Times Recorder and Americus Police Dept. Kill Parental Discipline

Beth Alston's article entitled "Craig Walker Arrested NAACP VP charged with child cruelty" that appeared in the September 26th issue of the Americus Times Recorder, is another desperate effort to damage the character of Craig Walker by reporting not only a distorted article, but also by summarizing Walker's past. As usual, Alston conveniently avoided the facts in Walker's arrest for spanking his niece that resulted in a felony offense.

There have been headlong attacks on Walker by the Times Recorder and the local police. But what makes this arrest troublesome is that it was done without thinking about the cumulative effect of humiliation on parents might face if they try to discipline their children. The NAACP views Alston's latest bias and insensitivity when reporting, especially on black community leaders such as Craig Walker, as opportunistic. After all, it is the same Beth Alston who called Walker and two other NAACP officials idiots."This unnecessary arrest by the police department and the reporting of the arrest by Alston, will contribute to unruly children who will someday shoot a policeman or teacher, all because they weren't disciplined.

Why was Walker arrested for first-degree child cruelty? These are the facts: Craig Walker's twin sister called him when she was unable to discipline here fifteen-year-old daughter. Walker has been involved in the raising of his sister's four children for years. After Walker arrived and intervened in the disciplining, his teenage niece made a movement at him in a disrespectful manner. And, as a result of that movement, Walker used a switch (a small branch) on this niece's legs that left a few welts. His niece ran next door and called the police. According to Walker, two policemen arrived. Walker's sister told the officers that her daughter was not hurt, and she had called her brother to come and help discipline the teen.

The NAACP has learned that the officers had different opinions about whether the incident warranted an arrest. Nelson (white) thought it was a simple punishment by a family member at the request of the child's mother, while Ross (black) thought the punishment was excessive. Walker told the Observer that Ross spoke with his superior, Major Richard McCorkle and that is when the maximum sentence was given. Although Walker's niece required no medical attention, Major McCorkle charged Walker with child cruelty. As informed readers, you be the judge whether Craig Walker should have been arrested for first-degree child cruelty.

Our newspaper was told that several girls were laughing at the picture used in the Craig Walker article; this shows that both Black and White children are feeling a sense of empowerment over their parents or legal guardians. The irresponsible journalism from the Americus Times Recorder continues to send the wrong message to our citizens.

The Americus Police Department is just as bad as the Americus Times Recorder. If our astute citizens will notice, the Times Recorder will partner with any entity to damage the efforts of the NAACP. When the election board attacked Black candidates, the Times Recorder reported negative news on Nelson Brown, James L Bryant, and Mathis Wright. When the Board of Education went after Victoria Harris, a Black principal and the only Black school superintendent, Dr Franklin Perry, the Times Recorder smashed these individuals. And, when the police gave Craig Walker the maximum sentence, you guessed it: Beth Alston, like a vulture searching for any bad news on Craig Walker, pulled out her special anti-Walker pen and seized on the opportunity to publicize his sentence.

Moreover, Alston's article failed to mention that officers Nelson and Ross draw different conclusions at the scene about the severity of the beating and the need for an arrest. Or, that Walker's sister told the officers that her daughter was not hurt, and that Walker's sister called him to come to her house to discipline her daughter. Or, that Walker assists his sister in raising her four children for years. Or, that justice is not "blind" whenever Officer Ross encounters black "suspects." Did Alston's article deliberately omit these facts? Or, as a seasoned reporter, her reporting has become sloppy in obtaining the facts? Both are bad for a reporter and a newspaper! Had Alston reported just some of these facts, her readers might not see Walker as a monster.

By the way, we support parents' right to discipline their children. But, we cannot have it both ways, if parents can't discipline their children at home (and teachers can't discipline whenever students become unruly in their classrooms) without fear of going to jail. The unanswered question is: How can parents and teachers respond to a child's unruly behavior at home and in the school system? Our newspaper has been told by many citizens and community leaders that the parents need to discipline their children. The recent arrest of Walker for disciplining his niece and the inaccurate reporting of Times Recorder leave parents and teachers with a serious dilemma if they are faced with an unruly child at home or in the public school.

The NAACP will diligently watch and listen if other parents or guardians are arrested for spanking their children and are given the same sentence as Walker's. And should an incident happen, the NAACP will be just as diligent in observing if Editor Beth Alston records the arrest with such vigor and with the absence of facts as she wrote on Walker.

We have reported time and time again that The Americus Times Recorder Newspaper is the Black communities' enemy. Their reporting on Blacks is racist. They often attack local black candidates running for public office and Blacks who fight for fairness. The local NAACP, or any black person who threatens the status quo in our community of wrongdoings.

A rush to judgment on the arrest of Walker by Beth Alston is another attempt to smear an NAACP official by not reporting all the facts. This end game mentality of Americus Times Recorder will continue until our community decides enough is enough of the double standard Times' reporting by its star reporter, Beth Alston.

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FREEDOM

By Mathis "Matt" Wright, Jr.

For centuries, Freedom has been the most sought after and prized of all human rights.  This pursuit has bore witness to significant milestones over the years, such as the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Yet, the prize is not yet won; the pursuit continues today, and slavery, while no longer marked by the presence of shackles and chains, is still alive and well.

Traditionally, slavery was defined by one's ownership over another in servitude; today, however, careful observation would reveal the fundamental nature of slavery in the oppression of the poor by some of our Nation's affluent.  This oppression may not necessarily be overt, or even intentional in some cases, but it is here.  It was here in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where the social-economic status of the victims involved apparently amounted to political disinterest.  It is here in Sumter County, where small businesses are systematically overwhelmed in the interest of large business owners and their investors.  It will soon be here when Social Security for the poor and the elderly becomes non-existent in the near future.  It is even present in the U.S. Military, where our brave soldiers, to include my very own son, are sent to distant lands at the risk and sacrifice of their own lives-all for the interests of big businesses (though they and all Americans are told they are fighting for a noble cause).

Newfound slavery is here-oppression of the lower class is still here-and to combat it we must first recognize it as real, and then, united by our common understanding, continue reaching for the milestones that will one day result in true freedom.

Don't continue being a slave.  Recognize that your days of servitude are long over.  In his speech at the Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987, former President Ronald Reagan stated that "Freedom leads to prosperity." If we are ever to truly prosper as a people and as a community, we must first obtain complete and total freedom.  Keep your eyes on the prize.

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CAST THE FIRST STONE

Police Chief James Green

By: James L. Bryant, Jr.

After much controversy surrounding the arrest of NAACP 1st Vice President Craig Walker and his subsequent felony charge of child cruelty in the 1st degree, I would like to devote this editorial as an open letter to Chief James Green of the Americus Police Department in hope of some answers which might dispel the growing concern that the Americus Police Department is unorganized, inefficient, and unprofessional. But before I continue, there are some good people within the police department who work hard everyday to ensure that our citizens are safe especially Commander Nelson Brown, Assistant Chief Johnny King, and a few others.

To those people, I say thank you very much. But then there are a few people within the department who don't have the best interests of the citizens at heart and actually place a dark cloud over the department and make it difficult to distinguish the good officers from the bad. This is where leadership comes into play. As chief of police, it is your responsibility to weed out the bad cops who are only there for a paycheck. As the head of the department, it is your duty to make sure officer morale is high and the work environment is conducive for learning how to protect and serve the citizens of Americus. I am confident that you will agree with me on the above statements.

In closing, there are some questions I would like to know such as: Why didn't Bill Murray or his wife get arrested when they were cussing and pointing shot guns at one another, but officer Ross was quick to arrest Craig Walker for spanking his unruly niece in front of her mother? Wasn't the Murray fiasco at least disorderly conduct? When Mayor Barry Blount and Bill Murray's daughters were arrested for DUI's on separate occasions, why did officer Ross tell us that no mug shots were available because the camera was broke? I guess the camera was fixed when Craig got arrested. Why did officer Ross place Craig in jail when he could have released Craig on his own recognance similar to the way Judge Rucker Smith was handled?

Why hasn't an arrest been made involving the death of the two black girls Brenda and Priscilla? Maybe you should place officer Ross on this case instead of Craig Walker. If you are willing to answer these questions and have permission from CAO Charlotte Cotton, then I will definitely be willing to have them printed in the next edition of this newspaper. The next time your department attempts to arrest a parent for spanking a bad child, go out and catch some real criminals. Remember he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone!

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Condoleezza Rice Pimps the Civil Rights Movement

By George E. Curry

When I sat down to watch "60 Minutes" Sunday night, I knew that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be appearing. I expected the same old run-of-the-mill defense of the Bush administration and, in that respect, she was predictably predictable. But when the discussion turned to her upbringing in my native state of Alabama, it was clear that this smart, able and doctrinaire bureaucrat was basically pimping the Civil Rights Movement.

She talked in moving terms about the four girls killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. One of them, Denise McNair, "was my little friend from kindergarten" and another, Addie Mae Collins, "was in my uncle's homeroom in school."

Referring to her childhood, Rice said: "Nobody lived in an integrated fashion. Since you couldn't go to a restaurant until 1964, or stay in a hotel, or go to a movie theatre unless you wanted to sit in the rafters…in the Black only section…colored-only section. And my parents were determined to try and shield me from some of those humiliations."

Rice was 8 years old when that bomb exploded in Birmingham. I was 16 years old at the time. Perhaps because of our age difference, I knew then and I know now, there was no way any parent could shield their children from the indignities of de jure segregation.

My mother couldn't shield me from the fact that after working all day as a domestic, she was forced to ride home in the back seat of her employer's car. My stepfather couldn't shield me from the knowing that if I rode the city bus to town, I would have to sit in the back - which is why I always walked if I couldn't catch a ride with a relative or friend. My parents couldn't shield me from racist ministers appearing on television, saying that if God had wanted us to be equal; He would have made us the same color. Nor could they shield me from being called the n-word or being forced to attend all-Black schools and live in all-Black neighborhoods.

By all accounts, Rice was a Black blue-blood. Her father, John Rice, was a Presbyterian minister and guidance counselor. Her mother, Angelena, was a science and music teacher. And what did they do to eradicate those oppressive conditions that African-Americans were forced to endure?

"My father was not a march-in-the-street preacher," Rice told an interviewer for the Washington Post. The decision to use children in protest demonstrations is one of the main reasons the walls of segregation came tumbling down in my home state. But Rev. Rice would have no part of it.

"He saw no reason to put children at risk," she told the Washington Post. "He would never put his own children at risk."

And that's the point. Many Black middle-class families refused to confront America's version of apartheid, yet when the doors of opportunity flung open, they were the first to march through them, riding on the back of poor people who were unafraid to take risks.

Many of us teenagers were willing to take risks that many adults wouldn't. I was in the 10th grade when Joe Page, a fellow student at Druid High School, drove us to Birmingham to protest the deaths of those four girls. We were supposed to be in school, but going to Birmingham was the best education I could have received at the time.

Another childhood friend, Ronnie Linebarger, and I were in the middle of most street demonstrations in Tuscaloosa and we know the smell of tear gas. Another schoolmate, Jean Corder, and her entire family were active in the movement. We found a way in 1965, my senior year in high school, to participate in the last leg of the Selma-Montgomery March.

As teens, we took risks and in most instances, our parents would have preferred that we take the safe way out. Our parents didn't want us harmed. They didn't want us beaten. They didn't want us tear-gassed. They loved us as much as Condoleezza Rice's parents loved her. But our parents also knew that the system was wrong. And while they worried about our safety, they allowed us to fight for our rights.

So, watching Condoleezza Rice on "60 Minutes" talk passionately about the Civil Rights Movement when her family sat on the sidelines, stirred a lot of emotions. She can talk passionately about the horrors of that era yet seemingly feel no shame that her parents chose to sit on the sidelines.

Perhaps that's why Rice feels so comfortable defending George W. Bush, arguably the worst president on civil rights in more than 50 years. Unlike her parents, she is not on the sidelines - she's on the wrong team. And in the wrong role - Super Fly.