Black Agenda Radio - 05.08.17

This is Black Agenda Radio, a weekly hour of African American political thought and action.

A judge has ordered Harris County Texas, which includes the city of Houston, to stop keeping low level offenders in jail because they are unable to pay bail. The case was brought by the Washington-based Civil Rights Corp. Executive director Alec Karakatsanis says his firm is working to eliminate the bail system, entirely.

Haitian activists in Brooklyn, New York, are vowing to prevent Hillary Clinton from giving the commencement speech at mostly Black Medgar Evers College, next month. Dahoud Andre is with Komokoda, the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti.

The Trump Administration continues to insist, without any convincing evidence, that the Syrian military is responsible for a chemical weapons attack in Idlib Province, last month. The U.S. bombed a Syrian military base, supposedly in retaliation for the chemical attack. But Theodore Postol, a professor emeritus of science, technology and national security issues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, debunked the allegations against Syria, showing the attack could not have happened the way the U.S. said it did. However, the American corporate media completely ignored Professor Postol’s findings. He says, the press no longer care about the truth.

 Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, shares a long history with the MOVE organization, which was also savagely targeted by the Philadelphia police, and many of whose members are also serving long terms in the Pennsylvania prison system. MOVE last week held a conference, in Philadelphia, marking its 45 th anniversary. MOVE Minister of Communications Ramona Africa asked Mumia to recollect his memories of MOVE in the old days.

The former head of New York City’s Police Reform Organizing Project, Robert Gangi, is running for mayor on a broadly progressive platform. Incumbent mayor Bill de Blasio still has some people convinced that he is a progressive, but Robert Gangi says there’s nothing progressive at all about de Blasio.

The mothers of victims of police violence and intra-community crime will gather for a Free Mothers Day event a Hostos College, in The Bronx section of New York, on Saturday. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with Juanita Young, whose son was killed by New York City cops. Her group is called The Motherhood.

And that it’s for this edition of Black Agenda Radio. Be sure to visit us at BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday. That’s www.BlackAgendaReport.com. It’s the place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left.