Don’t allow recovery efforts and support to drop out of the headlines
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
I realize that a lot of Dump regime insanity, and important local elections are garnering our attention. I also am aware that a whole lot of us are faced with financial insecurity, but continue to support worthy causes.
We can however, if not able to send cash, help ensure that we keep Hurricane Melissa recovery efforts “trending” by re-posting information on our social media platforms.
I’m aware that because much of the damage has been to Black people, hurricane victims face double media blocks, and the current MAGA climate here doesn’t help matters.
Rather than write a long commentary today — I’m posting a few items currently on TwitX and Bluesky that I’ve re-posted. Please post items you’ve seen in the comments section below.
Thank you for your support!
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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When Reggie Williams turned 18 two decades ago, his mother entrusted him with his birth certificate. Keep it on you at all times, she advised, in case you encounter police.
On a recent afternoon, he had a copy in his wallet, along with his state ID, as he walked from his uptown apartment in Memphis, Tennessee, to a nearby corner store.
A Memphis Police Department cruiser pulled up, and two officers questioned him: Where was he coming from? Where was he going?
Williams responded, and the interrogation continued: Did he have any weapons on him? No. Any drugs? No. When asked to empty his pockets, the 39-year-old artist turned over his wallet and phone.
Minutes later, four men poured out of an unmarked SUV with tinted windows. They carried rifles and wore body armor — but no identifying badges. He thought of his family. “Deep down, I felt like I was not gonna make it home,” said Williams, who is Black.
The Oct. 15 incident occurred about two weeks after the National Guard and 30 other local, state and federal agencies descended upon Memphis as part of President Donald Trump’s order authorizing “hypervigilant policing” to end violent crime. In addition to targeting violent criminals, the operation dubbed “Memphis Safe Task Force” has ensnared innocent residents of this majority-Black city.
Among those who have reported being harassed: a ride-share driver stopped for not wearing a seat belt despite having one on as she drove a passenger to the airport; a pastor pulled over for looking lost as she left a church gathering; and, in a case of mistaken identity, a 72-year-old man roused from bed and marched out of his apartment while clad in only his robe and underwear.
None of these people were ultimately ticketed or arrested. But they told MLK50: Justice Through Journalism and ProPublica that they feared for their safety during what they described as indiscriminate and intimidating police encounters. While none of the law enforcement agencies involved responded to specific questions about these residents’ experiences, the news organizations corroborated their accounts using contemporaneous text messages and social media posts, as well as interviews with neighbors and relatives.
“I really believe that if I didn’t have that birth certificate, I would be somewhere in a facility,” said Williams, recalling one of the armed federal agents approaching him aggressively to ask if he was from Ethiopia or Ghana. “If you’re not white, we’re just all going to be targeted.”
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he U.S. cannot unilaterally carry out any military operation in Nigeria over its claims of Christian persecution in the West African country, a Nigerian presidential spokesman told The Associated Press on Sunday.
The military threat from Donald Trump is based on misleading reports and appears to be part of “Trump’s style of going forceful in order to force a sit-down and have a conversation,” according to Daniel Bwala, a spokesman for Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
Bwala was responding to Trump’s comment.
Trump’s ‘guns blazing’ threat: Trump on Saturday doubled down on his allegations that the government is failing to rein in the persecution of Christians in the West African country, whose population of 220 million is split almost evenly between Christians and Muslims.
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s threat came after he designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern, a formal U.S. declaration of countries it says are failing to act over religious freedom violations.
The threat and designation came after U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and some American celebrities alleged that Christians are being persecuted in Nigeria, without evidence. Some went as far as alleging a “Christian genocide.”
The Associated Press found that both Christians and Muslims are killed in Nigeria’s security crises, and that victims are often determined by their locations and not due to their religion.
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