400 Years Since 1619

Thursday, October 17, 2019

The NRA remains silent on the murder of Atatiana Jefferson

The National Rifle Association has been tight-lipped in its defense of Atatiana Jefferson, a Black woman who legally owned a gun she used to defend her family in their home when she was shot and killed by a white cop.

The NRA is notorious for speaking out in support of legal gun owners and were key players is getting the castle doctrine legislation passed Texas in 2007, which protects people who use deadly force to protect themselves while in their own home, according to The Associated Press.

According to Jefferson’s nephew, his aunt heard noises and grabbed her gun from her purse likely to assess if a prowler was outside. Jefferson was fatally shot and killed by former Fort Worth Texas police officer Aaron Dean, who fired a single shot through her bedroom window.

Jefferson, 28, who legally owned a gun, pointed her weapon “toward the window” and was shot and killed, the nephew said, according to the arrest-warrant affidavit.

The nephew watched as his aunt fell to the ground. She was pronounced dead at 3:05 a.m. on Saturday. Police body cam footage failed to show the officer barking out any commands to announce his presence.

The NRA has remained mum on the high-profile case and Jefferson’s actions as protected under the castle doctrine.

“And where is the NRA?” with Rep. Mac Veasey (D-Texas) tweeted Monday. “Once again they prove to the world that rigorous defense of [the Second Amendment] doesn’t extend to black America.”

The ofcr resigning is not good enough! @tarrantcountyda should file charges now and he should be behind bars! And where is the @NRA? Once again they prove to the world that rigorous defense of 2nd Amd doesn’t extend to black America. Justice4 #AtatianaJefferson https://t.co/fOIVgBDZeG

— Marc Veasey (@MarcVeasey) October 14, 2019

Jefferson’s home is in Veasey’s district.

Interim chief of Fort Worth police Ed Kraus believes it was the homeowner’s right, and defends the decision that ultimately cost Jefferson her life.

“It’s only appropriate that Ms. Jefferson would have a gun,” Kraus said at a news conference Tuesday, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Kraus contends that it “makes sense” that Jefferson was armed.

“When you think there’s someone prowling around in the back at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, you may need to arm yourself. That person could have a gun.”

“We’re homeowners in Texas,” Kraus said. “Most of us, if we thought we had somebody outside our house that shouldn’t be and we had access to a firearm, we would be acting very similarly to how she was acting.”

“It’s only appropriate that Ms. Jefferson would have a gun,” the family’s attorney Lee Merritt said at a news conference.

“When you think there’s someone prowling around in the back at 2 in the morning, you may need to arm yourself. That person could have a gun.”

The post The NRA remains silent on the murder of Atatiana Jefferson appeared first on theGrio.

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Innocence Project New Orleans: A Man Wrongly Imprisoned for 42 Years Is Forced to Trade the Truth for His Freedom

A New Orleans man who’s long maintained he was wrongly convicted of murder experienced freedom for the first time in 42 years after a virtual deal with the devil won him his liberty, if not true justice.

Powerful Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings has died

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a sharecropper’s son who rose to become the powerful chairman of a U.S. House committee that investigated President Donald Trump, died early Thursday of complications from longstanding health issues, his office said. He was 68.

Cummings was a formidable orator who passionately advocated for the poor in his black-majority district , which encompasses a large portion of Baltimore as well as more well-to-do suburbs.

As chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Cummings led multiple investigations of the president’s governmental dealings, including probes in 2019 relating to the president’s family members serving in the White House.

Cummings was a formidable orator who passionately advocated for the poor in his black-majority district , which encompasses a large portion of Baltimore as well as more well-to-do suburbs.

Trump responded by criticizing the Democrat’s district as a “rodent-infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” The comments came weeks after Trump drew bipartisan condemnation following his calls for Democratic congresswomen of color to get out of the U.S. “right now,” and go back to their “broken and crime-infested countries.”

Cummings replied that government officials must stop making “hateful, incendiary comments” that only serve to divide and distract the nation from its real problems, including mass shootings and white supremacy.

“Those in the highest levels of the government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior,” Cummings said in a speech at the National Press Club.

Cummings’ long career spanned decades in Maryland politics. He rose through the ranks of the Maryland House of Delegates before winning his congressional seat in a special election in 1996 to replace former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who left the seat to lead the NAACP.

Cummings was an early supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential bid in 2008. By 2016, Cummings was the senior Democrat on the House Benghazi Committee, which he said was “nothing more than a taxpayer-funded effort to bring harm to Hillary Clinton’s campaign” for president.

Throughout his career, Cummings used his fiery voice to highlight the struggles and needs

of inner-city residents. He was a firm believer in some much-debated approaches to help the poor and addicted, such as needle exchange programs as a way to reduce the spread of AIDS.

A key figure in the Trump impeachment inquiry , Cummings had been hoping to return to Congress after a medical procedure he said would only keep him away for a week. His statement then didn’t detail the procedure. He had previously been treated for heart and knee issues.

His constituents began mourning shortly after his death at 2:45 a.m. Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

In a statement, his widow, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, chairwoman of Maryland’s Democratic Party, said “Congressman Cummings was an honorable man who proudly served his district and the nation with dignity, integrity, compassion and humility. He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation’s diversity was our promise, not our problem.”

Cummings was born Jan. 18, 1951. In grade school, a counselor told Cummings he was too slow to learn and spoke poorly, and he would never fulfill his dream of becoming a lawyer.

“I was devastated,” Cummings told The Associated Press in 1996, shortly before he won his seat in Congress. “My whole life changed. I became very determined.”

It steeled Cummings to prove that counselor wrong. He became not only a lawyer, but one of the most powerful orators in the statehouse, where he entered office in 1983. He rose to become the first black House speaker pro tem. He would begin his comments slowly, developing his theme and raising the emotional heat until it became like a sermon from the pulpit.

Cummings was quick to note the differences between Congress and the Maryland General Assembly, which has long been controlled by Democrats.

“After coming from the state where, basically, you had a lot of people working together, it’s clear that the lines are drawn here,” Cummings said about a month after entering office in Washington in 1996.

Cummings chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 2003 to 2004, employing a hard-charging, explore-every-option style to put the group in the national spotlight.

He cruised to big victories in the overwhelmingly Democratic district, which had given Maryland its first black congressman in 1970 when Parren Mitchell was elected.

The post Powerful Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings has died appeared first on theGrio.

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Elijah Cummings, the Longtime Congressman From Maryland, Is Dead at 68

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the long-serving Democratic congressman from Maryland, died early Thursday morning at the age of 68.

Elder Fight Club: Staffers at Assisted-Living Facility Are Accused of Pitting Dementia Patients Against One Another

Three women who worked at a North Carolina elder-care facility have been arrested on charges they baited elderly dementia patients into fighting one another.

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