| On November 19, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch commented on the FBI's Hate Crime Statistics report of 2006. Hatewatch found the report "severely flawed." The FBI's report found that hate crimes, "targeting victims or property as a result of bias against a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin or physical or mental disability," rose eight percent in 2006. According to Hatewatch, some states were not included in the report and the noose incidents throughout the U.S. were also left out of the report. Black Americans are wondering whether or not the FBI report considered the appearance of nooses everywhere a hate crime? The display of nooses is a historical symbol of hatred toward Black Americans. Blacks have protested the atrocities that occurred in Jena, La., while the nooses come fast and furious! Nooses are a response to action on the part of Blacks as they reflect America's inability to generate anything but fear and hatred of those who dare to declare their humanity and be Black too! In this heightened atmosphere of hatred toward Black Americans (Dr. King, in his "The Other America" speech, reminded us that America has been "backlashing" against Blacks "for three hundred years"), the resurfacing of nooses along with the high incarceration rate of Blacks for minor offenses, the mis-education of Black children, the privatization of education, employment, and health care, and the trillions of dollars spent in a violent campaign against "terror" is disconcerting. In a recent article for the Black Commentator, I discussed the dangers of Senator Diane Feinstein's S 456: Gang Abatement and Prevention Act 2007, which passed the Senate on October 21, 2007. S 456 "passed without an actual vote," Jason Ziedenberg, from the Justice Policy Institute (JIP) in Washington, D.C. explained to me, because "it was attached as a trailer. There was no debate." Not one senator objected to the presence of more police anddetention centers in the Black community! This month, the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Chicago reported its findings on police brutality after six years of investigation. According to the report, inadequate supervision and monitoring of the Chicago Police Department in the Black community, particularly its "Skullcap Crew," have resulted in allegations of abuse: "aggressive stop and frisks," strip searches of Black women," and "street interrogations." Recall COINTELPRO? It is not just Nixon or Reagan or "right-winged" Americans now. More guns will come to the Black community with S 456: Gang Abatement and Prevention Act of 2007. To be sure, there will be more shootings -- and more arrests. According to the JIP report, the overbroad and too-inclusive definition of "gangs" in the bill will dramatically increase unwarranted federal prosecution of youth of color, and could ensnarl a wide spectrum youth. If a group of five youth regularly associate, and members of that group commit what could be defined as a gang crime on three separate occasions, all five youth could be prosecuted under the gang laws, even if some of the members never participated in criminal activity. The "definition of gang is so broad that it would capture" youths who have left gangs, said Ziedenberg. In addition, the JIP report points to the jailing of young people as adults, most often for non-violent offenses. Bill Clinton's drug policy foreshadowed the appearance of nooses in the Black community. Five grams of crack cocaine equals a five-year federal prison sentence, according to Anthony Papa, in his article "Race and the Drug War." But it takes 500 grams of cocaine to land a 5-year sentence in a federal prison, he writes. "Hispanics and Whites make up the majority of crack cocaine users, but the majority of those convicted under crack cocaine offenses are African Americans." Laws do not "protect" the '"perceived guilty" from crime, said Ziedenberg of JIP. "Laws are not evenly applied," he said. A "youth of color and those without access to adequate legal counsel [are] more likely to end up in adult correctional facilities." Data shows that tens of thousands of young people end up in the adult system for non-violent offenses. In 2002, almost 14,000 17-year-olds were admitted to Wisconsin's adult jails but only 15 percent of these youth were arrested for violent crimes. In the last 40 years, this is how America has avoided confronting educational and economic disparities. This is how it has avoided dealing with the possibility of a self-determined group in its midst. In my Black Commentator article I asked: If the definition of a gang is so broad as to capture even the innocent, then what will happen if we gather to protest -- say -- this bill itself? And nooses everywhere don't represent hate crimes? |
| Voices/Dr. Jean Daniels The atmosphere of COINTELPRO: Nooses and gang abatement legislation |
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