Racism online from Twitter users

For those that don't think there is racism in this country today, well this should make it clearer for you. I'm sure you all heard about the Kanye West incident with Taylor Swift. Well seems some racists have some Twitter accounts and really went all out. You can read the whole article on TheGrio.com, some quotes are below.

I agree with the opinion that West's blowup was horribly rude and childish. However, there were some Internet users who took their thoughts about him too far. This was particularly obvious on Twitter, which was awash in a flood of racism, with the so-called "post-racial" levees fully giving way.

Here are just a few of the most memorable tweets:

ODV1985: kanye west is monkey ass n****r! and should be lynched! taylor swift i love you girl! (these people are going somewhere in life)

JacobFredG: I realy hope I dont have any black followers and if I do just stop following me, Kanye West is a stupid n****r!

trevbandito: Watch'n the VMA's and decicided to look up the word "N****R" In the dictionary, and low and behold was a pic. of Kanye West!!!!!!!!

There are some who still want to believe that with a black man in the White House, racism is a thing of the past. But I would contend that racism hasn't gone away, it has just gone online.

With the evolution of online conversations, many bigots who are too cowardly to spew their vitriol in front of an actual person, now hide behind a virtual barrier. The only reason many white supremacist groups stay alive is because they have vibrant online communities. Now, I am all for freedom of speech. Heck, I am in the business of free speech. But I also think that there has been souring of civility in public discourse.
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Cops kill man with 43 bullet wounds

If you have not heard about the incident with 6 cops and a man named Alonzo Heyward being shot at 59 times with 43 wounds, please read my blog post at Dirty Police Today. This incident just makes me sick.

New blog to inform others of dirty police

I have created another blog, named Dirty Police Today blog, to make everyone aware of violent, hideous, crazy acts by police that we trust to protect us. It is not an anti-police blog, most police officers are good, but there are some that cross the line and think they are bigger than the law and do bad things. Through the Dirty Police Today blog we hope to point them out so we are all aware and hope that those bad police officers are gone from the job of police officers.

Teacher went too far with lesson

This incident is old, as it happened back in December 2008 but I wanted to post about it because it's just shocking and way over the line. I don't know where a teacher would get an idea to do this in a classroom.

A white social studies teacher attempted to enliven a seventh-grade discussion of slavery by binding the hands and feet of two black girls, prompting outrage from one girl's mother and the local chapter of the NAACP. After the mother complained to Haverstraw Middle School, the superintendent said he was having "conversations with our staff on how to deliver effective lessons."

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"I think the teacher should have gotten some discipline," Shand said. "I know if that was me, I would be uncomfortable going back to that class. Why should my daughter have to switch?"

Monahan refused to say what, if any, measures were taken against the teacher, Eileen Bernstein, who was still working on Friday. The school district said she was not available for comment.

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On Nov. 18, Bernstein was discussing the conditions under which African captives were taken to America in slave ships. She bound the two students' hands and feet with tape and had them crawl under a desk to simulate the experience, Monahan and Shand said. Monahan said the girls were not the only blacks in the class.

Gabrielle Shand burst into tears at home, her mother said.

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Wilbur Aldridge, director of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the history demonstration, first reported in The Journal News, "went wrong when she started to do that binding."

"I don't care what color, no one should be put in the position of having their hands and feet bound," he said.

Aldridge said he feared that the teacher still "didn't get it" after their meeting. He said the teacher apologized "because Gabrielle was upset, not because she admitted she did something wrong."
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Boston police officer calls Gates racial slurs

If only more incidents could happen with Boston police, oh wait here's another story that includes the whole Professor Gates incident. Boston Police officer Justin Barrett sent a mass email to some National Guard members and the Boston Globe where he referred to Harvard professor Gates as "banana-eating" and a "bumbling jungle monkey".

The columnist, Yvonne Abraham, supported Gates' actions, asking readers, "Would you stand for this kind of treatment, in your own home, by a police officer who by now clearly has no right to be there?"

In his e-mail, which was posted on a local Boston television station's Web site, Barrett declared that if he had "been the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC [oleoresin capsicum, or pepper spray] deserving of his belligerent noncompliance."

Barrett used the "jungle monkey" phrase four times, three times referring to Gates and once referring to Abraham's writing as "jungle monkey gibberish."

He also declared he was "not a racist but I am prejudice [sic] towards people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers."

According to a statement from Boston police, Commissioner Edward Davis took action immediately upon learning of Barrett's remarks, stripping the officer of his gun and badge. Barrett is "on administrative leave pending the outcome of a termination hearing."

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Davis wants Barrett, a two-year veteran of the Boston police force, fired, a source close to the investigation said. But Barrett will continue to be paid while on administrative leave, and no date has been set for his termination hearing.

Barrett, who identified himself as a veteran and a former English teacher, also took issue with Abraham's journalistic ability, calling her "a hot little bird with minimal experience in a harsh field," as well as "an infidel." The rambling e-mail also suggested that she "should serve me coffee and donuts [sic] on Sunday morning," later returning to that line of thought with, "I like a warm cruller and hot Panamanian, black. No sugar."
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Wow this is just shocking in one way, but then not shocking in another. How could someone like this be a police officer? He says he's not racist but says these things. Let me guess he also probably says that he has black friends, right? Yes please fire this jerk. He gets to go on leave/vacation and get paid wtf. And what about the comments he said about Yvonne Abraham, about serving him "coffee and donuts" - wow just ignorant. Hopefully this guy gets what he deserves.

You can read Yvonne Abraham's article on Boston.com, Conduct unbecoming.

Obama calls cop who arrested Gates

Today President Obama said he chose unfortunate words when saying that police "acted stupidly" in arresting HarvardProfessor Gates at his own home.

He stopped short of a public apology. But the president telephoned both Gates and the white officer who had arrested him, hoping to end the rancorous back-and-forth over what had transpired and what Obama had said about it. Trying to lighten the situation, he said he had invited the Harvard professor and police St. James Crowley for "a beer here in the White House."

"This has been ratcheting up, and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up," Obama said of the racial controversy. "I want to make clear that in my choice of words, I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department and Sgt. Crowley specifically. And I could've calibrated those words differently."

The president did not back down from his contention that police had overreacted by arresting Gates for disorderly conduct after coming to his home to investigate a possible break-in. He added, though, that he thought Gates, too, had overreacted to the police who questioned him. The charge has been dropped.

Obama stirred up a hornet's nest when he said at a prime-time news conference this week that the officer, who is white, had "acted stupidly" by arresting Gates, a friend of the president's. Looking back, Obama said he didn't regret stepping into the controversy and hoped the matter would end up being a "teachable moment" for the nation.

"The fact that this has garnered so much attention, I think, is testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America," Obama said.

Obama wryly took note of the distraction from his legislative efforts.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but nobody's been paying much attention to health care," the president said.

Obama, who has come under intense criticism from police organizations, said he had called Crowley to clear the air, and said the conversation confirmed his belief that the sergeant is an "outstanding police officer and a good man."
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Cop is a racial profiling expert

Following up about the Harvard Professor Gates arrest, the cop who arrested Mr. Gates at his home has taught racial profiling classes for five years. Read more about it below.

Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley has taught a class about racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked for the job by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, said Academy Director Thomas Fleming.

"I have nothing but the highest respect for him as a police officer. He is very professional and he is a good role model for the young recruits in the police academy," Fleming told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The course, called "Racial Profiling," teaches about different cultures that officers could encounter in their community "and how you don't want to single people out because of their ethnic background or the culture they come from," Fleming said.

Obama has said the Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates last week when they responded to his house after a woman reported a suspected break-in.

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Obama was asked about the arrest of Gates, who is his friend, at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night.

"I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3 — what I think we know separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

In radio interviews Thursday morning, Crowley maintained he followed procedure.

"I support the president of the United States 110 percent. I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts as he himself stated before he made that comment," Crowley told WBZ-AM. "I guess a friend of mine would support my position, too."

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"This isn't about me; this is about the vulnerability of black men in America," Gates said.

He said the incident made him realize how vulnerable poor people and minorities are "to capricious forces like a rogue policeman, and this man clearly was a rogue policeman."
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