United States - Whites began the process of putting Black Americans, mostly young men, in jail in massive waves of arrests. The pretense was that there was a crime problem and a drug problem. This combined with the supposed HIV/AIDS scare, which was targeted at Black American women.
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Washington, D. C. - Future President, Joe Biden, made comments for what became the 1994 Crime Bill. This was the last new bill of the Mass Incarceration era.
Biden called Americans 'predators' and wanted them in jail. He called them criminals and single mothers and disadvantaged. He used all the racial code words of the Reagan and Nixon eras. Biden made it clear the police and sheriffs wanted this bill. Black Americans, the targets of the bill, were not asked about it, before it was written.
This Crime Bill sent hundreds of thousands of Black American men to jail, for non-violent drug crimes. It exploded jail and prison numbers. The cost, in public funds, was hundreds of billions of dollars.
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Washington, D. C. - President William Clinton signed into law the most expansive crime bill in United States history. It vastly increased funding for jails and prisons. Higher education for prisoners was stopped. The death penalty was now possible for more crimes.
The law had a 3-strikes section. Someone who was convicted 3 times of a crime, could face up to life behind bars. One of the crimes had to be a major violent felony. The other two crimes did not matter. Whether it was minor theft or a major felony, the third sentence in prison was severe.
The official name was the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. It is also called the Clinton Crime Bill or the Biden Crime Law.
The Violence Against Women Act was Title IV of this legislation. It was based on the Black American man rapist trope. It was created by whites, after slavery, as an excuse to lynch (murder) and castrate Black American men, without punishment. There was no provision for false rape accusations (Brian Banks story).
This law created the final form of mass incarceration that exists today.
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Union, South Carolina - Susan Smith killed her two (2) children and accused a Black American man. Smith told local police said this man stole her car, with her two (2) children inside.
The story made national headlines. The national white media showed a sketch of a Black man that local police gave them. It was shown nationwide. The sketch was on television and in newspapers.
This was at a time of the drug war hysteria. Mass incarceration of Black American men increased rapidly during this time. Smith's story made Black American men to be violent criminals. All it took was the word of one white woman to convince the nation that Black American men were violent against white women.
On November 3rd, 1994, after a search returned no good leads, Smith confessed to the murder of her two (2) children. Smith drowned her own children in her car, in a local lake.
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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Timothy McVeigh committed the greatest domestic terrorism act until the 9/11 event of 2001. McVeigh was responsble for the destruction of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. It resulted in the deaths of dozens of Black Americans and a total of 168 dead and 680 injured.
Among the dead were more than a dozen children. Some were infants. It was suspected that McVeigh targeted the building specifically to murder Black American women and children. This event exposed the Michigan Militia as a domestic terrorist, white supremacist organization.
McVeigh enlisted in the military at age 20, in 1988. He served in Iraq. McVeigh bragged about decapitating an Iraqi soldier with cannon fire.
On June 11th, 2001, McVeigh was executed by lethal injection.
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Los Angeles, California - Orenthal James (O. J.) Simpson was found not guilty in the murder of a white male and a white female. It was an extremely rare case. Normally, a Black American man was convicted when a victim was white. In those cases, evidence rarely mattered, in the United States.
Unfortunately, the white press, white politicians, and white media have complained about this outcome until this very day.
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Keene, New Hampshire - Hillary Clinton, then First Lady, called American youth, super predators. The comment was made with regard to drugs and crime. Clinton stated a new Crime Law had passed in 1994. She said the effort was anti-crime, anti-drugs, and anti-gang.
All of Clinton's comments were made against Black Americans. Since Nixon, crime fighting meant sending more police at Black Americans. Fighting drugs meant more jail for Black Americans. Fighting gangs meant using Black American youth as targets.
After decades of policy to link crime, gangs, and drugs with Black American youth, Clinton made the connections in one address.
To this day, these comments have followed her.
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Washington, D. C. - President William J. Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 into law. It went into effect the moment it was signed. Over the next ten years, this law that destroyed Black American mass media stations across the country.
Before this law, there were Black American radio stations across the United States. The previous law, the Telecommunications Act of 1934, made it hard for large, white companies to enter Black American markets. Congress and President Clinton made a way to get around this. It led to the strict control of mass media by only a handful of large, white companies.
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New York, New York - Amadou Diallo was killed by four New York City police workers. They were not in uniform. When they stopped Diallo, he reached for his wallet. The police fired 41 gunshots at him. Diallo was hit 19 times. The police continued to shoot after Diallo had fallen.
Diallo was alone and unarmed. The police workers were all white. Their names were Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss. A trial was held and all four were found not guilty.
Amadou Diallo was born in Liberia, September 2, 1975. He died at 23 years of age.
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Columbine, Colorado - The greatest high school mass murder was committed by Eric Harris, and Dylan Klebold.
Harris and Klebold sought to kill all the Black American students at the school. They only found and killed one, Isaiah Shoels, aged 18. The two (2) murdered eleven (11) others.
At 12:08 p.m., the two killed themselves. This was the birthday of Adolf Hitler.
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Cincinnati, Ohio - Cincinnati police worker Stephen Roach killed Timothy Thomas. The night Thomas was killed, nine police workers chased him, on foot. They had an arrest warrent, with his name on it, for minor infractions. Almost all were for driving without a license and not wearing a seat belt.
During the foot chase, Thomas turned a corner, into a dark alley. Stephen Roach was in the alley and saw Thomas. As Thomas reached to pull up his pants, Roach shot Thomas in the chest, at close range. Thomas died on the way to the hospital. At the time of his death, Thomas was 19 years of age.
Roach was tried and cleared of the killing of Thomas. This shooting led to the most violent riot, in the United States, that year.
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New York, New York - Hundreds of Black Americans were killed in terrorist attacks, in one day. They died at the World Trade Center. Many more were injured.
At 8:46 a.m., there was an explosion at the northern facade, of the North Tower, of the World Trade Center.
At 9:03 a.m., there was an explosion at the southern facade, of the South Tower, of the World Trade Center.
At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed.
At 10:28 a.m., the North Tower collapsed.
The Marriott World Trade Center was destroyed after both towers collapsed on it. It was 22 stories tall, with 825 rooms.
At 5:20:52 p.m., 7 World Trade Center collapsed. It was a 47-story building.
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