black…MYstory

Last month, I posted a story about Robbie Tolan.  Tolan, a minor league baseball player and son of form MLB player Bobbie Tolan, was shot in his own driveway in an affluent Houston suburb by a police officer who claims to have believed he was driving a stolen vehicle.

The circumstance surrounding the shooting, as well as the races of those involved. are raising clear questions about whether or not Tolan was racially profiled. Since that time, though not willing to come out and say that her city has a problem, the mayor of the suburb of Bellaire, TX, has already hired an outside consultant to look into traffic data in her town to determine if there is a pattern of racial profiling.

More importantly, perhaps, is that Robbie Tolan and his family will get a chance to tell their side of the story to the nation.  Tomorrow night, on HBO’s Real Sports, there will be a segment highlighting this incident.  Here’s some of what was discussed in that interview:

(Sgt. Jeff) Cotton “never said a word. He never said ‘shut up.’ He never said ‘get down’ or ‘stay down.’ He never said a word. He picked his gun, he took his gun and he just shot him,’” she said.

Robert Tolan told Gumbel that he found it difficult to return to the family home because “even though they cleaned it up, I can see the blood on the floor and on the concrete. I mean, I see everything that night.”

His parents remain critical of the manner in which the case has been handled by Bellaire officials and skeptical about their chances for a just resolution.

Referring to general comments by Bellaire Mayor Cindy Siegel in support of police, Marian Tolan said, “We’re residents of Bellaire. They didn’t serve and protect us. We weren’t passing through. We weren’t visiting. We’ve lived here.”

Real Sports will air Tuesday, February 17,2009.  Check your local listings for times.

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If you were like me, you were horrified when you saw the footage of the killing of Oscar Grant III on the morning of New Year’s day at the hands of a police officer in an Oakland, CA train station.

The officer who shot Grant, Johannes Mehserle, abrubtly resigned right before he was to speak with internal affairs regarding this incident.

The latest on this case is that  Johannes Mehserle has been arrested in Nevada on a fugitive warrant.

The charge: suspicion of murder.

From my perspective, it seems pretty clear what happened but, as we know, what the public perceives and what happens in a courtroom are separate and distinct things.  However, in this case, I hope that justice prevails.

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Yesterday, it was announced that Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle resigned from the force, right before he was to interview with internal affairs investigators over the shooting death of Oscar Grant III.

Grant was shot and killed by Mehserle early New Year’s day.  At the time, Grant was face-down, pinned by another officer when Mehserle stood to his feet and fired the fatal shot that entered Oscar Grant’s lower back, ricocheted off the pavement and entered his lungs, killing him.

Grant was a 22-year-old supermarket worker and father of a 4-year-old daughter.  It is not clear if Oscar Grant was even involved in the fight to which BART police were responding.  His shooting death was captured by various citizens with cell phones.

Mehserle’s resignation means that he will not have to speak with internal affairs investigators however, his legal defense will continue to be paid for out of a statewide fund for police officers.

In the meantime, the Alameda County D.A. will be deciding soon as to whether or not criminal charges will be pursued.

On a related note, yesterday,  a protest over the shooting turned into a “mini-riot” when a small group broke away from the protest and vandalized police cruisers and storefronts.  A total of 14 arrests were made.

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In my lifetime, I have read many headlines like the one I posted.  Whether it’s Timothy Thomas or Roger Owensby from Cincinnati, Ohio; or Sean Bell or Amadou Diallo in New York; or, now, Oscar Grant III of Oakland, CA.

Video has surfaced showing what appears to be an arrest of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III, at approximately 2am on New Year’s Day 2009.  Police responding to a call on a BART train.  It is not clear if Grant was involved in this fight.  However, citizens with camera phones captured video of Grant’s arrest.

Just prior to his death, Grant is held down face-first by two officers, with other officers nearby.  There appears to be a struggle and one of the officers stands up, draws his weapon and shoots Grant in the back.  Apparently, the bullet, after going through his lower back, ricocheted off the ground and struck him in his lungs, killing him.

It is still unclear why the officer chose to shoot Grant.  Grant had no weapons and police had him pinned to the pavement.  But, instead of grabbing his cuffs, the officer reached for his gun.

Oscar Grant III leaves behind a 4-year-old daughter.

His family is seeking answers and has filed a $25 million lawsuit against BART’s police department and is asking prosecutors to consider murder charges for the officer who who Oscar Grant III.

The video of the shooting can be viewed here.

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Last year, I posted a piece about how the NYPD was going overboard in their “stop-and-frisk” policy where, in 2006, some 500,000 people were stopped and searched on the street, allegedly in search of illegal weapons.  Under this policy, black people were five times more likely than whites to be subjected to these searches.  An overwhelming majority of those stopped and frisked were innocent people.

The AOL Black Voice Blog has posted a story about a black New York Post reporter losing his job because of his lawsuit against the NYPD over arresting him under this policy.

Reporter Leonard Blair says that he was stopped, frisked and arrested without knowing the charges against him.  However, while behind bars, he informed the arresting officer that he was a reporter with the New York Post.  The red-faced officer then let him go.

Blair’s lawsuit must have been too much for the paper that supported the cops in the Sean Bell Killing. Mind you, this paper is owned by the same guy who owns Fox News, Rupert Murdoch.  So, you know where they stand on the rights and concerns of black people.

Blair’s account of his ordeal is in the video below:

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We know that four NYPD officers will not face charges in the killing of Sean Bell on the eve of his wedding. Bell, as well as other passengers in his car were unarmed when he died in a hail of 50 bullets fired into the vehicle.

Now, just a few days shy of the deadline to do so, the NYPD has filed departmental charges against the officers, as well as three others. It should be of little surprise that, given the fallout of this killing, that there were some clear violations that occurred.

The three detectives who stood trial in the case — Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper — were charged with “discharging their firearms outside of department guidelines,” said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. Detective Isnora was also charged with taking enforcement action while working as an undercover officer instead of letting officers who were present, and not working undercover, take control.

Lt. Gary Napoli, the ranking officer at the scene, faces internal charges of failing to supervise the operation, Mr. Browne said. Sergeant Hugh McNeil and Detective Robert Knapp, of the Crime Scene Unit, were also charged: the detective with failing to thoroughly process the crime scene and the sergeant with failing to ensure a thorough processing was done.

Police Officer Michael Carey, was charged with discharging his firearm outside of department guidelines. Another officer involved in the shooting, Detective Paul Headley, was not charged because a review of the evidence currently available did not support charges, officials said.

If the charges, known as administrative charges, are upheld, the officers could face discipline ranging from loss of pay to retraining to firing. But the internal investigation has been suspended as federal prosecutors weigh civil rights charges in the case.

Well, I still hold out hope for federal charges but, at the very least, these officers should not be on the streets with the power and authority to take another human life.

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Kudos to the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In a surprisingly swift action, four police officers were fired for the brutal beating of three suspects. Four others were disciplined, including one sergeant being demoted. In all, a total of 15 officers were involved in the incident.

This incident came to light after video of the incident, filmed from a helicopter, made the press. The three men in question were suspects in a triple shooting. With that being said, they should have been arrested. However, what the video clearly shows is that officer pulled them from the vehicle and immediately began punching, kicking and beating the men.

Some will say that these three had it coming to them. If they did indeed shoot three people, I’d be hard-pressed to shed tears, either. But, police officers are expected to not act in this way and to, instead, do their job in a professional manner, when possible. In this instance, they had overwhelming numbers on their side to subdue the suspects without resorting to the very criminal behavior that they are charged with combating.

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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.

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Imagine being a black police officer in the segregated South. You have to risk life and limb while simultaneously dealing with the racism and discrimination against you.

Now, imagine doing that for 20 years and, merely because you are black, you don’t get the same pension as white retired officers.

This is the fight of some nearly 200 retired police officers in Georgia. Because of racism, these officers were denied access to a state-supported supplemental police retirement fund until 1976.

Had many of these officers been allowed to buy in earlier in their careers, they would have hundreds of dollars more a month in retirement benefits. Instead, some like J.L. Booker spend what should be their retirement years working to make ends meet. Booker says he could have had as much as $770 extra dollars per month had he been allowed to participate earlier.

Georgia is the only state that has such a pension crisis for black officers. I guess, at least when it comes to police officers, these other states’ legislatures have recognized that racially discriminating against those who served on the ranks of their police forces was wrong or, at least, sent a very bad message about their states.

The fight is not over. If the state legislatures do refuse to act, the next stop is court.

Georgia, stop being shameful. Protect those who protected you all these years.

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Four Chicago men will receive a settlement of nearly $20 million for the alleged torture at the hands of Chicago Police. In July 2006, a report revealed that at least 5 Chicago police officers used torture to get confessions out of suspects. These officers utilized tactics as extreme as electric shock and Russian roulette to force confessions. As a result, the men — Leroy Orange, Stanley Howard, Madison Hobley and Aaron Patterson — ended up on death row.

These men were released after each spending more than a decade on death row while the ringleader for this torture, police commander Jon Burge finished out his career and retired in Florida.

These were not the first or the last instances of such tactics by police. However, with settlements such as this, let’s hope that more cities give a long, hard look at how their officers are behaving.

Popularity: 21% [?]