New England Sun-Times

Call a Black person “articulate.” Instead: Because of a long history of oppression, degradation, and dismissal of the talent and skills of Black people, understand that such a statement coming from a white person is often construed, and meant, as meaning “articulate-ness” is something unusual in a Black person. Say “one of my best friends is [black, Latino, person of color, etc.].” Instead: Ask yourself first: Do you know where that person shops for groceries? Where they go to church? Where they get their hair cut? What their children’s/granchildren’s names are? Have you ever been to their home? These are the things you know about a best friend. Say that the success of [Oprah, Bill Cosby, Michael Jordan, etc.] show that there’s no longer any racism. Instead: Ask yourself about Madame CJ Walker. She was a millionaire, the first black millionaire, in the early part of the 20th century.  Lynchings were still going on.  No one would say ...

Hundreds of police officers turned their backs on a screen showing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as he spoke at the funeral of one of two officers killed last week in what has been called an "assassination." The funeral at the Christ Tabernacle Church, in the Glendale neighborhood of Queens, was broadcast to thousands of police who gathered outside. The killing of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu came amid heightened tensions between the police and the mayor over what some police saw as a lack of support for the force. The atmosphere was mostly respectful, but there were scattered signs of protest even before the police officers' action when the mayor spoke. A block from the church, though, retired NYPD Officer John Mangan held a sign that read: "God Bless the NYPD. Dump de Blasio." In his speech, the mayor seemed to try to reach out to police, honoring not only Ramos, but the entire NYPD. After directing his rema...

By Andrew Couts   A local Fox affiliate in Baltimore has apologized for inaccurately reporting that anti-police-brutality demonstrators chanted “kill a cop” at a recent protest. Footage of the Washington, D.C., protests, which originally aired on C-SPAN, showed Tawanda Jones, whose brother Tyrone West was killed by Baltimore police in July , leading a common chant at protests against police violence. “We won’t stop/We can’t stop/Till killer cops/Are in cell blocks,” Jones chanted. As Gawker first pointed out , however, WBFF Fox 45 edited the footage to cut out the last line, and the news anchor claimed Jones’s chant of “Till killer cops …” as “Kill a cop”—a call for the murder of police. The segment was part of WBFF’s coverage of this weekend’s vicious murders of two NYPD officers , linking the anti-police violence movement to violence against law enforcement off...

Elvin Payamps, 38, was taken into custody after a witness overheard him saying he wanted to kill cops. GLENDALE — A former city Department of Correction employee was busted with illegal guns, brass knuckles and a bulletproof vest he took from his old job after he was overheard talking about killing police, the NYPD said. Elvin Payamps, 38, spoke about a plan to kill a police officer while on his cellphone inside a TD Bank on Metropolitan Avenue and 80th Street at 1:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, police said. "I'm going to kill another cop. We should do it before Christmas. The cop should have been white that was killed. I always have a gun on me," Payamps said, according to the criminal complaint. A 54-year-old witness overheard the conversation and called 911, but Payamps left before police arrived.  The NYPD put out a description for Payamps, and he was found at Metro Mall two miles away on Metropolitan Avenue, where he was getting into his car, acco...

ABC News - There have been 40 separate threats against New York City police since two officers were shot and killed in Brooklyn Saturday, the NY...

This week, cellphone video appeared online showing NYPD officers assaulting a pregnant woman, throwing her to the ground, and using a taser on her belly. The altercation allegedly began when police interrupted the family from eating dinner without reason and without a warrant, and lured them out of a Brooklyn restaurant. When on the street, police reportedly planted a knife on 17-year-old John Lemos and threatened to take him to jail.  According to the family, they have a history with these specific officers, and they believe that the officers were attempting to frame Lemos because they had a grudge against him.  Either way, carrying a knife in a big city should not be a crime to begin with, and the police had no legal reason to interrupt this family’s dinner. Lemos’s mother was witness to the entire ordeal, and when she attempted to defend her son she was viciously attacked by the officers.  When police began to get rough with the woman, onlookers t...

Tuesday, Mar 25, 2014 • Updated at 2:46 AM EST (NECN: Alysha Palumbo - Providence, RI) - Handcuffed and plain-clothed, two Providence police officers were in court Friday morning facing serious drug charges and allegations they abused their power. 44-year-old Detective Joseph Colanduono of West Warwick is a federal drug enforcement officer, who's been given the mayor's award for outstanding police work. Colanduono is accused of not only possessing cocaine but connecting the lead drug dealer with buyers. 33-year-old patrolman Robert Hamlin of East Providence is a school resource officer at Central High School. Hamlin is accused of providing the alleged drug ring with inside information. ...

The NYPD set up SWAT teams at two Bedford-Stuyvesant police precincts Tuesday night — after a confidential informant told cops about overhearing a gang plot to “shoot it out” at the station houses. Four Emergency Services Unit officers, outfitted with helmets and assault weapons, were stationed at the 79th precinct. Another two were at the 81st. The beefed up security was prompted by a confidential informant, who told cops of overhearing a member of the Baltimore-based Black Guerrilla Family talking with fellow gang members about plans to “shoot it out with police” at the two precincts, law enforcement sources told The Post. The gang member served three years in jail for robbery and attempted murder. Officials differed in their characterizations of the seriousness of the alleged threat. A senior police official conceded to The Post that, “We’re investigating that threat, but at this time, “It does not appear to be credible.” “I’m told it’s credible,” Ed Mu...

The NYPD’s chief of department abruptly quit Friday rather than take a promotion from Police Commissioner Bill Bratton that the chief believed was a powerless position setting him up for failure, law-enforcement sources told The Post. Philip Banks III was to be promoted to first deputy commissioner at a ceremony Monday but backed out at the last minute during a heated meeting at Police Headquarters, sources said. “You still have not done anything. You have not changed the direction of the Police Department. You asked me to come up with six or seven policies that you did not implement,” Banks fumed at the city’s top cop. “The department is just going to go further into turmoil, and I don’t want to get blamed for that.” The move left the NYPD without a black or Hispanic person in any of its top three positions after Bratton’s ouster of First Deputy Rafael Pineiro, who resigned under pressure in September. It also set up a looming crisis between Mayor de Blasio and t...

A woman who's post about her violent interaction with NYPD officer Rafael Ramos went viral, has been attacked on social media for posting her views on the recent murder saying "Karma is always watching!" Asiaa Melrose said that two years ago, officer Ramos " constantly slammed" her head into the concrete, leaving her with "non-stop headaches and knots." Miss Melrose says her bruises "weren't pretty," and that she is "not saying him getting killed was ok, but Karma is Definitely a Bitch, kus [sic] he could have killed me!" On her Facebook page, Miss Melrose goes on to say: "LIFE LESSON::: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU DO TO OTHERS CAUSE KARMA ALWAYS WATCHING." Melrose asked: "At what point of time is it ever ok for a male cop to put his hands on a female? The cops are trained to serve and protect us, and that day officer Ramos failed to do so! I am not mad, and I have never wished nothing bad on him. Not even ...

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba said Monday that it has a right to grant asylum to U.S. fugitives, the clearest sign to date that the communist government has no intention of extraditing America’s most-wanted woman despite the warming of bilateral relations. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has urged President Barack Obama to demand the return of fugitive Joanne Chesimard, who changed her name to Assata Shakur, before restoring full relations under a historic detente announced by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro last week. Shakur was granted asylum by Fidel Castro after she escaped from the prison where she was serving a sentence for killing a New Jersey state trooper. Christie is mulling a run for president in 2016. Asked if returning fugitives was open to negotiation, Cuba’s head of North American affairs, Josefina Vidal, told The Associated Press Monday that “every nation has sovereign and legitimate rights to grant political asylum to people it considers to have been p...

New York's mayor on Monday called for protests and political debate to pause until after funerals are held for two officers shot and killed inside their patrol car this weekend by a man vowing retaliation for the deaths of black men at the hands of white police. "I think it's important that regardless of people's viewpoints that everyone step back," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a speech at the Police Athletic League. "I think it's a time for everyone to put aside political debates, put aside protests, put aside all of the things that we will talk about in all due time." Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were ambushed Saturday afternoon by a 28-year-old who wrote in an Instagram post that he would put "wings on pigs." The suspect, Ishmaaiyl Brinsley was black; the slain New York Police Department officers were Hispanic and Asian. The killings came at a tense time as police nationwide are being criticized follow...

Flowers are placed on a police car near the scene of the shooting of Officer Charles Kondek in Tarpon Springs, Fla. on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014. Kondek, a 17-year veteran of the local police department and originally from New York, was shot and killed in Tarpon Springs early Sunday responding to a call shortly after 2 a.m. The third killing of a police officer in two days has sent stunned cops onto social media to express their condolences to the Tarpon Springs Police Department in Florida, which lost an officer early this morning in the line of duty. A male officer was shot and killed about 3 a.m. at a condominium complex on Grand Boulevard, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department. A suspect is in custody, but no other details about what happened have been released. Yesterday, two NYPD officers were killed, apparently by a man who then killed himself after bragging on social media that he intended to kill cops. In Massachusetts, the Hanover Police De...

Police were on Mayor Rahm Emanuel's porch early Saturday morning. | Sam Charles / Sun-Times Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 17-year-old son was robbed Friday night across the street from his family’s North Side home, leaving him with a chipped tooth and fat lip, a source told the Sun-Times’ Michael Sneed. Zach Emanuel went outside to take a walk around 10 p.m. Friday and was jumped in the 4200 block of North Hermitage Avenue in Ravenswood, according to the source. A mayoral spokeswoman confirmed Saturday that his son was hurt after he was attacked. “Yesterday evening, Mayor Emanuel’s son Zach was assaulted in a robbery during which his phone was stolen,” Kelley Quinn said.  “He sustained injuries that required medical treatment but was able to join the family for a long planned trip. The mayor’s focus is on his son’s well-being.” Two people approached the teenager from behind as he was walking and tal...

The New York Police Department has allegedly declared “war” after two officers were killed Saturday in their squad car by a lone, mentally disturbed gunman said to be taking revenge for the death of Eric Garner. The accused Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who reportedly took his own life after the killings, is said to be connected to the Black Guerilla Family prison gang, who police recently warned were gunning for police. Many people believe law enforcement is exaggerating or outright fabricating Brinsley’s association with the BGF gang as a ploy to trump up conspiracy charges on innocent Black people who had nothing to do with the murders of the officers. Saying “There’s blood on many hands,” the head of the NYPD’s police union, Patrick Lynch, placed much of the blame on the Mayor’s Office and formally asked Mayor Bill de Blasio not to attend the funerals of the slain officers for appearing overly sympathetic to Eric Garner protests. After the alleged retaliation shooting of...

The Heartless Felons gang gave its members orders to kill white police officers to avenge black lives taken by white police officers, including the Nov. 21 Tamir Rice shooting, officials said. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office received the tip and deemed it credible enough to reach out to local police departments to make them aware of the threat. Sheriff’s office spokesman John O’Brien would not say where or when they got the tip. O’Brien said the sheriff’s office declined to give specific information about the threat for fear that it would benefit the gang. The gang has spread across the state quickly after forming in Cleveland in the early 2000s, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Plain Dealer. It first built its base of power in the Ohio Department of Youth Services facilities and then grew as its members later headed off to prisons. Inside youth facilities and prisons, as well as outside city streets, the Heartless Felons deal in intimid...

Produce industry officials on both sides of the border say they are launching an effort to ensure that workers at thousands of Mexican farms that export fruit and vegetables to the United States have safe and sanitary housing, decent wages and access to healthcare and day care. The new initiative, tentatively called the International Fresh Produce Social Responsibility Alliance, was announced after a Los Angeles Times investigation this month detailed harsh treatment of laborers at mega-farms across Mexico, especially in the produce-rich coastal state of Sinaloa. The Times' series, called " Product of Mexico ," found that thousands of farmworkers lived in rat-infested labor camps, often without beds or reliable water supplies, and had their pay illegally withheld, which essentially prevented them from leaving during peak harvest periods. The produce from these farms was sold by some of the leading grocery and restaurant chains in the U.S., including Wal...