Politically conscious Blacks will celebrate “Black Solidarity Day” on November 2. It is always on the Monday before the general election. The next day, whites will reaffirm white minority rule in New York City, even though Black voters, alone, nearly emulate white voters.
Nearly three weeks later, leading Blacks and Black elected officials may call for a “Day of Outrage” to protest Black-on-Black” crime among young people who are born into a dysfunctional culture that has been shaped by white racists. Adults should look into mirrors before chastising Black teens.
Black children are born into chaotic and not structurally sound communities. When Malcolm X said that Blacks failed to control either the politics or the economics of our “communities,” he was not pointing fingers at Black children.
In fact, it is against the law for Blacks to control or discipline their own children. Only white people can discipline Black children with impunity. On the plantation, Black children were owned by white slaveholders, and not by their biological parents. Nothing has changed in 2009.
After the Civil War, Blacks were still wedded to the land. When Blacks became urbanized and sharecropping ended, the plantation system was reinstated, with the social sciences playing a pivotal role in keeping Black children in check.
The social sciences would expand the law enforcement net. Employment would rise for social workers, psychologists and special education teachers, among others. Compulsory education laws would become incubators for a system of white paternalism.
Too many times, Blacks have abandoned Black children. If Emmett Till’s uncle had stood his ground and had defied Mississippi’s Black Code, Emmett may be approaching his 70th birthday, and his uncle would probably have become a martyr.
John White has defied New York’s Black Code. He and his family are still alive. A panel of the Brooklyn Appeals Court this past Friday heard arguments on this appeal from a judgment of conviction involving a charge of manslaughter in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree.
The critical issue on appeal was not presented to the Brooklyn Appeals Court; that is, a prosecutor may abuse unreviewable, prosecutorial discretion. An appeals court will never second guess a prosecutor in overcharging or framing a Black defendant.
In any incident, a prosecutor may choose the legal status for the actual perpetrator and the victim. The Suffolk County district attorney’s office chose the Estate of Daniel Cicciaro as the victim and John White as the defendant. The prosecutor also wrongfully converted a Black man’s castle into a slave quarter.
A drunken lynch mob rushed to the home of John White to seize White’s son, Aaron, screaming insults, racial epithets and threatening to do bodily harm to the family and to rape White’s wife. The trial court found that White was wrong to have stopped the burglary.
Michael Longo, Aaron’s “best friend,” had established a fake MySpace account without Aaron’s knowledge, asserting that Aaron wanted to rape Jenny Martin, a white girl. This was a hoax, but the prosecutor refused to hold Longo accountable.
Longo took White to Jenny’s home to celebrate her brother’s 19th birthday. Cicciaro met Aaron White at the door and instructed him to leave. Aaron complied. En route to this home, Aaron received two cell phone calls from Cicciaro, yelling, “Get back to this party, you f–ing nigger…come back here so I can kick your f–ing ass.”
The white mob rushed to John White’s home. Aaron awakened his parents. The mob was threatening to enter the home. John White greeted them on the lawn with a pistol. Aaron was also armed with a rifle. They were still outnumbered.
When a drunken Cicciaro swiped at White’s gun, it discharged. Cicciaro had been warned to get off White’s property. The police arrived and summarily arrested John White. No questions asked. Case closed. The accessorial conduct of the white mob was privileged. No criminal charges were ever filed against any of them.
Under United States law, no Black person has a right of self-defense when the victim is white. Similarly, no Black woman has a right to complain of rape when the perpetrator is white. The criminal intent of a white person is also unimportant when the victim is Black. See also Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell and Omar Edwards.
This nullification of the right of self-defense is of no moment to leading Blacks and Black elected officials. None were present to hear the appeal of John White. A double standard of justice would have been of great concern to Black lawmakers like Congresspersons Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Gus Savage and Cynthia McKinney.
Surprisingly, the justices in Brooklyn did express concern about a trial court ruling that prevented the jury from hearing expert testimony about White’s racial experiences as affecting his state of mind. White mob violence usually leads to a Black fatality.
On the other hand, the prosecutor’s opening statement made a disclaimer on race, even though the prosecutor had wrongfully suppressed evidence about Cicciaro’s prior racist activities. This suppression of exculpatory evidence deprived White of a right to prepare a defense and receive a fair trial.
White’s appeal was a historic argument on the right of self-defense. It is rooted in a decision from the Missouri Supreme Court in Celia, a slave. An earlier decision from this state’s highest court had prompted Chief Justice Roger Taney of the United States Supreme Court to assert, “No Negro has any rights that whites are bound to respect.”
The right of self-defense is a subset of the right of self-determination. Self-preservation is the first law of nature. Thus, self-defense is a human right. Unfortunately, courts in the United States refuse to recognize any human rights and common law rights of Blacks, who are considered “heathens.”
In the area of public accommodations, for example, it was necessary for this country to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Nonetheless, this civil right is limited to interstate commerce. Public accommodation rights of Blacks fall far short of embracing the 14th Amendment.
If interstate commerce fails to impact on an eating establishment, whites may exclude a Black person. A white person, on the other hand, is entitled to eat at any restaurant, even if it is located in Appalachia. Under the common law, an innkeeper had to accept any white person.
Under state law, a prosecutor is entitled to another bite at the apple if any intermediate appellate court reverses the judgment of conviction. State law allows a prosecutor to automatically complain to the New York Court of Appeals that a victory at trial was snatched from his or her by an intermediate appellate court.
Similarly, if White is entitled to another trial, the governor must not only appoint a special prosecutor, but the special prosecutor must also seek a change of venue. The original trial resembled Dempsey v. Moore, which originally allowed for a mob-dominated atmosphere.
If the intermediate appellate court affirms the judgment of conviction, there is no automatic right for White to appeal to New York’s highest court. The Black “community” must be poised to demand that Gov. David Paterson exercise his unreviewable executive authority and pardon White for these bogus crimes. “People without vision shall perish.”
November 4–UAM weekly forum at the Elks Plaza, 1068 Harriet Tubman Avenue (Fulton Street), near Classon Avenue in Brooklyn at 7:30 p.m. Take the “C” train to Franklin Avenue.
See: www.reinstatealtonmaddox.net: “A Guide to John White’s Appeal, Part I & II”; “Political Forecasting in the John White Appeal”; Will Blacks Support John White on Appeal?” “Will Blacks Stop Mayor Bloomberg?” “Black Media is Misleading Black Audience”; and “Necessary Tools for Real Activism.”