The New Left Crow

The name Jim Crow is often used to describe the segregation laws, rules, and customs which arose after Reconstruction ended in 1877 and continued until the mid-1960s. How did the name become associated with these "Black Codes" which took away many of the rights which had been granted to blacks through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments?

-Ferris State University

“The New Left Crow offers a devastating account of a legal [social and growing economic] system doing its job perfectly well. We [are] simply replac[ing] one caste system (Jim Crow) for another one (economic destruction, social pariah making, mass censorship of ideas and a growing body of laws) that keeps the majority of minorities [and women] in a permanent state of [entitlement]. [The author] looks in detail at what [MSM] usually misses, namely the entire legal structure of the courts, parole, probation and laws that effectively turn a perpetrator of [no] crime into a moral outlaw who is unworthy of rehabilitation [that he often does not need]. . . [The Author] does a fine job of truth-telling, pointing the finger where it rightly should be pointed: at all of us, liberal and conservative, white and black.” —Forbes [lifted and reworded from here. Forbes did not and does not endorse this entry.

For the purposes of this piece we focus on the "laws, rules and customs" as it applies to the rights of persons legally residing in or are citizens of the United States.

I suppose it's fate that I finally get to write this particular post on the day set aside to recognize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Who wished for all people to have equal access to liberties established by the founding documents. That persons would be judged by the content of their character rather than simply by the color of their skin.

Since at least 2008 there has been a mood and a movement arising from the left that are in blatant violation of these principles and resemble that which we have known as Jim Crow. Lets look at some events.

Last summer in Ferguson a white cop was deemed a racist killer simply for being white. Lets be clear. I have written enough about it, with plenty of quotes to know this to be the case. To make matters worse there were people openly asking for a lynching of officer Brown. How do a people who have been the subject if lynching then call for one?

On the one hand black folks rightly proclaim that they should not be seen or assumed to be criminals because they are black. They have rightly proclaimed that they should receive fair justice when accused of crimes. Black folks have rightly proclaimed that extra judicial "justice" is unacceptable. And yet, when faced with a real test of those convictions, black folks as a group failed miserably in applying these very principles which today they are tasked with observing in the person of MLK Jr.

Anyone that brought up the relevant facts of the case, including Brown's just attempted strong arm robbery was branded as a racist on the level of Bull Conner. How has it become the case that the truth and the facts are not relevant?

How did the case of Mike Brown overshadow the far stronger case of Eric Garner who was, for all intents and purposes arrested and killed for selling loose cigarettes which NY State had already gotten sales taxes on when he bought the original pack (assuming said cigarettes originated in NYS)?

So after all that, the usual suspects start talking about changing the grand jury process. Why? Because the outcome they desired did not occur. That's a poor reason for changing an entire process and certainly NOT was being fought for by MLK Jr.

Moving on from Mike Brown and Eric Garner we had the UVA Rolling Stone article that slandered the reputation of a fraternity and a university. Rather than defend the concept of due process and do what is commonly referred to an impartial investigation, the head of the university enacted group punishment on all Greek letter organizations. Once again, anyone who asked serious (and obvious) questions about the story as reported and pointed out the journalistic errors (not confirming the existence of the accused and other characters), were branded sexist rape apologists.

Of course the "sexist, rape apologists" were correct in their critique of the story. What happened? No punishment for the liars. Further scrutiny of greek letter organizations who had done nothing wrong.

This in a current atmosphere where it's NOT OK to mention that some women falsely claim rape because they regret the sexual activities they engaged in but it IS OK to get on a program and make the inference that all men are rapists until taught otherwise. It is where a father tells his 5 year old son that he is a rapist.

It is where men, exclusively men can be discriminated in public spaces, in this case an airplane, by being seated away from a child passenger he is not related to, because of fears of molestation. Never mind that such things rarely happen and that most child abuse occurs between children and women (typically a close relative including and mostly the mothers).

Can you imagine what would happen if a black man was told he couldn't sit next to white women because black men, statistically speaking, rape and sexually assault white women more often than they do any other group of women? Or how about since some white people aren't comfortable with black people for whatever reason they ask to not have one seated next to them?

We do not and should not treat black people like they are all criminals yet for some reason it is deemed OK by certain airlines to treat all male customers as if they are child molesters. This is a knew and recent phenomenon brought to you by the New Left Crow where fear of a statistically rare event is cause for deep concern and anyone who points out how rare the event is and therefore how overblown the response is is deemed to be an enabler of criminal activities if not an outright supporter of said activity.

A principled business response to such women making such requests would be that they should buy themselves a ticket and fly with their child or kindly fuck off with their business because they do not treat their paying customers as criminals. And then back that statement up when the social media chatter starts.

Before the UVA case we had the events of Ray Rice and his wife (then engaged). We had black talking heads in the sports commentary world who were calling for Rice's head (and any other dude merely accused of anything). Once again I had to wonder how those who belong to a group of people who had been subject of lynchings on the say so of any random white person could even have two brains cells spark up the idea of assumed guilt.

Currently we have NYS governor Cuomo who ran the last few weeks of his campaign as the women's governor has proposed a new NYS law based on the one in California.

Calling campus sexual assault a national epidemic, the governor said: “This is Harvard and Yale and Princeton, Albany and Buffalo and Oswego. It is not SUNY’s problem by origination. I would suggest it should be SUNY’s problem to solve and SUNY’s place to lead.”

I don't know what qualifies as an "epidemic" but of all crimes rape is one of the least prevalent in Western nations. Since most leading rape prevention organizations have debunked the 1 in 5 stat as well as dismissed the whole "rape culture" theory. Why is it that the head of state, responsible for upholding the US and NY State constitutions is proposing laws that further erode the concept of due process?

“Consent is clear, knowing and voluntary,” the SUNY rules will say. “Consent is active, not passive.

“Silence, in and of itself, cannot be interpreted as consent.”

Consent need not be verbal, but it must be unambiguous and mutual.

So which is it? Not silent or silent? That no one even bothered to question this man on such a contradictory statement is evidence of the New Left Crow. That there are even laws on the books now trying to regulate the details in intimate human interactions is even more evidence of the totalitarian nature of the New Left Crow.

The proposed changes also include a Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights, a simple and widely distributed document to inform victims of their right to go to the police, as well as campus security, with complaints;

What crime victim does not know they have the "right" to go to the police or security? Serious question. These are people who successfully graduated from High School right? Here's a suggestion: If the prospective student does not know that they should go to the police after being a victim of a crime, do not admit them to your campus.

a promise of immunity for students who report sexual assault but who might have been violating laws or campus rules, like the prohibition on under-age drinking;

Special rules for alleged victims. Lets understand this in the context of Eric Garner. If a woman, no girl, goes to a party and has alcohol, which she legally cannot consume because the law exists to protect her from the exact situation which might happen due to her poor judgment, she cannot be held responsible for her actions. Meanwhile Eric Garner lies dead because he had to face the consequences of selling a loose cigarette on the street.

I wonder, would such rules apply to a student who has been wrongly accused? Would the university say, oh by the way we know you were drinking under age and supplying a minor with alcohol in blatant violation of the school rules, but since you were wrongly accused and all, we'll let that slide. In my experience in witnessing what happens to people accused of breaking "school rules" where it involves a female, the school WILL usually stoop to punishing him (and it's usually him) with whatever incidental rules broken.

It all leads reasonable people to ask whether women and girls are in fact considered fully human adults capable of being responsible for themselves or if they actually require supervised environments to live in. Of course such a question is "sexist" under the Left Crow regardless to how much evidence points to this being the case.

Some people are clearly more equal under the law than others....just like the old Jim Crow.

SUNY encompasses almost a half-million students, at two-year community institutions and colleges with bachelor’s and graduate programs. Excluding the community colleges, the university reported 238 sexual assault complaints among 219,000 students during the 2013-14 academic year.

238 out of 219,000 students in the represented group of institutions?

That's 0.108675799087% of the total population that has reported a sexual assault. There would have to be two orders of magnitude increase in reporting to get anywhere near the 1 in 5 number that has been claimed by various parties. What kind of epidemic is this? And those are "reports" not even proven cases.

But this is the New Left Crow. Using fake stats to further demonize a population and then enact laws that either puts unconstitutional burdens on them, like the recent proposal that those accused of rape must prove they had consent, effectively shifting the burden of proof off the state to the defendant.

That is just like the literacy tests imposed on black folks (as shown in the movie Selma). It was wrong and unconstitutional then and such moves are wrong and unconstitutional now. Simply because the target is a formerly "super enfranchised" group now does not make any of it OK. Another sign of the New Left Crow is David Agema's censure by the RNC.

David Agema, a Michigan national committeeman who has come under fire for recently re-posting an article from a white supremacist magazine on his Facebook page.

Seriously? Posting a link to a page from a source gets you 'under fire"? Under fire from whom? Why? I've read the article in question and regularly follow the website in question. In fact anyone interested in issues of race ought to be following that and other sites. They are certainly following black websites. Quite carefully I might add. Does that make me a white supremacist? Does it mean I endorse the website and its ideology? Or does such assumption or not, only come with certain skin tones and ancestry?

If a post on said White Supremacist site is a review of an article from say the NY Times or some peer reviewed journal like Nature, does that make the NYT or Nature a disreputable source of info since it is "supportive" of or "referenced by" a white supremacist?

Is 2+2=4 only true if it appears on The Atlantic?

Per the article that David Agema posted to Facebook. I too have posted it (and others) to my G+ page (only social media I participate in). Is it OK for me to do so because I am black? Is it OK if such a piece was referenced in say Slate, Huff Post, etc. because those sites are "legitimate"? What if I were to act like I didn't find the material on said sites and went to their source information and pass it off as if I found it myself? Does that now make the material more legitimate? And what happens when I see "mainstream" and "legitimate" publications writing the same material, particularly in such a way that it is clear as day that they sourced the information and ideas from said "illegitimate" sources. Should they be called out? Is their writing illegitimate?

What are these rules under the New Left Crow that determine who and under what circumstances on may post a link to a writing by any group? And why aren't people in a political party under the US polity defending the fundamental freedom of speech of it's members? Why is the RNC afraid of the New Left Crow?

As for the linked article, I found it interesting because of it's implications for black people entering the criminal justice system. If so called "liberal" lawyers actually view their clients in such a way as described in that linked piece shouldn't the public know it? I know for a FACT that at least one other such lawyer thinks as the lawyer in that piece does because I know someone who dealt with such a lawyer, who was did not believe that his client was in fact Ivy League educated and thought that his "proper speech" was some kind of game.

The book that the AmRen posting references also discusses the experiences of a teacher and MTA employee. Again, with those stories I knew of events and experiences of current teachers and MTA employees that confirm those kinds of events. So is it racist to mention it? Or is it only racist when certain people mention it? And if one decides that censorship is how you deal with information one doesn't like doesn't that make said information, which is not only factual but observable by any seeing person, migrate to those entities who are not afraid of the New Left Crow but are also economically independent of those institutions that are beholden to the New Left Crow.

That would also mean that the public at large is less informed because more and more information is hidden from view lest one of the special groups are offended.

Then we have the "anti-gay" link entitled :Everyone Should Know These Statistics on Homosexuals which included:

Consider this dubious bullet-point from the essay: “The median age of death of lesbians is 45 (only 24% live past age 65). The median age of death of a married heterosexual woman is 79 (8)."

What makes it dubious? I've never looked into the media age of death of lesbians. Though since I know that median means the middle number of a given set of data. I know that half of the deaths were before that, indicating highly probable suicides and half are after that, indicating deaths from other causes. Given the history of homosexuality in the US shouldn't it be obvious that "out groups" like lesbians would be subject to more suicides, therefore bringing the median age of death down relative to heterosexual women who do not experience such ostracizing? But the author of the article doesn't even bother to look into that and present counter statistics. Declare the stat "dubious" and move on.

This is the New Left Crow. They dismiss that which they do not like and name call the person. But they rarely engage in the data.

Then there is this:

The Fields facts used in the essay reposted by Agema (and written by Joseph) are all similarly outrageous: “37% of homosexuals engage in sadomasochism,” “60% say they have had sex with strangers in bathhouses,” “Homosexuals are 100 times more likely to be murdered,” etc...

I don't know whether the statement is true. I don't spend my time researching the sexual practices and fetishes of homosexuals. Nor have I looked into how often they are murdered relative to the heterosexual population. But again, there is no rebuttal of the statements with any data. I would suppose that given what I've seen on the news, and read, that homosexuals are a targeted group, usually by heterosexual men who somehow think that proving that they are "better" than homosexuals is done by beating on homosexuals rather than by, I don't know..fucking women and raising their kids. Therefore homosexuals would be murdered at a higher rate than heterosexuals if homosexuality is one of the reasons one might be murdered for.

I do know that early in the AIDS epidemic one of the things that was cited for the quick spread within the NY homosexual community was the fact that they were engaging in sex in bath houses and whatnot (Chicago Tribune, NY Times). This was stated in public many times. So exactly what is the problem with pointing out what is likely a fact?

Ahh the New Left Crow, where you cannot point out facts about a group that can show that group in a negative light. Then of course comes The Smear(tm):

“Edward Fields has been active in white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups since he was a teenager in the late 1940s ... Fields was a significant force in the racist world ...”

Ahh this guy is not to be believed because not only is he a non-practicing Chiropractor, like you can only know about your particular field of employment, but he's racist to boot. Of course when asked whether 2+2=4 even if it is written by a racist, the answer completely guts the "and he's a racist" argument.

This the essence of the New Left Crow. Nowhere does the article actually deals with the actual claims of the offending articles in question. Rather we are brow beaten into believing the articles are "bad", "racist" and "homophobic" simply because "we" are not supposed to agree with the kinds of people making the statement. And even worse, the statement is verboten!

See Watson, of famous Watson and Crick, made some statements regarding the intellectual capacity of Africans (and various other races of people including admixtures thereof) and he's a pariah. Good luck teaching about genetics without mentioning him. I recently finished reading The Bell Curve, because I finally decided I wasn't going to let other people tell me what subject matter was "racist" without actually reading the material myself.

The book is not racist. Having read it I can honestly say that whoever is calling it racist has either not read the book, did not understand the subject matter, or understood the subject matter and decided to label it racist anyway because they were deeply disturbed by the implications of what was presented.

While reading the book I took a Raven Progressive Matrices test. I did so because I didn't want to take the author's or the reviewers word on how "biased" the test would be. It is not biased. Well no, that's not true. It is biased against blind people. If you can recognize patterns you can take the test. The only way to say that it is biased against black people is if you honestly believe black people are incapable of recognizing patterns. THAT would be racist.

And the thing that stood out to me the MOST with the discussion of IQ in that book (and of other studies I've read) is that for a concept that is allegedly biased against "People Of Color", Asians seem to do quite well. Quite well indeed. Why would a people who believe themselves to be The Master Race go out of their way to create a test in which they perform worse than those "yellow chink bastards"? No one ever seems to have an answer for that question. And that's the New Left Crow. They don't have to answer the question. They get to point and call names. Unless Asians aren't people of color....

Also,no one ever asks teachers, the ones who see the students every day. What do THEY see? Do they not see that when they give an exam that a subset of students tend to finish first with high scores, a bulk finishes later with average scores and then there is a trailing end of students who finish last (or do not finish) and do very poorly?

Is that not prima facie proof that there is intelligence and it varies?

Has anyone asked the teachers who have mixed racial composition in their classes about which groups fall mostly into each categories of finishers?

Don't many schools have advanced placement classes for students of exceptional (above average) ability? Isn't it the POINT of those classes to give those students so gifted the kinds of intellectual challenges that they do not get when having to deal with students of lesser ability? Do we know the proportion of students of each race that make it into those programs? Yes we do. And the data closely reflects what is written in The Bell Curve.

And what is worse for the Left Crow is that because there is a standardized test (which yours truly barely remembers taking...and not liking one bit) the low enrollment cannot be blamed on bias in admissions by admissions officers. It is strictly merit. You either are qualified or you are not. You spend time watching TV and playing video games, you're unlikely to make the cut. And as The Bell Curve has laid out in great detail, test prep only does so much (I also know this from my own pre and post test prep SAT exam scores).

Offending data No.1

Offending data No.2

Once you understand the data presented above you understand why so few black students attend the merit based elite high schools in NYC (and elsewhere). I think the reason that many people dismissed The Bell Curve is because they are at the far left of the curve and do not come into contact with those on the other side of the median (as suggested by the authors). I know from my own experiences in web forums and attending higher education that ranges from Ivy League to HBCU, I can say I was PAINFULLY aware when I was in the company of persons not simply more informed that I was but who were much more intelligent (in terms of grasping complex concepts (particularly math) than I was.

It is the case that in everyday life most people do not interact with people who are much brighter than they are (it would usually be a quite aggravating experience for both parties) or much richer (or poorer) than they are. Therefore what they consider "average" is highly skewed by their experiences. So when people do research of large swatches of people and those researchers come to the same conclusions, your average person thinks there is something wrong.

In addition to that the New Left Crow has an entitlement complex. Just as Jim Crow operated to keep the undesirables in line, the Left Crow increasingly leverages the law to enforce it's on privileges. No longer is it the case that you should leave those one dislikes or disagrees with alone. One must also endorse that which they do.If you do not you are to be sanctioned. Do you own a store that happens to make wedding cakes. If you don't make one for a gay wedding you get to have a day in court and possibly get run out of business. Is it because you told the gay couple to get out your store?

Nope.

Is it because you would sell them a muffin, coffee, birthday cake, retirement cake or any other cake? Nope?

That doesn't matter. Because all that matters is the wedding cake. And the courts amazingly allow these suites to not only go forward but for the plaintiffs to win. It never occurs to these judges that all one has to do is put the shoe on the other foot and have a business, say a black or jewish singing group provide services to the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Suddenly they would understand you don't make people provide services for group events one does not wish endorse. That businesses have a legitimate reason to decline services in such a way that is not legally discrimination. A business may not be allowed to decline a person of service because of that person but a business can decline to provide service to behavior they do not wish to be associated with.

Of course what is also entirely different here is that none of the Knights of the KKK would bother to BOTHER such a group to begin with. But not for these folks. The Left Crow says it's OK to purposely invade other peoples spaces and force themselves on them.

Similarly folks on the left thought they could force a business to pay for women's contraception simply because the employee is a woman. These self-centered people feel entirely entitled to other people's money to support their own lifestyle choices. They think this to be a fundamental right trumping the enumerated rights of those person's who object. And what do they call those who object? Sexist!

Used to be that the objective was to get the government out of the reproductive decisions of individuals. Now The New Left Crow is all about using the levers of government to get into the reproductive decisions of individuals.

These are but a few examples of this new era that is upon us. Hopefully this little piece helps to restore, better yet, create a balance where the adults are in control and the emotional cripples are kept in check. Some may object to my comparison to Jim Crow. That's fine. The important thing is to recognize the patterns of behavior and the purposes of those behaviors. They are more similar than it seems.

Dear Stupid People: White People From Spain Are White Regardless of Name.

*We went with the very broadest interpretation and included actors like Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz as "non-white," due to their Hispanic ancestry, despite the fact that many Hispanics may identify racially as white.

Huffington Post Since I know some geography, I know that Spain is a part of Europe. So how the hell did simply having a Spanish surname or "ancestry" make one non-white?

That's some bullshit. This is why I deal less and less with left leaning publications.

Let Me Help The Pope Understand His Own Christ

The Pope on the Hebdo cartoons

Gesturing towards Alberto Gasparri, a Vatican official who organises pontifical trips and who was standing next to him on board the plane, he said: “If my good friend Dr Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch in the nose.”

Throwing a pretend punch, the Pope said: “It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.”

This Pope is once again showing he clearly does not understand the faith which he is supposed to be leading and he ought to be removed from his position immediately.

Matthew 5:39 (KJV):

But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Luke 6:29 (KJV):

And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.

Matthew 6:15 (KJV):

But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Continuing:

The Pope in no way condoned the attack on Charlie Hebdo, insisting that violence carried out in God’s name was “an aberration.”

“One cannot make war [or] kill in the name of one’s own religion, that is, in the name of God.” But those who ridiculed another religion should expect some sort of reaction, he said.

Never mind that by stating he would punch a person out, he just contradicting himself. One person's mother is another person's Mohammed. This is why we DO NOT allow sensitive mofos to make the rules. And the reaction that CIVILIZED people do is a big "fuck you" and disassociate with those persons who have been offensive.

And with that; Fuck you Pope Francis.

Fuck you.

Nigel Duara Has Lost His Mind

The one thing these cartoon and movie events are good for is to see who exactly understands the total concept of "free speech" and those who do not. Nigel Duara is one of the latter

Nazi Julius Streicher never pulled a trigger in the Second World War. He never ordered anyone to die. He was a soldier in the First World War, not the second. But Nuremberg judges found him guilty of crimes against humanity and saw fit to sentence him to death for what he had written during the war. American soldiers carried out his execution in 1946.

And it should never have happened. In fact, that he was sentenced to death and it was carried out underscores exactly why emotional cripples and those with impulse control issues ought never be allowed to decide what speech is allowable and protected.

There are remedies in law for libel and slander as there should be but I wouldn't vote to convict anyone who wrote something I disagreed with with a crime against humanity.

Western society expressed universal horror this week over the extrajudicial killings of those involved in the publication and dissemination of an irreverent, left-leaning satirical weekly in Paris. [my italics]

Extra what? This idiot seems to be of the opinion that cartoons, offensive to some, even many, constitutes something worthy of indicting of a crime. His implied statement is that the killings would be justified had there been some sort of trial.

Seriously.

But the largely forgotten execution of Streicher serves as a reminder that Western society also has set limits on what is deemed acceptable speech.

Libel, slander, speech exhorting immediate violence against persons or property. Speech that would cause a normal person to fear for their physical wellbeing and act in a manner that if done in a group setting could cause many deaths (the shouting fire in an auditorium). That is all.

Now some politicians and certain left bending people also try to define "hate speech" all of which under the US Constitution at least is unconstitutional. France has such "hate speech" laws and I say it is highly hypocritical for them to have such laws on the books. But that is all.

Few would suggest that there is moral equivalence between the terrorist mass killing of cartoonists for purported blasphemy and the judicially sanctioned execution of a Nazi war criminal.

Actually I think this author just did. His only "quibble" with the execution is that it didn't have "judicial sanction". As far as this idiot is concerned drawing [very] unflattering pictures of someone's prophet is as actionable as crimes against humanity like Jew burning.

Los Angeles intellectual property attorney Donald Zachary said. "What we should learn from it is we should never make that mistake again. We should be happy we advanced to the point where we do not kill people for speech, but it wasn't always so."

Actually Donald, In recent history it is only Muslims who are moved to kill over "blasphemy". The so called "western world" moved on from that bullshit some time ago.

In the case of Streicher, the tribunal acknowledged in his indictment that he was never involved in the planning of war crimes, nor was he involved with policies that led to war. For this, he was acquitted of crimes against peace, one of the two charges against him.

Which is why he ought never have been on trial in the first place.

But the judges found that he was guilty of crimes against humanity. "Week after week, month after month, he infected the German mind with the virus of anti-Semitism and incited the German people to active persecution," the indictment said.

Streicher published Der Sturmer, a font of virulent anti-Semitism in print and cartoons. Many of the modern tropes of anti-Semitism found a place in the horrific depictions of Jews as rapists, murderers and worse; some entries relegated them to subhuman, monstrous status and called for their extermination.

You know what? There are cartoons about Mike Brown that are just like that too. There are cartoons out there about black people in general like that too. I wouldn't vote to convict not a single one of the authors over that.

What's more is that such a conviction completely lets the public off the hook for their own ability to reason. No matter what kind of unfactual information is presented, it is by making sure that everyone can speak (and write) that we allow voices of fact and reason to counter the propaganda of others. But people like to put blame on other people for their own failure to think and act. And so Streicher was really the stand in for the collective failure of the German people.

Nigel should be out of a writing job. That would be justice.

My Sentiments Exactly

The outspoken Moroccan-born mayor of Rotterdam said fellow Muslim immigrants "can f--- off" if they are not grateful for freedom of speech, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported Tuesday.

"It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom," Aboutaleb said in his speech, according to The Telegraph. "But if you do not like freedom, in Heaven’s name pack your bag and leave.

Yes. Please do.

"There may be a place in the world where you can be yourself," he continued. "Be honest with yourself and do not go and kill innocent journalists. And if you do not like it here because humorists you do not like make a newspaper, may I then say you can f--- off."

Yes. Please do.

The sad thing is that if LePen said this, she would be denounced as racist (never mind that "Muslim" is not a race) and as a Nazi. But see, truth hurt. This is how you run a country. Don't like it here? Don't like how we do things? Please do pack and leave.

Jihadis in Africa

I said before that we Africans know all about Jihad..:

A girl perhaps no more than 10 years old detonated powerful explosives concealed under her veil at a crowded northern Nigeria market on Saturday, killing as many as 20 people and wounding many more.

The blast inflicted devastating damage on shoppers at the Monday Market in Maiduguri, the shopping hub in a city that is at the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency. The explosion, witnessed by dozens of people, represented a new tactic in the Islamists’ campaign with their decision to use perhaps their youngest-ever suicide bomber.

And:

Hundreds of bodies – too many to count – remain strewn in the bush in Nigeria from an Islamic extremist attack that Amnesty International described as the “deadliest massacre” in the history of Boko Haram...

District head Baba Abba Hassan said most victims are children, women and elderly people who could not run fast enough when insurgents drove into Baga, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on town residents....

The five-year insurgency killed more than 10,000 people last year alone, according to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations. More than a million people are displaced inside Nigeria and hundreds of thousands have fled across its borders into Chad and Cameroon.

We know them well. Appeasement will not work. Banning cartoons will not work. Restricting speech will not work. LePen is NOT the problem. UKIP is not the problem PEGIDA is NOT The problem.

The people who let Jihadists into their countries. Who allow them to leave and join terrorist organizations and then return to the countries said organizations wish to have people commit murder in ARE the problem.

Nigeria has 10,000 dead This year alone. How many have to get dead in your country?

Time For France To Stop The Hypocricy

As those of us who understand and value free speech ,not only as protection from government but as a personal moral code, watch the recent events we must be clear that France currently has a hypocritical law in which people can be banned, fined and jailed for so called "anti-semetic" speech. There is no way that French leaders can talk about free speech which such laws are on the books and used against members of society.

A top court in France has upheld the ban on a performance by the controversial comic Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, a move the government has hailed as a “victory” over anti-Semitism.

The decision comes less than two hours before the comedian was due to give the opening performance of his national tour in the western city of Nantes, despite his lawyers claiming a breach of his freedom of expression. The ban had been lifted only yesterday by local judge Jean-Francois Molla who said that a perceived risk to public order could not be used to “justify as radical measure as banning the show”. However, France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, ruled that the show should be allowed to go ahead.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who has led the campaign to ban the comedian’s performances, said: "We cannot tolerate hatred of others, racism, anti-Semitism or holocaust denial. That is not France. This is a victory for the Republic.” [My underlines]

Yes we can indeed tolerate hatred of others. People are free to like, dislike, hate whatever moves them to such feelings. It is NOT the business of the state to dictate what people may think. The state may ONLY interfere when that person's actions infringe on the rights of others (murder, harassment, job discrimination, etc.)

This is why such freedom to speak, which is essentially the freedom to think is coupled with the freedom to associate or not associate. If I find someone's belief system offensive I am, and should continue to be, free to not associate with that person. Similarly that person who wishes to NOT associate with me should be free to not be made to do so. This is the essence of freedom.

Jean-Francois Molla got it right when he said:

that a perceived risk to public order could not be used to “justify as radical measure as banning the show”.

Jean-Francois understands that the onus of PROPER behavior lies on the person who may be offended. In a civilized society a person who is offended by certain speech, calls that person (or group) some not so nice names, and moves along. They avoid that person (freedom to not associate) and therefore do not have to come into contact with said offensive speech or person.

Whenever people use the excuse that certain groups may be offended and may resort to violence, they are in essence handing over their rights to the mob. They are living in a state of fear. They are, in essence, cowards because they fear facing the violent person AND are afraid to enforce the law against those who would commit violence to further their aims.

Massacre In France But The Real Problem Is Le Pen?

While I generally agree with the sentiments stated in this Russia Times piece, I find the following reference to be completely wrong:

In France it is inevitable that the Muslim community and immigrants in general will come under attack over the following weeks and months. Support will solidify and increase for the continuing rise of the far-right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, with its anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim focus.

In fact, not only in France but all across Western Europe, the far-right is in the ascendant. Recent anti-Muslim mass demonstrations in Germany already reflected a worrying trend prior to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and now it will only get worse, acting as a diversion away from the culpability of Western governments when it comes to creating conditions for the growth and spread of Islamophobia.

Aside from the obligatory nonsense about Islamophobia, it seems to me that the author, along with many others in the mainstream press has not noticed that these so called "far right" parties are in fact more representative of the general population than the so called "Mainstream" parties. And that it is the money and control over the narratives that these elites have that keep them currently in power.

Furthermore it should be noted that these "far right" parties have been consistent in their desire to NOT be involved in the ongoing wars of aggression in the Middle East and elsewhere. So if the author wants to pick on anyone it should pick on the NON "Far-right" parties that are and have been in power and not the parties that have been at the forefront of calling for taking the threats of Jihadists seriously.

We Africans know full well what happens when you do not take Jihadists seriously. Yes we do.

Le Pen and UKIP and the like are NOT the problem in Europe. They are only a problem if you think that various European nations have no right to self-determination and to maintain the culture and identity of their nations.

The Atlantic Exposes Black America's Dependency Syndrome

This is Garvey's Ghost. Garveyism is in large part about black folks worldwide being self-sufficient as most of the other worlds people are. That does not preclude interactions with any of the worlds people. There is always a benefit in the sharing of ideas and the like between different peoples, cultures and nations, but every people and nation should be able to carry on it's own affairs without the need of assistance from other people or nations. A nation should be able to feed it's population. Educate them. Provide an environment to sustain businesses. Deal with healthcare, provide infrastructure, etc. These are the hallmarks of a free people. An unfree people are dependent upon others to service one or more of these needs. As Garvey said: Anything any man has done, you can do also.

With this in mind lets look at the Atlantic Article entitled "How White Flight Ravaged the Mississippi Delta"

First the title tell you much. If "white flight" "ruined" the Mississippi delta, then it implies that the previous well being of the Miss. (I refuse to spell out Mississippi for the remainder of this piece) was due to the presence of white people.

That is a heavy statement.

For a while, the town’s fortunes seemed to improve, especially after a large Viking Range manufacturing facility opened there in 1990. But Viking was sold in 2012 and the new owners laid off a large part of the local workforce. Today, the town is two-thirds black and, in important ways, still deeply segregated. Most of the white students go to private academies while black students attend public schools, and its residential areas are divided between two extremes: the leafy boulevards of the affluent white section and the historically poor, black Baptist Town, which is so little changed that it stood in for a 1960s Jackson neighborhood in the movie The Help. [my underlines]

It underwent a brief renaissance in 1995 after its former resident Morgan Freeman opened an upscale restaurant and the Ground Zero Blues Club next to Clarksdale’s storied blues museum. But the restaurant has since closed and entire blocks of the downtown area currently stand abandoned. [My underlines]

Now pay attention:

As for Tchula, it’s currently listed as the fifth-poorest town in the nation with a population of more than 1,000. Its last two industries—a sawmill and an apparel factory—closed long ago, and more than 15 percent of its residents are unemployed. Carthan said he has sought help from foundations and state and federal agencies, but his proposals for economic development projects have all been rejected.

“Businesses don’t want to come to a town like Tchula,” observed Anthony Mansoor, who owns a hardware store downtown. “That bothers me. The people in this town worked so hard to get to where we are today, and in a lot of ways, things are better. But the town is broke. That’s the bottom line.” [my underlines]

Long ago we presented The Sequental Equation:

+I;S;E;P;M

He called this the sequential equation and it reads as such:

the positive intellectual transformation of society (+I) stands firmly behind the social trasnformation of society (+S). All social problems are economic (+E) and all economic problems are political (+P) and military aims presuppose politial objectives (+M)

The problem, as usual for those who are more worried about social acceptance than of self-sufficiency is that the political was put before the economic. So now the black folks are left with the political apparatus in Miss. but lack the economic power (+E) to actually be effective. Check and mate.

The situation is impossible to ignore: Among the key towns of the civil-rights era, those with the largest black majorities are frequently in the most economic trouble. [My underlines]

Why are they in economic trouble (-e)?

For the most part, black residents were left to grapple with an economic system that had been designed specifically to keep them in low-wage agricultural jobs.

And how was that done?

blacks who took part in the voter registration drives were often fired from their jobs or denied credit at stores and banks.

Those who controlled the money kept it from those who didn't. -E in effect.

Carthan and the board of aldermen set about getting federal grants to make much-needed improvements: “Put in a sewer system, one of the first day-care centers in the state, paved streets, built houses and a free clinic, started a transportation system and a feeding program for the elderly.” These changes were a boon to Tchula’s poorer residents, but they produced few jobs. For the most part, black residents were left to grapple with an economic system that had been designed specifically to keep them in low-wage agricultural jobs. [My underlines]

Imagine that. I wonder WHO put in the sewer system. I wonder WHO paved the streets. I wonder WHO built the houses. Were the black residents the ones who built it with skills they could monetize? If not those grants were basically a jobs program or a money transfer from the fed to the white residents. Happens all the time. I see construction work in black communities with the sole black employee holding a flag waving at traffic.

Today, Carthan’s vision for Tchula has partially come to pass. The town of about 2,000 residents is governed entirely by black elected officials, and every house has running water. No one in Tchula gets fired from their jobs or is denied credit for upsetting the status quo, as happened frequently during the civil-rights era. The problem is, few people have jobs. Where local workers once harvested cotton or drove tractors on white-owned plantations, or toiled in the local sawmill or coat factory, there is today no visible means of economic support. Dwindling government grants and long commutes to jobs elsewhere are all that’s left.

And when automation of manual labour is complete Tchula will be done. But Tchula is a prime example of the FAILURE to follow the Sequential Equation and the long term consequences of failing to follow Garveyite type ideologies.

+E before +P.

Now lets look at there other example town: Philadelphia.

But after decades of public notoriety and internal strife, Philadelphia has become one of the most successful towns in the region. The economy is diverse, drawing on a mix of farming, manufacturing, forestry, and service industries, with the added boon of a nearby Choctaw Indian casino. The county has also set up an enterprise incubator to provide office, manufacturing, and warehouse space to startup businesses.

Given the "performance" of the black folks in Tchula, let us ask a pertinent question: How much of the difference in Philadelphia is due to the black population alone?

On cue with the answer:

James Young, the town’s black mayor, says this economic expansion was possible only because white residents faced the shame of their past. “People didn’t turn away,” Young said. “They didn’t move away.”

In other words, Philadelphia would be a Tchula IF the white population left. In other words, the black mayor has admitted, on record, that it is the white population that is responsible for the maintenance of that town. Does he realize exactly what he is saying? Let me say it:

"This economic expansion was possible ONLY because the white residents."

Whether they "faced the shame" or not. For all this mayor knows, the white residents couldn't really give two cents about the past. It could be the case that they decided that LIKED being in Philadelphia and wanted to stay.

When federal court-ordered school integration came during the 1969–70 school year, Philadelphia chose not to establish all-white private academies as other nearby towns and cities had done. “I think the people had examined their souls, really, and the decision was made to keep the schools integrated,” Molpus said. Louisville, 30 miles down the road, was culturally and economically similar to Philadelphia, but its white residents decided to send their children to private academies, Molpus said. Today, Louisville is economically depressed.

A couple of things on this:

1) The part about the integrated schools only underscores the black dependency angle. It is not that the white students are doing poorly without black students. It is that the black students apparently suffer in the absence of white students. That's pretty shameful to say. I don't believe for one minute that any group of people requires people of another group to be present for them to do well academically. To believe otherwise is to believe that black people are inherently inferior to other groups. Of course if you are reading this Atlantic piece carefully, that is exactly what they are saying.

2)I took the liberty to look at the demographics for both Philadelphia and Louisville. Lets look at the media income for each:

Louisville:
Estimated median household income in 2012: $23,531 (it was $27,485 in 2000)

Philadelphia:
Estimated median household income in 2012: $32,353 (it was $26,438 in 2000)

So we see that Philadelphia has a growing median household income vs. Louisville that has a declining median household income. Molpus asserts that it is due to Louisville not integrating it's schools. I call bullshit. We already know from the Tchula example that the black population is NOT the source of job creation in these towns (don't hate me hate the report). So it stands to figure that something else is largely responsible for the difference in median income.

Returning to the demographics lets look at the populations:

Louisville:
Black alone - 4,078 (61.5%)
White alone - 2,410 (36.3%)

Philadelphia:
Black alone - 3,693 (49.4%)
White alone - 3,524 (47.1%)

So we see that Philadelphia has 10% more people described as "white alone" than Louisville. Philadelphia also has 12% less black people than Louisville. I think that the difference in the populations explains much more of the differences in median income than "integrated schools". And incidentally it costs more to live in Louisville and the costs of property are higher. This generally implies that there are some relatively wealthy people there and the lows are dragging down the median income numbers.

According to Patterson, such grants are few and far between. Asked what the town needs most, she replied, “What do we need? We need everything. But now we need police cars foremost. Our streets need to be redone. We need to try to find somebody to open some businesses. Nobody is really coming in until we get our infrastructure improved.”

What about NAN? What about the Urban League? How about all those millionaire ball players? Entertainers? I dunno, anybody other than the same folks and the government? After all, if we cannot or are unwilling to build among and with our own, why should anybody else do it?

Solidarity For Free Speech

FBI Says Search Warrants Not Needed to Use “Stingrays” In Public Places

Clearly there has been a complete change in what people, including those in "law enforcement" think privacy means.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is taking the position that court warrants are not required when deploying cell-site simulators in public places. Nicknamed "stingrays," the devices are decoy cell towers that capture locations and identities of mobile phone users and can intercept calls and texts....

unless one of several exceptions apply, including (among others): (1) cases that pose an imminent danger to public safety, (2) cases that involve a fugitive, or (3) cases in which the technology is used in public places or other locations at which the FBI deems there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. [my underlines]

I think that the government ought to be held to the standard of "privacy" as experienced by the founders:

If a person, including a human government agent, cannot see, smell, hear or taste the thing which they are seeking to use to establish guilt of some criminal nature then it should require a warrant.

Since no one can "see" radio waves, then there should be a warrant required to use tools to intercept them. I don't see why the FBI or any other agency thinks that just because said waves are traveling in "public airwaves" that the contents encoded by said waves are also somehow public information. If you cannot grab someone's phone and make them show you the messages on it without probable cause (at the very minimum) then how can one justify intercepting the delivery of said messages to a device for which it was not meant to be delivered to? Airwave data should be treated no different that wireline transmissions and subject to the same "trap and trace" laws that govern the latter.

I think a part of why this is being done is the FCC regulation that devices accept all interference. Perhaps it is time to revisit that requirement and restate it so that it says "lawful interference."

Question: Did We Need To Have Those Numbers In The First Place?

So the NYPD has been doing a work slow down:

The number of arrests plummeted by 56% for the week ending Sunday, from 5,448 during the same time period a year ago to 2,401.

The number of people slapped with criminal summonses for offenses like drinking in public fell 92% for the same week from 4,077 to just 347.

Just 749 motorists were hit with moving violations, compared to 9,349 a year ago — a 92% drop.

And the number of parking summonses issued fell by a whopping 90% from 16,008 to just 1,191.

In Brooklyn's 84th Precinct, home base for two hero police officers who were executed by a cop-hating maniac, a grand total of just two tickets were written for moving violations.

Not a single parking or criminal court summons was issued.

If this is the case, and all hell hasn't broken loose as a result then the public should be able to demand an answer to the following question:

Were any of these activities (arrests and summonses) actually necessary for "public safety"?

Because if while these declines were/are going on there is no statistically significant uptick in crime, then certainly we can surmise that the purpose of those arrests and tickets were for reasons other than public safety.

In fact we could very well ask if whether these arrests and summonses are purely for the collection of monies for city coffers. That is, just like what bothers me about the Eric Garner situation, are folks being arrested fined and killed for "crimes" that exist for the sole purpose of raising revenue for the state?

"The Opposite Of The Truth"

From the NY Times:

“Everybody has to take license in movies like this, and it can be hard for nit-pickers like me to suspend nit-picking,” Diane McWhorter, the author of “Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution,” said in an interview.

“But with the portrayal of L.B.J.,” she continued, “I kept thinking, ‘Not only is this not true, it’s the opposite of the truth.’ ” [my underlines]

It was not OK for white folks to genetically white wash the Noah story. It is simply not genetically accurate for Noah AND his wife to be portrayed the way they were.

It was NOT OK for Exodus God's and Kings to whitewash ancient Egypt.

It is also NOT OK for black folks to re-write and "black wash" historical facts as it regards the Civil Rights movement. But color me unsurprised given the fiction of Mike Brown that far too many people STILL believe, even though it is contradicted by all available facts.

There are a lot of people out there who specialize in being "offended" rather than specializing in getting and stating the facts. Unfortunately the former get far more attention. That whole squeaky wheel thing.

A 13 Year Old Wrote That?

From the Chicago Sun Times

Lets go over the worst of this. While yours truly has made his share of grammar and spelling errors, there are some things that I've never done. If this is indicative of the education that Malik is getting, there is something very wrong. 1)" Ask you sum": Ask you what? "Sum" What is "sum" where did that come from? Note to Malik AND his parent. How about less time on twitter and cell phones with the horrendous "English" used there, and more time on properly written books (preferably science)? "sum" may be acceptable for a character constrained place like Twitter, but it has no place whatsoever in a letter other than a direct quote.

2)"Imma": Did he mean "I'm a"? because "imma" is not a word. "imma" is a form of saying "I'm a" with the pause between "I'm" and "a" taken out. Again any literate person knows that "Imma" has no place in formal writing other than a direct quote. 3) "Black African-American": Really? 4) Why is that entire letter one big run on sentence? My GOD!!! I know I've made some poor sentence construction but damn. Does this kid know what a period is? 5) "I am the only boy on my mom's side of the family": And we wonder why... 6) "I just wanna be safe": By the age of 13 one should know a few things:

a) Santa does not exist.

Therefore

b) Santa has nothing to do with your safety.

Now..

I barely can’t even go outside anymore, can’t ride my bike, can’t play ball, can’t go play with my cousins, because you have to watch your back every 30 seconds,” said Malik, who hopes to go to college, play basketball and be drafted, and if not, become a teacher.

“I know the president’s letter isn’t going to like solve the safety reasons out here, and it’s still going to be dangerous, but I’m excited the president of the United States wrote to me, and I can’t wait to show it off.”

College? Not writing like that. Basketball and drafted: Long odds. Hit the books young man. Become a teacher: Not with writing like that. We gotta do better. Gotta do better.

Proper Horse - Cart Orientation

So just now I was watching the news when this guy, didn't note his name, said that the "police need the community to do their jobs". I beg to differ.

Why do the police exist? In a completely perfect world, they exist to act as a deterrent from crime. Failing that, because some people are undeterred by the presence of people licensed to kill, They are there to apprehend those who have committed a crime, preferably alive.

Why do they do that? Because "the community" wants / needs to be safe so that they can live their lives. Police are a part of the larger social contract that allows every day people to not have to learn how to shoot or other forms of self-community defense and can spend their time doing other things.

In other words police exist in order to secure a community. It is the community that needs the police doing their jobs. NOt the police that needs a particular community. If a particular community decides that it is going to harbor and defend those who engage in criminal activity, then the police have no job to do there.

If you don't believe that then let the police exit those places where the residents claim they are "occupiers" and see what happens. Hint: It won't be pretty. Think Crack in '85.

The Funny Thing About Dow 18,000

I remember not too long ago (but ancient times in this short term memory diseased culture) when the Dow first went over 14,000. That was under Bush. Folks complained about corporate profits.

I remember when it crossed 10,000 under the nearly finished term of Clinton. Then the tech bubble burst.

So I would advise folks who are crowing about how this proves something about Democrats vs. Republicans to think a bit before speaking.

The Bright But Lazy Kid In The Class

Reading this NYT article on the Russian Lada made me think of stories we all know of the bright kid in the class who, full of great potential, is satisfied with just doing the minimum required to get by.

It is clear to anyone who pays attention that Russians are not incapable of doing many things. But looking over this story (among others) it is clear that what the Russians really lack is the motivation. The drive to be as great as they could be.

I think this is what probably bothers NATO and the rest so much. Imagine a Russia with the drive of Chinese (similar government structure).

President Vladimir V. Putin has repeatedly said this month that Western sanctions mean Russia has to go it alone. So resurrecting Avtovaz is a parable for changes needed by all Russian manufacturing. It is not quite “As Avtovaz goes, so goes the nation,” but close.

It may turn out that the sanctions on Russia will be the biggest kick in the arse that it needs to stop being the bright but lazy kid in the class.

Another 9-11 Connection

From a recent article on Counterpunch:

The company’s own web site informs that it has played an important role in the United States’ geopolitical and military strategy in the Middle East:

“Following the 9/11 attacks of 2001 and the subsequent U.S. military actions, DAI was called on to lead a variety of challenging development projects in the midst of the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, a country where we worked as early as 1977. Similarly, after the United States toppled the Iraqi regime in 2003, DAI won a project to help provide legitimate governance in the country. Other assignments in Iraq covered agriculture.”

It is most interesting that DAI would be in Afghanistan in 1977, way before the Soviet invasion, just when the CIA was arming and training an islamic fundamentalist insurgent force to destabilize the country. [my italicized inner quote]

Who later turned into the Taliban, which would later organize itself enough to fly planes into the WTC sparking a war in the Middle East that has thus far included Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. With "pop up" groups in Nigeria, Somalia and Kenya. Not to mention inspired "lone wolf" killers.

As Commander Lock said in the Matrix Revolutions:

You people can't see but 5 minutes in front of your face.

What Were Those Black Frats Doing?

From Jodi Kantor's piece in the NY Times about Stanford's class of 1994

Scott Walker, one of the only African-Americans in the class to try founding a start-up, said in an interview that he regretted spending so much time at his all-black fraternity, which took him away from the white friends from freshman year who went on to found and then invest in technology companies.

Which brings me to the title question:

What were the frat brothers of (name of black frat here) doing where there wasn't enough of them to produce entrepreneurs?

Also isn't it rather stunning that of all the classes of people that he felt were "necessary" to get into technology, it was white people?

Within a few more years, he, Mr. Thiel, Mr. Rabois and others had transformed themselves into a close-knit network of technology entrepreneurs — innovators who created billion-dollar business after billion-dollar business, using the ideas, ethos and group bonds they had honed at The Stanford Review.

So three white people got together, bonded and created billion-dollar businesses, one after the other and supposedly a entire black fraternity could not do the same. Again. what were these guys doing?

Let me lay it out: Back in the 1920s (even before, but for our purposes we will use that time frame), There were two major pushes in black America: Integration in the face of NAACP and Nationalism in the face of the UNIA.

The UNIA failed for various reasons including the total unwillingness of black folks to build business with, among and for themselves (to export to others). And so black America went to the latter in which we get to buy, consume and what-have-you, what other people create, build and sell. The purpose of school for black folk is to get a "good job downtown" rather than to create a job uptown that is better than the job downtown.

The "Billion dollar business" creators of the linked piece had the latter attitude.

Sierra Leone's Only Free Emergency Room

A few things to notice: The technology: Who made it? Who shipped it? The main "actors" Who are they? Where are they from? Last question: Are the people of Sierra Leone independent or dependent?

US and Cuba to Re-establish Diplomatic Relations!

WASHINGTON — The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, American officials said Wednesday.

In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted a final meeting at the Vatican, President Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the United States and the island nation just 90 minutes off the American coast.

Bravo Obama! Long time overdue.

The Smoking Gun Loses Focus

On Dec 15 the Smoking Gun posted a report about one of the Ferguson grand jury witnesses. Witness 40. I dealt with Witness 40 in an earlier post. But apparently the Smoking Gun thinks that Witness 40 was what sunk the indictment. I mean you see how long that piece is? This is what happens when people cling to a narrative so hard that they need to focus on irrelevant stuff in order to convince themselves that they are correct.

Witness 40 is not the witness that sunk the indictment. Dorian Johnson sunk the indictment along with witness 14 and witness 10.

TSG needs to read the undisputed testimony of those persons and put down whatever it is they are smoking.

One More Thing

I know I know....but one last observation about the story

Not a single mention of Asians (far or near east). I wonder why. Surely if everyone is equally acting a fool in school then we should be able to compare the behavior of Asian students. Did anyone look at Asian rates of discipline? If they did, what were they? And if they are so miniscule compared to the population, then does that mean that Asians are being treated way more leniently than everybody else or that their behavior never warrants disciplinary action? And if it is the latter, then what is it that the Asian kids are doing that the other kids are not?

Studying perhaps?

"Subjectively"

Last one from that article:

Compared with black boys, who are disciplined at higher rates than boys of other races and ethnicities, researchers say black girls tend to be penalized more subjectively, like for having a bad attitude or being defiant. [my underline]

Subjective. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Black+girl+school+fights And

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=white+girl+school+fights

Count 'em up and disregard the compilations. These are the ones caught on video and posted to YouTube. haven't even gone to World Star or other sites.

And remember, the research shows that black women/females are the number one instigators of inter-personal violence

But you know, it's always easier to call attention to those who have to deal with the BS than to call attention to those doing the BS.

But Did She Do It?

Culling from the same piece:

Mikia’s case is not unique. At a sparsely attended committee meeting in Henry County where school officials, advocates and elected officials gathered to address discipline methods in the county, a handful of parents of black girls shared their stories. Sakinah White, a single mother of three who is an elementary schoolteacher in nearby Clayton County, said her 17-year-old daughter had been treated unfairly after she was expelled from her high school over an incident in which she was accused of hitting a white male student with a book. Criminal charges were also filed in the juvenile court system, Ms. White said.

“It’s a form of child abuse,” she said.

After a semester-long expulsion, her daughter became suicidal, Ms. White said, and began cutting herself with soda can tops. Ultimately, the criminal charges were dropped, Ms. White said, and the state board of education reversed the expulsion.

Dropped criminal charges doesn't mean the incident didn't happen. As someone has has in fact been hit by a female while in school, at that age, I know it could have happened. We can debate whether or not it was appropriate to have criminal charges brought against the girl, we should NOT overlook whether the incident actually happened. If she did in fact hit the boy with the book, then she should have faced disciplinary proceedings. expulsion may be over top given the public school mandate to educate all students. But I'm bothered by the entire fuss about the consequences rather than why the accusation came up in the first place.

The Company You Keep

In the movie Ip Man 2, there is a scene where Ip Man, one of his students and one of his ex-foes end up in jail over a fight Ip Man's student got into with a student of another school. Ip Man's wife came to bail him out, after getting money from a family friend. Ip Man having been released discreetly asks his wife and friend if they had any money to bail out the student who apparently had no family of his own. Neither of them had the money but the ex-foe begged his wife for the money.

The entire purpose of that scene, as I understand it, was to show the high character of Ip Man. I don't know if it's true but the story demonstrates the point that's going to be made here: If you hang around with people with high character, when you are in trouble, or if they get into trouble with you, they won't leave you hanging. This brings us to the subject of this piece.

it was a surprise for her grandmother when Mikia, 12, and a friend got into trouble for writing graffiti on the walls of a gym bathroom at Dutchtown Middle School in Henry County last year. Even more of a surprise was the penalty after her family disputed the role she was accused of playing in the vandalism and said it could not pay about $100 in restitution. While both students were suspended from school for a few days, Mikia had to face a school disciplinary hearing and, a few weeks later, a visit by a uniformed officer from the local Sheriff’s Department, who served her grandmother with papers accusing Mikia of a trespassing misdemeanor and, potentially, a felony....

Her friend, who is white, was let go after her parents paid restitution. [My underlines]

While the article this quote is lifted from is focusing on the race angle, I'd like to focus on the company this girl kept. Much like the guy who's back was broken when he decided to roll with a set of bikers who assaulted a man in a Land Rover, this girl, and I assume her family, has learned a hard lesson in being mindful of the company she keeps.

If these two girls were friends, then how come the other family didn't offer to help them? Of course the most logical answer here was that the other family was looking out for themselves and their kid. And honestly that's their only real obligation. But it goes to show, when the chips fall off the table, the greedy only think of themselves.

[Black] Male's Not Working

Since folks are concerned about Ferguson, Mo. Check the map provided by the NYT in relation it's article on men not working:

It would seem that the tract including Ferguson has anywhere between 15 and 45% of males between 25-54 not working. That wide spread is due to the reported margin of error of 15%. This is at a minimum 2.7 times the national unemployment rate and a maximum of 9 times the national unemployment rate. Also of interest is the tract 127000:

81% of males 25-54 not employed? I don't know the geography of that location, so that may be a result of it being a retirement location or something that would depress both the population and the work.

Also you'll note that the places with the highest levels of unemployment among men, particularly in urban areas have high black populations. Where yours truly grew up, there is a 41% unemployment rate among males. It is also MOSTLY(as in 90+%) black.

It also may be the case that where Eric Garner was killed by NYPD, has a 41% unemployment rate for males. You'd think a city with areas with that high an unemployment rate would think differently about how it attacks people selling loosies to make money.

Entire Classrooms. Poof! Gone.

I recently rehashed a commentary I made about the staggering loss of life that black on black crime has on the overall population of African-Americans:

I looked at an article on a Boston high school in which the school in question had 1842 students. A 67 person murder rate, over ten years would see 1/3 of the school population disappear. That doesn't include the shooters. If we add the shooters, then over ten years 1340 persons no longer in the population due to being dead or being put in jail for the crime. That would be close to an entire school population gone every 10 years (of course many, if not most murders go unsolved and so the number of shooters do not match the number shot. Also as with other crimes, one person may have killed multiple people. Therefore the math would be off by quite a bit but is still alarming considering that even unfound killers are a drain on the communities they live in). Multiply that by all the mostly black communities spread out across the United States. Every 10 years black folks in America eliminate one school's worth of people in each of their communities.

Now check this article and the associated picture:

Count those crosses. Now read this:

Members of Mount Beulah Missionary Baptist Church placed nearly 140 crosses on the church lawn to honor those killed in the St. Louis area throughout 2014.

Now I cannot say for certain that all of those victims are black. Usually the statistics on homicides are between 80 and 90 percent black victims.

Of the 567 homicides from 2008 to 2011, for which the race of the victim is available in the SLMPD annual reports, 502 are listed as black, while 64 were white. Over that period, 89% of those killed in the city were black. In a city that's very nearly 50/50 black/white, those 64 homicides would give an annual murder rate of ~10/100,000 for white residents and ~78/100,000 black residents.

There were 140 crosses laid out. 80% of 140 is 112. If you have a class of 30 students, then that would be 4 classrooms of black students gone this year.

Four.

Entire.

Classrooms.

Poof. Gone.

Would we think it acceptable if someone rolled up into a school and killed an entire classroom of kids?

Would we think it acceptable if someone rolled up into a school and took out 4 classrooms of kids?

But that is exactly what this murder rate is like.

Who's marching over that? Or do you think the police are responsible for all that?

Ramsey Orta Must Be Lying

Ramsey Orta said the following in an interview with the NY Daily News

“When I went to the grand jury to speak on my behalf, nobody in the grand jury was even paying attention to what I had to say,” Orta said. “People were on their phones, people were talking. I feel like they didn’t give (Garner) a fair grand jury.

“People was on their phones, people were having side conversations, like it was just a regular day to them,” he said of the jurors.

I just had jury duty. You cannot enter the courthouse with your cell phone. It is taken from you after you go through the metal detectors. You are given a number that corresponds with the spot your phone is in. Now I'll be totally honest and say that I saw one person with his cell phone while I was waiting to be called in.

On the last jury trial I was on, a court officer came into the room where we gathered and had us give him our phones for the day. So unless someone who was ON the grand jury comes out and verifies this claim, I'm calling this guy a liar.

Now let me go onto the other part of his story:

One of them “wasn’t even asking no questions about the police officer, he was asking all the questions toward Eric,” Orta said. “What was Eric doing there? Why was Eric there?

“Nothing pertaining to the cop choking him,” he said.

Here's the thing. This line of questioning implies that the juror was thinking about the reason for contact with Garner. The thinking here would be that since Garner was selling "loosies" and had been arrested for doing that before, that the officer was justified in his contact with Garner.

I share Orta's feeling that such a concentration on what Garner was doing was problematic. No one is disputing that the officers had a legal authority to arrest Garner, though I, as well as many others have issues with this idea of arresting someone over selling a loose cigarette (not to minors). The issue was and is not whether the officers had the authority to arrest Garner, the actions in question was HOW that arrest was effected. The chokehold and the subsequent chest compressions that directly lead to Garner's death.

In that sense Orta really shouldn't have even been brought in for questioning because he provided evidence (the video) and only needed to verify that he took it.

Number 1 Or Not Number 1?

Marketwatch has two pieces on it's site:

1)It’s official: America is now No. 2

And

2)Opinion: Sorry, but America is still No. 1

Either way. The fact that it can now be "debated" means a whole lot.

Blow Rides The "No Agency" Horse For The NY Times

Once again a liberal has trotted out ye olde horse named "No Agency" (can we get Di Blasio to ban it?)

The data suggests that, in the nation as a whole, that isn’t so. Racial profiling is real. Disparate treatment of black and brown men by police officers is real. Grotesquely disproportionate numbers of killings of black men by the police are real.

Well yeah. However disproportionate does not equal racist. I know, I know, disparate impact is one of the books of the liberal bible. If black folks suffer from something it's racist. If they excel at something (track, basketball, etc.) then it's because we are the bomb.com. Kinda like those businesses that like to privatize profits and socialize losses.

Maybe, just maybe an partial, actually predominant, reason for those dead black men via suicide by cop is because black men, unfortunately, disproportionately engage in criminal behavior that involves a weapon. That behavior often being shooting at another black man, or two or three.

Tis true.

No one denies that police officers have hard jobs, but they volunteer to enter that line of work. There is no draft. So these disparities cannot go unaddressed and uncorrected. To be held in high esteem you must also be held to a higher standard.

Absolutely. With much power comes much responsibility. But again, the DATA says that the large portion of the "disparity" is due to the disproportionate amount of crime black folks do relative to their population. Ask Newark mayor Ras Baraka if you doubt me. But how about that citizens also owe themselves and the police a level of comity. How about black folks recognize that [unfortunately] the reason for police running around our communities in the first place is because perhaps we are fucking up when it comes to raising our sons? Not all of our sons. Not even most of our sons. But a large enough portion of them. How about holding ourselves up to that "high" standard?

And no one denies that high-crime neighborhoods disproportionately overlap with minority neighborhoods. But the intersections don’t stop there. Concentrated poverty plays a consequential role.

Say Mr. Blow, how much crime are there in poor white communities? How much crime are there in poor Asian communities? Or how about we look at the recent report out of California where it seems that race and not poverty is the major distinction in homicide rates.

So does the school-to-prison pipeline. So do the scars of historical oppression. In fact, these and other factors intersect to such a degree that trying to separate any one — most often, the racial one — from the rest is bound to render a flimsy argument based on the fallacy of discrete factors. Yet people continue to make such arguments, which can usually be distilled to some variation of this: Black dysfunction is mostly or even solely the result of black pathology. This argument is racist at its core because it rests too heavily on choice and too lightly on context. If you scratch it, what oozes out reeks of race-informed cultural decay or even genetic deficiency and predisposition, as if America is not the progenitor — the great-grandmother — of African-American violence.

Funny thing about that school to prison pipeline. Way back when I was on Twitter a scholar asked his audience to provide him any documentation about a school to prison pipeline. Last I heard he couldn't find documentation of such a pipeline. And to be clear he meant that idea that schools "expect" a certain number of their students to be criminals and therefore treat them accordingly. But if you want to talk about a pipeline then please be bright about it and recognize it's not a school to prison but womb to prison pipeline. It begins by exposing your young children to violent and sexist (misogynist and misandrist) music. It's putting them in front of TV for hours on end rather than, you know, parenting. It's having a trailer load of men in and out of your house, in front of your kids, each one of which eventually is called a "no good nigga" in front of that very impressionable child.

It is not reading to your children and not encouraging them to read. it is teaching them to speak so called "ebonics" rather than the proper pronounciation of words because you don't want them to "sound white".

It is teaching them to disregard authority figures so that when they do get to school they don't respect the teachers and other elders so they get into trouble. it is thinking that those rules of conduct are "racist" and don't apply to your children.

It is all these things and more. But it's rarely the school's fault. The school didn't make you have a child you couldn't afford to have. School didn't make you a piss poor parent (I mean attitude not money). You did that. And the school has to put up with the messed up kids YOU sent there.

And of course we have The Horse(tm)

Yet people continue to make such arguments, which can usually be distilled to some variation of this: Black dysfunction is mostly or even solely the result of black pathology.

Because black dysfunction, where it exists is "mostly" the result of something or someone other than the folks exhibiting said dysfunction.

I bet Blow believes trannies are sane as well.

If a person or group of people's behavior are not predominantly caused by their own choices then those persons are effectively agent-less (is that a word?). Blow has asserted that black dysfunction, where it exists cannot be mostly the result of pathological thinking or even culture. His argument is that they are the fault, mostly, or white folks

as if America is not the progenitor — the great-grandmother — of African-American violence.

Because America! Meaning white folks. Always with the white folks with these folks.

Today, too many people are gun-shy about using the word racism, lest they themselves be called race-baiters.

I agree and lets add to that that too many [black] people are willing to own up to ugly truths about ourselves lest we "give credence" to the "racists". So we'll act like Polar Bear hunting isn't a hate crime (for the record I don't like or agree with the concept of hate crimes). We'll act like the Bosnian killed by a hammer wielding black guy wasn't a hate crime. We'll act like the knockout game that has been going on for years, isn't a hate crime.

And we (not including me) won't admit that Michael Brown was a two bit thug who robbed a store, assaulted it's owner. Laughed about it to his boy DOrian, punched a cop in his face when that cop tried to stop him as a suspect in that robbery, went for his gun, got shot in the hand and then got dead because of his behavior.

No Mr. Blow doesn't want real deal, fact based conversation. He'd be out of a job 'cause he wouldn't be able to trot out that "No Agency" horse. Oh and by the way...

New York isn’t about making a martyr of “Big Mike” or “Big E” as much as it is about making the most of a moment, counternarratives notwithstanding.

Liar. Cause in August Blow said Mike Brown was a stand in for black men. There he wrote:

Brown had just finished high school and was to start college this week. The investigation will hopefully clarify what led to his killing. But it is clear even now that his killing occurred in a context, one that we would do well to recognize.

Before he even KNEW anything about the facts of the case. Now he wants to distract us from his utter failure in August to see.

Here he is doing the "gentle giant" thing:

The response to the killing of the unarmed teenager Michael Brown — whom his family called the “gentle giant” — by the Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson — who was described by his police chief as “a gentle, quiet man” and “a gentleman” — has been anything but genteel.

Here is Blow on the Funeral:

And when the person being shot is shot not by one of the bad guys (people all parents teach children to avoid as best they can) but by one of the people we as a society count as one of the good guys (police officers sworn to protect and serve) there are obviously going to be questions that need answering.

Of course Brown WAS the "bad guy". And did blow bother with fielding the "questions that need answering"?

Nope. He has not spent a single piece in discussing the facts of the case that are available to all to read and see for themselves. This is a guy I'm supposed to take seriously on his proclamations about racism and black pathology?

No thank you.

Not A ChokeHold

This is not a chokehold:

This is a chokehold:

Difference?

The black guy.

Criminally Negligent Homicide

In NY State criminally negligent homicide is defined as: N.Y. PEN. LAW § 125.10 : NY Code - Section 125.10: Criminally negligent homicide

A person is guilty of criminally negligent homicide when, with criminal negligence, he causes the death of another person. Criminally negligent homicide is a class E felony.

What is negligence under NY State law?

4. "Criminal negligence." A person acts with criminal negligence with respect to a result or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense when he fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that such result will occur or that such circumstance exists. The risk must be of such nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation. [My underlines]

Given that NYPD agents (police) are under instructions that the use of chokeholds is banned and that officer Pantaleo knew of such a ban and decided to employ such a chokehold anyway. As we see above "criminal negligence" includes a failure to perceive risk (death or other physical ailments) and it is clear that Pantaleo "deviated" from standard of care that a reasonable person (all NYPD officers who have received notice about chokeholds) would observe.

That's one point. The second point is that the medical examiner said that Garner died due in part to compression of his chest. So after employing a banned chokehold, they then sat on him. However, once Garner declared that he could not breath, the officers continued to restrict air to Garner by pressing his face to the ground.

What jury instruction did the grand jury receive under which they didn't find probable cause for criminally negligent homicide?

The Bogus "Self-Defense" Argument

The NY Times has a piece up on the possible reasons for the grand jury to have decided to not indict Daniel Pantaleo on any charges.

Mr. Garner pulls his hands away, again raising the question of resistance. The difference in size between the officers and Mr. Garner is apparent. Whether Officer Pantaleo felt his life was threatened could also be an issue in whether he acted criminally. If the grand jury viewed Officer Pantaleo’s actions as self-defense, then there would be no crime, said Eugene O'Donnell, a former police officer and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The NY Times is using stills to make it's case. This is misleading. When we see the full video of Garner we see that though he did indeed pull his arm back from the arresting officer, he did not, I repeat did not make any moves whatsoever to assault any of the officers. Once he pulled his arm away he immediately put them back up in front of him with his palms facing forward. He did not grab at any of the officers. He did not ball up his fists. He did not attempt to flee the scene. Garner's actions were threatening to none of the officers. Therefore none of them can claim that they were in fear of their lives or even bodily harm. Even if they did, since the video does not support such a claim.

Continuing:

Officer Pantaleo reaches around Mr. Garner’s neck. He holds Mr. Garner in what William J. Bratton, the police commissioner, said appeared to be a chokehold. The New York City Police Department has banned the use of this particular hold, but the grand jury would only consider this to the extent that it indicated whether the officer was intentionally trying to kill Mr. Garner, acting “recklessly,” or in a “criminally negligent” manner, the legal definitions of various levels of murder and manslaughter. [My underlines]

This goes back to my discussion of intent. It is nigh impossible to convict a police officer on a charge that requires intent simply due to the definitive nature of the occupation. So we put the "intentionally" aside.

That leaves us with "reckless" and "criminally negligent manner". If the use of a chokehold is banned by the NYPD and this officer used the banned technique then he was acting recklessly. The very fact that there is a ban on the use of chokeholds by the NYPD (probably for the very reason we have this case) is enough probable cause against the officer. He may still be acquitted in the due course of a trial, but there is enough probable cause to charge him with reckless behavior at the very least.

What it comes down to is WHAT the prosecutor asked the grand jury to consider. While the deliberations of the grand jury is secret for understandable reasons I think it is within reason for the public to know what charges they had to consider.

Speaking Of Ghost Towns

@chrislhayes Like I’ve said before, if every teenager who robbed a store were killed, I would have attended a ghost town for high school.

— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) December 1, 2014

This sounds like a discussion I had with the father of Corey Stingley who asserted that store thefts by African-American males is a common thing as to not warrant much commentary.

First I'll just say Bouie is an idiot for making that assertion. Because by saying that he is saying that all black people, have at some point in their lives robbed stores. How else could his classroom be a proverbial ghost town?

The second thing is, how bad does Bouie make black folks look to make such a claim in public? Really sir? You believe that just about all black teenagers engage in robbery? With black spokepersons like that I don't need racist white people (liberal or conservative) around.

Lastly while it's not robbery, I have pointed out in a few posts that the rate of murder in various black communities (I was focusing on Camden) as population control:

I looked at an article on a Boston high school in which the school in question had 1842 students. A 67 person murder rate, over ten years would see 1/3 of the school population disappear. That doesn't include the shooters. If we add the shooters, then over ten years 1340 persons no longer in the population due to being dead or being put in jail for the crime. That would be close to an entire school population gone every 10 years (of course many, if not most murders go unsolved and so the number of shooters do not match the number shot. Also as with other crimes, one person may have killed multiple people. Therefore the math would be off by quite a bit but is still alarming considering that even unfound killers are a drain on the communities they live in). Multiply that by all the mostly black communities spread out across the United States. Every 10 years black folks in America eliminate one school's worth of people in each of their communities.

Now that IS alarming no?

Eric Garner Given The Sean Bell Treatment?

To those of us who pay attention to the facts, we know that the proper comparison here is not to Mike Brown but to Sean Bell.

When the Sean Bell was killed and his buddy Guzman shot up, I watched that trial closely and learned a few things that I discussed in a post after that verdict came down:

If you read all the counts you'll note that there is NO second degree manslaughter charge against Isnora or Oliver for shooting at Guzman. This is significant because first degree manslaughter charges requires the proof of intent. I said back in march of 2007 that intent would not be provable. Second degree manslaughter requires no intent. Once it was shown in court, by both Isnora and Oliver that the target of their weapons fire was Guzman, it didn't matter what happened to Bell (case wise) Bell becomes collateral damage from the assault on Guzman. So the question that needs to be asked is why was there no second degree manslaughter (or attempted manslaughter if such a charge exists) leveled at Isnora and Oliver? If the prosecutor did not ask for such an indictment, was he or his office acting in concert with the police department to assure that the officers would be acquitted?

This is significant. We do not know what charges the grand jury in this case were given, thus we cannot cast aspersions on those jury members because they cannot indict someone on charges that they were not told to consider.

What is most problematic with this is that Eric Garner, who was admittedly resisting arrest, did not pose any threat to any of the 3-4 police officers who were surrounding him. Garner did not assault any of the officers. He had no weapons. He was not a suspect of a felony. He was not a suspect of a just committed crime. He was not a fugitive from justice. He had his hands in full view with palms facing the officers. There is no debate as to whether Eric Garner posed a threat to anyone at any time. Therefore it is without dispute that it was the police officer(s) that were responsible for escalating what appears to be a civil offense (a ticket or desk appearance).

Secondly, while it is not illegal for a police officer to use a choke hold, it is in fact banned by the NYPD. The officers on the scene knew this. It is clear to anyone watching the video that a choke hold was applied to him. This is beyond dispute.

It is beyond dispute that the officer using that hold used that pressure on his neck to take him to the ground, severely limiting his ability to breath and possibly causing damage to his trachea. For a person who suffers asthma, that is deadly.

Thirdly we hear Garner say clearly that he could not breath. Yet the officer kept applying pressure to Garner's head in total disregard for his distress.

These actions were clearly negligent. There is no doubt about that. If the DA did not ask the Grand Jury to consider any charge that included negligence then we have yet another piece of evidence of systemic failure to hold the police responsible for their actions.

If the grand jury was instructed to consider any charge that included negligence (or non-intent) and they failed to indict (which is not the same as finding someone guilty) then the jury made a grievous error.

I understand that there is a request to have some of the evidence presented to the public. I would be interested to see what they considered and what exactly they heard or saw, aside from the self serving testimony of the police officer, that would make them decline to indict on any charge that did not require intent.