(L) Michael Richardson, father of Mitrice Richardson, stands with (R) Nuriel “Uri” Zeituni, owner of the famed Crenshaw Car Wash, where a fundraiser will be held Sat. September 11 in Los Angeles

WHEN: Saturday, September 11, 2010
WHERE: Crenshaw Car Wash (4220 Crenshaw @ Stocker Blvd.)

The famed Crenshaw Car Wash is teaming up with the family of Mitrice Richardson for a car wash to raise money for the fund founded in her name.  The body of Mitrice Richardson was found in August in a Malibu Canyon ravine after she disappeared 11 months earlier from the Malibu-Lost Hills Sheriff’s Department.  On Saturday, September 11 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., partial proceeds raised will go towards the Mitrice Richardson fund to aid in the inquiry regarding the 25-year-olds mysterious disappearance and death.

“I am a part of this community,” explains Nuriel “Uri” Zeituni, owner of the Crenshaw Car Wash since 1985.  “I was so moved by the story of Mitrice Richardson that I wanted to try and do something to help the family.  I felt like this was one way I could help give back to the community while offering my condolences.”

“We’re grateful for Uri’s support,” commented Michael Richardson, father of Mitrice Richardson.  “It just goes to show you that my daughter’s murder touched everyone—Blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, men, and women.  Through Mitrice, we are all coming together for a bigger cause, justice.”

The fundraiser will take place on Saturday, September 11 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Crenshaw Car Wash located at 4220 Crenshaw Blvd. in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.   The cost of each car wash is $8.99, vans, trucks, SUVs, limos, and jeeps are $11.99. For more information including purchasing tickets online, please visit www.crenshawcarwash.com or www.bringmitricehome.org or call (323) 850-4414 or email info@crenshawcarwash.com.

Along with the fundraiser, Michael Richardson will lead a walk in remembrance of his daughter on September 16 in Malibu on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Mitrice Richardson’s initial disappearance.

Since 1985, the Crenshaw Car Wash has been an integral part of the Crenshaw Community.  Having been featured in such popular films as “Baby Boy” starring Tyrese Gibson, through its owner Uri Zeituni, the Crenshaw Car Wash proudly continues its tradition of community service as it celebrates its 26^th year of business on the Crenshaw strip.

Buy Your Tickets Online

Can’t attend but want to contribute?  Buy your ticket online.  Car washes tickets are valid for one year on any date.

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Statewide Candidates Ignore the Black Media in Lieu of Courting the White and Latino Vote

With a little over two months left until the November 2 general election, gubernatorial and US Senate nominees are wasting no time in blanketing the airwaves statewide in an effort to reach out to potential voters.  However, noticeably absent from these campaigns is any significant or meaningful “wooing” of Black voters—begging the question are California Republicans outright ignoring the Black vote while the Democrats continue to take it for granted?

To date, very little if any advertising has been done in Black newspapers or with Black radio stations in an attempt to reach Black voters via the Black media—the exception being Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for attorney general.  Harris, who is Black, no surprise, did advertise in the Black media.  And for the sake of conversation, Black owned media is just that, Black owned—radio stations and newspapers that boast a Black audience but are not Black owned do not fall into this category.  Sorry Clear Channel.

Years past have seen candidates for statewide office making staged appearances with popular Black elected officials in the pulpits of Black churches and placing ads with Black owned media outlets in an effort to reach African-American voters, but not this time around.

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman’s campaign has chosen to focus monies on reaching out to Latino voters with new Spanish-language ads TV ads meant to portray her as a “Latino-friendly” Republican.  These ads aired during World Cup games and other programs targeted towards California’s growing Latino population.  Not to be out done, CA State Attorney General Jerry Brown’s campaign seems to have adopted the strategy of following the placement of the Whitman campaigns ads with their own ads slamming her and painting her as running for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s third term.

It’s a well known fact that a highly contentious election season between two well funded campaigns is what advertising account executives dreams are made of.  In some circumstances, the advertising revenue from just one race can make up for a year of down sales, let along multiple races all trying to reach the same audience.  For struggling Black owned radio stations and newspapers, it can mean the difference between adding or subtracting programming and going from a weekly to a monthly publication.

So is the Black media being snubbed and more importantly have Blacks lost their political swag.

It’s true that Blacks constitute only 6% of the state’s population and electorate, but the November vote is shaping up to be extremely close, and holding onto key constituencies, even relatively small ones, could end up making the difference on Election Day.

According to the Census, the Los Angeles metropolitan area houses the largest number of Blacks in California, followed by Oakland and the Inland Empire. San Jose and San Francisco have the smallest Black populations.

In Los Angeles, where Blacks make up 10% of the population, are overwhelmingly Democrat, and live in a city where radio rules, KJLH 102.3 FM has been the flagship Black owned radio station for over two decades.  Owned by Motown icon Stevie Wonder and home of the Steve Harney Morning Show and the award-winning Front Page talk show, Black Los Angeles’ early morning communications drum, KJLH’s listeners are mostly Black adults 25-54 who are educated, contribute billions of dollars into the Los Angeles market, and are high propensity voters.  The same can be said of the readership of California’s Black owned newspapers.

But it’s not just the slight from the candidates in advertising revenue that the Black media is facing.

Multiple invitations to both the Whitman and Brown campaigns for interview requests with the Black media, to date, have been ignored.  This includes invitations to appear on Los Angeles’ only daily talk show geared towards Blacks as well as interviews with syndicated Black journalists.  But it gets worse.

While Black journalists interview requests went unanswered, they found themselves suddenly inundated with press releases from the same campaigns, who had taken the liberty of adding their email to their press list but not to respond to their request.

Nevertheless, the Black media had watched candidates continue to crisscross the state of California appearing on various mainstream morning shows including Spanish-language media.

The cold-shoulder and attitudes of the campaigns towards the Black media is eerily reminiscent of 2008, where opponents of California’s gay marriage ban Prop. 8, who were largely white Democrats, relied on a poorly conceived campaign strategy predicated on an outdated civil rights model and the assumption that Blacks would jut support gay marriage because after all, it was a civil rights issue.  Very little advertising was done in Black newspapers or with Black radio stations and on the day after the election, while Blacks were celebrating the election of the first Black president, gay marriage supporters awakened to the sad truth that it takes more than an assumption and a few buzz words to get the Black vote.

I’m not sure which is worse.  The Democrats continued assumption of the Black vote or the Republican’s refusal to even acknowledge the passage of the 15^th Amendment granting Blacks the right to vote.

I think that for far too long, Black voters have just supported the Democratic Party because we were told to by Black elected officials and made to believe that the Democrats cared more about Black people than the Republican Party.   I’ve said before and I’ll and say it again, the Democratic Party needs to be challenged by Blacks.  It’s not enough to have a few Black Democrats in Sacramento and Washington. Nor is it fair to assume that because the President is Black that Blacks will just fall into line and vote Democratic.

One look at the Democratic Party’s organizational leadership and it’s clear to see that Black faces are far and few between when it comes to leadership.  California’s own Democratic Party is a perfect example of this as there is only one African-American who is a Party officer.

On the other hand, the Republican Party is just as bad when it comes to their relationship with Blacks.  It’s gotten to the point where apparently it’s not even worth having the appearance of going after the Black vote and so Republican candidates have chosen to bypass Blacks altogether in lieu of the Latino vote by investing millions of dollars into Spanish-language media.

This year Democratic US Senator Barbara Boxer actually finds herself having to run a campaign to keep her seat.  And even though Boxer is facing a formidable challenge, neither Boxer nor her Republican opponent businesswoman Carly Fiorina have made any significant outreach to Blacks by way of the Black media and advertising.

Like Spanish-language media caters to an audience of Latinos, Black newspapers and radio stations have established a legacy of trust built by honestly and accurately telling the stories of Black America from the Black perspective.

Simply put, the Black press is the gatekeepers to the Black community and the glue that connects Blacks in Los Angeles with Blacks in New York and Blacks throughout America with Blacks around the world.  Their power and influence is unmatched, unchallenged, and unquestioned.

Candidates who ignore the Black press and take their advertising dollars elsewhere or choose to wait to the last minute to throw a few unspent crumbs to the Black press are sending a strong message that the Black vote is not as important as the white or Latino vote.  A message that Black voters would do well to remember when these same candidates pop up at their churches with those popular Black elected officials and more importantly, when headed to the polls on November 2.

Michael Gennaco, since I know you read my website…let  me tell you now, you don’t want to go there with me.

Lying to KTLA Channel 5 about the audio recordings of Mitrice’s mother Latice Sutton is not going to save the Sheriff’s Department or stop the criticism of your department and its failure to find fault with the handling of Mitrice by the Sherrif’s.

First, that CD of audio recordings was given to Michael Richardson by the Sheriff’s, so if ANYONE did any altering, it was the Sheriff’s Department.

Second, unlike your bosses, we have no problem submitting that CD to the authorities, other than the Sheriff’s, for authenticity testing and verification.  A lot can be found on a CD besides the files that it plays.  Like when it was made, and sometimes what computer it was made on.  Also, I might mention that very few people have handled that CD given to Michael and if we’re lucky, we could dust it for fingerprints and see if the fingerprints of the person from the Sheriff’s Department who handed it over to Michael are still on it and then release the results to the media.  Better yet, we could just turn the whole thing over to one of the investigative teams from the local media and let them do it so you can’t accuse us of doctoring the results.  You get my drift.

This is not a can of worms that you want to open.  It could be very bad for you and your bosses, and yes–I believe that you actually work for Baca and that you are not independent.

So if I were you, I would curb the attacks on Richardson’s.  No one altered those audio recordings except for the Sheriff’s Department.  But since you seem to be interested in the altering of things, can find an unaltered copy of the video showing Mitrice’s exit from the Sheriff’s Department and then leak that to the media for me?

Photos by Pat Munson

I don’t know where to start.

Last night was beautiful.  We came together and lifted up a man and his family who needed to know that the community was standing with them.

From near and far, on foot, bus, and car—we were there and in the numbers that showed we do care.

Thank you to everyone who came out and who wanted to come but couldn’t.

Thank you to those who gave money, their time, and shared their hearts with the Richardson’s.

Thank you to the Black media for keeping Mitrice’s story alive.  Thank you to KJLH for providing the sound system for last night’s vigil so that every voice could be heard.

Thank you to the City of Carson, in particular Councilmember Mike Gipson, and the Carson-Torrance NAACP for your unwavering support of Mitrice Richardson and the Richardson’s.

Thank you Eboni for volunteering your time to help set up.

Thank you Derek for doing the same and so much more.

Sabrina, Vicky, and Michael, thank you for being strong and putting up the good fight even when I know it’s hard and it would be so much easier to give up.  You are my strength.

Tessa, stay strong!

Thank you to everyone for sharing your photos and videos with us so we can share them with the world.

Thank you everyone for doing your part in making sure that this doesn’t happen to another person and for showing that Mitrice touched all of us enough to come together to fight for the answers needed and improvements in a system that doesn’t always have our best interests at heart.

Simply put, thank you.

Without the Black media–our newspapers, bloggers, rado stations and shows, and television news reporters working behind the scenes—the story of Mitrice Richardson would never have reached the people and by people I mean the people.

In particular, Radio Free 102.3 KJLH was instrumental in keeping Mitrice Richardson at the forefront with hosts Dominique DiPrima and the Front Page family and Adai Lamar and the Free Talk family, Roland Bynum, and the entire KJLH Family.

KJLH exists in our community because of Stevie Wonder and the community that listens and support them.

Station management graciously donated the KJLH Street Team to last night’s community vigil (big ups Sonny and Roc!) making sure that every word spoken reverberated through Leimert Park.

They are truly the people’s station.

To the hard men and women who work everyday to bring KJLH to life and to the airwaves, I say thank you.

Please join me today in sending thanks to KJLH for being there for and keeping the Mitrice Richardson story alive.

Contacting KJLH

Phone: (310) 330-2200
Fax: (310) 330-5555
Leave a message on the Official KJLH Facebook Fanpage

1. Tell 5 People Mitrice’s Story.
2. Sign the Petition urging the Sheriff’s to take lie detectors and submit DNA.
3. Donate in Mitrice’s memory any amount at www.bringmitricehome.org to ensure that the work continues.
4. Contact Sup. Mark Ridley Thomas and urge him to carry Mitrice’s Law to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. Phone # (213) 974-2222 or online at http://ridley-thomas.lacounty.gov/Pages/contact.htm.
5. Follow us on Twitter at @findmitrice on Twitter.
6. Add Bring Mitrice Home on Facebook or by going here  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=158453601982.
7. Contact the FBI asking them to investigate the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Departments handling of Mitrice.  Phone # (310) 477-6565 or online at http://losangeles.fbi.gov/contact.htm.
8. Contact the Department of Justice asking them to investigate the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Departments handling of Mitrice. Phone # (213) 894-2434 or online at http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/.
9. Follow @justdontdrop on Twitter and continue to follow the Black media who will keep you informed on the truth of the matter.
10. 10. Don’t drop the ball on numbers 1-9.

Click here to download MS Word Doc of this list to pass around.

On today’s news wire…

Actor Mel Gibson was involved in a single-vehicle crash while driving a 2008 Maserati in Malibu, but he was neither cited nor arrested, and DUI is not suspected, the CHP reported today.

The accident occurred about 8:35 p.m. Sunday on Malibu Canyon Road,south of the tunnel, the California Highway Patrol reported. No injuries were reported.

“For unknown reasons, Mr. Gibson steered his car to the right and struck the rock hillside,” the CHP reported in a statement. “He stopped his car at the scene, and was contacted by officers from the West Valley CHP Area office.

“Mr. Gibson supplied all the pertinent information to the officers at the scene, gave a statement, and received a ride home from a friend,” the CHP reported. “His vehicle was towed from the scene, DUI is not suspected in the accident.”