After it became known that NBC News selectively edited a 911 call from Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman, the network delivered a vague apology and promised it wouldn't happen again. Now, Reuters reports that a "seasoned" producer is to blame, but sources at NBC refused to name the person, and said NBC will not be firing the responsible party. The network continues to decline further comment on their internal investigation.
Zimmerman, according to the tape aired on Today, said to the dispatcher about Martin, "This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black." In actuality, he was asked by the 911 operator, "OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?" but that part was edited out.
The Today show's editorial control policies — which include a script editor, senior producer oversight, and in most cases legal and standards department reviews of material to be broadcast — missed the selective editing of the call, said the NBC executive.
Executives have vowed to take rigorous steps to formalize editorial safeguards in the news division following the incident, one of the sources said.
NBC News staffers who have been working on the Trayvon Martin story for several weeks in Florida were at first "in shock" over the incident, and later furious, another source, who is an NBC producer, told Reuters.
And yet the network is remaining tight-lipped about any and all specifics. For a case in which racial tensions are already running extremely high, and have even been politicized, this was quite a loaded "oops," and it doesn't appear that NBC News' fellow journalists are going to stop asking questions. Getting real answers is, apparently, another story.
April 6th, 2012, 16:40
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
In police calls, Zimmerman mentioned race only when asked
Of the seven calls placed by George Zimmerman, the man who shot Trayvon Martin, there were five where he reported suspicious-looking young men in the area -- but he never mentioned the men's race without first being asked. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.
George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., called a non-emergency line at the Sanford Police Department seven times, NBC’s Michael Isikoff has found.
Zimmerman mentioned race only when the dispatcher asked him to specify, a fact that could bode well for the 28-year-old who has come under fire for shooting the unarmed black teenager in his gated community.
April 6th, 2012, 16:42
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
April 6, 2012
Bozell: NBC internal probe of ‘doctored’ Martin tapes like ‘Nixon investigating the Watergate tapes’
Published: 2:24 PM 04/03/2012
By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller
Media Research Center president Brent Bozell denounced NBC’s decision to internally investigate the dishonest editing of 911 tapes from the night of Trayvon Martin‘s shooting death. Bozell thinks NBC’s parent company, Comcast, should conduct the investigation.
“This is a massive breach of the public trust,” Bozell said in a statement. “NBC is guilty of dishonestly fanning the flames of racial hatred in America by doctoring tapes. NBC cannot be trusted with the investigation.”
The edited tape made it appear that George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch member who shot and killed Martin, voluntarily informed the 911 operator that he believed Martin was black. In fact, the operator asked Zimmerman to identify Martin as either “black, white or Hispanic,” to which he responded, “he looks black.”
Bozell said that NBC conducting an internal investigation is “like [former President Richard] Nixon investigating the Watergate tapes.”
“NBC is guilty of deliberately lying to the viewing public, and NBC is going to be in charge of investigating itself?” Bozell fumed. “NBC’s parent company Comcast needs to investigate the intentional editing of George Zimmerman’s 9-1-1 call. Comcast needs to come clean. Everyone involved needs to be held accountable.”
Bozell added: “It’s despicable, but expected that the likes of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Maxine Waters would deliberately sow seeds of racial animosity. But it’s utterly reprehensible that NBC would give oxygen to this ugly narrative by doctoring tapes and presenting it as ‘news.’”
NBC News spokeswoman Lauren Kapp did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller’s request for comment.
NBC Edits Phone Call To Portray Trayvon Martin’s Killer As Racist?
Written by: RT
March 31, 2012
NBC appears to have edited an excerpt of a phone call made by Trayvon Martin’s killer to portray him as a racist. The edited George Zimmerman says he thinks Martin is ‘up to no good’ just because he was black – but that’s not what he really said.
On Tuesday, NBC’s Today Show hosted by Ron Allen ran a segment of a phone conversation Zimmerman had with police shortly before killing Martin, as reported by Fox’s Hannity Show. NBC’s version of the phone call allegedly had Zimmerman say the following about Martin: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.”
But in reality the two sentences were separated by a question the 911 dispatcher asked. The original phone call transcript ran like this:
Zimmerman: “We’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood and there’s a real suspicious guy. It’s Retreat View Circle. The best address I can give you is 111 Retreat View Circle. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.”
911 Dispatcher: “Okay. And this guy, is he white black or Hispanic?”
Zimmerman: “He looks black.”
If one compares the NBC version with the original transcript, it appears the channel jettisoned Zimmerman’s real explanation on why he thought Martin looked suspicious, and also got rid of the dispatcher’s question.
There is other evidence to show that the media is trying to portray this case as an archetypical hero-and-villain battle. The photos of Martin and Zimmerman that the media uses are actually dated and create a wrong impression of how both men looked at the time of their encounter. Martin’s picture, in which he appears to be an innocuous-looking smiling teenager, was taken several years ago. At the time of his death, Martin was a 6-foot tall teen with gold teeth who had been suspended from his school for carrying marijuana.
Zimmerman is also not the sturdy-looking man in an orange-colored jail uniform. That mugshot is seven years old, taken when Zimmerman was charged with assaulting an officer, though that charge was dropped. In a much more recent photo, Zimmerman appears leaner and sports a tie and a suit.
Betsi Grabe, a professor at Indiana University-Bloomington who has studied the effects of news images on public opinion, said the media instinctively tries to assign a distinct victim and aggressor in its stories.
“At the center of most stories we tell in our society, cross-culturally and across the centuries, is the struggle between good and evil,” she noted. “If the ingredients are there, that is what journalists will grab onto and present.”
Martin was killed by Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida on February 26. Zimmerman, a community watch coordinator, followed Martin, who he says appeared suspicious. Zimmerman claims that he was attacked by Martin and was forced to shoot him in self defense. Police officers took Zimmerman to the police station but then let him go, saying they did not find evidence that contradicted his assertion of self defense.
Martin’s parents and lawyers contend that the murder was racially motivated, and blame the police for not arresting Zimmerman. The case gained national media attention in March. Martin’s supporters have held rallies in both Sanford and New York.
A number of big names including Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey have also commented on the case. Winfrey said it was a shame that police made no arrests, while Obama, mentioning that he had to be careful about what he said so as to not hamper the investigation, stated that if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon.
April 6th, 2012, 16:44
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
Posted: Friday, 06 April 2012 4:26AM
NBC probe centers on staffer in shooting story error
(Reuters) - An internal NBC News probe has determined a "seasoned" producer was to blame for a misleading clip of a 911 call that the network broadcast during its coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting, according to two sources at the network.
NBC News brass interviewed more than half a dozen staffers during its investigation of the misleadingly edited 911 call placed by George Zimmerman just before he shot the unarmed Florida teenager, said the sources, one of whom is an executive at the network.
The clip aired on the network's flagship "Today" morning show last week.
The edit made it appear that Zimmerman immediately told police that Martin was black, when, in fact, the full tape reveals that the neighborhood watch captain only did so when responding to a question posed by a dispatcher.
There was no clear indication on Thursday of what, if any, disciplinary actions would be taken against the producer or other staff involved in the incident.
The sources at the network, who declined to identify the producer, said NBC News executives did not know the 911 call was misleadingly edited until news reports surfaced days later on right-leaning blogs including Newsbusters.org and Breitbart.com.
"IN SHOCK"
The sources described the producer's actions as a very bad mistake, but not deliberate.
NBC News declined to comment on Thursday. The network said on Tuesday it would not release names of the employees involved. It has apologized for the incident.
One of the sources said that NBC News President Steve Capus would not lose his job over the incident.
The Today show's editorial control policies - which include a script editor, senior producer oversight, and in most cases legal and standards department reviews of material to be broadcast - missed the selective editing of the call, said the NBC executive.
Executives have vowed to take rigorous steps to formalize editorial safeguards in the news division following the incident, one of the sources said.
NBC News staffers who have been working on the Trayvon Martin story for several weeks in Florida were at first "in shock" over the incident, and later furious, another source, who is an NBC producer, told Reuters.
Public pressure has been building on the network to fully explain the incident - which critics charge has inflamed racial tensions in an already volatile situation.
On Thursday, a New York Post editorial characterized the edited 911 call as "pretty damning evidence of willful misconduct by NBC News" and suggested that racial violence could ensue over irresponsible news coverage.
Television news veterans in New York said they were baffled over how the error came to be broadcast given the intense vetting such a sensitive story would normally get at a major network such as NBC.
Executives from parent company Comcast Corp, including Chief Executive Brian Roberts and Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke, who doubles as the CEO of NBC Universal, are not involved in the investigation, two sources inside the network said.
NBC's Today - which has dominated the U.S. morning landscape for more than a decade - is currently in a ratings war with ABC's Good Morning America, which has been picking up viewers.
April 6th, 2012, 16:45
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
And THIS is what media manipulation is about....
Editing a 911 call to make it SOUNDS like the man is a racist (when he isn't) and THIS is what is responsible for all the nonsense.
April 6th, 2012, 16:48
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
Let's be VERY clear on what happened. This article covers it..
by Ben Shapiro 2 days ago post a comment In September 2004, shortly before the November presidential elections pitting George W. Bush against John Kerry, CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Dan Rather presented a falsified document to the public that purported to show that Bush had gone AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard. As it turned out, the papers were forgeries. Rather retired under heavy pressure.
This month, NBC News broadcast a heavily edited tape of George Zimmerman’s 911 call in the Trayvon Martin case. The tape itself was fully available. And NBC News, as we’ve reported, cut the relevant portion of the tape deliberately in order to make Zimmerman look like a racist. Here’s the transcript of the original recording:
ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.
DISPATCHER: OK, and this guy – is he black, white or Hispanic?
ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.
Here’s the transcript of the edited recording:
ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he’s up to no good … he looks black.
The point is obvious. The unedited version shows Zimmerman offering the race of the suspect only when prompted, and doing so hesitantly. The edited version shows Zimmerman eagerly linking somebody being “up to no good” and somebody being “black.” The edited tape was broadcast on “Today” on March 27. NBC’s Ron Allen was the reporter on the scene – and, not coincidentally, he remained the reporter for NBC Nightly News as well. Matt Lauer was part of the report. So was Rachel Maddow. The entire staff was associated with this doctored recording.
Now NBC News has released an apology for the edited video:
During our investigation it became evident that there was an error made in the production process that we deeply regret. We will be taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future and apologize to our viewers.
The network did not, however, apologize to George Zimmerman. And this certainly is not an “error” in the production process. A very specific set of words was cut. It was not random. And it was not a mistake.
So the question becomes: whose head should roll?
The answer is obvious: Brian Williams.
Williams has been, since 2004, the managing editor of NBC News. And this was no mistake. It was a purposeful attempt to drive the narrative against Zimmerman. It is Williams’ job to see that the facts are reported rather than skewed. And the buck stops with him.
This is no isolated incident for Williams. He’s an ardent leftist who began his career by interning for Jimmy Carter. When Williams moderated a Republican debate in September 2011, he asked Rick Perry how he could sleep at night while implementing the death penalty as governor of Texas. After September 11, he implied that America’s “military swagger” provided the impetus for the attacks. He compared the bombing of Iraq to the U.S. military bombing of Japan in its indiscriminateness.
Williams once explained, “[NBC News has an] inordinate number of editors. Every word I write, before it goes on air, goes through all kinds of traps and filters, and it’s read by all kind of different people who point out bias.” He’s at the top of that food chain. And it’s his news department that helped ratchet up the Trayvon Martin story to the point of violence.
April 6th, 2012, 16:53
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
Neighbor comes to defense of Trayvon Martin's shooter
Fellow neighborhood watch volunteer Frank Taaffe comes to the defense of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin while patrolling his gated Florida community. WTVJ-TV's Jeff Burnside reports.
By msnbc.com staff and NBC News
SANFORD, Fla. - A neighbor of George Zimmerman and fellow neighborhood watch captain in their Florida gated community came to his defense Tuesday, saying Zimmerman shot Miami teenager Trayvon Martin after numerous burglaries at The Retreat at Twin Lakes.
Follow @msnbc_us
Frank Taaffe pointed out the circumstances that he believes led his 28-year-old neighbor to react the way he did on the night of Feb. 26: Eight burglaries within 15 months, most done by young black males, he said.
"The stage was already set. It was a perfect storm,” Taaffe said.
NBCMiami.com could not immediately confirm the burglary statistic Taaffe cited in a phone call to Sanford Police Tuesday night. Advertise | AdChoices
Martin, 17, picked up Skittles and iced tea from a 7-Eleven that Sunday, then headed back toward his father’s girlfriend's home on a rainy, drizzly night. Martin put on his hoodie and ran to take cover. Zimmerman spotted him, got out of his car and followed him.
In Trayvon Martin's final phone call with his own girlfriend, according to Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump, he could be heard saying ,“Why are you following me?” with Zimmerman replying, “What are you doing around here?”
Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, the parents of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teen shot dead by a neighborhood watch volunteer, tell TODAY's Matt Lauer they want justice for their son and want the shooter, George Zimmerman, arrested.
Their confrontation ended with Martin getting shot in the chest.
“This guy looks like he’s up to no good,” Zimmerman said in a 911 call.
Asked by a dispatcher if he was white, Hispanic or black, he replied, "He looks black." Zimmerman's father has said that his son is Hispanic, grew up in a multiracial family, and is not racist.
Twin Lakes’ population is ethnically mixed. A few residents said there is tension within the gated community, but Taaffe insisted Tuesday that Zimmerman was acting out of concern for the safety of the area. More from NBCMiami.com: A neighbor comes to Zimmerman's defense
"George is a congenial, amiable, admirable person,” he said. "He had a passion and a care for this neighborhood to ensure the safety of everybody here. And, furthermore, George is no Rambo."
Taaffe said that Zimmerman was appointed as a watch captain, despite reports that he appointed himself to the post. theGrio: Protesters demand repeal of Zimmerman's gun permit
He said he believes his neighbor acted in self-defense, which is what Zimmerman told police. He conceded, however, that the boiling tensions may have been affecting Zimmerman.
At a NAACP forum Wednesday residents of Sanford, Fla., listed their grievances about police treatment of young black men. Neighbors of George Zimmerman, the man who shot unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, have asked him to move out of his townhouse. NBC's Ron Allen reports.
“I think any time you use a weapon, there are certain anger issues working,” Taaffe said. “I think he had fed-up issues. He was mad as hell and wasn't going to take it anymore.”
"It’s really sad that he's already been convicted in the public media and has already been sentenced to the gas chamber,” Taaffe said. “Let's let justice do its job."
Robert Zimmerman, George's father, told The Orlando Sentinel last week in an emotional interview that his family has received death threats. On claims that his son stalked and killed an innocent black teenager, Robert Zimmerman told The Sentinel, "They're lies."
State Rep. Dennis Baxley, a co-sponsor of the "Stand Your Ground" bill, explains why the law would not have authorized George Zimmerman to "pursue and confront" Trayvon Martin.
"George is going to suffer for years and years," he said.
Taaffe told NBCMiami.com that nothing changes the fact that Martin’s death is “devastating.”
”It's a tragic event – we can’t bring that boy back,” he said. “I wish we could.”
Editor’s note: A clarification was made to this story on March 28, 2012. An earlier version of the story truncated George Zimmerman’s quotes to a 911 operator in a way that may have changed the meaning. See correction here.
April 6th, 2012, 16:56
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peterle Matteo
If it is gated it is gated.
There should be private Police at the entrance.
Did Martin enter from the gate ?
Ok.. Let me not be so flippant as before.
Private gated communities don't always (and RARELY) have private police/security guards sitting at a gate.
The only PLACE where I absolutely, positively have seen them was in Key West Florida and someplace in California I visited.
Not 1 mile from my home is a "gated community".
The "gate" is nearly ALWAYS open.
When it is not (sometimes at night) you have to enter a code into a keypad to open the gate. Other than that, I have honestly never seen one with "closed gates" and "security guards" in my area.
April 6th, 2012, 17:46
Malsua
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
There is a place I pass on my way to work which is gated with 24/7/365 human security.
Two ways in, both covered. They still have break-ins. People cross over from a nearby park and break into homes.
April 6th, 2012, 17:48
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
Which means it's not relevant whether the "gated community" had guards or not, the kid could have gotten in some other way... since we're not familiar with that particular place, we have no way of knowing.
April 6th, 2012, 19:13
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peterle Matteo
I've seen gated communties with guards equiped with M16.
I entered because i was with a man who lives there.
I've also seen gated Shopping-Centers with guards, not in Italy.
We dont need it.
If the gate is always open, what is it there for?
We don't have guards in the US with M16s.....
I don't know what the purpose of the gate would be....
I wouldn't LIVE in a "gated community" and don't understand the mentality of those who DO....
His name was Albert Vaughn. He was by all accounts a very good kid living in a very tough neighborhood. He was attending a party at a home that was supposed to be a haven for young inner-city Chicago teens back in April of 2008. The kids were there to enjoy some fun, drink some Kool-Aid, and listen to their favorite music, free from the fear of violence that too often inhabited the streets outside.
But violence found a way in.
At about 10:30 p.m., a scuffle broke out in the basement between two of the guests, and the fight ignited a chain of events that led to the death of the innocent young man. He was fatally struck in the head with a baseball bat as he tried to help the party chaperones usher the kids home.
That’s right. A baseball bat. The same murder weapon Al Capone killed a guy with in The Untouchables.
“He was just trying to do something good for the ’hood because there’s nothing but violence around here,” Sunday Turman, 33, who hosted the party, told reporters. “Next thing you know, he hit the ground right in front of police.”
Vaughn, a student at Julian High School, was the 23rd Chicago Public Schools student slain that school year.
From 2008 through January of 2012, 530 young people have been killed in Chicago, President Obama’s hometown. Over 80 percent of those homicides occurred in black or Latino communities on the city’s South, Southwest, and West sides.
But you don’t know Albert Vaughn’s name.
You don’t know the name of those other 22 kids from Julian High School who died in 2008.
You don’t know any of the other 530 young people, most of them minorities, who were killed between 2008 and January of 2012 in Chicago alone.
All of them were tragedies. All of those victims were too young to die.
Why didn’t you hear about their senseless deaths? Why didn’t the media make them household names? Why didn’t civil-rights leaders march, and march and march again, calling for justice?
Because they were not killed by a white guy.
No, I need to be more accurate. They were not killed by a “white Hispanic,” a new term of art the New York Times and others in the media are using to describe George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon Martin.
Why? Because the real racism that exists in the media is this: a young black male’s life is not worth reporting when it is taken by another black male. It is worth reporting only when it is taken by a white guy.
Thus the contortions to make George Zimmerman “white.”
If this were a voter-ID story, Zimmerman would have been called an Hispanic, not a “white Hispanic.”
And if he were a presidential candidate, Zimmerman would have been called an Hispanic, not a “white Hispanic.”
I don’t ever remember the New York Times calling President Obama the first “white black” president.
The real tragedies here are the stories not being told by the media when it comes to race. So let me continue with Albert Vaughn’s.
He was known for playing basketball with the younger kids in the neighborhood, and trying his best to keep them out of harm’s way. Not the usual activity of a teenage boy, being selfless and caring about someone other than himself.
“If he was guilty of anything, he was guilty of always protecting these kids,” said Trualanda Fields, a neighborhood mother.
Vaughn’s father, who is also named Albert, said his son was “always smiling,” dreamed of attending college, and wanted to be a football player or boxer. “He’d rather box in the ring than in the streets. He didn’t pick fights,” the elder Vaughn said.
Piers Morgan didn’t give Vaughn’s father a sit-down on CNN to talk about his grief.
President Obama didn’t talk about how young Albert could have been his son.
Albert Vaughn’s story gets worse. According to his stepmother, Yolanda Johnson, on the night of Albert’s memorial — a Sunday-night candlelight vigil — about 50 people were huddled close together when the sound of gunshots was heard. Everyone scattered as the count approached ten.
“This isn’t cool anymore,” said Johnson. “They’re trying to take out another one of my kids.” Johnson told reporters she did not feel safe anymore in her neighborhood, and planned to vacate her home.
The “they”Yolanda Johnson was talking about were other young black males, not white people. Because it is predominantly young black gang members — and, increasingly, young Hispanic gang members — who are terrorizing the streets of inner cities all over America.
Yolanda Johnson told reporters she was leaving home, and she is not alone. Blacks are fleeing northern urban centers in record numbers, many of them heading back to the South in what has been called “the Great Return.” They are fleeing the crime and the awful schools and seeking opportunity and a better quality of life.
Between 2000 and 2010, an estimated 1,336,097 blacks moved to seven major southern cities alone, according to the Brookings Institute, which compiled the most recent data from the U.S. Census. Today, 57 percent of the country’s black population lives in the South, a 50-year high.
Young black males are killing one another in epic proportions, and blacks are moving in record numbers from cities like Chicago and Detroit, and the media just yawn.
That story doesn’t interest the mostly white editors and gatekeepers of the mainstream media, who presume such stories won’t draw ratings, especially from a white majority insulated from the problems of inner-city life.
And they may be right for making such assumptions.
This I know for sure: If hundreds of white kids were senselessly murdered by other white kids in high concentrations, the media would be all over it.
Chicago is Columbine every day.
But the one ratings grabber — the one story the media run to like a mouse to cheese — is the story of white-on-black crime. They jump all over it, sometimes to their own detriment, as was true in the Duke lacrosse case. The very same civil-rights leaders posing for cameras in Sanford, Fla., marched in Durham, N.C., a few years back demanding “justice” without actually knowing what had happened in that case.
We all know how that turned out. Those white lacrosse players are still living down the false accusations of a black woman, and the media — and the civil-rights leaders — just moved on.
Those civil-rights leaders I refuse to name don’t seem to care all that much about white people’s civil rights, that’s for sure. Silly ones included in our Bill of Rights such as the the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth amendments, all of which protect the accused from mob justice, and which demand probable cause before an arrest, real-life due process for defendants, and proof beyond a reasonable doubt for any criminal conviction.
No one knows whether George Zimmerman is guilty of a crime, or whether he is a racist. Only time — and a trial — will tell. The endless speculation is just that — speculation.
Then there is the reality of Chicago, and the all-too-real tragedy of black-on-black crime in America. In his latest Wall Street Journal column, Juan Williams cited a comprehensive study by the Justice Department in 2005 on the subject that he said should have been a “clarion call” for the black community, and the nation at large.
Almost one half of the nation’s murder victims that year were black and a majority of them were between the ages of 17 and 29. Black people accounted for 13% of the total U.S. population in 2005. Yet they were the victims of 49% of all the nation’s murders. And 93% of black murder victims were killed by other black people, according to the same report.
That is astounding. Almost one in two murder victims in America is a black male, and more than likely, a young male. And nine out of ten of those young black men were killed by other young back men.
Williams went on to cite some other depressing figures. Less than half of black students graduate from high school, and the education system’s failure is “often a jail sentence or even a death sentence.”
Williams is right. For far too many black kids, public schools are jails before they get to real jails. Young men and women staring down such prospects are kids without hope. And kids without hope can do desperate, senseless things.
This year, a shocking 72 percent of black babies are born to unwed mothers. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist, let alone a social scientist, to begin to make some connections about the relationship between that last shocking figure and the rest of them.
Kids — and entire communities — without fathers do not know a masculine love that is essential to a neighborhood. To its moral development. And its safety.
That we are still not properly talking about the real race problems in America — ones that include disparate sentencing and profiling — is a failure of imagination. And conscience.
Yes, Trayvon Martin’s death was a tragedy, and a nation’s prayers should go out to everyone in his family. And all of his loved ones.
But while you are at it, say a prayer for Albert Vaughn’s loved ones. Say a prayer for all of the thousands of young black Americans whose lives were cut short by senseless street violence. Say a prayer for the faceless, voiceless victims we never hear about or read about or see on TV because so many of us just aren’t interested.
Say a prayer for all of those young black men and women who were too young to die.
— Lee Habeeb is the vice president of content at Salem Radio Network, which syndicates Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, and Hugh Hewitt. He lives in Oxford, Miss., with his wife, Valerie, and daughter, Reagan.
The slaying of Trayvon Martin has raised many questions about race relations in the US in the weeks since the 17-year-old was gunned down by George Zimmerman. Some, however, are concerned that these conversations aren’t enough.
Malik Zulu Shabazz, the national chairman of the New Black Panther Party, told a radio program over the weekend that he wants African-Americans in the US to be prepared for further victimization and, in hopes of preventing further attacks, wants blacks to be briefed in self defense.
“This Saturday in Sanford, Florida the New Black Panther Party will be conducting county-wide and state-wide defense training and community patrols to protect against racial violence and attacks, and people like Zimmerman,” Shabazz told The Muslim Street radio program on Sunday evening.
It was on February 26 that Martin was shot and killed by Zimmerman, a community watch captain on patrol in a Sanford, FL gated community while walking on foot to his father’s apartment. More than a month after the event, however, no charges have been brought against the confessed shooter and he still stands a free man. Although a grand jury will soon consider taking on a case against Zimmerman, the silence so far has caused outrage across America. In recent weeks, protests and rallies have occurred from coast-to-coast, and even US President Barack Obama himself has touched on the topic. With Americans asking for justice en masse, Shabazz suggests that proactively preaching defense tactics to black youths could be perhaps the best thing to do for now while Zimmerman remains free.
“We’re talking now here about community patrols, laying a structure for defense [training] in the communities where men and women will know how to deal with this violence and police misconduct,” said Shabazz.
Additionally, Shabazz is calling for a worldwide strike on April 9 in hopes of raising even more awareness for their fight for justice. According to the New Black Panther Party leader, over 300 organizations have agreed to take part in a strike both in the US and abroad. Discussing the strike with The Muslim Street, Shabazz said next Monday would be “a day of absence, where there is no work, no school, and no shopping in the cause of justice for Trayvon and the immediate arrest of Zimmerman and charging him with the appropriate charges.”
“[W]e’re talking about a national strike and using the power of our labor and our dollars to affect justice,” added Shabazz.
In December 2010, Shabazz supported a strike in the state of Georgia, where prison inmates refused to perform assigned work duties until they were provided with better living conditions. In terms of that strike, Shabazz said he hoped that it would “send a message out across state lines to others who are behind bars that they must organize behind bars and take the necessary risk to take a stand for their human rights and for a better life.”
“Incarceration and coercion has been a means to control black people who compose a majority of those in the prison system,” Shabazz added. “It’s a prison industrial complex.”
This is not the first time that the New Black Panther Party has asked for justice for Trayvon, either. Last week the group released a wanted poster asking for the capture, dead or alive, of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, 28, says he killed Martin in self defense. Critics have been skeptic of what threat, if any, Martin was to Zimmerman. In addition to the more than ten-year age difference between the two, Zimmerman also weighed in at more than 100 pounds heavier than the teenager, who was unarmed.
The slaying of Trayvon Martin has raised many questions about race relations in the US in the weeks since the 17-year-old was gunned down by George Zimmerman. Some, however, are concerned that these conversations aren’t enough.
Malik Zulu Shabazz, the national chairman of the New Black Panther Party, told a radio program over the weekend that he wants African-Americans in the US to be prepared for further victimization and, in hopes of preventing further attacks, wants blacks to be briefed in self defense.
“This Saturday in Sanford, Florida the New Black Panther Party will be conducting county-wide and state-wide defense training and community patrols to protect against racial violence and attacks, and people like Zimmerman,” Shabazz told The Muslim Street radio program on Sunday evening. FULL STORY
Killer Mike should be concerned about all the establishments chosen Black leaders who claim to speak on behalf of the Black community and in many cases mislead or distract us from the real issues at hand, he should also reevaluate his support of the NRA.
Members of the National Socialist Movement during a patrol on the US-Mexico border in January
Neo-Nazis are currently conducting heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida and are "prepared" for violence in the case of a race riot.
The patrols are to protect "white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety" in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting last month, says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement. "We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody, but we are prepared for it," he says. "We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over."
Because nothing diffuses racial tension like gun-toting racial separatists patrolling an already on-edge community.
Schoep, whose neo-Nazi group is based in Detroit, tells Riptide the patrols are a response to white residents' fears of a race riot.A group called the New Black Panther Party recently offered $10,000 for a citizens' arrest of George Zimmerman, Martin's shooter. Schoep said the bounty is a sign that "the possibility of further racial violence... is brimming over like a powder keg ready to explode into the streets."
The patrols are comprised of between 10 and 20 locals and "volunteers" from across the state, including some from Miami, he added. He couldn't go into specifics on what kind of firepower, exactly, the patrols had with them.
"In Arizona the guys can walk around with assault weapons and that's totally legal," Schoep said, referring to the group's patrols of the US-Mexico border. "What I can tell you is that any patrols that we are doing now in Florida are totally within the law."
Asked if the patrols wouldn't just make things worse -- spark a race riot, for instance -- Schoep insisted they were simply a "show of solidarity with the white community down there" and "wouldn't intimidate anybody."
"Whenever there is one of these racially charged events, Al Sharpton goes wherever blacks need him," Schoep said. "We do similar things. We are a white civil rights organization."
He went to great lengths to contrast his organization with the New Black Panther Party, who he blamed for scaring local whites and spurring the need for NSM patrols. Schoep admits that the NSM and the Black Panthers are actually alike in that they are both racial separatists. But he sees a double-standard in the government's treatment of the two groups.
"The Black Panthers have been offering bounties and all that," he says. "But if we called for a bounty on someone's head, I guarantee we'd be locked up as quick as I could walk out of my house."
Schoep was also quick to clarify that he isn't taking sides in Trayvon Martin's controversial shooting. "That's for the courts to decide," he says. Besides, Schoep says, Zimmerman's not even white.
"I think there is some confusion going on," Schoep says. "A lot of people think that this guy who shot Trayvon was white... but he's half Hispanic or Cuban or something. He certainly doesn't look white to me."
To some, sending in the storm troops seems like a sure way to incite -- not prevent -- a race riot. But Schoep says that's way off base.
"We don't wish for things like that," he says. "But there have been race riots in Detroit and L.A... So we know those types of things happen."
"You can either be prepared or you can be blindsided," he adds. "This way, if something were to touch off a race riot, we'd already be in the area."
The FBI has joined the investigation into a series of shootings early Friday morning that left three people dead and two others injured.
The shootings all took place within a three mile radius and at around the same time, police believe.
The NAACP held an emergency press conference Friday evening in the wake of the violence and say they believe the shootings are hate crimes.
"There has been three people killed, others have been shot, in four different incidents," Tulsa City Councilor Jack Henderson said. "And it appears at this time that we have a person -- a white individual -- that has started going around and taking shots at black people."
"We feel like he's targeting African Americans and I think law enforcement, some parts of law enforcement feel that same way," added NAACP Tulsa Chapter President Dr. Warren Blakney.
A press conference is being held by police Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. Tulsa's Channel 8 will be at the news conference and will have any new details that are released.