WHEN THE BOOGIEMAN COMES IN THE DARK

Here is the issue with people complaining, advertising negative comments and memes on the Internet or just airing their frustrations about Trumps' Cabinet appointments ..... if you ask people the questions, WHAT IS A PRESIDENTIAL CABINET ... they can't tell you. If you ask, WHAT ARE THE AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR EACH CABINET POSITION .... that they don't know. And if you ask, WHO ARE THE CURRENT CABINET MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES .... again you will get a blank stare. You can't call yourself a "concerned American citizen" if your existence is founded in ignorance. If anything, you are more dangerous to Progress if you are. This and many other examples is evidence of a National HANDS OFF approach to Politics in the United States practiced for decades. How this past campaign and election season did more in exposing a Nation's collective ignorance than any other time in history. The true winner of this past Presidential election wasn't Donald Trump, it was The Boogieman. We might think everything that Donald Trump represents is the end of life as we know it but the truth is, we are at the midnight hour and hearing every noise and seeing every shadow as the THING COMING TO GET US; scared to look in the closet, under the bed or look out of the window. A Nation is still covering its head and cowering in its complacency. 

Fear was what was rammed into the American consciousness on a Global Level regarding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and even in the side sequel of Bernie Sanders for his misrepresentation of being a Communist. And in place of confidence and the courage to face our manufactured "Fear", collectively we are screaming for someone to come turn on the lights to chase away a darkness that has always existed (in America) and will always be that other half that is in our closet that will never go away" In a good Horror Show, only the smart one's survive. Everyone else is ripe for slaughter and consumption. Stop being sheep and become the wolf in your Political and Civil Awareness. Just as your parent told you as a child, "There is no such thing as The Boogieman.

This is Truth. 

THE BRUTAL REALITY OF BRUTALITY

I haven't posted or gone into deep conversation on the two recent Police Killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. The idea of moving my consciousness to adjust to reasoning critically has hit the proverbial brick wall. It is not moving because there is no where else you can go. The reality is brutal. Much like Jessie Williams statement on the backlash and critics, "It was the same a month ago, it was the same last week and frankly, its boring getting upset over it when the result will be the same." Today a young Black woman, in the middle of a Union Square New York City rally, which proceeded into a march, yelled, "When are we going to stop marching. My feet and my back hurt from the last one." And yet her words were drowned out by the crowd with "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" and "NO JUSTICE NO PEACE". Eventually, she fell in line and took to the streets of Manhattan chanting the universal war-cry of Black Lives Matter, "WHOSE STREETS, OUR STREETS". This isn't new. This is all part of script most would say. The need and desire to move the line eventually stays stagnant for more of the same. More words. More hope and a lot more marching. What was even more of a step back from the events is the fact that along the outside, the police had full control in containing the outrage. This too, is script. Containment and Control.

At the end of the day, these two young men are dead and still others want to talk about Chicago when we know about Chicago and are working to end that but today, we are talking about Innocent and Non-Violent peoples deaths by those that were suppose to Protect them. My issue today and always has been with the GOOD COPS THAT STAY SILENT. If "guilty is the new innocent" for Politicians and corrupt business people, then "silence is the new activism" for the GOOD COP. Good Cops know they are too cowardly silent on there FRAT BOYS. And if they don't know, that is a conscious choice to pave a non-involvement journey until retirement; all on the tax payers dime regardless if they get the opportunity to shoot them or not. 

The solution isn't the burden of the People but those that know the Wild Cards, the Racist, the Mentally Unstable and Irresponsible within their ranks. When you can't and don't simply say .... we have people whom are wrong, were wrong and he/she needs to be removed for our force ... Good Cops cosign on the damage done to lives and communities from harassment to unwarranted Stops and Frisks, to Wrongful Convictions to Wrongful Incarcerations. The silence makes every Good Cop, no matter if they are in the majority, equally guilty and dangerous. It doesn't matter if you aren't from the same group or precinct ... you are the problem and the coward for standing by and watching mothers and fathers bury their child because he was selling CD's of his music or driving legally, or playing with their friend, walking down a street, waiting for their child in a mall, buy food at a restaurant, or simply sitting in a park to relax.

I will say, for the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement .... if I don't see or hear an Official Statement on the problems you experience, face, administer and know exist, don't expect my support and or backing .... because when I see advertisements for CPR, images of Police kumbaya holding hands in solidarity, murals on walls in my neighborhood and actions opposite what is portrayed live , opposite was I actually see on my streets ... you might as well rename yourselves "The 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement That Bail Cotton, Sing Songs And Hide In Shadows When Its Time To Clear Your Throats And Speak Up". So until NEXT WEEK when some officer kills another innocent Black Child .... you know what? I don't want to see you because it boring and I want to see something NEW and worthy of my humanity.

WHY MODERN MOVEMENTS DIE

Why do modern movements die? From a Western more Eurocentric perspective, fundamentally and on the Grassroots level, people see that in order to make the changes and move the general masses in an evolutionary, revolutionary "State of Being", it takes work. Not a monumental amount of Life Energy, but a shared amount of work such as a simple Phone Call, Attending a Meeting, Learning and Researching for 20 minutes, Showing up at an Information Rally, Voting, Passing out a Flyer or a Dozen, Taking a single interest on a single issue in a single community, Asking Questions and staying on top of it until there is an answer ..... these things are easy to do but they are also acts of consistency.

The general masses have no clue that if not for the Critical Masses ( i.e. the minimum size or amount of something required to start or maintain a venture), their illusion of stability and livelihood would cease or as some people would coin, "Our Way of Life". They can never answer the question of "How did you get to this point?" They know where they are, but not how they arrived. Those that falter equally don't see that where they stand, is currently being eroded on all four sides including the ceiling. Where once there was glass that could be shattered, now is replaced by stone and mortar. This is how those that get excited about "Change" and "Hope" get misdirected and misinformed because they aren't use to doing the WORK that comes with that Change, thus their loss of Hope and then subscribe to their addiction to Complacency; their flavor of choice.

The true merit to being complacent or in giving up is that the loss isn't instant, its a slow burning death into obscurity and to them, those that are still in it become the envied and or the enemy to their decision to ignore the World around them. The Progressives or Critical Masses become the enemy and the Complacent, the victim. Especially for young people. If you ask many to just put away the Cameras and Selfie sticks and Video for their Social Media apps while being Activist and just "focus", they would see early that moving in a Progressive direction is a lifestyle and not a Fad, which is what Established Political Candidates and Politicians sell to the general masses. They all seem to have somewhere in their past, done something progressive once, but now they too have given into "the bliss".

TO THE LOST MILLENNIALS

My generation never abandoned the Millennials, it was their love of the "other" America, the one where collectively they decided to drop the African in the African-American for just being American. The generation that rejected our constant reminders, pleas, lessons, dialogue, history and stories of our past legacies that has brought them full circle to this moment. It was and still is their LOVE AND HIPHOP consciousness that is keeping them from picking up the work put on "pause" and Turn-Up on the people we kept reminding people were not "your friends". When we said, "The revolution will not be televised." We were direct and clear. No Cartoons, No Coonery, No Shuckin'-n-Jivin', No Parties, Fashion Show, False Entertaining Prophets and definitely No Procrastination. The same critical mass of people then are still here now, we just are older, more tired and have old shoes worn out from the marching, marching and more marching. So you can't blame us, its the Millennials that have to catch up on the work delayed and find your strength, shake the brainwashing and abandon the fear that is called "sacrificing for the future".

ART AND PROTEST Images of Peace Struggle and Human Rights Exhibit 2013

STEPS TO BECOMING A GENIUS

 At a fundamental level, this is how we begin to fix what is broken in our community, specifically with young talented Men who fall between the cracks of our broken educational system. Too often, Black boys are ostracized and profiled as not interested in learning when the obvious is that the standards and methods for learning are outdated for the advanced minds of contemporary youth. Children embracing the "other" America, the one that is easily attainable by shortcuts, guile and imitation, a lifestyle where it requires those of weak resolution and determination to be rewarded, kills all chance for innovation, true creativity, collective work and responsibility to self-determination as a society. To be better than all Peoples as well has creating a legacy much like royalty to pass down like wealth and pride, we need our talented to be elevated, matured and ready to be better than the generation before them. We need to consolidate our geniuses.

 How to become a genius:

1. Consider yourself being a genius and act like one in every moment of your life and you will very soon feel that you are one.
2. Work out your time in such a way that every hour is properly utilized and put aside as much time as possible on becoming better.
3. Established a good skill on recognizing data that is valuable and vital.
4. Learn something new and valuable each day.
5. In anything you read or observe, make sure you understand it. Clear up the words you don’t understand and ask or look up anything at the moment to understand observations which were not understood. Never pass by something you don’t understand.
6. Carefully choose a profession in which you earn your money for living and at the same time enables you to enhance your skill and abilities.
7. Read a lot and carefully select which literature to read in which to gain the most valuable and vital data.
8. Evaluate, look and make conclusions on anything you read and observe.
9. Expect much more of yourself than what is expected from others.
10. Help people around you to the best of your ability and establish friends who can support you if needed.
11. Be very self-confident and certain but on the same time be open to listen, look and reevaluate to make new conclusions.
12. Know that no matter how good or skilled you are you can always become better and never cease to become more skillful in anything you have selected to do.
13. The true genius knows that it is not enough for himself/herself having reached sky high levels – he has to take the rest of mankind with him up and has dedicated his life in making it happen.
14. Never refer to yourself or others as being "smart". Intelligence and Smart are polar opposites in meaning, intent and potential and should be considered an insult.
15. Leave a record of your evolution for others to follow and or continue. This is your gift to humanity.

As defined:

Genius - an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work in science, art, music, etc.

Intelligence - capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc. The faculty for understanding. Evolution in aptitude and potential.

Talent - a capacity for achievement or success; ability

Smart - having or showing quick intelligence or ready mental capability, socially elegant; sophisticated or fashionable. Witty.

AFRICAN SEASONS

Deep in tone.
Deep in voice.
He spoke in tongue
telling a quiet world to wake up.
African in nature,
he stepped up to me
and stared into my eyes.
Locked tight,
he focused.
He looked into my soul
and toyed with the idea of remaking me
into the image
of a Man.
A Man of African Seasons.

From out of the tall grass
urged by the wind,
African chants,
rhythm and drums
pushed our bodies into full expression
orally conveying our tales of greatness.
With the blood of the spirit,
the sweat of the land,
and the richness in being,
our story was told for generations to see.
To dance.
To sing.
To know.

We held each others hands.
Held them high and gathered others
in our warm embrace.
The numbers grew,
from youngling to elder
it swelled in quixotic proportions.
We collected the words and wisdom of the ages.
It condensed
and rubbed together
creating heat.
It burned within me.
It burned within us all.
It was hot where we were,
At the center of the room.
The center of the World.
Much like the center of all creation,
where he made me into a man.
A Man of African Seasons.

African Seasons by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

There is one thing about being inspired. There is another thing about being inspired for a purpose of doing. Today was one of those days. A day for Doing. I often remind Black folk that our work is not done. Like any job or career pursuit, one does not go into it with just working for that day and then coasting on a days profit. There is  a point in one’s life when we have to choose between what is RIGHT and what is EASY. Today was a day for choosing what is RIGHT.

Twenty-four hours after the damning decision that cast cold stones into the hearts of the Bell family, a community gathered to express that although you were blindsided by the legal system, your community has your back and will not allow New York City, the State, a Country and quite possibly the World to witness how the NYPD and the New York City Justice System to create a separate Black or Brown rule. The role we all will play isn’t that of Revenge or Reretribution but of LOVE; a Love for keeping children alive. The community has decided that Black and Brown children are not and will no longer be defined as Collateral Damage as part of the rule of Over Policing without Accountability.

Policing is never the issue when talking about a community. Communities want Policing and look to law enforcement as part of keeping rule in a Nation of Laws, but the cancer that has grown, maturated and expanded has inflicted deadly damage to Black Families in great numbers and the only people who are most concerned are Black folk. Today’s rally is a reaffirmation that the NYPD and New York City will no longer get a pass. Every death will be deal with a series of political assaults, economic shut downs and civil disobedience. A declaration of commitment from Religious, Social and Community Groups and individuals were signed and a public understanding that sacrifices will need to be made for the many who walk the streets Disconnected from the reality that WORK NEEDS TO BE DONE to save the children of tomorrow.

“April 25, 2008, they killed Sean all over again. I’m still praying for justice, because this is far from over. Every march, every protest, every rally, I’m going to be right up front.”, said Paultre Bell. This is what the public will hear as the universal sound bite, which will be looped over, and over for days to come and as so, forgotten by the media and public often does. What the rest of the world needed to know were the words that followed:

“I may have broken down, but I'm OK. I was bent, but I’m not broken.” she assured the Ralliers, and with those words, the tears flowed throughout the hall.

Valerie Bell, the mother of Sean Bell spoke, “I didn’t go through labor pains with my son because he was born C-section. But on Nov. 25, 2006, that’s when my labor pains started. The pains that come with bringing life into the World. When a mother looses a child to violence or any kind of loss, she experiences those pains all over again. I felt my labor pains then.”, as she explains while holding her stomach.

Through out the rally, Rev. Al Sharpton and the families detailed and answered why it was important and necessary for the methodology before the trail and to the day as well as where the Community goes next. We learned how Youth organizations are helping, partnering and not being absorbed but given free reign to develop their own strategies to enforce change in the community. With emphasis on Non-Violent Disobedience, part of the rally was making it a matter of letting those who plan to participate, understand that people talk about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but people don’t understand him. So as part of the lesson of demanding Massive Civil Rights, we have to look back in history. Highlighted was the legal decision, which lead to the Dred Scott Decision of 1857 where Courts decided that there were no Black Rights that any White was bound to Respect. If you understand the nature of that 1857 decision and how the argument to support that law was applicable to the justification that Justice Arthur J. Cooperman gave as to why the NYPD aren’t responsible for taking innocent life and the reason why obsessive force was merited in the Sean Bell case, the decision sends a message that there is a DIFFERENCE between Black lives and White lives. Black Justice and White Justice. That we value the lives of "caged animals" in zoos more than the freedoms of innocent Black American citizens.

So all the while Black and Brown people were meeting peacefully, the City of New York is pumping millions of dollars beefing up patrols, having armed guards standing outside the homes of the attorneys and offices involved in the shooting, and having helicopters flying over Judge Cooperman’s house and while this happening, in a Peaceful Rally we are discussing meetings with the Attorney General and meeting with Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. So we all sit back and call to our Faith in GOD to give a clear path for Righting a WRONG and in “fear”, the NYPD cling to tax payer dollars to beef up against an enemy that doesn't exist. Clueless in understanding how all the training and military style conditioning has no purpose against a Peaceful people. So what do they do NEXT?

Calling upon biblical text, Rev. Al Sharpton tells stories or in this case, gives examples of what we will all face as people demanding JUSTICE, the rules by which the agents against positive change will use. How the rules change for those that question when the game all of a sudden is skewed against Black folk when their fairness is written out. How there will be times when those dressed to protect will test you by agitation and ridicule, but if you are in the know, if you know the truth in your objective, you can overcome it all without screaming or physical violence. The law is the LAW and Black folk will inquire, challenge, change and keep LAW. That is how it was. How it is and how it will always be because when you rest, somehow, some way, we can go from 2008 to 1875 in the time it takes to send off 50 rounds of bullets.

“It has always been a struggle to keep young men alive when the “wicked” are in change. You can find this in the Old Testament with Abraham, in the New Testament with Jesus and throughout history. Sean Bell was a good YOUNG man and what happened to him was wicked.”, spoken by Rev. Al Sharpton.

So now the commitment begins and from a cross section of Black and Brown New Yorkers are and have made the commitment. Now that Black folk have made the pledge to save Black Babies, it is only a matter of time before Asian, Foreign born as well as other People of Color will come along and JOIN once they realize that their children are next and need equal protect.

COLD DECISION FOR COLD BODIES

Paint is Red
Paint it Dead
For fear of Black Worlds
Increasing numbers of Boys and Girls
Casting off God’s Shame
Accepting the Devil’s Blame
Badges cold and Blue
Can do whatever the FUQ they want to

No bleeding of emotion
For blood shed in a commotion
Passionless in the Law
When human-less decisions creating Awe
Still a part of the American fabric
Standing silent surveying the havoc
Thick in association cased by a decision
This is American History by way of revision

Now is the time we all should appeal
That our justice in surviving will grow to reveal
That Black life taken should come with a fee
And our Fear of a White World will cease to be
Going beyond blame
Beyond the media Shame
It is a matter of response
Reacting to life and living in African nuance

(my heart goes out to the Bell Family on this day of tragedy and Injustice)

Cold Decision for Cold Bodies by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim

THE POLITICALLY CORRECT NIGGA

Don't say African, say Slave.
Don't say Slave, say Nigger.
Don't say Nigger, say Negro.
Don't say Negro, say Colored.
Don't say Colored, say Black.
Don't say Black, say Pan-American.
Don't say Pan-American, say Afro-American.
Don't say Afro-American, say African-American.
Don't say African-American, say Nigga.
Don’t say Nigga, call me the Jigga
Jigga this my Nigga that, say it Politically Correct.

Correct me if you may.
Is there something wrong with what I have to say.
To think my essence is still the same,
Yet my true being existing in a hollow frame.
Not knowing what to be called
When I enter a room filled with gasping breaths of people awed.
Whistled and jeered,
Shunned and revered.
And all in all I still do not know my name,
Oh mother and father, what a crying shame.
Who is to blame? Me. Myself. I
Really do not know if my existence is but a lie
When my pictures and books do not open up to tell me.
Not showing me what my skin is suppose to be.
So says philosophy, psychology, history, sociology
All of which painting my world in shades of mythology.

I may never know why I am king no more.

The Politically Correct Nigga by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim

LEADERSHIP DELAYED

In a dimly lit room I sat,

in the center,

the center of the room.
My room where I sat,
Alone in the middle,

where I sat,

there at the center.
And I sat there waiting .........

waiting for the telephone to ring.
Waiting there

like always

for the call.
The pressure just at the front of my head
Balanced between my eyes,

staring ..........

staring at the telephone.
And my fingers tapping,

tapping away.
Tapping at no particular rhythm,

No particular song.
Just tapping ...........

on and on

and on and on.
Waiting for the call.
Someone to call

me,

someone to talk

to me.
Waiting,

just wanting to have someone to say

something.
Anything.
I want to know if everything is fine.
Am I fine,
if I can leave this room .........
this place?

For my calling.

Leadership Delayed by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim

THE THEORY OF A LOST GENERATION by Phillip Jackson

There is no longer a need for dire predictions, hand-wringing, or apprehension about losing a generation of Black boys. It is too late. In education, employment, economics, incarceration, health, housing, and parenting, we have lost a generation of young Black Men. The question that remains is will we lose the next two or three generations, or possibly every generation of Black boys hereafter to the streets, negative media, gangs, drugs, poor education, unemployment, father absence, crime, violence and death.

Most young Black Men in the United States don't graduate from high school. Only 35% of Black male students graduated from high school in Chicago and only 26% in New York City, according to a 2006 report by The Schott Foundation for Public Education. Only a few Black boys who finish high school actually attend college, and of those few Black boys who enter college, nationally, only 22% of them finish college.

Young Black male students have the worst grades, the lowest test scores, and the highest dropout rates of all students in the country. When these young Black men don't succeed in school, they are much more likely to succeed in the nation's criminal justice and penitentiary system. And it was discovered recently that even when a young Black man graduates from a U.S. college, there is a good chance that he is from Africa, the Caribbean or Europe, and not the United States.

Black men in prison in America have become as American as apple pie. There are more Black men in prisons and jails in the United States (about 1.1 million) than there are Black men incarcerated in the rest of the world combined. This criminalization process now starts in elementary schools with Black male children as young as six and seven years old being arrested in staggering numbers according to a 2005 report, Education on Lockdown by the Advancement Project.

The rest of the world is watching and following the lead of America. Other countries including England, Canada, Jamaica, Brazil and South Africa are adopting American social policies that encourage the incarceration and destruction of young Black men. This is leading to a world-wide catastrophe. But still, there is no adequate response from the American or global Black community.

Worst of all is the passivity, neglect and disengagement of the Black community concerning the future of our Black boys. We do little while the future lives of Black boys are being destroyed in record numbers. The schools that Black boys attend prepare them with skills that will make them obsolete before, and if, they graduate. In a strange and perverse way, the Black community, itself, has started to wage a kind of war against young Black men and has become part of this destructive process.

Who are young Black women going to marry? Who is going to build and maintain the economies of Black communities? Who is going to anchor strong families in the Black community? Who will young Black boys emulate as they grow into men? Where is the outrage of the Black community at the destruction of its Black boys? Where are the plans and the supportive actions to change this? Is this the beginning of the end of the Black people in America?

The list of those who have failed young Black men includes our government, our foundations, our schools, our media, our Black churches, our Black leaders, and even our parents. Ironically, experts say that the solutions to the problems of young Black men are simple and relatively inexpensive, but they may not be easy, practical or popular. It is not that we lack solutions as much as it is that we lack the will to implement these solutions to save Black boys. It seems that government is willing to pay billions of dollars to lock up young Black men, rather than the millions it would take to prepare them to become viable contributors and valued members of our society.

Please consider these simple goals that can lead to solutions for fixing the problems of young Black men:

Short term

1. Teach all Black boys to read at grade level by the third grade and to embrace education
2. Provide positive role models for Black boys
3. Create a stable home environment for Black boys that includes contact with their fathers
4. Ensure that Black boys have a strong spiritual base
5. Control the negative media influences on Black boys
6. Teach Black boys to respect all girls and women

Long term

1. Invest as much money in educating Black boys as in locking up Black men
2. Help connect Black boys to a positive vision of themselves in the future
3. Create high expectations and help Black boys live into those high expectations
4. Build a positive peer culture for Black boys
5. Teach Black boys self-discipline, culture and history
6. Teach Black boys and the communities in which they live to embrace education and life-long learning

More Facts

- 3 7.7% of Black men in the United States are not working. 47.0% of Black men in Illinois are not working. (2006 Joint Economic Committee Study chaired by Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY))

- 5 8% of Black boys in the United States do not graduate from high school. 65% of Black boys in Chicago do not graduate from high school. (2006 Report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education)

- Almost 70% of Black children are born into female, single parent households (2000 Census Report)

- About 1 million Black men in the United States are in prison (U.S. Justice Department)

By: Phillip Jackson

I'LL CAST A SHADOW OVER YOU

You defame me and
You disrespect me,
When all your chosen words are cast.
Like stones at the sinner, they hit hard.
And I take it, blow by blow.
But there will be a time when I'll feel no more.
That is when I'll cast a shadow over you.

Your brave words never sound so clear.
And your over-confidence amazes me.
The fact that your speech,
Charismatic and royal in its way,
Can always place me in an uncompromising position,
-- For I cannot always find the words.
Disadvantaged though I may be,
You never gave me a doubt.
For when I do get the urge or the desire within,
I'll stand, and cast my shadow over you.

And then we will all see,
As I take the breath,
That forms your words,
Those words that you say
So eloquently,
When your world is blocked by my presence.
Me, eclipsing you from the sun.
Standing beneath me
Because I cast a shadow over you.


I'll Cast a Shadow Over You by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim

I LIKE COPS, SOMETIMES

I need to get this out.

I had what you would call an online buddy, a fellow blogger that I respect, commented to me that based upon my blog and writings, he felt that I did not like POLICE.

Not true, I do believe in a society of law and order. Order and structure is important for me. I am actually very conservative when is comes to how I think, social and public behavior. I have even posted a few blog entries on issues and situations that I felt required a police officer from keeping me from crossing the line with DUMB FOLK. When I was a teacher of high-school students, I knew how important it was to keep order in small and large groups, at work, crowds, and simple home life. Religion has its rules of order, the human body has its rules and so does the universe. So why would I not understand the rule of law and how the police fit into the fabric of America. What I have a problem with is those police officers that feel that upon receiving a badge and a gun, they are indoctrinated in the GOD CLUB.

OK so I need to get more of this out.

As an activist, I often champion the cause of those citizens that have been wronged by the officers that are sloppy with their guns, pushing young kids off roofs, beat suspects unconscious between pick up to precinct, those officers that do not take citizen complains seriously and the one’s that will bark proudly, “I can shoot your N#@* ass and nothing will happen to me!” They are real. They are out there. I have experienced this when working with those with complains and behind closed doors, their fellow officers know they are among them.

I have never campaigned to overthrow the government (OK, maybe I have a little bit) and I have never campaigned to attack or dismantle the police yet at times I have had serious discussions with my family members who represent Law Enforcement about accountability and bad behavior.

In my family I have cousins that serve from state district attorney to detective and a few friends that are beat cops and in all of my relations we are good. I call upon them for advice as well as understanding as to what and why the law works the way it does. Loopholes are usually the subject of most conversations and how both sides use them to benefit the other. Often we are at odds when I decide to champion a social cause that may require me to possibly be in handcuffs yet they do respect that I am a person of logic and not passion; which translates to, “I know he ain’t gonna be out there doing no stupid shit where I have to be pulling favors to get his Black ass out of jail.” Yeah that’s me, Mr. Cool Under Fire. I know that was a low blow but where I live and have lived, too often the police shoot first and cover up immediately. This behavior UNFORTUNATELY is a carry-over from the Rudy Giuliani Administration. Those ex-army, steroid pumping, Staten and Long Island, Tony Soprano Wannabe, under paid and over worked, Urban People scared and just plain old trigger happy, they all had open house under the Giuliani years and since then, they have gotten older and bolder in their methodology.

If not for a few groups, the overkill of Black and Latino blood and prison over crowding would have escalated to numbers unheard of in the history of New York. Even during the Political trail, Rudy Giuliani champions how he brought down crime in New York yet never tells how the number of unjustified cases were thrown out and dismissed in record numbers under his watch. It was all a game to so many and still others who are walking the street as victims because their false records have not been expunged. In ignorance, many of the young men and women do not know how to clear their names and are now caught up in a whirlwind of easy arrests and unnecessary busts. As an activist, I deal with these issues constantly and often I am at odds with those officers that work with the “GOD” complex.

Again I am not talking about all police officers, just the ASSHOLES that buck the legal system and like Black people who decide to live their lives off the beaten trail, both sides are deemed guilty by association. My stresses only comes when I am dealing with a BAD COP, I often see just over their shoulder the GOOD COP that is forced to remain silent in the background while the others dig the good reputations of others into that grave of mistrust and revulsion. The end result, communities and individuals refuse to trust the police and harbor generational fear (even from those of the came Color and Creed) and the office fear those communities and those that have their backs out in the field. It’s not an easy position to be in and I DO RESPECT THAT.

So why do I write this? Well it wasn’t because of my blogger buddy, it is more for me to vent. Today I had some running around to do. You see, I am in the process of settling into a new place so my travels have taken me all over the City of New York. Well on my way back home I had to hop the A train when I saw this kid swiping Metro Cards. For those who do no know, Metro Cards are these little plastic cards people use in place of tokens to travel the buses and trains in the greater New York area. Well, this kid was swiping several cards and like many New Yorkers, we see guys like this and often know they are people of desperation, often homeless, addicted of drugs or people looking to capitalize on those of misfortune (people who drop or loose their Metro Cards). Overall, it’s an activity that New Yorkers on a whole do not care about because it’s a NO HARM DONE activity. So while I dug into my pocket to get my empty Metro Card out so that I can replenish it with a few dollars I see this short round Black woman dressed thuggishly walk up between the kid and me. Along side was another sloppily dress Latino. Looking at him I knew he was Undercover, a really bad one at that. So I knew something was about to go down.

The Woman then says to the kid, ‘What up yo?’, which threw him off because the way they rolled up on him, he thought he was about to get a beat down. Long story short they started asking him what he was doing and why, in which he replied he was only swiping Metro Cards. At this point I decided not to get a new Metro Card and step back to see how this all was going to play out.

Now before I go on, let me inform you that picking up an “abandoned” Metro Card from the ground is not a crime. To have more than one Metro Card in your possession with monetary credit on them is not a crime. To swipe multiply Metro Cards at any given time is not a crime. So my point is, what the kid was doing was not a crime or a Quality of Life issue. If anything, with the hundreds-of-thousands of discarded Metro Cards on the grounds throughout the city, the litter alone is one BIG violation as well as lack of direction for providing a place to recycle and discard of MTA material. Bottom line, the people who pick them up to test the worth of them actually do the city a service by removing them from the streets and subways.

So as I watch the officers begin digging into the kids pockets (without asking), the kid asks why are they (the two officers) bothering him to which the woman replied in her deepest thuggish voice, “We got a complaint that you were standing here too long.” That was when I looked at the token booth where this shriveled up White woman with coke-bottle glasses for eyes sat watching the show. White “fear”, LORD I can’t wait until that also shrivel up and die.

So as the Latino officer starts checking more pockets and then the kid’s hood asking if he got any drugs or needles on him, he finds more Metro Cards. He then asks the kid, “What are these?” to which the kid says, “Come on man, they’re cards yo, why yall playin with me?”

The officer begins looking at them and tells his partner, “I think they are all new and possibly stolen.” She tells him to test one and see. Which he does and after about 15 cards he sees that they are all duds – empty valued. They go back to searching the kid some more.

While they pulled and searched and pushed the kid around he caught my eye with a sadness of pure defeat and I felt for him but I knew at this point, there was no need for me to not get involved because at that moment, the officers were doing “their job” and to interfere would be an offense on my part (see I know the law and my place where logic over rules passion). So then the time came when the officers asked the kid his name and he answered. They asked where he lived to which he answered, “I live in a homeless shelter.” At this point, their treatment of him was ampted up.

“So you a drug addict too?”, the female officer asked?

“No, my mother and me lost our place so we shared a spot in Brooklyn at the homeless shelter.” , the Kid told the Officers.

“Is she on drugs?”, she quipped back. The Kid ignores her. “What you got a problem now with these stolen cards?”, she instigates.

“I didn’t steal no cards I told you I pick them off the ground. The things are all over the ground”, The Kid says exhaustedly.

“But they are not yours. Did you buy them?”, the Latino cop informs.

“They on the ground? Why you bothering me about shit that’s on the ground like garbage?”, The Kid asks.

Then at that moment, the Latino cop swipes a Metro Card and says, “This one has $2.00 on it”.

The female cop then turns back to the kid and says, “You got a card with money on it. What’s up with that?”

“ Its on it, then it's one that I found.”, The Kid answers.

At this point a third cop, scrawny as Hell dressed in khakis, Gap brand shirt and a backpack walks over with a smile and full of excitement asks, “What we got here?”

The Black cop says, “Stolen Metro Cards.”

The Kid jumps in, “I ain’t steal no cards yo.”

“You got any felonies?”, the White cops ask.

Then I look at the kid and the kid looks at me and I begin the shake my head to signal not to answer that question. He missed the signal and answers, “Yeah but it was a long time ago.”

“Turn around!”, the White cop orders the kid. He turns around and out came the handcuffs. The kid, deflated, looks at me and says, “Damn, all I’m doing is trying to get home and have enough for my mom yo.” And they escort him off.

Up until the felony question I could have helped him and I knew that once he answered that (which by right, he didn’t have to), he had not and did not violate any laws. Even if he didn’t answer the question and the officers handcuffed him, I could have volunteered to represent him and had him released before he was hit with a bullshit Quality of Life Charge, a Bullshit law Giuliani invented to charge people to increased the income of the city through fines and build a crime database to skew the crime statistic of New York City. I also understood that officers often ask this question to cover their Asses and use it as an excuse for charging suspicion for their actions.

Do I think these officers were doing their job? Yes. Do I think they did their job correctly? No, Their judgment was misplaces and it was also harassing. To play on the ignorance of people who do not know their right is Bullying. Bottom line, they could have easily had the kid throw all of the cards in the garbage and told him to move on. Equally they could have taken the cards and given them to that OLD ASS WRINKED BITCH and told her to dispose of them and told the kid to move on. In the end, they needed a BUST for something since the levels of crime in NEW YORK is so low, the only true crime in the city are QUALIY OF LIFE crimes. To have officers locking people up for smoking too close to a doorway, someone screaming to get someone’s attention across the street, someone dropping an orange peel on the ground because they missed the trash can, someone sitting on a milk crate, arresting 13yo kids for spitting off a roof are not crimes that require 4 officers, three squad cars, a patrol wagon and guns drawn. This may sound like an exaggeration, but it is VERY common around here.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the Black cop looked at me several times as I perched myself across from them in my all Black attire; my black kufi, my Black “Free Jena 6” tee-shirt, my GREEN MILITARY COMBAT JACKET decorated with my BLACK POWER, MALCOLM X, and NO JUSTICE NO PEACE pins, My BLACK RIMMED GLASSES, BLACK BOOTS and solid expression like … “Yeah you just try it.” I would have been too much energy to tell to move along.

I said all this to say this, that kid’s only crime was that he was POOR and IGNORANT of his rights and that made him ripe for an easy arrest, perfect for those Police officers to take advantage of.

I try to learn lessons every day in life. This morning I thought it would have been from the conversations and results of the New Hampshire Caucus but it came from a fellow blogger and the helplessness of a Brother looking for a break.

“There is no shame in not knowing, the shame lies in not finding out.”

Only Great Leaders Die (.... for the Cause)

Exhausted by the labors of the day
I became a physical casualty of a reality war.
My body ached.
My head pounding.
Visibly tired,
Too weak to continue,
I desired to release my burdens upon an angry world.
On someone.
Anyone.
Dump them into a box
Deep and wide,
One capable of withstanding the years.
A box to stand the tests of time.
To house excess baggage.
To drop my brother into
for he is heavy.
I want to be free enough not to ask the question often asked.
Is there life after death?

I see no evidence of such a thing,
The living dead.
I know because I wake and walk the Earth daily.
Talking, and not saying anything.
Working, and not making anything.
And praying, and I getting
Nothing.
So tired am I that its effect bring me full circle.
Circle into rings,
Rings into links of chain,
Chains fastened at the ankle
-- Balled and chained.
Weighted down by the human condition .
I struggle and pull for freedom.
Tugging away for just an inch ,
Until I can only ask but for one thing ,
"Sleep".

So they say
To sleep is to give up,
And to give up, is to die.
As a result I cheat,
and slave.

More and more,
Harder and harder,
Until the skin that is on my hands
Rip free from each finger.
And bones snap under pressure.
The pain from my shoulders arch into my back
Causing my knees to buckle from the stress,
Allowing my foot to tear free from its shackles.
Giving my all
To you.
My people.
My cause.
Sacrificing
Life and limb.


Only Great Leaders Die by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim