Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Is That Rep Steve Scalise Who Spoke at a White Supremacist Event? Yup.

Majority Whip Louisiana GOP Rep. Steve Scalise
Well 2014 is just about over folks and the looming reality of the new Republican majority in Congress is nearly upon us.

To get a glimpse of what that's going to look like, look no further than Congressman Steve Scalise, the Republican Whip (pictured left) who's now the 3rd most powerful person in the House of Representatives; our nation's lawmaking body.

Ole' Stevie's chickens came home to roost in a bad way when a blogger trolling through the white supremacist Stormfront Website stumbled upon evidence that the Louisiana lawmaker spoke at a white supremacist event back in 2002.


According to a ThinkProgress.org article, the event was hosted by the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, or EURO (how clever!) a group founded by none other than former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.

Yup, THAT David Duke.

Same David Duke who famously walked around the LSU campus wearing a Nazi uniform and unsuccessfully ran for US Senate in 1990 and governor of Louisiana in 1991.

Scalise is in major damage control mode, insisting that he didn't have a scheduler at the time so he didn't know who he was speaking in front of. That dog just ain't gonna hunt.

With all due respect, I didn't have a "scheduler" in 2002 either, but I certainly knew who David Duke's white supremacist ass was; as did pretty much everyone in America.     

Everyone EXCEPT for Steve Scalise? Riiight...

David Duke in his KKK Grand Dragon days
In case the whole white supremacist conference appearance-thing isn't enough to sway you, Scalise is also one of those conservative clowns who opposes abortion in cases of incest and rape.

So try and picture him being one of the gateways through which legislation affecting women gets to the floor of the House in the coming year.


For the time being, the remarkably tone-deaf Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and the apparently equally-clueless Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy are both backing their boy Scalise; how long will that last?

Until someone in the GOP reminds the House leadership that a bunch of Republican lawmakers are up for re-election in 2016 when there's also this thing called the Presidential Election.

But I'm sure the 3rd highest ranking member of the US Congress having spoken at a white supremacist conference the year AFTER 911 will have absolutely no effect on the GOP's image among voters.

Nothing to see here folks!

Now all this Scalise chicanery comes the same week as the head-strong former FBI tough-guy, Republican NY Congressman Michael Grimm, announced he'll resign his seat after being found guilty of tax evasion.

Former NY GOP Rep. Michael Grimm
Remember him?

He's the guy who threatened a reporter (on camera no less....) with physical violence for ASKING A QUESTION?

Think about that. The GOP cuts Grimm loose for tax evasion in his past but is still backing Scalise despite clear ties to white supremacy?

On the domestic front, excessive police force against people of color is still making news even as we close out the year.

And kudos to the always-insightful Field Negro blog for making people aware of stories that will largely be ignored by the mainstream media.

Did you hear the story about Tario Anderson?

He's a severely autistic black man who can barely communicate verbally and lives with his mother in Greenville, South Carolina in a small neighborhood where he likes to walk at night.

After getting reports of gunshots on Christmas Eve, Greenville PD officers responded to the area and saw Tario walking; being a physically larger-than-average 6'8" tall African-American man with a dark complexion, of course they stopped to question him.

When Tario didn't respond verbally (because his mental condition prevents him from being able to), the officers shined a spotlight on him and Tario put his hands in his pocket, ducked his head and tried to walk away.

They chased him, a physical struggle ensued, Tario started screaming hysterically so the cops tasered the poor guy.

Neighbors alerted his mother, who ran to the scene to confront the officers trying to arrest her son; she pleaded with them not to arrest him because he is autistic, what was their response?

They threatened to taser her too. (Shaking my head.)

Autistic taser-victim Tario Anderson & his mom
On Monday December 29th, after the incident began attracting national publicity, and Tario's mother Carolyn filed a complaint against the police department, the chief of the Greenville Police Department Ken Miller held a 35-minute press conference to discuss the taser incident in detail.

The entire press conference is posted up on YouTube if you want to watch it for yourself to hear the police response to the incident.

Tario's mother filed a federal lawsuit against the Greenville police chief Ken Miller and the two officers who arrested and tasered her son, Ryan Weeks and Anthony Collier.

But a jury found the officers innocent of all charges of use of excessive force.

So what's a right-wing extremist Republican leadership combined with this ongoing epidemic of excessive police violence against people of color going to mean for the fabric of our fair nation as we head into 2015?

I'm as eager to know the answer to that as you are and I''ll continue to come here and explore that question in the coming year.

Whether or not you agree with the things I write here, I want to say thanks for visiting my blog in what was a truly interesting 2014, and for taking the time to look at some of the stories that might not always be front-page news in the mainstream press.

Have safe and happy New Year and I hope to see you back here in 2015. Cheers! -Culturegeist  : -)


Was Samuel Marlowe the Inspiration for Fictional Detectives Sam Spade & Phillip Marlowe?

Original Film Noir? Black private eye Samuel B. Marlowe
As a boy growing up in the mostly-white  Washington DC suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, there were very few black families in my neighborhood and few black kids in the hallways of the public and private schools I attended.

Although I always had friends, I was one of those kids who was shy and relatively quiet, but an avid reader with a vivid imagination who loved movies.  

But it wasn't always easy to see "myself" in the characters in the books I read, or in the films or television shows I watched.

When the groundbreaking 12-part television series based on author Alex Haley's dramatization of his family history, "Roots", premiered in 1977, it not only sparked a renewed passion for Americans of all races and backgrounds to research their own family history; it opened a window onto American history that allowed many people of color to glimpse their past for the first time.

"Roots" was a catalyst for my own seeking out of the stories of many men and women of African descent whose historical contributions have often been relegated to the proverbial side door of "mainstream" history - people who weren't in the history books my teachers gave me.

Earlier this afternoon in a fascinating segment of NPR's 'Marketplace', Adrienne Hill interviewed LA Times reporter Daniel Miller about one of the most intriguing stories I'd never heard; about a black Jamaican-born private investigator named Samuel B. Marlowe (pictured above).

According to research conducted by former Orion Pictures and New Line Cinema executive Louise Ransil, Samuel Marlowe is the actual inspiration for the famed fictional detectives Sam Spade (created by Dashiell Hammett) and Phillip Marlowe (created by Raymond Chandler).

A little-known black private eye who traversed the glittery world of Hollywood and the seediest sides of Los Angeles in the 20's, 30's and 40's being essential to the development of the Film Noir icons epitomized by Humphrey Bogart playing private detective Phillip Marlowe in the 'Big Sleep' or Fred MacMurray's cynical, greedy insurance salesman in 1944's 'Double Indemnity'?

If that interests you, definitely check out Daniel Miller's fascinating article 'Finding Marlowe' in the LA Times.

Samuel Marlowe was born in 1903 and fought in WWI. According to Ransil, he became the first black licensed private investigator in LA, and specialized in helping studios and stars do the kind of PI dirty work they didn't want to get their hands into.

He helped Hollywood figures out of jams in the off-limits African-American clubs and bars in LA that many white actors and execs enjoyed frequenting on the sly.

Marlowe was supposedly called on to help stars like Clark Gable and Charlie Chaplin track down runaway lovers, and was tapped to keep an eye on a $8,000 blackmail payment Marelene Deitrich's studio made to the son of her female makeup artist - because she was in a relationship with her...

Writer Dashiell Hammett
According to Ransil's research, Marlowe first connected with writer Dashiell Hammett (pictured left) in 1929, the same year Hammett published his first novel 'Red Harvest'.

Marlowe wrote a letter to Hammett to complain about details of his portrayals of private investigators and the two supposedly became friends; with Marlowe eventually sharing real-life details that would show up in Hammett's later books.

According to Miller's LA Times article (and Ransil's research), in 1930 when Hammett published 'The Maltese Falcon', the "Sam Spade" character was a private nod to Marlowe's help; a private joke between the two based on a twist on the derogatory term for blacks.

Marlowe also helped out Raymond Chandler too by not only sharing his real-life expertise and tracking down police files, but also escorting the writer around the seedier parts of LA where it was difficult for whites to navigate because of the strict segregation at the time.

Scenes and settings which supposedly show up in Chandler's work 'Farewell My Lovely' according to Miller's article.

Apparently Louise Ransil is currently trying to pitch a screenplay she wrote based on Samuel Marlowe's experiences; now THAT would make for a cool update on the Film Noir genre - no pun intended.

As a film buff, classic Film Noir occupies a special place on the spectrum of cinema history.

The idea that the real-life experiences of a black private eye helped to shape the immortal characters and shadowy celluloid scenes they'll haunt forever offers a very different perspective on the influence of the black perspective in Hollywood and popular American culture.

Maybe for the first time, I can glimpse something of myself in the Hollywood Film Noir experience.

Friday, December 26, 2014

"Why Did You Shoot Me?"

Dec 24th - Toni Martin reacts to her son being shot and killed in St. Louis 
I sincerely hope you had, and are having, a pleasant holiday season.

For many in this nation, it's one clouded by the funeral of an NYPD officer shot and killed by a deranged lone gunman who was allegedly seeking some sort of sick retribution for police having killed Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

The season is also clouded by the death of yet another young African-American man at the hands of a police officer.
 
By the time you read this you've likely heard the news that around 11:15pm on Tuesday December 23rd an 18 year-old man named Antonio Martin was shot and killed by a white police officer - near St. Louis, Missouri of all places.

Remarkably, the shooting took place at a gas station in Berkeley, Missouri less than two miles from Ferguson where the repercussions of the shooting death of 18 year-old Michael Brown are still being felt around the world.

The death of Antonio Martin marks the second time a white police officer has shot and killed a black suspect in St. Louis since Michael Brown was killed.

The St. Louis police department has been quick to release details about Antonio Martin's past in an effort to back up the officer's claim that he "felt threatened" in order to show that the shooting was justified.

It may well have been. It's clear Martin was by no means perfect. If the accounts of the officer involved in the shooting and videotape are to be believed, he pulled a handgun and had a record that included armed robbery and assault, but he was still somebody's son.

According to an article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the as yet-unnamed officer was doing a routine patrol in front of a Mobile gas station when he saw two people in the parking lot and stopped to talk with, or question them about some kind of shoplifting incident.

At some point, he claims Martin came around the driver's side of the police car and "produced" a handgun which he allegedly pointed at the officer. The details of the incident get a bit fuzzy from there, but a videotape shows the officer backing away from Martin with his police revolver drawn apparently firing at Martin as he was falling to the ground.

Was Martin trying to shoot the officer? His mother (pictured above) claims her son was at the gas station with his girlfriend; but as yet there's no way to validate that - and to be fair his mother wasn't at the gas station when the incident happened.

Police risk their lives for others and have a right to defend themselves and use deadly force when necessary; it goes without saying that no one should ever produce a weapon in front of, or near a member of law enforcement and expect not to face serious consequences.

But why do those consequences so often turn deadly so quickly for people with dark skin in this country?

We often see incidents where police must respond to white suspects who could potentially be just as dangerous, and it's much more rare that those encounters turn deadly.

Consider for a moment the case of 63 year-old Joseph Houseman. If you haven't heard about this, check out this article about the incident from DailyKos.com.

Back on May 4th of this year, someone called 911 to report an intoxicated older white man walking down the street in front of a Dairy Queen in Kalamazoo, Michigan with what appeared to be an AK-47 assault rifle.

When police arrived quickly and confronted Houseman, he refused to identify himself, grabbed his crotch, flipped the police off and cursed at them. Watch the video of the incident for yourself.

The police then spent 40 minutes talking the man into relinquishing his weapon; Houseman was detained but got his weapon back the next day.

Let's be honest. Had Houseman been black or Latino, and walking down the street brandishing an assault rifle, the police would have pulled up and shot him; so is it fair to say that police officers in this nation have a totally different mental and emotional reaction to suspects with darker skin?

Let's briefly look back at what happened back in September of this year when a 31 year-old white South Carolina state trooper named Sean Groubert stopped a black driver named Levar Edwards in front of a gas station outside of Columbia, SC for driving without a seat belt.

It was broad daylight around 5pm (click the link above to see for yourself) when dashboard video from trooper Groubert's police cruiser shows Groubert with his gun drawn asking Edwards to show him his identification.

When Edwards complies with the officer's request and slowly turns to reach into his vehicle to get his ID, Groubert just begins yelling hysterically and fires four shots at Edwards; striking him once in the hip. Remember, Edwards was stopped for driving without a seat belt.

Edwards, who had his hands raised as he was being shot, can be heard asking the trooper;  
"Why did you shoot me?"  

Why did you shoot me?

That's a question members of law enforcement around this country really need to start examining, because we've clearly got a problem in America that has reached epidemic proportions.

We as a nation need to start acknowledging that something subconscious is happening in the minds of some police officers when they see someone with dark skin, and it's imperative that we start looking more deeply into the psychological reason of why that's happening and what is happening in terms of their thought process.

In the wake of the tragic deaths of two NYPD officers, I've heard comments from pro-law enforcement pundits like the reactionary head of the New York Patrolman's Benevolent Association Patrick Lynch; who had the gall to accuse New York Mayor DeBlasio of inciting anti-cop fervor after he spoke candidly about facing his own fears of what might possibly happen to his own mixed race son should he find himself in some kind of confused encounter with police officers. 

Former NYPD officer Eugene O'Donnell, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who was just interviewed on NPR's "Here and Now" a few nights ago, repeatedly spoke adamantly about civilians not understanding the extreme kinds of dangerous situations many police face on the job.

I've heard both Lynch and O'Donnell simplistically try and link ongoing peaceful protests across the nation against excessive police violence against minorities, to the violent act of the mentally-disturbed murderer who shot two NYPD officers sitting in their car.

As advocates for the police, Lynch and O'Donnell seem oblivious to the extensive organized movements across the nation mobilizing to confront a growing list of deadly cop shootings and demand accountability for those officers involved.  

If we take Lynch and O'Donnell as examples of virulently pro-police advocates, they seem to have an entrenched blind spot where the lives of minority victims of excessive police force are concerned.

From the quotes and comments I've heard, they adhere to a strange logic that suggests "it's tough out there, cops have a really tough job, the victims of gun violence had bad records and their actions made the officers involved feel threatened." And it stops there.

So here we are, a day after Christmas, talking about Antonio Martin's death in Missouri.

Here we are reading the disturbing reports of an LAPD investigation into a recent party at a retired LAPD officer's home (which current police officers attended) where a leaked videotape shows members of law enforcement listening to a crude cover of the song  "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown" with the lyrics changed to mock the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

How does attending a party where people laugh at an unarmed 18 year-old who was shot and killed by a member of law enforcement affect the cop who has to go out on patrol the next day in a neighborhood or community that's majority African-American or Latino?

I believe in free speech, any of us should be able to talk about what we want to at a private party.

But police are not like the rest of us. Sure, they're human, but they're also required to carry their weapons on them at all times - and as as we know they're authorized to use deadly force if they feel threatened.

So is it a smart thing for them to laugh at a victim of excessive use of police force during their recreational time?

Am I wrong, or is that further dehumanizing a segment of the American populace who already suffer disproportionately from excessive use of police force? 

As I've said on this blog many times, I support police 100% and I know and have known, police officers personally.

Maybe if we as a nation start paying closer attention to what's really going on inside the mind of police officers in situations involving people of color, we might be able to find ways to help police officers find other ways to resolve tense encounters that don't involve pumping bullets into someone's body.

We can't just accept that as the default reaction for an armed police officer who feels "threatened" because if nothing else, we should be a better nation than that and our law enforcement professionals should be better than that.

No American should ever have to look up at a police officer and ask, "Why did you shoot me?"


Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Does Mark Wahlberg Deserve a Pardon for His Violent Racial Attacks?

By any measure, the former teen music idol / underwear model turned actor / producer Mark Wahlberg has come a long way since the early 90's when he was the leader of a boy-band named  Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch.

His jovial side-kicks The Funky Bunch included his brother Donnie and five other guys who performed under names like Hector the Booty Inspector, Scottie Gee and Dan-o Fresh.

But over the years he's earned a reputation as a solid actor with legitimate screen presence.

He received critical acclaim for his roles in 1997's "Boogie Nights" and in 2010's "The Fighter" - he also scored a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his role in Martin Scorsese's 2006 Best Picture, "The Departed".



So it's a little disconcerting to hear the words "bias crime" associated with his name.

According to a December 4th story posted on The Smoking Gun Website, public records show that Wahlberg has formally petitioned the office of the Governor of Massachusetts to remove a 1988 conviction for violent assault against a Vietnamese immigrant named Tranh Lam from his record permanently.

According to public records, Wahlberg served 45 days in jail for the assault which stemmed from a 1988 incident in which he tried to steal two cases of beer from a convenience store in Dorchester, MA.

When Lam tried to stop him, Wahlhberg called Lam a "Vietnam fucking shit" before striking him in the head with a stick, knocking him unconscious; then punched a man named Hoa Trinh as he fled the scene.

The police report states that Wahlberg repeatedly referred to his two innocent victims as "gooks" and "slant-eyed gooks".

In his petition to the Massachusetts Advisory Board of Pardons back in late November, the 43 year-old actor claims he has “dedicated myself to becoming a better person and citizen so that I can be a role model to my children and others.”

Then points out that the assault conviction on his record prevents him from getting a concessionaire's license in the state of California where he lives, which is an “important consideration given my personal involvement in various restaurant ventures.”

Hmm, I'll bet it is.

This story is getting a lot more attention up in the Boston area than it is down here in the NY/NJ/Philly area, my younger brother told me about it earlier today after he sent a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe opposing Wahlberg being granted a pardon that would wipe his record clean.

It's one thing if someone was petitioning for a pardon after an assault related to say a bar fight, but Wahlberg intentionally and violently assaulted a Vietnamese immigrant small business owner after hurling racial slurs at him.

Plus, it's not his only incident of assaulting someone based solely on their nationality, race or gender either.

As the Smoking Gun article notes, a 1993 article in the Village Voice by Shaun Assael reported that Massachusetts prosecutors raised accusations that Wahlberg had “demonstrated a continuing pattern of terrorizing people of color.” 

Like the multiple incidents as a teenager when he was identified as one of three boys who were "chasing and throwing rocks at black school children."  At one point during the chase they were screaming "kill the nigger, kill the nigger."

Now I believe in forgiveness.

And I'm happy that Mark Wahlberg has found God, is raising a family and trying to be a role model (and a restaurant owner...) but I don't see how that warrants permanently erasing violent assaults on Vietnamese immigrants and black school children from his permanent record.

If he really wants to be a role model then he should start talking publicly about how felony convictions hamper the lives of convicted felons long after they've served their time.

Or he could talk about his bias crimes against innocent people as a means of creating a badly-needed dialog on race and ethnicity in this country.

But trying to sanitize those crimes from his record as if they never happened?

That's not really demonstrating that he's learned much of anything; aside from being able to hire expensive attorneys and leverage his fame and wealth to game the system.

There are thousands and thousands of genuinely reformed felons across the nation with good hearts, families and religion in their lives who are systematically hampered from applying for certain jobs or applying for specialized licenses, OR VOTING because of felony convictions on their records that are over two decades old - and few if ANY of them have the kind of financial resources Wahlberg is lucky enough to have.

Look at this way, if Mark Wahlberg was black or Latino and he petitioned the state to erase a 26 year-old violent assault from his permanent record that occurred after a brazen shoplifting attempt, do you think his record would be expunged?

I don't think the dysfunctional American justice system should function differently for Mark Wahlberg just because he's a famous wealthy Hollywood actor/producer - or because of his skin color.

Especially when his crimes were motivated because of how he felt about the skin color or nationality of innocent people.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Ex-NYPD Officer Weighs In On Murder of Two Policeman & Aftermath of Eric Garner Decision

Slain NYPD officers Rafael Ramos (left) & Liu Wenjin (right)
A good friend of mine from high school whom I'll call "KC", was a New York City Police officer for nine years.

We've been tight for about 26 years and I'd been looking forward to attending a holiday party held at his girlfriend's home this past Saturday night to get his take on the repercussions of a Staten Island jury's failure to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for the choke-hold death of Eric Garner.

KC is pretty plain-spoken and over the years we've had numerous discussions about police behavior and the use of excessive force as it relates to African-American citizens.

When I got to the party at about 6pm, the news was just unfolding that Ismmaiyl Brinsley, a disturbed 28 year-old African-American man from Baltimore apparently shot his girlfriend in the stomach (wounding her), then traveled up to New York City where he shot and killed two innocent uniformed NYPD officers who were sitting inside their marked police cruiser in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.  

Just hours before officers Rafael Ramos and Liu Wenjin were both shot at close range, Brinsley posted this chilling threat on social media: "I'm putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let's take 2 of theirs,"

His cold-blooded murder of two police officers was a heinous act.

But it's also disturbing that the language of his ominous message is deeply divisive at an already-fragile time in America when communities across the country are divided over the disproportionate use of excessive and deadly force against men and boys of color; and the lack of accountability for those members of law enforcement who commit such acts.

President Obama, New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio, the Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as the families of both Eric Garner and Michael Brown have all categorically condemned the brutal murder of officers Wenjin and Ramos through public statements.

While the violent act of a lone individual has nothing to do with the thousands and thousands of protesters across America who have participated in peaceful marches to protest the epidemic of unchecked police brutality, conservative defenders of the status-quo area already using this crime to distort the legitimate protest movement and blame Democratic leaders for the attack.

In the wake of the incident, the reactionary leader of the NYPD's Patrolman's Benevolent Association (PBA) Patrick Lynch wasted no time blaming Mayor DeBlasio, publicly making the absurd suggestion that, "blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall in the office of the mayor."     

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani wasted no time appearing on Fox News Sunday to tread the worn conservative path of blaming President Obama for spreading anti-cop "propaganda" that motivated Brinsely to shoot the two officers before launching into a lecture on black-on-black crime.

But even Giuliani admitted that Patrick Lynch's inflammatory comments blaming the mayor for the murders "goes too far." 

Even though data shows that the vast majority of people who kill cops are white, the usual suspects of right wing media are busy spreading a distorted narrative linking peaceful protests and widespread calls for reforms in community policing to the actions of one disturbed lone gunman who happens to be black and invoked the name of Eric Garner and Michael Brown before murdering two innocent police officers then killing himself.

At the party this past Saturday night, my friend KC, a jovial red-headed former cop who remains close to many members of law enforcement, was clearly outraged about the killings of Ramos and Liu, but he was measured in his response.

When I asked him about the protests surrounding the failure to indict Daniel Pantaleo for choking Eric Garner, he was quick to point out that the officers were only trying to do their job when they arrested Garner. Policemen don't respond to any incident wanting to kill someone.

KC was troubled over the incident because from his perspective as a former NYPD officer who's been in numerous situations where suspects resist arrest, had Garner simply obeyed the commands of the officers to submit to being handcuffed and arrested; he would have been released from jail fairly quickly considering the charges were simply for selling loose cigarettes - a charge he'd been arrested for on numerous occasions.

But what about his being arrested for such a minor infraction in the first place? I asked him.

The relative seriousness of a charge, in KC's view, is not the primary concern when officers approach and arrest a suspect. From an officer's perspective, if the law is on the books, they are there to enforce it; and if necessary, perform an arrest. But they're not going to debate the merits of a law, it's not their job.

KC reminded me that even the video of the arrest showing Garner being placed in a choke hold can distort the facts of what happened.

If an officer places someone under arrest, that person must submit. If the person resists, fights or attempts to flee, police are authorized by law to use physical means to take the person into custody.

KC says police are not just going to stand there while a person or suspect debates why an arrest is not warranted; they're going to do their job.

From KC's standpoint, the police were simply doing their job in Staten Island when Garner was arrested, and it was Garner who jeopardized his own safety by resisting arrest.

But was the choke hold really necessary? I asked him, noting that there were four or five other officers standing there at the time and that Garner was already on the ground.

KC said he's had to use choke holds on suspects before, but it's the kind of technique an officer resorts to only after repeated commands are ignored, or a suspect continues to engage in a physical struggle that could place the officers in harm's way.   

I'm not sure I totally agreed with that, especially since choke holds seem to be disproportionately used on black and Latino suspects; but I listened to his explanation and it did help me to better understand the mindset of those officers on Staten Island.

It's important to note that KC has helped me to try and resolve issues with the police in the past; especially during an ID theft situation in the early 2000's where a criminal had stolen my ID and I was being stopped by police in New Jersey because they mistakenly thought I was the criminal.

KC was in agreement that the Garner situation was very different than the case of Akai Gurley, the 28 year-old innocent black man who was shot by a rookie NYPD police officer in the darkened stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project a few weeks ago.

He felt that case was a serious breakdown in decision-making, tactics, training and oversight - and that there should be repercussions for the officer responsible for taking the fatal shot; and for entering the stairwell of a building with his gun drawn for no reason in the first place.

KC was also clear that the death of 12 year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland was also a breakdown of monumental proportions as well given that officers are trained to maintain a distance of around 30 feet from any suspect holding a weapon - there is no scenario in which police are trained to pull up to a scene less than ten feet from someone holding a gun and simply shoot him.

But KC, like many current police officers in New York and other cities and towns in America, are well aware that the number of high profile killings of innocent, unarmed African-Americans has reached a critical point and that something is going to have to change.

As is evidenced by the announcement today that former Milwaukee police officer Christopher Manney was justified in fatally shooting a 31 year-old schizophrenic homeless African-American man named Dontre Hamilton 14 times in a park back on April 30th of this year.

Our nation needs that change desperately.

KC, like others in this country confused about what's going on with community-police relations these days, doesn't have a specific answer as to what that change would look like; but he thinks revised training and oversight for police is essential.

He also believes some kind of community awareness or education is needed for young kids as well.

I agree that it's a shared responsibility. One that must begin with awareness and dialog.

Let's hope that dialog isn't drowned out by the reactionary voices of the Patrick Lynchs and Rudy Giulianis on one side - and the tiny fraction of protesters chanting for cops to be killed on the other.

Real change has to come from within. And it has to take place on the middle-ground where people can come together and find common cause.






Friday, December 19, 2014

'Exodus: Of Gods & Men' & The Egyptian History Debate

(Left to Right) Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, John Toturro & Christian Bale.
A lot of buzz has been generated over the ethnicity of some of the casting choices for Egyptian characters depicted in acclaimed director Ridley Scott's latest film, 'Exodus: of Gods & Men', a big-budget retelling of the biblical story of Moses.

But after seeing the two-hour and thirty minute movie in 3-D, I have to wonder how much of that buzz is based on the actual content of the film itself, versus the almost impossibly high standards fans and critics have of Ridley Scott's films, and the ongoing cultural debate over what ancient Egyptians really looked like.

Let's take a quick look at the cast of main characters (pictured above left) first.

Christian Bale is cast in the title role as Moses, the child of Hebrew slaves who was found as a baby and "adopted" by Bithiah (played by actress Hiam Abbass), the sister of Pharaoh Seti I.

It was Bithiah who decided to claim Moses as her own child and raise him as a prince of Egypt alongside her nephew Ramses; Pharaoh's true son played in 'Exodus' by Joel Edgerton.

The Pharaoh Seti I is played by John Turturro, and Sigourney Weaver plays Queen Tuya, his wife,  who despises Moses and sees him as a threat to her son Ramses' rule.

Those who look at the cast of 'Exodus' simply in terms of how authentically "Egyptian" they look, and judge the entire film exclusively in that context, are likely to overlook some fine acting performances, some pretty well-written characters and a well-crafted film.

Now I have two minor issues related to the cast, neither of which have to do with criticism of their ethnicity or race.

First, I felt like an actress of Sigourney Weaver's stature and ability should have been given more to do in this film. Her appearances are limited to a few scenes where she's given very few lines, or simply appears with the members of the royal family looking regal.

The film ran two and a half hours, so maybe some of her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, or maybe Ridley Scott decided he didn't want the film's focus to be on her character's hatred of Moses; but I was left wanting to see more of her in this film, and from a screenwriter's standpoint, her role could have had some more meat on it.

Actor Yul Brynner as Ramses in 'The Ten Commandments'
My second issue is that even though Joel Edgerton (who plays Pharaoh's son Ramses) is an excellent actor who delivers a fine performance and effectively conveys the aura and stature of a prince of Egypt, it's difficult for him to have to live up to the inevitable comparison film buffs like me will make to the brilliant on-screen performance of actor Yul Brynner (pictured left); who owned the role of Ramses in the classic 1956 film 'The Ten Commandments' directed by Cecile B. DeMille.

That said, for me, race or ethnicity of casting is not at issue in this film, especially with a director of Ridely Scott's stature who has a history of consistently casting African-American actors in his films in both supporting and lead roles.

Those who've criticized Scott for his casting in 'Exodus' might do well to look back on some of the casting choices the director/producer has made in the past.

Actor Yaphet Kotto
For example, he cast the brilliant Yaphet Kotto (pictured left) as Parker in the visionary 1979 sci-fi blockbuster film 'Alien'; arguably the first serious on-screen supporting role for a darker-skinned actor of color in a major Hollywood sci-fi release.

Did you know the actual Alien in the costume in the movie 'Alien' was played by an African actor from Nigeria named Bloaji Badejo?

Scott also cast the impressive West African actor and former model Djimon Hounsou as Juba, the African gladiator who helped and befriended Russell Crowe's character in the 2000 'sandals and swords' epic hit 'Gladiator'.

Ridley Scott was also instrumental in casting Denzel Washington as the lead in the 2004 action film 'Man on Fire' and in 2010's 'Unstoppable' - even though Ridley Scott's bother Tony was actually the director of both of those films, they (as well as 'Gladiator') were released through Scott Free Productions, the film production company formed by Ridley and Tony Scott in 1995.

In 'Exodus', from my take, Scott chose to tell some aspects of the story of Moses; he never billed it as a film that's 100% true to the text of the Old Testament as possible - as Cecil B. DeMille famously boasted in the lengthy intro to his 1956 version.
 
Plus, 'Exodus' has a wide variety of actors of color cast in various support roles and does a good job of background casting as well in terms of the overall diversity.

Like many others, I've often blogged about Hollywood's on-screen portrayals of Egyptian characters depicted as non-African or non-Mid-Eastern in appearance; but I don't think Scott was trying to use 'Exodus' as a platform to weigh in on, or solve that debate.

And it's not a simple debate.

Egyptians are in fact Africans. The country is located on the northeast part of the massive African content on the border of the Mid-East, but there are Africans from many different ethnic origins.

In recent years, as many Afro-centrist scholars, historians and enthusiasts have delved deeper into ancient African history that mainstream Western educational institutions have often marginalized, or ignored, there have been many who try to 'claim' Egypt as a definitive 'African' civilization in terms of our contemporary ideas of race; rather than the actual geographic history of ancient Egypt.

Egyptian Pharaoh Taharqa
For example, there are any number of ancient Egyptian masks, statues, carvings or illustrations that depict various members of Egyptian royalty with clearly defined African features; as seen in this photo (at left) of a statue of a sphinx with the head of Taharqa, a Nubian ruler of Egypt from the 25th Dynasty; actor Will Smith is currently trying to produce and possibly star in a movie about Taharqa's life.

But it's important to remember that there were some 31 different ancient Egyptian dynasties that existed over a period of over 3,385 years; and some scholars suggest there were dynasties that existed in Upper Egypt long before the 1st Dynasty began 3,050 years before the birth of Christ.


Some, like the 25th Dynasty, had rulers and Pharaohs who came from sub-Saharan African regions such as Nubia and Ethiopia, and therefore had facial features and racial characteristics like skin color that we consider more closely associated with traditional 'black' Africans like Taharqa.

But there were also many Egyptian dynasties ruled by people who came from other areas of the Mid-East, Africa and even the Mediterranean to conquer Egypt as well.

Like the infamous Cleopatra, an Egyptian princess born in AD 69 who became the last active Pharaoh and lived at the tail end of the Egyptian dynasties during the Ptolemaic (or Hellenistic) dynasty that lasted until about AD 330.   

Cleopatra's father was Ptolemy XII, he came from a family of Macedonian Greek origin that came to power in Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great.

While many have criticized Hollywood's traditional ethnic casting of Cleopatra with actresses such as Elizabeth Taylor, the contention by many that Cleopatra was at least part 'African' has never been definitively proven.

Her father was Greek, but her mother's identity has not been conclusively proven.

But given all that, it is still relevant to note that Hollywood has never cast a film about Moses with an actor with African, Mediterranean or distinctly Mid-Eastern features; and remember, if we go by the Biblical text of Exodus, Moses passed as an Egyptian prince well into adulthood; so it's doubtful that he would have looked 'European'.

Did Moses look like Charleton Heston or Christian Bale?  

It's perfectly legitimate to explore those kinds of questions; but I don't think it's really fair for critics or anyone else to conclude that it was Ridley Scott's goal as a filmmaker to answer those complex kinds of questions in 'Exodus'.

I can certainly understand some of the criticisms expressed in mainstream and social media about the ethnic authenticity of the cast in terms of historical accuracy, but I think 'Exodus' was a well-executed film with a top-notch cast, a solid storyline and incredible production value in terms of the scale of the locations, sets, costumes and props.

The framing of many of the scenes is breathtaking.

Personally, I'm giving the film a solid three stars out of five and I think it was well worth the ticket price to see it on the big screen in 3-D.

Charleton Heston parts the Red Sea as Moses in 1956
Scott's film offers some very interesting takes on the traditional story of Moses, including casting a child to play God and portraying Moses as much more human and skeptical of God and religion; and less the stern, humorless, grim prophet as Charleton Heston (seen left) played the character in 1956.

Of course, it boasts some excellent digital special effects, including the parting of the Red Sea, that don't overwhelm the film.

As someone who is still a big fan of the 1956 film 'The Ten Commandments', I have to say that the special effects used to create the Angel of Death coming down from the moonlit sky to kill every first-born son of Egypt, still hold up after all these years.

Scott's Angel of Death in 'Exodus' is much more like a gentle whisper, or malevolent breeze that delivers a quick death to it's victims - it's effective, but the I think Cecile B. DeMille's 1956 Angel of Death scene is much scarier; and remains one of my all-time favorite special effects scenes.

But Scott's film showcases the ability of modern CGI to bring the various other plagues God sends upon Egypt to life in some truly spectacular ways.

If you don't think plague, frogs, flies and locusts can be frightening, then you should see this film on the big screen.

Oh, and as far as the sea turning red, I wouldn't want to have been an Egyptian fisherman on a boat in the Nile in this film - two words; crocodile frenzy.
 
In today's world where morals and ethics can be seen as sorely lacking in our government institutions and law enforcement, and too many Hollywood films substitute guns, excessive dialog, naked flesh and gratuitous sex for quality story telling and story structure, I for one applaud Ridley Scott for having the guts to use his talents and influence as a filmmaker to bring a classic story from the Old Testament to life on the big screen.

One that compels the audience to re-examine ideas of slavery, retribution, vengeance and faith.  

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Amy Pascal & Scott Rudin: Hollywood Heavyweight's Racist E-mails Offer Glimpse of Why Color Barrier Persists in Film Industry

Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal in happier times.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Chief Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin are widely regarded as two of the most powerful figures in the film industry.

But after Buzzfeed released excerpts of a November 2013 e-mail exchange between the two in which they openly mock President Obama's race, both are now under the harsh glare of the opposite side of the media spotlight.

If the massive corporate headache created by the November 24th hack into Sony Pictures database (and the subsequent release of volumes of sensitive internal correspondence and information) was like a bad dream for execs of the film studio; now it's turned into a PR nightmare.

According to Hollywood Reporter, Pascal was set to attend what she described in one of her e-mails to Rudin as a "stupid" Democratic fund raising breakfast hosted by DreamWorks heavy Jeffrey Katzenberg, so she decided to e-mail Rudin and ask for suggestions on what to ask President Obama at the event.

After Rudin jokingly suggested she ask Obama if he would "like to finance some movies", Pascal replied, "I doubt it. Should I ask him if he liked 'Django' (Unchained)?"

And it just got increasingly juvenile, trite and stupid after that, with both hypocritical limousine liberals acting like a couple of dim-witted 9th grade bigots as they joke about the kinds of movies the president would like; including '12 Years a Slave', 'The Butler' and 'Think Like a Man'.

At one point Rudin suggested, "I bet he likes Kevin Hart." 

The story has blown up on social media and both Rudin and Pascal have released their obligatory media mea culpas which were probably written by some nervous hack from Sony's PR department.

Pascal's statement said in part, "the content of my e-mails to Scott were insensitive and inappropriate but are not an accurate reflection of who I am," 

Actually they DO reflect who she is, catching the powerful Hollywood executive during a private moment when she thought no one would read what she wrote; instead of at some charity event with that phony plastic smirk on her face.

British protesters hold a "die-in" in honor of Eric Garner in a London mall.
The sad part of this exchange (besides the fact that it's not even funny) is that it comes at a critical  moment when the nation and the world are expressing outrage over the dehumanizing way in which some members of law enforcement treat men of color.

Over 76 people were arrested at a London shopping mall after holding a "die-in" (pictured left) to protest the Eric Garner decision.

Pascal and Rudin's comments about President Obama reflect the same kind of callous, simplistic, narrow-minded perception of African-Americans demonstrated by those police officers who disproportionately use excessive or deadly force against black people simply because of the color of their skin.

It's insulting for Pascal and Rudin to even jokingly suggest that black people's appreciation for cinema is limited to "black" films.

Attitudes like Pascal and Rudin's are one of the major reasons scripts with black characters or based on African-American stories, issues or themes have a difficult time being greenlit and funded within Hollywood.

Strides have certainly been made with films like director Steve McQueen's 'Twelve Years a Slave' or Lee Daniel's 'The Butler' - but white producers like Brad Pitt had to use their clout to get McQueen's picture made; even though McQueen is highly talented, critically praised and the film was a box office success.

Talented African-American director Gina Prince-Bythewood wrote and directed the excellent 2008 film, 'The Secret Life of Bees'. As she noted in an interview with Rebecca Ford in the November 21st issue of Hollywood Reporter, getting films made with people of color as the leads, "was maddening. The fact that it was two people of color in the leads, it was unfortunate to hear: 'We don't know how to sell this.' Being a black woman (director), you hear that all the time, and you never get used to it."

When asked about the obstacles she faces as a black woman in Hollywood, Prince-Bythewood said: 
"I could work all the time if I wanted, but I want to do my own stuff. So what's discriminated against is what I focus on: people of color, and specifically women. People (in Hollywood) aren't trying to make those films."

After reading the leaked e-mails between Pascal and Rudin, we can certainly understand why.

The online media backlash against Pascal and Rudin is already starting.

In response to news of the e-mails, showrunner/writer Shonda Rhimes ('Grey's Anatomy', 'Scandal' and 'How to Get Away With Murder') Tweeted that the e-mail exchange needs to be called "racist" and not "racially insensitive."

Actor Kevin Hart has already released a statement on Instagram responding to another e-mail between Pascal and another Sony producer calling Hart a "whore" for asking for additional compensation from Sony for asking him to promote his movie on his social media platforms - and for suggesting that President Obama would like him because he's black.

But don't think black folk are the only ones offended by the release of the hacked e-mails from Sony either.

Rudin is notorious for being one of the most difficult film producers to work for because of his abrasive, obnoxious personality and the way he treats people. It may be awhile before the 'Moneyball' producer gets to work with actor/producer Brad Pitt again after calling Pitt's wife, actress/director Angelina Jolie, a "minimally talented spoiled brat" in a leaked e-mail with director David Fincher.

(Minimally talented? Did he see Jolie in the movie 'Salt' or 'The Changeling'?)

I wonder how Pascal and Rudin would react if a black film executive suggested they would only like films like 'Exodus', 'Yentl' of 'Schindler's List' simply because they're both Jewish?

They'd find the conclusion equally prejudiced, offensive and ignorant - which is exactly how millions of people now perceive them both.

Frankly, if Amy Pascal had anything to do with the leaked Sony suggestion that execs actually considered combining the 'Men in Black' films with the two lead characters (played by Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill) from '21 Jump Street', then she's even dumber than those offensive e-mails make her out to be.

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

The 12 Texts of Christie & Other Assorted American Chicanery

Records show Chris Christie sending multiple texts about Bridge Gate
Despite his repeated denials and insistence that he was the only human being in the entire New York-New Jersey area that was unaware of the massive traffic snarl on the George Washington Bridge last year, records show that NJ Governor Chris Christie was in the know.

As was widely reported yesterday, phone records supplied to a New Jersey legislative investigation by AT&T show that Christie and his  current chief of staff Regina Egea sent a total of twelve text messages back and forth during a December 9, 2013 New Jersey legislative committee hearing.

It was at that hearing that the political bombshell revelation dropped about the order to initiate the four days of traffic jams coming from Christie's own deputy chief of staff.

Christie claims not to recall any of the texts messages (three of which he sent...), but it's clear that both he and Egea did take care to delete all twelve of them from their phones.

The part of this debacle that insults the intelligence of New Jersey citizens is the idea of a vindictive, short-tempered egomaniac control freak like Christie trying to claim a low-level aide would call up the Port Authority and order lane closures of the GW Bridge without him ordering it.

There are numerous well-documented examples of Christie using his office to enact various forms of  retribution against those he considers political enemies and Bridge Gate is the most glaring example; but only time will tell whether anyone responsible for ordering the lane closures will be held accountable, or what the political blowback will be for Christie. 

Speaking of storms, it was pretty dark outside this morning when the sounds of the winds and rains from this Nor'easter woke me from a restless sleep.

In the same way the darkness of rampant police brutality against people of color has awoken a deep outrage amongst people of all races, backgrounds and religions in cities all across the nation.

As a Twitter post from a guy I follow named @AngryDemocrat suggested yesterday, maybe it's not that incidents of unjustified use of excessive force disproportionately used by police against African-American and Latino boys and men in this country have risen; more likely the media is just starting to treat them as stories that are actually relevant to the collective culturegeist of our nation.

It's not just white cops either. The NYPD officer who shot Akai Gurley in a Brooklyn stairwell the other week was Asian-American. There are plenty of ignorant black cops mistreating black folks too.
 
Miyekko Durden-Bosely after being punched by a cop
The June 22nd beating that a young woman named Miyekko Durden-Bosely (pictured left) took at the hands of African-American police officer Adley Shepard in the state of Washington this past summer is getting a lot of media coverage.

The story blew up nationally when prosecutors recently announced that (wait for it....) no criminal charges would be filed against officer Shepard for punching Ms. Durden-Bosley in the head and breaking the orbital bone of her eye socket.

He's on paid leave even though the incident was caught on video.

Or how about a recent arrest caught on video in Minneapolis, MN? If you've got three minutes, watch this video posted a couple months ago on YouTube as a black cop arrests a woman for asking him why he pointed a gun at her after he confronted her earlier for speaking with people about voting rights in public. 

Not all police officers are uncool. But the ones who are, seem to have aggravated racial tensions by criminalizing almost any behavior by people of color; walking down the street, sitting on a park bench, waiting for a bus, driving a car, or even trying to get inside your own home in the case of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. back in 2009.

President Obama isn't responsible for four hundred years of history, but he's facing media scrutiny after a recent national poll revealed the majority of Americans (of all races) feel racial tensions have gotten worse under the nation's 1st African-American president.

Though it's not his fault, I agree with the poll. Obama's election uncorked a toxic undercurrent of prejudice and bigotry that's been largely stoked by an assortment of right-wing media pundits, factually-challenged Fox News hosts, Tea Partiers, anti-government nut-bags and angry Americans who are still seething over the drubbing Senator John McCain and his totally inept VP candidate, former part-time Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, took in the 2008 presidential elections.

Don't think Republicans aren't busy at work trying to remedy that either. As you read this the GOP is trying to illegally manipulate the electoral college process, as in the state of Michigan, to make it easier for a numerical minority to win the 2016 presidential race.

Did you hear that one of the compromises Republican lawmakers insisted on in order to pass an upcoming temporary spending bill to keep the government open, was that the White House had to agree to scale back First Lady Michelle Obama's national nutritional guidelines for school lunches designed to help combat growing obesity and diabetes?

Seriously, how biased do you have to be to make rolling back healthy nutritional guidelines for school children a condition of passing a temporary trillion dollar spending bill?

It's as if years of cultural progress in America were moved forward with the election of a black president and simultaneously turned back with a resulting unsettling resurgence of openly accepted expressions of bigotry, ignorance and hate that had begun to slowly dissolve (on the surface anyway) in this country in the 80's and 90's.

Robert Keller, sentenced for threatening a black child
The story of Robert Keller (pictured left) offers a perfect example.

The disturbed 71 year-old Utah man was recently sentenced by a court to 12 months in prison for sending a threatening letter to a bi-racial family over his outrage after seeing their 13 year-old black son walking down the street with his white SISTER.

 Believe it or not, Keller actually insisted he was doing the family a favor by sending them a letter to illuminate them on the possible consequences of their son walking down the street with his sister who is white.

As RawStory reported, a portion of Keller's expletive-laden death threat to a child read in part: “There’s no little black girls to go out with, so our daughters are in line,” Keller wrote, according to court records. “I catch that n*gger around my daughter I’ll kill the assh*le and then go find what stupid person brought him here in the first place.”

It's as if being stupid in American has become something for people to stand up and proudly proclaim.

Like Republican Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, a scientifically-ignorant climate change denier who will soon be the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, blaming the "climate change hoax" on singer/actress/director Barbara Streisand in a recent interview. Really?

These are tough times for folks who appreciate things like truth, facts, justice and political integrity.



Sunday, December 07, 2014

Did GOP's Machiavellian Manuever Cost Senator Mary Landrieu Her Seat?

Meet #54 - Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
Today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

Let's not forget that 73 years ago today on December 7, 1941, over 2,403 Americans, including 68 civilians, lost their lives during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Naval base in Hawaii.

On December 8th, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan signaling America's entrance into World War II in which over 405,399 Americans would loose their lives. 

The November 2014 US Senatorial elections are officially over with the news that incumbent Democratic Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu lost a lengthy runoff election to Republican candidate Bill Cassidy (pictured left).

It's pretty sobering news for American progressives given the overwhelming control Republicans already wield in the House of Representatives.

Case in point: as The Hill.com reported, in an interview on Fox News Sunday, Cassidy quickly announced one of his top priorities is to roll back the Affordable Care Act, even as he insisted:

“If there’s one party for the working people right now, it’s the Republican Party,” Cassidy said on “Fox News Sunday,” pointing to GOP efforts to expand drilling of natural resources and Democrats’ attempts to limit emissions."

Yup. No doubt what hard working Americans really need right now is Republicans taking away affordable health care for their families. That should really help.

So with the addition of this staunch friend of the working people, 54 is now the magic number for Republicans in the Senate, who now control every Senate seat in the south; Democrats now hold 44 seats and independent candidates control two.

I'm going to respectfully disagree with Washington Post reporter Jordyn Phelps' analysis of the runoff election results that Landrieu's support of the Affordable Care Act and alliance with President Obama led to her defeat.

Her support of the ACA and the president were a factor in her defeat, but progressives, Democrats and independents were overwhelmingly opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline project which Landrieu sponsored.

Top Republican climate change denier (R-OK) Sen. Jim Inhofe
It's costly because the potential for a major environmental disaster was significant.

As a mechanism to deliver more Canadian tar sands oil for export across the globe, the pipeline would only magnify the current global climate crisis that Republican Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe (pictured left), who will serve as the incoming chair of the Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works, claims does not exist.

Besides, the number of actual full-time jobs Republicans claim it would create is wildly exaggerated.

The bulk of the "42,000 jobs" that supporters of the pipeline were so fond of trumpeting would be seasonal temporary construction jobs that would disappear once the 875-mile pipeline was completed. As Politifact.com's analysis of the jobs claims show, in the end the Keystone XL pipeline would actually create about 35 permanent full time American jobs.

As a result, progressive groups, environmentalists and many Democrats completely abandoned Landrieu during the runoff election season because her support of the doomed pipeline project positioned the three-term Senator as a climate change denier looking to give the oil industry a big fat handout in order to get herself re-elected.

Meanwhile the GOP poured in over $1.3 million in support of her opponent Bill Cassidy and saturated Louisianans with anti-Landrieu TV and radio attack ads.

Besides, as I wrote about in my blog the other week, I agree with environmental activist groups who assert that it's actually far more cost-effective and efficient to transport the heavy, viscous Canadian tar sands oil via rail cars to coastal refineries and terminals along the east coast and southern gulf coast than it is via a pipeline.

So was Landrieu ultimately duped into tying her political future to an ambitious pipeline project that Republicans actually knew would never be approved?

Did Republicans shrewdly use the Keystone XL pipeline as a kind of Trojan Horse wedge issue while quietly using their control of state legislatures and Governor's mansions (like Chris Christie's) across the nation to tweak state and local laws to make it easier to secretly transport larger amounts of Bakken crude and Canadian tar sands oil over railways?

It's pretty Machiavellian but politically clever. If true, the Keystone XL project was always a win-win for Republicans.

In terms of political strategy, Senator Landrieu felt she had to support the pipeline project to appease the Louisiana oil industry to keep her Senate seat.

Environmentalist groups and Democrats devoted huge amounts of money, time and resources into extensive multi-pronged media campaigns to defeat it, when all along, top oil industry and rail executives knew that transporting tar sands oil over rail was really the way to go as reported by Justin Mikulka in an eye-opening article on the DeSmogBlog back in August.

I'm reminded of what Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagan (brilliantly underplayed by actor Robert Duvall) said of Hyman Roth's Machiavellian attempt to secretly frame loyal Corleone capo Frank "Frankie Five Angels" Pentangeli for the botched assassination of Michael Corleone in the brilliant 1974 film, The Godfather II.

As for Senator Mary Landrieu's political defeat, the Republicans "played this one beautifully."

 

Friday, December 05, 2014

Rumain Brisbon Shot & Killed By Phoenix PD Officer

Rumain Brisbon holding one of his children
There's a deadly epidemic in America that's got nothing to do with disease.

Even as the family and friends of Akai Gurley (an innocent unarmed man shot in an apartment stairwell by a rookie NYPD cop) prepare for his funeral in Brown Memorial Church in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn tomorrow, the epidemic has claimed another victim. 

While protests continue around the country over the failure of a Staten Island grand jury to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for Eric Garner's death, another unarmed black man has been shot and killed by a member of law enforcement.

This time by a 30 year-old Phoenix Arizona police officer with seven years on the force whose name has not yet been released.

34 year-old Rumain Brisbon, a married father of four, was inside a parked black Cadillac SUV in an apartment complex in North Phoenix when the officer approached the vehicle in response to a report of someone selling drugs from the vehicle.

According to Brandon Dickerson, a man who was sitting inside the SUV with Brisbon just before the incident, Brisbon was there to drop off some fast food to his children; he claims that Brisbon never raised his voice to the officer.

Brisbon was alone in the vehicle when the officer asked him to get out and raise his hands. Brisbon fled, running into an apartment building. The officer gave chase and a struggle ensued in a hallway.

According to an official statement from the Phoenix PD, Brisbon was reaching in his pocket during the struggle and when he ignored the officer's repeated commands to take his hand out of his pockets; the officer reached for Brisbon's hands and thought he felt a gun - so he fired two shots into Brison's chest, killing him.

Turns out the only thing he had in his pocket was a bottle of oxycodone pills.

Rumain Brisbon wasn't perfect. He had convictions for burglary, marijuana possession and DUI on his record. He'd even been shot before. Clearly he should have heeded the police officer's command to raise his hands when ordered to do so and there's no question he should never have tried to flee from the officer or get into a physical struggle with him.

But given all of that, did it really warrant two gunshots to the chest?

It's impossible for me to put myself in the officer's shoes in that situation, and it wouldn't be fair for me to judge whether or not he felt his life was in danger. But the refrain is all too familiar, an officer "felt fear" and his instinct was to squeeze the trigger of a loaded handgun.

What did the officer fear? Brisbon ran into a building; why not call for backup if he was afraid?

Rancher Clive Bundy broke federal laws - alive, well and free.
In all fairness to the officer, Rumain Brisbon did resist arrest.

But then so did Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy (pictured left) - and he was most definitely well-armed when he actively resisted arrest earlier this spring.

In fact he had a whole posse of anti-government nut bags armed to the teeth who were with him.

Hell, he even held daily press conferences with the media; remember his enlightening thoughts on "the Negro"?

No law enforcement officer ran onto the ranch and tried to subdue him; and they certainly didn't shoot him in the chest or anywhere else for that matter even though Bundy had clearly broken federal law.

Rumain Brisbon had some oxycodone pills in his pocket and was simply under suspicion of having been selling them, then he resisted arrest; neither of which are capital offenses.

The sad truth? We have two separate justice systems in this country, which one you get depends on what color your skin happens to be when the cops show up, or stop you on the road or street.

You have to say this about Ebola, it's deadly but at least it has a cure and can be prevented.

The same can't be said for the epidemic that killed Rumain Brison, Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, 12 year-old Tamir Rice and so many others. And will again soon if we don't find a cure.