But some of "US" was "only" driving while "black"
or, or ...
We was "only" walking down the street while "black".
or, or, we was "only" running,in the park and, and, while "black"..
Questions. Yes, dat's right.
So, what's what???
Like whatever happen to "MIRANDA RIGHTS"
and, and, what about the "DUE PROCESS"???
Okay, the big one is,
is dis still America??? The land of the free,
and, and, The home of the brave ???
Report: In jail voicemail, Sandra Bland said she was ‘at a loss for words’]
When the family finally saw the dashcam video, it elicited “extraordinary” emotion, Lambert said.
“If
you look at the dashcam, I think that you see right out of the gate …
that this could have easily been avoided,” he said. “There was very
little reason that could be gleaned from the dashcam why Sandy had to be
asked to put her cigarette out, why Sandy had to be asked to get
out the car, why Sandy had to be subjected to the officer pointing a
Taser at her.”
The arrest warrant detailed Encinia’s version of
events but does not mention the Taser, nor does it elaborate on why
Encinia ordered Bland out of the vehicle.
During the incident,
Bland repeatedly asks why she is being arrested. The remainder of the
confrontation occurs outside the view of the camera, but the audio
captured what appeared to be a struggle.
Bland is heard saying that the officer “just slammed my head to the ground.”
And did they come and "VISIT" you when you were....
EL RENO, Okla. — They opened the door to Cell 123, and President Obama
stared inside. In the space of 9 feet by 10 feet, he saw three bunks, a
toilet with no seat, a night table with books, a small sink, prison
clothes on a hook, some metal cabinets and the life he might have had.
In
becoming the first occupant of his high office to visit a federal
correctional facility, Mr. Obama could not help reflecting on what might
have been. After all, as a young man, he smoked marijuana and tried
cocaine. But he did not end up with a prison term lasting decades like
some of the men who have occupied Cell 123.
As
it turns out, Mr. Obama noted, there is a fine line between president
and prisoner. “There but for the grace of God,” he said somberly after
his tour. “And that, I think, is something that we all have to think
about.”
In
visiting the El Reno prison, Mr. Obama went where no president ever had
before, both literally and perhaps even figuratively, hoping to build
support for a bipartisan overhaul of America’s criminal justice system.
While his predecessors worked to toughen life for criminals, Mr. Obama
wants to make their conditions better.
Photo
President Obama at the
federal prison in El Reno, Okla., on Thursday. He is the first sitting
president to visit a federal prison.Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times
What
was once politically unthinkable has become a bipartisan venture. Mr.
Obama is making common cause with Republicans and Democrats who have
come to the conclusion that the United States has given excessive
sentences to many nonviolent offenders at an enormous moral and
financial cost. This week, Mr. Obama commuted the sentences of 46 such
prisoners and gave a speech calling for legislation revamping sentencing
rules by the end of the year.
He
came to the Federal Correctional Institution El Reno, about 30 miles
west of Oklahoma City, for a firsthand look at what he is focused on.
Accompanied by aides, correctional officials and a phalanx of Secret
Service agents, Mr. Obama passed through multiple layers of metal gates
and fences topped by concertina wire gleaming in the Oklahoma sun to
enter the facility and talk with some of the nonviolent drug offenders
who he argues should not be serving such long sentences.
El
Reno, a medium-security prison with a minimum-security satellite camp
that together house 1,300 men, was locked down for the visit. The campus
of two-story brick buildings separated by neatly trimmed grass remained
eerily silent and empty, with no one in sight other than a few security
officers peering through binoculars from a rooftop. Rather than
bursting at the seams, it had the antiseptic feel of an abandoned
military base, except for the cattle being raised on the property.
The
president was brought to Cell Block B, which had been emptied for the
occasion, its usual occupants moved to other buildings. The only inmates
Mr. Obama saw during his visit were six nonviolent drug offenders who
were selected to have a 45-minute conversation with him at a round
table. It was recorded for a Vice documentary on criminal justice to be
shown on HBO in the fall.
Photo
President Obama toured the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma on Thursday.Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times
The
six seemed to make an impression. “When they describe their youth and
their childhood, these are young people who made mistakes that aren’t
that different than the mistakes I made and the mistakes that a lot of
you guys made,” Mr. Obama said afterward. “The difference is they did
not have the kinds of support structures, the second chances, the
resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes.”
He
added that “we have a tendency sometimes to almost take for granted or
think it’s normal” that so many young people have been locked up. “It’s
not normal,” he said. “It’s not what happens in other countries. What is
normal is teenagers doing stupid things. What is normal is young people
making mistakes.”
Mr.
Obama had the benefit of a largely comfortable upbringing and attended a
premier Honolulu prep school before going on to Ivy League
universities. If those now in prison for drug crimes had those
advantages, he said, they “could be thriving the way we are.”
Still,
he made a distinction between them and criminals guilty of crimes like
murder, rape and assault. “There are people who need to be in prison,
and I don’t have tolerance for violent criminals,” Mr. Obama said. “Many
of them may have made mistakes, but we need to keep our communities
safe.”
Opened
in 1934, the El Reno prison has held its share of murderers, rapists,
thieves and Mafia figures. At one point, it was home to Timothy J.
McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, who was later executed. But today,
its population is made up largely of drug offenders, and its most famous
resident is probably Kwame Kilpatrick, the former Detroit mayor, who
was convicted of corruption.
Over
the years, the prison has had its own dairy and metal factory. Mr.
Obama called it an “outstanding institution” with job training, drug
counseling and other programs, but noted that it had suffered from
overcrowding. As many as three inmates have been kept in each of the
tiny cells he saw.
“Three
whole-grown men in a 9-by-10 cell,” Mr. Obama said with a tone of
astonishment. Lately, the situation has improved enough to get it down
to two per cell. But, he said, “overcrowding like that is something that
has to be addressed.”
Hands
in his pockets, he was escorted into the residential drug abuse
prevention unit by Charles E. Samuels Jr., the director of the Bureau of
Prisons, and Ronald Warlick, a corrections officer. On the walls were
phone numbers for Crime Stoppers and sexual assault hotlines, as well as
signs with words like “Change,” “Commitment,” “Honesty” and
“Accountability.”
Photo
A guard on duty as Mr. Obama toured the prison, which was locked down for the visit.Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times
Ritchy Issac (left) and Myles Linton (right) consider themselves part of sneaker culture, the subject of an exhibit now on display at the Brooklyn Museum.
Ilya Marritz/WNYC
It's a funny feeling to step into a darkened gallery, look into a glass case and see colorful foam and rubber sneakers.
But there are plenty of people who revere kicks like holy icons. Sneakerheads, they're called — like Myles Linton, a high school student entering his senior year.
"I've been into sneakers for a couple years now," Linton says. "It's kind of a part of me, a part of my community."
On his feet, he's got a pair of Air Jordan 4 Toros, black and red. He calls them "kinda basic."
I met Linton in a sneaker shop and asked him to join me at the press preview of the show at the Brooklyn Museum, titled "Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture."
So what does Linton want to see?
"My favorite sneaker is the Air Jordan 1," he says. "So if they have those on display, especially the first one like the 'Chicago' or the 'Breds' — which are my favorite sneaker of all time — then yeah, that would be dope to see."
The show begins with some of the first rubber shoes ever made. They were manufactured in Brazil and exported to America in the 1830s.
In the same case, there's a crusty, brown, old canvas kick with a familiar shape. It's a Converse All Star from 1917, the year that shoe was first produced.
"That's crazy, I mean, this is what I wanted to see," Linton says. "This is ridiculous. An actual pair."
Every step here is shoe history. There's a bizarre high heeled sneaker from around 1925 and a TV ad for Keds from 1958.
And then, the shoe Myles dreamed of: Air Jordan 1, 1985.
"This is dope to see right here," he says. "Air, 1985. Great year for sneakers, great year for Jordan."
The caption reminds us that Michael Jordan was fined $5,000 every time he wore his Jordans on the court, until the NBA was forced to change the rules that banned colorful shoes.
"You could definitely see from the aging of the midsole," Linton says. "It's a OG pair — original pair."
Linton's friend, Ritchy Isaac, joins us in appraising this shoe.
"You would never see something from back in the day that would look exactly the same today," Isaac says. "The factory procedures are different now. You just won't get that back."
Linton and Isaac, both 17 years old, know a lot — I mean, a ton — about what people were wearing on their feet, long before they were even born.
The curator of this exhibit, Elizabeth Semmelhack, says sneakerheads are historians.
"They are interested in the nuances of this history, they suck the information dry, they spend time with the artifacts. They read every label. I tell you, there is not a better museum audience than the sneakerheads," she says.
Linton and Isaac were more or less immobilized by a display of early 21st century Jordans, all perfectly preserved.
"A lot of people might sit here and say, 'Wow, you could just look at sneakers for however much time.' But, you know, people wear it every day. It's gone through so much changes. And despite what anyone says, it's been a huge part of, you know, culture," Linton says.
The sneaker show travels to Toledo, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky., next. You can still catch it in Brooklyn through October.
And the show continues once you leave the building. Just look down at the feet all around you.
