Local DC activists draw attention to racial profiling, incarceration ahead of March on Washington anniversary

By Liane Scott, on August 27th, 2013

Cross-Posted from Free Speech Radio News (audio for this piece was provided by Grassroots DC Contributor Noelle Galos)

[audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/racial_profiling_feeder_to_march_on_washington.mp3]

Events marking the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington are taking place across the country. Illinois State University students are organizing a series of performances to pay tribute to Bayard Rustin, an organizer of the 1963 march. In Detroit, where Martin Luther King, Jr. originally delivered a version of his “I Have a Dream” speech, thousands gathered for a march earlier this summer. Now, that energy is coming to Washington, DC, site of the historic march and rally. Several days of events kick off this weekend. Marchers will gather Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial to protest against a number of civil rights issues that persist: the attack on voter rights, racial profiling, poverty and discrimination. Local activists are organizing to have a share in the weekend’s events, and they hope to address racial profiling within DC law enforcement, which they say is part of the “New Jim Crow.” They are planning two feeder marches from opposite ends of the city, and hope to bring national attention to racial inequalities in the Nation’s Capital. Laura Lising, one of the group’s organizers, explained to FSRN why the group was formed and how they are plugging in their campaign to the March:

LISING: Well I think there has been a new life breathed into the march by the anger around Trayvon Martin’s murder and the acquittal of Zimmerman, despite the clear fact that he was the murderer. And so people are going to be going down there, not to just celebrate this event that happened 50 years ago, but to demand an end to continuing racist practices. And so we see ourselves in that spirit. Most of us, all of us who are involved in organizing were out for Trayvon, night after night after the Zimmerman acquittal happened… But we want to address local issues as well, and we bring the issue of racial profiling in DC to the national stage, and this is an amazing opportunity to do so.

The group of activists are united behind putting an “end to racial profiling.” They have been holding public meetings in neighborhoods across DC to share the findings of two studies published in July, one by the Washington Lawyers Committee and another by the American Civil Liberties Union. Both reports show a pattern of racial profiling by DC law enforcement. The reports look at overall arrest rates, and the ACLU’s study focuses on racial disparities for non-violent offenses, particularly marijuana arrests. The study revealed that African Americans in Washington, DC are eight times more likely to be arrested for a marijuana offense, despite near equal usage among black and white communities. Stuart Anderson, founder of the non-profit organization Family and Friends of Incarcerated People (FFOIP) said he began organizing when he himself was imprisoned.

ANDERSON: I started working with fathers in 1993, inside Lorton. When they closed Lorton, the onus of incarceration, the cost of incarceration was shifted from the city, from the state, or from the federal onto the backs of families.

Anderson said that creates a vicious cycle that weakens families and communities. His organization provides support and training to the children of those behind bars; children that Anderson says are at a higher risk of being incarcerated themselves.

ANDERSON: There are over 1.7 million children of people who are incarcerated in the United States right now today. And of those children, approximately half of them are under the age of 10.

Anderson’s group and other local organizations, are planning a rally for this evening, and will join the larger national contingent on Saturday to highlight ongoing problems with racial profiling. Other local leaders expressed skepticism that their voices would be included in the national program of events. Damian Smith, a DC artist and activist, echoed recent remarks by Cornel West that someone as outspoken as Dr. King would not be invited to speak at the march today.

SMITH: Martin Luther King would talk about extra-judicial assassinations. You know why I know Martin Luther King would talk about drones and extra-judicial assassinations? Because in his time when the war of his time was taking place he spoke at great risk to his own personal reputation about that war.

Like the organizers behind the original March in 1963, the coalition of local groups demands concrete policy change, including oversight of DC’s police department practices that criminalize African American youth. They plan to hold . . . → Read More: Local DC activists draw attention to racial profiling, incarceration ahead of March on Washington anniversary

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Still Mad About Trayvon, DC Activists Organize Against Racial Profiling

By Liane Scott, on July 29th, 2013

On July 12, 2013, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs released the report Racial Disparities in Arrests in the District of Columbia, 2009-2011. The following are a few of the reports insights:

Nearly seven out of ten traffic arrests were of African Americans Eight out of ten individuals arrested for disorderly conduct were African American or Hispanic Although there is little disparity in drug use between DC’s African-American and caucasian residents, nine out of ten individuals arrested for drug offenses are African American. More than eight out of 10 arrests in our city were of African Americans.

In short, we might not have a stand your ground law in the District of Columbia but the same racial profiling that took the life of Trayvon Martin and many, many other African American men and boys is alive and well in the District of Columbia. In light of these facts, a coalition of activists is having a press conference and teach-in that draws the connections between the fight for justice for Trayvon Martin and the need for a movement to address racial profiling in DC.

Are you still mad about Trayvon Martin? Do you want to give his death meaning and stop future extra-judicial killings? Make a start by attending this press conference.

Speak Out and Organize Against Racial Profiling in DC Wednesday July 31 @ Noon Wilson Building 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Speakers include:

Rev. Graylan Hagler, Plymouth Congregational

Etan Thomas, activist and former Washington Wizards player

Perry Redd, Ex-prisoner, activist, and former DC Council candidate

A representative from The Washington Lawyers Committee

Seema Sananandan, of the DC American Civil Liberties Union and author of a recent study on marijuana arrests

Andy Shallal, anti-war activist and owner of Busboys & Poets

Jamal Muhammed, host of the Luv Lounge show on WeAct Radio

Plans will be made to add an End Racial Profiling in DC component to the 50th Anniversary March on Washington. For more information please call (410) 635-0235.

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A Lesson in Systemic Racism: Stand Your Ground, the NRA and the American Legislative Exchange Council

By Liane Scott, on July 22nd, 2013

The Florida law that allowed five white jurors and one Latina juror to exonerate George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin is called the Justifiable Use of Force Statute. It sounds harmless enough. Every state has a law that defines when the use of force is justifiable. These are commonly known as self-defense laws, except when they have a clause that removes a person’s obligation to retreat. This clause, which was first suggested by the National Rifle Association and later backed and promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, is responsible for turning Florida’s self-defense law into Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law.

Here’s the part of the law that was relevant in Zimmerman’s case:

A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

It’s clear to me that this stand your ground clause should have applied to Trayvon Martin and not to the man who stalked and then murdered him. It’s clear also to Jose V-quez, who posted this video on Facebook.

The defense didn’t present it the way Jose does and certainly Juror B37 didn’t see it that way. The case will not be heard again in the criminal court, so there’s not much point in retrying it except perhaps in an examination of the law itself. Is the verdict bad or is the law itself bad? If the verdict is bad then the judge has the right and should have overturned the verdict. If the verdict meets the requirements of the law then the law itself is defective.

In Florida and other states that have added the stand your ground clause to their self-defense laws, it’s legal for person A to kill person B if person A is “reasonably” afraid that person B might be capable and intending to kill them first. This should be good news for victims of domestic violence whose abusers repeatedly threaten to kill them and quite often do. In the US, at least three women are murdered everyday by their husbands or boyfriends. But this law is not helping victims of domestic violence because (surprise, surprise) Florida’s judges don’t apply the law evenly. The case of Marissa Alexander, the domestic violence victim who defended herself from her abuser by shooting a warning shot in the air, is a clear example of this. This law is helping white people who are persistently afraid of “the other.”

We live in a nation where it is commonly believed that people with dark skin are unjustifiably and spontaneously violent. This is of course a stereotype and cannot be applied to all dark-skinned people, but racists are notoriously unable to recognize their racists beliefs as inaccurate. Because of this, when person A is a light-skinned person and person B is a dark-skinned person juries (whose members are not immune to commonly held racist beliefs) are likely to conclude that person A has a “legitimate” reason to fear that person B is a homicidal maniac; therefore, person A is acting reasonably when he pulls out a gun and shoots person B in the the chest even if person B is completely unarmed.

Juries don’t check the statistics, they check their guts. “Would I be afraid of that scary Black man?,” they ask. “Would I be afraid of that scary Muslim, that scary transgender person… Yes, I would be afraid. I’ve seen on television and in the news how those people are violent and they hate people like me. So, I’d be afraid.” As PR Watch makes clear in their report, Seven Faces of NRA/ALEC-Approved “Stand Your Ground” Law, the stand your ground defense is very effective when used by white defendants. African-Americans are not the only victims but they are the most common. In other words, it’s Open Season on Black Boys After a Verdict Like This.

If applied evenly, self defense laws with a stand your ground clause might work but they are not applied evenly. Like Jim Crow and voter suppression laws, they provide a legal framework for the oppression of African-Americans. The Justice Department should bring civil . . . → Read More: A Lesson in Systemic Racism: Stand Your Ground, the NRA and the American Legislative Exchange Council

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Rally For Trayvon At The Justice Department

By Stuart Anderson, on July 18th, 2013

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