iHldhMhhlin.lhhhhiMnl
WILS 03/S0/95
ihhillinililil
**CHILL
- UNC-CH
WILSON LIBRARY
N C COLLECTION
p 0 BOX 8890
CHAPEL HILL
NO 27515-S890
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2016
VOLUME 95- NUMBER11
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50
Historians warn
about use of anger,
race in ‘16 elections
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) - Fear of a changing America is fueling some of the anger playing out publicly
around Donald Trump’s bid for the GOP presidential nomination, historians Ken Burns and Henry Louis
Gates Jr. said March 14.
“We are in a retrograde moment right now in which the dog whistles of race are with us,” said Burns,
an Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker.
Trump is “speaking to a need and a deep set of fears within a large segment of the American commu
nity,” added Gates, a Harvard University scholar and host of a genealogy show on PBS. Those fears need
to be assuaged, and policies formulated to meet the needs of those worried about their future, he said.
The comments came during a National Press Club luncheon during which the two men discussed the
state of race relations in the United States and their upcoming television projects. “Jackie Robinson,”
directed by Burns, along with Sarah Burns and David McMahon, will air on PBS in April, while Gates
will host “Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise” on PBS in the fall.
Trump, the Republican front-runner, has roiled the 2016 presidential race with his comments about
Islam, Mexicans, the media and protesters at his rallies. Violence erupted last week when one of his sup
porters punched a protester being led from an event, and his March 11 rally in Chicago was cancelled for
fear of further violence.
Burns said some of Trump’s comments and actions - like forgetting that he had repudiated a Ku Klux
Klan leader - “that is the wink wink dog whistle that signals to our unreconstructed brothers.”
“We’d like to believe in our better selves but in point of fact, a lot of us aren’t that,” Burns said.
Gates, who supports Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, said he would advise her to “study”, why
some voters are so angry, and “why they are so prone to anti-black, anti-Islamic feelings, and why they
want the wall up” at the U.S. border with Mexico.
Gates also said President Barack Obama underestimated the depth of animosity toward him. “I think
he believed the narrative that a day of racial harmony had come,” he said. “I don’t think they anticipated
the depth of American racism and how much had not changed because a black man had been elected
president.”
Gates said even he was shocked at the amount of vitriol he received after an encounter with a police
officer. Gates was arrested by a white officer who was investigating a burglary at Gates’ home in Mas
sachusetts. The two men met at the White House for a beer with Obama, and are now friends, Gates said.
But the flood of hate telephone calls, e-mails apd letters stunned him.
“I was surprised by how organized hate can be,” he said.
President Barack Obama holds a baby as he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
of Canada greet the audience after reviewing the troops during the State Arrival
ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, March 10. (Official White House
Photo by Pete Souza)
Group: Trump should apologize for saying ‘Islam hates us’
By Jill Colvin
FAYETTEVILLE (AP) - A leading Muslim civil rights group is calling on GOP presidential front-
runner Donald Trump to apologize for his claim that “Islam hates us.”
In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that aired, Trump was asked whether he thinks Islam is
at war with the West.
“I think Islam hates us,” Trump responded. “There’s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom
of it. There is an unbelievable hatred of us.”
The statement drew swift condemnation from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which
called on Trump to apologize for the comment, as it has in response to other comments Trump has made.
“Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric does not reflect leadership, but instead reflects a bigoted mind
set that only serves to divide our nation and the world,” Nihad Awad, the group’s national executive direc
tor said in a statement. The group suggested Trump could do so at the March 10 GOP debate.
Asked during the March 10 GOP debate in Florida whether he was referring to all Muslims across the
globe in his comments, Trump replied, “I mean a lot of them.”
“I will tell you: There’s something going on that maybe you don’t know about,” he said. “But there’s
tremendous hatred. And I will stick with exactly what I said to Anderson Cooper.”
Trump's statement also became an issue for Florida’s Republican Governor, Rick Scott, who repeat
edly sidestepped questions in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Scott, who says he will not
endorse in the primary but is friends with Trump, was asked whether he thinks “Muslims in the state of
Florida hate America.”
Scott instead shifted his answer to more general themes, calling Florida “the best melting pot in the
world" and saying: “We love everybody coming to our state.” The avoidance prompted host Mika Brzez
inski to suggest ending the interview early.
The questions come as Trump continues to dominate the Republican presidential contest, locking up
delegates, despite a series of controversial statements.
President Barack Obama watches his Lin Manuel Miranda rap video with Brian Mosteller,
Director of Oval Office Operations, and Personal Aide Ferial Govashiri in the Outer Oval Office,
March 15. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)
White ex-trooper guilty in shooting
of unarmed black man
By Jeffrey Collins
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A
white former state trooper was
led out of a South Carolina
courtroom in handcuffs March
14 after pleading guilty to a fel
ony charge in the 2014 shooting
an unarmed black driver seconds
after a traffic stop.
Sean Groubert will be sen
tenced later, but Circuit Judge
1 Casey Manning appears to have
already decided there should be
some prison time because he
sent Groubert to jail while he
mulls the punishment. Groubert
faces up to 20 years for assault
and battery of a high and aggra
vated nature. There is no mini
mum sentence.
Before the hearing started,
Levar Jones, shot once in the hip
by Groubert, walked into court
with a limp. He constantly turned
and twisted a Rubik’s Cube, per
haps to calm himself. As pros
ecutors replayed the video of the
shooting taken from Groubert’s
dashboard camera, Jones’ shoul
ders jerked.
He didn’t speak at the 20-min-
ute hearing March 14, but pros
ecutors said he may talk when
Groubert is sentenced. No date
has been set for that hearing.
Groubert answered questions
from the judge. The only hint
of an explanation for what hap
pened came when his lawyer re
quested he continue
Ex-Black Panther
convicted in officer’s
death dies in prison
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - One of two former Black Panthers con
victed in the 1970 bombing death of an Omaha police officer has
died in prison.
Nebraska Department of Correctional Services spokesman An
drew Nystrom said David Rice died around midnight Saturday,
March 12 at the state penitentiary in Lincoln.
Rice’s death will be investigated. Nystrom said the cause hasn’t
been determined, but he had been treated for chronic obstructive pul
monary disease since 2013.
The 68-year-old Rice, who had changed his name to Mondo we
Langa, was convicted along with fellow Black Panther Edward
Poindexter in the death of officer Larry Minard. Authorities say they
lured police to a house with a 911 call, then detonated a homemade
bomb that killed Minard.
The pair maintained their innocence and argued they were tar
geted by an FBI program that undermined radical political groups.
Nebraska prosecutors successfully defended the way the case was
handled in various appeals the two men filed over the years.
Rice and Poindexter both questioned a key witness in the case,
Duane Peak, who implicated both men in the bombing plot. Peak,
who was 15 at the time, testified that he made the 911 call that lured
police to the vacant house.
Attorneys for Rice and Poindexter questioned whether Peak could
have made the 911 call because a recording of the call appeared to
show an adult man’s voice.
The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled on an appeal that involved the
911 tape, and it decided in 1983 that the recording wasn’t enough to
create reasonable doubt about Rice’s guilt.
NAACP: Plaque at Confederate
statue must mention slavery
By Emily Wagster Pettus
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The campus NAACP says a plan to add
context to a Confederate statue at the University of Mississippi is a
failure because a proposed plaque does not mention slavery as the
central issue in the Civil War.
Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter announced March 12 that construction
had started for a stand to hold the plaque and could be finished by the
end of the month on the Oxford campus.
However, the campus NAACP says that the university’s proposed
language “woefully fails its students, faculty and staff when it does
not acknowledge the true history of the Confederacy.” The group
cites Mississippi’s 1861 declaration that it was seceding to protect
slavery.
The NAACP says there’s no need to mention the statue was a
gathering point for a mob fighting integration in 1962.
medication and visits to a psy
chiatrist to deal with post-trau
matic stress disorder from an
on-duty shooting in 2012. His
supervisors said Groubert pro
tected the public by chasing a
suspect who fired on him dur
ing a traffic stop. Groubert was
awarded the Highway Patrol’s
Medal of Valor. The suspect is
serving 20 years in prison on an
attempted murder charge.
The Highway Patrol fired
Groubert after watching a video
of his encounter with Jones on
Sept. 4, 2014. When the video
was released publically a month
later, it shocked a country deal
ing with a wave of questionable
police shootings.
The only evidence prosecu
tors gave March 14 was the vid
eo and Groubert’s statement on
the shooting, given a week later.
They did not match.
The video showed Groubert
pulling up to Jones without his
siren on for a seatbelt violation.
Both men get out of their cars
at a convenience store and the
trooper asked Jones for his li
cense. Jones said he took off his
seatbelt because he was stop
ping at the store after work.
The video shows Jones turn
ing and reaching back into his
car, and Groubert shouts, “Get
outta the car, get outta the car.”
He begins firing and unloads
a third shot as Jones staggers
away, backing up with his hands
raised, and then a fourth. Jones’
wallet can be seen flying out of
his hands.
In his statement, though,
Groubert said: “The subject was
highly aggressive and belliger
ent and ready to attack me from
the second I initiated the traffic
stop.”
The video shows Groubert
started firing four seconds after
asking for Jones’ license. From
the first shot to the fourth, the
video clicks off three more sec
onds.
“Everything seemed to be
happening in fast forward from
the time I saw the driver begin
running toward the vehicle. I
was unsure if the shots fired
were coming from my own pis
tol, or if he was actively shoot
ing,” Groubert said in the state
ment.
In the video, Jones cried in
pain waiting for an ambulance
and repeated: “Why did you
shoot me?”
Groubert has spent the past
18 months driving a truck. He
and his wife were arrested for
shoplifting in October, and
those charges are pending.
South Carolina’s Insurance
Reserve Fund agreed to pay
Jones a $285,000 settlement in
the shooting.