August 9, 2015


SANDERS, THE DNC, AND BLACK GROUPS


Sanders hasn’t had as much to say about the racial inequities of our country as about the great and growing economic divide. The final article in this group states: “At Saturday’s event, Johnson noted that O’Malley had since released a plan on criminal justice, which calls for several policing reforms, including widespread use of body cameras.” Sanders and Clinton need to do the same thing and really push it in the legislature. If we the Democrats don’t, the conflict between blacks and whites will merely increase I think.

These young black activists are trying to ignite a full scale involvement of political candidates in the cause of blacks/Hispanics on matters of justice -- partly out of the long and upsetting run of police killings of blacks without clear and just provocation. I believe it should also be an election issue that setting aside this basic question of real provocation, so many people are being shot or beaten by police at all, the essentially un-American militarization of police forces across the country, the unfair and harsh treatment of blacks as opposed to whites in court settings – all are cause for reform, and I agree with the protesters that our Democrats need to be the ones who do it. The Republicans certainly won’t, and I wouldn’t want the kinds of solutions they are likely to put forth, either. Martial law is a Republican solution to social unrest.

We as a party must push justice issues along with paycheck issues, though both are vital. We need new laws in place to enforce these matters, and new training of both rookie and veteran police on racial bias and the whole violence matter. There was a very interesting and encouraging article in yesterday’s blog about some new and helpful psychological treatments yes, treatments -- for the racist turn of mind which should, I believe, be mandated for all police officers. Too often “justice” is being administered on the streets and not in the courts. When a US citizen commits a tiny misdemeanor such as a broken taillight or walking in the street rather than on the sidewalk, and in no situation should they forfeit their lives for it. Fine them, yes, but don’t violently beat or shoot them. “Punishment” should be enforced through the courts. This is the article in question: http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/08/04/416827667/so-you-flunked-a-racism-test-now-what.

This is my Sunday to go across town to my UU church and then have lunch with a good friend, so I don’t have time to do my typical six articles in detail. I have simply placed this related group of articles below for your reading.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-sanders-some-of-clinton-criticism-is-sexist/

Bernie Sanders: Some of Clinton criticism is "sexist"
By REBECCA KAPLAN
FACE THE NATION
August 9, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Bernie Sanders on Trump’s view of money in politics

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he believes some of the attacks against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, are "sexist."

Sanders was asked by host John Dickerson about people who say Clinton's practice of using a private email server while secretary of state makes her untrustworthy.

"Hillary Clinton has been under all kinds of attack for many, many years. In fact, I can't think of many personalities who have been attacked for more reasons than Hillary Clinton. And by the way, let me be frank and I'm running against her: Some of it is sexist. I don't know that a man would be treated the same way that Hillary is," he said on "Face the Nation."

Sanders, who is an independent senator but is running for the Democratic nomination, has avoided criticizing Clinton. Instead, he points to issues where they differ, like on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (Sanders opposes it; Clinton has spoken positively of the trade agreement in the past but not taken a position as a candidate), their vote on the Iraq War and the Patriot Act (Sanders was a no on both; Clinton a yes), and their approach to Wall Street ("I think we have to take on the billionaire class and Wall Street. I'm not quite sure that that's her view," he said).

Sanders also said he is "disturbed" by the attitudes of the GOP candidates toward war after watching the first Republican debate last week.

"Apparently, most of the candidates up there do not remember the consequences of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the kind of easy feeling, the kind of non-consequential talk about going to war or rejecting the president's effort to negotiate an agreement with Iran disturbed me very much because I think these people do not know what the war in Iraq did to our people, did to the people in Iraq," Sanders said.

He also said he was "amazed" not to hear the GOP candidates discuss climate change, income inequality and the Citizens United Supreme Court decision -- which he called "some of the most important issues facing our people."

He elaborated on his opposition to the Citizens United decision when asked about a claim by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that candidates who take money for their campaigns are controlled by their donors.

"Do I think that the people who make these contributions, huge contributions, do it out of the goodness of their heart, or do they want something? Of course, they want something," Sanders said. "Now, the problem is it's easy for Trump to say, 'I don't need that money.' Yeah, because he's a billionaire. The logical consequence is that the only people who can run for office in America, who don't have to curry favors are billionaires themselves."

Sanders said he is running "a people-oriented campaign" and the average contribution is $31.

"Can we actually prevail over a billionaire, or the billionaire class? Time will tell. I think we can," he said.

He also explained his support for the Iran nuclear deal, saying he supports the idea of doing everything possible to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon without going to war.

"Look, I'm not going to tell you that this is a perfect agreement. And every agreement can be better. But what the president has had to do is negotiate with the P5+1 and Iran. And I think that reaching an agreement, giving it a chance, makes a lot more sense" than war he said.

During a speech Wednesday, President Obama said that Iranian hardliners chanting "Death to America" are "making common cause with the Republican caucus," nearly all of which opposes the deal.

Sanders said he "wouldn't frame it that way." But he did echo the president in arguing that the alternative to the agreement is war.

"Do we really want another war, a war with Iran? An asymmetrical warfare that will take place all over this world, threaten American troops?" he said. "I think we go as far as we possibly can in trying to give peace a chance."

When Sanders was asked about the Democratic debate schedule, which was announced this week, he said he's "not really" satisfied with the way they are arranged. He's not the only one -- former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is also running for the Democratic nomination, said the Democratic Party is trying to tip the scale in Clinton's favor.

"At a time when so many people in our country are giving up on the political process and the turnout is so low, when public consciousness about government is not high, I would like to see us be debating all over this country. I'd like to see the DNC have more debates," he said. Sanders suggested that labor unions, environmental groups, women's groups and gay groups could host the various debates.

He said he "maybe" shared O'Malley's feelings about the party helping Clinton.

"But what's more important to me is I think in this country today, we need serious debate about serious issues," he said.






MICHAEL BROWN AND FERGUSON AFTERMATH


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-has-changed-michael-browns-death/

What has changed since Michael Brown's death?
By REBECCA KAPLAN
FACE THE NATION
August 9, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Bernie Sanders: The “protest candidate” faces protesters


One year after black teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri by a white police officer, sparking protests and a year of heightened attention to the issue of police treatment of the black community, public attitude has far outpaced legislative change, the president of the NAACP said Sunday.

"There has been a seismic shift in American attitude but only a glacial shift in legislative action," Cornell William Brooks said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. He said that while 60 percent of Americans say there is a need for "fundamental change" in equal rights in America, just 40 percent of legislatures have taken even some action to hold police departments accountable.

Brooks also said that Congress has taken steps toward counting the number of deaths of black Americans at the hands of police, but have not actually taken any action.

"We know where communities are the subject of police protection as opposed to objects of suspicious police officers are safer as are communities, but we have not seen action," Brooks said.

The NAACP and others are participating in a march called "America's Journey for Justice" that began in Selma, Alabama earlier this month and will end in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 15 to call on Congress to act.

He said the marchers want Congress to pass laws to end racial profiling and increase accountability for police officers, and they want communities to retrain their officers and use evidence-based strategies for policing.

"We have to call on police departments to not engage in racial profiling which they're free to do now," he said. "These things that we're calling on Congress to do are in fact time tested and work but we've got to have action."

Brooks said the last year, which has seen the deaths of Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Eric Garner and others has given rise to "a generation of young practitioners of democracy, young people who are taking the power of this democracy in their hands and taking to the streets."

"We're seeing older people do the same, so we're seeing this multi-generational army of activists," he said.

That activism has included confronting presidential candidates - usually Democrats - over their response to the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

"The point here is not how polite our activists are but how responsive our politicians are," Brooks said. "When you have an 18-year-old who's frustrated, who wants to see politicians step up and bring this tragedy to the end, you can call on them to be more polite or you can actually get something done. We are calling on Congress to get something done."

Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, the Democratic presidential candidate who saw protesters take over one of his campaign events over the weekend, said that economic inequality and institutional racism are parallel problems that must be addressed.

Brooks said that both issues play a part, but black men are still far more likely to die at the hands of police than their white counterparts.

"As we saw in Baltimore when neighborhoods go up in flames, when young people lose their lives and they are surrounded by poverty and by economic desperation it's a class issue as well as a race issue, but fundamentally it is an American issue, " he said. "We don't have to have this conversation a year from now if we take action now."

He also said the NAACP is calling on presidential candidates to protect the right to vote. Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, which was partially gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ferguson-shooting-anniversary-michael-brown-family-still-mourning/

A year later, Michael Brown's family still in mourning
CBS/AP
August 8, 2015

Play VIDEO -- How jobs can help heal Ferguson
Photograph -- Michael Brown Sr., father of slain 18 year-old Michael Brown Jr., links arms with Brown family members during a march of solidarity on August 8, 2015 in Ferguson, Missouri. MICHAEL B. THOMAS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Play VIDEO -- Ferguson's new police chief works to reform department
Play VIDEO -- DOJ lists police failures in Ferguson protests

FERGUSON, Mo. -- On the eve of the anniversary of Michael Brown being shot and killed during a confrontation with a police officer, Brown's father said Saturday that the family is still mourning the 18-year-old's death.

Several weekend events are planned to commemorate the first anniversary of Brown's death. The unarmed black man was fatally shot by a white police officer on Aug. 9, 2014, in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.

Related articles:
How a death in Ferguson sparked a movement in America
A year after Ferguson, blacks say police treat them unfairly
Poll: What do Americans feel about race relations?
Full coverage: Ferguson police shooting

The fatal shooting of Brown by former officer Darren Wilson sparked sometimes violent clashes between protesters and police, unfolding before the nation on live television.

Brown's death helped spur a national "Black Lives Matter" movement that raised difficult questions about law enforcement attitudes toward minorities and the militarization of police.

In Ferguson, Michael Brown Sr. led a march on Saturday that started at the memorial on Canfield Drive that marks the site where Brown was fatally shot.

Time has not healed his wounds, Brown said before the procession, in which several hundred people, a drum corps and some cars joined in on the five-mile route to Normandy High School.

"At the end of the day, I still lost my boy," he said. "I'm still hurting. My family's still hurting."

Brown said the anniversary brings back all of the grief and raw emotions, but that it's important to continue standing up to concerns about police brutality and the use of force. As the parade began, he took an armful of stuffed animals and placed them in the middle of the street where his son died.

Brown is devoting his life now to his Chosen For Change foundation, he told CBS Radio station KMOX. "Doing positive things, helping out with families and youth," he said. "Whatever I can do to empower us as people, that's my mission."

The U.S. Justice Department and a St. Louis County grand jury cleared Wilson, who resigned in November, of wrongdoing. A separate Justice Department investigation of Ferguson's justice system found evidence of a profit-driven court system and widespread racial bias by police.

Onlookers were mostly scattered in small clusters on Saturday. Ferguson interim Police Chief Andre Anderson stood alongside St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar and Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol on West Florissant Avenue -- the site of protests, looting and riots in the aftermath of Brown's death -- waving to parade participants and shaking hands with some.

A vocal group of about 30 people marching in the parade began chanting "Hands up! Don't shoot!" as they neared the officers, then "Pigs in a blanket fry like bacon." Otherwise, the crowd was peaceful. Police presence was limited mostly to officers at intersections keeping traffic away from the parade, and there were no immediate reports of confrontations.

Darius Simpson, 22, made the trip to Ferguson from Eastern Michigan University for the weekend and was in the parade. Simpson, who is black, said he had never been an activist until Brown's death, but said a visit to Ferguson last year during the height of the unrest changed him.

"Something snapped in me, seeing the memorial, seeing how Ferguson reacted inspired me to take it back to Michigan," Simpson said.

Marches were planned later Saturday in St. Louis and on Sunday, again starting on Canfield Drive. The Sunday march will stop just before noon for a moment of silence to mark the moment Brown was killed.

St. Louis resident Carlatta Bussey, 41, brought her 7-year-old son. "I wanted to show him he needs to stand up for what he believes in," said Bussey, who is black. "It's important for him to know he has a voice."

Brown's father said a lot of families in the St. Louis area and across the nation are hurting because they've lost loved ones to police violence. Though some groups are pledging civil disobedience in the St. Louis region, Brown urged everyone to mark his son's death in peace. "No drama," he said. "No stupidity, so we can just have some kind of peace."





http://www.npr.org/2015/08/08/430411141/whether-history-or-hype-hands-up-dont-shoot-endures

Whether History Or Hype, 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' Endures
Cheryl Corley
August 8, 2015


Photograph -- Demonstrators in St. Louis, Mo., protest the killing of Michael Brown. Scott Olson/Getty Images

No one is certain exactly how the protest chant "hands up, don't shoot" got started, though Tory Russell says he has a good idea. Russell is co-founder of Hands Up United, an activist group which formed after the death of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old black man who was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., last August.

"It came after Dorian Johnson, the guy that was with Mike Brown, and others said that Mike Brown had his hands up," Russell says.

As residents gathered where Brown's body lay for hours in the street, Russell says, a local activist, Brother Anthony Shahid, was on the scene. Russell recalls that as more police came, with dogs and weapons, Shahid said, "My hands are up; don't shoot me." He and others began to chant.

"So it's very organic, but it comes actually out of the story of the life and the death of Mike Brown Jr.," he says.

The idea of Brown being shot while his hands were raised in surrender would spread like wildfire on social media, and became a rallying cry and a mantra that inspired demonstrations across the country — even as the debate about the accuracy of the phrase continues.

The chant was used at a rally last August near the courthouse in Clayton, Mo., where civil rights activist Al Sharpton spoke to demonstrators.

"And if you're angry, throw your arms up," Sharpton said. "If you want justice, throw your arms up. If you want answers, throw your arms up, because that's the sign Michael was using."

Demonstrators protested the death of Michael Brown on last summer in Ferguson, Mo., even as police sprayed pepper spray, shot smoke, gas and flash grenades.
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But Jeff Roorda, a spokesman for the St. Louis Police Officers' Association, says that's not true.

Sam's Meat Market was looted and vandalized at least three times during the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., last year.
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Ferguson Businesses Struggle To Rebuild Post-Riots

"Folks that want to cling to this 'hands up, don't shoot' myth, it's just silly," Roorda says.

Roorda says he knows that the grand jury investigation, which concluded that Officer Darren Wilson should not be charged, included different sets of eyewitness accounts of the encounter between Wilson and Brown.

"But the one set of accounts, including Darren's version of what happened out there, completely squares up with the physical evidence, with the ballistic evidence, with the forensic evidence, with the autopsy, and the other version just doesn't," he says.

Following its investigation, the Justice Department issued a scathing report about police practices and the court system in Ferguson, but it also cleared Darren Wilson of any civil rights violations in Brown's shooting death.

Then-Attorney General Eric Holder threw cold water on the hands-up scenario. But, Holder added, "It remains not only valid but essential to question how such a strong alternative version of events was able to take hold so swiftly and to be accepted so readily."

Montague Simmons, head of the Organization for Black Struggle, a long-time activist group in St. Louis, says there's a reason why the hands-up chant continues to resonate. Simmons says frustration still lingers after George Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon in February 2012, was acquitted in July 2013.

"I think it keyed into something that everybody's been feeling for a very long time," he says. "I remember after Trayvon, and after the verdict, people just felt helpless."

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles says people are stuck in their positions about the hands-up issue — but the focus needs to be elsewhere.

"At the end of the day, we want to make sure that our police officers and our community are safe," Knowles says, "that our police officers engage the community in a way that's productive and respectful; that we can avoid incidents [like the one] that happened, if at all possible."

Roorda says a widespread acceptance of the hands-up narrative has caused problems. "Suddenly we have kids that are emboldened, and more than ever are non-compliant with the police and turning violent against the police, and that just means we're going to have more Michael Browns, not fewer," he says. "That is the real tragedy here. Let 'hands up, don't shoot' mean something positive. Let it mean, 'Hey, obey cops; comply with traffic stops.' "

Simmons has a much different take.

"Just because I'm black and male, and you may have thoughts that I am criminal or I am a threat, doesn't make it so, and doesn't give you an excuse to kill or injure me," he says. "So I think that the slogan is still valid."





http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bernie-sanders-leaves-seattle-stage-after-event-disrupted-by-black-lives-matter-protesters/ar-BBly5dD?ocid=iehp

Bernie Sanders leaves Seattle stage after event disrupted by Black Lives Matter protesters
The Washington Post
John Wagner
August 9, 2015


Bernie Sanders came to Seattle on Saturday with plans to give two speeches.

The first didn’t happen. An appearance by the senator from Vermont at an event celebrating the anniversary of Social Security and Medicare was scuttled after protesters from a local Black Lives Matter chapter took over the stage.

Hours later, Sanders, who has been drawing bigger crowds than any other presidential contender, drew his largest yet: about 15,000 at the college basketball arena where the Washington Huskies play.

Related: [The Bernie Sanders predicament: Where do you fit all those people?]

Aides said Sanders, who has emerged as the leading alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, spoke to a full house of 12,000 inside the arena and to what police estimated to be an overflow of 3,000 people outside of it.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, was met with boisterous cheers as he decried the political influence of the “billionaire class” and pledged to raise the minimum wage, mandate family leave and push other policies that improve the lot of the working class.

"This is the country we can create," Sanders said during an hour long stump speech was broadcast live on social media.

The first event — which was held at a city park and live-streamed by a Seattle television station — went less swimmingly.

Sanders was the final speaker on a long program held at a city park. Shortly after he took stage, a small group of protesters from a Seattle chapter of Black Lives Matter took the microphone and demanded that the crowd hold Sanders “accountable” for not doing enough, in their view, to address police brutality and other issues on the group’s agenda.

Related: [Why Hillary Clinton and her rivals are struggling to grasp Black Lives Matter]

After sharing a few local grievances with the crowd, including school disparities and gentrification in Seattle, the protesters asked for a period of silence to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown being shot and killed during a confrontation with a police officer in Ferguson, Mo.

Event organizers allowed the period of silence, as some in the large crowd booed and shouted for the protesters to leave the stage. Afterward, Marissa Janae Johnson, who identified herself as a leader of the Black Lives Matter chapter in Seattle, asked the crowd to “join us now in holding Bernie Sanders accountable for his actions.” She motioned for Sanders to join her at the microphone.

After several minutes of frantic conversations, Sanders left the stage and greeted people in the large crowd who had turned out to see him. Many chanted his name.

In the hours that followed, several activists took to social media to question whether Johnson was speaking for the broader Black Lives Movement.

Related: [O’Malley booed as he points out: ‘White lives matter. All lives matter.’]

The tense scene in Seattle was reminiscent of one July 18 in Phoenix, when a larger group of Black Lives Matter activists disrupted a Democratic presidential forum at the liberal Netroots Nation gathering that featured both Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley.

At the Netroots event, both O’Malley and Sanders were able to continue speaking, though neither filled their allotted times.

At Saturday’s event, Johnson noted that O’Malley had since released a plan on criminal justice, which calls for several policing reforms, including widespread use of body cameras.

Though Sanders has not formally released a similar plan, he has been speaking out about policing issues, including during an appearance last month before a gathering in Louisiana of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, one of the nation’s oldest civil rights organizations. In that speech, he called for the “demilitarization” of police forces, an end to privately run prisons and an effort to address the “overincarceration” of nonviolent offenders.

Related: [Bernie Sanders needs to court black voters. And he has started doing it.]

As Sanders left the event in Seattle on Saturday, he told reporters that he found the situation "unfortunate."

At Saturday night's rally, Sanders made a brief reference to the early episode, saying that "on criminal justice reform and the need to fight racism there is no other candidate for president who will fight harder than me.”

"Too many lives have been destroyed by the war on drugs," Sanders said. "Too many lives have been destroyed by incarceration."

Some of his biggest applause lines came when he declared that college education should be tuition free and that the United States should move to a single-payer, "Medicare for all" health-care system.

Saturday night's rally was the latest around the country where Sanders has filled arenas and convention halls. By contrast, Clinton's largest crowd, which her campaign estimated at 5,500, came at her formal kickoff in June in New York.

Sanders is in the midst of a three-day swing on the West Coast. Aides say the campaign is also expecting large crowds at events in Portland and Los Angeles.