WSSN Stories

By Craig DeLuz | Special to California Black Media Partners

In the wake of the horrific mass shooting that took place in Sacramento, California, over the last week, politicians and media pundits have rushed to their soapboxes to proclaim, once again, that guns are the root of all evil and the cause of the recent violent crime wave that has gripped our nation. They share with whomever will listen, their prognosis for ending crime as we know it.

“We need more ‘common sense’ gun laws,” they say.

But there are a number of underlying truths that they will dare not share with the public. Because if they do, it will become clear that they and their policies are not the solution. They are, in fact, the root of the problem.

Here are just a few of those truths they will not dare share:

We do not have a Gun Violence problem. We have a Violence problem

Guns have been a part of the American lexicon since the very beginning. For generations, society had a healthy relationship with the second amendment. Firearms were given their proper respect as tools to be used to feed one’s family, defend one’s home or fight for one’s liberty. It is only recent generations that have concluded that violence is an acceptable way to address the myriad of issues confronting them.  The firearm is not the cause of this. In fact, it is not even the weapon of choice.

While it is true that 77% of homicides in 2020 were committed with firearms, 92% of all violent crimes do not involve firearms. The overwhelming majority of violent offenses – including robberies, rapes and other sex crimes – almost always involve other weapons or no weapons at all. And there is no doubt that the number of instances of all these offenses are increasing.

Guns are no more the cause of this violence than cars are the cause of drunk driving.

Gun control does nothing to reduce crime in general, let alone violent crime

There is a popular saying amongst statisticians, “There are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics.” Politicians and the media have been using all three to push their false narrative about gun control laws. They would have you believe that studies support the idea that the best way to reduce violent crime is to pass more gun laws. But nothing could be further from the truth.

A 2020 study done as a part of the RAND Corporation’s Gun Policy in America initiative, revealed that of the 27,900 research publications on the effectiveness of gun control laws, only 123 (0.4%) were found to meet a base level of academic rigor. They also noted that the only reliable conclusion one could get from those 123 studies was that there is zero evidence that gun control laws have any effect of violence in general or gun violence specifically.

The recent increase in violent crime is directly linked to “Smart on Crime” (read soft-on-crime) policies

Violent crime was at an all-time high in the early 1990s fueled by gangs and the drug trade. This led to federal, state and local initiatives aimed at stemming the tide. Tough-on-crime initiatives were enacted that included, among other things, increased policing and mandatory minimums for a number of crimes.

Crime (especially violent crime) would go on the decline for the next 20-plus years.

Then in the 2010s, several states began instituting “Smart on Crime” policies that decriminalized a number of criminal offenses and let violent criminals out of prison. That wasn’t the intention of those who supported these policies. But that is, in fact, what happened.

Case in point: Back in 2018 Smiley Martin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for punching a girlfriend, dragging her from her home by her hair and whipping her with a belt. But, sadly, under California law, these are considered non-violent offenses, making Mr. Martin eligible for a reduced sentence under Proposition 57. So, instead of sitting in a jail cell serving the fifth year of a 10-year sentence, he was walking the streets of Sacramento with a modified automatic pistol.

This story is not the first. It is not even unique to Sacramento. Just a month earlier, three children and their chaperone were killed by their father who should have been in ICE custody. But under California’s Sanctuary State policy, David Mora Rojas, who was locked up for assaulting a highway patrol officer was released from police custody; set free to kill his children.

While the media and politicians deny the correlation and instead seek to blame guns; the increase in crime, especially violent crime, directly corresponds with the change in our criminal justice policies.

This is about race. But not in the way you think it is.

Gun control has always been about keeping “Those People” from being able to own firearms. Following the Civil War, southern states enacted ‘Black Codes’ making it illegal for newly freed slaves to own guns. In the 1870s, California would pass laws preventing the sale of firearms and ammunition to Native Americans (then referred to as Indians.) In the 1920s California acted again, prohibiting the sale of firearms to the “Chinese” or “Mexicans”. Then in the 1960s, California would pass the Mulford Act, eliminating the ability to openly carry loaded firearms in public as a way to disarm the Black Panther Party.

The truth is that the gun debate has always been rooted in racism. However, those who push these policies are the true victimizers.

Consider that the last gun case to be heard by the U. S. Supreme Court (McDonald v. Chicago) was brought by a Black man who simply wanted to be able to defend his home from the ravages of gang and drug violence. This underscores two very important, yet often overlooked truths:

• Policies that release habitual criminals into our neighborhoods lead to the victimization of people in those communities. These policies disproportionately impact people of color.

• Gun Control Laws only serve to restrict the ability of law-abiding citizens to own or possess firearms they may need to protect themselves and their loved ones. These laws also disproportionately affect people of color.

We are often told that young Black and Brown men are disproportionately impacted by gun violence. But it is rarely noted that young Black and Brown men are disproportionately the ones pulling the trigger. The sad fact is that people who seek to victimize others (Black, White, Latin, Asian, etc.) tend to go after people who look like them.

So, while it is noble to try and reduce the number of young Black men in our criminal justice system, we cannot ignore that in doing so, we have put Black men, women and children at risk of being their victims.

At the same time, we are limiting the ability of these very same folks to be able to defend themselves from the very danger we have put in their path.

To any objective observer, these truths are self-evident. Most of the media and political elite have proven themselves to be anything but objective observers. If we are to ever address the scourge of violence in our streets, it will only happen when we all come to grips with these and many other truths.

About the Author
Craig DeLuz is President of 2ANews Corporation and hosts a daily news and political talk show “The Rundown.”

By Antonio Ray Harvey| California Black Media

The California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) added another member to its roster last week.

Former Suisun City Mayor Lori D. Wilson, a Democrat, was sworn into office April 6 to represent the 11th Assembly District. Wilson won a special election following the resignation of former Assemblymember Jim Frazier, also a Democrat.

“I am deeply humbled and grateful to have the opportunity to serve our communities in the State Assembly,” Wilson said in a statement. “From constituents who need help with state services, to challenges like rising homelessness, climate change, and keeping our neighborhoods and communities safe, I promise to work every day to deliver results for our communities, and to be a relentless advocate for every person who lives in our district.”

Wilson was the lone candidate on the ballot for the special election. She will serve out the remainder of Frazier’s current term, which ends on Dec. 5, but she must clear another hurdle to continue serving voters in the 11th District, an area stretching from the Bay Area to the Sacramento Valley, covering East Bay cities like Antioch, Pittsburg, Fairfield and Walnut Grove.

Wilson is on the ballot in the Democratic primary election on June 7. The first Black female mayor to serve in Solano County, Wilson will run for re-election to serve a full, two-year term. She has one challenger for the seat.

“Lori Wilson is competent and capable. She has the knowledge and the skills to make a difference in the Legislature. Her integrity and consistency are her greatest assets,” said David C. Isom, Vice President, Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District.

Shortly after she was sworn into office last week at the State Capitol, a day after the special election, Speaker of the Assembly Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) appointed Wilson as Assistant Majority Whip.

Rendon also appointed her to the Accountability and Administrative Review Committee, the Appropriations Committee, the Banking and Finance Committee, and the Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee.

K. Patrice Williams, a Solano County businesswoman, community leader and advocate said Wilson’s hard work on the campaign trail paid off.

“Today was epic in so many ways because of 26,293 votes in a special election,” she posted on Facebook. “Mayor Lori Wilson is now Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson. We sent Lori to the Capitol with people power. Congratulations to Lori and US!”

In Southern California, nonprofit director and businesswoman Tina Simone McKinnor, 58, and Lawndale Mayor Robert Pullen-Miles, 55, will face off in a run-off special election in June for the vacant 62nd District Assembly seat.

Both Black Democratic candidates, Mckinnor and Pullen-Miles were the top-two finishers in the special primary held on April 5, 2022, to replace former Assemblymember Autumn Burke, who resigned in February.

As of April 8, McKinnor was leading with 11,190 votes (39%) to Pullen-Miles’ 9,918 votes (35%). Nico Ruderman and Angie Reyes, both Democrats, trailed with 3,781 (13%) and 3,765 (13%) votes, respectively.

The CLBC currently has 11 members, including Wilson. The other members are Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), chair; vice chair Sen. Sydney Kamlager (D-Los Angeles); and Assemblymembers Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), Mike Gipson (D-Carson), Chris Holden (D-Pasadena), Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove), Mia Bonta (D-Alameda), Akilah Weber (D-San Diego) and Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles).

Senate has confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jackson was confirmed 53-47. Three Republican senators — Mitt Romney (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Susan Collins (Maine) — joined all 48 Democrats and two independents in voting to confirm Jackson to the nation’s highest court.

Jackson, 51, will become the Supreme Court’s 116th justice and the first Black woman ever to sit on its bench.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the nation’s first woman, first Black person, and first Asian American to hold that office, presided over the historic vote.

“In the 233-year history of the Supreme Court, never has a Black woman held the title of justice,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a speech before the vote. “Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the first, and I believe the first of more to come.”

Jackson watched the vote unfold with President Joe Biden at the White House.

Jackson will take her seat when Justice Stephen Breyer retires this summer. She will be the third Black justice, after Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and the sixth woman.

By Antonio? ?Ray? ?Harvey? ?|? ?California? ?Black? ?Media?

The Sacramento Police Department (Sac PD) has made two arrests in the mass shooting that happened in the early hours of April 3 in downtown Sacramento.

Brothers, Dandrae Martin, 26, and Smiley Martin, 27, are in SAC PD custody.

Dandre Martin was booked Monday for felony assault and illegal firearm possession charges, according to Sac PD. Charges against Smiley Martin, who was hospitalized after sustaining injuries during the shooting, are for possession of a firearm by a prohibitive person and possession of machine gun.

According to public records, the younger Martin has an outstanding arrest warrant in Riverside County for violating two terms of his probation related to a domestic violence arrest in 2014.

His older brother, Smiley Martin, was granted early release last year from a 10-year prison sentence for domestic violence and assault with great bodily harm — despite opposition from Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert.

Schubert said Martin assaulted his girlfriend who he had been “encouraging” and “assisting” to work as prostitute.

“He located her hiding in her bedroom closet and hit her repeatedly with a closed fist on the face, head, and body, causing visible injuries,” Schubert wrote in a letter opposing Martin’s release. “He then dragged her out of the home by her hair to an awaiting car. After he put her in the car, he assaulted her with a belt.”

Six people died from the shooting. The 12 wounded individuals who survived the incident suffer from minor to critical gunshot wounds. They are all in stable condition.

The investigation is ongoing.

“We want to thank the community for the overwhelming assistance that has been provided. To date, we have received over 100 videos and/or photo files provided through the community evidence portal. We continue to encourage the community to use the community evidence portal to directly provide the department with photos and videos,” Sac PD said in a statement Apr. 4

As the investigation progressed, Sac PD Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team and other detectives served search warrants at three residences in an area that has yet to be disclosed. At least one handgun reportedly related to the shooting has been recovered.

The shootings that have made headlines across the state and around the world happened in an area near the California State Capitol known for its restaurants and bars, a popular after-work hangout for politicians, staffers and other government workers.

Around 2:00 a.m., Sac PD officers responded to the sounds of shots fired in the busy part of downtown around 10th and K Streets, four blocks east of the Golden 1 Center where the NBA’s Sacramento Kings play. Over 100 rounds were reportedly fired into a crowd.

The deceased are Sergio Harris, 38; Melinda Davis, 57; Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21; Johntaya Alexander, 21; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; and 29-year-old DeVazia Turner.

Stevante Clark, a Sacramento activist, told California Black Media two victims, Harris and Turner, were related.

Clark said he was with Harris’s wife Leticia Harris when a Sac PD Captain, at Clark’s insistence, told her about her husband’s death. Clark said Mrs. Harris was “out there all (Sunday) morning,” trying to get information.

“This is so sad. It breaks my heart” Clark said. “This is community violence.”

The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office will be “reviewing all related evidence in this investigation” to determine appropriate charges, the Sac PD stated.

On the afternoon of Apr. 3, Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said a “stolen handgun” was recovered at the scene. Sac PD stated after the arrests that the weapon had been “inspected and found to have been converted” to a gun “capable of automatic gunfire.”

Sunday’s mass shooting is the second in Sacramento in under two months. On Feb. 28, five people were shot and killed after a man opened fire at a church in the state’s capital. The man shot and killed his three children and a man who was with them before taking his own life.

No link has been established between the mass shooting and organized crime, but gang activity has been on the rise in Sacramento.

In November 2021, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the results of a multiagency investigation into Sacramento-based criminal street gang activity that resulted in a number of arrests.

Gangs in the area are allegedly responsible for a series of violent crimes, including homicides. A total of 26 individuals were arrested, and more than 125 firearms were seized by state agents.

Most of the firearms confiscated were assault weapons, including “ghost guns.”

Ghost guns are un-serialized and untraceable firearms that can be purchased online and assembled. They are often sold through “ghost gun kits.”

Lester did not provide details of the stolen handgun used in Sacramento’s most recent shooting, but the SAC PD chief said a semi-automatic, high-velocity weapon was used.

“What happened is the biggest and most recent example of what we all know,” Lester said at a news conference hours after the deadliest shooting in the city’s history. “Gun violence is truly a crisis in our community, and it has increased not only here in Sacramento but across the nation.”

By Joe W. Bowers Jr. | California Black Media

What happens when you’re a vocal critic of bad decisions made by administrators at your local school district?

If Inglewood Unified is your local school district, you might receive an email from one of their highest priced lawyers questioning your intelligence and warning you that he is determining if you’ve engaged in actions that could be interpreted as threatening to people. The following is the email I received:

Dear Mr. Bowers:

I am in receipt of your email to Dr. Torres demanding a response to your Public Records Act Request (“PRAR”) concerning contracts or communications with TSS. The District’s response which was sent 41 minutes prior to your email was fully compliant with its obligations. I cannot tell if you took the time to review the website contained in the District’s response. Assuming it took you 15 minutes +/- to draft your email to Dr. Torres you certainly did not have time to conduct a thorough review of the material to which you were directed. Either way, the District has responded to your PRAR, and your email correspondence is moot.

On a different but related note, I have been advised that you have been in communication with TSS and made various threats or comments or statements which could be interpreted as threats. I am waiting for confirmation of the timing and content of those communications before taking any further action. I would, however, caution you that First Amendment rights do have limits and that in the heat of the moment people say things and/or threaten actions which take themselves outside of that protection. I suggest you consider keeping that in mind.

Finally, in the future please direct all further communications to the District to my attention. Your communications are increasingly hostile and District staff and administrators are entitled to perform their duties without fear of harassment or threats no matter how much you a person may disagree with their actions.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and compliance with my request.

David
David M. Orbach, Esq.
Orbach Huff & Henderson LLP

Recently I wrote an op-ed titled “Opinion: Closing Warren Lane Elementary in Inglewood Is a Terrible Decision.” The school district has experienced a significant decline in enrollment and closing some schools is fiscally responsible. The criteria they’re using to select which schools to close deserve scrutiny and criticism because they are not employing California Department of Education best practices.

Warren Lane has more attributes justifying keeping it open than shortcomings that justify closing it.

Conducting research for the op-ed, I made a California Public Records Act (CPRA) request for information about Total School Solutions (TSS), the consulting company that recommended closing Warren Lane Elementary School.

I wanted to review the TSS contract because, according to the California Secretary of State’s website, their business license was suspended by the Franchise Tax Board. When a company’s business license is suspended, technically, they can’t legally transact business until it is resolved.

The school district waited the maximum time CPRA allows to respond to requests and then informed me the information I was requesting could be found on the school district’s website.

The information I was seeking is not there. So, I notified County Administrator Dr. Torres that the school district was not being responsive to my public records request and demanded that they provide the records requested.

Rather than complying with my request, the school district is playing hardball and doubling down on withholding the information. And, to rub it in, sent the email that you just read.

Orbach, a lawyer Inglewood Unified has on retainer, seemed fascinated by how fast I answered the email they sent me about my public records request. He calculated my response time and concluded that no way was I capable enough to review the website as quickly as I did and conclude it did not have the information I requested.

I don’t know if Orbach is a racist, but I find his timekeeping stunt and comments about my response time are. If he intended to insult me, he failed because I don’t care what he thinks. Also, my correspondence was not “moot” because Inglewood Unified is hiding the TSS contract in violation of
CPRA.

But what is more disturbing and insidious about Orbach’s email was his disclosing that he had “been advised” that I have “made various threats” and he’s “waiting for confirmation”. I regard his disclosure as trying to be intimidating and bordering on character assassination.

Now, if he is referring to anything I’ve written about the closing of Warren Lane, no one has commented that I’ve said anything threatening.

My contact with TSS was only to confirm the status of their suspended business license on the Secretary of State’s website.

It’s clear to me what the school district lawyer is trying to do. Dog whistle phrases like “increasingly hostile”, “heat of the moment”, and “before taking any further action” say to me, “you’re an out-of-control angry Black man and if you don’t back off, the law is coming after you.”

It looks like criticizing Inglewood Unified about closing Warren Lane touched a nerve, although the email does not mention Warren Lane. But implying that my communications have been threatening to people, I feel, is a veiled attempt at getting me to stop criticizing a terrible decision.

Orbach’s aggressive action on behalf of the school district needed to be exposed and rebuked, that’s the reason I wrote this op-ed.

Taxpayer dollars are involved. He is directing me to send any communications I have with the school district to his attention and he’s surely not reviewing them pro bono.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education has oversight responsibility for Inglewood Unified. The public deserves to know why a school district which is in state receivership is permitted to pay a lawyer to try to silence a community member exercising their First Amendment rights.

Life is full of ups and downs, and you never know how your plans can be easily turned around. It’s a given that racial trauma causes pain, strain and distress, but it is often suppressed.

Lisa Collins, Ed.D is an educational researcher who planned to study trauma, but instead explored her lived experiences. She became her own research subject after her medical doctor demanded she take time off from work. The outcome? Dr. Collins examined her racial trauma and found a solution and healing for herself and others. She recently reflected on healing from racial trauma at a TEDx Carioba Studio event, an independently organized TED event, released March 2, 2022.

Dr. Collins has an interesting backstory and comes from a loving family. Fostering healing was ingrained in her throughout her life. Her grandfather was a sharecropper in rural Arkansas and worked until he could have enough money to have his own land.

“I believe that my grandfather, mother and my ancestors racially fought for me, and they did. And now I’m fighting for the racial well-being of my children, and their healing,” she recalls.

The request to take time off from work was a wake-up call for Dr. Collins. In the middle of researching trauma for her doctorate, she started looking at herself and reflecting on her own life. After her primary care doctor suggested taking time away from work, Dr. Collins began her journey through racial healing. When she heard a small voice say, “You’re the subject of your research,” she listened and an autoethnography was born.

Dr. Lisa Collins’s research on Healing from Racial Trauma: A Consciousness Journey in Autoethnography, examines the ever-going frustrations of people of color that generate racial trauma and health implications, silenced by ignorance and avoidance. During her TEDx talk, she describes instances of microaggression in predominantly white institutions as the catapult for her research on racial trauma, and her experiences as the basis of that research.

Dr. Collins wrote about her lived experiences in three organizations. She gathered data, pictures, poems, written reflections, experiences, and discerned each one. She coded them. Coding and qualitative research are how she defined and understood each artifact. She looked at each artifact and highlighted parts or all of it.

“So, my research consists of 61 artifacts and 178 highlighted quotes,” she explained. “Six themes emerged. Organizational trauma, racial trauma, systemic oppression, settler colonialism, white supremacy, and racial healing. The most prevalent experience was racial trauma. The one with the least amount was racial healing. Racial trauma happened five times more than racial healing.”

Racial trauma, according to Dr. Collins, is unlike other forms of trauma. She believes that most black people experience racial trauma regularly. She said that many of us have learned how to suppress it and because of that, we are confronted with unforeseen health complications.

As a black educator, racial trauma cumulated the inevitable stress, anger and anxiety that she felt throughout her career. The lack of racial trauma awareness for people of color shut the door to healing and confronting generational trauma that exists in BIPOC communities.

Dr. Collins’ research yielded a call to action for greater community well-being and racial healing groups for BIPOC and NON-BIPOC people. Her research and her healing led to a coaching model that will help people of color to be able to recognize, learn, heal and pass it on to other people. Using her research, Dr. Collins aims to coach people of color on how to live in white spaces

without losing their sense of self and identity. She currently facilitates racial healing spaces at various times during the year. With a resulting goal to help others build community and heal from the past, she is well on her way to creating a better future for us all.

About Lisa Collins
Lisa Collins is an educational professional with over 25 years of experience. She holds degrees in psychology and education and works as an assistant professor at Lewis and Clark College and the Director of her small business, Education Through Engagement, LLC. As a learning and development professional, she supports talent management and business partners to solve workforce challenges. She brings a gender and equity lens to her working environments and her communities as a person of color. She uses Conscious Freedom and Interpersonal Neurobiology frameworks to enhance her consulting. Dr. Collins brings multiple perspectives, creates community, and studies racial healing to her work. She serves on the Oregon Assembly of Black Affairs, the advisory board for Strategies of Trauma Awareness and Resilience with Eastern Mennonite University, and On The Inside, a creative outlet and healing for incarcerated women.

Creatively, Dr. Collins is a playwright and filmmaker with works produced in New York (Manhattan Repertory Theater) and Portland (Hipbone, Portland Center Stage, and the Armory). Her short film, Be Careful What You Ask For has won selection in the Fertile Ground New Work Virtual Festival 2021, Manhattan Repertory Short Stories Film Festival 2021, Pacific Northwest Multicultural Film Festival 2021, and Portland Film Festival 2021. She is also currently the host of her own Podcast, Love and Light with Dr. Lisa. The show is designed to identify and find the need for a life of peaceful love-filled existence and engagement with tough topics by leaning in and incorporating healing. The Podcast is featured on the #1 positive talk network, streaming live on www.transformationtalkradio.com.

For more information on Dr. Lisa Collins and her research, please call 971-238-9608 or visit www.educationthroughengagement.com.

By Lou Yeboah

Well, Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida, says the Lord. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you [Luke 10:13-15] Over and over again, I have sent My warnings to you, but they have gone unheard. How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? How long will you keep ignoring the warning signs and live for your own ways and desires as if there are no consequences for doing so? I’ve warned you, Repent before it is too late!

“And in Hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” [Luke 16:27-28].

A lesson for all of us. “Being in torment” – “He cried” – “Have mercy on me.” That tells us two things; one, there is no mercy in Hell; second, there is torture, pain and suffering in Hell. He asked for just one drop of water on his tongue. I am tormented in this flame. There is no water in Hell. A great gulf is fixed so there will be no leaving it once a person gets there. No way to escape after arriving there. How could anyone ignore such a place as Hell? How could anyone not be concerned about their soul and the fact that they will be in Hell someday unless they come to the Savior?

Every lost person – lost without Christ will someday be in Hell for all eternity. They are headed for Hell as sure as if they were already there. For [John 3:18] says, He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The word “believeth” used here means to have placed your trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. Those who have not done that are already condemned to Hell. “Too Little Concern About Hell!”

Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. [Romans 1:28-32].

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. [Galatians 5:19-21].

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.”

To Little Concern About Hell – What tragedy!

By Aldon Thomas Stiles | California Black Media

Over the last two months, Gov. Gavin Newsom has met with some of the state’s counties to promote CARE Court.

CARE Court – the acronym stands for Community, Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment – is a mental health framework the state created to help people who are suffering from mental illness and substance use disorder by providing alternatives to arrests and jail if they have run-ins with the law.

Newsom announced the initiative at a press conference in San Jose last month. At the event, the governor said the new statewide initiative will receive funding from his administration’s multi-year mental health budget proposal totaling nearly $10 billion per year in behavioral health programs and services.

“CARE Court is about meeting people where they are and acting with compassion to support the thousands of Californians living on our streets with severe mental health and substance use disorders,” said Newsom. “We are taking action to break the pattern that leaves people without hope and cycling repeatedly through homelessness and incarceration. This is a new approach to stabilize people with the hardest-to-treat behavioral health conditions.”

Similar programs called collaborative courts focusing on specific problem-solving solutions for offenders have already been established in a number of counties across the state.

Teiahsha Bankhead, Executive Director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY) said the courts work.

“In some counties these courts have demonstrated very positive outcomes. They are most successful in communities that are not obsessed with over-policing and harsh punishment,” said Bankhead.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lawrence G. Brown, who has extensive experience with cases that come through these types of courts, asserted that the model has been helpful in his community.

“In our three mental health treatment courts in Sacramento, which serve between 150-200 participants at any given time, it would be a conservative estimate that well over half of those coming into our courts are either homeless or have housing instability,” said Brown.

“Based on our experience, if a person can be connected to meaningful treatment services, coupled with judicial oversight, there can be a profound impact on recidivism and hospitalizations,” he continued.

Rhonda Smith, executive director of the California Black Health Network, is pleased to see the gap that CARE Court is closing but she is concerned about people the criminal justice program might miss.

“If someone doesn’t pass the screening test, what happens to that person? What kind of safety net is there for them?” Smith asked.

Bankhead believes CARE Court is a necessary measure in a society that has been rethinking crime and punishment.

“In a humane, civil society members take into consideration disabling health considerations without punishing people for consequences of illnesses beyond their control,” points out Bankhead.

“A CARE Court should result in lower costs for custodial care of people who have caused harm as additional resources and treatment alternatives will mean fewer people serving time in county jails and state prisons for charges that are essentially health violations,” continued Bankhead.

While the US accounts for 5% of the world’s population, it accounts for almost 25% of the world’s prisoners, according to the American Psychological Association.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Black people make up almost 40% of the nation’s incarcerated population, although they are about 13% of the population.

In California, the imprisonment rate of Black men alone is almost ten times higher than the rate for White men, according to numbers provided by the Public Policy Institute of California.

“Because of the disproportionate incarceration of Black, indigenous and other people of color we would expect overall reductions in incarceration rates with accompanying improvements in community health and wellbeing,” said Bankhead.

“In CARE Court the criminalization of young Black men and women will hopefully be eliminated, shifted and lifted as seriously mentally ill people of color will be evaluated more comprehensively for mental illness and offered real support, treatment, alternatives and opportunities to heal,” she continued.

Experts estimate that about 10% to 25% of the nation’s prison population suffer from severe mental illness and 42% struggle with substance addiction.

According to California Health Policy Strategies, open mental health cases in California increased by 42% between 2009 and 2019. During that period, the yearly average of daily intakes of open mental health cases increased by 62%.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated in 2015 that 45% of the nation’s homeless population suffered from mental illness.

“There’s nothing compassionate about continuing to allow the current cycle of homelessness and incarceration to continue. My Administration will continue hosting CARE Court roundtables across the state listening to impacted Californians and stakeholders about their experiences and needs,” Newsom said.

By Antonio? ?Ray? ?Harvey? ?|? ?California? ?Black? ?Media?

A day after the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans decided who would be eligible for compensation, the nine-member panel approved a framework for calculating how much should be paid — and for which offenses — to individuals who are Black descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

The task force voted 8-0 to consider a blueprint of 13 “harms,” titled “Model 2: State Specific Harms/Atrocities Framework,” presented by an expert team it appointed.

“The Task Force will give us some directions and what to pursue to use this framework to figure out a procedure to have calculations,” said Dr. Kaycea Campbell, a member of the expert team. “(It) will allow us to identify specific atrocities or harms for which California should compensate.”

The expert panel reported that a “conservative estimate” of two million African Americans in California have ancestors who were enslaved in the United States. According to the US 2020, there are about 2.6 million Black Californians in a state that has a total population of nearly 40 million residents.

The expert team identified 13 “categories” that would be the “methodology” and “procedure to calculate damages” to determine what constitutes harms and atrocities, Campbell said.

Those harms include unjust property taking by eminent domain, intellectual property deprivation; homelessness; unwarranted police violence; segregated education; denial of representation on estate commissions; and housing discrimination; labor discrimination; environmental harm; mass incarceration; and sentencing; public health harms; transgenerational effects; among others.

The inflictions are prioritized to establish the case for compensation, with specificity to California, based on evidence gathered during witness testimonies over a course of nine months.

“The list is in no way final, can be expanded, and can be shrunk,” Campbell told the task force on March 30. “But we wanted to give an idea of these particular atrocities, as they are identified, and have the task force direct us as to what we should be looking at.”

Campbell, who is based on Long Beach, is an experienced career economist specializing in economic theory, analysis, and policy. The Chief Executive Officer for Ventana Capital Advisors and Associate Professor of Economics, Los Angeles Pierce College, she has a Ph.D. degree in Economics-Management from Claremont Graduate University.

Campbell says the five-member unit is tasked with providing an economic perspective of the work the task force is doing, helping to quantify past economic injustices African Americans faced in the state and elsewhere, and determining what or how much compensation should be for Black people living in California.

The expert team includes Williams Spriggs (former Chair of the Department of Economics at Howard University. He currently serves as chief economist for the AFL-CIO), and Thomas Craemer (Public Policy Professor at the University of Connecticut).

Spriggs and Craemer testified in front of the task force last October.

Rounding out the panel of experts are William A. “Sandy” Darity Jr., the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, and Kirsten Mullen, a writer, and lecturer whose work focuses on race, art, history, and politics.

Darity is a Samuel DuBois Cook professor of public policy, African and African American studies, and economics at Duke University. His research focuses on racial, class and ethnic inequality and stratification economics; education and the racial achievement gap; North-South theories of trade and development; and the economics of reparations.

Darity and Mullen co-authored the book, “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century.” They testified before the task force during the first meeting in June 2021.

The task force chose the Model 2 framework over Model 1, called the “National Reparations Framework.” The first option captures all the “opportunities and losses” linked to enslavement, Jim Crow laws, elements of lost wages, and others.

The expert team expressed their concerns about the national model because many of the atrocities, discrimination, and wage gap only relate to southern territories that did not happen in California.

“The national strategy of attempting to eliminate the racial wealth gap is something that is not replicated at the state level given the resources that the state of California currently possesses,” Darity said. “The second issue is the condition of racial wealth and equality in the state of California is not exclusively a consequence of a chain of events that took place solely in the state.”

On March 29, the task force voted 5-4 in favor of lineage over race as the determining factor for compensation. The members of the expert team suggested that a “reparations tribunal” would be one approach where individuals and families could establish residency and file claims of harm based on lineage.

Task Force chair Kamilah Moore said the community eligibility portion will be based on lineage “determined by an individual being African American, the descendant of a (person enslaved as chattel) or descendant of a free-Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century.”

By statute, the task force will issue a report to the Legislature by June 1, 2022, which will be available to the public.

Model 2 of the Framework for Reparations and Calculations could “potentially” arrive with modifications when the expert team reports back to the task force during the next meeting, Moore said.

After the expert team’s presentation, testimonials were provided on the “War on Drugs” and the crack-cocaine epidemic during the March meeting.

Those harms could be added to one of the categories.

“I am just putting that on our radar as a potential and distinct harm,” Moore said of the injuries not currently listed in Model 2.

The Task Force will hold its next meeting at San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church on Wednesday, April 13 at 9 a.m. and Thursday, April 14 at 9 a.m.

Third Baptist Church is at 1399 McAllister in San Francisco.

By Tanu Henry | California Black Media

If it were not for the news headlines, you probably would not know California is under a state of emergency due to continuing drought conditions affecting more than 95% of state residents. Last summer was the hottest recorded in Western states. And in a 128-year stretch, 2022 has so far been the driest in Golden State history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Then, in March, evidence of worsening drought conditions in the state showed up in rainfall that didn’t. Low levels of rain during the month, prompted concerned authorities at the state Department of Water Resources (DWR) to cut delivery from the State Water Project, a storage facility, down to 5 % of the supplies that had been requested.

Reacting to those and other developments indicating a need to begin preserving water, last week, Gov. Newsom asked local water authorities to “move to Level 2 of their Water Shortage Contingency Plans.”

Newsom did not recommend specific actions, leaving regional and municipal authorities open to take “locally-appropriate actions.”

“Today, I am calling on local water agencies to implement more aggressive water conservation measures, including having the Water Board evaluate a ban on watering ornamental grass on commercial properties, which will drive water use savings at this critical time,” said Newsom who has invested more than $1 billion in state efforts aimed at tackling the drought.

Last month, Newsom invested $22.5 million in immediate funds to address the state’s drought emergency. That amount included $8.25 million for outreach efforts educating Californians on water conservation.

Dale Hunter is executive director of the California African American Water Education Foundation (CAAWEF). He says he applauds the governor’s decision to invest in outreach, but he also emphasized how important education will be for this campaign because of the seriousness of this ongoing drought.

CAAWEF is a statewide nonprofit that raises awareness about water issues concerning African Americans and educates the Black community about them.

“We must embrace conservation. It will become a way of life for us,” says Hunter. “We have to give people practical tips to drive this stuff home – so that people know they are a part of it. For example, the next time you wash that T-shirt, you have to make sure you have some other stuff in the washer to save water.”

Hunter said a lot of people hear about water conservation in the media, but they do not know what it involves.

Hunter says funding for outreach would support efforts by organizations like his that educate consumers.

The governor’s executive order last week called on the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to consider asking commercial consumers to ban irrigation of “non-functional” grass on their properties. However, Newsom’s proposed ban would not affect residential customers or recreational spaces and parks.

DWR estimates the plan could save water equal to “several hundred thousand acre-feet.” One acre-foot is the estimated amount of water three households need to last them for one year.

In California, 85% of public water systems source their supply from groundwater, which, under normal circumstances, accounts for 41% of water delivered to homes, businesses and public facilities. But during droughts like the current one, as much as 58 % of those water authorities may rely on groundwater.

Hunter says he understands why Newsom didn’t push any mandates or laws but opted instead to make recommendations to local authorities.

“Water is always a local issue,” he explained. “Always.”

Hunter says increasing awareness about water and getting people to become stakeholders in conservation will not happen overnight.

“It takes a while to percolate down to the average person,” says Hunter. “It might hit us when folks in one Zip Code can only water their yards on certain days. Water is the lifeblood of our state. We have to make sure we get it right.”