Home sweet home

2012-09-06T06:24:00.001-07:00

I like to tell this factual story about this guy who accuses me of saying that he pulled a gun on a good friend that is like a younger brother to me so me being me I go back and ask my friend is this true my friend say's it's not true and he confront him about this I don't know what he said to him but last night the same guy who said he pulled this gun was rubbing on his back and shaking my broth...

er's hand like he was Barack Obama and not to lond ago he was calling him a PunBis@###h but you know something this same guy was giving me the silent treatment for going back and asking my brah was this true. At one point and time we were cool but time brings on a change in people the more you get to know them the more they change before your eyes. but always be on the look out for this kind of two faced mofo because he did even more than that at one point I thought we were at a republican convention he was hugging mo niggas than females well I geuss he fealt my presence because he was trying to get a small squad together to get at me.......Suppose to be this tough ass thug but your only coward ass republican@eastsidestreets/twitter HARVEYWALLBANGER tells from the streets of Cleveland.....Lol

Hip-Hop Fridays: Rap COINTELPRO Part IV: Congress Holds Hearings On DEA Rap-A-Lot Investigation

2010-02-07T04:49:00.000-08:00

God bless....For the past two days I have attended Congressional hearings on the Drug Enforcement Agency's (DEA) Investigation of Rap-A-Lot Records. While the hearings were called by Republican members of the House Committee on Government in an effort to provide evidence or to imply through innuendo that Rep. Maxine Waters and even Vice-President Al Gore intervened to slow or end a DEA investigation of James Prince, the head of Rap-A-Lot records, some of the most striking information revealed in the hearings was the extent to which the federal government had placed federal informants in not just Rap-A-Lot Records but throughout Houston's 5th Ward section.

The federal government, with the help of the Houston Police Department, infiltrated Houston's Fifth ward in a manner that can only be classified as military in nature. For at least 8 years, the DEA and Houston Police Department worked aggressively to form an intelligence network that would result in the conviction of James Prince and the shutting down of Rap-A-Lot records. It was also revealed in the hearings that the DEA has over 300 DEA agents in Houston alone and when combined with the Houston Police Department task force currently has over 400 people working the city in the "War on Drugs" effort.

Depending upon whose testimony you rely upon the DEA investigation of Rap-A Lot records began in early 1992 and possibly 1988 when two large cocaine busts were made. The DEA claims that since that time 20 arrests were made in connection with the investigation, with convictions ranging from drug use and sales to murder.

But in over 8 years the investigation never produced proof that the intended target, James Prince, formerly known as James Smith, was guilty of any suspected crimes.

During the hearings, DEA Special Agent In Charge Of The Houston Field Office, Ernest L. Howard spoke of the great effort and energy expended to attract and groom informants from Houston's inner cities to be of help in the investigation. Agent Howard explained how difficult it was to "infiltrate the 5th Ward" and that the investigation made "no progress from 1992-1997" until the government began to have success in its efforts to recruit informants in the 5th Ward and inside of the Rap-A-Lot organization.

And Agent Howard left little doubt that the government was looking to use its informants and its intelligence network to build a case that would not only lead to the arrest of James Prince but would which would also shut Rap-A-Lot down, as a business enterprise.

And the manner in which the DEA hoped to do this was made clear during the investigation: the government hoped to get James Prince in jail and to shut the legitimate business activities of Rap-A-Lot records down under the Racketeering In Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) which allows the government to associate entire organizations/businesses with the criminal activities of its members.

RICO is the ultimate guilt-by-association statute in the federal government's arsenal, which allows it to link the activities of executives with those of employees and individuals with that of corporations.

"The only way that we were going to get the target (James Prince) of this investigation was through a conspiracy", Agent Howard stated during the hearings.

Agent Howard then offered that there were two individuals affiliated with Rap-A-Lot records which they hoped to arrest and/or turn into informants who would be "key to proving a conspiracy".

A letter was also released during the hearings written by James B. Nims, Group Supervisor in the DEA, to Rep. Dan Burton (R-In), chairman of the Committee on Government Reform which revealed that multi-platinum artist, Scarface, was a significant target of the DEA investigation and that the DEA was working to get Scarface to turn against James Prince.

In the letter Nims writes to Burton:

"In regards to the US Attorney's Office, we could not convince them to indict Brad Jordan, AKA "Scarface", even though I strongly believe we had him tied in solidly on a federal drug conspiracy charge. This was devastating to the case as we felt that Brad Jordan could have provided us with important leads and information regarding Mr. Smith."

Many close to the investigation say that an indictment against Scarface never occurred because the evidence against him was so weak and that the DEA was willing to do almost anything to pressure Scarface in an effort to get him to become an informant.

The reason that Rep. Maxine Waters was the focus of committee hearings was because of the fact that Rep. Waters wrote a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno in August of 1999, after Prince sought her help, fearing that his life was in danger due to the DEA /Houston Police Department investigation.

Rep. Waters wrote the letter which reflected her commitment to issues of civil rights violations, unlawful search and seizures, racial profiling and police brutality.

Prince especially believed that one of the officers on the case, Jack Schumacher, was harassing him and Rap-A-Lot in a manner that could have led to Prince's death.

Rep. Waters asked Reno to give the matter her full consideration and attention. Republicans believed that Rep. Maxine Waters' letter to Reno resulted in the investigation against Rap-A-Lot ending.

The reason that Al Gore's name entered the hearings was because in March of 2000 Gore visited a popular Houston church, Brookhollow Baptist Church, where James Prince is a member. Prince is said to have given the church over $1 million in donations.

Three days after the Gore visit, agent Schumacher was given a desk job. Republicans sought to determine whether there was any connection between the Gore visit and the decision to move Schumacher.

In one of the hearings more bizarre moments Schumacher stated that he heard that Prince had made an illegal donation of $200,000 to the Gore campaign.

When pressed by Congressional Black Caucus member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) Schumacher admitted that the information regarding Gore and Prince was unsubstantiated. Schumacher told the committee, "It is third-hand information that has not been corroborated". Schumacher said that he received the information from a source that he had never had contact with before.

Yesterday, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) who represents Houston, questioned Schumacher and Agent Howard regarding the allegations and innuendo that Vice-President Gore and Rep. Maxine Waters interfered with the DEA investigation.

The questioning revealed that there was no evidence that supported the claims.

In total, the investigation brought the power of the DEA, IRS and Houston Police Department against a Hip-Hop label.

Some say that the information that came out of the investigation that revealed how the government recruited informants in Houston's inner cities reminds them of the tactics used by former FBI head J.Edgar Hoover who in 1968 established the "Ghetto Listening Post" in inner cities across the country - an effort that resulted in the recruitment of 3,248 informants.

The DEA Rap-A-Lot investigation is full of lessons for the Hip-Hop community.

Please read:

Dallas Morning News Full Coverage Of DEA Rap-A-Lot

Rap Case Suspension Wrong, DEA says

DEA Says Rap Drug Probe Ongoing

Cedric Muhammad

Friday, December 08, 2000

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The views and opinions expressed herein by the author do not necessarily represent the opinions or position of BlackElectorate.com or Black Electorate Communications.

Copyright © 2000-2002 BEC

Off and running

2010-02-07T04:19:00.000-08:00

God bless,,.

Thursday, November 5, 2009, 10:58 AM EST [General]

What's up, everybody? It's Darnell, checking in with another installment of the D-Blog.

It's hard to believe we're already in the second week of the season. But here we are and it feels good.

I haven't gotten too much playing time so far this year, but I'm cool. I'm definitely not getting frustrated. I'm on a great team with great players. All I can do is keep working hard and when my time comes, it'll come. And it's going to be great when it comes. You never really know when your time is going to be. It could be in a couple years, next year or next week. I'll be ready when it does.

We practice hard here at the Cleveland Clinic Courts. And after practice we almost always get into a good pick-up game. Teams are always the same. It's always me, Coach Lloyd (Pierce), Coach B-Moore (Bryant Moore), Jawad (Williams) and Danny (Green). The other squad is Coach (Chris) Jent, Coach Melvin Hunt, (team assistant) Jordy, J.J. (Hickson) and Coby Karl.

Let's just say my team is undefeated. We can't be stopped in five-on-five, pick-up. No way.

I always battle J.J. in those pick-up games. Basically, we want to push each other. We work on our moves; basically, the same thing we do in practice. (Except you get more shots.)

We try not to get down on ourselves - if we don't play or we play and just get a few minutes. All we can do is keep working hard. That's how you get better. And we work hard against each other, even in pick-up games. You can't get better by not going hard against somebody. You have to compete.

This year, there's only one rookie - Danny Green. He's a great guy. The other day, he brought his new "DJ Hero" game into the locker room. I was messing around with it.

He plays that. I don't play that stuff. I'm a PS-3 guy. I'll stick with NBA 2K-10 and football. (I'm either the Saints or the Vikings. Adrian Peterson - the man's a real-life Transformer!)

Yeah, Danny likes Guitar Hero and DJ hero. I don't have time to be sitting there learning how to be a D.J. - (even though my initials are DJ). I can't get into all that, though I was messing around with the turntable the other day.

On the other end of the spectrum, there's Shaq. Being around him has been such a great experience. He just calls me "Block." Every time they play a song during the game, he'll come over and just say "Block" - and then he'll start rapping or dancing. He's a great guy and it's great to have a guy like that on the team. That's a living legend right there.

From the young guys to the older guys, this team has great chemistry again. It's as good or better than last year.

I think that's what will take us to the championship. A team with great chemistry and great players who are willing to share the ball and doesn't care who gets the headlines, that's always a good recipe.

We all have to help each other out. If LeBron's out there doing his work - it's our job to help and support him. When Mo does his thing - we support him. And it just goes down the line like that. Coach stresses that - every day in practice and it's something we truly believe in. And we hope it'll result in that Trophy at the end of the year.

4.6 (5 Ratings) Tags:

Home sweet home: The Cleveland Brown's#links#links#links#links#links#links#links

2010-01-16T13:36:00.000-08:00

Home sweet home: The Cleveland Brown's#links#links#links#links#links#links#links

God bless....

The Cleveland Brown's

2009-10-31T13:19:00.000-07:00

God bless....Know matter what the browns do they still can't seam to get over the hump.Iv'e seen them try and try again and for some reason they just can't give the fans their money's worth,I believe a team should get payed the way they play and,I believe they would really begin to earn their money. They made mistake's from top to bottom their never seam to draft really good player's and the good player's they do draft get good and get gone fast.I'm just asking for a team and organization to do things the right way when it come's to running play's and also drafting player's that really want to play here in Cleveland...."Wow" and I mean that literally the browns got the backsides kick now they might utalize the rookie jenning on the practise squad who's tallent has been wasting away this team alway's trade good player's away and never seam to replace them or make good trades.

2009-10-20T01:40:00.001-07:00

God bless....

Repair Driver Problems

2009-10-20T00:43:00.000-07:00

Repair Driver Problems

yes

Michael Jackson

2009-10-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

Family

2009-10-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

Thier's nothing like a loving family! Time and time again my wife,and mother have came thru for me when things looked bleak.My wife is one of a kind you or anyone else want find one like her she had my back thru thick and thin i could rember sitting in the justice center eating those dry pepercorn salami sandwishes if you ever spent a few days in the justice's you know what, I'm talking about but when things seam like they weren't going to go right this woman would come to my rescue and sprang a brother from the grips of the justice center...thankyou...baby..I love you.O my god my mother has done the same without these two women in my life, my life would be hanging side ways they stood in the gap for me more than ounce ,I just want to express to the both of them how much, I love the both of the them baby their's nothing I want do for you.Mom if their's anything you need or want dont even ask! i will always be thier love.....KEITH

Good Morning

2009-10-09T04:13:00.000-07:00

I just heard Obamma just won the noble peace prize,I'm proud of him for all his efforts no matter how much adversity he's been subjected to this man has accomplished a lot in short time it's wonderfull just to know he's a american....

Interview

2009-10-07T01:35:00.000-07:00

Today i have a interview downtown im not going to say where at until later, just to make sure thing go according to god's way i dont want to say anything about it just yet so im going to keep it a secret for now .Things might not go as expected but i do have confidents that everything going to go well, but if not i do have a backup plan and it called crazy horse gentlemens club how would you like to cook food in gentlemens club i know most men would so can you imagine, but you know something im married so that spoiled all the fun so i have to stay fathefull and keep my eye's on the food and not the boob's talk to you later and by the way how do you like my blog settup it just couple pictures of some of my my favorite lyrics with some of the best beats i ever heard you have to have a aquired taste for this kind of rap music or just thick skin. See im from the EC and ECeveland is not a easy place to grow up in but to make a long story short this is all i listen to, and over the years it's never changed i just like what they have to say and if you listen to the lyric their a message that any man or woman can learn from but i like the beats to so on that note al be talking to you all later about how the interview went pray for me!!