A Tale of Two Unarmed Black Men Shot in Kentucky
Belief:
Atheists, It's Time to Stand Up to Jesus
Russell Blackford, Udo Schuklenk
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
As Foreclosure Nightmares Increase, Will More Homeowners Pay Off Their Bankers in Violence?
Scott Thill
DrugReporter:
Lies About Marijuana Drive People to a Much More Harmful Drug -- Booze
Steve Fox
Environment:
Why We Need Bees and More People Becoming Organic Beekeepers
Makenna Goodman
Food:
Despite Censorship By Beef Magnate, Michael Pollan Spreads Message About the Real Price of Cheap Food
Health and Wellness:
New York May Stop Heartless Health Insurers from Dropping Coverage When It Stops Being Profitable
William Ehart
Immigration:
NYC Marathon Raises Question of Who Is American Enough?
James E. Johnson, Jr.
Media and Technology:
Focusing on Fort Hood Killer's Beliefs Is an Easy Out to Avoid the Deeper Reasons for the Massacre
Mark Ames
Movie Mix:
The Yes Men: Pranksters Out to Fix the World
Mark Engler
Politics:
What Michelle and Barack's Marriage Has in Common with 56 Million Other Ones
Annabelle Gurwitch
Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Fetus-Shaped Potatoes? Going Undercover Inside the Weird World of Right-Wing Abortion Foes
Ann Neumann
Rights and Liberties:
"My Kids Want to Hide Their Identity; They're Scared Someone Will Attack Us": U.S. Muslims Being Targeted
Jaisal Noor
Sex and Relationships:
Instant Sex: Has the Digital Age Destroyed Relationships or Made Them Better?
Vanessa Richmond
Take Action:
G-20 Meetings: Nothing Much Happened in the Suites, and There Was Too Much Punch in the Streets
Laura Flanders
Water:
Why Natural Gas Is Not a Clean Energy Panacea
Stan Cox
World:
With Unemployment at 40 Percent, Afghan Teens Enlist in Army, Police
Lal Aqa Sherin
This week, a Kentucky grand jury declined to indict a police officer in the shooting of an unarmed black man; elsewhere in Kentucky an officer is fired for the same charge; and an Australian government pamphlet "tells the truth" about marijuana and schizophrenia.
April 15- The Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader reports: Although it expressed sympathy to the victim's family, a Letcher County grand jury yesterday declined to indict a Kentucky State Police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man during a January drug deal in Jenkins.
James E. Alexander, 62, of Roanoke, Va., was shot twice with an automatic rifle Jan. 14 by state police Sgt. Bobby Day during a drug investigation using undercover officers at a Jenkins house. There were reports afterward that Alexander was shot when he reached under his jacket for a cell phone, said Sgt. Phil Crumpton, a state police spokesman in Frankfort.
"You're looking at a high-stress situation when someone is given a specific order and he makes an aggressive move that we feel is a threat to us," Crumpton said. "That's what these things narrow down to."
Alexander's family members and friends appeared upset yesterday.
"If they didn't find any drugs on him or guns on him, how can they do that?" asked Alexander's uncle, James L. Alexander, 78, of Lebanon, Va.
The Virginia Department of Corrections had no record of Alexander being imprisoned. But his uncle said Alexander served several years in federal prison on a drug charge about 15 years ago.
Beverly Hunt, 38, of Roanoke, was outraged.
"Even if he was a drug dealer, how can they justify shooting James twice when he wasn't armed?" she asked, sobbing. "I was with James for two and a half years. He never carried a gun.
"They're just covering up. They've done it again. They've done it again. I've talked to the police and the way they were talking, I could tell they were thinking: We just got another black man off the street."
April 16- The Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader reports: A Louisville police officer who fatally shot a black man in the back was fired yesterday after the department ruled he violated policy on using deadly force.
"Your conduct is alarming and has damaged the bond which we have established with our community," Chief Robert White wrote in a termination letter to McKenzie Mattingly.
Mattingly has pleaded not guilty to murder in the Jan. 3 death of Michael Newby, 19, who was shot three times in the back. Mattingly is free on bond and has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.
"Specifically, I felt that Michael Newby was not an immediate threat to the officer's life or his physical well being," White said at a news conference. "Nor was any other person in the area clearly in immediate danger because of Newby's actions."
Mattingly, 31, was indicted March 5 on charges of murder and wanton endangerment. Civil rights activists and many black residents held protests and called on White to fire Mattingly, who is white.
Newby was the seventh black man to be fatally shot by Louisville police in the past five years. In the previous shootings, no officers were charged criminally or fired.
Police said the shooting occurred during an attempted under-cover drug buy. Mattingly told investigators he was robbed during the drug transaction. He tried to arrest Newby but the two became involved in a struggle, according to court records filed by prosecutors after Mattingly was indicted.
April 16- The Age (Australia) reports: The Howard Government's drug taskforce is launching a new offensive against marijuana, with a booklet that the taskforce's head says will "tell the truth" and combat the "trivialization" of the drug's dangers.
Australian National Council on Drugs chairman Brian Watters yesterday said a "pro-marijuana lobby" had successfully promoted the idea that cannabis was no more dangerous than alcohol and should be legalized. "I think there has been a really concerted effort in some quarters to trivialize its effects," he said. "The pro-marijuana lobby have done very well. They are very, very active."
Major Watters, a Salvation Army officer with extensive experience in drug management, said he was "very opposed" to marijuana, because he had seen the damage it did. Marijuana has been linked with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, but opinion differs on whether it causes psychosis or simply triggers latent mental illness.
Major Watters dismissed the distinction. "I've always said, 'Who cares?' If my son suddenly develops schizophrenia, I don't care whether the marijuana caused it or triggered it," he said. "The result is he has a great deal of turmoil in his mind."
Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »
| More News and Analysis: | ||
|
Lies About Marijuana Drive People to a Much More Harmful Drug -- Booze DrugReporter: Anti-pot propaganda drives most people to drink alcohol instead. But booze is far more dangerous than marijuana. By Steve Fox, AlterNet. November 9, 2009. |
Pentagon Pouring Your Money Into Afghanistan: Are They Preparing for a Very Long War? Forget the "debates" in Washington over Afghan War policy. Construction activity and the flow of money suggests that the Pentagon plans to be there for a long, long time. By Nick Turse, Tomdispatch.com. November 9, 2009. |
Tea Partiers' New Hero: Ex-KGB Agent Who Thinks U.S. Will Collapse Next Year Igor Panarin warns that the U.S. will splinter into separate states controlled by foreign powers in 2010. Conservative activists think he may be on to something. By Nick Baumann, Mother Jones Online. November 9, 2009. |
Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.