San Diego State has suspended 6 fraternities on their campus because it appears that members were involved in a massive drug ring. The fraternities in question are Theta Chi,Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Theta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Mu.

This comes after the arrest of 96 people, 75 of whom were San Diego State students. The arrests were the culmination of a nearly year-long investigation, spurred by the overdose death of a 19-year-old sorority member at the school last year.

Police seized cocaine, ectasy and guns.

The irony is that one of the students that got busted was about to graduate with a Masters in Homeland Security and another was majoring in Criminal justice.

Popularity: 3% [?]

At 9am, three NYPD officers will hear their fate in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell in November 2006. Bell died in a hail of 50 bullets after leaving a bachelor party at a strip club.

Police say that Bell and his friend got into an altercation with another group of men outside the club and, believing one of Bell’s friends had a gun, a plainclothes officer followed them and called in for backup.

Bell’s friends say that detectives drew their guns on them but, never identified themselves as police. Fearing that some unknown men were about to fire on them, Bell sped off in his vechicle.

Police say they thought Bell was trying to run them down and began shooting. Now, this runs counter to the earlier version of their story in which officers where saying that they thought there was a person wielding a gun inside the vehicle and began firing on the vehicle.

The verdict is minutes away but, I fear the fix is in on this one. This is a bench trial (no jury) and, given what has happened in cases like that of Amadou Diallo, I have my doubts that there will be any real accountability for these officers.

UPDATE: The three officers have been acquitted on all charges related to the killing of Sean Bell.  There may be some hope for justice, still.  Federal prosecutors have been monitoring this trial to determine if civil rights charges can be brought forward.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Why am I not surprised this fool is from Ohio?

46-year-old David Tuason of Pepper Pike, Ohio faces federal charges over what authorities claim have been some 200 threatening letters he’s sent over the past 20 years. It appears that the targets of his threats were black men who were in relationships with white women.

One of these letters apparently targeted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, threatening his life by castrating him, shooting him and setting him on fire.

Needless to say, Tuason is one sick puppy. I just hope that he has never acted on these sentiments.

You can read the federal indictment here.

Popularity: 14% [?]

You might remember the horrifying story of the ordeal experienced by Megan Williams. For a week, she was imprisoned by seven racists who beat her, tortured her, stabbed her, sexually assaulted her and forced her to eat feces.

Two members of this lynch mob received the maximum sentences their charges allowed.

46-year-old Karen Burton (pictured right) and 49-year-old Frankie Brewster heard their fates yesterday. Burton, received three 2-10 year sentences for malicious assault and assault during the commission of a felony, to be served consecutively. She also received a 10-year sentence for a civil rights charge.

Brewster received a 10-25 year sentence for second-degree sexual assault.

They became the 4th and 5th people to receive sentences in this case:

Burton’s 23-year-old daughter, Alisha, and George Messer, 27, both of Chapmanville, both pleaded guilty in February to kidnapping and assault and received 10-year sentences.

…

A seventh defendant, Karen Burton’s son, Linnie Burton Jr., 21, was indicted on a misdemeanor battery charge.

This leaves Brewster’s son, Bobby, and another man, Danny Combs, as the only two to not tried for these crimes. Both face charges, including kidnapping and sexual assault.

Popularity: 18% [?]

I’ll tell you straight-up, — and you can call me what you want — every black man is not my brother. If you hurt women and/or children, I don’t claim you.

Kelvin “Bird” Tillie, in no uncertain terms, is a coward, bully and no brother of mine.

Alexis Goggins is a 7-year-old first grader in Detroit and, in my heart and mind, a hero. Her mother, Selietha Parker, had broken up with Tillie six months ago. However, I wish she would have had better taste in men. This four-time felon couldn’t handle rejection so, on a night when Parker had to call a girlfriend to pick her and her child up when their heat went out, Tillie lay in wait for her outside of her house. At gunpoint, he kidnaps the two women and the child.

They stop at a gas station where Tillie forces the driver to get gas. The driver, Aisha Ford, calls 911 (who first hangs up on her then, during her second calls, tells her they have no units to send). Ford stalls for time, waiting for police to arrive and then tells Tillie that the $5 he gave her for gas would not be enough and goes back into the station to purchase more gas. The attendant sees that she is distraught and Ford informs him of what is happening. The attendant calls 911 and, as he is calling, shots are fired inside the vehicle.

The mother is shot in the head and arm and, before he could shoot again, Alexis puts her body between the mother and the shooter, begging him not to shoot her mother. Without hesitation, Tillie shoots the 7-year-old girl six times. Police finally arrived and arrested Tillie at the scene. He is facing charges of “kidnapping, assault with intent to murder, child abuse, felony firearms and habitual criminal charges.”

Alexis was taken to Detroit’s Children’s Hospital with wounds to her eye, left temple, chin, cheek, chest and right arm. She was in critical condition but expected to survive.

Needless to say, I have strong feelings about what should happen to Tillie but, as a responsible adult, I’ll save those for private converation.

Popularity: 31% [?]

They said it was to teach him a lesson.

On Halloween, two Staten Island, NY cops said they saw Rayshawn Moreno throwing eggs at a car. So, rather than than taking him home to his parents for discipline or taking him to a police precinct to have him picked up by parents, Officers Thomas Elliassen and Richard Danese had a different punishment in mind. They took 14-year-old Rayshawn to a swampy area in a nearby city, made him strip down to his underwear and socks and left him.

Fortunately, Rayshawn made it home safely after walking to a nearby store and having a security guard call his parents.

Now, Rayshawn’s parents want more substantial charges for the cops involved. Telisa and James Hezel say the charges of unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child, both punishable by up to a year in jail, are not enough. They are calling on the district attorney to also charge the cops with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, assault and endangering the welfare of a child. They also want the D.A. to determine if there are grounds to try to cops on hate crimes charges, as well.

The latter caused me to raise an eyebrow but, I had to ask myself if the cops felt comfortable doing this to a 14-year-old boy only because he was black.

The truth is that anything could have happened to Rayshawn and his parents would not have known until it was too late. Furthermore, cops are expected to enforce the law and the law clearly does not allow for dropping a child off in another town, forcing him to strip and leaving him in a potentially dangerous situation. So, I hope that they get the book thrown at them but, given that cops get slaps on the wrist for killing unarmed black citizens, I don’t hold out a lot of hope for justice on this one.

Popularity: 47% [?]

This is one of those, “why’d it have to by a black man?” moments. But, apparently, the “party of family values” attracts freaks of all hues.

In this episode, we go to the story of Ozwald Balfour. Balfour is somewhat of an anomaly — he’s a black Republican…in Utah. Now, you know that’s a short line. He owns a media relations company and founded the Utah Republican Black Assembly.

However, Balfour is also something else…a pure freak.

The freakiness that has him in the news these days actually stems from incidents culminating in his arrest in February 2005. The married (still married, believe it or not) Balfour was charged with “three second-degree felony counts of forcible sexual abuse and one count of attempted forcible sexual abuse, a third-degree felony.”

What did he do, you might ask. Read the following:

One woman testified Balfour came to her home in 2003 after she answered an ad about learning Web design. She said Balfour dropped his pants, began rubbing against her and tried to put his hands up her skirt.

Three other alleged victims claimed they were assaulted on Jan. 21, 2005, at Balfour’s studio, International Media Services, at 340 W. Whitney Ave. (1410 South), during purported interviews for acting jobs.

One woman testified Balfour tried to get his hands under her shirt after taking her to a dark room adjoining his office. Another woman said Balfour told her, “Show me how a love scene goes,” then kissed her neck and grabbed her breast. A third alleged victim said he unzipped her jacket and tried to lift her shirt.

Read More… »

Popularity: 32% [?]

Ever since the story of the Jena 6 hit the national spotlight, America has had to deal with the significance of racist symbols, particularly that of the noose. Since that time, we have seen story after story about nooses popping up in workplaces in apparent attempts to intimidate black people.

In the previous incarnation of this site, I posted many stories referencing articles about nooses turning up in workplaces. For the most part, because the stories involved working-class people, they didn’t gain much traction in the mainstream press. But, as I said previously, the happenings in Jena, Louisiana changed all that.

Now, in another part of Louisiana — New Orleans, to be exact — a supervisor has been suspended and the FBI has been called in to investigate yet another noose incident at a sewage station of the that city’s department of public works.

This came to light after an employee there, Terrence Lee, blew the whistle after his superiors did nothing about the racist symbols on display in the office of Lee’s supervisor, Bill Hartline. After being ignored, Lee went public with photos he took of the inside of his boss’s office. These photos show that, inside his office, Hartline had hung two nooses. Also, Hartline proudly displayed a bullwhip he owned, with the word’s “Bill’s Whipping Post” and, worse yet, a dartboard with a black man standing in the center and his groin as the bull’s eye.

This case has been referred to the department of Justice’s civil right division, which, sadly, is now no friend of black folks (please reference my previous posts about how Bush has gutted the civil right division). Therefore, I don’t expect too much to happen in this case…if we don’t say something.

Therefore, we need to raise enough hell that incidents like this can’t be ignored. Some say the noose is back. I say it never left but, we need to make it do so.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Living in Ohio, I am far from familiar with the dynamics of gang relations in California. However, in communicating with people from that part of the country, I have heard rumblings about the various beefs between Black and Latino gangs and how, innocent civilians are being targeting in the process. However, what I was being told never seemed to rise above the level of rumors.

Newsweek has picked up the stories and are now asking about whether or not certain Latino gangs are targeting Black civilians, in addition to gang rivals.

In particular, they target the activities of one highly-organized Latino gang, Florencia 13, also known as F13. According to the federal indictments of various gang members, black civilians have been robbed, assaulted and murdered on the basis of skin color:

“…But the assaults went beyond rival gangs; they “target[ed] African-American individuals for assault,” according to the indictment. Gang leaders even allegedly instructed foot soldiers in how to hunt blacks in the most efficient manner, the feds maintain. A wiretap cited in the RICO indictment reveals that one gang leader allegedly told an underling that “when he went looking for African-Americans to shoot, only a driver and a shooter were needed.

…

The F13 indictment marks the third high-profile Latino gang charged with attacking blacks in the past two years. Last year federal prosecutors won life sentences against four members of the Latino Avenues gang for civil rights violations of blacks they had murdered simply for moving into the gang’s Highland Park turf. State prosecutors say the Latino 204th Street gang targeted African-Americans not affiliated with gangs, writing graffiti such as “187 N———” (187 is shorthand for “kill”; it’s the California penal code section number for homicide). Two 204th Street members face an upcoming trial on state murder charges for the slaying of 14-year-old Cheryl Green, a black teen killed on the street last December.”

However, let’s be clear: most gang violence targets people of the same race. Therefore, we should construe this as some wild “let’s blame Latinos for violence against black folks” rant. Instead, I am calling attention to a changing dynamic. These communities, many of which are changing as they transition from being majority-Black to majority-Latino. As these still remain poor communities, crime, unfortunately, follows in some areas.

Nonetheless, since innocent black civilians are also being targeted, I feel that I would be remiss in not speaking up.

Popularity: 45% [?]

“Kiladelphia”…no doubt, some ignorant person(s) will take a strange pride in such a name. To some, being associated with such a name denotes a toughness on their part. But, when your city starts getting such a name, something is really wrong.

This is the name that, in some circles, is being given to Philadelphia, PA after the murder rate jumped to 406 killings last year. 85% of those killed were black men.

However, just as you have some folks who embrace such a moniker, there are others who so wholeheartedly reject it that they are moved to action.

Thus, this is why some 10,000 Philadelphia residents are answering a call to help lower crime in that city. While these people will have no police powers, they will help through conflict resolution and mentoring.

More importantly, it is not headed up by law enforcement or the city government — this is actually being spearheaded by citizens.

So, much respect to those who stepped up. I hope your enthusiasm infects us all.

Popularity: 40% [?]