This has been a long day of phone calling, emailing, and article writing. I have done everything that I could do today to pressure elected officials who “serve” on the Judiciary Committee to VOTE NO on Governor Martin O’Malley’s Statewide DNA Database legislation. This bill will authorize the state to take DNA samples from individuals who have been arrested and charged, BUT NOT CONVICTED of any crime. And as many of us know, it is possible to be arrested and even charged only later to have a trial exonerate you of any wrongdoing.
If this bill passes, the DNA of those arrested and charged would be stored in a database and if the courts find them innocent then they would have to go through a long and complicated process to get their DNA expunged from the database. Given the disproportionate rates at which African Americans and Latinos are arrested in this state and country, what the bill will likely do is create a racially-biased, genetic dragnet program. A supposed “public safety” program with a more than $1.3 million dollar price tag. Though Prince George’s County State’s Attorney, Glenn Ivey would disagree, I am of the opinion that this bill would threaten to violate individual’s rights in the name of public safety – a practice that the Federal Government has mastered…using fear to get the public to surrender their constitutional rights. Other states have seen the great danger in this type of program. In 2007, 25 states introduced bills to expand DNA sampling to arrestees and only 4 passed this legislation. (SOURCE)
As it is with many other state legislatures, when a bill is introduced it is assigned to a committee that will consider it. That committee then will either give it a favorable or unfavorable report. If the bill receives an unfavorable report then it doesn’t make it out of committee (it dies). If the bill receives a favorable report (possibly with some amendments) it is sent back to the floor for a full house vote.
I just received notification that the Governor’s DNA bill has just received a favorable report from the Judiciary Committee.
There are 4 African Americans that serve on that committee and I was counting on these 4 to hold the line and slow this bill down. I was hoping that they would possess a greater sensitivity to potential abuse that could strike their community if this bill is passed. After talking to the Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, Senator Verna Jones, this afternoon, I hung up hoping that members of the Black Caucus would hold the position of the Caucus and oppose the bill as written and refuse a vote on the bill until further consideration can be taken. I was wrong.
Three out of the four African American members of the Judiciary Committee voted “yes” to this detestable bill. They are:
Delegate Gerron S. Levi (D-23A) representing Prince George’s County
I’m told that when the the Judiciary Committee almost agreed to take the Black Caucus’ position and hold off on the bill, it was Del. Gerron S. Levi who played the role of the divisive, dastardly delegate and shot this option down. In her eagerness to prove her loyalty to the Power Structure during her first term in office, she may have just opened the door for the rights of many of her own constituents to be violated.
Delegate Frank M. Conaway, Jr. (D-40) representing Baltimore City
I called Delegate Conaway’s office myself and told the woman who answered the phone that we had just brought Conaway’s name up on the Larry Young Morning show (WOLB 1010AM) as one of legislators who rightly voted against one of the tax increases. It’s unfortunate that now I have to go back on the radio on Monday and let everyone know that Conaway sold out his own community in voting for this bill. Another first term delegate looking to ingratiate himself to the status quo Power Structure.
Delegate Curt Anderson (D-43) representing Baltimore City
As Chairman of the Baltimore City Delegation, one would assume that Anderson has enough clout to take a strong stand and refuse to budge on such an important bill. I guess what they say about “assuming” is right. As one who consistently portrays himself as being concerned about the most vulnerable segments of our society, I am appalled that Delegate Anderson would vote in favor of this bill. I vehemently disagree with him on this.
Three out of the four African American delegates were major disappoints on this. They refused to take a stand. They chose to be silent when righteousness begged their cooperation. And now they must be held accountable. Understand Family that if there are no consequences when elected officials vote against the will of the people then they will continue to ingratiate themselves to their political overlords and will check back in with their constituents when the next election rolls around.
I’m not having it! No more. I’m tired of being ignored. I will not be apathetic. I will ring their phones, flood their inboxes, and show up in person if need be to let them know that this betrayal will be remembered for a long time.
Just in case you get the itch to pick up the phone and voice your displeasure:
Del. Gerron S. Levi
(410) 841-3101
Del. Frank Conaway
(410) 841-3189
Del Curt Anderson
(410) 841-3291
P.S. – Who’s the one African American delegate who rightly voted “No” against the Governor’s DNA bill you ask?
Why Delegate Jill P. Carter (D-41) of Baltimore City of course. THANK YOU DELEGATE JILL CARTER FOR YOUR CONSISTENT AND PRINCIPLED SERVICE TO OUR COMMUNITY!
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Someone should share this information with the citizens of Texas and South Carolina. The black voters in those states apparently believe that it is axiomatic, that one’s gender and the color of one’s skin will determine what they will stand for and support if elected
I spent a lot of time with the Congressional Black Caucus, and there are about 8 or 9 black Congresspeople who will not support reparations either, if they were ever to get a bill into Committee.
Isn’t it ironic that late President Richard Nixon supported the right of black citizens to have Congressional Representative when he was alive, in contrast to the Democrats who held the house for 2 decades (and at times with democratically elected Presidents serving). Those democratic administrations would neither grant the citizens of DC either full-fledged congressional representatives or statehood either?
Needless to say, I am very disappointed in our elected officials who drop ball and will now allow innocent Marylanders to be treated as if they were guilty until proven innocent.
I am equally disappointed with the Black church. As I sit here writing this morning many of you are in Church, singing, shouting, and preaching. My question is how do you apply your theology? How do you live out what you sing about?
My prayer is that we will move from going to church to becoming the church. My prayer is that preachers will move from being mere Rhetorical Revolutionaries on Sunday to actually confronting injustices on Monday.
My Spirit won’t allow me to do church as usual. God requires so much more of me. Salvation begins with an individual choice but it is maintained through collective work. When I neglect you, I neglect my own salvation. So my question this morning is Are you Church centered or Kingdom centered. Church centered folk are busy in the Church, but neglect the work of Jesus which was liberating the oppressed and setting the captives free. Or as Jesus put it, Are you a Goat or a Sheep? Goats practice individual salvation. Goats are content with singing on the choir and being on the deacon board. Goats are secure with their promise of eternal salvation just through confessing their sins and acknowledging Jesus as their savior. But Jesus never requires this of them.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life (salvation) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-26)
The resurrection is about denying your flesh and asserting the Spirit.
When I last heard there were over 2200 churches in Baltimore City. That’s 2200 churches with 2200 pastors, with 2200 separate visions. Egos, turf wars and territorial issues keeping pastors from partnering for the sake of the salvation of the collective body. I am convinced that there is no issue in this city or our community that can not be addressed if the church would be the church.
As you pray for the world on today, please don’t forget to pray for the church. God said if HIS people who were call by HIS name would humble themselves and pray and seek HIS face and turn from their wicked ways, He would heal their land. So the health of a nation or a city is a direct reflection on the health of the Church. If the Church is sick, the city will be sick. But when the Church is healthy God heals the city and the nation for our sake.
So let us stop judging the world and let us humble ourselves and turn from our wick ways and allow God through us, to heal this land.
In Love and Service,
Jamye
KineticFaith
http://www.faithinmotion.net
http://www.bcpl2007.org
I think very often some forget about the victims of crime. Year-to-date, 90% of murder victims in Prince George’s County were black, 81% of carjacking victims were black, 74% of sexual assault victims were black, and 77.3% of robbery victims were black. In 2007 and 2006, blacks were the overwhelming majority of murder, carjacking and sexual assault victims in Prince George’s County. I know that they were also the overshelming majority of murder victims in Baltimore city and the State of Maryland, I suspect it is the same for carjacking, sexual assault and robberies, but I do not have that data available. Do any of those victims of crime deserve any representation among Black Caucus members? Or, as I have said to others, do we so quickly forget the young black man who was murdered brutally on the streets, who’s blood ran into the gutter, who was scooped up from the concrete taken to a morgue and now lays 10 feet under dirt, with a family mourning the fatality. I realize the victims are not housed in a prison where we can get visit and get to know their names and stories, but the victims also died with both, a name and a story.
In the State of Maryland, between December 2005 and December 2006, there were 436 black murder victims, and 333 black offenders. By shear numbers, I am not sure what side is the “black” side of this argument. In 2006, 12 accused murders did not go to trial in Prince George’s where either innocence or guilt could be proven, because of witness-related issues, namely witness intimidation. Baltimore City is nationally known for witness intimidation and a series of DVDs originating there called “Snitches get Stitches” (i.e. witnesses who speak to the police about crime do so at risk of life or limb). Remember the Dawson family whose house was fire-bombed in Baltimore with the entire family killed, parents and children — all black — because they snitched to the police on the neighborhood drug dealers. Is there any collective outrage about witness intimidation? Do any of these black victims deserve any justice, or to see the perpetrator of the crime punished for taking a life even if it is the life of a black? Good, upstanding citizens — who are terrified into silence or convinced to acquiece — have to live in these neighborhoods, while black legislators are being asked to tie the hands of law enforcement and ask them to employ less effective technology in solving crimes. By the way, I supported placing more protections for the accused in the DNA bill, but I did not support killing the DNA bill.
Since 1989, 214 people have been exonerated by DNA evidence by the work of the Innocence Project — 130 of those exonerated were black, which was more than twice the number of the second largest group exonerated, 59 whites. As Prince George’s County’s top prosecutor, Glenn Ivey, said in the Gazette last week: “DNA not only convicts the guilty, but also exonerates the innocent.”
The Baltimore City Paper said in 2002: “Up to 500,000 such [cold] cases–unsolved but with intact biological evidence such as rape kits–were estimated to be sitting on police-department shelves across the country; among them were 5,100 Baltimore cases, including 4,300 rapes and 800 homicides.”
While I supported more protections in the bill, I also support a DNA database. Just as fingerprints have revolutionized crime-fighting, DNA has that same potential. DNA, where available, is so much more accurate than some of the other evidence used for identification purposes.
I really do welcome this dicussion. It is a critical one for the black community. Since I grew up in neighborhoods in three cities where gangs and drug dealing was rampant and many in my family still do live there, and I am black, I feel I can speak as authoritatively as anyone else on these topics.
My concern at present, however, are the young people who may be on a track to crime in the future. Chronic absences is an epidemic in Baltimore City, according to the Open Society Institute and state data — 14% of elementary, 33% of middle and 43% of high school students are chronically absent from school. I am sure most of those children chronically absent in Baltimore City are black. In 2006-2007, over 50,000 black students were suspended from school in Maryland, which is more than twice the total number of black students inthe state testing “advanced” in math at every grade level from 3rd to 8th and algebra. Where are the parents, families and communities responsible for those children who are chronically absent? It is an epidemic and help is needed urgently, as with all epidemics. I urge Rev. Heber Brown and my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to what you can in your various capacities to get those children back into school right now!!!
I welcome the dialogue about my vote on this or any other issue.
Delegate Gerron Levi (23A)
Dear Delegate Gerron Levi:
I have one question for you after your long explanation. Relevance? Nothing you wrote, not one statistic, bears any relevance to why you seek t to violate privacy rights of innocent people. Even if you are truly convinced that expanding DNA testing is the way to go, common sense would dictate that you would work to expand testing of more CONVICTED people, more CONVICTED prisoners, and more crime scene DNA sampling which is rarely, if ever, done in Baltimore City where VICTIMS of murder are overwhelmingly black. Has Glen Ivey provided you with any data on how much crime scene DNA is collected and analyzed in Prince Georges County where victims are also overwhelmingly black? My guess crime scene DNA collection is as scant in PG as in Baltimore. I respect your intent. But your logic is bassackwards and votes like yours set the causes of civil rights, civil liberties, the rights of black, whites, and all Americans back rather than forward. I feel sorry for your constituency.
I don’t want to belabor my points when there are already such long comments on this issue. But, the irrelevance and flawed logic of the PG County delegate’s argument, keeps pulling at me. The Dawson family could not be less relevant to the issues surrounding the DNA bill. The Dawson’s were ultimately killed, in large part, because the police department in Baltimore City placed very little value on their safety and failed to protect the family despite their repeated calls. Also, because the police were pressured to make arrests via an en masse and clean sweep method, full investigations of on-going drug and gang activity in poorer neighborhoods was discouraged by the upper echelon of the police department on the orders of the then mayor. So, the worst offenders were rarely brought to justice and violent crime and homicide ran rampant during the O’Malley years. The Dawsons, and so-many, countless others were victimized, primarily, by poor leadership in Baltimore City.
In no Baltimore murder case during those years, where the victims were black, including the Dawson’s case (which, btw, was not a case of witness intimidation or “snitching” within the meaning of the “Stop Snithching” DVD) was crime solved, or the culprits brought to justice on DNA evidence. Why? Because police routinely do no utilize crime scene DNA evidence to solve crimes in Baltimore where victims are black. (Just as the death penalty is never sought where victms are black) PERHAPS THE DELEGATE YOU COULD INTRODUCE A BILL ABOUT THAT! At any rate, there is absolutely no nexus between the DNA bill and the issue of witness intimidation. The DNA bill further has no provisions that provide for DNA samples collected to be used for exonerations or to prove factal innocence. Thus, any argument that the bill could potentially help to clear the innocent, simply fails and is an intellectual dishonesty. My choice, and I would hope the choice of those that represent me, is to protect the rights of the innocent. I believe that EVERYONE accused, under our American system of justice is presumed innocent, and that presumption of innocence remains with them unless and until such time as they are determined guilty, by a court of law. I am not ready to abandon that fundamental principle upon which our system of justice is based, under the unfounded, myth that it might will help to cut down crime, or, more ridiculous, that it will somehow help black, brown, or poor people, or, because the governor, the president, or a bunch of misguided, spineless, democrats in power tell me that it is right to do so. On behalf of my fellow presumed innocent citizens, I ask, exactly what was the huge problem with seeking a warrant from an impartial judicial magistrate, before seizing an individual’s DNA?
I will simply add that the bill is bad and that The Innocence Project is one of many organizations that opposes Maryland’s DNA bill hb 370. Glenn Ivey, Gov. O’Malley, Del. Levi, and others that support this particular bill just have it wrong. Similar legislation in other state, such as New York and California, included opportunities for post conviction relief to prove innocence. The Maryland bill, even as amended, does not allow for DNA use for exoneration or post conviction relief. Because there is no comparable provision for crime scene DNA and analysis, an accused person has no control over whether the state seeks to use his or her DNA in an exculpatory manner. That this bill does anything except provide for unconstitutional DNA collection from presumptively innocent people is simply a fiction.
[...] (D-40) – who we initially identified as being one of the misguided African American delegates in a previous post – chose not to vote at [...]