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January 29, 2022

Amman Asfaw

By KAREN VELIE

A Black Lives Matter protester was again ordered to either agree to diversion or face trial for false imprisonment related to detaining a driver during a July 21, 2020 BLM march through the streets of San Luis Obispo, during a hearing on Friday.

Amman Asfaws attorney Earl Conaway filed another motion to dismiss, the latest was sought in the furtherance of justice, according to the motion. The filing included a letter of recommendation from Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong.

Conaway touted Asfaws accomplishments as a first-generation U.S. citizen and the racism he has endured. Conaway argued that a car knocked Asfaw down while he was walking in a crosswalk.

Deputy District Attorney Delaney Henretty called Conaways description a gross mischaracterization. Asfaw was not walking across a sidewalk and he was not knocked down he sat down, Henretty said, noting Asfaw detained his alleged victims to force them to hear his message.

What if this was a white supremacist rally that detained Asfaws family? Henretty said. How can you not respect the rights of the pastor and his wife?

Conaway also argued that the charges were politically and racially motivated.

We are free to say this is politically motivated because a judge has found it to be politically motivated, Conaway argued.

In 2020, Judge Matt Guerrero ruled that District Attorney Dan Dow had a clear conflict of interest, and that local prosecutors should be replaced by the California Office of the Attorney General. The state then appealed Guerreros ruling. The appellate court has yet to make a decision.

Near the end of Fridays hearing, SLO County Superior Court Judge Roger Picquet said he looked at all the letters Asfaw provided from the Cal Poly community, the SLO City Council and the community at large. Picquet said he was impressed by Asfaws background.

However, Conaways motion was not based on a fact finding exercise, Picquet said.

In addition, Picquet said Asfaw could have chosen diversion.

In early 2021, Henretty offered misdemeanor diversion to five of the seven defendants charged following the July 21 protest, which means they could have their charges dismissed if they agree to attend classes or do community service. All five defendants declined the offer.

Picquet said it was inappropriate to grant Conaways motion for dismissal. He then set a readiness conference for May 6.

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Black Lives Matter protester again ordered to face trial or diversion - Cal Coast News

David R. Nelson, 54, and Nicole C. Anderson, 43, were charged Jan. 12 with second-degree burglary after they illegally entered an unoccupied house in Walnut Creek with the intent to commit larceny, prosecutors said. Nelson was also charged with two counts of possessing methamphetamine for sale, according to a complaint filed in Contra Costa County Superior Court.

Nelson was allegedly in possession of unspecified amounts of methamphetamine on Dec. 5 and Dec. 22, prosecutors said. Additional details about the alleged crimes were not immediately available.

Nelson and Anderson received national attention two years ago when they were recorded painting over a Black Lives Matter mural in front of the Wakefield Taylor Courthouse in Martinez on July 4, 2020. The video, which went viral, showed Anderson pouring black paint on the yellow letters that had been painted on the street during that summers reckoning over racial justice and police violence following the murder of George Floyd.

In the video, Nelson said that the narrative of police brutality, the narrative of oppression, the narrative of racism, its a lie, and that no one wants Black Lives Matter here. Both Nelson and Anderson appear to be white.

The temporary Black Lives Matter mural had been approved by the city of Martinez as a way of sending the message that African Americans and other people of color are equal members of our community, Martinez Mayor Rob Schroder said at the time.

Days after they painted over the mural, Nelson and Anderson were charged with violating another persons civil rights, vandalism and possession of tools to commit vandalism.

Nelson and Anderson could not immediately be reached for comment. They are scheduled to be arraigned on the burglary and drug charges Monday morning.

Andy Picon is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: andy.picon@hearst.com Twitter: @andpicon

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Duo caught on video painting over Black Lives Matter mural in Martinez are now charged with burglary in new case - San Francisco Chronicle

Arthur Ashe Monument in Richmond, Virginia, on June 17, 2020. Photo: Kris Graves c/o Sasha Wolf Projects

Between 7:06 and 7:11 p.m. on June 1, 2020, equipped only with a Bible and the long, muscular arm of history, Donald Trump became a hero.

As fumes from the chemical compound approved by his accomplices officials from the Secret Service; the U.S. Park Police; the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department; the D.C. National Guard; the Federal Bureau of Prisons; the U.S. Marshals Service; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the attorney general of the United States; and the top two commanders of the mightiest military force on the planet began to irritate the eyes, throats, lungs, and skin of nonviolent protesters, the conquering hero posed in front of St. Johns Episcopal Church and hoisted a Bible to the heavens. The president of the United States had just tear-gassed his own peacefully protesting citizens for a photo op. But Trump treated this chaos as if it were the final panel of a historically accurate graphic novel.

For what is America if not an epic story? We have all absorbed, to varying degrees, the basic premise and plot of the great American tall tale. Once upon a time, an innocent group of freedoms-loving people were minding their own business enjoying their freedoms (freedoms is always with an s). Out of nowhere a dark force of freedoms-hating others arose, threatening to steal the peace, tranquillity, and stuff the spunky freedoms-lovers had built with nothing but hard work, ingenuity, and definitely no help from the others. There was only one choice: They had to eliminate the threat posed by the others.

In this myth, Black Lives Matter is simply the youngest descendant of a foe that has bedeviled America since before there was an America, and the Dylann Roofs of this world are the heirs of a long line of white people who have taken up the mantle of violent, deadly anti-Blackness in defense of this American myth.

Attaching oneself to Black peoples desire to be free, equal, or even human has always been seen as a seditious act worthy of violent retribution. At the beginning of the American experiment, it was literally unconstitutional: The Federal Constitution therefore, decides with great propriety on the case of our slaves, when it views them in the mixt character of persons and of property, wrote hero, Father of the Constitution, and human trafficker James Madison when debating the value of Black lives in Federalist Paper No. 54. This is in fact their true character. It is the character bestowed on them by the laws under which they live; and it will not be denied.

Even the idea of Black lives mattering was the enemy of this America. In the prequel to our current story, both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were communists bent on a violent overthrow of the American government. So were W.E.B. Du Bois, the Black Panthers, the Freedom Riders, and every Black person who organized a peaceful coalition. In our current chapter, kneeling silently before a football game begins is as much a riot as marching in the streets, and Trumps impromptu tear-gas photo op was simply a throwback to George Wallace sending state troopers to bar Black students from integrating the University of Alabama.

How can you render this tale so that the so-called villains perspective is understood or perhaps embraced? You cant. Not a single Black movement in the history of this country has been universally supported by lawmakers, law enforcers, and white people. You are free to believe that Black people are worthy of their humanity and liberty, but doing something about it means accepting the violent backlash and the collective scorn of a country whose Constitution calculated the value of a Black life at 60 percent of a white one.

Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the January 31, 2022, issue of New YorkMagazine.

Want more stories like this one? Subscribe now to support our journalism and get unlimited access to our coverage. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the January 31, 2022, issue of New York Magazine.

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The Lure of White Martyrdom - New York Magazine

In January, Black lawmakers in Mississippi withheld their vote in the Senates attempt to pass a bill banning critical race theory. Lord, I cant believe people are still on this!

Make this make sense for me: Kids are too young to learn critical race theory and their role in dismantling systems of white supremacy in a country that preaches equality. Yet, theyre not too young to internalize privilege, stereotypes and hate for Black people?

Thats actually a rhetorical questionno one can make it make sense because it doesnt! Its resistance to whats become a politically charged framework being used as a justification for the continued erasure of Blackness and whitewashing of American history in public education.

See, I knew this Black lives matter sentiment wasnt going to last too longI called it when everybody jumped on the bandwagon after George Floyd was lynched in public. And since then, weve seen more Black lives stolen in white rage.

Truth be told, our lives only matter when it comes to sustaining structures of capitalism and white supremacy. They matter when America wants us to stop burning shit down in protest of racism and oppression. They matter when elected officials need our vote. And they matter big time when yall need our kids in these raggedy-ass schools.

This rolling ban and criticism of teaching critical race theory has become a grander pile of shit in the existing cesspool of policies and practices that are anti-diversity, culture and truth. Bottom line, theyve politicized and polarized critical race theory to keep public education the sameoppressive, biased and basic. And while we do have lawmakers trying to protect our rights and represent our history, theyre outnumbered by the ones that want to make America great again

Meanwhile, our kids will continue to sit in schools where theres no accurate representation of their history or identity, no teachers that look like them, and in company with other students whothrough their parents, media or socialized normsthink its O.K. to judge, look down on or mistreat people whoappear to be different from them.

The system will continue to teach our kids that slave owners were upstanding gentlemen. As if they were patriots that saved uncivilized Africans by bringing them to America and giving them jobs, our history lessons often reinforce white savior-ship and privilege.

Black people, these lawmakers are counting on us to just take their word for it and trust that theyre acting in all of our interest. They want us to believe our lives matter in the long run, but I hope we know that their racism and privilege continue to manifest in policies and practices. Their actions say otherwise.

I hope we know that they use scary language like indoctrination of youth to befuddle the masses in their crusade to curb truth and representation in education.

I hope our kids are smart enough to question and challenge what theyre being taught. Because if everythings all good in the hood, equality is real, and race doesnt matter, then whyd we need a Civil Rights movement in the 60s and a Black Lives Matter movement now?

I hope were aware of the Karens who call themselves parent advocacy groups but are really modern day women of the Klan. Manyhave harassed and threatened the lives of Black school administrators for attempting to diversify curriculum and leadership in school districts.

Finally, I hope well one day remove our kids from this system that hates who they are, who they came from and what they could be. Their self-actualization can be realized and will be embraced in schools built by us, for ustrue Freedom Schools.

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If Black lives matter, stop resisting the teaching of our history in schools - The Black Wall Street Times

In a case that sounds eerily similar to that of Crystal Mason, a Black Lives Matter activist from Memphis, Tennessee, has been sentenced to six years in prison because voting laws are often unclear and because America loves throwing the lives of Black people away for no real or practical reason.

According to Daily Kos, 44-year-old Pam P Moses was sentenced Monday after she was convicted in November for registering to vote while ineligible to do so.

But Moses told The Guardian she simply didnt know she couldnt vote. Her confusion was, of course, perfectly understandable to anyone who wasnt hellbent on putting a Black woman in prison for a non-violent crime others get treated leniently for.

In 2015, Moses pleaded guilty to charges, including stalking, theft, forgery, and tampering with evidence. According to state law, the evidence tampering charge rendered her ineligible to vote ever again. But Moses said she didnt know that because she wasnt informed of it at trial.

They never mentioned anything about voting. They never mentioned anything about not voting, being able to votenone of that, she said.

Moses voting eligibility came into question in 2019 when she tried to run for mayor and was asked for proof of her right to vote. Thats when she found out her voting rights had been revoked. She evenfiled an officialCertificate of Restoration of Voting Rights,along with her voter registration, with the Shelby County Election Commission. And thats when the court started playing in her face.

Moses asked the court if she was still on probation and the court determined that she was. But Moses wasnt satisfied with the judges conclusion, and for good reason. Because when she asked her probation officer for a second opinion, that probation officer confirmed that her probation had ended and filled out and signed a certificate confirming it.

In Tennessee, once a felon receives that certificate, they are allowed to vote, Daily Kos reported. So Moses submitted the document to election officials and all was right in her worlduntil it wasnt.

The day after she submitted her certificate, Moses got an email telling her that the probation officer was incorrect and the certificate was given to her in error. Because of that supposed error, she ended up back in court facing charges of perjury and falsifying election fraud charges.

Even if her probation officer did make a mistakeand, at this point, thats a huge ifhow is that her fault and why should she face charges over an error?

Well, prosecutors claimed she filed the certificate knowing she was on probation, despite the very certificate in question, a signed legal document, stating that she wasnt.

Blair Bowie, an attorney at the Campaign Legal Center who is working to challenge voter suppression in Tennessee, is calling bulls**t on the prosecutions assertions.

That seems absurd to me on its face, Bowie said. The instructions on the certificate of restoration form are very clear to the probation officer or the clerk. They say you will check these records and you will sign off on this based on what the records say. Theyre saying that she tricked the probation officer into filling out this form for her. That creates a really scary prospect for people who think theyre being wrongly told theyre not eligible.

And thats exactly what prosecutor Amy Weirich reportedly arguedthat Moses somehow tricked a probation officer into not knowing their job and signing off on the certificate. Weirich also claimed Moses refused to file the correct paperwork and fraudulently voted multiple times, an allegation Moses vehemently denies, according to Daily Kos.

I did not falsify anything, Moses said in court Monday. All I did was try to get my rights to vote back the way the people at the election commission told me and the way the clerk did.

She also said she had no idea the evidence tampering charge meant she would never be allowed to vote again.

They included that charge on my indictment because (Weirich) knew that would keep me from voting forever and running from public office, Moses told WREG.

If youve read this whole thing and youre still wondering what crime Moses committed thats worth throwing her in prison for six years, all you need to do is remember Mason, remember the effort conservatives put into keeping Black people from the ballot box and remember that throwing Black lives away is simply what America does.

SEE ALSO:

Apparently, Black Lives Matter: Right-Wing Journalist Driving In D.C. Snowstorm Blames BLM For Icy Roads

White Man Loses His Mind Over Black Lives Matter Sign In Bar, Shouts Im White, Kill Me

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Black Woman Sentenced To 6 Years For Registering To Vote While On Probation, Despite Certificate Saying She Wasnt - NewsOne