The family of Deontae Faison, a San Francisco man who remains unresponsive months after being tased while struggling in the water, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the East Bay Park District officers involved. The incident, which occurred in April at Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park in Oakland, has sparked outrage as Faison’s family alleges the officers violated district policy and failed to provide crucial assistance as he called for help.

According to the lawsuit, the incident began when an officer approached Faison, 35, and a friend regarding expired vehicle tags. Faison, feeling singled out compared to his white friend, gave a false name, leading to an escalation when more officers arrived. Attempting to avoid further confrontation, Faison fled toward the water, where he was subsequently tased from behind, reportedly against district policy on taser use near water.

The complaint details a troubling series of events, including allegations that officers failed to call emergency responders or take witness statements. The lawsuit also claims that officers misrepresented the situation by falsely suggesting Faison was armed, deactivated body camera audio, and discarded his belongings. For over half an hour, Faison was left struggling in the water as officers allegedly stood by without intervention.

Faison’s attorney, Jamir Davis, condemned the officers’ actions as an “unforgivable” display of callousness. “The level of disregard shown by the officers who watched Deontae call for help without aiding him is beyond comprehension,” Davis stated, emphasizing that the family is seeking accountability for what they describe as a “senseless” tragedy.

The incident has left Faison, a father of two, in critical condition. He remains unresponsive in a hospital, with his family and attorneys pursuing justice amid growing questions about the officers’ handling of the case and allegations of racial bias.

Cellphone video taken by bystanders shows the man carrying a handgun and yelling racial slurs at the teenagers on bicycles blocking traffic in downtown Miami.

MIAMI (AP) — A white man was sentenced to probation in South Florida Tuesday for pulling a gun and yelling racial slurs in a traffic confrontation with a group of Black teenagers protesting housing inequality on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2019.

As part of a deal with with prosecutors, Mark Bartlett, 55, pleaded guilty to a hate crime and aggravated assault and also agreed not to possess a firearm for a decade, the Miami Herald reported. Bartlett must also perform 300 hours of community service and take anger management classes and racial sensitivity training. Bartlett could have faced decades in prison, but Miami-Dade County Judge Alberto Milian granted Bartlett a withhold of adjudication, which means Bartlett will avoid a formal conviction.Miami prosecutor exploring hate crime charges against Mark Bartlett for MLK rally incident.

Bartlett had previously claimed he was acting in self-defenseduring the confrontation, but following a 2021 hearing Milian ruled that Bartlett did not act reasonably in getting out of his SUV and pulling a pistol on the teenage protesters who had stopped traffic near the Brickell Bridge in downtown Miami. Bartlett had testified that he was being held hostage as his SUV was stuck in traffic and that he was goaded into repeatedly using a slur. He acknowledged the slur is a derogatory term for a Black person but denied that it was racist.

As a condition of his plea agreement, Bartlett apologized in court Tuesday and admitted that his words were hateful.

Cellphone video taken by bystanders shows Bartlett carrying a handgun and yelling racial slurs at the teenagers on bicycles blocking traffic in downtown Miami.

The protest involved potential loss of affordable housing in the impoverished Liberty City neighborhood of Miami. It coincided with a much larger event, “Wheels Up, Guns Down,” that was timed to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and involved mostly young African-American men riding motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles in traffic, popping wheelies and riding while standing on the seats.

Source: White man who pulled gun gets probation for MLK Day confrontation with Black teens

OPINION: As MLB celebrates the 75th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier, let’s remember that he was more than a baseball pioneer; he was a civil rights champion, too.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, some folks only concentrate on MLK’s dreams while ignoring his denouncements. King wasn’t just about fighting systemic racism. He also spoke forcefully against poverty and the Vietnam War, topics that endangered his life more than singing “Kumbaya” with Klansmen.

But whitewashing King’s legacy makes the status quo easier to maintain.

The same is true each Jackie Robinson Day.

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Today, April 15, marks the 75th anniversary of Robinson smashing Major League Baseball’s color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. His entry in 1947 started a ripple of integration across sports and portions of society (e.g., the military and public schools). After six All-Star seasons in a 10-year career, he retired and eventually was enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

And that’s where his story ends…unless you pay attention and reject any sanitized version of history.

Integrating the major leagues was no small feat and harder to imagine today, where some of this country’s most prominent Black Americans are pro athletes. Back then, no sport was bigger than baseball, “the national pastime,” which became deeply embedded in American culture and society as a galvanizing force after World War II.

Yes, Robinson broke a color barrier that had existed in the major leagues since 1884. But he wasn’t just a slick-fielding second baseman who was a terror on the base paths and a beast in the batter’s box. He was more than a baller who won awards for Rookie of the Year (1947) and Most Valuable Player (1949).

Those were issues of fun and games.

Matters of life and death were his real focus.

Robinson initially played meek in becoming an MLB pioneer, but he was never about that submissive life. He proved it in 1944—11 years before Rosa Parks—as a 25-year-old Army lieutenant. Ordered to sit in the back of a bus, he refused and was court-martialed.

As Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey prepared for the historic signing, he made Robinson promise to suffer racial indignities without objection. But the agreement lasted only two years, after which the MVP was cleared to not turn the other cheek. “From that moment on, I defended myself against anti-Negro insults with all the force at my command,” Robinson wrote in Baseball Has Done It.

Source: Don’t believe that whitewashed version of Jackie Robinson they keep telling you about

Ahead of this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a new documentary on police brutality will stream to Peacock. Produced by Public Enemy frontman Chuck D, Use of Force: The Policing of Black America premieres on the streaming service on Friday.

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Use of Force: The Policing of Black America will examine how Black men, women and people of color have been drastically and disproportionately subjected to and affected by police brutality. Chuck D also narrates the film, highlighting how the names of Black victims of violence from law enforcement flood the headlines, news feeds, and social media.

The deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Philando Castile, Sean Bell, and many others are covered here, as many are interviewed, and the circumstances of these cases are examined. In addition, the film will also discuss the protest movements, particularly Black Lives Matter, that have arisen from these incidents.Demonstrators march away from the Lincoln Memorial while protesting against police brutality and racism on June 6, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

As seen in the trailer, viewers will be reacquainted with the brutal footage of viral videos that captured the killings of Floyd, Castile, Walter Scott, and others, while also seeing footage and imagery of protests from the civil rights movement of the 1960s and Black Lives Matter protests for Floyd and Michael Brown in Ferguson, MS.

“Black communities have a deep-rooted fear of being treated unfairly by police,” Chuck D narrates. “Today’s political environment has carried on the tradition of protecting those who have been accused of excessive force.”

Source: Chuck D produced ‘Use of Force’ documentary examines police brutality and reform

*NEW YORK  – The nation’s most esteemed Black pastors, led by Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Calvin O. Butts, III, gathered during the Choose Healthy Life Black Clergy Conclave on Nov. 19. The virtual event brought together more than 100 influential Black clergy as well as public health officials and nonprofit and corporate leaders. The Conclave focused on the notable progress that has been achieved in the fight to educate the public and increase COVID-19 vaccination rates in the Black community and what must be done to sustain the successful effort.

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Leaders were briefed on the Choose Healthy Life (CHL) Action Plan, which provides COVID education, testing and vaccinations through the Black church– the oldest and most trusted institutions in the Black community. Since its launch earlier this year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day Choose Healthy Life has engaged over 6 million and vaccinated nearly 50,000 in the Black communities it serves among its 120 churches spread across 13 states.

Source: Rev. Sharpton Hosts National Black Clergy Conclave to Address lack of Covid Vaccines in Black Communities

Easter Sunday for Christians around the world is one of the holiest days of the year as it recognizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ three days after his crucifixion. Ironically, this Easter Sunday also marks the 53rd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s assassination.

On the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, King was killed at the young age of 39. In a recent interview with theGrio, Dr. King’s daughter, Bernice King, spoke on the harrowing details of her father’s autopsy pictures. The graphic images, she recalled, showed that Dr. King’s whole jaw had been shot off.

King also maintains a stance taken by the King family that his death was a multi-governmental conspiracy.

In efforts to keep his great work alive, there were massive plans to commemorate his life’s work. Dr. King is the only American civilian honored with a national holiday and larger-than-life statue on the National Mall in Washington. It is also safe to say the vast majority of urban cities have a street named and dedicated to the minister and civil rights icon.

King pushed nonviolence for first-class citizenship for Black America when all rights for Blacks were challenged in the United States, particularly in the racist Jim Crow south.

In the midst of great racist oppressive opposition, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a movement that grew in momentum and success. Decades after his death, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Dr. King’s efforts were championed by many. In the 1980s, the public and prominent figures rallied for a King national holiday, including his widow, the late Coretta Scott King, music legend Stevie Wonder and members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Former New York Congressman Ed Towns remembers the push for the King federal holiday in the early ’80s and the simultaneous investigation of the federal government’s involvement in the assassination of the civil rights leader. Towns told theGrio that “there was not enough time and energy” given to the original probe of King’s assassination.

Bernice King strongly contends there is still a search for answers as the assassination of her father was a culminated effort involving “federal, state and local governments,” including the “Memphis Police Department.”

More than half a century after his assassination, Bernice King told theGrio that James Earl Ray, the man convicted in Dr. King’s murder, “was used as a diversion with the gun that he had.”

Source: Bernice King maintains father’s assassination was government ‘conspiracy’

Norwegian Socialist Party member Lars Haltbrekken announced his appointment on Monday: “Abrams’ work follows in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the fight for equality before the law and civil rights.  

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“Abrams’ efforts to complete King’s work are crucial for the United States of America to succeed in its efforts to create brotherhood among all its people and a peaceful and just society,” continued Haltbrekken.  Abrams was credited with Georgia’s vote for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election and for the state’s two new Democratic senators in the second round last month.

  On Monday, we celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King’s 91st birthday; on Wednesday, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president, promising change after a dark period of division. Dr. King’s relationship with John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson offers instructive lessons for today’s movement for justice. Kennedy, inaugurated after eight years of Republican Dwight Eisenhower, brought new energy to Washington.

  Kennedy favored action on civil rights but was terribly worried that trying to move a civil rights bill would get in the way of the rest of his legislative agenda. During his campaign, his call to Coretta Scott King when Dr. King was jailed, helped him capture immense Black support in a razor-thin election.

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  Yet, he was wary of King, unhappy that King and the movement kept demonstrating and forcing change. King appreciated Kennedy but understood the conflicting pressures he faced. The movement continued independently. The Freedom Riders in Montgomery, the dogs and water cannons in Birmingham, the sit-in in Jackson forced Kennedy to act. Even then the legislation — and much of Kennedy’s agenda — was stuck in the legislature.

  Kennedy’s assassination brought Lyndon Johnson, the master of the Senate, to the presidency. Johnson decided to push civil rights legislation and put his enormous skills behind passing it. King conferred with Johnson and helped put pressure on legislators who were reluctant. King wasn’t simply interested in protest; he wanted a change in policy and was prepared to work with LBJ to get it.

  Johnson, like Kennedy, was wary of King. He often besmirched him in private, angry that King would not stop the demonstrations. Again, the movement — this time the dramatic scenes at Selma — forced action, and Johnson rose to the moment, leading to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. The collaboration of Johnson and King, however, soon ended. The Watts Riot angered Johnson who thought blacks should be grateful for what he had done.

  When Dr. King went public with his opposition to the Vietnam War, the relationship was severed. The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover continued its efforts to discredit and intimidate King. Today the situation is different. Black voters were critical to Biden’s election victory. He chose Kamala Harris as his vice president. He has reaffirmed his commitment to criminal justice reform, to addressing the continued disparities in education, housing, health care and opportunity.

  What African Americans still seek is an even playing field. On economic justice issues, our agenda speaks to all: the right to a job, the right to health care, the right to a high-quality education, retirement security. To drive reform, the lessons of the 1960s still apply. The movement for justice must continue to organize nonviolent protest, challenging the entrenched systemic racism that still pervades our institutions. It must continue to build, as Dr. King did, a poor people’s campaign across lines of race and region. The movement can’t follow Biden’s timetable; it must continue to build on its own agenda.

  There should be no reluctance to work with Biden to help pass critical reforms, but at the same time, the pressure for outside must continue to build for there to be any hope of change. The 1960s offer another caution: the war on poverty, the progress on civil rights, was lost in the jungles of Vietnam, as that war consumed resources and attention as well as lives. While Biden’s domestic pledges offer hope, he inherits a country mired in endless wars and gearing up for a new cold war with both Russia and China. Once more, follies abroad may sap the energy needed to rebuild at home.

  Once more, the movement for justice must not be silent about the administration’s priorities. Biden’s inauguration offers new hope and new energy. He inherits severe crises — the pandemic, mass unemployment, extreme inequality, the climate crisis, racial upheaval. He’ll need all the help he can get. And the best way the movement can help is to keep on keeping on.

The National Archives plans to release unheard FBI audio from when its director, J. Edgar Hoover, sought to destroy the growing influence of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The audio is set to be released on Jan. 31, 2027.

Two days after King’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, William C. Sullivan, the FBI head of domestic intelligence, signaled an internal alarm on King in a memo, according to ABC News.

“We must mark him now as the most dangerous Negro in the future of this nation,” Sullivan said of King.

Small numbers of protesters gather at fortified US capitols

“MLK/FBI,” directed by Sam Pollard, was released on-demand Friday. The film chronicled one of the darkest moments in the FBI’s history — their obsessive surveillance and harassment of the beloved civil rights leader who they believed was a threat to white America.

According to ABC News, from November 1963 until his assassination on April 4, 1968, the FBI wiretapped King’s telephone, bugged his hotel rooms every time he travelled and sought information from sources close to him.

“The film looks at this parallel story of the FBI and King and how they came together in terms of the FBI surveilling King, trying to destroy him,” Pollard said in an interview with BBC.

Source: FBI audio of plans to destroy MLK will be released by National Archives

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

Three African American health leaders — advocates for expanded health care who are on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19 raging across California — took a moment to reflect on the state of health care as the holiday honoring civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. approaches on Jan. 18.

Doctors David Carlisle, Elaine Batchlor and Adrian James are admirers of King and find his words of injustice in health care even more profound as hospitals and clinics are overflowing with COVID-19 patients — many of them African Americans and other people of color.

A million words will be written and spoken  

“On the day that we celebrate the great civil rights icon’s birthday, Dr. King’s sentiment has never been more relevant than today, as the pandemic has laid bare the great health inequities that remain in this country,” said Dr. Carlisle, president and CEO of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles. “COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on communities of color makes it more important than ever that African Americans, Latinos and other people of color seek out affordable health care coverage, such as through Covered California, and also get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available.”

Carlisle, Batchlor and James recently teamed up with Covered California to address vaccine confidence and encourage Black Californians to get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available and to sign up for quality health insurance coverage through Covered California or Medi-Cal.

Source: In Dr. King’s Honor, California Black Doctors Call for Urgent Action During COVID-19 Crisis