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Two Richmond, Va. Cops Fired for Death Threats Against Obama By Jeremy M. Lazarus

July 23, 2012

Two Police Officers Fired for Death Threats Against Obama

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

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RICHMOND, Va. (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Two White Richmond police officers have been fired  for calling for the assassination of President Obama  during his campaign visit to the city in May.

City Hall confirmed the dismissal of the two officers just before President Obama made another campaign stop in the Richmond area last week. That confirmation was followed by a separate announcement that a month-long halt to Richmond Police Department promotions had been lifted.

“The two officers are no longer in service,” Tammy  Hawley, the mayor’s press secretary, stated in an email to the Free Press.

She stated that the officers were let go after “the mayor agreed with recommendations brought forward

by Police Chief (Bryan T.) Norwood and Chief Administrative Officer Byron Marshall.” The action was taken July 6.

The officers spoke openly during roll call at the Fourth Precinct of their wish for the president to be killed on  May 5, the day the president and first lady were at the Siegel Center to launch his re-election bid. Sources have identified them as a sergeant with more  than 20 years of experience and a patrol officer with six years on the job.

One of them expressed the wish that someone blow  up the stage while the president was speaking, sources have said. At the same roll call, the other officer — while talking to a colleague assigned to the presidential detail — spoke loudly about his hopes that someone would shoot the president.

At least one of the officers also made insulting remarks about the first lady.

The Secret Service investigated after receiving complaints from shocked officers who were present, but the federal agency did not bring any charges. Threatening the president is a federal crime. The city department’s internal investigation led to the officers’ terminations.

Meanwhile, 24 police officers will be promoted next Monday, July 23, more than a month later than

expected. The ceremony had been originally scheduled for June 15, but was called off the week before the event without explanation.

The promotions include of 13 sergeants, eight lieutenants and three captains.

Courageous Black Secret Service Woman Revealed Scandal

July 23, 2012

Courageous Black Secret Service Woman Revealed Scandal

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspapers

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A Black Secret Service agent is being hailed as the heroine in what is reportedly the worst scandal in the agency’s history.

Paula Reid is the 46-year-old special agent responsible for blowing the whistle on the sex scandal that turned the esteemed agency into so much fodder for the 24-hour news cycle and cable talk shows. Reid, the head of the service detail down in Latin America, discovered that at least 11 agents, including two supervisors, had brought prostitutes back to their hotel rooms in Cartagena, Colombia, just days before the president arrived for an international summit. Such action posed a significant security risk for the commander-in-chief.

Officials are praising Reid for her swift action.

“She acted decisively, appropriately,” said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, and one of Congress’ lead investigators into this incident, on ABC’s “This Week” on April 22.

The other, New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney from the House Oversight Committee, added, “I talked to [Secret Service Director Mark] Sullivan last night, and he was commending her leadership, too. She really went in there and cleaned up the mess.”

In the wake of Reid’s probe, six agents have been fired, six others are being investigated and 11 military personnel are also under scrutiny. Officials are also examining whether this incident was part of a pattern.

“I recognize that the vast majority of Secret Service personnel are professional, disciplined, dedicated, courageous. But to me it defies belief that this is just an aberration,” Collins said. “There were too many people involved. If it had been one or two, then I would say it was an aberration. But it included two supervisors. That is particularly shocking and appalling.”

Reid’s leadership in this case is also shining a light on the paucity of women and minorities within the Secret Service.

 

“I can't help but wonder if there'd been more women as part of that detail if this ever would have happened,” Collins said Sunday on the weekly news talk show.

According to Maloney, the agency comprises only 11 percent women. “I can't help but keep asking this question, where are the women? We probably need to diversify the Secret Service and have more minorities and more women.”

Groundbreaking: National Center for Civil and Human Rights

Groundbreaking: National Center for Civil and Human Rights

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Civil rights representatives line up for the groundbreaking of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. The $30 million, 20,000 square foot facility, slated to open in 2014 will house archives and a museum in commemoration of America's civil and human rights movements. It will also house cultural and research centers.  

Participating in the June 27 groundbreaking are 1st row from left to right: Rita Samuels, SCLC boardmember; Rev. Dr. Bernice King, president, King Center; Christine King Farris, sister of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Evelyn Lowery, president, SCLC Women; Sam Massell, former Atlanta Mayor; Ambassador Andrew Young, former Atlanta mayor and civil rights icon;  Mrs. Jesse Hill, Jr., Atlanta Life Ins Co.; Xernona Clayton, founder, Trumpet Awards;

2nd row from left to right: Rev. Gerald Durley, activist theologian[in hat]; Carolyn Young, civil rights activist; J.T. Johnson, SCLC board member; Dr. Bernard LaFayette, SCLC board chairman; Doug Shipman, executive director, Center for Civil and Human Rights.

International AIDS Conference - July 22-27: Black People Have Pretended it Was Someone Else's Problem

International AIDS Conference - July 22-27

Black People Have Pretended it Was Someone Else's Problem

By Phill Wilson, president/CEO, Black AIDS Institute

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Thousands have descended on Washington, D.C. for preparation for the 19th International AIDS Conference, which opened July 22. Leading up to the conference, on Monday, July 16th, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a drug called Truvada for the purposes of pre-exposure prophylaxis. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is when a person who does not have HIV uses anti-HIV medications to prevent acquisition of the virus. That means even if you are exposed to the virus, you don't get infected and therefore don’t get sick.

The FDA got this one right. PrEP will be a very useful tool in stopping HIV infections among gay and bisexual men. And for the most at-risk population on the planet, Black gay and bisexual men -- and particularly young Black gay and bisexual men -- this decision happened not a moment too soon.

But here's what I'm worried about. We know that the science shows that PrEP works for gay and bisexual men. We know that in some of our urban communities nearly half of Black men who have sex with men are already HIV positive. We know that there has been nearly a 50 percent increase among HIV cases among young Black men over the past 3 years. But we do not know if our community will embrace this new tool.

The challenges for us are: Will we get the information that will allow us to learn what PrEP is and what PrEP is not, who should be taking it and who should not, where to find it and how to use it?

Sometimes I think that if the cure for HIV was in the air, Black folks would hold our breaths.

The reason why the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington is so important is because it is time for us to stop playing with HIV. Every step of the way, Black Americans have resisted protecting ourselves and saving our lives. In the beginning of the epidemic when we could have saved lives, Black people pretended like it was someone else's problem. When the first treatments (as crude as they were) became available, we resisted making the treatments available even for folks for whom it was appropriate. I suffered thru the horrible days and nights of AZT. AZT was a terrible drug. But I’m alive 32 years later because I stayed alive long enough for the next generation of drugs to become available.

When needle-exchange programs were proven to stop transmission of HIV without increasing IV drug use, Black Americans developed a not-in-my-backyard attitude and resisted needle-exchange programs at the expense of thousands of lives. When the new protease inhibitors became available, again we were slow to respond. Now we're being presented with a host of breakthrough biomedical interventions, yet around the country we are obsessing on issues that, while important, are not paramount.

Every racial ethnic community in America is making progress toward the end of the AIDS epidemic except Black people.

During the Holocaust when the Nazis were rounding up the Jews, people just stood by and watched it happened not realizing that people like them were being rounded up as well. For years Black people have watched everybody else dying from AIDS, not realizing that we were infected as well. In Nazi Germany people remained silent until it was too late. Will we?

The prominent Protestant pastor and outspoken critic of Adolph Hitler, Martin Niemöller, said it like this:

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me."

Black America take notice: Elvis (and everybody else) has left the building. We are just about the only ones still left around. And nobody else seems to give a damn. Federal dollars for HIV are down; corporate dollars to fight HIV are down; foundation dollars to fight HIV are down.

This is the last flight out. We choose to not get on board at our own peril. Black Americans have to build our own infrastructure and capacity to beat this thing. And we can't do it if we don't have the latest science information. Nobody can save us from us, but us. This is our problem. Our people. Our solution.

In this issue, a team of about 30 members of the Black AIDS Delegation, a group consisting of members of the Institute's Black Treatment Advocate Network and graduates of the African American HIV University (AAHU) will attend the conference. These activists have committed themselves to building the infrastructure and capacity required to end the epidemic in Black communities nationwide.

Here, a cross-section of BTAN fellows -- from Philly to Jackson, Miss., to Los Angeles -- share their thoughts about why attending is so important, what they hope to learn from the conference and how they intend to be different when they return home.

Again, the 19th International AIDS Conference runs from July 22 through July 27th. Get there if you can.

NAACP President Says Organization is Growing by Hazel Trice Edney

NAACP President Says 103-Year-Old Organization is Growing 

By Hazel Trice Edney

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) – The NAACP, in its 103rd year, has consistently grown over the past three years and continues to be relentless in its quest for equality and fulfillment of America’s promises of freedom.

That is the NAACP described by its President/CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, who upon the birth of his first son, July 4, indicated that he has intensified his commitment to racial justice for the future of all children.

“Brothers and sisters, I am proud to report today that the state of the NAACP is strong and getting stronger every day. In the past three years we have increased membership three years in a row for the first time in more than 20 years,” he told the crowd during his keynote at the NAACP national convention in Houston last week. “Because of you, because of your dedication and sacrifice and because of the more than 25,000 NAACP active volunteer leaders in our more than 1,200 active units across the country... it is truly never a question if we will win, but when we will win.”

In a reflective speech punctuated by applause, Jealous outlined both the wins of the past and the battles of the future, which he outlined as “game changers”.

He said, “So let everyone join me in pledging that we will achieve our game changers in the next half-century. We will see the end of mass over-incarceration. We will see the end of mass under-education. We will see the end of the great health disparities that divide this nation. We will see that this nation is a land of opportunity for all its children, regardless of color or creed, gender or sexual orientation. And we will see that every American has free and open access to the vote.”

Jealous gave some of the numbers indicating the growth of NAACP members and leaders who he described as the “lifeblood of this great association” and “the frontline in the fight for justice and equality in this country.”

He reported that in the past four years, online activists have grown from 175,000 to more than 650,000 people; including Facebook followers that have grown from 5,000 to 135,000.

He also said individual donors have grown from 16,000 to 125,000 people writing checks of all sizes to the association each year and that the organization, once beleaguered with financial problems, has now been in the black “every year for the past four years, and growing every year straight through this recession.”

The reflective tone of the speech, in Jealous’ fourth year as president, was partially fueled by the excitement over the birth of his son, Jackson Jealous on July 4, only days before the convention. “Like his sister Morgan, he is now a sixth-generation of the NAACP!”

Jealous wondered aloud about the future of the country in which his children and others will grow up.

“For any parent, the birth of a new child often causes you to pause and reflect on the world in which he or she is born. Will the world they come to know be one in which they can prosper and grow?  Will the America they grow up in allow them to realize all the dreams and aspirations that they dare to dream? Will they love their country more than their Country loves them?” he asked. “I have spent many hours reflecting on these questions - questions that all parents ask of themselves, questions that I am certain Tracy and Sabrina pondered as they looked at their beautiful baby boy, Trayvon. And sadly, I, like many of you, and certainly Tracy and Sabrina, have come to face the harsh reality that in this great nation there exists a deep and troubling paradox: a conundrum of epic portions if I may add.”

The killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in February has quickly become a symbol of the racial profiling and law enforcement injustices that remain pervasive in America.

Jealous implored the audience to continue fighting as those martyrs of the past.  He listed civil rights heroes as examples. They included Florida NAACP leaders Harry and Harriet Moore who were blown up in their bed 60 years ago because of their efforts to register voters; Medgar Evers, who, was assassinated 50 years ago in Jackson, Mississippi; and the four little girls - Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair - who were murdered in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. when White supremacists bombed the building.

“We are committed to defending the freedoms they died seeking to secure for future generations, and we are committed to ensuring that future generations remember the ultimate sacrifice each of these people made for them,” Jealous said.

Focusing on what civil rights leaders perceive as an assault on voting rights, Jealous express outrage at a string of voter-related legislations proposed in states across the nation.

“These are tough times. Our democracy is literally under attack from within. We have wealthy interests like the Koch brothers seeking to buy elections and suppress the vote. And to be honest, each of us is on the front line in every state of our union every day,” he said. “From redistricting battles in states like Georgia, to fighting wholesale takeovers of local government in states like Michigan, to fighting attacks on voter suppression across this country, there is no battle more important to the NAACP right now than the battle to defend democracy in our great nation.”

At least 36 states are either considering or have passed changes in voting laws that involve voter or state identification card, a change that civil rights leaders argue could intimidate and/or effectively disenfranchise many African-American voters, according to the “Map of Shame” drawn by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

In conclusion, Jealous pressed the need to escalate the fight for racial justice.

“The sad reality is that if we simply accept things as they are and allow those who wish to turn back the tides of all that we have gained and block the forward movement before us; that if we simple stay idle and watch the game rather than change it, that the American Dream and America’s promise will be denied to many of America’s children.”

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