BLACK FAYETTEVILLE MEDICAL
DIRECTOR RACIALLY PROFILED
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
No, he wasn’t beaten. Nor was he shot, nor had a knee pressed to the back of his neck like George Floyd.
And yet, according to Gregory Smith - the clinical director of a family medicine clinic in Fayetteville - the alleged mistreatment he suffered from a Missouri state trooper on August 6th was solely because he was a black man driving alone on a road in the middle of the night from the airport, on his way to a nearby medical conference.
Before that night was over, Smith would be threatened with physical force, arrested, booked, made to pay a $1,040.00 bond, and made to walk six unfamiliar miles in the pitch black dead of night to find his rental car, which officers left at an off road gas station.
And yet, Smith may have saved his own life in his encounter with the state trooper by phoning 9-1-1 on his cellphone from his rental car, and keeping the line open so that everything that was said between him and the officer could be recorded for later use in court.
Gregory Smith will be suing the Missouri Highway Patrol, he vows.
He’s likely in good company. According to a Vehicle Stops Report (VPR) issued earlier this year by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office per racial profiling incidents by the state’s law enforcement in 2020, even in the midst of the pandemic, black motorists were stopped 71% more than whites.
As troubling as that figure is, it’s actually lower than the 2018 Missouri AG’s VPR figure for black traffic stops - 85% - the highest figure in 18 years there.
The problem was so bad that in 2017, the Missouri NAACP issued a first of its kind travel advisory for African-Americans visiting the state.
The advisory “…warned visitors that their civil rights could be violated if they enter the state,’ reported Time Magazine in August, 2017.
The NAACP advisory also warned visitors to exercise “extreme caution.”
Add to that, according to press accounts, the trooper Smith had his confrontation with is a former U.S. Marine who had just graduated the Missouri Highway Patrol Academy in December 2019, and got his first trooper assignment in January 2020.
According to the St. Louis American, a leading African-American newspaper in the state of Missouri, Platte County, where Smith was stopped, was among “The worst places to drive while black in Missouri.”
And through it all, one factual question lingers - why was Greg Smith even stopped by the trooper in the first place?
On the copy of the uniform citation that Smith was given subsequent to his arrest, there is nothing about the black motorist speeding, or violating any of Missouri’s traffic laws.
The citation reads, “Willfully resisting or opposed a member of the Highway Patrol in the Proper Discharge of his duties - resisting officer.”
But what was the reason for the trooper - identified as “J. Colwell” on the citation - to stop Smith in the first place? What was Smith doing to peak Trooper Colwell’s attention at nighttime on the road? Why was it necessary to stop this black man driving a 2021 Nissan Versa with Missouri license plates?
The only information we have is that citation, and Gregory Smith’s story.
It’s a story that to this day, has Smith, 64, shaken, angry, and demanding justice.
In an incident report, and phone interview, Smith tells how he flew into Kansas, Mo. from North Carolina at approximately midnight on August 6th. He picked up the rental car, and proceeded down Highway 29 North towards Lawrence, Kansas where the medical conference was being held. He was to check into a hotel there.
About 20 minutes in, Smith noticed a highway patrol car “parked dangerously on the lip of the highway,” he recalls. He put on his blinkers, changed lanes, passed the parked patrol car, and then reentered the right lane, doing 65 mph (the speed limit posted was 70).
There were several cars on the road at that time, but Smith noticed that the patrol car pulled off and got behind him with its lights flashing. Unsure why, Smith says he dialed 9-1-1, told dispatch he didn’t feel safe being pulled over by a patrol car in the dark.
“Keeping my hands on the steering wheel, the officer looked into my vehicle and began barking out orders, “give me your driver’s license,” Smith recalls. Asking the dispatcher if she could clearly hear what was going on (she replied that she could), Smith then explained to the trooper that his driver’s license was in his pants pocket, but he didn’t feel safe reaching for it because the officer was yelling, “…moving my hands from the steering wheel would give him an excuse to shoot and kill me…”
Smith then repeated to the dispatcher that he didn’t feel safe, and requested a supervisor come to the scene immediately, which she did.
“The Highway Patrol officer became (more) irritated….[and] then began to threaten pepper spraying me …six times if I didn’t move my hands from the steering wheel despite me repeating at least six different times I didn’t feel safe and felt my life was in danger…”
The trooper, says Smith, tells him other patrol cruisers have arrived, and warns the Black motorist that officers are going to “forcefully remove” him from his vehicle, go through his clothing and retrieve his driver’s license, so either move his hands towards his pants pockets, or prepared to be pepper sprayed.
It was then that the trooper and two other officers pulled open the driver’s door, while the supervisor appeared on the passenger side, urging Smith to comply with the order.
Smith says he lowered his hands and exited the vehicle, upon which he was “shoved up against the car, handcuffed (tightly) and arrested.”
Editor’s note - next, what happened to Gregory Smith after he was arrested; why he had to walk six miles to find his rental car in the middle of the night, and why he feels he behaved appropriately to save his life when confronted by the Missouri state trooper.
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DESPITE COURT RULING LAST WEEK
FIGHT OVER VOTER ID IS NOT OVER
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
A three-judge Superior Court panel Sept. 17th ruled that the state’s 2018 voter photo ID law was unconstitutional because even if it didn’t intend to discriminate against African-Americans, that is what it effectively did.
So what happens next, especially when there are three NC voter ID cases in litigation at play?
Republican legislative leaders have already announced their intention to appeal Friday’s 2-1 decision in Holmes V. Moore to the NC Court of Appeals.
There is also another pending lawsuit in NC Supreme Court against the 2018 law, NAACP v. Moore, claiming that the Republican-led NC General Assembly did not have the legal authority to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot from which the law was derived for voter ratification because the 2018 NC General Assembly was illegally constituted due to racial gerrymandering.
A Wake Superior Court judge ruled accordingly, but that ruling was reversed by the NC Court of Appeals. So now the state’s High Court must weigh in.
And finally, there is yet another lawsuit, NAACP v. Cooper, this time in federal court, scheduled for January 24, in 2022 in Winston-Salem, after a black federal judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the 2018 voter ID law from going into effect while the lawsuit was pending because of North Carolina’s “…sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression.” That judge’s December 2019 injunction was later overturned by the U.S. Fourth Circuit of Appeals, even though a state court had also blocked the law from going into effect.
Meanwhile, the Sept. 17th Superior Court ruling striking down the 208 voter ID law was definitive.
"We do not find that any member of the General Assembly who voted in favor of S.B. 824 harbors any racial animus or hatred towards African American voters, but rather ...that the Republican majority 'target(ed) voters who, based on race, were unlikely to vote for the majority party,” the court majority ruled. “Even if done for partisan ends, that constitute(s) racial discrimination.’”
Reaction to the ruling was swift from both sides.
“Today’s ruling striking down North Carolina’s latest unconstitutional photo voter ID law is a testament to the overwhelming evidence, including compelling stories of disenfranchisement from voters themselves, which highlighted how the state’s Republican-controlled legislature undeniably implemented this legislation to maintain its power by targeting voters of color,” said Allison Biggs, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, which was represented by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said last Friday.
“We applaud the three-judge panel’s decision and hope it sends a strong message that racial discrimination will not be tolerated,” Biggs continued. “Should legislative defendants appeal today’s ruling, we’ll be prepared to remind them of what this court and the state’s constitution mandate: every vote matters.”
State Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue (D-Wake) posted on Facebook, Friday, “ Republicans’ pattern of a “race blind” approach to legislating continues to give us discriminatory results. The court has again struck down the state’s voter ID law, later adding that the law was “racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.”
Sen. Blue’s GOP colleague, Sen. Paul Newton (R-Cabarrus), disagreed.
“The court absurdly concluded that a law sponsored by an African American Democrat was designed to harm African American voters,” Newton opined. “It’s unbelievable.”
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WHAT IS BEING DONE ABOUT
BLACK NC OPIOID ADDICTION?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
In 2015, across the United States, 6.6 deaths for every 100,000 African-Americans was due to opioid overdose.
In 2019, the figure dramatically shot up to 17.1 per 100,000 for blacks, and 19 per 100,000 for whites.
The figure for whites is actually dropping nationally, medical researchers say.
So what is being done about opioid overdosing among African-Americans here in North Carolina, where the rate is growing faster as elsewhere?
According to Dr. Elyse Powell, state Opioid Coordinator for the NC Dept. of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), deaths among African-Americans because of opioid abuse is indeed occurring faster.
Key strategies from both a local and statewide approach are being employed to address the problem, which involves both prescription (Oxycotin) and illegal (heroin) opioid use.
Preventing as many people as possible from abusing opioid substances, including why they abuse in the first place, by connecting them to mental health services.
Reducing harm by addressing the needs of populations most at-risk.
And connecting to care by expanding access to treatment and recovery support.
It was 2017 when the state kicked off the North Carolina Action Plan (NC DAP) employing these measures and more, and since then opioid dispensing has decreased by 34 percent, according to NCDHHS. June 2019, the NCDAP was updated to NCDAP 2.0.
Over the past four years, North Carolina has received more than $70 million in federal funds to help provide treatment for over 21,000 people afflicted statewide. Prescriptions for medications used to combat opioid drug abuse increased by 33 percent. Treatment for those suffering from opioid use disorder who are either uninsured or are Medicaid beneficiaries went up by 48 percent.
So in 2020 in four key counties important to our readers, the NC DAP tracked key metrics to monitor the impact of strategies laid out in the plan, and set a goal to reduce expected opioid overdose deaths and expected opioid overdose emergency department (ED) by 20% by 2021.
Thus, in those four counties for 2020, the Guilford death rate per 100,000 was 20.5; New Hanover County was 32.0, Buncombe was 31.0 and Charlotte-Mecklenburg was 13.9.
One area where it has gotten worse since the pandemic began is opioid-related overdoses, Powell says. Also of note, at least 40% of opioid cases coming into hospital emergency rooms are patients with no medical insurance, “a huge reason” for why the expansion of Medicare in the state is badly needed, Powell adds.
Research shows that the population most affected by opioid abuse in North Carolina are Native-Americans, and the areas most impacted are Robeson (53.6 deaths per 100,000) and Bladen (52 deaths per 100,000) counties, among others.
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 09-23-21
SIX-YEAR-OLD BLACK GIRL TAKEN OUT SOCCER CAME BECAUSE OF HAIR BEADS
[HOPE MILLS] A six year-old African-American child was taken out of a soccer game by the referee because she had beads in her hair, and her mother is crying foul, claiming the she wasn’t told as to why. But an official with the Hope Mills Parks and Recreation Dept. counters that their rules for playing in their soccer program state that no one can play if they have watches, rings, earrings or hair beads. The mother, Daraille Marshmon, maintains that no one told her about the rules so that her daughter, Gabriella, could play. The park’s athletic director admits the referee may not have handled the situation appropriately.
SIXTY UNC-REX HEALTHCARE WORKERS QUIT RATHER THAN GET COVID-19 SHOT
[RALEIGH] At least sixty employees with UNC-Rex Hospital have quit their jobs rather than follow an employment mandate that they be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. Some 30,000 UNC Health employees had until Tuesday to get the shot, or lose their jobs. But on Monday, that deadline was pushed back to Nov. 2. Now more than 1,000 unvaccinated employees are on probation or have 6 weeks to be vaccinated.
AT LEAST 195,000 PEOPL E ACROSS THE STATE STILL HAVEN’T GOTTEN THEIR SECOND VACCINE SHOT
[RALEIGH] According to the NC Dept of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), 5.3% of the 57% of North Carolinians who have received at least one shot to protect against COVID-19, have not returned to get their second shot. Medical experts agree that one dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines is not enough to offer full protection against the coronavirus. Those who got the needed second dose did so at least three to four weeks after they received the first. That can be stretched to six weeks in some cases. Thus far, at least 195, 219 people haven’t gotten their second shot, says NCDHHS.
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