#BlackLivesMatter

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Horrific hate crime that prompted SPLC lawsuit in Mississippi concludes with final guilty pleas | Southern Poverty Law Center

It was a vicious hate crime that shocked the country – a black man in Jackson, Mississippi, attacked by a group of white teens and killed when he was deliberately run down by a pickup truck.

Captured by a motel security camera and broadcast on CNN, the murder of 47-year-old James C. Anderson in June 2011 prompted an SPLC lawsuit against the seven teens involved. That case ended with a confidential settlement.

This week, the criminal case came to an end when two men – John L. Blalack, 20, and Robert H. Rice, 24 – became the last of 10 defendants to plead guilty in connection with Anderson’s murder and other, earlier hate crimes against African Americans in Jackson. Convicted under the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, they each face up to 10 years in prison.

“This case was a sickening reminder of the consequences of racism and hate,” said SPLC Founder Morris Dees. “James Anderson was brutally murdered for no other reason than the color of his skin. And the lives of these young people have been ruined. As a nation, we must work even harder to confront the legacy of white supremacism that continues to haunt us.”

In 2012, Deryl Paul Dedmon, 22, the driver of the truck that ran over Anderson and the alleged ringleader of the group, pleaded guilty to murder and hate crime charges. He was sentenced to life in prison after Anderson’s family urged the prosecutor to not seek the death penalty.

In court yesterday, according to The Clarion-Ledger, Blalack admitted that he and the others had cruised the streets of Jackson, which they called “Jafrica,” on at least 10 occasions to harass and attack African Americans. On one trip, they beat a man near a golf course until he begged for his life.                                                               

On the night of June 25, 2011, seven of them left a party in nearby Puckett, armed with beer bottles to throw. Sometime after midnight, they found Anderson, an autoworker and the lead tenor in his church choir, in a motel parking lot. One of the teens knocked him to the ground as the assault began. One reportedly shouted “white power” during the attack.

Blalack recounted how he left the scene with three others and later received a phone call from Dedmon saying, “I just runned that n—-r over.” He said he returned to see people huddled around Anderson’s body.

Anderson, who worked at a nearby Nissan plant, was described by U.S. Attorney Gregory Davis as a “wonderful human being” and loving family man – “a father, a son who called his mother every morning, a brother and a partner.”

Others who pleaded guilty earlier were John Aaron Rice, 21; Dylan Wade Butler, 23; Jonathan Kyle Gaskamp, 22; and Joseph Paul Dominick, 23, all from Brandon; William Kirk Montgomery, 25, from Puckett; Shelbie Brooke Richards, 21, from Pearl; and Sarah Adelia Graves, 21, from Crystal Springs.

This case will be featured on “Hate in America,” a documentary premiering at 8 PM (Eastern), February 23, on Discovery ID. The SPLC worked closely with the producers to examine the violence inspired by hate, fear, and intolerance. SPLC Founder Morris Dees will be appearing in the piece, as will several other SPLC experts.

Source: www.splcenter.org

 

#BlackLivesMatter

 

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#WhiteCoats4BlackLives: Medical Students Stage Nationwide Protests Against Police Brutality

 

Medical students from more than 70 schools on Wednesday protested racial profiling and police brutality through the social media initiative #WhiteCoats4BlackLives.
Hundreds of medical students wore white coats at “die-ins” and other protests on campuses to spotlight racial bias as a public health issue.
The medical students joined others who have demonstrated since grand juries in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York City declined to indict white police officers in the killings of unarmed black men. Some of the protests have involved students, including those in high schools, colleges and Ivy league schools.

 

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Source: goodblacknews.org

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The revolution will be live-tweeted: why #BlackLivesMatter is the new model for civil rights

 

The events of the past few months, now simply referred to as Ferguson, have touched off nationwide protests of a scale not seen in a half-century. From billboards to T-shirts, protest banners and news headlines – all emblazoned with the words #BlackLivesMatter – we are witnessing the makings of a social movement of the 21st century kind. The revolution that Gil Scot Heron famously said, “would not be televised”, is today, in fact, recorded and tweeted.

 

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Source: www.theguardian.com

 

Also check

 

How to Use Twitter to ‘Fight the Power’

by Fanshen Cox

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RIP Eric Garner….Artists respond “WE CANT BREATHE”

#WEEKOFOUTRAGE Artists respond to the Murder of Eric Garner. Grand Central Terminal. 12-9-14 NYC

Source: www.youtube.com

 

Remember, all the other officers ALLOWED the illegal choke hold to continue through 11 “I can’t breathe’ statements.

The officers who are hired to serve and protect us are either killing us or ALLOWING others to kill us.

 

#BLACKLIVESMATTER

#ICANTBREATHE

#SHUTITDOWN

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Knox College lifts suspension for player’s Ferguson protest

 

Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, reversed its decision to suspend a women’s basketball player who protested the Ferguson decision right before  a regulation game in St. Louis, County Missouri over the weekend.
“I could not go into that gymnasium and pretend that everything was okay. I could not, in good conscience, I could not play that game,” said Ariyana Smith, a junior from New Lenox, Illinois.

 

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Source: wqad.com

 

These ‘team players’ are the WORST, clueless uneducated about solidarity and uneducated about human rights and uneducated about social justice, college students to not back their Black teammate during the largest Civil Rights protest period since the 1960’s Civil Rights marches.

 

And if her ‘team players’ are not uneducated then they are heartless as hell – I’m calling out both heartless and uneducated.

 

#BLACKLIVESMATTER

#ICANTBREATHE

#HANDSUPDONTSHOOT

#SHUTITDOWN

 

Privileged people who don’t get it are making me sick to my stomach.

 

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Dec 9th, 2014: UNARMED Black man shot by white cop in Orange County, Florida

 

Law enforcement officials told reporters that Chaney had complied with the deputies’ commands, but that Bartee had “extensive furtive movements,” causing McCarthy to fear for his safety and open fire.
One witness questioned why shots had been fired, saying both of the alleged suspects had been complying with the commands.

 

 

“You could see right in the car. Both of them had their hands up and they still shot at the car,” Ernest Miles Jr., told WKMG, adding that he had to take cover in his second-floor apartment.

 

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Source: www.cbsnews.com

 

Is there any movement that a Black or Latino person can make that is not ‘furtive‘?

 

#HANDSUPDONTSHOOT

#BLACKLIVESMATTER

#ICANTBREATHE

#SHUTITDOWN

 

 

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Cop was Texting his Union Rep for Over 6 Minutes, As the Innocent Man he Just Shot Lay Dying

 

For six and a half minutes after NYPD rookie Peter Liang, shot a completely innocent man in the chest, he was texting his union representative, and NOT calling for help.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/innocent-man-shot-lay-dying-cop-texting-union-rep-6-minutes/#0SttGiJ8V2BchGDx.99

 

 

Source: thefreethoughtproject.com

 

Cops who are supposed to serve and protect are killing us.

And then, they don’t even try to save our life when they mess up.

 

#BLACKLIVESMATTER

#ICANTBREATHE

#SHUTitDOWN

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Police Kill Unarmed Father of Two On His Doorstep As He Brought Dinner To His Family

 

Phoenix, Arizona – Tuesday night, 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon was shot and killed by a police officer, because the officer mistakenly thought that he was carrying a gun. The Phoenix Police Department has not yet revealed the name of the officer responsible for the murder, but the smear campaign, by the media, against the victim has already begun.

 

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Source: thefreethoughtproject.com

 

  • End the war on drugs which is really a war on people.
  • End stop and harass.
  • End racial profiling.
  • End harassment of Black and Latino people.
  • End the racist doctrine White Supremacy.
  • #BLACKLIVESMATTER, #iCANTBREATH
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Attorney On Garner Decision: “This Is The Lowest Point For Civil Rights In America”

 

On Wednesday the nation was literally hit with a massive punch to its collective gut as we learned a Staten Island grand jury failed to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of 43-year-old Eric Garner.
Despite video evidence that captured the entire incident leading up to the Garner being drug down to the ground and exclaiming 11 times “I can’t breathe,” the 23 person panel which comprised of 14 whites and 9 non-whites decided to not indict Pantaleo for his actions that caused the death of Garner.

 

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Source: thoughtprovokingperspectives.wordpress.com