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By PETER WOLF

(re: Looking at Black Lives Matter from one Jewish perspective, March 4)

Its hard to know what to make of Alvin Gordons Point of View. It is a mixture of falsehoods, bizarre distortions, irrational fears and rage at Black people, Black communities and Black leaders.

But when I cant make rational sense out of someones viewpoint, as a psychologist, I look for the psychological sense of it.

Mr. Gordon starts with some hypothetical situation of whether you would save an anonymous Black person versus a loved one if both were drowning. Of course you would save the loved one. Thats the way it actually is in real life, he says.

But you would also save your loved one before a stranger who is white, purple, whatever. And he ignored the situation where the Black person is your loved one, as is the case for me.

His hypothetical makes no rational sense to me. To me, it seems Mr. Gordon is conveying the thought, Come on, you are just as against Blacks as I am. Their lives matter less to you than white lives, dont they? Many of us dont belong to that club.

Then he attacks the slogan Black lives matter because all lives matter. Having watched and participated in Black Lives Matter protests, I have never heard anyone say other peoples lives dont matter. The Black Lives Matter movement came about because it seemed that, to some portion of the police, Black lives dont matter as much as white lives.

One of the beautiful things about the movement is that it is interracial. But when a particular group is having a problem, you focus on that problem.

If there were a Jewish Lives Matter movement in the 1930s, I dont think Mr. Gordon would condemn it for not dissolving that message into an all humans platitude.

Next he goes on about how the Black Lives Matter movement is not doing a damn thing about Black-on-Black crime. But Black Lives Matter has a different focus: police brutality. Would you attack a Jewish group supporting research on, say, Tay-Sachs disease for not dealing with anti-Semitism?

What is not known by many is the work of numerous groups dealing with inner-city violence. The right especially since the rise of Trump doesnt want to talk about it because Black lives dont matter that much to them.

The left, unfortunately, is afraid of acknowledging problems in the Black community for fear of attacks like Mr. Gordon offers. But 400 years of trauma, of being seen as being less than fully human, is going to be traumatizing.

To quote James Baldwin back in 1961, To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time.

For an example of one New York City group dealing with inner-city violence, there is Street Corner Resources, led by Iesha Sekou. It offers a variety of services, including violence interruption, working with neighborhood gangs. If this Black-on-Black violence concerns you beyond finger-pointing, look it up and make a donation.

There are many such groups, operating under the radar.

Mr, Gordon goes on to talk about local disputes decades ago. When there are real conflicts between competing groups which rub up against each other, there will be friction and, sadly, prejudice. On both sides.

Back in the day when I worked with inner-city kids, the Puerto Rican gangs would do battle with the Dominican gangs. In many parts of the world, this leads to inter-ethnic slaughter. (Remember what happened in the Balkans?)

What about today? Where are the Blacks attacking Jews? And I dont mean criticizing Israel, which many Jews also criticize. Of course today in, for example, Borough Park where there are turf battles there are Blacks who hate their Jewish neighbors, and Jews who hate their Black neighbors.

One of the things that I am most proud of as a Jew is our willingness to fight for the well-being of our fellow human beings, as exemplified during the civil rights movement by Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman who gave their lives. As the people of HIAS, who work with Latin Americans at our southern border (and other refugees), put it, We used to take refugees because they were Jewish. Now we take them because were Jewish.

A poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute last September found 66 percent of Jews had a favorable impression of Black Lives Matter, with 28 percent negative. Mr. Gordon is in the minority.

I have noticed that in the anti-Black Lives Matter, anti-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, anti-left diatribes that I had read in these pages not blaming The Riverdale Press, which also has printed the opposite view, including from me they get more hysterical as they go on. Mr. Gordon goes on to attack a bunch of Black people.

He claims Louis Farrakhan, who actually is anti-Semitic, is a friend of Obama. Really? Yes, they were once in a photo together at a meeting of Black leaders. Im sure there are pictures of him with devout Zionists.

He attacks Black anti-Semites, including U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib who isnt Black, but is of Palestinian descent. (The same for Mr. Gordon?)

How can a rational person (Im being generous) especially after the attack on the Capitol by right-wing white supremacist groups with a guy happily wandering around with a Camp Aushwitz shirt look at Black people and the left as being the source of danger to Jews?

And dont forget the synagogue in Pittsburgh. Or the Jews will not replace us march in Charlottesville. And their anti-Black plus anti-Semitic ancestor, the KKK.

It makes no rational sense. Never a mention of the actual people who hate and kill Jews, and who mixed in with armed white supremacist militias are a genuine threat.

There is only one answer, and I dont use such a word lightly. Racism. To play off Mr. Gordons ending (to the haters, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew) To the haters, a Black is a Black is a Black.

Why the racism? Why the fear and loathing of Black people?

Hey, Im a psychologist. But I am not Mr. Gordons psychologist.

Continue reading here:
Is there any other way to describe it than racism? - The Riverdale Press

More than a dozen cities have reviewed the police response to Black Lives Matter protests and the reports show poorly trained, over-militarized, and stunningly unprepared police forces across the country.

According to the New York Times, the missteps transcended staffing levels and financial resources meaning police departments from New Yorkto Indianapoliswere unprepared to deal with the protests. That includes everyone from top commanders to beat officers were not only unprepared and untrained to deal with the protests, but many of their actions did the exact opposite of what was intended.

The Times analyzed reports across the country by watchdog organizations and outside investigators in nine major cities and post-action examinations by police in five other large cities. One of the conclusions drawn from almost every report was that officers need more training when dealing with large, organized protests.

They also offered a range of proposals to improve and lessen the number of incidents between protestors and police. Those include entire departments working with community organizers and consulting with civil rights attorneys on protest-management solutions. Police leaders developing more restrictive guidelines for tear gas, rubber bullets, and other crowd-controlling weapons. The suggestions also include officers receiving more training to control their emotions and aggression in the moment.

The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement began last summer after the death of George Floyd. More than 100 cities across the nation began marching and protesting against police brutality and called to defund police budgets and put more money into social services such as drug addiction and prevention, mental health services, and youth education and sports.

The overwhelming majority of those protests were peaceful, especially during the day. However, many were escalated by police actions. In New York, one officer shoved a woman violently to the ground. In Florida, a White cop shoved a Black woman kneeling in front of him and had to be removed from the area by a Black female officer.

In some incidents, the police themselves were under attack and forced to respond to buildings being burned stores being looted, and police being ambushed by protestors including one incident where a woman threw a Molotov cocktail at a police vehicle.

Amnesty International has logged more than 120 incidents of violence by police in 40 different states during the summer of protests.

In the aftermath, more than a dozen cities cut their police budgets, redistributing their funds to various social services and introducing programs where social service officers will respond to non-emergency calls including mental health calls.

Read the rest here:
Police Mishandled Black Lives Matter Protests In Multiple Cities, Study Shows What We Already Know - Black Enterprise

While the state charges against several people arrested in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Worcester were dropped, it appears the one person charged in federal court plans to plead guilty, records show.

A federal grand jury, in October, indicted 19-year-old Vincent Eovacious on charges of civil disorder and possessing a Molotov cocktail. He was the only person federally charged in the aftermath of the summer protests.

Eovacious was one ofseveral people arrested the night of the June 1 protests.

This month, Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. dropped the charges filed against 17 people arrested in the aftermath of the protests. Earlys office said the charges were dropped after a careful review of the evidence by its senior first assistant and first assistant in charge of appeals.

Early, in a statement, said he recused himself from the case due to a conflict of interest he has with Clark University. Some of the people who were arrested attended the Worcester college.

Each and every case was individually reviewed at length with every piece of video, written and testimonial evidence considered before any prosecutorial decisions were made in these matters. It was determined that these misdemeanor charges lacked sufficient evidence for trial, Earlys statement said.

Clark University hired a Worcester law firmto conduct an independent review of the events and the firm determined none of the four students who were arrested acted violentlyand police acted improperly when arresting the individuals.

Early noted none of the defendants were arrested for throwing bricks, rocks, concrete, bottles or anything else at officers. No cases involving an alleged assault on a Worcester police officer were dismissed, the district attorney added.

Early said one case resulted in a plea, another one is pending and a third was federally indicted, a reference to the case against Eovacious.

The decision by Earlys office has drawn the ire of Worcester police union officials.

Daniel Gilbert, president of the New England Police Benevolent Association Local 911, said in a strongly worded statement that Early will never receive another endorsement from the police union or another vote from him and his family. The police union head was ashamed and disappointed by the decision to drop the charges against the protesters, he added.

While the case against Eovacious is still pending in Worcester federal court, it appears he plans to plead guilty to the federal charges, according to paperwork on file in court.

In an order filed earlier this month, a federal judge notes Eovacious has separately reported that he intends to plead guilty to the indictment. Eovacious returns to federal court on April 13.

There have been past discussions of Eovacious entering a plea, records show.

According to federal court records, on the night of the protests - hours after a peaceful demonstration took place - police spotted Eovacious pacing on the rooftop of a building at 848 Main St. and yelled at the crowd below to kill the police.

Investigators said they saw Eovacious take a bottle out of a satchel. The bottle appeared to contain liquid, and police saw Eovacious try to stick a rag into the bottle while holding a silver object believed to be a lighter, federal records said.

Eovacious was eventually stopped by police and inside his satchel were three clear glass bottles with a slightly yellow liquid that smelled of gasoline, five white rags, one green lighter and one silver lighter, prosecutors said.

Eovacious said the liquid was gasoline, that he was with the anarchist group and was waiting for an opportunity, authorities said.

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After several state cases were dropped against 2020 Black Lives Matters protesters in Worcester, the one man - MassLive.com

In a strongly worded letter written to the countys lead prosecutor, the Worcester Patrolmens Union said it will never endorse District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. again after his office dropped charges against more than a dozen people arrested during Black Lives Matter protests in the city last summer.

The Worcester District Attorneys Office dropped charges this month against 17 people who were arrested, including four Clark University students. First Assistant District Attorney Jeff Travers noted after a careful review of the case, authorities found insufficient evidence to prosecute the charged crimes.

Daniel Gilbert, president of the New England Police Benevolent Association Local 911, said Early will never receive another endorsement from the police union or another vote from him and his family. The police union head was ashamed and disappointed by the decision to drop the charges against the protesters, he added.

I write to you to express my disdain and disgust at your decision to drop criminal charges against those who were involved in a riot in June. More than disgust, I want you to know that I am ashamed and disappointed that you have knowingly chosen to turn your back on those of us that have always had your back, Gilbert wrote in his letter to Early.

In a statement about the protest over the summer, Early said he opted to recuse himself from the case due to a conflict he has with Clark University.

The prosecutor noted his office decided to drop the cases against the 17 defendants after a careful review of the evidence by its senior first assistant and first assistant in charge of appeals. Early stated he fully supports his offices decision to drop the charges.

Each and every case was individually reviewed at length with every piece of video, written and testimonial evidence considered before any prosecutorial decisions were made in these matters. It was determined that these misdemeanor charges lacked sufficient evidence for trial, Earlys statement said.

Protesters took to the streets of Worcester the night of June 1, 2020, a week after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a law enforcement in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Following a largely peaceful rally, demonstrators marched downtown, where they clashed with police in the citys Main South neighborhood.

Police claimed the group assaulted officers with flares, fireworks, rocks, concrete, bottles and other debris. Gilbert noted the demonstration also led to the vandalization of buildings, including Worcester City Hall and a number of businesses.

One officer who was in his police cruiser on Hammond Street had to stop traffic from entering Main Street - so that those walking could avoid being hit by cars, Gilbert said. The officers cruiser was eventually surrounded by those involved in the riot that then started shaking the marked police cruiser with the officer still in the vehicle.

Law enforcement, meanwhile, used smoke grenades and pepper ball rounds to disperse the crowd and arrest participants in the demonstration.

When confronted with large protests that contain individuals who employ indiscriminate violence, police officers have the extraordinarily difficult task of restoring order, distinguishing perpetrators from protesters, and charging those responsible with crimes, Travers said in his statement about the charges being dropped. The events of June 1, 2020 were such an occasion when police were presented with violent and dangerous conditions and placed themselves in harms way. The majority of these cases involved the application of an 18th Century law that courts have struggled to apply in a modern context.

According to Early, none of the defendants were arrested for throwing bricks, rocks, concrete, bottles or anything else at officers.

No one was charged with destruction of property whatsoever, he stated. No one was charged with shooting flares, fireworks or surrounding a police cruiser. There was no case involving an assault on a Worcester police officer that was dismissed.

The district attorney added he was elected to the position to ensure justice is carried out in our criminal justice system.

That is the mission our office carries out every day, Early said. Sometimes this requires making decisions that are unpopular to some, but we have to be independent in our determinations and I always will be.

There are several cases that are still pending based on other sets of facts, including one that resulted in a plea, one that is pending and a third that was federally indicted, according to Early.

In the wake of the disorder that followed the largely peaceful protest and after the arrests of 19 demonstrators, including the four college students, Clark announced it would sever ties with the Worcester Police Department.

The university later hired a Worcester law firm to conduct an independent review of the events. After examining videos, photographs and interviews, the firm found none of the four students who were arrested acted violently and police acted improperly when arresting the individuals.

The report accused a Worcester police officer of pinning his knee on the back of student Sarah Drapeau, who told the officer she had lung issues and was in pain. According to the firm, the officer acknowledged Dreapeus pleas but didnt move. Drapeau also claimed police called her a fat [expletive] and said welcome to the real world.

The Worcester Police Department announced in July it would conduct its own investigation into the actions of its officers during the arrests of the Clark students on June 1.

In his letter, Gilbert said the decision on the part of Earlys office to drop the charges against the protesters showed a lack of will to stand up for public safety has endangered police officers. The police union head claimed it wasnt the first time.

He pointed to the case of Jorge Zambrano, who in 2016 shot and killed Auburn police Officer Ronald Tarentino Jr. The man had a long criminal history, though, having served seven years in prison for cocaine trafficking. He was arrested again five years ago for assaulting a police officer.

Months before the fatal shooting of Tarentino, Zambrano was arrested on domestic assault and resisting arrest charges but later released on $500 bail. A Massachusetts Trial Courts review later found no fault on the part of the judges who were involved in the mans cases.

However, Gilbert faults Earlys office for offering Zambrano probation instead of keeping him in prison. Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis Jr. said in 2018 the suspect could have been held for violating pre-trial probation in another case before the officers death, but he wasnt.

While free, he murdered Auburn Police Officer and hero Ron Tarentino. Rons funeral was well attended by political folks pledging support for police officers where are they now? Even after that we gave you our support - but again, you are turning your back on us, the Local 911 president said. How many police officers need to be murdered for you to support us?

Gilbert recalled how when Early was initially running for district attorney, he went to the NEPBA 911, looking for an endorsement, which he received along with support from the national chapter of the union.

I noticed that you still have these accolades listed on your website, Gilbert wrote. I can tell you that you will never receive another endorsement from the NEPBA and further will never receive a vote from me or my family.

Editors Note: This story has been updated to note the charges were dropped against 17 people who were arrested.

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Worcester police union says it will never endorse DA Joseph Early again after charges dropped against 2020 Bl - MassLive.com

Tufts Global Education hosted a virtual panel on Wednesday titled Black Lives Matter Around the World, moderated by Dr. H Adlai Murdoch, professor of Francophone studies and director of Africana studies at Tufts, featuring speakers from academic and activist backgrounds in the United States, Spain, Jamaica and Germany. The panel was co-sponsored by the Africana studies program, the Africana Center and the international relations program.

Charlene Carruthers, a PhD student in the department of African American studies at Northwestern University, has a background in the research of Black feminist political economies and the role of cultural work within the Black radical tradition and has spent more than 15 years community organizing.

Carruthers opened by saying that the importance of amplifying Black voices is not new.

I believe that the overall topic for our discussion today is always relevant. Its been relevant, frankly, for hundreds of years, and its absolutely relevant today, Carruthers said.

She said that this particular moment in the fight for Black lives, especially in the aftermath of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many others, is part of something larger.

This is situated within ongoing local, national and transnational movements for Black liberation, Carruthers said. This is not new.

In particular, she noted that Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., with large African immigrant populations, demonstrate the interconnectedness of global demands for Black justice, and how this issue has been prominent in Black peoples lives long before the Black Lives Matter movement gained traction last summer.

People havent forgotten their people on the continent of Africa, their people in other parts of the world, Carruthers said. They are involved with struggles globally as well and making those connections and not waiting for conversations like this to help them figure out theyre talking to their cousins, theyre talking to their family members.

Dr. Esther Mayoko Ortega Arjonilla, an associate professor of critical race studies at Tufts-in-Madrid, applied Carruthers points to her experiences in Spain.

She particularly saw the George Floyd protests as an opportunity to amplify the voices of Afro-Spaniards and to examine long-standing issues in the country, saying it marked a real turning point for local Black and African activism in Spain.

In the last five, six, sevenyears in Spain, we have the creation of multiple associations and activist groups led by collectives of young people, young Black women, and queer and questioning people, and this is new leadership in a movement traditionally led by heterosexual Black men, Mayoko Ortega Arjonilla said.

She reflected specifically on the treatment of African migrants in Spain.

These African workers in agriculture live in inhuman conditions: no electricity, no clean drinking water, working 1012 hours a day, Mayoko Ortega Arjonilla said.

Beyond poor treatment, Mayoko Ortega Arjonilla noted that Spains unique position at Europes southern border has led to poor treatment of entering immigrants. She pointed to an incident from 2014 when Spanish police shot with rubber bullets and small grenades at a group of Black migrants who were swimming toward Spain. The shooting killed 14 of the migrants.

Yasmin Nasrudin, one of the panelists and the director of the Education USA Advising Center and deputy director of intercultural affairs at the German-American Institute Tbingen, noted that Germany has a lot of similarities with Spain in this realm.

Nasrudin noted that the movement for Black lives in Germany is fairly new, having been especially spurred on in 1980s with the help of Audre Lorde, who was an American writer, feminist and civil rights activist. Lorde lived in Germany in the mid-1980s as a visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin.

She gave the Black women the empowerment and emancipation of creating their own language and giving a new perspective on life in Germany as Black people, Nasrudin said.

She also delved into the question of language, and explained the recent shift from the term Afro-German to Black German.

Dr. Danielle Roper, assistant professor in Latin American literature at the University of Chicago, spoke to the way the momentum from George Floyds killing reinforced, rather than created, the need for the work of Black activists.

I think that when we talk about Black radicalism and Black activism today, we have to think about this moment as continuing the spirit of solidarity and transnationalism that characterized Black radical practices and movements of yesteryear, Roper said.

Roper also emphasized the need to recognize that Black Lives Matter is not a movement limited to the United States nor other Black-minority countries.

I think its important to note this because conversations of anti-Blackness sometimes leave out the fact that anti-Black racism is indeed a phenomenon that organizes predominantly Black countries in the Global South as well, and such is the case in countries like Jamaica, Barbados and elsewhere, Roper said.

Murdoch then turned it over to the audience for questions.

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Tufts Global Education hosts speakers from Spain, Jamaica, Germany, US in 'Black Lives Matter Around the World' panel - Tufts Daily