THINGS FALL APART…

just us

The SEAN BELL case was a perfect storm if ever I thought I saw one. It involved poor people and well-armed overly zealous cops. The victims were totally profiled and targeted by these cops and the final result was amazing in that all the victims weren’t killed. The intensity that the police then brought into the community in order to discredit these victims was classic supremacist terrorism.

I was anxious to see what would happen when the remaining victims recovered from their gunshot wounds. Would their recollection be the damning accounts to send these devil cops back to hell? We wrote, we protested, we marched and secretly we prayed. If we could establish our value within the system of supremacy, then maybe we could convince our brothers and sisters of their own self worth. This was the beautiful dream.

As the victims recovered and returned to their communities it became painful and brutally honest to see that one of the victims had no more consideration for SEAN BELL, then SEAN BELL would have had for a remote stranger. TRENT BENEFIELD comes from the safe southeast Queens New York neighborhood as FISTY SCENT. For him and others in the ‘hood that have been marginalized the ethos of ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is valid and somewhat progressive. TRENT BENEFIELD is now the million dollar man in his southside neighborhood.

My folks at PARDONMEDUKE dot com found TRENT’s MySpace page. Go peep some of the images of him lavishing himself with his new found fortune. These are the people that I wrote, protested and marched for. Ultimately, these are the type of people that we should all pray for. The folks that think they have only two options… Get Rich or Die Trying.

foolio

41 Responses to “THINGS FALL APART…”

  1. 911 says:

    Damn. How does the saying go….Were behind the 8ball or something of the sort…well its changed we are the 8ball getting smacked around by ****** and its only a game to them…..and us but I wonder do we know that were getting played. I’m back at it check the site.

  2. How can we ever progress until we weed out the “Bad Seeds”. Can’t even lecture another persons child cause you might be welcoming a shell or two. On a final note: “They should’ve never gave you N***** money!!!!!!”

  3. ELOHEEM STAR says:

    The battle against police brutality and institutionalized racism is an easier battle to fight than the battle against deep rooted ignorance, the lack of self value & the niggardly behavior that plagues too many in our community. The struggle is bigger than one individual’s action whether it is negative or positive. At first glance the picture stings like a slap in the face but I will use that pain, as a reminder of how much work still needs to be done. And yes they should have never gave you niggers money! The saga continues….

  4. Uncle 40 - "Future of the Drunk" says:

    Damn… Well this saga will play out like this:

    1. Spends a large chunk of initial payment “showing love in the hood” with endless Henny runs and blunts of that haze.

    2. 2007 Escalade on 28’s.

    3. Starts record label and tries to get the mixtape poppin’. Makes direct to DVD hood documentary of his story.

    4. Runs the “I was a victim” schpiel when funds get low.

    5. “Prahlee end up back in the hood like fuck it then…” (or did he ever leave?).

    Yes for the 3rd time here “THEY SHOULDA NEVER GAVE YOU N*GGERS MONEY!”

    Can we get a where are they now on Rodney King? Last I heard he was broke smokin’ sherm on Slauson Ave…

  5. LM says:

    @ Eloheem… I co-sign on almost all you’re saying. Most of all the right to justice doesn’t fall to only the best “qualified”… in this context no one needs to defend Trent Benefield for who he was before or since, just who he was that night in November. (He needs a lot otherwise, it seems.)

    Aside… were you trying to use the word “niggardly” as I know it to mean… “stingy and miserly”? Didn’t look like it.

  6. frank lee speakin says:

    white people have succeeded in creating……….. the nigger

  7. Lion XL says:

    This is sole reason why we never seem to progress! It’s almost impossible to feel correct defending people and their rights when the people you try to defend are complete idiots.

    Ya’ll gonna eat me alive for this one…but maybe black on black crime isn’t such a bad thing, if we concentrate on the idiots? Just a random thought…

  8. StreetsIsWatchin' says:

    “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand.”

  9. ELOHEEM STAR says:

    @LM

    I used and have been using the word niggardly incorrectly for years. Each 1 Teach 1. Good Lookin!

  10. Amadeo says:

    @ Lion XL et. al. (how scholarly of me)
    I have a saying that prepares me for things like this: “If a liar tells the truth, it’s still the truth”. Granted lawyers and media love to discredit cats and it works, but for real what happened is what happened and it’s still real. It’s happened to better people and it will again. Of course there’s always an idiot standing around as well and the camera always looks for him.

  11. miss ahmad says:

    well the simple fact that one or two generations ago police brutatlity against blacks was barely considered a crime and there was never a thought of compensation is progress…if the dudes wanna wipe their asses with hundred dollars bills that’s up to them but take a look at some of the historical books when hanging black people was legalized brutatlity and remember that we were not invited guests to this country we were brought as slaves and treated worse than cattle. unfortunately this country still doesn’t really believe it owes us a damn thing!

  12. “Why every time us as black folks have a little something we can stand up for, defend or be proud of there’s always someone to fuck it up. With public enemy you had Flavor Flav…”

    i disagree. flavor flav was an integral part of PE. he was just as important as terminator x, professor griff, or the S1Ws. he provided the group with levity and comic relief and served as the wild and crazy doppelganger to chuck’s serious and stern lead role. the genius of public enemy lay in the combination of all of it’s parts. take away flavor flav and it’s not the same thing. do you think chuck would’ve had him in the group if he disapproved of flav’s antics or persona?

    he’s kinda trippin’ now with the reality tv and all that. but as far as what he brought to PE and hip-hop as a whole, people should give him more credit and respect. would the role of hypeman even be what it is today without flav? would there have been an ODB (another genius in his own right) without flav?

    if PE were a white rock band instead of a black hip-hop group would people have something to say about a character like flav then? i highly doubt it, and that leads me to my point. when white people clown or do silly, crazy shit nobody says anything, but when it’s a black person it’s coonery. why is that? why doesn’t a word exist for whites when they do stupid shit like trent benefield (and we all know they do). sure, we call such actions stupidity, or tomfoolery, or just plain crazy, but none of these words carry the racial implications of the word “coon” or “coonery”. why is it cool for Jim Carey or Steve Martin to do the type of comedy they do, but when Martin Lawrence does it it’s coonery? to me, it just goes to show that we as a people still consider ourselves inferior to whites and are still overly concerned with what they think about us.

    i’m not naive. i know that whites hold the great majority of power and control the hegemony of this country. but does that mean we have to tip-toe around all the time worrying about what they think about us? or that if one black person fucks up it’s going to reflect negatively on the rest of us?

    let’s not forget the police brutality came before the “coonery” in this instance and would’ve occurred in spite of it and irrespective of it. in other words, some crackers are going to do what they’re going to do and think what they’re going to think regardless of what we do. fuck it… trent benefield don’t represent me (nor should he)…ol’ damned coon.

  13. sangano says:

    ^ Great point … ex Flea from RHCP’s he’s integral to the group and doens’t take away, but add’s to their allure and product.

    but more to the point…is the nikkuh supposed to frown with all thit kiizzzash?…steady mobbin steady flossin’ straight from the older gawd

  14. Uncle 40 - "Future of the Drunk" says:

    Twerk… Excellent Points, and one of the passionate defenses of Flav I’ve ever read. On a side note regarding Flav – as I got older I felt he represented the manic side of black community, the yang to Chuck’s serious yin. Flav was the “hallelujahs” and frantic testifying that perfectly uplifted Chuck’s sermons…

    Think the problem does lie in supremacy. Imagine if the dominant image of white America was the trailer park rednecks of “Jerry Springer” and NASCAR wives fighting all the time? Even though proportionately there are the same percentiles of “screw ups” and “coons” of their race but for us it seems that there is a disproportion of the media representation of these type of jigs no matter what the rest of the race is doing. So its hard for square dealing bruhs to constantly have to start 3 steps behind because before I do anything I’m explaining my way out of the expected coonery and not sell out my people in the process. Gotta get out of this “Throw some D’s on this Bitch” to “Throw some G’s in the Bank!” But like you ended it so perfectly B, these cats don’t represent me. I just don’t want them to be the knee jerk imagery of all of those who look like me…

  15. Lion XL says:

    @Twerk…I feel you on that one and cosign.

    But I grew up on PE, and If for any group that I would consider myself a stan, it was PE. But, all though Flav was the JESTER, his role being exactly what it was, I found problems with him when he himself started to portray the things that PE stood against. You know the Crack binges, the baby momma drama, etc. Chuck kept him around, because beside his Hype man antics, he was a full collaborator on the music they created. Flav plays about 5 instruments very well, has a keen musical insight and a good understanding of the music industry and can exhibit extreme intelligence in the right setting. Its all the extra stuff that he gets on with that makes him look foolish at times, and causes people to not take him seriuosly.

    And for the record..ODB was never a hypeman (nor was flea a hypeman), he was an integral part of the WU. His persona just came across as wild uncontrolled individual.

    @Sangano…no dude shouldn’t frown with all that cash, but he shouldn’t act like he won the lotto. His boy was murdered in cold blood, he was shot multiple times, does that cash fix any of that? How long is that CASH gonna be there? Is CASH the only thing relevant in this world? That CASH should be spent on raising Sean Bells Family as well as paying for whatever medical bills they receive from the shooting. Not flossing like they won the lottery or he just signed to the NBA.

  16. Uncle 40 - "Future of the Drunk" says:

    Lion to add… The fact that he made a point to pull out $10-20G’s in CASH just to stunt shows what you’re working with. Its amazing you can’t to sh*t with cash if its over $3-5000 with out having to report it so to take the first of a settlement check (SETTLEMENT) if thats what this is and cash it in so you can have a shoe box stash is well… NINJITSU.

  17. Tiffany says:

    Damn, I was just talking to someone at work a few weeks ago wondering what the hell happened with this case.
    So he got paid and that’s it? No justice for his friend? This is really sad news….

  18. sangano says:

    what would Secada do?

  19. @ Lion: sorry if i was unclear (i’m at work and a lot of shit is going through my head as i’m trying to type). i know that ODB wasn’t a hypeman, i was just saying that flav can be looked at as a progenitor of that type of persona in hip-hop.

    @ Sangano: i was going to use flea as an example, but i held back for some reason.

    @ Everyone: i guess what i was trying to express overall was my frustration with these social chains that bind us black folk and i just wish we could be free to do us without all the scrutiny and worrying about what the dominant society thinks.

  20. ELOHEEM STAR says:

    @Twerk

    I agree with you to a point but the Black community lacks balance, almost all facets of entertainment portray us in a negative or one-dimensional light. Entertainment unfortunately shapes perception. The gangster images that rappers and the youth portray today are the new coonery. These stereotypes dehumanize us and allow the prejudices that led to the killing of Sean bell.
    Its perfect that you use Jim Carrey and Steve martin…. both men started there careers playing the fool in movies and on TV shows but were allowed to mature into high caliber serious actors. Martin Lawrence & Eddie Murphy are still playing the fool. My duty as a Righteous man is to civilized the uncivilized. I am my brother’s keeper. Trent Benefield’s mindset and my own existence are intertwined.

  21. ELOHEEM STAR says:

    I feel your frustration but ignoring the dominant society isn’t going to make things better.

  22. Lion XL says:

    BTW…I just dawned on me, where did he get that money from anyway? He couldn’t have gotten a settlement so soon, so was that money from donations?

  23. the_dallas says:

    ^There hasn’t been a settlement. Dude is ballin’ out of control with the donations of good will from folks like us. Seeing this cat spaz out makes me feel like the police killed the wrong dude. Yeah, I said it.

  24. Lion XL says:

    ^Cosign!! now that know where he got the money, it seems like its time for merck mission….

    ***digs in back of drawer and finds key…
    ***reaches in closet and removes large steel box from ‘hidden’ door.
    ***click…click…clack..shtick…fully loaded, fully armed…..
    ***dons black mask…..

    ***starts idiot hunting in southside queens

  25. StreetsIsWatchin' says:

    on a brighter (sanguine), lighter (filled with levity) note, next to the dollar bills, the most evident (conspicuous) element in the photo is a Dictionary/Thesaurus!

    Word(s) to the Mother….?

  26. jen says:

    re: dallas’s comment on this post –

    HOLY FUCKING SHIT. i hope one of those gunshots was to the testes because i do NOT want this man reproducing.

    i love black people, i do. but we make it hard to love one another.

  27. @ eloheem:

    i don’t disagree with the fact that entertainment shapes perception, but it isn’t the sole determinant of perception (and to the degree that it is even a major determinant is the degree to which we’re fucked as a society)…at any rate though, that is exactly what i’m railing against: how we as black people are chained to the way whites perceive us. at what point will we stop caring what they think? we will never achieve the democratic, egalitarian ideals that we pay lip service to in this country until everybody enjoys the same rights (including the right to coon).

    my point is this: whites do dumb shit all the time and there is no race-specific term to describe the stupid shit they do. the word coonery, with it’s racial overtones, makes it seem as if there is a special form of stupidity that only blacks are capable of and that’s just not the case.

    i feel for you if you believe Trent Benefield’s mindset and your existence are intertwined. in my opinion that’s part of the problem. blacks (or any other race for that matter) are not homogeneous. we never have been and never will be. it can be argued that we share the same culture, but 5 black people will probably give 5 very different descriptions of what that culture is. the sooner we stop pretending that blacks can be lumped into a group, the sooner we stop worrying about other blacks exhibiting behavior we disagree with.

    if i go into a white man’s office for a job (as i did last week), and he can only look at me and see trent benefield or young jeezy, even though i don’t portray myself that way, he’s an ignoramus and probably wouldn’t give me the job anyway (nor would i want to work for him). if, on the other hand, he sees me as the intelligent, respectable black man that i am and that i portray myself to be, i will probably get the job (coons and cRap music thugs notwithstanding).

    bottom line: if niggas wanna coon, fuck it. it’s a shame, but that shit ain’t got nothing to do with me…i try to enlighten the ones i can, but those that don’t want to take heed and stay on that nigga shit, i let em ride…

    p.s. – i didn’t get that job, so fuck Turner Broadcasting…

  28. LM says:

    @Amadeo… “If a liar tells the truth, it’s still the truth”. That’s essence… and everyone who hasn’t visited Amadeo’s site check the post on Ehren Watada (and then others).

    @Eloheem… you’re welcome. Thanks in advance for the next drop of knowledge I get from you. It won’t be the first.

    —————-

    The pursuit of money “…can facilitate or foreclose the development of other values” — stolen from random article I just found…

    http://www.cooley.com/news/inthenews.aspx?ID=000037530820

    Bottom line, Trent Benefield was about as ready to get loot as 40 laid out above in the five-part saga.

  29. Eloheem Star says:

    @twerk

    Everything is one. The Trent Benefield mindset is too common in our community and with large amounts of fatherless children raised by the tv, the entertainment industry has a enourmous control over us. I personally am doing well for myself. My children want for nothing. My daughter(13) is always being told she’s not black because she speaks well or because she’s not up on the latest dances or songs and she enjoys reading. I can only control what happens inside of my home, outside influences are very powerful. I work with the youth and I see the influence Dipset has on our young males from all economic classes. For many reasons we suffer from an identity crisis. I’m looking at things outside of my cipher. The fact is that 85 percent of the population are incapable of independant thought. The saying is every man is born an original a dies an imitation. My job is to try free as many as possible from the matrix. If enough of us would pull together our monies and resources we could have our own Walmarts, Citigroups and Viacoms
    So you won’t have to go to the white for employment. But that won’t happen until Trent invest that money instead of wearing it on his ignorant ass hat.

  30. Combat Jack says:

    Dayum, dayum DAYUM!!!!

  31. Tony says:

    Countdown till we see these photos on Fox with no word on how other folks are distancing themselves from this guy.

  32. What a fucking nigger.
    I only hope Sean Bell was not on the level of the company he kept.

  33. eauhellzgnaw says:

    This picture sparked the following debate I had with my girl.

    Her: sensible black folks should collectively start an organization whose sole purpose is to prevent ignorant ass fools like this for ruining shit for the rest of us. The organization could assign PR operatives to knuckleheads to avoid such potential media disasters.

    Me: such an organization would obscure the fact that the main problem is not with the knuckleheads, but with the reality that black people are forced to bear the sins of every black knucklehead on earth.

    Her: it’s obviously not fair, but the knuckleheads have a considerable negative effect on the overall image of black people, and of black victims of racist violence, specifically. This fool and people like him, are a godsend to those just waiting to say “I told you so” and justify police brutality versus black folks.

    Me: These racists will believe that brutality versus blacks is justified with or without the knuckleheads providing them fodder.

    In the end, I agreed that I’d likely contribute money to such an organization. Dallas, how are your organization skills?

  34. The Powder Keg has been given a fuse….Ha!

  35. sasha says:

    anybody email dude? or are we all just debating/theorizing how detrimental these pics may prove if they hit the media? i sent him a quick missive. will keep you posted on the progress.

    i agree with ELOHEEM and feel TWERK. everyone is entitled to do them, but when you are a walking stereotype, a carbon copy of the negative images we’re constantly bombarded with and currently one of our highest profile citizens, how hard would it be to show some respect to your ancestors, your elders, the church ladies who contributed some of that money you’re flossin? i doubt it would hinder or hurt his lifestyle if he didn’t throw up tasteless pictures on the internet.

    flip it. me on tv. well-spoken, modestly attired. i’d never distance myself from these people cause they’re my people. men wanna wear long t-shirts like dresses, fine. hot pink coats and enormous earrings…..that’s cool too. theres a huge leap though from expressing yourself and spitting in the faces of people who’ve worked to protect and support you.

    i haven’t even touched on the mainstream ramifications of dudes actions. been pretty well covered. love my people, can’t stand coonin ass coons.

  36. Eloheem Star says:

    @ sasha

    I left a comment on dudes myspace page yesterday as well.

  37. Lion XL says:

    The reason why this really bothers so much, is that I KNOW (from good sources) that these guys were not saint by any means. They were doing what a large number of the youth are doing in South side Queens, selling drugs. but that fact did not deter me from supporting dude, because to me it was irrelevant in the context for which this became an issue. Yes they were not good guys, they were dealers. That does not allow for random assassination by the police. This country is still built on a legal system and the police shouldn’t be able to bypass that at will (just like I can’t suit up and go out an merc people that deserved it, although I would like to). It was the principle that I supported, and by association I supported the fool as well. So when this fool does what he does, he tarnishes the image of those supported his cause. It makes it look like we’re willing to support people just because they are black, even drug dealers. That is not my position, stance or whatever. I support the cause and not the dealer at all.

    As for leaving a comment, does dude come across as someone who can actually read AND UNDERSTAND his own myspace page? Most of our discussion here is probably over his head.

  38. sasha says:

    ELOHEEM. that makes me smile. i was getting worried.

    LION XL. you never know what someone knows or is capable of understanding. it’s bad enough the majority underestimates us. i try not to do so as well. i put my note in plain language and worked from a respect your neighborhood angle.

    and as the great philosopher lauryn hill put it, “i add a muthafucka so you ignant niggas hear me.” didnt really add a mofo, but i put it in user friendly lingo. and i’m a cute girl so he may just try and open up dialog based on that. we shall see. 🙂 but yeah, i’m (possibly incorrectly) assuming he wouldn’t frequent this page. one never knows.

  39. Vik says:

    by way of crunk and disorderly, peep this video. the dude even pulls his kids into the ish at the end of the vid:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC0Jjc_ccgc

  40. It’s over for black people.

  41. The 40 Vuitton Don says:

    ^^^^LMAO @ Start Snitching letting it be known on You Tube!!!

    *sees Chris Rock’s Holy War coming to pass*

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