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August 27September 2, 2008 www.aframnews.com
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2008 National Cowboy Hall of Fame See page 5
Setting the record straight and moving forward JOLANDA JONES
Houston City Council Position 5
HOUSTON- On the evening of August 1, one of my staff members and I saw what appeared to me to be constitutional violations against citizens of Houston. My concerns were serious – with more than 10 years of experience as a criminal defense attorney and an advocate on justice issues, I have a good radar for a bad arrest. After the investigation was over, I spoke with the police officers at the scene. Our conversation was tense— and a week later, a police report was leaked to the press that claimed I interfered with an active police investigation. I want to set the record straight. But, more importantly, I want to move forward in a balanced way that honors the noble and dangerous work of our police officers, and acknowledges the work to be done to ensure that the civil rights of all Houstonians are protected. Less than two minutes from my home in the Third Ward Community, we saw a speeding police car
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with flashing lights and sirens while running traffic lights. I was concerned because my neighborhood has seen its share of terrible crimes. Crimes that include if my memory serves me clearly, four murders in my neighborhood within the last seven months (the 13-year-old in the park, the man on the corner, and two women in dilapidated apartments). Also, a man got shot seven times about a month ago at Denny’s, and by the grace of God, he lived and my son was jumped in the park by two boys at the park. There have been numerous amount of crimes in the past, but that Friday night we decided to follow the police car and my staffer parked in the parking lot where the action was. We got out of the car, leaned on it, and watched, just like everyone else there. I was able to see one female officer and a number of male officers investigate what they believed to be a crime. I saw the arrest and search of a man pumping gas; the search of a car and its trunk; the detention and search of two passengers, who looked, to me, to be a teenaged boy and young woman. I also saw what seemed to be an unlawful search, waste of city resources and unjustified escalation. As I watched, I made sure I said nothing to any of the people involved in the investigation: not the police officers I saw detain, handcuff and arrest the man; not the police officers I saw detain and search the teenaged boy and young woman; not the police officers I saw talk to people; not the police officers I saw search the car and its trunk; not the arrested man; not the teenaged boy or young woman; not any of them. I just watched. I waited for the officers to release the teenaged boy and young woman, and approached them after they walked away from the police. I offered my City Council business card as a witness to what happened. I learned that they were not in custody and were free to leave; that they were waiting for their father; that the boy was 15 and his sister was 18; that his cousin was the man arrested; that the police, who initially told them that it was none of their business about why their cousin was arrested, eventually told them that their cousin had warrants; that the teenager didn’t know why he got searched, except that he See RECORD page 3
Evangeline Parish (French: Paroisse d’Évangéline) was created out of lands formerly belonging to St. Landry Parish in 1910. The majority of the people were French, former soldiers from Fort Toulouse, and generations born there were originally called Creoles. The major families were Fontenot, LaToure, Guillory, Lafleur, and Brignac. The Creoles developed a culture that was a mixture of all the ethnic groups living in the area Outsiders mistakenly labeled all the White French people as Cajuns. Even so, the parish was named Evangeline in honor of the Acadian people who lived further south. Their history was so fascinating until Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s wrote the narrative poem, Evangeline. Later Evangeline Parish was further immortalized in the Randy Newman song “Louisiana, 1927,” in which he described the Great Mississippi Flood which covered it with six feet of water. Meanwhile, a few miles north of Ville Platte, the parish’s county seat, the six-year-old son of William and Stella Arceneaux
Labor Day 2008
America’s work ethic no longer works
China’s work ethics, high-tech skills and Asian Humility, dominate global market. BUD JOHNSON
African-American News&Issues
Sweatshop labor has been on the rise at home and abroad for at least two decades. But only in the past year and a half have images of that seamy side of global production pricked the conscience of ordinary Americans. Sweatshops increase output and profits not through innovation and higher productivity but by squeezing workers. They may refuse to pay overtime, use child laborers, set piece rates to make a minimum wage impossible, or commit such crude abuses as hitting workers, refusing bathroom breaks or fining workers for being absent. Pharis Harvey, executive director of the International Labor Rights Fund, however, says “Sweatshops” is an imprecise term. The General Accounting Office considers a sweatshop any work place with more than one violation of laws covering work hours, minimum wage, child labor, industrial homework or other employer prac-
WILLIAM TATMAN JR.
April 1, 1921-August 2007
Tatman Sr. played in the kneedeep waters that had receded considerably when it reached his small town of Whiteville. He would never forget that fond memory that was among many that Deacon William Tatman, Jr. often recalled during his long and productive life that was celebrated on August 31, 2007 at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, 1510 Pannell. Then again, he left many precious memories for his beloved family and friends, and several were
tices. But Harvey defines a sweatshop as any workplace where the wages are inadequate, the hours are too long, and working conditions endanger safety or health, even if no laws are violated. Illegal immigrants notwithstanding, the retail giants, whose main asset is often their public image, are now threatened by the sweatshop monster they helped to create. Meanwhile, African-American News&Issues had cause to pause and ponder, as we prepared our Labor Day 2008 edition (See Editorial), whether, or not, cheap labor is a two-headed monster that is responsible for Black America’s unemployment woes. And woe is the operative word, if one is to believe Peter S. Goldman’s July 2, 2008 the New York Time’s article (Deepening Cycle of Job Loss Seen Lasting Into 09), that laments: “Among economists, the sense is broadening that the troubles dogging the economy will be stubborn, leaving in place an uncomfortable combination of tight credit and scant job opportunities perhaps well shared during an order of service that officiated by Pastor Harvey Clemons Jr., and included a solo by Richard Jackson; Music by Rev. Michael Pickett, who also sang his favorite song; Rev. Clifton Lewis; and his Sunday School teacher Rev. Samuel Parker, whose expressions revealed Deacon Tatman’s favorite expression, “Lord I like the way you do things,” that he habitually used during his spirit filled prayers. He was born April 1, 1921, in Whiteville, Louisiana. He later moved to Houston where he shared 51years of wedded bliss with his soul mate, Gerline Gauthier Tatman, who preceded him in death. Tatman, a loyal member of True Level Masonic Lodge, served his country during World War II, in England, Germany and France. He also served his family well, working as a heavy equipment operator at Shell Refinery in Deer Park Texas for over forty years. Therefore, he was deservedly eulogized as “A Helpful Man,” insofar as: He never saw the trouble; he only saw the deed. He never thought of sacrifice,
into next year. ‘It’s a slow-motion recession,’ said Ethan Harris, chief United States economist for Lehman Brothers. ‘In a normal recession, things kind of collapse and get so weak that you have nowhere to go but up. But we’re not getting the classic two or three negative quarters. Instead, we’re expecting two years of sub-par growth. Growth that’s not enough to generate jobs. It’s kind of a chronic rather than an acute pain.’ “Mr. Harris expects tepid economic growth and a shrinking labor market to persist through the fall of 2009. The national unemployment rate climbed a full percentage point over the last year to 5.5 percent in May, according to the Labor Department.” But, alas, from a Black perspective joblessness translates to hopelessness. And, according to the Labor Department, the official report doesn’t include people who are jobless and have given up looking for work, or people who have been bumped to part-time jobs See LABOR DAY page 3
his mind was on the need; He never reckoned money as a prize worth clinging to, he said its only value was the good that it could do; He never stopped to reckon what’d he miss, his joy was to stay and help a fellow-being who was stranded on the way. He never paused to think of pleasures that he’d cherished long and planned. All he saw was one in trouble who must have a helping hand. “There seemed nothing so important that he wouldn’t turn aside. And he had this simple motto, which he followed to the end: ‘When the other man’s in trouble that’s the time to be his friend.’” Without a doubt Deacon William Tatman, Jr. is dearly missed. He left to cherish his absence and celebrate his life, one son, Everett Tatman; two daughters, Barbara Ann Tatman and Donna Yvette Tatman, all of Houston, Texas; grandchildren, Ashley Nicole Eagleton, Everett Evans, Ashford Johnson and Lauren Johnson; and a host of in-laws, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends too numerous to name and his church family. TX-1