Saying "No" to deadly "No-Knock" warrants
The Tuesday Talking Points!
"I believe it to be a fact that the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them." James Weldon Johnson, Early 20th Century Black lawyer, educator and writer
***What in the world is going on in Minneapolis? Once more, the eyes of the world are on another Minneapolis police killing, this time one Amir Locke, 22, who was killed on February 2nd after officers executed a "No-Knock" warrant on his residence.
The problem? Locke was not the right suspect, and he was relaxing in HIS residence when cops barged in and opened fire.
Locke, a lawful gun owner, was shot in less than 20 seconds after the officers barged in his door. Adding further insult is the fact that two of the officers who raided his residence, Kristopher Dauble and Nathan Sundberg, are litigants in a police brutality lawsuit emanating from MPD "hunting" units that were targeting Black Lives Matter protesters two years ago after George Floyd, 46, was murdered by MPD officers.
Folks, the time for talking about the problem has long since passed; qualified immunity MUST be ended post-haste so that brutish, trigger happy cops can get sued for every dime in their possession when they take the lives of unarmed or legally armed but law abiding citizens. Secondly, it is time for these officers to get the long haul, and I'm talking 25 years to life, each time they take a life of someone because they are being reckless in executing their duties to protect and serve. That's the only way to ensure that cops will think twice before kicking the wrong behinds and killing the wrong people.
Last, imagine for a moment had Locke, locked and resting in his residence, heard rustling at the door and shot down all the officers in self-defense? Such would have been in his right under the law, but would those who claim to just love the Second Amendment's right to bear arms have rallied to support Locke’s standing his ground in his home? The very fact that I pose this question in doubt is further proof that equal justice under the law is still colored by the skin color of the person seeking justice…
***Count me among the pundits predicting that Russia will not invade Ukraine. I strongly suspect that the prospects of not only a protracted ground war in Ukraine, but sanctions from the United States and her NATO allies, including the closing of a crucial gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, will be more than enough to have Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to stand down.
Earlier today, French President Emmanuel Macron met with Putin (above) and later told reporters that he had "secured an assurance there would be no deterioration or escalation." The Hobbservation Point is hoping that President Macron's words are not the modern day equivalent of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's boast that he had secured "peace in our time" after meeting Adolf Hitler in Munich circa 1938, but again, Russia is far from an economic super power and at the end of the day, simply cannot afford total war with Ukraine and with NATO by proxy.
***The Academy Award announcements are out which means that, per usual, I will have to binge watch some of the movies that have derived numerous awards, like Belfast, which stars Ciaran Hinds and Judi Dench.
Now, I have seen a number of the movies that were nominated in various categories already, and I particularly enjoyed King Richard, Dune, Being the Ricardos, Don't Look Up, West Side Story, and Encanto, among others. Thus far, if I had a vote for Best Actor, it would be Will Smith for bringing Richard Williams, father of tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams, to the big screen.
If I had a vote for Best Actress, at this time it would be Nicole Kidman for her portrayal of the late, great Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos.
Stay tuned...
Black History Hobbservation
Martin Delany rose from humble beginnings to become one of the more important figures of 19th Century American history. His father, a slave named Samuel Delany, was the son of an African chieftain of the Gola tribe who was captured and sold into slavery in Virginia. Samuel married Pati, a free woman from Angola, and Martin was born on May 6, 1812 in Charlestown, Virginia (now West Virginia).
After Delany's father bought his own freedom, the family moved to Pennsylvania, where young Martin, who had originally learned to read while still in captivity, later undertook formal education at Jefferson College.
In 1833, following a cholera outbreak in Pittsburgh, Delany became an apprentice under abolitionist oriented Doctors Andrew McDowell, F. Julius Lemoyne and Joseph Gazzam. In 1850, Delany became one of the first three blacks admitted to Harvard Medical School. Following protests from their white classmates, the three blacks eventually discontinued their formal medical studies although Delany, who had learned the profession as an apprentice, later began his own private practice in Pittsburgh.
Prior to medical school, Delany had met prominent abolitionists Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, the publisher of the "Liberator" newspaper. Delany soon began writing articles and later helped found "The North Star" newspaper. Delany also began openly promoting a "Back to Africa" doctrine that was opposed by Douglass and other mainstream abolitionists.
During the Civil War, while President Abraham Lincoln had refused Frederick Douglass' repeated requests for black soldiers to be called to serve under the leadership of black officers, Delany, after meeting with and impressing Lincoln, was commissioned as a major—the highest ranking black officer in the war—and was assigned to the 52nd Colored Regiment.
Following the war, Delany worked with the Freedman's Bureau and was later an influential figure in South Carolina Republican politics until the Northern occupation of the South ended in 1876. Many former Confederates were elected to office that year and Delany, in fact, supported former Confederate General Wade Hampton in his successful bid for governor by persuading a number of freed blacks to vote against the Republicans who had secured their freedom a decade earlier. Hampton and his Democrat supporters soon enacted Jim Crow laws that stymied black educational and political advancement until well into the 1960's and a distraught Delany moved to Wilbeforce Ohio, where he died in 1885.
Black College Feature
Each day during Black History Month, I will feature one of America's leading HBCUs.
Next up—Hampton University
Founded: During the early stages of the Civil War, Black men, women and children who escaped slavery and made it to Union Army lines in Virginia were sheltered at the Grand Contraband Camp across the harbor from Hampton Roads. While education was forbidden by then existing Virginia law, in 1861, Mary Peake Smith was commissioned by the American Missionary Society to educate the formerly enslaved. Smith often taught her pupils under a massive Oak tree; the Emancipation Proclamation was first read under this tree—thus rendering it a National Landmark in the Hampton Historic District and a symbol of Hampton University.
In 1866, Brigadier General Samuel Armstrong was appointed Superintendent of the Freedmen's Bureau of the Ninth District of Virginia. On April 1, 1868, Armstrong opened the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute with the following purpose: "The thing to be done was clear: to train selected Negro youth who should go out and teach and lead their people first by example, by getting land and homes; to give them not a dollar that they could earn for themselves; to teach respect for labor, to replace stupid drudgery with skilled hands, and in this way to build up an industrial system for the sake not only of self-support and intelligent labor, but also for the sake of character."
During the first 60 years of the school's existence, like many HBCUs, the primary academic focus including instruction in agriculture, carpentry, printing, tailoring, and blacksmithing. By the 1930s, the school began expanding its focus to,a broad base curriculum that included multiple liberal arts disciplines. Known as Hampton Institute for the majority of the 20th Century, the name was changed to Hampton University circa 1984.
Academics: Over the past 12 years, Hampton University has consistently ranked in the Top 5 among HBCUs according to US News & World Report. The University offers 50 baccalaureate programs, 26 master's programs, 7 doctoral programs, 2 professional programs, and 10 associate/certificate programs. The student body is approximately 90 percent Black, and the most popular majors include Psychology, Organizational Communication, Broadcast Journalism; Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies, and Political Science and Government.
Motto: "The Standard of Excellence, An Education for Life"
Mascot: Pirates
Colors: Blue and White
Athletics: Division 1--Formerly of the CIAA and MEAC—both HBCU conferences—in 2017, Hampton joined the Big South Conference and is en route to joining the CAA.
Famous Alumni/ Figures: Legendary educator, political adviser and Tuskegee University Founder Booker T. Washington, Lawyer/Newspaper publisher (The Chicago Defender) Robert Sengstacke Abbott; Mary Jackson, the first Black woman to serve as a NASA engineer (featured in the movie Hidden Figures), U.S. Army Colonel Myles B. Caggins III, former Department of Defense Spokesperson and adviser to President Barack Obama; Stephanie Young, Director of African American Outreach, Associate Director of Communications for the Obama administration; NBA star Rick Mahorn; Comedienne/Actress Wanda Sykes; Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, President of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County; Charles Wesley Turnbull, former Governor of the US Virgin Islands; Susan La Flesche Picotte, first Native American licensed physician; Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor and former President of Oracle Corporation.
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a wonderful Tuesday!
Two good Kappa Men!