Weekend News

 

Stop and frisk existed since the 1960's in America in the modern sense. For centuries, stop and frisk like policies have existed in American society. During the days of  SLAVERY in NEW YORK, it was against the law for more than 3 Black men to gather in conversation. Dinkins never created stop and frisk. He began Safe City/ Safe Streets and Community policing. I need to cut nothing from evil folks at all. Some folks can be angry as you want, but the truth remains firm. The fact is that the stop and frisk compromises basic constitutional rules of unreasonable search and seizures, due process, etc. No human being period should not be subjected to random searches at any circumstances unless by probable cause. That means something period. Black folks have been violated of their human rights in NYC. Folks have protested about this issue and that means something. Folks have no right to ignore the stories of the excesses of stop and frisk. Folks have no right to ignore the racial profiling pain inflicted in our community. Folks have no right to sugarcoat oppression and the authoritarian agenda of the current Mayor at all. While New York's violent crime rates are indeed falling, statistics indicate this is not due to the NYPD's accelerated stop-and-frisk program. New York's murder rate began dropping before stop-and-frisk was ramped up. According to Forbes contributor Naomi Robbins, the "astronomical increase in stop-and-frisk came well after the significant decrease in number of murders, and thus cannot be the cause of the drop." As for guns, less than 0.5 percent of stop-and-frisk stops produce one, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Multiple cities without similar stop-and-frisk policies have had greater reductions in violent crime than New York. Among stops in 2011, 88% did not result in an arrest or summons. While violent crimes fell 29 percent in New York City from 2001 to 2010, other large cities experienced larger violent crime declines without relying on stop and frisk abuses: 59 percent in Los Angeles, 56 percent in New Orleans, 49 percent in Dallas, and 37 percent in Baltimore. See, the facts are on our side. Between 2004 and 2009, only 5.4% of stops resulted in arrests, showing that the vast majority of stops were of people who had done nothing wrong. If we can put the man on the moon, then alternatives to solving crime can exist to decrease criminal activity in NYC. There has been no research to proven the complete effectiveness of the NYC stop and frisk program. The murder rate drop before Bloomberg took office and before the explosion of stop and frisk. Further, stop-and-frisk has not reduced the number of people who fall victim to shootings. In 2002, there were 1,892 victims of gunfire and 97,296 stops. In 2011, there were still 1,821 victims of gunfire but a record 685,724 stops. Only 0.2 percent of stops found guns. Even in neighborhoods that are predominantly white, black and Latino New Yorkers face the disproportionate brunt. For example, in 2011, Black and Latino New Yorkers made up 24 percent of the population in Park Slope, but 79 percent of stops. This, on its face, is discriminatory. So, we know the immorality of stop and frisk and it should end in New York City completely.

 

 

Food stamp cuts begin now. There is still an U.S. budget conference committee meets to slash social spending. The U.S. government is preparing to slash more food benefits. Millions of poor human beings will suffer. The bipartisan conference committee created was done as part of the deal to end October's government shutdown. Both Democrats and Republicans are seeking to strike a deal as a means to further chip away at the living conditions of the working people. The food stamp cuts, which are scheduled to take effect today and which would amount to over $300 per year for a family of three, will be the first-ever nationwide reduction in benefits under the US government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The bipartisan conference committee has a deadline of December 13. They want to create a budget agreement for the next fiscal year. Congress would have to pass the agreement by the middle of January as a means to prevent another government shutdown. Both sides want to make a deal on corporate taxes and entitlement cuts. The conference will focus on tweaking or replacing the sequester automatic cuts (which has scheduled cuts to military spending that both parties would like to remove or reduce). The sequester cuss will plain to cut government spending by $1.3 trillion over ten years. The first round of cuts, which began in March, cut spending by $85 billion, while the second round, scheduled to begin next year, would cut $109 billion. Next year's cuts will reduce defense spending by an additional 20 billion dollars.  “There are significant numbers of Republicans in the Senate and the House who recognize that the cuts to defense are too much, too fast and that it’s irresponsible, so they’re going to have to weigh that,” Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen, a member of the conference committee, told CNN. Tom Price, a Georgia Republican, told CNN that a plan to replace or modify the sequester cuts is “a reasonable expectation.” Even with the limited set of goals that the conference committee has set, participants said that there is no guarantee that the group will come to an agreement. Van Hollen told CNN that he puts the likelihood of a deal at “50-50.” The next time the Conference Committee plans to meet is November 13, one month before they are required to reach a deal. Federal workers could have their benefits cut. Pensions have been cut for years. The Democratic-controlled Senate is proposing $4 billion in cuts to the food stamp program over the next decade. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has passed a bill that would cut $40 billion from SNAP and would also force adults between 18 and 50 to either work or attend work training in order to reapply for benefits, as well as instituting drug-testing for recipients. By January 1, the federal program to give extended unemployment benefits for long term jobless human being will expire. This will cause millions to come into poverty. Some Republicans still want cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

 

 

 

 

 

It is obvious that many politicians do not care for the poor. This callous attitude about the poor is found in both parties. Get up by your own bootstraps is an old saying mentioned among many. This accurately applies to abled bodied human beings with resources. Yet, this doesn't apply to all in my view. Tell that stuff to those who are homeless or those lost their jobs by no fault of their own. These cuts including the sequester (since the food stamp cuts are not the only cuts being activated now) will harm many families in the nation. Now, fraud, waste, and abuse should be fought against in any program, but many of the poor will still suffer as a product of these austerity policies. Ironically, the military industrial complex and huge international interests will receive record bonuses and record benefits from the state, yet some will still blame the poor for the entire plight of Western society. Empire, war, and domestic violations of human rights domestically are abominations (that have harmed the States and the world in general). We must find ways to fight poverty not just tell the suffering to just get up by their own bootstraps. The Federal Reserve contributed to this situation (as it has shown debt filled money) and others have called for its replacement and I have no issue with this at all. Nothing changes unless institutions of oppression are abolished and radical solutions come about. We should end the war on terror and used our stolen money to reinvest in American society. We should end banker bailouts. Some have discussed about debt free money. We should arrest all financial criminals involved in the recession. We should allow energy breakthroughs to flourish and radically create policies for employment. Community based organizations and programs that address poverty, etc. should be encouraged to grow. There is nothing wrong with self-sufficiency either. The hypocrisy among some is astounding. The government now is not our government since corporate interests, lobbyists, and other nefarious folks dominate it. Government was created for we the people in theory, but folks have infiltrated it and exploited it. The gaming of the system is common and the real exploiters of the system are heavily ignored while the poor are heavily scapegoated (when most of the poor work. Even most folks on food stamps work. I do not have food stamps, but I have seen many folks pay their food with them before in a store). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with his Poor People's Campaign had it right. We have to address economic inequality and poverty if we want to see the Dream fully realized.

 

By Timothy