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The protest slogans addressing our latest struggle for justice and equity compel me to come up with a new phrase. The signs and T-Shirts emblazoned with “I Can’t Breathe!” “No Justice, No Peace!” and the latest, “Black Lives Matter,” carry connotations related to action. I often wonder what the folks who wear the T-shirts and hold the signs are doing to back up the slogans they spout. More importantly, I wonder who makes the shirts and who sells them. With that in mind, my slogan for action — economic action is, “Black Dollars Matter!” The “I Can’t Breathe” shirts worn...

ALL THAT REMAINS frontman Philip Labonte says that the "tax laws," not the police, were responsible for the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who was stopped for selling loose cigarettes in New York City and placed in an apparent chokehold by a white police officer. Labonte recently made headlines in the rock media when he suggested that the obstacles faced by the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) community do not equal those experienced by the black community. Asked by Radio.com to clarify his comments, the singer said: "I think it was pretty clear. African-Americans have had a shit deal. You...

Al Sharpton is all about the Benjamins, a daughter of police chokehold victim Eric Garner claims in a bombshell videotape. Erica Snipes tees off on the reverend as interested primarily in money during a secretly recorded conversation by controversial conservative activist James O’Keefe’s group, Project Veritas. One of O’Keefe’s investigators poses as a Garner supporter with a hidden camera during a protest last month at the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island.

After a year of unrest over how the justice system responded to the deaths of several unarmed African-American men, many people marking Martin Luther King’s Birthday on Monday were more rueful than celebratory. Some marchers in a small city in northern Alabama wore black shirts with the names of three of the men in white print: Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin. Two died in confrontations with police officers, and one with a neighborhood watch coordinator. In an acknowledgment of the complexity of the issue, the shirts also bore the names of Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, the two...

Black people are too intent on holding on to wrongdoings from the past. Therefore, they keep blaming someone else for their problems.The list of wrongs done to Black people throughout their history in the U.S. that are still resonating in their lives today is extensive and extremely disturbing. As a result of hundreds of years of subjugation in an oppressive, racist system, Black households have one-tenth the wealth of white households in this country. While the Civil Rights Era enabled African-Americans to make great advances in the past 40 years — achieving high school, college and post-graduate degrees at accelerating...

The January 26th edition of The New Yorker imagines a world where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marches arm in arm with some of the most polarizing news figures from 2014 and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The publication is known for it’s controversial covers, but this one entitled “The Dream of Reconciliation” – shows Dr. King with Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and New York City Police officer Wenjian Liu, who was killed by a gunman in December – peacefully walking with arms linked as an American flag waves in the background. Artist Barry Blitt who drew it says he...

In a rare moment of confusion, the usually well informed Rush Limbaugh talked about something he seems not to understand. In a few months there will be a special election to fill the now vacated seat in the 11th Congressional District which is largely on Staten Island. The seat was held by a Republican who has taken a plea and awaits sentencing for an income tax related crime. For most of America, especially liberal America, Staten Island in a mysterious place that used to have the largest garbage dump in the world and is filled with Right Wing Republicans. Unfortunately...

There is an expression in police work: “If you weren’t there you don’t know what happened.” Cops know you need all available information to make a good judgment. When a cop sees a lady “sawed in half” on a stage he/she understands that what is being presented is a carefully crafted illusion. They understand that seeing a brief video, even one that was “shown on television thousands of times” doesn’t necessarily provide proof of what happened. The Rodney King case brought acquittals for the police when the first jury saw all of the available video; but a conviction when the...

So, let’s get this straight. At a decisive moment in history when our nation required a strong and unbiased voice from its’ senior law enforcement official, you Mr. Holder, made it your personal mission to join with other racial antagonist and politicize a tragic event, accusing a young white police officer of a racially motivated killing in what we now know was a justified self-defense shooting of a predatory felon. Your behavior is unbelievable. You sir, have sacrificed your integrity on the altar of political expediency. You, Mr. Holder, are the “coward” and hypocrite you so loudly denounce when speaking...

Catholic Theologians Protest ‘Deep-Seated Racism’ Of US, Compare Eric Garner To Christ A "statement of commitment to racial justice." More than 400 Catholic theologians signed a statement protesting the “deep-seated racism” of the US and compared Eric Garner to Jesus Christ. Written by St. Louis University Professor of Theological Ethics Dr. Tobias Winright, it is called a “statement of commitment to racial justice.” Advertisement-content continues below What prompted the writing of the statement was the killing of blacks by police officers. The statement reads: The killings of Black [sic] men, women and children—including but not limited to Rekia Boyd, Eric...

The Black Brunch movement wants us to get uncomfortable with law enforcement violence in communities of color.Weekend brunch is usually the time for Americans to kick back and enjoy a mimosa and a slice of a savory veggie frittata (watch out for those spiking egg prices) with friends or family. But on Sunday, diners in several New York City and Oakland, California, restaurants got a hefty serving of anti–police violence activism alongside their meals. Dozens of participants in the grassroots Black Brunch movement walked into restaurants that tend to serve a predominantly white customer base. The activists weren’t there to...

For those of us who have managed to survive 2014 with our lives intact and our freedoms hanging by a thread, it has been a year of crackdowns, clampdowns, shutdowns, showdowns, shootdowns, standdowns, knockdowns, putdowns, breakdowns, lockdowns, takedowns, slowdowns, meltdowns, and never-ending letdowns. We’ve been held up, stripped down, faked out, photographed, frisked, fracked, hacked, tracked, cracked, intercepted, accessed, spied on, zapped, mapped, searched, shot at, tasered, tortured, tackled, trussed up, tricked, lied to, labeled, libeled, leered at, shoved aside, saddled with debt not of our own making, sold a bill of goods about national security, tuned out by those...

A few days ago I found myself arguing with some idiot about the Michael Brown/Darren Wilson case. “Have you even looked at the mountain of eyewitness testimony and other evidence showing that Wilson acted legally, in self-defense?” I asked the nutjob. “I don’t have to. I just know Wilson lied,” was his reply. What are we supposed to do with the endless mobs of people like this? They’re smashing property, attacking and murdering random police officers and civilians, burning down buildings, storming police stations, clogging up our roads, shutting down commerce, keeping people from getting to work or home from...

BuzzFeed News spoke to a protester who chanted for “dead cops” on Dec. 13, which was captured on video and has become a nationwide flashpoint. “We wanted to separate ourselves from people who just want to get a guy fired.”(VIDEO-AT-LINK) NEW YORK CITY — On Dec. 13, about 100 protesters splintered off from the #MillionsMarch in lower Manhattan — a huge, peaceful demonstration against police brutality — and headed up Sixth Avenue. They turned east on 32nd Street, and passed right under the window of Tom Dilello, a computer programer who works for a large bank. At about 4:41 p.m.,...

In late November, the student government at taxpayer-funded Morgan State University sponsored a conference on slavery reparations for black Americans. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was the keynote speaker. The Nov. 22 conference, called the 2nd Annual Black United Summit International, occurred on Morgan State’s historically black campus in Baltimore, Md. The conference theme was “Re-Claim, Re-Pair, Re-Form, Re-Produce — REPARATIONS Now!” Total attendance was over 2,000, according to EAGnews.org. Final Call, a Nation of Islam publication, provided a detailed report about convention activities. Farrakhan’s keynote rant lasted over two hours. At one point, he held up what resembled...

With reports that the NYPD is looking into as many as 63 threats against police officers, or the mayor this week alone, news also comes of a lack of motivation among the rank and file, undoubtedly contributing to a significant drop in arrest numbers across the city. “[There’s] just not motivation,” one police officer told [Vice]. “I’m not writing people summonses if I have a chance of getting my head blown off.” When asked if this was his own choice or a precinct-wide initiative, the officer added, “Seems like the entire department is on the same page.” As the New...

2014 was an epochal year for social justice. 2015 could be even more dramatic.The shattering events of 2014, beginning with Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, in August, did more than touch off a national debate about police behavior, criminal justice and widening inequality in America. They also gave a new birth of passion and energy to a civil rights movement that had almost faded into history, and which had been in the throes of a slow comeback since the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012. That the nation became riveted to the meta-story of Ferguson—and later the videotaped killing...

n the wake of the Ferguson grand jury’s determination that there was no probable cause to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, incensed rioters took to the streets of that Missouri city and neighboring towns where they burned and looted a number of local businesses. Those riots were preceded by an anguished speech delivered by Brown’s mother who tearfully lamented the grand jury’s decision before a crowd of supporters. She was joined by her husband and Michael Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, who expressed his grief in a somewhat less constructive way. “Burn this s*** down!”...

Occupy may be gone, but it is clearly not forgotten. The people protesting Eric Garner’s death in New York City were marching to a slightly different drum beat in 2011, but they seem to have returned, having learned something from their previous mistakes.

A discussion of Fox News’ The Five Tuesday afternoon surrounding the ongoing tension between New York City Mayor Bill be Blasio and local police unions following the murder of two NYPD officers last week led co-host Jesse Watters to a seriously hyperbolic declaration about the idea that police could be seen as racist. The Five hosts Eric Bolling and Kimberly Guilfoyle were discussing what they see as a lack of “respect” for NYPD officers from Mayor de Blasio and other officials where Watters jumped in with his assessment. “Everyone is saying that the NYPD is racist,” Watters said. “If the...