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Tag: Racial Profiling

  • Charles Barkley Calls For Rational Race Discussion In America

    Former NBA star Charles Barkley is backing up the grand jury decision to not indict the white police officer who was involved in the shooting of 19-year-old teenager, Michael Brown last August. The outspoken basketball player-turned-commentator called the idea of white cops profiling black people “ridiculous,” in his recent interview with CNN.

    Barkley called looters in the Ferguson riots “scumbags.” He also expressed his frustration when educated black people are dubbed as “acting white.” “The real black people, they’re not out there looting,” he added.

    Instead of talking about race when something tragic happens, Barkley encouraged the public to favor a rational dialogue about race in America rather than just taking on what is reported in the media. The 51-year-old sports analyst pointed out how communities rely on cops in cleaning up the neighborhood only to cry racial profiling when the police ends up doing their job.

    “We have to look at ourselves in the mirror,” Barkley said. “We as black people, we have a lot of crooks. There is a reason that they racially profile us in the way they do. Sometimes it is wrong, and sometimes it is right.”

    Barkley applauded those who choose to peacefully protest for Michael Brown. He cited examples like the NFL players who protested before a recent game by doing the “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture last Sunday. “Anybody who walks out peacefully, who protests peacefully, that’s what this country was built on,” Barkley noted. “But to be burning peoples’ property, burning police cars, looting peoples’ stores, that is 100 percent ridiculous.”

    In the tell-all interviews that are quickly making rounds in social media, Barkley also talked about Chris Rock’s comment about salary disparities and how Obama should enact a harsher measure to stop the spread of terrorist group, ISIS. “We need to put some bodies on the ground and shoot them dead.”

  • Earl Sampson Arrested 62 Times; Racial Profiling?

    Earl Sampson Arrested 62 Times; Racial Profiling?

    Can you imagine being arrested dozens of times for simply trying to go to work? This is what one Miami area man, Earl Sampson, has endured over the past four years. Sampson, who works at a convenience store, has been either stopped or arrested around 300 times near his job for trespassing. As Sampson is black, many people are wondering whether he is the victim of racial profiling.

    Sampson’s arrests over the last four years have totaled 62. The number of times Sampson has been stopped and questioned is 258. He has been searched more than 100 times. The convenience store Sampson works at, 207 Quick Stop, is in an area known for loitering, so police are quick to stop people and question them. Sampson isn’t loitering, of course–he’s just trying to go to work.

    Lest you think Sampson is a bad egg and is deserving of the extra attention from police, Earl Sampson has just one conviction on his rather long rap sheet for marijuana possession. The rest of Sampson’s record comes from being hassled while trying to go to work. “They created this record,” Alex Saleh, Sampson’s boss and owner of the convenience store, said. “He’s a good guy, a humble guy, a quiet guy. He’s not a convicted felon.”

    Saleh has tried to intervene on Sampson’s behalf by telling the police officers that Sampson works for him, which didn’t help matters. “They ask him, ‘What are you doing here?’” said Saleh. “He said, ‘I work here.’ The clerk said he works here. I said, ‘I’m the owner, let him go. I work here.’ The officer said, ‘Yeah right.’”

    Sampson is also searched by the same officers quite often. “I never felt they had any probable cause,’’ Sampson said. “They hop out of the car and search me before they even ask me for my name.”

    The police officers also come into Saleh’s store and search his place without a warrant. “One officer asked me, ‘Can I use the restroom?’” Saleh said of one incident caught on camera. “He opened the restroom door…he decided to go walk in coolers to commit a search.”

    Eventually, Sampson and Saleh decided to catch the police officers in the act and installed more than a dozen security cameras. The resulting footage (see one of the surveillance videos above) proves that the Miami Gardens police aren’t justified in their repeated searches of Sampson and Saleh’s other customers. The footage shows the officers using excessive force, conducting searches of the 207 Quick Stop without search warrants and hassling Sampson and other customers for no legitimate reason.

    Saleh plans to take the footage and file a lawsuit against the Miami Gardens Police Department for racial profiling. Do you think what the Miami Gardens police are doing to Earl Sampson constitutes racial profiling? Add your comments below.

    [Image via WikiMedia Commons]

  • American Music Awards: Macklemore Speaks Out

    The American Music Awards are all about the music, the glamour and the excitement of the event itself–but especially about the awards handed out during the event to top talent. Rappers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis felt the AMAs worked as a forum for a far more serious topic, too. Macklemore spoke out about racial profiling.

    “Due to the fact that we are in Florida tonight accepting this award, I want to acknowledge Trayvon Martin and the hundreds and hundreds of kids who are dying each year due to racial profiling and the violence that follows,” Macklemore said via satellite. “These are our friends, our neighbors, our peers, our fans, and it’s time that we look out for the youth and fight against racism and the laws that protect it.”

    Florida became a focal point in the Trayvon Martin case after Martin’s killer–George Zimmerman–was freed under the state’s ‘stand your ground’ law. Twitter fans were impressed with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis bringing up racial profiling.

    Macklemore & Ryan Lewis received more American Music Award nominees than any other artist this year. They got six nominations, including new artist of the year, artist of the year and single of the year for their hit song Thrift Shop. Their album, The Heist, has has been an unexpected, but huge, hit for the rappers. It includes the hit singles Thrift Shop, Can’t Hold Us and Same Love.

    In Same Love, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis speak out yet again–this time via music and for same sex equality. Their song features lyrics about how, as a young child, people are often taught to hate, accept stereotypes and unfairly judge other people.

    Do you think the American Music Awards are an appropriate forum for people like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis to use for expressing opinions about social injustices? Surely his bringing up the Trayvon Martin case will stir some debate. Some people will no doubt applaud his words, while others will condemn them–possibly citing the venue as their biggest complaint.

    Image via Facebook

  • Employee Arrested 62 Times For “Trespassing” At Work

    Imagine working at a convenient store and being arrested for trespassing. Imagine for four years, you’re stopped 258 times by the police. Imagine being searched more than 100 times. Imagine being arrested and put in jail 56 times, with your highest criminal offense being possession of marijuana.

    This is all happening in Miami Gardens, Florida to a man named Earl Sampson, 28, who has been arrested 62 times for trespassing, during working hours, at his place of employment, according to USA Today.

    Almost all the citations that Sampson has received have been issued at 207 Quickstop, a convenience store located at 207th street in Miami Gardens; the place he works at. Simply by showing up to work, Sampson gets cited – even when his boss tells police that he’s allowed to be there and isn’t trespassing.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcGKX2IajLw

    Alex Saleh, 36, owner of 207 Quickstop, which has been in business for 17 years, has been curious as to why his employees and customers have been constantly pestered by Miami Gardens police. Saleh told the Herald that he’s seen stops occur three times in the same day. It is because of this constant harassment by police that Saleh installed 15 video cameras in his store on June 2012; he’s never been robbed.

    “Police line them up and tell them to put their hands against the wall. I started asking myself ‘Is this normal?’ I just kept thinking police can’t do this,’’ Saleh said.
    “There is just no justifying this kind of behavior,” police policy consultant Chuck Drago told the Herald. “Nobody can justify overstepping the constitution to fight crime.”

    “The real problem here is the police department does not have a relationship with its community – black or white. When they make these kinds of stops for minor offenses, it only re-enforced the mistrust.”

    Five videos that Saleh captured show the cops stopping people, questioning them, searching them, and arresting them for trespassing in 207 Quickshop.

    Despite phone messages and emails, questions regarding the behavior of the police were met with silence by both the Miami Gardens Police Chief Matthew Boyd, and City Manager Cameron Benson.

    Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Florida, asked, “Where is the police chief in all this? In a police department in a city this size, this kind of behavior could not escape his attention. Doesn’t the City Commission know that they are exposing the city to either massive liability for civil rights violations? Either that, or they are going to wake up one day and find the U.S. Department of Justice has taken over its police department.’’

    According to the Herald, a pending lawsuit is at hand; Saleh and his lawyer, Steve Lopez, are preparing for a federal civil rights lawsuit that claims the Miami Gardens Police have engaged routinely in racial profiling, cover ups of illegal misconducts, and unconstitutional stops and searches.

    On November 4th, the Herald reported that Miami Gardens had 3 shooting deaths in less than 24 hours; the town has been facing troubles with gang violence and drug related crimes. The murder rates have more than doubled in recent years. It is fear that blinds men.

     

    (Pictures via Alex Saleh’s video footage)

  • Jay Z Will Continue Collaboration With Barneys

    Despite the recent claims of racial profiling that have been filed against the store recently, Jay Z has said that he will continue his business partnership with Barneys.
    Jay Z is certainly one of the most successful celebrities who have decided to turn to business, and does not want to jeopardize his business relationship, however some things will be changing.

    The rapper and businessman, Jay Z, announced through a formal statement on his website that he would be moving forward with the launch of his BNY SCC collection.

    This deal will continue, under the condition that the rapper remains to be in a leadership position on the committee, and have a seat on a council specifically convened to deal with the issue of racial profiling.

    Jay Z’s role in the partnership was called into question last month after two separate cases of racial profiling were filed against the store. A petition was also drafted in order to urge the 43-year-old rap star to end his partnership, after the issues came up.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GsATJXjYaE

    In defending his decision to continue the partnership, he stresses the charitable aspect of the business, and 100% of the collection’s proceeds will go toward his Shawn Carter Foundation, which is named after the rapper, whose given name is Shawn Carter. In addition, the foundation will receive 10% of all retail sales from Barneys New York stores nationwide, and Barneys.com on November 20th.

    In addition to his partnership with Barney’s and his many other projects, Jay Z also released his own men’s fragrance recently, and is conveniently titled “Gold Jay Z.”

    Whether their customers or Jay Z’s fans will believe it or not, the luxury store seems to be wanting to fix their image, and not have themselves labeled as a store that would be involved with racial profiling.

    In a statement issued from Barneys, which was sent from vice-president of public relations and special events, Beth Orr said “Moving forward, Mr. Carter’s leadership in this process will further strengthen the industry’s ability to ensure that anyone who walks into a retail establishment is treated equally and with respect. We welcome Mr. Carter’s input and recommendations to our future policies and guidelines.”

    Jay Z, while being the very successful business mogul that he is, has decided to continue his partnership with the luxury store, and assures his fans that he will only be doing it on certain conditions, where he will be able to be a leader in the process.

    Image via Youtube

  • Harvard Professor Says Google’s Ads Are Racially Discriminating

    Harvard professor Latanya Sweeney has put together a report saying that Google is racially discriminating with some of its ads. Google, of course, says this is not the case.

    Still, it’s an interesting, if incomplete study. Here’s the abstract:

    A Google search for a person’s name, such as “Trevon Jones”, may yield a personalized ad for public records about Trevon that may be neutral, such as “Looking for Trevon Jones? …” or may be suggestive of an arrest record, such as “Trevon Jones, Arrested?…”. This writing investigates the delivery of these kinds of ads by Google AdSense using a sample of racially associated names and finds statistically significant discrimination in ad delivery based on searches of 2184 racially associated personal names across two websites. First names, previously identified by others as being assigned at birth to more black or white babies, are found predictive of race (88% black, 96% white), and those assigned primarily to black babies, such as DeShawn, Darnell and Jermaine, generated ads suggestive of an arrest in 81 to 86% of name searches on one website and 92 to 95 percent on the other, while those assigned at birth primarily to whites, such as Geoffrey, Jill and Emma, generated more neutral copy: the word “arrest” appeared in 23 to 29 percent of name searches on one site and 0 to 60 percent on the other.

    On the more ad trafficked website, a black-identifying name was 25% more likely to get an ad suggestive of an arrest record. A few names did not follow these patterns: Dustin, a name predominantly given to white babies, generated an ad suggestive of arrest 81 and 100 percent of the time. All Ads return results for actual individuals and ads appear regardless of whether the name has an arrest record in the company’s database. Notwithstanding these findings, the company maintains Google received the same ad text for groups of last names (not first names), raising questions as to whether Google’s advertising technology exposes racial bias in society and how ad and search technology can develop to assure racial fairness

    Racial discrmination?

    It goes pretty in depth. You can read the full report here (pdf).

    The Huffington Post picked up the story, and shares a statement from a Google spokesperson:

    “AdWords does not conduct any racial profiling,” the spokesman wrote in an email. “We also have an ‘anti’ and violence policy which states that we will not allow ads that advocate against an organization, person or group of people. It is up to individual advertisers to decide which keywords they want to choose to trigger their ads.”

    Sweeney acknowledges in the report that the study ultimately raises more questions than it answers, and says that the paper is just a start, and that more research is needed. However, after all of her research, she concludes the paper saying, “There is discrimination in delivery of these ads.”