Ben Fields Fired - Disparities in Classroom Discipline Based on Race

Ex-Deputy Ben Fields

In April, 33-year old police officer Michael Slager was caught on video shooting unarmed African-American driver Walter Scott eight times in the back as Scott fled a routine traffic stop on foot. 
 
Just two months later in June, 21-year old self-described white supremacist Dylan Roof's senseless massacre of nine unarmed African-American members of the Emanuele AME Church in Charleston during an evening bible study horrified the nation and the world.

A month later on July 10th, after intense debate in the South Carolina legislature and public pressure, the Confederate flag was taken down from in front of the statehouse permanently.

But even though that divisive symbol of hatred and racial oppression has been relegated to a museum, the legacy of that flag still seems to fly over the Palmetto State.

A day after a controversial court ruling that no criminal state charges will be filed against Seneca, South Carolina police lieutenant Mark Tiller for shooting and killing unarmed 19-year old Zachary Hammond on July 25th as he tried to flee a minor drug bust, the Richland County Sherriff's Department announced that Deputy Ben Fields has been fired in the wake of a shocking video showing him violently dragging an African-American female high school student from her desk and throwing her across the room.       

It's fair to assume that a healthy chunk of the American populace have seen the disturbing video clip of Fields loosing control in a Spring Valley High School classroom - and the varied reactions to it once again illustrate the extent to which issues related to race in this country continue to divide us.

CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin 1 - Don Lemon - 0

Yesterday I was watching a heated CNN discussion on the video and I thought legal analyst Sunny Hostin (pictured left) was going to pitch a fit when Don Lemon suggested that the media needed to withhold judgement on Ben Fields' actions until all the facts about what prompted the incident were known.

She made headlines herself for tearing Don a new so-and-so on a live broadcast.

When she said "Are you guys kidding me??" I seriously thought the television screen was going to crack.

On the other side of the spectrum, there were the inevitable conservative voices who predictably blamed the teenaged student whose use of a cell phone in class, sass and refusal to stop using the phone prompted Fields being summoned to the classroom.

During an appearance on Fox's The Kelly File yesterday, the dependably racist, unbalanced fringe Birther Glenn Beck leaped to the defense of Fields:
  
"The police officer is being put in an absolutely no-win situation and we're sitting around speculating on what he did. What about the teacher? What about the school? What about all the other teachers in all the other schools that now this is being seen on television and they know "all I have to do -- I can punch a police officer, I can resist arrest, and the cop's going to get in trouble." This is an absolute ticket to anarchy, which is exactly what many in our country would like."

"Ticket to anarchy", riiiight.

Mark Fuhrman: Fields used "Soft control" - Huh?

As MediaMatters.org reported, Former LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman (who has admitted to intentionally targeting blacks as a police officer because he's a racist) had a rather interesting take on Fields' police technique on the unarmed female student during an appearance on Hannity yesterday when he said:

"I'll tell you why it's not excessive. He verbalized, he made contact, he verbalized, he was polite. He requested her. He verbally did that. The next level is he put a hand on her. She escalated it from there. He used soft control. He threw her on the ground, he handcuffed her. He didn't use mace. He didn't use a Taser. He didn't use a stick. He didn't kick her. He didn't hit her. He didn't choke her. He used a minimal amount of force necessary to effect an arrest."

Soft control. I guess that's where Fields threw the girl across the room onto the carpet? Got it.

Hopefully the result of the intense media scrutiny of this video will prompt greater public scrutiny of the wide disparities in school discipline based on race and ethnicity in this country; a topic which has been covered on this blog multiple times.

If you're interested in looking at some of the hard data on how the race of the student impacts the frequency and severity of school discipline, take a few minutes to look at the blog I published back on February 8th of this year entitled "Separate & Unequal: Who's Getting Disciplined in U.S. Schools and Why".

I don't mean to just "wave my own flag" or anything, I'm pressed for time as I have to get some laundry done before I go watch the GOP presidential debate and Buster the Cat gets tense when dinner is late.

So click the link above. There are some good links to Nina Stochlic's February 5th Daily Beast article on how the trend towards more frequent and severe discipline for students of color in this country is increasing; you can find links to an in-depth Department of Education report on disparities in school discipline based on race as well.

Remember, Ben Fields' actions in that Spring Valley High School classroom are not an anomaly in this nation; they're part of a wider trend that merits attention and action on the parts of teachers, administrators and most of all parents.

I doubt Mark Fuherman would call Fields' actions "soft control" if it was his own daughter being ripped out of her desk and dragged across the floor like an animal.

A lot of people are calling for charges to be filed against Fields, I'm curious to see if that happens in a state like South Carolina where violent overreactions by white police officers on unarmed people (black and white) engaged in relatively harmless rule violations seems to be disturbingly common.
 

Zachary Hammond's Killing Was Self Defense? Video Shows Cop's Life Was Not In Danger

No charges for cop who killed Zachary Hammond

It's sad but unfortunately not surprising hearing today's announcement that no charges will be filed against Seneca (South Carolina) Police Department Lieutenant Mark Tiller in the shooting death of teenager Zachary Hammond back on the night of July 25th.

Even though Hammond (pictured left) was unarmed at the time that he was targeted for a simple weed "buy and bust" operation as he sat in his car in the parking lot of a Hardees fast food joint, Seneca City Administrator Greg Dietterick said that an investigation "shows that Lt. Tiller was acting in self defense."

Tiller claimed he feared for his life because he thought Hammond was preparing to try and run him over with his car, but an autopsy requested by Hammond's parents showed their son was shot in the side and the back - so it's still unclear how he could have been getting ready to run Tiller over.

As in the case of any kid who's unarmed and committing a relatively minor offense (or no offense) when they're killed by a member of law enforcement, regardless of race or ethnicity, I really feel bad for the parents, family and friends of the victim.

There's something deeply troubling about a young person on the cusp of life who's simply making a mistake have his or her life taken by someone who's sworn to "serve and protect."

That's not to say that members of law enforcement who risk their lives to protect us don't have the right to use deadly force when necessary; but a 19-year old kid sitting in the parking lot of a Hardees when his 23-year old date sells a bag of weed to an undercover cop? C'mon.

Zachary's parents Angie and Paul Hammond

I blogged about this incident back on August 17th in the wake of his parent's public complaints that the media wasn't paying attention to their son's death at the hands of an overzealous cop.

I made the observation that major media outlets including the The New York Times, The Washington and other outlets around the world had covered Hammond's killing.

But his death was somewhat overshadowed by the killing of African-American motorist Samuel DuBose seven days earlier.

If you recall, the week that Hammond was shot in South Carolina, there was something of a media frenzy over the release of the body cam footage of University of Cincinnati campus cop Ray Tensing shooting DuBose in the head at point blank range while DuBose had his hands up.

Plus, Sandra Bland's arrest in Texas had taken place on July 10th, so the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death were the subject of global media scrutiny at the time.

Also Seneca PD hadn't yet released any video footage of Tiller shooting Hammond - and now we know why.

If you haven't watched it yet, take a look at this 42 second video clip taken from the dash cam of Lt. Mark Tiller's police vehicle.

Seneca PD Lt. Mark Tiller

There's no sound and it's not bloody or anything and you can't actually see Zachary Hammond.

What you can see is Hammond attempting to pull away and flee the scene after Tiller pulls up and draws his pistol.

Now as I've said before, I'm no expert on police tactics or use of force.

But as an average reasonable citizen, from this video I think it's pretty clear that Hammond was not at all aiming his car towards Lt. Tiller to intentionally try and run him down.

In fact Tiller is clearly at the side of Hammond's vehicle as the terrified kid tries to make a run for it; fleeing the scene was a crime but he shouldn't have been shot and killed for it.

At no time is the front of Hammond's car aimed towards Tiller.

Judge for yourself. Click the link above and watch it a couple times; does that look like a legit claim of "self defense", or an overzealous cop who unloaded his weapon on an unarmed kid who'd just sold some weed to an undercover agent?

Regardless, the Solicitor for the Tenth Circuit Court, Chrissy Adams, decided the evidence warranted no charges for the man who took Zachary Hammond's life. As she said in a statement earlier today:

"After careful consideration of the facts of the case, a thorough review of the state investigation, and an extensive review of all applicable law, I have decided that no criminal charges should be filed against Lt. Mark Tiller at the state level."

There are a lot of families in this country used to hearing statements like that.

And here we are again, another dead kid and another case of blatant and unnecessary use of deadly force by a police officer whose wrongdoing and error in judgement has been concealed by the blanket claim of "self defense".

 




 

Christie's Red Meat Strategy

Chris Christie on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday

Between the brilliant foliage decorating the trees, the refreshing morning chill, and the clear skies and sunshine over Central Jersey today, fall is truly in the air.

But across the American political spectrum there's a whiff of desperation in the air too.

Trump attacks Ben Carson's religion because he's slipping in the Iowa polls? Low rent.

On Sunday Chris Christie took to CBS to score some free airtime and desperately-needed national exposure to try and remind Republican voters that he's still running for president.

In a move that offers a glimpse into just how desperate his campaign is to remain relevant to conservative voters in red states, he denounced the Black Lives Matters movement, saying that he doesn't believe "that movement should be justified when they are calling for the murder of police officers."

Now obviously that's a false narrative perpetuated by right wing media. But it's a pretty sad reflection of the state of the Christie presidential campaign that he'd repeat it on national television to bolster his conservative cred.

The truth isn't some kind of currency to be tendered whenever it suits your interests, especially for someone who's running for the highest office in the land.

The Black Lives Matter movement was first formed as a peaceful grass roots response to the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 and a Florida's jury's acquittal of racist sociopath George Zimmerman in the killing.

The term, 'Black Lives Matter' was intended (in part) to reinforce the idea that the lives of the unarmed people of color being killed by police have value and meaning; because the actions of some members of law enforcement in the U.S. suggest there is an entrenched attitude amongst America's police culture that the lives of black people simply don't matter.

While it may be true that in the midst of some protest marches that have taken place in various parts of the country in response to the rash of police killings of innocent and unarmed African-Americans, an occasional voice advocating violence against police may have been heard from an angry young guy.  

But that lone voice, or small group of individuals tacking their own violent agenda onto the Black Lives Matter message does not represent the BLM movement; and it was wrong for Christie to suggest it does - a feeling echoed by more than one Op-Ed piece today including one written by Newark Star Ledger guest columnist Reginald Jackson.

If you look at the BLM Website, the group's guiding principles affirm that it is "an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folk's contributions to this society, our humanity, and out resilience in the face of deadly oppression."

In no way does the group or it's members advocate violence against police.

When an angry white guy yelled out "White power!" at a Donald Trump rally in Alabama recently, I don't recall seeing Chris Christie on CBS denouncing Trump's campaign as a hate group that advocates white supremacy.

Pro-immigration protester being dragged from Trump speech

I don't recall hearing a peep from Christie when a Trump supporter recently dragged a man who was protesting The Donald's demeaning anti-immigrant fear-mongering out of the room and kicked him while he was on the ground while the crowd chanted "USA! USA! USA" (pictured left).

Situational moral outrage on Christie's part?

Just saying.

As Christie continues to cloak himself in an increasingly extremist conservative veneer, he seems to be abandoning reason and fact in favor of the fringe political perspective of those (as Tim Dickinson described members of the Republican Freedom Caucus in the October 22nd issue of Rolling Stone) whose "political imperative is to serve up red meat to furious constituents who say they want 'their country back'"
     
From a politically strategic standpoint, it's understandable that Christie would want to bash President Obama to serve up some of that red meat to hungry conservatives who despise the president.

But when he goes on a national broadcast and tells CBS host John Dickerson, "The problem is this, there's lawlessness in this country. The president encourages this lawlessness. Encourages it... by his own rhetoric. He does not support the police, he doesn't back up the police. He justifies black lives matter." He's not demonstrating the type of demeanor and thoughtfulness characteristic of someone worthy of being president of the United States.

He's just tossing chunks of red meat out to encourage the lowest common denominator of American politics.

Sure that dog may eat it up in the short run.

But when it comes to the long (presidential) run and winning the political mainstream and the electoral votes needed to win in 2016?

That dog just ain't gonna hunt.

Corey Jones Joins 'The Counted'

Corey Jones, another victim of excessive police violence

After joining with friends last night to celebrate the birthday of my best friend of 29 years, it was truly sobering to open up the New York Times app on my iPhone this morning and read some of the recently-released details about the death of 31-year old Corey Jones (pictured left). 

As you may have read last week, in the early morning hours of last Sunday October 18th, sometime around 3:15am, Jones was shot and killed as he waited with his disabled Hyundai Santa Fe for roadside assistance on an exit ramp alongside I-95 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

According to accounts given by both his band members and family, Jones, a housing inspector who was also an avid musician, left a church event in Jupiter, Florida where he'd been playing drums with his band until late Saturday night when the vehicle he was driving broke down and he stopped somewhere near an off ramp on I-95.
 
According to information on the incident given to Jones' family by the state prosecutor, Palm Beach Gardens police officer Nouman Raja was driving an unmarked white van with tinted windows and was not wearing a police uniform when he pulled up to the disabled Hyundai Jones was sitting in.

Jones' family attorney says Raja was dressed in jeans, a white t-shirt and a baseball cap and was not carrying or displaying a badge or police identification when he approached the vehicle.

Officer Nouman Raja

Sometime during the 26 minute period between approximately 2:52am when Jones called his brother Clinton to report that he was having car trouble, and 3:18am when Clinton Jones called his brother back and got no answer, some kind of confrontation ensued that resulted in officer Raja (pictured left) firing six shots from his handgun.

Three of those shots stuck Cory Jones, one which broke his arm and another that struck his aorta near his heart and killed him.

His body was found 80 to 100 feet from where his disabled vehicle was parked leading Jones' family attorneys to believe he was trying to run from officer Raja when he was shot. 

According to a statement by Palm Beach Gardens Police Chief Stephen Stepp:

“As the officer exited his vehicle, he was suddenly confronted by an armed subject. As a result of the confrontation, the officer discharged his firearm, resulting in the death of Mr. Corey Jones.”

Since Raja was the only witness and was not wearing a body camera, the statement that "he was suddenly confronted by an armed subject" is yet to be substantiated, but for the time being Stepp has placed Raja on paid administrative leave pending the results of an investigation of the incident.

Jones was carrying a weapon in his vehicle at the time and he had a legal concealed weapons permit for the gun which his family said that he kept for personal protection because he often carried expensive music instruments for the band in his vehicle - but his gun found at the scene where he was killed had not been fired.

When asked why a plainclothes police officer in an unmarked vehicle would approach Jones' vehicle, Stepp gave two seemingly different justifications for the stop. First he claimed Raja believed Jones' vehicle was abandoned.

But there are also reports Raja may have been on a stakeout as part of an investigation of burglaries in the area involving suspects who parked their vehicles along the same stretch of I-95.

If Raja was on a burglary stakeout, why didn't he just call a uniformed traffic officer in a marked patrol vehicle to go check out Jones' car?

FBI investigators scouring the scene where Jones was shot

That's just one of many questions that need answering.

On Thursday, Time.com reported that the F.B.I will be assisting the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department in the investigation of the shooting. 

Attorneys for the Jones family also report that there are a number of video cameras in the area that should provide some footage of the area of the incident; including CCTV camera on the building exteriors of local businesses and a CCTV camera on a nearby streetlight.

This business of police killing black American drivers in what should otherwise be relatively routine traffic stops is totally out of hand in this country.

It was just yesterday that the NY Times ran an article by Sharon LaFraniere and Andrew Lehren detailing the results of their analysis of traffic stops in Greensboro, North Carolina by police showing that both the stops and the subsequent treatment of civilians by police vary widely based on the race of the driver.

Surprising? Certainly not for North Carolina.

Especially given Republican Governor Pat McCrory's questionable record on both the fair and equitable administration of justice in North Carolina, and the passing of some of the most restrictive voter suppression laws in the United States intentionally designed to exclude racial minorities from their right to participate in the electoral process.   

Voter rights activist Ty Turner being arrested in 2014

Remember, this is the same state where African-American activist Ty Turner (pictured left) was handcuffed, arrested and taken to jail by members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department for placing voter education leaflets on the windshields of cars during a voter rights rally held in Marshall Park in Charlotte, NC on Labor Day weekend back in 2014. 

Call me crazy but doesn't placing voter education flyers on windshields fall under free speech?

So the Times' analysis of the disparate treatment of black drivers by police in Greensboro, NC in not an anomaly or some kind of blip on the radar.

It's part of an ongoing disturbing pattern taking place not just in southern states, but across the U.S.

Let's hope the public pressure helps bring the truth to light in the case of Corey Jones; and a measure of justice to his friends and family.

But until then, Corey Jones becomes one of the approximately 974 people killed by police in the U.S. in 2015, at least 75 in October alone according to statistics compiled by KilledByPolice.net.

I think conventional wisdom says Corey Jones sitting in his disabled vehicle on the side of an interstate highway waiting for a tow truck should not have warranted a death sentence.

No crime was being committed here, and Corey Jones had no police record - in fact on a late Saturday night when millions of people were out carousing or drinking, he was playing music with his band at a church event.

But this is 21st century America, where routine circumstances, a tow truck not arriving sooner, and a police officer's overreaction to the color of skin is enough to make someone a member of the unfortunate ranks of 'The Counted.'

And so it went for Corey Jones.

Good Matt Damon

Matt Damon in India supporting a clean water project

Back in 1900, W.E.B Du Bois first wrote:

"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line - the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia, and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea."

His prescient observation underscores why statements, attitudes or actions (real or perceived) can quickly become the object of such intense media scrutiny in the modern age.

The recent media dust-up over actor Matt Damon's remarks about diversity in Hollywood on an episode of HBO's Project Greenlight offers a perfect example of how what Du Bois called "The problem of the twentieth century" can be so intense in America, that it can inadvertently distort the perception of someone who is neither racist or insensitive, merely human like the rest of us.

I confess that like many people I was pretty quick to react to Damon's comments to African-American producer Effie Brown.

After all here was a white male A-list Hollywood actor-producer at the apex of privilege, celebrity and wealth explaining the challenges of diversity to a dark-skinned African-American female producer who has struggled to make it in an overwhelmingly white male industry?

Back on September 16th, I wrote a blog about the episode.

Damon on HBO's Project Greenlight discussing diversity

In it, I made it clear that I was not at all suggesting Damon was a racist or a bigot; in fact, I think my take on the whole affair made some good points.

I tried to put my focus/analysis on why so many people reacted so quickly to his attempt to explain the issue of diversity in the film industry to a black female producer - and how that made him appear.

But after reading Stephen Galloway's recent interview with Damon published in the September 30th issue of The Hollywood Reporter, I think the tone of what I wrote was a little unfair in that it placed Damon solely in the context of a single moment during a television show when he was doing his best to try and explain his perspective on a highly complex issue that many Americans of all races, ethnicities and religious backgrounds have a difficult time talking about.

I mean, how many "A-list" Hollywood figures publicly talk about their feelings on racial diversity in the film industry?

Damon's 9/25/15 THR cover

In the THR interview, Damon was upfront about how he came off, but he did make a point to say that some of his words were taken out of context due to edits made to the final cut of the episode that was broadcast.

As Galloway wrote, once Damon went back and saw the edited version of his comments that actually aired on Project Greenlight, his reaction was, "'Oh my God, I look like an asshole.' I thought it was a really insensitive thing to say."

As I wrote in my last blog, I freely admit that I can be hypersensitive when it comes to issues of race, but as a citizen of a nation in which I am a racial minority, I have to be on guard at all times.

As a black South African driver once told journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault about life in post-Apartheid Africa, "Being black is still a twenty-four-hour-a-day job."
 
Because of the impact that some of my experiences growing up as an African-American have had on my life, my natural instinct is to always "be on guard".

So my instinct was to react without taking the time to step back and take a three-dimensional look at Matt Damon when I heard about his comments on Project Greenlight.

Now I'm not naive.

Damon's decision to appear on the cover of the September 25th Hollywood Reporter and grant a revealing interview were certainly part of a carefully-choreographed PR effort to counteract some of the negative press he received over his comments to Effie Brown.
    
But while Galloway's THR article covers Damon's experiences filming The Martian with director Ridley Scott and his return to the Jason Bourne film franchise (which he's currently shooting), it also offers some insight into who he is as a person; and highlights the work Damon has done to provide clean, safe drinking water to people living in Third World nations including Africa and India.

Damon was a co-founder of Water.org, a non-profit organization formed in 2009 when he merged his own organization H20 Africa with Gary White's WaterPartners.

Water.org now has regional offices in Kenya, Indonesia, Peru and India and channels millions of dollars a year to support clean water initiatives with the goal of providing "Safe water and the dignity of a toilet for all in our lifetime." 

According to their Website, 1 in 3 people in the world lack access to a toilet.

I think it says a lot about Damon that he lends his time, money and celebrity to such an important cause; one that saves lives and improves basic living conditions for people who exist on the margins of modern society.

In the wake of his comments on Project Greenlight a lot of people beat him up pretty bad over his comments on Twitter and other social media sites because of what he said about a touchy issue.

But actions speak much louder than words and Damon's support of Water.org's actions to provide safe drinking water in countries around the globe in place like Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda demonstrate that he's made a difference in the lives of thousands of people of color in places many Americans will never visit.

He didn't create "The problem of the twentieth century" and his involvement is helping to alleviate a problem too often dictated by "the color line" as well as the line of poverty; so maybe the guy deserves a little slack.

After all, we've all said things that didn't come out as we intended; or things we later realized were wrong or inappropriate.

Each of us has said something we regret at some point in our lives, most of us were just lucky enough not to be crucified on social media because of it - or misunderstood on a mass scale.

He may have spoken awkwardly about a sensitive issue having to do with race, but regardless, in an industry that is notorious for attracting sleaze bags, Matt Damon is still a good guy.  

The Little Things

As author and journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault wrote in her insightful foreword to It's The Little Things, journalist Lena Williams' illuminating non-fiction book on race relations, published back in 2000, sometimes in this life,   "It really IS the little things."

It's a great read about perspectives on race by the way and you can pick up a used copy on Amazon.com for under five bucks.

I wanted to get "a little thing" off my chest, so bear with me.

Yesterday morning I made my way over to the offices of Mercer County Connection, a non-descript office located in a rather typical single story brick shopping center just off route 33 and Paxson Avenue in Hamilton about five minutes from my apartment.

The gigantic "Super Acme" where I do most of my grocery shopping (excellent produce section) is in the same shopping center, so I drive by the MCC office all the time.

My purpose was to attend a free, one-hour seminar on wills, executors and durable power of attorney being given by Susan Knispel, the Supervising Attorney for the Mercer County Legal Services Project For the Elderly - an outreach project formed in 1980 that provides free legal assistance to Mercer County New Jersey residents who are 60 years of age or older.

Now as you know I may bitch about Governor Chris Christie and the taxes in Jersey, but things like this seminar are one example of the range of government services and the quality of life here in Hamilton - check the price on a one hour consultation with an attorney who specializes in wills and you'll see what I mean.

Our family is in the process of updating my mother's will to make sure that her specific requests and wishes for her medical treatment choices and end-of-life medical care options are all very clearly spelled out in the event she becomes incapacitated.

For any of you folks of a certain age, you don't need an attorney to fill out an Advanced Medical Directive to spell out your wishes for your medical care; the form is available to download online for free and all you need to do is fill it out and get it notarized or have two witnesses sign it.

Anyway, when I arrived, there was an elderly Asian woman standing outside the door intently studying a brochure and as I walked in I was surprised to see the room almost filled to capacity with about 35 to 40 seniors and a few older adults who looked recently retired.

Aside from a middle-aged African-American woman seated behind a large "welcome desk" on the right side of the room and a young Indian woman who later came in late (more on that in a moment), I was the only person of color in the room and was by far the youngest.

The room was relatively silent as the above-mentioned attorney giving the presentation was standing behind a small desk set up at the front of the room and people were waiting for her to begin; I noticed there were still some seats left and I began to make my way to one of them.

"Excuse me? Sir?" a voice called out.

I looked to my right and the African-American woman behind the large desk at the front had raised her left hand authoritatively and was beckoning me over; she was simultaneously listening to a frail older man with white hair who was trying to understand what he needed in order to get a passport.

No disrespect but he was quite befuddled and as I walked over to heed her call, I had to stand behind him while she carefully and patiently repeated some documents that he needed to have with him to get a passport - a service which MCC also provides.

Now as I mentioned, I'm the only African-American besides her in the room and as some of you who read this blog know, I'm a 6'7" former professional football player, so I'm already sticking out like a sore thumb in a room full of white seniors; some of whom are now glancing at me discreetly since it was quiet in the room and the woman calling me over might as well have honked a car horn.

As a rule, I'm a rather careful planner, and I never mess around with events like these - if I go somewhere, be it a meeting, a concert, a talk, I'm always on the list, have a reservation or a ticket.

I'm a 6'7" black guy in New Jersey, I can't just "crash" events, just doesn't work.

Anyway I had called MCC the week before, made a reservation and given my name; probably to the woman who was still trying to explain passport documents while holding up her hand towards me as if to simultaneously hold me in place with what I can only assume was her way of wordlessly saying, "I'll be with you in a moment."     

As a residential leasing agent who deals with customers all day long in person, on the phone and via email, I know a little something about customer service and treating people with courtesy and respect.

If I'm dealing with a tenant who's seated at my desk and someone else walks in the leasing office, I always make sure to politely say "Excuse me a moment." to the person I'm speaking with to make eye contact with the visitor and assure them I'll be with them in a moment, and invite them to either take a seat on the couch or have a look around the office while I finish up - my office is also a model for a 1-bedroom apartment.

So my antennae were already up as I felt the woman behind the desk was being somewhat inconsiderate for loudly calling me over then not even having the courtesy to make eye contact with me.

I  was probably only standing there for about 90 seconds, but it seemed longer and when the old man in front of me finally shuffled off, she asked if she could help me.

Now of course she'd just seen me going for a seat for the seminar on wills before she called me over to the desk, so while I was tempted to say something smart in response, I thought better of it and politely told her I was there for the seminar, told her I had a reservation and gave her my name.

She found it, crossed it off with a yellow highlighter and thanked me.I thanked her back and took a seat to wait for the seminar to begin.

The exchange kept going through my mind as I sat there waiting for the seminar to begin and even though the woman at the desk was herself black, I couldn't stop wondering if she had called me over simply because I was black.

I didn't feel slighted or anything, but I did feel singled out and admittedly my feathers were lightly ruffled.

Looking back, those feelings were probably magnified by my own sense of isolation being the only African-American visitor in the room at the time.

Author and journalist Lena Williams

As Lena Williams writes about with humor in her book Its The Little Things, for many African-Americans and other people of color, it's usually not something "big" like being refused service in a restaurant because of one's race; that actually happened to me in Moscow during  a visit to the Soviet Union in 1987.

Oft times it's the small, quiet little exchanges people take for granted that take place during the course of a normal day that can prick one's racial sensitivities.

Like a grocery store clerk who smiles at white customers then says nothing when it's your turn in line; or a cop that gives you "a look" for no reason.

 The exchange can be momentary, and the action that prompts one to immediately suspect race or ethnicity as the cause, may have been completely unrelated to race at all.

The grocery clerk who didn't smile at me might have suddenly had heartburn, or maybe something about the white person they'd just smiled at reminded them of a relative who'd passed away; it might have had nothing to do with the color of my skin.

But it often does in this country. I assure you that I could fill many blogs with descriptions of instances where it has.
 
So as the seminar began and I sat there listening to the attorney at the front of the room, I started to think that maybe I'd just read the incident at the desk wrong.

What if, I reasoned to myself, the woman at the desk had carefully checked off the name of every other person sitting there in the room? After all, I was the last to arrive before the seminar began, I wasn't there to watch how the woman interacted with every other person in the room.
 
Maybe she was just being thorough as the event was crowded and there was simply no room for walk-ins.

After all, I had seen the elderly Asian lady standing outside the door studying a brochure when I'd first come in. Perhaps she too had tried to take a seat and the woman behind the desk had called her over and told her the event was filled so they couldn't take walk-ins?

Maybe my thoughts said more about how I perceive myself than about how the woman treated me.

So about 20 minutes in I was cooling out, getting into the presentation and dutifully taking notes and my "racial antennae" were retracting back into my head when suddenly the front door opened.

The motion of movement caught my attention and I turned my head and watched as the young Indian woman I mentioned above walked in, looked around the room, then made her way across one of the rear rows of chairs and quietly took a seat.

Now of course, my antennae went right back up and I was waiting to see if the woman behind the desk would pounce on her too.

I immediately looked across the room at the woman behind the desk and she just sat there.

She made no move to beckon the young Indian woman who'd arrived late over to the desk to give her name; in fact she barely paid her any mind - she didn't give her "the hand" or come over with her notebook full of names to check her off.

And at that point, I honestly smiled. Seriously.

All of a sudden it struck me as funny and absurd. If she HAD called me over to the desk because I was black, it was silly and made no sense. And if she HADN'T  just called me over because I was black, then maybe my feeling singled out was silly and made no sense.

And that's when I thought about Lena Williams' book It's The Little Things and I remembered all the little ways that blacks and whites could annoy each other without realizing it.  

It had the affect of detaching me from my feelings. Here I was sitting in a seminar about wills, power of attorney and end of life decisions and I was alive and healthy and it was sunny out and I have a job - my ruffled feathers suddenly seemed so trivial and irrelevant.

A few minutes later an older white guy came in and sat down behind me and I almost laughed out loud.

I wanted to turn to him and smile and say, "Glad you made it."

Christie's Climate Change Confusion

For the first time in my life I just kicked in a few bucks to help support the activist group Environmental Action to put up a billboard in Trenton, New Jersey.

Why?

Here in New Jersey, resident roving Republican Governor Chris Christie is still deep in the throes of his 2016 presidential fantasy.

Based on his poll numbers I can only surmise that he's hanging in there to score a nice juicy cabinet post position in what he hopes will be a Republican White House in 2016.

So instead of governing on behalf of a traditionally northeastern centrist state comprised of voters who skew more moderate than reactionary or extreme, Christie (who's rarely here anymore) has begun to refashion himself politically to make himself more appealing to the far-right Republican primary voters in states like Iowa and New Hampshire - and the big money conservative donors with deep enough pockets to bankroll a presidential candidate.     

Remember, part of the reason that Christie is running for president in the first place is because of the extensive national media exposure he got during Superstorm Sandy in the fall of 2012.

His memorable press conferences in the lead-up to the storm marked by no-nonsense, tough-talking statements like "Get the Hell off the beach" almost instantly earned him a national reputation as a gutsy authoritative Republican governor who "tells it like it is" and gets things done, even in the face of a massive natural disaster.  

New Jersey boardwalk after Sandy hit the coast

Admittedly, Christie handled himself well during the storm from a political leadership standpoint, but Mother Nature always wins.

Superstorm Sandy killed 157 Americans and left over 5.3 million customers without power in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut; over 2 million in New Jersey alone.

It caused over $71 billion in damage to the eastern coast of the United States, including unprecedented storm surges that flooded or destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in New Jersey and flooded subway tunnels, basements and streets in lower Manhattan.

It's clear that man-made damage to the environment played a factor in the size and intensity of the storm; including increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a depleted ozone layer that contributes to higher global temperatures which in turn lead to increased glacier melt and higher sea levels.

Despite the scientific evidence, Christie has moved himself to the right on the issue of climate change to appease the extremists in the GOP who view climate change as some kind of liberal plot to destroy America.

Sandy hit New Jersey just three years ago, but in New Hampshire recently, Christie announced his opposition to President Obama's Clean Power Plan, a joint initiative that uses the authority of the White House and the Environmental Protection Administration to impose reasonable carbon reduction limits on power plants in states around the nation.

Even though the CPP would help to slow global warming, reduce the amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere, and slow the rise of ocean temperatures (human-influenced factors that helped make Sandy the 2nd costliest hurricane in US history), Christie lambasted the initiative with language laced with garden variety right wing anti-government fear mongering.


In New Hampshire Christie called the CPP: "...a fundamentally flawed plan that threatens the progress we've already made in developing clean and renewable energy in New Jersey without the heavy-handed overreach of Washington."

Now it's interesting to hear "2015 Chris Christie" boast about the progress New Jersey has "made in developing clean and renewable energy in New Jersey."

Remember back in December, 2014?

Oil tank car explosion in Lac-Megantic, Quebec 2013

It was only about a year ago that the previous political incarnation of Chris Christie directed the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to quietly approve the easing of state restrictions to allow railroad tank cars that transport highly-combustible sludge-like crude oil from the massive Bakken oil shelf that straddles the border of North Dakota and Montana through New Jersey to port facilities and refineries on the coast where it's loaded on to tankers and shipped around the world.

Back on December 3, 2014, I blogged about local Teaneck, NJ residents gathering to protest the CSX rail cars that transport over 30 million gallons of Bakken crude oil a week along tracks that wind down from Albany, New York, through Rockland County, NY and down into heavily-populated areas of Bergen County in northern Jersey on their way to the port facility in Perth Amboy, NJ.

Those residents, and thousands of others across the state were justifiably concerned about the potential for a rail disaster like the one in Lac-Megantic, Quebec Canada on July 6, 2013 ((pictured above) which happened when human error caused an accident involving a 74-car train transporting Bakken crude oil that ignited an enormous explosion with a blast radius of one mile that killed 47 people and destroyed half the town.

PennEast gas pipeline will pass thru John Markowski's Kingwood NJ home

So it's interesting to hear Christie criticizing President Obama and the EPA for "the heavy-handed overreach of Washington" to impose reasonable restrictions on plant emissions when he's happily used his own heavy-handed state government reach to support increased rail car traffic carrying Bakken crude oil, and pipelines that carry natural gas from fracking through the New Jersey Pine Barrens and residential areas in Hunterdon County and other areas.

Christie cites progress, but according to research from the National Climate Assessment conducted by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, over the past 100 years there's already been a rise in sea level of eight inches off the New Jersey coastline and a "70% increase in extreme rainstorms since the middle of the 20th century."

That's all serious stuff folks and we know human activity is making it worse. 

 While you'd think Christie of all people would support any steps to curb climate change, he's opting to go with the GOP's usual play of bashing President Obama's policies even when they're rational and make sense.

This is America so Christie can say what he wants, but frankly he has absolutely no business bashing the president on climate change.

If you want to form your own opinion on the president's stance on, and understanding of, how climate change is impacting the planet, take a few minutes to read his recent interview with Jeff Godell published in the October 8th issue of Rolling Stone done during Obama's recent trip to Alaska and the Arctic.

As you may have heard, he became the first sitting president in American history to visit the Arctic - where among other things, he personally visited Exit Glacier and picked up a live two-foot male Salmon which promptly ejaculated on his shoes, prompting the president to quip to reporters:  
"...he's happy to see me."

As a New Jersey resident, I expect the governor to act in the best interests of the state where the environment is concerned.

Christie callously dismissing the Clean Power Plan as "the heavy-handed overreach of Washington" in front of an audience of primary voters in New Hampshire and opposing the CPP simply because President Obama supports it is simplistic political pandering at best - and an abandonment of his responsibility to the voters of New Jersey at worst.

So if it takes a billboard being put up within eyesight of the statehouse in Trenton to get his attention,  then I'm happy to pony up a few of my hard-earned dollars. You can support the Christie billboard too.

It's a pretty sad state of affairs that the sitting governor of a state that suffered such widespread destruction from a super storm made worse by man's pumping of chemicals into the air and water would oppose reasonable legislative efforts to curb pollution just to appeal to primary voters who don't even live in the state of New Jersey.

Bring on the billboard, if Christie is content to ignore science and the will of the majority of New Jersey voters, maybe a big-ass bill board near the state house will at least get his attention.

Exploring the Creative Landscape & No Justice in Georgia

Author, playwright and poet Joyce Carol Oates

Last Thursday evening I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture on the mysterious power of creativity given by author Joyce Carol Oates.

She discussed writing, took time to answer some questions from the audience, and also read a few brief selections from her latest book, The Lost Landscape: A Writer's Coming of Age; a memoir that traces the evolution of her own creative journey and the impact of the experiences of her childhood in a rural farming town in upstate New York on her work.

The Princeton, New Jersey resident has been out and about lately promoting the book and she did an interesting interview on NPR's Morning Edition recently if you've got a few minutes to listen.
 
It's been a few days since I've posted a blog here because I've been feeling creatively introspective since her lecture.

Obviously there have been some things I wanted to blog about over the past few days.

Matthew Ajibade, another victim of police brutality

Like a Chatham County Superior Court jury acquitting three former Georgia sheriff's deputies of involuntary manslaughter charges on Friday in the death of 22-year old college student Matthew Ajibade (pictured left); who died in custody on New Years day after being handcuffed to a restraining chair in a holding cell and repeatedly shocked in his genitals with a taser gun.

By any reasonable definition that's torture, and even though the coroner ruled that Ajibade died of "blunt force trauma" to the head caused by the deputies kicking and punching him the head, the jury decided acquit to Jason Kenny, Gregory Brown and Maxine Evans of any manslaughter charges.

When the news of the acquittal broke on Friday my mind was elsewhere the day after experiencing Ms. Oates' calm demeanor, quiet intelligence, humility and wit in person.

Hearing her speak had a tremendous impact on me as a writer and prompted me to shift my creative focus and write in my journal, reexamine some non-fiction projects that I've been working on, and to also begin to outline a fiction piece based on a childhood experience that I've wanted to explore for years.

Ms. Oates is the prolific author of over 50 books and the discipline she brings to her craft, particularly her daily habit of writing for between five to eight hours a day, has caused me to reexamine my own commitment to my writing.

'The Nine Muses' by Carlos Dorrien at Grounds for Sculpture

The reading and lecture last Thursday was held in the spacious east gallery on the grounds of Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey.

Given the focus of many of my blog entries, I was conscious of being the only African-American in the crowd of about 200 people.

But I was much more aware of feeling a sense of intellectual kinship with those who'd paid $20 to hear one of the most important literary figures in America talk about writing and how her life experiences have shaped her as an artist.

It's also prompted me go back and read some of her early works too.

I ordered her novel 'Them' from Amazon.com and am looking forward to receiving it on Tuesday.

Published in 1969, it won the 1970 National Book Award for fiction and the author herself recommended it as one her books that offer the best insight into her writing.

So as I prepare to enjoy a quiet evening after a truly spectacular fall Sunday, I feel rested and re-energized creatively, spiritually and physically as I savor the last few hours of the weekend before facing another busy week. 

Inspired by the words of a literary genius.

Objectively Reasonable?

Buster the cat ponders the Democratic debate

It was my plan earlier this evening to head over to watch the Democratic presidential debate with some liberal minded friends but after getting caught out in the thunderous downpour that hit parts of central New Jersey around 7pm, I changed my mind.

Since the post-debate media coverage of the debate will be exhaustive, I decided to sit in front of my lap top and get some work done while following The New York Times live play-by-play of the debate on my Kindle with my trusty cat Buster.

Like me, Buster (pictured left) is still wondering if Senator Bernie Sanders can appeal to a wider mainstream American electorate.

Before I get back to scanning the post-debate analysis online, I just wanted to share a few observations on the results of the Tamir Rice investigation summary findings that were released late Saturday night. 

Like millions of other people who've followed this tragic case of injustice since 12-year old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by Cleveland Police officer Timothy Loehmann just before Thanksgiving back on November 21, 2014, I'm starting to get an uncomfortably familiar feeling about the course this investigation is taking.

As you've likely heard by now, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office released the controversial results of two separate investigations by use-of-force experts S. Lamar Sims and Kimberly Crawford which suggest that Loehmann's shooting of Rice was "objectively reasonable".

Prosecutor? Or cop defender? Timothy McGinty

Members of Rice's family, activists, protesters and people around the globe who've followed this case with interest since last year are expressing widespread concern that the leaked investigation results are an indicator that Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty (pictured left) is using the same kind of sleazy back-door tactics used in the prosecution of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of 18-year old Michael Brown.

Thanks to the efforts (or appalling lack thereof) of prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch, a man with deep ties to the Ferguson PD whose father was killed in the line of duty when McCulloch was 12-years old, the St. Louis County grand jury decided not to indict Wilson on any charges whatsoever in the death of Michael Brown.

The decision of the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office to release these findings suggests they are following the same strategy as McCulloch did; they're essentially planning to exonerate Timothy Loehmann of any wrong doing in the death of an innocent child.

Now I don't think anyone would suggest that the Cleveland Police Department didn't have good reason to be cautious after responding to a 911 call about someone in Cudell Park pointing a gun at people.

But the caller told the police dispatcher TWICE that he thought the gun "was probably fake" and that the person pointing it was likely a juvenile. Even though the CPD claims the dispatcher never relayed that info to the two officers who responded to the scene, does that still make Loehmann's decision to shoot Rice "objectively reasonable"?

According to a detailed breakdown of the incident on Wikipedia:

"A surveillance video without audio of the shooting was released by police on November 26 after pressure from the public and the child's family. It showed Rice pacing around the park, occasionally extending his right arm with what could be a gun in his hand, talking on a cellphone, and sitting at a picnic table in a gazebo. The video shows a patrol car driving at a high rate of speed across the park lawn and then stopping abruptly by the gazebo. Loehmann then jumps out of the car and immediately shoots Rice from a distance of less than 10 feet (3.0 m). According to Judge Ronald B. Adrine in a judgment entry on the case "this court is still thunderstruck by how quickly this event turned deadly.... On the video the zone car containing Patrol Officers Loehmann and Garmback is still in the process of stopping when Rice is shot." 

Are those actions "objectively reasonable"? Doesn't sound like the judge thought they were.

Personally, I thought The Field Negro was spot on in his blog post last Sunday when he contrasted the reactions by police in San Diego to a report of a man waving a gun in a public area, to the actions taken by Cleveland police officers Loehmann and Garmback (who was driving).

As TFN observed, when San Diego PD responded to a disturbed man waving a gun in a public place, they spent over an hour negotiating with him to try and get him to lay down his weapon, until one (or more) of the officers were forced to shoot and wound him.

Loehmann essentially pulled out his gun and shot Rice at point blank range even while the car was still moving.

Now I am not a use-of-force expert, so I can't debate the conclusions of S. Lamar Sims and Kimberly Crawford; two individuals who have far more knowledge of law enforcement training and tactics than I do.

But I'm not the only one who finds it odd that their investigation of the Rice shooting finds that Loehamann's actions were "objectively reasonable" even though his past record as a police officer not only showed him to be incompetent, but a former supervisor noted that he displayed "dismal handgun performance."

It's late and I have to be up early, but if you want to read over some more details about just what kind of cop Timothy Loehmann was, check out my blog post from December 4, 2014 - before he joined the CPD, this guy had literally been fired from the Cleveland Independent Police Department because he was incompetent. 

As MSNBC reported back in 2014, Loehhmann's former Deputy Chief of the Independence PD Jim Polak wrote of Loehmann:

“Due to this dangerous loss of composure during live range training and his inability to manage this personal stress, I do not believe Ptl. Loehmann shows the maturity needed to work in our employment,” Polak wrote on Nov. 29. “I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct the deficiencies.”  

Loehmann resigned five days after that report was written and Polak's observation proved to be uncannily accurate.

Timothy Loehmann

Loehmann (pictured left) showed poor judgment when he was with the Independence PD as he did when he pulled up to the pavilion area and shot a kid at point blank range.

Did the Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty and S. Lamar Sims and Kimberly Crawford (the two use-of-force experts he hired to investigate the case) simply decide Loehmann's dismal record as a police officer prior to joining the CPD was not relevant?

How in good conscience could the prosecutor read that evaluation of Timothy Loehamann's performance as an officer and still agree that his decision to take out his weapon and kill a 12-year old with a plastic toy gun on November 21, 2014 was "objectively reasonable"?

Sadly, it sounds like Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty is acting in the interests of the city of Cleveland to prevent Rice's family from suing the city for millions as he also acts to protect a totally incompetent police officer from being held responsible for his actions.

The anniversary of the case is coming up in November, so we're sure to see more extensive media coverage of how the case plays out.

But for now, prosecutor Timothy McGinty is giving every indication that the city of Cleveland is planning to reinforce an unwritten rule that, regardless of the circumstances, using deadly force on someone with dark skin in this country is "objectively reasonable" for members of U.S. law enforcement.

Every. Single. Time.

Economic Apartheid? U.S. Disparities in Wealth, Influence & Water

Of all the topics that will be covered in this Tuesday's first Democratic presidential debate, are any more pressing and relevant than the growing wealth and income gap between America's wealthiest citizens and those who make up the 99%?

Politically speaking, my sense is that Senator Bernie Sanders is going to own that turf, but it's likely that Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and former Rhode Island Senator and Governor Lincoln Chafee are all going to have to be proactive about addressing the topic as well.

Wealth disparity is a serious issue around the globe, but it's a major concern in the U.S. amongst an increasingly diverse population in a nation with the largest economy in the world.

According to the CIA's World Factbook, "the U.S. ranks around the 30th percentile in income inequality globally, meaning 70% of countries have a more equal income distribution."

It's both funny and sad that many of the same politicians who are so fond of calling America "the land of opportunity" are the same ones who've done nothing to revise the complex U.S. tax code with it's built-in advantages that favor the wealthy - like taxing capital gains and debt differently than they do employment income.

As the topic of income disparity has become a much larger part of the national dialog, we're used to hearing sobering statistics like the fact that the vast bulk of income gains since the "end" of the Great Recession have gone to the wealthiest 1%.

Income gains in America between 1979 and 2007

For example as Americans struggled to recover from the economic downturn, between 2009 and 2012 a staggering 95% of total income growth went to just 1% of the American population according to economist Emmanuele Saez of the University of California at Berkley. 

An article in yesterday's New York Times by Nicholas Confessore, Sarah Cohen and Karen Yourish offers some stunning insight into how and why this can happen in a nation with a population of over 320 million people.

As the article reports, just 158 families (and companies or organizations they directly control) gave 
$176 million of all campaign donations to presidential candidates in 2015 through June 30th.

The bulk of it went to Republican candidates who (not surprisingly) support tax cuts for these same donors.

The Times research shows each of these 158 families gave $250,000 or more to (mostly) Republican presidential candidates - while an additional 200 families gave $100,000 or more.

These limitless streams of campaign money (thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling) combined with low voter turnout, voter apathy, and continuing GOP efforts to suppress the ability of those who do come out to vote, lie at the core of this growing inequality.

But as the media does more to expose the murky inner workings of wealth inequality in America, we're seeing the different ways in which this nation is being further divided along the lines of net worth and income. 

As I enjoyed my Sunday brunch of spinach, cheddar and mushroom omelet and French toast earlier today, I read a really interesting article by Degen Pener in the October 2nd issue of The Hollywood Reporter entitled, "Drowning in Fear & Drought In L.A.".

A warning sign greets commuters on the Hollywood Freeway [Photo - NPR]

It's a fascinating look at what the wealthiest members of exclusive Los Angeles communities like Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Hidden Hills, Brentwood, Holmby and Laurel Canyon are doing to comply with the strict water restrictions imposed by Governor Jerry Brown in response to what some experts consider the worst drought in California in 1,000 years.  

Many wealthy L.A. residents like actress Jamie Lee Curtis, director Walter Hill, and actors like Bill Pullman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vincent Kartheiser and other well-known producers and agents have taken steps to alter their lifestyles to comply with water restrictions.

As Pener reports, they've done things like removing grass from their landscaping and replacing it with drought-tolerant lawns that include a mixture of stones, desert plants and trees that require far less water, or installing large underground cisterns designed to capture rainwater and store it for use on plants and landscaping; or installing artificial turf in place of grass lawns.

In a small companion piece for Pener's THR article, Schwarzenegger claims the artificial turf he installed on the grounds of his L.A. estate looks so real his pony Whiskey keeps trying to eat it.
  

"Grassholes" Kanye West & Kim Kardashian's estate in L.A.

But not all celebs are as dedicated to pitching in to combat drought as Ahnold.

As the THR article reports, there are also a number of wealthy L.A. residents who simply and stubbornly refuse to comply with mandatory restrictions on using water to irrigate lawns and gardens.

Celebs like Barbara Streisand, Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have all been "lawn-shamed" recently when aerial photos of their respective L.A. estates showing expanses of lush green lawns, evidence of heavy watering in violation of water restrictions, have gone viral.
 
Photos of Kardashian and West's Hidden Hills estate (pictured above) and Streisand's in particular drew thousands of critical "Lawn Shaming" responses on Twitter back in May when photos of their green estates hit the social media site.

This past summer Actor Tom Selleck was accused of having a landscaper siphon thousands of gallons water from a fire hydrant down the road from his 60-acre Hidden Hills estate in Thousand Oaks, California estate to irrigate his landscaping - after being publicly "lawn-shamed" following an investigation of the claims by Ventura County, he quietly paid a $21,000 financial settlement to the Calleguas Municipal Water District.

Pener also reports that while residents of the city of L.A. who average 77 gallons a day per capita and successfully met their state-imposed targets for water restriction by reducing consumption by 21%, Beverly Hills, who's residents consume 157.5 gallons a day and arguably have more financial resources to find ways to curb water consumption, missed their target by 32%.

The stark contrasts in compliance with mandatory water restrictions offers another snapshot of how disparities in wealth and income impact behavior and society as a whole.

Increasingly, America is quietly turning into a two-tier society divided along lines that are reinforced by a system of economic apartheid.

It's a troubling trend marked by the wealthy increasingly retreating to exclusive gated communities, neighborhoods or buildings in a shift that ends up undermining America's public education system.

Not only by lobbying the politicians (whose campaigns they support with lavish contributions) to decrease the portion of the taxable income they contribute to the federal and state government, but also by sending their children to equally exclusive K-12 schools which reflect an environment that is financially, culturally and racially homogeneous in comparison with the actual makeup of U.S. population.

An exclusive environment characterized by different nutritional, educational, financial, ecological and legal standards - one that stands in contrast to the traditional idea of community and the lofty principles of the Constitution envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

Now I'm not a flag-waving communist or anything, if someone earns a nice living they should be able to live where they want and raise their family how they want.

I'm just not sure the future of a prosperous and evolved America lies in the wealthy walling themselves off from the masses in hermetically sealed environments with those inside protected by carefully constructed boundaries reinforced by economic apartheid; and those on the outside looking in.