Police Respect Squandered in Attacks on de Blasio - NYTimes.com

 

Mayor
Bill de Blasio has spent weeks expressing his respect and admiration
for the New York Police Department, while calling for unity in these
difficult days, but the message doesn’t seem to be sinking in.

When he spoke at a police graduation ceremony
at Madison Square Garden on Monday, some in the crowd booed and heckled
him. This followed the mass back-turning by scores of officers when the
mayor spoke on Saturday
at the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos; the virtual back-turning the
day before by an airplane-towed banner (“Our backs have turned to you”),
and the original spiteful gesture by officers on the night Mr. de
Blasio visited the hospital where Officer Ramos and his partner, Wenjian
Liu, lay dead.

Mr.
de Blasio isn’t going to say it, but somebody has to: With these acts
of passive-aggressive contempt and self-pity, many New York police
officers, led by their union, are squandering the department’s
credibility, defacing its reputation, shredding its hard-earned respect.
They have taken the most grave and solemn of civic moments — a funeral
of a fallen colleague — and hijacked it for their own petty look-at-us
gesture. In doing so, they also turned their backs on Mr. Ramos’s widow
and her two young sons, and others in that grief-struck family.

These are disgraceful acts, which will be compounded if anyone repeats the stunt at Officer Liu’s funeral on Sunday.

Police Respect Squandered in Attacks on de Blasio - NYTimes.com

How The Effects Of Trauma Can Be Passed Down From One Generation To The Next

Measuring Mayor de Blasio’s First Year by a Broken Toe and a $360 Check - NYTimes.com

"The mayor faces serious challenges, among them a deep rift with the Police Department. But on this question, the answer is clear: Step by step, initiative by initiative, Mr. de Blasio has begun to make concrete, tangible improvements in the lives of tens of thousands of ordinary working New Yorkers.

Just ask Ms. Cagle, a 35-year-old mother and a beneficiary of Mr. de Blasio’s first major policy move, the expansion of paid sick leave. “Oh man,” said Ms. Cagle, who until this year went without pay whenever she was too sick to work. “This gives me the support that I need.”

She is one of about 1.2 million workers who now have paid sick leave for the first time, according to the Community Service Society of New York, which works on behalf of low-income people. That is about 240,000 more people than would have received the benefit if the mayor hadn’t broadened the law.

Or consider the mayor’s universal prekindergarten program. This fall, the city offered seats to 53,230 4-year-olds — up from 20,000 last year — a boon to working parents unable to afford private nursery schools."

Returning To Staten Island Last night was my first night sleeping on Staten Island since the period after my mother’s death. Prior to that I came to Staten Island only to see her and it was always extremely stressful for me. As I approach Staten Island on the ferry old memories always surface, few pleasant dominated by a strong sense of foreboding. I was here for a day last year with much the same feeling but not quite as intense.The first thing I had to do, before we went to my friend of over fifty years Charlie’s house was to go to the site where the police strangled Eric Garner to death and the EMS did not attempt to resuscitate him. Watching that video reminded me so much of the physical and emotional abuse that was so much a part of my life growing up on Staten Island where whites inflicted violence and other whites stood around indifferently. This strikes a subliminal chord with me that is beyond that which I can express in words. To say it is painful is not to do justice to the feelings.I moved from Staten Island on September 20th 1974 because I could not find a decent apartment where someone would rent to my fiancé and I. In frustration at all of the supposedly available apartments that suddenly became vacant once we appeared at the door we decided to move to Brooklyn. It was a great idea. Leaving Staten Island was a very good thing.

White? Black? A Murky Distinction Grows Still Murkier - NYTimes.com

The concept of race is a political,  not scientific construct which was first developed and used by Europeans in the 1600s to facilitate slavery and a color based caste system.   Read Thomas Jefferson barbaric concept of race in his 1784 "Notes On Virginia"  The only book this serial child molester and child abuser e er wrote.  He desperately tries to justify his primitive mindset with pseudo science while living a hypocritical double life.  Jefferson is the archtypical American on race.  It sad that his views are still held and practiced by many Americans today.  The naive and the blind confuse progress with change which had had it's scab removed by the series of unarmed Blacks murdered by whites based solely on race by civilians and police.  Whites refusal to see what is so obvious to African-Americans is amazing but sad.  The difference between liberals and conservatives collapses on the issue of race as it does with homophobria.  I wish we could make real progress instead of changing the method of oppression to suit the economic and global political demands of a particular time.

John H Armwood

Derrick Bell Describes Marxist Foundation of Critical Race Theory

Operation Revenge - Glenn Thrush - POLITICO Magazine

"Obama’s turnaround in recent weeks – he’s seized the offensive with a series of controversial executive actions and challenges to leaders in his own party on the budget — can be attributed to a fundamental change in his political mindset, according to current and former aides. He’s gone from thinking of himself as a sitting (lame) duck, they tell me, to a president diving headlong into what amounts to a final campaign – this one to preserve his legacy, add policy points to the scoreboard, and – last but definitely not least – to inflict the same kind of punishment on his newly empowered Republican enemies, who delighted in tormenting him when he was on top."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/12/obama-midterms-political-enemies-113704.html#ixzz3MZCEcbKC

Chinese Annoyance With North Korea Bubbles to the Surface - NYTimes.com

BEIJING — When a retired Chinese general with impeccable Communist Party credentials recently wrote a scathing account of North Korea as a recalcitrant ally headed for collapse and unworthy of support, he exposed a roiling debate in China about how to deal with the country’s young leader, Kim Jong-un.

For decades China has stood by North Korea, and though at times the relationship has soured, it has rarely reached such a low point, Chinese analysts say. The fact that the commentary by Lt. Gen. Wang Hongguang, a former deputy commander of an important military region, was published in a state-run newspaper this month and then posted on an official People’s Liberation Army website attested to how much the relationship had deteriorated, the analysts say.

Chinese Annoyance With North Korea Bubbles to the Surface - NYTimes.com

Recommended read from Salon.com: "A 21st-century segregationist claim": Why Giuliani's race screed is so foolish -- and dangerous

"During a recent appearance on "Meet the Press," former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani inspired days of criticism by telling fellow guest and Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson that his focus on police brutality was misguided. "We are talking about the significant exception," Giuliani said, referring to white police officers killing black people. "Ninety-three percent of blacks are killed by other blacks." Giuliani then went further, telling Dyson, "Why don’t [black people] cut [crime] down so so many white police officers don’t have to be in black areas?"

Except for Giuliani die-hards or unreconstructed racists (far from mutually exclusive), most people recognized the ex-mayor's comments as insensitive — at best. But while there's been criticism of Giuliani's use of crime statistics, especially his failure to note a similar figure is true for white killings, there's been less focus on whether these statistics themselves are as objective and reliable as we believe. With that in mind, Salon recently spoke on the phone with Dr. Khalil G. Muhammad, the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and author of "The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and the Making of Modern Urban America," a widely praised study of the history of how racism and criminology have mixed."

Recommended read from Salon.com: Elizabeth Warren goes to war: Why the Democratic Party could seriously change -- for real, this time

Two New York police officers killed, gunman dead: media

"Quoting a law enforcement source, NBC's New York affiliate reported that the gunman may have been seeking retribution against police after posting a threatening message on a social media account."

Eric Holder opens up about policing and race relations in the US | MSNBC

Eric Holder opens up about policing and race relations in the US | MSNBC

Poll: 57 Percent of Americans Say Race Relations in U.S. Are Bad - NBC News.com

No kidding, when will Americans wake up and stop wishing this divide will go away. It is structural and permanent. It is the glue that holds the America class structure of inequality together. White Privilege is the basis of the social contract between the wealthy and working and middle class whites.



Poll: 57 Percent of Americans Say Race Relations in U.S. Are Bad - NBC News.com

Jon Stewart blasts Dick Cheney’s outrageous torture denial - Salon.com

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Jon Stewart blasts Dick Cheney’s outrageous torture denial - Salon.com

City Comptroller Seeks to Settle Civil Rights Claim by Eric Garner’s Family - NYTimes.com

"A spokesman for the Law Department, Nicholas Paolucci, said: “The comptroller has the authority to settle claims against the city before a lawsuit is filed. We trust that he will exercise that authority wisely. As always, the Law Department is available to consult with the comptroller in connection with any settlement of this matter,” referring to the Garner family’s claim.

Mr. Stringer — who, like Mayor de Blasio, a fellow Democrat, won a landslide victory last fall — said he saw the Law Department as a partner. But he added, “Not all cases should be litigated.”

“At some point, you have to look at the process holistically,” he said, adding that early settlement of a meritorious claim can save the city money in terms of the settlement cost itself, litigation costs, legal fees, interest and administrative costs. “And you also have an opportunity to bring closure and security to those who have been wronged,” Mr. Stringer said."



City Comptroller Seeks to Settle Civil Rights Claim by Eric Garner’s Family - NYTimes.com

Karl Rove and Fox News’ worst nightmare: White males, the changing South and the truth about demographics and Democrats - Salon.com

"The projected rise in the minority portion of the electorate—from more than 30 percent in 2016 to nearly 40 percent in 2028—demands that both parties cross the racial divide to succeed in the future. Hispanics will contribute the most to this gain as they overtake blacks among eligible voters in 2020—two decades after Hispanics overtook blacks in the total population."

On Torture Report, Colorado’s Udall Leaves Subtlety at Door on the Way Out - NYTimes.com

"Mr. Udall, a Colorado Democrat who pressed his case against the agency even as he packed up his office after his re-election defeat last month, sees the agency’s strong effort to rebut the findings of the Senate’s report on the torture of terrorism suspects as proof the intelligence community has not learned from its mistakes.

“We did all these things and had the opportunity over the last six years to come clean, and the C.I.A. just fought tooth and nail to prevent that from happening,” Mr. Udall said in an interview after the stinging attack he delivered on the Senate floor against the intelligence community and the White House. “Now we are doing the same thing today that we did six or eight or 10 years ago by denying this happened.”

Elizabeth Warren goes to war: Why the Democratic Party could seriously change — for real, this time - Salon.com

"Warren doesn’t sound like she’s readying herself for a presidential campaign. No, she sounds more like she’s readying for an ideological war."

Noam Chomsky on Syria, China, Capitalism, and Ferguson

Noam Chomsky discusses Ferguson: “This is a very racist society; it’s pretty shocking” - Salon.com

"There are prospects, but it is going to be very hard. This is a very racist society; it’s pretty shocking. What has happened with regard to African-Americans in the last 30 years actually is very similar to what Blackmon describes happening in the late 19th century."

"The constitutional amendments after the Civil War that were supposed to free African-American slaves -- it did something for about 10 years, then there was a North-South compact that granted the former slave-owning states the right to do whatever they wanted. And what they did was criminalize black life, in all kinds of ways, and that created a kind of slave force ... It threw mostly black males into jail, where they became a perfect labor force, much better than slaves.”

“If you’re a slave owner, you have to pay for — you have to keep your ‘capital’ alive. But if the state does it for you, that’s terrific. No strikes, no disobedience, the perfect labor force. A lot of the American Industrial Revolution in the late 19th, early 20th century was based on that. It pretty much lasted until the Second World War, when there was a need for free labor."

"After that, African-Americans had about two decades in which they had a shot at entering society. A black worker could get a job in an auto plant, the unions were still functioning, and he could buy a small house and send his kid to college. But by the 1970s and 1980s it’s going back to the criminalization of black life."

"It’s called the drug war, and it’s a racist war. Ronald Reagan was an extreme racist — though he denied it — and the whole drug war is designed, from policing, to eventual release from prison, to make it impossible for black men and, increasingly, more and more women and hispanics to be part of society."

"In fact, if you look at American history, the first slaves came over in 1619, and that’s half a millennium. There have only been three or four decades in which African-Americans have had a limited degree of freedom — not entirely, but at least some."

He continues later:

"They have been re-criminalized and turned into a slave labor force — that’s prison labor. This is American history. To break out of that is no small trick."

Why millions of Christian evangelicals oppose Obamacare and civil rights - Salon.com

"My argument in a nutshell is that the apocalyptic theology that developed in the 1880s and 1890s led radical evangelicals to the conclusion that all nations are going to concede their power in the End Times to a totalitarian political leader who is going to be the Antichrist. "

‘Dismal’ record for cop who killed Tamir Rice | MSNBC

‘Dismal’ record for cop who killed Tamir Rice | MSNBC

NYC protests over Eric Garner case resume for second night - NY Daily News

"Protesters flood Manhattan for second night to oppose grand jury’s ruling not to indict NYPD cop in chokehold death of Eric Garner
By 6 p.m., at least 3,000 demonstrators had gathered in Foley Square. They shouted ‘Justice! Now!’ and ‘Black Lives Matter!’ and held signs to reveal their anger toward a Staten Island grand jury. More demonstrators flocked to Union Square for a peaceful march. Demonstrations were also breaking out in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Atlanta."

Staten Island, Home Is Where The Hatred Is

In three weeks I will be staying a couple of miles from where Mr. Eric Garner was murdered on tape on tape where I grew up on Staten Island. I hated living on Staten Island due to the pervasive racism and move away when I was 21. My two Black friends and I were pulled over with no legal basis even asserted by the police 8 times in a row on Hylan Blvd. In direct violation of the 1968 Terry v Ohio Supreme Court case.  I and my two friends were harassed and followed by these police.  None of us ever had got in trouble with the law.  Unlike these police we were in college and all received graduate degrees from excellent,  highly rated schools.  Unlike these cops we spoke English properly.  Unlike the cops we had good grades in school so we never would have considered being a cop even if there were Black cops on Staten Island in the 60s and 70s. We only knew of one named DeQhilla.. For me,  Staten Island. Holds at of painful memories of racial violence,  racism in practice and students in school who engaged in racial violence and taunts.  As Gill Scott Heron wrote "Home is where the hatred is". My left was shut for three weeks after a racial attack by Gary Felini and Sal. De Falco at Richmond Town Prep on Staten Island where the school administrators did nothing about it,  they gave me a towel and I had to wait for the old 113 Bus,  which ran every half hour to take me or the HIP HMO on Targee Street in October of 1969. Staten Island has always been the most racist part of NYC and still is.

Judge allows libel lawsuit against Glenn Beck to proceed

"A federal judge on Tuesday denied Glenn Beck's request to dismiss a libel lawsuit that accuses the conservative talking head of defaming a Saudi man Beck falsely accused of funding the Boston Marathon bombing last year.

As Josh Gerstein explains, Beck sought to have the lawsuit tossed out on the grounds that Abdulrahman Alharbi, the man who brought the suit, was a public figure because of his presence near the finish line of the marathon, where two bombs exploded, killing three people. As a public figure, Alharbi would have had to clear a difficult hurdle in order for the lawsuit to proceed, proving that Beck intentionally lied or acted with malice in making the accusations.

But in ruling that the lawsuit could move forward, U.S. District Judge Patti Saris rejected the argument that the mere act of attending the event made Alharbi a public figure."