Late Saturday, hours into a protest march over police brutality in Berkeley, Calif., police were looking to make arrests and spotted Kyle McCoy. The young black man, a well-known racial justice activist and University of California-Berkeley alum was arrested on suspicion for felony assault with a deadly weapon. He was taken away and booked, but by Sunday morning he was free on bail. On Monday afternoon, when he was scheduled to be arraigned in court, a bailiff announced the criminal charge had been dropped.
After a grand jury in Staten Island decided not to indict the NYPD cop who choked Eric Garner to death this week, thousands of people across the nation took to the streets in protest. Many of those angry people were white and I am willing to bet most were genuinely outraged. But when it comes to the issue of “feeling our pain,” white people just can’t go there with us.
Coming just two weeks after the non-indictment of Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, the non-indictment of Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner has the feel of a grim serial filled with redundant plot lines—a production that few of us wish to watch but none of us can avoid, and that a great many are complicit in creating. This is not imaginary.
It has been one week since a St. Louis County grand jury failed to indict Officer Darren Wilson for shooting Michal Brown, an unarmed teenager, six times in the head, chest and arms.
Walmart reported another good Black Friday this year, drawing millions into a euphoric weekend of shopping.
“What Ferguson reconfirms is that until corrupted institutions are reformed, individual acts of injustice and hate will occur on a daily basis. “
Darren Wilson, the unindicted Ferguson, Mo., police officer who shot and killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown during a confrontation, has resigned, the Daily Mail reports.
Israel on Sunday marked the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab countries in the years after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin calling for financial reparations.
It didn’t come as a surprise that Officer Darren Wilson wasn’t indicted for shooting and killing of Michael Brown. But it was still a huge blow to those who felt that again, justice was not on their side.
The Institute of the Black World 21st Century decries the decision of the Grand Jury in Ferguson not to indict Officer Darren Wilson as yet another in a tragic litany of injustices that is fueling a spirit of resistance, righteous rebellion and movement building across this country; a movement primarily led by young people. We applaud the weeks and months of disciplined training, organizing, demonstrations and protests by young leaders that may well mark the birth of a new movement for social justice and social change in this country. It is their “Selma moment!” The leadership of IBW remains willing to assist with the development of this movement as young leaders deem appropriate.
As the longest serving leader in the Caribbean, Prime Minister Ralph E. Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has few reservations about the topics he chooses to discuss and the positions he takes, and that’s why during his recent visit to the states it was interesting to hear his comments on reparations.
Monday the public learned that a Missouri grand jury found that it did not have sufficient evidence to indict Michael Brown’s shooter, Police Officer Darren Wilson.