The days are dwindling down and I really am not feeling any stronger about the Mehserle case. Call it a loss of faith in the criminal justice system but I can really see the courts allowing Mehserle to walk free. Ironically, I know that if any member of the P.R program were to even have a bullet let alone actually shoot another person we would be sent strait to prison. on the flip side of that, if you are a cop the state of California has to go armed to the teeth to even get a case against one of them. And that’s with clear empirical evidence against that cop.
It should be noted, I have family and friends that have been convicted on their style of walking (Swag) or what outsiders had perceived their walk to be.
J B
Ron Cottingham, president of the California Peace Officers Association, the group behind Mehserle's legal fund, said Mehserle could be just the second officer in California in recent memory to be sentenced on a gun enhancement.
ReplyDelete"It will send a chilling message to all police officers trying to do their job in a lawful and efficient manner in which Mr. Mehserle believes he was trying to do that night,
If that is the true sentiment of post cops, all public fear is justified.
JB
Brisenia Flores
ReplyDeleteDoes the name Brisenia Flores sound familiar? It should. On May 30th 2009, the nine year old Brisenia Flores and her Father Raul Flores 29 were brutally murdered in their Arizona home. The details of the crimes are gruesome, but more chilling still is the lack of media coverage concerning the case. Yesterday, February 22nd 2010 Shawna Forde 43 was convicted of two counts of first degree murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Yet there has yet to be any significant mainstream media coverage of the trial or the story itself. Shawna Forde is a vigilant anti-immigration activist, former member of the Minute Men Civil Defense Group, and FAIR representative (Federation of American Immigration Reform). With immigration reform a key hot button issue that continues to dominate the public discourse why has this story received so little media attention? In case you are one of the many people unfamiliar with the details of the case they are as follows.
“Posing as law enforcement and Border patrol officers Forde and two accomplices, Albert Gaxiola and Jason Bush arrived at the Flores home after midnight, several hours after the family had returned from a shopping trip in Tucson to buy shoes for their daughter for summer camp. Brisenia was sleeping on the couch with her puppy when the group demanded to be let into the home. They accused Flores of harboring illegal aliens and said the house was surrounded by agents. Once inside, Jason Bush the alleged gunman shot Flores in the chest and Brisenia’s mother Gina Gonzalez in the leg. Brisenia was later shot as she pleaded for her life.”
(CNN Wire Staff. "Jury Decides on Death Penalty for Woman Who Headed Vigilante Squad." 22 Feb. 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2011)
This is an approximate transcription of an online article posted on CNN’s website on February 22nd 2011. It was placed in the side bar under “Latest News” just a two bulletin points away from the newsworthy article “Justin Bieber Debuts ‘Mature’ Haircut”. These and other relevant news stories were allocated to this small side bar to make room for stories in the main section. Stores such as “Hope for Auburn’s Poisoned Trees?” and “Hefner: Marilyn is my favorite pin-up”.
I am aghast as to why the main stream media has not made this story a national issue. The New York Times and Fox News are all guilty of paying this story cursory attention. Even when the story is covered it omits some of the more graphic and horrific details.
The story has been covered in some degree but the announcement of the conviction has largely been overshadowed by other more sensational, but in my eyes, less pertinent stories. At a time when the toxic rhetoric of the Tea party and other political groups is under scrutiny for its hand in the shooting of Senator Gifford in Arizona, the relevance of an anti-immigration activist orchestrating the murder of two Mexican-American citizens is incontrovertible.
I can’t help but think what the media coverage of the story would be if the colors were reversed, if it was a white family murdered at the hands of pro-immigration activists. In a Democracy it is the duty of the citizens to be informed. Becoming informed, however, becomes complicated when media outlets are for profit corporations fighting to outdo one another rather than serve the public welfare.
Brisenia Flores and Raul Flores’ death is a tragic event with some very serious and pertinent implications. It is our jobs as citizens to educate ourselves and to have meaningful and constructive conversations about tragedies such as this. If we can learn something from this, develop or advance ourselves as a country, and as a human race, then Brisenia and Raul’s death won’t have been completely in vain.
That same year, just a couple of weeks fallowing the OG shooting, Annette Garcia was also killed by Riverside Police on January 23rd. She was a mother of three and a striving activist being a part of the Watsonville Chapter of the Brown Berets. She was shot at 6 times when a bullet eventually struck her and instantly killed her. Police arrived to her front house when they received a call of a marriage dispute.
Delete“Racial Profiling is one of the top civil rights issues in the United States today. Across the country government officials, civil rights advocates, academics, law enforcement executives, and members of the general public are discussing this social issue. In June of 1999 President Clinton signed an Executive Order directing the Attorney General to develop a plan whereby Federal Agencies would begin to collect data on the race and gender of the people they stop to question or arrest. Federal legislation (The Traffic Stops Statistics Study Act of 2000, H.R. 1443, S.821.) that provides for the collection of data from traffic stops by federal officers has been introduced to both Houses in Congress in a bipartisan effort. In 2001, President Bush has directed Attorney General John Ashcroft to place Racial Profiling and Data Collection as a top Justice Department priority. Currently, at least 300 law enforcement agencies across the nation have voluntarily decided to collect racial data on traffic stops. Clearly the issue of racial profiling is of top National concern, and is considered by many to be the Nation’s most important Civil Rights issue of the new millennium.”
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lamberthconsulting.com/about-racial-profiling/racial-profiling-effecton-nation.asp
When I was being taught in high school it didn’t really phase me. I thought these things were a thing of the past and that hopefully they were behind us. My mom always told me to be aware of what I was doing because of the color of my skin. Of course being my mom I just thought she was being paranoid and that she only thought that way because she immigrated here from Nigeria. She was always working so when I entered high school in order to make it easier on me she got me an apartment in Beverly Hills. I lived across the street from a coffee bean as usual after I came back from soccer practice I always went there to get something to drink but one particular day apparently a robbery had occurred earlier that day. The cops saw me and immediately flagged me down and cuffed me right in front my apartment. When I asked what the reason was at first they were reluctant to respond but after they searched my wallet and saw that they had cuffed me literally in front of my own house they told me the reasoning. Apparently I fit the profile. It was this day that I realized that not much has changed in the past years and I had finally witnessed first hand this ghost I had heard of called racial profiling.
Bridging the gap between individuals formally incarcerated and myself!!!
ReplyDeletewhen I found out about Project Rebound on campus I knew I had to intern there. On the first day of orientation the three gentlemen over the program shared their stories of how they became affiliated with the program; however, one of their stories hit me like a ton of bricks "dam that's me!" I thought to myself, because even though I was a divorced mother of three kids who had move to the Bay Area to pursue a better life through education, it made me reflect back on my time before moving to the Bay Area. I realize that due to the stress of the divorce and my new status of being a single mother I was emotionally locked-up. Although, I had never been incarcerated physically, mentally I was incarcerated. That is when I realized that I was no different from the gentlemen that spoke and the gap between us was closed. Further, we had one common goal that brought us to SFSU which was freedom of mind that has transformed us through going back to receive an education.
N H
Absolutely! I agree with the statement above. There is no difference between individuals incarcerated and ourselves. We are all humans striving to improve our lives. We all deserve the opportunity to better ourselves through education. Education is freedom, and should be offered to anyone willing. We have all had hard times and we can learn from the mistakes within ourselves and the system. We can help to provide information on these otherwise grey matters. We should be helping one another for the benefit of a greater society.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately racism still exist in this country, and the world. My twin brother always gets upset and angry when he is waling down the street, completely innocent and is stopped by the police because so how he fits the description of someone that they are looking for. I always tell him to make sure that he stays out of trouble, but he says it doesn't matter whether you stay out of trouble or not because they (the police) don't care all they want to do is find someone to do the time.
ReplyDeleteThere are times when I am truly scared for my twin brother's survival. The laws that are set in this country is suppose to protect his rights, but it does more harm than good sometimes.
Education is something that is immensly important. It is probably one of the few things that people can not take away from us. It is knowledge that helps ua be wiser and it helps us understand things around us. I have many friends that have dropped out of school after highschool. Many of them tell me, "School is not for me", "Im not smart enough", "I can't do it". I always tell them that they need to find their passion because I believe there is something out there for everyone. When I heard about Project Rebound through my internship class I was intrigues to learn more about it. The incarrcerated population is so stigmatized by our society. In reality, they are no different from us. When people find their passion and want to get an education to move forward, it shows alot about the person. It's not an easy step, nothing is easy. It can be challenging and often intimidating for many people, but when I see people taking an opportunity to change their lives it really makes me happy. When I know I played a role in making a difference in someone's life, there are no words to describe it.
ReplyDeleteReceiving free education is the basic human right. There is no difference between incarcerated individuals and common people. Incarcerated individuals is a part of component in the society and so they deserved to receive the education as usual. People should not stereotype incarcerated individuals as abnormal people. They are just paid the cost of commiting the crimes. We should give chances for them to lead a normal life.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly how I feel (in reference to above). Receiving an education should not be limited to people who are not incarcerated. I know that if we continue to educate people, even in the prisons, we will continue to grow as a country. The United States is so behind in the developing area because of the poor education systems. We probably have the least amount of truly educated people out of all developed countries. This needs to change. We need to reach out to as many people as possible about receiving a great education and learning as much as possible!
ReplyDeleteAfter listening to the story of Willie Stokes Ramirez, reformed Salinas gang member my ambition to help educate rather than incarcerate became even stronger. Willie had come from a very unstable background. His mother was a Mexican prostitute and his father was his Mothers pimp. He had never met his father; all he knew was that he was African American and apparently not a very nice man. After many complications Willie and his brothers and sisters moved in with their Aunt and abusive Uncle. Willie ran away and joined the Nuestra Familia. He became a very influential and admired member quickly after joining the gang at Pelican Bay prison where he educated himself reading psychology, philosophy, science and many other academic books. With this education he found it extremely easy to push youngsters into joining the gang and doing the dirty work, giving them false hope of a good life. Willie, since leaving the gang has started his own business, published his own book ‘Testimony of a Black Sheep’ (which I have bought and will read it as soon as I receive it!) and is now teaching in many schools, is a public figure and teaches in juvenile prisons. I cannot do his story justice so I would strongly recommend going to one of his public speeches or reading his book. Willie is one of the most inspiring people I have come across and I hope through my own education I can help others to reform, I am extremely glad that Project Rebound is located a SFSU and I hope it becomes available in many other Universities too.
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