So does violence only count when cops do it? I know a several dedicated, fair minded police officers, who happen to be black and hispanic, who take the job to try and make a difference in the community and function as much as social workers as police officers. For the police who are out of line, we have the citizens police review board. What review board do we have for the thugs? The police. When this kid Christopher Rodriguez got shot and paralyzed by a criminal while taking his piano lesson, we didn’t call a social worker. We called the police. If you disbanded the police tomorrow, east Oakland would turn into Sierra Leone. There are 125plus murders in my town per year, and many more robberies and rapes, like what Lovey was up to that fateful Saturday morning. 60 people marched in support of a rapist and robber, like he was Che Guevarra. He wasn’t Che.

I have a theory about the roots of the violence as well. The black community didn’t have the crime rate it currently does before the 1960s or 70s. I have a theory, just a theory mind you, that when a portion of the community rejected King in favor of Malcolm, that everybody decided that getting a gun was the solution. So here you have a gun, waiting for the revolution…not takin no crap off of nobody anymore….now a member of your own community does you wrong, say robs you or disrespects you, so what do you do? Your high minded revolutionary ideals get put on hold or just plain forgotten, while you solve some of your other problems with that gun you’re holding.

Look at some of the Panthers like Huey who turned a blind eye and condoned drug dealers like Felix Mitchell, who was pumping heroin into the community. That clearly was hugely destructive to east Oakland and its middle class black families, but Huey met with Felix and said live and let live, even developed a drug habit himself! You start with politics and high ideals, add some guns, then when everyone is armed and ready, the ideals wither away and all you’re left with is the guns in the hands of people who don”t really care about politics.

Like I say, its just a theory. My main point is, we have to get back to Kings message.

One of the figures I came to admire most in New Orleans, after the flood, was Glen David Andrews, a traditional brass band trombonist, from the historic African American Tremé neighborhood, who appeared at “Stop the Violence!” rallies to urge New Orleans teens to stop killing each other.

The last time I picked up Glen David Andrews’s story, he and another Rebirth Brass Band musician had been arrested while playing in a traditional second line musical street parade that had gathered in the Tremé a young tube player from the Rebirth Brass band, one of their own, who had died of a heart attack in his early thirties.

The New Orleans Police arrived with sirens blazing amidst this traditional brass band procession, an expression of the African American indigenous heart and soul of New Orleans and ordered the musicians to disperse and stop making music, at 8:00 P.M. in the evening. They continued to play, and the police cuffed and arrested Glen David Andrews, for playing the trombone, and another Rebirth musician—his cousin, I believe–for playing a snare drum.

Two of Glen David Andrews’s grade school age nephews were screaming and crying as he and the other Rebirth musician were taken away.

So, no; I certainly don’t think there’s any excuse for the random gang violence you describe, but I also think that a lot of police effort goes into further traumatizing the community and, in this case I know well, in New Orleans, into criminalizing the peacemakers, like Glenn David Andrews.

I just looked him up on the Web and it looked like the Rebirth Brass Band has a upcoming gig in Syracuse, and it looks as though he’s still part of it, so I hope tht he’s still encouraging New Orleans kids to “Stop the Violence!” when he’s back home.

He is a very rooted New Orleans musician, who returned to New Orleans from Houston, several months after the flood, with nothing but his trombone and a small satchel, because he knew that was where he belonged.

Longstanding roots like those in African American New Orleans also give rise to a commitment to stay and lead, like that of Glenn David Andrews. That’s what we might best consider when asking ourselves what the roots of the violence are, and, how to stop it.

Now here come the excuses for the behavior of the young black men who shot those beautiful black children….

Wait for it….

wait for it…

The way programming has gotten on the air at KPFA was through the Program Council (PC) and the Program Director (PD).
KPFA and its parent foundation, Pacifica (plus Pacifica”s other 4 stations) were subjected to an attempted takeover during 1991 to about 2000, but the listeners, staff, and others won them back in court cases and Bylaws were written which instituted shared (democratic) decision making.
One of the pillars of KPFA democracy is the semi-democratic
Program Council (which actually predates the Bylaws). The Program Council evaluates the programming and takes requests for new programming.
Unfortunately, the undemocratic faction has fought the role of the Program Council (PC) and its sponsor the Local Station Board in programming. In the last 2 years or so a Program Director was illegally appointed by Management,
who is of the undemocratic faction, and together they forced the PC to stop most of its meetings, characterized it as merely “advisory”, and failed to consult with it *at all*. The Program Director has been making all the
programming decisions, and her faction has not promoted local community concerned programming, though there were opportunities to add such programs.
Note that JR and his report are carried by Dennis Bernstein’s Flashpoints. Dennis and Flashpoints are aligned with the democratic faction at KPFA.

While we would prefer to blame “the station”, and not have to consider the dynamics of the problem, or get involved in station “politics”, we can’t solve the problem without the community being educated and involved in it!

We need concerned listeners to become, or remain, voting members, in order to vote in Local Station Board elections, and VOTE OUT the so-called “Concerned Listeners” slate, whom I call”the Listeners Concerned with Protecting Entrenched Staff & their Management”. Otherwise, the present situation will continue of having a majority voting bloc of listener reps who are there to rubberstamp the wishes of entrenched staff and their management, instead of providing democratic checks and balances from the listeners, and oversee KPFA governance.

For example, they recently voted to meet *every other* month, instead of every month as LSBs everywhere have done forever – especially needed in this time of financial crisis in the network. But why meet, when we can just leave
Management to make all the decisions, which is what we CL are here to do anyway?

A Local Station Board election is coming up in October,
so become a KPFA member – a minimum of $25 or 3 hours
volunteer work for the year – will get you membership,
vote for pro-democracy candidates *only*, and keep raising
your voice to KPFA.

As the election nears there will be information about
candidates and platforms. Meanwhile, besides the
SF Bayview, there are sometimes articles and letters in the Berkeley Daily Planet,
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com
One such article, about the Nadra Foster incident:
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-09-04/article/31010?headline=Rough-Arrest-at-KPFA-Stuns-Station-Community

See IndyBay under “Media”. A recent article:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/13/18588446.php

Or check the People’s Radio website which though not active
and up to date at this time has much information about
the KPFA situation: http://peoplesradio.net

[This is the Bay View editor. I'm posting this for Mara, whose browser wouldn't allow her to post it.]

Note that the sentence you quote starts with the word “apparently”, the intended meaning being, ” according to JR’s statement, seemingly, outwardly appearing as such; professed; pretended: as in, an apparent cheerfulness concealing sadness, or, in this case, an apparent ridiculous assertion concealing guilt…….”

My meaning was that, if one were to take JR’s statement at face value, only white people do business during the day, while black people are free to conduct business at night, a statement which is ridiculous on its face as well as fraught with irony, because, at the time he was having a phone conversation with Yusef BeyIV, the bakery folks were in fact planning a murder!! In other words, it’s not an explanation as to why they were talking on the phone so late, i.e. we are black, so that’s just when we talk. It just makes him look like he is grasping for straws, and is, in fact, morbidly comical.

If you are offended by that statement, then I would merely assert that what you should truly be offended by is JR defending and obfuscating the actions of a murderer, as well as the killing of Chauncey Bailey itself. The 125+ murders in my town, Oakland, and especially the murder of Chauncey, make me so mad and OFFENDED that I feel like spitting nails. JR and SFBey View function much like the radio propagandists at Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines functioned in Rwanda ’93, or, for that matter, Rush Limbaugh functions in the sphere of right wing militia jerks like Timothy McVeigh; you give people who are already geared up for violence rhetorical justification to take violent action, and it is seldom directed at any larger problem. It is directed at the person who looked at them the wrong way, committed a slight offense or disrespect. Grace, forgiveness, charity, don’t seem to be part of the vocabulary. The problem is that violence, as in war, never limits itself to its intended target, and so you have thousands of innocent victims cut down because everyone is ready to use the gun first, the same one they are going to use for THE REVOLUTION that never comes, and so in the meantime, they use it on their neighbors.

“Apparently, white business time is 9 to 5, and Black business time is usually sometime after dark, located outside of a crime victims apartment or home, planning thier burglary, rape, or murder.”

I do think it would be an excellent idea to withdraw that comment, if that’s what you want to do.

And Ann, I was merely commenting on the minister of disinformation JR’s hilarious assertion that 9-5 is “white business time” and pointing out that it does nothing for his case to assert that Black people do their business at night. Plenty of Black people do business between the hours of 9-5, so those hours are neither white nor black. They are called daytime hours.

“Apparently, white business time is 9 to 5, and Black business time is usually sometime after dark, located outside of a crime victims apartment or home, planning thier burglary, rape, or murder.”

“Hard Knock is a hip hop show. We love it, but it’s not a Black public affairs show.”

the 4-5 pm slot occupied by hard knock radio is supposed to be “a dynamic, top-quality community/public affairs show, appealing especially to young people and people of color, using as many apprentices as is possible and feasible.” it would be entirely appropriate to devote a significant fraction of those five hours each week to black public affairs, whether under the auspices of hard knock or not.

Criticizing the Bush administration doesn’t make one anti-American.

Chauncey’s criticism of Your Black Muslim Bakery doesn’t make him a racist.

Criticizing JR for his weak defense of his activities with an organization that, ultimately, harmed the black community and murdered one of its truth telling journalists doesn’t make me a racist.

Classic.

Apparently, white business time is 9 to 5, and Black business time is usually sometime after dark, located outside of a crime victims apartment or home, planning thier burglary, rape, or murder.

Thanks for clearing that up JR.

Mumia’s interviews come from Prison Radio, at prisonradio.org.

Mary Ratcliff, editor
SF Bay View