Racism
[Video] Why Did UEFA Award the Euro 2012 Championship to Two Countries with Massive Racism Problems?
Here’s the background on BBC Panorama’s ‘Stadiums Of Hate’ program above:
A BBC documentary has flagged up Poland and Ukrainian football’s problems with racism, antisemitism and violence on the eve of UEFA Euro 2012. Here’s how the big hitters on Twitter have reacted to the screening of the damning footage.
With just days to go before the kick-off of the Euro 2012 championships, a hard-hitting BBC Panorama documentary has revealed shocking new evidence of racist violence and antisemitism at the heart of Polish and Ukrainian football. In the show, which went out in Britain on the evening of 28 May, a group of Asian fans are shown being attacked on the terraces of a Ukrainian premier league match and anti-Semitic chanting is captured on film at games in Poland. The show has cast fresh doubt on the joint hosts’ suitability to stage the high-profile football tournament.
Learn more:
– Euro 2012: Ukraine rocked by racism controversy [AP]
– Ukraine’s president downplays Euro 2012 racism fears [BBC News]
– Racism and Soccer Are in Play at a Big Event in East Europe [NYT]
In response to the video above though:
Smdh….
[News] The Marissa Alexander Case Proves Florida’s So-Called Stand Your Ground Law is Bullsh-t!
To refresh your memory, the Stand Your Ground law is the law and justification that kept George Zimmerman out of jail for so long after he gunned down Trayvon Marin in cold blood. Here’s the background on this story where, surprise, surprise, Stand Your Ground supposedly did not apply:
Marissa Alexander, the 31-year-old Florida woman who fired what her family calls a warning shot at her abusive husband, was sentenced Friday morning to 20 years in prison.
Alexander was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for firing into a wall near her husband and his two young children at their Jacksonville home in 2010. Alexander has maintained that she wasn’t trying to hurt anyone and that she was standing her ground against a man who had over the course of nearly a year punched and choked her on several different occasions. Alexander says that she believed she was protected that day under the state’s Stand Your Ground Law, which gives people wide discretion in using deadly force to defend themselves.
A judge and a jury disagreed.
The State Attorney’s Office offered a plea bargain that would have sent Alexander to prison for three years, but she rejected it, hoping to convince a jury that she had been defending herself when she fired the weapon.
Alexander’s case has become the latest battleground in a fight against what Alexander’s supporters call the misapplication of the Stand Your Ground Law and Florida’s mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which offer stiff sentences for crimes involving guns.
According to Florida’s 10-20-Life statutes, anyone who pulls a gun during a crime receives a mandatory 10-year sentence. Firing a gun during the commission of a crime equals a mandatory 20-year sentence. Anyone convicted of shooting and killing another person during a crime is sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Alexander, who did not have a criminal record before the shooting, was convicted of felony assault with a gun.
Hmm, now I wonder what the difference is here?? F-cking travesty. Florida might be an even crazier and more racist state than Arizona! CLICK HERE to read more on MArissa Alexander’s case.
[Music Video] Hoodiez (The Trayvon Martin Justice Song!) feat. Scarface & Willie D of the Geto Boys
As well as Propain and D Boi. CLICK HERE for the lyrics and more details on the song.
Feels good to watch this video the day after it looks like the family of Trayvon Martin will finally get justice for their slain son.
[via Jasiri X]
[Event] Million Hoodie March in LA for Trayvon Martin
Date: March 26, 2012
Time: 4pm (gather), 6pm march
Location: Gather at Pershing Square
Los Angeles, California
Contact: answerla@answerla.org or 213-251-1025
March to coincide with Trayvon Martin’s family-led march in Orlando, FL.
Click for more details: Facebook | Answer Los Angeles
HELP SPREAD THE WORD!!!!
Previously:
President Obama on the Trayvon Martin Case: ‘If I Had a Son, He’d Look Like Trayvon’
President Obama on the Trayvon Martin Case: ‘If I Had a Son, He’d Look Like Trayvon’
This case is so mind-numbingly sad if only for being so unsurprising the way it’s turning out when you consider historical context. One particularly outspoken online pundit noted some chilling, even if not necessarily apropos, comparison to facts around this story and was dismissive of today’s call-to-action but I wore my hoodie up all day.
Read more:
– Fla. shooting: Teen’s friends say Trayvon wouldn’t have picked a fight; ‘that’s just not that kid.’ [Washington Post]
– A primer on the so-called Stand Your Ground Florida law that has kept Trayvon murderer, George Zimmerman out of jail. [The Lede Blog, NYT]
– More from The New York Times on the Stand Your Ground law.
– Why Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote on his blog for The Atlantic magazine that “the more I see of this, the less I think ‘Stand Your Ground’ will save Zimmerman.”
– Trayvon Martin’s killing prompts parents to have ‘The Talk” with their sons. [Seattle Times]
F-cking tragedy, absolute f-ckery, take your pick….