We See Lies When we stop allowing ourselves to be blind to what’s true then we will see real progress.

TULSA, Okla. — Oklahoma prosecutors filed murder and hate crime charges Friday against two men arrested in an Easter weekend shooting spree that left three people dead and terrorized Tulsa’s black community.

Jake England, 19, and his roommate, Alvin Watts, 33, each are charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of shooting with intent to kill and five counts of malicious harassment. The harassment counts allege the victims were targeted because of their race.

Police say the men, who were arrested early Sunday after a two-day manhunt, appeared to have chosen their victims at random. Under state law, first-degree murder is punishable by death or life in prison. Prosecutors have not said whether they will seek the men’s execution.

Neo-Nazis say they are conducting heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida, and are “prepared” for violence in case of a race riot. The patrols are to protect “white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety” in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting last month, says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement. “We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody, but we are prepared for it,” he says. “We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over.”

The attorneys for George Zimmerman, the Florida community watch volunteer who fatally shot unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, said Tuesday they have lost touch with their client and are withdrawing from the case.

Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig said at a news conference outside the Seminole County Courthhouse in Sanford, Fla., that they heard that Zimmerman on Tuesday had contacted a special prosecutor, who will decide whether or not to press charges against him, against their advice.

They said they have not talked to Zimmerman, whose location is not known, in at least two days but in the past had spoken with him over the phone. “We can’t represent him unless he comes forward and asks us,” Uhrig said.

“We have a pretty good idea where he (Zimmerman) is,” Uhrig said, but added that Zimmerman is not answering the phone.

Uhrig said Zimmerman had called Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity, which also worried them. “We believe he spoke directly to Sean,” Uhrig said. Fox News representative Dana Klinghoffer declined to elaborate to NBC News on the nature of Zimmerman’s relationship with Hannity, saying it would be addressed on the show.

The attorneys said they still believe in Zimmerman’s story that he was attacked by Martin and fired in self-defense.

Dear White folks: 

Between the racist comments, the constant use of the race denial card (this country’s most frequently used “race card”) and the absurd claims of White victimhood, you have really grated my last nerve.

Sure, we got teary during The Blind Side and Antoine Fisher; we maybe even gave money to KONY2012 and after Hurricane Katrina; we maybe even donned a hoodie to protest the murder of Trayvon Martin.  I don’t even doubt there are individuals out there who are genuinely concerned about racism and injustice; I don’t doubt that there are many Whites that marched with Dr. King and whose “best friends” might be Black.  None of this matters if African Americans continue to die at the hands of guns held by security guards and police officers all without justice

I have heard that “we are all Trayvon Martin” over the last few weeks, yet we are not Trayvon Martin – and we never could be. White America is never suspicious. White America can walk to the store without fear of being hunted down. White America can count on justice and a nation grieving at the loss of White life. We aren’t Trayvon Martin, we are George Zimmerman: presumed innocent until proven innocent.

Read David Leonard’s entire piece at Ebony.

Michigan State Police and Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) officials are trying to determine how an electronic road was changed to display a racist message about Trayvon Martin. The sign, which was located along I-94 along the border of Detroit and Dearborn, said “Trayvon is a Nigger” and was discovered just before 1 a.m. on Monday morning. This incident also comes days after someone spray-painted “Long Live Zimmerman” on the Hale Black Cultural Center at Ohio State University. That incident led to demonstrations by black students at Ohio State over the weekend

Police, officials and residents are horrified by the shooting deaths of three African-American men, allegedly by two white men, in a predominantly black area in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But authorities will not say whether they believe the shootings were a hate crime.

Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 33, are charged with three counts of murder and two counts of shooting with intent to kill in connection with last week’s shootings, which also wounded two people.

A day before the shootings, a post on England’s Facebook page said it was the second anniversary of his father’s death “at the hands of a f**king n****r.” CNN’s Jason Carroll reported that officials are looking into the posting, which may indicate that he never got over the fact that his father was killed by a black man.

A post in which England said it was time to get ready for another funeral is also under investigation.

But Tulsa City Councilor Jack Henderson said that if the shootings are shown to be racially motivated and the suspects are not charged with a hate crime, the community will be upset.

“They’re going to be shocked, surprised,” he added.

Henderson said he has dealt with civil rights issues for a long time. And Tulsa has a history with racial tensions, which is perhaps why residents were so afraid after the killings. The city of about 400,000 was the scene of a 1921 race riot – considered one of the worst in the nation – that destroyed the famed Greenwood District, a wealthy enclave known as the black Wall Street.

“(For seven years, I was) NAACP president in this town, and I think I know pretty much a hate crime when I see it,” Henderson said, adding that he thought this was a clear hate crime.

Tyler Perry‘s accusation that two cops who pulled him over targeted him because he is black has reportedly sparked an investigation into the Atlanta Police Department.

Perry posted about the incident Sunday on Facebook, explaining how he was stopped after making a left turn from a far-right lane — a ruse security taught him to make sure he’s not being followed.

The post has gotten more than 117,000 “likes” on the social network and nearly 22,000 comments.

The two officers, both white, who pulled Perry over apparently didn’t recognize the “Good Deeds” star, whom Forbes in September named the highest-paid man in entertainment.

Perry says after he explained why he made the illegal turn, one of the officers asked, “Why do you think someone would be following you?”

The officers continued to “badger him,” one even banging on his tinted windows, Perry says.

It wasn’t until another police car pulled up, and a black officer stepped up to Perry’s window, that someone recognized the actor.

“He took one look at me and had that ‘Oh, no’ look on his face,” Perry wrote.

Now, the Atlanta Police Department has launched an internal investigation into Perry’s claim that he was harassed because he is black, E! News reports.

“Although we have made significant strides with racial profiling in this country, the world needs to know that we are still being racially profiled,” Perry wrote on Facebook, adding that racial profiling “should be a hate crime investigated by the FBI.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/tyler-perry-accuses-white-cops-racial-profiling-pulled-launches-probe-atlanta-police-department-article-1.1057056#ixzz1rEMzFJIZ

As much of the country follows the Trayvon Martin case, activists in Chicago are hoping to bring some of that attention to Howard Morgan, a former Chicago police officer who was shot 28 times by white officers — and lived to tell his side of the story.

Morgan was off-duty as a detective for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad when he was pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street on Feb 21, 2005, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. While both police and Morgan agree on that much, what happened next is a mystery.

According to police, Morgan opened fire with his service weapon when officers tried to arrest him, which caused them to shoot him 28 times. His family, however, very much doubts those claims.

“Four white officers and one black Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad police man with his weapon on him — around the corner from our home — and he just decided to go crazy? No. That’s ludicrous,” Morgan’s wife, Rosalind Morgan, told the Sun-Times.

She was not the only person to doubt CPD’s side of the story. A Change.org petition signed by more than 2,600 people called for all charges against Morgan to be dropped, and now Occupy Chicago is getting involved.

“After being left for dead, he survived and was then charged with attempted murder of the four white officers who brutalized him,” Occupy wrote on their website, adding that Morgan was found not guilty on three counts, including discharging his weapon. The same jury that cleared him of opening fire on the officers, however, deadlocked on a charge of attempted murder — and another jury found him guilty in January.

That jury was not allowed to hear that Morgan had been acquitted of the other charges.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.was assassinated 44 years ago today. The somber anniversary will be marked across the country, including with a wreath-laying ceremony at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., which is on the site where King was fatally shot.

And the new Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C., will also mark the anniversary — its very first, since it just opened to the public last summer — with a candlelight vigil later this evening.

In the social media world, the anniversary of King’s assassination is being noted in a different way — with a dotted line being drawn between King’s assassination and the shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. “From Martin to Martin: Hoodies up on the Mountaintop,” reads theheadline at the influential website Global Grind. “Today is Wed, April 4, 2012, the 44th anniv of MLK’s death, the 38th day since the murder of #Trayvon Martin — with no arrest,” according to a posting on Twitter.

On April 4, 1968, King was staying at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., preparing a speech he was scheduled to give that night at the nearby Mason Temple. The hotel was one of the few places in the area where blacks were welcome to spend the night, according to the Commercial Appeal, and was a haven on the road for the likes of black celebrities and entertainers such as Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton and Aretha Franklin.

When King stepped out onto the balcony before heading over to the temple, a shot rang out: Assassin James Earl Ray had been lying in wait with a clear view from a nearby boardinghouse. Ray escaped that night but was later captured and convicted of King’s death; he spent the remainder of his life insisting that he was innocent and that he was being used as a scapegoat.

King had long been the target of bombings and death threats and had often alluded to a belief that his life would be cut short. In fact, one night earlier, in a speech at the Mason Temple, he told those in attendance: “I may not get there with you, but I want you to know that we as a people will get to the promised land.”

The National Civil Rights Museum was built up around the motel where the assassination took place, and visitors can still see the room — Room 306 — where King slept. Efforts have been made to preserve it exactly as it was, down to an ashtray filled with cigarettes. The museum will not be open this time next year. Renovations will shut its doors on what would be the 45th anniversary of King’s assassination, the Commercial Appeal notes.

Events being held in Memphis to mark the anniversary include a rally organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Council — an organization that King led until his death — and the renaming of a street in King’s honor.

And at 5:30 p.m. local time, the Rev. Jesse Jackson  — who was with King at the time of the assassination — will lay a wreath on the balcony near the spot where King was shot.

The candlelight vigil being held in Washington, D.C., will include a number of dignitaries, includingGandhi’s grandson, Arun Gandhi.