Category: Race,

Hundreds confronted Phoenix officials at a meeting about police abuse. The chief vowed said change starts with the community (ouch!)

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Race,Leave a comment

At least 500 people asked to stand and speak before the [police] chief, Mayor Kate Gallego and other city and police leaders.

…Residents stood behind the microphones for nearly three hours, some recalling instances during which they said family members were injured or killed by police officers and the police department would not provide answers.

Residents said they weren’t able to get their hands on police reports, while others said they found out about the death of family members through media first.

“We’re here for a lack of trust, a lack of transparency and a lack of accountability, that is the reason why the community has showed up,” one resident said.

…The couple, who spoke at the meeting before walking out, was joined by a handful of other families who say they’ve experienced police brutality by Phoenix police officers.

…A National Police Foundation analysis released in April found a “significant and alarming increase” in officer-involved shootings by the Phoenix Police Department in 2018. There were 44 that year, more than double the number in the preceding year, the report found.

Hundreds confronted Phoenix officials at a meeting about police abuse. The chief vowed change – CNN

Vowed what? Are you sure CNN? Because she says they’ll listen but she also shirks responsibility and refuses to acknowledge wrongdoing by her department when she says change is the community’s responsibility.

Wouldn’t expect much out of someone who redirects the blame like that.

Dravon Ames & Iesha Harper: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Race,Leave a comment

What has not previously been reported is that Harper says in addition to being assaulted and told she was lucky she and her children were not shot, she had her body searched by a male police officer, which is a violation of Phoenix police department policy.

….“Clearly, excessive force was used. Clearly, policies and procedure were not followed. Clearly, body cameras were not being utilized. Clearly, the officers felt empowered to be disrespectful and abusive,” Maupin said. “What we demand to know is, what kind of background these officers have? They held toddlers and a pregnant woman at gunpoint, grabbed a mother and infant by the neck, dislocated a 1-year-old’s arm, endangered a delicate pregnancy, terrorized and tortured a young father, and nobody was charged or jailed. These officers must be held accountable.”

Dravon Ames & Iesha Harper: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com

hmmm

Phoenix chief says police response to incident with 4-year-old is ‘unacceptable’

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Race,Leave a comment

 

“unacceptable.”

“Isn’t in keeping with good policing.”

“This is not what should have happened in that circumstance.”

…Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego issued a statement on Twitter Saturday saying, “I, like many others, am sick over what I have seen in the video” and “I am deeply sorry for what this family went through.”

The mayor vowed to speed up implementation of body cameras on police officers and hold a community meeting to address the incident. “I realize that to get to the bottom of this issue and implement meaningful change, we are going to have some uncomfortable and painful conversations,” Gallego said.

Phoenix chief says police response to incident with 4-year-old is ‘unacceptable’

hmmm

Seniors face foreclosure in retirement after failed reverse mortgage

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Nearly 100,000 loans that allowed senior citizens to tap into their home equity have failed, blindsiding elderly borrowers and their families.

…In many cases, the worst toll has fallen on those ill-equipped to shoulder it: urban African Americans, many of whom worked for most of their lives, then found themselves struggling in retirement.

…These elderly homeowners were wooed into borrowing money through the special program by attractive sales pitches or a dire need for cash – or both. When they missed a paperwork deadline or fell behind on taxes or insurance, lenders moved swiftly to foreclose on the home. Those foreclosures wiped out hard-earned generational wealth built in the decades since the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

…Borrowers living near the poverty line in pockets of Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, Detroit, Philadelphia and Jacksonville, Florida, are among the hardest hit, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis of more than 1.3 million loan records. 

…Consumer advocates said the analysis supports what they have complained about for years – that unscrupulous lenders targeted lower-income, black neighborhoods and encouraged elderly homeowners to borrow money while glossing over the risks and requirements.

USA TODAY found that reverse mortgages end in foreclosure six times more often in predominantly black neighborhoods than in neighborhoods that are 80% white.  

Even comparing only poorer areas, black neighborhoods fare worse. In ZIP codes where most residents make less than $40,000, the analysis found reverse mortgage foreclosure rates were six times higher in black neighborhoods than in white ones.

…Regulators said actual evictions of seniors are rare. There’s no way to verify that, though, since HUD, the top government regulator of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans, does not sign off on evictions – or even count them.

…They work like this: Lenders appraise the value of a house and allow homeowners to borrow back money against that market value.

Borrowers can stop making monthly mortgage payments, and they can stay put for life, so long as they maintain the home and pay property taxes and insurance.

…At the end – a move out, death or default – the bank calls the loan due, to be paid back either by the sale of the home or an heir or homeowner repaying the loan money. Lenders and their investors make their money through origination fees that can top $15,000 with fees and mortgage insurance, and by charging interest on the loan balance.

…“Adult children that have been trying to take care of their mother or father or both get the idea that ‘When mom or dad passes, I’m going to have a little inheritance or get this place on the market,’ ” Nordgren said. “Then the death happens and … here comes the foreclosure.”    

…Charles, [Frazier] died at 88 of a heart attack in the family home a few miles west of Roseland, in Beverly. At that point, in December 2017, an unpaid $4,351 property tax bill led to the default. 

,,,,,Celink told Frazier in February that she could buy the house by paying off the loan’s balance: $209,053, including fees and interest. Frazier and her brother said it’s far more than they can afford to pay.

…Even when both husband and wife are old enough to qualify, reverse mortgage lenders often advise them to remove the younger spouse from loans and titles.

…Widows not on the title must meet various deadlines – at 90 and 120 days after the death – to provide their loan companies with death certificates and other documents.  

Blair sent in paperwork she thought solved the problem. She discovered she had missed one document – changing the deed to her name within 90 days – months later after a foreclosure notice arrived in her mailbox. 

…The suit alleged brokers targeted the minority homeowners for the “mortgage products and overpriced home repair work that they did not need or cannot afford” to capitalize on elderly widows unaccustomed to both the home’s finances and home repair. 

Seniors face foreclosure in retirement after failed reverse mortgage

sigh…

Native American Women Are Being Sold into the Sex Trade on Ships Along Lake Superior

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Next month, Christine Stark—a student with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, who is completing her master’s degree in social work—will complete an examination of the sex trade in Minnesota, in which she compiles anecdotal, firsthand accounts of Native women, particularly from northern reservations, being trafficked across state, provincial, and international lines to be forced into servitude in the sex industry on both sides of the border.

…Through her independent research and work with the Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, Stark interviewed hundreds of Native women who have been through the trauma of the Lake Superior sex trade. The stories she’s compiled are evidence of an underground industry that’s thriving on the suffering of First Nations women, which is seemingly going unchecked and underreported. 

…“The Duluth harbor is notorious among Native people as a site for the trafficking of Native women from northern reservations.” She continues, “in an ongoing project focused on the trafficking of Native women on ships in Duluth, it was found that the activity includes international transport of Native women and teens, including First Nations women and girls brought down from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to be sold on the ships… Native women, teen girls and boys, and even babies have been sold for sex on the ships.”

Native American Women Are Being Sold into the Sex Trade on Ships Along Lake Superior – VICE

Jeezus!

Memphis protesters hurl bricks and rocks at police in outrage over a man’s death

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Race,Leave a comment

What started as a protest over the death of a Memphis man devolved into chaos after demonstrators threw bricks at police and vandalized squad cars, officials said.

At least 36 officers and deputies were injured in the melee Wednesday night, police said Thursday. All those hospitalized have been released. Three people have been charged with disorderly conduct and one of them also with inciting a riot.

“For some reason, they turned their anger toward the Memphis Police Department.”

Memphis protesters hurl bricks and rocks at police, injuring 36 officers in outrage over a man’s death – CNN

“Some reason,” indeed.

The article attempts to make it sound like the officers just stood there and peacibly allowed protestors to throw things at them. I find that hard to believe.

36 officers and deputies, how many civilians were injured?

Whistleblower doctors decry immigrant family detention

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Modern Parenting,, Race,Leave a comment

“Detention of innocent children should never occur in a civilized society, especially if there are less restrictive options, because the risk of harm to children simply cannot be justified,” they wrote.

…”Each passing day of continued detention of children — and no acknowledgment of the risk that we have reported — alarms me even more,” Allen told CNN in a recent interview.

…Allen and McPherson say they documented their concerns numerous times in reports filed with the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration, and felt like the people in power were listening. But they say two things prompted them to speak more publicly about the matter after Trump took office: the spike in family separations at the border and moves to increase family detention rather than scale it back.

  • Significant weight loss in children that went largely unnoticed by the facility medical staff, including a 16-month-old baby who lost nearly a third of his body weight over 10 days during a diarrheal disease but was never given IV fluids or sent to an emergency room.
  • A 27-day-old baby who had a seizure from bleeding inside his skull that was missed by the facility on arrival.
  • Numerous children who suffered severe finger injuries while confined in a facility that was designed as a medium-security prison for adults.

“This is not a story about people in these facilities not caring about children. … It is about good people trying to keep children safe in an environment that’s very dangerous to them by design, if not intent. And they’ve been asked to execute deeply flawed and I would even say mean-spirited policies, and to do so in such a way that minimizes harms to children,” Allen says. “It’s an impossible task.”

“Even if you could pour money and resources into properly staffing these facilities and giving them programming,” Allen says, “the simple act of detaining and indefinite detention … is irreparably harmful to children.”

…And while they’ve been lauded by colleagues and friends, there are two things McPherson and Allen say haven’t happened since they wrote their first letter to Congress.

The doctors haven’t been asked to inspect any family detention facilities again.

And the government’s family detention policies haven’t changed.

…In budget requests, officials have repeatedly outlined plans to increase family detention capacity. The White House’s proposed 2020 budget includes a plan to expand capacity to 10,000 family detention beds, a request that would quadruple the number of beds currently funded.

…”The practice of detaining children and families is no longer an issue of policy dispute,” they wrote in their March letter to Congress. “It is a willful policy that knowingly inflicts serious harm to children, including risk of death.”

The doctors say the problems detailed in their letters illustrate how difficult it is to provide care to vulnerable children in relatively small detention facilities.

“Now you take that, and you try to rapidly upscale it. This is going to be a disaster,” Allen says.

…Because of policy decisions, Allen says, children and families are placed in confinement first, with appropriate triage and medical care occurring later.

“That’s exactly the wrong way to do it,” he says. “As doctors, we say, triage them, make sure they’re safe, make sure they’re healthy, and then put them through the process of asylum.”

… “Our goal is to protect children. But if we fail them, we sure as hell want to leave a written record for history that documents who is notified of an impending harm to children — and who did nothing about it.”

Whistleblower doctors decry immigrant family detention – CNN

sigh…

Toxic Stress Affects How Kids Learn

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Children with low family income—children with a family income of $20,000 or less—are more likely to encounter threatening experiences and the “toxic stress” that accompanies it. They also find black children generally have more exposure to these experiences than white children.

…These threatening experiences cause particular physiological reactions: When these reactions happen too often, the body’s responses can become chronic and disrupt normal processes.

…Schools can be a hindrance, the report notes, if they have unsympathetic or threatening adults—or they can help, providing mental-health services that enable children to process trauma and improve their academic performance.

Toxic Stress Affects How Black and Poor Kids Learn – CityLab

hmmmmmmmm

Pope says indigenous people must have final say about their land | Environment | The Guardian

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, Religion,, The Americas,Leave a comment

In the 15th century papal bulls promoted and provided legal justification for the conquest and theft of indigenous peoples’ lands and resources worldwide – the consequences of which are still being felt today. The right to conquest in one such bull, the Romanus Pontifex, issued in the 1450s when Nicholas V was the Pope, was granted in perpetuity.

How times have changed. [Pope Francis] said publicly that indigenous peoples have the right to “prior and informed consent.” In other words, nothing should happen on – or impact – their land, territories and resources unless they agree to it.

…The UN’s Declaration – non-legally-binding – was adopted 10 years ago. Article 32 says “states shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.”

Pope says indigenous people must have final say about their land | Environment | The Guardian

hmmm

 

A promise unfulfilled: water pipeline stops short for Sioux reservation

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

…Historically, a dearth of water and related infrastructure have contributed to persistent poverty on the reservations.

…“You wouldn’t believe how many people are using outhouses and hauling water here,” tribal member Frank Means told the Medill News Service in 1989. “It’s like living in another country.”

…Although the project can deliver up to 20m gallons of potable water daily to an estimated 52,000 people – about one-fourth of them white, and the rest Native American – it has been beset by overspending and incompletion. The unfinished parts happen to be at the tribal ends of the pipeline and have become another example of unfulfilled promises by the federal government to indigenous people.

Despite 25 years of construction that cost nearly a half-billion dollars, only about half of the water delivered by the Mni Wiconi system to the Pine Ridge Reservation is derived from the Missouri River. The rest comes from the reservation’s own wells, which were incorporated in the project to save money.

In reservation towns and villages, the new pipeline water is fed into old community water systems – some of which date to the 1960s, with pipes made of potentially hazardous asbestos-cement. The Mni Wiconi’s builders pledged but failed to replace those antiquated systems.

…Meanwhile, the 15 predominantly white communities and scores of politically connected white ranchers who are served by the Mni Wiconi pipeline have reaped its full benefits. 

…The project’s engineers found that if they designed a Missouri River pipeline big enough to serve all the participants, the cost would blow past the authorized ceiling. So, they decided to obtain some of the project’s water from the High Plains Aquifer system, including the Ogallala Aquifer, which lies underneath parts of the Pine Ridge Reservation but does not extend into the West River/Lyman-Jones service area. The Oglala Sioux people were made to replace half of their share of Missouri River water with groundwater, essentially to benefit their white neighbors.

Despite the pitfalls, Missouri River water started flowing to some project participants in the early 2000s, though it did not reach Pine Ridge reservation until 2008.

The three tribes and the West River/Lyman-Jones system were each responsible for their own bidding and contracting. Bids came in higher on the reservations, where some contractors were loth to work because of the remoteness, the complicated tribal politics and contracts requiring preferential hiring of Native Americans.

…When the last sunset date arrived in 2013, several aspects of the project remained unfinished, and prospects for further congressional support were dim.

Congress had recently banned earmarking – the practice of inserting funds for local projects into broader appropriations bills – which had provided much of Mni Wiconi’s budget.

…The proposed legislation would have funded replacements of the community water systems on the reservations, as originally authorized by the original 1988 law, which stipulated that the water systems could be purchased from the tribes, tribal members, or other residents of Pine Ridge who owned them.

But the purchase of the systems was dismissed in the 1993 engineering report, which declared, “donation of these systems is expected”.

…When asked if he thinks Native Americans were used by whites to get a water pipeline approved by Congress, Pressler said, “I would say the answer is partially yes.”

A promise unfulfilled: water pipeline stops short for Sioux reservation | US news | The Guardian

sigh…

My Mother’s Resiliency Saved Me From the Scars of Family Separation

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Modern Parenting,, Race,Leave a comment

Decades ago, as my mom lay recovering from labor in a San Francisco hospital, a group of social workers gently suggested she consider giving me and my sister up for adoption. At first the arrangement was framed as temporary—a fancy version of foster care by a wealthy white family apparently eager to look after a set of brown babies. As they saw it, my mother was woefully ill-equipped to care for her new twins. After all, she was white and Jewish, my dad was black and Baptist, and my parents were unmarried—and would forever stay that way.

Even in the City of Love (during the era of love) it was assumed my mom—despite being educated, employed, and well past 30—wouldn’t be able to raise us on her own. Our “best interests,” these women insisted, lay with them and the government and a future family they assured her would take good care of us. Or at least better care of us than they figured she could.

…She described these social workers as an insistent bunch who paid her repeated visits—including a few after she took us home to her tiny studio apartment at the foot of San Francisco Bay. 

…She instinctively knew that their assurances of “short-term” and “temporary” care were completely bogus—that full-fledged adoption was the ultimate goal, and she was having none of it. Still, I’m sure they made some headway, what with their promises of the grand homes and two-parent lifestyles my mother knew she could never deliver. Sow the seeds of doubt hard and long enough and you can gaslight even the toughest among us.

My Mother’s Resiliency Saved Me From the Scars of Family Separation

hmmmm

Meet the gallant all-black American female battalion that served in Europe during World War II

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Europe,, Military,, Race,Leave a comment

Meet the gallant all-black American female battalion that served in Europe during World War II – Face2Face Africa

A wee bit of credibility was compromised with the assertion that the first women to dress up as men so they could serve were in the American Civil War but still, an interesting bit of history.

Black Missouri drivers 91% more likely to be stopped, state attorney general finds

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Race,Leave a comment

The 2018 report comes nearly five years after protesters in Ferguson drew national attention to longstanding concerns about police treatment of black communities following the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown, a black, unarmed 18-year-old who lived in the St. Louis suburb.

Data released by Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt show that since then, reports of black drivers being pulled over at a disproportionately high rate compared to their white counterparts have only increased. Last year’s statewide disparity rate between white and black drivers is the highest recorded in the almost two decades since the state first began compiling data.

…In 2015, data show black drivers were roughly 70 percent more likely to be stopped by police compared to white motorists statewide. That disparity climbed to 75 percent in 2016 and up to 85 percent in 2017.

…“If you don’t have any teeth in that law that bans racial profiling, then you won’t get compliance,” said Republican state Rep. Shamed Dogan, of the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin. “We need to get Republicans on board to recognize that it’s a crisis. We have data to prove this has been going on for two decades.”

Missouri law allows the governor to strip state funding from police agencies that don’t comply with the state’s racial profiling law . State Budget Director Dan Haug said at least as far back as 2015, that has not occurred.

Black Missouri drivers 91% more likely to be stopped, state attorney general finds | PBS NewsHour

hmmmmmmm