google-site-verification=cXrcMGa94PjI5BEhkIFIyc9eZiIwZzNJc4mTXSXtGRM OP-ED: DC just passed a draconian crime bill, showing that black faces in positions of power are not enough - 360WISE MEDIA
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OP-ED: DC just passed a draconian crime bill, showing that black faces in positions of power are not enough

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WASHINGTON – FEBRUARY 01: Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks on stage during Black History Month observance through the Welcome Black kickoff event on the Carlyle Room on February 1, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Brian Stukes/Getty Images)

Thirty years ago, Congress, under the leadership of now President after which Senator Joe Biden, passed the 1994 crime bill – a bill that became infamous for his disastrous role in the mass incarceration of many Black people.

Today that is the law widely criticized amongst progressives and Black people as an obvious indicator of anti-Blackness Hillary ClintonJoe Biden and each politician considered to support this bill as well heavily criticized. Not enough to maintain them out of the White House (in Joe Biden’s case), but strong nonetheless.

Despite this criticism – and despite making a great show of A Black Lives Matter mural in the sphere and changing the name of the square in the face of the George Floyd protests – Washington city council passed the criminal law This would give the police unfettered power in the town. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • have the power to designate any neighborhood as a high-risk area, and once they accomplish that, they’ll stop, search or arrest anyone walking with up to at least one other person
  • the suitable to arrest any person wearing any face covering on the police’s sole discretion;
  • the suitable to require any person traveling on the subway to discover themselves to the police without lawful reason, regardless of whether the police identified themselves or not;
  • the suitable to legally kill suspects during automotive chases;
  • the power to review body camera footage before writing a statement; AND
  • making weapons a crime – it will develop into a separate crime the moment the weapon touches the bottom.

It doesn’t take much imagination to understand how deadly the results of this latest law could be in a country where police have repeatedly killed black individuals with the justification that they thought the black person was armed, legally or not. . Imagine that a law that makes it a crime discourages you from putting your gun down, when keeping a gun in your person could easily be a death sentence from the police.

This laws initially blew me away. Not only is that this why – despite the general public condemnation that followed the 1994 Crime Bill – they determine to introduce one of essentially the most openly draconian, dangerous, excessive and possibly unconstitutional expansions of police powers that will certainly be implemented on a racist basis, but precisely because she was introduced by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser – a black woman.

But then I began pondering seriously concerning the 1994 crime bill and realized that the racist legacy of the law’s effects often overshadows the grim reality that we must seriously reckon with: the bill was supported by many black leaders.

With that in mind, as an alternative of viewing Mayor Bowser in isolation, I see her amongst other Black politicians across the United States pursuing troubling policies. They have exploited their blackness – or, more specifically, the black community’s receptivity to supporting black candidates who present themselves as avatars of black excellence, black success/wealth, and black respectability. However, our community often fails to critically examine how clinging to those myths harms other Black individuals who do not or cannot model themselves after these myths.

While people rejoice Atlanta as a sort of Black mecca, its politicians routinely ignore and over-criminalize Atlanta residents living in poverty, often using RICO charges against them to create the impression of a Black mecca for a few wealthy Black people.

Moreover, they provide their blackness as a shield for white individuals who do not wish to be called racists. White voters can thus elect Blacks who promise to police Blacks more rigorously, thus strengthening the racist system without being called racists. If you remember the movie where a white father met his daughter’s black boyfriend, played by Daniel Kaluuya, to speak that he would “vote for Obama for a third term.”

This shield may explain why so many white and black people support and defend District Attorney Fani Willis – the lady famous for bringing RICO charges against Donald Trump, while people conveniently forget that she often abuses RICO charges against Black people.

Willis is identical woman who desired to bring RICO charges against Atlanta public school teachers, refused to prosecute the officer who killed Rayshard Brooksand – although Georgia’s attorney general has filed RICO charges to indict activists protesting the development of a massive police training facility called Cop City – she has not yet brought charges police who shot one of the activists.

This is the curse of representation for its own sake. The fundamental problem is the idea that diversifying racist institutions will change those institutions, when in fact diverse members are required to punish their very own more harshly in order to prove their price and purpose to the institutions they serve.

When you think about the necessities of the cohort to which Mayor Bowser belongs, it becomes easier to discover other members. New York Mayor Eric Adams, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens come to mind.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is a black man, but he can also be a former NYPD officer who seems to discover more with the latter than the previous. Despite a campaign that aired ads targeting the Black community depicting his childhood experiences with police brutality and his desire to develop into a police officer to fight it, Adams is not only liable for restoring stop and friskbut for doing it worse than even in the Bloomberg era, when it was ruled unconstitutional in 2011 because of racist use by New York police against blacks and Latinos.

Since Adams took power, the New York Police Department has detained tens of 1000’s of people 97 percent of people detained are black or Latino. Worse still, Adams not only oversaw the NYPD’s use of stop and search warrants, but he in particular revived and renamed the NYPD unit which was disbanded on account of the disproportionate number of police shootings in 2020 to perform arrests. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Adams.

Meanwhile, just down the road in Philadelphia, Mayor Parker is busy hiring tons of of recent cops, ban and criminalization of ski masksAND also promising to implement the Stop and Frisk function.

And all of this still pales in comparison to Atlanta Mayor Dickens presiding over one of the blackest cities in the country and responding to the demands of those black voters protests against the police brutality they face, which killed 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks in 2020 spending $90 million for Cop City– which might cut down acres of forest needed to guard Atlantis from flooding and overheating so cops could learn war tactics to police black voters.

While people rejoice Atlanta as its own Black meccaits politicians routinely ignore i over-criminalize Atlanteans who live in povertyoften arming the RICO charges against themso that they’ll create the looks of a Black mecca for a few wealthy Black individuals who can model themselves on the parable of Black perfection and, by supporting the police state, show that they keep other Black people in line.

It is time for Black people to query Black leadership and reject the concept that it’s enough to have any Black person on the table so long as they give the impression of being the part, or to repeat the myths of Black excellence and respect that harm most of us in practice.

It’s time to ask ourselves which Black people we put on the table, since the plethora of anti-Black laws supported by Black politicians across the country indicate that now we have many individuals representing us, but only a few serving us.

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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The survey shows that many voters are undecided between Trump and Biden

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President Biden, Donald Trump


A survey conducted amongst 1,000 potential voters indicates that there are many undecided voters within the upcoming presidential elections. It also indicates that Black support for Biden, which has dogged him through much of the campaign cycle so far, is declining.

As we reported, the poll, conducted jointly by USA Today and Suffolk University, has a 3% error in each directions, but it surely revealed that while Trump lost support amongst various demographic groups, Biden gained support. This has resulted in them being virtually tied with one another just 4 months before what David Paleologos, director of the University of Suffolk Center for Political Research, described as the brink election.

“When we think about a tie in a race with just 26 weeks left, we have to take into account that people don’t pay attention to politics and party conventions in July and August,” Paleologos told USA Today. “That leaves candidates with just 17 weeks to actively campaign, and it’s actually 13 or 14 weeks if you consider states where early voting begins a few weeks before Election Day. We are basically one step away from an election, and the outcome is a coin toss.”

Among those that have indicated a preference for third-party candidates, corresponding to Princeton professor Cornel West, who’s running as Green Party independent candidate Jill Stein, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., voters are malleable; 80% of Kennedy supporters, 88% of West supporters, 56% of Stein supporters, and 65% of respondents who planned to support a possible Libertarian candidate indicated that they remained open to changing their vote. Third-party voices are inclined to receive more attention in closely contested competitions, where their impact is most felt.

Young voters indicate that although they support Palestine more often than others, most young voters cite other concerns. Devon Schwartz, a student on the University of Texas at Austin, told the web site that their positions on Gaza are too just like raise concerns about his vote.

“When you have two presidents who have the same position on one issue, you automatically put that issue – I don’t want to say lower on the list because it’s obviously an important issue, but that doesn’t mean it’s an issue where I’m elected.” Donald Trump as an alternative of Joe Biden.” Schwartz still plans to vote for Biden, but notes that Biden needs to regulate his policies. “I want to see policy changes from Joe Biden,” he said. “I don’t want to vote for Donald Trump and then see the exact same policies.”

Cameron Driggers, a 19-year-old University of Florida student and member of the Florida Democratic Party youth council, told the web site that while he realizes Trump will likely be worse in all facets than Biden, Driggers worries that Biden is near crossing hard lines some.

“We are hearing from many people who are increasingly apathetic about voting for Joe Biden. “It continues to essentially spit in the face of youth organizers across the country,” he said. “It’s especially upsetting to people who are casting votes. “I realize that Trump will almost certainly be worse than Biden on all of these issues,” Driggers said. “But at some point, you know, there has to be a line” for Biden. “And I think he’s close to exceeding that.”


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Ex-boyfriend out on bail kills woman minutes after she shared a video on Snapchat of him stalking her as she parked next to a police car out of fear

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Ex-Boyfriend Out on Bail Kills Woman Minutes After She Shares Snapchat Video of Him Stalking While She Was Parked Next to a Police Car Out of Fear

A 24-year-old white man from South Carolina was sentenced to 60 years in prison after being found guilty of murder within the 2021 ambush shooting death of his Black ex-girlfriend.

Justin Cole Carroll was sent back to custody by Judge Robert Bonds after a Colleton County jury convicted him of killing Donasia Alexus Holloway greater than three years ago within the parking zone of her residence in Walterboro, about 50 miles west of Charleston.

The April 24 verdict brought an end to a tragic tale of domestic violence that had unfolded over several years, culminating in Holloway’s senseless murder and the following trial that brought justice to Carroll.

Ex-boyfriend out on bail kills woman minutes after she shared a video on Snapchat of him stalking her as she parked next to a police car out of fear
Justin Cole Carroll was sentenced to 60 years in prison for allegedly shooting his ex-girlfriend, Donasia Alexus Holloway, in 2021. (Photos: 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office)

Prosecutors said Carroll became furious when Holloway broke up with him after just a few months together because of his aggressiveness.

“Donasia was trying to end this toxic relationship and protect herself from her ex-boyfriend’s jealous rage,” said U.S. Attorney Hunter Swanson of the 14th Circuit, who prosecuted the case. “But Justin Carroll didn’t take no for an answer. He ignored the no-contact order, stalked her and killed her.”

Holloway ended her relationship with Carroll in January 2021 after Carroll was arrested for beating her, which led to domestic assault charges.

Five months later, on May 22, 2021, Carroll was out on bail when he reappeared on the Forest Point apartment complex where the woman lived and waited for Holloway to return home.

After pulling into the parking zone around 10 p.m., Holloway immediately spotted Carroll’s truck, prompting her to close the doors and park next to a Walterboro Police cruiser owned by a neighbor within the complex.

However, this small defensive move didn’t deter Carroll, who was now on foot and heading towards Holloway’s silver Lexus.

Not knowing what to expect, Holloway made the split decision to start recording herself live on Snapchat, which later revealed Carroll coming up from behind.

“She followed me to my apartment, I saw him behind me and locked herself in the car,” Holloway reportedly wrote on Snapchat in the ultimate minutes of her life. “I have asked him many times to leave me alone, trying not to feed him, but it has to stop!”

Carroll’s presence on the complex also violated a court order to steer clear of Holloway, who was now alone inside his reach, and he turned to social media relatively than calling police for help.

By the time authorities arrived, it was too late.

The officer Holloway’s patrol car was parked next to ran outside and discovered that a woman had been shot within the front seat.

Holloway was shot 4 times with a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol, with fatal wounds to her head and neck.

The shooter fired through the car windows, which couldn’t protect Holloway.

Carroll fled the scene, but police caught up with him inside hours of the shooting.

That same night, Carroll’s truck was spotted at a traffic light, where police stopped him and checked his hands for gunshot residue.

Due to the domestic violence case, Carroll immediately became the prime suspect within the murder, and police soon questioned him in reference to the shooting, but Carroll denied any involvement after which ended the interrogation by asking for a lawyer.

At the time, police lacked the murder weapon or another physical evidence to hold Carroll, and he was released from custody, although he was not released as a suspect.

Two days later, investigators discovered a terrifying video recorded on social media by Holloway, by which Carroll was clearly visible within the background.

The apartment complex’s surveillance also captured Carroll approaching the woman’s car.

Several witnesses told police they saw a man running to his pickup truck and running away moments after they heard gunshots, prosecutors said.

It is price noting that Carroll had a head full of hair within the surveillance footage, but when he was arrested a few hours later, his entire head and face were clean shaven.

The footage, together with evidence of gunshot residue on Carroll’s hands and his attempt to erase his phone and alter his appearance, ultimately led to his arrest.

The video Holloway posted on Snapchat played a key role in Carroll’s conviction.

It is unclear whether Holloway was ever aware of Carroll’s troubled past.

Four years before meeting Holloway, Carroll was found guilty of first-degree assault and battery in 2016 and sentenced to eight years of probation. However, Carroll had his probation revoked following arrests for illegally carrying a pistol and possession of a controlled substance.

He served three years in prison before being released in 2020 and started dating Holloway.

Holloway’s mother said she received no consolation after Carroll’s conviction, which is able to never make up for the loss of her daughter.

“There should be tougher punishment for people who do this. They need to stay in jail, stay in jail because they are only hurting other families” – Shameka Holloway he told WCSC. “If he had stayed in prison, our daughter would be here today.”

She said her family is devastated by Holloway’s murder, while criticizing the U.S. justice system for failing to protect the general public from dangerous ex-convicts like Carroll.

“It’s so sad that (we knew) how this system worked. It’s terrible, they have to do better,” Shameka Holloway told the station. “We have a life sentence of heartache and pain that we will carry for the rest of our lives.”

This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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Watch: The White House responds to former Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby’s clemency request

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The White House has signaled that it doesn’t want to tip the scales of justice in its response to a possible failure to support the clemency request.

Mosby faces 40 years in prison when she is sentenced later this month. A former progressive prosecutor was convicted of lying on forms wherein she claimed she was having difficulty withdrawing money from her pension to buy a house.


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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