google-site-verification=cXrcMGa94PjI5BEhkIFIyc9eZiIwZzNJc4mTXSXtGRM Joe Biden defends 1994 crime bill: ‘Every black mayor supported it’ and continues to oppose police funding - 360WISE MEDIA
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Joe Biden defends 1994 crime bill: ‘Every black mayor supported it’ and continues to oppose police funding

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Former Vice President Joe Biden admits that parts of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act that led to mass incarceration within the United States and continues to devastate Black and brown communities were a “mistake,” but reiterated that he was met with with broad support from black leaders and that he continues to oppose police funding.

During a town hall in Philadelphia on Thursday, Biden, the bill’s lead creator, said times were different then. “The Black Caucus voted for this decision, all the black mayors supported it,” he said.

By touting the Violence Against Women Act that was a part of the bill, Biden placed blame on states for harmful parts of the laws, reasonably than arguing that there was something inherently improper with the bill itself.

“But this is where the mistakes came in,” he said. “The mistake was what the states did locally.”

What Biden conveniently leaves out are the state incentives included within the bill. He also disregarded how Democrats push “tough on crime” rhetoric when it’s convenient and discuss social justice when it’s not.

“The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 100,000 cops. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 125,000 new state-run prison cells,” Biden said in 1994 on the Senate floor. “I would like to see the conservative wing of the Democratic Party.”

Following the passage of the bill, signed by then-President Bill Clinton, many states soon adopted their very own version of “three strikes” laws and were granted Truth in convictions construct and expand prisons. Additionally, the AtlanticTodd S. Purdum reports: “A 2002 Research by the Urban Planning Institute found that between 1995 and 1999, nine states adopted such laws for the first time, while 21 others changed existing laws to qualify for the funds. By 1999, such laws existed in a total of 42 states. At the same time, many states have passed their own, more stringent sentencing laws, which have only exacerbated this trend.”

Criminal Act had widespread black support, but not “every black mayor,” as Biden said. The NAACP then called it “a crime against the American people” When it passed in 1994, it did so with the assistance of the overwhelming majority of the Congressional Black Caucus and with the support of Black NIMBY community leaders who believed that increasing criminal penalties would save “good” black children from the “bad” black children who were allegedly involved into criminal activities. Professor Michelle Alexandra he explained that some leaders were reluctant to support the bill and expected reinvestment in Black communities – in schools, higher housing, health care and jobs. But that did not occur.

Meaning. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Joe Biden, D-Delaware, in Statuary Hall after the State of the Union address. January 25, 1994 (Photo by Maureen Keating/CQ Appeal via Getty Images)

Before the 1994 crime bill could pass the House, Clinton agreed to remove Sec Racial Justice Act– which might allow incarcerated people to challenge their death sentences based on data showing that racial bias was an element during their trial.

The bill also removed $3.3 billion – two-thirds of which got here from prevention programs – and a provision that may have allowed 16,000 low-level drug offenders to be released early.

Today, the United States is the most important prison guard on the planet. In 2019, the previous vice chairman, speaking in regards to the crime bill at a breakfast in Washington held to have a good time Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ninetieth birthday, said:This was a giant mistake that was made. “The experts told us ‘there’s no going back with crack’… it’s a generation-long trap.”

Despite this reality, and as protests against police violence shock and change the world, Biden remained steadfast in his opposition to The Movement for Black Lives calls for opposition to police funding. But he reiterated his position that nobody must be imprisoned for drug use, that marijuana must be decriminalized and that folks with a history of cannabis possession must be cleared. Instead of prisons, he said the United States should as an alternative construct drug rehabilitation centers and make treatment mandatory.

Of course, not all drug use is problematic, and mandatory rehabilitation just isn’t much different from a jail sentence. Moreover, most researchers agree that there isn’t a evidence that mandatory rehabilitation works. – according to a world evaluation by Boston Medical Center.

After a town hall meeting in Philadelphia, Stef Feldman, a Biden campaign staffer, tweeted that Biden was discussing “Crime Bill 86,” not the 1994 crime bill. In fact, Biden sponsored and co-authored the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 ., which created recent mandatory minimum sentences for drugs and sentencing disparities for crack and cocaine…which was reduced but not removed by President Barack Obama. Biden was also a co-sponsor Drug Abuse Prevention Act 1988.

He, together with a segregationist – and avowedly racist – senator. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), led Comprehensive Audit Act 1984which expanded penalties for drug trafficking and federal civil asset forfeiture, allowing law enforcement to seize property without proving the person was guilty of a crime.

With these pieces of laws in mind, perhaps the Biden campaign will likely be best served by specializing in defending “parts” of the 1994 crime bill and blaming the states for the remaining.


This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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Body camera footage shows police leaving an Ohio man handcuffed and face down on the floor of a bar before he died

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TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) – An Ohio man who was handcuffed and left face down on the floor of a social club last week has died in police custody and the officers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave.

Police body camera footage released Wednesday shows a Canton police officer responding to a report of a crash and finding Frank Tyson, 53, of East Canton, at the bar of a nearby American Veterans (AMVETS) facility.

As a result of the accident that took place around 8 p.m. on April 18, a power pole broke down. Footage from Officer Beau Schoenegge’s body camera shows that after a passing driver directed police to the bar, a woman answered the door and said, “Please get him out of here right now.”

Police grabbed Tyson and he resisted being handcuffed and repeatedly said, “They’re trying to kill me” and “Call the sheriff,” before putting him on the floor.

They immobilized him – including a knee on his back – and he immediately told officers he couldn’t breathe. A recent Associated Press investigation found that these words – “I can’t breathe” – have been disregarded in other cases of deaths in police custody.

Officers told Tyson he was OK to calm down and stop fighting because he was lying face down, cross-legged, on the carpeted floor. Police joked with passersby and went through Tyson’s wallet before realizing he was having a medical crisis.

Five minutes after body camera footage of Tyson saying “I can’t breathe,” one officer asked one other if Tyson had calmed down. The other replied: “He may be absent.”

Tyson telling officers he couldn’t breathe recalled the events leading as much as George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020. According to the coroner’s office, Tyson was black. According to the police department, each Canton Police Department traffic bureau officers who were placed on leave, Schoenegge and Camden Burch, are white.

Tyson didn’t move when the officer told him to stand up and tried to knock him down. They shook him and checked his pulse.

Minutes later, the officer said doctors needed to “step up” because Tyson was unresponsive and the officer wasn’t sure if he could feel a pulse. The officers began resuscitation.

A Canton police report on Tyson’s death released Friday said that “shortly after securing him,” officers “determined that Tyson was unresponsive” and that cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed. Narcan doses were also administered before the doctors arrived. Less than an hour later, Tyson was pronounced dead at the hospital.

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Chief investigator Harry Campbell of the Stark County Coroner’s Office said Thursday that an autopsy was performed earlier this week and Tyson’s stays were taken to the funeral home.

His niece, Jasmine Tyson, called the video “nonsense” in an interview with WEWS-TV in Cleveland. “It seemed like forever when they finally checked on him,” Jasmine Tyson said.

According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, Frank Tyson was released from state prison on April 6 after serving 24 years for kidnapping and theft and was almost immediately deemed in violation of post-release supervision for failing to report back to his parole officer. .

A Tyson member of the family reached by phone Thursday declined to right away comment.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office of Criminal Investigation said in a statement Thursday that its investigation is not going to determine whether the use of force was justified and that a prosecutor or grand jury will resolve whether use-of-force charges are warranted.

Canton Mayor William V. Sherer II said he personally expressed his condolences to Frank Tyson’s family.

“As we navigate through this difficult time, my goal is to be as transparent as possible with the community,” Sherer said in a statement released Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Justice has warned police officers since the mid-Nineties to perform belly rolls on suspects immediately after being handcuffed because of the risk of positional asphyxiation.

Many police experts agree that somebody can stop respiratory in the event that they are restrained on their chest for too long or with an excessive amount of weight, as this may cause pressure on the lungs and strain on the heart. But if done appropriately, placing someone on their stomach is just not life-threatening.

An Associated Press investigation published in March found that greater than 1,000 people died in the decade after police restrained them with nonlethal measures, including prone restraints.


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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The sister of George Robinson, who died after police pulled him from his automotive, rejects a $17,000 settlement offer. dollars

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A lady who sued Mississippi’s capital over her brother’s death has decided to reject the settlement after officials publicly disclosed how much town would pay survivors, her lawyer said Wednesday.

George Robinson, 62, died in January 2019, days after three Jackson police officers pulled him from his automotive while trying to find a murder suspect.

The Jackson City Council on Tuesday approved a $17,786 payment to settle a lawsuit filed by Robinson’s relatives in state court in October 2019, WLBT-TV reported. City documents show the settlement didn’t constitute an admission of liability by town or the three officers named within the lawsuit. Robinson was black, as were the three officers.

The payment to relatives – including Robinson’s sister, Bettersten Wade – was approved unanimously. Wade’s attorney, Dennis Sweet III, released a letter Wednesday saying town of Jackson violated a confidentiality agreement that was part of the settlement. Sweet said that because of the general public disclosure of information and since town “appears to claim a victory or infer some purported victory,” Wade intends to proceed suing town.

Sweet said Robinson’s family has reached a separate “significant settlement” with the ambulance company.

Councilor Kenneth Stokes said he thought the urban settlement was too small, although he voted for it.

“I say it just sends the wrong message about human lives, especially Black lives,” Stokes said. “I think a step in the right direction would be to pay the family a little more.”

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The lawsuit alleged that the three officers “brutally, viciously and mercilessly beat Mr. Robinson by punching and kicking him.”

“Mr. Robinson committed no crime, was not subject to any court order, and posed no threat to himself or anyone in the area,” the lawsuit stated.

Wade said Robinson had been hospitalized with a stroke a few days before the encounter with police and was taking medication. A couple of hours after the beating, he had a seizure, and two days later he died of bleeding within the brain.

The case was dropped with second-degree murder charges against two officers. In August 2022, a Hinds County jury convicted former Detective Anthony Fox of culpable homicide by negligence, after which in January of this yr, the Mississippi Court of Appeals overturned Fox’s conviction. The appeals court majority wrote that prosecutors didn’t prove that Fox “acted in a grossly negligent manner” or that Robinson’s death “was foreseeable under the circumstances.”

Wade is the mother of Dexter Wade, who was hit by an off-duty Jackson police officer in March 2023.

Dexter Wade was buried within the Hinds County Paupers Cemetery. However, it was not until October that his mother learned in regards to the burial.

His body was exhumed on November 13 and an independent autopsy was performed. The wallet present in his jeans pocket contained a state ID with a home address, a bank card and a medical health insurance card, said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Wade’s family.

On November 20, Dexter Wade’s family organized his funeral, and he was buried in a different cemetery.


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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What do we know about the fatal shooting of Loletha Hall during an Uber concert

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It was an atypical scam that ended with an unusual result – tragically in a driveway in Ohio.

This week, authorities said William J. Brock fatally shot an Uber driver because he wrongly assumed she was participating in a scheme to acquire $12,000 in alleged bail for a relative. Loletha Hall was a victim of the same scam, summoned by the scammers to Brock’s home to select up a supposed package for delivery.

Brock later told investigators he believed Hall got here to get the money the scammers wanted.

Now he faces murder charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Hall’s family is in mourning. Uber helps investigators catch the person behind the fraud attempt.

Experts say the gimmick is widely generally known as a scam or grandparent scam that takes advantage of older people’s love for family. Callers pretend to be anyone from grandchildren to the police, and tell victims that something terrible has happened and that their younger relative needs money.

In this photo from Uber dash cam video, William Brock (right) holds a gun for Uber driver Loletha Hall outside his home in South Charleston, Ohio, on March 25, 2024. (Photo: Clark County Sheriff’s Office via AP)

Here’s what we know about the shooting and the investigation thus far:

What exactly happened?

Brock, 81, received the scam calls on the morning of March 25 at his home in South Charleston, a city of about 1,800 people situated between Dayton and Columbus. According to a press release from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, the calls were about an imprisoned relative and “continued to make threats and demands for money.”

The sheriff’s office said that while Brock was on the phone, Hall received a request through the Uber app to select up a package from Brock’s home for delivery. Hall, 61, of Columbus, was unaware of the attempted fraud.

“After contacting Ms. Hall, Mr. Brock produced a gun and held it at gunpoint, demanding the identity of the people he spoke to on the phone,” the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office said Hall was unarmed and never threatened or made any demands on Brock.

The sheriff’s office said Brock took Hall’s cellular phone and would not let her leave. When she tried to get back to the automotive, Brock shot her. In the ensuing fights, he shot her a second and third time.

Brock then called 911 to report that he had shot an individual on his property who was attempting to rob him.

The police body camera footage shows him briefly discussing what he believes happened.

“I’m really happy to see you guys here because I was on the phone for a few hours with this guy who was trying to tell me that I have a nephew in jail and I was in an accident in Charleston but I was just hanging on and they need the bond money,” he said Brock. “And this woman was going to get it.”

The video shows investigators discussing the $12,000 while sitting on a table in Brock’s home.

The video also shows a Clark County Sheriff’s Office detective at Brock’s home talking on the phone to a person who had previously spoken to Brock. He identified himself as an officer and told the detective, “You’re going to get in trouble.”

When the detective introduced herself as an actual police officer, the phone hung up. During a subsequent phone call with the man, the detective told him that the Uber driver had been in a serious accident, was in the hospital and “wasn’t feeling well.”

The man told the detective he could be there in 20 minutes. He was not.

On Monday, Brock was charged with murder, assault and kidnapping. He posted $200,000 bail and was released from the Clark County Jail on Wednesday. His lawyer, Paul Kavanagh, didn’t immediately return an email searching for comment Friday.

How common are these types of grandparent scams?

Grandparent scams have grow to be increasingly common over the past 10 to fifteen years — partly because of the great amount of personal information available about people online, said Anthony Pratkanis, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Criminals search social media for details about relatives and use them to persuade victims their loved one is in trouble, said Pratkanis, whose research includes fraud crimes.

“Basically, the criminal is taking advantage of our human nature,” he said. “You are in a state of panic and high emotional arousal. This is an appeal to fear. And the best way to get rid of that fear is to give the criminal that money.”

Pratkanis said fraudsters typically prefer financial transactions that do not require physical proximity, reminiscent of bank transfers, gift cards or cryptocurrencies. This case is unusual because the fraudsters used Hall as an unsuspecting money mule.

“Most people involved in fraud today don’t actually have any contact with the criminal – there’s a distance,” Pratkanis said. “But if that’s not the case, there’s a chance that the victim’s anger will cause the victim to take action.”

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Uber said Wednesday it was helping investigators look into the account that sent Hall to Brock’s home. The shipping company called Hall’s death a “terrible tragedy.”

“A Bond Like No Other”

Some posthumous Hall described her as the mother of a son and stepson, a loyal member of her church and a talented cook known for her delicious pound cakes.

She retired from the Ohio Regional Income Tax Agency and worked in behavioral health at school and for Uber. She studied horticulture at Ohio State and commenced a cleansing business.

At the memorial service which was broadcast online, her son Mario Hall talked about how close they were regardless that they lived in several states, and infrequently talked on the phone several times a day. He said they’d “a bond like no other.”

“Thank you for all your sacrifices and everything you have instilled in me,” he said. “You are the best mother anyone could wish for. And I promise that I’ll proceed to make you proud.


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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