Million Dollar Game

The NFL has a big problem on its hands. One of the main problems is they have billionaire  owners that have these significant lapses in intelligence.  Take the Houston Texans owner, Bob McNair’s comments that the league cannot have the “inmates running the prison”.

The NFL has fumbled this protest from day one. I finally realized why this is the case this morning.  The NFL is only going to look at the protest as a “problem”. From the beginning, they have handled it like a problem. Instead of the NFL addressing the players concerns, they decided to break out the big stick.

I am about to give the NFL a blueprint on how they fix their “problem”.  While the NFL has started to have larger meetings with the owners and the players, they have not done one critical step. The League as a whole has never come out and even acknowledge that there may be such a thing as social injustice.  The closes individual owner that I heard acknowledging that there is a social injustice problem was Jeffrey Lurie, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles. Lurie’s comments were semi-viral and taken mostly out of context. Within Lurie’s statements, he acknowledged that there is a problem with social injustice in this country.

First step to solving the problem, Roger Goodell needs to hold a press conference and state that he LISTENED to the players and acknowledge that the players have the RIGHT to protest and that NFL is looking into the issue more thoroughly.

The NFL does a lot of charitable work through NFL Charities. The NFL need to announce a multi million dollar program that will span multiple years to fight social injustice. The NFL could establish a partnership with the NAACP Legal Defense fund,  national organizations like the Urban League or the Innocence Project.

What would this announce meant do for the league?  It will show the players of the NFL that the owners are listening. It will show the fans that the players are not protesting the flag.  The biggest mistake that the NFL has made thus far was allowing the narrative to be set the the player were protesting the flag.  The owners know that it was never about the flag, or at least they should know.  Now that the flag has been the central focus, the owners certainly cannot allow the inmates to run the prison.  Like I said earlier, the NFL fumbled this one from the start.

The NFL is a cash cow that has made all the right moves in the last 25 years from a business standpoint. Certainly under the Roger Goodell era, the NFL has positioned themselves to make money hand over fist. What I have outlined above is the sensible business move.  The NFL has two groups “boycotting” the games over the same issues.  While I don’t think either of these groups individually will have a major impact on the NFL’s ratings, combined there will likely some impact. Beyond the ratings however, the NFL has to be careful of the longterm impact. Merchandising will ultimately suffer in addition to advertising dollars.

Here is why this approach will not likely be the NFL’s way out of this situation. First, racism. The owners know that if they appear to concede to the players now, there will be such an uproar from many white American’s that it would be a bad business move. Plain and simple, racism is not only the first reason, but the primary reason.

Second, white privilege.  The owners would never consider such a solution because they are privileged enough to HEAR what players like Colin Kaepernick was saying, but not LISTEN to him.

Lastly, President Trump.  President Trump does not like to lose at anything. If the NFL owners were to follow this plan, Trump would be on twitter firing up his base who would not need a whole lot of nudging to get fired up (see first point above).

Had the NFL thought of this strategy day one, they may not have been in this situation in the first place.  There is a chance. They can attempt to sell this through after the next player-owner meeting that should take place sometime in November. The NFL is scrambling and to find an answer. Because I want to see the ball move forward in fixing the social injustice problem, I just gave them a million dollars worth of game…. for free.

Dear white people, you are being ridiculous.

This blog post is for sensible white americans. If you already know that you are racist and cannot think sensibly about anything black, please do not waste your time reading this post. 

Dear white people, have you ever heard of the name Marquintan Sandlin or Kisha Michael?  Its not likely you have heard those names before.  Truth be told, the majority of conscience African American’s have never heard those names.  Their names did not go viral like other have in recent years.

In February of 2016, Marquintan and Kisha lost their lives at the hands of Inglewood police officers. I won’t go into the story of how they lost their lives, but I’ll tell you that officers confirmed that both Marquintan and Kisha were either SLEEP or otherwise UNCONSCIOUS when officers arrived on the scene. I’ve written about this incident before.

Original reports of the incident

To hear the mayor of Inglewood explain the situation he speculated that the couple must have awoken at some point because “obviously they were conscious because someone felt threatened”.  This was not a fact based statement at the time, just the mayor speculating on what happened.

Now, with the benefit of time passing, we learned that 5 officers involved in the shooting are no longer employed by the Inglewood police department. I do not know this for a fact, but I will speculate that at least one of these individuals is now back in law enforcement with another department. It is likely that all five are currently employed with other departments or some form of law enforcement.  There is no official word on why all five individuals are no longer with the department, but it is probably a safe assumption that the conclusion of an investigation found them at fault for the deaths of Kisha and Marquintan.

 

Have you ever heard of John Crawford III? John Crawford went to a War-Mart and was in the process of shopping when he was killed by police. Why is he dead? Another shopper called police and made claims that Crawford was pointing a gun at other shoppers. The surveillance video did not support the callers report.  Mr. Crawford was in the Wal-Mart about to purchase a pellet gun and doing some other shopping. The police say he refused to put down the gun. In my opinion, the video shows that Crawford did not have a chance to do anything before he was shot dead.  He was on the phone with his mother at the time he was shot dead.

The information given on the call to police was so egregious, that there was talk of charges being filed against the caller.

Have you ever heard of Sandra Bland? It’s likely that you have heard of Ms. Bland.  Sandra died in a cell after what was reported as a suicide. Many have speculated that Ms. Bland was in fact killed.  I have written about this case before. Assuming the official report that Sandra committed suicide is correct, why would she do it.  The video shows that Sandra Bland should have never been in that cell in the first place.  The arresting officer, Brian Encinia, has been fired for his actions that day.  If Sandra was not falsely arrested, would she be alive today? I don’t think there is much doubt that she would have been alive and working at her new job which she was supposed to start that following week.

As an African American man, I certainly was aware of all three of these cases as they were breaking news.  If I took 15 minutes, I am sure I could come up with 15 more cases where African Americans have unjustly lost their lives at the hands of law enforcement, or wanna-be law enforcement (see Trayvon Martin case). These would be cases that hit the news and gained attention on a larger scale. There are hundreds of other cases that do not receive such attention.

The protest in the NFL have been going on for over a year, but in the last two weeks, more white people have decided to chime in on the events. Many of my white brethren, including people I have worked with over the years, have been posting things like “Respect the flag”. “They are whinny millionaires”. “If you don’t like it, leave”.  I am hear to tell you all that you are being ridiculous. The players, including Colin Kaepernick, have always stated that they are not protesting the flag.  They are protesting injustice for African American’s and other people of color at the hands of law enforcement. Two of the three cases above are certainly well known cases by many African Americans and the NFL players.

I for one appreciate that these multimillionaire players are taking a risk their careers to speak up for those that do not have as loud of a voice.  For the families of the deceased, I am sure they appreciate that someone is getting the word out about what is going on in this county.

Anquan Boldin, former NFL wide receiver, has been very active in this movement. Each one of these players have their own reasons for getting involved. Boldin has been impacted by these shootings.  His cousin, on the way home from a church event, was killed by a police officer on the side of the road. When I hear white people say, “these rich spoiled athletes…”. These athletes are by and large not impacted by what is happening to everyday African Americans in this country. Their act is far from selfish, it is actually heroic.

Over the last two weeks, I have seen post of white American’s burning jerseys and season tickets. I think that is absolutely ridiculous. I call it “fake outrage”  Not that they are not actually outraged, but it is for a fake cause. Think of it this way, name a single player that has called for the American flag not to flown at an NFL game.  That would be protesting the flag.  There has been no calls for the National Anthem to be suspended at the start of the game.

To say that you do not want to be inconvenienced with hearing about people dying in the streets at the hand of government officials is extremely pompous.  The NFL brings awareness to Breast Cancer awareness during the month of October. If anyone was to ever come out and say, “why do we have to talk about this during my football game” you would clearly see how ridiculous that statement would be.

If you just opened your eyes and educate yourself on the issue that the players are protesting, you will see just how ridiculous your (fake) outrage appears to us.

 

Open Letter to Officer Jeronimo Yanez

 

Officer Yanez, I have a opinion of you that will not be very popular. I have empathy for what you are going through in the days after you made a decision to fire into that car and took the life of Philando Castile.

You know by now that you made a horrible mistake that night. Ms. Reynolds stated that you were crying immediately after the shooting. I am sure you knew right away that you made a horrible mistake. The world knows you made a mistake. This mistake took the life of a citizen. By all accounts, a law abiding citizen. I can only assume that you took the oath of to actually protect and serve law abiding citizens. You did so with every intention of fulfilling that oath.

America is stuck in a cycle of rhetoric.  You have to choose a side based on this rhetoric. There apparently ONLY two sides to any given topic. You are either pro #BlackLivesMatter which means you are Anti-Police, or visa-versa. You cannot be both. This is America today. 

Americans have lost the ability to be honest with each other. Fortunately most of us have not lost the ability to see what is right and what is wrong.  
This rhetoric turns into actions.  Police officers often use the term “I just want to get home to my family tonight”. This rhetoric, in my opinion, is very dangerous. Of course everyone, not just officers, want to get home to their family every night.  This rhetoric, along with the inaccurate perception that officers are only killed by black men has produced this shoot first mentality. I believe this rhetoric and misperception has you in the position you are in today.

I would say that 99.9% of police officer work shifts end with the officer going home to their family over the course of a year.  Without doing the math, I would guarantee that number is accurate with in 2% points based on the number of officers in this country and the amount that sacrifice their lives in the line of duty every year. It’s simple logic. In other words, by and large, officers do go home to their families at the end of their shifts.

I speculate that in your mind, in that moment, you probably heard the rhetoric play back in your subconscious and thought it was either Mr. Castile or yourself that was going home that night. The truth of the matter is you both should have went home that night.

There is a problem in this country when in 2015 almost 3 Americans a day lost their lives at the hands of police. There were 42 officers that lost their life via gun related incidents while on duty. We live in a society that we have to compare these numbers and pick a side. By the numbers, citizens are killed by police much more frequently than police are killed by citizens. The rhetoric in this country would actually have you believe that those numbers are reversed.  I heard just today that there is a war on police officers.  There is no war. There just isn’t.

While I have empathy for what you are about to endure over the next few years of your life, I also reserve the right to be upset that you allowed yourself to fall victim to this rhetoric. You did not see a family traveling the highways of Minnesota. You saw someone that would pull out a gun and shoot an officer with a child sitting in the back seat of the car.   I will not say that this could never actually happen in America. The likelihood of this happening is low. Your situational awareness was poor.  African American men have been demonized in this country to the point that in your mind, this was a reality. This was happening. You had to shoot first in order to make it home to your family.

Here is where the anger festers within myself and many other African Americans. Today, tomorrow and until the legal process plays out, we will not hear from you.  Your brothers in blue will do everything in their power to protect you. Worse yet, your brothers will attempt to make us believe that we are un-American to even think that you made a mistake. The citizens are supposed to just forget what they saw on that Facebook post.  We are supposed to not replay the voice of a four year old child saying “It’s ok mommy, I’m here with you”. We are not supposed to grieve for Mr. Castile.

We have to sit and listen to pundits say that the shooting my have been justified. We are supposed to not be human beings. We are supposed to expect the justice system to determine that you made a mistake, while understanding that will not be the likely outcome of the process. We all know you made a mistake.  You know you made a mistake.  African American’s are the most compassionate people on the planet.  Stand up and say, “I made a mistake”.  Say “I took the life of a person that put a smile on kids faces every day and for that I am sorry”. At least resign from the force. You are not equipped to ever protect and serve us again, ever. Ask for forgiveness of Ms. Reynolds and the Castille family. I believe that forgiveness will eventually be granted. There are thousands of people in prison today because they made mistakes.  Stand up and own your mistake. Be different, be a part of the healing process and not the reason why the divisiveness widens in America.

 

 

Republicans to the world: “He’s our racist!”

CNN Interview of Rep Zedlin

The controversy over Donald Trump’s comment regarding U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel has taken an interesting turn.  The comments themselves should not shock anyone at this point, but the Republicans reaction to the comments are particularly interesting.

House Speaker Paul Ryan reaction was surprising as he was bold in calling Trump’s comments a “…textbook definition of a racist comment”.  The line in the sand had been drawn with that comment.  That opened the flood gates for news commentators to ask every Republican if they agreed with the comments of Paul Ryan. Surprisingly, many have backed Ryan. There is a next logical question that I will get to in just a moment.

 

New York Congressman Lee Zeldin faced the music this morning on CNN with John Berman and Kate Bolduan.  Zeldin, to his credit, thought the comments by Trump were “regrettable”.   Zeldin acknowledged the he sees “racism a lot in policies and statements that has taken place”.

 

To Berman and Bolduan’s credit, they asked the sensible question that everyone watching wanted to be asked.  “Are you still endorsing Donald Trump if you think he is engaging in racism?” asked Kate.

 

The answer BLEW MY MIND!! The answer was yes, but the qualifier was a slap in the face of every minority in this country.  “It’s Donald Trump vs Hilary Clinton and it’s a no brainer between the two of them.”  Let’s take into consideration what this means.  As an elected official, Rep. Zeldin stated on national television that he believe Donald Trump has made racist comments, but he is still backing him because the alternative is Hilary Clinton.  Berman had the line of the interview when said, “Are you essentially saying that yes he is a racist, but he’s our racist”. We are not talking about an Alderman position in Chicago. We are talking about the Presidency of the United States of America.

 

Trump being a racist would not impact Zeldin one bit as a white American male.  Zeldin, and all other Republicans, need to take a step back and think about what they are saying by continuing to endorse Trump. There are millions of minorities in this country that would be impacted by having a racist President. Somehow the Republicans have not quite added that math up to this point. There is a blog coming from me one day soon about racial indifference. This is a classic example of it.

 

The irony of the entire story to me is that Trump is accusing Judge Curiel of not being able to do his job because he would favor Mexican interest. What makes the Republicans think that minorities aren’t afraid that Trump will only server the interest of white Americans if he was elected President.

 

Please take a moment to watch the full video, it was an instant classic.  Something tells me that Rep. Zeldin is not going to have a good next few days backtracking from this interview.

Cops forced to use deadly force on sleeping couple

NBC LA story

Before we begin, please take a moment to watch the NBC LA story about a couple that was killed by police officers recently. It’s only 2:30 seconds. Let’s compare notes when you are done….

Of course the title of this blog is being sarcastic and this obviously is not a laughing matter. Seven kids lost a parent. Three boys are now without a mother and four girls are without a father. Senseless.

Let’s look at a few aspects of this story.  When police arrived, they found the couple sleep/unconscious and not responsive. The report is that the police saw a gun. Ok, not even going to go there on why you would have a gun in plain sight.

The mayor said the cops “retreated”. Sleeping people in a car warrants a retreat.

The officers then spent 45 minutes trying to wake the couple.  If I was cynical, I would question the time the offices arrived and when the shots were fired.  A cynical person would all but guarantee that it was less than 45 minutes.  Even if it was, should 45 minutes been the cut off point when deciding to take someone’s life?  In Oregon…. Never mind, let’s continue.

The part of the news report that utterly confused me was when the mayor said that the officers spent the 45 minutes trying to de-escalate the situation.

It is time for a recap here:

1. Officers arrive to find a sleeping couple
2. Officers see a gun in the vehicle and retreat
3. Officers attempt to wake the couple for 45 minutes in an attempt to de-escalate the situation

What I need to wrap my head around is how did the couple ESCALATE the situation in the first place if they were sleep? What were the officers de-escalating?

Have you ever been walking down the street and a fire truck or police car fly by with their sirens blaring?  I have, and I’m pretty sure if I was in a car sleeping, that would wake me up.  What exactly did the offices try to do for 45 minutes to wake the couple?

Lastly, if you find two human beings in a locked car and they appear to be sleep and you cannot wake them after 45 minutes would your first thought be to fire a weapon into the car? Should your first thought be that the couple may not be sleeping and could possibly need medical attention? Drug overdose maybe?  I am not saying this was the case, but should the officers have considered that at all?

The sad ending of the story is Kisha Michael, 31, is dead. Marquintan Sandlin, 32, is dead.

The victim blaming has already begun. In NBC LA’s article criminal past of the victims were discussed.  The one thing I know for sure is neither was committing any crimes when they were killed, other than maybe a minor traffic offense at most. Seven kids are without a parent and it is likely that nobody will be held accountable for that.

Trump is not a racist!

  
Watching this election cycle has been comical to say the least. The rise of the Donald in the Republican Party has alarmed many, including the republican leadership.  Several months ago there was speculation about the RNC getting a little nervous on the prospect of Trump becoming the republican nominee.  Trump, in a brilliant strategic move, threatened to leave the party and take all of his followers.  A move that the RNC knew would gift wrap the White House for the democrats. 

With Trump holding massive leads in Iowa and New Hampshire, Trump is well on his way to solidifying the nomination. There is a lot of time left for another candidate to make a surge, but many people believe if he wins big in those two states, it will be hard for another candidate to emerge.  

Trump has actually been masterful in his plan.  He has certainly touched a nerve of the republican base which is obvious by the size of his rallies.  He recently gained a big endorsement by a republican favorite, Sarah Palin. Boy, does she gets a crowd pumped up!

  
So what was the plan of attack for Trump?  He decided to go after a segment of the Republican Party that would be excited about a candidate that “tells it like it is”.  He started by attacking the illegal immigration issue. You may remember his quote:

“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. … And some, I assume, are good people.” 

With that statement, Trump was off and running.  He went on to talk about Muslims and anyone else that would fire up the republican base or this particular segment of the base.  

Is Donald Trunp a racist for saying these things?  Donald Trump is a business man first and foremost. He did not assend and maintain his economic status by being a dumb person.   Trump has businesses all over the world, including in Mexico and many Muslim countries. I would argue that a truly racist individual could not broker the deals that he would need to broker to be that successful in business. 

If Trump is not a racist, then what’s the explanation?  Michelle Alexander wrote in The New Jim Crow that Ronald Regan, the G.O.A.T. according to many republicans, rode a wave of hidden racist comments all the way to the White House.  Reagan talked about getting tough on crime and who did the many Americans believe was the source of the crime? Blacks of course.  This hasn’t changed to this day despite all of the statistics that show that Aftican Americans are not more likely to commit crimes in America.  In fact, statistics show that many of the drug crimes that  incareate African Americans in massive numbers are more likely to be commuted by whites. 

The Republican Party certainly isn’t opposed to such a strategy in my opinion, but Trump has taken the rhetoric to historic levels and the base is eating it up. 

The Republican Party has to know that this will become more obvious to sensible republicans that don’t subscribe to Trumps blatantly racist messages and may actually lose party members if this continues. 

Is Donald Trump a racist, I honestly do not believe so, but he is shrewd enough to know that you (Trump Supporter) may be!  Does that make this whole process any better? No, it actually sheds light on a much bigger problem, racism in America. 

Everyone is asking the wrong questions about Sandra Bland

Did Sandra Bland commit suicide, or was she murdered in jail?  Many cannot even entertain the possibility of the latter.  While I’ve seen too many videos of police behaving inappropriately to outright dismiss the idea, I’ll assume Sandra did infact commit suicide for this blog.

Making that assumption, does it not still beg for justice for Sandra Bland?  The question everyone needs to ask is should Sandra Bland have been in that jail cell three days after a minor traffic stop?  More importantly, should she have ever been in jail in the first place? If Sandra Bland did commit suicide, would anyone debate that being wrongly stripped of her rights as an American citizen drove her to commit such a terrible act?  At one point during the traffic stop, Sandra said “I can’t wait until we go to court”. This is not a statement of someone planning a suicide.  Sandra in fact has just arrived in Texas to start a new job. Not exactly the mark of a suicidal person.

Did Sandra Bland have marijuana in her system?  This is an irrelevant question that surfaced several days ago. If marijuana drove people to suicide, the suicide rates would be a lot higher than it already is in America!  The wrong questions are being asked.

Ms. Bland reportedly admitted to a previous attempt at suicide on one section of official police paperwork. It was also reported that another section of the paperwork contradicted that information.

So let’s deal with the question at hand, should she have even been in jail? I am not a lawyer, and do not profess to know all of the laws regarding a traffic stop.  If you look at the video at around the 9:00 minute mark, it appears that the officer arrested Ms. Bland for a failure to put out a cigarette.  Again, I’m not a lawyer, but I am pretty sure that law is not on the books. The officer by his own admission was standing at the car door with a WARNING in his hand ready to be signed. The remainder of the interaction probably should have lasted another 30 seconds.

At the 8:37 mark of the video, the officer asks Ms.Bland “Are you ok?”  The officer clearly knew Ms. Bland was irritated as he walked away from the car on his way to write the warning. The crime that Ms. Bland was arrested for had to have happened after the 8:37 mark. Where was the crime? In fact, why even ask Ms. Bland is she ok. The officer should have finished his job and handed her the warning and gave whatever verbiage he was responsible to give by giving the warning.

I believe the official report states that Ms. Bland threw and elbow at the officer.  The elbow would have had to be thrown as the officer was reaching into the car attempting to arrest Ms. Bland.  I believe we have a classic chicken and egg situation here.  The reason for arrest actually came during the attempt to arrest. Mr. Officer, the law does not work that way.
If the arrest was illegal as it appears to have been, there has to be a coverup in some form.  The official report has to have statements from the officer that contradict the facts from the dashcam. Simple question, what’s is the official reason for arrest?  If there are lies in the report, the officer should be fired, period.  Anyone involved in protecting those lies should be fired. We can talk about arrest later. We all make mistakes on our jobs, but if the arrest was illegal, let’s go with a “mistake”, then this officer cost a woman her life by making the most costly mistake ever. People have lost their jobs for far less.

So while everyone is caught up on if it was suicide, or if it was murder, the right questions can easily begin to gain some justice for Sarah Bland. Ultimately we need a definitive answer to the serious question, but let’s answer the basics first. Should Sarah Bland have been in that cell? I think most rational people would answer that question, no.
– the pragmatist

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Love Wins

Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on marriage equality has sparked a fury of comments on both sides of the debate.

This topic has always been interesting to me from a few points of view. First, I have never understood why people are so concerned with who other people chose to sleep with. It boggles my mind.

People get really offended when you compare the feeling of inequality and unfairness that gay people experience living this American Dream to the struggles of African Americans.  The history of the brutality is obviously different, but the root of the issues stem from hatred. With that being said, I do compared the two struggles.

From my point of view, I could care less. I can not think of one good reason why I would ever care about who someone I don’t even know is sleeping with.  In fact, the only person I care to know who they are sleeping with is my wife!

I recently watched the Netflix series Sense8 where there were some intense gay love scenes between two male characters. I admit that I had to fast forward a few of these scenes.  That is not something I enjoy watching, but I have no problem with it.  I didn’t turn the series off in defiance and swear to never watch another episode. In fact the character Lito who played an actor in the series was one of my favorites. His dramatic and overly cheesy acting career provided some comedy to the series.

Photo by Jeff Belmonte

On to the marriage side of it.  I must admit when the public started to pay attention to the issue years ago, I couldn’t wrap my head around how an official wedding would look with two men standing at an alter.  I was neither for it or against it, it just was different.  Even to this day there are things that are just strange about the whole idea of two men marrying. (Yes, I subscribe to the double standard because the thought of two women together causes me no pause!)

Now, I look at the issue from the standpoint of who am I to have an opinion on it. Why should I even care?  Here is the “I have gay (or black) friends” argument. I had multiple uncles that were gay. I loved them all. One of them had a live in lover.  I was young, and truthfully didn’t really know what was going on at that pre-teen age. I remember asking some questions that I’m sure made my mother cringe, but overall, I never really thought anything of it.  All I remember is he was one of my favorite uncles and he loved me.

I think my own marriage has really shaped my opinion. I have enjoyed marriage and could not imagine anyone telling me that I could not marry my wife. I was fortunate to be born in a time where African Americans could marry in this country. My wife and I jumped the broom in rememberance of a time when my ancestors were not free to marry. Can you utter the words, “blacks shouldn’t be allowed to marry”. Sounds ridiculous, does it not?  Maybe in 150 years, the same will be true when speaking about the LGBT community.

– the pragmatist

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