Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D.
OW Contributing Columnist

Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D., is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum (www.urbanissuesforum.com) and author of the upcoming book, REAL EYEZ: Race, Reality and Politics in 21 Century Popular Culture. He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com
Between the Lines
May 14 2009

Okay, Chief Seabrooks, now it’s Inglewood’s turn to have a federal watch dog of its police dept.

Sometimes it takes an event (or two) to make plain a reality that nobody wants to talk about. Pervasive police abuse and police misconduct are usually activities nobody wants to acknowledge and nobody wants to admit to. Police have a way of trying to convince you that everything they do is legal, when clearly it is not. Some confuse “collar of authority” with “tyranny of the majority” as if whatever the majority of our society doesn’t like gives them license to abuse.
 

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Between The Lines
Apr 23 2009

The ‘new’ William H. Parker Center controversy: Revisionist views can’t

The city of Los Angeles is about to unveil its brand new “state of the art” world-class headquarters for what it considers its world-class law enforcement agency. Given the latest controversy–the public should decide where the “world-class” attribute should actually go. A month ago, our city’s resident narcissist, former LAPD Police Chief and current Eighth District City Councilman, Bernard Parks, motioned that the new LAPD headquarters carry the same name as the old LAPD headquarters, that of former police chief, the late William H. Parker.

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Between the Lines
Apr 16 2009

Stimulus-mania: Is it the 21st century soup line?

The efforts to jumpstart the economy in the United States, in hopes of causing a global ripple, has taken on an entirely new meaning as people and industry alike wait for the $787 billion economic stimulus package to drop. It’s like a “mania” as so many cities, states, industries, school districts, homeowners, small business owners await the economic “savior” of their connected economic realities.

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Between the Lines
Apr 9 2009

Nationalizing banks and industry: A lesson in why capitalists hate socialism

 The United States has always been a political economy, requiring government regulation of its finance and money markets, and using government stimulation of its labor force. “Free Market” enterprise is based on the notion that open markets and the competition derived from competing ideas for consumer patronage will create a market balance (equilibrium) that will produce a stable economy and wide prosperity.

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Between the Lines
Mar 26 2009

Black, male, released from prison and unemployed: An equation for social estrangement

The tragedy of four police officers being shot on a routine traffic stop in Oakland, Calif., over the weekend, offered a set of circumstances that we all must face up to at some point in our society. Four people died (three officers) and a fourth officer is on life support, and condolences go out to all the families. It is a public tragedy “of monumental proportion,” to quote Oakland Mayor, Ron Dellums.

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Between The Lines
Mar 12 2009

Deputy Chief Kenny Garner made the hardest sell in the Black community - trusting LAPD

 The passing of Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police, Kenny Garner, last week has left a stunned community pondering the question, “Who do we call now, when we want answers from LAPD?” Kenny Garner was a friend to me, the community and most he met, and he had the hardest job of anyone in the community-convincing the community to trust “the new LAPD,” which in many an instance looked like the old LAPD-with a new twist. It was, and still is, a tough sell. One sell few could pull off but Kenny did it.

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Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.

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This Week in LA

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