Two killed, four wounded in Oakland nightclub shooting
By Dan Whitcomb
Mon Apr 25, 2011 5:48pm EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two people were killed and four others wounded early on Monday when a gunman opened fire at an Oakland nightclub, then sped away in a car with three suspected accomplices, police said.
The four wounded victims, who were not identified by authorities, were taken to a local hospital where two of them, both men, were listed in critical condition and said to have life-threatening injuries.
The remaining two victims, both women, were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Police were searching for four young men, described as African American and in their teens or early twenties, who fled the shooting at Sweet Jimmie's nightclub in a white Dodge Avenger.
An Oakland Police spokeswoman said they had not yet determined a motive for the shooting, despite reports in the local media that the gunman had been denied entry to the club.
"Whether he was trying to get in or not, we don't know," Oakland Police spokeswoman Cynthia Perkins said, adding that it was also unclear if the shooter had targeted one of the victims.
"Last night's shootings, which are a rare occurrence in downtown Oakland, are tragic and troubling," Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said in a written statement, adding that solving the case was a "high priority" for the city. "The Police Department will schedule increased patrols in the area as they continue to investigate the circumstances," Quan said.
The mayor and police officials asked that anyone with information about the shooting or suspects contact Oakland homicide detectives.
Commentary by Marvin X
Apparently the nightclub shooters got the Easter weekend ritual confused. Sunday was Resurrection Day, but the killers must have thought it was Crucifixion Day. In light of events around the world where people are standing up and dying for freedom, the Oakland dead and wounded are as Mao said, lighter than a feather, meaningless incidents signifying nothing but madness. And yet we cannot separate this incident and other from international events, for all things in the universe are connected.
The USA cannot have a trillion dollar budget to kill and maim from Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, yet expect peace at home. What goes around comes around, or shall we say the chickens must come home to roost.
One day America will get over its fetish with guns and wars across the planet, only then will the children of the world be safe, for as James Baldwin said, "The murder of my child will not make your child safe."
Guns, violence and sex are projected 24/7 in the Monkey Mind Media, in films and television shows, even Rap glorifies violence, but again, the USA is the number one purveyor of violence in the world. Nelson Mandela said America is the main reason there is no peace in the world. American greed for oil to grease the wheels of a white supremacy culture that consumes 25% of the world's energy although she is only 5% of the global population, is the main reason the culture of violence exists at home and abroad. America is the number one arms merchant of the world. So yes, the violence in the streets of America is simple blow back and one must expect more to come until this nation realizes guns are not the panacea for problems, whether personal, political, economic, religious or otherwise.
How is it possible for two persons to be dead and four wounded because a man was refused entry to a nightclub? If it was that important that he entered the club, surely someone could have talked with him as a former nightclub owner said he used to do with unruly clientele. He would pull them aside and rap with them in a civilized manner. He said no one was ever shot at his club, nor was he attacked.
He speculated that perhaps this is a sign of class war in the hood, and those persons who feel excluded want to strike out at those in authority, although most incidents of violence usually only occur at African American night clubs. Several such clubs in Oakland have been shut down as a result of violence. Others shut down because they refused to submit to police shakedowns, Geoffrey's Club is the most recent example, although he lost his case against the OPD.
The tragedy is that we refuse to consider there is a war in the hood on much the same level as wars in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In fact, the doctors train for battles abroad in the emergency rooms of hospitals that serve ghetto battlefield wounded, most suffering multiple wounds from weapons similar if not the same as those used in America's global wars to maintain white supremacy.
We think parents should adequately warn their children they must be aware of their surroundings at all times and do not pretend they are in La La Land, but recognize they live in a battle zone. America is a hostile environment for North American Africans and others, to think and act otherwise is to be in denial and we are then subject to be victims of the mine fields in our path as we make our daily round. Put on the amour of God for we are in the valley of the shadow of death, but with the amour of God we shall fear no evil for the Lord is my rod and staff.
--Marvin X
4/25/11
Monday, April 25, 2011
War Between Nation States
4.25.11
DANGEROUS PRECEDENTS HAVE BEEN SET BY OBAMA, SARKOZY, CAMERON AND HAGUE
Dr. Sam Hamod
Dangerous precedents in attempting to kill Col. and Leader of his Libyan nation, Mu'ummar Qaddafi,have been set by Obama, Hague, Cameron and Sarkozy.
If this internationally illegal behavior and action is allowed to go unpunished, then it will be chaos in the world, where no leader will be safe, including that ignorant group of four: Obama, Hague, Cameron and Sarkozy.
There has been international understandings for centuries not to attempt to publicly attempt, and to trumpet, the desire, to kill the leader of a sovereign nation. But somehow, these Western "leaders" have now taken it upon themselves to violate this tradition, which now means there are no safeguards against world chaos and war, and even these fools may be next in line if this continues.
Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy have set 2 very dangerous precedents that may come back to devour them, if China, Russia or some other power group decides to do this against them. They feel they have the right to:
1. Go in and help, and instigate, "rebels" in a country, and to help them overthrow the government of a nation.
2. They feel they have the right to kill the leader of a sovereign nation, as they wish, for whatever reasons they choose.
Suppose China decides to come to the USA to help the Latinos in Arizona, Texas and California; what would Obama do?
Suppose India feels the UK is mistreating the Indian population in the UK, and decides to send in military and secret operatives to overthrow the UK government; what would Cameron and Hague do then?
Suppose some of the Muslim countries decide to hire mercenaries to assassinate Sarkozy of France because they feel he is being unfair to Muslims who live in France: what would Sarkozy do then?
Supposed Qaddafi sent agents in to sabotage or to kill any of this group of 4; what would they do? I'm sure they'd go screaming to the UN saying, "This is a violation of international law!"
These are just some hypothetical situations, but we must remember, just as GW Bush opened Pandora's Box in Iraq, I see that Obama, Sarkozy, Cameron and Hague have now done this with their attack on Libya.
And, just as I forecast before GW Bush opened the Pandora's Box of Iraq, the tiger came out and is now devouring America in all spheres: morally, financially, militarily and in terms of our respect in the world.
Yes, these fools have set a dangerous precedent, one that now cannot be pulled back. The peace of the earth will pay for their sins.
c: sam hamod, ph.d
4.25.11
Howard Univ. to Establish Ronald Walters Center
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Kerry-Ann Hamilton
Media Relations Manager
k_hamilton@howard.edu
202.238.2332
http://www.howard.edu/newsroom/
Howard to Establish Ronald Walters Center
WASHINGTON (April 11, 2011) – Howard University President Sidney A. Ribeau announced the establishment of the Ronald W. Walters Center during the 40th anniversary Congressional Black Caucus Foundation symposium held on campus.
Political activist, prolific author and media commentator Ronald W. Walters, Ph.D., served as a Howard University professor for 25 years, political science department chair, and was a preeminent global scholar and expert on American political behavior, Black politics and comparative politics. He died in September 2010
The Ronald Walters Center will serve as an interdisciplinary focal point for public policy research, publication and leadership development. “Through this center, his name, his spirit and his work will live on as we prepare others to follow in his footsteps and impact the world as much as he did,” Ribeau said.
Walters served as a campaign manager and consultant for the Rev. Jesse Jackson during his two presidential bids and was a policy adviser for former Congressmen Charles Diggs (D-MI) and William Gray (D-PA).
Walters was instrumental in the creation of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The Ronald Walters Center will examine the role of African Americans in the development of U.S. foreign policy; the impact of globalization on the African-American community; and the role of African Americans in U.S. presidential and congressional politics. It will also house the Walters papers.
The Center will also establish a visiting scholars program to provide research opportunities for internal and external scholars, including post-doctoral students. The Center will sponsor conferences, symposia, quarterly newsletters and other activities.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Kerry-Ann Hamilton
Media Relations Manager
k_hamilton@howard.edu
202.238.2332
http://www.howard.edu/newsroom/
Howard to Establish Ronald Walters Center
WASHINGTON (April 11, 2011) – Howard University President Sidney A. Ribeau announced the establishment of the Ronald W. Walters Center during the 40th anniversary Congressional Black Caucus Foundation symposium held on campus.
Political activist, prolific author and media commentator Ronald W. Walters, Ph.D., served as a Howard University professor for 25 years, political science department chair, and was a preeminent global scholar and expert on American political behavior, Black politics and comparative politics. He died in September 2010
The Ronald Walters Center will serve as an interdisciplinary focal point for public policy research, publication and leadership development. “Through this center, his name, his spirit and his work will live on as we prepare others to follow in his footsteps and impact the world as much as he did,” Ribeau said.
Walters served as a campaign manager and consultant for the Rev. Jesse Jackson during his two presidential bids and was a policy adviser for former Congressmen Charles Diggs (D-MI) and William Gray (D-PA).
Walters was instrumental in the creation of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The Ronald Walters Center will examine the role of African Americans in the development of U.S. foreign policy; the impact of globalization on the African-American community; and the role of African Americans in U.S. presidential and congressional politics. It will also house the Walters papers.
The Center will also establish a visiting scholars program to provide research opportunities for internal and external scholars, including post-doctoral students. The Center will sponsor conferences, symposia, quarterly newsletters and other activities.
Marvin X Calls for General Strike
The following story from the archives of Marvin X calls for the general strike. This speech was made several years ago in Houston, Texas, but today it appears America, black and white, is ready to shut down this nation to institute a redistribution of wealth, the ultimate solution to the economic woes of all the suffering American people.
Marvin X Calls for a General Strike for Reparations
On Saturday at Houston's Mt. Ararat Baptist Church, the National Black United Front hosted a forum on reparations. Keynote speaker was Att. Deadra Pellman who filed a lawsuit against corporations who benefited from slavery, including insurance companies. Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee presented a paper entitled "Making the Case for Slavery Reparations."
Also on the panel was a sister who is a direct descendent of slaves and she told an eloquent story of her genealogy. In attendance were Mrs. and Mr. Omari Obadele, legends of the reparations movement and founders of N'Cobra, the organization that has spearheaded the call for reparations. The Nation of Islam was present, along with the New Black Panther Party of Houston.
Marvin X called for a general strike to go along with litigation and legislation--mass action to keep the pressure on the American people until we achieve self-determination and sovereignty. He said we should demand reparations for our ancestors if no one else. The poet described his train ride from South Carolina to Houston: as he looked out at the trees, the woods, the swamps, the marsh, the rivers, he thought about the many thousands gone, bones buried deep in the clay, in the creeks. He thought about the slaves who tried to escape but failed and the ones who did make it to freedom.
For all these people, we must fight for reparations, and as Brother Kofi of NBUF noted, we must fight for compensation for the vestiges of slavery: our deplorable mental and physical health, our poor housing and now gentrification, lack of economic parity and educational opportunities. On another level, Marvin X noted that we are the 16th richest nation in the world (GNP), so even without repa! rations we have enough money to come up, if we use it wisely. We must take authority over our economic resources.
The forum ended with Marvin X reading his poem "When I'll Wave The Flag."Later that evening, the poet's daughter, Nefertiti, hosted a book party for her father, but because of the ENRON disaster many of the lawyers and MBAs present were unemployed and unable to purchase his book of essays, but they listened attentatively as he read.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Free Tibet!
FREE TIBET!
In response to your request for articles for posting, I will send you shortly an article if written in my newspaper, UP FRONT News ("The paper that can't be bought and can't be sold.") about an issue that I feel strongly is under-reported in the black media, i.e. the ongoing racist Genocide in Occupied Tibet.
Much of the political world, and in particular that which refers to itself as "left" and/or "progressive", perhaps still swayed by Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong's Marxist, populist, anti-imperialist rhetoric, simply continue to ignore the fact that the very imperialist Chinese invasion of independent Tibet in 1950 was the beginning of what has been a imposition of a thoroughly racist occupation which has led to the deaths of over 1 million Tibetans and the exile of hundreds of thousands more.
It is apparent that most Americans, regardless of political ideology remain unaware that 1.) before the Chinese invasion of 1950 Tibet was an independent nation and 2.) the dark-complexioned Tibetan people are completely ethnically, linguistically, and culturally distinct from their light-complexioned oppressors. In fact, relatively speaking, the Tibetans are" black people."
Indeed in many cases it's not so "relative" inasmuch as I've seen photographs of Tibetan nomads who spent long periods of time (praying) in the Himalayan sun, who are almost as black as charcoal.
In fact Mao had a deep hatred of the Tibetans, in part because of their deep religiosity (which explained the systematic destruction of many Tibetan temples the took place as the Chinese military took over Tibet). Mao and his expansionist Communist Party allied regarded the Tibetans as inferior and in need of Chinese-style modernization, a racist attitude not unlike Hitler's view of non-German Europeans.
A probably not very widely read Chinese military document is illustrative. In March, 1959 as the Chinese were completing their conquest of Tibet (a nation led by a pacifist Dalai Lama, so it wasn't a fair fight) there was a monk-lead uprising in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, which was brutally crushed by the Chinese military at a cost of many thousands of Tibetan lives.
One day a Tibetan exile living in New York City showed me a Chinese military booklet that discussed the rebellion and its suppression. It referred to the estimated 70,000 Tibetans killed as "insects."
Pro-Communist China apologists (e.g. the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Workers World Party) falsely allege that the Dalai Lama is a "CIA agent." That would have made the French underground fighters against the Nazi's the equivalent as there is no question and anti-Nazi fighters got assistance from the OSS, the predecessor to the CIA. In if in fact the Dalai Lama, receiving no assistance from the world's democracies as he tried to save his country's independence, accepted support from the CIA, how could one blame him?
There is an enormous amount of information (a good deal of which I have and have written and spoken about publicly about the de facto Genocide that continues in Tibet and the fact that the United States is in fact aiding and abetting the destruction of what may be one of the oldest cultures on the earth. Why is the world's purported greatest democracy turning a blind eye to the destruction of Tibet? Profits. "Communist" China is the perhaps the profiteering capital of the world, intimately connected with the multinationals based here and in other capitalist powers.
As far as I am aware, relatively few African-Americans have spoken out on this issue. There are a number of reasons for this, such as the fact that the relatively small U.S.-based Tibetan diaspora (small compared with, say, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Italian-Americans-Irish-Americans) tend to be less than publicly demonstrative about the situation in their occupied nations. (There is however an annual increase in Tibetan demonstrations on March 10, the anniversary of the aforementioned revolt and its suppression. There were also "Free Tibet" demonstrations around the world protesting the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In fact a New York City Council resolution originally proposed by me and introduced by then City Councilman (now State Senator) Tony Avella (D.-Queens), which called for the removal of the 2008 Olympics from China because of the Tibet Genocide) was suffocated by Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a "leader" not known for her
sensitivity to the black agenda (e.g. the Sonny Carson street name change issue) who is notoriously considerate of mega-corporate power (e.g. the cartel known as the China Lobby).
In fact I do not believe that the activist "free Tibet" community, at least here in New York, has reached out sufficiently to African-
Americans, who certainly know what it is to struggle against oppression and racism. Indeed I've discussed this reality with a number of Tibetan activists, some of whom are personally acquainted with the Dalai Lama (who, as you know, like Dr. Martin Luther King, is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.)
I've also discussed this issue with a number of African-American leaders including in particular my pastor, Rev. Dr. Demetrius S. Carolina, Sr., of the First Central Baptist Church in Staten Island. Indeed, as a consequence he has not only referred to the Genocide in Tibet in one of his sermons but also issued a brief and eloquent statement in which he urge the government of China to, "Afford the Tibetan people what is rightfully theirs: independence and freedom to control their own destiny and place in the world today!"
Whether he knows it or not (yet) President Obama, by making the categorically false statement that "Tibet is part of China", has made the Genocide in Tibet a campaign issue starting immediately. If he really believes that, all those history courses he took at those fine Ivy league schools need recalibrate their Asian history curricula. If he knows that statement to be false, he is simply bowing to the might of the China Lobby.
In any event, the only morally defensible position for Obama to take is to (as he has in the case of Palestine and Kosovo) recognize Tibet as a free country - and then to whether the inevitable tantrum in Beijing.
I will forward to you (probably tomorrow, as the internet cafe I am using is about to close for the day) a copy of my UP FRONT News article, "Tibet Is a Nation, The Tibetans Are Not Chinese, Therefore Free Tibet."
-- Tom Weiss
Saturday, April 23, 2011
A Mother's Message to the Police of America
A Mother's Message to the Police of America
Those of us who came of age in the 60s will recall that many of the riots and rebellions were the result of a mother rescuing her son from the hands of the police.
Before we knew it, all hell had broken loose, cities burned to the ground. In a recent conversation with Oakland Tribune Editor Martin Reynolds, he urged me to inform him of incidents of police abuse. Well, Martin, a mother approached me today in Berkeley to inform me the Berkeley police were harassing her son under the color of law, even though he has no police record. She was awakened by neighbors one night who told her the police were engaging her son outside. She got out of bed, dressed and went outside.
Even though he had a Cannabis card for the legal possession of marijuana, he was arrested and taken to jail. She had to pay $3,000.00 for bail and $5,000.00 for a lawyer.
Her son is now suffering trauma and apparently is harassed almost daily when he comes home from work. He begs his mother to move from the home she owns and where her family has lived for over a half century. The mother refuses to move, after all she owns the home and only must pay taxes,plus she is retired and a widow on a fixed income. She has no desire to have a house payment, for she cannot afford it.
The little money she had saved was lost when the stock market fell due to the Wall Street pyramid scheme. So she must now deal with a son in terror of coming home from work each night. She has not been able to convince him to rid himself of his fear. Her only fear is that he will be stopped alone by the police and her son will fail the tone test (depending on ones tone of voice, when stopped by the police, one of three things can happen: one can be killed, arrested or released). Her son has not taken quietly to harassment under the color of law.
But she says if anything happens to her son she will react in a manner of those mothers during the 60s. Unlike her son, she is fearless and will respond in the manner of a warrior woman. She will not go out without taking somebody with her, she swears on the blood of Jesus!
The mother wants to know where can she and other elderly persons go for help when confronted with problems such as police harassment of their children?
We think the police of America should be aware of this mother's cry and get prepared to make radical changes in their behavior, for they may soon face the wrath of a people who say enough is enough, just as the people in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain are doing at this hour. The oppressive police in those land shall soon be accountable in the court of people's justice for their abuse under the color of law.
We know the police are nothing but an occupying army in our community. They are another gang of thugs who practice wickedness under the color of law. The days of wickedness are soon to end once they people overcome fear as they did during the
60s, especially here in the Bay Area with the Black Panther Party and as they are doing throughout the Middle East and North Africa at this hour.
The Black Panthers said one is either part of problem or part of the solution. It is past time for the police of America to cease their reign of terror, harassing black and other minority men. We have seen them in action from Oakland to New York, stopping black men at will and asking for ID, are you probation or parole, then releasing them, sometimes taking their money, jewelry and any drugs. Often the men are severely beaten before they are released, not to mention the brothers and sisters who are victims of homicide under the color of law, killed in cold blood like Oakland's Oscar Grant and so many others coast to coast.
It may not be long before the courts of the people will hold accountable all those officers who have blood on their hands. There is no hiding place!
--Marvin X,
4/23/11
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