Six-Year-Old Girl Arrested; 14-Year-Old Honestie Hodges Dies

 

As I said in my previous post, why was this child arrested?  What could she possibly have done to warrant her being taken out of her classroom and led away in handcuffs?  

Did she kill somebody?  

Links to resources are below.   My work is about solutions, so please do check out the resources below.  

I have now watched the full video - apparently, the child threw a temper tantrum.  A TEMPER TANTRUM, Y'ALL!!!  The teacher thought the appropriate thing to do in this situation was to call the cops.  The cops came and arrested this six-year-old girl, and as far as I can tell, did not even read her her rights or tell her the charges against her.

Another question:  Why did they arrest her before her grandmother arrived?  There are a lot of child protection issues and safeguarding issues here.  Could this really not have waited until her grandmother was able to get there, to talk to the child, to ride with her in the police car, to be there with her when she was arrested?

And another:  what kind of psychological scarring has she been left with?  She is going to make some therapist very wealthy one day.  

I have now learned about another handcuffing incident.  Honestie Hodges, 11 years of age  when she was arrested and handcuffed AT GUNPOINT, has now sadly died of covid-19 at the age of 14.   George Stinney was the same age when he was executed.  

Apparently, the police mistook Honestie for a middle-aged white woman who was a suspect in a stabbing.  

Again, I have questions about the type of psychological damage she will have suffered.  We may never know the answers in Honestie's case.  

The United States incarcerates more children than any other country.  We have a long history of arresting and incarcerating children, including George Stinney, who was executed at the age of 14. 

Also, check out this article about the incarceration of children in the U.S.  The rate of arrest and incarceration of Black children in the U.S. is twice the rate for white children. 

I'm so upset about these incidents, both recent and historic, and I'm sure you are, too.  To see young lives cut short by the criminal injustice system is just heartbreaking. 

Go here for my blog post, How to Escape from the Prison System.

We have so much power.  It's time we started to use it for our benefit.

Go here for How to Get Clear, Precise Answers.  Our minds are incredibly powerful, and we MUST use them to protect our children and protect our communities.

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) can help to PREVENT these kinds of incidents from happening.  Go here for some NVC resources and go here for books about NVC.

As I said above, my work is about solutions.   Please share this with your networks and please comment below.

Life Sentence for Stealing $9

Willie Simmons Alabama Man Life Sentence for Stealing $9

This Alabama man is in prison for stealing $9 in 1982. 

Willie Simmons, a 62-year old Black man from Alabama, has been behind bars for the last 38 years for stealing $9. He was convicted of 1st-degree robbery and was sentenced to life without parole in 1982 due to Alabama’s Habitual Offender law. He already had 3 prior convictions.  

Go here to read more.  

And remember, there are proportionately MORE Black people in prison in the UK than in the U.S.A.

See also:  How to Escape from the Prison System. 

Please leave your comments below and please share this with your networks.  Thanks.


 

End Taser Torture in U.S. Prisons

Watch some horrendous footage of tasers being used to torture prison inmates.  

People have been tased when restrained with their arms behind their backs. This is despite a lawsuit dating back to 2011.  

The guards have been called "sadistic". 


I wonder how many other prisons are using these kinds of brutal tactics. 

Of course, this does not apply exclusively to Black people/people of African heritage. But Black people are more likely to end up on the sharp end of the criminal injustice system.  For some statistics about this, see:  How to Escape the Prison System.  

The U.N. has been called in to investigate this situation. 

If you are in prison or you know someone who is, or you work in a prison, you really need to check this out. 

This is just one reason why we need Nonviolent Communication (NVC) - as a PREVENTATIVE measure, to PREVENT these kinds of incidents. 

Please share this with your networks, and please leave your comments below.  

Black History Film: Freedom Riders

Bombed Freedom Rides Bus

Click here for the Blogging Carnival for Nonviolence 2016.  

Have you ever gone into McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC or indeed, any fast food place to buy and eat a meal? I am sure at some point we have all patronised some such establishment, or a café or diner.

Have you ever reflected on the fact that there was a time we were not allowed to enter such places?

The documentary Freedom Riders covers a period in 1961 when people – both Black and white – challenged the laws and customs that forbade Black and white people from mixing or co-mingling. The film contains archive footage as well as interviews with some of the original Freedom Riders.

Freedom Riders, a hard-hitting documentary, depicts when members of CORE – the Commission on Racial Equality – embarked on a journey to test a recent ruling by the Supreme Court which had declared segragation on interstate buses to be unconstitutional. They set out to test whether Federal law was being enforced.

The journey began in Washington, D.C. The Freedom Riders boarded buses to Atlanta, GA, where they met with Martin Luther King. They were excited to meet with him and hoped he would join them. But he cautioned them not to continue their quest, and to use methods that were less confrontational.

At this point, I admit to being confused. While applauding their courage, I do not understand why these young people chose to put themselves in extreme danger rather than finding another, less violent way to address the issue.

The Freedom Riders continued on their way, heading towards Birmingham, AL. One group rode a Greyhound bus (coach), the other used Trailways. The Greyhound never made it to its destination - it was firebombed by a racist mob. The Trailways bus arrived in Birmingham to be greeted by another racist mob. Bull Connor, Birmingham's Chief of Police, had made a deal with the Ku Klux Klan to allow the mob to assault the Freedom Riders for 15 minutes before the police arrived.

Because they were confronted by such extreme force, the Freedom Riders resolved to continue on their journey. They refused to be intimidated into giving up. This much I do understand and, again, applaud.

The Freedom Riders were then joined by fresh troops from Fisk University in Nashville, TN. Each had signed his or her last will and testament before joining the Freedom Rides. As time went on, more and more people joined them.

The film documents the dirty deals that were done, such as the one in Birmingham I mentioned above. At one point, the riders were holed up in the First Baptist Church with MLK, who was on the phone to the then Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. The Kennedies had not taken much notice of the need to enforce Federal law forbidding segregation up until then, and as Julian Bond says, civil rights were “an afterthought” to them. But MLK insisted they take action, and the Freedom Riders captured their attention and that of the nation. The leaders got behind the Freedom Riders and their efforts were reported internationally, shaming America and the values our nation was meant to represent. 

 

The actions of the Freedom Riders, and the support of MLK and other prominent leaders such as the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, led to the Riders securing a high level of protection for part of their journey. This demonstrated that the State and Federal governments could have afforded them that protection from the start. This takes me back to my original question. Why did the Riders not insist on getting government protection before they started out? Or why diid they not use less violent strategies?

Unfortunately, the story did not end there. The Riders suffered more brutal racist violence. In Jackson, Miss, they were sentenced to hard labour at the notorious Parchman State Prison. Again, this was intended to discourage them but had the opposite effect. The prison became one of the stops on the Freedom Rides and over 300 of the riders served time there – under a law that had been declared unconstitutional.

I have to admire the Riders' ingenuity. Nothing and no one was going to stop them. They turned every adversity into an advantage. They even composed a song about the Parchman prison. 

For more about Parchman Prison, see Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice.  

The Freedom Riders' quest was a foolhardy one – in terms of the methods they used - and led to a great deal of suffering which, to my mind, was preventable. However, the courage and determination of these young people spurred the Federal Government to take action and, in the end, led President Kennedy to call for an end to all segregation.

The film draws some very uplifting and inspiring conclusions. People from all over the United States, from different races and religions, and different backgrounds, came together and put their lives on the line to put an end to racial injustice.

I definitely recommend you see this film.

Please leave your comments below and please share this with your networks. Thanks.

Protecting Our Communities

Injustice Film on Deaths in Police Custody

Click here for a review of What They Don't Want Us to Know.
Listen below to my blog on Protecting Our Communities. 
One of the challenges we are facing at present is the killing of Black people by the police and the authorities.
This is just one of the reasons why I wrote What They Don't Want Us to Know along with some of my other books. We need to find effective methods to address these problems.  

Protecting Our Communities 



See also:  We Need Solutions that Work.  

Check Out Books Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Zhana21 on BlogTalkRadio

Click here to download Why We Need to Heal. 

Check out The Root on deaths in police custody: Ronald Singleton

Black Men Denied Condoms in Prison

Black men in prison are at increased risk of contracting HIV and other STIs as a result of violent sexual assault, according to a study on prison health recently released by the Centers for Disease Control. 

Black (African American) men are contracting HIV in prison through sexual activity and through sharing needles when using intravenous drugs.

This has been going on for many years. When they leave prison, many Black men are going back into the community and conducting heterosexual relationships. This is one of the main ways in which African American women are contracting HIV. 

I read MORE THAN 20 YEARS AGO that the fastest-growing group of people who would be contracting HIV were – you guessed it – Black women. This is true in Africa as well as the diaspora.

In other words, it was predicted and could have been prevented.

What I only found out very recently is that, in many prisons in the U.S., prisoners are not allowed to use condoms. This means people are being infected with HIV right now, and it COULD BE PREVENTED.

Sorry to shout, but I feel very passionate about this.

It's not only Black men who are being denied condoms in the majority of U.S. prisons. This applies to all prisoners.

But the numbers of Black prisoners – people of African heritage in prison – is disproportionate to our numbers in the population. This is true on both sides of the Atlantic.

The UK government, in preparation for the Olympics, is bringing in repressive measures including 24-hour courts. Click here to read more about this.

This is effectively establishing a police state. They are cracking down in order to prevent demonstrations. So anyone who disagrees with government policies may find himself or herself behind bars.

These are some of the reasons why I have written my book Success Strategies for Black People and why I lead the Success Workshops.

To get the benefit of these workshops, you MUST be open to trying new things.  The methods I share are very powerful. We are changing lives. And we can do a lot more. 

Please join us for my next workshop. Click here for details of my Relaxation and Success Workshops.

Childless Man Jailed for Failing to Pay Child Support

As described in this video from the Southern Center for Human Rights, Mr. Frank Hatley was jailed for failure to pay child support.  

See below for more details. 

What's unusual about this case?  Mr. Hatley had no children.   

I believe many of these these cases of injustice can be addressed with Spiritual Response Therapy (SRT), which I talk about in Success Strategies for Black People. 

I am passionate about this.  See also:   We Need to Talk about an Injustice. 

Many people are being incarcerated, often indefinitely, in the State of Georgia for inability to pay child support.  This is in an area in which which has 24% of the population lives below the poverty line. 

One-third of those in the Cook County Jail are there because of inability to pay child support.   Of course, a high proportion of them are African Americans.  When they do manage to find some money, their payments go to the State, not to their children. 

This is just one of the many ways in which poverty leads to injustice.  Many of those jailed were not provided with legal representation.  And while they are in jail, they are not allowed to see their children.

Click here to read more. 

Bryan Stevenson – We Need to Talk about an Injustice

This video gives some very shocking statistics about the prison population and particularly the population of African Americans in prisons.

I feel very passionate about this, and about finding solutions to this situation. For more about this, see below.



One out of three Black men in the U.S.A. between the ages of 18 and 30 is in jail, in prison, on probation or on parole.

In urban areas, 50-60% of all young men of colour are in jail or in the criminal justice system.

In Alabama, 34% of Black males are permanently disenfranchised.

The U.S.A. has life imprisonment for children. There are 13- and 14-year-olds in prison without parole in the U.S.A.

For every nine people on death row, one person has been exonerated.

In the Deep South, the death penalty is 22 times more likely to be applied if the victim was white and the defendant is Black.

My work is all about solutions. I strongly believe Spiritual Response Therapy (SRT) can be very effective in a lot of these cases and could ultimately transform the whole system.

For more about this, see Why We Need to Heal.

Moving Forward - What We Can Learn from Troy Davis

As I said in yesterday's blog, one thing we can learn from the tragic, horrendous case of Troy Davis is that justice often stops short of where we need it to be. Click here to read more.

People of African heritage are over-represented in the prison system. This is true on both sides of the Atlantic.

I truly believe that Spiritual Response Therapy (SRT) can help in many cases in which there have been miscarriages of justice.

SRT can produce amazing results. I have seen this in my own life many times. We are capable of producing miracles.

The Higher Self always works to find the best possible solution for everyone in a given situation. SRT is just one way in which the Higher Self works.

To read more about the Higher Self and SRT, see my book Success Strategies for Black People.

If you are willing to try new things, you can learn how to produce these amazing results and help to create a better future - for everyone.

When these kinds of terrible, tragic situations arise, we need to see this as a wake-up call. We need to find new methods to help us to move forward.

Click here to order your copy of Success Strategies for Black People now. It could help you our someone you love.

Bill Gates Offering Scholarships to African American Students

The information below was sent to me by Black News.

Bear in mind Bill Gates's company Microsoft has used cheap prison labor.

Click here for my ebook, Shaking the Money Tree, on how to raise sponsorship funds for your education or your business.

The Gates Millennium Scholarship Program (GMS) will select 1,000 talented students next year to receive a good-through-graduation scholarship to use at any college or university of their choice.

Scholars will also be provided with personal and professional development through their leadership programs, along with academic support throughout their college career.

The program, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was established to provide outstanding low income minority students with an opportunity to complete an undergraduate college education in any discipline area of interest. To date, the program has given scholarships to more than 15,000 students.

Continuing scholars may request funding for a graduate degree program in one of the following discipline areas: education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health or science.

The deadline for submitting an application is Wednesday, January 11, 2012.

To apply, visit www.blackstudents.com/billgates

Samantha Orobator Has Seen a Lawyer

I have just heard that Samantha Orobator, the Black woman from Camberwell, South London who is being held in prison in Laos, has been allowed to see a lawyer, at last.

There were 10 Laotian high officials present, so she did not have the opportunity to discuss anything confidential. But at least they have let her see a lawyer. She was scheduled for execution but this was changed - only because she is pregnant.

Orobator is accused of heroin possession. She has been held for many months and became pregnant in prison. To read more, see: African American Political Pundit

To watch a video, see: Black Women in Europe