and look like monkeys goes back as far as I can remember. It was part of the ongoing daily humiliation we had to endure. Not that this vile expression has ever gone away, it is an old rehash out of the same closet as great-great-great-grandpa’s Confederate uniform.

EDDIE GRIFFIN ADVICE TO THE NAACP-The pictures identified above are indeed proof of racism. The organization should neither be shamed nor intimidation in revealing an undeniable social reality. Pass the Resolution and move on to the next work, and never look behind. It is now incumbent upon the Tea Party Movement to keep these vile images out of its ranks and away from its rallies. The rest we can devote to an open and honest political debate, if we can keep honest alive.

Ineffective Prosecution in Oscar Grant Murder Case

2010-07-13T12:50:00.004-07:00

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

To mar the day of Barack Obama’s historic inauguration as the first African-American President of the United States, Oscar Grant was shot in the back by BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California.

Officers had been called in to quell a disturbance on the train, in which several youth were engaged in a fight, after a night of New Year’s revelry. Tensions escalated after the officers arrived and tried to take control of the situation. When Grant attempted to act as peacemaker, Officer Tony Pirone shouted racial slurs and ordered the young man arrested. Grant was wrest to the ground, face down, and restrained, when Officer Mehserle rose, drew his gun, and nonchalantly fired, pointblank, into the back of Grant. The young man died a couple of hours later at a local hospital, January 1, 2009.

The entire incident was video recorded by several bystanders, from several different angles. It is obvious to us that the unarmed Oscar Grant was murdered in cold blood. After public outrage, Johannes Mehserle resigned, fled to Nevada, and was later arrested, charged, and tried.

However, if the wheel of Justice grinds every so slowly, then in the case of Oscar Grant, it ground to a halt, because on Thursday, July 8, 2010, a Los Angeles jury found Mehserles guilty of involuntary manslaughter, and not guilty of second degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.

Sentencing is scheduled for August 6 and could range from probation to 5-14 years in prison. In the meantime, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is looking into the case.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Bringing Mehserles to justice took almost an act of congress, because there appeared no desire to pursue an internal investigation the incident, though 5 or 6 officers were present on the scene at the time. It was not until video of the shooting began to circulate to the outside world that the blue wall of silence and cover-up was breached. Another innocent black man was dead, one of several, in the post election of Barack Obama.

On January 8, 2010, after failing to get BART to investigate the incident, Eddie Griffin (BASG) sent the following letter to the Board of Directors.

BART Board of Directors
P.O. Box 12688
Oakland , CA 94604-2688
(510) 464-6095
BoardofDirectors@bart.gov

c/o Kenneth A. Duron
District Secretary
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
300 Lakeside Drive, 23rd Floor, Oakland, California 94612
510.464.6080, fax: 510.464.6011
“Kduron” Kduron@bart.gov

To Directors: Carole Ward Allen, Bob Franklin, Joel Keller, Gail Murray, John McPartland, Thomas Blalock, Lynette Sweet, James Fang, Tom Radulovich

[Excerpted] We contacted your office on yesterday about the unprovoked shooting of 22-year old Oscar Grant in Fruitvale, Lake Merritt & 12th Street Station in Oakland... There is prima facie evidence, by these videos, that shows Officer Johannes Mehserle shot a defenseless man in the back while he was constrained… There is a compelling probable cause that the officer murdered the victim. As you know this video was offered to the police department investigators. Instead of immediately arresting the officer, BART put him in hiding… We are not seeking lynch mob justice before due process run its course… If you can watch this video also and come away feeling that your department acted appropriately, do realize there is a strong possibility the unrest will continue, and more arrests is not the solution. The city has brought this curse upon itself… Sincerely, Eddie Griffin

Acknowledgement & Response from BART

From: Kduron@bart.gov
Subject: Re: Unprovoked Shooting of Oscar Grant
To: eddiegriffin_basg@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2009, 4:28 PM

Mr. Griffin,

Thank you for your email. Your message will be shared with the Board of Directors as requested.

The following is a link to the District's webpage with news releases/video regarding the officer involved shooting on January 1, 2009.

http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2009.aspx

Thank you for taking the time to advise us of your concerns.

Kenneth A. Duron
District Secretary
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
300 Lakeside Drive, 23rd Floor, Oakland, California 94612
510.464.6080, fax: 510.464.6011, email: kduron@bart.gov

A Petition for Redress of Grievance

There were riots in the Bay area in the aftermath of Grant’s murder. There were riots following the Mehserle jury verdict, despite the many calls for peace and calm. As we said before, we were not looking for “lynch mob justice”, but due process and justice mete for the crime.

Our reliance upon the courts is very disappointing, because it is justice by contrast: White officer versus Black suspect. The benefit of doubt goes to the officer instead of the victim. Had African-Americans been included on the jury, the verdict might have been different. But it reverts back to the fact that the district attorney had no heart for the case to begin with.

A recent article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram alludes to an old practice in Texas courtrooms called “stacking the jury”. The jury selection process (voir dire) is not always fair and honest, and verdicts are not always what justice requires.

Precedence

Although everybody in Mississippi and the rest of the world knew Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam tortured and murdered an innocent 14-year old named Emmitt Till in Money, Mississippi, on August 8, 1955, though the all-white jury was presented with firsthand eyewitness testimony, they still found the two Not Guilty.

If there were any benefit of doubt, then surely it was removed when the two gave an interview to Look Magazine in January 1956, providing the harrowing details of the torture and murder. By the law of Double Jeopardy, they could not be tried again at the time, which led to the Justice Department to include Murder as a violation of Civil Rights, especially when murder is carried out Under the Color of Law, by a law enforcement official.

[Oscar Grant was only one of several black men shot and killed immediately following the election of Barack Obama, reminiscent of the night that Jack Johnson won the heavyweight championship of the world.]

Uncle Tom Shock Legal World with Gun Right Ruling

2010-06-30T09:21:00.005-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Never would I have thought that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas standing up for a black man's right to bear arms for self-defense purposes. To stand requires a spine.

What Thomas has created, however, is a legal defense of the Second Amendment so thoroughly original and starkly race-based that none of the white justices would even acknowledge it, as if it were some blank sheet crafted by an invisible man… Washington Post

In the Gun Rights case of McDonald v. Chicago, Justice Thomas sided with the court's conservative majority in a 5 to 4 vote to give petitioner, Otis McDonald, a 76-year-old black man from Chicago, the right to buy a handgun. McDonald said he needed a gun to protect himself from young black "gangbangers" who were terrorizing his suburban Chicago neighborhood.

The case was joined by the NRA, with thirty-three amicus curiae ("friend of the court") briefs, filed by U.S. senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R, TX) and John Tester (D, MT) and U.S. representatives Mark Souder (R, IN) and Mike Ross (D, AR) asking the Supreme Court to find in favor of the petitioners and rule that the Second Amendment does apply to the states. The brief was signed by 58 senators and 251 representatives, more members of Congress than any amicus curiae brief in history.

Thomas agreed with McDonald, concluding that owning a gun is a fundamental part of a package of hard-won rights guaranteed to black people under the 14th Amendment. And just because some hooligans in Chicago or D.C. misuse firearms is no reason to give it up.

By the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, Thomas opens can of worms. The Right to Citizenship did not include the Right that Blacks could Bear Arms. There had been too many Supreme Court cases in history where seizure of arms from Blacks was condoned and deemed legal. What did Clarence Thomas have to say about this?

Referring to the disarming of blacks during the post-Reconstruction era, Thomas wrote: "It was the 'duty' of white citizen 'patrols to search negro houses and other suspected places for firearms.' If they found any firearms, the patrols were to take the offending slave or free black 'to the nearest justice of the peace' whereupon he would be 'severely punished.'" Never again, Thomas says.

NEVER AGAIN?

Thomas goes on to say, “Militias such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the White Camellia, the White Brotherhood, the Pale Faces and the '76 Association spread terror among blacks. . . . The use of firearms for self-defense was often the only way black citizens could protect themselves from mob violence."

From Frederick Douglass, Thomas writes: “The black man has never had the right either to keep or bear arms, and that, until he does, the work of the Abolitionists was not finished.”

Courtland Milloy writes:

This was no muttering from an Uncle Tom, as many black people have accused him of being. His advocacy for black self-defense is straight from the heart of Malcolm X. He even cites the slave revolts led by Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner -- implying that white America has long wanted to take guns away from black people out of fear that they would seek revenge for centuries of racial oppression.

Of course, Thomas's references to historic threats posed by white militias might have been dismissed if not for a resurgence of such groups in the year after Barack Obama's election as the nation's first black president.

And if their behavior turns as violent as their racist rhetoric often threatens, then Thomas will almost certainly go down in history as the nation's foremost black radical legal scholar.

POST COMMENTARY by Eddie Griffin

From the Supreme Court bench, Clarence Thomas can see clearly the history of African-Americans and their gun rights in the courtroom. However, as an African-American jurist, he is as alienated from history as he is today’s reality.

He has created a spoof, that as a result of this ruling, blacks will go out and arm themselves against white militia. It is not the arm, but its usage, whether legal or illegal. The problem is proving intent, and most of the time a black man using a weapon, whether in defense or self-defense, he will be criminalized or terribly inconvenienced for exercising that right.

A recent case, in Forrest Hill, TX, a black man shoots a thug breaking into the house. He dies, and the man was indicted. After all the stresses of exercising his right to bear arms, he was found no guilty.

Why do we have to go through this, when other people can carry their weapons in the open, and use them when they please? Carrying an unconcealed weapon in Texas is legal. But for a black man, it would lead to an arrest. That’s not law. That’s life.

Gun Right is not a right worth risky all a man's other freedoms.

Day of Prayer: June 27th

2010-06-25T11:13:00.005-07:00

Gulf State Governors Call for Prayer- not Repentance:
The waters are troubled and not yet healed

By Eddie Griffin

Friday, June 25, 2010

From the Plano Examiner: “UPDATE! More Governor’s Proclaim Call For Prayer This Sunday”

67 days into the Gulf oil spill crisis, four affected State Governors have now issued proclamations declaring this Sunday, June 27th as A Day Of Prayer.

Texas Governor Rick Perry stated-" It seems right and fitting that the people of Texas should join with their fellow Gulf Coast residents and others across the country and around the world to thank God, seek his wisdom for ourselves and our leaders, and ask him for his merciful intervention and healing in this time of crisis."

Alabama Governor Bob Riley said-"Throughout our history, Alabamians have humbly turned to God to ask for His blessings and to hold us steady during times of struggle. This is certainly one of those times."

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour wrote-" Prayer allows us the opportunity to reflect and seek guidance, strength, comfort and inspiration from Almighty God and citizens of Mississippi are urged to pray....."

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared-"June 27th as a Statewide Day of Prayer for perseverance."

COMMENTARY by Eddie G. Griffin (BASG)

As surely as I write, I knew the day would come when they, collectively, would call upon the God of Heaven to heal their waters. So, I ask: “Who shall pray, non-believers?” They are all non-believers, because they say one thing and mean another.

Only yesterday, it seems, Governor Rick Perry was calling the BP disaster an Act of God, now he request prayer: to wit, “thank God, seek his wisdom, ask for his merciful intervention, and healing.” Yet he rejects wisdom and denies mercy. Why didn’t he pardon Timothy Cole before his life expired in prison? Oh, but he is so sad that the State of Texas allowed an innocent, college student, and veteran die in prison like a dog. And, the blood of Jamie Scott is now upon the head of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

Let me admonish the governors that the oil is here, and it is here to stay for a long while. It is not an inevitable. It is a fact. Leaders accept facts. Prayer, in this case, is an act of desperation, in lieu of the facts. They want a miracle for nothing, without even having to pay the price of their sins.

Merciful Intervention and Healing: What the Governor of Texas ask, is this not what we poured out our tears over? Is this not why we begged and pleaded with Governor Haley Barbour for mercy and compassion upon humanity, for the release Jamie and Gladys Scott from prison? For an $11 robbery in which no one was hurt, these two young mothers, with no prior criminal records and had no direct part in the crime, were sent to prison in the State of Mississippi, sentenced to double life… seventeen years ago. [See Newsweek story]

Now both women who went to prison at ages 19 and 22 years old are grandmothers, and Jamie is dying from kidney failure. Both have consistently maintained their innocence. And, there is no evidence or proof that either took direct part in the robbery, nor heretofore, either had prior criminal record. Why then is the Governor of Mississippi so hard-hearted in this case.

How can they have the audacity to pray for mercy, when they are so unwilling to show mercy? And anyway, June 27th is already reserved as a Day of Blogging for Justice by ROOTS of HUMANITY, and some of us will be blogging for Justice on behalf of the Scott Sisters.

References from the Previous Communications of Eddie Griffin

September 21, 2005
[In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina]

“Message in the Wind”

Almost everyone who witnessed the events of the Katrina flood and the three-week aftermath speak of these happenings in spiritual terms. They say God sent us a message. But we all did not receive the same message. According to a letter-to-the-editor in the Fort Worth Weekly, some people see poverty as proof of God’s wrath and the flood as his damnation upon the poor. It is quiet a different spiritual perception than those who see the survival of hundreds of thousands as a miracle, a proof of God’s grace and mercy upon the poor.

If the survivors of Katrina have been so blessed to cross over to Texas, the flood may have washed them, but they are not all clean. With the flood and the wave of refugees came the dregs of the criminal elements, along with corrupt behavior. Some would say that the wrath of God was upon these elements, but somehow a few escaped the destruction and doom.
But the winds and flood did not separate the good from the bad, the just from the unjust, the righteous from the wicked. This was not Noah’s flood, in the spiritual sense. It was more like the city of Sodom.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Long overdue Justice may be coming to Mississippi… in the form of oil upon the pristine Gulf casino beaches

And, when they cry to Heaven and utter many prayers, then I, also, would hope and pray for Mercy, first for the Scott Sisters, and then to the State of Mississippi- and not in the reverse.

I need no approval or authority or consent of men. This is personal.

What is the Confederacy doing on This Side of the Potomac?

2010-06-24T10:34:00.002-07:00

Glenn Beck’s Use of Mass Psychology

By Eddie Griffin

Thursday, June 24, 2010

What is this folly dreamed up by FOX Network and its puppeteers? Glenn Beck will do a Tea Party rendition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1963 March on Washington, D.C.? Will Beck launch into MLK’s “I Have a Dream” on its memorial, August 28, 2010?

Not far removed from the minds of men is vanity, dreamed up by dementia and hysteric as Chicken Little, the world is made into a stage. YEAH, Right. The sky is falling.

Beck has a dream like Pinocchio, the puppet that wanted to be. To take back America, are you sure? From whom, and for whom, is the question. What was taken from Big Banks and Big Insurance and Big Oil, that would he give back, meaning restore America to corporate control?

Take back America for the puppet master, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, a man so rich and powerful he cannot be touched neither by gods or men, who buys up every communications network in the world and presents us with the Glenn Beck and the Extremism of Demagoguery.

Not that Murdoch is an egalitarian, hardly would a multibillionaire buy up all the newspapers, television, and other mass media networks, except to control a larger part of what people see and hear on the news and in commentaries.

It is Murdoch and corporate heads that are trying to TAKE BACK AMERICA.

Demagoguery is “an ancient Greek strategy for gaining political power by appealing to the prejudices, emotions, fears and expectation of the public- typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda…” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogy)

WARNING: The ditto heads are trying to incite us to look like fools. After all, they control a very large segment of the mass media. They can video us at our most embarrassing moments, or elevate the lesser fools to be king of the masses in public perception. REMEMBER: A FOX is a fox.

There was once a man so powerful that he wanted to rule the world. In order to do so, he would have to control all the information that is ingested into the people’s mind. By controlling the mass media, he could determine what people hear and what people think, due to controlling what information they received. His name was Adolf Hitler.

And the Oil Stayed

2010-06-23T08:21:00.001-07:00

In my daily reading from Genesis to Revelation, I came across this phrase in today’s reading: “And the Oil Stayed”. And, I remembered that a preacher used this phrase from 2 Kings 4:6.

It seemed so paradoxical, with what was going on in the Gulf of Mexico, and today’s (Wednesday, June 23, 2010) text [2 Kings 4-6]

The creditor would take her two sons as bondmen for the debt of their deceased father. The prophet Elisha asked what she possessed. “Nothing,” she replied, “except a little pot of oil”.

As she was instructed, she gathered many vessels and poured oil into them, and sold the oil, and paid the debt, and eventually saved her sons from bondage.

IN A PARALLEL DEMENTION

If BP defaults on its liability to the people of the Gulf, the people have the rights to seize property, explore deep oil at its own risk, and collect the profits for themselves. All oil skimmed from the surface of the ocean and somehow recovered should immediately become the property-in-possession of the people of the Gulf.

For as long as the Oil Stays, the people should be enriched from its proceeds.

[To be continued]

Maybe I Eat Tomorrow

2010-06-21T07:59:00.007-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Monday, June 21, 2010

Long overdue Justice may be coming to Mississippi… in the form of oil upon the pristine Gulf casino beaches

There comes a time when a man becomes so angry and frustrated that there is only one place to appeal: And, that is Heaven.

I DECLARE:

I, Eddie Griffin, will not eat or sleep until there is Justice for the Scott Sisters who are in prison, in the State of Mississippi. I may eat tomorrow because Justice may be on its way, in the form of oil upon the pristine Gulf casino beaches where the sin of sins thrives: Injustice.

In 1994, the State of Mississippi sentenced Jamie and Gladys Scott to consecutive double-life terms each for two counts of armed robbery they did not commit. They did not have prior criminal records, vigorously maintained their innocence, approximately $11 was said to have been netted, no one was harmed or injured and no weapon was ever recovered. Witnesses testified that they were coerced and threatened to lie on the Scott Sisters and their unbelievable convictions rest entirely on a combination of contradictory, coerced, and potentially perjured testimony by the victims and two other people charged with the crime who were offered lighter sentences for their cooperation.

For me, it is not an issue of guilt or innocence. It is the magnitude of Crime and Punishment, where punishment is so excessive that it can be called OPPRESSION.

Eddie Griffin (BASG) quietly and discretely petitioned government officials in the State of Mississippi to recognize the legitimate grievances in disparities of justice being practiced inside the courtrooms. Mississippi is not the only southern state that still practices Race Justice.

Our words have had little consolation. But there is some comfort to know that Mississippi will cry to Heaven when the oil hit the coast.

And, when they cry to Heaven and utter many prayers, then I, also, would hope and pray for Mercy, first for the Scott Sisters, and then to the State of Mississippi- and not in the reverse.

I need no approval or authority or consent of men. This is personal.

The Truth about The Gulf Oil Spill

2010-06-10T09:09:00.003-07:00

Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, “See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:” (Isaiah 30:8-10)

They want to hear “smooth things”, easy on the ear, and soft upon the conscious. They are eternally optimistic, unruffled by fact, and obstinate against truth. They are on a paradoxical search for an answer that is pleasing to their hearing. Woe to those who say otherwise.

“Do you want answers?” replied a defiant Col. Nathan Jessep, in a Few Good Men.

Having push the old arrogant colonel over the edge on the witness stand, Lt. Daniel Kaffee lit into him, “I think I’m entitled to them.”

“You want answers?” shouted the colonel.

“I want the truth,” the lieutenant replied.

“You can’t handle the truth,” Jessep lashed out in the courtroom.

It was one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, the duo between Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise, with Nicholson portraying the colonel. Although he was guilty of issuing the fatal Code Red, the colonel uttered a secret truth about most Americans. People do not care to hear the horrors of the truth.

I find a similar attitude with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Every day, we sit glued to our television sets, waiting for good news, expecting the best of the worst situation imaginable. We almost insist upon good news. We demand it.

Day 50 is past and no good news yet. The Gulf is turned into a red oily mess, now covering hundreds of square mile. And, the worst is not yet told.

Someone said that we needed to tone down our expectations. Political pundits, operatives, and politicians are trying to gain partisan traction over the handling of the situation, as if to better position themselves in the polls when the crisis is finally over. And, some are taking a swipe at the media for too much coverage, as if to say, “Out of sight, out of mind.”

But the most unbelievable reaction come from those who insist on continuing to drill for oil out in the deep blue, even as they watch the water turn to blood. Have they not learned anything of humility? It is almost like God has not yet forgiven their former sin, and here they are talking about drilling some more.

It reminds me of our biblical theme for 2010:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

The ocean and the coastal lands are far from being healed. And, the people are far from repentance.

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

RE: The Gulf Coast

Eddie --

Yesterday, I visited Caminada Bay in Grand Isle, Louisiana -- one of the first places to feel the devastation wrought by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While I was here, at Camerdelle's Live Bait shop, I met with a group of local residents and small business owners.

Folks like Floyd Lasseigne, a fourth-generation oyster fisherman. This is the time of year when he ordinarily earns a lot of his income. But his oyster bed has likely been destroyed by the spill.

Terry Vegas had a similar story. He quit the 8th grade to become a shrimper with his grandfather. Ever since, he's earned his living during shrimping season -- working long, grueling days so that he could earn enough money to support himself year-round. But today, the waters where he has worked are closed. And every day, as the spill worsens, he loses hope that he will be able to return to the life he built.

Here, this spill has not just damaged livelihoods. It has upended whole communities. And the fury people feel is not just about the money they have lost. It is about the wrenching recognition that this time their lives may never be the same.

These people work hard. They meet their responsibilities. But now because of a manmade catastrophe -- one that is not their fault and beyond their control -- their lives have been thrown into turmoil. It is brutally unfair. And what I told these men and women is that I will stand with the people of the Gulf Coast until they are again made whole.

That is why, from the beginning, we have worked to deploy every tool at our disposal to respond to this crisis. Today, there are more than 20,000 people working around the clock to contain and clean up this spill. I have authorized 17,500 National Guard troops to participate in the response. More than 1,900 vessels are aiding in the containment and cleanup effort. We have convened hundreds of top scientists and engineers from around the world. This is the largest response to an environmental disaster of this kind in the history of our country.

We have also ordered BP to pay economic injury claims, and this week, the federal government sent BP a preliminary bill for $69 million to pay back American taxpayers for some of the costs of the response so far. In addition, after an emergency safety review, we are putting in place aggressive new operating standards for offshore drilling. And I have appointed a bipartisan commission to look into the causes of this spill. If laws are inadequate, they will be changed. If oversight was lacking, it will be strengthened. And if laws were broken, those responsible will be brought to justice.

These are hard times in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast, an area that has already seen more than its fair share of troubles. The people of this region have met this terrible catastrophe with seemingly boundless strength and character in defense of their way of life. What we owe them is a commitment by our nation to match the resilience they have shown. That is our mission. And it is one we will fulfill.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

A Fast for Justice set for June 21st:

2010-05-21T08:36:00.001-07:00

The Oppression of the Scott Sisters

By Eddie Griffin

Friday, May 21, 2010

Jamie Scott is dying in prison of kidney failure. She and her sister, Gladys, were convicted of an $11 robbery in 1994 and sentenced to consecutive double-life sentences by the state of Mississippi. That the sisters did not actually commit the robbery and the fact that no one was hurt, and despite neither had a prior criminal record, they have been incarcerated since.

Previously, we appealed to Mississippi state officials to show compassion and release the two grandmothers who watched their children grow up from behind bars. We questioned the validity of the coerced confessions of the teenagers who actually carried out the robbery. Lastly, we questioned the harshness of the sentence, whether it was cruel and unusual to sentence a person to double-life for an $11 robbery, in which no one was hurt.

Our voices have been ignored. There is no compassion in the State of Mississippi, nor has it ever been, in the rural backwoods counties and Delta.

Therefore, Eddie G. Griffin (BASG) joins in with all of the family, friends, and supporters of the Scott Sisters, in a Fast for Justice, June 21, 2010, in conjunction with a mass demonstration in Washington, D.C.

[Read Press Release below]

P r e s s R e l e a s e

Contacts:
B.J. Janice Peak-Graham / Marpessa Kupendua
1- 866-968-1188, Ext. 2
ghwitnesses@gmail.com
http://www.grayhairedwitnesses.blogspot.com/

Gray-Haired Witnesses to Hold Fast
Issues Challenge to America’s Conscience

WASHINGTON, May 20 /Gray-Haired Witnesses for Justice News -- The Gray-Haired Witnesses for Justice will undertake a fast and appear at the Department of Justice and the White House in Washington, DC on June 21, 2010, calling upon the nation to exercise an authentic system of justice in the case of Gladys and Jamie Scott and all other women who have been incarcerated wrongly and egregiously over-sentenced, punishing and destroying our families and children. Among their demands is freedom for the Scott Sisters and that an Inspection and Observation Team enter the Pearl, MS prison where Jamie Scott is being held.

This event was prompted by the serious illness of Jamie Scott and abysmal lack of competent medical care she has received in prison since both of her kidneys shut down this past January. Jamie has suffered so much maltreatment that she has quickly declined to stage 5 (end stage) kidney disease and has now effectively been sentenced to death. The Gray-Haired Witnesses are calling on all people of good will to fast in solidarity with them and to contact the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and Dept. of Justice across the nation on that day.

The group issued the following statement about the fast in protest of continuing inhumane treatment and injustice in Americas courts and prisons:

"Over the last 20 years, the women’s population in US prisons has more than tripled. Most women are in prison as a result of drug selling, addiction, domestic violence and criminal acts mostly related to men. We also recognize the systemic racism that leads the police to even arrest the Black woman in the first place, the racism during sentencing, during incarceration, in dealing with social services, education, health discrimination, and beyond. We want to raise the political consciousness of the nation while standing as the moral soul of the nation. Many of us lived through segregation and worked to dismantle it through various movements for human dignity, equal rights and justice. We now see a coalition of corporate, cultural and political wars fully embracing a White supremacist culture of domination and terrorism. As part of this campaign they slander and dehumanize the entire Black community in the media and other public spaces.

This is perfectly illustrated by the case of the Mississippi Scott Sisters, Jamie and Gladys, whose almost 16 yrs of unjust incarceration is a shocking revelation of the pure nothingness with which our lives are deemed in the eyes of this society and world. In 1994, the State of Mississippi sentenced Jamie and Gladys Scott to consecutive double-life terms each for two counts of armed robbery they did not commit. They did not have prior criminal records, vigorously maintained their innocence, approximately $11 was said to have been netted, no one was harmed or injured and no weapon was ever recovered. Witnesses testified that they were coerced and threatened to lie on the Scott Sisters and their unbelievable convictions rest entirely on a combination of contradictory, coerced, and potentially perjured testimony by the victims and two other people charged with the crime who were offered lighter sentences for their cooperation. Even if the Scott Sisters were guilty of this crime, the sentence is absolutely unheard of and draconian, at best, and is cruel and unusual punishment without a doubt!

We come from a long line of women who refused to bend under the lash of chattel slavery from the time we were first dragged upon these shores until the 21st century slavery of today's prison industrial complex! We are the elder women, the daughters of the American slave system, Jim Crow oppression and the American Freedom Movement. We who are three strikes removed from the center of the power structure of this country. Our lives have prepared us to come to this place, at this time.”

The day-long event commences at the Department of Justice in a 10:00 a.m formal appeal to Eric Holder, rejoins at the White House at Noon in a formal appeal to President Obama, and then continues at Lafayette Square Park from Noon until 9PM for the duration of the fast with speakers, live performances and artists. All attendees are asked to bring non-perishable food items in honor of the fasting elders to be distributed to the Washington, DC community at the conclusion of the day.

Day-Long Fast which will take place in Washington, DC on June 21, 2010

This is perfectly illustrated by the case of the Mississippi Scott Sisters, Jamie and Gladys, whose almost 16 yrs of unjust incarceration is a shocking revelation of the pure nothingness with which our lives are deemed in the eyes of this society and world. In 1994, the State of Mississippi sentenced Jamie and Gladys Scott to consecutive double-life terms each for two counts of armed robbery they did not commit. They did not have prior criminal records, vigorously maintained their innocence, approximately $11 was said to have been netted, no one was harmed or injured and no weapon was ever recovered. Witnesses testified that they were coerced and threatened to lie on the Scott Sisters and their unbelievable convictions rest entirely on a combination of contradictory, coerced, and potentially perjured testimony by the victims and two other people charged with the crime who were offered lighter sentences for their cooperation. Even if the Scott Sisters were guilty of this crime, the sentence is absolutely unheard of and draconian, at best, and is cruel and unusual punishment without a doubt!

LETTER TO FORT WORTH MAYOR

2010-05-20T09:40:00.002-07:00

RE: Reconciliation in aftermath of Settlement with Michael Jacobs Jr. Estate

City Hall
1000 Throckmorton St.
Fort Worth, Texas 76102

Attn.: Mayor Mike Moncrief
E-mail: mike.moncrief@fortworthgov.org

Dear Mayor Moncrief:

It was good to see you on Tuesday at City Council and have the opportunity to greet you and your wife Rosie, and to receive a warm embrace from councilwoman Kathleen Hicks. We appreciate your devotion and diligence, particularly in laying to rest the grievance of the Michael Jacobs family.

In the aftermath of the settlement, there was a pledge among religious and civil rights leaders to work for reconciliation and healing. Pastor Kyev Tatum extended the hand of fellowship to FW Police Chief Jeff Halstead to work for better policing in the community, and I am happy to say I received a call from the pastor confirming that he meet with Chief Halstead at the Minority Leaders & Citizens Council.

I was unable to attend, and the Jacobs family is still in mourning and not comfortable making public appearances. However, I too propose to work towards peace and good will in the City and between neighbors. I realize there are times we will disagree over issues such as the usage of tasers.

AS A FINAL NOTE: We will not digress from our opposition to tasers. Even more, we insist on not letting any taser incident go unnoticed and nor an aggrieved party goes without a course for redress against the city and responsible parties.

Let me point out to you some unaddressed grievances, here and around the country: (1) Pregnant women being tasered- How will 50,000 volts of electricity affect the innocent unborn? (2) Underage children- The potential for neurological and permanent psychological damages are yet assess- the weapon is still unproven in long term effects. (3) Taser use against senior citizens, wheelchair-bound, psychologically impaired, and those unable to make sound judgment (whether under the influence of drugs or alcohol).

This is an example of the types of cases the city will see in the future, if the department insists on continued usage of tasers as control devices, short of fatality: A victim hit with a taser falls headlong on the ground, pavement, or concrete, face first, unable to break their fall, because of incapacitation- a very common occurrence that has led courts to rule in injury cases, such usage is excessive, cruel, and unusual.

These are actual documented cases now working their way through the courts. Victims are no longer suing the manufacturer, TASER International, with its team of expert lawyers and sales people. They are suing police departments and municipalities. And police departments, in hindsight, are claiming that TASER International never told them of the dangers.

We have brought about many changes in department policies, and changes in TASER product safety warranties. The weapon can no longer be used against pregnant women, which means the officer in the field must make a determination if a woman is pregnant or not. Tasers are not to be used on senior citizens. But again, it is at the officer’s discretion to make the determination, not only on the elderly, but also the infirm, mentally ill, and those at risk for a heart attack.

TASER International has also lowered its target range. Officers are told to not shoot in the chest area, as if they can control where two wildly flying electrical darts will strike.

As for the threshold of torture, the United Nations has determined that tasers can be torture. Moreover, we contend that any weapon that employs “conducted energy” (electricity) is an implement of torture, and has historically been so.

And finally, it should be noted that the federal government is now soliciting “Alternatives to Conducted Energy Less-Lethal Devices”, that is to say an alternatives to tasers. (See http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/sl000915.pdf).

In essence, there is no future for tasers. They will become too much of a costly and cumbersome burden; and, in time, unserviceable. The death count can only rise beyond the now 481 dead. And, TASER International will continue avoid the words “electricity” and “electrocution”, and instead use psychobabble like “excited delirium” to explain cause of death.

Sincerely,
Eddie Griffin (BASG), a member of AfroSpear

BASG is devoted to teaching community problem-solving skills to leaders of tomorrow.

Another Nail in the Coffin of TASER

2010-05-19T11:16:00.005-07:00

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

When the Fort Worth City Council voted on Tuesday to accept a $2 million settlement in the Taser related death of Michael Jacobs Jr., they cast down their eyes and droop their heads in painful sorrow of this salt in the wound. They wanted to say as little as possible to stir the winds. She was a City eager to heal and move on.

Yet the City would not concede liability into the young man’s death. Maybe, to do so, would expose her to more similar lawsuits. After all, there have been five taser related deaths in the past five years. For to be culpable in one, infers guilt in the other.

Fort Worth Councilwoman Kathleen Hicks spoke for the City and for the community, declaring now to be the time to begin the healing process.

An exhausted pastor, Kyev Tatum, who has led the mass public awareness campaign which gained national and international attention, sighed with some relief that this part of the battle against tasers was over. Tomorrow, he would take up the matter of the Arlington Police Department and its plan to purchase 300 more stun guns. By no means, for him, was the war over.

Pastor Tatum was drawn into the taser controversy when the Jacobs family called out for help. The Fort Worth Police Department had electrocuted the son of Charlotte and Michael Sr., with a 50,000-volt taser, and nobody was saying anything, not even a word of regret or sympathy. There was no explanation from the police department as to why the officer engaged the weapon for a full 54 seconds upon a young man with mental problems. And, no city leader was willing to condemn the officer without all the facts.

The City was silent and complacent and its populous impervious. Michael Jacobs, Jr. was on his way to becoming just another silent statistic in a string of taser related deaths.

Tatum organized a local chapter of the Southern Leadership Conference (SCLC) and pulled together coalition of other civil rights organizations, including NAACP, LULAC, ACLU, and community activists. The community coalition called for an investigation, and to make the results public.

The medical examiner, upon finding no contributory causes such as drugs or alcohol in Jacobs’ system, declared his death a homicide. But the police department refused to dismiss the officer, and the grand jury refused to indict. There was no recourse except to seek redress by civil suit; otherwise, no one would be accountable for the death of an innocent, mentally challenged young man.

The $2 million settlement is a small penance to pay for a human life, though the largest in city history, but it may pave the way for reconciliation. The Fort Worth Police Department plans to meet with Pastor Tatum and other ministers to “begin the healing process”, and discuss strategies for better policing in the community. There will continue to be disagreement, however, on the usefulness of tasers and their lethality.

There is an axiom here: As the death count rises, the cost of using tasers will go up.

Although the manufacturer of the weapon, TASER International, has been sued over 100 times, it remains largely unscathed. They sell the instruments based upon its claim of non-lethality, and leave municipalities to pay the cost of wrongful deaths.

“Tasers are not only deadly”, Tatum declares. “They are torture.”

Officer Stephanie Phillips did not know that when she continuously engaged the trigger of her taser that 50,000 volts of electricity continued to course through the body of Michael Jacobs Jr., and that she was inadvertently frying him alive, from the inside out. No one ever told her the weapon was lethal. She was never trained to “disengage” the electrodes before electrocuting the subject. Maybe this is why the Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict her. And, she did not violate department policies by using her own discretion to deploy.

Hindsight is 20/20, and many people wish that certain events could be undone. Had the officer known the deadliness of the weapon, she would have ceased engagement. This being the premise, a Star-Telegram editorial emphasized “better training” as a resolution to taser death.

Not so. Teaching an officer how to use discretion in the field, when deploying the weapon, is no guarantee against abuse, nor does it mitigate the fact that the taser itself is an implement of torture. But proving torture, on the other hand, is much harder than proving the cause of death. By its very definition, a torturous act must be one that horrifies the social consciousness of humanity. And yet we, as a nation, have been conditioned into accepting the Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs) as non-lethal and harmless.

We discount the fact that they have been used on pregnant women such as Valreca Redden and claimed the life of the 6-month unborn child of Hannah Rogers-Grippi, that they have been used on senior citizens in their 70s and 80s, against the wheel-chair bound and mentally ill, and that the death count in the U.S.A. and Canada now stands at 481.

What is more, there is now mounting evidence that tasers cause serious and permanent injuries. A young victim is tasered over a minor incident, falls flat on his face, unable to catch himself, and breaks out his front teeth. He sues and wins. And, it has been reported, that those who have been tasered and survived, have “never been the same” since, having suffered neurological brain damages.

These are the risks, and no one is without fair warning.

[Post Note- The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice is soliciting "Alternatives to Conducted Energy Less-Lethal Devices", to wit Tasers (R)]

The handwriting is on the wall: The days of tasers are coming to an end.

Fort Worth Settle for $2 Million in Taser Death Suit:

2010-05-18T14:56:00.001-07:00

Another Nail in A TASER Coffin

By Eddie Griffin

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Today, when the Fort Worth City Council voted to accept a $2 million settlement in the Taser related death of Michael Jacobs Jr., it brought some closure and little consolation to one of the saddest and most tragic events in city history. I wonder about all the other municipalities who have had to shell out millions of dollars in a taser death lawsuits.

In a post-decision interview, NBC5 reporter asked: “Were you surprised at the size of the settlement”?

Too some it seems large, the largest settlement in such cases in city history, it is reported. But compared to settlements reached by other cities, wrongful death by taser are running $2 million here and $3 million in Houston in 2009. Injuries associated with being tasered averages in the hundreds of thousands to just over $1 million in a lawsuit where the victim feel face-first and knocked out his front teeth. We have not yet calculated the long term damages to those who survived, but damaged for life.

No, the settlement was not large, and infinitely smaller than the worth of a young man’s life.

[Historic settlement in lawsuit over taser death]

[Excerpt from “Towards Closure and Resolution in Taser Death of Michael Jacobs Jr,” by Eddie Griffin. Saturday, August 29, 2009]

We now have closure in the Fort Worth Police Department’s taser death case of a 24-year old man, who had been diagnosed with mental illnesses. We have closure insofar as the Tarrant County Medical Examiner ruled the death of Michael Jacobs Jr. as a “homicide caused by the officer’s use of the Taser”. We have closure insofar as the officer admits administering two jolts of 50,000 volts to Jacobs’ body longer than the 5-second limitation. A 49-second jolt, followed by a 5-second jolt, caused a “sudden death during neuromuscular incapacitation due to application of a conducted energy device”, i.e. Taser.

Tarrant County ME Dr. Nizam Peerwani also ruled: “Repeat postmortem toxicology studies were negative for all drugs including psychomotor stimulant drugs and ethanol.” In other words, here was an innocent 24-year old African-American man with no drugs in his system at all. He was clean as a baby and healthy. And yet, in less than a minute, he is dead after being shocked with a taser.

UPDATE:

The Fort Worth Police is willing to meet with community representatives, in order to initiate the healing process. Meanwhile, the planned purchase of 300 more tasers by the City of Arlington, next door to Fort Worth has leaders disturbed, especially in light of the Fort Worth tragedy. But the Police Chief of Arlington chooses rather to make a show of force for the upcoming 2011 Super Bowl in the City of Arlington.

Fort Worth to Settle for $2 Million in Taser Death Suit

2010-05-17T14:09:00.004-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, May 17, 2010

Local SCLC leader, Kyev Tatum, is calling upon the coalition of Michael Jacobs family supporters and the community to attend the Fort Worth City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 18, 2010, where another chapter in the Michael Jacobs, Jr. case will bring more closure to this tragedy. Council begins at 10:00 a.m., City Hall, 1000 Throckmorton St.

HAT TIP to Pastor Kyev Tatum and the local SCLC, NAACP, and LULAC, for their leadership in the investigation and settlement of the Michael Jacobs Jr. taser relate death by the Fort Worth Police Department.

HAT TIP to Pastor Tom Franklin for consecreting land for a memorial of Michael Jacobs Jr. and for the ceaseless work of Marcus Hardin, and Civil Rights attorney Brian Eberstein.

[For the current 480 listings of taser related deaths in Canada and U.S., see Truth Not Tasers]

Eddie Griffin delivered This Resolution on April 25, 2010 to the Family of Michael Jacobs Jr. on behalf of the Blogging Community Worldwide, AfroSpear and Afrosphere Action Coalition.

As a child rights advocate, Eddie Griffin became interested in the useage of tasers when a distraught pregnant mother, Valreca Redden, was tasered by a Trotwood police officer. [Story here] I wondered about the effects of 50,000 volts of electricity on the unborn child. On December 15, 2001, Hannah Rogers Grippi was tasered and lost a 6-month old fetus. [Taser Victim # 7]

“Taser Torture & Death Cases in Fort Worth, Texas, USA”, submitted to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), by Eddie Griffin (BASG), 2009 May 6

A Fort Worth coalition of Civil Rights advocates sent a Letter to President Barack Obama [See below]

To: President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC, USA 20500

Subject: 21st Century Electronic Lynching

Mr. President,
This letter was written to express the protests of concerned Individuals, Civil Rights Organizations and activists who complain that our civil rights have been so eroded that it is now acceptable Police policy to use cruel and unusual punishment on a Citizen without due process of law. We the undersigned Citizens, Citizen Groups and Civil Rights Organizations, protest that the 4th, 8th, and 14th amendments of the constitution are being systematically violated by Police Officers using electronic torture devices on Citizens and non-Citizens.

Representatives of the company that manufacturers electronic torture devices lied to Police Officials when they told them that the devices had been tested and were found to be non-lethal.They bragged instead about the excruciating agony and terror caused by their use. It is impossible for the manufacturer to have tested these electronic torture devices with electrodes shot at different depths under a victims skin, and in all possible places on the human body, and for the extended times experienced in the field, also they could not have tested the devices on victims with various medical, physical and mental conditions. Had this happened there would have been many deaths of the test subjects. Instead, the company in effect used Police Officers as lab assistants and the public as lab rats for their tests, then they harvest Para-Medic and Medical Examiners Reports all for free. They scammed an all too willing law enforcement community with half truths and outright lies. The best estimate that we can find to date indicates that thousands of victims have suffered cruel and unusual punishment and 476 victims were tortured and died after being electrocuted with an electronic torture device in the US and Canada. Medical records prove many victims suffer neurological damages after being electrocuted with an electronic torture device by a Police Officer.

Michael Patrick Jacobs Jr., a bipolar 24-year-old black youth, who needed medical attention was tortured for 54 seconds with 50,000 volt electrodes shot into his neck and chest. He was not a criminal. His 21st Century Electronic Lynching was declared a homicide by the Tarrant County, Tx. Medical Examiner. After his taser torture death the taser manufacturer sent bulletins to all Police departments to direct Officers not to shoot a victim in the chest area to avoid causing cardiac arrest. This was after 12 years of vehemently denying that tasers could be lethal and after 424 prior taser related torture deaths. The inaccuracy of the devices gives Police Officers little control over where they will be shot into the flesh of a victim so each use is playing Russian Roulette with a victims life.

Mr. President,
There is no more cruel and unusual punishment than being slowly electrocuted with 50,000 volts of electricity delivered under the skin. Please take the time to count down 54 seconds to understand just how long Michael Jacobs and thousands of others have suffered the agony of electrocution. The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that the 4 seconds of agony suffered by a convicted felon, before death occurred in the electric chair, was cruel and unusual punishment, and unconstitutional. Electrocution has been abandoned as a means of execution. Michael Jacobs who was convicted of nothing, cruelly and senselessly suffered the agony of being electrocuted with over 20 times the voltage (and pain) used in the electric chair, with a 50,000 volt barb shot into his neck and chest, for 13.5 times longer than a convicted criminal had to suffer in the chair before death happened. He suffered 54 seconds of agony before his young healthy heart was caused to fail. He is survived by two Fatherless Children and a grieving Mother and Father who blame themselves for calling for help to medicate their son and got him tased, tortured to death instead. Michael Patrick Jacobs Sr. wishes the Police had shot his son in the leg instead of torturing to him death. He said "at least he would still be alive." Google his name for the full story.

The complete Michael Patrick Jacobs Junior test is readily available to anyone who doubts that being tased for 54 seconds is cruel and unusual punishment and torture. Ft Worth, Texas has a Police Officer that is expert in administering it.

The 9th District Court made the ruling this past September that a taser could only be used when an Officer's life or the life of someone else was in danger .Police Officers train and by instinct do not use a taser in a life threatening situation, they use a lethal weapon just as they trained for and always have. This is backed by FBI records and we agree that a Police Officer is justified in using lethal force in defense of his life or to prevent harm of an innocent life. That said, any time a Government Official intentionally takes a citizen's life that act must be investigated and evaluated as to it's constitutional validity. In the 9th District Court ruling, the Judge declared that the use of electronic torture devices (tasers) causes severe pain and terror. By the very definition, severe pain and terror constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The United Nations declared that the use of a taser against a victim is "a potentially lethal form of torture".

After the famous case of the Polish immigrant who was tortured to death in a Vancouver, British Columbia airport for failing to comply with police orders, the Canadian government made the ruling that tasers could only be used in life threatening situations. Again Police Officers do not use tasers in life threatening situations. On the news this evening a Police Officer shot a Pit Bull that was attacking him. He didn't use his taser.

The use of water boarding on terrorists was condemned by you, and high ranking members of The Democratic Party, as torture while it was being done on George Bush's watch and water-boarding produces no physical pain and is mild compared to electrocution with 50,000 volts of electricity under the skin. Our troops are sacrificing their lives every day for the avowed purpose of eliminating the use of torture and terror by our enemies while torture and terror is being inflicted on our own Citizens daily by Police Officers, without due process of law. No one is fighting for these tortured, terrorized Citizens.. 41 percent of the torture deaths resulting from taser use in 2009 were black men and boys.

Mr. President, an 84 year old Grandmother and 10 year old children have been tortured with a taser by Police. One little 10 year old child was taser tortured in her home by an Arkansas Police officer because she refused to take a shower before bed time. Tear down this wall and end this terrible atrocity. 84 year old Grandmothers should not be made to live in fear and cringe each time they see a Police Officer. Be the President that is remembered in history as the President that ended barbaric torture and terror in the USA . Set the standard for all the world.and issue an executive order outlawing the use of torture of any kind and especially electrical torture. Outlaw the possession, manufacture, sale, and/or use of electrical torture devices in the USA by anyone, including Police Officers, our Military and the CIA here and abroad. Return the dignity and respect to this Nation that we once had.

Signed--SCLC
Kyev Tatum SCLC President
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Texas.
sclctarrantcounty@yahoo.com
kyevtatum@yahoo.com

Signed
Hector Carrillo LULAC District Director
League of United Latin American Citizens
hcarrillo29@hotmail.com

Signed
Deryl Muhammad--Representative
Nation of Islam
derylmuhammad@yahoo.com

Signed
Drew X
Chairman New Black Panther Party
drewx2003@yahoo.com

Signed
Tom Franklin
Pastor New Mt. Calvary Baptist Church
The Taser-Torture-Death Memorial Site
frenklinart@aol.com

Signed
Marcus Hardin SCLC Texas
Strategist, Researcher, Historian
mhardin104@aol.com
http://truthnottasers.blogspot.com/

Signed
Friendship Rock Missionary Baptist
A. Scott Harper
asharper35@yahoo.com

Signed
Eddie Griffin (BASG)
eddiegriffin_basg@yahoo.com
http://eddiegriffinbasg.blogspot.com/

Signed
Julie Walker
Prevent Dangerous Harm Inc.
jwalker@preventdangerousharm.com
www.preventdangerousharm.com

Lubbock Officials file Motion to Dismiss Civil Action in Tim Cole Wrongful Conviction Case

2010-05-11T10:04:00.002-07:00

The State of Texas took the life of an innocent black college student. That Timothy Cole was not guilty of a 1985 rape of a Texas Tech college student seems inconsequential to the City of Lubbock.

In seeking the truth behind prosecution and wrongful conviction of her son, Tim Cole’s mother’s civil action was met with a callous Motion to Dismiss from the Lubbock Police Department, the city and four former police officers. The motion argues that “Cole’s mother, Ruby Session of Fort Worth, cannot show that the benefits of taking the depositions will outweigh the burdens that would be placed on those being deposed” (Defendants in Tim Cole case file motion to dismiss civil action, Star-Telegram, May 10, 2010)

Benefit versus Burden

The only burden in this case is the burden of a guilty conscious, priceless. The benefit accrues to more than Ruby Session and the immediate family of Tim Cole. This is a case of public interest, the prosecution and wrongful conviction of an innocent African-American student, and his tragic demise in prison. Thus, the national interest in the truth far exceeds the limited selfish interests of local government officials, present and former.

The Innocence Project of Texas, who helped clear the name of Timothy Cole and gain a posthumous pardon for him in 2010 from Governor Rick Perry, discovered also a pattern of wrongful convictions, and has since gained the release of 39 men from the state prison system. Like Cole, these were all innocent men, mostly African-Americans.

How and why all these innocent men were prosecuted, convicted, and sent to prison for long stretches of time, is a subject of utmost importance, particularly to the African-American community. If an innocent black college student can be shanghaied by the state criminal justice system, what safeguards minorities have against the Tyranny of the Majority in rural Texas towns that still practice frontier justice?

How can the Lubbock Police Department evade giving testimony, when they had, in hand, the confession of the actual rapist, testimonies of alibi witness, and recant of the rape victim herself?

Michele Mallin, the Texas Tech sophomore who originally identified Cole as the man who raped her on March 24, 1985, testified Lubbock police showed her his picture and she assumed they had more evidence on him, such as fingerprints.

“I still feel guilty. I'll always feel guilty about it because, I mean, my testimony sent a man to prison and he ended up dying there,” Mallin says. “Even though I know I did everything I could in my heart of hearts to do the right thing, still that happened. But I know the police are responsible and the D.A., too, because they knew things I didn't know.” (Source: NPR)

Although there were alibi witnesses with Tim Cole at the time, he was given 20 years based only upon Mallin’s testimony, with no other physical evidence. For 10 years, he languished in prison with an asthmatic condition, while the true rapist struggled with his own guilty conscious, waiting for the statue of limitation to run out, so that he could confess to the crime.

In 1995, Jerry Wayne Johnson wrote a letter to the court confessing to the Texas Tech rape. There was no response, so Johnson wrote Cole’s family. In due time, the truth finally came out. Timothy Cole was an innocent man. But it came too late. They found him unconscious in his cell on December 2, 1999, dead at the age of 39.

Based upon these set of proven facts, the courts exonerated Tim Cole, the governor pardoned him posthumously, the State Legislature passed a resolution (H.R. 62) on his behalf, and the Tim Cole Wrongful Conviction Compensation Act became law in Texas.

But the job is not yet finished

“Someone has to pay for what happened to my brother,” said Cory Session, Cole's brother. “We want every scrap of paper in the Tim Cole file. We want to see it and go through it with a fine-tooth comb. We are going to do the job that they didn't do. If there was gross misconduct, I'm sure that people will be prosecuted. But I'm just looking for some of the people who were involved to say that they are sorry. To this point, very few have done that.”

Taser International included in Boycott Arizona

2010-05-01T15:18:00.001-07:00

[A List of Arizona-based Business Ventures]

2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Location: Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ

*Apollo Group (University of Phoenix). Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

Arizona Diamondbacks, Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Best Western International, Inc., Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

Cold Stone Creamery. Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

CSK Auto (Checker Auto Parts, Schucks Auto Supply, Kragen Auto Parts, Murray’s

Discount Auto Stores), Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

Dial Corporation, Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

Go Daddy. Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

Grand Canyon

Mesa Air Group (Mesa Airlines, Go!, Freedom Airlines). Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

P. F. Chang’s China Bistro. Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

PetSmart. Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

Sky Mall, Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

Taser International, Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

U-Haul. Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

US Airways. Headquarters: Tempe, Arizona

Irresponsible Immigration Legislation

2010-04-26T12:52:00.002-07:00

Response from Latinos in Arizona: BOYCOTT ARIZONA!
By Eddie Griffin

Texans speak a different language than New York or Illinois. When people speak of Immigration, there are those who favor going in with jackboot, Gestapo-style, ICE SWAT team in search of people with Spanish surnames. They cannot distinguish between citizens and non-citizens; therefore, literally all Latinos must carry numerous forms of verifiable ID. This loss of Hispanic freedom suits some politicians well.

(February 11, 2008, “Political Beauty Contest in Texas (Part 2)” by Eddie G. Griffin, BASG)

We saw federal ICE troops go into Latino communities and into factories and drag out Spanish surname workers, detained them when they could not produce citizenship papers, incarcerated them in places where their family, friends, and lawyers could not find them. They separated husbands from wives, and left children stranded in their schools, crying for the parents. It put undue hardship upon the state to incarcerate, and then having to feed and support their legal families. Many had worked for years, earning paychecks, with regular payroll deduction, but no benefits there from, because they were not legal immigrants. The taxes they paid went for naught towards citizenship.

We remember the story of school teachers who were stranded with crying Latino elementary school children, with nowhere to go, because both parents working in the factory were locked up, and nobody knew where.

Then there was the American wife of an illegal working in the country with an expired “green card”. When he is locked up, she must appeal to the state for food and welfare.

Then there were the prisons built for illegal aliens, and prison cells for mothers and their babies.

This is the kind of ENFORCEMENT the state of Arizona is looking for. But instead of federal ICE SWAT troopers, it would be State Troopers conducting the raids. This is what The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act (SB1070) in Arizona is all about, supplanting federal authority by use of State Troopers to enforce current Immigration Laws.

Farmer Branch, Texas is spending millions of dollars fighting to enforce its own brand of Immigration legislative ordinances. There is another city in Pennsylvania with its own brand. And, so we have a chaotic trend with every state, every county, and every city writing its own Immigration Laws.

Response from Latinos in Arizona: BOYCOTT ARIZONA!

Candidate BARACK OBAMA: We need comprehensive immigration reform that creates a system that is fair, consistent, compassionate, and emphasizes both maintaining the rule of law and security of our borders while working to keep families together and putting the undocumented on an earned path to citizenship.

We also need to bring the 12 million undocumented immigrants out of the shadows. We need to be realistic about the fact that they are here, we can’t deport them, want they have become an integral part of our society. We need to give this population a chance to pay a fine, to have provisional status in the country, and to get into the back of the line for citizenship. (Response to 2007 NAACP survey)

A Crime against the Humanity of Children

2010-04-23T11:02:00.003-07:00

TYC Official Found Guilty- Not Enough

In March 2007, I wrote these words to the Child Protection Section of the United Nations and sent copies to other international children rights organizations:

Children of the poor who unfortunately become ensnared in the criminal juvenile justice system in Texas are being incarcerated and sexually molested by high level reform school officials. (A copy of the original correspondence attached below)

After a relentless fight to bring these pedophiles to justice, we received the news that one prison official has been found guilty, and the trial of another is pending.

CBS NEWS: “Ex-Texas Youth Prison Official Guilty of Abuse”

OTHER NEWS SOURCE: “Former TYC Official Convicted of Sexually Abusing Teenage Inmates”

However, there is little consolation in these convictions because the charges were understated from the beginning. Ray Edward Brookins, former assistant superintendent of the Texas Youth Commission juvenile prison facility at Pyote, Texas, was found guilty of “having an improper sexual activity with a person in custody and having an improper relationship between an educator and student.”

This hardly fits the magnitude of the crime. When you consider that these children were convicted in a court of law, many for minor misdemeanors such as school infractions, sent to prisons in small rural communities whose lifeblood depended on prison headcounts, and placed under the absolute authority of pedophile officials, then you can understand their predicament when they tried to cry out for help.

To whom could the juvenile cry when he is dragged out of his cell in the middle of the night to the warden’s office and sexually molested. It is a crime against the humanity of the child.

Brookins was vested with the police powers of the State of Texas, positioned to make life and death decisions of juvenile inmates under his authority. A Texas Ranger investigation reveals other things, such as juveniles being paired with bullies. Even the bullies testified that they understood this pairing up between the weaker inmate and the strong was for the sole purpose of “turning them out”, making sexual slaves of them. The assistant warden capitalized on these fears and exploited it for his own perverse sexual gratification with young male inmates and little boys.

When these children cried, they were not heard, because the State was too busy displaying the incarcerated juveniles as untrustworthy liars and dangerous criminals. These depictions were later proved false. Many juveniles were needlessly locked up over minor offenses, and were having their period of incarceration extended. Besides bodily harm, prison officials could determine how long juveniles can remain in lockup. Sexual favors won early release.

[Please review Email dated: Monday, March 12, 2007]

The pinnacle of horrors surrounds a 2005 Texas Rangers investigation that documented how two former West Texas State School administrators allegedly sexually abused scores of teens they yanked from their dorm beds and classrooms. Ray Brookins, who rose from the ranks of a prison guard in 1985 to captain in 1999 to supervisor at the Cotulla Unit to director of security in 2003 and later acting superintendent of the West Texas State School for troubled youth, was accused of having coerced sex with teenage boys under his care. Also accused was school principal John Paul Hernandez. Both men resigned in lieu of being fired…

A volunteer teacher at the West Texas State School cried out for juveniles being sexually abused at the facility, and it caught the ear of Sgt. Brian Burzynski of the Texas Rangers. He investigated and found Superintendent Ray Brooks living in co-habitation with a 16-year old boy. Here was a man promoted to his high state office after being disciplined for possession of pornography on his office computer and failing to administer requires drug tests upon youth inmates.

The Ranger began an investigation and here are some of things he told the legislative committee appointed by the governor to probe the allegations.

“I’m here today because I’ve got a promise to keep,” said Sgt, Burzynski. “When I interviewed the victims in this case, I saw kids with fear in their eyes, kids who knew they were trapped in an institution within a system that would not respond to their cries for help. Perhaps their families failed them, TYC definitely failed them. I promised each one of those victims that I would not fail them.” The Lone Ranger spoke and legislators shed tears.

Even after these revelations, Brookins remained assistant warden. There was a terrible reluctance to prosecute, even as Sgt. Burzynski pressed the Attorney General. [This is a story, in and of, itself]. But the saddest part about this ordeal was the incarcerated children who testified and were retaliated against, with impunity, and the employees who reported abuses terminated.

It took an international effort to force the State of Texas to clean up its juvenile penal system, and this is only the juvenile side of the corruption in the system.

The conviction of Brookins confirms our allegations against the State of Texas in violating the Human Right of Children in their custody.

REITERATION

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations has proclaimed that childhood is entitled to special care and assistance…

Bearing in mind that the need to extend particular care to the child has been stated in the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1924 and in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child adopted by the United Nations on 20 November 1959 and recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (in particular in articles 23 and 24), in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (in particular in article 10) and in the statutes and relevant instruments of specialized agencies and international organizations concerned with the welfare of children,

Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, "the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth",

Recalling the provisions of the Declaration on Social and Legal Principles relating to the Protection and Welfare of Children, with Special Reference to Foster Placement and Adoption Nationally and Internationally; the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice ("The Beijing Rules"); and the Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict,

Recognizing that, in all countries in the world, there are children living in exceptionally difficult conditions, and that such children need special consideration,

Taking due account of the importance of the traditions and cultural values of each people for the protection and harmonious development of the child,

Recognizing the importance of international co-operation for improving the living conditions of children in every country, in particular in the developing countries,

Have agreed as follows:

Article 16

1. No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation.

2. The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 19

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

2. Such protective measures should, as appropriate, include effective procedures for the establishment of social programmes to provide necessary support for the child and for those who have the care of the child, as well as for other forms of prevention and for identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment and follow-up of instances of child maltreatment described heretofore, and, as appropriate, for judicial involvement.

Article 20

1. A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State.

3. States Parties shall take all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children.

Article 34

States Parties undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. For these purposes, States Parties shall in particular take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent:

(a) The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity;

(b) The exploitative use of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices;

(c) The exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials.

Article 36

States Parties shall protect the child against all other forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child's welfare.

Article 37

States Parties shall ensure that:

(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age;

(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;

(d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action.

Article 39

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.

Article 40

1. States Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child's sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the child's respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account the child's age and the desirability of promoting the child's reintegration and the child's assuming a constructive role in society.

2. To this end, and having regard to the relevant provisions of international instruments, States Parties shall, in particular, ensure that:

(b) Every child alleged as or accused of having infringed the penal law has at least the following guarantees:

(iii) To have the matter determined without delay by a competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body in a fair hearing according to law, in the presence of legal or other appropriate assistance and, unless it is considered not to be in the best interest of the child, in particular, taking into account his or her age or situation, his or her parents or legal guardians;

(v) If considered to have infringed the penal law, to have this decision and any measures imposed in consequence thereof reviewed by a higher competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body according to law;

For these offenses, done with impunity under the Color of Law, as crimes only comparable under the Nazi regime, Eddie Griffin (BASG) subscribes to a punishment of death for crimes against humanity, crimes against the private persons of children made helpless by the shackles of a cruel state, and authority given into the hands of a pedophile, more heinous and malicious than Catholic priests or school teacher molesters.

LETTER TO THE TEA PARTY

2010-04-22T13:15:00.002-07:00

From: Eddie Griffin (BASG)

RE: Wichita Falls Hate Crime Shootings

Let me be very, very clear to say that the Tea Party had nothing to do with inciting the violent shootings of Ross Muehlberger in Wichita Falls, Texas on Tuesday night. Nevertheless, it proves the point that someone out there in the vast reaches of America was feeding on all this hateful rhetoric, and found this an opportune time to strike. There may be others.

No one wants to blame the Tea Party, because this rampage could happen anywhere, at anytime, and for any reason. Particularly, April 20, Hitler’s birthday, is attractive as a full moon on lunatic night. The Columbine shooters chose this day. So, the acts of Ross Muehlberger are not beyond the blue in the realm of understanding.

In case you missed the news and find yourself being accused of fueling the fire of a madman, here is the story: A 22-year old Iraq War veteran, with a history of mental problems and a long string of violent crimes, went on a shotgun shooting spree, shouting “White power.” One man was killed, and three women injured. Then, he killed himself.

(See http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2010/apr/20/several-may-be-wounded-shooting-incident/ and http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/21/2131129/2-dead-4-wounded-in-wichita-falls.html)

I reason that the shooter probably would have chosen this night anyway, because of its historical significance. That he was a white supremacist is evident. But he was not created by the Tea Party, but more likely by his experience in the Texas prison system, where white inmates are forced to join one of several supremacist gangs.

His crime, therefore, would be more akin to James Byrd who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Jasper, Texas. Byrd’s killers were also members of a prison white supremacist hate group.

No, it is not the Tea Party that creates these guys, but rather the Tea Party has given them refuge to do their dirty work.

The City of Wichita Falls is trying to heal. Everyone in the community is giving condolences to the family of the deceased and praying for the wounded. But a side dialogue is going on, full of anger and bitterness. Some have attributed this violence to the Tea Party. Supporters are responding with hostility. Some just simply want to heal.

There are more important issues in this story, such as: Why was Ross Muehlberger on the streets, anyway, having been previously charged with stabbing two men? Why was the judge so lenient with a known drug dealer with a violent history in reducing his bond? Didn’t they know that he was going to strike again?

This is where the real investigation of racism belong, not on the Tea Party, but upon lone wolves with violent intents inside it, under the cover of the organization's legitimacy.

Prefabrication of a Leftist

2010-04-21T12:40:00.005-07:00

A Response to Cal Thomas “Protesting the Protesters”
From: Eddie Griffin (BASG)

PREMISE: The Fable of the Leftist is a false creation of conservative editorialists.

Cal Thomas writes that he is “sick and tired” of this debate about racism in the Tea Party. So are we. But he fabricates a stereotypic Leftist that fits nobody’s description in real life, and counterpoises this straw dog with a Rightist stereotype. This whole enigma about Conservative and Liberal confuses me, because I believe every American is a little liberal over here, a little conservative over there, a little to the right on this issue, and a little to the left on that issue.

He writes: “The left invented the modern protest movement. I recall covering some of the demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the late '60s and early '70s.”

Anyone who lived this history, instead of just reading about it, would know: It was lead by students, and it consumed the mainstream of America. But we were politically powerless because 18-year olds had not yet won the right to vote, and African-Americans in the Deep South could not vote at all. Otherwise, we could have taken the 1964 election.

Protesting the Vietnam War was not unpatriotic. We believed it was morally wrong to go into Southeast Asia to take the place of the imperial power of France. The Vietnamese people were throwing off centuries of French colonialism. Communism spurred the international revolutions in the 1960.

Instead, we supported the liberation movements around the world, to end Estado Novo colonialism in Portuguese African colonies in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea Bissau, and called for universities to divest in South Africa because of white supremacist practice of apartheid. That was our generation, burning draft cards, and shouting: “Hell No, we won’t go.” We wanted Peace. We wanted to come home. We were tired of fighting for an unappreciative nation who suppressed our right to vote in the South.

Cal writes here: “Conservatives believed that it was unpatriotic to criticize a president fighting communists. Many conservatives supported Nixon almost to the very end in the Watergate scandal.”

We were irreconcilably divided on President Richard Nixon. Maybe he was good to some people. But to us, he made life hell. His fight against “communism”, as supported by the political conservatives of the day, meant squashing our rights by illegal means and under false pretenses.

Mr. Thomas would rewrite history and once again vilify those on the Left, who have long since been exonerated. He writes: “People like William Ayers, Tom Hayden, Eldridge Cleaver, Sam Brown and Jane Fonda, and groups like the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, were seen by the mainstream media and liberal cultural commentators as exercising free speech and assembly, even when that assembly sometimes turned violent.”

I assume Sam Brown is H. Rap Brown, field organizer for SNCC in 1966, and successor of Stokely Carmichael. These infamous words are quoted in the article:

The left conveniently forgets people like the 1960s black-power apostle H. Rap Brown, who said, “Violence is American as cherry pie.”

It seems convenient now for Mr. Thomas to forget that, at the time, blood ran in the streets. Never in history had so many black leaders died a bloody assassin’s death, and the civil rights workers murdered on the back roads of Mississippi and Georgia, and all the raids on Black Panther properties, where one-sided shot-outs took some 40 lives of community leaders and potential leaders. These things were so casual that America went about its business with a cherry pie attitude.

Mr. Thomas subtle attempt to rewrite history, slander the exonerated, and falsify facts is contradicted, not by the same newspapers complicit in the crime, but the U.S. Senate records of the Church Committee, 1976.

April 1976 Church Commission investigation, 94th Congress, 2nd Session

Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Book II

I. Introduction and Summary
II. The Growth of Domestic Intelligence: 1936 to 1976
III. Findings
(A) Violating and Ignoring the Law
(B) Overbreadth of Domestic Intelligence Activity
(C) Excessive Use of Intrusive Techniques
(D) Using Covert Action to Disrupt and Discredit Domestic Groups
(E) Political Abuse of Intelligence Information
(F) Inadequate Controls on Dissemination and Retention
(G) Deficiencies in Control and Accountability
IV. Conclusions and Recommendations

Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports, Book III

COINTELPRO: The FBI's Covert Action Programs Against American Citizens

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Case Study

The FBI's Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party

The Use of Informants in FBI Intelligence Investigations

Warrantless FBI Electronic Surveillance

Warrantless Surreptitious Entries: FBI "Black Bag" Break-ins And Microphone Installations

The Development of FBI Domestic Intelligence Investigations

Domestic CIA and FBI Mail Opening

CIA Intelligence Collection About Americans: CHAOS Program And The Office of Security
National Security Agency Surveillance Affecting Americans

Improper Surveillance of Private Citizens By The Military

The Internal Revenue Service: An Intelligence Resource and Collector

National Security, Civil Liberties, And The Collection of Intelligence: A Report On The Huston Plan

* Books II and III of the Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities of the United States Senate, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, 1976

I Got Hate Mail

2010-04-19T09:54:00.001-07:00

Monday, April 19, 2010

My Dear Editor:

Let me address the criticism to my article “Unhealthy Rhetoric”, and separate the genuine from the bigoted hate mail. Eddie Griffin is a nice guy compared to what most African-Americans are saying in secret. Most see the Tea Party as the new KKK. I see it as a cover from Racism.

Now let’s not be “intellectually lazy” as one critic accuse of me. The word “Racism” should not be confused with bigoted racial hatred. The latter is an outgrowth of the former. Racism is an ideology that precedes the outward emotional demonstration of racial hatred.

Who has the power to define, anyway? Who has the power to define what Racism truly is?

The black intelligentsia specifically defined Racism as “the ideology of white supremacy practiced by class suppression along racial lines.” For us, this is not a debatable concept. It is simply the definition we put forth to the United Nations in 1964, when “We Charged Genocide” against the United States for the second time in history- the first being submitted in the 1950s by Paul Robeson and company, and later amended by Malcolm X and the black intelligentsia, of which Eddie Griffin was an original party.

Some Fort Worth Weekly critics accuse me of being a “racist” because I described what I saw as “unhealthy rhetoric” in the Tea Party movement and at its rallies. This accusation of my being a racist is a throwback to the Mike Wallace interview of Malcolm X around 1964. Wallace accused Malcolm X of being a “black racist”. Malcolm, on the other hand, pointed out that Racism was a political ideology like other “ism” (Nazism, communism, socialism, totalitarianism). The ideology was founded long ago on the premise of white supremacy and the myth of the “White man’s burden”, as the sole conveyor of civilization.

A person cannot change the word to change the reality of race relationships. Calling a black man a racist, Malcolm X pointed out, was like calling the victimized the victimizer. No so, only a few Negroes would subscribe to the ideology of white supremacy. And, in those, would be found a “racist” in black skin.

That the United Nation rejected our definition because, as they said, any race can oppress another race, and technically be called “racism”. White supremacy was more evident under the “apartheid” system in South Africa.

Nevertheless, the definition and meaning of the word stuck with those of us who believed in the validity of Malcolm X’s argument. Webster dictionary was no authority either, seeing that it defined “Negro” as “something dead”. And, we refused to let others put words in our mouths, as was customary for slave owners to put words in the mouth of the slave. For the first time in history, we spoke for ourselves and defined our own reality, as we saw it.

One of the Seven Principals of Liberation was Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

Meaning no disrespect, it would be inappropriate for someone to tell me what to see and what to say. I saw in the Tea Party movement is what I saw. And, I am not the only one.

[See also “Brutal Political Debate Once Again Widens A Cultural Divide” by Elisabeth Ivy, Star-Telegram, April 19, 2010; and “Remember, Some People Take Battle Cries Seriously” by Kathleen Parker, Star-Telegram, April 18, 2010]

Eddie Griffin

The Tale of Hiller "Red" Hayes

2010-04-16T13:03:00.010-07:00

Dear Lorenzo Komboa Ervin:

It has been an eventful and exciting life that we have lived. Was it all real, you recently asked? I wondered the same. But then I found the archive location of our prison writings at the University of Missouri- St. Louis, Northeastern University, and Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Particularly, you might be interested in some boxes at Swarthmore: Box 33 Lorenzo Ervin [2 folders] and Box 34 Lorenzo Ervin [3 folders]. In addition, Box 35 contains records of Eddie Griffin.

I wish that I could go back in time and do a rewrite of my prison writings, and correct and update all the files. But the record is what it is. It was written with all truthfulness and sincere at heart.

When I wrote about Hiller “Red” Hayes in “Breaking Men’s Minds”, I was begging on behalf of a dying man that someone listen to his story. He had been locked up in solitary confinement for 13 straight years, half of which was inside a dungeon called the Control Unit. When I described him in my early prison writings, readers in the outside world appealed to the International Red Cross.

Like a dead man walking the cold concrete floor inside a prison cell block, buried at eye-level beneath the earth, he walked like a ghost in search of telling some one, any one, how he died. He looked at me and through me as if I wasn’t there, then turned and stared into outer space, and began to talk.

“I am the boogey man in the system,” he began. “Always, there is someone they lock up, designated never to see the light of day again.”

His faded red hair crackled like sandpaper whenever he raked his rough course fingers across his head. His skin was dry and pale as the desert sand. His back was cover with giant ringworms of bedsores, raw and red.

He talked like a man possessed of psychotic spirits, like a delusional man, coming out of a twilight world of drugs. He has been one of the first government experimental prison subjects to test a new drug in the 1950s called Valium. After his release, his drug supply was suddenly cut off, and he suffered a “white out”. He woke up in the federal prison hospital at Springfield, next door to a dying Bird Man of Alcatraz, Robert Stroud, who died on the even of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, November 21, 1963.

Birdman was a hard luck case. Locked up in 1909, during the rough-and-tumble heydays of the Alaska frontier where he killed a man. Clearly, it was in self defense, but he was sent to prison anyway, where he later killed a prison guard and was given the death penalty. Finally, his death sentence commuted to life in the hole, never to see the light of day again, by President Woodrow Wilson.

The Birdman was the Boogey Man prior to Red Hayes.

He remembered becoming frustrated with the courts. So after years of solitary confinement, he had “a barbeque”. He piled all his law books and legal papers into the middle of the floor of his cell, and set it afire.

It was obvious he had given up hope. He never came out of his cell for recreation. All day, every day, he would just lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. I was the only human contact he had made in years.

Why me?

“I’m dying,” he said. “I want you to tell my story.”

In “Breaking Men’s Minds” (1977), I wrote:

At the root of the Control Unit's behavior modification program, though, is indefinite confinement. This is perhaps the most difficult aspect of the Control Unit to communicate to the public. Yet a testament to this policy was a man named Hiller ‘Red’ Hayes. After thirteen years in solitary confinement (nearly six in the control unit), he became the ‘boogie man’ of the prison system - the living/ dying example of what can happen to any prisoner. The more he deteriorated in his own skeleton, the more prisoners could expect to wane in his likeness. He died in the unit in August, 1977.

The editor added the last sentence.

I would make a correction here in the Red Hayes story. The International Red Cross did help get Red Hayes released from the dungeon. Two days later, he died on the prison compound at Marion.

What has always intrigued me about the Hayes case was his crime. What did he do during that “white out” period? Thanks to the Internet, I discovered this story. The Tale of Hiller Arthur Hayes is an ironic as mine own.

That on or about the 5th day of June, 1960, Hiller Arthur Hayes and Vivian Darlene McCracken, the defendants, did knowingly transport and willfully cause to be transported, by automobile, in interstate commerce a person who had been unlawfully seized, confined, inveigled, decoyed, kidnapped, abducted, carried away and by defendants held, to wit, one Harry Robert Wilde, Jr., who was by said defendants transported from St. Louis County, in the State of Missouri, within the Eastern Division of the Eastern District of Missouri, to Monroe County, in the State of Illinois. 'In violation of Section 1201, Title 18, United States Code.'

In short, they tried to buy a car with a hot check. The manager secretly called the police. When a deputized female attempted to search Red’s girlfriend, Vivian pulls a gun and the cop reacts. Hayes disarms him cop and takes the cop and everybody else hostage. The chase lasted about an hour.

Hayes defended himself in court and was given 99 years in 1960. I met him in 1973. He died in 1977.

It is ironic that I went to prison in 1972, charged with bank robbery, kidnapping, and commandeering a police squad car. The chase lasted more than three hours before our capture by a lone Texas Ranger sharpshooter, named Tom Arnold. The state of Texas wanted to give us the death penalty. But the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty before we went to court. I wound up with 50 years, ironically next door to the Boogey Man who committed virtually the same crime.

[This is one of the many stories in the Conversion of Eddie Griffin]

Beasley’s Defense of Erykah Badu

2010-04-09T09:38:00.003-07:00

In response to my call for the prosecution of Ms. Erykah Badu, Charles Beasley writes in her defense:

Yes I know the law was recently changed on crack cocaine. That is not the central point I was referring to. Go back to the beginning when the law was put in place. good Americans were screaming for heavier penalties. Now I see you my brother screaming for the prosecution based on your moral port hole to the world. Badu has a port hole to. I can respect the Pennsylvania Dutch religious group when the man walked in to there school a few years ago and killed all their students they didn't speak a mean word they went to the mans family and offered help to his wife. We as an historically oppressed people are to quick to call on the legal organized violence of the state to punish people we have failed to communicate with. Perhaps you should seek out Badu and ask her as a concerned citizen would she be willing to explain her actions before calling on Craig Watkins to prosecute her. Craig Watkins needs to spend his time making sure his office is prosecuting guilty violent criminals. I just don't think Badu's actions warrant the attention of the District Attorney when the case is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and can be resolved by city courts.

Charles Beasley was a politically conscious jailhouse lawyer during the 1970s, and a member of an elite cadre known as “The Collective”, one of the original Marion Brothers.

Take it, then, that this is the side of the argument that I would have normally heard from him while in prison- what I would call the “devil’s advocate” position.

Beasley suggests that I should first speak with Ms. Badu, before going to Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins and asking for prosecution.

Instead, I called the Dallas brothers out on the immoral behavior of Ms. Erykah Badu. In a town that never listens, Beasley was the only one, once confronted, responded, in Badu's defense. [This is the way we were accustomed in prison- once a man is called out, on the basis of his manhood].

Notice what Beasley sees: Now I see you my brother screaming for the prosecution based on your moral port hole to the world. Badu has a port hole to.

If he could actually see me screaming somewhere in the dimensions of his mind, then surely he would have heard me screaming- not for prosecution, but to convey the fear of prosecution to the mind of Ms. Badu. People must fear that there is a consequence for their behavior.

[A young black inmate steals a candy bar from a Mafia don in prison. What did the don want to do? You know it. He wanted to hit the guy, take him out, kill him, and eliminate one more maggot from planet earth. They sent me as a messenger, to warn, and save his life.]

I believe in putting the fear of God into people, not through violence, or the threat of violence, but with the written word. [Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?]

If I speak truth to Ms. Badu’s situation, then let her tremble, and repent, and apologize to her fans and the public and to all the children she offended.

But Beasley invents these individualized, totally isolated, compartmentalized things in absentia called “moral port holes”. Supposedly, I got one, he got one, Erykah Badu got one, and each is separate and apart from the other, and should not be infringed upon one by the other. Sounds like another kind of hole, but for the sake of argument we can call it The Theory of Moral Port Holes, in the name of its inventor, Charles Beasley. This takes the World According to Garp one step closer to a state of mass insanity.

I saw the naked woman they call Erykah Badu on a video in front of the public in Dallas, and a child with a terrorized look in his eyes- all in the same frame. What about his innocent “moral port hole”?

An adult does not have the right to violate the rights of a child. This is not an equal rights debate. The child has absolute rights over the adult rights to obscenity, nudity, and profanity. This is not a court of legal and criminal opinion, but an absolute right given to innocent children by God. [Suffer the little children to come unto me… whosoever offend one of these least of these, it would be better to hang a millstone around his neck and cast him into the sea… except you become as little children, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven]

Why should the children be put through the hell of man’s own makings?

Godless Goddess Erykah Badu

2010-04-05T13:17:00.002-07:00

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE BROTHERS IN DALLAS
From Eddie Griffin (BASG)

She left nothing to the imagination, but much to be desired. She is neither cute, nor as fine as she thinks herself to be. Ms. Erykah Badu is vain in her imagination, if she thinks her physique looks better than a degusting 46-year old Wanda Sykes. They are both undesirable, except to the basest of men.

To bear it all before the eyes of children is to destroy their innocence. The secret parts of the body are not secret any more. The unknown becomes an ugly hairy looking thing. Uch!

Damn me once, damn me, twice, the idiot Wanda Sykes follows suit, only to get as far as pulling off her pants, and exposing her panties. Mama, why don’t boys wear panties?

It was the second act, Wanda Sykes stripping on the streets, that made me realize: If Erykah Badu can do it and Wanda Sykes can do it, then any woman in America can strip down to their birthday suit. Then if women are so “free” spirited, then why not men, stripping down to their ding thing in front of your 5-year old daughter?

What difference is there between Chester the Molester and Erykah Badu?

The author of this communiqué is the same Eddie Griffin who heckled and booed D.L. Hughley performance at Fort Worth Bass Hall in 2007. The fight against this black comedian was over the issue of MISOGYNY, calling black women “bitches” and “whores”.

Now we got one, acting just like one. This is not art. This is pornography in the flesh… as pornographic as filming a gang rape, set to music, and calling it Art.

With the conspiracy to distribute this live pornography, across internet line, we have a federal offense, punishable by some years in prison. This is how you cut off evil in the land, by exercising the law to protect the innocent, especially the innocence of our children.

On The Constitutional Question of State Rights vs Healthcare Rights

2010-04-03T13:21:00.004-07:00

By Eddie G. Griffin

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Children should be taught Civics in school, due to mass ignorance on the rights between the states, and rights and responsibilities of the federal government.

Some have claimed that the President and the Congress have overstepped their boundaries, in the recent healthcare legislation. In the separation of powers, all powers, not delegated to the federal government are reserved by the states. It is upon this Tenth Amendment constitutional premise that the State Rights claim arises.

The claim dates back to the time of the Articles of Confederation, when the 13 colonies came together to fight against the British in the Revolution of 1776. There was no central federal government, and the colonists were suspicious in turning over their authority to a central governing body. What came out of it was the formation of the United States of America, as we know it.

The republics agreed in the principal of “majority rule”, but not at the tyranny over the minority. Therefore, constitutional provisions gave recognition of the claim of the minority. This principal became very important in the South, due to racial suppression, and the denial of blacks to vote.

Although traditionally, America was governed by a white male dominated society, at the time of her birth, and for some time thereafter, Conservatism was built upon the premise that this was the natural order of society, and this was the way it would always be. Hence, conservatism meant preserving existing relationships of power and domination.

The third great body, the U.S. Supreme Court, would arbitrate the claims between the federal central government and the states- and, so began an evolution of government, and the growth of federal responsibilities and authorities.

President John F. Kennedy reasoned that wherever federal funds are dispersed, there is a federal responsibility for Equal Opportunity and Equal Protection under the Law. African-Americans were not afforded either equal opportunities, or equal protection in America. This is, as we knew it then. Negroes lived under the tyranny of white supremacy in the former slave states of the South, who clung to the doctrine of State Rights.

When Negroes in Texas were set free in 1865, they began to pay taxes, like other white citizens. Their taxes went to local, state, and federal governments, but they were receiving no benefit for their money. Taxation Without Representation: Negroes were taxed, but could not vote. They had no protection from lawless night raiders and lynch mobs. Yet their taxes paid the sheriff’s salary.

While streets and sidewalks were being paved in white communities with tax dollars, the Negro neighborhoods had muddy trails to navigate home, in a restricted and neglected community, redlined by finance and insurance corporations. The Negro tax dollars went for naught. And, those who did vote had to pay a Poll Tax for the privilege in Texas, which poll tax many could not afford., especially knowing that they vote for naught to gain.

When it came to hiring public servants with tax dollars, the government workforce in the South was all white. The government “overstretched” it bounds to force the states to accept Equal Opportunity in Employment. This authority trumped over states rights because it involved the disbursement of federal funds through contracting and administration. And, federal funds were derived from all citizens, black and white.

Compliance was monitored through an ineffective EEOC system. They derided it as a “quota system”. In practice, the policy amounted to “tokenism”, where each government department and contractor hired a “token black”, in order to comply with the new federal “mandate”. Equal employment opportunity is still a problem today, due to racial nepotism in hiring and promotion.

But the federal mandate that I believe led to the killing of JFK in Dallas in 1963 was the Executive Order 10925 to integrate the colleges and universities. These heretofore all-white colleges and universities had been beneficiary of federal funds and grants. Yet the doorway of entrance into the halls of higher learner excluded the Negroes who lived in the South.

President John F. Kennedy “overstepped” the bounds of his authority, they said. This was the debate of the day. The state had the right to regulate admissions to colleges and universities in their state. The president had no right to mix the races. The South was segregated.

Alabama Governor George Wallace declared immediately after the Executive Order went into effect: “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

By state rights, segregations would have prevailed. Conservatism would have fulfilled its purpose: No Change. And Southern Negroes would still be in bondage.

There has always been a state declaration against “federal intrusion”, otherwise code named, Big Government. But what is often overlooked is the Right of the Minority to be protected from the tyranny of the majority.

On the Constitutionality of the Healthcare Legislation

As for the federal mandates included in the recent Healthcare Reform Legislation, some have been called into question, on constitutional grounds.

First, I believe that no American citizen should be forced to buy health insurance, but I would not pull the plug on unborn “blue babies”, simply because they have a pre-existing condition. Why does the legislation not give the individual of opting out for the federally regulated exchange?

The Tyranny of the Majority is not always sized up in poll numbers, but in dollars and cents, the classic struggle between the rich and the poor, the haves and have nots. Such struggles have existed since the days of cave men, which descendents we seem sometimes not removed from.

Whenever a bank accepts deposits from a variety of communities, it has an obligation to reinvest funds into the places from whence the funds originate. But historically, the practice of “Redlining” allowed bankers and insurance companies to rob Peter and give to Paul, from minority customers to big businesses. The banks financed unequal community development by contracting almost exclusively in favor of white-owned business and corporations, while mom and pop business had to sell their souls to the devil in order just to get a loan, at usury racketeer rates.

Health insurance companies have also practiced redlining by excluding high-risk clients. As insurance profits go up and executives receive bonus the size of some Third World countries, we see a trend in policies that maximize profits.

CASE EXAMPLE

A Crowley, Texas couple was about to have their third child, they had no idea that the birth would be complicated, that the newborn would require immediate surgery, that the child would be denied healthcare insurance coverage, base upon the company’s “pre-existing” condition policy.

The father wondered: How could the child have a pre-existing condition before he is even born?

It is a loophole in equal protection under the law, insofar as total discretion is at the arbitrary whims of the insurance company health insurance providers. By claiming unfair encroachment upon their business, insurers seek relief from federal law and regulation under provisions of protection under states rights. Under this doctrine, the federal government has no authority to regulate insurance companies operating inside the states. This is a power to regulate the insurance companies comes under purview of those reserved to the states.

But every insurance company that operates across state lines come under the federal jurisdiction through the interstate commerce clause. The federal government has the right to keep monopolies from forming and prevent unfair commerce and interstate business fraud.

Lost is the fact that it is a federal crime to engage in interstate commerce by defrauding a customer to believe one thing about their benefit under an insurance policy, with twisted, convoluted, complicated legalese embedded in the contract that takes some of those same benefits away. It is called bait-and-switch in the crime world, but not so in the corporate insurance world.

No one told the Crowley couple that if the wife gave birth to a “blue baby” that the baby would be denied health insurance coverage. No one knows what a “pre-existing” condition is. Any at-risk pregnant mother could give birth to a child with a pre-existing condition.

What of the Right of the Unborn Child verses these State Rights?

The new healthcare law binds the insurance companies to a new set of relationships and a new mode of practice, and changes the condition of coverage for all patients. The unborn child now has a chance to be born with the most fundamental inalienable of rights of an American citizen under the constitution: The right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, where before all such rights were jeopardized by an insurance company’s arbitrary policies.

Do the damages have to be proven if all blue babies born in America were denied healthcare coverage based upon these so-called pre-existing conditions? Under protective provisions of the Constitution and Interstate Commerce Act, the state cannot put the unborn child at risk again of llife, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

If the states seek to undo any or all the provisions of the new healthcare law, then this provisions protecting the unborn should stand constitutional challenge, separate and apart from all else.

Maybe the Court might find the law to be unconstitutional, in part, but not in all. And those young people who can now be carried on their parents’ policy, wherein they had no coverage at all, would the Supreme Court undo this coverage, and once again put the rider at risk? I think not.

Should everyone be required to buy health insurance? I think not, also. It only benefits the health insurance companies even more. There should be an “Opt-Out” provision for anyone who wants no part of the federally regulated insurance exchange. This opt-out option, however, should be the right of the individual, and not the right of the state.

Social Security recipients are already being forced to purchase healthcare coverage under Medicare through SSI deduction on benefits, whether or not the retiree has other coverage or not. And workers are already forced to pay FICA and MICA through payroll deductions, for future retirement and medical needs.

Is this not a federal mandate? Heretofore, the rich has been exempt from FICA and MICA, because of a cap on taxation at the higher income level. They pay middle income taxes and benefit the most from the healthcare system, because they can afford the luxury add-ons.

It should be noted that all companies pay federal and state unemployment taxes, for the benefit of the worker, not the state. The problem with state rights today is its tendency of states defending big corporations and businesses, at the expense of those who pay into the system through taxation.

Caveat Emptor, Let the Buyer Beware

Another problem is deregulation. The state wants less federal regulation.

We have already seen recently the consequences of deregulation, and a system of caveat emptor. The Wall Street collapse is a result thereof… Madoff, ENRON, Worldcom, Tyco, only to name a few of those companies and corporations that exploited loopholes in federal regulation and oversight.

The king found it necessary to regulate what bakers put into their loaves and the weight thereof. Before they were regulated, bakers would put substitutes into the mix, including sweepings off the floor. Each loaf varied in weight and yet had a fixed price. Without regulation, this was free enterprise commerce whereby the customer was responsible for whatever he bought. They called it Caveat Emptor, which means “Let the Buyer Beware”.

This is the natural tendency of unregulated free enterprise, and not on the goodness of men. Without regulation, the insurance companies and financial institutions would profess the same free market principal: Caveat Emptor.

Whose responsibility is it to protect the consumer from tainted bread, divers weights, and unfair balances?

It is first the sovereign right of the state to protect its citizens from illegal and corrupt commercial practices. But when the state defends the corrupters, just as the state defended slave ownership, it is the responsibility of the federal government to restore the balances of fairness, in the marketplace, and in the nation. This responsibility and right supercedes the state.

Logjam in Texas Federal Food Stamps vs. GOP Priorities

2010-04-01T13:11:00.002-07:00

When I first met Congressman Michael C. Burgess, I referred him to Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) who once wrote: “At nature’s great table, there are no plates for some.” The same is true in healthcare.

By Eddie Griffin

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Except that a family is destitute and hungry, no one would understand the hell poor people go through just to qualify and receive food stamps in Texas. At the grassroots level, we have always known. We have had to assist welfare recipients in navigating the system- a system which the Star-Telegram calls “broken”.

Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs says, “It's almost like a system that time forgot for a while.”

That would be an understatement, considering the federal food stamp program has had problems from the very beginning. Food stamps were once extorted for sex from women applying for it. Supposedly, a little sex would expedite the process. This case created a scandal in Fort Worth, Texas a few years back.

But generally speaking, the Food Stamp program has been stigmatized as a “welfare program”, with stereotypes and images, of lazy poor people. Anyone who understands the evolution of the Medieval Poor Laws would understand how that image came to be.

Applying for food stamps in Texas can be quite a chore, according to a new state auditor's report.

Need to ask a basic question? Forget the phone. Workers often don't have time to answer questions by phone and their voice mailboxes tend to be full, the report says.

Instead, applicants "make unnecessary trips to a local office, in which they sometimes sit for hours just to ask a question or submit a document," says the report released Tuesday by State Auditor John Keel.

"Crowded lobbies, long waits, and delays in eligibility determinations clearly resulted in frustrated clients," the report said.

The report describes an inefficient system in which 80 percent of cases are kept on paper and a lack of experienced workers is contributing to problems processing applications accurately and within the 30 days required by the federal government. It recommends using technology such as automated kiosks and allowing applicants to check the status of cases online, an option the state now makes available only to certain applicants.

But now we have 3.3 million mouths to feed in Texas, as a result of the Great Recession. It is no longer about “them lazy folks”. It is about us “hungry folks”.

The federal food stamp program today may not be as heartless and corrupt as in the past. But it is old and antiquated, and frustrating to navigate. 1970s technology ran the system. Wherein they have since called in non-profit food banks, churches, and community organizations to assist in clearing the backlog, they have still not address its structural problem of antiquity.

Charles Kuffner of Offthekuff reports “Food stamp application backlog to be cleared by April”

The commission had projected it would clear the backlog by February. That didn’t happen. Though the backlog disappeared in the Tyler, Beaumont, Austin, El Paso and Edinburg areas, there were still 16,000 applications in February for which decisions were past due, Suehs said. About 90 percent of that backlog was in the Houston and Dallas areas.

Suehs now expects the Lubbock, Abilene and San Antonio regions to clear the backlog by the end of March, he told members of a joint Senate-House panel overseeing the state’s system for enrolling Texans in programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. And he expects the Dallas and Houston areas to be back on track by the end of April.

A Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial, “Help these hungry Texans”, draws a sharp contrast in priorities of our political leaders:

Some of our state officials have been acting tough by bad-mouthing Washington, resisting federal aid in some areas and preparing lawsuits to fight recently enacted legislation. If only they could devote that much attention and energy to fixing a broken system right here at home.

These are very tough times, and many families are having to ask for help from the state for the first time in their lives.

Texas should be able to give them the help they need to have food on the table without unnecessary roadblocks caused by a food stamp system that badly needs an overhaul.

COMMENTARY by Eddie Griffin

Of those who are “bad-mouthing Washington” and “preparing lawsuits to fight recently enacted legislation” is Congressman Michael C. Burgess, 26th District of Texas.

It is customary to think that President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty was a failure, that it created a dependent welfare class of people. Food stamp recipients were cast into that mold.

Now while Texas is trying to do good by its new welfare class, Burgess and Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott are waging another battle against the poor, trying to undo healthcare legislation that new life to babies born as “blue babies” (a pre-existing condition).

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and 12 attorneys general from other states have sued in a Florida federal court to block implementation of the healthcare legislation that President Barack Obama signed into law last week.

The Texas Attorney General overstepped his bounds. Governor Sam Houston was against joining the Confederacy, but Sam Houston, Jr. led a coup against his Texas governor father, usurped by a minority interest of slave holder of 25% property ownership. This is how authority has been usurped in Texas, not once, but many times.

What is ignored is “the people’s interest”. Always it is political party interest sounded in the courts. But there is an amicus in the people’s interest to controvert this lawsuit to undo the healthcare bill.

Cost expectations are far lower than the Attorney General anticipate. We have a global human interest in the needs and protections of the unborn. Let the U.S. Supreme Court rule as it will. We have the World Court, and international option on our side.

Sincerely,
Eddie Griffin (BASG)

Battle of the Titans: Big Kids 1, Big Insurance 0

2010-03-31T11:24:00.002-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Born March 15, 2010, Houston Tracy needed immediate heart surgery to correct a defect known as “Blue Baby syndrome”. But the insurance company refused to provide the baby coverage based upon this “pre-existing” condition.

According to a Star-Telegram report:

Doug and Kim Tracy are self-employed, but cannot afford to carry insurance on themselves. They provide healthcare coverage for their two children under Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. It was under this existing policy that they hoped to include Houston. Otherwise, they paid for prenatal care and hospitalization out of their pockets

Doug Tracy called the insurance company before the baby's birth to get the child covered but was told by an insurance representative that he had 30 days after the birth to apply for a policy. Then the baby was born with the defect and the insurance company denied his coverage, leaving the family to potentially deal with the expensive cost of the operation.

“How can he have a pre-existing condition if the baby didn't exist until now?” Tracy asked.

This was one of the very issues that shaped the long and arduous healthcare debate, whether children with pre-existing conditions would receive coverage under the new legislation. So Doug took his cause to the public, on Facebook, to the media, and congressional leaders.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas responded by courier.

After the denial of coverage, friends rallied around the family and contacted politicians and the media to publicize the situation. State Rep. Chris Turner, D-Arlington, and Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, asked Blue Cross to reconsider its decision. Turner said that it was great news that the medical bills would be covered.

(See Wendy Davis)

In the meantime, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a sternly worded message to the insurance industry not to try and exploit a potential loophole in the new law that would allow them to deny healthcare coverage to children like Houston Tracy.

“Health insurance reform is designed to prevent any child from being denied coverage because he or she has a pre-existing condition,” Sebelius wrote to Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans. “Now is not the time to search for nonexistent loopholes that preserve a broken system.”

“The term 'pre-existing condition exclusion' applies to both a child's access to a plan and his or her benefits once he or she is in the plan,” Sebelius wrote.

Narrowly read, it seemed to say that if an insurance company accepts a particular child, it cannot write a policy for a child that excludes coverage for a given condition. For example, if the child has asthma, the insurer cannot exclude inhalers and respiratory care from coverage, as sometimes happens now.

“Health plans recognize the significant hardship that a family faces when they are unable to obtain coverage for a child with a pre-existing condition, Ignagni said in a response letter to Sebelius. The industry will “fully comply” with the regulations.

KIDS 1, Big Insurance 0

But U.S. Congressman Michael C. Burgess and Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott would have this victory short lived, because they seek to invalidate the healthcare law by constitutional challenge, and thereby undo the law and consequently uncover every “blue baby that comes into the world”, and genetically deformed babies being uncovered because of a “pre-existing” condition.

A pre-existing condition can date back to the at-risk mother, obese or diabetic, and cancer risk that run in the family. It was totally at the discretion of Big Insurance, to determine condition of coverage, and prices. Now that dominance is no more.

Burgess and Abbot seek to turn back the clock, and undo the good already done. (See Burgess FOX interview). The health insurance companies can undo all policies with “pre-existing” conditions like Houston Tracy.

AG Gregg Abbott issued this press release through Cox Newspapers, “Texas attorney general discusses multistate healthcare lawsuit”.

(Ref. http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/30/2078726/texas-attorney-general-discusses.html)

AUSTIN -- Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and 12 attorneys general from other states have sued in a Florida federal court to block implementation of the healthcare legislation that President Barack Obama signed into law last week.

[Excerpt]
Did you feel compelled to seek permission to do this from Gov. Rick Perry or members of the Legislature?

Whenever the sovereignty of a state has been encroached upon by the federal government, as it has been in this situation, it is the inherent right of the attorney general to represent the state of Texas. But that aside, I had been in consultation with Gov. Perry and his office -- my office had been working with his office -- before this lawsuit was filed.

EDDIE GRIFFIN: Response- False. By what “inherent right” does the Attorney General assume authority under the Texas Constitution? State’s Rights vs. Human Rights is the issue.

Will this require a lot of staff time, and how much will it cost?
There has been no out-of-pocket cost incurred by the state of Texas. Those costs have been borne by Florida, as I understand it. Of course, we do have some printer costs and some copier costs involved. Staff time -- we haven't hired new people; we won't need to hire new people; we won't be hiring any experts. So it won't cost a dime of taxpayer dollars with regard to any out-of-pocket costs.

There have been some hours spent by some people already on staff who are working on a multitude of other issues, but this is just in the ordinary course of their activities. Most of the work is actually going to be conducted by Florida. While this may not be costing hardly anything to the taxpayers of the state of Texas, the potential of saving taxpayer dollars is immense.

EDDIE GRIFFIN: Response- False. There is a people’s interest that supersedes state’s rights, and that is The Right to Life, which will be undone if the AG prevails.

A Commentary on the Torpedo Sinking of ACORN

2010-03-29T10:59:00.004-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Monday, March 29, 2010

I am still befuddled as to why the Star-Telegram would call me and ask if I ever worked with the local chapter of ACORN. Then today I discovered this article in the paper, “ACORN offices in Dallas-Fort Worth appear closed”. The author, Anna M. Tinsley, could find to trace of the organization, and only one person formerly affiliated with it.

Former Fort Worth Councilman Jim Lane said that ACORN workers were very knowledgeable and forceful about the issues they were working on, and “they were very effective with what they did,” he said. “They frustrated me sometimes because they didn't take time sometimes to listen and really understand what the problems were… We certainly listened to them,” he said. “I always thought they operated in good faith.”

Sometimes leaders of community-based organizations do not listen. And nobody, it seems, listens to Eddie Griffin.

In October 2008, during the presidential campaign, I forewarned that ACORN was a target for political subversion.

"Which Witch is Which in this Witch Hunt? Texas Senator goes after Grassroots Community Organizing Group ACORN" (October 15, 2008)

"ACTION ALERT! Defend Community Organizers" (October 16, 2008)

"Republicans Scapegoat ACORN: An Attack on All Community Organizers" (October 17, 2008)

"Where is John Cornyn’s Allegations against ACORN Now?" (October 31, 2008)

ACORN had forgotten the lesson of how Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society was subverted under Donald Rumsfeld during the Nixon administration, through the United States Office of Economic Opportunity. During the time of the Black Panther Party’s Ten Point Program, the nascent black political party upstart instituted a feeding program for school children and senior citizens, community schools, and free health clinics.

Thousands upon thousands of poor and hungry children were fed free breakfasts every day by the Party under this program. The program was so successful that J. Edgar Hoover called it the greatest threat to national security. There were police raids on Black Panther kitchens and food destroyed, and raids on clinics, while at the same time the Nixon administration was setting up its own free breakfast programs, under Rumsfeld. The objective was to discredit the work of the party and force dependency upon the U.S. government new welfare programs.

The government began giving grants to community based organizations. During the 1980s, they began investigating these organizations for mismanagement of federal funds. Usually, these organizations were poor bookkeepers, and some program organizers were convicted as welfare pimps.

Obviously, ACORN must have thought itself above the fray and entrapment. But what they were unable to see was that any federal grant money that went to help the poor and underserved would be interpreted as indirect partisan support for the Democratic Party. ACORN was primarily known for mass voter registration in the poor and minority communities.

By Purpose & Numbers

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocates for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues. ACORN had over 400,000 members and more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S.

ACORN's priorities have included: better housing and wages for the poor, more community development investment from banks and governments, better public schools, and other social justice issues. ACORN pursued these goals through demonstration, negotiation, lobbying for legislation, and voter participation. ACORN comprised a number of legally distinct non-profit entities including a nationwide umbrella organization established as a 501(c)(4) that performed lobbying; local chapters established as 501(c)(3) nonpartisan charities; and the ACORN Housing Corporation.

Early Attack

The first attack on ACORN came during absentee voting. ACORN volunteers helped senior citizens register to vote. They claimed that the volunteers were signing senior citizens ballots and telling them how to vote. Some community activists were caught up in the false accusations.

Then they claimed that ACORN volunteers were registering Mickey Mouse and dead people. For $8 an hour, some ACORN volunteers tried to pad their salaries with phony numbers. Thus, they were labeled a criminal enterprise- for $8 an hour.

Then they claimed voter fraud and asked the Bush administration to send in the FBI. They found nothing.

Then they sent in phony actors to induce a fabricated criminal conspiracy. It was video taped.

Young people and people with short memories may not remember. But Eddie Griffin has documented his skillful subversion.

On February 20, 2006, John McCain accepts the honors and acclamation of the Service Employees International Union, People for the American Way, UNITE HERE -- and ACORN.

“What is special about America is in this room,” he said. (See YouTube video)

On the night of October 15, 2008, Judas stabs ACORN in the back and John Cornyn cuts ACORN throat. Just as I predicted, John McCain would betray ACORN on national TV.

The attack on ACORN in 2008 was a direct attack of presidential candidate Barack Obama, once a community organizer in Chicago, and closely allied with ACORN.

It is believed, in some circles, that the elimination of ACORN would be the demise of the Democratic Party in local elections, not having to contend with the “poverty vote”.

This the way that Eddie Griffin saw it, as it materialized from the 1960s until now. Local ACORN leaders never consulted me for advice.

Healthcare Hero Comes Home

2010-03-25T10:58:00.003-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Roy C. Brooks is our hero. He is County Commissioner for Precint One, my home district. In today’s Star-Telegram editorial, he tells of his odyssey in healthcare reform, starting from his experience as a child watching his dad minister to the health needs of an impoverished community, down to witnessing President Barack Obama sign the Healthcare Reform Bill into law.

He writes: "I had tears in my eyes as I stood and bore witness after our president signed this life-changing piece of legislation, and, once again, made history... I'm eager to get back home and start working to put into action the benefits of healthcare reform in Tarrant County for all who have needed it for so long."

We say: Welcome Home, Hero. It was a hard fought battle, and a victory well won.

The Brooks family is in the healthcare business. Roy’s father is a legend in Fort Worth. He built his family clinic in the most economically depressed neighborhood and ministered to the poor.

As Roy writes: "As a young boy, I saw my father, Dr. Marion J. Brooks, practice medicine in this community. I would accompany him to the basement of St. Joseph's hospital, where the colored people who could afford it were treated, and later out into the communities in Tarrant County, where he would deliver his services, free of charge, to the many that could not afford it."

The clinic started by Jack Brooks and his brother continues today with Clarence, the youngest son. The family tradition holds true, as Roy writes: "There, right among us, were the people who needed healthcare desperately but could not access the system. For those with no health plan, there was Dr. Brooks."

When we were sick and had no money, we went to Dr. Brooks. He would never turn us away. He paid, out of his own pocket, the upfront cost for our medicine and various innoculations, and allowed us to pay him back, a little at a time, whenever we could.

I often wondered how the Brooks family could survive. Yet, I remember also that there was something almost sacred about the Hippocratic Oath to Doc Brooks, and something precious and nobel about serving his people.

He fought for black patients to receive fair healthcare at the white hospitals, where we were originally relegated to treatment in the hospital basement. His nephew, Michael Brooks, continued the struggle for equal rights and treatment of black physicans. Their empowerment meant greater access to healthcare for us.

The Brooks family history in healthcare, patient rights, and dignity of African-American physicans is long, even extending into the political arena, where Roy now serves as an elected county court commissioner for a precinct of over 300,000 people. Nevertheless, healthcare is in the blood and in the family genes.

During Roy Brooks first term in office, he took up the issue of healthcare for the homeless, and spearheaded Team Health which was aimed at reducing minority health disparity. He is a member of the Infant Mortality Steering Committee, because he realizes that infant mortality in our community is as high as some Third World Countries.

He is chairman of the National Association of Counties Healthcare Reform Task Force, a member of the Advisory Board of Community Hospice of North Texas, and board of director member of Fort Worth/Dallas Birthing Project. Beside the many other positions of leadership in his illustrious and accomplished bio, he is a member of the Board of Directors of National Association of Counties, and past president of the National Association of Black County Officials.

Upon his inaugrial to the Commissioners Court, he denoted that it was a position that he had prepared his whole life for. To this fact, I can attest, having watched him grow up through the years. His family is as close to me as my own family. His dad was a dad to me, and likewise his mother, Mrs Marie.

And, though I was not there to see the historic signing of the President’s healthcare reform bill, I could see it through the teary eyes of a lifelong friend, who now ranks among my greatest hero.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

2010-03-23T08:37:00.003-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Unfortunately, we find ourselves fighting a resurgence of racism behind these all-out anti-Obama attacks. Giving aide and comfort to the racists is the Republican Party. When protesters start spitting and calling black congressmen “ni**ers”, then it is time to draw the line in the sand, and ask: Where do you stand, if you stand at all?

It is not about the Healthcare Bill. It never was. It is about those who declared, at the very beginning, they hoped President Barack Obama would fail. In other words, the newly elected black president could do nothing right in their sight, because their hearts were already hardened. They hide among the sheep, cloaked behind political charades, spewing anti-administration rhetoric, while openly plotting subversion. We are not blind.

To A Black Sheep

Bah bah black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, Yes, sir,
Three bags full.
One for my master,
One for my dame,
One for the little boy
That lives in the lane.

This was the way Texas school children learned it. With it, white children taunted us. It was compulsive reading, like the story of “Little Black Sambo”. At first grade, how were we to know?

Racism can be hidden in the heart, as easily disguised as literature, movie, or political causes. It has been used by evil oppressors for centuries. But wherever it has been beaten back, it has resurfaced, more viciously than before, along with a movement toward revisionist history.

People forget that Texas was the last Confederate state to fall, June 19, 1865, over two years after the Emancipation. Some parts of Texas never flew the Union flag, and still carry the Confederate flag to their holiday ceremonies.

Black folk in Texas are not deaf, dumb, blind, or fearful. If anything, we are patient. We have seen the same scenario played out in history, over and over again.

For example: It was no secret to us why so many Texas courthouses were burned during the 1870s, and marriage license records, land ownership, and vital statistics destroyed. This period of lawlessness in Texas, formerly known as the Wild West, forced Negroes to fend for themselves against white terrorism.

We see it resurface again, on the eve of the healthcare bill vote, reminiscent of 1950s Birmingham, Little Rock, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas. It is like a resurrected evil thing that cannot hide its long tail.

They really showed their tails the other day, in Washington, D.C. Jackasses all over the place like humanity has not seen since the beginning of the Civil Rights Era. If anything sealed the deal on the Healthcare Reform Bill, then surely it was a stand of bravery, against these racist threats and hateful remarks.

Eddie Griffin Comments on Cocaine Sentencing Disparity Senatorial Compromise

2010-03-19T09:38:00.001-07:00

I have received a ton of email about the Senate’s recent passage of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.

March 17, 2010 (NPR, North Country Gazette)- excerpt
Under unanimous consent, the Senate today for the first time passed legislation that would end the controversial 100 to 1 disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 would decrease the quantity disparity to 18 to 1. The bill moves on to the House for action… Last week, after senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) reached a compromise, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary unanimously passed the bill which raises the trigger amount of crack cocaine for the 5-year mandatory minimum from 5 grams to 28 grams, and the trigger for a 10-year mandatory minimum from 50 grams to 280 grams.

From my perspective, it is a good start, because this particular disparity contributes to the disproportionate number of young African-American males to be in prison.

First, I recognize that it is a compromise, which means that this is the best that we can do in closing the gap, at this time, and under these conditions. After all, everything is a compromise. Nothing is perfect.

Second, I recognize the tremendous damage done in the community through the distribution of crack cocaine. And, in all my years, I have never seen a crack damaged brain repair itself. Crack-heads never recover. The brain damage caused by crack sends the victim into a downward spiral in mental capacities. Many are wards of the state or the county, labeled as MHMR (Mental Health/Mental Retardation). Most crack-heads that I know receive disability checks from the state of Texas. Otherwise, they cannot care for themselves at all.

At my age, my energies are better spent educating the next generation about the irreversible brain damage caused by the drug, and to help steer kids away from it, and minister to the children whose parents are addicted. I have brothers and sisters trying to help ex-addicts break their addictions.

But all the king’s horses and all the king’s men cannot put Humpty Dumpty back together again. This is a lost generation, wiped off the useful face of the map by crack cocaine.

Therefore, my sentiment for crack cocaine distributors is mixed. I believe that Justice must be tempered by the weight of the crime. For example, the Jena 6 teenagers should not have been charged with aggravated assault and have to face up to 80 years in prison, all because of a school yard fight. Shequanda Cotton should never have been sent to juvenile detention for up to 7 years for shoving her way into the school building. Genarlow Wilson should have never been sentenced to 10 years for consensual with a teenage girl only two years his junior. Jamie Scott should not have a double life sentence for an $11 robbery in which no one was hurt.

Black defendants should not receive 100-to-1 times the sentence given to others for the same offense. Cocaine is cocaine.

But we do not live in a “shoulda’, coulda’, woulda’” world. We take the compromise and thank God for it, and continue to fight for better, and clean of the mess made by imperfect men and their bad judgment.

Sister Jamie Scott Dying in Prison

2010-03-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

We are torn apart by the State of Mississippi and its heartless treatment of a terminally ill African-American grandmother in prison. Even more, we are confused as to who to blame for this travesty and miscarriage of justice.

We understand that Jamie Scott was sent to prison with a double life sentence over an $11 robbery in which no one was hurt. We understand also that neither she, nor her sister, took direct part in the crime. Nevertheless, they were both given the same harsh sentence.

Despite Jamie and Gladys Scott steadfastly maintaining their innocence, Jamie now suffers kidney failure and is undergoing dialysis treatment. Without a transplant, she will likely die. Why would state officials allow this to happen, in light of the fact that they have each already served 15 years?

We have seen justice perverted many times before in Mississippi. We remember the fate of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Vernon Dahmer, and the three Civil Rights students James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.

In Texas, we watched a college student who was falsely accused of rape languish in prison for over 10 years, only to die an ignoble death on a cold concrete floor, partly from medical neglect and heartbreak. He was an innocent kid, a military veteran who served his country in the Gulf War. His name was Tim Cole.

Nobody wants to die in prison, especially an innocent person like Tim Cole. Even today, at this writing, Texas Governor Rick Perry is in the process of delivering a posthumous pardon to the young man’s family. No one seems to remember that the same governor had the power to pardon him prior to his demise.

It is obvious Jamie Scott needs the attention of the International Red Cross, because Chief Medical Officer Gloria Perry, despite her accolades and meritorious achievements, is a Mississippian in the same mold as her forefathers. Medical neglect is systemic and wanton.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) has a provision for a “conditional medical release”. But the plea of the Scott Sister seems to reach only the deaf ears of the hardhearted. Therefore, it does no good for the victim to complain to the victimizer. We must reach higher.

The U.S Justice Department has a Special Litigation section in charge of enforcing the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. The case of Jamie Scott hinges close to criminal negligence. And, her double life sentence is excessive, cruel, and unusual.

Texas Board of Education Approves Conservative New Curriculum

2010-03-17T13:59:00.002-07:00

What is Education, anyway?
By Eddie Griffin

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

By a 10-5 vote, the Texas State Board of Education approved a new social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks. For example, they will replace the word “capitalism” throughout textbooks with “free-enterprise system”, because, as Board member Terri Leo says, “Let’s face it, capitalism does have a negative connotation… You know, ‘capitalist pig’”.

“We are adding balance,” said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. “History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left.”

Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Board member David Bradley won approval for an amendment saying students should study “the unintended consequences” of the Great Society legislation, affirmative action and Title IX legislation.

They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”

“They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”

Board member Mary Helen Berlanga failed to gain recognition for Tejanos (original Texas-born Mexicans) who fell at the Alamo. She said the standards also ignore the Ku Klux Klan in Texas, Texas Rangers killing innocent Mexican-Americans, and the army’s role in annihilating the American Indian.

Berlanga said, “Until we are ready to tell the truth about history, we don’t have a good history or a good social studies curriculum for Texas.”

FOOTNOTE: A document containing the extensive revisions will be posted on the Texas Education Agency website and posted in the Texas register by mid-April. Once posted, the official 30-day public comment period will begin. At that time, comments with suggested changes to the document can be sent to rules@tea.state.tx.us.

Eddie Griffin Commentary

This is not the first time history has been revised in Texas. During the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, African-Americans were completely bleached out of the history books. There is no mention of the hundreds of thousands black troops that occupied the state and manned the police force under the governorship of Elisha M. Pease (1867-1869). No mention of the original black “cow boys”, before the western character became romanticized in folklore, books, and movies.

It was the African-American Student Movement of the 1960s that first demanded Black Studies in all the colleges and universities. This, of course, is probably what Dr. McLeroy meant by skewed to the left. Teachers who taught it were called communists and later pressured out of academia, only to be replaced with teachers who would tow the conservative line.

We have been forced to teach by double standard, first in meeting the state’s requirements for testing and graduation, and second in preserving what gains we have made in knowledge.

Make no mistake about it: If approved, this whitewashed curriculum is going into the textbooks, and children will be required to know it, just as we were required to study Texas history under Jim Crow.

Children will be tested and graded by regurgitating their indoctrination on tests. They cannot pass if they are not sufficiently brainwashed, like the reservation Indian children who were “Americanized” by forced and forbidden to speak their own language.

Lastly, they must pass an exit examination as proof that they are academically mute, with no role model in their own image. Their diploma will make them no smarter than the rest of the world. In fact, it will complete the dumb-down path that leads to nowhere but a minimum wage job.

It is no wonder that Governor Rick Perry turned down federal education money for higher academic achievement, and why he rejects federal incentives for higher educational standards.

Posthumous Pardon for Tim Cole

2010-03-02T12:20:00.002-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Take the life of an innocent man, but do not take his good name. This is all that is left of Tim Cole. Texas Governor Rick Perry granted the deceased young man a posthumous pardon for a crime he did not commit. It was the first posthumous pardon in state history.

Tim Cole was an African-American college student and a veteran from Fort Worth. While attending Texas Tech University in 1985, he was wrongly accused of raping another college student, convicted, and given a 25-year sentence. On December 2, 1999, he died on the prison floor while having an asthma attack.

We have written his story, over and over again, to explain how that the criminal justice system in Texas rush to judgment, and thirst for vengeance, could send an innocent black man to prison. It has happened many, many times before.

Over the years, the Innocent Project championed the cause of Tim Cole. As his family pushed for justice, we leant our voices to the chorus. This was one of our kids, from our own home town, a young man who had potential and drive, only to have his due right to life, liberty, and pursuit cut short.

"I have been looking forward to the day I could tell Tim Cole's mother that her son's name has been cleared for a crime he did not commit," declared Gov. Perry said in a statement. "The state of Texas cannot give back the time he spent in prison away from his loved ones, but today I was finally able to tell her we have cleared his name, and hope this brings a measure of peace to his family."

The state of Texas taketh away, but cannot give back. Nor can it purge its sin, except by making amends and provide for healing. The African-American community has been in mourning, because Tim Cole represented the brightest among our prospects to grow up and become somebody. Seeing the outcome of his life simply takes our collective breath away. Racially bias justice can terminate our child’s future.

Tim’s mother, Ruby Session, now 73, has waited a long time to see her son’s name cleared. In February 2009, after DNA testing, State District Judge Charles Baird of Austin exonerated Cole, saying the inmate had "suffered the greatest miscarriage of justice in our criminal justice system". Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles cleared the way for the governor to exercise the unprecedented powers of granting a posthumous pardon.

The governor called Mrs. Session on yesterday to give her the news. At the time, it was raining from heaven in Fort Worth, no doubt betwixt and between the tears of a brokenhearted mother. She declared the rain to be tears of joy.

But her joys are tempered by mourning and memory. As Tim’s brother, Cory Session, said in an interview, "To say the wheels of justice turn slow was an understatement when it came to Tim."

Corey is now policy director for the Innocence Project of Texas, the organization that spearheaded the movement to clear his brother’s name. The organization is also credited with the release of some 40 innocent men from the Texas Criminal Justice Department prison system.

"We will be doing this work as long as I'm able," said Mrs. Session in the interview. "We're on the forefront of a new day in the criminal justice system."

To everything, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven... a time to be born and a time to die... a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted... a time to kill and a time to heal... a time to break down and a time to build up. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-3)

Our Boy Windell in that Super Bowl Commercial

2010-02-09T11:47:00.001-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Monday, February 08, 2010

When I read this morning’s Star-Telegram newspaper, there was much abuzz about the Super Bowl commercials. (See “Super Bowl prices are eye-popping, but the ads are just so-so”). But there was no mention of Fort Worth’s own Windell Middlebrooks, the folksy down home African-American country boy playing the Miller High Life delivery guy. In this commercial, he surveys the nation in search of the common man who deserves the high life… at a reasonable price.

The Fort Worth native is a very familiar face in the High Life commercials. In fact, this was his second Super Bowl feature. Some may also remember him as the Dr. Pepper football player. But it is the Miller commercial character for which he is most remembered. It is a signature role that has won him a television cult following as a hard working beer truck driver fighting for the common man against the excessive elitists.

“Eleven-fifty for a hamburger? Ya’ll must be crazy,” quipped some Milwaukee fans, mimicking Wendell’s most famous tagline. Obviously, Miller town never heard a genuine down home black Texas country boy.

Middlebrooks describes the likeness of his character to himself in a 2007 article:

"Although this is a certain persona of the working-class man, I don't feel like I'm putting on a persona. This is my uncles, my grandparents. This is my family, who are just simple people and down to earth folk.

“I come from the hard-working people; the common man. It's not about the material things. You can get a quality product not paying a high price. Somewhere, it got lost that in order to get goods, you have to pay a lot for them. I come from 'No, you don't. You deserve the quality product at a reasonable price.”

Who is Windell Middlebrooks and where does he come from?

Middlebrooks grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and for a husky junior high schooler, that meant one thing: football.

“I played sports when I was in middle school, but I knew that this is not the passion I have, “he said. “If you're going to give your best, you've got to love it. I went to a high school, Trimble Tech High School, that had majors. I started out as a business major and hated it. I was sitting in accounting and the teacher wanted me out of the class because I hated going.”

Then, the theater called. “I started working the spotlight. Next year, I auditioned for a show and that was it. I went home and told my parents,” Middlebrooks said. “They didn't tell me until years later they just said on the bed and said ‘Oh, my God. He wants to be an actor.’”

(Source: http://www.onmilwaukee.com/market/articles/middlebrooks.html)

FOOTNOTE

Eddie Griffin was PTA president at Trimble Tech High School during the time that Windell Middlebrooks became a star in his own right as a youth, not in football, and not in the arts, but as a leader among his peers. He led a mass student walk-out at Trimble Tech in protest of the school district’s plan to shut down their athletic program.

One day the whole student body walked out of class, down the street, and across the Mile-Long Bridge over the Trinity River, to the Farrington Field. Hundreds, if not a thousand or more, made the trek, with Middlebrooks in the lead.

It was this inspiration that lead me to run for the PTA presidency, and to try and save the kid’s athletic program. In the end, we saved the program, only to discover other neglects. Thus, we wrote the Trimble Tech High School Improvement Plan.

Windell’s father became PTA president after my tenure, to see the plan take effect, and is still active in the Fort Worth Independent School District’s Community Action Team (CAT).

If his family and community had such a lasting impact upon Windell, then surely he has had an equally as great an impact upon us in the Fort Worth community.

Yet, while the entertainment section of newspapers and commercial replay video of Super Bowl attention, one folksy burley African-American kid, speaking on behalf the common man who deserves the High Life at a “tasty price”, missed the cut in today’s local news. Even in the minute-by-minute recount, the 30-second shot was not included.

A Dream For 2010

2010-01-18T13:15:00.004-07:00

For Immediate Release
February 01, 2010
Presidential Proclamation -- National African American History Month

A PROCLAMATION

In the centuries since African Americans first arrived on our shores, they have known the bitterness of slavery and oppression, the hope of progress, and the triumph of the American Dream. African American history is an essential thread of the American narrative that traces our Nation's enduring struggle to perfect itself. Each February, we recognize African American History Month as a moment to reflect upon how far we have come as a Nation, and what challenges remain. This year's theme, "The History of Black Economic Empowerment," calls upon us to honor the African Americans who overcame injustice and inequality to achieve financial independence and the security of self empowerment that comes with it.

Nearly 100 years after the Civil War, African Americans still faced daunting challenges and indignities. Widespread racial prejudice inhibited their opportunities, and institutional discrimination such as black codes and Jim Crow laws denied them full citizenship rights. Despite these seemingly impossible barriers, pioneering African Americans blazed trails for themselves and their children. They became skilled workers and professionals. They purchased land, and a new generation of black entrepreneurs founded banks, educational institutions, newspapers, hospitals, and businesses of all kinds.

This month, we recognize the courage and tenacity of so many hard-working Americans whose legacies are woven into the fabric of our Nation. We are heirs to their extraordinary progress. Racial prejudice is no longer the steepest barrier to opportunity for most African Americans, yet substantial obstacles remain in the remnants of past discrimination. Structural inequalities -- from disparities in education and health care to the vicious cycle of poverty -- still pose enormous hurdles for black communities across America.

Overcoming today's challenges will require the same dedication and sense of urgency that enabled past generations of African Americans to rise above the injustices of their time. That is why my Administration is laying a new foundation for long-term economic growth that helps more than just a privileged few. We are working hard to give small businesses much-needed credit, to slash tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, and to give those same breaks to companies that create jobs here at home. We are also reinvesting in our schools and making college more affordable, because a world class education is our country's best roadmap to prosperity.

These initiatives will expand opportunities for African Americans, and for all Americans, but parents and community leaders must also be partners in this effort.

We must push our children to reach for the full measure of their potential, just as the innovators who succeeded in previous generations pushed their children to achieve something greater. In the volumes of black history, much remains unwritten. Let us add our own chapter, full of progress and ambition, so that our children's children will know that we, too, did our part to erase an unjust past and build a brighter future.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 2010 as National African American History Month. I call upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

WATCH Night: Thursday, December 31, 2009

2009-12-31T10:15:00.004-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Watchman: What of the night? Watchman: What of the night? (Isaiah 21:11)

On the night of December 31, 1862, slaves in America gathered in churches, prayed all night, and watched for morning. For it was upon January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation would go into effect. We called it Watch Night.

The morning is coming, but also the night. (Isaiah 21:12)

As morning came and went, the Negro was only partially free. But morning cannot prevent the night, as long as the sun rises and sets. The night cometh again.

Somewhere in the Mississippi Delta, I was awaken to the fact that I was a male Negro child, and hated because of the color of my skin.

The Life and Death of Emmett Till tells our story of growing up black in America during the 1950s, and the perils of racial hatred and oppression.

If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again. (Isaiah 21:12)

I was 9 years old when they killed Emmett Till. He was only 14 when he was murdered in Mississippi, a world away from Texas. But I saw the picture of his mutilated body in Jet magazine. I could only imagine how they had tortured him all night that Sunday, August 28 1955.

What of the night and what does the autopsy show?

Did they castrate him like they did at every lynching? Did they gauge out his eyes, cut off his nose and his ears? Did they skin him and burn him with fire?

The barbwire wrapped around Emmett Till's neck did not kill him. He was already dead when they tied the barbwire to a fan weight and tossed his body over the Tallahatchie River.

At the age of 9, I began growing up with a sinking feeling in my stomach and apprehensions and phobias about certain people. There is evil in the world. It is a fact of life that I had to live with.

TASER International Crimes Against Humanity

2009-12-04T11:21:00.005-07:00

Manipulating the Truth about Tasers

THIS IS A PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

To insure Public Safety against tyranny by the exercise of excessive state powers to use force, we call into question the use of TASERs as a means of compliance control by law enforcement, in the United States. Although TASER International dispute the claim its Electronic Control Device (ECD) is lethal, we have cumulative history of 458 taser related deaths in North America (listed below), and 50 in the United States so far in 2009.

The preponderance of evidence before the court of world opinion concludes that tasers can and do cause death, and can easily be used and abused as weapons of torture. By its very nature, applied electrocution by conductive electricity is torture.

When Robert Heston (#110) died on February 20, 2005, after being tasered 20-23 times, TASER International claimed that “inherently” tasers were not deadly, but that the death of Heston was unforeseeable.

By the time Robert Dziekanski (#320) died in a Vancouver airport, on October 14, 2007, after being repeated tasered by Royal Canadian Mounted Police, TASER should have known that its non-lethal weapon could kill, and could kill easily. Thus began a year-long inquiry known as the Braidwood Inquiry.

Some of observations included that fact that Taser guns had not been properly tested for market, and TASER International should have known its lethal potential, and should have warned law enforcement agencies that over-exposure to applied electricity of 50,000 volts could kill the subject in custody.

The Heston jury also held TASER liable for 15% of the contributory to the cause of death, insofar as the company had not warned law enforcement agencies not to taser a subject 20-23 times, and especially not in the chest area above the heart. Multiple tasings go beyond incapacitation to electrocution, in merely a matter of seconds.

Michael Jacobs II (#424) was electrocuted on April 18, 2009, at the ends of the prongs of a taser held in the hands of Officer Stephanie Phillips, Fort Worth Police Department. In the inquiry, the officer admitted not knowing that she continually applied a force of 50,000 volts of electricity into the body of a mentally ill man, whose parents had only called for medical help, for a total of 54 seconds.

TASER maintains that useage was at the officer’s discretion as to when and duration. Stephanie Phillips could continually electrocute Jacobs with 50,000 volts without the feeling of empathy to the other's pain and suffering, either by a heartless heart or a headless knowledge of the power of her weapon. She did not know how deadly the weapon truly was.

She engaged the taser trigger for 49 seconds, the first time, because the young 24-year old man was “acting up” by refusing to take prescribed psychotropic (debilitating) medication for a diagnosed case of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. As a result of his refusing, his system was clean and clear of drugs, which had been the 85% contributory in the cause of Heston's death.

Phillips pulled the taser trigger a second time, for the duration of 5 seconds. Young Jacobs was dead, ruled a homicide by the medical examiner.

Here an innocent, mentally ill man gets shocked with 50,000 volts of electricity for 54 seconds. He dies, and there is not accountability.

The Tarrant County grand jury returned a NO BILL against Officer Phillips, holding her guiltless of any criminal intent.

Who then is to blame for the officer not knowing that engaging the trigger of a taser, absence-mindedly beyond its 5-second automatic shutoff, would endanger the life of the subject? Who is accountable for teaching that tasers do not kill? Not only to they kill, they torture by the very sensitivity of our skin.

Here is the Preponderance of Evidence: TASER International cannot disassociate itself from the causes of deaths, herewith, and the torture of millions of others.

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY- False advertising non-lethality claim - Complicit in the excessive use of force by encouraging the discharge of 50,000 against innocent and unarmed subjects resulting in death - Disproportionately used against the mentally ill in medical emergency circumstances - Exonerated by the courts through trickery - May the memory of these souls rest upon the consciouse of each TASER International executive, board of directors, and investors.

1. April 11 1985, Cornelius Garland Smith, 35, Los Angeles, California
2. March 9 1993, Michael Bryant, 35, Los Angeles, California
3. June 1, 1996: Scott Norberg, 32, Maricopa County, Arizona
4. September 28, 1999: David Flores, 37, Fairfield, California
5. May 14, 2000: Enrique Juarez Ochoa, 34, Bakersfield, California
6. June 17, 2001: Mark Burkett, 18, Gainesville, Florida
7. December 15, 2001: Hannah Rogers-Grippi, 6 months fetus, Chula Vista, California
8. December 17, 2001: Marvin Hendrix, 27, Hamilton, Ohio
9. December 21, 2001: Steven Vasquez, 40, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
10. January 27, 2002: Vincent Delostia, 31, Hollywood, Florida
11. February 12, 2002: Anthony Spencer, 35, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
12. March 27, 2002: Henry Canady, 46, Hilliard, Florida
13. May 17, 2002: Richard Baralla, 36, Pueblo, Colorado
14. June 10, 2002: Eddie Alvarado, 32, Los Angeles, California
15. June 15, 2002: Jason Nichols, 21, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
16. June 28, 2002: Clever Craig, 46, Mobile, Alabama
17. June 27, 2002: Fermin Rincon, 24, Fontana, California
18. June 2002: Unidentified male, 39, Phoenix, Arizona
19. July 19, 2002: Johnny Lozoya, Gardena, California
20. July 19, 2002: Gordon Jones, 37, Windermere, Florida
21. September 1, 2002: Frederick Webber, 44, Orange City, Florida
22. November 7, 2002: Stephen Edwards, 59, Shelton, Washington
23. March 16, 2003: Unidentified male, 31, Albuquerque, New Mexico
24. April 16, 2003: Corey Calvin Clark, 33, Amarillo, Texas
25. April 19, 2003: Terrence Hanna, 51, Burnaby, British Columbia
26. May 10, 2003: Joshua Hollander, 22, Normal Heights, California
27. June 9, 2003: Timothy Sleet, 44, Springfield Missouri
28. July 22, 2003: Clayton Willey, 33, Prince George, British Columbia
29. August 4, 2003: Troy Nowell, 51, Amarillo, Texas
30. August 8, 2003: John Thompson, 45, Carrollton Township, Michigan
31. August 17, 2003: Gordon Rauch, 39, Citrus Heights, California
32. September 24, 2003: Ray Austin, 25, Gwinnett, Georgia
33. September 29, 2003: Glenn Leyba, 37, Glendale, Colorado
34. September , 2003: Clark Whitehouse, 34, Whitehorse, Yukon
35. October 7, 2003: Roman Pierson, 40, Brea, California
36. October 11, 2003: Dennis Hammond, 31, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
37. October 21, 2003: Louis Morris, 50, Orlando, Florida
38. November 6, 2003: James Borden, 47, Monroe County, Indiana
39. November 10, 2003: Michael Johnson, 32, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
40. November 11, 2003: Kerry O’Brien, 31, Pembroke Pines, Florida
41. December 9, 2003: Curtis Lawson, 40, Unadilla, Georgia
42. December 9, 2003: Lewis King, 39, St. Augustine, Florida
43. February 4, 2004: David Glowczenski, 35, Southampton Village, New York
44. February 12, 2004: Raymond Siegler, 40, Minneapolis, Minnesota
45. February 21, 2004: Curt Rostengale, 44, Silverdale, Washington
46. February 21, 2004: William Lomax, 26, Las Vegas, Nevada
47. March 23, 2004: Perry Ronald, 28, Edmonton, Alberta
48. March 28, 2004: Terry Williams, 45, Madison, Illinois
49. April 1, 2004: Phillip LaBlanc, 36, Los Angeles, California
50. April 16, 2004: Melvin Samuel, 28, Savannah, Georgia
51. April 18, 2004: Alfredo Diaz, 29, Orange County, Florida
52. April 27, 2004: Eric Wolle, 45, Washington Grove, Maryland
53. May 1, 2004: Roman Andreichikov, Vancouver, British Columbia
54. May 13, 2004: Peter Lamonday, 38, London, Ontario
55. May 22, 2004: Henry Lattarulo, 40, Hillsborough, County Florida
56. May 27, 2004: Frederick Williams, 31, Lawrenceville, Georgia
57. May 30, 2004: Darryl Smith, 46, Atlanta, Georgia
58. May 31, 2004: Anthony Oliver, 42, Orlando, Florida
59. June 4, 2004: Jerry Pickens, 55, Bridge City, Louisiana
60. June 9, 2004: James Cobb, 42, St. Paul, Minnesota
61. June 9, 2004: Jacob Lair, 26, Sparks, Nevada
62. June 16, 2004: Abel Ortega Perez, 36, Austin, Texas
63. June 23, 2004: Robert Bagnell, 44, Vancouver, British Columbia
64. June 24, 2004: Kris Lieberman, 32, Bushkill Township, Pennsylvania
65. June, 2004: Bernard Christmas, 36, Dayton, Ohio
66. July 3, 2004: Demetrius Tillman Nelson, 45, Okaloosa County, Florida
67. July 11, 2004: Willie Smith, 48, Auburn, Washington
68. July 17, 2004: Jerry Knight, 29, Mississauga, Ontario
69. July 23, 2004: Milton Salazar, 29, Mesa Arizona
70. August 2, 2004: Keith Tucker, 47, Las Vegas, Nevada
71. August 8, 2004: Samuel Truscott, 43, Kingston, Ontario
72. August 11, 2004: Ernest Blackwell, 29, St. Louis, Missouri
73. August 11, 2004: David Riley, 41, Joplin, Missouri
74. August 13, 2004: Anthony Lee McDonald, 46, Harrisburg, North Carolina
75. August 16, 2004: William Teasley, 31, Anderson, South Carolina
76. August 19, 2004: Richard Karlo, 44, Denver, Colorado
77. August 20, 2004: Michael Sanders, 40, Fresno, California
78. August 24, 2004: Lawrence Davis, 27, Phoenix, Arizona
79. August 27, 2004: Jason Yeagley, 32, Winter Haven, Florida
80. August 29, 2004: Michael Rosa, 38, Del Rey Oaks, California
81. September 12, 2004: Samuel Wakefield, 22, Rio Vista, Texas
82. September 15, 2004: Andrew Washington, 21, Vallejo, California
83. September 20, 2004: Jon Merkle, 40, Miami, Florida
84. October 4, 2004: Dwayne Dunn, 33, Lafayette, Louisiana
85. November 2, 2004: Greshmond Gray, 25, LaGrange, Georgia
86. November 2, 2004: Robert Guerrero, 21, Fort Worth, Texas
87. November 7, 2004: Keith Raymond Drum, Clearlake, Califormnia
88. November 8, 2004: Ricardo Zaragoza, 40, Elk Grove, California
89. November 25, 2004: Charles Keiser, 47, Hartland Township, Michigan
90. November 27, 2004: Byron Black, 39, Lee County, Florida
91. December 4, 2004: Patrick Fleming, 35, Metairie, Louisiana
92. December 15, 2004: Kevin Downing, 36, Hollywood, Florida
93. December 17, 2004: Douglas Meldrum, 37, Wasatch County, Utah
94. December 17, 2004: Lyle Nelson, 35, Columbia, Illinois
95. December 23, 2004: Timothy Bolander, 31, Delray Beach, Florida
96. December 23, 2004: Ronnie Pino, 31, Sacramento, California
97. December 28, 2004: Christopher Hernandez, 19, Naples, Florida
98. December 29, 2004: Jeanne Hamilton, 46, Palmdale, California
99. December 30, 2004: David Cooper, 40, Marion County, Indiana
100. January 2, 2005: Gregory Saulsbury, 30, Pacifica, California
101. January 5, 2005: Dennis Hyde, 30, Akron, Ohio
102. January 7, 2006: Carlos Claros Castro, 28, Davidson City, North Carolina
103. January 8, 2005: Carl Trotter, 33, Pensacola, Florida
104. January 10, 2005, Jerry Moreno, 33, Los Angeles, California
105. January 28, 2005: James Edward Hudson, 33, Chickasha, Oklahoma
106. January 31, 2005: Jeffrey Turner, 41, Lucas County, Ohio
107. February 10, 2005: Ronald Alan Hasse, 54, Chicago, Illinois
108. February 12, 2005: Robert Camba, 45, San Diego, California
109. February 18, 2005: Joel Don Casey, 52, Houston, Texas
110. February 20, 2005: Robert Heston, 40, Salinas, California
111. March 3, 2005: Shirley Andrews, 38, Cincinnati, Ohio
112. March 6, 2005: Willie Towns, 30, Deland, Florida
113. March 12, 2005: Milton Woolfolk, 39, Lake City, Florida
114. March 17, 2005: Mark Young, 25, Indianapolis, Indiana
115. April 3, 2005: James Wathan Jr., 32, Delhi, California
116. April 3, 2005: Eric Hammock, 43, Fort Worth, Texas
117. April 8, 2005: Ricky Barber, 46, Carter County, Oklahoma
118. April 22, 2005: John Cox, 39, Bellport, New York
119. April 24 2005: Jesse Colter, 31, Phoenix, Arizona
120. May 3, 2005: Keith Graff, 24, Phoenix, Arizona
121. May 5, 2005: Kevin Geldart, 34, Moncton, New Brunswick
122. May 6, 2005: Stanley Wilson, 44, Miami, Florida
123. May 6, 2005: Lawrence Berry, 33, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
124. May 13, 2005: Vernon Young, 31, Union Township, Ohio
125. May 17, 2005: Leroy Pierson, Rancho Cucamonga, California
126. May 20, 2005: Randy Martinez, 40, Albuquerque, New Mexico
127. May 23, 2005: Lee Marvin Kimmel, 38, Reading, Pennsylvania
128. May 23, 2005: Richard Alverado, 38, Tustin, California
129. May 26, 2005: Walter Lamont Seats, 23, Nashville, Tennessee
130. May 28, 2005: Richard T. Holcomb, 18, Akron, Ohio
131. May 28, 2005: Nazario J. Solorio, 38, Escondido, California
132. June 4, 2005: Ravan Conston, 33, Sacramento, California
133. June 7, 2005: Russell Walker, 47, Las Vegas, Nevada
134. June 11, 2005: Horace Owens, 48, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
135. June 13, 2005: Michael Anthony Edwards, 32, Palatka, Florida
136. June 13, 2005: Shawn Pirolozzi, 30, Canton, Ohio
137. June 14, 2005: Robert Earl Williams, 62, Waco, Texas
138. June 24, 2005: Carolyn Daniels, 25, Fort Worth, Texas
139. June 24, 2005: Melinda Kaye Neal, 33, Whitfield County, Georgia
140. June 29, 2005: Pharoah Knight, 33, Miami, Florida
141. June 30, 2005: Gurmeet Sandhu, 41, Surrey, B.C.
142. July 1, 2005: James Foldi, 39, Beamsville, Ont.
143. July 7, 2005: Rocky Brison, 41, Birmingham, Alabama
144. July 12, 2005: Kevin Omas, 17, Euless, Texas
145. July 15, 2005: Ernesto Valdez, 37, Phoenix, Arizona
146. July 15, 2005: Paul Sheldon Saulnier, 42, Digby, Nova Scotia
147. July 15, 2005: Otis G. Thrasher, 42, Butte, Montana
148. July 17, 2005: Michael Leon Critchfield, 40, West Palm Beach, Florida
149. July 18, 2005: Carlos Casillas Fernandez, 31, Santa Rosa, California
150. July 23, 2005: Maury Cunningham, 29, Lancaster, South Carolina
151. July 27, 2005: Terrence L. Thomas, 35, Rockville Centre, New York
152. August 1, 2005: Brian Patrick O’Neal, San Jose, California
153. August 3, 2005: Eric Mahoney, 33, Fremont, California
154. August 4, 2005: Dwayne Zachary, 44, Sacramento, California
155. August 5, 2005: Olsen Ogoddide, 38, Glendale, Arizona
156. August 8, 2005: Unidentified male, 47, Phoenix, Arizona
157. August 26, 2005: Shawn Norman, 40, Laurelville, Ohio
158. August 27, 2005: Brian Lichtenstein, 31, Stuart, Florida
159. September 18, 2005: David Anthony Cross, 44, Santa Cruz, California
160. September 22, 2005: Timothy Michael Torres, 24, Sacramento, California
161. September 24, 2005: Patrick Aaron Lee, 21, Nashville, Tennessee
162. September 26, 2005: Michael Clark, 33, Austin, Texas
163. October 13, 2005: Steven Cunningham, 45, Fort Myers, Florida
164. October 20, 2005: Jose Perez, 33, San Leandro, California
165. October 25, 2005: Timothy Mathis, 35, Loveland, Colorado
166. November 1, 2005: Miguel Serrano, 35, New Britain, Connecticut
167. November 13, 2005: Josh Brown, 23, Lafayette, Louisiana
168. November 17, 2005: Jose Angel Rios, 38, San Jose, California
169. November 20, 2005: Hansel Cunningham, 30, Des Plaines, Illinois
170. November 26, 2005: Tracy Rene Shippy, 35, Fort Meyers, Florida
171. November 30, 2005: Kevin Dewayne Wright, 39, Kelso, Washington
172. December 1, 2005: Jeffrey Earnhardt, 47, Orlando, Florida
173. December 7, 2005: Michael Tolosko, 31, Sonoma, California
174. December 17, 2005: Howard Starr, 32, Florence, South Carolina
175. December 24, 2005: Alesandro Fiacco, 33, Edmonton, Alberta
176. December 29, 2005: David Moss, 26, Omaha, Nebraska
177. January 3, 2006: Roberto Gonzalez, 34, Waukegan, Illinois
178. January 5, 2006: Matthew Dunlevy, 25, Laguna Beach, California
179. January 13, 2006: Daryl Dwayne Kelley, 29, Houston, Texas
180. January 16, 2006: Shmekia Lewis (female), 24, Beaumont, Texas
181. January 22, 2006: Nick Ryan Hanson, 24, Ashland, Oregon
182. January 25, 2006: Murray Bush, Metairie, Louisiana
183. January 27, 2006: Jorge Luis Trujillo, San Jose, California
184. January 28, 2006: Karl W. Marshall, 32, Kansas City, Missouri
185. January 29, 2006 Benites Sichero, 39, Spokane County, Washington
186. January 31, 2006: Jaime Coronel, Castroville, California
187. February 6, 2006: Jessie Williams Jr., 40, Harrison County, Mississippi
188. February 13, 2006: Darval Smith, New Orleans, Louisiana
189. February 19, 2006: Gary Bartley, 36, Mandeville, Louisiana
190. February 24, 2006: Samuel Hair, 48, Fort Pierce, Florida
191. March 4, 2006: Melvin Anthony Jordan, 27, Norman, Oklahoma
192. March 8, 2006: Robert R. Hamilton, 42, St. Augustine, Florida
193. March 18, 2006: Otto Zehm, 35, Spokane, Washington
194. March 18, 2006, Cedric Davis, 26, Merced County, California
195. March 20, 2006: Timothy Grant, 46, Portland, Oregon
196. March 24, 2006: Theodore Rosenberry, 35, Hagerstown, Maryland
197. April 5, 2006: Thomas Clint Tipton, 34, Clearwater, Florida
198. April 15, 2006: Nick Mamino Jr., 41, St. Louis, Missouri
199. April 16, 2006: Billy Ray Cook, 39, Dublin, North Carolina
200. April 16, 2006: Juan Manuel Nunez III, 27, Lubbock, Texas
201. April 18, 2006: Richard McKinnon, 52, Cumberland County, North Carolina
202. April 21, 2006: Alvin Itula, 35, Salt Lake City, Utah
203. April 24, 2006: Jose Romero, 23, Dallas, Texas
204. April 24, 2006: Emily Marie Delafield, 56, Green Cove Springs, Florida
205. May 1, 2006: Jeremy Davis, 24, Bellmead, Texas
206. May 7, 2006: Kenneth Cleveland, 63, Ashtabula, Ohio
207. May 25, 2006: Brian Davis, 43, Los Angeles, California
208. June 4, 2006: Felipe Herrera, 48, Las Vegas, Nevada
209. June 13, 2006: Jerry Preyer, 43, Pensacola, Florida
210. June 18, 2006: Jason Troy Dockery, 31, Coolville, Tennessee
211. June 21, 2006: Kenneth Eagleton, 43, Crosby, Texas
212. June 21, 2006: Joseph Stockdale, 26, Indianapolis, Indiana
213. June 24, 2006: John Martinez, San Jose, California
214. July 3, 2006: Jermail Williams, 32, South Bend, Indiana
215. July 7, 2006: Michael Deon Babers, 26, Shreveport, Louisiana
216. July 8, 2006: Christopher Tull, 36, Cincinnati, Ohio
217. July 9, 2006: Nickolos Cyrus, 29, Mukwonago, Wisconsin
218. July 11, 2006: Jesus Negron, 29, New Britain, Connecticut
219. July 20, 2006: Mark McCullaugh, 28, Akron, Ohio
220. July 23, 2006: Shannon Johnson, 37, Pittsboro, North Carolina
221. August 2, 2006: Anthony Jones, 39, Merced, California
222. August 4, 2006: Ryan Michael Wilson, 22, Lafayette, Colorado
223. August 8, 2006: Curry McCrimmon, 26, Melbourne, Florida
224. August 8, 2006: James Nunez, 27, Santa Ana, California
225. August 9, 2006: Glen Thomas, 33, Wabasso, Florida
226. August 17, 2006: Raul Gallegos-Reyes, 34, Centennial, Colorado
227. August 21, 2006: Timothy Picard, 41, Woonsocket, Rhode Island
228. August 23, 2006: Noah Lopez,25, Fort Worth, Texas
229. August 30, 2006: Jason Doan, 28, Red Deer, Alberta
230. September 1, 2006: Juan Soto, Jr., 39, Liberal, Kansas
231. September 4, 2006, Jesus Mejia, 33, Los Angeles, California
232. September 5, 2006: Larry Noles, 52, Louisville, Kentucky
233. September 8, 2006: Perry Simmons, 35, Montgomery, Alabama
234. September 13, 2006: Laborian Simmons, 24, Marion County, Florida
235. September 17, 2006: Marcus Roach-Burris, 42, Menasha, Wisconsin
236. September 17, 2006: James Philip Chasse Jr., 42, Portland, Oregon
237. September 29, 2006: Joseph Kinney, 36, Madison Twp., Ohio
238. September 30, 2006: Vardan Kasilyan, 29, Las Vegas, Nevada
239. September 30, 2006: John David Johnson III, 27, Orange Park, Florida
240. October 1, 2006: Kip Darrell Black, 38, North Charleston, South Carolina
241. October 5, 2006: Michael Templeton, 50, Jonesboro, Arkansas
242. October 6, 2006: Herman Carroll, 31, Houston, Texas
243. October 9, 2006: James Simons, 35, Lincoln Park, Michigan
244. October 19, 2006: James Lewis, 37, Las Vegas, Nevada
245. October 19, 2006: Nicholas Brown, Milford, Connecticut
246. October 22, 2006: Jordan Case, 20, Tualatin, Oregon
247. October 22, 2006: Eddie Charles Ham Jr., 30, Montgomery, Alabama
248. October 23, 2006: Michael Todd Gleim, 40, Milford, Ohio
249. October 29, 2006: Roger Holyfield, 17, Jerseyville, Illinois
250. October 30, 2006: Jeremy Foos, 29, Columbus, Ohio
251. November 9, 2006: William Jobe, 40, Federal Way, Washington
252. November 14, 2006: Timothy Wayne Newton, 43, Rocky Mount, North Carolina
253. November 14, 2006: Darren Faulkner, 41, Southaven, Mississippi
254. December 3, 2006: Briant K. Parks, 39, Columbus, Ohio
255. December 17, 2006: Terrill Enard, 29, Lafayette, Louisiana
256. December 30, 2006: Daniel Walter Quick, 43, Magalia, California
???. January 2007: James Barber, 25, Ottawa, Ontario
257. January 5, 2007: Calvin Thompson, 42, Gastonia, North Carolina
258. January 6, 2007: Douglas John Ilten, 45, Fort Pierce, Florida
259. January 7, 2007: Blondel Lassegue, 38, Queen’s, New York
260. January 9, 2007: Pete Carlos Madrid, 44, Fresno, California
261. January 17, 2007: Keith Kallstrom, 56, Milan, Michigan
262. January 18, 2007: Andrew J. Athetis, 18, Gilbert, Arizona
263. January 29, 2007: Michael Keohan, 45, Huntingdon Park, California
264. January 30, 2007: Christopher L. McCargo, 43, Dayton, Ohio
265. February 11, 2007: Stephen Krohn, 44, Mesa, Arizona
266. February 21, 2007: Martin Mendoza, 43, Oceanside, California
267. March 13, 2007: Muszack Nazaire, 24, East Naples, Florida
268. March 15, 2007: Randy Buckey, 42, Marion, Ohio
269. March 16, 2007: Ryan Lee Myers, 40, Essex, Maryland
270. March 17, 2007: David Brown, 47, Park Forest, Illinois
271. March 17, 2007: Unidentified male, West Covina, CA
272. March 23, 2007: Sergio Galvan, 35, San Antonio, Texas
273. April 10, 2007: Eugene Donjuall Gilliam, 22, Prattville, Alabama
274. April 11, 2007: Roberto Perez, 25, Indio, California
275. April 14, 2007: Unidentified male, Phoenix, Arizona
276. April 22, 2007: David Mills, 26, Hamden, Connecticut
277. April 23, 2007: Unidentified male, Houston, Texas
278. April 24, 2007: Louis Jermaine Broomfield, 35, Charleston, South Carolina
279. April 24, 2007: Walter Heller, 55, Santa Rosa, California
280. April 24, 2007: Uywanda Peterson, 43, Baltimore, Maryland
281. April 30, 2007: Roy Hamner, 59, Pearl, Mississippi
282. May 5, 2007: Daniel Bradley Young, 33, Seminole, Florida
283. May 7, 2007: Robert A. Keske, 45, Seminole, Florida
284. May 12, 2007: Trent A. Yohe, 37, Spokane, Washington
285. May 12, 2007: Jeffry Young, 54, Bremerton, Washington
286. May 14, 2007: Terrill Heath, 31, Baltimore, Maryland
287. May 15, 2007: Chance W. Shrum, 20 years old, Iola, Kansas
288. May 16, 2007: Patrick D. Hagans, 42, Valleyview, Ohio
289. May 19, 2007: Milisha Thompson, 35, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
290. May 22, 2007: Kevin DeWayne Hill, 39, Knoxville, Tennessee
291. May 23, 2007: Raymundo Guerrerro Garcia, 33, Simi Valley, California
292. May 25, 2007: Steve Salinas, 47, San Jose, California
293. May 26, 2007: Marcus D. Skinner, 22, Seat Pleasant, Maryland
294. May 29, 2007: Doyle Moniki Jackson, 34, Benton Harbor, Indiana
295. May 29, 2007: Ramel Henderson, 51, San Diego, California
296. June 19, 2007: Juan Flores Lopez, 47, San Angelo, Texas
297. July 2, 2007: Richard Baisner, 36, Pasadena, California
298. July 8, 2007: Nathaniel Cobbs Jr., 25, Newburgh, New York
299. July 16, 2007: Albert Romero, 47, Denver, Colorado
300. July 20, 2007: Jermaine Thompson, 36, Kansas City, Missouri
301. July 25, 2007: Carlos Rodriguez, 27, Atlanta, Georgia
302. July 29, 2007: Ronald Marquez, 49, Phoenix, Arizona
303. August 2, 2007: Clyde Patrick, 44, Birmingham, Alabama
304. August 4, 2007: Gefery Johnston, 42, Chicago, Illinois
305. August 4, 2007: Stephen Spears, 49, Detroit, Michigan
306. August 4, 2007: James Barnes, 21, Omaha, Nebraska
307. August 11, 2007: Craig Berdine, 37, Fremont, Ohio
308. August 14, 2007: Rafael Forbes, 21, Jackson, Mississippi
309. August 15, 2007: James Wells, 43, Waterford, California (no. 275)
310. August 18, 2007: Thomas Campbell, 50, Baltimore, Maryland
311. August 23, 2007: Chad Cekas, 27, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
312. August 26, 2007: Glenn Shipman Jr., 44, Portland, Oregon
313. September 3, 2007: Earl Guerrant, 47, Golf Manor, Ohio
314. September 3, 2007: Charles Gordon, 26, Vallejo, California
315. September 9, 2007: Jorge Renteria Terrquiz, 25, Anaheim, California
316. September 20, 2007: Claudio Castagnetta, 32, Quebec City, Quebec
317. October 1, 2007: Samuel Baker, 59, Quitman, Georgia
318. October 1, 2007: Keith White, 44, Kansas City, Kansas
319. October 12, 2007: Michael Patrick Lass, 28, Orange County, California
320. October 14, 2007: Robert Dziekanski, 40, Richmond, BC
321. October 14, 2007: Donald Clark Grant, 54, Asheville, North Carolina
322. October 17, 2007: Quilem Registre, 39, Montreal, Quebec
323. November 1, 2007: Seldon Deshotels, 56, Lake Charles, Louisiana
324. November 2, 2007: Stefan McMinn, 44, Hendersonville, North Carolina
325. November 7, 2007: Roger Brown, 40, Miami, Florida
326. November 16, 2007: Paul Carlock, 57, Springfield, Illinois
327. November 18, 2007: Jesse Saenz, 20, Raton, New Mexico
328. November 18, 2007: Jarrel Gray, 20, Frederick, Maryland
329. November 18, 2007: Christian Allen, 21, Springfield, Florida
330. November 20, 2007: Conrad Lowman, Jacksonville, Florida
331. November 22, 2007: Howard Hyde, 45, Halifax, Nova Scotia
332. November 24, 2007: Robert Knipstrom, 36, Chilliwack, British Columbia
333. November 29, 2007: Ashley R. Stephens, 28, Ocala, Florida
334. November 30, 2007: Cesar Silva, 32, Los Angeles, California
335. December 10, 2007: Leroy Patterson Jr., 41, Walton County, Georgia
336. January 2, 2008: Brandon Smiley, 27, Mobile, Alabama
337. January 5, 2008: Ryan Rich, 33, Las Vegas, Nevada
338. January 9, 2008: Otis C. Anderson, 36, Fayetteville, North Carolina
339. January 11, 2008: Xavier Jones, 29, Coral Gables, Florida
340. January 15, 2008: Mark Backlund, 29, New Brighton, Minnesota
341. January 17, 2008: Baron Pikes, 21, Winnfield, Louisiana
342. January 18, 2008: Daniel Hanrahan, 44, Staten Island, New York
343. February 3, 2008: Louis Cryer, 32, Port Arthur, Texas
344. February 3, 2008: Joseph Davis, 50, Brandon, Mississippi
345. February 7, 2008: Richard Earl Abston, 53, Merced, California
346. February 19, 2008: Garrett Sean Farn, 41, Bakersfield, California
347. February 26, 2008: Barron Harvey Davis, 44, Mayes County, Oklahoma
348. March 4, 2008: Christopher Jackson, 37, Clay, New York
349. March 6, 2008: Javier Aguilar, 46, Roswell, New Mexica
350. March 18, 2008: Roberto Gonzalez, 24, Chicago, Illinois
351. March 20, 2008: Darryl Wayne Turner, 17, Charlotte, North Carolina
352. March 21, 2008: James Garland, 41, Deerfield Beach, Florida
353. March 29, 2008: Henry Bryant, 35, Indianapolis, Indiana
354. March 30, 2008: Walter Edward Haake Jr., 59, Topeka, Kansas
355. April 2, 2008: Jason Jesus Gomez, 35, Santa Ana, California
356. April 6, 2008: Yvelt Occean, 31, New Kent County, Virginia
357. April 22, 2008: Uriah Samson Dach, 26, Richmond, California
358. April 24, 2008: Kevin Piskura, 24, Cincinnati, Ohio
359. April 24, 2008: Dewayne Chatt, 39, Memphis, Tennessee
360. April 27, 2008: Paul Thompson, 24, Greensboro, North Carolina
361. April 28, 2008: Jermaine Ward, 28, Jackson, Tennessee
362. May 4, 2008: Joe Kubat, 21, St. Paul, Minnesota
363. May 6, 2008: James S. Wilson, 22, Alton, Missouri
364. May 28, 2008: Ricardo Manuel Abrahams, 44, Woodland, California
365. May 31, 2008: Robert Ingram, 27, Raceland, Louisiana
366. June 5, 2008: Willie Maye, 43, Birmingham, Alabama
367. June 6, 2008: Donovan Graham, 39, Meriden, Connecticut
368. June 8, 2008: Quintrell T. Brannon, 25, Vincennes, Indiana
369. June 9, 2008: Tony Curtis Bradway, 26, Brooklyn, New York
370. June 23, 2008: Jeffrey Marreel, 36, Norfolk, Ontario
371. June 24, 2008: Ernest Graves, 26, Rockford, Illinois
372. June 27, 2008: Nicholas Cody, 27, Dothan, Alabama
373. July 2, 2008: Isaac Bass, 34, Louisville, Kentucky
374. July 4, 2008: Othello Pierre, 23, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
375. July 8, 2008: Samuel DeBoise, 29, St. Louis, Missouri
376. July 8, 2008: Carlos Vargas, 42, San Bernardino, California
377. July 14, 2008: Marion Wilson Jr., 52, Houston, Texas
378. July 14, 2008: Deshoun Keyon Torrence, 18, Long Beach, California
379. July 22, 2008: Michael Langan, 17, Winnipeg, Manitoba
380. July 23, 2008: Richard Smith, 46, Dallas, Texas
381. July 26, 2008: Anthony Davidson, Statesville, 29, North Carolina
382. August 4, 2008: Jerry Jones, 45, Beaumont, Texas
383. August 4, 2008: Andre Thomas, 37, Swissvale, Pennsylvania
384. August 2, 2008: Lawrence Rosenthal, 54, Hemet, California
385. August 10, 2008: Kiethedric Hines, 31, Rockford, Illinois
386. August 15, 2008: Kenneth Oliver, 45, Miami, Florida
387. August 25, 2008: Ronald Adkisson, 59, Creston, Iowa
388. August 29, 2008: Stanley James Harlan, 23, Moberly, Missouri
389. September 3, 2008: Prince Swayzer, 38, San Jose, California
390. September 3, 2008: Andy Tran, 32, Garden Grove, California
391. September 11, 2008: Roney Wilson, 46, Hillsborough, Florida
392. September 17, 2008: Sean Reilly, 42, Mississauga, Ontario
393. September 19, 2008: Gabriel Bitterman, 23, Lincoln, Nebraska
394. September 25, 2008: Iman Morales, 35, New York, New York
395. September 30, 2008: Frank Frachette, 49, Langley, BC
396. October 1, 2008: Jose Anibal Amaro, 45, Orange County, Florida
397. October 18, 2008: Homer Taylor, 39, Chicago, Illinois
398. October 29, 2008: Trevor Grimolfson, 38, Edmonton, Alberta
399. October 31, 2008: Marlon Oliver Acevedo, 35, Riverside, California
400. November 2, 2008: Gordon Walker Bowe, 30, Calgary, Alberta
401. November 3, 2008: Adren Maurice Turner, 44, Mexia, Texas
402. November 10, 2008: Guy James Fernandez, 42, Santa Rosa, California
403. December 3, 2008: Leroy Hughes, 52, Covington, Kentucky
404. December 9, 2008: Quincy Smith, 24, Minneapolis, Minnesota
405. December 19, 2008: Edwin Rodriguez, 26, San Jose, California
406. December 21, 2008: Nathan Vaughn, 39, Santa Rosa, California
407. December 24, 2008: Mark Green, 46, Houston, Texas
408. January 8, 2009: Derrick Jones, 17, Martinsville, Virginia
409. January 11, 2009: Rodolfo Lepe, 31, Bakersfield, California
410. January 22, 2009: Roger Redden, 52, Soddy Daisy, Tennessee
411. February 2, 2009: Garrett Jones, 45, Stockton, California
412. February 11, 2009: Richard Lua, 28, San Jose, California
413. February 13, 2009: Rudolph Byrd, Age Unknown, Thomas County, Florida
414. February 13, 2009: Michael Jones, 43, Iberia, Louisiana
415. February 14, 2009: Chenard Kierre Winfield, 32, Los Angeles, California
416. February 28, 2009: Robert Lee Welch, 40, Conroe, Texas
417. March 22, 2009: Brett Elder, 15, Bay City, Michigan
418. March 26, 2009: Marcus D. Moore, 40, Freeport, Illinois
419. April 1, 2009: John J. Meier Jr., 48, Tamarac, Florida
420. April 6, 2009: Ricardo Varela, 41, Fresno, California
421. April 10, 2009: Robert Mitchell, 16, Detroit, Michigan
422. April 13, 2009: Craig Prescott, 38, Modesto, California
423. April 16, 2009: Gary A. Decker, 50, Tuscon, Arizona
424. April 18, 2009: Michael Jacobs Jr., 24, Fort Worth, Texas
425. April 30, 2009: Kevin LaDay, 35, Lumberton, Texas
426. May 4, 2009: Gilbert Tafoya, 53, Holbrook, Arizona
427. May 6, 2009: Grant William Prentice, 40, Brooks, Alberta
428. May 17, 2009: Jamaal Ray Valentine, 27, La Marque, Texas
429. May 23, 2009: Gregory Rold, 37, Salem, Oregon
430. June 9, 2009: Brian Layton Cardall, 32, Hurricane, Utah
431. June 13, 2009: Dwight Jerome Madison, 48, Baltimore, Maryland
432. June 20, 2009: Derek Kairney, 36, South Windsor, Connecticut
433. June 29, 2009: Shawn Iinuma, 37, Fontana, California
434. July 2, 2009: Rory McKenzie, 25, Bakersfield, California
435. July 30, 2009: Jonathan Michael Nelson, 27, Riverside County, California
436. August 9, 2009: Terrace Clifton Smith, 52, Moreno Valley, California
437. August 12, 2009: Ernest Owen Ridlehuber III, 53, Greenwood, South Carolina
438. August 14, 2009: Hakim Jackson, 31, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
439. August 18, 2009: Ronald Eugene Cobbs, 38, Greensboro, North Carolina
440. August 20, 2009: Francisco P. Sesate, 36, Mesa, Arizona
441. August 22, 2009: T.J. Nance, 37, Arizona City, Arizona
442. August 26, 2009: Miguel Molina, 27, Los Angeles, California
443. August 27, 2009: Manuel Dante Dent, 27, Modesto, California
444. September 7, 2009: Shane Ledbetter, 38, Aurora, Colorado
445. September 16, 2009: Alton Warren Ham, 45, Modesto, California
446. September 19, 2009: Yuceff W. Young II, Brooklyn, Ohio
447. September 21, 2009: Richard Battistata, 44, Laredo, Texas
448. September 28, 2009: Derrick Humbert, 38, Bradenton, Florida
449. October 2, 2009: Rickey R. Massey, 38, Panama City, Florida
450. October 12, 2009: Christopher John Belknap, 36, Ukiah, California
451. October 17, 2009: Frank Cleo Sutphin, 19, San Bernardino, California
452. October 27, 2009: Jeffrey C. Woodward, 33, Gallatin, Tennessee
453. November 13, 2009: Herman George Knabe, 58, Corpus Christi, Texas
454. November 14, 2009: Darryl Bain, 43, Long Island, New York
455. November 16, 2009: Matthew Bolick, 30, East Grand Rapids, Michigan
456. November 17, 2009: Edward Buckner, 53, Chattanooga, Tennessee
457. November 19, 2009: Jesus Gillard, 61, Bloomfield Township, Michigan
458. November 21, 2009: Ronald Petruney, 49, Washington County, Pennsylvania

Back-to-Back-to-Back Taser Deaths Kicks Off Crusade

2009-11-20T15:18:00.002-07:00

INFORMATION RELEASE
TO: Media Networks
Event: TASER WAR CRUSADE
Release Date: December 4, 2009

Back-to-Back-to-Back Taser Deaths Kicks Off Crusade
By Eddie G. Griffin (BASG)

Since the maker of the 50,000-volt electronic stun gun control device (ECD), TASER International, issued a new directive and warnings in an October 12, 2009 memo, there has been six more death, three in a matter of four days this past week:

• 453. November 13, 2009: Herman George Knabe, 58, Corpus Christi, Texas
• 454. November 14, 2009: Darryl Bain, 43, Long Island, New York
• 455. November 16, 2009: Matthew Bolick, 30, East Grand Rapids, Michigan

The word about tasers is obviously not getting out. There is still a general public acceptance of tasers as an better alternative to more deadly force, and the common belief among law enforcement that the instrument saves more lives than are lost. But is it saving lives of officers in the field at the expense of the lives of innocent people and thereby endangering the general public’s safety?

Truth Not Tasers blogsite now list the names of 455 people in North America who have lost their lives by tasers.

In a continuing effort to raise public awareness about the deadliness of the weapon, and the memory of those who needlessly died, we are waging a blogging campaign on December 4, 2009. The purpose of the Stop Taser Torture Blogging for Justice Day is “to unite the world’s bloggers” in America, Canada, and throughout the world to join in on the effort to stop tasers.

[Blog Registration through StopTaserTorture@gmail.com]

AfroSpear Network Blogger, Eddie G. Griffin (BASG), has joined the campaign to register the grievances against TASER International on behalf of Fort Worth, Texas families who have lost love ones to the device.

• 424. April 18, 2009: Michael Jacobs Jr., 24, Fort Worth, Texas
• 228. August 23, 2006: Noah Lopez, 25, Fort Worth, Texas
• 138. June 24, 2005: Carolyn Daniels, 25, Fort Worth, Texas
• 116. April 3, 2005: Eric Hammock, 43, Fort Worth, Texas
• 86. November 2, 2004: Robert Guerrero, 21, Fort Worth, Texas

Eddie G. Griffin (BASG), an Adult Friend of World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, Mariefred, Sweden, raise the issue of tasers used against children, contrary to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Resolution 44/25, adopted by the General Assembly on 20 November 1989, which states in Article 6 that “every child has the inherent right to life”, and in Article 37 (a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

These are children who died by taser.

• 7. December 15, 2001: Hannah Rogers-Grippi, 6 months fetus, Chula Vista, California
• 144. July 12, 2005: Kevin Omas, 17, Euless, Texas
• 249. October 29, 2006: Roger Holyfield, 17, Jerseyville, Illinois
• 351. March 20, 2008: Darryl Wayne Turner, 17, Charlotte, North Carolina
• 379. July 22, 2008: Michael Langan, 17, Winnipeg, Manitoba
• 408. January 8, 2009: Derrick Jones, 17, Martinsville, Virginia
• 417. March 22, 2009: Brett Elder, 15, Bay City, Michigan
• 421. April 10, 2009: Robert Mitchell, 16, Detroit, Michigan

Although the United States is not a signatory party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, these voiceless children have need of an advocate to speak on their behalf.

417. March 22, 2009: Brett Elder, 15, Bay City, Michigan

Hello, my name is Bethany and I have been reading a lot about how to try and change the state laws in Michigan. I was very close to the 15-year old boy Brett Elder (Dewy). I think about him every day and there is nothing I can do to bring him back, but there is something I can do, and that is to start a Petition. As you may know there have already been two deaths of minors in the State of Michigan this year. I am currently in the process of creating a petition (Dewy’s Minor Taser Protection Act).

If you have any advice for me please feel free to e-mail me. I have also a myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=474323826

Bethany A. Schuster, Bay City, Michigan (Tinkerbell283125@comcast.net)

[Editor's Note: As I write, a 10-year old girl has been tasered.]

TASER WARS: Another Chapter

2009-11-12T10:50:00.003-07:00

TASER International Zaps Non-lethal Claim with Video
By Eddie Griffin

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Who knows what Taser International chairman and co-founder Tom Smith was trying to prove when he zapped reporter Noah Shachtman with an X3 taser. What in the world was WIRE.com thinking when they allowed Shachtman to volunteer for a one-second jolt of 50,000 volts of electricity?

“It was brutal,” said Shachtman, “like sticking your finger in a socket over and over and over again. I screamed in pain as he zapped me. I screamed some more after it was over. Then I cursed, and put my fingers to the bridge of my nose.”

On the video, Smith and his assistant laughs lightheartedly. “Kind of like hitting a funny bone,” the chairman remarked. “Like a good workout.”

“Not exactly,” writes the reporter. “Five hours later, I was still tingling.”

It may have started out as a stunt to offset the rising negative image of tasers. But clearly in the end, the public relations repair backfired, as Shachtman became angry at the effects and after-effects of being tasered. That's when he began asking Taser International executives some hard questions.

“What I keep wondering is", Shachtman writes, "Who would inflict that kind of pain?”

So when we hear stories about grandmothers and kids and handcuffed prisoners and even runaway sheep getting tased, I asked Smith, what does that say about the stun gun’s impact?

He and his colleagues gently ducked the question, saying it was up to individual police forces and military units to teach their troops how and when to use the electroshock weapons. “All we can do is build in as many features as we can think of,” said Brian Beckwith, vice president of product development.

“Any new tool has to have good policy and good training,” Smith said. His VP of public relations, Peter Holran, added, “You’re not just going to give someone a BlackBerry and expect them to use it.”

My colleague Steven Levy then asked about that 72-year-old Texas woman who was tased during a traffic stop. “I felt it was justified,” Smith replied. “Just because she was 72 doesn’t mean she wasn’t strong,” one his associates answered.

Levy then tried to determine how old a lady has to be before she’s considered ineligible for zapping. Holran took it as an accusation. He said angrily that “we can’t change the U.S. Constitution.” After another minute or two, the question was repeated. Smith said there was no upper age — or a lower one, for that matter. The only guidance the company gives cops and soldiers is not to use the stun guns on pregnant women, or people with heart conditions or epileptics.”

By what notion does Peter Holran invoke the U.S. Constitution? The Eighth Amendment prohibits Cruel and Unusual Punishment.

From Tasers to Homicide: The Dividing Line on Torture

2009-11-10T13:03:00.009-07:00

U.S. Department of Justice
Community Relations Service
Harwood Center
1999 Bryan Street, Ste. 2050
Dallas, TX 75201
Tele. 214-655-8190
Fax: 214-655-8184

Attn.: Synthia Demons,
Senior Conciliation Specialist, SW Region
synthia.demons@usdoj.gov

RE: From Tasers to Homicide: The Dividing Line on Torture

Dear Synthia Demons:

We are grateful to have the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice given in this matter of grievance against Tasers, and appreciate your appointment as Conciliation Specialist to help us reach a resolution with the City of Fort Worth and the law enforcement community.

As an advocate of peace, I published “Towards Closure and Resolution in Taser Death of Michael Jacobs Jr.”, August 29, 2009. But there is still a disconnection in communications with government, and an irreconcilable breach with TASER International, manufacturer of the taser device.

The company’s statement aired Saturday on 33 NEWS concedes that tasers are not “risk free”, but nevertheless claim that the devices provide a safer alternative to deadly force. (See Saturday demonstration and read TASER International’s statement at http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-march-for-dignity-story,0,5385639.story).

We contend that the taser is deadly force insofar as 50,000-volts of electrical output have the capacity to literally cook a person’s internal organs. If we can show that Jacobs was electrocuted, charred inside like fried chicken, the public would be horrified, and city leaders should be ashamed. This is why we are asking for public disclosure of the autopsy report.

For those who contend that tasers save more lives than lives lost, we do not see this as a trade-off. An innocent law-abiding citizen should not be subjected to the risk.

In May 2006, the Lake Como Church of Christ convened an education panel to discuss plans police officers had for using tasers in the schools. Panelist included FW Chief of Police Ralph Mendoza, school board members T.A. Sims and Juan Rangel, Judges L. Clifford Davis and Sharon Newman, FWISD representatives Loester Posey and Cecile Standfield, and Civil Rights lawyer Bobbie Edmonds.

It was then we publicly opposed using tasers on middle school age children.

In July 2008, Amnesty International USA announced that the U.S. Department of Justice was looking into 30 taser related deaths, and could possibly investigate up to 180 cases. Since then, there has been no progress report from USDOJ.

We are hopeful with a new administration and a new Congress that the issue will again merit attention.

On April 19, 2009, I delivered a Resolution to the Family of Michael Jacobs Jr. at the funeral on behalf the international blogging community.

(Ref. http://eddiegriffinbasg.blogspot.com/2009/04/resolution-for-michael-patrick-jacobs.html.)

Another Day of Blogging for Justice against Tasers is scheduled for December 4th. (See announcement: http://stoptasertorture.wordpress.com/partners/)

In the meantime, we continue to circulate a petition to Congress. (See http://www.petition2congress.com/2/1822/taser-torture-in-america-call-congressional-hearings/)

Ms. Demons, it would be of great help if you would describe the function of your office and an update on your findings and how you would hope to reconcile city leaders with the families and friends who have been touched by tasers. As you know, whenever government no longer listens to the grievance of the people, we are forced to raise our voice to the next higher level, from national to international. Ultimately, our last appeal will be before the throne of grace, because TASER International will not heed our plea.

How does the USDOJ offer to reconcile this military contractor with those maimed, injured, and killed by its weapons?

An answer to these questions will go a long way in our understanding the role of federal authorities to redress the grievances of citizens whose right to life have been extinguished by the summary judgment of a law enforcement officer, acting as judge, jury, and executioner.

Sincerely,
Eddie Griffin (BASG)
AfroSpear in the News

A copy of this correspondence is forwarded to the addresses below:

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

Mantel of Peace upon President’s Shoulders

2009-11-05T10:08:00.002-07:00

By Eddie Griffin (BASG)

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Today has been declared the day to Blog Blast for Peace. For us, it is a day to meditate the meaning of Peace within the context of a complex world at war.

President Barack Obama is between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, he contemplates sending more troops into Afghanistan. On the other, the world community has placed the mantel of peace upon his shoulders by awarding him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

It is an agonizing dilemma, a paradox in a box, a damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don’t situation.

I remember the face of President Lyndon B. Johnson as he agonized over the war in Vietnam. It is a hard situation to be in, because there were forces on both sides: some for war and some for peace, the same as we have today.

The problem has always been our nationalistic pride versus the cost of war, not the mention the damn-it-hell at all cost dogmatic attitude. We have been groomed and conditioned to think that just because we are Americans, we are always right and we must always win. We are intolerant of our enemies. We will not even listen to what they have to say. We have no respect for their being.

If they have a grievance against us, we will not hear it, because we are Americans, and we are always right. Whatever grievance they have against us is unrighteous and false.

We have no respect for the world community. We hate the United Nations that we created, because most of the member nations do not agree with us, like the puppet governments of the past. We no longer dominate the world. We no longer control global thinking.

But our hearts are hardened like Pharaoh. We declared a war, when there was no war, only rogues who committed a horrendous act of terrorism on September 11, 2001. But our anger and thirst for hasty revenge led us into the quagmire that we are now in.

Before a leader goes off to war, he should first sit down and count up the cost. So says the bible, a copy of which should be at the right hand of any president.

But, in the current situation, we did not sit down and count up the cost. Some in the previous administration believed that we could dispatch with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, along with Saddam Hussein, in a matter of months. All we needed was a convenient believable excuse to start, and what could be more terrifying after 9/11 than to declare that the enemy had WMDs (weapons of mass destruction).

Off to war we go. Mistakes were made, we all admit. We were not as right or righteous as we originally thought in our collective nationalistic hearts. President Barack Obama inherited these messy wars. They are now his to conquer, or his to resign his forces. It is an impossible situation to be in. It will be impossible to please everyone.

No, this is not a decision to be made by consensus. The country is divided almost 50-50. This is a decision for the President and the President alone.

Those who will criticize him for not sending more troops are the very ones who will criticize him if he does. This is strictly partisans, after the vintage of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and FOX commentators, along with politicians who capitalize on this type of partisan divide.

That there is division is a fact of life in American. Some of us are sick of war and still have the bitter taste of the WMD fiasco in our craw. It is impossible to start an unrighteous war and win it in the name of God. There is something else at work here.

To date, I have allowed some of my children to pursue military careers without uttering a word of dissent, knowing that they would be sent to Afghanistan and Iraq. To serve one’s country is the highest honor a soldier can achieve. And, there is no more noble sacrifice than a man lay down his life for his friends, family, and nation.

But I question the nobility of the war itself. I feel as though the American people are left in the blind, as to what this war is all about. For those who believe that radical Muslims hate democracy are brainwashed. Everybody loves freedom. But the Taliban wants freedom on their term, in their own country, under their own sovereignty, whether America likes it or not. These are tribal people with tribal government. A central government means nothing to them, but a loss of autonomy.
This is an unconditional line in the sand.

It is rather late in the game to go back and sit down and count up the cost of these wars. We have already paid a heavy toll in the initial investment. But the cost of war must coincide with what we mean by the concept of “War”.

War, to me, is one thing. War, to the Taliban, is another. I cannot superimpose my meaning of war upon my foe, for he fights a “holy war” in his mind, a Jihad, something Americans cannot even phantom.

Only an insurgent understands the meaning of Jihad. It means fighting down to the last man, woman, and child. It is a generational fight, bred into the minds of the children of our enemy from birth.

Have we lost a page from history? The Crusade lasted 505 years. Did we factor this into the cost of our wars? Are we prepared even for a 100-year war? Only arrogant eyes are too short to see.

Now the Mantel of Peace is upon the shoulders of President Barack Obama. People of the world believe that he has opened up a new chapter in global relations. He is a thoughtful man and well spoken. He is considerate of his neighbors. Instead of talking at neighbors and talking down to our allies, he confers with them in earnest, and listens to and respects their views. He has extended an olive branch to our foes.

Though many hate him for this conciliatory attitude, insofar as he is not brash and abrasive as his predecessors, he nevertheless is wise enough to ponder rather than be pressured.

I am reminded of a prophet who was forewarned of God not to be troubled by the hard faces of his foes, whether they hated him, whether they were angry at him, or whether they were simply hard hearted against his word. The word is this:

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. (Psalm 34:14)

The President should listen to his enemies and weigh their words, in the light of day. If, for no cause, they fight us, and if it is war, down to the last man, woman, and child, then so be. And, God help us all.

Annihilation for the sake of peace is a valid option.

March Against Tasers Targets City

2009-11-04T13:26:00.004-07:00

STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: Eddie G. Griffin 817-721-7439

March Against Tasers Targets City

FORT WORTH, Texas – On Saturday, November 7, people will march from downtown City Hall to the uptown County Courthouse, starting at noon, to highlight the increasing number of deaths related to tasing. The march dubbed as a March for Dignity is part of a growing movement around the country and the world to end the use of tasers deployed by law enforcement.

The Fort Worth demonstration is aimed to make a statement to city leaders and law enforcement.

The controversy arises at the same time the number of taser related fatalities approaches 500. At the same time, however, Taser International, the maker of the electronic control device (ECD), continually insists the weapon is non-lethal.

In Fort Worth, when Carolyn Daniels (#138) was died on the floor in the county jail after being tasered on June 24, 2005, hardly anyone paid notice. They said she had crack cocaine in her system. Had she not, we were led to believe, she would have survived the shocking.

But Michael Jacobs Jr. (#424) had no such foreign substance in his system when he was tasered and died on April 18, 2009.

As an emissary who stood over the coffin of the 24-year old young man, I delivered a Resolution to the family on behalf of the international community, and a network of supporters. From Amnesty International to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and bloggers around the world, we raised our voices against this form of torture and death.

I shed a tear for Michael. I shed a tear for Carolyn. I shed a tear for Deacon Fredrick William (#56) whose video electrocution was shown all over the internet, shocked repeatedly in the neck until dead. The remaining 22 minutes of the video was devoted to trying to bring him back to life, and the egg-look on the face of the officers.

But I shed more tears for the living and the unborn. When Valreca Redden was tasered by Trotwood police, she was pregnant. No one can imagine the trauma to the unborn fetus as his mother was being electrocuted with 50,000 volts of electricity. She was guilty of nothing except being distraught. The baby was completely innocent.

We are just now realizing some the lingering after-effects of tasing. Some who have been tasered in the past are now beginning to show signs of involuntary neuromuscular convulsions, what we otherwise would call the “twitches”.

Imagine, if you will, the last minute of Michael Junior’s life, for that is just about how long it took Officer Stephanie Phillips to summarily electrocute him and terminate his life.

For one minute, hold your breath, and close your eyes, and imagine sticking your finger into a light socket. Hold it there for one minute, while 240 volts of electricity race through your body. Are you still holding your breath?

That is what happened to Michael Jacobs Jr. But instead of 240 volts, it is 50,000 volts, blazing inside his body, for one whole minute. At the first jolt, the muscles contract and hold, and hold, and hold, until there is a release. If there is no release, the organ muscles shut down and organs began to pop.

Michael could not breathe, even if he wanted to. The lung muscles shut down. The heart muscle shut down. The bile burst, and the organs fried like chicken, for one eternity of a minute. Thus, what the coroner saw was ruled a homicide.

Consider the Poem by Willie Jolley:

I have only just a minute, only sixty seconds in it
Forced upon me, can't refuse it
Didn't seek it, didn't choose it,
But it's up to me to use it
I must suffer if I abuse it.
Just a tiny little minute
But Eternity is in it.

In memory of Michael Jacobs Jr. by Eddie G. Griffin (BASG)

Larger than Life Limbaugh: REJECTED

2009-10-15T07:53:00.002-07:00

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Bite the bullet, Rush. It’s not personal, it’s only business. Where you seek to plow and profit is a ground cursed to you. You will profit, but only at the expense of the league, the players, and the integrity of the game. As your revenues go up, America’s image goes down the tube.

Sorry, Rush, the NFL is looking for tunas that taste good, not tunas with bad taste.

Whatever distractions you bring to the game would cost your business partners dearly. I assure you, even I would hate to watch my favorite pasttime sport, knowing you were part owner of a team.

And even if you represent as much as 49% of the American listening audience, 51% owners say NO, NO, NO… HELL, NO!

Have a good day, Rush, and give your ego a break and your tonsils some rest. You are beginning to sound like a spoiled brat.

And, don’t even think about suing.

Eddie Griffin, BASG

Seek Peace

Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. (1 Peter 3:8-12 KJV)

Nobel Peace Prize Committee Honors President Barack Obama

2009-10-13T09:14:00.003-07:00

What it means

By Eddie Griffin

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The key word here is not Barack Obama, but “Peace”, something people seems to have a lost a sense of, here, recently.

Rush Limbaugh called the Peace Prize “a joke”. He obviously mistakes the message with the messenger. Hence, he announces that he and the Taliban are “on the same side”, as if an irony. Barack Obama, says Limbaugh, should not receive the honor.

Ross Douthat, New York Times News Service, writes this article for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “Barack should have turned down the Nobel Peace Prize” (excerpted):

Obama gains nothing from the prize… He’s the Nobel laureate who’ll probably fail… the prize leaves Obama more open to ridicule. It confirms, as a defining narrative of his presidency, the gap between his supporters’ cloud-cuckoo-land expectations and the inevitable disappointments of reality... "the world’s biggest celebrity," famous more for being famous than for any accomplishment… Great achievements may still await our Nobel president. If Obama goes from strength to strength, then this travesty will be remembered as a footnote to his administration, rather than a defining moment.

But by accepting the prize, he’s made failure, if and when it comes, that much more embarrassing and difficult to bear.

Eddie Griffin from Cloud-Cuckoo-Land to Ross Douthat @ New York Times News Service

Notwithstanding, according to the bible, there will be wars and rumors of wars, Ross Douthat now elevates Rush Limbaugh’s hope of President Barack Obama’s failure to a prophecy of inevitability. Note that he says “the Nobel laureate who’ll probably fail”, followed by “failure, if and when it comes”.

Notice in history: Failure and black men go together like white on rice… bleached, processed, and conditioned.

Otherwise, those of us who voted for Obama and support him have been relegated by the writer to Cloud-Cuckoo-land, with our idealistic Utopian expectations. Far enough, except when I hear Rush Limbaugh says that he is “ironically” on the same side as the Taliban, I wonder who is on Cloud-Cuckoo-land. It seems to me, birds of a feather flock together.

The Taliban hates peace, because the conditions of peace favor the Americans more than the Taliban. That, I can understand. But when an American talk show radio host identifies with and agrees with the Taliban, he spurns the message of peace because he hates the messenger. He insults the very people who voted for Obama. He assails our hope.

Says Limbaugh, Barack Obama should not receive the Nobel Peace Prize honor. But then, what does Limbaugh know about “honor” and giving honor to who honor is due? Instead, he slanders the award in order to demean the man.

Critics say Obama has only been in office 10 months, and the award is premature, that he has not earned it yet. And then, there is that “thin narrow minority” (which Jimmy Carter described) who hate to see a black man honored at anything. They hate the fact that he is President to begin with, let alone winning the Peace Prize.

I’m not surprised. I’ve heard it all before. Martin Luther Coon should not get the Nobel Peace Prize because he is a Communist, and the most dangerous man in America. The advocate of Peace won. The Prince of Peace was crucified on the cross. Martin was martyred, not as a saint, but a man they hated because of the color of his skin.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

In Martin’s day, they were enemies of peace, because keeping Negroes in their place was the only type of peace they wanted. Now, they extol MLK as some kind of saint, posthumously, of course, with all the other so-called saints and prophets.

When Christmas time comes, they will do like the typical hypocrite. They'll send out a card that proclaims: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will towards men. (Luke 2:14) Needless to say, good will is needed before we can ever hope for peace.

That was the message.

The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. (James 3:18) The hateful cannot make peace nor can they find peace within.

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. (James 4:1-2)

BlogBlast For Peace: November 5, 2009

I Just Saw the Doctor:

2009-10-02T11:28:00.003-07:00

Sobbering words from Michael Burgess, M.D.

I just came from seeing the doctor. I’m fine. But the doc is kinda sick, at least by my diagnosis. That would be my congressman, Dr. Michael C. Burgess, U.S. Representative for the 26th District.

One on one, we talked at each other, some hits, some misses, and how much really stuck, I don’t know. I am sick and tired of hearing about healthcare. All I want for my people is that they get medical treatment, when they need it, at an affordable cost. That’s the bottom line.

It was not my job, as a constituent, to read a 1,000-page healthcare proposal, and follow and track every major and minor change. That’s why we sent him to Congress.

Had I ever wavered in my confidence in him? No. I even publicly recommended that he and President Barack Obama meet and go through the bill, line by line. [Obviously, the President had said some idiocy like he would meet with any member of Congress and go through the bill, line by line, and Burgess called his bluff and got snubbed.]

I liked Burgess' healthcare co-opt financing plan, as a compromise, and a few other good ideas. And, as for healthcare cost reduction through tort reform, there was room for negotiations (less legal fees and support from the legal and labor industries). We understood the bill was being shaped by competing interests.

But cost reduction by efficiency never came into the discussion. Instead, the congressman only wanted to do was explain his NO vote against the healthcare proposal, and why he would probably vote NO at the end, and why he did not conduct a town hall meeting in the minority community.

He was concerned also about how the economic downturn was impacting this, the poorest community in his district. One of the reasons he opposed the healthcare bill, he claims, was because all the new healthcare clinics was going to Democratic districts. And, it was appearing that all the stimulus money was going up North.

How were we fairing in Southeast Fort Worth?

"To the victor go the spoils", I reminded him. He had had his heydays, during the last Republican administration, when our community was most neglected. To the victor went the spoils, then. To the victor should go the spoils, we agreed... end of that discussion.

Poverty was being mitigated, but infant mortality was still high.

The congressman described some of the town hall meetings he had conducted on the healthcare issue. Some forums were vocal and volatile. He could not see inviting such volatility into our minority community, which was mainly pro-Democratic, and contrary to his party line vote. To do so would be like inviting the Tea Party to The Hood. At the very thought, I could see the terror in his eyes, as we sat nose to nose at a table over a cup of coffee. "Security," he muttered.

The African-Americans in our community would act civilly, I assured him. That wasn't the problem. He wasn’t too sure about his people.

“Teach them how to be more civil,” I said, alluding to Rep. Joe Wilson's recent gaff remark, and how he, Burgess, had been caught flatfooted on MSNBC TV. The reported had asked him pointedly, if he thought Joe Wilson's remarks were civil. Burgess replayed about how Bush was booed, and evaded answering the question, altogether.

“You," he He laughed, "a former Black Panther, are going to tell me about being civil?”

I replied, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” And that was that.

We have our work cut out for us ahead. He concedes that healthcare reform, in some form or another, will pass, without his approval. The insurance companies want mandatory coverage, with a punishment clause for those who do not purchase insurance. There will be no public option. Although he supports co-opts, in lieu of the public option, he will probably not support any bill.

He assured me of his precarious political position as a Republican representative of our district. Just talking to me, he would be branded as a traitor. On the other hand, I know Democrats who depises my talking to a Republican.

"That’s why we put you in the hot seat," I reminded him, "in order for you can take the flack. It’s not my job to take heat."

In the next election, he may be opposed by a member of his own party, and he assured me that if he had a successor, his opponent would be East of Eden in conservatism.

I must acknowledge the forces that would make Barack Obama, a disappointed one-term president like Jimmy Carter, who, in my opinion, the best man ever to hold the office before now. Burgess, on the other hand, still calls George W. Bush “his president”, and refuses to recognize the presidency of Barack Obama.

There is a page in obscurity reserved for the presidency of Barack Obama, if the revisionists ever have their way. Other one-term presidents have been rendered into obscurity. Therefore, all I can say is:

Let us work, while it is day. For the night cometh when no man can work (John 9:4).

We are a Hopeless Society

2009-10-01T07:51:00.003-07:00

By Eddie Griffin

Thursday, October 01, 2009

I know it is not a nice thing to say, but our society is Hopeless. To that end, I am glad that I have not put much hope in the people that make up this society. That many people are hopeless comes as no surprise. Just pick up the newspaper: “Man abducts 11-year old and holds her captive for 28 years.” This is insane. How could such a person live among us for 28 years without notice? The answer is: He looked and acted “normal”.

The Bell Curve of Normalcy is totally out of whack.

What would make it acceptable to a group of juveniles to bash another kid in the head and kill him? Isn’t this insane?

No, it is too much like sane acceptable behavior, because everybody thinks they have a right to do their own thing. There is no forethought of consequence. Who ever does consider the consequences, anyway? Society is so hopelessly self-satisfied and perfect in its own eyes.

Consider this contradiction: President Barack Obama ran on a campaign of Hope… hope for the future, hope for the nation, hope for the children, and hope for the downtrodden. Another man, Rush Limbaugh has hope also. He hopes the President fails. Too many people agree with the latter hope.

But hope for failure is self-destructive, but it own motive. Hope for success is plowed in high expectations. It takes collective work and responsibility to succeed. It takes nothing to fail.

That our society is hopeless does not kill my joy, because my hope is not in this world, neither is my hope in fallible man. My hope is in the life after.

And so, I rejoice in a hope that the world does not have, nor can receive. The house is on fire. Nero played the fiddle because it was hopeless. I rejoice in hope of a rescue from Christ Jesus out of the flames.

I voted for Barack Obama because he espoused and inspired hope. That there are hope killers goes without saying.

Former President, Jimmy Carter, was right, including his assertion that the majority of the white people in the South oppose the President because of the color of his skin. People will admit to the abstract existence of racism, but they will never put the tail on the donkey. It is always: “I know racism exists, but not me.” It is the wolf in sheep’s clothes to deny, deny, deny.

Like Carter, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck in Texas.

It is prudent for President Barack Obama not to acknowledge it publicly, less he gives it more life, credence, and legitimacy. For all intent and purpose, however, the wolf has lost its teeth. It can only espouse hatred and violence.

I am propounded daily by select colleagues professing: The wolf is over here. Come and help us before we are eaten.

The Republicans are coming. The Republicans are coming. They are going to try to take back the Whitehouse in 2012.

What is that to me when society is hopeless? Should I care if the next president is black or white, Democrat or Republican? Who holds the future, anyway?

This does not say that I do not care. No, I just do not care for the path our society is following. I care for those who are being led into self-destruction, particularly the innocent children.

A speech by the President aimed at school children was dubbed as “propaganda” and an attempt at “brainwashing”. This being said long before the words of the speech were published.

It’s the same old same old. I teach your kids and we call it education. You teach my kids and we call it brainwashing. What is brainwashing except the selective exclusion of facts, and inclusions of myths, distortions, and lies?

I often asked myself, while growing up in Texas, why there were no Negroes in the history books. I discovered a deliberate attempt many years ago to exclude Colors out of the newspapers, except for negative image stories. Where can I learn of my forefathers contributions to society? It was never intended that I should.

The talk about propaganda and brainwashing is a pure hoax, in the context of advocating hope, because hope is without substance, something yet unmade. Hope is not seen. It is only envisioned. And, without a vision, the people perish.

Which brings us back to today, and why we are a hopeless society.