ALL ROADS LEAD TO FERGUSON TOUR- DAY ONE

On July 31, 2015 a group of people journeyed toward Ferguson, Missouri for the one year anniversary shooting death of Michael Brown. This is an account of that travel from a daily journal.


Bishop John Selders and wife Pamela organized a tour to Ferguson, Mo with four adults and ten students from Trinity College. The group departed from Hartford, Connecticut at 1:00pm for the beginning of a tour [ 8 cities in as many days ]. We will stop at churches and sing, recite poetry and collect money for #BlackLivesMatter legal fees in Ferguson. Our group arrived in Harlem, New York at Grace Congregational Church, 310 West 139th Street. We unpacked musical equipment, then carried it inside the church. Shortly thereafter people started coming into the church; a diverse crowd of young adults and middle aged. Bishop Selders started off the program singing songs, five men called Peace Poets recited stirring poetry. The church resonated with black inspired music plus spoken word poetry, while people clapped... shouted.

A Caucasian male with white hair and guitar in hand stood up to speak-it was Peter Yarro of Peter, Paul and Mary fame. Peter elaborated on being part of the Civil Rights Movement and how being with Martin Luther King et al. inspired him. After all the singing and poetry ended around 10:00pm Bishop Selders collected money for distribution in Ferguson. We departed the church and traveled to New Jersey where the group ate dinner at 11:40pm. When our group went to the hotel reserved by Bishop Selders a surprise awaited. This hotel was literally occupied outside by unsavory characters lurking in shadows. Selders tried to retrieve his money for reserved rooms but had to go through the tedious process of completing paper work, then waiting for it to meander through official channels. It was decided to seek other hotel accommodations; this proved difficult and was not successful until 3:30am. All members of the tour are tired. Gratefully everyone went to sleep in beds or sleeping bags.

We leave for Baltimore at lunch time 12:00pm.

WHITE UNITARIAN MINISTER SPEAKS UP FOR TRUTH WHILE BLACK MINISTERS BUCK DANCE

An Invitation to White People Around the Anniversary of Michael Brown’s Death (8/9/14)

A year ago, our country changed. Not because a white police officer named Darren Wilson killed an unarmed 17 year old Black youth named Michael Brown, and not because of any spike in police killings of Black and Brown folks, but because young African Americans in Ferguson began protesting daily and haven’t stopped. Because social media brings national attention to deaths that before went mourned but unmarked by most media. Because, from Hartford to Ferguson, African Americans are organizing strategically and boldly to demand recognition of their humanity and dignity amidst a legacy of over 500 years of racism. 

I learned little about that history of racism as a white kid growing up in West Hartford. As a high school student at Conard in the early 90s, I didn’t think the Diversity Club was for me. It wasn’t a conscious choice; it simply wasn’t something on my radar. I didn’t need to think about race, and so I didn’t.

But my faith teaches that each and every person has inherent worth and dignity, just as your's may teach that we are all children of God, or your moral compass honors the uniqueness of each human being. Each time another young person of color is harassed or shamed or bullied or killed at the hands of police, that person’s dignity – and ours – is eroded. I have learned that we must say #BlackLivesMatter rather than #AllLivesMatter to name the reality that Black lives are systematically devalued more than White lives in our present society. #BlackLivesMatter is a reclaiming of the worth and dignity that our country strips away from Black women, men, and children, straight and queer and trans, able-bodied and disabled, rich and poor, young and old.   

The growing Movement for Black Lives gives me—a white queer parent and minister—hope and inspiration. I see powerful, loving, grounded Black leadership building throughout the country; I see other people of color standing with them; and I see powerful, loving, grounded White folks committing to say “We will show up for racial justice because this pains us too, and because we believe a more loving and peaceful world is possible.” 

I want to be part of creating that world for my three-year-old child: one where I don’t have to explain to her why I am crying over the news again and where she doesn’t have to worry about the safety of her Black friends coming home from middle school.
White folks like me must wrestle with the reality that our silence and inaction perpetuates racial inequity within the United States and the world. It is time for us to step out of silence. 

We white people have a role to play. Not a role of upstaging Black leadership, but a role in building the chorus so it is so loud and strong that it drowns out hate and amplifies the cries of Black leaders for more love, equity and justice. And that is why we are beginning a chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice in Connecticut (See bit.ly/SURJkickoff) —to provide a space for white folks to educate ourselves and act in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives and to create a visible presence of white folks who oppose racism in all its forms.

Three weeks ago, on the anniversary of Mike Brown’s death, hundreds of my fellow Unitarian Universalists were in Ferguson honoring Michael Brown’s life with vigils, prayer, and more protests for justice and equity. Here at home, I am putting a Black Lives Matter lawnsign in my yard, making a donation to Moral Monday CT, and preparing myself to show up at the next call for action. What will you do?

- Rev. Cathy Rion Starr is Co-Minister of the Unitarian Society of Hartford, co-founder of SURJ-CT (showingupforracialjustice.org) and one of Robin’s two Mamas. Follow her on Twitter at @rev_cathy

ACCOUNT OF POLICE ASSAULT IN BLACK NEIGHBORHOOD

After police killed a black man in St. Louis recently this eye witness report was given by a bystander.

The report was posted on Face Book and later with permission placed on this blog.

 

"A crowd gathered yesterday at the scene where police killed another young Black man in St. Louis. The group that gathered was seasoned protestors and (mostly) grieving neighbors, the grief was raw. And because this killing happened in a neighborhood where children live, children were also on the street last night. Lots of children. Innocent, precious, children.

The gathering of saints unwilling to be silent victims to state violence is heartening. Standing on the sidewalks and sometimes in the street, the crowd was processing grief peacefully and legally. It was about 5:30 when I got there on my way home from work and by then people had been coming and going for hours, the police had already been through with tanks and tear gas earlier in the day, and the mood was tense.

What happened an hour or so later is still beyond my comprehension but no longer beyond my experience. In the distance we saw a line of police cars with lights and sirens approach. Then go silent. Then a sea of police with clubs behind shields approached. Behind the police was a tank. The advance was slow and deliberate and utterly menacing.

Never was there an order to disperse from the sidewalk.
Never was there any communication from the police that we were an unlawful assembly. This is, after all, a neighborhood.

Yet with military precision they advanced and occupied the neighborhood. Soon we realized that we were surrounded. That additional tanks were on the street behind us. There was no where to run, even if we wanted to.

And people stood on their front porches and watched in horror as the assault unfolded.

I had walked to a side street before the canisters of gas were thrown and thought I was safe, the tank followed down the side street. I watched in horror as the sniper on the top was shooting into the crowd. (I think they were bean bags or rubber bullets?) And I watched as the canisters whizzed. As the tank rolled by me, I froze and it passed... but then an arm emerged with a canister of pepper spray. As I dove into a car with friends, the same tank threw a canister of gas directly at us, it rolled under the car and we moved as quickly as we could.

The night went on, the stories too. It was quite literally a nightmare beyond imagining. Except that it happened. In St. Louis city. In America. I watched the police take siege on a neighborhood and literally open fire on the children. And I will never be the same.

But let me be clear: I drove away last night. I showered and ate and slept in my bed in a neighborhood where police have never opened fire on a civilian. I never had to choose between standing up for my right to be alive and sheltering my children from tear gas. And no mother should.

‪#‎PageandWalton‬ ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬ "
~ Katherine Ann

MAN CLIMBS FENCE AT CJTS; YSO LEAVES PROPERTY WITH DOCUMENTS; FEMALE OF COLOR BERATED BY WHITE MALE

On August 19, 2015 around 11:30am a distress call went out over radios at Connecticut Juvenile Training School. "Can we please have assistance on the outside grounds." Normally other employees go out to the grounds [ which might encompass certain areas ] to assist with residents in an altercation etc. However this time when employees rushed outside, they were greeted by an intoxicated white male. The drunk white male climbed the outside fence, then walked up the hill on CJTS property. How did such a thing occur and where were management ? There are several monitors inside of the Operations Office, yet nobody saw the guy climbing the outside fence. This is just another case of incompetence by Key Stone Cops management on the DCF Plantation. In another scenario I wonder what might have happened if the intruder climbing over that fence looked black ? Hmmmmm !

                     YSO LEAVES WITH CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS

 Reliable sources report that sensitive documents are leaving CJTS daily with an employee. It has been reported how during work time this male YSO uses state copying machines and duplicates documents with names of residents on them. Also, since this is the same YSO suspected of giving inside data to the Child Advocate, it is safe to assume those 500 or so documents taken out daily are what is fueling recent investigations of CJTS by Connecticut law makers. First of all there are confidentiality laws about removing state documents with names of residents on them outside of CJTS. Second, management is aware of the YSO copying these documents but seem paralyzed by fear : the Child Advocate report that is critical of CJTS has management running scared. Other YSOs can only look in amazement as documents are copied daily and walked through the door in plain sight.

                      IT IS OPEN SEASON ON BLACK FEMALES

Sources report that racial animus on the CJTS Plantation has increased over the past few months between  YSOs. The latest incident occurred over the weekend in building # 6. A white male employee publicly berated another staff -who happened to be black & female. This is not the first time this particular male denounced people of color ; it is well documented how notes full of vitriol against blacks suddenly appeared in building # 5 in the past. Now this out of control white male is verbally harassing black female peers- to the point of tears ( at least that is what this blog reporter heard ). It is open season it seems on black female employees at CJTS. Not long ago a black female ran for Union Steward and this same YSO tried to assassinate her character. He had the good sense not to confront this strong black woman and resorted to ermine like machinations.

These stories reported above are indications of how CJTS is not being managed by competent administrators. The writer wonders if such incidents might be do to the hot weather. Yes the weather is certainly heating up.

THE PERSON TROUBLING THE WATERS IS OFTEN IN TROUBLE

The DCF Plantation Blog has received information about an employee causing problems at Connecticut Juvenile Training School. Sources report that the Child Advocate's office is getting inside information from a Youth Service Officer about restraints, residents, management. Now what makes this allegation so interesting is that this source of information for the Child Advocate has been a constant headache for employees / management too. In the past the person feeding Child Advocate inside information has been disciplined for physically harming a resident, terminated from CJTS, accused of racial bias against peers of color, not to mention making veiled threats. Yet the Child Advocate's office is receiving and acting upon data supplied by someone close to being certified as problematic [ the other word is crazy ]. In the recent past, employees at CJTS refused to work with the informant YSO. And by exposing the so called problems at CJTS this same employee does not mention personal problems of past discipline.

It is ironic that the employee doing this behind the scene action with the Child Advocate's office has been reinstated to a job by the Union / CJTS management. Now chickens have come home to roost.

THEY DID NOT SPEAK UP AND NOW THEIR JOBS ARE IN DANGER

The Connecticut Child Advocate released a report not long ago about documented harsh restraints at Connecticut Juvenile Training School / Pueblo Girls Unit. It is claimed Youth Service Officers are restraining incarcerated residents when it is not necessary, ergo causing additional trauma for youth in these facilities. Now there are a series of hearings being conducted by state lawmakers to ascertain whether YSOs are to blame for ill treatment of defenseless youth; visits by State Representatives et al. inside CJTS are continuing and have increased. The narrative put out by administrators of the DCF Plantation is "we try to fire employees that abuse youth at our facilities. When we take measures to protect incarcerated youth the Unions interfere, getting people reinstated through arbitration."

It is clear that the narrative is focusing on out of control YSOs harming innocent youth. Yet YSOs have not spoken about how incompetent CJTS administration is in governing at two facilities mentioned above. Because the CJTS leadership cannot control individual Unit Leaders, there are different restraint protocols in each building. There is no uniform policy implemented on Units. Each Unit Leader acts as some sort of feudal Chinese War Lord, dictating policy as they see fit. YSOs have been silent about Key Stone Cops management techniques for years on the DCF Plantation; they are willing to suffer silently in order to get extra overtime shifts. Because of not speaking up YSOs allowed this present situation to deteriorate until now management has turned the entire narrative around ; YSOs are to blame.

Silence in times of crisis or injustice allow the situation to become more toxic to those involved.

In the case of CJTS / Pueblo Girls Unit employees this silence might cost them employment.