originally posted at thewellversed.com
Today marks the 22nd Annual World AIDS Day. With urban communities and young people among the most vulnerable to contract the disease, it is important to know the statistics, know your own status, and understand how your individual actions can protect you and others from being infected.
According to data released Monday by the FBI, reported hate crime incidents in the United States have declined by 15% last year.
This is the lowest percentage reported in at least a decade.
According to the FBI data, the most frequent types of hate crimes were property destruction, intimidation and simple assault.
Of those reported, 48.5% were racially motivated, and 71.4% of which were race related were against Black Americans.
Article by Anthony Springer Jr.
Originally posted at thewellversed.com
Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Bernard Monroe, Timothy Stansbury, Jr.
All black men. All unarmed. All killed by police. None received justice.
On Friday, we sadly added Oscar Grant’s name to the long list of black men shot and killed by officers of the law. After taking a certain number of L’s in the justice system, it’s easy to want to give up, throw a middle finger to the sky and remain angry and reactive.
By now, the circumstances surrounding Grant’s death and the aftermath are well known but worth recounting. Grant was shot and killed early New Year’s Day in 2009. He was defenseless, handcuffed and lying face down after being pulled off a Bay Area Rapid Transit car. His killer, Johannes Mehserle was sentenced to two years in prison.
Two years in prison for killing an unarmed man.
Photo by Jay Finneburgh
Originally posted at thewellversed.com
Only a few days after the November 5 sentencing of BART Officer Johannes Mehserle, an eyewitness of the Oscar Grant protests has come forward, offering a different point of view from major media outlets.
Sociopolitical writer and activist Joseph Anderson, along with photographer Jay Finneburgh were at the scene Friday night during the Justice for Oscar Grant demonstration in Oakland, documenting the evening’s events.
“I saw very young black females, plus-or-minus 20-something, no more than 4’8″ height, no more than 95 lbs, just peacefully sitting on a less than a knee-high sidewalk wall in their own neighborhood, trapped and being led off in handcuffs by aggressive, 200lbs+, riot cops,” Anderson wrote.
Oakland police made more than 150 arrests during Friday’s protest, while being praised in the news for controlling a so-called riot.
Today there will be a hearing to decide whether or not Mumia Abu Jamal will be executed or get life in prison without parole.
The former Black panther was arrested December 9, 1981. He was later convicted of the murder of police officer David Faulkner and given the death penalty.
For nearly three decades though, the case has been appealed with the death sentence overturned for lack of evidence. Repeatedly though, prosecutors have had their eye on reinstating the execution.
Before I was born, and before my mother had even graduated from high school, Mumia Abu Jamal was just another Black man. An activist. A Panther.
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