Thursday, July 16, 2015

Sitting down with a hero, and some harsh words for an organization that currently has none.

The NAACP was just in my hometown for their annual conference, and I am hoping that Mayor Nutter didn't give them the keys to the city. If he did, I would like to formally request to have them back.

Needless to say that I am very disappointed with that venerable organization. I will tell you more about them in a minute. But let me start this post by praising one individual and an organization as well.

I will start with the individual, Feidin Santana.

I met him earlier today in Washington, where he was receiving an award, and he was kind enough to give me a brief interview.

For those of you who were wondering who Feidin Santana is, he is the gentleman who videotaped the police officer executing Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.

I think I heard it somewhere before, but I was somewhat surprised when he told me that English is not his first language. He was clearly more comfortable speaking in Spanish, and I told him that I spoke a little of his first language, but he was kind enough to talk to me in English.

Image result for feidin santana images    The first thing you notice about the guy is how shy he is. He almost seemed uncomfortable with all the adoration and attention that he was getting.

FN: How  did you keep your cell phone so steady? Especially with all that was going on. Do you have any formal training with videos?
FS: No, I was just in the moment. I was never trained to so anything like this.
FN: What made you decide to start filming in the first place?
FS: I was just watching them, and it didn't look good. I could just tell that it was going to be something serious. 
FN: Did the police try to get the videotape from you?
FS: No, no they didn't.
FN: Given all that has happened would you do it again?
FS: Yes, I would. I don't like to see injustice.

Some other folks were trying to get his attention at this point, so I thanked him for his time and made my exit.

So this 23 year old hero videotapes the horrific incident, tracks down the victim's family, and gives them the videotape. 

This, in spite the fact that he could have sold the video to one of many outlets for money. Or, he could have taken it to the police. Fortunately he was smart enough to know that if he had, he might have never seen it again.

Feidin Santana  is a hero, and he deserves all the recognition that he is getting for what he did on that sad day in early April, 2015.

The organization giving Feidin Santana his award also deserves praise. Thanks to Santana's actions they have actually adopted a resolution  whereby everyone of their members are to "strive to become proficient with the use of mobile devices with video capabilities as a deterrent to voter intimidation and police misconduct."

Five stars for David Honig and the MMTC folks. As far as I can tell this is the first civil rights organization in the country to adopt such a resolution. This is important, because citizens need to understand that under the First Amendment they have every right to videotape police officers when they suspect misconduct when officers are acting in a public space. Just remember to tell them what you are doing, be respectful, and do not in any way obstruct them.

If you follow those rules you will be fine.

Now contrast this with the aforementioned NAACP, who, from all accounts, were given the opportunity to do something similar and refused to do so. Apparently they don't think it's cool for their members to get involved with things such as police misconduct.

Huh???? Hellooooo, you are the NAACP. This is EXACTLY the type of thing that you should be doing.

And we wonder why every day we see another incident like this popping up all over the country.

If organizations like the NAACP won't be proactive and stand up for the victims, who will?

Sadly, the Feidin Santanas of the world don't just grow on trees.


*First pic from nbc.com
**Second pic from thetimes.co.uk, Santana with the mother of Walter Scott.  














23 comments:

Limpbaugh said...

A very insightful description of what is involved and its importance.

PilotX said...

Brave young man.

Anonymous said...

Feidin Santana is the kind of person many of us should be but are too cowardly to do the right thing. This young man put his life on the line for justice. Indeed, he is a 'rare' human being of color, esp in America.

The NAACP is a useless and ineffective organization. Rachel Dolezal WAS the best the NAACP had to offer in terms of effectiveness of an organization expected to fight racial injustice particularly for Blacks.

God bless Santana.

Yīshēng said...

Anonymous said...
Feidin Santana is the kind of person many of us should be but are too cowardly to do the right thing.
>>>>>>>>>>>>

Do the "right thing" for who, Black Americans who when you need, them often cower instead? OTOH, how many Blacks who stood up for other Blacks, caught a bullet in the head? Malcolm or Martin anyone? Or lost their jobs?

I personally NEVER spent another dime in SC after that flag issue from many years ago. And that was hard because I enjoyed yearly vacations in Hilton Head or Myrtle Beach. But how many Blacks did the same? VERY few.

I had to learn the hard way that when you need a Black American (especially an educated one) to have your back, you're screwed!! I also learned that when those Black Americans have Caribbean or African roots, being a united front is a given.

Slavery permanently f**ked up the mindset of the typical Black American.

Joder La Resistencia said...

Which is why blahs are still living on the Democrat plantation.

My hopes is one day blacks will break the chains that bind them and once and for all live as free-thinking Americans.

Anonymous said...

Yisheng, "I had to learn the hard way that when you need a Black American (especially an educated one) to have your back, you're screwed!! I also learned that when those Black Americans have Caribbean or African roots, being a united front is a given.

Slavery permanently f**ked up the mindset of the typical Black American."

11:56 AM
---------------
I have had such experiences with my peeps for 80+ years. It's painful. It's like being stuck on an island of no support or relief. You know you can't trust Whites but the most dangerous ones are your own people who are sell-outs.

Every Black knows the pain of betrayal by fellow Blacks. It's been going on since slavery. Slavery certainly takes a toll on the human heart. It can break the spirit of its victims, esp 400 years of it.

And if slavery permanently eff'd up our mindset, then we are ALL screwed. There is no recourse except to be among the 'living dead'.

It's too bad there is no solution, or rather no one has a solution that works. This problem is beyond human comprehension. One would think with the millions of therapists in America, there would be an interest among them to tackle the problem of racism.

Alas! they are awfully silent about it. It makes me wonder: How effective is therapy? We have more therapists than ever yet the world keeps getting worse.

This is a job for God.



How depressing....but it's true.

PilotX said...

I disagree Doc, there were many folks who boycotted SC when the NAACP started the boycott. Myself included. You been messing with the wrong blah folks.

PilotX said...

Another mass shooting in Tennessee. The shooter was killed so he must have been blah. If he was white they would have taken great pains to take him down alive.

PilotX said...

Plus he didn't go after schoolkids or old folks in a church so it couldn't be a white guy. #cowards

Joder La Resistencia said...

Why you angry bro?


I love pilotx. He brings the racial stupid everyday.

Joder La Resistencia said...

Now that the Obama Administration found out dude was Muslim, they are walking back their claims of domestic terrorism.

This mass shooting will be called a local crime story by the press and the Obama Administration will call it a random street crime.

Yīshēng said...

PilotX said...
You been messing with the wrong blah folks.
>>>>

Not anymore PX outside of my own family, 99% of the Blacks I associate with now are either African or have Caribbean ancestry.

But those are the Black folks dominating STEM fields/earning multiple degrees now, so I guess it's not a coincidence after all, "Kanye shrug".

PS- I can't WAIT to get back to the SC beaches later this summer! :)

field negro said...

Let's see of this shooter in TN used social media. Dude was from Kuwait and was a naturalized Am citizen.

Doc, have fun at the beach.

Bill said...


field negro said...
Let's see of this shooter in TN used social media. Dude was from Kuwait and was a naturalized Am citizen.


No mention of the nra or foxnews?

Ouch.

Anonymous said...

"No mention of the nra or foxnews?"

Well, you can thank the NRA for indirectly helping this fine jihadi gentleman obtain the weaponry he used to carry out this murderous attack.

And you can count on Fox News to use the attack to devote plenty of airtime to the proposition that this proves all Muslims are scum. (This will, of course, take time away from their regular assertions that all Latinos are scum, all blacks are scum, all gays are scum, etc.).

Happy now, Bill?

field negro said...

Glad u fixed it for Bill, Anon. I am sure he was going crazy.

Limpbaugh said...

From what I've seen of Fox News lately, it looks like 24 by 7 coverage of the immigrant who shot a girl in San Francisco. It's constant lobbying against sanctuary cities. My understanding of the purpose of sanctuary cities is it is just so that illegal immigrants won't be afraid to report crimes. And it only means that the police don't act as immigration officials. The real problem in that case was that the guy wasn't in jail. But what strikes me as strange is that Fox is pushing the subliminal message, vote for Donald Trump and don't vote for Jeb Bush. It doesn't seem like Fox would want to do that.

Anonymous said...

Blogger PilotX said...
I disagree Doc, there were many folks who boycotted SC when the NAACP started the boycott. Myself included. You been messing with the wrong blah folks.

3:36 PM
-----------
Yeah, you're in that bucket of untrustworthy Blacks. For instance, you keep using the inappropriate word 'blah' for your own people in support of Santorum who is quite condescending toward Blacks. Also, that boycott was ineffective. Why? Because the 'majority' of Blacks in SC did not support it.

Finally, to say Yisheng has been messing with the wrong kind of BLACKS, is to deny the truth of the enormous sell-outs in the black community. If we aren't killing each other, we are selling each other out in the corporate world.

It's no secret that Blacks are not unified. Why? Because we have learned through the centuries that few of us are trustworthy.

Yisheng spoke the truth. She said what we ALL feel and know about from experience....EXCEPT YOU, OF COURSE. I'm surprised you are still alive, considering you live on the South Side.

I live on the North Side....Near North and I can tell you Blacks don't hang out together because:

1. They don't want to be seen together because they are afraid what Whites might think.

2. They want to fit in with the Whites, not Blacks.

3.Having Whites as their 'best' friends is safer than having Blacks who, at any given moment will sell you out.

Those three points are universal in America among Blacks, outside of one's family.

PX, I wouldn't trust a brother who keeps calling Blacks "blahs", which is the degrading label Santorum called us. I wouldn't trust your ass as far as I can throw the Hancock Building.

KC is right. You are stupid.

Anonymous said...

Limpbaugh said...
From what I've seen of Fox News lately, it looks like 24 by 7 coverage of the immigrant who shot a girl in San Francisco. It's constant lobbying against sanctuary cities. My understanding of the purpose of sanctuary cities is it is just so that illegal immigrants won't be afraid to report crimes. And it only means that the police don't act as immigration officials. The real problem in that case was that the guy wasn't in jail. But what strikes me as strange is that Fox is pushing the subliminal message, vote for Donald Trump and don't vote for Jeb Bush. It doesn't seem like Fox would want to do that.

8:17 PM
---------------
Their 'main' purpose is to give 'teeth' to Kate's Law by keeping it front and center in the minds of Americans. I am not a FOX NEWS fan but I am a fan of what's right. SF is a sorry city when it comes to immigrants but overly zealous when it comes to police brutality of Blacks.

I guarantee you NO BM who a criminal is out on the streets in SF. In fact, I am sure you have read about the injustices of SFPD against Blacks.

The Bay Area is a racist area spearheaded by the big three: SF, Oakland, and Berkeley with Richmond not far behind.

Nevertheless, I am for FOX NEWS hammering away for Kate's Law, which will stop illegal aliens from gunning down our citizens. Kate has not been the first American shot dead by illegal aliens.

Anonymous said...

NAACP:

Negroes
Are
Aggressive
Childlike
Primates

field negro said...

I bet u stayed up all night trying to come up with that one.

Racists are just not very smart.

Anonymous said...

Hey did you hear about that gang of black youths that put a gun to another black kids head and made him give verybody in the gang a blowjob? Thankfully some sow took a selfie and posted it on Twitter. She must of taken tips from Santana because that camera was steady as fuck.

I wonder if those Dindus realize that they are gay? Keep that shit on the down low!

Anonymous said...

it was much more important to defend Rachel Dolezal.