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Across Black America 10-29-15

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California

NFL player DeSean Jackson’s home in Los Angeles was stormed by as many as five gunmen last week. According to TMZ, several people in the house fought off the attackers, after one was slightly injured after being pistol-whipped. The incident fuels continued rumors that Jackson is gang affiliated. Jackson’s publicist told TMZ that he was in Virginia with the Washington Redskins, the NFL team that he plays for, at the time of the home invasion. Last year, when Jackson played for the Philadelphia Eagles, his home there was burglarized to the tune of $250,000 in cash and jewelry. He has denied being a former member of a gang, but admitted to ESPN last year that he has “associated” with them on occasion.


Sacramento mayor and former NBA player Kevin Johnson has announced that he will not seek re-election in 2016. “After much thought and soul-searching, I have decided not to run for a third term,” he said in an email to the Sacramento Bee. Johnson makes the announcement after an article came out about a month ago about a sexual relationship he allegedly had with a high school girl some 20 years ago.

Florida

Details are still emerging on the shooting of a Black man by a plainclothes police officer in West Palm Beach. The police officer, Nouman Raja, is claiming that Corey Jones, a 31-year-old drummer, had a gun. Jones’ SUV was broken down after the band he was affiliated with—Future Prezidents—played a gig in Jupiter. A fellow band member, Mathew Huntsberger, said that he left Jones alone after they had called for roadside assistance at about 2:20 a.m. By 3:15 a.m., Jones was dead, fatally shot by Raja, who had allegedly stopped to assist Jones. Raja claims when he approached what he thought was an abandoned vehicle, Jones appeared out of nowhere with a gun and Raja fired. Jones’ family and friends and even area police are asking the West Palm Beach police department to be transparent with its investigation. “We don’t want another Ferguson,” said John Kazanjian, president of the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association. “They need to get out there and address the public … get out there and tell the public what is going on.” Friends and family told NBC that Jones might have had a gun, since he has a permit, but that he would not have used it unless he felt threatened.

Maryland

A Baltimore teacher and a student are both facing punishment after a fight between them was caught on video. The student has been charged with assault and the teacher has been put on leave. According to a report on WBAL-TV, the fight took place at Carver Vocational High School when the teacher asked a 17-year-old student to leave because she was talking on her cell phone during class. The student got up to leave and pushed a chair toward the teacher and throws something across the teacher’s desk as she exited. The teacher follows the student outside and this time the student threw a notebook at the teacher. The instructor charged at the student and the two began to fight. A male student tried to break up the melee. “On the video, the teacher can be heard yelling, “I’ll kill you in here … what the … do you think this is?” WBAL-TV reported that the female teacher, who was treated for minor injuries, was placed on leave until a thorough investigation is complete. The student was arrested and faces assault charges.

Mississippi

The University of Mississippi Faculty Senate has unanimously voted to take down the state flag, which features the confederate flag as part of its display. WMC-TV reports that the vote was 41-1 and follows a similar decision from the Study Body Senate. The battle is not over, however. It’s up to the school’s chancellor and administration to make a final determination. “I’m just really glad the faculty senate is standing behind us,” said student Sen. Allen Coon, who co-authored the resolution. “It’s nice to know as a community we can move forward. We can push our university to take steps toward progress and make our academic environment a much safer place.” Not everyone is in agreement. An NAACP student protest against the state flag turned confrontational, when a local Ku Klux Klan affiliate and the League of the South staged a counter rally. Intense verbal exchanges occurred between the sides. Students who support the flag say it’s a state issue because the university receives state funding. The appropriate state officials must determine whether the flag stays or goes.

Missouri

Fires at six Black churches in the St. Louis area are linked, according to investigators. “Churches are a place of worship and a place for sanctuary. Why someone would set fire to a place like that is beyond comprehension,” St. Louis Mayor Frances Slay said in a statement. “Someone knows who is responsible, and our partners have put together a sizable reward to entice information.” The reward is at $9,000. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police and the St. Louis Fire Department are investigating the fires. Investigators said they believe that the suspect or suspects might be committing the fires because of stress; they couldn’t attribute the cause to racism or religious bias at this time.

New York

Hundreds of individuals, including activist and professor Cornel West and Academy Award-winning director Quinton Tarantino, marched in New York City protesting police brutality. The protest march began in Washington Square Park before heading down Sixth Avenue. No arrests were reported. The march took place after a police officer was shot a few days earlier during a chase of a theft suspect, who has been subsequently charged with murder and robbery.

In a related story … platinum recording artist Usher sat with actor and activist Harry Belafonte at the 92nd Street Y to speak at an event hosted by Solelad O’Brien. Jay Z was in the audience, and reportedly nodded his head when Belafonte, who once criticized the rapper/entrepreneur for his lack of “social responsibility,” praised him, Usher and Common for their commitment to change recently. “I’m glad I lived long enough to see this emergence,” the 88-year-old Belafonte said. Usher currently has a song out with Nas called “Chains,” which protests police violence and racism. The video, which features pictures of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and other Black men, was co-produced with Belafonte and his nonprofit, which supports social engagement by artists. Info is available at www.sankofa.org.


The National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC), the Harlem-based media arts organization, held its first ever Hack360 at the Second Annual Harlem Conference last week. Produced with partner Silicon Harlem, the theme of the “hackathon” was gamification, a marketing technique that uses video games as a teaching tool. Participants worked for two days to create prototypes for games to promote a TV and Internet series being developed. The first place prize of $3,000 went to Sultan Sharrief and Oren Goldenberg, producers of the broadcast TV series “Street Cred,” a reality show documenting the challenges 12 Detroit high school students to learn entertainment producing skills. the Audience prize of $1,000 was awarded to Damon Colquhoun, producer of the fictional urban fantasy Web series “Pixie Dust,” about a teen girl, Faye, with magical powers to quell the mental illness in her mother; and the two final projects were awarded cash prizes of $500 each for “Pops” about Black fathers and “Black Broadway” about the U Street corridor in Washington, D.C. For more info at www.blackpublicmedia.org.

Rhode Island

The Brown University student newspaper has apologized to Malia Obama for posting images of her at a party allegedly taken while she was touring the campus. “The college application and selection process is stressful for most students who go through it, but one can only imagine how much the stress multiplies when the whole nation is watching. That is what Malia Obama is experiencing right now,” said an editorial published last week. The president’s daughter was on the campus to scope it out to consider to attend college there.

South Carolina

BuzzFeed is reporting that seven inmates in a state prison received years in solitary confinement after making a rap video while incarcerated. The video made its way to the Internet via WorldStarHipHop and the South Carolina Department. of Corrections started an investigation. Five of the inmates involved reportedly received 180 days in “disciplinary detentions,” while two more were punished with 270 and 360 days. That’s a total of 7,150 days or nearly 20 years. They also had a year’s worth of phone, canteen and visitation privileges taken away. This is not the first time inmates have been punished for engaging in social media in South Carolina, according to the report. Two years ago, an inmate was given more than seven years in solitary confnemet for using Facebook.

Texas

Joe Fitzgerald took over as police chief of Fort Worth, becoming the first Black man to hold the position. WFAA-TV reports that the ceremony was packed with city officials. Fitzgerald is taking on quite a challenge, reports the TV station; he replaces Jeff Halstead who retired in January amid a federal discrimination case filed by several of the city’s Black cops. “The impetus is upon me to make sure that each and every person in this organization understands that when we speak of community, we’re part of the community,” he said at the ceremony. “The police department [is] an active member in the community, and we’re to make sure that each contact that we have with each and every individual . . . we see is positive.” Fitzgerald is not new to “firsts.” The city’s new top cop, who holds degrees from Harvard and Northwestern, was the first Black chief in Missouri City, Texas, and Allentown, PA.

National

Officials of the National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African Americans, say they are “saddened to see a lackluster approach in addressing the plethora of church burnings and the systematical attack against African Americans in general and our youth in particular.” In a press release, the organization criticizes the Obama Administration and the Justice Department. “Their actions or, rather inactions, seem to be in hurry or demonstrative of an imperative when it comes to Black people. Their actions or, rather inactions, seem to suggest that we should just take it (injustice) and wait on the impotent justice department to act. But we cannot and we will not wait. The urgency of now is upon us, and we demand action to protect all us from these racist attacks. By the way, we are Americans, too.” According to the NBCI, 20 Black churches have been targeted with fires since the Charleston shooting tragedy. Said the Rev. Anthony Evans, president of NBCI, “We are baffled as to the approach of the administration and their hesitancy related to the pursuit of these crimes. It seems to us their approach is not working to stop the church burnings …” The release went on to indicate that the NBCI intends to address the situation by providing training for security personnel at select churches, host educational seminars on safety, issue a safety manual, set up a related website and seek grants to cover the costs of these initiatives. For more info at www.naltblackchurch.com.

Compiled by Carol Ozemhoya.

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