damnedifIknow
damnedifIknow's JournalDriving While Black: the App
On May 5, 2003, a blue Chevrolet Cavalier was pulled over on North Skidmore Street, carrying 21-year-old Kendra James. What began as a routine traffic stop turned tragic as James was shot and killed by Officer Scott McCollister when she tried to drive away.
Lawyers Melvin Oden-Orr and Mariann Hyland have taken James’ story to heart and created a smartphone app to educate African American drivers about their civil rights during traffic stops.
The app is called “Driving While Black;” it will provide drivers with information about their rights, tips for parents to teach their children about driving and simulations that run through police traffic stop scenarios."
People may feel frightened, vulnerable, or singled out by the police while being pulled over. The Driving while Black team hopes that being armed with knowledge can save lives."
*“I vowed that I was going to do something to educate youth about how to be safe, how to save their life during a law enforcement encounter,” Hyland said.
Even a chance viewing of an MSNBC segment helped create the app. Hyland watched an interview of a man who had created an app for drunk drivers and had an epiphany.
“I thought, you know, we need an app for black drivers, that's something that we really need.”
The app is expected to be available by the end of this December and will work on both iPhone and Android operating systems. Learn more about the app at www.dwbtheapp.com
http://www.theskanner.com/news/northwest/22160-driving-while-black-the-app
NYC to Ferguson (Day 2)
http://new.livestream.com/JamesFromTheInternet/events/3616405Ferguson, goddamn: No indictment for Darren Wilson is no surprise.
*The students I teach at a community college in Manhattan – freshmen, like Mike Brown would have been right now, returning home to his family for Thanksgiving break – are relatively conscious of this regularity, of this apparent normality.
The young people know about John Crawford III, a 22-year-old black man who died after an Ohio police officer shot him for carrying an unloaded BB rifle in the pet-food aisle of Walmart, whose mother misses her son and doesn’t understand why an Ohio grand jury did not indict the cops responsible for this death.
The young people know about Eric Garner, the 43-year-old black father of six who died after a New York police officer put him in an illegal chokehold, whose family awaits in tears of rage as a grand jury still has not indicted any of the cops responsible for that death.
They know about Darrien Hunt and Vonderrit Myers Jr, another unarmed teenager shot dead by a white law-enforcement officer with a gun. After this weekend, they know about 12-year-old Tamir Rice and 28-year-old Akai Gurley. They know about Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell; I am teaching them about Edmund Perry and the Edmund Pettus Bridge. But do they know about Ezell Ford in Los Angeles or Marlon Horton in Chicago and all the black and brown bodies gunned down by cops every day since that August afternoon when Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown after those 90 seconds on Canfield Drive? Does a grand jury of our supposed peers – an extreme version of the kind I sat on – mean to say that if the cops are never wrong, they never shall experience any penalty or consequences for their errors, especially when they prove fatal? Or do we just expect this and that death, do we just embrace this failure of humanity?"
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/24/ferguson-no-indictment-darren-wilson-protest
Woman who lost her left eye in 'unjustified' police shooting after drunken 40-mile car chase sues
A woman who lost her left eye two years ago when a police officer fired a single shot at her following a drunken 40-mile car chase is suing the cop and police force involved.
Kristine Biggs Johnson was driving drunk through Morgan County, Utah, on November 24, 2012 when the shooting occurred.
At a press conference on Thursday to announced her legal action, Johnson said she couldn’t recall much from the evening in question - which doctors have put down to either head trauma or excessive alcohol intake.
In her lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Johnson’s lawyer argues that Sergeant Daniel Peay ‘utilized unreasonable, improper, unnecessary and excessive deadly force’."
On the night of the shooting, Johnson was traveling from Evanston, Wyoming, to California with her dog and all her possessions – including a bottle of vodka.
‘I hadn’t opened it and I had no plans to,’ she told The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday, but toxicology tests have since proved that Johnson was legally drunk that night.
When Morgan County sheriffs encountered Johnson she refused to pull over after a deputy tried to stop her for having a broken headlight.
A 40-mile chase into Davis County then ensued after Johnson drove off.
The officer called for backup and at some point during the chase, officers placed spike strips on the road, which destroyed three of Johnson’s tires.
The chase eventually ended in a cul-de-sac and dash-cam footage shows Johnson surrounded by three cop cars."
Video at link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2834189/I-m-sorry-actions-night-Woman-lost-left-eye-unjustified-shooting-following-drunken-40-mile-car-chase-sues-police-officer-involved-excessive-force.html
Three Ferguson Residents Share What It's Like in Their Hometown
At this point, I think everyone knows [Wilson won't be indicted]. They basically told us a long time ago he was going to walk. They’re not interested in investigating this murder, they’re not interested in finding out the real facts. They’re just interested in making sure no one loots, no one burns a building. They’re really not concerned with the life of Mike Brown. They’re more concerned with property and materialistic things, things that you can get back. But you can’t get Mike Brown back. That just shows you the essence of where we’re at in America right now. It’s terrible that a young boy can lie in the streets for four and a half hours and no one really cares until a QuikTrip burns down and a couple of stores get looted. I mean, all of the things lost in those stores can be replaced, but we can’t replace his life."
*We can go back to Emmitt Till, we can go to Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Jordan Davis. In St. Louis we got Cary Ball. Cary Ball was an armed, unarmed black man. He had a gun, he throws his gun on the ground, puts his hands up, looks at his witness and says, “Thank god you’re here.” The cop walks up to him, says something to him, puts a gun in his chest, and shot him. The witness saw him, saw everything, testified. Matter of fact, more than one witness testified. They always say they don’t agree with the looting and the rioting, and the boycotts, but even if you don’t agree with it, understand this: Without that, you wouldn’t know who Mike Brown was. You know why? Because Cary Ball’s life is proof."
http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/11/before-the-darren-wilson-grand-jury-announcement
Corporate hit-men, protests being ignored, new encryption, & Blackwater convicted
#t=350Pastor says he has received numerous death threats since Michael Brown shooting
KMOV.com) – The pastor of a church that is only blocks from where Michael Brown was shot and killed said he has received 71 threats since the shooting.
Pastor Carlton Lee said threats are mailed to the church or left on the door. Lee said people have threatened to kill him or burn his church with everyone inside. Lee believes he is a target because he has been protesting against police brutality.
“As Michael Brown, Sr. being a part of my church, we are evermore committed to the situation not just because they are family to us but because there are injustices going on all over the country,” Lee said."
*“It motivates me in a way that you can’t even imagine,” Lee said. “Most people would probably back down from it, but I’m not going to back down. In fact, it makes me go even harder because I know this is what I’m called to do and this goes with the territory.”
Lee said he will be with the Brown family the day the Grand Jury decision is announced. After that, he says he plans to peacefully protest for change."
http://www.kmov.com/news/local-video-ndn/Pastor-says-he-has-received-numerous-death-threats-since-Michael-Brown-shooting-283548601.html
Pro-Darren Wilson demonstrators face claims of KKK infiltration
Klu Klux Klan members may have infiltrated groups supporting Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, it can be disclosed.
Supporters for Darren Wilson have removed a photograph from their Facebook page in which activist group Anonymous claim to identify three members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Anonymous seized two of the Ku Klux Klan’s twitter accounts yesterday after the Klan distributed fliers threatening the use of ‘lethal force’ should violence erupt in the wake of Ferguson Grand Jury’s decision on whether to indict Wilson.
Now, as part of Anon Cop Watch, the group has circulated numerous photographs ‘unhooding’ Klan members.
Among them is one showing 13 members of the St Louis Klan. It is set shown alongside an image of a rally held in support of Darren Wilson rally in which, they claim, three Klan members feature prominently."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2842947/Pro-Darren-Wilson-demonstrators-face-claims-KKK-infiltration-imperial-wizard-apparently-spotted-anti-police-demonstrators.html
Michael Brown verdict already a foregone conclusion
"As most semi-alert Americans know, we're just days away from the grand jury's verdict in the shooting death of Michael Brown. Three months ago, the 18-year-old was shot six times by a police officer in his home town of Ferguson, Mo. As happens in cases like this, as soon as the story went public, lines were drawn firmly down the middle as liberals and conservatives prepped for another heated debate about race in America (with a "police brutality" kicker). While things have died down a little in Ferguson over the past several weeks, this week's verdict threatens to rip the wound open again."
*Both sides have already made up their mind that the officer will be acquitted and nothing will ultimately change. That's the most terrible part, that both sides have determined, whether they realize it or not, that Brown's case is just another in a long line of unavoidable mistakes. America has decided that this kind of violence is simply a part of life. Oh sure, when the verdict comes along, people will act outraged on one side and relieved on the other. The conservatives will batten down the hatches, cozy with their sidearms, and the liberals will throw a temper tantrum, proud that their chalk outlines have really changed minds. Then, in a few weeks, things will move on like before, and in another few months, another police officer will shoot another citizen and the whole thing will kick off again, because, in the United States, apparently, violence is simply how things get done."
http://www.examiner.com/article/michael-brown-verdict-already-a-foregone-conclusion
Police killing, beating of civilians raise issue of reasonable force
A wooden cross on a narrow, tree-lined road marks the spot where Samantha Ramsey died a violent death.
Passersby might think the marker, etched with the 19-year-old's name and a yellow smiley face, is a memorial to a car crash victim. They would be wrong.
In April, Ramsey was killed when a sheriff's deputy fired four bullets through her car windshield as she left a party on the banks of the Ohio River. Ramsey, who did not have a gun, was dead before her mother got to the hospital. A grand jury took one day to review evidence — including the deputy's testimony that he feared for his life — before declaring the shooting justified.
With that, Ramsey's relatives joined the ranks of families who demand answers about why lethal force was used, and who decides what is reasonable use of force."
*Ramsey, a cheerleader in high school, was known for her habit of bringing home strays — both pets and people, her mother said. "I raised more friends of hers than I care to count," said Stewart, a nurse who raised Ramsey and her two older brothers in Covington."
*Ramsey was buried May 2 beside her father, Robert Ramsey, who died of a heart attack last year. On a recent afternoon, the hilltop grave was decorated with an American flag and cheery signs of autumn: a bunch of orange flowers and two smiling scarecrows.
Brockman returned to work Nov. 10."
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-police-prosecution-20141116-story.html#page=2
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