Free Republic

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — The woman who survived the on-air shooting that killed two TV journalists says she never saw the gunman walk up to the group because the camera's bright light blinded her. Vicki Gardner, a chamber of commerce official, was answering questions about the community on live TV when the gunfire erupted. She was wounded as she fell to the ground after hearing the first gunshots, her husband said Friday. The gunman, Vester Flanagan, ambushed WDBJ-TV cameraman Adam Ward and reporter Alison Parker during the interview Wednesday at the Smith Mountain Lake Visitor Center....

Vester Lee Flanagan, II, known by his on-air name Bryce Williams, was a Black journalist who fatally shot a white TV anchor and a cameraman during a live interview in Roanoake, Va. on Wednesday. Flanagan shot WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, and wounded Vicki Gardner, the woman the journalists were interviewing. Later, Flanagan, who had been fired from the station in 2013, reportedly died Wednesday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His firearm was reportedly purchased legally from a Virginia gun store. ABC News provides an account of Flanagan‘s 23-page manifesto and suicide letter, which Bryce had faxed...

WASHINGTON – The boos began as soon as Washington's mayor said she was putting more police officers on the streets in neighborhoods affected by violent crime. They didn't let up for the next 18 minutes as Democrat Muriel Bowser laid out her plans to address an increase in homicides in the nation's capital. Bowser was repeatedly heckled and interrupted by a few dozen protesters affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement during her address Thursday inside the sweltering gymnasium of a long-shuttered school in southeast Washington. Shouting "Jobs, not jails!" and "More police is not the answer!," the protesters accused...

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — The reverend and congregation of a church that unveiled a “Black Lives Matter” banner on Pomona Road say they are fearful after a receiving a hostile response to the sign on social media. Rev. Cynthia Cain said comments on the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore’s Facebook page could be described as threats. Many of the comments on the page also state: “All Lives Matter.” “When we say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ they mistranslate it to ‘ONLY Black Lives Matter.’ Why? Are they afraid that people might start empathizing with people of color?” Cain asked. Police...

The man who killed two journalists on live television in Virginia sent a suicide note to ABC News claiming the killings were in response to the shootings at a Charleston, SC church that killed 9 people in June. Bryce Williams, AKA Vester Lee Flanagan, contacted ABC News several times over the last several weeks saying he wanted to pitch a story to them. He never gave them an idea what the story was. Then today, Williams faxed what he called a “suicide note” where he claimed the shooting of the reporters was a response to the Charleston killings and that...

Gangsta Rap’s Grim Legacy for Comptons Everywhere A hit movie about the rap group N.W.A. is a reminder: Glorified thuggery poisoned poor black communities. By Jason L. Riley Aug. 25, 2015 6:39 p.m. ET 242 COMMENTS For two weeks the top box-office draw has been “Straight Outta Compton,” a meandering biopic about the rise and disintegration of the Los Angeles-area rap group N.W.A., or Niggaz With Attitude. N.W.A. helped popularize “gangsta rap” in the late 1980s, and even this hagiography can’t hide the fact that its legacy has endured to the detriment of poor black communities. The most prominent members...

Housing, education and job training, and other anti-poverty programs have cost some $22 trillion since Lyndon Johnson proclaimed the War on Poverty (WoP) some 50 years ago. Blacks made up some 40% of those living in poverty at the start of the program and now make up some 30% – though that figure may be misleading due to the increasing number of Hispanics living in poverty. In public housing alone, blacks constitute nearly 50% of the occupants. Forty-eight percent of public housing households are black compared to only 19 percent of all renter households.6 Taking income into account does not...

Like many of my comrades, original Black Panther Party members, I have for years watched these strutting caricatures who call themselves the New Black Panther Party and expressed my disgust. First of all, I say there is no such thing as a “New” Black Panther Party. If this group is anything, it is a collective of racist, reactionary thugs and tools of the still-very-much-alive Cointelpro government agency. Like others, I have had to explain to many folks, who are not aware of what the Black Panther Party was about, what our original BPP history and legacy is and what damage...

Civil rights activist and philosopher Cornel West on Monday endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for president. "I endorse Brother @BernieSanders because he is a long-distance runner with integrity in the struggle for justice for over 50 years," West tweeted late Monday night. West went on to say that it's time for Sanders' "prophetic voice to be heard across our crisis-ridden country." While West has been a long time supporter of Sanders (and "not a Hillary Clinton fan at all"), the endorsement comes weeks after Black Lives Matter activists disrupted a Sanders event in Seattle, taking the podium from the self...

Remember when DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said this?: “Scott Walker has given women the back of his hand. I know that is stark. I know that is direct. But that is reality.” Debbie Blabbermouth Schultz: Scott Walker has given women the back of his hand DWS has been outdone by Wisconsin Democrat Congresswoman Gwen Moore, who reportedly said during a call with reporters Monday that Scott Walker's policies are "tightening the noose, literally, around African Americans." .@RepGwenMoore says @ScottWalker's policies are "tightening the noose, literally, around African Americans" in Milwaukee and Wisconsin— Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) August 24, 2015In other...

The environmental justice and Black Lives Matter movements are complementary. We can’t afford to choose between the two. Those of us from low-income communities of color are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. US cities and towns that are predominantly made up of people of color are also home to a disproportionate share of the environmental burdens that are fueling the climate crisis and shortening our lives. One has only to recall the gut-wrenching images of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath to confirm this. At a time when police abuse is more visible than ever thanks to technology, and our communities...

A former White House fellow has a unique proposal to take affirmative action to a whole new level. He wants to give votes cast by African-Americans a greater weight than those cast by non-blacks. So much for “one man, one vote.” “Racial reconciliation is impossible without some kind of broad-based, systemic reparations,” career Naval officer and PhD candidate Theodore R. Johnson wrote in The Washington Post. “But if a pecuniary answer can’t fix the structural disadvantage — and it can’t — what can?” Johnson proposes that each black vote count as five-thirds of a vote, flipping around the old constitutional...

The municipal court judge in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday announced sweeping changes to the city's court system, including an order to withdraw all arrest warrants issued in that city before December 31, 2014. Municipal Court Judge Donald McCullin, who was appointed in June, also changed the conditions for pretrial release. According to a press release put out by Ferguson, all defendants will be given new court dates with alternative penalties like payment plans or community service. Those caught for minor traffic violations should be less likely to end up behind bars because of McCullin. Under the new policy, they won't...

Congresswoman Gwen Moore told a group of reporters that Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker is “tightening the noose, literally, around African Americans'” necks during a Monday conference call.The Milwaukee Democrat apparently isn’t a fan of the Wisconsin governor, and said that Walker disproportionately hurts blacks by opposing a higher “minimum wage, requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, and requiring drug testing for public aid recipients.”Additionally, she noted that Walker blocked the construction of a high-speed train connecting Madison and Milwaukee that “took away jobs from inner city Milwaukee.”[h/t: Mediaite, Fox]

IT was snowing in Maine on Jan. 9. I’d been to the dentist’s the day before. The staff there were pleasant enough when I changed genders 12 years ago. “We’ll just change your forms,” the receptionist had said, cheerfully. “It’s no problem.” That day, Papi Edwards, 20, a transgender woman of color, was shot to death outside a hotel in Louisville, Ky. If you’d told me in 2000, as a transgender woman just coming out, that I was a person of privilege, I’d have angrily lectured you about exactly how heavy the burden I’d been carrying was. It had nearly...

Black Lives Matter St. Paul is planning a march and rally during the Minnesota State Fair, the group announced Thursday. The event, called #BlackFair by the organizers, starts at 11 a.m. Aug. 29 in Hamline Park in St. Paul. The protesters will proceed up Snelling Avenue to the fairgrounds in Falcon Heights. The intent is to disrupt the State Fair on its first weekend, Black Lives Matter organizer Rashad Turner said. "The first Saturday of the Fair is one of their money-making days. We just hope to slow that down and continue to bring attention to the injustices that plague...

In 1865, toward the end of the Civil War, Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman promised slaves that they’d receive 40 acres and a mule. Land was even set aside, but the promise was recanted by President Andrew Johnson. Ever since, the issue of reparations has come up many times, often fiercely debated. Although most Americans generally don’t support reparations, according to University of Connecticut researcher Thomas Craemer, it matters greatly how the question is worded, who would get reparations and in what form. For example, the idea of reparations paid in educational benefits are more popular than others, Craemer...

Somerville city officials hung a large banner bearing the words “Black Lives Matter” on the front of City Hall on Wednesday morning in solidarity with the grassroots movement that has spread across the country following the recent shooting deaths of unarmed black men by police. Mayor Joe Curtatone said he worked with members of Black Lives Matter Cambridge , a local offshoot of the national organization, to create the banner and show support for their message. “We see this as an important opportunity for an important national conversation” about race, Curtatone said. He said the move was “a very clear...

AKRON, Ohio — Police have charged an Akron man with voluntary manslaughter after he allegedly shot and killed a home invasion suspect earlier this month. **For a previous story, watch the video player above** According to a release from Akron police, David Hillis, 21, of Hilbish Avenue, was arraigned Monday morning in Akron Municipal Court and then booked into Summit County Jail. He’s accused of shooting and killing burglary suspect Marcus Glover, 25, of Akron, on Aug. 7. A second burglary suspect, who police say was with Glover, has also been arrested. Terry Tart, 37, of Akron, faces charges of...

<p>Why do polls show that racial relations have gotten much worse under Barack Obama, who won the White House with over 95% of the black — and 45% of the white — vote?</p> <p>A recent New York Times/CBS News poll just revealed that about 60% of Americans feel race relations are not good. Some 40% think that they will become even worse. Yet when Obama was elected, 66% of those polled felt race relations were generally OK. All racial groups, according to recent polling, believe that Obama’s handling of racial relations has made things worse since 2009. Another recent Pew poll confirms these tensions, and suggests whites are now about as pessimistic as blacks.</p>