Category: Justice

THE STATE OF THE UNION

Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions.
President Bush.

DallasThere were times when men were men. There were times when Americans were courageous. In 2008 when then Senator Clinton under pressure to drop out of the Democratic Party primary for then Senator Obama, she made allusion to the 1968 assassination of RFK after the California primary as the reason why she would not suspend her campaign. Implying that same fate that befell RFK in 68 could possibly befell Obama in 08. Hence her desire to stay on in the race even though the delegate math at that point belies her chances of becoming the nominee. At a time when the country was so divided across economic and racial lines and needed a unifier, her comment was so counterproductive to the needs of the time. And Keith Olbermann, a man of courage, dressed her down. Watch the clip below for yourself.

Since the election of President Obama, the indiscriminate killing of African Americans has become a national norm. And the media, monopolized by white folks who cannot relate to the challenges of being black in America, always react the same way. Treat every other murder of an African American by cops as a statistic and move on with their lives. And elder statesmen? There are no more elder-statesmen in America who can speak to the moral rectitude of the country.

Being black in America, General Colin Powell chooses his words and can’t speak as candidly as he would to white America even though he commands their respect to a certain degree. He knows his place. Senator John McCain in his “hallowed wisdom” said that President Obama is directly responsible for Orlando. That’s how sensible the once-celebrated maverick has become. Rudy Giuliani? Well, Rudy Giuliani is more of a whiz kid of civility and fairness who in defiance to reason have turned into a demented old guy and doesn’t inhabit the realm of reality anymore. And Keith Olbermann? His candor is too much for the powers that be. Hence it has become too difficult for him to keep a job at any mainstream media house.

So, what are we left with?

As Edmund Burke postulated, Dallas happened. Dallas happened because the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Obviously there are no good men left in positions of power to do something to alter the god complex and brutish attitude of the police, especially in their encounters with African Americans. So nothing got done from one murder to the other until Alton Sterling and then Philando Castile. And consequently evil triumphed in Dallas.

Continue reading “THE STATE OF THE UNION”

The Emasculation of the Man

Brian Banks
Brian Banks

Brian Keith Banks, an American football linebacker, was 17 years  of age when he was convicted of raping a girl and spent five years in jail and another five years  of probation for offense he did not commit. His football career was messed up and he suffered personal losses. The judicial system took the woman’s word for it. And the man’s denial of the said crime counted for nothing even though there was no evidence whatsoever of rape.

Years after this young promising man’s life was upended, the woman whose false allegation led to his misery recanted her story.

Recently, a Detroit man was ordered to pay $30,000 in back child support for a child he did not father. Even though DNA report has shown that the accused is not the father of the said child and even though the mother of the child has come forward to claim that she needed to name a father for her child and she chose to name a decent man who did not father the child, a judge still had the effrontery to order the man to pay $30,000 in back child support for a child he did not father. What a world!

In both cases, these women that messed up the career and lives of these decent men are still enjoying their freedom and paid no cost for their crime. These are just two examples of instances of collusion between the justice system and women to attack the man. In times like these, “The Emasculation of the Man” reminds us that something needs to be done to reverse this ugly trend. Have a good read.

The Ezeocha Post

man

There used to be a time when the image of a man was the rough-shaven, macho, tough-looking, albeit, handsome guy donning his wrangler denims and cowboy boots, and carrying his ropes across his chest as he rides on his horse back. Remember the cowboy that graced the Marlboro advert on the back cover page of every mainstream magazine? The Marlboro Man.

Back in those days, when men get into a brawl, throw punches at each other, wrestle one another to the floor, and even bloody the face of one another; they make up afterwards over a bottle of beer and shake hands. There will be no police involvement. And there will not be any charges of assault. Rather a reflection of what caused the fight establishes a better understanding between them, life goes on, and friendship continues. That was the norm when men, God’s original creation, were men.

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Is President Obama sympathetic to ISIS?

President Obama, just like every other human can misspeak and sometimes let slip some lines that are not thoroughly thought through. From his ISIS-JV team analogy to his ISIS-European Christian crusaders comparison, it is obvious that one of the smartest man to have occupied the Oval Office has problem with drawing equivalences. However, Obama’s remarks is not the reason why ISIS and Boko Haram are perpetuating evil of unprecedented magnitude. Organized religion is the ace that have turned to a menace.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama interact with Hilton banquet server Kitty Casey during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., Feb. 5, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama interact with Hilton banquet server Kitty Casey during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., Feb. 5, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

European Christian crusaders killed in the name of religion. They desecrated Africa. They ransacked communities, exploited natural resources, and stole national treasures of African nations and shipped them back to Europe to build their continent. They killed anything and everything that stood on their way to their looting. In Wilbur smith’s book, Men of Men, we saw the brutality and single-mindedness of the British when it came to the exploitation of Zimbabwe immediately Cecil Rhodes came to town. They dethroned kings and exiled them, they sacked villages, raped communities, and laid waste towns. They took over their diamond caves and mines, they killed and maimed in the name of stones, and their avariciousness led them to break the bonds of friendship and kill even their own friends who challenged them to the moral values they thought they knew them for. They killed the young and they killed the old alike. Their viciousness was immeasurable. Their barbarism unquantifiable. They were, simply put, terrorists.

These happened in the colonial days era. But it is still happening by proxy in contemporary Africa through fifth columnists who will rather enrich their own selves than have their own country develop. We see this in Congo DR and other West African countries rich in natural resources that the European tech companies depend on for raw materials to build their wares.

Anyways, this is a topic for another day. If Africa should open its arms to vicious Europe to continue to exploit Africa and steal the wealth of its posterity from her, that is Africa’s problem. And we will tackle this issue objectively in our subsequent essay.

ISIS

ISIS is a terror organization peopled mostly by Muslims of Middle East origin and to a lesser number, their western recruits who they brainwash and indoctrinate to follow the ways of evil. Everybody knows that. ISIS is mostly a Middle East problem because they have already declared their territorial ambitions and their goal of forming an Islamic caliphate carved out of nations in the Middle East. Everybody knows that also.

Now to a significant degree, ISIS has become America’s problem too, because, first, like al-Qaeda, they have the capacity to export terror to the United States, despite President Obama’s preliminary assessment of their resources and capacity to do so when he erroneously equated them to a JV team. Secondly, by killing Americans, ISIS challenged America to action. And ISIS is getting a reaction from the United States of America. Is the reaction proportional? That is up for a debate. Will ISIS be defeated and decimated as Barack promised, without a defined strategy? That is up for debate too. What is not up for debate though is the imprudence of the 14th paragraph of President Obama’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. on February 5, 2015 wherein he drew a parallel between the contemporary terrorism ISIS is waging on humanity to the terrorism waged by European Christian crusaders in the past.

Continue reading “Is President Obama sympathetic to ISIS?”

A CALL FOR BETTER GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE BY MEDIA HOUSES

media

I call on owners of media houses across the world to ensure that acts that violates the morality of mankind, such as the brutal killings of innocent civilians in Nigeria by Boko Haram, receives similar coverage as the coverage the terrorist attacks in France is receiving.

Some have argued that the terrorist attack in France is receiving more media coverage and global outcry because of the symbolism. That the attack on Charlie Hebdo is an attack on freedom of speech, which is a Western core value. To those trumpeting this line of thought, I say: freedom of speech is not a Western core value. It is a universal right of every mankind, an inalienable right given by God.

Meanwhile, even if the terrorist that struck Paris did so to attack Western Values, it is then pertinent for me to point out, for analysis sake, that Boko Haram’s mission, as has been reported in the news, is to stop “Western Way Of Life,” such as girl-child education, as practiced in Nigeria. There you go. Not as if I am endorsing girl-child education as a Western value in itself. It is a universal human value.

We are all humans. We all bleed red. And we are interconnected in some ways.

Covering terrorist attacks in France which claimed 17 lives around the clock while treating similar terrorist attacks in Nigeria which claimed far more lives as afterthought on TV doesn’t augur well for the human race. So is the global outcry and optics by world leaders. It sends signals that some lives are more important than others. And that certain things happening in certain geographical locations is of more concern to the world community than when similar things happen elsewhere. I choose to sound naïve. It is unfair. And it is this perception of unfairness that many a times causes us more harm than intended. Let us be wise in our conducts. And if these barbaric acts of cowardice and hate and intolerance should happen anywhere else in the world, God forbid, let us show the kind of solidarity in acts and deeds towards such, irrespective of the geographical location of where it happened.
Let the debate continue. . .

ON HONEST AND RESPONSIBLE DIALOGUE ON RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICA (Part I)

Not all white people are racists. Majority of white people are not. If all whites are racists and because of their racism chose not to vote for a Black man in both 2008 and 2012, we wouldn’t have President Obama, America’s first Black President. Even if every eligible voter from other ethnic minorities voted 100% for him.

Majority Of White People Are Not Racists.

The Black Man Is As Competent As The White Man In Every Facet Of Human Endeavor.

Racism Is A Costly Self-Inflicted Disease.

In times like these, we need to be unified at home so that we can present a common front to the world and defeat our enemies. For a house divided against itself cannot stand.

US

Not all white people are racists. Majority of white people are not. If all whites are racists and because of their racism chose not to vote for a Black man in both 2008 and 2012, we wouldn’t have President Obama, America’s first Black President. Even if every eligible voter from other ethnic minorities voted 100% for him.

Now know that racism denies the goodness, qualifications, and quality in the ‘other.’ Racism exalts itself and looks down condescendingly on the ‘other.’ Racism thinks itself intellectually superior and considers itself lord over the ‘other’ and even when it wrongs the ‘other,’ racism considers it scandalous to apologize for the wrong because it sees the ‘other’ as less human with no dignity. So, irrespective of how articulate, analytical, collected, handsome, cool, tall, and prudent President Obama has been, if all white were racists, those who voted for him in both the 2008 and 2012 general elections would not have done so. Simply because despite his (Obama) outstanding candidacy, his white supporters, if they were racists, would have been blinded to all the qualities which made him a better candidate than his opponents and could have chosen the wrong person at the wrong time to be the leader of the free world.

MAJORITY OF WHITE PEOPLE ARE NOT RACISTS.

 

Meanwhile, those white folks that jump to the defense of blatant racism by white police officers, anytime they (white police officers) take down another African-American man or teen, those folks are culprits.

Why do Fox News Network, folks like former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and some right wing politicians jump out of their pants to defend criminals and rogue police officers who kill African-American men, simply because the perpetrators are white?

I will answer that question in the latter paragraph after the next.

Continue reading “ON HONEST AND RESPONSIBLE DIALOGUE ON RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICA (Part I)”

FERGUSON, THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN RACE, AND DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA: THE DATA THAT MATTERS

votera

There is no dearth of data that African-American men and youths are indiscriminately stopped, brutalized, jailed, and many of the times, especially in recent times, killed by the American society and its judicial system. The data abounds. From Amadou Diallo in New York in 1999, Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012, and just in this 2014, we have Eric Garner in Staten Island: July 17; Michael Brown in Ferguson: August 9; Akai Gurley in Brooklyn: November 20, and Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio in November 22. The list continues.

Call it accidental killing or whatever cliché authorities across America may come up with to euphemize the forceful taking of an innocent life, African-American men and teens are killed like flies all over the country without any form of justice for the dead or consequences for their killers. Everybody knows, from the George Zimmerman trial charade in Florida, the grand jury travesty in Ferguson, and in the word of Fox News panelist Charles Krauthammer, the ‘totally incomprehensible’ grand jury decision in Staten Island, that America is saying unequivocally to the world that the life of an African-American man means shit (forgive my French) to them.

Have you ever watched television and seen some white kid get shot by accident?

Charles J. Johnson, digital news editor at the Chicago Tribune, has detailed his firsthand experience of how the police, during presumed hostile situations alters their rules of engagement, depending on the race of the presumed criminal involved. If the situation involves an African-American man, the default reaction would be to kill him on sight. The very reason officer Timothy Loehmann of the Cleveland Police killed 12-year old Tamir Rice within split seconds of arriving at the scene where the child was playing with his toy gun. Conversely, when the situation involves a white man, the rules changes and the default police training of negotiating a peaceful surrender of the criminal comes to play. And no situation demonstrates this better than the arrest of 31-year old Eric Frein – a white man. Despite killing a state of Pennsylvania trooper and injuring another, and despite being one of the FBI’s 10-most-wanted fugitives, when he (Frein) was reportedly cornered by U.S. Marshalls at his hideout on October 30, 2014, after 48-days of manhunt following his killing of the trooper, he was given a chance to surrender. A known killer. A grown man who has used firearm to kill and was reportedly armed, according to USA Today, at the time of his “surrender.” But a 12-year old child with a toy guy wouldn’t even be spared a 1 minute window to respond to police.

An analysis by ProPublica, a non-profit news company shows that young African-American men are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than young white men. These data are in public domain for all to see. They are irrefutable, they are not subject to argument, political manipulation, or any leap of intellectual faith. They are a national embarrassment, a threat to national cohesion, and renders ludicrous the U.S. international posture on justice anytime injustice is carried out against the citizenry of other nations by their own government.

Continue reading “FERGUSON, THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN RACE, AND DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA: THE DATA THAT MATTERS”

THE ATTITUDE OF COMMODIFYING PEOPLE: THE TEXAS EXAMPLE

apartment
 
By Chinedu Ezeocha for Ezeocha Post
Originally Published on Friday October 3, 2014 at 4:37 PM CT

 It is no secret that in Texas, businesses runs the government. Friendly laws and policy decisions are made to benefit businesses than we the people – the very consumers that businesses rely upon for their survival. This is because of the generally accepted belief that businesses create jobs and by so doing help grow the economy. We the people on the other hand are seen more often as unwelcome inconveniences especially when we demand from government certain social privileges or when we demand that our rights be protected against predator businesses that prey on the vulnerable. In a nutshell, if there is ever a contest match in Texas between businesses and we the people, and the state government is the umpire, businesses will always win no matter how hard we the people try.

In this essay, I am going to argue that the shylockian exploitation of ordinary Americans in Texas by businesses, actions that are encouraged by policies of the state government, has reached an alarming crescendo and need to be discussed and efforts made to reverse the ugly trend. I will make my case using the ‘loan shark’ businesses and the relationships that exists between apartment renters and apartment managements as my references.

In early 2012, I needed to buy my first car in America. I just got my work permit and all the good jobs (when I say good jobs I mean better than minimum wage) I was getting were at places where the METRO bus system do not go to. So in order to secure these good jobs and better take care of my family, I needed to buy a car. I needed extra $1000.00(one thousand dollars) to complete the money I already had to get the most affordable car available to me then. Family and friend could not lend me the money. So I went to Ace Cash Express (a loan shark company) to borrow the money. They agreed to lend me the money but for the $1000.00 that I needed to borrow from them, they wanted me to return it back to them in two weeks time and by the time I will be returning the money, they wanted me to return $1500.00(one thousand, five hundred dollars) to them. $500.00 (five hundred dollar) interest in two weeks for a loan of $1000.00 (one thousand dollars). And that is a 150% interest in just two weeks. Nobody makes that kind of extreme gains in business in such a short time. Else, everybody will be a businessperson and nobody will be working for anyone else. Out of curiosity, I asked them how much I would be required to pay back if I chose to repay the $1000.00 after one month. And they told me that I have to return $3000.00 (three thousand dollars) to them by the end of one month if I choose to rather than two weeks, pay them back in a month’s time. And that, my friends, is a 300% interest rate. Just for a month.

The Texas-big question now is: where else besides Texas does a business make this kind of outrageous gains on an investment in such a short period of time?

Just hold your thought.

Continue reading “THE ATTITUDE OF COMMODIFYING PEOPLE: THE TEXAS EXAMPLE”

WHEN THE STATE BECOMES A TOOL OF VENGEFULNESS

Eric Garner, a 44 year old African-American man being strangled to death by officers of the New York Police Department. July 17, 2014.

 

By Chinedu Ezeocha for Ezeocha Post
Originally Published on Tuesday August 12, 2014 at 6:30 AM CT

 Ideally in criminal justice, when a crime is committed, a suspect is never arrested for the crime until a compelling evidence amounts that he apparently committed the said crime. Then will a warrant for his arrest be issued. Except in cases where the suspect(s) is caught in the act by law enforcement agencies. This is because in our present-day society, every arrest for whatsoever crime seemingly (I used seemingly because people has been framed for a crime they didn’t commit and evidence planted to pin the crime on them) committed goes into public record and counts against the name of the person with the criminal record. For example, if it is on record that a man was once arrested for pedophilia, just that very fact will make it almost impossible for him to get a decent job in this society because of the stigmatization associated with such crime. Regardless of whether he was later absolved from the crime or not. In the same light, if a man is jailed for rape or murder, after he has served his time, he may not be able to vote again. A criminal record can abort one’s career; condemn him to menial jobs where his supposed criminal record will not pose a threat to his employer, and some of the times, a criminal record can deny a person his civil liberties such as voting in elections.  The act of rushing into the arrest of a suspect in a crime without proper investigation can destroy the suspect’s life forever especially when the suspect is innocent of the charges. And in this 24-hour news cycle of ours where the media is always on the roll chasing after latest headlines, a rushed arrest and imprisonment can cause irreparable damage to a man’s integrity especially if the mass media that broadcasted his guilt to the world, typically, does not show up (they seldom do) to retract their statements after the suspect who is now a victim of overzealousness has been proved innocent of the crime. Hence the need for decorum and thorough investigation before any arrest.

This essay will not be focusing on the O.J. Simpson’s or the Oscar Pistorius’ kind of cases that enjoyed/enjoys international media coverage because the suspects in these cases are celebrities. This essay’s main focus is the regular guy on the street who got arrested and jailed by cops because he looked a certain way. It is about the guy who went into a consensual sex with an adult female who however had sinister thoughts towards the guy and shouted rape once both of them are naked. And it is also about the man who is a constant victim of domestic violence and abuse by his wife or girlfriend, but could do nothing to defend himself because 99% is the chance that upon his reaction the woman will call cops on him, cops who will unwisely arrest and jail the man only on the woman’s word without any form of investigation.

Continue reading “WHEN THE STATE BECOMES A TOOL OF VENGEFULNESS”

IN DEFENSE OF PRESIDENTIAL DECISIONS

Barack Obama making his 2nd Inauguration Speech As The 44th President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America. January 20, 2013.
By Chinedu Ezeocha for Ezeocha Post
Originally Published on Monday June 23, 2014 at 4:54 PM CT

In 2008 we elected Barack Obama to four years in office as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. By so doing, we deferred to him the mandate to make decisions on our behalf as a nation, both in domestic and in foreign policies. Good or bad, we live the consequences of his decisions. The buck stops with him.

Because we were satisfied with the choices and decisions he made on our behalf in his first term, such as killing Osama bin Laden and passing the Affordable Care Act – which has now become law, when in 2012 he sought re-election, we voted him back to the Oval Office to continue to make decisions on our behalf as a nation.

Presidents are mere men who are susceptible to making error of judgments just as we all do. Barack told us while he was running for the Office of the President that there will be false starts and that he will make mistakes.  He never promised to get it right at all times. Presidents make mistakes, but what is never questionable is the motive behind every decision a president make, whether good or bad. Which are always in service to country and in service to humanity. Meanwhile, in their hallowed position, presidents some of the times make decisions which may be unpopular with the masses as at the time the decisions were made, but which in the long  turns out to be wonderful decisions because they had privileged information and intelligence that informed their decision. Information which are classified and therefore not available to the average joe, the paid  political analyst on television who knows nothing more than the average joe, the radio talk show host, and of course, the political strategists from the opposition party.

Continue reading “IN DEFENSE OF PRESIDENTIAL DECISIONS”

The Emasculation of the Man

man

 

There used to be a time when the image of a man was the rough-shaven, macho, tough-looking, albeit, handsome guy donning his wrangler denims and cowboy boots, and carrying his ropes across his chest as he rides on his horse back. Remember the cowboy that graced the Marlboro advert on the back cover page of every mainstream magazine? The Marlboro Man.

 

Back in those days, when men get into a brawl, throw punches at each other, wrestle one another to the floor, and even bloody the face of one another; they make up afterwards over a bottle of beer and shake hands. There will be no police involvement. And there will not be any charges of assault. Rather a reflection of what caused the fight establishes a better understanding between them, life goes on, and friendship continues. That was the norm when men, God’s original creation, were men.

Continue reading “The Emasculation of the Man”

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