By VOICE & VIEWPOINT STAFF
The leaders and members of Encanto Southern Baptist Church held a free community outreach fair Saturday, June 10, 2023. Jumpers, games, music, and a rap contest were some of the fun activities featured at the fair. Free food was provided and some lucky guests even received big prizes including cash, a bicycle, and more! The event marked the conclusion of their COVID-19 outreach campaign.
By John Mukum Mbaku, Weber State University
Kenya’s opposition politicians recently called for secession – which is the withdrawal of territory and sovereignty from part of an existing state to create a new state. Led by Raila Odinga, who received 48.8% of the presidential vote in Kenya’s 2022 election, the politicians want the country split into two republics to create a new state for Kenyans unhappy with President William Ruto’s leadership.
Calls for secession are not a new political phenomenon in Kenya.
Even before the territory gained independence from Britain in 1963, some Kenyan Somalis had sought to secede and join neighbouring Somalia. And the Mombasa Republican Council, established in the 1990s, has called for an independent state for the coastal people, citing their marginalisation.
Opposition groups also made secession calls after Kenya’s 2007-08 post-election violence. These calls were repeated in the run-up to the elections in 2013. Then in 2017, a bill tabled in parliament proposed creating a People’s Republic of Kenya from 40 of the country’s current 47 counties. Geographically, this new republic would retain nearly 87% of Kenya’s population and 97% of the land mass, leaving behind a nation that would not be economically viable.
Secessionist movements around the world usually result from the belief by some groups within a region or state that they aren’t able to exercise their right to self-determination. This is their right to determine “their own future, political status and independence”, according to the UN.
Self-determination can be external or internal: full independence from other states, or access to political and social rights within a state. The two kinds are related. When governments fail to guarantee internal self-determination, affected groups may seek secession, or external self-determination.
The politicians calling for secession in Kenya argue that some Kenyans have been systematically deprived of the right to participate in the country’s government and economy.
Aggrieved groups may seek to form their own independent sovereign state, like the Biafrans of Nigeria did between 1967 and 1970. Or they may seek to join another independent state, as the Somalis of Kenya did in the 1960s.
In my view as a legal scholar and economist who has studied the political economy in Africa for close to two decades, any group in Kenya that unilaterally declares independence is unlikely to find support on the continent. Additionally, Kenyan politicians have yet to prove that aggrieved groups have been systematically denied the right to participate in the government and the economy in meaningful ways.
The African Union has been against secession since it was first established as the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.
The organisation refused to intervene in the Nigerian civil war sparked by the Biafran secession of 1967, calling it an internal affair. And in Mali, in response to the declaration of the independent state of Azawad by northern Tuaregs in 2012, the union rejected this, terming it “null and of no value whatsoever”.
The union’s chairperson at the time, Jean Ping, emphasised the
fundamental principle of the intangibility of borders inherited by African countries at their accession to independence.
This echoes Article 4(b) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union. It states that the continental organisation shall respect the borders that existed at independence. The act also calls on the union to defend the territorial integrity of its member states. This presents it with a dilemma when it comes to addressing secessionist movements.
The answer to this dilemma is for the African Union to establish a legal mechanism for recognising legitimate struggles for secession. These include struggles that offer a remedy for grave and systematic injustices.
This was seen in South Sudan in 2011. The South Sudanese people based their push to secede on the argument that since independence in 1956, Khartoum had systematically marginalised them and denied them the right to pursue their political, economic and social development within a united Sudan.
At the end of a brutal civil war (1985 to 2005), the warring parties signed a peace agreement. It granted southerners the option to pursue self-determination. Sudan approved of South Sudan’s independence push.
National governments can also establish constitutional processes that allow aggrieved groups to peacefully and constitutionally petition for separation. This has been done in the UK and Canada. Such constitutional mechanisms can encourage aggrieved groups to seek internal instead of external self-determination.
While secession can involve the use of force – as it did in Biafra and South Sudan – it can also be achieved through peaceful means. Scotland’s ongoing bid to become independent of Britain is a case in point.
Secession by Kenya’s aggrieved groups or peoples is unlikely to succeed as it faces four major obstacles.
First, as is clear from the African Union’s Constitutive Act, any move to interfere with Kenya’s territorial integrity is unlikely to be supported by the organisation.
Second, it’s not likely that the post-secession state will gain the approval of the UN Security Council and then that of two-thirds of the UN General Assembly to be admitted to the UN. This is largely because the secessionists have not yet made a credible case for splitting Kenya into two states.
Third, secession as envisioned by Kenya’s opposition will create two states, one of which is not likely to be economically viable. This could lead to a civil war.
Fourth, the 2010 constitution devolved power from the central government in Nairobi in favour of local communities in 47 regions. This significantly improved the ability of various groups to govern themselves and participate in their own economic, social and cultural development.
Politicians and aggrieved groups need to exercise the right to self-determination through this decentralised governance process. Through it, they can help create a participatory, inclusive and development-oriented government and economy in a united Kenya.
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John Mukum Mbaku, Professor, Weber State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence officers who supervised two officers who were recently indicted by the Justice Department for their involvement in the Kremlin’s attempts to influence a local election in the United States.
Yegor Popov, a Russian intelligence officer, was sanctioned Friday. He served as a primary handler of Alexander Ionov, a Russian operative who was charged by the Justice Department last year with recruiting political groups in the U.S. to advance pro-Russia propaganda, including about the invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. authorities say Ionov recruited political groups in Florida, Georgia and California and directed them to spread pro-Russia talking points. Ionov, who operated an entity called the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, paid for group members to attend government-funded conferences in Russia, as well as a protest in the U.S. against social media efforts to suppress online support for the invasion.
Popov also communicated with Russian national Natalia Burlinova, who was charged in April with conspiring with Russian intelligence to recruit American academics and researchers to attend programs that advanced Russian interests.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also sanctioned Alexei Sukhodolov, who supervised Popov. Sukhodolov also worked with Ionov to conduct foreign malign influence operations around the world, including in the U.S., Ukraine, Spain, the U.K. and Ireland, according to Treasury.
The department said Russia’s efforts to influence elections includes using front organizations, seeking access to foreign officials, and recruiting people around the world “who are positioned to amplify and reinforce Russia’s disinformation efforts to further its goals of destabilizing democratic societies.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “to safeguard our democracy, as well as help protect our allies and partners, the United States will continue to act to deter and disrupt the Kremlin’s malign influence operations.”
Brian Nelson, Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Russia “continues to target a key pillar of democracy around the world — free and fair elections.”
“The United States will not tolerate threats to our democracy, and today’s action builds on the whole of government approach to protect our system of representative government, including our democratic institutions and elections processes,” he said.
The threat of foreign nations seeking to meddle in U.S. elections remains a top concern.
Since the 2016 election and the detection of Russian hackers scanning state voter registration systems, election officials across federal, state and local levels have been working to shore up their defenses. Congress has provided funds to assist with boosting security in state and local election offices.
Although there has been no evidence of any voting system data being manipulated or changed, Iranian hackers in 2020 obtained confidential voter data and used it to send misleading emails seeking to spread misinformation and influence the election. Another attempt by Iranian hackers in 2020 to access a system used by a local government to publish election results was thwarted.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyans are preparing for tough times after lawmakers approved tax increases that are even unpopular with supporters of the president who once vowed to reduce the cost of living.
The doubling of the tax on petroleum products, from 8% to 16%, is expected to have a ripple effect on East Africa’s economic hub, with the prices of goods and services expected to increase.
The administration of President William Ruto, who was elected last year, has only made things harder, one supporter said.
“He said he was going to make life easier for us hustlers. We are now unable to afford food. Prices are higher than they were before elections,” hairdresser Evelyne Adhiambo said.
People earning above 500,000 shillings ($3,500) now will pay 32.5% in taxes, and those making above 800,000 shillings will pay 35%. Combined with a new housing tax of 1.5% and a medical insurance tax of 2.5%, the new burden will see some Kenyans part with about 40% of their income.
Teresia Kathina, a civil servant for 26 years, said it will be the highest employees have ever paid in taxes.
“This feels cruel because of the inflation rates,” she said.
Economist Aly Khan Satchu said the new law “represents the highest tax rate across every segment.”
Small businesses are also being hit, with a tax on their total sales increasing from 1% to 3%. Businesspeople said this will kill the already struggling small enterprises that have been reporting losses since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
“They are essentially telling us to shut down, because we will not take loans to pay taxes,” said Moses Munyao, a wholesale shop owner in the capital, Nairobi.
Ruto campaigned on a platform of reducing the cost of living. While seeking election, he accused former President Uhuru Kenyatta of letting food costs “skyrocket because he has never slept without food in his life, as he was born in a wealthy family.”
Ruto’s election win was largely attributed to his appeal to voters as a fellow “hustler” who rose from a humble background to senior roles in government, including as Kenyatta’s vice president.
Ruto has sought to justify the increased taxes as the only way to reduce borrowing for a government struggling with a public debt of 9.4 trillion shillings ($67 billion) and is classified by the World Bank as being at high risk of debt distress.
The president, who is in Paris this week for a summit on improving the global financial response to climate change and poverty, is expected to sign the new bill into law before the start of the government’s financial year on July 1. A hearing for a court case challenging the new tax package is yet to be determined.
The higher tax on petroleum products has been especially controversial. The previous administration avoided raising it by introducing subsidies to cushion consumers.
Satchu, the economist, said the petrol tax is a reform that the International Monetary Fund has been championing for some time and may have been a “soft precondition” for the $1.1 billion IMF package recently announced for Kenya.
“It’s a relatively frictionless tax for the government to collect. However, clearly it will create pronounced ripple effects through the economy in that it will raise prices across the economy and further crimp and reduce incomes, which have already been under downside pressure,” Satchu said.
He said the tax on small businesses is meant to increase the number of taxpayers but will hurt loss-making businesses. Some in Kenya believe that this area “has largely escaped the tax net, and therefore 3% remains sufficiently low for it to make more sense to pay the tax than take evasion measures,” he said.
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There are many ways to build wealth, but homeownership is among the most powerful for creating and maintaining generational wealth and uplifting communities. Plus, there’s the perk of decorating a home as you wish.
As the current housing market shows, a home’s value can grow substantially over time.
In the last three years, the national median home sales price increased by over $107,800. At the end of March 2023, the median sales price nationally was $426,800, up from $329,000 in March 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Home prices increased in a short period, and so has the overall homeownership rate for Black people. The rate for Black people increased to 45.8% in March 2023 from 44% in March 2020.
However, the Black community’s homeownership rate has never been above 50% and currently lags 5% behind the nearest group.
The rates so far this year are 50.6% for Hispanic Americans, 62.8% for Asian Americans, and 72.7% for White Americans, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Despite these numbers, Black folks still have their eyes on the prize.
A new survey from Citi Retail Bank and YouGov found 42% of Black people hope and plan to purchase a home one day, and 16% are actively looking to purchase their first home. Another 16% say they already purchased one.
“We’ve been telling people to get ready now,” Donnell Williams, president of the Black Real Estate Professionals Alliance, told Word In Black. “You don’t have time to wait. Be ready for when it comes.”
What’s holding them back? Respondents say current housing prices and high interest rates are the most significant barriers to entry.
Other than the current economic and housing market situation, the Black community’s history with homeownership has long been a barrier.
The FHA prohibited Black families from purchasing homes well into the 1960s. The passing of the Fair Housing Act in 1968 finally opened the door for them to participate in ownership and the benefits of equity and wealth.
The median sales price for homes at the end of 1968 was $25,600. Today, when adjusted for inflation, that’s equivalent to $224,379. However, prices have far outpaced inflation since 1970.
Government maps outlined areas where Black residents lived, deeming them too risky for insuring mortgages. And segregation through redlining — a common practice of the past — continues to haunt these communities nationwide.
“When I look at why we lag behind when it comes to homeownership, from a historical perspective, we got to the game late,” says Derrick Nutall, vice president of Citi Mortgage’s community lending team.
In the present, he says mindset is a significant barrier for Black folks looking to get started on the path.
“Often, because of that [history], we don’t want to dive into something. We’re overly careful, so to speak, and we overanalyze our situations, which oftentimes leads to a further delay in us accomplishing the goal — which is homeownership.”
DERRICK NUTALL, VICE PRESIDENT OF CITI MORTGAGE’S COMMUNITY LENDING TEAM
Homeownership is a lot like investing. The harms of the past by the government, banks, realtors, and anyone involved in the process causes a natural distrust.
Williams says, in addition to the history, there’s a lack of Black loan officers or loan officers who understand these problems enough to assist potential Black homebuyers.
Trust is enormous for the Black community. Black respondents in the Citi survey said speaking with a realtor or friends and family who’ve purchased a home could help them feel more knowledgeable or prepared to buy a home.
“Yes, there have been systemic challenges that have prevented us from really taking advantage of the American dream as it’s been put out there. But currently, what I see as the biggest challenge is really just putting your foot forward to take that first step, which is finding out where we stand in the process.”
DERRICK NUTALL, VICE PRESIDENT OF CITI MORTGAGE’S COMMUNITY LENDING TEAM
To save up for a down payment, Black folks make meals at home more often, take on a second job or work overtime, avoid online shopping, and cut back on memberships and subscriptions.
On the federal level, the Biden administration made several changes to existing federal programs designed to make homeownership accessible, including a reduction for FHA-insured mortgages.
The administration’s fiscal budget also included $10 billion to launch a first-generation down payment assistance program for first-time buyers whose parents have never owned a home and are at or below their area’s median income.
Proving there’s hope — and a plan — 51% of Black survey respondents say they are currently saving for a down payment, and a majority believe they can purchase a home in the next three years or more.
“Developing a plan is simple,” Nutall says. “Implementing it can be challenging, but if you’re committed to it, you can continue forward and accomplish it.”
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The use of the body mass index (BMI) by doctors is under scrutiny after the American Medical Association (AMA) laid out its historic harms — including racist exclusion — in a new report.
The report, presented at the 2023 AMA House of Delegates meeting, found that BMI doesn’t provide accurate measurements for people of color. This is because the generations-old screening tool was created based on medical data from white people only.
“It is important for physicians to understand the benefits and limitations of using BMI in clinical settings to determine the best care for their patients,” Jack Resneck, AMA’s immediate past president, said in a statement.
The association adopted a new policy clarifying how BMI can be used in medicine moving forward.
BMI is a numeral scale used to determine a person’s weight category. To figure this out, physicians divide the individual’s weight by height. If under 18.5, the person is considered underweight. Anything over 30 is considered obese — a condition that reportedly impacts Black Americans more than others.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, four out of five Black women are considered overweight (a BMI between 25 and 29) or obese.
Black children are also up to two times more likely than white kids to be considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Obesity is known to lead to other health issues, such as heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
BMI doesn’t account for body composition, the percentage of body weight that’s fat versus lean mass, such as muscle.
“There are numerous concerns with the way BMI has been used to measure body fat and diagnose obesity, yet some physicians find it to be a helpful measure in certain scenarios,” Resneck said.
The CDC says BMI is an “inexpensive” and “easy screening method weight category” but “does not measure body fat directly.” On the other hand, the AMA says the tool is “significantly correlated with the amount of fat mass in the general population but loses predictability when applied on the individual level.”
BMI doesn’t account for body composition, the percentage of body weight that’s fat versus lean mass, such as muscle. This means a person with high percentages of muscle mass can be inaccurately classified as obese, though their actual amount of body fat is normal.
Previous research has found that Black women have more bone and muscle mass, but less fat, as a percentage of body weight, than white women, after controlling for ethnic differences in age, body weight, and height.
“The AMA also recognizes that relative body shape and composition differences across race/ethnic groups, sexes, genders, and age-span is essential to consider when applying BMI as a measure of adiposity and that BMI should not be used as a sole criterion to deny appropriate insurance reimbursement,” AMA said.
The association suggests that BMI be used in addition to other “valid” measures, such as “measurements of visceral fat, body adiposity index, body composition, relative fat mass, waist circumference, and genetic or metabolic factors.”
PHOENIX (AP) — Zion Rose is well aware that the percentage of Black U.S. players in Major League Baseball has been on the decline for decades.
But the 18-year-old catcher from Chicago, still sweaty from a workout during MLB’s Draft Combine this week at Chase Field in Phoenix, said he’s got some news: That’s not going to be the case for long.
“You’ll see,” he said. “We’re starting to come through.”
Rose was one of more than 300 players of all backgrounds in Phoenix this week to take part in the combine, which featured workouts, interviews and games in an effort to showcase some of the game’s best amateur talent at the high school and college levels before July’s draft. MLB said that approximately 15% of the players in the showcase were Black.
The hope is that the next Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts or Andrew McCutchen will be in that bunch. Possibly several.
A recent study from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida found Black U.S. players represented just 6.2% of players on MLB opening day rosters, down from last year’s previous record low of 7.2%. Both figures are the lowest recorded in the study since it began in 1991, when 18% of players were Black. Last year’s World Series was the first since 1950 without a U.S.-born Black player.
There are tangible reasons to believe the percentage of Black players might be on the upswing soon.
Four of the first five players picked in last summer’s amateur draft were Black for the first time ever. Those four were among the hundreds who had participated in diversity initiatives such as the MLB Youth Academy, DREAM Series and the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program. MLB has also pledged $150 million in a 10-year partnership with the Players Alliance. The nonprofit organization of current and former players works to increase Black involvement at all levels.
Many of those programs started several years ago, and the younger participants are starting to hit draft-eligible age.
Rose is among them. He said the diversity initiatives didn’t just provide exposure to scouts, but also opened a vital pipeline for minority players to connect, share experiences and see faces similar to their own. The catcher said that Black former MLB players and coaches were also in attendance at many of the tournaments, providing role models. He cited Reds pitcher Hunter Greene as a big influence.
“I met most of my best friends at those camps,” Rose said. “Just being able to see people your color playing the game, being able to relate to them, that’s been important.”
Homer Bush Jr. — whose dad played in the big leagues for seven seasons for the Blue Jays, Yankees and Marlins — said baseball is also doing a better job of being social media savvy. The outfielder just finished his junior season in college at Grand Canyon.
Bush said its important that baseball portrays itself as a fun sport. Baseball’s trend of elaborate celebrations for home runs and big hits — like Pittsburgh’s swashbuckling routine — is a good start.
He also said he believes having more Black players in the big leagues should create a snowball effect that brings more young minority players into the game.
“I could talk about it for hours,” Bush said. “But I feel like one of the biggest things is just representation. I had a dad who played in the big leagues, so I had someone to look up to and admire. But most guys — when you click on MLB Network or ESPN — there’s not a ton of Black baseball players.”
Of course, there are other variables to getting more minority players to the big leagues — mainly money and time.
Simply put, developing a big-league ballplayer is usually expensive. There’s the equipment, the costs of joining a travel team and the pricey individual instruction that is sometimes needed — expenses than can easily total thousands of dollars per year. There’s also the time commitment: weekends completely filled with two and sometimes three games each day.
“We took a lot of videos of other players for their parents who couldn’t make it,” said Shaun Rose, Zion’s dad.
Karin Rose, Zion’s mom, said she was fortunate that she has a job as a school nurse, which allowed her to travel with Zion during much of the summer baseball season while Shaun worked at his barber shop. Money wasn’t a huge problem, because both had good jobs and some family members chipped in.
Zion took the additional step of transferring from Brother Rice High School in Chicago to IMG Academy in Florida for his senior season, so he could take advantage of the facilities and year-round baseball weather. He’s ranked by MLB.com as the 144th best prospect in this year’s draft, projecting for roughly the fifth round, where the recommended signing bonus is around $400,000.
“We understood the sacrifice, but it was Zion’s will to be a great player that put us in this position,” Karin Rose said. “We’ve been really blessed with travel ball, lots of support from friends and family.”
Several Black former MLB players were in Phoenix to help with the combine, including Chris Young, who played in the big leagues for 13 seasons and was an All-Star with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010. He said the sport’s diversity inititaves are a good way to lessen the financial load, but it will never go away completely.
“I don’t think baseball is going to get any less expensive anytime soon,” the 39-year-old Young said. “It’s an expensive game. It was an expensive game even back when I was a kid.”
He also hopes that more Black athletes will choose baseball over football or basketball, sports that have claimed top baseball prospects in the past like Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray. Another of this year’s top prospects — Duce Robinson — is trying to decide between pro baseball or playing tight end at USC.
“We have to make it worth their while,” Young said. “If you’re getting guys like that — I don’t want to overspeak — but you’re getting athletes like Mike Trout. Then it’s just up to each team’s player development.”
Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange — a Black Catholic nun who founded the United States’ first African American religious congregation in Baltimore in 1829 — has advanced another step toward sainthood.
Under a decree signed by Pope Francis on Thursday, Lange was recognized for her heroic virtue, and advanced in the cause of her beatification from being considered a servant of God to a “venerable servant.” The Catholic Church must now approve a miracle that is attributed to her, so she can be beatified.
Lange grew up in a wealthy family of African origin, but she left Cuba in the early 1800s for the U.S. due to racial discrimination, according to the Vatican’s saint-making office. After encountering more discrimination in the southern U.S., she moved with her family to Baltimore. Recognizing a need to provide education for Black children in the city, she started a school in 1828, decades before the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.
In 1829, she founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence — the country’s first African American religious congregation. They were trailblazers for generations of Black Catholic nuns who persevered despite being overlooked or suppressed by those who resented or disrespected them.
The Oblate Sisters continue to operate Baltimore’s Saint Frances Academy, which Lange founded. The coed school is the country’s oldest continually operating Black Catholic educational facility, with a mission prioritizing help for “the poor and the neglected.”
“She lived her virtuous existence in a hostile social and ecclesial context, in which the preeminent opinion was in favor of slavery, personally suffering the situation of marginalization and poverty in which the African American population found itself,” the Vatican’s saint-making office wrote.
Lange is among three Black nuns from the U.S. designated by Catholic officials as worthy of consideration for sainthood. The others include Henriette Delille, who founded the New Orleans-based Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842 because white sisterhoods in Louisiana refused to accept African Americans, and Sister Thea Bowman, a beloved educator, evangelist and singer active for many decades before her death in 1990.
Pope Francis’s advancement of Lange’s sainthood cause “is a monumental step forward in the long fight for Black Catholic saints in the United States and for recognition for the nation’s long embattled African American Catholic community, especially nuns,” said Shannen Dee Williams, a history professor at the University of Dayton and author of “ Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle.”
Currently there are no recognized African American saints. Williams said Lange joins three other African American sainthood candidates who have been declared “venerable — Delille, Father Augustus Tolton and Pierre Toussaint.
Williams said only one Black woman has been declared a saint in the modern era — St. Josephine Bakhita, a formerly enslaved Sudanese nun who made “the extraordinary journey from slavery under Islamic auspices to freedom in an Italian Catholic convent in the late 19th century.”
“This is why Lange’s cause is so important and revolutionary,” Williams said via email. “There is absolutely no way to tell Lange’s story or the story of her order accurately or honestly without confronting the Catholic Church’s mostly unreconciled histories of colonialism, slavery, and segregation.”
Williams said that unlike most of their counterparts in religious life, Lange and the Oblate Sisters of Providence were not segregationists, and never barred anyone from their ranks or institutions based on color or race. Instead, Williams said, Lange’s multiethnic and multilingual order preserved the vocations of hundreds of Black Catholic women and girls denied admission into white congregations in the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Lange and her Oblate Sisters of Providence’s very existence embody the fundamental truth that Black history and always has been Catholic history in the land area that became the United States.” Williams said,
Their story “upends the enduring myth that slaveholding and segregationist Catholic priests and nuns were simply people ‘of their times.’” Williams said. “Mother Lange and the Oblate Sisters of Providence were also people of those times.”
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have shed light on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) persistent enforcement of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) on state and local law enforcement agencies seeking to use the agency’s cell site simulators.
The ACLU found that the agreements prohibit disclosure of the technology’s use to the public and the courts, even going as far as obstructing defendants’ constitutional right to mount a proper defense.
The organization found that records highlighted the FBI’s compelling local police to conceal vital information about these intrusive devices from judges, defense attorneys, and the media.
Laura Moraff, Brennan Fellow with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project expressed strong disapproval.
“These records show the FBI continuing to force local police to conceal basic information about this invasive technology from judges, defense attorneys, and the press. That is unacceptable,” Moraff stated in a news release.
“The FBI should immediately stop enforcing these extreme secrecy requirements and should inform courts and defense attorneys in cases where this technology has been used,” she added.
Cell site simulators, commonly known as stingrays or “IMSI catchers,” are powerful surveillance tools that invade the privacy of cell phones.
By mimicking cell phone towers, those devices emit signals to deceive nearby cell phones into transmitting identifying information, enabling precise location tracking.
While primarily used to track the location of a suspect’s cell phone, they inadvertently gather information from the phones of unsuspecting individuals in the vicinity.
Previously, the FBI mandated strict NDAs for state and local police departments interested in procuring their own cell site simulators.
However, the FBI backed away from this practice nearly a decade ago due to severe criticism.
A Maryland court emphasized that “such a broad prohibition on disclosure of information to the court… prevents the court from exercising its fundamental duties under the Constitution.”
The ACLU found that recently released documents indicate that the FBI has continued to impose NDAs when local police request the FBI’s assistance in locating a suspect’s phone using its own equipment.
The documents also revealed:
1. Concealment from courts: The FBI’s agreement prohibits local police from using information obtained from cell site simulators as “primary evidence in any affidavits, hearings, or trials.” Additionally, the FBI commits to employing “all appropriate legal means to limit testimony regarding the technology in any state or local proceeding.” Consequently, officers can gather evidence using a cell site simulator but withhold crucial information from court filings, depriving the court of comprehensive knowledge about the investigation.
2. Secrecy over everything: The documents demonstrate that the FBI adopts a “jigsaw” or patchwork theory of disclosure, aiming to keep even minor details about cell site simulators hidden from the public. An email from May 2020 clarifies that the FBI will only deploy a cell site simulator at the request of local police after they have acknowledged and agreed to the FBI’s Nondisclosure Agreement. Previous versions of the FBI’s NDA went to the extreme of coercing police to drop charges rather than reveal their use of the technology.
3. Disregard for ethical concerns: Among the documents, an email exchange from 2015 highlights a local official expressing “serious reservations” about signing a nondisclosure agreement due to concerns that the terms “could place our prosecutors in a position of compromising their statutory and ethical duties.” Although much of the exchange remains redacted, records from five years later indicate that the FBI continued to impose NDAs on local agencies in certain circumstances.
ACLU officials said the recent revelations regarding the FBI’s enforcement of NDAs on local law enforcement agencies using cell-site simulators have raised significant concerns about transparency and constitutional rights.
They argued that the practice impedes defendants’ ability to mount a fair defense and obstructs the judiciary’s duty to uphold the Constitution.
Calls for the FBI to immediately cease enforcing such extreme secrecy requirements and to notify courts and defense attorneys when this technology is employed have grown louder, ACLU officials asserted.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A local prosecutor revealed Wednesday that she won’t seek charges against officers in North Carolina’s capital city who repeatedly used stun guns on a man who subsequently died, saying evidence reviewed fails to show the use of force was unreasonable.
Several Raleigh police officers were placed on administrative leave following the Jan. 17 death of 32-year-old Darryl Tyree Williams. They were trying to arrest Williams around 2 a.m. for possession of a controlled substance in a parking lot where a sweepstakes parlor and several closed businesses were located.
The State Bureau of Investigation looked into what happened and forwarded its findings to Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman. In her summary report, Freeman determined “it has been concluded that the officers’ actions were not a violation of the law.”
“In a criminal prosecution of a law enforcement officer for a use of force, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the use of force was not reasonable under the circumstances,” Freeman said, adding that she asked for the case to be closed because “the totality of the circumstances in this matter makes a prosecution unsustainable.”
Freeman also received Williams’ autopsy report made public two weeks ago by the state medical examiner’s office. While the autopsy report declared Williams’ death a homicide, his cause of death was listed as “sudden cardiac arrest” related to cocaine intoxication and the police confrontation. Williams’ family urged officials to fire officers and charge them in his death.
Police have said they were trying to arrest Williams after they found a folded dollar bill with white powder in his pocket. Freeman’s report said officers initially detained Williams after noticing a bag of marijuana in the front seat of a vehicle that he and another passenger had voluntary agreed to exit.
Police said officers stunned Williams with a Taser three times as they tried to take him into custody and he tried to flee.
Williams, a Black man, can be heard in body and dashboard camera videos released by police in February protesting that he didn’t do anything and warning that he had a heart problem before what Freeman’s report said was the final time he was stunned.
The DA’s report said the two officers who deployed the Tasers told the SBI in an interview that they didn’t hear Williams’ comments about a heart condition.
“There is no way to substantiate whether they did in fact hear Mr. Williams,” the report said, but “this point alone is not outcome determinative in the legal analysis.”
Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate NC, a criminal justice reform group assisting Williams’ family, called Freeman’s decision not to prosecute “disgraceful. She has once again failed to protect the Black people of Wake County by rubberstamping the murder of an unarmed man by Raleigh Police Department.”
Raleigh police Lt. Jason Borneo acknowledged the DA’s decision not to charge the six officers involved but declined to comment further on what he described as an internal investigation.
Freeman’s report listed over a dozen other factors that contributed to her decision not to prosecute, including that a Taser deployment isn’t considered a deadly use of force. Williams repeatedly failed to follow law enforcement commands, officers were unable to complete a thorough search of him — leading to fears he was armed — and he had a substantial size advantage over the officers, the report said. Williams was also on probation at the time of his death for a drug-related felony and that may have related to his decision to resist and flee officers, the report said.
The DA also cited the autopsy finding of multiple contributing circumstances to his death, including an enlarged heart, significant physical exertion and being subjected to a Taser.
NEW YORK (AP) — Outside a Harlem subway station, Yusef Salaam, a candidate for New York City Council, hurriedly greeted voters streaming out along Malcolm X Boulevard. For some, no introductions were necessary. They knew his face, his name and his life story.
But to the unfamiliar, Salaam needed only to introduce himself as one of the Central Park Five — one of the Black or Brown teenagers, ages 14 to 16, wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for the rape and beating of a white woman jogging in Central Park on April 19, 1989.
Now 49, Salaam is hoping to join the power structure of a city that once worked to put him behind bars.
“I’ve often said that those who have been close to the pain should have a seat at the table,” Salaam said during an interview at his campaign office.
Salaam is one of three candidates in a competitive June 27 Democratic primary almost certain to decide who will represent a Harlem district unlikely to elect a Republican in November’s general election. With early voting already begun, he faces two seasoned political veterans: New York Assembly members Al Taylor, 65, and Inez Dickens, 73, who previously represented Harlem on the City Council.
The incumbent, democratic socialist Kristin Richard Jordan, dropped out of the race in May following a rocky first term.
Now known to some as the “Exonerated Five,” Salaam and the four others — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — served between five and 12 years in prison for the 1989 rape before a reexamination of the case led to their convictions being vacated in 2002.
DNA evidence linked another man, a serial rapist, to the attack. The city ultimately agreed in a legal settlement to pay the exonerated men $41 million.
Salaam, who was arrested at age 15, served nearly seven years behind bars.
“When people look at me and they they know my story, they resonate with it,” said Salaam, the father of 10 children. “But now here we are 34 years later, and I’m able to use that platform that I have and repurpose the pain, help people as we climb out of despair.”
Those pain points are many in a district that has some of the city’s most entrenched poverty and highest rent burdens.
Poverty in Central Harlem is about 10 points higher than the citywide rate of 18%, according to data compiled by New York University’s Furman Center. More than a fourth of Harlem’s residents pay more than half of their income on rent. And the district has some of the city’s highest rates of homelessness for children.
Salaam said he’s eager to address those crises and more. His opponents say he doesn’t know enough about how local government works to do so.
“No one should go through what my opponent went through, especially as a child. Years later, after he returns to New York, Harlem is in crisis. We don’t have time for a freshman to learn the job, learn the issues and re-learn the community he left behind for Stockbridge, Georgia,” Dickens said, referring to Salaam’s decision to leave the city after his release from prison. He returned to New York in December.
Taylor knows that Salaam’s celebrity is an advantage in the race.
“I think that folks will identify with him and the horrendous scenario that he and his colleagues underwent for a number of years in a prison system that treated him unfairly and unjustly,” Taylor said.
“But his is one of a thousand in this city that we are aware of,” Taylor added. “It’s the Black reality.”
Harlem voter Raynard Gadson, 40, is cognizant of that factor.
“As a Black man myself, I know exactly what’s at stake,” Gadson said. “I don’t think there’s anybody more passionate about challenging systemic issues on the local level in the name of justice because of what he went through,” he said of Salaam.
During a recent debate televised by Spectrum News, Salaam repeatedly mentioned his arrest, prompting Taylor to exclaim that he, too, had been arrested: At age 16, he was caught carrying a machete — a charge later dismissed by a judge willing to give him a second chance.
“We all want affordable housing, we all want safe streets, we all want smarter policing, we all want jobs, we all need education,” Salaam said of the candidates’ common goals. What he offers, he said, is a new voice that can speak about his community’s struggles.
“I have no track record in politics,” he conceded. “I have a great track record in the 34 years of the Central Park jogger case in fighting for freedom, justice and equality.”
All three have received key endorsements. Black activist Cornel West has backed Salaam. Dickens has the backing of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and former New York U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel. Taylor is supported by the Carpenter’s Union.
At a campaign rally for Dickens, Rangel recounted that Salaam had called to say he was entering the race. Rangel then quipped that Salaam had a “foreign name.” Salaam responded pointedly on social media.
“I am a son of Harlem named Yusef Salaam. I went to prison because my name is Yusef Salaam,” he tweeted. “I am proud to be named Yusef Salaam. I am born here, raised here & of here — but even if I wasn’t, we all belong in New York City.”
Rangel and Salaam later talked and resolved the matter, according to a spokesperson for the Dickens campaign.
Unlikely is an apology from Donald Trump, who in 1989 placed newspaper ads before the group went on trial with the blaring headline, “Bring back the death penalty.” The ads did not specifically mention any of the five, but Salaam said the context made it clear.
When asked by a reporter in 2019 if he would ever apologize, Trump said there were “people on both sides” of the matter.
“They admitted their guilt,” Trump had said, of the Central Park Five, referring to confessions that the five later said were coerced. “Some of the prosecutors,” Trump added “think the city should never have settled that case. So, we’ll leave it at that.”
When Trump appeared in a Manhattan court in April on charges of falsifying business records, Salaam mocked him with his own ad on social media that visually mimicked Trump’s from long ago.
“Over 30 years ago, Donald Trump took out full page ads calling for my execution,” Salaam tweeted above the ad, headlined: “Bring Back Justice & Fairness.”
By Malachi Kudura, Contributing Writer and V&V Staff
Saturday June 17, 2023, Oli-Tay and Friends hosted their 4th Annual Juneteenth/619 Day Celebration at Liberty Station Park. The event was full of Black vendors, games, music, and numerous Black-owned food trucks.
This event not only celebrated Juneteenth, but it also celebrated Black San Diego’s history and culture. Many of the people that attended set up their own BBQ pits, enjoying their barbecuing and the beautiful sunshine. Many of the attendees dressed in African apparel adorned in bright and beautiful colors.
“Juneteenth not only represents freedom, it also represents Black family, Black unity and Black community,” said Charles Johnson, an attendee at the event. He continued, “It’s important for my kids to see me spend my dollar with Black businesses and to see Black businesses being supported by people that look like us.”
It was a perfect sunny day for this celebration. There were kids throwing footballs around playing catch and elders playing dominoes and cards on the card tables. There were food trucks with foods from Ethiopian dishes to soul food from Louisiana. The celebratory day was, unfortunately, marred later that evening by a reported isolated dispute and shooting that left one person deceased and another injured. The unfortunate occurrence reminds us of the importance of celebrating and uplifting community on Juneteenth and every day.
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