WSWS’ Kayla Costa reports on Stephon’s funeral and who tried to take over the funeral:
On
Thursday, the family of Stephon Clark held a funeral for the
22-year-old unarmed African American man who was
shot twenty times by the police nearly two weeks ago in the backyard of
his grandmother’s home in Sacramento, California. The Bayside of South
Sacramento Church was packed with hundreds of relatives, friends and
community members confronting terrible grief
of losing a loved one to police murder.
A
number of local clergy figures from Christian and Muslim backgrounds
introduced the funeral, followed by performances,
speeches and prayers. All of the speakers described Clark as an
intelligent, warm and loving man who “would do anything for his [wife]
Selena and his sons.”
In
addition to their reflections upon Clark’s life, his family expressed
their anger at his brutal and unfounded
execution by two police officers, who claim to have mistaken a cell
phone for a gun. One of his cousins read a poem about the murder,
asking, “Enough isn’t enough? What, a gun and badge make you tough?
Rather shoot someone down and then put them in cuffs…
Are they trained and programmed to just kill our family, our kids?”
Since
the shocking video of Clark’s killing was released, hundreds of people
have participated in demonstrations
against police violence. Protesters have participated in an occupation
of City Hall, vigils and memorials, and marches through downtown and
along major streets that have prevented fans from attending NBA
basketball games played by the Sacramento Kings.
Responding
to the militant social opposition that has emerged in Sacramento, as
well as popular outrage across
the country, the Democratic Party and their supporters in Black Lives
Matter and other activist organizations are seeking to contain, water
down and divert the deep frustrations of the mostly young people and
workers.
Reverend Al Sharpton flew in to deliver a two-part eulogy at the funeral as part of an effort to redirect anger
back into the dead end of reformism, identity politics and the electoral efforts of the Democratic Party.
Reflecting
the ruling class fear of the eruption of popular protests outside of
their control, Sharpton declared,
“It’s time for preachers to come out the pulpit, it’s time for
politicians to come out the office, it’s time for us to go down and stop
this madness.”
He
went on to criticize the Trump administration, which issued a
dismissive statement that police violence is
an issue for local officials, “This is not a Sacramento fight anymore,
this is a national fight… We gonna make Donald Trump and the entire
world deal with this issue of police misconduct.”
While
Sharpton postured as an opponent police violence and denounced Trump,
he did not mention the role of the
Democratic Party in the militarization of the police apparatus. Nor did
he list the thousands of people who were shot by police during Barack
Obama’s administration, whose Justice Department whitewashed police
killings and oversaw the transfer of military
weaponry to local police forces.
Boom!
Rev. Al is a fake ass. I was raised
knowing that. There was no prettying that up. I remember the first
time I saw him on TV and my father went off. As an African-American
family, there weren’t many fellow A-As my parents called out.
Not even Clarence Thomas. I didn’t know they disliked him until I was
in high school. But anytime Al Sharpton would come on the TV, my father
would make it clear he did not like Al one bit.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Friday, March 30, 2018. So many enable the current war and occupation of Iraq.
The key to understanding Gary Younge is to remember he lies frequently. When he writes for THE GUARDIAN (writing often reproduced in THE NATION), he's one way. When he's writing for a Socialist publication, he's another way. He can tailor himself to fit any outlet. He did so this week at THE GUARDIAN where he made two key points about the Iraq War:
First, because many are still living with the consequences. Amnesia is the privilege of the powerful. The powerless do not have the luxury of moving on, because their nations have been flattened, economies ruined and sectarian divisions deepened and weaponised as a result of a war that was prosecuted in their name.
It was really hard for him to get there because he had to provide links and he was writing for a UK audience. This meant noting some of Tony Blair's claims (lies) in the lead up to the war. It also means he can't note the Downing St. Memos that document so much about how Tony and Bully Boy Bush worked it out ahead of time. In the US, much was made about the corporate media ignoring the memo but the reality is that they weren't the only ones. The blessed GUARDIAN, to this day, has never mentioned them. (THE TIMES OF LONDON is the British paper that first reported on them.) That's because you can't call out Labour too harshly in the New Labour outlet that THE GUARDIAN is.
Now you can write any truth about the United States in THE GUARDIAN and Ajay Singh Chaudhary gets a few in:
Although Trump still has plenty of time to catch up (and I fear he will), his crimes do not come close to the crimes against humanity committed by members of our ruling class from political leadership to the media in our lifetime. I won’t list names here because it would be too inflammatory, but there are dozens, hundreds, who would be facing tribunals if they were not American.
But you cannot tell the truth about the UK government in THE GUARDIAN -- which is why Gary's links in his article to opposition go to GUARDIAN articles published . . . after the war had started.
From Gary, let's go to another whore of Babylon, Jane Arraf (NPR at this moment):
In 2014, tens of thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority, facing genocide from ISIS, escaped to the mountain from the town of Sinjar and surrounding villages in northern Iraq.
The United States said it entered the war against ISIS partly to protect Yazidis trapped on the mountain with no food and water.
Four years later, several thousand of them remain there. Destitute and living in tents, they are still too afraid to come down.
True Barack story, in late 2015 as the Yazidis were still refusing attempts to 'rescue' them by getting them off the mountain, then-President Barack Obama wondered "what the f**k do they want?" A very good question. But not one that should have surprised him or anyone else.
In real time, in 2014, with this situation, we were quite clear. We said don't send in US troops. We said do air drops of packages so that they didn't starve.
That's what should have been done.
The US forces and the Kurds both provided every opportunity for the Yazidis to get off Mount Sinjar. Not for one day, not for one week, not for one month, not even for one year. Over and over they provided that opportunity. The Yazdis wouldn't -- and still won't -- leave.
"I'm trapped! I'm trapped! Rescue me!"
Save yourself.
Seriously.
Are you a kitten caught in a tree?
And what if there are no damsels in distress?
What if I knew that, and I called your bluff?
Don't you think every kitten
Figures out how to get down
Whether or not you ever show up?
The Yazidis don't figure it out because they don't want anything but to start more wars. I don't know if that has to do with their worship or what.
But they have certainly been vocal about how the Kurds abandoned them! Left them on Mt. Sinjar! They are trapped!
No, you had you chances to come down but you refused to. That's on you. And everyone knows the Yazidis will use the same sentences to gripe about the US just as soon as they figure they've drained the US out of all the sympathy they can get.
The Yazidis are victims of their own making.
PIX 11 reports:
A native son of Carmel, Indiana, who served with New York City's fire department and died in Iraq received a send-off punctuated by crisp military precision, appreciation and moments of joy.
Would those service members have died were it not for the Yazidi spokespersons (and the neocon p.r. firm in the US)? Maybe not.
They refused to be rescued after their spokespeople insisted they needed to be rescued. They should accept the fact that many have tired of their little-boy-who-cried-wolf ploys.
Again, we didn't play heartless here. We said if they're trapped, drop food on the mountain for them. But instead it was send more US troops into Iraq. Where they remain.
Melissa Steininger (WTAJ) reports:
The men and women salute in honor of their country at the Punxsutawney Community Center Wednesday morning.
The same group will soon put their lives on the line. They're the 665 Engineer Utilities Detachment and they will be deployed to Iraq at the end of the week.
The Iraq War never ends. Remember what Anthony H. Cordesman (CSIS) argued earlier this year:
This is about occupation. "Stability." It's not ending.
The following community sites updated:
The key to understanding Gary Younge is to remember he lies frequently. When he writes for THE GUARDIAN (writing often reproduced in THE NATION), he's one way. When he's writing for a Socialist publication, he's another way. He can tailor himself to fit any outlet. He did so this week at THE GUARDIAN where he made two key points about the Iraq War:
First, because many are still living with the consequences. Amnesia is the privilege of the powerful. The powerless do not have the luxury of moving on, because their nations have been flattened, economies ruined and sectarian divisions deepened and weaponised as a result of a war that was prosecuted in their name.
Second, it was the greatest
foreign policy error of a generation or more, in which most of the
political class and the media class were entirely complicit. We
cannot walk away – because it has changed who we are, and so wherever we
go, this dark shadow follows us.
It was really hard for him to get there because he had to provide links and he was writing for a UK audience. This meant noting some of Tony Blair's claims (lies) in the lead up to the war. It also means he can't note the Downing St. Memos that document so much about how Tony and Bully Boy Bush worked it out ahead of time. In the US, much was made about the corporate media ignoring the memo but the reality is that they weren't the only ones. The blessed GUARDIAN, to this day, has never mentioned them. (THE TIMES OF LONDON is the British paper that first reported on them.) That's because you can't call out Labour too harshly in the New Labour outlet that THE GUARDIAN is.
Now you can write any truth about the United States in THE GUARDIAN and Ajay Singh Chaudhary gets a few in:
Although Trump still has plenty of time to catch up (and I fear he will), his crimes do not come close to the crimes against humanity committed by members of our ruling class from political leadership to the media in our lifetime. I won’t list names here because it would be too inflammatory, but there are dozens, hundreds, who would be facing tribunals if they were not American.
They not only walk free but are
rewarded for their complicity in one of the key moments that is the
short walk to now. Watching the sickening rehabilitation of political
and media figures of this period – and for some the simple continuity –
is also a reminder of the partial utility of that term “totalitarian”.
No matter how much they destroy,
how many lines they cross, whom they murder en masse, their
respectability is unaffected, their leadership de rigueur. This was not
the failure of the rule of law: this is the rule of law in a system in
which any attempt to transform power or even challenge it has been
silenced.
This was not because “norms” or
the constitution were violated; this was the absolute functioning of
norms and the constitution. This was the America that some tell me was
already great.
But you cannot tell the truth about the UK government in THE GUARDIAN -- which is why Gary's links in his article to opposition go to GUARDIAN articles published . . . after the war had started.
From Gary, let's go to another whore of Babylon, Jane Arraf (NPR at this moment):
In 2014, tens of thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority, facing genocide from ISIS, escaped to the mountain from the town of Sinjar and surrounding villages in northern Iraq.
The United States said it entered the war against ISIS partly to protect Yazidis trapped on the mountain with no food and water.
Four years later, several thousand of them remain there. Destitute and living in tents, they are still too afraid to come down.
True Barack story, in late 2015 as the Yazidis were still refusing attempts to 'rescue' them by getting them off the mountain, then-President Barack Obama wondered "what the f**k do they want?" A very good question. But not one that should have surprised him or anyone else.
In real time, in 2014, with this situation, we were quite clear. We said don't send in US troops. We said do air drops of packages so that they didn't starve.
That's what should have been done.
The US forces and the Kurds both provided every opportunity for the Yazidis to get off Mount Sinjar. Not for one day, not for one week, not for one month, not even for one year. Over and over they provided that opportunity. The Yazdis wouldn't -- and still won't -- leave.
"I'm trapped! I'm trapped! Rescue me!"
Save yourself.
Seriously.
Are you a kitten caught in a tree?
I am not a pretty girl
That is not what I do
I ain't no damsel in distress
And I don't need to be rescued, so
That is not what I do
I ain't no damsel in distress
And I don't need to be rescued, so
So put me down, punk
Wouldn't you prefer a maiden fair?
Isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?
[. . .]Wouldn't you prefer a maiden fair?
Isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?
And what if there are no damsels in distress?
What if I knew that, and I called your bluff?
Don't you think every kitten
Figures out how to get down
Whether or not you ever show up?
The Yazidis don't figure it out because they don't want anything but to start more wars. I don't know if that has to do with their worship or what.
But they have certainly been vocal about how the Kurds abandoned them! Left them on Mt. Sinjar! They are trapped!
No, you had you chances to come down but you refused to. That's on you. And everyone knows the Yazidis will use the same sentences to gripe about the US just as soon as they figure they've drained the US out of all the sympathy they can get.
The Yazidis are victims of their own making.
PIX 11 reports:
A native son of Carmel, Indiana, who served with New York City's fire department and died in Iraq received a send-off punctuated by crisp military precision, appreciation and moments of joy.
Capt. Christopher "Tripp" Zanetis
was celebrated at New York University by Mayor Bill de Blasio, fire
Commissioner Daniel Nigro and many others after a solemn ceremony in
nearby Washington Square Park on Thursday.
On Long Island, a funeral was
held for Staff Sgt. Dashan Briggs, another of the four New York Air
National Guardsmen killed in a March 15 helicopter crash. Funerals will
be held Saturday on Long Island for Master Sgt. Christopher Raguso,
another fire department veteran, and on April 6 in Tampa, Florida, for
Capt. Andreas O'Keeffe.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS notes:
Amid the chaos of 9/11, as the
fires burned at Ground Zero, volunteer Christopher Zanetis worked
alongside the FDNY members searching in the rubble for their lost
brothers.
Three years later, he joined their ranks. And in 2008, the heroic Zanetis became a member of the Air National Guard.
The 37-year-old FDNY fire marshal
and U.S. Air Force major, who was killed March 15 in a helicopter crash
in Iraq, was honored Thursday for a life driven by service for city and
country at an emotional Greenwich Village sendoff.
The “Celebration of Life” began
at his old East Village firehouse and continued in Washington Square
Park, where his his brown wood casket arrived beneath its massive marble
arch.
From LONG ISLAND NEWS 12:
Funeral services were held today
for Tech. Sgt. Dashan Briggs, of Port Jeff Station – one of four members
of the Air National Guard's 106th Rescue Wing who died earlier this
month in a chopper crash in Iraq.
Friends spoke Thursday about how giving he was, how great he was as a father, and how honored they were to have served with him.
Would those service members have died were it not for the Yazidi spokespersons (and the neocon p.r. firm in the US)? Maybe not.
They refused to be rescued after their spokespeople insisted they needed to be rescued. They should accept the fact that many have tired of their little-boy-who-cried-wolf ploys.
Again, we didn't play heartless here. We said if they're trapped, drop food on the mountain for them. But instead it was send more US troops into Iraq. Where they remain.
Melissa Steininger (WTAJ) reports:
The men and women salute in honor of their country at the Punxsutawney Community Center Wednesday morning.
The same group will soon put their lives on the line. They're the 665 Engineer Utilities Detachment and they will be deployed to Iraq at the end of the week.
The Iraq War never ends. Remember what Anthony H. Cordesman (CSIS) argued earlier this year:
The United States, its allies,
and international organizations are just beginning to come to grips with
the civil dimensions of "failed state" wars in Afghanistan, Iraq,
Libya, Somalia, the Sudans, Syria, and Yemen. In each case, it is clear
that the civil dimension of the war will ultimately be as important as
the military one.
Any meaningful form of "victory"
requires far more than defeating the current extremist threat in
military terms, and reaching some temporary compromise between the major
factions that divide the country. The current insurgent and other
security threats exist largely because of the deep divisions within the
state, the past and current failures of the government to deal with such
internal divisions, and the chronic failure to meet the economic,
security, and social needs of much of the nation's population.
In practical terms, these
failures make a given host government, other contending factions, and
competing outside powers as much of a threat to each nation’s stability
and future as Islamic extremists and other hostile forces. Regardless of
the scale of any defeat of extremists, the other internal tensions and
divisions with each country also threaten to make any such “victory” a
prelude to new forms of civil war, and/or an enduring failure to cope
with security, stability, recovery, and development.
Any real form of victory requires
a different approach to stability operations and civil-military
affairs. In each case, the country the U.S. is seeking to aid failed to
make the necessary economic progress and reforms to meet the needs of
its people – and sharply growing population – long before the fighting
began. The growth of these problems over a period of decades helped
trigger the sectarian, ethnic, and other divisions that made such states
vulnerable to extremism and civil conflict, and made it impossible for
the government to respond effectively to crises and wars.
These issues are analyzed in depth in a new study by the Burke Chair at CSIS entitled Iraqi After ISIS: The Other Half of Victory, which is available on the CSIS web site at https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/180109_iraq_other_half_cordesman_civilian.pdf?8SEsjcRdOq.sakyQJ_PN3RKfCGlBCgs4. It
is being circulated in working draft form in order to seek comments,
directions and additional data, which should be sent to Anthony H.
Cordesman atacordesman@gmail.com.
The study shows that the economy
and infrastructure of Iraq and the other countries involved in "failed
state" wars have now been further crippled by years of war. As a result,
each conflict has changed the country to the point where it creates a
need to establish a new structure of governance and economy that
reflects major shifts in the population, the balance of power in each
state, and its real-world post-conflict opportunities for development.
The cumulative result is to make
"stability operations" a key part of grand strategy. Defeating a given
mix of terrorists or insurgents requires aid and assistance efforts that
look beyond the fighting and the short-term priorities of conflict
termination. Negotiations and new political arrangements, emergency
humanitarian aid, and recovery aid are all critical steps towards
lasting stability.
This is about occupation. "Stability." It's not ending.
The following community sites updated:
