Tag: Stephon Clark

There’s a ‘tude’ that often comes with cops “responding” to a neighborhood complaint like vandalism or whatever, that reads, ‘there’s one, take him, game over, next? . . .’ – another Black man dead. Another father, husband, brother, son, uncle murdered. Cell phone looked like a gun, uh huh – makes sense since guns and cell phones are pretty much interchangeable with police, DAs and police unions. Another day . . . of pain and suffering for our communities. Stephon Clark – “He didn’t have to die.”

Michael Dorrough praises the beauty and power of language to infuse new life into the ongoing struggle for our humanity and liberation against the oppression of white male patriarchy.

The failure of both Congress and state legislatures to respond to the murder of George Floyd with any meaningful action reminds us that our nation’s attempts at reform can often amount to nothing. We need to look elsewhere for reform – to local prosecutors.

Let there be no mistake. Shooting and killing an unarmed Black woman, who professed to be pregnant in Houston, Texas, or “bagging” a small in stature 12-year-old in Sacramento must be called out for what it is. These actions are more reflective of the practices of “slave catchers” and “Jim Crow” era law enforcers than of proper urban policing techniques focused on de-escalation and by governments truly committed to empower police officers to “protect and to serve” our entire community.

Ten years ago, Oscar Grant was tragically and needlessly killed by an officer at the Fruitvale BART station. Oscar was a beloved member of our East Bay community. He was a loving father, a loyal friend and a kind neighbor. My heart is with his family, friends and loved ones who are missing him dearly today. Over the last decade, communities like mine have lost far too many Black men to police violence. Since Oscar’s passing, the list of young African American men killed by police officers has grown even longer.

May Day – International Workers Day – is celebrated around the world, including in the United States, honoring the fighting spirit and struggle of all working and oppressed people. It is a time when workers show their strength, demand their rights and forge global solidarity. Its roots are in the struggle for the eight-hour day in 1886 in Chicago. Only in the United States, whose working class gave birth to May Day, have the powers that be managed to conceal that history, erase the memory of May Day, and suppress the class struggle that it represents. ILWU Local 10 shut down all Bay Area ports on May Day for the fourth consecutive year.

I have always said that if you want to understand the nature of a thing, you must research its origin. I would venture to say that the iconic freedom fighter and servant of the people Malcolm X was the first “Prison Panther,” although he was not known officially as such. However, when Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in 1966 at Merritt College in Oakland, California, the legacy of their hero, OUR HERO, Malcolm X was on their mind.

Join 10,000 Black men for a mass march and rally in Lafayette Park, in front of the White House, on Saturday, April 21, 10 a.m.; rally starts 1 p.m. The march is a part of the five-day 10,000 Black Men’s Convention set to take place in Washington from April 18-22, which promises to draw thousands. Topping the gathering’s agenda is a call for an immediate end to police brutality as well as the firing and charging of officers who have been involved in the unjust killings of Black people.

Angry and frustrated residents are demanding answers after a police-involved shooting left an unarmed, Black man dead. Stephon Clark, 22, was fatally shot in his Meadowview area backyard Sunday, March 18, after two Sacramento Police Department (SPD) officers shot at him more than 20 times. Local and national Black leaders have vowed to demand justice for Clark and his family. Black Lives Matter and Rev. Les Simmons of South Sacramento Christian Center spearheaded vigils and rallies, where those who knew Clark called him a loving son and father of two young boys, who didn’t deserve to die.