Saving
Our Streets-- A Response to Community Violence
Glenn Minnis | TheRoot.com
More guns on the streets, a rising death toll and
the beginning of a long summer.
An eerie chill still permeates the air. All across
Harlem USA, it's known as the 'Memorial Day Shootout.' no one wants to remember.
As families, friends and acquaintances
celebrated the season's most picturesque evening late that Monday, a scene erupted on the borders of Marcus Garvey Park every
bit as frightening as any snippet from a war movie. And when the far-too-real, ten minutes of mayhem had ended, seven teens
lay bullet-riddled and bloodied along a three-block stretch in the heart of the neighborhood Malcolm X, James Baldwin and
Billie Holiday once strolled for inspiration.
In time, all the victims are expected to heal and survive, but what about
the new image of prosperity and goodwill being cultivated in Harlem?
"It had gotten a little
better, and now it's getting worse again," said Jackie Rowe-Adams, a lifelong borough resident who lost two young sons
to street violence, which has made her acutely aware of such issues.
"Guns are flowing like water, and it's like
a river," adds Adams, founder of Harlem Mothers SAVE (Stop Another Violent End). "Years ago the older kids had guns,
and now it's the babies that have them."
Maybe more disturbing is the growing trend in many major cities where
neighborhood violence seems to be on the rise as rapidly as the summer temperatures themselves. Last weekend in Washington,
D.C., seven people were killed and seven others injured in a string of shootings that prompted authorities to flood the streets
with military-style patrols.
Five weeks earlier in Chicago, 36 people were shot, nine of them fatally, in a weekend
so treacherous that longtime Mayor Richard Daley implored citizens: "Know where your children are. It's going to be a
long summer and parents better capture this responsibility."
At a time when many of these urban neighborhoods
seem to be enjoying some kind of upswing, this sudden surge in violence raised questions about the causes. In the Harlem shooting,
six of the victims were found sprawled near the doorway of a new luxury condo building where all of the $1 million plus units
had sold instantly.
Gov. David Paterson, who was born and reared in Harlem, has attended several community meetings
in response to the shootings, promising to make bringing jobs to Harlem a primary focus.
And the Rev. Al Sharpton
is now also coordinating a high-level community summit to address the violence. The forum is slated to bring together community
and religious leaders, law enforcement, young people and elected officials, including Gov. Paterson and New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg.
"Last year alone, nearly one black child a day under the age of 17 was shot and killed in New
York City, mostly by other black city residents," says Sharpton, who hopes that what ever plans are eventually put in
place in Harlem will serve as blueprints for other neighborhood and cities griped by similar problems.
"Shootings
and violence within our community by one of our own is an outrage and an issue that we must confront as diligently and as
passionately as a sensational case of police misconduct or brutality," Sharpton says.
In either case, we are left
prisoners in our own neighborhoods and victims in our own communities. And that is something we should not forget on Memorial
Day or at any other time.
Anger, Anguish, Calm Follow
Acquittal.
By Glenn Minnis | TheRoot.com
The
aftermath of a stunning decision in the Sean Bell case.
Sean Bell's parents Valerie and William
Bell
And God said let there
be peace.
Thus, in the face of anguish most would find unimaginable, the family of Sean Bell and
the people of Queens County gathered early Friday to share solidarity as much as to point fingers.
Tensions
ran high outside the State Supreme Court in Queens after Justice Arthur Cooperman rendered his stunning acquittal
of New York City detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper. But then, what would you expect when three of
NYC's finest and most decorated lawmen are completely absolved and exonerated in the death of a young man who died in a hail
of unreturned gunfire on an otherwise peaceful November night in his own neighborhood? Tensions were unavoidable.
Groom-to-be
and father of two, Sean Bell, 23, died on what was to be his wedding day on Thanksgiving weekend, 2006. Tears flowed
in Queens on Friday as freely as the bullets flew that dreadful night. Chants of "No Justice, No Peace," and "Murderers"
seemed to stretch for miles, often drowning out both impromptu and planned demonstrations. One poignant scene played out after
another amid the most somber of backdrops.
Just as Pat Lynch, the outspoken President of the Patrolmen's
Benevolent Association, began to rant about how the verdict sends a message to officers everywhere that they will be fairly
treated for confronting all the challenges they face in trying to protect and serve, a rendition of KRS One's legendary 'Who
Protects Us From You?' began to blare from the heavens.
"My heart cried out for justice, but my experiences
had prepared me for this moment," chimed the Rev. Herbert Daugherty of Harlem.
In time, William and
Valerie Bell, the parents of Sean, and Nicole Paultre Bell, the woman he was hours away from wedding, limped from the courtroom,
clearly shaken by what had transpired.
They said nothing as they made their way, hand in hand, through droves
of equally stunned supporters. But there are times when those who say the least actually reveal the most. Their look said
it all: Anguish. Emptiness. Anger. The justice they sought for their beloved had not been rendered. They could choose to rail
against the system. Instead, they quietly just walked away.
Glenn Minnis is a New York writer.
(Check out my commentary on the Sean Bell verdict on Washington's WHUR 96.3 FM Radio
at 7 p.m. PEACE)
5:07 pm est
Big Time Sports, No Small-Time Game
By
Glenn Minnis The Root.com
Just ask Clemson tailback Ray Ray McElrathbey who lost his football scholarship,
no doubt to somone who can help the Tigers win RIGHT NOW.
Am I my brother's keeper?
Clemson tailback
Ray Ray McElrathbey lives his life by answering yes to that biblical question every day.
So,
two years ago with his mother battling a drug addiction and his absentee father crippled by an equally self-sabotaging gambling
affliction, the question of what to do with his then 11-year-old brother was a simple one for Ray Ray, all of 19 years old
at the time.
He would become the legal guardian to young Fahmarr, who would then join his big brother on
the South Carolina campus and, together, they would live the cramped dorm-room life.
I, and many others,
have been struck by this story since it first broke, and the tender moment made sports-show highlight reels around the globe;
it easily ranks as one of the top feel-good stories of that football season or ever. Ray Ray was on Oprah and ABC News took
note, tabbing him its 'Person of the Week.'
But somewhere between the wonton euphoria of college sports —
as experienced by Kansas fans this week after their NCAA win in San Antonio — and the bottom-line, financial considerations
that govern big-time college sports programs, agendas change as quickly as game plans.
The McElrathbey
boys now serve as somber highlights of that reality. Mere months after basking in the national spotlight, Ray Ray and Fahmarr
are now simply trying to find a place to rest their heads.
Their touching story, you see, had no place in
the world of corporate, collegiate athletics, where the code is as revealing as the one Ray Ray strives to live by: 'Win.
All else be damned.'
How else does one explain Clemson coach Tommy Bowden telling Ray Ray that it was time
for him to be moving on. The Clemson program decided to pull McElrathbey's scholarship; he can stay through August when he
is scheduled to graduate. But the football career is over; his scholarship pulled, no doubt with the intention of offering
it to someone who can make a bigger impact on the program than Ray, Ray did as a third string back.
Later,
Bowden and company made what seemed the obligatory generous gesture of offering McElrathbey a spot as a graduate-assistant,
though the question of just how much of his living expenses it would cover remained in doubt. Now, ask yourself, how could
Ray Ray McElrathbey be expected to continue providing any stability for his young sibling when his own survival was in such
grave doubt?
Truth is, drastic times demand drastic action, and the tough tactics go both ways. The
talk of the collegiate sports world right now is the almost-certain decisions by the less-than-legal brigade of Derrick Rose,
19 [ Memphis]; O.J. Mayo, 20 [USC]; Michael Beasley, 19 [Kansas State]; Eric Gordon, 19 [Indiana],
and Jerryd Bayless, 19 [Arizona], to forgo their remaining college eligibility and declare themselves eligible for
the NBA draft -- and its attendant millions -- just one-year into the four-year commitments they made to their respective
institutions.
But before passing any judgment on those decisions, think of Ray Ray and Fahmarr McElrathbey,
and realize just how fragile those commitments are, how subject to change they are at the end of each season by people like
Tommy Bowden and the corporate interests they represent.
Without question, being young, gifted and black doesn't always
get you what you deserve in this life. You need look no further than Ray Ray and Fahmarr McElrathbey for testimony.
Glenn Minnis is a writer in New York.
The
Fall of Starbury
Things haven't been the same since Stephon Marbury came home
By Glenn
Minnis, AOLBlackVoices.com
As an artist whose style, and main selling-point,
has long been based on an aesthetic of variance, it has become almost unbearable to watch Stephon Marbury's flair and wizardry
reduced to irresolution, his flow and effervescence rendered so bland as to be inconsequential.
What
can Brown do for you? so the tagline portends. And with each passing day it becomes just as obvious that Marbury may not be
the man you want delivering any such catchphrase as it relates to Coach Larry.
The basketball court has always been an oasis for Stephon Marbury, a place
to where he could escape, a place where no one, and nothing come even remotely close to touching him -- not the infinite scars
born of his hardcore New York City upbringing nor the countless array of Coney Island ballers who came to revere him as a
supreme being after the emergence of his "Starbury" alter ego.
Moving the show Uptown -- under the high-wattage glare of the Garden no less -- it was reasoned, would
simply serve to elevate his game.
But,
much like the infuriatingly, incorrigible Brown and the sullenly, stubborn Marbury, fate has shown a mind all of its own.
And
therein lies the insoluble impasse that has come to define the union between Larry Brown and Stephon Marbury: Two men who,
though they share the same passion, now find themselves at the heart of a winner-take-all, dastardly fight over what it should
mean to feel the way that they do.
"I
haven't been Starbury this year," Marbury lamented to the New York Daily News recently. "I've been some other dude.
I went into this year trying to do something to win; it didn't happen. I go back to playing like Stephon Marbury."
Countered Brown, "look at my credibility. I've never left a team in worse shape than
when I got them. That's the only message that needs to be said, playing the right way. Think about me and think about the
guy who's talking. "
But that is oversimplification
in the extreme. There are those who insist Marbury's bold proclamation clearly suggests the need for a greater level of soul-searching,
but Brown, likewise, needs to ponder the elements of his equally-damning declaration and ask himself if all the overwhelmed,
underserved souls he's enlisted with empowering are truly better for having experienced his my-way or the highway tactics.
In keeping with his motif of dragging his players through
the fire via the media, Brown continued: "If you're the best player, surely you're going to have some effect on the outcome
of a game."
But can't the same
be said of a coach who is lauded and compensated as if he holds that same distinction? Beyond Marbury, the consensus throughout
the organization this season is that Brown has not done a stellar job of promoting unity or cohesiveness on the team; his
practice of starting a different lineup in virtually every other game serving as a prime evidence of the problem.
Granted, no one will ever come to confuse Marbury's game
with the teammate-friendly styles of say a Jason Kidd or a Steve Nash. But Larry Brown, connoisseur of the game that he is,
had to know this before spending his entire summer salivating at the notion of the Knicks' heavy cheddar offer. He had to
realize it before he abandoned the perennially title-contending Detroit Pistons for Broadway.
It will not end well now. Not with Marbury raging how the problems are now about more than just basketball
and Brown clamoring for respect for his reputation. Each now finds himself the ardent rival of the other, and like in other
affairs of the heart, indifference is not an option.
A-Rod Ain't Money
Glenn Minnis The irony that's become the harsh reality isn't
lost on Yankees fans. Quite frankly, one of the world's highest paid athletes, he once of the exorbitant $252 million dollar contract,
simply is not a money ballplayer.
As it relates to clutch performance, Alex Rodriguez will never be confused with Derek Jeter. And while that, in and of itself, might not be an indictment of him witness-bearing Bronx Bombers' faithful will readily
testify it's proving to be murder on them.
If you're scoring at home, this season
will mark the first time in the last 13 the Yanks apparent birthright of advancing to play October baseball has been aborted.
Aborted as in no ticker-tape parade; aborted as in the team has now yet to see a World Series since Rodriguez was whisked
to town as the planet saviour some five years ago.
Oh, but there's been fanfare. Thing is, far too much of it has been about the means of how one comes to rock and own diamonds then what a player is genuinely
doing upon one to truly warrant all the riches and attention in the first place.
With the
cross-town rival Mets and the much despised Red Sox both seemingly on their way to extra-innings play (think post season) Yanks fans awoke this morning only to be reminded of
how the then very much still married A-Rod spent the critical part of his season convincing himself that none other
than the mercurial Madonna herself “is his f—cking soulmate, dude.”
It's now all ended in divorce for A-Rod, and one only wishes fate could be
so kind to the Bombers. That cumulative .300 batting average, 40-plus homers and 125 RBI of the last two seasons? About as
hollow as numbers printed on a five-year-old Enron ledger sheet.
This was a stage thought to be built for Alex Rodriguez. But
somewhere between practice and theory, things went woefully awry. Somewhere between expense and value, A-Rod ceased to be
a bargain. And now Yankee fans are left paying the price.
