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It began with a routine traffic stop, blossomed into a protest with the help of a rumor and escalated into the deadliest and most destructive rioting Los Angeles had seen. --SNIP-- The commission that investigated the riots recommended better schooling, job training, more low-income housing, public transportation, health services and better relations between the police and the community. Few of those things were realized. Today, the Watts neighborhood is largely Hispanic, but remains poor. Unemployment is high.

A traffic stop turned violent in Alabama when it is alleged Janard Shamar Cunningham attacked the officer who pulled him over, pistol-whipping him unconscious before fleeing the scene. Cunningham, who has a long rap sheet with six convictions dating back to 1999, was later arrested and charged in the crime. But the real story here is the social media reaction.After the officer, a detective, was beaten unconscious, a picture of him laying face down on the group was posted to Facebook. The caption read, “Pistol whipped his ass to sleep” with several emoticons of laughing to tears and skulls, presumably...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) The U.S. Attorney's Office for Southern Florida has determined the racially charged July 30 speech by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan did not cross the line of what is considered protected political speech under the First Amendment. WND inquired last week with the U.S. Attorney's Office, asking for an opinion as to whether Farrakhan's call for 10,000 men to "rise up" and to "stalk them" and "kill them," warranted any sort of criminal investigation. Farrakhan, in a fiery sermon delivered from the pulpit of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Miami, referred to a "400-year-old enemy," which many took...

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the shot heard ’round America — the one that left Michael Brown’s lifeless body lying on a Ferguson, Mo., street for hours and then left the nation reeling and roiling ever since. Yet watching the GOP candidates and Fox News moderators shape and prioritize the nation’s most pressing problems Thursday night, one couldn’t help but wonder: Does “Black Lives Matter” matter to them at all? In a two-hour debate, which frankly felt much longer, only two candidates were even asked about race. First, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker answered a question about the Black Lives...

Protesters who claimed affiliation with the Black Lives Matter movement stormed the stage during a rally for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Seattle on Saturday, taking over the microphone and forcing Sanders to leave without ever speaking. Moments after Sanders took the stage at Westlake Park, two women and one man climbed the stage and confronted the Democratic presidential candidate, demanding a chance to speak. After several moments of confusion and confrontation, an event organizer took the microphone and said the protesters would be allowed to speak before Sanders.

Black lives should matter more than votes Dear presidential candidates: With the first anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown this weekend, America needs to know how the tumultuous events of the last year have affected your stance regarding the needs of the black community. In order for African Americans to determine this, please select one of the following that best defines your current philosophy: a) Black Lives Matter, b) Black Votes Matter, c) Black Entertainers and Athletes Matter, d) All of the Above, e) None of the Above. If you chose anything other than “a,” you probably don’t deserve...

Amid a nationwide struggle against racism, a generation grows.1. The Root of a Movement On April 20, Judge Dennis Porter dismissed charges against Chicago police officer Dante Servin in the killing of 22 year-old Rekia Boyd on the basis of technical differences between involuntary manslaughter and first degree murder. Since then, the Chicago chapter of Black Youth Project 100 has organized nationally and locally to ensure that Servin is fired without a pension from the Chicago Police Department. We have staged several direct actions and testified in front of the CPD Police Review Board every month to demand ServinÂ’s termination....

1) Louis Farrakhan: If the Federal Government Does Not Intercede, then ‘We Must Rise Up and Kill Those Who Kill Us’ By Cassy Fiano Commentary by John Velisek USN (Ret), CiR staff writer Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called late last month for black Americans to “rise up” and “kill those who kill us” if the federal government fails to “intercede in our affairs.” The call for violence came during a July 30 speech the radical leader delivered at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Miami. “The Koran teaches persecution is worse than slaughter. Then it says, retaliation is prescribed...

False claims of racism and hate crimes related to sexuality seem to be endemic. So desirable is the status of victim that some people, especially those in academia, have been known to vandalize their own cars, attach nooses to their office doors, and otherwise fabricate hate crimes against themselves. Oberlin College, with a history of hysteria over fake hate crimes, even generated worldwide headlines for its overwrought response to a series of “hate crimes” that turned out to be false. We don’t know what percentage of hate crime reports are self-generated hoaxes by the purported victims. Often there is no...

Those who want to understand why Donald Trump is so popular going into this week’s Fox News-sponsored Republican debate for the 2016 presidential nomination need look no further than back to the life and times of Malcolm X, the much maligned human rights leader of the 1950s and ’60s, who, to the shock and annoyance many Americans, was much loved in the American black community during similar times like these. Malcolm X, like the blacks whose cause he championed, had nothing to lose and everything to gain as does Mr. Trump; who, by similarity, might as well amend his political...

'We will honour our ancestors whether Britain likes it or not' THOUSANDS OF people marched peacefully from Brixton to Parliament on Saturday (Aug 1) to mark Emancipation Day and reiterate calls for reparations. The procession, which united people of African heritage across all ages, religions and cultures, followed a hugely successful event last year that left those in attendance feeling empowered. The crowds, which included many Pan-Africans, Rastafarians, member of the Nation of Islam, Christians and Black Hebrew Israelites, set off from Windrush Square and made the three-mile journey to the House of Commons. Emancipation Day – a national holiday...

A majority of blacks in the United States - more than 3 out of 5 - say they or a family member have personal experience with being treated unfairly by the police, and their race is the reason why. This information, from a survey conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, comes as the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, approaches its first anniversary and the nation continues to grapple with police-related deaths of black Americans. African-Americans said they felt especially targeted by the police. Half of black respondents, including 6 in 10 black men, said they...

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — A silent march and a day of civil disobedience are among the events being planned this weekend in Ferguson to mark the first anniversary of the fatal shooting of a Black 18-year-old by a White police officer, an event that galvanized the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Organizers are calling it the “Ferguson Uprising Commemoration Weekend.” Plans announced last week include a silent march starting at 11 a.m. (Central) on Sunday from Canfield Drive, where Michael Brown was killed, to Greater St. Mark Family Church. The agenda from the Ferguson Action Council includes an art event, rap...

Martin O'Malley recently laid claim to the title of AmericaÂ’s Biggest Wuss when he apologized for suggesting that all lives matter and not just black ones. What he might have pointed out to the black thugs booing his comment was that black lives apparently only have value when theyÂ’re ended by cops. They certainly donÂ’t seem to matter, judging by the response of race pimps like Barack Obama, Al Sharpton and Marilyn Mosby, when it comes to the thousands of black people shot and killed by other black people or to the hundreds of thousands of black babies aborted every...

Pope Francis develops the key theme of “integral ecology” in his encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.” Integral ecology links the largest theological themes of the Catholic tradition -- that we are all intimately one in God’s being -- with the nitty-gritty of loving our neighbor and caring for the smallest and most vulnerable creatures. God lures us into a dance with each and every one of us together with the whole of creation. We all share one life, one Earth. One cannot and will not thrive unless all thrive in the interdependent web of life. And...

A chilling example of the double standard applied by the Obama Justice Department to hate speech was on display when Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called on his followers to “rise up” and “kill those who kill us” if the federal government fails to “intercede in our affairs.” His speech was delivered in Miami before an enthusiastic crowd, many of whom stood up and applauded when he suggested “retaliation” against whites. This, from his Facebook page: Retaliation! If the federal government won’t intercede in our affairs, then we MUST rise up and kill those who kill us; stalk them...

When do black lives matter? When white people take them. That’s the theme of #BlackLivesMatter, a racist movement which claims to care about black lives, but actually helps take them by weakening the police officers who are the only thing standing between armed gang members and black urban residents. Bill O’Reilly’s willingness to take on #BlackLivesMatter’s greatest hypocrisy, its lack of concern for the victims of black crime as it not only ignores them, but enables their killers, is important. #BlackLivesMatter claims that police shootings are black genocide. The closest things to black genocide can be found in Planned Parenthood...

Louis Farrakhan: If the Federal Gov’t Does Not Intercede, ‘We Must Rise Up & Kill Those Who Kill Us’ Aug. 3, 2015 5:25pm Oliver Darcy Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called late last month for black Americans to “rise up” and “kill those who kill us” if the federal government fails to “intercede in our affairs.” The call for violence came during a July 30 speech the radical leader delivered at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Miami. “The Koran teaches persecution is worse than slaughter. Then it says, retaliation is prescribed in matters of the slain. Retaliation is a...

Joan Walsh breaks down the origins of the new hot word to describe milder-mannered but no less evil conservatives than Donald Trump: Then “cuckservative” started showing up in my Twitter mentions last week, after I suggested Donald Trump supporters might not be the brightest bulbs. As I clicked around, I came to a shocking conclusion: I’ve been uncharacteristically downplaying the amount of racism and misogyny powering the right today. The spread of the epithet “cuckservative” is a sign that the crudest psycho-sexual insecurity animates the far right. “Cuckservative,” you see, is short for a cuckolded conservative. It’s not about a...

Former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who ignited a national firestorm when he shot and killed African-American man Michael Brown, opened up recently in an interview with The New Yorker. Wilson revealed that since the shooting, he has struggled to find work and has been denied employment in several police departments in the St. Louis area. After working for a shoe store for two weeks, he quit when reporters began calling. His wife, who is also a police officer, also quit her job for her own safety. Wilson also revealed the he actually sought out the Ferguson police department because...