Marilyn Mosby On the Freddie Gray Case

Good afternoon. Check out to Marilyn Mosby's interview with the Baltimore Sun News.

#DNC2016: Obama is the Opiate of the People

President Obama is one of today's best orators. Obviously, his speech was excellent as usual. Philosopher Karl Marx said that religion is the opiate of the people. The same can be said of Obama.

With his eloquent and beautiful speeches selling false hopes, fairy tale dreams and childlike optimism, Obama is the opiate of the people.  He is heroin in a spoon bubbling over a flame. His speeches and his mere presence in the White House give our people an illusion of true progress. He temporarily numbs the pain and dulls the senses. Sadly, even noted black activists and scholars nodded off into a silent Obama stuper. Those "leaders" left their watch posts and exchanged their principles for proximity to power.

Even after the killings of Trayvon Martin, Rekia Boyd, Michael Brown, Sam Dubose, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and others, Obama still speaks of one America. Those brutal killings and the bleak absence of justice remind us that there are still two Americas, Black America and White America. The persistent poverty, high unemployment, failing schools, violence, drugs, mass incarceration and dilapidated buildings remind us that there are still two Americas. The emergence and rise of demagogue Donald Trump is an evil sign of the times as well. America is not, and probably never will be, post-racial.

Post-partisan speeches helped Obama win the election in 2008. Despite of Obama's rhetoric of changing how business is done in Washington, Washington is still bitterly divided and highly partisan, probably more so. Like a pimp running game on a prostitute, Obama sold us a dream that never came true.

Now, Obama expect us to support a woman who used race baiting tactics against him. As noted in the Los Angeles Times and the Huffington Post, Hillary Clinton tried to paint Obama as fundamentally foreign, circulated a photo depicting Obama as a foreign Muslim, attacked Obama's pastor, attempted to link Obama to Minister Louis Farrakhan and blew racial dog whistles for "hard working, white Americans". Obama expects us to support a woman who will "say anything to get elected and change nothing."



Obama expects us to vote for a woman who invoked the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy to justify staying in the 2008 presidential race. Obama expects us to support an untrustworthy woman who supported mass incarceration, welfare reform, Wall Street deregulation, reckless wars and disastrous trade policies.

No thank you, Mr. President.

Civil Rights Victory: Court Strikes Down NC Voter ID Law

Politico reports that:

A federal appeals court has struck down North Carolina’s voter identification law, holding that it was “passed with racially discriminatory intent.”

The ruling also invalidated limits the same state law placed in 2013 on early voting, same-day registration, out-of-precinct voting, and preregistration.

The three judges assigned to the case — all Democratic appointees — were unanimous that the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature violated the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act three years ago by enacting the measure requiring voters to show certain types of photo ID at the polls.

"The record makes clear that the historical origin of the challenged provisions in this statute is not the innocuous back-and-forth of routine partisan struggle that the State suggests and that the district court accepted," Judge Diana Motz wrote on behalf of Judges James Wynn and Henry Floyd. "Rather, the General Assembly enacted them in the immediate aftermath of unprecedented African American voter participation in a state with a troubled racial history and racially polarized voting. The district court clearly erred in ignoring or dismissing this historical background evidence, all of which supports a finding of discriminatory intent." (Emphasis added)

The court's opinion bluntly described the legislation as a clear effort to suppress the black vote."We cannot ignore the record evidence that, because of race, the legislature enacted one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina history," Motz added. (Emphasis added)

Congratulations North Carolina State Conference NAACP, Advancement Project and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. This a major victory for civil rights. Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder thereby nullifying the preclearance provisions, the civil rights community must serve as vigilant guardians. We must monitor, investigate and analyze all voting laws changes, particularly those in previously covered states like North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. We must challenge all discriminatory voting laws in the legislature, in the courts and in the streets. In a democracy, no right is more precious than the right to vote.

Freddie Gray, Another Black Life that Doesn't Matter

The Baltimore Sun reports that:

Prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday against three Baltimore police officers accused in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, bringing to an end one of the highest-profile criminal cases in the city's history with zero convictions.

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby acknowledged the long odds of securing convictions in the remaining cases following the acquittals of three other officers on similar though more serious charges.

In a hearing Wednesday meant to start the trial of Officer Garrett Miller, prosecutors dropped their cases against him, Officer William Porter and Sgt. Alicia White. Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams, who had acquitted the other officers, was expected to preside over the remaining trials as well.

After the most recent acquittal and "a great deal of thought and prayer," Mosby said, she resolved to drop the remaining charges. Mosby stood by her decision to bring the charges, pointing out that the medical examiner's office ruled Gray's death a homicide and that it's her job as the city's top prosecutor to seek justice.

"It's something that I've been grappling with for some time," Mosby said of her decision to end the prosecution, during an interview with The Baltimore Sun. "It's not something that was overnight."

In Baltimore, there was a black mayor, a black judge, black cops, a black prosecutor and a black commissioner. Yet, there was no justice for the black victim, Freddie Gray.  Even with a black President and a black Attorney General, there will be no federal charges filed.

The black cops did nothing to stop white cops from unlawfully arresting Freddie Gray. Black cops and white cops failed to buckle Freddie Gray in, thereby recklessly placing him in a precarious and dangerous position. Black cops ignored Freddie Gray's cries for medical attention. The former police commissioner, who is black, continues to defend the police who were responsible for Freddie Gray's death.

A black prosecutor failed to convince a jury and a black judge to convict the officers responsible for Freddie Gray's death, a death ruled a homicide by the medical examiner. Despite clear evidence of reckless endangerment and misconduct, a black judge decided to let three killers walk free. Consequently, realizing that the remaining cases would go back before the same black judge, the black prosecutor was forced to dismiss the charges against the three remaining officers. When CNN asked about that decision, the black mayor spoke in a detached, non-compassionate and emotionless manner about not being surprised by the decision.

Sadly, the system did not fail Freddie Gray. Even with black administrators, the system was never designed to protect poor black people. It was designed to protect the police and the powerful. The racist criminal justice system does not need white administrators in order to function. Its brutality continues even when the black bourgeois is placed in token positions of power. Black lives never mattered, not even to some black people.

Michelle Obama's Speech and Other Highlights from the #DNC

Here are a few highlights from the Democratic National Convention. According the chatter in the press and on social media, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered a powerful speech during the Democratic National Convention. For those of us who did not watch the speech yet, the video is posted below.



On another note, after many long months of campaigning against Wall Street puppet Hillary Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders urged his supporters to support Hillary Clinton. At that point in his speech, his own supporters booed.



Sorry, Bernie. If I was at the Democratic National Convention, I would have booed as well. With all due respect, Hillary Clinton will not advance your political revolution. Clinton's decision to select Tim Kaine as her running mate is an omen.



The low light of the Convention was when the crowd booed Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz off of the stage.  The crowd was outraged over the DNC email leak scandal. Those emails revealed how the DNC colluded with the Clinton campaign and the media to defeat Bernie Sanders.



Let me hear from you. What do you think about the DNC email leak scandal? What is your assessment of Michelle Obama's speech and Bernie Sanders' speech?