When the Womb is a Crime Scene

“A woman can be charged with chemical endangerment from the earliest weeks of pregnancy, even if her baby is born perfectly healthy, even if her goal was to protect her baby from greater harm. The penalties are exceptionally stiff: one to 10 years in prison if her baby suffers no ill effects, 10 to 20 years if her baby shows signs of exposure or harm and 10 to 99 years if her baby dies.”

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University of Alabama Students Protest Police Killings of Black Youth

Student newspaper The Crimson White reported nearly 300 students took part in the protest and sit-in at the Ferguson Center, a hub of campus activity.

Participants wore all black clothing, with many carrying signs and utilizing social media hashtags like #TTownforMikeBrown and #BlackLivesMatter to share photos of the protest.

AL Teen Chokes to Death, Suffers Cardiac Arrest at Hands of Police

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — A Huntsville teen who died after being arrested by Huntsville police in a drug sting suffered broken ribs, had a flashlight shoved in his mouth and suffered cardiac arrest while officers sat on him, a federal lawsuit alleges.

The 17-year-old choked, began vomiting and lost consciousness while handcuffed but officers refused to render aid, according to the lawsuit filed by Nancy Smith, the teen’s mother. Police told paramedics they thought the teen had overdosed, but the lawsuit said no signs of an overdose have been found.

The officers, who had sent an informer to buy drugs from the teen, held the teen down and inserted two pens and the butt of a flashlight into his mouth searching for contraband. They didn’t find any. The boy could not breathe and had turned blue by the time paramedics arrived, according to the complaint.

He died on June 18, 2013, five days after being transported to Huntsville Hospital.

Fear & The Ferguson Verdict

In the minutes leading up to the verdict of the Grand Jury in Ferguson–on whether or not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed Black teen Michael Brown–I can’t help but to hear these lyrics in mead, from The Temper Trap’s “Science of Fear”, excerpted here:

Black smoke

Red sky

The television’s sayin’

Downhill

Head on another crash is comin’

Downhill

Head on another crash is comin’

Move

Or watch the murder of you way of life

There’s a science to fear

It plagues my mind

And it keeps us right here

And the less we know

The more we sit still

My baby’s stuck on a road

That leads to nowhere

Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere, nowhere.