Hartford rallies against violence!

By John P. Wentland Two hundred grieving family

members and concerned citizens from across Connecticut joined Mother United Against Violence in Hartford to march, remember the victims of violent death, and rally seek solutions to stem the upward spiraling number of violent deaths on the streets of cities in Connecticut. together on Saturday, April 7th, to

Diverse groups from Hartford as well as across the state joined

together to sponsor this march and vigil, among them Mothers

The Hart Monitor Issue 3 May 2012 Page 1 Hartford Rallies Against Violence Page 2 Breaking Down the NDAA Pt. 3 Page 4 The Racial Achievement Gap is NOT About Racism? Page 5 The Equal Rights Movement Rise Up Against the DCF Page 6 Finally the Rabble Speaks Page 7 Where There is Unity, There is Strength
and Fathers Cry Too, New Haven.

United Against Violence, Hartford

Communities That Care, Save Our

Children from the Streets, as well as

Y.A.N.A. (You Are Not Alone), Bridgeport,

In New Haven in 2011, 32 were killed; 24 in 2010.

In Bridgeport, there

were 217 homicides the since 2000.

since 2000. And in Hartford, 342 individuals were murdered in

To remember those lives cut short and to pledge to work for change to reduce the violence, three organizations worked together. Beginning last year, Mothers United Against Violence (MUAV) had met with Y.A.N.A. and Fathers Cry Too to ensure joint participation in the march memorial vigil and rally.

Marchers gathered at 9:30 AM, each choosing a cross or two with name and date of death of loved ones. Some carried placards with various pleas and demands like one reading, We Want Justice!

The Hart Monitor Issue 3 May 2012

The march began at 10 AM, starting from Main Street and Albany Avenue and ending at the Capitol. There on the lawn of the Capitol, those represented on the 342 white crosses with names eleven years as well as those recently killed in Bridgeport and bell.

by noting that torture could create artificial legitimacy for subjected to it.

military detention by coercing confessions from whomever is

and dates of death of each of the Hartford murder victim this past New Haven were remembered with prayer and the tolling of a

Put simply, allowing torturers to go free created the conditions to politically whitewash abuses whose predictable recurrence the NDAA will enable. When torture recurs, it will in turn confer false legitimacy on a profoundly un-American system and power, however deviously it may develop in the future. undermine political will to restore limits on our governments

Moving to the steps of the Capitol, the rally included speakers fallen from Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport including Henrietta Beckman, president of MUAV. Thomas Daniels,

with inspiring and daunting messages. Family members of the

organizer of Fathers Cry Too, and Dawn Spearman, organizer of organizations pursue. Local activists and ministers, including

Q: Have similar laws caused abuses elsewhere? A: Do political repression and genocide count?

Y.A.N.A., spoke of their personal losses as well as the mission their Kevin Muhammad, Minister Jarmaine Lee, Pastor A.J. Johnson and Rev. Henry Brown, offered words of encouragement, inspiration and hope. Officials on both the local and state level, including

Both world history and current events offer crucial insights on the potential results of authorizing detention without trial. Those results once inspired our nation to wage a World Museum:

Governor Malloy and Hartford Mayor Segarra had been invited to speak to the participants, none were present. The event concluded with the final benediction offered by Rt. Rev. James Curry, bishop suffragant of the Episcopal Diocese of Hartford.

War. According to the U.S. National Holocaust Memorial

German authorities under National Socialism established a variety of detention facilities.In time their extensive camp system came without observation of the standard norms applying to arrest and custody. to include concentration camps, where persons were incarcerated

Recognizing that the violence on the streets of communities

across the state rated second most wealthy [with a median income of $65,958 in 2011] is unacceptable, members of the sponsoring coalition are committed to work with law enforcement, local violence. Too many lives are at stake not to act. organizations, state legislators and city officials to address the

[U]nofficial killings.[were] routinely written up as suicides, trying to escape, assaulting a guard, sabotaging production, or inciting prisoners to revolt.

accidental deaths, and justified killings of prisoners who were

Breaking Down the NDAA Part 3

by Shahid Buttar

Incarceration in a concentration camp was rarely linked to a specific crime or actual subversive activity; the SS and police ordered incarceration based on their suspicion that an individual personwould likely commit a crime or engage in a subversive activity in the future.

This is the third in a three-part series about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Part 1 appeared in March and Part 2 appeared in April.
The first installment of this series explained how the NDAA could be used as a tool for political repression, especially in concert by the Supreme Court, that apologists for the NDAA have generally ignored. with parallel powers expanded by the PATRIOT Act, and upheld

On the one hand, Nazi concentration camps were certainly worse than the U.S. military detention facilities at, for instance, Guantanamo Bay. On the other hand, the legal powers then used by the German government have disturbing equivalents in the contemporary United States: 1.

the NDAA codifies the power to incarcerate without observation of the standard norms applying to arrest and custody; homicides at Guantanamo have long been whitewashed as suicides; and millions of Americans have been subjected to

The second installment explained how our nations failure to

pursue accountability for torture enabled the NDAAs passage,

2. 3.

and also portends the recurrence of torture under the domestic

military detention regime the NDAA has authorized. It concluded

overbroad and unjustified suspicion of potential

The Hart Monitor Issue 3 May 2012

terrorism, including Muslims, environmentalists,

armed service members returning to the US from

and that millions of service members have died to defend. Ive written before about the impacts of President Obamas decision to allow impunity for torture, in violation of the influence of neo-cons over Congress and Dick Cheneys Nuremberg precedent. Most recently, it enabled the continued opportunity to lobby for the NDAA. More historically, it sacrificed our nations victory in the Second World War 60 years after having won it by resigning the international human rights principles we once fought to establish.

deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, and supporters of a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

President Obamas pledge not to abuse the dangerous powers but the right to use such powers that defines authoritarian [NDAA] could be construed by future Presidents (or their advisors) to confer dramatic, sweeping powers.

codified by the NDAA should offer little comfort. It is not the use systems. As Ive written before, the ambiguity created by the

Weve similarly resigned our nations victory in the Cold War, 20 years after having won it, by constructing the most expansive surveillance state in human history.

Perhaps the most bizarre element of the NDAAs sordid saga is its timing: it eroded the right to trial in America mere months after popular uprisings across the Arab world mobilized to shrug off their respective governments. Rather than learn from their wrong direction.

similar military detention powers, which had long been abused by example, our leaders blithely followed their footstepsbut in the

The NDAA undermines principles established in the American

Revolution, 250 years ago, by rendering the right to trial subject the Constitution was designed to afford. It threatens even the habeas corpus, which is simply incompatible with detention without trial.

to the whims of future Presidents, despite the explicit protections Magna Carta nearly 800 years after our British forebears secured

Q: For whom does the NDAA represent a victory? A: Dick Cheney, Al-Qaeda, the CIA, and King George III

Our President once spoke of the choice between liberty and world-historical African-American leader once famously

Q: Is democracy doomed? A: Not yet The passage of the NDAA may seem to reflect an inexorable creep of the national security state. After all, members of Congress passed the law without even understanding what they were

security as a false one. He could learn a lot from himself. Another observed American chickens coming home to roost. Malcolm

Xs observation appears especially stark in light of recent history. Al-Qaeda is primarily responsible for inspiring the fear that has driven Congress to such totalitarian lengths as to abrogate the acts of dissent. Our leaders resignation of our constitutional right to trial, potentially for US citizens engaged in non-violent rights reflects an enormous (and tragic) defeat at the hands of Laden.

voting for, the corporate mainstream media essentially ignored grassroots actions around the country and thousands of month.

the issue, and the White House signed the bill despite dozens of concerned Americans jamming the White House phone lines last

terror, ironically in the same year that we finally killed Osama bin

But hope, like opportunities for grassroots action, springs Senate that would narrow the NDAAs detention

eternal. Bills have already been introduced in the House and provisions. Voters in Montana have already started a recall

Again, history is instructive: al-Qaedas victory over American astounding incompetence, or a deviously intricate scheme to

constitutionalism can be laid at the CIAs feet. Whether due to subvert our government, the CIA trained, funded, and equipped fight the Soviet Union.

campaign to remove the Senators who voted for the NDAA. And the Colorado county that houses the Air Force academy already passed a resolution declaring its opposition to detention without trial and support for constitutional rights. Each of these examples indicate opportunities for concerned Americans to raise our voices in the new year.

the precursors of al-Qaeda back in the 1980s, as a proxy force to

Weve spent the last decade shredding our own rights, and

fighting multiple wars abroad, in an effort to essentially put

In turning the tide to repeal the expansion of military detention, We the People of the United States may yet rediscover the principles that once made our country the Land of the Free.

genies unleashed by the CIA back into their bottles. Which is to

say, Congress is today more concerned about a CYA for the CIA

than it is about the Constitution that every member swore an oath

The Hart Monitor Issue 3 May 2012

The Racial Achievement Gap is NOT about Racism?

Did you hear the news? Apparently, the racial achievement gap is the news I received from Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra . I in education has ALMOST NOTHING to do with racism!! Yes, this posed a question about the achievement gap at a "Town Meeting" focusing on education several months ago. Of course, because of the racial demographics of Hartford, the achievement gap was one of the primary focuses of the meeting. And according to

Ironically, while I was at the event, I pulled out my phone and googled "Hartford achievement gap". I found an abundance of articles that spoke of the persistent racism that is deeply

embedded in a school system that is made up of 98% Black and the very next day, I attended another forum in which a white

Hispanic students, but only 32% Black and Hispanic teachers. And woman stood up and spoke about her (presumably white) friends who are teachers, who have made the claim over and over that teach". the (Black and Hispanic) students of Hartford "are impossible to

While it is true that the family can be a key component in the

Mayor Segarra, racism is only a nominal contributing factor in Hispanic students. Apparently, the primary reasons for the gap are poverty, inadequate housing and nutrition, and parental racism as their root cause, right? neglect/ineptitude. And of course, none of these factors have

success or failure of ALL students, placing the blame on Black and Hispanic families is not an appropriate response to the ubiquitous racial achievement gap that persists throughout this entire nation. not thriving in the school system (many of whom are previous Hispanic children), issues of cultural insensitivity and racism

the well documented achievement gap between white, Black and

Rather than pinning the blame on the parents of children who are victims of this nation's conspiracy to under-educate Black and need to be addressed. Minority teacher recruitment needs to be

Of course, we can all just ignore the statistical evidence that

shows that the achievement gap persists even among suburban, gap has NOTHING to do with white teachers who have lower

the focus, particularly in majority minority districts. A curriculum that celebrates only the achievements of dead white men needs to be adjusted to reflect the reality of a multi-ethnic society. The tests without actually teaching them needs to end. single minded focus on training children to pass standardized

upper income, two parent minority students. No, the achievement expectations of Black and Hispanic students. It is unrelated to a

school curriculum that almost entirely ignores the achievements by teachers who have no cultural sensitivity towards Black and

of Black and Hispanic people in history. It is minimally impacted Hispanic students. Teachers who claim that Black and Hispanic student "cannot be taught" are not the problem. Apparently, the blame rests mainly on the shoulders of the dysfunctional Black and Hispanic familial and cultural institutions. Yes, the Black and Hispanic moms.

School should be a place for children to explore and grow.

Children should be exposed to a broad variety of topics and ideas, not just the facts and figures they need to pass a test. Teachers need to engage children. They need to expect ALL children to succeed, not just white children. And, they need to discover creative ways to engage the curiosity of all children.

achievement gap can be attributed to those damned poor, single

In "Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys", Jawanza

At the same meeting, one of the principals at a Hartford high

Kunjufu asserts that Black male children lose interest in school by female teachers are inadequate to engage them in the learning

school stood up and said that children need to be taught from first grade that two parents in the home are a requirement to produce high achieving Black and Hispanic students. He asserted that fundamentally flawed and THAT is why Black and Hispanic Black and Hispanic families have a cultural value system that is students perform poorly in school. Then he went on to explain that he tells his students that they have NO EXCUSES for not succeeding in life, since we have a Black president and a Hispanic Supreme Court justice. (I guess he is a believer in a "post racial America"?) I would have expected that a Black, male educator would be familiar with the studies that prove that Black and

grade four because the teaching methods of predominantly white, process. Black male children are pushed into special education the Black boy. It is the fault of a school system that needs to be totally revamped to meet his educational needs. While the

classes and labeled "behavioral problems". This is NOT the fault of

situation for Black girls and Hispanic children is not quite as dire as for Black boys, they still lag behind white children for similar reasons.

The problem is the system. It is the teachers and the

Hispanic students perform better when they are taught by Black and Hispanic teachers, and that white teachers are often totally incapable of teaching Black and Hispanic students due to inherent, deep seated biases. Apparently, I was wrong.

administrators. It is ridiculous to try to place the blame solely on

the shoulders of parents when schools are failing to do their jobs ally for a child trying to navigate his way through the maze of

due to institutional racism. Yes, an involved parent can be a great this nation's educational system. However, to claim that Black and

The Hart Monitor Issue 3 May 2012

Hispanic students are not succeeding because of their families is to ignore the legacy of racism that has pervaded the public education system since its inception. Racism is the reason for the racial achievement gap, and the parents (who are victims just as much as their children) should not be blamed for this nation's Hispanic students.

the opportunity to look back on my actions. There were some actions from the past that were understood as questionable when I did them in that moment. There were also some actions from the past that became questionable as I have continued to grow. Looking back and learning from my actions is a reasonable exercise because of my interest in constantly evolving and moving to next levels of understanding. Well, when it comes to the Equal Rights Movement I think there were some actions from the past that were understood as questionable in that moment. There were also some actions from the past that have become questionable as I look back. Fighting for Equal Rights or Equality is one of those questionable acts. Black people and all other victims of Colonization will NEVER have Equal Rights in America or any Colonial society. To fight, march, argue, die and waste life seeking these Equal Rights is delusional and self destructive. When America was being built, Black people were not allowed to participate in acquiring wealth and benefiting from any natural resources including industrial and agricultural resources. It is these resources that have established the power and wealth relationships in this country until this day. Equality was only possible when America was being established. If everyone had equal access to all America had to offer from the beginning, equal opportunity for all involved would have been possible. The fight for equality would have only made sense if it took place between 1800 and 1900 when America was being established. To fight for equality now is like fighting for an equal opportunity to enter a basketball game after it has already been played. Alphonso McGriff III 2012

failure to adequately address the educational needs of Black and

He who gives you the diameter of your knowledge prescribes the circumference of your activity. - Min. Farrakhan

Excerpt from The Book of ABE

3 ABE 3:9

The Equal Rights Movement

By Alphonso McGriff III There seems to be an unwritten rule which says: No one can question the approach of the Equal Rights Movement. It is sacred. As I continue to mature, I remember while growing up I did some things that I thought were intelligent and reasonable until I had

Rise Up Against DCF!

The DCF has a long history of racist treatment of Black and Latino employees. So much so that a group known as the DCF Plantation Five is currently suing the agency in a federal discrimination lawsuit. One of the employees, Minister Cornell Lewis, went on a week-long hunger strike in October to bring attention to the racist tactics used by DCF management towards employees. The DCF Plantation Five lawsuit is a result of a culture within

The Hart Monitor Issue 3 May 2012

the DCF that has kept Black employees from being promoted at the same rate as whites, and has made them the targets of racially biased disciplinary actions. The five employees, who work at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, say they have also been victims of ongoing harassment. The lawsuit alleges that employees of color have had to endure permanent loss of career opportunities, severe and extreme emotional distress, including loss of self-esteem, humiliation and embarrassment. The lawsuit also says that the numbers of African-American employees in middle management and especially in upper management positions is vastly disproportional to the rate of employment of African-Americans at CJTS. The lawsuit says that this pattern of discrimination by the DCF has been in existence AT LEAST since 1991. Numerous complaints have been made to management over the years, yet the abuse has continued. The DCF continually turns a blind eye to the concerns of its employees, particularly Black male employees. There have been protests outside of DCF offices. There was the campaign to turn a neighborhood into a No DCF zone in 2009, when residents of the North End were encouraged to refuse DCF caseworkers who attempt to enter their homes. This was done to bring attention to the lack of minority input into a state agency which disproportionately impacts the lives of Black and Latino families. And now, there is the lawsuit filed by the DCF Plantation Five in 2010. Yet the DCF still acts as if it is totally unaware of the complaints of its employees, and refuses to address the blatant racism. The struggle against the DCF will continue until the concerns of the employees are adequately redressed. The victims of DCFs racist policies have no intention of going away quietly. They plan to continue the struggle for justice until the DCF capitulates to their demands. In February, the first of a series of planned actions aimed at ending DCF racism took place at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown. While employees of CJTS stood on the campus watching, protestors marched up and down the street in front of the facility, armed with bullhorns and calling for justice. The end goal is to force the management of DCF to sit with concerned community members and their own employees to map out a strategy for ending racism within this agency. Please call 860-461-2611 or email info@thehartmonitor.com for details on becoming involved in this fight.

The following is the statement issued by the Connecticut Truth Force: Racism in the Department of Children and Families has been allowed has been allowed to go unchecked for far too long. We have come together to tell the DCF in no uncertain terms that we will not allow this any longer. Over 80% of the children housed at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School are Black or Latino boys, yet the Black and Latino employees who are charged with their care are disrespected by the management at every turn. Rather than supporting Men of Color who work in this facility, so that they may serve as role models for the children they work with, the management of CJTS targets them for harsher disciplinary actions and racially biased practices. And, anyone who dares show solidarity with abused workers is automatically placed in the cross hairs as well. This is unacceptable. How can any man be expected to be able to work at his full potential on behalf of children when he is being victimized by oppressive managerial policies? By subjecting the Black and Latino employees of CJTS to racist working conditions, the DCF is perpetuating an environment that is detrimental to the health and wellbeing of its employees AND of the children whose interests it is supposed to be looking out for. This situation has gone on far too long. We are standing up

against the oppressors today. We are letting them know that the

community will ALWAYS say no to racism in all of its forms. We have come together today to tell Joette Katz, William Rosenbeck, with their employees against their racist abuses. We are here there is justice for all, there is justice for none. and the rest of the DCF Plantation overseers that we stand united today to stand for justice and we are firm in our belief that until

Finally the Rabble Speaks

By Cornell Lewis

It is not often that I get a chance to hear the employees of colorat the DCF Plantation speak about injustices at Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown, CT. What some

employees are more concerned with is not what management is doing (promoting policies which seem to target employees of color) to prevent employees from obtaining egalitarian rights. The theme from a few black workers now focuses on the merit of my work in the community.

The Hart Monitor Issue 3 May 2012

Finally the rabble speaks. There are full grown adults at CJTS who never say openly how they feel about management, dedicated to, keeping a network in place to maintain power at all costs. Any sane person has to wonder why an oppressed group focuses not situations; these same people can be considered either apathetic (at best) or cowards (at worst). While I continue to be a focal

in numbers, but really lies within our ability to properly organize our people effectively. If you were to poll various people of different ethnicities and nationalities asking them if they wanted freedom, liberation and control over their own lives, most would say, yes. What people wouldnt unless there was a problem with their thinking and a lessening or their sanity. Everyone wants freedom and no one in their right mind wants to be subjected to the status of a slave. Well, we were once slaves in America and as silly as it may sound, some of us fell in love with this concept and many of us still love having the mentality of a slave today! Freedom and liberation are so important to the peoples of the Earth that many are willing to give their lives and their childrens lives for it. This is evident in places like Palestine, Tibet and Afghanistan. Blacks in America should feel no different. Why? Because we are yet to be mentally and spiritually freed and liberated. The shackles from the remnants of chattel slavery still bind our minds and our very souls. For when we our minds and hearts are free we will begin to walk, talk, think, act and build as free people. We actually as Black people feel trapped in a dilemma, a dichotomy as an American citizen yet never feeling like we fit in and are a part of this country. In all honesty it seems like being Black and American is oxymoronic, two opposites. This is why W.E.B. Dubois wrote in Souls of Black Folks, One ever feels his twoness, -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. In other words we feel torn being Black and living in America while being treated like second class citizens at the same time. Dubois also mentioned that the problem of the twentieth century was the color line and it still is. One does not have to look too far to see into the truth of this statement, all we need to do is to look at the various cases of racial profiling and the disproportionately high rates of blacks that are incarcerated. So what is the solution to this problem? It is ORGANIZATIONAL UNTIY! When we talk of organization we are not referring to a bunch of people on a street corner yelling, protesting and screaming that we want more minimum wage jobs and better housing. No. We are referring to what the U.S. Government was afraid of resulting in their campaign against Black Unity with the initiation of the CoIntelpro (counterintelligence) Program under the FBIs J. Edgar Hoover in the 1960s. Their plan was to annihilate, break up and destroy any effective organizations that could truly liberate and free Black people. This held true for nationalist, civil Rights, Communist,

on the issue at hand but on a person striving for justice in certain

point for scared Negroes to discuss or vilify at CJTS; management foxes are running wild, harming and maiming decent people. I have organized people working at CJTS to sign petitions about negative treatment; a hunger strike by me was a beacon to

pinpoint injustices, protests outside the CJTS facility by a racially show a level of commitment that the rabble sitting aroundat CJTS these same people who question my commitment

diverse group also made a point. I bring these few instances up to yapping- cannot fathom. In nearly four years of my employment continue to be voiceless-at least publically. These men & women I speak of will criticize other workers promoting justice, but hide themselves when it is time to stand for a righteous cause.

In several cases at CJTS employees used the following excuses

when describing why their courage failed: Man, management

might cut my overtime off, Hell, nothing is going to change, or justice, then black folk have lost sight of something more important than a damn job---their dignity.

Im afraid. If these are the reasons scared Negroes do not pursue

In the final analysis I do not know whether to be mad or pity their humanity.

these CJTS workers hiding in the underbrush, afraid to declare

Where There is Unity, There is Strength

By Brother Kevin Muhammad If we only knew and understood how profound organizational unity truly was we would really fight like hell to keep it. Well, of course black folks tend to see themselves as a minority, but if you study recent world history like that of Apartheid riddled South Africa Pretoria, Capetown and Johannesburg you will see that it is indeed possible for an organized minority to have power and control over a disorganized majority. Why? Because where there is unity, true organizational unity, there is strength! Our power and capability to control our own plight is somewhat

The Hart Monitor Issue 3 May 2012

religious and youth Organizations alike. The solution is to bring to the table once again a cross-section of various black organizations that represent our diversity of ideas and agree on the Least Common Denominator, even if it is only one thing that we can truly agree on. Our Unity in and of itself is sufficient and more powerful than military might, bombs, guns or weapons for us to once again rise as a people. When we look at the making of a slave and the instructions found in the infamous WILLIE LYNCH letter of 1712, we will see one of the ways to keep us from being liberated was to magnify simple differences among us. In other words if we continue to focus on the differences of socioeconomic status or class, educational attainment, geographic location, political party and religion within our ranks we will remain in the same slavery that we fought to be emancipated from. Let us continue to do what the late Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) constantly said we should do, Organize, Organize, And Organize.

Join Us!!!
We are looking for dedicated volunteers with skills in a variety of areas, including writing, illustrating, web design, graphic design, and photography. If you are interested in helping out in any way, please email info@thehartmonitor.com or call 860-461-2611 You can also send your comments, ideas and articles to us at: The Hart Monitor PO Box 260532 Hartford, CT 06126 Disclaimer: The Hart Monitor strives to bring together various voices and opinions on racial justice issues in and around Hartford. We strive to be a newsletter for and by the people of

Hartford and surrounding areas. All articles in the Hart Monitor are the opinion of the writer listed only, not necessarily the Hart written by the editors of the Hart Monitor. The Hart Monitor is edited by Joanna Iovino and Larry Risby. Monitor as a whole. If an article does not have a writer listed, it is

Recommended reading

NEA ONNIM NO SUA A, He who does not know can know from learning 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The Empires New Clothes by Paul Street Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys Volumes 1-4 by Jawanza Kunjufu Black on Black Violence by Amos Wilson Killing the Black Body by Dorothy E. Roberts Breaking the Curse of Willie Lynch by Alvin Morrow

I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement. Angela Davis

The Hart Monitor Issue 3 May 2012