District Attorney Ismael Ozanne announces no charges will be filed against Officer Matt Kenny in the murder ofTony Robinson
May 10
Vigil for VonDerrit Myers.
VonDerrit was murdered by Jason Flanery 7 months ago. Prosecutors haven’t given the Myers family many updates in the case of the death of their only child. Jason Flanery is reportedly still working.
The Myers family says within the next 4-6 weeks there will be a plaque in place of VonDerrit’s memorial.
Just yesterday, nearly six months after police shot and killed Tamir Rice, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office announced that the agency was nearing the end of its investigation and that there were a few more people to interview.
Among those yet to be interviewed are Cleveland Police officers Timothy Loehmann, who fired the fatal shot that killed Tamir, and his partner, Frank Garmback, who drove the car right up to Tamir this Nov. 22. How in the world, one wonders, could these officers have months and months and months to formulate their stories before speaking to investigators?
It’s because of Garrity Rights. Heard of them? Most people haven’t. Follow below the fold for an explanation.
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Today marks the 5th anniversary of Aiyanna Stanley-Jones’ murder. So I always have a hard time with her death and her face. I share bits and pieces of my work with Black girls and obviously, I’m a Black girl myself and every year, it shakes me a little bit to know that we’re still picking and choosing who we fight for in our resistance movements and often, Black girls get left out of the fight for justice. Aiyanna is a more public and well known example of the attack on Black people through white supremacist police violence. And with the recent news that the officer who murdered her wouldn’t be tried in court, we are still reminded that the lives of Black people are disposable. What stings the most, to me as not only someone who works with Black girls, but as a Black woman, is the media black out around Black women and girls lives being taken by police violence the political inertia and apathy around our murders in comparison to our cis-male counterparts. I hope that in remembering Aiyanna, we seriously start to look at the ways in which we’ve been failing certain members of our communities with the ways in which we show up and fight for justice on their behalf.
YOUNG UNARMED BLACK MAN SHOT AND PARALYZED IN HIS NEIGHBORHOOD BY FAKE COP FOR TALKING TO WHITE GIRL IN HIS CAR
On February 4, sitting in his own car in his own neighborhood, talking to a female passenger, Monroe Bird was shot in the neck by a security guard, Ricky Stone, a 52-year-old white man. The bullet pierced the C3 vertebrae in his neck. Standing 6 feet, 8 inches, Bird, a gifted athlete, is now unable to move his arms or legs and relies on a ventilator to breathe.
Heres what you need to know:
PLEASE HELP HIM!!
- The security guard who shot Birdpossessed marijuana at the time of the shooting. He told the Tulsa police that he hadn’t smoked it in a few weeks, and they didn’t even give him a citation. This is the definition of white privilege. Mind you, Tulsa was quick to test Eric Harris for drugs after they killed him and then released the results widely—even though he never acted violently toward officers.
- The security guard went to the tired, age-old excuse and claimed that he saw Bird reach into his glove compartment. According to the police report, no weapons were found in or near the car, and no items that even seemed to belong in the glove compartment were found out or about in the car.
- The security guard claimed he thought Monroe and his female passenger were having sex in the car and that he only approached them because of this.She’s white. Bird is black. Both denied doing anything of the sort.
- The security guard has claimed that Bird, who has no criminal record, attempted to run him over and basically kill him there on the spot. Both the female passenger and Bird denied the guard’s account and stated that they were driving away when Stone began recklessly firing his gun into the car.
- The security guard who shot Bird worked for Benjy D. Smith, who owns Smith & Son Security Company. Thisimportant to know because Smith is a reserve deputy for the same Tulsa Sheriff’s Office that is currently under national scrutiny for its unethical practices with Reserve Deputy Bob Bates, who shot and killed Eric Harris earlier this year.
- The insurance company is denying him coverage because they claim “it was his own fault that he got shot.”
you can eitherDonate (doesnt have to be alot it can be as small as $5) or Call the healthcare group and demand they give coverage with the number listed above.
Source
Wowhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...he-dozens-of-ferguson-related-bills-proposed/
Dozens of Ferguson-related reforms were proposed in Missouri. Just one passed
The Missouri legislature ended its session Friday night having passed virtually none of the reforms activists sought in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown.
Activists had been tracking more than 100 bills related to criminal justice and policing, but just one of substance had made its way out of the legislature, they say.
“This was such an opportunity for the Missouri legislature to step up and do the right thing. The people of the state called on our lawmakers to fix this broken system,” said Denise Lieberman a senior attorney for the Advancement Project, a civil rights group, and co-chair of the Don’t Shoot Coalition, a group formed to address policy reform after Brown’s shooting.
When the session began in early January, advocates had high hopes for, at the
very least, a fruitful discussion. They were encouraged, they said, by word from the legislative black caucus that legislative leadership and the governor were supportive of their efforts. But, in the end, several expressed frustration with the course the legislature took.
“To now, at this point, see every piece of legislation that they put forward get stifled, get choked out, it’s disheartening,” said Montague Simmons, chairman and executive director of the Organization for Black Struggle, a black political empowerment organization.
The scores of bills — introduced mostly by the legislature’s few Democrats — offered a menu of reforms. They would have developed standards for eyewitness identification, required body cameras, restricted police from racial profiling, required diversity and sensitivity training, and modified state rules governing the use of lethal force, something Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon threw his support behind in his State of the State address.
The legislature did pass one bill advocates had been calling for, which was aimed at limiting municipal reliance on fines for revenue, a practice highlighted in a scathing Justice Department report on Ferguson released earlier this year. The bill lowers the cap on how much revenue a municipality can generate from traffic tickets from 30 percent to 20 percent statewide and to 12.5 percent in St. Louis County, which is plagued by excessive traffic violations and is home to Ferguson. The bill also bans courts from throwing individuals in jail over minor traffic offenses.
Despite their hopes, advocates were not encouraged by legislative leadership early in the session.
“We’re not going to have a ‘Ferguson agenda’ here in the House,” House Speaker John Diehl (R) said at his opening day news conference on Jan. 7. “I think that the Senate has indicated the same thing. I view the situation of Ferguson as really a reflection of decades of bad government policy,” he said, adding that the chamber would look at issues related to economics, educational opportunities, and the role and function of government.
“Those men and women who serve the public by defending our lives and property—they shouldn’t be scapegoats for what are bad public policies,” he said. Diehl resigned Thursday afternoon after the Kansas City Star uncovered what it described as “sexually suggestive texts” with a 19-year-old intern.
Two police-related bills proceeded in a meaningful way, said Sarah Rossi, director of advocacy and policy at the ACLU of Missouri. But neither are ones she would have supported. One, which passed the House, would have banned state-mandated body cameras and allowed law enforcement agencies to deny access to mobile video recordings. Another, which saw late action Friday but still went nowhere, would have limited officers’ use of deadly force.
Though their efforts may have largely failed this session, proponents of reform said they plan to continue their fight.
“Long-term policy change takes time,” Lieberman said. Advocates plan to use the recommendations of a state commission on Ferguson, expected to wrap up its work in the coming months, to engage lawmakers over the summer and work with them on pre-filing bills for the next session.
The media can never be excused, these murderous police stations work hand in hand with these media outlets that justify the killing of Black men for a hungry white audience..