Vol. 49 No. 30
November 15, 2018 - November 21, 2018
This publication is a Certified DBE/ SBE / MBE in the State of California CUCP #43264 Metro File #7074 & State of Texas File #802505971 Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them and these will continue till they have resisted either with words or blows or words or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress. —Fredrick Douglass (1849)
: A Nation Dangerously
COMMENTARY By Ron Edwards
Divided
Editor in Chief’s Corner Email: sbamericannews@gmail.com Clifton Harris Publisher of The San Bernardino AMERICAN News
This former cop wants to build trust between communities and police Fulbright Scholar Roberto Rivera looks to Jamaica as a model of restorative justice By Tess Eyrich
Too many on both sides of the political aisle and at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue feel we are beyond the ability to honesty work for national healing. God help us to keep it from becoming part of this ongoing American tragedy. As of the writing of this column, a series of hate-driven, murderous events have taken place, either racially or religiously motivated, from October 24 – 27, across the country. Among them are the following hate crimes: Two African Americans were murdered in Kentucky by a White man who had tried to enter a predominantly Black church nearby just minutes before. Eleven Jewish worshipers were murdered at a synagogue in the historic Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, also by a White man. At least 14 pipe bombs (not detonated) were mailed to various Democratic leaders and supporters by a man of Filipino and Italian parentage. The two African Americans were murdered at a supermarket in Jeffersontown, Kentucky on Oct. 24. One, a man, was shot in the back of the head inside the store and killed instantly, and the other, a woman, was shot multiple times in the store’s parking lot.
A brave citizen, with a permit to carry, exchanged gunfire with the gunman in the parking lot. If not for his bravery, more might have died. But little was said about the death of these two African Americans until after the murders of the 11 people in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27 and after the undetonated mail bombs were reported. Those crimes took priority — Pittsburgh was the largest mass murder of Jewish citizens in America’s long history. And, let’s not forget the Minnesota connection with the sender of the package bombs. The bomber, of Filipino and Italian descent, and not American Indian, as incorrectly reported at first by the media, had a criminal history in Minnesota and has been a rather mysterious figure with regards to his activity here in the 1980s and 1990s. We do, however, know that the bomber had a significant history of terroristic activities, predating what some celebrate, and others condemn, as the Trump era. Let us be crystal clear: African Americans are being killed and executed
at locations and under circumstances of which many have no knowledge. The mail bomber sent package bombs to assassinate two former presidents of the United States, a Black senator, a Black congresswoman, a Black former attorney general of the United States, with another package bomb targeted for the Black senator from New Jersey. He mailed a total of 14 package bombs throughout the country, coast to coast. Who knows what other individuals he had in mind? The deaths of those two African Americans in Jeffersontown were just as significant. Yet, it was difficult for the current administration in Washington to classify these murders as acts of terror. In fact, there are strong feelings that if it were not for the Jews murdered in Pittsburgh, the Jeffersontown murders would not have even been considered newsworthy. This is both tragic and dangerous to the so-called healing process the president and others called for on the days following
these killing scenes. We talk about healing, but at first, the two African American lives lost in Jeffersontown were viewed as being insignificant deaths of no importance. That is not healing. Sometimes, in a column, it is important to repeat certain factual information so that the reader clearly understands and can connect the events and the tragedy of the loss of life. Too many on both sides of the political aisle and at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue feel we are beyond the ability to honesty work for national healing. God help us to keep it from becoming part of this ongoing American tragedy. I continue to hold a prayer for the United States of America and for the families of these three circles of murder. Is this nation ready to heal? I believe so. Stay tuned. Ron Edwards is an author and hosts radio and TV shows. This article originally appeared in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.
Police Fatally Shoot Black Security Guard Who Detained Shooting Suspect The Associated Press.
When police arrived after reports of a shooting over the weekend at a bar outside Chicago, witnesses say Jemel Roberson, a 26year-old security guard who worked there, had already subdued the alleged assailant, pinning him to the ground. Adam Harris, who was at Manny’s Blue Bar in Robbins at the time of the incident on Sunday, told WGN-TV that Roberson was holding “somebody on the ground with his knee in his back, with his gun in his back” when officers from neighboring Midlothian got there early Sunday. Midlothian Police Chief Daniel Delaney said that’s when one of his officers “encountered a subject with a gun” and shot him, according to a statement given to the media. But the “subject” was Roberson, not the suspect in the bar shooting. Witnesses say Roberson was wearing his uniform, including a
Jemel Roberson and his 9-month-old son. Avontea Boose via AP
hat emblazoned with the word “security,” and was holding a firearm he was licensed to carry. Midlothian police confirmed that two officers responded to the scene at the bar on Sunday and that one of them opened fire. “Everybody was screaming out ‘Security!’ “ Harris told WGN. “And they still did their job, and saw a black man with a gun, and basically killed him.”
Roberson was declared dead shortly after arriving at a hospital. Four others at the bar, including the shooting suspect, sustained non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Delaney said that the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and the Robbins Police Department were investigating the shooting. Roberson was the father of a 9month-old son. “This was going
to be my baby’s first Christmas with his dad and now he’s going to miss out on everything,” Avontea Boose, the child’s mother, told The Associated Press. Roberson was also a musician for churches in his community. “Every artist he’s ever played for, every musician he’s ever sat beside, we’re all just broken because we have no answers,” the Rev. Patricia Hill told WGN. She added that Roberson had dreamed of being a police officer. “He was getting ready to train and do all that stuff, so the very people he wanted to be family with, took his life,” Hill said. Roberson’s family filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Midlothian police department and the officer who shot him, seeking damages of $1 million. A GoFundMe page has been established to raise money for funeral costs. Family and friends held a vigil Monday evening at the nightclub where he was killed.
Roberto “Bobby” Rivera spent 20 years as a police officer in Southern California before a medical injury prompted his early retirement in 2011. What he couldn’t have predicted at the time was that the injury that ended one career would also open a door to global research. Now a doctoral candidate in the sociology department at the University of California, Riverside, Rivera channeled his prior experience in law enforcement into studying criminology. Through his research, he seeks to build a framework for more holistic approaches to policing that consider the larger environments in which crimes occur rather than just the crimes themselves. “I had numerous Ph.D. offers around the country,” Rivera said of his academic journey. “As a scholar, I wanted to move away from traditional theories of criminology, such as the broken windows theory. I had read Alfredo Mirandé’s book ‘Gringo Justice’ and was influenced by his critical examination of criminology. He, along with other professors from the Department of Sociology, made it quite easy for me to choose UCR to pursue researching alternative policing methods.” Rivera described holistic policing as a process in which law enforcement perceives and engages those policed with respect and understanding, noting that such a model is an ideal method to focus on human potential and achievement rather than social disorder. In January 2019, he'll begin a 10month term as the Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Jamaica. With the University of the West Indies at Mona as his base, Rivera will conduct in-depth ethnographic research geared toward better understanding Jamaica’s success as a model of restorative justice.
retributive justice in that it views crime as a violation of relationships between individuals rather than as a violation of the law or the state. Communal in nature, it emphasizes rehabilitation through personal accountability and encourages offenders to take responsibility for their actions by seeking reconciliation with both victims and communities, usually in mediated discussion sessions. Rivera said that although criminal justice practices in the U.S. traditionally have skewed toward retributive, police departments are increasingly starting to examine and incorporate alternative methods used around the world. In Jamaica, restorative justice techniques have been in practice since 1994. The country has historically had high levels of violence, resulting in a “traumatized population with lower levels of trust in the criminal justice system,” Rivera said. In response, the country’s Ministry of Justice piloted its National Restorative Justice Programme in 2012 and formally passed the Restorative Justice Act in 2016. As of this year, the ministry announced that more than 200 restorative justice sessions had taken place across the island, with 1,662 people benefiting from the sessions and plans in place to expand the system to schools, among other environments. “Restorative justice, for me, is a system where everyone has an equal opportunity to access a criminal justice system that’s fair and impartial,” Rivera said. “To go to Jamaica gives me the opportunity to research and advance areas that I’m concerned with, and to see if we can bring back any of Jamaica’s more successful methods to the U.S.” During his time in the country, Rivera plans to interview at least 30 Jamaican criminal justice practitioners as well as 30 community members, including local representatives from social services and mental health, alcohol, and
Rivera spent 20 years as a police officer in Southern California before attending UCR. (Jimmy Lai)
Roberto "Bobby" Rivera will spend 10 months in Jamaica studying the country's restorative justice system. (Jimmy Lai)
Roberto Rivera Restorative justice differs from
substance abuse programs. His main aim is to return to the U.S. with the foundation for a new methodology of holistic policing that prioritizes improving trust between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve. (continued on page 2)
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