Page 20 - Florida Sentinel 5-23-17

National
NAACP Board Fires National CEO And President Cornell Williams Brooks
Alabama Judge Won’t Recuse Himself In Case Involving White Cop Who Killed Black Man
Judge Greg Griffin, was racially profiled by police prior to being assigned to the case.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, AL —— After a reportedly con- tentious hearing Thursday morning, black Alabama Judge Greg Griffin denied a motion filed Monday by de- fense attorneys for white Montgomery police officer Aaron Smith requesting that Griffin recuse himself from Smith’s murder trial, AL.com reports.
Smith, who is white, is charged with murder in the death of 58-year-old Gregory Gunn, a Black man walking home after work on Feb. 25, 2016.
After a brief encounter, Gunn was stunned, beaten with a baton, and shot five times. Smith, then 23, claimed that he tried to deescalate the situation before shooting Gunn.
Smith was charged with murder less than a week later. In a Facebook post two weeks after Gunn’s death, but before he was assigned the case, Griffin discussed being stopped by police in his own neighborhood for walking
while Black.
Griffin made it clear that
he would not be recusing him- self—as multiple judges had done before him for various reasons—and that the defense was wrong for trying to use his blackness to suggest that he wouldn’t do his job fairly.
“This is not a stop-and- search case,” Griffin said. “This is a murder case.” Grif- fin also said the officer who stopped him was Black, the Montgomery Advertiser re- ports.
Miss. Lawmaker Says Louisiana
Leaders Should Be ‘ Lynched’ For
BALTIMORE, MD —- The N.A.A.C.P national board voted Friday for its CEO and presi- dent to step down as a move to strengthen the organization’s relevance and push forward in its fight against President Donald Trump, reports The New York Times.
Cornell Williams Brooks, was “baffled” and saddened by the decision, will leave the or- ganization at the end of June when his contract expires.
But the board of the N.A.A.C.P. wants a new face of the organization. Both Mr. Leon Russell, chairman of the board and Derrick John- son, vice chairman said the group needed to more effec- tively push back against Mr. Trump’s stances on issues like voting rights laws, public edu- cation, environmental policy and the criminal justice system.
The group, which has been eclipsed in many ways by the more youthful Black Lives Mat- ter movement and the broader
Removing Confederate Monuments
Cornell Williams Brooks was asked to step down as the NAACP’s national CEO and president.
opposition to Mr. Trump, is embarking on a national listen- ing tour of cities across the na- tion to get ideas about how it can remain relevant.
Russell also said that he, Johnson, the organization’s national staff and local branches are handling day-to- day operations until the board finds a new president by the year’s end, reports the Chicago Tribune.
JACKSON, MS —-Mississippi State Rep. Karl Oliver says that Louisiana leaders should be lynched for removing Con- federate monuments and that he will do everything within his power to make sure that Mis- sissippi does not follow suit.
The statue of Confederate general, Robert E. Lee was removed last Friday, making it the last of four Confederate monuments to go down in New Orleans, Louisiana. The others were statues of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and an obelisk dedicated to the Battle of Liberty Place.
Mississippi State Rep. Karl Oliver posted his remarks on social media after the statute of Confederate general Robert E. Lee was taken down in New Orleans on Friday.
Oliver’s post was shared by Black Mississippi State Sena- tor, Derrick Simmons on his social media accounts.
Student Told Her Afro Was Too ‘Extreme
And Faddish’ By School Administrator
Bowie State Student Fatally Stabbed By White Supremacist U-Maryland Student
HBCU student, Richard W. Collins was fatally stabbed Saturday by U-Md student, Sean Urbanski.
TALLAHASSEE, FL —- When 17-year-old Jenesis Johnson thought about what might get her in trouble at school, she never dreamed it would be her hair yet that is exactly what hap- pened.
“She said that my hair needs to be fixed, it was not neat and needs to be put in a style. My hair is fixed,” said Jenesis.
She’s in the eleventh grade at North Florida Christian in Talla- hassee. She has been wearing her hair like this for the last seven months straight and on and off since grade seven. But just last week, one of her teachers took issue with it and she did it in front of the entire class.
According to Jenesis, the teacher asked, “How long are you rocking that hairstyle?” At that point students began asking her questions about her hair routine.
Two days after that she was called to the assistant principal’s office. There she was told, “your hair is extreme and faddish and out of control. It’s all over the
JENESIS JOHNSON
place,” she remembers.
Her school is a private one and
she was told her hair broke the rules.
On page 42 of the North Florida Christian School’s handbook it states, “No faddish or extreme hairstyles, and hair should be neat and clean at all times. The administration will make the de- cision on any questionable styles.”
Jenesis and her family were told that she would be allowed to finish the last week of this school year but if she didn’t change her hair she will not be allowed back and they would give the family a refund.
COLLEGE PARK, MD —- The FBI is assisting in the mur- der investigation of a Bowie State University student to de- termine whether his stabbing death was a hate crime, author- ities said Sunday.
A 22-year-old University of Maryland student has been charged in Saturday’s deadly knife attack that left Richard W. Collins III, 23, dead.
Collins had been visiting the College Park campus when the incident occurred, and author- ities said surveillance cameras captured the attack. Police said Collins was with two friends, waiting for an Uber along Re- gents Drive near Montgomery Hall about 3 a.m.
U-Md. Police Chief David B. Mitchell said Collins and his friends watched as Urban- ski approached the group. Ur- banski said “step left, step left if you know what’s best for you.” Collins said “no.” Ur-
banski attacked.
Sean Christopher Urban-
ski, of Severna Park, Md., was charged with first- and second- degree murder and first-degree assault in what police called a “totally unprovoked” attack.
He is being held without bond.
Authorities said the hate crime investigation stems from Urbanski’s involvement in an online Facebook group that posts racist and other inflam- matory material. The FBI is providing “technical support” to help determine if this was a hate crime, FBI special agent Gordon Johnson said at a news conference Sunday night.
U-Md., along with other schools in Washington region, has been the scene of other racially charged incidents in re- cent months, including at least three cases in which white su- premacist fliers were found on the College Park campus
Tulsa Police Officer Acquitted In Death Of Black Man, Goes Back To Work
When Betty Jo Shelby of Tulsa, Oklahoma was acquitted of first-degree manslaughter on last Wednesday in the death of Terence Crutcher, no one ex- pected her to go back to work on Monday, yet that is what she plans to do.
Her defense attorney, Shan- non McMurray has let slip that her client will be going back to work at the Tulsa Police Depart- ment though she will not be al- lowed on street patrol.
Prosecutors had argued that Shelby used an unreasonable amount of force against Crutcher on September 16. She had encountered him along with his stalled vehicle on a city street. He can be seen in video footage walking away from the officers with his hands in the air before he is shot in the chest.
Shelby said she fired her gun because she was in fear for her
Police Officer Betty Shelby is back on the job.
life at the time. She felt Crutcher was reaching into his SUV for a gun though no weapon was found in his vehicle.
Shelby was on paid leave dur- ing her trial and is among several other officers who were permit- ted to return to work after being accused of excessive force. The officers involved in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray have re- turned to work as well as Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who held Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in 2014.
PAGE 20 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2017