Black Agenda Radio – 11.23.15

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective.

– The corporate media’s fixation with the attack on Paris seems insatiable, as if no place else in the world has suffered from terrorist attacks. Could it be because Paris is mostly white? Ajamu Baraka is a founder of the U.S. Human Rights Network and an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. Baraka’s current article is titled, “The Paris Attacks and the White Lives Matter Movement.” Baraka points out that the world capitals of death by terror are Nigeria, Iraq and Syria. Yet massacres in those places are not considered big news.

– Environmental activists were planning to hold a huge demonstration in Paris later this month, to influence United Nations negotiations about climate change. However, French authorities have put the country under a state of emergency. Among those who planned to be in Paris is Kali Akuno, whose Malcolm X Grassroots Movement colleagues are promoting a plan for sustainable development in predominantly Black Jackson, Mississippi. It’s called the Jackson Just Transition Plan. Akuno says his delegation has held on to their plane tickets.

– The Stop Mass Incarceration Network, co-founded by Carl Dix and Dr. Cornel West, followed up three days of protests in New York with demonstrations, this weekend, in several cities to refocus attention on Tamir Rice, the 12 year-old killed by Cleveland police. The local district attorney accused Tamir’s mother of having “economic motives” for demanding justice for her son. Carl Dix says the DA’s behavior is proof enough that the system is rigged. Carl Dix says nationwide protests are planned for December 3rd, the one-year anniversary of the exoneration of the cop that choked Eric Garner to death, in Staten Island, New York.

– Investigative reporter Ken Silverstein says the Clinton Foundation’s newly released tax returns should land Bill, Hillary and daughter Chelsea Clinton in prison. In an article for Harper’s Magazine, Silverstein writes that the former – and possibly future – First Couple are implicated in massive money laundering and other High Crimes.

– Kenia Serrano, the president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship of the People, spends lots of time greeting delegations of visitors to her island. But, this month Serrano and other Cuban officials were on a tour of U.S. cities, starting in New York. Speaking at John Jay College, Serrano said Cubans are proud of the changes the Revolution has made in the lives of the people.

NUCLEAR RADIATION IN NEW YORK: LAST SECRET OF THE ATOM BOMB – Paul Derienzo

In August 2005, the New York Police Department, with the Department of Energy, conducted an anti-terrorism radiation flyover survey. The survey was intended to provide a baseline of radiological activity, in order to catch a suspicious construction of a dirty bomb. They didn’t find a dirty bomb—but there was plenty of radiological activity. Surveyors found 80 radioactive locations in the …

Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice? – Jason Marsh

This article is the first in a series exploring the effects that unconscious racial biases have on the criminal justice system in the United States. While this article reports on evidence of those biases, subsequent essays will propose ways to mitigate their effects. Long before Officer Darren Wilson fired the shots that killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, questions of …

This NY Bill Could Effectively Make You a Felon If You’re Arrested During a Protest

On Sunday, The New York Post [3]and NY1 [4] reported that the NYPD’s push to make resisting arrest a felony had officially been introduced as a bill before the New York State senate. After both Commissioner Bratton [5]and NYPDpolice union [6] simultaneously trial-ballooned a similar law change a few weeks ago, the plan to make “aggravated” resisting arrest a felony is officially moving forward after State Senator Tony Avella proposed …