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Marchers
demand Galveston police release body
cam video of controversial mounted
patrol arrest
Hundreds of people marched through
Galveston Sunday demanding justice for
Donald Neely.
Video of Neely’s arrest went viral
in August after two Galveston police
officers were caught on camera leading
the man by rope.
The images sparked outrage across
the country.
During a demonstration Sunday
afternoon, hundreds of supporters joined
Neely’s attorneys call for police body
camera video to be released to the
public.
“Show us the police body camera
video, so we can see this good character
on full display when they interacted
with Donald Neely,” said Benjamin Crump,
Neely’s civil attorney.
They also demanded charges against
Neely to be dropped, because he is
mentally ill.
“These officers decided to take
Donald Neely into custody in the most
degrading and humiliating way possible,”
said Melissa Morris, his criminal
attorney.
Galveston police chief Vernon Hale
released the following statement Sunday
night:
“I respect those who participated in
the walk today and value their
fundamental right to free speech and
peaceful assembly. We grow as a
community by listening to each other.
“I understand why the image of Mr.
Neely’s arrest upset many people. This
photo conjured up strong emotions and
can be seen as offensive or shocking,
especially given the historical
connotation.
“This is the method of
transportation our mounted patrol
officers learned in their training.
Nonetheless, we want our practices to
always reflect the core values of our
department and our community. This is
why as the police chief and as an agency
we are committed to learning from this
and continuing our efforts to ensure the
department has the best practices and
policies in place.
“I commissioned two independent
reviews of the arrest, conducted by the
Texas Rangers and the Galveston County
Sheriff’s Office. The Texas Rangers
completed their review on August 16th
and found the officers had not violated
the law. We await the administrative
review from the Galveston County
Sheriff’s Office.
“The Galveston Police Department strives
to serve with respect and integrity through
continuous improvement.”
Biden on racism: Whites ‘can never fully understand’
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden takes a moment to talk to Raiana James, 20, left, after she shared her story next to Latoria Sullivan, 21, as he tours the Youth Empowerment Project that targets at risk youth and young people in New Orleans, Tuesday, July 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Visiting a black church bombed by the Ku Klux Klan during the civil rights era, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Sunday framed current racial tensions as part of an enduring struggle that is older than the nation.
“In a centuries long campaign of violence, fear, trauma, brought upon black people in this country, the domestic terrorism of white supremacy has been the antagonist of our highest ideals since before the founding of this country,” Biden told the 16th Street Baptist Church congregation in downtown Birmingham as they commemorated the 56th anniversary of the bombing that killed four black girls in 1963.
“It’s in the wake of these before-and-after moments,” Biden added, “when the choice between good and evil is starkest.”
Biden’s appearance comes at an inflection point for Democrats’ 2020 leader in the polls. He is trying to capitalize on his strength among older black voters while navigating criticism from some African American and other nonwhite leaders, particularly younger ones, who take a skeptical view of the 76-year-old white man’s willingness and ability to address systemic racism.
During his 20 minutes at the pulpit, Biden condemned institutional racism as the direct legacy of slavery and lamented that the nation has “never lived up to” the ideals of equality written into its founding documents. But then he added a more personal note — perhaps the closest he would come to addressing his detractors. “Those who are white try,” Biden said, “but we can never fully understand.”
The former vice president called out the names of the bombing victims — Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley — and he drew nods of affirmation as he warned that “the same poisonous ideology that lit the fuse on 16th Street” has yielded more recent tragedies, including in 2015 at a black church in South Carolina, in 2018 at a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh and in August at an El Paso, Texas , Wal-Mart frequented by Latino immigrants.
The Birmingham church, Biden said, offers an example to those communities and a nation he said must recommit itself to “giving hate no safe harbor — demonizing no one, not the poor, the powerless, the immigrant or the ‘other.'”
From his long time in government, first as a senator and then vice president to Barack Obama, the first black president, Biden has deep ties in the black community. Though Biden didn’t mention President Donald Trump in his remarks, he has made withering critiques of the president’s rhetoric and policies on race and immigration a central feature of his candidacy.
Yet Biden sometimes draws searing appraisals from younger nonwhite activists who point to complexities in his record. That includes his references to working productively alongside segregationist senators in the 1970s to distrust over his lead role in a 1994 crime law that critics frame as partially responsible for mass incarceration, especially black men.
The dynamics flared up again Thursday after Biden, during a Democratic debate, offered a sometimes incoherent answer when asked how the nation should confront the legacy of slavery. At one point, Biden suggested nonwhite parents use a play a record player to help their children with verbal and cognitive development. That led to a social media firestorm and commentary that Biden takes a paternalistic view of black and brown America even as he hammers Trump for emboldening more obvious forms of racism.
Author Anand Giridharadas called Biden’s answer “appalling — and disqualifying” for “implying that black parents don’t know how to raise their own children.”
Biden’s audience Sunday seemed more to reflect his relative popularity with black voters.
Parishioners wielded their cellphones when he arrived with Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, a white politician beloved in the church for his role as the lead prosecutor who secured convictions decades after the bombing occurred. The congregation gave Biden a standing ovation when he completed his remarks.
Alvin Lewis, a 67-year-old usher at 16th Street Baptist, said the welcome doesn’t necessarily translate to votes. But as Lewis and other congregants offered their assessment of race relations in the United States under Trump, they tracked almost flawlessly the arguments Biden has used to anchor his campaign.
“Racism has reared its head in a way that’s frightening for those of us who lived through it before,” Lewis said, recalling that he was at home, about “20 blocks from here” when the Klan bomb went off at 10:22 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1963. “No matter what anyone says, what comes out of the president of the United States’ mouth means more than anything,” Lewis added, saying Trump “has brought out some nastier times in this country’s history.”
Antoinette Plump, a 60-year-old who took in the service alongside lifelong member Doris Coke, 92, said racism “was on the back burner” until Trump “brought out all the people who are so angry.”
Coke, who was at the church on that Sunday in 1963, said, “We’ve come a long way.” But she nodded her head as Plump denounced Trump.
Nearby sat Fay Gaines, a Birmingham resident who was in elementary school in 1963 — just a few years younger than the girls who died.
Gaines said she’s heard and read criticisms about Biden. Asked whether she’d seen his “record players” answer in the debate, she laughed and said she did. But he remains on her “short list” of preferred candidates.
“I think there may just be a generational divide,” she said of the reaction. “People who lived through all these struggles maybe can understand how to deal with the current situation a little better.”
That means, she said, recognizing a politician’s core values.
“I trust Joe Biden,” she said. “History matters. His history matters.”
Date/time:
October 5th, 6:00pm to 10:00pm
Venue: Cynthia
Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Address: 2005 Lake
Robbins Dr, The Woodlands, Texas, 77380
You are not going to get anything handed
to you
“A man walked to the top of a hill
to talk to God.
The man asked, ‘God, what’s a
million years to you?’ and God said, ‘A
minute.’
Then the man asked, ‘Well, what’s a
million dollars to you?’ and God said,
‘A penny.’
Then the man asked, ‘God…..can I
have a penny?’ and God said, ‘Sure… in a
minute
The smaller the Club the Bigger the
Party!
Come out relax and enjoy the
sounds of DJ Chatterbox. Click
on picture below to see who's up
in the club.
Texas Court of Appeals hears arguments to overturn Crystal Mason’s prison sentence for illegally Voting
Attorneys for Texas woman Crystal Mason continued their appeal Tuesday to have her five-year prison sentence overturned after she was convicted of illegally voting in the 2016 presidential election.
Mason, who was on supervised release from a felony conviction at the time, had cast a provisional ballot, not knowing her status as a felon made her ineligible to vote in the state of Texas. Under state law, felons have their voting rights restored only after their full sentence, including probation/parole, has been served.
In 2018, Crystal Mason was sentenced to an additional 10 months in federal prison for violating the terms of her release. (Image courtesy of CBS News)
Although her ballot ultimately went uncounted, Tarrant County officials brought charges against her anyway, arguing Mason was well aware her voting privileges had been revoked. State officials pointed to an affidavit Mason had signed warning her about voter eligibility — a document that was attached to the back of the provisional ballot.
The mother of three acknowledged not reading the warning, as she was more focused on filling out the other side with her personal information. Mason said she never would’ve run the risk of voting had she known it would land her back behind bars, away from her kids.
“There’s no way that I would have attempted to vote, to leave my children, to lose my job, to go through what I’m going through right now,” she told CNN earlier this year.
According to HuffPo, much of her hearing Tuesday focused on the fact that Mason used a provisional ballot to vote. Her vote ultimately did not count, however, because her ballot was rejected, her attorney, Thomas Buser-Clancey of the Texas ACLU, told the Texas Court of Appeals. He also argued that, under federal law, election officials are required to give folks like Mason a chance to vote if they’re unsure about their eligibility, and it’s determined later if their ballot can be counted.
By prosecuting Mason, the state was essentially criminalizing a process upheld by federal law, according to Buser-Clancey.
“Ms. Mason submitted a provisional ballot and that ballot was rejected,” he explained. “Ms. Mason did not know the state considered her ineligible [to] vote. Ms. Mason was in fact not ineligible to vote. And these are all reasons that we’ve set forth that Ms. Mason’s conviction was wrong under the crime of illegal voting and why the conviction should be overturned.”
The 44-year-old was convicted of voter fraud in March 2018 and found herself back behind bars last August, where she remained until May. That federal sentence came as a result of judges ruling that her conviction in the state voter fraud case violated the terms of her release for her prior tax fraud conviction.
She’s currently forestalled serving her state prison sentence for the voter fraud conviction as she remains free on an appeal bond.
Beth Stevens, a lawyer with the Texas Civil Rights Project, accused state politicians of trying to jail Mason, who was the primary breadwinner for her family, to satisfy their “own insidious agenda.”
“No one should be incarcerated for, at worst, under the state’s theory, making a mistake when they go cast a vote,” Stevens told reporters after Tuesday’s hearing.
Mason’s attorneys have called her case a glaring attempt by the state to scare nonwhite voters and those with past records away from the voting booth.
Activists have also compared her case to others involving alleged voter fraud, such as that of former Tarrant County Justice of the Peace Russ Casey, who was sentenced to five years’ probation after admitting to submitting fake signatures to secure his spot on the primary ballot. A North Carolina woman escaped charges altogether after casting a vote for Donald Trump on behalf of her mother, who had recently passed away.
Both of those defendants were white.
With the hearing now behind them, the three-member, all-Republican panel will determine whether the provisional ballot cast by Mason in 2016 actually constituted a vote.
A date for the decision hasn’t been announced
Live After Five –
September
Date/time:
September 20th,
5:00pm to 10:00pm
Venue:
Avenida Houston
Address:
1002 Avenida De Las
Americas, Houston,
Texas, 77010
Beto
O’Rourke
looks
to
reactivate
suburban
strength
in
Texas
The
photo
line for
Beto
O’Rourke
here
Saturday
afternoon
quickly
turned
into
something
of a
reunion.
“Hey, I
know who
you
are!” a
characteristically
sweat-drenched
O’Rourke
told one
supporter.
After
talking
to
another,
O’Rourke
yelled
out to
an aide:
“Hey,
someone
who
worked
on the
campaign
wants to
be
plugged
in
again!”
The
vibe was
similar
a day
later in
Plano,
where
O’Rourke
rallied
in front
of signs
reading,
“Welcome
to Beto
Country,”
serving
up
nostalgia
from his
near-miss
loss to
U.S.
Sen. Ted
Cruz
last
year. He
said the
Senate
race was
the
“only
reason”
he got
to run
for
president,
touting
the
support
he built
in
Collin,
Denton,
Tarrant
and
Dallas
counties
before
getting
drowned
out by
cheers.
“Hold
on, I’ve
got 250
other
counties
I want
to
mention,”
he added
cheekily,
a nod to
his
all-county
tour in
that
race.
O’Rourke
will
need the
voters
in these
places,
particularly
Katy and
Plano,
if he
wants to
make
good on
a
central
tenet of
his
White
House
pitch —
that he
isuniquely
positioned
to not
only win
the
Texas
primary,
but also
todeliver
the
state
for
Democrats
in the
general
election
for the
first
time in
over
four
decades.
While
he’s
polling
low
elsewhere, O’Rourke
has
remainednear
the top
of
primary
polls in
Texas,
along
with
national
frontrunner
Joe
Biden,
though
he has
encountered
new
headwinds
with two
recent
surveys
showing
Elizabeth
Warren
overtaking
him for
second
place.
O’Rourke’s
weekend
swing
through
the
Houston
and
Dallas
suburbs
took him
to
historically
Republican
counties
that he
dramatically
swung
last
year —
places
that
illustrate
the
upper
hand he
believes
he has
even as
his
statewide
standing
slips.
“As
was just
reinforced
today,
no one
has the
network
like the
network
that we
helped
to build
in 2018,
and that
still
exists
in 2019
going
into
2020,”
O’Rourke
told
reporters
after
the Katy
event.
“So I
believe
that as
we
engage
this
network
… in
places
like
Fort
Bend,
but also
in
places
like
Amarillo
or
Longview,
we’re
going to
be able
to
produce
the
majority
that
wins the
delegates
and
also,
importantly
against
Donald
Trump,
wins the
[state’s]38
electoral
votes.”
O’Rourke’s
more
immediate
reason
for
being in
Katy —
part of
which is
in Fort
Bend
County —
was to
campaign
for Eliz
Markowitz,
the sole
Democratic
candidate
in a
November
special
election
for a
state
House
seat
that the
party is
aiming
to flip.
A win
would
give
Texas
Democrats
a burst
of
momentum
as they
work to
capture
the
House
majority
next
year,
and
O’Rourkeiseasily
the
highest-profile
Democrat
to get
involved
in the
race
yet.
O’Rourke
went
door-knocking
Saturday
with
Markowitz,
a 2018
nominee
for the
State
Board of
Education,
and then
held a
rally
with her
outside
a Katy
brewery.
“The
road to
2020
runs
through
2019,
the road
to
America
runs
through
Texas,
and the
road to
Texas
runs
through
Fort
Bend
County,”
O’Rourke
said at
the
rally.
“So we
cannot
be in a
more
important
place at
a more
important
time
than
where we
are at
this
moment.”
