Connecticut Police Officers Charged with Violating Civil Rights of Latinos

Police Chief Len Gallo (left) and Mayor Joseph Maturo (right)

The police chief of East Haven, Connecticut has stepped down after four of his officers were arrested and charged with violating the rights of Latino citizens.

According to The LA Times, federal authorities began investigating East Haven police in 2009 after local activists said that police had used its power to abuse Latinos. Last December, the Department of Justice released what it found, saying there was a pattern of discrimination at the police department  during the period of Jan. 1, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2010.

According to the indictment, some of those patterns included the assault of individuals while they were handcuffed, unreasonable searches and seizures, and arresting and detaining without probable cause. One of the officers reportedly slapped a man handcuffed in his car, and another threw a man to the ground and kicked him while he was handcuffed.

The investigation also found 40% of all traffic stops by one officer involved Latinos. East Haven’s population of Latino drivers was about 8.3%  at the time.

The indictment also accuses unnamed union leaders of trying to block misconduct investigations.

Chief Len Gallo’s resignation was announced last Monday at a news conference, with Mayor Joseph Maturo reportedly saying he was putting together a search committee to find a replacement.

But wait, it gets better.

Right after federal officials announced charges against the four officers, the same mayor was asked by reporters, “What are you doing for the Latino community today?” He replied, “I might have tacos when I go home. I’m not quite sure yet.”

The governor spoke up in outrage soon after.

“The comments by East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo are repugnant,” the governor said in a statement. “They represent either a horrible lack of judgment or worse, an underlying insensitivity to our Latino community that is unacceptable. Being tired is no excuse. He owes an apology to the community, and more importantly, he needs to show what he’s going to do to repair the damage he’s done. And he needs to do it today.”

Maturo later issued an apology on a radio program. “It was stupid, it was insensitive and I gave my detractors … a reason to make matters worse with a ‘gotcha’ and an insensitive and stupid answer to something I should have never said,” Maturo said. “Unfortunately, I let the stress of the situation get the best of me and inflamed what is already a serious and unfortunate situation.”

 

What do you think punishment will be for the officers? Should the mayor step down also? Can police officers be coerced into such behavior by colleagues and employees or is this a willful choice? Will we all just get along ever?

UPDATE: Black Student Arrested In UWP Noose & Hit List HOAX

UPDATE: Kenosha Co. Sheriff David Beth tells the media Friday night that the threats at UW-Parkside are a hoax.

 Beth said one of the African-American female students on the so-called hit-list admitted to investigators she wrote the list.

 Beth said charges were expected Monday.

I think I am more disturbed in the fact that a black student would pull a hoax like this. This is one of the reasons why progress is so hard to make and why allegations of true events like this are swept under the rug or laughed at. 

-SR

Our schools have been desegregated. We have a black president. Some of you thought all was well.

It isn’t.

The start of Black History Month has been ruined by acts of ignorance and hatred.

A noose made of rubber bands (the picture above is the actual noose) was found in a common area of a suite at UW-Parkside Wednesday night. A black female student reported the noose, and on Thursday received a threatening note near her door that listed the names of several black students that were “going to die”.

Thursday night, UW-Parkside Chancellor Debbie Ford told an audience of about 400 students, staff and faculty that “UW-Parkside will not tolerate hate of any kind”. UW-Parkside Police Chief James Heller said immediate steps have been taken to ensure the safety of all UW-Parkside students. With help from officers from the UWM Police Department and deputies from the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department, patrols have been increased in residence halls, parking areas, and the main academic complex.

It is unknown who wrote the note and hung the noose.

It amazes me how people love to say how lazy black people are, how dumb and uneducated we are, how we are just welfare sucking babies who don’t know the value of work, yet we are being harrassed and chased out of school.

Many of the students have reportedly packed their bags and left the campus for the year.

What does it take to be seen as an equal? It is the most painful hurt to be hated because of the amount of melanin in your skin.

I’ve done some reading on comment boards where this story is posted and many white commentators are saying, “Oh this noose was made out of rubber bands, not real rope, it’s no big deal” and “Well at least they didn’t hang anyone” and “Don’t make this bigger than it is”. These are the same people that wanted to “send all blacks back to Africa” after the “racially motivated” attacks against whites at State Fair.

DO NOT allow the media to sweep this under the rug!

Please show your support for our brothers and sisters trying to get an education and change this marred society, whether you are white, black, Hispanic, Asian…we must unite to let these people know this will NOT be tolerated. There are many white students on campus who have joined the No H8 Fight. As a college student who was chased away from a college in rural Indiana from similar acts, I plan to take a stand as well.

To my brothers and sisters at Parkside: DON’T give up. Continue to reach for the stars and get your education and achieve success. We let them win when we throw in the towel. Don’t fight back with anger, success is the best revenge. You have a right to remain on that campus and learn. Education is one of the main weapons we need in this fight. You are not alone. 

“We Are The Drum – A Rhythm In Wisconsin” 2012

CAPITA (City At Peace In The Arts)

Productions Presents…

“We Are The Drum – A Rhythm In Wisconsin” 2012


Inspired by a distinctive movement for racial justice in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin.

http://capitaproductions.org/

Since 1990, CAPITA Productions (City At Peace In The Arts) has been presenting a Black History Program yearly for thousands in the Greater Milwaukee Area.

This year we are adding a very special and overdue segment which will celebrate those brave marchers and demonstrators, from all backgrounds, who risked their lives for the cause of civil rights, especially in Milwaukee. It will be a dramatic reenactment of the Underground Railroad, prominent in the Waukesha area; the escaped slave Joshua Grover, and Fr. Jim Groppi’s “March on Milwaukee”.

 

For 200 consecutive nights hundreds marched for open housing through rain, snow and fear of physical attacks. These heroes have not been properly honored until now. Their stories should be known by our youth as well as everyone in Milwaukee and across the nation.

 

We will celebrate those who lived this experience, sharing the stories of those who participated in the demonstrations, served on the NAACP Youth Council, Commandos, and all organizations that led or joined in some way, the historic Milwaukee’s Civil Rights Movement.

Public Shows:

Tickets are $10 (balcony) $15 (floor)per person

• Friday, February 24, 2012 @ 7:30pm

• Saturday, February 25, 2012 @ 7:30pm

• Friday, March 2, 2012 @ 7:30pm

• Saturday, March 3, 2012 @ 7:30pm

PUBLIC SHOW TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE

Buy Now Online http://www.capitaproductions.org/tickets.html

Student Shows:

Tickets are $4 per child.

For more info on the student shows,

Call Liz Coleman- 414-807-7322

• Tuesday, February, 21, 2012 @ 10:00am & 12:00pm

• Wednesday, February, 22, 2012 @ 10:00am & 12:00pm

• Monday, February, 27, 2012 @ 10:00am & 12:00pm

• Wednesday, February. 29, 2012 @ 10:00am & 12:00pm

All shows will once again take place at:

North Division High School Campus

Auditorium

1011 West Center Street

Milwaukee, WI 53206

Calling All Civil Rights Leaders Past & Present in Milwaukee

Between 1958 and 1970, a distinctive movement for racial justice emerged from unique circumstances in Milwaukee. A series of local leaders inspired growing numbers of people to participate in campaigns….

Calling All Civil Rights Leaders in Milwaukee

“We Are The Drum – A Rhythm In Wisconsin” – 2012

Since 1990, CAPITA Productions (City At Peace In The Arts) founded by Brother Booker Ashe and others has been presenting a Black History Program yearly for thousands in the Greater Milwaukee Area. 

This year we are adding a very special and overdue segment which will celebrate those brave marchers and demonstrators, from all backgrounds, who risked their lives for the cause of civil rights, especially in Milwaukee. It will be a dramatic reenactment of the Underground Railroad, prominent in the Waukesha area; the escaped slave Joshua Grover, and Fr. Jim Groppi’s “March on Milwaukee”.

For 200 consecutive nights hundreds marched for open housing through rain, snow and fear of physical attacks. These heroes have not been properly honored until now. Their stories should be known by our youth as well as everyone in Milwaukee and across the nation.

We are calling on those who lived this experience to share their stories with us in special listening sessions on Tuesday, November 15th and Wednesday November 16th from 5 pm to 8 pm and again November 19th from 10 am to 1 pm. We will meet at North Division Room #102, 1011 West Center Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

We are looking for all those who participated in the demonstrations, served on the NAACP Youth Council, Commandos, and all organizations that led or joined in some way, the historic Milwaukee’s Civil Rights Movement.

If you are interested in attending and would like more information please call 414-397-8661 or email arsmusic00@aol.com. (zero, zero). Otherwise we would love to see you at the meetings. Please share this announcement with everyone. We want to make sure we honor and thank you for your courage and brave acts that moved Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the nation so powerfully.

Thank you,

CAPITA Productions

An excerpt taken from

The Selma of the North:

Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee

Patrick D Jones

Between 1958 and 1970, a distinctive movement for racial justice emerged from unique circumstances in Milwaukee. A series of local leaders inspired growing numbers of people to participate in campaigns against employment and housing discrimination, segregated public schools, the membership of public officials in discriminatory organizations, welfare cuts, and police brutality.

The Milwaukee movement culminated in the dramatic—and sometimes violent—1967 open housing campaign. A white Catholic priest, James Groppi, led the NAACP Youth Council and Commandos in a militant struggle that lasted for 200 consecutive nights and provoked the ire of thousands of white residents. After working-class mobs attacked demonstrators, some called Milwaukee “the Selma of the North.” Others believed the housing campaign represented the last stand for a nonviolent, interracial, church-based movement.

“We Are The Drum – A Rhythm In Wisconsin” – 2012 Show Dates:

 

Public Shows:

Fri, Feb. 24th, Sat., Feb. 25th, Fri. Mar. 3rd & Sat., Mar. 4th at 7:30 pm-

Tickets will go on sale on Dec. 1st

Student Shows:

The dates are: Tues. Feb.21st, Wed, Feb. 22nd, Mon., Feb.27th

 & Wed. Feb. 29th at 10am & 12 pm. tickets are $4 per child.

For more info on the student shows, call Liz Coleman- 414-807-7322

You can find more about CAPITA by visiting us on our Facebook Page

www.facebook.com/pages/Capita-Productions

or Twitter @CAPITAProd

Ribs, Recalls, and Reality. Milwaukee Blacks Wined & Dined for Votes!

Ribs, Recalls, and Reality

August 2nd the group “Wisconsin Jobs Now” held a barbecue with free prizes and food aimed at potential Black voters in a part of the highly contested district of Alberta Darling who is facing Sandy Pasch. The effort fed people then took them to vote absentee afterwards. This activity is being questioned as to its legality since bribery is forbidden in our voting process. However these tactics have never stopped groups like ACORN or Citizen Action of Wisconsin and others from bribing people, namely Blacks in the past. Remember the “Smokes for Votes” in the Gore/Bush presidential race? In 2000, Connie Milstein of New York, provided homeless Milwaukeeans cigarettes in exchange for their “Democratic” support/vote. She was fined $5000 for her lethal campaign. Subsequently, the Milwaukee Police Department released a damning report about the state of voting and election fraud in Milwaukee city. The report exposed voting fraud in Milwaukee and the lack of action to thwart these attempts from either the Government Accountability Board or Milwaukee’s Election Commission.

But here we are again, Black folk whoring out the tiny bit of Darling’s district that is Black not for cigarettes but ribs. FOR RIBS? Seriously? And you wonder why people want to see ID’s? We didn’t sell out for jobs (because Pasch helped them get away), not for OUR community (because she had to use a GPS tracker to find us), not to say sorry about not honoring those college tuition reimbursements Doyle and her party trotted out last time and NEVER delivered on. I guess she figured the best she could do was offer a healthy “alternative” in ribs and hope to smooth over the whole “jobs /college thing” as if it was no big damn deal. Yes she does have direct ties to these organizations so she might as well have helped Speed Queen glaze the ribs herself!

Darling took the hardline and stood with Walker on the Collective Bargaining agreement. There is no need to rehash the events that followed. There is a need to point out all that has come from the historic votes and events that occurred thereafter.

  • Schools and local municipalities that did not make back door agreements with unions saw unexpected savings in their budgets. Those schools no longer were forced to work with WEA Trust, the union entity that charged extreme premiums for healthcare plans. With this savings they are now able to keep positions that were once on the chopping block, re-fund extinct or soon to be extinct programs.
  • Union members did not voluntarily sign up for memberships like we were told they would which showed that many union members were forced into the unions and when offered the chance to keep their memberships, they opted out. The unions are now going door to door begging and pleading for payments and union dues.
  • Walker also caught a break because Illinois chose to go the route our Democratic leadership wanted us to take, that being the route of tax hikes and increased fees. Businesses from all over Illinois are flocking to Wisconsin for relief and therefore bringing jobs, a healthy tax base, and prosperity to our state.
  • Our new found popularity across the nation also increased tourism and filed the hotels and attractions. Guess folks wanted to see what the hell is wrong with Wisconsin. They came for the fight but stayed for the after party!!
  • Homeowners and tax payers are not seeing increases in services and instead are able to depend on at least a few more years of financial freedom from a ridiculous tax burden.
  • We began to pay our debts to neighboring states and replenish the Dem/Pasch raped Patient Health Care Fund that the Dems had no intention of paying back.
  • For the months of May to June, Wisconsin created over 9000 jobs and voted to extend unemployment. We did good!

However Sandy Pasch and the Dems would have you to believe Wisconsin is a doomed forbidden rotting wasteland! That is simply not the case. We are moving FORWARD!!! If not than why would Lena Taylor and the 14 fleeing Dems support Milwaukee’s new cadillac streetcar if we were so desolate and forsaken? Because we can!! (Although to me that is still debatable.) You don’t see them out there screaming to the world that Wisconsin is closed for business right now. No more “Ed Show” or MSNBC fame and fortune. You want to know why that is? In part because it is tourism season and that is taboo. Secondly, they just do not have  the factual evidence to support such nonsense! They would be telling a lie even they could not get away with.

Pasch is part of the old Doyle regime of tax and spend until it hurts, and then tax some more. Her recall effort was to stick, jab and duck. She never discussed her insane voting record that inferred she never had a thought of her own and was void of any deep leadership qualities. Darling on the other hand takes it on the chin and keeps fighting. She has proposed legislation for our seniors and for our kids. Among her many battles she has proven herself a gladiator in the good old boys Wisconsin boxing ring.

Sandy is in this for Sandy alone. Let’s not get it twisted. She has not shown a care for us and nor will she ever. Darling, she is a politician. I am not a fool, but she has shown support across the aisle and across Lake Drive and her record speaks to that. Pasch went on all the radio shows and line for line recited her script of how Alberta Darling was the “devil incarnate” and how she would be the savior of us all.

Who wants to go back to the past Ms. Pasch? Please answer that question. And Mr. Ingram cannot help you answer; this one is all on you. Depleted funds, owing other states so we become like Obama and crew owing the Asians, taxing businesses to demise, raiding funds, small Black business owners not having any power or finances to fight for what’s left of the inner city, not making good on promises to OUR youth to get them into college. Sure we want to go back to that place. That and a plate of ribs to go please and thank you! NOT!

To the little part of Darling’s district that is Black; did you sell out your vote? Who thought getting a plate of ribs was worth their integrity? Did you bother to ask whitey if he would reimburse those college tuitions like he promised us? Or did you just do a little happy dance and smile for the white cameras, eating your barbeque like good little negro soldiers? Or did you take your plate and get on the bus, no questions asked? If it had been Walker or Darling would you have screamed racism? Since it was the Dems they got the Black access pass? I guess 2012 will bring us malt liquor or Icecube and Coors? What y’all want next time? Fried chicken from JJ’s? They will get it for you as long as you keep delivering your souls/votes and never cash in on the promises they make over and over again.

Black people, I am telling you we are worth more than cigarettes and the ribs we took in exchange for our pride and self-worth. We deserve better from both parties but going back to what was, is not sending a message to anyone other than our pocket books. A vote for Pasch to get back at Scott Walker won’t be felt until many years from now if at all. If you had been waiting to get payback, maybe taking a minute or two to see what was and what is, could benefit you and me. You don’t have to trust me; the facts are issued by the state and the feds. Even Obama is hanging his hat on us to save his own behind. You calling him a liar? Investigate for yourselves and be freed!! The numbers do not lie, the countless businesses moving here do not lie, and the school districts no longer beholden to their beloved unions do not lie. We are mending a broken Wisconsin.

Is there more work that needs to be done, hell yes!! We didn’t defeat Evilina and can now start singing “Can you feel a brand new day…” We are not there yet. We have only just begun, but we have to pledge our allegiance to us and not to the mighty “unions inc!” who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the state to get their cookies back. If you do not like the Koch brothers, than you should really hate the fact that unions spent all this money to get back their playground at your expense. Think about it…The 2012 elections are right around the corner and if the unions had this much for small potato recalls in one battle ground state, something’s burning and it ain’t the ribs evidently. They had too much damn money, more than any Koch, more than Scott Walker, more than Darling or the others facing recalls, more than the entire state put together! That is a lot of power and money. If we were facing reality we would be honest and say maybe Scott Walker, on this one issue, had a point. Say it in secret and watch how good it feels to actually be stating a truth. Maybe you will join me and start saying it out loud. Watch out now!!

Seems we just do not want to admit our wrongs. What are you afraid of? Lena Taylor won’t like you? We might catch a break? You might not have to pay more for wheel taxes and photo ID fees and whatever else they can think to tax or increase? In this case whether you like the man or not, Walker made the right choice and fought the right enemy, so did Alberta Darling and so did all those who stood their ground in the face of a most nasty political fight. We are still here. Don’t let the ribs take you back to ground zero. Hell Speed Queen ain’t even that good anymore. It certainly is not worth my vote. If you are going to wine me and dine me, it’s got to be steak or lobster and nothing short of that will suffice.

Now let’s continue this movement and walk in reality and leave the ribs and the other white man’s poisons alone and get together on this road to recovery. We can do this but it takes some healthy discourse and not the crap spewed all over the TV, the radio, the billboards, and everywhere else the unions, Pelosi, and the Dems think we be at. We are not owned and the unions have shown beyond a reasonable doubt that they have been sucking us dry for far too long. They are the evil rich!! Now it is time to give them a reality check and give this governor the okay to keep moving in the current direction. And to be perfectly clear (for those of you who seem to want to tie me on the man’s buttock constantly) I am not in agreement with Walker 100%. We got work to do on him, but moving backwards to prove a point is not the answer.

Reality vs. Ribs? Which one will win? I hope at least y’all had the beef ribs or did you partake of the swine?

Peace Family,

WW

PS….A BIG THANK YOU to all those who came out to support the Frederick Alexander Meade event. More to come but I could not rush that piece. It was too significant to be rushed. It was historic, magnificent, sealed and anointed by God and thank you to The Milwaukee Drum and Earl Ingram for giving me the tools to help get the event its proper due. Thank you Milwaukee!! WE did it, YOU did it, Meade indeed did it!!

 

For more information on the Ribs for Votes Debacle:

http://maciverinstitute.com/2011/08/free-bbq-and-prizes-for-voters-raise-questions-of-legality-collusion/