MINNESOTA: LAND of 10K LAKES + How St. Anthony Police killed Philando Castile + LOUISIANA/ Baton Rouge + “CD MAN” of Baton Rouge aka Alton Sterling killed with MULTIPLE SHOTS + MARVIN GAYE: “WHAT’S GOING ON”

The Power of Looking,

from Emmett Till

to Philando Castile

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-power-of-looking-from-emmett-till-to-philando-castile?mbid=gnep&intcid=gnep&google_editors_picks=true

Mamie Till Bradley and Diamond Reynolds

both shared their sorrow with the world.

They asked onlookers to view the bodies of two black men

and see a son, a brother, a boyfriend, a loved one.

Looking is hard.

It shakes us and haunts us, and it comes with responsibilities and risks.

But, by allowing us all to look,

Bradley and Reynolds offered us real opportunities for empathy.

Bradley’s moral courage galvanized a generation of civil-rights activists.

We have yet to see how far Reynolds’s bravery will take us.

X

X

X

President Obama addressed the deaths of two black men who were killed in police shootings this week — incidents that sparked outrage and demands for justice around the country — and said the incidents were “not isolated” but rather “symptomatic of a of a broader set of racial disparities.”

X

“We have seen tragedies like this too many times,”

the PRESIDENT OBAMA said in Warsaw.

X

“All of us as Americans should be troubled by these shootings,”

he continued.

“These are not isolated incidents,

they are symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities

that exist in our criminal justice system.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-address-police-shootings/story?id=40419109

 

x

x

x

x

x

My/OUR Minnesota Governor, Mark Dayton, addresses the killing of Philando Castile.

X

 

At a press conference Thursday,  Minnesota Gov. Dayton, called the shooting

“totally unacceptable.”

He said he found both the shooting and the aftermath

“absolutely appalling at all levels,

” noting in particular that no first aid was provided to Castile,

while other police officers did attend

to the officer who fired the shots”.

x

Dayton also criticized the “stark treatment” of Reynolds by police.

X

“Justice will be served,” Dayton said.

“Justice must be served.”

“Would this have happened if those passengers,

the driver and the passengers, were white?”

asked Dayton.

“I don’t think it would have.

So I’m forced to confront,

and I think all of us in Minnesota are forced to confront,

that this kind of racism exists.”

X

X

X

X

X

X

http://video.startribune.com/girlfriend-who-recorded-video-describes-what-happened/385878211/

Diamond Reynolds describes St. Anthony officer who shot

DEAD her boyfriend as ‘very frantic’

Reynolds reconstructed Wednesday night’s shooting and what transpired after her viral video ends

X

 

X

+

X

“CD MAN” of Baton Rouge aka Alton Sterling killed with MULTIPLE SHOTS

X

WARNING VERY GRAPHIC

GRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF BATON ROUGE POLICE SHOOTING TO DEATH

A CITIZEN – WHO WAS A REGULAR STREET VENDOR OF CD

 

X

X

X

MARVIN GAYE

WHAT’S GOING ON

PLEASE WATCH! HIS INTRODUCTION IS POIGNANT/DEVASTATING.

 

X
X
X
X
X
X

James Baldwin Tells Us All How to Cool It This Summer

Is it too late, now, to put out the fire this time?

An interview, forty-seven years later.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/interviews/a23960/james-baldwin-cool-it/

X

X
X
X
X
X
X

LIVING IN FEAR BECAUSE HOW GOD

SHAPED/COLORED YOUR SACRED BODY.

LIVING IN FEAR WHEN AN ACTION

MAY BE FATALLY MIS-INTERPRETED.

LIVING IN FEAR BECAUSE YOU ARE YOU.

AMERICA NAME THE WHY NOW!

ENOUGH WAS A LONG, LONG TIME AGO!

 

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

FRESHDRIEDBLOODIAMHUMAN                                       Catherine L. Johnson 2013

X
X
X
X

CLICK TWICE ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

X
X
X
X

 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON FRESHDRIEDBLOODIAMHUMAN 2013:

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/depraved-heart-murder-marilyn-mosby-attorney-general-of-maryland-homicide-of-freddie-gray-freshdriedblood-humanity-portfolio-2013-catherine-l-johnson-artist/

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/freshdriedbloodiamhuman-ferguson-usa-prevailing-narratives-moral-courage-creative-courage-why/

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/no-woman-no-cry-no-shrieks-no-woman-no-cry-no-shrieks-i-cannot-bear-to-hear-people-crying-in-pain-if-you-know-and-were-told-you-are-complicit-to-the-psychic-damages-injuries-of-others/

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2015/11/14/humanly-possible-the-empathy-exhibition-instinct-art-gallery-21-november-2015-16-january-2016-freshdriedbloodiamhuman-2013-catherine-l-johnson-the-humanity-port/

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

X

X

X

Philando Castile and Alton Sterling  were murdered by the police because (fill in the blank lines):

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________.

X

X

Both were men who were loved/cherished and were irreplaceable sparkling  jewels

to their friends,  families and communities.

X

X

They were feared by their own community’s police

because they were BLACK men.

They were not red, white or blue men.

They were AMERICAN men who were murdered by their own community police

– who are, allegedly, trained to protect ALL citizens.

They are being profoundly mourned by the people who loved them.

X

X

X

X

X

And, our nation has revealed its true colors once again and once again

X

X

 

O say can you see,
by the dawn’s early light,

what so proudly we hailed
at the twilight’s last gleaming,
whose broad stripes and bright stars,
through the perilous fight,
o’er the ramparts we watched,
were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare,
the bombs bursting in air,
gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there.
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
o’er the land of the free
and the home of the brave?

X

O thus be it ever,
when freemen shall stand
between their loved homes
and the war’s desolation!

X

Blest with victory and peace,
may the heaven-rescued land
praise the Power that hath made
and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must,
when our cause it is just,
and this be our motto,
“In God we trust.”
And the star-spangled banner
in triumph shall wave
o’er the land of the free

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

These executions of American men are shockingly tragic

and

a sucker punch to our democracy,

yet, another disclosure of embedded bias and fear.

Police in America need to be trained in HOW to recognize

their own bias, bigotry and their reflexive FEARS.

X

X

 

 

 

 

X

X

X

Snipers shoot 11 Dallas police officers during protest rally, killing four, police say

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/07/two-police-officers-reported-shot-in-downtown-dallas-near-scene-of-earlier-protests/

X

X

X

X

Jesse Williams’ ACCEPTANCE SPEECH for the  2016 BET Humanitarian Award:

 https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2016/06/27/jesse-williams-accepting-the-humanitarian-award-at-the-bet-awards-on-sunday26-june-in-la-gentrifying-our-genius-and-then-trying-us-on-like-costumes-before-discarding-our-bodies-like-rinds-of-s/

X

Like a garden and a gardener:

what blooms/flourishes in a nation reveals what it

sows / tends / values and ultimately cherishes:

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/darkness-cannot-drive-out-darkness-hate-cannot-drive-out-hate-the-trump-brand-is-not-the-character-of-a-leader-in-the-worlds-theatre-what-is-calling-out-violen/

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

 

I created an e-card for the birthday of my dear, since childhood, friend, Rob.

Today is his birthday: 8 July.

X

My cherished friend is a PA for the Center of International Health.

CIH is the FIRST place where refugees come as they enter Minnesota

Rob commissioned an original of my Pine Tree: HOPE  2005 (42″ H x 28″W) for CIH.

(Pine Tree: HOPE 2005 was created as a PRAYER for the deafening despair

of the those who survived/died in the wake of Hurricane Katrina 2005.)

X

Rob’s response/reply to my e-card HAPPY BIRTHDAY:

Oh thank you.

Except my heart is aching for our society.

Very scary times.

I take joy today in welcoming 2 newly arrived Bhutanese refugee families

who still see America as a land of equality, freedom, and opportunity.

RC

 

x

x

x

x

x

x

 

Read Full Post »

“DEPRAVED HEART MURDER” MARILYN MOSBY / BALTIMORE’S STATE ATTORNEY OF MARYLAND + HOMICIDE OF FREDDIE GRAY + “FRESHDRIEDBLOOD” HUMANITY PORTFOLIO 2013 CATHERINE L. JOHNSON / ARTIST

FRESHDRIEDBLOODIAMHUMAN                                       Catherine L. Johnson 2013

 

X

X

X

X

DEPRAVED HEART MURDER

THE

HOMICIDE

OF

FREDDIE GRAY

X

X

X

Prince “BALTIMORE”

https://soundcloud.com/prince3eg/baltimore

X

X

X

X

X

X

 

Depraved Heart Murder Definition:

Where an individual under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life,
recklessly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death to another person,
and thereby caused the death of another person.

http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/D/DepravedHeartMurder.aspx

Depraved-heart murder is the form of murder that establishes that the willful doing of a dangerous and reckless act with wanton indifference to the consequences and perils involved, is just as blameworthy, and just as worthy of punishment, when the harmful result ensues, as is the express intent to kill itself. This highly blameworthy state of mind is not one of mere negligence…. It is not merely one even of gross criminal negligence…. It involves rather the deliberate perpetration of a knowingly dangerous act with reckless and wanton unconcern and indifference as to whether anyone is harmed or not. The common law treats such a state of mind as just as blameworthy, just as anti-social and, therefore, just as truly murderous as the specific intents to kill and to harm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depraved-heart_murder

X

X

X

X

X

MARILYN MOSBY / BALTIMORE’S  STATE ATTORNEY  / INDICTMENT

SHE  COMES FROM GENERATIONS OF POLICE OFFICERS

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/baltimore-unrest/freddie-gray-death-prosecutor-marilyn-mosby-lays-out-chain-events-n352096

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/baltimore-unrest/freddie-gray-n351881

Reporter: What will prevent another Freddie Gray?

Mosby: Accountability.

Reporter:There hasn’t been any for so long.

Mosby:You’re getting it now.

 

X

X

X

X

 

Why Marilyn Mosby’s Comments on Freddie Gray Matter

The Baltimore state’s attorney gave a much more forceful case for justice

than her counterparts in Ferguson, Cleveland, and New York City.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/marilyn-mosby-baltimore-freddie-gray-police-charged-matter-20150502

X

Freddie Gray’s Death Becomes a Murder Case

http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/freddie-grays-death-becomes-a-murder-case

 

 

 

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Freddie Gray’s Injury and the Police ‘Rough Ride’

By MANNY FERNANDEZ

APRIL 30, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/freddie-grays-injury-and-the-police-rough-ride.html?_r=0

 A police transport van in Baltimore. Such vans have benches along the sides but no seats, and a partition that separates prisoners from the officers. Credit Alex Brandon/Associated Press

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

FRESHDRIEDBLOODIAMHUMAN                                    Catherine L. Johnson   2013

X

X

X

Please click twice on image to enlarge

X

X

X

X

THE HUMANITY PORTFOLIO 2013

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/the-st-paul-fall-art-crawl-2013-catherine-l-johnson-4-6-october-2013-click-twice-on-each-image-to-enlarge/

 

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/the-humanity-portfolio-2013-catherine-l-johnson-humanity-blood-is-red-is-blood-red/

 

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/fifteen-paintings-28-august-2013-the-humanity-portfolio-28-august-2013-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-march-on-washington-for-freedom-jobs-rev-dr-martin-luther-kings-i-have-a-dream-s/

X

X

X

X

X

X

MARYLAND’S ATTORNEY GENERAL’S INDICTMENT IS A HISTORICAL EVENT.

BALTIMORE’S  STATE ATTORNEY, MARILYN MOSBY IS MY NEW HEROINE: DEFINITIVE, CLEAR, FORCEFUL.

THE EMBEDDED AMERICAN MASK of RACIAL BIAS  + DENIAL HAS NOW ONCE AGAIN BEEN RIPPED OFF.

POLICE ASSAULT WITHOUT FINGERPRINTS.

HALLELUJAH- A  DEPRAVED + DISTORTED MORAL COMPASS HAS BEEN DISCLOSED.

A CULTURAL PARADIGM SHIFT OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS HAS OCCURRED

AFTER CENTURIES OF DENIAL + INSISTENT BLINDNESS + COMPLICITY

OF THE DOMINANT CULTURE. 

ONCE AGAIN JUSTICE MAY BE SERVED WITH AUTHENTIC JUSTICE

AND EQUALITY FOR ALL.

THANK YOU TO ALL THE PEACEFUL PROTESTORS FOR STEPPING UP AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN…

TRUTH RISES LIKE THE LOTUS.

CLJ

5/1/2015

X

X

X

BUSINESS STANDARD

Being black in America: A community in crisis 

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/being-black-in-america-a-community-in-crisis-news-analysis-115050400097_1.html

 

X

X

X

SALON

Dear white Facebook friends:

I need you to respect what Black America is feeling right now

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/29/dear_white_facebook_friends_i_need_you_to_respect_what_black_america_is_feeling_right_now/

Read Full Post »