Day: January 3, 2015

Categories
Politics

New York Police Officers Salute Mayor DeBlasio at Slain Officer’s Wake

The first time around when the mayor went to pay his respects to one of New York’s fallen heroes, the rest of the New York police department allowed their union leader to get the best of them, and showered the mayor with the uttermost disrespect – turning their backs on the man as he attended the funeral.

But something has changed, and today as the mayor made his way through the wake of the second fallen officer, he was saluted by other police officers at the scene, thanks in part to a stern letter written by Police Commissioner, Bill Bratton.

Ahead of the wake for Wenjian Liu, Commissioner Bill Bratton told officers to refrain from the “act of disrespect” seen at the funeral of Liu’s partner, Rafael Ramos, when thousands of officers turned their backs on de Blasio.

“A hero’s funeral is about grieving, not grievance,” Bratton wrote in a memo to be read on police roll calls over the weekend. The funeral is set for Sunday.

Liu, 32, and Ramos, 40, were shot to death on Dec. 20 as they sat in their squad car in Brooklyn. Their killer, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who killed himself soon after, had said he was seeking to avenge the deaths this summer of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers.

On Saturday, a few hundred mourners, most of them police officers in dress blue uniforms, lined up outside the funeral home on a frigid, snowy afternoon.

De Blasio and Bratton entered the funeral home together shortly after it opened, with officers standing guard by the entrance saluting both men as they went inside. The wake was closed to the public.

Categories
Politics trayvon martin

Wearing a Hoodie in Oklahoma Could Cost You $500 – #PoliceState

Image © George Kavanagh via Getty Images (Gettystock)

Where are all the small government Republicans? Why are they so quiet? Here is a state that is about to tell its residents what they can and cannot wear. How is this not an intrusion of government.

But wait, the political leaders in Oklahoma are Republicans. I guess that makes it okay to turn the state into a police-state.

Carry on small government Republicans, carry on!

Oklahoma residents are concerned that a proposed bill would make it a crime to wear a hooded sweatshirt, or hoodie, in public on many occasions, according to local news station KFOR.

The wearing of hoods or similar head coverings during the commission of a crime has been against state law since the 1920s, with the original intent of curbing violence perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan. But the new proposal would also ban an individual from intentionally concealing “his or her identity in a public place by means of a robe, mask, or other disguise” even if he or she were not involved in a crime. Violation of the proposed law would constitute a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine up to $500.

The bill’s language includes exemptions for religious garments, weather protection, safety or medical purposes, parades, Halloween celebrations, masquerade parties, “minstrel troupes,” circuses, sporting groups, mascots or “other amusements or dramatic shows.” But several residents who spoke to KFOR expressed concern that the language was still overly broad and could be easily misconstrued to ban hooded sweatshirts on any occasion.

“I think this is a violation of an individual’s right to chose what they want to wear as long as it doesn’t violate the realm of public decency and moral values, and I think this could be very problematic,” Oklahoma City attorney James Siderias said.

“They might have personal issues for keeping them on; they might have a bad hair day or maybe they have cancer or they’re losing their hair. You just don’t know why,” Tracy Wehagen said.

The bill’s author, state Sen. Don Barrington (R), said that the goal is simply to help deter crime.

Categories
BLM God Tid Bits

“I Met God, She’s Black”

Things that make you go hmmmmm!

What does God look like?

Renaissance artists painted God into their own cultures, often giving him the white skin and flowing golden hair of a European aristocrat.

But that traditional image has been challenged by many over the centuries. This age-old question is now picking up steam on Facebook, particularly in the light of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Dylan Chenfeld, a self-described Jewish atheist, is throwing his ideas into the mix.

“I Met God, She’s Black,” Chenfield says in posters that he’s allegedly pasted all over Manhattan during the past few days.

The 21-year-old doesn’t claim to have invented the phrase, saying the trope has existed for quite some time. He’s just the one who decided to put it on a $30 T-shirt.

In fact, William P. Young, author of The Shack, pictured God as an African American woman named Elouisa. Black feminist Ntozake Shange, in her poem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enough,” says, “I found God in myself, and I loved her fiercely.”

But what does an Upper West side-raised Jewish guy have to do with all of this?

The slogan has certainly become a source of business for Chenfield. When he initially started printing the shirts about one year ago, he says many of his buyers were white. He’s also gotten celebrities like Drake and Cara Delevingne to be photographed wearing his shirt.

“I like poking fun at sacred cows,” Chenfield told HuffPost. “I’m taking the idea that God is a white male and doing the opposite of that, which is a black woman.”

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