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Linn Washington is a co-founder of This Can't Be Happening.net. Washington writes frequently on inequities in the criminal justice system, ills in society and problems in the news media. He teaches multi-media urban journalism at Temple University.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, April 4, 2011 Mass Incarceration Creates Big Mess Across America
Mass incarceration is a slow-death that slaughters inmates, their families and their communities yet this scourge is ignored by President Obama who justifies intervention in Libya on the grounds of stopping slaughter.
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, July 25, 2016 Green Party's Stein Walks With Poor While Democrats Party
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein met with the homeless and others in one of Philadelphia's most impoverished communities on the day before the opening of the Democratic National Convention in the city that tags itself as the Birthplace of American Democracy. Stein and others condemned the obscenity of expending $60-million-plus on DNC functions including lavish parties.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 9, 2010 American Justice on Trial: Gratuitous Police Violence, False Testimony by Police, and a Rush to Bad Judgment
False arrests by police from either honest mistakes or malicious misconduct constitute an unspoken scandal in America's criminal justice system. A proposal in the GOP's recently release "Contract With America" would aggravate this false arrest scandal by making it easier for police to utilize illegally seized evidence in courts.
(6 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 28, 2016 Donald, Hillary and Cannabis: Stoned Stupid On Legalization
The American public supports the legalization of marijuana, however, the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates both oppose legalization. Repeated studies over the past decades disprove claims that marijuana is dangerous and document that pot law enforcement is discriminatory along racial lines.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, May 27, 2011 Fed Wrist-slap for Wachovia Shows Drug War Farce
Big banks getting big breaks from federal prosecutors when caught involved with drug dealing exposes a facet of the Drug War farce.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, December 6, 2019 Details Demolish Allegations Against Popular Ousted Ambassador
Former African Union Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Arikana Chihombori Quao, issued a formal written Rebutal refuting charges leveled against her by the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. The Rebuttal raises questions about the veracity of Mahamat's claims.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 25, 2019 Trump As Orange Grinch - Stops Food Stamps For Poor
The Trump Administration has implement new regulations that will end access to food stamps for millions of America's most vulnerable citizens.
SHARE Saturday, October 23, 2010 New Report: Racism Still Pollutes Tea Party Ranks
The Tea Party movement, according to a new report, is a magnet for many of the nation's most hatred-spewing extremists, some of whom hold leadership posts in this movement according to the new report "Tea Party Nationalism."
(6 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 9, 2017 General Kelly - Historically Ignorant or Hysterically Bigoted?
The only successful insurrection in American history took place on November 10, 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina when white racists violently overthrew that city's elected government. The Wilmington insurrection is another event exposing the inaccuracy of the 'Heritage Not Hate' claim for sustaining monuments to the Confederacy.
SHARE Tuesday, October 19, 2010 Deception and Devastation: The Ignored Dark-Sides of Suffering Joblessness
Loss of income isn't the only problem confronting the unemployed who endure mental depression and embarrassment -- life-wrenching weights that rarely receive any attention in examinations of the 'issue of joblessness.'
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 22, 2017 Don the Con's Health Care Ignores Deadly Ills
The health care plan unleashed by President Trump and Paul Ryan ignores deep seated problems in America's health care system.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 9, 2011 Family Feud: Blacks Battle Blacks over Criticism of Obama
Criticism of Obama Administration policies among blacks is causing a nasty intra-family feud with Obama supporters seeking to silence his critics with claims that criticism of the beleaguered president aids his enemies.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, August 30, 2010 Expat Sees Return of Scary Times
Expat sees parallels between the Red Scare of the fifties -- which forced him to flee America -- and the intolerance against minorities and Muslim rampant today in American and around Western Europe.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, February 28, 2020 Pennsylvania Supreme Court Smacks Abu-Jamal Again
Pennsylvania's highest court takes sides in the contentious Abu-Jamal case, showing systemic injustice hiding in plain sight.
(23 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 12, 2016 Evil In England: The Rise Of Islamophobia
Islamophobia ranges from disdainful stares and caustic comments to physical assaults. A few assaults have ended in fatalities. And then there are British government policies like 'Prevent' -- the professed counter-terrorism program that seemingly is targeted solely at Muslims. Prevent enlists citizens to report actions and attitudes deemed suspicious.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 14, 2015 Bold Step: Reparations Movements Make International Connections
Activists seeking reparations for ravages of slavery, colonialism and institutional racism gathered in New York City recently to strengthen bonds and coordinate activities. Those activists included ambassadors from Caribbean nations to elderly supporters on canes. Activists know that they are in an 'uphill struggle' yet vow to press forward.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 3, 2015 Cover-up of a Police Murder Requires Resignation of Chicago Mayor Emanuel
Evidence surrounding the fatal October 2014 shooting of a black teen by a white policeman in Chicago indicates that authorities in Chicago from police officers to top city officials engaged in a cover-up. That cover-up -- rather bungling or calculated -- demands the resignations of Chicago's mayor and top prosecutor.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 10, 2019 Expensive Injustice: MOVE's 40-Years Behind Bars
This article examines the actual dollar value costs expended on the decades long wrongful imprisonment of members of the radical MOVE organization. This revenge-driven incarceration led many to deem those members political prisoners.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, January 20, 2020 New Jersey Officials Slime Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
Historic preservation authorities in New Jersey have refused for four years to list the property where Martin Luther King Jr. plotted his first protest -- an inaction many deem insulting.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, June 19, 2020 Trump's Tulsa Rally - Another Knee On The Neck!
Examination of the bigoted similarities between Trump's rally in Tulsa, Ok and Reagan's 1980 rally in Philadelphia, Mississippi
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 15, 2012 Republicans and America's Rancid Dance With Racism
Republican presidential candidates utilizing race-tainted rhetoric is an old tactic...interestingly a tactic criticized by civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, September 6, 2016 Critics Ignoring Wrongs About Police Abuse Prove Kaepernick Right
The sordid history of police brutality in San Francisco is conspicuously missing from much of the fevered news and social media coverage around the protest against abusive policing by 49ers football team player Colin Kaepernick.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 12, 2011 Pa's Corbett Expands Conservative War on Middle-class
Pa's first-term Republican Governor recently proposed draconian cuts in education funding from pre-K through college. Corbett's proposals continue the GOP's onslaught against the middle-class evident in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 5, 2010 Misery of Massive Unemployment Mocks Meaning of Labor Day
While President Obama deserves criticism for failing to forcefully address the massive levels of unemployment ravishing America, credit his jobs creation in an overlooked sector: anti-Obama paraphernalia.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, April 20, 2020 Wrong About Weed - Blacks & Marijuana Myths on 4/20
The myths that have mangled public understandings of marijuana are not limited to conservative whites. Many black leaders perpetuate falsehoods about pot. The pro-pot prohibition postures of many black leaders works to the detriment of the black community that is targeted for discriminatory anti-marijuana law enforcement.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 27, 2016 Pot Decriminalization Saves Philadelphia Millions
Decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana has saved the City of Philadelphia millions in enforcement costs. Equally important, decriminalization has saved thousands the costs of arrest and a criminal record/
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, August 26, 2016 Philadelphia DA Hammered Over Unethical Antics
Hardline Philadelphia DA Seth Williams is being hammered by local news media for his failure to report thousands of dollars in 'gifts' for five years. Critics contend this lapse by Williams is hypocritical.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 23, 2016 Brexit-Trump Comparisons Miss Key Points
Embedded in the base of both the Brexit and Trump votes are strands of racism that too many analysts of all ideological stripes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean blithely dismiss.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, September 15, 2014 Lawless Law Enforcers: America's Terrorists
Abuses by police, that authors persistently dismiss as isolated incidents, have an ugly history in America inclusive of persistent denial by the very authorities charged with correcting lawlessness by law enforcers.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 2, 2010 Insider Analysis: Predictions of Democatic Defeat Premature
Third highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Congress dismisses news media/pollster predictions of Republican snatching control of Capitol Hill in the November elections.
SHARE Friday, October 15, 2010 Corporate Charters Get the Cash: Philadelphia Charter School Battle Casts Shadow Nationwide
Public education reform advocates extol the benefits of charter schools but a battle in Philadelphia pitting a professed reform-minded schools superintendent against an innovative charter school exposes issues often ignored. This battle carries consequence nationwide.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 8, 2010 America Criticized For Human Rights Abuses
Nations around the world recently criticized human rights abuses in America, mainly in the criminal justice system, during a United Nations human rights review.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, December 22, 2014 Bashing Critics Of Brutality Betrays Efforts To Help Police
The tragic murders of two NYC policeman by an unbalanced career criminal is being exploited by conservative defenders of law enforcement to beat back mounting demands for more law enforcement against lawless law enforcers.
SHARE Tuesday, February 14, 2017 Ethically Challenged Philly DA Exits Reelection Race
Combative Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams stunned that city recently with an announcement that he would not seek reelection in the wake of scandals spinning around him for ethics violations and selective prosecution claims.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, April 16, 2018 Philly's Top Cop Flops - Again - Backing Bigotry By Boys In Blue
The Police Commissioner of Philadelphia is facing mounting criticism for his blanket defense of the PPD officers who arrested two black men for simply sitting inside a Starbucks located in a ritzy section of the downtown area. White customers in the coffee shop said the black men did nothing to merit the arrest.
SHARE Monday, April 23, 2012 Occupy The Justice Department Implicates Obama Administration Integrity
Freeing political prisoners languishing in U.S. prisons plus ending deprivations like the death penalty, torture and mass incarceration are demands of the Occupy The Justice Department movement. Responding to these rightful demands is a key test of Obama Administration integrity.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 19, 2016 Clintonian Political Calculus And The Culture Of Hooey
Former President Bill Clinton is fudging facts regarding his actions and mainly inactions on the issue of addressing racism in law enforcement during his two terms in the Oval Office. Forgotten facts about Clinton's actions place contemporary claims by him and his presidential candidate wife in an unflattering light.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 22, 2011 Report Underscores Ticking Time Bomb Of US Nuke Power Plants
Nuclear power plants once heralded as a panacea for producing pollution free electricity in America hold dangerous potentials for devastation across the United States according to a new report on 14 'near misses' at U.S. plants.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 16, 2011 Momma Grizzly Mauls Smokey The Bear
Sarah Palin and other want the public to forget that playing with fire has destructive consequences. Outdoors enthusiast Palin should remember the message of Smokey The Bear: "Only you can prevent forest fires."
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 29, 2012 Student Photographer's Arrest: Snapshot of Systemic Abuse
The arrest of a student photographer in Philadelphia for simply photographing police in public again highlights disturbing issues of police abuse and prosecutors condoning that abuse -- also evident in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 22, 2017 Trump Exposes His Ignorance and Intolerance - Again
Miscues on race continue to plague President Donald Trump. Those miscues are either mistakes arising from ignorance or actions reflecting a profound intolerance. The miscues are unacceptable regardless of origin.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 5, 2017 Malodorous Maelstrom Surrounds AG Jeff Sessions
The failure of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reveal his contacts with a key Russian diplomat during or after his Senate confirmation hearing carries the stench of a fart that an orchestrated cover-up cannot dissipate.
SHARE Saturday, March 29, 2014 Pa Prosecutors Parry on Prejudice
Two top prosecutors in Pennsylvania are engaged in a war-of-words over allegations that race prejudice tainted a political corruption probe forcing cancellation of that probe. Yet both of these prosecutors have track records of failing to fulfill a fundamental duty of prosecutors: seek justice not just convictions.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, March 27, 2017 Judge Neil Gorsuch's Hiring Practices: Privilege or Prejudice?
The federal judge that President Trump has nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court has failed to hire a single African-American, Hispanic or Native American as a law clerk in his office.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 10, 2013 Obama Failed To Deliver Long-Overdue Apology To Mandela
America played a despicable role in helping white racists perpetuate apartheid rule in South Africa. That assistance included helping apartheid authorities arrest Nelson Mandela in 1962. When President Obama spoke at Mandela's memorial he missed an opportunity to right historic wrongs of America in South Africa.
SHARE Friday, March 1, 2013 Philadelphia Judge Controversy: Cover-up of Bedroom Connection
The failure of a Philadelphia judge presiding in a high-profile police abuse case to reveal he is married to a policewoman highlights the role of judges in the dynamic of lenient treatment that perpetuates police brutality.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, February 11, 2013 Light on the Dark Side of Dorner's Rampage
The murderous rampage by a fired LAPD officer magnifies two persistent problems with news media coverage: mangling context regarding police brutality and missing the role prosecutors play in perpetuating the brutality problem.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, December 29, 2014 Sea Change In US-Cuba Relations Makes Waves Deep In Desert
The historic change in relations between the U.S. and Cuba created expectations among many in Algeria that the U.S. would adopt a tougher stance on its staunch ally Morocco, pressuring Morocco to comply with United Nations mandates to end its illegal occupation of the 'Last Colony' in Africa - the Western Sahara.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 20, 2012 White Sheets Surrounding Florida Teen's Slaying
The suspicious fatal shooting of Florida teen Trayvon Martin by a town watch operative with a checkered past raises twin issues of race and wrong-headed legislation.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 12, 2011 Not A Video Game: Grand Theft - The Constituion
Misappropriating the U.S. Constitution for partisan posturing is the latest game being played by the GOP -- another stunt with debilitating consequences for American democracy.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, October 16, 2015 Police Brutality Binds Protests In DC And Paris
Abuses by police from false arrests to fatal shootings is an issue of long-standing in both America and France. Those two allied nations that justify their foreign military incursions on the need to enforce the rule of law rarely enforce their own laws against brutal police.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, October 3, 2014 Police Seek To Censor College Commencement Ceremony
National police union bashes Goddard College for not blocking the selection of "cop killer" Mumia Abu-Jamal as a commencement speaker.
SHARE Wednesday, February 9, 2011 'Alley Cat' Ethics and Other Antics
Ethics reform looks good in news headlines but the true measure is protecting victims from abuse. The track record in Philadelphia of officials abusing the victims of municipal corruption undercuts claims of meaningful ethics reform.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 5, 2014 U.S. Senate Uses Abu-Jamal to 'Tar' Obama Nominee
The U.S. Senate vote to reject President Obama's nominee to head the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department trashed the 'rule of law' and established a dangerous climate for lawyers contemplating handling contentious cases.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, October 21, 2011 New Campaign To Flush Corporate Control From Congress
A new direction in the 'Occupy' movement sweeping America seeks to occupy Congress with new members next year -- members beholding to 'the people' not wealthy corporations and individuals.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, January 18, 2013 American News Media Ignores Critical Media Scandal
An epic David-besting-Goliath story involving the unraveling of billionaire media baron Rupert Murdoch's English newspaper empire is a story curiously ignored by an American corporate media.
SHARE Tuesday, September 4, 2012 News Media Blind Again to GOP Racism
Mainstream media coverage of the RNC always includes stories purportedly examining the issue of race prejudice practiced by the Republican Party. But that coverage consistently misses a prime example of RNC prejudice: the exclusion of black-owned businesses.
SHARE Friday, June 25, 2010 Prosecutors Perpetuate Prejudice in Jury Selection
Racial prejudice still pervades the jury selection practices of prosecutors in the U.S. according to a detailed examination contained a recent report released by the Equal Justice Initiative.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, November 28, 2014 Robert P. McColloch Personifies Misconduct by Prosecutors
St. Louis County top prosecutor Robert P. McColloch has a sordid history of abusing legal protections in his campaigns to convict innocent persons and absolve guilty police officers. McColloch's actions in the clearing of Officer Darren Wilson are all too typical of this prosecutor who bends rules to reach predetermined results arising from flawed, often biased opinions.
SHARE Thursday, June 28, 2012 U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Rights Wrong On Juvenile Lifers
Sending children who commit crimes resulting in death to prison for the rest of their lives is a cruel punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled juvenile life without parole sentences are unconstitutional.
SHARE Tuesday, August 28, 2012 Kafkaesque Parole Practices Ruin Lives
New Jersey State Parole personnel have place Daryl Brooks in a Kafkaesque predicament - admit guilt for a crime he denies committing or return to prison for that crime that already cost him three years in prison. The parole abuse of Brooks is not an isolated incident.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 7, 2016 Trump Onslaught On Hispanic Judge: Discriminatory Deja Vu
The race-based verbal assaults by Donald Trump on a federal judge of Hispanic ancestry resemble racist onslaughts against the first federal judge of Hispanic ancestry 55-years ago.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 16, 2012 Pa Judge's Ruling Revives 'Taxation Without Representation'
A Pennsylvania judge upheld that state's controversial Voter ID law setting the stage for an appeal to the PA Supreme Court in this case drawing national attention. Opponents term the new law 'voter suppression' a charge given credence by a top PA Republican legislator who said the law will help Romney win Pennsylvania.
SHARE Tuesday, April 23, 2013 Does Shaq Support Censorship - He Slam Dunks Film on Famed Inmate
The Newark movie complex co-owned by famed basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal cancelled the screening of a documentary film prompting cries of censorship. This film examines imprisoned author/activist/journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, uniquely focusing on the 'who' of Abu-Jamal unlike the 'whodunit' crime focus of prior films on this contentious case.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 25, 2011 "occupy London" Starts Church Row
Money issues of who-gets-what drives 'Occupy' movement worldwide and in London a unique money issue pits the "Occupy London Stock Exchange" effort against the historic St. Paul's Cathedral.
SHARE Wednesday, May 11, 2011 Obama's Terror War Misses Domestic Targets
An insidious form of domestic terrorism ravishing thousands of governmental employees in America escapes targeting in the vaulted War on Terrorism because its as American as apple pie.
SHARE Friday, July 27, 2012 Games Played on Poor at London 2012 Olympics
British leaders pledged to help that nation's poor, particularly in London, when winning the award for the London 2012 Olympics. But that disappeared as fast as an Olympic sprinter. The billions spent on Olympic preparations bypassed the poor.
SHARE Friday, February 26, 2016 Hollywood's Big Lie - Past Haunts Present
Top Hollywood producers promised the NAACP 74-years ago that they would improve movie roles for blacks and reduce racist stereotypes in movies. That promise was never kept. The failure to keep the promise pollutes the movie industry today and is an element of the controversy surrounding the 2016 Academy Awards.
SHARE Thursday, January 31, 2013 Film Provides Rare Glimpse of the Real Mumia Abu-Jamal
The new film "Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal" focuses on the 'Who' of this man at the center of an international movement to secure his release from prison. The focus on the 'Who' not the whodunit aspect of this controversial case is unique.
SHARE Monday, August 6, 2012 Conservative English Officials Ignore Lessons of 2011 Riots
The August 2011 riots rocked England body and soul. But Britain's conservative leaders have failed to heed lessons from those destructive outbursts. Officials refuse to reverse 'austerity' measures that are producing misery in living standards and crackdown on police abuse which triggered the riots.
SHARE Friday, December 31, 2010 Righting an Ugly Wrong: Compassion or Crass Politics
Credit Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour for righting the horrific wrong of the Scott sisters serving double life sentences for an $11 robbery but question the real motive.
SHARE Friday, August 24, 2012 Secret Scheme To Sabotage Abu-Jamal's Appeal Rights
The formal resentencing of Mumia Abu-Jamal from death row to life-without-parole contained secrecy that both violated court rules and potentially sabotaged his future appeal rights.
SHARE Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Surprisingly Bigots Back Black History Month Observance
Recent offensive remarks from two Republicans positioning themselves for presidential campaigns in 2010 highlight the need for Black History Month that seeks to correct inaccurate accounts.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, December 14, 2012 Cop Corruption Blues: Red Flags & Black Marks
Corruption within police departments is endemic not isolated. The failures of police officials and prosecutors to consistently crackdown on this misconduct spurs its continuance.