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LUME 94 - NUMBER 32
RU THL
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 2015
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Half of blacks say police
have treated them unfairly
’resident Barack Obama listens as Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. speaks in the South
irt Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White
ise complex in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 6, on the 50th anniversary of the
ing Rights Act. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Mobilizing for the Oct. 10
'Justice or Else’ March in D.C.
By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
PA Columnist
Ken The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan issues a sacred clarion call for a national and interna-
Imobilization for justice, freedom and equality, millions of people across America and throughout
rid respond with responsive enthusiasm and energy. Such was the case in response to the minister’s
rthe Million Man March (MMM) in Washington, D.C. 20 years ago. I believe that history will be
once again this year on October 10 in Washington, D.C.
Analysis
lister Farrakhan boldly has issued a new call: Justice Or Else mobilization on the occasion of the
nniversary of the Million Man March on the National Mall. The minister asserted, “On 10.10.15,
low the world our unity.” Our demand for justice will be a united demand. It will be an unequivocal
d for equal justice.
bout hesitation or fear, I made a decision to join Minister Farrakhan in 1965 to help him organize
obilize the historic Million Man March as its national director. Being an ordained minister in the
IChurch of Christ, I knew then as I still know today that God continues to bless Minister Farrakhan
sly with the vision and mission to redeem and empower black Americans, Latino Americans, Native
cans and all others who struggle for a better quality of life in America and throughout the world.
four times the size of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the Million Man
is believed to have been the largest march ever on the nation’s capital. I believe that God hears
swers the prayers of people and communities that cry out for justice. Today, we must organize and
ze again with renewed vigor and determination.
lost every day now we hear and learn of another dastardly fatal act of racially motivate police
I 1 ' 1 - and misconduct that leaves our families and communities in great sorrow, grief and anger. As
■dent and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), Igetthedailyreportsand
■ feeds about the growing systematic injustices in the United States from our 206 African American-
Bd newspapers based in every region of the nation.
We are the trusted voice of black America and I am telling you that the suffering cup of patience in
:k America has run over. The madness of constant videotaped modern-day lynching of black people
■ U.S. has become intolerable. We are simply not going to take it anymore!
It is providential and a welcome sight to witness the steady growth and development of Justice Or Else
1M 20th Anniversary Local Organizing Committees (LOCs) in every major city. A broad cross section
deal community activists from the NAACP, the National Urban League, National Action Network, the
Blow PUSH Coalition and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Latino and Native
terican organizations and many others are joining with Nation of Islam organizers and officials to build
Bng national network of LOCs.
Bontinued On Page 3)
•ashboard video key in police officer’s manslaughter trial
By Jeffrey Collins
HARLOTTE (AP) - Jurors have heard their first account of what happened in the seconds when
- Charlotte police officer shot and killed an unarmed black man looking for help after a car crash.
a
ootage from officer Adam Neal’s dashboard camera was shown publically for the first time as Neal
bed in the third day of fellow officer Randall Kerrick’s voluntary manslaughter trial.
eal returned to the stand Aug. 6.
n the September 2013 video, Jonathan Ferrell runs out of the camera’s view just before he is shot
Kerrick can’t be seen firing his gun 12 times. But the sound of each shot was recorded through the
ophone on Neal’s uniform, along with the voice of someone yelling “Get on the ground!” three times,
errell was hit by 10 bullets.
urors watched 36 minutes of video. The critical portion lasted only about five seconds.
errell is seen in the headlights of officer Adam Neal’s cruiser as Neal pulls up without using his blue
s or siren. Neal testified that Ferrell was pacing, and Neal saw red laser dots on Ferrell’s chest as
her officer aimed his Taser at Ferrell.
s Ferrell runs out of the camera’s view, a voice is heard yelling “Get on the ground!” Four shots are
, then a pause and eight more shots are heard as someone keeps yelling to for Ferrell to get on the
nd. After the final shot, a voice yells “Don’t move!”
rrell’s family had seen the footage as part of a wrongful death lawsuit they settled with the city of
irlotte for $2.25 million. They showed no reaction to it last Wednesday.
I Dashboard footage from Kerrick’s car and the car of a third officer is al so expected to be introduced
[Vidence.
prosecutors said Kerrick is guilty because he overreacted when he killed Ferrell. Authorities said the
cers did not identify themselves and Neal’s video appears to confirm that.
Defense lawyers said the shooting was justified because Ferrell charged officers before they could
w out what was going on and tried to grab Kerrick’s gun when he fell on the officer.
gal testified he didn’t pull his gun, Taser or baton because he planned to wrestle the 24-year-old for-
Florida A&M football player to take him into custody. Neal and other officers were investigating after
Oman called 911 and reported Ferrell was trying to break down her door as he pounded on it looking
iFP-
wider cross-examination, Neal said he didn’t fire his weapon because he would have hit Kerrick. He
•agreed that he told investigators Ferrell looked like he was “amped up” and was in a“zombie state.”
Derrick, 28, faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted of voluntary manslaughter. The Charlotte-
yklenburg Police Department hired him in 2011 after he had worked as an animal control officer.
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) - A
majority of blacks in the United
States - more than 3 out of 5 - say
they or a family member have
personal experience with being
treated unfairly by the police,
and their race is the reason.
Half of African-American
respondents, including 6 in 10
black men, said they personally
had been treated unfairly by po
lice because of their race, com
pared with 3 percent of whites.
Another 15 percent said they
knew of a family member who
had been treated unfairly by the
police because of their race.
This information, from a sur
vey conducted by the Associated
Press-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research, comes as the
Michael Brown shooting in Fer
guson, Missouri, approaches its
first anniversary and the nation
continues to grapple with police-
related deaths of black Ameri
cans. .
White Americans who live
in more diverse communities -
where census data show at least
25 percent of the population is
non-white - were more likely
than other whites to say police
in their communities mistreat
minorities, 58 percent to 42 per
cent. And they’re more likely to
see the police as too quick to use
deadly force, 42 percent to 29
percent.
Larry Washington, 30, of
Merrillville, Indiana, described
his encounter with a white po
lice officer when he was arrested
for theft in Burbank, Illinois, as
a teenager. “When I got to the
police station, the officer who ar
rested me told me that I looked
like I wanted to do something
about it,” Washington said, add
ing, “And he kept calling me
'nigger.’”
“It’s been like this for a long
time,” Washington said. “It’s just
now that everybody starting to
record it and stuff, it’s just hitting
the spotlight. Most Caucasians,
they think it’s just starting to go
on when it’s been like this.”
The AP-NORC poll also
showed:
-More than two-thirds of
blacks - 71 percent - thought po
lice are treated too leniently by
the criminal justice system when
they hurt or kill people. A third
of whites say police are getting
away with it, while nearly half
- 46 percent - say the police are
treated fairly by the criminal jus
tice system.
-Sixty-two percent of whites
said a major reason why police
violence happens is that civil
ians confront the police, rather
than cooperate, when they are
stopped. Three out of 4 blacks,
or 75 percent, said it is because
the consequences of police mis
conduct are minimal, and few
officers are prosecuted for ex
cessive use of force. More than 7
in 10 blacks identified problems
with race relations,. along with
poor police-community' rela
tions, as major reasons for police
violence.
-Nearly 3 out of 4 whites - 74
percent - thought race had noth
ing to do with how police in their
communities decide to use dead
ly force. Among blacks, 71 per
cent thought police were more
likely to use deadly force against
black people in their communi
ties, and 85 percent said the same
thing applied generally across
the country. Fifty-eight percent
of whites thought race had noth
ing to do with police decisions
in most communities on use of
deadly force.
Seventy-two percent of
whites said they always or often
trust police to do right by them
and their community, while 66
percent of blacks said they only
sometimes, rarely or never trust the police to do what is right.
David A. Clarke Jr, sheriff in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, said
African-Americans have more encounters with police than whites
because of crime rates in urban areas. “If you have more interaction
with the police because of the crime and the disorder in our urban
centers - the American ghetto I like to say it - it’s going to skew the
numbers,” Clarke said.
(Continued On Page 3)
Attendees react to President Barack Obama during his re
marks in a town hall at the Young African Leaders Initiative
(YAL1) Mandela Washington Fellowship Presidential Summit at
the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., Aug. 3. (Official
White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Confederate monument
vandalized for second time
in 3 weeks
By Emily Masters
RALEIGH (AP) - A Confederate monument in Charlotte has been
vandalized for the second time in three weeks, police said Tuesday.
The names of eight of the nine people killed in the mass shooting
inside a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, were
spray painted on one side of the monument. Shooting victim Ethel
Lance’s name was not included.
The phrase, “The cause for which they fought -- the cause of slav
ery - was wrong,” was spray-painted on the other side of the granite
monument, which was first unveiled in 1929.
No one has been charged and the investigation is ongoing, said
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police spokesman Keith Trietley. Police be
lieve the monument was vandalized between 11 p.m. Monday and 9
a.m. Tuesday.
On July 16, liquid cement was smeared on the monument, which
was cleaned at Mecklenburg County’s expense.
The monument’s inscription gives “grateful recognition” to the
Confederate soldiers who “preserved the Anglo-Saxon civilization
of the South.” The granite monument also features four Confederate
battle flags.
The vandalism comes as the nation debates the appropriateness
of the Confederate battle flag and Confederate monuments after the
shooting of nine worshippers at 'Mother Emanuel’ AME. Church in
Charleston, South Carolina. The suspect in that case, a white man,
posed with the Confederate flag in photographs.
Last month, South Carolina removed the Confederate battle flag
from its statehouse grounds but left the Confederate memorial stand
ing. Also in July, North Carolina passed a law banning state or local
authorities from removing “objects of remembrance” — including
Confederate monuments -- from public property without state leg
islative action.
The Mecklenburg County monument was one of two monuments
vandalized in Charlotte on July 16. The word “racist” was spray-
painted on a memorial at Old City Hall. The city removed the monu
ment and relocated it to a city warehouse for cleaning, where it re
mains.
“The city is still working to determine the most effective and cost-
efficient measures to clean and repair the monument,” said corporate
city spokesman Ken Brown. “Considering the possibility of repeat
acts of vandalism, the city is also exploring measures to apply a pro
tectant.” .
The Old City Hall monument was donated by the Confederate
Memorial Association of Charlotte in 1977. The United Confederate
Veterans raised funds with Charlotte citizens to pay for the Mecklen
burg County monument.
Maya Angelou for sale: Belongings of late poet draw
buyers
WINSTON-SALEM (AP) - Crowds are funneling through late
poet Maya Angelou’s home for a sale of some of the furniture, books
and everyday possessions she left behind.
The three-day estate sale for the acclaimed writer and activist is
wraped up Saturday in Winston-Salem. Items for sale ranged from
boxes of light bulbs and bags of cheese knives to Angelou’s personal
typewriter.
Proceeds will be donated to Angelou’s foundation and other chari
ties.