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Volume 123 No. 2
August 16, 2014 - August 16, 2014, The Afro-American A1 $1.00
AUGUST 16, 2014 - AUGUST 22, 2014
Paulette Brown Begins Term as PresidentElect of the American Bar Association By Lisa Snowden-McCray Special to the AFRO Paulette Brown began her one-year term as presidentelect of the American Bar Association Aug. 12 at the conclusion of the ABA Annual Meeting in Boston. The move is a historic one – Brown is the first African-American female to hold the position in the group’s 136-year history. She will serve one year as president-elect before
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becoming ABA president in August 2015. “It was a historic day,” said Judge (Ret.) Marcella Holland, who was on hand to watch the event. Holland is a close friend of Brown’s and former Baltimore City Eighth Circuit Court judge. “It was such a joyous occasion. It just sent chills down my spine.” She said that lawyers who don’t usually attend ABA meetings travelled to Boston just to be at the ceremony. “It was quite a showing of African American support,” Holland said. “It will be an even bigger celebration next year.”
Black Men Prime Cop Targets #IfTheyGunnedMeDown By Zenitha Prince Senior AFRO Correspondent
Courtesy photo
President-Elect Paulette Brown with former Chief Judge Robert Bell at ABA annual meeting in Boston.
Holland also said that she knows Brown will make diversity a key part of her tenure. “She is very organized;
she is a determined person; she has a passion for access to justice and equality in justice.” Continued on A3
Sean Bell, unarmed, hours away from becoming a husband when he was slaughtered by police in a 50-bullet fusillade in November 2006, in Queens, N.Y. Ariston Waiters, 19, of Union City, Ga.; unarmed, shot twice in the back and killed by a police Courtesy of Facebook officer in December 2011. Michael Brown Ramarley Graham, an unarmed Bronx teen chased into his grandmother’s home and killed by police in the bathroom in February 2012. Kendrec McDade, an unarmed, 19-year-old shot seven times
Continued on A3
Maryland’s Autopsy Techs:
“We Do It All, From the Beginning to the End” By Sean Yoes Special to the AFRO
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Part two in a series On a rainy Tuesday morning, Aug. 12, just after 7 a.m., the lifeless, contorted bodies of seven men of assorted ages and races lie separately on steel carts within the autopsy suite at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). One man with a mangled motorcycle helmet still strapped to his head, had on a dark gray work shirt with an “Utz” tag sewn into it. Another man was clad only in a hospital gown. While a third man was dressed in stylish knee length shorts and a baggy short sleeved designer shirt, most exposed areas of his skin inscribed with various tattoos. Each of them with a story most of us -outside their circle of friends and loved ones -- will never know.
Yet, many of the stories of the state’s deceased, those who perish in the wake of empirical violence and mayhem or under suspicious circumstances, are often the burden of the state’s 12 autopsy technicians. “We take it home, it’s personal you know? It could easily be one of our family members,” said Robert Mills who has worked in the OCME for six years and performed the same work in Georgia for 13 years. “No family is left alone, we are part of that family when their loved one comes through that door,” Mills added. What Mills alludes to is the reality that autopsy techs (whose entry level salary is $23,584) are not only responsible for all aspects of performing postmortem examinations, they are also charged with the often heart wrenching work of interacting directly with the loved ones of the deceased. Mills and his colleagues call this task, “working the desk.” Those Continued on A5
Photo by Sean Yoes
Robert Mills says his work as an autopsy technician is more a calling than a job.
Finance Director Discusses Baltimore Curfew Law Still Attracts Debate Tenure, Cincinnati Vision By Sean Yoes Special to the AFRO
By Roberto Alejandro Special to the AFRO After serving two years as Baltimore City’s director of finance, Harry Black is preparing to pivot into the role of city manager for Cincinnati, Ohio and its almost 300,000 residents. After working to place Baltimore on firmer financial footing, Black is looking to encourage economic growth and improve government performance in Cincinnati. As Baltimore’s director of finance, Black was responsible for the daily oversight and direction of all aspects of the city’s finances, from issuing bonds in order to fund capital improvement projects, collecting and administering all revenue, to managing the payroll for Baltimore’s 15,000 member municipal workforce. Black, who grew up in lower Park Heights and graduated from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, is most proud of his role in formulating and implementing the city’s 10 year financial plan, currently in its second year of implementation. Black credits Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for commissioning the plan, and allowing him to do what was necessary to
Photo courtesy of Harry Black
Harry Black, after serving as Baltimore’s director of finance for two years, is preparing to take over the role of city manager for Cincinnati, Ohio. improve the city’s financial outlook. “It’s in essence a business plan for the city of Baltimore,” said Black, “where the city is taking charge of its own destiny—to the extent that any city can in terms of the changing the dynamics of the economy and Continued on A5
Baltimore’s expanded curfew law, which is being described by some as one of the strictest in the nation officially went into effect last weekend on August 8 and the new measure is already dramatically influencing the decisions of some parents. “My kids...worked summer jobs saved their money, did chores around the house in order to go. But, I wasn’t comfortable with them going without me being here,” said Kim Ellis, a married mother of two boys ages 15 and 17 who had been waiting all year to attend the Aug. 8-10 Otakon convention, which attracts anime enthusiasts from around the world. Ellis, who is vice president of the Matthew Henson Community Association in West Baltimore planned to attend a family reunion in New York with her husband last weekend. But, they decided to stay home instead so their sons could attend Otakon, without
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the parents being burdened with the specter of their boys running afoul of the new law and them being three hours away. “I don’t want them standing on a corner trying to get a cab. I don’t want them walking to where they think they can find one and the police stopping them because they are...Black kids downtown at the Inner Harbor,” Ellis explained. The expanded law signed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake just before the summer began, calls for youths 14 to 16 to be off the streets by 10 p.m. on school nights and 11 p.m. on weekends and in the summer. Children under 14 must be in by 9 every night. News of Baltimore’s expanded curfew law has attracted national media attention, including MSNBC’s, “Melissa Harris Perry,” show, which airs weekend mornings. On Aug. 3 the curfew was discussed during a segment titled, “Ways young people can become criminalized.” “The city of Baltimore has Continued on A5