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Blogging While Brown is a movement that is entering its fifth year. I am proud to be one of the bloggers in the nation who attended the first BWB conference held in Atlanta. However, I've not been able to attend any of the subsequent conferences ... including the breakout one held in Los Angeles last year.
2010 BWB Visits White House in DC
All that is going to change in 2012. I plan to be in attendance on June 1-2, 2012 when the Blogging While Brown conference convenes in Philadelphia.Registration is now open and I encourage all villagers to take a look at their calendars to see if they can make it.
20% off Blogging While Brown 2012 Conference Registration
15% Discount on BWB Virtual U Courses
The opportunity to become a BWB Virtual U Instructor
Earn money by participating in our Affiliate Program
Access to BWB Discount Mall
Free or discounted admission to BWB Local Events
Be featured on the BWB Blog & Newsletter
Have your blog listed on BWB Blog Roll
Discounted Blogger Sponsorship Opportunities
BWB memberships are for novice as well as seasoned bloggers. BWB brings together Black social media experts, speakers and independent content creators to educate, inspire and expand their influence in social media and technology. This is your chance to network year-round with other bloggers of color.
Will you become a BWB member?What is your favorite BWB story
Powers-That-Be in Philadelphia found a way to work their magic on the taser-related death of 18-year-old Patrick Johnson. Johnson was shot with 50,000 volts of electricity TWICE by unidentified police officers. Yet the city's Medical Examiner ruled that his October 2010 death was ruled accidental.
The coroner tells us that Patrick Johnson died from right ventricular cardiomyopathy -- a form of heart disease. [SOURCE] Villagers, it is difficult for me to believe that Johnson would have died that day if the police didn't put two taser shots into his young body. It boggles the mind to think that his heart disease would have kicked in on that very same October day if the police never arrived to 'help'.
The coroner indicates that the shocks were a factor in the teen's death and could have kick started the heart condition but were only a factor -- not a cause of death -- for Johnson.
A young, mentally-challenged man is dead and nobody is responsible? It was an accident? Mind-boggling!?!
The police have a real difficulty dealing with mentally-challenged people. Unidentified Philadelphia police officers were called to the home where Patrick Johnson, a mentally-challenged teenage boy, was living the other day. When the police couldn't quickly deal with the situation as professionals they pulled out their 21st century version of a cattle prod ... their taser guns ... and electrocuted the young man twice. The second jolt of 50,000 volts of electricity into the youngsters body resulted in his death.
Patrick Johnson was a special education graduate with the mental capacity of a 5-year old according to those who knew him.
The sad thing is that 18-year old Patrick Johnson called the police himself. Account to the police this was a regular thing. Police say that they have been called to the home on 14 separate occassions due to the mental health issues of this youngster.
"He had problems, but he was a good kid. It should have never happened," said Steve Zielinski, Johnson's stepfather.
Johnson had become violent with family members, and had broken items inside and outside of the home. He had taken what police described as a stick, brought it into the home and attempted to set it on fire. Police had attempted to calm the youngster down, and officers with the city's Crisis Intervention Team had responded to speak with him.
However, the police got impatient with the situations. So when they thought that the teenager was allegedly approaching them with the stick .. they opened fire with the taser guns. Johnson fell to the ground when he was tasered twice by unidentified police officers.
Zielinski said he had been in the home during the incident, and had been holding Johnson's arms behind his back at one point. He said police had told Johnson to drop the stick four times before using a Taser on him when he lunged at the officers. He said the teen ran into the home's basement, where he collapsed.
Johnson was brought to Nazareth Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:10 p.m. on Thursday, October 7.
Investigators have been working to determine how Johnson died, and what factors contributed to his death. This blogger will go out on a limb here and say that the 50,000 volts of electricity coursing through his body not once ... but twice ... may be the cause of death.
There is no indication that the teenager was on any drugs or medications at the time of his taser-related death. Please let us know if you learn anything more about this case.
I guess police officers are big fans of Batman. They continue to 'zap' folks to death with 50,000 watts of electricity from their taser guns. Apparently, the Philadelphia state troopers feel that running from the scene of a traffic ticket is punishable by death.
The Philadelphia Daily News informed us that Hakim Jackson died after being hit by taser fire during a traffic stop on Friday, August 14. Jackson, 31, was the passenger in a car driven by Ashley McDaniel, 21, of Elkton, Md., that was pulled over about 5:20 p.m. on Interstate 95 South, in Tinicum Township, for tinted window and other violations, police said.
When the car was stopped, both occupants appeared nervous and gave false identification, police said.
McDaniel was asked to step out of the car. While Trooper Yingling was speaking with Jackson through the passenger window, Jackson climbed in the driver's seat and put the vehicle in gear, court documents said.
In response, Yingling reached through the passenger window and pulled the keys out of the ignition. But while he was doing that, Jackson punched him repeatedly in the head, leading Yingling to Taser him, court documents said.
The second officer on the scene, Trooper Michael McKeon, then tried to remove Jackson through the driver side door of the car, but Jackson, who had just been Tasered, jumped into the back seat, fled out a rear door and ran into the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge, the affidavit said.
During Jackson's escape, McDaniel allegedly jumped on McKeon's back and began to assault him.
When back-up officers arrived, three troopers, including McKeon and Yingling, chased Jackson into the Wildlife Refuge and after about a mile, arrested him in a "thick swamp," police said. Jackson died while in police custody. The local medical examiner has not determined a cause of death, however, it seems obvious that the use of the taser had something to do with his death.
McDaniel was charged with aggravated assault on police, hindering apprehension, resisting arrest, driving under a suspended license and related offenses. She remains in the Delaware County Prison on $50,000 bail.
We will try to keep villagers informed of the outcome of this taser-related death.
I like the way that the Valley Swim Club story is evolving. Swim club management showed a true lack of class and commonsense back on June 29 when they kicked out 65 mostly Black young 'uns from a confirmed at the day. The swim club manager felt arrogant and privileged enough to voice the thoughts of his members when he said that the club wasn't interested in seeing the "complexion" of the pool changed.
Karma is a biyotch!
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that racial-discrimination lawsuits could cost enough to threaten the Valley Club's existence. Attorneys, club members, and tax records indicated that a pair of federal-court lawsuits - one filed, one promised - could cost the club more money than it has and possibly leave board members liable for civil-rights verdicts.
"The only asset we have is the land, which housing developers have been trying to buy for years," said Bonnie Bacich, a Valley Club member for 30 years.
Valley Club president John G. Duesler Jr. - who has offered to resign over the imbroglio - said the club was searching for an attorney.
Jim Crow swimming clubs have no place in the 21st century. I encourage villagers to sign the online petition as a means to keep the pressure on Mr. Duesler and his racist cronies!
Methinks that the Valley Swim Club should be shut down forever.What say u?
Did you know that 58% of Black children can't swim? Did you know that Black children drown three times more often than white children?
These statistics would lead me to conclude that it is important for young Black children to learn how to swim. My two youngest take swimming lessons. They are both in summer programs that include weekly visits to community pool. They just returned from a trip to Jamaica where they enjoyed snorkling, swimming and just playing in the water.
Perhaps I wouldn't have these opportunities if we lived in Philadelphia.
"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."
"Swimming pools were really the most intensely contested public space," said Jeff Wiltse, a University of Montana historian who studied municipal pools, where deep-seated emotions often created tortured logic to justify continued segregation.
Wiltse found that Blacks and whites routinely swam together in the late 1800s and early 1900s. That changed when the migration of large numbers of rural Southern Blacks to Northern states triggered a squeamishness among whites over sharing a pool with them.
The professed concern appeared to involve hygiene, and a notion that poor Blacks coming from a farming background would have lower standards of cleanliness. Even in public schools, swimming remained segregated long after all other scholastic activities were integrated.
Whatever ... it ain't right and we need to ensure that the folks at the Valley Club in Philadelphia pay a price for unleashing this racist behavior in 2009.
I encourage all villagers to contact The Valley Club. Ask to speak with club president John Duesler. Express your outrage!
Valley Swim Club Physical Address: 22 Tomlinson Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006
The afrosphere (in general) and The AfroSpear (in particular) are featured in the April issue of The Philadelphia Tribune. The article is called 'Blogger Nation' and focuses on the Civil Rights Movement currently growing on the web.
The bloggers making up The AfroSpear are getting into the mainstream media more and more often. One of our brethren was on CNN last night! I hope that many of us are able to meet one another in person at the Blogging While Brown conference later this year in Atlanta GA. Any chance that you can attend?
The incident, which took place Oct. 1, involved an African American hoist operator who claimed that a white co-worker allegedly dangled a noose at him threateningly.
"Absolutely, I know it is. I know that's what they're doing. This happens all the time at construction sites," said Anthony Fullard, executive vice president of Millennium 3 Management. Fullard, who was an ironworker for 15 years and who ran his own construction firm, KKAJ Incorporated said he often had racial confrontations.
"You often see racial slurs, usually in the port-a-potties. This is the normal practice and Blacks in the building trades go through this all the time," Fullard said. "I even saw it at sites where my company was working a job. I mean this was coming from people I was paying."
The incident took place when an African American hoist operator, Peter Solomon, engaged in a verbal confrontation with a White construction worker who allegedly dangled a noose in his direction. An investigation by law enforcement authorities from the Philadelphia Police Department told a different story; that the White co-worker was making a joke that the noose was "a new necklace" for his wife.
Solomon said there's no doubt in his mind that it was a racial insult.
"Initially, he said he wanted to hang someone. The wife statement came later and I think it was just an attempt to water it down." Solomon said. "He was looking right at me when he said he wanted to hang someone."
"The statement about his wife came when we were in the elevator. He said he was only playing around but I said, 'Man, you don't play like that.' They're trying to sugar coat this. I know what he said to me and I did not laugh or joke about it. He shook that noose in my face. I think law enforcement is taking this guy's position over mine, but I know what happened. All I can do is report it to the proper authorities."
