Dallas Police Officer Should Be Fired!

AAPP: More heartless bullying of black men by police, again ... caught on tape. This time it's Police delaying an NFL player from seeing his dying mother-In-Law. The NY Times says it best when they said, a Dallas police officer makes death even worse. The Dallas News is also on point when they write, Editorial: Dallas cop doesn't deserve his badge.

As reported by the Associated Press, A Dallas police officer was put on desk duty after pulling over an NFL player rushing to see his dying mother-in-law in the hospital and holding him in the hospital parking lot as she died. Dallas Police Officer Robert Powell stopped Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats' SUV outside Baylor Regional Medical Center during the early hours of March 18 after Moats rolled through a red light.

The Dallas Morning News provides an unedited Dallas police dashboard camera video shows traffic stop of NFL player Ryan Moats. The Dallas Morning News provides the nearly 17-minute video shows the entire incident involving Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats and Dallas police officer Robert Powell. Moats was rushing his wife and two of her family members to a hospital, where his mother-in-law lay dying. She died while Moats and his wife's grandfather waited outside the hospital for the officer to issue a ticket. Edited

Moats and his family had gotten a call saying his mother-in-law was dying.
Video from a dashboard camera inside the officer's vehicle, obtained by Dallas-Fort Worth station WFAA-TV, revealed an intense exchange in which the officer threatened to jail Moats.
He ordered Moats' wife, Tamishia Moats, to get back in the SUV, but she ignored him and rushed inside the hospital to see her mother, Jonetta Collinsworth, 45, and was by her side when she died a short time later. She had breast cancer.

"Get in there," said Powell, yelling at 27-year-old Tamishia Moats, as she exited the car. "Let me see your hands!"

"Excuse me, my mom is dying," Tamishia Moats said. "Do you understand?"

Moats explained that he waited until there was no traffic before proceeding through the red light and that his mother-in-law was dying, right then.

Moats couldn't find his insurance paperwork, and was desperate to leave.
"Listen, if I can't verify you have insurance...," Officer Powell said. "My mother-in-law is dying," Moats interrupted.

As they argued, the officer got irritated. "Shut your mouth," the officer said. "You can either settle down and cooperate or I can just take you to jail for running a red light."
By the time the 26-year-old NFL player received a ticket and a lecture from Powell, 25, at least 13 minutes had passed.

When he and Collinsworth's father entered the hospital, they learned Collinsworth was dead, The Dallas Morning News reported in today's editions.
The Moatses, who are black, said they can't help but think that race might have played a part in how Powell, who is white, treated them.

"I think he should lose his job," said Ryan Moats, a Dallas native.

Powell was placed on disptach duty pending an investigation. The ticket issued to Moats was dismissed, Lt. Andy Harvey told WFAA-TV.

"There were some things that were said that were disturbing, to say the least," he told the Dallas Morning News.

Powell told police officials he believed he was doing his job, said Dallas Police Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson.

AAPP: What do you think should happen to this cops job? Should he be fired? Was he just doing his job?

Cross posted at African American Political Pundit.com

Obama Deception?

President Barack Obama takes questions last night in the East Room, in his second prime-time televised news conference, which focused largely on the economy. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

AAPP says: I listened to Barack Obama last night, with the back drop of recent articles, blog post and reports with 'sobering statistics' on racial inequality along with a recent article I read in the NY Times by Paul Krugman regarding Obama's financial policies.

Paul Krugman also writes, "Mr. Obama has apparently settled on a financial plan that, in essence, assumes that banks are fundamentally sound and that bankers know what they’re doing. It’s as if the president were determined to confirm the growing perception that he and his economic team are out of touch, that their economic vision is clouded by excessively close ties to Wall Street. And by the time Mr. Obama realizes that he needs to change course, his political capital may be gone."

Krugman also says, Let’s talk for a moment about the economics of the situation. Right now, our economy is being dragged down by our dysfunctional financial system, which has been crippled by huge losses on mortgage-backed securities and other assets. As economic historians can tell you, this is an old story, not that different from dozens of similar crises over the centuries. And there’s a time-honored procedure for dealing with the aftermath of widespread financial failure. It goes like this: the government secures confidence in the system by guaranteeing many (though not necessarily all) bank debts. At the same time, it takes temporary control of truly insolvent banks, in order to clean up their books.

That’s what Sweden did in the early 1990s. It’s also what we ourselves did after the savings and loan debacle of the Reagan years. And there’s no reason we can’t do the same thing now.

But the Obama administration, like the Bush administration, apparently wants an easier way out. The common element to the Paulson and Geithner plans is the insistence that the bad assets on banks’ books are really worth much, much more than anyone is currently willing to pay for them. In fact, their true value is so high that if they were properly priced, banks wouldn’t be in trouble.

And so the plan is to use taxpayer funds to drive the prices of bad assets up to “fair” levels. Mr. Paulson proposed having the government buy the assets directly. Mr. Geithner instead proposes a complicated scheme in which the government lends money to private investors, who then use the money to buy the stuff. The idea, says Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, is to use “the expertise of the market” to set the value of toxic assets.

But the Geithner scheme would offer a one-way bet: if asset values go up, the investors profit, but if they go down, the investors can walk away from their debt. So this isn’t really about letting markets work. It’s just an indirect, disguised way to subsidize purchases of bad assets.

The likely cost to taxpayers aside, there’s something strange going on here. By my count, this is the third time Obama administration officials have floated a scheme that is essentially a rehash of the Paulson plan, each time adding a new set of bells and whistles and claiming that they’re doing something completely different. This is starting to look obsessive.

But the real problem with this plan is that it won’t work. Yes, troubled assets may be somewhat undervalued. But the fact is that financial executives literally bet their banks on the belief that there was no housing bubble, and the related belief that unprecedented levels of household debt were no problem. They lost that bet. And no amount of financial hocus-pocus — for that is what the Geithner plan amounts to — will change that fact.

You might say, why not try the plan and see what happens? One answer is that time is wasting: every month that we fail to come to grips with the economic crisis another 600,000 jobs are lost.

Even more important, however, is the way Mr. Obama is squandering his credibility. More HERE

AAPP: Yes, Mr. Obama just may be squandering his credibility with black folks. He also seems to be squandering his credibility with a number of middle class black organizations such as the National Urban League. You see, the Urban League President recently said, "President Barack Obama should specifically address disparities in black unemployment, foreclosures, education and health care, the "National Urban League" in its annual “State of Black America” report.

Yes, finally middle class black folks are seeing the facts, and speaking up and out. Yes, the election of the first black president is great, yet, black folks, as the Urban League reports, are twice as likely to be unemployed, three times as likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be incarcerated.

Marc Morial, president and CEO of the 99-year-old Urban League. has pointed out that Barack Obama has said that the way for government to help minorities is by improving things like education, employment and health care for all Americans. The 288-page report includes policy discussions and essays from academics, elected officials and average citizens. Among its 31 specific recommendations:

_ Ensure that the stimulus package’s green job creation includes poor urban communities.

_ Increase funding for job training and placement for disadvantaged workers.

_ Guarantee full-day schooling for all 3 and 4 year olds.

_ Expand the school day to account for working parents and families without nearby relatives to help with after-school care.

_ Fund mortgage counseling and education programs for minorities.

_ Implement universal health care and a “comprehensive” system to provide blacks with health education, prevention and intervention.

AAPP: It seems to me that the Trillion dollar give away, and other bail plans supported by Barack Obama, will have an end result of giving away American homeowners hard earned equity back to big business interest, will gentrify urban communities, and make sure that black and latino urban dwellers will not be able to afford to live in urban cities across America.

Maybe the American people, particularly African Americans need to watch the film Obama Deception. Take some time to watch the film, it may just open your eyes...

Black Women get Double Life Sentence for $11.00!

Mississippi gave Gladys and Jamie Scott each a double-life sentence in an armed robbery where no one was murdered or harmed and the amount alleged to have been taken was a whopping $11.00.





H/T and Shout Out to Nancy Lockhart, M.J.
Website: www.freethescottsisters.com


Scott County, MS ---- In a trial fraught with legal malpractice and witness coercion, Mississippi Judge Marcus Gordon oversaw one of the most blatantly corrupt trials in history, culminating in the staggering over-sentencing of sisters Gladys and Jamie Scott to double-life each in an armed robbery where no one was murdered or harmed and the amount alleged to have been taken was a whopping $11.00.

On December 24, 1993, the Scott County Sheriff’s Department arrested the Scott sisters for armed robbery even though three young males, ranging from ages 14 to 18, confessed to committing the crime. Despite this, the corrupt Mississippi sheriff used coercion, threats, and harassment to compel them to turn state’s evidence against the Scott sisters due to a long-standing vendetta against a family member. The 14-year-old male would later testify that he did not read the statement and was pressured to sign a written statement prepared by the sheriff without an attorney being present.

As if that weren't bad enough, these young women received incompetent legal representation at the lower court trial. Their attorneys, Firnist J. Alexander, Jr. and Gail Shaw-Pierson failed to interview and subpoena witnesses, only calling one witness when there were several. Incredibly, the jury never even heard any testimony from the alleged victims. The sisters were advised to not testify on their own behalf by their attorneys, Alexander and Shaw-Pierson, denying them the opportunity to speak for themselves.

In October of 1994, Jamie and Gladys Scott were sentenced to extraordinary double life terms each in prison, even though neither sister had prior convictions and there was no violence involved in these charges.

The four State’s witnesses provided conflicting testimony and one alleged accuser was not called to testify – he was not questioned or subpoenaed by defense attorneys Firnist J. Alexander, Jr. or Gail Shaw-Pierson. Witnesses admitted however, that reports prepared by the Sheriff, of their descriptions of the event contained no such claim. In other words, the sisters were not present. Jamie and Gladys Scott were not involved in the armed robbery and they did not conspire to plan such. Witnesses all testified that they were coerced and threatened by Deputy Sheriff Marvin Williams. Testimony also revealed that Marvin Williams prepared statements of the events from the night of December 24, 1994 BEFORE obtaining signatures and BEFORE the witnesses were brought into his office. In other words, the statements were not written by witnesses. (1) Three affidavits exist – they all state that the Scott Sisters were not involved in this robbery. One affidavit is written by a trustee of the local jail, his account of the facts reveal that a wallet was located a few days after this alleged robbery and that wallet contained the photo ID of one of the alleged victims of the trumped up robbery and three twenty dollar bills. The trustee also reveals that there was NOT a robbery, he was also threatened to be sent to Parchman Penitentiary if he told the truth.

According to the Request for Commutation of Sentence and/or Pardon prepared by attorney Chokwe Lumumba, the Scott Sisters challenged their convictions on direct appeal; arguing that there was insufficient evidence to convict them, and the guilty verdict was against the overwhelming weight of evidence, which should have exonerated them. The court of appeals found no error and affirmed the convictions on December 17, 1996. As a result, they filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court, which was denied on May 15, 1997. They consequently filed an Application for Leave to File Motion to Vacate Conviction pursuant to the Mississippi Post Conviction Collateral Relief Act. The Supreme Court also denied that application.

This family is shell-shocked, yet determined to fight on. They have tried to have faith that at some point this unbelievable travesty would be corrected and their upside-down lives righted. Yet 14 long years later nothing has changed, the women's five children are still being raised by their now ailing mother, and their father has died of a massive heart attack because of this. The emotional strain this burden has placed upon their family is immeasurable.

Jamie Scott writes, "What began as an implication and outright miscarriage of justice, has catapulted to destroy an entire family. Gladys was a 19 year old pregnant mother, and myself, Jamie, a 22 year old mother during the time of our arrest, conviction and sentencing for a crime we did not commit." She continued, "We are convinced that once this chain of events is exposed and unraveled, the events that occurred, the lives that have been destroyed, the pain and suffering the citizens of Scott County have endured; everyone will be utterly amazed, astonished and compelled to assist us in our plight for freedom. We pray that the people would insist upon an investigation into their misconduct and miscarriage of justice."

Gladys and Jamie’s older brother has recently returned from Iraq and has served in the US Army for 22 years, while his sisters remain victims of wrongful convictions in the very country that he proudly represents. The defendants and their family are wholly depending on support from the press, organizations, and all those dedicated to justice in making this debacle as public as possible.

Information source:

THE COMMITTEE TO FREE THE SCOTT SISTERS
CONTACT: NANCY LOCKHART, M.J.
P.O. BOX 389
Green Pond, SC 29446
Phone: 641-715-3900 Extension ~ 99222
Website: www.freethescottsisters.com
E-Mail: thewrongfulconviction@gmail.com


What You Can Do

Please Call The Governor's Office For The Scott Sisters

Please call the Governor’s office and ask to speak with Governor Haley Barbour. Please relay the message below.

1-877-405-0733 or 601-359-3150

Hello Governor Barbour I am calling in support of The Committee To Free The Scott Sisters.

My name is:________________

I would like to bring to your attention the case of Jamie and Gladys Scott.
The Scott Sisters have served 14 years 5 months of a double life term where no one was murdered or injured. State’s witnesses have testified to their innocence.

Their MDOC numbers are 19197 and 19142. Please free the Scott Sisters.

Thank you for your attention to this matter Governor Barbour.

If you choose to mail a letter to the governor via US mail the address is:
Governor Haley Barbour
P.O. Box 139
Jackson, Mississippi 39205

Thank you for your assistance in The Campaign ~To Contact The Governor Of Mississippi!

Black Man Tased and Beaten in Peoria, IL.

A Peoria man was punched in the face, kicked, stomped on at least 20 times and repeatedly stunned with a Taser during his arrest by police after leading them on a brief chase in May.

---

Peoria Police Officers (above) Andrew Smith, left, and Gerald Suelter, were charged Wednesday with multiple counts of official misconduct and other charges in connection with the beating of another man.

Two of at least seven Peoria police officers involved in the arrest were formally charged Wednesday with multiple counts of official misconduct as well as mob action and battery for the alleged beating of then 33-year-old Bryce Scott.

Officers Gerald W. Suelter, 39, and Andrew R. Smith, 29, each face four counts of official misconduct and one count each of battery, mob action and aggravated battery. Both men appeared in court via video from the Peoria County Jail, where they have been held since their arrests on Monday.

Assistant State's Attorney Steve Pattelli on Wednesday offered details of the May arrest, both seen and those not caught on tape from an in-car video camera, that began after Scott stopped his SUV near Abington and Perry streets after a brief chase.

"One officer punched the driver at least twice in his face, and while three officers were handcuffing the driver, Peoria police officer Gerald Suelter approached and drew his electronic Taser . . . Suelter removed the air cartridge from his Taser and began to repeatedly stun the driver," Pattelli said, noting Scott was Tasered by Suelter at least three times.

"Peoria police Officer Andrew Smith was the last of the officers to arrive . . . after (Scott) had been pulled from the vehicle and was on the pavement with five other police officers above him," Pattelli continued. "When Smith arrived, he began to kick and stomp the driver at least 20 times, at one point repositioning himself for leverage." MORE HERE

By Denise Jackson at WEEK-TV reports:

Two Peoria police officers arrested for allegedly beating a man last May remain in custody tonight. They face a barrage of charges including aggravated battery and mob action.

The officers, Andrew Smith and Gerald Suelter (SEWL'–ter) are among six police officers named in a lawsuit filed by the victim Bryce Scott.

Dan Cusack is the attorney for Bryce Scott the man allegedly beaten by Peoria police officers last May after a chase in the North Valley.

The chase was captured on videotape in the squad car. After pulling over Scott put his hands out of the window as instructed by police and got out of his vehicle. The tape shows officers approaching Scott who is on the ground . Scott's attorney says without the videotape they would not have a good case against the police.

"To me it's just absolutely wrong. It's not about lawsuits. It's about a constitution and it's about activity and Bryce Scott is entitled to the constitution as much as Mother Theresa and he wasn't doing anything wrong at that point," Cusack said.

In January of this year Bryce filed a lawsuit against the police officers and the city. Cusack says his office has received about 30 complaints since the Scott incident. He is not sure if there is a pattern of excessive force among some Peoria cops.

He does not expect the civil lawsuit to go to trial until next year. The two police officers Smith and Suelter (SEWL'–ter) are scheduled to appear in Peoria County court tomorrow. More HERE

Now we learn that Taser International has a plan to gain millions in Obama stimulus money. More on this later!

Cross posted on African American Political Pundit and the blog Tasered While Black

S.C. 80% Black Town has 24% Unemployment Rate

Well it's clear that SC Gov Sanford is 'playing race card' not only regarding unemployment benefits but childrens education as well. Now he is responding to President Obama. H/T to Kombiz at the DNC for the link, regarding the plight of Allendale, S.C. You see, Ronnie Jackson – the mayor of Allendale, SC – was on MSNBC today talking about the important role the economic recover funds SC Gov. Sanford wants to reject could have on economic recovery efforts in his community. While Governor Sanford is playing 2012 politics South Carolinians are suffering with unemployment rate as high as 24%.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford

Tom Gralish / MCT

The segment is a really good view of what's going on in South Carolina while Sanford tries to grandstand for neo-hooverites in the Republican party.




AAPP: I'm glad that the SC Legislature is moving to overide Gov. Sanford on Stimulus Funds.
yes, South Carolina's Republican-controlled General Assembly is poised to rebuff Sanford and seek the stimulus money on its own.

There is more, as reported by LIVE5 News, Sanford wrote a letter to the President last week, asking for permission to use the money to pay off debt. That money has been earmarked for education and job creation. Read the letter Sanford wrote to President Obama here.

Sanford has criticized the $787 billion stimulus plan, saying it will lead to higher taxes and debt.

Click here to read the letter sent to Sanford from 40 mayors who oppose using the stimulus to pay down state debt. More HERE

I can see why President Barack Obama has rejected SC governor's plan to pay debt with stimulus funds.

There is a big question to whether states can circumvent Anti-Stimulus Guvs? I guess we will soon find out.

Ok, back to Allen Town. Here is more about Allen Town

Estimated median household income in 2007: $19,262 (it was $16,632 in 2000)

Allendale:	$19,262
South Carolina:	$43,329

Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $69,352 (it was $43,700 in 2000)

Allendale:	$69,352
South Carolina:	$133,900

Mean prices in 2007: All housing units: $92,156; Detached houses: $98,667; In 2-unit structures: $136,563; In 5-or-more-unit structures: $133,102; Mobile homes: $30,430

Races in Allendale:

• Black (80.0%)
• White Non-Hispanic (17.8%)
• Hispanic (2.2%)
• Other race (1.0%)

For population 25 years and over in Allendale

• High school or higher: 54.9%
• Bachelor's degree or higher: 10.7%
• Graduate or professional degree: 2.7%

Is it clear yet, that SC Gov Sanford is 'playing race card' ?

Cross posted on African American Political Pundit.com

World Conference on Racism, Slavery Reparations and Obama

File this under, Can't we just get along! There seems to be a lot of commentary on the planned World Conference on racism.

Get this, first the US withdraws from 2nd World Conference against Racism, now word is, Germany may boycott UN racism talks critical of Israel. The Folks at Monsters and Critics are reporting on how Germany may boycott a UN conference on racism, over concerns that a preparatory document is singularly critical of Israel, daily Berliner Zeitung reported Saturday. As reported by the The NY TImes, The United States will not attend the second World Conference Against Racism in Geneva unless the conference’s main document improves, according to a State Department official, though the Obama administration sent a delegation to preparatory talks in Geneva.

The NY TImes, reports the long, unwieldy document seeks to ban criticism of religion, calls for slave reparations and attacks Israel as racist. Israel and some American Jewish groups urged a boycott of the April conference, and several close American allies, including Canada, said they would not go. The United States walked out of the first Conference Against Racism, in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, as a protest against an effort to compare Zionism to racism. More HERE

At the same time, reports Monsters and Critics a German organization promoting ties with the Jewish state is appealing for Germans to moderate their criticism of Israel's role in the Middle-East conflict.

'Germany should not yield to a UN conference that wants to accuse Israel unilaterally,' German Human Rights commissioner Guenther Nooke said of the anti-racism talks, due to take place late April in Geneva.

'We should initially try everything to change the text of the final document,' Nooke told the newspaper. 'But there will be no participation at all cost,' he added.

Several countries have criticised the fact the preparatory document specifically accuses Israel over its occupation of Palestinian territories.

Other misdeeds, such as the atrocities committed in the Darfur conflict, are not specifically named.

Meanwhile, the President of the German-Israeli Society Johannes Gerster has appealed for Germans to show greater solidarity towards Israel, in the face of the continuing Mid-East crisis. More HERE

AAPP says: I guess the Obama administration will have to decide whether it's stands against color aroused bigotry and racism or will it stand with Israel, Canada and Italy who have announced they will boycott the forum in Geneva.

The first conference, held in Durban in 2001, ended up with the US and Israel walking out, upset over statements of some delegates.

Maybe, just maybe, William Reed is right, when he wrote in EUR web recently, "Reparations for slavery is a proposal that some type of compensation be provided to descendants of enslaved people in consideration of the labor provided for free over several centuries, which has been a substantive and influential factor in the nation's development. The prospect of payment is not new." William Reed goes on to say:

In 1865, General William Tecumseh Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 15 granting each freed family forty acres of tillable land in the Georgia Sea Islands and around Charleston, South Carolina for the exclusive use of black people who had been enslaved. The army gave mules to settlers. President Andrew Johnson reversed the order after Lincoln was assassinated and the land was returned to its previous owners.

Black slaves built America for free, including the nation's Capitol and the White House. It's important that the nation's 44th President do what the 17th President did not do to properly atone for the ills of slavery - A system that gave rise to poverty, landlessness, underdevelopment, as well as to the crushing of culture and language, loss of identity, inculcation of inferiority among blacks, and the indoctrination of whites into a racist mindset - all of which continue to this day to affect the prospects and quality of Black People's lives.

America, and its companies, were "unjustly enriched" by a system that enslaved and exploited blacks. The Wall Street banks, and its investors, that the nation is writing checks to built America's infrastructure on the backs of blacks. The number of legal claimants for compensation is undetermined, but Obama could consider a $10,000 annual "slavery tax credit" to Americans who can show themselves descendents of slaves. Some two dozen members of Congress are co-sponsors of legislation to create a commission that would study reparations - that is, payments and programs to make up for the damage done by slavery.

The bill, US House of Representative Resolution 40 "Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act" should be addressed so that such a commission will address who, what and how much is due. The NAACP supports the legislation. Cities around the country, including Obama's home of Chicago, have endorsed the idea, and so has a major union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The old dog-eared adage that "the nation couldn't afford to pay" has been eliminated with the Wall Street buyouts.

If Obama has the confidence to think outside the box, he'll realize what economic stimulus reparations payments would be. The question has always been about how America would raise money to pay reparations, but if they can bailout the infrastructure's entrepreneurs to save America, what about bailing out the people who built it? Article HERE

Cross Posted on African American Political Pundit.com

Black Girl Beat By Police, King County

Assault on Black America

As reported by the Washington Times a surveillance video released in an assault case against a King County, Wash. sheriff's deputy shows him kicking a black young girl, slamming her to the jail cell floor and striking her repeatedly. Check out the reports, on the Wash. State Video Shows Teen Being Beaten By Deputy.

The Washington Times reports King County sheriff's deputy kicks a 15-year-old girl, slams her to the floor of a jail cell, strikes her and pulls her hair in violence captured on videotape.

Prosecutors released the surveillance video Friday in the assault case against Deputy Paul Schene, who is accused of using excessive force on the girl. Schene, 31, pleaded not guilty to fourth-degree assault in Superior Court on Thursday.

The incident last November began after the girl was brought in for an auto theft investigation, according to court documents. The footage shows the attack beginning after the girl enters the cell at suburban SeaTac City Hall and kicks off one of her shoes toward the deputy. More Here

More on the black girl beat by police king county

Cross-Posted on African American Political Pundit