December 28, 2013 - December 28, 2013, www.afro.com
Volume 122 No. 21
The Afro-American A1 $1.00
DECEMBER 28, 2013 - JANUARY 3, 2014
Tyrone West’s Family Resists ‘Objectively Reasonable Force’ By Blair Adams AFRO Staff Writer None of the officers involved in the death of Tyrone West will face criminal charges because they were using “objectively reasonable force” to subdue a subject who was resisting arrest, the state’s attorney’s office and the Baltimore City Police Department announced Dec. 19. “We have concluded that there is no evidence to support the filing of criminal charges against any of the officers involved in this incident,” State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein said based
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on investigations by him, the BPD and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). “We are disgusted and we are going to keep on fighting,” Towanda West, West’s sister told the AFRO. “I expected for every last one of them to be charged.” According to Bernstein’s statement, the cause of death of West remains “undetermined.” He cited the OCME report’s conclusion that West “died of cardiac arrhythmia ... due to cardiac conduction system abnormality” during an encounter with police July 18 in Northwest Baltimore. “In other words, Mr. West died because his heart stopped beating, but the OCME was unable to say whether any one of the factors noted above was the absolute or even primary reason why Mr. West’s heart stopped beating,” the report stated 157 days after West’s encounter with police. The report details the moments just before the 44-year-old West died after what police described as a routine traffic stop on Kelway Road near Kitmore Road, in
a blow-by-blow description of the actions, first, of the officers who responded to the initial traffic stop and, then of the officers who were dispatched when a subsequent “officer needs assistance” call was issued. Nine officers involved in the incident –including a Morgan State University campus police officer--were suspended while the episode was investigated. Each one has returned to active duty. “None of the officers involved in this incident acted with the intent to cause death or serious physical injury to Mr. West,” Bernstein said in statement in which he voiced sympathy for the West family, who said they were disappointed in the Bernstein statement. “There were ten officers against one man—my brother,” said West’s sister, Towanda. “They beat and killed him.” Bernstein’s report chronicled four “physical encounters” after the traffic stop in which West resisted commands by the officers who were trying to handcuff Continued on A3
Happy Holidays!
A young girl stands with a gingerbread man at the Christmas Village celebration in Baltimore. The event, which was hosted at the Inner Harbor's West Shore Park from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, featured vendors, food and entertainment. Photo: http://www.baltimore-christmas.com
‘Casino’ Fund Offers Hope for Small Biz Owners By Sean Yoes AFRO Contributing Writer
It took perhaps an extraordinary entrepreneurial leap of faith in 2010 to open the doors of Jody Davis Designs, a woman’s boutique at 110 W. Saratoga Street in the midst of the country’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. “Business, it’s still challenging – up and down – but, I’m still thankful to continue to be moving forward,”
said Jody Davis, who owns the store with her business and life partner, Kevin Scott. Scott also owns and operates a men’s boutique, Benedetto Haberdashery at 324 Park Avenue, around the corner from Davis’ store on Saratoga. Recently, at a meeting in Charles Village with other small business owners of color, Davis and Scott learned how an allocated slice of the state’s slot machine revenues could provide much needed capital
Women Entering Prison at Higher Rate Than Any Other Group By Lucy Westcott Capital News Service Anna Davis spent four months this year in the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women in Jessup, where she said she found herself in the same living pod as an inmate who raped another woman with a curling iron. Pamela Griffith, now a psychology student, was imprisoned there several years ago after being convicted of theft. She had similar concerns about being housed with inmates from multiple security levels. “There’s no way to physically separate the lifers from the others … These women have nothing to lose,” Griffith said.
Women are entering the U.S. prison system at a faster rate than any other group, and they face an array of issues that male inmates don’t, including pregnancy and higher rates of mental health issues stemming from the tangled web of trauma,
“Too often, people do not receive the type of treatment they need in prison.”
– Amy Fettig
homelessness, and sexual abuse. Drugs are often a way to cope. Seventy-four percent of women in state prisons have mental health issues, compared to 55 percent of men, according to data from Continued on A4
for their retail ventures as the country’s lethargic economic recovery continues. The Maryland Casino Business Investment Fund (MCBIF) was established as part of the 2008 Maryland General Assembly legislation that ultimately brought slot machines to race tracks and casinos in Maryland and it calls for 1.5 percent of all gambling proceeds to be designated for businesses operated by people of color, small businesses and
women-owned businesses. “This fund is to provide an alternative to bank financing and to have standards that are less strenuous than bank financing,” said Randy Croxton, fund manager for Meridian Management Group, one of three fund managers assigned by the state to provide financial assistance to qualified businesses. Many of the businesses targeted for funding historically have had Continued on A3
Another Viewpoint
Sam Lacy: He Made a Difference – Part VI By Tim Lacy My trips to Florida for spring training and trips to other events requiring air or train travel gave me a sense of independence because Pop was usually on site and I was joining him there. To say I was gaining a sense of independence is a sort of understatement. The correct way of putting my new gained status is to say my actions were writing a check my butt couldn’t cash. A case in point was the trip to Tucson for the Cleveland Indians camp. The Indians had won the Sam Lacy pennant with Larry Doby and Pop was instructed to cover this story. I was elated because when the Indians came to Washington to play the Senators, Doby
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stayed at our house. He was nice enough not to treat me like the pain in the butt I probably was, and I interpreted this as the gaining of a new friend. In those days, you took an overnight train to Chicago (which was quite an adventure for a ten-year-old), and switched to another train for Tucson. On the overnight train I was allowed my freedom, because after all, where could I go? Mickey Vernon was the first baseman for the Indians, and he adopted me on the train. When it came time for me to go to bed, I was missing and Pop was worried. The conductor told Pop I was in the club car with some of the players. Continued on A4