Richmond Free Press
December 27-29, 2018 A5
News
Criminal justice reform bill signed into law By Reginald Stuart
WASHINGTON The widespread unhappiness across the nation over President Trump’s partial federal government shutdown at Christmas may have all but overshadowed the guarded praise surrounding a bipartisan victory for Congress and the president. The root of the muted celebration was congressional passage of long-delayed federal prison sentencing reform legislation that President Trump signed into law last Friday, just hours before the government shutdown and the congressional recess began. Passage of the prison reform bill came after Congress did not give President Trump the gift he vociferously demanded of $5 billion in taxpayers money to build a wall along part of the nation’s southern border between the United States and Mexico. Amid doubts about when roughly 800,000 federal workers would get paid and considerable uncertainty about who is charting the nation’s foreign policy, President Trump momentarily dropped his big picture rhetoric and attention in order to focus on giving his support to the bipartisan effort for reforming the highly controversial and increasingly unpopular federal minimum mandatory federal prison sentencing law. President Trump signed the so-called “First Step” law late on Dec. 21, restoring the discretion of federal judges to adjust sentences for federal drug law offenders eligible for mandatory minimum sentences. It also expands rehabilitation programs for people convicted of federal drug offenses, particularly nonviolent, first-time offenders. It also reduces the life sentence for some drug offenders with three convictions, or “three strikes,” to 25 years. Another provision would allow about 2,600 federal prisoners sentenced for crack cocaine offenses before August 2010 the opportunity to petition for a reduced penalty. That will be a win for minorities who were caught up in a sentencing system that made crack cocaine a more serious offense than other types of cocaine, said U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2020.
Photos by Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
A sign was posted at the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site in Jackson Ward informing visitors that the site is closed with the partial shutdown of federal government operations. The National Park Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, is impacted by the shutdown brought on by President Trump’s insistence for $5 billion to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico. Congress has refused, offering $1.5 billion instead for border security. Roughly 800,000 federal employees are impacted by the shutdown, which was in its fifth day on Wednesday. Of those, 420,000 employees considered “essential,” including air traffic controllers, FBI agents and others, must continue to work without pay.
“When you correct an injustice in a biased system, it dramatically helps the marginalized people,” Sen. Booker said. “With that provision alone, 96 percent of the people who are helped by that are black or Latino.” National NAACP officials lauded the action.
Justice Ginsburg recovering from surgery to remove cancerous growths Free Press wire report
WASHINGTON U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is recovering after surgery to remove two malignant growths in her left lung. Doctors found “no evidence of any remaining disease” and scans taken before the surgery on Dec. 21 showed no cancerous growths elsewhere in her body, the court said in a statement. No additional treatment is currently planned, it said. This is the third time the oldest justice on the nation’s highest court has been treated for cancer since 1999. The 85-year-old Justice Ginsburg is the leader of the court’s liberal wing. She has achieved an iconic status rare for U.S. Supreme Court justices, and is known as the “Notorious RBG” to some of her most ardent fans. In recent days, Justice Ginsburg has basked in the warm applause of audiences that turned out for screenings of a new feature film about her life. Her health is closely watched by liberals and conservatives alike. If she were to step down now, President Trump would choose her replacement and further shift the U.S. Supreme Court in a more conservative direction. The growths were found incidentally during tests Justice Ginsburg had after she fractured ribs in a fall in her office on Nov.
7, the court said. Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York performed a procedure called a pulmonary lobectomy on Justice Ginsburg. The growths they Justice Ginsburg removed were determined to be malignant in an initial pathology evaluation, the court said, citing Justice Ginsburg’s thoracic surgeon, Dr. Valerie W. Rusch. Justice Ginsburg was released from the hospital on Christmas Day. “If she doesn’t need anything but the surgery, it is a very good sign,” said Dr. John Lazar, director of thoracic robotic surgery at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. It’s not uncommon to see slow-growing lung cancers in women in their 80s, and they tend to respond well to surgery and go on to die of something unrelated, he said. “This is just luck” that the growths were found through those rib X-rays because accidentally discovered lung tumors tend to be early stage when surgery works best, said Dr. Giuseppe Giaccone, an oncologist at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. While doctors will have to see the final pathology report to know exactly what kind of tumors Justice Ginsburg had and how
aggressive they were, her previous bouts with cancer were so long ago they’re unlikely to be related, Dr. Giaccone said. Both doctors said patients typically spend three or four days in the hospital after this type of operation. It was unclear whether Justice Ginsburg would be back on the bench when the court next meets on Jan. 7. She has never missed U.S. Supreme Court arguments in more than 25 years as a justice. She told an audience in New York at a recent screening of the movie “On the Basis of Sex” that she was about to resume her now-famous workout routine. Justice Ginsburg had surgery for colorectal cancer in 1999 and pancreatic cancer 10 years later. Doctors found the growth on her pancreas in the course of routine screenings as a result of her first cancer. Among other health problems, she also broke two ribs in a fall in 2012 and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. She was hospitalized after a bad reaction to medicine in 2009. Appointed by President Clinton in 1993, Justice Ginsburg rebuffed suggestions from some liberals that she should step down in the first two years of President Obama’s second term, when Democrats controlled the U.S. Senate and would have been likely to confirm her successor. She already has hired clerks for the term that extends into 2020, indicating she has no plans to retire.
“The First Step Act is not the end,” said Hilary O. Shelton, the national NAACP’s chief Washington lobbyist. “It is just the necessary first step in a series of efforts to improve and reform the federal criminal justice system.” His comments echoed those of a broad spectrum of federal prison sentence reform advocates addressing the needs of the more than 1 million people behind bars in the federal prison system, many of them serving time for drug offenses. Virginia’s 3rd District Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, who began championing sentencing reform more than two decades ago as a member of the Virginia General Assembly, guardedly lauded the unexpected Trump move on sentencing reform. He noted there are many unresolved details to be addressed. “It is clear that this bill will help some,” Rep. Scott said in a statement, cautioning as to the law’s full impact. It “is clear that the bill may actually make our system less just and fair for all,” he said. “I decided to vote for this legislation, but I hope that in the New Year, and with a new Congress, we can revise some of these problematic provisions,” he said. Among the advocates of the legislation was a diverse and unlikely group that included presidential adviser Jared Kushner, Kim Kardashian West, the National Urban League, black ministers and minority lawmakers and libertarian-leaning conservatives. Some of the bill’s advocates said it was a tough decision to work with a White House that is deeply unpopular with black people. More than 8 in 10 African-Americans said they thought President Trump was racist in a February poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Because the bill only affects the federal system, anyone given harsh sentences at the state and local levels will have no recourse. Those inmates make up the bulk of people behind bars across America. African-Americans constitute 38 percent — or about 68,000 — of the more than 180,000 inmates in the federal prison population, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons. Latinos make up 32 percent — or about 58,000 — of federal prison inmates, with about 122,000 non-Hispanics in federal prison. Some groups say the bill will open the door to increased surveillance of minority communities through electronic monitoring of released inmates. Others point out limitations in the bill on which federal prisoners will benefit from its changes. The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 150 black-led organizations, called the legislation “custom-made for rich white men.” “All of the carve-outs make the vast majority of our people ineligible for the benefits of the bill,” the group said. A wire report from The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Gentrification: The ‘Negro Removal’ program Continued from A1
communities in black America. In neighborhood after neighborhood in New York City — from Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx to Harlem — gentrification is rapidly displacing hundreds of thousands of black people. In a few years, Harlem, the cultural and political capital of black America, will hardly be recognizable. A Whole Foods Market now stands were Malcolm X once held his legendary rallies. “Chocolate Cities,” once the domain of black political and economic power, are vanishing as increasing numbers of Caucasians who in previous generations abandoned urban centers for the suburbs are now returning to establish more comfortable and convenient spaces in closer proximity to their work places. “Development” to accommodate the newcomers is driving up the cost of housing, especially rental properties, in a manner that is unaffordable for large numbers of black residents. Property taxes are also skyrocketing, putting enormous pressure on black homeowners, as well. As black residents are displaced and replaced by newcomers, this is inevitably leading to dramatic shifts in political power — from neighborhood advisory boards, to city councils and the office of mayor. Black power is diminishing. What is equally egregious are the attitudes of some of the newcomers whom residents of black communities sometimes characterize as “invaders” or “neo-colonialists.” This is because some newcomers are not content to become a part of the community. They arrogantly attempt to change the rhythms, culture and character of the community. For decades, it has been a well-established and accepted custom that scores of drummers gather on a designated date at a regular time in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem to play African music. But once a large number of “invaders” became occupants of a nearby apartment building, they began to complain to the police and
Community Movement Builders/IBW
Young members of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta stage a protest against gentrification in a section of the city that threatens to displace black working class and poor people.
petitioned local elected officials, seeking to ban this longstanding weekly ritual. In Detroit, three white women who are newcomers to a predominately black neighborhood falsely accused a black man of being a pedophile and demanded that the police file charges against him. The man in question was starting a community garden on a vacant lot in the neighborhood, and the women protested this activity taking place in “their neighborhood.” Fortunately, the judge dismissed the charges in a case of “gardening while black.” Reports of these kinds of attitudes and behavior across the country are breeding resentment and hostility toward the “invaders.” Let me be clear, as a civil right, any person in the United States has the freedom to live wherever they choose. People of African descent have waged a relentless struggle to achieve this precious right. People also have the right to live amongst their own nationality, ethnicity of ethnic group if they choose, hence the Irish, Italian, Polish, German and Jewish communities in this country. Occasionally, these communities change in composition. “Little Italy” in lower Manhattan in New York is now mostly shops and stores as
people of Italian descent have chosen largely to migrate to other neighborhoods. Voluntary migration is one thing; forced displacement is another matter. Time and time again, black people have faced schemes, targeted policies and outright violence — e.g., Tulsa, Okla., and Rosewood, Fla. — to force their removal from neighborhoods and communities they worked and invested in to develop as their home. Black people believe in development, and no reasonable person would be opposed to improvements or progress that would better their community. The crucial issue for people of African descent is not development; it is development that is displacing black people and culture. Therefore, the order and challenge of the day is to achieve development without displacement. The question is can development strategies be devised that prioritize improving the lives of the current residents and preserving the culture and character of their communities? The answer to that question is yes. The collective brain power, skill, experience and will exists within black America to mount an offensive to defend black communities against gentrification, the “Negro Removal” program of
the 21st century. Therefore, we must gather our brightest and best, the conscious and committed in our brain trust, to devise plans and a policy agenda to rescue and preserve black communities. We possess the collective genius to develop just, safe, viable, vibrant and sustainable black communities. To that end, the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, or IBW, is issuing an urgent call for a National Emergency Summit on Gentrification to be convened April 4 though 6 in Newark, N.J., in conjunction with the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of our beloved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Newark has been selected because the city’s ambitious development plans incorporate community-based strategies designed to mitigate gentrification. IBW has requested that Ras J. Baraka, the mayor of Newark, host the emergency summit. This gathering is viewed as an extension of the milestone Urban Marshal Plan and Black Economic Development Symposium convened by IBW in Newark in April 2018. We envision anti-gentrification advocates, community economic development practitioners, mayors, urban planners, faith, civil rights, labor, business and professional leaders attending the Emergency Summit on Gentrification. The Urban Strategies Program of Faith In Action, the National Urban League, Democracy Collaborative and Freedom Caucus of the Center for Community Change already have signaled a willingness to partner with IBW on this crucial undertaking. Now is the time to act boldly and courageously to defend black communities from the destructive forces of gentrification. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” We must muster the collective resolve to stop gentrification from devastating black communities, from displacing black people and culture — and we will! The writer is president and chief executive officer of Black World 21st Century.