Heavenly warriors fighting to save our democracy

John Lewis, GA

Thomas R. Carter, GA

 

John McCain, AZ

Amelia B. Robinson, AL

Attend "Closing Atlanta's Equity Gap" Virtual Panel on November 12

Join LBC on Thursday, November 12th at 6pm for an engaging, educational panel discussion featuring civic, philanthropic and nonprofit leaders working to make Atlanta more equitable, resilient and sustainable. All donors to LBC’s Leaders for Lifecycle campaign will receive an invitation to the event, including our reuse-themed trivia tournament. Don’t miss out on this fun evening of thought-provoking dialogue and good-natured rivalry!

For more info: call 404-997-3873.

National Faith and Blue weekend for community and police happening now

 The Cobb County Police Department is pleased to announce its participation in the

annual National Faith & Blue Weekend on October 9-12, 2020. National Faith & Blue

Weekend is a powerful, collaborative initiative that builds bridges and breaks biases to

foster more actively engaged communities through activities and outreach amongst law

enforcement professionals and the organizations they serve. Throughout the Faith &

Blue Weekend, law enforcement agencies across the United States partner with faith-

based institutions to host activities focused on strengthening the bond between

communities and those protecting them.

Local events still planned will consist of activities that will occur in a variety of communities,

including Cobb County, and will include a wide array of activities such as picnics,

athletic events, forums, and community service projects. 

Visit  https://faithandblue.org/  for additional information. 

Friday, October 9, 2020

Burnt Hickory Baptist Church (precinct 5)

5145 Due West Rd NW, Powder Springs, GA 30127

7:00 p.m. – until

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Vision for Souls Church (precinct 2)

6519 Factory Shoals Rd SW, Mableton, GA 30126

10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Vinings United Methodist Church (precinct 3)

3101 Paces Mill Rd SE, Atlanta, GA 30339

11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

For more information on Cobb County Police Department's participation during National

Faith & Blue Weekend, please contact:

Lieutenant D. Ballard

Damon.Ballard@cobbcounty.org

10 cents, 12 cents: inequality in my life

(I can’t go back to Madrid now, even though I want to.)

If this was my community, I would know through the HOA that a senior citizens facility is being built across the street, but since our board officers are the only ones invited to the yearly meeting, I don’t have a voice in the lowest form of government in the USA.

If this was my country, I would be able to choose the leader of the land through my cellphone, just like I pay a bill through my bank while walking in the park and receive an email receipt.

If this was my body, I would be able to go to any doctor and get help for what ails me, whether I have health care or not, and depend on the principles behind the Hippocratic Oath and the bankruptcy laws if I couldn’t pay the bill.

If this was my brain, I would be able to make educated sense of the multiple lynchings I see on TV and hate I face daily from people who should be minding their own business instead of trying to tell me how to act.

If I were a human being who mattered, I would be able to receive 100 pennies for my work instead of the 10 cents on the dollar given me compared to what whites receive. I would be able to buy a house in a good neighbor, a house made of bricks, not trailer-like aluminum siding in a red-lined district where I would get a $3k discount on my mortgage but be denied a loan to make repairs latter.

If I were a global citizen, I would be able to fly to Timbuktu, Rio, Madrid, or Hong Kong without fearing I would not be able to come back home due to a health pandemic.

Since none of these things are true, I’m living in limbo, tied to a religion that deems the heavenly white father a God ruling over creation. 

If.

Breaking news: Kamala Harris, my soror, chosen as Biden’s running mate

Susan Rice may be your next VP/Pres.

Possibly the most qualified woman to run alongside Joe Biden in November is Susan Rice, formerly with the Obama Administration.

Just take a look at her credentials: 
https://ballotpedia.org/Susan_Rice

She is married to a former white Canadian TV producer. 

I say let's vote!

Cobb County Police Dept. releases statement

May 30, 2020 The following is a message on behalf of the Cobb County Police Department, the Marietta City Police Department and the Smyrna City Police Department.

We have taken note of the criminal activity that has been taking place in so many cities across our country over the past few days. For the record, all three of our departments remain strongly opposed to any form of injustice, racism, or brutality.  We are deeply concerned and have taken steps to not only protect everyone’s first amendment right to free speech and peaceful protest, but also to protect the life and liberty of our local citizens as well. Our three departments are working in conjunction to make sure the safety of everyone is maintained.

We have been in contact with a few individuals representing groups that are planning peaceful protests within our jurisdictions. Some of the organizers have expressed concern that outside agitators may try to hijack their plans for a peaceful event. Therefore we recommend anyone else planning protests to communicate and partner with their local law enforcement agencies to maintain the safety of all involved. 

All three of our agencies have received numerous inquiries from the media and public about tactical preparations concerning possible cases of violence. While we understand your concern, tactical plans are privy to the law enforcement teams protecting the safety of our community. We have plans in place and we want to remind any who plan to use the peaceful protests as a means to break the law, we will be ready to protect peaceful protestors, residents, and business owners and to arrest and charge any and all who break the law within our respective jurisdictions.

We remind everyone that if you see criminal activity occurring please contact 911 immediately so officers can be dispatched. Rest assured, all three departments are and remain passionate about protecting our residents and business owners. Any criminal acts will result in arrest and prosecution according to the law.

Opinion: Scared to exist while Black

As a Black person, my world seems upside down.

If you are non-white, should you be scared?

YES!

On a personal note, my husband ordered a pizza online yesterday, and we were a little early to pick it up. Being mindful of the coronavirus, we parked in a parking space until 5:30 when it was scheduled to be finished. It was already paid for, since we ordered it online. We pulled up in front of the restaurant to pick it up. While my husband (the driver) went in, I stayed in the car. His window was rolled down. A white man exiting Kroger passed by and shouted into the window looking at me, and said in a very menacing voice, "That's not a parking space!"  That comment could have made me respond in a negative fashion, but I kept my cool. His attempt to police me is an example of someone who should have been minding his own business instead of approaching me and ruining my evening.

Yes, I'm scared to be around some people. The evidence shows that because of global racism, non-whites are dying more from being the most poor, the most uneducated, the most religious, the most lynched, the most exploited, the most incarcerated, unemployed, sick, sexually abused, mentally unstable, drugged out, politically disadvantaged, vilified, downtrodden, and stereotyped.

Being me is scary because I don’t know how to respond, whether to pick up my gun or slink into my house, pull the covers over my head, and pray.

How are you feeling today?

Breaking News: Holmes named prosecutor in Arbery case...

Holmes' history on Wingcom Watchdog:

https://wingcomwatchdog.blogspot.com/2016/10/judge-holmes-shows-no-mercy-to-men.html

https://wingcomwatchdog.blogspot.com/2015/03/holmes-breaks-through-judicial-ceiling.html

https://wingcomwatchdog.blogspot.com/2015/03/holmes-breaks-through-judicial-ceiling.html

Other news re: Holmes: https://newsone.com/3939848/joyette-holmes-ahmaud-arbery-da-kemp-appointee/

Photo of the day...

I wonder what would have happened to me if I had tried to make a 
citizen's arrest of this woman on a Harley leaving 
Krogers drinking beer out of her sip cup.

Breaking News: Ahmaud Arbery's killers arrested by GBI

GBI Director Vic Reynolds

On what would have been Ahmaud's 26th birthday, his killers have been arrested by the GBI.

Finally moving towards justice, but watch this closely because the man over GBI, Vic Reynolds, is same fellow that let the cop who killed Nicholas Thomas go free. He is former DA in Cobb County, Ga.

https://www.wjcl.com/…/gbi-arrests-father-son-for-…/32409481#

GBI press release: https://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases

My thoughts on the state of our affairs...

Testing 1,2,3, testing 1,2,3, testing 1,2,3.

Today would have been my mom's birthday.

This is the first blog post that I have attempted to write since learning of a war-like virus running rampant around the globe. Everything has changed since then, and now I am dictating instead of typing my thoughts. I have also pulled out and dusted off my unread copy of "1984", and I'm wondering about its prophecies. 

Prior to COVID-19 information being brought to my attention by way of the 6:30 p.m. national news I labeled “The Trump Show”,  I experienced weird dreams. In one, my family’s 60+ year old florist business was shut down, the building demolished, and then reconstructed and reopened. At the time I dreamt this dream, I didn't understand what it meant. The shop now has been closed for two weeks.  

Who would have thought that church services would be cancelled and cathedrals turned into hospitals? Who would have thought that the leader of the most powerful nation in the world would be brought to his knees by an invisible adversary? That all schools would be closed and nothing be heard from the federal Secretary of Education? That our largest city would turn its popular park into a triage zone? That the government would claim that it didn't know about a looming threat? That citizens would be told to “just stay in your living room”, even though you may be homeless, and don’t venture out to get food except after two weeks? That war’s definition was changed from humans fighting humans to humans fighting viruses?

We used to be barred from drinking at water fountains!

And what are we to believe? What an impeached president is telling us or what common sense is telling us? 

This is an unforeseen conundrum placed on us by man and not God. If we had put a higher priority on people’s health instead of profits, we would be in a different place right now. If you really want to get philosophical about it, God creates; man destroys. Jesus, one of God's greatest Prophets, said he comes with a sword, not an antidote.

As I sit here looking out of my blinded windows at the Dogwood trees losing their blooms and the cardinal fighting his reflective image in my aluminum trash can, overcast skies are signaling rain. 

Page 41 from “1984” speaks to how statistics can deceive.

I'm wondering whether the number of dead from the coronavirus today will be dumbed down. The data says that people of my race are being disproportionately killed by the virus. Whether it is because they are poor, or riding an infected bus, or have diabetes or asthma, or not using Vick’s salve at night is not important. Native Americans in North America were infected by blankets. 

What will be the positive outcome of all this? Only time will tell. I have no control, and what I say here will be published in vapor and deleted or left unread. But at least I have said it! 

Peace event coming to Atlanta

Congrats to Brig. Gen. Charles McGee and all the Tuskegee Airmen

My article from 2002...
http://www.wingcomltd.com/Articles/blackpilots.htm

Pic of the day

Col. Charles McGee of the Tuskegee Airman walked onto the field at today’s Super Bowl. I interviewed him in Atlanta in 2002. (Photo by Kurk Johnson- 3rd from left) He is now 100 years old.

Cobb County sheriff's department declines interview

In an attempt to get both sides of the story concerning news reports that Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren denied jail inmates newspapers, Wingcom Watchdog received the following response from Glenn Daniel, senior communications specialist:

We appreciate your offer for a interview but, we respectfully decline

your offer. 

In response to a press release from the ACLU Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren offered the following statement...

“The ACLU press release is false and misleading. In an effort to provide the MDJ unparalleled access to the facts,  our command staff made themselves available for both a question & answer session and an impromptu tour of the Cobb County Adult Detention Facility. On one occasion the paper was not disseminated due to its possible impact on the safety and security of our staff and inmates. In conjunction with the writer and editor of the paper we were notified of the publishing date and on that one occasion the paper was not disseminated. No ban exists nor has one existed in the past and it is clear that the  intention of the ACLU is to mislead the public and further undermine their stated purpose."

Do you think artificial intelligence (AI) should be regulated?

Respond if you think the government should regulate AI.

Info:https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/The-AI-regulation-wave-is-coming-Industry-should-14999873.php

Breaking News: Congressman Jeffries interrupted by loud outbursts in Senate

Jeffries (D.-NY) kept his cool, though, and quoted from the Bible.

“And the scripture says, ‘For the Lord loves justice and will not abandon His faithful ones.’”

Jeffries was making his statement regarding Trump’s “geopolitical shakedown” and quid pro quo (this for that) when a man in the gallery blurted out “Jesus Christ will overturn the tables.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qx232PZtFs

MLK takeaway: pain/hopelessness makes one irrational

MLK was a prophet whose last pain was being shot on a hotel balcony after announcing he had been to the mountaintop and feared no man.

Opinion 
“When we walk away from pain, we have made a choice to leave people in it... when faced with excruciating pain, can we choose courage over our own comfort; accountability over rationalizing the way we dehumanize people?”  — Dr. Brene Brown

On this national holiday celebration of the 91st birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I began the afternoon feeling a little helpless, knowing that in all areas of human activity, poor people are at the bottom of the pack, fighting against powers and principalities, politicians, and even gun totting religious folks.

But the one thing that I found intriguing that I learned today is the idea that powerful pain and hopelessness can chip away at our own humanity and destroy a godly plan.

I realize that I don’t think rationally when I am pained. No one can, even the best of heroes. But we are bid to be courageous while pained.

MLK was pained while in a Birmingham jail, but while there he wrote a memorable letter which was played out by youth at his 2020 Commemorative event at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Hurting people should be relegated to being healed instead of fighting for cures, even though they should be involved in making decisions on their treatment. It’s like a person with leukemia being asked to cure themselves when the doctors have been trained and supposedly know how to usher in a treatment plan. And they are the ones being paid well to be a healthcare professional even though they offer no guarantees. They should drive the bus towards positive change - the expert healers.

Pain creates fear, but it also can push you towards a cure. Often, the cure results in death.

My stepfather, Mr. Lionel Lorenzo Crump, Sr. always used to say, “Nothing beats a try but a failure.” 

Why do young men resist arrest and run from SWAT officers with warrants? Because they know they can’t fight multi- armed attackers. Felons try to flee because their only other options are to spend their lives in jail or on a prison gurney with poison pumped into their veins; of being sexually abused for years. Of paying their debt to society but not being able to provide for their family when released because companies don’t hire ex-criminals. 

Pain keeps people living in tents and homeless shelters, in cars and cardboard boxes. 

Most of these poor unfortunate souls have pain from childhood mistreatment, poor education and diets, non-existent bank accounts, no owned real estate, bad credit scores, neglect, poisoned peeling paint and tainted drinking water. They have painful memories. They hurt and sometimes try to kill the pain with opioids or zone out watching porn movies.

While many may think what Jesus and MLK did was illogical, fighting governments and principalities, they both are considered great prophets.

Pain. Deadly Pain.

Pain in body and soul.

When will we be cured???

I cannot be a civil rights activist like MLK, or his daughter, or John Lewis, but I can express what is good and right in my own life. I should not mistreat others. I can be sympathetic to the plight of others. I can demand that I and others be treated with love and respect. I can tell the truth. I can try to love somebody. I should try to help those who need the most constructive help. 

I should follow the teachings of Jesus as a Christian ought and respect other religions which try to uplift humanity.

I can’t save the world, but I can join hands with people with like minds and hearts to make living better before I go to my grave.

Free from pain and suffering.

That’s my story; that is my song.


Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2EMuoM5IX4

PIOs deem property crimes major concern

The Cobb County Police Department’s Public Information Unit held a media roundtable today at police headquarters in Marietta, Ga. that was attended by area journalists, police public information officers (PIOs) from several jurisdictions, and Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) representatives.

At center stage was getting breaking news information to media in a timely manner so the public can be informed on safety and security issues.

Chief Cox has been police chief for less than a year.

When asked how the department was doing adopting community policing recommendations made in a 2017 report by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Cobb Police Chief Tim Cox said, “I think we’re doing real good. We’ve moved down that report rather well. Are we perfect? No... but I think we’ve made great strides, and we’ll continue to work on some of those issues.”

The recommendations said Cobb needed improvements in staffing, leadership, training, and employment diversity. Also, it identified the need to develop trust, transparency, and mutual respect between law enforcement and the community.

Glenn Daniel of the sheriff's office said he spends a lot of time on mugshot requests from media.

A GBI official, Nelly Miles, was in town and spoke at the Roundtable.

PIOs from multiple area police agencies were at Roundtable to answer questions.

Property crimes are more of a problem in our area and crimes against persons are rarities, according to officers who advised citizens to protect themselves in their homes. Property crimes include burglary, larceny, theft, arson, shoplifting and vandalism, according to Wikipedia.

Acworth and other jurisdictions are implementing Camera Connections whereby the police can log into home security systems and obtain surveillance video. Some believe that this will lead to the state having more access to private information. Others think that police having access to home surveillance systems is too intrusive, and it muddies "evidence" waters. 

PIO Delk said the best way for media to get info on breaking news is to use cellphone or social media portals.

When asked about the relationship between media and police being less about breaking news and ambulance chasing but more about investigation and analysis, PIO Sgt. Wayne Delk said the media’s main priority should be informing the public from timely information released by departments, filing public information requests or doing warrant searches.

Delk said he had no updated information on two officers accused of sexual improprieties last year.

Area PIOs were friendly and in a good mood hours after a reported officer involved shooting while a warrant was being served which happened earlier in the day when a suspected murderer was killed during a SWAT standoff.