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ELKINS A memorandum by former Elkins Police Chief Craig Cross that referred to drug dealers as cockroaches and urged officers to use force and intimidation tactics has not only divided the community, but it also has raised legal questions as to the status of cases moving through the court system.

Dozens of area residents came out in support of Cross Thursday on social media sites and in discussion throughout the community.

Despite the widespread backing, though, the legal ramifications of Cross memo have not fully materialized.

Joseph Cohen, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, said the memo was a clear violation of the Fourth and Fifth amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

The Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures of property and protects against arbitrary arrest. The Fifth amendment guarantees the right to a grand jury, forbids double jeopardy and protects against self-incrimination, as well as requiring due process of law.

The memo is absolutely shocking, Cohen said. It shows a police chief that totally disregards any concern for due process. It shows a department that is completely unconcerned with the constitutional limitations on searches and seizures. It shows a culture of dehumanizing people based on where they live or how they dress.

To the Elkins Police Department, suspects are not human. They are cockroaches, Cohen added. The chief encouraged the use of violence to intimidate and harass people. Why would anyone in Elkins have faith in the criminal justice system? The police department clearly was not an impartial arbiter of the law.

In the memo, Cross who declined comment for this report wrote, in part, If you see any suspected cockroach walking around OUR town with a big a knife or backpack or hoodie on with the hood up I want them stopped and identified, you know what I want them harassed if you know they are a cockroach. I want people stopped and checked out! PUT THE FEAR BACK INTO THESE COCKROACHES! Stomp cockroach a if needed! YOUR (sic) COPS AND AS LONG AS YOU WEAR THAT PATCH ON YOUR SHOULDER THIS IS YOUR TOWN! WE WILL EITHER MAKE PEOPLE RESPECT US OR FEAR US, PREFERRABLY BOTH!!!!

By issuing the memo, Cohen said Cross has put the city and county legal system in peril.

The chief not only would seem to have encouraged the violations of (the) rights of citizens, repeatedly, he also jeopardized any prosecutions that were handled under his leadership by flaunting the requirements of the Constitution, the state ACLU chief said.

West Virginia University professor of sociology Dr. Jim Nolan echoed Cohens sentiment that the memo caused great damage to the Elkins Police Department and to the citizens EPD is charged to protect.

This sort of sentiment, in the letter, is an element of dehumanizing people. Once dehumanized, it is easy to commit atrocities, Nolan said. This is what happens in terms of hate crimes. If you see others as non-human, it is easier to commit horrible and violent acts. Viewing them as cockroaches is not a good thing. It is a very disturbing memo in my mind.

Nolan, whose focus is on crime and social control, with an emphasis on neighborhood dynamics and police procedures, said the memo could serve as the proverbial slippery slope to a potential disaster.

In terms of the legal aspects, someone wearing a hoodie, its like the Trayvon Martin case, Nolan said. He had a hoodie on and George Zimmerman thought he looked suspicious, a struggle ensued and an unarmed Martin ends up dead. The reason he was stopped was probably because he looked like a cockroach with his hoodie up.

The WVU professor said, in community law enforcement, a deft hand is required and that police departments are not just there to lock up the bad guys.

Since 2014, police are looking for new ways of building trust and legitimacy, Nolan said. (Police) saying that they want them to fear us is extremely counterproductive. Trust, legitimacy, cohesiveness and a willingness to intervene, you dont build that by fear.

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ACLU: Memo is 'shocking' - The Inter-Mountain

Samuel Sinyangwe Ariel Matos

When neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was acquitted of charges after fatally shooting Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, Sinyagwe realized his own path was permanently affected. Then, when Michael Brown was fatally shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri, Sinyangwe realized he could not not get involved.

"If we cannot live, we cannot learn," said the co-founder of

His work is an important addition to the conversations surrounding systemic racism, state violence and inequities.

"Black excellence is rooted in finding your potential and doing what you love and care about. Black excellence is the realization that we can be the best at whatever we want to be," he said. "Whatever it is that you do, be the best at it. President Obama has proven that in the highest office in the land."

DEFINE YOURSELF OR YOUR WORK IN THREE HASHTAGS #driven #evidencebased #comprehensivechange

MY SELF-CARE RITUAL INVOLVES I don't have enough of them. That will be a goal of mine moving forward.

MOST PEOPLE PROBABLY DON'T KNOW THAT I LOVE/HATE Most people don't know that I love exotic foods, for sure. I am living in New York City right now, and I am always trying to find something new and different and delicious and affordable in this city. And it never disappoints, except maybe the affordable part.

Something I hate? I don't know - how about institutional racism. I hate institutional racism.

NBCBLK is using the 28 days in the month of February to honor 28 of the nation's most impressive innovators, all 28 years and younger. Get to know the #NBCBLK28 class of 2017.

Follow NBCBLK on

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NBCBLK28: Samuel Sinyangwe: Number Cruncher in the Fight Against Systemic Racism - NBCNews.com

Shakira King views herself as someone who is self-aware. She is a regular user of such social media websites as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She is a member of the Black Lives Matter Philadelphia chapter. And, at the age of 25, King is also a Black millennial.

The most important thing to me, when I think about millennials, is the fact that we are not our parents, she said in a recent interview. I think of the way that we move, the way that we express ourselves, the way that we organize, we are not the same people.

Millennials are characterized as the population of people born between 1980 and the early 2000s. The generation remembers President George W. Bush and Sept. 11th. Its members face economic struggles less familiar to their parents and grandparents such as rising student debt, global warming and the post-recession job market. Social media and portable technology is part of everyday life for millennials, who dominate its usage.

Still, University of Chicago Professor Cathy Cohen noted the phrase millennial generation doesnt fully account for the experiences of Black millennials, who make up 14 percent of the total millennial population. This portion of the group has its own unique experiences as a generation.

Millennials of color and Black Millennials in particular often chart a different path, said Cohen, who has spent the past 13 years as the lead investigator of the Black Youth Project, a national research project that studies millennials like King. The project uses data to explore what Black youth think about their community and their own lives.

Its important to have young people speak on themselves about the issues most important to them, Cohen said.

A Black Youth Project report published in October 2015 found 16.6 percent of Black youth were unemployed compared to 8.5 percent of white youth. In a survey, 41.2 percent of Black youth said they were very or somewhat afraid of gun violence. More than half of Black youth surveyed said either they or someone they knew experienced harassment or violence from the police.

Black millennials are often confronted with systemic issues, not individual issues, Cohen offered.

For King, these systemic issues have contributed to feelings of fatigue and anger. The issues also drove her to civic and political activism.

We are tired, its as simple as that, she said of oppression and discrimination. We have watched generations of our people go through this. Where does it end? When will it end? How can I help it to end?

Cohen said Black millennials are nuanced and knowledgeable about politics in this country, about the challenges Black people face and the opportunities to mobilize collectively.

Social media activism

Social media has played a key role in Black millennials ability to mobilize. Black Lives Matter started as a hashtag on Twitter in 2012, after George Zimmerman was acquitted in 17-year-old Trayvon Martins death. The hashtag has since spread into a worldwide movement.

I think social media heightens the work that we do, King said. It makes us hot on our feet. It doesnt take a week to organize something, we can be where we need to be in a night.

Social media is not only just a tool, but a very effective tool, said Dr. Gooyong Kim, assistant professor at Cheyney University. Kim has experience studying the relationship between social media and collective action.

Black millennials have carved out their own spaces within social media, such as Black Twitter, where they can connect as a community. These spaces are like a digital barbershop, where conversations about pop culture blend with conversations about politics. I think for us, the culture lives on social media, King said.

Through social media, Black millennials and other users can see how Black experiences are universal, according to King. All our mommas are the same, everybodys grandmother is the same, we experience the same thing on holidays, she said. Its a way for us to really bridge these gaps.

As a queer Black woman, social media has also helped King become a visible part of the community.

Its helped us take control over who we are and how we define ourselves, she said. Through Twitter and Facebook, the LGBT community can challenge established stereotypes and have their voices heard.

People say social media makes us less social, but I would argue that Black Twitter has made me more social, King added. Its a beautiful sense of community.

Overall, Cohen described Black millennials as thoughtful, nuanced and knowledgeable about politics. Issues that were once marginalized, such as Black feminism, queer issues and Black nationalism, are now taking center stage. Black millennials are aware of the challenges within the Black community and how those challenges can be addressed through social media.

The importance of this generation can not be underscored, Cohen said.

For the future, King is looking forward to more community engagement and growth as a member of the Black community. Her message is clear, Black millennials do not come to play.

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Who are Black Millennials? - The Philadelphia Tribune

Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

In a so-called listening session last week to kick off Black History Month, some African Americans surrounded President Donald Trump at the White House, including former Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault and GOP political commentator Paris Dennard.

Peppered with numerous racial missteps and misplaced critiques of the press, Trumps breakfast-meeting remarks included an acknowledgment of Dr. Ben Carson. During the campaign, Id go around with Ben to a lot of different places I wasnt so familiar with, Trump noted. Theyre incredible people.

I assume that Carson took him to urban communities, and African Americans are the incredible people Trump was referencing. It wasnt entirely clear (nor were his comments about Frederick Douglass having done an amazing job). Noteworthy is the presidents admission that he wasnt familiar with the communities he visited. So why does he repeatedly make outrageous statements about black hopelessness and destruction in those places, at times likening them to Afghanistan?

Trumps one-sided generalizations about African Americans simultaneously scare and aggravate me. I want him to stop. I suspect others do as well, which is why 92 percent of us voted for candidates other than him and why so many of us maintain that he is #NotMyPresident. Much of what Trump says advances racist narratives about us and communities in which we live. His assumptions are surely based on stereotypes and incomplete facts.

Carson, a surgeon and previous presidential candidate, is Trumps pick for secretary of housing and urban development. Of course the presidents only black Cabinet nominee has been asked to oversee housing and urban development. During the campaign, then-candidate Trump repeatedly declared that African Americans walking streets in inner cities get shot.

This is not true of all, or even most, of us. Ive lived in inner-city Philadelphia for a decade. Ive never been shot. My work has taken me to South Side Chicago many times in recent years; I wasnt shot during my visits there. Chicago incontestably has a significant problem with gun violence, yet the overwhelming majority of African Americans who live there, in New York City and in other cities havent been shot.

Given that he only references inner cities when speaking about my people, I wonder if Trump even realizes that not all of us live in urban contexts. I have relationships with thousands of black people who reside in small towns, suburbs and big cities across the United States, but I personally know none whove been shot. I seriously doubt that Trump knows many more.

To a mostly white crowd at a campaign rally last August, Trump said of African Americans: You live in your poverty, your schools are no good. You have no jobs. I study racial equity in the United States and am a serious appreciator of facts. Statistics make undeniably clear that opportunity and wealth inequities consistently produce disproportionately negative effects on African Americans. My people are not genetically predisposed to poverty or underperformance. Instead, racist structures, systems and policies often devastate our communities in especially severe ways. I wonder if Trump understands this distinction. And does he know that not all African Americans are poor and out of work? Multiple federal data sources (pdf) show that most black adults have jobs, including those of us who live in big cities.

In addition to perpetuating incomplete facts, one-sided narratives about African Americans are also extremely dangerous. Ive spent my 14-year research career disrupting them. I dont offer alternative facts in my work, but instead highlight important aspects of our lives and conditions that are often overlooked by those who hear only bad things about communities of color.

For instance, a team of researchers from the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education conducted a study on young men of color attending 40 public high schools across New York City. We went to each of these schools, which were on average 94 percent black and Latino. None of us were shot or assaulted. We were there to conduct extensive interviews with students who were academically successful, college bound and college ready.

Trumps mischaracterizations of majority-minority schools would lead most Americans to erroneously conclude that nothing good happens in them, little learning occurs, violence erupts every day and no one goes to college. Thats not what we observed. Instead, we found hundreds of young men at these inner-city school sites who spoke extensively about goodness in their schools: teacher practices, peer support and other factors that helped them succeed. Theyre presently in college; one is at the University of Pennsylvania, the same university that Trump and his children attended.

In the report we published from this project (pdf), I begged the nation to please stop mischaracterizing young men of color as hopeless thugs who care nothing about their education, communities, and futures. I am now making the same plea to Trump. He and Betsy DeVos, the nominee for secretary of education, should visit traditional urban public schools. Perhaps he would stop saying that they are no good.

Trumps repeated comments reinforce deficient, criminalized narratives about African Americans. Trayvon Martin was killed because he seemingly didnt belong in the Sanford, Fla., neighborhood that George Zimmerman was patrolling. No way Trayvon was supposed to be in that nice gated community, because we all live in urban ghettos, the Zimmerman-Trump logic goes.

Through his My Brothers Keeper initiative, President Barack Obama aimed to help our nation see young men of color differently. His successor is undermining this important effort and placing millions of black men and women, including me, in danger of being discriminated against, terrorized by police and murdered for reasons of unfounded suspicion. Trump is making African Americans less, not more, safe. Last summer he posed a provocative question to black voters: What the hell do you have to lose? Answer: our lives.

The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.

Shaun R. Harper is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and executive director of the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education. He was also named to The Root 100s list of influential African Americans for 2016. Follow Harper on Twitter.

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Here's Why Trump's Rhetoric Is Dangerous for Black People - The Root

Jaspery Goh / HIGHLANDER

The easy way to begin the origin story for the Black Lives Matter movement is to start in July of 2013 when George Zimmerman the neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot down an unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida was acquitted of murder.

That day, Alicia Garza, one of the three co-founders of BLM, posted her response to the verdict on Facebook: the sad part is, theres a section of America who is cheering and celebrating right now. and that makes me sick to my stomach. we GOTTA get it together yall.

And not long after, another post from Garza, in which the closing words read, black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.

From there, Patrisse Cullors, a friend of Garzas since the two met at an organizers conference in Providence, Rhode Island in 2005, altered the final three words of Garzas post to form the unapologetically blunt and now-emblematic hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Quite rapidly, the words became less of a momentary hashtag and more a call to action, then not solely a call to action but more broadly a crusade. And now, co-founders Garza, Cullors and writer and immigration-rights organizer Opal Tometi firmly remain at the forefront of what effectively stands as the premier social justice movement of the contemporary era the absolute trailblazer for modern day Black activism.

Though again, thats the easy way to tell it.

In truth, Black Lives Matter (BLM), as the women attest, is not merely a hashtag-turned-movement established by three community organizers in 2013 but a direct manifestation of centuries of systematic black oppression in America and long-standing racism both domestically and abroad. It is an extensive and complex history which I will absolve from this here platform (also, really, if you arent aware by now ) and one for which a singular root is likely untraceable.

However, if Garza were to pinpoint a foundation, she may begin with Mama Harriet a.k.a. American abolitionist Harriet Tubman who, in 1849, escaped slavery and rescued upward of 70 enslaved family and friends using the Underground Railroad. While on stage Wednesday evening, Garza acknowledged she prays to Tubman often, finding inspiration through her unequivocal persistence.

This is a woman who, when she first went through the Underground Railroad, lost her two brothers, and then they got free and they decided they were going to go back (into slavery), attested Garza. This is a woman who went back for her sister and her sister had died once she got there, but she kept going. This is a woman who went back to get her husband, who had since remarried and decided he wasnt trying to go nowhere. She kept going.

Mama Harriet is somebody who, in short, worked insatiably to break through literal chains and help her loved ones achieve the same. And, as the BLM movements epoch moves further along, it is Tubman who serves as an archetype for their still-to-be-written narrative.

As it has long stood, these chains (injustice, inequality and anti-black racism) remain ceaseless and, while on stage Wednesday for the Womens Resource Center and ASPBs Beyond the Hashtag: #BlackLivesMatter event, Cullors and Garza acknowledged a room full of students and staff looking to join them in efforts to break free. To where it leads will be told with time.

Following their discussion and an impromptu picture and autograph session with more than a few of the events attendees, Cullors and Garza sat down with me for a very brief interview backstage, which youll find below. In it, they discuss the growth of the movement, operating under the current political climate, how cross-sectionality affects their direction and how exactly those chains get unbroken.

The questions and responses below have been unedited.

Myles: First, I appreciate yall taking the time to speak with me. One thing I wanted to get to is that you started this movement over three years ago and, if one were to only pay attention to the headlines or whats portrayed by media on the surface, it would be difficult to accurately gauge the development of the relationship between the black community and law enforcement. Youve been on the ground and actively immersed within the movement; how would you describe the growth youve seen over time?

Patrisse: Over the last three years or in general?

Lets say the last three years.

Patrisse: I think that in the last three years the movement has evolved in different ways. On the one hand, with the killing of Trayvon Martin, I dont know if folks remember but there was very, very little media coverage during his murder. In fact, his family, his parents were the ones that were on the frontline being like This is out of control. Not only did you not arrest the killer of my son, nobodys having this conversation. And so it was really through their leadership that they built a movement around how to have the conversation about Trayvon and its why many of us started to follow the situation over social media, we followed the trial of George Zimmerman and then the acquittal of George Zimmerman. It was a spontaneous response, right? We were literally grieving on social media and processing and talking. It wasnt until Alicia wrote Black Lives Matter and we put a hashtag on it and then we built a project around it. Were organizers. So we didnt come in saying were going to organize a political project but, once we saw how it resonated with people online, we were like, Oh, actually we could build something out from this. This is something that can live both online and offline. And so what you see in that first year, if you look back at protest pictures, of people holding the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter from Los Angeles to Oakland to Delaware to New York, people are using it as a way to have another conversation and to talk about us as Black people and then a lot happens in that year. If you remember Marissa Alexander, the Black woman who was a mother who was fighting off her abuser and fired two warning shots in the air, right? Didnt kill anybody but was on trial for 60 years, she was fighting a 60-year trial. So we were following that. Renisha McBride was killed that year.

Alicia: Thats right. Jordan Davis was killed that year.

Patrisse: Jordan Davis. And so what we start to see is we have to expand the conversation. Very early on we were expanding the conversation around whose Black life actually matters. So the narrative around its only cis-black boys who are the perfect victims, right? We were actually interrupting that narrative from the very beginning. That we need to be showing up for Renisha McBride, we need to be showing up for Cece McDonald. And then the movement evolves again and its when Mike Brown is killed and we realized theres a lot of people around the world and the country that want to put their boots in the ground and fight back. And that for people, Mike Brown and the uprising in Ferguson resonated so deeply in Black communities because we understood that Ferguson was everywhere. The media was trying to tell us something different, like this backward ass town in Missouri killed this boy on the street Oh my god that town, that dont happen in California and we had to be like, Nah actually here are all the ways it does and actually this is a national and international crisis, state violence in Black communities. And so we started the network and that was very intentional. We wanted to be able to hold space for people across the country and we wanted it to be nimble, we wanted it to be decentralized, we wanted it to be local-focused with sort of big ideas around whats possible in a pushback. And now were in a new moment. With 45 (45th U.S. President Donald Trump) in office were, as a network, trying to figure out whats next, how do we relate and were sort of in that.

I was queer before I knew there was a movement and I was Black before I knew there was a Black liberation movement and Ive never felt so much of those things as I do right now.

Bouncing off what you mentioned about changing the narrative, not only are you people of color, but youre women of color and, as you said on stage, two of the three of you identify with the queer community as well. Im curious how that intersectionality has shaped your experience in trying to build this movement. Both in ways youve struggled and how its been advantageous. Question is open to either one of you.

Alicia: I mean, this is our life, you know what Im saying? I was queer before I knew there was a movement and I was Black before I knew there was a Black liberation movement and Ive never felt so much of those things as I do right now. I was just on my phone and I was reading two things: One, they tore it up at Cal (in protest of Breitbart senior editor outspoken Trump-supporter Milo Yiannopoulos) they said, Nah not today. We dont do that kind of thing in the Bay.

Patrisse: (Laughs) I saw that. You saw that?

I did, I did.

Alicia: See what happens when you bring this hate speech to Berkeley, people dont have it (laughs). But the other thing that I was reading was about the executive order thats gonna come out later this week that is basically allowing for discrimination against queer people based on religious preferences. And this is what I was saying in terms of Donald Trumps new deal for Black America. It literally says inside of there that he pledges to protect the church and thats what this looks like. And so what that means for me very personally, beyond the rhetoric is Im married to somebody who doesnt fit inside gender binaries and we were in limbo for a really long time because people in our state decided they wanted to try to move that agenda in California. Supreme Court eventually struck it down but what that means for me very tangibly is if I walk out of here right now and I get in an accident, my next of kin is my partner. And if they cant come and make decisions for me in the hospital when I cant make them for myself that impacts our family. Our ability to start a family is impacted by this kind of stuff like where you can give doctors exemptions for being able to support queer families who want to start a family because of their own personal beliefs. And then of course, there is a war on Black America and when I sit anywhere I am, I am conscious of the fact that I can be and have been a survivor of racially charged violence. So its not a theoretical thing is what Im trying to say. Its the things that impact our daily lives are why I personally am a part of this and why I feel like its so necessary for us to have space where people can come together from various experiences and have each others back. And whats at stake is very tangible things like our right to be in community, our right to love who we want to love, our right to sit in a room like this together, you know what I mean? Like people could literally change the rules and say Actually, we dont want you all in a room together. Yall go over here, yall go over here and yall go over there. And theres already a way in which theyre trying to divide us, right? So the plan for Black America around jobs revolves around us being a wedge in terms of the immigration reform fight, which is not acceptable. Not only because there are Black immigrants but because the ways in which theyre trying to divide us from each other, like people that have a lot at stake, has the potential to take the humanity out of this country if that makes sense. So thats what it is for me. Thats what I got.

100 years from now, looking back on Black Lives Matter, whats the one word you would want people to reflect and describe it as?

Alicia: Power.

Patrisse: Yes.

Power. And same for you?

Patrisse: Mhm.

Originally posted here:
A sit-down with #BlackLivesMatter co-founders Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors - Highlander Newspaper