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Jamaican Maroons vow to fight mining
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Descendants of freed African slaves vowed Sunday to fight any plans for bauxite mining in the forested region of Jamaica where they have lived in semi-autonomy for centuries.
The Accompong Maroons, descendants of slaves freed by the Spanish in the 17th century to repel invading British forces, will not allow mining companies into any part of their jungle territory, said Sydney Peddie, the group’s leader.
“We will be joining forces with all the influential people to thwart this issue. It will not happen or else there will be war,” Peddie said at a news conference.
Last month, Jamaica’s government withdrew a license for U.S.-based aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. and state-owned Clarendon Alumina Production Ltd. to begin bauxite mining in the northwestern region, known as Cockpit Country, following threats of street protests by environmental activists.
Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke said he would review scientific data presented by both sides and decide this month whether to grant the license. Jamaica is the world’s fifth-largest producer of bauxite, the raw material for aluminum.
Peddie said opening up the territory to mining would breach a treaty signed between the Maroons and the British in 1739, which gave the group nearly 25,000 acres in Cockpit Country, an inhospitable terrain of rocky cliffs and limestone towers.
After getting their freedom, the first Maroons fled to Cockpit Country and repelled the British for decades before signing the peace treaty.
Four black employees accuse Virginia police of discrimination
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Three black officers and one black civilian employee of the Falls Church Police Department have sued the city in federal court, alleging discrimination in salary and promotional practices and a hostile work environment.
The suit, filed Jan. 4 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, claims one officer was told by a captain last year: “Do you know why the boundaries of Falls Church are 2.2 square miles? To keep the black people out.” And the civilian employee, who heads the dispatch center, said white commanders “ignore calls from minority officers for help when on patrol.”
Acting Chief Harry W. Reitze said he had not seen the suit and could not comment directly on it.
“I’m really trying to lead the department in positive directions ... and to continue to provide the highest level of services and safety to the community,” Reitze said. “I’m doing my best to make sure the department is a positive place to work.”
The plaintiffs are Markus Bristol, the new president of the officers’ union; Cpl. Frank D. Hicks; Officer Derrica N. Wilson; and civilian employee Carolyn A. Pendleton.
The suit says the department has no blacks above the rank of corporal and that Wilson is the only black female officer in the department’s history. Of the 30 sworn officers in the department, five are black, it says.
The department has been dogged by complaints about internal problems since 2004. The union has alleged that officers were evaluated on how many traffic tickets they wrote and that their weapons were faulty.
Over the summer, then-Chief Robert T. Murray fired then-union president, Scott Rhodes. The city was forced to rehire Rhodes, pay him a settlement and allow him to retire with full benefits. Murray retired last month.
Bristol, the new union president and a 10-year member of the department, was suspended with pay for four months last year after he and Rhodes publicly pointed out that officers’ guns repeatedly misfired in training and that Murray was taking no action to repair or replace them. Bristol was reinstated without explanation, according to the suit.
North Carolina county bans corporal punishment in schools after two-year debate
MONROE, N.C. — Union County’s school board voted last week to ban paddling as a form of student punishment.
In a 6-3 vote, the board changed the current policy allowing corporal punishment, which hasn’t been used since being challenged by a parent group two years ago.
The board in 2005 rejected a ban, but the district’s superintendent at the time, Jerry Thomas, entered an agreement with school principals not to use paddling. Current Superintendent Ed Davis has continued that agreement.
The issue resurfaced late last month when board Chairman Dean Arp decided to bring the policy before the school board, which has three new members. Arp voted against the ban and had said the punishment should be allowed if parents approve it for their individual children.
Corporal punishment was used 474 times during 2003-04 in Union, a system of about 28,000 children, but 85 percent of the paddlings took place at only three schools.
An analysis by The Charlotte Observer found black students received corporal punishment in Union out of proportion to their numbers in the student population. And a U.S. Department of Education study showed that many children with disabilities received the punishment in Union schools during the 1999-2000 school year.
North Carolina law allows paddling in schools as long as the punishment is not administered with other children present. The law also states that children must be told what behavior could result in paddling.
School officials also must notify parents when corporal punishment is used on their children.
Twenty-eight states have banned the punishment.
(Associated Press)
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