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Parent's Notebook: Getting to the Root of the Matter

Aminisha Black
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Working to end the violence that’s killing our youth while sending others to die via incarceration is the focus of the Notebook this year.  We have work to do in healing our relationships with self, children, family and each other enabling us to recognize shared goals and increase our ability to forge an environment that sustains rather than destroys life. It’s going to take more than pointing the finger and it’ll require all adults to take a personal, intimate inventory and commit to healing.  The Notebook invites everyhone to share their experiences, resources and results.The goal is to heal the pain and anger that we’ve allowed to grow to the point that our children are killing us and each other.

A Warning

– While this may not sound as exciting as the debates, angry accusations and headlines, but as parents and grandparents, I think we want more for our children and our future.  You are invited to join parents who want more, starting with practicing some of PN suggestions and sharing your experience whether it met with success or failure.  This week’s assignment:

*Get to know what your child enjoys doing and schedule those activities to reward or for special occasions.

*Catch him doing something right often, look for opportunities to say “Great job” Find a way to correct that doesn’t attack or make wrong, perhaps maybe you could try another way, and suggest another, working with the child not ordering or judging”.

*Give individual attention….Find a pocket of time for each child.  A mere five minutes focused on that child sends a message: “With all my parents have to do, I am important.  Needless to say, special trips and activities always make a difference.

*Acknowledge your child’s feelings.  Children have feelings and they should be allowed to express them.  Emotions are transient as long as they can be    expressed.  Stifled emotions affect the child’s perception of people and things in a negative way. Instead of criticizing, help the child to get to the source by helping him identify the feeling that triggers the feeling of being capable. Older children will probably be challenging.  Remember to present rational reasons, never “because I said so”.

* Accept and honor your child’s uniqueness.  Our children come through us and it is our duty to nurture and give them wings.  If we are nurtured, we grow to express our uniqueness and contribute to the world.  If we’re not, we wander the world looking for it to provide us with a sense of well-being, competing with others.*Allow your child to contribute. Chores allow children to experience partnering and contributing to the household which will instill confidence.  Find the skills and talents your child possesses and create ways for them to be used. Be sure to acknowledge them.

*Allow your child to choose.  Find opportunities for child to choose from a selection of sanctioned options.  We need to stop the attacks, blame and criticisms.  Simply state the facts so that constructive action can happen.  Start listening to yourself to hear what your child hears from you.  Know that it might not be easy since we’re generally repeating or reacting to what we grew up with.  We’re killing the self-esteem of our youth-our future and creating angry young people who kill.  All adults must get it…it simply has to stop.  The buck stops with each and every adult.  Share your results and questions.  Send to parentsnotebook@yahoo.com.

Despite Two Opponents, DA Charles Hynes Faces Greatest Campaign Challenge Yet: Himself

Mary Alice Miller
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Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes

Spend a little time around Brooklyn District Attorney Charles “Joe” Hynes and you know he plans to beat retired Manhattan DA Morgenthau’s record as NYC’s longest tenure in a district attorney’s office. “I run in 2013, 2017 and 2021, at which point I will be a little bit older than 90, which breaks Morgenthau’s record,” Hynes told Our Time Press last August. From his days as Special Prosecutor in Howard Beach more than 25 years ago, Charles Hynes has successfully run for election as Brooklyn’s top prosecutor six times. His 2013 campaign makes it seven.

Though unopposed in 2009, other races were clouded by what some call “political prosecutions” of candidates and their allies: challengers Judge John Phillips and attorney Sandra Roper, John O’Hara, Assemblywoman Diane Gordon and former Brooklyn Democratic County Leader and Assemblyman Clarence Norman. Ironically, Taharka Robinson, Hynes’ 2013 Deputy Campaign Manager, was once a target of Hynes.

This time, a growing crescendo of voters is asking questions about the incumbent, himself and his record as a prosecutor.

Suspicions of favorable treatment were exposed by a New York Times series of reports on the prosecution of child sex assaults within Brooklyn’s very insular Orthodox Jewish communities. The district attorney was forced to confront accusations of having a different set of rules, including withholding from the public the names of those prosecuted, deferring to rabbinical authorities who were to determine victim credibility and, at times, negotiating a guilty plea and probation.

In the face of those accusations, Hynes recently obtained the successful conviction of a prominent local rabbinical counselor for sexual abuse of a young female client.

On the flip side, other communities sometime experience over-the-top prosecutions.

Early in 2011, four young men were charged with pimping and sexually abusing an Orthodox Jewish young woman for 9 years. A year later, defense counsel learned that early in the investigation the young woman had recanted her claims. Hynes’ office was forced to drop the charges. Meanwhile, two of the men had been in jail for 10 months.

A few weeks ago, the Village Voice produced a scathing, detailed report of instances of alleged prosecutorial misconduct emanating from within the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

In one highlighted case, Jabbar Collins spent 16 years in prison for the murder of a rabbi, a murder he did not commit. Collins is suing the city for wrongful conviction. U.S. District Judge Frederick Block stated from the bench that he is “disturbed by Hynes’ behavior” in support of the prosecutor on Collins’ case, Michael Vecchione.

Collins’ attorney, Joel Rudin, has reportedly uncovered 56 cases of Brooklyn prosecutorial misconduct  since the mid-1980s.

DA Hynes is known both locally and nationally for his innovative crime prevention programs, from ComAlert and the Sex Offender’s Hotline, to domestic violence and antigang initiatives.

But as the borough’s top prosecutor, Charles Hynes will likely face pointed questions from this year’s challengers: Manhattan prosecutor Abe George and prominent federal prosecutor and defense counsel Kenneth Thompson – both men of color.

As reports of his decision to run were reported, Abe George characterized the Brooklyn DA’s Office as “way too political” regarding sex abuse scandals in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish communities, and then praised how Manhattan DA Cy Vance runs that office. But Manhattan doesn’t have the concentrations of Orthodox Jewish communities that Brooklyn has. Vance has not been faced with prosecuting crimes emanating from within extremely closed, insular communities.

George called the Brooklyn DA’s Office “antiquated” and not very technologically advanced, as if he would know. George has worked primarily in the special narcotics unit for years, and has come under his own scrutiny from those of us who read the papers and see the special treatment Manhattan whites receive when caches of drugs are found in their apartments, or when high-profile socialites die from drug overdoses. The former ADA does believe that prosecutions for small amounts of marijuana waste valuable law enforcement resources.

Kenneth Thompson first became widely known to Brooklynites for his successful investigation and prosecution of NYPD officers involved in the beating and torture of Haitian husband and father Abner Louima. Thompson’s trial skills compelled Police Officer Justin Volpe to plead guilty in the middle of the trial. He obtained a jury conviction of former Officer Charles Schwarz in the same case.

Thompson represented the mother of Romona Moore, a young Caribbean college student who was snatched off East Flatbush streets and chained in a basement for days where she was raped and tortured. Her body was found tossed under an ice cream truck. When Moore’s mother begged the NYPD for missing person status for her daughter, she was rebuffed and told Romona was probably with a non-existent boyfriend. Ironically, during the same time period, a wealthy white socialite went missing. NYPD pulled out all the stops, plastering Manhattan with missing person’s flyers and vans with bullhorns asking for information. That socialite was found in the East River.

Thompson gained worldwide recognition for representing the Manhattan hotel maid who was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a front-runner for the French presidency. Questions remain regarding how Cy Vance’s office handled the criminal prosecution which was dropped. Thompson stood by his client until she received a civil settlement from Strauss-Kahn.

Thompson also represented the schoolteacher who was approached at gunpoint by a drunken off-duty cop early one morning on her way to work, taken to a courtyard and raped. After ludicrous denial, that cop was convicted.

Kenneth Thompson raised $340,000 against Abe George’s $210,000 – both from more than 400 contributions. DA Hynes raised $27,000 during the filing period and had a January closing balance of $375,000 after spending $73,000.

According to one political strategist, George and Thompson should sit down and establish benchmarks that would determine which should go for a one-on-one against Hynes. Any individual challenger would face a tough race against Hynes, but with both men of color in the race chasing contributions and volunteers, Hynes would be able to go on vacation and still win… despite questions of his prosecutorial style.

Obama Gives Gun Control Proposals to Congress, Signs 23 Executive Actions; Assault Weapons Ban Passes in Albany … and Toddler is Shot in Brooklyn

David Mark Greaves
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State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Assemblyman Walter Mosley, Community Board 3 Chair, Henry Butler; Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Male District Leader Robert Cornegy (56AD)

                                            With the passage of the NY Safe Act, New York State has banned assault weapons and expanded the bans already in place on large ammunition clips.  It includes universal background checks for the sale of firearms; requiring the sale or transfer of firearms through a licensed firearms dealer; requirements on the safe storage of all guns; and a ban on the possession, sale or manufacturing of assault weapons.  It was a move overtly hailed by city politicians, but there was also an understanding that it is the handgun that is the weapon of death to city residents in general and the African-American teen population in particular.

In a March 2012 report, “Protect Children Not Guns”, The Children’s Defense Fund analyzes the latest fatal and nonfatal firearm injury data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2008 and 2009 for children and teens ages 0-19.1 years.  They found that 5,740, “or one child or teen every three hours, eight every day, 55 every week for two years, were killed by guns in 2008 and 2009”  and that they “would fill more than 229 public school classrooms of 25 students each” and 45% of them would  be African-American.   The assault weapon ban may protect those living outside the city but it is the handgun that is the problem in the African-American community.

“We need a greater level of intervention by the city, state and federal government to help deal with the out-of-control gun violence in our community,” said Congressman Hakeem Jeffries at a press conference outside of Herbert Von King Park this past Sunday.   He gave the examples of three handgun deaths: a  34-year-old father of three was shot dead in a Clinton Hill Diner,   a 92-year-old grandmother shot in E.N.Y.  “and on Thursday, just a few feet from where we are now, a 2-year-old toddler was shot while in his father’s arms, a short while after that an ABC journalist was killed just a stone’s throw away from the local police precinct.  Enough is enough”.

Both the congressman and City Councilman Al Vann spoke about the work being done locally to address the culture of violence that exists and “to ensure that our community gets the academic, cultural and recreational resources that we deserve, but we also need to make sure we address the gun trafficking that has brought a flood of illegal weapons into Bedford-Stuyvesant and the rest of central Brooklyn.  There is no gun that is manufactured in Bedford-Stuyvesant or anywhere in New York City,” said Jeffries.  They come from upstate or “up the I-95 corridor from states in the Deep South”.

At the conference Councilman Vann spoke of the community’s understanding of supply and demand and iterated some of the measures the local community has undertaken, many on a volunteer basis, to stem the demand side.  “We have a strong and positive relationship with our precinct, YES Task Force and other organizations,” said the councilman, speaking of the on-the-street daily work of members of the community, but they cannot affect the flow of weapons.  “We need the federal government and appropriate agencies to do what they must do to stop the guns coming into our community”.

Congressman Jeffries, now a member of the Budget and Judiciary Committees, said “We spent billions of dollars, in vain, trying to find weapons of mass destruction in a faraway land in Iraq; we should spend a fraction of that money trying to find the sources of the weapons of mass destruction that are wreaking havoc here in Bedford-Stuyvesant and New York”.  In response to a question, he said he would confront the second amendment and the right to bear arms.   “There is a second amendment right to bear arms, but there’s a first amendment right to freely assemble.   And we have to respect that right to freely assemble in safety.   The idea that the second amendment prevents the enactment of gun laws is just a smoke screen for the gun manufacturers to profiteer at the expense of the people we represent.”

As a member of the Budget Committee, Jeffries will be in the thick of the battle to bring resources for programs that cut the demand for guns, with Representative Paul Ryan across the table.  “I may have to put some Brooklyn on him,” Jeffries said after the press conference.

The complexity of the demand side requires a variety of solutions and lines of attack.   At a forum on violence held the previous  day at the Magnolia Tree Earth Center of Bedford-Stuyvesant, just down the block from the shooting of the 2-year-old, District Attorney Charles Hynes  said that his forty years as an attorney tells him that you “can’t believe in public safety without reducing recidivism”.    He said the program out of his office has a 2% recidivism rate and has as a centerpiece, “real jobs”.    All he needs to expand it is money.  “If I had a million and a half dollars, a drop in the budget, I could offer reentry to everybody coming home from prison”, but the system has more interest in “detention not prevention”.

A member of the audience brought up the historical aspect of violence and alluded to the intergenerational trauma of slavery and life for African-Americans in the United States.  The forum leader, Democratic Male District Leader Robert Cornegy said in order to get to that, we must first define the violence we’re seeing as “a public health issue” and that he and others were organizing around that aspect and are working to get that “to resonate through city, state and federal government”

Jesse Jackson’s Wall Street Project Pushing Hard for Parity, Access, “Economic Reconstruction”

Bernice Elizabeth Green
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Yesterday, The Rev. Jesse Jackson, Founder and President of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and The Wall Street Project, took time from his hectic schedule to talk to community media about the focus of the 16th Annual Wall Street Project Economic Summit, Wednesday, to be presented Jan. 30, 2013 thru Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 at the Roosevelt Hotel, 45 East 45th Street (at Madison Avenue) in New York City.

The Summit theme is: “Wall Street to Main Street: Economic Parity — The Struggle Continues.” The focus is: access to capital, career development and labor.

The Wall Street Project is challenging corporate America to end the multi-billion dollar trade deficit with minority vendors and consumers; while working to ensure equal opportunity for diverse employees, entrepreneurs and consumers.

Rev. Jacksom said, “The Coalition is moving on a plan for economic reconstruction.” While “the goal is simple,” he said, the task is great. “It’s about creating economic parity for our community,” which includes the homeowner facing foreclosure, the small businessman struggling to stay alive, the striver seeking career opportunities, the laborer seeking work.

And Rev. Jackson is set on making those voices heard, from Selma to the White House, and, reversing the theme, “Main Street to Wall Street.”

“There’s a lot of talk in Washington about the expanding poverty, racial disparities,” he said. And there should even be more talk on what can be done to meet the challenges, and howThe Street can help the streets of America.

At the forefront of creating ideas for and discussion around strategic solution is Rev. Jackson’s annual “Summit” project which brings together the nation’s leaders “from politics to corporations to entrepreneurs to to discuss the economic concerns unique to men and women of African American, Hispanic and diverse cultures.

“We know what Dr. King would be focused on today,” wrote Rev. Jackson in a recent column. “Nearly one in four children are being raised in poverty. More than 46 million people struggle with poverty in this wealthy nation. Nearly 18 million households are ‘food insecure.’”

“Millions are facing foreclosure. School budgets are being starved, even as jails are stuffed. An extreme and obscene gulf exists between rich and poor, with working families suffering mass unemployment, falling wages and increasing insecurity. There is a growing racial polarization as African Americans and Latinos, the greatest victims of the Great Recession, are the last to recover from it. Schools today are more segregated than they were in Dr. King’s time, but now no one talks about it.”

At this year’s Wall Street Project Summit, some of the nation’s top leaders will be talking about it. Invited speakers and special guests include: former President William Jefferson Clinton, Governor of New York Andrew M. Cuomo, New York Senator Charles Schumer (D); Former New York Governor David Paterson, and Rev. Al Sharpton, President, National Action Network (NAN).

Highlights of the three-day conference include:
• Wall Street Project Career Symposium: Three-in-one career advancement session geared to strengthening professionals with the tools, insights, skills and resources to enhancing and managing career opportunities.
• Raising Our Voices On Advertising in The Marketplace: Corporate Marketing Officers and ethnic media representatives will discuss how their advertising and marketing efforts are meeting the needs of growing ethnic markets.
• Parity in Public Procurement Opportunities: A panel of state caucus chairs and federal officials will discuss best practices for accomplishing parity in public procurement, construction projects and management of public pension funds.
• New Development in Hedge Fund Opportunities: The session will focus on recent alternative investment trends, including federal regulation of hedge funds, barriers to minority participation, unintended hedges, pension fund liquidity, the endowment model, total return and payout ratios.
• The Business of Hip-Hop: This Forum is a must for all 21st century entrepreneurs and business owners of all backgrounds. Panelists will examine the positive impact and extensive business opportunities of an often misunderstood and overlooked business opportunity, Hip Hop.

The 2013 honorary co-chairs are Danny J. Bakewell, Sr., Chairman & CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association; John Graves, Pres. & CEO PR Networks, Inc.; Mellody Hobson, Pres., Ariel Investments LLC, Louis James, Pres., & COO, Motor City Logistics; Byron Lewis, Founder & Chairman, Uniworld Group; Former NY Governor David A. Paterson; R. Donahue Peebles, Chairman & CEO, The Peebles Corp; James Reynolds, Jr., Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, Loop Capital Markets LLC; John W. Rogers, Jr. Chairman & CEO, Ariel Investments LLC; New York Senator Charles Schumer (D); Maceo K. Sloan Chairman, CEO & CIO, NCM Capital and California Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D).
A full agenda and speakers can be found online: www.wallstreetproject2013.org

Eddie Castro’s SPORTS P.J. Is The Answer

Eddie Castro
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With an awful December now in the rear-view mirror, the Nets are suddenly playing better despite the distractions of a coach change and the sexual assault investigation that forward Andray Blatche was connected to and then later was cleared by Philadelphia police earlier in the week. The team is currently on a 4-game winning streak and no victory during the streak came easier then when they bludgeoned the 76ers by the score of 109-89. With Tuesday’s win, the Nets improved to 6-1 under interim coach P.J Carlesimo and what do you know, Deron Williams seems to have found his swagger once again. “D-Will” is averaging 20 points per game, 8.8 assists and is shooting 48% from the field in four games in the New Year.  The Nets currently have a winning record of 20-15, which puts them in second place in the Atlantic Division behind the cross-town rival New York Knicks. In the Eastern Conference, Brooklyn is currently holding the 6th seed. When coach Carlisemo was asked about Brooklyn’s recent winning streak he said, ” You become confident when your’re winning, and right now, we’re going good”.

       The easy schedule the Nets have had as of late has been beneficial, but the next 5 games may really test them as a team with games against Indiana and back-to-back games against a pesky Atlanta Hawks team, followed by the Knicks, Timberwolves and Rockets, all of whom who are potentially playoff-bound teams. What the Nets have been doing a lot of lately is really amazing. In 4 games in 2013, the team has scored nearly 110 points per game while giving up less then 90 points per game to their opponents. For the most part, their defense, which has really been efficient all year, is still performing well with the likes of Brook Lopez, Andray Blatche, Kris Humphries and you can even throw in Reggie Evans, who had a career-high 23 rebounds Tuesday night. The offense has been impeccable of late. The question is, can the team keep up this recent offensive surge? If the Nets look to continue to win the way they have been winning, Deron Williams must become the vocal leader for the team. After all, he is without question their most explosive player on offense. It would be very unfair to expect them to score 110 points every night, however, in this league you win games by defense, and so far, the Nets have the potential to find ways to get it done on the defensive side of the ball.

          As of now, it is all smiles for Brooklyn fans. The Nets seem to be back on track, but for how long? I don’t want to bring up the December they had as a team but this is where the consistency factor comes into play. According to reports, Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson has said he does not intend to coach at all, so the man they call the “Zen Master” won’t be walking in the Barclays’ Center anytime soon. P.J. Carlisemo is doing a fine job so far as the team’s interim coach. If the team continues their winning ways Carlisemo could find himself in the same predicament as Knicks coach Mike Woodson was in last year, that is going from interim coach to the main man at the helm with a multi-year deal in play. Maybe it’s a bit too soon to make an assumption like that considering there are still 47 games left to go in the season and anything can happen from this point on. If Carlesimo can get all of his players to adapt to his coaching style and if Williams can somehow overcome the injuries he’s playing through and perform like the top-5 point guard that he is capable of being, there is no reason why Brooklynites shouldn’t expect playoff basketball to make its way to Atlantic and Flatbush.

Sports Notes

: (Football) According to reports, the Jets have fired offensive coordinator Tony Sporano after only 1 season. Defensive coordinator Mike Pettiene will leave the Jets after 4 seasons and join the Buffalo Bills coaching staff.  (Basketball) After a very intense game against the Celtics on Monday night, the Knicks look to get things back on track as they welcome in the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls are one of 2 teams this year who have defeated the Knicks twice this season (Houston Rockets being the other team).  The Nets look to extend their winning streak to 5 games as they welcome in the Phoenix Suns to the Barclays Center on Friday night.

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