Page 37 - Florida Sentinel 11-27-20

National
Father And Son Who Brutally Murdered Ahmaud Arbery Denied Bail
HBO’s ‘40 Years A Prisoner’ Doc
Follows Son’s Effort To Free Parents
Imprisoned After MOVE Bombing
On the morning of August 8, 1978, the Philadelphia Police Department, at the direction of hardline Mayor Frank Rizzo, engaged in a confrontation with the radical Black organization MOVE and fired thousands of rounds of ammunition into the West Philadelphia home of the social justice group. When the smoke cleared, a police officer named James Ramp had been killed and an unarmed MOVE member named Delbert Africa had been beaten to within an inch of his life by three police officers.
Delbert and his wife Debbie Africa were imprisoned for the cop’s death that day. Their son, Mike Africa Jr., has commit- ted his life to finding out the truth about what really hap- pened and fighting for the re- lease of the parents that he has only ever known through prison walls.
His journey is chronicled in HBO’s feature documentary “40
Mike Africa Jr. in the HBO documentary “40 Years a Pris- oner”
Years a Prisoner,” debuting Tuesday, December 8 (9:00- 10:50 p.m. ET/PT). Using eye- witness accounts and archival footage, the film illuminates the story of a city grappling with racial tension and police brutal- ity with alarming topicality and modern-day relevance.
Travis and Gregory McMichael, the father-son duo charged for the brutal murder of Ahmaud Arbery, were denied bail and must remain behind bars, a judge ruled on Friday (Nov. 13). Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, urged the judge to keep Travis, 34, and Gregory, 64, in custody.
“These men are proud of what they've done,” she said accord- ing to NBC News. “In their self- ish minds, they think they're good guys.”
William “Roddie” Bryan, a neighbor to the McMichaels', was denied bail over the sum- mer.
Bryan recorded Arbery’s murder. All three men have been
PROTEST FOR AHMAUD ARBERY
indicted on suspicion of malice murder, felony murder, aggra- vated assault, false imprison- ment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
Investigators found racist text messages and social media posts from Travis McMichael, Cobb County prosecutors noted
in court on Thursday. Bryan also told authorities that he heard Travis use the n-word after fatally shooting Arbery.
Arbery, 25, was out for a jog in late February when the men, approached, cornered, and shot him to death. The incident was recorded on Bryan’s cell phone.
Marijuana Dispensary Owner Details What Black People Face When They Enter The Business
As marijuana laws in Amer- ica continue to relax, the his- torical and current impact on Blacks is being looked at and the new BET documentary Smoke: Marijuana + Black America analyzes the phenom- enon from several perspec- tives. One of them is from the perspective of those who choose to enter the burgeoning cannabis business.
In a Zoom chat with Erik Parker, the documentary’s di- rector, Colorado’s first African American marijuana dispen- sary owner, Wanda James, says witnessing how mass in- carceration of as many 800,000 Black people was used to respond to simple mar- ijuana possession motivated her.
“This created the slave labor force that America has always had and when your race is tar- geted to be slave labor for For- tune 500 companies and you start to understand the combi- nation of being arrested for simple possession and then spending usually about a decade of your life as a slave, i.e., in a privatized prison sys- tem, it became very concerning to us,” explained James.
A former naval officer and one-time political campaign manager, she owns the Simply Pure dispensary with her hus- band Scott Durrah in Den- ver. The couple got into the marijuana legalization move- ment after her brother was ar- rested for possession of only 4.5 ounces of the plant and given a 10-year sentence.
“We wanted to put a Black face on this movement and we wanted to be able to talk openly about this and we knew
Wanda James and her husband Scott Durrah, inside their dis- pensary.
that they couldn’t make crimi- nals out of me and my hus- band a decade ago,” she said. “People now talk about making money. When we started this, it was our dream not to be ar- rested and not to go to jail be- cause that was real back then. So that’s what got us started in opening up the first dispensary operation.”
James says she and her husband are “serial entrepre- neurs,” having run multiple businesses, but the risk they faced in opening up a mari- juana business was serious and that was brought home when they were raided in 2009 by law enforcement, despite being a legitimately legal dispensary. “When you’re Black and you’re in anything, choose your poi- son, you are going to be scruti- nized more than anybody else,” said James, who em- phasized that she runs her businesses by the book. But when she found out that offi- cers had come to her grow fa- cility in riot gear and with hazmat material, bursting win- dows, it made her worried enough to get on the phone with several lawyers and even legislators discussing their op- tions.
“Being outspoken about this from day one, we honestly did-
n’t know what was coming next,” she said. It was terrify- ing.”
With experiences like that behind her, she says it is no- table that Black people are largely absent from the cannabis businesses today and could be missing an economic opportunity and a chance to protect Blacks from the scrutiny around marijuana that has burdened the commu- nity. But there are barriers to entry that could be holding people back.
“When you get past the idea of being Rosa Parks and get- ting the ability to sit on the bus, then the next piece is well, how do we own the bus?” said James. Finance itself is a hin- drance to many people becom- ing involved in the legalized marijuana trade. “No matter how talented your team is, you’ve got to find that money through private equity, which usually means you sitting in front of a 30-year-old white guy explaining why your busi- ness is a good thing, and that becomes difficult for so many different reasons.”
Smoke: Marijuana + Black America premiered Wednesday, November 18 at10pmETonBET.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY PAGE 21-A