National Black Police Association Says Sean Bell Shooting Emboldens Lack of Confidence in Judges

© April 26, 2008. All rights reserved to NBPA

By Christopher C. Cooper
Chicago, IL
cooper@sxu.edu



The acquittals of the three New York City Policeman who killed unarmed Sean Bell further damages the psyche and perception of the justice system by people of color. There was blatant disregard by Judge Cooperman, the Bell trial's presiding judge, of the compelling evidence of recklessness. His verdict represents the highest level of judicial abuse. Sadly, his verdict is consistent with outrageous, decision-making by judges throughout America when people-of-color are victims. On the Civil side, it is the power of judges to prevent people of-color, victimized by the police, from ever getting their civil lawsuits against police before a jury. Judges nix a jury by routinely dismissing cases via what is called Summary Judgment. It is a judge deciding that allegations of a black man or woman are Not credible enough to go to a jury.

On the criminal side, police officers can opt out of having a jury, they choose a judge instead. These bench trials as they are called, have long represented the way in which police officers who have killed and maimed without legal justification have avoided criminal convictions and prison. The shooting death of an elderly, wheel chair bound grandmother, Eleanor Bumpers, by a New York City Policeman and the officer's acquittal before a New York judge is among the most shocking examples of judicial abuse. The verdict in the Bell case joins a litany of cases from all over the United States that shows one set of judicial decision making for whites and another for people-of –color. One only consider the past and ongoing abuse by the many members of the judiciary in Chicago by their not addressing torture of black men by the infamous Chicago Police Officer John Burge and his criminal gang.

It does not matter that two of the officers who killed Sean Bell are black. The larger issue is that police officers of any color, in jurisdictions throughout the United States are given a blank check to abuse people of color. Prosecutors routinely look the other way and if they prosecute, they throw the fight (a real possibility of what happened in the Bell case). Most judges shirk their duty to be fair and impartial, especially when they dismiss cases by people of color against the police via Summary Judgment; having, inappropriately used their (judges) personal perceptions to decide that there is not an issue of genuine, material fact.

The National Black Police Association (NBPA), compromised of police officers, has every right to Monday morning quarterback any police situation. It is the knowledge of police practices of the association's members that enables The National Black Police Association to speak credibly and directly about the verdict in the Bell case. Any seasoned big city police officer is able to see the recklessness of the officers who killed Bell. We (members of the NBPA) know that the firing of more than fifty bullets on a crowded New York City Street at Sean Bell endangered bystanders and a whole host of people who live in the densely populated section of Jamaica, Queens.

Big City cops (many of whom are NBPA members) need to know a whole lot about fire discipline. This is a phenomenon of knowing your target and sight alignment of target to the weapon. As important, when justified to shoot, our sound judgment enables us to dispense with shooting our guns because to do so would be Recklessness (a crime) because of a large volume of people and structures. Unfortunately, the New York City Police Department, like most of the country's big city police departments is plagued by ranks of men lacking in adequate weapon's use training. Training that they could have obtained in the military. The end result, Big City Police Departments are depositories for men whose cowardice causes them to avoid military service and in the place of military service they become paid bullies in many of the nation's police departments. No wonder we see these men inappropriately wearing dark sunglasses and dressed like a commando in front of our local church or cruising our neighborhoods. Problematic is that America's black neighborhoods to many young men in police ranks are places of adventure for playing out their action fantasies. One would think that pre-employment psychological examinations would weed out the battery of cowardice men who flock to police departments seeking employment.

The lack of knowledge of police work by Judge Cooperman coupled with prosecutors who knew nothing about police work enabled the acquittal verdict of the officers who killed Sean Bell.

There cannot be a successful prosecution of police officers for use of deadly force incidents as long as there is continuance of the pervasive ignorance in judicial and prosecutorial ranks of the dynamics of police culture and police practices. We live in a society in which there is a nonsensical and inaccurate perception of police work by most laypeople. By example, non-scientific, baseless notion that all (verses some) police officers live a life of danger and have a job that no one else wants, perpetuates and encourages police violence against civilians. Strangely many laypeople fail to realize that many police officers do payrol1, shuttle politicians and inventory property, etc.

Provided that lay people possess a false perception of police officers constantly dodging bullets, then people in Chicago, by example, will say little to nothing about the recent, in progress, inappropriate militarization attempts of Chicago Police Department. Nor will most lay people, including Judge Cooperman and prosecutors ever have the courage or knowledge to criticize wrongful police behavior.

Since "911" in particular, police officers have been placed on pedestal that they don't deserve. In this sort of environment, to convict a police officer of harming a civilian is said to be unpatriotic. The NBPA holds that realism should replace euphoria and fiction. Hence, police officers should be required not only to use fire discipline and judgment on Park Avenue, but as well on the urban streets of Jamaica, Queens or Englewood in Chicago.

The crime of Recklessness is so easy to identify and prove. Judge Cooperman's verdict emboldens the justification that black people have to distrust judges. Who can people-of-color turn to--to stop abuse by prosecutors and judges? The Sean Bell verdict shows people-of-color that a stop to the misery of judicial abuse in the United States will not stop anytime soon.





By Christopher C. Cooper

Condoleeza Rice Speaks Candidly on Race in America

Sen. Barack Obama has called for a national discussion on race in America, and one of the folks who sure didn't hold back when asked was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
This was sent to YourBlackWorld from someone simply named "Robert". But we found the piece compelling and wanted to share it with our readers.


In a discussion with the editorial board of the Washington Times on Thursday, Rice called racism a "birth defect" of America, and said that black Americans have loved the nation even when it didn't love us.

The Times reported:

"Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded! this co untry together - Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding." "As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that."

"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today," she said.
Rice later said: "America doesn't have an easy time dealing with race," Miss Rice said, adding that members of her family have "endured terrible humiliations." "What I would like understood as a black American is that black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn't love and have faith in them - and that's our legacy," she said.

Wow, was all I could say to that.

What was even more stunning was the relative lack of coverage on this issue. I was told CNN's "The Situation Room" did a piece on her comments Friday. But when I surfed the Net to see follow-up stories in other papers, it has pretty much been ignored, except for some briefs.
Why would the mainstream media be so dismissive of Rice's comments? Imagine if Rev. Al Sharpton or Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. said such a thing. Do you think they would have gotten ripped?

The fact of the matter is that Rice was right on the money with her comments, and should be commended. She spoke honestly and openly about the issue, and deserves credit for speaking the truth.

I just wish my colleagues in the media would do a better job at advancing the issue of race in America and our sordid history.

We went bonkers about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but when Rice, the nation's chief diplomat, spoke truthfully, it barely made a ripple.

Romans 8v28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose.*

Jesse Jackson, Boyce Watkins Discuss Educational Policy

Dr. Boyce Watkins and Marc Lamont Hill appeared on the Rev. Jesse Jackson show to discuss educational policy. Rev. Jackson asked Dr. Watkins and Dr. Hill to make recommendations on the educational achievement gap and how to support the problems experienced by black males. Marc Lamont Hill is a Temple University Professor and Boyce Watkins teaches at Syracuse University. Both men are regulars on CNN, FOX and BET.

Jesse Jackson runs the Rainbow Push Coalition, which is going to make the dropout problem one of its key initiatives this year. Jackson is putting together a panel consisting of Marc Lamont Hill, Boyce Watkins and other experts specifically to address this issue.

During the discussion, which took place on The Jesse Jackson Show, Jackson asked the panelists if race still matters in America. Both men agreed.

“There is a litany of statistics showing that black students don’t get the benefit of the doubt in our school systems,” says Dr. Hill. “Race matters in America and it matters in our schools.”

Dr. Watkins, who wrote the book “Everything you ever wanted to know about college” agreed with Rev. Jackson and Dr. Hill. He also added that money is critical to solving the problem.

“America is more capitalist than it is racist, sexist or democratic,” says Dr. Watkins. “If we do not put resources into the schools, the educational problems will continue to persist.”

Dr. Hill and Dr. Watkins are going to meet with Jesse Jackson this summer at the Rainbow Push Coalition meetings to further discuss this issue. Al Sharpton and other black leaders are expected there as well.

Oprah Winfrey vs. Bob Johnson: How to be a Billionaire the Non-BET Way

By Dr. Boyce Watkins
www.BoyceWatkins.com

Oprah Winfrey’s support for Senator Barack Obama, while certainly admirable, has cost her some support among fans. According to a recent poll, Winfrey’s approval rating was 74% before the election, dropping to 61% after turning her support toward Obama. At the end of the Jeremiah Wright controversy, her approval rating dropped further to 55%.

I admired Oprah a great deal for stepping out in support of Senator Obama. I also knew that she would pay the greatest price for this bold political move. What surprised me about Oprah’s support for Senator Obama was the fact that she was willing to do damn near the exact opposite of what made her a billionaire: take political sides in a nasty race. She also had the audacity to support a highly qualified black man over a well-respected, powerful woman. When reporters asked me about Oprah’s decision to step out on the limb of controversy, I simply said “Damn, I thought I was the only one crazy enough to do things like that. Oprah’s going to get fried for it.”

Entertainment is based on popularity. The more of a jelly-like spine you have, the better off you’re going to be. You have to be able to move with the crowd and makes folks feel good. DL Hughley from Def Comedy Jam even appeared on several shows referring to the black women from Rutgers University as “Nappy Headed Hoes”, all so he could build a little extra fame on the back of a very serious issue. Entertainment moguls like Oprah Winfrey and Bob Johnson are the best when it comes to telling people exactly what they want to hear, and they’ve become quite wealthy for it.

But it is Oprah’s willingness to take a serious stand on critical social issues that will serve as the dividing line between the legacies of billionaires Winfrey and Johnson. Oprah will be celebrated and remembered 100 years from today. People will only think that “Bob Johnson” is the name of an exotic sex toy. Johnson’s time capsule will contain DVDs of BET (Booties, Exploitation and Thugs) videos, while Oprah’s capsule will contain pictures of the young women attending the school she built in Africa. I am not a woman, but even I am empowered by someone who stands up so firmly for women’s rights. So, I give a big “You go girl” to Oprah for doing something that many wealthy black entertainers with predominantly white audiences are not quite willing to do.

At the same time, it was Oprah’s decision to be a BLACK woman (not just a woman) and support Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton that led to the backlash from her audience. Simultaneously, it was Bob Johnson’s allegiance to Senator Clinton that led to him being compared to Uncle Ruckass, the first class Uncle Tom from the TV show “The Boondocks”. Both billionaires shifted away from their policies, and both of them are getting hammered for it.

Oprah and Bob were reminded of a valuable lesson: Popularity and politics just don’t mix.

People don’t pay their black entertainers to take political stands. They pay them to dance, sing and make jokes. One can’t wear the white suit of entertainment and swim in the dirty waters of racially-divisive American politics.

One thing I know about money is that it can empower and liberate you. The problem is that money can also enslave you. Many black professors at top white universities fear losing their precious jobs if they speak out on social injustice. So, we spend our entire careers writing research papers that no one ever reads, while a world that starves for our intellect dies around us. There are hoards of angry black middle class Americans who fear opening their mouths because they won’t be able to keep up the payments on the Lexus. We all understand, on some level, the tradeoffs that Oprah, Johnson and Obama are forced to make.

One of the great dilemmas of the black experience is that we judge one another on our ability to obtain wealth, power and popularity, three things in short supply in our community. Rather than asking WHY Bob Johnson has a billion dollars, we presume that he is a great man only BECAUSE he has a billion dollars. Our measuring stick for success is one that provides prominence and respect to those who’ve been most willing to sell their soul to obtain scarce social resources. This creates a sticky set of incentives, as we keep our eyes on the carrots while taking our eyes completely off the prize.

You (Barack Obama) can’t get elected with 13% of the vote, so you are forced to engage in a disturbing amount of diplomacy and “bridge building”. You even become the only major politician to not show up in Memphis on the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. In addition, you are asked to denounce a different black male associate nearly every week, while your opponents have equally questionable affiliations that receive no attention from mainstream media.

You (Oprah Winfrey) are a TV mogul who can’t earn a billion dollars from your black audience, so you build a predominantly soccer mom constituency that will penalize you for supporting a black presidential candidate. The audience helps you pay the bills, as long as you keep feeding them more Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil without even considering building shows for many black experts across the country who DO NOT have that annoying country accent.

You (Bob Johnson) can’t quite get your message onto a mainstream TV network, so you create a network for African-Americans and spend 20 years feeding them nothing but naked women, gold grills, jock-grabbing “gangstaz” with guns and other profitable garbage. You don’t feed garbage for the survival of the network; you feed it because you want to have a billion dollars instead of 100 million. That’s what makes you a “playa”.

The sacrifices are great, and it is my argument that we should not only question the merits of the sacrifice, but also whether the rewards are as valuable as they seem. For every billion dollars of income earned by Bob Johnson, I speculate that there is at least another two billion dollars in lost productivity from a generation of kids who memorized the lyrics from “Back that Ass Up” before they began kindergarten.

Perhaps it is time to reconsider our social currency.

Does Cornel West have to be at Harvard to be important, or will we respect him at an HBCU?

If Barack Obama loses the presidency for refusing to condemn another black man, will he get as much respect from his Black Home as he would from the White House?

Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama, to a measured extent, have earned my respect for putting their vast social capital on the line. As a Finance Professor, I understand Bob Johnson, since I have taught thousands of Capitalists to analyze money.

But one thing I know about money and democracy in a racist society is that if you measure your success by wealth, power and popularity, you end up with a Pandora’s Box of contradictions that keep you up all night and on the toilet all day.

Life is too short to work so hard on things that don’t matter. Perhaps we should set new standards.

Video: Dr. Boyce Watkins Speaks on Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama