Reverend Pinkney: The Civil Rights Leader You May Not Know

TBR- Special to TBR, Reverend Edward Pinkney
In the struggle to preserve civilization and the rule of law, Reverend Edward Pinkney stands in virtual isolation against a very real fascist threat in the tiny lakeside town of Benton Harbor, Michigan. His ability to stand up against the fascist machine, his organizing abilities, and his endless goodwill and positivity put him in a category with civil rights heroes such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.
Pinkney will without a doubt go down in history as either a great civil rights hero who fought-off a racist and fascistic tide in America, or he will go down as the civil rights activist who warned the world that

 "fascism is coming to your town next" but whom no one listened.
Please help us keep Pinkney out of prison to continue his fight against the Whirlpool corporate takeover in Michigan. Visit bhbanco.com to help Rev. Pinkney avoid life in prison. He can't fight fascism from a jail cell!

Contacts: 269-925-001
David Sole
Joe Peery
http://bhbanco.org
Submitted by Polly Hughes: 217-638-5314

"ACLU of Michigan Supports Release of Faith Leader, Activist, in Election Fraud Case

Constitutional rights violations alleged in case of Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor"
GRAND RAPIDS—The trial of Rev. Edward Pinkney, 66, of Benton Harbor violated his constitutional rights according to a motion filed with the Michigan Court of Appeals. Supporters of Pinkney—including ACLU of Michigan who filed an amicus curiae brief backing the motion—are calling for his immediate release on bond pending appeal.
A veteran community activist from Benton Harbor, Pinkney was convicted last November on five felony counts of forgery based on allegations that he changed five dates on a petition intended to recall Mayor James Hightower. Currently in Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, he maintains his innocence and faces 30 to 120 months in prison. According to the ACLU brief, his appeal is “almost certain” to lead to the reversal of the conviction. Pinkney has already spent over seven months in prison since his sentencing last December. Visitors from around the state attempt to monitor his health and safety.
“There are so many violations of Rev. Pinkney’s rights it’s hard to believe. Three witnesses stated emphatically that Rev. Pinkney was not present when another person altered the petition,” said Michigan civil rights attorney Hugh Buck Davis. “The prosecutor in the case was allowed to use Rev. Pinkney’s community activism as evidence. This is a serious violation of the Reverend’s First Amendment rights and due process. When the defense attorney raised objections, the judge called his constitutionally-based arguments ‘emotional rhetoric.’”
Pinkney and his supporters believe his human rights activism has made him a target of political persecution by local government and business interests. According to Davis, "Given the thousands of irregularities in election petitions in Michigan every year, it's clear that this is political prosecution in retaliation for successful community and electoral organizing. They like it until it looks like you are going to win. Two-and-a-half to ten years? He's a political prisoner.”
In just one recent example, Pinkney’s arrest warrant for the non-violent charges was served by a SWAT team surrounding his home at gunpoint. Such tactics, Pinkney says, are designed to intimidate all Benton Harbor residents who speak up against Whirlpool Corporation and local officials. Supporters charge that the unjustified prosecution amounts to election fraud.
Pinkney and other members of the Benton Harbor community group, BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community Organization), have led multiple petition drives to recall local officials as one strategy of their campaign to promote democracy, civil rights, and economic justice in the county. Whirlpool Corp. is headquartered in Benton Harbor, which is 96% African-American and has among the highest unemployment and poverty rates in the state. Mayor Hightower’s opposition to a city income tax that would have affected Whirlpool Corp. resulted in the community’s effort to recall him.
BANCO and Pinkney have protested the four emergency managers, appointed by the governor under Michigan’s controversial Emergency Manager Law, who have operated the city instead of democratically-elected officials. BANCO was also among the most vocal opponents of the Harbor Shores golf course and luxury development that appropriated lakeshore land formerly designated as a Benton Harbor city park.
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Updates at: @FreeRevPinkney
Facebook: Detroit Organizing in Support of Reverend Pinkney

I Did Not Serve In Iraq, To Return To A War Zone.

TBR-Garett Reppenhagen, Iraq War Veteran, Contributor VoteVets.org

 As an Iraq War Veteran, I understand the dangers of firearms and the importance of keeping them out the hands of criminals and the dangerously mentally ill.

As a Coloradan, I also have a deep and abiding respect for our national tradition of gun ownership in this country and our rights to defend family and property.

I believe it is possible to hold both of those views simultaneously -- that there is a way to change our gun laws while respecting the constitutionally protected right to bear arms. Ensuring all Americans pass a background check to guarantee that those who carry weapons are law abiding citizens would be a good first step.

As the debate over gun violence prevention reignites after yet another mass shooting, it's important that veterans (our nation's foremost experts on weapons), military family members, and VoteVets supporters make our voices heard.

Sign my petition: Tell Congress to pass commonsense gun laws that will keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously mentally ill.

Throughout my military experience, I trained and performed combat missions with a conservative magazine limit. Every soldier carried a full combat load and the magazines were constructed to minimize malfunction and to be effective in tactical situations.

Currently some states allow the same size magazines I was issued as a Cavalry Scout and in some cases the clips they are allowed to carry have a larger capacity. Basically, these laws allow our citizens to be more combat effective in our communities than I was in Iraq.

In the military, every recruit is scrutinized for any moral deficiency and criminal history before entering basic training and being issued a weapon. But here at home, criminals are able to get their hands on this kind of firepower without even passing a background check.

It makes no sense, and Congress must act.

Sign my petition: Tell Congress to pass commonsense laws that will keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously mentally ill.

During the Iraq War, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld compared the violence in Iraq to Chicago, saying about both, "It's a tough part of the world."

We should strive for better. And if Congress acts on this issue, we can save lives.

Thank you for reading,

Garett Reppenhagen
Iraq War Veteran
VoteVets.org

Some thoughts on "Straight Outta Compton".

TBR-Speech Thomas of Arrested Development

I applaud Ice Cube, Gary F Gray & Dr. Dre because they know how to tell a great story! The accurate portrayal of a hiphop producers heart.... wanting to make something special...well done. The vicious sharks that swim in music industry waters...greatly exposed. The acting, promotion and soundtrack... superb! In a country where excellence in black film on the big screen isn't seen enough, it's proudly exhibited here.
But from the perspective of the ancestors, they got some explaining to do. Centuries of struggle by our men, women and children who were thoroughly desolate with only one hope. The hope that through their perseverance, future generations would have it better than they did. Many died for that very reason.
That's the African-American legacy.
It was just two weeks ago, we all were discussing how soiled America still is from the horrors of slavery and the following systematic racism.
Blacks for hundreds of years purposely portrayed in every advertisement, news article, play, TV show and movie as dangerous, vile, uncaring, simple, roguish brutes, with intelligence a tad higher than a monkey. Year after year, decade after decade, century after century... And here we are today - as white trigger happy cops shoot blacks. It doesn't matter if they're unarmed, cuz in the minds of so many, blacks are always armed with centuries of dangerous propaganda. And a lie can run around the world twice before truth can get her shoes on!
And in comes Hollywood pushing yet ANOTHER movie with that same ole narrative... Straight Outta Compton! With the convenient subtitle - "the worlds most dangerous group"
Is that literal or it's figurative? None of them came from the most dangerous of street life but Easy E. right? I often hear that they're dangerous because of Cube's defiant lyrics & fierce determination to speak "truth" to power. Ummm, that sounds honorable.
But I'm sure I can come up with a few more suggestions more appropriate than NWA. The black panthers for instance might be better suited for such an honor. With fierce determination they defied an entire system at risk of their very lives! They REALLY fought for justice and most paid the ultimate price. An epic bio pic that shows how these brave young men and women organized change for all races and genders, showing true devotion mixed with legal prowess... that's a film suggestion! And can I get a witness that NWA's "F*** the Police" is only the prevailing anti-police brutality anthem BECAUSE the music industry championed it. It didn't take the FBI long at all to see that NWA was ultimately a harmless group because their other songs & political savvy was thoroughly misguided and non-directional. As opposed to the earlier & less popular "F*** the Pigs" that the black panthers often shouted as they persevered through police harassment as actual freedom fighters, not as drug dealers and pretend thugs. Historically there were activists that started as thugs but TRANSFORMED into purposeful revolutionaries.
I've heard some say, the title "most dangerous" is as far as MUSICAL groups are concerned.... Ummm wouldn't PUBLIC ENEMY better fit that definition? But see a movie like that would simply be too dangerous, it might cause people to do more than ooo and aaah over the financial success of a music producer & rapper who made nice movies and headphones. It might cause REAL change.
NWA may be the most dangerous, but not because they fought against a racist and oppressive system... but because they were effective ambassadors of that very system! I like to call it white supremacy on wax! Who else could have done such a great job at spreading the age old message that blacks are morally sub-human? Many things white supremacists say about blacks is what NWA confirms in their most popular songs. And yes, in 2015 Twitter is going nuts praising the film and much of the hiphop world is bowing down to NWA as heroes in the genre. But I applaud a good number of blacks that "don't believe the hype"!
Bio pics about rap artists are few and far between, but take notice to WHICH rap movies Hollywood green lights for major motion picture release? And have you ever thought about WHY these particular movies?
Biggie's Notorious, Eminem's 8 Mile, 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Trying and NWA's Straight Outta Compton! Most of which come straight outta Jimmy Iovine's & Dre's storehouse of thuggery, and celebrate the "American Dream" thru gritty accounts of drug deals, crack addicted communities, strip clubs, friends that deceive each other and gun battles gone wrong. And then the inevitable transformation from rags to riches. As they live happily ever after (in their death though). Oh yeah, Biggie was about right, that if you're black...you're nobody til somebody kills you!
To quote Public Enemy... "Burn Hollywood Burn!" They're pretty much about money and judging by this past weekends ticket sales... THEY'RE WINNING! Stay tuned for a Tupac, Ice T and whomever else da cap fits bio pic for us all to swoon over!
Feed us our illusions, Hollywood has no skin in the game, it's just money to them. But don't we as blacks literally have skin in the game?
It's our SKIN that signals brainwashed cops to pull us over just because we didn't use a turn signal. Or blow our brains out for trying to start our car while being questioned. Or get choked to death, spines snapped, or just walking home wearing a hoodie.
BUT SOMEBODY BLACK KEEPS PROUDLY DELIVERING THESE MOVIES TO HOLLYWOOD.
There's gotta be a point where we WEIGH the pains we feel from years of being mis-represented against the joy we feel seeing another black thug soliloquy on the big screen! The pain lasts for years, the joy last 2 and a half hours. You do the math.
There's gotta be a breaking point when we make a critical decision. Directionless expression or real freedom? I know, I know... no one screams when Scorsese does a gangster film, why pick on rappers? Because Jewish people aren't making these movies WHILE simultaneously getting shot down in the streets by their own kind, arrested in astronomical rates and their rappers literally getting assassinated like they were in a Middle East war zone!
When is enough... ENOUGH!?
Consciousness didn't start with NWA, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly", nor ‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬.
It's been in full effect since slavery and we must keep our eyes on the prize to reach the finish line!
On the big screen, these rappers are portrayed as bigger than life heroes and even somehow "freedom fighters"! But TRUE heroes like Julian Bond, Garvey, Harriet & Parks deserve a bio pic, because they served US all! But would we support it?
It NEVER was enough to have a conscious song or two on an otherwise "white supremacist" gangsta record. It's not enough to have things "go in cycles"... (people say that to me all the time about music)
It's about standing on the shoulders of those that stood before us until we get out from the ditch that hides our humanity!
Our values are so backwards that fathers, mothers, educators, intellectuals & activists don't fill today's memes and murals. Instead it's Tupac, Biggie, NWA and maybe a Jay-Z. The murals you see painted in the ghettos, (I've even seen em in the outskirts of Africa!) Memes of these rappers floating around on the Internet and interviews at the end of albums with their "prophetic" words. 3D holograms of them in front of wooing crowds. Supposed martyrs packaged and shrink wrapped in a CD. "Heroes" of the people - celebrated, applauded, jailed and assassinated, with a level of admiration that you'd think they died because of political resistance or activism, but no. It's simply a petty beef or a record executive hungry for more money.
We have so lost our way, that we celebrate their temporary success - in lieu of our own lasting success.
Behind the riches of every Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Easy E. or Suge Knight are quiet little Jewish & White guys in polo shirts that are even richer than them.
They play golf and listen to Bach while they count their money. Meanwhile we wallow in these decadent, century old stereotypical, blaxploitation flicks and albums, their kids fly in private jets and vacation in Belize. Our kids suffer just walking to school.
Yes, Straight Outta Compton is very good and yes, these men have immense talent, but Italian mafioso refused to sell crack to their own communities. They insisted on separating their families from their illegal business.
We sell this "crack music" to our little kids and we infest the whole world with it!
It is NOT just entertainment. We are getting killed in real life. We influence Africa, South America and everywhere there's poor people that need inspiration. It has never been simple entertainment and it has far out reached the block.... it's racist propaganda. And it hurts the soul of humanity!
And by the way ITS NOT HONEST, it's not what we see in the hood. It's an embellishment of it, it's "reality" on steroids, it's someones story on performance enhancers! And the things that destroy these communities has become a Satanic virus, packaged and shipped out to every other community to infect those that were previously healthy.
That's my problem with NWA - not the music (it's brilliant) NWA endorsed the worse traits of the hood, promoted these traits and to justify their lust for fame they revised their purpose claiming it's a noble freedom of speech movement.
And many have bought that revisionist history, poured it in our glasses & ummm that kool aid taste sweet! White supremacy is happy, blacks got our thug heroes and the world keeps on turning.
So, sit and eat your popcorn, sip a Coke, enjoy a well-deserved break from lifes stress.
I know I did. I also know I made Ice Cube, Dr. Dre Gary Gray and a host of white dudes a bit richer! I'm alright with that. May God bless em.
But even as I'm entertained by the film, I know that unless we change our dynamics and moral infrastructure as black people, WE really are the entertainment. The silly blacks that can't realize the difference between an Arnold Schwarzenegger fiction and a propaganda missile aimed at the very demise of our freedom, dignity and culture.
GIL scott was right....The revolution will not be televised it will be screened in a theater near you.
Two thumbs up.