Racism and COVID-19: Inequities and Policing. (2020, June 18). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3kDdingjmo&feature=youtu.be

COVID-19 and the Labor Market. (n.d.). IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. Retrieved 31 July 2020, from https://covid-19.iza.org/publications/dp13388/

The Black Lives Matter movement has a similar dialogue embedded in it:

But this call to "be better" puts the onus back on the oppressed on a whole other level:

As a student recently wrote in a brainstorm of questions, "Why are people judged by what they were?" https://www.instagram.com/p/86A-X7OmNX/?taken-by=paulrallison That's something else going from a "criminal history" to a trait: "bad actor." Maybe he was unlucky enough to not be able to escape the criminal justice system. Maybe he was a good person who had something terrible follow him.

Here's a history of this the process of gentrification that Linda Christensen uses in here gentrification curriculum: BLEEDING ALBINA: A HISTORY OF COMMUNITY DISINVESTMENT, 1940–2000

The three men yelling this at Black Lives Matter demonstrators must not have learned their lessons in Linda Christensen's English class at Jefferson High School http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/1052-nov2015/EJ1052Focus.pdf

I'm deeply saddened by this response. I've felt it so often. But what would Jamar have been able to do with those few more hours? What could have stopped this tragedy from speeding down to its inevitable end.

What does that mean?!? Is it something in him? In our schools? In his experiences in his adoptive family? In not having a steady job? In getting pushed in and out of jail? What?

Come again?

I guess this is a basic human need: connection. But I'm struck with how sensitive Jamar was about this need. This sentence makes me want to write a song or a poem about Jamar, the lovely repetition of "cared" and "care."

This sentence and others in this article point to Jamar's connections to family: biological and adoptive parents, 14 siblings, wanting a family of his own, and a nurturing, loving man. And the police call him a "bad actor." Which is it? I guess he could be both. What does this phrase "When things were going well..." mean? Does it mean when Tim was providing employment and a motel room?

That seems pretty clear by now, a tragic series of events with Jamar going "in and out" of prison for three of his most precious years, his early 20's. But what can we imagine instead? How might "the system" respond to "troubled youth"? Who can we help now to avoid Jamar's path?

What gave Tim Hoag this optimism? What was he missing? Or is it just luck who can move past "it" and who can't.

Once back on the streets there were times when I couldn't afford to take the bus I didn't know where I was going to sleep at night Thank God for Tim who would get me a motel room, and a job when he could.

I've made mistakes in my life, and I've paid my dues.

When the cops stopped us after a high speed chase in July, did they have to beat me too?

I want to know more about Tim Hoag and his wife and their rental properties. And how Jamar came into their orbit. How could government have supported Tim Hoag and his wife in their reaching out to Jamar?

Here's the beginning of a lead to learn more about Tim Hoag. He's the President of Copland Trucking. http://www.copelandtruc-king.com/team.htm

Piecing this together, it seems that many of Jamar's troubles started with this "petty misdemeanor" for marijuana possession when he was 18. How can we see this story as being about a young Black man who was ensnared in a system of prison and crime that would only make things worse for him.

Okay, so which of these is more credible. Isn't it irresponsible journalism to just report such an important detail as he said/she said? Which of the people who the reporter interviewed seemed most credible? Who was actually there?

Sarah Gartnor, a friend of Chris Rodgers -- who took us over to the 4th Precinct yesterday (Thursday) -- told us that when she was sitting in the Mayor's living room the night before as part of a protest, a special prosecutor told her and her fellow protesters that Jamar had been beaten at the end of this high-speed chase. He was about to testify about that beating in January, he told her.

He's had a hard time, but this sounds ugly.

What does this mean? Was he is prison or not?

Okay, he was either reaching for a gun or he was handcuffed. How does a reporter merely report this without pointing out that this is clearly NOT what many witnesses said happened. And I would assume that she did follow-up interviews with quoting these eye-witnesses. what did these "union reps" have to say about why their story is so different?

Putting this out there like this: Are we expected to trust this or not. Is this totally up to the reader and his/her background as to whether or not we are to trust the "police union representatives?" Certainly we can all agree that these reps have a reason to make Clark look bad. Why doesn't the writer remind us of that fact?

What a sentence! I keep reading it and wondering what he would say if he could read it. Twenty-four -- with the last three years in prison, living at times in a motel, and he cared deeply about his parents and 14 siblings!

Is this a formula? Dragging up a victim's past? And what's going to happen as I read this (again). On my first reading, I was upset with how Jamar was trying (sometimes unsuccessfully) to escape the criminal justice system, and now it finally caught up to him.