By Rachel Rossi | Special to California Black Media Partners
A common misconception of the criminal justice system is that it is as simple as guilty people admitting their guilt and innocent people going free.
The truth in our courtrooms is rarely so clear. Instead, there are layers of issues beyond guilt, including systemic injustice, rushed proceedings, undue pressure, and broad prosecutorial discretion on what charges are filed and the length of sentence that will result.
Plea bargaining — an imperfect and often coercive process — usually dictates criminal justice system outcomes, and it can be a tool to either fuel over-criminalization or to obtain restorative and just outcomes, depending on how it is wielded. In the United States, more than 90 % of criminal cases end in guilty pleas. Our criminal justice system rarely produces the exciting jury trial scenes from our favorite movies and TV shows; it instead produces the rote theater of back-to-back guilty pleas.
The plea-bargaining process that yields the great majority of these guilty pleas is riddled with risks of coercion. This is especially the case when an accused person is behind bars. When a person is locked up pretrial, they risk losing their job, losing their home, and even losing custody of their children. Under these circumstances, there is a strong incentive to plead guilty if it comes with a promise to go home soon. It is not surprising, then, that studies have shown pretrial detention increases a person’s likelihood of pleading guilty by 46 %.
In Los Angeles, on any given day, approximately 44 % of people in County Jail – around 7,500 people – are locked up pre-trial and deciding whether to plead guilty.
The plea-bargaining process is also a byproduct of over-burdensome caseloads combined with the time and stress of jury trials. When there are hundreds of cases to get through in a day in court, the prosecutor, judge, and sometimes even the defense attorney, are all incentivized to resolve cases. There is precious little time to determine what result will adequately ensure public safety, respect the interests and wishes of victims, and be consistent with the facts. Every actor in the criminal justice system is faced with incredible pressure to keep the cases moving and get them resolved. Indeed, it is a truism in the criminal justice world that if every defendant exercised his or her right to trial, the system as it currently operates would cease to function.
Often, these structural problems in the plea-bargaining process result in innocent people pleading guilty. In nearly 11 % of the nation’s DNA exoneration cases, innocent people entered guilty pleas. And these are just the cases where DNA made it possible to overturn a conviction; researchers do not know how many innocent people have in fact pleaded guilty.
Plea bargaining also takes place within the broader systemic racism entrenched in the justice system. When the plea offer that is made is decided by any person, conscious and unconscious biases create disadvantage and inequality across race, ethnicity, gender, and age. While research shows that increasing the diversity of prosecutors decreases racial sentencing disparities, 95 % of elected prosecutors in the U.S. are white. These disparate results are clear when the odds of receiving a plea offer that includes incarceration are almost seventy percent greater for Black people than white people.
But before you decide it is time to do away with plea bargaining entirely, realize that it can also be used to bring humanity into a justice system that is not built to understand or fix societal problems. The plea-bargaining process can potentially provide a mechanism for reformative and decarcerative efforts to succeed. It can allow a prosecutor to look at a person and a situation and decide whether treatment, programs, employment or other outcomes would better ensure public safety than jail.
For example, a person experiencing a significant mental health crisis who yells out a threat could be charged with a felony “strike” offense and face years of prison time. By virtue of the plea-bargaining process, a prosecutor has the power to charge a misdemeanor instead, to pursue alternatives to incarceration as a sentence, or to charge no criminal offense at all and instead refer the person to mental health treatment.
Our justice system is far from perfect. And plea bargaining has many flaws that reflect the larger problems within the system, and society at large. But in the right hands, prosecutorial discretion provides the power to scale back on mass incarceration, promote public safety, and ensure restorative and just outcomes.
CALIFORNIA — Today, Courage California launched its 2020 General Election Courage California Voter Guide, a first-of-its-kind down-ballot, multi-issue guide detailing recommendations on how to VOTE for a California, and nation, that works for everyone.
The Courage California Voter Guide aggregates the insights and endorsements of California’s most trusted statewide and regional advocacy groups and organizations to develop multi-issue recommendations for a more representative democracy reflecting the values of Californians, down the ballot.
The 2020 Courage California General Election Voter Guide offers recommendations including:
All Congressional, State Senate, and State Assembly races
Recommendations for select local races
Statewide Ballot Measures
Select local Ballot Measures
Courage California’s Primary Election voter guide covered 193 races and propositions — the Courage California General Election Voter Guide covers a total of 253 races and propositions. In addition to expanded coverage, the 2020 General Election Voter Guide is more in-depth, including information to help voters:
understand what their elected officials are responsible for.
understand local priorities and voting patterns in their district.
follow the money and understand key financial backers in a race.
identify and break down misinformation around statewide propositions and local ballot measures.
“California needs a straightforward and trusted resource that provides people with essential information on statewide and local races and propositions. Political power is concentrated in the hands of too few individuals and corporations that do not have the interests of our broader communities in mind. Voters deserve to understand the roles and responsibilities of the various elected offices and how ballot measures will truly affect them and their communities,” said Irene Kao, Executive Director of Courage California. “The 2020 Courage California General Election Voter Guide is the solution for those who want to cut through the misinformation, corporate financed campaigns, and hold our elected officials accountable to the same standards. With Courage, we can elect champions that represent our values and create a democracy that works for all Californians.”
The Courage California Voter Guide comes ahead of the 2020 General Election on November 3rd.
The Courage California Voter Guide aggregates the recommendations and endorsements of California’s progressive groups and organizations fighting to protect our democracy. Organizations consulted include, but are not limited to:
18 Million Rising
Advancement Project California
AFSCME State Council and local chapters AFSCME 57 and AFSCME 3299
Alliance for a Better Community
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action (ACCE Action)
Alliance San Diego Mobilization Fund (ASDMF)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)
Bay Rising Action
Bend The Arc: Jewish Action
Black Women for Wellness Action Project
California Calls
California Domestic Worker Coalition
CA Labor Federation
California League of Conservation Voters
California Progressive Alliance
Californians for Safety and Justice
Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund
California Donor Table
California Environmental Justice Alliance Action
California Immigrant Policy Center
California Nurses Association (CNA)
California Teachers Association (CTA)
California Women’s List
CAUSE Action Fund
CHIRLA Action Fund
Communities for a New California (CNC)
Consumer Attorneys of California
Council of American-Islamic Relations Action
Courageous Resistance of the Desert
Democratic Socialists of America
Emily’s List
Ground Game LA
IE United
Indivisible local chapters including CA 39 and OC 48
Los Angeles County Democratic Party
NARAL Pro-Choice California
Orange County Civic Engagement Table Action
Our Revolution
PICO CA Action
Planned Parenthood
PolicyLink
Progressive Democrats of America
Public Advocates
Richmond Progressive Alliance
SEIU California
San Francisco Rising Action
Sierra Club CA
Silicon Valley Rising
Stonewall Democratic Club
Sunrise Movement
The Working Families Party
Ultraviolet Action
United Domestic Workers
United Farm Workers of America
United Food & Commercial Workers Union – Western States Council
SACRAMENTO, CA— AB 2147, legislation by Assemblymember Eloise Reyes (D-San Bernardino) which provides an expedited expungement process for formerly incarcerated individuals who have successfully participated with fire suppression activities has been signed by Governor Newsom making California the first state in the nation to provide this type of relief to the formerly incarcerated that served as inmate firefighters.
“Signing AB 2147 into law is about giving second chances. To correct is to right a wrong; to rehabilitate is to restore.” Assemblymember Reyes continued, “Rehabilitation without strategies to ensure the formerly incarcerated have a career, is a pathway to recidivism. We must get serious about providing pathways for those who show the determination and commitment to turn their lives around.”
Under existing law, once released from custody a formerly incarcerated individual must finish the terms of their parole before applying for expungement of their criminal record. Even once those records are expunged, the person must disclose their criminal history on applications for state licenses. With nearly 200 occupations that require licensing from one of 42 California government departments and agencies these formerly incarcerated individuals are almost entirely denied access to these jobs. An estimated 2.5 million California workers (nearly 20% of the state’s workforce) need a professional license to work. Under, AB 2147 a person who participates as part of a state or county fire camp would be eligible to apply for expungement upon release from custody, and if the expungement is approved could seek various career pathways including those that require a state license.
Several studies have concluded that occupational licensing restrictions have a direct correlation on recidivism rates. For example, The Center for the Study of Economic Liberty at Arizona State University found that states with the most occupational licensing restrictions saw an increase in the three year recidivism rate of over 9%, while states without the same restrictions saw an average decline in recidivism of 2.5%, and concluded, “a low occupational licensing burden had a significant impact on a state’s ability to lower its new crime recidivism rate. In terms of impact, the occupational licensing burden was second only to the overall labor market conditions in significantly influencing movements in the recidivism rate.”[1]
In an average year, the Conservation Camp Program provides approximately three million person-hours responding to fires and other emergencies and seven million person-hours in community service projects, saving California taxpayers approximately $100 million annually.
Several counties across the state, including Los Angeles and San Bernardino operate fire training academies for those incarcerated in a county jail utilizing several hundred jail incarcerated individuals to fight fires. This bill includes those that have served in county fire camps.
Despite their low-level risk status, dedication and willingness to put themselves in harm’s way, many who participate in these programs struggle to find permanent and stable employment once released. This is in part due to significant barriers in place for individuals with a prior conviction to seek employment or even the education necessary to start a career.
SACRAMENTO, CA— Last month, the Governor signed Senate Bill 1447 into law. This bill authored jointly by Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), Senator Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), and Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona), expands California’s assistance programs for small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic by establishing a new $100 million small businesses hiring tax credit program.
“For months, I have been working with my colleagues to champion small business relief and I am very proud SB 1447 has been signed into law,” Senator Bradford stated. “This bill will help small businesses that are working hard to persist despite COVID-19 by supporting them as they hire or re-hire employees. Small businesses are critical employers and engines of equitable job growth.”
He continues, “This bill is particularly true for Minority, Women, Disabled Veteran, and LGBT business enterprises. This bill will help bring back jobs that were lost in our communities and support small businesses during this difficult period. I am proud to have worked with legislative colleagues and the Governor on this effort.”
“During this unprecedented economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the State of California must help small business owners to rebuild,” said Senator Caballero. “Small businesses make up the backbone of our economy, and can be a great engine to decrease statewide record unemployment. SB 1447 will put people back to work and allow small businesses that have suffered declining revenues to start hiring again.”
“California small businesses and their workers are among the hardest hit in the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Assemblymember Cervantes, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy. “Research shows that between March and April of this year, private employment in the US fell by 15.2%. For small firms, however, they experienced a 21.5% loss of jobs, while businesses with over 1,000 employees experienced the fewest job losses (13.3%). As Chair of the Assembly Jobs Committee, I am proud to have worked with my legislative colleagues on this important measure. Addressing employment losses among small businesses is crucial to the state’s economic recovery.”
Specifically, SB 1447 allows businesses with 100 or fewer employees to receive a tax credit of $1,000 per net new hire after July 1, 2020, compared to their workforce in the second quarter of 2020. This credit can be applied against personal and corporate income tax liabilities or sales and use tax liabilities for the 2020 tax year. Eligible small businesses must have experienced a 50% decline in gross receipts between 2020 and 2019 (second quarter), and must reserve tax credits beginning December 1, 2020, and before January 15, 2021, with the California Department of Tax & Fee Administration. Total credits to an individual business are capped at $100,000 in maximum credit, and the program total for this tax credit is $100 million.
McKinsey & Company estimate that between 1.4 million and 2.1 million of Californian businesses could close permanently as a result of the disruption experienced in just the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic. During these unprecedented crises, the State has prioritized supporting small businesses and the individuals that those businesses employ. Other recovery programs already created by the State of California to support small businesses include a one-year, zero-interest extension on sales and use tax liabilities of up to $50,000, as well as a $150 million expansion of the loan guarantee programs administered by the California Infrastructure & Economic Development Bank (I-Bank), as approved by the Legislature in the 2020 Budget Act.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1447 and two other bills today in Sacramento. More information can be found here.
More information on recovery and support programs available to small businesses can be found here.
For many Black Americans, he is next to a Messiah. For many non-Black Americans, he is thought to be an agitator, riling up already uncomfortable societal quagmires that are better left swept under the rug. Media image aside, Reverend Al Sharpton is neither of these things. The boy raised by a single mother in working class Queens, New York, developed a passion for civil rights activism as a pre-teen. He began marching alongside Reverend Jesse Jackson and other prominent civil rights activists at the tender age of thirteen, seeking to progress the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of civil disobedience and taking the high road to equal rights under the law for Black Americans.
As the years progressed, though the American civil rights movement has remained something of a moving target, much of the fight has landed at Reverend Al Sharpton’s doorstep. Families of victims of police brutality, fatal racial discrimination and other hate crimes come to him in their quest to gain the media attention they need to enact criminal justice and legislative reform on behalf of their loved ones. The powerless and voiceless look to Reverend Sharpton to get their voices heard. As Sharpton, himself, put it to me during our conversation, “People have called me an ambulance chaser, but we are the ambulance.” He is referring to victims’ families who have been helped by Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN), providing everything from the media attention these families need to pressure prosecutors to take action towards justice, to gaining the attention of congress for policy reform, as well as emotional and financial support in some instances.
Now, with his new book, Rise Up: Confronting A Country At The Crossroads, Reverend Al Sharpton outlines his unrelenting position on the weightiest political and societal issues of our time, recounts some hard lessons learned, and offers an inside glimpse into the mentors who shaped the man we see today. Most importantly, Reverend Sharpton outlines his plan for an America at the crossroads.
Rev. Al Sharpton (Photo Credit: Michael Frost)
Allison Kugel: In light of recent news in the Breonna Taylor case (no criminal charges were filed in her death), what was your first reaction when you heard that decision?
Reverend Al Sharpton: It was alarming, but not surprising. I didn’t have confidence in this investigation, because of the obvious policies of the prosecutor. The prosecutor guides the grand jury and there is nobody in there besides the prosecutor. This prosecutor is a protege of Mitch McConnell. I did not think that he was going to do anything. I did feel that the indictment of the other officer, [Brett] Hankison, for the endangerment of everybody but Breonna was just as offensive. What they are saying is that he was reckless in who he was shooting at and putting others at risk. What about who they shot, and her being at risk? It is one of the reasons why we do what we do, in saying there needs to be new laws. We just had a big march with tens of thousands of us, three weeks ago. Among two of the things we wanted are The George Floyd Policing and Justice Act that sat in the House, but the Senate hasn’t taken it up. It would strengthen the laws that would have eliminated the no knock laws and put this whole thing in a different perspective. That’s one of the things I talk about that in this new book (Rise Up, Hanover Square Press).
Allison Kugel: Many people believe that you just show up wherever the action and media attention is. It’s important for people to know that you and your National Action Network (NAN) are the ones who work to bring national attention to these cases in the first place. For example, it was your organization, NAN, that brought national attention to Trayvon Martin’s murder and to George Floyd’s murder. Without your hard work, the world wouldn’t know the names Trayvon Martin or George Floyd. Why isn’t this common knowledge?
Reverend Al Sharpton: A lot of the media just doesn’t say it. Ben Crump (Attorney for the Floyd family) and the families have said it. In fact, Breonna Taylor’s mother’s first interview was on my show (MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation”). They couldn’t get a national show before my show. Sybrina Fulton (Trayvon Martin’s mother) wrote about it her book on Trayvon. Ben Crump brought them to New York to ask me to blow up Trayvon [in the media]. Trayvon had been buried for 2 weeks. I didn’t even know about Trayvon until they came and met with me in my office. We made it an issue and called the first rally and had about 10,000 people out there. It ended up being the day my mother died, and I went ahead with the rally anyway. I said in the eulogy to George Floyd that people call me to blow things up, and I have an infrastructure with NAN where we support the family, we help them get legal advice and media advice, and we stay with them. Sometimes people can’t cover their expenses if they need to do a rally. Some of them need to pay their rent, and NAN helps with that. They call us because they know we’ll come.
Allison Kugel: Who is your heir apparent once you reach a certain age and you are no longer able to do this work?
Reverend Al Sharpton: That would come up through the ranks of NAN (Sharpton’s National Action Network). We have a lot of young people in our youth and college division, and some of them have a lot of potential. It is not up to me to choose who it will be, but I think it will come up from the ranks of the movement. That is why I built an organization. I could have just resigned from NAN several years ago, not worried about raising five to ten million dollars a year, and just done radio and TV and been a personality. I built a structure because I wanted to go way beyond my viability. I came out of that kind of structure, but nobody anointed me. The point person before me was Reverend Jesse Jackson who was one of my mentors, but he didn’t choose me. Cream rises to the top. You’re going to take a lot of scrutiny. You’re going to take a lot of attacks. I’ve been stabbed and done time in jail for marching. There is a downside to this, and not everybody is built for that.
Allison Kugel: What you are saying is actually a great life lesson. Nobody anoints you. Nobody taps you on the head and says, “You are the chosen one.” It has to come from within, and a person takes it upon themselves to take the ball and run with it. That applies to anything in life.
Reverend Al Sharpton: Absolutely, and you will only do it if it comes from inside. If I sat down and asked somebody if they would go through what I went through… I’ve done 90 days in jail at one time. Who would apply for that? But if it is in you, you take it as it comes because your commitment and your beliefs are bigger than whatever it is you are going to face. But this is not a career move. I started to write when I was 12, I started preaching before that, and I became youth director under Jesse and Reverend William Jones when I was 13. When I was 13 years old, I didn’t sit down and say, “If I do this, one day I’ll have a show on MSNBC.” When I started, there was no MSNBC. There was no radio show syndication owned by blacks. You do things out of commitment and things result from that, but your critics will act like you just figured out this will make you famous. How would I know at 13 years old where this was going to go?
Allison Kugel: After reading your book cover to cover I went to sleep and woke up the next morning with this thought: We are supposed to be the smartest, most sophisticated species on the planet. However, we have trillions of dollars in circulation on this planet, and millions of people are broke. We have more than enough food, to the point that we throw out ridiculous amounts of food every day, and millions of people are starving. So, we can’t be that smart.
Reverend Al Sharpton: I think you should be an activist. You are absolutely right. It’s a matter of will and a matter of using the intelligence we claim to have to distribute things more wisely, and to make people the priority rather than greed and ego. It’s a decision that we throw out food and not feed everybody. There is enough food for everybody. It is a decision to allow the water and the air to be polluted for people’s profit. We can clean up the air and the water. That is part of why I’m saying we need to Rise Up (the title of Sharpton’s new book, out 9/29), and this is not a book that just deals with blacks. I deal with climate change. I deal with LGBTQ rights. I’m saying, across the board, we could be better than this, but we are not rising up and demanding these things.
Allison Kugel: In your book you illustrate a parallel between The Great Depression and The New Deal put in place by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and our current economic crisis due to COVID-19 and the potential solution of a Green New Deal. Have you had the chance to speak with Kamala Harris or Joe Biden about this?
Reverend Al Sharpton: During the [primary] campaign, yes. There was the meeting when Kamala came to Harlem and went with me to Sylvia’s soul food restaurant. I’ve talked to them separately. I’ve not talked to them at length since they were nominated. Obviously, we’ve talked on the phone, but this is something that I’m pushing out and I’m encouraging them to do. With COVID-19 this country is going to go through a tremendous economic challenge. We need a Marshall Plan and government involvement to bring the country back. If we don’t have that kind of engagement, we are going to have a very difficult 2021 and 2022.
Allison Kugel: How do you see a Green New Deal rolling out despite the strong lobby for oil? How can a new administration circumvent that?
Reverend Al Sharpton: Rise up and vote in this election and put in office people that will not be in any way swayed by the lobbyists. We have to change the lawmakers. Lobbyists can only go as far as who they can influence. You currently have people in the Senate and the Congress that they can influence. They have to have that majority commit to it; the same way Roosevelt did with The New Deal. That is why I wanted this book out before the upcoming election, to lay all of this out.
Allison Kugel: With the worldwide protests that erupted after the murder of George Floyd, what do you ultimately see resulting from all the protesting?
Reverend Al Sharpton: The legislation is one, as I said, but the overall result should be how we as a culture redefine policing and move past police being above the law while questioning the actions of some police is thought to be anti-police. I think legislation can enforce this, or we need a cultural shift. One of the reasons the Floyd case caught on the way it did is that it happened in the middle of a pandemic and everyone was in lockdown. There were no sports, so people were watching the news to see what was happening with the lockdown. They kept seeing this footage over and over again, and they couldn’t turn to sports as a distraction. There was no distraction with George Floyd, and I think that caused an eruption. How could somebody press their weight with their knee on someone’s neck for more than eight minutes unless there was some venom there?
Allison Kugel: I believe everything happens for a reason. I love how you said that God chooses the most unlikely people to make the biggest impact on the world. George Floyd’s story and his likeness will be passed down for generations to come. Has the Floyd family grasped the enormity of that?
Reverend Al Sharpton: Yes, we talk about it all the time. His brother, Philonise, who does a lot of speaking for the family, we talk almost every day. We talked last night, and I think they have begun to understand the impact. Their immediate reaction was they didn’t understand it, because they were suddenly thrust into something [public] and they were also mourning. As time has gone on and they see people responding to George and his image, they understand that maybe God used him as an instrument. I told them God absolutely used him as an instrument. Nothing but God could have brought it to this level, and you have to be at peace with that and also set your responsibility in that.
Allison Kugel: I want to talk to you about Defund the Police. I read where you are not in favor of it, and I’m definitely not for it. Rather than defund the police, I am of the mind that some funds should be reallocated towards programs for compassion, empathy, tolerance, psychological competency, and things like that. What are your thoughts?
Reverend Al Sharpton: I think that we should redistribute how we do the resources like dealing with some of the things you outlined. A month after we did the eulogies for George Floyd, I did a eulogy for a 17-year-old kid killed by a stray bullet in the Bronx, and a eulogy for a one-year old baby that was killed by a straight bullet in Brooklyn. How can we say we don’t need policing when our communities are disproportionately victims of crime? We are the only community that has reasonable fear of cops and robbers. I think we need to reallocate how we deal with the funds for police. We must have police in presence because right now we are inundating our communities with guns and drugs, and that is reality. Ironically though, I think what people don’t understand, Allison, is the one who has defunded the police is Trump. By Trump ineffectively handling COVID-19, most of these cities are going to be in deficit and will be laying off police. That is a bigger threat than people stating it at rallies. They have run out of funds. They are laying off teachers and policeman in some cities.
Allison Kugel: Good point. And whether you love Trump or hate him, every American should be aware that an important part of our democracy is a free press, as well as our postal service. When you have somebody in the highest office in the land who essentially gaslights the American public and says, “You can’t trust the media, you can’t trust the medical experts; only believe Me,” that is very dangerous rhetoric and undermines our democracy. Why do you think so many Trump supporters aren’t seeing that?
Reverend Al Sharpton: It baffles me on one level, and on another level, I think because the country is so divided, and they have been divided by the media. The media has convinced people that everybody but FOX {News] and a few radio talk show guys are buffaloing you or fooling you. They set a climate where a guy like Trump, who really is representing himself almost as an autocrat, can rise up and take advantage of that. He can say, “Don’t believe them, believe me. I’m one of you.” There is nobody more not one of them than Trump, with the glitzy billionaire lifestyle he lives. Whether he is a real billionaire or not, we don’t know. But he’s been able to sell that to people who are suffering through existence issues that are lower-middle class or poor, like I grew up. It’s appealing to them that they are doing this to me, and he has identified “they” as the liberal media. He gives everybody a blame game. In the interim, he does policies that don’t help them, but that they can feel that it is not his fault, instead it’s their fault.
Allison Kugel: Throwing it back to the 2016 presidential election, do you think Hillary Clinton was a strong and viable candidate?
Reverend Al Sharpton: I think she was a strong and viable candidate, but she did not run a strong and viable campaign. They did not engage the ground enough. To lose Michigan by 12,000 votes, I know three churches that could have given her that. They never went into Detroit. They never really went into Milwaukee. I think there was almost this feeling of, “We got this. Nobody is going to vote for Trump.” She certainly had the credentials. I think she had the vision, and I think she is a decent person. I knew her since she was First Lady, but I think her campaign was too up in the air, too high ground. They didn’t get on the ground, and that is where the voters were. It left an opening for Trump to do it. I think that Biden has not run that campaign so far.
Allison Kugel: Meaning he has been on the ground?
Reverend Al Sharpton: He has been on the ground and he has his infrastructure on the ground.
Allison Kugel: As a Jewish American, this next question is more personal. There is a faction of the Black American movement that has become antisemitic as of late. It’s confounding to me based on our shared history and a lot of our shared activism. How can we clear up some of these misconceptions?
Reverend Al Sharpton: We need to stand and walk together and go back to the history. When I was a kid, I will never forget, Reverend Jackson brought me to the Jewish Theological Seminary, and I met Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who marched with Dr. King. Rabbi Heschel gave me a collection of his books and I still have some, like God and Man, and some others. There are people like Heschel, who were part of the backbone of the Civil Rights Movement. I tell a lot of people today that when we talk about voting rights, Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner, were three Jews who died to get us the right to vote. I don’t think enough of us talk about that in the Black community. And yes, we may have had our disagreements, but the history of it is not put out enough and we have to deliberately deal with the misnomer that we have not come together and suffered together. I remember when 9/11 happened. I went to Mort Zuckerman, who was then the head of the Conference of Jewish Organizations, and I said I want to go to Israel and identify with the fact that they live under this kind of terrorism all the time, and we just went through it in New York. [Former Israeli President] Shimon Peres invited me as his guest to Israel and I went and met with him. He asked me to take that message to [Yasser] Arafat. He set up a meeting with [Yasser] Arafat (late Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization), and I went and worked with them. There are people on both sides that don’t want to let certain things go, but we have to keep standing up and represent the facts of history. We’ve suffered together, we’ve fought together, and at this time we cannot afford to be separate. We are fighting the same enemy. Most people that are racist are also antisemitic, and those who are antisemitic are mostly racist. We are connected and we need to stop acting like we are not.
Allison Kugel: I like that. A big part of your organization, the National Action Network, is Criminal Justice Reform. Recently Kim Kardashian worked with President Trump to have the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a nonviolent offender, commuted. Would you ever be open to following suit and working with this current administration on Criminal Justice Reform?
Reverend Al Sharpton: I don’t trust Trump. I did support the [Emergency Community Supervision Act of 2020] bill that Corey Booker and Hakeem Jeffries came to me with. They said, “Even though we are working with Jared Kushner, would you support this bill?” Van Jones called me, and he was working very closely with Jared Kushner. I said, “I’m not going to do photo ops with them, but I support the bill.” I went on my show and endorsed the bill. I think you have to put principle over personality, but I don’t want a photo opp with this president. He called me after he won and invited me to Mar-A-Lago, and I wouldn’t go because I believe he is just a cynical manipulator. Even bad people can sometimes deliver good results, and I didn’t want to get in the way of the results. I wanted to support it even though I do not trust him. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Rev. Al Sharpton and Vice President Candidate Sen. Kamala Harris
Allison Kugel: (Laugh) Lastly, there has been a lot of rioting and looting mixed in with peaceful protesting. Your organization’s famous slogan is, “No Justice, No Peace.” Do you want to clear up, for people, what you mean by that?
Reverend Al Sharpton: It means the only way we are going to have real peace, where we can live together as a society that respects each other, is to have justice. I don’t mean “no peace” in the sense of violence. I am absolutely, unequivocally against violence. I have denounced it everywhere and will continue to. As far as the two cops shot in Louisville, Kentucky, I think it is morally wrong. You cannot become like the people you are fighting. If you become like that, if you have the same values and the same moral code, they have already defeated you. At the same time, I think there’s a difference between peace and quiet. Quiet means just shut up and suffer. Peace means let’s strive to work together even if we’ve got to march and make noise together to get an equal society for everybody. That is what I mean by “No Justice, No Peace.”
Rise Up: Confronting A Country At The Crossroads, the latest book by Reverend Al Sharpton, is out Tuesday, September 29, 2020, everywhere books are sold. Visit www.alsharptonbooks.com for links to purchase. Follow Reverend Sharpton on Instagram @real_sharpton and on Twitter @thereval. To learn more about the National Action Network (NAN), visit www.nationalactionnetwork.net.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom nominated Martin Jenkins, a San Francisco native, and a former prosecutor and judge, to the California Supreme Court. If confirmed, Jenkins, 66, would be the third African American to serve on the state’s highest court.
The governor nominated Jenkins, who his peers describe as a moderate Democrat, to replace Justice Ming W. Chen, a Republican Gov. Pete Wilson appointed in 1996. Chen retired in August.
“I am more excited about Martin Jenkins’ appointment than I was for my own,” says Judge Teri L. Jackson, who Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed last year Associate Justice of the First District Court of Appeal, Division Three, in San Francisco. Jackson, who also grew up in San Francisco, has known Jenkins most of her life.
“I feel so lucky to have always had him as an older brother, mentor, confidante and friend. Now, the whole state of California will be lucky to have him — we all can experience his brilliance together, his commitment to justice, his sense of fairness and his collegial style. He always tries to seek common ground and the common good,” she said. “He will bring practical and intellectual analysis to our Supreme Court. And it will come with compassion, courage and dedication.”
When Gov. Newsom announced Jenkins’ nomination, he hailed the jurist’s performance, reputation, character and temperament.
“Justice Jenkins is widely respected among lawyers and jurists, active in his Oakland community and his faith, and is a decent man to his core,” Newsom said in a statement. “As a critical member of my senior leadership team, I’ve seen firsthand that Justice Jenkins possesses brilliance and humility in equal measure. The people of California could not ask for a better jurist or kinder person to take on this important responsibility.”
Jenkins currently serves as Gov. Newsom’s judicial appointments secretary. In that role, Jenkins, who would be the first openly gay man to serve on the California Supreme Court, worked with Regional Judicial Advisory Selection Committees to help the governor nominate 45 judges across the state from diverse backgrounds.
On Monday, Jenkins reacted to the news of his appointment.
“I am truly humbled and honored to be asked by the governor to continue serving the people of California on the Supreme Court,” Jenkins said following the governor’s announcement. “If confirmed, I will serve with the highest ethical standards that have guided me throughout my career, informed by the law and what I understand to be fair and just.”
Jenkins began his legal career as a prosecutor for the Alameda County District Attorney office. After that, he held several positions in public and private practice, including trial attorney for Pacific Bell’s legal department in San Francisco; an attorney appointed by President Ronald Reagan with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice; and judgeships on the Oakland Municipal Court and the Alameda County Superior Court.
Before accepting his current role in the governor’s office, Jenkins served as an associate justice on the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, from 2008 to 20019. Before that, he was a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District. President Bill Clinton appointed him to that position.
Jenkins completed his undergraduate degree at Santa Clara University and earned his Juris Doctor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. After college, he signed a contract to play in the NFL as a cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks, but he decided to go to law school instead.
Jenkins, a devout Catholic, says he remembers working with his father as a kid cleaning offices and churches around San Francisco for extra money. His father was a custodian and clerk at Coit Tower, a historical landmark in San Francisco. His mother was a nurse.
The other two African American justices who have served on the California Supreme Court are Justice Leondra Reid Kruger, who former Gov. Jerry Brown appointed in 2014, and Justice Wiley William Manuel, who former Gov. Jerry Brown also appointed in 1977 during his first term.
Jenkins’ nomination is pending approval by the State Bar’s Commission on Judicial Nominees and confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. The members of that commission are California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and senior Presiding Justice of the state Court of Appeal J. Anthony Kline.
As a Supreme Court Justice, Jenkins would earn an annual salary of $261,949.
Monica R. Lawson made history. The U.S Army promoted the active-duty military woman chaplain to the rank of colonel, making her the first Black woman to receive the honor. Lawson spoke about the milestone at her ceremony, which was streamed through the U.S Army Chaplain Center and School’s Facebook page.
“As an African American woman who has always been proud of the skin that I’m in, in this time, this is a bright spot in a sea of what seems to be darkness never-ending,” Col. Lawson said during the ceremony, according to the Richmond Free Press. “In a time when we are faced with political polarization, racial unrest, a pandemic, and economic uncertainty, it’s good to have something to celebrate and to take our minds off of what is going on, if only for a moment.”
Col. Lawson also spoke on the significance of her achievement as a win for both her and the Black community serving in the military.
“I know many of you are saying, ‘What does race, race relations, and racism have to do with you being promoted? Well, just in case you didn’t figure it out, it took us 245 years for this moment to happen,” said Col. Lawson.
U.S. Army Chief of Chaplains, Maj. Gen. Thomas Solhjem, also congratulated Col. Lawson on her historic accomplishment.
“You’re being recognized today not because you are a Black female,” he said. “But you are being recognized today because you have exhibited to a board of what will soon be your peers and those superior that you have the potential to lead in this United States Army Chaplain Corps.”
Monica Lawson is the @USArmy’s first African American chaplain to pin on colonel. Today, women make up only 5% of the Army’s active-duty chaplain corps. During her ceremony, Lawson was recognized for her ability to lead. Congrats, Colonel! #HerMemorial#Leadership#Promotionpic.twitter.com/qIQ8UU0BRx
He is the ONLY One that has the cure for anything that we encounter. What man puts a period on, God puts a comma in those places because it’s not over until He says it’s over. So despite what we think, feel or believe, we need to remind ourselves that God is in control. When everything around us feels out of control, we can allow Scripture to prove to us that God has been, is, and will be sovereign over our lives and world. Nothing in nature happens outside of God’s providence. In Exodus, God clearly sent the plagues in Egypt. In Genesis, God sent the flood. When we read about Jonah, we see that God hurled a storm into the sea.
Understand that there is one God in heaven Who is King and Lord of all. There is one God in heaven to Whom EVERY entity in this universe is subject. The pandemic serves as a warning to us, a warning against disobedience, a warning against exerting our will against God’s, and a warning that assures us sin has consequences.
God is trying to get our attention; He wants to heal our land, but we must turn to Him with all our heart and soul. For He says in [2 Chronicles 7:13-14]: If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; What can mere man do about it? Nothing! Nothing at all! Absolutely Nothing!
Listen, disasters come upon nations for a reason. The Bible talks about famine, sword, and plagues [pestilences] as instruments of judgment upon a people. [Jeremiah 14:12]. God uses disasters to discipline nations. Those who have a secular mind set might not believe such could happen in our modern and sophisticated society. Yet, the Bible is not governed by the beliefs of modern society. The Bible definitely teaches that God does and has used disasters to discipline and judge nations. [2Chronicles 6:26-27]. The Bible is clear that God punishes nations that fall into sin and refuse to repent. He has done it before and He is doing it now whether you believe it or not!
What then is a Biblical response to disaster? “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” The emphasis is national and is directed to a nation not a people within a nation. Lot and his family acknowledged God but that did not save Sodom. God destroyed Sodom because of its sin despite the fact that Lot who lived there was righteous. Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah and that nation was spared. The whole nation repented as a people collectively from the top down. That is a true national repentance. National repentance, prayer, and reformation are required…. We as a nation the “United States of America,” need to repent of our national sins and to turn as a nation back to the God we have revolted from. Then an only then will we will see a national healing of our land when there is a national repentance of the people of our land.
We have failed to respond to disaster properly. We have done many things to respond to our national disasters such as giving aide to the needy and providing help to those who have suffered. All of this is to be commended. However, the great failure on the part of this nation, the “United States of America,” is that we have not acknowledged God in all of our disasters, we have not owned up to our sinfulness as a people, and we certainly have not repented of our sins. Because of our national failure to do these things, the disasters have continued to come year after year and they will continue to come in the future and may increase in number and degree. So if we are going to call on God to heal our land, to heal our nation, and to heal our human community, it is vital that we are also forthright in changing our wicked ways. Until we as a people own up to our national sins, and until we as a people repent of those sins, we can expect national disasters to continue. Besides, no nation that divorces itself from God can expect to survive as a nation. We cannot secularize the nation and expect God to bless us.
The distress we are experiencing in our nation today can be addressed. It can be reversed. Our only hope is in repentance. We must individually and corporately as a people of God bow before our Maker and repent. [2 Chronicles 7:14]. “Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting…weeping, and…mourning; and rend your hearts….’ Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster” [Joel 2:12-27].
But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. [John 16:4]
Assemblymember Jim Cooper (D-Sacramento), who is a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus, says he supports Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order issued last week that phases out gasoline-powered vehicles. The directive requires all new passenger vehicles sold in California to have zero-emission engines by the year 2035.?
But Cooper, who is the chair of the Assembly’s Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration, has some concerns about how the mandate will affect low-income families.
Newsom says his vision is to replace gasoline-powered vehicles with electric vehicles (EV) on California’s highways and surface roads.
“The EVs pictured in today’s signing of the EO (executive order) cost more than $50k each. How will my constituents afford an EV? They can’t. They currently drive 11-year-old vehicles,” Cooper tweeted on Sept. 23.?
To comply with the governor’s executive order, the Air Resources Board is also expected to develop regulations to mandate that all operations of medium and heavy-duty vehicles be 100% zero-emission by 2045, where feasible. Trucks that tow freight will have to become compliant by 2035.
Recently, Cooper, who represents California’s 9th Assembly District, wrote a two-page letter to leaders of environmental organizations, calling out racism and the lack of diversity.?
Cooper said prominent environmental organizations in the state, including the Sierra Club California (SCC), the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV), the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Environment California, “from their leaders to their funders, are nearly all White.”?
“(And they) attempt to trade on race issues by branding their efforts as: ‘environmental justice’ — for which they do not apologize,” Cooper wrote in the letter dated Aug. 3.
Now, the Assemblymember is directing his concern to the high costs of EVs and how their unaffordability will be a burden to lower income, working class Californians.
“I, too, believe we must cut emissions to combat climate change. That’s why I’ve run bills to increase rebates for low-income residents to buy EV’s. But we know?@AirResources regs benefit the well-off, not my constituents,” Cooper tweeted.?
Newsom’s said his action will “aggressively” move the state further away from its dependence on climate change-causing fossil fuels and, at the same time, retain and create jobs, which will spur economic growth.
The transportation industry is responsible for more than half of all of California’s carbon pollution, 80 % of smog-forming pollution, and 95 % of toxic diesel emissions. Communities in the Los Angeles Basin and Central Valley see some of the dirtiest and most toxic air in the country, the governor pointed out in a written statement.??
?“This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,” Newsom said. “For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn’t have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn’t make wildfires worse — and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn’t melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines.”?
In Feb. 2019, the energy foundation reported that the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) quantified Californians’ exposure to dangerous air pollution.?
UCS’s findings revealed that particulate matter, known as PM2.5, disproportionately affects people of color and low-income communities in California. PM2.5 is created by automobiles, trucks, and buses.
African Americans are, on average, exposed to 18% higher PM2.5 concentrations than the average Californian, the report stated. White Californians have an average exposure that is 17% percent lower than the average for the state.
“Exposure to PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter) is linked to increased illness and death, primarily from heart and lung diseases,” the Energy Foundation reported. “These particles are small – 20 times smaller than the diameter of fine human hair – so they can penetrate deeply in the lungs, and the smallest particles can even enter into the bloodstream.”
The governor’s executive order also sets new health and safety standards that protect workers and communities from the impacts of oil extraction.
However, it does not prevent Californians from owning gasoline-powered cars or selling them on the used car market, Newsom says.
By the time the new rule goes into effect, zero-emission vehicles, the governor’s office stated, will almost certainly be cheaper and better than the fossil fuel-powered cars that dominate roadways now.
The upfront cost of electric vehicles are projected to reach parity with conventional vehicles within a few years, and the cost of owning the car – both in maintenance and how much it costs to power the car mile for a mile – is far less than a fossil fuel burning vehicle, the governor’s office stated.
“I applaud the Governor’s goals, but how will?@AirResources develop regulations that will actually benefit the majority of Californians? Last year,?(the California Air Resources Board) said the overall mean purchase price of a CA household’s main vehicle was $14,000, which is over half of their yearly income,” Cooper tweeted.
Now more than ever, California’s Black community and other communities of color need accurate news to make certain that our families are educated about their health and their rights during COVID-19 and the current uprisings. Black media and other ethnic media outlets play a key role — and right now, they need support to continue their vital work.
While our organizations, the Southern California Black Chamber of Commerce and The Greenlining Institute, advocate for a broad array of small business issues for all people of color through the Greenlining Coalition, we want to call special attention to the role of Black-owned media in the current moment. We can’t overstate the role that Black media play in not only providing people of color with high-quality news produced by our own communities, but also in taking ownership of our own stories and narratives.
Today the Black community makes up about a little less than six percent of California’s population but is vastly overrepresented in everything from COVID-19’s impact, to over-policing, to homelessness in a state which prides itself on progressive values and governance. To be blunt, the mainstream media often get to these stories late, and too often get them wrong. We need media sources owned by and serving the Black community and other underserved groups to ensure that communities of color have the real facts and real stories needed to make change everywhere from the state capitol to their own local city halls.
BLACK MEDIA AND OTHER ETHNIC OUTLETS PLAY A CRITICAL ROLE
Media companies owned by people of color, or “minority media,” as they were called until people of color became California’s majority population, have gained enormous ground. However, decision-makers in many board rooms and elsewhere too often perceive ethnic media as an “alternative” source rather than as a mainstream conduit of information. Today, this perception is incredibly outdated and simply inaccurate.
As the Chairs of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus wrote to Congressional leadership in April, “Local ethnic media outlets… are providing critical updates to communities across America but are struggling to stay afloat during COVID-19 due to major losses in the advertising revenue so critical to their business models. However, the reality is that African American, Latino, Asian Pacific American, and Native American communities need more news and information to stay healthy and safe in the ever-changing COVID-19 environment, not less.”
To be clear, we are talking about investment and not charity. As Neilsen found in 2019, the Black community spends approximately $1.3 trillion annually. For comparison, that is more buying power than The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Indonesia combined. If major corporations and banks want the Black community’s business, they should in turn do business with the Black community and Black-owned businesses, including Black media. Newspapers thrive on advertising dollars and, based purely on the math, the private sector should be heavily invested in the outlets that do the best job of reaching the Black community.
Many rightly argue that mainstream media outlets can do a better job of reporting on the Black community. But these larger organizations have their own struggles and simply cannot fill the vital role that the Black media play.
According to Pew Research Center, “more than three-quarters (77%) of newsroom employees,” are White and newsroom employees are more likely than other industries to be male. This leads to an overdependence on White sources and a general prevalence of White perspectives in news reporting.
Larger outlets can and should address these deficits, but even in the best-case scenario it won’t happen overnight. Because of the propensity of the so-called “mainstream” media to overlook diverse voices, ethnic media offer context and perspectives that the mass media regularly miss.
Some may assume that people of color can simply rely on social media for more targeted news. This assumption is both wrong and could have severe negative consequences for the Black community and others. Sadly, the social media universe is a hotbed of misinformation and conspiracy theories. For example, Wall Street Journal noted in April that sites followed by millions of people on social media have “touted high doses of vitamin C and silver particles as able to cure the [corona]virus,” which is blatantly false, while CNBC reported that a study in the UK found that “58 percent of those who had gone outside with COVID-19 symptoms use YouTube as their main information source.” Things have gotten so bad that On September 16, the NAACP and Color of Change organized a daylong boycott of Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) through the Stop Hate for Profit Campaign.
In a recent CapRadio/Valley Vision poll of the greater Sacramento region, almost seven in 10 Black respondents said they trusted social media to provide them with information, while only three in 10 White respondents answered similarly. In the same story, Capital Public Radio quotes Flojaune Cofer, an epidemiologist at Public Health Advocates, noting that “the messenger does matter, especially in a community where there’s been historical trauma, and where the authority figures don’t always have a lot of trust. But there’s still an appeal to authority that happens even in the Black community, it’s just they want to hear from authority figures and experts who look like them.”
In California, where the Black community has suffered disproportionately from the pandemic and mounting recession, it is more important now than ever that Black media tell stories about the Black community based on reporting from Black journalists. The same is also true for other diverse communities, especially those with large immigrant populations.
HOW TO SUPPORT BLACK MEDIA
While the problems facing Black-owned media and other ethnic media are systemic and include everything from a difficult economic landscape for even the largest newspapers to a consolidation of media in general, they are not overly complicated. As Denise Rolark Barnes, chairwoman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association which represents 211 Black-owned publications nationwide noted in the Columbia Journalism Review, “the issue boils down to money.” There are straightforward, concrete steps that elected officials, private sector leaders, and normal Californians can take to address this issue.
First, here in California, voters can approve Proposition 16 on the November ballot, ending an embarrassing, wrongheaded policy that has cost businesses owned by women, Black Californians, and other diverse groups more than $1 billion in public contracting. Prop. 16 could be a game-changer for Black-owned media in California and hopefully open more opportunities to compete for billions of dollars of state procurement.
If and when a second federal economic recovery package comes out — and it should — it must include funds targeted directly at Black media and all media owned by and serving diverse readers. As the North Dallas Gazette, a 30-year-old Black-owned newspaper put it, “Black Press — and community-based publishing in general — has been largely left out of the $350 billion stimulus and Paycheck Protection Program packages.” That cannot continue for future recovery packages.
Also, large financial institutions, including both traditional banks and non-bank lenders, have an obligation to invest and contract with the diverse businesses in the communities that drive their profits. This investment must include small- and medium-sized Black media outlets. This is not charity or a handout, but an opportunity for banks and other lenders to directly reach potential customers that are often passed over by firms that have no connection to the community they are attempting to reach.
Finally, as journalist Chida Rebecca noted in an article earlier this year, when The Freedom Journal, the U.S.’s first Black newspaper, was founded in 1827 in New York it’s founders put forth that, “Too long have others spoken for us. We wish to plead our own case.” It is simply not enough to have stories written about communities of color. Now more than ever the Black community, along with AAPIs, Latinx, and other underserved communities must receive the public and private support needed to tell our stories, with our voices and our truths.
Willie Ellison is a Board Member and Director of Media and Corporate Partnerships at the Southern California Black Chamber of Commerce. He has been a business owner and advocate in the media/marketing industry for over 30 years of experience. Adam Briones is Greenlining’s Economic Equity Director. Follow him on Twitter.
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