California State University, San Bernardino CSUSB ScholarWorks Black Voice News Special Collections & University Archives 8-21-2014 Vol.42 n.04 August 21st 2014 CSUSB Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/blackvoice Recommended Citation CSUSB, "Vol.42 n.04 August 21st 2014" (2014). Black Voice News. 60. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/blackvoice/60 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Collections & University Archives at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Black Voice News by an authorized administrator of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Inland Southern California’s News Weekly August 21, 2014 Volume 42 | Issue 4 theievoice.com Military Tactics Exacerbate Unrest, Tensions Between Police and Black Community Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz explains how past lessons have improved relations with minority communitiestheievoice.com | AUGUST 21, 2014 | VOICE 1 2 VOICE | AUGUST 21, 2014 | theievoice.com inthisissue publisher’snote feature Ferguson Debacle Illustrates The FERGUSON Importance of Diversity In Hiring DEVOLVES he recent debacle in Ferguson, Missouri is a case study Riverside Police Chief T in why diversity in hiring is important, especially when it Explains How Past Lessons comes to public safety. The images coming out of Ferguson Have Improved Relations in the aftermath of the fatal police shooting of the unarmed With Minority Communities teenager Michael Brown look less like an US neighborhood and cover more like an overseas warzone, with a police force equipped NEW YORK CITY - AUGUST 14 2014: Thousands of New Yorkers with military weapons and vehicles and a paramilitary approach to match. It is responded to Anonymous’s call clearly an “us versus them” mentality as citizens frustrated with the situation and for a Day of Rage march & rally state of their community exercise their First Amendment right to free speech. to demand justice for the police- Each botched decision made by local law enforcement to defuse the situation related deaths of Michael Brown has only escalated the persistent tensions. & Eric Garner. Photo: A.Katz/ A story published by Bloomberg earlier this week quoted one official who shutterstock.com inthenews blamed the ongoing violent disturbances on the agency’s inexperience and a “chasm in relations between officers and the community.” A chasm is an excellent Inland Empire Inaugurates First Latino Film Festival, 4 metaphor to describe the divide. It’s been widely reported that the Ferguson Rialto Democratic Club Accepting Nominations for the WHO Awards, KOLA Cares, Students police force’s lack of diversity is egregious. Of the 53 officers on the force, four See Cloud Technology Forming on the Horizon, are Black. And while the town has a population of 67 percent African-Americans, Footsteps to Freedom Annual Study Tour Blacks make-up 86 percent of vehicle stops by police. Although Missouri Governor Jay Nixon assigned the Highway Patrol and iepeople that agency’s Captain Ronald Johnson, an African-American from Ferguson, to pointofview take over the command of the city, the images of a compassionate commander In Memoriam SB Charter Amendments 23 were lost in a sea of images illustrating the “Don’t Shoot” mantra of the protest: 8 Rev. Dr. Morris by Dr. Tom Pierce and Alexander Buchanan community members of all ages with both hands raised, the sign of submission Richardson PREP HI Student to authority and, according to some witnesses, Michael Brown’s posture before Yonathan Habtemariam six bullets were discharged into his body. Thanks School Board Ferguson will be a case study for all law enforcement, Walt Allen said to me in OUR NEW OFFICE: VOICE NEWS 4144 Tenth Street Downtown Riverside a recent conversation. Walt has spent his adult life in law enforcement, working undercover for the Justice Department, then leading California’s Youth Authority, and now heading the Rio Honda Police Academy. He said building a police force PAULETTE BROWN-HINDS, PhD that reflects the community it is sworn to serve and protect is something that has Publisher to be addressed well before there is a problem. Walt, who was at one time one of the highest ranking African-American law enforcement appointees in the state, LEE RAGIN, JR. CHRIS ALLEN COREY ARVIN Executive Editor & CT Graffix Design Media Consultant in his current role as police academy director believes that even at the training General Manager Creative Director Digital Director level, new recruits need to learn from a diverse faculty. SUSAN MORRIS ANDRE LOFTIS NATASHA FERGUSON The lack of racial diversity within the Ferguson Police Department matches Office Manager Designer/Illustrator Marketing Director the lack of diversity of thought after avoidable mistakes were made in from the DANIELLE WILLIS SHERI PALMER release of a video implicating Michael Brown in a “snatch and grab” incident Assistant to the Publisher Copy Editor before the shooting to the suppressing paramilitary policing tactics that have only CONTRIBUTORS incited more defiance and protests. Carlos Puma, Gary Montgomery, Dr. Ernest Levister, Dr. Joseph Bailey, Jordan Brown, Over a decade ago, the staff of our newspaper worked closely with the Richard O. Jones, Benoit Malphettes, Kathy Malphettes, Laura Klure, Vanessa Brown recruitment team of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department on a diversity CONTACT US To submit an article, become a subscriber, advertiser, sponsor, or partner please initiative. Our goal was to attract more African-Americans to apply for jobs in the contact the general manager at 951.682.6070 or email [email protected]. department. As we engaged in community forums we realized that the historic lack of trust between both groups – the Black community and law enforcement established 1972 Published every Thursday and distributed throughout the Inland Empire – created roadblocks to hiring that we didn’t anticipate. While we intellectually Brown Publishing Company Adjudicated, a legal newspaper of general circulation on July 8, 1974 Post Office Box 1581 Case # 108890 by the Superior Court of Riverside County understood the reasons for the mistrust, we thought the practical need for good Riverside, California 92502 paying jobs in our community would take precedence. In some cases the chasm (951) 682-6070 Stories published do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publishers is too wide. HARDY & CHERYL BROWN Member of: National Newspaper Publishers Association, New America Media, Publishers Emeritus California Black Media and California Newspaper Publishers Association continued on page 9 theievoice.com | AUGUST 21, 2014 | VOICE 3 inthenews Inland Empire Inaugurates First Latino Film Fest Riverside “ ith a Hispanic population of 42%, the Riverside Inland Empire is in need of quality W entertainment that meets the need of the community,” says Dr. Cony Martinez, founder and director of Cinema Culturas Film Fest Inland Empire. Film Festival to the Inland Empire with workshops Cinema Culturas Film Fest Inland Empire is for the community, an unprecedented feat. The a forum focused on producing film screenings festival arrives this October 17-19 and will take and workshops that will spark fruitful dialogue place in the City of Riverside. about the dynamic multicultural world that Cinema Culturas Film Fest Inland Empire will Southern California has become. The forum will open the festival with a gala at the Fox Theater have a year-round presence in the community on October 17, 2014 along with the screening of by providing film screenings and workshops with a feature length film open to the public. The gala the annual film festival at the center point of the will also donate fifteen percent of the proceeds to project. Students will also have an opportunity to women in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico who submit their films to a professional forum through suffer from breast cancer. These women cannot this year’s student film competition. afford the travel fees to receive treatment in the Education is a strong emphasis in Cinema capital and die as a result. Culturas’ vision, especially with Dr. Martinez’s . For Dr Martinez and her team, this project is lifelong dedication to professorship at various about sharing the arts to unify and grow the Inland institutions in Southern California. Cinema Empire. According to Dr. Martinez, this festival Culturas is also in collaboration with UC Mexus has the audience and the presence to grow to the and University of California, Riverside’s A. Gary size of a festival like Palm Springs International Anderson Graduate School of Management. Film Festival or Sundance Film Festival but with Cinema Culturas will bring the first Latino continued on page 7 Rialto Democratic Club Accepting Nominations for the WHO Awards Celebration Rialto he Rialto Democratic Club (RDC) recently purchased from their PO Box or email listed announced their annual “WHO” (We below. The Dinner tickets are $45.00 advance T Honor Ours) Awards Recognition Dinner sale. to be held on Saturday, October 11, 2014 at the To receive a nomination form, please San Bernardino Elks Lodge, 2055 Elks Drive, send requests to: RDC Nomination Forms, San Bernardino, CA 92404. PO Box 1736, Rialto Ca. 92377 or email The Awards Recognition Dinner is a community [email protected]. outreach event that will recognize and celebrate Nominations must be received by mail or email the contributions of local citizens within the Inland prior to Saturday,