UNITED AFRICAN MOVEMENT
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ALTON H. MADDOX, JR. TEL(718) 834-9034
CHAIRMAN FAX : (718) 884-8241
P.O. BOX 35
BRONX, NY 10471
Did Blacks Forget the Central Park 7?
By Alton H. Maddox, Jr.
When Jews say "never again", it means they will never forget. This is a good thing for any people claiming victimization. Any people that refuses to remember its past, will continue to repeat its mistakes. Our past must be taught to our children so that they can avoid our mistakes. Our unlearned omissions are causing our children irreparable harm.
Neither a charter school nor a public school will make up the difference. Whites control public funds. In education, more than ninety-five percent of all policy makers are white. Thus, the argument over public schools versus charter schools is an exercise in futility. "He who pays the piper calls the tune."
Dr. Leonard Jeffries calls for a systems analysis. This means the existence of an identifiable system. A system requires an overriding philosophy. It is called "Darwinism" under white supremacy. The players are the predators and their prey. The educational system in this country favors the predators. Whites will never teach Black children survival skills.
Twenty years ago in May, white predators would start the trials of their youthful, Black prey in a kangaroo court in Manhattan. Earlier, the prey had been encouraged to incriminate themselves in a rape investigation. A white woman had been raped in Central Park and the predators were looking for blood. There was no hunt for the truth. Only humans hunt for the truth.
Seven youth would be indicted. There would be two kangaroo trials for the Central Park 7 because of Sixth Amendment problems. Five youth would be wrongfully convicted in two trials after an order of severance. A sixth youth would involuntarily plead guilty after five other convictions. The seventh youth would secure an order dismissing his indictment for violation of his constitutional right to a speedy trial.
New York City is responsible for the misconduct of city prosecutors and city police officers who intentionally deprived the Central Park 7 of their human rights. Twenty years later, New York City refuses to compensate any of them. Their lives are actually mired in poverty or they are flirting with poverty.
These young men and their families are not only angered by these miscarriages of justice but also by the refusal of government to compensate them for its intentional wrongdoings. Black elected officials are kowtowing to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn. They remain quiet.
Politically, Blacks, under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, are where colonized whites were situated in 1770. In a New York City Council with 51 seats, 26 Black, Latino and Asian members voted for white minority rule on January 6, 2010. Councilman Charles Barron dissented. Among other things, this would mean that whites would refuse to compensate the six young men for wrongful convictions and false imprisonment.
Aside from the lack of political representation in New York City, there is also a lack of legal representation. Only four Black lawyers would step up to the plate in the Central Park 7 case and all of them would be disciplined. This is reminiscent of the "Scottsboro Boys". There were no Black lawyers in Alabama who would step up to the plate in 1931.
Under Canon 2 of the Code of Professional Responsibility, a lawyer is required to volunteer a significant portion of his or her practice to representing the poor. This rule is honored in its breach. Lawyers prefer to make money full-time. They oppose poor people.
Even Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has openly violated this rule. A nominee, having lived the Black experience, should replace her. Disciplinary committees are not keen on lawyers competently and zealously representing unpopular defendants.
President Barack Obama is contributing to nominating elite members of the legal profession to the Supreme Court. In its membership, none of them has embraced poverty or the Black experience. According to retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, this is not good. She was enamored of Justice Thurgood Marshall talking about his experiences.
If all of the Black and Latino attorneys had filed notices of appearances in the Central Park 7 in 1989, there would have been no convictions and no disciplinary actions against attorneys. A show of force would have required the racists to retreat from there designs.
Blacks and Latinos must remember it should be "all for one and one for all". Black, Latino and Asian elected officials should have embraced this motto on January 6, 2010. Instead, they voted for white minority rule. Any departure from this motto, calling for unity, will spell disaster.
6/4/10
Racial Justice 
