Let me be clear.  All  of the officers who responded to shooting at Ft. Hood should be considered heroes. With that being said, however, it’s time proper credit is given to the man who took down the misguided soldier– Sgt. Mark Todd.

From New York Times:

Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, 42, said in an interview Thursday that he fired the shots that brought down the gunman after Sergeant Munley was seriously wounded. A witness confirmed Sergeant Todd’s account.

In the interview, Sergeant Todd said he and Sergeant Munley had pulled up to the scene in separate cars at the same time. He said they began running up a small hill toward the building that held the processing center where unarmed soldiers reported for check-ups and vaccinations before deployment. The gunman was already outside, Sergeant Todd recalled.

“That’s when the bystanders were pointing in his direction,” he said. “And when we popped up, he was standing there, and we shouted our commands — ‘Police, drop your weapons!’ — and he just opened fire on us.”

Sergeant Todd said he was slightly in front of Sergeant Munley on the hill. “Once we took fire, she broke right and I broke left,” he said.

Click here to watch  interview.

Parents: Cops’ story of son’s suicide sounds shaky. The parents of a Mississippi high school star athlete aren’t buying the cops’ story that their son shot himself to death during a traffic stop. They want the NAACP to initiate an independent autopsy to determine how Billey Joe Johnson, of George County High School. The officer who stopped the 17-year-old running back said that he had gone back to his patrol car to do a license check and heard a gunshot. He said he then saw Johnson fall out of the driver side of the car with the shotgun on top of him. “The NAACP, along with the family, have determined that Billey Joe Johnson did not commit suicide,” Curley Clark, the vice president of the NAACP’s Mississippi chapter told The Mississippi Press. “At this point, nothing is concrete until the results of the autopsies have been made known.” Clark said the civil rights group will have the results of a second autopsy done this week.” This incident will not be swept under the rug,” Clark told WLOX. “We are going to make sure all the facts are brought out. We are going to provide the proper assistance necessary to sure no civil rights were violated.” Johnson’s brother, Eddie, said that Billey loved to hunt and would sometimes go early in the morning before heading to school.  That, he said, would explain why his brother had a shotgun in his car. Billy rushed for more than 4,000 yards in his high school career and had scholarship offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Oregon.

Alleged cop perps: “Swallow this. You’re going to see Jesus.” At least three Houston cops have been taken off patrol duty after they were accused of beating the dad of Green Bay receiver Donald Driver. Marvin Driver Jr., 56, was allegedly struck in the throat and forced to swallow a pill last week after he was arrested for outstanding traffic tickets. Officers Bacilio Guzman, Gilberto Cruz and M. Marin were all re-assigned to administrative work, pending an investigation, says Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt: “We take allegations such as these very seriously and will conduct a thorough investigation into the matter and be transparent in our findings, whatever the conclusion.”  Hospital officials say the alleged victim was struck with a blunt object and had a bruised abdomen, possibly from a knee. A family spokesman says the alleged victim reported that cops forced a pill into his mouth and said, “Swallow this. You’re going to see Jesus.” Driver was in good condition, but connected to a ventilator. Donald Driver recently re-joined the Packers after being at his father’s bedside.

Stephon Marbury sits out seven-player New York loss. Depending on whom you believe, Stephon Marbury either turned down a half-hour of playing time this past weekend, or was benched again. Marbury, who’s been on New York’s inactive list all season, says he taped his ankles to suit up versus Milwaukee, but Coach Mike D’Antoni claims the guard chose the bench. Following a three-player trade that left the Knicks with just seven players, D’Antoni says he told Marbury that 30 to 35 minutes of action was available in what would’ve been Marbury’s first appearance. “When the trades went down this afternoon, I said, ‘Look Steph, one of the principals are gone, Jamal Crawford…Are you ready to go?’” D’Antoni recalls. But Marbury, the coach claims, said he wasn’t comfortable and took his usual spot on the bench. Counters Marbury: “The only thing I’m at liberty to say is that I was told that they were moving forward, and I’m not the person who chooses who plays or doesn’t.” The Knicks went on to lose versus Milwaukee after avoiding a near-forfeit because of the short roster.

Figures show Black men are being harassed. The NYPD apparently is up to its old tricks. A report released this week shows the department stopped a record number of Blacks and Hispanics fin 2006, according to figures gathered by Newsday. Despite criticism about overly aggressive tactics, the NYPD appears headed toward stopping and questioning a record number of people this year, the newspaper’s investigation shows. The department in 2006 stopped 508,540 people – up dramatically from 97,296 stops in 2002. The findings have sparked a wave of criticism that minorities, particularly Black and Hispanic men, are being singled out and harassed by police. The total dropped to 468,932 last year, but in the first quarter of this year, 145,098 people were stopped – the highest quarterly total since the NYPD has kept those numbers.

Undercover N.C. cops Taser man at his father’s funeral.  Five Wilmington, N.C.-area sheriff’s deputies face disciplinary actions for using a Taser on a man as he served as a pallbearer at his father’s funeral, a North Carolina sheriff said Wednesday. Gladwyn Taft Russ III was serving as a pallbearer at the Saturday service and was loading his father’s casket into a hearse when the undercover deputies approached him, according to authorities. Relatives said two deputies, dressed in coats and ties, grabbed Russ and kneed him in his back before using a Taser on him. As they approached Russ, one of the deputy’s gun fell out of its holster, witnesses reported. “Everybody was so scared. We thought it was a drug deal gone bad,” said Ronnie Simmons, another pallbearer and Russ’ brother-in-law. “We almost dropped the casket.” Russ, 42, had failed to surrender after being charged with threatening his ex-wife, who lives in another state. After his father died on Nov. 11, Russ agreed to surrender to authorities after the funeral. When deputies approached Russ, he “went wild” and spat on the officers, Chief Deputy Ed McMahon said. New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey told The Star-News of Wilmington that five of the officers involved would be disciplined, although he wouldn’t say what punishment they would face. “I apologize to anyone that was there,” Causey said. “Family, friends, relatives. … That was a bad decision.” Russ was charged with assault on a government official, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct and felony malicious conduct by a prisoner.

Dwayne Johnson will appear in Tomorrowland.

Disney film execs hope former wrestling star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson can help them repeat the success of another amusement-park-inspired film that follows Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnson is set to star in Tomorrowland, a movie based on the space-themed attraction, according to Daily Variety. Johnson’s resume of previous films includes Walking Tall and Be Cool.

Oscar-nominee Don Cheadle relates bad experience with cops. Acclaimed actor Don Cheadle must return to court for jury duty in 30 days after he undergoes surgery, a judge has ordered. Cheadle showed up this week to serve in L.A. and answered questions about his experience with law enforcement. The star of new release Traitor says he was stopped by cops for no reason no less than five times when he was younger and there was a crackdown on L.A. gangs. He also told the court that his girlfriend’s car was vandalized recently and that Santa Monica officers never responded. Cheadle’s jury service would’ve involved an automobile-related crime.

Ex-husband of Atlanta mayor dies. David McCoy Franklin, the ex-husband of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin who was a trusted adviser of former Mayor Maynard Jackson, died Sunday, according to a death notice issued by Murray Brothers Funeral Home in Atlanta . He was 65. No cause of death has been disclosed. Franklin had suffered a long illness, Angelo Fuster, former spokesman for Jackson , told The Associated Press. Fuster said that Franklin ’s political smarts were “quite valued,” AP reports.

Blacks are the target of choice for Taser-wielding Houston Police

Life can be shocking if you’re Black and life in Houston . A new study released Monday revealed that Houston Police officers have used their Tasers on African-American suspects more than any other group of people. Read more at BET.com/News.

Philly cops nab third suspect in cold-blooded murder. Philadelphia Police have netted a third suspect in connection with the slaying of a 78-year-old Korean War vet who was shot in the face last week by thugs who attempted to rob him outside a Veterans of Foreign Wars post. The murder of the “sweet and gentle man,” as neighbors described him, shocked the community and the police, which launched an intense investigation into the homicide. Last Thursday detectives arrested two 18-year-olds, Karl Jarmon and Terrell Bennett. Their alleged accomplice, 15-year-old Gary Autrey, is now under arrest, according to homicide Lt. Mel Williams. The trio is being held without bail, charged with murder, conspiracy and weapons charges, police said. “We are satisfied that we took these predators off the streets and we made an arrest in a timely manner, and we were able to give the family closure,” said Lt. Williams. “It’s a tragedy whenever people prey on the old.” Enor Williams had been married to Connie Williams nearly 40 years and, according to The Philadelphia Daily News, was a devoted volunteer at the post. “I hate that [the murder] was the last thing that happened to him,” his 59-year-old widow told the newspaper. “I knew they would find him,” she said of the suspected gunman. “I don’t know how, but I did.” *

“Beverly Hills Cop,” “Boyz N the Hood” make cut.

The Los Angeles Times top-10 list of movies that best reflect L.A. city life and culture is filled with Black star power. Among the contributions are: Jackie Brown, starring Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson; Boyz N the Hood, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne and Ice Cube; Beverly Hills Cop, starring Eddie Murphy; and Collateral, starring Jamie Foxx. The movies included were all released within the past 25 years and feature the L.A. landscape as a “main character” in the script.

“Lakeview Terrace” minimizes its Madea factor

Apparently, Hollywood can only accommodate one crazy Black woman character at a time. Samuel L. Jackson’s new film Lakeview Terrace, co-starring Ray’s Kerry Washington, cut a scene in which Washington appears to “lose it” on camera. Washington, who plays the wife in a couple terrorized by their neighbor, pretends to seduce the next-door character, Jackson, but then pulls a knife on him. “It got removed,” she says. “The producers felt like, at that point in the film, my character was the only sane one and they needed her to stay sane in the mix. She was losing it.” Madea would surely be disappointed with the decision.

Philly cops raid a … baby shower?

The Internal Affairs Division of the Philadelphia Police Department is investigating what prompted a violent clash between officers and attendees of a baby shower that resulted in at least six injuries, including two toddlers and mothers who were maced, whipped with batons and otherwise roughed up, The Philadelphia Daily News reports. One of the victims, 1½-year-old Adima Davis, cried as she turned to her mother, Dionne Whitaker, and said, “Mommy, it burn.” Adima now has a bump near her left eye. Whitaker, 28, told the News that she had been at the baby shower in North Philly when a narcotics officers rushed into the yard and triggered a police “riot,” the newspaper reports. Officials with Internal Affairs and the city’s Police Advisory Commission are looking into the incident, according to the News. “These guys were totally out of control. They were worse than any thugs that I’ve seen,” said Joseph Williams, 47, whose nephew is the father of the soon-to-be-born baby. “It was like back in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, when Martin Luther King Jr. was marching . . . Women and children were maced and beaten. Kids are crying and these cops were laughing.” This wasn’t the first violent encounter with civilians for two of the officers. Thomas Schaffling and Sean Bascom were also involved in a May 5 beating of three shooting suspects that was captured by a TV news helicopter and broadcast repeatedly on network television. Shaffling, a member of the city’s Narcotics Strike Force, is the one pulling suspect Brian Hall out of the car and kicking him repeatedly, the News reports. Bascom slugged another suspect in the head, face and collarbone. Police officials claim that in the latest incident the officers had chased drug suspect into the yard where the baby shower was being held. “But those at the celebration said that the suspect had not cut through the yard and that police had mistakenly arrested a relative who had just arrived at the shower with a gift in hand,” the News reported.
Professor moons another scholar during debate. The real question is whether Fort Hays University debate coach Bill Shanahan would have pulled down his shorts and mooned rival coach Shanara Reid-Brinkley of the University of Pittsburgh if he had known it would be wind up being the hottest video on YouTube. But as it stands now, he is known more for his scrawny backside than he is for his intellectual prowess. The videotape picks up after a debate on a racial top has ended, and the two professors are apparently arguing over a technical point. Seconds later the two coaches are yelling at one another, mixing in a healthy dose of cuss words. Reid-Brinkley calls Shanahan an “asshole,” and he proceeds to give her a close-up view, bending over and dropping his drawers. Fort Hays says it is investigating the crude demonstration. Fort Hays Provost Larry Gould told KSNW TV in Wichita that he just learned of the YouTube posting. “College campuses are the place to have thought provoking discussion, however we don’t condone the behavior in that video, mooning the audience and use of foul language is just inappropriate in many ways,” Gould told local ABC affiliate KAKE.

The young mother dialed 911 the day before her son was shot to death.
The day before Stephanie Thompson’s 4-year-old boy was shot to death, she called police to say that there was a man riding a bicycle around her Camden , N.J. , neighborhood with a machine gun. When police finally did show up, Brandon Thompson lay dead on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. He had been shot in the head. “I watched my baby get shot,” Stephanie Thompson, 21, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “I couldn’t get to him fast enough. I called 911 and told them. He was just riding around. It wasn’t like he was hidin’ it. This could have been avoided if they had done their job. Police acknowledge that Stephanie Thompson had called police about the man with the machine gun, but they are questioning whether that was the weapon used to kill Brandon , the Inquirer reports. Police also say that the boy ran into crossfire and was killed. Stephanie says that her son was playing in the street when the alleged shooter, Donald Lindsey, showed up with his machine gun. Stephanie Thompson told authorities that she heard a series of short, staccato blasts and ran to find her son. As she rounded the corner, she saw Brandon running toward her on the sidewalk, the Inquirer reports. The man on the bicycle saw him, took aim and shot him down, according to Stephanie Thompson. “I went to go pick him up and he had blood coming from everywhere. I just held him and told him to get up,” she said. “But he wouldn’t get up. He was only 4. And he was trying to run to his mommy. I couldn’t get there in time.” Camden arrived a few minutes too late. “The cops came and took my baby to the hospital and we wasn’t even there 5 minutes and he died,” she said. “He (Lindsey) looked me dead in my face when my son got shot. He knew he shot my son and he looked at me,” she said.

Civil rights groups say the Antioch Police force harassed African-American renters. 
An Oakland, Calif.-area police force established a special unit designed to run the Black folks out of town, according to civil rights groups who have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of African-American renters who get federal public housing aid. Originally, the lawsuit, filed in a federal court in San Francisco, included just five renters, but it was widened this week to cover all past and present Black renters who received federal vouchers in the East Bay suburb of Antioch, KTVU reports. The lawsuit alleges that Antioch officials created a special police unit called the Community Action Team to harass new African-American renters “by pressuring landlords and housing authority officials to evict Black tenants receiving vouchers,” the television station reports. Among the tactics allegedly used by Antioch Police were illegal search warrants or home searches without any warrants at all. Antioch officials deny the charges, saying the special police unit was created in July 2006 “in response to neighborhood demands for help in dealing with growing crime rates and persistent neighborhood problems.” The Community Action Team has been “extremely successful” in eradicating crime, they said, expressing disappointment that the civil rights groups filed a suit rather than negotiate with Antioch officials. “We believe that any objective review of our city’s policing efforts will reveal that these efforts are focused exclusively on criminal and/or dangerous behavior,” the statement said. “Claims of other, sinister motivations are untrue and irresponsible.”

Fisk climbs major money hurdle Fisk University climbed a major money hurdle this week, raising $4 million and qualifying for grant that will keep the doors of the financially troubled Tennessee-based Black college open, Shauntel Lowe of Black College Wire reports. Late last month, Fisk announced that it had raised $4 million in unrestricted funds just days before a June 30 deadline. By meeting the challenge, the campus will receive a $2 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Earlier in the year, Mellon also gave the university a $1 million contribution. “Thirty-four percent of contributions in support of the Mellon Foundation Challenge came from Middle Tennessee, and it is clear that with the help of our alumni, the community of faith, government leaders, as well as our corporate and foundation partners we can claim great victory this year,” said university President Hazel R. O’Leary. The institution is expected to raise more than $8.3 million this year, Lowe reports. Matthew Kennedy, the former director and concert pianist of the legendary Fisk Jubilee Singers, told Black College Wire that he thought Fisk would reach its goal. “I’m a very positive thinking person and I just didn’t think that Fisk would be faced with serious consequences such as having to close and I don’t think the public will let that happen because of the long legacy in the field of education that Fisk has,” said Kennedy, 87.