Bruce Johnson's Notebook

Some Thoughts

Brucejohnson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:44:00 GMT

Three hundred or so ex-offenders rallied Wednesday on the steps of the John Wilson building and then inside DC Council Chambers. They wanted the same legal protections from job and housing discrimination that are now afforded to gays, handicapped individuals and others..

I asked if that meant bank robbers could no longer be prohibited from being bank tellers and child molesters no longer prohibited from working around children--

Organizers of the rally said no--they are merely asking that past criminal records not keep all inmates out of all jobs which they claim is happening now. Construction work, janitorial positions, most private sector positions don't want ex-offenders they say.

The bill which is being pushed by Councilman Marion Barry, an ex-offender has almost no chance of passing, but few legislators would say that Wednesday when the ex-offenders showed up at City hall.

I will say it. The business community would go crazy if ordered by law to hire people with serious criminal records.

The local Republican party in an email says such a bill would send companies fleeing to the suburbs pushing the city unemployment rate even higher.

The DC Government is taking ex-offenders in at DPW and other agencies but those jobs don't nearly address the problem.

2,000 inmates will be released back into the community in coming months...as many as 36 hundred by the end of 2011.

Where will they live? Where will they earn money? "I don't want to go back to what I was doing", said Torin Wade, a 24 year old, who served two years for a gun charge. We don't want him going back to that either, do we?

Tracy Fells, the former TC Williamds High school football star was also at the rally as an ex-offender. He did 17 and a half years for selling crack cocaine, and now works with Peaceaholics, the group helping organize ex-offenders into a political force.

Peaceaholics is hiring a lot of ex-offenders to help keep the lid on in a lot of the city's feuding communities. How much is that worth?

Its time for some serious talk about this situation.

Michael Jackson

Brucejohnson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:25:00 GMT

King of Pop? That may be how the world remembers Michael Jackson; but in my house, and my wife cried all evening after his death, Michael Jackson will always be remembered as the cute little kid who lead his brothers on stage in the late 1960's to sing "I Want You Back" and "I'll Be There" and "ABC". Most of us knew and appreciated that they were from Gary, Indiana and not some boy band from nowhere in particular. Who will forget Never Can Say Goodbye, Got to Be There, Can't Stop Till You Get Enough.

As I watch the MTV tribute to the world's greatest entertainer I'm reminded that his videos were the first by an African American that MTV would air.

Where would BET be if not for Michael Jackson videos? Wasn't "Thriller" the greatest compilation of music, song and choreography? I still can't stop movin when I hear "Billie Jean" or is that just me? Is there anybody out there who didn't at least try to moonwalk?

What performer today, from Usher to Chris Brown isn't copying from Michael? Its as if there are no new moves!

Thank God, Michael and Quincy Jones found one another for a few great albums. Wow! Bad, We Are The World, Lady in My Life.

And for all the talk about what a weirdo he was, that he never grew up, Michael never forgot where he came from. He could have skipped the NAACP awards, but he didn't. He made sure the connection that started back in Gary remained intact.

Rest in peace Michael and all the best to your family and fans throughout the world.

How Could This Happen?

Brucejohnson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:10:00 GMT

Its the question everybody is asking on Tuesday morning, hours after one Metro train slammed into another on the Red Line at the height of rush hour Monday.

The death toll was scaled back from nine to seven Tuesday morning but was back up to nine by late morning with more than seventy people injured; but this was an accident that everyone had been told could not happen on Metro.

[Photos by Keith Dean]

Train #112 and train #214 were both traveling between the Takoma Park and Fort Totten stations.

The first car (112) was stopped or stalling because a third train had not yet cleared the above ground Fort Totten platform.

Train 214 was operated by 42 year old Jeanice McMillen of Springfield, Va. If her train was on automatic, the computer system at Metro Central should have kept her train at a safe distance. Other operators say she should have been able to apply the brakes manually is needed.

So what went wrong?

McMillen was killed when her train slammed into the train into the rear end of the train in front of her on a crystal clear day.

Those of us who went to the scene to report the carnage witnessed one train that had been ripped open where the operator once sat...the rest of the car-crunched like a stepped on soda can-had mounted the first train.

Keith Dean of Northeast DC was one of the area residents who arrived on the scene, snapping numerous digital pictures which he made available exclusively for this blog.

His camera captured metro passengers from both trains sprawled out on the ground, having been rescued by other riders, firefighters or finding their own way out of the wreckage.

Rescue workers had to cut their way into the wreckage of both trains still on the tracks and pointing toward downtown DC.

Mayor Adrian Fenty, Metro GM John Catoe and others held a press conference-giving much needed updates. The rest of the rush hour commute was thrown into a tailspin.

The Red line stopped at Rhode Island Avenue, south of the crash, and at Silver Spring to the North. Marc trains carrying commuters away from the city were delayed.

Tuesday morning begged for patience at every level.

It wasn't clear at first glance just how many people had kept to plans of fidning other ways, other than metro train, of getting to work or school.

Following a Tuesday morning press conference Mayor Fenty said authorities had begun notifying families of the dead. The NTSB is heading the investigation and refused to speculate on a cause for the deadliest accident in Metro's 33 year history.

'The Nine Lives of Marion Barry' Debuts at Silver Docs Film Festival in Maryland

Brucejohnson — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:54:00 GMT

The HBO Documentary, 'The Nine Lives of Marion Barry,' is premiering tonight at Silver Docs Film Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Click on the video below to watch the report I did about the film.

One of Garrison Twins is Out of Prison...Says He's Not Bitter

Brucejohnson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:37:00 GMT

Lawrence Garrison walked out of a federal prison in Ohio in January. More recently, he was released from a halfway house in DC, thus ending more than eleven years in prison for a crime he and his twin brother Lamont say they never committed.

A lot of people, including college faculty, a retired DC cop, their family and friends believe them.

Its a story that I have been covering for more than a decade and one in which I encouraged anyone out there to call or email me if they have some evidence to disprove the Garrison's innocence. No one has come forward in all that time.

Lawrence and Lamont were 25 year old graduates of Howard University. They had gone to school part time while working, taking out student loans and interning at various federal agencies.

Their hobby was cars--it was their uncles banged up vehicle that sent them to an auto body shop in suburban Capitol Heights Maryland.

The shop-it turns out was operated by a convicted drug dealer who was busted by the FBI. Tito Abea was facing big time in prison so he cut a deal with the FBI and got a 36 month sentence when he could have been facing life. Abea named a total 20 people as part of his Crack-Cocaine ring-including the Garrison twins.

Lawrence and Lamont couldn't get their case separated from the others-they refused a plea and their mother's suggestion that they mortgage their row house in Trinidad to hire an experienced attorney. Lamont was so sure he could convince a jury of their innocence that he took the stand during the trail.

He was wrong. Mandatory Minimum guidelines left the federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia no choice, upon their conviction, but to sentence Lamont to 19 years in prison and Lawrence to 14 years.

Their mother Karen Garrison went to work for Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences and got about four years knocked off those prison terms.

Lawrence served eleven years and two months. Lamont has another 17 months to go--

Now 36, Lawrence says there were no debit cards when he entered prison. Few people had cell phones and practically no one in his old neighborhood was driving an SUV.

He's looking for a job and waiting to see his brother again---they haven't been together since being shipped off to separate prisons more
than a decade ago. Even now federal correctional guidelines won't permit Lawrence to visit Lamont because they are identical twins.