November 08, 2002
Railroaded Teens Speak Up
[ From The Village Voice Features ] :
Marked as the Enemy by Dasun Allah
"This is like my first interview and I'm really reluctant," says [Kevin] Richardson, now 28. "I really don't trust reporters at all. It's taken me a while to really get used to people. I want to reach out to supporters I think are true and will really give the right word out because we've been tricked so much."
Also read Rivka Gewirtz Little's Across 110th Street, a heart-breaking profile that details the Central Park 5's trials and tribulations and how it has effected their families.
November 12, 2002
Finally!
I wanted to come back with a giant, awe-inspiring entry. Instead, I just want to thank Donald for all his help. His design and implementation is fierce! Ya heard!
It's been nearly two weeks without any discernable activity. So I promise to post like a madman over the remainder of the week. Of course, the Central Park 5 boys will consume most of my time. I've gotten into debates about, educated a few on, and feel righteous about the case right now. I promise to control my temper and be coherent in the future.
I just need to edit a few of the imported entries from blogger and cut-n-paste the CP5 files. That should be complete by Thursday morning. Please feel free to email me any questions or comments that you may have.
Peace!
November 14, 2002
Meanwhile, On Other Planets
I really should start posting like a madman. But there's so much that needs to be transferred over (Central Park 5 files, some links — especially to ej, Antonio, and j — and maybe a couple of old essays) and then there's the customization of all the category main pages.
A couple of negroes got me distracted. As well as waiting on a couple of my soul sisters to return.
So much to do, so little time.
November 15, 2002
Justice?! Nowhere In Sight
[ From Newsday.com ] :
The Manhattan judge overseeing the Central Park jogger case said he won't rule until February on whether to set aside the convictions against the five young men for the 1989 rape and near-fatal attack.
State Supreme Court Justice Charles Tejada issued an order yesterday setting the February date. He also ordered the Manhattan district attorney's office to submit its response to defense motions to set aside the convictions by noon Dec. 5, and the defense to reply to the prosecutor's papers by Jan. 6.
"This matter is adjourned to February 6, 2003 for decision," Tejada wrote in the order.
The two-month adjournment did not please defense attorney Roger Wareham, who represents three of the five young men convicted in the attack.
"We wanted a much shorter time," said Wareham, whose co-counsel Michael Warren filed a motion to set aside the verdicts on Aug. 30, nearly four months after a DNA match linked a serial rapist who confessed to the crime last winter to the rape of the jogger. "The longer it takes to get resolved, the more needless suffering on our clients and their families because they want to have this taint removed from them. And we think there's enough evidence to warrant the setting aside of the verdict."
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau has had four full-time staffers on the reinvestigation of the case since last May when Matias Reyes, who is serving 33 1/3 years to life on four other rapes and a murder, was linked to the jogger through a DNA match.
An internal police report obtained by Newsday said that all forensic evidence used at the trial had been determined to be useless. And about a month ago, Morgenthau said that if Reyes' confession continued to hold up, he would go along with the defense motion to vacate, according to his spokeswoman Barbara Thompson.
This is some straight out of left field ish! Why Tejada would make such a ruling is beyond me. All indications are that even the Manhattan DA's office sees the handwriting on the wall and won't fight an order to vacate the convictions.
There should be large-scale protests, letters, petitions and confrontations to overturn this cruel order. Info to come for Tejada, DA Robert "Comatose Bob" Morgenthau and a few pols sympathetic to the Central Park 5.
November 16, 2002
Blacklisted
Prime says it's "Time to Clean up 'The House.'"
I couldn't agree more and have nothing to add to his telling... for now.
Justice, However Small & Late
[ From Gay City News ] :
Guilty Plea in Amanda Milan Killing
Dwayne McCuller, the killer of Amanda Milan, has pleaded guilty in the 2000 homicide and will be given a sentence of 17-and-a-half years to life on November 22.
I actually lost track of this case and will be posting more on it and the previous entry some time next week. It all has to do with the seemingly increasing violence against gay and (especially) transgendered members of the Black community.
November 19, 2002
Keith Boykin, Speaking Truths
[ From Keith Boykin, several good reads, including his essay ] :
CONFESSIONS OF A RECOVERING HOMOSEXUAL
Donnie McClurkin, of all people, should know better than to encourage self-hatred. He suffered for nearly 20 years because society told him there was something wrong with him for his homosexual desires. Now, rather than teaching young people to love themselves for who they are, McClurkin teaches them that they are abnormal and sinful if they are gay.
Keith also provides a link to a scorching piece by Alicia Banks, and even a link to Donnie McClurkin’s self-delusional bullshit. There’s more:
CONFESSIONS OF A RECOVERING HOMOPHOBE
It's because of Bernhart that I'm a recovering homophobe to this day.
While I'm a long way from cured, our friendship laid bare my irrational fears and suspicions about gay men for the ugly lies they always were.
Letting go of lies isn't easy. Like most straight men in America, my vocabulary was well-stocked with insults I wielded effortlessly for years. The epithets I'd inherited were enduring as family heirlooms. They were uttered casually among friends, relatives, scoutmasters and the good folks at my church in Brooklyn, N.Y. Even my mom used to call the gay men she knew on her job "funny."
Keith continues to intrigue and provide great information. I love how he’s tweaked his site recently: providing targeted posts, categories and, hard-hitting original content. I really need to join his book club and write him. But I’m not cool like that.
Hoping for the Domino Effect
I'm a little late with this, but there is a God!
America's Mayor My Ass!
[ From Sisyphus Shrugged, one of my fav blogs ] :
but he promises to never ever ever do it again.
NEW YORK City officials are investigating whether six Manhattan buildings are in violation of the city's building and fire codes by storing tens of thousands of gallons of diesel oil.
The city's Buildings and Fire Departments are concerned that the fuel tanks at the buildings could pose a severe safety hazard in the event of an accident or another terrorist attack, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The investigation was prompted by the collapse of 7 World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some experts have said that a fire fed by gallons of diesel fuel contributed to the building's collapse.
[...]
The tank in question, of course, in 7 World Trade, was the one Rudy Giuliani had put there to power the bunker he overrode his safety consultants and located there to funnel some city money to a campaign contributor. Building 7 was never hit. America's mayor blew it up with his little bunker bomb.
Still want him?
{all emphasis mine & I'm too dumb to figure out permalinks at livejournal sites}
November 20, 2002
Arroyo's Folly
[ From an old email {thanks Earthlink! Grrrr...} sent by Ray ] :
Jogger case cop: They're all guilty
Arroyo dismissed accusations that police coerced the incriminating statements, saying detectives working in separate groups while questioning more than 40 suspects could never have pulled off such a conspiracy.
"All the different detectives asking questions - that's how this case came together," he said. "To allege that the confessions were coerced is just ridiculous."
"These kids did what they said they did," Arroyo told The News. "The test only goes to prove that we have finally identified one other person."
Still, Arroyo, 46, said he believes the new evidence linking prison inmate Matias Reyes to the crime gives Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau reason to support vacating the verdicts. Reyes says he acted alone.
"If he does vacate, it's probably the right thing to do in terms of the new evidence," Arroyo said. "It's too hot a political potato for him not to do that."
The Daily Snooze gets the award for redundancy. They've been rehashing lies and half-truths for weeks now. They must be competing with the Post for most racist, irrational tabloid in the city.
When will any of the dailies mention Arroyo's disgrace within the NYPD? He resigned after barely escaping an indictment for stealing cocaine from a deceased drug dealer. Funny how that's never mentioned about the former "head detective" on the jogger case.
More to come.
November 22, 2002
For Gordon Parks
[ From Yahoo! News ] :
Black Photographers Pay Tribute to Gordon Parks
Ninety of the nation’s top African-American photographers will converge on Harlem on Saturday, Nov. 30, to pay tribute to the legendary Life Magazine photographer Gordon Parks who will be celebrating his 90th birthday that day.
That afternoon, at 2 p.m., the 90 photographers will gather with Mr. Parks for a group photo at an undisclosed site in Harlem.
Prior to the historic photo shoot, the photographers will fan out across Harlem neighborhoods to document its people and their activities for a forthcoming exhibition and book titled "Harlem Saturday." The photographers will be dedicating some of their work from the photo shoot to raise money for scholarships and to support existing photography workshops.
This unprecedented gathering of some of the nation’s top photographers will include 10 Pulitzer Prize winners and a representation of major photography award winners from across the country, many of whom work with some of the world’s leading media outlets.
Gordon Parks is one of my idols. There isn’t much more to say about him. Do a simple Google search to find out more about him if you don’t know him or his many works. A true Renaissance Man.
November 23, 2002
And the hate goes on
The DA upped the ante in the homophobic beating at the House:
DA alleges hate crime in Morehouse bat attack
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard will prosecute as a hate crime the baseball bat beating of a Morehouse College junior by another student.
Mike continues to offer several first-hand accounts of the developing mess at Morehouse College.
I also found this from the Red And the Black, the "independent" newspaper of the college:
Assault ups fears for homosexuals
"It saddens me to know that in 2002 we have to work with students who have behaved the way that student is alleged to have behaved," [University Dean of Students Rodney] Bennett said.
Funny how everyone is adding in "alleged" when talking about Price's assault, yet no one bothers to include that word when there's talk about the victim looking, staring, checking out the punk in the shower stall.
Could make something out of it, but I won't.
I want to offer words on the beating death of Gwen Araujo. Instead, I'll point interested parties to GLAAD's media resource section of media clippings surrounding the teens murder in Newark, CA.
November 24, 2002
Four (Three) Little Letters
Link and Think is an observance of World AIDS Day in the personal web publishing communities. The project involves hundreds of webloggers, journalers, diarists and other personal website publishers, each linking to resources about HIV/AIDS or publishing personal stories about how the AIDS pandemic has affected them.
{VIA Anil Dash}
November 25, 2002
'Self-Serving' Is Putting It Mildly
The famed sex crimes prosecutor who led the probe that nailed five teens in the Central Park jogger rape told the Daily News yesterday she is certain that the men took part in the shocking attack.
Linda Fairstein — speaking out for the first time on the 13-year-old case — said new evidence that has raised doubts about the teens' convictions doesn't mean they're innocent.
I'll let this express my sentiments on this Daily News puff stroke piece:
City Councilman Bill Perkins (D-Harlem), who has led the suspects' fight to clear their names, called Fairstein's comments about the case "self-serving."
"She should accept some accountability and responsibility, as opposed to arrogantly asserting that nothing was done wrong," Perkins said.
I can't wait till December 5th for DA Morgenthaus' response on the new evidence and revelations. Anything short of exoneration would be injustice.
UPDATE @ 10:44 — The New York Joke Post chimes in as well:
Speaking out publicly for the first time, Linda Fairstein tells The New Yorker she believes Matias Reyes was part of the wolf pack that attacked the woman on the night of April 19, 1989.
"I think Reyes ran with that pack of kids," she says. "He stayed longer when the others moved on. He completed the assault."
Ugh! I really, really need to have another Omnibus update on the case and the recent gang-mentality of the New York press as regards this case.
Testing, Then Testifying
A Baptist minister took an HIV test in front of his congregation then implored parishioners to do the same after church as part of an effort to raise awareness about AIDS.
Of the 700 members of the True Bethel Baptist Church who watched the Rev. Darius G. Pridgen endure the needle prick, 105 stopped by a nearby charter school to be tested for the virus that causes AIDS, the Buffalo News reported.
Before lively hymns and scripture readings during Sunday worship, Pridgen warned dozens of teenagers in the church about the dangers of sex and promiscuity. ``Once you catch (AIDS), you don't just get rid of it. Do not let yourselves die for a few minutes of pleasure,'' he said.
The effort for mass HIV screening through a church is believed to be one of the first of its kind in the nation, organizers said.
November 27, 2002
Spike-O-Rama
My Next Three DVDs to Watch (courtesy of the New York Public Library system):
1. Bamboozled — Powerful, but as usual, Spike fucked up the ending and Americans just don't get satire.
2. Do The Right Thing — Spike's best, IMMHO!
3. Clockers — The introduction of Mekhi Phifer, a mixed blessing.
{that's if the lazy bums at the library can find and then notify me of the availabity of the above in a reasonable amount of time}
UPDATE: Bonus Spike