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.
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.
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?
Last night, actor Jesse Williams received the 2016 BET Humanitarian Award. He gave a powerful and moving acceptance speech. He boldly discussed police brutality, activism, racism and cultural appropriation. In my YouTube video below, I salute the brother for his courage. Check it out.
A Baltimore judge acquitted the police officer facing the most serious charges in the death of Freddie Gray on Thursday, delivering a broad rebuke of a case that he said lacked evidence.
Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., 46, drove the transport van in which Gray sustained fatal injuries. He is the second officer cleared in the high-profile case. Four other officers could still face trial.
After an eight-day bench trial, Circuit Judge Barry Williams found Goodson not guilty on charges that included second-degree depraved-heart murder and three counts of manslaughter.
The acquittal cast doubt on the remaining criminal cases in which the other officers face similar but lesser charges. Legal observers said Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who drew widespread praise and also condemnation after charging the officers in May 2015, must now re-evaluate the remaining cases.
Prosecutors alleged Goodson deliberately threw the shackled but unrestrained Gray around the back of the van by giving him a "rough ride." Williams said the state lacked evidence and was asking him to make assumptions.
"As the trier of fact, the court can't simply let things speak for themselves," Williams said.
In my YouTube video below, I express my outrage about this grave miscarriage of justice.
Judge Barry G. Williams has denied a motion to acquit Baltimore Police Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
Defense attorneys for Goodson filed the written motion at the conclusion of the state’s case asking Williams to issue a judgment of acquittal, based on the defense claim that prosecutors had not proven Goodson’s guilt to a reasonable degree on the charges against him – including second-degree depraved heart murder.
Such motions are standard at the midway point in trials, after prosecutors have rested their case and before the defense mounts its own.
Williams questioned the state closely, saying the murder charge was a "close call."
The defense will proceed with calling witnesses Thursday.
The prosecution concluded its case Wednesday after calling a police expert witness who testified about so-called rough rides but couldn’t say whether Goodson, the driver of the van in which Gray was injured, gave such a ride to Gray.
Gray, 25, died a week after his arrest in April of last year from a severe spinal cord injury that both sides agree he suffered in the back of the van. They have argued over when and how the injury occurred during Gray’s 45-minute transport in the back of the van.
Goodson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree depraved heart murder, three counts of manslaughter and related charges. Prosecutors allege that he failed to secure Gray in a seat belt or call a medic for Gray after he had requested one. They also allege that he intentionally drove Gray around in a reckless manner.
Defense attorneys have said Gray’s injuries were a tragic accident.
The state called a total of 21 witnesses over five days. The court has not said how long the defense expects to take in presenting its case.
I am deeply concerned that Officer Goodson make walk away a free man still employed by the Baltimore City Police Department. According to some legal experts, the prosecution did not present any evidence proving that Officer Goodson took Freddie Gray on a "rough ride." Equally as important, the judge admitted the medical examiner's notes into evidence. As reported in the Sun, the notes suggest that the medical examiner initially considered ruling Freddie Gray's death an accident. The notes undermine the medical examiner's court testimony and credibility. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the judge will find that Goodson's failure to secure Freddie Gray in a seat belt rises to the level of deprived heart murder or even manslaughter.
Although the Democratic Primary is far from over, the corporate media and its establishment pundits have essentially declared their candidate, Hillary Clinton, the winner. The political establishment is desperately trying to intimidate and bully people into supporting Hillary Clinton by threatening us with the possibility a President Donald Trump presidency or a President Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz. Through such scare tactics, they have begun to demand that Bernie Sanders’ supporters bow before Hillary Clinton’s throne, kiss her ring and declare unconditional fealty to her. I refuse to do so. I refuse to be intimidated. We are told that we must vote for the lesser of two evils. To hell with that, I will never vote for Hillary Clinton for several reasons.
As reported in Salon, the Clintons and the Democratic Leadership Council embraced policies that “less tilted toward minorities and welfare” in order to reconnect “the Democratic Party to white working- and middle-class class voters.” For the Clintons, being “tough on crime” and ending welfare were perfect ways to reconnect with white voters. Crime and welfare are racially weaponized issues. Hillary Clinton supported, lobbied for and campaigned for the enactment of the 1994 crime bill, a law that led to the mass incarceration of black people for nonviolent drug offenses. As noted in Michelle Alexander’s masterpiece entitled the New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,
“Far from resisting the emergence of the new caste system, Clinton escalated the drug war beyond what conservatives had imagined possible a decade. As the Justice Policy Institute has observed, ’the Clinton Administration’s tough on crime polices resulted in the largest increases in federal and state prison inmates of any president in American history.”
Even though there is zero proof that African American use or sale drugs more than whites, a disproportionately large percentage of those inmates were black. Clinton's War on Drug, Nixon's, targeted black communities.
To lessen or diminish his culpability for mass incarceration, Bill Clinton and his sycophants argue that most people are incarcerated in state prisons, not federal prisons. Such an analysis ignores the fact that the Clinton Administration, like previous Bush Administration, created incentives to encourage states to lock up more and more black people in state prisons. As noted in The New Jim Crow, those incentives were created by transferring “military, equipment, technology and training to local law enforcement, contingent, of course, on the willingness of agencies to prioritize drug-law enforcement and concentrate resources on arrest for illegal drugs.” Michelle Alexander further writes that “the bill…authorized more than $16 billion for state prison grants and expansion of state and local police force.”
With this increased funding, training and technology, those police departments did not target white suburban and rural communities. They targeted black communities. Massive numbers of black people were locked way in America’s concentration camps and forced to become the new slaves. Those who were released from the physical prisons were transferred to a virtual prison of the New Jim Crow. Under such a system, it is legal discriminate against ex-felons in housing, employment and voting rights.
In addition to promoting mass incarceration, the Clintons cut holes in the safety net for poor and vulnerable families, who are disproportionately black. As reported on Alter Net, the Clinton’s 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) “ended the federal guarantee of cash assistance to the poor, limited welfare payments and turned welfare programs over to the states.” It “destroyed the safety net for poor people, increased poverty, lowered income for single mothers, put people into homeless shelters and left states free to eliminate welfare entirely."
Furthermore, Hillary Clinton supported disastrous trade policies like North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”), Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade agreements that have sent American jobs overseas. In the long run, such agreements devastated communities dependent on manufacturing jobs for employment and prosperity.
Aside from supporting detrimental trade policies, Hillary Clinton and her husband supported the deregulation of Wall Street which eventually led to the mortgage foreclosure crisis and the recession. Despite that reality and despite her campaign receiving millions of dollars from Wall Street, some fools actually believe that she is going to reign in Wall Street.
Not only does she have an abysmal track record on domestic policy, she supports hawkish militarism and imperialism abroad. As a U.S. Senator, she supported the Iraq War, a war that was based on the lie that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of American soldiers died based on a lie. In all actuality, they died so that Halliburton and other American companies could reap huge profits. That ridiculous war destabilized the region and enabled the emergence of ISIS.
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton supported the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya. Now, Libya is a failed state and ISIS has a foothold in that country. Attacks in Brussels, Paris, Benghazi, Sacramento are the fruits of Hillary Clinton’s and many others American politicians’ failed foreign policy. Also, she unconditionally supports Israel’s occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people. She gravels at the feet of AIPAC for support.
In essence, I will never vote for Hillary Clinton because of her failed and disastrous track record of supporting mass incarceration, welfare reform, trade agreements, deregulation of Wall Street and American imperialism.
Those policies are evil. Hillary Clinton is not the lesser evil. In some ways, she is an equivalent evil. The Clinton embraced the shortsighted policies of the “evil” Republicans. In fact, Clintons had a term for this phenomenon, triangulation. With Democrats like that, who needs Republicans. One should not be forced to choose between the devil and Satan, the wolf and the fox. I refuse to vote for any form of evil.
Unfortunately, many of us have accepted and embraced that false dilemma. If Scooby Doo was the Democratic nominee, many African Americans and other Democrats would follow the zombie herd and blindly vote for Scooby Doo. They have adopted a slave mentality. They are captive voters who will accept any Democratic nominee even if that nominee has a track record of making decisions that have had a devastating impact on our black communities. I reject such group think.
As captive Democratic voters, the black community is expendable. We have very little leverage or influence. The Clintons and other right-wing Democrats have no problem throwing the black community under the bus. The black community is loyal and faithful like a dog to its master. The black community is loyal like a battered woman to her abusive husband. The Democratic will quick cast us aside to secure white conservative voters. When one accepts such abuse, one will continue to be abused. I refuse to be Hillary Clinton’s battered victim. We deserve better.
In addition to her bad track record, Hillary Clinton is not fit to be President. She race baits for votes. During the 2008 President election, she used various race baiting tactics against Barack Obama including releasing a photo of Obama in “African Muslim” attire to fan the flames of birtherism and Islamophobia. During that campaign, she made racial appeals to “hard working white Americans.” Back then, Bill Clinton dismissed Obama by comparing Obama’s South Carolina primary victory to Rev. Jesse Jackson’s South Carolina primary.
After Hillary Clinton secured votes from gullible, uninformed blacks in the South this year, Bill Clinton threw Obama under the bus by describing the Obama's time in office as an “awful legacy.” Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton disrespected Black Lives Matter activists and continue to support Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, a man who covered up the police murder of a young black man, Laquan McDonald. Yet, they have no problem exploiting Trayvon Martin’s mother and Sandra Bland’s mother to get black votes. Hillary Clinton sunk to a new low when she used those grieving mothers to attack Bernie Sanders.
Hillary Clinton is dishonest. She lied about her State Department emails. She lied about coming under sniper fire in Bosnia. She has no integrity or core principles. She will say and do anything to get elected, including using the corpses of dead children killed in Sandy Hook as political footballs. She has changed positions on immigration, trade policies, same sex marriage and Wall Street. One minute, she is a progressive. The next minute, she is a moderate with conservative roots. She is a chameleon who changes with the political environment and political winds.
As long as the American people continue to vote for mediocre, moderate, corporate, deceptive candidates like Hillary Clinton, there is be no true quantitative and qualitative progress in this country. Enough is enough. On the other hand, Bernie Sanders is the one of the most progressive, mainstream Presidential candidates in American history. For that reason, I support him to the bitter end.
If Bernie Sanders does not win, we do not have to settle for Hillary or the Republicans. Our ancestors and elders did not struggle and die so that we would be forced to vote a candidate who supported policies that are detrimental to our community. To do so would dishonor our ancestors and our elders.
There are many lesser known Democratic candidates running for President. There are Green Party, Socialism and Liberation Party, Peace & Freedom Party, Socialist Workers Party, Workers World Party and other third party candidates running. We must diligently research each candidate and make an informed decision. Contrary to the establishment reasoning, such a vote is not a wasted vote or a vote for the Republican candidate. It is a vote for change. It is vote against the political machine. It is a vote against the power elite, the 1 percenters. One should vote out of hope, not fear. Bernie or Bust.
