A Discussion Of Race That Matters

A Message from Cynthia McKinney March 18, 2008

Much has been made around the edges of this campaign about the issue of race. Sadly, nothing has been made of the public policy exigencies that arise because of the urgent racial disparities that continue to exist in our country. Just last week, the United Nations criticized the United States, again, for its failure to address the issues arising from the rights, particularly the right of return, of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors. Author Bill Quigley writes in "The Cleansing of New Orleans," that half of the working poor, elderly, and disabled of New Orleans have not been able to return. Two weeks ago, United Nations experts on housing and minority rights called for an immediate end of public housing demolitions in New Orleans. Now, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, ratified by the U.S. in 1994, further observes that the U.S. must do more to protect and support the African American community. In 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Commission "noted its concern that while African Americans constitute just 12% of the population, they represent 50% of homeless people, and the government is required to take 'adequate and adequately implemented' measures to remedy this human rights violation." In short, the United Nations has issued reports squarely calling for the United States to do more to eliminate racial discrimination and this discrimination is a human rights violation.

I am deeply offended that in the middle of a Presidential campaign, remarks--be they from a pastor or a communications mogul, or a former Vice Presidential nominee--are the cause of a focus on race, and not the deep racial disparities that communities are forced to endure on a daily basis in this country.

Myriad reports and studies that have been done all come up with the same basic conclusion: in order to resolve deep and persisting racial disparities in this country, a public policy initiative is urgently needed. A real discussion of race, in the context of a Presidential election, ought to include a discussion of the various public policy initiatives offered by the various candidates to eliminate all forms and vestiges of racial discrimination, including the racial disparities that cloud the hopes, dreams, and futures of millions of Americans.

con't., http://www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/ADiscussionOfRaceThatMatters

From TimWise.org

In Tim Wise's March 6 article, Uh-Obama: Racism, White Voters and the Myth of Color-Blindness, the extremely important research information listed below was found. (The article is interesting in it's expose of how Obama's attempt to "transcend race" is really proof that America is more racist than ever. As far as the presidential campaign goes, for those of you desirous of real/fundamental change, I respectfully urge you to read the excellent editorial
TheOrganizerNewspaper: Obama Vs. McKinney: Who is theRealProgressiveCandidate? - http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_10919.cfm)

-2006 saw the largest number of race-based housing discrimination complaints on record, and according to government and private studies, there are between two and three million cases of housing discrimination each year against people of color?

-according to over a hundred studies, health disparities between whites and blacks are due not merely to health care costs and economic differences between the two groups (a subject he does address) but also due to the provision of discriminatory care by providers, even to blacks with upper incomes, and black experiences with racism itself, which are directly related to hypertension and other maladies?

-whites are over seventy percent of drug users, but only about ten percent of persons incarcerated for a drug possession offense, while blacks and Latinos combined are about twenty-five percent of users, but comprise roughly ninety percent of persons locked up for a possession offense? [hello, Berrien County...]

-massive national study by legal scholars Alfred and Ruth Blumrosen, which found that at least a third of all businesses in the nation engage in substantial discrimination against people of color--hiring such folks at rates that are well below their availability in the local and qualified labor pool, and well below the rates at which they are to be found in non-discriminating companies in the same locales and industries? Indeed, according to the Blumrosen study, at least 1.3 million qualified people of color will face job discrimination in a given year. Or what of the study of temporary agencies in California, which found that white women who are less qualified than their black counterparts, are still three times more likely to be favored in a job search?

-in 2007 there was a twelve percent jump in race-based discrimination complaints in the workplace relative to the previous year (almost all of which were filed by persons of color): bringing the number of such complaints to their highest level since 1994?

-in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, government at all levels and across party lines has engaged in ethnic cleansing in New Orleans, failing to provide rental assistance to the mostly black tenant base for over a year, plotting to tear down 5000 perfectly usable units of public housing, failing to restart the city's public health care infrastructure, and even ordering the Red Cross not to provide relief in the first few days after the city flooded in September 2005, so as to force evacuation and empty out the city?

Doug Bragg - another Berrien County frame-up

Yes I heard about this [L.D. Fuse] last week. Thanks for the update. Doug Bragg who is a friend of Rev. Pinkney is asking for people to help support him in court tomorrow as well. Doug is being charged with possession of cocaine, running a drug house, disturbing the peace and resisting arrest but the police planted crack pipes in his apt and are trying to throw the book at him - one big ugly mess after another. All we can do is pray and ask the lord to intervene Monday in both court rooms. Doug sees Judge Pasula. Ugh! --a Berrien County resident

Rev. Pinkney & L.D. Fuse

On Mar. 12 at 11am there was another shake-down and move against Rev. Pinkney by the Berrien County jail guards.

The sgt. took his mattress and blanket. At some point they were returned, but we now see a pattern of intimidation attacks against Pinkney. Pinkney is a "model prisoner" - helping and counseling other prisoners. He reports "spontaneous" angry outbursts by guards which are obviously carefully planned.

March 17, tomorrow - 10am: Judge Butzbaugh will hear the motion to disqualify the entire Berrien County bench for Rev. Pinkney's hearings, trials. Berrien County Courthouse, 811 Port St., St. Joseph, MI I-94, exit 33


* * *

The following is the continuing story of the L.D. Fuse case in Berrien County courthouse. One can hardly believe this story. It's a result of a court operating in geographical isolation, unchecked by the state. It would appear that the judges and attys. have never stepped inside of another courthouse, getting away with the most unethical, inhumane legal shenanigans imaginable - for many, many years. A true kangaroo court which must be seen in action to be believed. These injustices are going on everyday in Berrien County Courthouse.

No new trial for man who resisted cops at fire
‘There is nothing unusual about police officers having guns in the United States.’
BERRIEN TRIAL COURT JUDGE CHARLES LASATA

Judge rules officer with gun in courthouse didn’t intimidate defense witnesses
By SCOTT AIKEN Herald-Palladium Staff Writer March 15, 08
ST. JOSEPH — A judge ruled Friday that no witnesses were intimidated when a Ben ton Township police officer took out a gun in front of de fense witnesses waiting to testify in a trial at the Berrien County Courthouse.
Berrien Trial Court Judge Charles LaSata denied a mo tion for a new trial filed by L.D. Fuse Jr., who claimed that Patrolman Scott Igert scared and intimidated wit nesses outside a courtroom on Feb. 21.
After an evidentiary hear ing, LaSata said witnesses John Fuse and Roy Jr. Wade both told the court that the gun incident did not cause them to leave anything out of their trial testimony.
“There is nothing unusual about police officers having guns in the United States,” he said.
Police are allowed to have guns in courthouses and court rooms, the judge said, except in cases where an officer is a party in a divorce action. L.D. Fuse claimed that wit nesses were intimidated by Igert as they waited in a hall way to testify during his trial. Fuse, 50, and his mother, Lau ra Fuse, 70, were found guilty by a jury of resisting and ob structing police at their house at 1776 Eastland Ave. while it was burning Nov. 12.
Police said they had to re strain the Fuses to stop them from entering the house and being killed or injured. De­fense witnesses testified that police used too much force and at one point administered a second jolt from a Taser to L.D. Fuse when he was al ready on the ground.
The mother and son are free on bond pending sentencing on April 7.
John Fuse, who is L.D.’s brother, and Wade, who lives next door to the house on East land, told the court Friday that Igert stepped into the hallway after testifying on Feb. 21, the first day of the two-day trial.
The witnesses said Igert put a leg up on a chair, took a gun from his ankle area and put it away at his back.
John Fuse testified that Igert looked at the gun and turned it in his hands as a row of seated defense witnesses looked on. Igert then put the gun away at the small of his back and left, Fuse said.
“In my mind, I thought he was going to shoot us all,” said Fuse. “It felt wrong. It felt crazy.”
Fuse said all the witnesses were watching Igert, who did not point the gun at anyone.
“On that carpet you could have heard a pin drop. Con versation stopped. All eyes were on him,” Fuse said.
Questioned by defense at torney Bradford Springer, Fuse testified that he was also frightened in an incident ear lier in the day when Igert fol lowed him into a bathroom and made a quick hand motion inches from Fuse’s face to put down a piece of paper.
Fuse told the court that he and his mother, Laura Fuse, had discussed a possible civil damage suit against the Ben­ton Township Police Depart ment.
Wade testified that he was nervous when he came to court Feb. 21 because he was going to have to testify about police behavior at the fire scene.
Wade said he did not believe that Igert was planning to shoot anybody when he took out the gun but the officer was trying to scare witnesses.
LaSata also rejected several other claims raised in the de fense motion for a new trial.
Chief Assistant Prosecutor Michael Sepic, who presented the state’s case at trial, prop erly brought in evidence about a conviction against defense witness Tim Kopaceski, the judge said, because it was to show possible bias against the police department.
Also, evidence that Springer wanted to introduce about lapsed police certifications for Taser weapons, and whether the Tasers were properly pro grammed, was not relevant to the criminal activity of resist ing and obstructing police, La Sata said.
And Springer was given all the time he wanted to present the defense theory of the case in his closing argument, La Sata said.
Springer argued that the judge should have instructed the jury on the defense theory.
Contact Scott Aiken at saiken@herald palladium.

Convicted of resisting police during fire, L.D. Fuse Jr.

[The frustration many of us feel about the ongoing Berrien County police and court abuse - for many decades - is overwhelming. Please spread this story all over the country. Maybe the federal gov. will do it's job. As many know, the following story is not unusual for this county.]

By Scott Aiken
Herald Palladium - March 11, 2008
St. Joseph, MI — A Benton Township man convicted of resisting police during a fire at his house claims a policeman brandished a pistol to intimidate defense witnesses at his trial.
In a motion for a new trial, L.D. Fuse Jr. said township Patrolman Scott Igert exhibited a gun in front of sequestered witnesses in a hallway at the Berrien County Courthouse to intimidate and scare them before they testified.
Five witnesses signed a citizen complaint form attesting to Igert’s behavior, which allegedly occurred on the afternoon of Feb. 21, the first day of Fuse’s trial.
State police at district headquarters in Paw Paw are investigating. A hearing on Fuse’s motion in Berrien County Trial Court is set for Friday morning.
After a two-day trial, a jury found the 50-year-old Fuse and his mother, Laura Fuse, 70, guilty of resisting and obstructing police on Nov. 12 at their house at 1776 Eastland Ave. They face up to two years in prison and are scheduled to be sentenced April 7.
Fuse, a former military policeman in the Marine Corps, and his mother were acquitted of a second charge of disturbing the peace.
Defense witnesses testified the Fuses did nothing to interfere with police. But police testified that restraint was required to keep the two from entering the burning structure.
L.D. Fuse Jr. also seeks a new trial on grounds that the prosecutor did not comply with a pretrial discovery request. Fuse alleges Chief Assistant Prosecutor Michael Sepic misrepresented to the court that a defense witness had no criminal record, then brought up a criminal offense as trial evidence to discredit the witness.
Fuse also claims trial Judge Charles LaSata would not allow the defense to introduce evidence showing that Benton Township police Sgt. Tim Sutherland did not have current certification for the Taser he used to immobilize Fuse at the fire.
The judge erred by not giving a jury instruction on the defense theory of the case, according to Fuse’s motion. The defense claimed that police who arrested the Fuses used force without justification and that the defendants were not resisting.
According to the citizen complaint filed with the court and filled out by defense witness John Fuse, Igert walked out of the courtroom after testifying, then took out a gun.
Igert “pulled it up high and waited a few seconds,” Fuse said in the complaint, then put the gun away and walked past the defense witnesses who were waiting their turns to testify.
John Fuse is L.D. Fuse Jr.’s brother and Laura Fuse’s son.
“You could hear a pin dropped when he was handling his gun,” Fuse said in the complaint.
Later, John Fuse said, he and his family “slept in fear,” too afraid to watch TV or sit in the living room. The complaint was signed by Fuse and four other defense witnesses.
In a separate incident on the first day of trial, John Fuse said in the complaint, Igert followed him into a bathroom and intimidated him by making a quick motion toward his head, as if to strike him.
Benton Township Police Chief Vince Fetke said he would not comment on the case before he has had a chance to talk to the Prosecutor’s Office, which he said might happen today. Igert could not be reached Monday for comment.
Contact Scott Aiken at saiken@TheH­P.com.