Baltimore policeman charged in Freddie Gray death chooses bench trial

A Baltimore police officer charged with murder in the 2015 death of black detainee Freddie Gray waived a jury trial on Monday and will be tried by a Maryland judge instead.

Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., 46, drove the police van in which Gray broke his neck and is the third officer to face trial for his death. The April 2015 incident triggered protests and rioting and fueled a U.S. debate on police treatment of minorities.

Prosecutors are still seeking a conviction in the high-profile case, with two trials ending in a mistrial and an acquittal.

Goodson's last-minute decision to have Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams decide the case came during a pre-trial motions hearing. The trial begins on Thursday.

Tim Maloney, a Maryland lawyer who has handled police misconduct cases, said a bench trial was a good move on Goodson's part since there was a lot of pressure on jurors in the majority black city to convict someone.

Read more: Baltimore policeman charged in Freddie Gray death chooses bench trial

Green Party blasts "felony lynching" conviction of Black Lives Matter organizer

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Green Party strongly condemns the prosecution and conviction of Black Lives Matter (BLM) organizer Jasmine Richards in Pasadena, California, on "felony lynching" charges.

Ms. Richards was arrested on August 29, 2015 after police accused her of attempting to "de-arrest" another participant during a peace march at Pintoresca Park in Pasadena.

The arrest and charges provoked widespread public anger as well as recognition that Ms. Richards is the first political prisoner from the Black Lives Matter movement (see columnist Shaun King, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/jasmine-richards-prisoner-black-lives-matter-article-1.2659110 ).

"The Green Party stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and with Jasmine Richards," said Thomas Muhammad, Co-Chair of the Green Party Black Caucus. "The police and courts twisted an incident of interference in an arrest into a 'lynching' charge. This is a repellent and inflammatory allegation against a young black activist, given the history of terrorist white lynch mobs seizing black prisoners from police custody for the purpose of extrajudicially executing them."

Two months before Ms. Richards' arrest and after lobbying by California State Senator Holly Mitchell, who is Black, legislation (Senate Bill 629) removing the word "lynching" from the California penal code was passed in July 2015. Jasmine Richards was the first African-American ever to face the charge.

"The lynching charge tells us that this was a trumped-up prosecution meant to defame Black Lives Matter, criminalize legitimate activism for basic human rights and dignity, and intimidate young people -- especially young African American women like Jasmine Richards -- who speak out for justice," said Kamesha Clark, Green candidate for the U.S. House in Maryland’s 4th Congressional District ( http://www.kameshaclark.com ).

"This charge also tells us that the time has come for movements such as Black Lives Matter to diversify their strategies for achieving social justice. Organizing can be achieved in ways that does not attract police presence. Doing so will greatly reduce the risk of being imprisoned and particular methods, such as organizing for community controlled development within our most vulnerable neighborhoods, will help to eradicate the systemic societal ills that invite unwarranted excessive force in the first place," said Ms. Clark.

Green Party leaders noted widespread suspicions that Pasadena police were targeting Ms. Richards for speaking out and organizing public protest after the police killing of Kendrec McDade, an unarmed black 19-year-old, in 2012. No Black members were seated on the jury that convicted Ms. Richards, who may face one to four years in prison.

"There is not a Black American family that has not been touched by lynching," said Marian Douglas-Ungaro, member of the D.C. Statehood Green Party and the Green Party Black Caucus. "It is an atrocity to have a Black American charged and convicted of something which, clearly, Ms. Richards has not done. Over the past three generations, or longer, the vast majority of persons who really have hanged Black people, have never been formally identified as suspects, nor arrested, let alone jailed, tried, or convicted. This whole prosecution sends a message of contempt, even of hate, with impunity."

Statement by Dr. Melina Abdullah, organizer and one of the original members of Black Lives Matter: "My heart is broken and my soul is reeling in the wake of the conviction of my twin soul, our warrior, and my Spirit Daughter… Jasmine Abdullah [Richards] on felony lynching charges today and immediately remanded to custody. I don't know why I held out hope that we would get justice in this case, that the judge, prosecutor and jury… none of whom were Black… would be fair and somehow come down on our side. I had to remind myself of what I already know to be true…. this system is completely corrupt, unjust, and built off the oppression of our people." ( https://www.facebook.com/melina.abdullah/posts/10154141481460930 )

A petition for Ms. Richards has been placed online: "#FreeJasmine: No Jail Time for Black Lives Matter Organizer Wrongfully Convicted of 'Lynching'" ( http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/freejasmine-no-jail-time-black-lives-matter-activist-accused-lynching ).

In previous statements, the Green Party has declared its support for BLM and for protests against police killings organized by the group. At the Green Party's 2015 Annual National Meeting in St. Louis, party members held a rally for racial justice on July 25 across the street from Ferguson police headquarters.

See also:

Black Lives Matter Pasadena Organizer Convicted of Felony 'Lynching' Charge
Pasadena Now, June 1, 2016
http://www.pasadenanow.com/main/black-lives-matter-pasadena-organizer-convicted-of-felony-lynching-charge/

Black Lives Matter Activist Convicted of "Felony Lynching": "It's More Than Ironic, It's Disgusting"
Democracy Now!, June 2, 2016
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/6/2/black_lives_matter_activist_convicted_of

Greens to rally for racial justice at Ferguson Police Dept. during the Green Party's 2015 Annual National Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, July 23-26
Press release: Green Party of the United States, June 15, 2015
http://www.gp.org/greens_rally_for_racial_justice_in_ferguson


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Meet Trumps "African American"

Donald Trump stirred up controversy by repeatedly referring to a black man at a rally in Redding, California as "My African American". That black man's name is Gregory Cheadle, and he is a Republican from Happy Valley in the running for the 1st Congressional District.

He says that he took no offense at being called Trump's African american and was happy that the Republican candidate came to Redding.

In a excerpt from an article in the Record Spotlight Cheadle explained why he took no offense:

Cheadle said African-Americans have historically been dismissed by politicians, which is why they were so quick to support President Obama, the country’s first black president.

So it was gratifying to him and he was proud that someone like Trump would acknowledge him in an audience that was 99.99 percent white, he said.

“To give the black folk the time of the day, I was happy.” Cheadle said.

“You know what I was talking about? Jobs, jobs, jobs,” Cheadle said, paraphrasing what Trump told him. “I said, ‘Yeah, jobs.’ It’s all a fog. I’m glad I’m not on the witness stand. But it means a lot to me when a person of his stature can come to Redding.”

American soccer's diversity problem

As Doug Andreassen, the chairman of US Soccer’s diversity task force, looks across the game he loves, all he can see is a system broken in America. And he wonders why nobody seems to care.

He sees well-to-do families spending thousands of dollars a year on soccer clubs that propel their children to the sport’s highest levels, while thousands of gifted athletes in mostly African American and Latino neighborhoods get left behind. He worries about this inequity. Soccer is the world’s great democratic game, whose best stars have come from the world’s slums, ghettos and favelas. And yet in the US the path to the top is often determined by how many zeroes a parent can write in their checkbook.

Andreassen watches his federation’s national teams play, and wishes they had more diversity. Like many, he can’t ignore the fact that last year’s Women’s World Cup winners were almost all white, or that several of the non-white players on the US Copa America roster grew up overseas. The talents of some of America’s best young players are being suffocated by a process that never lets them be seen. He sighs.

“People don’t want to talk about it,” he says.

Andreassen used to dance gingerly around the topic, using the same careful code words as the other coaches and heads of leagues, trying not to push or offend only to find that little changed. He has stopped being political. He is frustrated. He is passionate. He is blunt.

“The system is not working for the underserved community,” he says. “It’s working for the white kids.”

Read more: 'It’s only working for the white kids': American soccer's diversity problem

President Obama Statement On Death Of Muhammad Ali

President Obama has released the following statement on the death of The Greatest, Muhammad Ali:

"Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he'd tell you. He'd tell you he was the double greatest; that he'd "handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail."

But what made The Champ the greatest - what truly separated him from everyone else - is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing.

Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we're also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time.

In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him - the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was - still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.

"I am America," he once declared. "I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me - black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me."

That's the Ali I came to know as I came of age - not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn't. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.

He wasn't perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes - maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he'd make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn't take the spark from his eyes.

Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace."