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Monday Dec 08, 2014
Monday Dec 08, 2014
Collector of Bones: For Sharpton Inc., Police Killings Are An Industry
The Big Chill: Obama Tempers Black Outrage Over Racism, Injustice
The spate of police killings has been good for business—if, like the Rev. Al Sharpton, you’re in the business of making your bones by standing on the bones of Black and Latino men cut down by trigger- and chokehold-happy cops.
Al Sharpton Inc.-- the Bloviator in Chief and his “legal team”--is doing excellent business this year, a bumper crop of police killings increasing his net sales, profit margin and market dominance. He’s has a monopoly now; he’s the undisputed King of the Blacks.
Leid Stories discusses the “industry” Sharpton has spawned, and how he makes his bones as a masterful collector of dead men’s bones.
The Black Entertainment Network (BET) tonight airs what it proudly touts "an exclusive interview” with President Barack Obama, in which he’ll address “modern civil rights, police relations and justice for all in America,” says a network news release.
What it really is, says Leid Stories, is a shameless White House-directed public-relations campaign to keep a lid on Black outrage over police killings and race-based corruption of the criminal-justice system that have now come to be an international embarrassment.
BET is thrilled about scoring the presidential exclusive. But as Leid Stories observes in a commentary about Obama’s contempt for his political base, BET should note that it’s the first for the Black network, has taken six years, and will focus strictly on what Obama wants to talk about.
Friday Dec 05, 2014
Friday Dec 05, 2014
What’s Your Verdict? Free Your Mind About the Brown, Garner Cases
Two grand jury decisions, within nine days of each other, have rocked the nation.
On Nov. 24, a grand jury decided that no charges would be brought against Darren Wilson, a former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, in the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown. And two days ago, a Staten Island, N.Y., grand jury announced the end of deliberations on the chokehold death of Eric Garner with no indictment against Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who used the banned technique during a violent attempted arrest of Garner on July 17.
Both cases have fueled protests nationwide and internationally, with racism, injustice, human rights abuses and unchecked police power the main targets of protesters’ outrage.
What’s your verdict on the outcome of these two cases? Share your thoughts on “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories. Call 888-874-4888.
Thursday Dec 04, 2014
Thursday Dec 04, 2014
Grand Jury Fury: No Indictment in Eric Garner Chokehold Case
Nine days after a grand jury found no reason to charge former Ferguson (Missouri) cop Darren Wilson with killing 18-year-old Michael Brown, a Staten Island, N.Y., grand jury concluded that Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo should face no charges in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father of six.
Protesters across the country have issued indictments of their own. They’ve linked the two cases as egregious examples of race-based state crimes and are demanding immediate federal investigations into possible prosecutorial misconduct. Both decisions have triggered an avalanche of criticism, even within the criminal-justice and judicial systems.
Leid Stories listeners had been primed for the outcome. Detailed analysis of how the cases were handled allowed predictions as early as Aug.20 that there would be no indictments.
Our legal expert and guide, “Attorney at War” Alton H. Maddox Jr., who had litigated some of the most controversial cases involving excessive police force in New York City, itemizes a bill of particulars about the Garner grand jury decision.
Wednesday Dec 03, 2014
Wednesday Dec 03, 2014
Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the legendary minister-congressman who represented Harlem (and, by extension, Black America) from 1945 to 1971, would find America’s leadership in general, and its Black leadership in particular, woefully lacking in what he called “audacious power.” Yet it’s what’s necessary to heal America’s racism-sick society and rid it of the “cancer that is eating out the heart of democracy,” Powell warned.
Ongoing protests and still-simmering tensions over a grand jury’s decision not to indict former police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9 are popular demands for justice. At almost every level, up to and including U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama, they instead are offered palliatives.
Leid Stories discusses why, when the people want action, leaders can’t or won’t deliver.
Tuesday Dec 02, 2014
Tuesday Dec 02, 2014
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus yesterday entered on the record their views on the controversial Nov. 24 decision by a grand jury not to indict Darren Wilson, a former police officer with the Ferguson (Missouri) Police Department, for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9.
The Caucus members, appearing during a Special Order session called at the end of House legislative business for the day, addressed the grand jury’s decision and “what it says about where we are and where we need to go,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a congressman from Brooklyn, who chaired the session.
Leid Stories shares their testimony, which consistently pointed to America’s unwillingness to acknowledge and deal forthrightly with its greatest challenge—racism.
Symbolically, they seemed to be speaking to themselves. Their colleagues in the House by then had cleared out of the chamber.
Monday Dec 01, 2014
Monday Dec 01, 2014
Ferguson Aftermath: Nationwide Action Targets Obama, Feds on Justice
The Eric Garner Case: Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop
Darren Wilson’s resignation Saturday from the Ferguson Police Department has not halted local protests over a grand jury’s decision not to charge him with killing 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9. But now, the protests have gone national, even global, and appear to be defying the widely held view that it’s a “Black issue.”
Larry Hamm, who chairs the Newark/Paterson, N.J.-based People’s Organization for Progress, joins Leid Stories in discussing today’s nationwide mass protests demanding President Obama and the federal government take resolute action on racism and police brutality in the United States.
Friday Nov 28, 2014
Friday Nov 28, 2014
The company of family and friends for Thanksgiving hopefully provided much-needed respite, but there’s no denying that, overall, it’s been a turkey of a week.
Hence “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories, ingeniously designed to unruffle your very ruffled feathers.
Call in (888-874-4888) and share your views on the issues of the day and topics covered on the program. Or, introduce a new idea worthy of discussion and debate.
The world awaits you!
Wednesday Nov 26, 2014
Wednesday Nov 26, 2014
Grand Jury’s Decision A Harbinger for Federal Probe, NYC Chokehold Case?
For the second day, Ferguson, Missouri, is rocked by protest over a grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9.
Gov. Jay Nixon has ordered an additional 1,500 National Guard troops to the 700 already in Ferguson, which he has placed under martial law. But the protests continue—and way beyond the geographic boundaries of the small city. Solidarity protests reportedly are now active in about 100 cities and towns across the nation.
Today on Leid Stories we follow up on yesterday’s discussion, looking in particular at other legal issues that are still pending in Ferguson, and whether the outcome of the grand jury’s probe is a harbinger for another police-involved killing case in Staten Island, New York—the chokehold death of Eric Garner on July 17—in which key players in the Ferguson case also are involved.
Once again, we are fortunate to have as our expert guide “Attorney at War” Alton H. Maddox Jr.
Tuesday Nov 25, 2014
Tuesday Nov 25, 2014
Ferguson, Missouri, remains a tinderbox of rage and raw emotion after a grand jury announced last night that it found no reason to bring charges against Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown on Aug. 9.
The grand jury’s decision touched off violent reaction in several areas of the city while President Obama and Brown’s parents called for calm.
Leid Stories’ listeners were prepared for the outcome, having been warned as early as Aug. 19, just as the grand jury began its probe, that the case was already on the wrong track and heavily weighted against an indictment.
Our guest, “Attorney at War” Alton H. Maddox Jr., provides penetrating analysis of the prosecutorial crime scene and discusses why the grand jury’s decision should not be the final word at the state level on Wilson’s culpability.
Monday Nov 24, 2014
Monday Nov 24, 2014
Flags are flying at half mast in Washington, D.C., to mark the death yesterday morning of Marion Barry, without question the city’s most popular, controversial, criticized, powerful and beloved mayor. He was 78.
Barry, a four-term mayor of the district—from 1979 to 1991, and from 1995 to 1999—was the 8th Ward’s representative in the City Council when he died, bringing to an end more than 40 tumultuous years in civil-rights struggle and public life. Even a federal conviction and six-month prison sentence on drug-use charges in 1990 did not end his political career, as was clearly intended.
Historian, political researcher and commentator Dr. Randy Short discusses the significance and legacy of Washington, D.C.’s self-described “Mayor for Life.”
Entertainer Bill Cosby ended his sold-out gig in Melbourne, Fla., on Friday with a standing ovation from adoring fans. Within the industry and in the court of public opinion, however, there’s nothing to cheer about. An ever-growing list of women, most of them white, have come forward alleging that he had drugged and sexually assaulted or raped them, and although their claims date back as many as 50 years, they are gaining traction as having credibility, even without proof.
Exactly 27 years ago today, a 15-year-old girl on her way home from school vanished without a trace. She was pulled into a car by white men who took her to a remote location, drugged her, and for four days gang-raped her, she said. She was semiconscious when found next to a trash container in an apartment complex. Tawana Brawley’s claim was dismissed as a “hoax.”
Similarly, Nafissatou Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, found herself the target of prosecution when the Sofitel housekeeper alleged that IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn had sexually assaulted her in his hotel suite in 2011. Prosecutor Cyrus Vance Jr. himself asked a judge to dismiss charges against Strauss-Kahn because Diallo lacked credibility. Strauss-Kahn later settled.
Leid Stories diiscusses the obvious race-based dichotomy in who is “credible.”