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LAPD’s Latest Controversy

NNPA NEWSWIRE — A 2019 investigation by the LA Times found that the Metro Division stops Black and Latinx drivers five times more often than their White counterparts. Another investigation followed in October and discovered that across the entire LAPD – not just Metro Division – Black and Latinx drivers are being searched at rates 4-to-1 and 3-to-1, in comparison to White drivers, although officers found more contraband among White drivers.

Published

5 years ago

March 11, 2020

Oakland Post

According to the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory (RIPA) Board, the LAPD is almost double the disparity of the other eight largest policing units in the state of California. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)

Forging information on minority traffic stops

Isabell Rivera, Our Weekly Newspaper, Contributor

Just days into the New Year, and the Los Angeles Police Department already has a fire to put out. According to the LA Times, the LAPD’s elite Metropolitan (Metro) Division is being accused of allegedly forging information collected at random stops, falsely portraying innocent Black and Latinx citizens as gang members.

More than 12 officers are being investigated for entering wrong information to boost statistics. The sources claim that in one case, a body camera shows a different scene than the initial field interview cards. Some of the investigated officers have already been suspended from working the field.

A 2019 investigation by the LA Times found that the Metro Division stops Black and Latinx drivers five times more often than their White counterparts. Another investigation followed in October and discovered that across the entire LAPD – not just Metro Division – Black and Latinx drivers are being searched at rates 4-to-1 and 3-to-1, in comparison to White drivers, although officers found more contraband among White drivers.

According to the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory (RIPA) Board, the LAPD is almost double the disparity of the other eight largest policing units in the state of California.

South LA civic leaders, such as the PUSH LA “Reimagine Protect and Serve” coalition, demand that Chief Michel Moore remove Metro completely.

“We are calling on LAPD Chief Michel Moore to pull the Metro Division out of South Los Angeles immediately and take the steps toward eradicating it entirely for this corruption and past division-wide racist policing,” Community Coalition President and CEO Alberto Retana declared in a statement on behalf of PUSH LA. “There additionally needs to be serious consideration to ending the gang database.”

PUSH LA “Reimagine Protect and Serve” is a cross-sector coalition of 15 social justice organizations dedicated to ending racist policing in Los Angeles.

“The division is corrupt, racist, abusing its power, and purposefully distorting information,” Retana continued in his statement on behalf of PUSH LA. “They’re certainly not protecting and serving, a mantra that has long since lost truth for communities of color across Los Angeles and the United States.”

After the investigated reports, Metro said they’ll cut back on random vehicle stops and searches. Moore also agreed that Metro’s methods were not effective and costing innocent drivers who felt they had become targets of racial profiling. Metro is said to use other strategies to catch wanted suspects in connection with burglaries and shootings.

Moore explained in a released statement the reasoning for the investigation and responded, “An officer’s integrity must be absolute. There is no place in the department for any individual who would purposely falsify information on a department report.”

Recently, the LAPD released a statement explaining the investigation and what has prompted it.

In early 2019, a mother in San Fernando Valley was notified by the LAPD in a written letter that her son is allegedly a gang member. Believing that this must be a mistake, she took the matter to her local precinct, and reported the incident to a supervisor.

According to the statement by the LAPD, the reviewing supervisor stated, “body worn video and other information, finding inaccuracies in the documentation completed by an officer.”

As a result, the mother was informed that her son’s information will be removed completely from the data, and an internal investigation will be launched that involves the three officers who collected the data.

“Over the course of several months, Internal Affairs investigators have continued their investigation resulting in identifying additional inaccuracies in the documentation on field interview cards completed by those officers as well as others,” the statement by the LAPD declared. “Given the serious nature of the alleged misconduct, all involved officers have been assigned to inactive duty or removed from the field.”

According to the Police Protective League, those discrepancies on a restricted number of field interview cards are known to them, and the department will take a closer look. The department also supports Moore’s decision with confidence, stating that they “will oversee a thorough and fair process to determine the facts and to also ensure that any impacted officer is accorded his or her due process rights.”

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Fighting to Keep Blackness

BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 7, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum

Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”

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Rep. Al Green is Censured by The U.S. House After Protesting Trump on Medicaid

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

In one of the quickest punishments of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the modern era, Congressman Al Green (D-TX) was censured by a 224-198 vote today in the House. His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question. Of the last three censures of members of the U.S. House, two have been members of the Congressional Black Caucus under GOP control. In 2023, Rep. Jamal Bowman was censured.

On the night of March 4, as President Trump delivered a Joint Address to Congress, Rep. Green interrupted him twice. Rep. Green shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicare, and you need to raise the cap on social security,” to President Trump. In another rare event, Rep. Green was escorted off the House floor by security shortly after yelling at the President by order of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. Over the last four years, members of Congress have yelled at President Biden during the State of the Union. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene was joined by Republican Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) in 2022 in yelling at President Biden. In 2023, Rep. Greene, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) yelled at Biden, interrupting his speech. In 2024, wearing a red MAGA hat, a violation of the rules of the U.S. House, Greene interrupted Biden again. She was never censured for her behavior. Rep. Green voted “present” on his censure and was joined by freshman Democrat Congressman Shomari Figures of Alabama who also voted “present”.

All other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against censuring Green. Republicans hold a four-seat advantage in the U.S. House after the death of Texas Democrat and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner yesterday. Ten Democrats voted along with Republicans to censure Rep. Green, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is in the leadership as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I respect them but, I would do it again,” and “it is a matter of conscience,” Rep. Green told Black Press USA’s April Ryan in an exclusive interview on March 5. After the vote, a group of Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” in the well at the front of the House chamber. Several Republican members attempted to shout down the singing. House Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled the House out of session and into a recess. During the brief recess members moved back to their seats and out of the well of the House. Shortly after the vote to censor Rep. Green, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee quickly filed legislation to punish members who participated in the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” Earlier this year, Rep. Ogles filed legislation to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, which is currently unconstitutional. As the debate started, the stock market dove down over one-point hours from close. The jobs report will be made public tomorrow.

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Trump Moves to Dismantle Education Department

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

The Trump administration is preparing to issue an executive order directing newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education. While the president lacks the authority to unilaterally shut down the agency—requiring congressional approval—McMahon has been tasked with taking “all necessary steps” to reduce its role “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The administration justifies the move by claiming the department has spent over $1 trillion since its 1979 founding without improving student achievement. However, data from The Nation’s Report Card shows math scores have improved significantly since the 1990s, though reading levels have remained stagnant. The pandemic further widened achievement gaps, leaving many students behind.

The Education Department provides about 10% of public-school funding, primarily targeting low-income students, rural districts, and children with disabilities. A recent Data for Progress poll found that 61% of voters oppose Trump’s efforts to abolish the agency, while just 34% support it. In Washington, D.C., where student proficiency rates remain low—22% in math and 34% in English—federal funding is crucial. Serenity Brooker, an elementary education major, warned that cutting the department would worsen conditions in underfunded schools.

“D.C. testing scores aren’t very high right now, so cutting the Department of Education isn’t going to help that at all,” she told Hilltop News. A report from the Education Trust found that low-income schools in D.C. receive $2,200 less per student than wealthier districts, leading to shortages in essential classroom materials. The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

The Office for Civil Rights also plays a key role in enforcing laws that protect students from discrimination. Moving it to the Department of Justice, as proposed in Project 2025, would make it harder for families to file complaints, leaving vulnerable students with fewer protections. Federal student aid programs, including Pell Grants and loan repayment plans, could face disruption if the department is dismantled. Experts warn this could worsen the student debt crisis, pushing more borrowers into default. “With funding cuts, they don’t have the materials they need, like books or things to help with math,” Brooker said. “It makes learning less fun for them.”