Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Sunday, December 9, 2018
KILLED FOR DRIVING WHILE BLACK - REMEMBER SANDRA BLAND
Police officers pulled over Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman from Chicago visiting Texas for a job at her alma mater Prairie View A&M University in Waller County for failing to signal before changing lanes. Following some sort of altercation, police arrested Bland for allegedly becoming combative. She died in jail Monday morning of a reported suicide.
However, while the Waller County Sheriff's Office is calling it a suicide, Bland's friends and family are raising serious questions about what happened, given Bland was reportedly happy and showed no signs of depression or suicidal tendencies.
Adding additional questions to the case, video footage of parts of the arrest show two police officers exercising what appears to be disproportionate force and Bland pleading with them to stop being so rough. "You slammed my head into the ground, do you not even care about that?" Bland cried out to the officers. "I can't even hear."
The video also shows one of the officers trying to stop a passer-by from filming, despite their legal right to do so and intimidation to stop such recording is illegal.
"After [the police officer] pulled her out of the car, forced her and tossed her to the ground, knee to the neck, and arrested her," Malcom Jackson, a friend of Bland's, told local television station WLS.
A press release from the sheriff's office on Facebook said, "a female inmate was found in her cell not breathing from what appears to be self-inflicted asphyxiation," and Texas Rangers are now investigating the death.
Mic attempted to contact the Waller Country Sheriff's Office which said they could not comment on the case as it is currently under investigation. The office did, however, send a copy of the press release posted on Facebook.
Longtime friend LaNitra Dean says those closest to Bland find it hard to believe she would kill herself. "The Waller County Jail is trying to rule her death a suicide and Sandy would not have taken her own life," Dean told WLS. "Sandy was strong. Strong mentally and spiritually."
Politically active: Bland was known in part for her social and political activism and was vocal about the Black Lives Matter movement, posting videos of herself discussing the matter on social media, in segments known as "Sandy Speaks."
Her most recent Facebook profile picture included the text "Now legalize being black in America" and a banner photo of a cartoon that references the difference in the way white and black people are treated during arrests, alluding to Charleston, South Carolina, shooter Dylann Roof's dignified treatment by police.
Bland also appeared to regularly use her Facebook page for posts that reflected her political activism and her concern black Americans are treated as second-class citizens.
Giving Sandy a voice: In the wake of Bland's death, a Baltimore resident started an online petition addressed to the Department of Justice and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, entitled "Take Over The Investigation Into The Death of Sandra Bland From The Waller County, Texas Police Department."
"Per all family, friends and peers who have spoken publicly on this matter — Ms. Bland was a very bright, vital and happy person with absolutely NO indications of depression or suicidal tendency whatsoever!" the petition reads.
A social media campaign calling for justice also began after Bland's death. #SandySpeaks and #WhatHappenedToSandraBland were trending with many Twitter users expressing outrage at her death.
Friday, December 7, 2018
THE ARMS OF ISLAM
It was November 20, 2018 when I met Youssef.
Just two weeks earlier flowers were still blooming in the gardens in Montreal so it was a bit of a shock to see the trees heavy laden with snow and powerful wind gusts blowing and bending the branches of the evergreens. I was expecting cold temperatures, but not a storm, not slushy streets.
I spent hours at a medical appointment. Bundled up, I called for a taxi to return home. The driver, Youssef, pushed the wheelchair close to the curb. I locked the brakes and I stepped ever so carefully to the open car door but, as I stepped off the curb, my foot slid in the slush and I careened, head first onto the front seat.
I wasn't hurt, but there I was, flat on my face, lying across the seat. Bound like a fish in a net by my puffy winter coat, arms outstretched, legs dangling out the door, I couldn't move.
And there was Youssef trying to untangle and free me. Not a very big man in stature, he tried to set me upright. I thought it would take more than one weight lifter to rescue me, but Youssef put his arms under mine and gently hauled my leaden body properly onto the seat. And we were on the way.
And we talked all the way about how one Muslim man using his "arms" was helping a handicapped Jewish-Christian woman. We talked about the state of this crazy world where Muslims and Christians and Jews are killing each other's children and evil rich and powerful people persuade us to buy bombs and guns to use against each other and enrich tyrants.
We talked about the patients back there in the hospital - human beings of every colour and religion and culture - all suffering from cancer and being treated by doctors of every race and origin using the same medicines - because we are all flesh and blood and we all feel pain.
But there were we, two people, strangers living in a peaceful country, but not in positions of power to save the children of Yemen, Syria, the "Holy" Land, Africa and other places. What could we do to save anyone?
Talk about it. Spread the word. While those who hold power spread lies and hate, we can speak the truth to the world, to our friends, our family, our co-workers, our students, to those we encounter each day in passing.
We have Power.
We have Arms that can be used to help, protect, comfort - embrace - to lift up when we fall flat on our face - and when evil people are using their deadly arms to kill children.
YOU HAVE THE POWER.
IN TIMES OF NEED, MONTREAL PARAMEDICS ARE ANGELS
There is always controversy when Montreal paramedics make demands, but the night that you need them, you will thank God when they come to help you.
There they are - men and women - strong, gentle arms, kind, reassuring. Language is no barrier. They are almost all friendly and caring.
Executives, comedians, all sorts of people, are paid great sums of money for what they do. We should really appreciate the paramedics who give us care and support when we are most in need.
There they are - men and women - strong, gentle arms, kind, reassuring. Language is no barrier. They are almost all friendly and caring.
Executives, comedians, all sorts of people, are paid great sums of money for what they do. We should really appreciate the paramedics who give us care and support when we are most in need.
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION OKAY IN AMERICA
Why the U.S. ban on female genital mutilation was ruled unconstitutional.
The first federal charges of female genital mutilation have been dismissed by a federal judge, whose ruling also declared the U.S. law banning the practice unconstitutional.
In his 28-page decision, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman said Congress "overstepped its bounds" in prohibiting the practice in 1996, adding that FGM is a "'local criminal activity' which, in keeping with long-standing tradition and our federal system of government, is for the states to regulate, not Congress."
The judge's decision voided the charges of FGM and conspiracy against two Michigan doctors accused of cutting at least nine minor girls in a Detroit clinic: Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, the Michigan physician accused of performing FGM on the girls, and Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, who was accused of allowing Nagarwala use his clinic for the procedures.
Friedman also dismissed charges against two mothers accused of assisting in the procedures, as well as four mothers accused of bringing their daughters to the clinic for the practice, some across state lines.
The defendants of the case are all members of the Indian Muslim Dawoodi Bohra community, which practices a minor form of FGM as a religious rite of passage.
Here's what the judge's ruling means for a practice that has been outlawed by more than 50 countries.
A serious blow to a historic case
FGM, the partial or complete removal of the clitoris for nonmedical reasons, is a criminal offense in 27 U.S. states. Michigan passed a ban last year against the practice, soon after the first federal case was opened in that state.
Michigan's law made the practice punishable for up to 15 years in prison, while the federal law dictates a sentence of up to five years in prison. Since the federal case began in April 2017, the defendants can't be retroactively charged under the new state law.
The judge's ruling came after a request from Nagarwala and her co-defendants to dismiss the charges, claiming that the federal law was unconstitutional because Congress did not have the authority to pass the law. Friedman agreed.
The judge said the government did not show FGM as a commercial activity or interstate market that would be subjected to federal law, like other illegal markets. "This is not a market, but a small number of alleged victims. If there is an interstate market for FGM, why is this the first time the government has ever brought charges under this 1996 statute?"
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have estimated at least 513,000 U.S. women and girls are at risk of FGM or have already been subjected to the procedure. Of those, more than 118,000 who are at risk live in the 23 U.S. states without legislation against FGM, according to the CDC. Over 10,000 at-risk girls live in Michigan alone.
What are anti-FGM advocates saying?
Mariya Taher, a FGM survivor who also spoke to the PBS NewsHour at the opening of the federal case in 2017, said the ruling caught her off guard, "but the tactic of the defense was not surprising."
"I knew they were trying to find the federal law unconstitutional," said Taher, the founder of Sahiyo, a group opposed to FGM that began to collect global reaction in the wake of Friedman's ruling.
Taher said she didn't see the judge's ruling as being about whether FGM should be legal, but that nevertheless the message will be seen as a win to those who continue to practice FGM.
"Opponents are going to use this ruling as a way to allow [FGM] to continue, and that gives me concern that they will continue to perpetuate the cutting of our daughters," Taher told the NewsHour. "There are many survivors that feel disheartened to hear [the ruling] and felt traumatized" by it.
"The message it sent was a punch in the gut to survivors around the country and around the world," said Shelby Quast, the Americas Director of Equality Now, an organization that submitted an amicus brief in the case. "This decision doesn't only have an impact on those nine girls, but the tens of thousands of girls that live across the U.S. and are at risk of FGM."
What's next?
Gina Balaya, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said the federal government is reviewing Friedman's opinion and deciding whether to appeal the case.
Quast said the narrow ruling was not meant to condone FGM, but to question Congress' authority to pass the law. "We need to not make this more than it is, but certainly push for an appeal."
Nagarwala's attorney Shannon Smith celebrated with the judge's decision, but anticipates an appeal from the government.
"Oh my God, we won," Smith reportedly said after the decision was announced. "But we are confident we will win even if appealed."
Nagarwala will be tried in April on the other charges, including conspiracy to travel to engage in illicit sexual conduc
https:www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/why-the-u-s-ban-on-female-genital-mutilation-was-ruled-unconstitutional
https:www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/why-the-u-s-ban-on-female-genital-mutilation-was-ruled-unconstitutional
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