ART INSPIRING US TOWARDS ACTION!
ACTION ADVANCING JUSTICE & STRONG ALLIANCES!
DECEMBER 2021 ISSUE
Colin Rand Kaepernick is an American civil rights activist and former football quarterback. In 2016, he knelt during the national anthem at the start of NFL games in protest of police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.
“We just witnessed a system built on white supremacy validate the terroristic acts of a white supremacist. This only further validates the need to abolish our current system. White supremacy cannot be reformed.” Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick reacting to Rittenhouse verdict.
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“It is literally impossible to imagine a 17-year-old Black kid traveling to a different state … who shoots three people, kills two – who, right now, isn’t in prison.” Paul Butler
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“I am (standing) by people who are in need, backs against the wall," Jackson said. "It's what we do. So we are going to keep sitting with this family. It is a priority focus of ours now.” Jesse Jackson re the Ahmaud Arbery family.
Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Georgetown calls the Rittenhouse case “white privilege on steroids”. See Politico article
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said he has a "moral obligation" to be in court during the trial of three White men charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery and will be present for the rest of the week and beyond. See CNN article
AMERICAN JUSTICE ON TRIAL - PAST & PRESENT
AMERICAN RACIAL JUSTICE AT WORK. WHAT IS YOUR VERDICT?
Heather D. Heyer was killed in August of 2017 in Charlottesville, Va., after a car driven by avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. plowed into demonstrators protesting a white supremacy rally.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Jurors on Tuesday(Nov 23, 2021) found the main organizers of the deadly far-right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 liable under state law for injuries to counter-protesters, awarding more than $25 million in damages. But the jury deadlocked on two federal conspiracy charges.
Still, the verdict was a clear rebuke of the defendants — a mix of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Confederate sympathizers. They were found under Virginia law to have engaged in a conspiracy that led to injuries during the rally. The “Unite the Right” march began as a demonstration over the removal of a Confederate statue and led to the death of the counterprotester Heather Heyer, 32, when she was struck by a car driven by one of the defendants. See New York Times article
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Three white men were found guilty of murder and other charges on Wednesday for the pursuit and fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, in a case that, together with the killing of George Floyd, helped inspire the racial justice protests of last year. The three defendants — Travis McMichael, 35; his father, Gregory McMichael, 65; and their neighbor William Bryan, 52 — face sentences of up to life in prison. The men have also been indicted on separate federal charges, including hate crimes and attempted kidnapping, and are expected to stand trial in February on those charges. See New York Times Article
Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam
Mr. Aziz and his co-defendant, Khalil Islam, were exonerated on Thursday, November 18, after a review initiated by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., found that they had not received a fair trial. The investigation found that evidence pointing toward their innocence had been withheld by some of the country’s most prominent law enforcement agencies, and that at least some information was suppressed on the order of the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover.
Mr. Aziz addressed the court, “I do not need this court, these prosecutors or a piece of paper to tell me I am innocent,” he said in a stern voice that did not shake or falter. “I am an 83-year-old man who was victimized by the criminal justice system.”. See New York Times Article
Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges by a jury pool of 20 jurors, only one of which was a person of color. See NYT article
KENOSHA, Wis. — Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two men and wounded another amid protests and rioting over police conduct in Kenosha, Wis., was found not guilty of homicide and other charges on Friday, in a deeply divisive case that ignited a national debate over vigilantism, gun rights and the definition of self-defense.
On the night of August 25, 2020, Kenosha's streets were filled with crowds protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times in the back and side by a Kenosha police officer who said he was trying to detain him.
Defense lawyers say Kyle Rittenhouse, then 17, was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, now 27. In October, Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder said the three men can potentially be referred to as "rioters" or "looters" during the trial but reiterated his long-standing rule that attorneys not refer to them as "victims." See CNN Article
Joseph Rosenbaum: Dr. Douglas Kelley with the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office testified Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum four times -- twice in the front, once in the back and once along the side of his head, and determined the fatal shot to his back came as his body leaned forward. See CNN Article
Anthony Huber, who was in the crowd of protesters with his girlfriend, was killed as Rittenhouse fled the scene of Rosenbaum's shooting, according to the complaint. See CNN Article
Gaige Grosskreutz: Rittenhouse shot and injured Grosskreutz, who approached him shortly after Huber was shot, the criminal complaint alleged.Grosskreutz testified he was at the protest to provide medical care, and had packed his medical supplies, including a tourniquet and gauze, as well as his handgun, as he routinely did at other demonstrations. He testified that on the night of the shootings, he believed Rittenhouse was an active shooter, saying "people were pointing out the defendant, saying he had just shot somebody, that he's trying to get away." At some point, Grosskreutz testified, he drew his pistol. See CNN Article
By Jawanza Phoenix
We need scarecrows
ones with big red beady eyes
arms extended wide
clothes faded yellow
and long pointy hats
We need them to scare away rednecks who gun down
African American joggers and church goers