Civil Rights & Social Justice
Murderer Derek Chauvin Pleads Guilty To Fed Charges Of Violating George Floyd’s Civil Rights
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Minnesota Department of Corrections / Minnesota Department of Corrections Convicted murderer Derek Chauvin saved himself another trial and possibly more years to his prison sentence by pleading guilty to two federal charges related to violating George Floyd’s civil rights. Eight months ago, the former Minneapolis cop and poster child of everything wrong with America’s police culture was convicted by the state of Minnesota of second-degree murder and sentenced to 22 and half years in prison. Related Stories The Associated Press reports that in a deal with federal prosecutors, Chauvin pled guilty to two federal charges. Those charges included that he deprived George Floyd’s constitutional right to be free from the “use of unreasonable force by a police offi...
Marcus Garvey’s Descendants Seek Pardon From President Biden
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Julius Garvey, youngest son of prominent Pan-Africanism movement advocate Marcus Garvey, speaks during a news conference on what would have been his father’s 129th birthday at the National Press Club August 17, 2016 in Washington, DC. / Getty The living descendants of Marcus Garvey, whose work in the United States helped give birth to the Pan-African movement, have spearheaded a global effort to have his name exonerated by getting a posthumous pardon from President Joseph Biden. As reported by the Washington Post, there is a surmounting effort by Garvey’s descendants to request that the Biden presidential administration live up to its words of seeking to correct racial injustice in America by granting a posthumous pardon of Garvey for his conviction of ma...
Ohio KK-Karen Claims She’s ‘Being Terrorized’ By Black People During Sentencing For…Terrorizing Black People
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: WTOL / WTOL If the privileged, entitled and often dangerous white women we not-so-affectionately call “Karens” have nothing else, they have the nerve. On Thursday, a white woman from Ohio was sentenced to six months in prison for shouting racial slurs at a group of Black teenagers and trying to hit them with her car in a grocery store parking lot. During sentencing, the woman reportedly broke down in the saltiest of mayonnaise-flavored tears and tried to justify her actions by essentially saying Black people have “terrorized” her for years and that’s the reason she felt the need to terrorize complete strangers who happened to be of the melanated variety. [embedded content] According to Raw Story, 43-year-old Angela Baker was found guilty of two felony cha...
NY Lawmakers Intro Bill To Limit Use of Rap Lyrics In Criminal Court
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: @JustInMyView / R1 Digital Rappers have had the law come down on them in various forms, but one method that has become alarming to many is the usage of their lyrics against them in criminal cases with Tekashi 6ix9ine being a prime example. But a new proposal seeks to halt that tactic. Democratic New York State Senators Brad Hoylman of Manhattan and Jamaal T. Bailey of the Bronx introduced Bill S.7527 yesterday (November 17th) during an assembly session. The bill, entitled “Rap Music on Trial”, looks to limit how all art including rap lyrics can be used during a trial unless it can be definitively proven that the art is literal and factual and has a “distinct probative value” to the case. Both lawmen cite the Tekashi 6ix9ine case of 2019, where his lyrics ...
Black Activist Files Lawsuit Accusing NYPD Of Swarming His Home In Riot Gear & Lying About Warrant
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Ira L. Black – Corbis / Getty If the wave of protests against systemic racism in policing that took place during the summer of 2020 taught us anything it’s that cops really hate when we protest against them. But one thing they love, apparently, is explicitly demonstrating the exact reasons they get protested against. On June 14, 2020, Derrick Ingram, co-founder of the nonviolent activist group Warriors In The Garden, was involved in a protest in Manhattan, New York. During the protest, an NYPD officer attempted to prevent Ingram from crossing a police line resulting in an alleged struggle. In a statement to CNN, NYPD spokeswoman Sgt. Jessica McRorie said Ingram allegedly “placed a handheld megaphone directly against the officer’s ear, activated the megaph...
Rev. Jesse Jackson Hospitalized After Fall While Helping Howard University Protesters
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Barry Brecheisen / Getty The tense situation at Howard University between students protesting their living conditions and administrators took an even more dramatic tone as mediator Rev. Jesse Jackson had to be rushed to the hospital after taking a fall on campus. The civil rights icon was present at the Washington D.C.-based HBCU on Monday (November 1st) to help students who have taken over outdoor space as well as the Blackburn Center in protest over the hazardous conditions that are present at the school’s dormitories and deteriorating classroom facilities. Rev. Jackson had just returned to give the student activists details on his meeting with the administration and Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick when he fell and suffered a cut to his...
Colin Kaepernick Graces Cover Of ‘Ebony’ Mag, Talks Activism, New Projects & A Possible Return To NFL
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Joshua Kissi / Courtesy of Ebony Colin Kaepernick—the athlete and activist who put his convictions before his career and flooded the world with a Pacific Ocean’s worth of white tears just by starting the practice of kneeling during the national anthem as a show of support for Black lives—will be gracing November’s cover of Ebony in an issue that features an exclusive interview with The View’s Sunny Hostin and two members of the Lower Eastside Girls Club. The aforementioned four discussed Kaepernick’s “journey over the last four years, his continued fight for change, his adoption by a white family and how that shaped him, and the possibility of him returning to the NFL,” per a release. The former 49ers QB also talked about his nonprofit Know Your Rights Ca...
Team Roc Files For Clemency for Man Serving 20 Years On Weed Charge
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Shareif Ziyadat / Getty Jay-Z and Team Roc have made a formal plea to a judge in North Carolina to free a man serving a 20 year sentence for marijuana-related offenses. First reported by the New York Post, the legal group that comprises the criminal reform arm of the rapper’s label sent a plea to a judge in North Carolina asking them to reconsider an initial request for the compassionate release of Valon Valles. “Mr. Vailes has exhausted his administrative remedies with the [Federal Bureau of Prisons]; extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant compassionate release in his case; the relevant factors support release; and Mr. Vailes is not a danger to the community,” Alex Spiro, attorney for Team Roc argued in the filings on Wednesday (September 29th). Va...
Jay-Z and Team Roc File Lawsuit Against Kansas City Police
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Kansas City Star / Getty Jay-Z and his philanthropic group Team Roc are continuing to push for greater transparency and police reform, with a new lawsuit filed against a Midwestern city’s police department alleging that it has committed serious misconduct. The philanthropic coalition that is part of the Roc Nation record label filed a lawsuit on Monday (September 20th) in Wyandotte County, Kansas against the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department. In the filed documents, the lawsuit is seeking access to records that would provide more information on complaints that were filed against the investigative division of the department and to shed more light on the training and supervision of officers with the KCKPD and the corresponding guidelines. “For decades, ...
Philadelphia Agrees To Pay $2M to Black Woman Beaten By Police
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: W.Wade/WENN / WENN The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has agreed to pay a young Black woman $2 million as part of a settlement after she was confronted by police officers, pulled out of her car, and beaten as they took her young son away from her. Rickia Young, a nurse’s aide, was heading home from work on October 27, 2020, when she ran across a protest organized to demand justice for the killing of Walter Wallace, Jr. by law enforcement. She tried to drive away so she wouldn’t be mistaken for being involved, but officers on the scene stopped her and smashed her window in with batons. Young was then handcuffed for several hours and separated from her 2-year old son and teenaged nephew who were in the car with her. There were no charges levied against ...
Elijah McClain’s Alleged Killers Indicted By Colorado Grand Jury
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Boston Globe / Getty The senseless death of 23-year old Elijah McClain on August 2h, 2019 sent shockwaves throughout the country after it happened because it was another Black man dying at the hands of law enforcement. But a ruling yesterday may bring about much-needed justice in the case. On Wednesday (September 1st), Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced that a grand jury indicted Aurora Police officers Randy Roedema and Nathan Woodyard, former officer Jason Rosenblatt and Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec for criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter. Cooper and Cichuniec received additional indictments on three counts of assault along with six counts of crime of violence, while Roedema and Rosenblatt receiv...
Meek Mill & REFORM Alliance Celebrate Criminal Justice Reform in Virginia
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Brian Stukes / Getty Meek Mill has been a significant activist voice for criminal justice reform, and he got to see how his criminal justice organization helped to create systemic change in the state of Virginia. On Thursday (June 10), Meek Mill was in Richmond, Virginia along with Philadelphia 76ers executive and fellow co-founder of REFORM Alliance Michael Rubin at the invitation of Governor Ralph Northam to witness the signing of HB 2038 into law. Also in attendance were REFORM Alliance CEO Robert Rooks, and the Justice Forward Virginia, American Conservative Union, and Faith and Freedom in Virginia groups. HB 2038, authored by Delegate Don Scott, limits adult probation sentences to a maximum of one year for a misdemeanor and five years for a felony. M...
