Black History 2015: Religions And Slave Trade Killings In The 1800’s Part 4d of 9

Black History 2015: Religions And Slave Trade Killings In The 1800’s Part 4d of 9

Up until 1866 through 1868 many prominent religions in the United States, both in the South and North, pushed for the belief that all Black Peoples were only three-fifths of a person. Therefore, persons of the Negro race, regardless if they were a slave, free-man, or a descendant of an imported African slave, are not citizens of the U.S. and cannot be a "citizen" of any State. 

 

Because of this the thought was that if the Black Peoples could not be a citizen of any State for certain they could not be a fellow believer of any religion backed by God’s grace.  

As late as 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Dred Scott (a free-man) v. John Sanford (a slave owner) was handed down to let anyone who is a black person know then and today, that people of color will always be nothing but property for slave trading in the 1800’s and beyond. 

In part, one lead U.S. Supreme Court Judge, Chief Justice Taney, documented for both the North and the South to know that his opinion was that “the authors of the Constitution had viewed all blacks as "beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Clearly, many white people who were positively inclined religious individuals disagreed with Chief Justice Taney to practice his racism and extreme prejudice in his courtroom or his church. However, there were lots of white people who were religious persons believing completely in their minds and hearts that to practice Chief Justice Taney’s racism and prejudice in their church was right for them.    

Nevertheless, the Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1868 in five sections including several clauses.  It is the Citizen Clause in particular which provides a broad definition of citizenship, overruling the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which had held that Americans descended from African slaves could not be citizens of the United States.

The deeply rooted hatred of Americans who descended from African slaves was so very troubling and dangerous in the U.S. because it is almost impossible to know which race, black, white, or any other, actually descends from African slavery and or the particular religion that was practiced before African slaves were brought to the United States. 

Why even, Charles Darwin, a white man, also a man of religious convictions, who was born in England, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory recognized that there actually is evil in believing that the Bible supports so-called belief in a one natural separate race selected to dominate other races.    

However, many white devout religious men, women, and children absolutely refused to agree with Darwin or the 14^th Amendment, feeling different about the Black race in kind.

And  Charles Taze Russell, the pre-founder of the Christian Jehovah’s Witnesses religion, was in fact one of the religious whites during 1868 forward who refused to accept Black peoples into a status of having grace with Almighty God.   

Therefore, Russell, in1868, abruptly left any church organization that believed in unity amongst all races. 

According to Russell’s religious belief system of the Bible, since there would be but one great genre of negative classism slavery, the blacks, there ought to be but one great genre of positive classism slavery.   

Regardless of what was occurring in the world, Russell’s believed that his biblical destiny would be to become Pastor Russell, a spiritual slave amongst a group of people who were considered to be the faithful and discreet slave class hierarchy authority chosen by God, as Jesus spoke of. 

He would lead and prosper over church members and all mankind as a Zionist leader.  Almighty God would call for him to be a spiritual slave with a special future. Meanwhile, blacks and their ties to those who were physical slaves would have no future but to depend on him for their salvation.  To be continued…  

    

Medical Examiner: Delaware County Teen Died Of Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound

Medical Examiner: Delaware County Teen Died Of Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound

   
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (CBS) – The Delaware County medical Examiner has completed an autopsy on the 13-year-old boy who went missing last week.

A spokesman for the Medical Examiner’s office says 13-year-old Cayman Naib died of a single gunshot wound to the head. The teenager left his home last Wednesday evening after getting an email from school about a failing grade. That night it snowed heavily.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Vigil Held To Honor Fallen Philadelphia Police Officer

Vigil Held To Honor Fallen Philadelphia Police Officer

Officer Robert Wilson was slain during an attempted robbery at a
North Philadelphia video game store on March 5, 2015.
 
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A prayer vigil honoring fallen Philadelphia police officer Robert Wilson III took place Monday afternoon in front of the North Philadelphia GameStop store where he was gunned down last Thursday during a robbery.

Dozens of community members and police officers stood side by side during the hour long call to stop the violence going on the streets.

“We got to bring more awareness to this, so we’re going to keep fighting and keep fighting as long as bodies keep dropping we’re going to keep fighting.”

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Court documents: Wisconsin shooting victim was impulsive

Court documents: Wisconsin shooting victim was impulsive 
 

Demonstrators protest the shooting of Toly Robinson at the state Capitol Monday, March 9, 2015, in Madison, Wis. Robinson, 19, was fatally shot Friday night by a police officer who forced his way into an apartment after hearing a disturbance while responding to a call. Police say Robinson had attacked the officer.

  

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- An unarmed biracial man fatally shot by a white police officer tended to be an impulsive risk-taker and faced a choice between a middle-class lifestyle and the gang world, according to court documents.

The file connected to 19-year-old Tony Robinson's conviction last year for armed robbery shows he was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder and anxiety and depression. The documents were contained in a report by a state Department of Corrections agent.

Madison police officer Matt Kenny shot Robinson on Friday evening while investigating a call that the young man was jumping in and out of traffic and had assaulted someone. The officer heard a disturbance and forced his way into an apartment where Robinson had gone. Authorities said Kenny fired after Robinson assaulted him.

The shooting is the latest in a series of police-involved shootings to spark racially tinged demonstrations, including in Ferguson, Missouri, where officer Darren Wilson shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in August. That shooting sparked weeks of unrest.

The Associated Press had described Robinson as black based on police descriptions of him as African-American. But at a news conference Monday, family members repeatedly emphasized that he embraced a biracial identity from having a white mother and black father.

"We don't want to stop at `black lives matter' because all lives matter," including multiracial people like Robinson, his uncle, Turin Carter, said.

Madison Police Chief Mike Koval has tried to strike a conciliatory tone with the city's black community, calling Robinson's death a tragedy and even going so far as praying with Robinson's grandmother in her driveway hours after the shooting. On Monday, he wrote on his blog that he was sorry Robinson died and hoped his family could find forgiveness in their hearts.

"The police are part of this community - and we share this sense of loss," Koval wrote.

Police spokesman Joel DeSpain clarified in an email that Koval was not acknowledging any wrongdoing by Kenny or the department.

The state Justice Department's Division of Criminal Investigation is leading the probe into the shooting because of a new state law that requires outside agencies to investigate officer-involved shootings. A Justice Department spokeswoman did not respond to an email Monday seeking an update. A final report is probably weeks or months away.

Preliminary autopsy results were not expected until midweek at the earliest.

About 1,500 protesters held a demonstration Monday in front of the state Capitol, chanting Robinson's name, "black lives matter" and "hands up, don't shoot." Many of the protesters were high school students who skipped class to join the rally.

"I think the fact he was black did lead to an unfair shooting," said 19-year-old Sedgwick Smith, a student at Madison Area Technical College. "If he would have been white, he wouldn't have been shot. Period."

The crowd moved into the Capitol, filling the rotunda. They chanted for about 40 minutes before heading back outside without incident.

According to a criminal complaint in the armed robbery, Robinson was among a group of five people who staged a home-invasion robbery in Madison in April 2014 looking for marijuana and money.

Police captured Robinson as he fled the apartment. He told investigators he carried a BB-gun pistol with him during the robbery and stole a TV and an Xbox 360 from the apartment. Judge Josann Reynolds sentenced him to three years' probation in December.

Family members refused Monday to answer a question about Robinson's diagnoses. At a news conference, Carter, the uncle, said Robinson wasn't perfect but should not be judged for mistakes.

"We don't think Terrell's a saint," Carter said, using Robinson's middle name. "He was a kid. He was a 19-year-old, and he did some bad things. But we all did when we were 19."

Carter also said Robinson's family believes the investigation will be fair, and he asked that people respect the police in their protests.

The robbery case file includes a letter from Robinson's grandmother, Sharon Irwin, to the judge. In it, she asks for her grandson to be sentenced to probation, saying he was just following his co-defendants' lead.

Robinson "is a great kid in between being a teen and a man," she wrote. "That is one of his issues. Impulsive. The other is being a follower."

His aunt, Loren Carter, wrote a note to the judge asking for mercy in sentencing. She said Robinson grew up poor without his father but was kind-hearted and intelligent.

Robinson's defense attorney, Michael J. Short, wrote to the judge that Robinson had taken special-education classes and had never been in trouble with the law before.

"He was an easy choice for the seasoned co-defendants to manipulate into participation," Short wrote. "He did not give any orders but just followed the instructions meted out by the other defendants."

Keith Wessel, a Madison family law attorney who said he was married to Robinson's grandmother for a time, wrote to Short in September and told him that he raised two of Robinson's uncles and knew Robinson from birth.

Wessel wrote that some branches of Robinson's family exposed him to a "chaotic environment." He did not elaborate but said Robinson faced a choice between a middle-class life and the "gangsta" path. He warned if 

 Robinson went to prison on a felony charge he would continue toward the gangster world.

He said Monday he was shocked at the shooting. He said Robinson stood 6-foot-5 but was a "teddy bear."

"I can't imagine Tony is going to fight a cop breaking into his house," Wessel said. "I just don't see that as likely ... I really think we need to examine our police policies."

Missouri appeals judge appointed to take over Ferguson court

Missouri appeals judge appointed to take over Ferguson court 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Missouri appeals court judge was appointed Monday to take over Ferguson's municipal court and make "needed reforms" after a highly critical U.S. Department of Justice
report that was prompted by the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.

The Missouri Supreme Court said it is assigning state appeals Judge Roy L. Richter to hear all of Ferguson's pending and future municipal court cases. The high court said Richter also will have the authority to overhaul court policies to ensure defendants' rights are respected and to "restore the integrity of the system."

Ferguson Municipal Judge Ronald J. Brockmeyer resigned Monday, saying through a spokesman that he was stepping down to promote public confidence in the court and help Ferguson "begin its healing process."

The Ferguson City Council met in closed session Monday evening, but members left without taking questions and a city spokesman didn't disclose the purpose of the meeting.

Richter will take charge of the court on March 16. The Supreme Court said it also is assigning staff from the state court administrator's office to aid Richter in reviewing Ferguson's municipal court practices.

"Judge Richter will bring a fresh, disinterested perspective to this court's practices, and he is able and willing to implement needed reforms," Chief Justice Mary Russell said in a written statement.

"Extraordinary action is warranted in Ferguson, but the Court also is examining reforms that are needed on a statewide basis," Russell added.

The change comes after the Justice Department released a report last week that cited cases of racial profiling and bigotry by police and chided what it described as a profit-driven municipal court system in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb where Brown, 18, was shot by a white Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9. The shooting prompted protests in the St. Louis area and across the nation.

A St. Louis County grand jury and the U.S. Justice Department both declined to bring charges against Officer Darren Wilson, who resigned from the department. The Justice Department report said Wilson acted in self-defense when he shot Brown.

But the Justice Department said Ferguson's police and court systems functioned as a money-making enterprise that heightened tensions among residents.

"It is not difficult to imagine how a single tragic incident set off the city of Ferguson like a powder keg," Holder said while releasing the report.

The federal report noted that Ferguson was counting on revenues from fines and fees to generate $3.1 million, or nearly one-quarter of its total $13.3 million budget for the 2015 fiscal year.

 

Although it was rare for the court to sentence people to jail as a penalty for city code violations, the Justice Department report said the city's court almost always imposes monetary penalties and then issues arrest warrants when people fail to pay on time or miss a court date. As a result, relatively minor violations can - and frequently do - lead to arrests and jail time, the report said.

The federal report also cited several instances in which Ferguson's municipal judge, court clerk or city prosecutor helped "fix" tickets for colleagues and friends. In one example, the report cited an October 2013 email from Brockmeyer to Ferguson's prosecuting attorney referencing a ticket Brockmeyer had received for allegedly running a red light in the nearby suburb of Hazelwood. In the email, Brockmeyer asked the Ferguson prosecutor, who also served as the Hazelwood prosecutor, to "see to it that this ticket is dismissed." The prosecutor responded that the ticket was dismissed.

The report cited the forgiven tickets for Ferguson officials as evidence of "a double standard grounded in racial stereotyping." It said Ferguson officials displayed "a striking lack of personal responsibility among themselves" while some nonetheless asserted to federal investigators that the city's African-American residents lacked "personal responsibility."

Attorney Bert Fulk said in a statement announcing Brockmeyer's resignation that Brockmeyer had been "fair and impartial" as a part-time judge and that the court clerk bore the primary responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the court.

The city fired court clerk Mary Ann Twitty last week.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon released a written statement Monday praising the "strong and appropriate actions by the Missouri Supreme Court" to overhaul the Ferguson municipal court.

Univ. of Oklahoma severs ties with frat after racist chant

Univ. of Oklahoma severs ties with frat after racist chant 
 

Students at the University of Oklahoma protest racist comments made by a fraternity on Monday, March 9, 2015 in Norman, Okla. University President David Boren lambasted members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on Monday who participated in a racist chant caught on video, calling them disgraceful and their behavior reprehensible, and ordered that their house be vacated by midnight Tuesday.

  

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- The president of the University of Oklahoma severed the school's ties with a national fraternity on Monday and ordered that its on-campus house be shuttered after several members took part in a racist chant caught on video.

President David Boren said he was sickened and couldn't eat or sleep after learning about the video Sunday afternoon. The video, which was posted online, shows several people on a bus participating in a chant that included a racial slur, referenced lynching and indicated black students would never be admitted to OU's chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

The Oklahoma football team decided to protest rather than practice on Monday. At the team's indoor practice facility, coach Bob Stoops led the way as players, joined by athletic director Joe Castiglione, walked arm-in-arm, wearing black. Meanwhile, a top high school recruit withdrew his commitment the university after seeing the video.

Boren attended a pre-dawn rally organized by students and lambasted the fraternity members as "disgraceful" and called their behavior "reprehensible." He said the university was looking into a range of punishment, including expulsion.

"This is not who we are," Boren said at a midday news conference. "I'd be glad if they left. I might even pay the bus fare for them."

National leaders of Sigma Alpha Epsilon said late Sunday that its investigation confirmed members took part in the chant and announced it would close the local chapter. The national group said it was "embarrassed" by the "unacceptable and racist" behavior.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the efforts by the university and the national fraternity to repudiate the racist comments were "an appropriate step."

Boren said fraternity members have until midnight Tuesday to remove their belongings from the fraternity house. He said the fraternity was "not totally forthcoming," and he was still trying to find out who was on the bus so the school could consider disciplinary actions.

He said the university's legal staff was exploring whether the students who initiated and encouraged the chant may have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination.

"We are also going to look at any individual perpetrators, particularly those that we think took a lead in this kind of activity," Boren said.

It's unclear who recorded the video, when it was recorded and who initially posted it online. Boren suggested it was likely taken by another student who didn't agree with what was being chanted.

OU Unheard, a black student group on campus, posted a link to the video after someone anonymously called it to the group's attention Sunday afternoon, communications director Alexis Hall said Monday.

"We immediately needed to share that with the OU student body," said Hall, a junior. "For students to say they're going to lynch an entire group of people. ... It's disgusting."

The video appears to have been taken on a charter bus, with at least one of the chanting young men wearing a tuxedo.

Telephone and email messages left Monday with several members of the fraternity seeking comment on the video were not returned. Other members declined to comment.

"I was shocked they were just doing it openly on the bus, like they were proud of it," said Jared Scarborough, a junior in construction science. "From the chant you could tell they had done it before. It wasn't a first-time thing. And it was everybody. And the fist-pumping."

North Mesquite High School football star Jean Delance, a top offensive lineman prospect, told KTVT television and KRLD-AM in Dallas-Fort Worth that he would not attend Oklahoma. He said he spoke Sunday night with coach Bob Stoops, but wasn't told about the incident.

"I'm very disappointed in the coaches not letting me know. `Hey, Jean, this is going on. Be aware. I don't want you to be shocked tomorrow when you wake up,'" Delance told KRLD. "But that was just heart-breaking right there."

A university police cruiser was parked Monday outside the fraternity house, a sprawling two-story, sand-colored brick building on a street lined with Greek houses just west of the center of campus. The Greek letters were removed from the side of the house Monday afternoon.

The University of Oklahoma, located in the southern Oklahoma City suburb of Norman, has about 27,000 students, about 5 percent of whom are black. The Greek system is largely segregated.

Boren said fraternity members had "violated all that we stand for."

"Effective immediately, all ties and affiliations between this University and the local SAE chapter are hereby severed," he said in a statement.

Music and Song Legends, with your host Lamont A. Nelson.

Music and Song Legends, with your host Lamont A. Nelson.

If you like Classic Soul, RnB, Jazz, Classic Latin, Spanish Rap (Hip Hop), English Rap (Hip Hop), music artist and more real by the solo artist and band music, prepare to tune energy WVSR 1360 .us each morning of Wednesday night for the new talk/music show Music and Song Legends, with your host Lamont A. Nelson.

 Lamont A. Nelson, aka DJ Lamont, spent most of his lifetime in soft Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA and diversified campus have a very successful music career as a DJ in jamming Savannah State. The combination of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Savannah State Lamont helped develop his star power. And their music of choice is the return of Soul, R and B, Jazz, Latinamerica beats, including Rap Spanish (East Coast, West Coast, and the Caribbean and Tropical sound). Lamont A. Nelson grew up listening (70's-90 's), Old Country, Solid Gold, pop music, and Rap. 
Nelson is a great student and teacher of good music. As a great role model for young people and adults who have a passion for music Lamont has been in the entertainment industry as a high school student and the meaning of the university. His natural love for the sound of real music and vocals, and keeps it close to the pulse of what the older generation currently playing. 

Also, Lamont is a graffiti artist. And more recently became an amateur fashion model. 
Lamont, graffiti artist, model, brings his own style of art that helps to have an innate ability to refer to a wide range of children with special needs to popular circles. Has strong leadership as a Black American; he already has a popular status in the community, schools, and political settings, and carries a natural appeal to different groups. 
Lamont A. Nelson wanted to work in a variety of local and out of state locations.To listen to Lamont A. Nelson talk show host talk and music, "Music and Song Legends" tune in to powerwvsr1360.us 7: 00PM-7: 30PM. Or check the Power WVSR 1360 radio station webpage to listen to the talk/music Lamont A. Nelson and Legends Song recorded show.

Missing 13-Year Old Delaware County Teen Found Dead

Missing 13-Year Old Delaware County Teen Found Dead

 

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Missing Delaware County teenager Cayman Naib has been found dead according to the family.

The Delaware County District Attorney’s office has confirmed that Naib was found near a creek on the family’s property.

The family made the announcement that Naib had been found dead on Facebook on Sunday. The 13-year-old was last seen at his Newtown Square home on Wednesday night.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Church In North Philadelphia Holds Special Mass To Honor Fallen Police Officer

Church In North Philadelphia Holds Special Mass To Honor Fallen Police Officer

 

 

 

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia police officer Robert Wilson III died in the line of duty on Thursday, and today, a church in the neighborhood where he was killed held a special mass in his honor.

Parishioners at Saint Martin de Porres Catholic Church at 23rd Street and Lehigh Avenue gave officers from the 22nd and 39th districts a standing ovation, thanking them for their service and paying gratitude and honor to Officer Wilson. They lit candles and offered special prayers, trying to make sense out of the senseless death of a father, son and protector.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Wisconsin chief treading carefully after fatal shooting

Wisconsin chief treading carefully after fatal shooting 

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Within hours of a white officer shooting an unarmed black man, the police chief of Wisconsin's capital city was praying with the man's grandmother, hoping to strike a conciliatory tone and avoid the riots that last year rocked Ferguson, Missouri.

Chief Mike Koval said he knows Madison is being watched across the nation since 19-year-old Tony Robinson's death Friday evening, and he has gone out of his way to avoid what he once called Ferguson's "missteps."

"Folks are angry, resentful, mistrustful, disappointed, shocked, chagrined. I get that," Koval said Saturday. 

"People need to tell me squarely how upset they are with the Madison Police Department."

The contrasts with Ferguson are many.

While Ferguson police initially gave little information about the shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old, unarmed black man, Koval rushed to the home of Robinson's mother. She didn't want to meet with him, he said, but he talked and prayed with Robinson's grandmother in the driveway for 45 minutes.

 

It took a week for Ferguson to release the name of the officer who shot Brown. Koval announced the name of the officer involved in Madison, Matt Kenny, the day after the shooting. He volunteered to reporters that the officer had been in a previous fatal shooting in 2007, and that he had been cleared of wrongdoing.

On the day that Ferguson police named the officer who shot Brown, they also released video showing what 

they said was Brown robbing a store. When Koval was asked about Robinson's past criminal record Saturday, he declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate to do so a day after the man died.

"We have a police chief who genuinely feels for a family's loss. It should be abundantly clear to anyone following this incident that Madison, Wisconsin, is not Ferguson, Missouri," said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the state's largest police union.

But the chief's measured approach hasn't impressed some demonstrators. Koval angered some of them earlier this year with a blog post demanding they stop blaming police for their problems.

"There are no apologies that can repair the loss or deal with the loss of (Robinson)," said Brandi Grayson, an organizer with Young, Gifted and Black, a Madison group that has demonstrated against what it says is mistreatment of blacks by the justice system. "This was bound to happen. There's nothing the chief can say short of changing the system."

No one answered the door at Robinson's mother's home on Sunday. A reporter left a note in the door asking her to contact The Associated Press but she had not done so as of late Sunday afternoon.

Robinson died Friday night after Kenny shot him in an apartment during a confrontation. Kenny had responded to a call of a man jumping in and out of traffic. Kenny forced his way into the apartment after hearing what Koval described as a "disturbance."

The state Justice Department's Division of Criminal Investigation has taken over the investigation under a new state law passed last year that requires an outside agency to lead probes of officer-involved shootings. DOJ spokeswoman Anne Schwartz declined to comment on Sunday.

The shooting comes against a backdrop of multiple instances of white police officers killing unarmed black men around the country over the last year. The highest-profile incident was the death of Brown in Ferguson last August.

Days of violence ensued, marked by looting, fires, police firing tear gas into a crowd and officers pointing weapons at demonstrators. Another round of riots broke out in November after a grand jury chose not to indict the officer who shot Brown, Darren Wilson. Last week the U.S. Justice Department declined to charge Wilson with civil rights violations but issued a scathing report accusing the Ferguson police department of racism and using policing to fund the city's budget.

Koval, who is white, took over as Madison's chief in April, replacing retiring black Chief Noble Wray. In September he told the Wisconsin State Journal he believed his department could deal with a racially charged shooting better than Ferguson, saying his agency is more diverse and more invested in the community than Ferguson's "rent-a-cops."

"I see in Ferguson a series of missteps and miscues where they're always reacting and, in fact, over-reacting to every set of facts that is thrown in their midst, frankly," Koval said in the interview.

Two months ago, Koval wrote a blog post criticizing Young, Black and Gifted for blaming his officers for "everything from male pattern baldness to global warming." The entry came in response to the group staging protests over officer-involved deaths during rush-hour traffic, demanding jail officials release 350 black inmates and imploring police to stay out of black neighborhoods.

Koval tried to be diplomatic when asked about the post on Saturday, saying he and the group have agreed to disagree on policing black neighborhoods.

Grayson said Koval has had plenty of time to prepare for a racially charged shooting after watching what unfolded in Ferguson.

"He had a perfect response - perfect for white people," she said.

Justice Department's Ferguson report resonates across the US

Justice Department's Ferguson report resonates across the US  

FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2015 file photo, a protest sign is displayed in front of City Hall in Pasco, Wash., the city where Antonio Zambrano-Montes, an unarmed man who was running away from police at a crowded intersection, was fatally shot by police on Feb. 10, 2015. Ferguson, Mo., has become an emblem of the tensions between minorities and police departments nationwide since Darren Wilson, a white officer, shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, last summer. A U.S. Justice Department report released the first week of March, 2015, cleared Wilson of criminal wrongdoing. Though the study centered on Ferguson, its findings have resonated nationwide as residents in some communities across the country say they feel they face the same struggles with their police departments and city leadership.

SEATTLE (AP) -- Felix Vargas read the Justice Department's report on Ferguson, Missouri, and thought some of it sounded awfully familiar: a mostly white police department overseeing a mostly minority town; questionable uses of force; officers ill-equipped to deal with mentally ill residents.

They're the same issues his heavily Hispanic community, the agricultural Washington city of Pasco, has confronted since the fatal police shooting of an immigrant farmworker last month.

"We know Pasco is only the most recent area where this has happened," said Vargas, chairman of a local Hispanic business organization called Consejo Latino. "We have a national problem. We continue to struggle with this issue of policing."

Ferguson has become an emblem of the tensions between minorities and police departments nationwide since Darren Wilson, a white officer, shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, last summer. The Justice Department cleared Wilson of criminal wrongdoing, but in its report last week, it made numerous allegations against the city's police department that included racial disparities in arrests, bigotry and profit-driven law enforcement - essentially using the black community as a piggy bank to support the city's budget through fines.

Though the report centered on Ferguson, its findings have resonated beyond the St. Louis suburbs as residents in some communities across the country say they feel they face the same struggles with their police departments and city leadership.

President Barack Obama addressed the issue Friday on the eve of the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" when police beat scores of people at a civil rights march in Selma, Alabama. While not typical, the issues raised in the Ferguson report also were not isolated, he said.

On Saturday, protesters took to the streets in Madison, Wisconsin, after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 19-year-old by a white police officer, chanting "Black Lives Matter." Authorities said the police officer fired his weapon after he was assaulted. The officer was placed on administrative leave pending results of an investigation by an outside state agency.

"These communities are vulnerable because they don't believe the law is there to protect them," said Kevin Jones, a black, 36-year-old Iraq war veteran who lives in Saginaw, Michigan, a once predominantly white city that's now about half black. He recalled being pulled over and arrested in 2011 for having his music too loud in the wrong part of town. The noise complaint was dropped when an officer failed to show for his hearing, but Jones said he still had to pay to get his car back.

Saginaw's police force, which is three-quarters white, came under scrutiny after officers killed a homeless, mentally ill, black man in 2012 when he refused to drop a knife. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan has called for the Justice Department to conduct a review of the department's practices. The city meanwhile established a citizens committee to try to improve relations with police.

Community leaders in Anaheim, California, have also been seeking a federal review of their department. Demonstrators rioted over two officer-involved shootings in 2012, and residents said Hispanics seemed to be singled out by police in a city that had gone from mostly white when Disneyland was built to mostly Latino.

Jose Moreno, president of Los Amigos of Orange County, a Latino community group, said he didn't believe the overt profiling uncovered in Ferguson occurred in Anaheim, but unless there's a federal investigation he may never know.

"I think it is great the Department of Justice decided to do it somewhere. It just begs the question: Why not here?" he said.

In Pasco, where Vargas lives, the racial makeup of the city has changed over the years and now it's more than half Hispanic, but only one in five of its police are. Even fewer speak fluent Spanish.

In February, three officers - two white and one Hispanic - fatally shot Antonio Zambrano-Montes, a 35-year-old Mexican immigrant, near a busy intersection after police said he threw rocks at them. Vargas said Zambrano-Montes may have suffered from mental illness or substance abuse.

Mayor Matt Watkins said Pasco is open to a federal or state review of its policing and he'd be interested to see more data on arrest rates or other potential indicators of discriminatory policing.

That's something police everywhere should be looking at, said former Seattle U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan, who helped oversee a federal investigation that found Seattle police were too quick to use force.

"At this time in our history, every police department in America should be reevaluating their relationships with the people they serve," Durkan said. "But it doesn't fall just to the police departments. We all have to look hard at the economic disparities that cause some of the inequality, at how we deal with mental illness, and at what we want the role of our police departments to be."

San Diego State University Professor Joshua Chanin, who has studied Justice Department efforts to reform police departments, said departments could more systematically collect and publish arrest, traffic stop and citation data by race. That could help deter biased policing, because police would be more sensitive to what their statistics show, and it could help validate - or dispel - notions in the community that some groups are singled out.

Even when investigations bring reform, perceptions can be slow to change.

In Miami, the Justice Department came in after seven black men were killed by officers over an eight-month period ending in 2011. The controversy forced out the police chief and brought changes on how police use deadly force, though some say there still aren't enough blacks among the department's brass.

In Liberty City, an impoverished, mostly black neighborhood, suspicions remain.

Standing outside the salon and tattoo parlor where he works, Ronnie Bless put it this way: "If you fit a certain profile, they can do what they want to you."

For Kids: Rogger Robbie the Hip Hop Raccoon At the Philadelphia Front Page News!

City Of Philadelphia Announces Snow Emergency

City Of Philadelphia Announces Snow Emergency

 
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Mayor Michael Nutter has announced that a snow emergency will be declared for the City of Philadelphia beginning at 6 a.m. Thursday.

For citizens, the Mayor’s office says a snow emergency means all parked cars must be moved off snow emergency routes for plowing.  When relocating your car, park as far from the corner of the street as possible; vehicles parked too close to the corner impede the turning radius of plowing equipment.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

A defiant Alabama regains ground against gay marriage

A defiant Alabama regains ground against gay marriage

Ben Cooper, chairman of Equality Alabama pauses after speaking to the media about the decision to halt same sex marriages, Wednesday, March 4, 2015, in Birmingham, Ala. "It's important to understand that this is not nearly the end of this," said Cooper. Cooper called the decision an "absolute insult" to gay couples in Alabama. "Not to mention a complete waste of taxpayers' money," he said.

  

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Alabama's stand against same-sex marriage regained ground Wednesday after the state's highest court ruled that its ban remains legal, despite federal court pressure to begin issuing licenses to gays and lesbians. But advocates said they're not giving up either - and that the justices in Montgomery will find themselves on history's losing side.

The Alabama Supreme Court ordered county probate judges to uphold the state ban pending a final ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which hears arguments in April on whether gay couples nationwide have a fundamental right to marry and whether states can ban such unions.

Stuck between the state's highest court and a series of federal rulings, many probate judges were at a loss early Wednesday. Mobile County, one of the state's largest, initially announced that it wouldn't issue licenses to anyone, straight or gay.

By mid-day, gay rights advocates couldn't find a single county still granting licenses to same-sex couples.

Dean Lanton said he and his partner, Randy Wells, had planned to wed in Birmingham on Aug. 12, the anniversary of their first date, but now might have to get married out of state because of the decision.

"It was a punch in the gut. It was out of the blue," said Lanton, 54. "It's just Alabama politics, deja vu from the 1960s."

Montgomery County Probate Judge Steven Reed, a Democrat and one of the first to issue gay-marriage licenses following a January ruling by U.S. District Judge Callie Granade in Mobile, said he was duty-bound to turn gays and lesbians away again, for now. But he also suggested that he would join a new round of appeals.

"I feel pretty safe in saying we will be filing something with the court," Reed told The Associated Press. "I don't think we'll be at the end of it regardless of what we do, until the (U.S.) Supreme Court rules."

The all-Republican court ruled 7-1 that Alabama's 68 probate judges must stop issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, despite a ruling by Granade that the ban is unconstitutional.

They gave probate judges five days to respond if they believe otherwise, but speaking out could be politically risky in the deeply conservative state, where Alabama's justices and probate judges must run for office after each term.

Before Tuesday's ruling, 48 of the state's 67 counties were acknowledging that Alabama had become the 37th U.S. state where gays can legally wed, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for gay marriage nationwide. By Wednesday afternoon, the group couldn't find any county issuing licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

Same-sex couples will likely appeal up to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to block the latest state supreme court ruling, said Ben Cooper, chairman of Equality Alabama. "It's important to understand that this is not nearly the end of this," he said.

Last month, the top court declined to stay Granade's order, with only Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissenting. But the state justices didn't accept that as a warning of eventual defeat.

"The Alabama Supreme Court has now demonstrated a willingness to defy and nullify a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the federal district court for the southern district of Alabama," said David Kennedy, who represented the couple whose case resulted in Granade's ruling.

The 134-page decision did not explicitly invalidate the marriages of hundreds of same-sex couples in recent weeks, but described their licenses as "purported." It said the state doesn't discriminate because it bans both men and women from marrying people of the same sex. It called this rational, because it encourages ties "between children and their biological parents." It dismissed the argument that anyone in love should be able to wed, saying that if so, polygamy would be legal.

At the Jefferson County Courthouse in Birmingham, where about 200 same-sex couples received wedding licenses the first day they were issued and ministers performed marriage ceremonies in the park outside, probate workers said Wednesday that only opposite-sex licenses were now available.

Two women who came in for a license unaware of the decision were refused, said a worker who spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to release information to the news media.

Alabama has done more than any other state to resist same-sex unions, Human Rights Campaign Legal Director Sarah Warbelow said.

"It really is an outlier at this point," she said. "Most states, when they were instructed by the federal government to issue marriage licenses, have done so quietly and in stride."

But Elmore County Probate Judge John Enslen, who had refused Granade's order, applauded the state's justices on his Facebook page, saying he's "saddened for my nation that the word `marriage' has been hijacked by couples who cannot procreate."

Chief Justice Roy Moore, who had told probate judges to ignore Granade's initial order, recused himself.

Justice Greg Shaw was alone in full dissent. He called it "unfortunate" that federal courts refused a delay pending a final U.S. Supreme Court ruling, but said his fellow justices have created more confusion by "venturing into unchartered waters."

The Southern Baptist-affiliated Alabama Citizens Action Program and the Alabama Policy Institute, a conservative think tank, had asked for Tuesday's ruling, "concerned about the family and the danger that same-sex marriage will have," said Joe Godfrey, executive director of ACAP.

But an attorney for couples who sued said the state justices showed "callous disregard" for their rights.

"Even as nationwide marriage equality is on the horizon, the Alabama Supreme Court is determined to be on the wrong side of history," said Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Tuesday's state high court decision seems to have rebuilt the barrier.

"It's very frustrating. I had done made up my mind we were going to issue the licenses and I thought that was it," said Probate Judge Leon Archer in rural Tallapoosa County, which also stopped issuing marriage licenses to gay couples Wednesday. "And I think that is going to be the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in June."

New Jersey Ends Terrapin Harvest To Protect Turtle Population

New Jersey Ends Terrapin Harvest To Protect Turtle Population

STAFFORD TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey has ended this year’s harvest season for a species of brackish water turtle whose numbers are declining due to overharvesting.

The Environmental Protection Department issued an order Monday banning any further harvesting this year of northern diamondback terrapins. It’s the only species of turtle that lives in the brackish waters of the state’s coastal marshes and estuaries.

The state is also studying ways to protect the turtles’ population.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/