It was important that this man was thrown in jail. It is very bad that he is not spending more time there. Let me tell you why.

The South African man convicted of feeding one of his ex-workers to the lions is due to be freed on parole shortly, after three years in jail.

Mark Scott-Crossley was originally given a life sentence for murder but this was reduced after a judge said there was no proof the man was alive. [at the time the victim was thrown into the lion cage]

The remains of Nelson Chisale’s body were found in the lion enclosure, causing a national outcry.

The case highlighted the racial tensions in rural South Africa.

BBC

I’ll been chastised (by white South Africans) for what I’m about to say, but I’m sticking to my guns. (Metaphorical guns, that is.) I have a story you need to hear, though there is a bit of an introduction:
Continue reading When the big cat eats the black man →

Posey was one of several, probably several dozen, people directly involved in the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. He died a free man and of natural causes last Thursday at the age of 77.

In those days, America was an unabashedly racist society, so it was quite possible for a horrendous crime such as occurred then to happen with little done about it. That crime amounted to terminal violence against three men in order to make them shut up. Today, of course, no one would threaten violence or even shout really loud at anyone to make them shut up. Would they?

Details here and here, because you probably don’t know what I’m talking about.

At this point, I don’t think I’d have a beer with this cop. Also, I have to agree that Obama stuck his foot in it on this one. He may have been right, wrong, whatever, but when this sort of thing happens it is best to stand back and not get directly involved in this sort of thing until the dust settles.

I already told you about this, but I thought you’d like to see the updated MSNBC piece on it, which starts out like this:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The woman whose 911 call led to the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. spoke publicly for the first time about the case Wednesday, contradicting the arresting police officer on a key point and saying she was unfairly labeled a racist.

A police report said the caller described the possible burglars as “two black males with backpacks” — leading some commentators to vilify the caller as racist since it turned out Gates was entering his own home.

And the video. Have a hankie ready:

UPDATED (based on feedback from commenters, new information, and some other data)

Is racial bias ever a factor in police work? Was racial bias a factor in GatesGate, the recent incident in Cambridge Massachusetts involving Harvard scholar Skip Gates and the Cambridge Police? Here, I want to relate an incident in which I was involved in which a very strong racial bias clearly occurred, in which the police tried to arrest a black man principally because he was black even though he was totally innocent, and at the same time, gave undue sway to a white man. First a little context, then the parable.

As the facts emerge it becomes clear that Skip Gates was unlawfully arrested by the Cambridge Police, and that while this may not have exactly been a hate crime, there is a reasonably good chance that racial bias was involved. I have a feeling that Skip Gates himself would be the first to point out that this is not the worst thing that has ever happened to anyone, there are much worse cases where racia bias ultimately victimizes a person of color. I assure you that on the same evening dozens, nay, hundreds, of equally black men very much in their own homes were also busted by racist white police officers at various locations across this country, and they didn’t do anything either.

Why was the arrest unlawful? Well, technically, it was not, but he was arrested under a widely used type of statute that is designed to keep the peace but is in fact used by the police to directly punish people who give them lip.

Clearly, race is a factor in this case, which is in part why we are talking about it here. The very validity of the concept of race itself can and should be questioned, and despite modest efforts of educating the public (like this exhibit), a questionable social model of biological race persists in Western society. (See this and this.) Racism is at the root of well known horrific historical events and singular murderous acts. Racial bias affects people’s jobs, people’s health, and increased a person’s chance of being in prison if their skin is not white. Racialized thinking and racism can be very bad for the health of those with subaltern status (usually that means “non white”). Racialized thinking and racial bias can lead to unabashedly bald faced blaming, to absurd fear-based bias amongst members of the same, upper class, to outrageous acts of senseless violence, and to deeply insulting political decisions. Despite a lack of research, there is evidence that race plays a role in policing from the police (staffing) end of things. Driving while black, shopping while black, and apparently being in your house while black, are representitive outcomes of a racialized society. Racial profile and policing can go hand in hand.

This will all get sorted out and there are already strong indications from Cambridge that the ultimate outcome of Gatesgate will be a positive and forward moving learning experience for all. So, while that is happening, let me tell you my story about black and white and the Cambridge Police.
Continue reading Cambridge Police: A matter of black and white →

A racist arrested by chance at a railway station was “on the cusp” of waging a terror campaign using tennis balls and weedkiller, a jury has heard.

Neil Lewington, 43, had a bomb factory at his parents’ home in Reading, Berks, and wanted to target those he thought “non-British”, prosecutors alleged.

The Old Bailey heard he was carrying bomb parts when arrested at Lowestoft, Suffolk, for abusing a train conductor.

details here at the BBC

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is seeking class action status for a 2006 federal lawsuit that accuses drug manufacturer Eli Lilly of discrimination against African-American employees. The plaintiffs include nine current and former employees who allege that the drug manufacturer engaged in pay and promotion discrimination on the basis of race. An amended complaint filed last week with the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana includes allegations of discrimination from 106 additional current and former employees, reported Business Week. If the court grants class action status, approximately 2,000 more employees could join the suit.

Details here.

Sadly, we hear the news that Walter Cronkite is gravely ill. Well, not so sadly really, since he appears to have had a great life and in living that life, managed to get quite old. So good for him.

I have one Cronkite story (below the fold) and only one, and I’ll tell it to you below. I also just want to mention that my generation grew up with Cronkite as the guy who told us the news, truthfully, and in a straight forward manner. Cronkite told my family (and I only barely remember this) that Jack Kennedy was dead, and (this I remember) Jack’s brother, and MLK. He told us about what was going on in Viet Nam every night, and where my memory and love for the guy is strongest, he kept us apprises, as top news story, about every detail of the space program. Astronaut Lovell once made the famous statement “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Well, it was Cronkite telling the world “Apollo has a problem” that I remember.

“>

Continue reading Walter Cronkite →

The role of racial discrimination in mental health has been established in a number of studies, and a new study works out some of the details in how this works.

The study found blacks may, in general, have poorer mental health as a result of two mechanisms: First, chronic exposure to racial discrimination leads to more experiences of daily discrimination and, second, it also results in an accumulation of daily negative events across various domains of life, from family and friends to health and finances. The combination of these mechanisms, reports Anthony Ong, assistant professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, places blacks at greater risk for daily symptoms of depression, anxiety and negative moods.

“As a result, African-Americans experience high levels of chronic stress. And individuals who are exposed to more daily stress end up having fewer resources to cope with them,” said Ong.

The study, one of the first to look at the underlying mechanisms through which racial discrimination operates to affect the daily mental health of African-Americans, was conducted with Cornell graduate student Thomas Fuller-Rowell and Anthony Burrow, assistant professor of psychology at Loyola University-Chicago; it is published in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (96:6).

Press release here

MORE UPDATES: The guard, Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, shot earlier today by right winger von Brunn has died.

The 89 year old gunman, James Wenneker von Brunn 88, of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, shot one person, who is in grave condition in hospital. The gunman was himself shot by one or more guards and has also sustained life threatening injuries. Reporters on the street are saying he is not expected to live. The gunman was using a rifle.

D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes said the suspect walked into the museum at about 12:50 p.m. ET with a rifle and shot a guard. U.S. Park Police Sgt. David Schlosser says one or more guards at the museum returned fire, hitting the suspect.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the suspect immediately began shooting his rifle as he entered the museum. The FBI said it had no earlier reports of threats against the museum.

Gunman in critical condition
Authorities said the gunman was in critical condition and the security guard was in grave condition. Both were taken to George Washington University Hospital.

A third person reportedly was hurt after being cut by broken glass.
MSNBC

You’ve heard of this guy before. In 1981 he tried to take hostages at the Federal Reserve. he apparently has been an anti government activist, anti-semite, anti-tax/fed activist, armed terrorist, and I suspect a teabagger and a Republican.

This is one of the violent acts that was incited by Sarah Palin and John McCain, and the intellectual leaders of the Republican Party, Rush Linbaugh and Michel Bachmann, that we all feared . Your chickens are coming home to roost, bitches.

He has a website. This seems to be it. He also wrote a book called “”Kill the Best Gentile” which is a reference to a biblical passage in which god or somebody instructs somebody to … kill the best Gentiles. (A Gentile is a non-Jewish person.)

UPDATE: There was a press conference a few minutes ago. Von Brunn has been charged with murder, but not yet with any hate crimes or civil rights violations.

It turns out that the guard that was killed had seen the elderly Von Brunn coming up the stairs of the museum, and opened the door for him. That is when Von Brunn pulled a shotgun from beneath an overcoat and shot the guard at close range. One wonders if it is significant that the guard was African American, given that the killer was a well known white supremacist.

The FBI and DC police told us at the news conference that they did everything right. They also told us that they see no evidence of a conspiracy with others involved. They are working to piece together a minute by minute reconstructions of Von Brunn’s movements over 36 hours or so prior to the shooting.

Von Brunn remains in critical condition in the hospital.

Here is an interview with Sara Bloomfield, director of the Holocaust Museum.

Hat Tip Ana