How Soon We Forget

When the word radicals and terrorists are mentioned, what is your first thought?

Since the horrific events of 9/11, people of a certain skin tone or religious preference have been stereotyped, profiled, harassed, and pre-judged as being anti-American or terrorist. No one has the ability to identify a terrorist by simply looking at a picture, or based off the spelling of his or her name.

People who behave or believe this way have a phobia against Islam or Muslims, more commonly known as Islamophobia. Islamophobia is prejudice against, hatred towards, or having an irrational fear of Muslims or Islam. We have seen and heard a lot of anti-Islamic talk in the media after the bombing at the Boston Marathon.

Instead of trying to understand and respect other religions, the conservative voices on the radio and television immediately start name-calling, placing labels and demonizing others for choosing to worship the God of their choice. I don’t understand how anyone could group all people of the Islamic faith into one general category, or try to make them out to be a monolithic people.

Some of our fellow Americans either have short memories, or practice a selective style of remembering historical events in relation to present day events when they start making a case to demagogue a religion different than their own.

Just because a person proclaims to be associated with a religion does not mean that they represent the entire faith. For the record, all Muslims are not terrorists and all terrorists are not Muslims.

If we were to use the very conservative approach to analyzing terrorists, every American should be scared to death of young white men. The numbers don’t lie when it comes to who has historically committed acts of terror on American soil against fellow Americans.

The criminal profile of most perpetrators in mass shootings and serial killers has historically been young white men, but there is not a call by the conservative media to stereotype, profile, or harass them. When a non-Arabic person or a person who isn’t a Muslim commits an act of terror, they are called lone wolves, or crazed individuals.

A Feburary 27, 2013 article by Mother Jones, “A Guide to Mass Shootings in America” there have been 62 mass shootings in the last 30 years. A whopping 44 of the terrorist were white males. With that being said, it would be careless and ignorant to stereotype white men the same way people of Arab decent, or Muslims have been treated. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map

A wonderful piece of journalism by Soledad O’Brien shined light on this subject in the documentary, “Unwelcome: Muslims Next Door.” The story was based off of a very controversial court case in Rutherford County, Murfreesboro, TN. The nasty court battle was in response to an attempt to block a group of Muslims who wanted to build a huge Mosque in the county.

A majority of the people interviewed claimed that the Muslims who wanted to build the mosque are of the same religion as the people who flew the planes into the building. How soon did they forget that they were of the same religion of the people who enslaved, murdered, and lynched hundreds of thousands of Native Americans and African slaves? I’m sure they forgot about the people who bombed the 16^th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, or burned crosses to intimidate or terrorize fellow Americans.

One of hip hops brightest artists; Jasiri X produced a masterful song about Islamophobia called Wandering Strangers. The video can be viewed by clicking the link below. At a hearing on Muslim Radicalization held by Rep. Peter King a few years ago, you can clearly hear the hatred in the voices of the people screaming, “Go Back Home” and “Muhammad was a terrorist” amongst other nasty and vile obscenities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8v1Du790HM

How soon we forget the Catholic Church and its long and disturbing history of child molestation, but priests and bishops are often times given a pass or moved to another state where they continue to prey on young, innocent people who do not have the ability to defend themselves against these monsters.

How soon we forget who the terrorist was in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting, or who the terrorist was that shot-up an Arizona Congresswoman’s town hall meeting, or who the terrorist was in the Sikh Temple shooting in Wisconsin, or who the terrorist was in the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre, or who blew up the building in Oklahoma City.

Radical, religious extremists are all over the world and are bad for humanity. They use religion to justify bigotry and violence against other people. Child molesters, rapists, murderers, and the people hoarding weapons and ammunition in their basements are the people we should really be concerned with. Don’t forget who the real criminals are and the people we definitely have to keep our eyes on.

“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people being oppressed, and loving the people doing the oppressing.” Malcolm X

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on May 6, 2013 via Blogger.com

Is Christopher Dorner, Larry Davis Reincarnated?

When I first heard the news about former LAPD police officer Christopher Dorner, another name immediately came to mind; Larry Davis. 19 year old Larry Davis, who later changed his name to Adam Abdul-Hakeem, was a former police informant, small time drug dealer and aspiring rapper who went to war with the NYPD in 1986 after a controversial and highly disputed shootout in his sister’s apartment. 

Davis claimed the police illegally barged their way into his sister’s apartment and without asking any questions, began firing at him despite the fact that young children were in the apartment. Davis fired back and escaped by jumping some 25 ft to the ground. During the shootout, Davis shot six police officers and was a fugitive of the law for almost 20 days.

Davis eventually surrendered peacefully, but not to the NYPD. He gave himself up to the FBI out of fear of being murdered by the blood thirsty, racist, corrupt, and revenge seeking NYPD. He expressed great concern that the police were out to get him and told several relatives that if he was caught in the streets, the police were going to shoot him. He vowed to shoot them first.

Davis and his lawyers successfully argued that he was the target of corrupt police officers, who had the reputation for being hostile and brutal towards Blacks and Hispanics in the New York area. To many, Larry Davis was a man standing up against the authorities and understood his need to protect himself against the police. A lot of Bronx residents thought Davis was doing something brave and his acquittal sent a message to the community that white officers were not going to continue to shoot down young Black people without a proper response.

He was acquitted on several accounts of attempted murder and aggravated assault, but was convicted on weapons charges and sentenced to 5-15 years. While already serving time, Davis was convicted of another murder and sentenced to serve an additional 25 years to life.

The interesting thing about the Larry Davis saga was the media coverage of the events that transpired between himself and the police. Without knowing all of the facts, both the television and print media had already labeled Davis as public enemy number one. They depicted Davis as a savage killer, who was armed and dangerous.

Unlike Davis, Christopher Dorner’s past was not as shady as his east coast counterpart. He was a 33 year old, former Naval Officer who was dismissed from the LAPD in 2008 for lying during a hearing in which he claimed a fellow police officer physically abused an inmate. In his lengthy manifesto, Dorner claimed he was the victim of a corrupt police force who turned against him for being a whistle blower.

Also unlike Davis, Dorner’s rage was against the LAPD and he specifically targeted police officers and their family members to seek revenge for his firing from the force. The killing spree he went on is inexcusable, especially for a man who knows the difference between good and evil, right from wrong, just from unjust. His well written manifesto proves that he was a smart individual, but there is no justification for his violent actions.

Dorner was clearly a man who had lost faith in the same system he spent his adult life protecting and violated everything good he learned during his time in the military and on the police force. Restoring his good name was the central theme for his manifesto, but his violent pursuit of justice will tarnish his name forever because of all the innocent people who were affected by his decision to take on the LAPD by himself.

While I adamantly disagree with his actions, I cannot completely dismiss the allegations made in the manifesto. Like the NYPD, the LAPD is notorious for their harsh and brutal treatment of Blacks and Hispanics. This fact is not arguable or debatable. There was no intention on Dorner’s part to be captured alive and the LAPD had all intentions on honoring his request, as witnessed in the moments of the final confrontation.

No matter how much of an image makeover the LAPD has tried to do over the last 20 years, some of the same bad apples are still on the force.  Why would some of the officers captured nearly beating the life out of Rodney King be in leadership positions in the department today? A better question would be why those jokers did not go to jail?

Whether people want to believe it or not, there is a Christopher Dorner waiting to happen in every city, in every state in America. He should be the poster child for why people should not be allowed to legally obtain as many weapons as they want to. When he purchased his cache of guns and ammunition, he was a law abiding citizen. He was a time bomb waiting to explode and unfortunately, innocent civilians and a couple of police officers were killed. Not to mention the thousands of southern California residents who were on pins and needles during the search for Dorner.

What ties Larry Davis to Christopher Dorner is the way the media reported each story before having any physical evidence. I watched a couple of documentaries about Larry Davis, to include “The Larry Davis Story: A Routine Typical Hit” and the television series American Gangster which featured Larry Davis’ story.

The rush by the media to label Davis a ruthless killer and armed vigilante was front and center on every news station and in most of the print media in the greater New York area. Ironically, there was a completely different reaction from the people in the communities who had been harassed and terrorized by the NYPD.

People in the community gave Davis the benefit of the doubt and were happy to know that someone finally gave the police a taste of their own medicine.  At the end of the day, a jury of Davis’ peers determined that Davis shot the police officers in self-defense.

In analyzing the media coverage of the Christopher Dorner case, it was scarily similar to the coverage Davis received. It’s like the media reports whatever the police tell them and in a rush to be the first to report “breaking news” they present a one sided story to the public as if it were gospel.

People in communities all over the country appreciate the hard working, decent cops who perform their jobs in an honorable and professional manner. On the other hand, people are sick and tired of the cops who abuse their authority. For every cop killed by Christopher Dorner, there are countless incidents in which police officers have shot and killed unarmed Black males.

Remember these names: Amadou Diallo (New York-1999), Patrick Dorismond (New York-2000), Ousane Zongo (New York-2003), Orlando Barlow (Las Vegas-2003), Timothy Stansbury Jr. (Brooklyn-2004), Ronald Madison and James Brissette (New Orleans-2005), Aaron Campbell (Portland-2005), Sean Bell (Queens-2006), Oscar Grant (Oakland-2009), Victor Steen (Pensacola-2009), Steven Eugene Washington (Los Angeles-2010), Alonzo Ashley (Denver-2011), Wendall Allen (New Orleans-2012), and Ramarley Graham (Bronx-2012).

Here are a few examples of these senseless killings within the last year you might faintly hear about on the local or national news for a few days and then the stories fades away as if nothing ever happened.

“Protests in Houston after police shoot unarmed man in wheelchair”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/25/protests-houston-police-shoot-unarmed-man-wheelchair

“Chicago Council approves settlement for unarmed man shot by officer”

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/18203457-418/council-approves-settlement-for-unarmed-man-shot-by-officer.html

“Pasadena Trayvon Martin: Police shoot unarmed black teenager Kendrec McDade, then blame death on person who called 911”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120330/pasadena-trayvon-martin-police-shoot-unarmed-black-teen-kendrec-mcdade

“Another Car Shot Up and Unarmed Black Victims Killed, This Time by Cleveland Police Officers”

http://www.blackyouthproject.com/2012/12/another-car-shot-up-and-unarmed-black-victims-killed-this-time-by-cleveland-police-officers/

To some people, police officers are the only bulwark between civilization and an army of evil criminals, even as the police tortures innocent victims to admit to crimes committed by other police officers. Without question, our communities need law enforcement officials to serve and protect the citizens, but we do not need police officers being the judge, jury, and executioner. We need to recognize that authority figures are capable of wrongdoing as well and every criminal suspect is not the monster they are portrayed to be by the media or law enforcement agencies.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on February 20, 2013 via Blogger.com

Gun Violence Isn’t a 21st Century Phenomenon

The spokesman for the National Rifle Association tried desperately to make the case for solving the nations gun problems by suggesting that more people should arm themselves. His actual words were, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Really? That has to be one of the most idiotic suggestions I’ve ever heard! He blamed video games, movies and music videos for exposing children to a violent culture while totally dismissing guns as the common denominator. 

I wonder whom he blamed for all of the gun violence in our country prior to the existence of movies, music videos and video games. I wonder whom he blames for the gun violence in the days preceding the Civil War, during Reconstruction, or the Jim Crow South? It couldn't have been hip-hop music videos, or video games because they didn’t exist. 

I seriously doubt that the NRA spokesman would have been on the side of slave abolitionists, the Deacons for Defense, or the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.  These were groups of people who rightfully armed themselves against the corrupt lawmakers of their generation, but they were demonized as being radicals and troublemakers for simply trying to protect their families, homes, and communities from the terrorism of white supremacy. In fact, the 1967 Mulford Act in California was a law specifically put in place to disarm the Black Panthers.  

Sadly, death by way of shooting is not some new concept that somehow exploded in the 21^st century. People get amnesia and forget that gun violence is in the very fabric of the existence of this country. Some of the most influential people in American history have died as a result of gun violence.

Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, and Medgar Evers were all victims of gun violence. Like them, there are hundreds of thousands of other Americans who have died by way of a gunshot on the streets of America, outside the lines of a battlefield.

The gun was and still is used for personal protection, but it is also used as a tool to instill fear in people and to control potentially dangerous situations.

After every mass shooting in America there is a short period of time when people are shocked, or in disbelief that the lives of innocent people were taken by an insane individual who should not have had access to weapons. Predictably, gun rights advocates are fearful that the government is going to knock on their doors and tell them to hand over their stash of guns and ammunition. The idea that the 2^nd Amendment is being gutted is a flat out lie from the pit of the propaganda machines at the Fox News Channel and conservative talk radio.

We keep hearing these people quote the passage of the 2nd Amendment that says, “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” but rarely do they include the introductory clause: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state." The key phrase being "well regulated," not a few paranoid, deranged, and obviously crazy individuals free to stockpile as many weapons as they can because they believe in some out of this world conspiracy theory. Remember how well this way of thinking worked out for David Koresh?

The 2^nd Amendment does not specify or clearly state what is defined as arms and people have their own idea of the intent of the law. Ironically over the course of the last couple of years, these same 2^nd Amendment advocates have been the very people who have completely ignored another Constitutional Amendment, the 15^th. 

The15th Amendment is as plainly written as the 2^nd Amendment, but some lawmakers have found a different set of rules when it comes to voting.  Voter identification laws go against the very spirit of the 15^th Amendment because it specifically says, 1. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” 2. “The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

At various times in the country’s history, “appropriate legislation” in some states meant that only a select few individuals were granted their Constitutional right to vote. Absurd voting laws prevented people from voting based on the very items listed in article one of the amendment.

Laws without enforcement are nothing more than ink on a piece of paper.  Like many other laws of the land, passage means very little to people who believe they are superior to, or above the law. Forgive me if I don’t have faith in the legislators claiming to be fed up and are once again making empty promises to actually get something done.

How in one breath can a politician say that assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and armor piercing ammunition is protected by one amendment, yet in the same breath ignore the other amendment and mandate that a person must have a special identification to cast a ballot?

It is absolutely baffling that legislators all over the country are doing everything they can to make casting a vote more difficult than buying a gun. In other words, an American citizens’ right to bear arms is more important than another American citizens’ right to vote. If there was ever an assault on a Constitutional Amendment, it is the 15^th that we should really be worried about. It should be easier to vote in America than to purchase a firearm, but the opposite is true. 

This speaks to the very problem our nation has with the amount of people losing their lives to gun violence. Regardless if the death is a homicide or suicide, too many people are dying as a result of a round leaving the barrel of a gun.

Two personal friends of mine were killed in 2012 in gun related incidents involving someone in their immediate family. I also lost a fellow Marine to a self-inflicted gun shot wound to the head. There are a countless number of people in cities all over the country that are dying on a daily basis because of gun violence.

I firmly believe that the solution to this violence begins with R-E-S-P-E-C-T for ourselves and our fellow man; regardless of race, gender, religion, or socio-economic status. This should be the goal of people on either side of the gun control debate.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on January 14, 2013 via Blogger.com

Embarrassing Post-Election Reactions

Thankfully the election of 2012 is finally over. Not only did President Obama win the popular vote, but he also won the Electoral College by a significant margin. To the surprise of the online conspiracy theorists living in fantasyland, the earth did not fall off its axis, and the sun and moon continued to function as regularly scheduled.

The President won despite the scare tactics employed by most conservatives on talk radio and the not so fair and balanced coverage by a particular cable news channel. The fear mongering and billions of dollars in negative campaign ads were not enough to convince the majority of Americans to vote for the other candidate.

History will prove that the election of 2012 was a repudiation of the radical conservative agenda.

Excuses, Excuses

The embarrassing post-election reactions from some people who chose not to vote for the President are not surprising by any stretch of the imagination. We saw a level of ugliness after the 2008 election and those same hate filled people feel even more embolden to do and say the foulest things about the President of the United States. It is okay for people to disagree with the President on policy issues, but it is not okay for people to keep trying to discredit the man as a legitimate American, or categorize him as a socialist, communist, Muslim who hates the country.

The excuses for why the other candidate loss or why the President won have already began to be nauseating. The post-election comedy show commenced shortly after it was obvious that President Obama had enough electoral votes to secure his second term in office. It is laughable to see and hear conservative prognosticators twisting and turning poll numbers, continually trying to figure out how in the world the man they have so much disdain for could be re-elected.

The GOP is blaming the loss on the liberal media, African Americans, Hispanics, young people, single women, homosexuals, voter fraud, and free stuff. It is everybody’s fault but the guy who lost the election.

The GOP can continue to make excuses for their loss and ignore the fact that their idiotic and reckless policies are the reason people did not vote for their candidate. Rational thinking people did not buy into the conservative narrative of doom and gloom politics.

More than Just the Economy

The other candidate and his advisors could not possibly expect to win by just telling people how bad of a job his opponent has done and how bad the economy is without offering any plausible solutions. The one question he was never able to answer during the entire campaign was “how?”

For instance, how was he going to create 12 million jobs, but in the same breath say that government does not create jobs?

The answer certainly is not more tax breaks for the “job creators” because we have seen over the last twelve or so years how that theory has worked for us. The trickle never has and never will make it down from the top.

As it turned out, the economy was not the only issues Americans cared about. When a person takes hard lined, unpopular stances on so many social issues, how could expect the same people he demonized throughout the election to vote for him?

Voters did not know where he stood on so many issues because his position seemed to change with the direction of the blowing wind. Maybe it was those secretly recorded 47% percent remarks to a group of wealthy campaign donors. Maybe it was his willingness to defund PBS and Planned Parenthood, but no mention of cutting off foreign aid to countries we consider to be our “allies.” Maybe it was his open stance against abortion rights for women and wanting to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Maybe it was his desire to preserve tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while middle-class and poor Americans pay a higher tax rate than he does.  Maybe it was his bullish/war-mongering stance in foreign relation matters, but when the opportunity to defend the country presented itself, he avoided the draft while other Americans were thrown in prison for doing the same.

Maybe it was his suggestion that students should just borrow money from their parents to go to college. Maybe it was his immigration reform strategy that encouraged illegal immigrants to self-deport back to their native countries.

To throw gasoline on an already burning campaign, conservative candidates all over the country were offering their uninformed and unpopular opinions on abortion rights, recklessly throwing around allegations of socialism and class warfare, and continuing these wild conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of the President’s birth certificate and college transcripts.

Traditional America?

One of talking points in the post election coverage that keeps coming up in among the conservative talkers has something to do with Traditional America. The demographic shift taking place in America in which Caucasian men are losing control and power of the electorate is happening right in front of our eyes. This fact scares the hell out of the establishment. Take a moment and analyze whom these sentiments are coming from.  It is no surprise what kind of America they want to see.

“Take our country back” or “Traditional America,” has nothing to do with smaller government or American values. They are talking about taking us back to a traditional America when Caucasians were perceived to be superior to all other ethnicities.

The traditional America when African Americans had to sit on the back of the bus. The traditional America when African American men were hung from trees and castrated for looking at Caucasian women. The traditional America when Civil Rights activists were killed for trying to help citizens register to vote in the South.

The traditional America when people of different ethnicities were forced to drink from separate water fountains because of the color of their skin. The traditional America when students were forced to attend separate, but “equal” schools.

No thank you!

This so called traditional American may have been good for some, but the same cannot be said for all Americans. Going back to those days is not going to happen and we all need to persist that America keeps marching forward. Whether people want to deal with it or not, those events are in the fiber of American history. The dog whistle and covert terminology being recklessly thrown around by politicians and media personalities should not be overlooked.

What Free Stuff?

One of the most insulting things I have heard in the post-election coverage is the notion that people voted for President Obama because they want free stuff. Really, free stuff? Where is this free stuff and when should those of us who voted for the President expect to receive these items in the mail?

Seniors, veterans, and disabled Americans who receive benefits do not want free stuff regardless of what the talking heads in the conservative media want you to believe. Free stuff is what slave owners and their descendants received as a result of never paying a cent to the slaves who built the very foundation of this nation.

Think about it. Rich people are the beneficiaries of more free stuff than they have room to receive. They collect handouts in the form of tax loopholes and off shore money shelters that middle-class and poor people do not receive. The CEOs of large American companies choose to send jobs overseas, or lay off thousands of workers at a time in spite of making record profits over the last couple of years. These people care about making as much money as they can, while paying their employees as little as possible, period Greed is the only rational explanation for their actions.

The only free stuff people wanted from this election was the right to vote without standing in line for eight hours, or without being harassed, intimidated, and threatened by some watch group challenging the legitimacy of their vote.

Secession Insanity

The secession advocates and revolution promoters are just as disgusting as the people behind the birther movement. The country would be a better place minus the individuals who are acting like young children who throw temper tantrums when they cannot have their way.

Do not tell us in one voice that you love this country more than I do and then in the same voice say you are going to leave when your candidate loses an election. This secession insanity is not just whining; it is illogical, unpatriotic, anti-American, ahistorical, and willfully ignorant.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on November 21, 2012 via Blogger.com

It Takes Two

During my recent ten plus hour flight to Okinawa, Japan with my three daughters and our tiny Chihuahua named Chip, I flipped through one of my favorite books, The Isis Papers from time to time. I figured this long flight would be a good time to reflect and evaluate how my wife and I are raising our daughters. The focal point of chapters 20, 21, and 22 discussed parenting skills and the challenges of raising African American children. Dr. Welsing discusses in detail the frantic need for more two-parent households in the African American community.

Little did I know, my first ten or so days in Okinawa alone with the kids would challenge me physically and mentally in ways that I could have never imagined. There are so many tasks to be accomplished every day in order to get the initial set-up process completed. The level of exhaustion I felt at the end of each day made me question how single parents do it day in and day out. I cannot imagine doing all the things my children need alone for a sustained period of time and still give them the amount of love and care they need.

When no one else is around to help take care of those daily responsibilities, one has to find the inner-strength to simply put a check in the box. This doesn’t allow much time for personal reflection, compassion, or sympathy. Accomplishing the mission at hand becomes more of a priority than does the emotional, psychological, and physiological needs of the children. The scale is tilted to one side and the children’s developmental needs are often left unfulfilled.

I realize that there are children reared in single-parent households who go on to be highly educated, productive members of society; however, they are in the minority. Like a strong majority of people I know and respect, I am adamantly opposed to child-parents, i.e. teenagers becoming parents to children when they are still children themselves. 

According to Dr. Francis C. Welsing, author of The Isis Papers, children born to child-parents will experience the following. “They will experience being inadequately housed, clothed and fed. They will experience abandonment to welfare systems and foster homes. They subsequently will experience failure to achieve academically, and then fail to perform adequately on scholastic achievement tests. Because of their frustration from being stressed and inadequately cared for, they will fail to attend school. Eventually they will drop out of school. Many Black children and youth will become involved with drugs-either to medicate often unrecognized major depression, or to sell drugs to solve their own or their family’s financial difficulties.” Pg. 252.

Upon first glance, I took exception to some of what she said, but when I re-read and re-evaluated this paragraph, it was clear to me that she was absolutely correct.  Certainly there are adults who grew up in two-parent homes that fall into the above stated conditions, but without question the slope is steeper for children of child-parents and single-parent homes. The numerous obstacles children born to child-parents must overcome make their plight to breaking the cycle of poverty and dependency nearly impossible.

I have the utmost respect for single parents who are working hard to ensure that their children have everything children of two-parent homes have, but it is obvious that it takes two parents to provide the loving, healthy, stable, and consistent environment children so desperately need.  Immature, unstable, and overwhelmed child-parents cannot provide their children with the tools they need to become independent adults because they themselves have not figured out or found out whom they are at this stage in their lives. 

I found myself as the parent to four young daughters by the youthful age of 23 and quickly realized that the fate of my family’s future was in the hands of a young man who was just beginning to find himself. I was immature, selfish, impatient, harsh, and way too overbearing. I was not a good listener and had a zero defect mentality when it came to disciplining my kids.

Six years into my young Marine Corps career, I had been married for four years, had four young daughters, and was stressed beyond belief. Simply said, I was not even ready for one child let alone four. The responsibilities that fell upon my shoulders were a load that would have been much too heavy to bear without the help of my wife.

We did our best to provide more than just the basic needs for our children, but that came with a lot of bumps and bruises that could have been avoided had we been more mature adults.  As challenging as it has been raising a family, it has been as equally rewarding to see the growth and development, not only in our children, but also in the two of us as parents.

I am convinced now more than ever that it takes two parents to provide all of the things children need in their journey towards adulthood. There has to be a greater emphasis placed on the need for more two-parent homes and an outcry to greatly reduce the number of children being raised by single and child-parents.

Our society as a whole will receive better-equipped young adult to lead the country into the next generation if these points are advocated for. We desperately need more mature adults as parents versus the extreme number of single and child-parents who have proven over a long period of time that they simply do not possess the tools necessary to raising productive, successful, independent, and healthy children.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on August 27, 2012 via Blogger.com

Capitalizing off Crime: Part 2

Do you remember the last time you’ve heard conversation or discussion about the budget for the Department of Corrections in the state in which you reside? Neither can I, but on a daily basis educators are being laid off due to budget cuts.  States are claiming to be doing everything they can to save money, but ironically, funding for jails and prisons is rarely a part of these money saving ventures. 

The American solution of building more prisons and incarcerating more people than any other civilized nation in the world is not deterring people from committing crime.  When analyzing capitalizing off crime, it makes perfect sense why certain laws exist. Follow the money trail that leads from a corporation to the politician who is “Tough on Crime”.  This tough talk sounds good on paper, but in reality, public safety is not the motivating factor in keeping criminals off the street.  Follow the money.

Without a doubt, the War on Drugs has been a massive failure and private for-profit prison companies like Corrections Corporation of America, the GEO Group, and Community Education Centers are making billions of dollars each year due to this failed war and close ties to politicians on both sides of the political spectrum.

The Len Bias Affect:  Len Bias is probably known as the greatest basketball player to never play professional basketball.  Bias played basketball at the University of Maryland and was selected as the 1986 ACC player of the year, an All-American and the 2^nd overall pick of the 1986 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. Two days after the draft, on June 19, 1986, Bias died from a drug induced overdose.

In a 2003 study by the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, African American and White people represented similar proportions of all those sent to prison in the state in 1986, but by 1999, 47% of all African American prison admissions in Maryland were for drug offenses, compared with 21% for Whites.  While only making up 28% of the state’s general population, 68% of all people arrested for drug offenses in Maryland were African American.

Bias’ death sparked a round of legislation that completely changed the prison landscape in America.  The amount of non-violent offenders is what has driven the prison population through the roof.  Not only did the introduction of crack in the 1980’s spark an era of getting high as fast as possible for as little as possible, but it also ignited the get rich as fast as you can mentality in the minds of young people and business people alike.  That mentality has worked out miserably for the young people who are on the streets selling a drug that is killing their fellow man and worked out wonderful for the business people who decided to invest in for-profit prisons.

In Maryland from 1986-1999, the African American rate of drug prison admissions per 100,000 citizens grew eight times the rate of the White drug prison admissions and represented 96% of the new youth prison admissions for drug offenses.  This phenomenon was not isolated to one state, and quickly spread across the entire nation.  The movement toward increased incarceration and the racial disparity that exists in sentencing practices has gotten to the point of horrendous proportions for African Americans. The winner in the end is the prison industrial complex.

Does it make sense that African Americans serve nearly as much time in prison for a drug offense (57 months) as Whites do for a violent crime (58.8 months)? Does it make sense that more than 80% of crack cocaine defendants are African American, while about two-thirds of crack cocaine users are White or Hispanic? Or that the average sentence for a crack cocaine offense (119 months) was more than three years greater than for powder cocaine (78 months)?

Does it make sense that African Americans and Hispanics are the largest contributor to the prison population on the local, state and federal level considering the demographic make-up of this country?  How is it possible for African American men to only make up about 6% of the population, yet make up over 40% of the prison population?  Are African Americans committing crime three or four times the rate of White Americans, or is there an underlying systemic problem when it comes to harsh sentencing practices and the ethnicity of the individual convicted of a crime?

It would not be fair to blame Len Bias’ death for the knee jerk reaction by politicians on both sides of the aisle, which resulted in laws that have had a powerful, damaging, and racially disparate effect on the African American community.  Bias’ death is a reminder of what can happen when self-serving media personalities, politicians and business people combine to fix a problem.  Democrats try to out rough Republicans by being “tough on crime” and as a result, helped to create a system that has nearly disenfranchised an entire generation of people.

Meaningful reforms to the Len Bias drug legacy have been few and far between and the problem of the prison industrial complex will most likely continue to get worse if we do not help young people realize that they are being used like pawns in the chess game of wealthy private prison companies and their political flunkies.

Money is obviously the driving force behind the political apparatus that seeks to ensure that Public-Private Partnerships are not losing money due to a lack of criminals to fill their jail cells.  Rather than spending money building, expanding, and upgrading prison facilities, I would prefer that our tax dollars be spent building, expanding, and upgrading schools for our students and teachers.  An investment of our tax dollars into programs that will help keep kids occupied and off the streets will help prevent them from becoming inmate number 426957.

What can you do?  If you have a loved one or know anyone currently serving time in prison, I encourage you to purchase one of the following books and send it to them immediately:

The Isis Papers: Keys to the Colors by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Ask them to accept one or both of these books as a seed offering and remind them that you are praying that the words in these books will inspire them to become better humans and productive members in our society upon their release.  I have no doubt that these books will be a blessing to their collective minds, bodies, & souls. 

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on June 20, 2012 via Blogger.com 

Capitalizing off Crime: Disgust for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP's)

The prison industrial complex is a 100 giga-billion dollar business.  It is troublesome to know young people are still making decisions to get themselves locked up.  Then they relegate themselves to second class citizenship because the cloud of living as an ex-convict follows them around long after they have been released.

Statistics show that prison is a likely destination for people who drop out of high school, or do not have a college degree or technical certification.  I have been very outspoken in opposition to PPP's in rural areas that rely heavily on an inmate population of young men who look like me.  White-collar criminals continue to get away with running the economy into the ground without fear of prosecution because police spend too much time making the easy arrests.  The easy arrests I am speaking of are the average street corner drug dealers.  These young men do not control the boats or airplanes that bring drugs into this country, but they are certainly considered to be the face of the so called “War on Drugs.”

PPP's need warm bodies to fill those cells to keep the money in the pockets of the executives who running the prison.  It is like they have a neon "VACANCY" sign flashing, encouraging young people to keep dropping out of school, keep selling drugs in their own communities, keep robbing, stealing, and killing each other because there are plenty of beds available.

Although the criminal justice system in undoubtedly flawed, it is not the systems fault when young brothers get arrested while standing on the corner with a pocket full of dope.  It is not the systems fault when young brothers are sporting a new outfit every week, spending thousands of dollars on platinum teeth, and riding around in custom cars with 28” rims; with no job.

For some, trouble is easier to stay out of than for others, but the bottom line is that we have to start taking responsibility for our own actions and stop putting ourselves in situations that police and the prison industry can take advantage.  These people are literally getting rich off a system that is in place for the purpose of correction, hence the name, the Department of Corrections. Not the Department of Rehabilitation or the Department of Get Right once a person is locked up. 

In July 2010, Congress changed a 25-year-old law that has subjected tens of thousands of African Americans to long prison terms for crack cocaine convictions while giving far more lenient sentences to those, mainly Whites, caught with the powder form of the drug. 

During his presidential campaign, then Senator Obama said, "the wide gap in sentencing cannot be justified and should be eliminated.”  The new measure changes a 1986 law, enacted at a time when crack cocaine use was rampant and considered a particularly violent drug (See the death of basketball star Len Bias).  Under the old law, a person convicted of crack cocaine possession got the same mandatory prison sentence as someone with 100 times the same amount of powder cocaine.  

Five grams of crack equaled a five-year mandatory sentence and 50 grams of crack equaled a 10-year mandatory sentence for first time offenders in comparison to five years mandatory for 500 grams of cocaine. 

The new law also eliminates the five-year mandatory minimum sentences for first-time offenders possessing crack, the first time since the Nixon administration that a President has repealed a mandatory minimum sentence requirement.  However; it does not apply retroactively and the people incarcerated under the old law cannot get a re-trial, or a reduced sentence.  

Big Business:

Corrections Corporations of America, the nation’s largest privately owned prisons owns more than 65 facilities with up to 90,000 beds in 19 states.  This company making millions of dollars from humans being incarcerated can be found on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CXW.  Their stock is currently trading at $26.22 a share, bringing in approximately $1 billion in revenue last year.

In the Reason Foundation and Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation Policy Brief of Policy Study No. 381, the state of California spends about $47,000 a year for each prisoner, which is over 50 percent higher than the national average.  A table of the top 10 state correctional systems and costs can be found in this same study that makes me wonder what our legislators are doing with our tax dollars.

PPP’s would like us to believe that they are saving states millions of dollars by offering states like California the option to send some of their inmates to lower-cost facilities out of state.  Industry experts have determined that there are not enough beds in other states to absorb the amount of prisoners California needs to transfer.  The state would need to transfer their prisoners in increments that would “allow time for private corrections management firms to finance, design, and build new prison capacity-either through new prisons or expansions of existing facilitates out of state-to accommodate the additional inmates.”

Let that sink in for a moment and think about what that statement means in the grand scheme of things.

While education budgets in most states are being slashed, I wonder if the Department of Corrections budgets are being reduced at the same rate.  How much does your state spend per student (K-12) in comparison with the amount of money they spend per inmate? 

There is a perfectly good explanation why these private prison companies are continuing to expand their facilities all over the country.  MONEY!  Industry lobbyists continue to draft legislation for our elected officials to ensure mandatory sentence bills are passed into law.  Connect the dots and do some critical thinking when the next young man receives a 10-year mandatory sentence for trafficking a small amount of crack, or is sent back to prison for an extended period for a minor parole violation.

We have the power to put these companies out of business by simply staying out of their prisons, which sounds good in theory and can be accomplished if we put our collective minds to criminal prevention.  Communities want and so desperately need citizens who have respect for their fellow man, are self-reliant, and those who will be assets to the community instead of dragging it down.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on May 30, 2012 via Blogger.com