Our African American Political Followship

With the intense attention given to the inveighed execution of Troy Davis, it has become clear, in a lamentable yet derisory way, how hushed elected African American political officials (elected or appointed) have been on this subject. So reticent are this corpus and their associate vitiated apostasy to this issue that I feel they should be described as elected followers instead of elected leaders.

This obvious and intractable observation is applicable across the board. Now I do not expect President Obama to speak out against such, for his overall presentation is one that minimizes and even approaches race as an inchoate vagueness of language singularly that has no place in politics if one’s goal is simply re-election. Although I wish that he would have asserted himself into the debate, and I know when states’ rights issues of the past, saw Presidents send national guards to protect freedom riders for example, I know that the cowardice displayed in him is based on the fear of losing political capital.

With that said, I do however espouse a direct indictment against the policies evinced by the government at all levels with respect to the incarceration of African American men. As well, I also place the same egregious outcome at the inaction and silence of what we consider or elected political leadership, for they are a part of the aforementioned government.

Just using the example of Troy Davis, I have read nothing regarding their positions or antagonism against the proposed execution of Mr. Davis. I may be wrong and maybe they have, but I have not. I think I read somewhat more than the average person in particular regards to economics, politics, science and history. Nothing from Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice or Charles Rangel. Nothing from Harold Ford, Jr., Tim Scott, Allen West, Deval Patrick, Kamala Harris or Atlanta’s own Kasim Reed, not a whisper. Leaders if they are such should desire to make and produce more leaders as opposed to the penchant to collect followers just to support their individual political gain in the form of re-election.

It is as if once elected, regardless of party affiliation, they develop what Randall Kennedy termed “negrophobia.” Although history and practice dictates the impct of race on political and social outcomes, it is apperant that overtly, a discussion of such by African American political officials is apparently taboo. One can speculate about why such is the case, but such cannot be ignored. As voters we are chastised for not showing up in mass numbers at the polls but the same level of accountability for elected African American officals is abrogated, not for the collective but specific individual gain (a presidency, congressional seat or governorship.This in light of factual accords that even Helen Keller could see.

We know that Black males ages 30 to 34 had the highest custody incarceration rate of any race, age, or gender group at midyear 2007 and that in 2001, the chances of going to prison were highest among black males (32.2%). We know that Black children (7.0%) were nearly 9 times more likely to have a parent in prison than white children (0.8%) and that a large majority of African-American men – 55 percent in Chicago, for example are labeled felons for life or that roughly 70 percent of those on federal death row are minorities, mostly African Americans. We know that since 1990 in Georgia, Black Defendant / White Victim murders resulted in 253 executions and that the rate at which blacks are incarcerated compared to whites in Texas: 7 to 1. The icing on the cake from a political perspective is that 1.46 million Black men out of a total voting population of 10.4 million have lost their right to vote due to felony convictions. In summary meaning that 1 in every 20 black men over the age of 18 is in a state or federal prison, compared to one in every 180 whites.

The question remains if this is an intentional avoidance in an effort to appease the white power elite oligarchy that runs this nation? Such objective outcomes in the real sense marginalize the poor and minorities as evidenced by current incarceration, unemployment and poverty rates.It is possible that I am wrong to expect that elected African American politicians should fight vehemently against racial discriminatory outcomes and the policies that result in such.
Unfortunately for me it is the practices mandated by lay that produce such disparities, tend to be maintained by these people who feel we are obligated to select them to political office for our vote. I have asked the question, where have black folk been since 1989 regarding troy Davis? Asking to Free TI and Gucci mane but not him or Mumia Abu-Jamal. But I will continue to ask where are the African American politicians on the pandemic of incarceration plaguing our community. Or their views on the execution of Troy Davis? In conclusion, just as those more concerned with the release of hip hop artist from prison, these elected politicians too are followers, way more so than leaders.

How Bill Clinton and Democrats Killed Troy Davis

For a large number of African Americans, Bill Clinton was not only the first Black President but he was the best thing that ever happened to us since sliced bread and fried chicken. I never subscribed to this belief. In fact I considered Clinton, his democratic party and his policies as a direct threat to African Americans, in particular as it regards our enhanced interaction with the prison Industrial complex. Strange since once upon a time Bill Clinton supposedly was an opponent of the death penalty

What I remember starts when the then Governor of Arkansas was running for the Presidency in 1992, Clinton returned to Arkansas for the execution of Ricky Ray Rector. Reports note that Rector had severe brain-damaged such to the extent that on the night of his execution he saved his dessert to eat later in his prison cell. I considered this posturing on behalf of Clinton as an effort to show that he was tough on crime to voters. Rector was executed although the Arkansas Supreme Court said that Rector’s was a case that should be considered for executive clemency, Rector, a 40-year-old black man had been convicted of killing a black police officer. After shooting the cop, Rector shot himself in the head and damaged his brain.

Clinton continued to state his support for the death penalty after this period. In 1994 he pushed a crime bill through Congress that allowed prosecutors to seek the federal death penalty in 60 more crimes than they could prior, including murder of a law enforcement officer. He ignored critics who requested a nation-wide moratorium on federal executions. He made three-strikes-you’re-out the law of the land, so that criminals go to jail for life, with no chance of parole. More abhorrently was Clinton proposing and signing into law, a feature to limit appeals for persons on Death row – something Troy Davis knows well. Yes, the fate of Troy Davis is due to the Democratic Party and their hardline laws against crime, which when implemented, disparately impacts African Americans.

How is this the fault of Bill Clinton and the democrats one may ask? Well first, it was Clinton and the democrats who provided almost $8 billion in new funding to help states build new prison cells so violent offenders serve their full sentences. Then in 1996, after the Oklahoma City bombing, Clinton advocated, unsuccessfully legislation that a provision that would have curtailed the writ of habeas corpus -- the power of federal courts to second-guess state courts on whether or not a fair trial had been given. It would have allowed inmates only one federal death row appeal filed within one year of exhausting all state appeals.

In Clinton’s first six years as president, more than 300 people were executed compared to compared to 185 during the 12 years of the Republican presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George Bush. In 1997 alone, the Clinton Administration executed 74 people (the most in a single year since 1956) and 68 in 1998. Senate Democrats voted 44 to 1 in support of Clinton’s 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill. In the House, 154 Democrats voted for the bill, and only 26 voted against. Supporters included former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley-Braun and Illinois Congressman (and former Black Panther) Bobby Rush.

Troy Davis, if executed will be directly attributable to the policies of the laws put in place by democrats and President Bill Clinton. Data has since then shown empirically that more than 70 percent of those on federal death row are minorities, mostly African Americans. Then there is the Columbia University study that noted two-thirds of death penalty cases appealed between 1973 and 1995 were lawed to the extent they had to be overturned.

Davis is set to be executed September 21 for the 1989 shooting death of a police officer in Savannah, Georgia. Although ample and is strong evidence supports his claim of innocence. Also are the facts that seven out of nine witnesses who gave evidence at his trial in 1991 have recanted or changed their testimony, no murder weapon was ever found, no DNA evidence or fingerprints connect Davis to the crime, and other witnesses have since said the murder was committed by another man, who was a witness who testified against him, interject serious and probably doubt.

If Davis is executed, we all can honestly say no justice was served and that a new standard of proving one’s innocence has replaced proving guilt. And all thanks to Democrats who wanted to prove they were tough on crime to beat Republicans. From the way I see it, it may as well be Bill Clinton giving Mr. Davis his lethal injection. Yes, the favorite child of African Americans and the beloved Democratic Party is just as responsible for his death, if it occurs than the courts and state of Georgia.