This is the part of the interview that the whole series revolves around.

The first three parts of the Verdie Triplett interview last week focused on the history of the 5 Civilized Tribes and their slaves/freedman. This next part of the interview talks about how the tribes recently conspired to remove black folks from the nations and the fight that is still going on.

So when Christopher Nolan came on to helm Batman Begins in 2005, I wasn’t nearly as excited as I should have been. My wife and I didn’t even see it on the big screen. But eventually we watched Begins on DVD and I thought Christian Bale -who I only knew from Shaft- had a nice debut as Batman.

But who could have predicted Nolan, Bale, and the late Heath Ledger would produce such a memorable comic book movie as this? I went in with pretty high expectations due to all the critical praise that’s been heaped on The Dark Knight and Ledgers performance.

Ledger’s spin on the Joker has produced talk of a posthumous Oscar nomination. While Jack Nicholas’ 1989 Joker gave us memorable one liners and funny moments, Ledger’s Joker is nothing to laugh about. His look, his speech, everything about the character is twisted and weird. He casts a large shadow over Bale throughout the movie, though Bale’s Batman is solid and NOW my favorite of the most recent four.

My high expectations for the movie were more than exceeded. There’s action from the jump, two Batman villans, and very solid performances from Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Aaron Eckhart who plays Gotham D.A. Harvey Dent. I would take or leave Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Rachel Dawes.

Pros

• Heath Ledger’s sadistic joker

• Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne

• Christopher Nolan’s Gotham City

Con’s

• 2 1/2 hour runtime

DO NOT TAKE CHILDREN TO SEE THIS MOVIE. The Dark Knight is one of the darkest PG-13 movie ever made - thanks in large part to Ledger’s joker. It is very violent and though most kids would not be scared, many of the images are quite disturbing. The only thing keeping the movie from being rated R (in my opinion) is that there’s not a drop of blood, and none of the many people who die are clearly killed on screen.

After a $155M opening weekend, it’s only a matter of time until we learn the opening date of the next installment.

I’ll have a review of the show up at Dallas South on Wednesday morning. I will say that I enjoyed the presentation very much and on Wednesday I’ll let you know why I think everyone should see this special report.

Well there have been more cases of taser abuse across the nation as of late, and Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune details another such instance. In his article Taser death ignites racial tension, Witt chronicles an incident that occurred in a small Louisiana town.

• At 1:28 p.m. last Jan. 17, Baron “Scooter” Pikes was a healthy 21-year-old man. By 2:07 p.m., he was dead.
  What happened in the 39 minutes in between–during which Pikes was handcuffed by local police and shocked nine times with a Taser device, while reportedly pleading for mercy–is now spawning fears of a political cover-up in this backwoods Louisiana lumber town infamous for backroom dealings.

• Even more ominously, because Pikes was black and the officer who repeatedly Tasered him is white, racial tensions over the case are mounting in a place that’s just 40 miles from Jena, La. Jena is the site of the racially explosive prosecution of six black teenagers charged with beating a white youth that last year triggered one of the largest American civil rights demonstrations in decades. And in a bizarre coincidence, Pikes turns out to have been a first cousin of Mychal Bell, the lead defendant in the Jena 6 case.

• Here in the birthplace of two of Louisiana’s most colorful and notorious governors-Huey and Earl Long-the police chief committed suicide three years ago after losing a close election marred by allegations of fraud and vote-buying.
  Just four months later, the district attorney killed himself after allegedly skimming $200,000 from his office budget and extorting payments from criminal defendants to make their cases go away.

• An autopsy determined there were no drugs in Pikes’ system and that he did not have asthma, according to Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner.

• Moreover, Pikes did not resist arrest, and he was handcuffed while lying on the ground, according to Nugent’s police report of the incident. It was only after Pikes refused Nugent’s command to stand up that the officer applied the first Taser shock in the middle of his back, Nugent wrote.

• Only after Pikes was carried into the police station and slumped into a chair did police call for an ambulance. He was pronounced dead soon afterward at the local hospital.

If you are unfamiliar with the dangers of taser guns, please visit African American Political Pundits excellent Tasered While Black website.

Earlier this year, Electronic Villager outlined the Use of Force Continuum used by many police forces to subdue suspects. That list looks something like this:

Level One * Officer Presence

Level Two * Verbal Commands

Level Three * Empty Hand Control

Level Four * Pepper Spray, Baton, Taser

Level Five * Less Lethal

Level Six * Deadly Force

We back the blue here at Dallas South, no doubt. But there are those out there wearing the badge who give good cops a bad name on a daily basis. Many are those who use tasers when less lethal options are available.

But I would argue that many uniformed officers are unaware of the true dangers of tasers. They probably don’t know -as AAPP and CBC News point out- that 1/3 of taser subjects end up needing medical attention.

I will argue, more coherently at a later date, that the use of force continuum needs a 7th step. Pepper Spray, Batons, and Tasers are not created equal. Stun guns need there own level, just before deadly force. In the case of Baron Pikes and others, the use of a taser was lethal.

I guess Speaker Pelosi doesn’t realize that a well placed “her” “hers” and “Speaker of the House” could be substituted in that sentence if Congress doesn’t change courses in the very near future. It was all good when she and her party were in the minority, but now that they hold an advantage in both Houses of Congress.

As a matter of fact I’d like to revise her comments a bit. The President has LOST all credibility on the subjects that she mentioned. It’s Congress that continues to lose credibility every daily.

President Bush is a lame duck to put it mildly.  I can get with Obama using Bush as a punchline but Ms. Pelosi needs to move beyond that.  It’s time to offer solutions not critiques.