*UPDATED 12:24 PST
The post Super Bowl controversy stirred up by Beyoncé's halftime show, featuring excerpts of her edgy new video 'Formation,' has been met with heaps of vituperative attacks on the artist. Beyoncé is justifiably bothered by the fact that a Black Lives Matter movement is so important right now, to right a serious wrong in our society. Simply by sitting on a police car, she tries to draw attention to the real life problem of the rampant murder of unarmed black men. Her symbolic gesture does not automatically place her in the 'cop-hater' column, as a few morons would like you to believe.
The day after the Super Bowl, on Fox 'News' Rudy Giuliani admonished the artist instead of praising her fabulous performance. He really believes that who is she to complain about excessive, straight-up assassinations targeting a specific demographic? (Rudy's attitude: You'd think a 'Black' who's a woman would know her place).
GIULIANI: "What she should be doing, in the African-American community, and in all communities, is building up respect for police officers."
Yes Rudy, the abandonment of thousands of poor, Black, New Orleans residents during Katrina, then shooting 'looters' trying to survive was some fine policing. The rash of cold-blooded murders of Black men/youth like Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, and John Crawford III, to name just a few, should automatically open the hearts and minds of the Black community to the virtuosity of Police Departments everywhere? That sounds plausible, if you live in the Right Wing Bubble of Ficitional Race Relatons.
The pain and suffering experienced by hundreds of the families who have lost loved ones to police brutality, specifically unarmed Black males, is unimaginably sad. The grand jury process in the killing of twelve year old Tamir Rice was a horrible miscarriage of justice, to put it mildly. Both the Rice Family and legal experts agree, these proceedings were terribly unfair to the family. Now they are hitting up the family for an unpaid bill from the ambulance company, the one that essentially transported his lifeless body, whose end came too soon from an overzealous and incompetent police officer, who gets a small slap on the wrist for this tragic mistake.
The writers at the Cleveland Scene put together a fine report that asks real questions about the supsiciously sordid, grand jury process. Click here for the full article.
Subodh Chandra, the local attorney for the Rice family, said that the whole process has been "irregular.” He said he and his team had asked the county if the grand jury members were led through each possible charge for a vote or whether there was one overarching vote on all charges, but never received an answer. When informed no vote of any kind took place, Chandra said: "If it is true that the prosecutor didn't even call for an up or down vote on potential criminal charges, including aggravated murder, then it is truly the ultimate insult to the Rice family,” Chandra said, “that the prosecutor didn't even think it mattered to bring the grand jury proceedings to their proper conclusion."
The family has lost their precious son, the judicial process was an insulting joke to the family, now they need medical bills to add to their stress and misery? This is out of hand.
*But wait! Good news, in a sea of very lugubrious events. It seems the city has decided to rescind the charge. The New York Times reports:
(After officials) started getting phone calls from the local media about the claim, and on Thursday, city officials gathered to discuss the claim. They decided to withdraw it, he said, and “to be up front about it, and then we are going to fix some processes.”
