Page 12 - Florida Sentinel 9-25-18

National
White Alabama Students Standing
North Carolina Governor
On Black Male With Caption ‘We
Says Floodwaters Still
Got Us One’ Causes Outrage
'Treacherous' After Florence
Tthe group of students from Moody, Alabama are all friends and claim the offen- sive image was meant to be a joke, but forward-thinking people are not amused.
“We have confirmed that all students involved are friends and participated vol- untarily in creating the pic- ture, which they say was intended to be a ‘joke’,” Prin- cipal Christopher Walters said Monday. “The picture is offensive and unacceptable, and it does not reflect the val- ues of our school, our stu- dents, or our community.”
Social media users blasted the students and have re- jected claims that “there’s nothing racist” about the photo.
“It’s disgusting, disgrace- ful and disturbing to see this picture and claim that there’s nothing racist about it! Why are there so many people in this country so proud of their ignorance and backward
The Moody High School principal is just as outraged as the public over a photo that shows six of his white students stand- ing on a Black male student, who’s lying face down on the floor with the caption “We got us one.”
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper says "treacher- ous" floodwaters are still threatening the state more than a week after Hurricane Florence made landfall there. Cooper said Saturday that nine of the state's river gauges are at major flood stage and four others are at moderate flood stage.
Cooper said the flooding continues to make travel dan- gerous in hard-hit areas. He told residents to avoid driving east of Interstate 95 and south of US-70. He said certain areas of Interstates 95 and 40 are still underwater. Cooper also urged residents of south- eastern North Carolina to stay alert for flood warnings and evacuation orders.
Jim Trogdon, the state's transportation secretary, said 114 primary roads are closed and there are 547 total
A member of the North Car- olina Task Force urban search and rescue team wades through a flooded neighborhood looking for residents who stayed behind.
statewide road closures. Emergency officials don't ex- pect the water on those high- ways to recede fully for another week or more.
At least 43 people have died since the hurricane slammed into the coast more than a week ago. There have been 5,000 rescues reported in the state, Cooper said, adding that some people have been able to return.
thinking?” one commenter said.
Austin Glass, one of the White students in the photo, said it was taken “out of pro-
portion” and that each grade level was participating in the theme of dressing up as dif- ferent travel destinations, the report states.
Innocent Man
How An Iowa Supreme Court Decision Could Impact Driving While Black
Released From Prison
Iowa could become the fourth state to reject a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Whren v. U.S.) that has al- lowed the police to racially profile drivers while hiding behind the Constitution. A legal victory could give mo- mentum toward ending driv- ing while Black police stops.
Driving while Black has long been a problem for African Americans on road- ways across the country. A survey released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2014 shows the racial disparity in police stops.
Justices on the Iowa Supreme Court heard oral ar- guments Tuesday from civil liberties organizations in a case involving an African- American driver stopped by an officer who admitted to pulling her over under the pretext of an alleged minor of- fense. His real intent was to satisfy his wild suspicion of criminal activity because of her race.
“This case has the poten- tial to dramatically reduce racial profiling in traffic stops in Iowa, since pretextual traf- fic stops have driven system- wide disparities on the basis
of race,” Rita Bettis Austen, American Civil Lib- erties Union of Iowa Legal Di- rector, said.
If the court rules favorably for Scottize Brown, then Iowa would join Delaware, New Mexico and Washington, which have already inter- preted their state constitu- tions to ban pretextual stops that the U.S. Supreme Court authorized.
In 2015, an officer stopped Brown, of Waterloo, Iowa, under the pretext that one of her two license plate lamps was malfunctioning and be- cause she drove through a yel- low light that turned red — neither of which is illegal under Iowa law.
During the stop, the offi- cer noticed an empty beer can in the vehicle and smelled al- cohol on her breath. He cited her, and she was later con- victed for driving under the influence of alcohol, as well as driving on a suspended li- cense.
At trial, the officer testified that he really stopped Brown because he wanted to “poke around and see what’s up,” according to legal documents.
Brown’s lawyers told the
justices that the officer had no reasonable suspicion under Iowa’s Constitution to stop and search her in the first place. The officer targeted her only because of her race — a big problem in Iowa.
The racial profiling of drivers is “inherently dishon- est, and for people of color, we’ve seen too many times that they are dangerous. For every police encounter that results in injury or death, there are thousands more that don’t, but which lead to fear and distrust in police,” Austen said.
In Whren v. U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that as long as officers have a reasonable cause to be- lieve that a traffic violation occurred, they may stop any vehicle. That ruling has al- lowed the cops to find, or manufacture, reasons to stop and search vehicles.
Brown’s lawyers asked the court to interpret the state’s constitutional protec- tion against unreasonable search and seizure to include a ban on pretextual stops based on a driver’s race.
A decision is expected around June 2019.
An Arkansas man whose 1992 murder conviction was overturned with the help of the Midwest Innocence Proj- ect was freed from prison Wednesday, describing the moment as “surreal” and say- ing he plans to meet up with his fiancée before traveling to see family in Las Vegas.
John Brown, 51, got cheeseburgers with his lawyers after U. S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson or- dered him set free. He spent 26 years behind bars for the 1988 robbing and killing of 78-year old Myrtle Holmes in Fordyce, a community about 60 miles (96 kilome- ters) south of Little Rock.
“I’m feeling great right now. Feeling great,” Brown said. “I’m so blessed.”
Wilson vacated Brown’s convictions last month and gave the state 30 days to re- lease or retry Brown. In his opinion, Wilson wrote that the “case is fairly cut and dried,” and that the state failed to disclose evidence that could have cast doubt on Brown’s guilt, calling it and other issues “constitutional vi- olations.”
An original trial in April 1992 resulted in a hung jury, but in August of that year,
John Brown is pictured with two of the attorneys involved with his release, Rachel Wester (left) of the Midwest Innocence Project and Erin Cassinelli of Little Rock.
Brown, Reginald Early, and Tina Jimerson were convicted of murder.
In 2015, Early confessed to committing the crimes alone. The following year, the Midwest Innocence Project appealed on Brown’s behalf, saying that his trial lawyer was “ineffective and corrupt,” and arguing that the state withheld potentially exculpatory evi- dence. His lawyers argued that DNA evidence excluding Brown was withheld from the jury in the second trial.
The state attorney gen- eral’s office appealed Wil- son’s decision to vacate Brown’s convictions, and the appeal is pending. The state also asked for a stay of Brown’s release, which was denied.
After 26 Years
PAGE 12 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018