In the three years since her daughter was murdered in a Stone Mountain Georgia apartment, there have been lots of tears, few leads, and very perplexing perspectives offered by many surrounding the death of young Vanessa Marie Malone, who was affectionately known by family and friends as “Honey.” Her mother says that she can’t unravel why anyone would want to kill her daughter, and believes that the killer(s) are known, but those who know aren’t cooperating with police. The teen’s brutal slaying has been described by authorities and others following her case as a cowardice act by heartless thugs who shot the young petite frame woman in the back. Since her killing nearly three years ago, the only consistent aspect of her tragic story is the bizarre nature of her demise that has been offered by those around her when she died.

The stories given to police alone are compelling related to the honesty and credibility of Travares Benford and India Smith who say they were victims of a home invasion, that resulted in young Vanessa being slain. For two people who say they were laying in bed together when the front door of the apartment was allegedly kicked in, their accounts of what actually happened couldn’t be more contrasting. He said that there were three gunman, while she told cops that there were four to six armed masked men who stormed into their Hampton Village Apartments in Stone Mountain on October 23, 2012. The pair also claim to have been tied up and forced to lay down in the bathtub, while the gunmen ransacked the apartment. There was also a third person allegedly in the apartment that night. A man who witness say goes by the name “Mercy.” Although he was also an alleged victim of the home invasion, no details have ever been given indicating his whereabouts while the crime was in progress.

It was at this time that Smith says she heard Vanessa come into the apartment. Whether she came in the front door or a rear sliding patio door, an aspect of the case under debate, the belief has always been that she walked in on a robbery in progress. Smith indicated to police that she heard a loud scream followed by gun shots, and then overheard some one bring Vanessa back into the apartment, followed by more shots. The pair claim that they remained in the bath tub for twenty more minutes out of fear, and then untied themselves and notified police. When the police arrived they found the Malone teen in a rear bedroom. Her lifeless body had been placed inside of a closet. Benford and Smith were outside of the apartment awaiting police arrival, while the “Mercy” character had seemingly disappeared without talking to police. The fact that he left without giving police a statement has always been very problematic. The reality that he had outstanding arrest warrants for handgun charges unrelated to the Malone killing may offer some rationale as to why he left the scene, but TPC has discovered troubling facts about his actual whereabouts during the course of police crime scene investigations.

Sources tell TPC that “Mercy” had not actually fled the scene as originally thought. He was allegedly in the apartment above the one where Malone was killed. This unconfirmed report may shed new light on the entire matter, and could challenge the extent of crime scene investigations that police carried out the night Malone was murdered. Now there is concern whether police conducted field interviews with neighbors and other members of the community to ascertain if anyone observed activity in the area that could offer clues as to who the perpetrator(s) were. If police followed standard investigative procedure, then its unclear why “Mercy’s” whereabouts wasn’t determined that night. More importantly, why wouldn’t the resident living in the above apartment tell the cops that he was there. He could very well have been in possession of the murder weapon, and silence from this neighboring tenant may prove to be interference with a police investigation, as well as obstruction of justice.

This newly discovered dynamic may indicate that Benford and Smith also new that “Mercy” was upstairs in a neighboring apartment while the cops where there conducting their investigation. Think about that for a moment. If all three of the victims in the alleged home invasion were complicit in concealing the whereabouts of one the people who was at the apartment during the crime, it cast tremendous doubt on the reliability of their entire story given to the police regarding what they say happened that night. Its a very substantial piece of information if determined to be factual. Why on earth would anyone believe what these people had to say went on in that apartment the night Vanessa was killed? While “Mercy” was allegedly taken into custody the following day on unrelated gun charges, the deception that Benford and Smith may have served up to cops pertaining to his location, is extremely troubling and creates a volume of concern regarding any potential follow up investigations that police authorities may have conducted in the community during the years after this heinous crime.

The source who provided this new information didn’t reveal the name of the tenant who lived at the neighboring apartment during the time Vanessa was killed, but its a piece of information easily obtainable by police investigators. It seems as though a follow up interview with that resident is in order. Even if the cops have concluded that Benford and Smith were unaware of the third victim’s whereabouts after the crime (I don’t see how), any rumors suggesting that others were responsible for concealing potential evidence in a murder investigation should be relentlessly pursued by the police. In essence, there may have been four people who lied to police that night, and considering the fact that we’re focusing on an actual murder case, the obvious question has to be why did they lie? The rationalization that “Mercy’s” disappearance was surrounding an attempt by him to elude police capture for an unrelated crime is perhaps plausible to an extent, but the willingness of others to aid in this guy’s intentional avoidance of having an encounter with the police that night, may be indicative of him being involved in the crime that took place in the apartment directly below where he was allegedly hiding from cops.

Maybe its just me, but a man wanted by the cops for a gun charge disappears from the scene of a murder, and is able to hole up in a neighboring apartment, undetected, and throughout the entire course of what I’m sure was a lengthy police investigation is just incredulous. What did he do to insure that Benford, Smith, and the neighbor didn’t reveal his location? According to other sources, “Mercy” was arrested with a gun on his person the next day, and he may have used it to threaten others to keep them from giving him up to police. Without giving the impression of merely projecting conjecture related to this element of the case, the reality of the apartment where Vanessa was killed being a drug “trap house” is even more disturbing detail surrounding the potential motives of “Mercy,” Benford, and Smith collectively. Specifically, the inability to get out of the apartment upon discovering that someone was breaking the door down. Neither of them told cops that the home invaders identified themselves as police, so it doesn’t take rocket science to process that the people on the other side of the door trying to get inside the apartment were probably some really bad people. The lack of urgency to get out, get help, or defend themselves in such a scenario, and all while knowing full well that drugs are being stashed in the house, makes their stories entirely unbelievable.

Motive for Murder

Another element of this entire murder mystery that hasn’t been widely publicized is the fact that the apartment where the Malone teen was killed is a drug house that had been robbed several months prior to the alleged home invasion that resulted in Vanessa’s death. From the very start I have always fostered the belief that Vanessa was blamed for something, and that’s the sole premise for her killing. My perspective derives from interviews conducted with people close to her, and who have all collectively stated that Vanessa regarded Benford and Smith as friends. So, if we don’t adopt the home invasion story, why would so called friends kill Vanessa? That’s a question that many followers of this tragic story have been wondering. The limited information available coupled with police keeping their findings concealed, doesn’t offer much insight into the case to establish whether there was DNA or other forensic evidence left at the crime scene to corroborate the home invasion story. For now, the cops appear to be following the robbery theory, but you never know what’s being conducted in the backdrop of criminal investigations, especially a murder case.

However, Vanessa’ mom may have been provided some clues as to why her daughter was killed. Ms. Flora Malone advised TPC that there are people within the community who have conveyed to her that Vanessa was killed because she was setting people up to be robbed. “They told me that they heard Vanessa use to do stuff like that. Did they actually see her do it, or hear her talking about it? These are just people who don’t know my daughter,” she said. Malone’s account of the chatter within the community related to Vanessa’ murder may be a tipping point that explains who and why Vanessa was gunned down. She describes her daughter as a very caring, forgiving, and sweet person who could never indulge in such action that is being portrayed about her character in the streets. “Vanessa didn’t have much when she died. She had her little job and a few dollars in the bank. All of the jewelry she wore was mine, and I know she wore a lot of nice shoes sometimes, but they were her older sister Cassaundra’s shoes.”

The mother and I discussed the culture within the black community related to perceptions often being formulated about others, where jealousy and hatred for people are often developed over the most mundane or banal circumstances. If there was a perception that Vanessa was involved as a conspirator in robberies and other crimes, that perception might expose a motive for why she was killed. Additionally, if that’s the mindset that has been adopted within the community, then perhaps it may explain why there has been very little momentum in her case which at this juncture, is heavily dependent upon cooperation from the public. “The stories that people are saying about my daughter couldn’t be more far from the truth. Some people are saying these kinds of things, just to have something to say or be involved in her case. Vanessa got along with everybody, and was very trusting of people,” her mom said. That trust may have been the very element of this case which caused her untimely demise.

The night Vanessa left the house for the last time she said she was on her way to a friend’s house. “My daughter wasn’t the kind of person who just showed up at your door unannounced. She was very respectful about that kind of thing, and I’m sure that they knew she would be coming, because she probably text them in advance.” Ms. Malone’s perspective adds fuel to my initial belief that who ever killed Vanessa was lying in wait for her, and were there for the sole purpose of causing her bodily harm. She may actually have been killed because of the alleged home invasion/robbery that occurred a few months prior at the exact same location where she herself was subsequently murdered. The very fact that this pretty petite female was shot in the back suggest that she may not have even saw her killers as they meted out their vicious attack upon her. I have repeatedly said that Vanessa posed the least threat to anyone at the apartment that night, and for her to be the only person to suffer fatal injury is just very compelling related to her more than likely having been ambushed.

Vanessa had a lot of friends and just like most inner city youth in America, some of those friends were involved in bad things such as drugs. Hell, the government has just about made marijuana legal in every state in the country, so it can no longer be classified as a vital element of the nation’s so called war on drugs. That’s all the young woman did according to her family, hung out with friends, smoked a little pot, and had fun. That sounds like the typical kid coming up in today’s society. Just because she was known to frequent certain homes in the community that were hangouts for smoking weed, doesn’t make her guilty of being involved in setting up “trap houses.” What about some of those other people who hung out at the same homes, and ran with the same circle that Vanessa did? Why weren’t they considered to be people known to set up “trap houses?” Why was Vanessa singled out? Was it because she was a pretty mixed race girl, who was very popular among her peers? Was it female rivalry, animosity, and jealousy? Whatever it was, the entire story circulating about her setting up drug houses has no credibility what so ever.

“Vanessa was a girlie girl. She liked nice things, and liked to look pretty. Both of them are, Cassy is too,” Malone said. To think that rumors being circulated about Vanessa’ involvement in drug house robberies because she hung out smoking pot with others in some of these places, or because of the pride she took in her physical appearance possibly being the premise for such a negative perspective about her character being tossed around the community, which may have ultimately resulted in her tragic ending is simply incomprehensible. During previous interviews with Malone and her oldest daughter Cassaundra, they readily admitted that Vanessa was vulnerable to this kind of violence because she only had her mom and big sister, with no one else who could mount retaliatory actions against the cowards who took her life. How much harm could this small framed female cause anyone. The stories about her involvement in robberies appear to be the kind of vehement cattiness that often derive from female rivalry. It almost makes you want to vomit thinking that some vicious “bitch” may have started rumors about Vanessa, simply because she didn’t like the fact that she could wear a certain kind of shoes. Although this perspective is very disgusting, it appears to be the very origins from which the negative characterizations of Vanessa supposedly being associated with robberies. A bunch of he said, she said, nonsense.

The Potential Involvement of Others

While there is a plethora of suspicion surrounding Travares Benford, India Smith, and the mysterious “Mercy” character, there might also be others who either know exactly what happened, were either complicit in Vanessa’s killing, or had some other role in this heinous crime. One of the very people I describe lives just door steps away from where Ms. Malone formerly resided. At the time of Vanessa’s murder she lived at the 1400 block of Stone Mill Trace with her mom. There were other shady characters whose actions along with statements they made to Vanessa’s family, cast suspicion upon them potentially being involved in the murder. I won’t reveal the name of the subject individual for obvious reasons, but he gave a mutual associate Vanessa’s pocketbook two days after she had been murdered. The person turned the purse over to Cassaundra, Vanessa’s older sister. His story was that Vanessa left the purse at his house just before she was killed. That claim has been sharply refuted by Ms. Malone, who said her daughter would have never left her pocketbook with anyone, especially a person of the likes of the subject male.

I wondered why the male didn’t bring the purse by the Malone home himself, and Ms. Flora advised that the man knew she didn’t like him. There was an incident that occurred at his house back in 2011, roughly a year prior to Vanessa being killed. Ms. Flora explains that Vanessa along with others were known to frequent the older male’s (fifty or older) house to smoke marijuana, and on one occasion a dispute between Vanessa and the man’s girlfriend occurred. According to Ms. flora the woman ordered Vanessa out of the house. Vanessa apparently wasn’t moving fast enough, and the older woman assaulted Vanessa. Ms. Flora said that she never liked the man after that incident, but as for her daughter, she said that Vanessa was a very forgiving person and never held animosity regarding the incident.

Ms. Flora also told TPC that the assault pertaining to her daughter wasn’t the only incident that drew scrutiny of the man by her. On one occasion she says that she drove Vanessa to school, which was located very near their residence, and upon her return home she was approached by the subject male, who initiated a discussion with her about a strange man who had been seen in close proximity of her house. He began telling her that another neighbor had alerted him of the suspicious person seen near the rear of her house. Ms. Malone said that while she was engaged in dialogue with him regarding this alleged suspicious person, she then observed a man crawling out of the corner bedroom of her home. That was the window to her daughter Vanessa’s room. The man began chasing the apparent burglar, who she says he never caught, but she indicated that it was just a highly coincidental and suspicious incident where the man stopped her to discuss burglaries in the neighborhood, when her home was actually being burglarized at that time. Malone says there is no doubt in her mind that the man was involved. She believes that he may have intentionally engaged her in conversation to give the burglar time to rob her home.

Moreover, this is the man who says that Vanessa allegedly left her pocketbook at his home just before she was shot in the back and killed during a so called home invasion. The fact that the man had items belonging to Vanessa that her mom describes as extremely personal, is very problematic. Why didn’t he give her family those personal items that night? I’m sure that the entire community was alarmed at the heavy police presence after her killing, and were gathered around outside trying to find out what happen. Giving Cassaundra her baby sister’ purse who was recently murdered several days after she died, almost appears that he was intentionally waiting to carefully not draw attention to himself. He’s a person within the community that a volume of people say isn’t trustworthy, and a very shady character who offered a completely bizarre story to Ms. Flora pertaining to her daughter.

He claims that Vanessa had text him all day in an effort to borrow three dollars from him. Malone said her daughter had her own money, and if she needed three dollars that Vanessa could have easily obtained that from her, her daughter Cassaundra, or a number of other friends who were close to her. Malone said that she was just baffled at his attempt to make such an absurd story appear believable. “Who did he think was going to believe that story,” she said. The man’s behavior, actions after the murder, and his reputation juxtapose to the mystery surrounding the death of Vanessa Marie “Honey” Malone, along with other suspicious people who had a connection to her within the community are all elements of the case that is just to circumstantial not to warrant close scrutiny of their potential involvement in such a cowardice criminal act.

Despite her daughter’s case seemingly not having any momentum toward finding the people who killed her, Malone says that police authorities have insured her they are continuing to actively pursue leads to solve her murder case. Its just not clear why the cops have denied her pertinent information that could help her find answers to what happen that night. The cops won’t release the 911 recording that was made reporting Vanessa’ killing. In most cases, such information is a matter of public record and is often easily obtainable, but Malone says police have denied her access to the recording. I have suggested to her on multiple occasions to file a Freedom of Information Act Request to force authorities to release it. Malone says that her daughter Cassaundra made attempts to pay fees related to obtaining documents, but was told that the police weren’t going to release the documents. I’m not certain what she was trying to retrieve, but they appear to have made legitimate efforts to get available information about the killing of Vanessa, only to be denied access.

Malone says that she doesn’t even have her daughter’s autopsy report, nearly three years after her killing. This is a circumstance that experts more familiar with laws in the state of Georgia are trying to ascertain the legality of at the request of TPC. Malone says that the only reason she knows where Vanessa was shot on her body, is because when her body was turned over to the funeral director, they advised her where the gunshots were located on her. According to Malone, the coroner would only say that Vanessa had been shot in the torso. These disturbing factors after all of the time that has elapsed is simply unacceptable. Not only have they lost a precious, beloved daughter and sister, but they haven’t been able to even began to grieve.

Malone says that police authorities are preparing to announce a $50,000.00 dollar reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the murder of Vanessa Malone. The reward is being offered with the condition that the information be provided prior to October 23, 2015, the third anniversary of her killing. Call 404-577-TIPS (8477) or Text a Tip to “Crimes” (274637) to provide information to the police, and help capture the heartless bastards who snatched this young woman from this world. #Justiceforhoney https://www.facebook.com/JusticeForHoney

The People’s Champion

I’m Crime Writer David B. Adams

How often in the American public do you see the kind of explosive behavior that transpired in Roanoke Virginia yesterday, where a disgruntled former news reporter (a black man) went off the deep end and killed two of his former colleagues? Like me, I’m sure most can’t recall such a fiasco in recent memory. It’s perhaps one of the most tragic stories involving journalist we’ve seen. The killing of young Allison Parker (24) and Adam Ward (27) will undoubtedly go down as one of the most shocking murders ever captured, because the pair of television journalist were actually killed on live T.V.

The shooter Vester L. Flanagan who also goes by the “on air” handle of Bryce Williams, had been fired from WBDJ channel 7 over two and a half years ago. Flanagan who later took his own life with a single gunshot, left an apparent “manifesto” describing somewhat of a motive, explaining why he took such action that resulted in the killing of two news reporters.  He claims to have been harassed by co-workers racially, and for being gay. It’s a claim that his former employers say was unfounded. Williams had a level of a long series of complaints against co-workers nearly from the beginning of employment at the TV station, his former boss told CNN.

Dan Dennison told CNN affiliate KHNL in Honolulu that he was the news director who hired Williams at WBDJ in 2012 and then fired him the following year, mostly for performance issues. Dennison said he didn’t want to share too many details of the firing, but said it was the toughest termination decision he’d ever handled and that police had to be called to escort Williams out of the building. Later, Williams filed a discrimination claim with the EEOC, alleging harassment in the workplace. Dennison said “we did a thorough investigation and could find no evidence that anyone had racially discriminated against this man.” Additionally, William’s EEOC case was eventually determined to be unfounded.

It’s tough to watch the news about this disturbing case, when we consider that this all degenerated from such a professional work environment. Despite the daunting news coverage of this story that basically paints Williams as an angry black man with poor social and journalism skills, it’s clear that something was deeply disturbing him, and ultimately exacerbated into the horrible tragedy that unfolded in the town of Roanoke early yesterday morning. We have seen countless times in this country where disgruntled employees return with vengeance against their former employers or co-workers. Hence, a culture more commonly associated with U.S. Postal Employees, and also where the cliche “going postal” derived from.

America’s own history related to workplace violence teaches us that the killers return in revenge, and whether their purported motives are predicated on legitimate claims of somehow being wronged by others, there is typically some degree of veracity entailed in what led up to their explosive behavior. While The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal “watchdog” agency that regulates discrimination in the workplace, its standards for determining grounds for action in most discrimination claims filed with the agency, are very exacting related to the qualifying elements necessary to validate the existence of discriminatory practices in the workplace. (i.e. a case being unfounded, simply means that it has been unproven, not necessarily an indication that it never occurred)

William’s case at least,  seems to indicate that something was brewing by his former manager’s own admission. Typically when complaints are being lodged for harassment in the workplace, if the individual making such assertion isn’t well liked within the job community, the investigative process may be more difficult to establish the authenticity of harassment claims. This raises serious interest in what the station’s administration may have done to determine if such behavior actually existed within the company’s work environment. For example:

1. Thoroughly investigate such claims Williams made by burrowing through the usually and deep rooted troughs of sub cultural allegiances that often exist among co-workers in the workplace who hold similar ideals.

2. Taking measures to insure such actions doesn’t occur by requiring employees to revisit company policies, and instituting on the job in service training related to diversity tolerance, and it’s regulations pertaining to work place harassment.

It’s very  uncomplicated to simply spin a story in the media about a guy who co-workers say was just a bad person, and that’s the actual reason he committed such a heinous crime by killing two people without provocation. However, even with the magnitude of violence within the American society today, such a fundamental perspective on why angry people kill is simply not very credible at all. I am no fool and when tragedies like this occur with the discovery being made later on that there was a history of trouble between the perpetrator (Williams) and others in the workplace, it kind of elicits the thought that perhaps it all could have been avoided. I’m personally of the belief that where there is smoke, there is usually fire.

No one could ever successfully argue that Williams was justified for killing these young professionals over workplace harassment, but his actions appear to have developed over the premise of having been harassed racially, and sexually by his co-workers. Now barring Williams suffering from some psychological condition that resulted in such violent behavior by him, at the very minimum something had to have occurred that created his thought process and personal belief of having been discriminated against. We’ll hear all sorts of commentary within the media on what Williams did, and it’s simply very disturbing, and also a huge assuagement that he won’t ever be capable of committing such a terrible crime against another person ever again. Yet, there probably won’t be a minuscule of discourse regarding how society can prevent this from ever happening again.

I am not trying to take away from the tragedy, horror, and grief the victim’s families are enduring. I am rather compelled to address the insidious tactics by American media, to simply dismiss this man’s (Williams) actions as just a classic “nut job” case by an angry black person. Something happened among these people that appear to have derived from racism. The “manifesto” that Williams left is an indicator for most objective thinking people, who are independent thinkers that refuse to accept the often bias news reporting of corporate media outlets who craft narratives pertaining to stories that fit their agenda. Perhaps my argument here could be considered insensitive. That’s not my intentions here.

I just know through practical knowledge in the workplace, how there has always been an unwritten kind of policy, that sort of established a predilection of whites as the benign or propitious employees of the work community by management, regardless of job knowledge, skill, and seemingly only affirmed based on their ethnicity. Often times when blacks reject such culture in the workplace or assert their personal disdain for certain conduct, they are often ostracized and labeled as being difficult to work with. The illusion that the media is trying to create by painting Williams as a trouble maker who created false stories about discrimination and harassment in the workplace is insulting, disparaging, and repulsive to anyone with common sense.

Racism and stories of prejudice are extremely pervasive during our time, and I find it very disingenuous for media outlets to only be focusing  on part of the story. The constant spin or theme of this story only highlighting the aftermath of a classic case where social deficiencies degenerated into violence in the American workplace, is not only a disservice to the public but it also enables the kind of behavior that creates a platform for harassment and violence to exist in our society. Furthermore, what if Bryce Williams was telling the truth, suffered discrimination based on his race and sexuality in the workplace, and actually was called a “monkey” on the job? As a society do we ignore the behavior that pushed this human being to the brink of fatal violence and ultimate self destruction?

With all of the protest going on around this nation, there are still elements and sub cultures within our society that just don’t get it. I refuse to believe that these victims were completely innocent of wrongdoing in this case, and suffered such a violent death at the hands of a crazed gunman. I can’t help but wonder what the mumbling and discourse are like at the television station’s water  cooler today. I am certain that the memory of Bryce Williams isn’t  being characterized as  a “monkey” anymore. In fact, I believe some of the very people he may have reviled, are in utter shock over how he accomplished exactly what he intend to, and made an impression (good or bad) on society that certifies the potential result of our failure as a society, to diligently administer regulations pertaining to intolerance, contemptuousness, and illiberality in the workplace.

The People’s Champion
I’m Crime Writer David B. Adams

Sources: CNN

While the black community is once again being asked to reframe from drawing conclusions over exactly how 28-year-old Sandra A. Bland died at a Waller Texas County Jail, new video has emerged showing exactly what happened when Texas State Trooper Brian T. Encinia pulled Bland over for allegedly failing to signal during a lane change. The video shockingly depicts Encinia conducting himself in an unprofessional manner, appearing to escalate the encounter with Bland, and displaying behavior that has even drawn criticism from state lawmakers who largely have concluded that Bland’s arrest was unjustified after having viewed the police cruiser dash cam video.

Although the video bares out exactly what happened, somehow Bland is still being classified as a combative during the traffic stop. The very inference of such an adjective being appropriate for Sandra Bland’s interaction with this police officer flirts dangerously with competent and logical thinking. Even a person without law enforcement training should reasonably have concern over why Encinia found it necessary to inquire about Bland’s personal mood (“You appear agitated for some reason”). Duuuuuuh! This guy is a freaking “rocket scientist.” I mean exactly how many traffic stops has this officer had in his career where the suspect didn’t display some measure of indifference over having been pulled over (meaning ticket fine or court cost) and consequently having fear of potentially incurring a lost of personal revenue.

Furthermore, given the nature of the state of Texas’ storied past of racial intolerance, coupled with high profiled police encounters where unarmed black people have been killed by white officers, on it’s face could have elicited obvious agitation alone from Ms. Bland. Encinia’s behavior only intensified an apparent tense situation. Her response to his inquiry regarding her apparently being “irritated” had absolutely nothing to do with the purpose for his traffic stop of Ms. Bland. Instead of focusing on the alleged traffic “moving violation,” Encinia appears to almost entice Bland into a confrontation. While she took full advantage of his inquiry of her being irritated regarding the traffic stop, none of her comments to the officer warranted her ultimately being taken into custody.

When the video of Encinia’s traffic stop of Bland is viewed in its entirety, the infraction she was allegedly stopped for is perhaps one of the most “ticky tacky” provocations I have ever viewed surrounding being cited for a traffic violation. Almost immediately Encinia seems to question Bland’s mood by asking her “what’s wrong,” as if she had no right to inquire about the cause for being stopped. He goes on to ask her “where are you headed to now,” before returning to his police cruiser to run her driving credentials. That inquiry seems to be a standard question of African Americans by police, inferring the probability of a black person not having a legitimate reason for being in the area of the traffic stop. Sadly, Encinia’s behavior mirrors the posture of the average white police officer, who seem to view suspects of any ethnicity as having no recourse during police encounters, or not even the right of being indifferent.

Encinia obviously became upset over Ms. Bland’s candor over her displeasure of being stopped, her mood and attitude are inconsequential to his ability to perform his job effectively. Encinia is the trained public official who should remain professional at all times. However, the sharp tongue of an educated black woman somehow busted his ego, and he chose to escalate the situations by feeding into Bland’s “irritation.” His own admission that he was actually prepared to only give Bland a warning, demonstrates how he even viewed the stop as being very minor. The most disturbing aspect of his entire encounter Encinia had with this lady stems from his request for her to put out her cigarette. Utilizing what many have dubbed as a “secret provocation” by police to intensify their engagement with suspects, he attempts to create the possibility of a cigarette somehow being a safety issue.

Bland’s response regarding being in her car and not being required by law to put out her cigarette wasn’t a violation of any kind. Encinia’s action after that were in fact illegal and he even lied about it in his police report and charging document in Bland’s arrest. Her refusal to comply with the request regarding her cigarette set Encinia off, and he angrily requested for her to get out of her car (Over a cigarette?). While attempting to extract Bland from her vehicle, she asked why she was being taken out of her car when she wasn’t under arrest. Encinia responds “You are under arrest.” Bland asked Encinia “I’m under arrest for what? For What? For What?” When he fails to respond to her request to know why he was using force she then aksed, “Why am I being apprehended” two separate times, and Encinia never informed her why he was using force or the cause of her arrest. In fact, he failed to even follow basic police procedure which requires an officer to fully explain why a request is being made, and the consequences for not complying with a lawful police order.

In the melee between Encinia and Bland, she clearly became combative once he began to use force, prior to that she was properly exerting her rights as a citizen. She should not have to “cow tow” and bow down to him just because he is a police officer, and when a seemingly unlawful request is made of a person by a police officer I’m inclined to believe that its a request that a citizen is not bound by law to comply with. He attempted to drag her out of her car because his ego got bruised, and he overzealously used his authority in retaliation for her basically failing to “kiss his white ass.” After his attempt to physically remove her from the car failed, he drew his tazer, and coerced Bland out of the vehicle under duress by saying, “I’ll light you up.” Bland complied and as she exited her vehicle voluntarily, Encinia directed her to the side walk (out of view of his dash cam) where she promptly proceeded to.

The death of Sandra Bland is difficult to understand given the nature of the minor traffic violation she was being given a warning for, and subsequently escalated into a violent confrontation with a Texas State Trooper. It’s just the indisputable facts that landed her in a county jail that makes this case so unnerving. You can view Bland’s Charging document from here:
Affidavit for Complaint and Warrant For Arrest

The Affidavit and Complaint For Warrant Of Arrest And Detention document which outlines the nature of charges against Sandra Bland depict Encinia’s claim that he only “had Bland exit the vehicle to further conduct a safe traffic investigation. Now, after viewing the video from his dash cam, we now know that this assertion in her charging document is basically a blatant lie. Encinia is clearly seen approaching Bland’s vehicle after he ran her driving credentials, and began the process of what he described on video, as a “warning citation.” Once an officer begins the citation process, for the most part the investigation is over. Additionally, at the 10:09 mark of the dash cam video, Encinia can clearly be heard telling Bland that “you are under arrest,” although he never advised her why. So, his assertion that he just wanted to insure a safe traffic investigation is complete fabrication. From the video it appears that Bland was being arrested for not putting out her cigarette.

To further expound on the integrity of this “dirt bag” cop and others just like him, I’ll direct your attention to the fashion in which Encinia constructs his cause for arrest of Ms. Bland in the charging paperwork. In the charging document he asserts that he placed her in handcuffs for officer safety, but he had already advised Bland that she was under arrest. The officer safety claim is over used by police, and a complete loophole in the criminal justice system in this country, that allows officers to get away with just about anything on the premise of some type of purported fear. According to Encinia’s charging document of Bland, she wasn’t arrested until she allegedly kicked him in the leg. However, at the 12:18 mark of the dash cam video Encinia can be heard telling Bland that “you were getting a warning, but now your going to jail,” with bland repeatedly asking why several more times, and Encinia failing to advise her as to why she was being placed under arrest. This is contrary to Encinia’s claim that she was placed in handcuffs for safety purposes.

Moreover, Bland was already in handcuffs (12:35 mark: “I got her in control she is in handcuffs”), by most law enforcement standards that is pretty much a secure situation. The aggressive nature that Encinia handle her began at this point. It seems that at the 13:08 mark in the video when another police unit was observed arriving on the scene from the left side of the video, Encinia began to escalate the use of force on Bland, and at the 13:15 – 13:19 mark of the video (time enough for backup to get out of the car and assist) the violent struggle which resulted in Bland being slammed to the ground actually occurred. Assuming that the escalation of force was precipitated by Bland allegedly assaulting this officer, it came well after Encinia had advised Bland that she was under arrest and going to jail multiple times. These facts dispute Encinia’s charging documents which attempts to establish the reason for arrest was due to Bland having committed an Assault on a Public Servant.

Even the alleged assault by Bland on Encinia appears to be very problematic. He describes the assault as Bland “swinging her elbows” and then “kicked my right leg in the shin.” The claims by this officer seem preposterous on it’s face, but the dash cam video completely destroys any notion what so ever that the encounter with Ms. Bland transpired in the fashion that officer Encinia indicated in police reports. While the cause of Sandra A. Bland’s death is being disputed, its completely separate from the incident which landed her in police custody and into a county jail where she subsequently died several days later.

Every day it seems, new evidence is emerging which challenge and question the commission, integrity, and motive for police officers while arresting or encountering people of color in this country. If nothing else, the video of Bland’s encounter with this white officer, coupled with his manipulated reports misrepresenting the facts, should be textbook on the “Black Experience” while dealing with police in this country. The dash cam video of this incident should be sufficient grounds to charge officer Encinia with False Arrest, and the falsification of official documents in this case. At the 14:48 mark of the dash cam video, Encinia is once again heard making comments which dispute the cause of her arrest. “For onlya warning, you are going to jail for resisting arrest.” Which is it, resisting or assault? We should demand his firing immediately. Her family and friends deserves as much, to at least preserve the integrity of her memory.

The People’s Champion
I’m Crime Writer David B. Adams

According to Blogger Jared Taylor the slum communities, poverty, and other social deprivations which permeates the African American community are of our own making. Taylor is a writer for a Blog entittled: “American Renaissance” and recently wrote a piece highlighting a New York Times article supposedly detailing the true cause for the riots that erupted in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray. Taylor’s entire article centers around a young black man name Robert Smith who went to school in Baltimore. Mr. Smith asked a rhetorical question pertaining to the hardships that exist in poor neighborhoods like the one Freddie Gray grew up in.

” We’re just angry at the surroundings–like this is all that is given to us?–and we’re tired of this, like nobody wants to wake up and see broken-down buildings. They take away the community centers, they take away our fathers, and now we have traffic lights that don’t work, we have houses that are crumbling, falling down. “

I’m not sure whether Mr. Taylor was simply not astute enough to grasp the broader perspective that Robert Smith was attempting to convey about poverty in Baltimore, or if his attack hinges on a subtle but more direct viewpoint that caused him to arrive at such a broad generalization pertaining to the recent unrest that resulted in rioting throughout the streets of Baltimore. According to his own article, Taylor believes that Mr. Smith’s perspective epitomizes the mentality of black people as a whole. He claims that the dilapidated neighborhoods that blacks live in were wrecked by our community, and we now cry out, “This is all that is given to us?”

He went on to make other generalizations about blacks as an ethnic group, and claim to have knowledge pertaining to the economic and social class structure of black communities like Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Washington, St. Louis, Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham, Jacksonville, and countless other cities that suffered from “white flight” (a large migration of whites from a particular community) as a result of the 1968 riots. Taylor seems to have been living in seclusion for the last 50 years without contact from the outside world of any kind, especially when he makes the complete absurd claim that some of the best city housing “in the world” was handed over to blacks who wrecked it.

Taylor further believes white people saved and worked hard to build those neighborhoods. They maintained them, repaired them, and loved them. He even sarcastically miffed at Smiths comments to the New York Times by remarking, “Does he (Robert Smith) imagine that white authorities “giving” nice neighborhoods to whites and cruelly handing out slums to blacks? They didn’t start out as slums.” I hate to be the bearer of bad news to Mr. Taylor, but that’s essentially what happened. I commented as much in the discussion section of Taylor’s article, and for some unknown reason my comment has yet to be posted.

Most people who run across articles such as this one which was published on April 29, 2015, simply label it as bigotry and just move on. I refuse to do that because I am from Baltimore and personally believe that Mr. Taylor is either purposefully spewing untruths to satisfy the thirst for prejudicial reading material of a racist readership base, or he is simply discussing such a topic with his own non practical, and personal opinion being invoked. Either way, his entire argument is misleading and bares tenuous merit at best. I went through the painstaking task of researching exactly how the so called “ghetto” or “slums” as Mr. Taylor refers to it, actually derived. What I discovered also satisfied my curiosity as to why my comment related to Mr. Taylor’s article was never published in the discussion section (I believe Taylor knows the truth about what I discovered).

While I must concur with Taylor related to “white flight” from inner city communities, I differ with him related to the cause. He seems to think that white people were afraid of a black insurrection, and they all fled as a result of fear from uprising black people in the wake of the 1968 riots after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and sold their homes in desperation. I won’t generalize in the fashion that my fellow blogger Jared Taylor did, but his mindset depicting the entire “white fear” claim, isn’t unfamiliar territory. White people did leave inner city America in droves, but it was predicated on racism and occurred sporadically over a period of several decades. The introduction of new federal laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, gave way to new found liberties for people of color within the American social class structure that had previously been prohibited.

The entire nonsense that Taylor rants on about in his article doesn’t make since, when even the most bigoted person would be able to ascertain that a volume of struggles people of color endured, have in fact derived directly from legalized racism, such as “Jim Crow” laws, segregation, and other discriminatory practices against black people that was once a firm indoctrination of America’s social order. To say that black people created their own misery within the confines of many poor communities around the nation is simply a disingenuous perspective that can’t be taken seriously. White people have had it good for a very long time in this country, and our own government officials were some of the main contributors to black oppression, and the architects who cultivated the complete solidification of “white privilege” in the United States. (Read Jared Taylor’s article in the American Renaissance below).

New York Times Stumbles onto the Truth About Baltimore

The Foundation of America’s Social Order

Mr. Taylor is completely off base when he infers that authority figures wouldn’t purposefully grant decent housing to white people and relegate blacks to slums. The fact that he seemingly heckled Robert Smith’s comments about “that’s all black people get,” in my opinion reveals that Taylor knows more about this topic than what he is letting his readers on to. Between 1934 – 1962 the U.S. government granted nearly $120,000,000,000 billion dollars in low interest home loans exclusively to white people only. Blacks were never granted loans to purchase a home, whether they lived near decent white communities or not, and just about anything else for that matter. The practice is more commonly referred to today as “red lining.” Such practices brought about more federal law such as The Fair Housing Act, and sent relief to millions of black families whom had been relegate to slum areas in major American cities, and many which were also located in very undesirable parts of town (i.e. refuge dumps, toxic plants, near noisey railways, and buildings that were nearly crumbling down).

To drive home the point of exactly how deep Mr. Taylor’s ignorance on the topic actually is, the assumption that white families just up and left homes they saved up to purchase, worked hard for, loved, and maintained is just ludacris. One of the advantages of having a home in good neighborhoods is the property value. This is one of the most vital assets within the American society even today. White people didn’t sell their homes at “desperation prices” as Mr. Taylor claims. The vast majority of these homes which were acquired through low interest federal home loans, were past down from generations to the next descendants of white people. This afforded white families the ability to acquire continued, and sustained wealth in this country while blacks were unable to acquire such wealth and have the luxury of obtaining a home throw an inheritance.

Additionally, homes in white communities were deemed as valuable assets that also incurred a higher tax. Tax dollars are typically utilized by municipalities to run it’s government, it’s school districts, parks, and recreation. Property considered valuable generates revenue that afforded school systems in white communities to higher better teachers, provide necessary supplies, and an overall better learning environment for white kids within the jurisdiction of these communities. The economic, educational, and social plight of black people in this country has always been strained, and Mr. Taylor’s bold attempt at completely ignoring many of the factors which caused the black community to arrive at it’s current station, coupled with the unfair labeling or characterization of these systemic issues within the black community as nothing more than character flaws. is probably indicative of the inability for many white people to have an open and honest discussion related to this topic. The lack of honesty, truth, and integrity related to the black struggle in America has always been seen as a major stumbling block by leaders within the Afro American community. (Dilapidated housing in Baltimore City below).

Creating an uneven playing field which largely benefits the white community isn’t just the foundational fabric of the American society, but its simply racism, and a fact that white people either refuse or simply don’t care to acknowledge. Whether white people are readily prepared to accept many of these truths or not, the banking system’s “red lining” tactics separated this country to this day. It afforded white people to live under the illusion that black people were negative, and further allowed for the white community to adopt a superior mentality. After civil rights laws were passed, white people ran to the suburbs because they had no, nor did they desire to have any experience interacting with the black community. The long decades that prohibited blacks from obtaining wealth through home ownership, also deterred investment within the black community, which further promoted stereotypes of communities where blacks were forced to live as a result of tactics implemented by racist laws, banks, and federal lending institutions.

Shameful Government and Industrial Tactics

Another misleading element of Mr. Taylor’s argument related to blacks destroying their own communities, that supposedly derived from pristine homes that were sold by white home owners in desperation after the civil rights movement, is the intriguing question as to exactly who were these well kept homes sold to during the “white flight” era. If you follow Mr. Taylor’s theory which suggest that the homes were sold after the 1968 riots, then certainly you would have to conclude that these subject homes were sold to white investors, in a similar fashion in which southern home owners sold property to northern investors (carpetbaggers) at the conclusion of the Civil War. Black families during this period of American history were still not being afforded opportunities to obtain property through bank loans (due to federal loan “red lining” tactics), and primarily were renters of properties that were once owned and occupied by white families who fled to the suburbs.

While the realities of new federal laws that rendered the old discriminatory practices (“Jim Crow”) as being illegal in the United states, much of the flight of white families to the suburb were not solely predicated on fear of having to live in desegregated communities as Mr. Taylor’s article infers. Many of these same properties he claim were some of the best housing in America, were hazardous cesspools that the United States government was clearly aware posed a serious environmental hazard (lead poisoning) that emerged as one of the most devastating neurotoxins on the planet, and one that’s especially common in Baltimore because of its poverty and the age of its housing stock. In 1949, the Maryland legislature was the first to ban the use of lead paint in children’s toys, but the law was overturned after pressure from the lead industry. As continued concern arose regarding the dangers of lead poisoning, a vast portion of those white families whom Mr. Taylor claims sold their homes in desperation, actually fled because of their knowledge related to the subject environmental hazard that many of these homes posed to their families.

White families were very much aware of the hazardous ramifications that persisted with their valuable properties, which Taylor says were well maintained, loved, and cherished by hard working white Americans. However, there is sufficient data available regarding the very storied, and troubled history of housing in cities like Baltimore in particular. While Mr. Taylor wants his readers to digest his obvious ignorance related to his theory that blacks destroyed their own communities, the truth was never hidden, and many of these same properties were owed by slum lords who collected rent from poor black families without making needed repairs. Slum lords were secretly granted a pass for decades by local, state, and federal environmental protection agencies due to the enormous amount of cost that lead paint removal would incur many white property owners. Coupled with the government “looking the other way” while knowingly allowing property owners to rent these hazardous homes to black families, a battle between the lead industry and medical professionals played out in court.

In the book “Lead Wars,” David Rosner, a professor at Columbia University, and Gerard Markowitz, a professor at the City University of New York, cite internal documents from the lead industry and other sources to write a compelling history of industry manipulation of data to both lay the blame on parents and families for the crisis of lead poisoning, and to keep it in products through the 1970s. In reality, the authors argue, the federal government was aware of the many dangers posed by lead, and in bowing to pressure from industry, allowed millions of children to be poisoned in Baltimore and other U.S. cities where black families were heavily concentrated. Federal legislation finally banned the use of lead paint in 1978, but by then it was in homes all over cities with large populations of black people, and Baltimore had begun what would be a steep economic decline, leaving an increasing number of children at risk for lead poisoning as the old housing stock deteriorated.

The circumstances surrounding lead poisoning is widely known, and has subsequently been dubbed “The Ignored Scandal” by journalist, educators, and medical professionals alike. Educators in conjunction with medical researchers have been conducting studies related to the effects of lead poisoning on the brain, and have produced sufficient evidence that suggest lead poisoning may directly have a negative impact on the development of children. Studies link brown fields, polluted land, and buildings containing hazardous substances like lead with urban areas populated with black children who coincidentally are historically poor academic achievers. Some experts warn that not all black children perform badly in the classroom, rendering such research as being unreliable, but statistics outlining the effects of this hazardous material shows a link between lead poisoning and low IQ that are based on the findings of epidemiological studies of large groups of children. Such studies also produce other data which highlight the harmful impact on the brain of children living in lead homes that are sufficient to make a clinical argument, and supports the theory that lead poisoning may be a dominant factor that causes development issues during early childhood learning of children (black kids in particular).

The basic facts surrounding the lack of economic, educational, and social development within many black urban areas across the country point to a dark, chilling, and out right evil covert conspiracy to adversely impact the advances of black people in America. Despite Mr. Taylor’s attempt to purposefully omit established data on the topic, the extent of such a deplorable public policy towards an ethnic group is in principle, exacerbated by the careless nature of how such tactics were implemented to target the core of the black family, it’s children, and all while profiting from rental properties containing lead poisoning. The architects of such a vicious program actually cemented the establishment of “white privilege” in America for decades. More importantly, Mr. Taylor couldn’t possibly have conducted even the slightest bit of research on poverty, dilapidated housing, and crime within cities like Baltimore. It also wouldn’t be wise to associate all of the ills within the black community with “white privilege,” but by design or otherwise, secret scandals like purposefully exposing millions of black children to lead poisoning in homes throughout America certainly has had a tremendous bearing on the development of poor black children in this country.

The Johns Hopkins Toddler Study

Johns Hopkins University, located in Baltimore, was the epicenter of knowledge on the effects of lead poisoning in the 1950s, years before it allegedly approved a notorious study (“Toddler Study”) that is believed to have knowingly exposed children to paint and dust in an effort to find cheap abatement techniques, and ended in a class-action lawsuit. In December 1993, a slum landlord in Baltimore named Lawrence Polakoff rented an apartment to two single mothers with children. A few days after they moved in, the mothers were invited to participate in a research study comparing how well different home renovation methods protected children from lead poisoning, which is still a major problem endangering the health of millions of American children, many of them poor.

The research study in which the mothers and their children participated were run by two scientists affiliated with Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University with support from the US Environmental Protection Agency utilizing federal research funding. Regular testing was conducted by Hopkins to determine the lead level in the children, while the results for one child showed an increase by three times as much lead that didn’t exist prior to participating in the study, while the other child results revealed a shocking increase of lead in the blood by four times as much, that like the other child, wasn’t present in the blood before joining the study. The two mothers later filed negligence lawsuits against the Kennedy Krieger Institute, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins, saying that the research institute had failed to warn them about the risks of the study and the danger that their children could be poisoned by lead in the houses.

The Maryland Court of Appeals eventually overturned a lower court’s decisions dismissing those cases and sharply criticized the researchers and their institutions as failing to see the basic impermissibility of a study that enlisted healthy children to live in potentially dangerous housing. One of the judges ruling on the cases, Judge Dale R. Cathell said, “It can be argued that the researchers intended that the children be the canaries in the mines but never clearly told the parents,” in a scathing decision that compared the Baltimore study to Nazi medical experiments that were conducted on Jews during the holocaust, and the study in Tuskegee, Ala., that withheld treatment from black men that had intentionally been given syphilis. Neither researchers nor parents, Judge Cathell said, have the legal right to put healthy children into a study that offers them no benefit and carries real hazards. Children who ingest lead can suffer brain damage.

Cathell’s comments zeroed in on aspects of the study that should have set off alarms from the very start. For example, through Kennedy Krieger, Johns Hopkins helped landlords get public financing for the purpose of eliminating lead and encouraged them to rent the premises to black families with young children. Children already living in the houses were encouraged to remain, so that their blood could be analyzed. These facts supports an earlier argument presented in this commentary which suggested a partnership with white American slum lords who benefited from federal dollars, while watch dog agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) turned it’s back to lead homes being rented to poor black families who were involved in studies like Hopkins’ “Toddler Study.”

Additionally, a national survey conducted in 1998-1999 found that an equal percentage of black and white families lived in homes with federally recognized risk for lead exposure. A follow-up study in 2006, the most recent national survey on housing hazards, found that, while there had been a significant drop in the percentage of white families who lived in homes with a serious lead-based paint hazard, the percentage of black families had actually increased from the previous survey. These findings in the above cited study, dismisses Mr. Taylor’s claim that the “white flight” era permeated the late sixties after the civil rights movement, and proves that many white families remained in the subject homes that he claim had been sold out of desperation. Yet, we see a tremendous reduction in the number of white families who lived in lead homes less then a decade later, while the number of black families increased from the above listed, and previous survey.

Documented evidence illustrates how the lead industry, medical institutions, and the government were married to a program that put millions of children (mostly poor kids, and black children) at risk to the harmful effects of lead poisoning. Why was such an unethical experiment ever allowed to proceed? In “Lead Wars”, CUNY’s Gerald Markowitz and Columbia University’s David Rosner convincingly show that the Baltimore toddler study emerged from a century of policy making in which the US government, were faced at various times with a choice between protecting children from lead poisoning and protecting the businesses that produced and marketed lead paint, and almost invariably chose the latter. In the process, some of the scientific research on lead poisoning became corrupted to allegedly satisfy profits for officials, both in the government, and within corporations who manufactured products that contained lead.

But from the history these men relate in their book “Lead Wars,” it’s possible to imagine how they could not effectively resist the momentum of government indifference to the poor, pervasive racial prejudice, and careless decision-making that influenced government policy making throughout the lead-poisoning crisis. Those of us who lived in dilapidated housing in cities like Baltimore across the nation, know all to well the long lasting effects of lead poisoning, but if you listened to uninformed Bloggers like Jared Taylor, you would be convinced that black people are simply the dregs of society who have created “misery of their own making.” So, to admonish many of the struggles within the black community as a deficiency or character flaws that are only indigenous to a specific ethnic group, and all while a volume of available data exist which contradicts such an assertion, on it’s face is simply blatant bigotry as depicted in Mr. Taylor’s article.

Freddie Gray And The Baltimore Riot

Mr. Taylor’s article utilized a single comment from a new York Times article to summarize what can only be described as his own personal opinion at best, but the premise for the Times article was centered around riots in Baltimore city that erupted after the death of a 25-year-old young black man name Freddie Gray, who sustained a sever spinal injury while in Baltimore police custody, and subsequently died days later. Media and others, mostly from within the white community who no longer lives in Baltimore, immediately assumed that what happened to Freddie Gray was some how justified, without out even having all of the facts surrounding what actually happened in the case. (read my personal but thorough analysis of the Freddie Gray case here: Baltimore Police want State Prosecutor To Turn A Blind Eye: Freddie Gray Was Intentionally Killed By Heartless Cops).

Gray’s tragic case is vital to understanding the very systemic issues that have plagued black communities and the scenario Mr. Taylor outlines in his article, depicting how black’s like “Robert Smith doesn’t know any better but to persistently ask for handouts in today’s world of welfare, food stamps, government housing, and white guilt.” As if blacks are the primary recipients of such federally funded welfare programs. The community in which Gray was arrested just happens to be one of the most historical black communities in all of Baltimore. Just blocks away stands the original structure that was the first school of any kind for black people in the entire state of Maryland (Frederick Douglass High School at Calhoun and Baker streets). At the same time, the very same community had one of the highest violent crime rates per capita in the entire U.S. for nearly four decades. Pundits who love to point to such statistics as a means to justify stereotypes about poor black communities, fail to look at many of the grass root issues that cause many communities like Penn-North to arrive at such a juncture. Interestingly though, some of the same lead studies conducted by Johns Hopkins reveal how individuals with high levels of lead in their blood are more prone to violence. Also, the same studies show that there is a direct link between violent crime and neighborhoods where lead poisoning in homes is very prevalent.

Freddie Gray and his sisters both were raised in the Gilmore Homes housing project and were both subjected to lead poisoning. In fact, the Gray siblings had recently settled a long standing civil suit against the city for their exposure to lead paint in public housing. Like Johns Hopkins, officials responsible for the maintenance and development of city property during the lead-poisoning crisis, made the decision to house poor black families in housing that were known (by the government) to be hazardous dwellings that contained lead poisoning. Given the volume of supporting data on the studies of lead poisoning and it’s effects on the human brain, it’s safe to say that the Gray siblings suffered from early childhood developmental issues. Freddie Gray had an extended “rap sheet” of mostly petty crimes and was known to many of the police who patrolled his neighborhood.

Freddie Gray like many other black males who grew up in poor black families in urban America, who also subsequently became developmentally challenged in his youth as a result of exposure to lead paint, is a benefactor of policing that began to target black communities as a retaliatory measure, after the civil rights laws were implemented. Before racist laws became illegal the America prison population was around 200,000 thousand, and in what seems like direct retaliation from white America, a mass incarceration of black people began, and exploded into a bolstering 2.4 million prison population in which more that two thirds were black people. That’s more people incarcerated than any other country in the world. There are now more black people incarcerated in the United States than there were enslaved in 1850, a hundred years before the civil rights movement even began (six times the rate of incarcerated white people).

Contaminated housing, poor education or an inability to progress educationally, coupled with low paying manual labor jobs, is a textbook analysis on how the capitalistic society of this country has been able to purposefully and successfully keep black people oppressed in this country for over 400 years. Unfortunately, there are white people like Taylor who spew untruths without conducting research, and perpetuates stereotypes, ignorance, and creates social/racial divide in this country. Wait a minute though, I should becarefull before someone goes running off at the mouth, that like Jesse Jackson, Robert Smith, and countless other black people, I am crying out about issues within the black community that were “self created” by my own community. Yes, even my perspective has supporting information that I discovered by simply using Google Search, but perhaps such a task is too tedious for the likes of Mr.Taylor and his readership base.

— David Simon

Crime Writer

In an interview this year with “The Marshall Report”, Simon revealed to writer Bill Keller how “probable cause” (what police once needed to lawfully stop a citizen) was completely destroyed by the so called war on drugs. A drug war that wasn’t indigenous to the black community, but somehow landed illegal narcotics from foreign lands such as South America, Mexico, and Afghanistan onto the streets of black communities establishing a crisis of epidemic proportions.

” If I had to guess and put a name on it, I’d say that at some point, the drug war was as much a function of class and social control as it was of racism. “

— David Simon

Simon actually validates what many have been saying about policing in black communities across the country all along. He describes how probable cause is a tenuous thing in any high crime area, but was exacerbated in Baltimore when crack cocaine hit the streets, and violence plagued many poor urban areas. The politicians panicked as a result, and even passed city ordinances that relegated nearly a third of a major inner city like Baltimore as being off limits to it’s citizens, and declared that people who were caught loitering in those areas would be subject to search and arrest. Essentially, it was a permission for the police to become random and arbitrary, and to clear streets in any fashion they desired. Does any of this sound familiar? This appears to be exactly what happened to Freddie Gray. Cops began to chase him for being in an area that had been deemed by the city off limits to it’s residents.

Where Taylor cites in his article that basically infers how white people should not be blamed for systemic issues within poor black communities, now that the Mayor, Police and Fire chiefs are all black, is completely destroyed when Simon demonstrates how people living in Baltimore who have been arrested, know that while your in police custody you could get beat really bad, and almost all the time it would be a black police officer who “kicks your ass.” He even admits that he was perplexed at what to do with such a dynamic, that he just simply reported it. Simon also does a good job during the interview shedding light on how police brutality, though implemented primarily by black cops, was utilized as a function of social control (sound familiar?). He says that it was simply to keep poor people down, and created a firm footing and excuse for everybody to operate outside the realm of procedure and law.

Simon also talks about how Baltimore cops have used questionable tactics to arrest people for over frivolous charges resulting in a citizen having to spend a couple of nights in jail until they see a court commissioner, which are policing tactics that date back to the 60’s. Baltimore has historically been a city with a policing policy that targets black communities aggressively and incarcerates a high volume of black males, while on it’s surface paints a very negative image of black people, and their community in general. In turn, the media utilizes such data to further negatively impact the image of black people in Baltimore and other cities in this country, which has always been a tactic of white society to promote white superiority. Fortunately, David Simon is a white man who saw for himself first had, many of the problems associated with being poor, black, and living in struggling communities that were heavily patrolled by police looking for any excuse to beat the crap out of, and arrest black people.

Simon’s insight into police tactics confirms how modern technology (mobile devices with video recording functionality) is now capturing live footage of systemic police misconduct that previously hasn’t been exposed. Taylor’s posture about black people is obliterated by a crime reporter who has seen it first hand, and establishes why cops more than likely didn’t have probable cause to even stop Freddie Gray. The systemic culture of policing in Baltimore and other major cities around the country who operate on the idea that their fighting a drug war, has been condoned by public officials who campaign for lower crime statistical data at any cost. The hidden agenda of City officials in Baltimore couldn’t be more clear, that it supports a heavy dose of physical force, and that its a tactic that isn’t an exemption from the policing strategies of Baltimore as a public policy. It all leads to a systemic practice of excessive force as a matter of public policy, and city governments like Baltimore have clearly established that they are even inclined to pay as a result of their police departments operating in such a fashion. (Baltimore Sun Investigates Undue Force)

Baltimore citizens who successfully sued Baltimore for police brutality included in monetary settlements totaling $5.7 million dollars since 2011.

David Simon went on a clinic describing how police departments, backed by municipal governments have long targeted black communities with tactics that have raised serious concerns in Baltimore at least, and resulting in having to settle a lawsuit with the ACLU. Simon gave up the goods on so many levels related to policing in Baltimore that it’s too much to cover in this forum, without having the appearance of a written dissertation on a Blog site. So to the young man Mr. Robert Smith credit, his rhetorical question in the comments he made with the New York Times is resounding to those of us who aren’t complete stuff shorts, without a clue as to exactly what’s going on in the real world. I would be completely embarrassed about writing an article of any kind with such blatant bias in the face of such substantial data available that chronologically narrates the plight of black people on these western shores.

Many of the decent law abiding citizens of the city of Baltimore probably concur with Mr. Taylor’s perspective on the destruction of private property during the riots that broke out, but at the same time, most aren’t exactly bleeding hearts over the lost of property, when they have been handed the short stick for so long in what many deem as an unjust American society. What will it take for most white Americans to get the big picture? Wait, that’s a rhetorical question, and perhaps I should be waiting for the fallout of making such a statement from readers who think like Mr. Taylor. Maybe I’ll actually engage an unsuspecting white person on race relations, and discrimination against black people in America, and gain some meaningful ground (as long as it’s not a bigot).

The People’s Champion
I’m Crim{e Blogger David Adams

The Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police along with attorneys for six city officers who were charged with the death of Freddie Gray, have called for Baltimore’s top prosecutor Marilyn Mosby to recuse herself from handling the high profile case surrounding the death of a young black man who sustained serious injury while in police custody, and subsequently died as a result of complications  from a spinal cord injury. Supporters of the subject officers have argued a volume of concerns pertaining to Mosby’s handling of the case. Defense counsel for the accused officers cite the prosecutor’s close ties with an attorney for the Gray family, her marriage to a city councilman that represents the district that encompasses the neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested, and lawyers for the cops have even produced documents in which Mosby herself had written communications to top police brass about more stringent policing in the Gilmore homes section of the city due to high drug crime activity.

All of those rationalizations pointing to why the accused cops believe Mosby shouldn’t handle the criminal case of these six city police officers are a stretch at best. If the complete absurdity of police requesting their own prosecutor to be removed the case isn’t enough to raise eyebrows, the argument over attorney William “Billy” Murphy being a conflict because of his campaign donation to support her election bid is nonsense. The Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P.) donated to Mosby’s campaign also. Although the cops union gave just under a thousand dollars fewer, it was a donation non the less, and just as Murphy had contributed to the young attorney’s run for the city’s top prosecutor’s post.

The documents attorneys produce depicting Mosby’s request for more policing in the Penn North section of the city doesn’t trump the fact that a man sustained serious physical injury while in police custody. To even offer communications to police brass regarding policing in high crime areas in the city, as some how justifying what happened to Freddie Gray is incomprehensible. It’s not unusual for city officials to contact police administrators regarding criminal activity within the community. One of the major sources of providing police with information regarding criminal activity comes from constituents of city officials who complain about low or no police visibility within their perspective communities. Mosby’s communication to police brass requesting stringent policing in the Gilmore Homes area isn’t out of the ordinary, and it certainly doesn’t mean that cops have a license to conduct themselves in such a fashion that results in the death of criminal suspects without justification for such level of force.

The claim of a conflict of interest related to prosecutor Mosby’s marriage to city councilman Nick Mosby is simply absurd. No one had an issue with her marriage to a city councilman until city police officers came under fire for the death of Freddie Gray. To make such an assertion is petty, immature, and has no merit what so ever. Attorneys for the accused cops claim that the councilman serves to benefit from successful prosecution of police who are charged with the murder of a constituent within his district. Looking at the arrest record of Freddie Gray (a volume of petty crimes), I doubt very seriously if he even held a voter’s card. All of the purported conflicts of interest that have been offered so far by defense council of accused city cops, is nothing more than a failed attempt to deflect from what actually happened to Freddie Gray.

While the cellphone video of Gray being taken into custody by police is not confirmation that Gray was in fact severely injured, it gives the appearance of him in pain, and considering that cops who handled him during his arrest admitted that he requested medical assistance multiple times, its demonstrative of complete neglect on the part of police who appeared to ignore his pleas for help. One of the major errors that’s often made by authority figures, is the careless mindset of drawing conclusions that a person is putting on an act, and isn’t really in need of medical assistance. That’s not an officer’s job to determine whether or not an arrestee of suspects is injured or not. A cop isn’t a medical professional and its not their job to make such a call. Regardless how the entire Freddie Gray case plays out, all of the officers who interacted with him were negligent in the course of their duty for failure to render assistance, at the very minimum.

So, all of the posturing by the cops and their attorneys is simply an exacerbation of various factors unrelated to the case, for the purpose of grand standing in the media. It’s clear that something happened to Freddie after he was taken into custody. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to conclude that his hollering while being drag to the paddy wagon is a drastic turn of events compared to him being rendered unconscious and unresponsive just a short time later. The culture of policing in Baltimore that typically overshadows and condones cases like this, where a person actually dies from being in police custody, has been a long standing practice within Baltimore’s unwritten police policies. The prosecutor’s office usually isn’t inclined to go against city police when officer misconduct is alleged, because the prosecutor’s office is dependent upon city police officers to provide valuable information such as evidence, witness testimony, and other data to aid in the successful prosecution of criminal defendants.

Therefore, its an expectation that the prosecutor would error on the side of city police. In other words, even if the officers were wrong (clearly they were wrong in the Gray case) the prosecutor’s role in accordance with Baltimore’s policing culture, isn’t suppose to be from a posture where she comes after one of her own. The fact that Freddie Gray was even stopped in the first place is the very premise from which Mosby derived criminal charges against the arresting officers. Police supporters cite federal law which allows for police to pursue potential suspects who flee from the onset of visual contact with police, for no apparent reason as grounds for city officer’s engagement with Freddie Gray. Whether Gray was actively engaging in criminal activity or not when police began to chase him, it’s highly likely based on the number of times Gray had been arrested, he more likely than not would have began running anyway at the very sight of cops who knew him, and who had arrested him several times previously.

In fact, there is a very strong possibility that police who pursued and arrested Freddie Gray may have been acting out of “contempt of cop,” which is a phrase utilized to describe police intent on arresting a suspect for something substantial, after multiple previous arrest for the same crime fails to successfully incarcerate the suspect for a period of time. The video captured by a citizen within the community doesn’t show the take down and actual arrest of  Gray, but his appearance while being dragged to the transport vehicle is troubling and very disturbing to watch especially considering that Gray died a few days later. The dispute over whether the knife Gray had in his possession upon his arrest is legal to carry or not creates another argument. The arresting officers believe that the knife was illegal to carry by Maryland law, but prosecutor Mosby has argued that the knife was not illegal, and declared Gray’s arrest to be unlawful.

However, we have to utilize common sense here. Baltimore police officers aren’t typically going to arrest a man for a small pocket knife (spring action or not) and make the long trek all the way down town to the crowded, and often times busy central booking. Most police officers would simply confiscate the item. The paperwork alone would be such a hassle. Forms would have to be filled out, chain of custody documents signed, and a trip would have to be made to the city’s evidence room. Those of us who know how Baltimore police operate, know that writing a report for anything is essentially the very last task that Baltimore cops want to concern themselves with. I’m inclined to believe that a supervisor would even chastise an officer for involving them with such a cumbersome task. The fact that they arrested Freddie Gray for a questionable weapon illustrates that they were looking for anything to lock Gray up for, and wanted him off the streets.

When we look at the extremely troubling facts surrounding Gray’s death it becomes clear that he was a person that the police wanted to punish, regardless if he cried out for medical care or not, and that’s why the second degree murder charge, with a depraved heart is completely justified in this case:

1. Police pursuit of Gray seems to lack merit, even though he ran.

2. Police appear to pursue Gray out of “contempt of cop.”

3. The legality of the knife Gray had in his possession is questionable, and cops didn’t retrieve it until after he was stop (Note It couldn’t have been the      premise for them stopping him, although a police report indicates that an officer saw  the knife and was the reason he was pursued).

4. Gray appeared to be injured and could barely support his own weight at the time of his arrest.

5. Gray cried out in pain and requested medical attention multiple times, only to fall upon death ears of police who ignored his pleas.

6. Gray was placed inside the police transport vehicle handcuffed from behind and wasn’t properly restrained pure a Baltimore City Police General      Order.

7. The police transport vehicle driver made an unrecorded stop, parked the vehicle at Mosher and Fremont, opened the wagon, and went inside (for        some unknown reason and failed to disclose the stop to police investigators).

8. The transport vehicle stopped a second time just blocks away from his arrest. Gray was taken out of the vehicle while he appeared to be              unconscious, had leg restraints put on him, and place back inside the wagon. Police still didn’t find it necessary to seek medical care for Gray.

9. The transport vehicle stopped a third stop at Druid Hill and Dolphin streets after the driver called for assistance with his prisoner. Looking at a map of the city, the transport vehicle appeared to be headed toward central booking. Police failed to seek medical care for Gray at this stop also.

10. The transport vehicle changed course and went back toward the area where Gray was arrested to make a fourth stop to pick up another arrestee at     North and Pennsylvania Avenues.

11. Sgt. Alicia White was dispatched by KGA (police dispatch) to North and Penn to check on the condition of Gray after repeated calls to 911 by         citizens who were concerned about Gray’s physical condition. White calls Gray name touches the back of his head, and even though he is               unresponsive, she allows the transport vehicle to leave without requesting medical assistance for Gray.

12. A fifth stop was made back at Mount and Riggs Avenue at the Western District police station, nearly one and half hours later is when police finally radioed for an EMS to transport Gray to the hospital.

Take a look at a map of the stops highlighted in light blue (the pink arrow and pink box shows Central Booking’s location where the transport vehicle appeared to be initially heading upon Gray’s arrest) here:  Map detailing police transport vehicle route after Freddie Gray was arrested

Now, after digesting these basic facts pertaining to how Baltimore police treated Freddie Gray once he was taken into custody, an argument could be easily be made that police intentionally denied Gray medical care, and even while he appeared to be unconscious and unresponsive. Clearly Gray was a suspect that cops wasn’t to fond of, and acted callously caring for Gray while he was in their custody. Baltimore Sun news reporter Justin Fenton recently disclosed the Medical Examiners finding which how Gray’s death was ruled a homicide. You can view his commentary on the report here. Freddie Gray Autopsy Report

Although the Examiner allegedly concluded that it was a high impact injury that caused the severe spinal injury to Gray and more than likely occurred when the transport vehicle either accelerated or decelerated while Gray had apparently propped himself up, coupled with him not being properly secured in the vehicle per police policy, and various officers including a supervisor failure to render aid to Freddie Gray is it believe to be why his death was ruled a homicide. I am sure that a passenger transported in a vehicle in the fashion Gray was. with his hands and feet shackled could sustain a high impact injury that reports allegedly describe Gray’s injury, but for the vertebrae to incur multiple fractures, the manner in which the examiner’s report describes how the injury occurred had to have happened more than once. This would almost certainly infer that the transport vehicle was being driven in a reckless manner intentionally.

However, there is still the matter of the second stop the transport vehicle driver made at Mosher and Freemont Avenues where he parked the vehicle, opened the paddy wagon door, and went inside for some unknown reason. The transport driver Ofc. Cesar Goodson also failed to disclose the stop to police investigators within the Baltimore City police department. Prosecutor Mosby had ordered a parallel investigation be conducted by the Baltimore City Sheriffs Department, an entirely separate and independent police agency from Baltimore Police. The Sheriff’s department investigation uncovered private security surveillance footage that depicts Goodson stopping the transport vehicle and going inside. The high impact injury that Gray sustained could also have come from being stomped in the back of the neck. Police reports indicate that Gray was highly agitated, and Goo0dson may have instituted some old fashion Baltimore police “act right” (use of force) tactics on Gray in an effort to check his diruptive behavior.

My latter argument may simply be a hunch, but it does raise serious questions why Goodson made that extra stop and didn’t tell police brass about it. Even if Gray’s injuries occurred in the fashion that the medical Examiner’s report indicates, a police officer’s failure to render aid or simply call for an EMS for an arrestee/prisoner in their custody is just simply heartless and inhumane. Given the scenario and factors leading up to the death of Freddie Gray, it’s clear that police intentionally refused to help him as their duty requires them to do, solely because he was seen as a pest and a person who wasn’t deserving of medical care whatsoever. Why else would six officers including two supervisors ignore an arrestees pleas for medical care? The untimely demise of Freddie Gray looks more and more like he died a victim of “contempt of cop” by by Baltimore City’s finest.

The People’s Champion

I’m Crime Blogger David Adams

At age sixteen life is suppose to be enjoyable, fun filled, and with many kids rapidly developing and growing closer to the threshold of adulthood they become more vulnerable on the streets of major urban settings like Baltimore Maryland. Unfortunately, during these modern times the landscape for young people in our society has transformed into an extremely hazardous pathway for this generation to travel, and there also appears to be monsters lurking at every turn with the potential of harm befalling upon our children without warning. The story of 16-year-old Arnesha Bowers who was brutally and savagely murdered in her Northeast Baltimore home she shared with her grandmother, is perhaps textbook on describing the very nature of evil that my perspective describes related to the safety of young people in this country.

The onset of gang related violence on the streets of many cities in this country appear to be a growing epidemic in which many innocent victims may fall prey. Known for their sickening and violent codes of honor, and initiation tactics, gangs regularly command recruits and members alike, to carry out senseless violent acts upon complete strangers in an effort to establish so called loyalty to sets of organized street gangs, who are often responsible for a volume of other criminal activities that permeate the streets of this country. In the Bowers youth homicide, Baltimore police say that the Tree Top Piru Bloods gang (a sub set of the brutal Bloods gang) were responsible for her killing as part of an initiation process for a 14-year-old, and to elevate the gang member ranking of another suspect.

According to police reports, three black males (including a 14-year-old) Adonay Dixon (23), John Childs (20), and a minor Raeshawn Rivers (14), were allegedly responsible for the young girl’s killing. Bowers had apparently been hanging out with the males at a party a couple of nights prior to the horrific incident, and authorities believe that the child may not have had any knowledge of the male’s affiliation with a violent subset of the murderous “Bloods” street gang. On June 6, 2015 the Baltimore Fire Department were dispatched to the girl’s residence, which was engulfed with flames upon their arrival, in the Westfield section of Northeast Baltimore. Fire fighters discovered the body of a young female, that was later identified as the young Bowers teen.

Police investigators said they received unprecedented cooperation from neighbors in the community almost instantly upon their arrival. Dixon and Childs were implicated in the girl’s killing, and investigative interviews with Childs allegedly revealed a confession of his involvement in the little girl’s killing. Police statements disclosed Childs had allegedly revealed to investigators that he and Dixon planned to rob Bowers’ home. They said Bowers had been spending time with Childs and Dixon at Childs’ apartment building. After Bowers’ grandmother picked her up one day, according to police, Dixon followed the car home on a bike. Once he knew where Bowers lived, he returned with Childs to carry out their robbery plan.

Police Criminal Investigation reports describe how the pair believed that valuables would be in the home, because Bowers’ grandmother was employed and owned two vehicles. While the grandmother was at work, the males planned to break into the property and steal valuables, because they knew the young Bowers teen would be home alone., and if Bowers were to awaken they allegedly planned for Dixon to put the girl in a choke hold. After entering the home through a basement window, Bowers awoke, and Dixon Allegedly dragged the child into the basement while Childs ransacked the house, stealing money from a purse and a safe.

Left to right: John Childs (20) and Adonay Dixon (23) are both charged with the brutal slaying of a 16-year-old Baltimore girl.

Medical Examiner reports reveal that Arnesha Bowers had been sexually assaulted, strangled to death, had her genitalia mutilated in a failed attempt to conceal that she had been raped, and subsequently set on fire. The criminal acts were so heinous and of such a heartless nature that police described the suspects as “pure evil.” Even police Commissioner Batts called the suspects, “Killers! Sixteen-year-old, innocent teenager. … Nothing is more important than tracking down and jailing cowards who take the life of an innocent child. Nothing.” During Childs’ confession, he allegedly told police that Dixon and Bowers were in the basement for 30 minutes. Childs also told detectives that Dixon came up stairs and allegedly said “we have to leave, because the house is on fire.” Dixon allegedly told Childs that Bowers was dead, according to police reports.

This is an extremely brutal crime that lacks any comprehension whatsoever, and to think that these two adult males were hanging out with this child, and then turning into what can only be described as “Jeckle & Hyde” resulting in her murder, is difficult to fully grasp, chilling, and an irreprehensible act of cruelty exacted upon an innocent child by cowardly monsters. After Childs’ confession he was arrested and charged with first degree murder. Dixon was arrested hours later and also charged with murder. Phone records reveal that Bowers’ cell had called Dixons’ cellphone a short time before her murder. Sources in Baltimore tell TPC that the Childs male had initially told police that Dixon sexually assaulted the girl, but evidence disclosed both males had raped the girl. Either way, regardless who actually committed the raping or killing of this little girl, their very presence at the crime scene suggest that they both acted in harmony during the commission of felony crimes, including capitol murder, and based on Maryland law they would be individually charged with all crimes committed during this extremely heinous and brutal murder.

Police officials also arrested and charged a third suspect in the case a short time later. Raeshawn Rivers (14) a juvenile was closely affiliated with the Bowers teen. In fact, cops say that Bowers was very fond and thought highly of the Rivers youth. He was arrested, charged as an adult, and will face 22 additional charges in the case. Police have yet to describe the juvenile’s role in the robbery and killing of Bowers, but did reveal that he had been hanging out with Childs, Dixon, and Bowers, a few hours before her killing. Rivers confessed to police that he had used the murdered girl’s cellphone after she was killed, and even sent text messages to her friends to through off police. Authorities say all of the suspects allegedly admitted the Bowers’ killing was all apart of a gang initiation process.

The male suspects only scored $40 dollars in cash, an Ipad, and a laptop in the home invasion robbery. The items are mere crumbs in comparison to the life of such a beautiful and precious little girl, that these creeps snatched senselessly from this world. Arnesha Bowers was a sixteen year old 11th grader at Baltimore’s City College, one of the best academic schools in the city. Her death though tragic, speaks of cowardice, and it’s a shame that young girls are often lured to the likes of violent street thugs who only intentions are to cause disruption, and grief to communities all over the nation. The head of Baltimore’s homicide unit Major Stanley Bradford said “the motive was pure evil. Can you imagine leaving your child at home and two people come into her house hell-bent on death and destruction? I can only imagine what the last moments of Arnesha’s life was like. It must have been pure hell.” The crimes committed by these young black men are simply sickening, and the black community must collectively condemn these cowards for what they are. They deserve to pay the ultimate price for the life of this innocent child, and should be put to death.

The People’s Champion

I’m Crime Blogger David Adams

Every parents desire is to see their children accomplish great things in life. A solid fundamental education, plenty of positive activities, and a well rounded character to help them succeed within any social climate is typically the goal most have for their kids. If a child becomes involved in church it’s considered a bonus, especially realizing the distractions and lures of the street which exist within society’s urban culture that has literally devoured many of our young people. They say that church going kids are on the right path and the confines of the church along with it’s elders serving as mentors for young people is the best place for today’s youth. Stay in school study hard and have faith in God is often the calling cry for the devoted Christian community and parents trying to raise a family. When a child is doing everything right a parent couldn’t be more pleased.

That’s why the story of young Chanel Petro-Nixon is such a disturbing narrative of how even the sanctity of the church, and spending extra time at the library studying school work wasn’t enough to save the life of a good kid who had planned to have a life serving others. The pretty honors teen was an aspiring nurse, as her family described her desire of “wanting to help people.” Who would want to kill a good kid who spent most of her time on the correct side of the road in the challenging glare of New York’s “Big Apple.” Our efforts as parents trying to protect kids from the lure of the streets along with the painstaking trials of raising children, maintaining a professional career to provide for them, and instilling a sound value system along the way is suppose to pay off in the long run.

A family isn’t suppose to worry whether or not their child is going to make it home each night, especially when the child has a structured up bringing which includes a rigorous study habit, followed up with continuous involvement and active exposure to a local church community. What happened to the Petro-Nixon youth has been debated by many who have followed her tragic story. Children who come from strict homes are normally more cultured then most kids, because the stringent parental direction they experience usually charts out a distinct path for them to travel, but the downside of their lack of exposure to the practicalities of urban life may often handicap their ability to quickly process common dangers that lurk in just about every turn they make in society. I’m not convinced that this argument can adequately be associated with Chanel’s case though.

Although Chanel came from a structured family life and was actively involved in church, the very fact that she lived on Fulton street in the heart of Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn New York, creates a compelling argument of it’s own, and suggest that the book smart kid had to have possessed at the very minimum, a basic “street pedigree” (common knowledge of trouble) to live and maneuver one of the toughest neighborhoods in all of New York city. The minimal evidence and other circumstances surrounding her murder points to the probability that Chanel may have in fact known her killer. There were no warning signs that trouble was on the horizon related to this promising child.

On Father’s Day June 18, 2006 Chanel left her Fulton Street home headed to a local Applebee’s restaurant that was oinly a few blocks from her home, to meet up with a male friend, and the pair were planning to fill out applications for summer jobs. The pretty teen never made it to her destination and was never seen alive again. When she failed to return home or call her parents that night, the alarm and concern from the child’s parents went off early because she had never not come home without calling before. While the frantic search began to locate her whereabouts, her parents became consumed with grief, and the possibility that some sort of harm may have happened to their precious daughter was weighing heavily upon them. There hopes of reuniting with Chanel would soon be dashed though.

Four days after the Petro-Nixon youth had vanished without a trace, a New York sanitation crew stumbled upon a bag of garbage that was hard to carry, and the workers to a woman who lived at 212 Kingston Avenue in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, to break up the garbage in the bag because it was too heavy. When tyhe woman opened the bag of garbage to divide the trash between two garbage bags, that’s when the gruesome discovery was made. The bag contained a body of a young female who had been strangled, and police investigations determined the body was in fact that of the pretty church going honors kid Chanel Petro-Nixon from Bedstuy — a life of promise brutally and senselessly cast aside onto the curb of a dingy New York street corner like common trash.

I am probably one of a very few who still cringe when her name is mentioned. I have never forgotten what happened to this child, and I am extremely disturbed that in the nearly nine years that has passed since her horrible death the streets remain silent. No one is talking. No one has come forward, but some one knows what happened. Reverend Taharka Robinson, a minister who quickly printed flyers and organized marches to demand information about the murder, refuses to give up hope the case will be solved. “Somebody has to know something,” Robinson remarked at the crime scene, around the eighth anniversary of her murder. “Whoever was involved in this, or whoever participated, you just can’t move a dead body without anybody knowing.  One person can’t move a body.” There is no such thing as a perfect crime. The person(s) who murdered this little girl remains at large, living their lives, and enjoying their families. I am certain that not a day goes by that the Nixon family doesn’t think about their precious daughter who died so young, brutally, and was snatched from this world without warning. This wasn’t suppose to happen to a child that was on the right path with so much promise.

Aspiring Psychiatric Nurse and Boys and Girls High honors student Chanel Petro-Nixon.

Police have always believed that someone saw something that they me believe is inconsequential, but it may mean everything to police trying to solve her murder case. There were a few clues that has continuously been made public related to this heinous crime. Detectives who were some of the initial investigators on the scene described Chanel in the bag positioned almost in a fetal position. They describe her as having a black belt on her shorts, and the shorts appeared slightly pulled down. Although the medical examiners findings indicate that she hadn’t been sexually assaulted, Chanel’s mother said her daughter appeared to have been struck in the head and face, and that her nose and eyes were swollen. Her gray Sanyo Sprint 8200 cellphone and white Air Jordan sneakers with a green stripe, and the number 14 written on them were missing. Police also believe that Chanel may have known her killer.

In the years that have elapsed since her death, police have only zeroed in on one potential suspect. The teenage male that Chanel was suppose to have met at the Applebee’s on the day that she disappeared was someone known to the girl. She had attended middle school with him and they kept in contact throughout high school. Chanel’s best friend Kanika Ashterman said “He was a nice guy, I didn’t get any bad vibes from him.” On the day Chanel failed to come home or call, Ashterman says that she called him, and he claimed that Chanel had “stood him up” at the Applebee’s Restaurant on Fulton Street where they were supposed to have met.

That same boy is now in prison and has been convicted for violating a restraining order taken out by a former girlfriend. He was also charged twice with rape after Chanel’s murder but was acquitted both times. He remains a “person of interest” in the Petro-Nixon killing but police have not been able to physically connect him to the crime. That’s why police say they need the public’s help. The interest in this young man by police has only been made public in recent years. Most followers of her case have never believed that Chanel was murdered over a cell phone and a pair of sneakers. It’s very ironic and highly suspicious that the person Chanel was suppose to meet on the day she went missing, has been charged with rape twice, and although Chanel wasn’t raped, the way investigators describe the positioning of her shorts (partially pulled down) implies that her killer may have attempted to sexually assault her unsuccessfully prior to killing her.

The killing of this child which many have described as the “perfect kid” is simply a very disturbing case. Considering that more than one person may have been involved at the very minimum of assisting with transporting her body to the site where she was discovered, angers a volume of people within the public. Also, over $34,000 dollars has been raised as a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her killer(s), but even the money hasn’t motivated anyone to come forward. A tragic unsolved case now among over 9,000 other cold cases of homicides in New York city. Perhaps the real tragedy is that the perpetrator(s) are still at large and may kill again. We must find them and bring justice for this “perfect kid” and her family. #justiceforchanel

The People’s Champion

I’m Crime Blogger David Adams

The indictment of six Baltimore police officers who interacted  with Freddie Gray after he was arrested and died in the custody of police in the western district portion of the city, has been largely lauded by community leaders within the black community, as a step in the right direction, and a sign that the city is now moving closer to healing from public outrage over the death of yet another black man who many believe was a victim of systemic brutality by Baltimore police. The fallout from the mysterious death of Freddie Gray while in police custody mushroomed into full scale rioting throughout the city as protest rapidly spread throughout many of Baltimore’ poorest communities.

When the announcement came from Baltimore’s top prosecutor Marilyn Mosby, that the officers who interacted with Mr. Gray while he was in police custody would be charge with a volume of crimes, many within the police and law enforcement community in the Baltimore area and around the country became outraged, claiming that the newly elected young prosecutor was attempting to calm a city simmering with unrest, and declared Mosby as being unfit to try the case due to purported conflicts of interest related to her relation to the Gray family’s attorney William Murphy, who reportedly donated money to her campaign, also coupled with her marriage to Nick Mosby who is a city councilman that represents the community in which Mr. Gray’s encounter with police occurred in.

However, the conflict of interest claim by the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) as it relates to donations made to Marilyn Mosby’s campaign while running for Baltimore’s top prosecutor post seems completely absurd, especially considering that the FOP contributed just a few hundred dollars less to Mosby’s campaign. The harsh criticism of Mosby only seemed to rear it’s head when the young prosecutor took a bold, and unprecedented stance to secure 28 indictments against Baltimore police, who her office will be dependent upon to provide information to  aid in prosecuting criminal cases in Baltimore city.

Many law enforcement experts are miffed at the notion that Mosby’s effort to proceed with indictments of police in her own city will transpire without upheaval. At the center of debate is the issue related to whether or not the knife Freddie Gray had in his possession was legal. Those who argue that the knife was legal, align themselves with Mosby who has charged three officers, including a supervisor, with misconduct while in office for exacting an unlawful arrest of Freddie Gray. Those who oppose this claim, mostly police supporters, say that the knife was illegal, that there was justification for Mr. Gray’s arrest, and a lawyer for one of the accused officers has filed a motion requesting Mosby’s office produce the knife in question to demonstrate it’s illegality.

Both sides of this pertinent issue have argued stringently to bolster their perspectives, and while police seem to want the knife to be the main focus of the Freddie Gray case, city officials from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake, Police Commissioner Batts, and all the way on down to the arresting officers of Freddie Gray have all collectively failed to offer a credible explanation as to how Freddie Gray died in police custody. The images depicted from a cellphone video recording which was portrayed on just about every media source around the nation,  showing an apparent injured Freddie Gray being literally dragged to a police transport vehicle by Baltimore police, offers the best evidence for the prosecutor’s office justification for seeking indictments, and limits any attempt to deflect responsible of Freddie Gray’s demise by Baltimore police top brass or the arresting officers themselves.

The unrest that followed Gray’s death as a result of city police officials inability or refusal to make public how Gray died, has been harshly criticized by national media, making certain that the images depicting Baltimore burning, rioting, and conflicts with police by city residents were made headline news across the globe. Many community leaders who have more insight from on the ground in Baltimore have argued that the initial disturbance that began in the Mondawmin community was initiated by the police. The Mondawmin Mall plays host to a major mass transportation hub that dispatches buses and a subway system to destinations in all directions encompassing West Baltimore, and there are a volume of schools in the area that feed kids to the transportation system who are bound for their perspective home communities upon school dismissal.

Witnesses of the initial confrontation between high school kids and city police reportedly began when police refused to allow students access to the transportation center. This would create a serious dilemma for hundreds of kids from nearby poverty stricken communities, that forced them to have to walk home, and depending upon which direction they’re traveling it meant walking through some of the toughest terrain in the city. Police officials claim that a tip was provided regarding a planned disturbance by school kids who chose Mondawmin as ground zero for a protest related to the Freddie Gray case. It’s not clear which city police official was responsible for directing hundreds of riot gear posturing police to the Mondawmin Mall, but that decision proved to be a terrible blunder and the catalyst that started mass disturbance throughout the city.

Confronting school kids with tactical gear without an initial provocation by them, has been described as excessive and cowardice on the part of city police by many following the Freddie Gray case. While those who seem to think they know how best to handle situations like the Baltimore unrest and are calling for a heavy handed approach to police “thugs” on the streets, they seem to be blinded by the systemic root causes of why school kids would want to fight police or authority figures in the first place. This generation of youth in Baltimore are the most vulnerable in recent memory. Faced with one of the most despicable educational systems in America, these children come from homes with the most uneducated parents in the nation, and coupled with city budgetary decisions these kids have had essentially every after school program limited by the lack of funding from the state or priority spending by public officials who have seemingly forgotten the kids of Baltimore.

Additionally, many of the kids in the city are accustomed to the kind of police brutality that resulted in the death of Freddie Gray. A police force that has been out of control for decades, got it’s marching orders during the Martin O’Malley administration, who as mayor bolstered a corrupt police force with directives that afforded police carte blanche authority during a “zero tolerance” approach toward policing the streets of Baltimore. In those years city police arrested over 100,000 citizens (primarily poor, black, and minority citizens) in a town populated with a little over 700, 000 people. The culture of policing in Baltimore has always been to the extent where police seemingly arrested people on GP (general principle), with laws like “loitering” (standing on a corner), “roving vagabound” (traveling within the confines of city limits without identification on one’s person), and “failure to obey” (essentially a tool for arrest without good cause) literally handcuffs citizens who easily fill police quotes for arrest in Baltimore.

For all of the ranting and raving about how tough the streets are in Baltimore city and challenges police face on the job, the police are still grossly ineffective in making charges stick in most criminal cases that go through the city’ judicial system. Some believe that Freddie Gray was in fact a casualty of Baltimore police inability to secure convictions of criminals in the city for even miner offenses. Police analyst call it “contempt of cop” when police engage a suspect who they have arrested and charged with the same crime over and over again, only to see them back on the streets engaging in the same illegal activity. Angered by what police who arrest Gray may have seen as a system that allows criminals to go free, crime experts say Freddie Gray who had a volume of previous arrest may have been handled harshly by police who knew him well.

Despite Gray seemingly being a nuisance to police in his community, he didn’t deserve to be denied proper medical care while in police custody. I am sure that the prosecutor’s office and lawyers for the  6 indicted officers will “duke” it out in court regarding how Freddie Gray died, but the decision to charge the police officers who interacted with Freddie Gray prior to his death while in custody, has already began to cause a major backlash from city police. The volume of violent crimes in Baltimore have spiked to an alarming 89%, and recently reached the most violent month in the city since 1999. Observers say that police morale in Baltimore is on a decline, with officers allegedly timid to do their jobs out of fear that their actions me cause serious repercussions.

To many who know the Baltimore policing community well, the low morale claim is simply a pile of “flying horse manure,” and liken such an absurd posture by disgruntled cops to a child crying over a glass of spilled milk. It’s common knowledge among those who have been taken for a ride, off to the steel bars that make up the old Baltimore city jail,  and which also historically in it’s own right has a storied past of brutality that dates back to the early 19th century. For years claims of excessive use of force and brutality were made against Baltimore police, and regularly fell upon death ears because police have always been deemed more credible over criminal suspects in the eyes of the law. When the the brutality began to reach epidemic heights, Baltimore adopted a policy of paying out monetary compensation to victims in the most heinous cases. The money secretly paid by the city is well below the amount of damages other municipalities have paid in similar cases of abuse by their respective police agencies.

Baltimore’s policy of secretly settling lawsuits related to abuse claims against it’s police department literally enabled the systemic police brutality of city residents, and now technology has caught up to abusive police culture, with just about everyone in society having a mobile device on their person capable of capturing video at a moments notice. The video of Freddie Gray being dragged by police to a prisoner transport vehicle while appearing injured, raises tremendous suspicion as to what actually happened to cause him resulting in his unresponsiveness, and subsequently die as a result of a severe spinal cord injury. The recording filmed by a witness is to many Americans, an anecdote exposing the rigors of how black suspects are treated by police, often killed, falsely accused of crimes, and resembles a “wow” moment similar to the scene of O.J. Simpson’s “dream team” defense lawyers playing a audio recording of Los Angeles police detective Mark Furman utilizing the “N word” repeatedly after having previously testified to not using such language in over twenty years.

A systemic culture of brutality, misconduct, and untruthfulness in the eyes of many Baltimoreans is the most appropriate description for police culture in the city of Baltimore. Police response to the indictment of six of their own may have resulted in serious backlash from the rank and file in retaliation toward the public for the Freddie Gray case. Some long time community leaders, scholars, and political activist have become suspicious of the volume of shootings that have occurred since the rioting ended. Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend 26 people were shot in Baltimore, 9 were fatal. In most of those cases there appear to be a pattern. The shootings were scattered throughout the city, but most appear random with no obvious motive for the violence, and in a few of the cases, witnesses observed gunmen wearing all black daunting a mask. There has been no signs of evidence to suggest that the shootings were related, but some observers are cautioning the public from drawing conclusions or dismissing the spike in shootings as typical violent culture in the city.

An East Baltimore resident told TPC that the shootings involving small children creates suspicion that the shootings are in fact random acts of violence stemming from gang or drug turf wars. “The age of the child victims in the recent spat of gun violence doesn’t fit the script. Hell, they’re not even old enough to be involved in serious trouble like shooting people.” The reports surrounding the Baltimore children shooting victims don’t indicate whether the kids were caught in the cross fire of some sort of shoot out, and some say that the kids were targeted by an unknown gunmen, who committed a deliberate act. Why would anyone want to randomly shoot kids. Moreover, some of the adult shootings over the holiday weekend in Baltimore appear suspicious also. A couple of people simply walked into local hospitals with gunshot wounds, and in at least two of those shooting incidents, witnesses observed two gunmen wearing all black. The very fact that some of the shooting victims were unaware of how, or who even shot them, coupled with the cops offering no motives for most of the shootings has led many observers and others from the public to really consider who is actually out there shooting people on the streets of Baltimore.

While most will reject some sort of conspiracy regarding high volumes of shootings in Baltimore, other major cities have caused serious debate and suspicion regarding who is actually doing the shooting as well. In Chicago a shooting involving a white suspect that was caught on a dash cam, and other reports from witnesses of shootings in both Baltimore and Chicago have fueled the debate even more. Take a look at the video below:

Some believe the perpetrator in the above video looked, and acted like a cop. Others believe that white supremist are actively conducting hate crimes in urban communities around the country in minority populated areas of major cities, in an effort to spark mass violence or race riots. One of the comments in the discussion portion of the Youtube Video even suggest that the police are on the streets committing violent crimes, and placing blame on the black community. The discussion is continuing to grow and the more violence that develops will cast even more suspicion on shootings in the black community. The assertion that such violence is on going deliberately to target black people may be completely dismissed by many absolute absurdity, but given the history Baltimore police, some residents in the city believe that such a scenario is quite capable of having derived from within the corrupt ranks of the Baltimore City Police Department.  Are the cops shooting people in the black community in retaliation for the growing public criticism of police culture related to the killing of black men around the nation?

The People’s Champion

I’m Crime Blogger David Adams

There are a growing number of race related social issues currently dominating mainstream media in the United States that stem primarily from police involved killings of unarmed young black men. The brash of unfortunate incidents that resulted in no criminal charges having been lodged against police officials involved in these killings, has garnered tremendous outcry from a growing intolerant American public who see such use of force as excessive and an abuse of authority. Protest have emerged from all across the nation from Missouri to New York, and have some wondering how such incidents of racial divide are beginning to resurface in this country at a more alarming rate since the height of the Civil Rights Era in America.

In all of the protest occurring around our nation, it should be noted that there is a large contingency of white Americans who are as equally outraged at the persistent justification for the killing of unarmed black men by law enforcement officials. While minority support from whites have almost tripled since the 1960’s, there remains an organized systemic practice of racism in just about every aspect of the American culture. Gone are the days of “Old Jim Crow,” whose system of segregation gave birth to “For Whites Only” signs. Sadly though, many of the same racial practices still exist but are now very subtle and covert.

Many people of color are aware of the burden they face by often having employees from local retail establishments follow them around the store while shopping. These kind of practices feed into a stereotype that all black people are thieves. Black youth also give insight into their exposure to being profiled and harassed based solely on race, when describing how merchants require large groups of black kids to come in the store one at a time so that they can be watched/monitored easier, and to prevent the possibility of the youth shoplifting from the establishment. The mindset towards black consumers as potentially being shoplifters still exist, and in some instances more prevalent today in a volume of subcultures within our society.

My own recent experiences at a New England based Big Y Supermarket in Connecticut is a constant reminder of how black consumers are often perceived socially and in many instances, unfairly profiled based on race. My suburban home is seated in the northeast section of the town of Bridgeport, which intersects with neighboring town lines of Trumbull and Stratford Connecticut. For background purposes I share some brief history of these communities. Both communities have storied past of race related incidents and other social strife. The town of Trumbull’s police department was investigated by the United States Department of Justice for racial profiling of black motorist frequenting their town when predominately black schools visited their local high schools for sporting events. Some how it was discovered that the towns’ police issued traffic citations at a disproportionate rate, when schools from predominately black communities were scheduled to play Trumbull High teams.

A few years ago, a black city alderman was arrested by Stratford police, who say the official obstructed justice in the arrest of a black female who was a minor. The alderman claims that he only intervened after witnessing a white police officer punch the black teenager repeatedly in the face. The incident led to protest and a rally at Stratford town hall, and many requesting that the community simply heal from such racial divide. That aside, Stratford’s police department, just like Trumbull’s have a reputation of being highly visible and active, especially when issuing traffic citations to blacks and other minorities.

Despite these towns’ history, many blacks continue to frequent their communities as consumers to shop at their business districts. Big Y supermarkets opened a location in Stratford several years ago. The acquisition was seen as a positive for the neighboring towns, while grocery shopping presented another option that would be closer to home for local residents. It was apparent immediately that management of the establishment had adopted a policy of monitoring black shoppers who frequented the store. There was a lot of following and racial profiling going on that became so noticeable, that many believe complaints to the company’s upper management may have led to an onslaught of black employees being hired to accommodate a very visible minority patronage to the store. Upon Big Y’s grand opening, the establishment didn’t employ a single black person (during normal business hours at least) at the Stratford location.

As time went on many of the store’s employees became familiar with shoppers of all ethnicity, and the following of black shoppers around the store subsided, in my personal opinion. A black store manager was even hired and brought in. I had the occasion of meeting the black manager and developed a report with him regarding product request and other matters related to the shopping experience within the store. Another manager (white) was brought into the store, and I noticed that he began to follow me around the store. Some have asked how did I know that the manager was following me and I had to advised them that I have a law enforcement background, and have actually had to follow people on the job while working for private investigation agencies. In short, my point was that I have practical knowledge of when a person is being followed.

Although the following by the manager was very annoying, I just remembered what my mother use to teach my brothers and I. She taught us that if we were not doing anything that we weren’t supposed to be doing, then we shouldn’t have any concerns if someone followed us, and she would tell us to just ignore them. The very fact that I encountered teachable moments from my childhood regarding incidents of being followed around retail establishments coupled with having experienced similar incidents as an adult, in my mind is just simply incredulous, and depicts the very systemic and long standing culture of racial profiling of black consumers while shopping demonstrates essentially the very premise of this matter that I have been trying to convey in my commentary for this article.

I recall one incident in particular that drew the first complaint from me to store management for being followed, where the subject manager appeared to be tracking my movement in the store. I was looking for an item and had the intuition to simply look up, and when I looked up I saw the manager peeking around the corner of the end of the aisle at me. Confused by what I had just observed, I began to wonder why a store manager would be paying such close attention to me shopping. Keep in mind I had the feeling on several occasions prior to this incident that this particular employee was following me around the store, but I had consistently ignored him like I had been taught from my childhood. To make certain that I wasn’t imagining things, I purposely began to walk across various aisle in the store observing whether the manager continued to follow me, and with no exaggeration I can honestly say with absolute certainty the manager tracked me for several aisles in the store.

When I patronized the store the very next morning I consulted the black manager about it and advised him what had occurred the previous day while I was in the store. After I gave a description to the manager regarding the employee who I believed had followed me, the manager and I concluded that we were discussing the same person who was actually new to the Stratford Big Y store. The black manager and I discussed the following incidents that I believe was occurring just about every time I shopped in the store. I advised him that I have worked in law enforcement/security/loss prevention for over 20 years, and that I also was a former Maryland State Corrections Officer. I also advised him that my significant other was a local college professor and teacher at a City of Bridgeport Public High School, and that many of the young cashiers were in fact her students. My inquiry to this manager was simply for the purpose of establishing for him that we were a well known family in the community, and also working professionals.

Our dialogue about my experiences in the Stratford store sparked a conversation where he shared with me how he and his wife had been racially profiled at an election balloting center recently, and appeared genuinely apologetic about my disturbing shopping experience in one of their stores, because he could empathize with such an apparent racially motivated encounter as a black man himself. When our conversation concluded I was resolved that perhaps the new manager simply needed exposure to the multi racial clientele of the store to become more acclimated with regular customers. So, I let the incident go. However, being followed around the store didn’t end. I began to speak with some of my neighbors who I knew shopped the Stratford Big Y, and heard similar stories about being followed around the store. I believe that my perception of a racially motivated culture did in fact exist in the Stratford grocery store and became fully cemented in my mind, when an experienced female employee who had been employed with Big Y stores for years shared with me that the company appears to have managers who are not familiar working with black or latino people.

Upon hearing her perspective I began seriously evaluating whether or not I wanted to discontinue my patronage of the establishment, but the store’s location was so close to home that we decided our shopping convenience was far more important than the annoyance of some bigot working as a store manager at our local grocer. However, my personal position has always been that a person holding such a leadership role, while potentially manifesting traits of racism, could in fact influence the social dynamic of how the company’s employees and customers alike, interact with each other. He could tell employees to monitor a customer as a potential thief for no other provocation other than the fact that he himself is just simply a racist.

My concern has always been that following a person in any retail business by a company employee isn’t very intelligent, and very well may be a potentially dangerous situation. My personal and practical knowledge of managing retail stores during my post collegiate days, affords me tremendous insight into the particulars of monitoring individuals who may directly impact the store’s shrink through theft. Following a potential shoplifter in the fashion in which I have described in my narrative many times has caused incidents that place employees and customers in harms way. My employment with the Batta Shoe Corporation resulted in me being placed at a volume of stores that were also located in high crime areas. I recall individuals who were known to police as junkies (drug abusers) that shoplift my store on a regular basis, and on one occasion a store associate ran after the shoplifter. The individual turned toward the employee in pursuit of him with a syringe.

Many drug addicts are also known to have HIV or AIDS due to their use of dirty needles or syringes. That incident was a valuable learning experience for me and my entire staff. While store employees should never chase after thieves who shoplift, my personal philosophy has always been to train store employees to keep a lot of distance between potential shoplifters and themselves for their own personal safety. The manager who followed me around the Stratford Big Y is in my opinion an extremely foolish person. Had I been a sick junkie desperate to score merchandise to sell for my drug addiction, his very close surveillance of me could have caused me to act violent in an attempt to exit the store an avoid capture for shoplifting.

Additionally, I question why a manager would physically follow a person around the store. Most corporate or larger retail establishments have in place state of the art security surveillance systems that are in many situations monitored remotely (centralized security consoles for the entire company). It seems to me that a person who has been identified as a potential shoplifter or thief, the manager would contact it’s loss prevention department to alert them of the situation. I mean after all, they are the individuals professionally trained and best to handle those kinds of potentially dangerous incidents. The part of this entire ridiculous ordeal that bothers me the most is the fact that I am a Big Y Discount card holder. My name, address, and telephone number are all in the store’s database somewhere. If I had actually been caught shoplifting, it seems to me that the store management could show the surveillance footage to police, and have them knock on my front door. I don’t know, but maybe the thousands of hours that I have worked monitoring CCTV, PTZ Cameras, and other video surveillance equipment for over two decades doesn’t actually qualify me as a Security expert.

Retail workers have been trained since the beginning of time that the best deterrent to thieves, shoplifters, and other undesirables in a retail setting, is monitoring from a distance to insure public safety, and excellent customer service. When store employees provide customer service to potential shoplifters they typically leave, because the last thing a shoplifter wants is to be noticed or identified. When employees greet customers at the entry point of any business, it establishes that store personnel are aware of your presence. Instead of following people, perhaps walking up to individuals deemed as potential shoplifters and asking if you can help or assist them with finding a product, it may serve dual purposes (actually assisting a customer by providing customer service and alerting bad guys that you are aware of their presence) That way, store employees might actually develop a report with their customers, scare of anyone who isn’t in the store actually making a purchase, and will avoid customers becoming annoyed and freaked out by being followed for no apparent reason by store personnel.

Since none of these tactics were ever used by this manager or any of the other store employees following myself and other black people (that I am aware of) around the store, it creates a dilemma determining why such practices are being utilized by Big Y employees. What do they plan to do if they ever catch somebody shoplifting? Are they going to tackle them in an aisle in the store, or chase them out of the building while knocking some old lady down in the process, who is just trying to purchase groceries? I can’t offer an explanation for why I have experienced this kind of treatment at a grocery store, but it sends a powerful message to me and others who may have been treated similarly by this store manager. I believe the message is that “we are not welcome” as a shopper in that establishment. Perhaps the manager has the mentality that if black customers are harassed enough, then we won’t come back, and I believe that posture is indicative of the social culture of towns like Stratford.

The final straw came yesterday when the subject manager followed me around the store all the way to check out. At the register, he stood at the end where the soda machines and other impulse sale items are usually placed, and pretended to be looking for something or straightening items. Once I completed my purchase, he walked away toward the courtesy counter. When I contacted Big Y’s Customer Service Department, I was told that the matter would be investigated. Later on I was offered the explanation that security surveillance cameras showed the manager was in fact at my register, but he was simply looking for an available register to pay for his lunch. Now, when I was given this rationalization I knew that it was in fact fantasy at best. The customer service manager who spoke with me didn’t have the vantage of viewing the surveillance footage from that register at the time of my purchase, by her own admission, and it was obvious that she was just repeating what she had been told by loss prevention.

At the time of my purchase I was the only person in line and I only had a bottle of coffee creamer and a head of fresh lettuce. If the manager wanted an expedient place to checkout his items for purchase, he could have gotten in line directly behind me. He didn’t, and after I made my purchase he walked away toward the customer service desk. The fact that my intelligence was insulted by a customer service manager, in my mind explains why employees with such racist behavior are even employed at this company. Perhaps the company has a policy of racial practice? To add insult to injury, the customer service manager tried to do clean up work, stating that the manager “was almost flabbergasted by the allegations.” I was requested to contact the manager upon my next visit to the Stratford Big Y, because the manger wanted to buy me a cup of coffee. I was assured that the manager wasn’t like that, and that he was very sorry.

Well, the old politics routine doesn’t work with me. I’ll decline the olive branch, and I don’t need the manager to buy me a cup of coffee, but rather I would prefer that he and his employees simply treat me and other people of color in the same fashion in which he treats his white customers. That would be sufficient enough. To gauge how my efforts of contacting Big Y’s customer service department worked out for me, I went to the Stratford store early this morning, only to have the exact same manager look at me strangely, appear to be engaged in conversation with other employees while looking my way, and follow me again in the store. Although the following this time wasn’t conducted with the same close surveillance, it was more delayed, but the manager and the employee he was talking to, both soon and quickly found their way to the portion of the store where I was. I was there speaking to another black patron about my notification to the store’s customer service about racial profiling, when the employee who the manager was talking to suddenly appeared at a display table close to our location. He didn’t appear to be there for any legitimate purpose (just stood there with his back away from us), other than to make his presence known. I alerted the other customer to him and we both observed him and just laughed in amusement. Then moments later, the manager came from the opposite direction, engaged us with direct visual contact without saying a word, and just walked by (again for the purpose I believe to just make his presence known). We laughed some more.

However, I must remind you that this is the exact same store manager who had allegedly offered the “olive branch” by supposedly wanting to purchase me a cup of coffee. A complaint was made to the company’s customer service department regarding his potential harassment of black consumers shopping his store and what does he do? The very next morning he encounters two black customers, and he doesn’t even offer a simple salutation of “good morning.” He just walks by like we didn’t even exist. I believe this particular manager is in fact a person who has difficulty interacting with minorities. The manner in which I would have handled this situation would be a great suggestion for any retail business. I would have made it a point to deliberately project a more friendly demeanor to all customers, in an effort to eliminate the possibility of anyone being able to charge me with discriminating against them. I filed the complaint of racial profiling and harassment, and the manager had a golden opportunity, to at least change my perception of him, and he blew it. He can be the most racist person in the world on his on time, but when he is representing a business that I and other minorities patronize he has to display absolute tolerance because it’s not personal, it’s a business.

Black people have experienced this kind of treatment as consumers while shopping in businesses all over this country. The Federal Government may have established laws prohibiting this kind of discrimination, but racism in America still exist, and people have learned traits of racial discrimination that has been instilled within them since their earliest stages of human development. These situations tend to resolve themselves when bigots attack or harass the wrong person, and in this instance at least, they have managed to discriminate against a person with the resources and a voice to publicly expose such sickening and racist behavior, on a global stage. My best resolution now is to simply find another grocer. As one relative put it, “it might be inconvenient, but on the other hand the company shouldn’t be permitted to profit from harassing me.” This is my message to people of color who patronize Big Y stores.

The People’s Champion
I’m David Adams

Just over three years ago after I obtained a volume of text and post from social media accounts of Michael Johnson, his brothers and cousins, and some of their friends, I composed the below attached article. (The Phylicia Barness Story: Johnson Males Tweets & Location On December 28 Are A Scary Coincidence And May Close This Murder Case). The information came primarily from some of my fellow Websluethers (a crime sluething community that seeks to solve serious crimes through various unconventional methods, such as the use of psychics) and others from within the public, who spent hours looking through various social media accounts of the very people who were close to the late Phylicia Simone Barnes around the time that the 16-year-old honors kid had gone missing.

The article itself is very chilling and offers some very intricate details related to the whereabouts during late morning hours on the day she disappeared, and social media activity of people that many within the public widely believe were involved in the promising teen’ demise. Tweets from twitter accounts show that early in the morning on December 28, 2010, Glenton “Bootz” Johnson, a younger brother of accused killer Michael Johnson, was riding in a car near Rolling Road in Baltimore County. The tweet also illustrates that “Bootz” mentioned a person by the name of “Ease” accompanying him in the car, and that the pair had been smoking marijuana (“put some grass in the hooka”), were under the influence, and tweeted complaints about Rolling Road traffic being congested (“just busy for no damn reason”). This indicates that the pair were in some sort of a hurry to get to some unknown destination. Additionally, strong evidence indicates that the person name “Ease” riding in the car with “Bootz” on the morning of 12/28/2010 was in fact Michael Johnson.

A short time later “Bootz” began to post violent tweets about beating a female (“****dat or fuck that, don’t tell her twice, whoop her ass”). The tweet was made just 7 minutes before accused killer Michael Johnson had reportedly told police when he last saw the teen alive at 1:30 p.m. that day. “Bootz” also tweeted about loud music which was a coincidence, because the apartment where young Phylicia had been staying was discovered with the front door ajar and loud music playing inside, and Phylicia Barnes nowhere to be found.

Many of the Johnson clan members went completely off of the social media grid altogether for much of the next couple of hours, only to emerge later with “Bootz” tweeting about the tempature being hot at a location he didn’t disclose. His tweet was followed up with a warning from their older brother Glenn Johnson, who cautioned them to watch what they tweet because the police were watching (“the man is watching”). What kind of activity were they involved in that would cause concern of being detected by police officials? All of what I have described this far is highly circumstantial, but a stronger and much better circumstantial case than the one that state officials have previously tried to mount against Michael Johnson for the killing of Phylicia Barnes.

Additionally, a very compelling tweet which came exactly one month after Phylicia Barnes disappeared may indicate that Barnes was still alive on January 28, 2011. A girlfriend of a Johnson cousin Dorian Carpenter made suspicious tweets about someone crying out side of her door. She tweeted get away from my door with all of that noise and crying. She later tweeted that day “it’s trapped at the dam. don’t pull the lever.” Was the girl’s remarks about someone crying outside her door referencing a distraught Phylicia Barnes who may have been crying and pleading for her life? The tweet is the single most tangible piece of evidence against the Johnson clan, because the nude decomposed body of young Phylicia Barnes was found at the Conowingo Dam in Northern Maryland almost three months later. It is, and has always been my position that the tweet referencing a dam by an associate of the very people who were initially interviewed by police surrounding the disappearance of Phylicia Barnes, is extremely problematic, compelling, and should have closed this murder case a very long time ago.

The female friend of Dorian Carpenter also made suspicious tweets on December 28, 2010 as well. On the day that young Phylicia Barnes went missing, the female tweeted to Dorian Carpenter, asking “Ya’ll need us to roll out?” This indicated that perhaps Dorian and at least one other person may have been engaged in some sort of activity that the female and who ever was with her might not have wanted to be a witnesses to. The fact that the prosecutor’ office never included any of these details during either of the summations which were made in both criminal trials against Michael Johnson, is not only suspicious but almost seems like a crime has been committed by the police themselves. Have you read the article? You decide. You tell me if sufficient evidence existed to pinch the bastards who killed this child?

All along there has been tremendous outcry from the court itself that the case against Michael Johnson was based on a theory, and that perspective from Judge Alfred Nance, nearly caused him to toss the case altogether during the initial trial. There may not have been any physical evidence which would link Michael Johnson to the child’s killing, but strong circumstantial evidence does exist that not only implicates Michael Johnson, but perhaps some of his family members, and others who may have only participated in the crime after the fact, to aid in the conspiracy to cover up the murder of young Phylicia Barnes. I don’t care what the judges or state prosecutors have to say, it’s there. It is all there. The evidence is there to prove that Michael Johnson and members of his family may have all been complicit in the killing of the Barnes teen.

To drive the point home even further, the volume of circumstantial or coincidental factors in this case that point to the real killers is just simply to overwhelming to dismiss. If prosecutors can prove that Michael Johnson’ nickname is “Ease” which he reportedly acquired from an Xbox game tag, then it is fairly easy to conclude that on the morning of December 28, 2010, Michael Johnson was in fact riding along in a car with his younger brother Glenton “Bootz” Johnson, smoking marijuana, and appeared to be in a hurry to get to some destination. With these two riding together in a car very close to the proximity of the apartment where Phylicia was staying, it’s compelling that the tweets which “Bootz” made regarding beating a female, just 7 minutes prior to the time period in which Michael Johnson told police he last saw Phylicia alive at 1:30 p.m., the state shouldn’t have any problem at all making the case before a jury that the female he was talking about was in fact an uncooperative Phylicia Barnes.

It is interesting to note that police should have checked the Geo tracking of Glenton’s cell phone, and the location during the time where certain tweets were made. I can’t help but to wonder how close was Glenton in relationship to the apartment where Phylicia reportedly had gone missing, at the time he made the tweet about whooping a female’s ass? It is quite possible that Michael and his younger brother, who both may have been under the influence of marijuana, could have acted violently against Phylicia Barnes that could have resulted in her death. Glenton’s tweet about whooping a females ass was made at 1:23 p.m. on the day she went missing. Glenton tweeted again at 1:29 p.m. referencing speakers (or music), and didn’t tweet again until just under two hours later hat day. When he tweets again at 3:24 p.m., his tweet talks about a location which is very hot in tempature. The oldest Johnson, Glenn Johnson then tweets a warning to watch what you tweet “the man is watching.” The cops have to be asking themselves where was Glenton during the two hours he had fallen off the twitter grid and hadn’t made any communication for nearly two hours. Where does GPS tracking show the phone’s location, or was it even on?

Glenn Johnson’ warning to Glenton indicates that he knew his kid brother’s location, what his activities possibly were, and was concerned that he would tweet something that could implicate him or result in a negative outcome based on some criminal activity that was occurring. Another element of this entire case that has always bothered me was the rather convenience it would have been for Johnson to travel to the Conowingo Dam in Northern Maryland, from the apartment where he was staying with his girlfriend near Rolling Road at the time Phylicia Barnes disappeared. Take a look at the map below:

Map Quest image depicts the area where Glenton Johnson made tweets on Rolling Road and highlights the near straight shot to the Conowingo Dam in Northern Maryland where the body of Phylicia Barnes was discovered.

It doesn’t take rocket science to compile these circumstantial elements together to begin pointing the finger of guilt in the appropriate direction pertaining to those who are responsible for this child’s murder. When you look at the significance of a female friend of potential suspects who were interviewed by police related to the Barnes teen disappearance, having made tweets about a dam 3 months before the child’s nude body was discovered at an actual dam in Northern Maryland, sharply indicates that the case must hinge completely of the development of such a powerful discovery. It’s a “no brainer” that details of Phylicia Barnes’ location had been disclosed, and that the girlfriend of Dorian Carpenter (a Johnson Cousin) had advanced knowledge of the actual location of the teen’ body. However, state prosecutors handling the Phylicia Barnes murder has never made any of these facts known to two seated juries in the case. It’s a very disturbing, unexplained, and simply unconscionable reality related to the Barnes murder case, and the criminal justice community within the Maryland State Circuit Court system as a whole.

To Be Continued ..

The People’s Champion
I’m David Adams