BlackPerspective.net

Arrested along with Sharpton was Bell’s fiance’ Nicole Paultre Bell and the other two shooting victims in the car with Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield.

Black America Web has the story:

Sharpton, Dozens Arrested in Bell Case Protest
Date: Wednesday, May 07, 2008
By: Tom Hays and David B. Caruso, Associated Press

NEW YORK - (AP) The Rev. Al Sharpton was among dozens arrested Wednesday as demonstrators blocked traffic at the height of the evening rush hour to protest the acquittal of three detectives in the 50-bullet shooting of an unarmed black man on his wedding day.

Police estimated that about 190 people were arrested, including Sharpton, two survivors of the shooting and the slain man’s fiancee. They lined up and put their hands behind their backs as police arrested them on disorderly conduct charges.

Sharpton, the two survivors and the fiancee were released about four hours later, said Sharpton spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger…

…The protests were part of a coordinated campaign to urge federal authorities to investigate the shooting of Sean Bell in November 2006.

The three officers were acquitted of state charges last month in a case that from the start ignited protests and spurred criticism of police tactics. One of the officers fired 31 shots, emptying his clip two times in a few short seconds.

Sharpton has said Wednesday’s “pray-in” protest was a preview of potential future demonstrations designed to paralyze the city…

U.S. attorney spokesman Robert Nardoza said the case was under review, but he declined to comment further about a possible federal case.

[see more first hand pictures like this at majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/ - thanks to Cooper for the heads up]

Sharpton, shooting survivors Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, and Bell’s fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell — who legally took his name after his death — linked arms as they blocked a street at the Brooklyn Bridge’s base.

They were trailed by at least 200 demonstrators who kneeled in prayer in the road and counted to 50 in a reference to the barrage of gunfire that killed Bell.

The arrested protesters were expected to be issued tickets for misdemeanor offenses.

On the opposite side of lower Manhattan, an ethnically diverse crowd of about 80 demonstrators chanted, “We’re fired up; we won’t take it no more,” and held hands as the Rev. James E. Booker Jr. blessed the crowd. After marching to the Holland Tunnel behind a “Stop the Brutality” banner, the protesters blocked two entrances…

There were also protestors into the hundreds at the Queensboro Bridge and Triborough Bridge in Harlem. Read the full story here

I’m still covering the Jena 6 at The Jena 6 Blog - just posted an update today

In the case them seemingly never happens, The Chicago Sun-Times brings us some new info

Exclusive: Witness to testify she had a threesome with R. Kelly, victim
ERIC HERMAN Criminal Courts Reporter

A woman is set to testify at R. Kelly’s upcoming child pornography trial that she had a three-way sexual encounter with Kelly and the allegedly underage girl shown in the video at the heart of the case.

The 41-year-old R&B superstar is accused of videotaping himself having sex with a girl estimated to be 13 or 14. He has pleaded not guilty. Jury selection is set to begin Friday.

As part of the case, prosecutors claim to have identified the girl in the videotape. This alleged victim is now in her 20s. Kelly’s lawyers plan to argue — and the alleged victim will reportedly testify — that she is not the girl in the tape.

But the prosecution’s new witness could undermine that defense, since she will identify the girl, sources with knowledge of the matter told the Chicago Sun-Times. In addition, the witness is expected to say the girl was underage at the time of their encounter.

“She was involved in a threesome with [the girl] and R. Kelly,” one source said.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers declined to comment, citing a gag order in the case.

The witness’ testimony was among the evidence discussed in secret hearings last month before Judge Vincent Gaughan. The judge, citing concerns about pretrial publicity, closed the hearings to the public and put multiple court filings under seal…

In the past, Kelly has faced civil lawsuits from underage girls accusing the singer of inducing them to have sex with him and a second woman. The title track of his 2007 album “Double Up” refers to a man arranging a ménage a trois.

The Kelly case has been pending since June 2002, when the R&B star was indicted on multiple counts of child pornography. It has been delayed repeatedly, but lawyers and courthouse personnel expect it will finally begin May 9.

www.suntimes.com/news/metro/kelly/929564,rkelly050308.article

Did she know how old the girl was, cause that make her a rapist too if she did. Guess she’s getting immunity or something.

More than anything I want him to go to jail just so he can’t make no more Trapped In The Closet Videos.

New York’s message to Black people is clearly that ‘a Black man has no rights that a police officer is bound to respect’; not even the Preamble right to life. And thus this nation has come full circle in its disregard for the humanity of Black people.

On March 6, 1857 Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney declared that “The negro has no rights which the white man is bound to respect”; in a decision to denie a Black slave, Dread Scott, and his familie their freedom.

Though not using those words, Judges across America, and especially in New York, have made a like decleration through their actions about where Black people’s rights stand with cops.

Whether it the shooting of a Black mother and her infant or tasering a wheel chaired woman with schizofrenia to death for 4 minutes; the police are never accountable for wrongfully killing Black people.

As I noted in my post on the day of the Sean Bell Verdict the license to kill colored folk doesn’t stop with the race of the cop, as Black police officers are so often mentally co-opted into the Blue mentality of abuse.

The National Black Police Association even says that “It does not matter that two of the officers who killed Sean Bell are black. The larger issue is that police officers of any color, in jurisdictions throughout the United States are given a blank check to abuse people of color. Prosecutors routinely look the other way and if they prosecute, they throw the fight (a real possibility of what happened in the Bell case). ”

Many court observers note a sloppy handling of trial by the prosecution in the Sean Bell case; including what appeared to be unprepared witness. Then couple that with the prosecutor coming out to a press confrence right after the verdict with nary a word of protest to the verdict; but simply dispassionately saying that we must “respect the verdict”; makes the “throwing the fight” senario seem likely.

They’ve been shooting down our people in New York since Eleanor Bumper and before; as being short of 98 dollars rent is justifiable homicide for cops shooting Black folk.

kathmanduk2.wordpress.com states that “according to Attorney Roger Wareham of the December 12th Movement’s International Secretariat, the criminal justice system in this country “always finds a rationale for letting off cops who kill black and brown people.” Indeed, police officers seem to know that they can kill certain people with impunity.”

This story comes to us through drumbeats from the Electronic Village

The article doesn’t distinguish if she’s the first Black female fighter pilot in just the Air Force, or iin all the military because the Navy and Army have fighter pilots as well; which to me is really annoying seeing as it is the obvious question.

Meet the Air Force’s first female African-American fighter pilot by Senior Airman Justin Weaver
31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs

Maj. Shawna R. Kimbrell, 555th Fighter Squadron, is the first African-American female fighter pilot in the Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Ashley Wood)

While most fourth grade girls talk about being a ballerina, veterinarian, doctor or princess, Shawna Rochelle (Ng-A-Qui) Kimbrell, knew she wanted to take to the skies
The Parker, Colo., native initially wanted to be an astronaut, but decided it would be more fun to fly a fighter jet.

“I fell in love with the idea of the freedom of flying and after my first flight lesson at age 14, I never looked back,” said Major Kimbrell, who is currently the flight commander of Aircrew Flight Equipment.

It was that determination which led Major Kimbrell to become the first female African-American fighter pilot in the Air Force.

“I am still amazed that in this day and age there is still so much room for firsts especially for females and for African-Americans,” Major Kimbrell said. “It is an important step for progression and although I am not fond of the spotlight I think it is important for people to know that this barrier has been breeched. Especially for the African-American community and for women to know what types of opportunities are available to them.”

Up until only 15 years ago, piloting a multi-million dollar, multi-role F-16 combat aircraft was reserved solely for men. Then, in 1993, the secretary of defense permitted women to enter fighter pilot training. Although women have been entering pilot training since 1976, before 1993, government officials did not believe women had “what it took” for combat.

Major Kimbrell knew she “had what it took” and after graduating from the Air Force Academy in 1998 and went on to complete intense pilot training receiving her pilot wings in August, 1999.
“Pilot training was one of the best times in my life and I made some life-long friendships,” Major Kimbrell said. “For two years, every move you make is graded and scrutinized.”…

Female fighter pilots in the military have recently created a Web site to help bring together and strengthen the camaraderie of women pilots. The “Chick Fighter Pilot Association,” www.fighterchicks.com, has three goals: Encourage and strengthen mutual support in our unique environment, help each other succeed and provide a professional and social network for women in fighter roles.

“It is very important that we have an open line of communication among the women of this community because there are certain daily challenges that we face that should not have to be tackled by each of us separately,” said Major Kimbrell.

Major Kimbrell has flown the F-16, T-38, T-37 and T-3 and has logged more than 900 flying hours in the F-16, including 176 combat hours. Her military decorations include the Air Medal with one device, Aerial Achievement Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal with one device, Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Korean Defense Service Medal.

Read full article at Black Military World

From the TMI files comes this lurid tale of a reporter truely covering her subject.

Oh great, just what Obama needs right now, white folks thinking about a prominent Black politician taking their salt of the earth.

Thanks Barb

Walters Had Past Affair with Black Senator
Date: Thursday, May 01, 2008
By: Frazier Moore, AP Television

NEW YORK - (AP) After three decades of keeping mum, Barbara Walters is disclosing a past affair with married U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, whom she remembers as “exciting” and “brilliant.”

Appearing on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” scheduled to air Tuesday, Walters shares details of her relationship with Brooke that lasted several years in the 1970s, according to a transcript of the show provided to The Associated Press.

A moderate Republican from Massachusetts who took office in 1967, Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Both he and Walters knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined his career as well as hers, Walters says.

And she felt the gumption to tell this now, cause of what?

read reast of the article

A musical tribute to Senator Brooke and Freaky Pants Walters

WTF!

Hat tip to Adrianne @ BlackWomenInEurope for the story.

U.S. has Mandela on terrorist list
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Nobel Peace Prize winner and international symbol of freedom Nelson Mandela is flagged on U.S. terrorist watch lists and needs special permission to visit the USA. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls the situation “embarrassing,” and some members of Congress vow to fix it.
The requirement applies to former South African leader Mandela and other members of South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC), the once-banned anti-Apartheid organization. In the 1970s and ’80s, the ANC was officially designated a terrorist group by the country’s ruling white minority. Other countries, including the United States, followed suit.

Because of this, Rice told a Senate committee recently, her department has to issue waivers for ANC members to travel to the USA.

“This is a country with which we now have excellent relations, South Africa, but it’s frankly a rather embarrassing matter that I still have to waive in my own counterpart, the foreign minister of South Africa, not to mention the great leader Nelson Mandela,” Rice said.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, is pushing a bill that would remove current and former ANC leaders from the watch lists. Supporters hope to get it passed before Mandela’s 90th birthday July 18.

The South African government brutalizes the people; the people dare to defend themselves, and the U.S. government takes up for the criminal, abusive, human rights trampling Apartheid government.

This sort of thing shows America’s true colors. This is why American’s who don’t worship at the alter of blind patriotism don’t believe we went into Iraq to help the Iraq people. This is why so many Black people weren’t too upset about the Jeremiah Wright loop.

I thought Pastor Wright tried to get too cute yesterday. I agree with Barack that what Wright did yesterday was simply not constructive on any plain, and I’ll add that it was nothing but a snide display of egotism.

I was with Wright on the statements that were looped time and time again from his sermons, which were by far, by-and-large grounded in truth if not just out right true; and which the end point of the statements he made were intentionally obscured and mischaracterized .

Even further, Friday night on Bill Moyer he aquitted himself quite well in having an intelligent discussion of the issues, and flushing out the basis of his personal viewpoint, and describing the history of and philosophy from which liberation theology comes. He even did quite well in articulation of “different but not deficient” on Sunday night at the NAACP meeting, and wasn’t bad through the press club speech.

But when it got to the question and answer part, it just became a ridiculous, unbecoming spectacle. Sure, it was funny at times from a juvenile stand point, and I wholly admit I’m juvenile enough to enjoy such things in a setting where it simple doesn’t matter. But the issues being discussed, and Pastor Wright’s current position in the national dialogue and body politic made it too important a setting for his behavior.

He was unduly flippant, and needlessly sarcastic and patronizing; and this comes from a self-admitted smart-ass. All the smirking and clowning was just way over the top.

And the really sad thing is, up until that point, Wright was winning the media offense. He had well articulated a number of things on three extensive broadcast (2 of which were live); though the media dug out the one or two points to pounce on. Then he acted a fool at the end and gave them tons of ammunition to run amuck with.

Wright is right, he has to be a pastor while Obama’s a politician, but what he was doing yesterday wasn’t pasturing; but self-aggrandizing egotism, and I think at that point he basically threw Barack under the bus. Because that behavior at the end served no purpose in defending his church nor in representing God; and he knew it was going to hurt Obama, and apparently didn’t care.

I’ve supported the brotha for the last month, but this is where I get off the bus.

There’s a link in this ABC Article to a video of Obama’s press conference

Also check out “Jena 6 March Noose Hanger Pleads Guilty” at The Jena 6 Blog

NAACP

Press Club

You can watch the video online at PBS once they post the full video, which they usually do with in days of a program airing. Right now there’s a 2 minute clip with text about the interview; but the full video should be in the same place.

See here at Bill Moyer’s Journal. ETA: Just a day later, the full video is at that link.

I’m watching the program on first broadcast on television right now. Very good stuff. A real conversation between Moyer and Wright, as opposed to all the crap that media aired on it’s tabloid news slander fest. Pastor Wright is very illuminating about his perspective.

And a real journalist like Bill Moyer is bothering to play more full contextual portions of his sermons, instead of the chopped up sound bites that the yellow journalist in the tabloid media continually looped.

While you’re waiting on the full video of this program to be place on the website, watch Bill Moyer’s Buying The War about how the media flagged-waved us into war in Iraq instead of challenging the government’s assertions.

Previously I’ve asked, Do Police Have A License To Kill ? Well, I guess once again the question has been answered in the affirmative. Three unarmed Black men shot 50 times by cops for no specific reason, and they are aquitted. Yet again, the New York “law enforcement” system renders police harming Blacks as lawful.

The fact that two of the three killer cops were Black doesn’t belie the point. Actually that’s what’s so insideous about the fabric of many police departments in this country and how they are rooted in certain mentalities. Blacks who put on the uniform become Blue, incorporating the mentality of the shield as described rather succinctly in a 1988 Ice Cube lyric:

“don’t let it be a Black and a white one
Cause they’ll slam you down on the street top
Black police showing out for the white cop”

But we have to “Respect the verdict”, in other words; except the police’ right to shoot citizens down in the street with impunity.

Disappointment in Jamaica after Sean Bell verdict
BY CARL MACGOWAN | carl.macgowan@newsday.com
12:45 AM EDT, April 25, 2008

On Liverpool Street, as the noontime hour approached and word of the officers’ acquittals spread on Friday, anger was directed toward the Police Department.

“This was a travesty. This tells black males that our lives are devalued,” said Antoine Johnson, 43, of Jamaica. “It tells NYPD that you have a license to kill black males.”

Johnson, who said he had known Sean Bell and also was acquainted with shooting victims Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, called Justice Arthur Cooperman’s decision “racist.”

He described the message sent to the black community in these words: “If you are white, you are right. If you are black, stay back.”

“The court is not going to help us,” Johnson said.

Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman found that the state’s case was riddled with problems and that the prosecutors had failed to defeat the cops’ claim that they fired in self-defense on Liverpool Street the night of Nov. 25, 2006. The 50-shot barrage killed Bell and wounded two of his friends.

“The prosecution has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that each defendant was not justified” in using deadly force, Cooperman said.

After the verdict, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said “there are no winners in a trial like this.”

www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nystre0426,0,3138952.story

Sean Bell’s wife to be, since the shooting; changed her last name to Bell, and is raising their two young children.