Commentary by BlackKos editor JoanMar
Fighting for police reform has been largely left up to black folks because police brutality is seen as a problem affecting only marginalized communities. Good, well-intentioned white folks speak about being “allies in the fight for justice” after incidents of over-policing make it to the national news or on Twitter. True, black, brown, and native folks are killed and brutalized at a higher rate — and with a viciousness that was only reserved for enslaved people who were treated worst than animals back in the day — but, my friends, white lives are also being snuffed out at an alarming rate unmatched in the “developed” world. Your relatives battling with mental illness, your youngsters, your lovers, your womenfolk are also at risk.
At least 130 white people killed by police since Jan. 1, 2021. I say “at least” because there’s a whopping 193 murders/deaths tucked into a category labeled as “unknown,” and another 241 to be found under “other.”
Get off the sidelines and begin fighting as if your life is at stake...because it is!
White teenager, 17-year-old Hunter Brittain is described by those who knew him best as hardworking, respectful, kind, and an all-around good kid. Hunter’s passion was building and repairing trucks and that was what he was doing on June 23 when he had an encounter with Officer Mike Davis...an encounter that he would not survive.
A sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a teenager in Lonoke County, Arkansas, during a traffic stop on Wednesday, June 23. Sergeant Michael Davis pulled 17-year-old Hunter Brittain over along Arkansas Highway 89 at 3:00 a.m. for unknown reasons.
The teen and his passenger were on a test drive at the time of the traffic stop, after Brittain had been trying to repair his pickup’s transmission, according to a report from Vice News. //
During the traffic stop, Brittain got out of his truck to place a jug of antifreeze behind the rear tire to stop it from rolling into the deputy’s car. The deputy then shot at the teenager as he was placing the jug down, according to the passenger and witness Jordan King.
The Lonoke County police department has yet to articulate a reason why the murderer stopped the youngster and ended his life. Had the teenager not thought of trying to stop his truck from rolling into the deputy’s car, both youngsters may have been killed as the murderous, reckless cop would have accused them of using the truck as a weapon against him. Hunter Brittain didn’t stand a chance that day.
Passing the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act — or, for that matter, our own Michael Brown Over-Policing Act — would go a long way to prevent these senseless murders by police who use phrases like “it was well within my rights to use deadly force.” Among other provisions, the GFJIPA would do the following:
Limit Military Equipment on American Streets & Requires Body Cameras
• Limits the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement.
• Requires federal uniformed police officers to wear body cameras and requires state and local law enforcement to use existing federal funds to ensure the use of police body cameras.
• Requires marked federal police vehicles to have dashboard cameras
. Hold Police Accountable in Court
• Makes it easier to prosecute offending officers by amending the federal criminal statute to prosecute police misconduct. Themens rea requirement in 18 U.S.C. Section 242 will be amended from “willfulness” to a “recklessness” standard.
• Enables individuals to recover damages in civil court when law enforcement officers violate their constitutional rights byeliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement.
Let’s face it, the only reason the GQP and their supporters are dead set against any police reform is that they think it will benefit black people. It needs to be hammered into their consciousness that of the over 6,000 people killed by cops over the last five years, approximately half of them were white. Are they willing to continue to sacrifice 600+ white people every year so as to be able to claim that 500 Black & Brown souls are murdered each year because they, by virtue of the color of their skin, are more prone to criminality and thus deserve what they get? Is that a fair trade to racists and their enablers?
Sergeant Mike Davis, the murderer, was fired from his job not because he murdered an innocent, unarmed teenager, but because of “policy violation” for not wearing or activating his bodycam. Davis needs to be arrested and charged with first degree murder like yesterday. In the meantime, the family has retained Benjamin Crump and his law firm to represent them.
Rest in peace, young Hunter. Condolences to all your loved ones. #JusticeForHunter!
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NEWS ROUND UP BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS MANAGING EDITOR
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Anyone who pays even scant attention to news about pregnancy and Black people knows the sobering reality: The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of high-income nations (and it is increasing) and in that alarming number, Black pregnant people are the most likely to die from pregnancy-related complications, three to four times the rate of non-Latinx White mothers.
While the real solution to reversing these statistics is an end to structural racism in medicine, Black pregnant people are now relying on another way to make their birthing experience safer. According to ABC News, there is an increase in Black women using doulas. Studies show that having a doula present while giving birth has led to a decrease in preterm birth or low birth rate, better communication between lower-income earning pregnant people of color and their health care providers, and a reduction in the rate of C-sections, which are higher among Black women.
Doula, Maiysha Campbell Kramer, CD (DONA), CLC has been helping to bring babies into the world for decades. The mother of two and former home birth assistant had been unofficially doula-ing her pregnant friends for years before she became certified in 2010. Although Kramer adamantly believes that “every birth is a new birth and every birth is a first,” she admits that assisting with births during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a first like no other. Here, the New York-based doula explores how racial privilege helped change pandemic hospital restrictions, why her profession is invaluable and the reason it is often dismissed by the medical and insurance communities.
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House Majority Whip James Clyburn is stepping in and calling his fellow South Carolinian, Republican Senator Tim Scott, to keep the negotiations alive as sources tell theGrio that the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is collapsing.
Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham, also of South Carolina, has been having weekly conversations with George Floyd family attorney Ben Crump to make sure the proposed legislation will be meaningful to the Floyd family and other families of loved ones killed by the hands of police. Sen. Scott has also made calls to Mr. Crump.
The Floyd family has said repeatedly that this legislation has George Floyd’s blood on it and therefore has to be meaningful.
The nation is on standby for Senator Scott’s formal plan on police reform that is expected sometime this week after the lawmaker missed Wednesday’s original deadline. It remains unclear when Scott’s version of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act will be released, however, the police reform framework is said to be in place.
Scott had been negotiating with Democrats U.S. Rep. Karen Bass of California and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey in what had been called in the past good faith negotiations. Their negotiations, however, have stalled, causing Congressman Clyburn to reportedly step in.
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“I’m so angry. Every time I talk about it I get emotional because I could have been dead. It was a life-to-death situation and nobody was trying to help me,” Mildred said, her voice sagging on the other end of the line.
A victim of domestic violence, she recounted desperately searching for a new place to live in Westchester County, New York. She had obtained a Section 8 housing voucher — a federal program that helps qualifying low-income tenants afford their rent — but just when she thought she’d found a new home for herself and her children away from her alleged abuser, she says she became the victim of discrimination. (Vox is withholding her full name and some identifying details to protect her privacy.)
Housing voucher recipients don’t just face the normal barriers to finding an affordable place to live. They can also face a little-known but insidious form of discrimination called “source of income discrimination,” where landlords refuse to rent to people with Section 8 housing vouchers or certain other types of legal income. While this type of discrimination is legal in most states, in 2019 New York passed a law banning the practice.
Yet it still happens in the state.
After Mildred told her landlord that she would be paying with a voucher, she and her lawyers say the landlord strung her along before taking the place off the market. She says it took her nearly four months to find a new place, all while living in fear of further abuse.
Stories like Mildred’s are what prompted a watchdog group called Housing Rights Initiative (HRI) to take action.
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There was a time when I used to have sophisticated ways to react to blatant homophobia and transphobia whenever LGBTQIA people were attacked just for living their lives. But then I realized how irrational and violent a lot of the comments would be — so I’ve chosen to reclaim my intellectual energy and just go low with the haters.
There is no other classy way to tell the same problematic people who literally come out of the ashes with some bad cold take on my community, so I’ll keep it simple.
Shut up on your trash thoughts about Lil Nas X and other LGBTQIA people. We don’t care. It’s not going to change anything. You already know this. We already know this. It’s anti-Black AF. Your kids are safe, but your opinions aren’t. Get a life.
Lil Nas X knew the trolls were going to come his way after he gave one of the best performances at the BET Awards in years. Hoteps were cringing when he gave us a Black queer rendition of “Remember the Time” Egyptian-royalty while performing his Billboard #1 hit “Montero Call Me By Your Name.” Lil Nas X saved the best for last when he got a standing ovation from members in the crowd after kissing one of his dancers at the end of the performance.
I sat there watching from home like a proud gay older brother, while knowing I was going to have to hop on Twitter and get people together that were about to try it. Funny enough, Lil Nas X had time for the internet as he gathered … the bigots online. The response were typical: The Grammy-winning artist was accused of pushing the “gay agenda,” thrown complaints and “concerns” to consider his “younger fans,” and the typical slurs that’s just trash.
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