Page 17 - Florida Sentinel 11-14-17

National
First Mayor Of Framingham, MA
Black Air Force Cadet Behind Racist Messages Has Been Expelled
FRAMINGHAM, MA—- Ed- ucator and Museum of Science, Boston executive Yvonne Spicer has defeated former State Rep. John Stefanini to become Framingham's first mayor.
The election followed a his- toric vote in April, in which res- idents voted to turn Framingham into a city -- estab- lishing a mayor and city council and ending its system of govern- ment by town meeting and se- lect board.
Spicer and Stefanini emerged from a September pre- liminary election as the two
Yvonne Spicer was elected the city’s first mayor.
final candidates. Spicer led the pack in the preliminary race with 5,964 votes, and Stefanini came in second with 3,184.
In late September, five Black Air Force Academy cadet candi- dates found racial slurs scrawled on message boards on their doors at the U. S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School. One candidate found the words “go home n ” written outside his room.
The racist messages roiled the academy in Colorado Springs and prompted the school to launch an investigation. They led its superintendent to deliver a stern speech that decried the “horrible language” and drew national attention for its elo- quence.
Last Tuesday, the school made a jolting announcement.
The person responsible for the racist messages, the academy said, was, in fact, one of the cadet candidates who re- ported being targeted by them.
“The individual admitted re-
sponsibility and this was vali- dated by the investigation,” academy spokesman Lt. Col. Allen Herritage said in a statement to the Associated Press, adding: “Racism has no place at the academy, in any shape or form.”
The cadet candidate accused of crafting the messages was not identified, but the Colorado Springs Gazette reported that the individual is no longer en- rolled at the school.
Sources also told the Gazette the cadet candidate “committed the act in a bizarre bid to get out of trouble he faced at the school for other misconduct,” the news- paper reported.
Activists And Lawmakers Demanding Answers Over FBI Report Of Being ‘Targeted’
Black Lives Matter activist, educator DeRay Mckesson says his phone has been hacked and the FBI paid him a visit at his home.
Report: Black And Poor Neighborhoods In Chicago Are Paying More For Water
Since the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, the rise of social activism protesting police killings of un- armed Black men and women and decrying white supremacy, a leaked FBI report has activists and members of Congress de- manding answers.
The 12-page assessment, writ- ten in August and titled “Black Identity Extremists Likely Moti- vated to Target Law Enforce- ment Officers,” was posted online by Foreign Policy. Citing attacks on police following the 2014 shooting death of the un- armed teen (Brown) by a white officer, the assessment notes “it is very likely Black Identity Ex- tremist perceptions of police brutality against African-Ameri- cans” have caused an increase in violence against law enforce- ment.
In October, the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray seeking answers related to the assessment given the Bureau’s “troubling history” of utilizing its broad investigatory powers to target Black citizens.
The 49-member Caucus re- quested a meeting with the FBI for information about the ori- gins of the assessment and how it will be used.
When asked about the report, a spokesperson for the FBI said, ‘the FBI does not comment on intelligence products’.
In a statement, the FBI said, in part, “Our focus is not on membership in particular groups but on individuals who commit violence and other criminal acts.
Michael German, a former FBI agent says “Black Identity Extremist” is a new term, but not a novel concept.
“Basically what they’re trying to do is suggest that uncon- nected acts of violence are somehow part of a larger move- ment that doesn’t actually exist in real form,” German said. “Using a term like "Black Iden- tity Extremist" and the way they define it could cover a lot of po- litical advocacy groups, and cer- tainly anyone associated with the Black Lives Matter Move- ment, to suggest these acts of vi- olence are attributed to those movements.”
Black Lives Matter activist, DeRay Mckesson, also had strong feelings about the assess- ment. The educator joined protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the fatal police shoot- ing of Brown.
“I know that they are watch- ing us," he said. I am mindful of safety and trust while knowing that part of their strategy is to make us too afraid to continuing doing the work. "I’ve had my phone hacked, have received numerous death threats, and have had the FBI visit my house. I am not deterred.”
CHICAGO, IL — It doesn't make any sense, but a recent Chicago Tribune investigation revealed that Chicago residents who are poor and Black are pay- ing more for water than others.
According to the report, pre- dominantly black communities had water bills 20 percent higher than that of white com- munities for the same amount of water. Why?
According to Chicago com- munity leaders, there are rea- sons why low-income residents pay more for water.
• water lost through cracked pipes and leaky hy- drants
• rate increases needed to replace poor infrastructure
However, the bottom line is that poor people cannot afford to pay a higher price for water. Al- though city officials may provide explanations, the higher rates for the poor takes a larger per- cent of their paycheck.
One of many examples pro- vided by the Chicago Tribune was "Residents of Glenwood, a lower-income, predominantly black community, pay $67.60. In the largely middle-income, predominantly white suburb of Willowbrook, residents pay $48.35."
Found ‘Guilty’ Of Murdering Gender Fluid Teen In Iowa
KEOKUK, IW —- The trial in the killing of a popular Iowa teenager whose death drew the notice of Attorney General Jeff Sessions ended recently with a verdict of first-degree murder.
It took a jury just 90 min- utes to return a guilty verdict in the murder of Kedarie John- son, a gender-fluid teenager whose case attracted national attention.
The jury found Jorge Sanders-Galvez, 23, guilty of first-degree murder in the slay- ing of Kedarie, who was found dead in an alley with two bullet holes in his chest around 11:30 p.m. March 2, 2016.
Kedarie had been gagged, his head covered by a garbage bag and his body doused in bleach.
Sanders-Galvez will be officially sentenced Dec. 18 and faces mandatory life in prison-
Gender fluid teen, Kadarie Johnson was gagged, a bag over his head, fatally shot and doused with bleach and dumped in an alley by Jorge Sanders-Galvez and his cousin in 2016.
without the possibility of pa- role. His “good friend,” cousin and co-defendant, Jaron Purham, also is charged with first-degree murder and will be tried separately.
Kedarie’s mother, Kat- rina Johnson, said she con- sidered her son’s death a hate
crime. Prosecutors laid out a case that suggested that. Sanders-Galvez and his cousin pursued Kedarie, 16, believing that he was a girl, kid- napped the teen and grew en- raged when, during a sex act, they discovered that he was a boy.
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