THE INTRACTABLE PREDICAMENT OF INNER CITY BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS

NO NEW NEWS HERE

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

DESPITE 50 YEARS OF EFFORTS TO ALTER THAT REALITY

Protestors looting a liquor store in West Baltimore Monday afternoon

TAGS: BALTIMORE PROTESTS, BALTIMORE RIOTS, ARSON, LOOTING, MAYHEM,

FREDDIE GRAY, INNER CITY CONDITIONS, PERSISTANT POVERTY,

SOLUTIONS MUST COME FROM WITHIN THE BLACK COMMUNITY,

NOT A “BLACK vs WHITE” CONFLICT, A “BLACK vs BLUE” CONFLICT

COMMENTARY, SUBJECTIVE OBSERVATIONS, EDITORIAL OPINION

(Wednesday May 6, 2015 Baltimore, MD)  The garden variety cynic’s reaction to the tumult in Baltimore after an unarmed young African American man died in police custody was as familiar as it was predictable.  The images and hyperbolic rhetoric broadcast into TV sets across the land showed live images that were sadly similar to those seen from inner cities roiling with racial unrest during the 1960’s.  While the rampant social disorder and civil unrest of the 1960’s was but one aspect of a much broader and very important “movement” for “racial equality”, the rioting and looting in Baltimore served only to reinforce the cynic’s cynicism.  Many in “White” America saw the televised imagery as merely further reinforcing their already lowly regard of inner city “Blacks”.  They were disgusted by the destruction of property, arson, wanton looting of liquor stores and other businesses by opportunistic aimless Blacks ready to commit such deeds at the drop of a hat.  The average cynic had no sympathy for the Blacks and, if anything found themselves asking the same questions they have asked of themselves, their families and of each other every time such a flare-up of urban discord holds the broadcast and cable newsertainment networks hostage.

The disgust voiced by much of White Middle America was as also predictable as it was relevant.  What more could the “country” do for Blacks?  Why don’t these people get jobs and put away this tired argument that 400 years of “oppression” has created the problems endemic in Black America?  How does arson and stealing comport with their arguments about years of police abuse, misconduct and unacceptable murder?  Whose fault is it if Black men have many children with different women and have no responsibility for those children financially or familiarly?  Whose fault is it that young Black men do not finish high school, wear their pants sagging around their knees, underwear visible, caps on their heads backwards, sporting tattoos yet protesting their inability to secure jobs?  The list of questions of this sort is long.  Who is at fault for what ails huge swathes of the Black community in cities and towns from coast to coast and all points in between?

The White cynics bristle at the notion that the Black “experience” in America – slavery – has any relevance in today’s society.  The federal government has spent approximately 22 trillion dollars since 1964 (give or take a billion or two either way) and the states have spent untold trillions more on every sort of law, legislation, protection, initiative, program and social device aimed specifically at improving the prospects for Black Americans.  The Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 were just the very beginning and were actually landmark legislative measures that codified that the most basic of American rights be available to Blacks without regard to color.  There were the vast urban renewal and “Great Society” projects and programs of the late 60’s; there were government assistance programs of every sort as well intended attempts to socially engineer change and all that backfired in hindsight.   That much of Black America remains mired in the same muck they have been in since prior to all the federal government’s attempts to help lift them out is certainly not for lack of effort.  The cynic asks what the hell is wrong with these people?  Don’t they get it? 

For Americans beholden to the politics of the Left and Right, their reactions were also unabashedly familiar and predictable almost to the point of idiocy.  The Liberal Left blames the Conservative Right for all the racial inequities while the Right blames liberal progressive politics and policies for all that ails Blacks in America, especially in an inner city urban center such as Baltimore that has been governed by African Americans for almost the totality of the last 40 years.  The pragmatists among us see the nuances and gradations in the middle ground between the polar opposite Left/Right rift but have no meaningful answers or suggestions; they admit to their frustration for finding themselves at a loss.

One of the absolutes that all can agree on is that race relations remain a seemingly intractable reality of America in 2015, the seventh year, of the Presidency of our first African American Chief Executive, Barak Obama.  Oddly (or not) it feels as if race relations, the “Black and White” issue has become even more pronounced during President Obama’s administration.  It many ways it has.  His ascendancy from relative freshman senatorial obscurity to the White House seemed to bring out the worst in people on either side of the divide.  While much of Black America may have viewed his election and reelection as the harbinger of a “post racial America”, his Presidency only served to unleash some of the most sordid, vitriolic racial animus and prejudice among those already possessed of that mindset. 

And then there are the Police; the Law Enforcement Community (LEC) writ large suddenly emerging before the previously blind eyes of White America as the dirty not-so-little secret that Black America has known since the days of Jim Crow; that the LEC systematical practices severe racism, stands for racial segregation, and can run roughshod over the civil rights of Black Americans with impunity.  And, from that equation it becomes a heated debate with no winners about what came first, the chicken or the egg; high crime rates in Black communities or racist Cops doing what they please.  Are the police more active in the neighborhoods that are predominantly Black because Black’s commit more crime or are Black’s indiscriminately and disproportionally interacting with overzealous Police Officers who “do not value” Black lives? 

There are absolutists and apologists on both sides of that particular debate and a wealth of academic, empiric, scholarly, and antidotal data to support either side. However there is a puzzling paucity of actual numbers to support either argument or, most of the statistics bandied about range from grossly inaccurate to dangerously skewed. The inherent malleability of statistics and other research related data casts shadows of doubts on all such information and essentially renders it useless in the debate and in the process of finding common ground.  Common ground is what everyone claims to be seeking now; a “national dialogue” is being called for by ivory tower and TV talking head; “Professional Blacks” just as the law and order crowd insists the crux of the issue and all its obvious problems are simple matters of right and wrong; of abiding by the laws of the land and blatant criminality.  Yeah, a “dialogue” would definitely help bridge that gap.  (Between who is such a “dialogue” supposed to take place?) 

The fools among us would deny the existence of any problem; it is a matter of disproportional numbers of Blacks being criminals, responsible for high crime rates when compared to other demographics, and the Police comprising that “Thin Blue Line” of defense between order and chaos all too eager to mete out street justice to young Black boys and men, employ racial profiling, and arrest Blacks for similar crimes far more often than they do White boys and men.  Maybe the fools have a point but not in this exact ideological dichotomy.  There are distinct flaws in perception on both sides and it is easier to find affiliation with one side or the other because it does not require any examination of one’s existing core beliefs in such matters.  At least the fools admit to the near impossibility of having an honest, open debate because any critique of the Black community from White people is just one degree or another of racism and any criticism leveled against the Police by Black America is just so much tired blaming for their own inability to take personal responsibility and goes no further than to obscure the reality on the ground in places like Baltimore.

The moderates and pragmatists, as few and far between they might be, are left dumbfounded by the realities of urban America and the Black communities therein.  They look back over the years beginning in 1954 with the landmark “Brown v. The Board of Education” Supreme Court ruling that mandated schools to be integrated; it specifically forbade segregation in schools for basic kindergarten through high school.  This resulted, in some places and often violently, to the “busing” of White students into predominately Black schools and Black students into majority White schools. Then there have been Affirmative Action initiatives at every level of society; in virtually every aspect and institution from the realm of higher education to employment, housing, and other socioeconomic access.  There have been quota systems, preferential hiring practices, the alteration of requirements for certain jobs because there have been arguments that many standardized tests necessary for hiring into some jobs are intrinsically biased, they are tests and standards written and set by White people for White people. 

The fact of the matter is that there will never be appreciable, sustainable changes in the segment of Black urban America that is most disenfranchised unless it comes from within that community.  The White poor, the counterparts to the Black urban dwellers are largely dispersed in rural and semirural communities, suffer from the very same ills as do their Black counterparts facing problems such as drug addiction, violence, lack of proper health care, unwed mothers, and all the rest of that sad and sorry list of blights that the federal government has sought to address over the years.  One significant difference between the White and Black poor is that the Blacks tend to be concentrated in pockets of urban America where the population density obscures the true identity of that community.  Living in these often rough, tough neighborhoods are a majority of hard working, law abiding citizen with the same aspirations and goals as their White counterparts.  They parent well, emphasize the importance of education and teach their children the countless other life lessons that can only be provided by a parent.

Unfortunately, in poor communities regardless of color or race, there is a preponderance of young single mothers often essentially abandoned by the child’s biological father.  This perpetuates the reliance on public assistance that can become a repetitive cycle of children having children, of boys and men failing to take any responsibility financially or otherwise.  Children born into such circumstances are already severely disadvantaged. 

But this is not about poor people; this is about that segment of the inner city Black population that appears to align with a value system dramatically different from their White counterparts.  It is obvious in their music, style of dress, attitudes and actions.  They seem to take measures to further alienate themselves from the very same entry points into the working class they claim they seek.  They exhibit an incongruous tendency towards outward symbols and overt trappings of financial means and will opt to live in squalor so as to afford a fancy car, jewelry, and stylish cloths.  The ghettos are loaded with young men loitering donning $150 “Air Jordan’s”, carrying smart phones and iPods, wearing the clothing that represents “urban chic” today.  Ask any Cop Firemen or EMT who has worked in a ghetto neighborhood and they will recount countless stories of going into squalid apartments, housing underfed children, with virtually empty cupboards and refrigerator but a big 42” hi-def TV dominating the chaos of the living room.  This is so commonplace that it barely registers in the minds of those who enter these dwellings responding to emergencies of every variety. First responders are often left asking, where does the money for such luxuries come from?  Sometimes from the hard working women in their lives who often hold menial jobs,, receive public assistance or a combination of the two.  Sometimes criminal activity provides a “living” or, at least, an income stream.  But it is that odd need to display and portray oneself as having money that further exacerbates already strained household incomes.

Some reading these observations and statements will recoil and call foul; they’ll see racism embedded in each sentence and therein exists the core of the issues posing as a formidable obstacle.  In order to have any discussion, let alone a debate or dialogue of substance, we have to agree on language, on terminology.  A phrase recently inserted into the public discourse about race relations is “White privilege”.  It is interesting to note that that phrase is acceptable while any mention of Black disgruntlement or Black self-exclusion are taken as derogatory terms imbued with dirty racist overtones.  But let us at least be honest.  The gulf between Black America and White America in our inner cities and elsewhere is as profound, but not as overt, as it had been as recently as the 1970’s when the first full efforts of affirmative action became evident across all societal institutions. 

Today there is a Black middle class and no societal or professional boundaries present as glass ceilings.  The problems remain in that smallest fraction of inner city dwellers and the self-perpetuating cycle of poverty and all its malignant manifestations.  Black America must look within and find their way guided by their own direction.  There is no more the federal government, or government at any level, can do for them.

http://finance.yahoo.com/video/sheriff-clarke-mayor-threw-baltimore-004852853.html

Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2015 © All Rights Reserved

OFFICER WILSON’S FATE MAY DEPEND ON FORENSIC PATHOLOGY

FERGUSON AWAITS GRAND JURY FINDINGS

AUTOPSIES RESULTS WILL PLAY KEY ROLE

FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST DR. MICHAEL BADEN AT PRESS

CONFERENCE EXPLAINING HIS PRELIMINARY AUTOPSY FINDINGS

AS LAWYERS FOR THE BROWN FAMILY LOOK ON

TAGS: PO DARREN WILSON, FERGUSON, MISSOURI, MICHAEL BROWN UNARMED,

RACIAL TENSIONS, FORENSIC PATHOLOGY, DR. MICHAEL BADEN, FORENSICS AND

FORENSIC AUTOPSY, THE ART AND SCIENCE OF THE FORENSIC AUTOPSY

ST. LOUIS COUNTY GRAND JURY

(Friday November, 14, Ferguson, MO)  The headlines are ominous; they are already predicting with an exaggerated sense of foreboding how this community will react if the Grand Jury currently hearing the evidence against Police Officer Darren Wilson, the White Ferguson Officer who shot and killed an unarmed Black 18 year old, Michael Brown on the afternoon of August 9^th, 2014.  That event served as a catalyst that ignited the anger, near riotous mob behavior that was as much about this predominantly Black community has long felt the alleged heavy hands of a Police Force with a sole Black Officer.  The history of this small town has been marred by racial tensions between citizens and those who enforce the law.  This particular episode made national headlines after President Obama dispatched the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder, the top law enforcement official in the country, to Ferguson, ostensibly to meet with the Brown family and the usual roster of “Black Activists”, “Community Leaders” and bellicose reverends of all stripe to assure  the citizenry that “justice will be served”.  Just as disturbing have been recent statements in the press from the head of the Missouri chapter of the KKK.  All the elements for a potentially volatile scenario once the Grand Jury’s findings are made public are gathering here.

 On the immediate nights after Michael Brown’s death demonstrations and protests paralyzed this community.  Once peace was restored demonstrations continued in an orderly manner despite the still simmering frustration that ran like an ugly undercurrent through this town.  The Brown family retained the services of several well know attorneys who had represented families who had lost a child under similar circumstances.  The now familiar narrative of White Police Officers abusing and even killing young Black men is never as clear cut as the public perceives them.  Yet, no matter what the actual, substantiated factual accounts are typically ignored or reflexively dismissed as White Cops sticking up for one another, obstructing justice, and having tacit approval from their superiors that they can do as they please out on the streets and a criminal justice system that endemically treats African Americans much differently than they do White people.

The central assertions of the case are well known.  The points of contention, the very factors that will determine Officer Wilson’s fate, are more complex and findings of competing post mortem examination will be the deciding evidence to either indict PO Wilson or not.  Despite what the public may believe about crime scene investigation, autopsies and forensics, concepts they’ve likely picked up from viewing all the CSI and police procedural TV programs, are presented in an unrealistically simple manner that bears scant resemblance to the actual work performed by Police Detectives, Forensic Scientists from an array of specialties, and the Forensics Pathologist.  In some case the investigation of an unnatural death, a murder, can yield evidentiary information that requires as much art as it does science; as much interpreting all the findings and working to establish a cohesive, coherent body of proof and, ultimately, court testimony. 

WHERE THE LIVING SPEAK FOR THE DEAD

Above the entrance to most Autopsy Suites in the country is an old Latin admonition, or some abbreviated version of it, to be heeded by those about to enter.  In English it is: “Let idle talk be silenced.  Let laughter be banished.  This is the place where Death rejoices to teach those who live”.

To the uninitiated the Autopsy Suite can be an intimidatingly discomforting place. Just the realization of what transpires in the stark stainless tell, cold, impersonal environment is sufficient to cause some to get more than a little jittery.  But the environment is such because it is specifically designed, constructed and intended for one purpose and one purpose only: the performance of post mortem examinations.  In spite of what some view as a gruesome, loathsome task, the autopsy is a solemn medical procedure with one purpose; to attempt to determine the cause of death – the manner and method – that transpired to result in a particular body to be placed beneath the bright lights above the autopsy table.  Autopsies are conducted for a wide range of reasons from accessing the efficacy of some treatment modality, to rule in or out suicide, for insurance purposes, and as teaching experiencing.  Arguably, the most important reason for an autopsy is as a Forensics tool; the opportunity for the Forensics Pathologist to dissect and study a body that was felled under criminal or suspicious circumstances.  It is in this scenario that the autopsy can become the final arbiter of truth.

HANDS UP, HANDS DOWN

The autopsies conducted on the body of Michael Brown have each documented the various gunshot wounds, there location, whether they were entry or exit wounds and, upon internal examination, which one or ones where the actual manner of death.  Often a body can sustain numerous gunshots and it becomes the Forensic Pathologists responsibility if a single gunshot or the collective damage of several shots caused death.  In cases where bullets are recovered, the Ballistics specialists are able to identify if the bullets recovered covered came from one firearm or several.  But in this case there is but one firearm and one shooter involved. 

It has been alleged that PO Wilson and Mr. Brown were involved in an altercation while Wilson was still seated in his patrol car and there has been evidence recovered to support this claim; the evidence being Brown’s blood on Wilson’s shirt.  After this alleged confrontation Mr. Brown did I fact walk away from PO Wilson as reported by eye witness accounts and the absence of gunshot residue on Brown’s body or clothing.  This is indicative of Wilson firing his weapon from a distance – between 6 and 20 feet – from Mr. Brown.  What the Forensic Pathologists also had to study closely were the clothes Mr. Brown wore on that fateful day.  If his hands were raised in a “don’t shoot” position, the entry wounds and entry point on his shirt would be in line with each other.  Many cases come down to this sort of evidence.  When points of entry on clothing do not comport with entry wounds on the body, much can be said as to the actual physical distance, position and posture of the victim.  Conflicting reports have been leaked by people purporting to be privy to the on-going Grand Jury testimony say there is evidence supporting both sides in this tragic story but it is imperative that the Grand jury completes their sacred task before anything approaching the real “truth” can be made available.

MULTIPLE AUTOPSIES MUDDIED THE WATER

As has been reported, the body of Michael Brown went through three autopsies.  The simple facts and details of the procedure are clear; the first autopsy, if conducted completely in accordance with standard forensics post mortem procedures and protocols, is the most important and the best source of medico-legal information.  Once a body is subjected to a thorough post mortem, any ensuing examinations are extremely limited in making any kind of determination besides some of the most obvious.  Frankly, a complete autopsy is an in-depth examination of the external condition of the corpse and, once the “Y” shaped incision made, the body is splayed open.  After examination of the corpse in this state, the internal viscera are each removed, weighed, measured, examined and sample of tissue are taken to be made into microscopic slides for later study by the Pathologist.

In the Forensic setting particular attention is obvious paid to any physical signs of violence, trauma, or insult.  The dead body speaks volumes if the Forensics team is astute enough to listen.  In this case, Mr. Brown’s internal examination prior to any removal of organs, was exhaustively studied to trace the damage made by the bullets that ultimately hit him.  There has been much written and reported about a head wound and the entry point of that particular wound that was most likely the one single shot most responsible for his death.  The wound’s position is a determining factor in whether or not Mr. Brown was standing up right, standing up right with his head bowed to a certain degree or, if he was on his knees with or without his head bowed to one degree or another.  The position of that entry wound on the head would indicate that the 6’ 4” Mr. Brown was perhaps falling face-forward down or otherwise in a non-standing compromised posture.  The entire Grand Jury testimony may come down to this singular question because its accurate answer based on the pathological findings has the potential to make or break the case.

In the case of Mr. Brown it remains unclear who had access to what evidence and when?  There were initial reports that the St. Louis county coroner did not have Mr. Brown’s clothes to examine while the autopsy conducted on behalf on the family by arguably the most famous, respected, and brilliant Forensic Pathologist in America, Dr. Michael Baden, had either some or all of the clothing to examine.  A third post mortem conducted by an FBI forensics team probably was more redundant and useless than helpful or insightful.  With three separate and distinct autopsies it was probably a mighty chore for the County Prosecutor to decide what forensic pathology evidence he chose to present to the Grand Jury.  Even in the most unambiguous of circumstances, the medico-legal information provided to the Prosecutor is often presented clumsily and inaccurately.  It is the job of the Prosecutor to take what is often very technical medical information and put it in terms that can be easily understood by a jury, a jury typically composed of blue-collar, working class people typically unfamiliar with such complex information.  Since jurors tend to take their civic duty seriously and, in a Grand Jury setting, they may ask many questions to have points of testimony clarified. 

THE TRUTH

In any homicide but particularly in a case as emotionally charged, high profile, and controversial as is this, the truth is what is sought.  The truth, some call it justice, is what all the autopsies and investigatory procedures are about.  The details of the volumes of information and testimony given to the Grand Jury over the course of the last three months contains the truth or, at least, as much of the truth as can be determined by all the cumulative data.  Police Officer Wilson has provided his “side” of his confrontation with Michael Brown just as have eye witnesses and other bystanders who were close enough to the scene of the crime to offer some valuable auditory information.  Even at this time and despite the constant drip of leaks from sources within the investigation, no one knows what the truth is.  Everyone has an opinion as is their right.  Much of the opinion is split along the deeply gouged color line in America; Black Americans believe that White Officer Wilson shot Mr. Brown without “just cause” a line of thought that is at the heart of much of the racial tensions between White Law Enforcement Officers (LEO’s) and Black men, particularly young Black men.

What is at stake regarding this Grand Jury’s verdict is the matter of whether or not to indict Officer Wilson on a charge of homicide, manslaughter or some similar charge.  Given the amount of media coverage this case garnered in the immediate wake of the incident that left Mr. Brown dead, the eyes of the country will be upon Ferguson when the Grand Jury’s findings are released to the public.  Police here and Police Departments in a number of cities across America are making contingency plans if the verdict is not the one the Black community hopes for.

In the movie “A Few Good Men” the Marine Corps Officer played by the actor Jack Nicholson famously shouted at the prosecutor from the witness box, “You can’t handle the truth”.  Likely within days we will learn what the Grand Jury has learned and we will see if we can “handle” such truth.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Voices/2014/1024/Ferguson-shooting-Evidence-appears-to-support-officer-s-version-of-events

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2014/1115/Video-shows-Ferguson-Officer-Darren-Wilson-after-he-shot-Michael-Brown

http://www.propublica.org/article/what-to-look-for-in-dueling-autopsies-of-michael-brown

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/11/15/darren-wilson-fatal-encounter-with-michael-brown-was-brief-report-says/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2014/11/13/crump-ferguson-michael-brown/18961421/

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/lawyers-michael-brown-family-appeal-calm-ferguson-waits-grand-jury-n247791

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/us/ferguson-shooting-michael-brown-grand-jury.html?_r=0

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/14/ferguson-grand-jury_n_6159982.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/14/kkk-threatens-lethal-force-protesters-ferguson_n_6155570.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices

 Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2014 © All Rights Reserved