Commentary from Black Kos Editor JoanMar
On the night of January 10, 2022, 19-year-old Isaiah Tyree Williams went to sleep on his couch in his apartment for the very last time. Tyree did not have a criminal record. Even now, cops have not alleged that he has committed any crimes. He was most certainly not a mass murderer. His picture was not on any most wanted posters. Yet he’s dead. In a case eerily reminiscent of the unpunished murder of Breonna Taylor, the young man was shot some 23 times by officers who kicked down his door in the dead of the night to serve a warrant that was meant for someone else. In fact, after the teenager’s murder, the Keystone cops were able to take the suspect they sought into custody… without incident. Why then was it necessary to gather a small army, armed to the teeth and with battering rams, to effect an arrest in the middle of the night?
SWAT officers first broke a window at the apartment and used “loud distracts” while announcing the warrant. Simultaneously, other SWAT members were using a battering ram to gain entry through the front door.
After police made their way in, Williams — who was lying on a couch just right of the front door — immediately opened fire and struck officer Kerry Kubla, 50, “several” times, Walsh said. He was not specific on how many times Kubla was shot.
Having killed an innocent man, you’d think the police department would have the decency to fess up to their embarrassing, murderous incompetence and to, as best they could offer an apology of sorts to the murdered teen’s family. You’d think that, right? Nah. What they immediately did was to set about dehumanizing and criminalizing him.
In all, 23 rounds were disposed by Metro personnel. All officers were assigned to the Homeland Security division and SWAT team members, Walsh said. Williams fired 18 rounds from a handgun.
Had he survived, Williams would have been arrested on counts of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon on a first responder; battery with a deadly weapon on a first responder, assault on a first responder and three counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure.
See, Isaiah was not a criminal before they busted down his door and took him out, but please, feel no sympathy for him, because had he survived, they’d make sure that he became one. And just like that, Isaiah, through absolutely no fault of his own, became a mere statistic. Another name to be added to the long list of hashtags. Just one of the 13 people killed by cops in the last 28 days. With a little professionalism, a little sophistication, a little empathy, a little care for the lives in that apartment, Isaiah’s blood would not have been spilled that night. In fact, I’d like to think that if the police departments knew that the purveyors of the news would be subjecting their self-serving, fraudulent reports to the scrutiny they deserve before faithfully reproducing them verbatim, then young Isaiah’s loved ones would not be mourning him today.
Isaiah’s murder has not made it to the national news cycle, and if and when it does, media houses will treat it as an anecdote and not as another case in the history of police brutality that has sent over 10,000 people to early graves in the last 10 years.
Two Fridays ago, we spoke about the need to force the media to acknowledge that we do have a massive problem on our hands. We note that independent of our campaign, CNN will be having a one-hour special to talk about “cops and traffic stops” this Sunday. It is a step in the right direction and we will watch it, but know that we have absolutely no confidence in Sara Sidner. Over the years, she has shown herself to be a reliable PR agent for police departments around the country, in addition to being the queen of bothsiderism.
In a one-hour special, CNN national correspondent Sara Sidner explores traffic stops and the psychological, social, and financial trauma they cause Black drivers who get caught up in a system fraught with racial bias.
If you are sickened by what happened to young Isaiah as he slept in his own home, join us in our fight. If you are sick and tired of reading about atrocity after atrocity and need to do something, join us this evening as we kick off our seven-day Twitter campaign.
As Ari Melber puts it, “[T]his recent activism and scrutiny alone are not bending the curve of police shootings in America.” But what if media houses were to begin to cover police violence as the existential crisis that it is? Could that make a difference? Not just reporting on some of the high-profile cases and exploiting the outrage for ratings, but actually viewing police violence as a manifestation of structural racism disproportionately impacting Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. To review police killings and question why police are emptying their weapons at people in the throes of pychotic episodes. Why are they shooting girls with knives? Why are hundreds of Black & Indigenuous folks being killed every year simply because they have guns even while white men proudly parade with them unbothered.
Let’s see if we can nudge some of them in the right direction.
A seven-day campaign to tweet at prominent media personalities from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, and PBS. We’ll use the hashtags:
#StopPoliceViolence
#PoliceThePolice
#PoliceBrutality
#BlackLivesMatter
(Do you have a suggestion?)
In constructing your tweet, please include facts and numbers (get these from mappingpoliceviolence.org and washingtonpost.com). Please use graphics if you can (apparently they improve the chances of attracting attention).
Please find the names of the on-air presenters and their Twitter handles below.
Example:
Friday (today): ABC
David Muir — @DavidMuir @ABCWorldNews
George Stephanopoulos — @GStephanopoulos @ThisWeekABC @GMA
Robin Roberts — @RobinRoberts @GMA
T.J. Holmes — @tjholmes @ABCGMA3 @GMA
Terry Moran — @TerryMoran @ABCPolitics
Pierre Thomas — @PierreTABC @ABCInvestigates
Linsey Davis — @LinseyDavis @ABCNews
Saturday: CBS
Norah O'Donnell — @NorahODonnell @CBSNews
Jim Axelrod — @JimAxelrod @CBSMornings
Gayle King — @GayleKing @CBSMornings
Errol Barnett — @errolbarnett @CBSNews
Scott Pelley — @ScottPelley @60Minutes
Bill Whittaker — @BillWhittakerCBS @60Minutes
Leslie Stahl — @LesleyRStahl @60Minutes
Sunday: CNN
Anderson Cooper — @AC360 @CNNNews @AndersonCooper
Jim Acosta — @acosta
Don Lemon — @donlemoncnn @DonLemonTonight
Wolf Blitzer — @wolfblitzer @CNNSitRoom
Jake Tapper — @jaketapper @TheLeadCNN @CNNSOTU
Jim Sciutto — @jimsciutto @CNN
John King — @JohnKingCNN @CNN
Monday: MSNBC & CNBC
Shepherd Smith — @thenewsoncnbc
Andrew Ross Sorkin — @andrewrsorkin
Rachel Maddow — @maddow @MaddowBlog
Lawrence O’Donnell — @TheLastWord @Lawrence
Joy-Ann Reid — @JoyAnnReid (She also uses the hashtags #TheReidOut & #reiders)
Ari Melber — @AriMelber @TheBeatWithAri
Chris Hayes — @chrislhayes
Stephanie Ruhle — @SRuhle @RuhleOnMSNBC
Nicolle Wallace — @NicolleDWallace @DeadlineWH
Joe Scarborough — @JoeNBC @Morning_Joe
Mika Brzezinski — @morningmika @Morning_Joe
Ali Velshi — @AliVelshi
Joyce Alene — @JoyceWhiteVance
Malcolm Nance — @MalcolmNance
Tuesday: NBC
Lester Holt — @LesterHoltNBC @NBCNightlyNews
Savannah Guthrie — @SavannahGuthrie @TODAYshow
Craig Melvin — @craigmelvin @TODAYshow
Hoda Kotb — @HodaKotb @TODAYshow
Jose Diaz-Balart — @jdbalart @JDBalartMSNBC
Peter Alexander — @PeterAlexander @NBCNews
Chuck Todd — @chucktodd @meetthepress @nbcnews
Wednesday: PBS/NPR
Judy Woodruff — @JudyWoodruff @NewsHour
Amna Nawaz — @IAmAmnaNawaz
Yamiche Alcindor — @Yamiche @WashingtonWeek
Geoff Bennett — @GeoffRBennett @NewsHour
Scott Simon — @nprscottsimon
Steve Inskeep — @NPRinskeep
On Thursday we’ll tweet at whoever we think needs reminding that we do have a crisis on our hands.
Let us know in the comments if you are in. Thanks to members of the Support the Dream Defenders who helped in the preparation of this diary.
For Isaiah Tyree Williams. May he rest in power. Condolences to his family and friends.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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With Justice Stephen Breyer’s reported retirement opening a seat on the Supreme Court, President Joe Biden has a chance to fulfill a campaign promise to name a Black woman to the Court for the first time.
Only two African Americans, Justices Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, have served on the nation’s highest court, and only one woman of color has been a justice — Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is Latina. And Black women aren’t just unrepresented on the Supreme Court, they are also massively underrepresented on the federal bench. And they were even more so before Biden took office.
Nearly all recent justices previously served on a federal appeals court before getting promoted to the high court. Of the nine current justices, only Justice Elena Kagan did not. But, when Biden took office, only five of the nearly 300 sitting federal appellate judges were Black women, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Biden has doubled that number, placing five more Black women on the federal appellate bench.
Presidents typically prefer to name justices who are, at most, in their early- to mid-50s so that their nominee will still have a long career ahead of them. But the youngest Black woman who served as a federal appellate judge when Biden took office, Judge Johnnie B. Rawlinson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, is in her late 60s. So, if Biden follows the common practice of choosing a sitting federal appellate judge as his nominee, he will almost certainly choose someone he’s already elevated to an appeals court.
Indeed, one of Biden’s appointees, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is widely considered to be one of two frontrunners for the Supreme Court vacancy.
But Biden could also take a page from President Ronald Reagan’s playbook.
Reagan promised to nominate the first woman to the Supreme Court, but when a vacancy opened up early in Reagan’s presidency, women of all racial backgrounds were underrepresented on the federal bench, and conservative women who shared Reagan’s political views were especially underrepresented.
So Reagan turned to state courts, appointing a mid-level Arizona appeals court judge named Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court. If Biden wishes to follow this model, he could pick someone like Justice Leondra Kruger of the California Supreme Court, who is considered to be another frontrunner for Breyer’s seat.
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During the coronavirus pandemic, Black people have disproportionately been affected more than any other group. We took a hit on job losses, access to vaccines, and inadequate health care. Unfortunately, none of that was surprising. What’s been shocking, however, is what came out of a new national child welfare report, which claimed a rise in deaths of Black children, per the Associated Press.
This data comes from the 2020 Child Maltreatment Report, which was recently released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the report covers information from October 2019 to September 2020 and gives a sample size of how COVID-19 affected the work of child welfare workers.
According to the Associated Press, child fatalities are often underreported because social workers only investigate a child’s death if the family was already involved with child welfare services. So the already alarming numbers could be even higher.
There has been a 4 percent decrease in overall child abuse-related deaths, but a 17 percent increase in the number of Black children who died. The report claims 504 Black children died from October 2019 to September 2020, which 73 more children than the previous report.
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Getty Images is awarding four historically Black colleges and universities — Claflin University, Jackson State, North Carolina Central University and Prairie View A&M University — a $500,000 grant to digitize their archival photographic libraries.
The Historically Black Colleges & Universities Collection will include the digitization of up to 200,000 archival photos that work to preserve the invaluable photographic history of HBCUs. The image gallery is now available on the Getty Images website and is expected to see thousands of pictures added to the series throughout 2022.
“It’s about education, not only for customers, about the history, but also for the students,” Cassandra Illidge, VP of Partnerships at Getty Images, exclusively told theGrio.
Not only will participants at the HBCUs receive funding, but the program will also include an apprenticeship component through a partnership with post-production agency Adnet Global, which specializes in the digitization, restoration and discoverability of visual analog historic libraries.
“Pulling a photo is one thing, but then it’s actually taking that photo, scanning it, cleaning it up and making it commercially viable for licensing,” Illidge explained. “That’s where we work with the schools, but also we apply all that material based on the schools’ recommendations.”
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Elza Soares stood quietly, a few minutes before being born into music. Engulfed by audience fuss and hullabaloo, another of her competitors had been disqualified from the radio talent show she was attending. It was 1953, and Soares had just one chance to bring home the cash prize – she needed it to help care for her unwell son. She was still a teenager and, once on stage, her oversized, ragged dress would make the audience explode into laughter. “What’s the planet you came from?” asked the host, waiting for the gag’s cue. “I’m from Planet Hunger,” she said. Silence took hold of the venue, and Elza sang for the first time. She never stopped, until her [Jan 20th] at aged 91.
Over the decades, the Brazilian artist became a staple for samba, a mainstay of her nation’s songbook and a singer that shared a global pantheon with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Dubbed the “voice of the millennium” by the BBC in 1999, Elza met the Planet Hunger as few did: a Black woman born in Rio’s favelas, who faced down racism, sexism and classism with brilliant verve.
“My vocal cords are crooked, just like my life,” Elza said on a TV show in the 90s. Born in 1930, the singer developed her signature move at an early age: a deep, vibrato-like tone that melded melody and percussive hints. The technique, operating in the sweet spot between scat singing and vocal fry, printed a rugged and flexible guttural texture on to her voice. Many tried to draw a connection to Louis Armstrong’s singing style, but she always denied it. Not only were their growling voices performed using different regions of the throat, Elza had never heard of the jazzman before their first encounter in 1962. “He called me daughter,” she revealed years later.
The opening track of Elza’s first album, A Bossa Negra (The Black Bossa) from 1961, showcases the singer’s powerful and unrestrained vocals; the up-and-coming act had grown to sound sounds like an experienced performer. She juggles with head and chest voices, and wanders with improvisation in the studio while playing around with individual syllables in a growling solfeggio.
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Videos showed screaming fans being crushed at an entry gate to the Olembé stadium in the capital Yaoundé. Witnesses described chaotic scenes outside the ground as thousands of fans struggled to get access.
Two boys, aged eight and 14, are among the dead, and seven people were seriously injured.
Cameroonian President Paul Biya ordered an investigation into the "tragic incident". The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has also launched its own investigation, and says a minute's silence will be observed at future matches as a mark of respect to those who died.
Officials say about 50,000 people tried to attend the match on Monday.
The stadium has a capacity of 60,000 but it was not meant to be more than 80% full for the game because of Covid restrictions.
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As the nation reckons with the mass deaths from Covid-19, the collective power — and joy — of a second line provides inspiration for how the rest of us might mourn. Vox: The New Orleans funeral reminds us that grief is a burden that can be shared
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Every part of a ritual funeral procession in New Orleans is sacred.
Stafford Agee says it just feels different when he performs one in his hometown. As a musician, his responsibility is to honor the life of the deceased and give the family a little more joy in the transition. “I never liked considering a funeral being a gig,” he says. “I’m performing for somebody’s homegoing ceremony.”
When Agee, a member of the famed Rebirth Brass Band, lifts his trombone, he forges a connection between his city’s musical traditions, those who came before him, and this ritual of remembrance and celebration. In those moments, the car-lined streets and the houses that line the route are transformed into the walls of a church; it’s spiritual. There’s an inescapable solemnity, yes, but also so much laughter.
For Black New Orleans, these funeral second lines, sometimes called jazz funerals by observers, have existed for generations. In its simplest form, the second line is a parade, a mass of celebrants and mourners that weave their way through the streets. For the city’s Black culture-bearers who make it their life’s work to uplift and maintain the traditions of their ancestors, the funeral second line is much more. It is one of many sacred cultural rites that originated in the crucible of the American slave trade and are maintained to this day. The term second line refers to the crowd of community members and mourners who follow the first line of the parade — the casket, family, and musicians. In New Orleans, that first line includes percussion alongside a brass band, with trumpeters, tubists, and trombonists like Agee.
Funeral second lines are community events, with sometimes hundreds of people joining the procession. “I come from the era when you’re in your house and you hear music and you go ‘Second line!’ and you run outside,” says Ausettua Amor Amenkum, Big Queen of the Washita Nation, and an artistic director of Kumbuka African Drum and Dance Collective and adjunct professor of dance at Tulane University. For her, the dancing typical in a second line allows each individual to be uniquely expressive but also invites them into a chorus of bodies, where one collective movement becomes a part of a mourning practice.
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