Joe…Being a Judge and Lawyer, should know better…
Oh well…The way some courts are behaving in this country…
It’s hard not to hold them in contempt.
Judge, you get promoted to Giant Negro status for your shout out to BLM!
Monthly Archives: August 2015
Faux News Attacks BLM With Favorite Tom
Once question…Why do all the Uncle Toms appearing on Faux News look like they are severely constipated? Guy looks like he has a baseball bat up his rear end!
Fox News declares #BlackLivesMatter a “murder movement”
On “Fox & Friends” Monday morning, co-host Brian Kilmeade spoke to Milwaukee County Sheriff and let’s-be-honest-de-facto-Fox News contributor David Clarke about the murder of Texas Sheriff’s Deputy Darren Goforth, which Clarke attributed to the Obama administration’s ongoing “war on police.”
Clarke is no fan of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, having testified before Congress in May of this year that the group was part of a “wrecking ball” effort to “kick white America in the teeth,” but even so, it was surprising that Fox News chose to use a chryon reading “‘Murder’ Movement” when it brought him on to speak about the death of Deputy Goforth.
No connection between the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the suspected gunman, Shannon Miles, has been established, but that didn’t stop Sheriff Clarke from railing against black activists and anyone else who doesn’t offer unadulterated support to members of law enforcement.
“Let me start here,” he said, “the headline is ‘Black man shoots white defenseless police officer.’ I get sick and tired of seeing it the other way around when an officer defends his life. They always point out that it’s a white officer shooting an unarmed black suspect.”
Lest you believe Clarke capable of rising about the cacophony of anti-Obama condemnations emanating from Fox News, by “they” Sheriff Clarke clearly meant a conspiracy that goes all the way to the very top.
“President Obama has breathed life into this ugly movement,” he said, “and it is time now for good law-abiding Americans to rise up like they did around that Chevron station — an outpouring — but it can’t just be symbolic. We now have to counter this slime, this filth coming out of these cop-haters.”
Kilmeade offered that all President Obama did was “shed light” on law enforcement’s problematic relationship with the black community, but Sheriff Clarke would have none of it.
“That’s a lie,” he said. “If there is anything that needs to be straightened out in this country, it is the subculture that has risen out of the underclass in the American ghetto. Fix the ghetto and you’ll see a lesser need for assertive police officers, or policing in these areas, and then you’ll see less confrontation. Stop trying to fix the police. Fix the ghetto.”
First Sheriff David Clark is the only black policeman in a 95% white community in the Milwaukee suburbs – Milwaukee – which is the most segregated city in America.If the Sheriff was really concerned about the black community…Why isn’t he working in East Milwaukee?
Second, and even more important – we don’t know yet why the accused, Shannon Miles killed the officer in Harris County, Texas. The accused’s method would indicate that he specifically targeted this Sheriff for some personal reason. It fits the profile of a straight up revenge killing.
Lastly, the kickback sounds familiar to those who were alive during the CiviL Rights Movement, where the local Segregationist racist Sheriff would always complain about “Outside agitators” and “Civil Rights Troublemakers”…Not sure how this is supposed to help the situation.
Sounds a lot like another Sheriff in another time…
Donald Trump’s White Nationalist and KKK Supporters
Time for Sean Hannity to call out the “Usual Suspects”, Uncle Jesse Lee Peterson, or his newest darling Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee to deny they have seen any white hooded robe types and to provide race protection for bigoted whites.
Time for Uncle Ben Carson to make a speech about “There aren’t any bigots here” for fame and money,
Sturmfeurher Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant and increasingly racist rhetoric i bearing fruit -as the minions of the white nationalist and racist right gather round…
Behind Trump, the GOP Really Is Becoming the Racist Party
The Donald is getting the backing of the white supremacist crowd, and the GOP from Priebus on down says nothing. Draw your own conclusion.
Let me offer some friendly advice to the Republican Party that I learned firsthand as a Muslim American: You don’t want to be defined by your most extreme members. And here’s a little more advice. The longer the GOP leadership remains silent as Donald Trump garners increasing support from white supremacist organizations, the more likely the GOP will become known as the party of racists.
I know, some of my progressive friends will say that’s already the case. But that’s not fair. Sure there are racists drawn to the GOP, just like we have seen psychopaths attracted to Islam. I’m sure not all Republicans are racists and I bet some are even disgusted by bigotry.
We are, however, seeing a bone chilling attraction to Trump by white nationalist groups. It’s almost like they view Trump’s candidacy as their last stand against the changing demographics of America. He’s become the poster child for their philosophy that “White Lives Matter More.”
For example, just last week David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux, publicly praised Trump as the best Republican candidate in the 2016 field because he “understands the real sentiment of America.” Duke applauded Trump’s views on immigration that call for mass deportation of families, saying that Trump is”speaking out on this greatest immediate threat to the American people.”
Trump’s tepid response to Duke’s glowing praise was troubling to say the least: “I certainly wouldn’t want his endorsement. I don’t need anyone’s endorsement.” When pressed by a reporter to repudiate Duke, Trump responded, “Sure, I would if that would make you feel better.”…
Duke, however, is far from the only person tied to white supremacist or hate groups publicly endorsing Trump. Last week, white nationalist radio host James Edwards, a man who has warned against interracial marriage, called slavery “the greatest thing that ever happened to” blacks, and featured a “roster of white supremacists” on his show, publicly endorsed Trump.
Trump has also been touted by neo-Nazi websites such as The Daily Stormer with articles like, “We are all Donald Trump Now.” And as Media Matters set forth in detail a few days ago, the list of white nationalist leaders supporting Trump is alarmingly long.
The issue is not just that these hate groups see something they like in Trump. These groups have the right to endorse anyone they like. The more alarming issue is Trump’s failure to publicly to condemn them….
Strange Justice in Mississippi – Black Judge Fired For Not Convicting Enough People
The strange case of Judge Ricky Thompson, and the Mississippi Judicial system…
It would seem the New Jim Crow System of a carceral state functioning to deprive minorities of their voting and other rights, and to keep them in their place is in full force in Mississippi.whether in Ferguson, Mo, or Harris County, Texas – the forces of supposed “Law and Order” have become nothing more than the instruments of the Modern Jim Crow. This system functions to suppress minority voting, having the same effect as the Old Jm Crow era Poll Tax through disenfranchisement.
Judge Thomson, center at rally to support his judgeship
Whites Quit Working With Black Mississippi Judge, Then He Got Sacked
Rickey Thompson started a drug court to start treating offenders and stop imprisoning them. Then he says officials quit sending him offenders altogether.
A black judge in Mississippi claims he was removed from office following years of resistance from a mostly white legal system to his push to treat drug offenders instead of imprisoning them.
Justice Court Judge Rickey Thompson of Lee County—named for Confederate general Robert E. Lee—is the first and only black judge in the county’s 149-year history. In May, the Mississippi Supreme Court removed him from the post that he’s held since 2004 over a slew of misconduct allegations.
“It came to the point where they couldn’t beat me at the ballot, so they had to find another direction,” he said.
Thompson said the sheriff quit sending him suspects and fellow judges quit sending the accused to his drug court. Warrants he signed for the sheriff’s department went unserved. A bailiff even once refused to open his court.
Officially, Thompson was found by Mississippi’s highest court to have violated several rules, including what amounts to making clerical errors like using the wrong form when filing paperwork. That should not be surprising given Mississippi requires only a high school diploma to be a justice court judge. (Thompson, a registered nurse with an associate degree, has more education than that of his fellow justice court magistrates.)
Thompson’s crimes include speaking up for a bail bondsman who had been previously suspended from operating by the sheriff; preventing a drug court defendant from choosing her own attorney over one he advocated for; keeping some people in drug court longer than the two years allowed by state law; wrongly incarcerating four people.
The last charge is the most important: When a handful of offenders violated the drug court’s rules, Thompson found them in contempt of court and sent them to jail. The longest sentence was six months.
If Thompson hadn’t created his drug court in the first place, the four people he locked up for contempt would have almost surely been in prison longer than they would have been for their drug offenses. That means Thompson was kicked off the bench, in part, for not locking up drug offenders for longer than he did.
The judge was popular with blacks in the county, and he kept quite a few of them out of jail for minor offenses like marijuana possession. The sheriff evidently wanted to see them in his jail or prison.
“When I first started, obviously there was a learning curve, but you see some of the bad things that are going on,” Thompson said. “And as people got to know me and know that I was going to be fair, that I wasn’t going to be a rubber stamp, that’s when the trouble started.”…More on the story here…
Dead Confederate Memorials, and Living Bigots
The Southern Myth is rapidly imploding, with everything from Universities to Counties and States seeking to remove symbols of confederate racism and slavery…
University Removes Jefferson Davis Statue
Jefferson Davis (FINALLY) being carted off to a dustbin in a museum at UT Austin
A statue of Jefferson Davis was removed from its pedestal Sunday on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, days after a court rejected an appeal from a Confederate heritage group.
Crews were seen removing the statue of the Confederate president from its place near the university’s iconic clock tower.
Davis’ statue will eventually be displayed in the Briscoe Center history museum on campus, which university officials said is a more appropriate place for it. The Briscoe Center has one of the nation’s largest archives on slavery.
The statue has been a target of vandalism as well as criticism that it is a symbol of racism and discrimination. Confederate symbols nationwide are being re-considered following the recent mass shooting of members of a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Yale Has A College Named After A Racist, But That Might Change
Yale University’s leaders on Saturday urged a campus conversation about whether to change the name of a residential college named for 19th century alumnus John C. Calhoun, a U.S. vice president and senator from South Carolina who was an ardent supporter of slavery.
Debate over the name began this summer with a petition circulated after nine black worshippers were slain in a Charleston, South Carolina, church. The petition said the Calhoun name, in place since the 1930s, represents “an indifference to centuries of pain and suffering among the black population.”
President Peter Salovey and Dean Jonathan Holloway said in a letter to alumni that weren’t taking a position on the question but urging a discussion in welcoming speeches to first-year students, and “we encourage you to take part as well.”
“Any response should engage the entire community in a thoughtful, campus-wide conversation about the university’s history, the reasons why we remember or honor individuals, and whether historical narratives should be altered when they are disturbing,” the letter said.
Salovey and Holloway posted their remarks to the students on the university’s website, along with suggested scholarly readings and an internal comment site.
And -It appears there may be still a ways to go in getting the living bigots out of positions of responsibility…
Teacher Was Fired After School Found Out She Was With Black Man: Suit
A white Florida teacher claims she was discriminated against for having a black boyfriend and associating with black staff members.
A lawsuit filed by former Edgewater High School math teacher Audrey Dudek against Orange County Public Schools last week alleges that she was fired in 2013 after school administrators found out she was dating a black man, to whom she is now married.
A copy of the lawsuit obtained by WESH says that at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, principal Michelle Erickson learned that Dudek’s boyfriend was black.
“Upon encountering Dudek with her boyfriend, Principal Erickson appeared shocked and offended,” the lawsuit said. “After that encounter, Principal Erickson treated Dudek differently.”
The lawsuit also claims that on another occasion, then-vice principal Anthony Serianni berated Dudek until she cried. When Dudek confided in a black security guard after the incident, Serianni allegedly complained about the teacher being associated with “those” people, referring to black staff members.
Dudek also says that during a talent show, school staff members, including Erickson and Serianni, took part in a racist skit in which staff wore “black face,” “weave hair extensions” and gold teeth in a “pejorative display of ‘black’ culture.”
Dudek was fired in 2013 on the basis of her race, gender and who she associated with, the lawsuit alleges.
A representative for the Orange County school district could not immediately be reached for comment. But in a statement sent to the Orlando Sentinel, the district said Dudek was not discriminated against.
“The district denies all allegations of discrimination by Ms. Dudek,” spokeswoman Shari Bobinski said in an email. “The district will not comment any further due to pending litigation.”…
Design Inspiration?
New Lexus front end design…
Blue Crab…
Just Asking…
Historically a great car, but…A lot of folks are really panning the new look.
Predicting Schizophrenia – And Implications for Gun Control
First off – not all (or even a majority) of people suffering from Schizophrenia will ever become violent. However in a country which suffers the highest level of violence in the Industrialized world, and over 10 times the number of Mass Murders of any other country…Which not coincidentally has the most pathetic mental health system…
Maybe it is time to look at another way to avert the violence. Can we identify and treat those with Mental Illness which are likely to become violent?
I haven’t taken time to calculate the numbers – but it also seems that a disproportionate number of people killed by the Police are in fact folks suffering from mental disease – specifically Schizophrenia who are 14 times more likely to suffer violence than non-sufferers of the disease.
The Virginia Tech Shooter had been diagnosed with severe psychotic breaks (Schizophrenia) but was still allowed to obtain the weapon with which he shot and killed several dozen of his classmates. Most research indicates he was an outlier in terms of violent behavior.
Should we, as a society examine ways to predict violent actions, and deny those folks access to guns? Admittedly, this is a thorny Constitutional and legal question.
Computers Can Predict Schizophrenia Based on How a Person Talks
A new study finds an algorithmic word analysis is flawless at determining whether a person will have a psychotic episode.
Although the language of thinking is deliberate—let me think, I have to do some thinking—the actual experience of having thoughts is often passive. Ideas pop up like dandelions; thoughts occur suddenly and escape without warning. People swim in and out of pools of thought in a way that can feel, paradoxically, mindless.
Most of the time, people don’t actively track the way one thought flows into the next. But in psychiatry, much attention is paid to such intricacies of thinking. For instance, disorganized thought, evidenced by disjointed patterns in speech, is considered a hallmark characteristic of schizophrenia. Several studies of at-risk youths have found that doctors are able to guess with impressive accuracy—the best predictive models hover around 79 percent—whether a person will develop psychosis based on tracking that person’s speech patterns in interviews.
A computer, it seems, can do better.
That’s according to a study published Wednesday by researchers at Columbia University, the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in the Nature Publishing Group journal Schizophrenia. They used an automated speech-analysis program to correctly differentiate—with 100-percent accuracy—between at-risk young people who developed psychosis over a two-and-a-half year period and those who did not. The computer model also outperformed other advanced screening technologies, like biomarkers from neuroimaging and EEG recordings of brain activity.
“In our study, we found that minimal semantic coherence—the flow of meaning from one sentence to the next—was characteristic of those young people at risk who later developed psychosis,” said Guillermo Cecchi, a biometaphorical-computing researcher for IBM Research, in an email. “It was not the average. What this means is that over 45 minutes of interviewing, these young people had at least one occasion of a jarring disruption in meaning from one sentence to the next. As an interviewer, if my mind wandered briefly, I might miss it. But a computer would pick it up.”
Researchers used an algorithm to root out such “jarring disruptions” in otherwise ordinary speech. Their semantic analysis measured coherence and two syntactic markers of speech complexity—including the length of a sentence and how many clauses it entailed. “When people speak, they can speak in short, simple sentences. Or they can speak in longer, more complex sentences, that have clauses added that further elaborate and describe the main idea,” Cecchi said. “The measures of complexity and coherence are separate and are not correlated with one another. However, simple syntax and semantic incoherence do tend to aggregate together in schizophrenia.”
Here’s an example of a sentence, provided by Cecchi and revised for patient confidentiality, from one of the study’s participants who later developed psychosis:
I was always into video games. I mean, I don’t feel the urge to do that with this, but it would be fun. You know, so the one block thing is okay. I kind of lied though and I’m nervous about going back.
While the researchers conclude that language processing appears to reveal “subtle, clinically relevant mental-state changes in emergent psychosis,” their work poses several outstanding questions. For one thing, their sample size of 34 patients was tiny. Researchers are planning to attempt to replicate their findings using transcripts from a larger cohort of at-risk youths.
They’re also working to contextualize what their findings might mean more broadly. “We know that thought disorder is an early core feature of schizophrenia evident before psychosis onset,” said Cheryl Corcoran, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University. “The main question then is: What are the brain mechanisms underlying this abnormality in language? And how might we intervene to address it and possibly improve prognosis? Could we improve the concurrent language problems and function of children and teenagers at risk, and either prevent psychosis or at least modify its course?”
Intervention has long been the goal. And so far it has been an elusive one. Clinicians are already quite good at identifying people who are at increased risk of developing schizophrenia, but taking that one step farther and determining which of those people will actually end up having the illness remains a huge challenge…More…
Victims of Schizophrenia are about 3-4 times more likely to commit violence than the non-affected population, but less likely to commit violence than alcoholics or drug users with mental illness. They however are 14 times more likely to be the victims of violence.
When It’s Not Black-on-Black Crime
Check out the following chart. It track the number of Mass Shootings per day in the US for Calendar Year 2015 –
Now – Most (not all) Mass Shooters are white, and most (not all) of their victims are white. They can occur anywhere, from the shopping mall, in Church, or at the Movie Theater. They are not based on economics or limited by location. The biggest threat to white, middle class America is one of their own, walking into a school and blasting away at everyone in sight – not a pair of black gang-bangers, within 7 miles of an urban center, going at it Gangsta style on the street.
So why the conservative interest in black-on-black crime?
Just another way racism makes conservatives stupid.
And why is the FBI covering up for this?
Virginia killings: America is now averaging more than one mass shooting per day in 2015
Picking Up that Check on the First Date
The author of this piece believes that men should always pick up the check on the first date. Have to disagree with this analysis, for a couple of reasons based on several scenarios.
Met through Online Dating Service – Many people now meet through dating services online. Their first date is indeed the first time they have seen each other in person. Statistics show that these dates typically occur within 7-14 days of meeting online. The so called “Starbucks Date” really is a first meeting. Splitting the check in my view is appropriate, in that this may be the first and last date based on mutual chemistry. Everybody having skin in the game tends to keep both sides honest. Have met women who lied about their age, lied about their looks, and lied about their background – and from feedback from women, that is certainly true on the guy’s side as well.
Picking up the check on any subsequent date is appropriate, based on who initiates it. And no, I for one am not dropping $300+ to go to a five star restaurant until I am sure that interest is returned.
Met in Person – If a guy meets a woman through Church, work, club, or social contact – then the guy should pick up the check. You have developed some chemistry and interest. You asked her out. Showing appreciation is appropriate. What you do after that is a mutual decision. Since I tend to date women who are professionals themselves near my age bracket, they tend to want to establish their independence through either sometimes picking up the check or contributing. I don’t expect it or require it to continue the relationship – but doing so establishes a level of mutual respect, interest, and financial responsibility in that I know every dime she earns isn’t going into those $300 High-heel sneakers, or cute little BMW out in the parking lot. If she is after a long term relationship and not just sex – then I know she is checking me out on the same basis.
Attention, straight men dating women: Here’s why they still — yes, still — expect you to pick up the check
Aside from whether men should hold the door for women, few seemingly frivolous issues have fanned the flames of anti-feminism as much as who should pay for dates between men and women. It’s a subject that seems to never die — see yesterday’s Guardian feature on “Paying while dating” — because there are always a subset of men who insist that it’s absolutely unfair that as the world has gotten closer to gender equality, men are still expected to pick up the check. A 2014 NerdWallet studyfound that 77 percent of over 1,000 U.S. respondents expected men to pick up the check on a first date. Most likely, they will continue to be—perhaps not forever, but certainly for the here and now.
Why? News flash: it’s not about the money, it’s about what the money signifies. “The man should pay on the first date, always. It’s meant to set the tone—that this is and was a date, not a networking opportunity or a new friendship,” founder of online dating concierge service eFlirt and author of “Love @ First Click,” told Salon. “It speaks to a man’s values and shows that he is a gentleman. Most first dates are just a few cocktails, so this shouldn’t be a burden for men. Beyond a first date, the rules change a bit though and it depends on what you do together. For example, if it’s dinner and an after-dinner cocktail for a second date, it’s great for the woman to pay for the cocktails at the second destination. Or, she could plan and pay for the third date. Ultimately, paying the bill on a date shows appreciation. It’s a gesture to let someone know you’re interested in them and appreciate them. That’s why I never suggest splitting the bill. A date should feel like a treat and it doesn’t when it becomes an accounting transaction.”I have to agree based on my own experience. Showing you’ve thought about the other person is what matters, and on a first date, paying is a way to do that. If you don’t have a lot of money, you can choose an inexpensive date so that you can cover the costs. I once went on a date to a free comedy show with a guy I met online. There were plenty of reasons the date was disastrous—think dead silence for up to ten minutes at a time—but the real rock bottom moment for me was when I said I was going up to the bar to get a drink and asked if he wanted anything (I wasn’t that thirsty but needed to break the tension). He said no but when I returned and reported that the bartender had generously comped my seltzer, he said he wished he’d known or he’d have ordered one! In that case, I was the one offering to pay, but instead of taking me up on it, he made himself seem like an extreme cheapskate. (Guys: don’t do this.)
Yet the who-should-pay decision is a conundrum, as dating and relationship expertWendy Newman, author of “121 First Dates: How to Succeed at Online Dating, Fall in Love, and Live Happily After (Really!),” calls it, one that often leaves both men and women not completely satisfied. “When a man pays for a string of dates for strangers and experiences entitlement or isn’t thanked or appreciated for these efforts it can burn him out. When a woman isn’t treated, often times she doesn’t feel special or cared for,” said Newman.
As further proof that it’s not about money, Los Angeles-based dating expert and radio personality Erin Tillman, who’s single, says “I’ve been on coffee dates with guys where they didn’t pay for my coffee.” That is definitely not the way to go if you want a second date—with Tillman or most women. Based on her own dating history and her clients’ experiences, Tillman told Salon, “if he doesn’t offer to pay, it’s definitely a turnoff.” As she sees it, “It sets a guy up for success. You don’t want to do anything that’s going to ruin your chances of dating someone.” She suggests the guy pay for the first month, or until you’ve established that you’re in a committed relationship.…More…
Sheriff Blames Police KIlling on “National Rhetoric”
Or “Not wanting to jump to conclusions”, this Sheriff and Prosecutor certainly lay out a lot of “conclusions” not yet borne out by evidence. The assertion that this was about “anti-cop rhetoric” and BlackLivesMatter being the most egregious. As the shooter has not been identified, much less apprehended, we have no idea what motivated him. The fact the Police Department is having a hard time getting witnesses to step up would seem to indicate a disconnect between the Police and the community.
Sheriff links ‘national rhetoric’ to killing of deputy in Houston
Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman described the killing of a deputy sheriff at a gas station as a “cold-blooded assassination” and angrily condemned the “very dangerous national rhetoric” about police officers that he said was out of control.
Deputy Darren Goforth, 47, was fatally shot late Friday while filling his patrol car in northwest Harris County.
The suspect, whose image was caught on surveillance video, approached Goforth from behind and shot him several times in the back. He continued to fire even after the officer had fallen to the ground.
The suspect is shown in photos as a dark-skinned male wearing a white T-shirt and red shorts and apparently driving a red or maroon-colored Ford pickup.
Rickman said an intense manhunt was underway and that officers were speaking to several people in connection with the shooting, but that no arrest had been made yet.
Hickman said the killing was unprovoked and that Goforth was apparently singled out only because he was wearing the uniform of a law enforcement officer. The sheriff made it clear he felt the shooting was tied to a national backlash over several recent killings of unarmed black people by police officers.
“When rhetoric ramps up to the point where cold-blooded assassination has happened, this rhetoric has gotten out of control,” he said. “We heard ‘black lives matter.’ All lives matter. Cops’ lives matter too, so why don’t we drop the qualifier and say all lives matter and take that to the bank.”
“Black Lives Matter” is the phrase of a national activist group aimed at addressing the shootings by police officers.
His remarks echoed comments in the same new conference by Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson, who said the criticism of police had gotten out of hand.
“It is time for the silent majority in this country to support law enforcement,” she told reporters at the news conference. “There are a few bad apples in every profession, that does not mean there should be open warfare on law enforcement.”
Earlier, sheriff’s office spokesman Deputy Thomas Gilliland said officials were speaking with a person of interest in connection with the shooting and had obtained a search warrant for the person’s home.
Perhaps the Sheriff’s rhetoric might be based on the publicity involving his department and this DWB stop…
And this one…
Which apparently wasn’t the first Harris County Law Enforcement Officer to be accused, indicted, or convicted of rape. Just a few weeks ago, Harris County Deputies strip searched a woman by the side of the road.
This country appears to have some serious and deep problems…The current Chief being one. It doesn’t seem impossible that the “hundreds of women” raped or coerced into sex by Law Enforcement in the county might just be the cause of the current problems.
24 Year Old Man Dies in Jail after Being Held 4 Months for Theft of Candy Bar
A young man, with mental health issues, died after being jailed nearly 4 months for shoplifting $5 worth of candy bars and a Soda – despite being identified as a Mental Health Patient.
Since Raygun shut down all the public Mental Health Hospitals, the jails have increasingly become the sole source of treatment for poor victims. The results have been catastrophic.
Young black man jailed since April for alleged $5 theft found dead in cell
A young black man arrested by police in Portsmouth, Virginia, on the same day that one of the city’s officers fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old, has been found dead in jail after spending almost four months behind bars without bail for stealing groceries worth $5.
Jamycheal Mitchell, who had mental health problems, was discovered lying on the floor of his cell by guards early last Wednesday, according to authorities. While his body is still awaiting an autopsy, senior prison officials said his death was not being treated as suspicious.
“As of right now it is deemed ‘natural causes’,” Natasha Perry, the master jail officer at the Hampton Roads regional jail in Portsmouth, said of his death in an interview. Perry said there were no obvious outward signs of injury to the 24-year-old’s body. Portsmouth police are looking into the death.
Mitchell’s family said they believed he starved to death after refusing meals and medication at the jail, where he was being held on misdemeanour charges of petty larceny and trespassing. A clerk at Portsmouth district court said Mitchell was accused of stealing a bottle of Mountain Dew, a Snickers bar and a Zebra Cake worth a total of $5 from a 7-Eleven.
“His body failed,” said Roxanne Adams, Mitchell’s aunt. “It is extraordinary. The person I saw deceased was not even the same person.” Adams, who is a registered nurse, said Mitchell had practically no muscle mass left by the time of his death.
A few hours after Mitchell was arrested on 22 April by Portsmouth police officer L Schaefer for the alleged theft, William Chapman was shot dead by officer Stephen Rankin outside a Walmart superstore about 2.5 miles away in the same city. State prosecutor Stephanie Morales said on Thursday she would pursue criminal charges over Chapman’s death.
Except for a brief item stating that an inmate had been found dead, the story of Mitchell’s death has not been covered by local media in Virginia, and is reported for the first time here.
Adams said in an interview that her nephew had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia for about five years. Nicknamed Weezy, he lived with his mother Sonia and had been unable to hold down work. “He just chain-smoked and made people laugh,” said Adams. “He never did anything serious, never harmed anybody.”
Officials said that after his arrest, Mitchell was taken to Portsmouth city jail, where he stayed for almost three weeks before being transferred across the city to the regional jail on 11 May.
Ten days after that, the court clerk said, Judge Morton Whitlow ruled Mitchell was not competent to stand trial and ordered that he be transferred to Eastern State hospital, a state-run mental health facility in Williamsburg, for treatment.
The clerk said that typically in such cases “we do an order to restore the defendant to competence, send it to the hospital, and when the hospital has a bed, we do a transportation order, and he’s taken to the hospital.” Whitlow reiterated the order on 31 July and was due to review the case again on 4 September, according to the clerk.
But the hospital said it had no vacancy and the 24-year-old was therefore detained in jail until his death on 19 August, according to Adams, Mitchell’s aunt, who said she had tried to assist the hospitalisation process herself but was left frustrated.
“He was just deteriorating so fast,” she said. “I kept calling the jail, but they said they couldn’t transfer him because there were no available beds. So I called Eastern State, too, and people there said they didn’t know anything about the request or not having bed availability.”
When asked which state agency was ultimately responsible for ensuring Mitchell was transferred to the hospital, the court clerk said: “It’s hard to tell who’s responsible for it.”
Officials from the court, the police department and the jail could not explain why Mitchell was not given the opportunity to be released on bail.
Mitchell previously spent four months in the jail from April 2010, also on charges of petty larceny and trespassing, before being ordered released by the courts, according to Perry, the prison official.
She said Mitchell returned to the jail in January 2012, again on a petty larceny charge, before being released in May 2012 having spent a month in a state hospital…More...
Pulled Over for Looking at a Cop
Another over-the-top Police stop of a black man for DWB in Dayton. This comes on top of news of a Harris County, Texas Officer being shot execution style at a gas station – and what seems to be a rise in violence against Police in general. Hard to tell at this point if there is any correlation as the shooters have been both black and white. But as a person who has gone through the DWB routine, living in a high end majority white neighborhood for over 30 years – Once being stopped because the Dealer installed tags on my expensive car had a clear plastic cover (just as the hundreds of other cars sold by the local dealer in that town)…I can certainly agree with John Felton’s frustration
This Black Driver’s Mistake Was Looking a Police Officer in the Eye
John Felton was driving to his brother’s house in Dayton, Ohio, on a recent night when he noticed a police car tailing him. Not wanting to give the officer any excuse to pull him over, Felton, who is black and was visiting Dayton from Michigan, tried to drive extra carefully. But the effort was insufficient: Soon after making a turn, Felton was forced to stop his car and show the officer his driver’s license.
It turned out Felton had not switched on his turn signal at the exact right moment; as you can see from the video Felton made of the encounter and sent to talk show host David Pakman, the white officer told him he had failed to signal within 100 feet of making his turn.
But why, Felton wanted to know, had the officer decided to follow him in the first place? That’s when the stop went from being an ordinary illustration of racial profiling to an extraordinary one.
“You made direct eye contact with me and held onto it when I was passing you,” the officer told Fenton. The implication was that Fenton had marked himself as a suspicious character simply by looking at the officer.
Update, Aug. 28, 5:10 p.m.: The city of Dayton put out a statement about the incident, acknowledging that “making direct eye contact with an officer is not a basis for a traffic stop.” The statement implies—but doesn’t say outright—that in pulling Felton over for not signaling within 100 feet of a turn, the officer was complying with a Dayton police initiative called “Safe Communities Through Aggressive Traffic Enforcement,” aimed at reducing traffic-related fatalities. The statement also says that the police department “is in contact with Mr. Felton,” and that he “has agreed to a conversation with the officer, facilitated by the Dayton Mediation Center” that will “allow Mr. Felton and the Officer to discuss the specifics of the incident.”
For those who have been following the past year in race relations between police officers and black people, that will sound familiar: Making eye contact with cops was also what set off a chase in Baltimore that ended with Freddie Gray sustaining fatal injuries in the back of a van.…More…
Pray the Potholes Away
The Devil made those potholes?
Jackson, Mississippi Mayor, Tony Yarber recently tweeted that a little faith would fill them.
Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber: We can pray potholes away
Think the mayor may want to look into the idea of self help…
#1 in Country Music – Darius Rucker
There has always been a thing line between Southern R&B and Country music. Ray Charles had several hits which crossed over, and his album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, including the his “I Can’r Stop Loving You” is considered by many to be a a classic of the genre.
Darius Rucker, formerly of Southern Rock Band Hootie and the Blowfish has become one of the very big stars of the Country Music genre, with his last 4 albums going Number 1.
His newest release “Southern Style” –
Usain Bolt Kneecapped by Photographer on Segway
This one was definitely scary! A Segway weighs in at about 100lbs, and could do some serious damage running into your lower legs…
Now all we need is to find out that the Photographer was hired by Justin Gatlin! 🙂
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