By Teria Rogers
Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper

(NNPA) Community activists and politicians staged an anti-violence demonstration –billed a March for Peace– on April 13 to protest violence and senseless shootings in the city by marching to the Tyler House apartment building, the scene of a drive-by shooting in March that left 13 people wounded.

“Thirteen people got shot about five blocks away and somebody decided to use violence as a tool for getting revenge,” said Joyce Robinson-Paul, ANC Commissioner 5E, as the marchers began to gather near coffee shop in the Bloomingdale neighborhood. “We’re saying stop the violence and get with the peace. It’s going to be a long, hot summer and we’re trying to start early in the spring.”

The “March for Peace” comes on the heels of two recent shooting deaths in the city: 24 year-old Mikal Hudnall on April 12 and 16 year-old Darius Cannon on April 7. Both men were killed in Southeast. Cannon was the first person under 18 to be shot and killed in the District in 2013.

This year the city has reported 19 homicides, a decrease from the 20 homicides reported at this same time in 2012, according to D.C. police statistics. Last year the city recorded 88 homicides for the entire year, the first time homicides dropped below 100 since the 1960’s, according to Homicide Watch D.C., a web site that covers every murder in the District.

While homicides have dropped, violent crime and shootings continue to be frequent occurrences. This year police have reported 557 assaults with dangerous weapons, a decrease from the 584 in 2012 at this time. 2012 overall recorded 2,356 of these violent crimes, an increase from the 2,213 recorded in 2011. (CQ)

The March for Peace organizers say they are worried about homicides, shootings and all violent crimes and want the community to be more vigilant to stem these types of incidents.

“We have to put more focus on responding to these crimes,” said Silas Grant, Jr., march co-organizer and ANC Commissioner 5E. “We felt it important to remind people as we approach the summer that we’re not afraid to be in our own communities. The more that we’re out, the more we can prevent the violence.”

A diverse group of marchers assembled in front of the Big Bear Café on First Street near Rhode Island Avenue N.W. drinking tea and coffee before walking down First Street NW. Several held signs with different messages such as “We have the power to make peace,” and “Real Men Make Peace in Our Streets.”

Among the marchers were Council members Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), David Grosso (D-At-Large) and Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5) who said the city can do more to help communities struggling with violent crime.

“We’ve got resources in the city, particularly given how flush our coffers are with money, to address some of the shortcomings that exist in these communities,” said McDuffie. “It’s about aligning the public resources with the need that exists in the community. We need to do a better job of that.”

Community activist and march co-0organizer Tony Lewis Jr. agrees with McDuffie that elected officials are not adequately addressing crime.

“Especially in light of the response when 13 people got shot in our city and the mayor doesn’t even respond,” Lewis said. “He just said nothing and I think that has further implications about the value of life in communities like Tyler House.”

As the crowd rounded the corner of North Capitol and M Street NW nearing the front of Tyler House, they stopped to observe the spot where the shooting occurred.

In the early morning hours of March 11 the Fur nightclub near the intersection of Patterson and North Capitol Street NE was letting out. Several people had crossed North Capitol and were standing outside of the Tyler House apartment building. Two cars speeding south on North Capitol Street opened fire on people standing outside the building and 13 were shot. D.C. Police charged Craig Steve Wilson, 19, of Southeast with assault with attempt to kill in the mass shooting.

As the marchers walked up the busy North Capitol Street past the Tyler House, they held signs that read “Honk For Peace In Our Streets.” Some cars driving by started to honk frantically in noisy displays of support.

A few of the marchers, including Deneira Owens, 28, brought along their children. She said she also feels it is time for the blame game on city crime to end.

“Before anything, I’m a mom. I want peaceful streets for my sons,” said Owens, a mother of twin nine-year olds. “We gotta get to a point where we’re all working together to solve the problems and stop pointing fingers at who’s to blame for the problem.”

Did police use excessive force in containing distraught family members?

By Gregory W. Wright
Special to the NNPA from The Miami Times

The police still have no answers in the recent shooting of Brandon Walker, 25. But family and community members are incensed after grief turned into chaos when police fought with the victim’s distraught relatives who had rushed onto the crime scene.

Walker, had been shot multiple times and died on the sidewalk beside his bicycle in front of an Overtown apartment [2191 NW Third Ave.] a week ago Tuesday. But a video shot from a Total Traffic Network chopper showed that as his two brothers, Anthony and Antwan Walker, charged the crime scene assumedly to uncover their brother’s body, they were met with the blows of homicide detective Fernando Bosch and other City of Miami police officers intent on keeping the crime scene intact. In the end, even the victim’s mother, Vernita Mincey, was handcuffed and arrested, along with her sons, when she tried to lift the tarp to see her son’s body.

Activist Georgia Ayers says her phone has been ringing ever since with calls from Overtown residents that say they are angry and fed up. So, Ayers, 85, invited Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa to her home to discuss the situation and the possible community backlash. In their meeting, Orosa first cleared up earlier erroneous reports that Bosch’s actions had been cleared as justifiable by the Miami Police Department. Orosa explained that there was indeed an active Internal Affairs investigation currently underway into the incident.

“I can assure you that there will be a thorough investigation, and if the officer was wrong, he will be punished,” Orosa said. “I am not afraid to punish people — my record has shown that.”

But according to Priscilla Dames, chairperson of the Miami-Dade Black Affairs Advisory Board and a specialist in conflict resolution, the problem goes far beyond a punch thrown by one officer.

“There is disrespect for our Black males,” she said. “And I just don’t think the police handled the situation properly, especially in handcuffing and arresting the two brothers of the victim.”

Both men were subsequently charged with “battery on a police officer.”

And despite Orosa’s promise for a thorough investigation, Dames says, “We cannot continue to have investigation, after investigation, after investigation. At some point, there have to be repercussions.”

The Black Affairs Advisory Board has sent a letter to Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, requesting a meeting with the Commissioner, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and Orosa to discuss the incident and potential damage to community relations.

Allegations have been made that Walker was in the area conducting illegal transactions. But his family vehemently denied such claims.

“People are losing focus because they are angry at the police,” Mincey said. “I’m going to go after the police officer, there’s no joke about that. For two days both of my sons were in jail. For right now, if you want to help us, help us by going to the police with any information you have about who shot and killed my son.”

Anthony Walker, a minister at New Jerusalem Primitive Baptist Church, who received several punches to the face from Bosch, said: “Don’t think that we’re sleeping on the situation, because we are not. But right now our focus is on working with the police to find the killer. A little information is better than no information. And for the record, Brandon wasn’t in Overtown to sell drugs. He was there to see his six-month-old son. His son was his heart.”

If you have any information regarding the murder of Brandon Walker, you may call the Miami Police Department, (305) 603-6640, or Crime-Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477). Callers may remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.

By Charles D. Ellison
Special to the NNPA from The Philadelphia Tribune

As fresh April rains, cherry blossoms and the Boston Marathon bombing converged into a frenetic Washington week, the White House attempted some legislative multi-tasking. President Barack Obama pushed an ambitious mix of gun control and immigration reform, and continued backroom negotiations over a fiscal year 2014 budget package.

All this against the backdrop of soothing the mourning Boston victims, calming fears of a larger scale attack when ricin-laced letters were intercepted in Washington, and busily going about the business of meeting his earlier public promise to marathon bombing suspects that, “We will find you.”

What was not lost on observers was the ease with which the White House cemented a centrist approach. On every major legislative push, from gun control to immigration reform to wrangling over the details of next fiscal year’s budget, Obama is mapping out a middle road.

Charles S. Konigsberg, president of the Federal Budget Group, understands that approach. Konigsberg worked on both sides of the aisle in the Senate — as Republican counsel for the Senate Budget Committee and Democratic General Counsel for Senate Finance, as well as counsel in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. “Framing the ‘sensible center’ on difficult issues is the essence of effective leadership,” asserts Konigsberg. “The president is the only public official representing all Americans, and has a responsibility to forge a middle ground when the Congress is gridlocked over important issues like the budget, gun control and immigration.”

David Bositis disagrees. A senior analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Bositis can’t see this approach “going anywhere.”

“I think his political strategy is to set a stage where the GOP can be made to look ultra-right and intransigent in their politics,” argues Bositis.

Yet, making the GOP look “ultra-right” suggests the president is working in conjunction with hungry Democrats eager to either make gains or, at least, hold the electoral line in 2014. National Priorities Project Research Director Mattea Kramer seems on the fence with that notion when examining the president’s fiscal year 2014 budget, a massive late-dropping tome that’s been met with resentment from all sides. “He didn’t do his party any favors,” observes Kramer.

“It’s not all that clear that this centrist position will help him accomplish anything in terms of policy goals,” says Kramer, noting the president has more than likely “exposed himself to attack from both the left and right.”

“He very much alienated his left base, and Republicans are calling it an attack on seniors.”

Even with the president pressing a full scale lobbying assault for gun control, there was no indication he realistically envisioned an assault weapons ban — but, in the lauded compromise bill between Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), there was definitely hope of a bipartisan sweet spot on universal background checks. A recent Economist/YouGov poll showed 77 percent of Americans favoring extended background checks, including 68 percent of Republicans.

The White House is also hedging its bets for an eventual middle ground deal on immigration reform. While immigration advocates and business leaders alike expressed concerns over strict “trigger” measures and heavy bureaucracy on the path to citizenship, Senate negotiators were embracing the compromise elements of a bill that appeared to have a better chance of passage than gun control.

In each instance, the White House aims to give as much political wiggle room for weary Senate Democrats and Republicans heading into what will be a bombastic Congressional mid-term season next year. On gun control, an assault weapons ban would have been political suicide for any Republican voting for it, and even for many rural or red state Democrats supporting it. On immigration, Republicans need a bill with rigid citizenship and border security provisions to keep their angry conservative base under control; Democrats just need the cover to keep their Senate majority and possibly regain the House. On the budget, there are no winners, with both Democrats and Republicans miffed on everything from entitlement cuts to tax increases.

Ultimately, however, the White House is hoping no one is happy so all parties can walk away knowing their opponent only got as much as they did. “The essence of compromise on contentious issues requires that everyone put skin in the game,” adds Konigsberg.

Many observers, however, are still torn over whether or not compromise gives President Obama the kind of change-agent legacy he wants.

“His ongoing tendency to cede ground when it’s unnecessary is unfortunate from a political, policy and human impact perspective,” complains Maya Rockeymoore, president and CEO of Global Policy Solutions, a social change strategy firm in Washington, D.C. “President Obama’s proposed cuts to Social Security, veterans benefits and other federally-issued benefit programs through the introduction of the ‘chained CPI’ represents a capitulation to big business interests, who for decades have been calling for cuts to these programs, or in the case of Social Security, for privatization.”

Rockeymoore believes that will be “politically toxic for Congressional Democrats” in 2014 given that the demographics most impacted by these changes typically vote Democrat. “[They] will be seeking to court seniors, veterans, and other voters who depend on these programs and will be hit hardest by these cuts.”

However, Scott Lilly, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a former senior Congressional staffer, sees advantages in what he senses are the president’s use of “different strategies in different situations.”

“A president who is dealing with an intransigent Congress can gain advantage by making a reasonable or even generous offer knowing that it will not be accepted and in the end there will be no deal,” notes Lilly, who also served as Executive Director of the House Democratic Study Group. “He may not get the deal he wants but he will leave less doubt in the public’s mind as to who is being unreasonable.”

“On the other hand, making a reasonable offer at the outset of negotiations can seriously weaken the prospect that the agreement will reflect the president’s priorities.”

By Tony Best
Special to the NNPA from the New York Carib News

To the retired police officer in Brooklyn, the news was shocking, virtually impossible to comprehend.

“We were at a meeting of the Caribbean Law Enforcement Officers Association about a week ago and she was her usual quiet self,” recalled Leroy Hutchinson, a Bajan who left the New York Police Department a year ago after decades of service. “She was a professional and a loving mother. Now, it’s all over and we don’t really know the reason why. I hadn’t seen her for some time and we were happy to meet once again.”

Hutchinson, a highly regarded cop in the East Flatbush community, was reflecting on the murder-suicide which left off-duty police officer Rosette Samuels, her one year old son, Dylan, and the child’s father, 33 year old Dayson Peters, a Guyanese immigrant dead. Police say Samuels, who was from St. Vincent, shot and killed her child, her boyfriend and then herself in her apartment on East 56th Street in the mostly West Indian neighborhood of Flatlands on Monday morning.

There could have been a fourth victim of what the NYPD and residents of the area are calling an unfathomable tragedy. Samuels, who became a cop in September 2000 had 19 year old son from a previous relationship and he was asleep in a rear bedroom when he was awaken by gunshots and fled through a bedroom window, apparently saving his own life. It was the officer’s son who called 911 around 8.30 a.m. and met the cops in front of the house when they responded. Once inside, they found the off-duty cop’s body face up, along with that of her child on the bed. The boyfriend’s body was inside the rented apartment.

“It was a tough crime scene,” said Paul Browne, the NYPD’s chief spokesman.

What has perplexed Hutchinson, relatives, neighbors and officers was that no one saw the events coming.

“I couldn’t have imagined something like this happening. I never thought that when I saw her last week, it was going to be the last time I was seeing her alive,” was the way Hutchinson put it. “It was terribly upsetting.”

Eighty three year old Agnes Samuel, who lives next door to the scene of the killings and is an aunt of Officer Samuels, was left speechless.

“I never heard them have an argument,” she said of the officer and her boyfriend, a track maintenance supervisor of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

A cousin of Peters described him as an “excited” father who loved doing things with his son. As a matter of fact on the morning of their deaths, father and child were scheduled to go swimming in an indoor pool near their home.

“Every Monday morning they swim,” said the cousin who also supported the aunt’s statement that a quarrel couldn’t have triggered the deadly rampage.

“Never,” the cousin told reporters when asked if there was a history of quarreling between the two lovers.

Samuels was assigned to the 108th precinct in Queens and Brown, the NYPD spokesman, said there was nothing in her file that would have raised red flags about the likelihood of a deadly shooting incident in the offing.

Peters mother couldn’t make head or tails about what caused it.

“He’s my son. He’s my everything. Oh Father! Oh God. What a loving son I have,” she said.

The NYPD said that Samuels used her off-duty gun, a 9-milimeter Glock firearm that she was authorized to carry when she was off duty, to kill her victims.

Ionie Brown-Johnson, a 73 year old neighbor, said that from all appearances the West Indian cop was a loving and caring mother.

“She walks along with the baby in her arms, she looks loving with the baby,” asserted Brown-Johnson, “I’m shaking. I am asking myself, “how could this happen”?

Hutchinson too can’t find answers. “We are shaking our heads in disbelief.”