Changing Police Policy on Discharging Firearms/Use of Lethal Force (So Stephon Clark's Death Won't Be In Vain)

We need legislation -- state and national -- to change police policy on discharging firearms/use of lethal force.  Unless we change the laws,  police will continue to fatally shoot suspects whom they "believe" to have a gun.  Here are two principles and six changes proposed by Terrie L. Robinson (Twitter @IAspire) to the Sacramento City Council:

Two Principles

1. “Reasonable belief” shall no longer be enough for a police officer to shoot an unarmed person when the only people who are potentially in danger of harm are police officers. Police officers should not be allowed to shoot anyone without actually seeing a gun or a knife in the suspect’s hand, instead of “reasonably believing” that the suspect has a gun or a knife, because “reasonable belief” can be colored by unconscious racial bias.

2. If there is a risk of imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm to a police officer, the risk of error should fall to the officer who assumed the risk of putting his or her life on the line, not citizens. Officers' lives are not more important than citizens' lives.

Six Changes

1. Justification for the use of deadly force when only an officer or officers are at risk of death or serious bodily injury shall be limited to facts known by the officer or officers at the time, not facts reasonably perceived by the officer. In such situations, officers shall only discharge their firearm if they can visibly see that a suspect has a firearm.

2. Turning off or muting a police body camera before, during, or after a pursuit of a suspect is evidence tampering. It shall be a fireable offense and considered prima facie evidence of guilt in civil proceedings, i.e., wrongful death and civil rights cases involving officer-involved shootings of citizens.

3. Every police officer shall be required to take an “Implicit Associations Test” (IAT), available for free on the Project Implicit website, to test for unconscious racial and other biases that may affect their judgment in a deadly force situation. The results of those tests shall be revealed to the officers and placed in the personnel files.

4. Pending conclusion of any investigation of an officer shooting of a suspect, the suspect’s arrest and conviction record shall not be made public so as not to bias the investigation or a jury pool in a civil proceeding against a police department.

5. There shall be no confidential settlements of wrongful death or civil rights cases involving officer-involved fatal shootings of suspects. The facts from any wrongful death or civil rights case should be laid bare to the public hold the police department accountable.

6. Police shootings of suspects shall be investigated by an independent body whose composition shall be a majority of non-law enforcement citizens.

November 3, 2016, A Day Without Black People: A National Strike & Boycott In Support of Colin Kaepernick & Black Lives Matter

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage."

~ Maya Angelou

I will be participating in what I hope will become a nationwide strike and boycott by all black Americans and our supporters on November 3, 2016, Colin Kaepernick's 29th birthday, in support of Colin Kaepernick's protest and Black Lives Matter.  Let's call it "A Day Without Black People."

On November 3, 2016, I will not be going to work.  That's the strike.  I will also not be spending any money.  That's the boycott.    If I had children, I would keep them out of school.  

Clearly the problems of African Americans -- injustice and murder at the hands of the criminal justice system -- are considered aberrations and not AMERICAN problems.  We're told to leave if we don't like America and that Kaepernick's protest is unpatriotic and anti-military.  Clearly America doesn't see African Americans as Americans.  America doesn't see our problems as American problems.  America doesn't see anything wrong with how we are treated in America.

So I think America needs to know what America it looks like without black people, if only for a day.

I understand that not everyone has the luxury of taking a day off work.   Here's what you can do if you can't afford to take the day off:

1) If you can't strike, don't spend any money that day.

2) Take a selfie of yourself taking a knee -- wearing Kaepernick's jersey if you can -- and post it on your social media with one or more of these hashtags:

 #ADayWithoutBlackPeople 

#TakingAKneeOnNovemberThree 

#QuarterbackForJustice 

#BlackOut

3) Have a moment of silence  in your workplace or home for all of the black lives lost at the hands of the police and vigilantes like George Zimmerman.  Say their names and pray for them.

4) If you must spend money, write "Black Lives Matter" on your bills when you spend them.

5) Tell everyone on social media that you support A Day Without Black People, even if you aren't black and/or can't take the day off.

6) Have the conversation with co-workers, family and friends about Kaepernick's protest.  Here are some talking points when you hear the usual arguments:

a) Argument;  It's disrespectful to not stand for the national anthem.

Answer:  The NFL only began playing the national anthem consistently when the military started sponsoring military displays at NFL games.  The Supreme Court has upheld as constitutional the right not to salute the flag or engage in shows of patriotism.  When a nation does not live up to its own standards, the people have a right to peacefully protest to hold the nation accountable.  That is what Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter are doing.

b)  Argument: If you don't like America, you should leave.

Answer:  As African Americans, we are a stolen people in a stolen country.  The only people who have the right to tell anyone they should leave American are Native Americans.  Besides, the blood and sweat of our ancestors built this country and the economy on whose backs your people profited.  If anyone should leave, it is the slavers and their ancestors, not the stolen and enslaved and their ancestors.

I believe in my country and the ideas for which it stands, including equal justice under law.  I most certainly will not leave, but will stay and make my country live up to its values.  If everyone left when the country fell short of living up to its values, the country would fall apart.  Right now, my country is not living up to its values.

c) Argument: Kaepernick should do his protest on his own time.

Answer:  What Kaepernick is doing is not illegal, and he is doing it peacefully.  Would you be saying the same thing if you agreed with what he is protesting for?

I'll be the first to admit:  I supported what Colin Kaepernick was protesting for, but I didn't support his method, or the method of Black Lives Matter, for that matter.  I felt that a protest without a clear goal, e.g., the end of a war, the passage of legislation, would be never-ending and ineffective.  Given the backlash against Kaepernick -- calling him unpatriotic, saying that if he doesn't like America he should leave, saying he should just shut up and play -- I believe that the effort to silence Kaepernick is an effort to silence all black people.  It takes a lot for a young black man to be as courageous as Kaepernick is being and take the heat for it.  So here is my individual effort to be as courageous as Colin Kaepernick for all my people.  Instead of being a drum major for justice like Dr. King told us we could be, let's support Colin Kaepernick and be quarterbacks for justice.

See you -- or rather,  I won't be seeing you -- on November 3.

#ADayWithoutBlackPeople 

#TakingAKneeOnNovemberThree 

#QuarterbackForJustice 

#BlackOut

November 3, 2016, A Day Without Black People: A National Strike & Boycott In Support of Colin Kaepernick & Black Lives Matter

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage."

~ Maya Angelou

I will be participating in what I hope will become a nationwide strike and boycott by all black Americans and our supporters on November 3, 2016, Colin Kaepernick's 29th birthday, in support of Colin Kaepernick's protest and Black Lives Matter.  Let's call it "A Day Without Black People."

On November 3, 2016, I will not be going to work.  That's the strike.  I will also not be spending any money.  That's the boycott.    If I had children, I would keep them out of school.  

Clearly the problems of African Americans -- injustice and murder at the hands of the criminal justice system -- are considered aberrations and not AMERICAN problems.  We're told to leave if we don't like America and that Kaepernick's protest is unpatriotic and anti-military.  Clearly America doesn't see African Americans as Americans.  America doesn't see our problems as American problems.  America doesn't see anything wrong with how we are treated in America.

So I think America needs to know what America it looks like without black people, if only for a day.

I understand that not everyone has the luxury of taking a day off work.   Here's what you can do if you can't afford to take the day off:

1) If you can't strike, don't spend any money that day.

2) Take a selfie of yourself taking a knee -- wearing Kaepernick's jersey if you can -- and post it on your social media with one or more of these hashtags:

 #ADayWithoutBlackPeople 

#TakingAKneeOnNovemberThree 

#QuarterbackForJustice 

#BlackOut

3) Have a moment of silence  in your workplace or home for all of the black lives lost at the hands of the police and vigilantes like George Zimmerman.  Say their names and pray for them.

4) If you must spend money, write "Black Lives Matter" on your bills when you spend them.

5) Tell everyone on social media that you support A Day Without Black People, even if you aren't black and/or can't take the day off.

6) Have the conversation with co-workers, family and friends about Kaepernick's protest.  Here are some talking points when you hear the usual arguments:

a) Argument;  It's disrespectful to not stand for the national anthem.

Answer:  The NFL only began playing the national anthem consistently when the military started sponsoring military displays at NFL games.  The Supreme Court has upheld as constitutional the right not to salute the flag or engage in shows of patriotism.  When a nation does not live up to its own standards, the people have a right to peacefully protest to hold the nation accountable.  That is what Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter are doing.

b)  Argument: If you don't like America, you should leave.

Answer:  As African Americans, we are a stolen people in a stolen country.  The only people who have the right to tell anyone they should leave American are Native Americans.  Besides, the blood and sweat of our ancestors built this country and the economy on whose backs your people profited.  If anyone should leave, it is the slavers and their ancestors, not the stolen and enslaved and their ancestors.

I believe in my country and the ideas for which it stands, including equal justice under law.  I most certainly will not leave, but will stay and make my country live up to its values.  If everyone left when the country fell short of living up to its values, the country would fall apart.  Right now, my country is not living up to its values.

c) Argument: Kaepernick should do his protest on his own time.

Answer:  What Kaepernick is doing is not illegal, and he is doing it peacefully.  Would you be saying the same thing if you agreed with what he is protesting for?

I'll be the first to admit:  I supported what Colin Kaepernick was protesting for, but I didn't support his method, or the method of Black Lives Matter, for that matter.  I felt that a protest without a clear goal, e.g., the end of a war, the passage of legislation, would be never-ending and ineffective.  Given the backlash against Kaepernick -- calling him unpatriotic, saying that if he doesn't like America he should leave, saying he should just shut up and play -- I believe that the effort to silence Kaepernick is an effort to silence all black people.  It takes a lot for a young black man to be as courageous as Kaepernick is being and take the heat for it.  So here is my individual effort to be as courageous as Colin Kaepernick for all my people.  Instead of being a drum major for justice like Dr. King told us we could be, let's support Colin Kaepernick and be quarterbacks for justice.

See you -- or rather,  I won't be seeing you -- on November 3.

#ADayWithoutBlackPeople 

#TakingAKneeOnNovemberThree 

#QuarterbackForJustice 

#BlackOut

If Black People Embrace The Underwood Doctrine, Cops Will Be Killed

**WARNING:  SPOIL ALERT FOR THE END OF SEASON FOUR OF "HOUSE OF CARDS."**

"We don't submit to terror.  We make the terror." Frank Underwood, "House of Cards"

I'm a huge fan of Netflix's original series, including the original original series, "House of Cards."  I think the writing is unsurpassed and Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright insufficiently acknowledged for their extraordinary work.

In the last episode of Season Four of "House of Cards," the context of which I won't discuss, both Frank and Claire Underwood look into the camera, breaking the fourth wall, while Frank declares, "We don't submit to terror.  We make the terror."

I would call this the "Underwood Doctrine."  At least two blacks, one in Dallas and one in Baton Rouge, have embraced it.

From slavery to now, there has always been a contingent of my race that has believed that violence is an all-too-appropriate response to violence against us.  If you think of African Americans -- or any Americans, for that matter -- on what I would call a violence acceptance spectrum, I would say that, at one end of the spectrum, there are the violence acceptors, followed by the violence sympathizers, the violence understanders, and the violence rejectors.

The violence acceptors, especially the two black men who shot police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, embraced the Underwood Doctrine.  One could call into question their mental stability, but I would venture to argue that not all violence acceptors are unstable.  Violence acceptors have no problem with retaliating against those who are part of the group who terrorize, even if such individuals have done no wrong themselves.

The violence sympathizers won't personally engage in retaliatory violence, but they support those who do.  They might even post bail for them, mount a legal defense for them, seek mercy for them.  They believe the retaliatory violence is justified.  The violence sympathizers might use violence in self-defense, but they won't use it in retaliation against those who have not directly harmed them.

The violence understanders don't agree with violence in retaliation for violence, but they understand those who do.  They seek to explain to those who don't understand retaliatory violence how the violence acceptors got to the point where they feel retaliatory violence is justified.

Finally, the violence rejectors reject violence of all kinds against anyone.  Dr. King was a violence rejector.

The problem is that with each unjustified killing of an unarmed black person by police officers or vigilantes like George Zimmerman, the more the rejectors become understanders, the understanders become sympathizers, and the sympathizers become acceptors. The more black people become acceptors, the more likely we will not submit to police terror, but make the terror instead.

Or as my 91 year-old dad so aptly put it in the haze of his dementia, "We ain't gonna lay down this time."

As I see the Black Lives Matter movement being demonized as a hate group even though no one involved with Black Lives Matter has picked up a gun and killed police,  I ask that we talk about the hate that got us where we are today, where black lives can be extinguished by fearful, racist police officers and vigilantes -- of all races, mind you -- without justification, explanation, condemnation, or consolation from the people doing the killing.

America, you got some 'splainin to do, as they say in the South. But stop blaming Black Lives Matter.  Your hate and fear made Black Lives Matter not just possible, but necessary.

America, what you need to fear more than you fear us is to fear us armed.  Fear us making runs on gun stores like you do every time gun control legislation is introduced.  Fear us becoming Nat Turner radicalized, especially in open carry states.  Fear us at the gun ranges, preparing to retaliate.

Fear us putting real context to the faux "All Lives Matter" movement, with police officers' lives being extinguished without justification, explanation, condemnation, or consolation from black people.

Fear us embracing the Underwood Doctrine.

I do.

Time for President Obama to Return the Favor (Black Folks Ridin' Hard for POTUS)

Dear President Obama,

I listened to your comments on the looting going on in Baltimore yesterday.  All I could think was, "Here we go again."

Let me get to the point:  You're quick to criticize black folks when we don't live up to your standards, but you're slow to criticize non-black folks when their failure to live up to any standard of decency leads to the murder of black folks.

As one reporter noted, you did not walk the streets of Ferguson.  You were silent about Eric Garner.  I've not heard you utter the phrase "Black Lives Mater."

But the minute that black folks -- young black folks at that -- begin to loot and riot in response to the racial transgressions you barely acknowledge?  Then it's on.  You jump on the obvious bandwagon and, despite your race, fail to add anything to the conversation that non-blacks don't already think and say.  You fail to add the context that your experience as a black man in America would cause to come to you naturally.  Or at least it should.

Sure, it's easy to call young black people "thugs."  It's easy to confirm the pre-existing stereotypes.  But you have a higher calling and a greater debt to the very people you condemn so easily.

You have a higher calling because you know better and you were put into office in part because you were expected to lift your voice for black people at most, or at least to make sure that black people are treated equally under the law.  Make no mistake -- many black folks had their doubts about you.  I know for certain that many black women would not have voted for you but for the fact that you are married to Mrs. Obama, enabling you to wear her "race rank," for lack of a better phrase.  The idea behind black folks putting a black man in the White House was that he -- you -- would bring your life experience with you and deploy it for our equal treatment and everyone else's education. For many of us, the reason to vote you in for a second term was to give you the political freedom to speak to the uneasy issue of race that you didn't have in your first term.  The idea was that you'd have nothing to lose and you'd expend some political capital on the uneasy issue of race.  Instead, you chose to use Eric Holder as your proxy.

To make matters worse, your comments on Baltimore embodied Professor Derrick Bell''s Third Rule of Racial Standing from his book, "Faces at the Bottom of the Well, " to wit:

Few blacks avoid diminishment of racial standing, most of their statements about racial conditions being diluted and their recommendations of other blacks taken with a grain of salt. The usual exception to this rule is the black person who publicly disparages or criticizes other blacks who are speaking or acting in ways that upset whites. Instantly, such statements are granted 'enhanced standing' even when the speaker has no special expertise or experience in the subject he or she is criticizing. (emphasis added).
And when the President of the United States disparages black people, without adding the context to their actions that he knows or should knows, this exception to the rule of racial standing becomes all the more stronger.

But you knew that.

You chose to call them thugs when you could have quoted Dr. King about the nature of rioting:  "Riot is the language of the unheard."  You didn't put their actions into context,   You simply brushed all of those who looted with a broad brushstroke, with an easy sound bite, knowing that you wouldn't have to bear the consequences of the condemnation you heaped upon them and those who look like them.

Enough. Is.  Enough.

To borrow a turn of phrase from your girl Ms. Bey, black folks have been ridin' hard for you, Mr. President.  Ridin' hard, even when you've done things that, quite frankly, we and most of the free world didn't understand (like that "line in the sand" with Syria that you couldn't back up).  We understood why you couldn't consistently address issues of race in your first term -- because they would be a distraction from all the other issues you had to tackle -- the economy, two wars, health care reform, etc.  But we put you in a second time in hopes that you would be free to speak about, and do something about, race in America.  Because being the first black President -- hell, being the first black ANYTHING -- comes with its own set of responsibilities.  One of those is to make it better for those who look like you and don't have the same power or platform that you do.  This idea that you have to be a President of all the people and not just one group is undermined by the fact that we're Americans, too, and our race problem is America's race problem.  And yours.

Mr. President, Black America has been ridin' hard for you.  It's time for you to return the favor.  You could start by explaining us instead of being the first to criticize us.

Sincerely,

Black Woman Blogging

Another Generation of Second-Class Citizens (Ferguson and Lionel Ritchie on My Mind)

Black Man Not Blogging (BMNB) and I are jaded.  Or rather, numb.  We were not surprised by the grand jury verdict in the Michael Brown killing.

We both agreed that it was senseless to loot and burn the businesses of innocent business owners in Ferguson, especially if those businesses employed those in the community and/or were black-owned.

We both agreed that if Michael Brown had reached for the officer's gun, his fate was sealed, not because he may not have been justified in reaching for it, but because, once you do, your killing by a police officer becomes justifiable.

We initially disagreed about the way forward.  Kind of.

"We have to teach our young men to be smarter," he said.

"Smarter?", I asked.

"Yes, smarter." BMNB explained that police officers act out of fear, specifically their fear of black men.  The answer, he said, was to teach all our sons that police officers' fears can cause them to be killed and that, no matter what, there are certain things you as a black man can't say or do to a police officer and expect to live to tell about it.

"Damn," I said.  "Do we have to raise yet another generation of second-class citizens?  My dad grew up seeing black men lynched because they didn't address a white man the right way or they looked at a white woman too long.  Your generation was raised not to run at night or make any sudden moves when stopped by the police.  Black people have always had to raise our sons to expect to be treated as second-class citizens.  Do we as black people have to raise yet another generation of second-class citizens?"

I hung my head.  Then I remembered a story Lionel Ritchie told in an episode of Oprah Winfrey's "Master Class."  He talked about growing up on the Tuskegee University (then Tuskegee Institute) campus and living in a racism-free bubble during segregation until he ventured off campus.  He spoke of how when he was a child he drank from a white water fountain in town, and white men then started to threaten his dad.  He just knew his dad was going to kick their behinds.  His dad only told him, "Get in the car."  Years later, he asked his dad why he hadn't stood up to those white men. His dad replied:

"Son, I had two choices that day.  I could choose to be a man or I could choose to be your father.  That day, I chose to be your father."

It made me realize that it isn't about being a second-class citizen.  It's about having our young black men survive the experience and live to tell about it.  If they don't live, they can't tell the tale of what happened to them.  Only forensics and police officers put on the stand during their own grand jury hearings (WTH?) will tell the tale.  And if young black men don't live to tell what happened to them, it can't be changed for the next generation of young black man.

"We need a protocol for all our young men to follow when they encounter the police.  A protocol that we can all agree on, that's nationally recognized.  I don't know if it's 'Hands up, don't shoot' or what, but we need a protocol that we all train our young black men to follow when they encounter the police. We need to teach that protocol in the churches and the schools."

"Then we need to train the police on that protocol," said BMNB.  And then he said something that made me even more jaded:

"You know that every day there are black men who do all the right things when they encounter the police and still get killed, right?"

"Yes, I know."  But we have to start somewhere.

#FeelingPowerless
#BlackLivesMatter