US JUSTICE ISSUES ON RACE AND POVERTY
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY BY LUCY WARNER
SEPTEMBER 2, 2016


WWW.ATTN.COM IS A GREAT WEBSITE IF YOU’RE A LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE. GET ON THEIR EMAIL LIST IF YOU’RE INTERESTED. FOR FUN, TAKE THEIR POLL AND THEN VIEW THE RESULTS. THE ARTICLE FROM WWW.SPORTSGRID.COM EXPLAINS THE ISSUES SURROUNDING THE THIRD VERSE OF THE NATIONAL ANTHEM. IT’S ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IN A TIME LIKE THIS FOR THOSE WHO DO BELIEVE IN FAIRNESS OVER KNEEJERK GROUP IDENTITY TO STAND UP AND SAY SO. IN ADDITION, THE KILLING OF SUSPECTS WITHOUT REAL REASON OR A TRIAL, IS THE MOST DESPICABLE THING INVOLVED, TO ME. EACH KILLING SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED AND IF IT IS NOT BASED ON FACTS, IT SHOULD BE CAUSE FOR FIRING AT THE VERY LEAST, AND PRISON IF IT'S AS SEVERE A CASE AS SO MANY OF THE STORIES I COME ACROSS ARE. FIRING OF "BAD APPLES," REHIRING, RETRAINING, AND STRONG DISCIPLINARY MEASURES THAT ACTUALLY PREVENT THIS CRIME ARE LONG OVERDUE, AND IT CAN'T BE LEFT UP TO LOCAL LAWS EITHER. A NUMBER OF STATES ARE BUSILY REINSTITUTING JIM CROW LAWS. WE NEED A FEDERAL LAW WHICH WILL ADDRESS ALL THE ISSUES AND CREATE REAL CHANGE.


http://www.attn.com/stories/11127/why-former-green-beret-joined-colin-kaepernick-on-sidelines

Why This Former Green Beret Joined Colin Kaepernick on the Sidelines
By: Danielle DeCourcey
SEPTEMBER 2ND 2016

Colin Kaepernick had an unexpected guest alongside him when he protested the national anthem for a second time on Thursday evening. Nate Boyer, a veteran of the U.S Army Special Forces and former NFL player, stood next to the San Francisco 49ers quarterback while "Star Spangled Banner" played in San Diego.


Alex Flanagan ✔ @Alex_Flanagan
Boyer was standing next to Kaepernick in the black shirt during anthem as he knelt.
10:11 PM - 1 Sep 2016
284 284 Retweets 469 469 likes


trey wingo ✔ @wingoz
FYI that was former Green Beret and Texas long snapper Nate Boyer on the Niners sidelines standing next to and talking to Kaepernick
10:03 PM - 1 Sep 2016


Kaepernick's protest of the national anthem came as the San Diego Chargers hosted their "28th Annual Salute to the Military" at Thursday's game.

Nate Boyer, who was briefly a member of the Seattle Seahawks in 2015, stood next to Kaepernick on the sidelines even though he didn't initially agree with the quarterback's decision to protest the national anthem.

After Kaepernick's controversial first protest in a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers, Boyer wrote an open letter describing his pride for the U.S. flag but also acknowledging racism and the anthem's racist origins.

"Unfortunately, I also know that racism still exists in our country, as it does in every other country on this planet, and I hate that I know that. I hate the third verse of our national anthem, but thankfully we don’t sing that verse anymore. I hate that at times I feel guilty for being white."

He also wrote about his initial disappointment and anger seeing Kaepernick sit out the national anthem.page thread appreciation colin colin kaepernick

However Boyer outlined an important aspect often missing from the controversy: the willingness to listen.

"Even though my initial reaction to your protest was one of anger, I’m trying to listen to what you’re saying and why you’re doing it. When I told my mom about this article, she cautioned me that 'the last thing our country needed right now was more hate.' As usual, she’s right. There are already plenty people fighting fire with fire, and it’s just not helping anyone or anything. So I’m just going to keep listening, with an open mind. "

After an invitation to San Diego from Kaepernick, Boyer met with him and his teammate Eric Reid before the game in San Diego.

The talk convinced the two 49ers' players to protest by kneeling instead of sitting, a gesture that could be less offensive to veterans.

"We were talking to him about how can we get the message back on track and not take away from the military, not take away from pride in our country but keep the focus on what the issues really are," Kaepernick said, according to ESPN. "As we talked about it, we came up with taking a knee because there are issues that still need to be addressed and there was also a way to show more respect for the men and women that fight for this country."

Kaepernick also stood during the song "God Bless America" and applauded afterwards.

The quarterback also said he's working with community organizations to give $1 million of his nearly $12 million salary to people in need, according to USA today.

“I’ve been very blessed to be in this position and to be able to make the kind of money that I do and I have to help these people,’’ said Kaepernick, according to USA Today. “I have to help these communities. It’s not right that they’re not put in the position to succeed or given those opportunities to success.’’

Related: What This Viral Meme Gets Wrong About a Quarterback's National Anthem Protest



http://www.sportsgrid.com/real-sports/nfl/forgotten-third-verse-of-the-national-anthem-shines-new-light-on-kaepernick-protest/

Forgotten Third Verse Of The National Anthem Shines New Light On Kaepernick Protest
Rick Chandler
7:34 pm, August 31st, 2016


What if one day the federal government issued a decree that we should all sing the third verse of The Star Spangled Banner, instead of the first, before sporting events? Then Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem protest might be seen in an entirely different light.

The last half of the third verse goes like this:

No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

There is some controversy over what those first two lines really mean, because Key, who died in 1843, isn’t talking. But his poem The Defence of Fort M’Henry, written during the War of 1812 at the British assault of the fort during the Battle of Baltimore, says plenty to those who know history.

Key was a Baltimore-born lawyer practicing in Washington DC, who is most noted for his participation in the conspiracy trail of Aaron Burr and his many arguments before the Supreme Court. He was the son of a prominent Maryland plantation owner, and himself owned several slaves.

Although generally opposed to slavery as an institution, Key was a virulent anti-abolitionist. In other words he strongly opposed the setting free of slaves, but instead advocated that there be colony established in Africa for their relocation if they had been freed. He also represented many slave owners who sued for the recovery of their “property” in cases of escaped slaves.

So while the third verse of The Star Spangled Banner remains open to interpretation, most historians say that it refers to slaves who joined the British side for pay or to gain their freedom during the War of 1812. The stanza refers to U.S. victory over these slaves.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave

Key was held captive on a British ship during the Battle of Baltimore (that’s where he wrote his famous poem that became the U.S. National Anthem), and his guards were freed black men. The British called them the “Corps of Colonial Marines”, and many of them died during the battle. That’s likely what inspired Key to write the lines above, as he had no sympathy for black troops.

It’s a fact almost lost in history that the author of our National Anthem, who wrote about the “land of the free and the home of the brave,” was himself a slave owner who wrote in his poem of slaves meeting their deserved doom at the hands of American forces.

Department of Irony: More than a century later, in 1954, Baltimore Orioles general manager Arthur Ellers discontinued the playing The Star Spangled Banner before games because fans were talking and not paying attention to it. But he gave in to pressure from the Baltimore City Council (Fort McHenry was a main tourist attraction) and reinstated it two weeks later.

Kaepernick critics are right when they say that many fought and died for the freedoms that we enjoy today. But one of these freedoms is to protest in the manner of our choosing, and to not be force-fed patriotism. That’s a kind of oppression in itself. Kaepernick’s is the kind of silent, non-violent protest of which Martin Luther King would have approved. You may not agree with his reasoning (which is admittedly muddled when he explains it), but it’s his, well, muddle. He’s entitled to it and the rest of us should shut the hell up.

There’s a reason that The Star Spangled Banner wasn’t made our official National Anthem until 1931. That’s because to the people of his time, Key’s poem (and later anthem, when it was set to the tune of a British drinking and womanizing song) was largely a subject of ridicule.

The man who wrote “home of the free” five times in the Anthem was from a family who grew rich from human bondage. The abolitionists then, whom Key fought in court and beyond, did not forgive him for it. Should we?



http://www.attn.com/stories/11120/why-colin-kaepernicks-protest-timing-makes-complete-sense

Why the Timing of Colin Kaepernick's Protest Makes Complete Sense
By: Kyle Jaeger
@KYLEJAEGER
SEPTEMBER 1ST 2016

MAPPING POLICE VIOLENCE - MAPPINGPOLICEVIOLENCE.ORG – [“UNARMED BLACK PEOPLE WERE KILLED AT 5 TIMES THE RATE OF UNARMED WHITES IN 2015.”]


The conservative outrage over NFL player Colin Kaepernick's decision to sit during the national anthem last week is still festering in some corners of the internet, including on The Blaze's "Final Thoughts with Tomi Lahren." In a recent segment, the host questioned why Kaepernick's protest didn't come sooner.

colin-kaepernick
AP/BEN MARGOT - APIMAGES.COM

"It's funny, through that six-year career of yours, you choose to start sitting now?" Lahren asked. "What changed to make you so resentful of your country?"

And just like that, Lahren became a meme. [For her rabid white rant in full, which makes me ashamed of being white, go to https://www.facebook.com/TomiLahren/videos/1063123907114129/]

cafe
FACEBOOK/CAFE - FACEBOOK.COM:
As the meme shows, a lot has "changed" in the past six years. The high-profile and often video-taped killings of black Americans at the hands of police and the subsequent emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement exemplify what's changed in America, especially when it comes to conversations about racial injustice.

More than 100 black people were killed by police in 2015 alone, and almost one out of three of those killed were unarmed.

The fact of the matter is, black people are more than twice as likely to be killed by police than white people, despite the fact that black people represent just 12 percent of the U.S. population. (White people, in contrast, represent 64 percent of the population, according to the U.S. Census.) And while that racial disparity is nothing new, the timing of Kaepernick's protest seems beside the point — for many, the issue has reached a tipping point, inspiring protest in one form or another.

Kaepernick said he chose to sit out the national anthem because he refuses "to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color." It is, as Lahren admitted, his constitutional right to do so.


[The Blaze is Glenn Beck’s media brainchild, but Tomi Lahren outdoes him in her vociferous fury. See the video above. Concerning Lahren, Wikipedia’s bio states: Controversies, In February 2016, Lahren's criticism of Beyoncé's performance at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show as supporting the Black Panthers caused another round of controversy.[11] This was referenced and a quote sampled, in Pusha T's song "Drug Dealers Anonymous", featuring Beyoncé's husband Jay Z.[12] In July 2016, Lahren issued a tweet comparing the Black Lives Matter Movement to the Ku Klux Klan. As a result, tens of thousands of people signed a Change.org online petition asking for her to be fired.[13]]


RELATED: Twitter's Reaction to This NFL Star Validates His Decision

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http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed/

2015policekillingsunarmed.jpeg
Key Findings:

Police killed at least 102 unarmed black people in 2015, nearly twice each week. (See which police departments were responsible for these deaths)

Nearly 1 in 3 black people killed by police in 2015 were identified as unarmed, though the actual number is likely higher due to underreporting

37% of unarmed people killed by police were black in 2015 despite black people being only 13% of the U.S. population

Unarmed black people were killed at 5x the rate of unarmed whites in 2015

Only 10 of the 102 cases in 2015 where an unarmed black person was killed by police resulted in officer(s) being charged with a crime, and only 2 of these deaths (Matthew Ajibade and Eric Harris) resulted in convictions of officers involved. Only 1 of 2 officers convicted for their involvement in Matthew Ajibade's death received jail time. He was sentenced to 1 year in jail and allowed to serve this time exclusively on weekends. Deputy Bates, who killed Eric Harris, will be sentenced May 31.



SEE: www.tandfonline.com ON ISSUES OF POVERTY, INSANITY, HOMELESSNESS, CRIME AND INCARCERATION, BOTH WHITES AND PEOPLE OF COLOR, FOR MULTIPLE RELATED ARTICLES.


http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15228932.2012.713835
Download citation http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15228932.2012.713835

Homelessness, Poverty, and Incarceration: The Criminalization of Despair
Larry Covin Jr. DMin
Page 439-456 | Published online: 26 Sep 2012

Abstract

The conditions of jails and prisons in the United States are more often than not deplorable and hidden from public view. The inhumane treatment of prisoners and their appalling living conditions is untenable and requires justice. A 2009 report by the National Institute of Corrections found that the United States ranks first in the industrialized world in the incarceration of its citizens. The social conditions within U.S. society that contribute to criminogenic pathologies—including homelessness, poverty, social location, drug and alcohol addiction, undiagnosed mental illnesses, dysfunctional familial patterns, underperforming pedagogical institutions, and a criminal justice system struggling with the juxtaposition of rehabilitative and punitive justice—serve notice to reframe the current conversation pertinent to corrections today.

Keywords: corrections ethics, homelessness, recidivism, alternative sentencing, social contract theory, John Rawls, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau ….