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Editorial Board, Corpus Christi Caller-Times 4:34 p.m. CT May 30, 2017

The Texas Capitol is shown Monday, Jan. 8, 2007, in Austin, Texas. Passage of a state budget is the only thing the Legislature is required to do in its 140-day regular session that convenes Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007. It is in the House Chamber where members will vote Tuesday, the opening day of the 80th Legislature, to either keep Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, or oust him in favor of a new leader. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)(Photo: Associated Press, AP)

Let one mean-spirited act on the last day of the Texas legislative session taking out a cell phone and threatening to sic immigration authorities on protesters speak for what's wrong with the so-called sanctuary cities law and us as a state and nation.

Let it also serve as a warning that maybe it's not such a bright idea to let any ol' yahoo carry a gun.

The actions of state Rep. Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving, should be remembered with disgust and embarrassment. Unfortunately, already he's a hero to some, perhaps many. And that's indicative of what's wrong with us as a people.

On Sunday, when protesters against Senate Bill 4, the sanctuary cities law, became loud, Rinaldi made a big show of taking out his cell phone to report them to immigration. Hispanic lawmakers who were nearby did not take kindly to it.

What ensued came close to getting physical, and Rinaldi was heard threatening to put a bullet in the head of state Rep. Poncho Nevarez, D-Eagle Pass.

Afterward, Rinaldi claimed that he had been jostled and threatened. And the office of Rep. Cesar Blanco, D-El Paso, received a call from a man who said "I stand with Matt Rinaldi and (expletive) all the illegal (racist label). White power."

Rinaldi unmasked SB 4 for what its critics have been saying it is mean-spiriteddiscrimination against Hispanics under the flimsy ruse of securing the border and preventing crime.

In that single, sarcastic, cold-hearted act of taking out his phone, Rinaldi contradicted what Gov. Greg Abbott said only a week earlier in an opinion column, co-signed by two border-area law enforcement officials, supposedly to set the record straight about what they claimed to be SB 4's true, benign nature.In thecolumn, published by the Caller-Times and other publications, the governor asserted that SB 4 had been misrepresented deliberately as a show-me-your-papers law that would encourage ethnic and racial profiling. Abbott asserted that SB 4 would do no such thing. Ethnic and racial profiling is illegal, Abbott wrote.

Then Rinaldi went and did exactly what Abbott said SB 4 wouldn't do. Dismissing Rinaldi as a lone wolf and a clown would be easy, predictable and politically expedient. But he did exactly what some if not many of his colleagues who supported SB 4 wished they had thought of in the moment.

Even if he werea lone aberration among the150 House members, which Texans know in their hearts he's not, that's still too many, mathematically. It would work out to three to four bad apples in Rinaldi's hometown police department, which has 542 employees. Common sense and experience say the vast majority of law enforcement officers are true professionals but the percentage of SB 4 abusers will outperform this math. Alot of unjustified hassling ofpeople who look like Nevarez and Blanco is in store.

Rinaldi's action deserved a response, but it didn't have to degenerate into an unseemly shoving match with death threats flying. In the not-so-distant past, a fair-complected, documented-looking conservative colleague or two of Rinaldi's would have stepped up quickly and rebuked him without further incident.

But nowadays, we have come to expect responses like the one received by Blanco's staff, from people who think Rinaldi did the right thing and who mislabel any rebuke of him as liberal politics.And we have come to wonder and worry how large a percentage of the population they represent.

And now we have a state representative who carries a gun and has threatened to put a bullet in the head of another state representative and who offers the George Zimmerman stand-your-ground doctrine as his defense. No telling how many of his colleagues will feel compelled now to arm themselves for protection from the likes of him. Rinaldi says on his web site that he's a proud concealed-carry permit holder who believes that his Second Amendment right is God-given. No matter who gave it, Rinaldi is one permit holder whose right should be revoked.

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Rep. Rinaldi showed what's wrong with SB 4, Texas and America - Corpus Christi Caller-Times

The Nonprofit Quarterly (registration)

Moving Racial Equity and Inclusion from the Periphery to the Center: Lessons from an Incomplete Project The Nonprofit Quarterly (registration) On February 26, 2012, a seventeen-year-old Black teenager named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman. Martin's death ignited a national debate about racism and justice. It was on the nightly news and in the ... and more »

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Moving Racial Equity and Inclusion from the Periphery to the Center: Lessons from an Incomplete Project - The Nonprofit Quarterly (registration)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --Lucy McBath is afraid many more people will die if Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs a bill making it harder to prosecute when people claim they commit violence in self-defense.

She already lost her son, an unarmed black teenager, when a white man angry over loud music and claiming self-defense fired 10 times at an SUV filled with teenagers.

The measure before Scott would effectively require a trial-before-a-trial whenever someone invokes self-defense, making prosecutors prove the suspect doesn't deserve immunity.

Scott hasn't revealed his intentions, but he's a National Rifle Association supporter, and this is an NRA priority.

"If it passes in Florida, then they take that same legislation and they push it on the legislative floors across the country," said McBath, whose 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was killed by Michael Dunn outside a Jacksonville convenience store in 2012.

Many states have long invoked "the castle doctrine," allowing people to use even deadly force to defend themselves in their own homes.

Florida changed that in 2005, so that even outside a home, a person has no duty to retreat and can "stand his or her ground" anywhere they are legally allowed to be. Other states followed suit, and "stand your ground" defenses became much more common in pre-trial immunity hearings and during trials.

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Michael Dunn, charged with fatally shooting a 17-year-old boy after an argument over loud music, says he thought he saw the barrel of a gun point...

The 2012 killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman opened a debate about the limits of self-defense, and it hasn't let up since Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder after jurors received instructions on Florida's "stand your ground" law.

Florida Republicans made this bill a priority after the state Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the defendant has the burden of proof before trial. If Florida starts a national trend to shift that burden to prosecutors, it'll be just fine with Republican Rep. Bobby Payne, who sponsored the bill.

Only four of the 22 or more state "stand your ground" laws mention this burden of proof - in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina - and all place it on defendants.

"It's about following our right of innocent until proven guilty," Payne said. "It's about Fifth Amendment rights, it's about due process, it's about having a true immunity, for when folks really believe they're in imminent threat of great bodily harm or death, to defend themselves properly."

Jordan Davis and Michael Dunn

WTEV

Senators originally wanted prosecutors to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" before trial that self-defense didn't justify a violent crime. The final legislation lowered the threshold to "clear and convincing" evidence.

Either way, it makes prosecuting violent crimes more difficult, experts say.

"I think there will be more false 'stand your ground' claims," said former Broward County prosecutor Gregg Rossman, who has tried 65 murder cases. The pre-trial hearings are "very much going to be like a mini-trial."

Proving a killer didn't act in self-defense when there are no living witnesses would be particularly hard, he said: "I worry the most about the one-on-one cases. You and I get into an argument and I shoot you. Who speaks for you?"

But public defenders say it should help people who were simply trying to defend themselves. Prosecutors often use the threat of minimum mandatory sentences to coerce people into accepting a plea deal even if their use of force was justified, said Stacy Scott, a public defender in Gainesville.

Trayvon Martin George Zimmerman

CBS/AP

"It's going to force them to deal more fairly with citizens who are charged with crimes, and will help our clients either get better plea offers or exonerate themselves earlier in the process so they don't have to wait until a jury trial and risk everything they have in order to litigate their case," Scott said.

McBath, who lives in Marietta, Georgia, believes the guilty will more likely escape convictions. It took two trials to convict her son's killer of murder.

"We're just one out of so many," she said. "Because we won our case, I honestly, honestly believe that's the reason why they're putting these additional measures into 'stand your ground.' "

Justifiable homicide claims have doubled on average in states that have passed "stand your ground" laws, said John Roman of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.

Also, whites who kill black people are 10 times more likely to win a "stand your ground" claim than blacks who kill whites, said Roman, who analyzed these cases while at the Urban Institute think tank.

Studies also show that white people are more likely to feel threatened by black people than the other way around, "and if you then add onto implicit bias the ability to use lethal force, it's reasonable then to expect that lethal force will be disproportionately applied to minorities," he said.

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Florida could pave new changes in controversial "stand your ground" laws - CBS News

Out Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors (rt) with Jonathan Perez and Immigrant Youth Coalition members. (Photo Karen Ocamb)

How many people here have been tear gassed? out ESPN/CNN contributor LZ Granderson asked the audience at the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justices fourth annual Fueling the Frontlines Awards. The question might have seemed jarring at any other LGBT fundraiser. But this May 25 event at the NeueHouse in Hollywood was filled with frontline activists who instantly knew he was describing the demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri after a white cop shot unarmed black 18-year old Michael Brown in August 2014.

Granderson noted that many asked what happens next? The audience knew that, too: a movement propelled by activists such as performance artist, freedom fighter and Fulbright scholar Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, one of the most important organizations in the past 25-30 years, Granderson said.

#BlackLivesMatter was founded as a social media call to action by queer Black women Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in July 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing 17-year old Trayvon Martin in Florida. BLM helped organize the protests in Ferguson.

Cullors accepted her Astraea award with a call-and-response by the late African American poet Lucille Clifton, ending with: Come celebrate with me that every day something has tried to kill me and has failed.

An Angelino, Cullors called out the LAPD and the L.A. Sheriffs Department for destroying black and brown families and then brought up five Immigrant Youth Coalition activists to issue an immediate call to action. Jonathan Perez choked up talking about how ICE came after their friend Claudia Ruedas mother, who they got out of detention. Then in retaliation, ICE came for Claudia, a beloved DACA-eligible college student. Nudged by Cullors and TransLatina Coalition founder Bamby Salcedo, the youth asked everyone to call 619-557-6117 and ask ICE San Diego field director Gregory Archambeault to grant Claudia Sarahi Rueda (A# 213-081-680) prosecutorial discretion and immediately release her to her family.

Astraea has always understood that the fight for LGBTQI equality is intersectional it requires fighting for black and brown rights, for migrant rights, economic rights and more, said Cullors. Im proud to be part of the resistance and ready to continue the fight.

Astraea also honored transgender activist/organizer Jennicet Gutierrez, co-founder of Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement; critically acclaimed Univision News anchor and journalist Jorge Ramos and his queer daughter Paola Ramos, former Deputy Director of Hispanic Media for Hillary for America; and out Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen, a major marriage equality advocate and Executive Producer of ABCs historical LGBT series When We Rise.

As a journalist fighting for LGBTQI equality, immigrant rights and human rights, it is not enough to just report on what is happening, we need to inform the public about whats happening and present reality as it is and not the way we want it to be, said Jorge Ramos, who came to the attention of non-Latino America when he stood up to presidential candidate Donald Trump and was forcefully removed from a news conference (he was eventually allowed back in). And the reality is that discrimination is still very present in this country, Ramos continued. As individuals we must take an aggressive stand against those violating the rights of others and we need organizations like Astraea to ensure that the rights of everyone are being protected. Neutrality only helps the oppressor.

Introduced by famous trans model Isis King, Gutierrez talked about the violence faced by her trans sisters, reading off the names of ten trans women who have died since January. Rest in Power, she said, adding, even if you dont invest (in the trans community), trust the trans leadership of trans women of color.

Actress Mary McCormack introduced her best friend Bruce Cohen, a fellow Probe disco dancer, saying he is wholly unafraid to challenge oppression. Cohen noted that he co-founded the Uprising of Love coalition with Oscar-winning writer Dustin Lance Black and Grammy-winning singer Melissa Etheridge to stop the oppression of gays before the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Cohen, Black and director Gus Van Sant had already experienced the courage of LGBT Russians when they appeared at a screening of Milk as part of the LGBT Side by Side Film festival in St. Petersburg. They failed to stop the persecution instigated by the new anti-homosexual propaganda law. But they brought a film crew to Sochi and captured the moment when a young gay man named Vladimir ran yelling to President Obamas lesbian emissary Billie Jean King that his life was in danger, begging for asylum. They found a way to get him to safety in Americaand the gay Russian is now happily married in Fairfield, Iowa. Were sad we didnt bring (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to his knees, Cohen said. We failed at that. But we saved Vladimirs life. Echoing the nights theme, Cohen concluded: All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you.

The Fueling the Frontlines Awards is an amazing opportunity to celebrate our radical community our successes and our fight, said J. Bob Alotta, Executive Director, of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. If we want to maintain and build on the resistance in this current moment then we need to celebrate and support the activists at the forefront of the movement. By utilizing their experience as artists and journalists, our honorees Patrisse, Jorge, Jennicet, Paola and Bruce illustrate, there is a place for everyone to contribute their talents, utilize their platforms and lift their voices to help support the resistance.

From the young activists of color to the older feminists supporting Astraea since its radical philanthropy started funding marginalized groups in 1977, the NeueHouse space felt filled with family. Helping create that sense of fellowship was a mini-concert by the brilliant, dynamic Toshi Regan and the cast of Octavia E. Butlers Parable of the Sower: The Operaa fusion of inspiring art and activism that had everyone eager to dance to the frontlines wearing a rainbow badge of courage and joy in their hearts.

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Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice honors frontline activism - Los Angeles Blade

Ryan Osborne, Star-Telegram , WFAA 12:49 PM. CDT May 27, 2017

Defense counsel Mark O'Mara addresses the jury during closing arguments in George Zimmerman's murder trial July 12, 2013 in Sanford, Florida. (Photo: Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images), Custom)

FORT WORTH, Texas -- High-profile Florida attorney Mark OMara is now representing Jacqueline Craig, the black Fort Worth woman whose arrest by a white officer in December sparked accusations of racism and led to widespread criticism of the police department.

OMara, who was in Fort Worth on Friday meeting with the Craig family, is best known for representing George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch leader who was acquitted in 2013 in the shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin.

In Craigs case, she had called police to report an assault on her son. As tensions rose between her and the responding officer, William Martin, she and her teenage daughter were wrestled to the ground and arrested.

OMara said he wanted to partner with her other attorney, Lee Merritt, to work collaboratively with the city of Fort Worth to address Craigs concerns.

Craig, Merritt and their supporters have called repeatedly for the firing of Martin, who arrested Craig in the viral incident and was later suspended for 10 days. They have also sought harsher charges against her neighbor, Itamar Vardi. He was cited for misdemeanor assault of Craigs son.

More recently, Craig and others in the black community have called for the firing of Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald, who last week demoted high-ranking officers Abdul Pridgen and Vance Keyes for leaking Martins bodycam video of Craigs arrest and his personnel file.

Pridgens and Keyes supporters have argued that they were being targeted in the leak investigation because they are black.

OMara said he was intrigued by Craigs case after watching the video of her arrest. The clip, which went viral on Facebook, showed Martin pointing his Taser at Craig and her daughters and wrestling them to the ground.

It also showed Martin asking Craig, Why dont you teach your son not to litter?

When Craig said littering does not give the neighbor the right to touch her son, Martin responded, Why not?

I was pretty frustrated by the video I saw, OMara said. Nobody can look at that video and say thats the way Martin should have acted.

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