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Re: Last week's disturbances in St. Petersburg.
This is twice now that Omali Yeshitela and his Uhuru thugs have incited a riot. Last time I checked, inciting a riot and disturbing the peace were against the law. A white man could not get away with what he is doing. Our constitution guarantees us the right to peaceful demonstration.
Furthermore I don't care what he says; he is not about furthering the cause of the African-American citizens of St. Petersburg. He is hitting them right in the wallet. Businesses that were being considered for south St. Petersburg may have to rethink their investment now (jobs). Existing businesses will have their insurance rates go up. If they choose to stay in the area - and that is worthy of debate - they will have to pass along price increases to their customers to afford insurance and the extra "cost of doing business" because the Uhurus are in town.
How will the city recoup the money it has spent on cleanup and all the overtime for the police officers involved, not to mention increases in the city's own insurance bills related to this kind of stuff? Most likely a property tax increase that will affect black citizens as well as white.
We need real leaders in the African-American community to recognize these facts and oppose Yeshitela and his gang with all their might. Real leaders recognize that the Uhurus are about being stuck in the '60s, not progress. Real leaders recognize that Yeshitela's time and energy could best be spent trying to further the cause of better education, and better job opportunities in Midtown, instead of destruction. Real leaders recognize that more law enforcement would help down there, not less as Yeshitela seems to propose. Think about it. He is causing more problems for the African-American community than his supposed villains (the police) are.
The disturbances Wednesday evening in St. Petersburg destroyed my conviction that we live in a civilized society. When any element of our community feels justified in burning, looting and trying to harm innocent people, regardless of race or religion, we lose the respect of our peers. It seems to me we need to bring back the draft and send those responsible to Irag. Perhaps they can "bully" people into submission and establish their own lawless domain.
Those responsible should be charged with "felony stupid" for their actions. Then again, perhaps I should be charged with "felony dumb" for thinking we are a civilized society!
Re: Crowds throw rocks, bottles, May 13.
"The people are angry and outraged," said Chimurenga Waller, an Uhuru leader. "The mayor incited this rebellion."
The NAACP along with the responsible leaders of our black community must come out immediately and specifically discredit Omali Yeshitela, Waller and the Uhuru movement as mindless fools without any agenda other than creating chaos to impede the positive changes being made here.
If the Uhurus are not politically neutralized now, St. Petersburg may very well revert to division and paranoia to the detriment of progress and, to the satisfaction of the Uhurus, who then will be able to point at this city and claim no lasting progress can ever be made under our present form of government.
Re: Crowds throw rocks, bottles.
It seems pretty clear to me the goal of the Uhurus, and whomever else was responsible, in inciting a riot when they did, i.e., during the wrongful-death trial regarding TyRon Lewis. The Uhurus wanted the jurors, white or black, to feel an implied threat: If you do not award money to Lewis' survivors, and therefore give us the "moral" victory we seek, we will burn the city and injure people.
O.J. Simpson's lawyers used the same tactic by injecting race into that trial, thus ensuring no juror would convict Simpson on the overwhelming evidence against him, and as a result feel responsible for dozens of additional deaths in Los Angeles, and millions of dollars in property damage. How transparent.
Re: Crowds throw rocks, bottles.
Does Chimurenga Waller realize that he is helping to destroy the neighborhood that the city is trying to rebuild? His hateful comments directed toward city officials only fuel more unrest in a part of the city that desperately needs some rational leadership from a minority leader.
When will he begin to behave like an adult?
I have been reading and listening about the incident involving the Uhuru movement and the violence in south St. Petersburg. I am appalled that it is even allowed for this Uhuru movement to demonstrate. In my experience it is only legal and constitutional to have a peaceful assemblage. I feel that Chimurenga Waller and all of the people involved in that movement should be held responsible for the damages done throughout the night, and be charged with terrorism.
I am very sorry for these women and families who have lost their children. Nothing can compare to the pain of losing your babies in a violent manner. But I also stand behind the police. Maybe the officer did have time to move or make some other decision, but that goes both ways. Unfortunate things happen when people act stupidly.
Big surprise! Local network TV stations spent the last two weeks reporting and displaying film of the 1996 riots following the police killing of TyRon Lewis. So: The local black socialist leader woke up and realized he had a media event and stirred up the troops again.
So: St. Petersburg police reacted against the rioters, the community suffered more gunshots, more fires.
So: The TV stations now have another 3-5 minutes of "news" and more video to archive until they want another visual event.
I understand the need to bring news to the public. But this smacked of creating news, and we all pay.
Re: Much ado about race, May 11.
Reading this article, I kept expecting to find some reference to Kenneth Branaugh's movie version of Much Ado About Nothing, yet found it oddly missing. I wondered then if the point of the article was more about stirring up racial conflict than demonstrating a point. I am curious as to what was hoped to be achieved by this article, which basically says, "He's playing a bad guy, and he's black!"
Those who are Shakespeare fans (as I would hope John Fleming would be, being the St. Petersburg Times performing arts critic) might recall that Branaugh's rendition also contained only one black actor: Denzel Washington. However, there was no hubbub about this because his character was Don Pedro - a prince, a leader, a war hero. The villain was portrayed by Keanu Reeves, who is decidedly not African-American. To my knowledge, no one complained that this was a case of racial stereotyping because the "white" guy was plotting against the "black" guy. It was not unnecessarily converted into an issue of race, unlike the Times' coverage of the St. Petersburg play.
I hope that no one felt compelled to reconsider his or her plans to watch a masterpiece performed simply because of the overstatement of ethnicity on the part of the Times.
Re: Firearms ignorance is rampant, letter, May 5.
Well, I guess the progun correspondent who put us all straight about weapons categories made us antigun liberals look stupid.
And I'm sure the families of the Columbine victims will be much relieved to know their children were slaughtered not with an automatic, but a semiautomatic rifle.
Re: Teen held in Virgin Mary smashing, May 11.
We are shocked that the police chose to not charge Kyle Maskell with a hate crime. Even if he claims to be neutral on all religious issues, it is most obvious he targeted that window for a specific reason.
He lived in the neighborhood, and he knew what the window was there for. If it was merely felony criminal mischief, he could have chosen a local home, car or business. However, to commit this crime, Kyle had to walk through rows of chairs parishioners sit in and shoot over the prominent cross in full display, targeting the window that specifically represented the Virgin Mary.
Obviously the police are being oversensitive due to Kyle's unfortunate childhood. This can have no bearing on whether he violated the law or not. There is a point that everyone reaches where they are responsible for their own actions.
The article quotes the police as saying that Kyle broke down crying with remorse. If he had been truly remorseful, he would have come forward before he was caught. If crying and saying that you're sorry allow you to get a reduced plea in Clearwater, then we will become a haven for criminal behavior.
This has nothing to do with our personal religious beliefs (we're not even Catholic). It has to do with the ability of all of us to be able to practice religion in a hate-free environment. It is still not too late to charge Kyle Maskell with a hate crime. We hope that other community leaders will come forward to pressure the Clearwater Police Department to do the right thing.
Re: Teen held in Virgin Mary smashing.
Kyle Maskell is the 18-year-old boy who wrecked the eight-year-old Virgin Mary glass. He is not a criminal, he is merely a foster boy. Can you relate to how he is feeling? Do you know what it is like to not have family, to feel alone in the world, to have numerous foster homes? Would you open your home, your heart, to a child in need of love and attention?
How about all of those Christian teachings? Do you not stand endlessly by the Mary to reflect upon them? Why don't you simply ask yourself, what would Jesus do? Would he persecute the persecuted or show his true love is stronger than punishment? Does Jesus not use the ugly as a suitable circumstance to make things beautiful? These are the questions you need to seriously look deep inside yourself for the answers to. Find that Christian within.
Maybe instead of sending this 18-year-old to prison for five years, why don't we re-evaluate from his perspective. Does he really deserve to go to prison among the murderers and rapists? Does he really need prison on top of an endless list of foster homes? Of course he should have re-evaluated what he was doing, but just think, your Christian spirit could be his forgiveness.
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