Crime

Facing the Assault on Civil Rights

Published

7 years ago

July 11, 2017

The Trump administration has launched an unprecedented rollback of civil rights and voting rights. Those who care about building a more perfect union face harsh headwinds.

We’ve gone from an administration seeking to fulfill these rights to one seeking to repeal these rights.

Instead of a reconstruction, we are faced with a retrenchment, an effort to radically reverse the gains that have been made by women, people of color and the LGBTQ community.

Instead of understanding that expanding civil rights is a vital therapy to heal this nation, the Trump administration views it as a threat to its rule.

The rollback is government wide. The Labor Department has announced plans to disband the division that polices discrimination among federal contractors as a “cost cutting measure.”

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate the environmental justice program that focuses on the environmental threats to minority communities. The Education Department is decimating staffing of its Office of Civil Rights.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has revoked guidance on a rule that allows transgender people to stay in sex-segregated shelters matching their gender identity.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, formerly a senator representing Alabama, has led the rollback. The DOJ has reversed its opposition to a Texas discriminatory voter ID law.

Sessions has announced that he would review consent decrees that the Obama Justice Department made to reform police departments.

Sessions has ordered U.S. prosecutors to seek the maximum sentences, while moving to revive private prisons. The administration is gearing up for a national assault on voting rights, pushing measures that will make voting more difficult.

Women, people of color, the poor and the LGBTQ are the targets and the direct victims of this assault. But the entire country will suffer, as basic rights are denied, prisons are expanded, and hopes and dreams are stuffed out.

In Chicago this week, leaders from across the country will gather for the annual Rainbow Push National Summit. We will use this time to map out our response to this assault on all that we have fought for. Now is the time for citizens of conscience to join together to defend and expand basic civil rights.

We will work to defend voting rights, building the movement to add the federal right to vote to the U.S. Constitution. As some move to constrict voting, we will move to expand it.

Illinois is about to become the ninth state to pass automatic voter registration, with the potential addition of an estimated 1 million voters to the voting rolls. We will push to pass automatic voter registration in states across the union. If successful, we will add a stunning 51 million new voters to the rolls.

We will demand that President Trump fulfill his promise to invest $1 trillion in rebuilding America, helping to generate real jobs doing vital things that need to be done.

We will defend sanctuary cities providing some support for undocumented workers with children.

As the Department of Justice retreats from the enforcement of civil rights, we will expand the pressure on corporations and governments to adhere to equal employment opportunity from the boardroom to the basement, from their contracts to philanthropy.

Dr. Martin Luther King taught us that “human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable . . . Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle — the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”

Now, in this headwind of injustice, it is time for the tribunes of justice to move forward. Now is the time for citizens of conscience to come to the aid of their country.

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‘Donald Trump Is Not a God:’ Rep. Bennie Thompson Blasts Trump’s Call to Jail Him

“Donald Trump is not a god,” U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told The Grio during a recent interview, reacting to Trump’s unsupported claims that the congressman, along with other committee members like vice chair and former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, destroyed evidence throughout the investigation.

Published

9 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Oakland Post

Congressman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. Courtesy photo.

By Post Staff

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he not intimidated by President-elect Donald Trump, who, during an interview on “Meet the Press,” called for the congressman to be jailed for his role as chairman of the special congressional committee investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“Donald Trump is not a god,” Thompson told The Grio during a recent interview, reacting to Trump’s unsupported claims that the congressman, along with other committee members like vice chair and former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, destroyed evidence throughout the investigation.

“He can’t prove it, nor has there been any other proof offered, which tells me that he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said the 76-year-old lawmaker, who maintained that he and the bipartisan Jan. 6 Select Committee – which referred Trump for criminal prosecution – were exercising their constitutional and legislative duties.

“When someone disagrees with you, that doesn’t make it illegal; that doesn’t even make it wrong,” Thompson said, “The greatness of this country is that everyone can have their own opinion about any subject, and so for an incoming president who disagrees with the work of Congress to say ‘because I disagree, I want them jailed,’ is absolutely unbelievable.”

When asked by The Grio if he is concerned about his physical safety amid continued public ridicule from Trump, whose supporters have already proven to be violent, Thompson said, “I think every member of Congress here has to have some degree of concern, because you just never know.”

This story is based on a report from The Grio.

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Oakland Post: Week of December 11 – 17, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 11 – 17, 2024

Published

5 days ago

December 13, 2024

Oakland Post

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Outgoing D.A. Pamela Price Releases Report on County Gun Violence Epidemic

The 84-page report is divided into two parts: the Public Health Impact of Violence and the Contribution of Structural Inequalities; and the Public Safety Impact of Gun Violence and the Regulation of Firearms. Each section documents trends in rising gun violence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with special attention to the rise in gun-related deaths of women and children in Alameda County. Each section advises innovative approaches for the County to address gun violence and build safe communities.

Published

1 week ago

December 8, 2024

Oakland Post

Exclusive interview with County D.A. Price days before recall election. Photo by Ken Epstein.

Pamela Price was recalled in the election on Nov. 5. File photo.

By Post Staff

Criminal Justice Reformer District Attorney Pamela Price, who is leaving office this week after losing a recall election, released a comprehensive report on the gun violence epidemic and public health emergency in Alameda County: “Tackling Gun Violence Epidemic in Alameda County: A Public Health Emergency (2019-2023).”

This report represents an unprecedented collaboration between public safety and public health partners and provides data and recommendations to guide the County’s continued work to reduce violence while advancing justice reform.

Each section documents trends in rising gun violence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with special attention to the rise in gun-related deaths of women and children in Alameda County. Each section advises innovative approaches for the County to address gun violence and build safe communities.

“Between 2019 to 2023, an average of three residents were killed by firearms each week in Alameda County, and behind every statistic is a shattered family and community,” said Price.

“Under my administration, the DA’s office has taken bold steps to combat gun violence while promoting equity and healing for survivors,” she said.

The report highlights strategies for keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Last month, the DA’s office secured a $5.5 million grant from the California Judicial Council to help improve compliance and case management for gun cases and gun relinquishment orders —the removal of guns from people prohibited from possessing a firearm – with law enforcement and court partners.

This effort builds on Price’s work in 2023 and 2024 in attacking the gun violence epidemic.

“We launched an innovative Gun Violence Restraining Order Outreach Project to educate communities about the availability of tools to remove guns and ammunition from people who are a danger to themselves and others and the intersectionality of domestic violence and gun violence and convened gun violence roundtable conversations with our law enforcement partners and collaborated with the Alameda County Public Health Department to produce this comprehensive report,” she said.

“We supported Oakland’s CEASEFIRE program through its transition and implemented a pilot Mentor Gun Diversion Program with our collaborative court partners, offering non-violent youth in possession of a gun pathways to interrupt the potential for escalating harm.” added Price.