![]() One rationale for continuing stop and frisk practices is that it is a viable, proactive, and productive way for law enforcement to combat crime. Personally, I beg to differ. In my opinion it’s like using a sledgehammer on a nail. You may get the desired result but what else are you smashing? That’s how I feel about “Stop and Frisk”. We are well aware of the controversy surrounding the stop and frisk practices in New York City. There have been studies done, articles written, lawsuits filed, and issues debated yet this practice still continues. Other cities, Chicago for example, are now looking to use similar tactics as a means to reduce crime. In a Chicago Tribune article City Treasurer Stephanie D. Neely wrote: "We have a choice between living with the uncertainty of random gun violence and an occasional random stop that helps the entire community reduce the threat of guns. Would we prefer to continue being held hostage by thugs? Or deal with the inconvenience of stop and frisk?" Occasional random stops; held hostage by thugs; they have to do better than that. This is the same messaging used in New York City. We also have New York City Commissioner Ray Kelly asking "Why leaders upset with ‘Stop And Frisk’ aren’t protesting violence instead". He further went on to say: “The fact of the matter is that 96 percent of shooting victims are people of color, yet the community leaders are not speaking out about this. We’d like to hear from them,” Statements like these are the reason why we must continue to fight against stop and frisk practices. The end does not justify the means. These tactics do more harm than good.
In my opinion it is unacceptable for anyone to use that word anymore. Although I understand and cautiously accept the position that from an historical, educational or entertainment perspective the "N" word may be used (I did see Django), I do not subscribe to the wholesale use of the word as a term of endearment among African Americans. I'm not going to get into the historical reasons for my opinion. We all know what the word meant and how many people fought against the use of it. My knee-jerk response to my friend's question was: The issue is bigger than the "N" word. Somehow, somewhere we lost our sense of history and respect for those that came before us. Somewhere along the line speaking proper English became "sounding white". "Stupid" became cool. Individualism overtook community. ![]() In a few weeks we will be celebrating the first anniversary of the Marketplace. As I reflect on our first year I am humbled by the outpouring of support, encouragement, and kind words that we have received. I thank you for this and am looking forward to your continued support in the future. I'll cut to the chase, I'm asking you for money. In launching the Marketplace my original intent was to leverage various forms of social media to entice our followers to engage in meaningful dialogue and discuss some of the major issues facing us today. I quickly realized while facebook, twitter, and all of the other social networking sites are good vehicles to promote social awareness and social responsibility, they are passive at most. We can engage all we want but liking or sharing a post is not being socially responsible. To be socially responsible you have to act, you have to do something. In an earlier post I referenced the Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation's statement that: "....individual social responsibility includes the engagement of each person towards the community where he lives, which can be expressed as an interest towards what’s happening in the community, as well as in the active participation in the solving of some of the local problems......and everyone of us could take part in that development in different ways, for example by taking part in cleaning of the street on which he lives, by taking part in organization of an event, connected with the history of the town or the village or by rendering social services to children without parents or elderly people. The individual social responsibility also could be expressed in making donations for significant for the society causes – social, cultural or ecological. There are many ways of donating, as for example donating of goods or donating money through a bank account or online". |
EditorErnest R. Heyward is the Founder and President of the Marketplace for Social Awareness and Social Responsibility Inc. Categories
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