Wednesday, April 29, 2015

It's time to Break It Down!

A friend of mine characterized himself as “conflicted” over the Baltimore riots.  Another, a Baltimore native, described himself as “DISGUSTED!”  The all caps were his.  And yet another who reads my blog, added, “I’m looking forward to your take on the events today in Baltimore.”  All three made their remarks Monday, long before I decided what I would write about in today’s post.  Ultimately, the sequence of events made the choice for me.  To that end, let’s do this.

Ta Nehisi Coates, a son of Baltimore, himself, who wrote a nearly 16,000 word, 10 Chapter essay on “The Case for Reparations,” featured in the June 2014 issue of The Atlantic, has weighed in with, as you might expect, a nontraditional view of the matter.  Mr. Coates essay was a powerful instrument for initiating, and in some cases, provoking, discussion about a subject Americans often find difficult to broach.  In an effort to leverage the national discussion that ensued, I blogged about the topic myself in my June 4, 2014 post, entitled, “Why Reparations?”  For your convenience, both Mr. Coates essay and my blog post are included in separate links below.

All that taken aside, my reference to Mr. Coates relates not to his views on reparations, but to his reaction to Monday’s Baltimore Riots.  On Monday, Mr. Coates penned another piece that appeared in The Atlantic, this one entitled “Nonviolence as Compliance.”  In this piece, Mr. Coates opines, “Officials calling for calm can offer no rational justification for Gray's death, and so they appeal for order.”

While he said much more than that, those words right there; one sentence, eighteen simple words synthesize and crystallize the catalyst for why Baltimore was at least temporarily beset by rioting.  You could reduce Coates’ articulate phrasing to a shorter, but perhaps more powerful, and much more familiar meme: “No justice, no peace.”

Let me say straight away, there is no simple secret sauce coding that explains what unfolded in B’more on Monday.  Yes, there was rioting, looting, threats, and rumors of all that and more.  Numerous individuals engaged in criminal behavior; much of it captured on video.  These acts included violence, and a substantial amount of property damage, some to vehicles, but most to businesses that served the community in which the riots occurred, and in which many of the rioters live.

Those operatives who call for peace in instances such as this are often called collaborators, and are considered to have betrayed the cause and/or the community.  Conversely, individuals who fan the flames of dissent, often leading to progressively escalating confrontational behavior are frequently referred to as instigators, and are frequently considered to be intent on fomenting violence and disorder.

In most instances, by the time a situation devolves and deteriorates to one in which there is this level and degree of yin-yang, the balance has tipped and events such as those occurring Monday evening are all but inevitable.  By the time crowd members had attacked police officers by hurling rocks and debris, and surely by the time business were looted or burned, Freddie Gray was long since no longer the issue.

These were acts of anger, spiked by a longstanding seething over past slights and sins against African Americans.  It is easy enough to submit that two wrongs do not make a right.  That is not just easy to say, but also a fact.  However, another fact that too often gets lost in the high intensity media frenzied translation that accompanies occurrences such as this in the digital age/24-hour news cycle, is Freddie Gray’s demise was not the first, or the twenty-first, of the fifty-first of it’s kind.  It was just the next…in a long and tragic litany of black lives lost to violence perpetrated by law enforcement officialdom.

Given the myriad of dynamics, moving parts, related to just the actions in Baltimore this week, I can appreciate why one of my friends would feel “conflicted.”  His sense of personal resentment, no doubt fueled by the recognition that, as the Baltimore Sun reported results from a study conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):

·      At least 109 people have died after encounters with police in Maryland between 2010 and 2014
·      Nearly 70 percent of those who died were black, and more than 40 percent of the people were unarmed
·        Blacks make up 29 percent of Maryland’s population
·    Of the 109 cases studied, less than 2 percent of the officers involved in the deaths were criminally charged

There is a deep level of food for thought integrated in those findings; at least, there should be.

I can also understand the sentiment of the friend and Baltimore native, whom declared himself “DISGUSTED,” by the events of Monday evening.  His mother still lives on the Westside of Baltimore, less than 10 minutes away form where much of the action went down.  In his words, it “Makes ABSOLUTELY ZERO SENSE to tear up/burn up your own stuff…the few businesses that are bold enough to come to and stay in your community.  I’m DISGUSTED tonight!!!”

Moreover, I can see very well why a third friend would say, “I’m looking forward to your take on the events today in Baltimore.”  At this point, it is imperative to emphasize, the issues on the ground in Baltimore are complex and historically entrenched.  However, they are also not just present in Baltimore, Maryland.  As I have noted in other posts, they are evident in locales as far afield as:

1.    Stanford Florida (I know Zimmerman was not a police officer, but as a neighborhood watch captain, he took the law into his own hands),
2.    Staten Island, New York,
3.    Ferguson, Missouri,
4.    Cleveland, Ohio,
5.    Beavercreek, Ohio,
6.    North Charleston, South Carolina,
7.    Charlotte, North Carolina (my hometown)

I have written about troubling and related events in each and every one of the communities listed above. 

Back to B’more, as I’ve have already stated, the looting, burning, and violence that took hold in parts of Baltimore is criminal.  Authorities there are justified in calling it such, and in seeking to bring offenders to justice. 

But let us not pretend it is fair, courageous, or even minimally acceptable to suggest that an individual who was apparently healthy during the police’s pursuit of him, in great pain and discomfort as he was arrested (captured on audio/video), and dead from a nearly severed spine 2 hours later, was taken into custody “without excess force.”  It is this unfathomable narrative that ultimately served as the fuel for the rioting.  The Mayor, the Police Commissioner, and any other official who has in effect chosen to say “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it,” bears a considerable share of the onus for the ugly events we now contemplate and review.

I pray for the Baltimore community.  I sincerely hope that state/local officials and disaffected citizens resolve their issues without addition mayhem.  If there is a lesson to be learned from this community dysfunction, it is that the days of grin, bear it, and suffer in silence are behind us.  We are barely a month into spring, but, frankly, this blowup foretells a long, hot American summer, if police officers continue to flagrantly African Americans, unabated.  There you have it; my take on “Baltimore:Dissecting the Riotous Behavior!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com.  Find a new post each Wednesday.

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Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:














http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/28/us/baltimore-riots-authorities/index.html

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Dangerous Encounters With Police: The Flip Side

It's time to Break It Down!

Another week has commenced, and it is tempting to elevate for review and discourse the next African American male killed by a police officer, Mr. Freddy Gray, of Baltimore, Maryland.  B’more, as Baltimore is affectionately known, has often been cited as a place where relations between police and poor sections of the black community go awry.  That appears to have happened in the case of Mr. Gray.

In an encounter that is being investigated by local, state, and federal authorities, many questions remain.  In what local law enforcement officials insist was a police stop that involved no force by police officers, Mr. Gray was found to have a nearly severed spine, and died one week after being taken into custody. 

Temptation notwithstanding, I’m not going to sift through the details of that case, as we know them, for this week’s post.  Instead, I will highlight an instance in which an intrepid police officer, despite being confronted by a suspect whom the officer ordered to stand down on a number of occasions, chose not to use deadly force.  In fact, the suspect was not tased, not beaten, or shot to death.

Those circumstances alone make this situation stand out among the almost weekly procession of instances in which it seems another police officer (in fear of his life) shoots another black man, more often than not of late, unarmed.  But for perspective, add to the amazing confluence of unlikely circumstances, the suspect had been accused of killing his best friend and his fiancée.  In addition, the officer, Jesse Kidder, was a rookie with the New Richmond, Ohio Police Department.

There is little reason to doubt this man posed a danger to people in general, and at the time of this encounter, to the Officer Kidder.  Yet, instead of recapping the details of yet another tragedy, the Ohio cop is being praised as a hero for not shooting Michael Wilcox, a 27-year-old man who was apparently attempting to commit what is known in the vernacular as suicide by cop.

The entire incident was caught on Officer Kidder’s Body Camera, and shows that Mr. Wilcox repeatedly charged the officer and threatened to shoot the officer, if he didn’t shoot him.  He even reached into his pocket as if to retrieve a weapon.  As reported by MSNBC, the exchange below can be heard on the audio accompanying the Body Camera video feed:

“Shoot me or I’ll shoot you!” (Wilcox)

“No man, I’m not going to do it!” (Kidder)

Officer Kidder tripped while back-pedaling, but used evasive measures to avoid Wilcox.  Given the information available to the officer, including the details previously referenced above, and the fact that the dispatcher advised him Wilcox had a weapon, either on him, or in his car, and was fleeing another law enforcement agency, he could have shot and killed Mr. Wilcox and in all likelihood, been deemed justified by every authority who would have been called upon to review the details of the encounter.  Randy Harvey, New Richmond Police Chief, essentially said as much:

"For him to make the judgment call that he did shows great restraint and maturity. This video footage, it eliminated all doubt that this officer would have been justified if in fact it came to a shooting."

Despite those facts on the ground, according to ABC News, Officer Kidder persuaded Wilcox to lie down on the ground and surrender.  Prior to joining the police force on April 16, 2014, Officer Kidder was a Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, and won a Purple Heart.  The video of the officer’s actions, understandably, has gone viral.  In response to the many laudatory comments about his actions, Officer Kidder had this to say:

“Law enforcement officers all across the nation have to deal with split-second decisions that mean life or death. I wanted to be absolutely sure before I used deadly force.”

Mr. Wilcox has been charged with fatally shooting his 25-year-old girlfriend, Courtney Fowler.  He is also a person of interest in a Kentucky slaying.  He is being held in the Brown County Jail on $2 million bond.

Officer Kidder said a relative gave him the body camera following the deadly officer-involved shooting of Michael Brown last year in Ferguson, Missouri.  Chief Harvey is seeking funding to purchase more cameras.

It may have occurred to you, this incident ended in stark contrast to so many others in the past year, even in the past weeks.  Unlike in Ferguson Missouri, New York City, Cleveland, Ohio, North Charleston, South Carolina, and Baltimore, Maryland, the suspect survived.  And the suspect survived, even though:

1.   He was known to have killed (twice)
2.   He was deemed to be armed
3.   He charged the police officer
4.   He disobeyed commands to stop
5.   He threatened the officer
6.   He never retreated
7.   The officer was in continuous retreat

Despite a litany of aggravating circumstances, Officer Kidder has been deemed a hero, and much more importantly, Mr. Wilcox is alive.  I wrote this post, not to critique the actions of the officers involved in the recent incidents in the aforementioned localities, but rather to underscore the one central point I always try to make in discussions about matters such as this.  “Officers almost always has options other than ending a suspect’s life!”  No encounter is apt to make that point more compellingly than this one (fortuitously on video).

Finally, I would be remiss not to mention the elephant in the room.  While I do not know Officer Kidder, and would never deign to question the personal character of a Purple Heart recipient, I do know the one thing in this discussion that is not like all the other things.  Michael Wilcox, the suspect in this incident, is a white man…who is alive today after a recorded encounter with a police officer that few if any black men would have survived.  There, I said it…or at least, I wrote it.

I reiterate this is not a statement about what Officer Kidder would have done, had Mr. Wilcox been black, though that may be a fair point for consideration.  Rather, it is a point blank statement of the inescapable: White men are afforded greater latitude than black men when they are involved in encounters with police officers. 

That is a problem on many levels.  It is a reflection of flawed public policy, an indication of a tacit distinction in the valuation of human capital, and an undeniable example of inequitable treatment of individuals due to race.  All three of these points are incongruent with the “Exceptional” society we deem ourselves to be.  Please join me in taking the requisite actions to create A More Perfect Union, as hearkened in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, and in President Obama’s 2008 Speech using the same title.  As we move forward to that end, let this encounter remind us that for all the events such as those for which Ferguson and North Charleston have been recently highlighted, they do not have to end the way they did, because due to the events in New Richmond, we are aware of…Dangerous Encounters With Police: The Flip Side!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com.  Find a new post each Wednesday.

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http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/03/18/text-of-obamas-speech-a-more-perfect-union/

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The Ubiquitous Government Handout: Not Just the Purview of the Poor

It's time to Break It Down!

In the world of partisan politics, few things are more scrutinized and criticized than government handouts.  The topic has been a frequent target of Right Wing politicos for decades.  The familiar screed asserts that the ubiquitous giveaway is expressly reserved; no, targeted for the undeserving lazy, unmotivated, shiftless poor of our society.  After the main proposition come the supporting premise: We must eliminate this wasteful expenditure of precious resources.

The very notion is in fact a fallacy.  The truth of the matter is, the well to do benefit directly from the largess of government subsidies too.  As a familiar post-Obama meme goes, “We are all socialists now.”  In fact, not only are we, but we have been for quite some time.  “Social” Security, as it’s commonly called, for example, has been around since 1935, or 80 years.  Undoubtedly, there have been, and still are efforts to roll back, or eliminate it ever since the original Social Security Act, a compendium of social welfare and social insurance programs, was enacted.  Surely one can make the case that America employed policies that inured to the social or collective benefit of citizens before that time.  However, the 1935 measure marks an undeniable line in the sand.

What I want to make perfectly clear at this juncture is, it is not just the poor who sup at the government’s teat.  The well heeled seek, obtain, and accept benefits derived from government.  Last week, Emily Badger and Christopher Ingraham wrote a piece in the Washington Post that not only made this case, but delineated 10 current day examples of how folks, including those not defined or thought of as poor, come to receive government sponsored benefits.  I will list those items here for your edification:

1.    The mortgage interest deduction for big houses and second homes.  Thanks to this tax break, the 5 million households in America making more than $200,000 a year get a lot more housing aid than the 20 million households living on less than $20,000. Deductions for mortgage interest incentivize people already capable of buying big homes to buy even bigger ones. This tax break applies as well to second homes (you only get one second home though!). Note: In the eyes of the Congressional Budget Office — the official word on this in Washington — the mortgage interest deduction is equivalent to the government offering you money, not you keeping your own money.
2.    The yacht tax deduction.  If you’ve got a boat and you’re paying interest on it, that interest is tax-deductible – provided your boat is really, really big. If it has sleeping quarters, a kitchen and a toilet – e.g., it is a yacht – then it can be considered a second home and any interest you pay on it is deductible. But if you just have a garden-variety fishing boat or canoe, sorry – no deduction for you. Beyond that, if you have a yacht you can loan it out to a charter business for part of the year, and keep it for personal use the rest of the time. This allows you to deduct the purchase price, insurance, maintenance and slip fees too. [This image perfectly sums up inequality in America, according to the Internet]
3.    Rental Property.  If you're a landlord, which you probably aren't if you're very low-income, you can deduct many of the expenses you incur renting a home, including repairs, advertising, HOA fees and — again — mortgage interest. If you happen to rent out either your first or second home for 14 days or less — because, for example, Augusta National Golf Club is hosting the Masters nearby — you get to just pocket all that income without paying taxes on it at all.
4.    Fancy business meals.  Talking business over an expensive dinner? That's tax deductible, too, a fact that puts taxpayer spending on food stamps into relief. This is a good deal for, say, a CEO presiding over actual filet mignon at a five-star restaurant. Scott Klinger, now the director of revenue and spending policies at the Center for Effective Government, explains how this works here:

Imagine that the tab for dinner and drinks for 10 executives comes to $1,600. Current tax law allows companies to deduct half of the cost of business meals — in this case, $800. With a corporate tax rate of 35 percent, each dollar of deductions yields 35 cents of tax savings — so that $800 deduction saves $280 in taxes. This means one dinner for 10 people provides more public food assistance than the $279 an average household receives in food stamps for the whole month. [Missouri Republicans are trying to ban food stamp recipients from buying steak and seafood]

5.    The capital gains tax rate.  This is the big one. Taxes on investment dividends and capital gains currently max out at about 24 percent when you add in a Medicare surtax that applies to some investment income. But the top income tax rate is 39.6 percent. So investment income is taxed at a much lower rate than regular income. The annual earnings of many of the ultra-rich come from investments, not from wages. This is why Warren Buffett famously has a lower effective tax rate than his secretary.
6.    The estate tax.  “The Estate Tax is a tax on your right to transfer property at your death,” according to the IRS. Without the estate tax, super-wealthy families would be able to hoard that wealth in perpetuity, becoming ever more powerful in the process. The tax, as it currently exists, only kicks in on estates worth $5.4 million or more, affecting about the top 0.2 percent of households. For everyone else in the top 1 percent, congratulations! You can pass on your riches to your heirs tax-free.  [The double-standard of making the poor prove they’re worthy of government benefits]
7.    Gambling loss deductions.  Did you know that the government provides a generous tax deduction for literally throwing your money away? You can deduct your gambling losses up to the value of any winnings you earned. More gambling winnings mean more gambling deductions, incentivizing you to keep gambling more to at least break even. And if you’ve got more money to gamble, you’ll have more losses to deduct.
8.    Social Security earnings limit.  Social Security taxes only apply to income up to $118,500 – anything after that is Social Security tax-free. So the more money you make, the less your effective Social Security tax rate is, making this tax about as regressive as they come. Technically, of course, Social Security is a savings plan, not a tax. But the rich tend to live longer than the poor and receive benefits longer than lower-wage earners, so an adjustment to the earnings limit would help offset this difference. Social Security’s own actuaries estimate that eliminating this cap would reduce the program’s long-term deficit by about 86 percent.
9.    Retirement plans.  The federal government incentivizes retirement by allowing you to reduce your taxable income by saving money in 401(k) plans or IRAs. But employer-sponsored retirement plans only benefit those people with employers that offer them (so, largely not people who work in retail or the fast-food sector). And the benefit for IRAs doesn’t help people who have no money left over for retirement after they pay their living expenses. In total, about 66 percent of these retirement subsidies go to the top 20 percent of taxpayers. Less than 1 percent go to the bottom 20 percent.
10.  Tax prep.  If you have hired an accountant to help you sort through all of these tax breaks to make sure you maximize them — which the wealthy are much more likely to do — you get to write off that expense, too.

Now, I’m not a tax attorney, or preparer, or a member of the one percent.  I know the wealthy, as a rule, take great exception to most if not all ten of the points above.  And that’s OK.  Feel free to post your own thoughts on the subject.  One thing that is beyond rational repudiation is that corporate and wealthy welfare is real.  We can engage in earnest debate about whether such subsidies are earned, or simply a part of our economic system that needs repair. 

I know folks who believe that arguments such as that proffered by the WashPo writers amounts to wealth envy.  Interestingly, when arguments are made about the economic drain ensuing from the rich carrying the poor, few if any one from the ranks of the wealthy considers that poor envy.  And of course, it isn’t.  What wealthy person would actually want to be poor?  None! 

I don’t believe pointing out the systemic inequities listed in the items above is a function of any sort of envy.  Rather it is a legitimate effort to foster a conversation about aspects of our economic policies and practices that could be realigned and improved.    Meanwhile, my postulation remains, The Ubiquitous GovernmentHandout: Not Just the Purview of the Poor!”

I’ll leave it at that.  I’m done, holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com.  Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.”  Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

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