Big Sole Blog (BSB)

FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports I don't know that I've ever seen anything before like this emotionally gripping encounter on the video above. In it, former New Orleans police officer Josh Colclough, 29, meets with the mother and family of Wendell Allen, the 20-year-old, unarmed young man Colclough shot and killed while executing a narcotics warrant last March. Shortly after the

President Obama spoke at the White House today about the Trayvon Martin case saying that 35 years ago, he could have been Trayvon. He said what he had to say diplomatically, making this salient point: . . . [W]hen you think about why, in the African- American community at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it's important to recognize that the African- American

Noticing the number of people visiting this blog via search engines seeking information on the Baby Antonio West case, I knew some new information must have been released. When I looked the case up, I learned that gun shot residue (GSR) found on the father's clothes has become a minor issue. More than likely the residue transferred to Luis Santiago's clothes when he met with the child's mother

As everyone who is not in a coma or asleep right now probably knows, the verdict is in in the George Zimmerman trial. The Florida jury of six women found Zimmerman not guilty. Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year but claimed self-defense. Martin was unarmed. All I have to say to this news as an African-American mother of a young black male is from now on, we "Remember

I have been very quiet at this blog on the George Zimmerman trial because it feels more like the defense has been prosecuting Trayvon Martin than defending George Zimmerman. It's been painful to hear and watch, especially for those of us who have black sons and perceive that what's being said is "all young black men are dangerous criminals." Nevertheless, I had to share this picture which I

Reading a post about Savannah's history at Examiner.com, I discovered a link to a video in which Paula Deen, appearing on the finale of NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? last year, discovered that her great-great-grandfather, John Batts, owned 35 slaves. Deen had denied for years, she says, that her family ever had anything to do with slavery; however, she did not seem particularly shocked

After reading both the soft-soaping of what Paula Deen's alleged to have said and done in the workplace and the outbursts of people angry at her and after noticing that often her supporters and her detractors did not bother to read the actual complaint against Deen that Lisa T. Jackson, a white female, filed with the court, I've finally had enough. I must say something. I mean, I suspect even

I did not watch the CNN report on the n-word versus cracker. I'm too old to waste my time with fruitless discussions; however, this clip from that show with LeVar Burton, Wynton Marsalis, Don Lemon, and Tim Wise came to my attention, and I thought it was worth posting. In the clip Burton tells how he, as a black man, behaves when stopped in his car by police officers. Then Don Lemon talks about

FLOTUS visits Harper High, April 2013 (Nancy Stone-Pool/Getty)  So, what was Michelle Obama talking about when that GetEqual heckler interrupted her? When I first read about First Lady Michelle Obama's confrontation with Ellen Sturtz of the gay rights group GetEqual, I laughed. The first lady was keeping it real. Sturtz clearly did not know who she was messing with, I thought. It's no secret

In this video, A.P. Tureaud Jr. (son of the famous Civil Rights attorney) and Louisiana historian Alfred E. Lemmon discuss the musical history of Louisiana's free people of color. Their information is pretty accurate. For instance, it's true that prior to the cultural Americanization of Louisiana and before the Civil War, Louisiana neighborhoods were not as segregated as they became later.

In a recent interview with his close friend Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry compared Langston Hughes's negative criticism of Zora Neale Hurston's work to Spike Lee's negative criticism of Perry's work.  I think Perry could use a better example when it comes to contemporary black writers downing his movies, plays, and television shows. (The timing of Perry's interview with Oprah coincides with the

Birmingham police arrested Martin Luther King Jr. on 12 April 1963, and he penned his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" while imprisoned, slipping it as a crumpled wad of paper to his friend Clarence Jones. Jones did not know what it was until later. On its 50th anniversary, rather than comment on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," I'm commemorating its

One look at this video showing how officers of the New Orleans Police Department killed a likely suicidal man and you may doubt the competence of the NOPD. One look and you may understand why Mayor Landrieu should not be allowed to let the city escape its consent decree with the Department of Justice in place to reform the city's police department. The video below shows a listless 39-year-old

Apparently the police in Brunswick, Georgia, believe they have a very strong case against De'Marquise Elkins, the alleged shooter in the death of Baby Antonio, and the recently identified 15-year-old, Dominique Lang. The pair will be charged as adults, reports U.S. News on NBC. Furthermore, Elkins has lost his alibi. His mother and aunt have been arrested for lying to the police: Karima Aisha

Read the latest on this case at this blog at this link.UPDATES, March 2013: Evidence is mounting against the boys, Elkins and the now-identified 15-year-old Dominique Lang. While Sherry West's story seems off (perhaps due to her alleged mental illnesses), it's starting to look as though she's telling the truth. A gun's been recovered. Read more here. Today, someone left a link in comments on my

Updates: Read updates under the Baby Antonio label.In the CNN video posted below, Sherry West, the mother of 13-month-old Baby Antonio, who was shot in the face in Brunswick, Georgia, last week, tells how her first son, Shaun Glassey, also died a violent death. Glassey was stabbed to death with a steak knife in New Jersey in 2008 when he was 18 years old. However, he was not an innocent victim,

Updates at this label: Baby AntonioWhat a horrific story, "Baby Shot Dead in Stroller"! On the video later in this post, you will see Sherry West, the mother of a 13-month old boy in Brunswick, Georgia, who was shot in the face and died instantly. West says that Baby Antonio was shot by two young black males (ages 14 and 17). Sadly, it's possible that it happened just as the mother said it did,

Endymion's Pontchartrain Beach float is soooo long that it couldn't make a corner turn. The Krewe of Endymion debuted its massive Pontchartrain Beach float at its 2013 parade, three days before Mardi Gras. The float has multiple cars, is 375 feet long, and holds at least 230 riders, and it pays tribute to a local amusement park that closed in 1983. The cars represent different attractions and

Usually when I link to Huffington Post, I do so because one of its writers has written something worthy of thought or uncovered a political issue that the mainstream media has overlooked. Unfortunately, that's not why I'm linking to that website today. HuffPo is possibly large enough and powerful enough now to be called a mainstream media outlet itself, and due its reach and power, the website's

I don't know that much about Matt Kibbe, except that he is an ardent Tea Party activist. I dislike the Tea Party and oppose the austerity measures its policies recommend. I do know, however, quite a bit about Rush Limbaugh and it's no secret that I don't like him and think he's a racist and enema bag. So, when I hear that Limbaugh and Matt Kibbe are telling their fellow conservatives that