The Ballot Or The Bullet-The Impact of Malcolm X on SNCC/The Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee

THE MALCOLM X COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE

P.O. BOX 380-122, BROOKLYN, NY11238

www.MXCC519.org

Facebook: Malcolm X Commemoration Committee

973-202-0745; 917-346-8142

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee Presents, "The Ballot Or The Bullet-The Impact of Malcolm X on SNCC/The Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee"

On Saturday, October 31st, 2020, the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee (MXCC) will host another powerful virtual roundtable, ‘The Ballot Or The Bullet-The Impact of Malcolm X on SNCC/The Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee"

This roundtable will take place at 5pm on Facebook Live!

Special guests for this engaging dialogue will be former SNCC members Prof. Sam Anderson, author of The Black Holocaust For Beginners, Mae Jackson, who was also a founder of Third World Women’s Alliance and Art Without Walls, and their advance man for ‘Black Power,’ former SNCC field secretary Mukasa Ricks.                      

This month’s political spotlight will be Imam Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown.  Imam Jamil was also the former national chair of SNCC!  Imam Jamil was framed for the 2000 shooting attack on two Fulton County Deputy Sheriffs, in which one was killed. He was sentenced to Life in Prison in 2002.He has always maintained his innocence. Another person, Otis Jackson, confessed to the deed years ago. The courts have yet to entertain his confession.

Jackson surfaced again just recently. This time, he not only restated his confession, but did so under oath in an unrelated legal proceeding. Supporters of Imam Jamil are fighting tirelessly to get the courts to admit the confession on the Court Record and to secure the Imam’s release.

Imam Jamil is now 77 years old. He has suffered from Multiple Myeloma and a minor stroke since his conviction. Supporters say his continued incarceration, especially in light of the new evidence, is cruel and unusual punishment, and he should be released in the interest of justice.

To contribute to the Imam’s commissary, please forward your contribution to https://www.paypal.me/PPOWs.

The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee has been doing these monthly webinars with these political prisoner spotlights to take the place of their annual Dinner Tribute to the Families because of the Covid19 Pandemic.

The Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee was founded in the Spring of 1960 under the tutelage of Civil Rights champion teacher and organizer Ella Baker at Shaw University in North Carolina. They have often been referred to as ‘the shock troops’ of the Civil Rights Movement because of their robust and energetic Civil Disobedience Campaigns. SNCC, however, was much more. They were genuine organizers who went into the most dangerous areas of a very violent segregated Southern landscape and transformed the lives of the people they organized, training people to not just participate in those Civil Disobedience Campaigns, but to become the leaders of those campaigns.

As the epic decade that was the 1960s advanced, the continued racial terrorism of the south, such as the bombing of 16th Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963 where four Black little girls were killed, for instance, moved many within SNCC away from a total commitment to NonViolence. Inspired by Malcolm, many began to move instead to consider armed self-defense and to think more in terms of the global revolutionary trends.

For more information about the work of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, 

Please call 973 202 0745. 

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RETREATING FROM POLICE REFORM IN NYC: NYC City Council pressured to weaken new anti-chokehold law

Words by Charles Brooks 

Photo credit: NYC Mayor's Office

Just three months ago, New York City finally  passed a law criminalizing the chokehold practice  ensuring a level of police accountability unseen before the recent wave of public uprising. New York City Council Member Rory Lancman, introduced the measure after Eric Garner’s chokehold death in 2014. The fact that it took six years to pass the anti-chokehold law should give you some indication of the level of opposition to the new law waged by the mayor, New York Police Department (NYPD) and their union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Union (PBA). Right now, legislative efforts are underway to weaken, undermine and outright repeal the new law. 

For one, there’s a lawsuit filed by 18 police unions arguing the new law is “invalid and unenforceable” and violates the New York’s State Constitution. Just to give you an idea of the scope of police opposition – the lawsuit includes unions representing officers from NYPD, Port Authority, Tunnels and Bridges, along with the officers from the court system. In addition to the lawsuit, New York City Council Public Safety Committee chairman, Donavan Richards has already introduced amendments to revise key language in the law while there’s another proposal to outright repeal the newly signed law. 

These latest attempts to revoke this measure of police accountability have been framed around a work slowdown by NYPD officers who contend the new law compromises their safety. Unable to withstand the pressure from the New York Police Department, City Council Public Safety Committee chairman Donavan Richards relented by introducing an amendment: 

The bill would amend Local Law 66 of 2020 to provide that restraining an individual in a manner that restricts the flow of air or blood by sitting, kneeling, or standing on the chest or back in a manner that compresses the diaphragm is a misdemeanor under such law if the restraint is performed recklessly and causes injury due to asphyxiation . 

With this new language, the new law becomes remarkedly weaker where proving “recklessly” becomes immensely more subjective to prove as the officers’ intent comes into play. Bear in mind “recklessly” is the same language that created the loophole allowing the Department of Justice to not file federal civil rights charges against former NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for using the chokehold resulting in Garner’s death. Although, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the bill into law in July, he not only supports the proposed changes but along with the NYPD has always maintained a position that the chokehold ban was sufficient. 

However, chokehold complaint data shows quite a different story. The Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) investigates public complaints on police misconduct in New York City. According to the CCRB, there were over 3,000 complaints over a 20-year period from 2001 to 2000 – nearly 1,000 since Garner’s death in 2014. And yet despite the data to substantiate the chokehold ban’s ineffectiveness, opposition by the mayor and the New York Police Department not only persisted but hardened. We witnessed their opposition when, not even in the wake of Garner’s chokehold death, could a law be passed to criminalize the chokehold practice. 

Photo credit: December 12th Movement

For years, community relations with NYPD has been characterized by protest demonstrations and public demands for police accountability. Accordingly, attempts to undermine the new anti-chokehold law has been met with a number of protest demonstrations led by the December 12th Movement. They’ve initiated a public campaign to not only mobilize black communities in and around New York City but to inform them as well. So far, several street demonstrations targeted the offices of the Council Public Safety Committee members; I. Daneek Miller, and Adrienne Adams, who also happen to serve as co-chairs of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus along with the committee Chairman Donavan Richards. In addition, they held a nearly two-hour ZOOM webinar where invited panelists discussed the chokehold issue from a number of different perspectives. 

Viola Plummer, the December 12th chair moderated this important virtual discussion with panelists: NYC Council Member Inez Barron, Attorney King Downing, former NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, Dr. Susan Williams of the Freedom Socialist Party, Father Frank Morales of the All Souls Episcopal Church, New York State Senator Elect Jabari Brisport, Hawk Newsome of Black Lives Matter of Greater NY, and New York State Assemblyman Charles Barron. They spoke of the historical context and background, the amendment – the proposed change in language and its significance, the immense political pressure to change the law, the scale of police intimidation and subsequent trauma experienced by those living in the community. 

By now, we’ve seen one chokehold incident after another and not just in New York City. We’ve seen the data on chokehold complaints revealing the inadequacy and failure of the 1993 chokehold ban. We’ve seen the evidence of trauma again and again in communities and neighborhoods when black folk fall victim to the chokehold or any other form of police brutality. We’ve also seen police officers acquitted. We should also see that opposition and resistance to the anti-chokehold law is essentially an endorsement for maintaining a police culture rooted in their impunity to wage a campaign of unabated intimidation.

Additional Reading and resources:

Fight the Power: African Americans and the Long History of Police Brutality in New York City, By Clarence Taylor (2018)

Bill De Blasio failure on police reform in New York City, The Intercept

How Decades Of Bans On Police Chokeholds Have Fallen Short, NPR

See the ZOOM webinar on the anti-chokehold law here.

See the contact list for all New York City Council members here.

Please support and visit The Brooks Blackboard's website, our INTEL page, OPEN MIND page, and LIKE and FOLLOW our Facebook page.

A Special Black August Virtual Appreciation!

 THE MALCOLM X COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE

P.O. BOX 380-122, BROOKLYN, NY 11238

www.MXCC519.org

Facebook: Malcolm X Commemoration Committee

973-202-0745; 917-346-8142

August 24, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MXCC Presents ‘Hold The Flag High!

A Special Black August Virtual Appreciation!

Spotlight’s Panther Political Prisoner Russell ‘Maroon’ Shoatz!

This gathering will honor the Centennial Anniversary of the Adoption of the Black Liberation Flag by Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). It will honor the UNIA’s Centennial of their First International Convention of the Negro Peoples’ of the World, and it will honor the 50th  Anniversary of Jonathan Jackson’s bold ‘Extraction Mission’ in Marin County Courthouse where he sought to free several Soledad defendants by force of arms!

Biden picks Kamala Harris - can she be the difference the Democrats need to win in November?

words by Charles Brooks

After nearly 5 months of waiting, the suspense is finally over. On August 11th, Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden made history naming Kamala Harris, former 2020 presidential candidate and current US Senator (D-CA), as his Vice-President. 

The announcement unleashed a level of excitement and enthusiasm unseen since Barack Obama seized the White House back in 2008.  But in less than a week, Ms. Harris already came under attack as Trump’s team resurrected the racist conspiracy “birther” question around her eligibility for the VP post while social and mainstream media interrogates her racial identity and political ambition while publishing racist cartoon images and memes. 

National Reparations Day

By Roger Wareham, Esq.

“Reparations is the order of the day.”  Dr. Gerald Horne, historian and political scientist.

The December 12tth Movement (D12) has declared August 15th, 2020, National Reparations Day. On that day organizations and people around the country will conduct activities related to reparations. In New York City, D12 will hold a Black Power Reparations Rally at 2 p.m. in front of Trump International Hotel at (Christopher) Columbus Circle.  Demonstrators will confront our continuum of racist oppression and genocide from the initiator of the African MAAFA to its most prominent current representative.