September 03, 2015
By Jerry Ford II
Special to the NNPA from the Houston Forward Times
Community leader Quanell X, former Councilwoman Jolanda Jones, Bishop James Dixon, and the National Black United Front (NBUF) held a public meeting between Texas Department of Public Safety’s Houston-area commander Phillip Steen and other senior Texas DPS officials, to address the status of the officer who arrested Sandra Bland.
The event was held this past Thursday, August 20th, at The Community of Faith Church and was attended by Acres Homes residents and many concerned citizens from the Greater Houston area.
Sandra Bland, a community activist and recently hired professor at Prairie View A&M University who advocated for the empowerment of African Americans in her web series, was found dead on July 13 in a Waller County jail after her arrest following a traffic stop for failing to signal when changing lanes, and reported to have hung herself in the most demeaning way – with a “trash bag”.
Officer Brian Encina threatened to “light her up” and forced Bland out of her car after she refused to put out the cigarette she was smoking inside of her car during the minor traffic stop. Bland was subsequently slammed to the ground and suffered tremendous physical pain as a result.
“If this happens again it won’t be any more peaceful meetings, because our young people won’t stand for this,” said Quanell X. “People are losing hope. I’m about to tell people straight up, we’ve got to fight back,” said Quanell X.
Quanell X’s words echoed the frustrations that many members of the African American community had at the forum, after Steen was unable to provide a timetable for the investigation into officer Brian Encina – whose actions, many believe, led to the eventual death of Bland.
“Everybody is entitled to due process,” said Steen.
Steen said Encina has been assigned to desk duty pending the outcome of the ongoing criminal investigation into the case and a separate DPS administrative review.
“I listen to you say he is on desk duty, but at a gut level you are talking about giving him due process when we have someone dead,” said Jolanda Jones. “He gets desk duty and keeps his job because he needs due process but y’all arrest us every day and all day without giving us due process. You call the district attorney and we get taken into custody while y’all get time to get your story straight, time to get lawyers, and time to doctor videos.”
“He is under investigation by the Texas Rangers and they will look into all the aspects of the incident and gather all the facts and when their investigation is complete,” said Steen. “They will give the information to the district attorney office. Then it would be up to the district attorney on whether he will present it to a grand jury and then it will be up to a grand jury to determine if his actions were criminal.”
When Jones pressed Steen about whether the officer had the right to tell Bland to put out her cigarette, the official stated he “didn’t know the law” but did later acknowledge to a member of NBUF official that the officer did violate a common 7-step procedure.
“What I don’t understand is since you are charged with enforcing the law, you get special treatment and you get special training, but still you weren’t able to tell me what the law was,” said Jones.
Steen said that it was clear there were issues of basic courtesy from Trooper Encina, but pointed out that any in-house decisions would have to wait. Steen noted the Department of Public Safety is “committed to making sure our troopers exhibit the highest levels of professionalism and courtesy when dealing with the public” but still couldn’t provide a time table for the investigation.
Many community members have refused to accept the narrative about Bland’s suicide, and became even more irate once dash cam video of Bland being pulled over because of a minor traffic violation came to light.
“We’re doing all we can to keep Houston from becoming Ferguson,” said Bishop Dixon.
With many students starting school this week, this is an African American community that has experienced a plethora of violence and injustice towards them just over the summer break.
Starting in early June, the African American community was outraged after witnessing a 14-year-old African American girl in a bikini being thrown around at a pool party like an animal by a police officer in McKinney, Texas.
Days later, the community felt despair after Dylann Roof, a 21-year old White man, walked into a historic African American church in South Carolina and carried out a terroristic attack – killing 9 Black people during bible study, including State Senator Clementa Pinckney.
Weeks later, in Cincinnati, an officer murdered Sam Dubose in a disturbing body cam video. Then a few days later, a 19-year-old African American football player named Christian Taylor was murdered in Texas after a combination of youthful mistakes and a trigger-happy police officer met up with one another and became the formula for Taylor losing his life.
All of these things happened over the summer break for students, which has left many leaders feeling as if they are running out of options and are consistently searching for and demanding justice.
Many African Americans are concerned that Officer Encina will not pay the price for what happened to Bland – which could be another blow to an already frustrated community – and the 1977 Supreme Court decision, Pennsylvania v. Mimms, could be the decision that gets Officer Encina off the hook.
The 1977 decision has generally been understood to allow officers to order people to exit their car for any reason. This was a decision in 1977 that stated an officer may order a legally detained motorist out of their car at will. The issue in 1977 involved a man named Harry Mimms who was pulled over by Philadelphia police for expired tags. Mimms was ordered out of the car without reason resulting in the officer finding an illegal firearm. Mimms was charged with illegal possession of a concealed firearm, but argued that the gun be excluded from evidence under the Fourth Amendment’s ban of unreasonable searches and seizures. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed, saying the officer needed a reason beyond the traffic violations to force Mimms out of the car. The United States Supreme Court, however, disagreed stating “general concerns about officer safety are enough to justify such an order”.
Steen sat next to Quanell X during the meeting and listened to his stern words.
“If y’all decide to put him back out in the streets do not send him to Prairie View around our young students,” said Quanell X. “When I was a young boy my grandmother told me if you ever encounter a police officer look down to the ground. Don’t look him in his eye because no matter how we are dehumanized just shut up. Well, this sister was a strong sister and she spoke straight up. My question for you is, what are you going to do about this cop?” asked Quanell X.
When pressed about his personal opinion concerning the officer’s action, Steen referred to a parallel situation to justify the officers’ actions, stating that a White man was told to exit his car and asked to put out his cigarette, because the officer stated general concerns about his safety in a previous incident in Waller County.
Bishop Dixon challenged officers to stand up to their peers who are doing wrong.
“It’s not ‘we versus you.’ We don’t want to be in opposition. We want to be in partnership with you,” said Bishop Dixon. “The perception today is: I’m black, I’m a criminal and I’m dangerous.”
However, many in the African American community are asking the question; Does a law make any act right just because it is deemed lawful?
“At what point does the citizen have the right to resist an officer who is violating your rights,” asked Quanell X. “That’s why they wonder why we as Black folks burn stuff down. Even when there’s a video, we still might not get justice.”
August 27, 2015
By Steve Helber, Pam Ramsey and Jonathan Drew
Associated Press
He planned it all so carefully — a choreographed execution of two former colleagues, broadcast live to a horrified television audience, and also recorded by him and then shared worldwide across social media.
Vester Lee Flanagan’s own video shows him approaching WDJB reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, gun in hand, as they conduct an interview. He points the gun at Parker and then at Ward, but he waits patiently to shoot until he knows that Parker is on camera, so she will be gunned down on air.
TV viewers heard about the first eight of 15 shots. They saw Parker scream and run, and heard her crying “Oh my God!” as she fell. Ward fell, too, and the camera he had been holding on his shoulder captured a fleeting image of the suspect holding a handgun.
That man, authorities said, was Flanagan — a former staffer who used the on-air name of Bryce Williams and was fired by WDBJ last year, a man who always was looking for reasons to take offense, colleagues recalled. He fled the scene but then posted his own 56-second video of the murders on Twitter and Facebook. He later ran off a highway while being pursued hundreds of miles away and was captured; he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Wednesday’s on-air murders reverberated far from central Virginia because that’s just what the killer wanted — not just to avenge perceived wrongs, but to gain maximum, viral exposure. He used his insider’s knowledge of TV journalism against his victims — a 24-year-old reporter who was a rising star and a 27-year-old cameraman engaged to a producer who watched the slaughter live from the control room.
Flanagan’s planning may have started weeks ago when, ABC News said, a man claiming to be Bryce Williams called repeatedly, saying he wanted to pitch a story and needed fax information. He sent ABC’s newsroom a 23-page fax two hours after the 6:45 a.m. shooting that was part-manifesto, part-suicide note — calling himself a gay black man who had been mistreated by people of all races, and saying he bought the gun two days after nine black people were killed in a June 17 shooting at a Charleston church. The fax also included admiration for the gunmen in mass killings at places like Virginia Tech and Columbine High School in Colorado.
He described himself as a “human powder keg,” that was “just waiting to go BOOM!!!!”
Parker and Ward were a regular team, providing stories for the station’s “Mornin’” show on everything from breaking news to feature stories on subjects like child abuse. Their live spot Wednesday was nothing out of the ordinary: They were interviewing a local official at an outdoor shopping mall for a tourism story before the shots rang out.
As Parker screamed and Ward collapsed, Ward’s camera kept rolling, capturing the image of the suspect pointing the gun. WDBJ quickly switched to the anchor back at the station, clearly shocked, who told viewers, “OK, not sure what happened there.”
Parker and Ward died at the scene. Their interview subject, Vicki Gardner, also was shot, but emerged from surgery later Wednesday in stable condition.
Flanagan, 41, who was fired from WDBJ in 2013, was described by the station’s president and general manager, Jeffrey Marks, as an “an unhappy man” and “difficult to work with,” always “looking out for people to say things he could take offense to.”
“Eventually after many incidents of his anger coming to the fore, we dismissed him. He did not take that well,” Marks said. He recalled that police had to escort Flanagan out of the building because he refused to leave when he was fired.
Tweets posted Wednesday on the gunman’s Twitter account — since suspended — described workplace conflicts with both victims. He said he filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Parker, and that Ward had reported him to human resources.
Marks said Flanagan alleged that other employees made racially tinged comments to him, but that his EEOC claim was dismissed and none of his allegations could be corroborated.
“We think they were fabricated,” the station manager said.
Dan Dennison, now a state government spokesman in Hawaii, was the WDBJ news director who hired Flanagan in 2012 and fired him in 2013, largely for performance issues, he said.
“We did a thorough investigation and could find no evidence that anyone had racially discriminated against this man,” Dennison said. “You just never know when you’re going to work how a potentially unhinged or unsettled person might impact your life in such a tragic way.”
Court records and recollections from former colleagues at a half-dozen other small-market stations where he bounced around indicate that Flanagan was quick to file complaints. He was fired at least twice after managers said he was causing problems with other employees.
Both Parker and Ward grew up in the Roanoke area, attended high school there and later interned at the station. After Parker’s internship, she moved to a smaller market in Jacksonville, North Carolina, before returning to WBDJ. She was dating Chris Hurst, an anchor at the station and had just moved in with him.
“We were together almost nine months,” Hurst posted on Facebook. “It was the best nine months of our lives. We wanted to get married. We just celebrated her 24th birthday. She was the most radiant woman I ever met.”
Ward, who played high school football, was a devoted fan of his alma mater, Virginia Tech. His colleagues said he rarely, if ever, missed a game. They called him a “happy-go-lucky guy” — even during the early morning hours that are the proving ground for so many beginning journalists.
Ward’s fiancee, station producer Melissa Ott, was in the control room when the shots rang out, marking her last day on the job. He had planned to follow her to her new job in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Marks helped lead the live coverage Wednesday after the station confirmed its two employees were dead. He said he and his staff covered the story despite their grief, to honor their slain colleagues.
“Our hearts are broken,” he said. “Our sympathy goes to the entire staff here, but also the parents and family of Alison Parker and Adam Ward, who were just out doing their job today.”
August 27, 2015
by D. Kevin McNeir
Special to the NNPA from The Washington Informer
As the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March approaches this fall, strategies continue to be formulated and plans solidified by District officials, leaders from the Nation of Islam, prominent Black leaders and, now, the publishers of the Black press.
On Friday August 21, the men and women who own and operate over 100 Black publications nationwide participated in an exclusive and historic conversation with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who heads the Nation of Islam and also serves as the national convener of the upcoming march, “Justice or Else 10-10-15.”
Over 60 publishers and editors joined Farrakhan, National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President and CEO Dr. Benjamin Chavis, NNPA Chairperson and Washington Informer Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes and Richard Muhammad, NNPA Region 3 president representing the Final Call.
When the first march occurred 20 years ago, the Black press was instrumental in its success, getting out the word to Blacks across the U.S. as October 1995 drew near.
Barnes said they will play a similar role again.
“We have our marching orders to tell the stories up to the date of the march and after,” said Barnes following the conclusion of the conference call. “It’s up to us to keep our communities informed and to empower them to carry on the vision that Minister Farrakhan has laid out.”
The Black press, including The Washington Informer, will be reporting on the march as plans continue to unfold with ongoing dialogue from Farrakhan, who said the march must take place because of the precarious situation in which Blacks now find themselves.
“The black race is not as strong as we could be or should be,” he said. “So, the struggle is on two fronts. We cannot go to Washington and appeal to the government to intercede so that Black men and women receive justice in our courts but then leave our own communities in shambles with us killing one another. We have to take responsibility for our own communities and work together to rid the fratricidal conflict that we see all over America.”
Farrakhan served as the spark for the first Million Man March that brought hundreds of thousands of Black men of all ages, economic backgrounds, religious affiliations and levels of education together on the National Mall. During Friday’s conference call, the minister answered questions posed by members of the NNPA, emphasizing the need for black America to take control of its own destiny through shared economic strategies and greater support of black businesses, families, civil rights organizations and religious institutions.
But he also criticized the policies of America that have led to the mass incarceration of Black youth, failed public schools and colleges and generations of Black families wallowing in poverty.
“The struggle cannot end on October 10, 2015,” Farrakhan said. “It will take on a new dimension of strength after the 10th. We should have a legislative agenda. We’re not asking — we’re demanding what’s rightfully ours. We built this country. The world is before us if we take our own foot out of the way.”
For more information on the march, visit justiceorelse.com.
August 20, 2015
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press
President Barack Obama will mark next week's 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina by visiting New Orleans, which bore the brunt of the storm's devastating blow and has yet to fully recover from the loss of life and property left behind in its wake.
The White House announced Wednesday that Obama will meet Aug. 27 with New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and residents who have spent the past decade trying to rebuild their lives. The president will also deliver remarks on the region's rebirth.
The powerful hurricane struck Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005, causing significant damage to the Gulf Coast from Texas to central Florida and forcing a storm surge that breached a system of levees built to protect New Orleans. Some 80 percent of the city was flooded for weeks.
Nearly 2,000 people died as a result of the storm, most of them in New Orleans. Video of residents seeking refuge on rooftops or inside the sweltering Superdome dominated news coverage of the aftermath of the storm that went down in history as the costliest natural disaster to ever strike the U.S., as well as one of its deadliest.
The storm came to symbolize failure of government at all levels. Criticism for the response to Katrina was leveled at then-President George W. Bush, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco and then-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.
Obama will be joined on next week's visit by Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Since 2009, the agency has funneled more than $5.2 billion to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to help repair and rebuild schools, hospitals, roads, police and fire stations, and historic buildings and museums, the White House said in a fact sheet on its post-Katrina recovery efforts.
FEMA has also spent another $1.4 billion in Louisiana and Mississippi to elevate homes, retrofit government and residential structures and on drainage improvement projects.
Obama visited New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2010 — exactly five years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall — and sought to reassure the region's residents that he would not abandon them.
"My administration is going to stand with you, and fight alongside you, until the job is done," he said to cheers at Xavier University, a historically black, Catholic university that was badly flooded by the storm.
The economy of New Orleans, which relies heavily on tourism and the oil and gas industry, had suffered a new setback earlier that year with the BP oil spill. More than 200 million of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico in the months before the underwater well was capped.