Commentary by Black Kos editor JoanMar
We — every jack one of us on this site — all know that there was not a chance in hell that police departments around the country would be defunded. It was never, ever going to happen.
From President Biden’s 2022 SOTU address:
We should all agree: The answer is not to Defund the police. The answer is to FUND the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.
Given that indisputable fact, why do you suppose that Republican candidates, the mainstream media, and some Democrats spend so much money, energy, and time talking about the slogan itself and not the anguish that gave birth to it?
I’ll hazard a guess here: could it be because they have no interest in attacking the real problem? Whacking at a phantom issue draws everybody’s attention from the literally thousands of dead bodies, the grieving hearts, the broken/lost dreams, and the terrorized communities left in the wake of police murders.
In the meantime, while our backs were turned, cops killed another 34 people since the beginning of the month.
Cops killed 34 people since June 1, 2022.
In the 166 days of 2022, cops killed 484 people.
There have been 4 days so far in 2022 when police did not kill people in the USA.
Thirteen-year-old Andre Hernandez Jr. was among the 34 killed in the last 17 days. Cops killed 34 people since the beginning of June and there’s absolutely no coverage of that on the national news. Of course, absolutely no one will be even a little bit surprised to learn that the
official police report of the killing of little Andre bears little resemblance to the truth of what really happened. Once again cops claimed that they were in mortal fear for their lives and had no option but to shoot an unarmed teen even as the actual video footage shows a wanton disregard for human life.
They claimed that he rammed a police vehicle in an attempt to run over the officers. Lies and more damn lies. A teenager is in a car with other teenagers, cops cornered them; in trying to get away, the car barely bumps the cops’ vehicle when trigger-happy Officer Stephen Ramos shoots into the car hitting Andre. This is the same officer Stephen Ramos who shot and killed a 57-year-old man in the throes of mental distress just last year. Two years in uniform and two killings. What was he still doing on the force?
When police cars approached the car, driven by Andre and carrying two other teens, he reversed into a residential driveway, Merritt said, refuting an earlier account from police that the teen reversed his car into a police vehicle. //
The teen was “very apologetic,” the attorney said. “It was all ‘yes sir, no sir, and I’ve been hit, sir,’” he said. //
Lynda Espinoza, Andre's mother, said police took five days to contact her about the shooting despite having her contact information.
In no other “developed” country in the world, and in very few “underdeveloped” ones, are law enforcement officers allowed to kill and maim their citizens at the same rate as the US of A. But sure, let’s continue to kick up rumpus about a slogan, even one as questionable as #DefundThePolice. I’m sure it means a lot to little Andre and his grieving mother.
Rest in peace, Little Man. We call your name. Our condolences to Ms. Lynda Espinoza who’s now grieving the murder of two children, both due to gun violence. It’s another damning indictment of this country that a mother is forced to go through this type of totally preventable heartache.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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You could argue that Juneteenth, which acknowledges the day when news of their freedom finally reached the last enslaved persons in 1865, made its most prominent mainstream appearance in 2020. Following the summer’s antiracism demonstrations, the holiday was infused with a new level of significance. Several prominent corporations — including Nike, Twitter, and Target — made Juneteenth a company holiday in an attempt to push forward antiracist policies.
Soon, municipalities moved to codify the holiday. Last year, a decades-long fight to make Juneteenth a national holiday was won, underscoring how the circumstances of delayed freedom more than a century ago remain relevant today. Incorporating the legacy of Juneteenth would, the thinking went, bolster the history of Black Americans while highlighting the disparities we still face.
“Juneteenth reminds us that freedom, as a lived experience, is still not shared equally. But it is also an observance of resilience in a centuries-old journey,” reporter Audra D.S. Burch wrote in the New York Times. “It is Black joy and Black hope and the protection of Black hearts and Black celebration in the very streets where demonstrators have shouted the names of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks.”
Black people are indeed tormented by America today. The country’s capitalist system is no small tormentor, exerting its consequences through high poverty rates, a militarized police force, and so many other derivative structures we come into contact with on a daily basis. That truth is why Black celebrations are sacred. It’s how we commemorate our history. And it is why freedom, for us, is complicated. We’re celebrating a milestone of our ancestors even as we acknowledge a reality we don’t fully have.
That’s why it’s so galling to see corporations and businesses dig their nails into Juneteenth as if it’s a trend and not a day of reverence for freedom’s complexities.
The commercialization of the holiday has already begun.
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Keisha Lance Bottoms has been hired by the Biden administration to serve as its next director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. The former mayor of Atlanta, Georgia–who was also in the running to be Biden’s vice president–will replace the senior-level role left vacant by former director, Cedric Richmond.
President Joe Biden has wanted Bottoms in his administration since he was on the campaign trail, and now his wish has finally been granted. As the former mayor of one of the nation’s biggest economies, Bottoms brings experience in forward-facing politics.
Even after Biden chose Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate over Bottoms, the ex-mayor remained on the Biden transition team’s shortlist for a role in the administration when it was laying the groundwork for its now historically-diverse White House.
Bottoms was initially offered a position as administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), but she ultimately turned down the role. A source told theGrio that the offer was seen as a slight to Bottoms, who was the leader of a city that is home to some of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the nation. While she was expected to seek a second term, Bottoms shocked many when she announced that she would not seek reelection.
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Many countries in southern Africa want to unload big stockpiles of ivory to fund conservation, even though the trade is banned. foreign Policy: The Brewing Battle Over Africa’s Ivory
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Fourteen years since the last legal commercial sale of ivory, southern African countries are lobbying to sell tons of tusks held in storage. As these states submit proposals to the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) summit in November, the fate of African ivory is caught in the crosshairs of animal rights groups and states burdened with costly stockpiles.
Southern Africa’s states—those countries in Africa with elephant populations—had hoped to present a united African position on the issue of the ivory trade at CITES, which will take place at the U.N. climate change conference in Panama. Although the United Kingdom has just implemented the Ivory Act, punishing illegal or undocumented sales with a potential fine of up to 250,000 pounds (or around $314,000), the African continent is deeply divided over whether all elephants should be classified in CITES Appendix I, which lists endangered species and plants. Currently, some African and Asian elephants are listed in Appendix I, which means commercial trade is strictly prohibited. Under Appendix II, the trade of certain species is allowed in exceptional circumstances, and pachyderms from Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe currently fall under this category because of their large population. Appendix II permits restricted international trade in animals that are not necessarily threatened with extinction.
The African Elephant Coalition (AEC), made up of at least 30 East and West African countries that oppose ivory sales, wants all tusker trade stopped, whereas Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, where most of the world’s elephants roam, advocate for the right to sell their ivory.
The debate comes against a backdrop of concerted conservation efforts meant to protect vulnerable elephant populations, which still appear to be declining over the last decade. But conservation programs are costly, especially for countries like Zimbabwe, which is battling triple-digit inflation, and Namibia, plagued by a contracting economy due to persistent drought and the COVID-19 pandemic. Southern African countries are seeking support for a one-off sale of stockpiles accumulated through natural elephant deaths and seizures from poachers.
Since 1989, the CITES ban on international commercial ivory trade requires member states to keep stockpiles as a way of monitoring trade. However, some poorer states are growing weary of CITES’s requirement. Fulton Mangwanya, director-general of Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks), believes auctioning tusks will flood the market, which will in turn reduce poaching. “Demand is high, and it’s causing these illegal activities,” he said. “They should allow the legal sale of ivory so that we sell and saturate the market so that no one goes poaching.”
Selling will also help reduce the costs of managing a stockpile that requires $160,000 annually for security monitoring and other running expenses, Mangwanya said.
However, Kenya, one of the AEC countries advocating against the African Elephant Coalition, habitually burns its stockpiles and argues that legal trade in ivory, even a one-off auction, would lead to increased poaching. John Scanlon, CEO of the Elephant Protection Initiative, expressed the same fears.
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A new study reveals that older Black adults are three times more likely to die of air pollution than white adults. The report is part of a data analysis released this month by Industrial Economics, a consulting firm commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund.
Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. census data was analyzed as well as health and mortality rates of those who receive Medicare. In addition, the report included peer-reviewed studies on elderly adults’ exposure to air pollutants which determined who is the most vulnerable and by how much.
What it revealed was that people of color were at risk the most when the U.S. elder population (65 and older) was examined. Experts concluded the study shows how race plays a crucial role regarding who is exposed to air pollution. Industry placement is also vital and typically affect marginalized neighborhoods.
Environmental Defense Fund senior health scientist Ananya Roy notes this harrowing discrepancy. “This shines a light on the cumulative impact of historic discriminatory policies where a lot of large African American (or) Black populations live,” she said. “The burden borne by Black Americans per capita is really, really disproportionate,” said Roy.
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A rise in hate crimes and anti-Black vitriol sparked a 58 percent increase in Black people purchasing firearms in 2020. The spike seems to have continued. NBC: Why more Black people are looking for safety in gun ownership
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Two days after a white man shot and killed 10 Black people in Buffalo last month, Michael Moody reversed his thinking about possessing a firearm. He had watched the aftermath of the carnage on the news, the anguish of the victims’ families, and decided he “needed a gun. Needed, not wanted,” he said.
After discussing it with his wife, Moody said he left his home in suburban Washington to buy a weapon. He quickly learned he wasn’t alone. He said he was “stunned” at the number of Black people standing in line at the gun shop in Maryland to make a similar purchase.
Through chatting with others while waiting, Moody said he learned “a lot of us have the same idea. It’s getting bad when someone specifically targets Black people to shoot. We have to be prepared to fight back. And you can’t survive bringing a knife to a gunfight.”
Moody’s sentiments represent one reason the sale of guns to Black Americans rose 58 percent in 2020 — the year George Floyd was murdered by a Minnesota police officer, sparking a nationwide social justice movement — according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms trade association. It was the highest bump in gun sales of any ethnic group that year.
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2022 marks the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s remarkable integration of Major League Baseball. To celebrate the barrier-breaking occasion, The HISTORY Channel is releasing After Jackie, an original documentary that delves deep into the impact of Robinson and the enormous obstacles he faced along the way – fighting against segregation, racial discrimination, and standing up for African Americans everywhere.
The documentary also explores the untold stories of Bill White, Curt Flood, and Hall of Famer, Bob Gibson, who picked up where Jackie left off advancing the status of Black players on and off the field, further integrating league rosters, and forcing the sport of baseball, and country, to change for the better.
The film features new and rare interviews with White and Gibson alongside former and current players like CC Sabathia, Mookie Betts, Ken Griffey Jr., and Joe Torre, as well as renowned sports journalists. Creators tapped MLB’s expansive media archive to showcase exclusive, rarely-seen footage of Robinson and his fellow trailblazers. After Jackie is produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter from UNINTERRUPTED, as well as Stanley Nelson, and director Andre Gaines in association with Major League Baseball and collaboration with The Jackie Robinson Foundation.
The two-hour documentary premieres Saturday, June 18th at 8PM ET/PT. Watch the trailer below.
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Gun control in America doesn’t just move slowly, it moves backward. After school shootings, gun sales only increase, while right-wing politicians call for more weapons, cameras, and intense security measures in schools. And as the U.S. Senate reportedly comes close to a deal to move forward on modest gun legislation, it appears national Democrats are also ready to support throwing money at schools to supposedly enhance their security. But a closer look at these school security devices—largely untested technologies developed for the military and traditional policing—reveal they’ve taken on an almost talismanic power, promising to ward away evil from children, with minimal evidence to back up their claims.
One day after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers, Governor Greg Abbott held a press conference in Uvalde High School auditorium, promising to double down on the state’s “school hardening” plans, passed in 2019 after a 2018 school shooting near Houston that killed 10. The bills, which provided $100 million in funding for security improvements such as CCTV cameras and bulletproof glass, “hardened schools, made them safer, [and] addressed mental health,” Abbott said, before recommitting to increasing the pace of hardening schools.
Astonishing though it is to tout the effectiveness of a bill that later failed to prevent the deaths of 19 children, Abbott’s approach has the near-total support of the GOP, both in Washington and in state legislatures across the country: make schools less like schools and more like high-security facilities. There’s no universal definition for the measures, but generally speaking, “hardening” schools is an assortment of expensive changes meant to minimize losses in the event of a shooting: restricting access to a single entry point; monitoring who comes and goes; installing metal detectors, cameras, police officers, and so on. But rather than protecting kids from mass shootings, these measures instead add extra surveillance and policing targeted at Black and brown students.
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