[TRUTH] If our youth read THIS instead of...

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Report: Every 36 Minutes, a Black man, woman or child is a victim of extrajudicial killing

Above the Law? 
Extrajudicial killings of Blacks are increasing; activists say human rights being violated 

By Ashahed M. Muhammad

“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”

–Universal Declaration of Human Rights-

“No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” 

–International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights-

***

When George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, killed young Trayvon Martin in March of this year, sadly, members of the Black community were not surprised.

In their view, these types of killings were nothing new, the difference in this particular case was it became highly publicized. As more facts began to trickle out about the circumstances surrounding Trayvon’s death, many became outraged by what they called the callous disregard for Trayvon’s life and his right to defend himself. Additionally, the actions of Sanford, Florida law enforcement officials in dealing with Mr. Zimmerman raised suspicions that this would be another blatant case of injustice delivering yet another wound to the psyche of the Black community.

The narrative would be reinforced that this was not an isolated incident, and law enforcement has a “license to kill” when it comes to Blacks. The killing also hearkened back to a racially polarized time in the not so distant past, when it was nearly impossible for a White man to be charged with killing a Black man.

Those suspicions seem to have been verified with the recent release of a report compiled by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) dealing with extrajudicial killings of Black people in 2012. As the researchers scanned news reports, more suspicious deaths were revealed. The report documents that in 120 cases in 2012, police officers, security guards and self-appointed law enforcers, who some call vigilantes, have acted as judge, jury and executioner, even in situations where it had not been determined whether a crime had been committed.

“Nowhere is a Black woman or man safe from racial profiling, invasive policing, constant surveillance, and overriding suspicion,” said Rosa Clemente of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. “All Black people—regardless of education, class, occupation, behavior or dress—are subject to the whims of the police in this epidemic of state initiated or condoned violence,” she added.

Activists say a human rights issue confronts Black America, and is on par with abuses taking place in other parts of the globe. The MXGM’s research report states: “The oppression and police occupation of Black communities parallels the brutalization, denial of human rights and killings being committed by the Israeli occupying forces in Palestine, and the persecution of Afrodescendants in Columbia and the Indigenous peoples of Brazil over the past several years.”

Atty. Standish Willis of the National Conference of Black Lawyers traveled to Geneva, Switzerland in 2008 and was successful in bringing American cases of torture representing those seeking justice for decades to the United Nations. He said there are parallels in the struggle by Black people in the United States and the colonial experience of Blacks on the continent.

“It’s very analogous if you study the African colonialist experience,” said Atty. Willis. “Blacks have been victims of this since we have been here in this country,” said Atty. Willis. “In some ways we can definitely say African-Americans are in a colonial relationship in terms of police.”

International law experts have struggled to define the term “extrajudicial killing” however, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions defines them in part as: “Deaths due to the use of force by law enforcement officials or persons acting indirect or in direct compliance with the State, when the use of force is inconsistent with the criteria of absolute necessity and proportionality.” 

The UN Special Rapporteur also pointed to “the misperception that increased use of lethal force by law enforcement authorities is a necessary and effective response to situations of endemic criminality, and that greater respect for suspects’ individual rights must necessarily come at a cost to public security.” According to information found in the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions handbook: “High numbers of police killings are also often seen in countries with high crime rates, and especially where there are high levels of violent or street crime, and where there are organized or semi-organized violent gangs or militias. While police forces face many challenges in insecure environments, some governments and police forces fail to prepare appropriate crime-control strategies, and instead opt to use unlawful, short-term and heavy-handed tactics against alleged criminals. Killings can also be encouraged where there is high-level political or public support for violent policing. Senior police officers or officials can contribute to the number of police killings by tacitly approving of or openly encouraging them.”

It is no secret that racial profiling is a fundamental pillar of law enforcement strategies nationwide. Race is a dominant factor in the controversial “stop and frisk” policies that have recently come under fire from human rights organizations mainly in New York but also in other American cities.

Read the entire article here @ http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_9045.shtml

Download the entire report @ http://www.finalcall.com/reports/MXGM.PDF

Extrajudicial Killings of Black People in 2012

For Immediate Release
Contact: Rosa Clemente
413.345.4018
clementerosa@gmail.com


Malcolm X Grassroots Movement releases report:  Extrajudicial Killings of Black People in 2012

Every 40 hours in the United States one Black woman, man or child is killed by police, and by a smaller number of security guards and self-appointed vigilantes. These are the startling findings of a new Report on Extrajudicial Killings of Black People released July 9, 2012.

What motivated the round-the-clock research for this new Report? More than two years ago, on New Year’s Eve, police killed two innocent men: Oscar Grant in Oakland, Adolph Grimes in New Orleans and shot Robert Tolan in a Houston suburb. Based on research started in 2009 after those murders, we learned there were a lot more killings that had not yet been uncovered. Then, after Trayvon's murder, there was a huge public outcry and a few headlines about more killings. More grieving families and more calls for investigation. Further research became urgent and it demonstrated that Trayvon's death was not an isolated tragedy. Between January 1, 2012 and June 30, 2012, at least 110 Black people were killed by police and their “deputies.”

"Any one of these people killed could have been my son or your husband or daughter”, says Arlene Eisen, member of the Malcolm X Solidarity Committee and co-author of the Report.

Rosa Clemente of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement elaborates, “Nowhere is a Black woman or man safe from racial profiling, invasive policing, constant surveillance, and overriding suspicion. All Black people – regardless of education, class, occupation, behavior or dress – are subject to the whims of the police in this epidemic of state initiated or condoned violence.”

The Report, produced by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and the "No More Trayvon Martins" campaign, is part of a larger effort. Kali Akuno, MXGM member and report co-author explained, 

“The Report shows how people of African descent remain subjected to institutionalized racist policies and procedures that arbitrarily stop, frisk, arrest, brutalize and even execute Black people. The killing will continue despite calls for investigations and lawsuits. We urge people to read this Report and join us in demanding that the Obama administration implement a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice to stop these killings and other human rights violations being committed by the government."

To read the entire report visit www.mxgm.org. 

Brother Ali - Making Sense out of Society’s Racial & Cultural Confusion

Making sense out of society’s racial and cultural confusion
Hip-Hop artist and activist Brother Ali speaks to the masses

Though hip-hop has grown globally embracing all races and ethnicities, it is dominantly viewed as an external representation of Black culture.

In the opinion of many, this growth also caused hip-hop to lose some of its cutting-edge originality and watered-down the bold, courageous and scathing social commentary that made rappers the undisputed voice of youth and activism.

Minneapolis-based rapper Brother Ali knows this very well, and with song titles like “Uncle Sam Goddamn,” “Self Taught” and “Freedom Ain’t Free,” Brother Ali’s political and ethical sensibilities are clear. His cultural roots are buried deep within the Black community who unconditionally embraced him during his youth, and the religion of Islam, which he embraced in his teens.

“I was raised by Black folks for the most part and the people who taught me to be a man—being an albino, being different or being an outcast—the people who taught me what I needed to carry myself with confidence and pride and believe that I have a place in this earth is the American Black man because nobody knows more about how to maintain that within the human soul than the American Black man.”

During his youth, he had a few White friends, but his peers were mainly Black. Those friends, and some teachers, and elders motivated him to increase his level of self-esteem and self-determination.

Like many at that time, during a point in his early teens, he was drawn to the beauty of graffiti art and the power of hip-hop culture and knew he wanted to be a part of it.

“In the mid-80’s I was attracted to just the people and the sound of the music and the graffiti art and the lifestyle but in the late ‘80s when production took a huge jump and lyricism took a huge jump, this is when men like my friend Chuck D started talking—KRS-One and Rakim—they all started telling us about people like Minister Farrakhan and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X so we started reading,” Brother Ali recalled. “Hip-hop changed not just the way we were partying, but changed the way we lived and the kind of men we wanted to grow up to be.”

The politically charged, often rebellious lyrical content—seemingly ubiquitous in hip-hop at that time—inspired him to learn about Malcolm X, which carried him further on a journey of self-discovery.

Read the entire article @ http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Entertainment_News_5/article_8898.shtml

Protesters: 'No to NATO'

Formed in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has acted as a worldwide security force consisting of 28 independent member countries. Critics of the organization claim its noble sounding ideals of “establishing peace” and constant “humanitarian intervention” during times of conflict are really euphemisms for a strategy of Western powered and financed imperialist expansion.

Organizations covering a wide ideological spectrum representing a myriad of issues protested the NATO Summit May 20 and 21, decrying a behemoth military industrial complex that has grown with NATO’s transformation into the world’s police.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen addressed the Chicago Young Atlanticist Summit May 19, which ran parallel with the NATO Summit. Organized by the United States Atlantic Council and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the “Atlanticists Summit” included students from NATO member nations, high-level NATO officials, scholars and think-tank analysts.

“We face a wide range of security challenges,” Mr. Fogh Rasmussen told the students. “And we will take the necessary decisions to ensure that our alliance can meet those challenges.”

Then, sounding a paranoid alarm that could have been spoken verbatim by any Israeli right-winger or American neo-con, the NATO Secretary General said, “In today’s world, threats know no borders and respect no country’s sovereignty.”

Mr. Fogh Rasmussen’s words ignore NATO’s continued global military actions, which impinge upon the sovereignty of other nations. It is precisely the type of rhetoric causing NATO’s critics to label them "warmongers."

Read the entire article here @ http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_8866.shtml

Photos from NATO 2012 Protests

NATO 2012 Protests Photos 5/20/12 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3878354115091.2176469.1165894835&type=1

Protesters, diplomats converge as 2012 NATO Summit nears

Protesters, diplomats converge as 20102 NATO Summit nears

by Ashahed M. Muhammad

CHICAGO—Thousands are converging in Chicago for planned protests during the upcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit to be held this weekend.

Protesters representing all ideological realms have been planning for this summit like it was the Super Bowl, hoping to use it as a worldwide forum to oppose NATO’s global military aggressions and imperialist expansion.

It is the first time this important gathering of diplomats has taken place in an American location other than Washington, D.C. 24 previous NATO Summits have been held, the last one in Lisbon, Portugal in  November 2010.

Originally, the Group of Eight (G8) Summit was also to be held in Chicago on May 18th and 19th, however, Pres. Barack Obama in a surprise move changed the location to Camp David. While the President maintains his decision to change locations was not based on security concerns, the switch caused considerable embarrassment for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, and Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

Recently, Supt. McCarthy, still in his first year as head of the nation's second largest police force, addressed more than dozens of community leaders at Jewish United Fund's joint Government Affairs/Jewish Community Relations Council luncheon, to discuss security concerns related to the upcoming NATO Summit. Supt. McCarthy, says the Chicago police are ready for the security challenges that lie ahead.

Due to the summit, heavy parking and traffic flow restrictions have been in place and Chicago residents are already bracing for traffic problems that are sure to come, as well as disruptions in the public transportation system, which carries on an average weekday 1.64 million riders to various destinations in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Formed in 1949, NATO has acted as a worldwide security force, however, critics of the organization claim that its noble sounding ideals of “establishing peace” and constant “humanitarian intervention” during conflicts are really euphemisms for a strategy of western-backed imperialist expansion.

NATO has come under criticism for its role in Afghanistan and its role in the military aggression aimed at killing Col. Muammar Gadhafi and destabilizing Libya. According to organizers with the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) coalition, the movement towards war with Iran and military intervention in Syria should be vociferously and vehemently opposed, and they plan to “hit the streets to protest the warmongers at the NATO summit in Chicago.”

Monday morning, eight protesters were arrested after an active mobilization at the ‘Obama for America’ campaign headquarters downtown. Although disparate groups are planning protests all week, the date those groups and law enforcement are focusing on appears to be May 20.

I'll be keeping you up to date with the happenings via Twitter and posting images on Facebook.