Monday, April 29, 2013

NAACP in turmoil on local, national levels

Keila Torres Ocasio,  Saturday April 27, 2013
The state NAACP branch's takeover of Bridgeport's long embattled local chapter surprised few people last week.
For months the local branch of the civil rights organization, whose membership has dwindled over the years, had been bitterly divided over questions of financial impropriety, membership issues and election woes.
But it's not alone.
Last month, the same types of issues led the national leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to call for the reorganization of the Waterbury branch as well. And earlier this year, questions of election impropriety cast a shadow over the installment of a new board in the Norwalk branch.
The internal conflicts, some say, is the result of the historic organization's struggle to evolve and come together to form an agenda that is in line with the needs of its 21st century members.
"My views are not the same as theirs, and that's why I'm not a member," said James Holloway, a Bridgeport City Councilman. "I think the organization should live by its name. It's not the national association for the advancement of black people. If you're there, you should fight for all people of color."
But Holloway said he doesn't see the local chapter doing much to help anyone in the city.
When video of a vicious beating of a man by Bridgeport police went viral, it was the state branch that called for the arrest and firing of the officers involved, Holloway noted, not the local branch. "There are a lot of issues in Bridgeport the (local) NAACP isn't taking care of," he said.
That's because the infighting has put a halt to any positive actions, members said this week.
Those internal conflicts came to a head last November when four of the organization's executive committee members sent a letter to People's United Bank, removing President Carolyn Vermont and treasurer Errol Earle from control of its bank account.
The members have accused Vermont of failing to provide annual reports or regular updates on the funds raised by the organization, accusations she says are not true. The board members' actions went against the organization's bylaws, according to national leadership, which suspended their memberships.
In January, Vermont called Bridgeport Police Chief Joseph Gaudett on his cellphone during a meeting at the Messiah Baptist Church to charge member Wayne Winston with harassment.
"There's a lot of people who have been turned off" by that conduct, said Verna Kearney, a former Bridgeport police officer and lifelong NAACP member. "And the meetings take place in a church, so we should behave, not react with so much animosity toward each other."
Kearney said she used to attend meetings when she could, but stopped going after there was a "big blowup" at the last one she attended. In the last five years alone, the local branch's membership has gone down from nearly 500 members to roughly 250 now.
"We are all concerned about the NAACP because it can be bigger and better than it is," she said. "There's infighting in any organization, but it hurts my heart that it's happening at this time. I'm hoping and praying that everything will be repaired."
Jimmie Griffin, a former Waterbury branch president, blamed the state and national branches for the local chaos. Local branch memberships are administered through the national office and the state branch serves a supervisory role over each local branch. "It's just coming to the surface that the local branches have been neglected over the years," said Griffin, who served as state NAACP president from 2001 to 2004.
He received a three-year suspension of his life membership for taking his complaints about the Waterbury branch public and forwarding emails to the media. He is also accused of making defamatory and false accusations on Facebook, he said.
"Anyone that stands up and says they need to change the way they (the national leadership) do business, they suspend them," Griffin said. "It's a hypocrisy to me that they operate the way they do. I think they're more concerned with the brand name and fundraising than with the members."
He is not alone in his criticism of the organization.
In 2010, an NAACP Suspension Network blog was created to highlight membership suspensions individuals considered unjust. And on Twitter, an NAACP Watchdog group is dedicated to criticizing the civil rights organization. Last fall, some of these critics even started a campaign urging individuals to burn their NAACP membership cards.
In February, a small group of the Watchdog members -- opposed to abortion and the NAACP's ties to Planned Parenthood -- protested the organization's 44th annual Image Awards in Los Angeles.
The national branch has also had critics from among its ranks.
Internal conflict with the 64-member national board and opposing views on the organization's direction were the reasons former national president Bruce Gordon gave when he stepped down in 2007 after only 19 months in the job.
Locally, though, members are confident the organization can grow and thrive here -- as long as they can leave the infighting in the past.
"I am confident the NAACP will resurrect itself," said Rev. Kevin Ginyard, president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, a group made up largely of black ministers. The organization used to work closely with the NAACP.
In recent years, though, that has not been the case. When the IMA demanded an apology for the way in which he fired former health director Marian Evans, a respected professional and a black woman, they were joined by many city residents. But the local NAACP branch was silent.
"The organization has not been able to be as effective as it should be," admitted Ginyard, who has let his NAACP membership lapse. "I think they've got to let go of the petty things."
Vermont's predecessor, Craig Kelly, said he hopes the local branch moves forward in a positive direction. "I think over a period of time all organizations need restructuring," he said. "Because people fall into, well, I don't know if its complacency, but things are constantly moving and changing in life."
Focusing on future generations and building up its youth membership will be critical to its success, Kelly said. "Who is going to take our place?" he said. "Every time I turn around and look, it's the old people stepping up. The NAACP has an opportunity to do a lot of great things. The question is are there people in this community willing to support them?"
Vermont deferred comment about the chapter's reorganization to state branch President Scot X. Esdaile, who declined to comment. National officials declined to comment as well.
But Vermont did acknowledge that elections to replace the existing board will be held in the near future. After the state branch's first reorganization meeting last Monday, those in attendance expressed excitement over the future of the local branch on Vermont's Facebook page.
"Look out Bpt NAACP is reorganizing and its going to be different around our town ... get involved!! I'm excited," posted member Wanda Simmons, who was at the state's reorganization meeting last Monday night.
The next reorganization meeting will be held May 28 at the Messiah Baptist Church on Congress Street in Bridgeport.
ktorres@ctpost.com, 203-330-6321, http://facebook.com/ktorresbpt or http://twitter.com/ktorresbpt.

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/NAACP-in-turmoil-on-local-national-levels-4469554.php#ixzz2RsssRXL7

Friday, April 26, 2013

The corporation that keeps destroying people and the land

Clyde Cancer Cluster attorneys add 14 to lawsuit, seek more witnesses 

by Elizabeth Reed Posted: 04.26.2013 at 7:29 AM

 


CLYDE -- The law firm behind the suit against Whirlpool Corporation and others in the Clyde Cancer Cluster case will be in the town answering questions on Friday.

Representatives from Albrechta & Coble, Ltd. will be at the Clyde Public Library from 10 a.m.  to 4 p.m. to answer questions and look at any possible evidence local families may have about the former Whirlpool Park site. Any resident is welcome to attend.

Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency found 9 feet of sludge contaminated with cancer causing toxins at Whirlpool Park during its investigation into a childhood cancer cluster in the Clyde area. Nearly 40 young people who lived in a 12-mile radius of Whirlpool Park have been diagnosed with cancer since the mid-1990s.

The law firm announced Thursday that they have added 14 plaintiffs to their lawsuit for their "personal injuries and wrongful deaths." The amended complaint also retain class action allegations of behalf of residents of parts of Sandusky, Erie, and Ottawa counties for medical monitoring and property damages.

"We have clarified allegations consistent with the evidence presently known to our office and clients," attorney Joseph Albrechta said in a statement. "We are continuing to gather more information as more witnesses come forward. This is a work in progress and it is anticipated that further changes will be made in the future."

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Petition the NAACP

NAACP: 

Demand the resignation of President Ben Jealous and the Executive board 

Sign the petition!

Friday, April 19, 2013

Jackie Robinson, the NAACP, and BANCO


Jackie Robinson knew that the NAACP was racist and ageist, and was using him to bring in members.  All during his trials and tribulations the NAACP never supported him.

Robinson took the first step toward integrating the sport's major league teams when he signed a contract to play with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. This gigantic stride prepared the way for the legendary feats of Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, and many, many more.  It was an early harbinger of the significant changes in contract negotiations, compensations, and the general status of professional atheletes, finally settled half a century later in the 1994-1995 baseball strike. 

Jackie Robinson's individual challenge to the accepted policies of organized sports demonstrated that changes were possible through the concentrated efforts of a player and a good union.

In 1967 Robinson resigned from the NAACP Board of Directors accusing the organization of being insensitive to the trends of our times, unresponsive to the needs of the community and to the goals of the black masses, especially the young people. The NAACP seemed to reflect a refined, sophisticated "Yassuh Mr. Charlie" point of view, the same as today. 

Robinson foreshadowed the identical charges made by dissidents that would nearly wreck the NAACP almost two decades later (1980's).  At the end of his life he realized that many blacks continued to lose ground and the NAACP was silent.  Robinson stated:  "I can't believe that I have made it while so many black brothers and sisters are hungry, have inadequate housing, are insufficiently clothed, denied their dignity, live in slums, or barely exist on welfare."

A Bit of NAACP History

The first president of the NAACP was Moorfield Storey, a Jewish Boston lawyer. He was president from 1910 to 1915. The next president was Joel Springarn, also Jewish, in office from 1915 to1940. He was also chairman of the board until his death and his brother became president, 1940 to 1965. Then Kivie Kaplan, a Jewish businessman from Boston, took control, 1966 to 1975.  The first black president was Benjamin Hooks (1975).

Jackie Robinson called the NAACP a racist group.  It was racist then and it's racist today.  The NAACP rode the coattails of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jackie Robinson, Charles Hamilton Houston, the and many other black leaders - and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  It was the media which incorrectly made the NAACP the voice of the black community.  

The NAACP is not relevant and does not support the black community.

African-Americans continue to give the NAACP and other poverty pimps a free pass.  

We are starting a grassroots organization called the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO). This organization will stand up for the people.  If you would like to join or need more information please contact me. 

        
Rev. Edward Pinkney, 269.925.0001

Pinkney to Pinkney show
Every Sunday at 5pm Eastern Time
Burn Baby Burn
Burn all NAACP MEMBERSHIPS CARDS
6,629 NAACP membership cards have been burned

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Detroit Press Conference and Protest


Press Release

April 14, 2013

Contact:
Rev. Edward Pinkney, BANCO
269.369.8257

Press Conference, Sunday April 28, 1pm
Cobo Hall Convention Center
1 Washington Avenue
Detroit, MI


Black groups, churches, the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO), and community activists from across the US will protest the NAACP dinner (funded by corporations.)

NAACP has done almost nothing to improve the lives of African-Americans.  Our communities are in crisis on many levels.  The incarceration rate of black men and women is extraordinarily high; family life is being destroyed.  The NAACP has failed for decades to represent the interests of African-Americans and is out of touch with the community.

The only word that can define the gross negligence of the NAACP is betrayal. The organization has abandoned our community's morality, and our economic and educational needs - for corporate money.

The NAACP is corrupt from the top to the bottom. We do not believe the NAACP has ever been concerned with helping black people with local, state, or national problems. 

We are demanding that the NAACP president Ben Jealous and the national board resign and the membership elect the president and the board.  We are demanding the NAACP non-profit status be revoked.  

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

NAACP Protested by Ex-NAACP


WASHINGTON— Black leaders and former members of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) blasted the NAACP on the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, claiming the organization “no longer stands for civil rights” and “kills black babies”.
“We are sick and tired of the NAACP coming into our communities and actually ‘pimping’,” Rev. Edward Pinkney, President of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO), former President of the Benton Harbor chapter of the NAACP and organizer or the demonstration, toldTowhnall.
The demonstrators were outraged by the NAACP’s support of Planned Parenthood and the organization’s sponsorship of corporations that distribute the “deadly drug” Depo-Provera.
“Fifty percent of the African American babies that are being born today are aborted—we’re concerned about that—yet the NAACP supports Planned Parenthood,” Pinkney said, “so it’s time that we tell the NAACP no more.”
The use of Depo-Provera, an injectable contraceptive causes “causes osteoporosis, heart attacks, stroke, blood clots, cervical cancer, breast cancer, miscarriages, balding, strips the inner lining of a woman’s womb, and makes her more susceptible for feminine illnesses,” Dr. Randy Short, a representative of the Dignity of Women’s Health Coalition and a board member for the International Human Rights Association for American Minorities, explained. “One of the NAACP’s executive national board members, Karen Boykin Towns, is responsible for the global marketing of the drug.”
“African American women in this country use almost 90 percent of Depo-Provera and represent the majority of the women contracting HIV AIDS, wherever you have a large amount of HIV AIDS you have a large number of women using Depo-Provera,” he said.
Dr. Short also condemned Pfizer, a corporation which sponsors the NAACP, as “one of the most corrupt, wicked, dirty organizations that has ever existed since humanity began” for targeting Depo-Provera towards black women. The Department of Justice fined Pfizer in 2009 with a two billion dollar plus fine for misbranding pharmaceutical medications.
“This is a group that says that they are about fairness and justice and equality and yet they’d allow a drug like this that is killing people to be used and to be targeted towards black folks,” he said, “and they get a little money on the side to look the other way.”
The protesters slammed the NAACP for being a 501-C3 non-profit organization, yet an “arm of the Democratic Party.”
“They’re the arm, the leg—they’re the genitalia of the Democratic Party—this has been going on for a long time,” Dr. Short said. “They shouldn’t have tax exempt status, if they want to be DNC light or the black DNC, be black DNC and stop saying you represent me. They don’t.”
“The NAACP has violated its own charter to take partisan sides, they do anything to continue to get the walking around money that comes during the elections—they care nothing about the people,” Short added. “They are running around pushing Democratic Party principles while we are dying. They basically say to us, screw you but when we want you to vote, vote all by color as a block for people who ignore you.”
“The Democratic Party must be held accountable as well and the NAACP is in bed with them,” Dr. James Tucker, a disabled veteran who claims he was “expelled from the NAACP for standing up for the people” told Townhall.
“As a result of being a democrat I have experienced racism from the Democratic Party,” he said. “They want African Americans to vote for them but they don’t want us to be a voice within the party. They don’t support issues of civil rights protection, those are the facts.”
“When I was the President of the Benton Harbor chapter of the NAACP they asked me to make sure that I tell everybody to go out and support the Democratic Party,” Rev. Pinkney explained. “When I told them that I could not do that, we are a 501-C3 non-profit organization—it’s illegal—they decided to start harassing me, but they ran into the right person.”
Townhall asked the protestors how the felt about the NAACP’s numerous accusations of the Tea Party, GOP and Republicans being “racist.”
“There is nobody more racist than the NAACP,” Rev. Pinkney replied, “As a matter of fact I feel like the NAACP is the new KKK.”
“They are the ones that are responsible for racism, they are being pushed to keep the country divided. I think that is their job—that’s why they are paid government dollars,” he said, “to keep up the animosity between races.”
“The NAACP need to do their homework, “replied Dr. Tucker. “The NAACP has a history of destroying, assassinating people’s characters. They commit legal lynching against the strongest men and women who are standing up for the rights of African Americans across this country.”
“They’re what we call black self-hatred racists,” said Dr. Short. “You have heard of rednecks—we’ll we’ve got black necks. They don’t care anything about poor or working class African Americans and they never have, so how dare they say that the Tea Party is any worse.”
“I see more people in jail, I see more people homeless, there are higher rates of unemployment,” Dr. Short continued. “They are the most war mongering fake Negroes that you’ll ever see.”
A number of the demonstrators told Townhall that they are “targeted individuals” that experience “mind control” for being “whistleblowers” and speaking out against the injustices of the NAACP and government. Two of the “targeted individuals” were willing to speak to us about their conflicts on camera.
“I have been after the NAACP for a very long time because of what they do to the poor—they have completely brought our race down,” a former member of the NAACP said, “and because of it I have become a ‘targeted individual’.
“You should see my skin, my hair, my eyes sight, they burn me, they took my teeth out—my throat, my hair, my eyesight, and I have burns all over my body. I feel this happened to me ever since I protested them in 2003,” the women said. “Nobody is listening, and I feel like they are going to kill me.”
“There are many more people and some of us know what’s happening to us, and some of us don’t,” the women said.
Another woman who formerly worked with the NAACP claimed to have been “targeted” since June 2009 after running a girls group called ‘Girl Talk: HIV AIDS Prevention.’
“I have received electronic rape, it’s a silent rape,” she said, “this technology is no good and a lot of people are committing suicide because it’s very hard to cope with.”
She said the NAACP were the first people she called for help because she had been a member for years but organization ignored her and subsequently would not renew her NAACP membership. A book written by Dr. John Hall, ‘A new Breed of Satellite Terrorism in America’ and the support group,Freedom from Covert Harassment and Surveillance substantiated her suspicion of being under “mind control”.
“Martin Luther King he died, he took a bullet for the people. He separated himself from the NAACP because he knew they were a group of sell outs, even in his days,” Pinkney said. “We will continue to boycott and picket the NAACP at every function that they have. Our goal is to get 100,000 people to burn their membership.”
“They’ve gotten a pass just because of their skin color,” Dr. Short said, “We have a black president now, is that supposed to signal a change? It’s a change for me, I don’t just look at what you look like, what do you do? I don’t care what color someone is, if you are evil, you’re evil.”
The demonstrators also protested the NAACP headquarters in Baltimore Maryland Thursday.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/aliciapowe/2013/04/08/exnaacp-members-protest-organizations-taxexempt-status-n1561274

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Washington DC Protest of the NAACP

Report from Rev. Pinkney 

The Washington DC protest of the NAACP this week was tremendous, exciting, and very successful.  There was plenty of media coverage.  Protesters came from all over - Philadelphia, Detroit, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Colorado, and even Utah.  Represented were Black groups, churches, and community activists, along with BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community Organization.)

Being protested were issues such as the NAACP's role in the destruction of the black family and the black community, the organization's selling out to corporations and government, and their support of population control for black people.  African-Americans are the people who pay membership fees for the NAACP to support, defend, fight for, and lift up!
 
The only word that defines, the gross negligence of the NAACP is betrayal. They have abandoned morality, our communities, our economic and educational needs - all for corporate money.
 
The protest was also about the NAACP corruption from the top to the bottom. We are demanding that President Ben "Sell us" Jealous and the Executive board resign and allow the membership to elect the president and the Executive board.
 
We also demand that the NAACP non-profit status be revoked.
 
We will continue to protest the NAACP until it stands up for the black community and fights for civil rights.
 
One hundred and fifty memberships will be burned on Saturday April 6, 2013.  6,245 membership cards have been burned so far.        
 
Rev. Edward Pinkney
bhbanco.org
 
Pinkney to Pinkney show
Every Sunday at 5pm Eastern time
Burn Baby Burn
Burn all NAACP MEMBERSHIPS CARDS