After four years, Jason Stockley, a former St. Louis police officer has finally been arrested and charged with the murder of Anthony Lamar Smith, a 24-year-old black father of an infant and unborn child, who was unarmed and pleading for his life.
The "Ferguson Effect" is a term coined by Sam Dotson, the chief of the St. Louis Police Department referring to a link between protests of the use of excessive force by police, especially those in Ferguson, Missouri, and increases in crime rates in a number of major U.S. cities. However, the true Ferguson Effect is that police are finally beginning to be held accountable for their wrong actions; at least when video evidence exist.
Prior to the Ferguson Protest, it was rare for police officers to be charged with a crime or even held accountable for abuse or wrongful death. As long as the magic catchphrase was used, "I feared for my life", police officers were consistently given a pass no matter how ridiculous their story was.
Seemingly, no amount of witness testimony is enough to bring charges against police officers or convict, even when those witnesses are extremely credible. A video must exist of the exact moment of the incident for prosecutors to even consider charges. Ferguson was a game changer and increased the attention and scrutiny of police shootings. More people became aware of their right to record police actions in public, especially questionable actions. Police shootings of unarmed black men started gaining increasing press coverage. People who were skeptical that police brutality was a real finally started to realize there was a problem.
Ferguson and other protest are not responsible for increased crime. It's easy to blame the victim or those least able to respond. The decline of the middle class and increasing poverty is responsible for increased criminal activity. Unemployment and other social welfare benefits have been reduced or cut. Yesterday, a St. Louis shoplifter was shot for stealing steaks and toilet paper. I suspect a declining economy is one reason why heroin addiction is rising, especially among white people. Naturally, as drug use increases, so does crime. Addicts need to find some way to finance their drug habit.
If it had not been for the Ferguson Protesters, it's doubtful that the recent arrest of police officers across the country including St. Louis would have taken place. Instead of vilifying the "Ferguson Effect", we should celebrate it.
My father is for the first time in his life, afraid of the police!
My father was born in 1928, is 87 years old, a voracious reader, and one of the brightest and wisest people I know. Ok, so I'm a little biased. However, many people including medical doctors, lawyers, engineers, and PhDs have expressed a similar sentiment about my father.
Dad was the youngest of twelve children and is now the sole survivor. Six of his brothers served during World War II, he served during the Korean War and is retired from the U.S. Postal Service.
In 1993, my father suffered an aneurysm. At that time, 95% of people with that type of aneurysm died, fortunately, my father survived. In fact, he may have actively participated in saving his own life. While recovering from surgery, the hospital served my father grapefruit with most of his meals. Dad read a magazine article about how grapefruit can cause a fatal reaction to certain medications. The hospital was providing two of the medicines listed in the article. On his own, my father immediately stopped eating the grapefruit. Evidently, this information was not widely known, even his cardiologist wasn't aware of the grapefruit reaction.
Last night my father revealed that he is now afraid of the police. We were talking about Yvette Smith, a black 47-year-old mother who was shot twice without warning by a white police officer as she opened the front door of her home. The officer was found not guilty.
My father's aneurysm affected his mobility and he now uses two canes when he walks.
My father expressed that until recently, he was at ease whenever he encountered police officers. But after hearing about so many incidents of police shootings of unarmed people, he now fears those encounters. He wonders if one day, a fearful police officer will mistake one of his two canes for a rifle. I immediately looked at his canes and realized that in the dark, a police officer could claim my father pointed his cane at him and that he thought it was a rifle.
Stock photo of a cane similar to my father's
Additionally, my father wonders because he moves so slowly if a police officer might think he's trying to sneak up on them.
I never knew my father felt like that. It was discouraging to realize that my 17-year-old son and 87-year-old father both have an anxiety of the police. The sad reality is that unless a video exists, the officer actions would be ruled justified.
I understand that police officers have a stressful and dangerous job. My friend, Lorenzo Rodgers, a St. Louis City Police Officer, was killed. However, according to the bureau of labor statistics, there are fourteen jobs including roofers, garbage collectors, drivers, farmers and grounds maintenance workers whose jobs are more dangerous. In fact, last year, there were more unarmed people killed than the combined total of all law enforcement officers.
The fact that your job is dangerous should not give you license to kill when no real or reasonable imagined danger exists.
Last July, President Obama visited a federal prison to put a spotlight on mass incarceration and excessive drug sentencing laws. We applaud Obama's acknowledgment and efforts.
However, as we have mentioned before, it seems as if it took white kids becoming addicted to drugs, especially heroin, in epidemic proportions before any real policy change began to happen.
The following is republished with permission from ProPublica.
Two years ago, President Obama unveiled an initiative to give early release to potentially thousands of federal prisoners serving long sentences for low-level drug crimes. The initiative has barely made a dent, and a resignation letter from the president’s recently departed Pardon Attorney lays out, at least, one reason why.
“The position in which my office has been placed, asking us to address the petitions of nearly 10,000 individuals with so few attorneys and support staff, means that the requests of thousands of petitioners seeking justice will lie unheard,” wrote Deborah Leff, who resigned in January.Leff also wrote that her office was denied “all access to the Office of White House Counsel,” which reviews prisoners’ applications before the president gets them.
Leff also wrote that her office was denied “all access to the Office of White House Counsel,” which reviews prisoners’ applications before the president gets them.
Since his announcement two years ago, the president has granted early release to just 187 prisoners.
Leff’s resignation letter was obtained by USA Today.
Dysfunction in the Office of the Pardon Attorney is nothing new: ProPublica reported on problems in the office that stretch back to 2001. Take the case of Clarence Aaron, a black man sentenced to three life terms for a cocaine deal, even though he wasn’t the buyer, seller, or supplier.
Aaron’s appeal for clemency was denied by then-President George W. Bush, even though the prosecutor’s office and sentencing judge supported clemency. Why? Here’s ProPublica's original story:
Records show that Ronald Rodgers, the current pardon attorney, left out critical information in recommending that the White House deny Aaron’s application. In a confidential note to a White House lawyer, Rodgers failed to accurately convey the views of the prosecutor and judge and did not disclose that they had advocated for Aaron’s immediate commutation.
Rodgers was removed in 2014 and replaced by Leff. Obama ultimately ordered Aaron’s release in April 2014.
A statistical analysis of nearly 500 pardon applicants during the Bush administration suggests that advocacy makes a difference. Applicants with a member of Congress in their corner were three times as likely to win a pardon as those without such backing. Interviews and documents show a lawmaker’s support can speed up a stalled application, counter negative information and ratchet up pressure for an approval.
Reacting to stories published by ProPublica, the Department of Justice announced in August 2012 that it would commission a study testing racial disparities in presidential pardons. Nothing further has been publicly disclosed about that effort and it’s unclear whether the study was ever completed. ProPublica has contacted the department to ask them the status of both that and for further comment on Leff’s resignation. They’ll update as soon as they hear back.
Even though the primary purpose of court.rchp.com is to help people represent themselves in court, self-representation isn’t for everyone. If you have the option to hire an attorney, that may be your best option. Most people have no idea how to select a lawyer.
An ideal lawyer will not just have a string of impressive credentials or gold lettering on his door. He or she will be caring, concerned, and devoted to their work. You need to think carefully before laying your trust in a lawyer after all in some cases your life, future, money or property will be in his hands.
Apart from doing extensive research to shortlist possible lawyers, you must ensure that there is not a conflict of interest, that you understand everything the retainer agreement states, and that you have checked the references and details regarding the practice.
You will know the lawyer you have chosen is the perfect one if:
1. He makes an effort to spend the time to understand your case himself. He will not assign a legal assistant to take facts of the case down.
2. From experience and knowledge, he will know what is relevant and what is not. He will set aside and ignore irrelevant facts, opinions, and personal emotions that cloud the case on hand.
3. She will insist that the footwork for the case be done thoroughly. All facts must be checked for accuracy and solid arguments jotted down with the backing of earlier rulings.
4. He will not just focus on the problem at hand but examine the problem from all sides. This will create a complete picture highlighting all factors of relevance and the different ways one can approach the case.
5. Shee will use her foresight and anticipate moves by the opposition or opinions of the jury or judge and plan way ahead. Like a master chess player, she will plan the case not by the day but by many hearings ahead.
6. He will not waste time beating around the bush or create verbose statements—many words strung together which look impressive but mean nothing. He will insist that the case and its arguments be clearly stated.
7. She will be self-disciplined, thorough, and self-confident. Courteous at all times she will respect you as well as all the staff who work for her.
8. He is recommended by not just his friends and relatives but by other professionals of good standing and from his field.
9. She will not just present to you her victories but be happy to tell you why and how she lost certain cases.
10. She will lay the cards on the table and tell you clearly whether your case stands to win or loose. She will not claim that winning is guaranteed. She will be honest and upfront about her opinions and advice.
The bottom line is that the lawyer must be worthy of your trust. Use your inborn instincts and don’t go by the lawyer’s good looks or a fancy car or office. After all, it is competence in law and in court that is of the essence to you.
The Innocence Project released a report Tuesday alleging that prosecutors across the country are almost never punished when they withhold evidence or commit other forms of misconduct that land innocent people in prison.
The Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal group that represents people seeking exonerations, examined records in Arizona, California, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania, and interviewed a wide assortment of defense lawyers, prosecutors, and legal experts.
In each state, researchers examined court rulings from 2004 through 2008 in which judges found that prosecutors had committed violations such as mischaracterizing evidence or suborning perjury. All told, the researchers discovered 660 findings of prosecutorial error or misconduct. In the overwhelming majority of cases, 527, judges upheld the convictions, finding that the prosecutorial lapse did not impact the fairness of the defendant’s original trial. In 133 cases, convictions were thrown out.
Only one prosecutor was disciplined by any oversight authorities, the report asserts.
The report was issued on the anniversary of a controversial Supreme Court ruling for those trying to achieve justice in the wake of wrongful convictions. In a 5–4 decision in the case known as Connick v. Thompson, the court tossed out a $14-million dollar award by a Louisiana jury to John Thompson, a New Orleans man who served 18 years in prison for a murder and robbery he did not commit.
The majority ruled that while the trial prosecutors had withheld critical evidence of Thompson’s likely innocence – blood samples from the crime scene – the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office could not be found civilly liable for what the justices essentially determined was the mistake of a handful of employees. The decision hinged on a critical finding: that the District Attorney’s office, and the legal profession in general, provides sufficient training and oversight for all prosecutors.
The Innocence Project study echoes a 2013 ProPublica examination focused on New York City prosecutors. In 2013, ProPublica used a similar methodology to analyze more than a decade’s worth of state and federal court rulings. We found more than two dozen instances in which judges explicitly concluded that city prosecutors had committed harmful misconduct.
Several of the wrongfully convicted people in these cases successfully sued New York City. In recent years, New York City and state have doled out tens of million dollars in settlements stemming from such lawsuits. Former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes was voted out of office, in part because of wrongful convictions gained through misconduct on the part of his prosecutors or police detectives working with them.
But only one New York City prosecutor, ProPublica’s analysis found, was formally disciplined: Claude Stuart, a former low-level Queens Assistant District Attorney, lost his license. He was involved in three separate conviction reversals.
Just as we found in New York, the Innocence Project’s report found that appellate judges and others almost never report findings of misconduct to state panels and bar associations that are authorized to investigate them.
“In the handful of situations where an investigation is launched,” the report found, “The committees generally failed to properly discipline the prosecutor who committed the misconduct.”
The report concludes with several recommendations on how to improve accountability for prosecutors. It suggests, among other things, that judges ought to mandatorily report all findings of misconduct or error and that state legislatures pass laws requiring prosecutors to turn over all law enforcement material well before trial.
But perhaps most powerful is the report’s introduction, a 2011 letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder and two national prosecutor associations. It was written in response to the Connick ruling and signed by 19 people whose wrongful convictions were secured in part by prosecutorial misconduct.
“We, the undersigned and our families, have suffered profound harm at the hands of careless, overzealous and unethical prosecutors,” the letter said. “Now that the wrongfully convicted have virtually no meaningful access to the courts to hold prosecutors liable for their misdeeds, we demand to know what you intend to do to put a check on the otherwise unchecked and enormous power that prosecutors wield over the justice system.”
According to the Innocence Project, the Justice Department never responded to the letter.“This story was originally published by ProPublica.
“This story was originally published by ProPublica and is reprinted with permission.
by Natalie Johnson
Republished with permission from the Daily Signal
Residents in a North St. Louis, Mo., community are battling to keep their homes as city officials pursue eminent domain proceedings for a federal project that may not even take hold in the area.
Eminent domain enables the government to take private property for public use as long as the government provides just compensation.
St. Louis officials have begun purchasing property and assessing the value of homes in the region to make way for the potential relocation of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
The federal government has not yet decided whether it would move the building to the area, leaving residents uncertain about the future of their homes.
The NGA currently resides in South City St. Louis, but officials are hoping the federal government will relocate the building to the city’s north side in an attempt to reverse “decades of divestment.”
John Wright, a policy researcher at the Show-Me Institute, which is based in Missouri and advocates for free-market solutions, said residents he’s spoken to “feel like they’re being thrown under the bus.”
Others have told Wright the project is nothing more than a land clearance project to rid certain types of people from the predominantly black, working-class community.
“What they say is that they want to revitalize the community,” Wright told The Daily Signal. “I don’t know how you revitalize a community by getting rid of everybody who lives in the community and replacing it with a federal spy agency.”
City officials have begun evaluating homes, offering some residents $20,000 to $30,000 for their property, according to Wright. He said that is not nearly enough compensation for individuals to afford another home in a similar low-crime community.
The home of Charlesetta Taylor, that she has lived in for 70 years may be torn down by the city of St. Louis
The houses in the North St. Louis neighborhood were built of brick in the late 19th century. Wright said purchasing a similar Victorian house in the city would cost between $300,000 and $400,000.
“People don’t want to move; they don’t want to leave their community,” he said. “Some of these people have had these houses for generations; some were purchased back in the ’60s. We have retired people on a fixed income who live in these houses, and now they’re going to have to pick up and move, and they don’t know where to go.”
City officials have already begun excavating properties to survey the land and have prevented a grocery store from moving into the area.
Paul Larkin, director of The Heritage Foundation’s project to counter abuse of the criminal law, said even eminent domain proceedings can destroy the value of the land.
“If you have a house and it’s worth $100,000 and the government decides it’s going to take your house, in theory they’re supposed to pay you $100,000,” Larkin told The Daily Signal.
“But if on Jan. 1 they announce they may be taking it, but they’re not sure and they’ve started the eminent domain process, you may no longer have a $100,000 house … because if you sell it to someone, that person is going to be subject to whatever the state wants to do with it.”
Residents in the North St. Louis community have posted anti-eminent domain and anti-NGA signs along with Bible verses around the neighborhood. Wright said one woman posted a biblical verse reading, “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house.”
Wright said the neighborhood, which is already depressed from leveled houses and a shrinking population, is a tight-knit, family-oriented community. Dozens of homeowners could lose their property as early as this summer, forcing families and retired individuals to relocate.
“If they do this here, you’re kicking people out. You’re destroying a community,” he said. “These people don’t know where they’re going to go or what they’re going to do.”
Larkin said residents are never fully compensated for the loss of their homes because the government doesn’t pay for the personal value placed on property.
“Where you live is an important part of who you are. It’s how you define yourself,” he said. “It’s not simply a place that protects you from the elements, it’s not simply a place that has memories for you, but it has a way of becoming a part of who you are as a person, and now they’re going to take this person’s home away from them.”
Over the past few weeks, I had been approached by many people all with the same question: Who will I endorse for President of the United States? I have heard this even more since the launch of the Justice For Tamir Speak Out Tour. I have watched as my fellow mothers that have lost children have chosen a candidate to invest their faith in and I support them in their pursuits of justice for their children, and the people want to know where I stand.
For over a year I have been fighting for justice for my son, Tamir , who was killed by Cleveland police officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback. For over a year, I’ve waited to see if any candidate or official, including my state’s governor, would release a plan of action that addressed the failures and inhumane decisions responsible for my son’s death. While I’ve waited, I’ve been speaking out for true action, with changes that would help prevent another tragedy like Tamir’s murder, changes that truly hold these police accountable and give people power in the communities we live in.
As a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, my local and state governments have not only failed my family, they’ve caused us severe trauma. After shooting Tamir, Cleveland police neglected to call aid for my son and handcuffed my daughter, who was trying help her brother. Then the city of Cleveland later tried to charge me for the ambulance ride that was too late to save my son’s life. They said it was a mistake, and no one was held responsible for any of pain they caused my family.
After Tamir’s death, the county prosecutor, Timothy McGinty, an elected official, responsible for seeking justice for Tamir, instead blamed my 12 year old boy for his own death.
All of this happened under the administration of Ohio governor, John Kasich, a 2016 presidential nominee. Ohio’s state government has shown me repeatedly that the people elected to serve have no interest in justice. The loss of Tamir has made it clear to me that Cleveland is deeply invested in a system of injustice. No one has been held responsible for any part of this entire traumatic experience. No one has at least apologized for killing my son. Not a single politician has offered me some substantial support.
While I’ve continued to push my state’s officials towards real changes, several Presidential candidates have said my son’s name in their mouth, using his death as an example of what shouldn’t happen in America. Twelve year old children should never be murdered for playing in a park. But not a single politician: local, state or federal, has taken action to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Instead of plans for justice and accountability, I have been shown several plans for criminal justice reform, none that address my experience of the entire system being guilty. Those plans don’t address the many ways elected officials become exempt to accountability and the legal flaws that allow them to extend that exemption to cops who kill. These plans do not get rid of the trauma of knowing that my tax dollars help pay the salaries of the police officers that killed my son.
As one of the Mothers of the Movement, I know the death of Tamir has shown many just how important police accountability is. I also know it must be a piece of a larger plan to address the deep corruptions that exist in America. The people should be the ones determining what accountability looks like, not prosecutors who work closely with police to deny the people justice. County Prosecutors whose job requires them to believe the police the majority of the time, should not be the same people prosecuting them. Police officers often lie about fearing for their life.
True community oversight of the police is one that evens the balance of power and allows the communities police serve to judge how well they are doing their job. My experience has let me know that the system is working just the way the people in power want it to. That is why I refuse to accept plans or support politicians that offer what they propose as solutions, not informed by us, the community. It’s why I won’t accept plans for more “community police” as positive solutions when it was the police that killed my son. I cannot settle for partial solutions and lip service. I know we need real action, and I refuse to endorse any candidate that offers less.
The FBI definition of terrorism certainly applies to this Oregon group, however, I doubt if they are charged under the terrorism statutes, including 18 U.S.C. § 2332b. We have a double standard in this country that is not only obvious but sickening!
The Washington Post article raised many of the same questions I had about this group of armed men who took over a federal building at a national wildlife refuge in Oregon. Instead of 'terrorist', this group was called "occupiers", "armed activists", "militia men" and "even protesters".
Ammon Bundy (R), talks with Wes Kjar in an office at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, January 6, 2016.
I heard harsher terms hurled at the Ferguson Protesters than the media seems to be using for the Oregon Terrorist. These terrorist weren't demonstrating the loss of life or civil rights, they were making a claim to land owned by the government.
I can't imagine any situation where a group of armed black men taking over anything for any reason wouldn't be called terrorist.
Even with these type of examples, many would argue 'white privilege' does not exist.
Ammon Bundy, the terrorist's leader, and another 15 defendants pleaded not guilty Wednesday, February 24, 2016, to federal conspiracy charges related to the 41-day occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge. Several of the accused, however, expressed doubt that they enjoy the presumption of innocence.
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These terrorists seemingly had support from others in their community, so if they request jury trials, which they most likely will, and just one person on that jury votes not guilty, they walk.
The world knows these guys broke the law, they've made statements admitting their actions, however, this is one of those instances where jury nullification may overrule the law.
Unfortunately, black folks don't often get the benefit of jury nullification. Far too many bargain away their freedom through plea agreements. Many people are unaware of jury nullification. Others fail to exercise their right to participate on juries and get out of jury duty. When black people don't serve on juries, we allow the biases of others to decide the fate of black defendants. Black jury participation may have had some impact on mass incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders.
Slave Mentality
I'm not a very religious person, but my father told me about a recent Joel Osteen sermon about the mental attitudes of Israelites while they were slaves in Egypt.
From JoelOsteen.com
When the Israelites were in slavery, they were forced to make bricks all day long. They were given quotas that were almost impossible to meet. And at one point, Pharaoh got upset and had the supervisors take away all the straw they needed for bricks. They had the same quota, but they had to go find their own straw.
No doubt they prayed, “God, please give us straw. God, You know these supervisors are going to get upset. We’re not going to make our quotas.”
They had been pushed down for so long. They had such a limited vision when they were praying for more straw. In effect, they were praying to become a better slave. God said, “That’s too small. I don’t want to make you a better slave. I want to take you totally out of that bondage. I created you as the head and not the tail, the victor and not the victim.”
Today, don’t just pray for improvement in your difficult situation, pray for deliverance from it! See beyond your circumstances and let Him lead you out into the place of victory and abundance!
Joel Osteen starts speaking about abundance at 1:25 and mentions the Israelites near the 2:30 time mark.
Break Free of Mental Slavery
Black folks in America had a similar mental conditioning. After 350 years of slavery and 90 years of Jim Crow and another 50 plus years of institutionalized racism, as a group, many of us still suffer from post traumatic slave syndrome.
All our rights and privileges are defined within the law. You owe it to yourself to learn how to exercise your rights and the rights of your children. Use this site to educate yourself more about the principles of the law, participate in the jury system and political process and fight back against oppression for yourself and your children.
Stop accepting double standards! Until we fight back against double standards that criminalize certain behaviors to mass incarcerate and hold us back economically, we are doomed.
A West Virginia television news station ran a segment, "WSAZ Investigates: A Dose of Reality," showing an EMS supervisor, Chad Ward, responding to a heroin overdose, while wearing a body cam depicting the devastating effect Heroin is having in West Virginia.
This same sort of tragedy is playing out all over the country, including Missouri. I saw many people, including classmates, friends and family members suffer from the effects of drug addiction. Criminalizing drug use and mass incarceration of drug users and addicts compounded the negative effects.
Narcan (Naloxone) is a drug that reverses an overdose, it is creating more concern than comfort according to an EMS professional because "it gives drug users a false sense of security." They are concerned that people who are using or abusing these drugs are going to get into the mindset of "well somebody's going to have Norcan."
Rising Overdose Deaths
Deaths from overdoses of narcotic prescription painkillers more than tripled in the U.S. from 2000 to 2014. These drugs now kill more people than heroin and cocaine combined.
Years ago, many people believed that drugs was a black or brown problem and didn't care as long as their community was not negatively affected. The same was true when crime and murders seemly occurred only in certain areas. However, as mentioned in a previous post, the fastest growing demographic of drug addiction is in white communities. Within the last two years, there have been at least 767 overdose deaths in the St. Louis area. With increasing drug use comes increasing crime.
I was raised in North St. Louis during the seventies and literally saw the decline. During the early 70's, just about any service or product was available in the neighborhood. First there was white flight, then a reduction in city services, then businesses left, drug use increased (some government sanctioned), crime increased, and now the North Side is a shell of it's former self.
Just about all major manufacturing left North City and moved to predominately white communities, often rural areas, far removed from the city. For example, GM manufactured Corvettes at Union and Natural Bridge until 1981, two years later in 1983, GM opened a manufacturing plant in Wentzville, MO.
When manufacturers began leaving black urban areas, no one cared. Once that pattern was established, corporations realized they could "flight" the country and move manufacturing to China and Mexico with little or no repercussions. Now many of the same jobs that left urban areas are now moving out of predominately white areas to other countries. As Martin Luther King once stated, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Carrier Corporation is the latest example of this trend, earlier this week, Carrier announced the closure of manufacturing plants in Indiana. Those jobs will be moving to Mexico.
Trump and others have been proposing closing the border, so I guess corporations figure if those workers can not longer come here, they will go there. Remember, closing the borders can work both ways. If the best manufacturing jobs end up in Mexico in the next decade, Americans may not be able to cross the border to get those jobs. Just food for thought. It's easy to be insensitive to economic suffering, when that suffering is not your own.
Economic Predictions
It has been estimate that computerization and robotics will eliminate half of all jobs in the U.S. in less than ten years. That doesn't include the number of jobs lost to other countries.
As economic conditions worsen, drug use will most likely continue to skyrocket. If an ultra conservative candidate gets elected as president, many of the safety nets that currently exist could be reduced or eliminated completely.
West Virginia's coal economy has been devastated because of clean coal regulation and alternative energy. Like most other states, West Virginia, over time reduced social programs and now many people there, in mostly white communities, lack adequate food, housing and health care. Some of these people who now need social services may have been among the very ones who argued for reductions. West Virginia is a window into the future.
Since World War II, the dominant or reserve currency of the world has been the U.S. dollar, but that is changing. Around the time I was born, GM, U.S. Steel, General Electric, Goodyear and AT&T were among the nation's largest employers. Those companies provided good paying jobs and firmly established the middle class. Today, Wal-Mart is the nation's largest private employer; Target, Kroger and Sears are among the top ten largest employers in the country and many of those jobs are part-time low wage positions.
In 1945, there were 41.9 workers supporting each social security retiree; by 2010 there were just 2.9 workers per retiree and as baby boomers continue to age, the numbers will only get worse. This is not a sustainable system. The private pension system is not much better off, that's why some union retirees will see their pensions reduced, some more than half starting in July 2016.
I suspect one of the reasons union organizers were trying so hard to unionize fast food workers and get them pay increases, was to have a fresh supply of dues paying members to shore up union pension funds for existing union retirees.
When the great recession hit, I had a managerial position and reported directly to the company president. I owned four homes and I was the last person worried about a job loss. Things changed! Hopefully you'll use the information presented on this website to prepare yourself in case things also change for you. If you're not prepared for change, the consequence could be devastating.
The City of Cleveland has filed a creditor’s claim against the estate of 12 year old Tamir Rice. The level of insult to Tamir’s family is beyond belief. I can’t imagine even the Ku Klux Klan being callous enough to send a bill after lynching a family member!
After the Cleveland police shot Tamir Rice in a park while holding a toy gun, the officers stood around him for four minutes, until an FBI agent arrived at the scene and gave the boy first aid.
In response to a lawsuit filed by the Rice family against Cleveland, the city claimed that Tamir and his family were responsible for his death and being shot by police when they filed the following responses in court:
“Plaintiffs’ decedent’s injuries, losses, and damages complained of, were directly and proximately caused by the failure of Plaintiffs’ decedent to exercise due care to avoid injury.”… “injuries, losses, and damages complained of, were directly and proximately caused by the acts of Plaintiffs’ decedent, not this Defendant” … “Plaintiffs’ injuries, losses, and damages complained of, were directly and proximately caused by their own acts” …. “Plaintiffs’ claims are barred by the legal doctrines of comparative and contributory negligence. Plaintiffs’ claims are barred by the legal doctrine of assumption of risk.”
How does a twelve year old child assume the risk of his own death by playing with a toy gun? That response was so repulsive and generated such a negative response, Cleveland Mayor, Frank Jackson, apologized.
As insensitive as the lawsuit response was, it pales in comparison to sending this family a bill for murdering their child! Cleveland’s actions are unconscionable. The citizens of Cleveland need to removed any leader or administrator associated with this travesty of justice. Hopefully, Lebron James, will find inspiration from Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance and finally speak up concerning the Tamir Rice incident.
Last month, people in Cleveland were calling on Lebron James to speak on the Tamir Rice situation, however, James responded that he was not up on the situation. This could have just as easily been Lebron’s son, brother or nephew. Police killed 223 unarmed people last year. As stated in our post, “First They Came,” when you don’t speak up for others, there may not be anyone to speak up for you.
After Tamir’s death, the county prosecutor, Timothy McGinty, an elected official, responsible for seeking justice for Tamir, instead blamed my 12 year old boy for his own death.
