If Only....

Imagine the drastic changes that could be made in society if people cared about police murdering unarmed black people as much as they care about the death of a lion..

People at my job are crying like a baby over the death of this lion...They want to kill the dentist who slaughtered the lion...

Mention Sandy Bland or Sam Dubose...you get blank stares... AMERIKA! AMERIKA! GOD SHED HIS GRACE ON THEE!

And....Here We Are Again...

And here we are again....Another traffic stop...Black motorist...White Cop....Dead Black motorist....White cop was....wait for it.....................AFRAID FOR HIS LIFE!!!!

You are looking at the late Sam Dubose...the black motorist who was shot dead by a policeman....his offense....besides driving while black...Not having his drivers license on him...

A white police officer who gunned down an unarmed black man in Cincinnati, Ohio, has been indicted for murder by a grand jury, as the county prosecutor described the shooting as the “most asinine act” he had ever seen committed by a police officer.

Samuel DuBose, 43, was killed on July 19th by a single shot to the head fired by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing during a routine traffic stop, in which Sam DuBose was pulled over for not having a front license plate.

Officer Tensing had maintained he was “dragged” by Dubose’s vehicle after the two entered into a physical altercation and was forced to shoot, but Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph Deters said body-camera evidence completely contradicted this account.

In a frank assessment of the officer’s conduct, Deters said Tensing had “purposely killed” DuBose and that he “should never have been a police officer”.

Sam DuBose’s death is the latest in a string of a high-profile killings of black Americans at the hands of US police, and comes almost a year after the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which prompted widespread protests around the US. The incident also follows the police shooting of unarmed 50-year-old Walter Scott in South Carolina, where eyewitness video led to a murder charge against the officer responsible.

Officer Tensing’s body-camera footage shows a relatively calm exchange between the two and there appears to be only a short altercation. In the recording, OfficerTensing asks Sam DuBose, a father of 10, for his driver’s license a number of times and enquires about a bottle on the driver’s floor, which Sam DuBose hands over. At one point the driver responds: “I have a license. You can run my name,” after telling the officer he cannot find his card.


“I didn’t even do nothing,” DuBose later says as the officer instructs him to take his seat belt off. At this point Sam DuBose appears to pull the door shut and start up the engine, appears to reach inside the car and the car begins to roll slowly. Officer Tensing then shouts “stop” twice, pulls his firearm, and shoots in through the open window.

Deters said the video showed that Tensing actually fell backwards after shooting DuBose, and that he was not dragged at all.

“It is our belief that he was not dragged. If you slow down this tape you see what happens, it is a very short period of time from when the car starts rolling to when a gun is out and he’s shot in the head,” Deters said.


"He [Sam Dubose] was simply, slowly rolling away,” Deters added.

The video shows the vehicle then speeds up, a result, Deters said, of the fact DuBose was “dead instantly” and may have accelerated the car as he slumped. The car reaches the cross street and appears to have collided with a pylon in the street. Tensing chases it as another officer arrives and the engine is still revving by the time he catches up to it.

He radios the shot in and then walks around to the driver’s side and shuts off the engine. DuBose’s bloodied body can be seen inside.


“I thought he was going to run me over,” says Tensing.
“Are you OK?” shouts the other officer, who is stood in front of another police officer who has arrived on the scene.
“I’m good,” Tensing replies.

Deters, who was visibly angered at points during the press conference, continued: “He [Tensing] wasn’t dealing with someone who was wanted for murder, OK? He was dealing with someone who didn’t have a front license plate. This is, in the vernacular, a pretty chicken-crap stop, all right? And – I could use harsher words.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” he added. “This is the most asinine act I’ve ever seen a police officer make, totally unwarranted.” 

 Deters also said the death reflected poorly on the university police department and had advised Cincinnati police chief Jeffrey Blackwell that the force be disbanded and replaced with a new city police precinct on campus.


“The university does a great job educating people … that should be their job, being police officers should not be their role.”

The traffic stop occurred near the university’s main campus, and UC police have said the intersection was within the campus police’s jurisdiction.

At a press conference immediately after the announcement of charges, members of DuBose’s family welcomed the decision to prosecute.

“I trust God, and I knew it was going to be alright,” said Audrey DuBose, Samuel’s mother. “I knew that if this man [Tensing] went free, and nothing was done to him, it was because he was really a righteous man and he didn’t do nothing.
“But I knew that my son was a righteous man. I knew that my son had the same spirit that dwells in me, dwell in him. That’s how he was fed. So, if my son is righteous and he get killed, somebody had to be wicked here.”



Mark O’Mara, the DuBose family’s attorney, said he was surprised by Deters’ strong remarks.
“I can understand why, because this was an absolute unmitigated murder,” O’Mara told the Guardian.

The video of the shooting “proved” to the DuBose family that “their son was who they always knew him to be, which was nonviolent,” O’Mara said. “And it proves that he was murdered by a cop without reason, so in that sense they were relieved as best as you can be relieved in the trauma.”

O’Mara did not rule out a possible civil suit, saying: “I certainly think the department, for a lack of training, or whatever it may have been ... should be held responsible for this, absolutely.” 

The city had been bracing for the announcement of the grand jury decision with both members of DuBose’s family and city officials calling for calm.

Yes you want calm...but how can you be calm after so many of these incidents?


The university cancelled all classes on its uptown and medical campuses on Wednesday in anticipation of the grand jury decision . In a statement, the university said the decision was made with “an abundance of caution”.
 
“We realize this is a challenging time for our university community,” the statement said
.
Shortly after the indictment was revealed, the university announced Tensing had been fired.

Major Charmaine McGuffey of the Hamilton County sheriff’s office said Tensing turned himself voluntarily in around 1.45pm. . He is expected to be arraigned at 10am tomorrow, with no bond yet set.
Tensing was escorted to the county justice center through the sheriff’s tunnel system. “We didn’t take him outside,” McGuffey said.


At the intersection of Rice and Valencia, where DuBose was pronounced dead, friends were busily preparing for a rally on a rain-soaked Wednesday evening.
The makeshift memorial at the corner bared signs that read MEDIA LIES and contained mementos of Sam DuBose, like a CD he had produced.

A friend of Sam DuBose’s, Latisha Washington, said Tensing’s actions jolted the close-knit Mount Auburn neighborhood, where children are commonly playing outside during the day.

“When [Tensing] shot him, and he lost control of his wheel, what if there were some kids out? Six in the evening, there was a lot of people still out.” 

Latisha’s husband, Ron, said he had known Sam DuBose – a “very, very loved person” – for more than two decades.

“We’ve all had lives that we had to make choices and decisions – but the good thing about Sam is he recognized the bad he’s done and he tried to change his life,” Ron Washington said.

On Wednesday night at a rally organized by Black Lives Matter, protesters celebrated the indictment outside the Hamilton County courthouse in a driving rain.

With police cruisers stationed nearby, protesters stood on the courthouse’s front steps, peacefully if with slight hesitation: now that a murder charge has been secured, they said, the officer had to be convicted.

Sam Dubose’s son, nine-year-old Samuel, told the crowd he “felt good” that Tensing was being “locked up because he had shot him in point-blank murder”. 

“This dude lied,” his son said. “He knew there was going to be a video he knew he was going to lie ... that’s why they’re charging him for murder.”

Cincinnati police chief Jeffrey Blackwell appeared at the rally around 7:30pm. He told the Guardian: “I have to be here.”
“I need to be here so the people understand I’m with them as they exercise their constitutional right to organize in a peaceful manner,” he said.

The Cincinnati police department plans to work closely with the university’s public safety department, Blackwell said.

“I am personally going to work with [University of Cincinnati police chief Jason Goodrich] and and his officers to bring them up to a higher standard of training and professionalism and accountability.”

While the officer’s body-camera footage ultimately played a role in the indictment, the reality that Tensing’s actions during a routine traffic stop led to Sam DuBose’s death illustrates “manifestiations of systemic and institutional racism,” said James Yaacov Delaney.

“It’s going to take more than body-cams,” he said.

Delaney also said the responding officers should be held accountable for their actions.

“Because they knew” something was amiss, Delaney asserted. “They knew and they had plenty of opportunities to change their story about what occurred and they didn’t.”

Friends and family who spoke at the rally echoed her push for more charges.
“The officers who showed up at the scene should’ve arrested him ... not covered it up,” said one friend.

Anthony Lattermore said DuBose was a lifelong friend; they first met when he was seven-years-old. Lattermore called for peace, but said tensions are rising in the community.

“I don’t know how long we could hold these young solders at bay,” he said.

Kudos to Cincinatti for trying to do the right thing in the wake of yet another one of these incidents...

I am just exhausted having to write about this stuff yet again...

This is every week almost...When will it end? How will it end??

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmmmmmmmm!

Another "Suicide"

They laid Sandra Bland to rest on Saturday.....She was the Black female activist who died in Texas under mysterious circumstances that was ruled a suicide... Now here we have the case of Rexdale Henry...A Native American activist who at 53 years old was found dead in his jail cell after a simular traffic stop in Philadelphia ,Mississippi...

Remember that town? Philadelphia,Mississippi, where a generation ago in 1964...Two white activists and a local Black activist vanished after being released from a local jail..An FBI investigation discovered their bodies buried under a dam some months later..They had been murdered by members of the local Ku Klux Klan...10 members of the Klan, including the Deputy Sherrif all went to prison for the crime...

So here we are in 2015 and we have another "Mysterious death"

Rexdale W. Henry, 53, was recently found dead inside the Neshoba County Jail in Philadelphia, Mississippi, on July 14th...The day after Sandra Bland was found dead in her jail cell in Texas..

According to WTOK, detention officers found Rexdale Henry’s body around 10 a.m.; he was last seen alive 30 minutes earlier. The state crime lab in Jackson conducted an autopsy and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is looking into the case.

Funeral services for Rexdale  Henry took place July 19 in Bogue Chitto. A few days later, his body was flown to Florida for an independent autopsy paid for by anonymous donors.

 

Rexdale Henry, a member of the Choctaw tribe and a lifelong community activist, coached stickball and had been a candidate for the Choctaw Tribal Council from Bogue Chitto the week before his arrest on July 9 for failure to pay a fine.

 

Helping with the family’s independent probe are civil-rights activists John Steele, a close friend of Henry’s, and Diane Nash, a cofounder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, as well as Syracuse University law professors Janis McDonald and Paula Johnson of the school’s Cold Case Justice Initiative.

 

“At a time when the nation is focused on the terrible circumstances of the brutal death of Sandra Bland, it is critical to expose the many ways in which Black Americans, Native Americans and other minorities are being arrested for minor charges and end up dead in jail cells,” Ms. McDonald said in a statement.

 

Rexdale Henry’s arrest came one day after 39-year-old Jonathan Sanders died after a police stop in nearby Clarke County, which MBI is also investigating. (I wrote about this last week...("The Horse Trainers Death")

 

As I said ,Rexdale Henry’s death occurred one day after Sandra Bland, an African American woman, was found hanging in Texas’ Waller County Jail. Authorities ruled Sandra Bland’s death a suicide.

 

Another Mississippi man, Troy Goode, died while in police custody in Southaven on July 18; Goode was white.

 

Information from a SNCC email listserv states of Rexdale Henry: “His family wants to know what or who caused their healthy, fifty-three year old loved one to die in that cell.”

Activists also point to the death of Michael Deangelo McDougle, also in the Neshoba County Jail, less than a year ago, in November 2014, and invoke the Mississippi Burning murders that took place during Freedom Summer of 1964.

 

Something smells to high heaven here...

 

On June 21 of that year, local authorities took three civil-rights activists—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner—to the Neshoba County Jail (it has since been moved) on minor charges before the trio disappeared; the activists’ bodies were discovered in an earthen dam 44 days after they went missing.

 

John Steele was a child when Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner visited Steele’s family home, shortly before their disappearance.

 

“Mr. Henry was a dedicated family man and the medicine man for his Choctaw community of Bogue Chitto,” Steele said through a statement.

 

A private autopsy is currently under way, but the results have yet to be revealed.

Supporters say the results of the independent autopsy will be made public when it is complete.

 

There is definitely something sinister afoot here...And writing this up as another "suicide" is not going to wash with me or any thinking person.

In Retrospect-

A Sunday Meditation

The Only Power

Weekend Humor

The wife accompanied her husband to the doctor's office.

After his checkup, the doctor called the wife into his office alone.

He said, "Your husband is suffering from a very severe stress disorder. If you don't follow my instructions carefully, your husband will surely die."

"Well what can I do to help?" asked the wife.


"Well...Each morning, fix him a healthy breakfast. Be pleasant at all times. For lunch make him a nutritious meal.. For dinner prepare an especially nice meal for him.  Don't burden him with chores. Don't discuss your problems with him; it will only make his stress worse. Do not nag him. Most importantly, make love to him regularly.If you can do this for the next 10 months to a year, I think your husband will regain his health completely." said the doctor.

On the way home, the husband asked his wife,  

"What did the doctor say?"


"He said you're going to die," she said.


EVERYBODY HAVE A SUPER GROOVY WEEKEND!

Another Cover Up....(What Really Happened To Sandy Bland?)

I figured they were going to try to cover this up...but not so soon....So here is a "Keith's Space "first...First time I've blogged three times in one day...So sorry this milestone has to be because of something like this...

They are saying that Sandra Bland's death was a suicide....

I say- "Bullshit"

Waller County prosecutor Warren Diepraam discussed details of the autopsy of 28-year-old Sandra Bland, who authorities say was found hanging in her jail cell on July 13.

The autopsy showed that Sandra Bland had no defensive injuries on her hands that would typically indicate a struggle, the prosecutor said. Some lacerations or abrasions were found on her wrists. Those injuries were consistent with a struggle while being handcuffed.

The marks around Sandra Bland's neck were consistent with a suicide, he said.

Sandra Bland was arrested three days before she was found dead. Her family and friends dispute the official finding. Texas Rangers and the FBI are still investigating.
I don't expect their findings to be any different.

Sandra Bland's death comes after nearly a year of heightened national scrutiny of police and their dealings with black suspects, especially those who have been killed by officers or die in police custody.

It has resonated on social media, with posts questioning the official account and featuring the hashtags #JusticeForSandy and #WhatHappenedToSandyBland?

The sheriff said Wednesday that no one gained access to the cell and contributed to Sandra Bland's death.

Sandra Bland's family has said she was not despondent and was looking forward to starting a new job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University.

However, Sandra Bland posted a video to her Facebook page in March, saying she was suffering from "a little bit of depression as well as PTSD," or post-traumatic stress disorder. At least one friend has said she was just venting after a bad day.

I've done this on Facebook and Twitter several times myself.

A video of her arrest taken from the officer's dashcam shows state trooper Brian Encinia drawing a stun gun and threatening Bland when she refuses to follow his orders.

The roadside encounter swiftly escalated into a shouting confrontation, with the officer holding the weapon and warning Ms. Bland, "I will light you up," for not getting out of her vehicle.

The video shows the trooper stopping Sandra Bland for failing to signal a lane change. The conversation turns hostile when the officer asks Sandra Bland to put out her cigarette and she asks why she can't smoke in her own car. The trooper then orders Ms. Bland to get out of the vehicle. She refuses, and he tells her she is under arrest.

Further refusals to get out led the trooper to threaten to drag her out. He then pulls out a stun gun and makes the threat about lighting Ms. Bland up.

When she finally steps out of the vehicle, the trooper orders her to the side of the road. There, the confrontation continues off-camera, but it is still audible.

Sandra Bland can be heard protesting her arrest, repeatedly using expletives and insulting the officer. She screams that he's about to break her wrists and complains that he knocked her head into the ground.

Houston television station KTRK-TV released a voicemail that Sandra Bland left a friend, LaVaughn Mosley, while in jail in which she expressed disbelief at her circumstances. (I wrote about this earlier today...See Story below..)

In the message, Sandra Bland calmly said she's "still just at a loss for words honestly at this whole process." She wondered, "How did switching lanes with no signal turn into all of this?"

Yes how did a simple traffic infraction that everybody I know who drives has committed lead to an arrest and three day detainment??

The Department of Public Safety trooper, who has been on the force for just over a year, has been placed on administrative leave for violating unspecified police procedures and the department's courtesy policy.

A vacation for him...Death for Sandy Bland...

The question remains...What really happened to Sandra Bland?   I don't think we'll ever know...Just another dead Black person who died under mysterious circumstances..
This racism...this goddamned racist mindset in this country makes me sick..Makes me sick on my stomach!

The Last Hours of Sandra Bland

I wrote about Sandra Bland on Monday ("The Mysterious Death of Sandra Bland") and I keep going over the circumstances of her death and I can't wrap my head around any of the circumstances that lead to her death..

An exasperated Sandra Bland left what is now a haunting voicemail on her friend's phone shortly after seeing a judge.

"I'm still just at a loss for words honestly at this whole process," Bland said on the message obtained by KTRK Radio. "How did switching lanes with no signal turn into all of this, I don’t even know."she said.

The 22-second voicemail left July 11, is the latest piece of the puzzle that is still unclear as to how 28-year-old Sandra Bland went from being arrested during a traffic stop on July 10 to being found dead in a Waller County, Texas jail cell some 3 days later. Sandra Bland was in the process of moving to Texas to take a job at her alma mater Prairie View A&M University when she was stopped for allegedly failing to use a traffic signal when switching lanes.

I have never known anyone to be arrested for this...At best they were given a ticket or a warning...In fact...I've never seen anyone pulled over for this... Cops up here in this city have too much else to concern themselves with...

According to KTRK radio, Sandra Bland told her friend that she was "able to see a judge" and that her bail had been set at $5,000. The news station notes that this was one of three calls she made that day. Sandra Bland also called her sister Shante Needham, who notes that her sister was aggravated at the incident and the way it had been handled by police.

"She was very aggravated," Ms. Needham told reporters at a news conference earlier this week. "She seemed to be in pain."

Sandra Bland reportedly told her sister that police might have fractured her arm during the arrest. She added that her bail was set and Needham added: "I told her I would work on getting her out."

And now she's dead... She certainly didn't sound like someone who had lost all hope...Just someone who was aggravated...The more I hear about this case..the more murky it becomes..

The third call was placed to a bail bondsman.

According to CNN, on the morning of July 13, Sandra Bland asked to make a phone call 8 a.m. There is no record of Bland ever making the call. Around 9 a.m., Sandra Bland was found hanging in her jail cell.

Something smells to high hell here...I'm glad the FBI and The Texas Rangers are both investigating this...I hope they put all responsible persons behind bars where they belong...

This can't keep happening and it can't keep being covered up and white washed(pun intended ) by the so called authorities...

You're not going to make me believe that this girl killed herself...And it's not because I'm Black and she was Black... If this was ANYBODY...regardless of race...I wouldn't believe this horse shit!

Fidel's Prediction

I got this off of Facebook I admit...If this is a true statement...Then Fidel adequately predicted the future...or he was being funny and really saying never.

Well...Today, embassies are opening in both countries...The U.S. does have a Black President and the present Pope is from Argentina!

Hmmmm...Who Knew?

No Plan For The End Game

This is Rachel Dolenzal in the photo above....She is the former head of the Washington State Chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. who was posing as a Black woman for years until her parents outed her as a White Woman.

She says she has no job and is slowly running out of money...Now She truly knows what it's like to be Black in America....

Sure you want to continue being Black, Rachel?

A Black female friend of mine had this to say-

"I'm confused.. When a man says we wants to be a woman, it's his right and we should call him a her... When a woman wants to be man, same thing it's his/right , and no question of mental health is brought up, not only that but he/ she is celebrated....But when a white woman wants to be a black woman, her mental health is questioned??"

Well, I got to admit...While I can certainly understand a Black person passing for white to in their confused mind better themselves or their chances at a better life..but I don't..and nobody I know understands why a White person would pretend to be black...IN THIS COUNTRY AT THIS TIME(or any time in this nation's history for that matter)

Perhaps her mental health should be questioned...I'm just saying...

The Horse Trainers Death

So for the second time this week...I have to write one of these kinds of stories...Post Racial America? Hah! That's a joke...

It's a tiny little memorial in the yard of an aging mobile home in a down-on-its-luck Mississippi mill town. Poster boards with votive candles form hearts, there are silk flowers and red, white and blue balloons. There's a sign demanding "Justice 4 Jonathan." (See photo above)

Here on Artesia Avenue is where Jonathan Sanders died after 10 p.m. on July 8, following a physical encounter with a white police officer for the town of Stonewall. What happened that night when Jonathan Sanders – a 39-year-old black man riding in a two-wheel buggy pulled by a horse – crossed paths with Kevin Herrington – a 25-year-old part-time officer – is intensely disputed.

Lawyers for the Sanders family and witnesses who live in the mobile home say Officer Herrington engaged in an unprovoked attack on Jonathan Sanders after the two saw each other at a convenience store a mile across town. C.J. Lawrence, the lawyer for three witnesses, said Jonathan Sanders was doing nothing illegal and didn't resist while Kevin Herrington choked him to death.

A lawyer for Officer Herrington, though, said the officer found Sanders with what appeared to be illegal drugs. Sanders and Herrington struggled in the grass and Sanders grabbed Herrington's gun from his holster, only to drop it in the grass, attorney Bill Ready Jr. said.


Trying to sort out the facts are the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the FBI. Officer Herrington is on unpaid leave and left town on a family trip, Ready said. Jonathan Sanders' survivors – including a mother, sister and two children – buried him Saturday.

Authorities are asking for calm while they finish investigating. But there were already two protests last weekend attended by hundreds in this town of 1,100 near the Alabama line.

Another protest is planned Sunday, as attorneys for Jonathan Sanders' family paint his death as part of a larger nationwide struggle over police brutality against black men, and they see it as part of the unfinished civil rights movement in Stonewall, a town named after Confederate general Stonewall Jackson.


Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the Sanders family lawyer, said authorities told relatives that an autopsy found he died from "manual asphyxiation" ie- strangulation. He said the manner of death was homicide, not accidental.

A spokesman for MBI said the agency doesn't discuss ongoing investigations.  Naturally.

The autopsy finding doesn't necessarily mean Officer Herrington committed a crime and accounts so far leave unanswered questions: What triggered the encounter? Was  Officer Herrington using necessary force, or was Jonathan Sanders,Like Eric Garner , a year before.. the victim of an overly aggressive officer?

And at a time when police departments are under intense scrutiny for treatment of black suspects, did race play a factor? The fact that once again we have to ask this says much!...So much!

The little hamlet of Stonewall doesn't have cameras in police cars or on officers, putting the focus on witnesses. Clarke County Sheriff Todd Kemp said one witness is Rachel Williams, a jail guard in neighboring Lauderdale County.

Lawrence, the witnesses' attorney, won't confirm her name, or describe the others, except to say they are related and also distantly related to Sanders by marriage. Lawrence said the witnesses sought lawyers because they fear for their safety. Lawrence is a law partner of Lumumba, the Sanders' family attorney.

Also present at the time of the death were Herrington and his wife, Kasey Herrington, who was riding that night in his police car.

The lawyers for the witnesses relayed their accounts to The Associated Press but said they did not want to talk directly with reporters: The witnesses say Herrington drove up behind Sanders and flashed his blue lights, causing the horse to rear. Sanders fell off the buggy and chased the horse, while Herrington ran up and grabbed Sanders by the strap of a headlamp he was wearing that had fallen around his neck. They say Sanders fell to the ground in a fetal position, trying to relieve pressure on his neck but otherwise not resisting, while Herrington lay atop him and put him in a chokehold.

Sound familliar?


The attorneys said one witness went outside and pleaded with Herrington to release Sanders. He refused until his wife retrieved his gun. Then Herrington directed his wife to radio for backup. When Herrington finally released Sanders, witnesses say he was unconscious and that blood came out of his mouth.

Ready disputes significant parts of that account. He said a struggle began after Herrington found Sanders with drugs and Sanders tried to run.

"It is my understanding that Mr. Sanders fought back and actually grabbed the officer's gun," Ready said.

He also said that Sanders outweighed Herrington, making it hard for the officer to subdue Sanders. He said Herrington did not intend to harm or kill Sanders.  But he did!

Sounds Like Ferguson...Sounds like New York City...Sounds Like Baltimore..beginning to smell to high hell...

"This was just an unfortunate result of an encounter between him and Mr. Sanders," Ready said.It was more unfortunate for Jon Sanders...He lost his life.

State investigators have so far only described what happened as a physical "altercation."
Lawrence said his witnesses deny Herrington found drugs, or that Sanders grabbed the officer's gun. He and Lumumba say Kasey Herrington retrieved the gun from her husband's holster while he restrained Sanders.

Jonathan Sanders has a history of drug troubles. He was convicted in December 2003 for selling cocaine and went to prison until May 2007. He was arrested again in April for allegedly possessing cocaine. A lawyer who was representing Sanders said authorities were trying to seize his Chevy Tahoe and some cash.

Ready noted that if Sanders had drugs, his bond on the earlier charge could have been revoked and he would have had to stay in jail until the charges were resolved.

Kevin Herrington has been described as both an excellent police officer and a "Rambo" who held a grudge.

He graduated from a police academy in nearby Meridian in December 2013. Until last week, he was working occasional shifts in Stonewall and two nights a week in neighboring Enterprise. Ready said he also has a full time job as industrial worker, but wouldn't be more specific.


Enterprise Police Chief Joey Moulds said Herrington is a conscientious officer who kept on good terms with people – even after he'd written them citations.

Moulds said there were few complaints about Herrington and said he was very non-confrontational.
"I would have to put him at the top of the list. He's the most humble person I know of, extremely humble, extremely responsible," Moulds said.

But Eddie Crosby, who lives near Enterprise, thinks otherwise. Crosby said Herrington pulled him over multiple times this year to the point where Crosby felt Herrington was harassing him. He wrote a complaint to Moulds and the mayor and complained in a letter published in April by a local newspaper. He didn't include Herrington's name – describing the officer only as a "Rambo" type – but confirms he was referring to Herrington.

Afterward, Crosby said Herrington would flash his police lights at him and recently ticketed him for rolling through a stop sign.

"If he got it in for you he was going to have you," Crosby said. "I could understand the first time but you just don't stop somebody and make up an excuse."

Friends of Sanders describe him as a horse-lover who made a living buying, training and selling the animals. He lived next to his mother on a wooded side-road. Clifton Follins, the neighbor, said Sanders's two children didn't live with him but frequently visited.
"Ever since he's been big enough, he loved those horses," said Follins, 69.

Clearly if you are African-American , you damn near have to be Mother Theresa to get the benefit of the doubt in any altercation with law enforcement...If you have any negatives in your past...dating back to kintergarden...then you got what you deserved...according to some white americans....

Until this starts happening to a number of white citizens...And I'm not wishing that on anybody...Nobody will take a black person's account seriously...Even when there is filmed evidence...
Ask Rodney King.

No, this is not Post Racial America and Black Lives Only Matter to Black people!

Damn shame!

The Mysterious Death Of Sandra Bland

You would think that you would be safe in police custody....You would think.....But for Sigma Gamma Rho soror , Sandra Bland..that is just not so....

I swear...Why do I have to keep writing these kind of stories...What is going on in this land?

Questions surrounding the death of Sandra Bland, who was found dead on last Monday morning in a Texas jail cell, are mounting. Police officers are calling her death a suicide, but Ms. Bland’s family and friends are skeptical.

Sandra Bland, 28, was arrested last Friday near Houston after she was pulled over for an improper signal and lane change. You get arrested for that?

According to officers, Sandra Bland was combative and assaulted a police officer during the stop. Police officers say they attempted to restrain her. Witness video shows Sandra Bland on the ground with multiple officers surrounding her, and one is kneeling on her back. Bland can be heard saying, “You just slammed my head into the ground. Do you not even care about that? I can't even hear,” and before she is placed in the squad car and taken to a local jail, she thanks a man for recording the arrest.

That was Sunday Night...
The next day ,Monday morning, another woman who was also in police custody found Sandra Bland unresponsive in her cell. Authorities say that they performed CPR and called for medical assistance, but Sandra Bland was pronounced dead at the scene. Guards say that Sandra Bland was last seen earlier that morning at breakfast.

According to the autopsy report released on Tuesday, Sandra Bland died from “self-inflicted asphyxiation.” The death was ruled a suicide, but the friends and family members of Sandra Bland do not believe it.I don't believe it....Because of this country and the south in particular's racial climate and past history ,I am very skeptical of any reports of a black person committing suicide while in custody... She wasn't there for murder...just a traffic violation....She'd of been released by the end of the day at best....No...I don't buy it..

“The Waller County Jail is trying to rule her death a suicide, and Sandy would not have taken her own life,” said LaNitra Dean, a long-time friend of Sandra Bland’s, to ABC News. “Sandy was strong mentally and spiritually.”

Ms. Bland had recently moved to the Houston area after she got a job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University. In recent months, she had been active in the Black Lives Matter movement, posting videos on social media where she voiced her opinion on racial injustices.

An online petition has launched calling for the Department of Justice to investigate the case. A rally is planned tomorrow afternoon at the Waller County Sheriff’s Office. Texas Rangers and the FBI are currently investigating the case.


Family members and friends insist that Sandra Bland was looking forward to a new job at her former school and that she gave no indication she was in such an emotional state that she would kill herself. Lambert, the attorney hired by Ms. Bland's family, says some relatives believe she was killed and the family wants more information from an investigation.

However, Sandra Bland had posted a video to her Facebook page in March, saying she was suffering from "a little bit of depression as well as PTSD," or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Friend and mentor LaVaughn Mosley of Prairie View believes Bland was just venting after a bad day.

Hundreds of worshippers, many wearing white ribbons with a photo of Bland, held a silent prayer walk yesterday at the church she attended in Lisle, Illinois.

I could normally give the police the benefit of the doubt....but had Sandra Bland been white and it been the same offense...Would she be in jail...Whether she was verbally combative or not? I'm asking...and if that alone causes you to scratch your head....So should her "suicide"

For All Of The Hating....

Weekend Humor

This would be funny if it wasn't so accurate about the way some people think!

Here To More to Come...

President Obama has been having a very hot run of victories lately....The Affordable Care Act was acknowledged and passed by the Supreme Court....Gay Marriage was declared legal in these 50 states, and it appears as though the Obama Administration has signed a record deal with Iran that will bring stabilization to that region and halt their production of nuclear weapons...

Not bad for a lame duck President huh?

Take a guess at who doesn't like this?

Republicans....Why of course...

Remember the Dirty 47? Those 47 members of our own congress who wrote to the government of Iran and told them not to bargain with the Obama Administration?

Yeah, those guys...47 traitors...Well they pooh poohed yesterday's landmark agreement without even reading it...and they have vowed to vote it down......

The President of course has vowed to veto any attempts they make to halt this agreement....Business as usual....He must be used to this by now...

I don't know in the end how kind American History will be to him....but I do know this...President Obama will be forever remembered for his incredible achievements in the face of overwhelming obstructionism.

And with a little under two years of his term left....I hope he gives these Republican obstructionists more to be upset about!

Here's to more to come!

Keith's Favorite Quotes

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm!

Weekend Humor

One woman stops a taxi. "To the airport, please."

After a few minutes, the taxi driver, watching the woman in the mirror, says, "You are third pregnant woman that I have driven to the airport today."

She says, "Are you kidding me? I am not pregnant."

The cab driver looked at her salaciously and remarked...

"Well, you haven’t arrived at the airport yet, either.”

Everybody have a super groovy weekend!

4 Facts Republicans Can't Deny

These are FACTS, FACTS! Something people in that party don't deal with much...They'd rather just make things up.

Keith's Favorite Quotes

Independent!

I hope everybody enjoyed Independence Day Yesterday....I hate to throw a downer on the celebration, but just remember...If You're African-American....You were not independent on July 4th 1776...Your ancestors were still slaves....Slaves of the very same people who had declared their independence from the King of England...You weren't considered human beings..You were property..

I like a good celebration like anybody else...but I am under no delusion that yesterday was MY holiday...It was a holiday just the same and I barbecued and enjoyed it...I am certainly independent now....Certainly an American citizen now...and a Human Being..unlike my poor ancestors , who were slaves..But I'm aware of the facts....

When a man is aware of the facts and his worth as a human being...Then he is truly independent!

Happy 4th of July

Weekend Humor

A man with a mask on walks into a bank and goes to the desk. He pulls out a gun and points it at the lady at the desk. He says,''Open the vault lady''. The woman says, ''Sir, this is a sperm bank. We dont have any money here''.

The man says, ''Open the vault right now or I'm going to blow your  head off'. "

She opens the vault and turns back to the man and he said, 'Take out one of those jars''.

The woman pleads with the man, "Please man listen, I promise you we don't have any money here. I'm telling you that this is a sperm bank''. 

The man said, 'Take out one of those jars right now or I'll blow your  head off'". 

The women turns, grabs the jar and looks back to the man and he said, ''Take lid off and swallow it''.

  She looks at him in disgust and pleads to him again saying, ''Sir, this is sperm. Please, Im not drinking sperm. We dont have any money here. Please leave''.  

The man says, ''Take the lid off and drink it or ill blow your  head off''. 

So the woman takes off the lid and kicks it back real quick and swallows it with little to no problem then turns to look back at the man and to her amazment he takes off the mask and it is her husband.  

He looks at her and says, ''See! It's not that  difficult is it??."


EVERYBODY HAVE A SUPER GROOVY WEEKEND!

Keith's Favorite Quotes

What I've Learned

1. They say that God protects Babies and Fools....I've been both..

2.I can't do everything I want....I'd like a Television show...I really would...but in the world of my blogs...I can do anything I want and I do..

3.Every part of my life and everything I have written has always started with the music I hear in my head..

4.With Any luck, Each Day is a new crack at solving something that's been perplexing you.

5.When you wake up in the morning, you either make an effort at living well or you don't.

6.It's best to use whatever time is alotted you...One never knows when that time is up.

7.I rarely say if I could do it all over again...because I realize that I can't.

8.I heard someone say that it is by that which can not be taken away that we can measure ourselves...True...Very true.

9.Some people are destined to be successful and do great things...We have no control over that...All we can do is pray that we are one of those people.

10.Luck starts where opportunity meets preparation...

PEACE!