Original Singer Lester Chambers is recovering after being attacked by a fan at a California music festival, where he dedicated a song to Trayvon Martin. On July 13 at the Hayward Russell City Blues Festival, in the East Bay area near Oakland—hours before a jury returned a not-guilty verdict for George Zimmerman—Chambers, a founding member of The Chambers Brothers, dedicated Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” to Martin. Police say 43-year-old Dinalynn Andrews-Potter then climbed on stage and attacked Chambers, shoving him into an amplifier and knocking him down.
“Started calling me MFs and SBs with different slurs and screaming at me, ‘You started this! You started this, you MF!’ and she hit me,” the 73-year-old Chambers recounted recently. “I have a great big lump over here on my left rib cage, under my shoulder.”
Andrews-Potter, who is white, was initially given just a citation for misdemeanor battery and allowed to go on her way, but prosecutors on Wednesday announced felony charges of assault and elder abuse. The upgraded counts don’t satisfy Chambers, who wants Andrews-Potter charged with a hate crime. “She had hate in her face like a demon. Oh, God, it was ugly,” he said. “I do suggest that they see this the way it really is. Honestly, it is a hate crime. There’s no other reason for it.”
Authorities say Andrews-Potter’s motives for the attack are unclear and they are unsure whether she even heard Chambers’ dedication to Martin. They issued a warrant for her arrest on Wednesday. Chambers and his brothers are best known for the 1968 hit “Time Has Come Today.” He is due to release his first album since 2008 later this year, but plans for more shows to support his music—and Martin—are on hold for now. “My nerves are shot, I shake, I can’t sleep,” he said.
/* Is this Attack on Our Brothers and Sisters a reason to MARCH?
Ya Damn Right It Is! The 50th Anniversary of the Epic March on Washington | shelbycourtlandshelbycourtland Bringing Social Issues To The ForefrontAugust 24, 2013 by ShelbyCourtland The 50th Anniversary of the Epic March on Washington http://www.wbaltv.com/news/money/Baltimore... Wells Fargo deliberately steered prime borrowers into taking out subprime loans. The loans were called, “ghetto loans,” and the Black people taking out the loans were referred to as “mud people.” As a result, even churches went into foreclosure. Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. On the evening of February 26, Trayvon Martin—an unarmed 17-year-old African American student—was confronted, shot, and killed near his home by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida. sources:http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/22bl... http://www.louisianaweekly.com/alarming-hu... http://politics365.com/2012/03/17/bad-inne... http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer... http://www.capitalpunishmentcontext.org/is... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/0... ….and the battle against hate, injustice, racial inequality rages on 50 years later. The dream is not a reality and not likely to become a reality anytime soon. We are heading back in time. We have lost ground. We have not made many gains. >>> */
We need to do more than MARCH. I CALL FOR ACTION. Just drawing attention is not good enough. The hoopla will die down, then what?
Monday, August 26th 2013 at 12:53PM
Thomasena Martin-Johnson