Boston Police Awards 3 Officers involved in High-Profile Brutality cases infused with race l The Blackstonian

2013-01-09 by OUR COMMON GROUND

Boston Police Awards 3 Officers involved in High-Profile Brutality cases infused with race

By Blackstonian / January 9, 2013 /

BLACKSTONIAN EXCLUSIVE:
Boston Police Awards 3 Officers involved in High-Profile Brutality cases infused with race

The Boston Police department in its latest routine round of awarding officers for “outstanding performance” of their duties during the past year has named among its many recipients 3 officers in particular who were involved in some of the departments most highly publicized and controversial cases, all of which include elements of race and police brutality and use of excessive and/or deadly force.

These officers are: Brian R. Dunford, Michael T. McManus, Christopher R. Carr

These awards send a message of disregard and disrespect to the Black Community. Remember the outrage after the tragedy of DJ Henry when Officer Aaron Hess was awarded Officer of the Year by the Pleasantville Police Dept??? Here in Boston, these 3 separate cases are all hot buttons and the BPD is well aware of the message that these awards send to a community in constant struggle with its Police Department. Shame on the BPD, you dont have to be a detective to know this is not a good look.

Editor’s Note: We contacted BPD top brass and the official position of the BPD is that they stand by each of these officers and have their own reasoning and logic by which these officers are all worthy and deserving of these awards. The BPD noted that in the cases in question that these officers were all exonerated after an investigation by both internal affairs and Suffolk County DA Dan Conley. The BPD also stated that in the case of at least one of the officers they were disciplined for filing a false report and that no further punishment was needed and since then there have been no further incidents. The position of the Blackstonian which we expressed to the BPD is that the fact that these Officers were exonerated is only indicative of the problem, bearing in mind that 99% of officers are exonerated which is part of our contention that internal affairs and the Suffolk County DA are incapable of conducting fair investigations.

Note: 2 of the officers named below, Dunford and Carr were also part of a 2004 lawsuit against the City of Boston because they felt they were discriminated against because of their “Caucasian race”.
see it here: http://www.clearinghouse.net/chDocs/public/EE-MA-0020-0002.pdf

Now, on to the awards…

Officer Brian R. Dunford is awarded “The Department Medal of Honor” among other officers for their response to a call on October 16, 2011.
Officer Brian Dunford also happens to be the same officer who was involved with the vicious 3/23/08 beating of Boston Firefighter Wayne Abron. At the time Abron was villianized, but later (9/21/09) he was acquitted of all charges against him and is currently engaged in a lawsuit against the City of Boston and the BPD.
This is what Wayne Abron looked like after his encounter with Department Medal of Honor recipient Dunford.

see the results of a basic google search for BPD Officer Brian Dunford – click here

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Officer Michael T. McManus is awarded The Mayor’s Medal of Excellence among other officers for general performance of duty and achieving a cumulative count of over 250 arrests in B-2. In addition to this actual award McManus was also in a separate ceremony appointed to one of the most coveted and high profile assignments within the BPD. McManus was appointed by Commissioner Ed Davis to the BPD Fugitive Squad which we are told includes the much wanted perks of: unlimited overtime, make your own hours and a personal take home vehicle.

Office Michael T. McManus also happen to be the same Officer involved in 2 separate incidents which were some of the city’s most controversial cases. McManus only joined the force in 2007 and has made quite an impression.

A. The death of David Woodman – on June 18, 2008 David Woodman was being arrested in the Fenway after a Boston Celtics Championship. He died 11 days later and his family was subsequently paid a 3 million dollar out of court settlement by the City of Boston.
Woodman Family
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/investigation_of_boston_police.html

B. The beating of 17 yr old boy at RCC – On October 22, 2010 a 17 yr old teenage black boy was apprehended by members of the BPD and DYS. The event was captured on video and went viral on youtube and became highly publicized. McManus was one of the officers in the video involved in the beating of this young man. A year later Suffolk County DA Dan Conley declared no wrong doing.

click image for larger version

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Officer Christopher R. Carr along with another officer, is awarded The Schroeder Brothers Memorial Medal; The Department Medal of Honor. It should be noted that the Schroeder Brothers Memorial Medal is the highest medal given by the BPD from the Boston Police Relief Association Memorial Award.

Also please note that this award is different from the others because in this case, which to the Blackstonian is the most despicable award, is for the specific incident in question. Unlike the other awardees who were awarded for other instances and not the particular one which was notorious and in question, this specific honor the very highest medal given by the BPD is specifically for the very incident that our community is so traumatized from.

Officer Christopher Carr is the same officer involved in the Sept. 7, 2011 police chase from Roxbury to Rockland, MA which ended in the death of Mark McMullen. For those who have been following the Blackstonian you know that we have organized around this very issue. We have sat with the family and this case is VERY MUCH in question.

Mark McMullen

The Blackstonian seriously questions how an officer can be awarded for a high speed chase 30 min out of the city, when BPD policy forbids chases out of city limits, except in the case where a suspect is fleeing a serious, violent felony and people are in imminent danger. this was not even remotely close to such a case.

Please read the narrative supplied by the BPD describing the incident for which this award is given.

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About the Blackstonian

A word used to symbolize the spirit and culture of Black Bostonians. We created the Blackstonian newspaper as a community service to the Black, Latino, Cape Verdean and other Peoples of Color in Boston and the surrounding area.

Who We Are

We represent Black Boston, centrally Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan but really all through the other burroughs and suburbs to wherever Black people are found in our extended midst. Our definition of Black is very inclusive, in Boston we have a lot of Brothers and Sisters from all over the Globe…Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Cape Verde, Africa, Trinidad, wherever…. in our eyes you are all Black People and we are family here in Boston aka The Bean.

Blackstonian Team

Jamarhl Crawford
Publisher

A Conversation with Professor Ann Little About the Newtown Massacre, Adam Lanza, America’s Gun Culture, and the Puzzle of White Masculinity

2013-01-02 by OUR COMMON GROUND

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2013

A Conversation with Professor Ann Little About the Newtown Massacre, Adam Lanza, America’s Gun Culture, and the Puzzle of White Masculinity

I hope that the New Year was restful and celebratory. Before Christmas, there was a momentary “national conversation” about gun violence in the aftermath of the Newtown Massacre. Curiously, but not surprising, said moment of introspection about how America’s gun culture eats it youth has fallen off of the national radar as the pundit classes have moved on to other matters. There will be other mass shootings; we will have said “national conversation” again; nothing will be done given the NRA’s murder hold on the American people.

As I explored in a series of posts, the central question regarding the Gun Right is how these mass shootings do not lead to any serious exploration of the intersection(s) of Whiteness, White Masculinity, and mass gun violence. White men commit an overwhelming amount of the mass shootings in the United States. Yet, except for a few outliers, there is no sustained effortto engage the obvious puzzle: if white men are killing people, often by the dozens–in murders where they are the offenders at twice their rate in the general population–why are so many in the news media afraid and hostile to basic questions about “white crime?”

In my effort to explore this question, I reached out to two great scholars of American history and culture. Both kindly agreed to participate in WARN’s podcast series.

Our first guest is Professor Ann Little, author of the bookAbraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England,who writes over at the great website Historiann. In our podcast, she does a wonderful job of setting up our conversation by offering a wonderful, rich, and insightful perspective on the Newtown Massacre and the colonial era roots of the United States (near pathological) love of guns in the present

Dr. Little was so very generous with her time. We covered a great amount of material in this conversation and offered up a necessary, and to this point, very much lacking historical context for the Newtown Massacre, and the fear by many in the pundit classes to even discuss white masculinity and gun violence.

This was a real treat. I was so glad to be able to bring this dialogue to the readers of We Are Respectable Negroes and those who follow our podcast series.

I do hope you enjoy the conversation.

AUDIO

2:59 As a historian and scholar of America and gun culture, what were your first thoughts about the Newtown Massacre?
6:18 How do we begin to think broadly about masculinity and gun culture in the United States, and how it helps us to understand Adam Lanza’s murder spree?
11:22 The gun and white male citizenship in colonial America and the Founding
15:00 Is the magical thinking of Conservatives typified by the gun control debate? What are some of the regional differences in regards to gun culture in the United States? How is this surprising (or not)?
23:55 An open letter to white men. Beginning to think about White masculinity, Whiteness and gun violence
29:25 How do people respond to conversations where whiteness and masculinity are interrogated and challenged?
34:40 Is White Masculinity a story of historical continuity or change? Is White Heterosexual Masculinity static?
48:27 More context for avoiding a critical interrogation of Whiteness and gun violence: White Mediocrity and the subsidization of Whiteness vs. the myth of American Meritocracy
56:14 Historical myopia, the luxury of being white and historical memory, and the allure of believing the “White Lies” of American history
62:14 What is your “blogging story?” How does blogging fit into your academic career?
64:03 The failure of academics to be able to effectively communicate with “regular” folks who are also smart like them
69:20 Academic writing’s impact vs the audience and impact of blogging

Domestic Abuse Survivor Goldie Taylor on Giving Up Her Gun and the Unseen Plague of National Violence

2012-12-23 by OUR COMMON GROUND

Domestic Abuse Survivor Goldie Taylor on Giving Up Her Gun and the Unseen Plague of National Violence

Friday, 21 December 2012 10:48

OUR COMMON GROUND Voice, Goldie Taylor

By Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! | Interview and Video

Truthout combats corporatization by bringing you trustworthy news: click here to join the effort.

After losing both her father and her brother to gun violence in St. Louis and later being victimized by domestic violence, Goldie Taylor purchased a gun for her own protection. On Monday, three days after the Newtown massacre, Taylor wrote: “After my father and brother were murdered, owning a gun made me feel secure. Now it’s time to give it up.” As President Obama vows new action on gun control, Taylor joins us to discuss her own case and the gun violence from Newtown, Connecticut, to the streets of Chicago, where nearly 500 people have been murdered this year, mostly by guns. Taylor, an MSNBC contributor and managing editor of “The Goldie Taylor Project,” calls on the corporate media to do a better job reporting all gun-related killings, regardless of race, economic class and gender.

TRANSCRIPT:

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Funerals continue in Newtown, Connecticut, after Friday’s shooting rampage that left 20 students and six staff members dead at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Four more children were laid to rest Wednesday, as well as the principal of the school, Dawn Hochsprung, and teacher Victoria Soto. Soto died while shielding her students from gunfire. She was remembered by a friend after her memorial service.

CONNIE DELOTTINVILLE: She was one of the most beautiful people, like the really super popular person, but she was friendly with everyone, like she did not have a mean bone in her body, always smiling and laughing, and you could hear her down the hallway. She was a great person. So, this is just such a tragic loss. And we were going to have our 10-year high school reunion next year, and I was really looking forward to seeing her and seeing everyone again. And quite the damper on things.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Meanwhile, President Obama announced Wednesday he would appoint a new White House-led effort, chaired by Vice President Joe Biden, to reform gun control policies, which he would outline in his annual State of the Union address next month.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The fact that we can’t prevent every act of violence doesn’t mean we can’t steadily reduce the violence and prevent the very worst violence. That’s why I’ve asked the vice president to lead an effort that includes members of my cabinet and outside organizations to come up with a set of concrete proposals no later than January, proposals that I then intend to push without delay. This is not some Washington commission. This is not something where folks are going to be studying the issue for six months and publishing a report that gets read and then pushed aside. This is a team that has a very specific task: to pull together real reforms right now.

via Domestic Abuse Survivor Goldie Taylor on Giving Up Her Gun and the Unseen Plague of National Violence.

Deaths of children that don’t make news l OUR COMMON GROUND Voice, Dr. Vijay Prashad

2012-12-18 by OUR COMMON GROUND

Vijay Prashad: Deaths of children that don’t make news

By VIJAY PRASHAD

Monday, December 17, 2012
(Published in print: Tuesday, December 18, 2012

NORTHAMPTON — No community easily suffers the death of children. Accidents, violent crimes and illness: the cause is immaterial.

No death of a child is for a reason. All such deaths are senseless.

In his emotional address shortly after news came of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., President Obama pointed to the frequency of such mass crimes and nudged the country to widen our field of vision: “Whether it is an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago — these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children.”

The contrary nudge came in his last destination, the “street corner in Chicago.”

When a singular mass killing occurs in mainly affluent suburbs, it shocks the nation — and rightly so. But it might be a shock to some to know that this year alone 117 children died from handgun violence in Chicago. These deaths do not get discussed, let alone memorialized in the national conversation of tragedy.

There are at least two reasons for this. First, these deaths do not happen in a spectacular fashion. They take place in ones and twos, often in the lonely hours of the night when bullets depart from their targets and settle in the soft tissue of children asleep in their homes, or in the afternoon as they play on the sidewalk.

Take the case of April 12. One-year-old Jayliah Allen was shot while she slept in her bed, the bullet entering the window. Seven-year-old Derrick Robeteau was shot in the leg while playing outside his grandfather’s home and a 7-year-old girl was shot as she stood outside her home. Three children hit by handguns in one day, but in an unspectacular form.

Second, old racist habits linger. These are African-American and Latino kids, whose neighborhoods are considered dangerous. Which is why when Jayliah and Derrick were killed no one called their neighborhoods bucolic or thought that this violence was senseless. There is a hardness that has entered our consciousness, allowing us to avoid the sealed fates of these kids.

No memorials exist as well for the 178 children killed by U.S. drone strikes in the borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Noor Aziz, 8, Talha, 8, Najibullah, 13, Adnan, 16, Hizbullah, 10, Wilayat Khan, 11, Asadullah, 9, Sohail, 7: these are some of the names of children killed by the drones. News reports frequently say “three militants killed,” and then a few days later, in the Pakistani press, one hears that amongst the dead were children with no association with the militants. Unlike the street shootings in Chicago, there have been mass killings by drones, which have received only minimal attention. On Oct. 30, 2006, a U.S. drone struck a school in Bajaur, Pakistan, killing 83 people. The New York Times story ran Nov. 10 with the headline, “American Strike in January Missed Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 By a Few Hours.”

Read Article Here

Is a Crisis in White Masculinity Leading to Horrific Gun Crimes Like the Sandy Hook Shootings? | Alternet

2012-12-15 by OUR COMMON GROUND

s a Crisis in White Masculinity Leading to Horrific Gun Crimes

Like the Sandy Hook Shootings?Americas obsession with guns has played out its dark game once more.December 14, 2012 | My heart goes out to the families, children, victims, and all others impacted by the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, Connecticut .Americas obsession with guns has played out its dark game once more. We are eating our young because so many believe that America is a gunfighter nation. For them, the “right” to bear arms trumps any reasonable legislation about restricting access to certain types of firearms. This most recent mass shooting, which will likely be the worst incident of gun violence in recent American history, is not going to cause a rethinking of the countrys love affair with such weapons. Nor will the mass murder of 20 children and 6 adults by Adam Lanza weaken the NRAs hold on our legislators. The NRA and their clan will retreat back to a default position and rhetorical redoubt where “guns dont kill people, only people do.”These same ideologues, who in the 21st century remain some type of throwback premodern tribesman at the early dawn of human history, are utterly devoted to a fetish object of metal and plastic which they worship as a god. For them, the mass shooting of children in Newton, Connecticut will be a funeral pyre whose light they will read as spirits dancing in the shadows, beckoning to them that more guns equals less crime, and that school teachers–and perhaps even children–should be allowed to carry firearms in school. Magical thinking brings public policy solutions that are not grounded in common sense or empirical reality.As the details of the murderous rampage trickle out, all of the standard talking points by the media will be hit upon. Was Adam Lanza mentally ill? What type of weapons did he us? Were there warning signs? Acts of heroism by the adults and children in the school will be profiled. The first responders will be praised and profiled. People will cry. The pundits will tear up in an effort to show some personal, human connection, to a story that will feed the next news cycle, and will potentially make a career or two for some upstart journalist or TV personality.

via Is a Crisis in White Masculinity Leading to Horrific Gun Crimes Like the Sandy Hook Shootings? | Alternet.

In the Wake of Another Mass Shooting, Let’s Talk About America’s Dangerously Gutted Mental Healthcare System | Alternet

2012-12-15 by OUR COMMON GROUND

In the Wake of Another Mass Shooting, Let’s Talk About America’s Dangerously Gutted Mental Healthcare System

The Right’s program for public safety: Everyone should have a gun and few should get adequate mental healthcare.

December 14, 2012 |

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

The scene has replayed itself over and over — in Tucson, at Virginia Tech, at Columbine. On Friday in Connecticut, another unstable man has taken innocent lives in a burst of terrifying violence.

Inadequate gun control is only one half of the story. The other is the shameful job America does of treating the mentally ill. Today, 45 million American adults suffer from mental illness. Eleven million of those cases are considered serious. Most of these people are not dangerous, but if they can’t get treatment, the odds of potential violence increase.

Yet the mentally ill are finding it increasingly difficult to get help. Mental health funding has been plummeting for decades. Since 2009, states have cut billions for mental health from their budgets. As Daniel Lippman has reported in the Huffington Post:

Across the country, states facing severe financial shortfalls have cut at least $4.35 billion in public mental health spending from 2009 to 2012, according to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD). It’s the largest reduction in funding since de-institutionalization in the 1960s and ’70s. In fiscal year 2012 alone, 31 states that gave their numbers to the association reported cutting more than $840 million.

Thanks to the misguided austerity policies embraced by conservatives, more people are falling through the cracks. There are not enough psychiatric beds, treatment services or community support programs. Medication is expensive, and insurance companies routinely leave patients inadequately covered (the Affordable Care Act will hopefully address this problem by finally putting psychiatric illnesses on par with other health issues).

via In the Wake of Another Mass Shooting, Let’s Talk About America’s Dangerously Gutted Mental Healthcare System | Alternet.