DURHAM POLICE CHIEF TAKES MEMPHIS CHIEF JOB
[DURHAM] After five years, Durham Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis has decided to move to Memphis, Tenn. to take the top cop post there. The mayor there says Chief Davis is the “right person” to lead this department here in Memphis. The first Black woman to lead Durham’s police department, observers note that Davis has had a mixed record while here, including 2020 being a record year for gun violence, with 318 people shot. In Memphis, she will police a city twice the size of durham, with four times as many officers.
VICE PRES. HARRIS VISITS NORTH CAROLINA
[GREENSBORO] Vice Pres. Kamala Harris visited central North Carolina earlier this week, pushing Pres. Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan.saying that it will create thousands of jobs. She spoke at Guilford technical Community College, saying, “The president and I are ready to keep going and we are not going to take it slow. And we are not going to take it one step at a time — nope. We are going to take a giant leap into the future.” The Biden Administration is still negotiating the size of the plan in order to get favorable passage through Congress.
NC LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON DECIDES NOT TO RUN FOR U.S. SENATE
[RALEIGH] Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has decided not to join the race for the U.S. Senate to replace the outgoing incumbent Sen. Richard Burr. Robinson, a Black Republican who has taken the political world by storm with his meteoric rise in just two years, threatened to overshadow other Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate like former Gov. Pat McCrory and former Congressman Mark Walker.
GEORGE FLOYD DEREK CHAUVIN
IN HAILING GEORGE FLOYD
MURDER CASE GUILTY VERDICT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
With George Floyd being a native of Fayetteville; his sister, Bridget currently living in Hoke County; and Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crump hailing from Robeson County, there was no question that leaders here were both delighted, and encouraged by Tuesday’s dramatic verdict from Minnesota.
After over three weeks of testimony, a Minneapolis jury Tuesday took just ten hours over two days this week to find that former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of one count of second-degree unintentional murder (which carries up to 40 years in prison), third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Chauvin, who was led away in handcuffs, will be sentenced in a few weeks.
“The unanimous decision by the 12 jurors of guilty on all three counts is a sign,” said a spokesperson for the NC NAACP. “It is a sign that justice requires each of us to keep the faith. George Floyd, a child of Fayetteville, N.C…..gave his life to send a sign all over the world, that the American system of justice can work.”
NC NAACP Pres. Ev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman later added, “Justice itself was on trial and we watched a rarity occur. A courageous jury opposed the blue code, bad policing and refused to be intimidated by white supremacy. I pray the ripple effects of the verdict reached in Minnesota today reverberate across America in a consistent causal sequence that transforms all future verdicts. Let justice roll on like a river and let justice breathe.”
Rev. Spearman’s predecessor, Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, said I’m reaction, “Today's three guilty verdicts in the trial of Derek Chauvin are an important public act of accountability. But any verdict on a charge of less than first-degree murder -- a charge that Chauvin did not face -- is a sign that we still have work to do. Before the entire nation, fellow officers took the stand in this trial and testified that their colleague did not protect and serve but abused power and killed George Floyd. We must meet this public act of justice and accountability with federal legislation that will hold officers of the law accountable in every state, and we must continue to work in every community to shift public investment from over-policing poor, Black and brown communities to ensuring restorative justice and equity for all people."
From Capitol Hill, Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC-12) weighed in.
“Justice was served today, and while that will not bring back George Floyd or the countless thousands lost to state-sanctioned violence, it means the millions of Americans struggling, fighting to breathe free are closer to living in a just, beloved community,” Adams said. “However, in spite of today’s verdict, our work continues. The Senate must pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to ensure that no other father, mother, son, daughter, aunt, uncle, sister, brother or loved one again dies at the hands of the police without accountability. Without passing the bill that bears his name, true justice for George Floyd and countless other victims still remains to be served.”
Rep. Adams’s Democratic colleague, Rep. Kathy Manning (NC-6) of Greensboro, echoed the sentiment.
“George Floyd’s murder is a devastating tragedy that sparked a national movement, with millions of Americans demanding justice. George Floyd can never return home to his family and loved ones, so justice can never fully be done, but today’s guilty verdict is a measure of accountability,” Manning said in a statement.
“Next, the Senate must pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to make meaningful changes to policing in America and to reaffirm that Black Lives Matter.”
And former NC Sen. Erica Smith, currently a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2022, also joined the many in voicing her support.
“I’m thinking about the literal millions of Black men and women who've been murdered, who were lynched and slaughtered with disregard, and never had their day in court, let alone a just ruling,” said Smith in a statement. “I’m thankful for accountability and I'm still mourning the death of George Floyd. For him and his family, there can never be true justice.”
Remarks of praise for the Chauvin verdict also came from former Pres. Barack Obama, Pres. Joe Biden and Vice Pres. Kamala Harris, national NAACP President Derrick Coleman, and civil rights leaders Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
Editor’s note - next week , Winston-Salem a.ttorney Eric Ellison, younger brother of Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Attorney General who oversaw the prosecution of Derek Chauvin, gives his thoughts about the job his brother did.
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CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER DECRIES
PLETHORA OF ANTI-TRANSGENDER
LAWS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Prominent civil rights attorney Irving Joyner has taken note of the deluge of proposed anti-transgender laws currently being considered by the NC General Assembly, and warns the many of them violate basic civil rights that all American citizens should abide by and respect.
“I don’t know how anyone can think that our state or federal constitutions can allow the enactment of legislation which would deny medical appropriate health care and the right to participate in state sponsored activities based upon a person’s identification or suspicion of being a member of the LGBTQ community,” Joyner, chair of the NCNAACP Legal Redress Committee, said in a statement.
One particularly egregious proposed law - Senate Bill 514 - would prevent doctors from performing gender confirmation surgery on transgender patients under 21. The bill is controversial because it would classify adults between 18 and 21 as minors, the only state in the nation to do so.
Young people age 18 and over are normally, and legally, considered in North Carolina to be adults, able to join the military, vote, and even marry.
SB 514 would also force state employees to notify parents in writing if their children under 21 display “gender nonconformity” or expresses desires to be treated in a manner different from what their apparent gender at birth was.
That means school staffers and administrators would be under pressure to expose young people they feel are not behaving like their apparent genders.
The bill - formally called the Youth Health Protection Act - is sponsored by three Republican state senators, and one of at least over 192 anti-LGBTQ bills that have been filed across the country in GOP-majority state legislatures.
Here in North Carolina, the subject of legislating against gay, lesbian and transgender citizens- many of whom are Black - is particularly sensitive, given the episode of HB 2 - a controversial law passed by the Republican-led NC General Assembly which restricted public bathroom use by LGBTQ citizens.
Major corporations threatened not to do business in North Carolina as a result, and soon, after much pressure, lawmakers backed down and rescinded much of the law.
Attorney Irving Joyner, who has led many of the NC NAACP’s recent civil rights court battles, feels that NC Republican lawmakers may be heading down that slippery gender legal slope again.
No matter how one feels about the LGBTQ community, they are American citizens, Joyner says, and thus, they do have constitutional rights.
“These legislative proposals represent “garden variety” acts of discrimination which are being promoted as the unfortunate thinking of the people of North Carolina,” Atty Joyner says. “Even if this thinking exists, to act on it in this manner is forbidden by our constitutions and it is embarrassing that these measures are even being considered by members of the North Carolina General Assembly.”
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BILL TO ALLOW PUBLIC
EMPLOYEES COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING IN NC
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Many African-Americans employed in the state of North Carolina are considered public employees, meaning they either work for the city, county or state as teachers, law enforcement, or office personnel.
But for many years, they’ve been denied the right to collectively bargain for wages and benefits like their counterparts in the private sector do.
There are lawmakers who want to change that.
Once again, a bill has been introduce in the NC General Assembly to permit collective bargaining by the over 600,000 public employees in North Carolina, and this time it’s sponsored by Rep. Terry M. Brown Jr. of (D - Mecklenburg).
The measure is HB 586 - Allow Public Employee Collective Bargaining, and has been referred to the House Rules, Calendar and Operations Committee, where previous bills of this nature have languished.
If passed and enacted by the legislature, the proposed bill would repeal “…the prohibition on public employee collective bargaining afford public employees the same rights as Private sector employees.”
It would also repeal Article 12 of Chapter 95 of the NC General Statutes, which mandates that any contracts between any “…city, town, county or other municipality [or agency of the state],” and any labor union, trade union, or labor organization as a bargaining agent for any public employees..., is hereby declared to be against the public policy of the State, illegal, unlawful, void and of no effect.”
It would also repeal a prohibition on strikes by public employees.
If passed, HB 586 would also amend North Carolina’s “right to work” policy.
This latest iteration of establishing public employee collective bargaining rights for North Carolina workers, however, is expected, once again, to be rejected by the Republican legislative majorities in both chambers of the state General Assembly.
In it’s simplest form, collective bargaining “…is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong,” according to Wikipedia.
But in Southern states like North Carolina, historically, the interests of the employer have always superseded the interests of the workers. Thus, any kind of unionization of workers to assure a common standard in terms of wages, benefits and working conditions has always been frowned upon since the 1950s in North Carolina.
Republicans say defanging unions in North Carolina make it a more attractive state in which to do business.
North Carolina General Statute 95-98 prohibits state and local governments from entering into collective bargaining agreements with their employers,” says UE local 150, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union. “NCGA 95-98 was signed into law in 1959 by an all-white legislature during the time of Jim Crow segregation and major human rights violations in the United States. The NAACP has deemed NCGS 95-98 to be North Carolina’s last Jim Crow law.”
As a result, government worker wages are set by either the state legislature, or local governments. Employees are forced to lobby those bodies for their wages and benefits.
In 2019, when proponents introduced two bills in the General Assembly to bring about collective bargaining, they noted that public employees in other states with it received 10-13% better pay, and a narrowing of the racial and gender pay gaps.
Democratic lawmakers held a press conference to announce their intention of marshaling their measure through then, which ultimately failed. At press time, there has been no announcement from Rep. Brown or his co-sponsors as to why they feel this attempt to repeal North Carolina’s collective bargaining ban will be any different.
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