Race & Racism (News)
Mehserle Probe Latest in BART’s Race Problems
Dateline:
07/13/2010Source:
California Progress Report New America Media
Is BART the most racist transit agency in the nation?
That’s a question Bay Area residents should be asking after the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday that it was opening an investigation into the transit agency’s handling of BART police officer Johannes Mehserle’s fatal shooting of Oscar Grant. The investigation, which the Justice Department confirms is being launched together with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco. But it is not the first effort by the Obama administration to rein in BART over civil rights.
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Congresswoman Barbara Lee Urges DOJ Action in the Johannes Mehserle Verdict
Dateline:
07/13/2010Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) has called for a thorough and expeditious review of the Johannes Mehserle murder trial by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Mehserle, a former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Thursday in the Jan. 1, 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant III.
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"MY SON WAS MURDERED"--GRANT'S MOM
Dateline:
07/09/2010Source:
Colorlines 
In a press conference outside the Los Angeles courthouse
immediately after the verdict was announced, Oscar Grant's family spoke
out about the verdict, calling it a "great disappointment." Oscar
Grant's mother Wanda Johnson said ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle's
conviction of involuntary manslaughter felt like being "slapped in the
face by a system that has denied us true justice."
Johnson spoke unexpectedly, adding her thoughts at the close of the family's press conference. "My son was murdered. He was murdered. He was murdered. He was murdered," she said, calm but forceful, enunciating every word and looking straight into the dozens of news cameras that had gathered outside the courthouse.
On New Year's Day 2009, Mehserle shot the 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the back while he lay face down on a BART train platform. Grant, who had his arms behind his back when Mehserle shot him, was unarmed.
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Oakland Airport Connector Ignored Civil Rights Laws
Dateline:
03/31/2010Source:
SF Chronicle A project isn't "shovel-ready" until it is fair. Agencies receiving federal funds are legally obligated to ensure that low-income and diverse communities share fairly in the benefits of that funding. To do so requires analysis and community involvement. BART failed to live up to these responsibilities.
The City We All Want to Live In
Dateline:
03/04/2010Source:
Yes! The first American metropolises emerged after World War II, the result of a publicly subsidized mass exodus of white populations that coincided with the migration of blacks from the cotton and sugar fields of the American South to the cities of the North and West. Over the years, segregation in housing and in education increased, and today the nation’s public schools are more segregated than they were decades ago.
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Chinese report documents human rights disaster in the United States
Dateline:
03/19/2010Source:
IndyBay The United States is the only country in the world that claims to be superior in every aspect, especially in human rights, and that lie is again exposed, this time by a report from China on the United States, all from US sources. The US is in fact a backward cesspool, the most backward country in the industrialized world.
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Obama Administration Denies BART $70M in Stimulus Funds Citing Civil Rights Failures
Dateline:
02/12/2010Source:
Public Advocates/Urban Habitat
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2010
Obama Administration Denies BART $70M in Stimulus Funds, Citing Civil Rights Failures Funds Shift to Bay Area Transit Operations
Federal Transit Administration Chief Peter Rogoff today [February 12] sent a letter to BART and MTC rejecting BART’s corrective action plan to address Title VI violations found in an investigation prompted by a complaint from civil rights, transportation and environmental advocates. Due to action taken by MTC at its January meeting, the funding will now be reallocated to transit projects across the Bay Area, where it is desperately needed to preserve jobs and transit service.
In the first action of its kind, the Obama Administration has pulled $70 million in federal stimulus funds from a proposed Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project due to multiple civil rights violations by the Bay Area Rapid Transit district (BART). The strong action underscores a recent promise made in the President’s State of the Union address to continue “prosecuting civil rights violations.”
Letters to Haiti
Dateline:
02/04/2010Letters for Haiti,
H … is for Hell because that’s what you going through
A … is for Angel because God got his hands on you
I … is for Intelligence because you learn from what you’ve been through
T … is for Time because that’s what’s going to heal you
I … is for Infinite because you will live on forever.
- Dennis
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Obama Administration Threatens to Yank Stimulus Funds Over Civil Rights
Dateline:
01/29/2010Source:
New America Media
For the first time since President Obama signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act a year ago, his administration has threatened to withhold stimulus money from a transit agency because it failed to comply with federal civil rights laws.
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) threatened to pull $70 million in stimulus funds from Northern California’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system because it failed to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI prohibits agencies that receive federal funds from discriminatory practices.
